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Speaker 1: Before we begin today's episode, we have an announcement for you,

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Speaker 1: fellow conspiracy realists. This is something that we are massively

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Speaker 1: excited about. We've been working on it for a while

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Speaker 1: and astute listeners, you'll notice we've been hinting about it

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Speaker 1: for what would you say, guys, a month or so.

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Speaker 1: That's right, you've been asking for more episodes, and we

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Speaker 1: have granted thine wishes. Usually the fanfare comes before the announcement,

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Speaker 1: but I think it still works. It's true we're going

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Speaker 1: to five episodes a week. You're still going to get

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Speaker 1: the deep dive stuff they don't want to know episodes

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Speaker 1: you're used to every Wednesday and Friday, but we're introducing

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Speaker 1: a few other new styles of episode into the mix

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Speaker 1: as well. We often say that you, specifically, you are

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Speaker 1: the most important part of this show. We're putting our

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Speaker 1: money where our metaphorical mouth is here, and we'll have

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Speaker 1: a special listener mail episode each and every single week.

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Speaker 1: We'll also have up to the minute ish conspiracy news

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Speaker 1: on our Strange News segment, which comes out on Mondays.

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Speaker 1: And for everyone who's written to us searching for the

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Speaker 1: older episodes that you just can't find on Apple podcast

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Speaker 1: will be reintroducing our classics to the feet, so we

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Speaker 1: hope you are as excited as we are. Look forward

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Speaker 1: to lots more than Matt Noel and Mission Control coming

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Speaker 1: to you very soon. This episode contains explicit language, frank conversation,

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Speaker 1: and we wanted to let you know going in. If

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Speaker 1: you're a person who is bothered by curse words, perhaps

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Speaker 1: this is not for you. Yes, this is a little

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Speaker 1: bit of a different type of conversation that you might

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Speaker 1: be used to on stuff that it wants you to know. Um,

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Speaker 1: we and our guests dive deep into some very frank

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Speaker 1: conversations around race and politics and a lot of the

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Speaker 1: things that are going on right now in the world.

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Speaker 1: So just before one oh and one more thing, we

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Speaker 1: recorded this in mid June, so you're gonna hear us

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Speaker 1: reference a couple of events that were current at the

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Speaker 1: time but have already resolved or have evolved since then.

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Speaker 1: So just keep that in mind as you're listening. From

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Speaker 1: UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies, History is riddled

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Speaker 1: with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn

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Speaker 1: the stuff they don't want you to know. A production

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Speaker 1: of My Heart Radio Hello, Welcome back to the show.

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Speaker 1: My name is Matt, my name isn't all They called

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Speaker 1: me Ben. We are joined as always with our super

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Speaker 1: producer Paul Mission controlled decades. Most importantly, you are you,

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Speaker 1: You are here, and that makes this stuff they don't

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Speaker 1: want you to know. In the age of ubiquitous information,

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Speaker 1: it's no secret that protests are waged as much online

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Speaker 1: as they are in the streets, and there is an

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Speaker 1: ongoing struggle with many participants to control the narrative of events,

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Speaker 1: to spend the stories you see on the news, here,

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Speaker 1: on the radio, or hear from your friends on social media.

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Speaker 1: Today's questions where do these discrepancies come from? And how

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Speaker 1: do we combat them? Now? What we'd like to do

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Speaker 1: in today's episode is to explore a number of wide

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Speaker 1: ranging topics with some help from our peer podcasters, the

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Speaker 1: host of one of our newest and in my opinion,

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Speaker 1: best shows on the I Heart Network, Waiting on Reparations.

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Speaker 1: We are immensely fortunate to be joined today with Dope

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Speaker 1: Knife and Link with Franca. Thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: coming onto the show today. Yeah, it's tough to be here.

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Speaker 1: Thank you as for having us. Let's just maybe have

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Speaker 1: you guys introduce yourselves and tell us about eating on reparations.

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Speaker 1: So link with if you don't mind, can we start

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Speaker 1: with you? Yeah? So um I UM a linguists, an educator, UM,

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Speaker 1: a rapper, community organizer, and a politician here in Athens, Georgia.

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Speaker 1: I've been organizing in the community since two thousand sixteen.

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Speaker 1: Started off doing it around hip hop shows and then

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Speaker 1: later translating those skills into electoral campaign work, and then

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Speaker 1: decided to run for off myself. So um. I got

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Speaker 1: my Masters and linguistics at the University of Georgia in

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Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen. Currently working on my PhD and trying

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Speaker 1: to kick gas, take names, transform some broken systems. Uh

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Speaker 1: that I think a lot of us are seeing across

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Speaker 1: the country need transforming. Uh. So it's really great to

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Speaker 1: have this podcast at a time where people are looking

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Speaker 1: for direction in this movement, like what does it look

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Speaker 1: like to transform things in a localized way? What does

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Speaker 1: it look like on the ground organizing in these communities?

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Speaker 1: Is that needed? Um? So, Yeah, it's a little bit

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Speaker 1: about me. What about you? Mac oh um. My name

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Speaker 1: is Dope Knife Um. I'm a rapper producer from Savannah, Georgia.

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Speaker 1: Originally from Liberia, um son of a diplomat. I grew

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Speaker 1: up overseas. I used to work for the State Department

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Speaker 1: at one point in time before I started rapping. I've

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Speaker 1: toured all over the country, and uh, I'm pretty pretty

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Speaker 1: good at rapping, and you're an amazing illustrated Yes, I'm

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Speaker 1: also a comic book artist, and I direct and edit

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Speaker 1: music videos, and I'm also the producer as well as

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Speaker 1: co host of the Waiting on Reparations podcast. So so

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Speaker 1: do linquick? Could you tell us a little bit about

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Speaker 1: the impetus that led to the creation of Waiting on

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Speaker 1: Reparations and maybe describe what our audience encounters when they

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Speaker 1: hear an episode. Well, frankly, I've been a fan of

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Speaker 1: Mac for many years before we'd be came collaborators, and

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Speaker 1: so when we went on tour together back into thousand seventeen,

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Speaker 1: we got to learn a lot about each other's politics

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Speaker 1: and are like music and come to appreciate each other's

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Speaker 1: perspectives on both those things. And so when no reached

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Speaker 1: out to me about doing this podcast, he was the

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Speaker 1: first person I thought of. In fact, he was living

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Speaker 1: in Savannah at the time, and I invited him to

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Speaker 1: come move into my house so that we could do

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Speaker 1: this podcasts together. But um, given his background with international

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Speaker 1: travel and his expertise in LIKE media and my expertise

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Speaker 1: with like policy making at a local level, I just

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Speaker 1: made sense to bring together a podcast that touches on

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Speaker 1: both of those worlds in our brains and help listeners

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Speaker 1: to hip hop or followers of UH political developments across

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Speaker 1: the country to synthesize those ideas and kind of see

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Speaker 1: the way they relate through this show. Yeah. I mean

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Speaker 1: think the tour that we went on is probably the

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Speaker 1: most like, you know, the biggest revelation and the fact

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Speaker 1: that we'd be able to work together, because it was

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Speaker 1: like a solid with two three weeks just being on

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Speaker 1: the road and we're just hanging out and just talking

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Speaker 1: and getting to know each other better. Because like when

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Speaker 1: we first initially met, it was like I was at

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Speaker 1: a show and we were talking like over loud music

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Speaker 1: in a in a club while another performer was going on.

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Speaker 1: And then after that it was just like Facebook and

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Speaker 1: internet correspondence. So for that first time of us being

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Speaker 1: able to go on tour and then especially then it

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Speaker 1: was like, oh ship, you're wrapping now and you've got

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Speaker 1: an album and you're on tour ship all right, you know,

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Speaker 1: so getting to know her better like that, and seeing

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Speaker 1: the type of chemistry that we had, just in terms

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Speaker 1: of the conversations we would have, like when we're not

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Speaker 1: being recorded, it was like, okay, yeah, we could. We

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Speaker 1: could definitely do a podcast and have it be dope,

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Speaker 1: so listeners will get a taste of um. The way

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Speaker 1: that hip hop us influence public policy, anything from like

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Speaker 1: back in the nineties with the Crime Bill, the way

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Speaker 1: that gangster rap was being investigated by the Senate Judiciary

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Speaker 1: Committee and like and how that influenced mass incarceration that

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Speaker 1: followed the ninety four crime though, to the way that

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Speaker 1: hip hop artists have pushed forward messages of social change

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Speaker 1: through their music, to the way that poblic policy has

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Speaker 1: shaped the history of hip hop, you know, anything from

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Speaker 1: policy around sex work to labor rights to again mass incarceration,

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Speaker 1: the way that has inflected hip hop as we know it.

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Speaker 1: And so those are the kinds of things that you'll

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Speaker 1: end up hearing when you listen to Writing on Reparations.

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Speaker 1: The first episode of your of your podcast addresses the

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Speaker 1: current events that are happening since George Floyd's murder, and

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Speaker 1: I think maybe our audience would be very interested in

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Speaker 1: your take on the situation from that, from that policy making,

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Speaker 1: actually knowing where there are things that can be done,

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Speaker 1: places where improvement can can be done. Uh, maybe just

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Speaker 1: give us your take on what's happening with the movement

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Speaker 1: to seek change right now. Ultimately, for me, it depends

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Speaker 1: on where everyone's head is at, because like, right now,

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Speaker 1: there's it's definitely like the beginning of it where everyone's

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Speaker 1: got emotion behind them, and emotion is needed because it's

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Speaker 1: got people out there in the streets and it's bringing

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Speaker 1: attention to, you know, things that need to be done.

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Speaker 1: But I think now it's going to start moving into

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Speaker 1: the phase of is there like a solid policy goal

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Speaker 1: behind it? You know, so far it seems to be

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Speaker 1: so far to defund the police seems to be the

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Speaker 1: flagship that everyone's like writing on. But only time will

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Speaker 1: tell with things like like this, you know, like right now,

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Speaker 1: I think what makes this different is just this unique

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Speaker 1: situation that we're in where we've got a global pandemic

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Speaker 1: and then we're in a damn near recession, if not

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Speaker 1: a full on recession. Then you go and add this

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Speaker 1: to the mix, and it's just like a spark that

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Speaker 1: starts civil unrest. It's the sort of thing where I

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Speaker 1: think if George Floyd had just if George, if George

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Speaker 1: Floyd had happened at any other time, then I think

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Speaker 1: it would be a situation where people would be mad

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Speaker 1: for about two weeks and then we'd go on about

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Speaker 1: our lives, you know what I mean. But now I

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Speaker 1: think the urgency of the times that we live in

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Speaker 1: just make everything that much more heightened. And that's what

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Speaker 1: I think has people really energized to be like, no

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Speaker 1: funk this. I mean, something has to change, and it

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Speaker 1: has to change now. You know, there's no no more

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Speaker 1: of this like waiting for for stuff to like incrementally change.

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Speaker 1: We've got to like get out there and make it

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Speaker 1: happen now. And when we're talking about making it happen,

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Speaker 1: you know, people have been calling to defund the police,

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Speaker 1: but taking to the streets to that end, It's only

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Speaker 1: so effective. You can raise awareness, you can cause mass

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Speaker 1: disruption that draws attention to the this um this need,

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Speaker 1: but it really requires folks at the local level, in

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Speaker 1: my opinion, to start to get to know their local

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Speaker 1: government to add their local government's budget especially and start

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Speaker 1: making concrete, tangible demands for the reallocation of funds if

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Speaker 1: that's what people are desiring for from this, which I

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Speaker 1: agree is necessary. We've seen that reforms haven't worked. Chokeholds

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Speaker 1: were already banned in places, and people keep dying from

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Speaker 1: them anyway. Um, cops keep getting more training in de

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Speaker 1: escalation and use of force, but the cop that shot

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Speaker 1: Rachard Brooks, you know, that didn't stop him from murdering

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Speaker 1: a man, even though he'd recently received that training. And

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Speaker 1: so I am one of those folks that is um

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Speaker 1: joining in calls to the funding police. But it requires

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Speaker 1: understanding their current funding. Requires looking at that several hundred

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Speaker 1: page document and understanding where that money is going and

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Speaker 1: where that money isn't going in terms of community investments,

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Speaker 1: to understand how much we're spending on housing and social

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Speaker 1: work and wellness and community programs, and whether or not

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Speaker 1: we're fully meeting the needs of the community, and how

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Speaker 1: we can better allocate funds to actually support folks and

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Speaker 1: not getting you know, not uh falling asleep in a

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Speaker 1: Wendy's parking lot because they're too funked up or whatever.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, so what do we do now? People are

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Speaker 1: up in arms, a lot of folks that haven't been

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Speaker 1: involved in organizing before. But it's really critical that folks

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Speaker 1: come to understand the local governments, especially because cysically we're

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Speaker 1: not educated and how to get involved in our local government.

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Speaker 1: All the focuses on the federal level and you know,

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Speaker 1: somewhat so on the state level, and we ignore who

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Speaker 1: our county commissioners are and who our city counselors are

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Speaker 1: and we need to when but we can go to

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Speaker 1: that person's house and demand change. We can like write

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Speaker 1: them a letter or call them on the phone and

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Speaker 1: they'll actually pick up the phone. And so that is like,

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Speaker 1: to me, the critical uh pressure point that people need

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Speaker 1: to be taking advantage of and like and exploring and

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Speaker 1: learning more about and leaning on absolutely. And I think

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Speaker 1: people get really caught up in like getting disenchanted by, oh,

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Speaker 1: I only have so much power, and it's all about

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Speaker 1: like you know, national elections rather than state elections or

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Speaker 1: local government, and so people kind of like lose sight

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Speaker 1: of some of those ways that you can't actually affect

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Speaker 1: change on that level. I think that's a really good

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Speaker 1: good advice just in general, just kind of be more

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Speaker 1: aware of these levers that you have at your disposal.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the government is technically there to serve you

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Speaker 1: in the community, and it's up to you to get

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Speaker 1: to you know, investigate this kind of stuff. But I'd

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Speaker 1: like to just really quickly double back to the idea

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Speaker 1: of defunding the police on its surface and as a

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Speaker 1: rallying cry, and if you don't really know anything about

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Speaker 1: it, it it seems really extreme. It seems like really radical,

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Speaker 1: like let's get rid of police. People will say, well,

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Speaker 1: who's going to protect us? You know what happens then

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Speaker 1: it's gonna be chaos in the streets. And I think

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Speaker 1: it's really important to point out that that's not what

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Speaker 1: that means. It's more what you said where it's like,

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Speaker 1: where is that money going. I saw a meme or

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Speaker 1: something where I was like, how come teachers have to

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Speaker 1: buy their own supplies, but every cop gets a Captain

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Speaker 1: America a shield. You know, It's like the amount of

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Speaker 1: money that's like it costs to like outfit a health

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Speaker 1: worker in Ppe pales in comparison to what it costs

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Speaker 1: to outfit a police officer and right here. So it's just,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's all about that kind of like disconnect,

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Speaker 1: I think, and I think, you know, the idea of

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Speaker 1: saying defund the police. It's easy to get worked up

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Speaker 1: about that and say, oh, that's absurd, that's extreme. But

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Speaker 1: I don't know, i'd let's just talk a little bit

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Speaker 1: more about what that actually means at heart and and

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Speaker 1: and what it looks like. Yeah, I kinda, I kind of.

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Speaker 1: I mean, personally, I think that, um, you know, I've

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Speaker 1: I've heard the argument that it's like it's not on

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Speaker 1: the the burdens, not on the people who are out

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Speaker 1: there to to come up with a slogan that's fitting

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Speaker 1: or suitable, and I completely understand that, but just in

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Speaker 1: terms of messaging, I think it's a pretty stupid name

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Speaker 1: for what they mean because it's well, I think I

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Speaker 1: think that the issue isn't like, well, it wasn't up

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Speaker 1: to them to come up with a good slogan. It's

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Speaker 1: that these folks have been organizing on the ground and

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Speaker 1: studying the work up abolitionist thinkers for decades, and so

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Speaker 1: if they decided that this is what they wanted to

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Speaker 1: go with, it's not that they just made it up

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Speaker 1: on the fly. It's like, this is an intentional effort

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Speaker 1: and we should get behind them. From a principal standpoint,

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Speaker 1: I totally get that. It's just it's just a matter

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Speaker 1: of everybody who I hear talking about defund the police

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Speaker 1: always has to like start with it doesn't actually mean. Well,

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Speaker 1: if if defund the police legitimately meant defund the police,

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Speaker 1: like what those words mean, then that's what we mean.

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Speaker 1: That it does literally mean take money away from police departments. Well,

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Speaker 1: I mean it doesn't it more so. I mean maybe

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Speaker 1: it's me misunderstanding it, but from it seems like it

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Speaker 1: more means like reallocating funds for police departments, like for example,

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Speaker 1: you know the whole notion of um, why send somebody

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Speaker 1: who's arm to go answer like a situation that's not

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Speaker 1: a dangerous situation. I literally had a constituent this morning

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Speaker 1: text me to say that they were on a walk

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Speaker 1: with their dog and saw a man laying down in

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Speaker 1: his yard who, when approached, wasn't able to identify himself

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Speaker 1: by name, and so they were trying to figure out

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Speaker 1: They didn't want to call nine one one, but they

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Speaker 1: wanted to get this man help. Unfortunately, one of their

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Speaker 1: other neighbors called nine one, one, and four cop cars

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Speaker 1: showed up. Does that make that man laying in his

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Speaker 1: yard feel safer to know that, oh good, there's a

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Speaker 1: bunch of dudes with guns here now. And so I

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Speaker 1: also conceptualized this as like reimagining public safety, uh, diversifying

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Speaker 1: the way we address community crisis and crisis prevention. So,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I get whatever critiques people want to have

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Speaker 1: about defund the police, but the organizers that came up

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Speaker 1: with it are smart folks, and so I stand with them.

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Speaker 1: I mean again, I still I still think the fund

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Speaker 1: the police. It it rolls off the tongue nicely, but

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Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I mean, we saying

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Speaker 1: it know that it evokes a perception like it makes

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Speaker 1: people think that it's something that it's not. So my

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Speaker 1: you know, just my general thinking is okay, then why

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Speaker 1: don't we say what we mean? But I mean, you know,

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Speaker 1: if the it seems like the strategy is to just

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Speaker 1: to stick to that slogan and that and the messaging

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Speaker 1: is more important than necessarily worrying about who can easily

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Speaker 1: understand it. The political education has to happen either way.

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Speaker 1: If we're like, well, we want to reallocate funding to housing.

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Speaker 1: Like still it requires that study our budgets to understand

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Speaker 1: to what degree we need to do that reallocation and

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Speaker 1: like how many dollars are actually putting into that stuff,

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Speaker 1: and then answering those questions about what public safety will

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Speaker 1: look like if we reallocate funding. So I don't buy,

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Speaker 1: I don't buy people saying to fund the police doesn't

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Speaker 1: work because the political education that's happened. No matter what,

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Speaker 1: I think, we're hitting on a fantastic point here, and

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Speaker 1: and it's a larger one because we're talking about, you know,

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Speaker 1: to a degree, we're talking about messaging, right and mass

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Speaker 1: perception and this this goes into this concept of of narrative, right.

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Speaker 1: I think for anyone who's been watching the protests ongoing right,

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Speaker 1: anybody's watching this or participating, notices this huge discrepancy between

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Speaker 1: what you're seeing on you know, your local channel two

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Speaker 1: versus what you're seeing from your own experience or what

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Speaker 1: you're seeing in your friends Instagram stories or protesters posting

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Speaker 1: directly to social media. What do opponents of various grassroots

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Speaker 1: movements who control the levers of mass media, what what

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Speaker 1: tactics do they use too, I would say, dilute or

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Speaker 1: deter or control, uh, the narrative of a movement and

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Speaker 1: and how do people how do people combat that? I mean,

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Speaker 1: it makes it all the more important for us to

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Speaker 1: be their own reporters of our experiences. The importance of

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Speaker 1: social media right now. It's disseminate uh, verified accounts of

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Speaker 1: like what's going on, because they can easily focus on

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Speaker 1: that ten second shot of this tussle happening in the

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Speaker 1: Crown where a pro police in a defund the police

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Speaker 1: protesters are throwing fisticuffs and miss out on the other

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Speaker 1: four hours of the protests where they're marching peacefully and

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Speaker 1: singing together. And so it's so important for us to

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Speaker 1: tell our own stories because I think they are cherry

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Speaker 1: picking their informants. They are trying to sensationalize what's happening

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Speaker 1: by focusing on the most the triolic imagery that they

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Speaker 1: can find. And so yeah, I would agree that mass

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Speaker 1: perception is sort of being twisted by folks that get

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Speaker 1: clicks when it looks violent, or get views when people

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Speaker 1: are glued to their screen because what they see scares them,

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Speaker 1: rather than getting a variety of accounts to give a better, clearer,

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Speaker 1: more objective view of what's happening out here. What I

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Speaker 1: think about that kind of it kind of you know,

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Speaker 1: goes back into the the last question that we're talking

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Speaker 1: about in terms of messaging and with the defund the police,

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Speaker 1: because it's like, we can't ignore the fact that something

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Speaker 1: like Fox News exists and that Fox News talks to

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Speaker 1: millions and millions of people. So I'm not saying we

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Speaker 1: have to gear any sort of message for Fox News,

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Speaker 1: But what I'm saying is, if we know that Fox

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Speaker 1: News is manipulated, if channels like Fox News in these

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Speaker 1: big corporate news stations, if we know that they're manipulating

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Speaker 1: our messages and stuff like that, to me, it just

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Speaker 1: seems like counterproductive to give them AMMO, you know, because

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Speaker 1: it's like, we know what to fund the police means,

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Speaker 1: but there's a whole echo chamber out there that's being

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Speaker 1: literally brainwashed to think it means something other than what

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Speaker 1: it means. So we can either like be in the

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Speaker 1: mindset of like, yo, that sixty million people, screw them.

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Speaker 1: We don't give a funk about what they know or

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Speaker 1: what they think, or what who's feeding the went information

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Speaker 1: we're sticking by your thing because you should you should

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Speaker 1: know what we know then. I mean, I'm just saying like,

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Speaker 1: if that's if that's where we're at, then okay. But

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Speaker 1: I just think that it would probably be you know,

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Speaker 1: and even saying it out loud sounds stupid because it's like, oh,

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Speaker 1: protesters and an activist should be thinking about a slogan.

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Speaker 1: That sounds ridiculous. But you know, in the world that

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Speaker 1: we live in, you know, messaging matters, and I just

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Speaker 1: think that of a more streamlined message would be would

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Speaker 1: be better for that. What do you all think about

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Speaker 1: the way that this uprising is being portrayed in the media. Well,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I think one of the main things to

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Speaker 1: look at right now is what's happening in Seattle exactly

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Speaker 1: perfect point. Yeah, just just the very almost polar opposite

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Speaker 1: ways in which the movement there is being portrayed in

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Speaker 1: the media. Um, and it really, like like you're saying,

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Speaker 1: it does speak to I mean you'd have to you

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Speaker 1: have to go back really far to really get into

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Speaker 1: all this stuff. But really thinking about the media bubbles

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Speaker 1: that have existed for a while, that have been shaped

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Speaker 1: by these different companies who are serving specific audiences, and

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Speaker 1: you know they're they're telling their audiences what they want

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Speaker 1: to hear in order to capture their eyes and ears

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Speaker 1: for advertising dollars. Right. I mean, that's really what it is, um.

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Speaker 1: And when you you know, I'll just to stand up

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Speaker 1: for a second. Like I've been having, I think a

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Speaker 1: lot of us have been having a lot of conversations

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Speaker 1: with our friends and families. Maybe I know, I know

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Speaker 1: in my family, my wife's family, there's been some hard

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Speaker 1: conversations trying to get people to see a little more

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Speaker 1: evenly rounded of what it's happening here, so to be

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Speaker 1: able to see points of view outside of their own,

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Speaker 1: outside of our own, my own, um. And it's been

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Speaker 1: a difficult process because we can each be fed our

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Speaker 1: own version of the truth or the thing that we

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Speaker 1: want to believe is the truth for sure. And that's

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Speaker 1: why I like that person to person political education is

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Speaker 1: so important for us to have that conversation with our

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Speaker 1: cousins or co workers or classmates about what to fund

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Speaker 1: the police means because everyone else has an agenda, they

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Speaker 1: got ads lots to feel, uh. Whereas a person genuinely

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Speaker 1: expressing their vision for a better world to someone that

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Speaker 1: they trust and know. It's a lot more effective way

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Speaker 1: of like building a movement to spelling myths and just

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Speaker 1: building community as well as like having that honest kind

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Speaker 1: of dialogue. And in general, we're not a political show.

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Speaker 1: We do our best to kind of stay relatively a

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Speaker 1: political and not you know, show too much of our

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Speaker 1: personal opinions about a lot of stuff. We try to

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Speaker 1: stick to the facts, but you'll talk about a lot

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Speaker 1: of governmentships, We absolutely do, but our goal is not

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Speaker 1: to be editorializing most of the time. UM. And with

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Speaker 1: this stuff, it's kind of pushed things to a place

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Speaker 1: where that's really difficult to do. UM. And I think

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Speaker 1: that's why we're we're ready to have this conversation with

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Speaker 1: with y'all and because it's such a polarizing time more

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Speaker 1: than ever. But it's also like, I don't know, it's

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Speaker 1: like we're we sometimes are dancing around like, oh, how

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Speaker 1: do we say this, how do we couch this? How

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Speaker 1: do we you know, say our opinions about this without

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Speaker 1: offending anybody or offending the people were trying to support.

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00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:29,919
Speaker 1: And I just an example for me personally as my

431
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:32,080
Speaker 1: ex wife who I'm really close with, and I and

432
00:24:32,119 --> 00:24:34,320
Speaker 1: our eleven year old daughter and a friend of hers

433
00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:37,040
Speaker 1: and her son, Um we did like a little mini

434
00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:40,240
Speaker 1: protests because they've been really careful about coronavirus and she

435
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:44,680
Speaker 1: has a young baby, young young toddler, and so she's like,

436
00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:46,520
Speaker 1: I want to do the thing. And we both live

437
00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:49,800
Speaker 1: in the same predominantly black neighborhood in Atlanta and um

438
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:54,639
Speaker 1: Candler mccafee area. And at first I was uncomfortable because

439
00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:57,680
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, we're it's five of us. We're

440
00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:00,560
Speaker 1: standing on the corner on this you know, busy intersection

441
00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:04,600
Speaker 1: in this predominantly black neighborhood that is being gentrified and

442
00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:08,080
Speaker 1: we are part of that. And I was like, a,

443
00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:10,119
Speaker 1: are we coming off as like preaching to the choir

444
00:25:10,119 --> 00:25:13,159
Speaker 1: where people are like duh, black lives matter? Yeah, Like

445
00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:15,119
Speaker 1: what are you? Who are you trying to tell? But

446
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:17,440
Speaker 1: that was another response we got at all, and I

447
00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:21,439
Speaker 1: felt this sense of like, Okay, it matters that people

448
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:23,600
Speaker 1: see that they are supported and that they are seeing

449
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:27,200
Speaker 1: And it was something that like was very empowering is

450
00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:28,960
Speaker 1: not the right word, but it just it gave me

451
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:31,040
Speaker 1: this feeling that I hadn't that have been struggling with

452
00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:34,840
Speaker 1: where it's like how do you voice your support without

453
00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:37,680
Speaker 1: coming off as performative or coming off in whatever way.

454
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:41,040
Speaker 1: And the fact is, if you really mean what you're saying,

455
00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:42,560
Speaker 1: then you're not going to come off that way. And

456
00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:45,040
Speaker 1: if you really are and maybe somebody calls you out

457
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:48,119
Speaker 1: for performativity and you accept that with grace and you

458
00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:50,240
Speaker 1: like learn and you figure out how to be a

459
00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:52,840
Speaker 1: better ally, but like you have to be willing to fail.

460
00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:54,520
Speaker 1: So the fact that you went out there on that

461
00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:56,680
Speaker 1: corner and just like I'm going to hold this on

462
00:25:56,840 --> 00:25:58,760
Speaker 1: and see what happens, like you have to do that

463
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:02,280
Speaker 1: kind of stuff and to learn what is the most

464
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:05,639
Speaker 1: effective form of support that your community needs. I'd like

465
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:08,680
Speaker 1: to interject your real quick No, with all due respect,

466
00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:14,480
Speaker 1: I disagree with your characterization of the show all things,

467
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:19,080
Speaker 1: all actions are political actions. Uh tell them. I feel

468
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:21,560
Speaker 1: that we have the facts on our side, or we

469
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:25,000
Speaker 1: work very hard to find the facts. And when we've

470
00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:29,080
Speaker 1: been accused of being quote unquote political, it's often by

471
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:32,680
Speaker 1: people who are angry that the facts and the reality

472
00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:35,720
Speaker 1: of the world do not conform to their opinion. And

473
00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:38,879
Speaker 1: that's I think that's an important distinction there. Um and

474
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:43,399
Speaker 1: and I think you're making excellent points about direct action

475
00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:47,919
Speaker 1: and protest. Everyone is involved. You can admit it or

476
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:49,960
Speaker 1: you you can accept it or you can deny it.

477
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:53,560
Speaker 1: But everyone is involved in every action is inherently a

478
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:56,320
Speaker 1: political action. And then I completely agree with you. And

479
00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:59,240
Speaker 1: all I was trying to say was we do our

480
00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:03,440
Speaker 1: best to grandstand or to make it about us. It's

481
00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:05,399
Speaker 1: all about the facts, like you said, and people that

482
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:08,280
Speaker 1: get upset don't like which side the facts fall on,

483
00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:10,920
Speaker 1: whether it makes them feel bad about their view or

484
00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:14,000
Speaker 1: or what have you. Um, when I say we're trying

485
00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:15,840
Speaker 1: to be a political show, that was a poor choice

486
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:18,240
Speaker 1: of words. I just mean, you know, we are. We

487
00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:20,879
Speaker 1: do try to be fact based and let the chips

488
00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:23,400
Speaker 1: fall where they may in terms of how people interpret

489
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:25,719
Speaker 1: that or the reality. It's not up to us. We just,

490
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:28,399
Speaker 1: like you said, do the research and try to you know,

491
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:30,640
Speaker 1: get to the heart of things. And many of those

492
00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:34,080
Speaker 1: things are political issues. Yeah, and on that point, you know,

493
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:37,840
Speaker 1: we just had a recent episode about coincial pro and

494
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:41,199
Speaker 1: in it um talking a lot about the gears of

495
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:47,560
Speaker 1: government that turn unseen beyond the veneer of electoral politics.

496
00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:49,920
Speaker 1: We elect people and put them in office that then

497
00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:53,560
Speaker 1: task the FBI these paper pushers, these agents that are

498
00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:56,720
Speaker 1: just taking orders from the higher ups to do things

499
00:27:56,800 --> 00:28:00,800
Speaker 1: like like burn Black Cultural Meeting center US to the ground,

500
00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:05,120
Speaker 1: or to wire tap or sabotage or drum up false

501
00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:09,440
Speaker 1: charges against them. So those facts remain, you know, the facts,

502
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:11,879
Speaker 1: but they do come from a political place, and that

503
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,000
Speaker 1: someone in a place of power is is setting that

504
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 1: machinery into motion for sure. And will continue our conversation

505
00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:32,560
Speaker 1: after a word from our sponsor and we're back. Let's

506
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:35,840
Speaker 1: let's talk about the militarization of police forces within the

507
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:38,520
Speaker 1: United States, because this is something we've talked about before

508
00:28:38,560 --> 00:28:42,160
Speaker 1: a little bit. It is incredible to see the show

509
00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:48,720
Speaker 1: of force from police departments when there are protests, even

510
00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:51,080
Speaker 1: if there is civil disobedience going on as part of

511
00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:54,120
Speaker 1: that protest, it's not any action that you would need

512
00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:57,800
Speaker 1: literally a military force to be there. So I mean

513
00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:00,680
Speaker 1: two recent examples. I organized a march here and Athens

514
00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:03,760
Speaker 1: of about two thousand people on May thirty one that

515
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 1: was peaceful. In fact, there was two protests going on,

516
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:09,080
Speaker 1: and we were able to march the city and merge

517
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:12,960
Speaker 1: them and continue in our you know route, shutting down

518
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:15,680
Speaker 1: downtown together, and it was really moving the way that

519
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:20,280
Speaker 1: people came together UH to listen to black folks come

520
00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:23,640
Speaker 1: up and speak about their experience of racism, to speak

521
00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:27,440
Speaker 1: to the crowd about policy next steps. UM. But then

522
00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:30,480
Speaker 1: at one point in the protest UM a number of

523
00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:34,120
Speaker 1: men armed with UM A K s and stuff like

524
00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:38,280
Speaker 1: that showed up in Hawaiian shirts UH and kind of

525
00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:41,440
Speaker 1: put everybody on edge. So we decided to disband the

526
00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:45,000
Speaker 1: rally at that point and send everyone on their way. Now,

527
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:47,920
Speaker 1: a couple of hundred people remained downtown through the evening

528
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:52,240
Speaker 1: peacefully occupying the main square, and the mayor set a

529
00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:56,320
Speaker 1: curfew to try to send people home around nine Around midnight,

530
00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:00,160
Speaker 1: the police decided to use tear gas and be your

531
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:04,800
Speaker 1: bean backgrounds to uh disperse the crowd, and ended up

532
00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:09,800
Speaker 1: arresting nineteen people. In their subsequent police report, they identified

533
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:16,360
Speaker 1: these protesters as um booloo. Though these are all friends

534
00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:19,840
Speaker 1: of mine that are organized at the community, who lived

535
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:23,120
Speaker 1: here for years and who were you know, peacefully occupying

536
00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:27,440
Speaker 1: this square. But this intel about you know, far right

537
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:32,960
Speaker 1: groups are Antifa infiltrating these peaceful gatherings, to do harm

538
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:35,920
Speaker 1: to our community, to do property, damage to life. Fires

539
00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:39,160
Speaker 1: was used as a pretext to bring in the National Guard.

540
00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:43,440
Speaker 1: For the following weekend, we had thousands of troops and

541
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:47,760
Speaker 1: police people stationed on top buildings and riding down the

542
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:53,280
Speaker 1: streets and tanks while another people gathered peacefully in the street.

543
00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:58,880
Speaker 1: Once again. And so, I mean we've seen that equipping

544
00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:05,400
Speaker 1: are are are police department with weapons of of you

545
00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:06,880
Speaker 1: know that they want to say that are used to

546
00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:09,360
Speaker 1: keep their peace. But like things like tear gas like

547
00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:13,240
Speaker 1: are outlawed in the Geneva Convention. Like it, it's almost

548
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:16,680
Speaker 1: like it gives them a reason to look for an

549
00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:18,920
Speaker 1: excuse to use us on folks. They want to see

550
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:21,040
Speaker 1: us as the boogeyman. They want to see us as

551
00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:25,200
Speaker 1: uh the boogaloo boys, when in fact we're just peacefully

552
00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:28,520
Speaker 1: occupying a square. It's somewhat in the logic of the

553
00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:33,280
Speaker 1: way they operate that, like civilians are just enemy combatants

554
00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:37,360
Speaker 1: that need to be quelled by force, uh if possible.

555
00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:40,960
Speaker 1: And so I've seen the way that this military militarizision

556
00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:44,160
Speaker 1: has um played out, you know, in a small town

557
00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:46,920
Speaker 1: like Athens, and I can't imagine in larger cities and

558
00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:50,920
Speaker 1: municipalities how that must feel to be occupied by this

559
00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:57,160
Speaker 1: military force and under these threats of of UM violence

560
00:31:57,240 --> 00:32:02,960
Speaker 1: from the stain Ben. In our previous episode on agent provocateurs,

561
00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:06,280
Speaker 1: we touched briefly on the idea of this far right movement,

562
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:08,360
Speaker 1: the Boogaloos, and you had said, oh, this was worth

563
00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:10,400
Speaker 1: an episode in itself. Could you talk a little bit

564
00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:13,080
Speaker 1: about what that is, what you what your research has

565
00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:15,600
Speaker 1: shown you on what this group is? And is it

566
00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:18,400
Speaker 1: a thing? Is it like this kind of specter like

567
00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:21,680
Speaker 1: Antifa that's sort of used and thrown around to sort

568
00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:24,000
Speaker 1: of give a face to this like emminent threat or

569
00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:27,680
Speaker 1: is it like a real thing. That's an interesting question.

570
00:32:27,800 --> 00:32:30,480
Speaker 1: I think that's when we would we should we should

571
00:32:30,520 --> 00:32:35,200
Speaker 1: pose to everyone here because um, you know, link wise

572
00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:39,840
Speaker 1: you brought up that phrase, the boogaloo boys, right, Uh,

573
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:43,880
Speaker 1: this this phrase is UM. It's found its way into media,

574
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:46,840
Speaker 1: It's found its way into narrative. You can find them

575
00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:51,720
Speaker 1: portrayed as UH far alt rights agitators who are who

576
00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:56,800
Speaker 1: are seeking to UM escalate a protest. You can see

577
00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:02,200
Speaker 1: it's weird. It's almost like anonymous because UH membership is

578
00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:06,880
Speaker 1: defined by describing oneself as anonymous or describing oneself as boogaloo.

579
00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:10,920
Speaker 1: There's no like club or authorization process. You don't have

580
00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:15,520
Speaker 1: to send you a membership. It's it's like um. As

581
00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:18,280
Speaker 1: far as the political leanings, it's kind of all over

582
00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:23,160
Speaker 1: the map. It can go from libertarians to actually like

583
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:27,920
Speaker 1: far left people to you know, straight up neo Nazi

584
00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:32,640
Speaker 1: types can be in it um pretty much. The term

585
00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:37,600
Speaker 1: boogaloo is actually is actually related to hip hop in

586
00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:42,000
Speaker 1: away Um the movie Breaking Back in the Day, Breaking

587
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:44,480
Speaker 1: Part two, the Electric Boogaloo was the name of the

588
00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:49,080
Speaker 1: sequel to Breaking, So their whole entire, like the thing

589
00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:51,480
Speaker 1: is that there's gonna be a second civil war, so

590
00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 1: it's like Civil War two Electric Boogaloo. That's the Boogaloo boys. So, like,

591
00:33:56,600 --> 00:33:59,480
Speaker 1: you know, depending whatever side that they're on, whether you

592
00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:02,200
Speaker 1: know it's like left this boogal loose or right boogal loose,

593
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:06,000
Speaker 1: they're pretty much all preparing to go to war with

594
00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:09,359
Speaker 1: the government and to incite that in some way. So

595
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:15,080
Speaker 1: a massive mass protest that's engulfing the entire country. It's

596
00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:18,719
Speaker 1: kind of like the perfect situation for like groups of

597
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:20,600
Speaker 1: that nature, which is one of the things that makes

598
00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:24,279
Speaker 1: it tricky because on one end, yeah, definitely, the authorities

599
00:34:24,320 --> 00:34:28,000
Speaker 1: are going to try to discredit the protests however they can,

600
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:31,640
Speaker 1: but they damn sure just arrested one of the Boogaloo

601
00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:34,680
Speaker 1: boys for like spraying up some cops today. That was

602
00:34:34,680 --> 00:34:37,200
Speaker 1: today with like a with like a homemade machine gun

603
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:42,160
Speaker 1: pipe bombs. So but my thing that is, like I

604
00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:44,680
Speaker 1: hear that name and I hear that association with that

605
00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:46,759
Speaker 1: that film, which is you know, a part it is,

606
00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:50,360
Speaker 1: like you like that kind of breakdancing culture is like

607
00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:52,840
Speaker 1: a big part of like hip hop culture and black culture,

608
00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:54,640
Speaker 1: and it seems to me to be like a far

609
00:34:54,840 --> 00:34:58,799
Speaker 1: right white group appropriating that term, which makes me think

610
00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:01,399
Speaker 1: it's inherently racist. They're looking for like a race war,

611
00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:03,879
Speaker 1: but I'm hearing that it's more anti government that it's

612
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 1: anti black or like anti it's it's I mean, there's

613
00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:14,319
Speaker 1: definitely black bugaloos and there's there's that. So again, it

614
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:16,600
Speaker 1: all depends, like you know, you could be in a

615
00:35:16,680 --> 00:35:19,680
Speaker 1: situation to where you have one group of Buggaloos and

616
00:35:19,719 --> 00:35:21,759
Speaker 1: they see another group of Boogaloose and they're like, oh,

617
00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:24,000
Speaker 1: those guys are sucking Nazis, you know what I mean,

618
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:26,680
Speaker 1: And they're having that sort of conflicts amongst each other.

619
00:35:26,760 --> 00:35:31,600
Speaker 1: So it's like Antifa, it's like not really an organization,

620
00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:35,080
Speaker 1: is more of a like idea and philosophy. So it's

621
00:35:35,200 --> 00:35:38,080
Speaker 1: it's just it's harder to classify exactly what it is

622
00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:41,080
Speaker 1: and what they want. Just from my from my understanding

623
00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:46,480
Speaker 1: of it, if you were to get like ten buggaloos

624
00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:50,080
Speaker 1: in a room, eight of them are pretty much just

625
00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:53,919
Speaker 1: cause players, you know what I mean, and like two

626
00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:57,279
Speaker 1: of them like have some like extremists like the other

627
00:35:57,440 --> 00:35:59,919
Speaker 1: the other guys like think, oh man, yeah, like we're

628
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:02,319
Speaker 1: Hawaiian shirts and we have tactical vests on this is

629
00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:05,680
Speaker 1: this is cool? Like you know, so yeah, that's that's

630
00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:08,560
Speaker 1: the thing. That's what I think makes it so um

631
00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:14,160
Speaker 1: easy for mainstream media narrative controllers because if you have

632
00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:17,680
Speaker 1: a group that can just you know, self appoint a

633
00:36:17,719 --> 00:36:21,239
Speaker 1: group that internally disagrees on a great many things, then

634
00:36:21,320 --> 00:36:24,960
Speaker 1: you can make that phrase a thought terminating cliche like

635
00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:29,360
Speaker 1: who okay, thankfully you know we've made this explicit so

636
00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:31,960
Speaker 1: I can say it plainly. Who the funk would have

637
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,839
Speaker 1: thought in twenty that being against fascism is a bad thing?

638
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:43,320
Speaker 1: Like say it? Please say? I know? Motherfucker's who loosely

639
00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:45,719
Speaker 1: called it like I'm in I'm in Antifa, blah blah.

640
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:49,480
Speaker 1: Like all the people in Antifa couldn't fill up a

641
00:36:49,600 --> 00:36:53,520
Speaker 1: fucking civic center in most cities. So like the fact

642
00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:56,960
Speaker 1: that it's being dubbed some great threat, I mean, you

643
00:36:56,960 --> 00:36:58,560
Speaker 1: know it's You don't even have to say that it's

644
00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:00,200
Speaker 1: a bullshit to just know that it's bullsh it, you

645
00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Like, you can't name any deaths

646
00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:05,560
Speaker 1: that have been caused by anybody who is in Antifa,

647
00:37:05,719 --> 00:37:08,080
Speaker 1: but you can name a hell of a lot of

648
00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:11,640
Speaker 1: people that neo Nazis and right wingers have killed. So

649
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:14,120
Speaker 1: there's black men and women getting hung from trees all

650
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:18,200
Speaker 1: across this country right now, and who's who's doing that

651
00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:22,920
Speaker 1: and ain't Antifa. And one of those one of those

652
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:29,240
Speaker 1: murders was I think initially somehow rule this suicide. Yeah,

653
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:32,560
Speaker 1: I've had kind of information overload and haven't learned a

654
00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:36,080
Speaker 1: lot about this other than I'm aware that this is happening,

655
00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:38,840
Speaker 1: and I, you know, myself, have gotten some threasts of

656
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:42,560
Speaker 1: lynching recently on the internet and so like that definitely

657
00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:45,080
Speaker 1: makes me feel a little afraid to know that this

658
00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:48,040
Speaker 1: is happening actually in other places, Uh, so maybe I

659
00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:52,160
Speaker 1: should look into what happened and uh get some home

660
00:37:52,239 --> 00:37:56,000
Speaker 1: security system. We're just talking the other day about getting

661
00:37:56,040 --> 00:37:59,799
Speaker 1: like a tear gas gun or something. At least I was, yeah,

662
00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:04,960
Speaker 1: kevlars leaves to fend off NiFe attacks. Uh, borrowing a

663
00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:08,360
Speaker 1: friend's dog, big old German shepherd to hang out in

664
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:11,760
Speaker 1: the house. I have a personal security team of folks

665
00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:15,839
Speaker 1: to show up if that's anything. We can joke about

666
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:17,680
Speaker 1: all this stuff, and it's almost like you do it

667
00:38:17,719 --> 00:38:20,800
Speaker 1: to keep from like going insane or just completely depressed.

668
00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:23,080
Speaker 1: But it's like, this is real. These threats are real,

669
00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:26,440
Speaker 1: like and it's more prevalent now and more obvious now

670
00:38:26,480 --> 00:38:29,480
Speaker 1: than I think it's maybe ever been. And you know,

671
00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:32,439
Speaker 1: I mean, I I don't want to be a down

672
00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:34,440
Speaker 1: or anything, but like, I mean, how can you not.

673
00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:38,200
Speaker 1: But like, for example, the comments section on your page

674
00:38:38,239 --> 00:38:42,680
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts for the show, like it's as it's

675
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:46,040
Speaker 1: got like almost a thousand reviews, and it's got as

676
00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:48,680
Speaker 1: many one star reviews, it has five star reviews and

677
00:38:48,719 --> 00:38:52,319
Speaker 1: about and nothing in between. And all the people the

678
00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:54,840
Speaker 1: people that right text and this is true of any

679
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:57,560
Speaker 1: podcast reviews for the most part, people that actually take

680
00:38:57,560 --> 00:39:00,200
Speaker 1: the time to you know, rate and review there, and

681
00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:01,719
Speaker 1: we want people to rate and view them if you

682
00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:04,080
Speaker 1: like it and give positive feedback, and if you don't

683
00:39:04,160 --> 00:39:06,800
Speaker 1: want to give negative feedback, make it constructive at the

684
00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:08,400
Speaker 1: very least. But this stuff that we're seeing here is

685
00:39:08,440 --> 00:39:11,120
Speaker 1: not constructive. It's literally saying like I'll buy you a

686
00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:14,120
Speaker 1: ticket back to Africa. Or there was some stuff we

687
00:39:14,160 --> 00:39:17,800
Speaker 1: actually got like taken off because it was outright threatening

688
00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:21,279
Speaker 1: like it it it cited uh like you know, said

689
00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:24,360
Speaker 1: like keep hiding joggers or something like that, and it

690
00:39:24,440 --> 00:39:27,799
Speaker 1: was like referring to the shooting that took place in Brunswick. Um,

691
00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:33,959
Speaker 1: the mon Areverrey and we we got it taken off. Yeah.

692
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:37,160
Speaker 1: So but all I'm saying is like I haven't read that.

693
00:39:37,239 --> 00:39:40,240
Speaker 1: I haven't read our comments section yet. These people exist,

694
00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:45,439
Speaker 1: don't don't bother. I just wouldn't. It's it's not worth

695
00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:47,680
Speaker 1: the pain and the stress and just seeing out whatever.

696
00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:49,640
Speaker 1: It just makes you kind of sad about people, and

697
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:52,520
Speaker 1: you know the state of people's minds and how can

698
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:56,719
Speaker 1: people think like this? Um, but these people are real

699
00:39:56,800 --> 00:40:00,239
Speaker 1: and then these extreme views are real, and I you know,

700
00:40:00,239 --> 00:40:02,319
Speaker 1: it's just something that you have to be aware of.

701
00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:04,640
Speaker 1: And you have to kind of guard against like with

702
00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:07,960
Speaker 1: maybe with tear gas cannons at your door or whatever.

703
00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:11,680
Speaker 1: I am, I don't know. I mean that's the direction

704
00:40:11,680 --> 00:40:14,280
Speaker 1: that we're heading, I guess. I mean, if the police

705
00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:17,320
Speaker 1: are militarized, like, what's the as private citizens, what's the

706
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:20,080
Speaker 1: big old deal if we you know, I mean, my

707
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:24,560
Speaker 1: my number one issue in all of this is just

708
00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:29,080
Speaker 1: like for me, it's it's hard to think about anything

709
00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:32,439
Speaker 1: in any sort of context that doesn't involve like the

710
00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:35,200
Speaker 1: cult of Trump. And I know you guys were trying

711
00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:37,600
Speaker 1: to like keep it, you know, not like make it

712
00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:41,719
Speaker 1: to like political, but I mean, it's just just like

713
00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:45,520
Speaker 1: every aspect of the situation that we're in, you know,

714
00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:47,640
Speaker 1: I just think people need to realize that there is

715
00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:52,880
Speaker 1: a literal death cult that's numbered in millions of people

716
00:40:53,239 --> 00:40:55,600
Speaker 1: that like live in the country amongst us, you know

717
00:40:55,600 --> 00:41:00,680
Speaker 1: what I mean. And I just don't I just foresee

718
00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:06,480
Speaker 1: in the next few months Trump doing something ridiculously insane

719
00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:10,880
Speaker 1: and having way more people than there should be following

720
00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:13,439
Speaker 1: what he does. And that's what's gotten. That's what keeps

721
00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:15,680
Speaker 1: me up at night to pick up on that point.

722
00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:19,600
Speaker 1: You know, Um, one thing that this the people in

723
00:41:19,640 --> 00:41:23,600
Speaker 1: this country have taken for granted. Is you know, any

724
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:28,600
Speaker 1: any student of geopolitics knows this, Uh, the peaceful transfer

725
00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:34,799
Speaker 1: of power is it's astonishing that it ever happens with

726
00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:38,720
Speaker 1: human beings, just the way we're hardwired. But there there's

727
00:41:38,719 --> 00:41:42,040
Speaker 1: a very real danger. I don't want to be alarmist

728
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:46,160
Speaker 1: or whatever or you know, conspiratorial quote, You're not being alarmist.

729
00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:49,399
Speaker 1: And like all of this ship hangs on a very

730
00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:52,520
Speaker 1: very like thin thread, you know. I mean, I grew

731
00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:57,440
Speaker 1: up immersed in African politics of the nineteen eighties and nineties.

732
00:41:57,560 --> 00:42:00,799
Speaker 1: The Civil War of Liberia was like the backdrop of

733
00:42:00,840 --> 00:42:04,920
Speaker 1: my childhood, so like it's very hard to know about

734
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:08,600
Speaker 1: how that ship went down. And then look at what

735
00:42:08,719 --> 00:42:12,360
Speaker 1: the political situation is in America right now. The only

736
00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:15,160
Speaker 1: reason that you could think that, oh, that couldn't happen

737
00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:17,359
Speaker 1: here is because you're racist and you think, oh, it's

738
00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:20,040
Speaker 1: white people, so they wouldn't do that, you know what

739
00:42:20,080 --> 00:42:22,640
Speaker 1: I mean. But no, it could get just as fucked

740
00:42:22,719 --> 00:42:25,600
Speaker 1: up here here is as it could anywhere else, because

741
00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:31,799
Speaker 1: like really, I think like Western democracies really hinge on

742
00:42:31,960 --> 00:42:36,080
Speaker 1: like the the veneer of like civility. You know what

743
00:42:36,160 --> 00:42:39,400
Speaker 1: I mean. So it's it's it's kind of important that

744
00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:44,800
Speaker 1: the Western politicians feel the need to have to lie

745
00:42:44,920 --> 00:42:48,480
Speaker 1: to their constituents, you know what, Like once, once you

746
00:42:48,520 --> 00:42:52,239
Speaker 1: have politicians that don't give a funk about lying, like wholesale,

747
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:54,279
Speaker 1: whether you know they're lying or not. Once they don't

748
00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:58,200
Speaker 1: care about that and they're openly lying, that's when the

749
00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:04,080
Speaker 1: like the the body politics should be up in, you know,

750
00:43:04,360 --> 00:43:06,560
Speaker 1: it should have like the hairs raised. Is like, Yo,

751
00:43:06,680 --> 00:43:10,040
Speaker 1: something's not right, you know, something is like extremely wrong

752
00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:15,320
Speaker 1: with this because because tomorrow, if if, if the election happened,

753
00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:16,799
Speaker 1: this is this is what I think. And this is

754
00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:21,000
Speaker 1: just me being pessimistic. Let's say election night goes through,

755
00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:25,440
Speaker 1: and let's say Trump loses and he's like, fuck it,

756
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:30,040
Speaker 1: I'm not going anywhere. I'm just kind of in the

757
00:43:30,080 --> 00:43:31,880
Speaker 1: state where it's like I see a lot of people

758
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:35,279
Speaker 1: reading about that on their cell phone and being like, oh,

759
00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:39,640
Speaker 1: I gotta go to work, and that'd be in it

760
00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:44,000
Speaker 1: is Matt Matt Angry tweets for about an hour, you

761
00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:46,319
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, and then motherfucker's got shipped to do.

762
00:43:47,280 --> 00:43:52,160
Speaker 1: Sorry I didn't bring it down. We've wandered we've wandered far,

763
00:43:52,320 --> 00:43:56,160
Speaker 1: far away from anything we had. You know, this is

764
00:43:56,160 --> 00:43:59,160
Speaker 1: what this is what I would say. I can totally

765
00:43:59,280 --> 00:44:04,120
Speaker 1: see why you And sometimes I think that that is

766
00:44:04,120 --> 00:44:08,520
Speaker 1: a possibility, like for sure, but just from what's from rhetoric,

767
00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:17,440
Speaker 1: from what's happened. Yeah, I have I Yeah, I have to. Honestly,

768
00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:21,160
Speaker 1: I have to believe that the transfer of power, no

769
00:44:21,200 --> 00:44:23,640
Speaker 1: matter what happens, is going to occur because of I

770
00:44:23,719 --> 00:44:28,439
Speaker 1: don't believe that, like it's bunker time for Maddie over here,

771
00:44:28,520 --> 00:44:31,520
Speaker 1: Like I'm going in the bunker and my family is

772
00:44:31,560 --> 00:44:34,520
Speaker 1: not coming out for months. To what extent do you

773
00:44:34,920 --> 00:44:37,640
Speaker 1: when you when you say the peaceful transfer of power, Like,

774
00:44:37,680 --> 00:44:40,920
Speaker 1: what do you mean exactly? Because I don't think that

775
00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:42,960
Speaker 1: there's gonna I don't think that there's like a situation

776
00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:45,799
Speaker 1: to where like the generals are like, yes, we're on

777
00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:47,719
Speaker 1: the side of Trump. I don't mean that. I mean

778
00:44:47,800 --> 00:44:53,120
Speaker 1: something a lot more smaller scale, but say the same

779
00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:55,080
Speaker 1: amount of menace, you know what I mean? Like, I

780
00:44:55,120 --> 00:44:58,759
Speaker 1: honestly think that if Donald Trump was getting arrested right

781
00:44:58,800 --> 00:45:01,920
Speaker 1: now and as putting on the handcuffs on him and

782
00:45:01,960 --> 00:45:04,000
Speaker 1: he was looking in the camera was like burn it down,

783
00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:07,200
Speaker 1: burn it all down. I think you'd have like bare

784
00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:09,239
Speaker 1: minimum five million people that would be out in the

785
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:13,239
Speaker 1: street shooting, shut up and setting it on fire. That's

786
00:45:13,280 --> 00:45:16,120
Speaker 1: what I think. Now I could be paranoid or wrong,

787
00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:22,239
Speaker 1: but I don't really don't think. I am. Well, that's

788
00:45:22,280 --> 00:45:24,520
Speaker 1: the I guess that's the that's the question, right, So

789
00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:29,160
Speaker 1: what is the peaceful transfer power? At the most uh

790
00:45:29,400 --> 00:45:33,320
Speaker 1: most basic level, I would say it's the idea that

791
00:45:33,840 --> 00:45:39,960
Speaker 1: people vote through our cartoonishly uh imperfect system, which is

792
00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:43,880
Speaker 1: I think designed to be cartoonishly inefficient. Uh people vote,

793
00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:50,440
Speaker 1: one candidate wins, and then that candidate gets that position

794
00:45:50,800 --> 00:45:53,600
Speaker 1: and there's not there's not a war, there's not Trump

795
00:45:53,719 --> 00:45:56,400
Speaker 1: saying burn it all down with the handcuffs on. But

796
00:45:57,440 --> 00:45:59,880
Speaker 1: but that's something that um, I think we've taken for

797
00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:06,320
Speaker 1: granted in this country at times, and it's it's very real, um,

798
00:46:06,360 --> 00:46:09,759
Speaker 1: a very vulnerable point for democracies as a structure or

799
00:46:09,920 --> 00:46:12,600
Speaker 1: republic or what have you. And this I think the

800
00:46:12,680 --> 00:46:17,279
Speaker 1: militarization of police is in step with this. And if

801
00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:20,080
Speaker 1: you if we look back at the militarization, right, it

802
00:46:20,600 --> 00:46:24,279
Speaker 1: really begins like when when we start seeing swats and

803
00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:27,520
Speaker 1: military grade equipment. It really begins with something called the

804
00:46:27,600 --> 00:46:31,000
Speaker 1: Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act way back in

805
00:46:31,080 --> 00:46:35,360
Speaker 1: n and then in step with that evolution, we also

806
00:46:35,440 --> 00:46:40,720
Speaker 1: see widespread defunding of educational systems. So keep people scared,

807
00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:45,280
Speaker 1: make sure they're dumb, and don't give them an opportunity

808
00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:50,200
Speaker 1: to think critically about why there is a fucking tank

809
00:46:51,280 --> 00:46:54,399
Speaker 1: at the corner of the public park. It's scary. Well,

810
00:46:54,480 --> 00:46:58,360
Speaker 1: it wasn't a large impetus. Also, wasn't it the Watts riots.

811
00:46:59,320 --> 00:47:01,400
Speaker 1: Wasn't that one of the main reasons why SWAT teams

812
00:47:01,440 --> 00:47:04,880
Speaker 1: came around. I think it's l A. P D. I

813
00:47:04,920 --> 00:47:08,680
Speaker 1: can't remember the officers or the chief's name that actually started.

814
00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:10,520
Speaker 1: We talked about our when our old video has been

815
00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:15,040
Speaker 1: but specifically they link it to the Watts riots, uh,

816
00:47:15,120 --> 00:47:18,759
Speaker 1: and them saying that they were unprepared for it and

817
00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:24,040
Speaker 1: they needed basically a military police to handle that. And

818
00:47:24,040 --> 00:47:28,520
Speaker 1: then a war on drugs, a war on terrorism, and

819
00:47:28,560 --> 00:47:30,160
Speaker 1: then you know, at the end of the day, it's like,

820
00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:32,359
Speaker 1: you know, you just have to you know, factor in

821
00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:37,040
Speaker 1: like human nature, you know what I'm saying, like so

822
00:47:37,160 --> 00:47:40,960
Speaker 1: many to to a lot of police officers, like it's

823
00:47:41,040 --> 00:47:43,759
Speaker 1: just a job, like anyody else would have a job.

824
00:47:43,800 --> 00:47:45,719
Speaker 1: It shouldn't be, but a lot of them like see

825
00:47:45,719 --> 00:47:48,000
Speaker 1: it as just a job. So you've got like this

826
00:47:48,120 --> 00:47:50,960
Speaker 1: thing that's a job. And then they're just giving them

827
00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:55,640
Speaker 1: all of these toys to play with, and of course

828
00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:57,640
Speaker 1: they're gonna abuse that ship and you're like, what else

829
00:47:57,640 --> 00:48:00,719
Speaker 1: do they have to do? You know, because obviously that

830
00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:05,200
Speaker 1: much military force isn't needed from police, so if they

831
00:48:05,239 --> 00:48:08,239
Speaker 1: have it, they're gonna like use it on something. So

832
00:48:08,280 --> 00:48:11,120
Speaker 1: it's like, I think the key step is to like

833
00:48:11,320 --> 00:48:13,960
Speaker 1: take all that ship away. Have these motherfucker's be like

834
00:48:14,560 --> 00:48:17,520
Speaker 1: British cops with like a billy club, just not even

835
00:48:17,520 --> 00:48:18,960
Speaker 1: a billy cloud. What do you what do you call

836
00:48:18,960 --> 00:48:23,160
Speaker 1: those uh those little those little nightstick things, well, cardboard

837
00:48:23,280 --> 00:48:27,200
Speaker 1: ryant shields. I think the I think the proper British

838
00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:31,480
Speaker 1: term for them is a truncheon. Truncheon truncheon. Love that

839
00:48:32,640 --> 00:48:34,480
Speaker 1: And with that, we're gonna take a quick break to

840
00:48:34,520 --> 00:48:36,719
Speaker 1: hear a word from our sponsors, but we'll be right

841
00:48:36,760 --> 00:48:48,839
Speaker 1: back and we're back. Hey. And we talked about elections

842
00:48:49,080 --> 00:48:53,640
Speaker 1: and just how perhaps poorly designed they are on purpose.

843
00:48:54,280 --> 00:48:57,480
Speaker 1: We just had an election here in Georgia not long ago,

844
00:48:58,080 --> 00:49:03,520
Speaker 1: and you know, I know all and what up. I

845
00:49:03,560 --> 00:49:06,120
Speaker 1: know y'all are in Athens, but specifically here in Fullon County,

846
00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:09,080
Speaker 1: we had some serious issues. I wonder if y'all had

847
00:49:09,160 --> 00:49:13,400
Speaker 1: been following all of that and just what your thoughts were. Yeah,

848
00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:17,440
Speaker 1: that's kind of that. That all again, this is all

849
00:49:17,520 --> 00:49:20,920
Speaker 1: just a continuous cycle. But that feeds into what we're

850
00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:23,560
Speaker 1: just talking about with the peaceful transfer of power. It's

851
00:49:23,600 --> 00:49:28,919
Speaker 1: like there is an entire political party that doesn't care

852
00:49:29,000 --> 00:49:33,520
Speaker 1: about democracy at all, you know. So it's just like

853
00:49:33,760 --> 00:49:35,960
Speaker 1: there's just certain things that we're really lucky of. Like,

854
00:49:36,160 --> 00:49:38,359
Speaker 1: for example, I was watching I forget what the hell

855
00:49:38,440 --> 00:49:40,760
Speaker 1: was watching, but that somebody mentioned that it was really

856
00:49:41,080 --> 00:49:43,600
Speaker 1: a really good point. But did you guys hear about

857
00:49:43,640 --> 00:49:47,440
Speaker 1: how in North Carolina, after the Democrats won the governorship,

858
00:49:48,080 --> 00:49:52,160
Speaker 1: the Republican state Senate started changing a bunch of laws

859
00:49:52,200 --> 00:49:54,759
Speaker 1: to strip power away from the governor since they were

860
00:49:54,840 --> 00:49:57,520
Speaker 1: since they lost power. Well, I mean, that same sort

861
00:49:57,560 --> 00:50:00,239
Speaker 1: of thing can happen on a national scale. And that's

862
00:50:00,239 --> 00:50:02,080
Speaker 1: what again, this is one of those things that people

863
00:50:02,080 --> 00:50:04,919
Speaker 1: don't think about. If the House and the Senate we're

864
00:50:04,920 --> 00:50:08,720
Speaker 1: both Republican and Joe Biden. One, you can rest assured

865
00:50:08,800 --> 00:50:11,160
Speaker 1: that they would change a bunch of rules to make

866
00:50:11,160 --> 00:50:14,480
Speaker 1: the president pretty much powerless until Republican become president again,

867
00:50:15,280 --> 00:50:19,319
Speaker 1: and that they're they're doing ship like that, they're doing

868
00:50:19,320 --> 00:50:21,920
Speaker 1: the voter suppression with making having them be long lines,

869
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:25,360
Speaker 1: throwing out voter ballots again. It's just it's stuff that

870
00:50:25,400 --> 00:50:28,080
Speaker 1: it's like, it's it's weird. It seems like it's just

871
00:50:28,600 --> 00:50:32,719
Speaker 1: regular political corruption as usual. But I just have a

872
00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:36,319
Speaker 1: sense that it's like something a bit more long term

873
00:50:36,360 --> 00:50:39,520
Speaker 1: and nefarious with that sort of thing happening, because that's

874
00:50:40,160 --> 00:50:42,520
Speaker 1: those those lines that were going on in Georgia. That's

875
00:50:42,520 --> 00:50:46,880
Speaker 1: not that's not anything that anybody's like reading too deep into,

876
00:50:46,960 --> 00:50:50,240
Speaker 1: Like you can clearly see it, and it's it's clearly

877
00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:53,440
Speaker 1: meant to suppress the vote. So yeah, link wid just

878
00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:55,560
Speaker 1: do you have any specific thoughts on it just too

879
00:50:56,000 --> 00:50:59,560
Speaker 1: as an elected official. UM, I mean, I find it

880
00:50:59,640 --> 00:51:04,759
Speaker 1: very because concerning I think that we already have a

881
00:51:04,800 --> 00:51:08,000
Speaker 1: hard time or I have seen like really low voter

882
00:51:08,080 --> 00:51:11,040
Speaker 1: turnout in general in the district where I serve, and

883
00:51:11,080 --> 00:51:13,399
Speaker 1: the fact that there's already all these impediments in terms

884
00:51:13,440 --> 00:51:15,440
Speaker 1: of folks that gotta work, folks who don't have access

885
00:51:15,480 --> 00:51:19,799
Speaker 1: to reliable transportation or child care, um, and the ways

886
00:51:19,880 --> 00:51:21,960
Speaker 1: that prevents people from voting in the first place. When

887
00:51:21,960 --> 00:51:26,040
Speaker 1: you add all these technological impediments of machines that aren't down,

888
00:51:26,480 --> 00:51:30,160
Speaker 1: or absentee ballots that don't get sent, and these long lines,

889
00:51:30,160 --> 00:51:32,279
Speaker 1: when you know, folks gotta go back to work in

890
00:51:32,320 --> 00:51:34,880
Speaker 1: an hour while they're you know, trying to fix the

891
00:51:34,880 --> 00:51:37,600
Speaker 1: machines that aren't working. Uh, it does give me a

892
00:51:37,600 --> 00:51:42,200
Speaker 1: lot of pause, and uh I feel somewhat powerless to

893
00:51:42,239 --> 00:51:45,279
Speaker 1: stop it at the local level, because, like, we can

894
00:51:45,320 --> 00:51:48,640
Speaker 1: criticize the folks in control of the Secretary of State's

895
00:51:48,680 --> 00:51:51,120
Speaker 1: office all day, but then we're gonna also need them

896
00:51:51,160 --> 00:51:56,040
Speaker 1: for stuff. And so to like like retain positive relationships

897
00:51:56,040 --> 00:51:58,080
Speaker 1: with these higher ups with whom we don't always agree

898
00:51:58,560 --> 00:52:01,080
Speaker 1: is a very weird delicate as to try to maintain

899
00:52:01,080 --> 00:52:04,120
Speaker 1: as an elected official. So figuring out how best to

900
00:52:04,200 --> 00:52:06,640
Speaker 1: like address this, how best to educate the public about

901
00:52:06,719 --> 00:52:09,879
Speaker 1: has secured their votes? Uh, When at the same time,

902
00:52:09,920 --> 00:52:12,200
Speaker 1: you can't account for the things that can pop up

903
00:52:12,200 --> 00:52:14,680
Speaker 1: on election day, like what we saw with the long

904
00:52:14,719 --> 00:52:17,560
Speaker 1: lines in Fulton County in the election that has happened

905
00:52:17,640 --> 00:52:20,960
Speaker 1: last Tuesday. My experience was even even worse than the

906
00:52:20,960 --> 00:52:23,440
Speaker 1: long lines. I know, Ben and I both I think

907
00:52:23,520 --> 00:52:26,160
Speaker 1: Matt was smart and did a mail in ballot or

908
00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:29,359
Speaker 1: an absentee ballot and voted early. Lucky he said they

909
00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:34,480
Speaker 1: got sent one. You know, Ben and I both waited

910
00:52:34,480 --> 00:52:36,839
Speaker 1: in different precincts for quite a while, at least two

911
00:52:36,840 --> 00:52:39,520
Speaker 1: hours a piece or so. And mine was in my

912
00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:41,839
Speaker 1: old neighborhood where I just moved from, so I still

913
00:52:41,960 --> 00:52:45,640
Speaker 1: obviously registered there. And I waited about three hours in line.

914
00:52:45,960 --> 00:52:48,440
Speaker 1: And at the end of the line there was this

915
00:52:48,520 --> 00:52:50,480
Speaker 1: lady who wasn't there. They were like a c LU

916
00:52:50,680 --> 00:52:53,080
Speaker 1: like poll monitors there, and there were poll workers and stuff,

917
00:52:53,320 --> 00:52:55,319
Speaker 1: but this lady was just a civilian, and I guess

918
00:52:55,320 --> 00:52:57,800
Speaker 1: she had voted her, you know, and came back around

919
00:52:57,800 --> 00:53:01,080
Speaker 1: to tell everybody and kind of warn everybody. Hey, it's

920
00:53:01,120 --> 00:53:04,879
Speaker 1: not really clear about this second step in the voting process.

921
00:53:05,040 --> 00:53:07,600
Speaker 1: You the first part of it is like the old

922
00:53:07,640 --> 00:53:10,440
Speaker 1: school way, where you take the little scam card, they

923
00:53:10,440 --> 00:53:12,080
Speaker 1: put all your info on it, they give it to you,

924
00:53:12,080 --> 00:53:14,200
Speaker 1: put it in the machine, you use your little stylus

925
00:53:14,239 --> 00:53:16,080
Speaker 1: and they give you because you know, COVID and they

926
00:53:16,120 --> 00:53:19,000
Speaker 1: sanitize it all that you get your own special stylus. Um,

927
00:53:19,200 --> 00:53:21,680
Speaker 1: you do it on the screen. But the new step

928
00:53:21,800 --> 00:53:25,239
Speaker 1: is it prints you out this page. And a lot

929
00:53:25,320 --> 00:53:28,120
Speaker 1: of people were leaving with that page thinking this is

930
00:53:28,160 --> 00:53:33,799
Speaker 1: my receipt, and and nobody was stopping them. And this

931
00:53:33,920 --> 00:53:36,520
Speaker 1: lady was warning everybody in line, walking along the line,

932
00:53:36,560 --> 00:53:39,879
Speaker 1: warning everybody about this. And my one of my best

933
00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:43,560
Speaker 1: friends who actually was been my roommate until very very recently, um,

934
00:53:43,840 --> 00:53:46,839
Speaker 1: very very politically active guy like canvases like you know,

935
00:53:46,880 --> 00:53:48,920
Speaker 1: he was there ahead of me just because we were

936
00:53:48,920 --> 00:53:50,920
Speaker 1: both registered in the same spot because that's where we

937
00:53:51,000 --> 00:53:53,000
Speaker 1: moved from. And he was about an hour ahead of

938
00:53:53,040 --> 00:53:56,359
Speaker 1: me in line, and so I saw him leave with

939
00:53:56,400 --> 00:53:59,600
Speaker 1: that paper in his hand, and I caught him and

940
00:53:59,600 --> 00:54:02,360
Speaker 1: I said, hey, dude, I think you missed a step.

941
00:54:02,400 --> 00:54:03,759
Speaker 1: And he's like, no, no, it's just like it used

942
00:54:03,760 --> 00:54:04,880
Speaker 1: to be. This is just a new thing where you

943
00:54:04,920 --> 00:54:08,239
Speaker 1: get this receipt. And he's a he's a smart guy. Um,

944
00:54:08,440 --> 00:54:11,160
Speaker 1: and he he went back in sure enough came out

945
00:54:11,200 --> 00:54:15,440
Speaker 1: without the paper. So I'm not saying it's necessarily malicious,

946
00:54:15,440 --> 00:54:17,799
Speaker 1: but the people that were there were not trained to

947
00:54:18,280 --> 00:54:20,560
Speaker 1: spot that, and so the guy behind me in line

948
00:54:20,600 --> 00:54:24,399
Speaker 1: was reporting it as voter irregularity. A reporter reached out

949
00:54:24,400 --> 00:54:27,560
Speaker 1: to me through UH a friend of mine UM, and

950
00:54:27,560 --> 00:54:29,560
Speaker 1: then I told her about my friend's story and she

951
00:54:29,640 --> 00:54:32,680
Speaker 1: asked to be connected with him. So, you know, it's

952
00:54:33,200 --> 00:54:35,680
Speaker 1: that really concerns me, like how many people walked out

953
00:54:35,680 --> 00:54:40,279
Speaker 1: of that voting place without their vote counted. So peek

954
00:54:40,360 --> 00:54:44,680
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, UM to our to our missied episode.

955
00:54:44,680 --> 00:54:49,480
Speaker 1: In our original conversation that we sadly did not record, UH,

956
00:54:49,600 --> 00:54:53,680
Speaker 1: we knew coming into today's show that the five of

957
00:54:53,760 --> 00:54:57,640
Speaker 1: us would have a wealth of topics. We had one

958
00:54:57,800 --> 00:55:01,440
Speaker 1: of the best problems you can have on a podcast,

959
00:55:01,600 --> 00:55:04,520
Speaker 1: which is we have so much stuff to explore that

960
00:55:04,600 --> 00:55:07,560
Speaker 1: we we knew that we probably wouldn't get to all

961
00:55:07,600 --> 00:55:11,839
Speaker 1: of it UH today. But with that being said, you know,

962
00:55:12,280 --> 00:55:15,879
Speaker 1: we have to thank you, thank you both link, thank

963
00:55:15,920 --> 00:55:19,919
Speaker 1: you Dope for coming on the show today and and

964
00:55:20,080 --> 00:55:23,560
Speaker 1: being so generous with your time. We like to end

965
00:55:24,000 --> 00:55:27,320
Speaker 1: or draw things to a conclusion by giving our fellow

966
00:55:27,400 --> 00:55:33,120
Speaker 1: listeners UH action points, something actionable, some some like direct

967
00:55:33,800 --> 00:55:38,279
Speaker 1: takeaway or set of things they can do in the

968
00:55:38,440 --> 00:55:44,440
Speaker 1: in the real world. UM. With that mind, wondering, Uh,

969
00:55:44,520 --> 00:55:47,160
Speaker 1: you know earlier link what you talked about the importance

970
00:55:47,320 --> 00:55:51,880
Speaker 1: of being informed about the local budget, right, Like, you know,

971
00:55:52,000 --> 00:55:54,080
Speaker 1: don't just vote every four years when someone is going

972
00:55:54,120 --> 00:55:57,400
Speaker 1: to be president. Make your voice heard locally. Do you

973
00:55:57,440 --> 00:56:00,840
Speaker 1: think that's a good place for maybe protestors are activists

974
00:56:00,920 --> 00:56:04,359
Speaker 1: or would be protesters or activists to start? Yes, absolutely,

975
00:56:04,400 --> 00:56:07,800
Speaker 1: finding out who your city council person is and sending

976
00:56:07,800 --> 00:56:11,120
Speaker 1: their office an email to see where they stand on things. Uh,

977
00:56:11,160 --> 00:56:13,920
Speaker 1: if you can join an organization that has been keeping

978
00:56:13,920 --> 00:56:18,120
Speaker 1: tabs on your local elected officials. Uh, there's Athens for everyone.

979
00:56:18,440 --> 00:56:22,440
Speaker 1: Here in Athens, there's various political groups and various cities

980
00:56:22,760 --> 00:56:24,480
Speaker 1: that have already been doing this work and so to

981
00:56:24,560 --> 00:56:27,600
Speaker 1: kid kind of caught up to speed, um, as well

982
00:56:27,640 --> 00:56:32,080
Speaker 1: as getting more localized action steps from them about you know,

983
00:56:32,160 --> 00:56:34,960
Speaker 1: projects they are already working on. Who the leaders are

984
00:56:34,960 --> 00:56:38,560
Speaker 1: in the community to follow, what events are going on.

985
00:56:38,680 --> 00:56:40,680
Speaker 1: What you can do to help strengthen your community and

986
00:56:40,680 --> 00:56:43,960
Speaker 1: bring more people into the fight. UM. I recommend everyone

987
00:56:44,000 --> 00:56:47,560
Speaker 1: trying to join an organization like that, uh if one exists,

988
00:56:47,600 --> 00:56:50,600
Speaker 1: or start one if the one doesn't exist in your community.

989
00:56:50,719 --> 00:56:54,840
Speaker 1: Thus far um, Yeah, and just educate yourself. Uh, be

990
00:56:54,920 --> 00:56:58,200
Speaker 1: willing to be wrong, you know, go stand out there

991
00:56:58,200 --> 00:57:00,399
Speaker 1: on the corner by yourself with your Black Lives Matter

992
00:57:00,520 --> 00:57:03,919
Speaker 1: sign uh. And if someone throws a milkshake at you,

993
00:57:03,960 --> 00:57:07,399
Speaker 1: like if like, you know, take that in stride. Learn

994
00:57:07,600 --> 00:57:10,520
Speaker 1: from you know, what tactics are effective and what the

995
00:57:10,560 --> 00:57:14,480
Speaker 1: community really needs in terms of solidarity and support. Um.

996
00:57:14,520 --> 00:57:17,520
Speaker 1: But definitely getting to know the folks that represent you.

997
00:57:17,520 --> 00:57:21,880
Speaker 1: You are their boss. You pay these people salaries. They

998
00:57:22,000 --> 00:57:24,920
Speaker 1: must be accountable to you, So hold them accountable, figure

999
00:57:24,920 --> 00:57:26,800
Speaker 1: out what that's going on in their office, is what

1000
00:57:26,840 --> 00:57:30,040
Speaker 1: they're thinking about with their budgets, and develop a relationship.

1001
00:57:31,160 --> 00:57:35,040
Speaker 1: I second that, Yeah, No, I mean, you know, knowledge

1002
00:57:35,080 --> 00:57:37,600
Speaker 1: is power, and that's that's kind of my thing is

1003
00:57:37,640 --> 00:57:42,400
Speaker 1: like just keep yourself informed about whatever it is that

1004
00:57:42,400 --> 00:57:45,200
Speaker 1: that's important to you. Just make sure that you're you're

1005
00:57:45,240 --> 00:57:47,400
Speaker 1: read up and up to speed about the things that

1006
00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:48,920
Speaker 1: they are to know about it. And as well, I

1007
00:57:48,920 --> 00:57:51,640
Speaker 1: would add to that, read up on history, you know,

1008
00:57:51,840 --> 00:57:54,800
Speaker 1: learn about the social movements that came before us, learn

1009
00:57:54,840 --> 00:58:01,480
Speaker 1: about the thinkers that have informed uh uh visionary social

1010
00:58:01,560 --> 00:58:05,600
Speaker 1: change movements. Looks like Angela Davis, Ruth Wilson, Gilmore, Cornell

1011
00:58:05,680 --> 00:58:08,280
Speaker 1: West to get a better understanding of like how we

1012
00:58:08,320 --> 00:58:11,280
Speaker 1: got to this point in terms of progress, as well

1013
00:58:11,320 --> 00:58:13,240
Speaker 1: as the ideas that are going to lead the way

1014
00:58:13,280 --> 00:58:15,840
Speaker 1: for what our future needs to look like. So stay

1015
00:58:15,880 --> 00:58:17,960
Speaker 1: on top of what's going on, but also learned from

1016
00:58:17,960 --> 00:58:21,120
Speaker 1: the past. Thank you so much for joining us. Tell

1017
00:58:21,120 --> 00:58:24,160
Speaker 1: everybody the best way to listen to Waiting on Reparations

1018
00:58:24,200 --> 00:58:26,640
Speaker 1: to find more information about it, and you know, to

1019
00:58:26,680 --> 00:58:30,200
Speaker 1: find your music as well. So we're on Instagram at

1020
00:58:30,480 --> 00:58:36,480
Speaker 1: I Heart Reparations, uh, Facebook, waiting on Reparations, Twitter, I

1021
00:58:36,600 --> 00:58:38,800
Speaker 1: Heart Reparation or something. Don't worry about that. We're not

1022
00:58:38,800 --> 00:58:40,800
Speaker 1: really on Twitter. I don't even try to find us

1023
00:58:40,840 --> 00:58:44,000
Speaker 1: on today. But my music can be found at Lingua

1024
00:58:44,040 --> 00:58:47,400
Speaker 1: Franca dot band camp dot com. That's l I in

1025
00:58:47,600 --> 00:58:52,640
Speaker 1: Q you a f R A and q A and

1026
00:58:52,800 --> 00:58:56,960
Speaker 1: uhm Lingua Franca on Instagram or Mariah for Athenes on

1027
00:58:57,000 --> 00:59:01,160
Speaker 1: Instagram as well. Uh you can find my music at

1028
00:59:01,200 --> 00:59:04,320
Speaker 1: dope knife dot com or if you just type in

1029
00:59:04,400 --> 00:59:08,720
Speaker 1: dope Knife anywhere you'll you'll find me my Instagram's Dope

1030
00:59:08,840 --> 00:59:16,280
Speaker 1: Underscore Knife and um yeah, yeah, I'm out there. Awesome, awesome.

1031
00:59:16,440 --> 00:59:18,200
Speaker 1: You can also find us if you want to if

1032
00:59:18,200 --> 00:59:20,360
Speaker 1: you have any questions about this show, you know obviously

1033
00:59:20,480 --> 00:59:23,400
Speaker 1: right to all of us. Uh, anything we talked about today,

1034
00:59:23,600 --> 00:59:26,640
Speaker 1: if something sparked you know, something within you, and you

1035
00:59:26,680 --> 00:59:28,960
Speaker 1: think there's another episode we need to cover because of

1036
00:59:29,160 --> 00:59:31,560
Speaker 1: everything we've talked about, please write to us. Let us know.

1037
00:59:32,040 --> 00:59:36,160
Speaker 1: You can find us on Facebook and Instagram, Twitter mostly

1038
00:59:36,200 --> 00:59:40,080
Speaker 1: conspiracy stuff conspiracy stuff show on Instagram. Uh, and if

1039
00:59:40,080 --> 00:59:42,280
Speaker 1: you don't want to do any of that, you can

1040
00:59:42,400 --> 00:59:45,000
Speaker 1: give us a call. Our number is one eight three

1041
00:59:45,080 --> 00:59:48,400
Speaker 1: three st d W I t K. You are able

1042
00:59:48,440 --> 00:59:53,720
Speaker 1: to leave electronic voice messages and three minute increments, So um,

1043
00:59:53,840 --> 00:59:56,440
Speaker 1: either you know, really condense your story down to three

1044
00:59:56,440 --> 00:59:59,040
Speaker 1: minutes or be ready to call back. But we will

1045
00:59:59,080 --> 01:00:01,040
Speaker 1: put this together, and I think there's going to be

1046
01:00:01,040 --> 01:00:03,880
Speaker 1: a future where we're going to have many more opportunities

1047
01:00:03,920 --> 01:00:08,240
Speaker 1: to discuss some of these amazing voicemails, um that all

1048
01:00:08,280 --> 01:00:10,000
Speaker 1: of us have access to. And if you don't want

1049
01:00:10,000 --> 01:00:11,560
Speaker 1: to do any of that, you can just send us

1050
01:00:11,600 --> 01:00:14,320
Speaker 1: a good old fashioned email. We are conspiracy at I

1051
01:00:14,400 --> 01:00:35,640
Speaker 1: heeart radio dot com. Stuff they Don't Want You to

1052
01:00:35,680 --> 01:00:38,439
Speaker 1: Know is a production of I Heart Radio. For more

1053
01:00:38,480 --> 01:00:41,240
Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,

1054
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