January 5, 2026 • 28 mins
On today's podcast, Hosts Ramses J and Q Ward continue reviewing the biggest moments and stories of 2025.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Still broadcasting from the Civic Cipher Studios. This is the
QR code that we share perspective, seeking, understanding and shape outcomes.
Demand you are about to hear from is a man
who holds the responsibility of generations of his family members
on his shoulders, and it is something that I admire
(00:22):
about him tremendously. He is the Q in the QR
code goes by the name.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Of q Ward as usual in the voice that you
just heard harping way too much praise upon me again,
the captain of the ship permanently in the driver's seat.
The R in the QR Colde. He goes by the
name of Ramsy's.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Joh And we are recapping twenty twenty five for you
and want you to stick around. We're going to share
some reflections on some news stories that we covered in
general and some specific to entertainment. So that's on the way,
but right now we're going to do something a little different.
(01:02):
Of course, this is a special episode. We want to
take a moment and reflect on a great activist that
we lost in twenty twenty five. We talked about Assada Shakur,
and we didn't go into a supposed the amount of
(01:24):
detail that was necessary for people who may not have
heard of her to really understand what her life was
and what really what she represented. And you know, I
came across an article and q was kind enough to
allow me this time to share it with you that
I think explains a little bit more about you know,
(01:47):
who she was. And you know when we say that
she died free, just how special that meant. So Asadakur
in nineteen forty seven to all, I'm sharing from NPR.
Asada Shakur, a black liberation activist who was given political
asylum in Cuba after her nineteen seventy nine escape from
(02:09):
a US prison where she had been serving a life
sentence for killing a police officer, has died. Her daughter
and the Cuban government said Jaiqur was born Joanne Deborah
Kezmard Sorry died Thursday in the capital city of Havana
due to health conditions and advanced age, Cuba's Ministry of
(02:30):
Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Chaquir's daughter, Coyula Shakur,
confirmed her mother's death in.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
A Facebook post. Excuse me.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Officials in New Jersey, where Shakur had been arrested, convicted,
and imprisoned said she was seventy eight, a member of
Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army. Shakur's case had
long been emblematic of the fraud relations between the US
and Cuba. American authorities, including President Trump during his first term,
(02:59):
demanded her return from the communist nation.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
For decades, the.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
FBI put Shakur on its list of most wanted terrorists,
but in her telling and in the minds of her supporters,
she was pursued for crimes she didn't commit or that
were justified. On May second, nineteen seventy three, Shakur and
two others were pulled over by New Jersey State Police
troopers because the car they were driving had a broken
(03:24):
tail light. A gunfight ensued, and one of the troopers,
Werner Forrester, was killed and another was wounded. One of
Shaquur's companions was also killed. The New York City native fled,
but was eventually apprehended. She was found guilty of murder,
armed robbery, and other crimes in nineteen seventy seven and
was sentenced to life in prison. Chaqur was charged with
(03:46):
additional bank robberies and in the non fatal shootings of
two other police officers, but most of those charges were
dismissed or resulted in her acquittal. Shaqur's prison stent was
short lived, though. In November nineteen seventy nine, members of
the Black Liberation Army, posing as visitors, stormed the Clinton
Correctional Facility for women, took two guards hostage, and commandeered
(04:07):
a prison band to break her out. Shaquur disappeared before
eventually emerging in nineteen eighty four in Cuba, where Fidel Castro.
Castro granted her asylum. Offering Shakur safe harbor was one
of the most famous examples of Cuba aligning itself with
what it describes as revolutionary forces struggling against the oppressive
capitalist empire.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
To the north.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Sundiata A Kolie, who was also convicted in Forester's killing,
was granted parole in twenty twenty two after being in
prison for nearly three decades. In her writings over the year,
Shakur has maintained she did not shoot anyone and had
her hands in the air when she was wounded during
the gunfire. More recently, her writings became a rallying cry
during the Black Lives Matter movement. The opponents criticized for
(04:51):
words as being influenced by Marxist and communist ideology. Quote
it is our duty to fight for our freedom. It
is our duty to win quote Chakur wrote in Asada
and autobiography, originally published in nineteen eighty eight. But we
must love each other and support each other. We have
nothing to lose but our chains. Black Lives Matter Grassroots, Inc.
(05:14):
A collective of racial justice activist from around the US,
vow to fight in her honor and memory. Becaure's influence
extended into the music world. She was famously close to
the family of late rapper Tupac Shakur, who had considered
her a godmother. If you have any thoughts to share here, q,
(05:37):
I want to make sure you've got plenty of time.
If not, then I'll jump in.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
There's a I don't want to say, a little known fact,
but it was something that blew me away when I
learned it. So that makes me think that there are
a lot of people that would also be at least
moved to a mean face like I don't forget who
it is, but there's a meme where there's a guy
(06:03):
he makes this face and their question marks all around.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Yeah, I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Nelson Mandela was once classified something by this country.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Do you remember what that was.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
I think he was classified at most wanted or something like.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I'll look as a terrorist terrorist Okay, Yeah, the same
Nelson Mandela that you thought of when you heard his name.
And I think that's important to point out, because you know,
people like to make it really silly comparisons, intellectually and
emotionally dishonest comparisons, like when they tried to compare Charlie
(06:48):
Kirk to Martin Luther King Junior. There are those who,
when they learned the news of the passing of this queen,
wanted to bring up the idea that he was a criminal.
And sometimes we confuse what's legal and illegal, what's righteous
(07:08):
and what's evil. And she was righteous and her cause
was righteous to liberate and fight for her people in
a country that back then wanted that to be illegal,
and that we have now since we didn't learn from
it back then, returned to a place where wanted to
(07:28):
stand up for the freedom of people and actually fight
for what this country says it was founding on, found
it on rather put you and the negative crosshairs of
those who are in charge around here. So do a
little bit more research and read and learn about her
(07:50):
with a little bit more context, so that you can
understand how you should feel when someone like this is
taken away from us.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Okay, now let's get to kind of the meat and
potatoes stories that we covered. I mentioned that, you know,
we started this year off with that that gut punch,
(08:23):
you know, from late twenty twenty four, Kamala Harris losing
that election was something that I didn't expect. Q had
a little bit more, he had his finger on the
pulse a little bit more than I did. But I
remember I was in a room with our manager, Brandy,
(08:44):
and uh, we're waiting for the results to.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Come in, and Q kind of called it before before
it was called.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
But ever since that gut punch, there's been a number
of other gut punches that we've had to deal with.
This guy has made good on a lot of his
promises to really to if I'm being honest, to one
facet of this country, the people that all of the
(09:24):
people that supported him have not benefited from his policies.
But there's one group who definitely have and they feel
that way. A good number of them do at least,
But you know, this is kind of the gig. We
didn't sign up to fight and research and interview and
(09:52):
broadcast when things were good. You know, we signed up
to do this because it was necessary. And so this
year we covered a lot of stories that were heavy
and just in recapping the year, I want to read
through this as quickly as I can, but you know,
(10:16):
I'll let you, you know, share your thoughts if any
of these jump out at UQ at the end. And
I want to be disclosed that some of this stuff
I pulled from CBS. So I'll start in January, of course,
Donald Trump was inaugurated as the forty seventh President of
the United States, becoming just the second person ever elected
to non consecutive terms. He immediately signed the executive orders
(10:39):
rolling back DEI and Black History Initiatives, among others across
the government and much of the private sector followed suit.
And you know, a lot of black people and people
that care about black people and how that felt to
us in terms of the private sectors, response took issue
(11:04):
with some of these companies, not the least of which
was Target, and Target has suffered as a result of that,
you know, the boycotts and so forth, because Target made
some promises and then that about face.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Really hurt, by the way. Shout out to Costco. Love y'all.
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
February, the Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl shoot. I don't
know these numbers LIX, defeating the Kansas City Chiefs forty
to twenty two and denying them a third consecutive win.
The one thing that jumped out at me was that
Donald Trump attended and they interviewed the teams beforehand, and
the Kansas City Chiefs seemed pretty excited that Donald Trump
(11:44):
was going to show up, and the Philadelphia Eagles were unbothered.
And so if there was a political overtone besides obviously
Kendricks's halftime show, the Eagles sort of bringing that win back,
at least that part of it.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
I remember feeling good.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Q can color that anymore if he once March, the
US government deported nearly two hundred and eighty migrants to
a Salvadori in prison without hearings or trials, relying in
part on a rarely used eighteenth century wartime law. Watchdog
report later found that the detainees had been subjected to
torture and abuse. That sort of started the whole ice
raids and all that sort of stuff. April, Pope Francis died,
(12:24):
setting off a wave of morning among the world's one
point four billion Catholics.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
MAGA weighed in.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Donald Trump casually mentioned he'd like to be pope, and
then of course Q calls him sick of fans. I
remember there being a small push for Donald Trump to
become pope, which of course was as silly then as
it sounds now. But this guy's ego and he's got
enough followers and sickle fans to make headlines with stuff
(12:51):
like that. All right, May brought the election of his successor,
Chicago born Cardinal Robert Prevost. He took the name Pope
Leo the I think this is fourteenth so I can
read some of these letters, becoming the first American to
head the Catholic Church. In June, Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa
Hortman and her husband Mark were shot and killed at
their home in a politically motivated attack, one in a
(13:14):
number of recent acts of political violence. In July, catastrophic
floods in central Texas killed at least one hundred and
thirty five, including twenty seven campers and councilors at Camp Mystic,
and I have a note here. Trump reversed programs that
would have been able to provide aid and prevention and information. August,
(13:35):
President Trump dispatched National Guard troops to Washington, d C.
A rare domestic deployment of the military that would meet
with legal challenges. In September, we saw the assassination of
conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a campus event in Utah. October,
Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement, and days later
Hamas released the remaining twenty living Israeli hostages. Since then,
(13:57):
the ceasefire has been shaky, with each side accusing the
other of violations. November brought the end of the longest
government shut down in American history, and that was also
when zorn Mom Donnie was elected in New York. And
in December, yet another tragic shooting. Two terrorist gunmen opened
fire on a Honkkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia,
(14:20):
killing fifteen in the days after, Australians gathered to honor
the following the fallen and I remember you were the
first person that point this out to me. But the
person who is kind of noted as the hero of
that that moment and during the Hanukkah celebration was a
Muslim man. So yeah, man, it's been a it's been
(14:44):
a full year of stories, a lot more than this.
Of course, these are just some highlights. And tell me
how you feeling you.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Yeah, that that That's an interesting line of demarcation that
you pointed out regarding this Super Bowl. The Kansas City
Chiefs had, if not flatly arguably the best seven or
eight season run in the history of sports, and were
(15:17):
on their way to winning their third straight Super Bowl
in four attempts. And you pointed out something that I
noticed in real time when it was happening, and it
was how they were kind of stumbling over themselves to
(15:38):
get to Donald Trump, to pay their respects, to show
their appreciation, to make sure he knew that they were
fans of his.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
And that is an interesting line of demarcation.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Because you know, notably, the wife of the quarterback of
the cancidgy Use is a proud and popular Maga Trump supporter.
Interesting when you're married to one of the most successful
black men in history book. You know, go off. That's
(16:17):
an interesting line of demarcation because they got their doors
blown off in the game, like Curb stomped. It was bad,
and then they came out and had a really pedestrian
season this year at the start, and then it just
(16:39):
got flatly bad. Another one of their players who really
really went way out of his way to make sure
Donald Trump saw him and that he got to shake
his hand and you know, again show him how much
he respected him and how grateful he was, was Chris Jones,
one of the best defensive linemen in the NFL, and
(16:59):
he kind of single handedly lost them a few games
this year, like noticeably, they lose the game on a
play where he's doing something uncharacteristic characteristically, I'm not saying
that word.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Right, but no, you got to uncharacteristically.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
He's doing something unusual, unusual, Okay, and it's caught on
film because all their games are on TV, so they
show the winning play and they show him doing something
that doesn't make any sense when you're one of the
best ever to play your position. So I famously don't
believe in karma, but you pointed that out, and I
(17:40):
just thought that was a very interesting line of demarcation.
They became like the Trump team, and it's just been
all bad since.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
So bless their hearts.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, you know, one of the things that I've been
telling people when it comes to like interacting with people
that have fallen victim to MAGA, is that you know,
(18:17):
when you say something like hey, look, bless your heart,
the words I use, which are I hope you find
your way, are especially what's the word I want to
say effective in showing that you disagree with someone. You're
(18:42):
not wanting to fight with them. You recognize that they
are they haven't quite gotten where you are, but you're
not lording that over them, And it's really hard to
push back against that.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
It's because again, I hope.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
You find you where you're like putting love in the
language there, and it shows that, hey, look, I just
I'm a little bit further along when it comes to
like empathy and concern and recognizing that we're all here
and will all matter, we all are valid. And so
when you say bless their heart, I think I received
that in the same spirit as you know what I
(19:25):
tend to say, which is I hope you find your way.
So I hope they find their way.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
All right. Now, that's not all the news this year.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Some of the things that have taken place in twenty
twenty five that maybe they hit a little closer to home.
At least a couple of these had to do with
some things that took place in entertainment. Some of these
events are shared widely broadcast on you know, channels that
(19:57):
are regulated by the FCC or the Federal Canmunications Commission.
And with Donald Trump being elected Project twenty twenty five
being mostly implemented at this point, you know, people who
are competent at their jobs being let go and Trump
loyalists being installed at every possible position in the government.
(20:20):
It's basically what Donald Trump says, executed from the top
to the bottom. And there is no tolerance for, or
there's little tolerance for what's the word I want to say, dissension.
(20:47):
And anybody that Donald Trump doesn't like specifically, Donald Trump
now has a mechanism to go after them. And indeed,
Donald Trump doesn't even have to do it himself. He's
got people that are so loyal to him that they
will sue his interest on their own. And we saw that,
you know, there were mergers that took place over the
(21:07):
years that you know, Donald Trump's FCC needed to approve
and people had to pay money to Donald Trump, settle things,
release statements, do all kinds of stuff. You know, Donald
Trump is a petty, petty person. I always thought I
was petty. Donald Trump is that is a pettyman, and
he has the weight of the United States Government behind
(21:31):
every punch he throws. And those that have run a
foul of him have kind of found themselves, you know,
in the crosshairs. Now the stories that you know we
wanted to share, I won't be able to get to
all of them. But stories I want to share so
(21:53):
far have better endings than they could have. But they're
still noteworthy stories of twenty twenty five. And it just
it shows I think, what is possible. So I think
knowing that going into twenty twenty six means that you know,
a good number of people have to just hang on
(22:13):
for a matter of months. We'll see what the midterms
look like. So that's something to look forward to. But
we also have to bear in mind that you know,
don't lose faith, don't lose your beliefs, don't.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Give into this system.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
But you know, player cards smart because this oppressor is well,
the guy at the top is not very intelligent in
my estimation, but his regime is very sophisticated. Project twenty
twenty five was scary, and it is scary. So first
up is Stephen Colbert. I think he was the victim
of a I mean, who's to say, but I think
(22:52):
he was the victim of a combination of factors. But
you'd be hard pressed to convey me that his politics
did not play into the decision to not renew his program.
So while he's still on the air, he will not
(23:15):
be coming back in the same capacity.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
At least, this is the news that we know of
at present.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
So speaking of late night TV hosts, Jimmy Kimmel famously
said really nothing about nothing mean spirited about the assassination
of Charlie Kirk. I don't I mean, everybody has heard
(23:43):
what he said. There wasn't saying anybody deserved it, or
wasn't celebrating it or anything like that. Indeed, he was
talking about the shooter being growing up as a conservative
and that conservative efforts to paint him as some sort
of liberal might have fallen in short of the reality
of the circumstances. But they used the moment to attack.
(24:07):
And you know, had he been a little bit, you know,
less empathetic, maybe he had told a joke that was
a little bit further off the mark. You know, I
believe that he would have never come back. But the
(24:27):
fact that he didn't really say anything wrong and this
was just an overreaction shows that they were.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Just waiting for anything.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
They were using that moment to capitalize on getting these
powerful liberal voices off of the air, and so even
talking about something that was in the news could get
you in trouble. And again, when you have a Trump
loyalist at the helm of the FCC, something you got
to bear in mind is that he can come after
(24:55):
you and make life very challenging for you. Now, of course,
we know that Jimmy Kimmel retur the show and it's
still making his show better than ever.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
We love that.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Of course, like I said, these stories kind of hit
close to home here, and you know, there were a
lot of other entertainment stories. But I want to make
sure that you know, Q, you have plenty of time
to reflect because you know, this is our last show
of the year. I love you, I'm grateful for your companionship,
and you know, I'm looking forward to doing this until
(25:28):
we see some real change. But I'll give the last
bit of time to you to share your reflections if
you have any.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
I mean, it's the last show of the year, and
you know, until you know, next year is not a
long way away. It's a couple of days away. We're
hours away from the new year. So this isn't the
last time anybody hear our voice. But I don't want
to be dishonest. I don't want to be hypocritical. I
(25:58):
don't sell false hope like my brother. They're just saying,
don't lose faith, don't let your beliefs to be shaken.
I am losing faith, and my beliefs are shaken. Like
I work in an industry that has failed. It's the
listeners and its viewers and its readers. As an industry,
(26:21):
we failed. We let this president become normalized the first
time around and treated him like he was benign. After
he lost an election. We did not put him away.
(26:42):
He was not punished or held accountable for his crimes.
We let him just linger in the background, and he festered.
His base, grew stronger and more stubborn and they're back
with the vengeance now. And I said something to Ramsey
that he dismissed, as does everybody else say it to
how long before what we do here is actually illegal?
(27:09):
I think that sounded ridiculous to people when I said
it out loud the first time. It at least should
sound a lot less ridiculous now as I'm watching every guardrail,
every protection, every check, every balance fold and crumble, as
(27:30):
I watch the judiciary branch.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Become like.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
A branch of Trump's world and not the United States government,
as has become the truth for all the branches of government.
He controls them all, and our military and our law enforcement.
So you know, what hope should we really have? I
know we have to close, but I keep hearing midterms.
(28:06):
I have no idea why that's something we should be
excited about. The president stole an election and has said
it on TV, on camera and on microphone several times
and nothing happened. Why on earth should we be excited
about midterms?
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Well, I understand, you know, like we started off the show, my.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Hope was slightly renewed.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
When I saw zoron Mom Donnie elected, and so I'm
hoping that maybe some things were overblown or misstated, but
we'll have to wait and see. With that in mind,
we thank you for a great twenty twenty five. We
look forward to twenty twenty six, and until the then,
y'all peace.
Still broadcasting from the Civic Cipher Studios. This is the
QR code that we share perspective, seeking, understanding and shape outcomes.
Demand you are about to hear from is a man
who holds the responsibility of generations of his family members
on his shoulders, and it is something that I admire
(00:22):
about him tremendously. He is the Q in the QR
code goes by the name.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Of q Ward as usual in the voice that you
just heard harping way too much praise upon me again,
the captain of the ship permanently in the driver's seat.
The R in the QR Colde. He goes by the
name of Ramsy's.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Joh And we are recapping twenty twenty five for you
and want you to stick around. We're going to share
some reflections on some news stories that we covered in
general and some specific to entertainment. So that's on the way,
but right now we're going to do something a little different.
(01:02):
Of course, this is a special episode. We want to
take a moment and reflect on a great activist that
we lost in twenty twenty five. We talked about Assada Shakur,
and we didn't go into a supposed the amount of
(01:24):
detail that was necessary for people who may not have
heard of her to really understand what her life was
and what really what she represented. And you know, I
came across an article and q was kind enough to
allow me this time to share it with you that
I think explains a little bit more about you know,
(01:47):
who she was. And you know when we say that
she died free, just how special that meant. So Asadakur
in nineteen forty seven to all, I'm sharing from NPR.
Asada Shakur, a black liberation activist who was given political
asylum in Cuba after her nineteen seventy nine escape from
(02:09):
a US prison where she had been serving a life
sentence for killing a police officer, has died. Her daughter
and the Cuban government said Jaiqur was born Joanne Deborah
Kezmard Sorry died Thursday in the capital city of Havana
due to health conditions and advanced age, Cuba's Ministry of
(02:30):
Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Chaquir's daughter, Coyula Shakur,
confirmed her mother's death in.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
A Facebook post. Excuse me.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Officials in New Jersey, where Shakur had been arrested, convicted,
and imprisoned said she was seventy eight, a member of
Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army. Shakur's case had
long been emblematic of the fraud relations between the US
and Cuba. American authorities, including President Trump during his first term,
(02:59):
demanded her return from the communist nation.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
For decades, the.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
FBI put Shakur on its list of most wanted terrorists,
but in her telling and in the minds of her supporters,
she was pursued for crimes she didn't commit or that
were justified. On May second, nineteen seventy three, Shakur and
two others were pulled over by New Jersey State Police
troopers because the car they were driving had a broken
(03:24):
tail light. A gunfight ensued, and one of the troopers,
Werner Forrester, was killed and another was wounded. One of
Shaquur's companions was also killed. The New York City native fled,
but was eventually apprehended. She was found guilty of murder,
armed robbery, and other crimes in nineteen seventy seven and
was sentenced to life in prison. Chaqur was charged with
(03:46):
additional bank robberies and in the non fatal shootings of
two other police officers, but most of those charges were
dismissed or resulted in her acquittal. Shaqur's prison stent was
short lived, though. In November nineteen seventy nine, members of
the Black Liberation Army, posing as visitors, stormed the Clinton
Correctional Facility for women, took two guards hostage, and commandeered
(04:07):
a prison band to break her out. Shaquur disappeared before
eventually emerging in nineteen eighty four in Cuba, where Fidel Castro.
Castro granted her asylum. Offering Shakur safe harbor was one
of the most famous examples of Cuba aligning itself with
what it describes as revolutionary forces struggling against the oppressive
capitalist empire.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
To the north.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Sundiata A Kolie, who was also convicted in Forester's killing,
was granted parole in twenty twenty two after being in
prison for nearly three decades. In her writings over the year,
Shakur has maintained she did not shoot anyone and had
her hands in the air when she was wounded during
the gunfire. More recently, her writings became a rallying cry
during the Black Lives Matter movement. The opponents criticized for
(04:51):
words as being influenced by Marxist and communist ideology. Quote
it is our duty to fight for our freedom. It
is our duty to win quote Chakur wrote in Asada
and autobiography, originally published in nineteen eighty eight. But we
must love each other and support each other. We have
nothing to lose but our chains. Black Lives Matter Grassroots, Inc.
(05:14):
A collective of racial justice activist from around the US,
vow to fight in her honor and memory. Becaure's influence
extended into the music world. She was famously close to
the family of late rapper Tupac Shakur, who had considered
her a godmother. If you have any thoughts to share here, q,
(05:37):
I want to make sure you've got plenty of time.
If not, then I'll jump in.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
There's a I don't want to say, a little known fact,
but it was something that blew me away when I
learned it. So that makes me think that there are
a lot of people that would also be at least
moved to a mean face like I don't forget who
it is, but there's a meme where there's a guy
(06:03):
he makes this face and their question marks all around.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Yeah, I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Nelson Mandela was once classified something by this country.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Do you remember what that was.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
I think he was classified at most wanted or something like.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I'll look as a terrorist terrorist Okay, Yeah, the same
Nelson Mandela that you thought of when you heard his name.
And I think that's important to point out, because you know,
people like to make it really silly comparisons, intellectually and
emotionally dishonest comparisons, like when they tried to compare Charlie
(06:48):
Kirk to Martin Luther King Junior. There are those who,
when they learned the news of the passing of this queen,
wanted to bring up the idea that he was a criminal.
And sometimes we confuse what's legal and illegal, what's righteous
(07:08):
and what's evil. And she was righteous and her cause
was righteous to liberate and fight for her people in
a country that back then wanted that to be illegal,
and that we have now since we didn't learn from
it back then, returned to a place where wanted to
(07:28):
stand up for the freedom of people and actually fight
for what this country says it was founding on, found
it on rather put you and the negative crosshairs of
those who are in charge around here. So do a
little bit more research and read and learn about her
(07:50):
with a little bit more context, so that you can
understand how you should feel when someone like this is
taken away from us.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Okay, now let's get to kind of the meat and
potatoes stories that we covered. I mentioned that, you know,
we started this year off with that that gut punch,
(08:23):
you know, from late twenty twenty four, Kamala Harris losing
that election was something that I didn't expect. Q had
a little bit more, he had his finger on the
pulse a little bit more than I did. But I
remember I was in a room with our manager, Brandy,
(08:44):
and uh, we're waiting for the results to.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Come in, and Q kind of called it before before
it was called.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
But ever since that gut punch, there's been a number
of other gut punches that we've had to deal with.
This guy has made good on a lot of his
promises to really to if I'm being honest, to one
facet of this country, the people that all of the
(09:24):
people that supported him have not benefited from his policies.
But there's one group who definitely have and they feel
that way. A good number of them do at least,
But you know, this is kind of the gig. We
didn't sign up to fight and research and interview and
(09:52):
broadcast when things were good. You know, we signed up
to do this because it was necessary. And so this
year we covered a lot of stories that were heavy
and just in recapping the year, I want to read
through this as quickly as I can, but you know,
(10:16):
I'll let you, you know, share your thoughts if any
of these jump out at UQ at the end. And
I want to be disclosed that some of this stuff
I pulled from CBS. So I'll start in January, of course,
Donald Trump was inaugurated as the forty seventh President of
the United States, becoming just the second person ever elected
to non consecutive terms. He immediately signed the executive orders
(10:39):
rolling back DEI and Black History Initiatives, among others across
the government and much of the private sector followed suit.
And you know, a lot of black people and people
that care about black people and how that felt to
us in terms of the private sectors, response took issue
(11:04):
with some of these companies, not the least of which
was Target, and Target has suffered as a result of that,
you know, the boycotts and so forth, because Target made
some promises and then that about face.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Really hurt, by the way. Shout out to Costco. Love y'all.
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
February, the Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl shoot. I don't
know these numbers LIX, defeating the Kansas City Chiefs forty
to twenty two and denying them a third consecutive win.
The one thing that jumped out at me was that
Donald Trump attended and they interviewed the teams beforehand, and
the Kansas City Chiefs seemed pretty excited that Donald Trump
(11:44):
was going to show up, and the Philadelphia Eagles were unbothered.
And so if there was a political overtone besides obviously
Kendricks's halftime show, the Eagles sort of bringing that win back,
at least that part of it.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
I remember feeling good.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Q can color that anymore if he once March, the
US government deported nearly two hundred and eighty migrants to
a Salvadori in prison without hearings or trials, relying in
part on a rarely used eighteenth century wartime law. Watchdog
report later found that the detainees had been subjected to
torture and abuse. That sort of started the whole ice
raids and all that sort of stuff. April, Pope Francis died,
(12:24):
setting off a wave of morning among the world's one
point four billion Catholics.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
MAGA weighed in.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Donald Trump casually mentioned he'd like to be pope, and
then of course Q calls him sick of fans. I
remember there being a small push for Donald Trump to
become pope, which of course was as silly then as
it sounds now. But this guy's ego and he's got
enough followers and sickle fans to make headlines with stuff
(12:51):
like that. All right, May brought the election of his successor,
Chicago born Cardinal Robert Prevost. He took the name Pope
Leo the I think this is fourteenth so I can
read some of these letters, becoming the first American to
head the Catholic Church. In June, Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa
Hortman and her husband Mark were shot and killed at
their home in a politically motivated attack, one in a
(13:14):
number of recent acts of political violence. In July, catastrophic
floods in central Texas killed at least one hundred and
thirty five, including twenty seven campers and councilors at Camp Mystic,
and I have a note here. Trump reversed programs that
would have been able to provide aid and prevention and information. August,
(13:35):
President Trump dispatched National Guard troops to Washington, d C.
A rare domestic deployment of the military that would meet
with legal challenges. In September, we saw the assassination of
conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a campus event in Utah. October,
Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement, and days later
Hamas released the remaining twenty living Israeli hostages. Since then,
(13:57):
the ceasefire has been shaky, with each side accusing the
other of violations. November brought the end of the longest
government shut down in American history, and that was also
when zorn Mom Donnie was elected in New York. And
in December, yet another tragic shooting. Two terrorist gunmen opened
fire on a Honkkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia,
(14:20):
killing fifteen in the days after, Australians gathered to honor
the following the fallen and I remember you were the
first person that point this out to me. But the
person who is kind of noted as the hero of
that that moment and during the Hanukkah celebration was a
Muslim man. So yeah, man, it's been a it's been
(14:44):
a full year of stories, a lot more than this.
Of course, these are just some highlights. And tell me
how you feeling you.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Yeah, that that That's an interesting line of demarcation that
you pointed out regarding this Super Bowl. The Kansas City
Chiefs had, if not flatly arguably the best seven or
eight season run in the history of sports, and were
(15:17):
on their way to winning their third straight Super Bowl
in four attempts. And you pointed out something that I
noticed in real time when it was happening, and it
was how they were kind of stumbling over themselves to
(15:38):
get to Donald Trump, to pay their respects, to show
their appreciation, to make sure he knew that they were
fans of his.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
And that is an interesting line of demarcation.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Because you know, notably, the wife of the quarterback of
the cancidgy Use is a proud and popular Maga Trump supporter.
Interesting when you're married to one of the most successful
black men in history book. You know, go off. That's
(16:17):
an interesting line of demarcation because they got their doors
blown off in the game, like Curb stomped. It was bad,
and then they came out and had a really pedestrian
season this year at the start, and then it just
(16:39):
got flatly bad. Another one of their players who really
really went way out of his way to make sure
Donald Trump saw him and that he got to shake
his hand and you know, again show him how much
he respected him and how grateful he was, was Chris Jones,
one of the best defensive linemen in the NFL, and
(16:59):
he kind of single handedly lost them a few games
this year, like noticeably, they lose the game on a
play where he's doing something uncharacteristic characteristically, I'm not saying
that word.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Right, but no, you got to uncharacteristically.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
He's doing something unusual, unusual, Okay, and it's caught on
film because all their games are on TV, so they
show the winning play and they show him doing something
that doesn't make any sense when you're one of the
best ever to play your position. So I famously don't
believe in karma, but you pointed that out, and I
(17:40):
just thought that was a very interesting line of demarcation.
They became like the Trump team, and it's just been
all bad since.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
So bless their hearts.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, you know, one of the things that I've been
telling people when it comes to like interacting with people
that have fallen victim to MAGA, is that you know,
(18:17):
when you say something like hey, look, bless your heart,
the words I use, which are I hope you find
your way, are especially what's the word I want to
say effective in showing that you disagree with someone. You're
(18:42):
not wanting to fight with them. You recognize that they
are they haven't quite gotten where you are, but you're
not lording that over them, And it's really hard to
push back against that.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
It's because again, I hope.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
You find you where you're like putting love in the
language there, and it shows that, hey, look, I just
I'm a little bit further along when it comes to
like empathy and concern and recognizing that we're all here
and will all matter, we all are valid. And so
when you say bless their heart, I think I received
that in the same spirit as you know what I
(19:25):
tend to say, which is I hope you find your way.
So I hope they find their way.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
All right. Now, that's not all the news this year.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Some of the things that have taken place in twenty
twenty five that maybe they hit a little closer to home.
At least a couple of these had to do with
some things that took place in entertainment. Some of these
events are shared widely broadcast on you know, channels that
(19:57):
are regulated by the FCC or the Federal Canmunications Commission.
And with Donald Trump being elected Project twenty twenty five
being mostly implemented at this point, you know, people who
are competent at their jobs being let go and Trump
loyalists being installed at every possible position in the government.
(20:20):
It's basically what Donald Trump says, executed from the top
to the bottom. And there is no tolerance for, or
there's little tolerance for what's the word I want to say, dissension.
(20:47):
And anybody that Donald Trump doesn't like specifically, Donald Trump
now has a mechanism to go after them. And indeed,
Donald Trump doesn't even have to do it himself. He's
got people that are so loyal to him that they
will sue his interest on their own. And we saw that,
you know, there were mergers that took place over the
(21:07):
years that you know, Donald Trump's FCC needed to approve
and people had to pay money to Donald Trump, settle things,
release statements, do all kinds of stuff. You know, Donald
Trump is a petty, petty person. I always thought I
was petty. Donald Trump is that is a pettyman, and
he has the weight of the United States Government behind
(21:31):
every punch he throws. And those that have run a
foul of him have kind of found themselves, you know,
in the crosshairs. Now the stories that you know we
wanted to share, I won't be able to get to
all of them. But stories I want to share so
(21:53):
far have better endings than they could have. But they're
still noteworthy stories of twenty twenty five. And it just
it shows I think, what is possible. So I think
knowing that going into twenty twenty six means that you know,
a good number of people have to just hang on
(22:13):
for a matter of months. We'll see what the midterms
look like. So that's something to look forward to. But
we also have to bear in mind that you know,
don't lose faith, don't lose your beliefs, don't.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Give into this system.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
But you know, player cards smart because this oppressor is well,
the guy at the top is not very intelligent in
my estimation, but his regime is very sophisticated. Project twenty
twenty five was scary, and it is scary. So first
up is Stephen Colbert. I think he was the victim
of a I mean, who's to say, but I think
(22:52):
he was the victim of a combination of factors. But
you'd be hard pressed to convey me that his politics
did not play into the decision to not renew his program.
So while he's still on the air, he will not
(23:15):
be coming back in the same capacity.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
At least, this is the news that we know of
at present.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
So speaking of late night TV hosts, Jimmy Kimmel famously
said really nothing about nothing mean spirited about the assassination
of Charlie Kirk. I don't I mean, everybody has heard
(23:43):
what he said. There wasn't saying anybody deserved it, or
wasn't celebrating it or anything like that. Indeed, he was
talking about the shooter being growing up as a conservative
and that conservative efforts to paint him as some sort
of liberal might have fallen in short of the reality
of the circumstances. But they used the moment to attack.
(24:07):
And you know, had he been a little bit, you know,
less empathetic, maybe he had told a joke that was
a little bit further off the mark. You know, I
believe that he would have never come back. But the
(24:27):
fact that he didn't really say anything wrong and this
was just an overreaction shows that they were.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Just waiting for anything.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
They were using that moment to capitalize on getting these
powerful liberal voices off of the air, and so even
talking about something that was in the news could get
you in trouble. And again, when you have a Trump
loyalist at the helm of the FCC, something you got
to bear in mind is that he can come after
(24:55):
you and make life very challenging for you. Now, of course,
we know that Jimmy Kimmel retur the show and it's
still making his show better than ever.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
We love that.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Of course, like I said, these stories kind of hit
close to home here, and you know, there were a
lot of other entertainment stories. But I want to make
sure that you know, Q, you have plenty of time
to reflect because you know, this is our last show
of the year. I love you, I'm grateful for your companionship,
and you know, I'm looking forward to doing this until
(25:28):
we see some real change. But I'll give the last
bit of time to you to share your reflections if
you have any.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
I mean, it's the last show of the year, and
you know, until you know, next year is not a
long way away. It's a couple of days away. We're
hours away from the new year. So this isn't the
last time anybody hear our voice. But I don't want
to be dishonest. I don't want to be hypocritical. I
(25:58):
don't sell false hope like my brother. They're just saying,
don't lose faith, don't let your beliefs to be shaken.
I am losing faith, and my beliefs are shaken. Like
I work in an industry that has failed. It's the
listeners and its viewers and its readers. As an industry,
(26:21):
we failed. We let this president become normalized the first
time around and treated him like he was benign. After
he lost an election. We did not put him away.
(26:42):
He was not punished or held accountable for his crimes.
We let him just linger in the background, and he festered.
His base, grew stronger and more stubborn and they're back
with the vengeance now. And I said something to Ramsey
that he dismissed, as does everybody else say it to
how long before what we do here is actually illegal?
(27:09):
I think that sounded ridiculous to people when I said
it out loud the first time. It at least should
sound a lot less ridiculous now as I'm watching every guardrail,
every protection, every check, every balance fold and crumble, as
(27:30):
I watch the judiciary branch.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Become like.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
A branch of Trump's world and not the United States government,
as has become the truth for all the branches of government.
He controls them all, and our military and our law enforcement.
So you know, what hope should we really have? I
know we have to close, but I keep hearing midterms.
(28:06):
I have no idea why that's something we should be
excited about. The president stole an election and has said
it on TV, on camera and on microphone several times
and nothing happened. Why on earth should we be excited
about midterms?
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Well, I understand, you know, like we started off the show, my.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Hope was slightly renewed.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
When I saw zoron Mom Donnie elected, and so I'm
hoping that maybe some things were overblown or misstated, but
we'll have to wait and see. With that in mind,
we thank you for a great twenty twenty five. We
look forward to twenty twenty six, and until the then,
y'all peace.
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