January 8, 2026 • 29 mins
MAGA vilifies a Black Officer & Crowns a convicted rioter on Jan 6th anniversary. Hear more on this topic on today's podcast.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Broadcasting from the Civic Cypher Studios. Welcome to the QR Code,
where we share perspective, seek understanding, and shape outcomes. The
man you are about to hear from is a man
who says that I am maniacal, and you know what,
he loves me because of it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
He is the Q and QR code. He goes by
the name of q War.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I love him in spite of it. I love him
because of it is not the truth. I love him
for a very, very a long list of incredible reasons.
His gross professional attention to detail and strive for perfection
is something that I admire. That's not the reason I
(00:40):
love him. I loved him way before I even knew
that that was true. But he is the RN QR code.
He goes with the name Ramses joh Man.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
That made me feel good And we need you to
stick around a little. Later on the show, we are
going to be for our entertainment segment talking about how
the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shutting down after fifty
eight years.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Prior to that, we're gonna have some dialogue.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
We're going to ask a question, what's something you learned
from a faith other than your own? Really excited for
Q's answer. He seems like he's got something he's sitting on,
so stay tuned for that. Q words clapback. He's talking
about how doctor Umar is wrong about interracial relationships. We're
going to share our opinions and we're going to combine
that with our better Do Better feature. Turns out that
(01:21):
Hilton has cut ties with a Minneapolis hotel over them
refusing to reserve rooms for ice agents. We're going to
talk about something going on in the culture. Yesterday was
January sixth, and five years after January sixth, Maga is
vilifying the black officer that was at the center of
the attack and has crowned a rioter. So all that
(01:44):
and so much more to stick around for. Before we
get started with our feel good future, I want to
take a moment and shout out someone very special to us.
She goes by the name of Denise Bennett. Denise, we
love you. Thank you for all of your support over
the years. I know that we had a particularly bright moment.
I'm looking forward to more bright moments. I'll speak for
Q as well. We both are. If you don't know
(02:07):
Denise Bennett, you know find her on social media.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
She is a ski wee easy to.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Find, uh and you need some of that in your life,
I promise, all right now for the feel good feature.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
This comes from tech Crunch.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
A activist remotely wiped three white supremacist websites live on
stage during their talk at a hacker conference last week,
with the sites yet to return online. Love this the
pseudonymous I think that's how I said that. Hacker who
goes by Martha Root, dressed as Pink Ranger from The
Power Rangers, deleted the servers of White Date, White Child,
(02:40):
and White Deal in real time at the end of
a talk at the annual Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg, Germany.
RUT gave the talk alongside journalist Ava Hoffmann Christian Fuches Footches.
I think that's how I said that, and who wrote
the article about the hack sites for the German weekly
paper d ZiT. I think that's how I say that.
(03:01):
In October, as with this writing, White Date, which Hoffmann
describes as a tender for Nazis, White Child, a site
that claimed to match white supremacists sperm and egg donors,
and White Deal, a sort of task Rabbit esque labor
marketplace for racists, are all online. The administrator of the
three websites confirmed the hack on their social media accounts.
Quote they publicly delete all my websites while the audience
(03:22):
rejoices this is cyber terrorism unquote, the administrator wrote on
X on Sunday, vowing repercussions. The administrator also claimed that
Root deleted their X account before it was restored. Rut
also published the data allegedly scraped from White date Online.
The hacker said that they scraped White Date's public data
and found quote poor cybersecurity hygiene that would make even
(03:43):
your grandma's aol account blush. Nuote Route said that users
images included precise geolocation metadata that quote practically hands out
home addresses with a side of awkward selfies unquote. The
leak data includes users' profiles with names, pictures, description, age,
location and gender, language, race, and other personal information that
users uploaded wrote on the site. For now, there are
(04:06):
no emails, passwords, or private conversation. So love it when
white supremacists stumble and fall. So that definitely made me
feel good. All right, let's get to what's going on
in the culture. So, yes, as I mentioned, you know,
January sixth, it's not a holiday. So you know, we
don't really have a reason to celebrate it, but you
(04:27):
know it is I guess.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
What would that be like a.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Point in time in the in the country's timeline that
we can measure progress. We can measure progress against that
point in our timeline as a nation.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And so.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Came across this story from the Black Information Network and
thought that it was interesting, love to share it with you.
So Tuesday marked the fifth anniversary of the January sixth
Capital Insurrection and a life changing day for a black
Capital officer per the Route. On January sixth, twenty twenty one,
Lieutenant Michael Byrd had met with his team to review
security plans for the historic certification of then President Joe
(05:05):
Biden's election victory. However, they were unable to prepare for
the unknown a crowd of MAGA supporters storming the Capitol
to take out their frustrations over the election results. Among
those in the crowd was Ashley Babbitt, who traveled to Washington,
d C. To attend President Donald Trump's Stopped the Steel rally.
Videos from that day show Babbitt dressed in MAGA gear
and using polls to vandalize the building just as a
(05:26):
fellow Capitol police officer, had called for backup. A group
of election deniers attempted to break through windows near the
House Chamber. When Babbitt began climbing through a broken window
toward lawmakers, Bird filed a single shot, striking her in
the shoulder. She later died. The Justice Department cleared Bird
of any wrongdoing. Still Bird became a target of MAGA
and the Trump administration. In the five years since the
(05:47):
Capitol attacked, the narrative around January sixth has been dramatically reshaped. Trump,
the first US president to attempt to remain in power
after losing re election, returned to the White House in
twenty twenty five and swiftly pardoned nearly all January sixth participants,
including hundreds convicted of assaulting police officers. The Trump administration
dismissed or sidelined Justice Department officials who prosecuted those cases,
(06:07):
while allies who promoted the Stop the Steel movement moved
into positions of influence. Writers were recast as patriots rather
than perpetrators.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
What's important to highlight here is the glorification of Ashley
Babbitt and her death is not actually about her it's
about the narrative unquote. Alex Friedfield, an investigative researcher at
the Anti Defamation League's Center on Extremism, said, goes on
to say other people died that day, but their stories
haven't been weaponized in the same way Babbitt was turned
(06:37):
into a symbol to advance and US versus them cause.
Even even before Babbitt's identity was publicly known, far right
figures were already elevating her as a martyr. Texas Republican
Larry Brock Junior referred to her on Facebook as quote
first patriot martyr in the Second Amendment, sorry, in the
Second American Revolution unquote. In the days that followed, her
(06:59):
image became central to a broader MAGA mythology surrounding January sixth.
Bird meanwhile, became the narrative's antagonist. Trump allies pushed the
slogan who killed Ashley Babbitt. Babbit's husband later sued the
Metropolitan Police Department to force the release of Bird's name.
The MAGA backlash led Bird to receive numerous death threats,
forcing the officer into hiding. Despite the MAGA fury, Bird
(07:22):
maintained that he responded appropriately quote, I know that day
I saved countless lives unquote, he said, goes on to
say members of Congress, fellow officers, and staff were in
serious danger. That's my job. Bird was promoted to captain
in twenty twenty three. Babbitt's family later filed another civil lawsuit,
accusing Bird and the MPD of negligence. The city settled
the case for nearly five million dollars.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
So this is where we are.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
We have our sort of side post January sixth, twenty
twenty one, and you know, five years later, this is
the narrative that people are attempting to chronicle. I want
to go first here though I if I may, Okay,
got the thumbs up. Let's do it yesterday, Quentin Quintin,
(08:14):
Jerome ward Zer will me.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
You said something to me that was so special.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
And what I gathered was that we're going to keep
each other and you know us in a in a
larger sense, we're going to keep all of us, saying
we can recognize what we're up against and behold the
(08:50):
enormity of the opposition and not succumb We can be
aware of what it is that they specifically Maga, namely
Maga are trying to do, trying to chronicle narratives like these.
(09:12):
We can recognize that that's what they are trying to do,
and we can hold the line and we know what happened,
and so do they. But they want the memory of
it to reflect a reality that is much kinder.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
For their purposes.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
A lot of these people really liked to paint the
protests of twenty twenty as riots, and I don't want
to paint with two broader stroke care. There might have
been some antagonists in the crowd. There might have been
some people who were a little too turned up that
set it off, you know, around the country. But I
(10:02):
know Ramses knows firsthand that some of the agitators were
indeed police officers. You don't need to even try to
convince me other hand, because I saw it myself. I
was out there with my sons, and I saw the
police escalating thing certainly in the early days of the protest.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
And they would love for.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
The BLM protest to go down in history as riots.
But they were largely peaceful, right, and they would love
for January sixth to go down in history as you know,
a passionate protest, and that this woman is a martyr,
and this black police officer that shot her is responsible
(10:55):
for her death and not she herself being responsible for death.
So I wanted to make sure I said that before
we get too far down this rabbit hole.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
But please your reflections, crecuit.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
You know, when putting the show together, we're trying to
figure out what to even call January sixth, because it's like,
it's not a holiday, it's not a memorial. It's like
this rupture date. For the first time in American history.
(11:32):
This is never chronicle like this, which is strange to me.
The peaceful transfer of power was physically attacked from within
our government, an attempted coup led by the sitting president.
We have video and audio of him preparing his mob
(11:56):
to go attack, telling them where to go, and instructing
him that he would meet them there. The danger, however,
is not just what happened that day rams, because it
didn't conclude. It's not like that day ended. This thing
was chronicle properly, people were prosecuted and held to account.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It's what has happened since then.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Ashley Babbitt, a woman who broke into the Capitol during
a violent mob, has somehow become the martyr and Lieutenant
Michael Byrd, the black officer who stopped the breach and
saved lives, is now the villain of the story. So
(12:41):
they treat this like it's a false memory they have
when it's it's not that they don't misremember. It's a
myth that they're trying to get us to all believe
it in real time. January sixth, sadly isn't over. It
didn't conclude, it didn't come to an end. All the
people who did get arrested and prosecuted have been pardoned,
(13:03):
and then the group that decided who got pardoned also
decides who gets punished. And then America is trying to
get us to all call those people patriots. We're watching
them flip what hero and villain means in real time
(13:24):
and all the adventure movies in our whole life and
every book we've ever written our whole life. They don't
have to tell us that Darth Vader and the Death
Star are the bad guys. We understand it. The narrative
building happens on the screen. Everyone watching agrees that the
Resistance are the good guys and that the Dark Side
(13:45):
are the bad guys, except when it happens in real life.
We somehow get confused. So January sixth didn't close a chapter,
it unfortunately opened a new one. And we can't forget
how that thing ended and decide somehow and reverse who's
good versus bad. And I'll say this before we move on.
(14:08):
It's not just something that happened five years ago. It
keeps happening in our streets. And the narratives that are
that mass professional used to be legacy media, the way
that they covered it then the way that they talk
about it now, and now we have to live in
(14:29):
a country where seemingly one man gets to decide who
and what we celebrate. They got rid of the BLM
Street in DC and re erected a statue of one
of the founders of the klu Klux Klan. The government
(14:53):
of the United States did that.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
So yeah, this is a I know we're supposed to
move on, but you know, one of the things that
comes to mind here is the hypocrisy. Right, So you know,
this was the same crowd that was the Blue Lives
Matter crowd, right, and they're not coming to the defense
of this Blue life This guy that's been villainized, you know,
(15:23):
he had to go into hiding because of them, right,
And you know when you talked about kind of switching
the roles of good guys and bad guys, you can
see them flounder as they're trying to do it.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
It's just full spin.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And this is why this movement looks so evil to
those of us on this side, because we saw it happen.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
We know what happened.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
And first you went to say, like, well, no, those
are actually Antifa supporters that are there. Those aren't Donald
Trump's but those are Antifa. They went there just disturb
trouble in the name of Donald Trump, to make Donald
Trump load. And then those same people that are calling
it Antifa are saying, Ashley Babbitt, one of the people
(16:07):
there on the ground, the one that jumped through the
window after the officer says stay on that side, don't
jump through the window, when she loses her life, all
of a sudden, she's the first to fall in this
new American civil war, right, And they lost a patriot
and all that sort of thing. So I know, I
see it happening, and that's why it's so frustrating. Everybody
(16:27):
that tries to justify it just feels so evil. To
us like it, and it feels like I get that
MAGA would take it because they want it to be true.
They know it's not. We all saw the same stuff,
But for them to expect us to take it, it's crazy.
(16:48):
Not to make it even crazier, Watch this, all right,
sharing opinions here. Hilton cuts ties with Minneapolis hotel over
ice reservations. All right, I'm gonna go in. Okay, this
is from USA Today. It's a little bit of a read,
so bear with me. Hilton Hotels is severing ties with
a Minneapolis area hotel that turned away federal immigration enforcement officers.
(17:11):
The move came after conservative commentator Nick Sorter posted a
video in which he attempts to book rooms posing as
a representative of the Department of Homeland Security.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
The independent hotel owner had assured us that they had
fixed this problem and had published a message confirming this.
A recent video clearly raises concerns that they are not
meeting our standards and values. As such, we are taking
immediate action to remove this hotel from our systems unquote,
Hilton said in a statement to USA Today. The statement
goes on to say, quote, Hilton is and always has
(17:42):
been a welcoming place for all. I want to say
that one more time than we come back to it.
Hilton is and always has been a welcoming place for all.
They're gone to say. We are also engaging with all
of our franchisees to reinforce the standards we hold them
to across our system to help ensure this does not
happen again.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
All right.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Quote The front desk manager said she had spoken with
the owner shortly before I walked in around ten fifty
pm and confirmed the anti DHS policy remained in effect, unquote,
sorta wrote on the social media platform x all. DHS
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said she was glad to see
Hilton Hotels take the step. Quote discriminatory business practices unquote
(18:27):
targeting the agency's officers and deliberately undermining federal law enforcement
are Unamerican and have real business consequences, unquote, she wrote
on x According to the DHS, the Hampton Inn in Lakeville, Minnesota,
about twenty five miles from Minneapolis, canceled a reservation made
by law enforcement officers involving immigration enforcement in Minnesota, as
(18:48):
the Trump administration investigates fraud allegations there About two thousand
immigration agents are being sent to Minneapolis and surrounding areas,
including personnel from Immigration and Customs enforcement and other agents
working for Homeland Security, acording to the Wall Street Journal
and CBS News quote no room at the end, DHS
reported on X quote Hilton Hotels has launched a coordinated
(19:09):
campaign in Minneapolis to refuse service to DHS law enforcement unquote.
The hotel is independently owned and operated. Ever Speak Hospitality,
which operates the hotel, said it quote moves swiftly to
address this matter as it was inconsistent with our policy
of being a welcoming place for all unquote.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I almost done here. Quote.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
We are in touch with the impacted guests who ensure
they are accommodated. We do not discriminate against any individuals
or agencies and apologize to those impacted. We are committed
to welcoming all guests and operating in accordance with brand standards,
applicable laws, and our role as a professional hospitality provider.
Screenshots DHS shared on social media appear to show the
hotel operators rejecting the reservations made by enforcement agents because
(19:51):
of their affiliation with ICE. DHS said the agents had
booked rooms using official government emails and rates. Quote notice
the influx of goov reservations made today that have been
for DHS, and we are not allowing any ICE immigration
agents to stay at our property unquote, A screenshot reads,
though email addresses and names are redacted. A statement goes
(20:13):
on to say, quote, if you are with DHS or immigration,
let us know as we will have to cancel your reservation. Okay,
So just to recap, I know it took a while
and little wordy overbost but my understanding here, Donald Trump
has these agents going to Minneapolis. They try to book
at a an independently owned Hilton hotel. The hotel sees
(20:37):
a bunch of dot GUVs and says, oh, no, we
don't want these problems right. It could be because they
of their politics. Could be could be because they don't
want demonstrators showing up at the hotel, because that's happened
before too. Either way, they're like, I don't want no
part of it, right. DHS clutches their pearls and says,
(20:59):
oh my gosh, you're not going to rent a room
to us.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
This is a foul play.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
The hotel circles back and says, hey, you know what,
no foul play here. You know, if you guys want
to make reservations, go for it, and subsequently don't meet
that promise, right, And so the larger hotel chain or
the conglomerate Hilton reaches out and says, hey, we're a
(21:26):
welcoming place for all. Okay, So that's the story as
I understand it. Now, I want to share a couple
of thoughts here. If Hilton says we're a welcoming place
for all.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Does that mean.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
That the klu Klux Klan headquarters in Glendale, Arizona can
book a Hilton ballroom or their Grand Wizard pageant ball.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
I don't know what they do.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
And Hilton will say, you know what, We're a welcoming
place for all. Kuklus can come right through the door.
Is that what you mean, Hilton, welcoming place for all?
Because if so, I know where to spend my money.
It's not with Hilton. I suspect a lot of other
people would feel that way too. So at a point
you're going to have to say, nah, there's some people
(22:28):
we don't want here. And at a point you're going
to decide where that line is. And at that point,
there are going to be some people that agree with
you and some people that disagree with you. So unless
you're willing to rent your ballroom to the Grand Wizard
of the KKK, you're in the game.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
You cannot throw your hands up. This is not the
time and history when you can be the white moderate
that Doctor King called out. I'm assuming this is a
white person, white man, okay, And if you understand how
many CEOs in this country are white man, then you
understand why that's an easy assumption to make.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I'm sure I'm not wrong.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
So you're in the game, and that passivity speaks volumes. Right,
You're either on the side of this oppressive regime or
you're on the side of the people.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Okay. This regime is.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Based around Donald Trump, and one thing I know to
be true is Donald Trump will not live forever. Okay,
And you're going to have to come back down the
street of all of these people. Be very careful because
I've read a few articles about this, and a lot
of people are saying, oh, you see what happened with Target,
(23:49):
you see what happened with Cracker Barrel. You see, You're
gonna have to come back down our street.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Okay, choose wisely.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
And then another thing I want to say is that
let's say you're like, Okay, the Nazis and the ku
Klux Klan, that's a or yeah, the ku Klux Clan
is that's what I said. The Ku Klux Klan renting
our ballroom, that's a different story. Everybody knows that the
ku Klux Klan is a racist organization.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
They're a bad organization.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
This is a government agency of the United States of America,
and the President has sent them on orders they need
a room to sleep, and we're going to provide them
a room. And if our franchisee won't provide them a room,
then they won't be a franchise anymore. Let's say that's
your position. Look, this is these are US citizens. They're
doing government work. I put to U. Hilton that Nazis
(24:46):
did the work of their president. Indeed, Nazis weren't the
bad guys until after that war in Germany. They weren't
the bad guys in Germany until the war was over.
And again, Donald Trump doesn't live forever. Okay, there comes
an end to his era. What happens after that? Does
(25:07):
this nonsensical?
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Silliness continue. Is there someone else that can step into
his shoes? That's a question you're going to have to
really answer for yourself because you're going to live in
that aftermath, and I suspect no. The answer is no.
But all the people you've heard along the way, look
at Target, we're going to remember this. We're going to
(25:31):
remember that you stood on the side of Nazis, because
that's what this looks like. They were just soldiers following orders.
That's been an excuse far too often throughout history. As
I mentioned, you're in the game. Play it fair to anything.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
You so you show so much grace, do I?
Speaker 3 (25:58):
And so much benefit of the out right because you
like extended this into some decisions that they'll make in
the future.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Bro, they already made it. Yeah, that's fair. You'd like
to point it out.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
I guess you're in the game and you know you're
going to have to make none that just made the
choice they did. You're saying they might have to do
at some point, and they just did it the state right, right,
because you cannot simultaneously say everyone's welcome, especially this group
that's only in town, to make sure everybody's not welcome,
(26:33):
especially this agency that got a thousand x on its
budget to make sure that people don't feel welcomed, because
they could have done the same work with what they
already had in the way of resources. The numbers show
right the way that the deportations used to happen, the
(26:54):
legal way, right where people had rights, where there was
due process. Those numbers were still greater than what we
got now with this new army roam in the streets.
But the intent is to make it feel less welcoming,
to make people feel less comfortable, less safe, afraid, intimidated, bullied,
(27:17):
and we've seen the videos of them assaulting, violating, breaking laws,
breaking bones, dragging pregnant women across the street, across the
pavement by their legs. So you cannot say, hey, we're
open and welcome to everyone, and we're going to go
out of our way to make sure that this group
(27:37):
that is terrorizing people feels more than welcome on our property.
They don't have some future decision to make about what
side they're on. They just made it not only are
we going to make sure you guys have rooms, but
this franchise e that said you couldn't have rooms. They
(27:58):
can't be down with us anymore. So I'll answer your
question on their behalf. Because they already gave me the game,
they might as well whisper it in my ear. Yes,
the Cluecluse clan wants to get a block of rooms
and have their event at the Hilton and whatever town
they're in. They've just made it very clear everyone's welcome,
(28:21):
even groups that by their very existence make sure that
everyone doesn't feel that way, even groups that only exist
to ensure that millions of people don't feel that way.
Not only is all money not good money, But what
(28:44):
we've seen that's so strange to me, and this pre
compliance bending of the knee era that we're in, is
that hyper capitalist organizations and corporations are bending the knee
for the lesser of the capital. We don't mind offending
what two thirds of the country so that this one
(29:09):
third rides with us. We will cost ourselves hundreds of millions,
if not billions of dollars, so that we can pre
comply to these white supremacist regimes. And then this is
kind of a separate thing. But what I found so
(29:31):
disturbing as I see more and more videos come out,
so many of the faces carrying out these.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Orders ramses, Yeah, I know what you're gonna say.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Look like ours and our family members and our neighbors
and our friends, and man, that sucks.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Stick around. We're coming back with more right after this.
Broadcasting from the Civic Cypher Studios. Welcome to the QR Code,
where we share perspective, seek understanding, and shape outcomes. The
man you are about to hear from is a man
who says that I am maniacal, and you know what,
he loves me because of it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
He is the Q and QR code. He goes by
the name of q War.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I love him in spite of it. I love him
because of it is not the truth. I love him
for a very, very a long list of incredible reasons.
His gross professional attention to detail and strive for perfection
is something that I admire. That's not the reason I
(00:40):
love him. I loved him way before I even knew
that that was true. But he is the RN QR code.
He goes with the name Ramses joh Man.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
That made me feel good And we need you to
stick around a little. Later on the show, we are
going to be for our entertainment segment talking about how
the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shutting down after fifty
eight years.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Prior to that, we're gonna have some dialogue.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
We're going to ask a question, what's something you learned
from a faith other than your own? Really excited for
Q's answer. He seems like he's got something he's sitting on,
so stay tuned for that. Q words clapback. He's talking
about how doctor Umar is wrong about interracial relationships. We're
going to share our opinions and we're going to combine
that with our better Do Better feature. Turns out that
(01:21):
Hilton has cut ties with a Minneapolis hotel over them
refusing to reserve rooms for ice agents. We're going to
talk about something going on in the culture. Yesterday was
January sixth, and five years after January sixth, Maga is
vilifying the black officer that was at the center of
the attack and has crowned a rioter. So all that
(01:44):
and so much more to stick around for. Before we
get started with our feel good future, I want to
take a moment and shout out someone very special to us.
She goes by the name of Denise Bennett. Denise, we
love you. Thank you for all of your support over
the years. I know that we had a particularly bright moment.
I'm looking forward to more bright moments. I'll speak for
Q as well. We both are. If you don't know
(02:07):
Denise Bennett, you know find her on social media.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
She is a ski wee easy to.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Find, uh and you need some of that in your life,
I promise, all right now for the feel good feature.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
This comes from tech Crunch.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
A activist remotely wiped three white supremacist websites live on
stage during their talk at a hacker conference last week,
with the sites yet to return online. Love this the
pseudonymous I think that's how I said that. Hacker who
goes by Martha Root, dressed as Pink Ranger from The
Power Rangers, deleted the servers of White Date, White Child,
(02:40):
and White Deal in real time at the end of
a talk at the annual Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg, Germany.
RUT gave the talk alongside journalist Ava Hoffmann Christian Fuches Footches.
I think that's how I said that, and who wrote
the article about the hack sites for the German weekly
paper d ZiT. I think that's how I say that.
(03:01):
In October, as with this writing, White Date, which Hoffmann
describes as a tender for Nazis, White Child, a site
that claimed to match white supremacists sperm and egg donors,
and White Deal, a sort of task Rabbit esque labor
marketplace for racists, are all online. The administrator of the
three websites confirmed the hack on their social media accounts.
Quote they publicly delete all my websites while the audience
(03:22):
rejoices this is cyber terrorism unquote, the administrator wrote on
X on Sunday, vowing repercussions. The administrator also claimed that
Root deleted their X account before it was restored. Rut
also published the data allegedly scraped from White date Online.
The hacker said that they scraped White Date's public data
and found quote poor cybersecurity hygiene that would make even
(03:43):
your grandma's aol account blush. Nuote Route said that users
images included precise geolocation metadata that quote practically hands out
home addresses with a side of awkward selfies unquote. The
leak data includes users' profiles with names, pictures, description, age,
location and gender, language, race, and other personal information that
users uploaded wrote on the site. For now, there are
(04:06):
no emails, passwords, or private conversation. So love it when
white supremacists stumble and fall. So that definitely made me
feel good. All right, let's get to what's going on
in the culture. So, yes, as I mentioned, you know,
January sixth, it's not a holiday. So you know, we
don't really have a reason to celebrate it, but you
(04:27):
know it is I guess.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
What would that be like a.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Point in time in the in the country's timeline that
we can measure progress. We can measure progress against that
point in our timeline as a nation.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And so.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Came across this story from the Black Information Network and
thought that it was interesting, love to share it with you.
So Tuesday marked the fifth anniversary of the January sixth
Capital Insurrection and a life changing day for a black
Capital officer per the Route. On January sixth, twenty twenty one,
Lieutenant Michael Byrd had met with his team to review
security plans for the historic certification of then President Joe
(05:05):
Biden's election victory. However, they were unable to prepare for
the unknown a crowd of MAGA supporters storming the Capitol
to take out their frustrations over the election results. Among
those in the crowd was Ashley Babbitt, who traveled to Washington,
d C. To attend President Donald Trump's Stopped the Steel rally.
Videos from that day show Babbitt dressed in MAGA gear
and using polls to vandalize the building just as a
(05:26):
fellow Capitol police officer, had called for backup. A group
of election deniers attempted to break through windows near the
House Chamber. When Babbitt began climbing through a broken window
toward lawmakers, Bird filed a single shot, striking her in
the shoulder. She later died. The Justice Department cleared Bird
of any wrongdoing. Still Bird became a target of MAGA
and the Trump administration. In the five years since the
(05:47):
Capitol attacked, the narrative around January sixth has been dramatically reshaped. Trump,
the first US president to attempt to remain in power
after losing re election, returned to the White House in
twenty twenty five and swiftly pardoned nearly all January sixth participants,
including hundreds convicted of assaulting police officers. The Trump administration
dismissed or sidelined Justice Department officials who prosecuted those cases,
(06:07):
while allies who promoted the Stop the Steel movement moved
into positions of influence. Writers were recast as patriots rather
than perpetrators.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
What's important to highlight here is the glorification of Ashley
Babbitt and her death is not actually about her it's
about the narrative unquote. Alex Friedfield, an investigative researcher at
the Anti Defamation League's Center on Extremism, said, goes on
to say other people died that day, but their stories
haven't been weaponized in the same way Babbitt was turned
(06:37):
into a symbol to advance and US versus them cause.
Even even before Babbitt's identity was publicly known, far right
figures were already elevating her as a martyr. Texas Republican
Larry Brock Junior referred to her on Facebook as quote
first patriot martyr in the Second Amendment, sorry, in the
Second American Revolution unquote. In the days that followed, her
(06:59):
image became central to a broader MAGA mythology surrounding January sixth.
Bird meanwhile, became the narrative's antagonist. Trump allies pushed the
slogan who killed Ashley Babbitt. Babbit's husband later sued the
Metropolitan Police Department to force the release of Bird's name.
The MAGA backlash led Bird to receive numerous death threats,
forcing the officer into hiding. Despite the MAGA fury, Bird
(07:22):
maintained that he responded appropriately quote, I know that day
I saved countless lives unquote, he said, goes on to
say members of Congress, fellow officers, and staff were in
serious danger. That's my job. Bird was promoted to captain
in twenty twenty three. Babbitt's family later filed another civil lawsuit,
accusing Bird and the MPD of negligence. The city settled
the case for nearly five million dollars.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
So this is where we are.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
We have our sort of side post January sixth, twenty
twenty one, and you know, five years later, this is
the narrative that people are attempting to chronicle. I want
to go first here though I if I may, Okay,
got the thumbs up. Let's do it yesterday, Quentin Quintin,
(08:14):
Jerome ward Zer will me.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
You said something to me that was so special.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
And what I gathered was that we're going to keep
each other and you know us in a in a
larger sense, we're going to keep all of us, saying
we can recognize what we're up against and behold the
(08:50):
enormity of the opposition and not succumb We can be
aware of what it is that they specifically Maga, namely
Maga are trying to do, trying to chronicle narratives like these.
(09:12):
We can recognize that that's what they are trying to do,
and we can hold the line and we know what happened,
and so do they. But they want the memory of
it to reflect a reality that is much kinder.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
For their purposes.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
A lot of these people really liked to paint the
protests of twenty twenty as riots, and I don't want
to paint with two broader stroke care. There might have
been some antagonists in the crowd. There might have been
some people who were a little too turned up that
set it off, you know, around the country. But I
(10:02):
know Ramses knows firsthand that some of the agitators were
indeed police officers. You don't need to even try to
convince me other hand, because I saw it myself. I
was out there with my sons, and I saw the
police escalating thing certainly in the early days of the protest.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
And they would love for.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
The BLM protest to go down in history as riots.
But they were largely peaceful, right, and they would love
for January sixth to go down in history as you know,
a passionate protest, and that this woman is a martyr,
and this black police officer that shot her is responsible
(10:55):
for her death and not she herself being responsible for death.
So I wanted to make sure I said that before
we get too far down this rabbit hole.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
But please your reflections, crecuit.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
You know, when putting the show together, we're trying to
figure out what to even call January sixth, because it's like,
it's not a holiday, it's not a memorial. It's like
this rupture date. For the first time in American history.
(11:32):
This is never chronicle like this, which is strange to me.
The peaceful transfer of power was physically attacked from within
our government, an attempted coup led by the sitting president.
We have video and audio of him preparing his mob
(11:56):
to go attack, telling them where to go, and instructing
him that he would meet them there. The danger, however,
is not just what happened that day rams, because it
didn't conclude. It's not like that day ended. This thing
was chronicle properly, people were prosecuted and held to account.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It's what has happened since then.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Ashley Babbitt, a woman who broke into the Capitol during
a violent mob, has somehow become the martyr and Lieutenant
Michael Byrd, the black officer who stopped the breach and
saved lives, is now the villain of the story. So
(12:41):
they treat this like it's a false memory they have
when it's it's not that they don't misremember. It's a
myth that they're trying to get us to all believe
it in real time. January sixth, sadly isn't over. It
didn't conclude, it didn't come to an end. All the
people who did get arrested and prosecuted have been pardoned,
(13:03):
and then the group that decided who got pardoned also
decides who gets punished. And then America is trying to
get us to all call those people patriots. We're watching
them flip what hero and villain means in real time
(13:24):
and all the adventure movies in our whole life and
every book we've ever written our whole life. They don't
have to tell us that Darth Vader and the Death
Star are the bad guys. We understand it. The narrative
building happens on the screen. Everyone watching agrees that the
Resistance are the good guys and that the Dark Side
(13:45):
are the bad guys, except when it happens in real life.
We somehow get confused. So January sixth didn't close a chapter,
it unfortunately opened a new one. And we can't forget
how that thing ended and decide somehow and reverse who's
good versus bad. And I'll say this before we move on.
(14:08):
It's not just something that happened five years ago. It
keeps happening in our streets. And the narratives that are
that mass professional used to be legacy media, the way
that they covered it then the way that they talk
about it now, and now we have to live in
(14:29):
a country where seemingly one man gets to decide who
and what we celebrate. They got rid of the BLM
Street in DC and re erected a statue of one
of the founders of the klu Klux Klan. The government
(14:53):
of the United States did that.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
So yeah, this is a I know we're supposed to
move on, but you know, one of the things that
comes to mind here is the hypocrisy. Right, So you know,
this was the same crowd that was the Blue Lives
Matter crowd, right, and they're not coming to the defense
of this Blue life This guy that's been villainized, you know,
(15:23):
he had to go into hiding because of them, right,
And you know when you talked about kind of switching
the roles of good guys and bad guys, you can
see them flounder as they're trying to do it.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
It's just full spin.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And this is why this movement looks so evil to
those of us on this side, because we saw it happen.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
We know what happened.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
And first you went to say, like, well, no, those
are actually Antifa supporters that are there. Those aren't Donald
Trump's but those are Antifa. They went there just disturb
trouble in the name of Donald Trump, to make Donald
Trump load. And then those same people that are calling
it Antifa are saying, Ashley Babbitt, one of the people
(16:07):
there on the ground, the one that jumped through the
window after the officer says stay on that side, don't
jump through the window, when she loses her life, all
of a sudden, she's the first to fall in this
new American civil war, right, And they lost a patriot
and all that sort of thing. So I know, I
see it happening, and that's why it's so frustrating. Everybody
(16:27):
that tries to justify it just feels so evil. To
us like it, and it feels like I get that
MAGA would take it because they want it to be true.
They know it's not. We all saw the same stuff,
But for them to expect us to take it, it's crazy.
(16:48):
Not to make it even crazier, Watch this, all right,
sharing opinions here. Hilton cuts ties with Minneapolis hotel over
ice reservations. All right, I'm gonna go in. Okay, this
is from USA Today. It's a little bit of a read,
so bear with me. Hilton Hotels is severing ties with
a Minneapolis area hotel that turned away federal immigration enforcement officers.
(17:11):
The move came after conservative commentator Nick Sorter posted a
video in which he attempts to book rooms posing as
a representative of the Department of Homeland Security.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
The independent hotel owner had assured us that they had
fixed this problem and had published a message confirming this.
A recent video clearly raises concerns that they are not
meeting our standards and values. As such, we are taking
immediate action to remove this hotel from our systems unquote,
Hilton said in a statement to USA Today. The statement
goes on to say, quote, Hilton is and always has
(17:42):
been a welcoming place for all. I want to say
that one more time than we come back to it.
Hilton is and always has been a welcoming place for all.
They're gone to say. We are also engaging with all
of our franchisees to reinforce the standards we hold them
to across our system to help ensure this does not
happen again.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
All right.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Quote The front desk manager said she had spoken with
the owner shortly before I walked in around ten fifty
pm and confirmed the anti DHS policy remained in effect, unquote,
sorta wrote on the social media platform x all. DHS
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said she was glad to see
Hilton Hotels take the step. Quote discriminatory business practices unquote
(18:27):
targeting the agency's officers and deliberately undermining federal law enforcement
are Unamerican and have real business consequences, unquote, she wrote
on x According to the DHS, the Hampton Inn in Lakeville, Minnesota,
about twenty five miles from Minneapolis, canceled a reservation made
by law enforcement officers involving immigration enforcement in Minnesota, as
(18:48):
the Trump administration investigates fraud allegations there About two thousand
immigration agents are being sent to Minneapolis and surrounding areas,
including personnel from Immigration and Customs enforcement and other agents
working for Homeland Security, acording to the Wall Street Journal
and CBS News quote no room at the end, DHS
reported on X quote Hilton Hotels has launched a coordinated
(19:09):
campaign in Minneapolis to refuse service to DHS law enforcement unquote.
The hotel is independently owned and operated. Ever Speak Hospitality,
which operates the hotel, said it quote moves swiftly to
address this matter as it was inconsistent with our policy
of being a welcoming place for all unquote.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I almost done here. Quote.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
We are in touch with the impacted guests who ensure
they are accommodated. We do not discriminate against any individuals
or agencies and apologize to those impacted. We are committed
to welcoming all guests and operating in accordance with brand standards,
applicable laws, and our role as a professional hospitality provider.
Screenshots DHS shared on social media appear to show the
hotel operators rejecting the reservations made by enforcement agents because
(19:51):
of their affiliation with ICE. DHS said the agents had
booked rooms using official government emails and rates. Quote notice
the influx of goov reservations made today that have been
for DHS, and we are not allowing any ICE immigration
agents to stay at our property unquote, A screenshot reads,
though email addresses and names are redacted. A statement goes
(20:13):
on to say, quote, if you are with DHS or immigration,
let us know as we will have to cancel your reservation. Okay,
So just to recap, I know it took a while
and little wordy overbost but my understanding here, Donald Trump
has these agents going to Minneapolis. They try to book
at a an independently owned Hilton hotel. The hotel sees
(20:37):
a bunch of dot GUVs and says, oh, no, we
don't want these problems right. It could be because they
of their politics. Could be could be because they don't
want demonstrators showing up at the hotel, because that's happened
before too. Either way, they're like, I don't want no
part of it, right. DHS clutches their pearls and says,
(20:59):
oh my gosh, you're not going to rent a room
to us.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
This is a foul play.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
The hotel circles back and says, hey, you know what,
no foul play here. You know, if you guys want
to make reservations, go for it, and subsequently don't meet
that promise, right, And so the larger hotel chain or
the conglomerate Hilton reaches out and says, hey, we're a
(21:26):
welcoming place for all. Okay, So that's the story as
I understand it. Now, I want to share a couple
of thoughts here. If Hilton says we're a welcoming place
for all.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Does that mean.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
That the klu Klux Klan headquarters in Glendale, Arizona can
book a Hilton ballroom or their Grand Wizard pageant ball.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
I don't know what they do.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
And Hilton will say, you know what, We're a welcoming
place for all. Kuklus can come right through the door.
Is that what you mean, Hilton, welcoming place for all?
Because if so, I know where to spend my money.
It's not with Hilton. I suspect a lot of other
people would feel that way too. So at a point
you're going to have to say, nah, there's some people
(22:28):
we don't want here. And at a point you're going
to decide where that line is. And at that point,
there are going to be some people that agree with
you and some people that disagree with you. So unless
you're willing to rent your ballroom to the Grand Wizard
of the KKK, you're in the game.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
You cannot throw your hands up. This is not the
time and history when you can be the white moderate
that Doctor King called out. I'm assuming this is a
white person, white man, okay, And if you understand how
many CEOs in this country are white man, then you
understand why that's an easy assumption to make.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I'm sure I'm not wrong.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
So you're in the game, and that passivity speaks volumes. Right,
You're either on the side of this oppressive regime or
you're on the side of the people.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Okay. This regime is.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Based around Donald Trump, and one thing I know to
be true is Donald Trump will not live forever. Okay,
And you're going to have to come back down the
street of all of these people. Be very careful because
I've read a few articles about this, and a lot
of people are saying, oh, you see what happened with Target,
(23:49):
you see what happened with Cracker Barrel. You see, You're
gonna have to come back down our street.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Okay, choose wisely.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
And then another thing I want to say is that
let's say you're like, Okay, the Nazis and the ku
Klux Klan, that's a or yeah, the ku Klux Clan
is that's what I said. The Ku Klux Klan renting
our ballroom, that's a different story. Everybody knows that the
ku Klux Klan is a racist organization.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
They're a bad organization.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
This is a government agency of the United States of America,
and the President has sent them on orders they need
a room to sleep, and we're going to provide them
a room. And if our franchisee won't provide them a room,
then they won't be a franchise anymore. Let's say that's
your position. Look, this is these are US citizens. They're
doing government work. I put to U. Hilton that Nazis
(24:46):
did the work of their president. Indeed, Nazis weren't the
bad guys until after that war in Germany. They weren't
the bad guys in Germany until the war was over.
And again, Donald Trump doesn't live forever. Okay, there comes
an end to his era. What happens after that? Does
(25:07):
this nonsensical?
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Silliness continue. Is there someone else that can step into
his shoes? That's a question you're going to have to
really answer for yourself because you're going to live in
that aftermath, and I suspect no. The answer is no.
But all the people you've heard along the way, look
at Target, we're going to remember this. We're going to
(25:31):
remember that you stood on the side of Nazis, because
that's what this looks like. They were just soldiers following orders.
That's been an excuse far too often throughout history. As
I mentioned, you're in the game. Play it fair to anything.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
You so you show so much grace, do I?
Speaker 3 (25:58):
And so much benefit of the out right because you
like extended this into some decisions that they'll make in
the future.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Bro, they already made it. Yeah, that's fair. You'd like
to point it out.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
I guess you're in the game and you know you're
going to have to make none that just made the
choice they did. You're saying they might have to do
at some point, and they just did it the state right, right,
because you cannot simultaneously say everyone's welcome, especially this group
that's only in town, to make sure everybody's not welcome,
(26:33):
especially this agency that got a thousand x on its
budget to make sure that people don't feel welcomed, because
they could have done the same work with what they
already had in the way of resources. The numbers show
right the way that the deportations used to happen, the
(26:54):
legal way, right where people had rights, where there was
due process. Those numbers were still greater than what we
got now with this new army roam in the streets.
But the intent is to make it feel less welcoming,
to make people feel less comfortable, less safe, afraid, intimidated, bullied,
(27:17):
and we've seen the videos of them assaulting, violating, breaking laws,
breaking bones, dragging pregnant women across the street, across the
pavement by their legs. So you cannot say, hey, we're
open and welcome to everyone, and we're going to go
out of our way to make sure that this group
(27:37):
that is terrorizing people feels more than welcome on our property.
They don't have some future decision to make about what
side they're on. They just made it not only are
we going to make sure you guys have rooms, but
this franchise e that said you couldn't have rooms. They
(27:58):
can't be down with us anymore. So I'll answer your
question on their behalf. Because they already gave me the game,
they might as well whisper it in my ear. Yes,
the Cluecluse clan wants to get a block of rooms
and have their event at the Hilton and whatever town
they're in. They've just made it very clear everyone's welcome,
(28:21):
even groups that by their very existence make sure that
everyone doesn't feel that way, even groups that only exist
to ensure that millions of people don't feel that way.
Not only is all money not good money, But what
(28:44):
we've seen that's so strange to me, and this pre
compliance bending of the knee era that we're in, is
that hyper capitalist organizations and corporations are bending the knee
for the lesser of the capital. We don't mind offending
what two thirds of the country so that this one
(29:09):
third rides with us. We will cost ourselves hundreds of millions,
if not billions of dollars, so that we can pre
comply to these white supremacist regimes. And then this is
kind of a separate thing. But what I found so
(29:31):
disturbing as I see more and more videos come out,
so many of the faces carrying out these.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Orders ramses, Yeah, I know what you're gonna say.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Look like ours and our family members and our neighbors
and our friends, and man, that sucks.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Stick around. We're coming back with more right after this.
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