July 7, 2025 • 30 mins
On Part 1 of today's podcast, Hosts Ramses Ja and Q Ward discuss the celebration of July 4th and Elon Musk's new political party.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Broadcasting from the Citic Cipher Studios. Welcome to the QR Code,
where we share perspective, seek understanding, and shape outcomes.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
He is a.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Very handsome gentleman who was a great orator, and I'm
proud to have him as my friend and co host
on the show.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
He goes by the name of q Ward.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
And he is ramsays Jah and he likes to talk
about himself and the third person and then say my name,
he's your host.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I just work here.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Well, we needed to stick around because we've got a
good show in store for you today. Don't know if
you know this, but they're they're canceling elections down in Florida.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Oh wee.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
This is where we are. This is the this is
the worst timeline. We're gonna get into the weeds, of course,
and figure out what's going on in Florida, why they're
saying they want to do this, and of course why
they are actually doing it.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
We're also gonna share a little bit of a.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Story from an American Idol winner who was offered the
key to his and ultimately had to deny receiving it
because of death threats. And since it's in Mississippi, we
know that there are some other factors involved as well.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I'm going to spend a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Of time for our Better Do Better segment talking about
how the cuts the doging of services throughout this country
have ultimately led to the many deaths by the flood
in Texas because now there's no more services to respond
to those sorts of things. We're going to talk about
(01:35):
Elon Musk establishing a new party. So you know, we
know about the Democrats, and we know about the Republicans,
but Elon Musk apparently has enough money to change the
very nature of politics in this country and he feels
that that is in order. So we're going to talk
about that too, and a whole lot more, not the
least of which is how we celebrate Fourth of July
(01:58):
around here. But before we get to any of that,
it is time for our feel good feature. Today's still
Good feature comes from the Huffington Post. Snitching never had
a positive connotation, understandably, but a highly scrutinized new app
proves that sounding the horn to protect someone vulnerable is
a historic form of protest, and it's not going anywhere.
(02:18):
Ice Block is a crowdsourcing platform designed to inform and
Warren communities of the presence of ICE agents. The app
functions as a defensive response to recently red dub ICE
raids while also shedding light on the power of collective
and strategic information sharing. For all those reasons, it's making
the Trump administration big bad. Officially launched this past April,
(02:39):
ice Block came under fire this week when White House
Press Secretary Caroline Levitt and Acting ICE Director Todd M.
Lyons released an official statement critiquing a CNN story covering
the app, with quotes from its founder, Joshua Aaron. The
statement refers to CNN's coverage as an advertiser for an
app that quote basically paints a target on federal law
(03:00):
enforcement officers back some unquote it feels a little hypocritical
to talk about ICE agents as targets, But okay. Since
the statement was released on Monday, ice Block reportedly rose
to the top of Apple's app store and had over
ninety five thousand users. So you know, that feels good
(03:21):
to us, because you know, people deserve dignity in this country,
people deserve due process, and you know, again with the
government is a hostile government that people have a duty
to resist and all forms of protesters are on the table,
(03:43):
and this, I mean that this tickles my fancy. So
let me say it a couple more times, just to
make these folks mad again. Ice block, ice block, ice block,
download it and use it and share the information with
other people.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
So those are my thoughts.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, all right, so let's move on. Q.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Did you do anything for fourth of July? Of course,
not like what are we talking about?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I was expecting a no, but the of course not
filled in so much of the gaps for me, of
course not. And I think that that's in line so
for folks listening what I'm about to share. So I
produced this show, and you know, Ques produced the second
part of the show, so he doesn't know what I'm
about to share with him. But that's so perfect that
(04:39):
you said, of course not because and just to get
in front of you here, I didn't do anything for
fourth of July either. I stayed home and I worked
on a project that I had been wanting to work on.
There was really nothing that interested me. But as it
turns out, there were a lot of black folks that
were feeling kind of deflated, and you know, people, not
(05:03):
just black folks, but you know marginalized people. I can
speak for black folks because there's a lot of black
folks in my family and you know, in my ecosystem
of course, but you know, to a larger extent, you know,
marginalized folks feeling really disconnected from the American dream and
(05:23):
the promises that this country is supposed to hold for
all of her citizens, and so forth, and so on,
and so obviously celebrating the fourth.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Of July was.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
There was some conflicted feelings around the world. But this
is not a show about my opinions and what it
is that I know. This is a show about you know,
journalism and data and so forth. So I'm going to
share a story with Q and I want to get
your thoughts here. This is from the Black Information Network.
Over two hundred years after Frederick Douglass question what is
(05:54):
the slave? What?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Sorry?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
What to the slave? Is the fourth of July? In
an act of resistance to Independence Day? The Black Americans
are still grappling with how to celebrate freedoms and liberties
that haven't been fully granted to them. Friday, July fourth
marked Independence Day, a federal holiday that commemorated the signing
of the Declaration of independence in seventeen seventy six and
the birth of a free America from Great Britain. The document,
primarily authorized by Thomas Jefferson, sorry outline the colonies's reasons
(06:20):
for seeking independence, noting inherent rights to life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness. Hypocrisy behind the celebration of the
Fourth of July remains apparent as not all Americans gained
the inherent rights included in the Declaration Opinion of Independence
in seventeen seventy six. Millions of Black Americans were enslaved
at the time and denied independence and life liberty and
the pursuit of happiness, corvalues celebrated every year on the holiday,
(06:43):
and slave black people weren't legally free until nearly one
hundred years later, when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation
in January eighteen sixty three, and slave people in Texas
didn't learn of their freedom until over two years later,
on June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five, which came months for
the Thirteenth Amendument officially abolished abolished slavery in the US.
(07:05):
Despite their legal freedom, black Americans still had to face
systemic oppression, discrimination, and racism, which continue to have reverberating
effects today. Douglas, an abolitionist, orator, writer, and formerly enslaved person,
addressed the hypocrisy of the Independence Day document on July fifth,
eighteen fifty two, delivering a speech titled What to the
(07:26):
Slave Is the fourth of July. Douglas was invited to
address the citizens of his hometown, Rochester, New York, but
defied the expectations of his audience to celebrate the seventy
sixth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Instead,
he used the occasion to remind Americans of the millions
of black people still fighting for their freedom in this country.
In the speech, Douglas highlighted how enslaved people faced brutal
(07:48):
conditions and dehumanization, a direct contradiction to the values outlined
in the Declaration of Independence. Quote, are the great principles
of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that
Declaration of Independence extended to us? Douglas question. Douglas's speech
remains relevant today as Black people continue to face prettolice, brutality,
(08:08):
health disparities, attempted, a raisure of their history in schools,
economic inequality, gentrification, and other systemic issues that go in
addressed by the current administration. Any Black Americans declined to
celebrate the Fourth of July, echoing Douglas's act of resistance.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Still, they used the federal holiday to.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Spend time with family, barbecue and engage in leisure activities,
opting out of waiving American flags and embracing themes and
freedoms that weren't granted to them in seventeen seventy six. Okay,
so you weren't alone, nor was I. Does that tell
a little bit of your story?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Cue?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Once upon a time, that would have been the reason why. Okay,
Like once upon a time, we would have drew on
our past, our history in this country, what our ancestors
were doing as the country celebrated its independence. Right, the
seventeen seventy six African was not an African American. It
(09:07):
was a slave property, not human, the slave race. Less
than how people would view their pets now, because if
(09:28):
you hang someone's pet, people look at you like you're
a monster. Sure, if you would were to lynch a
black person, the white families and attendance would post for
a picture by your hanging body or your burned body
with smiles on their faces and enjoy it like a
(09:49):
regular family day out. So once upon a time we
would have had to call upon that part of history
to be properly offended with the idea of celebrating the
independence of this country that we've called home for hundreds
of years now. But we no longer have to trace
it back to what the fourth would mean to the slave?
(10:13):
What should the fourth mean to most of the country today?
As the leader of the free world ushers in a
new era of bigoted, xenophobic racism, targeting black and brown
people from all over the world, making it illegal for
people to travel here, making it illegal for the people
(10:35):
that are here to be here, whether they're illegal or not,
whether they're documented or not, whether they've gone through the
proper steps to seek citizenship or not, whether they're seeking
asylum or not. Let's make this the least safe, least comfortable,
least enjoyable, least protected place in the world for people
who aren't white, and let's celebrate it. Let's build concentration
(10:57):
camps and sell merch. Let's have politicians hold out on
their vote just so they can get an opportunity to
meet and shake hands with and get merched from the president.
Let's stand up in a full rousing around of applause,
standing ovation as we strip food resources and protections away
(11:22):
from tens of millions of Americans, the same ones we
promised we wouldn't do that so they could vote for us.
Let's get into a circle and pray so that we
can get God's approval for taking away health care and
access to food for children, health care and access to
food for elderly. Let's have many with assault rifles invade
(11:47):
elementary schools, targeting either children or their parents. Either way,
the trauma's irreversible. Let's do all of that while claiming
how proud we are to be in a mayor and
shoot off fireworks and have barbecues and have parties and
have a good time, pretending all of this doesn't happened,
This hypernormalization, this cognitive dissonance. Let's practice all of that
(12:12):
on this fourth of July at the same time that
we're protesting no king and ice raids. Let's still wave
that flag because it's ours too, and we have something
that we have to hold on to. Begging this country
to love us, right, it's like begging to get in
the club in Scottsdale, when they've made it clear the
reason they don't want you to as because you're black.
(12:33):
But let's keep going every week and if we spend
enough money they'll let us in. Right, let's double and
triple down on this place that's screaming at us that
you don't belong here, we don't want you here, and
we'll go to the furthest extent to make you feel that.
I said one time out loud that to see I
(12:56):
became president again, that he would bring slavery, and several
people that I knew or that I know, I'm sorry
responded like I said something insane, as if he hadn't
already done everything to let us know.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
That that was a real possibility.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Now it's close to being actual legislation, because you know,
they can pick you or anybody up off the street,
declare you a criminal, arrest, detain, and deport you to
some prison that can then have you work for them
for free. Or you know, if you're a farm worker
(13:35):
or a hotel worker and you work in agriculture, he
can just make your boss your owner on paperwork, and
that way you're protected unless you ever leave that job,
then you're not anymore on ice can come and get you.
Sounds not like slavery to me. So did I celebrate
on the fourth of July?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
No?
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah, I saw the edit before the No. Wow, Well,
I don't mean to pile on, or maybe this isn't
piling on. But you know, another development in the news is,
you know, Elon Musk officially established a third party for
(14:18):
you know, people to vote for. I mean, there's obviously
more than two parties, but you know, it's the two
party system. But Elon Musk is getting a lot of
attention because of his capacity to actually fund candidates going
up against their you know, the challengers. Then he's he's
looking to I guess onseat a lot of the folks
(14:39):
that voted for the big beautiful bill. So yeah, here
we go. Just from CNN, billionaire Elon Musk said Saturday
he's forming a third political party after dramatic falling out
with Donald Trump, indicating he will make good on threts
he made if the President's domestic policy bill became law. Well,
when it it comes to bankrupting our country with waste
(15:02):
and graft, we live in a one party system, not
a democracy. Trump's former first buddy set on his social
media platform, X goes on to say, today the America
Party is formed to give you back your freedom. Musk,
the largest individual donor to Trump's twenty twenty four presidential
campaign and until recently a close advisor to the president
who spearheaded his administration's pushed to cut government waste, had
(15:25):
criticized Trump's Big Beautiful Bill because of estimates that it
would add trillions of dollars to the federal deficit. Musk's
criticism of the bill was the catalyst for a major
falling out between the two men last month. That few
seemingly cooled after Musk expressed regret and deleted most of
the incendiary social media posts he made about Trump, but
(15:45):
it reignited in the last several days as the bill
neared passage. Trump signed the bill into law on Friday.
For his part, Trump called Musk's announcement of the new
party ridiculous and said it with sow confusion quote. I
think it's ridiculous just the start at the third party we've had.
We have a tremendous success with the Republican Party, Trump
said ahead of boarding Air Force One in New Jersey
(16:07):
on Sunday, Trump goes on to say, the Democrats have
lost their way, but it's always been a two party
system and I think starting a third party just adds
to the confusion. Then he continues, third parties have never worked,
so he can have fun with it, but I think
it's ridiculous, he added. So I don't know. I think
(16:30):
I have two minds about this, and I'd be interested
to get your thoughts here, Q, because on the one hand,
first off, I'm not a fan of Elon Musk. Elon
Musk is a Nazi, full stop. That's it, okay, So
if I say this next thing, I don't want anyone
to misconstrue.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
How I feel about him or Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
You know, if a duck walks up to me like
a duck, looking like a duck, and its social media
posts reflect that of a duck, and then it quacks
and then says I'm a duck, then that's a duck.
And that is the same thing I see with Elon Musk.
There's really no two ways about it. So on the
(17:16):
one hand, I feel like a lot of Republican legislation
is it's like unsettlingly cruel. A lot of it. Some
of it is, you know, based on their sensibilities. Some
(17:36):
of it is based on their concerns and fears and
their fiscal policy and so. But some of the bills
and some of the execution of the bills is very
very cruel, and it seems like they're aware of it,
and they kind of.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Like that part. And this started to happen. Do you
remember the story that we covered.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
I think it might have been like South Dakota or
one of the states that this show doesn't err in yet,
but something like that. And there was a Republican bill
to remove school meals like school lunches from the school
(18:22):
program and it was targeted at children, right. And it
was the same time when Republicans voted to give themselves
raises and they were pushing for some other sort of
voucher program, like there was this. There was a combination
of things. And then I was like, there's no way,
because this is too perfect of a storm. This media
(18:43):
must have a bias to it, that is lining these
elements up to make Republicans look like monsters. So I
took the liberty I don't know if you remember this,
but I took the liberty of digging deeper. I'm like,
let me see if any of these folks are covering it,
and to be fair, not a lot of them are
covering it. But ultimately, what I found is that everything
that they had written out in legislation was true. And
(19:07):
it's like, okay, so you think these children, like the
poor are going to be with you always. I think
that's either from a Bible or one of the founding
documents of this country, something like that. But it feels
like ancient wisdom. And if you're in politics, you have
to deal with that segment of the population. Okay, some
people are going to be poor. Even rich people become poor.
It happens. And the purpose of a government is to
(19:29):
take care of the people, all of the people, Okay.
So for these folks to do this to a children's
nutrition program felt like very hurtful. And after that I
started watching with a much more close, watchful eye. I
guess more closely at what Republicans were up to. And
(19:50):
again I've noticed a trend is that a lot of
times it's very cruel. I rarely have ever see anything
even remotely close to that when it comes from when
it comes to the left, but the right a lot
of time, like the ice rais is a great example,
liked process. Come on, that's for human beings, and they
trying to rewrite it somehow it's just for US citizens.
(20:12):
That's not written anywhere, and they will push to fight
to try to make that true retroactively, that it was
always for citizen. No, that's not in the document, that's
not in the declar or what is it the constitution
at all? Right now, that's my one mind. Republicans are
very cruel. So a split in that party means that Republicans,
(20:35):
people on the right have more than one option. They
can be the people who are just the fiscal conservatives
or whatever. The less cruel version of that, like the
far further right is like the maga Nazi white supremacist wing,
and then the rest of these folks are people that
are like, look, I don't really rock with them, but
I'm just over here because this.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Is the reality I want to live in. Okay.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Now, on the other hand, what we have is another
billionaire at the head of another party. Elon Musk is
a very influential guy and a lot of people follow
him on social media. A lot of people look up
to him, like how they look up to Trump. He's
daddy he's whatever. I don't know where the spines are
with these people that celebrate these folks. So they have
(21:22):
such a cavalier attitude toward worshiping another man breathing the
same air as them. It's wild to me, and there's
no two ways about it. I can only see a
billionaire shaping public policy in his own image. It takes
a certain type of person to become a billionaire, right,
(21:46):
and those people don't tend to be like I actually
know billionaire person.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
I've been to their houses, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I notice people, good people on the front end when
it comes to business stuff, when it comes about when
they are about their money. There's no such thing as
a nice billionaire that I met. So eh, I got
mixed feelings. Anything stick out to you, I'll try.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
I used to think a third party wasn't possible until
Maga was born, and Maga was so powerful co opted
one of the existing parties.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Sure I well, he didn't.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Took it over, and all it took was some hyper
masculine racism to take an entire party. So you know,
Elon is an interesting messenger, right, He's the cause and
the cure. He bought the presidency for the guy he's
now criticizing and now saying there needs to be another
(22:46):
party for you know, so let's steal an election and
I don't know what didn't go his way, But then
let's let's become a whistleblower and talk about how this
thing isn't set up right for the people who I
just defrauded. So yeah, once upon a time, a third
(23:07):
party wouldn't work. And even now, maybe you confuse a
couple of Republicans who are not sure which of you
they want to follow. But Trump is the hero in
their story, not Musk. You know, he was a vehicle
and a weapon to get them what they wanted. When
they started feuding, Magga didn't turn their back on Trump
or split in half between Trump and Musk. They just
(23:30):
joined Trump and making fun of Musk and accusing him
of being you know, out of touch or his feelings
are hurt because of the Trump's getting rid of the
tax cuts and electric vehicles. Like they come up with
a way for Trump to be the hero and the
good guy no matter what. So we'll see man. You know,
you start the fire and then you show up in
a coat and a hat with an extinguisher to put
(23:52):
the fire out and we're supposed to applaud for you. Yeah, right,
Like I'm not moved by Elon Musk introducing the idea
of a third party.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah, well, Elon Musk has a problematic legacy. For a
long time, Elon Musk was that guy, and then he
just grounded that same corner. Around the same time, a
lot of maga folks arounding that corner too, and they
(24:21):
just moved super far to the right, so much so
that Elon Musk ended up at the head of the
Department of Government Efficiency and started making cuts to programs
that were needed by this country. Right, And there were
(24:41):
people that wrote reports about people are going to die,
people are going to suffer because of these cuts you're
making these there's a reason we're spending these dollars. There's
there's AIDS prevention, there's there's all kinds of stuff, right,
and doging became a verb, right, and then other a
governmental like state governments followed suit. You know, they started
(25:04):
to doge you know things because you know, I guess
the push for smaller government was the wave, you know,
once upon a time. But I'm going to share an
article from AlterNet that I think kind of lives in
the shadow of Elon Musk's legacy at first time in
(25:28):
the White House. In a scathing social media post, Seth Abramson,
biographer of President Donald Trump, directly blamed Trump and his
tech billionaire brand Elon Musk for the deaths of more
than fifty Texans in recent catastrophic flooding, arguing their politically
driven decisions led to avoidable tragedy.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
I have no difficulty saying that Trump and Musk caused
some of the fifty plus flood deaths in Texas unquote,
Abramson wrote in a widely shared thread on social media
platform Acts. Quote and here's why. These two men, with
no expertise and disaster coparedness were told not to cut
the positions they cut, and were told people would die
if they did, and then people died, he said. Abramson's
(26:09):
remarks come amid growing scrutiny of republic service cuts made
in Republican led states, where disaster readiness programs have been
downsized or guided. In Texas, where flash floods have left
at least fifty people dead, analysts and former emergency managers
have raised concerns that early warning systems, regional FEMA coordination
and infrastructure resilience have been compromised due to staffing in
(26:29):
budget reductions. Abramson urged Democratic leaders to take a more
forceful stance over the tragedy.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Quote. Democrats are never going to start.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Winning elections again until they're willing to call a thing
just what it is unquote, he wrote, those want to
say Texas Democrats should be clear and persistent in saying
that public service cuts overseen by non experts desperate for
billionaire tax cuts killed people. He preemptively addressed Republican rebuttals
accusing Democrats of politicizing tragedy. Quote, and if Republicans respond
(26:59):
by saying that Democrats to politicizing these deaths, the Democrats
should respond, that's because the deaths are political. Politicians caused them.
And then, real quick, the rest of the time is
yours here if you want it. But I think that
there's something to be said about climate change too, and
that's only going to get worse. And obviously this administration's
(27:20):
approach to climate change is.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
It leaves a lot to be desired. But your thoughts, her.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Quy, we're so weak, what do you mean like to
make a direct decision that kills people, and then we say, hey, hey,
don't you know, let's not make this political. You know,
like people are hurting, and you know this is not
the time. Then when's the time. When's the time to
(27:49):
point to the direct result of your actions, was people dying?
If not when it happens, and they only do that
to us, and every time we fold like a napkin. Well,
I guess you're right. This isn't the time for us
to point out that the thing that we said, if
you do, people are going to die, and then you
(28:09):
did it and people died. That that's not the time
to point out that it happened. That's not the time
to call us spade a spade. We're so weak and
soft and we're holding on to these these ideals of
decency and the way we've always done things. Well, they
clearly don't play the game by those rules, clearly, and
(28:30):
it keeps showing us that bully tactics from weak people.
And then we show up and we got to take
the high role. You know, it's just this is not
the time to point the finger and let's not make
this political thoughts and prayers because people died. Yeah, if
you gut the service that tells us when something deadly
(28:50):
could happen to people, that thing happens, and then people die,
we should be able to point to that as a
failure by you and as you being responsible for the
lives that were lost. We did that once before and
it probably ushered that guy out of office. But you know,
back to political norms, back to politeness, back to tak
(29:13):
any high road. As they continue to backstab and lie
and cheat and steal, and we continue to watch it,
maybe we've just accepted that there's nothing we can do. Like,
maybe that's where we are now. I don't understand how
we soften up when they bring to the front a
(29:36):
tray with their failures on it, their failures that we
called out before they happened, and then we're not allowed
to say they happen when they do because you know,
now isn't the right time. It's too soon. Don't make
this very political thing political. Ignore climate change, pretend it
doesn't exist, and gut all the organizations that predict and
(29:58):
respond to national disasters. When people die, throw your hands
out like we don't know what happened.
Broadcasting from the Citic Cipher Studios. Welcome to the QR Code,
where we share perspective, seek understanding, and shape outcomes.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
He is a.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Very handsome gentleman who was a great orator, and I'm
proud to have him as my friend and co host
on the show.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
He goes by the name of q Ward.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
And he is ramsays Jah and he likes to talk
about himself and the third person and then say my name,
he's your host.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I just work here.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Well, we needed to stick around because we've got a
good show in store for you today. Don't know if
you know this, but they're they're canceling elections down in Florida.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Oh wee.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
This is where we are. This is the this is
the worst timeline. We're gonna get into the weeds, of course,
and figure out what's going on in Florida, why they're
saying they want to do this, and of course why
they are actually doing it.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
We're also gonna share a little bit of a.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Story from an American Idol winner who was offered the
key to his and ultimately had to deny receiving it
because of death threats. And since it's in Mississippi, we
know that there are some other factors involved as well.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I'm going to spend a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Of time for our Better Do Better segment talking about
how the cuts the doging of services throughout this country
have ultimately led to the many deaths by the flood
in Texas because now there's no more services to respond
to those sorts of things. We're going to talk about
(01:35):
Elon Musk establishing a new party. So you know, we
know about the Democrats, and we know about the Republicans,
but Elon Musk apparently has enough money to change the
very nature of politics in this country and he feels
that that is in order. So we're going to talk
about that too, and a whole lot more, not the
least of which is how we celebrate Fourth of July
(01:58):
around here. But before we get to any of that,
it is time for our feel good feature. Today's still
Good feature comes from the Huffington Post. Snitching never had
a positive connotation, understandably, but a highly scrutinized new app
proves that sounding the horn to protect someone vulnerable is
a historic form of protest, and it's not going anywhere.
(02:18):
Ice Block is a crowdsourcing platform designed to inform and
Warren communities of the presence of ICE agents. The app
functions as a defensive response to recently red dub ICE
raids while also shedding light on the power of collective
and strategic information sharing. For all those reasons, it's making
the Trump administration big bad. Officially launched this past April,
(02:39):
ice Block came under fire this week when White House
Press Secretary Caroline Levitt and Acting ICE Director Todd M.
Lyons released an official statement critiquing a CNN story covering
the app, with quotes from its founder, Joshua Aaron. The
statement refers to CNN's coverage as an advertiser for an
app that quote basically paints a target on federal law
(03:00):
enforcement officers back some unquote it feels a little hypocritical
to talk about ICE agents as targets, But okay. Since
the statement was released on Monday, ice Block reportedly rose
to the top of Apple's app store and had over
ninety five thousand users. So you know, that feels good
(03:21):
to us, because you know, people deserve dignity in this country,
people deserve due process, and you know, again with the
government is a hostile government that people have a duty
to resist and all forms of protesters are on the table,
(03:43):
and this, I mean that this tickles my fancy. So
let me say it a couple more times, just to
make these folks mad again. Ice block, ice block, ice block,
download it and use it and share the information with
other people.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
So those are my thoughts.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, all right, so let's move on. Q.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Did you do anything for fourth of July? Of course,
not like what are we talking about?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I was expecting a no, but the of course not
filled in so much of the gaps for me, of
course not. And I think that that's in line so
for folks listening what I'm about to share. So I
produced this show, and you know, Ques produced the second
part of the show, so he doesn't know what I'm
about to share with him. But that's so perfect that
(04:39):
you said, of course not because and just to get
in front of you here, I didn't do anything for
fourth of July either. I stayed home and I worked
on a project that I had been wanting to work on.
There was really nothing that interested me. But as it
turns out, there were a lot of black folks that
were feeling kind of deflated, and you know, people, not
(05:03):
just black folks, but you know marginalized people. I can
speak for black folks because there's a lot of black
folks in my family and you know, in my ecosystem
of course, but you know, to a larger extent, you know,
marginalized folks feeling really disconnected from the American dream and
(05:23):
the promises that this country is supposed to hold for
all of her citizens, and so forth, and so on,
and so obviously celebrating the fourth.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Of July was.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
There was some conflicted feelings around the world. But this
is not a show about my opinions and what it
is that I know. This is a show about you know,
journalism and data and so forth. So I'm going to
share a story with Q and I want to get
your thoughts here. This is from the Black Information Network.
Over two hundred years after Frederick Douglass question what is
(05:54):
the slave? What?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Sorry?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
What to the slave? Is the fourth of July? In
an act of resistance to Independence Day? The Black Americans
are still grappling with how to celebrate freedoms and liberties
that haven't been fully granted to them. Friday, July fourth
marked Independence Day, a federal holiday that commemorated the signing
of the Declaration of independence in seventeen seventy six and
the birth of a free America from Great Britain. The document,
primarily authorized by Thomas Jefferson, sorry outline the colonies's reasons
(06:20):
for seeking independence, noting inherent rights to life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness. Hypocrisy behind the celebration of the
Fourth of July remains apparent as not all Americans gained
the inherent rights included in the Declaration Opinion of Independence
in seventeen seventy six. Millions of Black Americans were enslaved
at the time and denied independence and life liberty and
the pursuit of happiness, corvalues celebrated every year on the holiday,
(06:43):
and slave black people weren't legally free until nearly one
hundred years later, when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation
in January eighteen sixty three, and slave people in Texas
didn't learn of their freedom until over two years later,
on June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five, which came months for
the Thirteenth Amendument officially abolished abolished slavery in the US.
(07:05):
Despite their legal freedom, black Americans still had to face
systemic oppression, discrimination, and racism, which continue to have reverberating
effects today. Douglas, an abolitionist, orator, writer, and formerly enslaved person,
addressed the hypocrisy of the Independence Day document on July fifth,
eighteen fifty two, delivering a speech titled What to the
(07:26):
Slave Is the fourth of July. Douglas was invited to
address the citizens of his hometown, Rochester, New York, but
defied the expectations of his audience to celebrate the seventy
sixth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Instead,
he used the occasion to remind Americans of the millions
of black people still fighting for their freedom in this country.
In the speech, Douglas highlighted how enslaved people faced brutal
(07:48):
conditions and dehumanization, a direct contradiction to the values outlined
in the Declaration of Independence. Quote, are the great principles
of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that
Declaration of Independence extended to us? Douglas question. Douglas's speech
remains relevant today as Black people continue to face prettolice, brutality,
(08:08):
health disparities, attempted, a raisure of their history in schools,
economic inequality, gentrification, and other systemic issues that go in
addressed by the current administration. Any Black Americans declined to
celebrate the Fourth of July, echoing Douglas's act of resistance.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Still, they used the federal holiday to.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Spend time with family, barbecue and engage in leisure activities,
opting out of waiving American flags and embracing themes and
freedoms that weren't granted to them in seventeen seventy six. Okay,
so you weren't alone, nor was I. Does that tell
a little bit of your story?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Cue?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Once upon a time, that would have been the reason why. Okay,
Like once upon a time, we would have drew on
our past, our history in this country, what our ancestors
were doing as the country celebrated its independence. Right, the
seventeen seventy six African was not an African American. It
(09:07):
was a slave property, not human, the slave race. Less
than how people would view their pets now, because if
(09:28):
you hang someone's pet, people look at you like you're
a monster. Sure, if you would were to lynch a
black person, the white families and attendance would post for
a picture by your hanging body or your burned body
with smiles on their faces and enjoy it like a
(09:49):
regular family day out. So once upon a time we
would have had to call upon that part of history
to be properly offended with the idea of celebrating the
independence of this country that we've called home for hundreds
of years now. But we no longer have to trace
it back to what the fourth would mean to the slave?
(10:13):
What should the fourth mean to most of the country today?
As the leader of the free world ushers in a
new era of bigoted, xenophobic racism, targeting black and brown
people from all over the world, making it illegal for
people to travel here, making it illegal for the people
(10:35):
that are here to be here, whether they're illegal or not,
whether they're documented or not, whether they've gone through the
proper steps to seek citizenship or not, whether they're seeking
asylum or not. Let's make this the least safe, least comfortable,
least enjoyable, least protected place in the world for people
who aren't white, and let's celebrate it. Let's build concentration
(10:57):
camps and sell merch. Let's have politicians hold out on
their vote just so they can get an opportunity to
meet and shake hands with and get merched from the president.
Let's stand up in a full rousing around of applause,
standing ovation as we strip food resources and protections away
(11:22):
from tens of millions of Americans, the same ones we
promised we wouldn't do that so they could vote for us.
Let's get into a circle and pray so that we
can get God's approval for taking away health care and
access to food for children, health care and access to
food for elderly. Let's have many with assault rifles invade
(11:47):
elementary schools, targeting either children or their parents. Either way,
the trauma's irreversible. Let's do all of that while claiming
how proud we are to be in a mayor and
shoot off fireworks and have barbecues and have parties and
have a good time, pretending all of this doesn't happened,
This hypernormalization, this cognitive dissonance. Let's practice all of that
(12:12):
on this fourth of July at the same time that
we're protesting no king and ice raids. Let's still wave
that flag because it's ours too, and we have something
that we have to hold on to. Begging this country
to love us, right, it's like begging to get in
the club in Scottsdale, when they've made it clear the
reason they don't want you to as because you're black.
(12:33):
But let's keep going every week and if we spend
enough money they'll let us in. Right, let's double and
triple down on this place that's screaming at us that
you don't belong here, we don't want you here, and
we'll go to the furthest extent to make you feel that.
I said one time out loud that to see I
(12:56):
became president again, that he would bring slavery, and several
people that I knew or that I know, I'm sorry
responded like I said something insane, as if he hadn't
already done everything to let us know.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
That that was a real possibility.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Now it's close to being actual legislation, because you know,
they can pick you or anybody up off the street,
declare you a criminal, arrest, detain, and deport you to
some prison that can then have you work for them
for free. Or you know, if you're a farm worker
(13:35):
or a hotel worker and you work in agriculture, he
can just make your boss your owner on paperwork, and
that way you're protected unless you ever leave that job,
then you're not anymore on ice can come and get you.
Sounds not like slavery to me. So did I celebrate
on the fourth of July?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
No?
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah, I saw the edit before the No. Wow, Well,
I don't mean to pile on, or maybe this isn't
piling on. But you know, another development in the news is,
you know, Elon Musk officially established a third party for
(14:18):
you know, people to vote for. I mean, there's obviously
more than two parties, but you know, it's the two
party system. But Elon Musk is getting a lot of
attention because of his capacity to actually fund candidates going
up against their you know, the challengers. Then he's he's
looking to I guess onseat a lot of the folks
(14:39):
that voted for the big beautiful bill. So yeah, here
we go. Just from CNN, billionaire Elon Musk said Saturday
he's forming a third political party after dramatic falling out
with Donald Trump, indicating he will make good on threts
he made if the President's domestic policy bill became law. Well,
when it it comes to bankrupting our country with waste
(15:02):
and graft, we live in a one party system, not
a democracy. Trump's former first buddy set on his social
media platform, X goes on to say, today the America
Party is formed to give you back your freedom. Musk,
the largest individual donor to Trump's twenty twenty four presidential
campaign and until recently a close advisor to the president
who spearheaded his administration's pushed to cut government waste, had
(15:25):
criticized Trump's Big Beautiful Bill because of estimates that it
would add trillions of dollars to the federal deficit. Musk's
criticism of the bill was the catalyst for a major
falling out between the two men last month. That few
seemingly cooled after Musk expressed regret and deleted most of
the incendiary social media posts he made about Trump, but
(15:45):
it reignited in the last several days as the bill
neared passage. Trump signed the bill into law on Friday.
For his part, Trump called Musk's announcement of the new
party ridiculous and said it with sow confusion quote. I
think it's ridiculous just the start at the third party we've had.
We have a tremendous success with the Republican Party, Trump
said ahead of boarding Air Force One in New Jersey
(16:07):
on Sunday, Trump goes on to say, the Democrats have
lost their way, but it's always been a two party
system and I think starting a third party just adds
to the confusion. Then he continues, third parties have never worked,
so he can have fun with it, but I think
it's ridiculous, he added. So I don't know. I think
(16:30):
I have two minds about this, and I'd be interested
to get your thoughts here, Q, because on the one hand,
first off, I'm not a fan of Elon Musk. Elon
Musk is a Nazi, full stop. That's it, okay, So
if I say this next thing, I don't want anyone
to misconstrue.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
How I feel about him or Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
You know, if a duck walks up to me like
a duck, looking like a duck, and its social media
posts reflect that of a duck, and then it quacks
and then says I'm a duck, then that's a duck.
And that is the same thing I see with Elon Musk.
There's really no two ways about it. So on the
(17:16):
one hand, I feel like a lot of Republican legislation
is it's like unsettlingly cruel. A lot of it. Some
of it is, you know, based on their sensibilities. Some
(17:36):
of it is based on their concerns and fears and
their fiscal policy and so. But some of the bills
and some of the execution of the bills is very
very cruel, and it seems like they're aware of it,
and they kind of.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Like that part. And this started to happen. Do you
remember the story that we covered.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
I think it might have been like South Dakota or
one of the states that this show doesn't err in yet,
but something like that. And there was a Republican bill
to remove school meals like school lunches from the school
(18:22):
program and it was targeted at children, right. And it
was the same time when Republicans voted to give themselves
raises and they were pushing for some other sort of
voucher program, like there was this. There was a combination
of things. And then I was like, there's no way,
because this is too perfect of a storm. This media
(18:43):
must have a bias to it, that is lining these
elements up to make Republicans look like monsters. So I
took the liberty I don't know if you remember this,
but I took the liberty of digging deeper. I'm like,
let me see if any of these folks are covering it,
and to be fair, not a lot of them are
covering it. But ultimately, what I found is that everything
that they had written out in legislation was true. And
(19:07):
it's like, okay, so you think these children, like the
poor are going to be with you always. I think
that's either from a Bible or one of the founding
documents of this country, something like that. But it feels
like ancient wisdom. And if you're in politics, you have
to deal with that segment of the population. Okay, some
people are going to be poor. Even rich people become poor.
It happens. And the purpose of a government is to
(19:29):
take care of the people, all of the people, Okay.
So for these folks to do this to a children's
nutrition program felt like very hurtful. And after that I
started watching with a much more close, watchful eye. I
guess more closely at what Republicans were up to. And
(19:50):
again I've noticed a trend is that a lot of
times it's very cruel. I rarely have ever see anything
even remotely close to that when it comes from when
it comes to the left, but the right a lot
of time, like the ice rais is a great example,
liked process. Come on, that's for human beings, and they
trying to rewrite it somehow it's just for US citizens.
(20:12):
That's not written anywhere, and they will push to fight
to try to make that true retroactively, that it was
always for citizen. No, that's not in the document, that's
not in the declar or what is it the constitution
at all? Right now, that's my one mind. Republicans are
very cruel. So a split in that party means that Republicans,
(20:35):
people on the right have more than one option. They
can be the people who are just the fiscal conservatives
or whatever. The less cruel version of that, like the
far further right is like the maga Nazi white supremacist wing,
and then the rest of these folks are people that
are like, look, I don't really rock with them, but
I'm just over here because this.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Is the reality I want to live in. Okay.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Now, on the other hand, what we have is another
billionaire at the head of another party. Elon Musk is
a very influential guy and a lot of people follow
him on social media. A lot of people look up
to him, like how they look up to Trump. He's
daddy he's whatever. I don't know where the spines are
with these people that celebrate these folks. So they have
(21:22):
such a cavalier attitude toward worshiping another man breathing the
same air as them. It's wild to me, and there's
no two ways about it. I can only see a
billionaire shaping public policy in his own image. It takes
a certain type of person to become a billionaire, right,
(21:46):
and those people don't tend to be like I actually
know billionaire person.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
I've been to their houses, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I notice people, good people on the front end when
it comes to business stuff, when it comes about when
they are about their money. There's no such thing as
a nice billionaire that I met. So eh, I got
mixed feelings. Anything stick out to you, I'll try.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
I used to think a third party wasn't possible until
Maga was born, and Maga was so powerful co opted
one of the existing parties.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Sure I well, he didn't.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Took it over, and all it took was some hyper
masculine racism to take an entire party. So you know,
Elon is an interesting messenger, right, He's the cause and
the cure. He bought the presidency for the guy he's
now criticizing and now saying there needs to be another
(22:46):
party for you know, so let's steal an election and
I don't know what didn't go his way, But then
let's let's become a whistleblower and talk about how this
thing isn't set up right for the people who I
just defrauded. So yeah, once upon a time, a third
(23:07):
party wouldn't work. And even now, maybe you confuse a
couple of Republicans who are not sure which of you
they want to follow. But Trump is the hero in
their story, not Musk. You know, he was a vehicle
and a weapon to get them what they wanted. When
they started feuding, Magga didn't turn their back on Trump
or split in half between Trump and Musk. They just
(23:30):
joined Trump and making fun of Musk and accusing him
of being you know, out of touch or his feelings
are hurt because of the Trump's getting rid of the
tax cuts and electric vehicles. Like they come up with
a way for Trump to be the hero and the
good guy no matter what. So we'll see man. You know,
you start the fire and then you show up in
a coat and a hat with an extinguisher to put
(23:52):
the fire out and we're supposed to applaud for you. Yeah, right,
Like I'm not moved by Elon Musk introducing the idea
of a third party.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah, well, Elon Musk has a problematic legacy. For a
long time, Elon Musk was that guy, and then he
just grounded that same corner. Around the same time, a
lot of maga folks arounding that corner too, and they
(24:21):
just moved super far to the right, so much so
that Elon Musk ended up at the head of the
Department of Government Efficiency and started making cuts to programs
that were needed by this country. Right, And there were
(24:41):
people that wrote reports about people are going to die,
people are going to suffer because of these cuts you're
making these there's a reason we're spending these dollars. There's
there's AIDS prevention, there's there's all kinds of stuff, right,
and doging became a verb, right, and then other a
governmental like state governments followed suit. You know, they started
(25:04):
to doge you know things because you know, I guess
the push for smaller government was the wave, you know,
once upon a time. But I'm going to share an
article from AlterNet that I think kind of lives in
the shadow of Elon Musk's legacy at first time in
(25:28):
the White House. In a scathing social media post, Seth Abramson,
biographer of President Donald Trump, directly blamed Trump and his
tech billionaire brand Elon Musk for the deaths of more
than fifty Texans in recent catastrophic flooding, arguing their politically
driven decisions led to avoidable tragedy.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
I have no difficulty saying that Trump and Musk caused
some of the fifty plus flood deaths in Texas unquote,
Abramson wrote in a widely shared thread on social media
platform Acts. Quote and here's why. These two men, with
no expertise and disaster coparedness were told not to cut
the positions they cut, and were told people would die
if they did, and then people died, he said. Abramson's
(26:09):
remarks come amid growing scrutiny of republic service cuts made
in Republican led states, where disaster readiness programs have been
downsized or guided. In Texas, where flash floods have left
at least fifty people dead, analysts and former emergency managers
have raised concerns that early warning systems, regional FEMA coordination
and infrastructure resilience have been compromised due to staffing in
(26:29):
budget reductions. Abramson urged Democratic leaders to take a more
forceful stance over the tragedy.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Quote. Democrats are never going to start.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Winning elections again until they're willing to call a thing
just what it is unquote, he wrote, those want to
say Texas Democrats should be clear and persistent in saying
that public service cuts overseen by non experts desperate for
billionaire tax cuts killed people. He preemptively addressed Republican rebuttals
accusing Democrats of politicizing tragedy. Quote, and if Republicans respond
(26:59):
by saying that Democrats to politicizing these deaths, the Democrats
should respond, that's because the deaths are political. Politicians caused them.
And then, real quick, the rest of the time is
yours here if you want it. But I think that
there's something to be said about climate change too, and
that's only going to get worse. And obviously this administration's
(27:20):
approach to climate change is.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
It leaves a lot to be desired. But your thoughts, her.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Quy, we're so weak, what do you mean like to
make a direct decision that kills people, and then we say, hey, hey,
don't you know, let's not make this political. You know,
like people are hurting, and you know this is not
the time. Then when's the time. When's the time to
(27:49):
point to the direct result of your actions, was people dying?
If not when it happens, and they only do that
to us, and every time we fold like a napkin. Well,
I guess you're right. This isn't the time for us
to point out that the thing that we said, if
you do, people are going to die, and then you
(28:09):
did it and people died. That that's not the time
to point out that it happened. That's not the time
to call us spade a spade. We're so weak and
soft and we're holding on to these these ideals of
decency and the way we've always done things. Well, they
clearly don't play the game by those rules, clearly, and
(28:30):
it keeps showing us that bully tactics from weak people.
And then we show up and we got to take
the high role. You know, it's just this is not
the time to point the finger and let's not make
this political thoughts and prayers because people died. Yeah, if
you gut the service that tells us when something deadly
(28:50):
could happen to people, that thing happens, and then people die,
we should be able to point to that as a
failure by you and as you being responsible for the
lives that were lost. We did that once before and
it probably ushered that guy out of office. But you know,
back to political norms, back to politeness, back to tak
(29:13):
any high road. As they continue to backstab and lie
and cheat and steal, and we continue to watch it,
maybe we've just accepted that there's nothing we can do. Like,
maybe that's where we are now. I don't understand how
we soften up when they bring to the front a
(29:36):
tray with their failures on it, their failures that we
called out before they happened, and then we're not allowed
to say they happen when they do because you know,
now isn't the right time. It's too soon. Don't make
this very political thing political. Ignore climate change, pretend it
doesn't exist, and gut all the organizations that predict and
(29:58):
respond to national disasters. When people die, throw your hands
out like we don't know what happened.
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