October 15, 2024 • 33 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time, luck and load. So Michael Very Show is on
the air.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
In nineteen eighty eight, Joe Biden exited the presidential campaign
because it was learned that he'd been plagiarizing speeches and
lying about his bio. And the idea was that all
these things he had claimed were lies. He's dishonest and dishonorable.
(00:45):
I still remember the Sam Donaldson story on him that
basically exposed him for all the lies that he was telling.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
All right, Syraccu's losschool, Biden was involved in a plagiarism incident.
He quoted five ages of someone else's work without proper citation.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
He was given an f.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
But appealed to the faculty and allowed to repeat the course.
He got a be This comes in the middle of
another controversy about plagiarism in Biden's campaign speeches. Today, he
dismissed charges that he routinely adopts phrases from other politicians' speeches.
Called it much ado about nothing. Essentially, Biden said, everyone doesn't.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
The notion that every thought or notion or idea you'd
have to go back and find an attribute to someone
I think is quite frankly ludicrous.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
But to the political community in Washington. It all seems
of a piece, plagiarism at law school, plagiarism on the stump,
for example.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
But this standard is not a measure of how we
can evaluate the condition of our society.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Cannot measure the.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Health of our children, the quality of our education, the
joy of their play.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
This is how it sounded when Robert Kennedy said those
words in nineteen sixty eight.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
Yet the gross national product that's not allowed the help
of our.
Speaker 6 (01:59):
Children, the quality of their education, for the joy of
their play.
Speaker 7 (02:04):
Biden gave Kennedy no credit.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
He is also quoted, or paraphrase John Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey,
and British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock all without credit.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
That our generation of Americans will pay any price, bear
any burden, accept any challenge, and meet any hardship.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
President John Kennedy's inaugural nineteen sixty one. Biden's critics say
he sells himself as a man whose words and visions
can inspire a new generation in politics. But if the thoughts,
praises and visions really belong to others, it's a form
of false advertising. Robert Kennedy's friend and speech writer.
Speaker 6 (02:44):
If what he did was to present Robert Kennedy's thoughts
and statements and speeches as his own, then of course
it's counterfeit.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
So how very appropriate that Kamala Harris would be the
vice president when thirty six years later Joe Biden managed
to get into the White House. And she's just like him,
a liar, a cheater, a stealer. So she wrote a
(03:20):
book back in two thousand and nine, well she didn't
write it, but it had her name on it, called
Smart on Crime. She was the District Attorney of San
Francisco at the time, because she's good at something, and
Willie Brown put her in that job. So we'll get
to her stint as da in a bit, But first,
(03:40):
it has now been discovered that parts of that book
were copied and pasted directly from Wikipedia. If you were
a high school student, you'd be expelled for this nonsense.
Our very own Thornton Finch with a.
Speaker 8 (03:54):
Story, Ladies and gentlemen, let's check in on Vice President
Kamala Harris and see how her reputation is doing now.
If you thought political campaigns were all about mudslingen and
not about originality, you'd be Right's reign. But today we've
(04:18):
hit a new level of borrowing that make even the
most shameless politician blush, Because yesterday, folks, we learned that
the Democratic nominee might have taken a leaf from someone
else's garden when she penned smart on Crime back in
two thousand and nine, you see this. Austrian professor Stephen Webber,
(04:39):
the plagiarism Hunter, pointed out Harris was playing the copy
paste game with a refined finess of a high school freshman.
And I ain't talking an ap student. I'm talking about
one of them dumb ones from that wing of the
school nobody goes to. In a word, her intellectual theft
was blatant, from news article, studies to even a Wikipedia page.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yep, you heard that right.
Speaker 8 (05:05):
She lifted quote her unquote words write out of Wiki
b Godpedia. In conclusion, while we've got allegations flying around
like bees at a barbecue, let's not forget the humor
in it all. Listening to the word salad queen speak,
are we really that surprised she can't much write either.
(05:26):
I'm Thornton Finch for the Michael Barry Show, Good Day.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Jd Vance wrote the bestseller of Hillbilly Elogy, Hillbilly Elegy,
which is autobiographical. So he's written an actual book himself.
And as he points.
Speaker 9 (05:44):
Out, I saw today actually a story that Kamala Harris
apparently copied some significant chunks of her book from Wikipedia.
So if you want a president with their own ideas,
vote for Donald Trump.
Speaker 7 (05:58):
If you want a president who.
Speaker 9 (05:59):
Copied ideas from Wikipedia, vote for Kamala Harris said.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
In the first time she's been called plagiarizing a story
took her Carlson back in twenty twenty when he was
at Fox News with this.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
According to Kamala Harris, when she was a young child,
she attended a civil rights march. Of course she did
in Oakland, needles to say. And during that march she
was so focused on the liberation then in progress, she
saidbody became separated from her parents.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
She was in a stroller.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
Here's what Kamala Harris says happened next.
Speaker 7 (06:30):
When were you out there protesting?
Speaker 10 (06:32):
Well, I was in a stroller.
Speaker 7 (06:35):
It was in a stroller.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And so I was out there.
Speaker 10 (06:39):
And in fact wanted used to having a very funny
story about I was fussing, and she said, Kamala.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
What do you want, And I said, and this.
Speaker 10 (06:47):
Is how she would say it. And she said, Kamala,
what do you want? And I said, tweetom.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
She just wanted freedom where she said fweedom. Which is
funny because both of Kamala Harris's parents were immigrants from
other countries who came here because when they arrived in
the sixties, it was a totally free country. There was
no Jim Crow. Actually, Kamala Harris didn't grow up under
anything like that.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
She grew up in a country.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
That's freer and more equal to the wam we live
in now.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
But whatever.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Kamala Harris made the same claim to El magazine in October,
and a similar story appeared in the books that Kamala
Harris claims to have written, both in twenty ten and
twenty nineteen. Did you know she was an author? In
addition to the former girlfriend of Monte Williams.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Oh yeah, But here's the amazing thing.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
In nineteen sixty five, which was fifty six years ago,
Martin Luther King himself told Playboy magazine an almost identical story.
King said that he saw police quote accosting a young
girl in Birmingham, Alabama, and we're quoting who was walking
in a demonstration with her mother. According to the Reverend
Martin Luther King, the police officer asked, what do.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
You want, and just like Kamala Harris, that.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
Girl responded freedom.
Speaker 11 (07:59):
Is this not? Yes?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It's nauseating.
Speaker 9 (08:14):
The worst president, the worst vice president in the history
of our CHRISTT.
Speaker 7 (08:19):
Michael Berry.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
We can't afford four more years of this. Yesterday was
Columbus Day. God all is Today we celebrate civilization coming
to the Americas. Now, kids today have been taught that
that was evil and awful. You wouldn't have roads in
(08:46):
the Americas today, you wouldn't have medicine. This idea that
everything was pure and honorable and decent before the white
man arrived. No, no, there was savagery by people on
(09:09):
other people before the Europeans arrived. Shouldn't be afraid of
shame to say this. It's a fact. This idea that somehow,
the people who were there at the time of European
(09:33):
arrival sprang up out of the soil and it belonged
to them only because they stole it from someone else,
who stole it from someone else, who stole it from
someone else. Let's get that straight. But the idea is
in every way, shape and form to take brick by
(09:57):
brick and this mantle every aspect of American society turned
one against another. White men are evil, Christianity is evil.
Our veterans are evil, Our police are evil, our institutions
are evil. Our history is evil from people desperate to
(10:20):
come here and live. And that's how they've acquired power.
And we've let it happen, we Americans. And there's an
interesting thing happening. A lot of blacks who saw this
as a good thing are now realizing. Wait, we're the
(10:40):
ones they're throwing under the bus next. That's right, that's right,
yesterday being Columbus Day. I'm reminded of a few years
ago when Kamala Harris talked about making it indigenous peoples.
(11:01):
You'll be left with no culture by the time she's finished,
if this woman gets elected.
Speaker 12 (11:06):
It is an honor, of course, to be with you
this week as we celebrate Indigenous People's Day, as we
speak truth about our nation's history. Since nineteen thirty four,
every October, the United States has recognized the voyage of
the European explorers who first landed on the shores of
(11:29):
the Americas. But that is not the whole story. That
has never been the whole story.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Those explorers ushered.
Speaker 12 (11:41):
In a wave of devastation for tribal nations, perpetrating violence,
stealing land, and spreading disease. We must not shy away
from this shameful past, and we must shed light on
it and do everything we can to address the impact
(12:03):
of the past on Native communities.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Today, Kamala Harris will say anything, and so will all
wrong already Colin Alred, who is controlled by California money
and who repeats this California nonsense, the Californication of America.
They're trying to take the Senate seat in Texas because
(12:26):
if they can take the Senate seat in Texas and
get rid of Ted Cruz, even if Trump wins, that's
one more seat to harass him with. There's a debate
tonight for those of you in Texas, and I'm going
to tell you something. If you vote for Trump, you
got to vote for Cruise because without Cruise there to
(12:50):
defend him and to work on his behalf. Trump endorsing
Cruise earlier today. By the way, without Trump, without Cruise
there to support Cruise, you'll have one more person harassing him,
and you don't want that back to Kamala Harris. She
was on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I don't know if you
(13:14):
know the story about Roland Martin scrolling through on his
little video zoom podcast, an image popped up that I
don't think he wanted the public to see. But if
you've never seen that, it's quite funny. I want to
play her answer to something, and I want to see
(13:34):
if you can guess what she's and what the question
is that she's answering. This is not altered here it is.
Speaker 12 (13:43):
You know, there's this whole I talked with somebody wants
to say, you know, if you just look at where
the stars are in the sky, don't look them as
just random things. If you just look at them as points,
look at the constellation. What does it show you? So
you just outlined it, Roland, what does it show you?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
What could she have been talking about? Number one, Donald
Trump's a racist? Number two? How Leif Erickson found his
way to America about five hundred years before Columbus. Number three,
How she was a big part of the Biden administration's decisions.
Let's listen to the full clip to see.
Speaker 13 (14:28):
Make you feel when he trashed his black cities. So
in twenty twenty, he talked about voting in Fulton County, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit.
There was a partial recount of Wisconsin only in Milwaukee.
The comments that he just made about Detroit basically being
a living hell and Oakland, DC, Chicago.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Pretty damn ed, pretty good. Pretty good?
Speaker 13 (14:53):
Damn man, y'all dropped out. I actually liked it. Jamille
hill I talked about it. But again he's singling out
cities where there are significant African Americans, and that's who
he's talking about.
Speaker 7 (15:05):
Black people.
Speaker 12 (15:06):
Yes, yes, you know there's this whole I talked with
somebody once he said, you know, if you just look
at where the stars are in the sky, don't look
them as just grand of things. If you just look
at them as points, look at the constellation. What does
it show you? So you just outlined it Roland, What
(15:29):
does it show you that the cities that he picks
on in terms of black population or a black.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Mayor are both. Come on, will the black populations have
black mayors. That's been a trend for a long time
and that's not going to change. But let's look at
Detroit and see why Trump would call it a hell hole.
In twenty twenty three, the national unemployment rate was four percent.
(16:03):
Chicago's unemployment rate was six point eight. Detroit has one
of the highest poverty rates in the country. In twenty
twenty three it was thirty percent. The national average is
eleven point five. Median household income is thirty six thousand.
It's seventy thousand rest of the countries, and we haven't
even gotten into the crime rates go.
Speaker 12 (16:26):
Today of everyone's thinking they can actually live the American chruch.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
The Michael Berry Show, whether in writing, by email or
on the show, for the rest of us to hear
who you're voting for and why now. A lot of
our folks who feel more comfortable calling because we're recent
to the syndication and we're new to a lot of
(16:50):
our markets. A lot of the folks are going to
be in Texas, so I suspect you'll hear some Ted
Cruz in there as well. In time, we'll get more
calls from those new markets. But the reason I'm asking
people to do that, it's going to be mostly a
Trump versus Harris question, is I want people. I want
(17:11):
you you specifically, I want you to get comfortable. I'm
a Southern Baptist and we do something called giving our testimony,
and that is how you came to the Lord, What
was your where were you in your life, where were
you at that moment, what led you to And it's
a very powerful thing to hear someone talk about something
because often it resonates with you and it empowers you.
(17:34):
And I want people to explain. You know, what you
see on the national TV and on the stage and
all that, that's fine, but I want people to hear
grandmothers and grandfathers and mothers and fathers and truck drivers
and unemployed folks, and I want people to hear that.
I want you to realize every single vote and how
you get their matters. And I think this is a
(17:55):
very helpful exercise.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Dan, you're on the.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Michael Berry Show. Who are you voting for? And why.
Speaker 14 (18:02):
Rear guard. We're covering what has unfortunately become a retreat
by those of the conservatives who want to keep things
the way they are against those who want all these changes.
You know, I'm not opposed to change, but this election
is most likely going to be the most controversial this
country's ever seen. If the Democrats win, they're going to
use it as a rallying cry change the political and
(18:24):
mechanical structure of our government. I think the next big
ticket item for them is going to be the electoral College,
and if they manage to do away with that, with
all the people they promised citizenship too to come into
this country, They're just going to put themselves in power
and stay there. And I'm just opposed to that kind
of thinking. We need to keep things the way they
are and make change where we need it, but not
(18:45):
necessarily for the best.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Steve, you're on the Michael Berry Show. Go ahead, sir.
Speaker 15 (18:51):
Well Number one is I kind of lost my train
at the home because I've waited so many calls. But
in two thousands, six seam when that election happened, you know,
I was thinking of the lesser of the two evils,
and I voted for Trump, but I fell in love
with the guy.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
He has done so much for us.
Speaker 15 (19:12):
This is a billionaire that will not quit, will not
quit on America.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
He loves this country. He's been shot.
Speaker 15 (19:22):
At once and assassination TIMPs after that, and he is
I mean, he blows my mind. I would take a
bullet for the guy, and I'm going to vote all
the way down the board. But I do question the
fact that the woman that called in about Dan Crenshaw
(19:44):
and our other congressman.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Do we still go that route with those guys?
Speaker 15 (19:53):
I guess so because they're better than the Democrat Again, sir.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah, no, at this we got to beat the Democrats.
At this point, we got to beat the Democrats. Kevin,
You're on to Michael Barry show.
Speaker 7 (20:05):
Go ahead, Sure, how you doing, Michael.
Speaker 11 (20:09):
I'm fifty one years old and this.
Speaker 7 (20:11):
Is the first time.
Speaker 11 (20:12):
In my entire life I've been eligible to vote in
an election. And actually Ramone was critical in getting me
registered to vote, because up until.
Speaker 7 (20:23):
Last week, I didn't even know I had to register.
Speaker 11 (20:26):
And I called Ramone told me where I needed to
go and how I needed.
Speaker 7 (20:29):
To do it. So I really appreciated him for that. Trump. Yes, yeah,
I didn't know where to turn. I looked online.
Speaker 11 (20:37):
I was dumbfounded by the answers I was getting as
to where to go register, how to register, and I
listened to your show every day, and so I just thought,
let me call in, and I told Ramone what my
issue was, and he went online whatever he did, and
told me this is the address you need to go
to and so I went there and I got registered
for the first time in my life, and it was
(20:59):
the lastast day of eligibility to register.
Speaker 7 (21:03):
So it's good. So I'm voting for Trump.
Speaker 11 (21:06):
Two reasons, Well, there's one reason I'm voting for Trump
and one reason I'm voting for Democrat Republicans down the ticket.
Speaker 7 (21:15):
No.
Speaker 11 (21:15):
When I got out of prison in twenty twenty, the
economy was in good shape dollar forty eight for gas,
interest rates were low, and I have since then. When
I got out, didn't own a pair of boxers, and
now I have been extremely successful what I consider an
extremely successful.
Speaker 7 (21:35):
Business doing custom cabinets and trim work.
Speaker 11 (21:38):
I have six guys working for me. I have a
big warehouse, I live in a nice house.
Speaker 7 (21:42):
Now, I got a great marriage.
Speaker 11 (21:43):
My life is really turned around because I was determined
to turn it around.
Speaker 7 (21:48):
And so I'm voting for Trump.
Speaker 11 (21:49):
Because I believe that if he's back in office, the
money I'm making will be able to go further. Because
I ruined my life for so many years, spent so
many years in the penitentiary and acting like a fool,
I have no retirement.
Speaker 7 (22:05):
And so I have a very short.
Speaker 11 (22:06):
Amount of time to be able to do this, and
I'm making great money right now, and I really believe
that if he's back in office, the economy will get
to something where I can actually start saving and having
some retirement plans where I don't have to rely on
my wife's four oh one K plan.
Speaker 7 (22:21):
How old are you now? The reason I'm going down there?
Speaker 6 (22:23):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (22:24):
How old are you?
Speaker 7 (22:25):
Excuse me, fifty one?
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
No, this is the age you got it, you want
to do it. People think you wake up when you're
sixty five and start saving for retirement.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
You're on the track for that. Tell me what got
you into trouble, because maybe there's somebody out there that
can see that there is life after idiocy, and you
sound to me like a guy that's on track and
ready to start living.
Speaker 7 (22:52):
Yes, idiocy is an understatement, Michael. It was drugs. I
mean it didn't start out. I got into the crime.
Speaker 11 (23:00):
Justice system when I was thirteen years old, being stupid
with the friends, stealing cars, doing dumb stuff. But then
in my later teen years got involved in drugs and
just have been through the revolving door of the prison system,
probation system, parole system, and this last prison bid that
I did was a seven year bid, and it broke me.
Speaker 7 (23:23):
Two years into the bid, I told myself, this is it.
I'm done.
Speaker 11 (23:26):
I cannot do this anymore. I'm in my forties. I'm
looking at all these young knuckleheads in here, and I
just I had a moment where this is it.
Speaker 7 (23:35):
I have to be finished, and I'm getting out with nothing.
Speaker 11 (23:38):
And I'm okay with that. But I'm going to be
determined to not fail. And I've just kept every day.
You know, I got out of prison during COVID when
COVID just hit, so I was stuck. I couldn't get
any identifications because everything was closed, so.
Speaker 7 (23:55):
I couldn't do I couldn't work, but I.
Speaker 11 (23:58):
Refused to fall back in to the lifestyle I used
to be in, and I just pushing forward.
Speaker 7 (24:03):
And then finally everything opened up.
Speaker 11 (24:05):
I was able to get identifications, got my driver's.
Speaker 7 (24:07):
License, got a job, not making very much.
Speaker 11 (24:11):
Money at all, very very little money actually, And you know,
I just kept pushing every day. And then another opportunity
presented itself and I got a better job, and then
things kept doing. Then an opportunity presented itself for me
to start my own business, and so That's what I did.
And you know, it's just every day it's grown exponentially.
Speaker 7 (24:31):
It's huge.
Speaker 11 (24:31):
I'm in the luxury home market here in Houston. I
do all the interior term work and custom cabinets for
a company that throws luxury homes.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Plus I have my.
Speaker 11 (24:41):
Own I contract with them, and then I have I
also do you know, smaller remodeling jobs and stuff when
when necessary.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Joe Biden became mentally impaired with the Marco.
Speaker 7 (24:53):
Berry Kamala was born that way.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Our phone number to the show is seven one three one.
If you're ever not able to get in, you will
be able to leave a voicemail, and we play those
on occasion as well, often on Fridays. One of the
things we've been doing is asking people to share with
us by email and by phone who you're voting for
(25:19):
and why. And I believe if I can get people
to stop living in a silo our nation. This feels
like the German occupation of France, or for that matter,
where people have to pass messages privately, they have to
look over their shoulders before they can say how they
feel about a political issue. Everyone is so scared, and
(25:41):
this was how the left wants it. This is a
scarecrow effect. You see, people don't speak out because they're afraid,
and so they police themselves. You've got churches where pastors
are saying, we don't talk about politics. Well, you don't
have a government that allows your freedom to religion of religion,
(26:05):
you don't have a church. Stop being a coward. We
got too many cowards in the pulpit in this country
right now. That's not to say every pastor is a coward,
but we got too many that are is yours is yours,
is yours leading the flock, is yours following the lead
(26:28):
of the Bible as he's commanded. Huh, good question. How
long did you end up serving all in Kevin?
Speaker 7 (26:38):
Twenty two years?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
What was your drug of choice?
Speaker 7 (26:42):
Oh? I went through the gambit. I ruined my life
with every joke. See I'm somebody who's very loyal whatever
it is I do. So I ruined my life on
cocaine first, and I ruined my life on heroin. And
then I ruined my life. And when I say ruled
my life meanings.
Speaker 11 (26:58):
So I've ruined my life, ended up in prison, got
out of prison, and then ruled my life with another drug.
Did that for years and then went to prison, come out,
and then went to another drug.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
What was that after heroin and.
Speaker 7 (27:13):
Nothing fetamis and then after that that.
Speaker 11 (27:16):
One that was well, that was that was it? Cocaine, heroin,
and mess Those are the three.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
So compare the effect that those had on you.
Speaker 7 (27:28):
Well, cocaine. You know, I was listening to you a
couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 11 (27:32):
You were you wanted people are calling to talk about
cocaine and how how it feels. Cocaine is it's it's
a different drug. It has different effects with the different
ways you adjested, whether.
Speaker 7 (27:43):
It be intervening.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Kevin, I we got disconnected there for a second. You
were you were talking about these drugs and the effect
they had on you. Tell me about that.
Speaker 11 (27:55):
Yes, So, as I was saying, the cocaine has different
effects in the different ways you ingested, and I did
all three ways, the smoking, crack, iv use, and then
also snorting, and I went through different periods. So when
if I snorted cocaine, I would want to do that
when I was out at the bar, the club, you
(28:16):
know it was in the nineties and you know, you
run off in the bathroom, snore line, come out, you
got the music going, you have good time with your
buddy shoe Pool.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
All that.
Speaker 11 (28:25):
Crack was more of a you got to hide in
the hood. You lay up in some dirty, nasty house
and and you get paranoid.
Speaker 7 (28:35):
Uh.
Speaker 11 (28:36):
You know it's funny because you look back at it
and you say, what, what the hell was I thinking?
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Why did I want to do that?
Speaker 11 (28:43):
The problem is what happens, Michael, is that And it's
the reason why I think drugs can grab a hold
of people.
Speaker 7 (28:49):
Why they grab ahold.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Of me is when I would get high.
Speaker 11 (28:53):
I knew I was doing something wrong, but I would
get high, and then when I came when I started
to come down, reality would set in as to what
I've done. So rather than deal with what I've done,
I just get high again, and you just try to
stay high. And then that's at a certain point it
just becomes your life, like that's all you do. Everything
(29:15):
nothing else matters. Heroin was Heroin was a bad one
because heroin makes you feel like you can conquer the
world when you first start using it. I mean, I've
done some of my best work. I've had work published
in magazines that I can look at those pictures and
go I was I was high.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
On heroin the whole time. I did that job because
of the focus that it would give me.
Speaker 11 (29:40):
But then eventually it just starts, you know, destroying because
and it happens usually financially, because your habit grows and
grows and grows and grows to a point where you
can't afford it, and so then you have to start
doing stuff like stealing for it. And then the EMAI
you're missing work because you can't work as you're sick.
(30:01):
You need your drugs, so you have to miss work
to go try to get your drugs, and then you
end up losing your job, and it just becomes a.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Horrible, horrible thing.
Speaker 11 (30:10):
And it took me far too long to realize I
needed to end that cycle. But the thing is is
I did realize I needed to end it, and I
did end it.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
What did you learn in my life at the prison?
Twenty two years a long time? What did you learn
inside prison? Well that you look at now about? So
how did it make you look at society differently?
Speaker 7 (30:34):
So, Okay, twenty two years is not a one stretch.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Twenty two years was in and out years.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
You passed it?
Speaker 11 (30:42):
Okay, yes, exactly, And I'm going to tell you a
story that I tell a lot of people.
Speaker 7 (30:49):
It was in two thousand and eight. I was in
a prison in Connecticut and I.
Speaker 11 (30:54):
Was standing up on the top tier looking down into
the day room, and this old school black dude was
staying next to me, and I looked down at everybody,
and I told him, I said, look at that, Look
at all. Every walk of life is represented in here,
from the kid who grew up with the doctor parents
and the great you know, everything great in life to
(31:16):
the kid whose mom, you know, was was on crack
and leaving him in the streets and all this. I said, where,
because it was the whole question of nature verse nurture.
And he said something that was fairly profound to me.
He said, and now we're going to get into a
cultural thing. But he said, you see, that kid who
(31:36):
grew up in the nice neighborhood with the good parents
who cared about him, he's in here. He made a mistake.
The likelihood of him making this mistake again is less
because he's going to get out to a support system.
Speaker 7 (31:51):
But that other kid that grew up in the hood,
this is not a.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Mistake for him. This is a badge of honor.
Speaker 11 (31:58):
This is what his dad has done, this is what
is uncles have done, this is what he is supposed
to do. And so this cycle will continue to repeat itself.
And it was really quite depressing. But the one thing
stee me, Michael, I'll get somewhere, and I'm a chameleon.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
I can adapt, I will I will quickly.
Speaker 11 (32:19):
Survey my surroundings and understand how to fit into.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Wherever I'm standing.
Speaker 11 (32:24):
And so for most of those years in prison, it
was just me trying to well.
Speaker 7 (32:29):
I wasn't trying to learn.
Speaker 11 (32:30):
Anything other than how can I survive in here without
any issues? How am I going to And so that's
what all my attention was. I never had people on
the outside, you know. Really, I'd get mails.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Once in a while, and I never made phone calls.
So when I was in that was it. I was.
Speaker 11 (32:50):
I was alone, and so I had to learn how
to deal with that. And I never thought about anything
but that, and then I would hit the street, and really,
you know, at that point it was too late. I
didn't do anything while inside to prepare myself for the street,
for getting out and not going back.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
So, as I said on this.
Speaker 11 (33:09):
Last bid, about two years in I had had enough,
and so I went to work on myself. I went
to I mean I spent countless, countless.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Hours and hours and days and days weeks just.
Speaker 11 (33:26):
Reflecting on my life and trying to go through every
situation that I could remember from when I was a kid,
and try to think, how did I think about, How
did I.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Feel about that? How did I react to it? Did
I react properly? Did I not? Could I have reacted better?
Speaker 11 (33:40):
I started writing in a journal and I started seeing
patterns developed.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Kevin, give me just one moment. I do want to
continue this conversation. I want to talk about the what
is it patterns
Time, luck and load. So Michael Very Show is on
the air.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
In nineteen eighty eight, Joe Biden exited the presidential campaign
because it was learned that he'd been plagiarizing speeches and
lying about his bio. And the idea was that all
these things he had claimed were lies. He's dishonest and dishonorable.
(00:45):
I still remember the Sam Donaldson story on him that
basically exposed him for all the lies that he was telling.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
All right, Syraccu's losschool, Biden was involved in a plagiarism incident.
He quoted five ages of someone else's work without proper citation.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
He was given an f.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
But appealed to the faculty and allowed to repeat the course.
He got a be This comes in the middle of
another controversy about plagiarism in Biden's campaign speeches. Today, he
dismissed charges that he routinely adopts phrases from other politicians' speeches.
Called it much ado about nothing. Essentially, Biden said, everyone doesn't.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
The notion that every thought or notion or idea you'd
have to go back and find an attribute to someone
I think is quite frankly ludicrous.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
But to the political community in Washington. It all seems
of a piece, plagiarism at law school, plagiarism on the stump,
for example.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
But this standard is not a measure of how we
can evaluate the condition of our society.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Cannot measure the.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Health of our children, the quality of our education, the
joy of their play.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
This is how it sounded when Robert Kennedy said those
words in nineteen sixty eight.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
Yet the gross national product that's not allowed the help
of our.
Speaker 6 (01:59):
Children, the quality of their education, for the joy of
their play.
Speaker 7 (02:04):
Biden gave Kennedy no credit.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
He is also quoted, or paraphrase John Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey,
and British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock all without credit.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
That our generation of Americans will pay any price, bear
any burden, accept any challenge, and meet any hardship.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
President John Kennedy's inaugural nineteen sixty one. Biden's critics say
he sells himself as a man whose words and visions
can inspire a new generation in politics. But if the thoughts,
praises and visions really belong to others, it's a form
of false advertising. Robert Kennedy's friend and speech writer.
Speaker 6 (02:44):
If what he did was to present Robert Kennedy's thoughts
and statements and speeches as his own, then of course
it's counterfeit.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
So how very appropriate that Kamala Harris would be the
vice president when thirty six years later Joe Biden managed
to get into the White House. And she's just like him,
a liar, a cheater, a stealer. So she wrote a
(03:20):
book back in two thousand and nine, well she didn't
write it, but it had her name on it, called
Smart on Crime. She was the District Attorney of San
Francisco at the time, because she's good at something, and
Willie Brown put her in that job. So we'll get
to her stint as da in a bit, But first,
(03:40):
it has now been discovered that parts of that book
were copied and pasted directly from Wikipedia. If you were
a high school student, you'd be expelled for this nonsense.
Our very own Thornton Finch with a.
Speaker 8 (03:54):
Story, Ladies and gentlemen, let's check in on Vice President
Kamala Harris and see how her reputation is doing now.
If you thought political campaigns were all about mudslingen and
not about originality, you'd be Right's reign. But today we've
(04:18):
hit a new level of borrowing that make even the
most shameless politician blush, Because yesterday, folks, we learned that
the Democratic nominee might have taken a leaf from someone
else's garden when she penned smart on Crime back in
two thousand and nine, you see this. Austrian professor Stephen Webber,
(04:39):
the plagiarism Hunter, pointed out Harris was playing the copy
paste game with a refined finess of a high school freshman.
And I ain't talking an ap student. I'm talking about
one of them dumb ones from that wing of the
school nobody goes to. In a word, her intellectual theft
was blatant, from news article, studies to even a Wikipedia page.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yep, you heard that right.
Speaker 8 (05:05):
She lifted quote her unquote words write out of Wiki
b Godpedia. In conclusion, while we've got allegations flying around
like bees at a barbecue, let's not forget the humor
in it all. Listening to the word salad queen speak,
are we really that surprised she can't much write either.
(05:26):
I'm Thornton Finch for the Michael Barry Show, Good Day.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Jd Vance wrote the bestseller of Hillbilly Elogy, Hillbilly Elegy,
which is autobiographical. So he's written an actual book himself.
And as he points.
Speaker 9 (05:44):
Out, I saw today actually a story that Kamala Harris
apparently copied some significant chunks of her book from Wikipedia.
So if you want a president with their own ideas,
vote for Donald Trump.
Speaker 7 (05:58):
If you want a president who.
Speaker 9 (05:59):
Copied ideas from Wikipedia, vote for Kamala Harris said.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
In the first time she's been called plagiarizing a story
took her Carlson back in twenty twenty when he was
at Fox News with this.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
According to Kamala Harris, when she was a young child,
she attended a civil rights march. Of course she did
in Oakland, needles to say. And during that march she
was so focused on the liberation then in progress, she
saidbody became separated from her parents.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
She was in a stroller.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
Here's what Kamala Harris says happened next.
Speaker 7 (06:30):
When were you out there protesting?
Speaker 10 (06:32):
Well, I was in a stroller.
Speaker 7 (06:35):
It was in a stroller.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And so I was out there.
Speaker 10 (06:39):
And in fact wanted used to having a very funny
story about I was fussing, and she said, Kamala.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
What do you want, And I said, and this.
Speaker 10 (06:47):
Is how she would say it. And she said, Kamala,
what do you want? And I said, tweetom.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
She just wanted freedom where she said fweedom. Which is
funny because both of Kamala Harris's parents were immigrants from
other countries who came here because when they arrived in
the sixties, it was a totally free country. There was
no Jim Crow. Actually, Kamala Harris didn't grow up under
anything like that.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
She grew up in a country.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
That's freer and more equal to the wam we live
in now.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
But whatever.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Kamala Harris made the same claim to El magazine in October,
and a similar story appeared in the books that Kamala
Harris claims to have written, both in twenty ten and
twenty nineteen. Did you know she was an author? In
addition to the former girlfriend of Monte Williams.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Oh yeah, But here's the amazing thing.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
In nineteen sixty five, which was fifty six years ago,
Martin Luther King himself told Playboy magazine an almost identical story.
King said that he saw police quote accosting a young
girl in Birmingham, Alabama, and we're quoting who was walking
in a demonstration with her mother. According to the Reverend
Martin Luther King, the police officer asked, what do.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
You want, and just like Kamala Harris, that.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
Girl responded freedom.
Speaker 11 (07:59):
Is this not? Yes?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It's nauseating.
Speaker 9 (08:14):
The worst president, the worst vice president in the history
of our CHRISTT.
Speaker 7 (08:19):
Michael Berry.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
We can't afford four more years of this. Yesterday was
Columbus Day. God all is Today we celebrate civilization coming
to the Americas. Now, kids today have been taught that
that was evil and awful. You wouldn't have roads in
(08:46):
the Americas today, you wouldn't have medicine. This idea that
everything was pure and honorable and decent before the white
man arrived. No, no, there was savagery by people on
(09:09):
other people before the Europeans arrived. Shouldn't be afraid of
shame to say this. It's a fact. This idea that somehow,
the people who were there at the time of European
(09:33):
arrival sprang up out of the soil and it belonged
to them only because they stole it from someone else,
who stole it from someone else, who stole it from
someone else. Let's get that straight. But the idea is
in every way, shape and form to take brick by
(09:57):
brick and this mantle every aspect of American society turned
one against another. White men are evil, Christianity is evil.
Our veterans are evil, Our police are evil, our institutions
are evil. Our history is evil from people desperate to
(10:20):
come here and live. And that's how they've acquired power.
And we've let it happen, we Americans. And there's an
interesting thing happening. A lot of blacks who saw this
as a good thing are now realizing. Wait, we're the
(10:40):
ones they're throwing under the bus next. That's right, that's right,
yesterday being Columbus Day. I'm reminded of a few years
ago when Kamala Harris talked about making it indigenous peoples.
(11:01):
You'll be left with no culture by the time she's finished,
if this woman gets elected.
Speaker 12 (11:06):
It is an honor, of course, to be with you
this week as we celebrate Indigenous People's Day, as we
speak truth about our nation's history. Since nineteen thirty four,
every October, the United States has recognized the voyage of
the European explorers who first landed on the shores of
(11:29):
the Americas. But that is not the whole story. That
has never been the whole story.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Those explorers ushered.
Speaker 12 (11:41):
In a wave of devastation for tribal nations, perpetrating violence,
stealing land, and spreading disease. We must not shy away
from this shameful past, and we must shed light on
it and do everything we can to address the impact
(12:03):
of the past on Native communities.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Today, Kamala Harris will say anything, and so will all
wrong already Colin Alred, who is controlled by California money
and who repeats this California nonsense, the Californication of America.
They're trying to take the Senate seat in Texas because
(12:26):
if they can take the Senate seat in Texas and
get rid of Ted Cruz, even if Trump wins, that's
one more seat to harass him with. There's a debate
tonight for those of you in Texas, and I'm going
to tell you something. If you vote for Trump, you
got to vote for Cruise because without Cruise there to
(12:50):
defend him and to work on his behalf. Trump endorsing
Cruise earlier today. By the way, without Trump, without Cruise
there to support Cruise, you'll have one more person harassing him,
and you don't want that back to Kamala Harris. She
was on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I don't know if you
(13:14):
know the story about Roland Martin scrolling through on his
little video zoom podcast, an image popped up that I
don't think he wanted the public to see. But if
you've never seen that, it's quite funny. I want to
play her answer to something, and I want to see
(13:34):
if you can guess what she's and what the question
is that she's answering. This is not altered here it is.
Speaker 12 (13:43):
You know, there's this whole I talked with somebody wants
to say, you know, if you just look at where
the stars are in the sky, don't look them as
just random things. If you just look at them as points,
look at the constellation. What does it show you? So
you just outlined it, Roland, what does it show you?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
What could she have been talking about? Number one, Donald
Trump's a racist? Number two? How Leif Erickson found his
way to America about five hundred years before Columbus. Number three,
How she was a big part of the Biden administration's decisions.
Let's listen to the full clip to see.
Speaker 13 (14:28):
Make you feel when he trashed his black cities. So
in twenty twenty, he talked about voting in Fulton County, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit.
There was a partial recount of Wisconsin only in Milwaukee.
The comments that he just made about Detroit basically being
a living hell and Oakland, DC, Chicago.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Pretty damn ed, pretty good. Pretty good?
Speaker 13 (14:53):
Damn man, y'all dropped out. I actually liked it. Jamille
hill I talked about it. But again he's singling out
cities where there are significant African Americans, and that's who
he's talking about.
Speaker 7 (15:05):
Black people.
Speaker 12 (15:06):
Yes, yes, you know there's this whole I talked with
somebody once he said, you know, if you just look
at where the stars are in the sky, don't look
them as just grand of things. If you just look
at them as points, look at the constellation. What does
it show you? So you just outlined it Roland, What
(15:29):
does it show you that the cities that he picks
on in terms of black population or a black.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Mayor are both. Come on, will the black populations have
black mayors. That's been a trend for a long time
and that's not going to change. But let's look at
Detroit and see why Trump would call it a hell hole.
In twenty twenty three, the national unemployment rate was four percent.
(16:03):
Chicago's unemployment rate was six point eight. Detroit has one
of the highest poverty rates in the country. In twenty
twenty three it was thirty percent. The national average is
eleven point five. Median household income is thirty six thousand.
It's seventy thousand rest of the countries, and we haven't
even gotten into the crime rates go.
Speaker 12 (16:26):
Today of everyone's thinking they can actually live the American chruch.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
The Michael Berry Show, whether in writing, by email or
on the show, for the rest of us to hear
who you're voting for and why now. A lot of
our folks who feel more comfortable calling because we're recent
to the syndication and we're new to a lot of
(16:50):
our markets. A lot of the folks are going to
be in Texas, so I suspect you'll hear some Ted
Cruz in there as well. In time, we'll get more
calls from those new markets. But the reason I'm asking
people to do that, it's going to be mostly a
Trump versus Harris question, is I want people. I want
(17:11):
you you specifically, I want you to get comfortable. I'm
a Southern Baptist and we do something called giving our testimony,
and that is how you came to the Lord, What
was your where were you in your life, where were
you at that moment, what led you to And it's
a very powerful thing to hear someone talk about something
because often it resonates with you and it empowers you.
(17:34):
And I want people to explain. You know, what you
see on the national TV and on the stage and
all that, that's fine, but I want people to hear
grandmothers and grandfathers and mothers and fathers and truck drivers
and unemployed folks, and I want people to hear that.
I want you to realize every single vote and how
you get their matters. And I think this is a
(17:55):
very helpful exercise.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Dan, you're on the.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Michael Berry Show. Who are you voting for? And why.
Speaker 14 (18:02):
Rear guard. We're covering what has unfortunately become a retreat
by those of the conservatives who want to keep things
the way they are against those who want all these changes.
You know, I'm not opposed to change, but this election
is most likely going to be the most controversial this
country's ever seen. If the Democrats win, they're going to
use it as a rallying cry change the political and
(18:24):
mechanical structure of our government. I think the next big
ticket item for them is going to be the electoral College,
and if they manage to do away with that, with
all the people they promised citizenship too to come into
this country, They're just going to put themselves in power
and stay there. And I'm just opposed to that kind
of thinking. We need to keep things the way they
are and make change where we need it, but not
(18:45):
necessarily for the best.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Steve, you're on the Michael Berry Show. Go ahead, sir.
Speaker 15 (18:51):
Well Number one is I kind of lost my train
at the home because I've waited so many calls. But
in two thousands, six seam when that election happened, you know,
I was thinking of the lesser of the two evils,
and I voted for Trump, but I fell in love
with the guy.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
He has done so much for us.
Speaker 15 (19:12):
This is a billionaire that will not quit, will not
quit on America.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
He loves this country. He's been shot.
Speaker 15 (19:22):
At once and assassination TIMPs after that, and he is
I mean, he blows my mind. I would take a
bullet for the guy, and I'm going to vote all
the way down the board. But I do question the
fact that the woman that called in about Dan Crenshaw
(19:44):
and our other congressman.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Do we still go that route with those guys?
Speaker 15 (19:53):
I guess so because they're better than the Democrat Again, sir.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah, no, at this we got to beat the Democrats.
At this point, we got to beat the Democrats. Kevin,
You're on to Michael Barry show.
Speaker 7 (20:05):
Go ahead, Sure, how you doing, Michael.
Speaker 11 (20:09):
I'm fifty one years old and this.
Speaker 7 (20:11):
Is the first time.
Speaker 11 (20:12):
In my entire life I've been eligible to vote in
an election. And actually Ramone was critical in getting me
registered to vote, because up until.
Speaker 7 (20:23):
Last week, I didn't even know I had to register.
Speaker 11 (20:26):
And I called Ramone told me where I needed to
go and how I needed.
Speaker 7 (20:29):
To do it. So I really appreciated him for that. Trump. Yes, yeah,
I didn't know where to turn. I looked online.
Speaker 11 (20:37):
I was dumbfounded by the answers I was getting as
to where to go register, how to register, and I
listened to your show every day, and so I just thought,
let me call in, and I told Ramone what my
issue was, and he went online whatever he did, and
told me this is the address you need to go
to and so I went there and I got registered
for the first time in my life, and it was
(20:59):
the lastast day of eligibility to register.
Speaker 7 (21:03):
So it's good. So I'm voting for Trump.
Speaker 11 (21:06):
Two reasons, Well, there's one reason I'm voting for Trump
and one reason I'm voting for Democrat Republicans down the ticket.
Speaker 7 (21:15):
No.
Speaker 11 (21:15):
When I got out of prison in twenty twenty, the
economy was in good shape dollar forty eight for gas,
interest rates were low, and I have since then. When
I got out, didn't own a pair of boxers, and
now I have been extremely successful what I consider an
extremely successful.
Speaker 7 (21:35):
Business doing custom cabinets and trim work.
Speaker 11 (21:38):
I have six guys working for me. I have a
big warehouse, I live in a nice house.
Speaker 7 (21:42):
Now, I got a great marriage.
Speaker 11 (21:43):
My life is really turned around because I was determined
to turn it around.
Speaker 7 (21:48):
And so I'm voting for Trump.
Speaker 11 (21:49):
Because I believe that if he's back in office, the
money I'm making will be able to go further. Because
I ruined my life for so many years, spent so
many years in the penitentiary and acting like a fool,
I have no retirement.
Speaker 7 (22:05):
And so I have a very short.
Speaker 11 (22:06):
Amount of time to be able to do this, and
I'm making great money right now, and I really believe
that if he's back in office, the economy will get
to something where I can actually start saving and having
some retirement plans where I don't have to rely on
my wife's four oh one K plan.
Speaker 7 (22:21):
How old are you now? The reason I'm going down there?
Speaker 6 (22:23):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (22:24):
How old are you?
Speaker 7 (22:25):
Excuse me, fifty one?
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
No, this is the age you got it, you want
to do it. People think you wake up when you're
sixty five and start saving for retirement.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
You're on the track for that. Tell me what got
you into trouble, because maybe there's somebody out there that
can see that there is life after idiocy, and you
sound to me like a guy that's on track and
ready to start living.
Speaker 7 (22:52):
Yes, idiocy is an understatement, Michael. It was drugs. I
mean it didn't start out. I got into the crime.
Speaker 11 (23:00):
Justice system when I was thirteen years old, being stupid
with the friends, stealing cars, doing dumb stuff. But then
in my later teen years got involved in drugs and
just have been through the revolving door of the prison system,
probation system, parole system, and this last prison bid that
I did was a seven year bid, and it broke me.
Speaker 7 (23:23):
Two years into the bid, I told myself, this is it.
I'm done.
Speaker 11 (23:26):
I cannot do this anymore. I'm in my forties. I'm
looking at all these young knuckleheads in here, and I
just I had a moment where this is it.
Speaker 7 (23:35):
I have to be finished, and I'm getting out with nothing.
Speaker 11 (23:38):
And I'm okay with that. But I'm going to be
determined to not fail. And I've just kept every day.
You know, I got out of prison during COVID when
COVID just hit, so I was stuck. I couldn't get
any identifications because everything was closed, so.
Speaker 7 (23:55):
I couldn't do I couldn't work, but I.
Speaker 11 (23:58):
Refused to fall back in to the lifestyle I used
to be in, and I just pushing forward.
Speaker 7 (24:03):
And then finally everything opened up.
Speaker 11 (24:05):
I was able to get identifications, got my driver's.
Speaker 7 (24:07):
License, got a job, not making very much.
Speaker 11 (24:11):
Money at all, very very little money actually, And you know,
I just kept pushing every day. And then another opportunity
presented itself and I got a better job, and then
things kept doing. Then an opportunity presented itself for me
to start my own business, and so That's what I did.
And you know, it's just every day it's grown exponentially.
Speaker 7 (24:31):
It's huge.
Speaker 11 (24:31):
I'm in the luxury home market here in Houston. I
do all the interior term work and custom cabinets for
a company that throws luxury homes.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Plus I have my.
Speaker 11 (24:41):
Own I contract with them, and then I have I
also do you know, smaller remodeling jobs and stuff when
when necessary.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Joe Biden became mentally impaired with the Marco.
Speaker 7 (24:53):
Berry Kamala was born that way.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Our phone number to the show is seven one three one.
If you're ever not able to get in, you will
be able to leave a voicemail, and we play those
on occasion as well, often on Fridays. One of the
things we've been doing is asking people to share with
us by email and by phone who you're voting for
(25:19):
and why. And I believe if I can get people
to stop living in a silo our nation. This feels
like the German occupation of France, or for that matter,
where people have to pass messages privately, they have to
look over their shoulders before they can say how they
feel about a political issue. Everyone is so scared, and
(25:41):
this was how the left wants it. This is a
scarecrow effect. You see, people don't speak out because they're afraid,
and so they police themselves. You've got churches where pastors
are saying, we don't talk about politics. Well, you don't
have a government that allows your freedom to religion of religion,
(26:05):
you don't have a church. Stop being a coward. We
got too many cowards in the pulpit in this country
right now. That's not to say every pastor is a coward,
but we got too many that are is yours is yours,
is yours leading the flock, is yours following the lead
(26:28):
of the Bible as he's commanded. Huh, good question. How
long did you end up serving all in Kevin?
Speaker 7 (26:38):
Twenty two years?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
What was your drug of choice?
Speaker 7 (26:42):
Oh? I went through the gambit. I ruined my life
with every joke. See I'm somebody who's very loyal whatever
it is I do. So I ruined my life on
cocaine first, and I ruined my life on heroin. And
then I ruined my life. And when I say ruled
my life meanings.
Speaker 11 (26:58):
So I've ruined my life, ended up in prison, got
out of prison, and then ruled my life with another drug.
Did that for years and then went to prison, come out,
and then went to another drug.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
What was that after heroin and.
Speaker 7 (27:13):
Nothing fetamis and then after that that.
Speaker 11 (27:16):
One that was well, that was that was it? Cocaine, heroin,
and mess Those are the three.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
So compare the effect that those had on you.
Speaker 7 (27:28):
Well, cocaine. You know, I was listening to you a
couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 11 (27:32):
You were you wanted people are calling to talk about
cocaine and how how it feels. Cocaine is it's it's
a different drug. It has different effects with the different
ways you adjested, whether.
Speaker 7 (27:43):
It be intervening.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Kevin, I we got disconnected there for a second. You
were you were talking about these drugs and the effect
they had on you. Tell me about that.
Speaker 11 (27:55):
Yes, So, as I was saying, the cocaine has different
effects in the different ways you ingested, and I did
all three ways, the smoking, crack, iv use, and then
also snorting, and I went through different periods. So when
if I snorted cocaine, I would want to do that
when I was out at the bar, the club, you
(28:16):
know it was in the nineties and you know, you
run off in the bathroom, snore line, come out, you
got the music going, you have good time with your
buddy shoe Pool.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
All that.
Speaker 11 (28:25):
Crack was more of a you got to hide in
the hood. You lay up in some dirty, nasty house
and and you get paranoid.
Speaker 7 (28:35):
Uh.
Speaker 11 (28:36):
You know it's funny because you look back at it
and you say, what, what the hell was I thinking?
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Why did I want to do that?
Speaker 11 (28:43):
The problem is what happens, Michael, is that And it's
the reason why I think drugs can grab a hold
of people.
Speaker 7 (28:49):
Why they grab ahold.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Of me is when I would get high.
Speaker 11 (28:53):
I knew I was doing something wrong, but I would
get high, and then when I came when I started
to come down, reality would set in as to what
I've done. So rather than deal with what I've done,
I just get high again, and you just try to
stay high. And then that's at a certain point it
just becomes your life, like that's all you do. Everything
(29:15):
nothing else matters. Heroin was Heroin was a bad one
because heroin makes you feel like you can conquer the
world when you first start using it. I mean, I've
done some of my best work. I've had work published
in magazines that I can look at those pictures and
go I was I was high.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
On heroin the whole time. I did that job because
of the focus that it would give me.
Speaker 11 (29:40):
But then eventually it just starts, you know, destroying because
and it happens usually financially, because your habit grows and
grows and grows and grows to a point where you
can't afford it, and so then you have to start
doing stuff like stealing for it. And then the EMAI
you're missing work because you can't work as you're sick.
(30:01):
You need your drugs, so you have to miss work
to go try to get your drugs, and then you
end up losing your job, and it just becomes a.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Horrible, horrible thing.
Speaker 11 (30:10):
And it took me far too long to realize I
needed to end that cycle. But the thing is is
I did realize I needed to end it, and I
did end it.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
What did you learn in my life at the prison?
Twenty two years a long time? What did you learn
inside prison? Well that you look at now about? So
how did it make you look at society differently?
Speaker 7 (30:34):
So, Okay, twenty two years is not a one stretch.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Twenty two years was in and out years.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
You passed it?
Speaker 11 (30:42):
Okay, yes, exactly, And I'm going to tell you a
story that I tell a lot of people.
Speaker 7 (30:49):
It was in two thousand and eight. I was in
a prison in Connecticut and I.
Speaker 11 (30:54):
Was standing up on the top tier looking down into
the day room, and this old school black dude was
staying next to me, and I looked down at everybody,
and I told him, I said, look at that, Look
at all. Every walk of life is represented in here,
from the kid who grew up with the doctor parents
and the great you know, everything great in life to
(31:16):
the kid whose mom, you know, was was on crack
and leaving him in the streets and all this. I said, where,
because it was the whole question of nature verse nurture.
And he said something that was fairly profound to me.
He said, and now we're going to get into a
cultural thing. But he said, you see, that kid who
(31:36):
grew up in the nice neighborhood with the good parents
who cared about him, he's in here. He made a mistake.
The likelihood of him making this mistake again is less
because he's going to get out to a support system.
Speaker 7 (31:51):
But that other kid that grew up in the hood,
this is not a.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Mistake for him. This is a badge of honor.
Speaker 11 (31:58):
This is what his dad has done, this is what
is uncles have done, this is what he is supposed
to do. And so this cycle will continue to repeat itself.
And it was really quite depressing. But the one thing
stee me, Michael, I'll get somewhere, and I'm a chameleon.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
I can adapt, I will I will quickly.
Speaker 11 (32:19):
Survey my surroundings and understand how to fit into.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Wherever I'm standing.
Speaker 11 (32:24):
And so for most of those years in prison, it
was just me trying to well.
Speaker 7 (32:29):
I wasn't trying to learn.
Speaker 11 (32:30):
Anything other than how can I survive in here without
any issues? How am I going to And so that's
what all my attention was. I never had people on
the outside, you know. Really, I'd get mails.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Once in a while, and I never made phone calls.
So when I was in that was it. I was.
Speaker 11 (32:50):
I was alone, and so I had to learn how
to deal with that. And I never thought about anything
but that, and then I would hit the street, and really,
you know, at that point it was too late. I
didn't do anything while inside to prepare myself for the street,
for getting out and not going back.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
So, as I said on this.
Speaker 11 (33:09):
Last bid, about two years in I had had enough,
and so I went to work on myself. I went
to I mean I spent countless, countless.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Hours and hours and days and days weeks just.
Speaker 11 (33:26):
Reflecting on my life and trying to go through every
situation that I could remember from when I was a kid,
and try to think, how did I think about, How
did I.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Feel about that? How did I react to it? Did
I react properly? Did I not? Could I have reacted better?
Speaker 11 (33:40):
I started writing in a journal and I started seeing
patterns developed.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Kevin, give me just one moment. I do want to
continue this conversation. I want to talk about the what
is it patterns
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