Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host of Rams's Jah. Yes he is Rams' Jah. I am Steel h Ward. You are listening to Civic Cipher. Yes, indeed, a lot to stick around for today. We will not have as heavy a show as we normally do. No one has died in this episode. Unfortunately, we had to skip over a lot of those stories to tell these stories that we're telling today, and eventually we'll get back
to it. But for people who are particularly sensitive to those subjects, this is a much more listenable show, So stick around. We're going to be talking about the ex president and doing our best not to mention his name as often as we need to, or as often as we could, rather.
As kind of a heavy topic too.
Sure, sure, but we wanted to take some time and break down sort of where we are and ask some more questions that are kind of in the same of the questions we've been asking since twenty sixteen. But I think that now we have even more insight into exactly what the root of the fear in this country is because it is so established, so ingrained in people's minds that this individual can do so much and still has loud supports. Later in the show, we're also going to
talk about critical race theory. We're going to use an example from Arizona to explain sort of how some people feel about American history that they've rebranded as critical race theory and give you the tools you need to have very important conversations that are true to the spirit that these people are suggesting that they want children to grow up in terms of the environment and the overall feel of it all. But first and foremost, let's start with
some ebony excellence. How does that sound to you? Qute shall we shall so? Today's Abney Excellence is sponsored by Hip Hopweekly Media. Find out more at hip hopwekly dot com. I will share a bit with you. This comes from Black Enterprise. Governor Gretchen Whitmer has no good boss up gretch Okay, that's all I got to say. Yeah, QQ knows people. I didn't know that you knew who that was.
But anyway, Governor Gretchen Whitmer has chosen Kira Harris Bolden, whom she described as passionate about the law to fill a seat on the Michigan Supreme Court. Boss Up, Gretch, So, is that important? Well, I'll continue reading. She will bring a unique perspective to our High Court as a black woman and as a new working mom that has too
long been left out, Whitmer said. According to The Detroit News, Bolden, who is thirty four years old, is the first black woman and youngest member of the Michigan Supreme Court Prior to that. Bolden has been a member of the Michigan House since twenty eighteen. She also previously served as a judicial clerk for Judge John A. Murphy and Wayne County
and later practice civil litigation at Lewis in Monday. Bolden's appointment comes after she lost a campaign for one of the two open seats on the Michigan Supreme Court in the November eighth election, but Bolden was chosen to replace retiring former Chief Justice Bridget McCormick. And she will join the court at the start of the twenty twenty three year and serve a partial term that will end on
January first, twenty twenty five. And I'll give you with a quote, I am incredibly honored to be chosen by Governor Whitmer for this appointment to the Michigan Supreme Court, Bolden said, real quick while we're here, we want to give a shout out to our Detroit affiliate that is WNUC ninety point seven FM on the ground in the d Yes, sir, so yeah. And also shout out kra Harris Bolden, first black woman and elected to the Supreme Court in Michigan. Ebny excellence if I ever heard it.
Now let's talk. Do you remember when we had to do a show Q about uh, the January sixth insurrection? How could I possibly forget? So for our listeners, let me let me paint a picture. So we generally speaking, will have a rough idea of what the show is going to be about. And sometimes you know, guests, you know cancel. Sometimes you know material is dated or changes. Sometimes we just feel like, honestly, we don't have the bandwidth to really sit in a room for an hour
when we're on the verge of tears. And sometimes the news writes itself, we're gonna have a whole show written up. Okay, this we're going to talk about. You read these articles. I'll read these articles. You watch this video. I'll watch this video, and then out of the blue, people will storm the Capitol and then we have to talk about that. So when we did this show. I remember, and I don't want to speak for you, because I do want you to kind of bring our listeners up to speed,
but I remember your energy and your temperament. It was overwhelming, and you knew then, as many of us did. The person who was at the center of it, the person who instigated it, the person who refused to stop it. There was loss of life that day. There was a horrible stain on this country's history, and there was a false equivalency that was popular in the news at that time about how this was similar in texture to the
BLM protests. So I want you to take our listeners back to that moment in time and explain why you thought the individual at the center of it was.
It is simultaneously mentally and emotionally exhausting to have to look in the face the truths that we have to look in the face in this country, the flagrant inconsistencies, the flagrant hypocrisy, and the wrapping of white nationalist patriotism around things like January sixth. We talk about false equivalencies,
but the picture I paint is much more straightforward. Had this been the election for President Obama's second term and he lost, and he then ordered mobs of black people to storm the capital of the United States of America. We would have likely witnessed a massacre of every one of those patriotic citizens who'd just been taught, told, and coached to believe that the election was unfairly stolen from their candidate. Lots of those people would have been injured.
Some of them, I can very very clearly say, without hesitation, would have been killed, lost their life, and President Obama would have forever been looked at as an insider of terrorism, if not a terrorist himself. But when you subscribe to the school of thought that our most recent former president does and the people that showed up that day at
the Capitol, you get a certain measure of dignity. Still when trying to actively overthrow your country's government, that same government provides you a shred of dignity and benefit of the doubts. Still, and now, some of these people have been quote unquote brought to justice, arrested, on trial, whatever the case. But they got to survive that day. They get to tell their story still, and in ways that are so flagrantly unfair, they don't get labeled the way
that any other community. Would any other ethnic group having done the exact same actions would have been framed so much differently. We see the same thing with these mass shooters, right if they just look different, it's a whole different story. It just the way that their story is told, the way that they're apprehended, if at all, the way that they're painted to the masses is so different. And it's so obvious that it's not even like we're being tricked.
They're They're not using sleight of hand or magic.
It's very obvious.
They just tell it different when you look like you, and they do when you look like the young man. I won't say his name because you don't need to. He's somehow a celebrity now and endorsing products and don't have to take pictures after he took an assault rifle and killed people in a state he doesn't live in, protecting the businesses of people that he never met. Yeah, and got to go home, got his gun back to Like.
January sixth was a very very loud reminder that they I'll let you guys insert who they are, don't care about us. And when I say us, this time, I'm not just talking about black people. I'm talking about anyone that's not directly benefiting from what they're selling. All right, let me there's a point that you're making that I want to make clear for our listeners. That day, again, we knew.
Who organized that, We knew what that person's intentions were. We know that he knew exactly how much power he wielded, the influence that he had, and he knew that he could call people that would come to fight for him. Right, and we know the cryptic language that he was using, so that it's sometimes not not cryptic.
That's my thing. Yeah, y'all meet me there. I'll be I'll meet you there, and this is what we're gonna do. It wasn't cryptic. He said exactly what happened, exactly, not wrong he wanted to do and what.
But it was. What I mean is it was cryptic enough for the narrative for him to still have the thinnest shred of uh uh maybe in a sense or ignorance or whatever, which we know to not be true, except it wasn't. Well that's what they say on he provided with you said shred. I'll say shred too, but actually much more than the shred of dignity and benefit of the doubt for the most obvious reasons, and I'm intentionally not so that's that's what I was going with.
I never want our show to sound like.
Us versus them. Yeah, I know what you mean.
You know, it's I understand that it's hard when we say the reason that the former president was able to do and say all the things that he did is because he's a white man.
And if Obama did it, and the outcome will be different, it would be because he's not a white man. In fact, it's because he's a black man, period, And those things are true. So and your point would be, and this is the point I was making, that there's two different Americas and it's on full display, and there is a wilful ignorance to like a wilful like failure to acknowledge it,
wilful blindness. It turned a blind eye to it. And we're going to talk a little bit more about that in the second part of the show when we discuss critical race theory or American history that has been rebranded by you know, conservative really often enough as critical race theory. But the point that I wanted to make was that you know, this January sixth thing was enacted by the former president. There was no other mastermind behind it. He was the person that you know, executed it. And it
didn't lead to the outcomes that he wanted. And once he realized that it wasn't going to lead to those outcomes, anybody who watched the January sixth hearings knows this full well, right. But when it didn't look like it was going to result in the outcomes that he wanted, then he came out after many hours. People are dead. Now, there's poop all over the capitol. You know, everything's broken. There's a Confederate flag in the rotunda, you know, all this stuff.
Then he tells everyone to go home. All right, I want to move on. There's a story about a public servant. Public servant could be anybody from a mailman to a you know, mayor, to a judge, all the way a mail man. I don't think they're federal employees anymore. Oh well, okay,
thank you for correcting me. But you get what I'm saying, right, And just like with any other employee, when you when you're term has and did your contract is up, or you're otherwise replaced fired, anything like that, you leave with what you came in with you don't take anything with you, right, And there's a very public story, saga, if you will, that is ongoing right now about one such individual who removed important information documents boxes and took them to his
house and then lied about it and then failed to cooperate with the people who were trying to get that stuff back and has done everything that he possibly can to keep that stuff from being you know, returned. And again, had this happened to the sitting president Quinn Ward, you know, if there would not even be this many levels layers to the story.
I mean, we had a presidential candidate essentially disqualified because the rumor was she had some emails that weren't sent on the right server.
Talk to them like, like.
I said, this stuff isn't cryptic, it's not hidden even they're not even they're.
Not even connecting it to the actual story that actually happened.
They're not trying to be slick even, right, there's a different set of rules for this person than everybody everyone else, and we're all clearly okay with that.
But you know, let's move on. I read a story recently that got me to thinking, do you remember a long time ago when folks asked this dude, it's former president of ours, and also, which of taxes? Are you as fair of a man as you say that you are. Are you as good of a business man as you say you are? Are you a con man? Or is this smoke and mirrors? Should we believe in you? You know, where's the proof? Show us the receipts? And he maintained,
you know that he was one hundred percent clear. He could not, you know, provide any sort of records anything like that because he was being audited whatever. Well, recently, the same individual that we're referring to had to turn over those well really it was the I R S that had to turn over those income taxes. But another part of this story is that he was being sued for tax fraud in the state of New York, right or other his companies were being sued for tax fraud.
And I never really understood the importance of taxes. I just thought it was like something really cool to do. You know, I admit on this show you probably are a little bit more politically sophisticated than I am. Q, But I admit that this is newish to me, being so invested in these stories and why they matter and
why it's so important. So I'll admit that when it was when we're when I was first learning about taxes for this old president was back in twenty sixteen, long before Civic Cipher was even the thought right, So it was just kind of one of those things where it's like, ah, well, you know, you could take it or leave it. Don't realize the importance of the significance of it. Now it is documented that this businessman is a fraudster, you know,
as convicted of committing fraud. I believe it was two of his enterprises that are now guilty of I'm sure who telling to have no knowledge of what has here? Sure, but I'm going somewhere with this, I promise. So we're talking about tax fraud. Okay, now now convicted and forcibly had to have his income taxes turned over. So let's move on. So so far, just to ketchups, we talked about January sixth, talk about this dude taking documents from
the White House. Talk about now being convicted of tax fraud. Let's talk about who this guy wants to hang out with a neat with so well Thanksgiving, by the way, Yeah crazy, So there's this saying that I heard that I believe to be true. And the saying says, if you see a person sitting at a table with nine white supremacists, no, sorry, Nazis. If you see a person sitting at a table with nine Nazis, you have a table with ten Nazis. Right, That's what was said, more
or less, and I believe it. It's a German quote, like modern Germany, not like the uncool Germany from back in the day.
The fact that there's a modern Germany that speaks out against that part of Germany's story.
Yeah, it's really incredible. That's special. Right. So you may know these stories listening to us talk about this today, but we want to just pile this on because we had we came to this realization and how why do we have to go through this again, live under this reality again? You know where we're uncertain and we're we have children to raise and you know, we have to talk about this wall again. You know where we live
in the American Southwest. You know a lot of the people that we interact with, know and love, are Hispanic people and they have you know, roots in Mexico. This part of the country was once Mexico, and that type of language is very scary, not to mention it scary for us black folks, you know what I mean. So this hanging over our head like a dark cloud, we just it boggles our mind. And we are even having a you know. But anyway, just recapping, you know, the
past year, some bright moments. This dude sits down with three known white supremacists, one of whom he says is his friend that he was trying to help out. It's another name that we don't really need to say on this show anytime soon, but you might know who we're talking about. Just because a person is black doesn't mean that they can't be a white supremacist. We say that all the time on the show. In fact, I believe last week's show we illuminated a few individuals who qualify.
They certainly parrot the white supremacist ideas and ideologies and walk that path. They just happened to have some melanin, but all skin folks and kin folk, as they say. Anyway, so this former president sits down with these known white supremacists. That's literally what they're known for. They're not known for anything else. And this former president is the same person that said there's very fine people on both sides. I
believe it was Charlottesville, Virginia. Is that right. I've actually been there, so h And one of the people that he was that was on you know, both sides that day, was at this dinner with him, right and you know, of course him and his.
Person wasn't on both sides, that person, they're on the wrong side again, on the wrong side.
There it is. Now, let's put a pin in that, because you know, he explains it away, tries to do damage control. Recently, this dude put a post on his social media platform that effectively, not not effectively, directly called for the termination of parts of the Constitution of the United States of America so that he could be reinstated
because he he doesn't feel this way. But he continues to say that the election was stolen from him, right, well, despite there being no proof, is proof to the contrary exactly. But you know, none of the stuff has ever amounted to anything. And if there is a conspiracy against him, it's no longer conspiracy if everybody else is on it,
like every judge, you know what I'm saying. So people that he appointed, he appointed was like that, man, I got nothing, employee side the most secure election or one of the most secure elections in our country's history. And the crazy part here is that he's still running for president. And you know, the crazy thing about presidents being the president is the main job is to defend the Constitution.
That's like the that's the point of the job. So this person who's fundamentally calling for parts of the Constitution to be terminated, obviously doesn't value even his own story, even his own truth that he has to you know, and we heard the phone calls, Hey, I need you to find the extra votes in Georgia. That's all I need to just find me the votes. Sounds like you're the one stealing an election, bro, and it just didn't work.
January sixth, all this sort of stuff, anyway, let me recap for you January sixth insurrection, stealing documents from the White House, committing tax fraud of course, dining with bye supremacists, calling pretermination parts of the Constitution. And we still thinks that Ramsens are pointing out after this guy became president. Before he became president, he did and said some wild
stuff things. But he's doing all this and then still wants to run again despite losing Farren Square and it strength to me that you can be impeached and then run again. You feel what I'm saying, and you need to know twice impeached. Thank you. How this feels to start waking up to a reality where we see this dude's face again and we recognize, Shoot, now there's actually a real chance. The first time we was like there's
no way and we were surprised. Now we're like have to live with it every day, Like, oh man, I hope this doesn't happen. So talk to your people out there. You know who your people are, all right, m