On This Week’s Episode of “How to Be a Dictator”

It's a reminder for everybody at home that life is indeed short and we are living in some trying times, and in the midst of all that, on a macro level, people are also suffering and grieving. So I just wanted to learn to everyone Greeving loved ones today. Thanks time.

local autonomy. Our council members are taking issue with the fact that section seventy forty of the Home Rule Act was invoked, effectively giving the executive control over our public safety functions and our decision making functions in the city. But the thing is, Donald Trump issued this order under the guise of a public safety emergency. But what we know to be true here on the ground is that

there is no public safety emergency now. Outside of the thing that went viral where Elon's doge boy got beat up downtown last week, crime is actually down here in DC, violent crimes especially, and so it's important to note that this is not done for public safety. If this was done for public safety, you would have to wonder how that kind of decision making could be coming from the same person who decided to release the insurrectionists that wek

havoc on this same city. I mean, if you prioritize safety, why would you do that? Or if you truly care about safety, where is the unredacted Epstein list. I mean, there's so many things that could promote more safety than coming and eroding the autonomy of a duly elected black legislature here in the form of our city council and our mayor. So we know it's not safety. We know it's a graph for control. We know this is a test for fascism to see how far will be allowed

to go. And so to my folks that are outside of DC, turn our voices up.

I saw folks interacting with that t app and having all the details to share about folks, let's share some things about the presidence of.

you live in the heart of the nation's capital. What are you scan tif, how are you feeling and how do you encourage residents to respond in this moment?

And you can see that very blatantly in how they're approaching the residents of the city. Where I happen to live. I'm surrounded by public housing, and in these public housing units, it's community, you know, like the old folks sit out there and play cards, the old men hang on the corner, and all of that is gone. Then there are people, you know, who are out there doing things that are not community minded. They might be criminal. And you know, Trevor Noah writes this in his book Born a Crime.

And you know, this is something that I'm privileged to be able to have this conversation with you all, because there's a nuance that's lost in legacy media, and there are certain rules, regulations and understanding to neighborhood politics. You know, I want to say hood politics, but neighborhood politics, that

your intention is not always to break the law. So if like, there's always a dude he's gone now I don't know where he is, but he's in a wheelchair and he sits behind my building and he sells Lucy's And yes, technically he's breaking the law, but this man doesn't deserve to be slammed to the ground. This is how we lost Eric Gardner. He didn't deserve to be choked, you know, So there are there is something about living

in a black city. You had on Coorra masters Berry and I just am heartbroken at so many younger people don't know Marion Barry anymore, but Mary and Barry was about that life and he was on the front lines of these types of things. And I imagine if we had a mayor like Marion Barry. Right now, there is footage of him and an amazing documentary on HBO where

he's protesting. He's joining the protesters and a police officer approach approaches him and he loves him dead in the face and says, I wish you mother would put your hands on me. I just feel like, yes, you know, his legacy has been reduced. But let me just offer a little bit of information. Ty did such a great job. The Trump administration has deployed the National Guard through the

end of September. As Ty said, this is only allowable under section forty of the DC Home Rule Act with Congressional seven forty forgive me for the DC Home Rule Act, with of course, the approval of Congress. Nothing meets that standard. He talked about crime being down, It's true. Crime is down twenty six percent after a thirty five percent drop in in twenty twenty four. Overall crime is down a

seven percent, and that's according to the Metropolitan PD. This this for the people who are outside of DC who are not as plugged in. Believe me, this is coming soon to a city near you. He's threatened this to Chicago, Oakland, Baltimore. DC does not have voting representation in Congress. We don't even control our own National Guard, unlike Puerto Rico and other territories. So the President is overriding the will of

residence here. And I just want you all to get an up close and personal peak of what that looks like and what could be happening in your very neighborhood.

to this. I want us to survive, but I know we can't roll over and take this. So how much are we willing to take? Because the more and more we accept this, the more and more we normalize this, the more it's going to spread. So I don't know what the pushback is, but it has to be something. And right now I do see a lot of people, I mean yelling at them. A friend of the show, Booker Squared, welcomed police this way.

prevent violent crimes. What they, nine times out of ten or ten times out of ten times will do is take what might be a normal situation in a normal neighborhood and escalated off of anything. It could have been a refusal to give a license or get off the porch and go inside and grab it and come back and show me, and any hesitation could have been a whole different kind of situation, and we all know what

those potential conclusions could have been. So law enforcement, on one hand, should be serving the role of de escalation of of of of how do you say down, I mean just de arresting, right right right, but basically eliminating anxiety in situations. And when you go out in your face with that kind of show a force of law enforcement and bless his heart, but a law enforcement agent who's not really able to explain what the hell they

out there doing. I mean he says, we're here to prevent crimes, and you know, in my opinion, you're here to potentially provocate, provocate a situation that could could spiral out of control. So it's where we how far we go? Is one, survive each incident, survive each of these moments, folks, as you're out there. But two, I think we have to protest. I think we you know, it starts from the top down and from the bottom up. You don't have to wait for instructions for you from your mayor.

Your may or may not give those instructions to get out and show your disapproval. But as we saw in LA, the display of nonviolent disapproval pushed them back and made them a little caddy about their appearance there because they didn't belong. So I think people have to raise their voices and show that this is not the role of

the federal government. You resist it. We understand that you are on orders, but you right now represent this person who's attempting to manipulate everything about what we think and what we know to put in front of us a whole, you know, situation that didn't deserve this, doesn't require it. If you really care, put some money back in. Put that billion dollars you took out of the budget from

local governments. Give that back to local law enforcement so they can actually do the work of preventing crime instead of this scapegoating to basically avoid talking about, you know, a child molester and what his role is in that molestation.

wasn't a state of emergency on January sixth. What I'm wondering is why it's not an emergency when ice is raiding people's homes, separating families. I want to know why it's not a state of emergency when crime was up

thirty percent. Again, it's dropped thirty percent. So I am hoping that the mayor, that the Attorney General in DC rely on these points when they go to argue the subjective standard that Donald Trump is relying upon to interpret Section seven forty, and they push back, why does that matter right now? Andrew everything you're saying in LA. We were on a panel in Tunica, Mississippi for the CBC Institute the Mississippi Policy Conference. Nana Jumfi, who's been a

guest on our show, talked about LA being ready. They were ready to protest, they were ready for what was coming. What I think that, to Tip's point around a litmus test too, is a lot of our folks are unready. They did not know how bad this was coming. This man that Tip just played sitting on his front porch is like, what are you even talking about? Friend? Right Like, he has no idea this is coming. So we need some of the court actions taken so that we can

buy our folks time to organize. I wanted to say that in closing because I know we have a very important update to get to from Tip about her trip to the Motherland. So I know we want to transition into that, but want to leave it open for just a moment, literally, a moment for any closing words from y'all before we transition.

the other side of the spring. The one thing I can tell you about visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo, it's nothing to see every few feet a member of the government in camouflage holding aks just everywhere all over the corner so it was really interesting to be traveling and then to come back to DC and see this through.

happened in Africa and how it impacts us here. And what I'll say is the very way how we're communicating with each other now on our computers, our smartphones, electric vehicles, all of these things are emblems of the modern world and they all are powered from batteries that are powered by cobalt. Cobalt is in the mineral rich country of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It's mined by workers who

are laboring in slave like conditions. So every time we use our computer, every time we answer our phone, every time we're on our smartphone, every time we see an EV or get into an electric vehicle, I want us to remember there are black folks working in slave like conditions to mine the cobalt right now, Because my question while I was over there was, well, who is buying who's the consumer. Of course, America is the largest consumer economy. China at this point accounts for sixty percent of all

global cobalt processing, which turns into lithium ion batteries. The mining industry has ravaged the landscape of the DRC. So as you see the images being played right now of bloody hacking of limbs, it is internal conflict because the rebels have tried to seize control. And you have to this place should be Wakanda, This should be the wealthiest when you think about how it is powering the insant right, this is literally vibranium that is powering the world and

the people there. Here you can be impoverished and still have a microwave, You can still have a refrigerator and be well below the poverty line. When I say poor there, I mean they literally have dirts and that's it. And so they're trying to survive. So I even had to understand somewhat of the rebels as horrific and barbaric as it was, that they too are trying to survive. Millions of trees have been cut down, the air of the mining area. Areas are hazy with grit. The water has

been contaminated with toxic effluence from the mining process. Cobalt is toxic to touch and breathe. There are hundreds of thousands of poor Congolese people touching and breathing it in every day. You'll see young mothers with babies straped to the straped to their backs, breathing in this dust. Trump administration did just recently cut a deal between Rwanda and what we mostly know of this conflict is the Rwandan

conflict that we all remember a lot of us. Yes, it became humanized to us in the movie Hotel Rwanda. And so recently Trump signed a deal because Rwanda was supporting a group of the rebels. It's really complicated, we don't have a lot of time to get into it, but essentially Rwanda was supporting a group of the rebels and the Trump administration came in and tried to coordinate this peace deal. But I would just say these piece deals do not always benefit the people there. The nearest

example is Angola recently cut a deal. We're trying to build infrastruture in exchange for their oil, but the Angolans are not really benefiting from that. And the United States has a deep history in the Congo. Patrice La Mumba was their beloved leader. He was the equivalent to our Barack Obama. And he was murdered with the support of some local people, Congolese politicians, the Belgians who ravaged this

country for decades, literally cutting off young children's arms. So many people there without limbs because they worked in the rubber plantations that the Belgians powered. But he was murdered with the tacit support of the United States government and the malign neglects of the United Nations. So I just wanted to share this so we could see that what happens in Africa not only powers the globe. Specifically, what's happening in the Congo not only powers the globe, but

the conflict there we have to care about. And it's a beautiful country because you'll see on the screen now, you know, had this beautiful brunch, and you know the vegetation is there, and people Black people are beautiful in every language. They're speaking French fluently and flowing effortless between English and French. And you know, the skin looks like silk, and they're attired. I mean, they just move and look like royalty to people who are lucky enough to live

that way. It's a lot of corruption there and so I just wanted to update people on what's happening there. We will dig more into this in the show. I would love to have a representative from the Congo or journalist who covers the Congo. Larry MacDowell does amazing work for CNN covering the entire continent of Africa. So in the future we'll talk about this more and how what's

happening in Africa impacts us. But it's a lot of corruption, a lot of dictatorship, and I'm sad to say that America is falling right in line with a lot of what I've seen overseas and a lot of countries that are that are are falling or leaving their their democratic process. So thank you all for giving me the time to talk about it. It's a lot more to say, but I will reserve it when we have on an expert and not somebody like me who just went to be

on ground to learn. But I do want to thank the people for inviting me there for the genocost event, which honored the people who I thought this was something that happened decades ago, but the conflict and the murders are still happening, So my sincerest thank you to the organization that brought me there. I had the opportunity to meet with the President and First Lady and it was

a very humbling, sad experience. But we'll talk more about that later because I know we have exciting guests to get to today to get into our next topic.

Those black babies in Africa, though Africa as a country and not a whole continent. But those black babies over there, that's normalized, like that's how they're supposed to live. But when it's somebody else that looks a little closer to white, it's impossible to think. It's like when the Ukrainian War took off. So those lives matter, those children. If we're so concerned about sexual abuse and the Jeffrey Epstein List, then let's be concerned about sex trafficking in Africa. Let's

be concerned about these children being mutilated. If we're concerned about children starving, let's be concerned about the young people in Congo who have nothing. So thank you for that. I don't want to go off on a whole tangent again, but that's so true.

being the most resourceful of all the continents. And a lot of times when I hear non people of color talk about the continent, and they like to describe these these fights of people of color against people of color, and they completely underestimate our intelligence by by suggesting that this is just some black on black crime or some sort, when we know that it is the supply lines that is fueling the rest of the world that you, largely

European nations are protecting and are aligned with. Many of these groups have to protect that supply line, profiting from it exactly those situations and so just thank you for that. And we all we don't have to compare how terrible these situations are, but we absolutely need to pay attention, especially when it reflects us where we come from in the richness of the land.

It did not begin in Texas. Someone, are you Louisiana somewhat argue North Carolina, But what we know now is that it is far beyond the bounds of the state lines of Texas joining us today though, are Congressman Mark Vezi, who represents texas thirty third Congressional District. State Representative Jelanda Jones, who was also a guest last week on My Solo pod, representing Texas's one hundred and forty seventh State District legislative district,

and Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver the second. Some of them call some people call him rev. I call him boss. He's the CBC chair from when I was the executive director of the CBC, but also now in the crosshairs. Don't collapse, rup for this part. In the crosshairs for in the redistricting battle in Missouri. He is the one district Loan District that is protected or was at least by the Voting Rights Act, and now they are targeting the Republicans

in Missouri are targeting Congressman Cleaver's district. So welcome to our show. We say welcome home, y'all, and we thank you so much for joining us. Tim Or Andrew, I'm gonna let you kick it off.

confronting these issues as well. I know that this issue, you know, confronts the country, the entire landscape, and right now we may be looking at what I you know, I believe is sort of the armoring up, or maybe it is the ratcheting up between states as democratic states start to respond to what some of these conservative states are doing. I love if you all could kick it off,

beginning with you, a Representative Jones. We're telling us what does the ground game look like if this actually does become a ratcheted up situation of d versus our states redistricting mid dissenial to basically confront and counteract what Republicans are doing to change the rules of the game so that they can cheat their way to re election.

weren't drawn because their coalition district. The districts were drawn because black people and brown people are just living by each other, and they somehow said that that's illegal. And so now they are dividing us, they're cracking us, and they're packing us in other districts that are majoritarily Anglo. And so the only way Trump gets five seats is if they go in with precision and divide up black

and brown neighborhoods as racist. And it's important we call it what it is, and I see it as self defense. I think Nancy Pelosi called itself. It's self defense for the preservation of representation by black and brown people to elect the representatives of their choice, plain and simple. And so if you've been in a fight, you have to

use the tactics that your opponents are using. There's no way they can expect for us to fight with both hands behind our back when clearly Trump and the billionaire boys, and those people literally don't respect the Constitution. They don't respect historic districts in Houston. I know that Congressman VC can probably explain to you how his stronghold is Tarrent County. It's been in thirty three and they some kind of way tried to carve out Tramp County out there to

make him weaker in his district. I'll let him talk about that. And so it looks like guerrilla warfare, it looks like hand to hand combat. It looks like we need to stay where we are so that they can't get a quorum. Because at the end of the day, there's eighty eight Republicans in Texas in the House and the Democrats and sixty two never beat sad eight. So the only tactic that we have is to get ghosts where they literally can't conduct business, which is what our

quorum break is. So that's what it is. It's living in an uncomfortable state. This is not normal for me to be hiding, for me to be Washington, who I talk to on the phone, for me to stay in my where if I'm staying, I'm not telling you that, for me to be concerned that the FBI are hunting us like we are criminals for something that's not criminal, and it's not even federal, so none of this is normal.

But for us, it's necessary for us to just hold the line and deny them a quorum because it's all we have to do at a minimum, until California like drops their maps or something so that we can see your Texas. If you go forward, we're gonna do that too. You think you're the biggest, like you're the badgest bullets on the block where you ate, and that's that's what it is.

mistaken identity. So while we have all that going on, we see our core democratic institutions eroding before our eyes. And now, even though the redistricting issue has been in the limelight for years, you know, predating the Trump administration, why should people care? Like, what is the sense of urgency? Make it plain for people that if you're sitting in your apartment in New York City, or you're sitting in Seattle or Chicago, what is the sense of urgency why we should care about this issue.

He's trying to consolidate as much power as he possibly can uh, and he's going to continue to do this with ice. He's going to continue to do this with the firing and the federal workforce and these and these doge layoffs. And I really do think that he is trying to move us towards a place that we have not seen when it comes to how the US government works.

This whole idea that he's going to take another census in a couple of years would to me be the beginning of him trying to put together a group of legislators that are Republican and one hundred percent beholden to him that would absolutely allow him to stay in office if that's what he chooses to do on January sixth, twenty twenty nine, where he absolutely could not be removed. And so I think that we're in a very dangerous situation right now, and what he's trying to do is

not healthy, is not helpful. I think for those of us that have followed voting rights for a long time that this could also be the end of the voting rights Act. There's something that has not been talked a lot about when it comes to the Texas Map and one of the congressional districts that they dismantled Jelanda Jones

Neck of the Woods in Houston by Silvia Garcia. It was a sixty three percent Hispanic voting age population district and now it's been down to about forty four percent Hispanic voting age population, and that is a clear violation of the Voting Rights Act. If anything is over fifty percent, it is supposed to be a protected district. And so

now that's been dismantled. My guess is that Texas is trying to set themselves up to be and Greg Abbott more specifically, is trying to set himself up to be the person that took down the Voting Rights Act and specifically took down Section two of the Voting Ranks action that would have a huge impact not just on Texas and congressional seats, but that would have a big impact on state legislative seats, on county commissioner seats, on city

council seats, and it would really hurt the black community probably more than anybody else.

don't know what that means. Again, he says these things and has offered no details on what might include that. But the concern is who counts within that census, and why that matters is because that can determine budgets, that

determines resources that come to your community. But what we're talking about today, why that matters is because every ten years after the census, states redraw the boundaries of congressional and state legislative districts, which, if he has his say, it will not be an honest account and it could be redrawn in a way that is racist. Gerrymandering, sadly is not illegal. Racist gerrymandering is, and so we have seen in North Carolina. Andrew will correct me, Andrew and

Angela correct me if I'm wrong. But the court when they were looking at North Carolina said it was done with surgical precision to exclude voters of color. So you have a process where you have politicians picking their voters, not voters picking their choosing their politicians. So I just wanted to give our viewers some context there.

bust out of the Oval. He's doing it the same way that they attacked DEI, which is diversity, equity, and inclusion for those of you who are not following it at home. He's doing it the same way that he calls those of us who he decides to attack black journalists low IQ. This is absolutely racist at its core. Can you talk about how this racist jerry manderin practice. Because jerry mandering in and of itself is not bad. We'll get into that later. Redistricting in and of itself

is not bad every ten years. But why all of a sudden, when he needs a majority of white supremacists in the House of Representatives in state legislatures all over the country, now you find yourself also in the cross hairs of that. Why should people pay attention to this, Why should they focus on this, and why should they make it a priority given what Tip just said about everything else that we have to carry.

He just would not do it. And so all of a sudden, if you can draw these districts in like you said, sturgically remove us from areas and make it to where our votes won't count, then you will have a bunch of members of Congress representing our communities that won't do things that we believe are important and bring tax dollars back into our communities to help uplift our neighborhoods.

And just that alone could be something that I think could have profound implications on our communities as well as a continuation of people just being able to be five from a lot from the federal workforce, and many people that work at many different agencies are from the African American community, and the list goes on and on and on, and so people need to realize that it's not really

just about him trying to elect more Republican Congressmen. It's about him trying to elect more congressmen that are going to completely neglect the African American communities and put together majorities in the House of Representatives that will not advance legislation that is collectively in our best interest and it's very real what they're trying to do.

Can you talk about what people can do at home to encourage those who are wavering, who are worried about their families, like legitimate issues, but who are worried about how they continue this fight. What happens when the next special session is called? Where do we go from here?

the special session on Friday. The special session was supposed to end on Tuesday, you know, coming up. And so now I won't believe the special session is in until this officially ends, because it could actually be a way to get us to come back, to capture us like they get back in the Slavery days, to drag us back to the plantation on the on the House floor. So so we are resolute we ain't going nowhere.

what's going on? Let me tell you why, because last year in North Carolina, nobody knew what was going on. Last year in North Carolina, they literally racially and illegally and unconstitutionally jairmandered and they stole three seats. And right now Donald Trump has a Congress with a three Republican majority who rubber stamps all of his stuff. So you wonder how what happened in North Carolina with something that

people didn't know about. So let me give us a pat on the back that we let y'all know what they're trying to do in Houston because we don't want it to go under cover of darkness. And why you think North Carolina might not have anything that affects you or text us If he keeps the house in twenty twenty six, we're going to have more of these bad policies. So you know those eggs that used to cost six dollars that now cost thirteen dollars, that's because they stole

them three seats in North Carolina. You know the Social Security they're trying to take from us after we've paid into it for our entire adult life. They trying to take away our social security to give it to billionaires for tax breaks. We earn that that's not a handout, that's not welfare. You know how families are literally, us citizens are literally being deported. They're coming up, covered up, don't know who they are, don't even know if they

legitimate police, being shifted off the countries. That's because Trump has a three Republican majority, so trust and believe. It can get worse. And I think we've gotten comfortable, it says a people, as black people in this country, because we're so far removed from segregation, we don't realize how we used to get lynch. We don't realize how we used to have crosses burned in our yards. We don't

realize how we used to get assassinated. Martin Luther, King, Malcolm X, metgr Evers, you name them in it till who was a kid who ain't doing nothing wrong right, We don't realize that it can be bad. We don't realize that we had to go to separate schools. We don't realize that we had to drink out of separate faucets. We don't realize that stuff. You know why, because we're taking it out of our books and we don't realize that, and so we need to realize that it can get worse.

We used to have to pay poll taxes and it's just been so far removed. And I really need for black people to go back to the mentality that we had during segregation, where we were it. We were get each other, we were going to look out for each other. We were going to make sure that we all were supported and that we survived and that we thrived and we didn't rely on other people. But my point is,

this is what they're trying to do. We just had the sixtieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act early either earlier this week or last week, I can't remember the date, and they trying to take us back to a time

when we didn't have the right to vote. And you know, right now, there's not a lot We have twelve point three three percent of the population in Texas black people do, and most of us are concentrated in the Houston area and the Dallas area, and so that's where the four black congress people in Texas are elected, in Houston and Dallas. And with this racist redistrict thing, They literally are potentially putting Mark Nice against Jazz mcrockett. Why we can't have both,

Why they got to fight each other? Why does it have to be a blood bath In Houston? We got Al Green, you know, the one who shook his cane at the State of Disillusion and said in Pete's Trump and they escorted him out. Why has he been drawn into CDA TE which is where Correnswiman, Jackson Lee and Congressman Turner were. So they're literally going to wipe out two black seats. And you've talked about Congresswoman Garcia. They've literally diluted hers to where the Hispanics that they put

in her district don't vote as higher rate. And so you think this can't affect you, It most certainly can, and it will. And fool me once, Shame on you, fool me twice. Shame on me. North Carolina was the first fool And we know about it. Well now we know, no, we have no reason to expect it. Trump is all of a sudden going to respect black people or the constitution of women, you name it. He doesn't respect anybody. And so I'm asking you to please pay attention and

please hold us down because it is hard. We're away from our families. I got a new baby, I miss her. I'm my mother's caregiver, but my son and my sister are taking care of our mother and grandmother because this is something we just have to do for me. I always thought if I live back in the day with the Edmond Petterson Bridge and the Montgomery bus boycott, that I would be there. So I know that I'll be there.

So just keep praying for us, keep fighting for us, Encourage us, you know, because we literally are getting fined five hundred dollars a day. Y'all. We make six hundred dollars a month, right, and that's six hundred dollars a month, which is seventy two hundred dollars a year. That's six hundred dollars a month goes to pay for my retirement. So my pension goes to pay for my health insurance. And I also take out my dues because I'm a member,

a duced member of the Texas State Employees Union. And six hundred dollars a month is not a lot of money. Who can live off of that? And now they're threatening to cut our budgets and they're saying we've abandoned our duties. We have not abandoned our duties. I'm a district office

that's open right now. When my constituents had issues with getting their medicaid or their Medicare, or they have problems with their relatives who are who are incarcerated, or they can't get Section eight housing, my office helps them.

what we're doing. And people are tired of for the most part, they say Democrats don't fight.

as as science, they have a meaning to them. Help us understand, because I think this connection really has to be made of the layperson might look at a map and see someone draw a circle around it and say, well, this is a district, and then go with adjacent to it and draw another circle and say this is a district. Tell us why it makes absolutely no sense or what since you think it makes for communities of color, shared interests,

communities of shared interests. How it is that that is the way in which don't take a layman's look at these maps, understand what we have in common, and how then we get drawn out of power and disempowered through our vote. So when we hear cracking and packing these districts, and I've seen it firsthand here in Florida where we've lost now three CBC members out of the state of Florida sets that were hard won by a consent decree

through the courts. So I've seen it happen. But talk to us about what it means for black folks who share common interests to be able to elect a representative of their choice who will then go and advocate on behalf of those shared in How does that show up in this redistricting fight? Uh, the separation of our communities.

in together. And that's exactly the danger because What happens then, is they take away any They will reduce and perhaps even take away the opportunity for African Americans, along with progressive whites, brown people to be in a district where they would have a voice with the person if I'm not if I'm not in the fifth district, or if somebody with progressive values are not or is not in

that in that district. Here, the people here have no voice. Yeah, they can go out and vote, they have no influence.

We're going to do it here in Missouri where people want to pick their voters instead of the voters picking their people. Right.

decade redistricting and also misused federal resources. I don't know if y'all remember back in two thousand and three when when Oklahoma still had a Democratic governor and they were trying to do the mid decade redistricting, state legislators from Democrat from state Democratic state legislators from Texas went to Ardenore, Oklahoma, and no one knew where they were, and Tom Delayed used an F sixteen to find the tail number of the former Speaker of the House who flew his own plane.

They literally used government resources the same way how they're misusing the FBI now. And when that happened, we didn't do anything back. We did nothing and had we done something back in two thousand and three, we wouldn't be where we are today, because when a bully hits you on the playground, you got to hit his ass back.

a Kamala Harris eighty four percent district. And they need to put some of those Democrats in some of those heavily packed districts in blue states and draw those Republicans out. They need to draw their asses right out. And if we if we're going to sit back and talk about all the rule of law and and and you can't do that and the Constance, and when they are eliminating us and eliminating black seats.

that does not make it just political. It is racist first, and we've got to lead with that. And I think that is so important. T If I saw you leaning in, I don't want to tumble.

just wasn't expecting it. You all have, you all have taken the wool off, and I'm just I'm curious to know how much of this you can share of your conversations with some of the more timid of democratic governors who are not recognizing that they must meet this moment with a threat of mutual destruction. So if you go there, we all die, right, the system blows up on everybody.

they can have more Republican seats, it's it's legal. So if you lead with it's a political ger mandering, Repoltans are trying to draw Democrats out, they can do that. We have got to be smarter, and we need our allies to call a thing a thing, call a spade a spade, pull a race card when they're racist, and they need to say it's racist gerrymandering. And at the end of the day, what I've said and what I said then was I need we need our white allies

to call it racist. Right, Black people vote at the highest levels for Democrats, but we are the ones that are the least protected by Democrats. I mean, we will have white Democrats filibuster and pink shoes for however many hours for a woman's right to their body. I'm gonna need that same vigor and awareness to be brought to racistly gairmandering out the right constitutional right of black and

brown people to elect a representative of their choice. And to Congressman Cleaver's point, where you want somebody who is progressive, let's just say progressive, and who's going to be able to vote progressive things? If you Congressman bc U served with Congressman Turner, and if he say nothing else, people knew he was.

itself is independent. Those were always in Congressional District aen since nineteen seventy three when it was created. In this new gerrymandered racist map, they have literally removed AGAs Home from CD eighteen. They have removed Independence Heights from CD eighteen, and put it in CD twenty nine with a latina, right, So they basically we had a herd of black folks who had common to share an interest, and we voted

our interests to get somebody elected. And let me tell you who's who represented CD eighteen, Barbara Jordan, Mickey Leland, Craig Washington, Sheila Jackson, Lee, Sylvester Turner. How do you take away AGAs Holmes and you basically separated them from the Herbard. I mean, if you look at those Animal Kingdom shows, what happens when somebody gets separated from the herbit, they get eaten, right, that no one's there to protect them.

And so this is series. And what they're doing is they're going and they and what they have to do in order to succeed is that they've got to go to urban areas where we are concentrated. Because in Texas wet from like racist towns. When we get older, the first thing we do is go to the big city. We go to Houston, we go to Dallas where we'll see other people like us. Right, And so they've literally divided.

It's called it's a legal terminology cracked. They've cracked the black community or cracked the Hispanic community and packed them where they want them to go, to dilute, to dilute minority power to go who they want. So this is serious as a heart attack. And again, if you learn nothing from me, if you get nothing from me from this, is you. We've got to call a thing a thing. I'm a trial lawyer for thirty years. Here's what I do.

I prepare for my I prepare for my opposition. Right, how would I get me and I do that if I'm a Republican lawyer.

you line now. And every time our allies do not have the courage to say that it's racist, you are putting a nail in the coffin of black and brown people to elect representatives of their choice, because that's exactly what they're going to show. And under Chief Justice Roberts, political jer man is okay.

house seat. This is about falling back into the moments of our parents and grandparents, of their grandparents who brought us this fall. And we've got to hold on to the light right now so that when I when, when when our children and their children, if the light is still on, so we still have some light.

Representative Jones. But we need a convening of the Democratic leaders of Houses and representatives and all of the states, and or speakers or speaker designates in all the states, because I don't want to turn on the television and see Democrats and negotiating against themselves to hand over power to Republicans, because we want to choose the higher ground or the higher civil democracy ground, because we've already seen where that leads us. You don't take a spoon to

the gunfight. You've already said it. But conversation can't be had in public. It needs to be had, it needs to be the fight needs to take place there. So the game playan is we have to do what is required in this moment to win.

this meeting. So Andrew, I appreciate you saying that State Representative Julanda Jones always a pleasure, Thank you for joining us today.

in integrity. They do not work when you're playing with people who don't play by the same rule book or anything. So Congressman Thompson was one of the only Democrats to vote against this bill. Nancy Pelosi was on his head, what are you doing? Why are you voting against this?

take place all across city. So it was nice to hear, particularly Saint Rep. Jones, she's been coloring the airwaves and you know with her fire and this is We talked about how we came to know congress Woman Jasmine Crockett because she too fled the state of Texas during a crucial vote and people fell in love with her on air. Yeah, so it's just nice to see us fighting somewhere.

know thing as symbols. And then when it's all over, all the good hearted white folks come up to you like, I just want to say, that was completely inappropriate and we do not support that. I don't need that right now. What I needed is for you, in the moment to come up and say, wait a second, you will not speak to this woman that way. That is not appropriate.

the math is going to math. Like if Florida is talking about taking more seats, Florida is twenty of the twenty eight seats right now in Congress are Republican in Florida. They're talking about Nebraska, now Missouri. Of course, we just had mister Cleever on Andre and Indiana. You know, South Carolina,

they're threatening mister Clybird's seat. You know when they were trying to draw another black districy not that long ago, Ohio, Texas, Louisiana, And I don't know what's going to happen with Alabama. Shamari just got there, So you want to I'm like, still, I meant it, But I believe in a democracy.

and survive the encounter. Because I don't want any of y'all to be a hashtag. I don't want us showing pictures or bodycam footage of somebody whose anger got the better of them. We have to be smart and strategic with how we confront authoritarianism is particularly when it comes to people who are armed and have been given immunity to do whatever they want to to you. We got to be smart about that.

weigh in. Tell us what you like about the show, give us your feedback. We definitely want to hear from you. You can check out the link in this episode's description. And I really want to just say, you know, the loonies might have said they got five on it. We got fifty on it, so we've been beaten the loonies up here right and a poster right, Oh yes, and it's consolation prize for those of you who don't get the f fifty dollars is a sign poster from us.

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