I'm Tamika D.
Mallory and it's your boy.
My son is generally we are your host of TMI.
Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, Motivation and inspiration name New Energy.
What's good, my son, Lennon.
How you doing today, Tamika D. Mallory.
I'm doing well, doing well.
Still out here crisscrossing this country, meeting people, trying to deal with misinformation and also just you know, really checking the temperature of our people. I think that, uh, you know, folks are getting to that point that you know, we always see happen as it gets closer to the election. A lot of those who were saying we're sitting this one out or ain't got time to hear this. We're working on trying to pay for the bread, the eggs, the cheese, the milk, the gas, and pay the rent
and election is not that important to us. We're starting to see folks getting more engaged and kind of you know, coming to the table. So I think that's good. Also today we saw an article that was that came out talking about black political operatives, vendors, funders who you know, want to see more support from the campaign and you know, and the Democratic party to help us all of us
do the work on the ground. And I just thought it was quite funny that for some people who will write in your comments and mind that we are being paid by the Democrats, and then you see an article like that come out that really kind of shows that many people, many of people, as they say, are waiting for resources to come down. I don't think waiting in terms of the fact that we're not doing the work, because there are certainly other sources of funds to help
do electoral work. But I'm glad to see that people are standing up to say to these old you know, old school political party politics and people who are in charge to open up the pocketbooks and make sure that folks have the ability to you know, to do the work that has to happen in the next forty days.
Yeah, it's very vital, you know. I say this all the time. People expect people to work for free, you know, and a lot of us we are passionate because we understand what's at at stake, So we're doing the work, you know, naturally because it's something that we actually believe in. But in order to have a real impact, you know, you have to be able to have resources. You have to be able to be able to fund certain things. Understand that, you know, the opposition is making sure that
they they fund misinformation, right, they are funded misinformation. They're doing everything that they possibly can to fund misinformation. And this is actually having a told. So if we're not we're not going to well not we If the Democratic Party doesn't seem fit to fund combat and misinformation, then I don't I don't know how they expect to actually win a selection, you know, and and they should they
have if they have all the resources necessary. So we talk about, you know, black people not being funded and not having the resources to do the work necessary to actually win the campaign is disheartening. But you know, I'm one of those people that want to be optimistic and in these next forty forty one how many days forty one forty two days too, forty two days, you know, hopefully they hit the ground running and they understand the
seriousness of what we're dealing with. So that's all we can do, you know, and just hope for the best.
Yeah, I think I think that the resources are starting to open up. I mean, one thing I would say is that you know, this is a campaign that turned quickly in the last two months really hasn't even been enough time. Usually, you know, when you have a presidential candidate, they're running for a solid year or so even more, and that wasn't the case here. So there is some of that, but there's also just political operatives who are in these campaigns.
You know, a lot of people.
Think that that campaigns work just like your regular job, where the boss is sitting there and kind of knows about the ins and outs of things that's happening. But you know, when you're looking at politicians and even in some corporations and some organizations, there are people that go out of their way to keep the candidate or the principle from knowing all of the details.
They might give a directive.
I want to meet with so and so, or I want to see such and such thing, and a few weeks later, maybe even a few months later, and especially when things blow up in their faces, they're like, well, what happened and some person made a decision somewhere along the line that those people we shouldn't have met with, or we shouldn't be meeting with, or this group shouldn't be hired, or these people shouldn't be contacted, and sometimes
it is sabotaged, quite frankly. Sometimes it's incompetence. Other times it's it's racism. And there are times when you know, it's all about personal friendships, and you know, and and and at best it can also be that, you know, some of these staffers and others are overwhelmed. But whichever of those things it may be, none of it is acceptable.
And so you know, I know that, you know, I've seen many of the black folks connected to well, I can't even say that because I saw some black folks in the news the article that came out say some really dumb stuff, but I you know, I know black other black people who are very connected to the campaign who have said that.
Uh.
And Mignon Moore is one of those who was quoted in the story, who was just recently the convention chair, saying that she knows for sure that Kamala Harris has directed the campaign to do more to make sure that black grassroots organizations and others have the resources needed to get out there, knock on doors and organize.
And I really kind of think I want to put.
Out and I literally want to release to the public a budget for what it costs to move around the country to do the type of work that we do, because I think that people don't understand. And I'm not talking about folks in the campaign, because clearly they know they've done this work. Many of them started at the
grassroots level, and so they know. Some of them may not have started grassroots, but certainly they have had to have some relationship with people on the ground, and they know they have received, you know, a number of budgets and proposals, so they understand it. But just the average person who may read an article and say, well, why would they be want wanting money? It's like, you know, it's crazy, because you know, some people really have no
clue about what it takes. If you're living in New York or you're living in Texas, California, or some where, and now you have the responsibility that either you've taken on or you've been hired to do, or something you want to do to go to another state and be there long enough to have to have an impact. You need to be able to get there, which costs money. You need to be able to stay there, which costs money, and you need to be able to eat while you're there,
and to move around. To travel around, you need a first aid kit with you. You know, it might be cold, it might be raining cats and dogs one day, and you got to go out and be able to buy ponchos so you can continue to walk your routes. You might need umbrellas, you might need you know, if somebody might feel sick and need talent or like, should you be going in your pocket to pay for expenses related to work that you have to do in order to help all of us?
Ye, especially especially when these campaigns are raising so much money and that's what is supposed to be allocated too. So you know, it's like you said, there's a lot, and I second the notion that you should actually break that down so people can have some you know, civics one O one. A lot of people just don't know, so I don't fault them for not knowing. So that's what that's what we're here for. As we learn, we need to.
Teach, absolutely absolutely that's our responsibility. Well, you know, today, speaking of learning and teaching, we have invited Reverend Mark Thompson to be with us.
I appreciate that.
You know, as I'm talking to Mark every day, I get the pleasure and you do as well. For all of our group chats, but beyond group chats, I speak to Mark at least three or four times in each day, and I feel, you know, every time I talk to him, either I learned something or I debate with him.
We spa in conversations.
We go back and forth because I you know, I like to say that I learned so much from everybody else, but I teach sometimes sometimes I.
Teach and so uh.
But but I certainly know that when I'm finished talking to Mark each day, I have different thoughts about what we have, the information we've got to get out to our people, and so uh. You know, he's going to be joining us today. I know folks are wondering when are we coming back visually. We're coming back soon. We'll be back in the studio. The lot of things are changing about you know, how we will return with our visuals.
We are going going for an upgrade. We're going for something a different type of experience, and we're excited about what's happening in too and with tam I stick with us, you know today, please listen, listen closely to the information that you're about to get from Reverend Mark Thompson as we bring him up, Reverend Mark Thompson from making it plain.
Our brother.
Yeah, it's our brother, man. So we're no further ado. We're going to bring our brother to the chef.
Well, you know, our friends are back on with us today as we continue to talk about this election and really look at all that is happening across the country. Is so important that we defeat the misinformation and the disinformation that's online, the disinformation that's being shared by even people who we consider to be icons. And you know, I think that, you know, one of the huge points of contention has been this issue around polling and whether
or not you know. Every time you turn around, you see different individuals talking about, you know how or different different people who claim to know based upon polls, where black people stand, where different communities stand. And I'll tell you I have never I may have been pulled one time. I think I picked up the phone in my house one day and someone was polling me about, you know, some issue in New York City. But other than that,
I've never been polled. I don't know if you've been pulled, my son.
I don't think i've ever. I don't even know what it looks like to be polled. So I don't think those those entities come to the communities that we actually inhabit, So those polls don't really get the full scope, especially in our communities, of what's going on. So and I've seen those polls fail, you know what I'm saying. I
watch I literally watched those polls completely fail. And I know, I think for me, right, just being in this, being in politics and just studying for the last decade, I understand that there's a there's a feeling and there's a vibe inside of communities, especially that we inhabit, that tells you different than a lot of these polls, do you know, And and when you try to explain that, you know, I remember, I remember Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and
the polls are saying this, and the pose are saying that, and the streets wasn't saying that.
And I kept and I kept reiterating it, and and then you know, and we actually seeing the outcome of that. So you know, to your question, I haven't been polled. I don't even understand if those polls actually work.
So, so our brother Mark Thompson reberend Mark Thompson of Naked Plane, His Zone show that you know, really covers
all of these political issues and more. I always say that Mark Thompson certainly one of the most brilliant not just members of the clergy, but strategists of our time, and we're very blessed to have him as a part of the think tank and until Freedom and Tonight he is joining us to talk through what we learned from polls, what we learn from the information that's out there online, and how we can be more accurate in terms of and I don't know, maybe there's not a way to
be more accurate. Maybe there's always going to be these margins that are off, but I mean it seems to be really off because to your point about Hillary Clinton, I mean, she lost, and I'm sure Mark, you have plenty to say about how that happens. So thank you for joining tam Maya're not a stranger to the show. We appreciate you for making yourself available.
Well, good to be with you all. As always, there's a lot going on, a lot to talk about.
Yeah, absolutely so, Mark, we're talking about polls. I've only been polled one time, my son saying he's never been pulled. That's because he refuses to keep a house phone. So I don't know what are some of the other ways that polls happen.
Well, this actually may be one of the first political cycles where people are getting dialed by on their cell phones, and so that does make a difference because normally that doesn't happen. And when we're talking about younger people, people of color, you know, people don't have home phones anymore, So that does make a difference. So this one may be slightly more accurate. These polls now may be more accurate in that regard some polls.
And you have different types of polls.
Some polls are slanted right, some are slanting more centrist, some are slanting more liberal.
That's why the rule of thumb.
And while the news media will make stories and headlines every day about this poll and that poll, that keeps an interested That helps the news media, you get people engaged. But the best way to look at polls is to look at aggregate polls, to look at all the polls that are out there and start doing averages, and then you may come up with something that's a little more accurate.
Now they they add another wrinkle. We just don't know sometimes how honest some people are being when it comes to polling, and I think that's one of the things happened that happened in twenty sixteen with Hillary Clinton. But I will say this, we also know Hillary Clinton actually won. See the problem is when we look at polls, we never consider the electoral college until after election day. And so Hillary Clinton won the majority of the votes in
this country. She won that election in terms of actual millions in popular vote.
She just did not.
Win the states that she needed to win, and between one hundred thousand, just a little over one hundred thousand votes spread out amongst three states, she lost the election. So we can look at polls until we're blue in the face. What happens in the individual states, What happens when it comes to electoral college is the answer. Now, maybe we should not assume or presume that everybody has
a full understanding of the electoral college. So I don't Maybe we need to go over that how that works, and that being folks in America, you have to win states. States have electors. Each state has a number of electors. Those are the people whose votes are sent to the capitol like they were on January sixth, the day Donald
Trump and his ilk had the insurrection. Each state has a different number of electors, and the reason for that is because during the period of enslavement, you had some states with more people who look like to Meeke a mice and myself than white folk. But no one, of course, wanted people who looked like us, wanted enslaved people to vote, and so you have to make up for that. You have to compensate for that so that those states still have an equal or proportionate amount of weight to other states.
And so you did that with the electoral college. You made sure that certain states had a certain number of electors to make them relevant, to make them important. Not one time, up until this era of Republican presidents being elected without a majority of the popular vote with electors, people used to make the same argument, Well, some states of what you call fly over states, they don't matter,
They're not important for Iowa, Montana, flyover states. Nobody campaigns in those states because they're so rural they don't matter. But because they have electoral votes that can tip an election, then the electoral college matters, and so that makes them relevant. But now more and more, as we see a number of presidents have been elected to the White House without a popular vote. There's a more popular call, a more
popular cry, for the electoral college to be done away with. If, for example, the Democrats get enough votes in the Senate, they must they may just be able to do that to get rid of the electoral college. But I've said a lot a pause there. I'm sure you have some follow up questions. But that's the way it works. They're posed.
There's the electoral college. It's not meant it, frankly, to be the most simple or most understandable process, because once again, this America, this country was built on the back of our enslaved ancestors, and that is why we have the electoral system that we have.
So I'm hearing what you're saying, and you're right, it's a lot to consume, right, And I wonder with the electoral college.
I kind of go back and forth.
Sometimes I understand the cries and demands to do away with it, but then I also understand that a state like or states like California and New York, because of the amount of people we have, we could pretty much set the election or decide the elections.
All the time. Is that accurate? And do you think.
That's fair, like what would be what's your position on that?
At one time I did have concerns about that. Those are not illegitimate concerns because the other thing about that is is I mentioned some of the other states that are considered flyover states, like even a state like Pennsylvania.
Who would spend money campaigning in Pennsylvania or Iowa or in other states if we simply relied on a popular vote, you can spend most of your time campaigning in big states like New York and California and Texas and make a difference, So that that is not an illegitimate concern. But we got to come up with something better because you've got a couple of states where a handful of people,
you can't go from one extreme another. You can't have a over popular or states with large populations exclusively deciding an election. And then what we have now states were very small populations and an election being decided by just a handful of people. Like I said, Jill Stein, peeling off one hundred and fourteen thousand votes within three states made Donald Trump the president in twenty sixteen. That's just
bizarre and crazy. Jill Stein will never be elected president yet her being able to steal those handful of votes made Donald Trump president and look where that has left us. So there has to be a better system. And frankly, we're the only country left in the world that doesn't do it based upon popular vote.
So, Mark, you said that somewhere I'm not sure, but I saw people pushing back saying, no, Hillary lost because she didn't campaign well in certain states and she did not make she didn't meet the electoral college number, you know, in certain places. So can you speak more to that, because there certainly was some pushback on that point when
I posted no, No, it wasn't you. It was Joyanne Reid who spoke about Jill Stein and the Third Party or Green Party and their you know, their efforts being a reason why Hillary didn't win, and people were pretty upset about that. So could you maybe speak more to that.
Well, there were.
Several states Jill Stein was in was on the ballot in a number of states, and when you look at it, I don't necessarily.
Agree that it was about campaigning.
There was an alternative, and there were voters spread across.
Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Now, there was an argument made that perhaps Hillary Clinton should have gone to Wisconsin a bit more. That is an argument some have made. Objectively, we've heard that, but the margin was so slim, like I'm saying, this was barely one hundred thousand US think about one hundred and fifteen thousand votes spread across these three states.
The likelihood that Hillary.
Clinton campaigning more in those three states would have changed those one hundred thousand votes is not clear. People had an alternative. They voted for Jill Side, and because that alternative was there, those are the numbers. That is the margin of victory or the margin of defeat for Hillary Clinton. I mean, that's pretty objective. That math doesn't lie. One can only hypothesize that those voters would not have gone to.
Donald Trump.
And usually when you have a situation like that, you have three candidates and one is far to the right, one is center left, as Hillary Clinton was, then you one must hope or hypothesize that those voters might have gone to Hillary Clinton. That would have made the difference. But that's what we know. That's what we know happened in those in those three states, and with that number being so small, I don't know that we can say has he gone to those three states more that one
hundred thousand more votes. We've not seen that that evidence to those hard numbers that one hundred thousand more people would have turned out for her.
So so based on what you're saying, and I and I and I and I kind of understand, like I'm not, I don't, I'm not as genius as you are. But when I listen to it, it just seems like we haven't really established a viable third party. So pretty much what it seems to me like and I don't want to say it in this way, but it just seems like the third party pretty much is like can be the monkey wrench, right, It's like we we we have
two viable candidates and a third party. Although and I'm and I'm a firm believer that we really need to establish this third party. I believe that there has to be more alternatives than just two people and two parties that were just stuck in right, And I don't but
I don't know what the mechanism is. But every time I hear about this third party, it seems as if and it's only a monkey rich for the Democrats because the third party has a lot of a lot of liberal views right, and they just wait, they just a little.
More to the left than the Democratic Party.
So there's what happens is if I'm if I'm strategizing, if I'm a Republican, I'm strategizing, what I want to do is is create some level of doubt or some level of energy to the third party to help them, you know, so they can help me. And and so I'm kind of like I'm a lot torn between this because, like I said, I believe that we need to have something that's different than a two party system and a lot of things that to third party says and does
we actually feel like it needs to be done? But I just understand if the viability is not really there, then how does it really benefit us? Is it actually even possible for us to create a third party that is viable?
Yeah, it sounds like the RFK.
Situation mark where you know, who was who did RFK benefit more? Is it prompt with who he ended up siding with after getting out of the race.
Or would it have been that he would have helped I don't know.
I mean, I think he became an alternative to the Democrats, right.
Well, RFK was cutting into Trump's vote, that is why RFK has been trying to get his name removed from the ballots. He's an ally of Trump. If his name is on the ballot, he steals votes from Donald Trump, the same way Jill Stein steals votes.
From the left.
Now, to be clear, just to go back a little bit, Mice, this has been the case with third party runs. Ross Parrot stole votes from Daddy Bush in ninety two that helped Bill Clinton win. That was considered a little bit different because a lot of people saw Ross Preau as a very legitimate candidate.
He was not just a spoiler.
People considered him somebody even more excuse me, real to vote for. And he wasn't considered well and he wasn't running under a party either, really, he was running as an independent. John Anderson did the same thing in nineteen eighty that helped Ronald Reagan defeat Jimmy Carter for re election. So that is the problem with the third party. You can cause an upset, and in many of those cases the upset just so happened has not favored the Democrats.
It has hurt the Democrats. To your point, and I'm someone who tried to establish a third party. In fact, the most recent black political party as a third party to obtain any ballot status anywhere in this country. Founder the Emosia Party, but it has its challenges. The Green Party, for example, which has been running races most consistently.
Again, another example.
Ralph Nader in two thousand cost Al Gore the race in Florida, giving a Bush Junior, little Bush Baby Bush the presidency over Al Gore, and you know everything went to court, Supreme Court, Bush v.
Gore and all of that. If Ralph Nader.
Does not give Gore voters that alternative in Florida, then Gore wins the presidency and we don't have we don't have Bush.
The problem is, you're right, Mice.
All any of these parties right now can be in running for the presidency is to be a spoiler. But the way to build a third party, you know, it is really not the answer to it is not to be a spoiler and a presidential race, but to build a party beginning on the local level, to elect members of Congress, to elect.
Senators under that party.
And I think once you do that, it's a more legitimate party, and then people would have to start paying closer attention if and when that party chose to run in presidential races. But as long as we have an electoral college and as long as we have a winner take all system in the presidency, a third party unless it is really viable, unless it is really competitive and on par with Democrats and Republicans and can raise a comparable amount of money, at best, it can be a
spoiler for one party or another. So we would have had a lot going on in this way. We would have had RFK taking votes from Trump. Now would we have potentially are the Green Party and possibly Cornell West taking votes away from the Democrats More than likely. There's a paradox here though, as those parties is those individuals take votes away from Democrats to some extent, they're helping Trump.
In fact, some of the lawyers keeping Stein and Cornell West on the ballot are the same ones trying to take RFK off the ballot. You know, if you look at all of that, there's a hand of Republicanism, a hand of conservatism in each one of those third party beds RFK, Stein, and West. We see the fingerprints of Republicans in each of those races.
That's interesting because you know, and I know this is you know, very difficult to consume for some people because we want to see a viable option that is outside of the realms of the Democrats and Republicans.
It needs to be.
And you've already said for those people who can't wait to get on in the comments and talk about how you know, you just basically paid by the Democrats and we over here hosting on our show somebody that just is a democratic chill, as they say, But you are, you're you're talking about how you are one who has tried to establish a third party. And I certainly see
the need for us to have a viable option. But I and and and and I guess this is something that I'm asking you that maybe more of a I don't know, spiritual question or you know, you got so many bags you can draw from. What do you do when you realize that you are up against you know, you're dealing with a two party system. But you have someone like Jill Stein who has a platform that addresses
some of the important issues that you care about. So we know that Israel, Palestine, this is something that is very very important to many of us. We want to see a cease fire, and you have a person like Jill Stein who is you know, obviously she's got her ears to the streets, understands that this is an issue that we care about. And you know, she said something the other day, I guess she was on the breakfast Club about the fact that like, at some point we
have to build political will. Now I heard you say that has to be done from a local level all the way up. But I think people are tired of feeling like every time there's a fire alarm and therefore they have to vote a certain way just to be able to quote unquote save democracy. And yet there is no democracy in what America is participating in in terms
of the the the killing of the Palestinian people. So I just wonder if you have some thoughts on that, you know, and and how you would and how are you speaking to people in your circle who are uh, you know, feeling uh uh you know this disheartened in this moment.
Well, first of all, I don't I don't know anyone to deal with this specific issue. No one in my circle is seeing jill Stein as an answer to the crisis in Gaza, no one legitimately. In fact, it should be known that the jill Stein tried to pick a running mate reviewed several people that are prominent in the ceasefire and in the Palestinian movement, and everyone to a person turned her down because Jill Stein is seen as
an opportunity. We don't hear from Jill Stein, and we always say politicians show up in our neighborhoods when they need to vote well. Jill Stein is no different. That's what she does, and she will seize upon any issue that is prominent at the time. There's that, Plus there's also significant evidence to show jill Stein's relationship with Russia. Now you mentioned somebody being a Democratic shill, let me
just say this full disclosure. Not only was I the co founder of the last ballot status political party in this country in the nineties, in twenty sixteen, because of my commitment to building third parties, Jill Stein was was a regular guest at that time on my show Make It Plain. Before I was informed about what she was doing. I was duped and I was being fair. I was giving her equal time. I had Hillary Clinton on my show, I had your stand on my show. Never had Donald
Trump on the show. That wasn't even consideration, and that wasn't something he wanted to do. I learned late that the Green Party is actually an international movement. There are Greens in Europe. We don't get the European press in this country, we don't. That's why we don't get. All of us are involved in the God's movement, but no one knows what's going on in the Sudan on Congo because in America we are kept from news pretty much. This non domestic, just what they want us to see.
So we hear a little bit about Ukraine, we hear about what's going on in Israel from an Israeli perspective. Had no idea that Greens for quite some time in Europe have denounced Jill Stein and see her as a full ally of Vladimir Putin in Russia that comes from within the Green Party movement itself. When I saw that, I asked Jill Stein about that.
I asked her about her.
Visit to Russia for the anniversary of RT Russian Television where she sat at a table next to Vladimir Putin, his intelligence officials in his cabinet, and the one who would ultimately be the National security advisor for Donald Trump, the very one that when Donald Trump met with Barack Obama after winning the election, he was advised by both Barack Obama and the US FBI and the State Department that this guy was going to be a problem. I'm blanking on his name right now. It'll it'll come to
me in the moment. They're all in this photograph together. So there there are it's it's it's not.
It's not just.
That Jill stein Is is running altruistically or that she's representing ideology. There are problems with this individual that even Greens have a problem with. So it's not as simple as her now. Well, now she once an end to the ceasefry wild Okay, Jill, But there's still some questions that have to be answered.
What is your role in this? Just like any other candidate.
If we're going to scrutinize a Democratic nominee or Republican nominee, why would we not scrutinize any other candidate running for president when there are so many unanswered questions and alliances that are questionable. So I hope people understand it's not just about supporting a Democrat. Now to your point of democracy, well, we've really only talked about democracy the past three cycles
in a row because it just so happens. The candidate that the Republicans continue to nominate is someone who's made it very clear he no longer wants to uphold whatever semblance of a democracy. We've never had perfect democracy as black people, as African Americans in these countries, people of African ancestry in this country. But we have someone who
wants to threaten that even further. And everything is on the shopping block, the number of rights that African Americans have lost, that women have lost, and that other members of many constituency groups will probably lose if Donald Trump is reelected again. This is someone who's decided he does not care even with the elect the expansive and complicated electoral college system that has held this country in what
it is. He said, we know, I'm just gonna override that even if someone else wins the electoral college farre and square, I, Donald Trump and my insurrectionists are not going to abide by that.
We're going to nullify the votes.
We had black voters in Georgia whose votes he specifically asked the Georgia Board of Elections to nullify, as he is trying to do now.
So we have black voters in other swing states.
Who are being purged and knocked off the ballot by Republican forces working in boards of elections in those states. Our votes are being targeted by Republicans in those states now by Greens, not by Democrats, but by Republicans.
That is an objective fact.
So anybody wants to say, well, what's the difference, that is the difference.
There is no other political.
Interests that is targeting and suppressing African American voters other than those who are aligned with the Republican Party.
That's just the fact.
So we can't say that that's both sides are doing that. Both sides are not doing that. The Democrats cannot win without Black voters, so they have no need to do that.
That is a fact.
The majority of African Americans, every day, all year round, vote in the majority four Democrats, seventy eighty ninety percent in some situations. So it's not just about being a hill and that's not going to change no matter what anybody says on social media. As we speak, Kamala Harris is at about eighty percent at least of the Black vote.
That number is not as as.
It should be because of the effect on social media, because of the targeted effect to discourage African Americans from voting for whom it could be the first woman, or the first African American woman, or the first woman of color. Whatever box she checks off, she checks off about six boxes. There is discouragement for that to happen.
Why is that?
Why would there be such discouragement because they know that if the black votes does what it normally does and turns out, then we will have the first woman, the first African American woman, the first South Asian woman, the first Caribbean woman elected president of the United States.
We have a two party system.
Unfortunately, other countries around the world have a multi party democracy. Until we can figure out how to build that in this country, then we're going to continue to have a conversation about the lesser of two evils, which I think
in this case is an accurate description. There are we may even be talking about the lester of three, or we could have been talking about the lesser of five Trump the Democrats RFK jill Stein, Cornell West And because we do not have proportional representation, so in a proportional parliamentary system, let me just give people an alternative.
Let's look at South Africa all parties get.
Votes multiper many parties over ten even each party gets a seat in parliament or their legislators. What it's called is parliament based upon the percentage of votes their party even received. So if there's an Until Freedom party and the Until Freedom party gets ten percent of the vote, Until Freedom gets ten percent of the seats in that parliament, and that's the way most parliamentary democracies work, then that parliament in South Africa elects the president from within parliament
in those percentages. So Until Freedom has ten percent of the vote, another party has whatever percentage it has. Now that's you know, nothing is ideal, but those are other approaches to democracy. Here, we have a winner take all democracy, so whoever gets the most vote is the winner in the Senate, in the House, and in the presidency. If we had a multi party democracy, then you would have different percentages getting seats based upon the percentage of representation they have.
That's an experiment that's being.
Tried in some locales when it comes to city council races, and they have to start somewhere, so they started city council level. People can make a difference in their locales by changing the percentage of representation they have in those locales. Everything is locally all from police to school boards to election systems, and not to mention, every state has different rules for third parties getting on the ballot.
Two, Well, let me just say this market and you please, you know, I don't want to hold you more. I could listen to you on and on and on because you just have such so much knowledge all this. You've been doing this work for so long. But what are the polls saying?
Now you know?
And what do you think about the direction that we're traveling in?
And then we let you go.
The polls right now, many of them have Kamala Harris with a slight lead over Donald Trump's. If you get to four or five percent, you're out of the margin of error. And the margin of era is when you have four percent a race, whether it's four percent or less separating the candidates, a margin of area is built in because poles know sometimes they can be wrong your
point mice, and many times they are. So you have poles where a candidate is only two or three or maybe even four points ahead, that's considered a pretty much a dead even race. When you get into five percent ahead, then you can say, ah, this person might really be able to pull this off. And so everyone should look at the polls for the individual state. You can google them and where you see a candidate anywhere from four percent less. It's a tight race. Your vote vote can
make a difference five percent. Of course, your vote can still make a difference, but that candidate is beginning to move into a more comfortable lead. Just in the past twenty of hours, we've seen a couple of poles, times Siena Pole, which pretty much is still saying a dead heat in general, but an NBC News poll that has Kamala Harris forty nine percent to Trump's forty four percent,
So it's still a very, very very close race. There are aggregate polls, though, if we're going to get a look at these battlegrounds and these states with electors, there are polls that are saying she's at about five percent up in Michigan. That's good for her for Kamala Harris because Michigan is going to be a competitive state. There
were uncommitted votes in Michigan. The uncommitted movement is not endorsing her, but they're not endorsing her either, So for her to be at five percent up in Michigan is formidable, considering there's that uncommitted vote there. That's a big number.
Wisconsin she's around four percent, so it's still tight.
If she has a lead or a hold in Michigan and Wisconsin, she's in pretty good shape. North Carolina looks better every day as long as crazy Mark Robinson stays in the race, because the down ballots are going to affect the up ballots in the same way the presidential race affects the races for governor and House and Senate and local electeds. It works the other way as well. So North Carolina, Georgia. We look at North Carolina and Georgia.
Who votes in North Carolina. That's a whole lot of black voters and a lot of black women, and a lot of divine nine. So we can't write North Carolina and Georgia off. And Georgia the Trump forces. No, Georgia is a problem. It was in the past, and that's.
Why they're doing all this stuff.
To have the vote right exactly.
They want to do hand counts now to try to thwart that. But if we do the mass, if she has Michigan and Wisconsin, if for the sake of this argument, that we say she has those states, she would sit now at two hundred and fifty one electoral votes to Trump's two hundred nineteen. If we count of all the red states that we know we're gonna go red, that means that she would need to win. If she won Pennsylvania, it'd be over. It'd be absolutely over at two fifty
one plus nineteen eagles two seventy. But if she didn't win Pennsylvania and she won a combination of two of them, these states North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona, then that's her path to win to the presidency. If we do this math, though, and he's stuck it to nineteen, there is no way and she has and she actually has Michigan winiscon in Wisconsin. If she has those states, there is no way Donald Trump wins the presidency without Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania is a toss up right now as we speak. There's mobilization on the ground in Pennsylvania to get out the black vote, especially in all forty wards in Philadelphia, that work has not really gone into effect. Like I was, I was involved in the conversation that I wasn't supposed to be in but I ended up in it because if folks started had a conversation in front of me and I said should I leave? And all stay brother, We want you to hear this about about mobilizing Pennsylvan
and making that difference in mobilizing Philly. Now, let me give you one other little heaviat which is really very interesting and people should hear this. Trump ain't the smartest person in the room. Folks need to understand that that Ohio is a problem for Democrats. Florida is a problem for Democrats. But what is Trump doing. He's targeting Iowa. He's targeting Haitians. That is mobilizing people against him in Ohio. But even more so, it's mobilizing almost four hundred thousand
Haitians who vote in Florida. Florida was never in play. He's got Florida in the pocket. But for the senatorial race in Florida where Rick Scott is running for re elections. Rick Scott, that's the dude who looks like he was on Harry Potter because they wanted Harry Potter villains former governor now senator who's never won to raise either for governor or senator by more than ten thousand votes. Trump is mobilizing four hundred thousand Haitians in Florida to vote.
Or vote on their own without being mobilized.
They show up seventy percent in most average elections. The brother who is investigating the alleged, alleged alleged assassination attempt in.
The Marlago golf course is a Haitian. What does that tell you? That's not just a coincidence. The likelihood of that is because there's so many Haitians in Florida.
Ations elevate to these, you're going to get Haitian prosecutors because there's so many Haitians living in Florida for generations. That's the closest stop on the vote coming in from Haiti. So he's actually hurting his chances in Florida by attacking Haitians.
Is dumb?
Rick Scott is saying, shut up. We've already got abortion on the bound in Florid like it is in Arizona. And we've got marijuana legalization in Florida. And that's the last thing. Abortions on the ballot in Arizona. In Florida, this will be the first time that Donald Trump will be on the ballot at the same time as abortion Keep in mind, Republican women in Republican states have voted to restore abortion rights in every state where it's been on the ballot. So here's the question before us. Will
these same women who are Republicans. We know what Democratic women are going to do. We know young women are going to turn out more than ever young Democratic women at eighteen years old. They're eight million new eighteen year old voters in November. Believing that who will be turning eighteen by November fifth? Taylor Swift is gonna She's already mobilized them. What are Republican women are gonna do? Are they're going to vote to restore abortion in these two states and vote for Donald Trump?
Just think if fifty percent of them don't do that.
Or leave that part of the ballot blank while they vote to restoring a abortion rights.
Trump's in trouble.
So all of the math U looks good for her if people follow and are honest about what they're saying in the polls. If people say I want to restore abortion rights and say it doesn't make sense for me to vote to restore abortion rights, and then vote for the man who took away abortion rights in the first place. If all those things hold, Kamala Harris's pad to the
President's pretty good. If we could, if the eighty percent of African American continues to rise, and we don't have people literally spreading the life, we can google her father right now, there are people saying to our faces, her father is white.
Well, that's what I'm These are the things that you have.
You have all of these eloquent you have all of the numbers, you know how to do all the things I'm talking about. Just in the streets right what I'm faced with is I'm seeing I'm seeing outrageous numbers of just black males who just and it's not I don't know if it's just common, it's just the Democratic Party
that they just they're not feeling at this time. Right then, we have things such as Janet's statement about her father being white, Like, are these things Janet Jackson, Janet Jackson, I want to say Janet Jackson, not just Janet Jackson, so we're clear, But are these things legitimate things that we should really worry about? Because I think, to me, like I'm worried, like I'm really worried and I don't and I don't know if.
The campaign is paying attention to.
These things that we already like, we already understand the uncommitted. We understand that guys is a big thing in you know, in this election. So that's one thing against just the med disadministration period and just this feeling that black men are having right now and I'm in the barbershops and we have in these conversations, and then when we look at that and we couple it with just the misinformation and the intentional because I don't think it's just you
know that it's just people don't know. I think people are intentionally misinforming people because they want to be you know, anti you know, the Democratic Party.
Like, what should we be doing? Is this is really valuable?
Well, first of all, Mice, you're exactly right.
But think about it, folks, This didn't just begin. This has been at least an eight year process. We had handfuls of black men in twenty sixteen who were feeling Trump he was always allied with certain entertainers in our community. And if we really think about it, since twenty sixteen, it's gradually building, gradually building, gradually building, so it's gotten to this point now where it may be at a
critical mass. So if you keep putting that stuff out there gradually, gradually on social media and spreading it, you've planted a seed of of misinformation that now has become believable.
And So what I say to people when they say.
Well, we're hearing this stuff about Kamala and she locked up black man, which isn't true.
Her father is really white. So here's the thing.
I said this to someone today, and I mean, I mean, it's really it speaks to a larger question. You know, one of the things doctor King would do. He would never just deal with the crisis in the moment. He would deal with the universal issue. Is this just about November fifth? Or do we have a series is problem in our community where African Americans are are more targeted for disinformation and more susceptible to believing that disinformation. And I think that's where we are in the latter. It
goes beyond November fifth. Can anybody say anything and make us believe it because of our inordinate dependency on social media? So I say to people, look, if Barack Obama burst on the scene today first time we ever saw Barack Obama, he would be maligned and decimated because his mother actually is white. Think about that now, that couldn't happen in two thousand and eight, because social media didn't have the power in two thousand and eight.
That it has sixteen years later.
It doesn't have the power that it had eight years ago in twenty sixteen, and so it gets stronger in each cycle.
And that's something thing we have to address.
And it is bigger than this, because I'm telling yall some we really got to understand that it's going to require some prayer, some understanding, and really drilling into how is it. I mean a lot of things that are fake that a lot of things we can disprove every day. But you cannot google someone's father and have his actual picture come up in every it as a black person and still say convinced that can't be him, he must be a white man.
Well, then where is the picture of the actual white father.
Nobody can produce it, but you have a critical mass of people who believe it. That speaks to something else more bizarre and nefarious than just being an election. We gotta figure out what is going on to make people believe something that actually cannot be proved. It's not even like there's another picture out here is really the secret Father?
You know that that doesn't even exist, you.
Know talking about right there is literally just made up.
And listen to me, because there are pictures of the Lockness Monster, and people still don't really believe there's a Lochnans their pictures a Bigfoot, and there's still people still fit they're really Bigfoot. There are pictures allegedly of the abominable Snowman. There is no picture of an alleged white father of Kamala Harris. And I was just in my neighborhood and a grown black man, a middle aged black man, my age, screaming in the streets.
The father's white. I know he's white. He's white.
He's I mean, just literally blood curdling screaming, and I just had to walk away. Wow, this is that that speaks to another pathology. Now, let's be fair.
To mecas a woman on this call. Let's not let's not dismiss what we also know.
We live in a society that is in innately misogynist as hell, absolutely and particularly misogynoir. If Tamikas was running for president, Today's well as we know who her parents are.
Somebody would say, well, her parents are white and we might be in the same situation.
Are all crazy or they would at least say that I slept my way to the top all of that, and you know, I mean, they have so many different theories.
But listen, you know, Mark, I think that we could talk. There's so many directions to traveling. And you know that the last few weeks and we've been sort of live on the road. We are going to be back on camera soon where you know, folks will be.
Able to see us talking and we have to have you back for a part.
Too, just to you know, look at I think every week and it's really every day, this whole thing shifts. There are changes, there's new conversations, there's new things for us to look out for if you will, you know, And I think that's the main thing. Like for me, today I posted on my page. It was a tweet from Cassim Rashid, the attorney, and he talked about how in Texas they've purged about five hundred thousand eligible voters. In Oklahoma they've purged about one hundred and ninety three
thousand eligible voters. Nebraska is potentially changing its electoral count to win or take all so they can go red. Georgia wants to five to six million votes to be counted by hand, and other red states have closed more than one hundred thousand Poland locations in black and Latino neighborhoods. And so I think we just got a really pay pay attention. We've got to be focused. Every week from
now until the election. This show will be focused on the you know, electoral politics and what's happening in this country. I don't think there's anything that's more important than us covering our work on the grassroots level and how it directly is impacted by what will happen.
In this election.
And so we definitely need to have you back on camera real soon so that we can talk about and update as to where we are, look at the polling numbers again, and also talk about whatever kind of effyree they got going on. Because I know you love Janna Jackson, but that was some weird old vibes that she gave out that I don't think happened, you know, just me personally, and.
I had hoped for us, you know, rekindling relationship we once.
Had, but I don't know anymore. I mean, it's it is. It is bizarre.
Like I said, we can find pictures of everything else and we can't find that, and I agree. Lastly, just let me say that, you know, Mice, we we must.
Next year will be the.
Thirtieth anniversion a millionaire in March, and we took a pledge to defend our communities, particularly our women. And I want all the brothers to think about that. I want all the brothers to heal what Mice has been saying. Can we do that at the same time as we are attacking as sister and allowing people to attack someone who's a member of a black sorority, who attended an HBCU.
All of those things.
I think that's the real challenge we and the real question we have to ask ourselves as as black men, and in all cases we should defend black women who are working somehow, one way or another to make a difference in the lives of our people. So I mean, I would just leave it there. I think we have to fight the missag Noir. You're right, this we could go There's so many directions for this to go into, but this is the hour we're in and we're being
put to the test. Let's get through the next forty some odd days, and then let's talk about what to do beyond that to really change this country, to hold whoever is an office accountable. Remember now, the last president who made decisions based upon what the movement dictated was Lyndon Johnson. And he said that he woke up every morning he said, go and watch the movie LBJ All the Way on HBO, HBO movie about him starring Brian Cranston,
Breaking Bad. He played LBJ Lyndon Johnson. And this first scene in the movie opens up when he asked his staff, what did Doctor King and Dick Gregory say about me last night?
That's how he started his day. And he responded to.
That it is our problem that we've not rebuilt our movement after it was terrorized, after our leaders were assassinated, after all the violence perpetrated against us, we did not still pick up and rebuild our movement so that whomever is in office, didn't matter who is a Democrat or Republican, they have to respond to us. That is what we must rebuild in this country, the beloved community, the unapologetic movement, power movement that doctor King gave his life, building and absolute.
Everything you're saying is one mark. And like Tamika said, we can sit here and go over. We definitely need to have you back on this podcast because your brilliance, it gives me, it settles me just a little a little more. But I'm just very, very just concerned about just politics in general has given me anxiety, like like it's just it's just.
All together anxiety.
It's just like when you start to really just understand the dynamics and people just put out simple things and you understand that do we have political.
Theater when we talk about the border?
Right, were talking about the border, and we understand that Trump has has told Republicans to turn down deals that could have shut the border down, right right, you realize that Trump has been running on the same exact border with the same scared tactics. First of the Haitians is the Mexicans is everybody of color is coming to kill
white people. So we got to make sure that we seal this board, like understanding these same things over and overseeing, and then you know, and then you see misinformation and people are Oh, the Democrats voted against the bill that to to make sure that the rapists and things or you know, or or sit back to their country and it's like, well, that happens anyway. You know, if an immigrant rapes or kills somebody or does something they deported
out here is why we need a new law. Understanding they making a new law so they can try to highlight it and use it as something that to catapult the same. So when you start understanding these things, it becomes like, how does everybody understand what's going on? So I've been getting anxiety dealing with you know, there's some election and dealing with the politics of everything, and you
just seem to have a down pack. So thank you for settling my nerves a little bit and just giving me somebody who who knows how to articulate it and break it down.
But we definitely need to have you back on.
Well, I'm just saying, I'm just saying you I have anxietyude. Don't get me wrong. The thing is it's designed.
A lot of what we're looking at now is designed to cause a great deal of confusion.
So I mean, mice, you you were you were og like me.
We we we know stuff about the world, We've been in places we and then we talked to people right in front of our faces. You all know, you around people and you start thinking you crazy. Maybe I'm losing my mind. I mean, there was a guy screaming in the street to me yesterday trying to convince me that Kamla Harris's father is white.
Am I losing my mind?
So so is you? You are not alone in that, and that's why I'm saying there's a larger problem. But it's also bringing out the best in others people.
Y'all. We watched wonder Woman as a kid. Linda Carter got on TV today and for the first time said her mother was Mexican. She's old mother was an immigrant.
I didn't know Linda Carter, the original white Wonder Woman was Mexican's.
A Mexican woman. She is a dreamer, She is one of those people. Her mother immigrant here.
You couldn't you couldn't say that out loud, probably back then. You know what I'm saying, respect for her. I never knew this wonder Woman. Okay, I'll u was watching wonder Woman. This kid were watching wonder Woman. You know that made the right wingmail down. Wonder Woman is a Mexican, So you know, for every setback. We have something else that comes forward that says, you know, a lot of people in this country, many people are people of color and
just and I we keep saying the last thing. One of the things when we look at the Kamala Harris's and the Linda Carters, the three of us here, we regular every day black folk.
The world is changing.
The majority of people being born in the world today are of all kind of cultural mixtures. I was in a restaurant the other day right here in New York in uh near Times Square, and the young lady who was seating us at the table, it was a delay, so we struck up a conversation and I asked her where she was from. She said, her father is Haitian. Now her mother is Haitian, but her father is from Bangladesh.
Now. Thirty foty years ago, you neveruld heard something like that.
That just didn't happen, primarily because people weren't in places to meet up like that.
But as the world becomes more diverse, Hey, y'all, different folks from different parts of the.
World go hook up and it's not planned, it never is, and they don't feel the same restrictions that our parents and grandparents had to only be in one space with one kind of person exactly like you.
So you're gonna get people who were jamaking an Indian.
And black all mixed together, and like Haitian and Bangladesh and Asian and black and pretty soon all of this conversation. And that is what people fear. That is what people who are starting this stuff fear. They fear the blurring of the line. And the more you blur those lines, the more you have. With doctor Wells and doctor Francis crest Wellsing taught us, is that sooner or later we're going to have a world of people that will defeat white supremacy purely via our DNA. This will be a word.
It really already is. The majority of people in the world are people of color.
But when you start.
Mixing all of these different cultures together, that's not a bad thing. It's really okay, and it leads to greater understanding and less oppression. Why do you think there's more empathy for the people of Palestine than there ever was.
Before we had to people.
Humanity had to evolve to see the Palestinians looked like me.
Jesus was actually.
A dark skinned African Hebrew Palestinian. We didn't understand that twenty and thirty years ago.
So the more we evolve, every round goes higher and higher.
And these people see that their arguments are becoming obsolete, and they're trying to hold onto it as long as they hand as they can while it slips from their hands.
Wow, thank you, Mark.
We appreciate you so much.
We in this together. We wouldn't make it without each other. Lord, have mercy.
Lord man, I'm barely making it with us, So we should actually do it.
We should do a reality show just off our phone calls and text that would get some ratings.
Stuff, y'all.
Y'all they're talking about how I want to hit the audience. They always talking about I'm brilliant. No, I'm not, because I called them every day and also I had my owns. I say, we're not gonna make it.
They're not telling you that part.
Yeah, we're not gonna tell you that far.
But we we will make it. We will take no choice.
Man.
We we're the most resilient people on this planet Earth, and we figure out how to survive and how to thrive all the time.
So we're gonna figure it out. But it's tough, it's rough, but.
Thank you Mark, you much.
So much information, I mean, just packed with the what's happening, with the numbers, packed with you know, understanding of the political landscape. I mean, Mark is just he he has a lot of information.
I'll tell you.
I feel like the wrong people work within these campaign offices, like these campaigns like they got the I don't know. I won't say the wrong people, because there's some good people, but folks like Mark Thompson.
Uh and others. You know.
I was just having a conversation with Brittany Packnet the other night, and some of the things that she was saying, I was like, yeah, they that's how they need to message, That's what they should be saying. Like you're someone who knows what to say, Like why do why don't you work over there?
You know?
And I think, you know, Marcus one of those people that has the type of information and the insight that is needed because he can discuss what's happening on the streets, he can go to the suites, he can talk about the highest levels of government, and all of that is so necessary in these times because a lot of our people just really don't know that.
They really don't know.
So we have a jewel and Mark Thompson and you know, it's just it's just amazing just listening to the misinformation and just listening to people.
It's frustrating.
It's just really frustrating. They say you shouldn't discuss politics and religion, and I'm really I'm starting to believe that they are one hundred percent right. You know, you can have people that you love and they start discussing politics and it's just it just triggers something to you, right, Like I literally watch it because I think that it's so you know, important to our lives. We like they say,
if you don't do politics, politicis to do you. And a lot of people I don't think they take it that serious, right, I think they just they see politics as something that's trendy.
Right.
If there's a politician or somebody.
That people just say, hey, we're with this person because they're cool, or you know, do we think they're cool. Something about social media has, you know, made them look like something that we should be following. People just go and go along with it. Who was I having a conversation with somebody told me that a four year old in school was saying that I'm gonna vote for Trump
black person. They say, well, well you can't vote well, or my parents are gonna boy, And I was just like, where did this even come from?
Right, Well, there's some kids that have a lot to say about kam La Harrison, positive things to say about her, Like I was one of those kids, you know, I was a kid who was very much so in tune with politics and civil rights and all that because my parents, it was so much going on in my household. I don't know if I was four, but certainly by the time I was seven or eight, I could talk to you about politics, I could talk to you about community stuff, like I knew a lot.
No, I get that, And I'm not saying that that's not a thing. I'm just saying.
Because you knew a lot and you were typically engaged, right, and you were and you were taught actual things that made a lot of sense. I don't understand where somebody would say that we just fooling for Trump, right a kid, I don't understand what information they're being fed. So like, and then they'll probably say the same thing about on the other side. So that's what I'm trying to say. In politics is just it's such a very touchy subject, you know, but it's very imperative that we.
Focus on it. It's just it's a lot.
I'm telling you, I've been having damnar headaches just thinking about this election because what I'm very intuitive and just understanding, like we say this all the time, voter die, and you know what's on the line. We don't have like and I just see it more and more coming to fruition that this election is it's very much imperative that
we are focused on it. It's so much on these ballots, it's so much on the line, and I think people are not taking it as serious as they should, and they're just thinking it's just just another right election.
Oh, nothing's gonna affect me. I don't. I think this one is just different to me.
No.
I think they all are important, you know, And that's something that I'm beginning to realize. We used to say this particular election is the most important of your life, but I think all of them are important. And that's something that we have to understand. People are governing our communities and we need to make sure that they are.
Accountable to us.
Now, how we can how we do that better, how we do a better job of holding them accountable. It's something that I'm here for every day, all day. So it's a great show.
You know.
That's that's a lot of information, and I hope that people will really take the time to sit and listen.
Word for word. It's almost it's almost in this particular situation.
I mean, you know, I'm ready to to get off the road, to get back home and to get in the studio to film as soon as we can. But I will say that listening to Mark today, I kind of felt almost like you It was like talk radio, like he has that voice and also that information, that Joe Madison information, you know, Rest in Peace to the Eagle, where you could literally sit it's like ten ten wins and just listen.
Yeah, we didn't like an encyclopedia. Man, we deal on one of the last encyclopedia. Someone who is civically engaged, who studied, who's been in the rooms, who understands all the aspects. You know, he's a Jew, real Jew Thompson. And that brings us to the end of another episode of TMI. We appreciate all of our fans who have been sticking with us. We know, we haven't had a couple of visuals, but like Tabika said, we would definitely be back in that studio.
But we still need you to pay attention because information that you're getting is vital.
You know, we're bringing you people that we trust, that we know have information that you need to hear. So this episode, please make sure you share it with your friends and continue to make us the number one podcasts in the world because that's where we are. You know, TMI and we love y'all. If you have some questions, you know, if something that you don't understand, make sure that you DM us at the tm MY Podcast.
We'll get back to you.
I don't know why I always have to tell you it's T ANDM my Underscore Show.
Okay, well tm MY Underscore Show because you know we still we just finished transitioning from you know, our old name to this, but tm MY Underscore Show. Make sure that you hit us up. Let us know what you need to know, what you don't understand. Even if you want to have discourse, you know, I might engage you know, because I know how important this selection is.
So we appreciate your all.
I'm not gonna always be right to make it the marriages and I can always be wrong, but we will both always and I mean always, be authentic peace,