Pouring From an Empty Cup

Mark Thompson and host of Make It Plain. And each month that Mark and I sit down, we go over our host of issues that we think are going to be impacting how people will be turning out for mid terms, and this conversation was pre taped before the breaking news around Donald Trump's home being searched and how that will impact midterms. But Mark and I do get into a conversation about, you know, the Biden administration and being held to account for the people that got Biden into office.

This was prerecorded before the Biden administration had a series of legislative wins which we had not seen since the beginning of this administration, and the initial rollout of vaccines as well as the economic package to help those most

in need during COVID, which we are still in. But Mark and I do get into a fifty thousand foot conversation about democratic messaging and also about where we are in terms of the case against Britney Griner in Russia that has now she has now been sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison. There are still talks apparently that are happening between Russia and the United States for a prisoner swap, but we do know that those things

can take months, if not years. My hope, my God, is that you know, Britney Grinder will not be as destroyed human by the time that we are able to get her back to the United States. I do believe that we will be able to get her back, God willing, but I hope that it isn't to see a ruined

and fragile and tortured Brittney Griner. And so we talk about that and the effects that that case is having on the Biden administration and whether or not they have been and are continuing to do enough, because it is really difficult for US folks to detach not only race from this case and gender, but also sexual orientation and all of those layers, playing into the fact that if this had been you know, a white male NBA player, would there have not been more public outcry, Would there

had not been more public response from this administration. We can't help, but you know use past history as our guide, which is that you know, when things relate to black women, this country could give a fuck right. They're banning abortions in places, and we have a maternal mortality rate of one in five. Black women that go into a fucking hospital may not come out right. So we know that this country cares very little about black women, and we

have known that since its creation. So how is that playing into what we are seeing with Brittney Griner is a conversation that Mark and I get into. But as I leave you folks this week, I do believe that Democrats have momentum that we have not seen before. I do believe that we are living in absolutely extraordinarily unprecedented times.

From dealing with the reality of three different viruses that are attacking this country and two of which are also attacking the world monkey Pops and COVID, we are living with unprecedented climate change that is literally washing away people's homes or setting them on fire. We are living at a time when you know there is a serial killer that is going around New Mexico killing Muslim men. Authorities

believe that they have picked up that person. They believe that person to be a person of interest and their motivation. As of this time of this recording, we do not know.

We know that we have a Republican party that is a white supremist, fascist party that no longer believes in democracy or the rule of law applying to anyone, whether that is a congressional subpoena or a fucking FBI warranted search, right, that everyone believes that Republicans and white people are just above the law and should have a whole set of

different laws, if any, that applied to them. You know, that's just coming off the dome, on top of you vote of suppression, on top of the overturning of Rov Wade, like on top of funny, as Leslie and I had remarked earlier in the week, you know, the earth actually spinning faster for the first time ever in our history,

and the day's getting shorter. So I don't know if we're just part of the leftovers, right and like the apocalypse has happened, No idea, But I do know that we need to be able to find joy, take breaks, take breaths on a regular basis because our nervous system, just the unsettledness, the uncertainty that we are living in

is crazy. It's fucking crazy, and it's why, folks, I'm taking a couple of days to go and be with friends, and at the end of this month, I will also be taking a week off before we get into the craziness of the fall, because I recognize that even though the news never stops and everything keeps breaking, that if I do not take a break, I in fact will

have a breakdown. And I appreciate so many of you that send me tweets and dms and are really prayerful and just meditative on sending me positive energy, you know, to keep myself healthy and saying, and I send that energy, meditation and prayer right back at all of you because I know that you listen to this show and you show up for Woke a f and for me, because you believe in democracy, because you believe in your responsibility as citizens to this country, and sometimes the responsibility of

citizenship waghs really fucking heavy, like it is right now that some days I would rather just not care. I would rather just you know, bury my head in the sand and pretend all of this isn't happening and go

about my day. But there is just no way for what is transpiring to not affect us right, So, whether we are actively dealing with it or as I talked about a couple of weeks ago, you know, this stress that kind of is just laying in the back of our minds because we're never able to fully relax, right.

And the reason is because since Donald Trump has ended down those fucking stairs, you know, we have been living with that ambient stress, that stress that you know, we don't know how to meet head on day in and day out. We just know that we don't feel right. We know that we feel uneasy, and we can't necessarily

every single day put our fingers on it. And what I want to say is that ignoring it is going to be a bigger problem than actually meeting these issues head on and figuring out what are the tactics, the self care tactics that I need to be layering myself in and building into a daily routine in order to

keep me sane and in order to keep me healthy. Right, Because even when we have these winds, which this administration has had recently, I'm too scared to be excited about it because I'm just anticipating the other shoe dropping, and

that is no way to live. So if you have the ability and the privilege to be able to take a break before we get ready to go back to school not knowing what the fuck that's going to bring, or get ready to go back to work or what have you, please do take time for yourself, even if it is a day that you say, you know what, you know what, my vacation is going to be turning off every single social media app and just focusing on

real life and real people for one whole day. Because I will tell you that the times that I am able to take a break and leave this behind, I feel renewed, right, I feel re energized. I feel like I'm giving myself the strength that is necessary to continue pushing on. And I want that for all of us, because we are all needed in every single capacity that we are able to show up in. Doesn't matter if

you have a microphone or not. It matters that you care and that you want the people around you to care, right and in order for that to happen, we need to care for ourselves. And so as I bid you ado on this day and pick it up on the other side of the week, remember that your self care comes before everything else, because it is a thing that allows us to continue pushing along. We cannot, as my

mother says, pour from an empty cup. The Damage Report with John Idarola is one of the most popular shows on the TYT network that serves as your daily breakdown of the genuine threats and challenges facing our country and world. These days, we're confronted with an overwhelming sea of shocking, confounding,

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get your podcast. New episodes every Tuesday, Folks. I am always so be every month that I get to sit down with my friend the Reverend Mark Thompson, host of Make It Plain to Yes, make it woke, and make it plain for us about what we are headed into in the next couple of months as we make the slow march to midterms and beyond. Mark, I want to start off today with you know, I never get to actually marinate in good news, and as it turns out,

surprisingly so is Kansas the new Bellweather State? Is this the new state that we need to be paying attention to? Because out of shock to me but not to others who have seen Kansas as more of a moderate and not so much of a red red state, they completely and totally rebuffed the Republican parties push to rewrite their constitution and and overturn access to abortion in that state. Now are everyone is saying, oh, Democrats, we think we have a winning issue for you. What did you make

of the people of Kansas and they're pushback against abortion? Well, I think it's finally white women and their allies in a red state getting it. I think for years, all the conversation about row and row being on the block and being in jeopardy, for those of us who were saying it, we're seeing, as chicken little the sky has fallen. Now it has actually happened. And just like in sports and politics, there's something called an unforced error. I think

the GOP has made a grave mistake thinking that. But they believe they own press, and their own press is Fox News, and Fox News tells them every day that this is what the American public wants, and this is not what the American public wants. Kansas has proved that I wish abortions were on every ballot in November. If so Democrats, Democrats would win resoundingly. So I think this is a wake up called Republicans. But also, as you said,

we need some good news. It ought to serve as an inspiration to Democrats of what we can get done if we stick together, that the issues that we support all the issues many other Americans support, and that we're on the right side of this struggle. And I think that that's pretty much the way it's going to go. And I think I mentioned this to you before. Normally the party in power lose a ceasin them in terms. But Democrats really are not the party in power, even

though Binds the president. We're not the Supreme Court. The right wing Supreme Court is the branch in power. Is the party in power. Republicans, who are filibustering everything in the Senate are the party in power. And so I think that our base is getting that. I think, look, it's just likely it's channing. It took a Republican white woman to get Democrats to focus on January sixth to the point where it is now and it's helping. It

took a Republican Republican white women collectively in Kansas. Maybe it inspires because let's face it, and you've talked about this a lot um. I don't want to sound just like you because I don't have at the time band with getting as trouble as you've been getting into. I got I'm barn enough crosses. I want to bear your cross right now. I did pick your cross up later and help you. Uh you know it's it's in a babble some a couple of people help Jesus care to cross.

I'm saying I'm not gonna help Danielle care her cross journey. But um, let me say this as diplomatically as possible. Um Democratic Party leadership, and I shouldn't even say that. The consultant class Democratic Party, for whatever reason, fields they gotta listen to even speech other they didn't say the word abortion. So so you do you are in what nineteen eighty six, nineteen ninety one, this is twenty twenty, twenty twenty. I'm sorry, twenty twenty two. This is twenty

twenty two. So you can say abortion. That's where it's at. Stop being afraid to say the word. But the consultant class, who does not know what it's doing, is advising not to do that. The consultant classes becap. They told this Cheney, maybe we shouldn't have a committee, maybe we shouldn't have hearings, And she had to tell him. She said, why don't

y'all stand up? It took a Nick Cheney's daughter to tell them to stand up for so, you know, I hope that this lets people know on our side they can stand up, and if it doesn't, let the leadership know, it lets the rank and file, the constituents know to make the leadership stand up and stop being scared of their own shadow. This is a This is a big victory, big, huge, devastating to the Republican Party, and I think it foretells what more can come if we hold a lot. You know.

The funny thing is is that the punding class has been saying that Republicans are the dog that caught the car right for forty some odd plus years. They've been one Roe v. Wade overturned, one Roe v. Wade overturned forty some ide years. They've had their white evangelical Christian base, you know, telling holding up those signs of mutilated fetuses and this, that and the other thing. And now they got their wish, right, they got their wish and now

you are seeing these red states. It's not enough to say that you don't have access to abortion. Now we're going to criminalize women. Now we're gonna throw We're gonna throw women and people with uteruses in jail. We're going to monitor your menstrual cycle. But so that like if you're going to New York, we know that you're going on vacation and not going for an abortion or going for business. And I think that do you believe Mark, it is this kind of owort, no exceptions, not rape,

not incests. I mean, they're even having conversations. I can't believe my mind that they're having conversations about a ten year old becoming a mother, about a thirteen year old being able to be a parent, and they think that that shit is normal. And so do you think that it was this that was the overreach for white women who were, like they've been voting. I mean we talk about this all the time. They've been voting with their white men since the beginning of time, right, Like, they

have not voted Democrat, they don't split. But in this instance voter registration in Kansas, seventy percent of new voters were women, right that signed up? So do you think that it is about the egregious nature and the criminality that white Republican men are I think this around that has pushed white women a little too far. I think so, and I think again, it's about autonomy, women's bodily autonomy.

And when you put that right in front, I mean it's really there's no other way to spend what they've done. They are very clear about controlling women's bodies, and you have to be pretty self enslaved to be in denial about that, even if you lied to everybody on outside, when you clearly in the mirror as a woman, you cannot deny what it's going. And then they've announced, thanks to hangs here, uncle town Clarence Thomas. Well next we're

coming for contraception. Next we're coming for marriage equality in two issues that are important women. So really, you you don't. You don't leave a lot of wiggle rooms. So I think what's happening now is, as I said, what we have been saying, even what Hillary said was going to happen has actually happened. Nobody believed it. Oh, y'all have been saying that years. They're not really gonna do it. I see, for exam, you take Susan Collins and Canon telling me he's not you c and then he lied

to me. But to think about there a lot of white women as ignorant as Susan Collins, which really is disqualified for being in the Senate. You know. And I don't know what's worse, uh uh um, pretend lying about it, if she lied about whether or not she believed Kavanaugh or really being I don't know. I don't know what's worse, really, to be honest with Yeah, I every reason to believe she actually believed him. I think she did too, which to me actually makes it worse. But it goes to

your point, why would you believe him? Because we you know, we believe our white husbands, we believe our white men. We trust these whiteman. I trust this young white man. But your friend and mine, Marcos, a daily coach, He says something to me, there was also someone controversial. I'm not gonna carry his cross either on the show. I'm avoiding y'all's crosses. He said, you got your own, Yeah, I got Um. I'm saying to see you and I want y'all hitter is. And I'm when I say, I

know you're gonna agree with me. But Marco says something deep, right, He said, Markel men take something two women and and this is his category. Now again the two major constituencies that will determine the election black vote. Suburban college educated white women, that's it. That's that golden ticket. Suburban college that's Willy Wonka factory. Suburban college educated white woman. That's what helped Trump get in. He said, Mark's people that said,

suburban college educated white women. That ain't just about their daughters. He said, Mark, that's about their sons. This is what you mean, said, these surban college educated away with these soccer moms raise these you know, these golden boys. They raise their sons and they want to send to college and be successful. And little boys get little girls knocked up. All right, So ukn't have no not having no options. And I said, I didn't thin about They said, no,

ain't just about daughters. Them women don't want their little boys called out there because it ain't paying for them babies, right, you feel me? So? So he said, when you look at all of that, all right, it's what everybody he was saying. Suburban college educated white women who have daughters, that's wanting. But suburban college gets educated white women who have sons. This affects everybody. It affects if you are controlling everybody's life by making these decisions about what women

ought to be with their bodies. So, um, hey, I think that this is this is this is real Kansas, and see other states are gonna look at it. And again I think I said this last time. I was do you see his a little mystery that we haven't solved? And I keep saying whenever I say this to people who pushed back to get real quiet. Rapinsburger testified before Januars six committee, Trump called him and needs you to find me a living dnod in Livenent Vook residents, why

I can't find you them? Thousand of those news that we're not can you find him? Dude? Because thirty three thousand Georgia Republicans did not vote for president at all, didn't vote for you at all. That's before Danielle they knew, that's before January six. What was going on in November of twenty twenty that thirty three thousand Georgia Republicans wouldn't vote for Donald Trump? We all ask ourselves, like, why did Joe Biden? So that means and I bet they're

having a few other states. There was already some folks saying, hey, you can't get with this dude. He little wut they were doing that. So now you've got everything that's happened since November twenty twenty, right, you got this Jane where six coming out and if Merrick Garland I knew, don't get into this Mary Garland because a black woman pushed him. Our friend Priston Clark had the courage to prosecute the

officers who killed Brianna Taylor. If he would only have the courage to prosecute Trump, well, I don't want to prosecute. You're a prosecuting the president. You're prosecuting someone who's committing crimes outside of the presidency. Al capone, you get him on what you can get him on. If he would only prosecute Trump on witness tampering currently yep, and mail fraud like they did to Andrew gillim yep, two hundred million dollars on stop to Steel, then what are you doing.

You're actually getting his constituency behind you, because then his argument he's a deal Jake, And say all y'all who sent Trump that turned fifteen dollars won't getting money back for you because that money was not used properly. Even the most staunched problems with the way. Wait a minute, I get my money that I ain't got no gas money. Sometimes we get some under back thing. I don't care. So if if, if Gland would just do that which

he's afraid to do. Is interesting though, if you notice even safe Meal in mouth milktoast Democrats who said he shouldn't be prosecuted now saying he should be. He should be prosecuted. You got beyond Panetta saying as a conspiracy. He never said the word conspiracy in his eighty years of life. So so so, what I'm saying is this is an opportunity they get. Role was a gift more than we know. And I'm telling you we're close to getting get codified at as law Democrats would have. Senate

is gonna be law now. Mansion and sentiment, you're gonna get him off that filibuster. Suburban college educated white women called Joe Biden in Spain, and he was old infanato. Joe Bidden says, I'll never get rid of the filibuster. They called him in Spain and hey man, miss president, good morning, how are you to days? You are now in favor of filibuster reform. The codified roles, have a

nice day. Joe Badden went out before the press and said, I'm now in favor of modern fan of filibuster because suburban, college educated white women called him and told him to do it. So this is the power that they have. Hopefully they'll exercise it as they did in Kansas in November.

So staying on the topic of the Department of Justice, because Merritt Garland pisses me off, and anybody who listens to walkaf knows that on a regular basis that I'm sitting around much like you, much like everybody else with goddamn sense, waiting for Merritt Garland to do exactly what it is that you just said. Prosecute Donald Trump for

the crimes that he is committed. Don't give me bumper sticker slogans telling me that nobody is above the law, because if you had the mount everest of evidence that you had against any other person in these United States,

they would have been indicted from seventeen months ago. But I want to look at what the Department of Justice has done recently, which is decide to go after the four police officers involved in the murder of Brianna Taylor who was sleeping in her own goddamn bed when her door was busted open and her apartment building was shot up and she was murdered. Now, if folks remember, there was no we're not going to investigate. There was a black DA who is a Republican, This, that, and the

other thing. The family ends up ends up being awarded monetary damages for her death, but again no criminal charges. The Department of Justice has finally changed that. What do you make of this now, Mark, that's huge? Is huge. Again, if our sister Christy, and this is why representation matters. This is why you know, when we fight for some of the things we fight for, we want people that

look like us. They had the perspective. There's a black woman who's the sister Attorney General for civil rights, Kristin Clark former, he had the largest committed to civil rights on the law. She saw this through, she got the prosecution. Then. I don't think this was Merritt Garland, but he has to support it. Now. No, this is a very big deal, and that's what people are looking for. In fact, the dj is probably doing Biden a favor by even getting this done. But this is a very very important piece

of prosecution. You can tell that they did not announce it. They took their time to announce it, to have the opportunity to gather all the evidence and to make the strongest case possible. You're right, this sister was in her home. There's no reason why she should be dead. This I think is an open, open and shut case. Again though, and to me an even easier case is the case to try Donald Trump for e either witness tampering or

I get it. You know they're afraid Biden, the consultants Garland are afraid of setting a precedent so that from now on, whatever the the the successor party will prosecute the previous party's president. I get that that's what they don't want to set up. UM. But I think these this is a different situation if you confine it. UM. I do think it's it's probably more complicated to charge Trump with treason and sedition, um. But witness tampering. So the people think you go to trials like it's on TV,

it's not go to trial. Did he call you and threaten you not testifying? Yes? Did he call yes? Yes? That goes to the jury. That's a yes question. And a whole lot of evidence. It's just did he call you. We got the evidence and the record of the call. That's it. He's done. He's done. On the money, we got the records. Did y'all send him money, munty? Yes? What did he spend the money on himself? Himself? So, I mean, these are these things are black and white.

But apparently the DOJ is fearful of doing that. But what we also need to know too, is that the DOJ is not monolithic. Their career prosecutors that are in there. And when my sources tell me even on Andrew Giller prosecution, Mary Garden didn't know about it, that he sought on news like everybody else did. So there is some level of autonomy when it comes to prosecutors in the deal. So I don't so I don't know, But he's still the attorney general, so I don't know whether or not.

And and you know, Juliani revealed that he himself had even caused splits in communities within the DJ and the FBI. So Donald Trump even tore up the DJ. I mean, really, that might be another polish for prosecution, and you call sedition within the own law enforcement agencies of the United States government. I mean, we ask you Giuliani for that lock him up there, which which they have decided not

to with that, but that just recently. But that was that was for his involvement um with Russia and his interference with Russia being a being an asset um. You know the other thing though here too when you talk about all of these agencies and the corruption. Right, we got the missing text messages, right, we got the We got the watchdog who then decided that like, oh no, we don't need to do a backup, we don't need to alert Congress, we don't need to do these things.

And I'm like, hello, DJ, paging Merrick Garland. Again, this isn't How many coincidences do you need to equal equal corruption is the question. But last thing for you, Mark is on Brittany Griner, who, in my humble opinion, did not receive the type of attention is still is now it's starting to bubble up back to the service now that she has been sentenced. And this sham trial that Russia put on where we knew it was a sham trial.

Everybody who's either been inside of Russia or been on the receiving end of one of these sentences and just release home will tell all of us this, how do you feel that we need to proceed as black folks in the media, as the media in general, to continue to put a spotlight on her and her plight so she's not forgotten. You're really trying to get me in trouble now, Yes, you need to ask Medas off there,

But let me try to put this diplomatically. One time recently, there was an growing movement for people to get out in the streets on behalf of Brittany Grinder. I remember what happened was that the Biden administration realized what was happening and then woke up the little slow to things.

They woke up and then they convinced many that a movement in the streets that was too loud or too confrontational would in greater Now, if the movement that got started and then stopped got Biden to get off his rusted dust to do something, then it served It's good. Literally, were just on a call for an hour today, was from a very prominent civil rights organization begging me to give them, you know, the justification to get back down

the streets. I said, well, you know, I don't think that's what's desirable right now, and I think it's going to be very difficult to get people behind that because the argument is nobody wants to do anything to hurt Brittain. You know, I'm the last person who would say not to do something. But it's complicated because you don't want to hurt her, and so you don't really know. I think that I think the original mistake was from the beginning, the White House lad people to believe that they were

going to do something that they never did it. So and they asked people at the beginning to be quiet. We got this, they didn't had any do squat. So for months everybody was quiet. Then many of us say we finished being quiet. Then when people started making those White House came back, Oh, you're right, we're about to do something. Go back to being quiet again. So now, technically the sentence thing was should be supposed to be a formality to get to the next step of negotiation

to end political imprisonment. Who's asked that is the release of the merchant of death m Victor Bout For that to happen, Biden has agreed to. Yep, So what's the hold of I mean, it ought to be. I mean these because they want they want another one. They decided that they wanted another one, and this the other person that they want, who was actually a convicted murderer who is serving time in Germany. So isn't even underneath the United States is purview? Which is just stupid? Um is

was their follow up? What's their follow up? Asked what they need to go ahead and get that. They need to call Germany now called you and just get the person released too, because I'm like, it doesn't matter, right, Like to me, it doesn't, it doesn't. I'm like, Okay, they want their murderers back, great, give them to them, let them have them. And you know, I don't know that these individuals ever really were a threat to the

United States. And knowing the CIA the way we do, I mean, the United States could release them and then kill them on inside a week later they wanted to. I mean, so that's what they do, and they and I'm sure they've infiltrated some of the circles in the Kremlin, so if they want, they can release them and take them out. So I think that they just need to do that. We need Brittany home. I think there's another

victor of people want. No one likes the idea of seeing a woman, an African American woman, locked up in a Russian prison for nine years. I don't think that's something that people can stomach. So while the DJ is prosecuting the four officers involved in Brianna Taylor's death, we can't stop there. We need Brittany Ryanner released yesterday. And

until Brittany Grinner is free, none of us free. We all are Brindy Grinner and Ed regard Reverend Mark Thompson as always, thank you for your monthly visit to help make us woke. We appreciate you, Thank you pleasure to be here. God bless you in your audience. That is it for me today, dear friends, on Woke a f as always. Power to the people and to all the people. Power,

get woke and stay woke as fuck, Get up. Behind the scenes look at Comedy Central's The Daily Show on Beyond the Scenes, an original podcast from The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Every week, host Roy Wood Junior goes deeper with the notable guests and experts from the Emmy Award winning series. Together, they use comedy to tackle current topics from gentrification to gun laws, and take a closer

look at how and why these topics matter. Listen to be on the scenes from The Daily Show with Trevor Noa on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. New episodes every Tuesday.