Profiting Off of Pain

I want to begin? I want to begin at the latest mass shooting where you know, on one of my other pods we were debating about talking about it because you know, it was just like, well, they're thinking about, you know, changing how they're counting mass shootings because there are just so many of them that this one may not qualify because only one person was killed, And I'm

just like, what fucking nightmare do we live in? Twenty two people were injured, and because twenty two people weren't fatally killed, like then that is not worthy of conversation these days, because there are so many mass shootings on a regular basis that now we don't need to change the policies that are causing the mass shootings. We need to change the way that we count them so that I guess that we can trick ourselves into believing that

there's not as many as there are. Let that sink in. Nonetheless, one person was fatally killed twenty two people shot at the Kandy City Chiefs super Bowl parade, right, which is filled with children and you know, and elders and you know, just people, right, People that you know wanted to enjoy a good time and celebrate their team and their cities win. And you can't do that. And you know, the funny thing is is that on the news you will listen to people pontificate on well, it was, you know, it

was an argument, or it was this or that. Why the fuck do we have so many guns? Do you know what used to happen in arguments before you had access to, like, you know, so much weaponry. It would just be an argument between two people and maybe they'd throw hands, maybe there would be you know, some punches that were thrown, but everybody would just be able to walk away from that. You know, when people refer to the good old days, that's what the fuck. I'd like

to go back to the good old days. Where everyone wasn't packing and so they weren't just one you know instance, one argument, one short temper, one moment away from committing mass murder or causing mass injury and trauma. Because what we don't talk about on a regular basis, what we don't talk about, is the trauma, the emotional trauma that is associated with being in a mass shooting. Now to date, right now, I don't have any firsthand knowledge of that,

and I pray to fucking God that I don't. But the way that this country moves, we will all experience a mass shooting at one time or another and pray

to God that we come out of it. But when I think about the school shootings, when I think about the grocery store shootings, and the synagogue shootings, and the you know, and the movie theater shootings, when I think about all of these things that have happened, and the churches and the Megas church that was just shot up the other day, it's this feeling of safety being robbed

from you, and what do we call that? Terrorism? So these people, in my humble opinion, no longer need to have motivation, Like I don't give a fuck about their motivations. Whose motivations I actually care about are the motivations of the Republican politicians that continue to pass legislation that makes it easier for people to obtain a fucking gun. That's whose motivations we should be talking about on a regular

fucking basis. I don't give a fuck nowadays about whether or not the shooter had a manifesto, whether or not they were a Trump supporter, whether or not like it was an argument, or they were bullied at school, or what difference does it make. The common denominator is the

access to guns. When I interview Jonathan you Know, at the beginning of the month for his new book, what We've become, the entire conversation and narrative change that he's talking about in his book is moving from this idea of a health pandemic and moving toward a place of power and how we who want to be able to pray, send their kids to school, shop walk, you know, fellowship with our neighbors without fear of death, and that that is about voting in the people and the judges and

the representatives that are going to give a fuck about whether or not you live and die. We are at a place where the number one killer of kids is not a disease that we're still trying to figure out how to cure. No, it is not cancer. It is guns, and still we do nothing. So for people that cover the news on a regular basis, there comes a time when you're just like, oh, I guess this story isn't enough to cover for me. Oh I'm going to keep

covering the shootings until they stop. Until they stop, because we need to know about all of them. As a clear reminder that our politicians are bought and sold by the NRA and gun manufacturers and whomever else profits from continued terrorism and violence right and fear, because people make money off of this, just like they make money off of war. So it's asking ourselves the question, well, who is making money from this? Who is profiting off of

these consistent acts of domestic terrorism. You know, just recently you had the parents of a shooter go on trial, right, the mother has gone on trial, not the father yet

and found guilty, right for the first time ever. And I'm just like, these are the types of cases that matter, These are the things that we need to figure out because you know, who made it so that you can't sue gun manufacturers Congress right the same way that they made it so that you can't sue the police, so that they just can, you know, because it'd be too complicated for them to do their jobs and just not be able to shoot and kill whomever they want or

suffocate and choke whomever they want. It's wild, you know,

it's wild. So that is unfortunately how the week began right after the super Bowl, and then we move into Donald Trump is going to once again be standing trial for the hush money fraud case, not to be confused with all the other fraudulent cases that he has, and you know, the judge Manhattan has decided he's going to stand trial the data set from March twenty fifth on the Stormy Daniels hush money case, which feels like that was like one hundred years ago that we heard about

that case. And it just you know, folks, I know that I should be holding on to some semblance of hope, but at this point, it's like you lose track of the amount of cases, you lose track of the amount of appeals, and we're just numb and desensitized to it because guess who's still running for president Donald Trump? Guess who has a fifty to fifty chance of winning the presidency Donald Trump. Right, We're more concerned with who Fannie Willis is fucking in Georgia, right than the two years

worth of investigations that she did. Now, let me tell you something, I'm gonna be one of the first people to be like, what the fuck were you thinking. Black people are taught from the beginning that you need to be twice as good to get half as fucking much, So why you would take any type of fucking risk that could potentially jeopardize one of the most important fucking trials. I have no idea, but I do know that if she were a white man, that this would just be like,

oh well and move on. But because she is a black woman that had the audacity to take on a bunch of powerful white men, oh they're gonna come for her, and that case is going to fucking disappear. So it's just, you know, it's exhausting, all of it. Keeping up with all of it is exhausting. It is just like, at this point, what does actually matter? You know, as it pertains to all of the trials, Because you know, Donald Trump can appeal, he can appeal, appeal, appeal, appeal, appeal,

until the cows come home. The Supreme Court are also bought and sold right by right wing billionaires, So there's actually no judgment that we're waiting on here that is going to lead to any type of justice happening. We already know the outcome. So it's just like a foregone conclusion. And this is what I keep saying. The only thing that we are going to be able to rely on, the only thing that we have control over is our vote. That's it. The courts are not going to save us, right,

So that's it. And if Donald Trump becomes president again and you know, begins his campaign as dictator like he's saying that he's going to do, and I'm just so confused why motherfuckers don't believe what he's saying. He said that when he came into office the first time, he was going to institute a Muslim ban. That is exactly what he did. Sure was rejected by the courts, and then he found a way to do it. He said that he was going to make you know, migrants and

immigrants suffer. He threw their babies in k and they still haven't been reunited, all of them with their families. Right, So at this stage in the game, folks, it's like the only thing that is standing between us and the end of democracy is us. We're the ones that we are waiting for sure as fuck. Is not Merrick Garland, it's not you know, the Special Council, right, it's not any of the judges, it's not Judge Chunkin, it's not

the Supreme Court. It's us. We're it. So the fact is that people telling me that they can't stomach Biden. I can't really stomach what Biden is doing in Gaza and Israel. I can't stomach the fact that, like the Associated Press can't manage to say that thirteen thousand children have been killed murdered, right instead they say minors. I can't imagine what it is like to live in constant fary, you know. The other day, I'm thinking to myself, like, where do you go when you have nowhere to go?

What do you take? How do you keep moving? And these are the thoughts that I have that keep me up at night, that have me lose sleep. And then I think to myself, like I can't get stuck in that cycle of thinking because these people, those people are relying on us to hold on to something, right, because if Donald Trump becomes president, what the fuck do you think is going to happen in Ukraine, in Gaza, around

the fucking globe? There will be no intervention, right, so we won't have to worry about our worst imagination's coming true and whether or not they will, because he's telling you, They are telling you they got billions of dollars funding it. So if you can't stomach what you are seeing elsewhere, how are you gonna be able to deal with it

in the United States? Because that's what's coming here. I just I don't get how you think that losing how people think losing democracy here is somehow going to ensure democracy elsewhere? And do I know how fucked up our democracy is. I am a black queer woman in America.

Yes I'm very well aware, But I also know that what we are dealing with right now is still better than what the people are dealing with and facing day in and day out, with being bombarded with bombs, with being picked off of the street, young boys as young you know, under the age of ten, being stripped and thrown into the back of vehicles, never to be seen or heard from again. Because you know who's searching for them. Family,

community gone wiped out. You know, it's just like I tell you that some it just makes me think that our laws are just so fucked up that Donald Trump

is even a possibility. Shows you all of the ways that white supremacy exists, that patriarchy exists, right, like there is no middle ground or oh well, maybe it's like no. A man convicted of sexual assault, a man that is referred to Mexicans as rapists and murderers, that is referred to African nations as shithole countries, that has said that members of his own party do not have the complexion to be his running mate. A man that says that

he's going to be a dictator on day one. A person who is completely and totally grifted off of every aspect of being president of the United States, that has played foot seas with dictators, that almost took us into nuclear war via Twitter. This is the man that people are considering to have another term, like they think that that is going to be the last term. I'm like,

what the fuck, It's like, I don't know. This is why I appreciate you all for sending me, you know, DMS and messages and commenting, you know, for my patrons who comment under the videos and send me notes, because I tell you that most weeks, I feel like I am screaming into a void and that no one hears. And worse yet, people here they just don't care. And that is a hard thing to deal with on a regular basis. Right that you are trying to do your best to help in the ways that you can, people

are just like, yeah, no, I'm good. I know that people are hurting. I am hurting. I know that people are exhausted. I'm exhausted. Look at me. I mean the fucking you know, I could I could pack, you know, fill up the bags under my eyes right with clothing, like that's how big they are. But we are just we don't have an alternative. And the idea that some alternative for the Democratic nominee is going to somehow present itself and then we were all gonna be well is

a lie. It is a fantasy. So I'm like, sometimes you just gotta deal with the cards that you're dealt, Like, you don't just get to flip the table like this is a reality TV show and walk away because the

consequences are just too fucking stark and too real. So I pray what I ask of all of you is to continue in the conversations with friends, colleagues, loved ones, you know, children that are going to be a voting age, and like lay it out, you know, tell them that you hear them, that you hear and you share in their frustration, but that they don't know what they are getting ready for. If they choose to not vote, they better be prepared to live with the consequences, not for

four years, but for four generations. You know, post the Civil War reconstruction only lasted twelve years, and then following that one hundred years of Jim Crow. You think it can happen again, It can, it will, and it is. 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 fun