Frame of Reference - Coming Together
"Frame of Reference - Profiles in Leadership" and "Frame of Reference - Coming together" are conversational style shows with local, national, and global experts about issues that affect all of us in some way. I’m, at heart, a “theatre person”. I was drawn to theatre in Junior High School and studied it long enough to get a Master of Fine Arts in Stage Direction. It’s the one thing that I’m REALLY passionate about it because as Shakespeare noted, “all the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players”. Think about the universality of that line for just a moment. Think about the types of “theatre” that play out around us every day in today’s world. The dramatic, the comedic, the absurd, the existential, the gorilla theatre (it’s a thing, look it up) that is pumped into our Smart Phones, TV’s, Radios, and PC’s every minute of every day.
Think about the tremendous forces that “play” upon us - trying to first discover, then channel, feed, nurture, and finally harvest our will power and biases in order to move forward the agendas of leaders we will likely never meet. Think of all these forces (behind the scenes of course) and how they use the basic tools of theatre to work their “magic” on the course of humanity. Emotionally charged content matched to carefully measured and controlled presentations.
With that in mind (and to hopefully counter the more insidious agendas), I bring you the Frame of Reference "Family" of podcasts, where the voices of our local and global leadership can share their passion for why and how they are leaders in their community and in many cases, the world. Real players with real roles in a world of real problems. No special effects, no hidden agenda, just the facts and anecdotes that make a leader.
And at the risk of sounding trite, I sincerely thank my wife Ann and my two children Elisabeth and Josiah for continually teaching me what leadership SHOULD look like.
Frame of Reference - Coming Together
Democracy's Breaking Point: Will We March Into Hell for a Heavenly Cause?
Democratic Representative Al Green stood up during Trump's congressional address and declared "no mandate" when Trump claimed a mandate to cut Medicaid. For this truth-telling, Green was escorted out and later censured—with even ten Democrats joining the rebuke. This incident exposes a disturbing double standard: when Joe Wilson shouted "You lie!" at Obama, or when Marjorie Taylor Greene repeatedly interrupted Biden's addresses, they faced no similar consequences.
The contrast between Al Green and Marjorie Taylor Greene provides a stark illustration of this double standard. Al Green has dedicated his career to expanding social programs and advocating for stronger banking regulations, while Marjorie Taylor Greene has promoted conspiracy theories ranging from QAnon to anti-Semitic white supremacist views. Yet it was Al Green who faced formal censure.
This episode digs deeper into what this moment reveals about America's current political crisis. The hosts explore how the geographic and demographic differences between their districts reflect America's deepening divides, and how language around taxes and fairness is manipulated to serve power. When the ultra-wealthy complain about paying taxes while hiding assets offshore and fighting social programs, we see the real battle isn't just partisan—it's between the haves and have-nots.
What makes this moment particularly critical is how quickly decades of progress toward equity and inclusion are being dismantled. Drawing from "Man of La Mancha," the hosts call for Americans to "march into hell for a heavenly cause" and stop being moderate in the face of injustice. The question isn't whether we should speak up, but what line must be crossed before we will?
Thanks for listening. Please check out our website at www.forsauk.com to hear great conversations on topics that need to be talked about. In these times of intense polarization we all need to find time to expand our Frame of Reference.
And it's on you.
Speaker 2:Let's have it.
Speaker 1:Well, hello, hello everybody. You know we're coming into this podcast. I'm Raul LaBrush, by the way, in case you didn't know everyone. But that's who I am. Like, raul LaBrush, as in fresh, and my good friend, my brother, in this whole process I keep forgetting your name. Who are you again? Ed Warhol the senior? Oh, that's right. Why is it so hard for me to remember that name? I guess I'm just a dummy.
Speaker 1:Anyways, so we just got done. I mean, not only did we're talking, and then we were having technical difficulties, and then Antoine and I talking more about other stuff that we talk about. His wife has just published a book. We started talking about her book and you know I have ordered a copy of it, so that you know, I was just so excited to get a hold of it. Give it to my wife and daughter, because it's a devotional book for women, written by a woman that has learned devotion the hard way, I would say. And then Ramona got on the phone. We hardly ever get to talk. Ramona and I have said like hi and passing a couple of times, but she and I got to talking and well, here we are, an hour later. You know, it's just so. It's been an interesting morning, folks. It has from my perspective. I'm not my side of the table. How about you, antoine? How are you feeling about this morning so far?
Speaker 2:Well, I think when things happen, I always say things happen for a reason, man, so the time was ordained, you know what I mean. And just the conversations need to be had. There needed to be a break and I have had to. You know, just say thank you, man, greatly for uh purchasing my wife's uh devotional, uh for uh ann and elizabeth, and just uh, thank you, man. I know it's going to benefit them greatly.
Speaker 2:And again, like my wife was saying, uh offline, you know how it's a basically a mirror of her personal journey and she's uh really given a true testimony of the things that she's experienced in this life, and so it's going to touch the lives of women everywhere. You know, of course they can purchase it on amazon. It's called revival devotional journal and of course, you know we're waiting on the website lady to come fix the website so she can come open up the store on the website. But you know, just um, just uh, it's just, it's going to benefit women greatly. We believe it's an anointing journal and whether a woman is a believer or not, it's going to benefit greatly.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 2:Again, just thank you for your support and your family's support with the purpose of the book and just the plugs you've been giving man, Thank you.
Speaker 1:My pleasure. You know these are tough times been giving man. Thank you, my pleasure. These are tough times in so many ways, I think all of us, all of us, you know, and I shouldn't say it's always tough times, but particularly now it just seems like it's so much more like hello.
Speaker 1:But you know, life is hard. There's no way, shape or form about it. And so some people are blessed to have all kinds of you know wonderful things in their lives and have the money to be able to afford all kinds of things, and maybe it doesn't seem as hard for them. I beg to differ just because you know so many people that are rich and have everything they want are still really, really unhappy people, you know. So you look at that and think, okay, so where's the secret? And well, you know, the secret is really obvious, right? It's in this card called Jesus Christ, you know. So if you don't take that card out of the stack and say you know, this is the one I want to play in, whatever game we're in, I want to play this card You're going to struggle more than you need to, and even with when you play that card.
Speaker 1:You know, in some ways I just talk, I have thought, you know, when they do like the evangelism, tent meetings or whatnot, and they call people to Jesus and say, come up the front of the stage here and let's make a dedication to Jesus, and that's all fine and good, I mean, you see people just break down and really have a moment of transformation. But what I don't hear as often as I think I should is and understand, now you have a target on your back. You know, it's just you've now entered into the realm of total spiritual warfare and it is not going to be. You don't become a Christian to have everything be, you know, hunky-dory, rosy for the rest of your life. That's just not how it works.
Speaker 1:So, but what you do get is a sense of not only eternal salvation, but you also get a sense that, as hard as it gets, you've got somebody to go to that will always be there for you, never ever going to say I don't have time for you right now, and that's what a lot of people are lacking, right that you have all the money in the world but you don't have somebody you can just go to that knows you, that will accept you as who you are, that will whatever. Anyway, so that's been anything that I've been blessed or that I have blessed you with. I have been blessed 14 times over with you guys as well.
Speaker 1:So it goes two ways, man, it goes two ways, absolutely. So anyways, today, what we're going to talk about? What was my idea?
Speaker 2:Do you remember? Well, we just wanted to touch base, man, on the censorship of Representative Al Green and just the contradicting, whole contradicting nature of it. And you know it's just a very disturbing. You know, of course, we know, when we say what, no course of, what censorship is no, just, basically, is a rebuke, a written rebuke against that particular person. But also it's just how contradictory it is. You know, when we talk about you know, oh, we've reviewed him because he interrupted the president's speech. You know, when we talk about you know, oh, well, we rebuke him because he interrupted the president's speech. You know, you know we've seen this before with no consequence to others. You know, of course, going back to Obama's speech when he was talking about, you know, the Affordable Care Act, right, representative Joe Wilson, he, obama, president Obama was saying, hey, under this Affordable Care Act, no illegal immigrant will be covered by this insurance. And, representative Joe Wilson, he shouts out you lie.
Speaker 2:And then, of course, but at the time, the, the Speaker of the House, or the, the Speaker of the House was Nancy Pelosi, and she said nothing. And then, of course, we see, when President Joe Biden was giving a speech, marjorie Taylor Greene, jess Herr and Lauren Bogert they interrupted him so many times and the Speaker at the time was Kevin McCarthy. He said nothing. But here we are, you know, of course, a representative out green speaking up against a lie that was being told on national television from the most powerful person in the world. He said all he said was no mandate, no mandate. And yet, you know, they called the sergeant at arms on him to have him removed. It was just kind of insane.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a. I thought it was interesting to. I started doing some research because I you know I do not spend a lot of time doing political research, but when I start doing it I just pick up right away on a lot of the nuances of the people involved in the whole thing. So because I felt the same way, you know that all of a sudden he gets escorted out for actually saying something truthful. I mean, he was Trump, was talking about having a mandate from the people. And Al Green stood up, pointed his cane up and said you do not have a mandate to take away Medicaid. And you know making he wasn't just saying you're a liar, he's saying you don't have a mandate to take away Medicaid, trying to get that subject, that whole plan, to the forefront and get people to understand On national television. Right, this is an opportunity to confront one of these lies and get people to understand on national television. Right, this is an opportunity to confront one of these lies and get people to think about the consequences of what's going on here. And he gets escorted out for it.
Speaker 1:So then I started looking at the people in this whole thing. So, because we're looking at two different sides of green. You know two different shades of green. Right here you got Al Green and you got Marjorie Taylor Green, who actually smells it with an extra E. Just, I think there was a three for one sale or something or three for two sale. The day she was born they added another E in for free.
Speaker 2:I jokingly say that Marjorie Taylor Green hates the fact that she's part black. Look at her hair, look at her facial structures. I believe she's part black. Look at her hair, look at her facial structures. I believe she has black blood.
Speaker 1:You never know right. Wouldn't that be the incredible irony for her? So you look at Al Green and this is Wikipedia. If you've got a problem with Wikipedia, I've got to ask you have you gone to Dunderhead University? Have you gone to Dunderhead University? Because Wikipedia is by far the most unbiased, patrolled for veracity information sources out there. So if you doubt that, do some research on Wikipedia by people outside. It is contributed to by so many different people and edited by so many different people that it is as close to reality as we can get on factual matters, like people.
Speaker 1:Okay, so here's Alexander N Al Green, born September 1st 1947, member of the Democratic Party. He served as a Justice of the Peace in Harris County, Texas, from 1977 to 2004. Throughout his tenure, Green has focused on issues such as abortion rights in the United States and expanding social programs in the United States. And Green is a member of the United States House Committee on Financial Services, where he's advocated for stronger banking regulations. There's a key stronger banking regulations and corporate accountability. Now, if you don't think those two things have put some targets on his back, you are sorely mistaken, because that is something you do not do. You don't want to make the bankers ticked off, and you sure as heck don't want to tick off the corporations, because they will come after you with big sticks.
Speaker 2:So, of course, those are the very things that they're lifting all these regulations on right now, Exactly exactly.
Speaker 1:So then let's look at the other green. Okay, marjorie Taylor Greene, sometimes referred to by her initials MTG, is an American far-right politician, businesswoman and conspiracy theorist who has been a US representative for the Georgia's 14th congressional district since 2021. Greene has promoted anti-Semitic and white supremacist views, including the white genocide conspiracy theory, qanon Pizzagate. She has amplified conspiracy theories that allege the government involvement in mass shootings in the United States, implicate the Clinton family in murder and suggest the attacks were a hoax. Before running for Congress, greene supported calls to execute prominent Democratic Party politicians, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. As a congresswoman, she equated the Democratic Party with Nazis and compared COVID-19 safety measures to the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust, later apologizing for this comparison. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, greene promoted Russian propaganda and praised Vladimir Putin, and she identifies as a Christian nationalist. So there you have the two Greene's in terms of you know who they are. Because we are what we do, you know whether or not you can say you know I am a kumquat. But if you do not do any of the things that a kumquat does, nor do you look like a kumquat, nor can you be served with other vegetables as a kumquat. You are not a kumquat. So these folks have more than demonstrated who they are by what they have done and what they've said, and who they align with. Now let's look a step further, folks. This is our Wikipedia hour here. The areas that they represented okay, marjorie Taylor Green we'll stay with her to get the comparison easily. She represents the Georgia's 14th Congressional District. Okay, located in Northwest Georgia, it was created following the 2010 Republican, while conservative Democrats held most local offices and state legislative seats in what is now the 14th, well into the 1990s. Today, there are almost no elected Democrats above the county level. The Democrats have only nominated a candidate in four of the six elections since the district was created and with their best result being Sean Harris is 36% in the 2024 election. It includes.
Speaker 1:There was one other thing I wanted to do. Well, I'll suffice that so you get an idea. It's rural, very, you know, conservative, like you can look at the the thing. It looks like a big monster or a Pac-Man in terms of the way that the lines are drawn on it. So eating up all kinds of, you know, radical liberals, I'm sure, as it plugs along Texas' ninth district, which is where Al Green is from. It includes the southwest portion of the greater Houston area in Texas and from 1967 to 2005, the 9th covered an area stretching from Galveston through Houston to Beaumont. Much of that area is now a second district. Most of the area now in the 9th was the 25th district from 1983 to 2005. So that's been a morphing area too right, but big difference big urban area versus a big rural area.
Speaker 1:So therein, I guess I don't know that there's statistical correlation here but it's an interesting fact that you have two different, very different kinds of representations of people in America right now and ideologies in America, things that those people accept as truth versus baloney. And their representative is in fact somebody that represents, I would say people can argue with me if they want, but I would say that they represent people that are very much of the same kind of ilk as who they are in Congress. So the question becomes who is playing by which set of rules and who is not? Because Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Burbitt during Joe Biden's inauguration or State of the Union address was if you go back and play it because it's still out there to listen to they were far more I'm going to say it far more disruptive than Al Green was. They were also disruptive in a way that was just hateful, spiteful. I'm going to get in your face and you are. I have no respect for you whatsoever Just in a you know, spewing out nonsense, spewing out lies and acting like you know. If you saw them during that speech, they were like high school kids sitting in the auditorium while the principal tries to talk about what's going on in you know school for the next semester, whatever. All they were missing was smoking doobies and chewing gum and throwing paper airplanes at people. It was that level of behavior.
Speaker 1:Al Green, in juxtaposition to that, stands up and makes a statement that is hardcore reality. Stands up and makes a statement that is hardcore reality, hardcore. You know. This is what's happening and challenging lawmakers and the president himself to stop lying and talk about what your real agenda is. So I think, honestly, the biggest problem with that is that Democrats said nothing to support him.
Speaker 1:Democrats sat there after he got escorted and didn't do anything. In fact, 10 of them voted to censure him, along with the Republicans after this whole thing, to say naughty, al naughty. They censured him, which is essentially, you know, just being saying you were bad and we're gonna make sure you get a mark in your folder. I don't remember Marjorie Taylor Greene getting censured. There was a point where she got thrown off a bunch of committees for her conspiracy theories, which was made sense because she was just wacko about that stuff, and still is, but it just it's so. It's just so indicative of the double standard in our country and so indicative of the fact that white, moderate America continues to just sit back and go. Well, you know he did misbehave, instead of going no, you know, yes, he misbehaved. He himself said I will take the consequences for my actions. Gleefully, almost right, I understand that, but he was fighting for something right. He was fighting for something truthful versus the people.
Speaker 1:That lie and lie and lie and lie and lie, and lie and lie, and we just said, oh well, you know there's some truth to what they're saying, and line up with them. I mean, just get back in line, buddy. Hail Trump, hail Trump. Get back in line. I just don't get it. Where is the backbone? I'm calling on us white people, folks, we're going to have to put it on the line. You know it's time for us to stop being moderate and laying around going. You know that's so bad. You know he was really being naughty, though. Stop doing that bullshit and saying no, he was saying the truth and he got crucified for it. You know he got escorted out of the chamber like some naughty boy that you know needs to be punished now and he ought to spend some time in detention for speaking the truth. Really, that's what America's standing for right now, and you know where are we in this equation? Oh well, you know he is a black man. What? What is the rationale?
Speaker 1:Because Martin Luther King said it himself in the 1960s, shortly before he's killed. He said he's begun to realize that not only is there still a lot of work, but the thing that he was most concerned about was white, moderate America, because he ultimately wasn't sure that we had the backbone, the cojones, to stand up and do what's right and say bone the cojones to stand up and do what's right and say this is not who we are. We are going to be these people. We are holding these truths to be self-evident and we're willing to put whatever we need to down on the line to say no more, no more. And you know, I don't know what to tell you folks, given the way things are going, a lot of us might have to die. You know, we might have to take that full measure of devotion. I don't know what to tell you. So maybe that's what we're so concerned about.
Speaker 1:Oh, I don't want to lose my Toyota. I can't. What would I do without my Toyota? Or, you know, I can't, I can't, I don't, I don't want people yelling mean things at me or hurting me. There might, and black people have been doing that for a long, long time. They have been putting their lives on the line to fight for what's right. So get with it, you know. Get with it, folks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:When you know you're fine. You just simply know. When you look at the distinction between the two grains, you know, like you gave a great illustration One is from a pretty much a predominantly rural area and one is representing a urban mixed area. And of course you know, the Bible tells us this. Of course both of them say they're Christian. One is a Christian, one is a nationalist, because I don't think there's no such thing as a Christian nationalist. You're one or the other. You know, in the course of when we talk about, you know when the Bible says we'll know them by their fruits.
Speaker 2:You know, we got to look at the speech. Look at Marjorie Taylor Greene's speech. Her behavior. Nothing is Christian about that. She does not exhibit not one fruit of the spirit love, joy, peace, kindness, patience, longsuffering. You don't see any of that in her behavior or her speech.
Speaker 2:And then, of course, the things that she speak on, like you were saying, those QAnon things that she support and promote, like the white replacement theory and space lasers, and the people from the banks, from the environment, all these different kinds of corporations that want to kill the planet. Let's protect these things. You know, like the gentleman that interrupted President Obama, joe Wilson, he at least made some I'm going to quote apology, you know. And then, of course, then we saw what Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert did and again, it's just, there was no, there was just a there's's just is just that bias in the highway things went. But also understanding, again, when we talk about those two people, you know, I say Al Green, he has. When we talk, when we talk about a mandate, right, you know, president Donald Trump, he said I have a mandate from the people to cut Medicaid. No, you don't, because I think even the white people that support him is like hey, whoa, wait a minute.
Speaker 1:That's me, you're talking about, you know.
Speaker 2:But understanding that, I would say Al Green has a mandate Because, remember, when Texas turned down $ hundred billion dollars for Medicaid, they turned it down simply because they had to pay ten billion. So what does that sell you? You know, it's like the classism, the racism, because they know that the hundred billion dollars, well, the hundred billion dollars in Medicaid, who's it going to support? It was going to support the low-income, those that may have a pre-existing illnesses, and just marginalized and displaced people. And they, the state of Texas, turned that money down. And so in the out green is standing up against those very things, just like, hey, wait, a, you mean to tell me you'll support, you know, the cutting of Medicaid to give tax benefits to the richest people in the world, but yet you won't support this to lift up these low-income or marginalized people. And that's where the difference in the two greens lie. You know, one green, the grass is brown and maybe some green. Look at two different lawns One is flittered and one is not. One is, you know, is lively and green, one is not so. And that's where you know. Look at again. The Bible says well, know them by their fruits, by their speech, by their behavior and we see the differences in.
Speaker 2:But, like you made another great point how the Democrats with Republicans, they it's like, it's like this. They have been threatened to be in line. They see what happens when you disagree with Trump. You know you start getting phone calls, you start people start showing up at your door. You know. You know it, depending on who's in place and what area of business you work in, there's someone above you that's gonna know sabotage your business or, you know no shame your name, or they'll put they'll what do you call it? They'll uh, uh have someone run against you in your district to get you out of there if you disagree with him. And they've fallen in line with this threatening approach, and I think that's something that needs to be called out by democrats. They have to call these things out and let people know hey, it's okay to say you were wrong.
Speaker 2:It's okay to disagree, because these very things that he's doing, he's doing them to you. And one thing you applaud Republicans for is, regardless of what, they're on one accord. They're on one accord with this nonsense. Whether they disagree, whether they agree or not, they are on one accord with this nonsense. And they're sticking together, marching down the field, destroying the country.
Speaker 2:And Republicans made Democrats, we are, we're nitpicking little bitty different things we have. We have to, like I say, get backbone in this thing. You know, like, you're right, it was sad that there was no support for our green and even with those uh 10, uh, the 10 democrats that actually voted for this censorship, now those centralists I would probably consider myself to be uh, central, because there's some things I agree with, uh, when it comes to spending and all these things, and but also, at the same time, there has to be equity and there has to be, you know, inclusion, and so it's just uh, there's a good mix of things. However, in this instance we are, we need, like how Godfather said, like the movie Godfather, we need wartime consigliere, we need wartime people that's willing to say you know what, even though, just like they do, on that side. I don't agree, but I'm still with you. Democrats have to be the same way. I didn't agree, but I'm still with you. Democrats have to be the same way. I didn't agree with that but I'm with you and I was just.
Speaker 2:It was just, it was disheartening and at the same time, you know, like I said, with those 10 people, I understand but I disagree and it's like at that time, because I understand, this man is sitting on national TV telling a lie and one person, one man, says hey, and he didn't call him a liar or anything, he just said no, no mandate, no mandate. And the thing is there was nothing. There was no fluff, no filler, there was no lie, there was no, no inference, anything, just simply calling out a lie. You know, and this is where you know we, as I'm a Democrat by default, it is what it is, but you know, and it's like you know.
Speaker 2:But we have to stop this progressive and moderate Democrat stuff. We have to really get on one accord with one message, just like they are, really get on one accord with one message, just like they are. And their vote in the sad part is their, their myth, that their mandate is written in a nine-plus page document and a lot of people refuse to see and look and review or acknowledge that document is real. Oh, he's not going to you see all these executive orders. He's just trying to bypass government as a whole and then when that executive order is blocked, I'm going to sue and it's like that's not how government works and that's why we talk about this all the time. Raul, people got to come out of their news bubble. People really need to learn and get a better understanding of politics and civics, how the you know what are the functioning, know what what? Know what are the responsibilities of government. Because if we look and see what's happening in current government, you know banking regulations are being lifted.
Speaker 2:No regulations on corporations are being lifted and this is for the sole purpose to spoil the country. Know, a lot of people are going to get it to where they can't. They're going to get it until they can't go to the favorite Creek, the fish, when the air is so bad, or they start building these power lines and coal burning all over the place and this is just when we actually tap out. You know our natural resources. They ain't going to get it until then.
Speaker 2:You know, uh, one of our friends, you know, we know serge canning. You know he's a no conservationist, no for salt county. He was saying like hey, and we really got to get it together because in a few short years we will be at a point of no return. You know there is still time to change this thing and look at clean energy and stop these election, this election denying. Well, that's not that part of what he said. But, like you know what we say oh, there's no global warming, there's nothing wrong with the environment, all these things. We have to stop denying those things and really bring truth to that. So just, people have to come out of their uh news bubbles and see the other side of things. But again, we talked about this before.
Speaker 2:I hate that. What's actually? You're seeing it real time a lot of people that have voted for this particular administration. They have regret, they have buyer's rem. However, they won't say anything because pride won't allow them to say that I was wrong. But the thing is, with this podcast, what you and I are doing, we're giving people a safe space to say, yeah, I was wrong. Now, how do we fix this? How do we redeem the time? What can we do? I was wrong because of Ken. People are going to. How do we redeem the time? What can we do? I was wrong because of Ken. People are going to.
Speaker 2:Lives are going to be lost because of medical like say healthcare and things like that is going to be taken away, or it's going to be reduced so greatly that you basically just only coverage you're going to get taken away, or it's going to be reduced so greatly that you basically just only coverage you're going to get is a new toothbrush. You know it is it's it's, it's sad and so, but that's where you know we're trying to sound this alarm. And uh and I'm glad that uh, representative al green said hey, no mandate. Because, again, if people really look at no, if you like, say again, people in their news bubbles, all people will hear you know, is that, oh there, I have a mandate from no, mandate from the people. No, if you research that, you'll see what is the context of it and what's behind it. And hey, he's going to cut your medic Medicare and in some way, shape or form Medicaid Medicare.
Speaker 2:Social Security affects everyone in this country. That is why Elon Musk has a get access to the Treasury, so he has access to everything and everyone who receives what. And then, of course, we give access to that information from hackers. A hacker collective has access to our personal documents, our living life documents, so anything can be manipulated and within this hacker collective that has access to our things. These people have connections to Russia, connections to Russia, and it's like do you get what is happening here? The country is being torn apart from within, because I think they're going to pillage the country and move on, because if we look at South Africa, this is what's happening.
Speaker 2:Of course, the oligarchs of South Africa, the Elon Musk and the other guy that supports that is JD Vance's money guy those are two South Africans. Yes, they bled South Africa, the resources, everything is a mess. And so now what do they do? They say, oh, white South Africans are being oppressed. White South Africans are being oppressed and so now we need to make them refugees. So Donald Trump signs an order to make white South Africans refugees, and people need to go and look at this throughout the world. There was a lot of white South Africans just been gained citizenship in Germany and other areas of the country, other areas of the world. Because they say, oh, they're being white South Africans. Mind you are being oppressed is the language. And so again, coming out of our news bubbles to get both sides of the story and really get to the truth. But at the end of the day, we always say, you and I hey what does the Bible say about it?
Speaker 1:I always go back. All the time we've been talking about this I keep thinking of the man of La Mancha theater guy right and man of La Mancha. It's the story of Don Quixote. It's loosely based on that novel and he has one of the most memorable songs in theater musical history, the Impossible Dream. Musical history, the Impossible Dream. And one of the lyrics of that that has always, always kind of typified who Don Quixote is, who the spirit of Don Quixote is.
Speaker 1:He says to fight for the right without question or pause, to be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause, willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause. And there is such a difference between Al Green fighting for the right without question or pause. He didn't have a moment's hesitation when he stood up and said you do not have a mandate to take away Medicaid Without question or pause. And he was willing to march into hell. He was willing to stand up and make that statement in spite of the hell that it was going to cause him by daring to stand up in the middle of the president's address and say something. So, so truthful Folks, what is it going to take? At what point will we say no more? This line you shall not cross.
Speaker 1:There's an old Shakespearean saying of going beyond the pale. It was an old English phrase. Was an old English phrase? Beyond the pale meant to do something so far beyond what's right and civil and civilized and proper, so far beyond that. There's no words for it, right? It's just so abysmally abhorrent and horrible to be beyond the pale. And I gotta tell you we are beyond the pale. And I got to tell you we are beyond the pale. We are beyond the pale. We are like in the end zone behind the end zone, behind the end zone of the pale. So at what point do we start saying, okay, time to march into hell for a heavenly cause, because we're building a hell, we're allowing hell to be built around us. And it's not a Democrat-Republican thing, it's not a white and black thing, it is a have and have-nots.
Speaker 1:The oligarchs, the people that have all the money, the one-tenth of one percent you realize that they complain about we pay most of the taxes. Right, we pay 45% of the taxes. Like that sums horror. You know we're so wonderful for paying that the reason that they pay 45% of the taxes is because they make so freaking much money. The people that in that one-tenth of one percent 175,000-ish households make more money than 77 million people at the other end of the spectrum 175,000 versus 77 million households. What does that tell you?
Speaker 1:And those are the people that have the green lawns with the flowers and the perfectly manicured, you know, hedges and everything. Oh, it looks so wonderful. You know they are too uncomfortable. They do not like having to live next to a lawn that looks like a poor person's lawn does. Who can't afford a lawnmower? Sure as heck can't afford fertilizer, you know, would like to plant some flowers, but the best they can come up with is the dandelions that grow. They can't even afford to water their lawn.
Speaker 1:Okay, those are those people. They don't want to live next to them, they don't want to be reminded of them, they want them to go away. So what better way? Pull their Medicare, pull their Social Security. They'll all starve, they'll all die. Fantastic, we'll be in power forever because all of those pesky poor people will be gone.
Speaker 1:So it's haves and have nots. The haves are not on our side. Whether they're Democrat or Republican, they are not on our side. This is going to be the people that really are being hurt. White, black, brown, you know, it doesn't matter. We're all being hurt that are in the 77 million class. So we have to stop all this baloney of making, allowing them to turn us into enemy camps with one another based on our race, based on our religion, based on whatever that they come up with. That that's why you don't have, because those Muslims are doing all that nasty. I mean, come on, really, those Muslims are fighting as much as anyone else. We've got a gentleman that was leading some of the protests with the pro-Palestinian protests at one of our universities and he's in a detention center right now with an eight-month pregnant wife because he was a leader or one of the organizers of those protest organizations. So they just came in the middle of the night, took them away. So this is all over, right, this injustice, this hell that's being created.
Speaker 1:So I put it out to you, anyone who's listening, and please share the podcast with others to hear you know what's the call to arms. At what point will we say this is enough Time to march into hell for a heavenly cause, because otherwise it is going to be too late, not only for our environment, it's going to be too late for our culture, for America, for the democracy. It really is that serious. We can't afford to be talking about nonsense and being distracted by Trump talking about the Gulf of America, excuse me or annexing Greenland, buying Greenland, and annexing Canada, taking back the Panama Canal. I mean, all those things are distractions. If he wants to go at it, you want to call it the Gulf of America. That's chicken feed compared to the stuff we need to stop. So stop being distracted and you know, focus on the things that need to be focused on. The rest of it takes care of itself over time, because we're wasting way too much energy on the wrong stuff.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and you know, it's like. You know it's funny how, like you know, when you make that call out, how, like you know, the richest percent of the country is saying, oh, we're paying 40 X percent of the taxes in the country, yeah, because you make more money. It's just that simple.
Speaker 2:And, of course, and what we have to really really grasp and really slow down and listen to is like the wording of these things and really slow down and listen to is like the wording of these things, you know, because when you say in that context, simply, hey, we're paying 47% of the country's taxes, a low-minded person will say, wow, that's a good point. And there's like, but no, everybody pays their full share. Well, I guess I can't remember the exact percentage of your state taxes, your federal taxes, your Social Security, those things, whether they come to, of your income. Twenty-seven percent, whatever it is. If everybody's doing the same thing, yes, you are going to pay more, but again, it's like we have to. That's all we've been trying to say. Everybody pay their fair share, but of course, the richest of the richest, what are they doing? They're hiding their money in other countries. I was reading something and it was like a lot of rich people say we don't keep our money in America anymore and that's so. They're getting double tax relief.
Speaker 2:In a sense, like you said, we can't look at whoa, look at what this hand is doing while these things are going on behind the back, what the other hand can't see. And you're right, it's like we do have to march down to hell for a heavenly cause, for everything. That just needs to be. Everything needs to be more equitable, and that's all black people or people of color actually want Make things even equitable. And of course, yes, the history has to be acknowledged as to why we're at such a disadvantage. You can't whitewash the history, you can't take it away. You can't say, oh, those people, they love slavery or they just are lazy and not willing to work for this and that and the other. We've got to get the full context of the story of the country in order to make sound decisions moving forward, like you know, even like, say, just with the acknowledgement of the DEI.
Speaker 2:You know, of course, the powers that be, they just simply hate that a young white American says, hey, wow, I did not know that. No, we were at a few years ago I don't know if you were at the Empower Bearable event, power bearable event and when it was came when we had an intermission, you know, of course. You know Mr Percy Brown and Dr Rainey Briggs were facilitating and doing that teaching. And one thing like a lot of the white people in the room, they were shocked to learn something so simple as that when at the World War II, you know, like when we talk about the GI Bill, none of the black soldiers got it. They were like, wow, we didn't know that they didn't get it and so, but again, those are the things that people need to know, you know, because again it's like there's get the full context of the story of the country and that's what they're trying to block.
Speaker 2:And then, of course, no, like uh, with what's going on, the rich are getting richer, but I I just in my heart what I believe and what I see. I believe that the richest of the rich, they're gonna I hate using that r-a-p word they're going to pillage the country, bleed it dry like South Africa, and move to somewhere else, or just they're going to stay on their high heels where no pollution and things like that are affecting them. And so it's just Like you say we have that, we have to fight. We have in this life, we can't fight. It's almost like you can't fight back, you got to fight forward. You know, it's like we have to just say, ok, we're going to the information that we have, we're going to push it forward, and of course there's no threatening tone of the president and how, if you speak up, no, there's going to be a million people at your door. We have to fight through those things Because again it's like they're trying to muzzle us. They're trying to censor us in the public so to speak, in a big way.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, and so we just, like I said, brother, we just have to fight. And there's a as Christians. You know, I'm so sad, I'm so, I'm just ain't, I'm just gonna say it. You know, uh, I'm angry at what some of the churches are preaching, that they preach that this person is, uh, the second coming with it, and I'm like this no, trump has not exhibited not one fruit of the spirit, not one. But yet you're saying he's a Christian, he's for us, he's this, that and the other. It's like, no, he is not. And, like the Bible tells us, many will be deceived. So it's like, please know, my prayer is like no, lord, open their spiritual eyes and spiritual ears that they may see. Because, again, people are fighting.
Speaker 2:No, the other, the underlying tone of this whole thing is race, power and money, that's it. And I just think people have bought into the white replacement theory and they're fighting hard to shut. They'd rather burn this down than there be equity. There's so many little things that are going on in this country that people just don't know about, like you know, oh, you know, college campuses can't, you know, be influenced by race anymore, but legacy stills exist. And when we talk about legacy. Who would that pertain to? You know, well-to-do white people, but giving a person a Harvard, giving them a partial scholarship to harvard yeah, because, partially, because he's black no, that's, uh getting him, uh, that's uh, that's, that's giving too much, that's, that's, that's affirmative action.
Speaker 2:Blah, blah, blah. It's just. Uh, we really have to watch the wording and what is being said and what is being spewed out. And again it comes from people coming out of your own news bubbles, coming into a neutral place. Okay, I hear you, I hear you, and, but now what? What does the bible say? What? How is what both of y'all saying affecting me? Which? Who is on my side?
Speaker 1:that's what we got to get to isn't it amazing it took decades, literally decades of time to make the kinds of progress that we had made in equity, inclusion. You know all those diversity which is, like, always been such a weird thing to me that how did we turn diversity inclusion you know, how did those things get turned into bad? How is trying to have equity bad? How is trying to include people, make sure that everyone feels included Women too right? How is trying to promote diversity, which is what we are as a nation? We are a diverse nation. Give me your hungry, your poor, your yearning to be free, your wretched refuse. Yearning to be free? It's on our Statue of Liberty. It's on our Statue of Liberty, okay, we are a country that asked for, welcomed, pleaded for the wretched refuse that was yearning to be free and that's who made up this country, and it took weeks to rip away progress that was made towards achieving what the American dream is.
Speaker 1:You want to talk about making America great again. Let's get that Statue of Liberty to be a truthful statement and not something that sounds nice, Because that's where white, moderate America gets stuck a lot of the time. From what I see is we get stuck with something that sounds nice like. You know all the things that are going to happen that are going to be bringing wealth back to America, you know. But yeah, well, we're going to bring that wealth back to America by firing a whole bunch of you guys that are sucking off the taxpayers' money.
Speaker 1:Wow, Wow, Fantastic. We're going to get rid of all the diversity inclusion nonsense that's been all our government programs. We're going to take it off all of our websites. There aren't going to be any celebrations anymore in the military of any kind of exclusive groups that are being promoted because of their individual pride and history that should be made known to others, exposed to others. Getting rid of all that stuff, Wow, and they're getting rid of it because we did not march into hell for the heavenly cause yet. So we already went way over time. I'm so sorry. We like, still did, like I don't know, almost.
Speaker 2:We still didn't talk about JD Vance's nonsense. Let's get to that another time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that, oh boy. And Elon Musk. We probably need a week's worth of talking on Elon Musk and, as I man this tweet X quote from earlier this week, that Hitler never killed anybody. It was public sector employees that did it. And I'm like, well, like garbage men came out and killed Jews. Was that Jewish public sector employee? Like office workers, came out and killed Jews. Was that Jewish public sector employees? Like office workers, came out and did that. It's like, yeah, well, you know, if some of the people that were part of the Nazi regime at that point were public sector employees. You know, I'm not going to argue the nuances of that syntax. What I'm going to argue is that it wasn't like Hitler was saying, boy, what are those public sector employees doing? I can't believe that they're. That's just wrong. Well, on to supper.
Speaker 2:The demonization of federal employees to kind of justify what they're doing yeah yeah, it's like in public sector employees back in World War II. What were they doing? It was not a whole lot going on, I wouldn't say that, but it's like there's half as much going on then as it is now. So how? And again, that's why you ask most of the country hey, does that make sense to you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. The days that I never even dreamed that there would be, days where we would start to say, you know that Hitler wasn't all so bad, but that's what's happened, Anyways. So I'm Raoul LaBruche and you fine young men, are.
Speaker 2:Ed's from home to see you.
Speaker 1:And together we are a frame of reference, coming together and I hope this gets some of you to come together and have some discussions with folks. And you know, please, please, you know, put comments on the website at f-o-r-s-a-u-k. Forsockcom. Um frame of reference law county. And, uh, you know, this is an open forum where we, we are willing to see where we're wrong and we're hoping you're willing to do the same. We are willing to see where we're wrong and we're hoping you're willing to do the same, because that's how everybody learns. Okay, until next time, dude.
Speaker 2:Right, and as always, man, it's a great pleasure talking with you, man, and just have a great weekend here, brother.
Speaker 1:Yeah, give my best to Ramona Now that she and I have seen each other one-to-one. She's in big trouble. Man, tell her she's just in big trouble.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and of course you know, give our best to Ann. You know we love her and just we have her in prayer. We just got everything lifted in prayer, brother, so please know that.
Speaker 1:Take care, folks. Thanks for listening.
