Dear Black Christians: Voting is Spiritual AND Political Warfare

0:00 Down, down. [music] She break it down, down, down, down, down. [singing and music] She got a message for the people. [singing] A brilliant mind and a clean soul. [music] She's standing up to the [singing] evil and making sure that we [music] all grow strong enough to break these chains we [singing] get that keep us in this painful condition. She give us tooth and a vision. That's why we listen. She break it down. >> Welcome back. Welcome back. You are listening to Lar Daniel Favors on SiriusXM's Urban View where talk empowers and becomes action. I have a weird background behind me for those of not weird, but I have a different background behind me for those of you who are watching on YouTube. Welcome

0:46 YouTube. Please don't forget to like, subscribe, and share the video. And that's mainly because I'm standing up today. And I'm standing up today because I am in the middle of a tattoo that incorporates part of my leg that makes it difficult for me to sit down for two hours for the show. So, um, that's why I'm standing up and that's why I have this background behind me. So, pray for us, sister. Part two is today of that. And, uh, I can't wait to show y'all when it's done. It's dope, dope, dope, dope, dope tattoo. Um, I really I want to start by saying thank you uh to those of you who participated in our conversation last night in Sanc Kofa Connections. I really enjoyed being able to have space where we could break down um it was a we were able to review the trip that I took to Ghana and talk about not just you know Louise trip to Ghana but what it me what it signified for me and what I think for all of us about the potentiality of the Panaffrican diaspora

1:31 coming together and what by that I mean the entire Panaffrican diaspora having conversations about collective healing, cooperation, trade, empowerment in ways that are just amazing. And for those of you in Sancopa Connections, we are going to be posting the videos that I shared from the trip in the Sancopa Connections space. Um, we'll do that later on today. Maybe it might even be tomorrow because I have a lot happening later on today after this show. Um, but I just want to say thank you to those of you who joined us. And for those of you who are not a part of Sancopa Connections, sorry you missed it. Um, but you can always join Sanccoa Connections by going to sancopactions.com or visiting my website larananielfavors.com. I'm excited about continuing to build out the work. Next week we got a men's group, we got book uh study group coming in, we got a book club. We got a lot happening in that space and I love being able to continue the online the the on air conversations in an online uh safer

2:17 space for all of us. I I referenced earlier with Urban View uh that a few weeks ago y'all remember when I did the different uh blackowned businesses that I support and that I that not support that I patronize that I buy from and I use a bunch of things that I have in my house that I like literally mo a lot of the things in my house that I buy and that I use are from blackowned businesses. So, it was a great conversation. But since then, a lot of y'all have reached out and be like, "Hey, I want my my stuff highlighted. I'm an entrepreneur. I got a product. I want to be able to to to like have you highlight my stuff." Um, and and so I've thought about it and and I've been in conversation with Karen about it and and with Karen and Rick and I we came up with a way for that to I can't facilitate all of that. I cannot screen all the products. Y'all have been amazing about it. Um, but if you are a

3:02 blackowned or a blackloving business and you have a product that you think I or Karen should know about, I want you to send it to us. All right. Uh, we're launching this project called What's in My Bag? And it is everything from handbags to travel bags to grocery bags. And we are looking for products that we would genuinely use, that we would actively use, that we believe in and want to share with the audience. And so this is an opportunity to have a streamlined way of looking at your products, of looking at the the entrepreneurial gifts that you all are putting out there. and then we can personally choose what makes sense for us to go in our bag and then we will uh we'll talk about it and we will be able to share with the audience what it is. If that is something that is of interest to you, please do not any longer send me uh submissions through my website. Please just submit your product concept and idea to dig. That's uh Rick's outlet

3:48 uh for consideration. And you can do that by sending him an email uh to rick r i cd digidropinc.com. That's d i g like gigabyte. Uh giropinc.com. d i gi d r o p i nc.com. rick at digiidropinc.com. Um and then we will you'll get instructions on what to do next. I just needed a streamlined way to do it. There are thousands of blackowned businesses out there. Um and a lot of you were very excited about the fact that I was talking about these businesses on air. So, if you would like to submit your product for consideration, if it's something that I would use, something that Karen would use, send your product suggestions to rick digiidropinc.com. All right, awesome. Today, I want to talk about spiritual warfare as a function of political power. And for those of you who are not a part of the

4:33 Christian church, you might feel like this don't really apply to you. But I guarantee you, whether you are a Christian, an atheist, a deconstructing Christian, a black Buddhist who has Christian roots like myself, or whatever it is, a African traditional religious practitioner, which I also incorporate into my spiritual tool bag, then you are impacted by people who believe a certain way. Have you ever heard people who say things like, "I don't I don't do politics. I'm just gonna pray about it. God got it. It's sort of this spiritual bypassing that people do that has real serious implications. And I guess maybe I'm sensitive to this because as I am gearing up uh for another round of voter outreach and engagement, I'm seeing more and more of this sort of popping up online. And so I wanted to use a a biblical example today to talk about why

5:19 your vote ain't got nothing to do with with either is it spiritual or physical. Your vote is a function of political warfare, which is a function of spiritual warfare. And if you don't believe me, ask a white Christian nationalist. So, let's talk about the book of Job. The book of Job is a book that describes a man who was very, very faithful to God. And God blesses Job. Now, this is in Christian mythology. So, I know this not applicable for all of y'all, but just this is what stories say. And so, because Job was so faithful to God, God blesses Job. Job got everything he need. He got a wife, he got kids, he got a job, he got a house, he got wealth, he got all everything that he need. He got he got all his needs, man. in abundance abundant exceedingly abundantly over all that he could ask or think. And so Satan, who we identify as the devil, although if you study your Bible, it's we ain't going to talk about that today. Satan, who shows

6:05 up as the devil in the Bible, goes up into heaven. And it's like, man, these humans. And God is like, "Yes, the humans are humaning, but have you seen Job? Job is my God. Let me tell you something. I God I love me some Job." Why? Because there ain't nothing that could happen to Job. And Job ain't still going to love me, God. And Satan's like, "OF COURSE JOB LOVE YOU. YOU DONE GAVE JOB EVERYTHING. You done gave him his wife, his houses, his his cattle, his his carts, his horses, everything that Joe need. You gave it to It's easy to love you when you giving somebody everything. But I bet you what says Satan to God, I bet you if you let me [ __ ] with him a little bit, I bet you he ain't going to be loving you quite as much." AND GOD IS LIKE, "I BET." NOW, I know people don't like me using customs when we talking about God, but God is

6:51 literally up there in the story betting with Satan about what Job gonna do once God let Satan [ __ ] with Job. Okay? It's a it's a terrible story, but it's a biblical story that is important. And again, as I said to Urban View, I was a junior Bible quiz champion several years in a row. So, I'm just going to sit in this space for just a little bit. And so, God gives Satan permission to [ __ ] with Job. So, Satan goes down and he's like, "I'mma take your kids. I'mma take your your grandkids. I'mma take y'all. I'mma take everything from you. Your housing, your food. I'mma take everything from you. Now, what's interesting about this and I've seen a number of people comment on it. We don't never hear nothing about Job's wife except when Job's wife is like, "What the [ __ ] is going on? You still talking about you loving God and God then took all our kids and Job's like, "Hush up, woman." And it's like, "Wait a minute. She's the mama." Like, when God and Satan was having this very patriarchal conversation and a white Christian nationalist interpretation of what was

7:36 happening, but nobody thinking about the woman. But again, story for another day. So, anyway, Satan [ __ ] with Job. And Job is like, "All right, this [ __ ] is bad, but I love me some God. I ain't never gonna turn my back on God." So Satan goes back up into heaven. It's like, "Hey man, I know that you gave me permission to be messing with Job. And I mean, I did what I could do, but he's still going to love you because you you still protecting every all the things that I did mess with." And God is like, "You know what? I bet you I double dog triple dare you to go back down to earth, [ __ ] with him some more. You can do whatever you want to him, but you can't kill him. Don't don't kill him. You can do whatever you want. You can destroy whatever. You can take his wealth, his education, his children. You already took the children. You take the grandchild. You take everything and I bet you he's still gonna love me. Now,

8:21 this vision of God is very petty to me and very childish and foolish and very well, I was going to be a little gender biased in that way, but let me again story for another day. So, Satan goes back down to earth and is giving Job the business. He takes everything. Now keep in mind this is what we would call spiritual warfare. This is what we in church spaces would call spiritual warfare. And through the spiritual warfare that's taking place, Job loses everything in his physical life. So you got the spirits convening and placing bets and you got the physical implication of that spiritual warfare in Job's life showing up in died dead children. No more wealth, no more houses, no more resources. Everything is taken from him except his very life. And

9:09 so then Job is still like, "But I still got God." And so God ultimately wins the bet. And essentially what this means for my interpretation is that when Satan took Job's children, that's a manifestation of spiritual warfare. When Satan took Job's livelihood, that's a manifestation of spiritual warfare. When Satan took Job's home, his money, his health care systems, his education systems, his sources of wealth and posterity, those were things that Job experienced in his physical life even though it was the function of spiritual warfare. Now, it's important because we often look at books in the Bible like Ephesians. I believe this is in chapter 6 verse 12, but don't quote me on that because my junior Bible quiz champion corrections might not have corrected this in particular. But there's this verse that says, "But we wrestle not against flesh and blood, against uh but against principalities, against powers,

9:56 and the rulers of the darkness of the world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places." And that is a phrase that I have heard so many Christians use to explain to me why civic engagement, well, that's of the word. And I am a prayer warrior. I tried before the Lord on my in my prayer closet. That is how I engage in civics. You are doing physical stuff. I am a spiritual warrior. And it's kind of said in that sort of disrespectful like condescending way that we in the church often have. And I say we in the church because I am a a my name is written in the lamb's book of life. I still speak in tongues. I almost did a little bit here but I don't want to scare nobody and I don't want to be revealing my secret powers. However, what's important for us to know is that the spiritual wickedness, the rulers in the darkness of the world, the

10:42 principalities that you fight in when they are fighting and worrying and waring, you experience that in your physical life. When we say that you got when when something happens and you are unfaithful to God and you you lose something or your health fail, you did you you DON'T HAVE ENOUGH FAITH. SO YOUR physical reality for people who are trained in this way is very much impacted by the spiritual realm. And what's important is that when you want to have a way to fight back, sure you want to have a spiritual form of warfare. And that's where you pray and you go into the prayer closet. However, you also going to need a physical way to fight back in this world because the white people who are also praying to Jesus and God, the same Jesus and God that you praying to, and I know this gets people a little upset, is they be

11:27 like, "They ain't praying to my Jesus. They ain't praying to my God. Yes, they are. Yes, they are. And if you can't sit in the in the the the cognitive dissonance of that, you're not really practicing your faith the way that you need to. And you're probably not as deconstructed as you need to be. But they praying to the same Jesus that you praying to these white Christian nationalists. They praying to the same God that you praying to these white Christian nationalists. And then you know what they do? They go vote. Do you know why Republican churches tell their leaders, their their their followers that if you are a true Christian, you have to vote Republican? and only Satanists vote democratic. Do you know why they do that? Because they are connecting spiritual war warfare with physical warfare. And what's the analog to that in the black church? We've talked about this before. In black churches, if you're not a part of a civically engaged black church, what do we often hear? Ours is the battle is the

12:15 Lord's, it's not yours. Remember that Yolanda Adams song and she's singing about it's not yours. We're talking about the battle is not yours, it's the Lord's. I love that song. I love Yolanda Adams. Sis, I love you. You're amazing. Um I think you're phenomenal. However, as Christians, the body of Christ, we have taken that concept and in the black churches, if you're not in a civically engaged church, what we will often say is this is spiritual warfare. We just going to pray about it. We're not even dealing with politics. Meanwhile, the people in opposition to you in white Christian nationalist churches are saying, "Yes, this is spiritual warfare. We're going to call on the name of why Jesus as we do what we need to do to get people in positions of power to create the physical reality that we believe is just." And so what does white Christian nationalist spiritual and physical warfare look like? I am so glad you asked. It looks like passing laws that cut your healthcare. Passing laws that

13:00 destroy your schools and your ability to educate your children. Passing laws that's going to cut the rules that corporations are supposed to follow when they're making their products that are supposed to keep our air, our food, and our water safe. Passing laws that take away your jobs. Passing laws that's going to divest from crime prevention. Passing laws that's going to destroy your ability to get housing. Passing laws to do to you what Satan got permission to do to Job. Ain't it funny how we overspiritualize things that quite frankly ain't that deep. It ain't that deep. So when we say we wrestle not with flesh and blood. Just know that we what we do wrestle with has a spiritual and a physical dimension. It's important that we know that because we got to figure out what does the battle look like now. It's not yours. God, I love that song. Yolanda Adams is in her bag on that one. Her and um Fred Hampton, oh my god, love them. Love them. Love them. Love them. But the important thing for

13:46 us to know is the battle is in both the physical and that means you have to play a role in the election booth. And one of the ways that we do that and we battle spiritually, yes, in the prayer closet, but one of the ways that we battle physically is by engaging with the decisionmaking capacity of the nation and with the warfare here. So when it comes to your health care, we know that elected officials determine your ability to access it. Sure, you could pray for healing, but I ain't seen nobody raise the sick or or heal or raise the dead or heal the sick since Jesus was laying hands on the people in the even though Jesus did say that that's how we would know who was his true followers would be that you could do greater things than he did. That's a conversation for another day because if your pastor and all the anointed people in your church ain't doing them types of miracles, let me not step as hard on them toes as I would like to. So, when

14:32 it comes to your healthcare, elected officials determine your ability to access it and get it. Yeah, hospitals are full of dying Christians. Dying Christians when it comes to uh your education. Yeah, you praying for discernment and for education and information, but elected officials determine your ability to get an education or not. And so, we know discernment is good. But we also know that praying for discernment ain't enough. Otherwise, the Bible wouldn't have said, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing word of truth." I believe that was in 2 Timothy 2:15. And no, they were not Christians talking about studying the Bible. The Bible didn't even exist yet, y'all. In fact, when this letter from Timothy was written, the Bible would not exist. And well, frankly, let's be clear, the Bible was edited and assembled and then re-edited and

15:18 reassembled multiple times depending on the political needs of the powers that be at the time. But that process wouldn't be be happening for several hundreds of years after Timothy says this. So, he ain't talking about just study the word. You got to study. You got TO KNOW THINGS. YOU HAVE TO be intellectually challenged and grown in your mental space so that you can understand what's happening. Because if you don't know things, forget rightly dividing the word of truth. You ain't gonna be able to rightly divide your finances. IT'S GOING TO BE BROKE as a joke. When it comes to jobs, elected officials determine largely our capacity and ability to get them or not. Yes, you can pray for mana from heaven to feed you. But don't y'all also like to quote the scripture from 2 Thessalonians 3:10 that says, "For when we were with you, this is how we commanded you that if anyone do not work, they do not eat." So, you know, you got to have a job. So,

16:04 yeah, you could pray for the mana from heaven, but even in the book that you look to, they say you got TO HAVE A JOB. And how do you get a job? Not just praying about it. You know how you don't just get a job praying about it? Because atheists got jobs. People who don't pray get jobs. You also get jobs as a function of the political environment that you live in. This is important. It's too many of y'all talking about I don't want to vote because it's not that God got it. Everything you rely upon in the physical world has a spiritual component in the in everything you rely on in the physical world has a spiritual component. And we get the things we rely upon in this world. Yes, with prayer and supplication, but also with elections. Also with elections. Why? Because people who are elected become the people who decide how to distribute the resources.

16:49 And what are the resources? I say this once a week at least. The resources include money for food, clothing, shelter hospitals libraries transportation, getting your roads fixed, having your mail systems, your transportation systems, your sanitation system, your clean water systems, your electrical system, your electrical grid. All of these things are provided for you by elected officials or restricted from you by elected officials. And I know that we often talk about voting as civic engagement. I think however we should be talking about voting as political warfare particularly for those of you who who who use the spiritual warfare understanding. I want you all to take a listen to this clip. Uh this is some brothers who are a part of the West Baltimore love community or group and they are doing a lot of discussion in this top in this clip about the fact that we talk about voting as civic engagement but voting is also very much

17:36 a function of of political warfare and we got to start talking about it that way. Uh Amina, let's hear the clip. >> Biggest uh mistakes that I think is often made is that when our community is exposed to conversations about civic participation, voting in particular, that it is often talked about in the context of wanting to save democracy and it's talked about in the context of our ancestors died for it so we should do it. And I think that that pitch is an insufficient pitch to many of of those of us in our community for whom on the local level we experience many, you know, black elected officials, we experience many of them as hustling off of our suffering that we see them and their networks individually doing

18:22 better, right? But it doesn't necessarily translate to the masses of our community, right? And so, and I think there's an instinct that a lot of our people have, which is we need people that understand what time it is. People that's going to fight for us and not fight. It's easy to fight Trump, right? Trump is clearly a right-wing expression of white nationalism that's been latent and fundamental to the society. But what our people want to pay attention to is who are the people that are going to fight for our community in ways that they can see the material benefit. And so for me, I think the context that our community needs to hear about voting is in the context of this concept of political warfare. >> That people treat politics like an after school special, like you just show up, you you know, you check the box. But we

19:08 need to think about >> uh politics not from the vantage point of wanting to save democracy. America's never been a democracy, right? That's Derek Bell, the permanence of racism, critical race theory, right? So, so there are all kinds, you know, de boys, black reconstruction, back towards slavery. So, we're clear that America's never been in democracy. So, to the extent that black people are going to experience justice in this society, it's going to be to the extent that we build the the institutional mechanisms of political power. And part of the challenge, and this this is probably going to stle some toes, that many of the folks, the black people in the national civic and political landscape are not independent black political organizations. >> And so, and so as a result, they may be C3 organizations and do good work,

19:54 right? They, you know, they may provide direct services and that stuff. That's important, >> but what they lack is the capacity to issue credible political threats on behalf of black people. Because if we understand if we understand American politics as the site for the contestation for power and resources, then to the extent that we are viable, to the extent that our participation even matters is to the extent that we have institutions and political advocates that can issue credible political threats that can institute the kind of political pain that is necessary to get leverage in a negotiation. Right? And that's not the language. That's not the verbiage that often gets talked about when people are talking about voting. >> That is not the language that people

20:41 often talk about when it comes to voting. And that matters. So, we're going to shift the language a bit. And we have to shift the language of it because voting is political warfare. Now, I know there are a lot of people out there who are still thinking, I just don't do politics. All the parties suck. It's two wings on the same bird. Okay, I get it. I understand it. When it comes to things like international affairs, yeah, I I would totally agree with that. There's a so many things that the Democrats and Republicans have in common that I think I think we can we can stipulate for the record we can stipulate your honor that the Democrats and the Republicans have a lot in common when it comes to uh international affairs. Let's look at what happened in Gaza. Very similar they try to have a line but very similar. Very similar. And yet there are things because we are not simple voters. We are trying to elevate our sophistication levels when it comes

21:26 to voting. There are also many things that they do not agree upon, like whether or not you should have a Food and Drug Administration that can determine whether or not your lettuce gonna give you explosive poops before you consume the the the lettuce. We we the Democrats believe you should not be subjected to explosive poops as the testing mechanism for how we determine whether or not our blueberries are going to kill us or whether the beef we're getting is actually imported from outer space somewhere and and injected with elongated muskrat satellite data. WE WE SHOULD THE DEMOCRATS AIN'T WITH THAT. THE REPUBLICANS ARE VERY much with that. Why? Because they don't like regulations. They never had. They haven't liked regulations since regulations became a thing in the early 1900s as a function of the green of the New Deal which had to come into place because of the stock market crash which was triggered by Republicans who had a lazair philosophy and say greed is good

22:11 kind of like what y'all did again in the 80s. And so voting is a form of political warfare. And for a lot of people who say I just don't do politics. I want you all to take a listen to this clip. This is DOSS discourse talking about the fact that you don't have to do politics. If you don't want to, YOU REALLY DON'T BECAUSE EVERYBODY else around you has the who has the capacity to to determine your quality of life, what you have access and resources to, they do politics. They do do politics. I want you all to take a listen to this clip. This is Josh Doss discourse. Uh having some good word for the people. Uh let's take a listen. >> I was talking to my boy Quan Quan say he don't do politics like that for real. Quan also said, "Damn Doss, why the gas prices so high?" Why don't do politics like that though? You don't do politics, but your landlord does politics. That's why your rent is going up, right? You don't do politics, but them boys that keep sending you utility bills.

22:59 >> Them boys that keep sending you an electricity bill, a heat bill, a water bill, they do politics. >> Don't worry, they doing politics. You don't do politics like that. But they are they're voting for the person that is going to make laws that make it easier for them to raise your prices. But you don't do politics though. I know. >> Same breath. Quana tell me I don't do politics. Damn dos. Why the ground beef so expensive? charging the mess at you at the at the grocery store. Groceries up 30%. Got you thinking about stealing some from the selfch checkout line. You don't do politics though. I know. I know. Just make sure you got an extra $200 next time you go grocery shopping cuz them boys over there. >> Them boys charging you. Oh, they do politics. You heard they doing politics. They doing politics. They are picking somebody voting for somebody to represent them. You not voting for nobody to represent you. So they going to keep running your pockets. Politics

23:45 is doing you, my boy. 56% of black people either owe money for a medical bill or a dental bill. A public health care option could give black people the opportunity to get affordable health care. There are people running for office in November that are trying to give you affordable healthcare and debt relief for the bills you already have. You don't do politics, though. I heard you. Listen, bro. If you're not gonna show up, then you can't complain. No, things are so expensive. I'm I'm over it bro. >> And here's what's important. Somebody uh astutely said in the comments, "I don't even know what the Democrats believe." Hakeim just said he don't believe in Medicare for all. It doesn't matter what they say they believe. The Democratic Party, like all political parties, is simply a tool that we the people use to get what we want. What do you believe? Do you believe in Medicare for all? You

24:30 know who believes in Medicare for all? Abdul Aled. You know who believes in Medicare for all? James Tarico. You know who believe in Medicare for all? Angie Nixon, right? You know who believe in Medicare for all? These. So, it don't matter what a person in the party says. What does the pressure of the people require him to do? And what's very interesting about Hakee Jeff, Nancy Pelosi, who can throw shade the way only and a a wealthy empowered white woman can, basically said something along the lines the other day of uh when I was speaker, we would never have had some of these uh current members voting in the way that they did to support some of the things that they have supported. Now, it was supposed to be they they said it was a swipe at the members who she named who voted in opposition to what Hakeem Jeff and the rest of the caucus did, but that was really a swipe at Hakeim Jeff because when Nancy Pelosi throws shade, she's very good at throwing shade. And when Nancy said that would never have

25:16 happened when I was speaker, girl, what is you saying? I'm just saying people better listen to the power of the people because the power of the people is what's going to force them to do. We don't care what he believes. We care what we force him to do. and we force him to do THINGS NOT BY PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION BUT WITH action with votes with going to the office with showing up and as somebody who was actually his constituent I guarantee you the people is going to be showing up at brother Jeffrey's office electorally speaking because to make demands that's how we do it we engage in civic development and so according to Capital B News uh they have noted that as of a number of other outlets hundreds of thousands of citizens and they focus on North Carolina hundreds of thousands of North Carolina citizens including elderly people folks with disabilities those impacted by Hurricane Helena and service members stationed abroad could

26:02 expect to receive their absentee ballots in the coming weeks, giving them plenty of time to vote, return them, and have them counted for the November midterm elections. In fact, those ballots would start rolling out for this state county board of elections as soon as this Thursday, which would be tomorrow. However, says Capital B News, because of a recent executive order from the White House, those absentee voters are now at risk of not receiving their ballots in time for the election. Despite legal push back from a coalition of more than 20 states, the US Supreme Court ruled on August 24th that the administration could go ahead with its plan to restrict male voting for now. National politics reporter Brandon Tensley, who has done amazing work for Capital B News, breaks down their decision and what impact these male voting restrictions could have for black voters in an article uh that they linked to. Y'all need to be supporting Capital B News. I am a paid subscriber. In fact, I'm going to

26:47 increase the amount of money I'm paying them because we need this sort of media, this sort of journalism in our community. According to NBC News, there is now an anonymous federal whistleblower who filed a complaint that the system that that that they were just talking about in Capital B News, the mailing system, they said, quote, "The technical system that the US Postal Service built for mail voting is flawed, untested, and likely to cause major disruptions in this fall's midterm elections if implemented." And we know they're going to implement it because the Supreme Court just gave Donald Trump the alley and he about to dunk that [ __ ] The article says president the article says Donald Trump signed an executive order in March that directed his administration to create federal lists of citizens and asked the postal service to transmit mail ballots to only those people. A federal judge blocked the order uh amid ongoing litigation over its constitutionality. But the

27:34 whistleblower complaint highlights the issues because this the postal service even though they were blocked from doing this is still moving forward with the plan. Uh they say the US Postal Service is typically responsible only for transporting mail ballots between election officials and voters and the federal government has never kept a central list of all American citizens. Trump ordered the agency to take on an unprecedented and complex role in the process this year amid a broader attempt to exert greater control over the country's elections and his continued unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud voter fraud. The technical system the post office assembled is to avet voters was quote developed in a rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed process. This is according to the the whistleblower complaint. And they are alleging that the postal service did not

28:19 even begin building the portal for verifying the ballots honestly and in earnest until June, which gave them less than three months to complete a system that would ordinarily take at least 9 to 12 months to build. As noted by a group called Northern Resistance on threads, they said, quote, "Scottas set the stage for election tampering. The US Postal Service is about to mess up mail-in voting. ICE is planning to storm the voting booth, and I believe they're going to also seize ballot boxes. They're going to refuse to certify the election. The USA is in a lot of trouble come November. We need to be clear about this because the USA is in a lot of trouble. But as John 14:1 says, "Let not your heart be troubled." And as Larie Daniel Favor says, let not your vote be [ __ ] wittable. Let's listen to this clip. Uh this is uh Morgan be talking.

29:06 She's got some important things to say. Actually, damn it. We're not even going to be able to play this full clip. I'm just looking at the time, Amina, and I'm realizing that we are at the end of our time. Actually, no. No, we can do it. We can do it. We can do it. Uh we're just going to play a little bit of this clip. I play the full thing in the podcast. Larie breaks it down, which will be out later on today. I do want you all to take a listen to this clip because it's important. LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED, BUT YOU SHOULD BE aware that if you are in Tarant County, Texas, on election day, you gonna have 92 fewer poll sites to that you can participate in. And that is because uh they have decided to close those election sites only in Tarant County and in black counties. That's where they decided to do it. So, you need to be aware of that. And let not your heart be troubled nor let your vote be fuckwitable. Amina, let's hear the first part of this clip. >> Just now, Tarant County's commissioner's court, the Republicans on the court cut 92 voting locations for the November 3rd midterm elections.

29:51 Okay, we knew that was going to happen. We figured that was going to happen. It would have been a happy surprise if it didn't. But let me tell you something. Don't you let them weak ass raggedy [ __ ] on that court discourage you from voting and showing up. You want to know why? There's nothing more satisfying than showing somebody they got you [ __ ] up. >> Okay. >> So, I personally feel like this has put a battery in my back. I don't know about you, but I'm like, "Okay, bet. Cool. We can do that. [clears throat] We can do that. That's fine. We're going to get your ass out." That is where I'm personally at. Now, am I in Tarant County? No. That don't matter. I'm going to do everything I can

30:36 to make sure people show up. And show them who the [ __ ] they are messing with. Now, let me tell you something. Taran County showed up today. I don't think I'm gonna have to do very much. I think a lot of the leg work is going to be people already in Taran County. Okay, because the way that people showed up today was so impressive. Y'all thought that meeting last last month was bad. That one today, so many people showed up. There were so many great things that people had to say. Um, great things for us. It was basically like a [ __ ] you to all of them except for like a few people, like four or five white women. [laughter] Everybody Everybody was like, "Fuck y'all." >> Of course, for time sake, Amina, let's go ahead and hold it there. Just for time sake, of course, it would be them. As someone said, we gave Democrats all three branches of government many times and nothing transformational happened. We'll see when when did Democrats have

31:22 all three branches of government. They had it for the first half of of Joe Biden's uh term and in that term they were able to cut child poverty in half when they passed the infrastructure bill. Um in that time they were able to invest billions, hundreds of billions of dollars into cultivating infrastructure and building out jobs. In that time, black people had the lowest unemployment rate that we have ever had since they started counting. So, when we say that we gave the Democrats all three branches of government and nothing happened, let's be clear about our facts. Let's be clear about our facts. Let's not repeat talking points that we heard on some breakfast uh situation or some what but what let's be clear about our facts. Okay? Because the last time Democrats had all three branches of government, black people was employed. What were we in liberation and and black liberation? No, but the Democrats can't give us black liberation. Black people got to give us black liberation. So, let's be clear about that. My moral point for

32:07 today, my main point rather for today is that we should be paying attention to what's happening. The NAACP has launched a $20 million plan and you can read about this again in Capital B News to mobilize $6.5 million black voters. I go into this plan way more extensively in the podcast. I just simply don't have time to do it in this morning because there's a main point that I really want us to get. In addition to the fact that Capital V News has also written about uh in an article entitled, "Black organizers are preparing for a new era of voting rights battles. While no single strategy they say will be a silver bullet, there has been renewed focus on state voting rights acts, youthled movements, and grassroots organizing." And all of that is extraordinarily important. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what other groups do, what organizations do if we the people don't do what we are supposed to do. And so I would just like to conclude by saying, let not your

32:53 heart be troubled, but also let not your vote be fuckwitable. And the best way we can let not our vote be fuckwittable is to do what Ted Lou says when he said this very thing. Amina, let's hear the question. >> Just go [ __ ] vote. Now, some of you may have seen an article today about a whistleblower at the United States Postal Service saying that the postal service is trying to implement Donald Trump's executive order on mail ballots even though right now the courts have said that that order is unconstitutional. So, Leader Jeff earlier this year established a task force with ranking member Joe Morelli to look at different scenarios where the Trump administration is going to try to suppress the vote of the American people. This is one of the scenarios that they envisioned. One of the

33:39 messages I want to give the American people is the Democratic caucus is on this. We're working to fight back. Other message I want to give is just go [ __ ] vote. The Trump administration is going to try to suppress >> it that part. Just go [ __ ] vote. Just go [ __ ] vote. That's it. And that's a direct quote, YouTube. So when y'all doing this extra screening that y'all doing, don't be banning my video because I use some profanity. I'm quoting the congressman. And as someone noted, uh, but the Democrats ran on Build Back Better, respectfully. Yeah, they did. And they didn't have the votes to keep it. And you need 218 votes in the House and 60 votes in the Senate. When you don't have 218 votes of your party in the House or 60 votes in the Senate of your party in the Senate, then you have to compromise and you have to get votes from the other side, the other political party to support you. the other political party would not vote for build back better and giving THEM THE HOUSE

34:26 DOESN'T MEAN you gave them a veto proof majority. So let's let's be um students of politics. Let's not just say things. Let's be students of it and create a space where I appreciate so much that people are able to use the comment section to to share these things and then we can talk about them in real time with love and with respect and and with with positive community correction. But it's important that we we go beneath the surface of the headlines. So in the podcast episode which will be out later on today, I discussed this far more extensively. Uh we're going to hold it here because we do have to get ready to go to commercial break. I just want to say once again a huge thank you to those of you in Sancopa Connections. I loved loved loved having that time to share with you all about my trip to Ghana and talk about what I have learned as it pertains to our capacity to build organizing and to build connections, bridges, and pipelines between us and the rest of the branch of the diaspora. And for those of you who live in a space

35:12 where you still believe that you are you you can be so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good, there is a place for you at the right hand side of the father, but you ain't there yet. And when you get there, that's going to be great. But right now, you here. Let's go [ __ ] vote. Stop making this so silly. We'll be right back on the other side of this commercial break. [music] You are more than every