Podcast appearances and mentions of tom porter

Katsi Cook is a beacon in an array of quiet powerful worlds — a magnetic, joyous, loving presence. The public conversation we offer up here was part of a gathering where a fantastic group of young people had come to be nourished, to explore the depths of what community can mean, to become more grounded and whole. They've taken to sitting at the feet of this Mohawk wise woman, mother, and grandmother, and you will experience why.Katsi Cook is globally renowned in the field of midwifery. Her practice and teaching, based in ancient ancestral knowledge, have taken an esteemed place in research and advances in the science of environmental reproductive health. She is founder of the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives of Canada. Her work is at heart, she says, about the "reclamation of the transformative power of birth." And Katsi Cook is helping our world recover the natural human experience of cross-generational companionship and care. This conversation you'll hear between her and Krista, sitting in a room of mostly young people, was an exercise in the art of eldering — which Katsi Cook calls nothing more and nothing less than "generational wealth transmission."Katsi Cook is an Onkwehonweh traditional midwife, elder, and Executive Director of Spirit Aligned Leadership Program. She is a Wolf Clan member of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation and resides at the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe in upstate New York. Her groundbreaking environmental research of Mohawk mother's milk revealed the intergenerational impact of industrial chemicals on the health and well-being of an entire community.  Katsi leads a movement of matrilineal awareness and rematriation in Native life. Her book discussed in this episode is Worlds Within Us: Wisdom and Resilience of Indigenous Women Elders.Find an excellent transcript of this show, edited by humans, on our show page at onbeing.org.  There you can find links that will provide context on other people mentioned in the show.Special thanks for the entire experience that brought On Being together with Katsi Cook:Reverend Don Chatfield, Tammy Saltus, and the All Souls Interfaith Gathering congregation; Megan Camp, Tre McCarney, and the team at Shelburne Farms; The Harris and Herzberber Families and High Acres Farms, Philo Ridge Farm, Spirit Aligned Leadership, Gedakina, Guaní Press, and the Akwesasne Freedom School.  Jennifer Brandel with Hearken; Mara Zepeda and MCK Keefrider with Linestone, Amelia Rose Barlow, Kristine Hill with Collective Wisdom, and Sara Jolena Wolcott with Sequoia Samanvaya, and audio engineer Abra Clawson.  The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Wayfarer Foundation; Democracy Fund; and (m)otherboard who supported this Gathering, as well as: Aimee Arandia Østensen, Aly Perry, Amanda Herzberger, Andrew Berns, Ashley Henry, Chief Beverly Cook, Ben Von Wong, Bread and Butter Farm, Carson Linforth Bowley,  Casey Ryan, Charlotte Hardie, Christine Lai, Courtney Mulcahy, David Alder, Ethan Bond-Watts, Elizabeth Stewart, Eve Bradford, Grace Oedel, Hanna Satterlee, Heidi Webb, Jeff Herzberger, Jennifer Daniels, Jonathan Harris, John Stokes, Joey Borgogna, Josie Watson, José Barreiro, Judy Dow,  Katherine Elmer, Kathy Treat, Ken Miles, Liana Gillooly, Loretta Afraid of Bear Cook, Lynn van Housen, Mario Picayo, Michelle Dai Zotti, Paul & Eileen Growald, Raquel Picayo, Rob Anderson,  Speranza Foundation, Tom Cook, Tom Porter, Scott Thrift, Sherry Oakes-Jackson, Ssong Yang, Sue Dixon, Sydney Bolger, Vera Simon-Nobes, Waylon Cook, Wendy Bratt. ______Sign up for The Pause, a monthly Saturday morning companion for all things On Being, with a heads-up on new episodes, special offerings, event invitations, recommendations, and reflections from Krista all year round.

Matt Fallaize and Tom Porter join Tony Curr to round up day one of the meeting, which brought news on Aurigny's finances — and its plans for the Alderney routes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony Curr is joined by Matt Fallaize and Tom Porter to recap today at the States, as debate begins on a move to scrap funding for the colleges and there are update statements from three major committees. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony Curr is joined by Matt Fallaize and Tom Porter to look back on Thursday's States debate, which saw legislation to give tenants in the private rental sector stronger legal protection backed by a narrow margin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony Curr is joined by Matt Fallaize and Tom Porter as members back the cautious expansion of the open property market and questions are raised about the latest visitor numbers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony Curr is joined by Matt Fallaize and Tom Porter to preview this week's meeting, with questions on visitor numbers and a debate on open market property among the items on the order paper. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Originally uploaded December 17th, re-edited February 14th. Chris Holman welcomes back Ara Topouzian, Executive Director, MVCA, the Michigan Venture Capital Association, operating virtually, across all of Michigan. There were several things Chris wanted to find out during their conversation: Welcome back Ara, remind the Michigan business community about the MVCA? What have the highlights been for 2024? What are the current trends for venture capital in Michigan? What are the goals and events MVCA is looking forward to in 2025? For your convenience, Here are more details coming out of October's awards event: Michigan Venture Capital Association Celebrates 17th Entrepreneurial & Investment Successes at 2024 Annual Awards Event Eight Organizations & Individuals Honored for Contributions to Michigan's Entrepreneurial Community Bloomfield Hills, Mich. – October 10, 2024 – The Michigan Venture Capital Association (MVCA) celebrated the state's thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem at its 2024 Annual Awards Celebration, held at Elevate at One Campus Martius. The sold-out event welcomed 240+ attendees, recognizing achievements that fuel Michigan's business growth, investment milestones, and community impact. 2024 MVCA Award Winners: Entrepreneur of the Year: Mike Klein (Genomenon) Up-and-Coming Company of the Year: Optilogic Community Impact Award: Michigan Founders Fund Capital Event of the Year – Venture Capital Fund: Grand Ventures Capital Event of the Year – Portfolio Company: May Mobility “Michigan's investment and startup community continues to demonstrate remarkable resilience and innovation despite economic turbulence,” said MVCA Executive Director Ara Topouzian. New MVCA Hall of Fame Inductees MVCA introduced the Hall of Fame to honor individuals who have significantly shaped Michigan's entrepreneurial ecosystem: Tim Petersen: Co-founder of Arboretum Ventures, instrumental in Michigan's VC growth. Chris Rizik: Managing Partner at Renaissance Venture Capital, driving investment in Detroit's startup scene. Past Lifetime Achievement winners were also inducted, including Skip Simms, Sam Valenti, Jody Vanderwel, Ian Bund, Tom Porter, Michael Finney, Tom Kinnear, Don Walker, David Brophy, and Dick Eidswick. Tribute to Kevin McCurren MVCA paid tribute to Kevin McCurren, whose dedication to Michigan's investment and entrepreneurial landscape left a lasting impact. His family accepted the award on his behalf. 2024 MVCA Award Finalists Entrepreneur of the Year: Brian Moore (Voxel51), Deepak Ravindra Menon (Micro-LAM), Edwin Olson (May Mobility), Mike Klein (Genomenon) Up-and-Coming Company of the Year: Livegistics, Optilogic, Rivet Work, Zeck Community Impact Award: Black Tech Saturdays, Michigan Founders Fund, Michigan Innovation Fund Coalition, Venture 313 Capital Event of the Year – Venture Capital Fund: Grand Ventures ($50M Second Fund), Mercury ($160M Fifth Fund) Capital Event of the Year – Portfolio Company: CoverTree ($13M, Series A), May Mobility ($105M, Series D), Voxel 51 ($30M, Series B) MVCA continues to be a driving force in Michigan's investment, innovation, and startup growth. » Visit MBN website: www.michiganbusinessnetwork.com/ » Subscribe to MBN's YouTube: www.youtube.com/@MichiganbusinessnetworkMBN » Like MBN: www.facebook.com/mibiznetwork » Follow MBN: twitter.com/MIBizNetwork/ » MBN Instagram: www.instagram.com/mibiznetwork/

Tony Curr is joined by Matt Fallaize and Tom Porter to round up day one of this week's meeting, with the diving platform, party funding and Beau Sejour among the topics discussed by members. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Find me and the show on social media. Click the following links or search @DrWilmerLeon on X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube!   FULL TRANSCRIPT: Wilmer Leon (00:00): I am back. I'm back. I went to what I'm calling Cult Fest 2024, also known as the RNC in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That was a site to behold. But with all that said, president Joe Biden has decided not to pursue a second term for 2024. Without a primary, without an open process, vice President Kamala Harris has quickly become the Democrat's. Presumptive nominee. Is this democracy or a Bernie Sanders? Redo. Stay tuned. We're going to answer those questions, Announcer (00:41): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Wilmer Leon (00:49): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. I'm Wilmer Leon. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they are current, a vacuum failing to understand the broader historical context in which most events take place. During each episode, my guests and I have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between these events and the broader historic context in which they occur, thus enabling you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live. On today's episode, the issue before us is the 2024 presidential election and how the Democrats are selecting their nominee. My guest is Tom Porter. He's a lifelong activist and scholar, former dean of the African-American Studies Department at Ohio University, former director of the King Center in Atlanta, former host of morning conversations with Tom Porter. Tom Porter. Welcome back to podcast, my brother. (01:57) So Tom, as I said in the open President, Joe Biden has decided not to pursue a second term for 2024 without a primary, without an open process. Vice President Kamala Harris has quickly become the Democrat's presumptive nominee. I believe she has now amassed the requisite delegates in order to become officially the nominee on July 8th. Clinton advisor, James Carville, who is one tricky, somebody wrote a piece entitled Biden Won't Win, Democrats need a Plan. Here's one wherein he wrote, the Jig is Up, and the sooner Mr. Biden and Democratic leaders accept this, the better we need to move forward. But it can't be by anointing Vice President, Kamala Harris or anyone else as the presumptive democratic nominee. We've got to do it in the open, the exact opposite of what Donald Trump wants us to do. Tom, it doesn't appear, at least at this point that the Dems are listening to Carville Tom Porter (03:09): And they shouldn't. Wilmer Leon (03:10): Okay? Tom Porter (03:11): And they shouldn't. I remember the most important black labor leader in the country came out of a meeting with Clinton Carville and Al from, and he said, Tom, they're a bunch of fascists. It is the Clinton Wing that took over the Democratic Party under the leadership of the Democratic Leadership Conference, which was made of Southern governors, which has gotten the Democratic Party in trouble ever since. And what that means is that CarVal didn't want Kamala Harris. That's what that means. It had nothing to do with the open process and what have you. He would know open if he had a can opener, Wilmer Leon (03:58): But to his point about an open process, because further on in that piece, he talks about Clinton and Obama selecting, I think it was eight potential nominees, and that they needed to have regional town halls where these individuals would travel the country explaining their policies, introducing themselves to the electorate, and then based upon that, an individual would be, I think the term was selected, Tom. Tom Porter (04:30): Well, the effect of it is one of the things that Jesse Jackson and the Jackson campaign of 1984 is instructive and people should study that more. What Jesse found out that even though he was leading the other presidential candidates, that the rules of the Democratic party was stacked against him. It was called front loading. So for CarVal, they throw the word around democracy. First of all, the America's never been a democracy. It was born in slavery, genocide of Native Americans, and still the land from the Mexican. So the fact of it is it only had the possibility of becoming a democracy, and it has yet to come there. So what car is talking about it seems very, very interesting. But he crow controls the process, controls the day, and I'll guarantee you that Clinton and CarVal and that bunch are not going to have any kind of process that they don't control. And so it may look like it. I mean, it looks like Biden was chosen. He was number four. How did he get past three candidates and become number one? It wasn't open process. And I tell you one thing carve out and nobody else said anything because he was their choice because they wanted to stop Bernie Sanders. Wilmer Leon (05:52): There are those who say that Joe Biden was selected not to defeat Donald Trump. Joe Biden was selected to defeat Bernie Sanders, Tom Porter (06:03): And you are absolutely right. And that is what they have done. They did it with Jesse in 84. The whole Jaime thing was just that a hoax. Jesse never said it in any kind of way that was demeaning towards the Jews, but the JDL disrupted interrupted Jesse's announcement when he announced that he was going to run for president and hounded us, us being me, Florence Tate and Jesse, who were three people called the road team. When Jesse first started running in 84, they hounded us to JDO every place we went. And before we got secret service protection, it was Farhan and the FOI that protected us. So they were after Jesse from the beginning. It's instructed for people to read the platform of the Rainbow Coalition because Jesse has had the most progressive populous campaign in the 20th century. Wilmer Leon (07:00): I'm glad you brought that up. This takes us a bit off topic, but I think it is relevant because James Clyburn and a group of African-American leadership went in and met with Biden a couple of weeks ago, and that's when Clyburn came out with the line, we Riding with Biden. And one of the things that I said as a result of that was, what did you get for that endorsement When you walked into the room and you sat down with Joe Biden, did you put your own project 2025 plan on the table and say, look, Joe, here's what we need. Here's what we want. Here's what we demand. You're going to sign this or we're going to go back out here and tell people that you just fell asleep in the meeting. I don't know what they got for that. And based upon the way that this whole thing has gone, it seems as though they were once again on the wrong side of history. So for you to say that people need to go back and read the plan from the Jackson campaign, and then we can even go back to the black political, the Gary Conference, Tom Porter (08:15): Gary Convention, that Wilmer Leon (08:17): There's enough data. Go ahead. Tom Porter (08:19): Those are two documents that people need to read. Not only read, but they need to update them. That is the agenda that came out of the Gary Convention and Jesse Jackson's platform. Not only was Jesse's platform the most advanced in 1984, when I left the university, I was looking for something to do, so I decided to run for Congress and Jackie Jackson called me Jesse's wife and said, Jesse wants to meet with you. And I was in Cincinnati running for Congress, and I went to Chicago, spent the night at Jesse's house the day before 1983, and that's when Jesse asked me if I would work with him in the campaign. But I ran for Congress in Ohio and I ran in two counties that were 99% white and blacks and white in Cincinnati, which was a big city, said, don't go out there, show your literature, but don't show your face. Long story short, Mondell was at the top of the ticket. I got 2000 more votes than he did in Brown County and a thousand more than he did in Claremont County. He was at the top of stick. He was supposed to ticket, he was supposed to help me. The fact of it is it was just as populism that got basically these working class, mostly Republican whites to get behind Jesse because of his platform. It was a very populous platform to the left. Trump came along with a populous platform from the Wilmer Leon (09:52): Right, from Tom Porter (09:53): The right. And so the Democratic Party, instead of embracing Jesse's platform, which came out of the Gary Convention, instead of embracing it, they moved the leadership of the Democratic Party to the Democratic Leadership Conference and hired all of Jesse's people and gave them jobs which are meaningless jobs, moved the structure from the party someplace else. But these Negroes became deputy. This deputy, I call their names, but I don't want to, some of my still call friends, but they drank the Kool-Aid. And if you read some of the press around Clinton and his crew Al from, and James Carve, one theme was We don't need Jesse Jackson anymore. They marginalized Jesse so much so that in the convention in New York, Jesse didn't have a VIP pass. He had to come through the door like everybody else. That's Clinton and his crew, and Nancy Pelosi and Clyburn and all of the Negroes come out of that. Obama's position was to negate the progress and the black leadership that had gone before he calling Dr. King a simple country preacher, he couldn't carry Dr. King's dirty underwear. Wilmer Leon (11:12): Well, in fact, wait a minute. First of all is that negating the negation is the one question. And to your point, you can go and read President Obama's acceptance speech at the Nobel where he talks about Dr. King and then says, but I'm an American president. I have a different set of concerns that I must address. You don't quote Dr. King and then say, yeah, but you say, yeah, yeah. Tom Porter (11:43): But his job was to negate the advances that had been made and our responsibility, and this is what this generation of young people, when Joe Biden has to pass the torch, but not pass the torch, the Hakeem Jeffries and that crew, we have to negate them, which is called a negation of the negation, which is an affirmation of something at a high level Wilmer Leon (12:11): Because two negatives make a positive. Tom Porter (12:13): That's right. That's right. And so getting back to where we are now, of course Kamala Harris was not chosen as a result of some democratic process, and one would not expect that coming from the Nancy Pelosi, bill Clinton and them. And so the responsibility of this generation of young people and young people have actually shown from the mass worldwide protests around the George Floyd lynching, Greta and Climate can change the mass protests around the war and Gaza, the mass women protests around the world. There's a new populism that is emerging. And if Kamala Harris does not pick somebody to be the vice president to the left of her, she may have problems. Wilmer Leon (13:16): Now, when you say to the left of her, that's a very, very interesting designation because there are many who will say she is the left, that she was the left to Biden. And by the way, folks, Tom mentioned the Democratic Leadership Council, Joe Biden was an instrumental part of that as well. Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Joe Biden, they were all Nancy Pelosi. They were all part instrumental parts of moving the Democratic Party from the left. They want to say center, but it was actually to the right. So Tom, what do you say to those that say, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, Mr. Porter, vice President Harris, it's to the left of Joe Biden. Tom Porter (14:03): It wouldn't be difficult. (14:07) I mean that's a distinction without a difference. They say Twi D and Twiddly dumb. She was as a black person, as a black person, she would have to be given the history that she is a part of, be the left of most white candidates. But at the same time, she was not on the left. And so for her to pick conventional wisdom is a bunch of Bs curse of all. Somebody's always been telling me, well, Tom, conventional wisdom or you don't understand real politics. I say, I'll tell you where you can go with both of those. So conventional wisdom says that she should pick somebody from a state that she needs a governor. The protests and the mass movements that are happening, the populous movements that are happening are to the left. And they're to the left because the Democratic party and the Republican party are so far to the right. But what used to be when we said left, we meant socialists or communism. (15:28) But the left today is anything left of the Democrat or Republican parties. But if she is to, there are two things that I think that are important now. One is the platform. One is the platform. I mean, she's going to be the vice president, the president nominee. That's a foregone conclusion because any of these other people who want to jump up, they can't go anywhere. What's this guy out of? West Virginia said that he was thinking about running, right? The base. Yeah. The base of the Democratic party is black and growing Hispanic, and he's not going to get any votes from them. And so for him to say that he might run and they know it. They know it. And that's why they use Clyburn in 2020 who just as he said, we riding with Biden, we know Joe and Joe know us. I mean some of that old coon foolishness. So they know they can't move without black folks. But the same time they hoping that they got other cly burns Wilmer Leon (16:45): And they know they can't move without black folks, but they never offer substantive legislation to demonstrate a commitment because for as much as they know they can't move without us. They don't want to appear to the broader demographic that they're with us. Tom Porter (17:11): Well, the fact of it is if they were true and honest, Jesse Jackson would've become leader of the Democratic Party just like Trump did. Obama could have become the leader of the Democratic Party, but that wasn't his job. His job was to look good. He and his wife while doing nothing, my daughter sent me a magazine cover the other day where Obama was on there, and it was something about the new generation of Kool. He was supposed to be the replacement for Miles Davis and Malcolm X, all of the black people. We considered to be cool just because they taught him how to dress and walk black and he could shoot a basketball. So he did not want to be head of the Democratic party. He liked his job. He had barbecues and all kind of black folks in the White House, and they line dance and did what they did, and then he came out and did nothing. So the key thing now for the Democrats, if they want to win, I wasn't going to vote for Joe Biden anyway, and I already said it, and anybody that co-signs what he did in Gaza, he could be running against the devil and I wouldn't vote for him or the devil, so I wasn't going to vote for him. (18:38) Kamala Harris, black people going on the glory, they went on the glory with Jesse Jackson. They went on the glory with Barack Obama because black people feel their late nationalism that when we get somebody black, we'll get a better deal if we get somebody white. But as they say, you might be my race, but you're not always my taste. But they're excited about Kamala Harris. They're all this money and black women on Facebook are putting on with camera. I don't have a problem with that. The problem is what's going to be the platform and is she going to choose somebody to the left of her a more populous candidate? Because if she's not going to do that, then what are we talking about more the same? And the other thing that the Democratic Party has to do in the new world that we live in, they've got to loosen the grips that the Israeli lobby has on the party. Wilmer Leon (19:38): What about, I want to quickly go back to the issue with the African-American women and this proclamation or this statement, this sentiment that Vice President Harris has earned the right to be the vice president. And that any attempt to either have a more open process or anything that might challenge that is a threat to black women, it's a threat to black womanhood. Your thoughts on these politics, this whole identity politics thing, because she's a black woman, now all of a sudden is hands off. Tom Porter (20:24): Yeah, I understand that sentiment, but I understand it. It's like with Obama, we knew we questioned Obama, but the black women said that Michelle would keep him in line. Remember that? Wilmer Leon (20:42): Oh yeah. Tom Porter (20:43): They said, Wilmer Leon (20:44): Because Michelle we're from Chicago. And when she said that, I said, oh, we got some straight gangsters up in this joint. We got some Tom Porter (20:52): Elkins. But it was also because she was darker Wilmer Leon (20:56): Than Tom Porter (20:56): Obama. And even though Obama himself said he was a mu mother, he was sure about one thing, and he really wasn't black. He was clear about that. So I understand the sentiment, but everything else in our politics we've got to be serious about. Wilmer Leon (21:20): Not sentimental. Tom Porter (21:22): Not sentimental. That's what Dr. King said and his great thing about power, he said love without power. He said, power without love is reckless, but love without power is weak, sentimental an anemic. And so I understand that everybody wants to see somebody. I'd like to see short guys run the world. I'm five six. Nobody's deeper than that. Wilmer Leon (21:53): No, Tom, it's taller than that. Tom Porter (21:57): You're absolutely right. So I understand the sentiment, but that's the reason why I tell people that you must study deeper. You can't be all form and no content because then you end up saying that Michelle is darker than Obama and therefore she'll keep him in line. They were both like Clinton and Hillary, which was their role model, latter Day Bunny and Clyde's. So I understand that sentiment, but unless they turn it into something, unless they talk about the platform, what is the platform going to look like? What is camera going to run on? I mean, I see her quietly distance herself from Netanyahu's visit. She's going to be in Indiana, but then she's going to secretly meet with him. It's not so much a secret. So we've got to be, these are very, very serious times. And as they say in my neighborhood in Ohio, now's not the time to be nut rolling. So these are very, very serious times. And so when we look at passing the torch, who are we passing the torch to? Not Hakeem Jeffries, not the rest of these niggas, Roland Martin, they're all getting in line. They're getting in line without even discussing the platform. Wilmer Leon (23:26): Well, first of all, could Kamala Harris get away with not meeting with Netanyahu, understanding the power of apac, not meet with Netanyahu and still win the election? Tom Porter (23:42): I think she could. Wilmer Leon (23:43): Okay. Tom Porter (23:44): I don't think, see, APAC has never been challenged, (23:49) And APAC represents that group in the Jewish community who attempts to control everything that they can, particularly in the black community, whether you're talking about the music, the culture, or what have you got to say it. We got to say it because if we don't say it, then we allow ourselves to be chumped. And the fact of it is, is that it's got to be challenged and she won't, but she can challenge it by who she picks and what the platform's going to be. In apacs power is basically through the media, the media and its money. It's not the numbers that they have that can put a candidate in office except maybe in New York City, but she won't. But that has to happen. We cannot allow a group of people to control significant aspects of our community and not say something about it. Wilmer Leon (24:58): Wait a minute. And to that point, to those that listening to this conversation, want to jump on the antisemitism train and accuse us of being antisemitic, APAC said, and you can go back and look it up in the newspaper, they were going to invest 100 million into the Democratic primary process to be sure that they would unseat or prevent from winning candidates whose politics were to the left, and that they deemed to be anti-Israel. That's not us making this up. That's them making the declaration. All we're doing is highlighting and calling your attention to what they said. So we're not making this up. Tom Porter (25:51): I let those kinds of conversations roll off my back that you anti-Semitic, the same way when somebody says, if we get into disagreement and the first thing they go to is you got a Napoleonic complex. And my answer to that, would I be wrong if I was tall? So you can't be afraid of all these things because they going to come at you anyhow. I said to Jesse, when the ING thing came up, I said, man, just don't cop to that. And some of the people who were around him told him to cop to that. It was the biggest mistake that he ever made because they never heard him said it, and he never said it in a derogatory way. About, on the other hand, in our first meeting in New York, Percy Sutton met us before we were supposed to meet with the Jewish leaders of New York with a yako on his head telling us how we had to talk and act in front of the Jews in New York. So look, I don't pay any attention to that. We have to challenge, we have to cash all checks when it comes to us. And it has to be a Pan-African perspective where we really, where the continent and blacks in the new world. We've got to challenge those things that oppress us because if not in this serious time, Trump them are going for all of the marbles. Wilmer Leon (27:18): Yes, they are. I mean, Tom Porter (27:19): They're going for all of the marvels, and there's enough Democrats, white Democrats who will side with that stuff. Because quite frankly, where we are right now, in order to solve the world's problems, we have to understand two things. Who's been in charge of the world for the last 400 years? White men look at the state of the world. They forfeited the right to run the world, but you're not going to give up just because you enslaved. A bunch of people stole the land from the Native Americans. If we give up, we'd have to give up what we got. It's too bad, but we not giving that up. And that's what trumped them. That's what Hitler was riding on. That's what Trump didn't riding on. We don't want to give. Democracy is what it means to pay reparations, give some of the land back to the neighborhood. What the hell with democracy? That's what they're saying. Wilmer Leon (28:13): I want to quickly go back to your point about challenging APAC and other type of organizations, and I want to tie it to what's going on in Gaza now nine months into that conflict. And the Zionist government of Israel has been taken a ass whooping for nine months straight. And so this whole mythology of the invincibility of the IDF, that they're this phenomenal military force and they're getting their ass whooped. And so the whole mythology behind this thing is being exposed. And so just as it's being exposed there, it's being exposed here. The question is, are we willing to do what we have to do to challenge that mythology in alliance with those that are fighting in Gaza? Does that make sense? Tom Porter (29:12): Sure, it makes sense. Well, the fact of it is, given the geopolitical alignment in the world today with China and Russia and Brazil and different formations coming together, even the EU who has been lockstep with Israel, the eu, it can no longer hold to that position because without Africa, Europe is broke in terms of the resources. And so the Israel, where it appears to be winning because of the devastation that it is reaping on the Palestinian people, there will be a reckoning, and it's coming slow, but it is coming even among the evangelicals who say that the rapture will come when Israel is safe and secure within its borders, and then Israel will be destroyed. Wilmer Leon (30:12): Look at Yemen. Look at what Yemen has been able to extract or the force that they've been able to exact upon in terms of their involvement in this process. A small Yemen is considered to be the poorest country in the world. They control the Red Sea. They're sending missiles 1200, 1400 miles across Saudi Arabia and decimating important ports that Israel controls. The whole dynamic is shifting. So with that, when you look, you've talked about the platform. I remember when the platform committee meetings used to be broadcast on television, and I used to sit and listen to 'em. I know I need to get a life, but I used to sit and listen to 'em. That's not happening anymore. So how does a candidate, Harris, what type of platform does she articulate having sat there for years while the Biden administration is involved in genocide, while the Biden administration has wasted trillions of dollars in Ukraine, how does she formulate a platform that takes us away from that failed, attempted world domination and moves us closer to the direction that the world is actually going as in bricks in the South and the Chinese? Tom Porter (31:47): Well, as if we look at the Middle East, Wilmer Leon (31:52): The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is what I was trying to get to. Go Tom Porter (31:55): Ahead. If we look at the Middle East, Wilmer Leon (31:59): Is that a reasonable question to Tom Porter (32:01): Ask? Not only is a reasonable question to ask, but it's a reasonable question to expect that it be answered. You can't allow a small country in the Middle East, which was settled by people who were not from, that had no connection to the original inhabitants of the Middle East to control the future of the Western world women. There's a movie called Rollover, and this was when the Arabs dominated the money thing through it started Kris Christoff and James Fonder and the Greenspan character played by Hume Cronin. At one point, the Arabs were not going to roll over the money, and Hume Cronin said, you are playing with the end of the world. That's where we're at. You can't allow a group of people since Jesus time to control your system in the way that these people do, because it won't work with people talking about if they leave the dollar, Wilmer Leon (33:26): Which they are doing, Tom Porter (33:28): Which they're doing, somebody else loses their influence because there's nothing back in the dollar to begin with talking Wilmer Leon (33:38): About other than more dollars. Tom Porter (33:38): Yeah, talking about only a paper Moon Wilmer Leon (33:45): And Tom, people really need to understand for it because it's not really being articulated here in the Western media. Again, the power of the bricks, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and now about seven or eight other countries have joined the organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, those two as quiet as is kept in the West man, they kicked the French out of Niger. You look at the development of the Sahel cooperation organization, man, they are kicking ass and taking names. They are finally moving beyond flag independence, and they are now actually taking control of their economies and they are taking control of their countries and they are kicking the west out. Tom Porter (34:42): The Palestinian leadership met for two days in Beijing. I mean the world, one of the most popular soap operas used to be. As the world turns Wilmer Leon (34:55): In daily city, Tom Porter (34:58): The world is turning. And quite frankly, it's turning away. Not so much from the West, but from the ways of the West. And they don't get it. They don't get it. You can't put sanctions on the whole world without putting sanctions on yourself. You can't tell people they can't come to America, and you'd be welcome in Panama and Costa Rica and Brazil. It doesn't work like that. Or you'd be welcome in Africa. It doesn't really work like that. You tell the people they can't come. Well, clues the borders work both ways. We can open 'em and close, and you can't. I mean, the policies are so stupid in the West. I mean, it's almost particularly in the United States because they have sold this white nationalism for so long, they'd actually believe it themselves. The world is going on without them. Wilmer Leon (35:52): And to their point, I'm looking up here seeing if I could put my hands on it, but I can't quickly, Dr. Ron Walters wrote a book a while ago, white nationalism, black Interests, and I strongly suggest that people get ahold of it. To your point about the policy and the borders, which they say that the Biden administration put Kamala Harris in charge of the borders. I was at the RNC and this woman, Latinos for Trump is who I was talking to. And she was talking about the border, the border. The Democrats have just, I said, wait a minute, wait a minute. You are not even talking about the American foreign policy in these countries that is decimating their economies and forcing these people to leave their countries to come here. And she looked at me very puzzled and quizzical, and I said, lemme give you an example. Chiquita Banana last week was convicted in federal court in Florida of having sponsored death squads in Guatemala. So Chiquita Banana, a US corporation is killing Guatemalans, torturing Guatemalans. And that isn't motivation for them to leave their countries. She didn't even want to touch that, didn't want to Tom Porter (37:18): Touch it. I mean, it's very interesting that Trump would say that the people who are coming across the border are taking jobs from blacks and Latinos. Who does he think are coming across the border? Wilmer Leon (37:33): Oh, I asked her about Haitians. I said, the United States. Thank you. Hakeem Jeffries, thank you Kamala Harris, thank you. Linda Thomas Greenfield, the United States is trying to rein invade Haiti. Where are the Haitians supposed to go? Tom Porter (37:51): I mean, the fact of it is we have got to make sure and say to anybody that says that they represent us. Hakeem Jeffries, John Clyburn, governor Wilmer Leon (38:06): Gregory, Gregory Tom Porter (38:06): Meeks. Gregory Meeks, that if you're going to represent us, this is the platform brother. I mean, you had Hakeem Jeffries and Jonathan Jackson down here in Maryland supporting the guy from that owns Total Wine and Liquorice who was running for Senator Now, I dunno, Wilmer Leon (38:28): David Tron. Tom Porter (38:29): Yeah. And also Brooke. I didn't have no dogging hunt. But how do you come down here in this neighborhood and you support a white candidate who was no more distinguished than Officer Brook for what? Well, I know what Johnson Jackson did. He's in the same business. He's a liquor distributor and by man owns Total Wine. But I understand that he paid off some of Hakeem Jeffries and John campaign debts. So I don't know. But that's not representing us. You're not representing us if you're not on the side of the Palestinians. If you don't believe in the two state Wilmer Leon (39:10): Solution, Tom Porter (39:11): You're not representing us. If you don't understand what's happening in Africa or Haiti or Cuba, 70% of the people in Cuba of African descent. So you putting sanctions on your own people, you can't be co-signing that. And we got to say this, we got to negate the negation. We, as Margaret Walker said, let a new race of men and women rise and take control. That's what time it is. Wilmer Leon (39:38): So how do we get the presumptive right now, democratic nominee, Kamala Harris as a woman of color, as a multi-ethnic woman, Jamaican and Indian, how do we get her to speak to those issues? Tom Porter (40:02): First of all, we got to energize the black community because they're counting on that. And we've got to say to black women, these are the issues that we think, and there are black women who agree with us. These are the issues that we think that are important to the black community, and we need to have townhouses. We got to not only reenergize our black community, but we need to reenergize a movement because the struggle's not over. And we've got to put before, we can't just say that Kamala, you black, and therefore whatever you do is cool because it's not cool. Wilmer Leon (40:45): But that's the narrative right now, we are so ecstatic, and I'm speaking in the global, we are so ecstatic now that she is in this presumptive position and they are saying that she has earned the right to be there simply because she's black, because she's a woman and because she's been the VP for four years. But when you go back to when she ran for the number one slot, she was the first one out the race. She had zero delegates. She got less than 5% of the vote. Black people didn't even vote for her. Wait a minute. And final point, Tulsi Gabbard torched her ass in 45 seconds. And folks, I ain't hating. I'm just putting out the data, Tom. Tom Porter (41:39): Well, I mean she's earned the right as much as anybody else, but that's not really saying anything. Wilmer Leon (41:46): Okay? Tom Porter (41:47): It's not ever saying anything. The question is, now you here and this is what we're saying. Wilmer Leon (41:52): So what you going to do? Tom Porter (41:53): Yeah, this is what we're saying. We already went through Obama with this stuff and see, we got to quit accepting this notion of the first black to do this. The only reason why, I mean, you take the question of black quarterbacks. The only reason why there were no black quarterbacks in the NFL until there were some had absolutely nothing to do with. There were black quarterbacks, quarterback at junior high, black high schools and colleges ever since. There were some. And so the fact that you decide to let us in don't have anything to do with it because we've earned the right, we've earned the right. Our ancestors paid the price for us to be any damn thing. We want to be in this country. But now, if you're going to represent us, this is what we need at this point. And if you can't do that, it's okay. Do like Biden did go sit next to him while he's fishing, but we have got to have more programs like this. Too many people are not rolling in the press. You have people who, when I was in radio, well, you got to do both sides. There's no good side to slavery. I'm not even going to attempt that one so Wilmer Leon (43:04): Well. In fact, Tom, I've always, particularly when I started talking about Palestine, and I'd get calls from Jewish listeners who would tell me that I'm not balanced. And I said, no, I'm not trying to be balanced. I'm the counterbalance. Because anything that the positions that you want to articulate in the narrative that you want to hear, you get it in the Washington Post, you get it in the New York Times, you get it in the LA Times, you get it on M-S-N-B-C-I-A, you get it on CNN all day every day. So I don't have to present that because it's already presented. I'm the counter to that. And I think I got that from you, by the Tom Porter (43:46): Way. Well, it's very, very interesting. I was watching the BBC yesterday and the BBC hosts was saying, Kamala Harris is black and Asian, as if these would become factors. And she had an affair with Willie Brown. I mean, first of all, she's running against the cat who's damn near serial rapist Wilmer Leon (44:12): And admitted as such. Tom Porter (44:14): But then nobody mentioned that JD Vance's wife was Indian. Nobody talked about Nikki Haley being Indian. It only comes up with his black people Wilmer Leon (44:29): Who I talked to at the convention and was an empty can just full of talking points. Go ahead. Tom Porter (44:38): And so we going have to, the black community is going to have to defend her even if she doesn't want us to defend her because they coming at her. Wilmer Leon (44:49): Oh, no question. Tom Porter (44:50): They're coming at her and somebody's going to slip up and use the N word. Wilmer Leon (44:56): In fact, when I was at the convention, I was on the floor right after they nominated JD Vance, and that whole process ended the day session. I'm doing my standup with the convention floor in the background. And this other news entity had allowed us to use their standup space. And as I'm wrapping up, I say, I find it interesting that a guy who just three years ago was telling America that Donald Trump was the next thing to add off. Hitler is now going to be standing next to this add off Hitler as his vp. I said, how does that happen? And when I said that, the guy who allowed us to use his space came up and said, you guys got to go. You guys got to go. And we said, well, wait a minute. So anyway, but I raised all that to say that question. I'm not hearing many people ask, JD Vance said that Donald Trump was the next thing to Hitler, and he's now standing next to his Hitler. Tom Porter (46:13): Well, I say this about JD Vance and I put it on Facebook that he is either the white version of the Spook who sat by the door or he is the opportunist of the highest order. And I think it's probably a combination Wilmer Leon (46:28): Of nation of the two. Tom Porter (46:29): Yes, yes, yes. And I think Trump may be a little bit concerned now because Trump is in hot water because people don't like him now. They tolerate him. You think Mitch McConnell lacks Trump? Wilmer Leon (46:44): No. Oh, well see, in fact, I'm glad you said that because my advice to the Democrats right now is just put together a clip, a montage of JD Vance, of Little Marco Rubio of what's the dude from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, all of these folks who were, most of whom were sitting in Trump's box last week at Cult Fest 2024, which is also called the RNC Convention, put a montage of them, of Lindsey Graham saying, he's a narcissist, he's a bigot, he's an idiot. All of those put all that language Cruz, all the folks that were in that box kissing his butt. They need to tell the truth. Tom Porter (47:40): And at the same time, the Democrats, they've got some work to do. Oh, where do you think all of those people who were supporting Bernie Sanders in 2020, it's one thing for Bernie Sanders to be with the party, but those people, that's the reason why I said if she doesn't really pick a populous candidate as Vice President running mate, or if the platform is not one that is of a populous nature, she's got serious problems. Wilmer Leon (48:12): Those former Bernie people are part of that new crew called the Dual Haters. They're part of that new crew that is saying, we don't want either of these buffoons talking about Biden and talking. Tom Porter (48:25): And the fact of it is a significant number of the American people didn't want either one of 'em either. Correct. It was the press and the polls. And I say to people that polls are designed to shape and mold public opinion not to reflect the truth of public opinion. And of course, the other thing that nobody's ever, we haven't looked at, who are these people in the press? How many of them are actually Republicans? I know Lester Ho is Now, I'm not saying he's a Trump, but I'm just simply saying, because the press has been very, very lack in covering Trump. I mean, he lies. They never say that he lied. We are going to fact check him. Why don't you just say he lied about this? He lied about that. That's, that's the operative word. He lied. Wilmer Leon (49:21): In fact, I'm glad you brought up the polls because that part of the conversation got away from me for a minute because, and I know that the whole issue with Kamala now has just surfaced. So current polling hasn't taken place yet and hasn't been analyzed. But when you go back to, in looking at the numbers, you go to real clear politics. Trump at 58.4, Kamala Harris at 32.9. Now she has gained traction over the last couple of days, but still 58.4 to 32.9, that's not where you want to be with four months out from the election. Tom Porter (50:14): Yeah, but I think she has ignored the polls. I remember again. Wilmer Leon (50:18): Oh, absolutely. Tom Porter (50:18): Absolutely. I remember, again, traveling with Jesse and Negroes always ask these questions. They don't ask these questions. And they said, well, let's face it Jesse Jackson, you can't win Reverend Jackson. You got no organization, all this kind of stuff. And at that time, it was seven candidates in the race, and Jesse said, I'm number three, at least four other candidates that'd like to have my place. And so I think she has to ignore the polls because the polls are all part of the establishment, and they got a dog in the, and what's on the agenda now? What's on the agenda now is whether or not capitalism can in fact solve depressing problems that are facing the world today. And I would say that it can't. And so then what is the solution? I mean, I'm not saying that I have a solution, but I can say, what ain't the solution because it hasn't worked. (51:19) And therefore we got to be trying something new with some new people. And so the changing of the guard and the passing of the baton includes the passing away from white men, the same white men that who've been running the world, and the same white women who've been aligned with them. The passing of the church means that we got to not go with these Negro leaders who've been appointed, but to find our own leaders and to elect our own leaders, and the ones that don't do what we want 'em to do, we punish them by not electing them. Again, Wilmer Leon (51:54): Final question to you then. As you look at Kamala Harris as the presumptive nominee, I've been saying it can't work by just changing the messenger and not changing the message. Tom Porter (52:12): Oh, absolutely. Wilmer Leon (52:13): Go ahead, Tom Porter. Tom Porter (52:14): I mean, absolutely. We've already been there before. We've been there with Obama. Obama had, in the first term, he had the House and the Senate. He did nothing. And so we can't just change the message, the messenger or be satisfied that the messenger looks like us. We can't have got the demand and insist that people who represent us at whatever level, they represent us from the city council to the Congress and what have you, that if you're going to represent us, represent us. And if you not get the hell out the way, Wilmer Leon (52:55): But Tom, so what do you say to those AKAs that are ski win and doing the electric slide behind Kamala Harris and saying, oh, no, no, no, you can't do that now. Oh, no, no, no. You can't say that now because you can't put that on her now because we have to get her elected. And if you play those cards now, you're going to put her in a very precarious position and we'll lose the opportunity to have the first woman as a president. So what do you say to them that will respond in that manner? Tom Porter (53:30): We don't need a first black woman president because she's black. It's like people who say people fought and died for the right to vote. That's a lie. I fought and I didn't die for the right to vote, not for the right to vote, but the right to vote for something and somebody that would represent me. And so as the old folks say, you might be my race, but you're not my taste unless you willing to do what the ancestors have done. The legacy that you've inherited is not a legacy of people who went along to get along. It's a legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer. It's the legacy of Dr. King. It's the legacy of SNC and Core. That's the legacy. And if you ain't in that legacy, then get the hell out the way. Whether you a KAI don't know nothing about Greek organizations because I'm gamma delta iota damn independent. But my point of it is, we could no longer listen to these kind of arguments. I mean, these arguments go slow, slow. They say go slow. I mean, Wilmer Leon (54:43): Yours will come by and by. Tom Porter (54:45): Yeah. But we are past that. The world is in a serious position. And last side, look, we're in the world whether we are talking about the environment, whether we are talking about violence in the street, whether we are talking about homelessness, whether we're talking about whatever we're talking about, black people are impacted about that. And if you ain't for that, then get back. And we have to say that. I mean, I have no problem with saying to people, including in my own family, now look, if you ain't going to do nothing, get the hell out the way. I mean, I say that to my daughters, my grandkids, my friends. If you ain't going to do 'em, don't come around me because that ain't my style. And my heroes were Dr. King and Malcolm X and Fannie Lou Hamer. They weren't AKAs or Deltas. We didn't care nothing about any of that. And some progressive people were part of those organizations. But we can't, if she can't get elected on a platform that's a progressive platform than how is she going to govern as a progressive. Wilmer Leon (56:02): I want to thank my guests, brother Tom Porter. Man, thank you so much for joining me today. Tom Porter (56:10): It's been a pleasure, brother. Wilmer Leon (56:12): Folks, thank you all so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wilmer Leon and Tom Porter. Stay tuned for new episodes every week. Also, please follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share the show, follow me. Follow us on social media. You can find all the links to the show below in the description below. And remember, folks, this is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Because talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter here. Unlike a whole lot of folks, we don't chatter here on connecting the dots. I'm going to see you again next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Woman Leon. Have a great one. Peace. I'm out Announcer (57:05): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge.

Today's guests are Tom Porter and Lyle Brummer of Speedkore, a coach builder specializing in custom performance vehicles, carbon fiber composite part manufacturing and engine integration. You can learn more about Speedkore on Instagram @speedkore01.  Don't miss the latest from The Roadster Shop. Be sure to follow us on Instagram @roadstershop. Oil and Whiskey is an IRONCLAD original.

Find me and the show on social media @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd FULL TRANSCRIPT Wilmer Leon (00:15): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. I'm Wilmer Leon. So here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to understand the much broader historical context in which they occur. During each episode, my guests and I have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between the current events and their broader historic context. This enables you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live. On today's episode, there are a few events that have occurred and transpired recently that I want to get into. First, the United States has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution granting Palestine full membership in the United Nations. It's important to remember that Palestinian statehood was recognized by the UN General Assembly in November of 2012 when it was given non-member observer status. (01:23) The US has agreed to withdraw troops from a key drone base in Niger. The United States recently agreed to withdraw more than 1000 troops from Niger, which will have a dramatic impact on the United States posture in West Africa. US lawmakers have passed a draft resolution containing some 95 billion in military aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, also approving a bill that will allow Washington to hand Kiev assets that have been seized from Russia and paved the way for a ban on TikTok. So with all of these things that are going on, oh, and by the way, more than 40 Palestinian protestors were arrested this week at Yale University. The school said that 47 students protesting peacefully the school's investments in military weapons manufacturers were arrested and will be referred for disciplinary action, potentially including suspension. And we know that a similar action has been taken at Columbia. (02:35) So again, speaking as an African-American looking at our current circumstances as a community and in the much broader American imperialist context, I decided to call my guest and I asked him, what's on your mind right now? He directed me to a speech by Dr. Luther King, Jr. Entitled, honoring Dr. Du Bois. The speech was given at Carnegie Hall in New York on February 23rd, 1968, in commemoration and celebrating the 100th birthday of Dr. Du Bois. In this speech, Dr. King said that Dr. Du Bois recognized that the keystone in the arc of oppression was the myth of inferiority, and he dedicated his brilliant talents to demolish it. And as Dr. Du Bois was creating the naacp, Dr. King said at the same time, he became aware that the expansion of imperialism was a threat to the emergence of Africa. He recognized the importance of bonds between American Negroes and the land of their ancestors, and he extended his activities to African affairs after World War I, he called Pan-African Congresses in 19 19, 19 21 and 1923, alarming imperialists in all countries and disconcerting negro moderates in America who were afraid of this relentless, militant black genius. That was Dr. King. So this is going to be the basis of our conversation For this segment of connecting the dots, let me introduce my guest. He's a lifelong activist and scholar, former dean of the African-American Studies Department at Ohio University, former director of the King Center in Atlanta, and former host of morning conversations with Tom Porter. He is Brother Tom Porter, and as always, man, welcome back to the Tom Porter (04:47): Good evening. Wilmer Leon (04:48): So with that long introduction, Tom, what's on your mind, man? What do we need to be paying attention to? Tom Porter (04:57): Well, it's interesting how you started off, and I would paraphrase what you said was what so many people are guilty of. That is an analysis of the results, not an analysis of how the results were obtained since we actually are told by the Israeli government and our government and the Western government that October 7th, 2023 started the Israeli Palestinian conflict. (05:35) And then we do a real stretch and say we compare the events of October 7th to the Holocaust. And that's a stretch. One incident involved a couple thousand people, the other one involved the assassination murder of millions of people, but they would have you to believe that they're one and the same. And that is so important today. If we go back to the speech by Dr. King, among other things, he said, while honoring dubois, that black America will never be free until a long light, long night of imperialism is lifted from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. And he also said, in honoring Dr. Dubois, who was an admitted and a vowed and proud communist, Dr. King in speaking of communism, said that our blind anti-communism, read Vietnam, read Korea, read Afghanistan, that our blind anti-communism has led us into one quagmire after another. So what's on my mind is that we're in a quagmire. (07:09) Where does the African-American community go from here? If we look at the African-American community, it's leaderless. There are individual pockets of people and groups that are challenging the system. But if you look at the black caucus, the black elected officials, the black actors, the black musicians, there's no real leadership. We forget that the movement in the sixties was a movement of African people. It was a movement of black people in this country, but it was a movement that was a Black Panther party in Britain, black Panther Party in the Virgin Islands in Puerto Rico. So it was a movement of African people against imperialism, against colonialism and neocolonialism. Now, the leadership seems to be embracing that very few of our leaders have called for a ceasefire, for instance, in the Middle East, very few of our leaders speak forcibly about the environment or about police brutality or about the medical conditions of black people. And that extends to the leaders in Africa where you have thousands of people risking drowning in the Mediterranean weather to stay in their home country. And then you complain about the Chinese building roads and infrastructure complain that they're trying to take over. So that's on my mind. Wilmer Leon (09:18): Well, it's very telling that you talk about leadership, because when I think about leadership, I think about Dr. Du Bois. I think about Dr. King. I think about activists like Dory Ladner. I think about Mrs. Hamer and Paul Robeson. I think about the Tom Porters of the world. Now we're looking at athletes and musicians. The discussion is LeBron James better than Michael Jordan? You asked that question. Oh man, you can be in a bar and wind up with damn near a fight on your hands that people are so personally invested in that conversation. But ask them about Palestine, ask them about Niger. Ask them about Haiti, and you'll get glazed looks, gloss looks, or you'll get talking points from CNN and MSN. Ask somebody about Ukraine. And the first thing you're going to get is, well, Vladimir Putin is an authoritarian and a dictator, or ask them about Taiwan and China and all they want to talk about is a spy balloon. (10:47) And then you mentioned some of the individuals in the Black Caucus. Right now, the United States is looking to work with Canada and looking to work with France to reinve for the, what is it, the third time in 30 years, reinve, Haiti, Hakeem Jeffries, an African-American member of Congress is leading that charge. In my open, I talked about the UN and vetoing, the initiative to take Palestine out of observer status and make it a full fledged member of the un. Linda Thomas Greenfield, an African-American woman raises her hand as the representative of the United States in the UN against people of color. You've got General Lang. I just talked about what happened, transpired in Niger, a black general, the of africom. General Langley, a black man is trying to find a way to undermine the new government in Niger and keep those US troops. Your Honor, those are just a few examples of what we're missing, what we're missing. And Tom, we don't even miss it. Tom Porter (12:22): You're so right. But the fundamental question for me as a black man, as an African man, I mean, at my age, 84, I'm okay, but when I think about the future of my kids and my grandkids, what about their future? And it raises the fundamental question, can African African-Americans obtain freedom, justice, and equality in a society that's imperialist capitalists and politically, economically, culturally, and socially? For all intents and purposes, that's a nation of white supremacists from the top to the bottom. And so the question is, do we stay here? One of the mistakes that I think that we've made that our politics and our politics has been to challenge the society to let us in on it, (13:44) To give us an Academy Award and whatever, whatever, whatever. And we have to ask ourselves, as James Baldwin raised, who wants to integrate into a burning house. And so that thing's on the table, as we see America in decline in many significant ways, including its allies in Western Europe at the same time that who realizes more when you are in decline than the people who are in decline. And so it looks as if, and the situation in the Middle East is part of that, that the West United States feels that Africa has insignificant leaders and the people are not united. And that is true for African people in the United States till they're going back in for another helping, they're going back in for another helping. And they sense that black leadership is weak. Black leadership are going to do what they've been told every four years and vote for the Democrats. And if I say don't vote for the Democrats, I'm not saying vote for the Republicans. I'm saying vote your interests. Wilmer Leon (15:16): Talk about that binary thinking because I wrote a piece a while back, the dangers of binary thinking for the African-American community. And what prompted me to write that was listening to these discussions about, well, if you criticize Biden, then you are either obviously or by default, you are championing Trump. And no, both of them are not above beyond reproach. Both of them are in fact, in many instances, they're engaged in some of the same activities because we tend to get caught up in the politics of personality and we lose sight of the politics of policy, not really understanding that Julian Assange, Donald Trump started that process. Joe Biden followed up on it. That's just one example. So this danger of binary thinking for us, it's got to be Biden or Trump. We can't see beyond the two options that we've been provided. Tom Porter (16:29): Well, that has to do with the philosophical underpinnings of what makes a society go in America. There's a rare university that offers political economy. They offer economics and political science at the same time. It's a rare school that offers, of course, in dialectical logic, symbolic logic is basically the structure of arguments. That's what you're going to see in New York in the trial is that who can argue correctly, not who's correct, but who can argue structure the argument that makes a better case than the other one. It has absolutely nothing to do, whether there's a crook and a bomb that's on trial that shouldn't even have gotten this far. Fortunately, I took philosophy, symbolic logic from a person who was a scientific thinker. And so he taught it in a electrical way, which means that your thinking should be rooted in the interconnected of things, the relationship between things, not this or that, black or white, either or. It can be boan. Wilmer Leon (17:58): Well, hence this program, connecting the dots, always trying to find context and provide the interrelatedness between events so that you're much better able to engage in better analysis because the factors that you bring more factors into your equation. Tom Porter (18:26): Oh, I mean, you're absolutely correct, but that is the thinking. If you don't vote for Biden, it's a vote for Trump. And if you don't vote for Trump, then it's a vote for Biden. That doesn't make any sense at all. But people say, those are the choices that we have. No, we have another choice. We forget that we made the most progress when we didn't have a black caucus, when we didn't have many black judges. When we had, maybe we had one judge on the Supreme Court, very few black mayors because we struggled, we fought, we banged on the door and push the door in. And that's not happening. That's not happening anymore. So you talk to people and it's that binary thinking, but it's that in everything. It's that. It's that kind of thinking. And that's one of the real problems that you have in the educational system here, why Americas is lagging far behind in certain critical bodies of knowledge. Because I soon realized when I was in undergraduate school that many of my professors concealed more than they revealed. Wilmer Leon (20:11): They concealed more than they Tom Porter (20:13): Revealed than they revealed. I remember when I started teaching at Antioch, one of the books I used in the child development course was Thought and Language by ky. And another faculty member said that that was too difficult for graduate students. How can a book be too difficult for graduate students? But the book by ky, which is thought Language is all the rage now rave now in educational psychology and psychology circles. But then because he was a Russian and therefore assumed to be a communist, even though he was born, if I'm not mistaken, before the Russian Revolution. But that's where we are. But the point is, my point today is what are we going to do? Are we going to go down with the ship? Are we going to get off the ship? But that's the fundamental, Wilmer Leon (21:38): Are we going to take control of the ship? Tom Porter (21:45): That's a good thought. Wilmer Leon (21:47): Well, to me, it only seemed like a logical extension of the other two options that you provided, or at least since we're using the metaphor of a ship, are you going to create your own lifeboat? Tom Porter (22:05): Well, I think it's now time before serious call, given some of the emerging forces in Africa and Brazil and what have you, even in Venezuela that it's time for a new Pan-African movement, 21st century style. It is really time. And I just talked to somebody who was in Geneva on, there's a conference, UN conference on racism and civil rights. I don't have the correct title, but he's on his way back and he said he's going to brief me in person, but he was very optimistic about some of the things that he was seeing. But also obviously, so there's movement and we're in a transitional period on the planet. So there was a unipolar world, it was United States, and it controlled mostly through NATO and other relationships, the politics of Europe and the United States. But now you have the bricks, you have a number of, we live in a multipolar world and it is not just the bricks with China. (23:46) There are all kinds of different relationships between countries and Latin America and Central America. And they may not all be trying to get away from capitalism, but they're certainly open to the new changes that are going on in the world in their own interests. I mean, countries entering relationships with China, not because they want to become communists, but because they want to get some of what China has to offer and they realize that they've tried the West. And so you have all of these around the world, these various groupings and what have you, and we've got to internationalize our struggle. That's not new with me. He was Malcolm, even Dr. King understood that and some new progressive forces. And I'm encouraged by what I see around what's happening in the Middle East that these young students on these campuses across the country, and I think that Gaza may be the achilles tendon of Joe Biden. Wilmer Leon (25:10): Oh, I think you're absolutely right. Not only is Gaza the Achilles tendon of Joe Biden, but I also believe that one of the reasons why the Biden administration and so many other forces in the West are so adamantly behind this settler colonial genocidal project is because I believe they understand as goes the settler colony of Israel, so goes the rest of colonization, period. And that the end of this is the, that Tom Porter (25:58): One of these days, somebody's going to really take a real look at the relationship between Israel, not just in this country, but in the rest of the world, and where does its power come from and where's his strength come from? Why would Biden put his presidency on the line, but not just his presidency, he actually believes what he's doing is right. Wilmer Leon (26:32): Well, he is on record and folks can scream antisemitism if they want to. He's on record very clearly as saying, I am a Zion, which a proves the point. Not all Zionists are Jewish, and not all Jews are Zionists because he's Irish Catholic, but he's very clear on I am a Zionist. And contrary to the dominant narrative, Zionism and Judaism or Zionism and Judaism are not the same thing. And being anti-Zionist doesn't mean you're, and being anti-Zionist doesn't even mean it means you are anti-Zionist. But their vested interest in controlling that narrative, which by the way, they are dramatically losing control of as evidenced by what we're seeing playing itself out on our college campuses. They've lost control of that narrative. And I don't see how they're ever going to be able to reclaim that narrative. Tom Porter (27:52): Well, it's very clear that the forces supporting Palestine is growing, and the questioning, which never happened before, Israel was never questioned before in a way that it is being questioned down. But the question is because, well, let's be clear. You strike up a conversation with the average white person about Jews and you'll get some antisemitism. And of course, Hitler was white. He wasn't a Jew, he was white, European, Mussolini was, and the rest of the fascists in Europe were Caucasians. And so what would make this country send him a bunch of weapons in the middle of a situation where the whole world is saying, you shouldn't do that? Wilmer Leon (29:02): Well, what did Al Hague say? He said, Israel is our unsinkable aircraft carrier in the region. And so they saw in that colony a ideological and military base bastion region that they believed would be their space to project power and to control that space. Tom Porter (29:41): I don't have the answer, but it's an interesting question. The reason why I say it's interesting because the relationship is not making sense now, Wilmer Leon (29:51): Right? Tom Porter (29:53): It's not making a sense. When you stand alone at the un, you voted against something that the rest of the world was for, Wilmer Leon (30:04): And you're voting for genocide. We're not arguing borders. We're not arguing an issue on the maritime navigation of the seas. We're not arguing whether it's 12 miles or 14 miles from your coast where you get into international waters. We're not arguing access to mineral rights. It's genocide. And it's not even debatable. It's not even debatable because those such as Netanyahu that are being in Morich and Benny Gantz, we have their own language. They have made it very clear in their own statements in court, you would call that statements against interest. We got to take 'em for their word because they're saying things that are really against their interest Tom Porter (31:15): And doing things that are Wilmer Leon (31:16): And do it exactly. Tom Porter (31:18): But still, the question comes back what's on my mind? I care less about the fight between Trump and Biden and more about what are we going to do because we come out losing whoever gets in, and we need to be clear about that. If Biden will do what he's doing in the Middle East and Haiti and in Africa, what will he do for us? When the vote comes up? Wilmer Leon (31:54): To that point, Tom, the house has just passed a 92 billion military spending bill where they're going to send something like 62 billion to Ukraine. They're going to send, I don't know, 20 something to Israel. And of course, Taiwan, while people in the United States are having to make decisions between paying rent and buying food or buying medicine, the homeless rate or the unhoused rate in the United States right now is somewhere 800,000. And that's just based upon the number of people in shelters that's not actually dealing in addressing the number of people that are living either under bridges in tents living with other family members. The social in indices in this country are, the rate of suicide is on the rise, particularly among white men. The rate of depression among children is on the rise. I mean, I can pick a litany of things. Oh yeah, go ahead. Tom Porter (33:15): The Misery Index, which used to be something that they used to measure the conditions of black people and other people of color in this country, now it's extended to looking at the misery index among whites, because when we talk about homeless, and DC is rare where you see a significant number of black people who are homeless, but you travel throughout the rest of the country in rural Virginia, rural Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, and what have you really see some poverty that you've never seen. Wilmer Leon (33:57): So my question is 92 billion, and that's just this latest round of funding. And we don't seem to, we're paying for healthcare in Ukraine. We're paying for pensions in Ukraine when Americans can't get either. But where is the pushback and the outcry from the Congressional Black Caucus, for example? Tom Porter (34:27): It really isn't. I mean, that's the problem, is the deafening silence come out of black leadership at all levels. Even here in Washington, I don't think the non-voting delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton has stood out, stood up for a ceasefire. Wilmer Leon (34:51): Nope, Tom Porter (34:52): I don't think the city council has called for a ceasefire. So where do we fit in all of this? That's the fundamental question for me Wilmer Leon (35:08): That it keeps going back to that, Tom Porter (35:11): Right? Wilmer Leon (35:14): The A DL is going to spend, I think the number was a hundred million dollars. I think that was the number on this upcoming election to unseat, if I'm off on that number, folks, I apologize. I was just getting it off the top of my head. I think it's a hundred million to unseat what are considered to be progressive Democrats. Now, in the 2020 election, and in the 2016 election, there was all this boohoo and crying and concern about Russian interference and Chinese interference and Iranian interference in our elections. Now you've got APAC getting ready to, or in the process, or they're in the midst of spending a hundred million dollars and not a moan, not a grip. Tom Porter (36:14): And the reason why is the influence, again, people always say the United States is supporting Israel. It is one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is that in significant ways, Israel and the Israeli diaspora controls significant aspects of American business, cultural, social, and economic life. And that book hasn't been written well. Wilmer Leon (36:52): Oh, okay. Tom, sounds like my next book. Yeah, that Tom Porter (36:59): Book hasn't been written. And so from that stand, well, Wilmer Leon (37:03): If you could get it written, how are you going to get it published? Tom Porter (37:06): It's interesting question. (37:11) So the protection of Israel and its influencing the rest of the world is something that I think gets overlooked because Israel is perceived as a little small country in a sea of Arabs and what have you. But actually it is more powerful than any African country. It is probably more powerful than most of the countries in Latin and Central America. If you look at its military, its weapons, its technology, industry and what have you. And so it is significant among nations of the world in terms of its influence. And APAC is a part of that influence. So again, that's where my mind is these days. What are we going to do? And then how are we going to get there when we decide what we're going to do? But guess what? We got to do it. Wilmer Leon (38:29): I asked the question about if the book were written, how would it get published? And I was looking off at my bookcase because this book right here, the Israel lobby and US Foreign Policy by John Heimer and Steven Walt, I remember when this book came out and they damn near ran these boys out of town. I remember it was how long I tried to get an interview with Heimer or Walt and what those guys were damn near in hiding because the uproar of the publication of the book, the Israel lobby. Now, it's interesting too, Tom, that you just mentioned how powerful Israel is, but give me that analysis. While they can't defeat Hamas and they can't defeat Hamas, they're getting their hind parts whooped in Gaza, Iran just sent them a real serious message about mess around with us if you want to, and we'll reign missiles down on you for the next 15 years. And Hezbollah has not gotten into the mix. Ansar Allah in Yemen has shut down the maritime traffic in the Red Sea, and before Iran launched their retaliatory strike against Israel, they captured a cargo ship in the Straits of Horus to demonstrate to the United States, we will shut down the straits of Horus. We will shut down the Red Sea, and you won't get a drop of oil or nothing. So when you talk about the power of Israel, talk about it in that context or those contexts. Tom Porter (40:28): Well, I think the United States, Wilmer Leon (40:33): Is that a good question to ask? Tom Porter (40:34): Oh, it's an excellent question because, but what we see in the West Bank and in Gaza, it's the same thing we saw in Vietnam. Same thing we saw in Korea. Same thing we saw in Cuba. Same thing we saw in Guinea Basa in Angola and Mozambique and South Africa. That is, you could misjudge the sentiment to say that the Palestinians don't support Hamas. Some of that is probably true, but one thing that all Palestinians are clear about Wilmer Leon (41:29): Freedom, Tom Porter (41:29): Freedom, justice, and equality. And I think that is a mistake that they've made. And I think that is a mistake that they've made in Lebanon. That is, they underestimate, in fact, they have increased the number of young Palestinians and young Arabs throughout the Middle East in their hatred for both Israel and the West and down the road. Arab leaders are going to have to deal with that. The people not going to, Wilmer Leon (42:04): And that's a very practical reality because some people listening to this conversation, when you make that statement say, oh, that's because they're antisemitic, and that's because they hate Jews. No, they hate oppression and they hate oppressors. And no matter what color stripe or size they are, I hate the person that has his or her foot on my throat, no matter what size that foot is. And no matter what kind of boot they're wearing, that's what I hate. Tom Porter (42:44): I think they're making the same miscalculation around the students. I mean, you can lock up 40, you can lock up 50, you can lock up a hundred people, but you really can't lock up an idea. And unless you are willing to make certain changes, the idea is going to grow. I mean, it's small, but it's significant that a group of auto workers, I'm thinking it was in Tennessee. Wilmer Leon (43:13): It was in Chattanooga, Tennessee Tom Porter (43:16): Voted to unionize. They thought they had broken the unions, but the conditions of such among workers, white workers and black workers, that something has to be done because they're filling it when they go to the grocery store. I went to Costco to fill up my gas tank the other day, and because I have to use premium in my 1992 Volvo wagon, it cost me almost $60. Wilmer Leon (43:55): I have to put premium in mine. It was 85. Tom Porter (43:59): Wow. So everybody's beginning to feel the decline of this economy At the same time that they're saying that the economy is growing, you notice they never say use the word development again. That's kind of like binary thinking. They never use the word, they always use word. The economy is growing. That's a quantitative analysis. But a qualitative analysis would be, are you developing as a society or your school's turning out educated people? But if you just deal with growth, it's all about numbers. Wilmer Leon (44:51): It's all about numbers, primarily because when they come and tell us that the economy is growing, they're talking about the financialized side of the economy. So if you have a 401k program, then you're happy as a clam because over the last three or four, maybe five quarters, the financialized side of the economy is running like gangbusters. But we're not manufacturing anything in this country anymore. The manufacturing base in this country is on the decline because we've exported all of those jobs to China and to Vietnam and to India. So the wage, has there been wage growth in this country? No. And to your point about the unions, so Sean Fe comes out the head of the UAW. He comes out in January saying the UAW endorses Joe Biden. But that same day, he has to give another speech where he comes out and says, the rank and file of the UAW does not back Joe Biden, because they're more concerned about their paychecks, and many of them are going to support Donald Trump. That's Sean Fain. That's not me. That's the head of the UAW making that statement. And that's what goes to the, as you talked about, the UAW in all places, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and from Chattanooga, they're going to Alabama now to a Mercedes plant in Alabama. Now that's going to be a harder fight. They're going deeper south. But still, Tom Porter (46:54): How can you have the largest economy in the world and be a detonation Wilmer Leon (47:02): And debt to your, who you consider to be your primary enemy, which is China, Tom Porter (47:08): Right? But how can you be? There's some oxymoronic about that, right? Wilmer Leon (47:13): That Tom Porter (47:15): You have the largest economy in the world, but Wilmer Leon (47:19): You're a better nation, Tom Porter (47:20): Better nation, and people are seeking different ways of economically engaging with each other other than using the dollar. And yet you, but every day people are feeling it. Every day people are filling at the pump, at the grocery store, at Wilmer Leon (47:44): The a pack of chicken wings and a gallon of milk, Tom Porter (47:47): The doctor's office. I mean, if you can Wilmer Leon (47:51): Get in. Tom Porter (47:52): Yep, yep. Wilmer Leon (47:55): So, Tom, to your point, what are we to do? Tom Porter (48:02): Well, we used to have men and women who thought these things. A lot of people are writing books. I'm encouraged about some of the things, and there's a lot going on in the street. There doesn't seem to be a unifying theme. I mean, the Montgomery Bus boycott was something that significant numbers of African-Americans, the black people felt in the north and the South, because many of us had a two-state experience, born in the south, grew up in the north, and so on our yearly summer visits back home, we ran into what our brothers and sisters and kin folks were dealing with. And it was a spirit in the community that it was our time to fight back and to be independent and what have you. That spirit, you can see it bubbling up young people. I'm encouraged by young people because you really can't lie to them as easy as you can lie to everybody Wilmer Leon (49:28): Else. Not watching CNN and MSPC, Tom Porter (49:32): Without a doubt. Without a doubt. So I'm actually encouraged. On the other hand, I would encourage people to get a passport. You never know when you're going to need it. I think you ought to look for options, particularly for your grandchildren and what have you. And that's not unusual. People are leaving America, not just black people going back to Africa, but white people going to Europe, and some of 'em are going to places like Puerto Rico, Wilmer Leon (50:08): Right? Central and South America, Tom Porter (50:10): And say nothing of Africa. So people are leaving. And that's one option. That's one option that has always been on my mind and Wilmer Leon (50:25): Abandon ship. Tom Porter (50:27): No, get on another ship. Wilmer Leon (50:29): Well Tom Porter (50:33): Get on another ship. Let Biden and Trump and that group fight it out. They seem to be doing a pretty good job of battling each other. But on the serious side, we've got to raise significant questions wherever we can. We got to discuss these things wherever we can. We can't allow this leadership class that we have, and even some of the so-called progressive pundits, we can't simply allow them to get away with what they've been getting away with. And I'm grateful for programs like this and some other programs or a few other stations where people are speaking out and are being heard and are being heard. Wilmer Leon (51:30): Just really quickly, did you happen to see the fallout from the National Action Network Congress, a convention where folks went in protesting as Hakeem Jeffries was brought in to speak and folks were protesting Hakeem Jeffries and Reverend Sharpton called him Renta Coons, and did you see any of that? Tom Porter (51:58): No, but I'm not surprised. Wilmer Leon (51:59): Okay, then I won't go any further into it. Tom Porter (52:02): Well, but you raised an interesting point about the bankruptcy of leadership. They used to refer to Al Sharpton as Jesse on a budget. But Wilmer Leon (52:23): Lemme just quickly make one point, because one of the things that Reverend Sharpton was promoting or displaying, he was basically saying, look at. So he got Joe Biden to do this little video and supporting, thank you Reverend Al, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But so everybody's, wow. Look, Reverend Al got President Biden to zoom in to the National Action Network Convention, but nobody seems to want to talk about that 10 days after Biden was inaugurated. Biden had to be forced. And I mean, kicking, brought in, kicking and screaming to have a meeting with black leadership. And when he got on that call, he disrespected everybody on that call. But if you didn't see it, you didn't see it then so Tom Porter (53:33): Well, but the role of, again, it just points out the bankruptcy of certain African leaders. I mean, here you have, well, a two-way race between Democrats and Republicans. Two Democrats are running in the primary to become democratic senators. One's a black woman and one's a white man. Without discussing Dem merits of either one of them, why would Hakeem Jeffries, Anthony Brown and Jonathan Jackson endorse the white candidate? I mean, why would you do that? I mean, Jonathan Jackson is from Illinois. I understand that connection between he and David Cron is Itron Wilmer Leon (54:37): Cone, cone, David Tron in Maryland. Tom Porter (54:43): He owns total wine and liquors, right? And Jonathan Jackson is in the liquor business. He's a big distributor in the Chicago era. I don't get Hakeem Jeffries, who's in New York. The point of it is, where's the integrity? Where's the integrity? On the one hand, you talk black out of the side of your mouth, and I'm not in any mean pushing black nationalism. I'm simply saying, why would you get in that fight? I mean, why would you get in that fight? Obviously, Wilmer Leon (55:21): Angela also, Brooks is running, right? That's what I'm saying. A black woman, and why wouldn't you back her? Tom Porter (55:31): But why would you get in the race at all since you got you from another state? And you would not want that to happen to you when you were running? And so there's obviously a cash nexus. Wilmer Leon (55:50): Well, we do know that Hakeem Jeffries has received, I think, over a million dollars from APAC over his tenure in office. And the same thing with Gregory Meeks. He's another one that falls into that same camp. And both of them, along with the Vice President, Kamala Harris, they're all behind the Global Fragilities Act, which is being used as the rationale for the United States to rein, invade Haiti. Go figure. Tom Porter (56:32): Again, we have to do an analysis of how the results were obtained rather than the results. I mean, it looks like Haiti is a failed state. So how do you go from the first independent black Republic on the planet? Well, not on the planet, but in that era, because there were black leaderships. But how do you become that, given any slave who could get to Haiti freedom? I mean, how do you get defeating Napoleon then? How do you become the basket case, a basket case in the world? How does that happen? Why do they still old friends and see should be the other way around, Wilmer Leon (57:25): Way around? (57:29) Why is the United States wring its hands and going through all these machinations talking about we have to go in and stabilize this country when the United States is responsible for the instability? Why does the United States send $60 billion to Ukraine when the United States is the one that started the fight in the first place, and Ukraine is merely the proxy for the United States? Why is the United States saying we can't do anything with Netanyahu? Yes, you can. You call 'em and tell 'em, you're not giving in any more money. You are against genocide, but you send them the bullets, you send them the bombs, you provide the logistics. Same thing with China. Oh, Taiwan, Taiwan, Taiwan, Taiwan. Why are you trying to pick a fight with China? Who by the way, holds more of your debt than anybody else in the room? Why? Let's get to the cause, right? Tom Porter (58:48): Of course. I mean, again, the Haiti situation, it gets played out and we go in, why did the United States involve itself in the overthrow of John Butra? Wilmer Leon (59:06): What was his aired? John Beron aired, Tom Porter (59:10): Aired Wilmer Leon (59:11): Twice Tom Porter (59:14): A legitimately elected democratic leader who's very positive. Why do you place sanctions on Cuba? Only because you don't believe in what they believe in? Wilmer Leon (59:33): Here's another, and Tom Porter (59:33): Then get upset when they're successful in the biotech industry and what have you. And the list goes on and on and on. But because they don't think that people study history or read history, Wilmer Leon (59:53): The average Haitian makes less than $3 a day. Folks, you can look it up. The average Haitian makes less than $3 a day, but somehow they can walk around with $1,800 sniper rifles, military grade equipment Tom Porter (01:00:18): Where they get 'em from. That's the question that you asked. All of these militias running around the deserts of Africa, where are they getting these weapons from? Where do they get food from? Wilmer Leon (01:00:33): Right, right, right. Brother Tom Porter. Man, as always, thank you. Tom Porter (01:00:45): Thank you for having me. It's been a long day. Wilmer Leon (01:00:48): I know it has, and I appreciate you giving me your time today. I got to thank you Tom Porter so much, man, for joining the show today. Greatly, greatly appreciate it. Tom Porter (01:00:57): Thank you for having me. Have a good evening, Wilmer Leon (01:01:00): Folks. Thank you so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wilmer Leon. Stay tuned for new episodes each week. Please follow and subscribe, go to the Patreon account. We'll greatly appreciate you contributing to the program. We can't do this without your support, so please go to the Patreon account. The address for that is on the bottom of your screen. Also, leave a review. Share the show with those that you think will like it, and then those that you think will hate it, send 'em to 'em anyway. They might just surprise you. Follow us on social media. You can find again, all the links to the show are below in the description. And remember, folks, that this is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge because talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter on connecting the dots. See you next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Wilmer Leon. Have a great one. Peace. I'm out Announcer (01:02:08): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge.

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Wilmer Leon and Tom Porter discuss , as we exist in a political duopoly, what is the African American community to do when neither party is interested in representing its interests and the community does not seem willing to demand that they do.  The geopolitical landscape is changing from a unipolar world with the US as the unipolar hegemon to a multipolar world.  The US empire and neo-colonialism are struggling to survive.  This is a perfect moment in history for the African American community to coalesce with other oppressed peoples and implement change.   You can find me and the show on social media by searching the handle @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. Our Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd All our episodes can be found at CTDpodcast.com. Transcript: Wilmer Leon (00:14): I'm Wilmer Leon. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historical context in which most events take place. During each episode of this program, my guests and I will have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between current events and the broader historic context in which these events occur. This will enable you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live. What are we to do when neither party is interested in representing our interests and we don't seem to be willing to demand that they do? For insight into this, let's turn to my guest. He's a lifelong activist and scholar, former dean of the African-American Studies Department at Ohio University, and former director of the King Center in Atlanta, and former host of morning conversations with Tom Porter. He's Tom Porter. Tom, welcome, and let's connect some dots. Tom Porter (01:21): Good morning and thanks for having me Wiler. Wilmer Leon (01:23): So Tom, there's a lot going on right now. There are certain times or moments in history when you look back at some time later and you say, wow, that was a pivotal moment. That was the time that changed the world, the industrial revolution, the first man on the moon, the assassination of Dr. King. I believe that we're in one of those moments right now, the transformation from a unipolar to a multipolar world with the US no longer being the unipolar hegemon, the US Empire and Neocolonialism are struggling to survive. Tom, with that being understood, your assessment of what I've just stated and what are we to do? Tom Porter (02:12): It's an interesting question. At the same time that the world is, and rightly so focused on the events that are happening in the Middle East, not dealing with it in terms of a historical context, but at the same time that this is happening, there's a big meeting in China celebrating 10 years of the Belt Road Initiative where countries from all over the world are there. We are at a pivotal moment in history and what's happening in the Middle East. It is a reflection of that. It's a reflection of something historically that was wrong from the very, very, the state of Israel was founded in 1948, not in the biblical times of old. And not only was it founded in 1948, and the question you have to really ask yourself, why did they simply allow the Jews to stay in Europe? That's an interesting question. So now if you look at what is happening in the Middle East and if you deal with the results and not how the results were obtained, that is the state of Israel is a geopolitical construct. (03:37) I say that because it was put where it was put, not because it had something to do with the Bible or history, but because it was a strategic move on the part of the West to solve a problem of what to do with the Jews in Europe and also to solve a problem of establishing a geopolitical body in the Middle East to checkmate the Arabs. But while this is going on, the world has moved on. It's no longer a duopoly. It is no longer the West that's dominating. It's not only China, but it's various other organizations and formations around the world in Africa and Latin and Central America, and even in Asia, all pointing in one direction that is trying to find a way to solve the pressing problems of today, which cannot be solved unless you have a multipolar world. Wilmer Leon (04:48): You mentioned the 10th anniversary of China's Belt and Road initiative in the fact that a number of countries from all over the world came to China in order to convene, and you had President Putin spending three hours meeting with President Xi, and this is a rarity. When Putin and Lavrov traveled, foreign Secretary Lavrov traveled together. Lavrov goes to meet with Wangee, the Chinese foreign minister, and they're talking about all kinds of trade initiatives. They're talking about security initiatives, all of this taking place, and the United States isn't in the room. That, in my opinion, speaks volumes about how the world has changed. Tom Porter (05:46): Well, the West is no longer the center of the world. The West is no longer the dominant force in the world, politically, economically and actually militarily because you have around the world, as I said, different organizations and formations and the west has been left out. I mean, take Israel for years. Yesterday the United States representative of the UN vetoed a proposition that was put on the table by Brazil, vetoed it as it has in the past, and that is whenever the subject of Israel misdeeds would come up at the UN and it would pass overwhelmingly, but it was vetoed by the United States. The problem is now that the world is not paying any attention to that veto. But what is also interesting in all of this, Wilma, is the presence of blacks out front representing this country. It was a black woman who vetoed it, Linda Thomas Greenfield. (07:09) Yes, it was Lloyd Austin who went to Israel, went to Israel, and then there was this deputy who I'd never heard of, this black guy who popped up and they always put us out front. We were always out front, but there's never any reciprocity, and that's one of the problems in the African world, including here in this country, is the lack of an understanding of reciprocity because there's no agenda. The last time there was an agenda was the agenda at the Gary Convention. That was the last time. I mean, for instance, everybody wants us to support their position, but we never ask them, what is your position on reparations? Not reparations in some little city out in Illinois that decides that it's going to give a few houses away, but reparations in the same sense that Israel got reparations, the Jews got reparations, the Japanese got reparations. We don't even put it on the table. Where's the black caucus in this? Do they have a position on what's going on in the Middle East? Do they really see any relationship between what's going on in the Middle East and what's happening to us in this country? Gentrification is nothing more than a move against black people to take land in the fifties and sixties. (08:42) They call it urban renewal. We call it negro removal when they put expressways through every major black community in this country that they could, and therefore separating not only black people in terms of communities, but also limiting the possibility that we would be able to act as a force, a unified force. Wilmer Leon (09:07): Go ahead. Tom Porter (09:07): So we don't make the connections between what is happening in the Middle East and potentially what could happen to us in this country as we are marginalized more and more. It's not just gentrification, but it's also the reduction of the quality of education and our school systems. It's also the quality of healthcare. It's everything that we consider the misery index, Wilmer Leon (09:42): And it's all of those things, the misery index that we keep being told that we can't afford to ameliorate or we can't afford to solve, but somehow we can find a hundred billion dollars to send to Ukraine. We can now have a president in Joe Biden who wants to send not only money to Ukraine, but now also send more money to the settler colonial state known as Israel. And you even have Janet Yellen, the Secretary of the Treasury, saying, oh, we can fight wars. We can afford to fight wars on two fronts. That's not a problem at all. Well, if we can fight a war on two fronts, then why can't we fight the war on poverty? Why can't we fight the war on homelessness? Why can't we pay teachers in this country who are supposed to be educating the most significant resource in our culture, our children? Then why can't we afford to pay them more? Why can't we fight those fronts instead of printing money in order to send to Ukraine and in order to send to the settler colonial state known as Israel? Tom Porter (11:06): Exactly. And the problem that I'm having in all of this Wilma, is, and as I talk with my friends, I say the fundamental question that we must ask ourselves today. What does all of this mean for us? Should we have representatives at the Belt and Road Initiative in China? I visited Palestine and Lebanon years ago in a delegation that was led by Jack odell, and one of the things that I admired about the Palestinians, even though they were in a large ghetto, they were organized. They had their own Red Cross, they had their own school system. They acted as if they were in exile. We act as if we belong to something, which each and every day is saying to us that you could stay here, but under our conditions, and we have to really ask ourselves, should we? The UN has already said that the conditions of black people in this country is similar to crimes against humanity. Should this woman who represents the United States represent us at the un or should we have our own? We have to connect ourselves to the forces that are moving forward, not continue to stay and plead each and every day for the devil to accept us in hell. Wilmer Leon (12:47): What I hear you saying there is we should be having an international Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. We should, as Mrs. Hamer did at the Democrat Convention because Mississippi would not seat black, a black delegation that we should create our own and take that to the United Nations. Tom Porter (13:16): Exactly. We have to act as we really are. We are people who are really in exile, whether we believe it or not, there was never any intention to free the slaves and there was never any intention when they were freed to honor that freedom in any meaningful way was never a 40 acres in a mule. I mean, there was never, they had no plan for black people of African descent in this country beyond slavery any more than they had a plan to give the land back to the Native Americans. They never had any plan, and they still don't have a plan. And we have been continuing in each generation, our politics has been focused on trying to convince the people who run this country that we are worthy of being a part of this piece of SHIT. Rather than saying, Hey, I mean it's like critical race theory. (14:25) Why should we be concerned about whether white people want to know about black people? We should be concerned about knowing about ourselves, knowing what our history is, what our history has been. It should be taught in every place that black people gather in the churches and the neighborhood houses and what have you, but we shouldn't be concerned about that. But if people seeking freedom would not be concerned whether or not they're enemies who have been their enemies and will always be their enemy because of the nature of the capitalistic system, they can't solve the problem of black people or the native Americans of brown people, of working people, of poor people within the confines of capitalism. It is impossible. Wilmer Leon (15:14): You mentioned putting black faces on the front of all of this. If we shift the conversation, for example to Haiti, that would be a perfect example of what you're talking about. It's Hakeem Jeffries who has been traversing the Caribbean, trying to convince Caribbean countries to join the US invasion of Haiti. I believe Kamala Harris was a part, I know she's not part of the CBC, but she was at one point that she also was down at Racom trying to convince Caribbean countries to back the US invasion of Haiti. And now they finally convinced Kenya to get on board and send a thousand Kenyan. So-called policemen to Haiti, and fortunately the Kenyan Supreme Court has said not so fast they think that this move violates the Kenyan constitution. But I just use that as an example of how African-Americans are put on the face. I call it minstrel internationalism because it's black face on white folks foolishness Tom Porter (16:37): Without a doubt. They haven't really asked anybody black to comment on what is happening in the Middle East. Only to say that I support the state of Israel or the state of Israel has a rhythm. Wilmer Leon (16:52): Right to exist. Tom Porter (16:53): Right to exist and right to defend itself. Well, that's an interesting question because it goes back to 1948. It's not like this is an old situation, and it was a land grab that the people who settled and formed the state of Israel were not from that part of the world world. Their history was in Europe. And that's why I say it was a geopolitical construct. I mean, they considered putting it where Uganda is, and then they were going to put it in Latin America. So they considered a number of different places. So there's nothing sacrosanct about the state of Israel because the other thing is they say that Israel is the only democracy in the, if in fact Palestinians were allowed to vote in elections in Israel, Wilmer Leon (17:57): They'd be outnumbered. Tom Porter (17:59): Yeah, they'd be outnumbered. But again, we have to ask ourselves, what does this all mean for us? Biden's making these crazy statements. What does it mean to us? What does it mean to us that we give Israel more money than we give the whole continent of Africa every year, but we take more out of the continent of Africa every year. Wilmer Leon (18:32): Go ahead, finish that. Tom Porter (18:33): Then we take out of any other continent. Wilmer Leon (18:36): And to that point, that's one of the things that motivated Niger to throw the French out of Niger, which was we have some of the most precious resources in our country that are extracted from our country every year and somehow some way we're one of the poorest countries in the world. And they were saying, we have to change that dynamic. And what did they do took, and you know what? I think this is a great place to talk about the difference between flag independence and real freedom. Because for example, when you look at Palestine, they have a flag. When you look at Niger, they have a flag. When you look at so many of these former colonial states, which are now neo-colonial states, they got their independence, which means they got a flag, they got a government to a great degree, they control a lot of their politics, but what they don't control was their economies. And when you control your economy, you then have real freedom. And that's what a lot of these resistance movements now are about, is controlling their, what did Gil Scott Heron say? When I control your resources, I control your world. Tom Porter (20:10): That's right. It's interesting because I'm constantly having to remind my friends from the Caribbean that who like to talk about we have our own flag, and I have to constantly remind them that brother and sister, that's just another place where the slave ship stop. Don't get this stuff twisted. And it's very important that we understand that because they are using, do you notice that people who were black Americans now refer to themselves as black American of Jamaican descent, black Americans, of what they were comfortable in being black Americans. And now that they understand that the country is using them, the Black studies movement was undermined by bringing reactionary Africans and people from the Caribbean into leadership. You don't have to take my word for it, do a survey. So because you can come here and don't have a commitment to the struggle of black people in this country, and you leave the real struggle that's going on in your country. So we're beginning to see that not only, but just notice this from now on, people who now say that I'm a black American and of so-and-so, but when you were taking advantage of everything that we had fought for, you were happy in being a black American. Wilmer Leon (21:37): But here's a point that I haven't heard anybody mention, and that is the Balfour Agreement from 1917, which is where the whole agreement to establish a colony in Palestine was agreed to in London. And one of the provisions of the Balfour Declaration was the civil rights and protections of the indigenous Palestinians will not be assaulted. They will be protected. In fact, if you read the Balfour Declaration, Israel isn't mentioned. All it talks about is a homeland for Jewish people in Palestine with a capital P. Tom Porter (22:33): That's interesting. But see, there you go, raising those vicious truths, Wilmer Leon (22:39): Connecting the dots, Tom Porter (22:43): Which is really so important that we understand, as Cabral would say, connecting the struggles that we understand the interrelatedness of the world in which we live, in which China talks about bringing the world together to solve pressing problems, Wilmer Leon (23:01): As does Russia, Tom Porter (23:03): Right? The West, basically everything is a matter of national security. They're motivated. The new justification for every dirty deeded that they want to do is it's a matter of national security. If black people really begin to push hard, they're going to say that it's a matter of national security that we have to deal with. Not that the issue that they're raising is not important. They're not even talking about unifying the world even to solve the problem of climate. They're not talking about peace. They're talking about war, strategic interests and what have you. They're not even discussing building a better world, because if they talked about building a better world, they would have to change the system. And I mean something as simple as trying to solve the climate problem. Well, you could always say that by so-and-so and so-and-So we're going to eliminate the use of automobiles and have more public transportation more. I mean, you can go some places in this country, like my state of Ohio, if you don't have a car, you can't get around. There's no rail system. I mean, one of the things about the east coast, you can go to Philly, you can go to New York, or you get in the Midwest, it gets tricky. Wilmer Leon (24:40): You can go to Europe and never need a car with trains and buses and subway systems. You can go to Europe and never need a driver's license. Tom Porter (24:54): It's a mess, I tell you. Wilmer Leon (24:56): But you know, I'm glad that you brought up war versus solving problems because going back to the meeting that recently took place in China, while that meeting was taking place in China and they were cutting economic deals, they were cutting development deals, they were talking about how to make the world safer and improve the world. Joe Biden was in the Middle East fanning the flames of war, encouraging Netanyahu to invade Gaza, telling him, I've got your back. Go ahead and go on in. And I found it ironic that a couple of weeks ago, maybe a month or so ago, we were looking forward to the Saudis signing a deal, an agreement to recognize the colony known as Israel. And then once Hamas went in and sent those missiles into the colony, the settler colony, Saudi Arabia said, no, that's probably not a good idea right now we need to sit back and reevaluate all of this. Tony Blinken goes to Saudi Arabia and Mohammed bin Salman makes him wait damn near an entire day before MBS sits down with Blinken sending a very clear message. The dynamic is changing Tom Porter (26:45): Because what the Arab nations have to deal with Wilmer Leon (26:50): Are the Arab people, Tom Porter (26:51): The Arab people, the Arab streets, and you got mostly all over the world. The population is getting younger and younger in Africa, in the Middle East, in Asia. It's getting young and younger, and they definitely want a better world, a world free from war. And what Biden and blinking and these people are all selling more war. Why would you send more military weapons to a country that's already just overburdened with weapons? And the thing that they don't mention in any of these discussions is that Israel has nuclear weapons that's always had them. And in contrast to when South Africa gained this political independence, the one thing that they had agreed to was to emulate their nuclear weapons. South Africa had nuclear weapons under apartheid, and one of their leading, if not leading most important trading partner was Israel. Was Israel. When people say Israel is an apartheid state, it has always supported apartheid. So that's not really, but a small step from supporting apartheid someplace else and instituting the same practices in your country. And Biden goes without any understanding, without any mentioning of the apartheid nature of Israel or in mentioning in a real meaningful, substantive sense, freedom, justice, inequality for the Palestinians. He didn't even mention the two state solution, I don't think. Wilmer Leon (28:47): No. What he did mention that he did in his last speech, he did utter the words to state solution. But what he did not do as he called for peace, he never talked about equality for the Palestinians. And he talked about democracy, but he never spoke about democracy for the Palestinians. Because if you talk, people need to ask themselves this question, what does it mean when Netanyahu or Ben or Mulch talks about an Israeli state? Nobody asks, what does that mean? And it's important for me to say right here, this is not an antisemitic conversation. This has absolutely nothing to do with Jews because this has everything to do with Zionism. And it's important for people to understand. Not all Jews are Zionists, and not all Zionists are Jews. So this conversation has nothing to do with antisemitism. It has everything to do with freedom and justice, not only for the Palestinians, because it has everything to do with freedom and justice for the world. Because if you solve that problem of the settler colonial state and the genocide that's being exercised in the settler colonial state, you can solve a lot of other problems at the same time. Tom Porter (30:40): Well, Israel will never be safe within its borders until it deals fairly with the Palestinians. I mean, you can't just, as Fanon would say, we rebel because we can't breathe. We rebel because we can't breathe. You have 2 million people pushed together in what is nothing but a ghetto. And then you're taking more and more of that each day. You're shooting more and more of them each day. We have to get beyond this notion that if we criticize Israel or if we criticize some behavior of some members of the Jewish community, that we will be accused of antisemitism. (31:29) We have to get beyond that. I mean, clearly they're going to anything that you say that is not in line with what APAC or one of those other organizations, you're antisemite. And so if you go for that, you will never say anything, even if it's in your interest. It's not in Hakeem Jeffries interest to be talking about, we got your back, Israel. They don't have your back. Where's the reciprocity? It's not in the interest of this black woman up in the UN doing the bidding of the United States by vetoing, by doing what the United States has always done. It is not in our interest. It is not an interest of black people. And you can't say that I'm doing my job because you can always leave your job. I mean, if you are doing something that's not in your interest, you're crazy. Wilmer Leon (32:30): You mentioned a world free from war, and I want to just reiterate the point that at that economic in China, they weren't talking about war. They were talking about peace. But what does Gil Scott Heron say? Ask them what they're fighting for and they'll never tell you the economics of war because you were asking about why is the United States sending more weapons into the region? The reason is Lockheed Martin makes a lot of money when they do Raytheon, which by the way, our Secretary of Defense sat on the board of makes a lot of money when they do. That's why these cluster munitions are being sent into Ukraine. Why? Because they've been sitting on the shelf for years because they've been banned internationally. They want to clear their basements and their shelves, say again, Tom Porter (33:34): Their inventory. Wilmer Leon (33:35): They want to clear their inventory why? So they can get contracts for new weapons. That's what a lot of this is all about. And because sending more weapons into Ukraine at this stage of the game isn't going to change the dynamics on the battlefield. That war is over. It's done. The only question now to answer is how much longer does the United States want to push Ukraine to continue to take this weapon? That's the only question. Tom Porter (34:07): And the fact is sitting, all these are matters into the Middle East, these ships and what have you. It's just a show and supporting the military industrial complex because the United States is not going to get involved in a war in a Middle East because it will inflame the whole Middle East and the state of Israel will cease to exist if that happens. So I mean, it is bs, but there's an old saying that capitalism can only grow under war, and socialism can only grow, can grow only in peace. And so the Chinese know that if we can build a better mousetrap, and we can't do that if we just trying to build up an army, what have you, we have an army, what have you, but we don't want to get in any kind of war at all. We're not going to get sucked into something. With Taiwan, we played a long game. The Taiwanese are Chinese people, and there's a difference between the government and people. So capitalism, the history of capitalism has been, war has been plundering, has been rape. That's the history of capitalism. It was founded Wilmer Leon (35:27): Markets and resources, markets, resources and labor. That's Tom Porter (35:34): We were both the market and the labor. Wilmer Leon (35:36): We, well, in fact, many will argue that that's one of the reasons why they had to end enslavement in this country was because they needed those enslaved individuals as customers. Tom Porter (35:52): That's interesting because that is basically what we are even in the country days, is consumers. (36:01) Consumers. And if we would stop, my godson has a book, the Myth of Black Buying Power, which is true. But the other side of that is that the strength that we do have is to withdraw participation in the game of capitalism except where necessary. That is real power. The guy who on the bus in Montgomery, he never quit lacking blacks, never quit discriminating against blacks in his mind. But he had to decide whether or not he was going to have a bus company or not, and he just held his nose and said, they can ride anywhere they want to ride. Wilmer Leon (36:48): Which is one of the things I always, and you were much closer to that than I was, than I ever could have been. I always felt that one of the mistakes that we made early in that game was getting back on the bus. Once we decided to not ride the bus. We should have sent the bus company into bankruptcy. Tom Porter (37:11): Right. And started our own. Wilmer Leon (37:14): Exactly. Exactly. Tom Porter (37:17): I mean, the history of black people in this country is that when we did our own, we had more power and greatest strength and greater community. You take the, I remember growing up with the Negro Leagues, it was nothing like it. And who cared about what Babe Ruth or somebody else was doing? Wilmer Leon (37:44): We had Hank Aaron, right? We had Josh Gibson. Tom Porter (37:47): The whole myth that black quarterbacks didn't have whatever it took to be quarterbacks, whatever were quarterbacks in every black high school to every black college in the country. They just wasn't playing in the NFL. Wilmer Leon (38:00): And look at the NFL today, Tom Porter (38:02): Right? And that is why the Negro Leagues, and that's a whole nother discussion about Jackie Robinson, not him personally, but the integrating of baseball had absolutely nothing to do, but fairness of being right by black people. It had to do with the fact that more people were going to see black baseball than was going to see white baseball. And whenever black baseball and white baseball meant black Wilmer Leon (38:33): Baseball, baseball won. Tom Porter (38:37): The same is true with the A, B, A and the NBA. More people were going to watch Dr. J and Artist Gilmore, they were going to watch the NBA. So we say we got to merge it. And it's so much that in America, it's like the difference between jazz and black music. Anybody can play jazz, but everybody can't play Wilmer Leon (38:59): Black music. Can't play black music. Well, it's interesting that you brought up the ABA and the NBA and comparing that to the integration of baseball, because when they integrated baseball, they didn't bring the black teams into Major League baseball. No, they did not. They brought the black players because if you bring the black teams, you have to bring black ownership. And I think it was Queen Mother Moore. And again, you may know that, you probably know that history a whole lot better than me, but I thought it was Queen Mother Moore in New York that kept advocating for don't take the players out of the Negro Leagues, integrate the teams. But when they went to the A, b, A and the NBA, the ABA was still, that was white ownership in the A, B, A. It was white ownership in the NBA. So what did they do with the A, B, A? They integrated players and teams instead of just players. Because if they had done the same thing with basketball that they did with baseball, a lot of those A teams would've folded. Tom Porter (40:08): You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. So same, we see the same thing playing out today, and they give us Jay-Z and Queen B give us Obama and Michelle. They give us all of these things. And at the same time that the life for the majority of black people in this country is getting worse because it's good that magic decides to give some black kid a scholarship, but that's not the same as quality education for all black kids. That's like a lottery. You get lucky if Magic knows you or jz. JZ gets to do the Super Bowl a halftime at the Super Bowl, but that doesn't mean anything to these black kids who are out in the street, who can't go to the Super Bowl, can't go to a local NFL game, Wilmer Leon (41:17): May not have a television in their home to watch the Super Bowl. Tom Porter (41:21): It doesn't really mean anything. And so this kind of tokenism and we get caught up in it. I mean, right now we're kind of caught up in what's that? Will Smith and Jada? Jada Ja Wilmer Leon (41:34): Pinkett. Tom Porter (41:34): I don't know what it's all about, and I don't really care because it's really not that important. It just really isn't that important. So we have to be very, very, Wilmer Leon (41:44): Or the discussion about Tyler Perry and what Tyler Perry is doing and how great it is for black people, even though he has a non-union organization in Atlanta, and we know what unions did to help create the black middle class. He made a lot of his money playing off of stereotypes of black people. Tom Porter (42:08): He still, I mean, I think about a week ago I saw one of his movies, it was late at night. I turned on a movie. It was why I got Married or something. And it's basically black people playing white people in black face. That's basically what it is. I mean, the kind of issues that they have and the kind of jobs that they have Wilmer Leon (42:31): And the responses and solutions that are provided are not ours. In fact, I remember Barack is saying They playing you better than you. Tom Porter (42:42): No question. Wilmer Leon (42:45): So here's the question, Tom, what are we to do? We're looking at 2024 right now. We're looking at Trump and Biden don't know if Trump's going to get there because he may wind up in jail. Don't know if Biden's going to get there. He doesn't really know where he is. So given that right now, that's what we have. They're talking about Robert Kennedy now has declared he's going to run as an independent. Dr. West has left the Green Party and he's running as an independent. So to those that are watching and listening right now, Tom, what are we to do in a duopoly where neither party is concerned about us and we don't seem to be concerned about demanding that they are. Tom Porter (43:46): One of the reasons why they had to derail Jesse's campaign had and the Democrats derailed his campaign and led by a segment of the Jewish community. People forget that when Jesse announced that he was running for president and the convention center in Washington dc, the Jewish Defense League interrupted his announcement. And everywhere Jesse went in those early days, and in those early days, he called it the road team. It was myself, Jesse, and Florence Tate, the press secretary. We were traveling from city to city, and the JDL was harassing us at every place that we went. And it was because of the nation of Islam providing us security of security that they backed off. I can remember our first meeting in New York with a Jewish community, Jewish leaders in New York. Percy Sutton met us backstage with a Yama Corps in his head explaining to us how we had to deal with how we had to relate with Jews. (45:09) So the Jaime thing, they never heard. Jaime and Jesse never used Jaime in a negative derogative way. I mean, the Jewish community would tell you, New York is theirs, so they don't have a problem. Ask Chuck Schumer, right? So they didn't have a problem with that. Ask Gregory Meeks. But the base of the Democratic Party was labor and the black community labor split. A lot of labor went for Donald Trump. Trump. Some went for Biden. The black community is the only community that has remained loyal to the Democratic Party. The Democratic party. There's nothing on the agenda that speaks to any concrete solution to what black people need and deserve nothing at all. So my position is I'm not going to focus on the less of two evils. That's evil. Yeah, evil is evil. And that's been going on for a very long time. And we've come up short. (46:30) We came up short with Obama. We came up short with Clinton. We came up with both of the bushes. We keep coming up short. The only person who sincerely attempted to address the issues of black people was Jimmy Carter. And of course it got him in trouble. So we have to begin to think it's good to run as an independent, and I'm glad to see Cornell West through that, but he does not have the base and the understanding and the clarity that Jesse had in the notion of a rainbow coalition and the Rainbow Coalition. We used to call it the domestic third world in the sixties, the unity of black, brown and yellow people and whoever else wanted to you because that's where the strength is. And so unless Cornell West could pull it off and he can't, but we must independently, we must have an agenda that says, if you want our vote, this is what we're going to do. (47:35) And if you're not willing to do this, then we're not voting for you because you're going to come up, which we're going to come up with snake eyes anyhow. Because when you get in, as Biden has done, he does a lot of symbolic stuff and he's got some symbolic clowns around him, Clyburn Sharp, Al, and this group and all the people. I mean, there's just some interesting stuff that's happening and we're getting left out of it. Nobody asks us what we think about any of these issues, how King Jeffries can speak about the state of Israel, but he can't speak about reparations. I mean, what good is he to us if he's not carrying our water? I mean, what good is Lloyd Austin if he's Secretary of Defense Wilmer Leon (48:31): And not defending us? Tom Porter (48:32): That's right. And all of these so that if they're not doing that and we have to call 'em out, we have to call out the Black Caucus. If you say you represent us, this is what we want you to do. We'd be better off without you. Wilmer Leon (48:48): And in the state of things today. In fact, I'm glad you mentioned the Black Caucus, because I've said for a very long time that when you look at the original, I think it was 13, when you look at the original Black Caucus and you look at where they came from, they came out of the struggle. They came out of the community and they came out of organizations and organic, many of them organic organizations within the community we're now a couple of generations removed from that. And I don't think that it's an accident that they are now less progressive, less effective than the original group that was known as the Conscience, conscience of the Congress Tom Porter (49:42): And less connected to the community because they're not funded by the community. They are funded by outside interests, and they no longer see that they have to represent us. They don't go home to their communities. You don't hear anything from, I don't know any members of the black community, somebody, I mean Meeks, I don't know anything about Black Caucus. Yeah, black Caucus. I don't even know them anymore. I used to know all of them. I used to participate, but it's nothing to participate in now. And we've got to have a whole new thinking that's in line with where the world is going, not where the world has been. So that we need to have both a domestic and international policy. We need to be connected with the Belt and Road initiative. I'm not talking about just black people in this country, and there are some African countries that are connected. Wilmer Leon (50:49): A lot of them are. Tom Porter (50:52): We've got to rethink what does Pan-Africanism mean today? Because it is still important. I mean, we've only been in this country a short while, so I mean, it ain't like we've been here for a long time. So as Africa is beginning to emerge, that we must emerge with it. We must have a new way of thinking about Pan Africans and what does it mean? And the Chinese are trying bit by bit to reorganize Ong and the African, Asian and Latin American conferences that used to take place in this country. I mean in the world, we have to rethink all of this, but we have to also in rethinking that realize that we need these formations in today's world. Wilmer Leon (51:46): We need these formations in today's world. And you talk about organizing, and a lot of people listening to this might say, well, what do you mean? Well, when you look at, for example, the L-G-B-T-Q community, they organized, they demanded, they got a president to come out, an African-American president to come out and support same-sex marriage. You look at the women's movement and they organized. They demanded, and they got an African-American president who very proudly and rightfully says, the first piece of legislation that I signed was the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. And now you have folks that'll say, well, why is the African-American community complaining when there are African-American members of the L-G-B-T-Q community, there are black women that benefited from the Lily led better Fair Pay Act. There's a difference between being an indirect beneficiary of a policy. There's a difference between being an indirect beneficiary of a policy and being a direct beneficiary of a policy. Tom Porter (53:04): Well, as I say, I believe in reciprocity. And if you come to me, and I've experienced this before in the past, people asking me to support something, I said, where do you stand on the issues that affect black people? Don't come to me and say that our struggles are similar. I mean, I don't need to tell me that your struggle is similar to mine. I need you to tell me where you stand on those issues that impact me. When Kamala Harris was in Africa recently, the complaint of the Africans is that she spent more time trying to convince them why they should be involved with the LG community. I can never say that, right? Too many letters, but they complained that that's all she was talking about, the Africans. But where does this community stand? Wilmer Leon (54:03): Lemme just quickly interject that in that issue of L-G-B-T-Q on the continent, that issue was not an indigenous issue or an organic issue to countries on the continent. That issue was brought there by white evangelicals Tom Porter (54:26): Who Wilmer Leon (54:26): Went there and raised that and presented that as something that mattered in countries that didn't give a damn about it. Tom Porter (54:39): Again, as I say, we got to have a clear agenda, and it's got to be rooted in reciprocity, and it's got to be an agenda that impacts African people wherever they are. And because if you don't think about it in a large sense, what you'll get is what's happening to reparations. I mean, I think it's Evanston, Illinois, which has for some reason, they of doing something with reparations, and now they become a leader in the reparations movement. And then we have to watch these organizations in the black community because people are leading organizations today who 20 years ago were anti-socialist, were anti-communist, Ron Daniels and your mentor, I would say your mentor, but Ron Walters, they were part of expelling Ami Baraka from the Black Political Movement because he was a socialist. And yesterday Ron Daniel's organization was in Grenada supporting the anniversary of Maurice Bishop's movement. But 20 years ago, these people were on the opposite side. It's interesting that the MacArthur Foundation gave Ron Daniels $500,000. I don't know what for, but I know a leopard doesn't change its spots either. So they're bringing all of these people back. Al Sharpton, who used to be a snitch. How do you decide that you're not going to be a snitch? You go in and tell the people you were snitching to, I'm not going to do it anymore. (56:29) But these people, they have to justify. How do you come from that to where you presenting yourself as a leader? After Dr. King and all of the great speakers we have, it's easy for you to become a speaker. You can just plagiarize turn around Dr. King of Malcolm and what have you. So it's not Mr. Say, Mr. Do and what have you been doing in the past? So we got to take a look at the leadership and not be afraid to reject them. I think Barack Obama and his wife looked good. They were good representation of how middle and upper class blacks should look. Wilmer Leon (57:19): But what did they do Tom Porter (57:21): Right? Tom Wilmer Leon (57:22): Porter, I got to thank you as always, my brother. Thank you so much for joining me today. Big shout out to my producer, melody McKinley. Thank you so much, folks for joining Connecting the Dots podcast. I'm Dr. Wimer Leon. This is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. And remember, talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter on connecting the dots. Stay tuned for new episodes every week. Also, please follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share my show, follow me on social media. You can find all the links on the show in the show description. I'll see you next time. Until then, treat each day like it's your last because one day you'll be right. I'm Dr. Wilmer Leon. Peace and Blessings. I'm out

This week we are delighted to introduce LCP's new podcast, Beyond Curious with LCP. On this episode, hosts Laura Amin and Charl Cronje talk to Tom Porter about how CEOs can embrace AI and ensure that their organisations stay competitive and relevant. Tom is LCP's Strategy Director and is leading our journey to embrace AI effectively across the firm.

Dr. Porter from the University of Mary talks about Sacred Music!

Trump's first wife was found at the bottom of the stairs, unconscious and unresponsive in her Manhattan home on July 14, 2022. She was cremated and laid to rest at Donald Trump's Bedminster Golf Club in a “pauper's grave”, not far from the 1st hole.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. Mother of Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric, Ivana Trump was 73 years old. An employee found her and called 911 at 1:40 pm. The autopsy was conducted in less than 24 hours and her death was ruled “an accident”, the official cause of death being “blunt force trauma to her torso”. If you like our content, please become a patron to get our episodes ad-free. She deserves to be remembered not only as Trump's first wife. She was a New York socialite, model and author but she was also an athlete who made the Czech skiing Olympics team. Ivana Trump was her own person: a mother, an author, fashion designer and New York socialite. In the first half we focus on Ivana's life before she met Donald Trump, as there are some tragic aspects like the death of the man she loved, George Staidl, a playwright and lyricist who died in a car crash, and her fourth husband, Italian actor Rossano Rubicondi who passed away at 49 with melanoma (a type of skin cancer). 1 Ivana Maria Zelnickova was an educated woman with a master's degree in Physical Education and she was a fighter: she fled from communism in her native country (then Czechoslovakia, part of the USSR) and built a new life for herself, starting off in Canada and then immigrating here, to the United States. In the second half we discuss the details of her death and the timing. Ivana passed away on July 14. Donald Trump and his three adult children were going be deposed the next day, separately, as part of New York Attorney General Letitia James' investigation into the Trump Organization. The depositions were postponed. We also discuss her golf course burial in an austere grave and the attempt by Donal Trump to designate the area as a cemetery to get a tax break. A cemetery in New Jersey avoids property, income, and sales tax, the holy tax trinity. 2, 3 Donald Trump is also selling an “eternal membership” for the Bedminster National Golf Club: people play to play and when they pass, they can be buried close to Ivana if they pay extra. 4 Ivana also loved dogs. Funeral guests and others, in lieu of flowers, were asked to donate to Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Florida and to “help save the lives of dogs that are in desperate need.” The charity was picked by her ex-husband and children, and this seems to be another of Trump's schemes where the money is not really going where they say it's going. Ivana's own dog, Tiger, is now living with her assistant. Episode #DubiMeter = 9 1. Kanishka Singh and Daniel Trotta. Ivana Trump, First Wife of Donald Trump Who Helped Build his Empire, Dies at 73. Reuters. July 2022. ⇤2. Hamish Mitchell Twitter account. Tweet: Pics of Ivana Trump's Grave. Twitter. July 2022. ⇤3. Edward Helmore. Will Ivana Help Donald Trump with Tax Breaks from Beyond the Grave?. The Guardian. July 2022. ⇤4. Sinéad Baker and Tom Porter. Trump's PAC Asked Fans to Donate Money While Announcing His Ex-wife Ivana's Death. Business Insider. July 2022. ⇤

Carolina Allen and Maddi Cheers discuss environmental stewardship and earth stewardship and our tenet, “We live and promote a life-culture within the womb, the home, and our ecological environment.” “When we appreciate that we were given this great planet to look after for everybody, when we establish a relationship with her and with the Creator, then we are serving each other.” – Maddi Cheers “The biggest difference between the way native people work, the way we work, the way you work, and the way environmentalists work is that native people establish a relationship with the earth… There is no saving the earth without having a relationship with her. And that relationship is one of appreciation.”  – Maddie Cheers Original Instructions: to be grateful, to treat each other and all of nature with kindness and respect, to live in families/clans that create loving communities. “You can't be a steward of the earth if you are not a steward of human beings also. You're not being a steward if you are angry at everybody and all of your energy is directed at, ‘Oh, I'm worried about the earth because my generation may not survive.' That's selfishness… That's a way different attitude than waking up every morning giving thanks for all the people, giving thanks to mother earth and all of nature, and proceeding with your day from there.” – Maddi Cheers Blackfoot Physics by F. David Peat “I myself have no power. It's the people behind me who give me any power that I have. Real power comes only from the Creator. If you're asking about strength, then I can say that the greatest strength is gentleness.” To Become a Human Being by Steve Wall “The biggest problem with the environmental movement is that it's a disconnect from nature at the same time as they're saying, ‘We have to take care of nature,' you can't take care of something you're disconnected from.” – Maddi Cheers “The reason we are going through all of this turmoil on this earth … is because we are disconnecting from each other, and She is trying to wake us up.” – Maddi Cheers “We know from ice core samples out of Antarctica, and this is solid geological science, not greenhouse theory… that the earth goes through these cycles of cooling and warming ever since it has been the earth.” – Maddi Cheers “Just because we can, does it mean we should?” – Maddi Cheers “Spirituality, religion, these invisible, intangible things are real, and they're important. And I think that more and more people are feeling it, because it's a feeling, it's a gut, intuitive thing that they're recognizing that family is important, relationships are important, community is important, love, respect, gratitude, all of these things have a creative force, and they have a protective and a healing force.” – Carolina Allen “Sisters, cling to your children, cling to your families, bring your men with you, convince them; this isn't a battle against men, our maternal feminist identities are bigger than that. We're stewards of not only this planet, but of spirits, and this is our stewardship… claim it and step into that power.” – Carolina Allen “This is our work, to bring that kind of calling, to bring that to the women and to stand together.” – Carolina Allen “When you look at these great wisdom teachings all over the world, they have the same message, it is the same message of love one another. Don't lose your connection to the planet.” – Maddi Cheers The Good Mind and the Quick Mind: The Good Mind is slow to anger, slow to judge, quick to love. The Quick Mind is quick to anger, quick to judge, slow to love.  “When we are using that good mind, we are connected to everything and everyone, because our connection is through love, is through understanding that we are here for each other, and when we look at the natural world, that is what the natural world teaches us.” – Maddi Cheers The Women's Oneness Project Maddi Cheers is first and foremost a Wisdom Activist. She is a storyteller, ceremonialist, dancer, teacher, poet, and interfaith minister. She is also the founder of The Women's Oneness Project, dedicated to bringing women (and men) together to respectfully discuss and consider our differences. In 2019, at 65, Maddi dedicated her final chapter to passing on the knowledge and teachings she has gained from indigenous elders, spiritual leaders, and her own life experience. “In every decision we make we must consider how it will affect the next seven generations, based on the wisdom of the seven before.” - The Great Law of Peace of the Haudenosaunee “You know what the two most important words are?: Thank you.” Tom Porter, Bear Clan, Mohawk Iroquois Spiritual Leader   Carolina Allen is the founder and leader of Big Ocean Women, the international maternal feminist organization representing perspectives of faith, family, and motherhood throughout civil society. Carolina holds a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Utah with an emphasis in cultural religions and philosophy of science. Her inspirational and philosophical work has been presented at various international U.N. conferences. She is a native of Brazil, and a fluent trilingual. She and her husband Kawika are parents to 7 children. She is an avid soccer fan and had a brief career as a semi-professional player.

Christmas at Mary, Dr. Porter will be on to share what great music we can expect to hear this year.

On July 14, 45's first wife was found at the bottom of the stairs, unconscious and unresponsive in her Manhattan home.On July 20 her body was laid to rest at Donald Trump's Bedminster Golf Club in what some described as a “pauper's grave”, not far from the first hole. If you like our content, please become a patron to get our premium episodes, as well as our public episodes ad-free. Mother of Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric, Ivana Trump was 73 years old. An employee found her and called 911 at 1:40 pm. The autopsy was conducted in less than 24 hours and her death was ruled “an accident”, the official cause of death being “blunt force trauma to her torso”. 1 She deserves to be remembered not only as Trump's first wife. She was a New York socialite, model and author but she was also an athlete who made the Czech skiing Olympics team. Ivana Trump was her own person: a mother, an author, fashion designer and New York socialite. In the first half we focus on Ivana's life before she met Donald Trump, as there are some tragic aspects like the death of the man she loved, George Staidl, a playwright and lyricist who died in a car crash, and her fourth husband, Italian actor Rossano Rubicondi who passed away at 49 with melanoma (a type of skin cancer). Ivana Maria Zelnickova was an educated woman with a master's degree in Physical Education and she was a fighter: she fled from communism in her native country (then Czechoslovakia, part of the USSR) and built a new life for herself, starting off in Canada and then immigrating here, to the United States. In the second half we discuss the details of her death and the timing. Ivana passed away on July 14. Donald Trump and his three adult children were going be deposed the next day, separately, as part of New York Attorney General Letitia James' investigation into the Trump Organization. The depositions were postponed. We also discuss her golf course burial in an austere grave and the attempt by Donal Trump to designate the area as a cemetery to get a tax break. A cemetery in New Jersey avoids property, income, and sales tax, the holy tax trinity. 2, 3 Donald Trump is also selling an “eternal membership” for the Bedminster National Golf Club: people play to play and when they pass, they can be buried close to Ivana if they pay extra. 4 Ivana also loved dogs. Funeral guests and others, in lieu of flowers, were asked to donate to Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Florida and to “help save the lives of dogs that are in desperate need.” The charity was picked by her ex-husband and children, and this seems to be another of Trump's schemes where the money is not really going where they say it's going. Ivana's own dog, Tiger, is now living with her assistant. Episode #DubiMeter = 9 1. Kanishka Singh and Daniel Trotta. Ivana Trump, First Wife of Donald Trump Who Helped Build his Empire, Dies at 73. Reuters. July 2022. ⇤2. Hamish Mitchell Twitter account. Tweet: Pics of Ivana Trump's Grave. Twitter. July 2022. ⇤3. Edward Helmore. Will Ivana Help Donald Trump with Tax Breaks from Beyond the Grave?. The Guardian. July 2022. ⇤4. Sinéad Baker and Tom Porter. Trump's PAC Asked Fans to Donate Money While Announcing His Ex-wife Ivana's Death. Business Insider. July 2022. ⇤

TEXT EZWAY TO 55678 JOIN OUR SOCIAL NETWORK EZWAYWALLOFFAME.COM HERE! Brought to you by BRAINTAP.COM/EZWAY Radio Boomers Live Like our FB Page Every Mon. 10 a.m. PST With Host: James Zuley, Eric Zuley Guests:  Marneen Fields, Actress, Stuntwoman, Scriptwriter, Composer   Janine Avanti - Actress, Motivational Speaker, Wirral Champion Skiers, Body Building Champion, Fitness Consultant, Business Owner Hot Topic: News Updates... Jim's Gem: Stay Focused Carmelita's Corner: Tom Porter- TV producer, videographer, editor ,educator, animal rights activist

Jake is joined by Chris Redwood, Kasey Mosley, & Tom Porter to discuss an AMAZING week at Derby County! New contracts for King Curtis and Richard Stearman, as well as three terrific signings in McGoldrick, Hourihane and Roberts are all discussed. We also talk about Derby's comfortable win over Bradford and the players, including the promising young Scottish left-back, who impressed us the most!

This week, Jake is joined by Tom Porter, Paul Watson, & Tom Sowden to discuss everything that's happening in the crazy world of Derby County. This includes Colin Kazim Richards's return to Moor Farm, Liam Rosenior's appointment as interim manager, as well as CEO Stephen Pearce allegedly staying on!

Jake is joined by Jamie Page, Vik Singh & Tom Porter to discuss the cataclysmic collapse of Chris Kirchner's takeover, the potential of Mike Ashley's Derby, as well as what life could be like Andy Appleby. There's also time to discuss Leroy Rosenior's potential departure to Blackpool. Warning: Contains a lot of Chris Kirchner criticism.

Mohawk spiritual leader Tom Porter explains how the world came to exist and the spiritual teachings that guided the people, followed by the forgetfulness that led to violence and suffering from wrong living. He tells the story of the Peacemaker, who brought back the original teachings, and the origins of the Condolence Ceremony that offers … Continue reading "126. Healing Loss Through Original Haudenosaunee Ways: Interview with Tom Porter"

Honoring Our PACT -- legislation to help thousands of veterans suffering from toxic exposures during their service to us in war zones. It's personal to Kevin, but to so many other veterans in and around Chattanooga. Kevin talks to the IAVA's Tom Porter about the upcoming vote on it.

Good buddy and "American Hero", Tom Porter, stops by to drink bourbon... alright, alright, alright. The boys discuss: How to properly drink whiskey Jackass Culture Drinking with your Parents Boomer Sooner...Texas Sucks Grifters and much more! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Tiokasin talks with Fred Leonard. Fred is the author of Grandma's Spirit Calling Us Home to Tyendinaga, a book about his Tyendinaga Mohawk ancestors from the mid-1600s to the 1900s. Fred was born in 1969 in Belleville, Ontario, Canada (next door to Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory). He has lived in this area most of his life. Fred has helped with the marketing and promotion of two books: And Grandma Said by Mohawk elder Tom Porter and What I Need To Leave Behind by elder Betty Maracle. Fred has traveled across North America to meet and learn traditional knowledge, spirituality and history from many elders. He has done public speaking and is a social activist. Fred has worked on an environmental contaminants research project at Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in association with Trent University, and he has worked for the environmental department for National Defense. For the past nine years, Fred has been running his own business.Production Credits:Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive ProducerLiz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), ProducerMalcolm Burn, Studio Engineer, Radio Kingston, WKNY 1490 AM and 107.9 FM, Kingston, NYTiokasin Ghosthorse, Audio EditorMusic Selections:1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song)Artist: Moana and the Moa HuntersAlbum: Tahi (1993)Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand)(00:00:44)2. Song Title: The CleansingArtist: John TrudellAlbum: Tribal Voice (1983)Label: Effective(00:28:40)3. Song Title: The City: Grass and Concrete, Taxi to BrooklynArtist: Mark-AlmondAlbum: Speak Easy, It's a Whiskey Scene (1971)Label: UMG Recordings, Inc.(00:35:05)4. Song: ImagiNation (feat. David Strickland)Artist: ImagiNation (Q052 is a Mi'gmaq rapper from Gesgapegiag, Quebec. His collaborators are: Stun, David Strickland, Hyper-T, Will E. Skandalz, Wendego, Simon Nevin and Sensei H. They claim justice for Indigenous people.)Album: ImagiNationLabel: Musique Nomad(00:45:25)5. Song Title: Voice of EarthArtist: NASAAlbum: NASA Space Sounds (2015)Label: NASA(00:52:16)6. Song Title: Change on the RiseArtist: Avi KaplanEP: I'll Get By (2019)Label: Fantasy Records(00:54:40)AKANTU INSTITUTEVisit Akantu Institute, an institute that Tiokasin founded with a mission of contextualizing original wisdom for troubled times. Go to https://akantuinstitute.org/ to find out more and consider joining his Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/Ghosthorse.

In the wake of another hit piece on Del, we're sharing a behind-the-scenes look at how Business Insider reporter, Tom Porter, gathered information for his article. How much due diligence did he do? The answer may be surprising.

Watch what really happened when Del overwhelmed a mainstream reporter bent on writing a slanted piece on Del and the Informed Consent Action Network.To see Porter's published article: https://www.businessinsider.com/ican-billionaire-funded-antivax-group-trump-fans-ties-2021-8

Navy veteran Tom Porter deployed to Afghanistan and is now VP Government Affairs, for Iraq Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). He explains what the administration got wrong, what they need to do now, and why it's life or death for our allies. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Tom Porter is the Senior Business Development Manager at SpeedKore Performance Group, an American performance company where their engineers and artisans combine traditional craftsmanship with cutting edge technology.

Two US citizens were part of over a dozen people arrested in connection with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, and President Biden announced an August 31 end to the US mission in Afghanistan.Tom Porter, writer and long-time activist, joins us to discuss the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, President Biden's announcement of the US military leaving their mission in Afghanistan by August 31, and the story announcing the would-be monarch of Iran to brief an umbrella organization for US Jewish groups. Dr. Jack Rasmus, professor in economics and politics at St. Mary's College in California, joins us to discuss the economy. The US weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rise to 373,000, as job growth slows and the Dow drops nearly 260 points in a global sell-off as recovery fears resurface.Marjorie Cohn, professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, California, and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild, joins us to discuss her article in Consortium News about the UN report that calls for reparations for victims of systematic racist police violence. According to Cohn, the UN high commissioner for human rights grounded her analysis in the "long-overdue need to confront the legacies of enslavement."Linwood Tauheed, associate professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, joins us to discuss the week's events. One story of note includes the report that the would-be monarch of Iran gave an off-the-record "special leadership briefing" on Thursday to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. This organization is an umbrella group for numerous pro-Israel organizations, and has received condemnations and questions from other pro-Israel and Iranian-American groups.Dr. Colin Campbell, DC senior news correspondent, and Margaret Kimberly, editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report and author of "Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents," come together to talk about the Black Caucus PAC endorsing Nina Turner's opponent in a special Democratic primary for Ohio's 11th Congressional District next month. Also, the House Democrats launched Team Blue, a new PAC formed, according to the group's founders, to protect incumbents facing challenges.

TEXT EZWAY TO 55678 SOCIAL NETWORK EZWAYWALLOFFAME.COM Brought to you by BRAINTAP.COM Radio Boomers Live Like our FB Page Every Mon. 10 a.m. PST With Host: James Zuley and Reatha Grey Reatha Grey Tech Time:  Special Guests: GERALD L. KANE -  is with the Law Offices of Gerald L. Kane located in Encino and has devoted over 25 years helping families achieve their goals of protecting their wealth and he has over 3,000 clients. He is a Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law an Accredited Attorney with the Veterans Administration and is in the top 5% of Attorneys in California as a Superlawyer.  Hot Topic: News Updates Jim's Gem: Perseverance Pays Off... Carmelita's Corner Special Guest: BRYNDA MATTOX - Producer/Actress She hails from Kentucky and is an expert on its history. Her own unique history encompasses her journey as a recipient of a scholarship to Yale University and has produced many plays in which she also was featured as an actress.  She was also a producer in association with Tom Porter of Tea with Michael Raye a popular cult comedy cable t.v. series. Her knowledge of Bernice, the older sister of film icon Marilyn Monroe will be a topic of her interview. 

Origin of the Blues and All That Jazz, has Ty in a lively, in-depth conversation with Blues & Jazz aficionado, Tom Porter, former Program Director  and General Manager of WPFW Pacifica Radio and Executive Director of the National Jazz Service Organization.  The episode explores the hidden meanings in the call and response metaphors used to navigate Black people through chattel slavery, the Jim Crow South and the new Jim Crow practices of right-winged racist in these yet-to-be United States. Lightnin' Gray tells a brief story about resilience and the innate ability of Black people to find Music and Joy in their souls. Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/biz/fund?id=KMCCHVD9N5L6L)

In this week’s episode of our Family Stories series we hear your tales of the first wedding after the war, surviving the Blitz and a harrowing visit to Bergen-Belsen.With thanks to Tom Achard, William Carver, David Ludlow, Tom Porter, Ben Ross, Dan Vaux-Nobes and Jamie Young for sharing their stories.Please go to our twitter account to see the photographs described in Jamie Young’s story.We Have Ways has a membership club which includes a live version of the podcast streamed on the internet each Thursday evening. Join at Patreon.com/wehavewaysA Goalhanger Films productionProduced by Jon GillExec Producer Tony PastorTwitter: #WeHaveWays@WeHaveWaysPodWebsite: www.wehavewayspod.comEmail: wehavewayspodcast@gmail.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Veteran activist and organizer Tom Porter joined us to talk about today's DC protests and pro-Trump rally. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

When asked to describe himself as a young person, Tom Porter, CEO and founder of Malibu Wellness, a solution-driven professional hair and skin care brand in Malibu, CA, says, “I was the kid that was always looking under the rock to find something very special.” We talk about: · His method for regret-proofing his life. · His thoughts on entrepreneurs—are they made or born or a little of both? · What drives him to keep developing and innovating. · A podcast that features stories of his life and work journey. This episode is sponsored by Malibu C. Follow Modern Salon on Social Media: Instagram Facebook Twitter

Argonon Group CEO James Burstall; Liz Layton, exec producer at Leopard USA; and Tom Porter, director of programmes at BriteSpark Films, talk about continuing to produce and win commissions during the pandemic; plus Cricko Akander, exec producer of Strix Sweden format The Farm and Adam Barth, commercial director of NENT Studios UK, discuss making the reality show under Covid-19 restrictions.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Tom Porter, former dean of the School of African American Studies at Ohio University; and Dr. Gerald Horne, holder of the Moores Professorship of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. The US is facing three major crises. The first is the COVID-19 virus. The second is the economy. The downturn or recession was already on its way, and now COVID-19 has exacerbated the problem. "Workers filed 2.1 million new unemployment claims last week, the Department of Labor reported ... The latest figure indicates that the pandemic has pushed 40.8 million Americans out of work in just 10 weeks," Politico reported on May 28. The third issue, which will be the focus of Monday's program, is the civil unrest surrounding the killing, some say lynching, of Mr. George Floyd last week by then-Minneapolis Police Department Officer Derek Chauvin.People keep asking, "How is this happening in America?" To which I say, it always has, just go to William Patterson's book “We Charge Genocide.” What's giving the perception of a rise or increase in this behavior is cellphone video. Let's analyze how this is being portrayed in US media with what seems to be fairly peaceful protests during the day, and then the evening sets in, and the antifa folks and other agents descend on cities and wreak havoc.Internationally, look at the impact: "People in cities around the world have marched in solidarity with demonstrators in the US, as politicians and public figures unite to condemn the killing of George Floyd," the Guardian reported Monday. This is the internationalization of racism and white supremacy in the US. Again, read William Patterson, Malcolm X, W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King Jr. and others. "There were protests outside the US embassy in Copenhagen on Sunday, while hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Berlin for the second day in a row ... At least four solidarity gatherings were held in New Zealand on Monday, with massive crowds kneeling at a demonstration in Auckland," the Guardian noted. "In Australia, however, a demonstration planned for Tuesday afternoon in Sydney was cancelled on Monday, after people threatened to 'create havoc and protest against the event,' an organizer said on social media." Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump chastised the governors of US states during a conference call on Monday morning, calling their protest responses weak and saying Minnesota had become "a laughingstock all over the world," according to audio obtained by the New York Times.GUESTS:Tom Porter - Former dean of the School of African American Studies at Ohio University, former executive of Graduate Studies at Antioch College, former director of the King Center in Atlanta and lifelong activist.Dr. Gerald Horne - Holder of the Moores Professorship of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. He is one of the most prolific writers of our time, and his latest book is "Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music."Dr. Anthony Monteiro - W.E.B. DuBois scholar, founder of the Saturday Free School in Philadelphia, former professor in the African American Studies Department at Temple University and lifelong activist.Jon Jeter - Former Washington Post bureau chief and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist with more than 20 years of journalistic experience. He is also an award-winning foreign correspondent on two continents.Dr. Shayla C. Nunnally - Associate professor with a joint appointment in political science and Africana studies at the University of Connecticut. She is the author of "Trust in Black America: Race, Discrimination, and Politics."Mark P. Fancher - Staff attorney for the Racial Justice Project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. Through his work, he addresses racially disproportionate rates of incarceration, racial discrimination against public school students of color, racial profiling, attacks on the democratic rights of communities of color and abusive police practices.

When asked to describe himself as a young person, Tom Porter, CEO and founder of Malibu Wellness, a solution-driven professional hair and skincare brand in Malibu, CA, says, “I was the kid that was always looking under the rock to find something very special.” He has launched a new podcast that will provide ads look into the life of an entrepreneur and asks the question—are entrepreneurs born or made or a little of both? Read more about Tom Porter on Modern Salon. Listen to Malibu T.O.M. Stories. Follow Modern Salon on Social Media: Instagram Facebook Twitter

Tom Porter builds Porter Cycles in Brooklyn, NY. His bikes typically involve fabricated, hand-carved lugs and other labor-intensive details. Tom won the best new builder award at the NAHBS 2019 show and it’s no surprise why. In this episode we discuss framebuilding, imposter syndrome, covid 19, and bike touring.

To unpack the complexities of Africana resistance, particularly its most “radical” elements—whether expressed through collective or/and individual activities and thought, it is vital to identify and map the traditions that inform and challenge their praxis. To be clear, the processes of identification and mapping is to highlight points of continuity and discontinuity, in order to understand distortions to expressed objectives, particularly if those expressed objectives are justice, equality and freedom. Being so, let's apply this perspective to Kwame Ture aka Stokely Carmichael. The 1967 Dialectics of Liberation Congress held in London, proved to be an important catalyst in the praxis of Kwame Ture. The Congress on the Dialectics of Liberation (for the Demystification of Violence) took place in London's Roundhouse between the 15th and 30th July 1967, it was an attempt to ‘demystify human violence in all its forms, and the social systems from which it emanates, and to explore new forms of action.' Ture (Carmichael at the time) contribution to the Dialectics of Liberation conference and elsewhere, were premised by his expressed purpose to expose the forms of oppression endemic to the institutionalized norms and practices of white, Western, or “advanced” nations. Unpacking the endemic violence inherent in racial capitalism and its fortification in Western institutions, Carmichael exposed the limits of white liberalism, which he characterizes as “sympathetic [to the cause of black struggle] in an empty sense,” missing the big picture of the institutional forms to which its adherents contribute, despite their “good intentions” (Stokely Speaks: From Black Power to Pan Africanism: 78-79). The importance of revisiting and deeply exploring this lecture from Kwame Ture in this period of being quote ‘woke' unquote and the rampant and narrow postulation and self-congratulatory circles that posit that scholarship is in fact activism (i.e. write a book about history, not understanding or even unpacking the relevance of their ideas to the ‘now moment' and in many cases not even reading the very people these scholars- activist are writing about today) is absolutely essential. The extreme danger in such individualistic, neoliberal sensibilities are: 1) they coopt and distort the range and foresight of the ideas presented, relegating them and subsequently binding them to a period. And the way time is understood in a Western context is antagonistic and debilitating to the way ‘time' is understood in relation to space (physical mental and spiritual) as well as the power of the ‘word' in an Africana context (we will deal with this in another program); 2) this framing ensures that future generations betray the instructions of those who come before are urge us to create another future through substantive engagement with the past. Knowing an event happened on a certain date does not necessitate an understanding. Nor does it consolidate into a movement. In short, it does something that one of our important thinkers, Tom Porter, always reminds us of: it is the Negation of the Negation. Moving unconscious to conscious is an intentional, protracted, collective process that requires 1) (collective) study; 2) (collective) deep thinking; 3) (collective) engagement/application; for collective 4) refinement/evolution/correction. More important it provides accountability and serves as a mechanism of self and collective critique. Study, thought, and action must always equate to collective progress. These factors are exemplified through the praxis of Kwame Ture.

Bike Karma EP44:  Segments -Intro  1- The Value of Admitting You're Not Perfect with Tom Porter from Porter Cycles https://www.portercycles.com/ 2- ABC Quick Check with Rowan Debonair of the Velocipedium https://velocipedium.wordpress.com/ 3- Mid Roll Thank You and Sell your bike stuff with show supporter The Frame and Wheel  https://www.theframeandwheel.com/ 4- Gigging by Bicycle with Vignes Rooftop Revival (all songs in this segment by Vignes Rooftop Revival) http://rooftoprevival.com/press/ 5- A Quick Case for getting a SNOWBIKE 6- Final Thanks, Announcements, and Credits (Tarran checks back in!!!) If you like any segment or episode PLEASE follow, like, share, or even better give a positive review (especially on iTunes), and share with any bicycle loving friends or people who don't like bicycles but who need to understand why you do. FREE STICKERS!!!! while they last   To see what is mentioned in the podcast check out my...   Bike Karma Instagram Page www.instagram.com/bike_karma/   and/or    Bike Karma Facebook Page www.facebook.com/BikeKarma/   I'll put links and additional materials there...   The Mission of the Bike Karma Podcast is just to be a friendly point on the map for anyone who loves any type of bicycle to make connections with other bicycle enthusiasts from inside and outside of their own camps. From riding, to fixing, to collecting... from beginners to champions... from the garage workshop to the peloton... we've either covered it or are planning on it.... It is not meant to be a guidebook (you should think for yourself and safely ride within your abilities) just interesting stories. Thanks for coming along for the ride.      THANKS VERY MUCH FOR LISTENING!    Bike Karma, The Bicycle Karma Project, The Bicycle Karma Cat are TM Tom Brown, All Rights for the TM and Content are reserved,   Opening and Closing Theme Music used with Permission by the Band Mobjack at Mobjack Music and written and performed by Keller Glass. Thanks Keller! Contact bikekarmaguy@gmail.com

How we get around has a huge impact on not only our own health but the health of our society as a whole. The individual benefits of active travel, such as walking and cycling, reduce the risk of conditions, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, associated with a sedentary lifestyle. Meanwhile, this form of travel is more sustainable and can reduce the levels of air pollution, and associated health risks, in a city such as Cardiff. But can and should the NHS influence the way we choose to travel? In this episode, we chat to Dr Tom Porter, a Consultant in Public Health Medicine, about the work he is leading on in Cardiff and Vale UHB to try and encourage a large-scale shift in how we all get around. We discuss the unique Welsh legislation of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, the benefits of active travel and the dangers of an over-reliance on cars (including their contribution to social isolation), and how the health board is working alongside local councils to create large-scale organisational change. If you'd like to know more, please contact me via e-mail at news@wales.nhs.uk or on Twitter @CV_UHB

Tom Porter, the legislative director for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), joined the guys to talk about the state of the VA and Acting VA Secretary Robert Wilkie, President Trump's pick to lead the agency. Michael Fuchs of the Center for American Progress jumps on to discuss the U.S. and North Korea scrambling to try and salvage the on-again, off-again peace summit scheduled for June 12th in Singapore.

In his poem “Countries want independence, nations want liberation, and the people, the people want revolution”, Amiri Baraka writes: “Revolutionary Unity gained only thru strugglelong sought formust be fought forRevolutionary Unitya fiery beacon in a world made perpetual nightby imperialismThe basis of struggle Unity Revolutionary UnityUnity gained thru struggleThe basis of the party yet to be builtin a land of "instant everythings" (Oct, 1979) On today's programs, we will hear Critical Reflections on the Organic Nature of Africana Sociopolitical Thought and Cultural Resistance: Contributions from Amiri Baraka w/ Tom Porter. This program is a mix of poetry, music, and various interviews with and on Amiri Baraka that focus on exploring the organic nature of and practical application of forms of resistance. The underlining premise of exploration is centered upon asking the simple question: How can culture be used as a platform for critiquing and creating a world beyond struggle? This organic process of thinking and doing is central to Africana sociopolitical thought that informs its resistance. The cornerstone of critical consciousness formation. The program ends with a conversation I had with Tom Porter, who represents the Black Radical Tradition in all of its manifestations. A close friend of Amiri Baraka, Professor Porter is still, today, an important activist intellectual who has contributed his life to fighting for a world beyond struggle. A veteran activist, educator, radio host and jazz critic, Tom Porter has run for political office in Ohio, served as Director of Antioch Graduate program, and runs a jazz music promotion organization. Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native, indigenous, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; and Ghana; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people. Enjoy the program! Music and Other things:1. J Dilla—African Rhythms 2. Outkast—Wailin 3. Snippet of the introduction of Leroi Jones by Maulana Karenga at UCLA, April 5 19674. Amiri Baraka—Against Bourgeois Art 5. Vallis Alps—Young6. Hugh Maskela—If There's Anybody Out There 7. The Roots ft. Amiri Baraka—Something in the Way of Things 8. Picture Credit—Tom Porter and Amiri Baraka, circa 2013 (available here: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=13497 and imixwhatilike.org )

While some regard Infosec as compliance rather than security, veteran pentesters Sanjiv Kawa and Tom Porter believe otherwise. They have deep expertise working with large enterprise networks, exploit development, defensive analytics and I was lucky enough to speak with them about the fascinating world of pentesting. In our podcast interview, we learned what a pentesting engagement entails, assigning budget to risk, the importance of asset identification, and so much more. Regular speakers at Security Bsides, they have a presentation on October 7th in DC, The World is Y0ur$: Geolocation-based Wordlist Generation with Wordsmith.

Alex Kokcharov, Russia analyst at IHS, and Tom Porter, foreign reporter at IBTimesUK, discuss what the anti-corruption protest in Moscow means for the country's strongman leader Vladimir Putin.IN THE FIELD is presented by Orlando Crowcroft and produced by Orlando Crowcroft, Alfred Joyner and Sho Murakoshi. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

https://onthegroundshow.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/OTG-DEC23-2016.mp3 Part 4 of our series, Black Power: 50 Years in DC, 1966 to 2016, marking the half century anniversary of the call for Black Power in this country in 1966. Today, a wide-ranging conversation with educator and activist Tom Porter about his view of Black Power in DC from Malcolm X to Barack Obama. Headlines on March against Islamophobia, a vigil for the homeless and more.

University of Rhode Island Director of Athletics Thorr Bjorn talks with Tom Porter about the state of URI Athletics in the first episode of Rhody Insider.

Rodeo is a part of life for many Americans. But if you're an LGBTQ rodeo fan participating in the sport you love can mean hiding part of who you are to fit in. But a tight knit group of queer cowboys has found a way to live the country and Western lifestyle in their own way.  You don't often hear the words “gay” and “rodeo” together. On this edition Producer Vanessa Rancaño brings us one bull rider's story. This show was part of a partnership with the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Special thanks to Claire Schoen. Featuring: Jason Strand, bull rider; Stud Monkey & David Grub, rodeo competitors; Clint Coil, rodeo judge and Stud Monkey's partner; Judy Munson, Gay Games Rodeo Committee Chair; Darcey Ward, arena crew member; Rob Matyska, arena crew coordinator; Tom Porter, rodeo fan and David's partner; Bill Lyle & Jane Silva, co-owners of The Thrill at Morgan Hill Rodeo Company; Steve Wollert, longtime IGRA member; Michael Weldert, rodeo fan; Edwin & Romiro, Bill Lyle's employees; Will Ikeman, Jason's husband. More information: International Gay Rodeo Association: Gay Games Rodeo  The Thrill From Morgan Hill  Homorodeo   The post Making Contact – All Around Cowboy appeared first on KPFA.

HR Happy Hour 170 - Driving Performance with Technology Recorded Thursday August 15, 2013 This week on the HR Happy Hour Show, Steve Boese sat down with Tom Porter, Director of Human Resources and Administration, Kawasaki Motors Corporation, U.S.A, and David Ludlow, Global Vice President of Product Marketing, HCM Solutions for SAP and SuccessFactors for an interesting and informative conversation about how HR Technology can help transform organizational performance, and impact and change the actual culture of the organization as well. At Kawasaki, Tom led an ambitious project to drive consistent performance management, goal setting and alignment, and more broadly - to get the organization much more focused on demonstrable and measurable performance measures. Tom shares some of the project drivers, the organizational imperatives, and perhaps most importantly some of the lessons learned and critical success criteria that need to be in place for any HR Technology projects to truly deliver on their promises. I won't spoil it for you, but rest assured that openness, transparency, and true partnerships between customer and supplier are key, and both Tom and David offer some excellent pieces of advice for any organization on the path towards technology implementation and transformation. It is a really informative and 'front lines' kind of conversation that sheds some light on an organization that has done and continues to do what many others only aspire towards. Thanks to both Tom and David for taking the time to share their insights!