Dina Dahl (7:20)

I know who you are.

C.J. Farley (7:22)

Who is he? He's the brother of.

Joy Reid (7:29)

I know your name. You know my name? Yeah, I know your name. What's his first name?

C.J. Farley (7:43)

That's his name.

Joy Reid (7:46)

The wheels on the bus go round and round. So, so they, they, the two of them, of course, that of course is the two most popular of I would argue probably the two most popular politicians in the country. Mayor Zorhan Mamdani, who's riding a 60 something plus rule rating, and Barack Obama, former president, who's probably the most popular politician in the United States right now and ever, who were never on the same side. They used to be very disaligned even though they're both Democrats. Mamdani ran far to Obama's left and was very critical of the drones that were dropped during the Obama era. The so he had been actually vocally quite critical of President Obama. But they came together the way good politicians do because apparently Mayor Mamdani reached out to the former president to say, hey, I would love to sit and talk with you. A great thing to do. If you're a young politician, you want to speak to an elder that's been in the game that can give you some tips. And he really wanted to talk to him about how to deal with Donald Trump, how to deal with him given the fact that he is the mayor of the financial capital of the entire United States States, New York, you know, the New York metro area, larger GDP than Canada. And he's got to deal with this president who's, you know, he's charmed him. Obviously he has Trump sort of under manners, but he wanted to get advice and convene with him. And they came back together and they went to this very lucky Bronx preschool school where the little kids are going to be able to tell their grandkids about this. And they, and they sang the wheels of the bus and did all the things. It was super cute. So we want to give you that. That was really cute. And that's the hope and change because Mamdani is and so is Obama. They're both proof that fundamental campaign promises can be met and they can change lives of Obviously President Obama delivered on Obamacare, universal ish health care, got as close as we are going to ever were ever going to get with this country being so weirdly right wing. And he delivered on. He said he was going to do health care. He did it. It had been 100 years of Democrats trying to do some sort of universal type health care. FDR could not get it into the New Deal. Think about it. They couldn't get in the New Deal. They got the new. He did all this New Deal stuff. He couldn't do that because the American Medical association fought him back to the last dog died to stop that from happening. Then lbj, the next most effective Democratic president, got through Medicaid and Medicare but couldn't get this one big extension of the Social Security act through. Obama did it. And mainly what Obamacare is an extension of Medicaid and he got it through. And so he did that. And then of course Mamdani, who has made big, big promises and is delivering them on them one by one, things people said were impossible. The wealth tax is coming forward, the tax on Terre. And as somebody who goes back and forth between multiple states, including New York, I, I'm fine with it. I think it's a great idea. So they're delivering on promises and showing that hope and change can happen. One more positive story because we like to open with a happy note here. Remember Scott Colum, our friend? We, we brought him on the show. We've had him on a couple of times. He is running for the United States Senate in Mississippi. Scott Colum is polling within the margin of error in that race in Mississippi, according to a new poll that was conducted by Impact Research for the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, SPLC Action Fund. Now, in that poll, Scott Colum, who is a district attorney in the state of Mississippi, is just 3 points, 1, 2, 3 points behind the incumbent front row at a lynching Senator Cindy Hyde Smith. They are polling 44 to 47. He's three points down, and he's even three points down when they expanded to three people in the poll, meaning that the third party contender is not making Cindy Hyde Smith's lead any bigger. And when they did a poll where they gave more detail about each of their plans. Plans, he's actually one point ahead. Cindy Hyde Smith. And so it's 4447 in either a two way or a three way race. And Cindy Hyde Smith is very unpopular. She's polling 35% favorable, 55% unfavorable, and she's much less popular than she was in a poll last year when she was at 44% favorable, 45% unfavorable. More people in that poll want to replace her 53% than want to reelect her 33%. This is where the point where I tell you, every state is a purple state. Red states are just purple states where the blue parts don't vote or can't vote or aren't allowed to vote or are suppressed. And so anybody can win as long as you vote for them. And if you recall, I think I've said this before, Mississippi is one of those states that when Mike Espy, whose family are basically the black Kennedys of Mississippi, when he ran for Senate, he only lost by about three or four points. And in Mississippi, three or four points means like 100, 150,000 votes. He can win. Scott Colum could win. Let's just keep it real. He can win. And one of the reasons I feel like he could win is that Mississippi has a giant, enormous, untapped black vote. A third of the state is African American. And they generally vote at very low turnout. If you were to turn out just 200,000 more African Americans than normally vote, Scott Coleman can win. And he also polls very well outside of the black vote. He, he polls much better. He actually does better than the Democratic Party itself. So if you pull him versus any generic Democrat, he actually pulls way ahead of an average Democrat, meaning that he crosses over and you have to at least get about 30% of the white vote, 30, 35% of the white vote in order to win in that state. He can do just makes sure that people just need to vote. Never give up. All right, so I wanted to give you guys that good news before we get to the bad news. The bad news is that we don't even know if the Strait of Hormuz is open. Y'. All. Let's talk about this war. We are not clear if the Strait of Hormuz is open or closed. It is just unclear. An Iranian state news outlet on Friday questioned the unexpected tweet from Iran's foreign minister whose name is Abbas Aragachi, or Iraqi, or Iraqi, I think it is, about the state strait being reopened following the start of this supposed Israel, Lebanon, 10 day ceasefire. Now, Iraqi wrote on X Twitter that the Strait of Hormuz was open, quote, for all commercial vehicles for the remaining period of ceasefire, which Iran's government announced earlier in the day. But now the Iranian state news outlet is saying that's not true. So we don't even know if it's closed or not.

Dr. Roger Mitchell (14:12)

But.

Joy Reid (14:13)

And we don't know. We do know that oil prices are shooting back up because we just don't know if it's closed or open. And every day it changes. Right? But one thing we do know is that the Department of War Crimes is threatening to fire on ships who try to to go through our blockade. Take a listen publicly, Iran, that you

Dr. Roger Mitchell (14:33)

control the Strait of Hormuz, but you don't have a navy or real domain awareness.

Joy Reid (14:40)

You can't control anything.

Dr. Roger Mitchell (14:44)

To be clear, threatening to shoot missiles and drones at ships, commercial ships that are lawfully transiting international waters. That is not control.

Joy Reid (14:55)

That's piracy.

Dr. Roger Mitchell (14:57)

That's terrorism. The United States Navy controls the traffic going in and out of the strait because we have real assets and real capabilities. And we're doing this blockade, performing it

Joy Reid (15:10)

with less than 10% of America's naval power. The math is clear.

Dr. Roger Mitchell (15:16)

We're using 10% of the world's most

Joy Reid (15:19)

powerful navy and you have 0% of your navy. That's real control. And we have a long track record of dealing with pirates and terrorists. Okay, drunky frat boy, you're saying it's your straight, but we control who goes in there because we have all the assets. And firing at chips. You say you firing at chips, drunky frat boy says is an act of piracy. You say, huh? Let me read this from the New York Times from yesterday. Let's Just take a listen to this U.S. navy destroy a U.S. navy destroyer in the Arabian Sea repeatedly warned an Iranian flag cargo ship to to stop over a six hour period on Sunday before firing on the ship's engine room and disabling it, U.S. central Command said in a statement on social media. They admitted to it. Helicopter borne Marines then swooped down and seized the vessel. It was the first time a vessel was reported to have tried to evade the US Imposed blockade on any ship exiting or entering Iranian ports since it took effect last week. Previously, 25 other ships intercepted by a Navy flotilla operating outside the Strait of Hormuz had turned around when hailed by crew members, Central Command said. Sunday was different when the captain of the Iranian vessel the Tuska ignored multiple radioed American warnings to halt or else. The guided missile destroyer Spruance, one of more than a dozen Navy warships enforcing the US Blockade, ordered the Tuska's crew to evacuate the engine room. The Spruance then fired several rounds from its MK45 gun into the ship's propulsion system as it steamed toward the port of Bandar Abbas in Iran, Central Command said. And here's what the Tuska likely heard. So again, we fired on a ship which Drunky Pete said would be an act of piracy or terrorism. So we did. The thing he said was terrorism and piracy because we fired on it piracy and then we boarded it and took control of it. Piracy and terrorism. Here's what the ship the Tuska probably heard before it was shot. And again by the same US military that has shot 52 ships in the Caribbean, killing 180 people to date before we committed our latest act of piracy. This is what the people on the ship on the Tuska probably heard. Take a listen. This has announced the formal blockade of Iranian ports and coastal areas. This is illegal action. All vessels are involved. Advise to immediately return to port if leaving and discontinue transit to Iran if that is your next port of call. Do not attempt to breach the blockade. Vessels will be boarded for interdiction and seizure transiting to or from an Iranian port. Turn around and prepare to be boarded. If you do not comply with this blockade, we will use force. The whole of the United States Navy is ready to force compliance now. Uses force them to call us pirates. We're pirates. We are now the pirates and the war criminals. Oh, and it seems like we tried to steal Iran's uranium in that raid that left the two pilots stranded for a while, so there's that too. So oil prices are spiking. Gas prices are Spiking again. And we are now the ones blocking the Strait of Hormuz, to be clear, which we do not own. We're the ones blocking the Strait of Hormuz and making your gas prices higher. So if you're, if you're worried about your gas prices, you better call your president because he's the one doing it now. Right. But Scott Besant, our Treasury Secretary, says no worries, don't not to worry. It's going to be fine. Very aggressive if we're going to get to the $3 a gallon gas by the summer. So when are we really going to get $3 a gallon gas? Well, I think that's going to be the up to how the negotiations go. President Trump said this morning that he thinks we're nearing the end. The US Kept their side on the same ceasefire. We've stopped firing. The Straits of Vermouth have not been completely reopened. So we will see. And I'm optimistic that during the summer we will see gas with a 3 in front of it sooner rather than later. I have, it's bank week here in D.C. so I've been meeting with a lot of my Middle Eastern counterparts, the finance ministers, and they all say that once the streets are open, they can start pumping again within one week. So not by summer, like Memorial Day, but maybe by Labor Day again. I'm optimistic that sometime between June 20th and September 20th that we can have $3 gas again. And as I said this morning, too, we are going to be watching the gas stations because they, they raise prices very quickly. When they stated when the crude oil prices went up, we hope they'll bring them down just as quickly as crude oil prices have come down, we say come down substantially just in the past 10 days. He said, you know what? Sometime this summer, y' all going to be able to afford your lives. But you know what, you just have to be patient. Go on and keep paying them high prices. You're going to be all right. Scott Besson said, you know, I can afford my gas prices. I don't know what's wrong with y'. All. He said, I can afford my gas. You know, sometime this summer we'll get you down to three, which is also high. Okay, it's also high. So what he said is, you know, the straight's not open. No, it's not. He's like, well, we're not firing. Yes, we are. We're firing on ships. Let me go back to this. The cargo ship that was seized by US Forces in the Gulf of Oman this weekend is Part of a fleet that often sails to China, one of Tehran's most important backers, and includes vessels that have been accused of transporting chemicals for Iran's ballistic missile system. The ship, the Mvtoska, visited the southern China port of Shibai twice in the six weeks before it was intercepted Sunday on its way to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, according to shipping analysts. So we're effectively attempting to shut down not oil that comes to the US but oil that goes to China. So it appears that the secondary goal, which you're not being told about by your government, is to stop China from being able to purchase oil. Because China, when it purchases oil that goes through the Strait of Hormuz, buys that oil increasingly in its own currency, in yuan, not in dollars. Tetra dollars, to be exact. So while y' all are not being able to pay for your lives, and while airline prices go up and cancel, flight cancellations happen, and while Europe, which also relies on oil that goes through the Strait, is down to what, six weeks of jet fuel flights are being canceled, grocery prices are going up because all that is shipped by truck, which needs gas. The food's getting more expensive because fertilizer also goes through that straight. The US Is deliberately keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed. Not because we get oil through the strait, we don't. And the US Is basically energy independent. We already drill enough. We drill enough oil to supply ourselves with gas. We don't get our oil through there. We're blocking the Strait of Hormuz to collapse the global economy and hurt China. Because China, if they're freely being able to transport oil through the strait, which they have been, because they either pay the toll or are friendly with Iran, they, they don't have to use the petrodollar to buy that oil or to do their business. They don't have to do business. And they're doing their business in the yuan. We also are doing the same thing in Venezuela. The secondary target of this war, which you're not being told because your government isn't telling you the truth about anything, is China is trying to harm not just the 4,000 year old Iranian Empire, but the 5,000 year old Empire of China. And we're willing to commit war crimes, and we're willing to let Israel commit war crimes to do these geopolitical moves that you're not being told about while you're being lied to about, you know, dramatic pilot rescues and such. That isn't really the point. All right, let me get to a little bit more here. Speaking of The Department of War Crimes. Let's check in with the person who's supposed to be our guardian of international law, the person we send to the United nations to attest to our. Belief in and our fealty to international law, our ambassador to the United Nations. Here's what he had to say about Trump's threat to start committing more crimes by blowing up bridges and power plants in Iran if they don't obey us somehow. Go on. By the way, bridges, power plants that are run by the irgc, which runs the entire military, are absolute legitimate military targets, not only now, but have been historically. That is a false, fake and ridiculous notion that this is some type of war crime. Well, we'll talk about that and we'll see if that happens. But Germany, we'll talk about that and we'll see if that happens. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Targeting civilian infrastructure that's used to keep their lights on and the power running and the water desalinated is literally a likely war crime. Jason, if you wouldn't mind putting up this piece from Geneva Solutions, this is from April 8th, and it talks about the fact that. Let me just read from it. I'll just quote from the actual article that you see on your screen. As U.S. united States officials hatch ways to justify the bombing of civilian infrastructure in Iran, criticism of those moves by Democratic Senator Mark Kelly has put him in serious trouble with the Trump administration. Military personnel, he argued, have the right to refuse an unlawful order. The issue became particularly pressing ahead of Donald Trump's deadline on Tuesday for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face the bombing of all of its power plants and bridges. The two week ceasefire was ultimately agreed to at the last minute for more international law. For most international law experts, such infrastructure was civilian in nature, playing a key role in the everyday lives of Iranians and destroying it would clearly constitute war crimes. So were willing to commit war crimes to try to stop China from being able to get oil through the Strait of Hormuz. Let's just be very clear. And to try to force Iran to make a deal with Trump that I guarantee you would say that everything that goes through Hormuz has to be sold in petrodollars. I'll bet that's part of it. The Venezuela thing was also about that. Making sure that Venezuela could not sell oil in yuan. China is the secondary target of the war. Somebody says, my hair is cute, Jason. Shaq's mom says my hair is cute and says, hit the like button. I think you should hit the like button. And thank you very much. Coco is responsible for my hair. I'm not responsible for my hair. That is Coco, the amazing stylist who did my hair. And yes, it is cute. Thank you.

C.J. Farley (26:05)

Thank you, Shaq's mom.

Joy Reid (26:07)

Thank you, Shaq's mom. And yes, please do hit the like button. And. And not to be left out. Not to be left out. Our partners in war crimes, the Israelis, never to be left out. When a war crimes happen, they're like, we war crimes are happening. Can we get involved? Bibi the butcher was like, war crimes, you say, I got you war crimes, you say, hold my beer. Bibi the butcher, his forces, his IDF are committing war crimes all over Lebanon. They're bombing entire neighborhoods, wiping historic, beautiful neighborhoods off the map. Just like they did in Gaza. They are doing a Gaza in Lebanon. Okay, here is what, however, one particular IDF soldier, and we don't know if he acted alone or with a group, did to a Mennonite church in southern Lebanon. Take a look at this. I pulled the sound down. This was a vertically standing crucifix image of Jesus that is now broken and laying on the ground. And there's video literally of this IDF soldier using a hatchet on this sacred object in a church. I'm sorry, Maronite, not Mennonite. A Maronite church. That is one of the sort of sects of Christian churches in Lebanon. A lot of Lebanese are Christian and this is what this person did. Now, the Israeli government did issue an apology, claimed they were aghast and said, oh my God, you know, this is such an affront to our Judeo Christian values, which Bibi and friends keep claiming as why we have to fight their wars for them. Issue. Did Israel did issue an apology. You can see there. The foreign minister said, oh my God, this is disgraceful. This person will be held accountable and they'll be punished. Yeah, I'll believe that when the IDF punishes the its members who brutalize Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. There have been reports of rapes, beatings, IDF members standing by while insane religious fanatics, settlers literally chase Palestinians off their own farms at gunpoint. When you, when anybody in the IDF is punished for any of that, I'll believe that the Israelis are going to punish that guy. Right? But, but, but I need you all to hear how some of the apologists for the Israelis write off such things. I want you all to listen to the stalwart Israeli defender and Pe Moran, regular Rabbi Shmuli Botich. Here he is. I am a Jew who Loves Jesus, just not the divine Jesus. I love Jesus who is my, my Jewish brother who never knew what Christianity was. He was a Pharisee and he kept the Shabbat, etc. Etc. So the fact that one errant IDF soldier destroys a statue means the following, that not every IDF soldier is perfect and he's going to be punished. And the Israeli military announced that instantly. Now compare that to what people like Tucker Carlson trying to get you to believe. Tucker's now saying that Islam reveres Jesus as a prophet and Tucker is trying to now Islamify Jesus who was a Jew. Really? Then why is Christianity prohibited in nearly every Muslim neighbor of Israel? Why are IDF soldiers protecting every church at the risk of their own lives? First of all, Jesus is revered in the Quran. Every Muslim will tell you that they absolutely revere Jesus as a prophet. So Tucker Carlson, you can say a lot of things about Tucker, but he's not lying about that. If that's what if you're accusing him of lying about that, that's he's not lying that, that Muslims do revere Jesus. They do. They revere him as a prophet. And secondly, he said, Rabbi Shmuley said Christianity is illegal in the neighbors of Israel, that it's illegal there. No, no, no, no. The largest Christian populations in the Middle east are in Egypt which is 10 to 15% Coptic Christian. Syria which is got large Christian populations. Iraq, that's got large Christian populations. And Lebanon, the country that Israel is currently destroying, which is not just a little bit Christian, it's 30 plus percent Christian. About 30%. And in some people's calculations up to 40% of Lebanese are Christians. They are people who are descended of Jesus followers who are from the region. Some of Jesus followers remained Jewish. Some of Jesus followers became Christian. The people or some of Jesus contemporary. Some of the people who were around Jesus, of course he hadn't heard of Christianity. How could he have heard of Christianity? Because Jesus is the person they call Christ. He wouldn't have called it me and it would have been like I'm a meist. You know what I mean? That dumb. That is a useless statement. But yeah, there are lots and lots and lots of Middle Eastern Christians. In fact Israel is bombing a lot of them and destroying a lot of their churches including in Palestine, Bethlehem. Oh little town of Bethlehem is an Arabic Christian city full of people who are Christian and also Arabic. Nazareth is a largely Christian Arab city full of brown Arabic Christians. So even occupied Israel has got lots of Christians in it who are second class citizens if they live in the occupied territories like Bethlehem and lots and lots of Christians, brown Christians, live in the Middle East. It's not illegal. That's just a dumb statement. It's not true. And as for this idea that the IDF is guarding and guarding and caring for churches in the region. Are they though? Are they? Did you roll a nine, Jason? Oh, the great mar. So what you're seeing there are a group of IDF troops in southern Lebanon entering a Christian church which Rabbi Shmuley says they are just, you know, caring for with their very bodies and their very souls. And these young IDF souls you can see, they're very young, they're probably 20 somethings mocking a Christian song, doing a fake sort of Christian dirge and laughing and filming themselves doing it. A lot of the abuses that you're seeing committed by IDF troops, we're not finding them out through investigative journalism. They're taking video of it themselves and posting it. They did this in Gaza as well. They would take video of themselves looting Palestinian apartments, trying on their clothes or stealing their belongings, stuffing them in their pockets and laughing. And they would post it because they know they're not going to be punished. This is the kind of thing that the troops who are not disciplined, who are not receiving the kind of normal discipline you would in a normal military that is supposedly the most moral military on earth. Our troops couldn't do this. If you got caught doing this and posting this on the, you'd probably run out of the military. But in their military, they post these videos themselves on their own TikTok channels and on their IG channels and on their Telegram channel. They post it because they know they're not going to get in trouble because the IDF is not a disciplined army or disciplined military that says don't commit war crimes. They let them commit war crimes because they completely dehumanize everyone who isn't them. And they don't believe these people are worthy of dignity at all, including the Christians and the ones whose churches they're destroying. The videos are being posted by them and the international community seems utterly helpless to stop these troops from committing war crimes and committing genocide. Where is the international community? This is getting ridiculous. But you still have people in this country, including the mega side of maga, the Israel first side of maga, who was getting desperate at this point. Mark Levin, I'm not even gonna post the video and subject you to it. Is on his radio show now quoting Revelations. Mark Levin is not a Christian, but he's out there quoting Revelations to try to justify the war because he's so desperate for this war to continue and for the MAGA base to get on board with it, quoting revelations to justify the war. Fox coming up with ludicrous explanations for why this war is happening, how we had to do it, because any minute Iran, which does not have an intercontinental ballistic missile, meaning they can't, they, even if they had a weapon of, you know, of nuclear capability, it couldn't come here. It wouldn't be a threat to us even if they had one, because they don't have an intercontinental ballistic missile, which is what you need to fly 9,000 miles from there to here for 20,000, however many miles it is. Right? You're not a threat to us. But he's out there desperately quoting revelations. You've got the ADL saying that right wing podcasters who are against the war should be removed from social media. Now they're for censorship. He's saying they should be removed, saying Nicolas Fuentes, who is getting reposted by other people on X, Twitter and other places, that all of those people who are reposting him should also lose their accounts because anyone who's posting against this war, I guess, is now anti Semitic. It's, it's, it's getting crazy. People like Ben Shapiro is losing audience over this because the people who are now gaining audience are people like Tucker. I mean, I have family members of mine sending me Tucker clips at this point because people are now, you know, unless they listen too long and then hear him go after immigrants or remind you that his main interest is in stopping anti white racism. You know, if you listen too long to Tucker, you're going to get that as well. So don't get too excited about him. He still thinks anti white racism is the real racism and that immigrants are making the country dirty. But people are like, he's so rational on the war and the stuff he's saying on the war is rational. The stuff Candace is saying is rational. The stuff. Even Fuentes, when he's not dropping the N bomb with a hard R, the stuff about Iran, it sounds rational to people. That's why they're so slowly kind of grooming people to think that they're normal. But the war is just very unpopular because Americans say, see the discontinuity between what we're doing over there and what we're suffering economically here. We are economically stressed here. And Donald Trump is asking for $1.5 trillion for the Pentagon so we can do a war over there against people who didn't do anything to us. You may not like the regime, but they haven't done anything. And the idea of being. Of criticizing this, being anti Semitic, meaning that you somehow hate Jewish people because you don't like what Israel is doing, is actually crazy. But what we've had happen in this country is that the Anti Defamation League has sort of rewritten the idea of anti Semitism to include any criticism essentially of Israel. Anything Israel does, you have to say it's okay. You have to say it's right. You have to support it. Or you're anti Semitic. You hate all Jewish people if you don't like what Israel's doing, or if you oppose to Israel's expansionist aggression toward its neighbors. But they are an expansionist country that's aggressive toward their neighbors, and they're just a country. And the fact that they, as modern people, are cosplaying as the characters from the Bible, normally people would laugh at that, but people are meant to take that seriously. We're told we have to take seriously that these modern people are literally the people from the Bible, and they get to cosplay as that. And if we don't agree that they're the people from the Bible, that they're literally the same people, no one would believe anybody else is the same people. If some black person said, I'm Kunta Kinte directly, people would be like, you're an idiot. People saying, you can't even be for reparations because you aren't the people who are enslaved. You have no real relationship to the people who are enslaved because you're a modern person. Slavery. And they're like, slavery was a long time ago. You can't cosplay as the enslaved people and ask for reparations. But these people are saying no, even though, like, we're 18 generations back from Poland, we are the real people from the. We're literally the people from the Bible. And if you don't believe that, you're anti Semitic. And. And that's what's happened. And people like Tucker are sort of broken free from. From that idea. This is just a country like any other country. You know, Liberia was created as a. As a colon, as a colony, a colonizing effort as well. That was a colonizing effort. But if you, if you, if you say that, are you anti African? No. It was created the same way. Racists in this country were like, get these blacks out of here after slavery. Let's send them back to Africa and we'll colonize them a new republic that will be their republic. And sent a lot of former enslaved Africans there, and they ended up oppressing the indigenous Africans who were there and becoming the upper class. That's the same exact story. But if you're. But if you say that about Liberia, do you hate all Africans? No, of course not. That's. And if you, if someone said you did, they'd say you were insane. People like Bill Maher, who claim to be irreligious, want, demand that we say that these people are the people from the Bible. That just doesn't make any sense. So that's why the Tuckers of the world are gaining traction, because they're breaking free of that restriction. They're not going to let the ADL tell them that criticizing an actual secular nation makes you anti Semitic. That is insane. And it's just. And it's a way to shut people up and tell people, don't say anything. And I give you, as somebody who is critical of the war, again, it also presumes that every Jewish person agrees with everything Bebe the Butcher does, which is actually insulting. It's actually mean and insulting, because not all Jewish people. It's just like all Africans were not for IDI Amin. I mean, all black. And all black Americans were not from Ubutu because he's black. You know, it's like saying all black people love Clarence Thomas. No, we don't. A lot of us can't stand Clarence Thomas. He's black and we're black. That doesn't mean we have to agree. But if you're against Clarence Thomas, are you anti black? No. If you're against Clarence Thomas, it's because you're against his stupid ideas. And if you're against what Israel does, and if you're against the idea that Israel essentially has expanded itself into eating up all of what was supposed to be Palestine and won't give it back, I oppose that. That's not anti Semitic. Because you know what? The other people are Semitic, too. The brown people on the other side of that transaction are also Semites. So, anyway, let's move on. Let's hear from somebody who I think has been very, very, very smart on these. On these subjects, who also happens to be a Jewish gentleman, but he is somebody who is an historic figure in the state of Georgia. First Jewish senator from Georgia, John Ossoff, slamming Donald Trump. He said. He said, we can only afford to

C.J. Farley (41:23)

fund war,

Dr. Roger Mitchell (41:26)

then released a budget demanding

Joy Reid (41:29)

1.5 trillion for the Pentagon next year alone, paid for by ending utility assistance for families, canceling affordable housing programs, and cutting cancer research, all to fund a huge increase for the military industrial complex. Because draft dodging. Donald loves sending other people's children to war. I promise y'. All. Y' all better reelect that, man. If you in Georgia don't reelect that, man. I don't know. I don't know how to help you. Very quickly, let's play two more quick soundbites. I know we have a guest coming up. Let's just do quick, two quick more. Let's hear on the other end of the spectrum. Her name is Elise Stefanik. If you don't remember her, she was the Harvard trained fake MAGA New York congresswoman. And here she is justifying genocide. I just think a call for genocide on college campus and a call for genocide in made by the President of the United States. Like they're both bad, right? I mean, that's. That's what I think we are. I've condemned genocide across the board. The difference with those university presidents is

Dina Dahl (42:42)

they couldn't answer the simple direct question.

Joy Reid (42:45)

Just calling for the genocide of Jews. Violence.

Dina Dahl (42:47)

President Trump didn't call for genocide, Jake,

Joy Reid (42:50)

you are putting those words in his mouth. He is engaging in diplomatic back and forth. Your entire civilization will die and we should. No, it's the terrorist regime, Jake. He's targeting the terrorist regime. He's changing his words. You can continue the decades long, but you're adding genocide. That's not what he's saying. What is wiping out an entire civilization? University presidents. I specifically asked them about calling for the genocide of Jews. Again, the President is correct to call out the Iranian terrorist regime, to bring them to the table, to force a ceasefire and.

Dina Dahl (43:23)

And frankly, to free the Middle east from this largest state sponsor of terror.

Joy Reid (43:28)

That is not only. That has not only killed American lives, but has targeted Israel and the United

Dina Dahl (43:34)

States of America, including.

Joy Reid (43:35)

It's just a very simple question. Our elected officials is calling for wiping out a civilization. Is calling for wiping out an entire civilization. Terrorist regime. Okay, all right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Elise. Thank you, Elise. Let's take it even further. Let's hear Randy Fine. He effectively said, hold my beer. World War II.

Dr. Roger Mitchell (43:55)

We did not negotiate a surrender with the Nazis. We did not negotiate a surrender with the Japanese. We nuked the Japanese twice in order to get unconditional surrender. That needs to be the same here. There is something deeply, deeply wrong with this culture and it needs to be defeated.

Joy Reid (44:14)

So that's Randy Fine, congressman from Georgia, Republican, of course, saying, nuke Iran. No war crimes there. Lord have mercy. Meanwhile, last thing here, a group of military veterans took to the Capitol today to peacefully protest the war. Some of them actually got arrested. Take a look. Oh, wow. That is 8, 13. So that happened today. Lots of them got arrested or a few of them got arrested. Some of them scattered. There they are in the capital Rotunda, protesting war. So we've reached that phase in the war where military veterans, much has happened in Vietnam, are standing up against this war. No one has been able to explain why. We don't even know how many troops have been injured or have died. And we cannot trust our government to tell us the truth about it. So these veterans, former members of our United States military, came together to say this is not on, that this should not happen. It cannot happen, should not happen in our name. I agree with those, including Roger, saying that those are the true heroes, that people who know war, who actually have to suffer and die in war, and they know better. So there we have it. That's our headlines for today. Let me let you all know that the Joy Reach show is being brought to you by Spotify and. Oh, okay. Well, when we first started this podcast, it seemed like we had to, like, figure out everything what we had to do on our own. We had to figure out the scripts, the setup, filming, schedule, logos, all of that. It was super overwhelming. And every day seemed to introduce a new decision that. That needed an answer. When you're starting off with something new, it does seem like your to do list keeps growing every day with new tasks. And that list can certainly begin to overrun your life. Fighting every night to try to make sure that we can get information out, information that will help you, that will, you know, make it make a change in your lives and make things better. A lot of work, A lot of work, A lot of work. But for many businesses, the other thing that's a lot of work is trying to set up ways that they can connect with customers, with people who want merch, who want to do things to support you back. Well, Shopify, they are a game changer, and they're the one who makes it possible. Yes, indeed. So we want to talk about some of the things that we've been able to do. Shopify is what underlines the shop.joyreadshow.com they are our joy re Show's wonderful partner. They're the commerce platform behind millions of other businesses around the world. And 10% of all E commerce in the US from household names, like all the ones that you know, you know are being done through Shopify, including ShopRedBag.com, or all of them, they go through the Shopify platform. So if you want to get started with your own design studio with hundreds of ready to use templates, Shopify will help you build a beautiful online store that matches your business business's style. You can accelerate your efficiency. Whether you're uploading new products, being an entrepreneur or just trying to improve your business, they've got all of the tools you need to to make sure that you are successful. You can get the word out like you have a marketing team behind you. Easily create email and social media campaigns wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling. And if you haven't heard about if people haven't heard about your brand, Shopify will actually help you find your customers with easy to run email and social media campaigns. If you get stuck, they have 24, 7 customer support. You can tackle all the important tasks in one place. From inventory to payments to analytics to more. It's super, super easy. Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify and start hearing Shopify. That is our wonderful friend. If you want to get started, go to shopify.com joy read shopify.com joy re and if you sign up, you can get a $1 a month trial today at shopify.com joy re I love that little sound. All right. Remember Richard Blum? He is the guy who lost a congressional in Texas in like the 80s and set out on a mission for the rest of his life to take everything from black people, to deny them everything from educational opportunity to business funding to hope itself. It seems Ed blown hope.

Dr. Roger Mitchell (48:35)

My great hope is that the opinion

Joy Reid (48:39)

that comes out of these two cases

Dr. Roger Mitchell (48:42)

provides this country with a legal doctrine. A doctrine that can be applied to the area of employment, can be applied

Joy Reid (48:54)

to fellowships and scholarships, can be applied

Dr. Roger Mitchell (48:57)

to voting issues and contracting issues.

Joy Reid (49:01)

That that doctrine will be the beginning

Dr. Roger Mitchell (49:05)

of the restoration of the great colorblind covenant.

Joy Reid (49:15)

The restoration of the great colorblind covenant. Well, when was that covenant made? Because it certainly wasn't made when the country was founded and it been in existence throughout the entire existence of this country. Even the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments had to be enabled through legislation in the 1960s called the Civil Rights act and the Voting Rights act because they weren't being enforced. What colorblind covenant is this man talking about? Well, it does seem that he has managed to succeed in ending affirmative action. He also has caused, I think what is probably the desired effect here is an article that says that more black students applied to medical schools in 2025, but fewer, fewer than ever were admitted. Joining me now to discuss is Dr. Roger Mitchell. He is the 126th president of the National Medical association, the largest and oldest organization representing African American physicians. Dr. Mitchell, thanks for being here.

Dr. Roger Mitchell (50:07)

Joy, it's great to be here. Thank you for covering this topic.

Joy Reid (50:10)

Of course. Talk to me about this decline in the number of black students admitted to medical school and what are the implications?

Dr. Roger Mitchell (50:19)

Well, you said it right. I mean, we saw in 2025 an 11% increase in applications to medical school by black medical students. And we saw at the same time an 11% decrease in their admissions to medical school. So the work that we're doing at the NMA and others throughout the country together get black young people, black and brown young people interested in medicine is working, making sure that we're being more relevant, showing the innovation in medicine and how the innovation can really scratch the itch of those that are AI enthusiasts and those that want to bring technology into medicine, all of those skills, those that want to show their business acumen in medicine, those skills that may have taken young people into different areas. It still is attracted to medical school, but now we see that there's not admissions that go along with the increased interest and not that individuals that were interested are less qualified. That's the kicker. It's not that there's 11% less qualification of those that are being applying to medical schools. We're not seeing the admissions, and that's a problem. We know it's a problem because we know that when your physician looks like you and shares your cultural competency and understands your background, they're more likely to be trusted and they're more likely to have better outcomes for whatever ails you. And so if we're going to tackle this physician shortage in this country, we need to tackle it by increasing black and brown physicians.

Joy Reid (52:11)

When you're talking about a decrease in the number of students admitted, is this just at predominantly white institutions or are we seeing fewer black medical students even at places like Howard University?

Dr. Roger Mitchell (52:22)

No, we are seeing the same amount of black medical students that are going to Meharry, going to Howard, going to Charles Drew, going to Morehouse. But those schools alone are not going to be able to build the gap. To make sure that we fill the gap, we need our institutions to believe that diversity is important in our workforce. And we know that diversity is important in our workforce. In every workforce force. We know that more women in the workforce is better for the workforce. We know that more black people in the workforce is better for the workforce. And that is the truth. For medicine. For medicine. As well. But the liaison committee on medical education that accredits medical schools has now removed the requirement for diversity in retention and recruitment within medical schools. And medical schools now have the option they can do it or they don't have to do it. Most of them are opting not to do it. And if they are doing it, they're not reporting it. So we don't even have the data of whether or not there is improved or a retention and recruitment. True, true data.

Joy Reid (53:54)

Do you have evidence or do you think, anecdotally that you've heard that some of the reason that fewer black students are getting admitted is that these colleges are afraid of getting sued by Ed Blum. He seems to be scouting for any place where there are high admissions of African Americans or where black women are getting grants to start businesses, and he's ready to sue on a dime. Do you think that some of these schools are saying it's safer for us to just not admit black people so that we don't become a target of his lawsuits?

Dr. Roger Mitchell (54:26)

Well, I can, I can. I know that anecdotally, I wouldn't know that in any real data. But, you know, as you can imagine being the 126th president, I'm. I'm talking to individuals by the water cooler on a regular basis all over the country. And there is no doubt there's not only a fear of this do no harm movement that's happening in this country and this guise of do no harm by suggesting that admitting black medical students somehow decreases the excellence of the type of medicine that is performed at an institution, that's an absolute absurd lie. We all have to take the same tests. We all have to pass the same test. We all have to get board certified. We all have to go through boards and accreditation and certification. And so to suggest that just because of the color of our skin, we are not great. We're not great physicians. We know that to not be true because of all the contributions of this country. And so. But not only do these schools have to worry about the Ed blooms of the world and the do no harms of the world, we have to worry about the Department of. Of Justice. I mean, the Department of Justice is already doing probes into several medical schools, into practices that have highlighted the importance of diversity in their medical school classes. And it does create a chilling effect on the admission of black students, particularly when that admission becomes optional. You know, it is the human experience to choose an option that is going to decrease the consternation and the problems that would that your institution would face. And we know that if it was ever important for diversity towards better outcomes of black women that are facing triple negative breast cancer, or black women that are facing worse mortality rates, or black men that are facing more prostate cancer, more violence in our community, if it was ever important to have more black physicians that can help in the fight against those disparities, then it is just as important today. And there is no circumstances that make it less important. And so it is really the political pressure and the politicization of our medicine that we're seeing right today.

Joy Reid (57:01)

One last question. I don't know if you had a chance to listen to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Testifying on Capitol Hill in which he was questioned by some African American members about this idea that they have stripped out any dei, meaning that you can't mention race at all when it comes to putting together sort of the ways in which we're trying to tackle disease. And so even in something like, as you mentioned, the disproportionate number of black women who die in childbirth, far more black women die in childbirth in the same circumstances, same hospitals, same communities as white women. And yet, according to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. You can't even study that because the only way to tackle it is to tackle it in a race neutral way. Is it possible to reduce the disparities in black maternal mortality if you do not specifically address black maternal mortality? Can you do it in an all tides, you know, all boats lifted with the tide? Can you do it that way?

Dr. Roger Mitchell (58:01)

No, you can't. You can't. You can, you can frame it, you can disguise it, you can use different language. But. But at the end of the day, I built out the maternal mortality review committee infrastructure for the District of Columbia when I was the chief medical examination. And I often say I see failed policy on my autopsy table. And the reality of it is, is that if we can't study and understand both the biological and the social constructs surrounding any group of people based upon the disparity, then we lose opportunity to truly understand the underpinning for that mortality. So where race and race and social economics and race and biology plays a part, part in the outcomes of our disease process that leads to higher, higher suffering and more death. We need to be able to study it and be able to call it that. Representative Summerlee did a great job in asking her questions and eliciting the responses that she did from the secretary. The National Medical association has long called for his resignation. And we will double down right here on your show. Not because we're Partisan, but because we care about the health of the entire nation. The entire nation is suffering from the decisions that are being made by this HHS secretary and those that are responding to it. And nothing less than what's happening in maternal mortality, cancer research, research in general. That you can't even talk about race in research limits our ability to really focus on the disparities by groups of people.

Joy Reid (59:58)

Yeah, he didn't have a problem talking about race specific outcomes when he said that black children were over medicated and need to be rehomed. Dr. Roger Mitchell, thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate you. Thank you. Have a great rest of your night.

Dr. Roger Mitchell (60:11)

Thank you.

Joy Reid (60:11)

Thank you very much. Yeah, he doesn't have a problem. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Talking about black when he wants to disparage black people and say that black people are, you know, he wants to talk about all the pathologies about black folks. But when it comes to trying to do anything about researching about black, he's like, oh, no, we need to be race neutral. Yeah, okay, whatever, druggie. Let's talk about one of our other wonderful sponsors. The Joy Read show is brought to you by the Climate Initiative. The people hit first and worst by climate change are normally the ones with the fewest resources to fight back. That includes our kids who are living it every day, but are not getting the education to understand it or the tools to do anything about it. The Climate Initiative is changing that. TCI provides free climate education to schools across all 50 states so students can learn about what is happening in their own communities and take real local action. We are talking solar panels, composting programs, composting programs, coastal restoration, students doing real things right where they live. And your donation makes that possible. Resilient communities are not built by accident. They are built by informed young people who know their neighborhoods, understand the challenges and have the confidence to lead. And real change happens when we stop talking to the next generation, talking at them, and start working with them. 750,000 students are already learning with TCI, but there are millions more waiting, especially in the communities that need it most. This Earth Month be part of that work. Visit TheClimateInitiative.org joy to donate today the Climate Initiative, because every kid deserves the tools to fight for their future. You can visit them@again theclimateinitiative.org joy they can use your help. All right, welcome to hour two of the Joy Read Show. Do be sure to hit that like and subscribe button. And if you have bought merch, thanks to our friends@shopify.com who underlie our amazing merch store. Please do take tag us in your social media. You can use at Joy and read or at the Joy Re show or at Joy Re show or you can just hashtag wearing joy and you can also hashtag readers. If you're a Team TJRS member, you can throw in that Team TJRS hashtag too. We love hashtags. We just love it all together. I want to take a note that we are multi sponsored on tonight and our other sponsor on tonight is our friends at 120Live. I have to show you guys. I've been meaning to show you guys the two ones I'm always showing you guys. A powder one. This is the powder one that's low sugar which is great if you are trying to watch your sugars as well as your blood pressure. But this is the one I like. This is the liquidy one because you can make this super cold. You can drink it after you get off the treadmill. It is very refreshing. It is very delicious. And the most important thing is it will help you with the number one health problem in the country that nobody even knows about. That is high or no one feels in their body which is high blood pressure. It is the one that's taking folks out, y'. All. It is so, so dangerous. It's the number one risk factor for mortality. Half of all adults, one out of every two people, you see two people on the road, one of them has high blood pressure and scary. But do you know your blood pressure? Are you paying attention to it? Are you measuring it? Do you have a little blood pressure monitor in your home? If you are auntie age, if you reach auntiedom, you're 50 plus, you should have one. It's very important. But in addition to monitoring your blood pressure, watching your blood pressure, tracking it so important. One other thing you can do just to change your lifestyle, change the way you eat, change the things you're putting in your body. And 120 life is one of the amazing things you can add to your regimen just to make that little shift in your regimen that will improve your blood pressure and can make your life better. Just give it a shot. If you try the 120Life 14 Day Experiment on yourself or someone you care about. After 14 days your blood pressure has not gone down. They will actually give you your money back. And what is 120 life? It's a once a day functional drink. It's made with ingredients that help support healthy blood pressure. It's not a pill or a stimulant or like a weird wellness gimmick. It tastes great. It has a lovely, like beady kind of flavor. Super great when it's cold. And again, the powdered one is super low in sugar. You can choose either one and just try it for two weeks. Take your blood pressure after two weeks and see if it goes down. And if it doesn't, you can get your refund. Go to 120life.com that's 120life.com you use the code joy or the code read for 20% off. It's risk free. You get a full refund. If you're not happy with it, don't wait till next month. You have nothing to lose except your high blood pressure numbers. So go to one20life.com use the code joy or read 20% off. These statements have not been approved by the Food or Drug Administration's product is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure or prevent any disease. Okay, I want to get to a few more headlines because we have a lot of headlines on today. I'm sure you all have heard about this. All of my group chats are on fire over this story of these multiple murders of black women. There was Vice Mayor Medier in Florida. There was of course the wife of the former lieutenant governor of Virginia, a really tragic case. And this woman was an incredible dentist. She was very popular in her community. Her husband, Justin Fairfax, killed her and himself with their children home. Horrific. And then we had this case in Shreveport where you had one man kill multiple members of his own family, including his own children, the mother of his children. Just absolutely horrific. All of these instances of femicide, the killing of black women. It's a horrific story. But we are going to have a really good full conversation on this tomorrow on Read this, read that. The other podcast that I do with Jackie Reed and we stream live at 3pm Eastern starting at 3pm Eastern till 5. We always have to get off before the Don Leon show starts. Everybody's like, we going to see Don. But if you all want to tune in tomorrow, 3pm Eastern to read this, read that. Jackie Reed and I are going to have the conversation about this because it is causing people to like go to internal war. Black women and black men debating this issue, whether or not the empathy for the men is appropriate that are that are dealing with mental health challenges or whether we need to focus on these women who are literally the number one cause right at this point of black women's deaths, are femicide being Killed by someone that you know, being killed by your partner. So it's really a scary situation. We're going to talk about it. We're also going to talk about this. If you could just play this video. Jason. This is C3. So I don't know if you guys saw this. Let me pull the sound out on it so you can pull the sound down. So a group of hackers went onto the New York City subway, went in. I mean, I guess they're not hackers because it's not electronic. They took down the Met Gala advertisements and replaced it with attacks on the fact that Jeff Bezos, the Amazon guy, the Trump buddy, is now the main sponsor of the Met Gala this year. And the people who are on the board of the Met Gala are some of your favorite favorites. I think it's the Venus and Serena, like, a lot of incredible actresses, a lot of African American superstars are on the board that is putting together the Met Gal this year. But the overall sponsor is Jeff Bezos of Amazon, who is a Trump buddy who is funding the ballroom. All the things. And you saw all of his breakdown over Chile being pro Republican, being Maga and being revealed to be pro Maga and all the meltdown over her, which is impacting this tour that she and TLC and other groups are on. And there's been a meltdown over it. So the question is, what are we doing about the Met Gala? And I am curious to know what you guys are doing. Are y' all gonna watch the Met Gala? Everybody loves to sit there and watch the fashion, but are we supporting this now that Jeff Bezos is involved, is he gonna put his wife on the COVID of Vogue? Which, by the way, did the. You see the cloud, Bob? BS Trying to reframe an Afro as a crowd. A crow. A cloud, Bob. We're gonna talk about that, too, but there's a lot to talk about. But do you still support the Met Gala? If Jeff Bezos is with the Met Gala, do you then walk away from the Met Gala? Because if we're saying we're not from Maga, but we're going to normalize Maga by saying now Maga is married into the Met, Trump will probably show up. If Jeff Bezos is now. Is now the. The main sponsor behind the Met Gala, watch Melania or Donald or Ivanka show up. Watch him show up. Watch him show up. And then let's. Are you still down with that? So we're going to talk about that on. Read this. Read that tomorrow. There's lots of stuff to talk about on that. Now, guys, let's get back to a couple things. Here's a very weird thing that posted this actually happened last week on fox. Take a listen. Ten American scientists who have either gone missing or died since mid 2024. They all reportedly had access to classified nuclear or aerospace material. Is anybody investigating this to see if these things are connected? I've seen the report, Peter. I haven't spoken spoken to our relevant agencies about it.

Dina Dahl (68:48)

I will certainly do that and we'll

Joy Reid (68:50)

get you an answer. If true, of course, that's definitely something I think this government and administration would deem worth looking into.

Dina Dahl (68:56)

So let me do that for you.

Joy Reid (69:00)

It's weird, right? So Energy Secretary Chris Wright confirmed that the federal government is investigating the recent string of top scientists, specifically nuclear scientists, who have reportedly either gone missing or turned up dead. He did an interview with Fox News. This is the energy secretary did an interview with FOX News last week and he said there's a formal probe within the Department of Energy that's part of a coordinated investigation across various branches of the government. This is weird, right? And why is Steve Ducey, the Fox guy, asking about it in a press conference and then Fox is hosting the energy secretary to talk about it? This has been happening and I believe these disappearances started in 2024, 2025. And the reason that I ask about this, it's very weird that you're seeing this string of disappearances. I have no explanation for it. I do not understand it. But it happened as we were clearly prepared to go to war with Iran to try to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons, even though they had made it very clear they weren't trying to get nuclear weapons. But they live next door to an expansionist nuclear power called Israel, or near it. They live nearby in the neighborhood with this expansionist nuclear power. And the question of whether they can do what Israel has done and what Pakistan and other countries have done to get nuclear weapons, what India has done, whether they get to have a nuclear weapon too, is now the moment. You know, it's a question of the moment. Even though, again, there was no evidence they were trying to get a nuclear weapon and they'd made a deal with the Obama administration saying they wouldn't get a nuclear weapon. But all of a sudden all these nuclear scientists in the US Are disappearing. It's super weird. And it's interesting that Fox is following up on it and that Fox is taking an interest in it at the same time. It's just weird. It's very weird. And There are plenty of Fox stories on it. Fox is actually following up on it. James Comer, the right wing nut in the United States House that led the attempt to go after Hunter Biden, he's now saying there's something sinister maybe behind the Deaths, disappearances of 11 nuclear and space linked scientists. That's what James Comer is saying. And it's just very odd. That's all I'm saying. It's a very odd thing that is happening and it's interesting that the right is taking an interest in it, the conservatives, that the conservative media is taking an interest in it. I haven't seen a lot of reporting on it anywhere else. I haven't seen a lot of people saying anything about it. But it is one of the very, very odd and strange things that we are seeing happening. It's weird and I have questions and I don't know if you have questions, but I certainly do. And the thing that you have to realize too is that the fight to, to have the United States get to determine who gets to be a nuclear power, right? This is something that goes back to the post Eisenhower to the Kennedy era. We were the ones, we. The only two countries that had nuclear weapons were the United States and the then Soviet Union. And then in the 1950s, Israel, two years after it was formed as a country by conquering, you know, you know, having been given by England, which had no right to do it, part of Palestine, and then conquering more and occupying more territory to have its own country and declaring itself a country. Then within, you know, five years they were trying to develop a nuclear weapon. And John F. Kennedy said, you can't have one. And this was the same kind of fight, the same kind of fight what we're having with Iran was happening at that time with Israel, that the US was saying, you can't have a nuclear weapon. You need to, you know, submit to inspections, you need to, you know, this Demona nuclear facility, which they said was just for energy at first and turned out it was for a nuclear weapon. And so it's a weird thing where this sort of fight has traveled from country to country. Then was India, you can't have a nuclear weapon. Then they got one. And then Pakistan said, well, they have a nuclear weapon, we're getting a nuclear weapon. North Korea wasn't supposed to get a nuclear weapon, they got a nuclear weapon, right? And so the idea that the west can sort of determine who can have nuclear weapons, it's gotten out of the box. And multiple countries now have them. There are multiple Nuclear powers on this Earth. And Jason, you're right, Jason is saying, he didn't say it on camera, but he's saying no one should have them. Right. These are earth killing technologies. But the US has sort of taken it upon ourselves to say that we get to determine who gets to have them and who doesn't, that it's up to us. It's interesting. One other story, I don't have a link for it. I don't have anything to show you visually, but this is a story I, I rather enjoyed. I'm put that in a box. We're going to come back to that. I just wanted to show you that. And that Fox is the one that's sort of focused on it and that it is sort of the. Right. That's kind of focused on it. I find that very odd. Very odd. There was a story in the Wall Street Journal that talked about the fact that Donald Trump, with all of this has happened. Remember, Donald Trump has a, I believe, an uncle that was a nuclear physicist that went to mit. And so he would claim that he knows more about nuclear weapons than anyone on Earth, even more than real nuclear scientists. He knows more about it than anyone because he's related to somebody that was a nuclear physicist or something. And so he's been very focused on nukes and he's been very obsessed with them, including the idea of using them and why can't you use them? And he's been very into that. He's been very into the idea that we should be able to use nuclear weapons whenever we want. And you saw Randy Fine said we should nuke Iran. They're so evil, we must nuke them, even though they don't threaten us at all. But we must nuke them to stop them from making Israel sad. No, but, but it is interesting that this whole nuclear. We are now having real vivid conversations about the use of nuclear weapons and these nuclear scientists go missing. Just odd. There's also this. So this, this story in the Wall Street Journal talked about the fact that Donald Trump has been paralyzed with fear behind the scenes. When those two pilots who apparently were trying to go and confiscate Iran's nuclear material and take their like sort of thousand pounds of nuclear material and sort of steal it, pirate it, and then they got stuck there. And then one got out and then the other got out that he was terrified that if they were not rescued, he would be like a Jimmy Carter. So apparently, with all this stuff that's happening, Trump is behind the scenes terrified that he's going to be a Jimmy Carter. So he wants to remember, he wants to look tough and say he's going to annihilate Iranian civilization on the front end. But on the back end, some of the escalation in his rhetoric is because he's, he's trying to force Iran to concede so that he does not look like a loser, so that he doesn't look weak. But internally, he's terrified, at least according to this Wall Street Journal report, that he's going to look like Jimmy Carter, who actually was quite a good president in many ways. And I don't have people down him, but he got caught up in the Iran hostage crisis, and Trump remembers that and doesn't want to be him. That's weird. And so he's apparently been posting these, like, erratic, crazy, nonstop posts. Sometimes he posts all night and all morning. But some of that is fear because he realizes that this thing is getting away from him. He cannot control the Strait of horror movies, as whatever his little drunk friend Pete says. It don't matter what frat boy says. He can't control the Strait of Hormuz. They control it. This little middle power, I don't even know if they're a middle power. Lower middle power controls the straight of Hormuz. They control it. And the little that we can do is try to blockade it to try to stop China from taking full advantage of this reshuffling of the New World order. Because you know who's going to come out on top of likely in this new world order is probably China. The funny thing also is that didn't Trump say that they wanted to renegotiate and if Iran doesn't accept that deal, he's going to bomb them again? Yeah, he keeps saying we're going to renegotiate this deal. And if you don't do what we say, if you don't obey us. The thing is, is that the world has been since World War II, built on the notion that every other country obeys the United States because we're sort of, we're the sole remaining superpower because Reagan defeated the Soviet Union. Really, the Soviet Union defeated itself by spending 20 years fighting in Afghanistan. It depleted their resources fighting in Afghanistan.

C.J. Farley (77:00)

The funny thing is, since they're so itchy finger about using a nuke, do

Joy Reid (77:04)

they not realize if they drop a

C.J. Farley (77:06)

nuke, God forbid in Iran or that nuclear fallout is going to hit them

Joy Reid (77:09)

also, I mean, everybody, Israel. And also, let's not also forget that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Open up a map, they're Right there. They're right there. And that's the other thing. Do you really think Pakistan is going

C.J. Farley (77:22)

to sit there and let them use

Joy Reid (77:23)

nukes in their neighborhood? They will. If Israel nukes Iran, I promise you Pakistan will nuke Israel. It's mutually assured destruction. That's why Iran, if they did want a nuke, that's why they would want it, because Israel would stop attacking its neighbors. If its neighbors had nukes, they wouldn't do it. They'd be afraid of getting nuked. So they. But because none of their neighbors have them except for Pakistan, which is a near neighbor. But if their immediate neighbors don't have them, that's why they keep invading them. Anyway, let's move on to some other news here. So Donald Trump, who I just said it. I'm going to set, I'm going to put a pin in it. Donald Trump is full of anxiety. The Epstein files have him terrified because he's in them more than anyone else. He knows that there's stuff coming. Melania does the weird press conference seeming to foreshadow something bad coming out about that. He's grifting and stealing. He's getting rich off of crypto. He's enriching himself, destroyed the East Wing, did all of these things. He's unpopular. The economy is crap. Inflation is higher than Biden. Gas prices are up in the territory that made Biden unelectable. He knows this is bad and he knows that the punishment, it could be coming in November. And he could be an instant lame duck if Democrats take the House and the Senate. And again, I started the show by telling you, even Mississippi is not out of reach at this point for Democrats. So they see the writing on the wall. They see that Donald Trump cannot maintain. I don't care what Steve Bannon says about he likes the idea of Trump 2028. Donald Trump cannot run for president in 2028. I guess they could convince John Roberts to let him, because John Roberts is a completely unethical asshole. And I guess he could come up with some, you know, shadow docket insane bullshit reason to let him run again, because I wouldn't put that past John Roberts. I honestly wouldn't. But if they think Americans wouldn't be in the streets if that fool tried to run, he's not going to be able to walk back into that White House. You're not going to. People would literally rebel. That's not going to happen. So anyway, here's what Donald Trump is doing while he's fretting about being Jimmy Carter, who's a one term president and he's already a two term president, so he doesn't have to worry about that and fretting about what punishment could come coming up soon. Here it is. This is C5, Jason. He tried to order the state of Michigan to hand over the ballots in Detroit from 2020. And then they, they also, they have already took the ones. But think about it. They already took the ballots in Georgia. They had confiscated those with Tulsi Gabard. Weirdly there in the shadows, they tried to get Michigan to give them their ballots and they already seized the ballots in Arizona. Here's him explaining why. C6. Oh, sorry. C6 Rwanda and the Congo. And we hope they're gonna be, they're gonna get along. Sir, in Arizona. Sir in Arizona. Why did the FBI seize election records in that state? Well, they probably thought the election was rigged, right?

Dina Dahl (80:19)

It wasn't rigged though.

Joy Reid (80:20)

Really? Who, how do you know? Your, your own, your own attorney general in 2020 said that there was not measurable voter cross to change the outcome of the election. Was rigged. I think it was rigged. There's no. Sir, where's the evidence of that? He said, if you don't believe it, you're a terrible journalist. I know you had, there was a lot of noise there, but he said if you don't believe it was rigged, you're a terrible journalist. He's still lying about that. Why is he saying that? We, we talked about this with Lev before. He's saying it. Let me, let me introduce our guests. We'll talk about why he's saying it. Joining me now is Dina Dahl. She is a host of, she is the legal and political podcast, the host of the legal and political podcast Mistrial on the Midas Touch Network and co host of the Supreme Court focused podcast Unprecedented on the Legal AF Channel. She's also, and we're going to use this tonight, the true crime legal expert for Access Hollywood's Trial Files. Hello, Dina, it's good to see you.

Dina Dahl (81:15)

Oh, so good to see you. So excited to be on here with you.

Joy Reid (81:19)

Thank you so much. So let's talk about that. So this is the theory that Lev Parnas put forward on this very show, Dina, that the reason Donald Trump is attempting to seize the ballots in just these swing states that Biden won in 2020 is he's trying to create a phony case that there was foreign election interference from Venezuela. Remember they said that Hugo Chavez, who was dead at the time, somehow murked the machine or messed with the machines. But my Guess is that's why they're detaining Maduro, who was his successor, to get him to confess to some false election interference so that they can go back to your friend at the Supreme Court, John Roberts, and say, hey, there was election interference in 2020. Trump needs extraordinary powers this November to nationalize the elections in the swing states. Your thoughts?

Dina Dahl (82:10)

Honestly, it's a really interesting theory. Yes. Have Maduro kind of admit to it as his get out of jail free card.

Joy Reid (82:18)

Right.

Dina Dahl (82:18)

Honestly, I don't put anything past Trump, etc, because, you know, even the fact that he's still lying about this despite all the evidence. I mean, John Eastman, his lawyer who went into court and basically lied to court about the fact that there was election fraud, just was disbarred by the California State Supreme Court. There were consequences for lawyers who lied. But in the United States of America, a president can lie to the American people over and over with no consequence. But, yeah, there's zero evidence there. And you do wonder what they have up their sleeve, because just the ballots alone aren't going to help them. Whether or not they're trying to purge the voters, whether or not they're going to try to use the data information to intimidate the voters or come up with some sort of Maduro scheme. I mean, you have to get inside the head of people willing to be lawless and unethical and you go many different ways.

Joy Reid (83:13)

Yeah, let me use your unprecedented. That show. I'm going to use that version of you for this. Because if this is the case. Right. And you're right, the dubious legal theories. And by the way, John Eastman has had that dubious legal theory about being able to have the federal government seize elections since 2000. Like he tried to run that game in 2000. He just got lucky that the Supreme Court at the time did him a solid and gave him the government he wanted. Gave him George W. Bush. But do you believe that there are five votes on the Supreme Court that would grant Donald Trump extraordinary powers if he was able? Because now remember when they tried this gambit that Jack Smith was investigating them for in, in 2021, Donald Trump tried to get the Attorney General of the United States to certify that they were investigating unprecedented election interference in the swing states, they couldn't get that done because they couldn't appoint their phony AG and the real AG wouldn't do it. Right. Now what you have is an AG who would do anything that Donald Trump says. The, the, the, you know, the st. The city, the guy who's Filling in right now. He'll do anything Donald Trump wants, even what's her name, Pamela Joe would have done it. They've got an, they've got a Department of justice that will say, yeah, that we, we believe from the Department of Justice's point of view, there was interference in these states. And they'll list the states that Donald Trump lost. Then you also have local officials who in some cases will either stand down or let them have the ballots. Right. Or will, you know, they'll fight in court and it'll go all the way to John Roberts and he'll let them have the ballot. So they got the ballots and they physically have the thing that they wanted. And they have Pope Tulsi Gabbard, their plant inside of the dni, who can say, we are investigating foreign election interference and they have Maduro physically. Do you believe that with all of that, there's five votes on the Supreme Court that would give Trump extraordinary powers to take control of the midterm elections?

Dina Dahl (85:05)

That is a really good question, because the Supreme Court obviously has that executive unitary theory. They believe, and prior to Trump and after Trump, that the executive should be more powerful than, let's say our founders envisioned. But they did. Trump did try to go to the supreme court during the 2020 election, and they did deny him. I mean, he litigated all the way to Supreme Court. And I think Clarence Thomas was the only one who wanted to take that case. Right. Even though technically he should have recused himself. But they did deny him at the time. I think that Trump would have to find something that were actually evidence based, that it would have to be something kind of extraordinary, because that is we, you know, states do run our elections. That's clear in our Constitution. The states do run elections. And for them to shift that, I don't know if they would actually ever truly shift itself to the federal. But there could be something a little bit in between where they would allow some sort of shenanigans. And. But just like with the tariffs, you know, they did rein him in with the tariffs. And we saw even with the Federal Reserve chair. Right. They, they didn't allow. Or that quite. That decision hasn't quite come out yet, but we pretty much think they're not going to. They, they do have parameters that they reign him in. So unless there's, I don't think there's anything out there that will surprise us at this point.

Joy Reid (86:38)

What about a quote unquote confession from the former head of state of Venezuela, Maduro?

Dina Dahl (86:43)

Okay, well, here we go. Into kind of putting on the true crime hat, right? Yeah, yeah.

Joy Reid (86:48)

Because I mean, they could break his legs. They could say, we will, we will. They have his wife. They could say we're going to throw her in jail for the rest of her life. And they could, we don't know what they're doing to him. They could do anything they want. Who's going to stop him? There's no one to stop them. There's no Justice Department, there's no FBI, who. We don't have a CIA. The entire government is, is a MAGA political operation. There's no government anymore. So they can do whatever they want.

Dina Dahl (87:09)

But then that person becomes an unreliable witness. And it's the same reason why a prosecutor could intimidate any witness to come forward in a case. And the number one thing a defense attorney will say is, did you cooperate? What were you offered? Right? What, what were you threatening? And so then it becomes, sure, like you said, maybe you're threatening this X, Y and Z, but if it's just Maduro's word, like how valuable is the word of somebody who's saying something to get out of jail, like in a typical criminal trial that becomes diluted. So I, although that could be the case, there would have to, I think be some sort of paper trail in addition to just Maduro's word because that's not great evidence in court.

Joy Reid (87:56)

Yeah. I mean, and I said this and I'll just ask you if you agree with me. I mean, I think Steve Bannon is in some ways attempting to intimidate the other side by saying, I'm not all about, we don't need a successor to Trump, we're going to run Trump in 2028. I don't even think John Roberts, who I do not trust and who I think is a completely unethical monster. I'm sorry, I think he's as bad as Thomas and Alito. He's just got better manners. But, and I believe he is a monarchist. I think he wants a king. He just wants to make sure it's a Republican right wing king who will let corporations run wild over us because he's a corporatist and he thinks corporations are better than people. Right. And so I just, that's what, I have no respect at all for him. But I think even he, even that man is not going to let Trump run in 2028. Right. I mean, I guess they could come up with something. What could they come up with to say he could run again?

Dina Dahl (88:45)

You know, I don't think that they are going to let him run again. And I think, I think that it is Steve Bannon. I almost think it could be. And you're right. Roberts, I agree, is like, just as bad he may be. He tries to change it, perhaps more incrementally, but he wants to end up at the same spot, just not. It's just like when you're boiling a frog and you do it slowly so we don't all notice. I think allowing Trump to do it with like, we would all notice. And that's not the way he rolls. But I think that Trump is going to be too old regardless. And I think it's just a way of making him not be a lame duck president. And come November. I've been thinking about this, Joy. I wonder what you think about this. I'm almost worried that the Republicans are going to realize that he is a weight around their neck and he is going to get older. And what if they actually push him out in the third year and install JD Vance and then JD Vance is running as an incumbent. I actually don't know which scenario is worse here.

Joy Reid (89:48)

That one is worse. That one is worse.

Dina Dahl (89:51)

Agreed, too, because I think Trump is so unpopular, he's not going to get more unpopular. I think he's going to get older and sicker and probably do less in the office. And they know that, too. And come November, after November, I think that he's, he's not going to scare a lot of Republicans. And those Project 2025 people may not let that happen.

Joy Reid (90:17)

I agree. I 100%. And I am one of those people who at the end said that the best way to get a president, Kamala Harris, is drag Joe Biden's old bind over the finish line and he would have likely resigned within a year and she would have been president. So that was my theory of the case back then when. And I had a lot of problems with Joe Biden, a lot of problems, obviously, about the genocide. I had lots of problems, but I was like, that is your Occam's Razor answer. If you. It's easier than having having to force this lady to run for 107 days. She'd be president right now if they don't. I'm just saying. And they have this. If I can think of that, they can think of that. And you're absolutely right. They could just say, we won't even wait for that. You know, he's, he's in his second term, he can't run again. They know it as well as we do. And they're like, we'll just get the president Peter Thiel wants and then we're in real trouble because then Peter Thiel would basically directly control the United States government. That's terrifying.

Dina Dahl (91:14)

Terrifying. And J.D. vance by himself is a very bad candidate. Like, he's got zero charm. He does truly mess everything up. But an incumbent J.D. vance who kind of took over because the cult leader got sick.

Joy Reid (91:29)

Come on.

Dina Dahl (91:29)

You know, that could be a scary proposition indeed.

Joy Reid (91:32)

All right, let, let's. We're going to True Crime because I'm so excited that you're here because I was like, I have to give this lady one true crime story. This one is wild. And it's a question of whether song lyrics then become a part of a trial. So this is this young singer named David. He. It's spelled D4V D. If y' all have not heard of him in the chat. His music is on YouTube. It's actually extraordinary. He's very, very talented. This guy was a gamer, he was a streamer. He was doing a lot of streams and he was on Discord and other of these sort of streaming services. But he was getting flagged for using real music. Like you would get flagged here on YouTube. And so he decided to start making music of his own. He started when he was like 13, 14 making his own music so he could use his own music on his streams. Turns out he's got a lot of musical talent, comes from a very nice family, very, you know, sort of affluent parents. No, no signs that there's anything weird in his background. Seem to come from a good family. This dude becomes very popular. I think he's at like 3 or 4 million followers or probably a lot more than that just on his YouTube channel. So he's really popular. Becomes like a hit. While he's making his debut album, this thirteen year old girl disappears who he's clearly been. Been molesting. Okay. He's been having a sexual relationship with a child. Child, a 13 year old. He clearly has a. And he clearly has a type because the girl in his videos, the girls he uses as. Act as actors in the videos look just like this girl. She goes missing and here. And let's, let's play a little bit of the video. Okay. There's no sound on it. We're going to keep the sound off. And this girl goes missing and she winds up find. They. They wind up finding her. The parts of her, not all the part. They find up finding her parts in his Tesla. And he. These parts are found while he's Actually performing a song. Performing. And this the videos I'm showing you. This is one of his videos in which the girl looks like the girl. This girl, the real girl is deceased. His lyrics are bananas. Like they are things like, you know, talking about death. He has a song called Romantic Homicide. He's literally making music that speaks to his depravity. Tell me about this. Can people can these lyrics, these creepy lyrics and these creepy videos that have a look alike girl to the dead young woman. Can this be used against him in court?

Dina Dahl (94:02)

Well, this is interesting because California changed the law around this in January 2023. So where there is a presumption that the video has minimal value, they will. They could have a pre trial hearing with both sides will basically argue. The prosecutor will argue, hey, like you said, she looks identical to her. The so many details of this are match the crime that this is very relevant. It's probative. And then the defense will say this is artistic. I mean this kind of art, this back and forth goes with a lot of pre trial evidence. Is it prejudicial? Is it probative? But the law kind of puts a thumb in this particular case regarding art as it has minimal value, making it harder. It will be harder for the prosecution to admit this music video in California for his criminal case. Not impossible, but hard.

Joy Reid (95:02)

And I just want to know the name of the young woman is Celeste. She's a child. She's a girl. Her name is Celeste Rivas Hernandez. He's only 21 years old. This David character, she was a. She would have been 14 now. She was missing for seven months. It was like a quiet investigation while this guy star is rising. How weird is this? I mean this is somebody who's he. You can see that the girl looks exactly. This is the young woman, that's young Celeste, the child. She looks just like the girl in the video. He seems obsessed with her. Obsessed with death. I was watching a video earlier on YouTube that was talking about the fact that he was hinting at harming her, at kidnapping her, at holding her for ransom. She was apparently going to his house when she disappeared. It's one of the strangest cases I've ever seen.

Dina Dahl (95:47)

So strange. And perhaps one of the strangest was so they found her body in the car, in his car and register to his name in September of 2025. But prosecutors say she was actually killed at the end of April of 2025 and mutilated. Her body's in two different cadaver bags. Like just so disturbing. But like you left the body in the car for six or seven months in your car. You know, that almost speaks to. I mean, everybody's innocent of proven guilty. But you do wonder, between that and the music videos, like, is this somebody who's really, you know, like, what's going on here? It seems like something beyond just because most crimes. I mean, you know, I follow true crime a lot. You know, you're going to actually remove the body from your physical, you know, possession. Like, why do you keep it around? You know, he's going to probably argue that this car, he has an entourage and a lot of people have access to the car, et cetera. But for nobody to have gone into this, I think it was in the frunk, technically for like, seven months.

Joy Reid (96:57)

Yeah.

Dina Dahl (96:58)

It's a really disturbing case. For sure.

Joy Reid (97:01)

For sure. And of course, it had to be a Tesla, because, of course, it is the car of evil. One more case before I let you go. So Cash Patel are I have to put in scarecrows, FBI Director, because we don't have an FBI. We don't have any agencies. They're all gone. They're all just Trump, Trump. He is now suing the Atlantic over an article that was. I read it over the weekend. It was quite the piece about how their allegations that he drinks a lot and that his heavy drinking is putting his job in jeopardy. The story was very colorful. It quoted lots of people who were without names. They were unnamed sources. He's now suing them. And my question about that, which I find weird that he would do that, because isn't it the case. You're a lawyer, not me. That discovery goes both ways, right. In. In trying to substantiate their story and defend themselves in this case, they get discovery. Right? Like, don't they get to probe whether he does drink a lot? And if they named any of their sources, they could put them on the stand. Like, couldn't this wind up being super embarrassing for him?

Dina Dahl (98:02)

Absolutely. I mean, he's taking a page out of Trump's book. And as you know, you know, Trump had all these media companies settle with him rather than fight a very legitimate suit. It's not going to work as well for Cash Patel. People aren't as afraid of him and aren't willing to throw him money as much. And truth is an absolute defense, as you know, because he's a public figure, he's actually a government official. He has to prove actual malice, which means the Atlantic either knew what they were saying was false or were reckless with regard to the truth. And it's my understanding they spoke to over like two dozen anonymous sources. That seems very well sourced. And so, yeah, for Cash Patel, you know, it is a bad move, except they do these things more, I think, for the PR move than the, you know, actual move. And whether or not he will voluntarily dismiss it, you know, never go to discovery, but have that splashy headline. Yeah,

Joy Reid (99:04)

it is. It is all there. But I will watch this with my popcorn. Ready? Dina, doll, you are terrific. Everybody, please, please, please follow the political podcast Mistrial on the Midas Touch Network. And we also love the podcast unprecedented on the Legal AF Channel. If you want to get some true crime, of course, there's Access Hollywood. Thank you so much for being here, Dina. I appreciate you.

Dina Dahl (99:27)

Oh, my gosh, I'm so glad to have joined. Such a fan of you, Joyce, thanks so much for having me.

Joy Reid (99:32)

Come back soon. Come back soon. You're part of the family. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Yay. All right, y'. All. Thank you. You know, she's a lot of fun. It's interesting, right? I mean, truth is a defense. Just saying. We'll see what happens with Cat, with, with. With Kashyap Patel. That's his real name, Kashyap Patel. But yeah, the case of gout. That, that, that. That kid is weird. The David thing, it's super creepy. And that is going to be a very fascinating trial because he seems to be a very, very, very strange, strange person. Okay, one more round here, Palantir. I'm just going to read the story here. They posted a very weird manifesto. Okay, I'm going to read just a little bit of this story from Engadget. In case you haven't gotten around to reading Palantir CEO Alex Karp and Nicholas Zamiska's 2025 book, the Technological Republic, because why would you do that to yourself? The company best known for supplying AI driven defense and surveillance software to the likes of of the US Army, ICE and the NYPD shared a 1000 word X post this weekend covering its main points. The entire thing is both bizarre and deeply concerning. The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. One of the 22 point states. It requires hard power, and hard power in this country will be built on software. The book is billed as a passionate call for the west to wake up to our new reality. And other excerpts in the social media post include assertions such as, quote, free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization and indeed its ruling class will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public, the decadence of the ruling class. So they're laying out why and how. The decadence of the ruling class. What has been the decadence of the ruling class? The Epstein island insanity, Trafficking children, maybe consuming children for satanic weird rituals. That's in the Epstein Files. So that decadence, or using, you know, endless fuel to go to near space just for fun, to take tourists, all of that stuff, all of this decadence, the overspending, the living lavishly, Donald Trump building destroying the East Wing, turning the White House into a gaudy palace, all that decadence, grabbing all the crypto, stealing, gupping money, money, money, having, you know, Birkin bags auctioned at Mar a Lago while people are literally hungry. All of that decadence, they said, will be forgiven, will be forgiven. If good things are provided, the good things will be provided. And. And that is what they want. If that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public, national service should be a universal duty. The post war neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone. The post war neutering of Germany, Nazi Germany and Japan must be undone. Some cultures have produced vital advances. Others remain dysfunctional and regressive. They go on. The statement criticizes the West's resistance to defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity as well as the treatment of billionaires and the ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures. It's a lot to take in, but it should make crystal clear what Palantir stands for to anyone who someone didn't already know. There you go. They stand for protecting billionaires, allowing billionaires to be as decadent as they want and as ruthless as they want. They say the west is superior f the rest of the world and unlock the greatness of Nazi era Germany. That's just weird. So some people are taking this AI madness and using it to create interesting work, interesting fiction. There's a new book that kind of takes that and it talks about the AI world and fictionalizes it in a very interesting way. Here's the book. It's called who Knows you? It's by a guy named C.J. farley. And C.J. farley joins me now.

C.J. Farley (103:50)

Hey, thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

Joy Reid (103:51)

Good to be here. Of course. Hey, C.J. so talk about this. First of all, you, as somebody who pays attention to AI, what do you make of the folks from Palantir and their vision of a world in which the super rich are as decadent as they want? As long as they provide certain services to the chattel.

C.J. Farley (104:12)

Well, thanks for the question, though. My book, who knows you by heart actually kind of deals with some of that in the plot. I mean, it's about a black female coder who gets sucked into the world of big tech and AI. And this company often issues these kinds of really broad statements about what the company values are, like, you're your product and profits of prophecy. So when I saw Palantir put out that statement, I thought, that's the kind of thing I explore in my book. And what's interesting is that one the name Palantir has always. I've always found interesting because it draws from literature. The Palantirs were the seeing stones in the Lord of the Rings, these kind of magical balls that allow you to see afar and to communicate with others. And in the book, they're evil. People who use them get captured by Sauron, their minds get entangled with his, and they become evil. So I've always thought it wildly ironic that a company would name themselves after something in the Lord of the Rings that's actually meant to be evil, that people took too far and it captured them and destroyed them and destroyed their values. The other thing I found interesting about that statement is the fact that in the past, I think tech companies wanted to sound like they didn't have any particular kind of philosophy, that they were just there to churn out tech. But more and more, they become emboldened to embrace a worldview that really is in line with the worldview of people who are in control of the world, and they want to make sure that they're not seen as something that's undercutting the. The government, but something that's there to service government. And so people, I think, when they're out there deciding what products they want to use, what companies they want to support, need to keep that in mind to see whether that company's values align with theirs. Anthropic just recently ran afoul the government for expressing values that were sort of different from what Palantir just put out. They more or less said, hey, we don't want you to use our technology government, unless you adhere these certain kinds of values, like not using our technology to surveil the American public and not using our technology to create weapons that are autonomous. And that got them labeled a supply chain risk. So right now, we're seeing this clash of values in the world of technology, and we'll have to wait and see whose values win out.

Joy Reid (106:50)

You know, just to tag, I'm going to come back to the book. But I have to ask you this, as somebody who really follows this stuff, and, you know, Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite series. I do love it, even though I'm told it's quite fascist. Lord of the Rings, I should not like it at all. But it's interesting that. Yeah. That they. That people did. I didn't pick up on that at first. That. That. That that's what Palantir. That it was. That's where I'd heard that word, palantir before. But what do you make of this notion that we were just talking about in the previous segment, this idea that what that crowd wants, those AI oligarchs, their sort of dream president, isn't Donald Trump, it's J.D. vance because they directly control him. Peter Thiel is his sort of godfather. He's given him everything he has. J.D. vance owes everything to Peter Thiel, his whole career. And so therefore, if you had a president who was almost. It would be almost like having Peter Thiel be the president, which he can't because he was born in South Africa. But what do you make of that? Of what would a Peter Thiel presidency be like?

C.J. Farley (107:49)

Well, you know, my focus really is on what this technology is doing to us right now, rather than what future president it may elect. And I think that people need to think about right now how this technology is drawn from our own creativity, from our own life force, and making other people billions, if not trillions, while the artists and the humans that created the raw data that goes into this company aren't compensated hardly at all. I remember years ago, I did an interview with Prince, someone that I know that I think you might have talked to Prince in the past.

Joy Reid (108:30)

No, I wish I hadn't.

C.J. Farley (108:31)

I wanted to tape the interview, and Prince stopped me from taping it, saying, and I was wondering, what's going on? Why can't I take the interview? And. And he said, like, well, I don't know what the technology of the future may do to my voice.

Joy Reid (108:43)

Wow.

C.J. Farley (108:44)

At the time, I thought, oh, my gosh, Prince is paranoid. Now I realize he was prescient because he realized that the thing that as artists, as people, that's most valuable to us are the things that we create. These are things that these tech giants and machines can't do. This spark of creativity that artists and humans have, and they want to take it from us, from nothing. I mean, they act like, oh, you know, we don't really pay you for it because we're sampling so much, but they're kind of like rappers who are sampling us and our lives and our books and our music and not compensating us with royalties. When rappers sample something, they at least have to pay royalties. These companies are thin, slicing our humanity, making trillions off it and not giving us hardly anything. And we need to challenge that now before our life force goes into these companies and, and we're not given great compensation for it. And then they become the ones who are choosing the next president, the next, the next senators and the next politicians. So this is the time when people need to draw a line in the sand and say. And say things need to change. We need to be compensated for our work as you create all these AI devices that sample human beings to work their magic. It's a big concern, I think, for humanity right now. And it's something I really deal with in my book, who knows you by heart.

Joy Reid (110:04)

Yeah, we're gonna talk about this book. What Lam will ask us before I do that is what you said is so true. Because I mean, there are literally hit songs on Billboard 100 that there's no human that's performing it. It's an AI. They're sort of using a black sort of seeming creator, but it's really, you know, a non black person that's. They're almost like a puppet to somebody who's programming them and sort of presenting it or a person of color or an Asian person. You think, oh, I'm dealing with, I'm supporting this Asian creator. But they're not. They're just a made up thing. So you're absolutely right. Tell me about the characters in this book and the main character. And is that the kind of thing she's dealing with is fighting this idea that unreal people are taking over the lives of real people?

C.J. Farley (110:47)

Yeah, that's exactly right. That's what goes on in this book. I mean, it's a humorous book. It's a satirical book. There's a love story in it you'll have fun reading. Who knows you by heart. It's about a young black female coder who gets hired by a big tech company to work on a secretive AI project. But then she becomes concerned about the kind of secrets this company has hidden and what they're doing with the data that they're getting from their customers and others. And so a lot. And she also becomes concerned over what this tech company is doing in terms of its audio entertainment, where they're taking people's voices, sampling them, and then building AI creations to replicate their voices. And you're right. We're seeing that happen right now. Right now on the Billboard charts. There are AI creations that may or may not be made by black people that are putting out black music, like Zina Monet, who, who, who sounds like a black woman and a black one is actually behind it. But there are other, other devices like that that are doing the same kind of thing. And there's a film coming out soon called It's Deep the Grave that has an AI Val Kilmer. There's a, there's a. And of course there's that book Shy Girl that recently was pulled by Hachette because they said that it was simple, that it was AI generated. So AI generated entertainment is all over the charts, all over the cultural world right now. A lot of it is drawn from the work that black people did first. And so we have to assert ourselves and say, hey, this isn't right. Give us some money if you can do this. Or see if there's another direction this technology can be, can be, can be pushed into.

Joy Reid (112:33)

Do you worry that we are entering a post human era? That these AI, these AI oligarchs, they don't really value the existence of humanity and they want to move, move past us into a post human era?

C.J. Farley (112:47)

I think they would love to go into a post human era. But the thing is, it's the genius of humans that makes a lot of this technology possible. I'm very hopeful about technology. I think it can be used to service us in a good way. But because in one way, in the end, it's not about the machines. It's about the people who own the machines and what they're doing with it. The technology itself, it does not have any kind of particular values other than the values that people are putting into it. It's not AI that's stealing art. It's the people that own machines who are. But regular people can make it, can have an influence in the direction these companies go next. And in the end, it's because there's really no AI without I. These things can't make art unless they actually sample human artists. They can't make music unless they thin slicing the artists that come before them. We're all we're used to as black people seeing our art get stolen without. With very little compensation for us. But we have to assert ourselves and make sure that our rights are heard here, you know, before it's too late.

Joy Reid (113:56)

Chris Farley, you are a fascinating person. I hope you will come back often just to talk about AI but also to talk about this book, which will be a bestseller, we're going to put it in the store. If you guys want to a copy of who knows you by Heart by C.J. farley. It's a novel. It's a great read. It's almost summer. You got to get your summer reading together. So please support this brother. He's doing great work, and I would just love you to come back and we could just talk about tech as well. You are welcome to come back anytime. Thank you very much.

C.J. Farley (114:20)

Hey, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Joy Reid (114:21)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, y'. All. That's just fascinating. I mean, look, we. I. I do not want to go into a post demon era. I think humans are pretty great, even though some of them get on our last good raw nerve. But we still want humans, right? And he did break it down. Thank you very much. I agree with that. He broke it down, Raj. He did break it down. It's official. I just became a reader. Joy Reid has won me over, says Dennis B8, 18. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Gave me some nod for professionalism and a big coin. $100 in the till. Wow. Thank you, thank you, thank you. That is so kind. Thank you for supporting independent media. I appreciate you, brother. Welcome to the family. Welcome to Team TJRS. And is that his second hundred, 200 in the till? Our new pal. Thank you so much, my friend. I appreciate you. Appreciate everybody that has been a part of this of this show today and watch the show today. Our moment of joy is a lot of fun. Jason found this one. Jason gets credit for this one. This moment of joy is from somebody called Alex, the challenger. Alex da Challenger on Instagram. And it. It's what happens when people find out that at any level, Whether you're a YouTuber, a TikToker, you are somebody's celebrity. Hello. What's good, man? What's good? Can I record this?

C.J. Farley (115:56)

I'm gonna pull up right here.

Dr. Roger Mitchell (116:15)

Can I get a fix?

Joy Reid (116:16)

Do it. You do it again.

Dina Dahl (116:17)

Do it again.

Joy Reid (116:23)

Famous. Yes, you are. Who is he, though?

Dr. Roger Mitchell (116:39)

Y' all go to.

Joy Reid (116:40)

Oh, you can. Yo, I. I told you.

Dina Dahl (116:45)

I spotted that.

Joy Reid (116:49)

Be careful. Don't go to nobody's car.

C.J. Farley (116:58)

You know what I love most about that?

Joy Reid (117:00)

He gave a psa, right? That don't nobody run up on anybody's car.

C.J. Farley (117:04)

Little kids.

Joy Reid (117:04)

While he did that at the beginning. Fantastic. He's so cute. First of all, that last kid is going to be a star. I'm sorry, but that little kid who did the PSA at the end, Future Celebrity sign him now. If you have an agency, you want to sign that kid. He has all the personality in the world. Those kids were so cute. But this is where you realize that when you're doing your little tiktoks and you're doing your YouTube, I don't know how big of a YouTuber Alex the challenger is. I have no idea. I just followed him. Y' all should follow him on Instagram. Alex D a challenger. And. But the fact that for those kids, that might as well have been, like, when we were a kid, Michael Jackson rolled down the street. That might have been Prince rolled down the street in Minneapolis. Like, he is their celebrity. And they were so excited. Their teacher was like, are you guys getting in a stranger's car? They're like, no, he's famous. He's like, I'm not famous. They're like, yes, you are. I love it. This is just goes to show you, everyone can make a difference, and everyone can be somebody's celebrity, and you, in your own circle and in your own community can be a star. Everybody is a star. Don't forget to vote for one of these pairs of glasses. These fabulous pairs of glasses. We want to make sure that we pick the right pair. Here they all are. They are all cute. They're all fabulous, and we want to let you all vote. So please, please, please, please vote. Jason bought the QR code. Please. Thank you very much. Hit that QR code. Make sure you vote for one of these three glasses so that we can decide what our readers will eventually look like. And please go to shopredbag.com if you would like to get your own pair. They don't have to be sunglasses, even if they have a sunglass, the way. That's just the way they came. You can get the frames. And they also do do your prescription, which is dope. So you can get your prescription. Make sure you can see, because y', all, you know you need to see. You know you need to see. So please make sure that you do that. Also. One somebody says the block, y' all tell me in the chat right now. Yeah, but make sure you vote, too. People like the block. A lot of people saying they voted for the block. I think these are super cute. They go to the shopping boat also. They just go to the church. Yes. If you want to do. If you want to vote for the classic.

C.J. Farley (119:01)

If they didn't get the QR code, you could just pay. You go.

Joy Reid (119:03)

Go to shop.joyanread.com or shop.thejoyreachow.com but shop.joyanread.com if you go on the shop, you can vote if. Look right at the top. That's where the voting is. Now, you can't get the glasses at our shop because the glasses are@shopredbag.com but if you go to shop Joann reed.com right at the top, you're going to see the little click. Click on it and you can vote. So just click on that. You can vote for whichever one you think is great. I think they're all cute. To be honest with you. I. I would wear all these glasses. I think they're so cute. And vontel too. They even had a Harlem one that was red. Fabulous. We had. We had to pick three. I had to just get down to three. But we're gonna end there. They have men glasses, too. Don't worry, brothers, men. All the guys. There are glasses for you too. They have fabulous nail frames as well. Great colors. And the packaging is incredible. It's actually really luxurious packaging. I'll just show you just one before we go. But, you know, it's a box in a box. You know, I love a box in a box. I'm a box girl. I love a box in a box. But these are the ones for these beautiful frames here. And when you open it, you get the box in the box, and then the box in the box has this fabulous. You know, it's my favorite color. So realist is inside of it. So it's a box in a box. They are fabulous. So you all. But that's. That's not give. That's not me leaning on once on one glasses. I'm not. I'm not cheating and telling y' all which one I like the best because I like all of them. I like each and every one. So that's why I need your help. I'm indecisive because I actually like them all. They're all cute. Exactly, Exactly. They're all cute. So I need your help, y'. All. I'm indecisive. I think they're all great. And I need to get down to one idea and one size. And please, there's a little place where you can say why you like them. When you do the vote, you don't just have to hit a vote. You get to tell us why you like them and why you think they're great. All right, thank you all very much for watching the Joy Reed Show. We will see you on Wednesday for more. And in the meantime, hit the music. Jason.

Dr. Roger Mitchell (120:56)

Getting back to the basics grassroots level Let me dig a little deeper with the shovel Plenty can't tell the force from the trees that I'm hard to

Joy Reid (121:04)

detect Like a black hole in the

Dr. Roger Mitchell (121:05)

dark Injustice anyways, injustice everywhere Let me make this clear I got a bone to pick and I'll never fear the

Joy Reid (121:13)

threat of poverty they don't want to

Dr. Roger Mitchell (121:14)

talk about it they rap the party so I'm a real talk about it for sure.