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My name is Mackenzie and I started a GoFundMe for the adoptive mother of a nonverbal autistic child. The mother had lost her job because she wasn't able to find adequate care for this autistic child. So she really needed some help with living expenses, paying some back bills. So I launched a GoFundMe to help support them during this crisis. And and we raised about $10,000 within just a couple of months. I think that the surprising thing was by telling a clear story and just like really being very clear about what we needed, we had some really generous donations from people who were really moved by the situation that this family was struggling with.
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GoFundMe is the world's number one fundraising
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platform, trusted by over 200 million people. Start Start your GoFundMe today at gofundme.com that's gofundme.com, gofundme.com this podcast is supported by GoFundMe. Ever notice how ads always pop up at the worst moments when the killer's identity is about to be revealed during that perfect meditation flow on Amazon Music
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we believe in keeping you in the moment.
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That's why we've got millions of ad free podcast episodes so you can stay completely immersed in every story, every review, reveal every breath. Download the Amazon music app and start listening to your favorite podcasts ad free. Included with prime, you are the most important relationship before you swipe, text or worry about being too much. Start with you. Grow Therapy helps you build self worth, set boundaries and show up as your full self. Whether it's your first time in therapy or your 50th, grow makes it easier to find a therapist who fits you, not the other way around. They connect you with thousands of independent life licensed therapists across the US offering both virtual and in person sessions, nights and weekends. You can search by what matters like insurance, specialty, identity or availability and get started in as little as two days. And if something comes up, you can Cancel up to 24 hours in advance at no cost. There are no subscriptions, no long term commitments, you just pay per session. Grow helps you find therapy on your time. Whatever challenges you're facing. Grow Therapy is here to help. Grow accepts over 100 insurance plans, including Medicaid in some states. Sessions average about $21 with insurance and some pay as little as $0 depending on their plan. Visit growththerapy.com booknow to get started. That's growththerapy.com booknow growththerapy.com booknow availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan youn are the most important relationship before you swipe, text or worry about being too much. Start with you Grow Therapy helps you build self worth, set boundaries and show up as your full self. Whether it's your first time in thera or your 50th, grow makes it easier to find a therapist who fits you, not the other way around. They connect you with thousands of independent licensed therapists across the US offering both virtual and in person sessions, nights and weekends. You can search by what matters like insurance, specialty, identity or availability and get started in as little as two days. And if something comes up, you can Cancel up to 24 hours in advance at no cost. There are no subscriptions, no long term commitments, you just pay per session. Grow helps you find therapy on your time. Whatever challenges challenges you're facing, Grow Therapy is Here To Help Grow accepts over 100 insurance plans, including Medicaid in some states. Sessions average about $21 with insurance and some pay as little as $0 depending on their plan. Visit growththerapy.com booknow to get started. That's growththerapy.com booknow growththerapy.com booknow availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan
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the news keeps getting worse for Donald Trump. He is absolutely destroying the Republican Party and they des it. This is the karma that they've earned for having Donald Trump be their cult leader. The latest generic ballot of Hispanic voters from morning consult has Democrats up 60% to Republicans 29%. What about Donald Trump's approval in his unlawful war against Iran? In the latest NPR MARIS poll, only 24% of Gen Z approve of Donald Trump's unlawful war. Donald Trump had previously made some gains within Gen z in the 2024 election. What about male voters? Right, the one group that unfortunately was still I say this as a man sticking with Donald Trump. The latest generic ballot shows that male voters support Democrats over Republicans 48% to 42%, based on the latest Emerson polling data. What about just a generic ballot? According to Morning consult, Democrats lead 47% to 42%. If that holds, it's going to be a massive blue tsunami that will effectively end Donald Trump's presidency right there. But I want to talk about some individual stories right here as Donald Trump has betrayed his MAGA base, betrayed some of his most loyal cult members. For example, after ICE detained his fiance Wayne Demario, a Trump voter from Miami, here he is right now. You're going to watch him beg. Beg for help. Why'd you do this? You betrayed me. Why'd you do this? Here, play this clip, please she does not deserve this. She's the sweetest person and she prayed for you.
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A desperate plea to President Trump from
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a South Florida man. Fearing his life partner could be deported
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to Cuba at any moment, he reached
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out to our Christian Dolorosa to share
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his story and his remorse and more
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about what happened with his wife. I want you to see this because this is what Donald Trump will do to any of his cult members at any point in time. Play this clip. Cuban's not going to get deported, so don't worry about it. Today, DHS has her listed among the worst of the worst. A criminal arrested for dangerous drugs in possession. Wayne feels it's a slap in the face. I didn't vote for this, but I definitely voted Republican. He says both were staunch supporters of President Trump. When you said I didn't vote for
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this, what, what did you think you had voted for?
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I really thought this was just going to be something more organized, but it's obviously not. They just blanket everybody. Alcantu calling from her detention facility in Louisiana. She says in her eight months detained,
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she has not seen an immigration judge.
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By the way, it's not just that group. I could show you thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of stories just like this, but I'll just show you another one. Take a look at this. Trump voter whose son was Ruben Ray Martinez was killed by ice. She was a Trump voter and she says that what went down was something that needs to end. Its abuse and impunity that's being exercised by these Trump and Border Patrol Gestapo. Here, play this clip.
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Everything was good. Just to understand why they had to be this way.
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Rachel raised a son. 23 year old American citizen Ruben Ray Martinez was killed by an ICE agent nearly one year ago.
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I was devastated and disbelief and it's
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bad enough to lose your child, but then to lose your child at the hands of law enforcement when they're supposed to be the ones to protect your child. ICE's involvement in Martinez's killing in March of 2025 was only publicly revealed in February. Roughly 11 months later, Martinez was out celebrating his birthday with his best friend, Joshua Orta in South Padre Island. ICE says one of its agents fired defensive shots into Martinez's vehicle after Martinez intentionally ran over another ICE agent. Is that something you think your son would have done?
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Absolutely not. No, of course not.
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He was not a violent person.
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He was not aggressive.
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DHS's account was disputed by Orta, who said in a draft declaration that his friend did not hit anyone. Orta died in a car crash in February before he could testify. What about at a generic level? Of all voters, do you approve or disapprove of Trump handling the war in Iran? Only 36% of Americans approve of Donald Trump's unlawful war in Iran, according to the latest NPR Marist poll. Just by reference as well, the war in Iraq began with 71% approval and at its lowest had fallen 41% approval. The Trump war against Iran in little over a week has approval of only 36%. And by the way, you're feeling it at the pump, you're feeling it with inflation. You're feeling it everywhere. Right now, the US average diesel price has risen to $4.56 a gallon, the highest level since February 8, 2023. These increases will likely start to slow. For now, we'll see about that. Here's what Magamike Johnson had to say on Friday. With all of this going on with this war raging, the Republicans want you to know that actually peace is war and we're not at war. Everything is great, just a special operation. Here's what Mag and Mike had to say. Here, play this clip. We are not at war. We have no intention of being at war. The president and the Department of Defense have made this very clear. The Department of War has made it very clear. This is a limited operation. It's an operation that's limited in its scope and duration. It has a very clear mission, and that mission is nearly accomplished by all estimates we have. We are taking down Iran's ballistic missile capability, its stockpile and its ability to produce more. They were doing that at a scale and a speed that was more than our regional allies could keep up with. And it was a serious and imminent threat to the United States. We don't need to relitigate all that today. But also we wanted to take down the capability of their Navy. And all of that has been very successful. So this needs to continue. It would have been a very dangerous gambit to take the commander in chief's ability, in a way, to complete this mission. It would have been a very serious misstep by Congress, and I'm grateful that that resolution failed. I want to bring in right now an individual by the name of Derek Johnson. He's the president of the naacp. I did an interview with him earlier this past week, which I haven't showed yet. I want you to see it. We talk about how Donald Trump has attacked the black community, how Donald Trump has attacked working class people, how Donald Trump has attacked hardworking Americans, how Donald Trump protects the Epstein Class, let's bring in this incredible interview now. I want to bring in the president of the naacp, Derek Johnson. And Derek, you've been the president of the NAACP for about eight years or so, since 27. So you've seen, you know, the first Trump administration. You saw Biden administration. You know, when I refer to what we're seeing right now as the regime, I want you to kind of just even contextualize it based on your experience. How bad is. Is this regime from what you're seeing, you know, and its assault on black communities as well? But just in. In general, from your leadership position, what you're observing?
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Well, what we are witnessing for this second term is an administration that's much smarter than the first term. They have people who are much more capable. They spend the last four years prior to coming to office studying government in a way in which they knew many of the pressure points to hit. And it's having a very negative impact on American citizens. Race is a tool or distraction. The tax policy bill that was passed last year was the crown jewel. And that crown jewel was a fight that started back in 1932. And you look forward. And they were not able to radically change tax policy until last year because they were so much smarter in how they govern.
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You know, their coded language, which is not all that coded of, you know, stop the woke, stop the dei. If universities promote DEI and woke knowledge, then we're gonna, you know, defund it. The museums are too work with too woke, which is all coded language for, you know, anything that tells the true story of black history or the history of other groups and marginalized groups, you know, get rid of it and quite literally whitewash it. And so how do you address it? How do you think about it? How do you deal with it at the naacp?
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Well, I'll start with the fact that this is class warfare, and race is only a two for the most wealthiest individuals on the globe to divert our tax dollars for their profit. But then when you start otherizing communities, such as African American community females or lgbtqia, you distract people from what the fight is really about, who gets taxed, who's not taxed, what those tax dollars are spent on, and regulatory oversight. And so that's the real fight here. And so as an organization, we have to stay focused on Ned. And as we also are very attuned to race being used as a tool to distract and distort, I might say a very effective tool.
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You know, one of the, I think, things that was a revelation, although we all expected it when seeing the Epstein files is this Epstein class and sex trafficking was used as a tool by the Epstein class and the horrors that were inflicted on these underage girls and these children. And while they were black blackmailing each other and using sex trafficking as the currency, though they seem to be plotting how to destroy and create chaos, frankly, throughout the world, stability and markets, because they viewed within the chaos their right wing oligarchs and their form of authoritarianism that they could profit off of it. So like seeing that coordination behind the scenes was, was something that came into full clarity, although we think we knew it was there. Talk to us about that.
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I think Epstein files of what we are learning and still learning was a well coordinated act of treason. If you think about how they use blackmail to get policymakers to act outside of the best interest of this nation and our constitution, that's reason January 6th was an act of treason. The Civil War was an act of treason. But the sustained effort of individuals being leveraged to undermine our democracy, undermine the stability of our economy and do all the things that we're doing is something that unfortunately we won't get a chance to hold people accountable under this administration on top of exploiting underage girls. It is unfortunate that we're here. It's unfortunate that these files were not released under the Biden administration or for that matter prior to that. And so we're going to have to dig out of this deep hole and people around the globe, they're watching this nation, which held a standard for every other country that we were not living up to.
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Talk to us about. Your perspective when you see Donald Trump at these events and you know, the damage to your point, it's class warfare. So you, you know, as you say, the discrimination against black communities or Latino communities are part of a broader attack by right wing oligarchs against, by other rising people. But one of the things that we'll see Donald Trump always do when I cover all of his rallies, too much of him, quite frankly, you know, he'll say, you know, look, there is a black lady over in Atlanta who wears a MAGA hat. And she says, and I see them saying, you're the greatest president, Donald. You're the greatest, Donald. And they almost use that image to be like, you see, I have support amongst the black community because there was a black lady wearing a MAGA hat. And I look at it and I'm like, how does this even, like, how is this even being said? Like, what the heck is even going on here?
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You know, Donald Trump presented to the oligarch class, something they could have never done themselves. He has an appeal to the lowest common denomination of individuals who are the least educated or buy into the fear mongering that has been able to take place. But if any of them actually sit and listen to his speeches, it's rambling, it makes no sense. But he says the right phrases, uses the right buzzwords at the right moment to appeal to the least educated or individuals who are educated but are under some illusion that he would not come after them and come after everyone else, or just fear mongering. They would have never been able to do that without his brand of leadership. It is worse than Ronald Reagan, who was at best a very effective actor playing the role of a governor, then later a president. But all the books I've read about Reagan, he wasn't a policy wonk. He didn't understand the details. But you put a script in front of him. He was an effective actor.
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Talk to us about one thing. I want to talk about the SAVE Act. But the way the Trump regime tries to frame it is, look, if you present to voters the issue of voter security and we want to keep it safe, and you ask anybody, do you want voting to be safe and do you want voting security? And you frame the question like that, but don't actually explain what the SAVE act is, I think lots of people go, sure, I want voting to, you know, to be safe. The same way if you ask people, do you want safe borders and do you want to make sure that there are, you know, if there are criminals here who are migrants, that they get deported and prosecute, who says, no, I don't want that? I mean, of course someone says we should have borders and we should have safe and secure elections. But I guess to your earlier point too, those framings are often used as tools, I think, to distort and deceive. Because then what the Trump regime will say is, look, the black community supports the SAVE Act. Look, we have a poll that shows 75% of black people support the save. I mean, I've seen. And then CNN parrots it, 80% of Latinos support the SAVE Act. And then they go, you see, this is universally supported, but that's subterfuge. I mean, that's the propaganda. Talk to us about first why that's so. And then how do you combat it at the naacp?
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So, first of all, the SAVE act, when you look at the details of the bill, is a solution in search of a problem. There isn't a problem that this piece of policy Will save, fix or secure? And the top line, as you said earlier, everyone would say we want safe elections. Everyone would say we need to have secure election. We all agree with that. The real question is the details behind the bill. If you said you got to have mass re registration, everyone start over. It disadvantaged not only the African American community, it disadvantaged so many others. If you say that we should have a photo ID or you need proof of citizenship, well, why do you need proof of citizenship? There is no systemic or for that matter, the minimum is at best of individuals who are not citizens seeking to vote or individuals seeking to vote under an alleged name. It is vote suppression, pure and simple. That what we are witnessing now are policymakers realizing that their public policy objectives and bills passed is so unpopular that they cannot win in a fair election. That's a full stop. And so for nacp, we educate people as much as we can. This is not about the buzzwords or the title of the policy. This is about taking away a right to vote. And for these very same individuals, when you say you gotta have a photo ID to vote, well, they will push back hard against having a national ID requirement to buy firearms. So this is not about saving or securing. Because if you want to save and secure, what about all of the children who've been killed in mass shootings across the country? And to fix there is this universal ID or need a passport to purchase gun. This is about maintaining domination and control at the ballot box.
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You know, finally, one of the tragic things that, you know, I've observed over the last 12, 14 months, and it really kind of happened right away was how corporations, law firms, institutions, they really betrayed the American people, but I think also really betrayed black communities in general. And like, the experience that I had representing Colin Kaepernick was, I remember post George Floyd, all of these companies and law firms, you know, were like, what can we do to help? How can we be here? We're on your side, you know, and I just remember being on these zoom meetings with, you know, the top, top people. And Colin was there, and we were talking about ways to, you know, stop systemic racism within these organizations. And what can we do? We want to donate money. You know, the, the whole thing, like, look me in the face, you know, and then, you know, you know, Trump comes in, and then all of a sudden seeing those exact same people basically say, you know, we didn't mean any of that. We, you know, we're actually against all of that. You know, we. We retract any of it. And, you know, I want to get your perspective on that too. Like your reaction to how corporations have responded. Because look, the pendulum swings, right? And these same people now who were rushing to help the NAACP or know your rights camp on Kaepernick, who now went full Trump, you know, rooting for authoritarianism, they may come back. We see how unpopular Trump is. They may come back and say, oh, that was a big mistake. You know, we didn't mean that. So what do you tell them as the leader of the naacp, when those groups that clearly abandoned the NAACP and threw you under the bus in a year or two, you probably see it already come back and go, ah, we messed up. We want to be around you. What do you do?
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Well, it's unfortunate, particularly for those companies that are consumer facing. The tale of two realities is Target versus Costco's. Target is struggling. They're going to have continued quarterly loss while Costco's continue to grow. Brand awareness is deep in our community and over time some of these companies will not survive. We only represent 13% of the total population, while at the exact same time we make up a significant number in terms of profit margins for some of these companies. And so there was no reason for Target to be wishy washy on the issue of ensuring that diversity, equity and inclusion is part of it. And you see the opposite with Costco's who profits have gone through the roof as a result of their position. The same thing with the law firms that capitulated to this administration signing those bogus mous just for the short term game of mergers and acquisition business. And the ones who just won in court last week and now still have their M and A business, but yet a stronger standing within the community. This moment won't last forever. We have become a much more diverse country. We have a set of companies that realize that, wait a minute, this is about the long term, not the short term. Diversity is their business model because their market growth are in all of our communities. And and so for us, when those companies come back, it's a real conversation. And for some of them, I don't think there isn't any coming back.
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Derek Johnson, we appreciate you. Before we go, what else? We got over 6 million subscribers. If people want to help out the NAACP, if they want to get involved, what do people do who are watching this?
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We would love for you to come join us be sustainers. NAACP.org it's our website. We are on television with a commercial. We are needed more now than ever before. Part of what we do is to make democracy work for everyone in our founding, it wasn't just about the African American community. It was many people sat around that table of founders and during that time no one was white because if you was Irish Catholic you was not considered white or Jewish was not considered white or any number of communities that was outside of the WASP community. And over time the class of whiteness opened up and individuals sat around the table realized that if we didn't have true representative democracy for everyone, this country would never become the country that was guaranteed under the Constitution.
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Derek Johnson, President of the naacp so great to see you.
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Thank you for the opportunity everybody.
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Hit subscribe let's get to 7 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content Only available@midasplus.com.
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Day or night. VRBoCare is here 247 to help make every part of your stay seamless. If anything comes up or you simply need a little guidance, support is ready whenever you reach out. From the moment you book to the moment you head home. We're here to help things run smoothly, because a great trip starts with the right support. And hey, a good playlist doesn't hurt either.