I'm just Jackson jewis Well. Of course, l fifteen leads Meet Pays with Gina Towns. Yeah. He was our creator and producer of The Jesse Jackson Junior Show, president and CEO of five nineteen Productions, and the executive producer, creative director and program director of The Jesse Jackson Junior Show on Smiley Audio Media's Kblate doc fifteen to eighty. She is also the host of Reflectivity on my weekly series Fat Meat Fridays. She's a graduate of Hampton University with the Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication and Arts. Gina has also earned her Masters of Arts in Theology and Social Justice from Princeton Theological Seminary. She co produced the Emmy Award nominated and documentary documentary Hampton University One of the Wonders of the World, and as a songwriter, co producer and performer, her single Yes hit number twenty six with a billet on the Billboard. Gina, Welcome forward to The Jesse Jackson Junior Show, Fat Meat Fridays and the j Lunch Club. Thank God it is Friday. That Friday. It's almost as if we talked just last week. It feels like a continuation the weeks are moving very very quickly. Well, time is moving swiftly. I don't know if January has ever gone this fast. It's really really something. It's also a slog when one considers all of the politics that's taking place. Gina, your thoughts on the roundup of our week here on the Jesse Jackson Junior Show. Well, going all the way back to last week, Really, I have had a great time, maybe more so than I have in a while, because you know what they say, you don't appreciate, you don't know what you got till it's gone. And our show has decidedly taken on a lot of Martin Luther King. We spent more than his birthday or even the national holiday recognition of his birthday. I mean decidedly every day. I asked you and our guests to focus on Martin Luther King, and you have done a tremendous job with bringing our attention to beyond Vietnam a speech that he wrote a year to the day of his assassination, and you'll break down of it. The discussions that you've had with people who are very cognizant of the social justice space, but in particular, there have been some conversations and you and Johnny Mack, who study Doctor King each and every week. Certainly we have a need for that right now, and that is the part of our history that we must turn to and lean on. You know, I give it some reflection in this first segment of our show. Nineteen sixty seven must have been a pivotal year in the life of Martin Luther King Junior. I was born in nineteen sixty five, and so at age two and a few months, I can only help but think that with what I've heard, with what I've read, with what I've come to understand, that the April fourth, nineteen sixty seven speech Beyond Vietnam a time to break the silence, and the fact that he wrote the book Where do We Go from Here? Chaos or Community serves as important data points in going forward for those of us who are in the King and the King gi and if you will tradition, where do we go from here? Chaos or Community? The question before us today is whether or not we are closer to community or we are closer to absolute global chaos. I was watching the leadership at the Davos Economic Summit this past week, and it is increasingly clear that they are accepting the idea that the old order has passed, that a new order is in front of us, that traditional alliances that have held true at least since the end of World War Two are no longer the same alliances. Europe obviously feels vulnerable. Greenland is less secure today than it was before Donald Trump became president again. Russia is embolden in Ukraine, and Vladimir Lensky is treated as a stepchild. The President of the United States kidnapped the president of Venezuela, Jared Kushner, the President of the United States, began something yesterday called a peace board. We'll talk about more of that will to come forward on KBLA Talk fifteen eighty. I'm Jesse Jackson Junior. More when we come forward on KBLA in your show, It's happening Fridays with our creator, Gina Towns, and our very special guest in this hour is doctor nik Cordelai Corte. Not only does he continue his work as an author and KBLA White House correspondent, but also returns to GSP as professor shaping the next generation of transformational leaders. His work bridges the worlds of media public service and education, living proof of what it means to lead with both head and heart. A proud graduate of De LaSalle High School in the San Francisco Bay Area, he went on to earn his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Southern California, where he also pursued a minor in Critical Approaches to Leadership, and after several years of experience as a public affairs professional, doctor Q felt called to deepen his impact through education, choosing Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology GSP as his academic and leader ship home. Doctor Corte, Doctor Q me, you welcome to. The Jesse Jackson. I'm on the Jesse Jackson Junior Show. It's Friday. I couldn't be happier. How you doing, brother man? I love you very much and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. That's right, Ney, Listen. I am particularly concerned about the headlines over the last two weeks, and I'd love to get your input and your feedback. Let me just read them briefly. The US pulls out of the World Health Organization. The United States formally completed its withdrawal from WHO on Thursday, after a year after President Donald Trump, he simply essentially put the cabash on it USA. Today, Americans say the United States is out of control, and not just the liberals are saying it. Al Jazeera says the US to withdraw from dozens of UN international organizations. The Wall Street Journal echoes that Trump pulls out of more than thirty UN bodies, BBC Trump withdraws from US key climate treaties and dozens of other groups. And of course, the context here is a global climate catastrophe that is taking place at the same time that the administration is withdrawing from international cooperation because, as John F. Kennedy said, we all share the same planet and we are all more Doctor Q, where is this? Where are we going? In the post celebration of Martin Luther King Junior, his ninety seventh birthday was January fifteenth. Chaos or community? Well, thank you for the question, Jesse Junior. I think there are examples of both. There are examples of chaos in community. You've just laid out the kind of chaos that we're seeing, particularly abroad, but the chaos that we're also seeing right here across the country, we're seeing facilitated by ICE. For example, I am still shaken and stirred having learned about UH civil rights attorney and activists uh Nikema Levy Armstrong not only being arrested at the hands of the US Department of Justice for exercising her First Amendment right UH in and in in peacefully protesting UH in a church where the pastor is alleged to also be doubling as a local director of ICE. To add insult to injury, we saw that the White House just yesterday shared an altered photo of an arrested UH Nikema Levy Armstrong. What do we call that? We call that propaganda, you know, you got to say it playing uh And and so we are seeing a lot of seeds of division that are being sown. We're seeing, uh the kind of chaos that is intended to leave us feeling disoriented and feeling powerless, and feeling like what it is that this administration hopes to accomplish, That every plank that's a part of Project twenty twenty five, that all that is inevitable. That's what they want us to feel. But I think to your point, I think community is a part of the anecdote to this. We cannot make it to the other side of this chaos by ourselves. And so I've been heartened to see so many activists from across the country lock arms and declare that what's happened to folks like Nikeema Levy Armstrong and other peaceful protesters, other legal observers, other American citizens, the trampling of folks civil rights and civil liberty. Not only is it wrong, but you have people taking to the streets saying not on my watch. That is the kind of community that we need to sustain through election Day in order to bring this country back from the brink. You know, I saw the altered photo of sister Armstrong side by side with the dignity that she accepted and did not if you will resist arrest. As a result of that protest, we also saw some levels of the exact same attempt to disgrace if you will, to humiliate don Lemon. I believe in the same particular event, And I'm wondering to think about a department of justice that traditionally prided itself in the idea that even those in captivity are innocent until proven guilty. This kind of altering of the even prosecutorial environment where even a criminal defendant, an alleged criminal defendant, has to even prove in court that hey, the documents that you're showing or the evidence that you're presenting has been altered to reflect not the truth of my First Amendment rights, but the inherent insults that are associated with the process. Uh that if in fact you are proven innocent, the social media space, the government, with the government's support, participates in a denigration of you and the organization and the movement and the very processes that we have hold deers Americans. Your thought about that as a professional journalist. Well, let me just say, speaking of feeling shaken and surred, I think a lot of us who pride ourselves in developing the first draft of history in the form of journalism, I think we were disturbed by the efforts of this Trump Department of Justice to trample on the right to a free press. And thank goodness that this federal magistrate judge rejected the Justice Department's initial attempt to bring charges against our friend, our brother, journalist Don Lemon, for appearing alongside protesters who went into a Minnesota church over the weekend. You know, so we can't live stream protest that's against the law, that that invites the Department of Justice, the US Department of Justice, to file charges. It's it's it's hard to not believe that Don Lemon's black, proudly black, proudly gay self didn't factor into his targeting. You know, it's it's hard. It's hard to believe, you know, that someone who has demonstrated an ability to speak truth to power, right, it's it's hard to believe that this Justice Department didn't seek to make an example out of Don Lemon and and to send a signal to you, to send a signal to me that telling the truth, speaking the truth to the masses, streaming the truth to the masses will be met with a federal government weaponized by this Trump administration's ultimate aims. You know, it is it is. It shocks the conscience that there are a number of folks out there that can't see this for what it is. It shocks the content that Democrats, Republicans, independents can't lock arms and say this is a bridge too far, right, what else is it going to take? But look, you know, our legal system, Uh it worked, uh in this case, you know, But I fear for the other independent journalists that are out there that don't have the same muscle as legacy corporate media might have. I shudder at what is possible if the algorithms change and suddenly it's harder to get information from these independent journalists, you know, on YouTube, on Instagram, on some of the other major platforms. And last thing I'll add is you know, of course, I'm sure you're aware that TikTok is now officially under US ownership. For anybody on TikTok, it's worth looking at the terms of service, looking at the terms of service uh as a part of what TikTok says that they're offering. I took a look at it yesterday because you know, I like to geek out on stuff like this. I was looking at the community guidelines in my time off last night, and one of the areas you talk about integrity and authenticity, you know, and they talk about how we require clear labeling when AI or editing is used to realistically depict people or scenes. We don't allow AI generated content that misleads about matters of public importance or that harms individuals. Will look with the White House just put out yesterday on those media channels with Nakeema Levy Armstrong right, and so part of the fight ahead as folks that refuse to spiral ind chaos and folks that embrace the tenets of a beloved community. Part of the work that we have to do is also hold these social media companies, hold these organizations to what they say on paper. They're all about. You know, I just want to add, because I know the genus going to come into the conversation in just a moment. You know, when Donald Trump first became President of the United States the second time, there was an attack on the legal community that would have historically stood up and fought for Don Lemon, for a mis Armstrong, because on the face of the matter, it's wrong. The prosecutions of Letitia James, the prosecution of the prosecutors, the care in which Jack Smith had to prepare and present his testimony to avoid to the extent that he may avoid, the kind of contempt from Congress that that others have received. This is what we see. This is what we discuss. But these individuals are hiring lawyers who literally to prove they're innoc since can bankrupt the alleged criminal defendant. I can't begin to tell you just how much this costs to preserve your name, to preserve the dignity of your work, to not become a mean, to not become part of a culture. When we need people to speak truth to power, we need people to be taken seriously, we need to convey serious messages. But then when we find ourselves having to mortgage our homes, to pay for lawyers, to lose everything that we've ever gained, just to stay free, just to maintain the integrity of who we are, this is the era that we are clearly entering. Me and I wanted to allow Gina the opportunity to come just before we come forward in two minutes, to share some of her initial thoughts. Well, you started out listing off a number of things, a number of news stories, but in particular, it is our withdrawal from the world stage, our participation in a beloved community around the world. And this really follows leadership, because there's a leadership that took us to these organizations, and there is a participation that we've had foundationally, we have been the financial backbone of many of particularly the who the World Health Organization is of particular interest as we begin this isolation of what appears to be an isolation period, but certainly this is not what Martin Luther King envisioned or thought about us. So domestically, we have a number of things going on that dan have tentacles that reach out around the world, and we tend to look at things in an isolated fashion. But all of these things add up together, and I think, you know, one of the reasons why we have to study Doctor King is because we are losing a place in our history and an ideology that we have to fight for. You know, when I saw some of the memes of Doctor King during the holiday period and leading up to the holiday period, with him dancing and clowning, and with people taking pictures of him who were not there at certain periods of his history, and even for the King family to respond to say leave my father, Bernie said out of the memes, out of the jokes. And the idea of protecting one's legacy in this context is it is obviously something that we're going to have to talk about. We may even be leading to a generation of people who start saying it's time to get unplugged. Jesse Jackson Junior listening to Jesse Jackson Junior show Our very special guest in this hour is doctor Q. Knie Quarter Lai Coarte is our very special guest. He's the White House correspondent for w for KBLA Talk fifteen to eighty. Our very special contributor, Gina Towns will come forward with us as well, Talk fifteen eighty in just a moment. I'm Jesse Jackson Jr. Welcome forward to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show. This is Fat Meat Fridays and the j Lunch Club with our regular contributor on Friday's the creator of the Jesse Jackson Junior Show, Gina Towns. Gina, welcome forward to the show. Hie Jesse, and our very special guest in this hour is nie Q, doctor Ortalie Quarte, who is our White House correspondent at KBLA. Doctor Q, let me ask you a question just before Gina shares with us our happenings and black history on this particular date, Trump's peace board at Dovels at the Dovels Economic Summit looks like a real estate deal. I've always believed in a two state solution in the Gaza strip, but when you see the images and I challenge our listeners to google peace Board, and to google New Gaza. Google New Gaza and see the renderings of new Gaza. And I'm wondering in this moment, doctor Q, how are the poor people of Gaza going to be able to afford to live in this arrangement? Why are they not part of the so called peace board, Doctor Q. I think those are questions that need answers, and I think it's pretty apparent. You know, there's a book that I require that my students at Pepperdine University read over the course of the semester. It's called Design Justice. And one of the principles that the authors about at length in that book is nothing for us without us, nothing for us without us. And this is an organizing principle that some of the most seasoned organizers have adhered to. There doesn't seem to be much evidence of that. It is deeply troubling that this plan to rebuild Gaza, this plan to erect the Middle East Riviera, that it doesn't seem to have any Palestinians that are playing a principal role in this, that have a principal voice in this. Yes, we're seeing folks from the Arab world that are a part of this but you know, these are folks that are doing their own bidding, and so this is something that I think people of conscience are going to have to watch very very closely. This is going to require courage people to speak truth to power, and you know, as not just Democrats, but anybody that's in opposition to this, as they get out on the campaign trail, it's important to remind people about the power of our example. Yes, we need to bring prices down here at home, but we can't underestimate the power of America's example abroad for good and for evil, for good, you know, and for the good of the narrow self interest of a privileged few. You know. I'm thinking in this moment when doctor King says that it's a time to break the silence, that a betrayal of silence is taking place. As the renderings are obviously of a futuristic gaza strip that mirrors flying into Manhattan in fact a more modern Manhattan, or flying into Dubai, but it simply does not refer the education level the oppression that the Palestinian people have confronted for decades, and it seems to me that they have no role in the future of Jared Kushner's conceptual designs or what can only be seen as a multi trillion dollar development a riviera in the Gaza Strip. Gina, your thoughts, I think the whole thing is just very bothersome in general, with the Gaza Strip, because I had one of those old Bibles as a child where Israel what is now known as Israel's Palestine, and that name was changed and those people were moved pushed down into the Gods Strip. And so now after a culpable year of unmitigated bombing, death and destruction, it's time to rebuild. And I saw some early sketch drawings of what it could be might be. I mean, I think we all knew from the time that Jared Kushner went that there was a deal afoot, and certainly it does not include the people who have been occupying that land. But the fact is that those people were occupying another land even before we got to this point. Doctor Q. I can't help but reflect in this moment that the sixty seven thousand people in this conflict are going to be a people without a home, that they are going to be potentially refugees in their own land. And somewhere I read that justice delayed is justice denied. That somehow peace is not merely the absence of noise, but the presence of love and the presence of justice. These are also sustaining principles that we believe in organizing because the end that we seek is pre existent in the means, meaning we give some thought to the end that we want to accomplish towards this idea of a beloved community. I don't see that taking place here. I don't see it taking place in the near term. It is worth noting that four Palestinians have been killed in Gods that as Trump has launched this Board of Peace, it sounds like, you know, America is committed to living in an alternative universe. Al Jazeera reporting that a number of medical sources are saying that at least four people have been killed in the Palestinian civil defense. They reported that on the death of an infant from hypothermia and Central Gaza. While President Trump has unveiled his Board of Peace, they're not experiencing peace there. And I think it's important that people really understand this, that, you know, to create this delusion that we're creating this body that is committed to ushering in an era of peace in the region. When there is no peace on the ground right there, We're not dealing in reality, you know. And so. At some point we're gonna have to reconcile that, because I don't see the kind of long term security in the region if we don't reconcile that. To think that the young people that are coming up right now that are exposed to all of this, the young people that are coming up that are living in poverty right now, the young people that will be forced to live a life as refugees, young people who may never go back to the place the only place that they've known is their home. To think that people just pack up and move and don't have a word to say about it, don't have a feeling about it, don't have a trauma experience related to it, that is divorced from reality. And we better get this reality check sooner than later so as to give the region a chance to have the kind of security that we all hope that it would have, to have a kind of peace that Trump is trying to create this illusion of At the moment. I'm Jesse Jackson Junior listening to Jesse Jackson Junior show this is Fat Meat Fridays with Gina Towns, our regular contributor, and our very special guest in this hour is none other than our White House correspondent, Doctor Cortelai Nie Cordlai Corte More. We come forward on kV Late Talk fifteen eighty. I'm Jesse Jackson Junior. Welcome forward to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show on kV Late Talk fifteen to eighty, and I want to welcome our regular contributor on Fat Meat Fridays, Miss Gina Towns, the creator of the Jesse Jackson Junior Show. Gina, Welcome forward, Gy Jesse, Hey, Ny Hey, Doctor Anna or Ty, our White House correspondent, is also joining us. Uh. In our final segment, I'd like you, if you don't mind, doctor Q, for you to transition and pivot the conversation to We've seen chaos in the world, but we're also seeing chaos domestically. Nothing quite like what's taking place in Minneapolis, Minnesota have I ever seen in my sixty years. What are you hearing from Capitol Hill to the White House on the nature of the chaos and what it could mean for the midterms. Well, just yesterday I had a chance to be in conversation with Bishop Joseph W. Tulton. He is the founder of Interconnected Justice. He's also a former Senior Advisor for Religious and Global Affairs in the US State Department, and his body of work has really focused on the rise of white Christian nationalism, and so part of what we are seeing on the ground in places like Minneapolis, you know, are folks peddling in that white nationalism, white Christian nationalism. I think, you know, the focal point of the DOJ arrest of Nakeema Levy Armstrong, civil rights attorney and activists who showed up at a church in Minneapolis where the pastor is alleged to be doubling as acting director of ICE in the in the area, and I think it raises some really significant questions in terms of the conflict of interest. You know, there are people that go to the church seeking refuge. It's not unusual for churches to be thought of as sanctuaries or you know, folks who are down on their luck, for folks that are in need of support and services. And so the fact that this alleged connection between this acting ICE director and his role as the pastor of this church, it is heavily problematic, and this is just the story that we have learned about. It makes you wonder how many other churches across America have pastors or assistant pastors, deacons, deaconesses that are somehow, you know, tied into the ICE apparatus. You might remember, due to the passage of the so called Big Beautiful Bill, ICE has more funding now than they have ever had in their history, and so they have so much money to throw at not just official ICE agents, but folks willing to cooperate with ICE. And that is deeply troubling. And so that's what I'm hearing the most about from folks in DC and places like Minneapolis and out in the field and places across the country. Gina, Sure, they defunded SNAP and defunded health care for Americans who needed in order to build this budget. And so this is what we have now. And I want to go back to what you said, because I saw Don when he landed in Minneapolis, and there was a guy who spoke to him there and the guy said, I'm so glad you're here and basically said, you know, be careful, and Don was like, well, what's that about? And he says, well, things are really not what people don't understand what's going on here. It's not like maybe it was in Los Angeles or DC, or even Chicago for that matter. This is this is really a lot and people are scared. So, you know, I was just as you guys were talking. This militarization and focus on materialism is certainly something that doctor King prophetically talked about. And every so often there's a rise in this. It's almost like we have to go back, you know, every sixty years, every hundred years, and you know, fight this battle all over again. And I don't know that it will ever stop. What do you think me? You know, look, I think it is a righteous fight. It is a fight that we have been fighting for centuries in this country biblically speaking, even longer than that. It is a righteous fight. But speaking of righteous fight, I just want to connect the dots for a second, because there's a whole conversation happening around qualified immunity. And you might remember that the president and Vice president have said and then they didn't say, and then they said that they supported full immunity for ice officers. Well, I just want to remind our audience of leaders learners and listeners that back in twenty twenty, when folks had taken to the streets in places like Minneapolis and Los Angeles and Chicago and DC and New York and so many places across the country calling for justice, calling for the passage of the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, I just want to remind folks that one of the major components of that bill was reforming qualified immunity for officers. There are some that wanted to get rid of it altogether. There are some that wanted to lower the threshold by which it could apply. But imagine, imagine if we had gotten that done in twenty twenty. Imagine what tools local law enforcement and other agencies would have to work with to rein in these ice officers off the rails. And so this is just a reminder that there's sometimes there's legislation out there. And you know this better than most Jesse Jackson Junior, as a former member of Congress and soon to be member of Congress again, you know this better than anybody else. That there are folks that somehow get in their head that there are pieces of legislation that narrowly only benefit black people and seem to forget the history that we've had in this country of fighting for legislation that not just moves our people forward closer to liberation, but moves America forward. And so if America celebrates it's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, commemorates it, we need to do a look back and a look forward. We need to learn from what we didn't get done into and how it's playing out in the now, so that we can stop it from happening ever again. Now that's a word of hope if I ever heard one, that doesn't get much clearer than what doctor Q said. Nineteen sixty four Civil Rights Act didn't just benefit black people. It also led to the Americans with Disability Act. It also led to the civil right to marriage for two persons who are in love and care deeply and profoundly for each other. It led to access for the disabled to get into buildings and to build ramps and to build sidewalks that allow people to traverse and take advantage of their basic civil and human rights. It's given rights to veterans and to even white men. It was illegal to be a police officer in Alabama and Mississippi and certainly a state trooper if you weren't at least six foot two. So even short white men were discriminated against without the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four. When you think about this question of qualified immunity, doctor Q, you hit its spot on the head. They shot that woman in her face, and they also now have warrantless searches of people's homes, meaning they can kick in the door not only of black and brown people, but they can kick in the doors of white folks. Doctor King, American. It's an American and we need to call it out before our nation succumbs to this perversion of our constitution. Our very special guest has been doctor Nie Cordelaike Corte, and you're listening to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show and Fat Met Fridays with Gina Towns More. When we come forward on KBLA Talk