April 17, 2024 • 14 mins
Catch the latest on Donald Trump's New York City trial and the latest Biden/Trump poll numbers on today's Midweek Memo
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
A man who needs no introduction.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
The Black Information Network is committed to bringing you up
to the date news stories that are relevant, informative, and inspiring.
And while news stories are always being updated and others
are breaking, we understand that you need to be in
the know all week long. Welcome to your midweek memo
on the Black Information Network Daily Podcast with me your host,
(00:24):
Rams's Job All Right?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
First up from CNN. Seven jurors were placed Tuesday on
the panel that will decide former President Donald Trump's guilt
or innocence in the New York hush money case, a
process that has highlighted how difficult and often contentious it
will be to pick a full jury. Trump's lawyers dug
through prospective jurors's social media posts to try and root
(00:49):
out those with anti Trump bias from getting on the jury,
even questioning several of them about their posts as the
defense team asked to remove them from the jury for cause. So, yeah,
if you're paying close attention to this, which I unfortunately am,
(01:11):
you know that this is this is going to be
a bit of a process. So it turns out they
need eighteen jurors, you know, they need like reserve backup
jurors so that things can move along. But it's kind
of tough because typically you want jurors who are not
familiar with the person in question, and of course, since
(01:33):
this was the former president. Presidents are among the most
popular human beings that walk the earth, and because this
was such a polarizing president, the selection process is even
more challenging still, so New York City took the wise
step of sending out extra summons to fill the additional
(01:56):
slots of hopefully unbiased jurors. Actually, they sent out a
total of two hundred extra summons because their assumption is
that many folks are going to have strong opinions on Trump. Now,
if that was the only thing, then it wouldn't really
be a Trump trial. So we'll add to that that
(02:17):
Trump is really seems to be frustrating the judge. He's
been admonished for attempt set intimidating the jurors, He's fallen
asleep twice so far during the trial. And then the
judge said that they would have to wait and see
if Trump would be able to go to his son's
graduation ceremony. But Trump is proceeding and posting as though
(02:41):
the judge has told him that he couldn't go. So
this is creating a lot of frustration with the judge.
And obviously this all comes in addition to the gag
order that was issued by this judge already, and that
led to Trump claiming that he couldn't exercise his freedom
(03:04):
of speech and that he was willing to go to
jail and be like a Nelson Mandela figure, which again
is a huge stretch. He just talks too much, and
he's invoking the names of people that have nothing to
do with this trial, and the judge doesn't want him
doing that specifically. But yeah, Trump is being Trump, and
(03:34):
we're all subject to these these stories, and so they're
a little bit more up to speed here. But one
good thing is that they're hoping that jury selection is
going to be finished by the end of the week,
so hopefully the trial gets underway and we can start
to see what is what moving on and keeping in
(03:54):
presidential news, Newsweek is reporting that Joe Biden now leads
Donald Trump in ten polls. So I'll share a bit.
With seven months to go until the presidential election, incumbent
President Joe Biden is beating his Republican challenger Donald Trump,
and a series of recent polls. The Democrat is leading
(04:16):
Trump in ten separate polls conducted in the last month,
although experts have cautioned that it is still too early
to call the election, and Trump is polling higher than
Biden and other polls too. So yeah, there's uh, I
guess good news there, or maybe it's good news for
(04:38):
Joe Biden. But I think what it shows, probably more
than anything, is that Donald Trump is losing favor with
the general public, not that Joe Biden is really gaining it,
although you could make that argument because Joe Biden is
really working that student loan angle and that's really affecting people.
(05:00):
It's you know, I know people personally who have been
impacted by that, and they're like, hey, I'm grateful, it's
worth a vote for me. But I think that Trump
being in the news for so much of these negative things,
it has to be taking a toll. But again, they're
warning us not to read too much into these polls,
(05:22):
because there are some polls that have Trump higher than
Biden too. So just something to know. This is your
midweek memo on the Black Information Network Daily Podcast with
me your host ramses Ja. All Right, next up from
(05:42):
Nbclos Angeles dot com. The University of Southern California will
not have its pro Palestinian valedictorian delivered the twenty twenty
four commencement speech during graduation, citing security concerns and leading
to condemnation from a leading Muslim group. Shortly after, USC
and now Asna Tebassum, a fourth year student from Chino
(06:03):
Hills with a major in biomedical engineering and a minor
in Resistance to genocide, was selected as the twenty twenty
four valied Edictorian. There were calls for the university to
reconsider their decision. Several organizations asked for USC to remove
her as valedictorian because of a link on her social
media account that they said contains anti Semitic language. To
(06:24):
Bossum's Instagram account links to a slideshow encouraging people to
quote learn about what's happening in Palestine and how to
help It calls for quote one Palestinian state unquote, which
it says quote would mean Palestinian liberation and the complete
abolishment of the state of Israel unquote.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
This.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
According to NBC News, Trojans for Israel said this must
be denounced as anti semitic. Bigotry, and that's a quote
from them, and of course Trojans are the mascot at
usc Debossum said the link was shared on her social
media account five years ago and that she was not
the author. So here's one of the things that I
(07:12):
and a lot of people have really had a problem with.
And there's a parallel that I see. So with this
link saying that there needs to be one Palestinian state
and Israel needs to be abolished from the state of Palestine,
(07:34):
that is not dissimilar from people saying black lives matter
and the Trojans for Israel saying that this must be
denounced as anti Semitic bigotry. Sounds very much like the
all Lives Matter crowd, or the reverse racism crowd, or
(07:57):
you know, pick a crowd, pick anything that flies in
the face of somebody affirming their right to exist. Now,
I personally, personally am a huge fan of Jewish based
Jewish culture, Jewish people. I love Jewish people, like buried
(08:19):
Jewish people. I have lived a significant part of my
life being a brother to this community. And indeed, I
know that a lot of people who are humans first
and recognize the humanness of these pleas from the Palestinian
people is well founded, or at minimum it's founded in
(08:41):
their own worldview.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
They don't look.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
At these affirmations as though it's somehow antisemitic. But there
are some people who are pro Israel, we'll call them,
who certainly do feel like anything that comes from Palestine,
or anything that is supportive of Palestinian people continuing to
(09:05):
live or otherwise live unencumbered by Jewish influence, that somehow
that is anti Semitic. And I would argue that it's
anti Israeli, but not anti Semitic. I think that Israel
is a country and Judaism is a faith. And I
(09:25):
have personally not encountered anybody who has had a problem
with the Jewish faith, nor would I allow anybody that
did have a problem with the Jewish faith to share
time and space with me. But the problem here is
that for people who are pro Israel, which obviously there
(09:45):
are going to be some people who feel that Israel
is doing exactly what Israel should be but be doing
by continuing to recover the hostages, or continuing their efforts
to recover the hostages and to protect Israel's interests, and
rightfully so, there should be some people that feel that way.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Of course, for.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Those people to continue to refer to everything as anti Semitic,
that feels a little thin, feels like you're not getting
an argument where these folks are really engaging in the
issues and combing through the nuance. They just are painting
everything away with these broad strokes. And again that's not
(10:28):
unlike the oh, this is reverse racism, crowd affirmative action. Oh,
that's reverse racism CRT. Oh, that's reverse racism. Black history,
that's just reverse racism. Anything that centers or prioritizes Black efforts,
it can be painted away by people who choose to
paint it away as a reverse racism. And I feel
(10:51):
like that is not fear to people who would make
an honest, good faith pro Israel argument can respect how
recovering the hostages is mission critical and the invitation to reconcile,
the effort to recover the hostages with the somewhere the
(11:14):
neighborhood forty thousand people who've lost their lives in that effort,
most of whom are not how my soldiers. That's the
argument that people should be having, and that it's very
difficult for pro Israel people to have these relatively speaking
handful of people mean more than these tens of thousands
(11:35):
of people who've lost their lives in our effort to
recover them. And I'm not saying what's right or wrong.
I'm just saying that's a more challenging conversation have, And
so it manifests itself in ways like this, where this
valedictorian has been put in a position where she cannot
deliver her speech, and from what I'm read, she's certainly
(11:57):
willing to give that speech, but when it's decried as
anti semitic, even letting her give a valedictorian speech, no
one has read the speech, no one knows what she's
going to say yet. But to even have her up
there as anti semitic, based on a post from five
(12:18):
years ago, not months years ago, it just feels like
a little bit of a stretch. And so USC is
hearing about it, and I say, rightfully, so these are
conversations that, for better or worse, we need to have
in an institution like that, where tough conversations are had
(12:40):
and debates are had and so forth and so on.
I respect that they're in a tough spot, but yeah,
you can't let someone call it what it's not, and
then bow to them simply for calling it that. I
don't think that that's right for anybody.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
It doesn't.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
It certainly doesn't do our Jewish brothers and sisters any favors,
and obviously for people who are hoping that Palestine will
one day soon enjoy a ceasefire, it doesn't help their
cause either. All right, and before we let you go it,
I've got to remind you that today is the last
day of Black Maternal Health Week. Black Maternal Health Week
(13:17):
aims to tackle the racial disparity and maternal mortality by
spreading awareness and providing resources for Black birthing people before, during,
an after pregnancy. The founding organization especially highlights black midwiferycare
and full spectrum Black led doula care as sound, evidence
based solutions to tackling pregnancy related deaths that incorporate the
true needs, once and desires of Black women and birthing people.
(13:40):
I employ you to find out more at binnews dot
com and learn about this cause, and please continue to
champion this cause after today, because black mortality rates maternal
mortality rates are something that we should all be paying
attention to. Again, you can find out more at binnews
dot com and don't forget that these, of course and
(14:01):
other stories can be found at bionnews dot com as well.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
This has been a production of the Black Information Network.
Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson. Have some thoughts
you'd like to share, use the red microphone talkback feature
on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there, be sure to
hit subscribe and download all of our episodes. I am
your host, Ramse's Jaw on all social media and join
us tomorrow as we share our news with our voice
(14:27):
from our perspective right here on the Black Information Network
Daily Podcast
A man who needs no introduction.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
The Black Information Network is committed to bringing you up
to the date news stories that are relevant, informative, and inspiring.
And while news stories are always being updated and others
are breaking, we understand that you need to be in
the know all week long. Welcome to your midweek memo
on the Black Information Network Daily Podcast with me your host,
(00:24):
Rams's Job All Right?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
First up from CNN. Seven jurors were placed Tuesday on
the panel that will decide former President Donald Trump's guilt
or innocence in the New York hush money case, a
process that has highlighted how difficult and often contentious it
will be to pick a full jury. Trump's lawyers dug
through prospective jurors's social media posts to try and root
(00:49):
out those with anti Trump bias from getting on the jury,
even questioning several of them about their posts as the
defense team asked to remove them from the jury for cause. So, yeah,
if you're paying close attention to this, which I unfortunately am,
(01:11):
you know that this is this is going to be
a bit of a process. So it turns out they
need eighteen jurors, you know, they need like reserve backup
jurors so that things can move along. But it's kind
of tough because typically you want jurors who are not
familiar with the person in question, and of course, since
(01:33):
this was the former president. Presidents are among the most
popular human beings that walk the earth, and because this
was such a polarizing president, the selection process is even
more challenging still, so New York City took the wise
step of sending out extra summons to fill the additional
(01:56):
slots of hopefully unbiased jurors. Actually, they sent out a
total of two hundred extra summons because their assumption is
that many folks are going to have strong opinions on Trump. Now,
if that was the only thing, then it wouldn't really
be a Trump trial. So we'll add to that that
(02:17):
Trump is really seems to be frustrating the judge. He's
been admonished for attempt set intimidating the jurors, He's fallen
asleep twice so far during the trial. And then the
judge said that they would have to wait and see
if Trump would be able to go to his son's
graduation ceremony. But Trump is proceeding and posting as though
(02:41):
the judge has told him that he couldn't go. So
this is creating a lot of frustration with the judge.
And obviously this all comes in addition to the gag
order that was issued by this judge already, and that
led to Trump claiming that he couldn't exercise his freedom
(03:04):
of speech and that he was willing to go to
jail and be like a Nelson Mandela figure, which again
is a huge stretch. He just talks too much, and
he's invoking the names of people that have nothing to
do with this trial, and the judge doesn't want him
doing that specifically. But yeah, Trump is being Trump, and
(03:34):
we're all subject to these these stories, and so they're
a little bit more up to speed here. But one
good thing is that they're hoping that jury selection is
going to be finished by the end of the week,
so hopefully the trial gets underway and we can start
to see what is what moving on and keeping in
(03:54):
presidential news, Newsweek is reporting that Joe Biden now leads
Donald Trump in ten polls. So I'll share a bit.
With seven months to go until the presidential election, incumbent
President Joe Biden is beating his Republican challenger Donald Trump,
and a series of recent polls. The Democrat is leading
(04:16):
Trump in ten separate polls conducted in the last month,
although experts have cautioned that it is still too early
to call the election, and Trump is polling higher than
Biden and other polls too. So yeah, there's uh, I
guess good news there, or maybe it's good news for
(04:38):
Joe Biden. But I think what it shows, probably more
than anything, is that Donald Trump is losing favor with
the general public, not that Joe Biden is really gaining it,
although you could make that argument because Joe Biden is
really working that student loan angle and that's really affecting people.
(05:00):
It's you know, I know people personally who have been
impacted by that, and they're like, hey, I'm grateful, it's
worth a vote for me. But I think that Trump
being in the news for so much of these negative things,
it has to be taking a toll. But again, they're
warning us not to read too much into these polls,
(05:22):
because there are some polls that have Trump higher than
Biden too. So just something to know. This is your
midweek memo on the Black Information Network Daily Podcast with
me your host ramses Ja. All Right, next up from
(05:42):
Nbclos Angeles dot com. The University of Southern California will
not have its pro Palestinian valedictorian delivered the twenty twenty
four commencement speech during graduation, citing security concerns and leading
to condemnation from a leading Muslim group. Shortly after, USC
and now Asna Tebassum, a fourth year student from Chino
(06:03):
Hills with a major in biomedical engineering and a minor
in Resistance to genocide, was selected as the twenty twenty
four valied Edictorian. There were calls for the university to
reconsider their decision. Several organizations asked for USC to remove
her as valedictorian because of a link on her social
media account that they said contains anti Semitic language. To
(06:24):
Bossum's Instagram account links to a slideshow encouraging people to
quote learn about what's happening in Palestine and how to
help It calls for quote one Palestinian state unquote, which
it says quote would mean Palestinian liberation and the complete
abolishment of the state of Israel unquote.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
This.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
According to NBC News, Trojans for Israel said this must
be denounced as anti semitic. Bigotry, and that's a quote
from them, and of course Trojans are the mascot at
usc Debossum said the link was shared on her social
media account five years ago and that she was not
the author. So here's one of the things that I
(07:12):
and a lot of people have really had a problem with.
And there's a parallel that I see. So with this
link saying that there needs to be one Palestinian state
and Israel needs to be abolished from the state of Palestine,
(07:34):
that is not dissimilar from people saying black lives matter
and the Trojans for Israel saying that this must be
denounced as anti Semitic bigotry. Sounds very much like the
all Lives Matter crowd, or the reverse racism crowd, or
(07:57):
you know, pick a crowd, pick anything that flies in
the face of somebody affirming their right to exist. Now,
I personally, personally am a huge fan of Jewish based
Jewish culture, Jewish people. I love Jewish people, like buried
(08:19):
Jewish people. I have lived a significant part of my
life being a brother to this community. And indeed, I
know that a lot of people who are humans first
and recognize the humanness of these pleas from the Palestinian
people is well founded, or at minimum it's founded in
(08:41):
their own worldview.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
They don't look.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
At these affirmations as though it's somehow antisemitic. But there
are some people who are pro Israel, we'll call them,
who certainly do feel like anything that comes from Palestine,
or anything that is supportive of Palestinian people continuing to
(09:05):
live or otherwise live unencumbered by Jewish influence, that somehow
that is anti Semitic. And I would argue that it's
anti Israeli, but not anti Semitic. I think that Israel
is a country and Judaism is a faith. And I
(09:25):
have personally not encountered anybody who has had a problem
with the Jewish faith, nor would I allow anybody that
did have a problem with the Jewish faith to share
time and space with me. But the problem here is
that for people who are pro Israel, which obviously there
(09:45):
are going to be some people who feel that Israel
is doing exactly what Israel should be but be doing
by continuing to recover the hostages, or continuing their efforts
to recover the hostages and to protect Israel's interests, and
rightfully so, there should be some people that feel that way.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Of course, for.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Those people to continue to refer to everything as anti Semitic,
that feels a little thin, feels like you're not getting
an argument where these folks are really engaging in the
issues and combing through the nuance. They just are painting
everything away with these broad strokes. And again that's not
(10:28):
unlike the oh, this is reverse racism, crowd affirmative action. Oh,
that's reverse racism CRT. Oh, that's reverse racism. Black history,
that's just reverse racism. Anything that centers or prioritizes Black efforts,
it can be painted away by people who choose to
paint it away as a reverse racism. And I feel
(10:51):
like that is not fear to people who would make
an honest, good faith pro Israel argument can respect how
recovering the hostages is mission critical and the invitation to reconcile,
the effort to recover the hostages with the somewhere the
(11:14):
neighborhood forty thousand people who've lost their lives in that effort,
most of whom are not how my soldiers. That's the
argument that people should be having, and that it's very
difficult for pro Israel people to have these relatively speaking
handful of people mean more than these tens of thousands
(11:35):
of people who've lost their lives in our effort to
recover them. And I'm not saying what's right or wrong.
I'm just saying that's a more challenging conversation have, And
so it manifests itself in ways like this, where this
valedictorian has been put in a position where she cannot
deliver her speech, and from what I'm read, she's certainly
(11:57):
willing to give that speech, but when it's decried as
anti semitic, even letting her give a valedictorian speech, no
one has read the speech, no one knows what she's
going to say yet. But to even have her up
there as anti semitic, based on a post from five
(12:18):
years ago, not months years ago, it just feels like
a little bit of a stretch. And so USC is
hearing about it, and I say, rightfully, so these are
conversations that, for better or worse, we need to have
in an institution like that, where tough conversations are had
(12:40):
and debates are had and so forth and so on.
I respect that they're in a tough spot, but yeah,
you can't let someone call it what it's not, and
then bow to them simply for calling it that. I
don't think that that's right for anybody.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
It doesn't.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
It certainly doesn't do our Jewish brothers and sisters any favors,
and obviously for people who are hoping that Palestine will
one day soon enjoy a ceasefire, it doesn't help their
cause either. All right, and before we let you go it,
I've got to remind you that today is the last
day of Black Maternal Health Week. Black Maternal Health Week
(13:17):
aims to tackle the racial disparity and maternal mortality by
spreading awareness and providing resources for Black birthing people before, during,
an after pregnancy. The founding organization especially highlights black midwiferycare
and full spectrum Black led doula care as sound, evidence
based solutions to tackling pregnancy related deaths that incorporate the
true needs, once and desires of Black women and birthing people.
(13:40):
I employ you to find out more at binnews dot
com and learn about this cause, and please continue to
champion this cause after today, because black mortality rates maternal
mortality rates are something that we should all be paying
attention to. Again, you can find out more at binnews
dot com and don't forget that these, of course and
(14:01):
other stories can be found at bionnews dot com as well.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
This has been a production of the Black Information Network.
Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson. Have some thoughts
you'd like to share, use the red microphone talkback feature
on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there, be sure to
hit subscribe and download all of our episodes. I am
your host, Ramse's Jaw on all social media and join
us tomorrow as we share our news with our voice
(14:27):
from our perspective right here on the Black Information Network
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