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Nov. 3, 2024

Election Special with Truth Teller Zeek Arkham

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Courageous Leadership

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Prepare yourself for a riveting conversation with Zeek Arkham, a law enforcement officer unafraid to challenge prevailing narratives. Zeek unpacks his journey of courageously speaking out on social media to offer an authentic take on policing and conservatarian views, revealing the pressure of addressing grievances within the Black community. He shares insights on the importance of truth-telling, despite backlash, and the frustrations with unfulfilled political promises in Democratic strongholds like Chicago. Together, we explore how voting patterns persist amidst economic dissatisfaction and the necessity of making decisions grounded in facts over emotions.

Our dialogue extends to the realm of modern activism and media influence, where Zeek offers a unique perspective on how these forces shape public perception. We candidly discuss the impact of media bias on narratives surrounding political figures and racial incidents, using personal anecdotes and historical comparisons to highlight the challenges of today's socio-political landscape. Through this lens, Zeek reflects on the perceived exploitation of racial issues by prominent activists, drawing attention to the need for genuine connections and unity amidst societal divisions.

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Chapters

00:00 - Courageous Leadership

11:54 - Truth and Courage in Politics

17:56 - Rise of the Activist Culture

24:41 - Media Influence and Activism

32:17 - Media Bias and Public Perception

37:16 - Deception in Media and Politics

50:00 - Social Media Contact Information

Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.341 --> 00:00:01.604
So here I am.

00:00:01.604 --> 00:00:05.453
I'm now full of all this anger and I'm putting on a clinic or so I think for my family.

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You know my granddad's there who actually marched for Washington, my great granddad's there who I told you his history, and I remember my, my great granddad just put his hand on my hand to stop me and he goes always be the last person in the room to call something racist, because if you call everything racist, then nothing is racist.

00:00:26.734 --> 00:00:32.692
But if you save that accusation for when it really counts, it'll be so much more powerful.

00:00:32.692 --> 00:00:38.600
And then he just started talking about something else, Like just stop me right there, Dead in my tracks.

00:00:40.487 --> 00:00:48.871
Welcome to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates, where leaders find the insights, advice and encouragement they need to lead courageously.

00:00:50.322 --> 00:00:51.506
Welcome back to the show.

00:00:51.506 --> 00:00:54.939
I'm so honored you decided to spend some time with us today.

00:00:54.939 --> 00:00:59.892
Remember to check out our sponsor of today's episode, safeguard Recruiting.

00:00:59.892 --> 00:01:03.850
They're owned and operated by law enforcement for law enforcement.

00:01:03.850 --> 00:01:06.608
They have the solutions to your recruiting needs.

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You can check them out at safeguardrecruitingcom.

00:01:09.227 --> 00:01:15.293
I'm excited about today's special episode Election 2024.

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And I couldn't think of anyone better to bring on the show than Zeke Arkham.

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Zeke's a police officer, bodybuilder, political commentator, but, more importantly, he's a husband and he's a father.

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He's one of the most influential voices on social media when it comes to politics, culture and the state of our union, and I'm honored to have him, zeke.

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How are you doing, sir?

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I'm good man, I'm good.

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Thank you so much for the intro.

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Thank you.

00:01:40.721 --> 00:01:41.981
Well, man, thanks for doing it.

00:01:41.981 --> 00:01:44.742
And you're in law enforcement.

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You have this big voice on social media.

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It's a voice that I think many people probably recognize, and I'm glad you're able to put a face to it and to hear you talk to us today.

00:01:54.227 --> 00:02:09.611
But you weren point for you right where you made a decision that you needed to start speaking out.

00:02:09.611 --> 00:02:14.593
It's a courageous decision we talk about courageous leadership here all the time and it's courageous because it's not easy.

00:02:14.593 --> 00:02:23.437
It's courageous because you get attacked verbally mainly, but so you probably had to make that decision, knowing the consequences.

00:02:23.437 --> 00:02:25.737
But was there an event where you made the decision to go?

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I'm going to be.

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I'm going to do something more than just complaining to my friends or family.

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I need to start speaking out.

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Well, I mean, yeah, basically I was on social media, I was on my personal Facebook page and I was very political, talking to my family and friends.

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I'm sure a bunch of them probably had me muted because they didn't want to hear about it anymore.

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Friends, I'm sure a bunch of them probably had me muted because they didn't want to hear about it anymore.

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But I kept hearing that I should take my views to a bigger stage just because I had a lot to say.

00:02:50.300 --> 00:02:54.331
And I looked around and I saw that there was really no one else with my perspective.

00:02:54.331 --> 00:02:57.366
You know, you had other guys out there who you know.

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You had Brandon Tatum out there, who is a cop, you know, who's a black man who was giving a perspective on law enforcement, who's a Black man who was giving a perspective on law enforcement.

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But there was no one really in the Northeast.

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I'm New York born and bred.

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I work for a tri-state agency now, but I was out there in the streets.

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I was out there putting my hands on people and I figured you know what, let me get out there and start telling my story.

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So I started telling my story, just from my perspective, and everyone always asks you know, how did you get such a large following?

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And my answer to them is always I have no idea.

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You know, I just started posting and more and more people started tuning in, and that's where it started.

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You know, I just figured there was a lot of lies and misconceptions out there as far as policing goes.

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A lot of people who presented themselves as law enforcement experts really had no idea what they were talking about.

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So I decided to just get out there and start telling the truth.

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No, there's not racism in the locker room.

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No, there aren't good cops hiding in the corner while the bad cops are openly plotting the nefarious deeds.

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Like you see in the movie theaters, you know, um, you know, there's this whole big misconceptions as far as policing goes, as far as being a conservatarian goes, and and I just just decided to tell my story, just to really put the truth out there there's no my truth or your truth, there's the truth.

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So I figured it had to be told and that's what I started doing.

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Well, I, for one, am thankful you're doing it.

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I wrote an article about Brandon way back in 2015 when nobody knew who Brandon Tatum was, and that thing went pretty crazy.

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Next thing, you know it's history, right.

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So Brandon's doing very well out there and he's also a voice.

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But, Zeke, you resonate with so many people and I got to tell you.

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You probably didn't understand how dangerous this truth is, because, I have to agree with you, you just call balls and strikes Right.

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You're just saying how it is.

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Why do you think so many people get upset by that?

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I think, because there's sort of an unspoken social order where you're not supposed to go against, quote, unquote your people, especially in the Black community.

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You're not supposed to say things that sort of, I guess, dispel the victimhood narrative.

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I remember I'll tell you a story I had a girlfriend way back in high school and she was Asian and I was complaining to her about another person who was Black and I was complaining to her about another person who was black and I remember an older black person or an older black woman pulled me aside and was like but you're not supposed to put our business out there to other people.

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And I was like, yeah, but this is my girlfriend.

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Yeah, but you're not supposed to.

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So I think there's sort of a social order where you're not supposed to put the grievances out and say, hey, listen, your house is dirty, clean it.

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And that's basically what I do on a daily basis.

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I don't fall for the victimhood narrative.

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I don't fall for the.

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You know I have to blame all of my problems on things that my great, great, great grandparents went through.

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You know, slavery isn't a millstone around my neck I have to carry.

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You know, I don't carry that chip on my shoulder.

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I'm out here the same as everyone else, getting up, putting my boots on, going to work, coming back home.

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Have a family I got to take care of, have a daughter I want to see, be safe, have dreams, aspirations.

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I guess I appeal to everyone just because I'm taking race out of it.

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I mean, except for when it calls for it.

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I have no problem calling anyone on their BS, but my story is the same as everyone else's.

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I'm no different.

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I think that's what resonates with a lot of people.

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Here's this guy who isn't falling for the victim narrative.

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He's this guy who's just out there talking about how he likes to barbecue on the weekends.

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And I got to go to my daughter's dance recitals and I'm bored for half the day because, you know, I'm just waiting for my daughter to get on stage.

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You know I'm talking about the same things as everyone else and I'm doing it from a blue collar perspective, which is, you know, what a lot of people identify with.

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So I guess that's where a lot of people just identify.

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And I think that has been.

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What is so troubling to me is seeing the divide in the country, the divide coming from politicians and the media, mainly because, unfortunately, there's people that still believe what the media tells them, still believes what politicians tell them, and I'm like you, zeke.

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I've traveled around the country.

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This divide doesn't really exist.

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Black, white, asian, you name it.

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Everybody's just trying to get along or trying to go to work or trying to raise their family, but the media and the narrative and the messaging is so opposite.

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I had a seminal event, uh, and it was I can't remember the year, but it was george bush's second term when, uh, he beat john kerry on the whole florida debacle, but that the election night I was at work.

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I'll never forget where I was because I didn't realize some of the things you just talked about, zeke.

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At the time I'd been on seven years on.

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The police department thought I'd been around the block.

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I clearly hadn't.

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I'm in a booth at a pizza place and I'm eating with a friend of mine on duty and there's a African-American family behind me mom, dad, kids that are sitting there and the TV's on with the election, and the mom's turns to the entire family and says we cannot have George Bush win.

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If George Bush wins he's going to try to come for all of us, the entire black race may end.

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And he starts going down this litany of things and I thought to myself what world have I been in?

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Because I got to tell you, zeke, you're at a disadvantage.

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I can vote for whoever I want to vote for and nobody's really going to get mad at me.

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I don't think people realize in the black community to vocally say you're going to vote for the Republican Party.

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That doesn't garner you a lot of favor and I think that is so unfortunate.

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I'll just be clear with you.

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I think that is sad that in America that is there Like people should be able to vote for whoever they want to vote for and not worry about repercussions.

00:08:47.504 --> 00:08:48.648
What's your thoughts on that?

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I agree.

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There's no set rule saying I have to vote for someone just because the majority of Black folk are voting for that person.

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There's no set rule, at least in my mind, that says I have to think, speak and act a certain way just because I'm Black.

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No, I do what I want to do.

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I go out there, I vote how I want to vote.

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I listen to whatever music I feel like listening to.

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I speak, talk, act, think the way I want to.

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Just because I'm free.

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I'm a free man.

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I do what I want to do.

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That's something I impress upon my daughter.

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That's something that when I mentored and I had a lot more time I could mentor kids from the community I worked in I would do such a thing.

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Hey, listen, man, there's no set rule that says you have to do something, and that's just the message I spread to everyone.

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That's the message whenever I post, whenever I do my podcast, whenever I do my video rants.

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That's something that I say over and over and over again and thankfully, a lot more people are starting to wake up and a lot more people are starting to say hey, listen, I don't have to vote for this person just because they share a skin tone with me, or because they share a melanin count with me, or because we have a common ancestor somewhere in Africa or who knows?

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Whatever you don't have to do that you go out there.

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You do whatever you have to do and thankfully, a lot more people are waking up.

00:10:08.326 --> 00:10:20.549
It's refreshing to see because, honestly, the narrative that I have to do something because it's the black thing to do or it's because it's the quote unquote right thing to do is tiring.

00:10:20.919 --> 00:10:28.347
I remember again in my personal Facebook page where I used to rant and things to my family, I had a cousin of mine say you know what you got to remember?

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You were black before you were a cop.

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And I didn't really at the time I didn't know how to respond to that.

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I knew it was wrong, I knew it was a logical fallacy, but I didn't know how to respond to that.

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So I brought to someone who I respect and I respect his views and his opinion, and this happens to actually be a white guy.

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I brought this to him, you know, just having a heart to heart, and he said yeah, that may be true, you were black before you were a cop, but the truth is always the truth, regardless of race or occupation or anything else, and that was something that always stuck with me.

00:10:58.297 --> 00:10:59.981
The truth is always the truth.

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The truth transcends your race or your career, what you think is the right thing to do, Like Oprah says, you know your truth.

00:11:06.807 --> 00:11:11.625
No, there's the truth and it transcends everything, and that's always the right side to be on.

00:11:12.607 --> 00:11:21.047
Yeah, and I guess it attacks people's worldview, right, if you thought a certain way, because I've turned around that booth and tried to talk logic, they would not have heard of it, right?

00:11:21.047 --> 00:11:29.928
So I guess truth, when it attacks the worldview, people want to defend that, Right, they want to defend that worldview.

00:11:29.928 --> 00:11:31.456
But I think that's why your voice resonates, zeke, is, you are a free man.

00:11:31.456 --> 00:11:35.086
You're speaking what a lot of people, quite frankly, in the black community believe, but you're speaking out about it.

00:11:35.086 --> 00:11:52.851
I do sense a swell of people that aren't buying into this narrative, right, and I think it's people like yourself and Brandon and others that had the courage to speak out to make other people feel like, ok, I can do this, I can do this or that, but the vast majority of African-Americans still vote one way.

00:11:52.851 --> 00:11:54.100
That's certainly they're right.

00:11:54.100 --> 00:12:05.914
But I've always been amazed at the, the reasoning, because when you look historically, things don't oftentimes, they're just not.

00:12:05.914 --> 00:12:07.476
The promises are false.

00:12:07.476 --> 00:12:11.311
Right, the promises are false, and I'm not saying Republicans could improve it.

00:12:11.311 --> 00:12:13.849
I think some of the policies and ideas definitely can improve it.

00:12:14.440 --> 00:12:17.087
But I look at a city like Chicago.

00:12:17.087 --> 00:12:19.621
You know they voted Democrat, I don't know.

00:12:19.621 --> 00:12:23.292
60 years and the city is just getting worse and worse and worse.

00:12:23.292 --> 00:12:24.423
Does it ever?

00:12:24.423 --> 00:12:29.408
Is there ever like a trigger that says, okay, nothing's getting better.

00:12:29.408 --> 00:12:32.101
Every four years we get promised this, but it's nothing's getting better?

00:12:32.101 --> 00:12:34.006
Maybe we should think a different way.

00:12:34.006 --> 00:12:37.927
Sometimes it takes someone like you to make them think that, but people will?

00:12:37.927 --> 00:12:41.221
People come to this on their own, based on this like how bad does it have to get?

00:12:41.221 --> 00:12:43.625
How bad does it have to get before people change their mind?

00:12:43.625 --> 00:12:52.196
We're liable to see it tomorrow, tuesday, that people are going to vote based on how bad it is.

00:12:52.196 --> 00:12:53.142
What's your thoughts on that?

00:12:54.784 --> 00:12:57.691
Honestly, I wish I had more of an answer for you.

00:12:57.691 --> 00:13:00.922
You know, because me personally, looking at it, you know.

00:13:00.922 --> 00:13:14.417
If you destroy things and screw things up royally for eight years, why would I then turn around and want to vote for your predecessor or someone that you're endorsing, or someone that you're saying, yeah, you know what, vote for this guy.

00:13:14.417 --> 00:13:16.726
He's going to do the exact type of job I've done.

00:13:16.726 --> 00:13:18.071
Why would I do that?

00:13:18.071 --> 00:13:18.660
You know?

00:13:18.660 --> 00:13:21.206
Why wouldn't I vote for the guy who turns around and says you know what?

00:13:21.206 --> 00:13:22.269
Vote for me.

00:13:22.269 --> 00:13:23.373
What have you got to lose?

00:13:23.373 --> 00:13:24.625
Things are already bad.

00:13:24.625 --> 00:13:31.302
What have you got to lose?

00:13:31.302 --> 00:13:32.104
Things are already bad.

00:13:32.104 --> 00:13:32.706
What have you got to lose?

00:13:32.706 --> 00:13:33.227
That makes sense to me.

00:13:33.227 --> 00:13:45.048
You look at what Biden has done over the past four years and you look at Kamala Harris, who is sitting right next to him as he was doing it, and you have people who complain about how high the gas is or how expensive groceries are or how high the mortgage rates are.

00:13:45.048 --> 00:13:53.842
You have people who are actively complaining about that, who still want to turn around and vote for the same person who directly contributed to that, and they look for ways.

00:13:53.842 --> 00:13:58.452
They do mental gymnastics in order to somehow justify why they're voting for this person.

00:13:58.452 --> 00:13:59.802
I don't understand it.

00:13:59.802 --> 00:14:00.625
I don't get it.

00:14:00.625 --> 00:14:02.951
But maybe it's not for me to understand.

00:14:02.951 --> 00:14:04.383
Again, maybe it's just like you know what.

00:14:04.383 --> 00:14:07.789
I'm not supposed to understand it.

00:14:07.789 --> 00:14:09.433
It's not supposed to make sense to me.

00:14:11.698 --> 00:14:12.701
I look at things logically.

00:14:12.701 --> 00:14:14.866
I look at things through a lens of the truth.

00:14:14.866 --> 00:14:16.370
I don't vote based on feelings.

00:14:16.370 --> 00:14:22.013
I don't do anything, except for when it comes to family issues do anything when it comes to feelings.

00:14:22.013 --> 00:14:41.806
I look at facts, I look at logic, I look at what's the sensible thing to do going forward, and the sensible thing to do would be to vote for the person where, during his time in office, gas was cheap, groceries weren't as expensive, mortgage rates were lower, unemployment was down.

00:14:41.806 --> 00:14:43.187
You got to look at these things.

00:14:43.187 --> 00:14:44.448
You got to look at them sensibly.

00:14:44.448 --> 00:14:50.434
I don't care about felonies through a weaponized justice system.

00:14:50.434 --> 00:14:54.490
I don't care about what someone did in their personal business.

00:14:54.490 --> 00:14:57.581
I care about what they did for the country while they were in charge.

00:14:58.102 --> 00:15:03.912
If you look at Trump love him or hate him while he was in charge, things were pretty good in this country.

00:15:03.912 --> 00:15:08.934
Things were pretty good around the world, and then, as soon as Biden showed up, you have Russia acting out.

00:15:08.934 --> 00:15:10.360
You have China acting out.

00:15:10.360 --> 00:15:12.144
You have terrorists in the Middle East acting out.

00:15:12.144 --> 00:15:16.144
Do you think Kamala Harris is going to go there with strength and confidence?

00:15:16.144 --> 00:15:19.941
She can't do one of her own realities with strength and confidence.

00:15:19.941 --> 00:15:25.513
She can't attract 200,000 people to a venue like Madison Square Garden by herself.

00:15:25.513 --> 00:15:27.687
She's got to get Beyonce to help her out.

00:15:27.687 --> 00:15:29.986
She's got to get Taylor Swift to help her out.

00:15:29.986 --> 00:15:33.509
She's got to get people who are showing up for the Beyonce concert.

00:15:33.509 --> 00:15:39.332
And then afterwards, you know, here are a couple of words from the person you're supposed to be here to see.

00:15:39.332 --> 00:15:44.631
No, trump shows up and Trump can pack someplace like Madison Square Garden on his own.

00:15:44.631 --> 00:16:06.000
No-transcript.

00:16:07.147 --> 00:16:14.299
Yeah, I was cracking up last week when her surrogate was floating to the media that she's in negotiations with Joe Rogan.

00:16:14.299 --> 00:16:21.155
I looked at my wife and I said she can't do Joe Rogan, she can't sit there for three hours and have a conversation.

00:16:21.155 --> 00:16:21.365
I go.

00:16:21.365 --> 00:16:23.995
They're just throwing that out there to make it seem like they're trying.

00:16:23.995 --> 00:16:25.190
I go, there's no way they're going to do it.

00:16:25.190 --> 00:16:26.389
Of course they aren't going to do it.

00:16:33.345 --> 00:16:44.432
And, Zeke, I'm obsessed with what makes people courageous and, whether you want to acknowledge it or not, you are unique in that you're willing to stand boldly on the truth, no matter the consequences and maybe the consequences are just people call you bad names, but there's still consequences.

00:16:44.432 --> 00:16:58.975
Right being in law enforcement, there can be consequences, telling the truth, and so I'm obsessed with people that have your character and the things inside of you, because when you talk about I mean, you remind me so much of myself, and I've been in plenty of trouble telling the truth.

00:16:58.975 --> 00:17:04.569
In fact, one of the big principles those have been paying attention to us here at Courageous Police Leadership is it's facts over emotion.

00:17:04.569 --> 00:17:09.008
You must make decisions based on facts, because emotion rarely anything good comes of it.

00:17:09.008 --> 00:17:09.788
You just mentioned that.

00:17:10.369 --> 00:17:15.019
What do you think it is about you that makes you different?

00:17:15.019 --> 00:17:16.692
Whether you know it or not, you are different.

00:17:16.692 --> 00:17:18.752
There's very few Zeke Arkhams out there.

00:17:18.752 --> 00:17:20.872
Was it how you were raised?

00:17:20.872 --> 00:17:22.571
Was it your education?

00:17:22.571 --> 00:17:25.074
What do you think it is inside you that makes you go?

00:17:25.074 --> 00:17:26.872
I've got to stand for the truth, no matter what.

00:17:29.788 --> 00:17:32.696
Honestly, I don't think anything really makes me different.

00:17:32.696 --> 00:17:39.909
I think people just see a lot of themselves in my posts, that I'm saying things that they're thinking.

00:17:39.909 --> 00:17:45.038
That's why I said the thing about the truth is just people recognize the truth.

00:17:45.038 --> 00:17:46.188
You don't have to bend to the truth.

00:17:46.188 --> 00:17:48.074
You don't have to do mental gymnastics in order to justify the truth.

00:17:48.074 --> 00:17:50.781
You don't have to sort mental gymnastics in order to justify the truth.

00:17:50.781 --> 00:17:53.852
You don't have to sort of work your way around.

00:17:53.852 --> 00:17:54.775
The truth is just there.

00:17:54.775 --> 00:17:55.596
You put it out there.

00:17:56.204 --> 00:18:00.726
I think what makes my story unique is that I'm telling a story from someplace where I've actually been.

00:18:00.726 --> 00:18:03.133
I've actually been in police locker rooms.

00:18:03.133 --> 00:18:06.128
I've actually spoken to cops all around the country.

00:18:06.128 --> 00:18:09.920
I've actually been in places that people only see on TV.

00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:17.998
I'm actually able to tell the truth of what goes on in these things, and I'm not saying it because someone told me.

00:18:17.998 --> 00:18:20.770
I'm not saying it because I read it in a book somewhere.

00:18:20.770 --> 00:18:25.109
I'm not some professor who I'm thinking about what could possibly happen.

00:18:25.109 --> 00:18:30.670
I have this perfect scenario in my head and I'm going to say this and I think that this is how it should be.

00:18:30.670 --> 00:18:32.192
No, I know things go sideways.

00:18:32.192 --> 00:18:42.549
Any cop can tell you yeah, you can talk about it in a classroom, you can describe what you think should happen.

00:18:42.549 --> 00:18:45.603
You can go on based on what you saw in a movie somewhere, but until you're actually on scene, you have no idea what's going to happen.

00:18:45.603 --> 00:18:46.506
You have no idea.

00:18:46.506 --> 00:18:57.195
You'll have no clue as to what it takes to actually solve that crime, to bring everything together so that you can get someone to justice.

00:18:58.200 --> 00:19:03.192
I remember I had training in Alabama and I knew nothing about Alabama at the time.

00:19:03.192 --> 00:19:12.417
Here I am, this New York guy, the city slicker, who had only really traveled to a couple of spots in the South and I had training in Alabama.

00:19:12.417 --> 00:19:15.874
My first thought was oh my Lord, there's going to be places I can't go to.

00:19:15.874 --> 00:19:20.934
There's going to be sundown towns, there's going to be all kinds of things happening.

00:19:20.934 --> 00:19:22.686
I'm going to get called all kinds of names.

00:19:22.686 --> 00:19:31.473
And I got in the plane, I get down there and I found out that these were some of the nicest people I've ever met in my life.

00:19:31.473 --> 00:19:38.349
I'm hanging out with some of the instructors who were native people from Alabama, who were some of the coolest people I've ever met.

00:19:38.349 --> 00:19:49.890
At the last night they invited us out to a barbecue at one of their houses and I, to this day, remember that night just because it was one of the best times I've ever had.

00:19:49.950 --> 00:19:59.713
You're sitting there, you're eating barbecue, you're talking to people from around the country, you're talking to people from other countries, and I just want to recreate that time.

00:19:59.814 --> 00:20:24.916
Every time I talk to people or I have a podcast and I'm talking to someone from a different part of the country, or I'm talking to someone who may not even think the same way I do, but you know, we can agree on certain things I just want to recreate that because it was such a cool moment, such a great time, and I learned that day that I shouldn't judge people based on where they come in from or their background or, you know, if they were raised differently than I am.

00:20:25.017 --> 00:20:28.653
You know, you, just what brings us all together is that we're Americans.

00:20:28.653 --> 00:20:50.491
And if you love this country, if you're a patriot, if you want the best for this country, if you have children who you just want to leave them a better country, even if you have nieces, nephews, stepchildren, whatever, and your goal is just to leave them a better country, or even if you have no one and you look around and you just want to do the best thing by the country, great.

00:20:50.491 --> 00:20:52.315
That's the foundation we can start on.

00:20:52.315 --> 00:20:54.859
That's the foundation we can build a friendship on.

00:20:54.859 --> 00:21:04.534
And we're not going to agree on everything, but you know what we can agree on on some things, and that's the best part of it well what you just described.

00:21:04.594 --> 00:21:06.638
I mean, I think I've got a few years on.

00:21:06.638 --> 00:21:07.547
You have more than a few.

00:21:07.547 --> 00:21:16.895
That's kind of how things were, man, like growing up in the 80s and and starting my career in the early 90s, and that was kind of how it was.

00:21:16.895 --> 00:21:21.032
I I think it switched in 2011, 2012.

00:21:21.032 --> 00:21:26.749
It's been a good decade now, where you don't have to agree with everything the other person says.

00:21:26.749 --> 00:21:27.772
You can still get along.

00:21:27.772 --> 00:21:29.762
You have more in common than uncommon.

00:21:29.762 --> 00:21:31.670
You could vote for one person, I could vote for the other.

00:21:31.670 --> 00:21:33.234
We can be on opposite sides of the aisle.

00:21:33.234 --> 00:21:34.888
You could be gay, I could be straight.

00:21:34.888 --> 00:21:36.734
We could still get along.

00:21:36.734 --> 00:21:42.237
What happened in this country to where you now have to hate the other person if they don't agree with everything?

00:21:42.237 --> 00:21:44.626
You have to say or or or.

00:21:44.626 --> 00:21:45.827
You know the.

00:21:45.827 --> 00:21:48.670
The word inclusivity means you better agree with me, or else.

00:21:48.670 --> 00:21:49.049
I mean.

00:21:49.049 --> 00:21:51.452
What do you think happened with that phenomenon?

00:21:52.573 --> 00:21:56.217
I think what happened is what I call the rise of the activist.

00:21:56.217 --> 00:21:58.878
All of a sudden, everyone was an activist.

00:21:58.878 --> 00:22:01.161
All of a sudden, you were an activist for this.

00:22:01.161 --> 00:22:02.402
You were an activist for that.

00:22:02.402 --> 00:22:08.951
You know you have to be an activist for I don't know children in Rwanda.

00:22:08.951 --> 00:22:10.961
You had to know somebody, you had to become an activist.

00:22:10.961 --> 00:22:13.608
And I remember I read an article.

00:22:13.608 --> 00:22:24.009
I don't remember who wrote the article or where it was from, but basically the person who wrote the article said that people nowadays are in a position where they need something to fight for.

00:22:25.191 --> 00:22:38.247
A good friend of mine, leonidas Johnson, has a book where he described St George the Dragon slayer, where the legend of St George was that he was the best dragon slayer out there and he wound up slaying all the dragons out there.

00:22:38.247 --> 00:22:40.231
So there were no more dragons to slay.

00:22:40.231 --> 00:22:45.208
So now he finds himself to be irrelevant because all the dragons are gone.

00:22:45.208 --> 00:22:49.615
So now, in order to get relevancy, everything became a dragon.

00:22:49.615 --> 00:22:53.721
If there's a broken windmill, that's a dragon.

00:22:53.721 --> 00:22:56.744
If the well ran dry, that's a dragon.

00:22:56.744 --> 00:22:59.634
Now, everything, he made everything a dragon.

00:22:59.634 --> 00:23:10.236
And that's basically what's going on now with kids in the Gen Z generation, and everyone wants to be an activist They'll create problems in order to be the one who solves them.

00:23:10.236 --> 00:23:14.131
Activists, they'll create problems in order to be the one who solves them.

00:23:14.131 --> 00:23:19.853
And even if there are no problems, even if you have a great life, even if you're comfortable, you have to create a problem because now you have to be the one to fix it.

00:23:20.494 --> 00:23:29.409
It's no longer something where, in the generation of my parents or grandparents, there was a civil rights struggle, where they were bona fide, fighting for rights that they didn't have.

00:23:29.409 --> 00:23:31.816
That's kind of how I red-pilled my mom.

00:23:31.816 --> 00:23:39.611
I said, ma, what rights don't you have right now that white people have, that anybody else has, what rights don't you have?

00:23:39.611 --> 00:23:52.710
And my mom actually really had to think about that because, as someone who grew up during the civil rights struggle, she was used to just having that perspective and she had to think about it and she said you're kind of right, there's nothing I'm fighting for.

00:23:52.710 --> 00:23:57.595
I said, yeah, ma, so why have this stance?

00:23:57.595 --> 00:24:06.815
And she kind of got red-pilled off of that and that's usually just what I tell people nowadays what rights are you fighting for right now?

00:24:06.865 --> 00:24:19.199
We're not talking about individual racism, because people are allowed to be individually racist or have whatever biases they have fine, but what systemic biases, what systemic racism is out there where you have to overcome this hurdle.

00:24:19.199 --> 00:24:22.407
Now they're not lynching people in the South anymore.

00:24:22.407 --> 00:24:25.113
The Klan is a joke nowadays.

00:24:25.113 --> 00:24:36.076
There is no real white supremacist group out there or any sort of supremacist group out there where now you have to actively fight them, because they're actually out there trying to kill you.

00:24:36.076 --> 00:24:37.378
What's out there?

00:24:37.378 --> 00:24:38.119
Nothing.

00:24:38.119 --> 00:24:41.034
So stop turning everything into a dragon.

00:24:41.034 --> 00:24:48.980
But you have these activists out there who now want something to fight for, who need something to fight for, because they want to give themselves some sort of relevancy.

00:24:48.980 --> 00:24:51.710
And that's where everything starts to fall apart.

00:24:51.710 --> 00:25:01.866
Because you gave people like Al Sharpton a renewed voice, you gave Sean King a voice, you gave all these other people the Rachel Dolezal, all the you know man you're.

00:25:01.886 --> 00:25:08.130
Sean King cracks me up the idea that he's got me blocked on social media, so I have no idea what he says.

00:25:08.130 --> 00:25:11.695
Now the guy that dumb can make a dollar drives.

00:25:11.695 --> 00:25:13.278
I mean, that's the beauty of America.

00:25:13.278 --> 00:25:14.907
Right there, Sean King can make a living.

00:25:14.907 --> 00:25:17.535
To be honest with you, man, oh man.

00:25:18.155 --> 00:25:18.676
No, listen.

00:25:18.676 --> 00:25:21.595
In a righteous society, he would be broke.

00:25:21.595 --> 00:25:25.184
Al Sharpton would be broke, but you know what, though, I mean.

00:25:25.184 --> 00:25:28.410
But Booker T Washington described that way back during his time.

00:25:28.410 --> 00:25:32.855
He said there's a class of Black person who they profit off of racism.

00:25:32.855 --> 00:25:36.361
I'm paraphrasing, of course, but they profit off of racism.

00:25:36.361 --> 00:25:40.195
Sean King, who's a writer, isn't that much of a writer.

00:25:40.195 --> 00:25:43.007
I've read his stuff that has nothing to do with race.

00:25:43.007 --> 00:25:46.613
He's not a good writer at all, but he needs to profit off of race.

00:25:46.613 --> 00:25:50.900
Al Sharpton has spent his entire life profiting off of race.

00:25:50.900 --> 00:25:55.876
All these other people Tariq Nasheed, all of them profit off of race.

00:25:55.876 --> 00:26:01.884
They need racism to be a thing, so it gives them some sort of relevancy.

00:26:01.884 --> 00:26:04.769
If I were to snap my fingers today and say you know what?

00:26:04.769 --> 00:26:11.079
All racism is gone, these people would fight with everything they had to bring it back.

00:26:11.079 --> 00:26:14.935
So this is what we're dealing with right now, and this is why things are so divided.

00:26:15.865 --> 00:26:19.030
Yeah, I kind of called that probably 10 or 15 years ago.

00:26:19.030 --> 00:26:24.740
When you know you look around and you go, man, things are pretty, pretty good.

00:26:24.740 --> 00:26:32.906
I mean, you know it was very hard to find, like I said, there's individual races, but it was sort of really you had to look and I told my wife I go.

00:26:32.906 --> 00:26:38.058
This is the most dangerous time because there are people that profit off this, that have to keep this going.

00:26:38.058 --> 00:26:39.530
So you're going to see the hoaxes.

00:26:39.530 --> 00:26:43.115
You're going to see the noose in the NASCAR that ended up not being a noose.

00:26:43.115 --> 00:26:44.626
You're going to see the Jesse Smollett's.

00:26:44.626 --> 00:26:48.854
You're going to see all this stuff continue to happen and that is extremely unfortunate.

00:26:48.854 --> 00:26:51.117
You said something a few minutes back, zeke, and I know why.

00:26:51.117 --> 00:26:56.414
You have your own podcast, man, you are good, so I'm glad you can take over for me one day, for sure tomorrow.

00:26:56.414 --> 00:27:02.334
But you talk about the civil rights era and the kids today, the.

00:27:02.334 --> 00:27:06.586
You talk about the kids today needing to be activists.

00:27:06.586 --> 00:27:08.501
They literally have no clue.

00:27:08.595 --> 00:27:13.163
I set my kids down every Martin Luther King day and we watched Selma together as a family Incredible movie.

00:27:13.163 --> 00:27:17.483
I recommend it for everybody and I'll never forget the first year my kids watched that.

00:27:17.483 --> 00:27:19.760
I mean, my oldest is 24, so they're not too young.

00:27:19.760 --> 00:27:21.526
They looked at me.

00:27:21.526 --> 00:27:25.922
They said this happened, like they have no idea.

00:27:25.922 --> 00:27:28.602
No idea, and I would assume that's all.

00:27:28.602 --> 00:27:28.883
All.

00:27:29.063 --> 00:27:34.546
Everybody in that generation like the idea that there is inherent issues in this country.

00:27:34.546 --> 00:27:41.821
When you look back to when there were extreme inherent issues, I had to explain to them yeah, you, why some blacks were different water fountains.

00:27:41.821 --> 00:27:42.887
They couldn't go and of course they.

00:27:42.887 --> 00:27:45.840
We watched a jackie robinson movie about 100 times one of my heroes, that and frederick douglas not.

00:27:45.840 --> 00:27:47.345
A Jackie Robinson movie about 100 times one of my heroes, that.

00:27:47.345 --> 00:27:50.315
And Frederick Douglas Not a lot of people know about Frederick Douglas, one of the greatest orators of our time.

00:27:50.315 --> 00:28:01.782
But the kids today, you're right, they almost have to manufacture it because they literally the uneducation of what we have come from.

00:28:01.782 --> 00:28:09.105
The idea that we're having this kind of conversation, zeke after the history of this country, says how great this country is, is it not?

00:28:10.516 --> 00:28:12.403
I mean, listen, here's a story I love telling.

00:28:12.403 --> 00:28:18.420
I tell it every chance I get just because it shows the wisdom of the past compared to the present.

00:28:18.420 --> 00:28:34.924
But my great granddad grew up in 19, I forget the year, I think 1930s, 1920s Virginia in North Carolina, where he experienced bona fide racism I mean like racism that I've only read about in books.

00:28:34.924 --> 00:28:42.209
And I remember I just graduated from college and I thought I'm putting on a clinic for my entire family.

00:28:42.209 --> 00:28:44.122
You know I graduated from college.

00:28:44.122 --> 00:28:46.714
I'm full of all kinds of anger and activism.

00:28:46.714 --> 00:28:47.474
You know myself.

00:28:47.474 --> 00:28:53.838
You know I fell victim to it because I had a couple of professors who made it their business to make sure that we were all activists.

00:28:53.838 --> 00:29:03.624
I had two in particular who your final grade was based on how angry you were when writing your final paper on activism and things like that, activism and things like that.

00:29:03.624 --> 00:29:08.527
So they made sure you graduated a certain way and thinking a certain way.

00:29:09.487 --> 00:29:10.728
So here I am.

00:29:10.728 --> 00:29:14.609
I'm now full of all this anger and I'm putting on a clinic or so I think for my family.

00:29:14.609 --> 00:29:35.846
You know my granddad's there who actually marched for Washington, my great granddad's there who I told you his history, and I remember my, my great granddad just put his hand on my hand to stop me and he goes always be the last person in the room to call something racist, because if you call everything racist, then nothing is racist.

00:29:35.846 --> 00:29:41.827
But if you save that accusation for when it really counts, it'll be so much more powerful.

00:29:41.827 --> 00:29:47.699
And then he just started talking about something else, like just stop me, right Dead in my tracks.

00:29:47.699 --> 00:29:52.046
You know, and I'll admit, for a week I was butthurt, for a week.

00:29:52.095 --> 00:29:53.662
What a powerful statement, man.

00:29:53.662 --> 00:29:55.722
What a powerful statement, yeah, of course.

00:29:56.796 --> 00:29:57.277
But this is.

00:29:57.277 --> 00:30:01.801
You know, for a week I was mad until you know you get that voice in the back of your mind.

00:30:01.801 --> 00:30:10.058
Like this guy experienced bona fide racism, the likes that you don't have.

00:30:10.058 --> 00:30:11.188
You have no idea what it's about.

00:30:11.188 --> 00:30:16.487
So who are you to tell him what's racist and what isn't, or what he should be mad about?

00:30:16.487 --> 00:30:19.683
And I think at that moment I just I stopped.

00:30:19.683 --> 00:30:24.307
You know, that was the last time I ever unnecessarily called something racist.

00:30:25.535 --> 00:30:27.400
And well he, he was a prophet.

00:30:27.400 --> 00:30:29.666
Sadly, we're in those times right.

00:30:29.666 --> 00:30:33.164
The racism thing doesn't even affect anybody.

00:30:33.164 --> 00:30:38.726
Now, I mean, zeke, who would have known then that you'd be called a white supremacist on Twitter, right?

00:30:38.726 --> 00:30:39.607
Who would have known that?

00:30:41.116 --> 00:30:42.403
Oh, I get called a Nazi.

00:30:42.403 --> 00:30:46.145
I get called a black, white supremacist all the time.

00:30:46.145 --> 00:30:48.278
Crazy man so much that.

00:30:48.278 --> 00:30:52.188
It just, you know, my great granddad was right.

00:30:52.188 --> 00:30:54.019
It means nothing.

00:30:54.019 --> 00:31:04.605
Now you know, and that's actually a huge insult to people who experience bona fide racism, because now, if they're calling something out, it's ignored.

00:31:04.605 --> 00:31:09.857
So these people, these activists, are doing a disservice to people who are actually experiencing it.

00:31:10.921 --> 00:31:16.279
Yeah, I made the mistake of pointing out a Roland Fryer study one time, and, man, you'd have thought the world was ending when I did that.

00:31:16.279 --> 00:31:22.119
It's a peer-reviewed research, fellas, that did not matter for sure.

00:31:22.119 --> 00:31:26.175
But Zeke, the source of this, how much do you put on the media?

00:31:26.175 --> 00:31:28.002
I mean, I'll tell you my point of view first.

00:31:28.002 --> 00:31:37.154
I think that if we ever have, if we ever look back in America and talk about the democracy we want, we want to wear which I hope doesn't happen it will be because of the media.

00:31:37.154 --> 00:31:44.141
I think they're probably truly one of the most horrific stains on our society today, the way the mainstream media acts.

00:31:45.734 --> 00:31:47.096
I put a lot of this on the media.

00:31:47.096 --> 00:31:52.102
You know people, kids are influential, people watch the news.

00:31:52.102 --> 00:31:54.045
I mean, they're clearly.

00:31:54.045 --> 00:32:00.471
It's a brainstorming mechanism, right, or a brainwashing mechanism, and the CIA has been involved in this through the years.

00:32:00.471 --> 00:32:08.478
We won't go down that track, but the CIA has been embedded inside the mainstream media for the last 50 years in this country to send out certain messages and people fall for that.

00:32:08.478 --> 00:32:17.786
So I don't I put more blame on the messengers than I do, the people that receive the message and get fooled, so to speak, but I put a lot of this, what we just talked about on the media.

00:32:17.786 --> 00:32:18.467
What about you?

00:32:19.335 --> 00:32:19.955
Oh, absolutely.

00:32:19.955 --> 00:32:28.667
Joseph Goebbels, who was Adolf Hitler's minister of information, would be astounded at what is going on today.

00:32:28.667 --> 00:32:37.929
Even him, because he was the, I guess, the godfather or grandfather or whoever of using a state-controlled propaganda.

00:32:37.929 --> 00:32:40.555
But it's nothing like what goes on today.

00:32:40.555 --> 00:32:53.707
I think my wife was astounded to look at the fact that 90% of the coverage towards Trump has been negative and over 90 has been positive towards Kamala Harris.

00:32:53.707 --> 00:32:57.420
They definitely are putting themselves into this struggle.

00:32:57.420 --> 00:33:00.634
They're definitely putting someone as the good guy, as the bad guy.

00:33:00.634 --> 00:33:05.545
I mean, just look at when a white cop happens to shoot a Black perp.

00:33:05.545 --> 00:33:11.657
The white cop could do everything correctly, but the media is still going to put out there a white cop.

00:33:11.657 --> 00:33:15.626
They'll make sure they highlight and bold his race.

00:33:15.807 --> 00:33:20.339
A white cop shot a black unarmed person.

00:33:20.339 --> 00:33:27.970
When people ask me about this, my response back to him is always hey, listen, I'm six foot two, I'm 275 pounds.

00:33:27.970 --> 00:33:30.720
I work out a lot, you know.

00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:34.008
You would say I'm stronger than the average person walking around out there.

00:33:34.008 --> 00:33:43.690
If I get into a fight with a cop who's 5'10", 170 pounds and I'm pummeling him, it's going to hurt.

00:33:43.690 --> 00:33:48.804
And if he pulls out his gun and shoots me as a last resort because there's no stopping me.

00:33:48.804 --> 00:33:52.194
He's justified my opinion, you know.

00:33:52.194 --> 00:33:53.699
But what the media does?

00:33:53.699 --> 00:33:57.587
They say, oh, this white cop shot this black person.

00:33:57.587 --> 00:34:04.788
And then they'll get my picture from high school, where you know I'm sitting there, you know just everyone.

00:34:05.195 --> 00:34:09.436
And if they could put an angel halo around my head and some wings, they would do so, or they, you know.

00:34:09.436 --> 00:34:12.324
They go out and they find the people who are closest to me and go.

00:34:12.324 --> 00:34:13.726
No, he was a great person.

00:34:13.726 --> 00:34:16.483
He was such a wonderful, loving person.

00:34:16.483 --> 00:34:18.103
This shouldn't have happened to him.

00:34:18.103 --> 00:34:19.715
No, look at Mike Brown.

00:34:19.715 --> 00:34:25.958
He had literally just finished robbing someone when he got shot Like literally just finished robbing someone.

00:34:25.958 --> 00:34:31.409
You look at the rest of these perps out there who get themselves shot by cops.

00:34:31.409 --> 00:34:37.588
They're not good people, but they go out, they find their high school picture or they find their wedding photo.

00:34:37.588 --> 00:34:38.777
You know they get.

00:34:38.777 --> 00:34:40.382
You know he was such a wonderful.

00:34:40.382 --> 00:34:41.224
No, he wasn't.

00:34:41.224 --> 00:34:42.438
He was a criminal.

00:34:42.719 --> 00:34:51.347
you know Well it's so maddening because, I was teaching a college class just the other day and I went through all the litany of lies.

00:34:51.347 --> 00:34:56.425
You know Breonna Taylor and Michael Brown and you thought I mean these kids had never heard that.

00:34:56.425 --> 00:34:59.545
And what frustrates me is is that there's not a debate there.

00:34:59.545 --> 00:35:02.855
I mean, I'm quoting grand jury testimony from Breonna Taylor.

00:35:02.855 --> 00:35:11.730
I mean, there's no accountability, like they can sit there and turn this narrative on.

00:35:11.730 --> 00:35:14.864
It's, of course, debunked a year later, two years later.

00:35:14.864 --> 00:35:19.786
Every year we still brought Michael Brown's birthday from all the politicians and they know it's a lie.

00:35:19.786 --> 00:35:26.219
They know it's a lie and they're able to keep doing it and it's done so much damage.

00:35:26.239 --> 00:35:30.985
Zeke, going back to roland fryer, he's shown that there have been more african-americans killed with deep policing.

00:35:30.985 --> 00:35:32.873
Uh, based on this narrative.

00:35:32.873 --> 00:35:34.597
Deep policing comes from a media narrative.

00:35:34.597 --> 00:35:36.983
Um, they call it.

00:35:36.983 --> 00:35:38.407
The ferguson effect was the other thing.

00:35:38.407 --> 00:35:38.907
They call it.

00:35:38.907 --> 00:35:43.030
But um, I don't have any answers other than convincing the public.

00:35:43.030 --> 00:35:44.976
You've got to stop watching the mainstream media.

00:35:44.976 --> 00:35:46.760
You have to stop watching the mainstream.

00:35:46.780 --> 00:35:49.708
In fact, anybody that's listening to this or watching this that has a question.

00:35:49.708 --> 00:35:52.501
When they get sued for defamation, do you know how they get out of it?

00:35:52.501 --> 00:35:54.027
They say it's opinion.

00:35:54.027 --> 00:35:56.579
So your mainstream media channels you're watching.

00:35:56.579 --> 00:35:58.485
They don't even admit in court.

00:35:58.485 --> 00:35:59.045
It's news.

00:35:59.045 --> 00:36:01.177
They say it's their opinion, so they're protected.

00:36:01.177 --> 00:36:03.041
That's how they can get away with doing all this.

00:36:03.041 --> 00:36:04.422
They couch it as opinion.

00:36:04.422 --> 00:36:06.907
The problem is they don't start off by saying this is my opinion.

00:36:06.907 --> 00:36:12.376
They say it's the news and I don't know an answer, because I think they've killed themselves.

00:36:12.416 --> 00:36:13.418
Most people don't trust the media.

00:36:13.418 --> 00:36:14.461
I don't know how they're in business.

00:36:14.461 --> 00:36:23.442
Obviously, podcasts like yours and others are much more popular, but they're still in business and they're going to be financed by the people that want to finance it.

00:36:23.442 --> 00:36:24.224
So they'll probably be around.

00:36:24.224 --> 00:36:32.554
But the only answer I know, zeke, and I'm sure you've told others you've got to stop.

00:36:32.554 --> 00:36:33.235
You've got to stop watching this.

00:36:33.235 --> 00:36:34.335
You know I tell my kids hey, don't ever get your news from one source.

00:36:34.335 --> 00:36:34.735
Figure out the truth.

00:36:34.735 --> 00:36:38.990
You have to watch, unfortunately, multiple newscasts to do it and dive deeper into it, because they're lying to you predominantly.

00:36:38.990 --> 00:36:45.902
But the damage they're doing I just need our audience to know and you've said it's a in law enforcement in our country is insurmountable.

00:36:45.902 --> 00:36:46.663
The damage they've done.

00:36:47.603 --> 00:36:54.771
Well, you look at what's going on in major blue cities across America in Chicago, la, new York, baltimore, st Louis.

00:36:54.771 --> 00:37:03.250
You look at what's going on in major law enforcement departments, and they're all having staffing problems because no one wants a job anymore.

00:37:03.250 --> 00:37:06.724
You look at the military they're having staffing problems because no one wants that job.

00:37:06.724 --> 00:37:07.998
So what are we going to do?

00:37:07.998 --> 00:37:09.668
We have no military, you have no police.

00:37:09.668 --> 00:37:13.018
What are you going to do?

00:37:13.018 --> 00:37:16.425
I said this last week on my podcast.

00:37:16.425 --> 00:37:22.403
Actually, do you know how many people would just would crap themselves if there was an actual purge?

00:37:22.403 --> 00:37:33.320
Do you know how many people would if the government just said hey, listen, we have no more cops, so from 7 pm to 7 am, we're not answering any phone calls.

00:37:33.320 --> 00:37:35.121
You can call 911 all you want.

00:37:35.121 --> 00:37:37.222
We can't show up until the next morning.

00:37:37.222 --> 00:37:44.748
Do you know how many people would panic themselves into the worst conniption they've ever had in their lives because there's no cops?

00:37:44.748 --> 00:37:46.028
Well, guess what?

00:37:46.028 --> 00:38:07.726
This is what you're pushing yourself towards when you vote for people like Kamala Harris, who had her Minnesota Freedom Fund, when you vote for Tim Walz, who allowed his state to burn because people were rioting during the BLM Summer of Love riots of 2020, when you elect these Democrat socialists who run on an anti-cop platform.

00:38:07.726 --> 00:38:10.490
This is what you're voting for.

00:38:10.490 --> 00:38:12.802
You're voting for a potential purge.

00:38:13.315 --> 00:38:14.380
People don't realize that.

00:38:14.380 --> 00:38:23.148
They think there's always going to be cops they can just pick on and beat up on and protest for and walk down the street and think that they're fighting for justice.

00:38:23.148 --> 00:38:43.076
Yeah, well, guess what, when no one wants the job anymore and there are staffing problems, like what's going on in a lot of commands I'm talking to across the country, I have cops reaching out to me from across all over the country saying, yeah, I've worked doubles and triples because there's no one else to be there to replace me and take my place.

00:38:43.076 --> 00:38:48.896
I'm turning out roll calls that I used to be able to turn out 20 cops out into the streets.

00:38:48.896 --> 00:38:50.661
Now I'm lucky if I have 10.

00:38:50.681 --> 00:38:59.097
You know when you have people, you know when you have departments who are facing these kinds of staffing problems, all it does is backfire on your community.

00:38:59.097 --> 00:39:01.061
But keep voting these.

00:39:01.061 --> 00:39:03.728
Keep voting the AOCs in there who openly hate cops.

00:39:03.728 --> 00:39:04.356
Keep voting.

00:39:04.356 --> 00:39:05.358
You know these.

00:39:05.358 --> 00:39:09.719
The rest of these Democrat socialists out there who run on these anti-cop platforms.

00:39:09.719 --> 00:39:18.081
Keep voting squad members in there who have more sympathy towards the robber than the person they robbed.

00:39:18.081 --> 00:39:24.900
Keep voting for these judges who think that these hardened criminals just need a warm fuzzy and a hug.

00:39:24.900 --> 00:39:34.161
Keep voting for them, because the purge right now is on TV, but it can definitely wind up at your doorstep if you keep voting the way you vote.

00:39:34.974 --> 00:39:41.402
Yeah, if you don't think leadership matters, there actually is communities right now in this country, one of them being in St Louis, where the police don't even respond, and it's coming.

00:39:41.402 --> 00:39:47.443
You have more and more municipal agencies that are having to contract with sheriff's departments because they can't handle it.

00:39:47.443 --> 00:39:48.626
There's a sense of this, steve.

00:39:48.626 --> 00:39:58.925
That's being done on purpose, right, when you talk about defund police, when you use the federal government to do consent decrees to run cities, 14 of the top 20 most violent cities are ran by the Department of Justice as we speak.

00:39:58.925 --> 00:40:02.605
My fear is it's being done on purpose to destroy the profession.

00:40:02.605 --> 00:40:04.222
So then guess what the federal government does?

00:40:04.222 --> 00:40:05.858
Oh, we have your answer.

00:40:05.858 --> 00:40:08.666
It's called a national police force or whatever.

00:40:08.666 --> 00:40:15.338
That's when it really happens.

00:40:15.338 --> 00:40:16.282
You follow the history of Nazi Germany.

00:40:16.282 --> 00:40:17.226
That's how they were able to accelerate that.

00:40:17.226 --> 00:40:17.327
They.

00:40:17.327 --> 00:40:18.291
They decommissioned many of the local agencies.

00:40:18.291 --> 00:40:19.014
They made a national police force.

00:40:19.014 --> 00:40:20.157
I go on and on.

00:40:20.157 --> 00:40:22.284
Very spooky, but we haven't even gotten to the election.

00:40:22.284 --> 00:40:23.206
Let's get to it real quick.

00:40:23.815 --> 00:40:29.155
Donald Trump, kamala Harris, it's tomorrow, man, everyone's nervous, everybody has anxiety.

00:40:29.155 --> 00:40:33.889
I think what troubles me more so much is grown adults just flat out lying.

00:40:33.889 --> 00:40:35.844
I mean, you look at the hoaxes they've done on Donald Trump.

00:40:35.844 --> 00:40:41.623
These are hoaxes that you could literally watch a 15 second soundbite and immediately go well, that's a lie.

00:40:41.623 --> 00:40:43.675
I mean they just they just turned up.

00:40:43.675 --> 00:40:45.981
I just saw on MSNBC they're talking about another russia hoax.

00:40:45.981 --> 00:40:47.443
Right, this is russia hoax number three.

00:40:48.204 --> 00:40:49.708
What is going on in people's heads, zeke?

00:40:49.708 --> 00:40:51.677
I mean because clearly it's almost half the country.

00:40:51.677 --> 00:40:53.081
Clearly it's almost half the country.

00:40:53.081 --> 00:40:54.226
I hope it's not half the country.

00:40:54.226 --> 00:40:58.492
I hope it's about 49.9 of the country and 51.1 is voting the other side.

00:40:58.492 --> 00:40:59.295
We'll find out tomorrow.

00:40:59.295 --> 00:41:04.061
Why are people being so duped and just falling for these lies?

00:41:04.061 --> 00:41:05.864
Is it a self-confirming prophecy?

00:41:05.864 --> 00:41:06.987
They just hate Donald Trump.

00:41:06.987 --> 00:41:14.347
So, whatever is said about him, they're just going to jump on it, because you know the fine people hoax, the bloodbath hoax, the Russia hoax.

00:41:14.347 --> 00:41:18.164
There's more hoaxes, but that's all the Democratic Party is leaning on.

00:41:18.164 --> 00:41:19.166
They're not telling us what they're going to do.

00:41:19.166 --> 00:41:22.485
They just keep coming back to these hoaxes and the media has their back.

00:41:29.135 --> 00:41:29.295
What?

00:41:29.295 --> 00:41:30.943
What do you think is going on where people are so easily just falling for this?

00:41:30.943 --> 00:41:32.994
Because it's like you said, the media is out there putting out a certain narrative.

00:41:32.994 --> 00:41:41.809
You know, I've talked to my friends, my family, about the actual facts out there and they don't believe it until I have to show them receipts.

00:41:41.809 --> 00:41:51.855
No, he didn't say there were good people on both sides when talking about actual white supremacy almost riots and protests that were taking on in Charlottesburg, virginia.

00:41:52.054 --> 00:41:55.061
He actually disembowels white supremacy in the sentence before that.

00:41:55.061 --> 00:41:56.905
Yeah, to say that.

00:41:57.507 --> 00:42:05.344
Yeah, but the media cuts it down to literally a three second soundbite and they're trying to make him look like he's on the side of these white nationalists.

00:42:05.344 --> 00:42:16.362
Like he's on the side of these white nationalists, you have a comedian who shouldn't have even been invited to Madison Square Garden, but makes a joke, and now, all of a sudden, they're trying to attribute it towards Donald Trump.

00:42:16.362 --> 00:42:23.175
No, trump didn't say that and his people disavowed the joke.

00:42:23.235 --> 00:42:26.264
Yeah, hinchcliffe was up there like five hours before Trump.

00:42:26.264 --> 00:42:32.500
He was like the opening guy five hours before the president went up and I can guarantee you Donald Trump does not know who Tony Hinchcliffe is.

00:42:32.559 --> 00:42:36.302
I guarantee you that she's actually intelligent and would have something to say.

00:42:36.302 --> 00:42:52.806
But again she turns around, she's a huge liberal and calls it a white supremacy rally at Madison Square Garden.

00:42:52.806 --> 00:42:55.581
But yeah, okay, I didn't know Byron Daniels was a white.

00:42:55.581 --> 00:42:58.878
Byron Donalds excuse me, was a white supremacist.

00:42:58.878 --> 00:43:01.931
I didn't know Vivek Ramaswamy was a white supremacist.

00:43:01.931 --> 00:43:13.637
I didn't know all the Jewish people and Hispanic people and Black people and Asian people and everybody else who showed up, all the different ethnicities who showed up to Madison Square Garden were all white supremacists.

00:43:13.637 --> 00:43:19.137
I didn't know white people who don't have a racist single bone in their body were white supremacists.

00:43:19.137 --> 00:43:21.802
So this whole narrative has to stop.

00:43:22.224 --> 00:43:25.309
People don't look up facts anymore.

00:43:25.309 --> 00:43:27.804
Like I tell people all the time listen, I'm not an influencer.

00:43:27.804 --> 00:43:29.458
I don't want to be an influencer.

00:43:29.458 --> 00:43:39.447
I want to try to point you in the right direction of where you can get your facts from, but don't let my opinion be what you see as fact.

00:43:39.447 --> 00:43:41.840
You have to go out there and look it up for yourself.

00:43:41.840 --> 00:43:43.068
That's exactly what I did.

00:43:43.068 --> 00:43:44.835
I went out there and I looked it up for myself.

00:43:44.835 --> 00:43:46.659
That's how I came to my conclusion.

00:43:46.659 --> 00:43:49.885
I want people to go out there and look at things for themselves.

00:43:49.925 --> 00:43:51.648
Don't trust one source.

00:43:51.648 --> 00:43:52.717
Don't look at Fox.

00:43:52.717 --> 00:43:55.746
Don't look for something that's just going to back up your point of view.

00:43:55.746 --> 00:43:57.157
Look at different views.

00:43:57.157 --> 00:43:59.103
Look at why people feel the way they feel.

00:43:59.103 --> 00:44:03.679
Look at what this person is presenting as facts and see if be your own fact checker.

00:44:03.679 --> 00:44:04.460
Don't look at Snopes.

00:44:04.460 --> 00:44:05.561
Don't look at Politifact.

00:44:05.561 --> 00:44:06.623
Don't look at anything else.

00:44:06.623 --> 00:44:11.331
Look at the facts that are in front of you and make the decision for yourself.

00:44:11.331 --> 00:44:19.088
If you're calling an MSG rally with a bunch of different ethnicities a white supremacist rally, there's something wrong with you.

00:44:20.697 --> 00:44:31.161
We didn't even know that there was a 1939 rally at the Madison Square Garden until the Until the media tells us that Actually I did because I do read a lot of history.

00:44:31.161 --> 00:44:32.045
Okay.

00:44:32.666 --> 00:44:34.400
Excuse me, so I actually knew about that.

00:44:34.400 --> 00:44:42.155
But what people don't know is that Woodrow Wilson screened Birth of a Nation, which is basically a love letter towards the Ku Klux Klan.

00:44:42.155 --> 00:44:47.137
At the White House, people don't go at Woodrow Wilson like that.

00:44:47.137 --> 00:44:51.682
What I do know is that Lyndon B Johnson was a racist.

00:44:51.682 --> 00:44:57.989
What I do know is that he's the one who stopped the original Civil Rights Act, which had a lot more teeth.

00:44:58.469 --> 00:44:59.891
The Democratic Party stopped it.

00:44:59.931 --> 00:45:06.699
The Democratic Party yeah, they didn't vote for it, no, but he directly stopped it because he didn't want to destroy his party.

00:45:06.699 --> 00:45:10.648
And then he came out with another civil rights act that didn't have as much of a bite to it.

00:45:10.648 --> 00:45:18.288
So a lot of people don't know that, but a lot of people, you know they like to think oh well, the party switched, oh well, this happened.

00:45:18.755 --> 00:45:20.302
Oh, that's the craziest one right there.

00:45:20.302 --> 00:45:21.900
So yeah, there was obviously.

00:45:21.900 --> 00:45:23.043
I don't know what you're talking about.

00:45:23.043 --> 00:45:29.356
That's the craziest one to me, everybody about.

00:45:29.356 --> 00:45:30.900
That's the craziest one to me, everybody abraham lincoln, republican on.

00:45:30.900 --> 00:45:31.965
But it's justified by this weird party switch.

00:45:31.965 --> 00:45:34.396
Explain that to our audience, because that's the craziest one I've ever heard.

00:45:34.878 --> 00:45:42.304
Well, apparently at some point in time no one can actually point out when this happened, but apparently at some point in time democrats looked at republicans.

00:45:42.304 --> 00:45:47.289
Republicans looked at democrats and went, hey, uh, do you mind if we pull one of these moves?

00:45:47.289 --> 00:45:49.920
And everybody agreed and shook on it.

00:45:49.920 --> 00:45:53.985
And if you were a Democrat, you're now a Republican, if you're a Republican, you're now a Democrat.

00:45:54.875 --> 00:46:01.382
And of course they say that because Republicans championed abolishing slavery, Republicans championed the Civil Rights Bill.

00:46:01.382 --> 00:46:03.039
The Republicans championed all of this.

00:46:03.039 --> 00:46:06.842
So the only way you can justify this now is this weird switch thing right.

00:46:07.664 --> 00:46:12.824
Yeah, In my opinion, some dummy came out and said it and it just took off.

00:46:12.824 --> 00:46:13.688
Crazy.

00:46:13.688 --> 00:46:17.643
My thing is did a couple Democrats become Republicans?

00:46:17.643 --> 00:46:18.467
Sure.

00:46:18.467 --> 00:46:20.922
Did a couple Republicans become Democrats?

00:46:20.922 --> 00:46:21.565
Sure.

00:46:21.565 --> 00:46:31.161
I'm not going to dispute that, but to say there was a party switch where they all kind of looked at each other and went yeah, we're going to you know, yeah, this whole logic thing I'm going to take your office, you take mine.

00:46:31.161 --> 00:46:32.063
We're going to do all this.

00:46:32.063 --> 00:46:33.206
That didn't happen.

00:46:35.056 --> 00:46:40.036
See, this whole logic thing has gotten you in a lot of trouble, I know, but I want to put it in a pill and give it to people.

00:46:40.036 --> 00:46:44.679
Man, I really love it and we're get down to it.

00:46:44.679 --> 00:46:45.860
Man, tomorrow's a big day.

00:46:45.860 --> 00:46:47.942
Give me your, give me your prediction.

00:46:47.942 --> 00:46:48.722
Give me your prediction.

00:46:48.722 --> 00:46:50.804
We'll live forever in history on podcasts, right?

00:46:50.804 --> 00:46:52.545
What do you think is going to happen on Tuesday?

00:46:53.385 --> 00:46:55.367
I think I have to believe Trump's going to take it.

00:46:55.367 --> 00:47:01.012
I have to believe that just because I'm looking at the early numbers, they look really good for Trump.

00:47:01.012 --> 00:47:06.644
I'm hoping he does a full sweep of every swing state out there.

00:47:06.644 --> 00:47:08.293
I can see they're already trying to cheat.

00:47:08.293 --> 00:47:09.199
It's already out there.

00:47:09.199 --> 00:47:20.463
But I think the problem with what they did in 2020 is that they can't replicate it in 2024 without people catching on early and going hey, hey, what's going on here?

00:47:20.463 --> 00:47:23.481
And people getting themselves way more involved.

00:47:24.128 --> 00:47:31.277
The problem with when you beat someone in a fight is that if they're smart, they learn from it.

00:47:31.277 --> 00:47:33.746
Now, do I think the GOP has learned from it?

00:47:33.746 --> 00:47:36.817
No, do I think regular Americans have learned from it?

00:47:36.817 --> 00:47:37.197
Yes.

00:47:37.197 --> 00:47:47.059
So regular Americans are going to be way more vigilant this time and look at any kind of shenanigans and fully way they're going to be like, hey, listen, we're not going to have this go on.

00:47:47.059 --> 00:47:50.210
So I think Trump is going to take it.

00:47:50.210 --> 00:47:51.273
I think Trump is going to win.

00:47:51.333 --> 00:48:02.487
I have to believe that because if we're looking at four years of Madam President, kamala Harris which I almost threw up saying just now if we're looking at four years of that, this country is screwed.

00:48:02.487 --> 00:48:11.829
The rest of the world is screwed, and if people are foolish enough to vote for Kamala Harris, then they better be ready for what comes along with it.

00:48:11.829 --> 00:48:13.139
We're talking about World War III.

00:48:13.139 --> 00:48:16.443
We're talking about Russia being bolder.

00:48:16.443 --> 00:48:18.021
We're talking about China being bolder.

00:48:18.021 --> 00:48:19.922
We're talking about North Korea being bolder.

00:48:19.922 --> 00:48:22.344
We're looking at terrorists being bolder.

00:48:22.344 --> 00:48:25.865
We're looking at a worldwide economic disaster.

00:48:25.865 --> 00:48:30.827
People are going to have to understand what comes along with a Kamala Harris presidency.

00:48:30.827 --> 00:48:35.427
If you want to save this country, if you quite literally want to save this world, vote for Trump.

00:48:36.534 --> 00:48:39.215
Well, and you're not mixing words there, and you're correct.

00:48:39.215 --> 00:48:50.961
What people don't understand is if you think censorship is bad now, if you think using DLJ to go after political opponents is bad now, if you think that there'll ever be a fair election ever again, vote for that person.

00:48:50.961 --> 00:48:56.101
Kamala Harris yeah, put her in office, because you've already seen what they've done with some power.

00:48:56.101 --> 00:48:57.501
You give them all the power.

00:48:57.501 --> 00:49:06.009
I mean you've got the DLJ right now fighting Virginia to let illegals vote.

00:49:06.009 --> 00:49:09.505
I mean they're showing you everything they're going to do, which is pretty crazy.

00:49:09.614 --> 00:49:11.255
I'm going to give my prediction real quick, zeke.

00:49:11.255 --> 00:49:12.983
You can call me and laugh at me if I'm wrong.

00:49:12.983 --> 00:49:17.224
I say Trump takes six of the seven swing States and he picks off a surprise.

00:49:17.224 --> 00:49:18.047
That's what I'm going to say.

00:49:18.047 --> 00:49:20.315
There's going to be a surprise state.

00:49:20.315 --> 00:49:21.476
He's going to pick one of those off.

00:49:21.476 --> 00:49:22.418
That's my prediction.

00:49:22.418 --> 00:49:27.206
Uh, zeke, harkin, man, I, I know we talked about a lot of stuff.

00:49:27.206 --> 00:49:30.438
I, if I didn't say it already, I want to say I appreciate your boldness and courage.

00:49:30.438 --> 00:49:31.521
You don't see it that way.

00:49:31.521 --> 00:49:32.525
That's the way creative people are.

00:49:32.525 --> 00:49:33.507
They just who you are.

00:49:33.507 --> 00:49:35.523
But that's what we're trying to do here.

00:49:35.523 --> 00:49:42.980
We need people to stand up, not for a political party, not for a person free.

00:49:42.980 --> 00:49:45.603
And my faith tells me there is one truth.

00:49:45.603 --> 00:49:47.385
There's not multiple truths, there's no my truth.

00:49:47.385 --> 00:49:55.199
There is one truth you are a light in a sometimes can be a very dark, dark world, sir, and I certainly appreciate you.

00:49:55.199 --> 00:49:56.003
Thank you for being here.

00:49:56.635 --> 00:49:57.577
Thank you so much for having me.

00:49:57.577 --> 00:49:58.581
I really appreciate your words.

00:49:58.581 --> 00:49:59.244
Thank you so much.

00:50:00.034 --> 00:50:02.858
And before we forget, where can people reach out to you at?

00:50:02.858 --> 00:50:03.440
Where are you at?

00:50:03.440 --> 00:50:03.519
At?

00:50:03.519 --> 00:50:04.541
How can they contact you?

00:50:05.864 --> 00:50:08.186
uh, on twitter or x, excuse me x.

00:50:08.186 --> 00:50:09.369
Uh, zeke arkham.

00:50:09.369 --> 00:50:12.378
Z e e k a r k h a m.

00:50:12.378 --> 00:50:15.043
That's my main social media platform.

00:50:15.043 --> 00:50:19.599
I'm also on instagram same handle, zeke arkham where I do my video rants.

00:50:19.599 --> 00:50:30.728
But, uh, if you really want to reach out to me, anybody who wants to contact me twitter's excuse me, x is is the way go, because I do most of my trash talking right there.

00:50:31.556 --> 00:50:36.204
All right, thank you so much, sir, and if you've been watching, if you've been listening, thank you for doing that.

00:50:36.204 --> 00:50:38.684
And just remember, lead on and stay courageous.

00:50:40.856 --> 00:50:43.764
Thank you for listening to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates.

00:50:43.764 --> 00:50:47.043
We invite you to join other courageous leaders at www.

00:50:47.043 --> 00:50:47.043
travisyates.

00:50:47.043 --> 00:50:48.346
org.