'House of Cards' Socialism is more popular in the United States than it has been in decades, and many of its supporters identify as Democratic Socialists. But what does that actually mean? When you examine the platform and policy proposals of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), it looks like good old-fashioned socialism. These proposals include seizing the means of production, establishing a 32-hour workweek, imposing a federal wealth tax, public ownership of corporations, implementing universal rent control, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and establishing Medicare for All, among others. Why are socialism and Democratic Socialist organizations gaining momentum in America at this time? How did this movement begin, and what political and economic forces have fueled its growth? Join the conversation and get answers to these questions and more on According2Sam episode #450. #According2Sam #Obama #GeoergeBush #Clinton #Marxism #Socialism #GreatRecession #2008FinancialCrisis #DSA #OccupyWallStreet

'Did I Do That' Political commentator and co-host of iHeart’s ‘Native Land’ podcast, Angela Rye recently came under fire for her criticism of former President Barack Obama. Rye and her co-hosts, Andrew Gillum and Bakari Sellers, were reacting to a clip Obama shared from his podcast in which he reflects on whether he did enough—or risked enough—during his presidency. Rye argued that he had not done or risked enough and continues to fall short today. She criticized Obama for focusing more on his presidential library than on protecting access to the ballot box. Her comments drew backlash from Obama supporters, many of whom argued that it was not the right time for such criticism. Why was Angela Rye so critical of Obama, and where did her frustration with the former president stem from? Join the conversation and get answers to these questions and more on According2Sam episode #448. #According2Sam #Obama #TaNehasiCoates #NativeLand #AngelaRye #CBC #DemocraticParty #Healthcare #ACA #Obamacare #AffordableCareAct #DonLemon #JenniferWelch

Dodgers are about to get swept 🧹

'Unwittingly' Ta-Nehisi Coates recently appeared on former President Barack Obama’s podcast, and a promotional clip teasing the episode has been going viral. Coates has long been a critic of Obama’s presidency, and in the clip, he asks Obama how he thinks civil rights activists like James Baldwin would assess him. Obama responds that he remains in an ongoing conversation with these figures, describing them as his ancestors and ghosts who speak to him all the time. He hears their voices asking whether he did enough and whether he risked enough for “this cause, this issue, or these people”. Obama appears vulnerable as he reflects on his regrets, which may explain why this clip was chosen to promote the episode. What is the purpose of this conversation, and why is Obama having it now? Join the conversation and get answers to these questions and more on According2Sam episode #448. #According2Sam #WoodrowWilson #IncomeTax #BarackObama #AbdulElSayed #TaNehisiCoates #DonLemon #DemocraticParty #Midterms #Election

'Barack for Abdul' It was announced this week that former President Barack Obama will travel to Michigan in late October to campaign for Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson. Following the announcement, old videos, social media posts, and essays resurfaced in which El-Sayed was highly critical of Obama's presidency. During a guest appearance at the University of Chicago, El-Sayed said that America was no better off after Obama's eight years in office. In an essay published in the 'Huffington Post', he also wrote that the list of Obama's failures went on. Now that El-Sayed is seeking Obama's help to turn out Black voters, how is he backtracking from his past criticisms of Obama's record? Join the conversation and get answers to this question and more on According2Sam episode #447. #According2Sam #BarakObama #AbdulElSayed #BlackVoters #DemocraticParty #Trump #Midterms #Election #DonLemon

'Coon' Four days after Nolan Wells’s body was discovered on Horn Island, his mother, Christine Wondsley, was in New York with her lawyer, Ben Crump, attending a meeting of Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. When she addressed the audience from the stage, she said, “Nolan loved everybody. He didn’t care if you were white, black, purple, green, looked like a marshmallow. He just wanted everyone to be at peace with one another.” She went on to explain how much that frightened her and Nolan’s father. They would often have conversations with him not only about understanding “our history as black people,” but also about “how you have to move in certain spaces.” How did Nolan Wells move through his life and navigate those spaces, and, ultimately, would he have been considered a “coon”? Join the conversation and get answers to this question and more on According2Sam episode #446. #According2Sam #Democrats #DemocraticParty #Midterms #Politics #NolanWells #BenCrump #WillieD #JoyReid #ByronDonals #JimCrow #CivilRights

'Melanin Tribe' The Supreme Court dealt a significant blow to a legal strategy that has only benefited the Democratic Party, when it ruled on a Voting Rights Act provision concerning race-based congressional redistricting. The decision is particularly consequential for members of the Congressional Black Caucus because changes to district boundaries could affect the districts of some Black members of Congress. The Congressional Black Caucus is overwhelmingly Democrats, so changes to districts represented by its members would affect the Democratic Party’s representation in Congress. How are Democrats, the Congressional Black Caucus, civil rights organizations, churches, and online creators using the Nolan Wells tragedy politically to level the playing field and mobilize voters to increase turnout this November? Join the conversation and get answers to this question and more on According2Sam episode #445. #According2Sam #TheyLive #TheMatrix #NolanWells #BenCrump #DemocraticParty #Democrats #Midterms #WillieD #Tatum

Unbelievable clip. Obama was and is trash, and so was his presidency. These people are clueless.

'Programing' Last week, Converse, the tennis-shoe company, published an advertisement that received widespread and immediate criticism. Many members of the public expressed outrage and accused the advertisement of being racist. The imagery featured a Korean celebrity holding a pair of Converse shoes in one hand, with her arm extended at her side. She wore a long white skirt, and when a five-point star was projected onto the skirt, the lighting and shadows appeared to resemble the pointed white hoods associated with Ku Klux Klan robes. Combined with the shoes hanging from her hand, the projected imagery led many viewers to associate the advertisement with the imagery of a person being lynched. Converse apologized and removed the advertisement, stating that this interpretation was not their intention. How did the advertisement reinforce or evoke a narrative that lynchings are on the rise in the United States? Join the conversation and get answers to this question and more on According2Sam episode #444. #According2Sam #BenCrump #NolanWells #ChristineWonsly #Elmore #Democrats #CBC #Converse #Midterms #Election #FBA #ADOS

'Crooked Christine' The Mississippi grand jury investigating the death of Nolan Wells has concluded its work and returned a “no bill,” meaning it did not issue any indictments. The grand jury consisted of 23 members: 12 white, 5 Black, 2 Hispanic, 2 Native American, and 1 identified as “other.” There were 13 men and 10 women. The panel issued 132 subpoenas during its investigation and considered information from 43 witnesses; seven of those witnesses testified directly before the grand jury. The cause and manner of Wells’ death remain officially undetermined. Will the conclusion of the grand jury put an end to the conspiracy theories and racial tensions surrounding this case, or will they continue? And who bears responsibility for using this case to inflame racial tensions? Join the conversation and get answers to these questions and more on According2Sam episode #443. #According2Sam #BenCrump #NolanWells #ChristineWonsly #Elmore #Democrats #GeorgeFloyd #AngelMyersMcllrath

Not a fan of Netanyahu, but he cooked here.🔥 He’s 100% right! There are a lot of idiots supporting tyrants because it’s fashionable and they hate Israel, or because they saw some viral TikTok that was probably created by Iran’s sophisticated propaganda team, but make no mistake about it, if you support the Mullahs, you’re supporting brutal, oppressive, tyrants.

'Affordability' Affordability is a major concern in the United States, and many Americans are feeling the pressure of higher costs. Energy and fuel prices are having a significant effect on the cost of transporting goods, particularly by semi-trucks, which are contributing to higher prices for groceries and other retail goods. Americans have been dealing with elevated costs for several years, and economic concerns were among the top issues for voters in the 2024 election. President Trump promised to address the affordability crisis during his campaign, but the cost of living remains a concern as he approaches the end of his second year of this term. Democrats are now campaigning on promises to make life more affordable and argue that, if they win control of Congress, they can address these concerns. However, if Democrats have solutions to make things more affordable, why weren't those solutions implemented during the Biden administration? Is it possible for either party to make life more affordable for Americans? Join the conversation and get answers to these questions and more on According2Sam episode #442. #According2Sam #JohnKennedy #Invasion #ICE #Immigration #Trump #Midterms2026 #Affordability #BillMaher #Debt

'Caste' The award-winning 2020 book by author Isabel Wilkerson, titled ‘Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents’, argues that Black Americans who are descendants of slaves in the United States occupy the lowest position in a racial caste system, which Wilkerson compares to the caste system in India. She draws a comparison between the descendants of American slaves and Dalits, historically referred to as “Untouchables,” and argues that the continued socioeconomic disadvantages experienced by Black Americans are the lasting effects of a system whose roots trace back to Jim Crow. However, since the end of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights reforms of the 1960s, some measures of social and economic well-being in Black communities have improved, while other problems—including family instability and crime—have gotten worse. Can these contemporary disparities be solely attributed to the residual effects of slavery and Jim Crow, or were there other developments over the past 60 years that contributed to these outcomes? Join the conversation and get answers to this question and more on According2Sam episode #441. #According2Sam #HartCellerAct #Immigration #LBJ #CivilRights #Caste #AnthraxAttack #BoFrench #JohnCornyn #KarlRove #FBA #ADOS #Immigrants

Talarico says all faiths are equal pathways to truth, and black pastors in Texas say, “come on in a speak to my congregation.” 😢😈

'Demographics is Destiny' The demographic shift in the United States can be traced back to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. This legislation was passed by the 89th Congress and signed into law by Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson on October 3. It is commonly known as the Hart–Celler Act after its two principal sponsors: Senator Philip A. Hart of Michigan and Representative Emanuel Celler of New York, both Democrats. Although the legislation received bipartisan support, it was advanced by Democrat congressional majorities and strongly supported by the Johnson administration. Its long-term effects contributed to substantial changes in the racial and ethnic composition of the United States. Since then, as the demographics of the United States have changed significantly, Democrat politicians and strategists have argued that “demographics is destiny”. What does this argument mean, and to what extent have Democrats relied on demographic changes in their electoral strategies? Join the conversation and get answers to this question and more on According2Sam episode #440. #According2Sam #LBJ #immigration #migration #BoFrench #Texas #UniversityofTexas #India #Indians #demographics

'Ignorance is Bliss' It has been 25 years since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States—an event that profoundly changed the country and the world. An entire generation is now coming of age that was not yet born when the attacks occurred. Many of these young people have no firsthand memory of that tragic day and may not fully understand what happened, who carried out the attacks, how they were able to do so, or how profoundly the world changed in their aftermath. They may also be unfamiliar with the intelligence and security failures that preceded the attacks, the investigations and controversies that followed, and the far-reaching decisions made by the U.S. government in response. Those decisions—including changes to national security, surveillance, foreign policy, and military strategy—continue to affect their lives today. Why is it important for future generations to understand the history of 9/11 and its aftermath, and what are the risks of allowing that history to fade from public understanding? Join the conversation and get answers to this question and more on According2Sam episode #439. #According2Sam #September11 #GeorgeWBush #CondoleezzaRice #Explosions #TwinTowers #Building7

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.

'Capitalism' For months, as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have challenged establishment Democrats in primaries—and won—we have been told that they are a fringe movement whose ideas do not represent the party as a whole. However, many of the objectives outlined in the DSA platform are also supported by Democrats who are not members of the organization. For example, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg have both expressed support for abolishing the Electoral College. And this week, a video resurfaced in which Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico, described capitalism as an “oppressive system” and he said we need to begin “dismantling” it. Meanwhile, also this week, the House voted to adopt a resolution condemning “socialism in all its forms,” with only eight Democrats joining Republicans in support. Is the DSA’s agenda more mainstream within the Democratic Party than they would have us believe? Join the conversation and get answers to this question and more on According2Sam episode #438. #According2Sam #Obama #HillaryClinton #ScottGalloway #JemeleHill #KmeleFoster #Southernstrategy #CivilRights

I really don’t like Marxists.