when you've got company shareholders to appease and bank accounts to bill colorado and louisiana, voters weigh in on the controversy surrounding abortion laws and a woman's right to choose. as we discussed on our election, fallout show just a few days ago. you also had a slew of voters in states across the nation, including washington d.c. vote to decriminalize various illegal drugs like marijuana magic mushrooms. you even had voters in mississippi deciding on giving the southern state a brand new flag, which was, i think, long overdue given that their original state flag up until tuesday night featured the confederate battle cross of civil war era fame. but while the initiatives across the country covered a wide range of important subject, it was 20 twentieth's most notorious party crasher, colbert 19, who kept many important issues off of the ballots. in this year's elections, the new york times reported that if ever there was a doubt about the coronaviruses impact on american democracy,

look no further than the sharp decline on sort of the mission. it was this year, there are $38.00 such measures slated across the country, around half the level in the last presidential election when you saw about 32 or 72 . so today my friends, let's dive into and examine some of the vital issues of our time that us voters finally got to weigh in on. as we start watching the hawks on a city street. you want to see this joyce graves see this least systemic deception is so which brings us all right, welcome one and all to watching the heart and i'm of these ballot initiatives when they come up every, every election year because those are the, those of the initiatives the people in various states across the country really get

to exercise democracy on and say, we love this side b. or we reject this idea and you can only hold the people of the state accountable for the, for the rejection or the whim of the idea. rather than a politician or a lobbyist group or whatever. absolutely, i think that in 2020, these ballot initiatives take on a whole nother type of meaning just because of the sheer amount of people we've seen come out to vote. typically ballot initiatives, even if they're good, don't always pass because you have such low voter turnout in awful lection years that are outside of the presidential election. now we've had hundreds of millions of people show up. so i think that spread across the board to really feel what people in they want, you know what they policy to replace a really good point. i mean, we'll start with the, i want to get your, your opinion on this will start with the big win by the lift, another ride sharing apps essential against employee protections. i mean, in voting against proposition 22, california voters essential e gave a lift the blank check and they prevented the state from enforcing these companies

to provide the basic employments to their driver such as health insurance, minimum wage, overtime and reimbursement for expenses. 58 percent of voters rejected prop $22.00 and that keeps the lift drivers as independent contractors. see this almost brush rating and confusing at the same time because a lot of even outside of a lot of california's work force is contract until a lot of america's workforce is contract. so we would assume that, you know, fighting for the protections specifically around health care around, you know, paid holiday fic day things like that would be something that people would want. but the thing here that is really important is the amount of money that was put in a different campaign, as well as the, the funding from some of the lobbyist groups that really helped to take this. you know, i think that you know, that people more fully informed about what this meant for drivers. what this war, you know, when would be huge, would have been huge for the entire industry. and you know right now that just

looks like it with another opportunity lost $200000000.00 according to lift and other like based writer hailing delivery services to get people to vote against this 200000000. but one interesting thing that also came out when you look at the ballot measures across the country was florida. now florida went red like they normally do, they're very republican about, but they did something that's much more in the bernie sanders progressive left wheel house. they voted and approved a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage in florida. the $15.00 an hour from $56.00 an hour 8 dollars, 50 $0.06. they jumped it up to 15. so now it's new york, washington d.c. and florida. have i asked minimum wages in the country? does that surprise you? it surprises me. but it's also interesting because i want to see how the governor respond when i say this, because the last time a ballot initiative, nobody thought what path in florida did it was to provide voting rights and access to those who've been previously incarcerated. that passed overwhelmingly in florida and the governor and the state legislature bought it tooth and nail and developed

propositions to make sure that it never thought the light of day. so i'm interested in seeing the devil's in the implementation and how that minimum wage is actually going to come to light in florida. and if it ever will. speaking of the devil in implementation, this is to me more than 62 percent of louisiana voters voted support an amendment to the state constitution that would limit abortion protections. the amendment prevents state lawmakers from declaring that abortion restrictions are unconstitutional. should the supreme court ever decide over turn roe v wade and reads quote to protect human life and nothing in this constitution shall be constructed to secure a protected right to abortion, or require the funding of abortion? no. converse of the colorado voters and citizens, there struck down proposition $115.00, which was a measure that sought to ban abortions, 22 weeks after pregnancy. so you could see the states are still divided about how they want to play out. the pro-choice controversy in the bush and controversial

absolutely, and louisiana is trying its level best to be mississippi rating to watch this happen, because what we know is that on both sides of the aisle when it comes to women, specifically women who are still of reproductive years they want to see abortion rights x. this open. and we also have to think about the fact that in the majority of cases, most women do not find out that they are pregnant until they're already at least 12 weeks along. so i think that there is some confusion or just again this information when it comes to republicans who are trying to push these laws irrespective to what they think may or may not happen at the supreme court level, schoolboy. and but, you know, it's nice to see though i do love to see though these states voting on issues like these. it's not just left up to elected officials. you never know what you're going to get with them, especially with lobbyists and ball. exactly. she that wuz though the us presidential election continues to dominate headlines. a very disturbing story from the new york times dropped just 5 days prior to election day. the article titled

arrested tortured imprisoned. the u.s. contractors abandoned to wait, took a deep dive into the torture abuse and trumped up criminal charges. black contractors are facing abroad. in one case, nicodemus, accosted a black navy veteran explained how his experience in kuwait doesn't jibe with president trump the narrative of love and protection of u.s. troops. a cough that recently spent over a year imprisoned in kuwait for a crime, he didn't commit. but regardless of his military service, and the lack of consequential evidence, in the quake's case against him, the u.s. government left the casa to fend for himself. but like a casa, a total of $28.00, americans have served time for drug offenses over the last 5 years, with little to no help from the state department at all. and their cases are eerily similar. all 28 are private contractors supporting u.s. military operations in the middle east and all worth in chile, victims to know not raids in the dead of night where they were arrested by the way, the police, many of these contractors were forced into false confessions through torture

methods and extreme brutality. kuwait's police files often support this and the state department is well aware. in fact, the state department has been aware way to torture of americans for years. yet they've done nothing. now generally, the treatment of american service members abroad is a matter of national security, and they're considered a protected class. but over the past 2 decades, the us military has expanded its labor force dramatically due to outsourcing to the private sector. this created a new class of citizens serving military interests that aren't currently listed and don't have the protections of enlisted members. and that brings us back to the issue in kuwait, under the trump administration. the basic responsibilities of protection of u.s. citizens abroad haven't been enforced in particular, in cases like a cost is. the reason seems to be obvious because this is black. the majority of arrested, tortured and abused are as well. but what will the american government do to

protect those, serving its interests in kuwait who find themselves at the crossroads of prejudice and torture. if history tells us anything, these contractors there on their own, and they're on their own because they are contractors, they are mercenaries. that is what the whole idea. and remember, this started way way back, you know, during the bush administration and dick cheney and donald rumsfeld and all of them said, hey, rather than spend money on our own u.s. military, we can make deals with the military defense industry corporations and start having contractors do all the work centrally mercenaries, and you're absolutely correct. and these contractors do a variety of things for the military. some of them are data intelligence, some of them are analysts. some argue no working in tech and influencing social media and things like that. others are involved in some of the higher level operations and some of the most dangerous zones across the middle east and other areas. and mind you, many of these people over 80 percent are folks who have served in military, you know, have had long and steady careers in the military. and now they're serving in this

element. but they have none of the protections they did while they were enlisted members know, and this is one of those moments that you see where you see guys be of left out to dry. i mean, it's one thing. when you see, you know, mercenaries and contractors involved like the square shooting where, you know, they're being charged with major crimes because they're shooting up the place to the committing crime. committing very heinous crimes against humanity. but there's a situations where the crimes are not these. they are, you know, these are trumped up charges and low level trumped up charges. so we're talking small possession of wheat. we're talking things that honestly in america, you would not really thin time, you know, in prison for specially, you know, we're still web recent elections. exactly. so it's one of those things where especially in a cost this case, what ended up happening was he was convicted of basically having a quantity of marijuana that was over the limit. and the reason why is because they arrested him based on some text messages. they found between him and a friend of his who was also in the military. and they had small of that we nothing

that they would even nothing worthy of a criminal charge even there. but when they found them, they put them in a jar and they measure the weight of the jar, and that is the weight of the actual marijuana and from picture evidence and all of the conversations. this should have been ruled out in the jump. he never should have spent over a year in a cell and shouldn't be our state department now kind of fighting for saying like, hey, look, we understand this man may or may not have broken one of your laws. we respect the laws, you know, examine, you're in a foreign country, you have to respect the laws. country, you know, if you're there, as an american citizen, or even if you're working there in respect to, you know, if you're paid to be there by, by american corporation or america itself. but isn't the state department kind of say step in and say, hey, let's pull pressure on, let's get these guys let out or let's leave that they're taken care of while they're serving the sentence that they've been charged with. but the big number you are absolutely correct. and in cases where those charges are caucasian, individuals,

we think of the state department step in that is the bigger issue. kuwait has, i've long standing history just like america of not being necessarily primly or respect or providing any type of humanitarian here to african-americans or those of african descent in general. and the state department in the u.s. government has not stepped in, even though they know that these cases are extremely heinous. and they have evidence that thing about this case and several others is the state department has files on these issues and they still have not moved. and just so people have an understanding of how much our military is now, the president, these contractors, as of the 200-1000, congressional research service report estimate of the contractors a comparable to percent or more of the total defense department presence in both afghanistan and iraq. just chew on that number for a minute. all right, everybody as we go to break, remember that you can also start watching the hawks on t.v. app, which is available on all pick it up if you haven't already coming up author and editor, margaret. kimberly joins us to shed some light on the future of black america in

the wake of these now. so stay tuned.

the world is driven by a dream, shaped by one percent of those the day or thinks we dare to ask me to explain joe biden, to be president elect come on group. that's not how it works. final vote tallies, make that determination and we aren't there yet. was the election free and fair, and what is the possibility?

half the country explain the election was stolen. this is a story of women and women with troubled histories and complex court cases. we know some of us daily leave off who lives out there who are not the person that the cheesiness of the day are considered the most dangerous of criminals. she's in a still all day off. 23 hours of the day. tell me that is not enough punishment in world of women on death row. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics. sports business, i'm show business. i'll see you then. the

election dissections and post-mortems continue journalists, pundits twitter self-appointed, political gurus, and everyone in between has something to say on the heels of what now appears to be a biden victory in official call. still outstanding in the words of sam cooke, a change is gonna come, but what kind of change we know that the black vote continues to be the stronghold of the democratic party and also the boat that provides the strongest support for joe biden. but what will black people get for the overwhelming loyalty and historic turnout in this election cycle? in article titled, freedom rider black people lose in 2020, presents a grim reality for the black policy agenda. in her opening, margaret, kimberly doesn't mince words saying, quote, black people will get nothing from a job. i did ministration except this school austerity and the poor kid that comes

with it in her piece. kimberly argues that america is equally races in the make america great. again, modern mentality, clearly resonates for millions of people across the country. she calls out the democratic party for its staunch neo liberalism and questions. james kleiber, the kingmaker of the congressional black caucus in the ways that laid the groundwork for biden south carolina primary win the win that eventually led to him winning the democratic nomination. lots to unpack here. joining us now is mark kelly, author of presidential black america, and the president's black agenda reporter editor, and senior columnist, welcome margaret. good to be back. well, your piece is a no chaser view of what black america can expect moving forward. in your view, neo liberalism is a problem for the democratic party that continues to win even when progressive can't. it's like bernie sanders rise up with that being said, though, we just saw a record turnout borne election in america, hundreds of millions of voters,

many of them 1st time voters, younger voters, and the boat margins for 18 to 29 year olds heavily favored by. is this evidence that neo liberalism isn't dead even among young voters? but they were voting for the new liberal candidate, the democratic party, meaning clear that they were going to be after you've been leftish, meaning that there aren't any. and so there was a concerted effort. i'm just going to call it propaganda against bernie sanders and against supporters to make sure that he could actually get to meet sure that he was not going to need a nominee and look at who supports the democratic party. they are a party that corporate interests as much as the republicans not armed and they are more loyal to their donor class, not more to the people who vote for them. if the people had their way even looks

like what you just talked about florida, a state or trump, but where are the people who voted to raise their minimum wage significantly. and that's what people want. but the democrats are determined not to give that to them . so in enduring the penick, we had joe biden time and time again, committing himself not to have medicare, which is what the people in your new not to do the things that people want. not to talk much about the people who've been dead devastated by the demick not just by behind death rate, but by the unemployment konami devastation. and even to mention that it all. so we knew was not always one of the most conservative democrats anyway, as a senator, that's what i was chosen as obama's running mate back in 2000 me. so we know when

he tells you openly what it is he's going to do, and people want to get rid of strong. and now the system where we're told only thing you can be, especially black people. only thing you have the power to do is keep a republican out of office. there's anything else you want it just to bed. i don't be a spoiler or your only choice is to vote. and it's especially appealing when the republican is someone like donald trump, that means new. even if some things now will get a new group of black faces in high places. but the people will be no better off. you know, it's interesting, i've got to agree with what you're saying, at least from my perspective, because it makes a lot of sense. i want to also jump of the other side. so the moderate dr. and, you know, make america great in the code of language held with the mat took hold in

a big way across this country. you know, it was originally attributed to, you know, claiming political rednecks of the all writing, overly overtly racist people. but in your article, you know how wrong that singular view is considering how tight this election has been. despite all of trump's failures with covert and all of that. more and more people believe or accept but maga bactrim than i think, democrats assume, or liberals assume. why do you think they were so wrong in underestimating the numbers of a moderate has in this country? well be if they faced, that big would have to change their policies. they always hope to win by just noodling around and not doing in being different, not promoting what people want being that strong we do in the end. but look at what we got more votes this year, then he did in 2016. this isn't after 2 something by going on and you know,

going to bed after 200000, who think that's after the catastrophe they did even better than they did before because they don't offer anything. so you can get a lot of running against some but have to stand for something. but that would mean we were in what don't you class doesn't want. and they were hoping that this nanny elderly has some sort of economy to be an airman who was never very bright to be meeting with was always very conservative, hoping that he would bring enough people out. but strong people have strong appeals to millions of people. and in order to fight against them, you've got to bring your people and talk about the things that people need, like we need from student and increasing the minimum wage. and helping the millions

of people who are now unemployed by should have taught by needs anything but people who a stimulus bill that is unprecedented in scope. something that harkens back to the new deal. but he didn't talk about that because he is back through the war, austerity. they want to have people moving desperate mother. because if you are big will not bornstein, they will not buy with their rights. and that is the most important thing for the democrats. they hope to bridge the needle and when they don't do what margaret, you kind of touched on this a bit in your last answer. but what does a policy that benefits black america look like? we've heard from celebrities, from the likes of ice cube, kanye west diddy. and charlemagne, the god all attacked democrats for what they thought was an a black agenda. what is, and how can democrats incorporate it in their policies? but very simple look things. some of the things i just mentioned,

things that workers, things that raise people's income, eat things that give people their suman rights. nobody is still talking about prince and half. the u.s. is the biggest pot prison population in the world and have for a while the president's here are black. that is something that could respect. biden said, i am committed to reducing the prison population, especially since he is one of the people who was responsible for increasing it in the birthplace. so this is the sneakiness that brings out the rappers in the celebrities who don't know what they're talking about. they have a little grain of truth, just a yes, that's true. and democrats do take the black vote for granted. but the lack of a real agenda that is going to help people allows them to attention what they're talking about doesn't mix. and that is truly was as i look at this election, is that you had a lot of opportunities not just to kind of do better, you know,

you know, rein fire on donald trump, but you have a lot of opportunities to really talk about a vision for a future and where we can build here in america, how we can take care of americans across all the divisive lines. and you just didn't see that very much, but i'm happy to have. it always brings me joy to see people like yourself and others out there, you know, fighting to really get good messages out there and fighting to, to really let people get people to start thinking about what is truly right for them and what they deserve, of citizens and what a government can do for them, as well as what they can do for government. thank you so much, margaret conley for all your hard work out there and your writing and your work. always a pleasure having you on educating our audience. always powerful. having margaret amazing, i'm like, oh well people have heard this before. they went voting on election day and i just was relieved. more candidates need more candidates than just the 2. and i think we'd see a lot more of these ideas out there right now. being taken seriously,

you know, being taken seriously, but all right, everybody, that is our show for you today. remember everyone in this world, we are not told to tell you all i love you, i am tired of winter and i'm in the. keep on watching those hawks out there and have a great day and night. everybody else seems wrong. if you just think that that's ok and it equals betrayal. when something you find themselves well it's a part of the common ground. is

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tactics that can be used to get innocent people to confess, to crimes. they didn't commit. i don't even think people in the us really get that the police are allowed to lie to the person who falsely fast actually came to believe the lie that they were told about their own behavior. once a false confession is taken, the case is closed and nobody really can tell the difference between a good confession and one that isn't what if people look for to see whether what we're saying is actually playing out in the real world and sort of thing to look at would be the u.s. dollar versus the chinese or the big. ok, that's the main forex pair. that's going to tell you what's happening in the global economy. if this, all this debt is going to trigger all this money printing, the dollar will start to drift lower and it's already, you know, looking very weak. i think the last 4 years under they've been able to kind of

propped up to a large degree. but i think maggie, going to see a serious decline in the dollar. chinese currency start to really outperform the dollar. the new clothes will suit bush will be pushed into wu lovable. was she who i am sure. i can bench that would have been you could do that with us because all of us who knew because those stories could be game, we will soon be confused with who would seem the most news for those emotions to be somewhat put in your sleeves. come home and use the of the 20th century, was thinking of revolution, the great depression and world war, the 21st century of mental illness. that's what surfaced. some psychologists tell us, the only question is does a fact use?

armenians vent their fury at their prime minister, accusing him of capitulating to our surprise by signing a peace deal. several arrests are made at a rally and you're about also this hour out for blood this week after the us presidential election that could be contested in court. democrats declare, open season on anyone who's ever supported double trump, some even demanding the destruction of their rivals. we have to collectively, in essence burn down the republican party. we have to level and the latest.