Uptown Voices | Uptown Voices LIVE: Zohran Mamdani, A New Political Force

In this episode of Uptown Voices, Led Black and Octavio Blanco discuss various topics including Thanksgiving reflections, the recent meeting between Mamdani and Trump, political dynamics in New York City, and the future of the GOP. They emphasize the importance of community engagement and the need for political accountability, while also expressing their pride in New York City and its leadership.

Takeaways
Thanksgiving can be a time for gratitude despite its fraught history.
Mamdani's meeting with Trump showcased his political acumen.
Leadership is about navigating complex relationships and power dynamics.
The GOP is facing internal divisions and challenges to its identity.
Community engagement is crucial for political change and accountability.
The current political climate is marked by uncertainty and potential conflict.
Latinos must unite against policies that harm their communities.
Hope for a better future is essential, but vigilance is necessary.
The importance of recognizing the flaws in all political leaders.
The fight for justice and equity continues in the face of adversity.

Titles
Thanksgiving and Political Reflections
Mamdani's Impact on Trump

Sound bites
"He made Trump look like a child."
"We need to clean house."
"No more blinders, only class war."

Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Thanksgiving Reflections
02:50 The Meeting with Mamdani and Trump
11:12 Political Dynamics and Leadership
19:34 The Future of the GOP and Trump
28:00 Upcoming Episodes and Community Engagement

Creators and Guests

Host

Led Black

Host

Octavio Blanco

What is Uptown Voices?

A podcast focused on the Uptown neighborhoods of Inwood, Washington Heights and Harlem. Our neighborhoods have a voice and we want to be heard and felt. We love Uptown.

Each episode will elevate the people here who are making a difference in the life of this community. We’re also committed to “real talk” that seeks solutions that improve the quality of life in our beautiful Uptown neighborhoods.

Led Black (00:00)
Let's go. What up everyone? It's Lab Black and my brother, Octavio Blanco for another Uptown Voices Live from Washington Heights. You know what mean? So please just again, bear with us. We will try some new things, it, hopefully it works. You know what I mean? So let's rock out. Octavio, how you doing my brother?

Octavio Blanco (00:16)
Yes,

I'm good, I'm good, I'm excited to, here we go. Okay, okay, what's going on here? You seeing stuff? I'm starting to see stuff.

Led Black (00:21)
⁓ okay.

Yeah, so now it's on the season. So I don't know if I have to click go live. Yeah, I'm gonna hit go live here. Whoa, what? This is a man.

Octavio Blanco (00:30)
Yeah, do it. And we are definitely live on YouTube. What?

We're definitely live on YouTube. Yo, check out, let's see, what about Facebook? What's going on with Facebook?

Led Black (00:41)
Yeah, no, we live on OG. What up, what up, everybody? What up, what up, what up? Happy Sunday, y'all. It's La Black.

Octavio Blanco (00:47)
Happy Sunday, Led, how you doing

on this great Sunday? Now we got our Instagram connected, and I think we got our Facebook connected. I wanna make sure.

Led Black (00:58)
Yeah, yeah.

No, we definitely on IG, because I can see the comments coming in. And what up, every IG world? What up, y'all? It's Led Black and my brother, Octavio Blanco. This is our first truly live edition of Uptown Voices. So, you know, I just want to thank everyone for rocking with us. We're to be talking a little bit about some of surprise things we have coming up this week and Uptown in general. Octavio, what's up, brother? How you doing?

Octavio Blanco (01:23)
I'm good, man. I'm feeling good. like Thanksgiving Eve is right around the corner. I can't wait to get some turkey. And I want to give thanks to our audience. I want to give thanks to everybody here. And I want to give thanks to the powers that be to allow us to be here and to do this. So I'm feeling very, very thankful.

Led Black (01:34)
Nice.

Octavio Blanco (01:50)
you how do you how do you do you celebrate Thanksgiving I know that sometimes Thanksgiving can be a little bit of a controversial holiday because you know the history of this country is is kind of messed up so like I like it's fraught it's fraught how does it feel on your end when when when Thanksgiving comes around

Led Black (02:02)
It's fraught, it's fraught. So you know,

so before I there, like, cause you're not really seeing the IG, the IG is jumping right now. So I gotta say it up to all my people. Angela, what up Angela? But yeah, man, like, I'm.

I feel like this about Thanksgiving, right? Like I understand, you know, the bloody history that it comes from, but as a person, you know, that's been through mad things in my life, you know, anytime you could be with family and give thanks, I'm always appreciative. You know what mean? We've been through some things as a family. So I'm very thankful for the little time to celebrate and take time. Of course, the colonial history is going to be what it's going to be. But you know, I want to put, I want to actually say something to you, Octavio, man. Like we've been friends for a long time, but you've never looked at me the way Trump was looking.

that Mamdani man like what was that about dude like yo my man was in love like what the fuck like yeah you know it's funny because no one thought no one thought that was gonna happen right bum ass Hakeem Jeffries was voting to make a fucking thing about socialism that bum ass motherfucker like what are we talking about and then

Octavio Blanco (02:54)
⁓ my God. Yeah, got whiplash.

Led Black (03:13)
Mom Donnie comes in there, comes, he comes, Mom Daddy and charms the pants off of Trump. who could have, who in their wildest dreams could have seen that? You know, no one. It's amazing. Your thoughts, brother.

Octavio Blanco (03:23)
I,

yeah, okay. All right, before we get into that, I just wanna make sure that everybody on Instagram can see us correctly.

because I have a feeling that our Instagram is looking a little crazy. So I'm trying to figure out how to fix that. But while I do that, here's what I'm to tell you first. And then I'll try to fix the aspect ratio because we need to be in the Instagram aspect ratio. And right now we're not. don't know that Instagram knows how to deal with the way that our screen is set up right this second. So I got to figure that out.

Led Black (03:38)
we looking crazy, right?

Octavio Blanco (04:01)
I'm gonna tell you, I was kinda nervous when I heard that Zoran Mamdani was gonna go into the ⁓ Oval Office because I remember how they treated Zelensky from Ukraine and I just thought they were just setting this kid up for some, to be, you know, like just dragged through the mud. But.

Led Black (04:06)
It's set up right this second.

Octavio Blanco (04:25)
Apparently, Mondani knows how to to schmooze and he knows how to defend himself and he knows how to how to handle a tyrant because he made Trump look like a it looked like Mondani the 33 year old was the adult in the room and Trump the 70 whatever year old was like the child. So now you you tell me what you what your thoughts are while I try to figure out this aspect radio ratio thing.

Led Black (04:30)
Hmm?

Yeah, yeah.

Facts.

Yeah, so no, don't

worry about the aspect ratio. It's working fine. I checked it. It's fine. It looks fine on IG. I checked on IG. fine. I just checked it right now. It's good. And Angela said we're good.

Octavio Blanco (04:57)
⁓ because my wife, it looks fine on IG because, okay, because my wife Kathy,

Angela said you're we're good. So, but I'm getting I'm getting some some some my wife, my wife's IG is telling my wife's on looking on our IG. And she says it looks a little crazy. So so she's like, she says it looks very crazy. All right, we'll work on that. We'll work on that later.

Led Black (05:07)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, me too.

All right, well, we'll work on that later. Let me give you my opinions on this. Let me give you my opinions on this. Like, first

of all, yeah. Yeah. So, well, the thing is that...

First of all, I'm so proud to be a fucking New Yorker right now. Like, you know what I'm so fucking proud. I'm so proud that this is our mayor. You know what mean? Like I'm all in for, for, for Zoe. You know what I'm saying? And it was interesting is that, you know, he, didn't, he, didn't get invited. He invited himself, you know, and he went in there, you know, what I, what I, what I want to just, like I said before, Mamdani is who we thought Obama was.

Octavio Blanco (05:44)
Yes, yes.

Led Black (05:53)
Right? And Mondani is not just the greatest communicator the Democratic Party's ever had, but he's just a great thinker. And I think he went in there with FDR in mind, right? And he's like, I'm going to make sure that I make Trump...

Octavio Blanco (05:53)
Hmm hmm hmm hmm. ⁓

Led Black (06:08)
believe in FDR as much as I do, you know, and he basically made Trump believe what he wanted him to believe, right? Because Trump is such a vain, petulant child, right? That the right words, you could easily manipulate him. And that's what you saw on display. He was wowed by this man's riz. He was glazing hard over him. Like it was, I've never seen Trump look so like googly-eyed at someone in my life. He don't look like that of JD Vans. He don't look like that of his kids at all. You know what I mean?

Octavio Blanco (06:10)
Hmm

No!

Led Black (06:37)
Beavis and Butthead, you know what saying? But he don't even look like, well, he does look, he looks like Ivanka a little worse in another way, but whatever, you know what mean? But it was this kind of just masterful, to even call him a politician, I think a statesman, you know what I mean? He went in there and he just, statesman, that's what he did. You know what I mean? He was a statement, he went in there, he just,

Octavio Blanco (06:42)
Hahaha!

But I was about to say statesman. It was just it was statesmanship. That was exactly my word. It was statesmanship. Yeah.

Led Black (06:59)
It was amazing. He even let Trump call himself a fascist.

Right? And Trump was making like, no, no, he, why would she take the bus? He's an employed man. Like I've never seen anything like that in my life. I know Laura Loomer lost her shit and that, that, that alone is worth it. ⁓ you know, like we're, living in some funny time, you know, Marjorie Trader Green resigned, right? But you know, it's funny about that shit. She waited, she's resigning effectively like two days. So she's going to get her pension. So she's going to be good.

Octavio Blanco (07:16)
It's so worth it, so worth it.

Led Black (07:30)
Right, like that was, I don't like her, but like you could see her playing her game. You know what mean?

Octavio Blanco (07:35)
Yo, it's true, like the, the, the, ⁓

The resignation of Marjorie Taylor Greene was like a complete surprise. But it's true that Mondani was a statesman. And I do think that Mondani went in there to educate the president and treated him like the way that he needed to be treated, which was, this is a kid, he needs to be educated. He doesn't know half of what he needs to know. And he's a New Yorker and he's from Queens, just like I am.

So I think that he had Trump in the palm of his hand and then I don't know everybody says that Trump is so transactional right that he just wants to connect with the winner and sort of like a vampire suck the blood of that

winner. other words, like Mamdami like went in, destroyed the destroyed Cuomo, absolutely obliterated the competition, went from zero to hero. You know what I mean? And and and so Trump wants that to shine on him. So instead of like, ⁓ you know, attacking him instead of like

Led Black (08:44)
Mm-hmm.

Octavio Blanco (08:50)
⁓ treating him like an enemy. He was like, you and me, we're the same. We're buddies. can, we can talk, we can chat. We're on the same level. So basically Trump was just trying to be on the same level as Mondami. He didn't see how he should like work to, to, to hurt Mondami because he didn't see anything like that would, that he would

Led Black (08:59)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (09:16)
benefit from that. wants to, he wants to, he wants to take his life energy, his life force and use it on himself. You know what mean? It's, it was very vampiric. I gotta say it was very vampiric. He was smitten for sure.

Led Black (09:19)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, for sure. yeah, yeah. Yeah, he was smitten. He was smitten

by Mom Donnie, by Mom Daddy, right? But what's interesting, right, is that there's fissures happening within the MAGA movement, right?

Octavio Blanco (09:40)
yeah. And we saw that before.

We saw that before this meeting, right?

Led Black (09:45)
Right, so there's fissures happening, right? And this furthered the fissures, right? And what's really interesting is that, Mom Donnie, again, going back to FDR, right? Mom Donnie, I think Mom Donnie knew that it was Trump that supposedly unearthed this portrait of FDR. And so I think he already knew that. So when he said, can I take a picture of it, what's wild is Trump did a photo dump.

of Mamdani and him in front of the portrait. One of the photo dumps is just Mamdani. Like, and it's wild. Like, this is insane. Right. But like you said, I just think Trump loves winners. Right. And he wants to be a winner. Like, so there's a picture I saw a long time ago, like in the early 90s. it's Trump, Chabaranks, ⁓ Supercat and Cyndi Lauper. Right. Like, this is the guy. Like, he's a clout chaser at end of the day. You know what I mean? He wants to be around it.

Octavio Blanco (10:27)
What?

Yeah.

Led Black (10:36)
But it's interesting to go back to the Civil War that's brewing. There's a whole Civil War brewing. There's the Colter, Tucker Carlson and Candice Owens and Nick Fuentes.

brand, right? And then you have the bench, there's a whole thing that's and everyone's fighting for it for that crown, which is a good thing. And I think Mom Donnie did everything he needed to do by going to the oval. He went into the Lions then and tamed the lion, right? And then the lion gave him praises, right? And then not only that, he made himself a national, even more so of a national figure.

Octavio Blanco (11:03)
Yes he did, yes he did.

Led Black (11:10)
Right? And he also put pressure on the bum-ass Democratic leadership. He put pressure on bum-ass Chuck Toomer and Apex Shakur, Hakeem Jeffries. He put pressure on them. Like, all the letter writing they've done, they have gotten us nothing.

Octavio Blanco (11:11)
yeah.

Led Black (11:25)
Nothing. Right? And my man come in there, son fucking Trump, he caused more divisions among that side. Like, I don't think, I did not expect this. You know what I'm saying? And he's not even mayor yet. You know what mean? So again, I'm so fucking proud of my mayor and of my city. You know what I mean? And New York City. And again, I hate to say it, sorry, New York's number one. Fuck everything else. New York is number one. I'm sorry, go ahead.

Octavio Blanco (11:45)
And let's...

Hahaha

Led Black (11:50)
My bad.

Octavio Blanco (11:50)
Yeah,

no man, no, absolutely. New York number one. I wanted to just say like, the feeling that I got, and I hope that this is the feeling that actually comes through, is that this offers New York protection from the attacks that have been threatened by...

⁓ president trump against the city of new york, you know, I hope he's not doing a little rope a dope like, you know, So, being nice talking up the side of his face and then he's gonna like hit us with the left I think and I hope that mandami isn't being sucked in by the ⁓ you know the the the level of graciousness that we've never frankly seen before from trump being leveled at him because I do think that this president has shown himself to be

Not trustworthy and our community continues to be threatened We've seen the heightened ice attacks. We've seen the money being taken away from our You know our budgets we've seen

you know, all of these attacks being orchestrated from the White House. And what I hope is that Mondani on the one hand is like definitely, you know, nurturing like, let's say that relationship to protect the city. You know, that's politics. You kind of have to sort of, you know.

Make sure that you're talking to the right people so that they so that they, you know, don't come and attack to us. But at the same time, it's important that mandami and this administration, the transition team and then everybody who gets into the transition that they understand that we cannot take his word for granted that we still need to protect ourselves. So that's what I where I'm coming from. I want to make sure that we are protecting ourselves, even though

You know?

Led Black (13:43)
100 % I agree.

I agree 100 % because first of all this chump is mercurial, right? He's in love now, he's gonna fall out of love tomorrow, right? And frankly, once, because again, he's getting killed on his side too, right? His side is like, what the fuck? Like everybody's up in arms and he welcomed a communist, right? Like likes to say. So this is not gonna go well on his side. So once he gets, if he, you know, I'm sure he's gonna get a whiff of it and he just might basically flip to the other side and that'll change things.

saying is it just shows you what leadership is and what leadership looks like in a very interesting way. And again, that's the old world and this is the new world. And again, that's the choice. You know what mean? it is going like Trump is our adversary and that's not going to change. Right. You see what's happening in Charlotte. like they're raiding daycare centers. Right. So they're going to daycare centers that are specifically for immigrant children and they're waiting on

side and then doing this two days in a row I just saw a piece in the New York Times about that. That's fucking horrible. That's cruel. That's just inhumane. And that's why my thing with the Latinos for Trump crowd, like look at this point, man, like y'all see what he's doing to us, right? And when y'all post like, you know, vanilla ice ice ice baby, like memes and gifs and all that shit is fucking insulting. Like I don't, don't for the Latinos for crowd, like, like again, if y'all want to come back to this side, that's beautiful. Let's do it. But, but to be talking shit on the sidelines and seeing your people

hurting you laughing that shit is cruel and and people that we're not forgetting that we're not forgetting that I'm sorry like this is foul this is a war on Latinos and immigrants and if you're Latino and you with that that shit is really whack and you need to be called on your shit every time it happens

Octavio Blanco (15:29)
Absolutely. And I agree with you. If you're willing to come back into the fold and be supportive and be, you know, I, I understand that there's Latinos, all Latinos don't have to agree on everything, right? All Latinos don't have to agree on every single issue. But one of the things that we need to agree on is that, you know, we are not going to like attack each other and put each other, put our own people, our own children,

in cages. mean to me that's I think like the lowest of the low. really have no no

I have no words, the cruelty there. And the fact that actually Latinos are supportive of this kind of treatment of other people is, think it's, like you say, they say Trump Derangement Syndrome is Democrats who really can't fathom that Trump could have any goodness in him. That's not Trump Derangement Syndrome. Trump Derangement Syndrome, like you say, Led, is...

people, Republicans, Latinos, whatever you are, who can't see, you know, President Trump for the evilness that he is. Because the fact of the matter is that he's, he's a, he is a deranged person and he is the one who's hurting this country. And, and we're suffering from it. Look at what's going on. His own people, his own, his own MAGA is starting to just like crumble. And when he's gone, what are they going to stand for? I think that's the big question. What is

Led Black (16:32)
Yeah.

Yeah.

⁓

Octavio Blanco (16:56)
that they're going to stand for when Trump is gone. Because, you know, yeah, he's got three more years, but he's already entering this sort of like lame duck presidency kind of thing where, you know, I know what you say. I know what you're going to say. I know what you're going to say. He's going to try to stick around.

Led Black (17:05)
You know, so,

no, no, but, you know what's so funny? You know, first of all, he is going to try to stick around, right? He is going to try to stick around. But what's funny about that, that every day, the whole notion of

Trump 2028 becomes more fucking fanciful. That motherfucker is not going to make it another six months. He is too unhealthy. this whole Trump 2028, he fucking wishes that motherfucker is no stop. No, no, what do you mean stop? I'm listening. Everybody uptown. I'm throwing the biggest party when that motherfucker dies. It's going to be the fucking open bar of the open bars. We're going to party and he's not making it to 2028. Right. So, so that's, that's, that's one thing that.

Octavio Blanco (17:30)
Stop. Stop. Stop. He's... Don't...

Stop.

Stop bringing

our hopes up. Stop bringing up the people's hopes. This guy's gonna stick around. This guy's gonna stick around. He's gonna be, he's gonna be like a barnacle on the side of a ship. He's not going anywhere. He's not dying. He's, he's gonna be sticking around. The guy is healthy as an ox. Yeah, sure. He's, sure. He's healthy, healthy as an ox. Yeah, he's got, he's got thick ankles. So what? So do I. I've got thick ankles. I'm not gonna die next week.

Led Black (17:52)
No, that motherfucker ain't. Uh-uh.

He's not healthy. He's not healthy.

Cancels Nah

Octavio Blanco (18:17)
week.

The guy is healthy as a Knox. Nobody get your hopes up that he's going to die because he's not he's going to be there for the full four years. I'm no fan of the guy but God damn it. I'm not going to get my hopes up because God damn if he does yeah, sure. We'll throw the biggest party, but you know, don't get your hopes up. We got to fight. got to stay in this.

Led Black (18:19)
Nah

Listen, listen.

I know I agree. But what I'm

saying is I don't that the whole notion of 2028 just every day just seems that's a long time from now. And I don't think he has has it. He's not going to make it. You know, to be honest and to be really fucking honest as he loses his grip on power, you know, the wolves are going to be circling. Right. The JD Vance is the Peter Teals. Right. Those interests. You know, Trump is good for for those interests until he's not right. And they have control the levels of power. So so I would, you know, palace entry.

Octavio Blanco (18:59)
Yeah.

Led Black (19:04)
is a real thing. know what mean? And Trump is doing more damage to their cause every day.

Octavio Blanco (19:06)
Absolutely.

Led Black (19:09)
Like this whole Mamdani thing was a blow to their whole thing, right? Their whole thing was to make Mamdani a socialist jihadist communist, whatever the fuck that means, right? So that was their whole thing. That was the whole framing. That's what they were going for. And with one fell swoop, Trump shot that down, right? Their whole messaging is done, right? So what I'm saying, that party has put themselves in a corner because they are the party of Trump.

Octavio Blanco (19:19)
Yeah, yeah.

Led Black (19:33)
Right. as soon as some point another, that's why Margie Taylor Green is leaving. That's why I took a call and Kenneth Owens and Nick Fenton are forming blocks. Right. His demise, whether political or actually dying is around the corner. And we do have to have hope. You know, we do have to have hope. think that's what Mamdani says gives us his hope. Right. That we don't have to deal with a fucking disgusting, obese, megalomaniac, racist white supremacists in power. Right. So so that we do need hope. But I'm going to be

Octavio Blanco (19:53)
Absolutely.

Hahaha!

Led Black (20:03)
Again, I'm gonna hope, fuck that. I hope he dies as soon as possible and I'm sorry. That's how I feel.

Octavio Blanco (20:08)
Yeah,

but then we'll have JD Vance to deal with. don't know. I don't know how feel about that guy. That guy is worse than worse.

Led Black (20:12)
He's a loser

though. Vance, JD Vance doesn't, he's first of all, he's married to an Indian woman. First of all, he's married to an Indian woman, right? Right? He's married to an Indian woman. That's, that's horrible for them. Right? But what I'm saying is...

Octavio Blanco (20:18)
Well, that's the thing. That's, well, that's good. For how long? For how long? For how long? For how long?

Led Black (20:26)
But you know what's

interesting about that, right? So there was an article, I think, the Times talking about Indian America specifically, right? And how horribly they've been treated by the party that some of them profess to be a part of, right? So for example, Kash Big Eye Patel, you know what saying? That motherfucker sees everything. had like, his eyes open. Eyes wide open. Eyes wide open Patel. Yeah, that motherfucker. But he did a thing for Diwali, right? Because he celebrates, he's Hindu, he celebrates Diwali.

Octavio Blanco (20:34)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Cash. Thousand miles there.

Led Black (20:55)
and he got destroyed by Baga. Same thing happened to, what's the name, Vivek Ramaswamy, right? When he went in front of Angkotar and she says, I would have voted for you, but you're Indian, right? So a lot of these Indian Americans are getting slapped in their face, you know what mean? With their racism, you know what I mean? Usha, her own husband told her, I wish she would convert, right? So what I'm saying is, JD Vance, they call him Old Smoky Eye, because he wears eyeliner for some reason, I don't know why. But that dude is a fraud. He's a Peter T. O'Palantir.

Octavio Blanco (20:57)
Yeah, yeah.

Yep.

Led Black (21:24)
He's plant, right? He's a nobody. He doesn't have no charisma. Without Trump, there's no one else. No one has that.

Octavio Blanco (21:30)
That's right. That's

right. See eyes open and can't see nada nada nada. You're absolutely right. You know, I don't know if you guys saw I know led your your did you did you did you cancel your time subscription already? Are you still on there?

Led Black (21:45)
I have not canceled it yet.

I still haven't canceled it.

Octavio Blanco (21:48)
Yeah, good. Okay, so we can talk about what's up in the Times. I mean, I think we, you know what, Eileen, I don't know if you're watching this, but come on, don't let him keep his Times subscription. For the very, at least we need to be able to critique it. And so we have to at least be able to read it. So, I mean, they had a really interesting piece today about Cash Money Patel and his use of private jets to fly him and his girlfriend around the globe. And then the weirdest thing was his use of swaps.

teams to protect his girlfriend who apparently is like a country music a conservative country music singer and they had like a SWAT team protecting her costing thousands and thousands of dollars by the way this administration has been shown this administrator hold I just want to say is I just want to say that this administration for the all the cuts that they've been making all across the government you know firing people like me and others you know they go around building building ballrooms flying around a

Led Black (22:31)
But hold on, hold on. I'll tell you.

Octavio Blanco (22:47)
private jets, private security, making public money, public police, private security for somebody who's not even Cash Patel's wife. It's his girlfriend, you know what mean? So it's not like a spouse. It's his girlfriend. Anyway, what were you gonna say? I just want to get that off my chest.

Led Black (23:03)
No, so you're

100 % right, you know, fucking building ballrooms, Kristi Noem is flying around in a brand new jet, you know, fucking Ice Barbie. But back to his girlfriend, his girlfriend is a honey pot. She's an Israeli agent. She's not really know, look her up. Yeah, look her up, man. Like, first of all, if you look at her and look at him, right, just let's be honest.

Octavio Blanco (23:19)
yeah?

I know,

he's out of his league for sure. ⁓

Led Black (23:30)
So that's what I'm saying.

That's an intelligence operation. And dumbass Cash Mattel can't even see it, even though his eyes is wide open. I don't know how he don't see it. I don't think that motherfucker ever blinked. I've never seen him blink. That motherfucker's an AI robot or some shit. But again, you know, this is where we're at with it. We need to fight on all cylinders.

Octavio Blanco (23:38)
Does he blink? Does he blink? mean, I've never seen it.

Led Black (23:54)
And again, I think ridicule helps and Trump, I think is on the verge of, you know, we're somewhere else with it. And every day is going to bring new things. you know, we're on the cusp of war in Latin America, which could be very, very dangerous, right? ⁓ Because somehow Venezuela has the most proven reserves of war in the world. And now, you know, they want regime change there. So there's a lot of issues there, know, little Marco Rubio,

Octavio Blanco (24:10)
Yeah, I'm so sad about that.

Led Black (24:23)
would love nothing more than to be the person to end the Cuban revolution. So I think he's trying to bring down Venezuela, to bring down Cuba. And you know, they've talked about Colombia as well. So this could be like, you know, we could have what we have in the Middle East and Latin America, and that'll be a disaster. disaster.

Octavio Blanco (24:43)
If

we do go to war with Venezuela, I just want to make sure everybody understands that we're not just going to war with Venezuela.

right? This would become a proxy war in Latin America between the United States, China, and Russia, who are very, very close allies of Venezuela. China has been doing a lot of building of ⁓ factories and warehouses to get around tariffs. They send it to Venezuela and then from Venezuela

you know, comes here over land and they can try to get around some of those tariffs. It reduces some of their costs. So even if they do have to pay the tariffs, the costs are lower. So you're gonna see if we do go to war with Venezuela, that it's gonna be a proxy war through, via Venezuela with China and Russia who not only want those close ties so they can sell, build and transport their products,

but also so that they can have Venezuela's oil, which a lot of it does go to China. And I think a lot of it goes to Russia, even though Russia is one of the major oil producers in the world. Anyway, it's very, very dangerous.

Led Black (26:00)
Yeah,

but I also heard reports that the Wagner group, the Russia's Wagner group, which is like one of some elite mercenaries, I heard they're on the ground in Venezuela. I can't confirm that to be true or not. But I think Russia...

especially would love, love, love to give the United States a bloody nose in his backyard. And they can do that with very little effort. Right. You get some really highly trained mercenaries in there with armed correctly and they could really cause some damage. Right. You're not going to defeat America, you know, on a one to one battle in that manner. you could definitely do some asymmetric warfare to really hurt the cause. You know what mean? So I think that this food

It could really upend the world, right? Latin America is emerging. Latin America is kind of coming up off the yoke of colonialism. We don't need this right now. But I think there's no way around it. I think we're headed for those kind of problems. And that's why saying, that's why the sooner that we get rid of Trump, the sooner that he expires, I think that once he expires, there will be a fight for power, but hopefully democracy.

democracy could win and our long national nightmare could be over. But again, this war in Latin America is fraught with danger and it could end up backfiring tremendously and things could get much worse than they already are. I went shopping today, shit is so fucking expensive. Everything is so much more expensive than before.

All the stuff that he talked about he did not do. And I hope all those people that voted for him, I hope that at least you least you come to terms with it and you wake up from your cult induced nightmare dream, whatever you want to call it. Because we, this is horrible. And if you don't find, if you're not bothered by what's happening in this country, then you're either not paying attention or you're an asshole. Sorry to say it, but that's the truth.

Octavio Blanco (27:54)
Yeah, yeah,

yeah. And go back to the expenses of things. In the meantime, as we are dealing with higher prices and when the administration said that on day one they were going to lower prices and that they were going to remove

what you would call it, they were gonna eliminate fraud and misuse of funds. Do you know like when we flew like I think four B-1 bombers over to Venezuela in a show of force, that costs...

hundreds of millions of dollars like to do that. It's ridiculous. this idea that this administration is doing anything to lower costs or to eliminate fraud and waste is a complete fallacy. They've done nothing to it. so, I do, agree with you. I hope that everybody who thought that this was gonna be the case, I have family members that thought that this was gonna happen that I voted for

I voted when I got fired from the federal government some of my own family members were so MAGA ish that they that they were like well, you know, I'm sorry for you, but this is what I voted for, know I'm sorry that this happened to you, but but we needed this as a country and it's like so so ridiculous that you know they are hurting everyday Americans and they are just stuffing their pockets was as much

money as they can and not only that but using our money so that they can have a lavish lifestyle and not only that wage international wars and bail out their rich friends in Argentina which is like completely anathema to what MAGA was all about right MAGA didn't want any of that stuff and that's exactly what what what Donald Trump and his cronies are doing so you know the the the the proof is in the pudding we've now had what six

Led Black (29:44)
you

Octavio Blanco (30:01)
months of Trump or whatever. And we see where this is all going. I'm just glad that Mamdani was in that Oval Office. And vicariously so were we because I want to do a little promo for our next episode coming up on Tuesday. we're going to... It's a big one. We had an opportunity. We took it and we interviewed Grace Bonilla, CEO

Led Black (30:05)
Yeah.

That's right, that's right.

Octavio Blanco (30:27)
of the United Way New York City and the co-chair of the Mondami Campaign Transition Team. And we had her on the show.

Led Black (30:27)
That's right.

one of

five women, you know, really big powerhouses, you know, leading the transition. So I'm really excited. So everyone tune in on Tuesday and also please subscribe to our podcast on YouTube. It helps us out. It's free. for y'all to do, but show us love on that. And yeah, man, I agree. I think we have a big episode. I'm really excited about it. And...

Octavio Blanco (30:44)
Yep.

But what I wanted

to say though is that...

It's what we're trying to do. We want to put Uptown front and center. don't want to, you know, if you look at the maps of who voted how for Mondani, Uptown came through big time. And we did it because we believe in what this mayor is saying. We believe in the policies that this mayor is proposing. And we believe that he has our best interests in mind. And we, Uptown Collective, are fully on board with that. And we're also going

going

to be fully making sure that uptown's people, that uptown's issues is front and center. And we hope that everybody who's had a hand in helping this mayor to win and to take the reins in January will do the same thing. Y'all, the job isn't done. Y'all, the job continues. We have to make sure that our own people continue to fight for

what's right for us. And yes, it was Mondani who invited himself down there. He was not invited by the president.

Led Black (32:07)
Yeah, and I think it's super important as well to once again, I hate to be the dead horse, but again, it's also to put these dems.

on blast as well, right? You know, the Schummers, the Hakeem Jeffries, Hoku, right? Hoku needs us. So you're going to play ball, not play ball, we will get Delgado. Like, we're here in survival mode and we don't got time for these Democrats that are Democrats in name only. you're not concerned with what's going on in this country, you're concerned about something else, then we don't need you there and we need to clean house. And I want to keep re-emphasizing that.

not just Trump, right? Biden was horrible and he led to Trump and we need to look at that co-heartedly. We need to look at it like not flinching, that we have plenty of issues. Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, all of them are not perfect and are full of flaws and they have led us to the path that we're at now. So we need to be moving forward clearly, hopefully, but not with no more blinders. There's no more time for blinders and there's only time, no war but class war. All right, y'all. Spread love. It's Uptown Way. Tuesday, new episode.

Octavio Blanco (33:08)
Mm-hmm

Led Black (33:12)
Thank you for pulling up. It's the first great live that we actually got on IG with the audience that's really on IG. So thank you everyone for coming out. See you soon, Tuesday. Subscribe.