Today is Monday, January 18th and you're listening to the morning announcements.

I'm Sammy Sage.

In honor of MLK Day, before we get to the headlines, I wanted to share an excerpt from a speech that

MLK gave in 1967 called The Three Evils of Society that I thought remains extremely relevant

to the continuing struggles that we're facing against white supremacy today.

Here's a clip.

So let us stand in this convention knowing that on some positions,

cowardice asks the, is it safe?

Expediancy asked, the question is it politic. Vanity asked the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question is

it right? On some positions it is necessary for the moral individual to take a stand that is neither safe, nor politic, not popular,

but he must do it because it is right. Switching gears to the complete opposite of what is right, let's talk about the market

for Trump administration pardons.

The New York Times reported yesterday that a number of Trump allies have been collecting fees from wealthy felons in return for lobbying the Trump administration for a pardon.

One lobbyist and former federal prosecutor who's advising the Trump administration on

pardons named Brett Tolman has reportedly collected tens of thousands of dollars lobbying for

three individuals, one of which is a Manhattan socialite who pleaded guilty in a fraud scheme.

Trump's former personal lawyer, John Dowd, what a throwback, has actually been openly marketing

himself as someone who can secure pardons and has also accepted tens of thousands of dollars.

Also reported was that another Trump advisor was going to receive an additional bonus of $50,000

if a pardon was granted to a former CIA officer who illegally disclosed classified

information on top of the preliminary $50,000 lobbying fee.

What can I say, Grifters gonna Grift all the way to the end. Next up in shady shit the Trump administration is doing on its way out the door,

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