#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 1st DOGE Hearing Gets Heated, Unions Sue DOGE, Tulsi Gabbard Confirmed, Is Our Democracy At Risk?

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

2.12.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: 1st DOGE Hearing Gets Heated, Unions Sue DOGE, Tulsi Gabbard Confirmed, Is Our Democracy At Risk? The first DOGE subcommittee meeting got a bit heated. Instead of focusing on the "war on waste," the Democrats used the hearing to highlight Musk and DOGE's recent actions in the executive branch. We'll show you some highlights from today's hearing. April Verrett, the President of SEIU, will explain why labor unions are partnering to sue DOGE to protect personal data privacy. The GOP-controlled Senate has confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as the director of national intelligence. New York Congressman Gregory Meeks will join us to discuss the risks our democracy faces with the MAGA majority in each branch of government. #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

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We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. And right now we're accepting investors in our $17 million round to revolutionize the future of social media.

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You dig? Today is Wednesday, February 12, 2025 Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered Streaming live on the Blackstar Network Oh, it got heated on Capitol Hill For the first hearing of Co-Pident Elon Musk's Doge government office, which actually the department doesn't even really exist,

will show you what took place. And man, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett was kicking that butt. SEIU, they are suing Donald Trump and co-president Elon Musk over their firing of federal workers. She will join us to talk about their lawsuits. Also on today's show, Congressman Gregory Meeks, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee. We will talk about Ukraine, talk about Putin and talk about how MAGA really is destroying America. And why is Elon Musk

and Donald Trump getting rid of the cybersecurity office that keeps our elections safe from foreign actors? Could it be they want to focus on trying to steal the 2028 election? Man, it's

a lot we got to talk about. It is time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on Filter. On the Black Star Network, it's a lot we got to talk about. It is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin on culture on the Black Star Network. Let's go. believe he's knowing putting it down from sports to news to politics with entertainment just for gigs he's rolling it's the go-go-go y'all it's rolling martin yeah rolling with rolling now he's funky's fresh he's real the best you know he's rolling Folks, for two hours today in the House, a subcommittee on oversight really went at it when it came to the actions of Donald Trump, the twice impeached, criminally convicted felon con man and his co-president, Elon Musk, talking about their actions regarding this fake Department of Government Efficiency that doesn't actually exist.

And so New Mexico Democrat Melanie Stanberry, let's just say, Stanberry, she had no problem laying it out in terms of what we're dealing with when it comes to these two crooks. Right. Well, good morning, everyone. Thank you, Madam Chair, and welcome to the very first subcommittee on government efficiency. As was said, this committee is tasked under the Oversight Committee with ensuring that the government and the vital services that it provides from health care to national security actually work for the American people. And this is certainly a topic that we have worked on for many, many years here in the Oversight Committee, and which I personally have worked on as a former

civil servant who worked at the Office of Management and Budget. And in fact, for anyone who has ever worked on these issues, you know that there is ample ground for bipartisan work to make the government work better for the American people and to ensure that it operates in a more efficient manner. And in fact, all of us here on the Democratic side are ready to roll up our sleeves and to get to work. And just last week, I had the opportunity to sit down with the chairwoman and to discuss these very issues and opportunities to work across the aisle. And like the chairwoman who shared some of her background with me, I grew up in a working family. I grew up working for small mom-and-pop family businesses and understand the necessity of balancing the books,

making sure we can deliver, and fiscal responsibility. And that's why today's hearing is focused on making sure that the federal government is doing what it's supposed to and digging into the more than 236 billion dollars in improper payments that we see going out the door every single year and we need to get to the bottom of that and we need to make sure that we're putting into place rigorous oversight and controls to prevent fraud and abuse and, of course, to go after bad actors. And that is why myself and the oversight ranking member Connolly and other Democratic members of the committee sent a set of bipartisan ideas that we'd like to work on together that would root out waste, fraud and abuse and modernize and streamline how our agencies deliver vital programs for the American people. These are programs that are important for our seniors and our families and healthcare and the education system, and we need bipartisan solutions to get across the finish line.

And we've been trying over the last several years to get these ideas out of this committee, but unfortunately the committee's priorities have been elsewhere under the current majority. So I hope we can fix that this Congress. But we can't just sit here today and pretend like everything is normal and that this is just another hearing on government efficiency. I mean, all you have to do is look across this room and see that

it is not a normal hearing. Because while we're sitting here, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are recklessly and illegally dismantling the federal government, shuttering federal agencies, firing federal workers, withholding funds vital to the safety and well-being of our communities, and hacking our sensitive data systems. In fact, while we were here discussing government waste on the House floor yesterday, Elon Musk was standing behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office with the President, and the administration was making emergency court appeals to try to unlock his team's access to the Treasury payment system, which they claim they are using to study improper payments, which is the topic of this hearing.

But here's the thing. The Treasury payment system, which includes social security information and bank accounts for millions of Americans and data that's critical to national security and the operation of the U.S. government, and payments that go out the door annually equal to almost a fifth of the U.S. economy, is not where the payment decisions are made, because that happens inside the agencies that are currently being dismantled. And the people who actually investigate waste, fraud, and abuse at these agencies are the inspector generals who Donald Trump fired his first week in office in a midnight massacre. So we have to ask ourselves, what is really going on here? Why did Republicans block Elon Musk from appearing before this very

committee last week? Why is the administration so eager to allow Elon Musk and his hackers to have access to proprietary and private information in the treasury payment systems? Why are our colleagues across the aisle shielding them as they are clearly breaking the law? And why is the vice president trying to rewrite the U.S. Constitution by tweet and undermine the judiciary. So obviously we're in the Oversight Committee and we have a lot of questions and so do the American people, especially while our colleagues across the aisle are trying to scoop up the savings from the dismantling of these agencies to pay for the largest permanent tax break in American history for billionaires and the folks that they're helping on their side of the aisle.

So let me close by saying this directly to Mr. Elon Musk. We are well aware that you are eager to engage with members of Congress on social media, but we're not here to play. If you have serious desire to engage in democracy and transparency, we welcome you to the Oversight Committee. Come and testify in front of the American people under oath because we wanna know what you're up to. So if you're interested in talking to us,

then please join us here in the People's House in the House of Representatives. And with that, I yield back. Well, folks, we know Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, she is never one to be shy. And so she also laid it out and made it plain as best as she could in today's hearing madam chair um and mr talco i'm just going to go ahead and pick up where you left off really quickly um just to be clear the upgrades that you're talking about as it relates to

our data processes these aren't things that would be free, are they? They would cost some kind of money. Not looking for a number, but they will cost, correct? Some are free and some would cost money. Okay. All right. So I just want to leave it there because we've had a number of these hearings. So I do want to be clear before the Trump administration came in, this committee did exist in the form of the oversight committee and our task is to root out waste, fraud and abuse. In that vein, we had a number of hearings, at least last term. I can't speak for any other term as I'm only in my sophomore term. And we dealt with improper payments.

And interestingly enough, our chairwoman, who is so passionate about this today, she missed every single one of those improper payment hearings. But just to be clear, I was there. So I don't want anyone to believe that Democrats just come to work and don't plan to do work. In fact, I'm trying to figure out exactly what it is that the Republicans believe our job is, because right now they have relinquished their constitutional duties over to an unelected bureaucrat, someone who no one went out to vote for. And absolutely, he is occupying the Oval Office as we saw yesterday. And that is a first for me to see someone occupying the Oval Office who's never actually been

elected to the Oval Office and actually answering more questions than the person that allegedly got elected. But for whatever reason, this is the first time we're having a DOJ subcommittee hearing and that guy's not here. Instead, we have y'all. So I do want to thank you for coming. But I will say this, it's also interesting to me that in the first few days of Doge existing, we know that they are trying to get rid of the Department of Education, USAID, Consumer

Financial Protection Bureau. They're laying off FAA workers. They are going after the FDA, the CDC, the HHS, the FBI agents, and they're talking about getting rid of FEMA. And they brought y'all in. And I am going to say that I actually was shocked that there was only one person that seemed like he was an overt trumper as you laid out your opening remarks because I anticipated that at least one of y'all would say yes what Elon is doing is exactly what we would prescribe but instead I will applaud you

because you actually were focused. You talked about what the American people are looking for us to do. We've actually consistently on this side of the aisle promoted this idea of making investments into technology so that we can do things such as say look at the Department of Defense. The Department of Defense that takes up approximately, oh, 50% of our discretionary income or our discretionary spending, approximately 50% goes to Department of Defense. Department of Defense has not been able to pass an audit in the last six audits. And we're not talking about pennies. I understand that we want everything to be perfect. And if we could get all ways, fraud and abuse out, that would be fantastic.

But let me talk about the big numbers. The big numbers are on that side. When we look at, say, our entire workforce, our federal workforce as we're trying to somehow fire all of them, they don't even make up a total of 5%. It's even less than that when we look at our budget. But let's talk about defense. That just happens to be the same side of the ledger that Mr. Musk gets the vast majority of his money from. In fact, at the same time that they were unlawfully and we will stay

in court because on this side, we believe in law and order. We believe in I mean, a number of us are actually lawyers, but nevertheless, we understand the Constitution. We believe in, I mean, a number of us are actually lawyers, but nevertheless, we understand the Constitution. We believe in that as well. And so there's things such as, you know, empowerment, right? Because as Mr. Whitson said, he said, we need to return the power of the purse to Congress. It never left. According to the Constitution, that's where it's at. Now, I know that people are confused right now because for whatever reason, we had a guy that went in and you talk about people invading our data. Listen,

people said that they were upset about TikTok, but I'm upset about the guy that runs Twitter, who for sure is doing nefarious things because I don't understand if you are trying to conduct audits and figure out where the waste, fraud, and abuse is, I don't know why you would go to some tech guy. In fact, it was only techies that were sitting there at inauguration. We didn't have auditors. I would welcome auditors to come in and do forensic audits. In fact, he sat there in the Oval Office yesterday and he admitted that he was lying and he was using his propaganda machine to do it when he said that we sent millions of dollars to Gaza for condoms. That was a lie. So let me tell you something.

The gentlelady's time has expired. The gentlelady's time has expired. It rained in this rogue actor known as Lima. The gentlelady's time has expired. First of all, that's what we would call strong words. That's what we would call someone who actually cares about this country. And, man, I love the call out of Congresswoman, that idiot Marjorie Taylor Gre Greene by saying, yeah, she never showed up at these hearings last time we spoke. Folks, what's happening is and we talked about this on yesterday when Congresswoman Crockett said that Elon Musk admitted to lying. I see his was also interesting. So earlier.

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Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

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We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org

to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Today, I did Piers Morgan's YouTube show. And it was pretty interesting because, you know, when we got done at 1210, we got done with the show. By the time that was zero, there was nothing on the Doge website, DOGE.gov. And all of these Republicans, they want us to just believe whatever Elon Musk says. And it's like, you want us to believe without any proof. So here's what they've now done. So if you look at their website, what they've now done is just simply put up their tweets. So here's a perfect example of the BS that they've been laying out. Today, the Department of Education terminated 89 contracts worth $881 million. One contractor

was paid $1.5 million to observe mailing and clerical operations at a mail center. Did they provide any backup, any proof that these were wasteful contracts? Nope. Then you go in here, today the Department of Agriculture terminated 18 contracts for a total of nine million dollars, including contracts for Central American Gender Assessment Consultant Services, Brazil Forest and Gender Consultant Services and the Women in Forest Carbon Initiative Mentorship Program. us any details, any facts on these programs and what they're about. No, they did not. And again, right here, great coordination across 35 agencies over the last two days to terminate 199 wasteful contracts saving $250 million, including contracts for Asia Pacific, Sri Lanka, climate change, mitigation, adaption, and resilience coordinator services for forest service. And it goes on and on and on. But again, no details, y'all. Nothing. Just, oh, take our word for it that this is this is this is waste.

Well, you mean take your word for it? Like when you lied in the Oval Office about the 50 million million in condoms that were going to Gaza. Oh, I'm sorry, that was Gaza, Mozambique, to actually mitigate HIV AIDS. And then Donald Trump further lies because when he was there, he goes, oh, it was $100 million. He just added $50 more million. Now, we know he is a liar. We know he is a well-known liar,

somebody who lies about lies. And this is what is actually happening here. To the Congresswoman Crockett's point. Elon Musk and his team, they are not forensic auditors. They're not. They're just whacking stuff left and right. And so I've made this perfectly clear. And to understand, y'all, these are the impacts. To understand the impacts of these cuts, I'm going to pull this story here up so you can understand. I saw this this morning. And this the story is first USAID death as freeze sees oxygen supplies cut. OK, this is a story right here, my pull up Newsweek. This is the story right here.

It says a 71. This is according to The Telegraph. You know what? Let me just do this here. I prefer to actually go to the actual source. So the folks at The Telegraph, this is their story. U.S. aid freeze claims first victims as oxygen supplies cut off. What the story says here is that a 71-year-old woman in Myanmar, a refugee from Myanmar, living in a displacement camp in Thailand, she died four days ago after she was discharged from a USAID-funded health care facility operated by the International Rescue Committee. She is thought to be one of the first people to have died as a direct result of Washington's decision to freeze all funding for Projects for 90 Days. This woman here was sent to the hospital last three years because she was dependent upon a supply of oxygen.

The story says right here, the organization operates clinics that cater to roughly 80,000 people in nine refugee camps close to the Myanmar border. That woman is now dead. She is dead. And there are others who have died. Now, I know we have arrogant Americans who go, well, not our

problem. But the fact of the matter is, there are people there are people around the world more who are going to die. Trump wants to cut off support for PEPFAR. We told you. The head of the United Nations AIDS Agency says if that happens, upwards of 7 million people

will die over the next decade of HIV AIDS. In fact, right now, remember when Republicans were blasting President Obama? How dare you leave our people in Benghazi? How they slammed President Obama, excuse me, President Biden with the troop withdrawal in Afghanistan. How dare you leave people who have been helping the United States?

Well, right now, right now, individuals who were helping the United States and the Congo, one talked about fleeing, fleeing the Congo because they froze the cuts. because they froze the cuts. They literally froze the cuts.

I'm going to pull this up because this is real. These are people's lives. These are people who are now being targeted as a result of the action. Look at this tweet. USAID employee outlines their escape with their family from Congo-constitutional shutdown of USAID has caused my family and me immense emotional distress by contributing to the already intense sense of panic and uncertainty of the riots in Kinshasa. My family has left behind our home and all of our belongings as a result of our service to the United States of America overseas. And we have been harassed for a combination of malignant, violent rhetoric and threats

of financial ruin from the officials affecting this shutdown. Trump administration officials have cut off my agency's capacity to pay me what I am owed. I have undertaken significant costs and liabilities in good faith reliance on the government's obligations to my family and me for my service. These obligations, including cost of living allowance, special evacuation allowance, meals and incidental expenses, and hotel costs have not yet been paid or reimbursed, and it is unclear at the time of writing whether they will ever be paid. my need to make long-term financial and other commitments regarding my life and lifestyle, the agency that employs me makes unexplained short-term threats to my employment

with no indication of any plan for what I can expect in the coming days, let alone in the coming months. These are people Who have been working on the behalf of this country And this administration Has screwed them This administration

Has let them hang out to dry This administration By their shameful, callous actions and disregard for the lives of individuals who are helping this country, they are doing all of this in order to find two trillion in cuts to give billionaires tax breaks. My panel, Rebecca Carruthers, Vice President for the Fair Election Center, joins us from Washington, D.C., Daniel Blackmon, former Biden appointee and founder of Renaissance 94, joining us from Atlanta. I want to start with you, Rebecca. I have continuously said again, I want to be clear because we're going to talk to April Barrett in a second. This is not about dismissing. Federal workers, but I do believe the mistake that Democrats are making is that they're not putting they're not taking these types of stories and putting a face on it and driving that home, saying here are the effects of these cuts. And then the next piece is there are federal workers who are responsible for these jobs because like it or not.

And again, the narrative is always important. People, Democrats, Republicans complain about government workers. Democrats should be saying talk about these stories. They should be hammering the story of that 71 year old woman dying. They should be challenging these conservative evangelicals. How dare you call yourself pro-life? And you silently say nothing while people die because of their actions. That to me, I just believe is how they should be operating. You know, what's unfortunate is right now, the Democratic Party is supposed to be the opposition party to what's happening out of this administration. One thing that we do know that we've seen in the last few years is that the Democratic Party has not been effective in messaging. To your point, yes,

evangelicals, Christian nationalists, people who claim to support pro-life, they should care about this because there are real people dying around the world as a result of the current administration's actions on freezing funding around the world. nola haynes is on she's also going to make the connection between giving aid and national uh and and national security um with our foreign policy we give aid in part to secure our country it's part of our diplomatic efforts in many regions across the world we don't just show up with military but we show up with aid as well the carrot carrot and the stick. And so what's unfortunate and what should be scary for many Americans is that America is now in a more vulnerable position because of the aid being frozen. Daniel, one of the things that these people don't understand, a lot of these, and again, MAGA nut cases, but also even even Democrats independence that we're operating in other countries. So we don't have to send in troops. We have relationships with allies for a reason.

They're called allies. And these it is. I don't care. You know, we should spend we shouldn't be spending money on any of these people. We are a global power. You cannot become an isolationist when you're living in a global economy. Yeah. Key word, Roland. When you talk about being an isolationist and when you talk about American exceptionalism and us being the envy of the world in all these areas, I mean, you might as well rewrite American history now because we no longer are that to individuals. When you look at the fact that in the previous Trump administration, we saw a global pandemic. What happens when countries like Africa continue to suffer where- I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Countries in

Africa. I'm sorry, countries in Africa. Thank you for that, brother. But when countries throughout Africa, where individuals are reliant on aid with USAID for treatment for illnesses and diseases, you know, look, Georgia just lost one of our, you know, best, in my opinion, presidents in Jimmy Carter, who till his death fought for vaccines and to fight malaria and HIV throughout the continent. And I think it's important to understand that. I think what's also important equally is for many people to understand that with USAID, Ms. Carruthers just made a phenomenal point about national security. Look, if you look at the Democratic Republic of Congo right now, Mr. Musk and Tesla and Apple and many U.S. corporations are relying on cobalt,

which is being mined at the expense of the lives of many Africans, specifically in the Congo. When aid ceases to go to those areas, we're going to see not only a disruption in trade and a disruption in economic productivity, but in the lives of individuals. And to your point earlier, and my comment here, you mentioned all these Christian groups and all these faith-based organizations that do missions all over the world. These organizations that are pro-life are going to watch not just one 70-year-old woman who I'm sure meant a lot to so many people. When we start seeing this happening in the tens and thousands and hundreds of thousands per day, this world is going to not only wake up, but I think there's going to be a

tremendous backlash, not only on the president of the United States, but on the United States of America as a whole. I want to bring in April Vared. April is the president of the Service Employees International Union. They represent a number of federal workers. They are suing the Trump administration for a lot of these, what they consider to be unlawful firings. Is April there? All right. April, glad to have you here. April, the point I was just making there, and again, I understand narrative. I understand all of these different things in terms of how things are shaped. And the reality is reading that letter, which was so difficult to read, these are federal workers.

When we talk about federal workers, first of all, they are federal workers. We talk about federal workers. We're not just first of all, they're federal workers. And then there are programs that are operated by federal agencies that works with NGOs all across the world, non government organizations, these organizations, refugee camps, I remember, you know, when when when when, when Elon Musk, when he first started cutting off, I forgot, I think it was in Syria or another country, we were paying the guards for the folks who were protecting the prison. The guards walked off their job. So when Elon Musk makes these stupid decisions and Trump lets him, they're making the decision and having no concept, no thought of the impact of the decision. And in fact, the letter I was just reading, the guy said in February, many of these people signed leases on places to live, put their kids in school.

Boom. February 7th hits up. You got no job. You got no money. People like what's going on. That's there's a real cost here that is not just disruptive to the federal worker in the office is disruptive to the federal workers families in America kids who are in college kids are in school folks have mortgages folks need to be able to eat this is real it is absolutely real it's and it's realer than real and for many it's get real, real soon when these. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod.

And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early.

Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. The impacts of what's happening in D.C. is felt all around the country. And it's not just real

for the lives of federal workers and their families, but it's real for the lives of veterans in Sioux City, Iowa, or other places all across the country that depend on VA services that are going to be impacted. It's going to be real for the social security recipients who have longer wait times on hold when they're looking for their check, right? And it's going to be real for entire communities, particularly Black communities that have a middle class in this country because of public sector jobs, right? When private sector companies wouldn't hire us and pay us what we worth, we were able to build a middle class in the federal sector and in city and state jobs. And so we have entire communities, right, that depend on these jobs as economic engines. So it's not just the federal

workers, but it is entire communities. It's our entire country that really will feel the impact of these cuts. And I just want to also say this. One of the lawsuits we filed was against Doge's attempt to get information in the Department of Labor. The Department of Labor is today, or should be, investigating Tesla for countless of numbers of abuses to workers. And do you really think that those workers want their information, want their testimony, their confidential testimony that they risk their livelihoods to give against a company that they want the owner of that company to have access to that data, right? Like this is real and it's so layered

and we really have to unpack this and look at it for what it is. Well, in fact, I'll pull this up in a second to the point that you just made there, April. There are a number of federal agencies, a number of federal agencies that have been investigating, that have been investigating Elon Musk and his companies. This here was a graphic that Senator Cory Booker shared a little bit earlier on Twitter. And here's the graphic, Musk businesses benefit

under Trump shakeup. And it shows you on the left side, federal investigations, and it shows you on the right side, regulatory battles. For the folks who are listening who can't see this graphic, these are the various federal agencies that have investigations into Elon Musk companies, the Department of Transportation, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Justice, USDA Agriculture, National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Security and Exchanges Commission, the Defense Department, the Federal Elections Commission, and the Office of Government Ethics. Now, he put out a second graphic here that, give me a second, I want to pull up here, that lays out, again, how people don't understand the correlation. Here it is, President Trump fired three executives, effectively paralyzing the National Labor Relations Board, which is a watchdog for workers.

SpaceX, Tesla owns companies. He is actually right now with Jeff Bezos trying to sue the National Labor Relations Board. They want the Supreme Court to actually declare them to be illegal. So what you have is you have an individual who is getting billions of dollars in federal government, who's going through the data, the personal information, they're canceling investigations, firing workers who are investigating him. Oh, and he's getting new government contracts. Talk about a massive, massive conflict of interest. And Roland, follow the money. Yep. This is a grab about power and it is about money. We are now looking at a cadre of oligarchs who are taking our democracy and the systems and the protocols that have been put in place so that this can remain a country with a government that operates for the people.

And it's looking like an oligarchy where those with a lot of power and a lot of money control everything. Yeah, look, I said to people what's going on. I said, you know what you have here, you have these rich folks who, frankly, what they want to do is they want to they want to rape and pillage the system. That's what they want to do. They want to rape and pillage the system. They don't want any controls. They don't want any oversight. In fact, we're going to play a video. Y'all get it queued up. Where Senator Elizabeth Warren was talking to the head of the Federal Reserve because of the actions that Elon Musk and Donald Trump have taken against Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. There is right now no agency having oversight in the banking industry. So what they're doing is they're playing the whole shell game. Let's keep America focused on these lazy, trifling, refuse to come into work, overpaid federal workers. But let's ignore the billions of dollars and how we're getting screwed by Wall Street and banks and crypto and financial services. And let's have no oversight of them while again,

they destroy working class Americans. That's absolutely right. And I just want to remind folks, there is no healthy democracy on this planet that does not have to bolster it, a healthy, vibrant worker movement. And so that is why it's important that us in labor use our platforms, use our resources to push back. And I hope that we can get the support of your listeners and our efforts to make sure we you know we protect our democracy as a labor leader we my union represents over 80 000 federal workers we and we represent folks like nurses and firefighters right folks who work in our vas and this is not simply sure we want to make sure the folks jobs and livelihoods are. But these folks go to work every day wanting to deliver good services, wanting to make sure we have a federal system that actually works for folks who call America home.

And we want to grow our movement. Now is the time that more people join unions. We know that 60 million Americans say they are interested in becoming a part of our movement, but we have to change the rules to allow them to come into our movement. Because over the next two and four years, we got to get our weight up. We got to prepare to go into the 26th cycle and into the 28th cycle, ready and prepared to do what we got to do to save our country. Here's a perfect example. When you talk about those workers in my panels, can they have questions next for you? Here's a perfect example. Congresswoman Summer Lee sent this out. And this was a tweet she sent out a couple of days ago.

She says FQ8Cs like the one in Squirrel Hill or lifelines over fifty six thousand folks in Pennsylvania, 12. Yet they've been left in limbo by the Trump Musk funding freeze. It's the patients, our neighbors, families and friends being failed by an administration that's just as cruel as it is competent. What those are federal health centers. So when you talk about those workers, these are federal health centers. These are people who are trying to deliver health care to low-income folks, rural folks as well. We're seeing rural health centers that are being impacted. And so whenever these people talk about, oh, federal workers, the big bad federal bureaucracy in Washington, D.C., they don't realize that you actually have federal workers who are doing the work in all 50 states in this country in some way or another, depending upon the agency. Yeah. Federal health centers that I want to remind

folks are almost fully funded by Medicaid, right? A program that covers 80 million lives. Half of that 80 million is children. And they actually have on the chopping block to cut Medicaid, right? So we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg where they have us caught up in their chaos and it's something new every day, but we can never lose track that this is a strategic plan. They gave it to us in Project 2025 and they know exactly what they're doing. And I'm proud to say we had over 300 of our members in Washington, D.C. lobbying Republican members of Congress, right, about Medicaid cuts because we cannot allow the health care that we have fought too long for be cut. Absolutely. April, I certainly appreciate it. Keep up the fight. And again, I want people

who are watching and listening. We're talking about people who are their public servants. Federal workers are public servants. They have families. They have kids in school. They have husbands. They have wives. They have partners. And so when you talk about the actions that they're taking, you literally are disrupting not just 2 million federal workers. You're disrupting millions more people. Indeed. Thank you so much, Roland. Thanks a lot. Folks, quickly, let's go to Congressman Gregory Meeks of New York, the ranking member on the House Foreign Relations Committee. Congressman Gregory Meeks is always glad to have you here.

Republicans today announced they want to make some eight hundred billion dollars in cuts to Medicaid. They want to cut SNAP benefits by by 20%. This was a chart that was put out earlier by the folks with blackdemographics.com. It shows right here that there are 6.8 million white households that get SNAP benefits. 4.1 million black, 3.7 million Hispanic, 661,000 Asian, 242,000 Native American. And so I know people have this idea of when it comes to SNAP or food stamps, oh, black people. No, no, no, no, no, no. The majority of people who get SNAP benefits are white people. A lot of broke, rural white people.

And so a lot of them voted for Trump. They better wake the hell up because they are going to be targeted. You're absolutely right. They voted against their own self-interest. Clearly, this guy who's the president of the United States has interest only for the oligarchs. We saw who they were at the inauguration. That's everything is focused on them and getting them a huge tax cut at the expense of those who need health care, those who need food, those who need help. That's what's happening here. And look, the thing is, he told you what he was going to do. That was Project 2025. But these folks in Appalachia, you know, as the vice president comes from, those are the people that he talked about previously in his book. That's who's going to hurt also.

Ohio, South Carolina, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, all those red states. All of them. Oh, especially places where more than 50% of their money comes from the federal government. Absolutely. As well as, as you can see, and what they want to do is to take the money and give it all to Elon Musk and them. Because they are talking about large government contracts. You talk about, you know, waste that they're getting. You know, I just, we just looked at it, you know, because I deal with

USAID and foreign policy and things of that nature and all of the, you could take all of what they claim to be fraud and abuse and it doesn't even come close to the amount of money that Elon Musk is getting for contracts from the federal government. Doesn't even come close. Well, and let me be perfectly clear. I have no problem. I have no problem whatsoever with government waste being cut. What we do know is that the government agency that has the most waste that has failed seven consecutive audits is the Department of Defense, where we are approaching spending close to a trillion dollars. So it's interesting. If you want to cut waste, why not start with the biggest department that gets the biggest budget that has the most waste?

Look, absolutely. But the first thing you do when you don't really want to do the right thing and you want to hide what you're trying to do, and it's the first thing that Donald Trump did, is what? Get rid of all the inspector generals so that you're not looking at them. You're not watching what they are doing. So anybody that was in place to be and hold accountable for transparency, the first ones he got rid of were all of the inspector generals. There is something. And then you look at the character of the man who's the president. Look at his businesses.

Eight times he had to file bankruptcy. And how he ripped off the average everyday worker. And yet, you don't want to look at what he promised doing the campaign to bring down inflation. You just saw something this morning, how inflation has gone up. Bring down the cost of goods. Bring down the cost of games. I know a lot of cops,

and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way.

In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher.

Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

Arapahoe, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's Dadication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. None of that. And how many things have Services and the Ad Council. None of that. And how many things have he said and or focused on any of that?

Fact of the matter is, he just talked about increasing tariffs in other places. Now, it is interesting because the tariffs that he's putting on, especially with reference to steel, it benefits a small group, a small union that are still workers. Most of those workers don't look like the people that's listening to your show. But it hurts just about every other major union, every other worker. And it will cost the American people, costing and driving up goods and services. So, you know, he's been an individual all of his life that has conned people. And we've got to watch it now because he tries to get you to look at something else

while taking away some vital services, vital needs of the average everyday hardworking American. Got to ask you about what we heard today. Trump says he talked to Putin about negotiating an end to the war. Then he says, oh, now I'm going to call the Ukrainian president. How do you not have the Ukrainian president on the line? And then the grossly unqualified defense secretary, Pete Hedsek, just gives it away and say, yeah, we're not going to go back to the pre-war lines. And also Ukraine can't come into NATO. Pete Hedsek just gives it away saying, yeah, we're not going to go back to the pre-war lines.

And also Ukraine can't come into NATO. I mean, my God, you give all that away before you even negotiate? Look, we knew going in and from the last administration that him and Putin are boys and he's going to try to get Putin whatever he wants. Now, I happen to have talked to a number of legislators from the Ukraine and they're looking at the fact that they may not be able to depend upon America, as well as NATO and European allies. They're looking at the fact that they may have to look someplace else. Where else will they look? They probably will have to depend upon China. And China is locked in with Russia. But our national defense now is at stake because we know that Russia won't stop.

But what's the similarities? Well, when you listen to Trump, he sounds a lot like Putin because why would he tell Putin to move out of territories in Ukraine when he's told the American people in

the world he wants to take Greenland, he wants to go in and take Gaza, he wants to take the Panama Canal back, you know, so he is moving forward in a similar pattern or wants to move forward in a similar pattern that Vladimir Putin has done with his aggression in Ukraine, in Georgia, and he won't stop there. Questions for the panel. Rebecca, you first. Thank you so much for being on the show tonight, Congressman Meeks. One thing that we noticed, speaking of China, is that over the last decade, they've made quite an investment in the global South. What happens to America's foreign affairs position if China is making great impacts and investment in the global South and the United States is appearing to refuse

to do so under this administration? Well, we lose. Clearly, we isolate ourselves and the American economy suffers as a result. Prices go up. Allies leave us. And they would love, all of our allies in the global South would love to deal with America. But when we do what this administration wants us to do, and we're destroying our allies, and we're just, in fact, making a punishing them, they have no choice but go to China. China then has more involvement in the global south to add our expense. And that also endangers our national security. Daniel, Daniel.

Yeah, Representative Meeks, one of the questions that I have, I think, is really on the federal side. So I have a background working in the federal government. I mean, you look at career employees that are not only being asked to take a mandatory absence of leave. What does it mean, in your opinion, and what you are privy to for us to have a non-functioning, fully operational federal workforce? And what what could that mean ultimately for setting us back? We're talking a lot about what Doge has been doing internally, how USAID has impacted us globally, but what does it mean internally for the functionality of our federal government and workforce? Government would fail, would work. It's

basically a shutdown. We are facing in March when budget comes up where the Republicans could be shutting down the government, but they're shutting it down now. When you talk about not allowing our federal workers to continue to work and move forward, that's basically he's shutting down agencies, shutting down USAID, shutting down CFPB, looking at shutting down education. It's a government shutdown. Nobody is able to work. So what he is doing is, in effect, shutting down the government now and doing it in a way that is against the Constitution of the United States of America. And here's where, to me, my Republican colleagues have a complete dire election of their duties and responsibilities, because we're supposed to be the checks and balance. And it's not happening. And if they want to make some of the changes that

they're talking to, they have to come to Congress, because all of those things were put into law by Congress and protections therein. We don't. Congress, let me also ask you this here. And that is here. And listen, Democrats have gotten lots of criticism from progressives, from Democrats, from liberals saying there's an uneven message that's coming out, that it's incoherent. It's not consistent. One of the things that I said earlier today, and this has been one of my criticisms, is that Democrats are not leading with people who are going to be impacted. And so what's happening is if it becomes a Washington, D.C. conversation, I believe it's a losing conversation. So you take what happened to this 71-year-old woman from Myanmar who died in Thailand in a refugee camp. This woman depended upon oxygen being supplied by an organization that got money from USAID.

That woman died four days ago. To me, that's the result of these actions. And so what are y'all talking about in terms of how do you improve messaging? How do you cut through a bunch of the stuff that you're hearing coming from Elon Musk and Republicans so people begin to understand the impact? How do you make it less wonky, less Washington DC centric? And as Joe Madison said, you gotta put it where the goats can get it. So a couple of things, particularly for our community. You know, Roland, I also chair

the Congressional Black Caucuses Political Action Committee. And what we're gonna be doing and what we're looking at right now is going into congressional districts where especially there are 10% or more African-Americans in them and taking the message right there. And we will be adopting those districts and those areas, talking to the people directly. And here's something that I need to talk because I've been talking to some in the media, black media. Here's where you will play a huge role because you know and get into the

individuals who need to hear the message and need to understand and you know how to relay that message. Because quite frankly, a lot of the folks that we have been messaging to, you know, if we're just doing it on MSNBC or CNN or something like that and not doing it on your shows where people are listening to you on an average everyday basis and in these communities with Black media, then we're going to miss the boat. So we're in the process of trying to raise our own money so that we can then sit down with you and others in the Black media and get budgets together so that we're not waiting until 2026 to deliver a message. We start right now. So we're doing that. We're going to be asking, you know, folks that

who've been our donors, et cetera, to double down so that we can deal exactly with you and black media and going into those places, adopting them as communities where they don't have a member of Congress who look like them, or they may not even have a Democrat in those committees or in those communities. And we can then get them ready, hear them the message, get them mobilized, get them to understand exactly what's happening and what's at stake in this next election, but not even waiting for the next election. Because in every local election, there's other elections that's taking place in 2025, mayors, council people, aldermen,

assembly people, all of that is taking place now, but we've got to go to where they are. Something you talk about all the time. Go to where they are and with Black media who knows and are listening and people are listening to you, your show, and shows like it so that we can make sure our message gets through and break it down to its common denominators

so they understand. And last point before you go, also, not just go to them, but also, are y'all also considering, and I've seen this done before, literally holding hearings. I don't care if Republicans don't show up, holding hearings in cities and towns

and having regular ordinary people testify about how these cuts are hurting. You know, I just think back to that night, that testimony in 1968, when Fannie Lou Hamer was in Atlantic City, New Jersey, when she, the nation was riveted by her testimony and President Lyndon Baines Johnson quickly called a news conference

to get the cameras away from it because it was so powerful. I think those things are also necessary. That way you force the networks to carry it, but also you live stream it. We have the capability of doing it. It's on YouTube everywhere. People are hearing from regular ordinary day people talk about how these Elon Musk, Donald Trump, MAGA cuts are destroying their cities, towns and communities. You're absolutely right. In fact, we had a discussion earlier today about making sure those that are affected by those cuts, you know, those of us, particularly

from the CBC, we want to bring those individuals to Washington so that they could be the response to Trump's State of the Union message. Right. But I'm saying, Congressman, I get coming to Washington, but what I'm saying is going to where they are. Because see, what happens now is now that local media, now that state media, now that those local people,

because you get the conversation out of D.C. and you take it to the people. I just think that, you know, again, over the next... That's what I mean. And that's what, you know, as far as having hearings,

engage with people, listening to them because they want to be heard, and having cameras like yours there to record that, that's all part of the adopting an area in a district where we will be moving into and going into on a regular basis so that we are connected with those that are suffering in those communities.

All right, Congressman Gregory Meeks, I still appreciate it. I would love for you to go to Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, and talk to those farmers and saying, so how do y'all feel about losing all that, the billions from USAID? $3.2 billion is how much they will lose. $3.2 billion. That's real money. Congressman, we appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it, folks. I'm going to take a quick break. We come back. I'm going to talk a little bit more about the SNAP and Medicaid cuts Republicans are proposing. They want to do a $4.5 trillion tax cut. Listen to what I'm saying. They want to cut $880 billion from Medicaid. They want to cut 888, 880 billion from Medicaid. They want to cut 20 percent from a snap in order to fund their four point five trillion dollar tax cut.

And that is not for people making less than one hundred thousand dollars. You're watching Roland Martin unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Your support is critical to our success. You want to give via Cash App, do so via the Stripe app. The QR code is right here on the screen. If you're listening, go to BlackstarNetwork.com. Send your check and money order.

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We'll be right back. Hey, y'all. Welcome to The Other Side of Change, only on the Black Star Network and hosted by myself, Rhea Baker, and my good sis, Jameera Burley. We are just two millennial women tackling everything at the intersection of politics, gender, and pop culture. And we don't just settle for commentary. This is about solution-driven dialogue to get us to the world as it could be and not just as it is. Watch us on the Black Star Network, so tune in to the other side of change. Hello, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. And right now we're accepting investors in our $17 million round to revolutionize the future of social media. Today, for just $399, you can own 60 shares of stock in Fanbase at $6.65 a share.

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Hey, this is Motown recording artist Kim. You are watching Roland Martin unfiltered. Boy, he always unfiltered, though. I ain't never known him to be filtered. Is there another way to experience Roland Martin than to be unfiltered? Of course he's unfiltered. Would you expect anything less? Watch what happens next. Impact on people.

Impact on people. Impact on people. I want everybody to continue to say that we're talking about what is happening with these crazed, deranged, mega people. Now they're running around going, see, see, look at the polling data. Fifty three percent of Americans agree with this. We love what's going on. That's MAGA talking. But when you start talking about what's the impact on people, conversation changes. We've been playing the videos of these white farmers crying, complaining about how these cuts are going to impact them. I want to show you a couple of things. Look at this here. This is a map that was put together. Snap enrollment as percent of the county population. Now, if you look at the dark green, that's point four to eight percent.

That's the lowest right there. So you look right here, look at all these areas up in, you know, the states up here, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, you know, Idaho, all those sort of states like that. All right. Then you see the light. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote.

Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's that occasion. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Green, 8.0 to 11.7. Then you see that little yellow goal.

11.7 to 15.3%. Then you see the highest places. 15.3% to 19.9%. 19.9% to 58%. Now, you see a lot of this out in Oregon, in Washington State, in the Midwest. Okay? Which might be surprising to people.

All of a sudden, you go over here, you start seeing New Mexico, Texas, this is where you really begin to see it. Ah! Those Confederate states. Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida. Look at all that. When Republicans cut 20%

of SNAP benefits, whoo, there's to be a lot of poor white people and African-Americans who are impacted by that. Now, I want to show you another chart because this might also help you understand this here. Check this out. So this is a different type map. And so you see more than 15.9% is in black. What do you see? Oregon, New Mexico, Oklahoma, red state, Louisiana, red state, West Virginia, red state, Illinois, blue state but it's a lot of rural people in illinois when you look at that dark green 14.0 to 15.9 percent guess what alabama nevada michigan pennsylvania new york state north carolina of Carolina. Of those states, which ones did Trump win? Nevada, Alabama, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan. Hmm. That next green, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi. Yeah. Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Arizona, California.

Which of those states did Trump win? Wisconsin, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Arizona. Democrats, they're smart, would learn to you to weaponize his actions against his own people. Same thing applies to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Twenty one billion dollars has been returned to regular ordinary people and guess what the oligarchs the billionaires the tech bros and the tech sisters whatever they call them oh they want to get rid of that because it's too onerous this is a senate hearing. Senator Elizabeth Warren. If the CFPB is not there examining these giant banks to make sure they are following the laws on not cheating consumers, who is doing that job? I can say no other federal regulator. No one, in other words, so thanks to co-president Musk and CFPB acting director vote,

Wall Street banks no longer have to show the bank examiners that they're not illegally opening accounts people didn't ask for, like happened with Wells Fargo, or charging illegal junk fees like the Bank of America did. But CFPB has jurisdiction only on banks that have more than $10 billion in assets. So what's happening in thousands of community banks all around the country, those that have less than $10 billion in assets? And what they're trying to do, they don't want to touch defense. They want to give the Defense Department more money. Do y'all realize the Defense Department already gets eight hundred and sixty?

I'm sorry. Let me help you out. The Defense Department's budget is almost the same as what Republicans want to cut from Medicaid, which is $880 billion, which is basically their budget. The Pentagon gets $862 billion, and the Republicans want to give them another $150 billion to move them to a trillion dollars. Pennsylvania Congresswoman Summer Lee has some thoughts about that. This is what she had to say. We have to stop giving the benefit of the doubt to people who have shown us repeatedly who they are. For the past four years, we've been in an ongoing insurrection. For the past 23 days, we've witnessed a power grab four years we've been in an ongoing insurrection for the past 23 days we've witnessed a power grab unlike anything we've ever seen a constitutional crisis a democracy And danger. They're telling you this is about government efficiency.

But all of these agencies combined make up just over 1% of the federal budget. This is just theater, masking the power grab, masking the grift and the con. While the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has been on a rampage to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, they've been ignoring the biggest money pit in the federal government. The Department of Defense alone eats up 14% of the budget in the most unaccountable agency that exists. The Pentagon literally loses track of trillions of dollars, trillions of its own dollars. It's just failed, as we've heard, we should say it seven times. They've failed seven straight audits, and its own leaders have admitted that they don't think

they're going to be able to pass one for a least the next three, the next three audits. If Musk and Trump actually cared about waste, fraud and abuse, they start with the agency that for years now can't even find its own money. Instead Republicans wanna funnel 150 billion, I'm sorry, I don't wanna just say Republican, the government wants to funnel 150 billion more of your tax dollars into the DOD. We know exactly what that money does. It will lie in the pockets of defense contractors, price gouging the government, billionaire CEOs, raking in multi-million dollar bonuses and super PACs, bankrolling politicians who prop up the military industrial complex.

It will not make you safer. Republicans are going to throw billions more at the Pentagon while telling us we have to get Medicaid or Medicare or Social Security. They'll hand Raytheon and Lockheed a blank check while claiming there's just no more money for hospitals or for your public schools or for our housing or for food assistance. There's always more money for war, though. There always seems to be more money for weapons, always more money for the people who already have too much money. But when it comes to feeding kids or ensuring that our seniors have everything that they need, health care,

or standing up for consumers who've been ripped off and making sure families can't afford to make their ends meet, suddenly that's excess. That's inefficiency. that's DEI. If Doge was serious about cutting waste, they'd be on the front lines right here with us today, fighting against the billionaires who are funneling this money into the Pentagon while everyone else survives on scraps.

We all want more efficient government. We all want quality healthcare,. We all want quality health care, clean air and clean water. We want housing costs to not skyrocket. We want affordable eggs and groceries. We want safe communities. A bolder military budget gets us nowhere closer to that.

Maybe Doge should look into that. But I won't hold my breath. Well said, Daniel. But I won't hold my breath. Well said, Daniel. But I won't hold my breath. I mean, there's nothing more to say. Look, the sister said three words that I think, you know, just sum up this entire situation, waste, fraud, and abuse. And Roland, you're absolutely right. You know, since I've been listening to you for as long as I can remember, including more so since this administration, we've got to tell that story. We can't continuously know and understand when you mentioned the Department of Defense. We've always known the amount that the Department of Defense have had. We've always known that they haven't passed audits.

The American people need to know that, you know, we're holding people more accountable when it comes to interest rates and purchasing their first home. Then we're holding an entire department that is reliant on getting more money and wasting more. You talk about this miscellaneous number of 50 million for condoms. What about the millions of dollars that the Pentagon pays for pens and for pencils and things that are not necessarily needed at that quality that quantity and i'm not trying to just bring up every space what i'm saying is if we're going to truly tell this story we've got to go into these communities and what's telling to me roland was the chart that you just bought up look i saw georgia in that three four times and when you have an administration that today is talking about creating a panel to look at the Inflation Reduction Act that was a bipartisan

infrastructure law that was Democrat and Republican that predominantly went into these states that rely on agriculture money. They rely on SNAP. They rely on all these areas. These are the areas where Democrats, not just in blue states or states that went for VP Harris, we've got to start going and taking the fight to them. We've got to go into Mississippi where Eric, not just in Jackson, right? Because the story in Mississippi has been Jackson, their water crisis. When those counties outside and cities outside of Jackson that are predominantly white, rural and conservative start to feel that effect, Democrats have to be there to tell their story.

And for many people, they might not understand that. But if we don't start planning right now and looking at those maps, and look, you can't be the only one that has shown those maps and sees those maps. They see them. They know about them. And if we're not weaponizing those maps, which is a word a lot of people don't like to use, if we don't start weaponizing these maps and going into communities where their children and their communities are suffering, we're going to be in bad shape. We have all the data we need. And see, here's the thing that we have to explain to people.

Rebecca, I pull up on my computer. I want to I want to pull this up. Give me one second. One second. All right. I'm going to pull this up here in terms of snap benefits. How much is spent? Because this is going to crack people up on snap benefits. Because see, all these right wingers love to, these folks need to get a job. I don't know what the hell these people Do all they do is mooch off the government that that's that's all they do Who do they think they are? Okay As

of the most recent data available, the average SNAP recipient is $127 per month. Rebecca, that's $31.75 a week for food. We're talking about food. According to Reverend Barber, according to Reverend Barber, he says that some 30,000 Americans die every year due to hunger and poverty. Are we serious? Look, Roland, I'm from Nebraska. Everybody knows that I'm a country girl. I like using my crock pot and putting beans in it. But for a family of four, for $31 a week, even if you're eating beans every day, you cannot live off of $31 a week. That just simply isn't possible, not in this economy. In fact, the only moochers of the government that we see

are the private companies and publicly traded companies who are rolling back their DEI policies because they want to continue to live off of the teat of the government. I'm talking about Google, I'm talking about Tesla, I'm talking about Deloitte, I'm talking about Boeing, I'm talking about all these companies have multi-billion dollar contracts with the federal government.

So to even, you know, thinking back to the question that you asked the Congressman Meeks earlier, is when is his party going to go actually out of Washington, D.C. to bring this message to the people? It makes me think about in 2009 when I worked for Congressman John Dingell on the Affordable Care Act. One of the things that I remember about 2009 was that August recess, where you had Tea Party folks showing up in congressional districts, shutting down many of the events that members of Congress had to protest against the ACA. And I would say for those, this is even a Democratic or Republican thing, but for those who don't like what this administration is doing,

then you need to show up in district. You need to shut some of these events down. You need to make your voice heard, because that is the only way you're going to get the attention of these folks, especially people who are supporting the administration and who are in um vulnerable districts and like what you were saying earlier when you're in district and you're protesting and you're setting up those um calendar events that's how you pick up local media i remember you know from my um my days of running campaigns, of setting up events and getting on the 4 p.m.

newscast, the 5 p.m. newscast, the 6, the 9, and 10, and the 11, because it was the only thing that was going on in that area. Just like when you pointed the map, especially those where the recipients little SNAP benefits are, those are a lot of rural counties. Guess what happens to those rural counties? They have those noonday reports that they do on the news talking about commodities and prices and local goods. Well, if you're doing a protest in one of these towns, guess what? You're going to run on the news for the entire week. You're going to get an AM radio the entire week if people only showed up. And here's Speaker Mike Johnson, so-called conservative, so-called pro-lifer,

saying, yeah, our cut's going to be for these, we're going to make these cuts in a snap in Medicaid. Yeah, for the billionaires. Listen to this. Can you guarantee that under any proposal, Medicaid would not be on the chopping block? Look, Medicaid has never been on the chopping block. What we're talking about is finding the, it's non-benefit related reforms to the program, right? Medicaid is infamous for fraud, waste, and abuse. I mean, by some estimates, large percentages of the dollars that are allocated there are wasted and stolen. And so we do right to go into those programs and find that and show the people what's happened and make sure it doesn't happen again. And if you do, if you eliminate fraud, waste and abuse in Medicaid, you've got a huge amount of money

that you can spend on real priorities. Now, he said, Daniel, he said there's a lot of fraud and waste and abuse in Medicaid. Look, man. Hold on. Give me one second. Yes, sir. Give me one second. Because I want to pull up something that maybe people don't know about now medicaid and medicare are two different things okay

but guess who and this is this is from 2022. This is what Democrats have been hitting him on. One of the largest defrauders of $1.7 billion in fines due to fraud in Medicare. So maybe Speaker Johnson should call over to Rick Scott and say, please tell us how this fraud and waste happens, because Daniel, he's the expert. Well, why it to me look he had a challenge putting some of his words together i don't think that the speaker uh speaker johnson believes half the things he said because they know he's complete he knows he's complicit here's the thing you know when we look at these areas and you talk about you know i'm very familiar with mr scott and the the challenges that they face including um throughout the state of of Florida and how that's impacted these communities. We need to, again, take this message outside to people that it's going to work.

Mr. Carruthers said it best. When you look at these rural areas where they're talking about these cuts and whatever he's making up that they're finding in the waste side of it. We need to go into these rural communities and that needs to be played in rotation. We've got to educate people because you just mentioned Medicaid and Medicare, two different things. Most people don't know that. You would think that, you know, a lot of folks know one is for, you know, a certain population of our society versus another. And we have been so politically out of tune that many people don't realize how that's going to impact them. And I think that when they bring these things up, especially Mr. Johnson, they're going to end up being their own demise. Because when you really start poking into fraud and waste, what we're going to see is a lot of these deals

that have been made, including what we saw with that chart that Cory Booker put together on everything Elon Musk was attached to. When we really start digging, the problem is we're going to see a whole lot of folks that Representative Johnson believes is standing with him and behind them that are complicit in everything we're seeing and reading about. And see what we're also dealing with here, we're dealing with the protection of crooks. We're dealing with Donald Trump protecting crooks. Now here's the deal. One is innocent until proven guilty, but his DOJ has ordered prosecutors to drop the corruption charges against New York's Mayor Eric Adams, who was all but who groveled and begged Trump for a pardon. He got the he got the dropping of the charges. But today they announced that this thug, Vince McMahon.

They announced that prosecutors are dropping the federal investigation into the allegations that he covered up sexual misconduct. Now, here's what's crazy. The second U.S. Court of Appeals in New York ruled they upheld that McMahon's former attorney improperly withheld documents from a federal grand jury. The grand jury was investigating how McMahon managed multimillion dollar settlements with two two people employees who accused him of sexual abuse. The appeals judges also indicated the grand jury explored whether the 78 year old broke the law by concealing those allegations. Now, his was crazy. A judge actually ruled that there was enough evidence to go forward to trial with this. But Rebecca, not only is Vince McMahon a supporter, his wife is Trump's pick to lead the Department of Education. So basically, if you are a rich person or you are a politician and you want to grovel towards Donald Trump, it's open season. DOJ, drop those charges.

Well, so here's the thing, and this is what I need the audience to understand. There are many layers in government. So everyone has heard just a quick civic one-on-one, check and balances, right? I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things.

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

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The idea of check and balances was actually taken from Native Americans. And our quote-unquote founders of this country decide to put that into our government. So the check and balance on the executive branch, which is Donald Trump, is the legislative branch. The legislative branch is Congress. The check and balance of Congress's enacting is the judiciary, the judicial branch, which is one reason why Trump is saying that there is no such thing as judicial review. So at the point where you're seeing the federal government, that there is not an effective check and balance on what's happening out of the executive, that's where the states step up. So when we see that Vince McMahon, federal charges might be thrown out against Vince McMahon, guess what? You could bring it up in state court. That's the reason why you have states. They serve as a check and balance against the federal government. We know in our nation's past, oftentimes states and states' rights has been used in service of anti-Blackness.

But in this moment, states can step up. They can fight back against this executive. Because right now we're seeing that this executive is not only testing the limits of his authority but he appears to be out of control daniel yeah hey look i'm going to go back to what you said roland you mentioned the messaging look for all the women that are out here that you know argue you know i'm not going to get into the whole ethnicity and all that if you just want to just plain and simple for all these women that were pro-Trump, that, you know, were all about the economy and every other excuse that's made, what does it say when sexual predators on record that have been not only named by judge, evidence is out there. The texts are out there. You can read. Hey, Netflix has a whole documentary on it. When you look at what is going on right now, I think it is very telling for those who continue

to enable this president, especially as our daughters are watching. I'll leave it right there. Yeah, but they don't care because this administration is corrupt. They're thugs. He's an insurrectionist. Domestic, they don't care because this administration is corrupt. They're thugs. He's an insurrectionist. They don't care. This is the whole deal. MAGA doesn't give a damn about being a sexual assaulter. They don't care about morals, values, principles, ethics, or integrity. They're like, hey, go right ahead. We are dealing with a lawless individual. So the party of so-called law and order, no, it's unlawful in disorder, Rebecca. And this, so I was giving a Black History speech last week and in my speech, I start talking about the difference

between totalitarianism and authoritarianism. And what we're seeing playing out is totalitarianism. It's usually a charismatic leader, aka a celebrity, who is now doing things, taking over government in such a way that he really should not be allowed to do. Versus like with authoritarianism, the leader doesn't have to be charismatic. They're not necessarily an ideologue. They just want power for the sake of power, but it's the extremely rich folks who are backing them, or it's the military. So it's almost like we're

seeing Trump as a mix of a totalitarian and an authoritarian. And like, even to what Daniel, you know, to back up what Daniel's saying, is the very people who are now twisting and bending themselves as pretzels trying to justify

why they supported Trump, a lot of them are quiet now. So while Mr. Blackman was kind enough not to call out white women or Latinas, I will. You know why? Because I'm a Black woman and my family has been in this country for hundreds of years. I've seen this playbook because my family has lived through it, defeated it, and we've survived to tell the story. And so with that in mind, you know, like I've said over the last few months, I trust Black women. I trust some Black men. Actually, a lot of Black men.

I trust them. But like some of the other people, until you're showing who you are, as far as I'm concerned, you're not like us. Because we're in a moment where we have to decide if we want democracy to move forward or not. And many of these people are saying, nope, I support white nationalism. I support totalitarianism. I support white supremacy. And that would never be congruent with me. So I'm going to do this here. We're going to take a quick break and we come back. I want to show you how nuts people are. So Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi, idiot, grossly unqualified, said we're going to sue leaders in New York State when it comes to immigration. If y'all want to hear one of the strangest, weirdest, craziest, and psychotic

announcements, we'll have that next on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. We're going to give you a cash app. You can do so with the Stripe QR code. It's right there. If you're listening, go to BlackstarNetwork.com to get it.

You can see your check and money order at PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C. two zero zero three seven dash zero one nine six. PayPal are Martin unfiltered. Venmo are unfiltered. Zale rolling at Roland S. Martin dot com. Roland at Roland Martin unfiltered dot com. We'll be right back. Coming soon to the black star network well y'all when you're on that stage or when you're and you're seeing two and three four generations in the audience that's got that's got to speak to you about the power of what y'all become oh most Oh, most definitely. I think we were doing our show before our break. And remember, I was watching this kid.

I could not take my eyes off him because he was about nine or so. He was sitting in the front row with his parents. Over on the right hand side, yes, yes, yes, yes. I was amazed that this kid knew everything. And he was, I was like tripping to see how many songs this kid actually knew. And he knew them all. And he knew them all.

We had to go over there and bring him on stage and take a picture with him, you know, at the end of the show and stuff. Because it was just that amazing. It was like, this is crazy. You know, the music travels everywhere. You know, like what Phillip was saying, seeing this young kid. Then you see, hear our songs on commercials, cold commercials. Then you have the younger ones that see and hear our music in animation. Hello, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. And right now we're accepting investors in our $17 million round to revolutionize the future of social media.

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at the intersection of politics gender and pop culture and we don't just settle for commentary this is about solution driven dialogue to get us to the world as it could be and not just as it is watch us on the black star network so get us to the world as it could be and not just as it is. Watch us on the Black Star Network, so 170 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing black pajama pants, blue and white tie-dyed tank top, their hair in box dreads and a high bun.

Anyone with information about Yolanda Mitchell should call the Enterprise Alabama Police Department at 334-347-2222. 334-347-2222. 334-347-2222. All right, folks. The Trump cabinet is a mix of, frankly, nutcase, crazy, deranged people. Earlier today, Republicans confirmed, of course, Tulsi Gabbard as the next director of national intelligence, the only Republican who had the guts to vote against her before minority leader Mitch McConnell.

Isn't that amazing? He also voted against some of the other people. And the rest of Republicans had no guts in voting against the Putin Assad lover. Now, one of the folks that got confirmed was Trump's attorney general, Pam Bondi. If you want to talk about an airhead, here you go. So that airhead stood next to the other airhead, his press secretary. And if you want to hear one of the most crazy, stumbling, bumbling, stupid news conferences, they came out to announce they're going to be suing New York state officials over the issue of immigration. Watch this train wreck.

We're here today because we have filed charges against the state of New York. We have filed charges against Kathy Hochul. We have filed charges against Letitia James and Mark Schroeder, who is with DMV. This is a new DOJ, and we are taking steps to protect Americans, American citizens, and angel moms, like the mom standing right behind me who you're going to hear from in a moment. New York has chosen to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens. It stops. It stops today. As you know, we sued Illinois, and New York didn't listen.

So now you're next. Millions of illegal aliens with violent records have flooded into our communities, bringing violence and deadly drugs with them. With me today, I'm so proud to be joined by Tammy Nobles. Tammy is an angel mom. Her beautiful daughter, Kayla. Kayla Hamilton was murdered by an MS 13 member in 2022. Kayla had just turned 20 years old, just turned 20 years old, and she was raped and murdered by someone who should not have been in our country.

Yet he was released, flown to Maryland, where he committed this violent murder. I just want you to hear from Tammy. Tammy represents not only herself and her family, but all of the great angel moms around this country who have suffered because of what the Biden administration did. And it is over. Okay, now we're confused. Y'all suing or y'all charging? I mean, when you sue, that's a civil suit. When you charge, that's criminal. Rebecca, she don't even know what the hell she doing. They're suing the governor, Kathy Hochul, the attorney general, Tish James, and another official. That's how dumb she is.

She doesn't even know the difference between suing and charging. I mean, I'm trying not to. Also, learn how to turn the mic on when you go before the press. I'm trying not to throw shade at Stetson Law School, her alma mater. Because I was just like, lady, how did you pass the bar? I'm assuming she passed the bar. You know what? Roland, I know you keep saying FAFO. And what's interesting about the people in this new administration, a lot of them don't actually understand how the government works.

So they're making all these proclamations and saying all these things and trying to sound like they're really tough and bad, but they're not. They're bad at understanding how government works. So they're going to continue to embarrass themselves. Like this is the part where it's kind of funny and it's the sideshow, but it's the other thing that Americans need to educate themselves and understand civics. Because a lot of the things that this administration is saying and threatening to do, they can't actually do. So instead, you're seeing some people capitulate in front of them and just say, oh, well, they threatened this, so we're going to go ahead and comply.

Don't comply, because most of the actions that they've taken over the last 22, 23 days actually don't hold legal weight, in my opinion. So, you know, if I was going to do a fight between Pam Bondi, a legal fight between Pam Bondi and Tish James, Tish James, my money is on her every single day of the week. Daniel? What do you want me to say, Roland? We just watched the same thing. I'm trying to figure out what we are witnessing and how we have normalized this type of behavior. Look, the only thing that I'll add to that is this is exactly why we need to make sure our HBCUs and all of our institutions focus on getting folks in the law school. If we can put someone like that up as an attorney general that can't not only articulate the rule of law, but puts out these vague threats and talks tough into the camera, I don't know what it's having. Look, it's not funny anymore, right? I mean, we're at a point where we're seeing these individuals that are not qualified for the jobs,

that are saying things recklessly. They're not following the rule of law. These are the same people that argue the Constitution. These are the same individuals that are about law and order. These are the same individuals that every time something happens, they're actually going into, quote, unquote. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. same individuals that every time something happens, they're actually going into quote-unquote I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops

believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star studded a little bit man we got uh ricky williams nfl player hasman trophy winner it's just a

compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves music stars marcus king john osborne from brothers osborne we have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet.

MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

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Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Democratic cities and their pointing fingers when the reality is they don't know the very law they're trying to argue upon. And that's a reflection of the United States. And when I hear people talking about cutting the Department of Education, when we see over 160 million Americans read at the sixth grade level, this is why. And then you get people like this that end up leading in cabinet level positions that are quite frankly, not going to be able to do things. And I'm not going to say we shouldn't be concerned, but I'll put my money on about a thousand other people before I put my money on her. Again, I mean, we're charged them, we're suing them.

Girl, you ain't know what the hell you doing. You don't even know what you doing. That's just how dumb these people are. And she had a tough girl voice. She tried to do a tough girl voice. She's acting like she plays a lawyer in TV. And I'm just like, come on. Like, if you're going to stand on business, stand on business.

Like, I'm trying to take this seriously. Let me also say this here. I'm glad to see these federal judges who are showing they have some spine as well. So this one federal judge, James Boasberg, has blocked the Department of Justice from removing January 6th videos from a public database. These people, Daniel, they are trying to erase everything

regarding January 6th. They want to act like it never happened. Yeah. And look, we saw this fight years ago. For some of your viewers, they might not know I've worked with Bernice King for about three and a half years prior to serving the Biden administration, have loved and supported the King family for a long time. And look, when they were talking about taking the I Have a Dream speech out of states like Texas, when they were attacking things under the auspices of CRT, we're now seeing that they want to rewrite a history they never wanted to talk about to begin with. And these individuals that are pushing and fighting and doing everything they can to erase something that we clearly saw

with our eyes, which we witnessed. And if we got the tape, you can go back and listen to every Republican that said, this is where the line stops. Everybody from Lindsey Graham to Mitch McConnell, all of them said the same thing. But then all of a sudden, moonwalks three months after, and all of a sudden, they can do no wrong. And then we see the largest heist in history where you literally open a prison and release over 1600 individuals that were convicted, that were charged. These are the areas that we're not focused on. And it's not only worrisome, but a generation is watching. We're literally watching the dismantling of everything we say we stand for. Rebecca.

Yeah, you know, absolutely. Like I agree with what Daniel's saying. Like it's, you know, I owe it to say for everyone, we're going to have to buckle up over the next few years. You know, there's, I think I mentioned this a couple a couple weeks ago there are at least 46 states that have elections this year that's a hundred thousand seats so there are still things that we could do to make sure that our communities our towns our cities are still safe and still functioning um but what's unfortunate is largely we're not going to be able to rely on the federal government over the next few years nope Nope, that is certainly the case. Let's do this here.

Oh, first of all, let me go, I'm gonna stand up. So if y'all wanna get one of these shirts, see, y'all know we don't play around. So I had to go ahead and rock the shirt. Don't blame me, I voted for the black woman. So if y'all want one of these shirts to see his deal, though, when all this craziness keeps going,

uh-uh. Don't look at me. I had nothing to do with it. I voted for the black woman. So if y'all want the shirt, y'all want this shirt here, go to rolandmartin.creator-spring.com to get your Roland Martin unfiltered merchandise. Another shirt that we have is a hashtag. We tried to tell you FAFO 2025.

And so y'all can get that secure codes right there. I go to the website, rolandmartin.creator-spring.com. We'll go to blacksternetwork.com. Let me thank Daniel and Rebecca for being on today's show. Thank you so very much. I appreciate it. All right, folks. If y'all want to support the work that we do, our goal is very simple. The goal is to get 20,000 of our

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If you like Instagram, guess what? You can post photos on here. If you like audio chat rooms that you see on Clubhouse, you can actually do those things right here on the app as well. If you want to do, you got reels. They have what's called flicks. You can do that. Also, you can actually do long form video as well, stories, and do regular posts as well. With this $17 million Series A fundraise they're doing, they're going to launch something called Spark, which is going to allow you to do microblogging, which is essentially Twitter or even Blue Sky.

So the same functionality. And then RTMP is going to be coming as well. And so this is a great app we should be supporting. It's black owned, but it's not just for black folks. So I want you all to support Fanbase. Download the app. You can also invest. If you want to also be one of the investors in this crowdfund, you can go to startengine.com forward slash Fanbase, startengine.com forward slash Fanbase. 8.7 million of the raise has been raised. So we're

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something here. And let me be real clear, okay? And I'm very honest about this here. It's enough entertainment out here. It's enough sports out here. I'm not trying to do that. Frankly, I think we got too much of that already. And if that's what you want, that's what you want. No problem. There's other places you can go. But for us, this is about news and information. This is about reaching our people, teaching our people, training our people, educating our people. And so that's what our network is focused on. And so we really want to be able to help folks with that. And like I say, there's so much, so much of that already out there right now. And what we need is we need

information. We need to be informed. We need to be enlightened. We need to be educated. It's not just about laughing and giggling. So that's why I don't waste my time talking about no real housewife. I ain't talking about some reality show. I'm not talking about any of that stuff because it's enough of that already. Too many of us are walking around grossly ill-informed about what is happening in our cities, our states, this nation, and the world. And so that's what our focus here is at the Black Star Network. YouTube people, hit that like button because we want you to do that as well. And so again, we want you to do that. At the end of the day, y'all, hey, we keeping it real, keeping it black, keeping it unfiltered. And that's what it's about. We're black owned. We're 100% independent. I don't have anybody

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I'm real revolutionary right now. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. I thank you for being the voice of Black America, Rollin. I love y'all. All momentum we have now. We have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See this difference between black star network and black owned media and something like CNN.

You can't be black owned media and be scape. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future

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And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of theugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios.

Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we

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