#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Trump admin held in contempt, Bernie Sanders Repub warning, Musk AI plant pollutes Black community

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

4.16.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Trump admin held in contempt, Bernie Sanders Repub warning, Musk AI plant pollutes Black community A federal judge found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in contempt for violating a deportation order.  Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen is in El Salvador to work on a plan to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to U.S. soil. However, the El Salvadorian Vice President claims the Trump administration is paying the country to detain the innocent man. Nearly 22 years ago, Senator Bernie Sanders warned America about the unfolding Republican agenda. We'll show you what he said in 2003. A Detroit pastor reports that Saint Augustine's University has not disclosed what happened to a $50,000 scholarship donation. Elon Musk's AI plant is reportedly using more gas turbines than permitted, leading to increased air pollution in Black communities in Memphis. Tennessee State Representative Justin Pearson has criticized local officials for allowing the tech mogul to exploit loopholes.  He'll be here to explain.  Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made some interesting comments regarding people living with autism. #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.

We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. 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 podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the LA fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even Thank you. Today is Wednesday, April 16th, 2025, coming up on Roland Martin Unquote streaming live on the Black Star Network. A federal judge has found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in contempt,

criminal contempt, for violating his deportation order. We'll break it down. Plus, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen is in El Salvador trying to talk to a Maryland man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, to bring him back to the United States. However, the El Salvadorian vice president claims the Trump administration is paying the country to detain the innocent man, and MAGA Republicans keep insisting he is a terrorist.

He's with MS-13, but they have no evidence. Nearly 22 years ago, Senator Bernie Sanders warned America about how Republicans will win future elections. I'm going to show you what he said in 2003. How's that panning out? Plus, a Detroit pastor tells us that St. Augustine University has not told him what has happened to a $50,000 scholarship donation. That pastor will be on today's show. Plus, Elon Musk's AI plant in Memphis

is reportedly using more gas turbines than permitted, leading to increased air pollution in black communities. We'll talk to Tennessee Rep. Justin Pearson about that very thing. Plus, now we already told you Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. is a dumbass, still got a worm in his head. And remember, he said he couldn't study unless he was on heroin in college.

Wait until you hear what this idiot had to say about people living with autism. Plus, folk always run in their mouth about what we don't do on this show and how we are race baiting. But it's amazing how easily they lie. And you got a group of folk who just believe their lie. I got a couple of words to say to a simple Simon. It's time to bring the funk on Rolling Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it.

Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin'

Yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin All right, folks, lots to unpack here.

It was a brutal day in federal court for the thug to the Donald Trump administration. A federal judge made it perfectly clear that he found probable cause to hold Trump and his minions in criminal contempt of court for violating his orders regarding planes carrying deportees to El Salvador. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, and he was appointed to the chief just chief judge of the court he sits on by President Barack Obama. He warned that he could refer the matter for prosecution if the administration does not rectify its contempt. Well, here's the problem. It's Donald Trump's Department of Justice, so they damn sure not going to sit here and try anybody.

Judge Boasberg stated that the administration could remedy the situation by returning those who were sent to the El Salvador prison back to the United States, as this action would align with his orders. If the Justice Department decides not to prosecute the issue, Boesberg indicated that he would appoint another attorney to handle the prosecution of the contempt. In his ruling, the judge said the Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders,

especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it. Now, while that is happening, Democratic Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador to check on one of his constituents, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the man mistakenly deported there to a high-security prison for terrorists. Van Hollen said he met with the El Salvadorian

vice president, who said the Trump thugs are paying them to keep the innocent man away from his family. Now, the courts of the United States have said there's no evidence to support the charge that he's part of MS-13. So I asked the vice president whether or not El Salvador has any evidence that he's part of MS-13 or has committed a crime. So I asked the vice president if Abrego Garcia has not committed a crime, and the U.S. courts have found that he was illegally taken from the United States, and the government of El Salvador has no evidence that he was part of MS-13. Why is El Salvador continuing to hold him in SICOT? And his answer was that the Trump administration is paying El Salvador, the government of El Salvador, to keep him at sea cut.

And I pointed out that neither the government of El Salvador nor the Trump administration has presented evidence to support the claim that he's committed any kind of criminal acts. And so why not release Abrego Garcia today? And he said what President Bukele said the other day at the White House, which that El Salvador can't smuggle Mr. Abrego Garcia into the United States. And I said, I'm not asking him to smuggle Mr. Abrego Garcia in the United States. I'm simply asking him to open the door of Seacott and let this innocent man walk out. And I pointed out that the attorney general of the United States, Pam Bondi, has said that the United States would send a plane to El Salvador to pick him up. And why did she do that? Because the Supreme Court of the United

States, in a ruling of nine to zero, has said that the Trump administration has to facilitate his return to the United States. Now, there's no evidence that the Trump administration is complying with that order. There's no evidence that they are complying with that order. In fact, the United States embassy here has told me they've received no direction from the Trump administration to help facilitate his release. So the Trump administration is clearly in violation of American court orders. But that still leaves the question, why is the government of El Salvador continuing to imprison a man where they have no evidence he's committed any crime and they've not been provided any evidence from the United States that he's committed a crime. Okay, so let me unpack this. Here is the chief liar for Donald Trump, Caroline Leavitt,

at the White House podium, trying to lie to all of us about how this guy's a gang member. Listen to this. And when Kilmar Abrego Garcia was originally arrested, he was wearing a sweatshirt with rolls of money covering the ears, mouth and eyes of presidents on various currency denominations. This is a known MS-13 gang symbol of hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil. So they're saying that he was wearing a sweatshirt. OK, now listen to this.

Media in this room have continually and wrongly labeled Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a Maryland father. There is no Maryland father. Let me reiterate. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an illegal alien,

MS-13 gang member, and foreign terrorist. So, they have constantly said this person is a gang member and a foreign terrorist. Okay. Well, Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, was asked that very question. Listen to her answer. Kilmar Abrego Garcia in Maryland. He's in a prison now in El Salvador.

He was sent there. You insist, the president, everybody in the administration insists that he is MS-13. It appears that there's not going to be any sort of trial. He's not going to come back. DHS said he would be arrested and redeported if he comes back. Why not show the American people the evidence that he's MS-13 so they can make an informed decision. And that goes the same with this Henry Josue Santos, who was picked up in Virginia, who is now presumably going to be deported as well. Why not show the public the evidence? Well, he is an illegal alien

who has been living illegally in our country from El Salvador. ICE testified. An immigration judge ruled he was a member of MS-13. An appellate judge ruled he was a member of MS-13. Hard stop. He should not be in our country. He was deported. They needed one additional step in paperwork, but now MS-13 is characterized as as they should be, as an FTO, as a foreign terrorist organization. So he is not coming back to our country.

President Bukele said he was not sending him back. That's the end of the story. If he wanted to send him back, we would give him a plane ride back. There was no situation ever where he was going to stay in this country. None, none. He would have come back, had one extra step of paperwork and gone back again. But he's from El Salvador. He's in El Salvador. And that's where the president plans on keeping him. The evidence, we're not going to see the evidence. We have the transcripts from the court hearings. I'll be glad to give you the court hearings from 2019, what we have, sure,

with the rulings from the judges. First of all, court transcripts, that's not evidence. It's just not. And so, but just understand, these are people who are openly defying a court order. The Supreme Court. Donald Trump is a liar. Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the courts ruled in his favor. That is a lie.

It's just a flat-out lie. And not only that, this is the leader of the National Building Trades Union who is demanding Garcia get returned because he was an apprentice in Baltimore. Listen to this. We need to make our voices heard. We're not red. We're not blue. We're the building trades, the backbone of America.

We built a $5 billion. You want to build a $5 billion data center? Want more six-figure careers with health care retirement and no college debt? You don't call Elon Musk. You call us. North America's building trades unions. And yeah, that means all of us. All of us, including our brother, smart apprentice, Kilmar Arbrega-Garcia, who we demand to be returned to us and his family now.

Bring him home. To keep in mind, a lot of those white men, they MAGA. They voted for Trump. But you see what happens when it's one of their own. So you now may be wondering, you may be saying, well, okay, well, I don't understand what's going on. I don't understand what they're trying to achieve. This is what they're trying to achieve.

They do not care about the rule of law. MAGA does not care about the rule of law. They only like laws when it goes in their favor. So what their game is, and see, this is what you can always tell. When Stephen Miller and Carolyn Leavitt and J.D. Vance and Fox News and conservative talk radio

and conservative digital radio, when they all start saying the same thing, that means the memo went out and this is how we are going to frame this. And the way we're going to frame

this is, see, look at that, see, just in case if you think I'm, hold on one second, if you think I'm not telling the truth, I just want y'all to understand how they try to play this game. How they want to control this narrative

in terms of how they like to sit here and frame this. And so this is what their strategy is. This is J.D. Vance. The entire American media and left-wing industrial complex has decided the most important issue today is that the Trump administration deported

an MS-13 gang member, in parentheses, and illegal alien. They want to say, see those Democrats? Look how hard they're fighting for an illegal alien. Why are those Democrats fighting so hard for this illegal alien? Why don't they just shut up and move on and stop fighting for this illegal alien? That's their goal, y'all. That's their goal. They want to frame this as Democrats are just, they're being wrong. How dare you fight for an illegal alien? George Cheney is founder of Joy Strategies out of D.C. Dr. Zachary Kirk, educator and content creator from Atlanta.

Political sis, social media, political activist out of North Carolina. That's the ballgame right here, Joy. It's real simple. They want to frame this as all those Democrats care about are illegal aliens. They don't care about y'all. They don't care about it. They're just defending the deportations. They don't care.

They don't care what's going on. And so they want to create it. It's us against them. It's white Americans against the rest of those brown illegals. That's right. I mean, their goal is to divide us. What they're not saying is in a court of law, you can say anything on TV, but in a court of law, they have not gone on and said, this man is a member of MS-13. Here were the evidence to deport him. Here is why we did it and what we're going to do to fix it, because they're not going

to get any barred attorney to go out there and assert those things. It's one thing to do it from a podium. It's another thing to do it in a court of law. They're not going to go do that. This is ultimately not about any one person. It's about all of us. It's about the rule of law. If Donald Trump can do this with this test case, it's why he started with so-called undocumented people. He started with undocumented people. Then he moved to people who were here legally, even though they weren't citizens. That's the category that Mr. Garcia finds himself in.

He has an order that says he can't be deported to El Salvador. He can be deported other places, but not to El Salvador. Now, that could be because there's some kind of special danger to him there. We don't know, right? We need more evidence. The reason to bring him back isn't so much because he's going to stay here. It's because a court said if you were not sent away legally, you did not have due process. You have to be brought back for due process. The Alien Enemies Act can work, but it must be done under the guise of due process. You must facilitate his return. And saying that if he miraculously escapes the prison, you'll let him get on a plane is not

the same thing as facilitating his return. Being able to go to your embassy and ask for his return and to facilitate it and say, we would like him to be returned, we made a mistake, that's what facilitating the return is. Right. There is something going on here that is dark and ugly.

So the thing here, Zachary, is simple. First of all, it's real simple what they're doing. They flat out want to make this sound like we're getting. 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 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 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. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization.

Just days into the L.A. fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to ascensivehome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. Rid of these people. The Democrats are trying to keep them. They don't care that they're breaking the law. They don't care that they're defying a federal judge's ruling. They don't care. And these federal judges are going to have to wake up and they're going to start jailing people, literally saying, okay, Stephen Miller, okay, attorney, slap the ass with handcuffs and then

put them in the jail because clearly y'all don't want to pay attention. Y'all want to follow the law. So you're going to cool off in the federal jail. Absolutely right. Absolutely right. This is so much bigger than what is happening with one father from Baltimore, Maryland, who is being detained and was sent over to El Salvador to a concentration camp. My prayer is that he is still alive. My prayer is that he is still with the living, that he can be returned to the United States to go through due process. This man may be MS-13. I don't believe he is.

I don't believe he is. I believe that he's a person in this country seeking asylum who has earned the right and has gone through the legal process whose wife is an American citizen. Democrats are protecting the people in this country who are having their rights stripped away illegally by an authoritarian government, an authoritarian regime, an authoritarian administration that we

put in through democratic process. And so Democrats in this country are fighting for those people, fighting for every single one of us. Donald Trump, Pam Bondi, his administration, Republicans who are elected are using this as their test case to push against the separation of powers that exist in our government and take over power from the judiciary, to not only ignore federal courts, but to ignore the rule of the Supreme Court. Even Clarence Thomas, Justice Clarence Thomas, the most bought-and-sold man I have ever seen serve in American politics, sided

with the majority and said this man should be brought back to the United States. And regardless of what he has done or will do, deserves due process as guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States, the 14th Amendment. And the Trump administration is still saying we're not going to do it. We're not going to comply. We're not going to make this happen. This is a constitutional crisis that we are all living through that will bring about the downfall of American democracy if we don't find some way to stop it. They absolutely, Booker says, they want to establish a standard.

We do not have to follow any rulings or any laws that we don't agree with. And this is why it's important for us to research the facts, because in 2019, the judge, a judge, I think a federal judge, did tell the courts that, hey, look, keep him here, because if he goes back to El Salvador, guess what? They will come at him. MS-13, the gang threatened his family. That's in the documents. That was proven. So if we don't do our research, we allow for this to happen. And I'm glad you brought up the Bernie Sanders situation in 2003. If they can do this to him, they can do this to all of us. I mean, he already said that he would do it. That man is over here legally.

Judges told him to stay here. They said, keep this man here in America. He is at risk of losing his life. And yes, I hope he is alive today. I hope he's alive. So, again, if they can do this to him, they can do this to anyone. This is not a joke. And I'm telling you, do not be surprised if a black person is next, which I fear is going to happen.

See, I just need people to understand the level of idiocy we're dealing with here. And also, the goal is to terrorize people. This took place in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Federal agents caught on video smashing the car window

and arresting a Guatemalan immigrant with no criminal record as he and his wife awaited their attorney to arrive at the scene. An undocumented Guatemalan man was arrested by federal agents after they smashed his car window. Cell phone video shows Juan Francisco Menendez and his wife surrounded by federal agents after being pulled over in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Francisco Menendez called his lawyer for help, and she told the couple to hand the agent her business card and tell them she was on her way.

A federal agent is heard telling the couple in Spanish that they can either do it the quote easy way or the hard way before threatening to smash the car window. Minutes later, video shows an agent smash Francisco Menendez's car window with a hammer. Francisco Menendez's lawyer says he qualifies for derivative asylum and has no criminal record. His wife says he's now being held at an ICE detention center in Dover, New Hampshire. CNN reached out to ICE for more information but has not heard back. See, again, these people do not care.

They don't care. They will do whatever they want to. This right here is a full-format, nine-second video. Just watch this. I can't reach it. It's up by her. Here you go. See, Zachary, these are the same people. They arrested another dude

who was literally on his way to a hearing. He was walking into a hearing. They're like, nah, we're snatching you back. People need to understand why there's a thug behavior this is a game show to them this is a television show they want to see we're being tough we're snatching them uh and people cheering get them get them this is a television show for donald trump and maga people are going to lose their lives and people are losing their lives behind what is being done right now. And every single black person, because this is about the voice of black America. That's

what you are. That's what you do. And the majority of your audience, they're watching this. They are black. They are members of the black community, just like me and you. You need to watch this because in the same way that they are coming after our brown brothers and sisters, they're going to come after us in the exact same way. They start with one group and they continue with another. That is what this is about. And they are pushing the limits of power to see who they can get away with it on and who's going to stand up, who's going to fight back, what kind of public outrage is going to be. Because that's the only mechanism and measure of control that we have at our disposal to fight back.

This is criminal, what they're doing. They. This is criminal, what they're doing. They know it's criminal, what they're doing, and they're seeing just how far they can take it. So, political scientists, watch this video here. When they ask, do y'all have a warrant? Listen to this. ¿Usted tiene una orden de detención? ¿Pero, disculpe, tiene una orden? ¿Tienen una orden?

¿Me puede oír? ¿Que si tienen una orden de detención? ¿Una orden? Pues sí, una orden. No. ¿Puedo apagar la puerta? ¿Me entiendes? Sí. We also saw them snatch a college student, not even identifying themselves.

And so in some cases, you're like, who the hell are you people? So what is Congress going to do, right? Like, we're just allowing for this to happen. What is Congress going to do? And I'm not talking about the Democrats. They're brave. I got to give it to them. They are What is Congress going to do? And I'm not talking about the Democrats. They're brave. I got to give it to them.

They are in El Salvador trying to do the damn thing. But what are the Republicans going to do? Nothing. The Republicans are in the pocket of Trump. The Republicans are cheering this on. You know, they're not going to stop, right, until somebody dies, like Zach said. And they're still not going to stop. What is good about this?

People are okay with this because it's not happening to them. Why does it have to happen to them for them to be concerned? Like the judge says, basically, we are in a constitutional crisis. And they are okay with this.

They're not just going to stop there. We already see what they're doing with the SAFE Act. They're coming after all these white women who voted for him. Guess what? They're coming after your ass next. They don't even want you to vote anymore. They don't want you to vote anymore. So now what do you have if you don't have your voice?

Well, what we're seeing here, Joy, is very simple. A party that calls, there's always law and order, law and order, law and order. You must follow the law. You must comply. And they are openly saying, we're not complying. We don't care. Correct. They've never been about law and order.

They are liars. If that were the case, then everyone who was a part of January 6th would still be in jail, right? These are criminal actors, believe me, in the Republican Party. But it's worse than that. They are afraid because they have seen Donald Trump coming, I think, even longer than some of us have. And they are responding in kind. Some of them are responding out of fear. So to the point of where is Congress? Because let me tell you, if you can start with

undocumented, then move to people who have a legal status but are not citizens, where they're going next are citizens that are in jail. They'll start there. And then they'll move on to other types of citizens, citizens who just don't agree with the administration. They're working up to it. They want to get Liz Cheney. They want to find a way to arrest her, right? They'll find ways to all of us. And these Republicans understand it, that in many respects, they feel afraid. They are powerless to stop it in their minds. That is what part of this is doing. And they have to keep supporting this person because they understand what will happen to them first. If you are Mike Pence, he tried to kill

his own vice president. We're not being alarmist here. We're telling you what happened so that we can get in the way of it. That's where this is going. So they absolutely will have to do something about it. Right now, we've got to be evaluating what are the avenues to Congress and the courts to block an authoritarian government. Well, first of all, the avenues are real clear. Bottom line is it has to be the courts. But again, if they choose to say prosecute under criminal contempt, the DOJ is going to do whatever they want to. Pam Bondi is nothing more than a lackey for Donald Trump. There's no independence there.

And so these people want to continue their thuggish behavior. Going to go to break. We come back. Speaking of this thuggish behavior, now Donald Trump wants the IRS to pull the tax exempt status of Harvard because Harvard refuses to bow down and kiss his ass. We'll discuss that next right here. Roland Mark, unfiltered on the Blackstone Network.

On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. I'm sure you've heard that saying that the only thing guaranteed is debt and taxes. The truth is that the wealthy get wealthier by understanding tax strategy. And that's exactly the conversation that we're going to have on the next Get Wealthy, where you're going to learn wealth hacks that help you turn your wages into wealth. Taxes is one of the largest

expenses you ever have. You really got to know how to manage that thing and get that under control so that you can do well. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. I'm Russell L. Honore, Lieutenant General of the United States Army, retired. And you're watching Roland Martin on Filth. So Donald Trump said, we're going to withhold $2.2 billion from Harvard. And Harvard was like, I, Cole,

we got a $53 billion endowment. After that, MIT said, hey, we're not going to bend the knee to you as well. Now, all of a sudden, Trump and his maggots, they are now saying, oh, they should lose their tax-exempt status. This is what

the idiot, the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief, Donald the Con Trump posted on his crappy social media app. Perhaps Harvard should lose its tax-exempt status and be taxed as a political entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological,

and terrorist-inspired supporting sickness. Remember, that man's English is awful. Remember, tax-exempt status is totally contingent on acting in the public interest. Okay. CNN then reports that the IRS is working to do that very same thing. Now, what is this about?

What this is really about is they're not bending their knee. Let me say it again. They're not bowing. They're not kowtowing. Like the law firms did. See, this is the mistake that you make when you negotiate with a thug like Donald Trump. We negotiate with the thug. The thug is never satisfied. The thug comes back and ask for more like he's doing with the law firm.

This is the CNN story. IRS making plans to receive. 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 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 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.

Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the L.A. fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires please get involved sign up to volunteer donate furniture or even donate funds you can go to a sense of home.org to find out more information together we can help our la community rebuild it takes all of us and harvest tax exempt status they say um there's according to sources uh a final decision on rescinding the university's tax exemption is expected soon. This is about how dare you not suck up and hire who we want.

Harvard, we want you to admit hardcore conservative students. Oh, CNN, y'all need to be hiring more MAGA Republicans. I thought they were all about merit. Sounds like they want MAGA white affirmative action. Zachary? It's 100% what they're wanting. 100%. Because you've had organizations capitulate.

Now they're saying that everyone's going to do it. And the thought that they would go to our Ivy League institutions, really to any institution of higher learning, any institution period that is focused on learning and tell them what they must do in order to get funds is criminal. But this is what I want to see. That's fine. You want to play this game now. I want Democrats, when we retake the House in 2026 and when we retake the Oval Office in 2028, I want to see them take away the tax-exempt status of evangelical churches all around this country, and use every single Sunday in the pulpit to advocate for Donald Trump,

to campaign for Donald Trump, and to misalign the teachings of Jesus Christ from that pulpit and misalign it to Donald Trump. I want them to lose their tax-exempt status then. Oh, yeah. That would be quite fascinating political, sis. Why would be quite fascinating, political sis. Why would they do that, Zach? Right?

They're not going to do that. But this reminds me, this is why he likes dictators, right? Again, this is part of history. This is what, you know, Hitler did. This is what Putin did. This is nothing new. This is how they maintain their power. I mean, it's no coincidence that

he's doing this with law firms. Law firms, this is how they maintain power. But the problem is, I mean, this doesn't have to happen. It doesn't. If Congress, if Republicans, will get a damn spine and don't worry about if they're not re-elected again

and focus on their country, that's what's supposed to come first. Now, political says, come on now. That's wasted breath asking Republicans to get a spine. Asking them to get a spine is truly wasted breath. The only damn thing that we can do

hopefully is just encourage our damn people to get out there and vote, right? That's the only damn thing we can do, like Zach said. Because if we don't, this is going to shit fast. Indeed. And a small aside in, the

level of power does resist with Republicans, but it's not elected Republicans. It's the Republican constituents in those districts. And we're seeing those Republicans stand up in Iowa. We're seeing them stand up in Indiana. We're seeing them go and confront these people in town halls. We even saw them confront Marjorie Taylor Greene in a district that wasn't even her district, because her district has way too many unhappy Republicans and too still got her ass handed to her. We want to have Republicans, the voters, Republican voters, realize that they fucked

up, realize that they're in pain, and they're going to have to put their pride aside on up to the fact that they made some bad decisions, and push these people to do the right thing. They're the ones who have the power. But Joy, I saw polling data that said the only places where Trump is not underwater, rural, white men, no college degree.

That's right. I mean, look, you know, those are constituents. And frankly, with rural America, with these attacks on Medicaid, he's about to lose them because they're about to lose their hospitals. So good luck with that. With the ending of the Affordable Connectivity Program, they're about to lose their ability to have affordable broadband. So, you know, we'll see how they are with rural Americans and what that continues. Look, the fact of the matter is Republicans can sue. That is one of the things—not just Republicans, excuse me, Congress can sue. Now, we have some Democratic members who are

beginning to file lawsuits to defend the right of their branch, right? So that's what this is also about. It's about having three co-equal branches and one branch, the executive branch, encroaching upon the rights of the legislative branch. So, frankly, Speaker Johnson ought to be representing his branch in and of itself. The founders never anticipated that one branch would capitulate to the other. We stand on the fact of having separation of powers. But even without that, other Republicans can come together to force him to sue, to say, look, we have to defend our territory here.

The other—and this is happening at some of the committee levels, but not at the top level, which is where we need it. The other thing is, if you are a Republican in a district that is, you know, a little more purple, right, having your members put pressure on you perhaps to change your party affiliation they're one in two people away from losing their control of the house right which would and it is not as much of a

problem so we could also have a Republican right who chooses to switch parties because that's where we are here well I look I ain't got no hope that's gonna happen so I'm just letting y'all know but let's we do want to talk about, again, the thug behavior. You talk about what they're trying to do with the IRS.

This is some really, really thug behavior. So Donald Trump has tapped this blathering idiot who actually wants to get rid of the IRS to be the IRS commissioner. But the Leverett News reported this here. A Trump IRS pick just enriched by tax schemers. New documents show Billy Long's $130,000 personal debt was suddenly paid off by donors at firms

policed by the tax agency he lead. Yeah, that's right there in the story. That's the whole deal right here. So talk about the payoff. We're still wondering, political sis, who the hell paid off the debts of Brett Kavanaugh when on the Supreme Court, but this is

somebody who's supposed to be overseeing the IRS, and speaking of the IRS as well, the tax filing system, the IRS tax filing system. The Trump administration desperately wants to get rid of a direct file. Now, mind you,

what was direct file created? Direct file was created so taxpayers can file their taxes for free. But guess who opposed it? All of the tax preparation

companies. And guess who poured money into Trump's bank accounts? The tax preparation companies. I'm confused. Why would you want to get rid of a program that helps regular, ordinary people? Oh, that's right, political sis. You don't give a damn about regular, ordinary people. Right.

But you do care about rich donors. We already established this. You're absolutely right. I mean, 13, he has at least 13 billionaires in his cabinet right now. That is over $450 billion. Think about that. Over $450 billion.

Do y'all really think this man gives a damn about the ordinary person, the average person, the working class person, that person that lives in the rural area that always vote for his ass? No, he does not. And he will not. Of course they want to get rid of the IRS. I don't even know what's going to happen to our taxes.

Are anybody going to have to pay taxes this year? Anybody going to have to pay taxes? Right. Check this out, Joy. Go back to my iPad, Henry. Direct file was rolled out as a pilot program in 2024 after the IRS was tasked with looking into how to create a direct file

system as part of the money it received from the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by Biden in 2022. The Democratic administration put tens of millions of dollars in developing the program. Oh, but the IRS faced intense blowback to direct file from private tax preparation companies

that have made billions from charging people to use their software and have spent millions lobbying Congress. The average American typically spends about $140 a year preparing returns each year. The IRS accepted $140,803 returns filed by taxpayers

using DirectFile in 12 states where it was available last tax season. It was expanded to include half the country this year. It's unclear how many taxpayers have used DirectFile this year. It's all about the money for the big companies. That's what I keep saying. He never gave

a damn about working people, regular, ordinary people. Those idiots, they voted for this lying, blabbering fool, and now they're going to have to pay for it. That is correct. They're going to pay for it across a range of areas. Here's the thing. If

you are a tax preparing company, you could do things to get additional customers. You could provide a better product. You could provide a product that's a little cheaper so that people can say, you know what, maybe I want to use a tax preparer because it reduces any kind of error. I mean, there are lots of things you can do in America where a capitalist system make a better product. The consumer is never wrong. They've chosen a different avenue, one that is free for them, one that results in properly filed taxes, because we work to make the tax system more fair and a little more democratic and a little easier for people who have simple tax returns.

That's what we should be doing. We're paying taxes, and it shouldn't be difficult to us. That is ridiculous. If you are a tax preparer, you should be working to make a better product, not fighting people having a better way to file their taxes. It's obscene. And Donald Trump is aligned with these people. Dictators and people that would thwart

your consumer rights. Well, bottom line is, it's all about the billionaires, pure and simple. Quick break, we come back. We all knew Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was stupid, but wait until I play y'all with this food set about people with autism. We come back. We all knew Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was stupid. But wait until I play y'all with this fool set about people with autism.

That man, I think he's still on heroin. Folks, we'll be right back. Support Roland Martin Unfold to the Black Star Network. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. The goals get 20,000 people contributing on average 50 bucks each a year. That's $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day. You want to use Cash App? Use the Stripe QR code.

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Roland Martin Unfiltered makes it easier to process for the banks. Make your check payable at appeal box 57196, Washington, D.C., 2003-7-0196. PayPal's R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo's R.M. Unfiltered. Zale, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Rowland at Rowland S Martin dot com. Rowland at Rowland Martin unfiltered dot com. We'll be right back. This week on the other side of change, we're going to examine how foreign policy impacts domestic policy and how domestic policy impacts foreign policy. We are all intertwined and we're going to have Hannah Reid help us break down that topic. We should not want

our country to be the big bad wolf of the globe because that puts us in a really vulnerable position safety-wise as well. Only on the other side of change on the Black Star Network. This is Judge Mathis. Hi, I'm Teresa Griffin. Hi, my name is Latoya Luckett

and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, Robert Kennedy Jr. is pretty stupid. He's the Secretary of Health and Human Services. We knew he was an idiot. His family members told us he was an idiot. I mean, they said, do not confirm this dumbass. Listen to what this fool said today about people with autism. This is an individual tragedy as well.

Autism destroys families. More importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which are our children. These are children who should not be suffering like this. These are kids who, many of them, were fully functional and regressed because of some environmental exposure into autism when they're two years old. And these are kids who will never pay taxes. They'll never hold a job. They'll never play baseball.

They'll never write a poem. They'll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted. And we have to recognize we are doing this to our children. Roll that back. Sir, this is an individual tragedy as well. Autism destroys families. More importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which are children. These are children who should not be suffering like this. These are kids who, many of them, were fully functional

and regressed because of some environmental exposure into autism when they're two years old. And these are kids who will never pay taxes. They'll never hold a job. They'll never play baseball. They'll never write a poem. They'll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted. And we have to recognize we are doing this to our children. They're not going to date. They're not going to be able to use the bathroom. They're not going to have whole jobs or pay taxes. Holly Robinson-Pete, the actress, her son has autism. She was livid.

We were texting earlier, and she said, I'm posting my response now. Go to my iPad. This is what she said. My 27-year-old son with autism didn't, quote, destroy our family. He gave us purpose and unity. Oh, and he pays

taxes. Political says, what the hell? I take this so personal. This is really personal to me. My best friend's son, you know, he has autism. And to sit there and exploit families like this is just wrong.

It's the same damn thing that he did when he went over there into the other country. I can't think of the name right now. It starts with an S and told them people that the measles vaccine was not worth it. Don't do it. Over 80 damn people died, most of them kids.

This shit is not okay. And that motherfucker can go do... I'm not going to gonna say that but he's a damn lie because my son my my best friend's son that is the one of the best things that ever happened to her and her husband and her daughter into me because he brings joy every damn time i walk in that damn door to me somebody needs to get rid of his ass because what he's doing is lying about kids. All kids, it's different spectrums. We don't even know what the fuck he's talking about. He don't know what he's talking about. As if they don't feel or they don't love. What the

fuck is he talking about? 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. 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 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. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the L.A. fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved.

Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to asenseofhome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our L.A LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. Joy? So I take that personally. I really do. I take that really personally. I'm sorry, Joy. No, no, no, you're right. We all take it personally. I have an autistic child, you know, in my life, through one of my friends as well, and probably more, right? Autism, there are many ends of the autistic spectrum, right? So there are many people who are high-functioning, like many of us on this call, and many who have more severe disabilities.

So Robert Kennedy, he is obviously a liar. He's obviously someone who does not guard his words carefully. He does not have respect for the office that he is holding. He shouldn't have it. His own family has said he shouldn't have it. He's been destructive. What he has been is destructive to his family. He has been a blight on his family's legacy. And now, unfortunately, he's been unleashed

onto the rest of us. And the country that he went to, told those lies to, which resulted in 80 deaths of people who believed him, was Samoa. And so, you know, this is an irresponsible person. He needs to focus on

what's happening at his agency, which he admitted this week. He doesn't even know where all the cuts are at his agency. Zachary? You know, well, let me give a statistic. I was fortunate enough to serve as a public school educator for 17 years. In that time frame, I worked for 10 years in a high school that was the county's autism unit. Seventy-nine percent of children who are living, learning, and thriving with autism are able to use the restroom on their own with zero assistance by the time they are five years old. That's a fact right there. And the fact that this man is sitting in his seat and doesn't know that and would get on a national stage and tell the whole world something that's completely untrue and opposite, it should be extremely alarming to everyone.

To everyone. It's offensive, it's wrong, and it's bad science. Just like all the science this man has brought to the American people. And he's doing time and time and time again they will and i i just i just sit here and again i'm telling you these people they are insane i don't i don't there's no other word you can describe uh they are pure insane and uh and as adam sir wrote in the atlantic, he said, cruelty is the point. That is the point.

That is what they are all about. That is what they are fixated on. It is about cruelty. It is how they treat people, how they just destroy people. That's who they are. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an absolute idiot, and that worm has to be expanding in his

damn brain. All right, y'all. Going to go to break. We'll come back. St. Augustine's University, we had our panel there on our town hall there on Friday. A Detroit pastor is asking some questions like, where in the hell is the $50,000 I sent y'all?

We'll have him next. Roland Barth, unfiltered on the Black Star Network. This week on A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie, here on Black Star Network, we are talking about all things, you got it, stress-related. Yes, the big S. Whether it's spiritual, physical, emotional,

or sometimes it could be just in your head. Stress has a way of manifesting itself in our lives in such a way that it disrupts who we are and who we're in the process of becoming. Stress is just as bad as a lot of the physical ailments that we think of. That's all next on A Balanced Life on the Blackstar Network. I'm Marilyn Martin. I'm filtered. All right, folks, as you know, we were in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday for our town hall at St. Augustine's University. We learned a whole lot of stuff. We've received numerous calls and emails about other issues related to the school's finances. Well, I got a text message from a pastor in Detroit who hit me and said he donated $50,000

to a scholarship fund, but can't get any answers about it. Reverend Horace Sheffield III, the CEO of the Detroit Association of Black Organizations, Inc., joins us right now. Pastor, good to see you. Hey, man, I'm glad to be on the air with the independent voice in the wilderness. You know, when you're in something like you, you don't throw a rock, man. You kind of shoot a missile. Well, my man, comedian Chris Paul, he always calls me a Twitter sniper. And I said, look, I will swing on you and take you out.

So I ain't got no problem doing that. So that's how we roll. Let's sit here and let's talk about a couple of things. Let's talk about a couple of things, folks. And first, so when we send an email, you're going to love this. We sent an email to St. Augustine's saying we were discussing this. They sent us an email at 5.59 p.m. right before we went live. This is the statement that they sent us.

St. Augustine's University would like to express our sincere gratitude to Reverend Horace Sheffield III for his past generosity in support of our institution. We are aware of recent concerns shared regarding a claim of $50,000 in donations made to the university. Our records indicate

that a total of $30,000 in cash contributions was received, $25,000 designated for student scholarships, and $30,000 in cash contributions was received, $25,000 designated for student scholarships, and $5,000 designated as a sponsorship for the university's jazz brunch. Due to administrative transitions and changes in staffing over the past three years, our current financial aid and advancement team are actively reviewing the application of these funds during that period. While we have not previously received an inquiry from Reverend Sheffield regarding this matter, we're more than willing to provide a comprehensive report once our

internal review is complete. Despite significant challenges, St. Augustine's University is working diligently to address the gaps of previous administrations and strengthen our stewardship of donor intent, transparency, and institutional accountability. These internal efforts are critical to our commitment to repairing and rebuilding the trust of our alumni, donors, and the broader community. As stated in previous communications, our current leadership team focuses on three urgent priorities, maintaining accreditation through the SACS-COC arbitration process, securing vital funding to ensure long-term financial sustainability and supporting our students, especially graduating seniors, through the remainder of the semester. For these reasons, the university's president and board of trustees are not currently participating

in media engagements. We thank Reverend Sheffield for support and appreciate the continued belief in the mission and future of St. Augustine's University, of our alumni and donors. Well, I don't know where to begin. Let me first of all say that I didn't know how much had been given. I did make a commitment of $50,000. I'm not a millionaire, so that's significant money to me. And I was trying to find out when Dr. McPhail was there.

They were extremely attentive. They visited Detroit. I opened my building up, the same one you spoke in. You'll see St. Augustine's logo on the outside of that building, registering students and trying to help with whatever I could. But what concerns me with the email you got, reviewing the application of these funds, I've been asking for three years, where's the money at? And I've had many conversations. They actually referred me to someone who, I guess, manages the funds. And I was told by the university and them that all of their money had been frozen.

And even donor money was tied up and nothing could happen with it. So when they say we have not had any inquiry from Reverend Sheffield, that's a lie. That's not true. I've talked to administrators. I've talked to—one of them referred me to where the money is supposedly being managed. But what I got from all of them was, because of the financial situation at the school, that all their funds had been froze. Well, how can designated money be froze? And even the response. I mean, I went to law school for two years

reviewing the application of these funds. So they're almost admitting that they spent them. And that's the only reason they don't have the other 25, because I couldn't get any real answer about this. Now, I donated this money in honor of my sister, Dr. LaVon Sheffield, superintendent of schools all over the country, worked with Bill and Melinda Gates,

you know, just a brilliant scholar. And, you know, so I'm still concerned. And not only that, by the way, Roland, I also have a few students here that I've personally paid tuition for and assisted financially as well.

See, what jumps out here, this is the way it's supposed to be. When somebody gives, there's supposed to be a designated account where that money is housed. It's not supposed to be used for general purposes. It's not supposed to be tapped into. No matter who comes in and leaves as president, your financial situation is supposed to be solid where you know exactly

where the money is. And so, perfect example, I gave $25,000 to the Houston Independent School District for scholarships at my high school, Jack Gates High School. One is supposed to be two per year. One for general population students and one for our school of communications.

And so for me, I'm able to sit here and go, I know how many years we've given that, so I know how much is left in that particular scholarship fund. I can pick the phone up or send an email, and like, matter of fact, I'm going to do that because I always go down to Houston when we hand out the scholarship. So my dealer, they're going to be getting an email from me tonight or tomorrow saying, hey, I need the date when we are giving out the scholarship. This is not that complicated.

No. And, you know, here's the issue for me and reason I wanted to do this interview. I mean, I have some basic issues with self-governing boards. I mean. Oh, absolutely. I mean, I don't know how anyone could survive in an institution like that if the board alone has no one above them or below them that can make them do any kind of thing. So I'm not trying to go smoke out my nose like you wrote, and I work hard for my money. You don't want my money to work the way I want it to work.

And I'm telling you, I've had at least three people I spoke with at this university. In fact, I was signed up to teach New Testament and religious studies. I've got several degrees, enrolled students, and then this Dr. McPhail was let go. And I will also tell you, I know for a fact that someone else was let go there because they went into endowment money, donor money, and transferred it with a phone call, right, to wherever the money was and had it transferred to the university. So, I mean, that's why I put a halt on the other 25,000. And I just wanted to know where my money was.

And what I think maybe one of the reasons there's been some hesitancy is I'm also very involved with Wayne Conner Community College District, which is 80,000 primarily African students. And I thought about transferring the money over there where, you know, it could have more local impact. I know the chancellor, Dr. Ivey, very well. And he pours into my organization. And I just brought that up. You know, can I get my money since I'm not satisfied, number one, with what's happened to Dr. McPhail? You know, I don't know if you know about some of the land deals that took place there. Yeah, I mean, it's a whole bunch of stuff. And you talk with the gentleman who's been successful at getting accreditation for some HBCUs that lost it, and they're not even returning the phone call. That bothered me.

See, the issue that I have here, and this is—see, here's what people need to understand. And I love these folk who are always running their mouths. I interned at the Houston Defender in 1990. One of the first stories I wrote. 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 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 ban is. Benny the Butcher.

Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. 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. homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the LA fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to asenseofhome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. That summer was when the board got rid of Texas Southern University's president, James Douglas, did an audit and they discovered lax financial standards and how scholarship money was being used

and diverted to other programs. That was 1990. So let's be real clear, for 35 years, I have been reporting on various things, good, bad, and ugly at HBCUs. So when you text me, I knew exactly what this was. And all this, well, we reviewing and we looking at this and we doing this and

well, our board and our administration, let's just be real clear, that's a bunch, and you're a pastor so I ain't gonna cuss in this segment, but they gonna make me cuss. It's a bunch of BS. I have had... That's a crock of it.

Right. You know, it's... I mean, again, first of all, ass is in the Bible, so I can use that word. Bishop William Barber gave me that permission. But here's the thing that's crazy to me. I've had numerous HBCU presidents on this show.

I've had presidents, I can't remember, remind me what the school was, we had one HBCU that was going through accreditation problems, had financial problems, they came on the show. These people are

hiding from the public. If you got all those, first of all, y'all, give me the board members. If you got all those, first of all, y'all, give me the board members. If you got a president, now if the communication person got time to send us emails, he got time to come on the show. That's six board

members right here. Go ahead. Seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. Is that it? That's thirteen board members. You got a president, you got other people. So are all y'all busy? Y'all can't talk to the public, but you want the public to support you financially.

Right. Yeah, I think that the notion, and I heard you mention this during that broadcast of the self-appointing board—you know, they get public monies. They get scholarship monies from the National Negro College, from all of that. It seems to me it lends itself to some kind of public scrutiny. They make decisions among themselves that affect that institution in a great way. I say to you right now, I'm more concerned than I was before when I got the letter saying reviewing the application of these funds.

I know how the funds are supposed to be applied. Now, the $5,000, they were in a basketball tournament, and they were having a brunch wherever this was being held, and they didn't have enough sponsorship money, so I wrote an additional $5,000 for that. That's not a problem of the $50,000. I froze my giving when I couldn't get answers. I knew people who worked there, by the way. I called the president's office, who actually told me where most of the monies were, and I made some inquiries there as well.

And I just, you know, was told basically that all school money has been frozen. And I don't know how you freeze my money when, you know, it was given with the intent to help students who had a tough time graduating. I mean, you and I both know the value of a real education and the difference that it makes. My great-grandmother, if it'd be 112,

she had a third-grade education. She said, you know, that she would walk miles for a fourth-grade education, and she wanted to make sure that other folks didn't have to go where she went to. So that kind of governs what I do, you know? Well, listen, it's legitimate. If anybody gives money for a scholarship fund,

first of all, you want to know where the money is. And the second thing is, you want to know who's getting the scholarships. How are you awarding it? What's the process? What's the standard here? Those are just some basic questions. Well, the real question is this,

and the reason that it prompted my concern is when you hear that the school is about to close, I mean, all the financial woes they have, the first question I have is where's my money in that, you know? Because you may decide to say, hey, let me take my balance and take it to another HBCU. Right, right. But I can never get an accounting for the money, Let me take my balance and take it to another HBCU. Right. Right.

But I could never get an accounting for the money, where the money was, who was managing the money. And still, I tell you, as we sit here and talk, that line reviewing the application of these funds, there's nothing to review. We know how funds are supposed to be applied. Right. Don't come here, you know, retroactively telling me you gave money to this student and that student. Because the other thing, and I'm going to find the agreement, that I was supposed to be involved. Boom. In some of the designation of this money. There you go.

See? So, listen. This is what I need people to understand. This is not about an axe to grind. This is not about, well, why are you picking on St. Augustine? Folk always say that. Listen, I heard the same nonsense from the dude down there, Bethune-Cookman, when Fisk got rid of their president and I called them out.

The board chair had an attitude about that as well I can go down the line, but then I can show you all these other folks who said man. Thank you There's a show out here That's giving some limelight to the good things and the great things happening at our HBC use and again If you want us to cover The good stuff and above the bad stuff happens, that stuff gonna get covered too. And I had people at FAMU who were cussing my name when we talked about what went on down there

with the band and the food and all kind of stuff like that. But then I had people walking up to me praising and thanking me. Parents and alumni saying, man, I'm sure glad somebody hit him with that light. And so there's a reason that Ida B. Wells' portrait is sitting in our studio, where her quote, you shine the light upon them in darkness. There's a reason we have that.

And HBCU folk, this is real simple. If you want people to stand with you and support you, then you got to give real answers. And St. Augustine's, as you laid out, they have not done that with a lot of different people. And that's why they're in the trouble they're in now. And we ought to go back to the days, again, my great grandmother had been a slave, died in 1916, 112. When I came up, Roland, you know, we were told we had to do twice as well. We always had to do better. And it's a reasonable expectation for us

to make these universities more accountable, especially in the area in which we live. And so there has to be accountability. I mean, there are all kinds of real estate deals that went on there, leases and all that. I mean, I was privy to that, but I was also very comfortable with the leadership and the way that they worked with me about how they were overcoming these things. So I'm not trying to put a lid on them. I'm trying to put a light on them.

Yep, absolutely. Reverend Sheffield, whatever you hear, let us know. You know I'm a fan of yours. You know that. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. And we got to have you back. People still talking about your visit over there. Well, I had a great time when I was in Detroit. Would love to come back.

But if I come back, Doc, it got to be warmer. Well, it's warm now. Praise the Lord. Because, Lord, it was because the snow came down that night. It was cold. Listen, when I left, I was in Chicago six years, I vowed

man, don't go to the Midwest seven months out of the year, but I still had a great time. I was told that not only were you a rainmaker, you were a snow chaser. So I don't know what happened. I can't play golf when it's snowing. So I don't know who said that.

You see, I got my Houston Rockets shirt on. I believe in heat. There you go, brother. I appreciate it. Keep us abreast. Thanks a lot. Anytime.

All right. So, St. Augustine's, get that man some doggone answers. Don't be taking $50,000 and then you don't sit in and give some folks some answers. Man, I don't make any sense. And I'm tired of these excuses. Man, we said there are three things we're focused on. Man, please. You know what?

I'm going to go ahead and say this here. Okay, St. Augustine, answer this for me. Your president had time to sit down for an interview with WRAL-TV? Should I, I'm sorry, should I pull it up? Should I pull up the interview and show y'all? See, this is my problem here. Don't sit here and tell me you got time to sit down with white media, but you can't sit down with black media.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. See? All that coverage there. Don't sit here and talk about how oh, um, you've got, uh, you know, you trying to sit here and raise money and all this sort of stuff, but you ain't got time to sit down with black-owned media.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I said it. It's just amazing how folk want to run from accountability and you don't want to come talk to black owned media that is always

see y'all going to make me let me just go ahead and do this Henry you can go ahead and see y'all need to understand something let me just go ahead and do this here you can zoom that camera out so why don't you zoom my camera too so some of y'all need to understand something. Let me just go ahead and do this here. Here, you can zoom that camera out, so why don't you zoom my camera too. So, some of y'all need to understand,

right here, now I already told y'all all the HBCUs I've been to. So, some of y'all don't even realize, right here, in our, right here, see, y'all might be sitting like, man, Ron, why you got all this stuff on your desk? So, just so y'all understand, cause see, here's always the people got all this stuff on your desk? So just so y'all understand, because, see,

here's always the people who are running their miles, okay? See, this here, this was one of the St. Augustine shirt we got while we were there, okay? So just in case y'all confused, that's a St. Augustine shirt. Now, when I spoke there several years ago, this was the hoodie they gave me at St. Augustine. But see, we ain't done here. See, some of y'all don't even understand, okay? Fayetteville State University.

Let me go ahead and sit here and do a roll call, okay? That's somebody else's shirt they mailed me, so I'll throw that out of here. Okay, what we got right here? Huh. It was Water University. Fort Valley State University. See, some of y'all people want to question, you know, stay right there.

Some of y'all want to question. Y'all think I'm joking. See, I got a whole closet here where all of our HBCU stuff. See, y'all think I'm joking, okay? Bethune-Cookman. Jackson State. Langston University. Florida Memorial.

Oh, we ain't done. What we got here? Winston-Salem State. Morehouse. What we got in here? Uh-oh. Dillard University. Grambling State.

See, this is all swag. I only wear, I wear a lot of this on the show. I only wear swag on HBCUs I've been to. There are 107. I've been to 60 of them. Dillard. Tennessee State. See, this is for the St. Aug administration and board. Bowie State, since y'all think I'm joking.

Claflin, I love my HBCU. Let's see here. Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Alabama A&M. Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Alabama A&M. Let's see here. Again, Claflin. That's a nice Claflin.

With the C right there. What do we got here? North Carolina Central. Somebody actually, one of my fans. 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 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 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 kind of starts that 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 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. fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to asenseofhome.org to find out more

information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. Actually made this for me. It's an HBCU track jacket. And you see they got Virginia State, Virginia Union, Alabama State, Coppin State, FAMU, Florida Memorial, Spelman, they got all of these HBCUs on this jacket right here. Oh, I ain't done, y'all think I'm done. I ain't done. See, Howard.

Shut up. One of them folk in the control room, a Howard student. She always, she always, ah yeah! She loud as one in there. Okay, Gramley gave me a track, Gramley gave me a track suit right here. I got the pants in here somewhere. Let's see, who we got right here?

Who's this? Fam U. Who we got right here? Oh, Virginia State gave me this sweater jacket. Appreciate that. I did their commencement. Let's see who we got here. Virginia Union.

Another Gramblin shirt. Who's a rugby shirt is this? Another Gramblin shirt. Whose rugby shirt is this? Lane College. North Carolina A&T. Who we got here? North Carolina A&T. University of District of Columbia Law School.

Grambling polo shirt. Who we got here? Another Claflin. Let's see here. Another Grambling. But I ain't done. See? See, I need the St. Aug board and its president to understand that we ain't playing games over here. That we ain't joking around when we talk about how we support HBCUs. But what we don't support is when folk don't want to sit here

and give us proper answers to what's going on and when other people are also asking lots of questions. Let me see. More house. Oh, yeah, this wasn't planned, but I'm going to do it. Bethune-Cookman. That's somebody else. Fort Valley State.

See, folks send me hoodies and T-shirts I can wear in the winter and the summer. Who we got here? Alabama State. Harris Stowe. Calm down, Southern. Here y'all go. Southern Jaguars. Let's see. Who is this? Fort Valley State. Let's see. I got some other people. Oh, we did the show at Edward Waters University.

Look, all this about to fall. At Edward Waters University. And so they gave me all sorts of swag. So I got Edward Waters University. Another Edward Waters. Another Edward Waters. Norfolk State. And then the St. Aug shirt that we got.

We were there Friday. I know I got a Clark Atlanta sweater. I don't know where it is. And I might have some other swag in there. But that's what we got. So I need Hampton. They didn't give me no Hampton gear. I spoke at Hampton two or three times. See, I told y'all. I've been to HBCUs. If they didn't give me no Hampton gear. I spoke at Hampton two or three times.

See I told y'all, I been at HBCUs, if they ain't give me no swag, I ain't got no swag. So Hampton, y'all might wanna correct that. University of Virginia Lynchburg, y'all need to send me something too. But let's see here. I know, do I have something Texas Southern around here? Texas Southern, y'all ain't sent me nothing.

I'm from Houston. Y'all. Texas Southern, y'all ain't sent me nothing. I'm from Houston. Y'all should be ashamed of y'all sales. Prayer View, you too. Y'all want me to wear the stuff on the show? That's what we gonna do. But let's see. Oh, I don't have. I didn't bring it. I know I got it somewhere. I think it's still at home. Wibble Forest.

Central State. Y'all ain't sent me. I spoke to y'all commencement. Y'all need to send me something too. Morgan State. I think I got something from y'all ain't sent me, I spoke to y'all commencement, y'all need to send me something too. Morgan State, I think I got something from y'all, but I spoke to, but why am I saying all this, y'all? Can't nobody ever say that this show does not support HBCUs. Can't nobody ever say that we don't elevate HBCUs.

We have HBCU professors on here, law school professors on here, people in all kind of different areas. And so we do this here. Somebody said Barber Scotia. I ain't never been to Barber Scotia. Alcorn State. Alcorn State, y'all ain't send me no gear. I've been to y'all campus, but y'all didn't send me any gear.

All y'all in here, all y'all in YouTube talking about where your school. If y'all, if some of y'all don't see your school, y'all, I show Jackson State sweatshirt. So, Savannah State, I don't think Savannah State, y'all ain't sent no swag, okay? Let's see here. But Savannah State, y'all ain't sending no swag, okay? Let's see here. But I'm saying this because I'm tired of these people like the St. Augs Board of Trustees and their president, administration, who are running scared. If you're doing what's right, then you ain't scared to answer any questions. If you're doing what's right.

I'll be right back. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, I'm sure you've heard that saying that the only thing guaranteed is death and taxes. The truth is that the wealthy get wealthier by understanding tax strategy. And that's exactly the conversation that we're going to have on the next Get Wealthy, where you're going to learn wealth hacks that help you turn your wages into wealth. Taxes is one of the largest expenses you ever have. You really got to know how to manage that thing and get that under control so that you can do well. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network.

Now that Roland Martin is willing to give me the blueprint. Hey, Saras. I need to go to Tyler Perry and get another blueprint because I need some green money. The only way I can do what I'm doing, I need to make some money. So you'll see me working with Roland. Matter of fact, it's the Roland Martin and Sheryl Underwood Show.

Well, should it be the Sheryl Underwood Show and the Roland Martin Show? Well, whatever show it's going to be, it's going to be good. All right, y'all. Corrine Torreon was last seen in Philadelphia on April 11th. The 12-year-old is 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighs 140 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. Any more information about Corrine should call the Philadelphia Police Department

at 215-686-3153. 215-686-3153. No shock Donald Trump is trying to go after his enemies. He's all about retribution. He's now targeting New York Attorney General Letitia James. She's facing a federal criminal referral. The Federal Housing Finance Agency is accusing her of mortgage fraud. They claim she misrepresented her residency status to get favorable terms and loans for a property in Norfolk, Virginia, all while still serving as New York's top law enforcement official.

The FAA says James called that Virginia property her primary residence, but as New York's Attorney General, she's required to live in the state she represents. No charges have been filed, and James' office says this is nothing more than political retaliation, calling it a weaponization of the federal government and vowing not to be intimidated, what they describe as bullies. This comes a day after Donald Trump called James a wacky crook and demanded her resignation. She was the one who successfully prosecuted Donald Trump and his company for inflating

property values to get better deals from banks and insurers. That trial ended with a massive penalty and helped shape public perception around financial accountability, especially for the powerful James spokesperson says she's focused on protecting New Yorkers and will not be distracted by political games from the twice

impeached, criminally convicted con man, Donald Trump. Folks, in Memphis, residents there are complaining bitterly about Elon Musk and what is going on with his particular firm. In a moment, we're going to be talking with Representative Justin Pearson about that. This whole AI, first of all, this was happening in southwest Memphis, okay? This black community, they're on the front lines of a growing environmental fight, and his AI company, XAI, they are the ones who, of course,

he built to take on open AI and chat GPT. People in Memphis are seriously worried about air quality, asthma, and survival. And so we've seen these environmental issues all around. And what Donald, excuse me, what Elon Musk has been doing with Donald Trump's approval, what they've been doing is targeting their critics. You see how he's been going after every federal agency where there has been an investigation of him. So we're going to talk to Representative Pearson in just a second. But here's the thing that I'm laughing about, OK, about these fools. And I saw this tweet from country singer John Rich, and he's an absolute MAGA sucker. I mean, an absolute MAGA suck up. And he posted on his Twitter feed about paying taxes.

And let me just show y'all what this fool had to say. He tweets, it's always been stomach churning, but after learning all that Doge has found, paying my, give me one second. It's always been stomach churning, but after learning all that Doge has found, paying my taxes this year has brought on a whole new level of nausea. He's a moron. You know why? Because all Doge keeps doing is backtracking on what they claim they found. Now, remember they said, we're going to find $2 trillion in savings. Then it's, we're going to find $1 trillion in savings.

Then they said, we're going to find $500 billion in savings. Then they said, we found $150 billion in savings. Well, check this out. This is Doge went weeks without updating its web page. Then just after midnight on Tuesday, it removed nearly a billion dollars worth of previously claimed savings. Right here it says the website is filled with errors, include typos and references to multiple state mental health facilities

as mental health retardation centers. They claim savings for hundreds of individual cuts also fluctuated from update to update. They lying. They lying. Political says they lying. I mean, the number

just keep changing. They lying. Where's the evidence at? Where's the damn evidence? The New York Times wrote a great piece about it. And I mean, they debunked everything. Where's the evidence? Like you said, every time they put something up,

they got to take it down because they get called out on their lies. There's no proof. The only people that's getting rich out of this damn scheme is Elon Musk and Trump and his corporation buddies. Those are the only people who's making money. Everybody else, we're losing. The American people are losing. They're taking food away from poor

people. We are losing. Social security is down. They're going to be gone. Who's winning? Not us. They're winning. And they have no damn evidence.

So what the hell are they talking about? I mean, you know what? Look, I'm glad I'm from the hood. I'm glad I was born and raised in the hood. You know why? Because I know a con man when I see one. And these damn people are allowing for this man to con the hell out of them.

They are worse than damn thugs. And I'm glad that it ain't me. But they are getting conned like a motherfucker. And it's... I'm mad because it's people who actually didn't vote for him and voted for the black woman that has to suffer. They have to suffer.

Yep. That's the whole fucked up part about the fucking around and find it out. Joy. I love you. Political sis. You say all the things that I can't say. I love it. I love it. You can say it. You just don't want to say it. Well, I can say it, but I'm in my mama's house. I'll hear about it.

I'll tell her. I'm sorry. You're right. No, look. Here's the thing. Doge has cost the people more than it saved. If you are working for them, you'll be quickly removing it from your resume. Elon Musk is slowly being ushered out of the federal government because people within the White House itself are appalled at what he's doing.

They're humiliating him. These are not people who are credible workers. These are all the typos and the mistakes and the having to do revisions, et cetera, going into agencies and not even really understanding what those agencies are doing, being met with conflicts from even the heads of the agencies, right, who are Donald Trump appointees, who are like, no, you don't know what you're doing here. This has been a colossal failure.

All it served to do is to threaten agencies that have had concerns with Elon Musk. That's going to continue to happen. That is what is happening in this administration. They're weaponizing government, your taxpayer dollars, and using it as an arm to pursue their political ends, not yours, and billionaires' political and legal ends, not yours. That's what's happening here. We all know it. Frankly, we are getting taken advantage of as well.

That's right. But it's these white folks. They don't even understand. So many of our government programs, they are reliant on. And I think it's been a mistake for us to always talk about people of color and how we are benefited. Perhaps disproportionately, we are benefited. But numerically, they are the ones getting the vast majority of these benefits because they're the vast majority of people in the country. So it's them, it's their neighbors, it's their relatives who are going to suffer.

In rural America, in urban America, it's their mother who's going to have her delayed Social Security check, who's going to be standing in lines when their regional office closes. It's not just us. We've got to stop creating that narrative. Oh, yeah, it's going to be them. And, you know, listen,

I just need people to realize what's going on, Zach. And the bottom line is this here. These thugs, these crooks, it's all about the rich. They do not care about regular, ordinary people, and they damn sure don't care about black people. Across the board, every single group in this country has suffered during the first three months of the Trump administration. And we're not at the end of the first three months. We saw $10 trillion wiped out of the American economy. And our 401ks diminished.

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 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. 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. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the LA fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program providing

fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to ascensivehome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. In some cases, depleted based on what Trump did starting on April the 3rd with these tariffs. And it's only gotten worse. It's only gotten worse. I think 500 million they're saying has been brought in for 10 trillion that has gone out of the door. And so when you're looking at those and all of their unethical actions, highly, probably very likely illegal actions, people have lost jobs.

People are losing. And that's what we know of. This is what we know has been lost. American process and procedures that we've never questioned have been slowed down, in some cases halted, all for the purpose of, they said, saving money, but really for having their hands in the government to make it ineffective and inefficient to then be able to cause a massive distraction when we look at what Elon is doing instead of the person who's caused it all, Donald Trump. I want to share with your viewers and emphasize to everyone out there, we cannot take our eyes off of the man who has enabled this and who has the power to make it all happen. All of this is the fault of Donald Trump,

our president, and the Republican Party. We can't forget that in 2026. We can't forget that in 2028. We have to continuously repeat that over and over so that American people understand that Elon Musk has no power. Doge has no power. All the power they exercised was given to them by Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress. Oh, absolutely. Joining us right now is Representative Justin Pearson. Glad to have you back on the show. Just take us through what the hell is going on down there in Memphis with Elon Musk and these gas turbines polluting the community. Listen, we have Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, misusing and abusing his authority, his power, and his resources to pollute our air.

Memphis and Shelby County has some of the worst air quality in the country. We are an asthma capital in the United States of America, cancer risk of 4.1 times the national average, and over 17 toxic release inventory facilities already. And now he's trying to build the world's largest supercomputer in Southwest Memphis. It's already operating, and they are now applying for a permit. And there's a public hearing on April 25th, but they're applying for a permit to pollute our air indefinitely and in perpetuity. But they only applied for 15, and now we know from work done by the Southern Environmental Law Center that they have 35 gas turbines. The Health Department, Shelby County Health Department, hasn't been there one time

to visit, hasn't seen it, has not notified the public of what's going on there. And they came into our community on the coattails of the Chamber of Commerce, on the coattails of Mayor Paul Young, Mayor Lee Harris, the Shelby County Health Director, and so many other elected officials who were so excited that Elon Musk was coming to the city that they never thought about the ramifications for the people who live there. This plant is actually being built in my community, in my neighborhood, in 38109, where I went to high school, where my grandmothers got to rest their souls, died from cancer, and where my fiance and I just bought our first home. And so it's really personal, this fight. But he's using his money to manipulate people, particularly African-American leadership, into hurting and harming our community.

How is it there have been no inspections? I take it you've been in conversation with the mayor's office or the city government. What are they saying? Right. So the Shelby County Health Director, Michelle Taylor, who works for Lee Harris, has said they are not allowed to require a permit from them until after a year because of an exception within the Clean Air Act. The only problem, Roland, that Mayor Lee Harris and Shelby County Health Director Dr. Michelle Taylor know, because the Southern Environmental Law Center on several occasions, along with Memphis Community Against Pollution, Young, Gifted, and Green, Protect Our Aquifer, Sierra Club of Tennessee have told them,

is that the types of turbines these folks are using do not fit within that exception. They have the power to do something. They made a mistake in not regulating them on day one. And now they're just deciding to continue to go along with what's going on, even though they know better. And that's what's really challenging, because our lives, our lungs, our air quality is being sacrificed for the benefit of this polluter, who with 35 turbines could be the largest polluter of nitrogen oxide, even more than the Memphis International Airport. And so we're seeing that being concerning, as well as another environmental concern is formaldehyde. With 35 turbines, they could actually be putting into the air 16.7 tons of formaldehyde, a cancer-causing carcinogen. This is happening, again, in southwest Memphis to a

black community, a majority black community, once more because they think, as Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali has talked about a lot, that we're a sacrifice zone, that our lives, our lungs don't matter because the profits of this richest man in the world are more important than the people. And we're being told, well, the $30 million, $15 million, roughly $15 million to the county in taxes is worth our lives. So whose job is to check? And do they care, or is it all about the money? Right. I think it's a lackadaisical, callous attitude toward people who have been suffering for a long time. You don't get to the point where a company can come into our city without anyone, without many of us who are elected even knowing about it, because the mayors, the public utility signed non-disclosure agreements preventing them from actually

talking about this project. We just learned this past week from some reporting that not only did they sign non-disclosure agreements, not only did Elon Musk and his company just pop up on the scene and tell us they were in our community and start polluting our community without permission, without permits. But they wanted to tout, well, we're not getting any public dollars. We're not getting any payments in lieu of taxes and things like that. But new reporting has shown they were actually given help by our assessor to not pay taxes. So it's $12 billion worth of equipment. The assessor taught them how to scheme

the system so that they would only pay taxes on $2 billion of that. And even of that, it's a fraction of what they're actually supposed to be paying. Money is the guiding principle, but it's not money that is going to be to the benefit of the people in Memphis and Shelby County, because the consequence of not having air, which is a human clean air, which is a human right, is immoral, unjust. It's so wrong. And so, yeah, it's the is a human right, is immoral, unjust. It's so wrong. And so, yeah, it's the money, but it's not about money for us. It's about money for him and people's political talking point that, you know, they helped to make this happen, but they did not and have not considered the people. And that's my problem. And Shelby County

Health Director Michelle Taylor is responsible for that. Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris is responsible for that, as well as other elected officials. But right now, we need to deny this permit. Right now, we need the health director to go to XAI, to this plant, to see what they are doing, to see what pollutants are being put into the air, and to do something. They have the responsibility now. I can't stop him from coming. That was Mayor Young's job. That was the Chamber of Commerce's job. But we literally have been sacrificed on the altar of this capitalistic, exploitative system just to have a data center take our water, pollute our air, and hurt our communities just for the pride of some people without thinking

about us at all. And this is the thing I'm always trying to explain to people, because, listen, I cover city government. I cover county government. And it's always jobs, jobs, jobs, economic, economic, economic. But you kind of got to give a damn about the health and the air and the water and the quality of life of the people there because that job doesn't mean jack if it shortens your life. Donald Trump and his thugs, they have canceled the lawsuit in Louisiana that's against the petrochemical companies that's in a cancer alley killing black people. They just declared it was an illegal DEI settlement in Lowndes County, Alabama, where raw sewage was backing up into the homes in the front and the backyards of black people who live there. It's been going on for decades and they're shutting that down. So this is a matter of life and death for people of color, but especially for black people. Especially for black people and also for poor communities. So I was with Catherine Coleman

Flowers and Vice President Gore the day before yesterday, and she was talking about the fact that the Department of Justice is no longer going to ensure that people have the protections from having sanitation and sewage issues that they currently have in Lowndes County, but also all across the Black Belt and all across the country. If we do not have the protections of our air, if we do not have protection of our water, if we do not have the protection of our soil, our human rights as well as our civil rights are what is being destroyed. And that's what we're seeing happen, particularly when city governments, county governments, health departments are having a lackadaisical attitude toward the people they are supposed to serve. Look, I don't expect Donald

Trump to like me. Elon Musk to like me. I don't like them either. I don't even expect them to follow the Constitution or the Democratic-Constitutional Republic experiment, right? Like, they don't care about it. They care more about being and operating as authoritarians in a dictatorial way, supporting this technocracy. They got their own agenda. But the people who we elect most directly, the people who live in the communities and the counties where we serve, have a responsibility to do all that they can to protect us

using the laws and regulations that are in place. I can't stop Donald and Elon from doing what they're going to do. But we have a responsibility of making sure our mayors, our city councilors, our county commissioners aren't being bought out, aren't being sold out to these corporations and to these billionaires and these millionaires who are puppeting them around and giving them their talking points, instead of those folks being true to what they said they were going to do when they ran for office, which was listen to the people, talk to the people, fight for the people, and work for the people. That's not what's happening. These data centers are just finding communities that

they can easily exploit. And they're treating us like we're some extractive colony of this country, some extractive colony of our communities. And that definitely happens in Cancer Alley, St. James. And I know a lot of good organizers there. We're connected. They're fighting for their lives. And that's what people have to realize. That's why I am naming names. That's why I'm saying all these things, because we have to realize there is a fierce urgency to protect the lives of people in black communities, in poor communities, in rural communities all across this country that are suffering because folks are wanting to take selfies and pictures with these billionaires and not listening to and looking at the consequences of asthma in children who are missing school,

COPD, cancer, and the fact that it literally is taking years off of people's lives. Questions. Joy, you first. Well, first of all, my condolences to you on the loss of your brother. And congratulations to you for the way that you stood up for your family and the constituents you serve. You are an example of why we need folks working and running at the local level. So thank God for you. So a couple of things.

One, can you just talk about, like, the fact that you're not saying you don't want jobs? You just want safety. You don't want people to die in the process of getting them. Can you just speak a little bit to that? Because there's someone out there who's listening who thinks Democrats or progressives or environmentalists even are trying to stand in the way of American jobs. We're not trying to do that. What we're trying to say is you can have jobs, you can have safety as well. Can you just talk a little bit to that? Absolutely. The idea that there is some dichotomy between having economic justice and having environmental justice is wrong. The fact of the matter is the jobs that

companies like XAI and Elon Musk are bringing into communities aren't jobs for people in the community. We may be the security. We may be in the patrol car. But the engineers and folks that they are hiring are typically people who are outside of the state who may be imported in or be working remotely. These aren't jobs, as you might imagine, in an era gone by where 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 people are being employed. There's 600,000 people in our city. And they say, at most, this company is going to have 200 employees. So it isn't increasing the

wages of folks. It's not addressing any economic inequality and injustices that we're seeing. But we are seeing an increase in the amount of nitrogen oxide. We are seeing an increase in the amount of pollution. We are seeing environmental racism and environmental injustice plaguing us once more. And it's not working. Yeah. I mean, so that is also for our mayors and other people. When you're assessing these deals, the question is how many jobs are going to be in your community, brick and mortar jobs that you all are going to get, even if they're virtual jobs, but they're in your community, feeding back into your tax base and not taking you away with all the money you're going to have to spend cleaning up the mess that they've

made. So you're so, so, so... 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 ban is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. 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. foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the LA fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even

donate funds. You can go to ascensivehome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. Right. And if you are a mayor out there, these are the things that you need more sophisticated folks to help you make an assessment of whether this is a good deal for you in the long term, then you need to ask for it. Not all that glitters is gold. And if Elon Musk is coming to your community, be clean. He does not care about America or Americans. I got it. Political sis.

I got to get this question. Political sis. Hi, Justin. Nice to meet you. Thank you for giving us a great example of what environmental racism is. This is why it's so important

for people. We try to get people to vote, especially our folks. When it comes to these companies, they pollute and they go all into black communities. There's so many studies out there

that shows that we are impacted the most by this. Can you kind of give me a percentage, and that's all I want to know, of the black folks that's within your community or this community that's being affected? Yeah, it's about 97%. So, yeah. Thank you. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you so much. Again, to your point, it's a textbook case of environmental racism. But environmental racism doesn't get to the place that it is without a perpetuation of harms that have been okayed over death. It's no surprise that the same places that are redlined are the same places that have the industrial parks and the industrial plants. It's no coincidence that these are the same places that are educationally deprived, politically deprived, environmentally degraded.

We have to have elected leaders and appointed leaders who listen to the voices of the constituents who are crying out and don't continue to perpetuate the harm just because of the way that things have always been. Zachary? I think it's fair. I think it's also, I'm sorry, Zach. I think it's also fair to say that we are not going to get done. It's going to get worse before we get better because of this administration who's trying to do away with the EPA. Yeah, well, that's definitely the case. Zachary. I know people are going to hopefully go a little bit deeper, do a little bit more research around environmental racism. And so just those watching, you've got Cancer Alley, you had the Flint water crisis, we had the toxic piece, toxic PCB landfills in North Carolina,

and then you also have what's happened with the Navajo Indian reservations out with the uranium mines. I want to ask—this is a question I have for you. You're shifting a little bit, sir. And again, the whole entire village is with you and is mourns with you with the loss of your brother. May he rest in paradise and in power. This is my question for you. Many times when you are working at the state level of government, you look up to your national

leaders for advice and for guidance and for role models. But I believe that you, sir, are a role model to our national leaders who are serving the entire nation in regards to how you can be a part of the minority party, the opposition party, and still be highly effective. What advice would you give to our national leaders, to Democrats who have been elected to represent us in Congress, of how they could get power, gain authority, and do the work of true opposition to the Trump administration and congressional Republicans? Absolutely. So, one, thank you so much for you all your kind comments about my brother. We miss him every single day. And look, a place that you can get more information is the nonprofit that I helped

to found that's helping to lead this fight, Memphis Community Against Pollution, memphiscap.org. That's memphiscap.org. Submit your public comments as well while that's available against Elon Musk and as well against the Tennessee Valley Authority, which is seeking to build six gas combustion turbines in our community as well. Look, to be an effective opposition party, we have to recognize where we do have power. We have people power. You can see it through town halls. We had a town hall expecting 100 people. We got over 350 people this past Saturday just strictly about environmental injustice

and about what's happening with Elon Musk, XAI, and TVA. There's a lot of energy in this moment in time. And the right, the democracy, democracy itself, right, it's the consent of the governed. We have to get the people who are interested and engaged in fighting back in the fight alongside us, which is why we're having some protests this upcoming week. It's why we're going to be attending the public hearing and have hundreds of people organized to do that. Because while I am a state legislator, right, I'm up here in Nashville, was just fighting some bills, fighting for some bills, against some bills. But I also realize I'm a Memphian. I'm a person who lives in Shelby County, and I have a responsibility to use any influence,

any power that I have there as well, to elevate the causes and the concerns of the people who are being oppressed the most. And for people who are in Congress, the fight isn't just to fight Donald Trump just by, you know, talking about it. It's to find the ways that his policies are directly impacting our communities and do what we can at the city council, at the county commission, at the state level, if you're in a more favorable state for Democrats, to resist. And I think that is where our politics has to become much more inclusive. And I mean

that not just in building the movement for justice rooted in love with Black folk, white folk, Latino folk, Asian folk, documented, non-documented, queer, straight, and all that. Not just that, but politically, our state leaders need to be connected with our mayors, need to be connected with our city councilors, need to be connected with our county commissioners in a much more intentional way, because we have to find the places where our power can be strongest and build from there so we appreciate it man keep up the good fight thanks a lot hey we in this thing for a long haul we in it together love and appreciate y'all indeed appreciate it thanks you so very much All right, folks. So a celebrity sent me a video last couple days asking me, hey, I really think you ought to have this guy on your show.

I think that he, you know, we should have different perspectives from the black community. And this guy, he's always, he trashes Democrats. He praises Donald Trump. He claims he's for black people. And I was going to play the video, but I can't even waste, first of all, I'm not playing that. Because I, first of all, he lies. And so I sent this celebrity a note back,

said, I don't platform liars. See, when you make a video saying I'm a race baiter and all I do is say that black people are oppressed and we can't do anything good and we can't be entrepreneurs and we can't be successful, what am I supposed to do with that lie? That's a lie. Anybody who has watched this show, we actually feature black entrepreneurs. We feature black-owned businesses in Tech Talk.

We feature black-owned businesses in Marketplace. We feature black folks who are doing and owning things in the Education Matters segment. We got the HBCU Connect segment. I mean, I could just go down the line. All the stuff we do, we show black doctors and lawyers and generals and economists. We show black people from all walks of life, folk who are Democrat, who are Republican, who are independent, who are agnostic politically.

So right there, I make a click. I'm not going to platform somebody who's a liar. And see, what I'm not going to do is put somebody on for the purpose of getting clicks. See, I was going to play that

person's video, but it was filled with so many lies. I'm like, you're not even worth the attention. But I do think it's important for people to understand that you got black folks out here who claim to love black people, but their real mission is to attack black people who do not support MAGA. And let me be real clear, not every black person who's kissing Donald Trump's butt is going to wear a MAGA hat. See, there are some people who operate under the guise of, oh, I ain't no shill. I ain't no Democrat. I ain't what they ain't done for 60 years. And I don't support this.

And I don't support that. And I don't support this. Then I went to this person, they were just paying, they were lying about HBCU funding, they were lying about all sorts of stuff. And I just made it clear, I ain't gonna, I'm not gonna platform liars. But I just get a kick, I'm gonna go to my panel,

I just get a kick, Zachary, out of folk who claim, I mean, I don't know how anybody in their right mind could say all we talk about on this show is how black people are oppressed and how we can't do things in society. When we got black people on talking about finances, talking about home ownership, talking about venture capital, when you start lying like that, all that does is tell me you clearly ain't never watched this show.

Rowan, you got... Hold on, wait, wait, hold on, Joy, hold on. Zachary. You just rolled out almost all 64 of our nation's historically black colleges and universities. You routinely highlight black excellence episode

after episode. I mean, not week after week, it's day after day. But the reason excellence, episode after episode. I mean, not week after week. It's day after day. But the reason this is important, political sis, and I'm going to go to you, George, the reason this is important because I need black people to understand that when they say

there are ops, when they say that there are people who specifically are designed to tap into discontent and get you to be sucked into their lies, then that's what they do. This person did a whole video talking about when Trump was talking about DEI, he wasn't talking about us. When they mentioned the plane that crashed,

they were really talking about the white woman who was the pilot, and I was like, oh really? I guess you forgot and skipped over when they declared that the settlement in Alabama in Lowndes County was an illegal DEI settlement. I guess they forgot the lawsuit that they pulled out of in Cancer Island, Louisiana was a DEI settlement.

This fool is literally lying to his followers about how, oh, when they said DEI, they were talking about white women and trans. They weren't talking about us. I'm like, yeah, they were. This is what happens when you got this man balls in your mouth. So maybe if he can get Trump's balls

out his mouth and utilize his own brain, then just maybe you can bring him on the show. But he needs attention. You're right. Don't give it to him. But I'm petty. I'm petty as hell. He can get my pettiness. But on another note, what we do on this show and what you are so great at doing is keeping black folk informed keeping our people informed letting them know what is going on within our community example justin being

up here talking about environment of justice environment of racism that is what we do and you have black doctors that come up here that are not not DEIs, right? They come up here and they tell us about our health to keep us informed. You have financial people come up here and do the same thing. So yeah, no, just let him continue to keep Trump balls in his mouth. He'll be all right.

Joy, I just, and again, I purposely, I tell people, I tell people, you don't give liars oxygen. Correct. Look, you have three panelists who are most often Black on your show every night. Who exemplify... 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. 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. 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 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. 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. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care.

It's an incredible organization. Just days into the L.A. fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to asenseofhome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our L.A. community rebuild. It takes all of us. To say so myself, black excellence.

And from a range of backgrounds that we bring and styles that we bring, we're all here, we're all black, we're all excellent. We ain't going nowhere. Damn them. Look, I had to sneak it in as best I could do political. Here's the thing. You know, I mean like, and you're so right. And look, this is just a reminder. Everyone can't get our attention. Stop retweeting these people. Stop sharing their posts. The only reason to highlight them, and just as you're doing, without using their names

so no one gives them extra lift, is to make fun of them and ignore them. Most of them are suffering in some way. They have some chip on their shoulder. And that's not all black Republicans. I have black Republicans in my family. Most of some chip on their shoulder. And that's not all black Republicans. I have black Republicans in my family. Most of you all do as well. But MAGA is different. MAGA is different. We have transcended—Donald Trump is a parasite on the Republican Party, OK? He is a barnacle on America. And so, you know, this isn't about Republican or Democrat. This is about a new cult that he has created.

And those people have been swept up in it. Black people can be as susceptible, for all the reasons others are as well, to cult-like activity. And that's what's happening here. I wish him the best. I wish him some mental health. Democrats, part of that.

Donald Trump is... I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I just sit here and again just laugh at these little folk who just I love the little folk running their miles and they always got something to say. But if you're going

to sit here and post stuff on social, don't lie. Because, see, the moment you lie, you just made it easy for me to invalidate anything that you say. If you gonna lie that easy. Just saying. All right.

Joy, Zachary, Political Sisters, I appreciate y'all being on today's show. Hey, Roland, please let, I'm so sorry, but please tell Pastor, he going to have to go on this too because he ain't getting that money back. St. Arnold spent that money. I'm telling you right now. No, no, no. Trust me.

Trust me. No, St. Arnold. In the wind. St. Arnold going, we going... Let's just say, I don't just go away easily. No, don't go away. You could have told me you coming to St. Nile, too. You could have told me that. All right.

We said it on the show for two weeks. I had death in the family, so I'm so sorry. Oh, okay. But we also put it on social, too. I mean, we kind of... I ain't seeing no personal text messages. Hey, I'm so sorry. I ain't see it.

Okay, got you. Don't be trying to call nobody out. Act like we ain't talk about it on the show. Oh, and I did make a mistake. People hit me up, and I didn't realize I had a second bag of stuff. So let me just go. We're going to have to edit it together. And so here was some more North Carolina A&T swag.

Here was another Grambling swag. Let's see here. This is a Wilberforce. This is a Wilberforce polo right here. These were the pants of that Grambling tracksuit. This is a Wilberforce polo right here. These were the pants of that Grambling tracksuit. This was a Clark Atlanta sweater they hooked me up with. That's Kinesia.

Wait a minute. Hold up. That's Kinesia's. They ain't black. But I did speak at Kinesia's. I appreciate y'all inviting me. This was a really nice Grambling sweater. Let's see here. This was a really nice Gremlins sweater. Let's see here.

This was another. Whose band is this? This was another Morehouse band. Southern hooked me up with this here. This was the Morehouse sweatshirt. Very nice. Very nice. Let's see here.

Who is this here? This is a Wilberforce sweatshirt. So that was nice. I Swore I had a Morgan State. I guess I don't Arkansas Pine Bluff. They banned sent me this Appreciate that this was a Clark Atlanta Polo right here this mile gonna follow photo and follow over in the second hit. We got Florida A&M right here What we got right here? Who is this?

Marching Musical Machine of the Mid-South. Got them UAPB right here. Okay, close. Don't fall over. I got you. Let's see here. Who is this? Who is this?

Now, that was a school I visited. They wasn't HBCU. Ah, Savannah State did send me a shirt, so I'm going to take them off Instagram. They did send me a shirt. Let's see. I think this is Howard, so I got a Howard shirt. Calm your ass down. This was Savannah State hat.

I did get a bunch of hats. Xavier. Xavier gave me a hat. Xavier did not give me a shirt. So, Xavier, I'm going to leave y'all on the list. Well, they did give me a mask during COVID, so that'll work. So anyway, so all the people out there, and I think I just

counted, and it was actually, I double-checked, so it was 57 of 107 HBCUs that I've actually visited. Some I've actually visited. Some I've been to multiple times. Albany State, I don't believe I went there.

I don't believe. But anyway, that's it, y'all. We're going to keep doing what we do. And we ain't worried about the haters because while they talking, we're busy working. And while they claim they standing up for black people, we're actually doing it while all they do is just bump their gums. So, Simple Simons, y'all can keep hating. We just gonna keep working and representing black folk. Folks, if y'all wanna support the work that we do,

join our Bring the Funk fan club. You wanna give me a cash app, this is the way you do so. Use the Stripe QR code, you see it right here. Point your phone to it or you can also use it for credit cards. If you're listening, go to BlackstarNetwork.com. See your check and money order. Please make it out to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Please don't make it out to Roro, Uncle Roro, Blackstar Network Unfiltered,

RMU. RMU will work, but again, Roland Martin Unfiltered. PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. PayPal's R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo's RM Unfiltered. 5 7 1 9 6 Washington DC 2 0 0 3 7 dash 0 1 9 6 Paypal is R Martin unfiltered Venmo is R M unfiltered Zelle rolling at rolling S Martin dot com rolling at rolling Martin unfiltered dot com Venmo is R M unfiltered be sure to download the

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Don't blame me, but for the black woman also. MAGA chose between woke or broke. They chose broke. That was an Andrew Scaramucci quote. Get that on the shirt as well. We got lots of other products. Go to RolandMartin.Ccreator.spring.com. QR code is right there. Go to theblacksternetwork.com. Be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear of the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores nationwide. And of course, you can also, folks,

download Fanbase. Be sure to get Fanbase. Go to download the app, or if you want to invest, go to startengine.com forward slash Fanbase. Folks, that's it. I'll see you all tomorrow right here. Rollerball unfiltered. Oh, also, NBA playoffs start. Sorry, Henry. Your wizards didn't make it again.

But, yo, guess what? My Rockets. First round with number two seed. And we're going to be playing Golden State Warriors. Steph, I love you, but we're going to have to take y'all out. Go H-Town. Holla! Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punch!

A real, uh, revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now. We have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media

and be scared. 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 where the answer will always be

no. This is Absolute Season 1, 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 two 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. We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios.

Stories matter and it brings a face to it. 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 podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the LA fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to asenseofhome.org to find out more

information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. This is an iHeart Podcast.