Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

well flame on prison girls tuning in uh it's pat fahey and you're listening to megatrends pacific coast tv and i'm with my tech producer jason francisco and um it's may 28th 2028 and about five more months to go and uh today's show is I just, I have to tell you that preparing for megatrends is always a bit of hazardous. Before we get into that, all the details of today, you know, please, when you see this on YouTube or on TikTok or Instagram or Blue Sky or wherever else that you're going to see on Facebook, do click subscribe and like and so on. And so I really, really appreciate it. And tell all your friends. Um, I want to start out by saying, you know, that preparing for Megatron is always a bit of a hazard because of things happen in the age of chaos that require up to the minute, you know, changes in order of operations, you know, that I have to work out with, uh, you know, with Jason and, um, and in our hour before we get here, we're like cramming for the exam and getting things, you know, working. But let's start with the news to the minute before we get into today's details about, you know, Tallarico and Paxton. How about that? It's a blue Texas, really? 53 votes. That would help us mummify John Letterman. are we, uh, what happened here? Oh, there we go. So, uh, anyway, yeah. So, uh, then also we have a thing on private school vouchers and project 2020, which is really project 2025 dismantling public education. And that's going on big time throughout red state, particularly in, in Texas, which by the way, uh, Tallarico just demolished all the people trying to do that. And, uh, And also we're going to go into the corruption files with Liz Oyer, a former pardon attorney with the DOJ. And we're going to end up with Dave Lippman. Actually, we usually do. This was what I had originally prepared our today's show. It's this phenomenal book by Chris Miller. It's called Chip War. And he did an interview with Jon Stewart that is one of the great, interviews of all time. You would have to stop it and start it and take notes. It is really deep understanding about the history of microchips and how it figures into geopolitical meanderings in the world today. Just an absolute. The interview is one of the great interviews of all time. The book is very good, but you have to be prepared to read some history. And also, the devil's chessboard by David Talbot. This is Alan Dulles and John Foster Dulles on the CIA and the rise of America's secret government. So it's, you know, that idea of a CIA underneath the CIA has always been true since World War II. So we'll get into that. But in the meantime, I wanted to have a little mini chat before we got started with things, which is... uh, how, um, the, the DNC, uh, in, on, in April, I guess, April 9th to 11th or something like that. They, they, they're, they ducked responsibility on the issue of APAC and they took a very lame position on it. You know, what are they? So, so it turns out when I asked. you know, chat GPT about it. They said, yes, the data shows the DNC and the DCCC are behind, way behind their own voters on Israel and Gaza and Iran. And the core findings, I asked her to do research, Democratic voters have moved sharply against unconditional U.S. support for Israel. But party leadership is still behaving as if the old bipartisan pro-Israel consensus exists. It does not. And the Pew research on it, I mentioned about April 2026 poll, found that 80%, and it's more than that now, that's an understatement, at least 80 or greater percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents now view Israel unfavorably. And that's up from like 53% in 2022. And that's because people now have seen that, the quid pro quo relationship between their tax dollars and genocide in, in, in Gaza and in, in Lebanon and in Syria and in, in, in now Iran, you know, so this is, uh, So, and they're really upset about Netanyahu talking Trump into the war. And then that whole story about is like, are you kidding me? And even having his own advisors say, this is BS. And that is just fanciful. This is his own people in the White House, you know, in the military and his close advisors. And he did it anyway. And the reason why he did it anyway is because both of them were subject to public corruption trials. And that's what's going on right now in Israel. And so far, Netanyahu has been able to successfully duck that. But the Quinnipiac poll, the gap is even clearer, found that 75 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of independents oppose more U.S. military aid to Israel, while data The data for progress found independence in multiple states opposed to continued weapons transfers and funding for Israel's military actions. So why hasn't the DNC followed that? And the evidence points to five reasons. Fear of AIPAC UDP money in the primaries. You know, AIPAC's electoral network has spent heavily since 2022. And The Guardian reported that the DNC rejected a resolution directly condemning Apex influence while adopting only a broad anti dark money resolution. And, uh, institutional donor independence was the other one, you know, uh, parties committed, uh, committee party committees are built around incumbent protection, uh, Keep that word in your back pocket, incumbent protection, major donors and consultants. And hence, that's why they're so risk averse. They're very risk averse for that reason. That makes them slower than voters, especially on foreign policy. But all the real progressive Democrats are saying are really they're the ones really trying to do a palace coup and get Chuck Schumer and all the present leadership out, out, out. All the geriatrics have to go. And there's also fear of being smeared with anti-Semitism. And let me say something about anti-Semitism. I mean, legitimate criticism of Israel policy is often politically conflated with anti-Semitism. And the leadership fears GOP and pro-Israeli attack ads. And incumbent protection also over voter alignment. Let's talk about the word Semitic. Semitic means, refers to specifically, historically, people of the desert. And the people who live in that region of the world. And I get more facts. The majority Israeli-identified population are not indigenous to that area. And thus, they're not a Semitic population. Ashkenazi Jews are white European Jews. And they're not Semitic. And they're people that are not from the desert. And Palestinians, indeed, are indigenous and are a Semitic people. having lived for centuries in Palestine and in the Middle East in general. So the word Semitic, hence anti-Semitic, would more appropriately apply to the anti-Palestinian biased, not anti-Israeli biased. But, you know, again, propaganda is effective on people who are ignorant of history, people who lack a bullshit filter. And so this is not at all to deny the anti-Jewish European discrimination and also in the United States. I mean, that does occur. And I can tell you that happened even with, you know, my grandparents. So, and, you know, my mother and I would be calling grandma out on that. It was really astonishing. So, the... The DNCC's job is to defend sitting Democrats, and including AIPAC-aligned Democrats, and not necessarily to reflect the base. And so strategic denial after 2024. The DNCC's 2024 post-mortem reportedly omitted Gaza entirely. And prompting criticism from Ro Khanna and AOC, who argued that Gaza alienated young Muslim Arab American and progressive voters. And it was a major reason why Democrats stayed home and handed this, you know, Trump a victory by default. And the... The missed opportunity, it was measurable. You know, voters are moving toward conditional aid, arms restrictions, anti-war positioning, and opposition to lobby-dominated primaries, while party leadership is still trying to manage the issue quietly. So data for progress, data for progress, you can go to that, take data for progress.org. also found a plurality of voters 60 percent of democrats believe that israeli government has too much influence over u.s foreign policy of course that's a very that's an understatement i mean that's an underestimate uh you know for megatrends the clean the thesis is clear the democratic base is already broken with unconditional u.s israeli policy The party apparatus has not because donor power, AIPAC spending, incumbent protection and fear of political retaliation still outweigh voter sentiment inside party institutions. So let's take that. And we can do something about that. Let's keep the trend and force the Democrats, force the DNCC, their leadership out, progressive Democrats can't. So this very first thing we're going to do, we're going to go to this Tallarico versus Paxton. And, you know, wow, is this the coolest, holiest cat on a planet versus the Antichrist? Let's check this out. This is James Tallarigo.

Something just happened in Texas. The most corrupt politician in America just became the Republican nominee for the United States Senate. Three years ago, Ken Paxton was impeached by his own party for using his public office to enrich himself and his donors at the expense of the people. That kind of corruption is the rot at the core of this broken system. It's why we can't afford anything. It's why we can't get ahead no matter how hard we work. For 50 years, mega donors and their puppet politicians like Ken Paxton have stolen from us with their bribes, their bailouts, and their billionaire tax breaks. Ken Paxton has gotten away with it. They've all gotten away with it. But that ends this year. in this state, in this race. If we the people can come together to defeat the most corrupt politician in America, we can defeat this entire corrupt system. We can start unrigging this economy. We can start raising our pay, cutting our taxes, lowering our costs. We can finally get ahead. It's time to come together. The people versus Ken Paxton.

So there you have it. As of right now, the polls have exactly even. It seems like way too early for polls to be read properly. And they even have it still leaning Republican. Can you imagine? That doesn't seem like it. This guy, Governor Greg Abbott, And his privatization and Ken Paxton is just so unbelievably corrupt. Again, this guy was they have made lots of money from out of state investors. And property taxes have gone up 75% since Abbott became the governor. And this is in Texas. So people are feeling the pinch there. So let's go to this next one. And this is Texas governor steals money from public schools. And let's listen to that.

So our property taxes have gone up like 75% under Greg Abbott. But schools are shutting down all over this state.

Yeah, the charter schools are being funded and the public schools are being starved.

And more and more vendor contracts. So more and more, to your point, more and more money is going to privatization. Vouchers is the latest giant vendor contract. A billion dollars taken out of our neighborhood public schools to give to unaccountable private schools.

Okay, so they're like... Calling these things vouchers, but really they're stealing money from public schools?

That's it.

Wow.

It's a voucher scam. The second part of that word is voucher scam. Remember that. Because that's exactly what they're doing. And the reason why it's corruption is because there are people who are Greg Abbott's donors who stand to make a lot of money off of this. He got the biggest campaign contribution in all of Texas history. Talk about making history. The governor made history by receiving a $10 million campaign contribution from an out-of-state billionaire, Jeff Yaz, who has an interest in financial interest in vouchers.

He's not even from Texas.

No. And people don't realize, you know, Mexico is corrupt. When they saw Texas, this is Texas-sized corruption. $10 million, no-bid contracts, and it's happening right now in Texas. And the ones that are suffering are our kids.

That's exactly right. It's behind the scenes.

Okay.

So our property taxes have gone up like 75% under Greg Abbott. But schools are shutting down all over this state.

The charter schools are being funded and the public schools are being started. Okay. All right. So it turns out James Tallarico does tell the story about this corruption about the charter schools. And this is just basically Project 2025 being implemented. And they're draining money from the public school budget, the state and federal budgets. And it's going to get this 75 to 80 to 85 percent of it is going to wealthy parents whose children are already going to private public schools with subsidizing wealthy people. And then it's demolishing state schools. So this is James Tallarico telling the story of the same corruption. See next on this next little section here.

Texans need to understand what is happening at their state capitol. A group of billionaires are attempting to dismantle public education in the second largest state in the country. They're pushing something called private school vouchers, which is really just using our taxpayer dollars to pay for private school tuition. They say it's to help working class kids go to private school. They call it school choice. It all sounds so noble, but it is the biggest scam I have ever seen. In the states that have already tried vouchers, the vast majority of the money ends up going to wealthy parents who already have their kids in private school. In Arkansas, 82% of the voucher money went to rich parents who already had their kids in private school. In New Hampshire, it's 75%. In Florida, it's 70%. And every year, more money that would have gone to the public schools is now going to rich parents who don't need it, slowly starving the public schools. In Arizona, their voucher scam is already bankrupting their public education budget. because that's the point. That's the goal. These billionaires pushing vouchers have different reasons. Some of them have extreme religious views. Some of them have an ideological mission. Some of them own private schools that will profit off the new law once it's passed. But they all share the same goal, closing our neighborhood public schools. So Texans need to wake up. They need to call their state reps. They need to call their state senators. They need to call their lieutenant governor. They need to call their governor and demand that they put the interests of students over the interests of their billionaire megadonors.

So this is the message that Tamarico is, he's informing the largely uninformed public in Texas. And they sense his honesty and his integrity here. And he really is, I think he's going to move the needle. So I urge you to pay attention that it's going to be the most, one of the most important racist watch in the entire country in the next five months. Now on this next little tidbit is, you know, this is Mehdi Hassan answering a question, you know, you know, if you're in Congress, you know, what, You know, why are you in Congress? He answers this question. This is Mehdi Hassan. Check this out. Enjoy this.

leading a War Powers resolution just last week. And he chose not to put it on the floor, according to him, he said, because he didn't think he was going to win. So Mehdi, what did you make of that whole saga?

There's a simple answer as to why the Democrats are delaying votes on war powers and dragging their feet. And when I say Democrats, I mean Democratic Party leaders, not all Democrats. I just want to make that distinction. It's because a lot of the Democratic Party leaders, the establishment folks, the heads of committees, the Gregory Meeks, the Hakeem Jeffries, the Chuck Schumers, they support this war. They are fine with it. If it was Joe Biden doing it, they'd be publicly rah-rah-ing it. The only reason they're not coming out and openly admitting that they back this war is because it's Donald Trump, and they know their base hates Donald Trump, and they know how incompetent and idiotic Donald Trump is, so they're letting it hang around his neck. But privately, I have no doubt in my mind that they support this war. They have been hawks for many years. They have been, in some cases, you know, bought by AIPAC is the phrase or, you know, financed by a pro-Israel lobby that has been very keen on taking on Iran. They support the American military industrial complex. They have very regressive views about the Middle East, about Arabs and Persians. And look, John Fetterman, you know, he's been openly genocidal in Gaza. But the only difference between Fetterman and some of his colleagues is that he's open about it. Right. He's brazen about it. The others kind of hide behind John Fetterman, but quietly support this stuff. Chuck Schumer has wanted a war with Iran for years. Chuck Schumer, there's no debate. He was attacking Trump from the right last year, calling him Taco Trump for not being tougher on the Iranians. So it's no surprise that their complaints about this war tend to be procedural. Oh, you didn't do this vote. You didn't come tell us. You didn't share information. You didn't give us a heads up. And then when there is something that could be done, the Ro Khanna, Thomas Massey type approach of the War Powers Act, they drag their feet on it. There was an absurd moment where I think it was the reporter from Dropsite News, Julian, I forget his last name. And Jody. Julian Andreoni, I think it was him who stopped James Clyburn in a hallway and said, what do you think about what's happening? And he said, I don't do foreign policy. This is what Jim Clyburn said. One of the oldest, longest serving Democrats in the House, former member of the House Democratic leadership, kingmaker, the man who helped Joe Biden become the presidential candidate. He said with a straight face, I don't do foreign policy. Why the fuck are you in Congress then? Why are you a lawmaker? What do you mean you don't do foreign policy? We're in a war. It is literally your fucking job.

So it turns out that, you know, that it was... I have to do a little bit of a pushback on that. I rarely disagree with Mehdi Hassan, but... And, of course, he's right about Schumer, you know... But, uh, generally speaking, I mean, people have to realize that the JCPOA, uh, the treaty between Obama and, and Iran, which was in place and it covered everything that was that everybody agreed with, except one person, Benjamin Netanyahu. He was, he did, he didn't want a policy, uh, uh, with between the United States and Iran. And, uh, So I don't think the Democratic Party really secretly supports the war in Iran. You know, I think he's wrong about that. But he is, you know, on the other hand, you know, history does support, you know, I mean, it was the Democrats and the Republicans that have both been involved, you know, with the wars and so on. And this next one is, I want to identify Chuck Schumer and Jackie Rosen by name and shame, the AIPAC Democrats involved. So this next one is, again, by Zateo. So let's check this out. Good information.

We've got breaking news here at the Capitol. A record number of senators have just voted to block weapons to Israel. But thanks to Republicans and a smaller group of Democrats, the votes failed. There were two resolutions on the table, one to block $150 million worth of 1,000-pound bombs to Israel, and another to block nearly $300 million in bulldozers to Israel. These bombs, as you may know, have been used by Israel to bomb entire neighborhoods, hospitals, and displaced Palestinians at will. Very clear, evident human rights violations. And Israel uses these bulldozers to demolish homes in Palestine and Lebanon. They even used one to kill 23-year-old American Rachel Corey when she herself was literally standing against such demolition back in 2003. Now, 23 years later, after even more Americans and thousands and thousands of Palestinian, Lebanese, and Iranian people have been killed by Israel, a record number of senators have voted to block some weapons to Israel. But still, a majority of the Senate, as in Republicans, and a smaller group of Democrats voted against doing so. Here are the senators who voted to keep the bombs flowing. And here are the senators who voted to keep sending the bulldozers. Follow our coverage at Zateo to see exactly what's going on inside Washington as Israel's U.S.-supported violence continues to rage on.

Okay, so you saw some of the, you know, expect Republicans, you know, to... But, you know, there was Fetterman, there was Rosen, there was Schumer, and there's Mark Warner. These are the Democrats that need to go. They need to be out. And so I was glad that it went up, you know, too fast. But you can do your research and do Google the Democrats who voted to continue to allow these bulldozers, you know, and the tremendous amount of armaments that went like that. In fact, people who are witnessing and took pictures of it in video, it's like they're blocks and blocks of... huge you wouldn't believe how much is going there and it's um our tax money within our you know without i mean well not without our knowledge now that we know but in our name and that has absolutely got to end now this next one is again james talarico on wealth inequality And I think this is the, you know, maybe the perfect time. Oh, no. OK, no. Let's listen again to James Tallarico talking about Elon Musk and the hoarding of wealth.

The reason poverty exists in the wealthiest country on earth is not because we can't feed the poor. It's because we can't satisfy the rich. Elon Musk is about to become the first trillionaire. He's about to make more money than every elementary school teacher in America combined. Do we really believe one man is worth more than every elementary school teacher? Why do we have a trillionaire when there are kids without enough to eat? Why do we have a trillionaire when cancer patients are going bankrupt? Why do we have a trillionaire when veterans are sleeping out on the street? I'm all for success, but this is not success. This is hoarding. What leads a person to accumulate more money than they could possibly spend in 100 lifetimes when there are people starving in this one? The reason poverty exists in the wealthiest country on Earth is not because we can't feed the poor. It's because we can't satisfy the rich. But what we can do is tax trillionaires out of existence. And use that money to guarantee food, health care, and housing for every single American.

Tax trillionaires out of existence. You know, Tom Steyer, if you've been watching the governor's race, I have to say, you know, I'm not, you know, enamored by billionaire angels saving us, you know. but you know the more the research that anyone uh does the more you realize okay this guy is an exception to the rule because there's always a rule because he's a true exception to the rule and he's devoted himself him and his wife to giving away all their money and and to i think he clearly is the one that will actually fight against the state level dncc you know that we have in in california the ones that When Medicare for All was on the table through SB 562 in 2016, in January, they were all for it because it got them votes and an image. And then in June, they were bought off by the pharmaceutical companies and by the insurance companies. And by August, the same Democrats wouldn't even allow... a floor discussion for fiscal 2017. And I was at the cap, I was at the Capitol and I was waiting in line, you know, for over an hour. And I had the posters with their faces and the amount of money that they had been bought off by. Is this you? I made them say, yes, that's me. And it was, and they got demolished. And while the cameras were rolling, it was on the news that night. And so, and then, you know, Javier Becerra was one of those Democrats who did exactly that. So he'll talk the talk. Now, if the conditions are right and everything's in place and it makes him look good, he would go for it. He's not going to, he's not, he's viable. He's been bought by the insurance companies in the past. Now, do I think that he could still make a good, you know, run the fourth largest economy in the world? Well, probably, but anyway. Let's take a little break from that before we move on to some history. And I just wanted you to listen to some great guitar, and just guitar and congas. And I have a similar ensemble, but I wanted you to hear this beautiful music so that we can take a little breather, you know.

Thank you. Bye. Thank you.

Thank you.

It's going to be nice going to Spain in October and playing with cats like this in Mondragon. So anyway, yeah, wasn't that wonderful? So, by the way, I just finished recording all of Bach's partitas with two different mandolins this weekend at Bellboy Studios with Dave Bell. So, at the Helms there. And I'll be having that out next week. We'll play some of that. I wanted to go to this. You may have heard of the Tuskegee Airmen. And those are the black airmen who were in World War II made a huge difference. And yet when they came back, they were not recognized for their incredible achievements. This is only after during the civil rights movement that they got exposure for what they actually did. A similar thing happened with the Battalion 671, some black history that got erased. And so let's listen to this. And this is history is a great message, particularly right at the end about what's happening now, not letting history get erased.

In the winter of 1944, something happened that wasn't supposed to be possible. A regiment of black American soldiers held back an entire German armored division for 18 days straight. High command hadn't sent them there to win. They'd sent them there to die. Instead, the impossible happened. They held the line when military strategists said they should have been slaughtered in hours. And when it was over, the United States Army did something remarkable. They erased it. They buried the story so deep that for nearly 80 years, most Americans didn't even know these soldiers existed. This is the story of the 761st Tank Battalion. This is the story that changed everything. And this is the story America tried very hard to forget. To understand how a nation could bury such heroism, you have to understand the America these soldiers came from. For 300 years, black Americans had been told they were not quite men. The Constitution agreed. The law agreed. The military agreed. And yet, every time America needed soldiers, they called on black men to die in their defense. It was a grotesque dance. They were good enough to die, the thinking went, but not good enough to be seen dying. Their courage could be weaponized. Their humanity could not. By World War II, this pattern had been repeated again and again. The Revolutionary War. The Civil War. Each time, black soldiers had shown up. Each time, they'd been relegated to supply lines, labor battalions, anywhere but the front lines. When they came home, they found themselves back in the same cage, the same segregated neighborhoods, the same exclusion. In the South, Jim Crow had transformed black life into complete control. In the North, segregation was just coded differently. And in the military, segregation was law. Black soldiers couldn't eat with white soldiers. Couldn't sleep in the same barracks. Couldn't even donate blood to the same banks. Even blood was segregated. The message was clear. Your blood is contaminated. By 1944, the war in Europe had become a meat grinder. Hundreds of thousands of Americans were already dead. The need for bodies was insatiable. And yet, the military remained committed to segregation. But desperation changes things. When your own soldiers are being killed by the thousands, philosophy becomes flexible. Someone in high command made a decision that would have been unthinkable years earlier. He decided to form a combat tank battalion, an all-black tank battalion. He called them the 761st Tank Battalion. The newspapers called them the Black Panthers. This was meant to be a test, and it was meant to be expendable. The 761st was trained in secret and shipped out to Europe in October 1944, assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. The 101st looked at the black tankers with barely concealed contempt. But the war didn't care about their feelings. By November, Hitler was running out of time. The Nazis were cornered and desperate. Hitler decided to gamble everything on one last offensive. He'd punch through American lines in Belgium, race toward the coast, and split the Allies in half. On December 16, 1944, the Germans attacked. The offensive caught Americans by surprise. German forces advanced further and faster than anyone expected. The Germans were driving toward Bastogne, a crucial supply hub. If they took it, the American position would collapse. The 101st Airborne was ordered to hold Bastogne at any cost, and they were given reinforcements, the 761st Tank Battalion. What nobody said out loud was what everyone understood. The 761st was being sent there to be slaughtered. Military officers had run the calculations. They saw this green regiment of black men against impossible odds. They saw a suicide mission. The real expectation was that they would die. That was their function. What happened next shouldn't have been possible. For 18 days, in temperatures below zero, with fuel running dangerously low and ammunition scarcer by the hour, the 761 Tank Battalion held the line. They didn't just hold, they counterattacked. They disrupted German supply lines. They shot it out with German tanks in the snow. When it was over, Bastogneau was still in American hands. The German offensive had failed. Historians would later call it mathematically impossible. But it had happened. The problem was that it was too real. Too many people had witnessed it. The Germans had been there. The 101st Airborne had been there. You couldn't just make it disappear. Or could you? What followed was a masterclass in historical erasure. The story that spread through America was carefully curated. The 101st Airborne had held Bastogne. General Anthony McAuliffe had given his famous response, nuts. The narrative was clean, it was heroic, and it was very, very white. The 761st Tank Battalion redacted. Files disappeared. Records were lost. When historians asked questions, they were stonewalled. It was as if the 761st had been ghosts all along. For decades, this worked. The American public never knew about the 761st. High school textbooks didn't mention them. Military histories omitted them. And the soldiers themselves? Many came home to a country with no gratitude to offer. They came home to segregated neighborhoods, limited job opportunities, communities where their service meant nothing. They died and bled for a nation that wouldn't let them eat at the same lunch counter as white citizens. The betrayal was incomprehensible. Some veterans tried to speak about what they'd done. They were met with indifference. In a nation struggling to maintain racial hierarchy, stories of black military excellence were dangerous. They undermined the entire structure of belief that justified segregation. The system knew instinctively that it had to suppress this history. It couldn't acknowledge that black soldiers had been crucial to American victory. Because if their sacrifice had mattered, then their humanity mattered. And the system wasn't ready to admit that. For nearly 80 years, the story stayed buried. Then, in the early 2000s, historians began digging. Veterans advocates began asking questions. They found documents the military thought were destroyed. They interviewed aging veterans. They pieced together fragmented records. And slowly, the truth emerged. The 761st Tank Battalion hadn't just participated in the Battle of the Bulge. They were essential to its outcome. Without them, Bastogne might have fallen. In 2017, 73 years after the battle, the U.S. Army officially recognized the 761st Tank Battalion. They were awarded a streamer for combat excellence. It was too late for many. They'd lived their lives in obscurity, watching white soldiers from the 101 become legendary. But here's what makes this even more important. The 761st wasn't unique. The Tuskegee Airmen had the best combat record of any fighter group in Europe. They were nearly forgotten. The 92nd Infantry Division suffered over 3,000 casualties in Italy. Their story was redacted from official histories. The 366th Combat Team liberated towns across Italy and was erased too. Again and again, black military units were forced to do the impossible, then forbidden from claiming credit. The system didn't just discriminate. It lied. What does it mean to erase the heroism of people already marginalized? It means rewriting the foundation of national identity. It means teaching children a version of history that's not incomplete, but actively false. It means saying to black Americans, your sacrifice doesn't count. Your bravery doesn't matter. The real scandal isn't that they were forgotten. The real scandal is that there was anything to forget. A just society wouldn't have had to erase them. Yet invisibility has limits. Stories buried underground sometimes claw their way back to the surface. Every document discovered. Every veteran who tells their story. Every historian who refuses to let the official narrative stand. These are acts of resurrection. The 761st came back. The truth came back. And now, when you read about the Battle of the Bulge, you know there were black tanks on that frozen landscape. You know their names. You know their price. The 761st didn't need history to validate them. They knew what they did. They paid for it in blood. They lived with the knowledge that their nation didn't care about their contribution, didn't see them as full human beings, and yet they did it anyway. That's what makes their story so powerful. It's not about winning. It's about resilience in the face of systematic dehumanization. It's about courage that comes not from expectation of reward, but from internal necessity. Now we have a choice. We can let this story fade back into obscurity. Or we can learn from it. We can recognize it as evidence of what human beings are capable of when forced to confront impossibility. We can ask ourselves what other stories we've been taught to forget, what other contributions we've been taught to ignore. The 761st reminds us that history isn't inevitable. It's constructed. It's chosen. And we have the power to choose differently. The price of freedom isn't measured in battles won. It's measured in the stories we refuse to let die. It's the refusal to let our nations erase us, no matter how much power they have. It's the insistence that truth matters, that sacrifice matters, that every human being matters, even when the world is conspiring to tell us otherwise. The 761st held the line. They did the impossible. And now, finally, we're beginning to remember.

This comment section is .

So that is one of the stories that we've been urged to forget. And truth matters. And that is one of the most threatening things for this current administration. So we're going to flip to this next little story here. We have about 13 minutes left. And this is we're going to play a cool song, one that I wrote. And then we're going to go to this story on Donald Trump. Is he the Antichrist? And so this is the song from Nuclear Free Orchestra, Gunther and the Nuclear Free Orchestra. I ain't your Antichrist. I'm your Uncle Sam.

Hey, I ain't your Antichrist lady, I'm your Uncle Sam. You see me in everything and every damn that's where I am. Don't blame me for being born and getting all I can. Well, I ain't your Antichrist lady, I'm your Uncle Sam. career in vietnam since 1954 cia in nicaragua and in el salvador got a million refugees in jail and i don't give a damn i ain't your auntie great lady i'm your uncle sam Oh, don't blame me for getting old. Don't blame me for getting cold. Don't blame me for getting old. Don't blame me for getting cold. My history's about to fold. Don't blame me for gettin' cold Don't blame me for gettin' cold Don't blame me for gettin' cold Cold, cold, cold, cold, cold Hey, I ain't your Antichrist I'm your Uncle Sam You see me in everything And damn, that's where I am Don't blame me for bein' born And gettin' all I can I may be your Antichrist But I'm sure you're Uncle Sam Slave labor camps still in the south and ghettos in the north. Like to colonize the eastern block for the oil field, of course. Like to colonize the whole wide world, but freedom's in the way. All people are still our biggest problem. We'll have to kill them all someday. Don't play. Don't blame me for gettin' old Don't blame me for gettin' cold My history's about to fold Don't blame me for gettin' old Cold, cold, cold, cold, cold Our lives are getting obvious. The weapons are laid bare. The truth is getting out on us. And the people getting scared. But the threat of peace is on the move. And people still have a choice. Stick their heads way up their asses. So I'm really ready, boy. Well, I ain't your any great lady. I'm your Uncle Sam. You see me in everything. And damn, that's where I am. Don't blame me for being boring. I ain't your Antichrist, lady. I'm your Uncle Sam. Oh, I ain't your Antichrist. Oh, I'm your Uncle Sam.

I ain't your Antichrist. I'm your Uncle Sam. So our lives are getting obvious. The weapons are laid bare. Truth is getting out of us. People are getting scared. But the threat of peace is on the move. People still have a choice to stick their heads way up their asses or really raise their voices. I ain't your Antichrist. So this is the little story you can just read yourself. We're going to just cut to this because we only have a limited amount of time and you can read it yourself. And so we and by the way, the answer is yes and no. But the main thing is that even evangelical Christians are declaring that. But let's go to this James Tallarico thing. It's only 45 seconds long and it's on MSNBC. So I think you'll.

You know, Kemp Paxton has a criminal record. I have a legislative record over four terms in the Texas House of Representatives, where I've brought Democrats and Republicans together to pass more than 60 bipartisan bills to cut property taxes, to raise teacher pay, to lower the cost of housing, prescription drugs and child care across Texas. And I'm going to put that record up against Kemp Paxton's criminal record. any day of the week, twice on Sunday. I've called out the extremes in both parties, on the right and the left. I've called out Ken Paxton for his blatant illegal corruption. But I also called out President Biden when he failed to secure our southern border. So I'm not interested in going to Washington, D.C. to serve one political party. I'm going to Washington, D.C. to serve the people of Texas. That's the exact opposite of what Ken Paxton does. He serves himself. and his billionaire mega donors at the expense of the people of the state.

Okay. So we're going to finish off Megatrends this week with Dave Lippman shooting from the lip, number 80. And I'll be back with about 10 seconds of sayonara after that. So let's listen to Dave Lippman again, doing what he does always.

The war in Iran is only a week old. Or, anyway, its name is. The reboot means Congress is still not part of the government. Presidents who think they can fool anybody by renaming a crime as a different crime are not stupid. They're in charge.

It's now generally known that there are some 500 members of the Fortune 500. It's declassified now. 535 members of the United States Congress. Now, who do those extra 35 people represent?

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has advised corporados like Starbucks execs, who don't want to be taxed, that it's okay with her if they decide to leave Seattle. In her signature deathless prose, she offered her support.

If, you know, the ones that leave, like, bye.

A Russian woman accused of kidnapping Ukrainian children has been chosen to facilitate human rights abuses. Not to judge them. Don't be judgy. This brings to mind, one, it takes one to know one. Two, the pot calling the kettle black. And three, to be fair, there's no more qualified person for this post in Russia who's not imprisoned. In other Russian news, respected human rights advocate Pussy Riot called for the Russia Pavilion at the Venice Biennale to spotlight artists who stood up for Ukraine, or wrote a post, or liked a post, or tried to burn down a military draft office. Ms. Riot, you have my vote. Doge is back in the doghouse. Judge say the Musketeers' cancellation of grants from the National Endowment for Humanities was not cool, but did chill the grantee community. It was also discriminatory, singling out non-white male heteros and DEI grants such as Holocaust documentaries and other such PC shit. Judge also say you can't just abolish things because the previous administration did them. That's not government. That's vengeance. Capiche, Donny? It turns out that Donald Trump, the spirit heir of presidents, created fake companies conjuring fake losses to lower his taxes that we are now officially not allowed to see, ever. Yes, he promised to drain the swamp and refill it with his own superior sludge, as only he could do. However, allegations that his people traded stocks the day before relevant government actions were implemented are fake alleges. The trades were 15 minutes before. Colbert is off the air. CBS has curtailed dissent to get Trump to okay a merger that will curtail dissent. Makes sense, I guess, if you're despotism adjacent. The feds intend to prosecute people for conspiracy if they have organized protests, slightly altering the First Amendment. They say protesters have tried to stop federal agents from doing their illegal, immoral jobs. I might have a dog in this one. Perpetual fraudster and greatest president ever, DJT, has taken $1.776 billion from me and you to pay off his riot squad. And no, I don't mean cops. His private army. Many boys are proud of this settlement. They do not miss the implication that the legacy of 1776 consists in immunity for high crimes by crime bosses in government and their thugs. But to be clear, Mr. T is not corrupt. He's just ethically challenged. Leave him be. He's busy warning Cuba not to repress dissent. That's our job. A California judge has banned Cars for Kids ads because the org scam is not helping underprivileged kids in California, but instead funding trips to Israel for Orthodox Jewish 17 and 18 year olds from New York and New Jersey. The ruling will be challenged on the grounds that Judge Apkarian is a supporter of the Armenian genocide theory. And we all know that there has only ever been one genocide. So she is clearly an unreliable witness. Sorry, witless judge. Now, about this semi-quincentennial thing. Not to harp on it or carp about it, and certainly not to thwarp around it, but the fact is that supporters of the American Revolution were a minority, if perhaps a bare plurality. The rest of us colonizers saw it as bonkers. But the bankers, they saw something else. The financial foundering fathers naturally supported whoever was winning at the moment, as the smart money always supports the greater good of the moment. If you're not an investor, you won't understand their A-grade morality, known colloquially as amorality. And of course, those bankers still rule the never-was-great America, which is named after a guy who discovered what was never lost. But hey, what's a continent or two between colonists? Israeli shock troops, commonly called settlers, continue their rampages through the West Bank, beating farmers and herders and their families and torching their homes and even tents. The Israeli army calls these adventurers a few mixed up kids. In order to unmix them, the army often arrive and calm the kids by shooting the Palestinians for them. Sometimes they merely interview the victims by arresting them. At this point, it appears there actually are people in so-called Palestine who have been herding sheep here for millennia. And something must be done about that. And in total disregard for the feelings of some Jews, Mayor Mamdani has angered Jewish leaders by saying the founding of Israel was on the backs of displaced Palestinians. They were told by Egypt to leave, one leader lied, reaching back through four previous lies that evaporated when their uselessness became too obvious. In alternative news, King Donald of United Statesia has drawn a line down the middle of Manhattan and declared the west side of it federal property, subject to federal but not city laws or officials. It will be demolished and rebuilt in gold. King Boy cited as precedent the Israeli yellow line down the middle of Gaza, which of course was his idea. A rationale has surfaced for deporting migrants from the US to third countries where they have no connections. The threat of such transfer should serve to deter people planning to come to the US illegally, which was the practice of the original colonists, but is now frowned upon. There are many methods available for forcing people whose countries we have destroyed to stay there, and all of them are against international law and also immoral. On the other hand, it gets folks.

Broadway is the only... Okay, and well, thanks for tuning in to Megatrends this week. This is Pat Fahey here in... It'll be in June and we'll have less than five months to go before the November 3rd elections. Thanks for tuning in and please click like and select and, you know, join and whatever. Okay, tell your friends and we'll see you next week. Thank you.

Thank you.