The Golden Dome and the corruption of the US birthday party (05-02-2025--Hour1)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] I want to bring back to the program Dr. Bill Forsgen. He is a military historian. He is a New York Times bestselling author. He's a professor up at Montreat College in Western North Carolina and also notably the official historian of The Pete Kaliner Show for many, many years. Dr. Bill, you doing all right today? How are you? Well, glad to hear my title was still good. Yes, it is. It never expires. No continuing education needed for that degree.

[00:00:56] Yeah. All right. So let's let's talk a little bit about the Golden Dome. So I saw there was a story over at Air and Space Forces dot com. It's a publication for Air Force and the Space Force. And they're talking about lawmakers in Congress are working to inject tens of billions of dollars into President Donald Trump's ambitious Golden Dome plan for comprehensive missile defense of the U.S.

[00:01:25] homeland in the coming month. So first off, I guess the Golden Dome. Explain what this thing is and and why I guess you believe that it is needed. Okay. People might be more familiar in the news with the issue of what's called Iron Dome, which is the Israeli defense system against ballistic attack. The Iranians launched about 230 missiles at Israel.

[00:01:52] They were shot down, but they were shot down in the last second, the last two or three miles. It's a tactical defense system. Golden Dome is a strategic defense system designed to hit missiles from thousands of miles away before they get to the United States. My big issue, of course, has always been EMP. If we don't shoot one of these down and we are hit with an electromagnetic pulse weapon, it would cripple us.

[00:02:18] So I view this as like an insurance policy on the United States to make sure we continue to exist. Golden Dome will work. Yeah, because we have talked about the abject failure of governments at all levels to harden our energy infrastructure from an EMP. It can be done. It would cost a lot of money, no doubt. But if an EMP were to detonate and EMPs occur, these pulses occur with nuclear warheads, correct? Correct.

[00:02:47] Right. And so if you can't, if we're not moving ahead with hardening the energy grid against an EMP, which also, by the way, can occur with solar flares and such. The sun can also do this to us. Then at least this would attempt to to take out warheads before they make it to our airspace and either detonate and just do an EMP or detonate with the nuke as well.

[00:03:16] But you say it will work that the time frame, the window that they have to shoot these things down, though. It's very, very tight, is it not? Well, yet again, let's look at the Israeli system, which is a tactical defense. It's absolutely remarkable. You have short range and intermediate range missiles coming in at thousands of miles an hour. And in the last seconds, they are shot down. I always talk about this as an insurance policy.

[00:03:45] You wouldn't own a house and not have insurance on it. We own a country. We got to start putting an insurance policy on it against ballistic threat. So, yeah, they talk about in this piece over at air and space forces dot com. There's kinetic and non-kinetic interception methods like the kinetic would be obviously like ballistic hypersonic systems that shoot stuff down.

[00:04:13] But then there's also non-kinetic, which would be directed energy weapons. Do you have any idea what that is? Undoubtedly highly classified in some areas, but I would assume some sophisticated laser capability. Yes! Space lasers. Okay, good. That's what I thought it might mean. So I am all for the space lasers, which would also be helpful for like celebrations. We could do like laser shows and stuff like on July 4th, I'm thinking.

[00:04:44] Absolutely, yes. Yeah. A lot of drones up there as well. Yeah, there you go. Drones, lasers, it'll be a party. What about, how is this different than Reagan's SDI program, the so-called Star Wars program? Or is there a difference? SDI, mid-80s, known, you know, commonly as Strategic Defense Initiative or Star Wars. That was a kinetic system. In other words, we send a missile up to intercept the missile.

[00:05:12] It really wasn't going, it was a bluff in many ways. There's a great history behind it. Because no defense system can shoot down hundreds of missiles coming in. It can shoot down a small number until you get overwhelmed. Well, Reagan's system never would have worked. But we were bluffing the Russians into thinking that it would and forcing them to spend more on defense and drive them into bankruptcy, which absolutely worked. So, okay. So this is somehow different.

[00:05:41] It wouldn't be shooting each individual missile down with our own missile. Well, it would. But remember, you're talking about scale. One, three, five missiles. My big fear has always been North Korea or Iran. That's their capability. Against a Russian launch or even a Chinese, problematic. It's just too many. And remember, all you need is for one missile to get through.

[00:06:06] But this is for, this to me is specifically against EMP more than anything else. So, and because they could just detonate all the way up in the atmosphere and line of sight, right? The EMP would just be line of sight. Whatever is over the eastern seaboard would get knocked out. Right. Because you don't need pinpoint, reentry, accuracy.

[00:06:30] You know, an ICBM, those who launch, transition, and to hit a city, it takes a very precise capability, which the Iranians definitely don't have and nor the North Koreans. It's like horseshoes and hand grenades. Just get it close. Just get it 200 miles above the United States and below it. So we have to hit it before that happens. This sounds like a good topic for a potential book. Gee. Right.

[00:07:00] Actually, Dr. Bill has written that book. It's called One Second After. And for people who aren't aware of it, there are now three other books in the series, right? There's the original trilogy, and then you've got the fourth book that is pretty recent. How long ago did the fourth one come out? That came out last year, and as of a couple weeks ago, we're going to start filming a movie sometime in August or September.

[00:07:25] Which is, I asked you this the other day, is this the Hollywood time frame or is this a real time frame? Because Hollywood has this habit of like saying yes to stuff and then nothing ever happens. Well, I think we're past the option hell and everything else. We've already got the producer locked in and quite a few of the people. They're definitely moving for between August and September to start filming. Right around the corner. And can you say where it's being filmed?

[00:07:54] I would lobby for, you know, Western North Carolina. In fact, the director was up here last week. Eyeballed the place out. But most of the bulk of the film is going to take place overseas, either Bulgaria or Romania. That's the place to go. Looks exactly like Black Mountain. Right. Yeah. Actually, there are locations that does look a lot like that. Okay. Yeah, but they have whole sets over there.

[00:08:20] That's the place to go now for quite a few films, especially indie films. Well, and I was thinking, and maybe you talked to the director about this, but after Hurricane Helene, like if you're trying to show, well, although I guess that probably wouldn't be, that wouldn't line up with the storyline because the whole point of the EMP is that stuff doesn't get knocked down and blown over. It just everything stops working because the solenoids get fried. So, yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:45] So maybe it wouldn't be post-apocalyptic good visuals in that regard because of the actual physical devastation. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, all right. So tell people, though, real quick about this book, one second after. How did you get the idea to write about EMPs?

[00:09:07] This goes back many years, back to the 90s when I was in graduate school in Indiana, and we got hit by a massive one-in-a-thousand-year ice storm that blew the grid out for over a month. So that plan, the idea, which made 2005, it finally started coming together. And actually, the book's been out for 15 years now. It's still selling strong. I'm still getting royalties. Well, that's good. I'm still getting more. That's good. Yeah. And it's a fantastic book.

[00:09:36] But I will say, if you are easily anxious or, you know, yeah, you probably want to steer clear for this because the book lays out in detail what happens to Black Mountain, North Carolina, basically this small town, what happens to the people in that town when you shut all of their electronics off, basically, and all of the comforts of life. It's not science fiction.

[00:10:03] I based my book on congressional studies, any number of studies of what could happen. And the worst-case scenario is if we lost our power grid completely for an extended period of time, 80 to 90 percent of the population would perish within a year. I would not want to be in Charlotte on the day that happens. Right. Which is, that's when Christy and I developed our bug-out plan after we read your book. You should have... You've got a safe place here. Yeah. Well, thank you. I appreciate it.

[00:10:31] I think we have some options, and I don't want to disclose where they are because I don't want any of the bands of marauders to intercept us on our paths. But, yeah, we do have a bug-out plan, and I highly advise everybody to have one. It's just smart preparation because you never know. It could be a hurricane, you know, and you need to get out quickly. And so the prepper movement looks at Dr. Bill and that book, I think, as sort of one of the originals, the OGs here, and for, I think, correct reasons.

[00:11:00] So if you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. I'm really happy about the movie finally getting made. Looking forward to that. If they need any kind of radio announcer, I'm happy to travel to Bulgaria. You let me know. Absolutely, yeah. I'll pack you along because I'll be going out there for several weeks when they start filming. That's awesome. That's so good. All right, Dr. Bill Forstin, you can read his book one second after. Always enjoy talking with you, Bill. See you soon. Hey, Pete. God bless you.

[00:11:30] And God bless America. Yes, you too. Oh, by the way, that reminds me. Have you seen any of the stories about what they're planning for the 250th birthday party for America next year? Have you seen anything going on with that? No, not yet. Okay. You're not going to be happy. You being a historian and all, you might want to look into a thing called the American Association for State and Local History because they are putting together the programming recommendations and states are just adopting this stuff.

[00:11:59] And this may surprise you to learn, but they are going to look at American history critically. Oh, God save us between now and then. Yes. So I'll be covering this in a bit. But Dr. Bill, we'll let you go. Thanks so much for your time, man. Appreciate it. Good to talk with you. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do, too. And you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why?

[00:12:26] Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place. So you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check.ground.news slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description, too.

[00:12:47] I started using Ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news slash Pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.

[00:13:14] Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. I do have a couple of tweets. They're Pete tweets. This is from Alan, who says, I read Dr. Bill's series, Dr. William Forstian, one second after. I think they're called the John Masterson series because that's the main character in the book. I read the series after you talked to Bill last time. I couldn't put it down.

[00:13:42] I'd still be reading it if the series had continued on. Right. Well, and this is the thing. The first book, he was only intending to write that one book. And then, like, his publisher just, like, wore him down. Like, over years, just calling him, calling him, emailing, beating him down. Finally, okay. He did two more books. And I think that, what was it called? One year after or the day after. I forget.

[00:14:12] But they're all in that series. And then he just put out last year was the fourth book in the series. I have it. I have not gotten to read it yet. Much like the stack of books that I have, that I have yet to read because I basically read all day long. And so when I get home and I'm trying to unwind, it's like I'm read out. You know what I mean?

[00:14:38] I've read so much over the course of the last, you know, 14 hours that I got to do something else besides, you know, reading. Like, you know, scrolling Twitter. That's much better for me. By the way, Talking Baby podcast, hilarious. There's only two episodes, but I saw it last night. They're like three minutes apiece. They're hilarious. Cindy says, Pete, I heard you mention an organ. Hang on a second.

[00:15:06] Before I do that, that's on the American history thing. Let me read this from Jessica who says, following the Dr. Forsgen book turning into a movie. I love the book. Super excited. It's becoming a movie now. I am too. So I've known Dr. Bill since 2012 when I first went up to Asheville.

[00:15:33] And people in the audience were like, you need to get Dr. Bill on. You need to get Dr. Bill Forsgen on. And so I reached out. I had him in. And great guy. Super smart. You know, historian. And so like, we've had him on this show a couple times doing the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

[00:15:57] And so he talks about, you know, the troop movements and, you know, some of the truths and the myths and, you know, the people involved in all of that. So always it's. And he's done a lot of stuff with him on World War Two. Operation Overlord. We've talked with him about that stuff. So 2012.

[00:16:17] And I think the entire time that I have known him, this idea of turning one second after into a movie was like this was something that everybody wanted to see done. And it felt like he was getting strung along. And Hollywood has this. There's a dark side in Hollywood. And I'm not saying this occurred with him, but I am I am aware of somebody else this happened to where. They read your script.

[00:16:44] They essentially like buy it from you or something. And they're like, we like this. So we take like exclusive ownership of it and we're going to work it through our development process or whatever. And then they just basically sit on it. And then they do a story, a movie, a show or something that is very similar to the script that they just bought from you. And then you can't get it back from them.

[00:17:15] So. Again, I'm not saying that happened with Dr. Bill in this case, but it's Hollywood. And so it wouldn't surprise me if that was what occurred. Yeah, it's a snake pit. Anyway, I did mention the 250th anniversary, the birthday celebration for America. And I became aware of this by reading a piece over at the Federalist.

[00:17:40] I was unaware that there was some sort of a programming recommendation that had been put together for all of the states, although it does make sense because we're going to have a big celebration, a year long celebration next year for America's 250th birthday. Okay. So they created the, I'm going to see if I can pronounce this word correctly. I think it's Latin, maybe Greek, something.

[00:18:09] Semi-quincentennial. Semi-quincentennial. That's what we're celebrating. The United States is semi-quincentennial commission. That's the body that was convened to, at least theoretically, provide national coordination for all of the commemorative events that are going on around the nation and in the nation's capital and such.

[00:18:33] Now, according to Travis Ekbom over at the Federalist, he is a political activist in Minnesota and the founder of MNUSA 250, which is a nonprofit dedicated to influencing Minnesota's contributions to the semi-quincentennial. Okay. So this guy is involved in his state's semi-quincentennial planning and celebration events.

[00:18:58] So he writes that ostensibly each state and territory also has its own independent committee to plan, you know, their local contributions to all of the festivities. But in reality, a minimum so far, maybe more, of 14 states have simply adopted the programming recommendations from a single nonprofit.

[00:19:25] And that's called the American Association for State and Local History or the AASLH. Or as I call it, the ASL. What? No, that's what it is. The AASLH. The ASL. And the ASLH's CEO is a guy named John Dictal. I'm, look, I'm just reading that this, this is, no, it's not my fault. That's his name. D-I-C-H-T-L.

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[00:21:22] The president and CEO of ASLA is John Dictal. He recorded a Zoom presentation in 2021 in which he explicitly outlined the goals. He describes 2026 as a, quote, once-in-a-generation opportunity to critically engage with our nation's history.

[00:21:49] The word critical there is critical, you might say. It's important. When you see, just like critical race theory, critical theory, before it was critical race theory, but critical theory, the whole idea behind critical theory, and I don't want to say critical thinking, because people have an idea like, oh, that just means thinking through problems and that sort of thing.

[00:22:16] But to the leftists, to the Marxists, this is central to the tearing down of the systems of oppression, the systems of capitalism, whatever. It is to criticize, right? To constantly tear down, to dismantle through critique. So critically engage is what he said. To critically engage.

[00:22:46] Which is to criticize. Now, they'll dress it up so it's not, like, America stinks. They're not going to say that, but they're going to, you know, identify some things that weren't so good. And what do you think this means for us now? And shouldn't we make these revolutionary changes like the revolutionaries did, lo, those many years ago? Like, that's the whole focus of this ASLA. I think I'm pronouncing that right.

[00:23:14] He says it would be a chance to, quote, foster critical awareness. There it is again. So when you see the word critical being used like this, that's the tell that the person who is doing it is a Marxist. That's who is in charge of the ASLA. John Dictal. He's leading the ASLA, you might say. So he wants to foster critical awareness of our faults, past and present,

[00:23:43] and the changes we need to make now to move toward justice. To advance this cause, they have produced the ASLA's field guide for the semi-quincentennial. This guide provides five themes around which programming should be oriented. Number one, unfinished revolutions. What do I always say? I quote James Lindsay from New Discourses. The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.

[00:24:12] This is another example of it. They're going to critique America on its 250th birthday. They're going to critique America in an effort to move towards justice. is another tell. Because the issue isn't the issue. The issue is the revolution, which is what the Marxists want.

[00:24:40] The critical nature of the tactics are simply that, just tactics in order to achieve la revolution. So the first one is unfinished revolution. Second theme, power of place. Third, we the people. Fourth, American experiment. And five, doing history. So when you look at the unfinished revolutions theme, it includes discussions like

[00:25:10] how people have continually challenged America to live up to our highest ideals. Beyond the revolution itself, the American revolution, the colonial time frame, which is what I thought we were supposed to be focusing on, like talking about like throwing off the monarchy, the tyranny of the British crown, setting up this system, this idea of America, right? But no, no, no. Beyond the revolution itself,

[00:25:39] what were other revolutionary moments in the history of our country, our states and our communities? Right? So this is induced education, right? That's the purpose of the lesson plan. And this occurs in K-12 GovCo schools and in college as well. It's you, you, you get to the, the examination or controversial topic. You get there by asking these questions

[00:26:08] that induce the answer that then lets you talk about the topic that you want to talk about. Let you frame an issue. This is like, what was it? There was like a math question that was asked about, you know, this family is leaving this city at this time going this fast and this other family is leaving this other city, whatever. And then they describe like the characteristics of the family

[00:26:39] and the car they're driving, their race and all this other stuff. And then it allows the teacher to start injecting the, you know, the oppressed oppressor dynamic into that. The critical race theory then bubbles up during a lesson about math because then they can say, well, they're in a car and why don't they have a nicer car that can go as fast and they don't have two drivers because this kid only has one parent and why is that?

[00:27:07] And that's how they open the door to talk about these various topics. These are activists posing as teachers. Okay. There are a lot of them. I'm not saying all teachers are activists, but I am saying there are activists who are teachers, but they're not really teachers, but that's their, that's their job description. Then there's power of place. Second theme. The only element under the power of place at all related to the revolution is a question. What was happening in your community

[00:27:37] during the revolutionary era? And at first you may think, oh, all right, well, that makes sense. Well, yeah, if you're in one of the 13 colonies that had a city in it or town or something at the time, but most of the current geography of America was not part of the original 13 colonies. So then it allows educators or historical interpreters to shift the discussion away from the founding to indigenous peoples past and present connections with American spaces,

[00:28:07] as well as, quote, the profound and unequal consequences of imperial expansion and colonization across the continent. See, everything is used as an on-ramp to this kind of Marxist ideology, this criticality, the tearing down of the American narrative, of its history, its institutions, in order to get people to hate their country.

[00:28:36] So they want to change it because once again, to quote Barack Obama, he of the tan suit, that you don't fundamentally transform something you love. And he promised to do that, to fundamentally transform America. And if you love the country, then that is not something that you're interested in doing. This is why Rush Limbaugh famously said, I hope he fails. And everybody lost their mind. Oh my gosh, you're saying that about the first black president? He's like, well, yeah, because he wants to fundamentally

[00:29:06] transform this country. He wants to do all of these things I disagree with. I hope he doesn't. So yeah, I hope he fails in his endeavors. All right, so spring is here, a time of renewal and celebrations. You got graduations, weddings, anniversaries, and the special days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime. But let me ask you, are all of those treasured moments from days gone by, are they hidden away on old VCR tapes, 8mm films, photos, slides, are they preserved? Because over time,

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[00:30:05] preserving family memories since 1997. Located in Mint Hill, just off 485. Mail orders are accepted too. Get all the details at createavideo.com. Here's a tweet, a Pete tweet from Moral Compass who says, Imagine celebrating Grandpa's birthday with a presentation of all the things he's done wrong. This whole celebration idea just stinks. Yeah, this is, this is what the lefties have in store for us.

[00:30:34] Using the American Association for State and Local History, the AASLH or the ASLA, and the president and CEO named John Dictal, he wants to use this opportunity to critically engage with our nation's history to foster critical awareness of our faults. So that's going to be America's birthday party. How much we suck. Oh man, this is going to be awesome. Now states are just adopting the recommendations

[00:31:04] from the ASLA, which is pretty asinine if you ask me. Do your own thing, guys. Make your own stuff. There are other resources out there. I do not know if North Carolina has adopted this yet. They got five themes. I went over the first two. Here's the third. We the people. It orients discussion around, quote, who has been and remains excluded from full participation and representation in our democracy.

[00:31:34] The ASLA also suggests considering the questions of who is considered an American and who gets to decide. Again, these redirect direct the discussion away from the subject of the revolutionary era and towards arguments about expanding the voting franchise to non-citizens. Right? It's all directed education, directing the conversations to

[00:32:04] leftist agenda bullet points. Fourth theme. American experiment. It has questions like, how was your local and state government organized? Who did it serve and who does it continue to exclude? Right? These questions are not passive inquiries. They are deliberately designed to nudge the respondent into diminishing the significance

[00:32:34] of the American Revolution. It ceases to be a righteous triumph against an unjust monarchy and then becomes simply a transition from one corrupt tyranny into another. Like the others, this theme is not intended to broaden knowledge of the revolution nor deepen understanding of it. Like, this should be an opportunity to focus all of Americans' attention to the founding

[00:33:03] ideals, the things that are, in fact, timeless. You guys have spent every day of, like, the last 50 years trashing America nonstop, talking about all the flaws, talking about all the problems. I get it. I don't deny that America has faults and did have faults and did abuses and bad things and there were bad people. All of that is true. It's fine. I don't care, though,

[00:33:33] because just for one brief period of time, can we just look at some of the good? Can we just do that? I feel like the negative to positive is way out of whack as a proportion, you know? And if you're going to be the people charged with creating the birthday party for the country, I feel like you should love the country and you should highlight the things that you do, in fact, love about it

[00:34:02] rather than just constantly criticizing every single thing. The final theme, doing history. Yeah, this one doesn't sound good right from the gate. It focuses on asking who has been historically silenced or excluded from traditional presentations. Again, the American Revolution is simply a pretense, right? It is just a

[00:34:31] stepping stone in order to pivot to a discussion about inclusivity or the value of, quote, other disciplines aside from history. This theme, along with the rest of the Assela's field guide, is a blueprint for deconstructing America by delegitimizing our founding. It's like the 1619 project. It's the same crap.

[00:35:01] Because, again, the issue isn't the issue, the issue is always the revolution. In this case, the issue isn't the celebration of America's founding. The issue is the revolution. How do we get more people to hate this country so we can throw a revolution and get rid of this system and implement it with our utopian vision where everybody will probably end up in a gulag or dead? Like, that's the utopian vision. In 2021, many states passed laws restricting

[00:35:31] teaching rooted in critical race theory, as well as intersectionality and similar race-based theories. The CEO of the ASLA, John Dictal, has made clear his contempt for efforts to abolish racialized education, and he's even boasted that he plans to use this opportunity presented by, it's also called America250, that's what they're, like there's a hashtag America250, and a lot of these commissions are set up

[00:36:00] with that sort of shorthand name because, you know, the actual name is the U.S. Semi- Semi- Quincentennial Commission, also called America250, okay? So he's using America250 to work around the restrictions that have been coming down against this very kind of educational focus. This propaganda is what it is. To support this circumvention,

[00:36:30] the ASLA sent out 20,000 copies of their field guide. They sent it out to historians, scholars, and teachers. The ubiquity of the guide is no doubt why states like Wisconsin, Idaho, and even Texas have all embraced the programming for their planning committees. This is a problem, people. This is a big problem. Away from jubilant

[00:37:00] affirmation, they're directing towards compulsive deconstruction. The semi-quincentennial is shaping up to be yet another deluge of heritage effacing turpentine. Public service announcement from me to whoever needs to hear it. It is okay to love America. It's okay to love your country, to love the ideas, to love the philosophy, all people are created equal, right? that we

[00:37:30] have rights that are endowed by our creator, not a government, right? It's okay to love that. You can object to the government all you want, Lord knows I do, but patriotism is cool. You can love America. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to

[00:38:00] thepetecalendershow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.