Fazlul Kabir for Mayor. Plus, Trump, Nashville Shooting, and a 106yo Cover Girl.

This episode... hear from Fazul Kabir, College Park City Councilmember and mayoral candidate, as we discuss local politics, the Patrick Wojahn scandal. Also, in hot topics, desensitization to school shootings, Trump's $4M fundraising after indictment, and a 106-year-old Vogue Philippines cover model.

Follow us on Twitter @TLSLiveShow and use the hashtags #CollegeParkMD, #FazulKabir, and #KabirCares to join the conversation. Learn more about Fazul Kabir's campaign at https://www.kabircares.org/. 

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Transcript

S4E18 - Fazlul Kabir for Mayor. Plus, Trump, Nashville Shooting, and a 106yo Cover Girl.

[00:00:00] Truth. Lies Shenanigans.  It's the TLS Show Show.

Nio: Hey, welcome to Truth Live Shenanigans podcast, social commentary, hot topics, amazing guests with a ton of fun and shenanigans along the way. This week's podcast, many of our listeners are familiar with the shocking news, the former mayor and former guests.

On this show, Patrick Royal was arrested and charged with child pornography. His sudden resignation left completely unexpected void in the city of College Park, Maryland. Today's [00:01:00] spotlight is on someone looking to help fill that void, an exceptional individual who has dedicated his life to serving the community and making a positive impact.

Council member Faul Kabeer will be joining us. Plus we're gonna talk about Trump raking in millions immediately after being indicted. And we're wondering why we become so numb to these school shootings and wondering if anything will ever be done. And then a fantastic story about 106 year old cover girl.

You can watch us live on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Twitch tv, and we'll be checking your comments on YouTube and Facebook at TLS Live show or tls show.com. So those are definitely the best places to watch if you want to be a part of that conversation. As always, I gotta start things off. Introducing you to my amazing co-host.

First up, we have our nature lover, gamer. Rockstar coming to you from Ontario, Canada. Robbie Rock. Woo. [00:02:00] 

Rob: What's up everyone? So great to be back. I have to say it was a bit of a challenging week. So yesterday on April Fool's Day, mother Nature blanketed us with about a foot of drifting snow.

Whoa. And as if to compound it our kites were delivered today. I love it. You're 

Nio: what? Kites 

Rob: Our kites. Yes. We decided to buy some kites that we could fly this spring and summer, but Nice. We got a foot and change of snow, and then we get our kites delivered today. 

Nio: Come on, man. That's funny. 

Rob: But earlier in the week, I, yeah I did have a visit with my dentist just for a regular checkup.

Nothing's hurting her. Anything. And I've had the worst checkup that I've had in 35 years. I was crushed, crushed. I was crushed, they informed me that I have the beginnings of a small cavity on one of my pre-molars. Oh my God. Come on, man. 

Nio: Oh gosh. Really? No. That's why 

Rob: I, I've just had a clean bill of health for decades, so it was a [00:03:00] bit of a disappointment.

Then of course I'm messing with you, but I personally, I love going to the dentist. What about you guys? 

Nio: Love going, I do not love going to the the dentist. 

Gianni: I love it because like Rob I always would receive good news, but I'm scared to go to the dentist. Rob, you scared me because I think I could have a cavity.

I have a crazy sweet. 

Nio: I have a, I think I have something too. I gotta go in and get taken care of. Yeah,

Rob: take care of that. Yeah. Take 

Nio: care of that. Does, yeah. Beginning of a c see, says the beginning of a cavity. All right. Right. Next up, our college student model. Business owner. streaming to you from Atlanta, Georgia, or near Atlanta, Georgia.

Gianni Storm. I keep forgetting you moved. 

Gianni: I've missed you guys. I wasn't here last week, but the past couple of weeks have been pretty steady, pretty busy. I've been meeting a lot of new people and working with a lot of new people.

I've hired some new people, so Oh, nice. I've been kind of having a [00:04:00] social life a little bit. So that's, I love 

Nio: that for me is the owner, I'll tell you. That's awesome. Yeah. good to have that social life going on. Yeah. Gotta delegate. Yes, exactly. 

Gianni: Yeah, delegate.

There's a time to play and there's a time to work. So I just gotta get that concept down. 

Nio: Absolutely. Yep. All right. Of course. I'm your host, Nio Nyx. It's funny, I, I was gonna talk to you guys about AI again, but I'm like, I, I keep talking about ai. I gotta stop. So I am just gonna, and we have so much to get into anyway, so I just wanna wish the world happy National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day.

Ooh, I'm actually doing paleo right now, so I'm really not supposed to eat bread or peanuts because bread's made with grain and peanuts are actually legumes. They're not actually nuts. So, but I think I'm gonna head over to like moms. We have a mom's organic near. soon as we finish recording, I'm gonna grabbing me some paleo bread and some [00:05:00] almond butter, and give me some jelly.

Give me some fruit. guys heard of Polaner all fruit? Oh, no, all fruit. So it's like it's jelly, but it's only made from fruit, so there's no sugar. It's just fruit. Oh, nice. Yeah, it's so, it's like all, all jam. The sweetness comes from fruit. That's delicious. Yeah, that's actually really good.

So that'd be good. Yep. So totally paleo, so I'm getting me a peanut, uh, almond butter and jelly sandwich right after the show. Delicious. Nice. All right, so let's get into the show. As I mentioned at the top of the show, many of our listeners are familiar with former Mayor Patrick Wojahn he was a frequent guest on this podcast and he was arrested a few weeks ago.

And this past week, a grand jury actually added some additional charges. So he now has a total of 80 counts of child pornography. Ooh. His arrest and resignation left a void in my home City of College Park in a lot of ways. And [00:06:00] today the spotlight is on someone looking to fill that void and helped start that healing.

He's an exceptional individual. I've known him for a while. He's dedicated his life to serving the community and making a positive impact. He's now seeking to be mayor. Council member Fazlul Kabir

hey, Fazlul, welcome to the show. How are you? 

Fazlul: Pretty good. Thanks for having me. Thank you for 

Nio: joining us. Very happy to have you. So thrill. So let me introduce you to Fazlul. He's a Bangladeshi American community leader, activist, and advocate for environmentalism, sustainability, and social justice. He has deep roots in College Park, Maryland, and has spent years working tirelessly to build a more equitable, inclusive, and prosperous city for all the residents.

He's been an active member of the College Park City Council since 2011 and has earned a reputation as a champion [00:07:00] of forward thinking causes and a tireless advocate for the underrepresented. He also helps run and manage a local community garden, which I love. Now he's taking his passion and experience to the next level as he runs for mayor.

UL's vision for the city is bold, ambitious, and it centers around creating sustainable and prosperous community that's built on a foundation of inclusivity and equity. So please join me in giving a warm welcome to Fazlul Kabir thanks so much. Alright, so I'm gonna start off, first question I have for you is a question, we ask all of our first time guests, what is one thing that our audience can't , find out on Google, about you right now, if they were to go on Google right now and start saying, Fazlul Kabir.

Who is that? What's that one thing that they can't find? 

Fazlul: Yeah, absolutely. I'm happy to. So this happened actually before the internet day, so, you know, doesn't matter. Able to [00:08:00] find it. So many years ago when I was in college in eighties I used to be chess champion in my college and I

Nio: chess champion.

Whoa.

Fazlul: Well, it is fun, but also I missed classes, honestly speaking, which is not a good thing. My parents happy,

you know, once you stop, right. Finish. Yeah. So I had lot of fun. 

Nio: Funny. Awesome. Actually, we've got John Ashtons online says, Hey guys, looking forward to hear about your vision. All right. So I, I'm gonna start out with elephant in the room, right? We've gotta start out with former mayor Patrick Wojahn's arrest.

I was absolutely shocked personally and given that he was a very popular mayor, that was not unusual for most people in College Park. So what were your initial thoughts when you heard what happened? 

Fazlul: Yeah, I was just like, you, Nio. I [00:09:00] was very much shocked because it happened right in our neighborhood, right in Hollywood College Park.

And we saw him so many years, so he used to be our mayor, and we worked together on the city council for many years. So it was very shocking and , just like many people, I had to process many complex thoughts.

Things like shock and anger and betrayal all of these things. And it took me actually a couple of days to process all of this. And especially the allegations are related to, child, I mean minors and children, and, you know, we're the ones who are elected.

People expect us to protect them, to advocate for them, advocate for the families, and when they see us. Even allegation wise, they're shocked. It's very shocking. So it was very difficult. 

Nio: I'm glad that you, you said betrayal because that was something that I was struggling with because I know I kind of looked at Patrick.

I I would almost call him a friend. And, these [00:10:00] type of allegations they hurt me to my core and betrayal was one of the words that really came up for me. So I'm glad you said it and being honest about how you felt, because that's how I felt as well.

Thank you. So yeah. Now that we are here, right? Can you speak to how you plan to address this issue and kind of restore the trust and confidence, in city's leadership, in their elected mayor, because, some of that confidence has been lost. 

Fazlul: Absolutely, absolutely. It is difficult because trust is something you cannot feel it, right?

It's not tangible things. You need to build the trust. You need to work with the community for a long time. You need to acknowledge your mistake sometimes to earn people's trust. And the trust between an elected official and the community members constituents is no different from other kind of trust.

Like the trust between spouses, trust between a parent and a child, trust between school teacher and, and a student. It is time. It is going to happen over time, but there are a few things I think we [00:11:00] definitely can do. One is communication.

Hmm. We need to be very transparent about what we do because oftentimes people don't. Trust. And honestly speaking, this is a reality. They're elected officials because they don't actually open up, they don't communicate very well. And they're not transparent about the decisions they make before and after.

Yeah. So that kind of thing, if you make communications very transparent and more frequent and make the elected officials more responsible and more accountable, I think that will make the difference. 

Nio: Yeah. That's really good. So making transparency an important part of it, 

absolutely. 

Rob: . So what I understand of College Park is that it is home to a diverse community of residents and students. So I'm curious what steps you will take to ensure that all members of your community feel represented and included in your administration. 

Fazlul: Absolutely. So we have a very large student population and I dunno, Rob, you know, I have a background.

I, I actually taught [00:12:00] at the University of Maryland for eight years. I didn't, know that. been what? I've been in the campus many times. So, you know, even though I live and sleep in, in the residential neighborhood, I spent many, many hours in the classrooms. Oh, idea. Saw talent in there.

Yeah. It's an bio probably hidden somewhere. Uh, so I I I've seen the talent and the potential the university has, the students have. And oftentimes, just like any other college town, there are tensions between longtime residents and the University of students community. And I can actually see that here in College Park as well.

But I think we can work as a partner, right? We can work together. And make both parties contributing to each other's benefits. In the past I actually worked with University of Maryland students to do many fun activities. Things like we, we did Nio you, probably know we did so many cleanup events in the community.

 Absolutely. And many, many of our University of Maryland students came forward. Yep. [00:13:00] Yeah. University of Maryland departments they actually now are engaged in helping one of our schools, Hollywood Elementary School in to run their after school program. And also one of the University of Maryland Students Group architecture department, architectures group.

They actually designed one of one of our parks. So this is a few examples. There's so many different collaborations going on and we need to work together instead of. instead of Fighting each other. I think we should work together. We could benefit more if you work to 

Nio: together to that, to that point.

We had Kate Kennedy on a couple weeks ago, and she's running against you as well. And one of the things that I mentioned was, you know, when Patrick was mayor, one of the things that kind of bothered me was all of the spending and all of everything going on economically around specifically the university because there's strong partnerships between the city and the university.

But what that translates into is a lot of development specifically around the university. And I'm [00:14:00] curious will we see with you as mayor, any changes , one, in that partnership, and two, any changes in any kind of spending or anything happening more, in the communities, in the neighborhoods 

Fazlul: yeah, so there's something. Probably you'll be interested about 15 years ago. Even over my time actually, so I actually witnessed it and I was part of it. The university and the city actually worked together with some developments around the university community.

And part of that reason to build many student housing around the campus, was to have the students live close to the campus so that they can walk to the campus. They don't need to live within the neighborhoods, and they don't only need to drive through the neighborhoods increasing the traffic.

So that was one of the reasons to do that. Now will that happen to the entire town? Uh, may or may not be. There are future developments, projects that are coming up in discovery districts, which is not very far from the university, near the College Park [00:15:00] Metro stations. Right. There are, those are fantastic developments, but on the other hand, I'd like to, mention that, you know, development is not a bad thing necessarily as long as they don't negatively impact the surrounding community.

So we need to have a balance between those two. 

Nio: Yeah, and I agree with you. I really, I don't have anything against the development. I just sometimes felt as though. There was so much development specifically around the university and not as much, investment outside of that area, but I agree with you that the development is valuable and I think it does bring something overall to the City of College Park.

So definitely would agree with fostering that relationship. 

Gianni: question Puzzle in your observation what is the most pressing issues in College Park so far, and how do you kind of plan on addressing those issues? If elected mayor, 

Fazlul: good question.

So as I'm knocking and talking with the neighbors what I'm hearing from the neighbors and the residents that they wanna see Improving the quality of life of the of the [00:16:00] communities. And that means it is a broad range of things. Things like improving public safety, improving court enforcement.

They wanna feel safe, they wanna see neighborhoods looking nice. And then basically like to see what a small college town could be, a small town, could be you know, we're in a big town like, LA or DC or New York or Chicago. We're a small town, only 32,000 people. And they like to see a small town vibe, good vibe in it.

Yeah. So that's what I'm hearing from them. I mean, it's going back to basic. And, but improving on it. So it is, it's a range of things, but it is about improving quality of lives of our residents. 

Nio: Yeah. I know one of the big initiatives in north College Park was the cityscape.

Which was an effort to make, street scape, sorry, which was an effort to make the area a little more walkable, especially in the commercial district of Hollywood. So I know you were a big advocate of that, so I appreciate you bringing that , to the area. I'm curious about [00:17:00] some more national issues and how you feel about those.

And we're actually gonna talk about a couple of these topics later, but, Donald Trump was indicted just last week, I supposed to be arrested this upcoming week. What are your thoughts on him, first of all, and were you excited or happy that he was arrested? Or is it just one of those things where you're like you know, another day in the world of Donald Trump.

Right. 

Fazlul: Interesting questions. So based on what I have seen in my 12 years of City Council life we don't get into national politics too much. We are very hyper local people. That doesn't mean that we don't follow them. We do encourage people to discuss this kind of thing.

And I've seen people from both sides you know, they are very much engaged. Our campaigns are very non-partisan. You know, we don't run on vertical platforms and Democratic party or [00:18:00] Republican party which is actually kind of good thing. Because sometimes people just vote on the party affiliation, which doesn't happen in college party.

People vote on people's agenda. Yeah. Not necessarily. And other things That a good Yeah. Do respect. It was a 

Nio: good, you did good. You did good. Good. So I'm not gonna push it. So let me just ask this though, because we are always big on local politics in some ways being more important than, you know, national politics simply because your improving your neighborhood, your area, your city, your state, and then everything flows up.

So ground roots is kind of good. So we are really big on that. But we have another topic that we're gonna talk about, and I'd like to get your thoughts on the school shooting in Nashville. Yeah, that's awful. And school shootings in general, because, you know, we have a local elementary school here , in Hollywood.

Yeah, 

Fazlul: we have Hollywood Elementary School, 400 students. I was there actually just three weeks ago in front of about 80 [00:19:00] students in a gymnasium. I was asked to talk about an essay. They're asked to write. 

And I can think of someone coming into the gym and randomly shooting those kids. I mean, that's, that would be terrible. Yeah, because I mean, those, they're very innocent people, very ent faces, young people yeah. I, anyway, I, I don't think anyone will find anywhere that would be supporting mass shooting.

I mean, this is awful. 

Nio: And I, well, what can we do about it? , how can we solve this issue? Yeah. I mean, are, is there anything we can do locally or you can do locally as a mayor that, to kind of ensure that this doesn't happen when, when we're talking advocacy, what can we do?

I feel power powerless. I'm gonna be honest. I feel powerless and it bothers me. You're right. So I'm curious. 

Fazlul: Me too. What can we do? Me, me too. And one thing we, we sometimes, often do, we do advocate as you're saying we advocate to our estate and the county and sometimes our congressman and women. And that's definitely should be doing.

I mean, one thing we should be definitely looking into the types of arms that people [00:20:00] actually use are allowed to use, are allowed to buy. We are not in the war zone. I mean, I know there is a second amendment a right to bear arms. That's the constitution.

But on the other hand, what kind of arms people can bear, that's the questions we should be asking ourselves. 

Nio: Right. Out of curiosity, would you support, uh, amendment change? 

Fazlul: I mean, to keep our. People safe, keep our children safe. Definitely. I mean, anything we should be doing, we should be doing, right?

Nio: Yep. 

Rob: , I'm curious what your plan for attracting and retaining businesses in College Park and how you plan to foster economic development in the city. 

Nio: Man, that should have been something I asked. Ooh, that's a good question.

Should have been the first question I asked. You know, cause my wife has a in College Park. We're good. Please answer that question. 

Fazlul: I love that question. Sorry. Glad you asked Rob. I know you live in Toronto. Sorry. close the Toronto, and you know, if you ever wanna come to college for [00:21:00] be my guest, I can actually fly in from Pearson's airport

Nio: knows they're Canada, huh? 

Fazlul: Yeah, Nio you probably know how passionate I am about the small businesses. Mm-hmm. Uh, I back about 2020 17, I started the business, small business award program and Mels and your fitness studio actually received the best business in College Park.

The, that award. 

Nio: Yeah. Thank you. 

Fazlul: Yes. So back to attracting new developments and, small businesses, I think we are lacking something in College Park. We are not actually doing something that other Townsend and jurisdictions are actually. We don't really currently, but this is going to happen.

We don't have a program to attract and retain new businesses from outside of the city, also from inside the city. We do have talent inside College Park. You know, people wants to contribute to the college park. They want to set up new businesses, but they don't [00:22:00] have the support or the funding to do that.

The fitness business. Right. That was Mel and Nio. You are local. You are not only the business owners, but also your residents. So we need to support people like you. Yeah. But we do not have that kind of programs now. But this is something just three weeks ago we have been talking about this is coming business incentive program for small businesses to attract new businesses.

And also retain them as we can. 

Nio: Yeah, and I like the fact that you pointed out the fact that we are residents of College Park and, having residents of College Park, then opening business in College Park is a huge value just to let you know, when we were looking to open up, we looked at a lot of different things.

We researched, we did our business plan and so we did a lot of research on where to go and we wanted to open in College Park, but we had looked at opportunities in nearby areas that were more fitness related that, had a better fitness crowd that we could attract.

And we were looking mostly in [00:23:00] nearby Montgomery County. And, that doesn't help College Park and it doesn't really help our neighborhoods. So Melissa made a conscious decision to say, Let's stay here in College Park. And we did receive a lot of support from city Council and it was really valuable to us.

And then even through the pandemic there were grants that were provided by the city to help keep the business going. And they were invaluable. If we did not have those grants from the city, we would've had to close down. Honestly. It's good to know. Yeah. So yeah, supporting small businesses I hope that is a major thing that you focus on.

Yeah, 

Gianni: I'm all about purpose and then I'm also all about following what you feel called to do. what inspired you to run for mayor of College Park, and what's like your primary vision or your goal for. Becoming mayor.

Fazlul: Thank you. Very glad you asked it. So [00:24:00] when this incident happened, Neo, it happened March 2nd, right? The, I think that's right. Mm-hmm. Just a month ago. And when this happened, I actually wasn't thinking to run, honestly speaking in the first three, four days or days of shocks.

 But then I started getting calls from neighbors and I got dozens of dozen of calls, run, run, run. So that made me run. But also I was thinking that is an opportunity for me to see so many neighbors to meet with them because Nio, you know that I've been in district one in North College Park for so many years now.

I've been campaigning here, but I never had a chance to meet other neighbors in other districts throughout the city. I'm really enjoying every moment of it. So that's one of the reasons I'm running. to answer your question, what would be , my first goal if I get elected?

So one of the things definitely as a new mayor, I think what I should be doing to bring the community together, the community is still hurting. I mean, that is still in shock. They're going through a healing process, a painful process, [00:25:00] and it'll take some time. But there, as a leader of the community, I think we have a job to take this community from this healing process into a state of stronger position.

Because we are a strong community and we'll come out very strong, what happened is just by one individual. But we are a community of 32,000 people, let's say we're stronger than, so we'll come out very strong and resilient in the end. 

Nio: Yeah, , there's a question online from Jacqueline Robinson and she says, how does your platform differ from your opponents?

And I know that you're up against Kate Kennedy who we had two weeks ago, and then Denise Mitchell who we're trying to get on this show as well. Are there any other candidates at this point?

Fazlul: So far c of us, the deadline is , April 5th.

So there could be more, 

Nio: there could be more in a couple days. So I'm curious know, I know all three of you guys, and I'm curious what makes you different than Kate and Denise. 

Fazlul: glad you asked this question. Good question. Morning. I was depending on LA [00:26:00] history and a couple actually asked exactly the same question.

 I just point out two things like I'll. I'm a hyper local guy. You know me. Yes. You know, I, I'd really love to work with the community. I, yes, love to in touch with the community, getting their inputs and getting things done. You know, I'm a, like a armchair activist or that kind of stuff.

I'm, I love sneaker than armchairs, right? So I like to talk to the people and get their input and getting things solved. And I'm action oriented person, so you'll see me very active, whether in person on the streets, on your beautiful lawn or on, social media anywhere you'll be seeing as you see now on that's the reason I'm blogging every day because I like that connection 

so that's one difference actually, I feel passionate about that. I'll be doing definitely more. The other things I'll be bringing is the transparency. Everything happens in the city council. Every decision is made. I'll definitely like to get communities input more and more , because [00:27:00] it is important to get the community's input because they're the taxpayers and it is important for us to spend their tax dollars the way they want to,

So these are the two things that you will see the difference. I'm not saying my other colleagues will not be doing anything. I have a lot of respect for them. 

Nio: Okay. I love that. Thank, I love that. But fortunately we are out of time, so we're running short on time. So let me just ask you this. So what message do you have for the residents of College Park? What do you wanna leave our audience with?

 And then also let them know how they can support you. I know you have ka cares.org, just final message, if you don't mind. 

Fazlul: Thank you. Thank you. So on May 6th. I think our residents have an opportunity a choice to make.

If the next mayoral college park would be working hard to improve the quality of life their neighborhoods and their communities. And they will be bringing more transparencies and more accountability from the city government to them and to build the trust.

And there is a lack of trust [00:28:00] right now. And to grow that city, grow the city responsibly because we need to grow the city because we need to have larger tax base so then it can roll out more programs and amenities and services for our residents. We definitely do not like to raise taxes from our residents.

So we like to generate revenues in other ways from responsible smart development. So that is something I'll be definitely be working on. If you wanna support me again, you already mentioned cares.org. This is the blog site. I've been writing since 2009. There are now 48 hundred posts maybe. Yeah.

So every day I write about it. Please go and check. And , there are links, how to volunteer, how to donate we'll make it happen together. 

Nio: It's a great site too. It's very valuable in terms of keeping me up to date on what's happening locally. So it's almost like a news blog.

It's actually pretty awesome. All right. Thank you so much. I thank you so much for joining us and spending this time with us. I wish you the best of luck as well, so you're a [00:29:00] fantastic candidate and I'm glad that you chose to run. So thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate it. Excellent. Having, thank you.

Nice. Yeah, very great. Great energy. 

Rob: Great 

Nio: energy. Yes. Oh yeah, . Mm-hmm. Yeah, Fazlul is great. As I said earlier, as I said to him, I it's a struggle for me to kind of choose. Because Kate Kennedy's fantastic. Fazlul fantastic. Really tough as a resident.

See, and as 

Rob: a voter, that's a great position to be in because you're typically, you find yourself going, am I gonna vote for bozo number one? Bozo number two. That's 

Nio: a great point. That's a great point. Yeah. We actually have to, that's a good position to be in, Nio pretty good options, which is actually a really good thing.

All right. You're lucky. Yeah. Yeah. It's rare. It's very rare. All, let's get into some of these hot topics. Let's go shenanigans. All right, Gianni, another senseless [00:30:00] shooting. When is it gonna stop Gianni? 

Gianni: Hopefully soon. On March 27th, a mass school shooting took place at a private elementary school called the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.

The shooter , bought seven firearms, but he did only use three during the attack. It took police from the moment that they received a call that there was an active shooter 14 minutes for them to shoot audrey Hale, 

 The mass shooting is just one of 130 shootings that's happened in just this year alone in the us. 

So do you think school and mass shootings in the United States um, impact our psychological wellbeing and people's emotional reaction to these type of tragedies? 

Rob: this is a tragedy that should trigger outrage in your social fabric. It's deplorable and sad that school shootings in the US have become a common occurrence.

You have Tennessee lawmakers that are working to ban books, drag shows, remove c r t from schools, introduce vague language and their [00:31:00] definition of merits that allows officials to refuse to marry certain people. They systematically loosened gun restrictions in the state. And when I heard Tim Burch's comments about this Tennessee Republican representative, Three precious little kids have lost their lives, and I believe three adults, I believe, and the shooter, of course lost their life too.

So it's a horrible, horrible situation and we're not gonna fix it. I have news for you, Tim. It's your job to fix it. You have an obligation to provide a safe society for all your constituents. And the solution isn't more guns. It isn't to loosen gun restrictions with laws that allow open carry without a permit, and the ability to carry guns in public parks, restaurants, college campuses.

Your Second amendment. Gun rights put people at risk and more guns in the hands of the people leads to more gun violence. Americans have become blase to this type of tragedy and the rest of the world just [00:32:00] can't believe that this is ongoing. 

Nio: Yeah, I'm frustrated with the sense of numbness that we're kind of feeling about it, .

It's literally every week we hear another shooting, another mass shooting. And every other week it's a mass shooting at a school. And I think we as a society have just become so numb that nothing's ever gonna get done. When we're talking to Fazlul, I feel powerless. You know, what can I do?

There's nothing I can do. What can I do? I can talk to Fazlul and he becomes mayor. And then what? What happens? I go talk to my representative, they go on the Senate floor and then they debate about it. And then what? Nothing. I can tell my president, my president has no power because the 

senate and the Congress can't figure anything out. And then, when we talk about this numbness , it's just, we just gotten used to it. . You know, there's typically when, when something happens to a child, like for example, Patrick, there's this [00:33:00] outrage, anger, sadness, , because, it reflects our innate sense of empathy and compassion that we have, particularly towards children.

Right. And yeah, because they're vulnerable, we have that motherly, fatherly instinct to protect children. And what I'm seeing now is that's like disappearing. It's dissipating, ha. Have you ever seen those movies where they have like a child on a farm as , like a pet pig or Chicken?

Chicken And then the farmer dad makes them watch as he slaughters it for food, Oh, yeah. I mean, this happens in real life. But there's movies, there's shows about it the kid even named the chicken, and and then they cut the chicken's head off in front of the kid.

And the kid is shocked or sad or but over time with repeated exposure, the child becomes desensitized with experience and it just becomes part of normal farm life to them, and that's, in a way, I think what's happening to some of us. It's in the news every single week, and I think some of us are just looking at it like, okay, this is just normal now, and we've gotta, we gotta fight that [00:34:00] urge to become desensitized.

We can't let this become normalized. These are children. 

Rob: , I'm just saying it, it is normalized in the us Nio, because Yeah it's clear. It's clear that it's normalized. If you look at just the sheer number of mass shootings, like G Gina, uh, Gianni was saying, you know, 130 for the year already, 6 47 last year I think it was.

So you're trending to match 2022. But yeah, and that's it. It's the frequency of it. It's, and I appreciate what you're saying about children Neo, but these are just victims that are caught up in somebody's destructive path, I think of, yeah. Even like that country concert in Vegas a couple years ago where, a hundred and some people got shot when someone, I think it was Mandalay.

Where he just opened up. I'm like, I'm sorry. You're going to see a concert. You're going to see, have a good time with your friends, have a couple of drinks. You're not [00:35:00] expecting to have to huddle in fear of your life and the person 

Nio: next to you, the F b I just released some information about that too, where the reason he went crazy was because he lost a ton of money in Vegas.

That was the reason he decided to go shoot people. Mental illness I don't know if that's mental illness. I think it's a number of factors to these mass shootings. 

Gianni: If you think about it, just kind of like, Our mind just kind of subdued tragedy or something. Because I feel like when the first mass shooting happened, , we didn't do anything about gun reform.

So we just kind of didn't expect anything to ever get done. So we are just, we are in the normalizing of it. So maybe be more aware of how media and how these stories are affecting us and how we are desensitized.

It's not to put on an act and, and act like you care and oh, boohoo these children, but it's like, wait, these are children. How do I get back to that humanity? Like where is that? Where does, where is the feeling, the love? I don't know. I think that's hard to ask for people to bring out of them, but I do [00:36:00] think it's something we need to start conversing on because we have all of the solutions.

We can talk all logical, all day long, but when we talk about. The reality of it. We need people that care so that this can even get solved. If nobody cares, this isn't gonna get solved. 

Nio: So comments online, Mike Winter says, that's not the reason he shot people. Talking about the Las Vegas shooter.

He says that it's because he had easy access to guns and he had a serious pathology. Mm-hmm. In addition to losing money. That was his reasoning. was the trigger. That was the trigger. 

Rob: That's, that's a better access to guns in the trigger access to guns in the pathology. Mike's 100% 

Nio: correct. Is the reason.

Yep. Mm-hmm. He also says lack of empathy is the biggest problem in this country. Broken people in leadership think that it's a good thing to not teach kids empathy. DeSantis is on top of that list. Good point. Sure is. Um, Jose says how many more people, how many more children need to be killed until something's done?

This is absurd. [00:37:00] Jacqueline Robinson says, Tennessee's trash legislator. Made it clear that he intends to do nothing after all. His crotch fruit are homeschooled, crotch fruit. Kidding. Oh my goodness. We, we need training and licensing to do someone's hairs, nails, and drive a car. But several states have made it easier for people to obtain weapons.

It's crazy. All right. Is this truth? Lies? Shenanigans. Lies shenanigans. Shenanigans. 

Rob: Big shenanigans. 

Nio: It's 

Gianni: also shenanigans because the gun reform, 

Nio: you need to get some stuff done. Man, I, I'm, I'm really frustrated. I don't even know what, you know, we talk about on this show, we try to bring awareness to it.

We've been trying to do that for three years, . And, you know, what else can we do? It's so frustrating to me. We've even talked to politicians and people that can possibly do something [00:38:00] and still it's still not happening. All right, so let's get into our next topic.

Truth lies, shenanigans. All right, well, you'll never guess who we're talking about. Again. Donald J. Trump, boy, he's finally been indicted on a slew of charges related to his business dealings and falsifying business records. But at the heart of the issue, it's the fact he couldn't keep his little hands off Stormy Daniels and got his fixer turned enemy, Michael Cohen, to pay her off.

So yeah, the great pumpkin is gonna be arrested. got indicted, but a But what got me. He is reading through all these articles according to n b NBC news, Trump managed to raise a staggering 4 million in the 24 hours after he was indicted. I mean, that's like winning the lottery, getting struck by lightning at the same time.

So I, I need to know is getting [00:39:00] arrested actually good for him or is it time for to trade in that MAGA cap for his fancy orange jumpsuit? Don't you start us off Gianni. 

Gianni: No that's a good question, Nio because I do think that I personally don't think Trump will go to jail and I say that lightly cuz I know he has 1,000,010 reasons to and all of the right charges.

And the insurrection in January sixth, that's not just including that. Literally his whole rap sheet during his time in office. So I think it's a strong possibility for him to go in jail. But I don't think we're gonna see like the whole we might see a mugshot, but we might not see him get like down in cuffs or anything like 

Nio: that.

This, he probably won't be in cuffs, but he will have the mugshot, he will be processed, um, but he probably won't be in cuffs. They're not gonna put him in cuffs. 

Gianni: Okay. The infamous Trump now. Um, I think that this definitely helped him in a sense, but I remember reading in the article it said that before [00:40:00] that, that he wasn't receiving so much funding for his campaign for presidency.

This kind of like kickstarted it. Maybe people like the drama of it all. I'm sick of it. Yeah. 

Nio: I'm sick of it. I'm with you. Yeah. I just wanna point out quick comment. Mike Winter said the leader of your favorite university is so tired, Mike Winters. He won't let me lay that down.

Rob: Uh, no that's as far as whether or not this indictment's good for him or not. I don't think that being indicted is good for anybody. Because at the end of the day, I think that this is going to cause some of his more moderates to maybe break free of the cause. This will give them an opportunity to, whereas the Sicko fans have displayed what they're willing to do.

I mean, to raise that kind of money in 24 hours displays that he is the puppet master. When he pulls the strings, they dance like Johnny. I don't think that he's going to jail even if he is found guilty, because it would be a really bad look on the US if he [00:41:00] goes down. I think that it would look more like house arrest finds or Biden even commuting the sentence.

But overall, I see this as being a good thing because this is how the American judicial system should work. Person is tried and have convicted their sentence.

American justice is supposed to be blind. There isn't a two-tier level of justice on paper. There's one level of justice for the wealthy, the well-connected, or any of the common people. Justice should be handed out impartially. And I hope that this is what we're going 

Nio: to see. Yeah, and I agree with Rob. I don't think he'll be convicted or if he is convicted, it'll be like a commuted sentence or it'll be something very minor or minor fine or whatever it is.

I don't think he'll be in jail. But. As far as running for president, I think this helps him if he gets off completely. But if he is convicted okay, so there's no federal laws preventing anyone from being president after they've been [00:42:00] convicted. There's nothing in the Constitution. So he can go to jail and then be convicted of murder and still run for president and win.

The thing is, there are some states that if you've been convicted of a crime, you can't be on the ballot. So that may prevent him from actually winning the election if he is convicted ultimately. Oh, okay. Okay. That's something that is hopeful to look forward to. That's interesting that at least if he gets convict.

He won't be on some states ballots. And the weird thing was, most of those states that I was seeing on the list were red states, which is an interesting thing. It's like Texas, Virginia Virginia's more of a purple state, and there's a few other red states that were there.

But anyway, irony. Hopefully he gets convicted and we don't have to worry about him becoming president. Hopefully he's jail during the time that he's running. But I agree with you. He'll probably commuted anyway. All right, so let's get to these comments online.

[00:43:00] Jack Robinson says he's a consummate con man, a cult leader. He plays into their sense of victimhood. His marks are beyond stupid at this point. Not once has it occurred to them to ask why a supposed billionaire needs money.

Right. I'm sick of him and them like winter. You should have taken that tidbit to the grave, sir. Talking about the fact that I actually joined Trump University well over a decade ago.

Alright, Jacqueline Robinson's last comment is the way the Law and Order Bunch is reacting. One would think it's an outrage to have a criminal actually charged with a crime. That's crazy. Is this truth lies or shenanigans? Lies shenanigans. That's truth is some crazy.

Shenanigans lies, shit. It's all of it. [00:44:00] I just, 'em. There you go. This's, all of these right here. Truth, lies and shenanigans. Because the trifecta. The trifecta. Yeah. The, some of those are a little more common than they should be. All right, let's get to the next one. Choose shenanigans. All right, Robbie, you've got a great story about a beautiful young woman.

Rob: I do. I do. Tonight I want to talk to you about this remarkable woman who has made history by becoming the oldest person ever to appear on the cover of Vogue Magazine. So is a 160 year old tattoo artist from the Philippines, and she is on, the cover of Vogue Philippines April issue, making a significant moment in fashion history.

Based in the mountain village of Buss Kalan, she is the country's oldest traditional Coalinga tattooist. And her unique artistry and cultural heritage have gained international attention. And now her appearance on the cover of Vogue is a testament to the beauty of [00:45:00] age and experience. So my question is, in a society that often equates beauty with youth, what message do you think Vogue is sending by featuring this woman on its cover?

And how do you think it will impact our perceptions of aging and beauty?

Nio: Oh, well, I think she's beautiful, actually. I mean, looking at her, I think she's actually a beautiful woman it's actually really amazing photo. . But you know, I need to find out her secrets cause I need to figure out what she's doing.

Maybe I need to get some tattoos or something. Cuz if that's working for her, man, I just need to, I need to figure out her diet, her I need to figure it out. Where does she live in, at? She's in the Philippines. Maybe I need to move to the Philippines. I don't know what it is. I need to be 106 and look that good.

Gianni: , well beauty is alway always evolving, right? Like beauty is almost like trends. So it's always something that is impacted by culture. So I feel like if anything, this is kind of impacting people to accept beauty as being more humanity based.

Like beauty is in humanity. Like the [00:46:00] people that do beautiful things are beautiful and then we should celebrate them. Because I've even seen like in social media recently, that people like black China and Kim Kardashian are taking out like their lip fillers and their butts and their boobs and 

Nio: Yeah, 

Gianni: They're becoming natural again so I love, love, love, love to see this because for the girls that don't wear makeup and are just very low maintenance. This is your time to shine. Like you're gonna be most accepted during these times. Yeah, beauty's evolved.

It always does. So I'm just happy the direction it's going. It's very happy. She's beautiful. 

Rob: Yeah. One of the things I came across while I was looking into this is that when you choose to age naturally without resorting to cosmetic surgery, it helps you maintain a positive self-image and it really boosts your self-confidence rather than feeling the pressure to conform to societal beauty standards like you were alluding to, Johnny, we can embrace the unique features that make us who we are and celebrate the [00:47:00] changes that come with time.

Right. This leads to greater self-acceptance and a deeper sense of self-worth. If we embrace our natural aging process, it will allow us to be more authentic and open with others, and it'll lead to deeper and more meaningful connections. 

Nio: Yeah. I love that. It's true. Yeah. And like I say, I think this is a gorgeous image.

Absolutely gorgeous. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, 

Gianni: that tattoo she has, like her sleeves are done. It's a, it's a traditional. Marking, like it's a traditional tattoo, , and not everybody can get it either. So I just thought that was so special. 

Nio: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Comments online.

Kevin, Thaxton, I want the de aging rune tattoo. She has.

I need that too. Boy. Whatever she's got, I need it. Josiah says I want her tattoo too. Uh, Jasmine Robinson, she's allowed herself to age naturally, and that's beautiful. Josiah, I think this, this woman is absolutely stunning. All right? [00:48:00] Yes. Is this truth? Truth shenanigans? Well, this is obvious. That's some truth.

Gimme that. Truth, truth, truth. Whatever that is. Give it to me. 

Rob: We'll have to send Nesmie out in the field. Yeah, 

Nio: you're right. Nesmie. Our social media manager. She's in the Philippines.

All right, today's game. Bringing it back. Who are you? We'll spin the wheel and we'll all answer the question to help the audience get to know us better. Our audience watching will decide who gave the most interesting and possibly truthful answers. Whoever gets the most votes from the audience who wins and gets the final thought for the show, we'll try to be as truthful as possible, cuz our audience will call you up.

All right, let's get to it.

Fantasy or [00:49:00] nonfiction. This is easy I'm going with fantasy. I probably, I do fantasy. more interesting. Mm-hmm. I'm more non. Yeah, that makes sense. I believe you. Okay. All right. Favorite kind of music metal? I'm torn hip hop. I'm torn between hip hop and r and b, so I'm gonna just say hip hop.

R b.

Favorite game. I like you. What? My most 

Rob: consistent. Okay. That's a fun one. That's my most consistent game. Same game. Yeah. She got so with Sasha. 

Nio: Fair enough. 

Rob: I've been playing cribbage since I was a kid. I do enjoy playing cri. 

Nio: Oh my, I think my favorite game is the Game of Life. The Hasbro Game.

Game of Life. Ooh, I did say that's a fun one. Yeah, that one. I mean, I like the game of actual life as well.[00:50:00] 

All right. Truth or dare uhoh. I'm not getting, I'm not doing any daress. I'd rather keep you the truth. I'll be transparent, but I'm not doing dares 

Rob: depends on my mood. It depends 

Nio: on who I'm hanging with. I'd rather 

Rob: just be honest. There's certain problems that won't let me dare, I won't let, dare me to do stupid things cuz they're gonna be real stupid.

Nio: I'm already honest. I mean, I already give too much information. Ask, ask my winner a Trump University.

All right. Do you believe What do you believe you are faded to do? What do you believe you are faded to do? I don't believe in fate. Interesting. I believe. Wait, what did Rob say? He doesn't believe in fate. I don't. Interesting. I believe I'm fad to do exactly what I'm doing. 

Rob: I believe ultimately I am faded to die.

Ultimately, I'm faded 

Nio: [00:51:00] to die. There you go. So you do believe in fate. Liar. That is my ultimate fate, and 

Rob: I cannot divert away from that one. So that's gonna happen. 

Gianni: I believe I've needed to save humanity in animals, 

Nio: all of humanity. Wow. That's, that's, wow. I believe you can do it too. All right, one more.

I don't, well, two more then. Reptiles. Amphibians. Amphibians. Amphibians are amphibians. Frog. Yep. Like any frog, Salman, frog nude turtles. Okay. No. Turtles are reptile. Turtles are reptiles. Yep. Mm-hmm. Slap, slap, slap. Yep, yep, yep. Yeah. Turtles are reptiles. I like turtles.

Yeah, I think I'm going reptiles. One more. You like, you like snakes.

All right. If someone made a movie about you, oh, we already had this one before. If someone made a movie about you, who would you want to play you? [00:52:00] 

Gianni: Oh yeah. I said 

Nio: Kelly. Roland, or That was a good answer too.

Gianni: Or Michelle Obama. I don't know why. I don't know. Don't ask me why. Just feel like, yeah, 

Nio: her, you know, Kiana, I'll get Keanu to play me. I'd want me to play me actually get some Neo. I want me to play me.

All right, so people online tell us who had the best answers. Who won this game? Who won this game? All right, let's get him some shout outs.

All right, Janna, go ahead. Um, 

Gianni: shout out to the new coworkers that I have. I have a really great relationship with them and just inspire people to have a great relationship with your coworkers. I know [00:53:00] that's weird sometimes, but relationships in general, they don't just have to be friends. You can still be cordial.

So shout out to my 

Nio: new coworker. Awesome. Like that. Robbie, 

Rob: shout out to the Boston Bruins yet again. Uh, this afternoon they set a new club record of 60 wins in a season with five games remaining. So this ties them for. Place overall for the most season or for the most wins in a season in the N H L first place?

Being 96. At the 96 Detroit Red Waynes with an impressive 62 wins in one season. So looking good, man. Mm-hmm. Looking good. 

Nio: Oh, go caps.

All right. All right. My shout outs to my beautiful wife, Mel, love you and thank you for just being you. Appreciate you. All right, and that is officially all the time we have for today's. Let's see. Let's gonna look real quick and see who won. Looks like we have some [00:54:00] comments. Rob B always has the best answers.

Lizzie, Enders won. Lizzie won, so Rob b, Rob B actually wins the game. All right, I'd like to thank all of you guys for joining us. I hope you learned something, gain a new perspective or I simply had some laughs with us. We'll be recording our podcast in two weeks. We'll be off next week for Easter, so we'll not be recording an episode.

Then. Don't forget to check out our video clips like our interview today with Faul and our interview two weeks ago with Kate Kennedy. They're both running for mayor and you can kind of compare the two people there. Just go on tls show.com. Also, you can look for our official audio podcast episodes on Tuesdays on Apple Podcast.

Spotify, anywhere you listen to podcasts. And as I said, the winner for the final thought. Mr. Robbie Rock. What's this up buddy? 

Rob: All right, so remember, no matter what challenges you faced this week, [00:55:00] you have the strength and resilience to overcome them. Believe in yourself and know that you are capable of achieving great things.

Nio: Let's go. Yay, rock. All right, thank you so much, Rob. B Rock, Gianni. But most importantly, most importantly, we always have to thank you. We're watching and listening each and every week. Have a great weekend. Have a great week and weekend. All right.