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The Middle Ground Mic
Finding the middle ground on issues that people care about:
Frequent guests on the podcast on varying subjects. From masculinity, to Mental Health, to sports, political views, leadership, self reliance.
Current news on various subjects from politics to serious events.
Politic is - Debate with opposite sides that is polite and focused on solutions not fighting.
Caring about one another.
The Middle Ground Mic
The Middle Ground: Where Politics and Common sense meet
Roger Friedman shares insights from his 45-year career in financial services and discusses his book "Erasing America: Broken Politics, Broken Country." The conversation explores bipartisan solutions to America's most pressing problems while examining the successes of RFK Jr.'s health initiatives and immigration reform possibilities.
• RFK Jr. successfully got major insurers to commit to streamlining pre-approval processes, potentially transforming healthcare accessibility
• European countries banned harmful food dyes decades ago while Americans continue consuming these substances in everyday foods
• Both sides of the political spectrum can find common ground on immigration by acknowledging the contributions of immigrants while securing borders
• The Biden administration's "auto pen scandal" raises serious constitutional questions about who was actually making presidential decisions
• Media personalities like Chris Cuomo and Chuck Todd have become more centrist after leaving mainstream networks
• Proposal for mandatory military service as a pathway to citizenship for immigrants combines conservative priorities with progressive objectives
Check out Roger Friedman's newsletter "The Equal Opportunity Times" at eocriticcom and sign up for free to read his political analysis and interviews.
All right, everybody. Welcome to the Middle Ground, mike. We've got a good friend of mine here, roger. Roger, go ahead and introduce yourself and tell everybody what you're about.
Speaker 2:Well, my name is Roger Friedman. I'm currently a resident of Florida, although I did start off in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. For about 45 years I've been in the financial services industry. I'm actually retiring in 48 hours after a 45-year career. I'm not taking over as Santa Claus, but that has been recommended because I hear the fringe benefits are phenomenal. I've written seven books. The last one was called Erasing America, broken Politics, broken Country, which talks a lot about how the progressive left and the Biden administration were systematically destroying our country until my savior one of them, president Trump, came around and he's starting to turn things around and I'm very, very grateful he is. But I also have a monthly newsletter called the Equal Opportunity Times. I am known as the Equal Opportunity Critic and you can find my website at eocriticcom and you could sign up for the free newsletter, see a whole bunch of interviews and a whole bunch of blogs. With that, I'll turn it back over to you.
Speaker 1:Joe, awesome. Yeah, I mean, you know we both feel very similar about our current president. You know some of the stuff that we've talked about. You know, for one, for me, that kind of stands out, you know, based on you know, I know you're a little bit more I would say a little bit more conservative than I am.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you know, I'm a little Not a bad way, Not a bad way, you know Well you know what Reagan said. He started out as a liberal.
Speaker 1:I mean not particularly wrong. Ironically, I started out as a libertarian and moved conservative Ryan for president. Yes, I, you know I was a big fan of Gary Johnson. You know, I really like he. Just he, he wasn't somebody that could have hacked it on the world stage, okay.
Speaker 1:But um, rfk, so something that had come out. I believe it was yesterday or the day before RFK got all the big insurers to the table most of them anyways and got them to commit to streamlining what is it? A pre-approval process to where a lot of things are going to be instantaneous, you know, and Dr Oz even said hey, this is going to be. This kind of stuff is making Americans violent. You know, they're tired of just hearing. Essentially you're saying lip reading. You know, tell us what we want to hear, because the government was doing nothing really about any of our issues in healthcare. And so the reason why I bring this up is so, like I told you, I try to kind of look at all avenues, like the left, the right, because you know, like the left does have sometimes kind of valid points or at least valid observations to a degree. You see more of it than I do. You know. I'll say Bill Maher Modern Bill Maher, not old school Bill Maher. Right Modern Bill Maher, I would say that's kind of more the liberal I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:He's become very, very interesting. Yeah, he's definitely shifted straight to the middle For years. I wouldn't give him the time of day Now.
Speaker 1:I don't mind watching him. I've never watched him.
Speaker 2:I probably the last six months I've watched a lot of his stuff. He uh, I see a video now and then, so I get 10 seconds of him.
Speaker 1:That's about it yeah, he, uh, he did. Uh, I believe he did an interview with ben shapiro, charlie kurt those are two of my superstars yeah, and you know what they both enjoyed it. Ben just met with the pope, did he? Really? I was blown away.
Speaker 2:I saw an know Ben just met with the Pope. Did he really? I was blown away. I saw an article that he met with the Pope and I'm like, wow, it was unexpected.
Speaker 1:So something you know. I don't know if you remember, like 10 years ago or so, ben Shapiro. I kind of said rap is trash essentially, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I think it was it's been about a year but he actually starred in a rap video and sang yeah, and he's grown, grown a bit of a beard and he wears sunglasses and, yeah, he kind of looks like a hipster yeah, I was like well, no, this one was a different one.
Speaker 1:It was um, your feelings don't matter thing, and the song was called the facts, don't care about your feelings. Yeah, and it was with um. I kind of like the guy tom mcdonald. I'm not a diehard rap guy, but I don don't mind him, cause you know there are two books by Ben.
Speaker 2:I got them right here behind me. The facts don't care about your feelings and the facts still don't care about your feelings.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, they don't, you know, but like, uh, like, getting back to like the RFK thing before I get too far out of that, right, it really stuck out to me yesterday is cause, like I was seeing CNN head was like hey, people have done this before, try to, you know what I mean. And the insurance companies go hey, scouts, honor, you know, we promise. And then they back out. Well, what really stuck out to me was and I think this is one of the big things that attracts me to RFK as a politician leader he said if you don't do it, we'll make the regulations to make you do it.
Speaker 2:But to make you do it. But we're giving you essentially, he said, we're giving you the opportunity to do the right thing without the government making you do it. And I think that's great, because RFK will turn around and go to Trump Either they're listening or they're not listening and we got to take out the stick. Right now we're giving a carrot, but Trump doesn't have a problem taking out the stick.
Speaker 1:Right, and so you know they, you know people are talking about. Well, you know he's, he got rid of the whole vaccine panel, this, that and the other thing, and I can definitely see where that can be a concern for some folks, but the one thing that I like it was I forgot I think it was 2018. Somebody had shared a short video of them approving a vaccine and the CDC and it had not been placebo tested, and that's pretty much like the standard for a lot of medicines vaccines and then, to go even further, some of the vaccines that they're giving kids, you know, for when they're really young almost infants have not been placebo tested either and they're going. Well, the science says, and I'm going.
Speaker 1:You know science is right the vast majority of the time, but let's not forget that 100 years ago, a lot of what science said was proven to be wrong by scientists. Things change, facts change as we learn how to look at things differently, and the reason why I say that is they're going um, I forget what that, um, that one toxin or chemical, that uh, they, they approved today for um flu vaccine. They, you know, but you can't have that in there. But the reason they're like well, the scientists have said it's okay, and I'm like, well, the scientists in Europe which, in terms of our health, seem to be like light years ahead of us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wish I didn't get the vaccine. But you know, when you were just saying this, I thought of the old ads, chesterfield, the cigarette recommended by more doctors. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's what you you know. You look at the Europeans and they, a lot of their infants, get the same amount of vaccines. I think they're a couple little bit less than us, but they spread them out and you know they go. Well, he's anti-vax. I'm like, no, he's questioning the vaccines. And he even said in one of his hearings which of of course, you know that the left media is not going to play right, or any media really. They tried to do that. I gotcha and he said no, you shouldn't take medical advice from me, you should talk to your doctor. And it's like well, even if rfk was a doctor, why would I take medical advice from a guy sitting behind the desk in washington dc?
Speaker 2:yeah, no, I have a lot of admiration for RFK. I haven't always agreed with everything he says. My parents were Kennedy Democrats. I remember crying in school when the principal got on the hoot and holler and announced that the president had been assassinated. 31 kids all around me we all started crying all at once. Yeah, here's Kennedy's. It was like.
Speaker 1:Camelot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were essentially American royalty, or American royalty and RFK. You know he's still got a bunch of that which you know helps him, but I admire that President Trump brought him in. Yes, Because it shows a maturity to Trump that most people would not attribute to. Yeah, Either on the right or the left. Yeah, I think it was a great idea.
Speaker 1:I think it was converted a Kennedy to a Republican. That is you know, and but I also. He's a smart guy, Right?
Speaker 2:And he cares. So there was a meme or ad, or whatever the hell you call it, on Facebook about a week ago and it was talking about Governor Pritzker of Illinois. Now I want you to just, in your mind, think of his belly, okay, it's about a 68 inch waistline, okay, and he's telling the school kids what they should be eating. And right next to that picture of him is RFK. You know, like this, the guy has a washboard stomach. Oh yeah, the guy is dedicated, the guy is ripped, he has guns, yes, and you know. The caption was who are you taking nutrition advice from? I mean, and it was awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, you know the Make America Healthy Again movement. Yes, I find that it's. It's attracting open minded Democrats.
Speaker 2:Yes, and there aren't many of those, I must tell you.
Speaker 1:Right, but you know, but even Bill Maher's kind of been like Marf K wow, he's a little crazy, he's not so crazy at the same time.
Speaker 2:Well, you got to be crazy. You know, I used to live in Washington DC. My office was about four blocks from the White House and we always used to joke that you don't want to go that way. That's a bad neighborhood, Okay. And Capitol Hill was even worse, Okay. So you know, you had to be a little, as my grandmother would say, Meshuggah in the head to even be within the district of Columbia.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's just like what RFK and Trump have done is exactly what the even if you hate Trump take you. You know, if people would just take their personal feelings out of it. Those two have done exactly what the american people have wanted in terms of they've put differences aside that they may have politically for a common ground that they can get something yeah, they found common ground.
Speaker 2:They they blew up the nutrition pyramid, you know, which calls for like 12 slices of bread a day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, our bread here is terrible. You know, it's the flour that we use.
Speaker 2:So you know what I just rediscovered Sourdough made in a not at the supermarket, in a bag, you know, made in a bakery where you get it fresh and then you know, take it home, slice it, put it in a toaster and when you take it out, put some of the everything bagel seasoning on it. I mean, this is wonderful.
Speaker 1:You ever heard of Dano's seasoning? No, he makes kind of like an everything seasoning, but he does it without salt or very little salt. Right, and it's extremely flavorful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, I get it, but you know. Back back to RFK. I want you to think that you know everything that he is involved in and he's doing. They've only been at it for about 130 odd days. They're just getting started, so I remember which hearing it was, because you know they seem to want to drag him in almost every day.
Speaker 1:But one of the I believe it was a senator that said I've been working at this for X amount of years to get red dye. I think it was number 440. You know and he said something along the lines of well, that's good, senator, I've only been here 100 days and I got it.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah. And you know, you read all these headlines. You know Frito-Lay is taking everything out by next year. Hostess, you know General Mills. You know all of them. You know the Skittles, the M&Ms, you know the licorice. You know all this stuff with all these dyes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's sad that Europe figured this out 20, 30 years ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you want something to be red. Smash a raspberry.
Speaker 1:It's not rocket science well, you, uh, you know all the unless they carry like a special american product. You know which they do. Sometimes they carry like, once in a while they have coke, or the vast majority, I think, like 98 of their products have no artificial dyes in any of it.
Speaker 2:Oh I didn't know that we have. You know, I used to go to all these when we lived in m Maryland, and I have one here, a couple miles from us. I haven't even been there, yeah well they're a German company. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of where their principles come from, and they're growing exponentially in the US.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and how they're able to pay people the money that they do for a cashier and they have much smaller selection than a Publix, a, a giant, you know whatever. Yeah, and that keeps their, keeps their inventory costs down, which makes it easier for them and they, um, if you look on all their packaging has really big barcodes and the reason for that is is the cashier can sit there and just go without having to sit there and find their cashiers like light speed yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, it's like that, because that it's designed, that they put those big barcodes on there to make them efficient, so they can churn out.
Speaker 2:Hey, I remember when we were talking off screen, off camera, you wanted to talk a little bit about immigration. Yeah, I kind of think that's a really hot topic that we should chat about?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, most definitely. You know, like I was saying, you know, immigration, one of the big things for me that I had talked about is, you know when I want to say like I was excited but I was a little bit hopeful and trump seemed to be open to farm and service workers. You know, hey, maybe there's something we can do to kind of make that work a little bit better. And I and trust me, I thousand percent understand about hey, these, a lot of these people are illegal, but on the flip, also, the companies that are employing them are doing them and the American public a disservice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if you listen to Schumer, hakeem, jeffries, booker and Pelosi, they'll say if you kick them out, who's going to pick our berries and walnuts?
Speaker 1:Okay, the American people will starve, which is bullshit. Yeah, I mean, that's an 80s mentality.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:We're going to keep them here under the table and pay them less and it's you know. But what? I horrible, it's horrible. Right, it's the great ronald reagan ronald reagan the four despicables yeah, yeah, I mean for me, pelosi's probably about the top one, she's like number one. Aoc is probably like 1.1.
Speaker 2:Yeah, schumer hakeem jeffries. Yeah, I could go on, and.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you know, like for me, I like Reagan to me was like a perfect balance of finding where you can pull some things from the left but be conservative at the same time and get some things done. And I thought he took the greatest approach to immigration. We need to shut it down, but if you're here and you haven't been convicted of any violent crimes, nothing like that will give you. I think you give them like asylum, or they essentially gave them, like you know, work visa. Like you show up, we'll give it to you.
Speaker 2:I don't, I can't remember the exact detail on it. You know, what's wild is the fact that under Clinton and Obama, the Democrats didn't scream when millions of people were deported. Now 130,000 have been deported and they're screaming their bloody head off.
Speaker 1:Well, it was like I did the math and I did a podcast almost two weeks ago now with a gentleman who's running for the state house in Missouri. He's a progressive Democrat but, ironically, still pretty conservative at the same time. You got 35 percent of the vote in the red district. Not easy to do, but it was how did he word it? By the approach that these companies are taking and the fact that, like, our government is just purely for, him and I were talking like purely focused on the immigration aspect of it. Right, we need to go after the companies that are taking advantage of these people. Well, you know, like Tyson Foods and Purdue yeah, if I remember, they're two of the biggest offenders.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you know what I was reading last week I think it was Lincoln, nebraska. It was a meat processor or something. They took out over 60 people and it turned out that there was identity theft involved. Yes, so think of yourself as the hiring manager at this meatpacker. They're giving you valid ID and whatever other papers and it looks OK. It looks as if they're employable. They had no idea it's all stolen.
Speaker 1:So there's a. There's a company here in Michigan I won't say their name because I don't know all the details, but I do know some people who have worked for them and still do. They employ a lot of immigrants. A good chunk are illegal. So here's the thing Without openly saying it.
Speaker 2:they're pretty much like a nicely point them in the direction of somebody who's sold them and stolen. Well, it's illegal for any employer to knowingly hire an illegal, and there's something called don't quote me, E-Verify, or something like that Okay, and they should be using it.
Speaker 1:If they don't they should be shut down.
Speaker 1:It kind of goes back to one of the and this kind of actually goes. It ties directly into immigration and one of my big issues because you know I work in the food industry is the chicken and I watched a Netflix documentary about the chicken industry in America and it was so eye-opening. The chicken industry in America works just like food franchises. So if you own a farm, even though, like Purdue, can only sell it and with the market, you know the exchange tells them to the futures I'm sorry, not the exchange, but the futures so they can sell it for 30 cents a pound. But what Purdue does is they go in and they tell these a lot of times, immigrant farmers or very small mom and pop farmers, we're only going to give you this is just out there, but we're going to give you, like a nickel, a chicken. And so they press them so much so that the only thing that they can afford to do is to hire an illegal immigrant, because if they paid anybody even $15 an hour over the table, they would lose money.
Speaker 2:You know, I know that there are documentaries out there on chicken farming and everything, and I remember one line from years ago and it said if you knew how chickens were raised and processed, you would never eat another chicken in your life.
Speaker 1:You know, I use the analogy to someone I said you know what and I get sometimes. You know, if I had to stare at it all day, I probably would feel it's cool. You know what and I get sometimes. You know, if I had to stare at it all day, I probably would feel it's cool. You know what I mean. But also, let's remember, if the food chain was flipped, them chickens wouldn't care. If we were all herded in a building and they were eating us, yeah, they would eat us. You know it doesn't make cruelty, okay, but it's like we got to take a step back. Remember, there's 400 million people in this country, right, and we have to feed them. And when it comes down to it, the chicken or me the chicken can go every time.
Speaker 2:Okay, let's get back to immigration. So today I read an article and it said that there are 1.4 million illegals on Medicaid. Now I happen to know a little bit about Medicaid. It is a shared program paid for by states and the federal government, and Medicaid is for the indigent. Think of it like welfare health welfare, okay, and certain classes of people minors, renal failure, you know things of that nature but there are almost a million and a half illegals on there and that money, which has got to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars, Joe, is being used to pay for illegals when it should be used to pay for Americans. And as these programs are going broke, you wonder why they're going broke, because hundreds of billions of dollars is being spent that should never have been spent.
Speaker 1:Well, if you look at the bastion of giving away free stuff to people who aren't citizens and knocking their own, I'm sorry California, even California is starting to backtrack on that.
Speaker 2:They're starting to go. Hey, we can't afford it, but they're still idiots. I won't even listen to California.
Speaker 1:But they're finally going. Oh hey, maybe everybody's right. This isn't affordable. You just give it to it.
Speaker 2:Well, it's cost their budget there $8 billion in the hole, and unless Gavin Newsom pulls money out of his ass, I don't know where the hell the money's coming from. All they could do is keep, tax and spend, which is what New York and I could not miss the opportunity to prognosticate a little bit about the New York mayoral primary yesterday. I mean, just shoot me and put me out of my misery.
Speaker 1:I think they gave a Republican a solid chance.
Speaker 2:I hope so in a city of Democrats, and I'm from there. But I will not set foot in New York City again.
Speaker 1:No, it's you know, and the problem is, is the partisan politics, is what's made it like that with the immigration and things of that nature. So when we're talking about immigration, I know Trump's goal now is 3,000, but I believe technically right around their internal goal, I believe, tom, how, how, how, how do you say his last name, homan Homan? Okay, I believe at one point he was saying it was around 1,500 to 2,000 a day.
Speaker 2:I want to see 10,000 a day, 300,000 a month, that's 4 million a year.
Speaker 1:Right? Well, here's even the reason why I bring that up. Is, even at that rate, over four years, Trump would not have deported more than Obama. He would not have deported more than Clinton. He would not have deported more than Bush. He would have not deported more than Carter, and these are like, and it's going, and it was like I told somebody. I said it's only an issue because it's Donald Trump doing it and he doesn't make it sound nice and fluffy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when Obama did it, it was perfectly fine. Pelosi's humor smiled yeah.
Speaker 1:They called him hey, go go, team. Yeah, even Hillary Clinton said hey, you know what, If you want to steer, that's fine, you're going to pay a fine, and I'm not going to lie, she had a valid point there. You want to stay here? You want to get on the payroll, pay a fine, come on in. And I mean, obviously we need to close the borders at the same time, right, but I also think that's a of those folks out that, while illegal, they do contribute. And you know, then at the same time, you get rid of the bad ones Of course they contribute, but we can find Americans who will contribute too.
Speaker 2:A thousand percent. I agree there are plenty of Americans that will pick walnuts and blueberries and everything. Well, so much of it is mechanized now anyway.
Speaker 1:So I work in the service industry and I told you what I do for a living. Before 10 years ago I would have never said this. But when I get people that come in now, I'll be like, hey, I need you to sweep them up, why, why, you don't see the dirt? Would you want to eat off of that? But they were literally, and it's not even that. They're kind of like going like why? Because I don't want to do my job. They're literally confused and baffled that you're asking them to sweep and mop a floor. I have, like I've got a store that's by the airport here in Detroit and it's so hard to find a maintenance guy because it's, you know, not a lot of residential, you know.
Speaker 1:So the, the, and then, on top of it, people the pool of workers is not good, well, and the airport, the same exact position. The airport pays like $6, $7 more an hour, but they got to pay a lot more fees and stuff. So it's wish I would be able to find a legal immigrant, not illegal A legal yeah. Yeah, a legal immigrant to come in and work, because I've worked with immigrants before.
Speaker 2:Can't you get AI and chat gpt to mop the floor?
Speaker 1:I know I wish supposed to be taking all the jobs right, yeah, I, I wish you know, I, I know a lot of, I know a lot of people. I had made a point about this, you know. It was like hey, ai is going to take order taking jobs in restaurants. And I'm like, well, in my industry it's not necessarily taking a job because person still has to have the headset on, they still have to listen if the customer has a problem. But where it's a good thing is is okay. Now that person's freed up to help do another task to push your order out faster.
Speaker 2:You know it's funny. You mentioned that I had a discussion with a friend the other day We've been in a mastermind group together and he was railing about the fact that him and his family went into a restaurant and they're waiting to order and a snotty waitress came over, handed him a tablet and said here, order. And they all got up and left.
Speaker 1:I've experienced that McDonald's where technically they're supposed to have someone that's on the front counter but sometimes you know people call off so people go to the cafeteria.
Speaker 2:I don't bring my reading glasses to dinner all the time, so I can't look at your tablet, nor do I want to, nor do I know who was handling it before me and did you sanitize it, oh yeah, the list goes on and on.
Speaker 1:It's difficult to keep up with that kind of stuff, you know.
Speaker 2:I walk right out. I will not give them my money.
Speaker 1:No, it's. You know, in my industry it just frees someone up to help get you better product. It doesn't take a job and that's what I try to tell people. Like in my industry. It doesn't do what it would do when you automate something on the farm, because now we can use that same labor. Can we pump out seven more cars?
Speaker 2:So I'm sitting here going, hey if I can get somebody who wants to do the job a legal immigrant. Have you ever seen one of those videos, you know probably on YouTube, I guess and it shows a automated Amazon warehouse. Automated Amazon warehouse and you see the robot, you know, packing a bin full of six items that John Doe ordered yesterday or this morning, and it keeps going from rack to rack and these racks are like 40 feet tall.
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:And it's getting a sponge from over here and a hairbrush, you know, from 150 feet down the hall, and these places are two, three acres long, oh yeah, and there's like four people there and they're all at computer stations and everything else is robots. It's amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and it's and they get it right. Yes, they do. The only downside that I've seen with some of those are sometimes like the robot will do one thing package it Right but then the human error will factor in when they go to put it on a truck and deliver it, Because I've had it where it'll say out to delivery or out for delivery. The next thing, you know, delayed for two days, and I'm going. I experienced that. I experienced that today I got an email from Amazon hey, your package has been delayed till Sunday. And then it goes your package is out for delivery. And I'm like, well, okay, I'm like, well, I'm glad it's out for delivery.
Speaker 2:But Well, you know, and so you should email them back. Does that mean I get a refund?
Speaker 1:I should, I should, you know that's. You know the immigration thing. It's here in Detroit. We've got two areas that are really big in bernard.
Speaker 1:One is, I'm sure you probably heard of, the- city dearborn michigan, yes that's a biggest arab population in the country, concentrated arab population in the country. And you know they, I will say, for the most part they take very good care of their city. I mean, there's crime in certain parts, but that's kind of par for every city. But you know, overall they take care of their city, they keep it. It's an old city, you know, it's been around for a hundred and something years, you know, sure so, but they take care of it. And then you know, I'm sure you've seen the images and the videos of Detroit over the last 30, 40 years.
Speaker 2:Oh, my gosh, it's been terrible.
Speaker 1:And so. But the one part that they don't show about Detroit is Southwest Detroit. So Southwest Detroit is made up of, like I would probably say, 95% Hispanic immigrants, and it's the one area of Detroit where you can go, and even though some of his houses are older, they keep them clean, they keep them neat. You know the neighborhoods are safe to walk during the day. You know you don't feel like you're going to get mugged walking down the street.
Speaker 2:You don't have to call up on buses in the day you know you don't feel like you're going to get mugged walking down the street.
Speaker 1:I'm not knocking other people. You don't have to park on buses in the driveway, right yeah? And I'm not knocking other parts of Detroit, it's just, you know, these folks have taken very good care of their neighborhood and I tell people I'm like hey, these, are the folks that we need to.
Speaker 1:If some of them are there illegally, as long as they're not committing a crime, is there a way we can find a way to? Hey, here's a work visa. You pay, you know, 5% more on your taxes at the end of the year for five years, something of that nature, right you?
Speaker 2:know, one of the ways that I thought people could be Americanized would be mandatory military conscription. Yeah, I wouldn't be opposed to that. You give them five doors Army, navy, marines, air Force, coast Guard Choose any one of those doors. You give us 46 months and you do it right, you do it well, you get out. You get a free ride to any state university four-year program, not Harvard State university, state college, okay, and we'll give you 5,000 bucks to boot. Yeah, it's a fair trade.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it works for them.
Speaker 2:That way, you're an American citizen for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it works for them, it works for us. It puts people who care on the ground, you know, people who have skills.
Speaker 2:You know, for example, if you're a mechanic working on A-10 warthogs which I think they're retiring them anyway or a communications specialist, you have hard skills that are in demand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you know there's a lot of what immigrants have to offer to this country, Even some of the ones that are here illegally. We do need to close the border. We can't be having people come through unchecked. You know what I mean. That's just any reasonable person. Border set light. Know, I mean, that's just any reasonable person. I love it. Yeah, any person who's a reasonable person and takes the politics out of it should be able to recognize it, because here's the thing.
Speaker 2:Did you see? The other day the May figures came out. The amount of people that were arrested in May was zero at the border, wow. And it was like 44 or 64,000 a year ago under Biden. Yeah, because they know. Now they're like what's that? 64,000 to zero, Right Without legislation. Joe, yeah, we're talking Joe Biden, not Joe Biden. Oh yeah, no, no, you know like Guess what? You didn't need legislation, no, to bring it down to zero. You lied to the American people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean flat out and that kind of goes back, goes into. Another part we were kind of talking about was the auto pen, and this is what makes me think of that. Oh my God, I'm sure you know who Chuck Todd is. Yeah, he has turned so hard on Joe Biden. I mean he you would think it was Donald Trump talking about him. I was listening to, I was like, is this really Chuck Todd? I mean, if Chuck Todd could say, without saying it to me in so many words, he was saying I was only repeating what I was told to repeat at my job.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, they're realizing they were made fools of. Yeah.
Speaker 1:He. He pretty much said he goes. He pretty much said so many words. We were lied to. The president is selfish, or the former president. He was referring to Biden, you know, knowing what was going on with his kids when he, you know, started in 2018, trying to really push for his candidacy, and he pretty much said there was nobody home. You know and it's do. I don't think he does and I don't particularly either. Do I blame Joe Biden as a human for any of this. No, because I don't think Joe Biden even completely realizes. I don't think he was in control at all. Right, because Joe Biden was a lot more of a centrist as a senator and a lot of these things that went down the Biden from 15 years ago would have never been for. I don't know if he has dementia or not I'm not a doctor, but it's definitely. Some people age different than others. Right, him and Trump aren't that far off. We're only three, four years in age and Trump's just a lot sharper than he is. That's not a knockout.
Speaker 2:Let me ask you a question how do you give a pardon to someone who has not been convicted of a crime? Not convicted, accused? Accused of a crime? Ok, they haven't been arrested, they haven't been before a grand jury, they haven't been before a judge. You're just giving them a preemptive pardon in case someone might come after them. I think that's bullshit, dr Fauci sticks out to me.
Speaker 1:Yes, I mean, that guy should be sitting in. I get, the federal government can't charge him. Well, what's his?
Speaker 2:name Mayorkas. I think Mayorkas should be hung by his toenails. Yeah, no, well with.
Speaker 1:Fauci. You know it kind of goes into the auto pen right. It kind of it's not the same issue, but it's very linked. You know they banned biological testing here, development things of that nature. That's how his work got transferred over to Wuhan, china, because it was the only place he could continue it. He was already doing this kind of work in the United States when we banned it.
Speaker 1:So, and you know, I thought it was very ironic when Trump got elected what is maybe, maybe a couple of weeks tops, when the CIA came out and said, well, yeah, we do got some proof that it came from the lab in China, and I thought that I'm like, and then all of a sudden, here comes the pardons and I was like, tell me that you figured out that, uh, dr fauci dropped the ball without telling me figure out he dropped the ball and things got out of hand. Do I personally think that he was trying to kill people? I don't think so. Do I know? No, do I think he was extremely? Yeah, because he's an egomaniac and I think he was trying to prove a point and it got out of control, you know.
Speaker 1:But the auto pen thing, you know that, just kind of going back to it just shows that Biden's family in the leadership of that party took advantage of him, and I wholeheartedly believe if AOC was actually the head of the Democratic Party, we would know about it, because she would not hide it. She would be like this is what the center people did. This is what they did to lie to you, because to be fair to her is she calls it like she sees it, whether I agree with her or I don't. She. There was a statistic that people voted for her but also voted for Trump because they felt that they were being honest to them. I mean now, granted, she's kind of a lot of hot air, right, I feel like that, maybe not necessarily her political positions, but the Democrats need more people willing to say things like that in order for us to get the full truth about her.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I hear what you're saying and I'll say one thought about AOC. I think she makes a wonderful, wonderful bartender. Yes, and that's all that I'll say about AOC. I think she makes a wonderful, wonderful bartender. Yes, and that's all that I'll say about AOC.
Speaker 1:I like her direct approach and they could have used her in the Biden administration.
Speaker 2:She's eye candy. What I would like to see or not see, as the case may be is corporate media stop putting her picture in the news every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're doing it because she's a pretty face, not because of her skills. Yeah, and that's the worst part is she actually has a degree in economics.
Speaker 2:What's happening countrywide is people are seeing her face all the time. They're getting used to her. Okay, it's like I don't need to get used to an idiot. Okay, stop showing her picture. Let the media go on a diet. Gee, let's not write about her, talk about her or show her likeness anywhere for 30 days and then let's reevaluate, kind of like a 30 day diet. Let's see how we did get back on a scale. Did we lose any weight?
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, no, you know. And so give me some of your thoughts on the auto pen situation. I mean, you know, I'm happy to from what I've read, it's egregious.
Speaker 2:it is probably the worst debacle and in 100 years, you know, you literally have the idea that every act, every law, every executive order, every pardon does not carry the force of law. I mean that's insane. Yeah, we're talking hundreds, perhaps thousands of actions. Do they carry the force of law? I don't know. Did the third assistant to the deputy authorize it while he was on the beach in Wilmington? And there's no paper trail whatsoever and Biden never discussed it in front of the media. I mean that's, it's unbelievable. Yeah, I want Comer to get to the bottom of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know it's kind of was it Cash, patel and Trump who said, oh well, we didn't find anything direct? You know, I think it was a big cover-up so that nobody would ever find the information. I truly believe a lot of the information was destroyed, just like the emails from Hillary. It's very, very troubling, yeah, and it just goes to show that, because you know, there was some conservative people that were in and out of that administration not very many, like two or three but either A, they were ignorant of the situation or B, they were just as complicit as the other Democrats.
Speaker 2:Well, there was a very tight inner circle working around Biden and it was kind of like you know the guard at the door. You didn't get past that inner circle, you didn't know what the hell was going on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's terrible, I mean without it. Can you imagine if we had the constitution today and they that would just. Did John Marshall really sign that? Yeah, Did he actually right? Did he actually agree to this? You know, it's disappointing for me that we even have to have that kind of conversation. Oh, I know, I mean, it dwarfs Watergate and I agree, but the corporate media is doing a very good job of keeping it under wraps.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's not in their best interest to stir the hornet's nest.
Speaker 1:I mean, but all these big commentators that are getting cut out from this network, Jim, because they don't want to pay them the money. And I'm sorry, but Chris Kumo and Chuck Todd were probably the only reason people watched some of those networks.
Speaker 2:Because they were eye candy for the girls.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I didn't say that well, I apologize. They are eye candy for the opposite sex. How's that? Right, I well, you know, like I know, that when I watch fox, I mean the parade of insane looking reporters and journalists. Yeah, takes my breath away. I'm like gosh, where did they find this person? Yeah, they do it. You may not listen to the news, but you're sure as hell watching the news.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's like Chris Cuomo. He's come out now that he's out of the. I believe he's with News Nation now, I believe it is. News Nation is definitely a little bit more up the middle. I've watched I wouldn't say a ton, but I've watched a good chunk of NewsNation and I don't mind it completely. The conservative guy they have on the comes on after Chris Kumo. I forget his name, but he's kind of weird, not my type of person, not in like a bad way. He just feels like he's just trying to sell himself and not his message. But I found that Chuck Todd and Chris Kumo are a lot more center than they are left. And then Chris Kumo even came out and said I was pretty much told to say all these things and I was told that if I didn't toe the line I'd be gone. No, I hear you.
Speaker 2:So many people were in jeopardy of losing their livelihood, so they made very, very poor decisions. Yeah, I'm glad we got the opportunity to talk about this because it's an important subject and I hope you're able to blast out this podcast far and wide. Oh, yes, my friends on Mars will be listening. Radio signal gets there. But if I may, could I give another short commercial before?
Speaker 1:we adjourn Sure, yeah.
Speaker 2:So again, I'm an author, I'm a writer, I write a newsletter. It comes out twice a month. It's called the Equal Opportunity Times and I am an arch conservative, so you can imagine, you know four. To is the last bookstore on the planet. Yes, broken Country, and it's a nail biter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I'll leave off with this First. You know, I really appreciate you coming out. Very, very welcome. I'm happy to be here, you know. Hopefully. You know, I try to always represent, I would say, the middle of the road, you know, because I think that that's where we, where we stay in the middle of the road, you're likely to get run over.
Speaker 1:Hey, you know what. But sometimes, sometimes you got to take that semi head on like a Superman and just boom, man, and just you know, knock that thing far back. Wait, wait, did you?
Speaker 2:say Superman, yeah, just knock that thing back. Hold on one second. You wouldn't be talking about this fellow, would you? Oh, yes, yes, just making sure.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I'm a diehard fan of.
Speaker 2:Superman, so am I from way back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I believe there's a new movie coming out. I don't know if it's this year or next year? July 11th. July 11th this year, right, Okay, yeah, that's. But yeah, you know, I hope you enjoyed your time. You know everybody check Roger out.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, and you know, send me a copy of this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll have it edited and I'll send you some stuff over later on tonight. That sounds great, thank you, all right. Thank you, roger. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you.
