Richard Helppie's Common Bridge
The problems we have in the country are solvable, but not solvable the way we’re approaching them today, because of partisan politics. Richard Helppie, a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist seeks to find a place in the middle where common sense discussions can bridge the current great divide.
Richard Helppie's Common Bridge
Episode 239- Response to Reader-Listener-Viewer Mail. With Rich Helppie
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In this episode titled "Response to Reader-Listener-Viewer Mail" of the host, Richard Helppie, delves into a diverse range of thought-provoking questions and comments from his engaged online audience. Touching upon hot-button topics of the time, Richard fearlessly navigates the murky waters of politics, starting with an insightful examination of the Trump v Biden rivalry. With his uniquely unbiased and diplomatic approach, Richard analytically dissects the policies, achievements, and controversies surrounding both figures, encouraging his viewers to engage in respectful discourse and critical thinking.
Continuing on this riveting journey, Richard delves into the complex issue of gun control, passionately advocating for the exploration of balanced solutions that prioritize public safety while respecting constitutional rights. As the episode progresses, Helppie confronts the troubling specter of misinformation and radically dissects the role of media in fueling its dissemination, stressing the importance of reliable sources and critical media literacy. Expanding the breadth of conversation, Richard touches on topics such as Gretchen Whitmer, immigration, and more, consistently fostering an environment of open dialogue that challenges viewers to question their assumptions and seek common ground amidst divisive issues. Ultimately, "Response to Reader-Listener-Viewer Mail" serves as a beacon of intellectual discourse, enlightening viewers and reaffirming The Common Bridge's commitment to bridge the gaps that often divide us.
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Navigating Policy and Current Events
Speaker 1Welcome to this episode of season 5 of the Common Bridge, where policy and current events are discussed in a fiercely nonpartisan manner. The host, richard Helpe, is a philanthropist, entrepreneur and political analyst who has reached over four million listeners, viewers and readers around the world. With our surging growth in audience and subscriptions, the Common Bridge continues to expand its reach. The show is available on the Substack website and the Substack app Simply search for the Common Bridge. You can also find us on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. The Common Bridge draws guests and audiences from across the political spectrum, and we invite you to become a free or paid subscriber on your favorite medium.
Speaker 2Welcome to the Common Bridge. I'm here with our producer, brian. We'll clean it up in post-Kruger. He tells that to all the guests, but rarely have to do that. Today might be different, though, because we're going to do a little mailbag. We get comments that are public. We get lots of private emails and messaging and always happy to consider that. Look, we've got a great audience on the Common Bridge. Unlike most platforms, we have intelligent people. Now. People have their perspectives and their biases and that type of thing, but they're at least willing to listen and question. I find that one of the most interesting parts of doing this. I'm grateful for the Substack World and those real journalists and real writers over there, because it potentially is the new media model, which I think is one of the three legs we need to get out of this crazy morass we seem to be stuck in. Anyway, brian, what are you having? The sinister smile? Besides the sinister smile, what have you got today, brad?
Speaker 3First of all, Rich, let's get a few housekeeping items out of the way. We're on the Cusp of Spring training with the Tigers Indeed. We're wiping our tears about the Lions not making the Super Bowl, but it was still a great season.
Speaker 2Really good. Well, don't forget, we also have the Red Wings potentially edging into the playoffs. They won again last night Over time goal by Patrick Kane. All right, nobody wants to hear about sports. There's enough places for that.
Speaker 3Well, they've got to hear about our Detroit teams too. So that's where we're from, so they're going to have to hear about that anyway. But let's get going on with the mailbag. We love doing this we're trying to do it four times a year and do some house cleaning and get back to our readers and our viewers and our listeners on the Common Bridge. So let's just jump right in. This is from Mark from Orlando Rich. I read your real estate 101 piece. It was only one minute, so I read it three times. I have to admit I'm confused. You said Trump first put a low value on his properties and then a high price. Then it seemed as though you were really criticizing the court ruling, even before Kevin O'Leary of Shark Tank and others blasted it. But then you said Trump should not be president. So what was the case about and do you like Trump or do you like Trump?
Speaker 2Well, let me clear. The easy part is this Look, I don't believe Donald Trump acted like an adult when he was in the Oval Office. I think he behaved in a capricious manner. He was voted out of office and I know there's people that still, to this day, don't believe he was voted out of office. But clearly the Democrats did a way better job on turnout based on the new COVID rules, and you can argue whether that was the right way to do things or not. He was like a petulant child leaving instead of the gracious transfer of power. He didn't greet the new president and so forth. He really needs to just retire from politics and in a way he has, because he doesn't show up for debates and he holds rallies to faithful and apparently he's now selling sneakers and the like.
Speaker 2But the court case is a travesty and what I did in that one minute read was to say illiquid assets. You can create a value and defend it based on assumptions, and so the New York Times several years ago took apart Trump's inheritance and said hey, wait a minute. It was way larger than Trump's reporting, and I read the article, but they went out. They started with the endpoint. We want to show that it was worth more and they struggled and got there. The judge, who's violated every principle of even handed justice in the instant case here in New York, said I want to show a low value. And he said it was fraud on the first day, before he even heard one witness. And if you read the actual ruling, it's ridiculous. And for people that don't think it was, I would say this tell them you'll buy their house today for whatever's on their tax bill, whatever their tax appraisers or their house is worth. You'll buy it today for cash and they'll go well, wait a minute. Market's worth more. Of course it is. How much is it worth specifically today? We don't know, because it's not for sale.
Speaker 2And so what this judge did, unilaterally, was assign value and then, in this very sophisticated real estate transaction, extracted one element, the interest rate, ignored the fact that the bank has sophisticated appraisers and that they took the risk. The bank was not claiming any kind of fraud. It's up to the lender to do diligence and indeed, when the documents are submitted, as they did by the Trump Organization, they say there's are not to be relied upon because there are errors and there are omissions and it's an illiquid asset and anybody can come up with what they think is a value. And now every real estate developer is saying, hey, we can't do business in New York.
Speaker 2And the governor of New York came out in an availed way. She wasn't quite the way it's being reported on right wing outlets, but she said, well, hey, don't worry, it was just a thing we were doing for Trump. So you can not like Trump and be alarmed that the justice system is being ripped to shreds in attempt to get to him. We're not going to be left with anything if the justice system gets blown up. And if you're celebrating because ha, ha, we got Trump, no, no, no, it got you. It got you because that's the justice system that's going to take care of you.
Speaker 3Have you been able to find a crime or isolate a victim in that or not?
Speaker 2Yeah, the American people who got this. This is going to get overturned and they're trying to look what it's done. There are people said, well hey, if we keep charging Trump with stuff, that'll drive him from the race. All it does is make the Democrats look dirty and corrupted and scarce people. On top of the censorship and on top of the Biden's obvious failure in his mental capacity. Now we're going to blow up the justice system. Why not just run against Trump and beat him?
Speaker 3Yeah right, yeah. And ironically, every time Trump gets dinged his numbers go up 10% in the polls.
Speaker 2Yeah, because it's scarce people. It's scarce people to say I can't vote for that thing. That's going to blow up the justice system.
Speaker 3All right, let's move on. Okay, this is from Eric in Yuma, and I've been to Yuma Me too. When are you going to do a story about immigration? Seems the southern borders and chaos and there are national guards and federal law enforcement are raid against each other. One side says for many years, no problem, and the other side says it's the problem. When can you get a debate on this topic?
Speaker 2Well, we have had one show on immigration. From a legal perspective, the political situations much different. And we've gone through this arc now of during the Trump administration attempting various maneuvers to secure the border. And the opposition said we're going to have a sanctuary city. Let anybody come in, we're not going to enforce laws. Now cities have been inundated, they're saying they can't handle the influx of immigrants. There has to be an orderly process. The administration said, well, we really want to, but it's the Republicans are blocking us because of Trump. And I'm like, well, wait a minute, why not just enforce the laws from the sanctuary city? But anyway, it's a great idea.
Speaker 2I would like anybody listening that wants to come in and talk about either side of this. It would be great because we've had, at least since the George W Bush administration, proposal after proposal put up and Obama's and Bush's didn't look markedly different Mitt Romney's view on this. Most of us are children of immigrants anyway. People know what the formula is, but both sides fundraise off of the chaos and we don't know what the impact is.
Speaker 2I think we need we need more people to come, or we make enough babies right, and we need workforce to do things and we have houses there and this is not like any other immigrant group that came over before, and so they're bringing over a military age men and then they'll talk well, my great grandfather came from Ireland not mine, but people will say that and when he had found work then he sent for my grandmother yeah, you stay there, I'll go get work. A couple of years ago I think this is still true the number two revenue into Mexico was labor people coming to work in the U? S and sending it into Mexico versus number one was oil. So let's deal with reality and make a reasonable plan. I know that wasn't the question, but yeah, we need to do a better story on that.
Speaker 3All right. This one's from the website. Carrie writes you've hit the existing media companies pretty hard. Is there a way out of this world of disinformation?
Speaker 2There is. It's everybody listening, reading or viewing this. You need to do a couple of things. Number one quit consuming that stuff. You know where they're coming from, and the thing that really baffles me is people that make a living spreading false information, like Barbara McQuade, who I've had on the show, who's really lost her way and who's made a living spewing falsehoods and now writes a book about disinformation. And I'm thinking, oh, I should review the book. And then I'm going, I should review it the way she and her cohorts reviewed it on their podcast when they reviewed Bill Barr's book, which I tuned in for, and they all went up and they were like nanananan, we didn't even read the book.
Speaker 2It's like, really, so your program, you purveyor of truth, you have less credibility than a seventh grader trying to fake their way through a book report. Anyway, I digress, but quit consuming it. And when you get a story, I'd ask you to do two things Number one, what's not being said, and number two, what's being not covered. They'll catch Joe Biden with his mental misfires that the Justice Department put in their report and the next thing you know, oh hey, we're going to arrest this FBI agent. It's like clockwork. Look at your watch. Here it comes. So don't let things go into the memory hole and talk with your friends and get offline and talk with your friends, or get online and come to Substack and have a adult conversation.
Speaker 3All right, this one's from Substack and it's from Todd and Rangeley, Colorado. You live in Michigan. What do you think about the recent court cases that have inspired news coverage? The boy whose mother was convicted of manslaughter because he became a school shooter? How will this play out nationally?
Speaker 2Oh, there's a lot that goes here. So first of all, condolences to everyone at Oxford, the Oxford community. No school children should have to deal with this. This should be a time of delight. I'm going to start with the first part, which is guns.
Speaker 2In the state of Michigan we just passed a safe storage law. It had the spin law and had the parents followed it Perhaps this tragedy would not have occurred. The other gun laws violated there was something called a straw purchase, that you're not allowed to buy a gun that's not for you, and they clearly bought this for the kid. And this also ties in things like mental health and it ties in parental responsibility and parental rights. Rights and responsibilities go hand in hand and the court ruled and prosecuted. Karen McDonald, I think, did a solid job in getting responsibility from the parent.
Speaker 2But I am hearing from and reading about children in other states where if the same age person, a troubled kid, comes in, if Aaron Crumbly would have gone into his school and said my name's now Betrish and I'm going to wear a dress and carry a purse, don't tell my parents. I don't know if Michigan would have done this, but certainly in Washington state they couldn't do anything and the parents not quote affirming them would result in potentially removal of the child from the home. So where do the parents' rights and responsibilities end? And then we had Kevin Fischer on recently about mental health. Of course we've had other guests about mental health. We've got to figure out what is good mental health. And at the same time this court case was going on in Oakland County, there was another case where a man moved out from his male partner I don't know if they were married or not and had sued him. The guy that was suing had had his testicles removed, had put them in a plastic bag in the freezer and I'm sure they were shriveled by that point.
Speaker 2Guys, you never mind I don't mean to lie they shouldn't make light of this, but left him in the freezer and the guy that was in the house threw him out and said, hey, I put food in there. It's not sanitary. And I'm like, okay, wouldn't? Someday in the not too distant past we would have said, hey, if you cut your nuts off and put them in a freezer, are you of good mental health? The judge in this case said the state of Michigan paid Henry Ford Health System $20,000 to remove the guy's testicles and he wanted $6,500 in compensation. The judge said I don't know how I put the price on. By the way, it doesn't even divide you. You get well. Oh no, the judge said that would be unjust enrichment and I guess that's a lesson, that if you think it's a sane move to remove healthy organs and you think it's a sane move to store them in a freezer, in a baggy, apparently, for what I don't know, rocky Mount Noistures come to mind and Jeffrey Dahmer comes to mind but, I am losing.
Parenting, Guns, Education, and Political Dynamics
Speaker 2My audience is draining off right now. I better stop. Anyway, the whole thing with crumbly case, parents rights, parents responsibilities, guns and safe gun storage, mental health what does it look like? And look, I grew up in an era where kids were no different. Kids passed through this period of life with different issues, but you had the school system, the juvenile justice system, civic organizations, neighbors, more churches if they had one and most people did at that point and it was one objective. Can we get behind this child, support this child so that that person becomes a balanced adult and it come on. This is what our society has done and it's because of the breakdown in the politics and in the media. Ryan.
Speaker 3Okay, we're going to stick with this theme, and this is from Greg in Rochester, new York. Rich, I've heard you talk about your graduated gun policy, and on some levels, I agree. What I'd like to see, though, is that we start that approval and graduation process at age 21, like we do with legal alcohol consumption in most states. Many states seem to think 16 year olds are more responsible with guns than they would be with alcohol. What are your thoughts on this?
Speaker 2Not a bad idea at all. We're responsible gun owners and that's basically most of them that they're going to teach target shooting and hunting and defense and they're going to do it responsibly and to say that hey, at a future time you can start acquiring your own weapons. I mean, that's a great thing that might tune that law up. So I would do something, because what we're doing now, nothing isn't working.
Speaker 3Okay, we're going to stick in Michigan, and this is from Jeff in Higgins Lake. Rich, I'm from Michigan. I think you're a Michigander too. I would like to see you do an episode about Governor Whitmer's proposal to move 75% of funds from Michigan's state board of education to a new department of lifelong education, advancement and potential. Also, the Detroit News reports that Whitmer wants to take $670 million from our teachers pension fund. Finally, governor Whitmer's name comes up as a possible president someday. Do you think she'd be a good one?
Speaker 2Wow, I think I'm a Michigander. I'm also a Michiganian too, so, and I'm from the Mitten, so you know whatever. So a lot wrapped up in there. So first of all, three elements of this, brian. One under Governor Snyder, the pension plan for teachers, retirement and healthcare was carb-de-side, and I think the number is approaching 700 million, and the idea was let's not strand the retirees if we have lean times, and you know, in a manufacturing economy it goes up and goes down. It's just the way things work. And the governor wanted to tap those funds, send them an IOU and go spend it on other things which would potentially put the state in distress. It doesn't appear at the moment like that's going to go through this new agency. It kind of goes hand in hand with what we've seen this governor do. The Department of Education certainly could have been given the mission for lifelong learning and expanded that charter and accomplish the same ends, but with an opportunity to move from an elected board of education at the state to an agency run by political appointees of the governor. Our governor chose the path that could lead to ruling by fiat and by executive order and further politicize what should be a base thing for all citizens.
Speaker 2Now, in terms of governor Whitmer's viability for president, I would like to say this I think that our governor got off to a great start when she was elected. She basically picked up where Rick Snyder left off. It was a beautiful first state of the state speech and I think she really meant it. I think she's a good person and she said doesn't matter, we're not going to be Republicans, democrats, independents, and we're going to advance the interests of the state of Michigan.
Speaker 2And then during COVID, donald Trump called her that woman from Michigan. Every news outlet started getting sound bites from her and she kind of got caught up in the partisanship. She knew she was going on to deliver an anti-Trump sound bite and I think she's been pulled into that vortex. I've talked before about some of the things she did during COVID got carried away with executive orders, didn't follow her own directives really bad form. I'd like to see which correction Whitmer emerges. Are we going to see that crazy partisan that we've seen, or are we going to get back to the reasonable and balanced Gretchen Whitmer? So you know where my heart is and I hope the governor does a great job. I hope she remembers what her job is and it's not advancing the interests of the Democratic National Committee. It's serving everybody in the state of Michigan.
Speaker 3Okay, this is from Diane and she's in Seymour, indiana. Rich Love the show and loved hearing Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips twice on the Common Bridge. Do you think he should quit the Democratic Party since they won't support him, and would he be a good no labels candidate, or do you think he should try to run on the green ticket or the libertarian ticket?
Speaker 2Yeah, it's kind of like. Which way is he going to not get elected to be president? And the operative story here is that Mr Phillips is clearly qualified to be the chief executive of the United States. Whether you agree with every one of his policies or not, you know he's run things. He's been in government. He's been critical of his own party as well as the Republicans. He said we can't let Donald Trump back in the office. He said Joe Biden's just too old time to turn the page. I'd vote for him if the choice was him or a lot of Republicans.
Speaker 2But the really interesting part while 70% of voters still want something other than Trump or Biden, both sides have collapsed on Dean Phillips to try to extinguish his candidacy Instead of saying well, wait a minute, could this guy be a good chief executive of the United States? And that's where I started. And it's like I hope, whatever he does, that he stays in the fight, stays in the hunt and tries to get his message out. And we can do better than these two aged guys of Trump and Biden. And Phillips has at least shown us that I don't know what it would take to get him in the White House, the Democrats trying to block him off primary ballots. And Brian, I don't know when the show is going to air, but there is a Michigan primary on the 27th. If you haven't voted early, Phillips is on it.
Speaker 3This is somewhat related. This is from Stephanie in Spartac Tennessee. She says hi, Rich, if you were a betting man, would you bet on both Trump and Biden, or either one, being ousted at their respective conventions this year and replaced with other candidates? After all, the conventions produced the candidates before the primary system took over.
Speaker 2First of all, political forecasts. As a good friend, don't be because you're going to be wrong more than you're right. So I actually wrote a column a couple of years ago saying it won't be Biden or it won't be Trump. I don't think that's going to age very well. From what I understand about the rules, I believe the Republicans have to vote on the first ballot, the way the primaries came out. If I am correct about that I'm not 100% sure then that would mean Trump would become the nominee, then the Democrats. My understanding is that it would take Biden assigning his delegates. There are people that are saying that his family should tell him not to run. Look, it's getting closer and closer to November and less and less chance for something to change. What we can do is raise our voices against, the only thing we can do at this point.
Speaker 3Okay, this one's interesting. This is from Mike and there's no location, but it came in from Substack. If Biden drops out of the race even at the very last minute, what does the Democratic Party do with Vice President Kamala Harris?
Speaker 2Thank her for her service and move on.
Speaker 3Aren't her approval ratings like 10 points lower than Biden's, I think?
Speaker 2Yeah, they're pretty abysmal. She's earned it, though. From most Democrats that Biden did what he said he was going to do. He's going to nominate a woman. If we get it, we have the first woman Vice President back when we could define a woman. Oops, let that slip off. Joe Biden should declare a mission accomplished and move on.
Speaker 3All right, just a few more here. Rich, this is from Lisa and this was from Twitter, or what was formerly called Twitter. Rich, I enjoy your podcast, but I keep hearing you tell us how unprepared for the presidency Trump is and that he doesn't want to learn the job and he is personally very flawed. I have to ask you if Trump wins this fall and he's putting together a cabinet and consider how many people in his first term were fired or quit would you, rich Helpy, take a position in his cabinet? If asked?
Speaker 2Well, first of all, I don't think that's going to happen. It wouldn't matter to me under this theoretical situation that there's a zero chance of that occurring. But who knows, maybe he's throwing so many other people under the bus. He's got to find fresh talent. But if my president called me, if it was Kamala Harris, if it was Donald Trump, it wouldn't matter. I would go, serve to the best of my ability. Period, because my president called me. I would expect that I would be fired and criticized and ridiculed by Trump because that's just how he rolls.
Speaker 2One time long ago, I got fired from a job and I reported directly to the CEO and I felt bad about it. It was pretty young. I said hey, wait a minute. I've been here four years and he's fired 40 of his direct reports. It's like that's just how he rolls People that he gets for the cabinet. They're sophisticated, they know how that's going to end. The man doesn't have advisors and that's why he's not prepared. Of the many reasons he doesn't listen to anybody. You can't run anything by the seat of your pants, for Pete's sake. Can the Democrats come up with a good candidate? That's my view. Is that the first of the major parties to come up with a sane candidate, wins it a landslide.
Speaker 3Well, for whatever it's worth, I think that's a fine answer. It's a very military answer. As an American, if you're called upon by your president, you just pony up. All right, let's move on. This is pretty well thought out. This is from Scott in Las Vegas, rich. I recently listened to a thought-provoking podcast where Russell Dobbular discussed the justification for the Hamas bombing of the Israelis. I respectfully disagree with his position and it prompted me to reflect on the complexities surrounding this touchy issue, so I thought I'd write in. I wasn't clear about how you stood on this. Can you make clear where you and the common bridge stands on this?
Trump's Impact on Political Parties
Speaker 2First of all, I can't sort out the Middle East. I know many Israelis and many Jewish people. I know many Arabic people and some Palestinians. Like any other normal citizen not involved with the government, they don't want to see this happening. None of the actual people that are involved in the fighting think this is a good idea. Even if you look at the Hamas attack, I don't know how many of the fighters you could number, but it's not like it was okay. The whole area of Gaza mobilized and every able-bodied person went and attacked. It was a very small number. The justification is really beyond me, and so this is why I had Dr Todd Endelman on the program to talk about the history of the area and how things have come to be, and I would encourage everyone to go back and listen to that and you'll get way more information and perspective than I personally can offer. I don't know. This looks intractable to me, so just thoughtfully prayerfully hope that it resolves in some manner better than what we got right now.
Speaker 3Okay, moving on, this is from DB from Substack, and he's responding to your conversation with former North Carolina governor Pat McCrory. I think it was episode 235. And DB is saying that Trump is actually a third party candidate who really just rested power of the Republican Party and has essentially destroyed the Republican Party. Do you agree with DB on that?
Speaker 2It's not a bad view. I got to tell you, db. That is thought provoking. And way back in the primaries that led up to 16, I said the only good thing about Trump winning the nomination which I thought he had no chance of doing was that it would disrupt the establishment of the Republican Party. And he did it.
Speaker 2But they've not become more responsive. The Republicans have retreated and I liken them to a deer in the headlights they just don't know what to do. As the famous saying goes, there's a front part to this statement, but the back part is or go blind. So the Republicans are really directionless and they're in a box. You can't say, well, I am a Republican, the way the Republicans used to be, and then boom, the Trump wing is going to come down on you and you go well, I don't like. Well, I really like Trump, but you guys aren't being reasonable.
Speaker 2The other thing I said in 16 was that Trump's election, which I didn't think was going to happen, I said it would disrupt the establishment of the Democratic Party, and I was wrong about that, because the most establishment candidate ever in, joe Biden, came in and the Democrats have closed ranks. They have hidden their candidate, hidden their president from us exercised power in an authoritarian way. They're looking to protect that by this lawfare. That's going on and any fair-minded person that looks at it understands that that's what's going on. So the Democrats response was way different than I thought it was going to be. I was just wrong about that. They've doubled down on that machine-type politics and they don't seem to be pausing at all. It's going to get really ugly between now and November and potentially getting worse after November, no matter who wins.
Speaker 3Okay, this is a bit of a non sequitur, but this is from Ray Indayton, who listens to your program on WJR in Detroit. He says, rich, I listened to your program on WJR last month and you talked about healthcare and that it should not be a fringe benefit of employment, but rather an expense that each citizen should carry the burden for. I don't agree with that at all. Why do you think we should pay for insurance instead of our employer paying for our insurance?
Speaker 2Well, it's not quite the policy, but first of all, you are paying for it. All right, make no mistake, you are paying for it, and the patchwork of policies that we have is unfair on multiple levels, and your employer's insurance is really a mirage. It's there unless you get so sick you can't work, and then you lose it. And if you become so old you can't work exactly the time you need more healthcare you lose it. But the private insurance industry is very, very powerful and they are controlling the law in Washington. The simplest thing that Congress could do would be to say, okay, employers, you can give those benefits, but their compensation, which is what the original intent was in 1945. And then, when people started getting billed for the cost of that on their W-2s, we're going to get real reform, which, just in a nutshell, a base level for everybody and, by the way, dean Phillips is the only candidate that is saying we need to do that. It's the sensible thing to do.
Speaker 2I've written about this. You can see it on my website. We're already there but a base level that everybody gets, and then a private market for people that want more choice, faster service, etc. And that would make the insurance companies have to come up with an affordable and attractive option. There's a little more to that, but that basic core works rather well in many other Western democracies the United States. We're doing it the most stupid way possible and my proof statement is that, had there not been special laws passed during COVID, relying on the payment system as it exists today would have put every health system, or nearly every health system in America, out of business, would have bankrupted them. So what we have today is stupid. I have a column I've written about health care reform. I have lots of people on that and to that other person, like, maybe Trump calls me or whoops, I'm assuming Trump could. Maybe the president of elect calls me and says, hey, we need a secretary of HHS. What do you got?
Speaker 3All right. That wraps up this quarter's version of the Common Bridge mailbag. Rich thanks a lot and in looking forward, do you think this is going to be a fun year going forward with the election and everything and outside of that? Just wrap up this episode.
Real Journalism on Substack
Speaker 2All right, Brian, first of all, it depends on your definition of fun. Okay, and I'm not saying that you as a professional comedian one day couldn't find a joke in anything, and I can usually find the funny side of just about anything. I think the only way out of this is that people need to quit buying what they're selling, and I love getting the private messages and people saying, hey, I like the program and have you thought about this and such, but please tell your friends, let's get a discussion going. Substack is moving along a little bit and it's real people talking instead of people flaming each other. It's not a social media platform. It's real journalism being practiced by real journalists.
Speaker 2Again, I don't keep myself in that group, but I am trying to do some decent reporting here and I'm very grateful to my guests and I'm very grateful to the listeners and the readers and the viewers. I just appreciate you being there and love to hear from you. So thank you everybody. This is your, not host. This is your guest today. Rich Helpe signing off on the Common Bridge. Thanks for joining us on the Common Bridge.
Speaker 1Subscribe to the Common Bridge on Saturdays at 8 pm, or subscribe to thecommonbridgeonsubstackcom or use their Substack app, where you can find more interviews, columns, videos and nonpartisan discussions of the day. Just search for the Common Bridge. You can also find the Common Bridge on Mission Control Radio or your Radio Garden app.