Latest / World Ablaze with George Fontes / Evan Longin - Author | Psychology | Speaker
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome, World of Blaze listeners and now, watchers.
- 0:16As promised, I am doing video episodes and as I stated previously, for those who do listen
- 0:22to my audio-only episodes, I am primarily focusing on guest episodes and where those
- 0:28will be video because I just believe it's better to be able to see people's reactions
- 0:32for better context. You can see people's faces, etc. Welcome to episode 80. And on today's episode,
- 0:40I have guest Evan Longin. Evan Longin is a psychologist of 45 years. He used to have his
- 0:48private practice. He also taught psychotherapy, and he's a published author. He wrote the book,
- 0:53The Root of Evil. And in that book, he discusses how it is possible that evil can creep into society
- 1:03without us even knowing it. And of course, this discussion definitely goes in the direction of
- 1:09Trump. We discuss Trump as many consider him to be evil or Hitler or a dictator. And so that
- 1:16discussion is had. But then we shift from domestic politics and talk about conflicts abroad. We talk
- 1:23about Israel, Gaza, and of course, we discuss Russia and Ukraine. I really do hope you enjoy
- 1:30this episode. Evan's a very intelligent person, and this is a great episode to watch because
- 1:37in this episode, you see that two people that don't necessarily agree. I'm not a Democrat of
- 1:43the left, and Evan is definitely not of the right, but we're still able to come together,
- 1:48have a discussion, and even offer solutions that work.
- 1:52I mean, just make sense for everybody, for humans living on the planet in a way that we
- 1:58can coexist and respect each other.
- 2:01So without further ado, here is Evan Longin.
- 2:06So thank you for taking the time and coming on to the show.
- 2:10And as we just discussed earlier before I press record, appropriate, given what's going
- 2:15on in California. Before we move on, I want to go ahead and, I mean, the background that I see
- 2:21here on you, you were a psychologist before the private practice. Is this true?
- 2:27Yes.
- 2:27Okay. And you taught psychotherapy for over 45 years or so. Is that correct?
- 2:32Yes.
- 2:33Okay. Awesome. And then you became an author, that book, The Root of Evil. And was that released in
- 2:402022 or 2023? 2020, at the end of 2022. So right on that cusp of transitioning into 23.
- 2:47Yes. And you're known for that. You sold a few copies for sure, and you do discuss it.
- 2:53And the subjects in here, now I'm a politics and geopolitics show, but I do like to venture
- 2:58out into other areas. That being said, I think a lot of what you wrote and what you study is
- 3:04very appropriate to what's going on today. I did want to ask you though, before we dive into that,
- 3:09excuse me while I turn this up
- 3:11that
- 3:11that
- 3:15you mentioned something
- 3:17I'm reading here in your bio about
- 3:19how psychotherapy I believe
- 3:21if I'm getting this correct can
- 3:23fail society or it can lead
- 3:25yes
- 3:25that's how I got interested in this whole
- 3:29idea of the breakdown
- 3:31of institutions
- 3:32and the breakdown of the body politic
- 3:35because in my own field
- 3:37we failed people frequently.
- 3:41I originally was a fellow at the Nathan Ackerman Family Institute
- 3:47where I studied postdoc and family therapy.
- 3:52And one of the things we noted back then was that the person who's the identified patient
- 4:00may in fact be the person who is most likely to bring new perspective to the family.
- 4:09And over and over again in my career, I was given very difficult cases that were not responding to treatment.
- 4:18And I found that they weren't responding to treatment because they were treating the wrong person.
- 4:22that the person that was the hospitalized or identified patient was not the problem.
- 4:31And I have a case that I talk about in my book that's the simplest one to understand.
- 4:36I get a call from a mother who tells me that her doctor, her pediatrician had referred her family to me,
- 4:46that her son had just been excluded from school after he went back to school and knocked out all
- 4:55the windows on the first floor of the school. This is an eight-year-old boy. So I said to the mother,
- 5:01well, okay, I'm more than happy to see you. I want to see you tomorrow with your whole family
- 5:07and with the boy, and we'll all talk about what's going on. And the first thing she says to me,
- 5:13no, no, no, no, no. You don't get it. My son is the problem. We don't need to come in.
- 5:19And I said, huh, well, you have to humor me because this is how I work. I like to see a
- 5:24family together, get a feel for what the dynamics are that are going on in the family.
- 5:30And if you want to bring your son in, I'm more than happy to see you. She said, well,
- 5:35I'm not coming in. I said, well, listen, then go to back to your pediatrician and get a referral
- 5:43to someone else. She said, well, the doctor said you're the best around. I said, well, thank you.
- 5:48So if you want my help, come in. So the next day she arrives, her husband and herself and her son,
- 5:55but she didn't bring her daughter. And I said to her, where's your daughter? And she said,
- 6:01my daughter's not a problem. My son's the problem and you got to fix him. Well, you see where this
- 6:06is going. Yeah, absolutely. So they all come into the office, the three of them. And I say to the
- 6:14son, would you do me a favor, take your chair and bring it up next to me. I want you to be my
- 6:18assistant therapist. And he goes, really? And I said, yeah, I'd like you to help me. And the
- 6:25mother goes, what is this? What are you doing? You're rewarding him for being a bad kid. I said,
- 6:32no, I'm getting him to participate and to feel safe and to join me in exploring what's going on
- 6:39in the family. Well, to make a long story short, ultimately, she's about to leave when the father
- 6:47says, I can't take it anymore. My wife was out cold on the floor when he came home from school.
- 6:53she's a drunk she's out of control and he in his own way went looking for help
- 7:01I said wow that's really impressive dad so I've seen so much of that I've seen where it's so easy
- 7:11to look at a situation and blame that person and so often if that kid had been treated in a
- 7:18more traditional setting, he would have been in therapy forever with no progress.
- 7:25All because the mother wanted to mask her own actions and her own behavior.
- 7:29Yes.
- 7:30It was affecting the family unit and the child.
- 7:32So those are the kinds of situations.
- 7:34That's as blatant one as I can share.
- 7:38We worked with a team.
- 7:40We would have a team of people who sat in the room with me, and the family would sit
- 7:45with other members of my team being interviewed.
- 7:48And then the family would, we would talk amongst ourselves about the things we heard.
- 7:55In this one instance, a young man who had been in McLean's Hospital, a famous psychiatric facility, and had been removed because he wasn't making progress, sat with us on our team.
- 8:07And the mother and the father and the sister were talking on the other side of the room.
- 8:12and after they finished talking he looked at us and he said holy cow is it possible
- 8:21that I did the things I did because I knew my mother was so depressed and I needed to do it
- 8:29to help the family is that and this came spontaneously from this 12 year old boy so
- 8:36So again, over and over and over, I have been called into difficult situations that don't get better because they're treating the wrong situation, the wrong problem.
- 8:46Right.
- 8:48And that's common.
- 8:49So that's how I got into this.
- 8:50Yeah, that's common in just the medical industry in general.
- 8:55I mean.
- 8:55Yes.
- 8:56Yeah, that's unfortunate.
- 8:58So with that being said, that is why you got into doing what you're doing and why you chose to go down the path of researching.
- 9:08And in your book, you do give your opinions on how evil can easily sneak into society.
- 9:17Now, does this tie into that?
- 9:21Yeah.
- 9:22Yeah.
- 9:22Yeah, again, what I started to see in situations in the families I worked with, and by the way, I also back around 2010, that era, for five years, I was in the Middle East, working with Palestinian and Israeli children, bringing them together to talk with each other and to learn about each other and to collaborate.
- 9:49so my experience went from being a psychotherapist
- 9:55to working in issues in the community
- 9:57but what I saw over and over again
- 10:01was one, binary thinking
- 10:05us versus them
- 10:07in the case of the Middle East, Israelis versus Palestinians
- 10:11in today's California
- 10:14the white majority
- 10:18versus minority immigrants.
- 10:22They're seen as different.
- 10:24They're seen as other.
- 10:28The second thing is power over behavior,
- 10:32where the psychiatrist or the teacher
- 10:37or the politician uses power to control situations
- 10:44that should come about in a more collaborative,
- 10:48discussion between people. The third piece is the control of information. Today, a blatant
- 10:58thing happened. I don't know if you saw, Senator Padilla was tackled when he was trying to ask
- 11:05questions of the Secretary of Homeland Security. I did not see that today yet. He was thrown to
- 11:12the ground he was handcuffed and the story that MAGA is putting out is that they didn't know who
- 11:21he was he didn't identify himself well you can watch the the tv reporting of this and you can
- 11:29see he's going I'm senator Padilla I mean that is they said and they're throwing him to the ground
- 11:34so again there's a distortion of information information is corrupted we don't get the truth
- 11:41And the final piece that I found was people come up with simplistic solutions to complex problems.
- 11:50Yeah, they do.
- 11:52They oversimplify it.
- 11:53So instead of saying, okay, this is going to require some thought, we're going to have to work together.
- 11:58Both sides have to come together and collaborate to come up with a solution.
- 12:02unfortunately in in all the instances that i put in my book of evil in the community
- 12:11in in the college in psychotherapy we come up with simplistic solutions this kid broke the windows
- 12:18he needs to be the patient um it's it's uh too often a simplistic approach to something that
- 12:30requires more in-depth
- 12:32discussion and collaboration.
- 12:37Well, because punishment's not
- 12:38treating the cause, right? Or the root of
- 12:40why they behave that way.
- 12:42Right. So
- 12:43that all being said, it's
- 12:46in society,
- 12:48I mean, we'll just dive into it because we're already talking
- 12:50about things that are going on. Obviously, Trump
- 12:52administration, very polarizing figure.
- 12:55Some people approve some people don but regardless of Some people see him as a dictator fascist evil person fine so let let talk about how or if you can explain rather because you the expert in this
- 13:10is from your viewpoint how does evil creep in how does it get accepted into society and and how do
- 13:17these cults get formed where people are just willingly just blindly following the leader how
- 13:23does this happen? How does it happen? I just got back from Europe. I was in Germany, in Austria,
- 13:33and I was struck by what a wonderful culture, historic culture, the German-Austrian culture
- 13:46has been over generations.
- 13:49How was it possible
- 13:51that people joined with Adolf Hitler
- 13:57in this horrendous movement
- 14:01that was so inhuman,
- 14:06so evil, so dastardly?
- 14:09I don't know whether the word to use.
- 14:10That is the prime example of evil sneaking in
- 14:13and becoming accepted.
- 14:14Right, and being accepted.
- 14:16Um, my sense is you need people to be frightened.
- 14:23You need people to feel like they're not being heard.
- 14:27I didn't spend enough time in my book talking about that.
- 14:30The reason why, uh, Hitler took hold is the people of Germany felt like they were mistreated
- 14:37after world war one.
- 14:38They were poor.
- 14:39They were hungry.
- 14:40They wanted more opportunity, and Hitler was giving them a sense of power, a sense of being heard.
- 14:50Trump is doing exactly the same thing.
- 14:53Trump listened to people who were feeling left out, feeling like the people who felt like they weren't given the same opportunities as others.
- 15:07unfortunately those people are not being represented by trump he is not making it any
- 15:16easier for them to buy eggs he's not making it any easier for them to have access in fact his whole
- 15:24political economic strategy is he's going to give more money to the rich
- 15:30And then ultimately that's going to seep down to the poor people.
- 15:36So again, they, they, they think he's,
- 15:40he is speaking to their hurt and their anger and they're receptive to it.
- 15:50That's how it happens. I think.
- 15:52I mean, you got a point. I can't argue against that. That is,
- 15:55that is usually how almost any leader who gets elected, though, comes into power regardless.
- 16:02I mean, you're trying to play it to people's sympathies, right?
- 16:05Yes.
- 16:05That's usually what you do.
- 16:06But the problem with Trump, with Hitler, with other megalomaniacs is that they really don't offer solutions that will make the situation any better.
- 16:25They offer false solutions that ultimately create more problems.
- 16:30It's interesting.
- 16:32Do you think some of, because he is an interesting person to talk about.
- 16:37I mean, he's never had a president like this ever.
- 16:40And I will say that I don't agree with how he acts in public.
- 16:47He's not presidential.
- 16:49And the thing that he does, like, why are we airing out grievances on social media, for example?
- 16:55that whole spat between him and Elon Musk and whoever wants to speak up
- 16:58against him.
- 16:59Like that's,
- 16:59that's kind of closed door conversation,
- 17:02right?
- 17:02You work that out.
- 17:03You keep that,
- 17:04you keep that out of the public,
- 17:05in my opinion.
- 17:07Do you feel Trump though,
- 17:08at times where he does have success,
- 17:10do you think it's intentional or just accidental?
- 17:12Like things just kind of half,
- 17:15haphazardly come together and he just claims the win.
- 17:19Look,
- 17:20unfortunately in each of these situations that I think,
- 17:25evil comes about, the person is not open to collaboration.
- 17:32The person is not open to being in a discussion that brings together multiple ideas
- 17:40and then work out as best a solution as you can.
- 17:46Trump, unfortunately, besides being vulgar and crass, doesn't respect.
- 17:52He speaks badly about anybody who disagrees with him.
- 17:58He calls them communists.
- 18:00He calls them weak.
- 18:01He calls them all kinds of names.
- 18:04But he doesn't say, okay, I want to talk with them.
- 18:08Let's sit down and talk about what's the best way to go forward.
- 18:13And that was my sense when I was in the Middle East.
- 18:16Those people never understood that both sides had reasonable claims to their position.
- 18:27It wasn't that the Israelis were correct or that the Palestinians were correct.
- 18:33They both had legitimate claims that needed to be listened to.
- 18:39And unfortunately, the powers that be continued to vilify the other side.
- 18:46Right. Right. Well, that's not uncommon though. Each side thinks they're right. Each side thinks that they're owed whatever it is they believe is owed to them. That situation, that goes back a very long ways. It really does.
- 19:05I don't know if we're ever going to come to a solution
- 19:08as far as that goes.
- 19:10I would hope so.
- 19:11I mean, I don't think that the Palestinian people themselves
- 19:14need to be caught in the middle
- 19:15between what's allegedly happening
- 19:17between Hamas and Israel.
- 19:21But it's just sad that I think
- 19:24that those people have to go through this
- 19:25and they're the ones being stuck in the middle
- 19:26between the two fighting
- 19:27and they're being used.
- 19:30They're being used, not just as shields,
- 19:31but as sympathy cards.
- 19:33Yeah, absolutely.
- 19:34On both sides.
- 19:35Yeah, they are.
- 19:37So again, that's the problem.
- 19:39The problem is that, to me, has all the makings of evil.
- 19:43Us versus them, power over behavior.
- 19:47I'm stronger than you, so I'll fuck you up.
- 19:51Right.
- 19:51Part of English.
- 19:53Put a blunt, yeah.
- 19:55Simplistic solutions.
- 19:56I'll blow the hell out of Gaza and Hamas will disappear.
- 20:01Right, which is not the right solution
- 20:04And not tell the truth about the political realities
- 20:09That are governing why these people are behaving this way
- 20:12The powers are behaving this way
- 20:14Netanyahu has all kinds of political agenda
- 20:20That have nothing to do with Hamas
- 20:23And yet that will be his calling card
- 20:28I'm going to save Israelis from Hamas.
- 20:33So what do you think?
- 20:34So what is his actual political, okay, example of his political agenda outside of he's going to save Israel from Hamas.
- 20:41What do you think it is he wants to achieve?
- 20:44He wants to maintain power.
- 20:46Well, yeah.
- 20:47Right?
- 20:48He is in cahoots with the ultra-Orthodox, and he needs their support.
- 20:55He has been much like Trump.
- 20:57He has been indicted on a number of crimes that he does not want to sit before the court.
- 21:04In fact, he's trying to change the nature of the court.
- 21:07So those other agenda are part of what are driving him to do what he does.
- 21:16Okay.
- 21:17And so how do you feel about the sudden thinning out or pulling out of our embassies in the Middle East right now?
- 21:27Is it basically you think the U.S. or Trump saying, hey, I had nothing to do with this.
- 21:34Now who's doing whatever he's going to do?
- 21:36We can't stop him.
- 21:37We can't control him.
- 21:37He's not listening.
- 21:39The reports are there is a verge of, well, they're on the verge of attacking Iran, for example.
- 21:45Yes.
- 21:45Which is what the hot topic is, which is a bad thing regardless.
- 21:51What do you think the move was there then as far as Trump or this administration trying to pull out?
- 21:56concerned, Trump thought he had
- 22:00an easy solution to the situation
- 22:04in the Middle East. He thought he had an easy solution
- 22:07to the Russian-Ukraine war. Neither one of those
- 22:12things are turning out to be easy solutions and require a lot
- 22:16more in-depth
- 22:18analysis and discussion than he understood.
- 22:23now he sees that Netanyahu is as crazy as he is
- 22:28and that Netanyahu can't be dealt with
- 22:31in a way that he anticipated Netanyahu would be
- 22:36and it scares him to think that all of a sudden
- 22:39the Middle East is going to blow up into a major
- 22:43conflagration
- 22:45I mean they were always on the verge since the beginning of time it seems as well
- 22:50so let's talk about that Ukraine piece then
- 22:54so does the world
- 22:56really seem
- 22:57both the world blames the US for that
- 23:00situation for whatever reason
- 23:02do you think that Trump
- 23:04is really the blame for this situation
- 23:06and is it solely
- 23:08the blame for what situation
- 23:10in Ukraine and Russia
- 23:11yeah I think
- 23:14the one
- 23:16to blame there is another
- 23:18egomaniac named Putin
- 23:20Right. And Putin was determined to make a greater Soviet Union again. Yeah. And he's thought he again misread simplistic solution to a complex problem. He misread the situation in the Ukraine that they would be easy marks for him to march in and him take over part of their territory.
- 23:44so again it starts I think with Putin unfortunately again Trump being who he is
- 23:54and his sense that he has this
- 23:58charisma that can make other people bend to his ways thought that Putin would come around and he
- 24:09would come up with an alliance and they would solve the Russian-Ukraine problem, just like
- 24:17he did with Netanyahu.
- 24:20Unfortunately, he's dealing with people who are much the same as he is.
- 24:26And then you got guys like Erdogan and Turkey and Orban and Hungary, all these people that
- 24:35he aligns himself with that are also of the same ilk.
- 24:39I mean, think about the simplistic solutions that he's coming up with while he's alienating NATO, our historic allies, making like they are robbing us.
- 24:55That's such misinformation.
- 24:59Again, it's so interesting.
- 25:01Have you been in Europe recently?
- 25:02No, I have not.
- 25:04Europe is so far ahead of us in their lifestyle.
- 25:09They have buses that don't give off emissions.
- 25:12They have lights when you go into the room to go on and off.
- 25:15They have escalators at the airport that shut down if there's nobody running on them.
- 25:21They have streets that are paved.
- 25:26We're becoming a third world country.
- 25:28He's telling everybody we're the greatest country in the world.
- 25:31My eyes tell me that you go to a place like Spain or France, they live so much healthier lifestyles.
- 25:43They take breaks in the middle of the day.
- 25:44They don't work the number of hours we work.
- 25:47I've heard that.
- 25:47They get all these benefits that he calls the socialist conspiracy.
- 25:52They get their medicine paid for.
- 25:55They get their education paid for.
- 25:57They get their home schooling paid for for their children And we talking about them like they crazy people We aren getting the facts out there for us to listen to
- 26:13Yeah, but our situation has gone.
- 26:16This is years in the making.
- 26:18This isn't specific to any Republican or Democratic president regardless.
- 26:22It's been going on for quite some time.
- 26:24But it's been taken to an extreme.
- 26:26Well, it has because people tend to not like Trump and, you know, call it what you will.
- 26:34But when, you know, when everybody is doing everything they can to focus the messaging
- 26:38on Trump, bad, hate Trump, he's going to be the scapegoat of everything.
- 26:42Now he's not perfect.
- 26:43I've already admitted that.
- 26:44And he does do some stupid things.
- 26:47I mean, we can't, I'm not going to sit here and pat him on the back all day.
- 26:50Cause I can't, you know, we can't deny it.
- 26:52It's like, I scratch my head constantly.
- 26:53Like, what, what are you doing?
- 26:54You know, sometimes I'm like, okay, you got something, but then you got a question.
- 26:58Well, was that accidental?
- 26:59Did it just, was it really planned?
- 27:00I have no idea.
- 27:02He's definitely going to be studied for years, I believe.
- 27:05Now, as far as Ukraine goes, let's talk about that because that whole thing started way back.
- 27:11In fact, during the Obama administration, everybody turned their back when Russia took over Crimea and it was annexed.
- 27:17Nobody stepped in to help Ukraine at that point.
- 27:20Here we go.
- 27:21fast forward, Russia's trying to do it again because, as you said, Putin wants to reunite
- 27:26the old USSR. That's always been his goal. He's never hit it. He's said it many, many, many times.
- 27:31He's getting older. There's a legacy issue for him. He's getting older. He's been in power for
- 27:36a long time. I think it's now or never for him. Now, I call this a cold World War III because
- 27:41reality is China is involved. They have troops there, although they're claiming they're not
- 27:45involved in the war. They have North Korean troops there, and Iran has been sending technology and
- 27:49drones and other things to support this war as well. Everybody else has done nothing. Let's just
- 27:54be quite honest. Europe hasn't done anything. Kerr Starmer talks loud. Macron talks loud.
- 27:59Nobody does a thing. The United Kingdom signed a hundred year agreement with Ukraine way before
- 28:06the incident happened in the White House between Zelensky and Trump, by the way. Signed in January
- 28:11January 2025, where they committed to build up their economic trade, okay, using, by the way,
- 28:20UK trade partners and trade channels. They were going to bolster their business,
- 28:25help them with their minerals, and protect them. A hundred-year agreement that was signed January
- 28:292025. Nothing has happened. Nothing outside of maybe sending a little bit of money. Maybe they
- 28:35get a little bit of munitions. Even Keir Starmer said, hey, we're going to go ahead and we're going
- 28:40to ramp everything up. We're going to put boots on the ground. Hasn't happened. Nobody's putting
- 28:44boots on the ground. It doesn't matter who it is. Yet the US is blamed for the whole thing because
- 28:48we're seen as a superpower. What's stopping Europe? Poland is on the ready. Poland has been very,
- 28:55very much on the ready, protecting their border and ready to go. But the reality is nobody wants
- 29:00a nuclear war. Nobody wants to admit that. No one's really coming out and say that. That's the
- 29:04only reason they're letting Putin do what he, you know, doing anything he does. Now you take that
- 29:08into account that China, anytime they're saying they don't support this, but yet they're sending
- 29:13troops and then they're playing games over there in Taiwan. So this situation is bad regardless.
- 29:20If Europe steps in, if Europe steps in, China might say, cool, here's our opportunity. While
- 29:26everybody's focused over here in the U.S. might have to go and help their allies, they're going
- 29:30to move in on Taiwan, right? So while the U.S. gets the blame and Trump gets the blame, this
- 29:36thing was debacled. This was a mess since Obama. Nothing happened under the Biden administration
- 29:41either. Nobody wanted to step foot. Everybody talked loud. Nobody did anything. I personally
- 29:47think it's time to pull our heads out of our ass. Trump needs to go in and we need to do something
- 29:51because we also have an agreement with the Ukraine. Are we really going to be protecting them? Is the
- 29:56UK going to protect them? Or is everybody just going to posture and try to win brownie points
- 30:00in the media by saying, hey, I'm speaking tough to Putin. Putin don't give a damn.
- 30:06Putin can care less.
- 30:07He's already called everybody's bluff.
- 30:09So what's the next step?
- 30:11We could point the finger at who's to blame, but who's going to step up?
- 30:15I don't want to talk about who's to blame.
- 30:18No, I know.
- 30:19But everyone's doing that right now.
- 30:20So I'm saying, like, who's going to step up?
- 30:22We need a solution.
- 30:23We need a solution.
- 30:23Absolutely.
- 30:24This goes back to the fall of the Russian Empire.
- 30:28Yes.
- 30:28Yes. Yes. We made some very tactical errors in closing in on Russia with NATO.
- 30:37Yeah. I don't disagree with that, by the way. I think that was a bad move. It really was.
- 30:42It was a bad move. And I think what we created going way back, so we're going back into the 20th century, that lots of errors have been made, a lot of simplistic solutions to complex problems.
- 30:59True.
- 31:00I'm not here to blame Trump for having caused this.
- 31:05What I do concern myself with is when he says things like the Ukraine attacked Russia, that those kinds of misinformation are problematic.
- 31:21And I agree with you. I do. I think that's wrong.
- 31:24And I'm agreeing with you, too. I mean, it's very scary because if we back Russia into a position where they feel they have to strike out with nuclear weapons, we'll have a horrendous situation.
- 31:40So we don't want to do that. But it's very important, I think, for the United States to stand with its allies and say, we will confront this together, not to blame them, not to distort this as we have no problem with Russia. We do.
- 32:02The Russian situation is problematic for us and for them.
- 32:08And I keep coming back to this.
- 32:10The solutions are collaborative.
- 32:12The solutions are discussion.
- 32:15The solutions are looking at both sides of an issue.
- 32:19Russia needs protection.
- 32:21Russia needs to know that NATO is not going to infringe upon them.
- 32:25Right.
- 32:26Russia needs to know that they're going to have access to selling their goods again and building back their economy.
- 32:36There needs to be people coming together, collaborating in a sensible dialogue instead of us against them, whoever them is.
- 32:49You're spot on there because everybody wants to be, everyone wants to take credit.
- 32:56at this point, right?
- 32:58The UK wants to be the one to say,
- 32:59look at the solution I have.
- 33:01We're the hero.
- 33:02France, same thing.
- 33:03Obviously, Trump's doing the same thing.
- 33:06It's a really dire situation
- 33:08because the people are suffering,
- 33:09the people in the Ukraine, period.
- 33:12Zelensky cannot win this war.
- 33:15He can't on his own.
- 33:17Like I said, everybody's sending munitions and money,
- 33:19but that's not going to win it.
- 33:21It's going to have to be numbers,
- 33:24bodies, boots, period.
- 33:25That's the only thing that's going to work.
- 33:28But people don't realize it.
- 33:29I'm concerned if you start setting boots in, things escalate.
- 33:34Exactly.
- 33:34That's the crux of it, right?
- 33:37That's the crux of it.
- 33:38So again, you're very knowledgeable about this, George, but my sense is both sides have reasonable positions that need to be heard.
- 33:49Agreed.
- 33:49Agreed.
- 33:50And I was going to echo what you said earlier.
- 33:52Trump is a success in this last election.
- 33:55Okay.
- 33:55Because he heard the voices of people who were in pain.
- 34:01That the Democrats were talking about all kinds of, what's the word for it?
- 34:12Social issues like should transgender people play sports?
- 34:18Right.
- 34:18Rather than talk about the price of eggs, rather than talk about the fact that people are feeling cut off and they don't have access.
- 34:28Again, this country cannot operate without immigrants, even illegal immigrants.
- 34:36Right.
- 34:36What's happening in my own community?
- 34:38I was sitting in a diner the other day in Salem, Massachusetts, and the waitress said to me, you know what's happened?
- 34:46none of the Hispanic people come here anymore.
- 34:49They're all frightened.
- 34:50They're all frightened that they're going to get rounded up.
- 34:53There used to be all these workers at Home Depot
- 34:56who would line up there every morning to help contractors
- 35:00and landscapers and all kinds.
- 35:03They don't come there anymore because they're afraid
- 35:05they're going to be targeted and arrested.
- 35:08We need these people.
- 35:10There aren't poor people who want to do what the day laborers do
- 35:15who are illegal immigrants.
- 35:19Our country will,
- 35:20you guys out in California
- 35:22will have no more avocados
- 35:24if you don't have those people.
- 35:27Yeah.
- 35:28Well, our avocados were pretty much
- 35:29given away to Mexico
- 35:30as it was as far as an industry.
- 35:32It started in California
- 35:33and now we import it all from Mexico.
- 35:35So here's that with avocados.
- 35:38I don't disagree with your statements.
- 35:40This is a tricky situation
- 35:41because I think that
- 35:43we need to enforce policies
- 35:45to protect our sovereignty and our borders,
- 35:47but we shouldn't be targeting everybody
- 35:49who looks like an illegal immigrant.
- 35:52You have to do your research.
- 35:54That's right.
- 35:55And he, Trump, said he was going to go after
- 35:59those people who were criminals.
- 36:01Yes, that was what he said.
- 36:02That's what he said, but he's not doing that.
- 36:05He's going into places like the Home Depot
- 36:07and rounding up everybody who's brown.
- 36:11Yeah, they're casting too wide of a net on this.
- 36:12I mean, I believe you and I may be in agreement on this.
- 36:18They should just go after the people with the criminal records that are obviously not legal, but have a criminal background.
- 36:23They need to be addressed, period.
- 36:25The way this law even works, even if you have a green card, by the way, if you commit a crime, you are still eligible to be deported.
- 36:34You're not safe in that either until that you actually become a citizen.
- 36:38As far as you said with the legal workers that will do the work in the fields, we do need them.
- 36:43Now, at that point, though, if they did this legally, they're not illegal.
- 36:47They do get a visa in which they are allotted a certain amount of time to stay here and work under a legal status.
- 36:54We are in total agreement.
- 36:56Yeah.
- 36:57There needs to be laws that are reasonable that can be enforced.
- 37:02Absolutely.
- 37:02And we can't just have porous borders where anybody can cross over and do that.
- 37:09Again, it requires people working together to sensibly work out and collaborate together to make regulations and rules that work and that are in the best interest of everyone.
- 37:24Agreed.
- 37:25We need to do better, period.
- 37:26Yes, we need to do better.
- 37:28It wouldn't look so drastic if we didn't let it get to this point.
- 37:31The problem I'm having with the way Trump is handling this, like I said, I agree with trying to clean up the mess, but he's taking a hammer and just hitting, it's like playing whack-a-mole on whatever, right?
- 37:41He's bringing down a hammer instead of using the term kid gloves.
- 37:45Like, hey, let's be gentle about this.
- 37:47Let's try to approach this amicably.
- 37:51Because what gets me is this.
- 37:54When you have a family and you're just taking the mother away after being here for 10 to 25 years.
- 37:59Now, I'll just put this out there, and you might disagree with me.
- 38:03It doesn't matter how long you've been here.
- 38:04If you committed the crime of coming over illegally, it's going to catch up to you eventually.
- 38:09Just as if I robbed a bank, got away with it for 20 years, and all of a sudden the FBI finds out where I am and knocks on my door, that's serving justice.
- 38:15But in this case, with a family, do you think, and I think this, by the way, should you not take that situation differently?
- 38:24Should you not say, okay, look, there's a family here.
- 38:26She's already, this mother or this dad has children, been here for 10, 15 years, maybe negotiate to work out a program with them that they can take steps to make them legal or give them an extension.
- 38:38Say, all right, here's what's going on.
- 38:40We need you to do this and we'll let you stay here for six months, for example, to get everything straight.
- 38:46How do you feel about that as a solution to those problems?
- 38:50George, I'm impressed that you're a sensible man.
- 38:54I try to be.
- 38:55And that of course there has to be sensible mechanisms for evaluating a situation You have a situation where you have a family where the children are in fact Americans
- 39:13Yeah.
- 39:14They were born here and the parents came in here illegally.
- 39:17we need to come up with ways of saying okay it's in the family's best interest in the community's
- 39:25best interest to give those people a mechanism for becoming citizens it's much like we talked
- 39:32about dreamers at one point right that they had mechanisms for becoming citizens we can't do
- 39:39things with a hammer we can't do things with broad us and they statements that anybody who was
- 39:46not born here has to be eliminated.
- 39:51We need to think about what are the effects on families,
- 39:55on the community, on industries.
- 39:59And that requires us all sitting down,
- 40:01people like you and me, talking about reasonable solutions.
- 40:06Yeah. No, you're correct.
- 40:08You're correct. I'm with you.
- 40:13I got my moments.
- 40:14I'm never always correct.
- 40:15I mean, I never always get it right.
- 40:17Believe me.
- 40:18It's too hard.
- 40:19It's too hard to be, you know, to have a definite answer to these things, as you said, because, you know, there's a lot of gray area that's always ignored.
- 40:28It's not a black.
- 40:29Nothing's black and white.
- 40:30You know, everybody lives in the gray.
- 40:32We got to admit that.
- 40:32Nobody looks at it that way, at least right now with everything going on.
- 40:36It's just black, white, done.
- 40:38No, there's a big gray area that everybody lives in, period.
- 40:41Yes.
- 40:41It's not being addressed.
- 40:42Again, that requires sensibility.
- 40:44I was going to say this before.
- 40:47There was a philosopher named Levi Strauss.
- 40:50Do you know of him?
- 40:51I heard the name.
- 40:52I don't know the word.
- 40:53He taught at the University of Chicago.
- 40:56He was a Holocaust victim in Germany.
- 41:01He escaped from Germany and taught philosophy at the University of Chicago.
- 41:09And many of his students were the neocons who worked in the Bush I, Bush II administration.
- 41:24Okay.
- 41:25And Strauss said, it's in the best interest of the community to lie to them if they can't understand the issues.
- 41:38make up excuses
- 41:40such as
- 41:43weapons of mass destruction.
- 41:47Right.
- 41:47Make up those situations
- 41:49and that will give you access
- 41:52to taking care of the people
- 41:54in the way that they
- 41:56should be taken care of.
- 41:59Unfortunately, I think
- 42:00Leo Strauss made a terrible error.
- 42:03You know,
- 42:03Plato,
- 42:05Plato in the Republic,
- 42:06many, many generations ago,
- 42:09said that philosophers should be king.
- 42:14Unfortunately, nobody listens to them.
- 42:17They're the first ones to know there's a problem,
- 42:20but the last one to have any impact.
- 42:22So Strauss said, well, I'm not going to wait for Plato's solution
- 42:26to teach the people.
- 42:27We got to do it and protect people.
- 42:30Unfortunately, that's too often what is happening now in our country.
- 42:36That's been the playbook, yeah, for a while.
- 42:38Right, that's the playbook.
- 42:39Tell people what they can understand, even if it's not the truth, and come up with solutions that they can buy into.
- 42:49And that's not just one side or the other.
- 42:53That's not taking responsibility for saying, I don't have a solution that you'll buy into.
- 42:59Let's sit down, and I'm going to keep saying this.
- 43:01Let's come up with dialogue.
- 43:03Let's come up with consensus.
- 43:04let's come up with mechanisms that bring people to listen to one another you and i don't agree
- 43:12about everything but we agree about enough that we can sit down and we can talk and we can look for
- 43:17commonality that goes forward i think i think the the opposition of opinions is how you come to a
- 43:25solution in the middle i mean if you can't hear each other out you're never going to come up with
- 43:29the solution. You're just going to continue to be segregated, right, left, whatever. It's just
- 43:35ridiculous. If you can't sit down and talk about these issues, deal with your own emotions,
- 43:42angers, whatever it is, you have to be able to sit down, check that shit at the door,
- 43:47and just talk about the issues. I'll ask you, Evan, what's your view on this? Great. I'll take
- 43:53it in. I'll give you mine. Same thing. And then in our minds, we're calculating. I don't agree with
- 43:58that, but he made a point here. And then we bring those back together and we say, all right, here's
- 44:02what we have. We got kind of an outline he can start with and we just hash it out, right?
- 44:07That's the way it should be. That's what I'm promulgating. That's my thesis.
- 44:11Let's sit down. Let's hear each other. Let's understand what you need, what I need.
- 44:16Let's come up with a solution. You know, there was a time when Congress worked that way
- 44:21for various other reasons. You know, I'll give you something for your farmers. You give me
- 44:26something for my industrial people.
- 44:29We'll bother
- 44:30solutions together.
- 44:32We don't do that anymore.
- 44:34No, they don't. It's either this or nothing.
- 44:37Yes.
- 44:38Especially how they pack everything with all this
- 44:40pork and try to sneak
- 44:42things in with these 5,000 pages they know nobody's
- 44:44going to read. Who has time for that?
- 44:46It's like, hey, we released this report. Here's Thursday. We're voting
- 44:48on a Friday. Who has time
- 44:50for that? It's ridiculous.
- 44:53And it's always a one-sided
- 44:54issue. Always one
- 44:56cited. And it's very ridiculous because it does leave a lot of people out, the needs of the actual
- 45:00people. That's what I'm getting tired of in America right now. I don't care who the president is,
- 45:04by the way. The reality is this country has not been looking out for its people.
- 45:09They've been playing on emotions. It's like you said earlier. I don't know if I'm correct on this,
- 45:14but it's kind of an example of what you were talking about earlier with Levi Strauss, for
- 45:17example, is that power over behavior, right? To me, I look at it from like a business owner,
- 45:25okay
- 45:25the government
- 45:27is playing a
- 45:28PSYOP
- 45:29and they have
- 45:30an amazing
- 45:30marketing team
- 45:31and they know
- 45:32how to pull on
- 45:33your emotions
- 45:34pull on your
- 45:35heart strings
- 45:35to direct you
- 45:36where they want
- 45:37you to go
- 45:38they're playing
- 45:38chess with us
- 45:39basically
- 45:40that's exactly
- 45:41what they're doing
- 45:41you know
- 45:42we're the pawns
- 45:43yes
- 45:44and unfortunately
- 45:45we keep playing
- 45:45into their hand
- 45:46they keep segregating
- 45:48us
- 45:48so George
- 45:48how did you
- 45:48get into this
- 45:49I don't know
- 45:50just kind of
- 45:52happened
- 45:52just kind of
- 45:54happened
- 45:54well
- 45:54I like your sensibility.
- 45:56I started with my brother.
- 45:59So he's been a podcaster for probably nine, eight, nine years now.
- 46:04And I started on his show a little bit here and there.
- 46:08And I've always been into politics, philosophy, everything.
- 46:12I'm not as educated as you in it, by the way.
- 46:14I can't just call people's names out in quotes, but I do like it.
- 46:19And I've been interested in politics for a very long time.
- 46:21Now, the reason I got into this is because I hear a lot of people talk.
- 46:24I hear these shows.
- 46:25I hear these talking heads that are just reading whatever script on the teleprompter.
- 46:29And I hear a lot of these other podcasters.
- 46:31And I'm like, they don't know what they're talking about.
- 46:34Or if they do make a point, I just got to a position in my life where I said, you know
- 46:39what?
- 46:39I have nothing to lose.
- 46:41Why don't I get on the mic and see if I can make a difference or at least vent or say
- 46:46what's off the top of my head.
- 46:48But I'll admit, I say some outlandish shit sometimes.
- 46:50It's like, I know that I'll say something and later on go, eh, you know, probably should
- 46:55kind of reel that one back a little because we do this in real time.
- 46:59I like your sensibility.
- 47:01I hope that you get heard by lots of people because you're making sense.
- 47:07I appreciate that.
- 47:08Thank you.
- 47:09But the problem with doing this, Evan, is we respond in real time, right?
- 47:16And I've said this before with other people.
- 47:18And I've had YouTubers.
- 47:19I've, I've speak to people in the Intel community, people in the military.
- 47:22Like I've had very various guests and people I connect with since I've been
- 47:26doing this.
- 47:27And you're always right today, wrong tomorrow.
- 47:31You can't keep up with the news cycle.
- 47:33You can't keep up with what's happening, you know,
- 47:35and we live in a world of sound bites and clips.
- 47:38You know, we always get just a snippet of the actual information, right?
- 47:42Everything you see on social media, you never see the full video clip.
- 47:45You just see that one moment where they see the white guy being racist.
- 47:49for example, or the brown guy getting arrested.
- 47:53I'm not going to say whether those particular situations are right or wrong,
- 47:56but we don't see the, we don't get the whole context of what's happening.
- 47:59And people just eat it up and they're conditioning us.
- 48:03Just as you said, they're conditioning us with this. It's a, it's a tool.
- 48:06I go back a long way. I, I, um,
- 48:10was a medic during the Vietnam war.
- 48:14I decided when I got out of the army, I was going to go to graduate school in psychology and do good.
- 48:23And some of the things that I worked on turned into such disasters.
- 48:30For example, I was part of a class action suit that took adolescents and children off adult psychiatric units.
- 48:40so that they were being treated back in the 1960s and 70s amongst adult crazies.
- 48:50And it was totally inappropriate.
- 48:54Then I was part of an action to close down mental hospitals.
- 48:59Well, we had a daily census in Massachusetts of between 30,000 and 50,000 patients
- 49:06in psychiatric hospitals, state hospitals, back in that era.
- 49:11You know where they are now?
- 49:13No.
- 49:14They're homeless.
- 49:16Well.
- 49:16There's the same number of people in Massachusetts who are on the streets.
- 49:21I was, since you brought that up, I've had that opinion because I've known people who are in various organizations
- 49:31that would serve the homeless community.
- 49:34Yes.
- 49:34And I hate to say this, but the truth of the matter is exactly what you said.
- 49:40Most of these people have been abandoned by the state, the government.
- 49:44They're no longer getting funded.
- 49:45They're not getting their medication, not getting care, and they're left out in the cold to figure it out.
- 49:49They can't rejoin society because they're not capable.
- 49:53They're not capable of it.
- 49:54Yeah.
- 49:55It's not that they're not smart, for example.
- 49:57It was just they lack those social skills or whatever it is that will allow them to reenter.
- 50:02They're truly sick people.
- 50:04And the fact is, we, in doing our do-gooding, closed the mental hospitals.
- 50:11Well, it's not by chance.
- 50:13That's the same number of people that today are on the street.
- 50:19Okay, let's get back to that.
- 50:21What was behind closing that?
- 50:23What was behind closing the mental hospitals?
- 50:25Did they claim it was financial?
- 50:27Was it like, what was the reason?
- 50:29No, they claimed that the people weren't being treated adequately.
- 50:31They weren't being treated humanely.
- 50:34Really?
- 50:34Well, again, in retrospect, they were being treated more humanely in a mental hospital than they are today on the street, sleeping in their feces.
- 50:43So, again, we thought we were getting them to a place where they could be treated within the community and cared for by the community.
- 50:52The community didn't want them.
- 50:55You know, we tried to set up halfway houses.
- 50:57Nobody wanted one in their neighborhood, not my neighborhood.
- 51:00I don't want to be part of the solution.
- 51:02there's I mean
- 51:04you know because this is what you did
- 51:06I don't but
- 51:08from what I've read and what I've
- 51:10seen documentaries
- 51:12and what not not an expert
- 51:14but the
- 51:16mental hospitals were definitely an issue
- 51:18when
- 51:19psychology was in its infant stages
- 51:23when it was very experimental still
- 51:24they're trying to figure that out but it did get to a point
- 51:26where they got
- 51:28a handle on the abuse
- 51:30but yet even after that
- 51:32It did get better, but they still decided this isn't good enough to put these people out on the street.
- 51:37That's just crazy.
- 51:39I've worked with Jako Sekala, for example, who's from Finland.
- 51:44And back in the Scandinavian countries, the community works together to treat the people in the community who are sick.
- 51:56They pitch in.
- 51:58They all have roles.
- 51:59They're small, homogeneous communities that care
- 52:04for their own. Our communities are too diverse. People don't care about what's happening down the
- 52:13street. It's unfortunate. Churches no longer... When I first started doing psychotherapy,
- 52:23I spoke at every church in my town. They all called me in to talk about how they can work
- 52:28together to do things in their own community. But people don't go to church anymore.
- 52:32No. Let me ask you this. Why do you think people don't care, though, when it comes to the people on the streets and the homeless?
- 52:39It's not me. It's them. It's us versus them. I'm not that problem.
- 52:46Understood. I get that. But what caused that? I remember a time where people were more generous.
- 52:52And then I think it was sometime in the 90s, it just kind of flipped.
- 52:57Like all of a sudden, people just stopped caring.
- 53:00Yes.
- 53:01They weren't giving them a dollar, for example, or buying people food.
- 53:05I'm going to say this because I've experienced this myself, and I know this from inside information with people who work in the missions and whatnot.
- 53:12There are literally people who gave up on society, not just sick, but they just don't want to deal with anything.
- 53:18And they find that living on the street suits them better.
- 53:21That's not the majority, by the way, but those people are there.
- 53:24There's some.
- 53:24Yeah. And I think that people stop caring because they realized, you know, with all the stories coming out and they themselves just being scammed. Like even in my town, we would see the same person pull the same scam over and over for two, three years, always pregnant, always just got dropped off at the bus.
- 53:43one year I recognized her and realized, hey, weren't you just saying this like last year?
- 53:50Yeah, you're still pregnant with the same baby. And I think those unfortunate circumstances,
- 53:57those unfortunate examples, by the way, is what led people to stop caring. They just feel like
- 54:02I'm not making a difference. And these people are just trying to take advantage of me.
- 54:05When I went to school, I started college in 1964, and I went through to get my doctorate.
- 54:19Back then, all the smart people that I knew were going into professions like psychology or medicine, nursing, education, law.
- 54:32they all had a mission to make the community better
- 54:37sometime after the Vietnam War sometime around the time of Ronald Reagan
- 54:43the ethos changed to I'm going to make money I'm going to be a successful business person
- 54:50the smart people went to either business school or engineering yeah and they no longer had a vested
- 55:01interest in making the community better, they came to the notion that they're going to make
- 55:07their own lives better. And I think that has persisted. I know with even my grandchildren,
- 55:14I have a grandson that graduated high school last week, and he's going to go to the business school
- 55:22at Boston College. And I said, why are you doing that? He said, what do you mean, why am I doing
- 55:27that. He said, I'm really smart. I'm going to be really successful. I'm going to make a lot of
- 55:31money. I said, but you know what? You are so smart. You are so capable of making the world a better
- 55:40place. Why aren't you thinking in those terms? He said, come on, granddad. Come on. Grandpa,
- 55:46you're talking like those hippies that you grew up with.
- 55:52I don't
- 55:56I mean now that you say it
- 55:57I do see that
- 55:59there's been less interest in
- 56:01professions that actually serve the community
- 56:03or even consider the humanitarian
- 56:05effort right
- 56:06and even the arts is on the decline
- 56:09I believe
- 56:10yeah even the arts
- 56:11it's sad
- 56:13and yes the 80s was the age of business
- 56:16the power suit, the power tie, the whole deal
- 56:18it was all about more and more money
- 56:20That's when the stock market just, it was just crazy.
- 56:26Yeah, you may, I think you're onto something there.
- 56:29You know definitely It was a me first attitude that really started this It went from a community concern to me first Yeah absolutely
- 56:39It was a me first attitude.
- 56:42Let's get back to California a bit.
- 56:45And it's not just California.
- 56:46I mean, there's the big organized protests on June 14th, Trump's birthday or the Army's birthday, however you want to look at that.
- 56:56Let me ask you this.
- 56:58What are your thoughts of what happened in California, though?
- 57:02I mean, we did discuss some of it already, but the fighting, infighting between the governor,
- 57:10you know, Newsom, Karen Bass, the lack of response.
- 57:15Again, this isn't me saying right versus left, Trump versus whatever.
- 57:20This is literally pointing out, I believe, the error and the lack of response to a situation.
- 57:28what do you think the reasoning was behind that aside,
- 57:31aside from political theater?
- 57:34Why did Karen Bass not respond with the police and not,
- 57:39didn't have to be in a violent way just to control, just have a presence.
- 57:43And why did governor Newsom not respond either? What's,
- 57:48what's your thoughts on that?
- 57:50Well, I don't know if I'm the right person to respond to that,
- 57:53but I thought they did respond. Okay.
- 57:56I thought that they were concerned that, and this is, I'm concerned about it in my own community.
- 58:04I'm joining an action committee to protect immigrants, that you can't have ICE come into your community and rip people out of their homes, out of their jobs.
- 58:20Yeah, we discussed, we agree with that, yeah.
- 58:22I think that it was a huge provocation on the part of the federal government to start mobilizing.
- 58:33We had a situation a couple of weeks ago in Nantucket where they rounded up 44 people who worked in hotels and restaurants in Nantucket and put them in a boat and took them away.
- 58:45They had no due process.
- 58:47So I think their first concern was that you can't go into a community and do this without people being offended, without people being put in danger.
- 59:03And my sense is that there has been a response on the part of California government.
- 59:11There was enough police that kept it contained.
- 59:15There was some bad apples, but they mostly contained to a small area the provocators.
- 59:26So I think Trump came in with his guys escalating the crisis to something that was way beyond what really was called for.
- 59:40The National Guard, the Marines.
- 59:42the Marines should never be deployed on
- 59:45on US Soil against Citizens period
- 59:48that's not what they do
- 59:49and the same thing
- 59:51what are the National Guard doing
- 59:532,000 National Guardsmen are protecting the federal
- 59:56buildings come on
- 59:57the police have to do this
- 59:59that's a bit much
- 1:00:01honestly but
- 1:00:03the lack of response I was
- 1:00:05referring to was yes the police were there
- 1:00:07but they
- 1:00:09did not get deployed until
- 1:00:11Trump said he was going to send the National Guard.
- 1:00:15I don't know if that.
- 1:00:16Yeah.
- 1:00:17And even Newsom refused to send in the National Guard.
- 1:00:21Now, I agree with you that I don't think there was a need for it.
- 1:00:24There's more than enough law enforcement out there to handle the situation.
- 1:00:27There really is.
- 1:00:27Right.
- 1:00:29Was the National Guard needed?
- 1:00:30I don't believe in this situation, but yet they were called in 1992 during the Rodden
- 1:00:34King riots.
- 1:00:35There were many examples of when the National Guard was called to control riots and protests
- 1:00:39that just got out of hand.
- 1:00:41Yes. The response of the National Guard being sent and taken over the president is a lawful order.
- 1:00:47And actually, if you go to the National Guard's website, it even says it right there.
- 1:00:49You can be called by any time by any governor and the president of the United States.
- 1:00:53So I'm just going to put that out there because that is fact.
- 1:00:56But was it needed No I don think so No again I not saying it illegal I saying it provocative I know you aren It was provocative today that the FBI handcuffed threw Senator Padilla to the ground
- 1:01:13I got to look at that.
- 1:01:14That's crazy.
- 1:01:16It's all over the news today.
- 1:01:17Yeah.
- 1:01:18And handcuffed him.
- 1:01:20That's not how you treat people.
- 1:01:23if you treat a United States Senator that way,
- 1:01:27how is the little guy who works at the local?
- 1:01:33Yeah. How are they going to feel? How are they going to feel?
- 1:01:34How are they going to be treated? Absolutely. So I didn't see it.
- 1:01:38I didn't see the reports. I don't know why I did. This wasn't on my radar.
- 1:01:40It's what I do. It's crazy. So, so what were the circumstances?
- 1:01:43Like he was doing nothing other than, Hey,
- 1:01:46I'm going to question you on what you're doing and what's happening.
- 1:01:49That was it. Yeah.
- 1:01:49Yeah, Christy Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, was speaking and talking about how the Democrats failed society.
- 1:01:59Los Angeles would have been burnt down if it wasn't for their response.
- 1:02:04And he walked up and said, I want to ask you some questions.
- 1:02:09And they manhandled him.
- 1:02:12They threw him down.
- 1:02:15Yeah, that's not right.
- 1:02:17Again, it's not right.
- 1:02:19That's not how you handle things.
- 1:02:20It's just out of hand.
- 1:02:21And that's the problem right now with the Trump administration at this moment.
- 1:02:25They had an opportunity to do the right thing.
- 1:02:28The actions like this does not work in their favor.
- 1:02:30This just supports what people are saying about him being authoritarian or even tyrannical.
- 1:02:36It's not a good look, period.
- 1:02:39No.
- 1:02:40Yeah, I got to look at that.
- 1:02:42That is just crazy that they treated Padilla that way.
- 1:02:44and you know
- 1:02:46even in the Trump admin
- 1:02:48like my brother's very adamant
- 1:02:49we're not
- 1:02:49we're conservative
- 1:02:51but even he always says
- 1:02:53on his show
- 1:02:54he's like
- 1:02:54I'm conservative
- 1:02:55but I didn't vote for Trump
- 1:02:56that's what he always says
- 1:02:57he goes
- 1:02:57I don't agree with how he handles himself
- 1:02:59I don't think he's presidential
- 1:03:00and
- 1:03:00I don't think he's presidential either
- 1:03:03and
- 1:03:04the reality is
- 1:03:06I like some of the stuff he does
- 1:03:07but I mean
- 1:03:07like I told you earlier
- 1:03:08I scratch my head on a lot
- 1:03:10I
- 1:03:10it's like
- 1:03:11I don't think this is the way
- 1:03:12you know
- 1:03:13I really don't
- 1:03:14Again, my sense is you need to see people as you see yourself.
- 1:03:24Agreed.
- 1:03:24I mean, that's the ultimate golden rule, right?
- 1:03:27Treat others as you would have them treat you.
- 1:03:30Absolutely.
- 1:03:31You need to have a view of the world that I'm not better or different than you are.
- 1:03:36We both have interests.
- 1:03:38We both have to take care of each other.
- 1:03:39I absolutely agree with you.
- 1:03:40I was going to say something about the Trump administration in that the other thing that stood out is the fumbling of many things that were promised that haven't been delivered.
- 1:03:52We're still looking at Epstein files that are allegedly, now there's no video, there's no evidence, even though they have like a 10 plus year investigation regarding Epstein.
- 1:04:01Suddenly nothing exists, nothing's viable, we can't release anything, there's nothing there, which is ridiculous.
- 1:04:06and then they give the binders to a bunch of social media influencers.
- 1:04:12What kind of move was that?
- 1:04:14There's a lot of stupidity, I think, that is not winning the people over.
- 1:04:22It really isn't.
- 1:04:24He has some people in his administration that should not be in the positions they're in.
- 1:04:29The one thing that was surprising to me is he does have some people
- 1:04:33that were from the Democrat Party that came over,
- 1:04:35But, you know, those people such as, you know, RFK Jr. and whatnot don't feel that they're part of that party anymore.
- 1:04:41But still, some of his administration, even he himself, by the way, is not necessarily a true conservative.
- 1:04:48I don't know where he sits.
- 1:04:49I don't even know where he sits.
- 1:04:52I mean, where did he come up with this tariff idea?
- 1:04:57I mean, it comes from Navarro.
- 1:05:02Navarro is not a credible economist.
- 1:05:05And he hires Navarro to make this tariff policy for him.
- 1:05:12Where does he come off in picking Hexa as the Secretary of Defense?
- 1:05:18Agreed.
- 1:05:18These guys have no credibility.
- 1:05:22I might argue with you in that.
- 1:05:27The whole tariff idea I understand what he was trying to do I not saying it was the right thing to do in modern times Okay But you know we were a tariff nation This is fact
- 1:05:38We did make our money on tariffs, but it was also a different world back then.
- 1:05:41It was not as interwoven as it is now.
- 1:05:44You know, of course.
- 1:05:45I mean, you can't make an airplane with parts just from the United States.
- 1:05:49Not going to happen.
- 1:05:50It's a world economy.
- 1:05:52Yes.
- 1:05:52It's such a myopic response.
- 1:05:54Agreed.
- 1:05:55It's simplistic.
- 1:05:55I think Trump's approach was literally, it's a tit for tat, right?
- 1:06:00Hey, you're charging me 200%.
- 1:06:01We've done nothing about it.
- 1:06:02Well, hell, I'm going to charge you 200% now.
- 1:06:05Yeah, well, look at some of the countries he did that with.
- 1:06:07It's a zero-sum game, though.
- 1:06:08Matt and Gasper, who sell vanilla.
- 1:06:12And of course they buy more than we buy from them.
- 1:06:18Right.
- 1:06:20Stupid.
- 1:06:21But to me, it's a race to zero.
- 1:06:25Yes.
- 1:06:25Because it's meant the intention.
- 1:06:29I could read right through it.
- 1:06:31I understand the intention.
- 1:06:32Oh, this will get people to focus on domestic production,
- 1:06:35things made here in the USA.
- 1:06:37Yeah, but we're not set up for that yet.
- 1:06:39Like I said earlier, he uses a hammer
- 1:06:40without giving a defined guided step of how to get there.
- 1:06:47You can't just say we're going to turn it off now.
- 1:06:49I can see this being a 10-year plan maybe,
- 1:06:52even a 15-year plan, but it can't be a tomorrow plan.
- 1:06:54And it's just hurting everybody.
- 1:06:56In regards to what everybody says,
- 1:06:58inflation might be down.
- 1:07:01Yeah, exactly.
- 1:07:02Simplistic solution to complex problems.
- 1:07:06Agreed.
- 1:07:07And inflation may be down,
- 1:07:08but then the economy itself
- 1:07:10is not doing so good right now.
- 1:07:13It really isn't.
- 1:07:15Even in my industry,
- 1:07:16it's almost like they just suck the air out of it.
- 1:07:20It feels almost like pandemic level business right now,
- 1:07:22back in the COVID times for a lot of people in my industry and a lot of
- 1:07:26industries.
- 1:07:27It's,
- 1:07:27it's not.
- 1:07:28I mean,
- 1:07:30again,
- 1:07:31medicine and psychology,
- 1:07:34the whole ancillary medical field is being run by large corporations that
- 1:07:42are making money at the expense of the people who need to benefit from these
- 1:07:46services.
- 1:07:48Yeah.
- 1:07:48It's,
- 1:07:49we need to rethink things.
- 1:07:51How is,
- 1:07:52how is that?
- 1:07:52George, I got to go, unfortunately.
- 1:07:55Because I've enjoyed our talk.
- 1:07:58I was just going to get into the insurance part of it, but that's fine.
- 1:08:01I appreciate your time.
- 1:08:02Tell everybody about your book, where they can get it, and how they can find you.
- 1:08:06Yeah, it's on all the major outlets.
- 1:08:11Amazon, you can get on it.
- 1:08:17Most bookstores, you can order it through their catalogs.
- 1:08:22I hope people who liked what I've had to say and the ideas that I've expressed will go out and buy the book.
- 1:08:29I think it's particularly relevant to today's community.
- 1:08:33No, it is.
- 1:08:33And I'd love to pick this up again because it sounds like you and I have a lot to talk about.
- 1:08:38Yeah, I'd love to talk with you more, George.
- 1:08:40I think you're being sensible.
- 1:08:42It's nice to see sensible people who are not being driven by some alternative philosophy.
- 1:08:49I appreciate that.
- 1:08:50And same for you.
- 1:08:51I mean, it's all about what you said.
- 1:08:52We need to come to the table.
- 1:08:53We need to discuss these issues.
- 1:08:55And we need to live in reality.
- 1:08:57I mean, we need to be realistic about our approaches.
- 1:08:58We need to live in reality, but we also need to listen.
- 1:09:00Absolutely.
- 1:09:01We need to listen to each other.
- 1:09:03I agree.
- 1:09:03Absolutely.
- 1:09:04Thank you, Evan.
- 1:09:06Thank you, George.
- 1:09:07Again, I'm sure we'll talk again.
- 1:09:10All right.
- 1:09:10Oh, good.
- 1:09:11Okay, sir.
- 1:09:12Bye.
- 1:09:13All right.
- 1:09:14As usual, thanks for sticking around and either listening or watching or both.
- 1:09:19And please like, subscribe, and share the show.
- 1:09:21And as always, have a great day.
- 1:09:51Bye.