Left & Right April 24, 2019

Democrat Gino Funicella of Jackson, NH sits in the left chair this week. We begin with a question from the producer asking if we think the handling of the Mueller Report by Atty. General William Barr has been impartial. I say "Yes."

Gino went off with nearly all the Democrat talking points since release of the report, that the "no evidence of cooperation by the Trump campaign with Russian interference in the 2016 election" doesn't mean what it says. He insists there was evidence but not enough to prove cooperation, but he cannot come up with any such evidence.

I get exasperated when he interrupts me repeatedly as I'm making my points citing solid evidence that there was evidence of cooperation with Russia by Democrats, and calling it "supposition." He points out all the Mueller indictments that had nothing to do with conspiring with the Russians by the Trump campaign and cites them as purported evidence that there was cooperation.

My response is to point out both ongoing and upcoming investigations into Obama Administration officials who abused power to spy on the Trump campaign and then attempt to frame him for conspiring with the Russians. Gino continues to drag red herrings into the debate to sidetrack me.

The producer asks if the next census should include a question about whether people present in America are citizens or not. Democrats don't want the question. Republicans do. I make the point that Democrats want it because all people counted will then be assumed to have citizenship and states with millions of illegal aliens, like California, will then be given more representation in Congress. They'll also get more federal assistance of various kinds. Gino doesn't want to make the citizen/non-citizen distinction.

I bring up the headline used by the New York Times to report on the Muslim slaughter of Catholics in Sri Lanka: "Religious minorities across Asia suffer amid a surge of sectarian politics." Clearly, this is worded to protect Muslims from blame and divert sympathy away from their Catholic victims. Gino disagrees.

I bring up the Notre Dame fire and how French authorities declared in only one hour that it was "not arson." They still cannot point to what did cause it but hurried to declare that it wasn't arson, in spite of the 800 Muslim attacks against Christian churches in France in 2018 alone, and one previous attempt to burn Notre Dame by three Muslim women.

Gino suggests I'm paranoid and too quick to blame Muslims for violence, and that 30% of Republicans are racist and "hate brown people."

We briefly discuss abortion developments and I claim the issue is again looming large for the 2020 election with every Democrat candidate supporting abortion. Gino disagrees.

Left & Right March 27, 2019

Mark Guerringue again sits in the left chair. We open with the release of the Mueller Report last Friday. I reiterate what I've claimed for two years: There never was evidence of the Trump campaign colluding with the Russians so it's not surprising Mueller couldn't find any.

Mark asks if I accept the results of the investigation given that I never believed Mueller to be the straight-arrow prosecutor he was purported to be. I respond that Mueller should never have taken the case because there never was any crime or evidence of one and he should have seen that.

Mark says there was lots of smoke in the form of indictments generated by Mueller that didn't rise to prosecutable levels but that Trump had too many contacts with the Russians. He thinks the clearing of Trump is good for Democrats because impeachment proceedings would have hurt them like the impeachment proceedings against Clinton hurt Republicans twenty years ago. He thinks Democrats should "move on."

I say it's likely now that the Trump Justice Department will rev up its investigation of the frame-up initiated by Obama intelligence officials in CIA, FBI, NSA, and DOJ that should result in indictments of them.

We discuss Obamacare and the lawsuit from Texas challenging Obamacare's constitutionality after Trump eliminated the mandate/tax provision. That was Chief Justice Robert's rationale for the legality of the legislation -- that it was a tax, which it isn't anymore.

We discuss the efficacy of Medicare. Mark praises it. I call it unsustainable because government pays providers less than the cost to deliver the services so other consumers must pick up the difference. I cite that Democrat candidates for president would abolish private medical insurance companies. Mark is against that. He prefers a free market. We agree.

I raise the Jussi Smollett case and cite numerous connections to left/Democrat people behind dismissal of his charges including Michelle Obama and George Soros and that one of Smollett's lawyers was indicted along with Michael Avenatti earlier this week.

Mark brings up security clearances and neither of us knows if a president has to obtain one the way others do, or does he just get one automatically after being elected and inaugurated? I contend that Obama would never have gotten one as a private citizen because of his numerous connections to radical Islamic figures.

Mark like Andrew Yang as a Democrat presidential candidate after he visited the Conway Daily Sun offices recently for a discussion. We discuss his idea of giving $1000 a month to every citizen of the USA. I'm skeptical.

Mark suggests that next show we discuss political bias in social media. I'll be in Ireland the next two weeks and will miss the regularly scheduled next show.