Why Is Issue 2 On Ohio's November 2022 Ballot?

Episode 5 • 26th October 2022 • Common Sense Ohio • Common Sense Ohio

Steve: October 28. That's three days from Halloween. And for those who have to do that math, uh, Halloween is October 31. And believe it or not, we don't celebrate October. Uh, 31st or late October is a holiday here at the Common Sense, Ohio slash, uh, lawyer talk roundtable. Uh, it's still a slash, but, uh, not for very much longer. Soon it will be both, or soon it will be only one, not both. Uh, but here we are again for, um, another Common Sense Ohio, still on the Lawyer Talk platform edition. Coming, um, at you from Channel Five One One at Studio C at Channel Five One One. We got the normal crew here. We got Norm. Say hi.

Norm: Hey. I resent being called the normal crew. M Slash is the lead guitarist in Guns and Roses. Wake up, Steve.

Steve: Um, Tuesday to me, we got Brett Johnson over there at the holding down the I guess that's sort of like the head of the round table, if there is such a thing.

Norm: Yes.

Brett: I guess you don't have, really, a key point on a roundtable, do you?

Steve: But you're there.

Norm: Yeah.

Brett: And, you know, it's funny, I think the imagery of you guys keep talking about a round table, really. We have a round table. It is round in studio. So it's not like we're just making this thing up. It's a round table, folks.

Steve: It's not like I just love the nights of the round table. That's it, uh, it is actually a round table, wooden, custom made or not, for my mentor buildings that I believe.

Norm: If my engineering friends were here today, they would argue, because they love to argue about everything. They would argue that nothing is round, that this table is actually an infinite number of straight lines.

Steve: All right.

Norm: Together.

Brett: Really?

Steve: You can look at things in the abstract. You can look at things from, uh, sort of the big picture point of view. It's round, and it is also an infinite number of straight lines.

Norm: It's only round because our eyeballs are we don't have the acuity to see all the billions and billions and trillions of tiny straight lines that make up the 360 degrees.

Steve: That's the same reason it's brown, right? Because we're seeing, uh, only some, uh, of the colors, and the others are getting absorbed into it so we can't see it.

Norm: I love everybody, but I hate engineers.

Steve: I love engineers, and I love the knowledge of that stuff. But then usually when engineers start to go there, what they're really saying is, we're smarter than you, and we know more.

Brett: It definitely comes off that way, doesn't it?

Norm: Arrogance.

Steve: Uh, so I can say, I know what you're saying.

Norm: Right.

Steve: And you, uh, can choose to communicate with the rest of the world like a normal individual, a respectful individual, or pompous ass.

Brett: That's right.

Norm: And they usually go for the ass.

Steve: Options, and they don't even know it. I guess that's what makes them pompous asses. Uh, not all engineers, but we're talking about the ones that would do that.

Norm: Yes, I'm surrounded by them rounded engineers.

Steve: So what's going on with Common sense Ohio? Well, here's what's going on with common sense, Ohio. We're taking a common sense approach at the news happenings events in Ohio. And why Ohio? Well, because it's right from the middle. It's the heart of it all. It's the place where I think you can uh, sort of test almost all Americanized theories. Uh, and it's a jumping off point to uh, have greater discussions about what's going on in not only the uh, state of Ohio, but the country and maybe even the rest of the world. You see what I did there? I took Ohio and made it worldly. It's um, funny because there's a lot of my dad from my entire childhood always had uh uh, overseas professors visiting. And so recently there was a guy that uh, some years ago came back and he was Peter from Poland. And uh, he loved Ohio for this reason. He liked to go to uh he uh, went up to Watson and saw Neil Armstrong and I think they did a couple of other things around the state of Ohio. And uh, it's a very uh, may be, I don't know, called vanilla because you go to Cleveland, it's hardly vanilla. Um, but it's an interesting representation of the rest of the country, maybe on a smaller scale. And if you like fast food, it is the fast food capital of the world. So what else could you ask for?

Norm: Well, um, the thing is also about common sense is it is very uncommon these days. So one time, the old Ben Franklin aphorism nine stitch, uh, in time saves nine, things like that. If you want to get out of a hole, quit digging, etc, etc, etc. Those used to be things that the general population understood. I'm not so sure that we have a lot of common sense left in America. So this is the little bastion of common sense. We're what's left. And that's a little scary.

Steve: Um, I did a focus group. Um, I've got this side business called Criminal Offense Consultants. And when I was up in Michigan doing a focus group, uh, and a focus group is not we probably have to come up with a better name for it because brad, have you been to one?

Norm: Yes.

Brett: They're fun, actually.

Steve: It's not what you're thinking when you hear folks. It's a very interactive, um maybe this is what I told them. I've never had anybody afterwards say that was a miserable, horrible experience. In fact, almost everybody says the exact opposite.

Brett: It's almost like a mystery, if you like mysteries.

Steve: Yeah, that's a great way to put it. It is like an unfolding mystery.

Brett: It's an unfolding mystery right in front of you going, uh, just peeling the onion little by little.

Norm: Were there doughnuts?

Brett: Yes, but it was it was almost like a mystery because you kept peeling off little bits of more information. More information so you could get the reactions to different stages of how you'd present the case.

Steve: Steve yeah.

Norm: Get back to your so you were talking about common sense.

Steve: Here's the point. Um, one of the things that we do before we start to focus groups, we give them a little speech about what we want and what we expect and what they should expect and et cetera. And what we really, really, really want is utter, complete, guttural, knee jerk honesty. We want people to just shout out what they're thinking at certain topics that get presented to them.

Norm: Okay?

Steve: And it dawned on me, how am I going to implore that to this modern crowd? And, uh, the term woke came into mind. And what dawned on me there, it's like, I got to talk about this wokens. You know, it hit me almost all like a rush. It's like wokeness is a lie to conceal what people are really thinking a lot of the times. So people are portraying a certain image because under the guise or for the motivation, I suppose, that they don't want to offend whoever's listening. Or maybe it's, uh, even more, uh, sinister, maybe the right word or something a little bit less psychologically, uh, positive to say, I want to impress people with how I portray myself. Um, the whole concept is bullshit. Nonsense.

Norm: The idea that we were all sleeping, like we're all just taking a big nap, all of society is asleep. And that some lady who invented this concept of being woke, which is terrible English, by the way, it's bad for so many reasons. It's bad for so many reasons. But I mean, the idea that the rest of the world is asleep and she rolled out of bed one day and just said, you know, we're getting screwed down here on the farm and on the plantation, or whatever her mentality is, it's like, lady, you're on a plantation, a, uh, uh, plantation you created in your own head. The only restraints on somebody who thinks that the rest of us aren't woke, the only restraints on those people, whoever they are, whether they're a minority or a different gender or their training or whatever the hell they're doing, the only thing or whether they're all white male, the only thing that's holding you back in this world usually is yourself.

Steve: Well, here's what yourself.

Norm: You're placing limits on your own success.

Steve: Here's what's interesting though. So those the most woke are not the groups that they desire or that the idea is to protect. Maybe it's a white male whose title himself has woke because he wants to cry virtue to the world and say, look how woke I am. Look how much I care.

Norm: Well, that's the point, is that all populations not woke and never can be.

Steve: And they don't really care because you're.

Norm: Born a certain color. So therefore you're a racist. And then that's when I stopped listening, is when somebody tells me what's in my own heart. Well, how can you possibly know what's in my heart? You're telling me.

Steve: So we asked focus group to share what's in their heart rather than share their wokeness. And it's like the antithesis of wokeness. And this is why you don't want your trial or to be woke, because you need somebody who's going to be real. Because people, no matter what they say, they do what they do. So you always think, uh, it's the old saying, watch what people do, not what they say, that they tell you everything.

Norm: It tells you everything.

Steve: And these people who cry the loudest about being woke and caring and virtuous are usually the least woke and caring and virtuous underneath. And look, if I tell somebody who is, um, there's things that repulse me. Just things that do. So, uh, if I lie about it and say it doesn't really repulse me, I'm not doing anybody a favor. I'm not even doing myself a favor. Because if it repulses me and it shouldn't, and I'm lying about it, I'm not addressing the problem.

Brett: Right. I'm sure more than one, um, nursing goes through this. I think that they're trying to hire nurses to make sure that nurses or doctors, whatever, really understand their biases. The guttural stuff, they run through this. It has a name, activity training, possibly. But they ask you these questions damn dumbo. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. You have no time to think what the answer ought to be, but it's a gut answer to your biases.

Steve: Yes.

Brett: And so they understand, will you treat a handicapped person as well as.

Norm: They.

Brett: Know they have a doctor or a nurse that, ah, truly will help anybody you need.

Steve: But that's their portrayed goal, perhaps, but that's not how it's treated. Because then they turn around and they shame you for it. Right?

Brett: Yeah, exactly.

Norm: More than that.

Steve: Homosexual sex, dude.

Norm: More than that. It's more than that. Uh. The wolvesters not only shame you for it. But they tell you that you are in a permanent state of prejudice because of who you are. How you were. The accident of your birth. Who your parents were. Which you have no control of. Uh. What gender you are. Which you have no control over what your skin color is. Whether you're an albino or you have a naturally occurring skin. None of that is changeable by you. Those are things that come as a default. You're born that way. And they're saying that those factors make you inherently and unchangeably prejudiced.

Brett: The unchangeable is, for me, the problems. You've got to be kidding me. We all evolve.

Steve: Everybody evolves. And if we become unchangeable, then we've lost. If you can't get better, if you can't strive for, well, you're not bad to begin with. Of, uh, course bad. But we can all do better, right?

Brett: Yes.

Steve: This is like sexual preference.

Norm: White males don't need to change. Black males don't need to change. Black females don't need to change. White females don't need Hispanic female. Nobody needs to change anything from what they were at birth. All of the bad behaviors and attitudes come after your birth. They come during the learning process. All of the good things and all of the bad things and all the things you need to unlearn. We are tabula raza when we're born. That, uh, is just the fact of life. And for somebody to say that you are AB initiative from the beginning, poisoned in your heart because you were born with certain physical factors is crackpot. It's insane. And it is the most Nazilikeke Third Reich prejudice, uh, awful, kind of Ku Klux Klan kind of attitude that I've ever heard in my life. To say that your birth factors, which are unchangeable by you, determine what's in your heart and what's in your intellect.

Brett: Must have been disproven where you develop.

Norm: Uh, we freed Europe. We freed, uh, Asia after World War II of concentration camps over this very issue. And here we are in the United States of America doing it. Reconstituting concentration camps based on race, based on gender. And I mean concentration camps of a philosophical nature, if not maybe down the road, a physical concentration camp like they have in China.

Steve: What I was going to say I better finish it because I use the word homosexual sex. But that's not even the right it's even broader than that.

Norm: What somebody is attracted to, I need it done.

Steve: Not sexual, uh, or maybe even a certain color, whatever it is. There's some of us that are attracted to, uh, things that others are not. And so, for instance, if you say, look, your sexual preference is men, like, to me, I can't understand that on any level. I can understand it in the sense that have Adam and enjoy what you enjoy. It's not for me to judge that. But it's gross to me, and I don't feel ashamed at all about that. It doesn't mean that, uh, you can't do what you want to do and.

Brett: That person feels the same about you.

Steve: They do. Right.

Brett: Because it's gross that you're attracted to women.

Steve: They're women. They don't like what I'm attracting.

Brett: Exactly.

Norm: Fine.

Steve: But the idea of engaging in that myself is repulsive. I couldn't do it. Now, for them, it may be the opposite. And all of that is cool. We can all live in harmony irrespective of that. So those who are not attracted to that, whether it's a woman or whether it's a man on the other side saying, oh, I can tell, uh, I'm attracted to everything. It's a lie. It's a freaking lie. You're not attracted to it, and that's okay. So I don't like red. I like green. I don't like green. I like blue. It's fine. But don't lie about it just to show virtue to the rest of the world. And I think that's what bogus is. It's like a plastic shell that people build around them, hiding what's truly within. And then the problem, like you said, Norm, is nobody ever gets to know anybody, and you end up in this sort of pigeonholed existence that, uh, again, it has no bottom when you start identifying people that way. But all right, so we spent 15 minutes on nothing. Uh, let's hit some common sense news here.

Norm: Well, we've never talked about the issues that are on the statewide ballot that are coming up. And there are two important issues.

Steve: All right, let's do it.

Norm: So one is involving, uh, changes, because our insane Ohio Supreme Court, which serially kept knocking down, uh, the primary season to the point where we practically almost never had a primary in Ohio after it was redistricting, was struck down, I don't know, five times.

Brett: Three or five times.

Norm: So thank God that the current Supreme Court, uh, chief justice on the Ohio Supreme Court is going to be gone, and we're going to have Sharon Kennedy take her place. Thank God. Please vote for Sharon Kennedy. Um. But the Ohio Supreme Court struck down. Um. All of the commonsense predicates for setting bail. Uh. On felony cases in Ohio. There was a long standing tradition. And some of this is. Uh. In revised code. Some of it is in the Ohio Constitution that you should take into account the severity of the alleged crime. The person's background. Um. The danger. Um. To the community. Etc. Etc. Etc. E. And, uh, there was a murder case in Cincinnati. Somebody set the bail at 1.5 million. They took it to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court said, no, it should only be half a million, because the sole criteria, according to the Ohio Supreme Court is until, uh, this issue gets passed, issue one current law, the Supreme Court of the state of Ohio gets to set what the standards are for bail. And they reduced it to just one consideration, which is the likelihood of the accused to reappear in court. So that's the current Ohio Supreme Court.

Steve: Um, all right, standard, let me jump in back here.

Norm: Well, before you do, just let's say what issue one is, and then Steve, who's the true expert on bail because he's a criminal defense attorney of some renown here in Ohio, uh, my friend Steve knows, uh, what the hell he's talking about. But just so we know what issue one is, it would amend the Ohio Constitution and take away from m the Supreme Court the, uh, ability to describe what are the parameters, what are the standards for setting bail, and it would put it back into the Constitution. Uh, the following, that, um, the considerations are whether or not the person is going to come back, the, uh, public safety implications of whether the bails high, low, or, uh, in between the seriousness of the offense, the criminal record of the accused, and any other considerations in the future that the general assembly wishes to place, uh, into this clause in the constitution. Um go ahead, Steve.

Steve: All right, so some procedural background might be helpful. Here in Ohio, we have, uh, criminal rules, so the rules are promulgated. Interestingly, under the modern courts amendment m, it sort of then is an Ohio supreme court rule. So in Ohio, it's done differently. It's not the general assembly, it's not the legislative branch that promulgates rules of procedure. Now, statutes, laws written, or, uh, general assembly rules are given constitutional status because they come from the high supreme court. So it's effectively under the modern courts amendment. Here in Ohio, we have rules, and bail was always governed by criminal rule 46. And criminal rule 46, for the longest time, said, uh, the bond is intended to secure the appearance of the accused. It didn't say anything at all for the longest time. I think I have to do some research about, uh, protecting the public. Yada yada yada. Um, and, you know, you could say that that's bad, or you can say whatever you want to say about it, but it worked for, I don't know how many hundreds of years or whatever. It worked. Um, the current rule 46, I'm reading it right now, um, it talks about the factors, uh, that the courts should consider in assessing relevant or in assessing bond. It says the nature and circumstances, the crime charge, specifically, whether defendant user had access to a weapon, the weight of the evidence against the defendant, confirmation of defendants identity. They've added a bunch of criteria to this that I think makes a constitutional amendment sort of, um, unnecessary. And I don't like constitutional amendments for stuff like this, because it becomes more inflexible, because it becomes inflexible to some degree, and it becomes very difficult to change when people use constitutional amendments to effectuate what could be done or should be done by rule changes and or, uh, legislative general assembly type changes. It becomes, um, a little bit it's a round peg in a square hole. It's like when we had to amend the constitution to permit gambling, and then we established, uh, casinos even. It's like, where does it end?

Brett: When you start using the marijuana issue.

Steve: Marijuana, they try to make a constitutional amendment. I think these are all legislative changes as a philosophical matter, not constitutional changes. So look, vote what you want on bond, but what happens is a lot of people will dangle these things out there, like, oh, we need tougher bond conditions, and we should amend the constitution to make sure that's that way forever. What if you're wrong on something you write down? It becomes very difficult to unring that bell. And, uh, if it's a legislative or a rule change promulgated by the high supreme court or even the general assembly of, um, Ohio, then you can change it, and you can go vote, and you can have some input in it. But once it's constitutional, in theory, it gets sort of set in stone. And this is why on both sides of the aisle, when people use, uh, the sort of the I don't know, the cause to effectuate some change, and they use these anecdotal examples to effectuate a constitutional change, it's not always a good thing.

al example in this case was a: 2025

Steve: Oh, no, it didn't say safety to the general community in Rule 46. It said, uh, consider the nature of the offense. Consider, uh so it's a flea thing, truly. That's what bond has always traditionally been.

Brett: Not a safety community.

Norm: But that's exactly what the Supreme Court decided. And this issue would then say, uh, no, you've got to consider safety of the community, the person's criminal, uh, record, the likelihood that they're returning to court, and the seriousness of the fence.

Brett: It's kind of wrapped in it than it already is.

Norm: It is?

Steve: Why?

Norm: No, it's not. Like Steve just said, it's mainly about whether person is going to come back. Okay. The ACLU, on commenting on this issue, number one, has said that they believe that bail should be set on the basis of the wealth obtainable by the accused.

Steve: No, that's a factor, but it shouldn't be.

Norm: The ACLU said that should be the main thing.

Steve: With all due respect to all of this, I believe, for whatever this is worth, that the current rule is sufficient. It is. And the problem with amending the Constitution is you are going to get some rogue decisions on bond that people aren't going to like. So people are going to be held when they shouldn't be held. And people, uh, you're taking away some discretion, or maybe you're giving courts more discretion. Well, in a sense, you're giving them more discretion, but you're taking away some discretion on the other end to, uh, have courts say, all right, I'm going to hold this guy or I'm not going to hold this guy. And the problem, ultimately, is that you're going to get disparate outcomes that you didn't anticipate with this.

Norm: And that's okay because we elect our judges. I'm good with that.

Steve: No, but define let the judges do what they do. There's enough there to hold, and then.

Norm: If they're ready, if they're a bad judge like the one up in Cleveland that the Supreme Court just kicked out.

Steve: That'S fine, she's gone, she's gone. But you don't need to change the Constitution to do this. There's plenty of reason to hold lots of people already. Look, judges are coming out and they're saying, look, I'm going to protect the need to protect the community. Uh, you can amend the rule without amending the Constitution.

Norm: So that's on your high school, that's.

Steve: What the judges norm that's what the.

that's what the judge in the: 2020

Steve: So play it out. We remained reversed. We need this high bond not to protect the community, but rather we want to secure the appearance, because it's such a serious crime that we think this person has more incentive to flee. Now, you've covered the problem, or you could just have the High Supreme Court amend the damn rule, and if, like you said, go vote on the judge, well, they won't.

Norm: Yeah, okay. Yeah, I'm in favor of it. I'm with Dave Yost, who's also in favor of this.

Steve: Now, you guys are wrong together.

Norm: That's okay.

Brett: Well, let's clarify what a yes or a no vote is. So a yes vote supports amending. The Ohio. That's correction. A no vote opposes amending.

Norm: A no vote would keep in place.

Brett: For the sake of delineating.

Steve: No, but not based on necessarily the substance of the issue. I don't recommending the Constitution to effectuate what should be done with legislative and or rule changes.

Norm: Well, I generally agree with you on a federal level, but the state of Ohio's, uh, uh, Constitution is gigantic. It includes everything from the Ohio Turnpike Commission and what it's allowed to do and what its mission is, uh, to things like this.

Steve: Just because we did it before doesn't mean it's good to do it again.

Supreme Court of Ohio, in the: 2020

Steve: And they didn't say that that's because they agree with it. They said that because that's what the rule says.

Norm: Exactly what the rule says. Well, I'm in favor of changing the damn rule. Yes.

Steve: Well, fine, change the rule. But you don't need to amend the Constitution to do it.

Norm: That's one way to do it.

Steve: And I'm in favor against the judges who are letting people out.

Norm: See?

Steve: Great.

Norm: It's the same hair brain judges, though, that kept putting off redistricting. So, at some point, we need to punish the Supreme Court of the State of Ohio.

Steve: Vote against him.

Norm: I am.

Steve: All right, what's next?

Norm: Okay, issue, uh, two is about voting, uh, standards. This is supported like Leo, uh, supports issue one. This one is supported by Secretary of State Frank La Rose. For what that's worth. A yes vote would prohibit local governments from allowing noncitizens of both Ohio, as well as non US. Citizens from voting in any election in the state of Ohio.

Steve: Um, is this a constitutional amendment norm or issue two?

ly. This is a response to the: 2019

Steve: I wonder what the grant of authority is to Frank, uh, La Rose on that from the legislative branch for the administrative side. Does he have rulemaking power to deal with that? Again, look, I agree with all the provisions of this. I have no disagreement with any of these requirements. The only question I have is whether it should be a constitutional amendment. Unlike bond reform that's covered by a rule, this is closer to something that I think would be a rightful amendment to a Constitution. But there might be too many weeds on it. It might be too far in the weeds. I think what it needs to be is a grant of authority, uh, for rulemaking power or something else. Actually, I'm going down a path I don't like either. This may need to be a constitutional limit.

Brett: I'm surprised it doesn't exist already. Exactly. Again, common sense. If you don't live here, you don't.

Norm: Vote.

Steve: Uh, that makes perfect sense.

Norm: Which I know that you kind of threw away your thought there, which is I'm glad you did. But the idea that Franklin Rose then gets replaced by some woke nut I agree. And then they promulgate a rule, it.

Steve: Was the implementation of it that I think when you try to do too much with a constitutional amendment, it has no bottom, it has no end. You have to keep adding more to it. So I just want to make sure that the amendment is praised in a way that, uh, it's flexible enough to apply.

Brett: And you also understand it.

Steve: And you understand it. Right.

Brett: Well, this comes straight out. You don't live here.

Norm: You don't vote here in 30 days.

Steve: Or you start hearing requirements like that. I don't like those things. In constitutional amendments, I would say you can almost say for a time period established through the General Assembly and or whoever you but generally speaking, if you're not a citizen of Ohio, you shouldn't vote in Ohio. If you're not a citizen in the country, you shouldn't vote in the country. And I think the most important thing is if you're a township, a, uh, county, a city, or some other government entity in the state of Ohio, you don't get to make your own damn rules.

Brett: True.

Norm: This is that. So in other words, the point of this issue is a prohibition on local government from allowing an expansion of election laws into those local elections. So, uh, what this is doing is putting into place for local elections the same standards that are already now in place for statewide elections. So these 30 day things aren't new. They are the standards that apply now to statewide elections. And for some reason, certain localities have interpreted that to mean, oh, so you're talking about state elections. They don't realize that that should be interpreted to also involve local elections. So this is now specifying local as well as statewide.

Steve: And that makes perfect sense. Now, uh, to the extent that the statewide elections has those details. I don't like the constitution saying that kind of stuff.

Brett: Okay, well, where do we come up with 30 days? I almost say you should be there 90.

Norm: Well, see, that's right.

Steve: Constitution you can't change.

Brett: Well, that's true. A good point, good point. Yeah. Like 30 just seems like it should move in.

Steve: Should be 180.

Brett: Where did we come up with this number? But it's like if you're going to vote in the area that you live, you should live there for more than 30 days.

Steve: A legislative question.

Norm: I'll tell you where we got those numbers. Those numbers came from 30 days, came from the old pioneer days. There was a time, remember, when we were filling up the Northwest Territory in order for those to be carved up into states. We were trying to attract voters, we were trying to bring in settlers, we were trying to get population to move from the East Coast to the middle of the United States. Places like Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, western Pennsylvania, et cetera, et cetera. So we wanted people to become franchised enfranchised as soon as possible. We wanted them to be voters as quickly as possible. So that's why it's only 30%.

Steve: That's a perfect point. That should not be a constitutional provision. That should be a legislative question because that is subject to debate on the General Assembly floor, wherever that is, or in the town hall if you're in a local town, because they will know as times change, how to deal with that. Now, there should be a general prohibition in the Constitution that says you have to be a resident as defined as, uh, the government entities general assembly determines you have to be a resident to vote. You can't be a non resident and come in and vote. Uh, otherwise you've got problems. So anyway, I agree in theory, but maybe it goes too far for me. As far as the constitutional amendment. I'm still going to vote for it.

Brett: You got in speechless.

Norm: I'm not campaigning here for either issue. No, I'm just saying what they are, man. Exactly. Which, I love it. I'm just glad we don't have John Federman running for senator here in, uh uh, the guy no, I didn't feel.

Steve: Bad for the guy because I don't think he's I feel as bad for.

Norm: Him as I feel for, uh, President Biden.

Steve: I feel bad for Biden.

Norm: They both have spouses that are obviously not looking after their best interests.

Steve: Why do you give it to a spouse for that one?

Norm: Because Joe Biden and Mrs. Federman are out there pushing their husbands to run for office when they know both of them are incompetent. They're incompetent.

Steve: To be sure. By any measure.

Norm: By any measure, they're incompetent. Now, you will remember the hated President Trump took a cognitive, uh, test which was his enemies had demanded the results be made public. Trump took the test, took the medical test, a cognitive, uh, abilities test and he made it public and he passed it flying colors with flying colors because they were trying to physical, they were trying to 25th Amendment, uh, Trump out of office. The idea being, well, let's get these whack job cabinet people who he picked, uh, Rex Tillerson and these other losers, let's get them to all toss out Trump and we'll make Mike Pence president.

Steve: Um, well, look, let's define competence.

Norm: Because federal and Biden have not made their medical records available to the public and are lazy onesided. Media, which only holds one side to any kind of standard and only questions one side, have not demanded federal and Biden to the contract disgorge their criticizing.

Steve: People for even bringing it up. Of course, one of these I forget.

Norm: Who the, uh, calling is ableist. What the hell is that? Well, that is a racist on an ability disabled I guess subject. You're an ableist. You're a person who only believes that somebody who's not in a wheelchair or somebody who's not, um, in some other way challenged, that those are the only people that should be allowed to hold office. And I would point to Dan Crenshaw and Governor Abbott. Governor Abbott, uh, isn't a wheelchair. I don't hear any Republicans wanting to get rid of Governor Abbott. Dan Crenshaw is missing an eye from combat in the United States in service of his country. I don't hear any Republicans saying people with only one eye shouldn't be allowed to hold office. So that's bull crap.

Steve: Well, you know what they're saying now? I forget who the anchor was. One of the mainstream anchors was comparing Federman to, uh, uh, uh, FDR and to Churchill.

Norm: Okay, churchill. Yeah.

Steve: We have to talk about what it means to be incompetent. And you're not using that like they're incompetent and stupid. You're using that there is a disability that they are projecting that makes them obviously, uh, cognitively incompetent to do the job right.

Norm: And I'm not dancing around like I'm happy about it. Genuinely.

Steve: They say they're bad people. No, that's a different question. Maybe.

Norm: But because of their income, I'm genuinely sad for him. Genuinely. I do love John Federman. I love everybody. I love Mr. Uh, President Biden.

Steve: So, Norman, I want to drive your race car, but I'm missing my right foot.

Norm: Okay, well, we can deal with that. We have to alter the car to fit you in.

Steve: Well, we got to pass up on that. I can't do that. So I'm a paraplegic or I'm not able to do that.

Norm: Okay, you're five years old. You can't drive my race car.

Steve: Is that unfair?

Norm: No, it's not unfair. You're not able to do it. So I'm an ableist because I don't want to let a five year old drive a 475 HP race car. No, I'm not.

Steve: I'm only 511. I want to go play for the Chicago Bulls, and it's unfair for you to not let me do that. This is where that nonsense goes.

Norm: Here's the thing. This is what I tell people that maybe don't have legs and they want to be a ballet dancer or somebody who's only, uh, 5ft and they think they're as good as Nate Archibald used to be. It was very short and want to be in the NBA. Those people have the right to try out. You have the right maybe I can't sing a note. I have the right to try out for Opera Columbus. I have the right to try out.

Steve: For I don't think you have the right at all to try out.

Norm: No, I can go do it if you want. If they have an open call and it's open to the rest of the public to try out for the NBA, then people with no legs or people who are three and a half foot tall, whatever, they have the same right as somebody else to apply and go through the screening procedure. I'm all in favor of equal rights to try. Okay. And then if the ballet wants to let somebody in a wheelchair, uh, attempt to do a pade do, uh, in the middle of the ballet of The Nutcracker.

Steve: Good job. I have no idea what a potato do is.

Norm: Set it very duet, where two people are dancing. Perfect. Fine. Let management determine that in concert with the applicant or no problem.

Brett: Or recognize your inabilities and create your own wheelchair basketball.

Norm: Yeah.

Steve: Go do what you're going to do.

Norm: Right.

Brett: Uh, because, uh, then you're competing on a level. Then everybody's in a wheelchair to play.

Norm: Basketball, and you can which they do. There are wheelchair basketball here.

Steve: We have people who are mentally clearly mentally, uh, impaired.

Norm: Correct.

Steve: And Biden it's not even a close question anymore. If you hear what he says, I mean, some of it's just complete nonsenseical. He doesn't know which side of the stage to leave. I mean, he's clearly suffering from dementia. Everybody's whitewashing this like it doesn't exist. It does exist. And this man has his finger on the button. Or better put, he doesn't. Other people are running the country, and.

Norm: Other people are running the world.

Brett: Well, the last one or two years of Reagan's term, nancy was kind of dead.

Steve: There was a huge question about that. And remember the debate, because I didn't see the huge decline in Reagan until five, six years later. Well, this everybody looks back and says, well, he must have had this bad stuff. But they're not talking about that now.

Brett: Right. Uh, that position, that office has a higher level of what is needed than what we're doing around this table.

Steve: It is not unfair to, uh, say exactly. You want somebody who is mentally astute.

Norm: Because he's with all their faculty.

Brett: He's a push of a button away or saying the wrong thing to the wrong person and starting a world war.

Steve: Or he might just start signing executive orders that every jackass and their mother sticks underneath his nose and dismantled the governmental structure. What am I signing today?

Norm: Mom?

Steve: That sounds like a good idea.

Norm: Yeah, great.

Steve: The Supreme Court says, let's just do it for a while.

Norm: Do it. Well, did you hear what he said about we'll give two good examples about President Biden. He just recently, I think yesterday or the day before, said when he came into office, gas was $5 a gallon. Okay? It was actually $2.0.39 on average a gallon when he took office. Okay? He doesn't even know, uh, not only is he fact deprived, but he's in a fantasy world. The second recent example, which he gave in a pressure, uh, I think outside his helicopter or something a shouted question, and he gave this reply. He indicated that the tuition forgiveness program was passed in Congress by a couple of vote margin. Joe, my God, you did all of that by executive action. That's what everybody's pissed about. It didn't go to Congress.

Steve: He doesn't even know.

Norm: He doesn't even know that his initiative did not go through the, uh, Congressional, which is where, obviously, bills, bills having to do with the budget, have to go through Congress. That's. What this appeal to the Supreme Court, which Amy Kony Barrett should have recognized. And I don't know why she didn't put a, um, restriction on the implementation, but she didn't. But there are cases before the Supreme Court that are going to work their way to the Supreme Court.

Steve: I'm sure they were asking for emergency order to halt it. And so that was a different legal standard. She should have gone to Merits.

Norm: Yeah.

Brett: And she should have or let's go complete. So if he's truly incompetent, are they running paperwork in front of him? Maybe they told him, yeah, you know what? This passed by a couple of those you're covered.

Norm: We don't know.

Brett: Could that be happening? I mean, that sounds so conspiracy laden to me.

Norm: Look, but you have idealogs he thought it was legislation. You did this.

Steve: Look, uh, Kennedy had all sorts of people telling him what he should do during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and I'm not going to look, there's parts of that I think he handled brilliantly. There's parts I don't think he handled so brilliantly. But he handled he made the decision, he analyzed the issues and said, here's what I'm going to do. There were people that would have said, push the button now. There were people that would have said, don't even offer to, uh, negotiate. And then there are people like just capitulate and let the Russians have missiles on Cuba because they won't ever do anything with them.

Norm: Or as the Kennedys would call it, Cuba.

Steve: Cuba, Cuba. But the point is, well, the hero.

Norm: Of that story, right, I mean, we all know now, since it's all come out, was Khrushchev. Khrushchev is the one that backed down. The Kennedys were going to start World War Three, and him and Bobby, they, uh, took it up. They did the brinksmanship and basically told, uh, Khrushchev, except they had a backdoor.

Steve: Deal to pull down all the ballistic m all the, uh, ICBMs from Europe. Well, no, within the next six months.

Norm: It was just Poland. Actually not Poland. It was just West Germany.

Steve: But I thought we had an agreement over a six month period to pull down all our there was a secret.

Norm: Cottesel to that, but it was Kruschev that put that out there. Uh, the Kennedys, they were very rigid in their negotiation. It was Khrushchev who defused it. If you recall, the Kennedys were clustered around the red phone waiting for the Russians to reply to their latest brinksmanship, and it was Khrushchev who folded then.

Steve: You could say that's good.

Norm: Yeah, you could say that. They were great bluffers. The question is, what were they going to do if cruise ships said nap, uh, the cargo ships are going to keep steaming in. And there were actually missiles already set up in Cuba.

Steve: They were already they were closer than people can possibly imagine.

Norm: Yeah, they were bringing in more, but if you recall the YouTube pilot, uh, we lost a YouTube pilot that, uh, was taking pictures, but other YouTube flights had brought back definitive proof that the missile sites were set up and operational.

Steve: All right, well, the point of all this is that the Kennedys had the cognitive faculties to at least understand they made the decision, or he made the decision. And what's going on now is Biden is not making the decisions. The people encouraging him one way or another are making the decisions, and he surround himself with some Ideologues, I think, that have an agenda that the President's job is to check. When you're the president, you have to say, look, maybe I agree with this in policy and theory, but we can't do it. It's not right for the country. I'm not going to sign this order. Biden, I don't feel, has the ability to say no to things like that. And like you said, Brett, it very well may be that you're lying to him. That look, Congress said they're on board with this.

Brett: They can vote here's.

Steve: What, you're just signing this? I mean, I'm not comfortable he knows what the hell he's signing.

Norm: No.

Brett: Yes. With statements like that for a guy.

Norm: Yeah, for a guy that was in the Senate his entire adult life at the time he became a senator, was the youngest senator in US. History ever.

Steve: He's a millionaire.

Norm: It's unbelievable to me that he doesn't realize that, uh, he put into place this program by executive order, not through legislation, and yet he babbles that well, I got it passed by just a handful of votes. If underlying representatives. Well, dude, what are you talking about?

Steve: If I were representing him and he was charged with a crime and I've had cases like this, I have one pending now, I would get him evaluated and have him declared incompetent to stand trial, for sure. Even if he were guilty, we would not put that man on trial for a criminal case right now. But he's running the country.

Norm: But that's right.

Brett: So if he's determined incompetent, you got the other side of who's walking in office.

Steve: That's the Dumb's, worst nightmare, because she's a complete for other reasons.

Brett: That may be the answer to why it's not happening.

Norm: Vice President Giggles.

Steve: Yeah, I mean, she.

Norm: Really like is electric school buses love Venn diagrams. Oh, my God.

Steve: Venn Diagrams. Aren't they nice?

Norm: Did you see the list of, um, in space? Did you see the conflict of interest in this, uh, uh, pro terra company that is making these electric school buses that, uh, they just announced they're going to spend, I think, $5 billion to seed school bus fleets across the country with these electric school buses, which two of which have burned to the ground in two different cities. But the current secretary of energy, um, and several biden insiders all have stock in this company, the same one that got this $5 billion. This is so I mean, it's unbelievable.

Steve: How people aren't absolutely I don't care what the agenda is, what the cause is, it's always about the damn money, and people should be floored by this.

Norm: Do you remember all of the shit that was thrown? Uh, and I dislike Darth Cheney, but do you remember the vice president cheney, who had resigned as the head of Halliburton, and he owned the stock in Halliburton? As you know, when you become president, or vice president, the ethics requires, uh, you to turn over your portfolio, and it's invested blindly. So he's no longer having anything to do with Halliburton that he used to be CEO of. And they used to regularly say, we were in Iraq, or doing whatever we were doing in the middle east because Dick Cheney was trying to help Halliburton. Here you have actual I mean, it's like Cylindra or enron. You have actual investors in the administration, in this company that's getting this grant. Some believing.

Steve: Yeah. So, uh, we have essentially unreal well, we didn't finish with federal, but it was embarrassing for him. I felt horrible for him. His debate performance was he obviously now look what I don't know.

Norm: And Oz went easy on him.

Steve: And Oz went easy on him.

Norm: Right.

Steve: What I don't know, because they are not releasing what I don't know whether it's like, um, a speech interpretation, more like a dyslexic type of problem, or if it's deeper. And I think that people deserve to know that.

Norm: Sure.

Steve: Because look, at a stroke, it may be true that because I've been around, uh, somebody, uh, a very close friend at a young age had a stroke. He knew what he was trying to say, but he couldn't say it. Sure knew what I was saying to him, but, uh, he couldn't repeat it to me.

Norm: I got you.

Steve: So it could be just that. Now, that would not be as bad to me correct. As somebody who doesn't understand what's being said.

Norm: So then why not release your medicine?

Steve: You should know that. Everybody should know that, of course. And if you don't know that, and you vote for that guy's, shame on you, because you're really getting his handlers. You're not getting him.

Norm: So I want to bring up that situation. This is another one I would like to see an issue on. Uh, I would like to see a statewide issue on this. And Frank LeRose would disagree with me, I think, and probably you guys, too. But the federman thing brings up the old nor Murdoch saw that we should be voting on election day, or as close as possible for early balloting people that are in the military or people who have business travel or people who are disabled that can't get there on election day, can't stand in line because they have a disability or they're old or whatever. So there's those exceptions. But basically, what has happened in Pennsylvania, uh, before this debate occurred, where the voters in Pennsylvania got to see just how bad John Federman, his mental condition seems to be, and they can form their own opinions on that. A, uh, million people in Pennsylvania had already voted, and you can't unvote there is no process in Ohio or Pennsylvania to go in and say, short, uh, of a lawsuit. I suppose you could sue the board of elections and perhaps but there is no regular procedure to go in and get your vote back and say, my God, I just saw this debate between federal Min and Oz, and I want to write in a different candidate, or I want to vote for Oz, or just not vote, or just not vote. I want to take back my vote for federal because I just saw no, you can't do that. Those million votes are already on the books. And that is tragic. Not because I'm in favor of Oz. That's not what I'm saying, folks.

Steve: It could be reversed.

Norm: It's your lack of information. You deprived yourself of more information by voting early. And I think that should be I think as a public policy, we should all be voting on the basis of the same information. So where do you draw the availability? I like election day.

Brett: I do too. But you just made a good point. They made the choice to vote early. No one forced our hand to do it. But it does sway, all of a sudden, somebody that, uh, potentially could be elected into an office by early vote.

Norm: Well, Brett, we've had dead people elected. Right. Because of that.

Brett: I don't like this big window.

Steve: What is the window? And I said, where do you draw the line for absentees? Like for military? For my son, for instance. He's in college. Um, he voted absentees already voted. He voted last week, I think.

Norm: Right.

Steve: But I don't think he could have voted much earlier than that. But maybe he could have.

Norm: No problem.

Brett: He got his probably last week as well, too. So I think his ballots are getting out late this year.

Norm: They will be.

Brett: I don't know.

Steve: If you're out of state on a job, do you disenfranchise yourself?

Norm: No.

Brett: You don't have to fill it out to the the day before mail it.

Steve: We let people do everything online to the point where it's like the highest security. We can't figure this problem out.

Brett: Right.

Steve: You can't go online and have a zoom picture and identify yourself and have.

Brett: Somebody or a fingerprint here's your ballot. Yes.

Steve: It's safer than an absentee ballot.

Norm: Well, and the other thing that these election boards are doing, the boards of elections is they're celebrating. Ridiculous. I mean, to me, I think it's ridiculous. I don't think it's the Board of Elections responsibility to urge or to foster or to in any way get into the business of measuring whether we got a big turnout or not. If the citizens don't want to vote, that's also a decision that they're allowed to make. And I don't understand the celebration of we have 100 more people that voted.

Steve: This year than it's a product of criticism because they've been criticized for disenfranchising people and they're saying, no, look how many people, look how many more people.

Norm: Well, that is not their job.

Brett: And the early voting system works well.

Norm: This whole thing about trying to make voting more, um, whoever that spokesman lady is at the White House, I never can get her name right. KJB or Kg y or Kareem jean Pierre, whatever name, whatever her name is. She bragged, for example, that to get your money back for the tuition program that it was less than 1 minute for the average application. They're saying the same kind of ridiculous stuff about voting, about making it super convenient, like, hey, why can't I just do it on my phone and just click a few buttons and ha ha, I got to vote no. I think voting is such a serious thing, should involve such deliberation, that you need to take time. It needs to be a deliberative process, and we should all vote basically under the same kind of circumstances. So when you go to vote, for example, if you remember on election day, you're not allowed to serve alcohol between certain hours. That's because we want sober people to vote. Okay? There are a lot of things in state law, uh, surrounding Election Day that we don't otherwise have when people are just willy nilly voting on their cell phones.

Brett: Well, I still think we need to make it a national holiday. Bottom line, that day should be in problem with that.

Norm: I really do. I don't have any problem with that.

Brett: Uh, we throw every other day under the bus.

Norm: I am in a holiday. I am in favor of maximizing people's opportunities to vote, but I want it all to be as much as possible on the same damn day.

Brett: Right?

Norm: That's all. Uh, yeah.

Steve: We're all green. All right.

Norm: Otherwise you have these October surprises like we just had with the Federman. Debate will have less and less effective.

Steve: Well, it's just going to push everything forward. So now people are going to start slinging the mud earlier and earlier and earlier and earlier, and it'll be like no election day at all. It'll just be a constant campaign.

Norm: It will be an election season.

Steve: They call it a slippery slope.

Norm: I would like to bring up a subject that Brett brought up over breakfast this morning, which it actually hadn't dawned on me, and I believe it's just as outrageous as Veteran had he not agreed to a debate. And that is why is Governor DeWine dodging a debate with his challenger and super pisses me off. It really does. It's so cowardly. And it just tells me that DeWine is afraid to discuss his own record.

Steve: Dwine is a weasel of the highest order.

Norm: He's terrible.

Steve: Yeah, I can't say he's terrible.

Norm: I am not voting for him. I'm going to write in Steve Palmer.

Brett: I think you're going to see, uh, a lot of people not necessarily vote against him, but I think they're not going to vote for him to let him know we are not happy. You're still going to win. You're not going to win by that landslide. Look at the numbers.

Norm: I'm very disappointed in him. He doesn't have the guts to debate this NAN Whaley or whatever.

Brett: She had an opportunity to talk with some TV reported from NBC Four and she came out and said that she would take the gas tax off Ohio.

Norm: Gas tax a holiday. Uh, holiday.

Steve: Yeah.

Brett: Well, speaking of it allows her to have that platforms like, why didn't you guys talk about this?

Norm: So this is not GOP radio, folks, right? I'm not pushing Governor DeWine because he's a Republican. I don't know what he is. He's some kind of rhino creature like Rob Portman.

Steve: It's not even that.

Norm: I don't know what he is.

Steve: He's a weasel.

Norm: And I wish JD. Vance would quit using Rob Portman as a crutch. JD. I gave you $500. I love you. I'm voting for you. You're right on every issue I can think of. But quit trying to get the middle of the road voter by saying, well, Rob Portman now endorses me. He never endorsed you up until just recently. He's a rhino, he's despicable, and he voted for all of the crap, including the stupid Biden Inflation Reduction Act. It's got Rob Portman's vote on it.

Steve: Uh, talking about governors around the country. Look, quick predictions here. I think that the Republicans are going to sweep in a way that, uh, even the pollsters aren't quite predicting. I mean, I think the pollsters are suffering from a huge dose of, uh, case of, uh, confirmation.

Brett: We've talked about that before, too. I think a lot of people say to somebody, that one way and they do another one.

Norm: I would also like to throw in, because I agree, Steve, uh, they're going to blow Nancy Pelosi out office. She's gone. She's not going to be speaker. And I don't want that latex backbone, spineless invertebrate Kevin McCarthy to be speaker of the House. He thinks that he's got this, you know, like it's all wrapped up. And he probably does, which is very disappointing. Speaker of the House should be from Ohio. It should be Jim Jordan. Yeah, that's who should be. I don't think he wants to, but I want it.

Steve: Jim wants to be on any political checks on what he does. He wants to be able to speak, uh, freely. He doesn't want to have to. Compromise and solve problems, and that's what the speaker of the House has to do.

Brett: Well, true.

Steve: Not that Jim Jordan is uncompromising, but I think he is most effective when he is advocating for the cause that.

Norm: Uh, I want him to be center stage. I want that dude.

Steve: I'm with you, man. I love it, but I don't think he wants it.

Norm: Maybe. No, I've never heard that he's campaigning for it, or he thinks he can get it. But that is the kind of person there's even been talk about, because the speaker of the House does not have to be an elected member of Congress. I don't know if people know that.

Steve: I didn't know that.

Norm: No. The Congress elects a speaker of the House. It could be you, Steve. It could be me. It could be Donald Trump, if they can elect that's a can you imagine? No, actually, I can imagine. But the speaker of the House can be anybody that Congress elects to be their speaker.

Steve: Interesting.

Brett: Has that ever happened, though?

Norm: It has happened. There was wild. Yes. I'm trying to think of the I could be wrong on this, but I think that, um, Governor Taft, and then he was on the Supreme Court, but I believe that, uh, I'm talking about William Howard Taft, uh, you know, a century ago or whatever it's been. Uh, I believe he was elected speaker, uh, of the House at one point. I'm, um, not positive, but I'd have to research that. But no, I would say 99.9. It's a member of Congress. They elect somebody amongst themselves, but they don't have to.

Steve: Well, we are, uh sadly, the time has flown by yet again, so we are probably at a point where we got to wrap it up. Um, elections just right around the corner of what better time to tune into Common Sense Ohio? We're giving you all the Common Sense school approaches, even though Norman, I may disagree on an issue or two. That's what the Round Table is all about, having some disagreements. Norm doesn't know he's wrong, and it's no big deal. Uh, anyway no, I'm not if you are. So, uh, if you've got a suggestion of a topic here on Common Sense Ohio, uh, shoot us an email. You can still do that at Loretta Talk Podcast.com. Uh, it's, uh, funny. I did get a question, uh, up at the law firm, and, uh, it was a listener from far, far away in Wisconsin, and, uh, the listener wanted to know what's going on. Am I still going to get my lawyer talk? Yes, I promise I've got it coming and maybe some really good things coming. So, uh, I haven't forgotten about that. I'm just devoting a little bit of energy to getting this going, uh, for now. Uh, but nothing is dead. It's all still alive. So keep, uh, tuning in, uh, if you have, uh, any questions, thoughts, concerns, lloydtalk Podcast.com, if you want your own podcast. You go give, uh, us a shout at channel 501 dot.com or go right to Circle 270. Media.com brett will get you hooked right up. You can speak at the same microphones that normally speaking in front of and, uh, boy, what an honor that would be.

Norm: I'll just infect it for you. All good.

Steve: We'll decode it.

Norm: The best thing that happened to me today already happened. And it's early in the morning. No Honda Odyssey's impeded my progress to this project.

Brett: They are not on the roads before 700 in the morning. Did you know that?

Steve: I'm going to buy a house in suburbia and get a Honda Odyssey, for God's sake. I'm going to have tailgate parties every single weekend. Uh, I can even fit a four by sheet of plywood in the back of it.

Norm: I'll bring a sledgehammer.

Steve: All right, well, with that, we're going to wrap it up. This, uh, is Common Sense, Ohio, right from the middle, at least until now.

Share Episode

Shownotes

Transcripts

Follow

Links

Chapters

Video

More from YouTube