Artwork for podcast Common Sense Ohio
Free Speech or Just Noise? Press Bans, Gas Prices, and Real-World Fallout
Episode 189 • 23rd September 2026 • Common Sense Ohio • Common Sense Ohio
00:00:00 01:01:02

Share Episode

Shownotes

Welcome back! After our brief break, we’re diving right back into thought-provoking topics and practical life takeaways — always with our signature approach: conversational, critical, and rooted in common sense. Here's a look at what stood out this week.

On This Day in History: Lessons from Lewis & Clark

Did you know that on September 23, 1806, the Lewis & Clark expedition returned to St. Louis? Their harrowing journey, guided in no small part by Sacagawea’s ingenuity and a miraculous family reunion, remains a lesson in perseverance and the hidden power of coincidence (00:16). If you’re looking to be inspired, check out Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose — and keep an eye out for the upcoming TV series!

Takeaway: Seemingly small connections and acts of resourcefulness can change the course of history — and our own journeys.

The Power (And Peril) of Speech: Freedom or Treason?

A big question this week: At what point does the freedom to criticize become dangerous? We explored how America’s openness to dissent can be both its strength and, as some fear, its Achilles' heel (12:05). From debates over the limits of free speech in the White House press room to university campuses, we considered how essential protected dissent is to democracy—but also the risks of undermining our own foundations.

Takeaway: Free speech is vital, but it requires balance, vigilance, and, above all, a commitment to respectful discourse—even when we disagree.

Foreign Policy & National Security: Strength or Bravado?

We took a close look at why some world leaders, past and present, choose bold—sometimes controversial—language and strategies (06:27). From the U.S.–Saudi oil partnership of 1933 (04:37) to Trump’s “annihilate” rhetoric at the UN, we considered: Is it bluster, or is there a method to the madness? And what’s the cost when actions don’t match words—or when policy lags behind public concerns, like with high diesel prices and energy independence?

Takeaway: In today’s world, words and actions matter. National security (and our pocketbooks) depend on steady, strategic leadership—not just headlines.

Harper CPA Plus on website

Democracy, Ideals, and Reality: Can Perfection Be Legislated?

Reflecting on philosophical and spiritual lessons, we asked: Can government force us to be “good”? Or is striving for virtue ultimately a personal journey (27:05)? The conversation touched on current political divides, youth idealism, and how lasting change must come from within.

Takeaway: Genuine change starts at home and in our communities. Perfection is elusive, but honest effort toward it benefits us all.

Heroes & Zeros of the Week

  • Hero: Gavin Newsom (“If Kamala runs, he won’t!”) — for making political chess a bit more interesting (55:22).
  • Zero: Politicians late to the data center debate. As the practical consequences hit local communities, the lesson is clear: Proactive, community-minded planning beats reactive policy every time (56:49).

Thanks for tuning in! For resources mentioned and to catch every thoughtful debate, visit us at commonsenseohioshow.com—and don’t forget to share the podcast with friends who value informed, commonsense discussion.

Until next week — keep looking forward, the common sense way!

Recorded at the 511 Studios, in the Brewery District in downtown Columbus, OH.

[email protected]

Stephen Palmer is the Managing Partner for the law firm, Palmer Legal Defense. He has specialized almost exclusively in criminal defense for over 26 years. Steve is also a partner in Criminal Defense Consultants, a firm focused wholly on helping criminal defense attorneys design winning strategies for their clients.

Norm Murdock is an automobile racing driver and owner of a high-performance and restoration car parts company. He earned undergraduate degrees in literature and journalism and graduated with a Juris Doctor from the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1985. He worked in the IT industry for two years before launching a career in government relations in Columbus, Ohio. Norm has assisted clients in the Transportation, Education, Healthcare, and Public Infrastructure sectors.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

Copyright 2026 Common Sense Ohio

Transcripts

Steve Palmer:

I know you need it. I do too. Your weekly dose of common sense

Steve Palmer:

back after a couple-week hiatus. Yours truly in a jury trial.

Steve Palmer:

We have real jobs. Um, Norm out racing the world, taking on

Steve Palmer:

the all-comers. It is September 23rd, 2026. This

Steve Palmer:

day in history, Norm, Lewis and Clark returned. Oh, wow.

Steve Palmer:

Um, there's 2 interesting things that happened in history. Lewis and Clark returned from their

Steve Palmer:

expedition out to the Pacific Northwest. Um, which was kind of

Norm Murdock:

a miracle. A miracle, right? Cross the Mississippi, go, uh, they returned to

Steve Palmer:

St. Louis. A lot of unfriendly situations. I mean,

Steve Palmer:

yeah, I mean, really. And anybody, there's a great book by, I think, Stephen Ambrose

Steve Palmer:

called Undaunted Courage. I read that long ago, but well worth

Steve Palmer:

a read. Now turned into a TV series. Oh, is it really? Yeah. Gonna come

Norm Murdock:

out. I didn't know that. Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, look,

Steve Palmer:

even more relevant then. See, I'm relevant. I don't even know that I'm relevant. Hey,

Norm Murdock:

you are. But they traveled up the Missouri River in 6

Steve Palmer:

canoes and 2 longboats, wintered in the Dakotas. I mean, what's a little

Steve Palmer:

mild winter up in the Dakotas? Before crossing into Montana where

Steve Palmer:

they first saw the Rocky Mountains on the other side of the Continental Divide. They

Steve Palmer:

were met by Sacagawea's tribe, the Shoshone Indians,

Steve Palmer:

who sold them horses for the journey down through the Bitterfoot Mountains

Steve Palmer:

after passing through the dangerous rapids of the Clearwater and snake rivers across in

Steve Palmer:

canoes, they reached the calm of the Columbia River, which led them to the sea.

Norm Murdock:

So, I mean, the most amazing thing you just

Norm Murdock:

glanced off there, but if, if you read Ambrose's book

Norm Murdock:

and dig into Sacagawea, that whole thing is a

Norm Murdock:

flipping miracle. Yeah. So, so I, I don't know if you can, if you

Norm Murdock:

know this, but, and I just found out, you know, recently

Norm Murdock:

Sacagawea was married off or captured or

Norm Murdock:

something to a completely different tribe than this

Norm Murdock:

Shoshone. When Lewis and

Norm Murdock:

Clark— I mean, her— so here she is, she's pregnant or,

Norm Murdock:

or just had a baby, and she's on this expedition. She's a young girl.

Norm Murdock:

It's completely bizarre that they would even have her along. It

Steve Palmer:

doesn't make any sense, right? It makes no sense, but they have her along. And

Norm Murdock:

the key moment is she is long separated

Norm Murdock:

from her relatives in the Shoshone tribe. Like, we're talking

Norm Murdock:

several states away. Like, she's, she's from like

Norm Murdock:

Minnesota area. Yeah, and probably what, like in teens? Yes.

Steve Palmer:

I mean, imagine the age of these people and compare them to what our, our

Steve Palmer:

youth are doing. But she's like thousands of miles, or

Norm Murdock:

at least hundreds of miles away from her, her

Norm Murdock:

relatives. And Lewis and Clark meet these Shoshones.

Norm Murdock:

They're, they're, they're starving, their horses are done, they

Norm Murdock:

need supplies. And these Shoshones are viewing them as

Norm Murdock:

aliens that probably need to get killed. Yeah. Like, like, you know,

Norm Murdock:

no, we're not buddies with you. She waddles up and goes, oh,

Norm Murdock:

my long-lost brother or cousin or whatever it is. She

Norm Murdock:

recognizes her old family They recognize her.

Norm Murdock:

They have this big love-in, uh, you know, embrace.

Norm Murdock:

And, and, and then she starts negotiating and, and

Norm Murdock:

relieves all of the tension. They get, they get the ponies, they get

Norm Murdock:

the food, they get more guides in. She ends up

Norm Murdock:

staying with them, I think, and not proceeding on with the

Norm Murdock:

rest of the expedition. And it, it's just,

Norm Murdock:

it's one of those like one in a million

Norm Murdock:

kind of encounter. Yeah, it shouldn't have happened. It's like

Steve Palmer:

by God's will only, you know. Like Jefferson would have

Norm Murdock:

sent Lewis and Clark off and we would have never heard from them again. Yeah,

Steve Palmer:

scalped and dead somewhere in the Rockies, right? Yeah, just— Or just dead, frozen

Steve Palmer:

dead in the Dakota tundra. Yeah, and then what? No

Norm Murdock:

Louisiana Purchase, or I don't know. Like, I don't know what would have happened

Norm Murdock:

out of that. Really incredible. It's, it's unbelievable. Really incredible. And

Steve Palmer:

I, I— So she deserves that dollar. She does. She does, right? And

Steve Palmer:

for those who haven't read the, the Wilderness Tales, Alan Eckert's book, it talks about

Steve Palmer:

young Lewis and Clark, I think, a little bit in some of those books. Oh,

Norm Murdock:

cool. Uh, really interesting stuff. The other thing that happened, which is historically significant

Steve Palmer:

on this day, on September 23rd, 19— let's get a year for Lewis and

Steve Palmer:

Clark, by the way. Uh, that was— I don't think we ever said the year.

Steve Palmer:

1806. Yeah, a little later than I thought it was. And they actually were

Norm Murdock:

penetrating into like Spanish territory. Like

Norm Murdock:

they were going into another country's— Invading.

Norm Murdock:

Yeah. So in 1933, a party of American geologists lands

Steve Palmer:

where? At the Persian Gulf port of Jubail in Saudi

Steve Palmer:

Arabia and begins its journey into the desert where we eventually

Steve Palmer:

stake our claim. Standard Oil stakes its claim and The rest, as

Steve Palmer:

we say, is history. Yeah. Aramco and all that came

Norm Murdock:

out of all that. Partnership between Abdelaziz's government and Standard Oil

Steve Palmer:

became known as the Arabian American Oil Company, Aramco.

Steve Palmer:

Texaco soon joined the partnership. Why not? About a decade later.

Steve Palmer:

And eventually we have the war in

Steve Palmer:

Iran. Kind of what Trump is doing in Venezuela.

Steve Palmer:

Like, real. Yeah. And what Trump said is like, we found it there anyway, not

Steve Palmer:

you guys. Yeah. I don't know if that's how it was either way,

Steve Palmer:

but yeah. Yeah, right. We'll help you exploit it. Yeah.

Norm Murdock:

And you'll get to share in the benefits. But, you know, obviously,

Norm Murdock:

you know, US companies need some sort of security that you're not

Norm Murdock:

going to nationalize all this oil infrastructure and steal

Norm Murdock:

it from us. Right. You know, so

Norm Murdock:

interesting stuff. Well, Steve,

Norm Murdock:

I mean, this is— let's be more philosophical today rather than

Norm Murdock:

news-oriented. So I love that

Norm Murdock:

there's this big controversy that Trump used the word

Norm Murdock:

annihilate at the UN, right? So, so

Norm Murdock:

he presents this either this or

Norm Murdock:

that kind of vision of the future for

Norm Murdock:

Iran. Okay. On one hand, you know, we can annihilate you

Norm Murdock:

guys. On the other hand, you can change your ways.

Norm Murdock:

and decide to join the rest of the

Norm Murdock:

non-terrorist countries of the world.

Norm Murdock:

And you can metamorphose

Norm Murdock:

into, you know, this huge— I mean, the people in

Norm Murdock:

Iran are brilliant. They're brilliant engineers. They've always— the

Norm Murdock:

Persians have always been the vanguard of

Norm Murdock:

human knowledge. I mean, when Europeans were crawling around in

Norm Murdock:

caves, Persia, you know, was leading in

Norm Murdock:

astronomy and mathematics and chemistry. I mean, really,

Steve Palmer:

I didn't know that. Yeah, I mean, it was like ancient Alexandria in

Norm Murdock:

Egypt at the time, you know, the Library in Alexandria,

Norm Murdock:

you know. And in, in Europe, Britons and Frenchies were, you know,

Norm Murdock:

they were in loincloths throwing spears. I mean, really,

Norm Murdock:

the Near East, the, the, the, the the old,

Norm Murdock:

centuries-old Middle East was a bastion

Norm Murdock:

of human advancement. And Trump is saying, you guys could do that again.

Norm Murdock:

You could be one of the world's great countries. And he used the

Norm Murdock:

word annihilate. And I, you know, I'm thinking back to Winston

Norm Murdock:

Churchill where, you know, he's nose to nose with Hitler,

Norm Murdock:

right? And he says, you know, we're gonna fight you on the beaches, we're gonna

Norm Murdock:

fight you in the air, we're gonna fight you on land, we're gonna fight you

Norm Murdock:

at sea. we're never going to give up. We're never, you know, like, to the

Norm Murdock:

last British person, we're going to

Norm Murdock:

fight you, you know, with every breath. And, and

Norm Murdock:

I, I guess what I don't understand is a country that

Norm Murdock:

sanctioned this horrible attack on October the

Norm Murdock:

7th, where they, they throw babies in ovens and they do all this

Norm Murdock:

horrible stuff and, and, and blow up the Marine

Norm Murdock:

barracks and, and kill several hundred Marines in

Norm Murdock:

Lebanon, and, and all the other roadside IEDs,

Norm Murdock:

which, you know, our Marine friends know very well all

Norm Murdock:

about that, including here in Columbus. Mhm. Like,

Norm Murdock:

why aren't the Iranian mullahs viewed as

Norm Murdock:

like Hitlers? And why aren't we— why, why do words like

Norm Murdock:

annihilate, which we can use in regards to a

Norm Murdock:

Hitler or a Tojo, Why is that

Norm Murdock:

so outrageous to say?

Norm Murdock:

I know it's bravado, but so what? Well, look, some of it's

Steve Palmer:

Trumpian bravado. Some of it's like, look, we're going to annihilate you, or you could

Steve Palmer:

be our friends. I don't care either way. And he probably doesn't. He probably does.

Steve Palmer:

But it's like he does. But what he's trying to say is,

Steve Palmer:

look, we don't want to fight you anymore, but we will. But why

Steve Palmer:

politically is there such a backlash? You know,

Steve Palmer:

there's this movement that has been instilled in

Steve Palmer:

our country going way back.

Steve Palmer:

And we've taught our country to hate itself. We've taught our country to

Steve Palmer:

sympathize with its enemies. And you hear the El-Sayed saying, well, hurt people

Steve Palmer:

do hurt things. It doesn't justify anything that happened on October 7th or

Steve Palmer:

whatever that was. Yeah. It doesn't justify any of it. And people are saying,

Steve Palmer:

Whatever it is, people are now sympathizing somehow with the

Steve Palmer:

terrorists who want us to die. Yeah. We deserved

Norm Murdock:

it. Because we deserved it. And some of it has to do

Steve Palmer:

with, well, it's because we're beholden to the Israelis only.

Steve Palmer:

And I argue with people all the time. It's like, look, 2 things can be

Steve Palmer:

true here. We have a common enemy. We have a common

Steve Palmer:

enemy. One of them says, we want you guys to die. Right.

Steve Palmer:

We want to take you off the face of the planet, instill Sharia law, and

Steve Palmer:

be done with you, and be done with the West forever. You know, join Allah

Steve Palmer:

or die. Right. And the other has its own problems. Yes, its

Steve Palmer:

own evils. Like Zelensky in Ukraine. He's not a perfect

Norm Murdock:

ally. Correct. He banned opposition parties and stuff like

Norm Murdock:

that. So he's not perfect. So both things can be true. Yes,

Steve Palmer:

both things can be true. And we have to, you know, the world's not this

Steve Palmer:

perfect place, and we don't get to come hide in our country anymore. We don't,

Steve Palmer:

but we've opened up the borders to this. I've always wondered about this. I'd be

Steve Palmer:

curious, and this is philosophical, right? It's

Steve Palmer:

not— Right. But I've always wondered at what point, you know, Marx said,

Steve Palmer:

I probably said this here before, Marx said, a capitalistic society contains

Steve Palmer:

the seeds of its own destruction. And what he was trying to say

Steve Palmer:

is, well, eventually the working class is gonna rise up and

Steve Palmer:

overturn the capitalists. Well, that never happened. But to some extent, he's true.

Steve Palmer:

It's true because we have the, and it's not just capitalism, it's our brand of

Steve Palmer:

it. It's our brand of freedom contains the seeds of its own destruction because we

Steve Palmer:

let let opposition in to

Steve Palmer:

speak against us. Yes. And we let people come in

Steve Palmer:

and disseminate, uh, a message.

Norm Murdock:

Yeah. To our youth. We're a free speech society. Yeah. And we've let that in.

Steve Palmer:

So we've taught our youth that America is bad. Right. And you see it on

Steve Palmer:

YouTube. I see these people interviewed on YouTube. Like, our standard of living right now

Steve Palmer:

is better than it's ever been in the entire world history. No question. And

Steve Palmer:

these people who hate our country are doing so on their

Steve Palmer:

$1,500 iPhones and with

Steve Palmer:

unlimited data. Using data centers. Right,

Steve Palmer:

using data, right. And you can make an argument that maybe

Steve Palmer:

we have too many data centers, I don't know, but you can't,

Steve Palmer:

you know, so, but somehow that message has come true. So we have let that

Steve Palmer:

in. So the seeds of our destruction is that we let other people

Steve Palmer:

outwardly speak against our government. We consider that sacred. Right. Right? You

Steve Palmer:

have the right to do that. Absolutely. And we'll defend it. So, but when does

Steve Palmer:

it cross the line and become treason? When is it treason to say we want

Steve Palmer:

to take down the American government and fundamentally change it forever? I don't know

Steve Palmer:

the answer to that. It's a philosophical question. And you can't say, but you can't

Steve Palmer:

even bring that up now without being called xenophobic or

Steve Palmer:

whatever, you're racist, whatever. But back to your question, like, why is it bad?

Steve Palmer:

Because we've let into our ideology the

Steve Palmer:

notion that we deserve it. Yeah, well, I'll never forget, you know,

Norm Murdock:

there's been a lot of outrageous things said at the UN, and

Norm Murdock:

I'll never forget, you know, I was in college, I think,

Norm Murdock:

when this happened. I don't— Steve, you might have been a gleam in your father's

Norm Murdock:

eye, I, I don't know, uh, or, or a little

Norm Murdock:

crumb cruncher at the time, but, um, we—

Norm Murdock:

there, there's an age difference. But I remember when Yasser Arafat,

Norm Murdock:

who is head of the PLO, addressed the UN and he was wearing

Norm Murdock:

pistols. He was at the microphone with

Norm Murdock:

holsters that had pistols in them, right? And

Norm Murdock:

he's— obviously at the time they were

Norm Murdock:

hijacking aircraft. They were, they were, they were— the

Norm Murdock:

PLO was hijacking aircraft and flying them

Norm Murdock:

to Cuba where somehow Castro would welcome them.

Norm Murdock:

And it was part of this whole communist— socialist, well, we're going to

Norm Murdock:

liberate Palestine somehow by hijacking

Norm Murdock:

airplanes. Yeah. And of course, they blew up some, they killed some of

Norm Murdock:

the passengers. You know, they, they, the Germans took

Norm Murdock:

one to Uganda in support of the Palestinians. It's so

Norm Murdock:

bizarre. All of this crazy stuff, very violent. And we

Norm Murdock:

let those people speak at the UN. But Trump uses the word

Norm Murdock:

annihilate And it's the end of the world somehow. But it's interesting

Steve Palmer:

though. I mean, I listen to Victor Davis Hanson a lot and some other,

Steve Palmer:

some other thinkers. Well, he's brilliant. I think are uncontaminated by this stuff.

Norm Murdock:

Yeah. And, you know, he's a little bit more

Steve Palmer:

optimistic about this. He's saying, look, there's a, there's a pushback that's

Steve Palmer:

underpinning all that's sort of gurgling up

Steve Palmer:

in Europe. You're starting to see a pushback on open

Steve Palmer:

immigration. Yeah. In Germany. In Germany, for sure. For sure. You just start to get

Steve Palmer:

to the point where when is enough enough? Yeah. And,

Steve Palmer:

you know, we're— look, if you outwardly say to a country like

Steve Palmer:

the United States of America that has done nothing but offer you

Steve Palmer:

a peaceful hand— That's right. I mean, even through all the craziness, there's been

Steve Palmer:

wars, I get it. But eventually we're going to just

Steve Palmer:

annihilate you. We can say we're going to annihilate you or come join us either

Steve Palmer:

way. Yeah. Part of what Carter did when he had the

Norm Murdock:

when he had the peace agreement between the

Norm Murdock:

PLO and Israel,

Norm Murdock:

well, it was Egypt and Israel at Camp David.

Norm Murdock:

But part of that was we even funded

Norm Murdock:

humanitarian funding for the PLO. Just what you

Norm Murdock:

said. We reached out and said, okay, you

Norm Murdock:

hijacked our airplanes, you've killed people, you've bombed, you know,

Norm Murdock:

the Marines, you've done all this horrible stuff, and yet

Norm Murdock:

we still want to have peace so badly

Norm Murdock:

that we're reaching across the divide to at least feed or

Norm Murdock:

provide medicine for your people. Yeah, because that's what our country's always done.

Steve Palmer:

It's always done. That's right. And, and we do that in Burma.

Norm Murdock:

We do that with a lot of countries that hate us. Yeah. And now

Steve Palmer:

And now the easy trope is, well, it's the Jews, right? So you guys are

Steve Palmer:

just hijacked by the Jews. By the Jews, right. And you don't know any better.

Steve Palmer:

Yeah. And to that I say, well, look,

Steve Palmer:

we still have this common enemy, so let's at least deal with that. Right. And

Steve Palmer:

I guess they would say in response, well, the only reason you're enemies to them

Steve Palmer:

is because of the Jews. And I would say to that, well, look,

Steve Palmer:

maybe, but they're saying they want us dead. And

Steve Palmer:

they— in our way of government, our tolerant

Steve Palmer:

government, our tolerant freedoms, uh, they don't

Steve Palmer:

want that. You have to, you have to see it there. They want their own

Steve Palmer:

theocracy instilled worldwide. That's, that's their, that's

Steve Palmer:

their mantra. When we had that author in here, Mr. Patankin.

Steve Palmer:

Yeah. Uh, and we had him in here and, um, and, and

Norm Murdock:

we discussed his book. There was a very sympathetic

Norm Murdock:

American Jew who has a lot of friends that

Norm Murdock:

are Palestinians, obviously a lot of friends that are

Norm Murdock:

Israelis. Mm-hmm. And he wrote a straight down the middle

Norm Murdock:

kind of snapshot of what life was like

Norm Murdock:

in the Gaza Strip after those, the atrocities.

Norm Murdock:

And it's pretty clear to me

Norm Murdock:

that if I'm a Palestinian leader, Why would I

Norm Murdock:

antagonize intentionally and, and, and commit

Norm Murdock:

atrocities or sanction them or even celebrate them if I had

Norm Murdock:

no planning in it whatsoever? Why would I

Norm Murdock:

celebrate something like that, uh, against Benjamin

Norm Murdock:

Netanyahu, whom, whom I have a lot of disagreements with?

Steve Palmer:

Sure. I, I don't think Netanyahu's a great guy, but, but

Norm Murdock:

why would you take on the Israeli army and

Norm Murdock:

obviously trigger that response where he just decimates

Norm Murdock:

the Gaza Strip in response to that attack. You know

Norm Murdock:

what's going to happen, so you must not care about your own people. Well, they

Steve Palmer:

don't, because— or who knows? I can't say what they care about or they don't

Steve Palmer:

care about, but what you're saying is they had to have known. They had to

Norm Murdock:

have known what the reaction was. So is it just that they're so naive that

Steve Palmer:

they think that they can beat us in a conventional war? No. I don't know,

Steve Palmer:

but I think they think they can beat us long-term in an intellectual war.

Norm Murdock:

Yeah. And they're winning on some front. Maybe. You're, you're right.

Norm Murdock:

Americans do get tired. We do get, we do get worn out. And

Norm Murdock:

Patton ran into that after World War II where he's like, you know, the Russians—

Steve Palmer:

Right now's the time, guys. You know, and, and then in America, we, hey,

Norm Murdock:

we're done. And then 20 years later, Khrushchev is saying he's going to bury us,

Steve Palmer:

right? So, right. Yeah. And then Korea. They, they tried

Norm Murdock:

very hard to bury us. Yeah. So, you know, I, I don't know.

Norm Murdock:

Uh, one of the things, Steve, that the 9/11 Commission said that just

Norm Murdock:

always comes back to me is

Norm Murdock:

that we knew that radical

Norm Murdock:

Islam from various countries— but basically it's those in

Norm Murdock:

favor of this caliphate that would take over the world.

Norm Murdock:

So you're talking about ISIS, you're talking about

Norm Murdock:

Osama bin Laden. The radical fraction. The radical factions of it. Factions,

Norm Murdock:

whether they're Shia or not, either one,

Norm Murdock:

that they were at war with us. They tried

Norm Murdock:

to bring down the World Trade Center

Norm Murdock:

under Bill Clinton and failed. And they

Norm Murdock:

succeeded later on with airplanes. And it's, it's like

Norm Murdock:

9/11 Commission said, they were at war with us.

Norm Murdock:

We were too naive or we were

Norm Murdock:

too complacent to realize that we should have been at war with them.

Steve Palmer:

Yeah. I mean, you know, it's like when somebody is attacking you

Norm Murdock:

and you go, you know, it's kind of like the bully. So you played football

Norm Murdock:

and there's a guy in the locker room that thinks he's all that. And

Norm Murdock:

either the other guys put him in his place and say, hey, you're just another

Norm Murdock:

member of this team, right? You're not running this show. We don't care if you're

Norm Murdock:

the 350-pound, you know, offensive lineman.

Norm Murdock:

You're not going to throw your weight around in this locker room. That's right. We'll

Norm Murdock:

pile on. We'll kick your ass. You can't talk to this guy like, like the

Norm Murdock:

way you're talking because you're going to ruin the team spirit. And,

Norm Murdock:

and, you know, Either we understand that we are

Norm Murdock:

at war and that we're being bullied and that we're in

Norm Murdock:

jeopardy, or it's irresponsible.

Norm Murdock:

It's suicidal. Well, and, but—

Norm Murdock:

Not to recognize it. But it's a little more, it's grayer than that, right? Because

Steve Palmer:

even back then, I think there was this notion that somehow from the far left

Steve Palmer:

at the time, it was somehow we deserved it. We're not, but

Steve Palmer:

now there's a whole generation of people that think that. They actually now think that.

Steve Palmer:

It's become more mainstream. Yeah. And it's actually those people are getting

Steve Palmer:

elected to run our government. It's a scary thought. Yeah.

Norm Murdock:

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, I think we talked about this on the show

Norm Murdock:

last, last show. So they're going to try the

Norm Murdock:

mastermind of 9/11, right? He's going to be

Norm Murdock:

tried in a US military court. I think in Gitmo is where they

Norm Murdock:

have the trial, because if they bring him to the

Norm Murdock:

United States, all sorts of civil rights will attach. So

Norm Murdock:

they're going to try him in a military tribunal, but this military

Norm Murdock:

judge has just thrown out all of his confession.

Norm Murdock:

This is 20— so I think they're going to try him. They're, they're

Norm Murdock:

projecting the trial start in 2028, which will be

Norm Murdock:

27 years after. Isn't that crazy,

Steve Palmer:

dude? It's crazy. And it's— we're, we're giving

Norm Murdock:

him They're saying, well, his confession was

Norm Murdock:

compelled by waterboarding, so that's out.

Norm Murdock:

And he's getting all the benefits of this—

Steve Palmer:

Of a Western civilization notion of justice.

Norm Murdock:

And he would kill us tomorrow. They would kill— this,

Steve Palmer:

folks, is what makes our country better than all the others, because

Steve Palmer:

we will do that for people. I teed this up for a defense attorney. Come

Norm Murdock:

on, man. But, well, look, I mean it. This is— I know you mean it,

Norm Murdock:

and it is true. It is true. I agree with you. That the people that

Steve Palmer:

want to kill us, we will give them quarter and the same rights and protect—

Steve Palmer:

maybe not identical, but we didn't have to do that. No.

Norm Murdock:

You know, we could have captured this guy and just killed him. And just called

Steve Palmer:

it a war. Yeah, that's right. And justified it 100 ways from Sunday,

Steve Palmer:

whatever the saying is. Look, he's running. Boom. Right, look, done. But we

Steve Palmer:

don't, and we've done some bad stuff, just like everybody's done some bad stuff. But

Steve Palmer:

by and large, in the main, we don't treat even our enemies that

Steve Palmer:

way, even though they would treat us that way. Yeah. There was a

Norm Murdock:

Nuremberg trial. Yep. Adolf Eichmann was tried in

Norm Murdock:

Israel, and he was provided with defense counsel, and they

Norm Murdock:

had a trial. And it might've been a little bit of a kangaroo. The outcome

Steve Palmer:

may have been predetermined. Who knows? Yeah, but the evidence was pretty strong.

Steve Palmer:

It was important for us to at least make it, at least

Steve Palmer:

go through the motions. I'm trying to think the right way. At

Steve Palmer:

least offer some semblance of due process. Well, some guys

Norm Murdock:

did not get hung. Some guys did not. Albert Speer. And the

Steve Palmer:

other side, had they have won, it would've just been an execution squad without any

Steve Palmer:

due process. Yeah, right. But for us, it's important, right? Absolutely.

Steve Palmer:

And on posts, on pikes in the public street. And I mean, Albert

Norm Murdock:

Speer was later released. I mean, he was the

Norm Murdock:

minister of armaments, Hitler's architect. Architect. And he

Norm Murdock:

used all kinds of slave labor in those rocket tunnels. You

Norm Murdock:

know, prisoners of war and ethnic

Norm Murdock:

slaves died by the tens of thousands building

Norm Murdock:

V-2s and V-1s in caves. Yep. They worked until

Norm Murdock:

they dropped. And you're like, okay, you'd let him out?

Norm Murdock:

You know, and then he wrote books and kind of became a celebrity.

Norm Murdock:

I mean, it's— yeah, it's Wernher von Braun. Yeah. I mean,

Norm Murdock:

the guy who ran NASA was the guy who invented the

Norm Murdock:

V-2, for God's sake. Yeah. And there's a lot that we get— there's a lot

Steve Palmer:

of historical criticism on that. Like, yeah, you guys are all

Steve Palmer:

Nazis, are bad, except for the rocket scientists. We'll bring you— you guys can become

Steve Palmer:

citizens. Right. And Walt Disney even like, uh, papered

Norm Murdock:

over von Braun. I mean, you know, there were specials on how

Norm Murdock:

wonderful the American space program— and it was wonderful, but

Norm Murdock:

yeah, some unsavory people were involved for sure. Yeah. Now

Steve Palmer:

look, we don't— we're— maybe it's this: those who would—

Steve Palmer:

it's, it's usually the youth, right? But that's what scares me, that it's not just

Steve Palmer:

the youth anymore. Maybe the youth are getting older and they still believe it. Yeah.

Steve Palmer:

Is that they want to operate on this, on this idea

Steve Palmer:

of what they think the world should be instead of what it is. Right. They're

Norm Murdock:

very idealistic. No question.

Steve Palmer:

And maybe my religion and my faith

Steve Palmer:

informs this, but I sort of start with the notion that, look,

Steve Palmer:

perfection here is unattainable on this earth, on this earth with

Steve Palmer:

humans. It's unattainable. And if you don't believe me because of my faith, then

Steve Palmer:

look at it from a non-Christian standpoint. Like, who's been perfect

Steve Palmer:

here, folks? Like, what— like, you think that you're going to be able to usher

Steve Palmer:

in perfection, right, after all these thousands of years? That you

Steve Palmer:

can do it, right? Um, if only, if only you had the power to do

Steve Palmer:

it, right? And the youth tend to think that, well, we deserve it. We're not

Steve Palmer:

perfect. We should be this, we should be that, we should be that. But it

Steve Palmer:

always leads to inconsistencies. It always, right? So at some point—

Norm Murdock:

You're so right. There's no bottom to it. The rabbis

Norm Murdock:

that were against Jesus,

Norm Murdock:

what that particular— The Pharisees. The Pharisees, they thought they'd trap

Norm Murdock:

him by saying, well, you know, look at this contradiction

Norm Murdock:

where, you know, you're in the real world with Caesar. And

Norm Murdock:

Jesus said, give to Caesar what is Caesar's. Yeah, so here you go. Give it

Steve Palmer:

to Caesar. Yeah, you know. Whose face is on their coin? Even Jesus, the Son

Norm Murdock:

of God, recognized that we live in a, in a, in an

Norm Murdock:

imperfect world. And, and there's this reality that

Norm Murdock:

there are dictatorships or that there is a power struggle

Norm Murdock:

that is, you know, of this earth, but

Norm Murdock:

that your idealism, your spirit, your

Norm Murdock:

personal behavior, it can be above and

Norm Murdock:

outside that. It has to be. I had a buddy Very

Steve Palmer:

close friend of mine was sending me, and we don't agree politically. Yeah.

Steve Palmer:

Contrary to what he thinks though, we probably agree more than he thinks. But some

Steve Palmer:

of these people that were sort of these traditional Democrats are

Steve Palmer:

now starting to wake up a little bit. They sure are. Yeah. But sent me

Steve Palmer:

this Facebook post and one of his, and it was about the El-Sayed election

Steve Palmer:

in Michigan and that primary, something about that. And he sent me this

Steve Palmer:

Facebook post where somebody had made some comment

Steve Palmer:

about the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount or

Steve Palmer:

whatever it was, Christ preaching. And he goes, look, all

Steve Palmer:

these people on the right, they should read the Bible that they preach, whatever it

Steve Palmer:

is. And he couldn't have been— they couldn't have been more wrong. It's

Steve Palmer:

not that— see, but it's not that Christ was saying governments should

Steve Palmer:

force us to act this way. Exactly. It has to come from here.

Steve Palmer:

And it's still impossible, right? You're right. And but we strive for that

Steve Palmer:

perfection so eventually we can be at the kingdom of God. You know, it's like,

Steve Palmer:

yes, it's like we strive to that. We strive for perfection, but it's still

Steve Palmer:

unattainable in this world. And he was pointing out that. Yeah, right. He was

Steve Palmer:

pointing that stuff out. And here these people take that Bible verse and sort of

Steve Palmer:

try to spin it and say, right, therefore give us the power of the government

Steve Palmer:

to make it so nobody hates gay people. So nobody hates—

Norm Murdock:

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than

Norm Murdock:

for a rich man to get into That's right. God's kingdom. And so they

Norm Murdock:

take that and warp it into, oh, so let's strip

Norm Murdock:

all the rich people of everything they own, and then that way they can get

Norm Murdock:

into heaven. Yeah. No, that's not what Jesus meant. That's not what he meant at

Steve Palmer:

all. Right. That's not what he meant at all. He didn't mean compel other

Norm Murdock:

people. He didn't mean strip them of what they

Norm Murdock:

own. And that's your sacrifice, right?

Norm Murdock:

That's not your personal sacrifice. It's not. It's never theirs, right? It's never theirs.

Steve Palmer:

They're not giving their money up. No, no, no. Bernie has several mansions. He's,

Norm Murdock:

he's a multi-millionaire. All you got to do is write your own book. You'll get,

Steve Palmer:

you get rich too. Well, uh, we should

Norm Murdock:

talk a little bit about $7 diesel. This is another thing

Norm Murdock:

that, that gets in my craw. So the same

Norm Murdock:

party that wants $10 a gallon gasoline, that

Norm Murdock:

banned coal, that killed the XL Pipeline,

Norm Murdock:

that wants to force us into EVs, that

Norm Murdock:

banned nukes and has nanny

Norm Murdock:

thermostats in our homes, that's the party

Norm Murdock:

that's complaining about high diesel prices? I mean, gimme a break.

Steve Palmer:

Well, it's anything, any port. And look, the reason that the Iranians

Steve Palmer:

are doing this stuff is because they know the midterms are coming up.

Steve Palmer:

And this is a huge hotbed topic. Look, I mean, it's bad. Well,

Norm Murdock:

Republicans are turning on Trump. Yes, it's bad. No question. It's bad. It is

Norm Murdock:

bad. I mean, I don't like paying $7 diesel and I just had to

Norm Murdock:

buy a bunch for my, for my Bobcat. Yeah. So it's, yeah,

Norm Murdock:

it's a lot of money. Now I make a value judgment

Norm Murdock:

and I go, well, the other side really doesn't want to help me with high

Norm Murdock:

diesel. And this is a temporary thing until we

Norm Murdock:

solve the Strait of Hormuz. Then maybe we should probably— I'd be

Steve Palmer:

curious. Let's chop this up a little bit. Yeah. So under Biden, we had higher

Steve Palmer:

fuel prices Not because a war in Iran,

Steve Palmer:

right? But because— A policy. Because of policy that he implemented

Steve Palmer:

here that had no determinate end. No. So, you know,

Steve Palmer:

more regulation on the oil producers, more regulation on the refineries, more relation—

Steve Palmer:

more regulation on exploration, more regu— shut down the pipeline. So,

Steve Palmer:

right, whatever it is, like, so that's going to drive prices up, right?

Norm Murdock:

And, and force people to do what They wanted us to— the

Norm Murdock:

dreamers want, want everybody, oh, get on a COTA bus. Get on a bus,

Steve Palmer:

right? Live, live, live in the urban areas. Yeah. Move back from the rural

Norm Murdock:

areas. Yeah. You know, into the central city, live in a

Norm Murdock:

rabbit warren, you know, that's, you know, 29 stories. We can

Steve Palmer:

control your power, we control your water, we control utilities, and we control everything. And

Norm Murdock:

we'll give you a little bike lane. Yeah. You can, on a winter day, you

Norm Murdock:

can bicycle down to the courthouse, Steve, and get Completely soaked.

Steve Palmer:

Now, that said, well, I've said it here

Steve Palmer:

100 times,

Steve Palmer:

the bigger concern for me has always been, we,

Steve Palmer:

meaning we can't let the lunatics take over. Now, people say, well,

Steve Palmer:

Trump's a lunatic, but I would say worse, worse are the

Steve Palmer:

El-Saids, the AOCs, that faction. The midterms

Steve Palmer:

are more important Then that could have— Iran could have waited, I

Steve Palmer:

think. Yeah. Um, but there are some strategic mistakes that

Norm Murdock:

I think Trump has made, no question. And he seems not to care, or at

Steve Palmer:

least he says he doesn't care. And I— and what he's doing with Canada right

Steve Palmer:

now in this trade war, it's like, look, yeah, the timing of a lot of—

Steve Palmer:

why are we monkeying with that right now? Look, drink your Molsons or whatever, who

Steve Palmer:

cares? You know, it's like, it just seems so foolish right now.

Steve Palmer:

And I understand there might be a reason behind it that makes some sense, Right,

Steve Palmer:

on a particular— in a, in, in this little pigeonhole.

Steve Palmer:

But we're— we have a bigger picture here. And, you know, now Trump's fighting a

Steve Palmer:

faction within his own party. He's fighting the other party, fighting everything. So the

Norm Murdock:

House— I don't know if you, um, you know, I know you're busy. You gotta,

Norm Murdock:

you know, you, you have all these cases. I have the

Norm Murdock:

luxury of, you know, I, I'm a

Norm Murdock:

little less structured, I guess, in my schedule. So One of the things I

Norm Murdock:

noticed, I think it was last week, over the top of Mike Johnson,

Norm Murdock:

Speaker of the House, the House with Republican votes,

Norm Murdock:

uh, passed a war powers resolution against Trump that's

Norm Murdock:

now in the Senate, which basically is going to try to tie his

Norm Murdock:

hands with Iran. Yeah. And, and, and, and the Republicans control

Norm Murdock:

the House only, you know, a little bit, but they do control it, and

Norm Murdock:

yet that passed. And maybe that's a good thing to

Steve Palmer:

preserve maybe a few seats in the midterms. I don't know.

Norm Murdock:

Well, I think a lot of it was that because you do have a lot

Norm Murdock:

of people screaming on the Republican side, screaming bloody murder

Norm Murdock:

about what they view as, oh, this endless war,

Norm Murdock:

which frankly started February

Norm Murdock:

28th of this year. It's not endless.

Steve Palmer:

It's not endless, but it was not Look, we've criticized here. This should have been

Norm Murdock:

prosecuted. This should have been executed. Yeah, prosecuted, done. No

Norm Murdock:

question about it. You have a plan, get it done. And we've said that a

Norm Murdock:

million times. Yep. Just, and a lot of the generals, I'm

Norm Murdock:

thinking of Jack Keane, who's been all over several networks, and

Norm Murdock:

he's the chairman of the Institute of War,

Norm Murdock:

studies war, games war. He was,

Norm Murdock:

I think, one of the Joint Chiefs at one time. And he's, he's been saying

Norm Murdock:

this since the war started. Get her done.

Norm Murdock:

Get her done. Get it done. And he wasn't saying it from a

Norm Murdock:

political point of view. He was saying it more from a tactical,

Norm Murdock:

strategic point of view that just why

Norm Murdock:

wouldn't you take out every single rocket

Norm Murdock:

facility in the Strait of Hormuz? Why wait? What—

Norm Murdock:

why did we lift up off the throttle? and give them

Norm Murdock:

45 days to get the Chinese and Russians in to help

Norm Murdock:

them rebuild their drone program. And, and, you know, it's

Norm Murdock:

like what Johnson did in Vietnam when he had the Christmas

Norm Murdock:

truce with North Vietnam. They used that time

Norm Murdock:

to rebuild their SAMs. Yeah. And then, and then what did we

Norm Murdock:

get out of that? A bunch of B-52 guys got killed, you know,

Norm Murdock:

when we resumed the bombing. It is. Well, look, it's always the same inaction.

Steve Palmer:

Always results in just that. Inaction is an action. Yeah, it always results in,

Steve Palmer:

in, in a delay of the outcome, right? So maybe

Steve Palmer:

that's it. And if you're delaying the out— what is the outcome we want? Let's

Steve Palmer:

go get it and be done. I am tired of Trump saying that there

Norm Murdock:

are reasonable Iranians that want to end this and they're

Norm Murdock:

begging for us to, to have a, a treaty. It's like, dude,

Norm Murdock:

who are they specifically? Yeah. Like, I don't know who he's talking

Norm Murdock:

about. Like, at this point, I don't believe him anymore. Yeah, I don't believe him.

Steve Palmer:

Well, look, or maybe he— maybe it may be true that

Steve Palmer:

he knows of some Iranians that are saying that, but they don't have any control

Steve Palmer:

and it's not happening. So look. Yeah, right. They don't have the

Norm Murdock:

agency to do what they're saying. Oh, we really want this. Time

Steve Palmer:

to end it one way or another. It is time. Look, take your— if you're

Steve Palmer:

going to take the loss, take it and get out. If you're going to take

Steve Palmer:

the win, get it and get out either way. So I got to ask you,

Norm Murdock:

Steve, how you feel. Again, now this is another Trump thing I never

Norm Murdock:

would have done right before the midterm, even though I think he

Norm Murdock:

has a First Amendment case that he is allowed. Yeah, I hate it. This— I

Steve Palmer:

already know where you're going and I hate it. You know where I'm going. This

Norm Murdock:

ban on CNN, MSNBC, and Politico. Just giving

Steve Palmer:

fodder to— look, I don't agree with it. I do not agree with it. For

Steve Palmer:

all that we've already talked about this, right? We let the other side in to

Steve Palmer:

criticize us. because that's what we do. And does— I think, can Trump do

Steve Palmer:

it legally? Maybe, maybe not. I'm sure the Supreme Court—

Norm Murdock:

Probably. You and I don't have a White House pass. Yeah. So,

Norm Murdock:

so, so is every citizen of the United States— we're all

Norm Murdock:

guaranteed the right of free speech. Yeah. We're not guaranteed the right to a White

Norm Murdock:

House pass. Right. But can he? So this is— here's what's

Steve Palmer:

interesting. If you take your first year constitutional law, or maybe your

Steve Palmer:

second year if you took it in second year in law school, There is something

Steve Palmer:

called time, place, and manner restrictions on speech, meaning

Steve Palmer:

the White House can keep you out. Look, Common Sense Ohio, look, I get it.

Steve Palmer:

We have worldwide dissemination, and everybody would

Steve Palmer:

love us to have a pulpit at the White House. What are they thinking? They

Norm Murdock:

should be letting us in. But they're not gonna let us in. Does that violate

Steve Palmer:

our right of free speech? No. But if, however,

Steve Palmer:

the White House lets other people that are different than us in,

Steve Palmer:

but not us. If the, if the, if the government starts to

Steve Palmer:

implement time, place, and manner restrictions in such a way that it

Steve Palmer:

discriminates against a viewpoint, particularly either directly

Steve Palmer:

or even indirectly, uh, that becomes a First Amendment problem. And that's why I think

Steve Palmer:

Trump is going to have some problems with this ultimately. Well, the— there was a

Norm Murdock:

court that forced him to allow Jim Acosta back in the White House.

Steve Palmer:

And Jim Acosta, boy, he loves himself. In term number 1, remember that? Yeah, yeah.

Norm Murdock:

He But, but what I love about this, what I love about this is

Norm Murdock:

the hypocrisy that our—

Norm Murdock:

like, I understand the hypocrisy, but the, of course, the,

Norm Murdock:

the mainstream media won't acknowledge it. When Trump was president

Norm Murdock:

during his first term, all sorts of platforms and news

Norm Murdock:

organizations banned him. He was banned from Twitter,

Norm Murdock:

YouTube, Facebook, he was absolutely banned.

Steve Palmer:

But it's fundamentally different unless the government is putting its thumb on that scale. Yeah.

Steve Palmer:

So I do not— But for them to waive the free speech,

Norm Murdock:

they banned him. Yeah, but they can, so— Yeah, no, I get that. But then

Norm Murdock:

they're not really advocates for free speech. No.

Norm Murdock:

That's what that tells me. Well, maybe, so— They're advocates for their free

Norm Murdock:

speech. Well, sure, but they— But not yours. But they have every right to say,

Steve Palmer:

we're not gonna publish anything Trump says. They have every right to do that. Yeah,

Steve Palmer:

we were shadow banned, but that's not the government doing it. As soon as the

Steve Palmer:

government, whether it's Trump or whether it's Biden, putting their finger on that scale,

Steve Palmer:

that's different. I don't ever

Norm Murdock:

really like correcting, but you will remember that Biden

Norm Murdock:

sent the FBI. Well, that's what I said. So we were

Norm Murdock:

shadow banned by the government. By the government, right. Yes, we were. You're

Steve Palmer:

correct. As soon as the government puts its thumb on that scale one way or

Steve Palmer:

another, whether it was Biden, and Trump tried to do it the other way, whether

Steve Palmer:

it's Biden or Trump, I go ballistic about it. Okay. But if it's just Zuckerberg

Steve Palmer:

saying, Norm, I don't like you, I'm not going to publish you, right, it's a

Steve Palmer:

different story. But if the FBI, which they did, visited

Norm Murdock:

Zuckerberg— Incentivizes him to do it. And what

Norm Murdock:

was that, the protective language Biden threatened to—

Steve Palmer:

Pull off, what's the statute section, whatever, the one that gives them

Steve Palmer:

immunity from people posting publicly on their forum, right? So I get it.

Steve Palmer:

That I have a problem with. But that's not the same as,

Steve Palmer:

say, CNN— I'm tracking you. If CNN says,

Steve Palmer:

we're not going to publish anything Trump says,

Steve Palmer:

that is different than Trump saying, we're not going to let CNN in the White

Steve Palmer:

House, but we're going to let Fox News and others in. Right. I think Trump's

Steve Palmer:

got his— it's a bridge too far again for Trump. He doesn't need

Steve Palmer:

this fight. He doesn't need it now. I will say,

Norm Murdock:

that in response to their complaints, Trump's

Norm Murdock:

spokespeople put out a list of

Norm Murdock:

all the tropes, all of the hoaxes

Norm Murdock:

that these 3 organizations put before the American

Norm Murdock:

people as a rational basis for

Norm Murdock:

saying why you're treating them differently in time, manner.

Steve Palmer:

Time, place, and manner, right. Yeah. But that's not a— you're using some constitutional—

Steve Palmer:

we should probably talk about this. There's different ways that we review restrictions on

Steve Palmer:

things like free speech. Yeah. If it's viewpoint discrimination, if it

Steve Palmer:

actually is something that is by intent discriminating against a

Steve Palmer:

viewpoint, it gets the strictest of scrutiny. Well, what if the Ku Klux Klan

Norm Murdock:

wants a White House pass and you say, well, no, you can't

Norm Murdock:

have one because we disagree with your viewpoints?

Steve Palmer:

In theory, if it's a valid time, place, and manner restriction, it can't

Steve Palmer:

restrict based on viewpoint. But look, I'm using

Steve Palmer:

this only analogously. Okay. I don't think it's going to get actually evaluated that way

Steve Palmer:

because it's too diverse. I mean, there's too many people that need in.

Steve Palmer:

So the restrictions are probably going to be something like, it's got to be

Steve Palmer:

an organization that has X amount of followers or

Steve Palmer:

influence. It's got to be an organization that's main— there's going to have to be

Steve Palmer:

some definition. Otherwise, they couldn't validly restrict us. So the First Amendment

Norm Murdock:

protects big media, not small media? No, it

Steve Palmer:

has to, but that has to be a rational, that has to be some sort

Steve Palmer:

of rational thing. But if they say, we're not gonna let CNN in because they

Steve Palmer:

like Democrats and not Republicans, I think that's gonna be a bigger problem.

Norm Murdock:

So like the White House press pool, from what I understand,

Norm Murdock:

just lost their minds when Trump took over. And I

Norm Murdock:

think, who's the lady who just left, uh, Levitt? Yeah, she would

Norm Murdock:

let in people from conservative media like

Norm Murdock:

Breitbart, right? And they would take a seat next to ABC

Norm Murdock:

News, and the ABC News guy gets moved down one seat, right?

Norm Murdock:

And she's like, well, they're a media outlet, so are you. Yep, we

Norm Murdock:

don't care that they're smaller than you. You know what it is? I, I don't

Steve Palmer:

know the rules for this. I don't, I don't know what it takes to get

Steve Palmer:

in as a media outlet in the White House and how that's been implemented. implemented

Steve Palmer:

over the years. But I will say this, my

Steve Palmer:

lawyerly instinct tells me that if you are

Steve Palmer:

excluding people who have historically been permitted there,

Steve Palmer:

so ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN— There's some inertia.

Steve Palmer:

Yes. And you're doing it because you don't like their viewpoint, that's going

Steve Palmer:

to be a problem. And that DC circuit is extremely liberal.

Steve Palmer:

But I think the— I mean, he's going to lose it. He's going to lose

Steve Palmer:

it in DC. I think he loses it in the Supreme Yeah, probably. I, I

Steve Palmer:

don't think— I, I— and now here, he'll side with them. I don't know

Steve Palmer:

the, the standards to let people into the White House press room because I think,

Steve Palmer:

I think the White House could validly say nobody. Yeah, they could.

Norm Murdock:

Um, there wasn't even a White House, right, when the, when the First

Norm Murdock:

Amendment was promulgated. They could validly say nobody, but there was no

Steve Palmer:

one. Once they're letting people in, yeah. to exclude people that

Steve Palmer:

disagree with you, just sort of— Even

Norm Murdock:

though that has historically been— I might be wrong. I

Norm Murdock:

mean, do you think Andrew Jackson put up with

Norm Murdock:

like— No, I don't. But I don't think Abraham Lincoln certainly

Norm Murdock:

didn't. He actually, he actually told the

Norm Murdock:

US Postal System that they couldn't distribute certain

Norm Murdock:

newspapers that, that were anti- And I think

Norm Murdock:

in today's day and age, that would be struck down. Yeah. I think

Steve Palmer:

it would be. It probably would. So I don't know the answer to this, Norm,

Steve Palmer:

but I think it's— Woodrow Wilson. Another one. It's going to be— I think it'll

Steve Palmer:

be evaluated as sort of a time, place, and manner restriction. Okay.

Steve Palmer:

Meaning you can do it. So they can't let everybody into the White House

Steve Palmer:

Press Forum because there's not enough room. It's not practical. It's not practical. Right. So

Steve Palmer:

if you're going to eliminate people, it cannot be

Steve Palmer:

based on viewpoint alone. I'm gonna guess it'll be something like that. Okay. And

Norm Murdock:

they'll figure a cute way to say, well, you gotta let 'em.

Steve Palmer:

It's sort of like this. I watched a video recently on YouTube

Steve Palmer:

and it was a guy that was demonstrating

Steve Palmer:

against abortions and he had signs. He had made

Steve Palmer:

his foam board signs. Okay. And he was

Steve Palmer:

standing on a public government or a state-run university.

Steve Palmer:

And the university officials come up and said, look, we can't let you. You have

Steve Palmer:

to leave. He's like, well, why? I'm on public— well, because your

Steve Palmer:

signs, sir, have sharp corners and they're made of foam

Steve Palmer:

board, and we have this rule that you can't have sharp corners. And I

Steve Palmer:

suppose that the rule is based on some sort of riot that happened sometime

Steve Palmer:

and those sharp corners cut people. It was probably something like that. Right, right. And

Steve Palmer:

he looks over and he goes, yeah, but what about those guys over there, those

Steve Palmer:

Jehovah's They've got the same signs, but you're not telling them to leave. They're like,

Steve Palmer:

well, we're here to talk to you. So look, it's probably a valid time, place,

Steve Palmer:

and manner restriction to say they can restrict how your signs,

Steve Palmer:

uh, the shape of your signs for some reason. But as soon as you

Steve Palmer:

start implementing that only against the speech you don't like, okay, now

Steve Palmer:

it's an invalid time, place, and manner restriction. Okay. And now it's content-based and it

Steve Palmer:

gets strict scrutiny. Okay. So it— I mean, I guess it's going to come out

Steve Palmer:

something Yeah, he's not banning all the left-leaning

Steve Palmer:

big media. Like, he didn't ban NBC, ABC,

Norm Murdock:

CBS, and he banned these more radical— And

Steve Palmer:

maybe, maybe that's a valid one. Maybe he can say, look, it's subversive to the

Steve Palmer:

government that I want to run, and maybe he gets away with it. Of all

Norm Murdock:

their full-of-shit stories. And maybe that's enough. I don't know. I'll be very curious to

Steve Palmer:

see how it shakes out. Well, great, great First Amendment. We should get Rob Mueser

Steve Palmer:

or somebody. We should talk about it. Okay. Greenland a little bit.

Norm Murdock:

This is another one where we all

Norm Murdock:

thought this was an

Norm Murdock:

overreach by Trump. He would say, well,

Norm Murdock:

we could just take Greenland. I could just send

Norm Murdock:

one of our fleets and the Marines could hit the shore and we could—

Norm Murdock:

what, something like 1% of the landmass of Greenland is

Norm Murdock:

occupied. There's nobody in the other 99%.

Norm Murdock:

And Trump actually said some pretty brash things about this

Norm Murdock:

way back earlier this year. Mm-hmm. It turns out that this

Norm Murdock:

document, this treaty that they just signed with Denmark and

Norm Murdock:

Greenland says, even if Greenland

Norm Murdock:

achieves independence, the people of Greenland, as well as,

Norm Murdock:

you know, do I need to make a land statement here? the

Norm Murdock:

occupiers from Denmark, that

Norm Murdock:

Denmark and Greenland both agree that this is in perpetuity,

Norm Murdock:

that this treaty is forevermore, that the United States has

Norm Murdock:

basing rights. And also we have the right in

Norm Murdock:

concert with Denmark to eject and

Norm Murdock:

to prevent any adversary from—

Norm Murdock:

overflights, from using bases, from establishing

Norm Murdock:

facilities so that a Panama Canal situation won't happen

Norm Murdock:

where, okay, the Americans have bases here, but China runs all

Norm Murdock:

the ports. So that's not going to happen. We—

Norm Murdock:

this is a pretty tight treaty and we're not paying a dime for it.

Steve Palmer:

Well, I think I heard this and I just— This is a huge success. It's

Steve Palmer:

a huge success, but I think it's even deeper than that, no pun intended. Because

Steve Palmer:

doesn't Greenland sit on one of the biggest rare earth mineral

Steve Palmer:

deposits in the world? Absolutely. Like,

Norm Murdock:

again, Venezuela will help exploit your natural resources.

Steve Palmer:

Right. So, so it's a win-win. Giving us control over that. Right, right. And I

Steve Palmer:

think that's really what the fight was. Well, or

Steve Palmer:

maybe equally. Well, like, the US doesn't have a

Norm Murdock:

lot of icebreakers, uh, you know, like We're having

Norm Murdock:

trouble actually patrolling, uh, the Arctic Circle.

Steve Palmer:

Yeah. You know, and Russia has— still has their sub

Norm Murdock:

fleet with nukes. China is more active up there.

Norm Murdock:

And I think that there is a huge national security—

Norm Murdock:

I mean, if you want to reach the United States quickly, you wouldn't fire

Norm Murdock:

a missile from, say, Beijing all the way, like,

Norm Murdock:

across the equator. you know, or whatever, you know,

Norm Murdock:

what, what do you call that, longitudinally? Yeah. Or laterally?

Norm Murdock:

You would, you would do it longitudinally, you would do it over the— Yeah, you'd

Steve Palmer:

go over the top. Over the top. It's a shorter path. Yeah. So look, I

Steve Palmer:

mean, it has, it has a lot of values, but that— I heard the rare

Steve Palmer:

earth stuff, I'm like, all right, well, that now I understand. There's a, there's a

Steve Palmer:

sly sort of hidden motive there that, that makes sense, right? We should have

Steve Palmer:

control over that. Well, the Prime Minister of Denmark did acknowledge

Norm Murdock:

that about the natural resources, uh, and said that that would

Norm Murdock:

be, um— I mean, she—

Norm Murdock:

it sounded like she was giving Trump's speech actually yesterday. Mm-hmm.

Norm Murdock:

She, she agreed with everything that Trump has said in his speeches. And,

Norm Murdock:

and, and she went on to say the United States

Norm Murdock:

historically has been the vanguard and the, and the

Norm Murdock:

has been this— has been the guardian of

Norm Murdock:

freedom around the world, and we are

Norm Murdock:

fully on board. We're full partners with the United States. It was—

Norm Murdock:

yeah, it was— Look, if there's any doubt about it, just unders— just look at

Steve Palmer:

the fact that they still exist and we didn't take it. Yeah, right. Because we

Steve Palmer:

could have anytime we wanted to. We could have. And I, again,

Norm Murdock:

you know, it's that bravado stuff that really. So you got Kaitlan

Norm Murdock:

Collins and Jake, uh, Tapper, and you've got all these

Norm Murdock:

crazies— Joe, Morning Joe coffee guy— you got

Norm Murdock:

all these crazy people that said it was the end of the

Norm Murdock:

world and it was the end of comity between nations and

Norm Murdock:

that Trump just violated all these norms of international

Norm Murdock:

whatever, and they're completely silent today. He's

Steve Palmer:

negotiating like a bombastic New York real estate agent.

Norm Murdock:

Yes. The real estate developer. Yes, he is. Like, I want, I want to, I

Steve Palmer:

want it for $1. But at the end of the day, he's not Genghis Khan.

Norm Murdock:

He's not doing any of this stuff. He throws it out so

Steve Palmer:

extreme because then when he dials back his position, he gets what he wants. That's

Norm Murdock:

right. At least I think that's his— I think, no, I think, I think that's

Steve Palmer:

his— well, we've seen him for 6 years. This is what he does. That's what

Steve Palmer:

he does. That's what he was trying to tell Iran at the UN speech. Right.

Norm Murdock:

Well, I'll annihilate you. Or look at this little— We can

Steve Palmer:

all be happy. We can all be— you can build beautiful stuff. And the problem,

Steve Palmer:

back to Iran, the problem with it is they

Steve Palmer:

don't— we're not— it's Plato,

Steve Palmer:

Gorgias, or whatever it is. There's no

Steve Palmer:

mutual agreement on terms with people like Iran because they're

Steve Palmer:

ideologically fundamentally different than us. They don't

Norm Murdock:

care about their own people. they don't care. They don't care about life the way

Steve Palmer:

we do. It's different. It's different. And, uh, I, I think that's, that's his fundamental

Steve Palmer:

mistake. Whereas like Xi, who's visiting the United States this week,

Norm Murdock:

clearly he does care about his Chinese people. I mean, there's no

Norm Murdock:

question. Now, he just fired a bunch of his military people. Or at least

Steve Palmer:

he cares about wealth and success, which maybe is

Steve Palmer:

good enough. Yes, you're wrong. Of course

Norm Murdock:

they, they do forced organ transplants. Right, right, right. No, no, I, I,

Norm Murdock:

I didn't mean that he's— No, but like, he's not what they don't want to

Steve Palmer:

die. Yeah, like, just like the old Soviet Union guys

Norm Murdock:

weren't great, but mutual assured destruction

Norm Murdock:

with thermonuclear weapons, they took note of that.

Steve Palmer:

Yeah, they didn't like that either. No, they didn't like that either. But Iran will

Steve Palmer:

die. Yeah. And because they're going to see Allah or whatever it is, they have

Norm Murdock:

a different— If the leadership there doesn't care about their people. They don't care about

Steve Palmer:

that, right? At least that seems that way. I got to ask you about this

Norm Murdock:

Clancy defense attorney who wants this judge.

Norm Murdock:

So this, this lady, that there was a mistrial. I, I

Norm Murdock:

assume that they're either going to work out an agreement or they're going to retry

Norm Murdock:

this lady, either manslaughter or

Norm Murdock:

murder 2 or some other, or maybe they'll stick with murder

Norm Murdock:

1, but, but whatever. We'll find out. But in the meantime, the

Norm Murdock:

defense attorney who's got this nickname, the Shooter,

Norm Murdock:

you know, whatever. He did a great job. Yeah. Well,

Norm Murdock:

he wants the judge to closely question

Norm Murdock:

this holdout juror, um, about like

Norm Murdock:

why. And to me, Steve, isn't that

Norm Murdock:

antithetical to our jury system? There is, yes. So

Steve Palmer:

Look, there is a rule. Now, I don't know what it is in

Steve Palmer:

Massachusetts, but there's a rule in common law called the Aliunda Rule.

Steve Palmer:

A-L-I-U-N-D-A. Aliunda Rule.

Steve Palmer:

And it basically says this: you can't— and if you're going to try to

Steve Palmer:

challenge or impeach a jury's verdict, it has to come from the outside,

Steve Palmer:

not within. In other words, you can't just start digging around on what the jury's

Steve Palmer:

doing and impeach a jury's verdict. based on interviewing the jurors. There has

Steve Palmer:

to be something outside. I've oversimplified it, but that's the general rule, and that's what

Steve Palmer:

this lawyer is asking to do. Um, so look, I've had cases where I've gone

Steve Palmer:

and talked to jurors about stuff. Yeah. Um, and, uh, it's

Steve Palmer:

never really— it doesn't ever really pan out. Um, and I just

Steve Palmer:

looked at the news. He's like, he wants an investigation into the lone

Steve Palmer:

holdout juror who voted in the convictor. He's doing his

Steve Palmer:

job, right? He's being a lawyer. He's being a defense lawyer. Our job is to

Steve Palmer:

go out and fight the fight, you know? Yeah. He's doing his job. He's advancing

Steve Palmer:

his position. He's taught— like, he's making legal arguments. He's pushing the bounds of

Steve Palmer:

the law so the law can— there's this give and take. The judge needs to

Norm Murdock:

do his job and tell him no. The judge will have to do is just

Steve Palmer:

say no, and it'll go up to the court of appeals and they'll fight it

Steve Palmer:

that way. My prediction on this case, it resolves somehow,

Steve Palmer:

some way. It should not. But Steve, who would want to serve on a

Norm Murdock:

jury then if you thought somehow you could be civilly

Norm Murdock:

or criminally liable? Right, this is why the Aliunde Rule is in place. Let me

Steve Palmer:

look it up. I mean, who the hell— you know, I've been on juries and

Norm Murdock:

I'm thinking, what, am I going to get in trouble? Because, you know,

Norm Murdock:

jury nullification, even though jur— even though lawyers

Norm Murdock:

may not like that, prosecutors and, and defense attorneys,

Norm Murdock:

depending on which way it goes, may not like that, but it's a thing

Norm Murdock:

that a jury can do. I mean, they can, they can do it. So look,

Steve Palmer:

the, the Aliunde Rule— A-L-I-U-N-D-E, I was correct Correct. Or maybe

Steve Palmer:

I said A, um, is a legal principle in evident— in

Steve Palmer:

evidence law stating that a jury's verdict cannot be challenged or impeached by the

Steve Palmer:

testimony of a juror unless there is first credible evidence from an independent

Steve Palmer:

external source. It's derived from the Latin word meaning, uh,

Steve Palmer:

from the Latin word aliunda, meaning from another place or from elsewhere.

Steve Palmer:

Ensures that a disgruntled juror's word alone is not enough

Steve Palmer:

to overturn a trial outcome. Now, if there's payola, If the

Norm Murdock:

mafia comes in, it would be from the outside. That's different. Yeah, it's a different

Steve Palmer:

thing. That's a different— that's a different thing. So that's why you can't do it.

Steve Palmer:

And, uh, in Ohio, there's an evidence rule under 606. I

Steve Palmer:

mean, this is why he's sort of barking up the wrong tree on this one.

Norm Murdock:

I think so. But he's making a point. He's doing it for other reasons. He's

Steve Palmer:

pushing the bounds of the law in Massachusetts, I'm sure. And I think ultimately the

Steve Palmer:

case will resolve. Some— I've heard some people speculate that he's

Norm Murdock:

doing this in order to sort of

Norm Murdock:

plow the field for the next 12 jurors that get selected.

Steve Palmer:

That's right. So he's like, hey, hey, you better, you better

Norm Murdock:

listen to what my case is and pay attention,

Norm Murdock:

and because there might be a little pain if you decide

Norm Murdock:

against my client. Yeah, which is the day— which is why the law doesn't tolerate

Steve Palmer:

this, and it won't. And but it's good legal strategy. Look,

Steve Palmer:

he's— the guy was a very effective court courtroom advocate. Uh, he did a very

Steve Palmer:

nice job defending her. They said his closing statement wasn't good. I

Steve Palmer:

didn't see it. Did a much better job, but that's at the end. Yeah,

Norm Murdock:

I don't know, the jury might have already— who knows. But well, look, it was

Steve Palmer:

effective whatever he did because it was 11 to 1 for acquittal. That's true.

Steve Palmer:

So, right, that's where we are. He's just mad the one guy held out. Wanna

Steve Palmer:

do some good and bad? Yes, sir. Um, so, um,

Norm Murdock:

My hero, this is going to

Norm Murdock:

sound cockeyed, but it's Gavin Newsom because

Norm Murdock:

he told Jake Tapper while they were fly

Norm Murdock:

fishing the most incredible thing, that if

Norm Murdock:

Kamala Harris runs for president, he will not

Norm Murdock:

run. I saw that. And I'm like, thank God.

Norm Murdock:

Okay. If that's true. You're gonna take, you're gonna take yourself

Norm Murdock:

off the chessboard so that this daffy

Norm Murdock:

cackling—

Norm Murdock:

I mean, that is gorgeous. Please let Kamala run against

Norm Murdock:

Marco Rubio or J.D. Vance. That would be beautiful. Yeah,

Norm Murdock:

they'll decimate her. That guy will say whatever he needs to say, whatever he thinks

Steve Palmer:

that the media wants to hear at the time. That's what he's gonna say. My

Norm Murdock:

zero, I would— okay, I was gonna go with Mom Donny, but we own

Norm Murdock:

this. about this thing. So the head

Norm Murdock:

of Iran is in town, is in New York. He doesn't want to arrest him,

Norm Murdock:

but he wants to arrest Netanyahu. But I think the bigger

Norm Murdock:

zero, and it pains me to say this because I kind of like

Norm Murdock:

Vivek Ramaswamy policy-wise,

Norm Murdock:

but he has come to the—

Norm Murdock:

he's come to the Norm Murdoch set of policies on data centers.

Norm Murdock:

like 5 months too late. He's behind in the polls.

Norm Murdock:

And even though Amy Acton is

Norm Murdock:

totally ineffective, I mean, she— but she is benefiting

Norm Murdock:

from this red part of

Norm Murdock:

Ohio that's at war with data centers. And I tried—

Norm Murdock:

I've been saying this for months, that there are lovely

Norm Murdock:

suburban and rural wives out there

Norm Murdock:

and homeowners, some husbands, but mainly

Norm Murdock:

women that would otherwise vote Republican because

Norm Murdock:

they believe, you know, down the line on abortion, gun

Norm Murdock:

rights, all kinds of Republican positions. But you're

Norm Murdock:

building a goddamn data center in the middle of

Norm Murdock:

their little town and it's going to make noise. It's

Norm Murdock:

bringing in traffic. Mm-hmm. It's, you know, They don't see people from

Norm Murdock:

Ohio going out there doing the construction. They see Texas

Norm Murdock:

license plates and they're just having a meltdown. And

Norm Murdock:

Vivek finally comes out last week

Norm Murdock:

with a set of— he's basically said everything I've been saying all along.

Norm Murdock:

Don't build the damn things next to homes. Number one,

Norm Murdock:

make them completely energy separate from the rest of them.

Steve Palmer:

Yeah, off the grid or supply their own, right? Okay, no noise.

Norm Murdock:

Build them out in the diaspora somewhere, right? So

Norm Murdock:

it doesn't become then we're against all data centers. But now

Norm Murdock:

that's what it's become. Now it's— there's petitions. The

Steve Palmer:

other side. And they're gonna bring it up again. It failed to be on the

Norm Murdock:

ballot, but it's gonna come back. with this petition that's an

Norm Murdock:

outright ban on data centers. And that's a mistake.

Norm Murdock:

It's all about zoning. It's all about local people

Norm Murdock:

either failing to have the tools or being unwilling to

Norm Murdock:

take on these developers. They're either

Norm Murdock:

intimidated or they're bought off. You know, something is

Norm Murdock:

seriously wrong. It just stinks of RINOism. Yes,

Steve Palmer:

it just does somehow, somewhere. You're too late. Maybe

Norm Murdock:

he may win the governorship, but dude. Well, can you imagine Amy

Steve Palmer:

Acton in charge? I mean, come on. Anyway,

Steve Palmer:

well, look, my good and bad. The bad I was going to talk— I— maybe

Steve Palmer:

it's not as bad as I thought now that we're talking about it, but I

Steve Palmer:

do not like the Trump White House banning, banning press folks

Steve Palmer:

who have been there historically. I don't like it because it reeks of content-based— What's

Norm Murdock:

a tactical mistake? Call it a tactical mistake, but constitutionally it

Steve Palmer:

reeks of content-based government discrimination on

Steve Palmer:

speech. I don't like it. On the face of it, I have to agree with

Norm Murdock:

you. I can't see it. However, as we

Norm Murdock:

discussed— However it unfolds, we'll see. Maybe he can do it, maybe he can't. I

Steve Palmer:

just think it's, like you said, at minimum, a tactical blunder. Am I

Steve Palmer:

good? You know that historically

Steve Palmer:

some teams are just so good

Steve Palmer:

Like the Cleveland Browns. Oh, forgot. Who pulled it off

Steve Palmer:

against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with 2 minutes left. They

Steve Palmer:

foiled the last-minute attempt by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to go down

Steve Palmer:

and win the game only because there was a storm

Steve Palmer:

delay that sort of stalled the Tampa Bay dress. So Tampa

Steve Palmer:

had to come out cold and win. But anyway, hats off to you, Cleveland Browns.

Norm Murdock:

And Baker, I mean, he had an awful game. I mean, he just— That's right.

Steve Palmer:

So anyway, Cleveland Browns, we know you're great. You just haven't shown it

Steve Palmer:

to us yet. So what's their record, 1-1? Yeah, they're 1-1.

Norm Murdock:

Okay. So that's about as good as they're gonna be all season. That's as good

Steve Palmer:

as— 500 would be about as good as they're gonna be all season. That's the

Norm Murdock:

same record as the Buckeyes? All right, so no, Buckeyes are 2-1. Are

Norm Murdock:

they? What? Are they? Did they win a second one? Yeah, they won their

Steve Palmer:

opener, then they lost to Texas and they won against Clemson. Who was the opener

Norm Murdock:

again? Ball State, I think. Okay, so they played the Littlest Sisters of the

Norm Murdock:

Poor. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They should have beat Texas. And then they played the

Norm Murdock:

Goodwill Team the, the, the third week. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, all

Steve Palmer:

right, well, that's your news coming at you right from the middle. commonsenseohioshow.com

Steve Palmer:

if you want to look us up. Brought to you by HarperPlus.

Links

Chapters

Video

More from YouTube