Happy to have Connor McCollough on. We took a trip not long ago and idea came to mind of like having an opportunity to talk to somebody with a I mean, quite honestly, a totally different view of things. But however, the more we talk, the more I realize that, like he really wants the same thing that I want. He still loves his country just as much as I do. I think what we agree to is two different paths, same destination, and so I'm gonna let Connor kind of talk about what his experience in life has been, you know, kind of when you grew up, different things that you did, and so I am glad to have you on here and just tell us a little bit about yourself. Connor, You're obviously much younger than me. So yeah, absolutely happy to be here, Happy for the opportunity for the conversation. Like you said, like we've both both come from different backgrounds, different walks of life, and so we have different approaches, different thought processes. I know I tend to lean left of center based on how grown up, but also working where I have, it's given me opportunities to challenge that belief. So growing up you know, single mom, raising me the best she could, never you know, really in a well off situation, always kind of hovering, you know, just above sort of the poverty line area. She worked at Shenandoa University for most of my upbringing, So I grew up on a liberal arts college campus. I got to meet people from all over the world, got to meet some really interesting Americans. I got to meet the last man to ever walk on the moon, Harrison Schmidt. So just being able to in my formative years talk to people, meet people, and sort of develop a worldview of we're all in this kind of together and everyone is just trying their best with what they have at their disposal, and for some people that's positive and for some people that's maybe not the best of situations. So growing up, you know, I was fortunate to have that background. I was fortunate somehow my mom managed to pull it off that I was able to go to like a private elementary school and got a really good early education. I went to school here in Winchester for high school and to Hanley High School, which at the time I thought it had a very good education as well. I would push myself to take the more advanced classes and really try and read and explore stuff, and then went to college down in I guess Harrisonburg Ish area, went to Bridgewater, another sort of liberal arts college, but it was an opportunity. Oh yeah, oh yeah. There's definitely some affiliations there, and there's again, you know, it's something where it's I'm not necessarily a religious person myself, but being around that and exposed to it, it's again, it adds to that perspective. And so sort of growing up. You know, my dad has always been in the picture, you know, good relationship. My mom and dad are separated, so I only got to see him infrequently, but he tended to be that right of center voice. My mom was always left of. Center, you know, strong independent woman, you know, worked her ass off all the time. I can't speak highly enough of her and how much she really invested in me and my growth, in my future and you know, trying to give me the best life I had. My dad did exactly the same, to the best of his ability. I think what's cool about that is that, yeah, you were limited, but your mom gave you a lot of exposure to a lot of different things. So is there anything in that time frame that you look at and you're like, hey, this is when I realized you obviously have two competing viewpoints with your dad and your mom. How did you decide to kind of go towards kind of the left of center. I mean, I think the initial was just I was around my mom more. I would see my dad every other weekend, so it was kind of what I was raised in for the most part. But I think more than anything, it was being with my mom and seeing someone who though we didn't have a lot, we never never had a lot of money, never had a lot of. Chance for. Upward growth, so to speak. My mom was very giving. She would she would take in students that needed a place to stay over winter break. Everyone at the university sort of saw her as like everyone's mom away from mom. If they had a problem, they would come to her. She would was generous with what money she did have. She would, you know, take students out to dinner, order pizza when people needed it, like just little things. With what little money we did have. She was very kind and giving and generous of it, and that sort of translated over to me and my I think viewpoint of the only way to help is to be giving, is to if you can make someone day or someone's situation a little bit better if it's you know, buying a dinner, or if it's just listening. I think that kind of shaped early on of that the importance of understanding that we all are in a situation. We all are in our own heads, in our own lives, and we don't know who's got what going on, and trying to be conscientious of that in any conversation and approach any any conversation, like like the ones we had on our trip, in coming from a place of respect and decency and honesty and knowing that we don't have to be right, we don't have to be wrong, but it's important to listen to each other. Well. One of the things I hear when you're talking is I hear I think a lot of people on the right, so that's where I lean towards would say, you're just trying to impose your will of like giving things away on other people in this country. But you grew up giving what little you had to other people, so it's not like you were replicating what you saw day in and day out. So when you look at the world, you look at it as our country is an extension of you, and we should help people in need in and around us. Absolutely, So any event that you can think of that you're like, was it when the kids came up, you had college kids here, or what was it that you looked at and you're like, really think that that's the way things should be done? Well, I think it was. I don't know if there was ever like one specific thing kind of growing up, because I think it was my exposure being at a liberal arts college through I'm talking four years old through twenty three years old or so. But I remember moments here and there where something that was happening bigger than I could understand because I was eight or ten or whatever. I remember one of them being a gay rights movement and going through the Supreme Court all of that. There was a pretty sizable gay population at Shenandoah. And so seeing how that directly was affecting people, I knew in my life and that these things that are these big picture ideas that are just on the news, they are headlined their topic, whatever it may be, it brought it into the reality and like, no, this actually affects people. This actually is things that people are you know, worried about, are they going to be able to have a life with this person that they care about and they love, and they just want to give them everything that I was given love for my parents. They want to do the same. And you know, it's this legal battle and so and having those situations. You know, immigration too, there's aspects of We had students at Shenandoah from all over the globe, from Ghana and Haiti and China and just you name a place there was a student from there. And I got to meet a lot of these people and hear about what life was like in their countries and what made here America so appealing to so many people. And to me, that kind of gave me this perspective of like, what makes what defines the you know, quote unquote American dream is being in a place where you're safe and you're respected and you have opportunity, not necessarily to you know, I don't believe that the American dream is to be a billionaire, but to have a house and a family and be safe and secure in your own front yard is invaluable. And meeting these people, hearing people coming from places where they had to walk twenty miles to get water for a well or maybe twenty is a bit of an exaggeration, but they had to walk a couple miles a day to go get water from a well and bring it back and had to do that every single day because they didn't have running water. We met a gentleman I think from Ghana. I don't quite remember, but I know it as an African country who was fast by electric fences to keep cattle in solar powered electric fences, and it was just something they never thought of. And so these these moments of me moments in time of seeing people learning or experiencing something they never have. Right, So when you look at when you look at all those things, I think you pretty much covered, like that's how you adopted your worldview. But I think one of the things that people, I think a lot of people on the right want to like, I think both sides. They sit there and they want to put you inside up a box and they want to be comfortable inside that box, and they want to say, Okay, there's no way there's a human being on the other end of this. And I think one of the things that was really cool about our trip was just hearing the other side. And there are facts that support both sides, and I think unfortunately, right now what happens is one side picks a talking point and that's all they stick on and it doesn't include all the other different parts of information and things like that. So for me, what I obviously I feel like I don't want I don't ever want to say I think it's easy for me to say, like, well, I think I'm fair. I don't know that that's a yeah. And so but for me, when I look at it and I think about fairness, I think, Okay, I look at Fox News. I think Fox News has started to drift. But also I also look at the BBC, and I also look at Al Jazeera. I think I think Fox and Al Jazeera are like two entirely different spectrums. When you look at what's going on in Guyza, you would think that they're two different and in a two different events altogether. If you listen to Al Jazeera and Fox News reporting on the same event. And so, how do you like balance that out from the left leaning side, let's just call it left I don't leaning. It's not good. Yeah, purpose of this conversation because we won't we wi't, we won't, we won't wear a name tag like, I'm right, you're on the left, But like, what where do you get your news from? And where do you go to get your information? Because one of the things that was really cool early on is we did a project of Liberty University and one of the things that those kids said is and kids, I mean, they're nineteen twenty years old and they're talking about where they get their news. But again, their their filter is through because of who their influences are are on the right side. So where on the left side do you feel like you can get accurate information? Well? And I think it's I think that the unfortunate truth generally is that the accuracy of information is very. Poor. Yeah, it's and especially right now with the state of things and the tension of things, it's really hard to with any definitive stance say, oh this this source is one pc right, one hundred percent of the time. It's just the fact of the matter is it isn't right. And I think so. The example that I always give for this type of point was I was driving to visit some friends in Boston on January sixth, a couple of years back, when all that stuff popped off, and I was getting all these text mesters like, hey, don't go near DC. Like, I had no idea what was happening. I was up past Philly. It didn't matter to me. But let's they go north. We're good exactly. But in the moment, I'm like, all right, sounds like something's popping off. I should probably pay attention. And so at the time, I had satellite radio, So I scrolled over to CNN's news channel, and I listened for about fifteen or so minutes. And I know full and well that CNN is one of the more left leaning or at least has become one of the more left leaning news sources. So out of respect for me understanding things, I then switched over to Fox News, which again we know is kind of fallen. More to the right right. And so I would listen for ten minutes or so to each one of them and flip back and forth, and at the end of it, I got the gist of Okay, people broke into the capital to try and affect the election process, and YadA, YadA, YadA. Did I know all of it, No, But I knew enough to get the gist of what was happening and understand that, you know, both sides were presenting the same basic information but with two very different perspectives. And so I think, like when I go and try and look into a subject like some of the ones we've talked about, I typically start with The New York Times because I just get breaking news updates from them, have for a while. I know that The New York Times is left of center, and so I know that take everything with a grain of. Salt, but it's typically where I start. I enjoy how they write. I think it reads well to put it simply, They get to the point pretty well right. But then from there what's always important is, you know, pop over. I admittedly don't use Fox News all that much just because to me, they've always come across, well, that's more, they've come across to me a little more on the extreme rhetoric at times, which I'm sure you could say the exact same thing about the New York Times. But there are sources that are more centered. Reuters is one that, typically, as best as can be, stays pretty down down the middle. And so a lot of times that's where I'll default to. I'll get a headline and I'll get the gist of a story. But if it's something I want to dig into. I'll go to Reuters, I'll go to Politico. There are a couple others. I don't think Politico is necessarily straight down the middle. I think they do lean left. But I think the key thing with anyone trying to be true to them, to true to a subject, and honest to trying to learn is understanding that A you can be wrong. It's okay to be wrong and learn something and change your opinion, change your mind on something. And B don't put yourself in your own echo chamber. If you just want the answer that you want to get and you stop at that, you're not going to challenge yourself to actually explore the validity of a subject, uh, and listen to people of a different side. Really, you know, don't piginghole yourself into one thought process and then think it's the one and only. I think one of the things I hear you say is more than anything is you don't go into it. You might read a headline, but you don't go into it saying this is the only way that it is, like, there's no chance that you go in there with your eyes wide open. It sounds like as opposed to I feel like on both sides. We just hit that, we hit the gas and we're like we're right, boom, We're gone. And I think that's a mistake. I think it's a mistake. And I think one of the things that I thought this weekend when we're talking about doing this show is I thought, I think our leaders used to I think, just in the name itself leadership, I think it's an epic failure of our leadership on both sides, because they're supposed to be leading on the way we should handle ourselves. Obviously, the way we raised have a lot to do with it, but I do feel like we are so quick to look at our leaders and go, oh, that's the way we need to be. And I know for a while there, when they used to talk about athletes and things like that, they're like, don't patter yourself after an athlete. I would say at this point, don't patter yourself over anybody that's in leadership, because all they're doing is trying to stir up their side, get their one point across. And I feel like, as the American public, we are going to have to lead ourselves out of this mess that we're in because I think they're so busy trying to take a side, and both sides like the far left, they're trying to appease AOC and all those all those people that are all the people that are trying to stir it up on that side, and then we have been Shapiro and all these other people that are like throwing it's just the craziness. If you just if, like if people would just take a breath and look at it and go, that doesn't even make sense. It doesn't even make sense, and it sounds really good, it's very entertaining, but at the end of the day, I can tell you and I think both of our experiences, but like for me as an investigator working in law enforcement, one of the things that I've learned is you could talk to three people that went through the same experience and their stories are going to be very, very different. And it's where their stories intersect is where the truth is. And I think that's one of the problems right now in political rhetoric and everything else, is that we are not taking the time to say, Okay, here's the right side, here's the left side. Where they intersect is probably going to be where the truth is. And it's not like one side is not right. One side is not wrong, it is it is. And I think accepting the fact that, like as much as people want to say, oh, well, the left is horrible people, the rights horrible people, I think in talking to you and talking to other people, both sides have uh the same goals. They both wanted in America that like what you said that your mom taught you, your mom taught you to be giving. I think we all want a country that's giving. And I think that kind of springs us into our next conversation. I'm going to go out of order because I can. Let's go straight to immigration, because I feel like Venezuela is like that's low hanging fruit. We'll get to that in a minute. But like from immigration, like when you look at it, tell me what you see when you look at it. Obviously we know the right talking points, and I want to preface it by saying the people that are saying that the the the Afghan national that killed that killed that female National Guard soldier horrible death and injured. Yeah, and it shot. They both died. I don't know the other guy I think is still alive last hour, but it's end of the day. We want it fits the rhetoric on the right of like these immigrants are violent, horrible people. That is not an immigrant problem. I think we both agree. I think that's one thing that we can both agree on. That is a policy that is bad that that dude did, did our dirty work, worked with our special operations people and went after terrorists for twenty years on behalf of the United States of America, and in return, we brought him over here. And I would almost guarantee you his family has suffered and died because of his involvement with the United States of America. So it's not a rhetoric for me. It's not like, hey, here's this crazy here's another crazy immigrant that's committing crime. No, this is a dude that was wrong by this country and we did not do what we needed to do. What he did was absolutely horrendous, horrible attacking. Uh you know, a soldier who's just serving their country. And like I said, we can get into that later as far as you know, all the stuff that is that flows from the left on like, oh, it's it's horrible that the National Guard, But the reality is that is the National Guard's mission is to supplement law enforcement in bad situations, And I don't think anybody that's gone to the nation's capital and seeing some of the stuff that's going on there can say like that's a safe place. So anyway, let's go back to immigration and talk about like what your view of immigration. Is so well, and I think you're you're absolutely right that the presentation on how you know you take that situation and how it was immediately essentially poster childed into talking about a whole group of people when there was a there was a lone individual's awful, awful choice for reasons we don't know yet, right, but you look at it, that doesn't define a people. So for me, you know, immigration is one that's first and foremost wildly complicated. You start pulling on any thread and it's going to be connected to twelve others. It is not a straightforward conversation. It is not a straightforward subject. And for anyone, I think this is key is for anyone to try and narrow it down to one issue is doing a disservice to the whole conversation because it's not. If it was a simple problem, it would be a simple fix. And we know it isn't a simple fix because it's not a simple problem. So for me, when I look at the United States and immigration, if you look at the history of this country, we were built on immigrants. We came here from the original thirteen colonies, came from Europe. We weren't originally here every the only people were native Americans. And even then they even then they came across the bearing straight so people didn't exist here. This entire piece of land was developed by immigration. The foundation of America was, you know, Irish people getting off the boat in New York and immediately being handed a loaf of bread and a musket or rifle and sent south to fight for the Union. You had. People being brought over, you know, you had your Chinese immigrants coming and building the Transcontinental Railroad, coming halfway across the country. And so you look and every step along the way we've had immigration, and there's been a group of immigrants that were ostracized, whether it was the Irish in the eighteen hundreds, where they were looked at at this criminality, breeding group of lessers, until the next group came along. And then it was the Italians in the early nineteen hundreds, and you got some of the Germans coming at Germans and Japanese after World War Two, they were the next villains. And so we as a country, we've always had immigration, and we've always had a targeted immigrant group that we've scapegoated. Essentially, It's unfortunate, but it's how it's always been. And so to sit and look, you know, do I think that it needs to be no, no fence, open door, walk on in, you know, whatever you want. No, that's not helpful, that's not a quality policy. You and I talked, you know, I one of my criticisms of the previous administration was the handling over the southern border. You know, that's where I do lean a little more conservative. But the fact of the matter is for me to close off the country as a whole violates what the country was founded on, violates what we how it was built, how we became one of the greatest countries on the planet. I think, you know, we talked about this in the van, that I don't necessarily agree with that statement right now. And it's not. Because I hate America or whatever, but it's because I'm realistic with the aspect of we have room to grow. There are things that we aren't necessarily doing well there are ways that we could improve and to just follow this platitude of greatest country in the world, no questions asked. We do nothing wrong. That's not healthy for growth, and that's not healthy for an individual or for a nation. You have to be able to admit when things aren't quite right. So from the left standpoint, what do we need to do to make Not to borrow a point, but what does the left say, how do we make America great again? Like? What does the left say? Obviously on the right we say immigration, you know, like security at the border, shutting the border down from a standpoint of people unknowns coming across the border, but also mass deportations. We'll get into that. As far as what that looks like, I don't agree with the way some of that's being done. But again, the federal government, in my opinion, is built on numbers. It's the number of people that are own welfare, it's the number of people of this I don't disagree that it is fine that we're deporting people that have committed heinous crimes and that are not contributing to this country in a way that's beneficial to this country. But like we said, on both sides, is accountability, like is your program working? Are you doing what needs to be done to make it better? But I think the right talking points is and I think overwhelming, well not overwhelming, but well above fifty percent of the population said the immigration policy that we have is failed. We are being overrun services because of COVID and ultimately immigration right after that has overwhelmed our healthcare system and a lot of other things that we just do not have the infrastructure for that big of an influx. And I think that's one of the things that people don't realize is we have the same number of immigrants that are and again we can argue the legal illegal view of that, but we have more immigrants than we have to just put it in perspective, there are more people who could be deemed illegal here that have not come through the channels that the country was designed for originally. They have come through and haven't assimilated to what we believe in what this country was built on. Because I think one of the things is we were escaped. When you talk about immigrants, it's escaping a bad situation coming here and contributing here. And I think there are a lot of people that a lot of people that aren't here legally that are contributing on a day to day basis. But when you look at what's happened in Minnesota, it's also the other side of it is it's abused. And so from the left side, policy wise, what works well to make America the greatest country in the world, and I. Think off the cuff is honesty. If you look at any of these subjects, you can pick your talking point and jump on it. You know, you can say, uh, there's an immigration issue and our country is being flooded. You know that whole bit, which sure, absolutely there is you can find information to back up that stance. But when you look at it and you go, okay, so what's what's the left asking for? You know, the left is not asking for open borders come in do like for the most part. From my understanding, again, we can ignore the far twenty percent of the left and the far twenty percent of the right. Those are the extreme ends, and there's no talking to either side of that regardless. It just wants to bicker. So in that middle group, that middle sixty in looking at it, the problem is acknowledged on both sides. You can pull up videos of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or any any Democrat from throughout the years of them saying we need to seal up the southern border, we need to focus on immigration, we need to focus on deportations. You can go through the whole rhetoric of Obama deported x amount of millions of people, Biden deported deported X amount of millions of people. You know, those talking points are there. It's not exclusively left or right policy stamps. But where I think the left ones to come in is we want people to come here the right way. But there's more than one right way to do that. When you look at you know, you start looking at dreamers or I think Daco was one or these other pathways to citizenship you take. Take the afghan to kind of circle back to that a little bit. We had a policy UH following the pull out of Afghanistan where if you were supporting US, if you were a translator, if you were aiding, you. Could get a special. Special something or other visa UH to come here because we knew well and good that if we left them there they'd be killed, and they helped us, so we need to like that's helpful, and I support that. I think that was the way it should be. You know, I believe in our asylum seeking program in the sense of it's important because there are places where I can't sit in pick a country and file all the paperwork and make all the phone I might not even have a phone to make phone calls or internet to send an email. So I have to flee. I have to come across the border. I have to find especially five kids or a family push comes to shove. I'm getting out, and I can't necessarily wait for the right way. But it's what you do after that. And so these different pathways to citizenship I think are important. Now are they lawged? Sure the asylum program, people can come in request asylum while it's being processed. They're still here kind of in this legal limbo of until a decisions. Mador both legally here and illegally here. And a lot of people just disappear. They stopped showing up to immigration hearings, They stop, you know, doing all this. They stop following the path because they get caught up. They still have to work, they still have to feed a family. That there are things that are become more important. You know. Back under Obama's. Tenure, he gave amnesty that if you've been in this country for five years and you've been contributing and you don't have a criminal record, you can come out of the woodwork and try and get right with the government, as he put it. And I think those things are Do you have any dad on how that work? Obviously, the population, I think, because I think one of the things that neither side admits to is we've had depending on that your estimates over ten I think they said the ten between ten and twelve million illegals here at any given time. I think that that's the figure that I hear throughout. Yeah, typically I'm seeing between ten and fourteen. And that's where again, that's where let's have the honest conversation part and not the cbate you know, left right talking point. So you know, the one that I always heard for a while was, oh, there were twelve million or ten million illegals flooded the border under Biden during the pandemic, and again sort. Of but not quite. The what I've seen is we're at about ten million, and then about four more million came for it, which is still a big number, and we absolutely can talk on that point. But the ten million claim was encounters, that's turnaways at the border, that's detentions, that's people that try and come across and are like hey no and they leave. So the actual I think, I think ICE defines as like the getaway number the ones that got past us was somewhere between two and four million, which again, so. How are those classified from the left standpoint, how are those classified as whether they're so if you come here, you're seeking asylum, you're in a holding pattern, and you don't show up, at what point are you classified as a legal on your based on your viewpoints? So from my understanding, the if I'm here seeking asylum and I fail to start, you know, I just disappeared. I stopped coming to my hearings. I stopped in order because the asylum process can take years for some people. Right now, I'm an undocumented immigrant or I'm an illegal immigrant, however you want to want to spin it. If I don't have the right paperwork to be here, I am undocumented, and I think that that again kind of you know, taking a step back is having the conversation you're actually trying to have. So if we're talking about immigration and we're talking about illegals coming here, it's like, Okay, the left wants to allow I legal, No, we want pathways and the right ones to close the pathways. Is the perception, you know, you look at Trump took the. Access. I think it was Haiti, Colombia, Nicaragua, and hey, Peru, some combination of four Central American countries that had. Special visas because things were. Going very Honduras that was the other one, because things were going so poorly in their countries. It was like, hey, here's a you know, here's an express line to get out of your country into safety and then we can start the process here. It was a it was a pathway to citizenship. And so if the conversation is do we need to limit those pathways, great, that's that's a whole conversation we can have. Is it immigrants are flooding the border? No? Yes, and no. I mean of course they are because people are trying to come to a country that they're told is the greatest country. So why would they not want to come here? But is it really a flood. Or somebody on your side it's a imitation. Now we won't talk about well, I mean we can't. I mean, did Joe Biden not invite immigrants here. We're open. I think so again, I'm I'm I know you're fault for some. Of that, but but I think that's the I think I hear everything you're saying, and I do not disagree. The only problem is is that we are overwhelmed and nobody can provide a plausible explanation as to why our healthcare sucks so bad and why. I've read a book on capitalism recently, and I think I have a clearer understanding of why prescription drugs and the medical professionists so bad is because there's no competition anymore. You've got four or five of the biggest companies and they have a monopoly on services, and so they can set the prices at whatever, and we were forced to pay them. And unfortunately, our elected officials are are are more supported, or however you want to look at it, that both sides are getting a ton of money from the groups that are controlling the I think what I read in that book, it was what was the guy's name, Friedman? Milton Friedman. Okay, well, he kind of is credited as changing capitalism. I want to say it was like the late these early seventies. He wrote a book that essentially from my understanding, again I don't know much about I know a little bit about a lot of stuff, but by no means I'm an expert on anything, but essentially changing the approach to capitalism to going from competition at the best price, So you know, coke and PEPSI trying to make the best product they can at the most competitive. Price to stock. Growth to the success of a company is based on the value of their stock, and that the purpose. It's a fiduciary responsibility to make as much money for your investors as you can. And I think that's the problem is one of the things that this book said was that one percent of the population owns well over fifty. Probably like sixty five percent. YEA is controlled by of the socks. The socks are controlled by the one percent of the population. Well, that one percent of the population is the same population that is in lobbyist tons of money to go to d C and go to Richmond, Virginia and tell our tell the people that are supposed to be that we elect what they need to do. One of the positive things I think in our conversation about elected officials though, is I know you had a different view of it than I did. But I think the governor's election in Virginia and of the other uhcubatorial candidacies and different elections are proof that the general population. I think there was a push that said the Biden immigration was so bad. People felt it and they're like, hey, we need to swing the other way. So they swung really far over on Trump, and now I think they're sitting there going, well, we might have gone too far. Let's start, let's start realigning a little bit left. And I think it does to me that is a democracy that is working. It It might not be working great, but it is something that you can look at as an American and go you might not like the fact that, like, well, as a Republican, I can't believe we have a democratic governor, but you also look at the fact of like, hey, people that like you described it, that's sixty percent is looking at the way immigration policy is being whether and whether it's just talking points on the left or not, but like people are hurting because of the immigration policies of this administration. I like I look at it as an emergency situation because like if you have a flood, you're going to probably toss some stuff out that you need later. But I think that's an honest conversation that you have with the population and say, yes, we are doing the best we can to get rid of the worst of the worst. But if you do not self report, if you don't do all these things that we're asking you to do, and if and that's the other things, these sanctuary cities, they're kind of setting themselves up for failure. If you're saying, like, okay, I know in Fairfax County they had a guy the other day that they did not honor an ICE detainer, and the guy ended up killing somebody while he was out. I think yeah. And so the sanctuary cities are really screwing their immigrant population because instead of ICE coming in there and going, okay, I want to detain, let's just say, for example, twenty violent offenders if I have ICE. Guess what they if you start producing like the problems to if you start producing the problems to send ICE to if you're a sanctuary city, because what they don't have time to deport all these other people they are going to It takes effort to get those people in custody and moved out of the country and why not cooperate and make it work better? Well, And I think I was trying to keep a list running in my head while you were talking, because going back to my point earlier of it's a complicated it's not a simple subject. It's very complicated. Just in that little bit that you just spoke, we touched on pharmaceuticals, lobbyists, detention and ice reform, immigration, understanding of sanctuary cities and what they were meant for and what they have been turned into. We talked about judicial reform. You've got plenty of people who were arrested and then were released and then did something else. So why do we have people that have twenty something charges, half of them felonies, still out on the street. So, like, just in that little bit, we touched on judicial reform and immigration policy and healthcare and you know, all this stuff. It's a tangled spider web of everything, and so to try and pull on one of those strings and solve it inevitably touches on everything else. And so having that simplified conversation or simplified understanding of one talking point, you know, we're just going to focus on this does a disservice to the big picture. So to go back to you know, immigration. As a whole. You know, the talking point, you know, over the over the summer was the left just trying to give immigrants free health care. No. I mean there's there's certain aspects of things where there are there are means in which certain degrees of immigrant status, meaning are you on a visa, are you undocumented, like whatever it may be, you can obtain certain benefits. If you don't have a Social Security number, you can't get Medicaid and Medicare, like just can't. Now can that system be abused? Absolutely, We've seen some of that, as you pointed out in Minnesota, right, there are ways around that. And so for me, I look at that and go, you know what the talking point in the beginning was oh, well they're giving them, you know, free healthcare. It's like, you know, the healthcare that they're getting is emergency care. If you come in and you're bleeding out, it's the hippocratic oath. It is that doctor's duty to stabilize and help you. It doesn't matter if you're an illegal immigrant, it doesn't matter if you're a homeless veteran, it doesn't matter if you're just Joe Schmoe got in a car accident. That is emergency healthcare, and that accounts for I think it was ze point zero four percent of the healthcare spending through Medicaid. And it's a talk it's a I think that's the problem is it's a talking point for the right that they do not want to invest the time and effort into saying like, hey, there's all these other pieces of it. Yes, you as the person like the main street, the kitchen table, the reason your healthcare is suffering is because of an influx of a large group of people. That is part of it. So is COVID is part of it. But instead of having that honest conversation, they know they could get their their base fired up by saying they're giving us stuff to immigrants. And that's one. And what's hard too is if you look at you know, if you start pulling up, they go to I use Pew Research and a couple others. Cato Institute has some stuff. But if you want to have the if people truly want to have the honest conversation, they say, okay, you know, we're looking at healthcare and they're blaming immigrants. Immigrants are flooding the system. Well, again, illegal immigrants who don't have a Social Security number, generally speaking, can't get Medicaid or Medicare, can't get snap benefits like yeah, they might, kids might get it through the school or some community programs. It does exist. But generally speaking, if you go and look and say, okay, where do we see the most medicaid use in the US, most of it's red states. Most of it's Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi. Texas is a huge one. Yeah, obviously the California is on that list as well, they've got a massive population. But what's so interesting to me is the frequency with which the criticism of the left is an admission of the right saying, oh, you know, the immigrants. The left is just letting immigrants and they're abusing the welfare system. They can't feasibly get the well where typically get welfare, and it's oftentimes impoverished Southern states or states in general, not just in the South, but typically more red voting states that also utilize these services. I know people, you know here in Winchester where you can come across you know, go watch someone to use their EBT card at Walmart, and it's not a Hispanic family, it's a white lady or some dude from you know, Front Royal or whatever. And so you look at it and you go like, if we're having the honest conversation, do these things happen? Yes? Absolutely? Do systems get abused? Yes? Absolutely. I think any reasonable person left or right of center will not try and sit here in a talking definitives or b say that it doesn't exist. But the reality of the situation, at least from my perspective is is, you know, and I use this example, your water heater goes out, you don't tear down your whole house. You fix the water heater. And so our welfare system or our immigration system, whatever they may be, are they perfect? No? Absolutely not. Could they be fixed, yes, But taking something that was so. Like you know, using the immigration and the government shut down and like welfare and all that. You know, here in about five eight days, there's about forty million Americans that are going to see their health care benefits and costs change most likely go up by you know, one percent something like that. And so do I think the left has the correct answer for our welfare immigration? No, But to just take something away completely without having a solution just hurts people in the long run. It just costs, you know. I think back on when we were trying to fire people, you know, cut down the government employment, and we were trying to fire dogs trying to make all those cuts. It's like, okay, we're firing one hundred thousand people on probation. While probation for the government could mean I worked my butt off and I just got promoted, so, you know, went from a G eleven to a G twelve and now I'm on a probationary period because that's just how that works. Now I'm at risk of losing my job even though I did nothing wrong. So having these conversations and a admitting that the left or the right doesn't have it fully correct, there are issues on both sides of those understanding that all of these subjects are completely intertwined and then also being honest about what we're seeing. So you mentioned that for immigration, they were going after the worst of the worst. For me, I don't see that. What I see is twelve people in Boston pulled out of their taking their oath of citizenship and saying you're not doing this anymore. We're not proceeding with your They've done everything right, and we're not proceeding with this because you are now of a nationality that has been deemed no longer viable for citizenship. If it's I think a couple of them. What nationality was that. I think a couple of them were Afghani. I think a couple of them it was people related to are people qualified under whatever Trump's most recent executive order for limiting immigration what? And so you know, and that's just a small example. But here's here's what I'd like to do. And it's one of the things we're try it from a technology standpoint. See if you can't pull that up, because that's one of the things that I think is really cool about research and I think one of the things that we don't want to just talk about stuff. To me, it's the whole adage of like you can either feed a man or you can teach him out of fish where he can feed himself and others. And so if we can show people like, hey, don't just take the first thing that you have and find five more support items that support that, I actually research it out and. So I think so that's a perfect jump in and I can run the lead on this one and how I would investigate it. But to preface with it, AI is a thing. It's coming in, We're living with it. I U to like when I start researching a subject that you know, you and I talk about, or whatever pops. Up when when you win. But what I typically do A if it's I just need a quick answer, or b it's I need a jumping off point, I'll go to Groc, which is x's Twitter's formerly Twitter's AI platform. And the reason why I specifically chose that one is I had seen I think it was like some instagrams and some tiktoks and some other stuff of people using Groc but trying to force it into a biased answer, trying to manipulate its feedback to be more conservative or be more liberal, and it consistently would push back and say we can have that conversation, but that's not factually accurate or that's a biased response, or like it would it was checking people. So do so if that's where you start start that start your research about the information you have from Boston and Grock. Yes, so here's here's what I would do. Pull this up, so we'll jump over to Grock and what I would do here is go. Because the key to with it is if I want to say, you know, conservatives arrest whatever people in whatever location like, that's already presenting a biased approach. So you have to you have to do a little bit of the work and not chewholding yourself into the answer you are correct. So for me, what I would say is, can you give me the details on individual and can't spell visuals in Boston removed from it is in ship both and then you up here you can see it says faster. You also have options a auto expert whatever, and so just off the cuff, it'll pull up sort of, you know, a summer in the beginning. In early December twenty twenty five, several immigrants who had already been approved for US citizenship were prevented from taking the allegiance at a natural naturalization ceremony in Boston's historic Fennial Hall. So it gives you, it'll give you this quick little breakdown summary of the event. It'll talk about the affected individuals. So you've got extensive vetting, you know, it says here they completed extensive vetting, background checks, interviews, civics test English proficient English proficiency requirements. Which so one of the things I see when I read this is like, obviously on the right. My first thing is like, oh, but then when I start looking at it, it's like, Okay, that is a simulacense because they are learning our language, they're learning the the they learned English and so, and they've gone through the vetting and they've done it the right way, but we're punishing it. And you also look here at the beginning, it's long term lawful residence Green card holders, which we talked about the other day, is you know it's this isn't illegal immigrants that have worked these These are people who seemingly have been going through things the right way. And for the. Record, yeah, but I think I think the key is if we can break it down a little bit. So from my standpoint, green card holders, despite research it yourself, but like what we found in our research, well I'm not gonna speak for you. For me, what I found in the research is you can get a green card, and you can get if I'm thinking correctly, you can get a green card, and once you're issue at green card, it doesn't expire as long as you can meet the conditions. There are things that can get you disqualified. But once you have it, you have it. And then I also like we went over the discussion about like, okay, are you here legally not legally? And what happened was is what my understanding of what happened is they would go to the border. During the Biden administration, you'd have caravans, remember the caravans. They come up there and they'd say, I'm seeking asylum, and what they would do is they would give them a date. They would they would so they hadn't officially been given asylum because they hadn't been vetted, but they're allowed in the country. And then that goes into the show ups and everything else. But go back to your point, these are the countries involved. Yeah, so this was this was some of it well, and to your to this again. So the slight tangent is are we talking immigration or are we talking asylum reform? Because that's a completely valid and important conversation out because you are absolutely correct that it's I show up. Hey, you need to be at the courthouse. You know it's December. Now it's oh, you need to be at the courthouse July fifth. Uh, this this upcoming July. I'm not illegal, I'm also not legal. I'm in this process and throughout that they can still then not grant me asylum. That's the whole thing is asylum as a request. It doesn't have to be granted, and oftentimes it's not. It's it's granted at a very low rate. But it's the how long am I here before that and in that time and I just sort of disappear? That does happen. And that's the crazy thing too, is a whole different group of people are once across illegally. They don't don't seek asylum, so they didn't turn themselves into border patrol. They weren't like processed in. If they're here for a year and they get caught, they are here considered illegally because they can't apply for asylum after a year. And to me, that's where I would say, like that specific group, the ones that seemingly put no effort into any attempt to follow the right pathway, that there is your illegal immigrant, if we're defining it. To me, that's your illegal immigrants just coming here. On I'm one out of five, there you go. Uh So, anyway, so looking at you know, this this talking point here again, looking into the research of it, you can sit. I recommend again you have to make sure that you're asking the right question in a balanced manner. But it gives you the quick the quick gist, and you know you asked earlier what were these people? It's like, okay, so here are your targeted countries. But specifically, these are the ones that these people seem to be associated with. So you've got Afghanistan, Haiti, Iran. Yet then a lot of these makes sense. You got to think, you know, Yemen, Sudan, Iran. How do you think Somalaya got on there? Pirates Minnesota, baby, Well, oh yeah, okay, I. Forgot about that, but yeah, you know, Venezuela makes a whole bunch of sense all things considered. So these are areas that we're tracking. You know, if I'm looking at this list, I would go drugs, drugs, drugs, terrorists, terror like these being the reasons for why these are on the list is you're looking like. I'll take it a step further. Vetting processes from those countries to get to our country just isn't as strong. I mean Afghanistan. That's one of the things about it is the Taliban is the group of individuals that control that country. They control who gets a visa, They control all of that, who gets to travel, and so there's no guarantee that the person that we were receiving is the person that they say they are, so, which is one of the biggest problems about vetting. When I was in Afghanistan, the biggest problem is it's not like here where you have a birth certificate and you can track it back like it's it's it's third world and drop it down through or four notches of what they're doing in Afghanistan, so it's it's it is pribable, and the information does not flow freely. And to your point earlier, the Afghan Guan dude that did the terrible things, he was vetted by the CIA, he was vetted by the Biden administration, he was confirmed and vetted by the Trump administration this past May. So to claim that he's this unknown but that to me is a disgrace as a country for and and and the sad part about it is his family was affected negatively, and that poor young lady from West Virginia that just signed up server country is killed in our own country, and that that's just it's awful. It's awful and but it's it's my point of being true with the narrative of making this guy sound like he was because some of the talking points I heard was he was just this crazy illegal that came in or whatever. It's like, no, we knew who this guy was. Does that justify? Like does that exactly? But I think that's what causes half the problem is is that we have such the powers that be are so one sided. And one of the things that we talked about last law enforcement is lacks candor. And I think that is something that describes most politicians, is they are not They lack candor as far as they will find a talking point even if they know the rest of the story. I think about all this crap with the Epstein files and everything else. There's dirty on both sides of the aisle, and let's not pretended, let's not. It's just I think that's the bad part about it is is that, like I always think about, it used to be that you could go to local media and maybe this is the wave of the future with AI is like that's the only way we're going to get real news. You got to be honest about how you plug the information in to get good information. Back, but like, to me, that's one of the coolest things about the discussions is you now have a tool, a tool to go in there and as long as you do not put your bias into it. And that's what I would challenge people is take the time to realize. I think one of the things is that realize that there are people out there that may have had it, that definitely have different life experiences and they are not that much different than you are. They really are. And I think that's one of the things that being in the military teaches you. You can have people from all over the country. I remember our drills are told us over and over and over again, you believe green And if we did a better job of saying like, hey, as an American, I don't hate you because you don't believe the same thing that I do. And I don't want to have an argument with you. And I think one of the things that I want to do is I want to put information out there arrive at the You know, I don't think either one of us got pissed off at each other or like through stuff or anything else. Like I accept the information that you gave me. I feel like you did a really good job presenting it. And I think more discussions like this need to happen, not only not only over dinner tables. Christmas is coming, maybe people can have like. A politics a Christmas yes. I mean, if we talk it like this, it's not that horrible. I mean, it really is that and that, and. That's supposed to be a discussion. It's not supposed to be a winning yes. And I think that's the problem. I think the problem is is that we we are depending on people to lead us that lack the lack candor and lack the ability to lead because they are, to me their compromised because they aren't looking out for who elected them. And there are some exceptions. But again I look back and I mentioned in the beginning, but and to kind of jump back to this the research and show like how we how I go through this process. It's again so it's it's not putting yourself in an echo chamber, and it's also you. I personally feel like I have to go into this being willing to be wrong, being willing to admit I thought it was this and then it wasn't. And that's okay, It's it's one hundred okay to be wrong. So when you're looking, you know, jumping back over and like how I would continue this research. And the reason why I start with places like ROC is right here at the bottom. It gives you a list of all of the websites where they collected this information for him. You know a lot of it's the Boston Globe, it's local Fox and CBS affiliates. So you know, it's it's hard when sometimes when a subject comes out, and there was one a while back. I can't remember what it is right. Now, but you gave me a good point. You click down at the bottom. This is the kind of stuff that bothers me at which one I'm pointed with, Senator Marky, this one that I'm on. You just read that, I mean, just read yeah. Well, I mean, so reject the cookies. We'll go back, so, Senator Markue. At least two people were told to step out of line after they arrived at the venue, according to Gail Brislow, executive director of Project Citisenship, which the headline, oh gotcha, uh condemns cruel and calculated racism by ICE agents. And that's a very divisive presentation. So you're looking at Senator Markey who is seemingly based on that quote, feeding into the current division we have with ICE. Now I can personally disagree with the utilization of how we are using ICE. That's a different conversation for a different day. But when you do look, and this is an important thing when you're doing your research, is understanding what the intent of the person is understanding if it's a clickbait title, like, is this just that they pulled four words out of a comment he made so you can look at it and go cruel and calculated racism by ICE agents. That's divisive and cutting towards the right. Okay, and let's go up one and read the other the immigration this one here, yep, just the headline. Block to Boston Boston Citizenship ceremony under uscis new high risk policy for National Guard shootings. Right, So there's the problem. But this is a classic example what the problem is. Tell me what you see in those What I see in those is I see two opposing viewpoints. I feel like Senator Marky has a reason to be upset about what happened her. It is her right, I don't actually know off the top of my head. I think it's anyway they they put this information out there and it's like to get people fired up. Yes, what happened was bad, I'm sorry, but that was a dumb statement. These dudes aren't racist. They they they are doing what they are told to do. But to go on the other side, so I feel like that's a screw up on the left side, the using that language about agents that are doing what they're told to do. It's lawful. It's just to call them a racist and a fasterest. All that crap has to go. But if I move up to immigration, we screwed that up. We created a situation and instead of being honest and upfront and saying, hey, there is a really good change, this is not a chance for us to further our immigration policy, maybe we should need to take a look at it and go, hey, this dude gave everything he had for this country in his own country and is paying His family is paying the price of our of our crappy withdrawal, and so because of our bad policy, not only is his family in jeopardy, he probably lost family members, but now we've lost the National Guard soldier. And that is not an immigration problem. That is a problem with bad policy and a policy that the right has reacted to because it fits the dialogue of all these immigrants are doing these hideous things. No, he was a US asset that kept probably a bunch of soldiers just like that poor girl that died alive in Afghanistan. He did that, and he's frustrated, understandably. So it doesn't give him the right to kill somebody, correct, But don't use that as a as a launch point for your policy of like, okay, well now we have we pissed off. I think about how we fought the world terror. We bomb the shit out of people, and then we don't understand why their kids are so upset when they've seen their parents other family members blown up indiscriminately. And this is the same thing over here in this country. And it's that's how you get radicalization anywhere, domestically or foreign. But you look at it too, so like to to look at you to your points here in these titles as well. Is so sure you know I agree with you, Senator Mark, Like, that's some strong, strong language. But the other thing I where my brain would go if I'm researching this is that's four words of a sentence. What preceded it? You know, context does matter? What preceded it, what followed it. Is it an extreme stamce yes, But reading the full to me, that's an attention grabber. And I could get into it. I could read the full thing and it not change the context of it. It's someone said it a while ago. I think with maybe an Epstein thing or whatever, or it doesn't matter what. But it's if you put something back into context and it doesn't change the message, then it was never taken out of context. Well, And I think that's the whole thing with that is calculated racism by ICE agents. They're enforcing a policy. If you want to call the policy, you believe the policy is racist, that's one thing, but it's it's it is not the ICE agents that had it. And in the same way national Guard shootings weren't despite what we want, even though it fits the rights dialogue, that is not. In my opinion, based on my experience in that country and other things, I do not believe that is a That is a dude that came over here and said, hey mm hmm, I came here to kill Americans. No, he got frustrated with the way things are being wrong. And I think with the with the immigration aspect of it where you look and because because you're absolutely right for the most part, that ICE agents are doing their job. Whether we agree or whether I agree or not that they that's what they should be doing right now, that's a different topic. But the fact of the matter is they're doing the job that they're being assigned right and most of them are probably just for lack of a better term, grunts, just coming in, clocking in doing their job. It's what they're getting paid for. So when you look at the the rhetoric, the conversations that are being had at a higher level, you know, the senators or presidents or whoever, that stuff trickles down to the face on the street. And you know, I don't in any. Way support you know, what's it called when they find the names and post you know, oh, it's docks and docks and yet and you left or write whatever, that's awful. It just makes a situation worse. But when you look and I think back when we're specifically talking about immigration, I think back over the last year, and it was coming from the largest voice on the stage thirty you know, millions of Haitians are coming and eating all the cats and what it's like no, that was disproven almost immediately, and it started from a Facebook post that someone ran with. And so when you or you know, all Latinos are coming over our murderers and gang bangers and drug DearS like no are do they exist? Yes? But taking a group and making them quote unquote the worst of the worst for all of them does not help the average day to day person take a step back from that emotional, emotionally charged subject and be able to be patient with it. For lack of a better comparison, but it's that, you know, he says, we're going after My stance with is you're going after the worst of the worst. Okay, Why are we arresting people at immigration meetings? Why are we arresting people off of farms where they're working or construction sites? Like are they illegal? Sure? Could they be associated with you know, drugs maybe, But the fact of the matter is where I don't and it could just simply be we don't see it because it doesn't fit the narrative. But where I don't see people are I don't see ice going into the Latin King's gang neighborhood in you know, South LA or wherever it is. And pursuing those people. To me, that's the worst of the worst. And so like that's where I think the left side of it is. And that's a good discussion and a good launch point for the next time we get together, because we have run out of time. But I do think that that's a very valid point. And I can tell you from an operational standpoint and a law enforcement standpoint, these agents are not going to go into the areas like that without local support, absolutely, And I think that's why what happened in DC happened is because local law enforcement wasn't equipped to handle what they thought was a supporting mission. So for example, when you have special operations, then you have you have a Tier one unit going in to do an extraction or hostage rescue or whatever. You have rangers and stuff like secure in the perimeter and everything else. And that's how they were using the National Guard with and they've done a lot of really good things in DC, and I'd like to hear more about what's going on in DC, And I think that's a good topic to start with the next time we get together, because like from my standpoint, yeah, I mean, I agree, one, we can't go after the worst of the worst because we don't have the technically, we don't have the operational support that we need to go in there because we can't secure it. We can't secure it. I mean, if you think about it, all the craft that happened in LA with the riots and he sent the National Guard out there, and they're raising king about that. The sad part about it is these federal agents can still be charged under local codes for homicide or alder anything else. And like I can tell you from being law enforcement, you don't want to go somewhere where you staying to be charged criminally in an area that's unfriendly to law enforcement. So I get that. Yeah, dude, like this, the time is flowing by, and I really appreciate your time. I really would like to do this again. That's where we can kick off next week. We can kick off about worst of the worst and how we get operationally secure enough where we can go after the worst of the worst. Because until then, like the government, the government plays the numbers game, the numbers game, or we have this many people in welfare, we need to cut the warflore roles. Were this much money on debt, where all this stuff and it doesn't translate down to the average person. And we can try and keep it narrowed to just you know, we won't. We'll just have to expand our time frames, all right. I appreciate your time, and like I said, we will get together given there yourself
