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Political Matrix News: Media Bias Political ideologies are evolving and redefining themselves · Palafox Media Network

• Greg Fink: Hello folks, how y'all doing tonight? Scott Miller: I'm doing good, bro. How you doing? Greg Fink: Hey Mike, doing good, Skye. Welcome to the, I guess, March 11th version of the Political Matrix News, part of the Firefox Media Network, and we are going to bring in a little bit of our consulting background here. We getting some national attention right now on some of the polls that we are actually running. We just got done running a poll here for the Congressional District in South Florida, which is Broward County, where the infamous Sheila McCormick, is indicted, Mike Bates: You went alright. You went alright. Greg Fink: Numerous charges of fraud is ranked for reelection bizarrely she has a quite a few people here running against her Elijah Manley Uncle Luke from two live crew Luther Campbell and a few other individuals are running in the race and right now Elijah Manley's Keeping up with his lead in the race, although there are still some undecideds and I think wholeness is in there as well and Luke is ⁓ Luke at 1 % And Sheila is just like five or six points behind in the race, but we're actually getting some picked up by some national media here on it. So I think it's pretty cool that people are actually recognizing that we are still the ⁓ leading indicator and the leading pollster throughout Florida, not the Southeast. But you know, we're still here guys. ⁓ Scott Miller: What are, and what national media are we talking about? Greg Fink: as a headquarters decision desk headquarters, is a pro news nation in the hill. so they put on their Twitter feed and we'll go ahead and have a link on it in the show notes here. Whenever people go ahead and take a look at it and take a look at what they're saying. And ⁓ also far as a link to our poll on the powerboxproductions.com website. And so, I mean, ⁓ the thing here is that people. needs to start understanding that data is out there and that people need to actually understand what the voters are saying and just quit assuming. Like I think it's obvious in the last primaries a few weeks ago, everybody just assumes that they're, you know, they got all the answers. You don't. You don't have any of the answers. Scott Miller: Well, what I want to say is something, it's just like my everything is ruined by fundraising narrative, my other narrative, because I'm actually a two horse, two dead horse beaters. I can beat two dead horses at the same time. And the other one that I'm beating is the fact that virtually all the polls you see in the media are not designed to be accurate. They're designed to give a result that is helpful to one candidate or another. And so, and you can tell because you the bottom, the little tiny fine print at the bottom ⁓ they talk about the, you know, how poll is constructed ⁓ and one, cause they're always supposed to be likely voters or you're not to people who'll even make a difference. But the trick that they've started playing now is ⁓ asking people, you a likely voter? What do you think they're going to say? ⁓ So. Greg Fink: No? Mike Bates: Right. It's like any time you have a self-reporting, self-participating poll, you're going to skew the data, always. Scott Miller: Yeah, absolutely. it's a thing called, it's a, ⁓ what's well, it's not confirmation bias. ⁓ It's desirability bias. ⁓ You you want to give people answers that'll make you look bad. Like, do you vote? No. Well, that's considered, that's not considered good. Yeah. Click. Greg Fink: Confirmation biased. ⁓ yeah, that's right, different bias. click. We actually asked that question in one poll probably like four or five years ago. already knew if they were likely voters or not. They wanted us to call registered voters. So we called registered voters not likely voters. So we did it because a client wanted us to. So we asked them how often do they vote and what their frequency is. We had several voters who scored a 10 or 5 or less than 20 say they voted every time. We actually had some people who scored In the 90s and 100s, they missed a few votes. They felt guilty about saying it, which I thought was really kind of weird. But the point is that a lot of people don't really know exactly the reality. Or the people that are just leading a fish, fishing the person asking the questions, takes away the whole accuracy of the data altogether. Mike Bates: Well, and there are videos going around the internet, legitimate videos going around the internet that are pathetic in a funny kind of way. it'll be a man on the street kind of interview. Hey, what'd you think of Donald Trump's State of the Union address last night? And then the people go, ⁓ he was horrible. he just lied. ⁓ he this and that and the other. And then the big reveal is, yeah, he didn't actually give a State of the Union address. That's tonight. But they admit it, right? They won't admit they haven't seen it. Greg Fink: Exactly. Right. Mike Bates: But they're so out of touch, they don't even know it's scheduled for tonight. Not last night as they were led to believe, but they will act as if they not only watched it, but they'll start making up all these things they hated about it. And so what you're talking about, Scott, is absolutely true. Greg Fink: Exactly. Scott Miller: It is the clearly unbiased. Greg Fink: one thing we did see that was unbiased, I guess just having a few hours ago, is the definite ⁓ results to deliver oil to us, ⁓ or least gas prices for the short term. So I guess Trump is going to release the Strategic Petroleum Reserve or something ⁓ to that to go ahead and start lowering gas, which Scott Miller: Mm-hmm. Mike Bates: That's correct. Greg Fink: I mean the straight-up Hormuz we should have secured already and it should be pretty safe. So I already have no idea why it was at 119 a barrel anyway, but you know, it's a game. It's a game that I'm not a part of. Yeah, I'm really, you know, well, sure go ahead. Mike Bates: Well, I can actually explain to you why oil is up if you want to know it. I not agree with the thinking, but still, objectively, this is the thinking. The thinking is that the ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz are in danger. And as a result, the insurance companies ⁓ insure them. And let's be fair, if you were an insurance company, would you insure a ship transiting the Strait of Hormuz when not only has Iran threatened to strike those ships, Greg Fink: ⁓ whatever. Mike Bates: but has successfully struck ships. why the United States Navy is not yet escorting convoys through the strait is beyond me. And why the United States Navy and United States Air Force haven't bombed the crap out of any kind of missile on the shore of the Strait of Hormuz is beyond me. We have the ability to do that from the air and clean it up. You only got to worry about the east side of the strait. Greg Fink: And that's my point. It should be. Exactly. Exactly. Mike Bates: You take out any kind of their anti-ship technologies that missile launchers, torpedoes, drones are an issue. The drones especially have pretty long range too. But either way, we haven't made that a priority? I don't know. Now look, I'm not a general, right? I'm not advising the military, but that does seem like war strategy 101. Greg Fink: And that's my point. It is. that's kind of my point. mean, you know, you ask the question, should the insurance companies insure it? Yes, they should because they should be safe. I mean, we should have bombed the hell out of almost every single thing that could ⁓ anything to damage it. mean, Iran is so pathetically what? ⁓ know that. I I understand that. I agree. But it shouldn't be. Mike Bates: I understand, ships were struck just yesterday. Greg, they were struck just yesterday. Scott Miller: Right. But here's the other thing. treasury has already set up a deal with these insurance companies that they're going to cover the insurance the entrance of the Gulf to the end of the Gulf. So the insurance companies don't really have any downside to it. ⁓ The shippers and I understand being reluctant to have ⁓ their ship. put at risk because it a lot out of ⁓ company if you don't have the actual thing anymore. But I think that it's all, I agree with Mike more than anything else. We ⁓ numerous, you I ⁓ are gonna a little bit of disagreement later when we start talking about red light cameras but. Mike Bates: as it should be. Greg Fink: Wait a second. Mike Bates: We always do, yes. Greg Fink: What? Scott Miller: get to that. ⁓ get to that. But we have lot of technology we've had since World War We've had minesweepers. I mean, good grief. ⁓ And do you that technology hasn't evolved just a little bit since World War II? So ⁓ I... Mike Bates: That's the subject for later, Greg. That's the subject for later. Greg Fink: Red light cameras. Mike Bates: Right. Well, we have the ability to sweep the strait for mines. of course, keep in mind the mine technology is also better now than it was in World War II. But because it's always an arms race, cat and mouse always is. But the United States Navy has far superior technology to whatever the Iranians are doing, not only with laying of mines, whatever small boat attacks they want to do, from the air, and the Air Force could help in this as well, knock out these anti-ship batteries on shore. Greg Fink: Right. Exactly. Mike Bates: I don't understand why we haven't already done that and why we aren't escorting convoys through the strait already. Now, you did leave one thing out, Scott, and I think this is important. You talked about the insurance for the oil, okay? You talked about the insurance for the ship, perfectly valid. There is one more thing though, which you can buy insurance for, but if you're the reason it gets collected, you don't benefit. And that is the life of the crew. Greg Fink: I agree. I agree. Mike Bates: Would you, if you were a captain or crew on an oil tanker, would you want to sail through the Strait of Hormuz without the United States Navy escorting you in today's climate? I'm not so sure I would. Greg Fink: building. Well, agree. Yeah, without them escorting us, I agree. that's kind of my whole point is why the hell aren't we escorting exactly? Mike Bates: So why the hell aren't we escorting? That's the question. Right. Scott Miller: is a good question. I mean, and frankly, you even need all of them escorted. You just need to have more escorted regularly enough so that, so that, know, you're already ahead of anyone ⁓ that could think about coming out. Although, you know, the entire, almost the entire Iranian Navy is at bottom of the ocean. So not exactly Mike Bates: Yeah, they've some small attack boats that they're using and just homemade kind of bombs that they're able to, you basically a little bay liner is about all it is. And you go up and you attach the limpid bomb, ⁓ it to the ship, detonate it, put a hole in the side, spill a bunch of oil. You're not going to sink the ship, but going to disable it for a while and you're going to disrupt shipping, which is the whole thing. But we have the ability to take those out. Greg Fink: Little, little boy. Exactly. Right. Mike Bates: from US Navy decks and also from the air. Why aren't we doing it? There's gotta be a reason because our military is not run by idiots. mean, our government may be, but the military knows what they're doing. So why haven't they done it yet? I'm at a complete loss. Greg Fink: Exactly. Hahaha. Scott Miller: What I really don't understand is why we're not stationing squad of troops on every one of them with a little 50 cow, because you want to come run up on my boat, a 50 will clear up that, especially you're carrying explosives. Mike Bates: Yeah, that's true. Greg Fink: Exactly. Does anybody remember the first war with Stormin' Norman and whenever we going through Kuwait and everybody, all the Iraqis were just sitting there with their hands up like, here, hands up, don't shoot, please, take us, we surrender, we surrender, we surrender. I mean, I'm pretty sure if you showed up with a .50 caliber on the boat, they'd probably be like, hey, we like you guys. Scott Miller: Yeah, 50 caliber, M202s, whatever kind of grenade you want to throw at these guys. There's plenty of stuff. Just put a squad of troops on there. That's all it's going to take. ⁓ then periodically ships escorting. combination of those two things, good luck, Iran. Greg Fink: Exactly. Mike Bates: Yeah, but we are getting a release from petroleum reserves globally and the United States is SPR, the petroleum reserve. The problem is, and I agreed that we should do it. So I'm glad that president Trump announced that he's going to be tapping the SPR. The problem is we're only at 58 % capacity. And the reason we're only well, I'm glad you asked that question and it can be pointed and I hate to sound like Donald Trump. Okay. No, I'm going to sound like Donald Trump. I'm not going to try to mimic the voice. Greg Fink: Right. Scott Miller: Why is that? Greg Fink: Why? Bye then. Mike Bates: but I'm going to sound like Donald Trump, but this is the truth. Why is it like that? Because Donald Trump's predecessor depleted the strategic petroleum reserve before the 2022 midterms in order to lower gasoline prices artificially so that Democrats would not get slaughtered in the election. beautifully, that's exactly what happened. like Lenin's led to or led to a slaughter, that's what the voters did. But Joe Biden, when he started that, When he took office in January of 2021, there were 638 million barrels of oil in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Well, the maximum is only 714. Now, we had at 1.726, so we had the ability to hold a little bit more. But regardless, when he left office, there were only 394 million barrels of oil in that Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a drop of 38.2%. Donald Trump has managed to only increase it by 5.3%. So as of today, we've got 416 million barrels in it, which is little over half, 58 % of its capacity. But we don't have to drain it though. We don't have to drain it. See, that's what we don't have to drain it. If we release a little bit, enough to affect the supply because, and I'll wrap it up in a minute because know Scott, you're chomping at the bit to say something. So I'll just wrap it up with this. The whole purpose of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Greg Fink: Right. Scott Miller: Yeah, and. Greg Fink: Yeah, Mike Bates: was not to manipulate prices for either economic political reasons. It was to maintain a supply in the event of supply disruptions. It started from the Yom Kippur War oil embargo of the 70s, but hurricanes also done it. Disabled vessels ⁓ various shipping have also done it. There've been lots of reasons we've tapped it. But with the exception of Joe Biden doing it for purely political reasons, it's ⁓ always been of supply disruptions. Greg Fink: Exactly. Mike Bates: Donald Trump's tapping it because there's supply disruptions. So it's the appropriate reason to do it, unlike his predecessor. Scott Miller: Well, another interesting little twist on that is that the reason that it wasn't full when Trump left office was because Chuck Schumer blocked him trying to fill it with $30 a barrel oil. Mike Bates: Yeah, but it was mostly full when Trump left office. It was mostly full. Yep. Scott Miller: Yeah, but I understand that. But it's just the hypocrisy of Schumer who's screaming about why on earth aren't we doing this when it's at $110 a barrel, but he was dead set against it when it was $30 a barrel. Greg Fink: Parkers day. Mike Bates: Well, if it wasn't for double standards, Democrats would have no standards at all. And as long as we're talking about double standards, let's talk about the Iraq, excuse me, the Iran war just for a moment with Operation Epic Fury. We've got all these Democrats in there crying and complaining about how Donald Trump illegally did it. Now I wrote on my blog exactly why it's not illegal. I don't want to get into all that now, but if people want to go to the MikeBateshow.com, you can look it up. when Barack Obama attacked Libya, Greg Fink: It's just... No centers at all. Exactly. Scott Miller: Indeed. Indeed. Greg Fink: That's right. Mike Bates: He didn't ask permission from Congress to do it. He did ask the Arab League though. The Arab League signed off on it, but he never even asked Congress. But congressional leaders, Democrat congressional leaders were saying, the president doesn't need authority to do this. He absolutely has the right. Use the commander, the chief of the Arab All things they're not saying now, they said when it was a Democrat in the White House. The hypocrisy and the double standards of the Democrat party are disgusting and dangerous. Greg Fink: Hahaha! Scott Miller: ⁓ funny. Greg Fink: Exactly. Scott Miller: You should have seen Adam Schift just squirming when someone brought that up because they asked if he believed. Yeah, it was Bill Maher. was Bill Maher. And he asked if it was okay. And he's just like, no, no, no, no. Well, that's not what you said here. Mike Bates: It was Bill Maher. Bill Maher did it. Yeah. Greg Fink: No more ride up, yeah. Mike Bates: He quoted them. For those that didn't see it, and Greg, if there's a way you can put that clip up, please do. It's great. But yeah, was Bill Maher who called it out. He read to Schiff Schiff's actual quote, and Schiff disagreed with it. No, that's awful. And then Bill said, well, that's what you said. were your words. Greg Fink: Yeah. Okay. Mike Bates: Yeah, right. Yeah, it was great. And Bill Maher, he's a pretty hardcore lefty, but I will give him credit for his intellectual honesty. I don't agree with him much, but I do respect his intellectual honesty. He will call it as he sees it, regardless of which side is getting skewered. Scott Miller: That's right. Yeah. Greg Fink: ⁓ yeah. Scott Miller: Absolutely I'll tell you who I'm getting, getting a lot more respectful than I've had, although it was pretty low for a long time to Stephen A Smith because, because he, he actually thinks that he's he's Rubio his number one candidate. Rubio. ⁓ Greg Fink: ⁓ yeah, definitely. Mike Bates: Yeah, well, supposedly, Stephen A plans to run for president, ⁓ I find is ⁓ a joke. Scott Miller: No, absolutely denied that. says, no way, no how, not gonna happen. And that was when he said he would support Rubio. Greg Fink: Is that doing it anymore? Mike Bates: All right, well good Yeah Greg Fink: He's like this Democrat party or this version of the Democrat party. And it's kind like James Woods just came out saying he wants to be an independent because he's not happy with the version of Republican party that's not backing the SAVE Act. And so we have our goofballs in both parties they need to their act together here. mean, and the Republicans, any Republican not supporting the SAVE Act is just, wow. I mean, what's wrong with you? Scott Miller: And that was exactly what his whole- his entire narrative. Mike Bates: Well, it has passed the House, it's held up in the Senate. Thune actually said today, well, Thune said today he'd bring it up for a vote, but he expects it to fail. The real question is, why you force a standing filibuster and then it can pass with ⁓ Vance breaking the tie? ⁓ He won't attempt that. He won't even attempt it. Greg Fink: Exactly why. Scott Miller: Mm-hmm. Greg Fink: I think John Cornyn was saying that today. Yeah, Cornyn was saying that he was reversing his stance on the Fiddlerbusters and let's just, you know, let's just go ahead and get this damn thing passed. You know, period. Scott Miller: As we've said repeatedly, the only people opposed to the SAVE Act are the people who want to manipulate elections. Period. Greg Fink: Exactly. Mike Bates: Yep. But wouldn't it be nice to get the entire Democrat party, think Fetterman actually said he's in favor of it, didn't he? Okay. So wouldn't it be nice to get the entire Democrat party, except Fetterman, the record voting a law that requires proof of citizenship to vote? I mean, would almost be as good of a moment as President Trump's State of the Union address last month when he asked, hey, those who think that you should put America first above illegal, stand Greg Fink: He is, yeah. Fetternman is, Scott Miller: He did, he did, yeah. Mm-hmm. I know! Greg Fink: That was beautiful. Mike Bates: that a single Democrat stood up. mean, it just, all you really need to know about the Democrat Party today. Greg Fink: Right. It's not the Democrat party I used to be. Scott Miller: But I mean, you look at all the things that they've opposed. They've opposed bringing manufacturing back to the country. They've, you know, bringing back manufacturing jobs this country instead of outsourcing them to other countries. I that, you know, ⁓ and I've heard union people, like senior level union people who were saying the same thing. And I'm like, don't your members kind of pay you to say the opposite of that? Greg Fink: jobs. ⁓ yeah. Right. Well, a lot of unions have been historically recently, they're going more right-wing, more Republican anyway. And so, mean, a lot of them are realizing, I mean, they're going to get behind the party that puts their jobs first, saying the Democrat party is not putting them first anymore at all. Mike Bates: Well, that's true of the rank and file, the leadership of most unions, they're still pretty hardcore Democrats. That's where their money goes. Greg Fink: Well that's true, it is. You're exactly correct, yeah. Scott Miller: they're not hardcore Democrats. What is is, ⁓ I they're registered Democrats, ⁓ I'll with that. ⁓ But isn't an ideological thing. The reason they're doing this is not ideological. It's money. They get money for this. ⁓ I it's backdoor money, but they get it. Greg Fink: Cha-ching! I was actually talking to a progressive a couple of days ago and he's like, he was telling me that progressives are now a certain trend toward the, they're basically removing their old hat and redefining themselves as basically being what conservatives were back in the nineties. And what they're doing is, I don't think you are, but maybe if you think you are, then maybe that's half the battle. But I think the battle is that they're trying to say that. the new progressive movement is just trying to get government out of everything, which I was like, maybe you're not a progressive as you think you're a progressive, but you know, maybe, and I'm not a progressive expert, so I have no idea what's in their head. Scott Miller: Now that is the opposite of what progressive is. Greg Fink: That's what I was thinking. Mike Bates: Yeah, I think what happens is you have the hard ideologues on both sides. What they really think they are are libertarians, lowercase libertarians. And I'm a lowercase libertarian. I'm not a registered uppercase libertarian, but I'm a lowercase libertarian, but not for the reasons that on the left may be considering themselves anyway to be libertarians. So libertarian is almost whatever you want it to be, right? ⁓ beliefs of the libertarians Scott Miller: Because... Yes. ⁓ Greg Fink: Right. Yeah, me too. Yeah, I we all are. Scott Miller: Nuffer. Mike Bates: It's so broad that you can pick and choose what you like and you pick and choose what you don't like, but there's enough to like that you can still call yourself a libertarian even though they may not meet my definition. They're free to create their own. Scott Miller: Well, being a democrat where you have to buy into every single belief or you're not really a democrat. Mike Bates: Right. Greg Fink: They whip you into shape. And Republicans are actually the big tent party now. mean, we have a big free marketplace of ideas. We have moderates, got MAGA, we got conservatives, we got mean, we're not gonna kick you out. We everybody. Granted, we have a little internal factions. I just left a Republican meeting here in Flagler County, and they seem to be pretty capacetic, but they were also talking about other committees around the state that are... have a lot of at odds and a lot of internal fighting. And so, I mean, you have that in the Republican Party. I'm sure the Democrat Party on the local level has that. I'm sure as well also. And so, know, the ⁓ idea here is that the Democrats are really into lockstep, you know, way or nothing. Republicans, ⁓ they'll but ⁓ at end of the day, they're going to get along. Scott Miller: For sure. For sure. mean, they know where their bread is buttered. lack of a better way of saying it. But before we get too far away from us, I did want to put one more comment the oil dead horse. that's that, know, some of the in oil prices we're seeing, I think is artificial from the billionaire. ⁓ Greg Fink: Right, then again, keep getting the hang out. Definitely. Scott Miller: standpoint because those guys there's a ton of those guys that are hardcore into it and they don't mind doing some things to artificially stack that ⁓ that price up because they're not going to pay it what the hell do they care but can but they can manipulate it Mike Bates: Well, it's true. Yeah, it's true, Scott. Obviously, there are speculators that are going to drive the price up, but it's not like it's unfounded. It's not unfounded. mean, production's down in the Gulf region. Transportation is down in the Gulf region. Refineries have been attacked in the Gulf region. I mean, there's plenty of reasons, legitimate reasons why the price of oil is up. And that, of course, you know, the markets are driven by two things, fear or greed. And the speculators can make money in either direction. Scott Miller: I know. No, I'm what? No, I'm not saying yes. Right, and I'm not saying that there are not reasons for it to happen. What I'm saying is that an outsized reaction to it. Mike Bates: Yes, I would agree with that. Greg Fink: I just curious, how much of your gas price has gone up where you guys live at? Scott Miller: And I don't know, I haven't gotten gas in a couple days. Mike Bates: in Pensacola ⁓ last week it was $258. Yesterday it was $349. So what's that dollar from two and so? I'm not that good at math. I'd have to grab a calculator to tell you the percentage. But $349 is what it was when I was out yesterday. Scott Miller: Why don't Greg Fink: Yeah, ours went from around, ours went from 275 to, ours went from 275 a gallon to 380 a gallon, where I'm at over here in the Flagler County area, the Jacksonville area. Scott Miller: I'll tell you what gas... Oh, dang it. Greg Fink: It's a pretty good little increase. I know we do science for a lot of clients and our shipping prices went up quite a bit overnight. Mike Bates: Yeah, well, keep in mind that the United States actually gets an extremely small percentage, a single digit, and it's low single digits percentage of our oil from the Middle East. We import very, very little of it. It's single digit percentage. But oil is a somewhat fungible commodity. And if the price is going up for Middle East oil, well, it's going up for Texas crude too, right? And so Greg Fink: ⁓ yeah? Yeah, like five to seven percent. Mike Bates: That's why oil prices have gone up everywhere because the overall supply of oil in fact reduced for the reasons we stated earlier. Scott Miller: We just need to start pumping in more of that Venice Whelan oil. Mike Bates: Well, and we're going to. And don't think that didn't play into the equation. And I tell you, there's an angle that I'm hearing nobody in the mainstream media talk about in all this. I'm glad you brought that up, Scott. Whether you, and I don't mean you, I mean anybody, whether you agree with Donald Trump doing this or not, you have to at least base that on reality. And the reality of the reason he's doing it, he's done a horrible job articulating it. So ⁓ Trump, Scott Miller: one. Mike Bates: He cannot explain himself ever. I've always been frustrated with his complete inability to articulate a consistent message. he's done this in manner that is brilliant. And the real loser in this is not Iranian regime, although they better be replaced. The real loser is China. The second is Russia. The third loser is Cuba. Scott Miller: I'm out. Greg Fink: Exactly. Scott Miller: Russia! Mike Bates: And the fourth loser is North Korea. So who's been buying this Iranian oil? Well, there's an embargo going on. So most nations can't buy it because they have to abide by the sanctions or they themselves will get sanctioned. So who's buying it? The Chinese, the Russians, the North Koreans. Now, Cuba's getting it from Venezuela, not Iran. But by cutting off the Venezuelan oil, which is now not being shipped to China, Scott Miller: Yes. Greg Fink: Maria. Mm-hmm. Exactly. Mike Bates: that's creating trouble in China. also Russia buying oil as well. You'd think as a big producer is Russia, they wouldn't need to import oil, but they do. And so Russia is going to be hurt by this too, not so much in the oil angle, but in the availability of drones. The Russians were acquiring drones from who? Iran to use against Ukraine. So this entire action is depriving China of cheap oil. Scott Miller: Iran, Ukraine, right? Mike Bates: It's depriving Russia of Iranian drones to use on the Ukraine. if we can see this through to the end, and the only end that I support is regime change. If Donald Trump is able to effectuate a regime change, not just replacing one crazy mullah with another, but replacing the mad mullahs with a secular pro-Western government, it will be the greatest foreign policy achievement of the millennium. But if he stops this war before doing that, then the entire war will have been a complete mistake. Scott Miller: ⁓ yeah. Greg Fink: I think this is the only podcast I've actually heard that argument to where we talked about the domino effect with Venezuela and Iran and affecting the entire powers to be with China and Russia. else is talking about it. I mean, it's like everybody's missing it. They don't see the connection or they just don't want to talk about the connection. They want to ignore the connection. And I don't get it. Scott Miller: Well, I'll take it. Mike Bates: I think what it really is is that the news media talks to their listeners, viewers, whatever it may be, as if they're fourth graders. They dumb it down so much. Ooh, can't make this complex. The listeners, readers, viewers won't like it. So they'll dumb it down to one stupid issue that is basically presented with one side making one claim and then every once in a while the other side refuting it. So news. Greg Fink: Exactly. Mike Bates: Fake news doesn't have to be false to be fake. It is fake because of the editorial decisions of what they choose to report and what they choose to spike. Scott Miller: For sure, for sure. And know, Tim Poole was telling a story, I saw a little clip of Tim Poole telling a story of him. And Tim Poole was a liberal, he will tell you flat out he's a liberal, he's a, you know, an even more intellectually honest liberal than Bill Maher, I think. And he was talking when he was at... one of those big news websites, that ABC acquired later. And he when ABC came in, the producers started telling them that they were just going to be stories that if they didn't have market appeal, then they going to run them. And he said, so, so we can have something that changes the world, but if it's not popular, or if it offends our market, we're not going to run it. He says, I wouldn't say it that way, but yeah. Mike Bates: Yeah, I know. Yeah. The news media is disgraceful in this country. And look, there's a First Amendment. I'm not advocating that the government make them do it any differently. I'm just exposing it for what it is and alerting people that, the truth is out there, but you're not going to find it in the mainstream press. Greg Fink: Exactly, and... It is like that, yeah? Scott Miller: Yes. Greg Fink: I mean, all three of us have been in the media for years, and we've seen it the backroom scenes of it, and it's disgusting. Scott Miller: I don't think I'm I don't think that the government should control it, but I think the market should demand. Greg Fink: Exactly. Mike Bates: I agree. Greg Fink: Yep. So what were you all thinking about red light cameras? Let's just story out. Mike Bates: Yeah, why are we going to disagree on Scott? I thought we agreed on red light cameras. Scott Miller: ARGH! Greg Fink: They're evil. Scott Miller: We mostly do, there was a little Facebook post that we were tagging because was it the Supreme Court or just a court in Broward County? Mike Bates: No, it was a county judge in Broward County ruled that a red light camera is unconstitutional because lack the ability to confront your accuser. You lack the ability for the due process that you're entitled to. And there's a presumption of guilt. So all of these reasons he ruled it was unconstitutional, which is the right decision. So I don't understand, Scott, do you think it was the right decision also? Now it's only applicable in Broward County. So it's not applicable statewide in Florida. The legislature of the Supreme Court would have to do that. Scott Miller: Yeah. Greg Fink: I like that. I agree. Mike Bates: But why do you think you and I disagree on that? Scott Miller: Well, that actually is the part that we disagree on because once you have a putting that into the record, then ruling will be referred to by a whole lot of other lawyers that come to defend these things. ⁓ it's not by any precedent, but when you have enough of these ⁓ going one way, there will be enough judges. There'll judges on both sides of this. ⁓ Mike Bates: Okay. You are correct, but it's not binding precedent. Scott Miller: And there are going to be plenty of people that are filing these cases. And once there's enough controversy, it will go to the Florida Supreme Court. me, there one thing they forgot that I'll talk about in a second. But the thing that was really core in this ruling was he said that everything this treats the car owner as if they were ⁓ definitively the driver. it treats them like a criminal case. Greg Fink: Yeah. Scott Miller: Like, you know, there's, there's no, you know, there's evidence and then you get sanctioned and that's it. It has nothing to do with the car. And I don't know there's a way to make it attached to the car because the thing is, is that when you go through the light, it's not necessarily you. And there are plenty of plenty of people that have had to pay these tickets for someone that borrowed their car and how, and how do you know that they're going, you know, that that's what's going on? The other thing. Greg Fink: Exactly, I did. Scott Miller: the bugs me about this law and has always bothered me about it. You go all the way to the last two paragraphs and in there, there's a statement that says that the rules of evidence do not apply. And we're going to give you, if this makes it better, but we're going to make sure that you have due process, really. Greg Fink: Yeah, I mean... Mike Bates: Yeah, and everything's done by a private company. That's the thing. It's not even the government doing it. These private red light camera companies are the ones do the whole thing. I think they're even the ones that mail out the notices. I don't even think the ⁓ mails out, the county mails out the notices. Greg Fink: Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, they do. They do, that's correct. Yeah, I got a notice with a camera and a wonderful little black and white photo of a car that somebody was borrowing a mine in Gulf Breeze, going through a red light in Gulf Breeze while I'm 400 miles away in my other car in Gainesville, Florida. And I'm like, I'm not even there. They said, well, you still got to the ticket. I'm like, are you kidding me? And so, I mean, it's ridiculous. Scott Miller: No, no, no, no, no, In particular, red light in Gulf Breeze that's over toward the naval Ivox, that one right there, ⁓ that one's particularly problematic because there's a transition there from a higher rate of speed to a lower rate of speed that happens just before the area where the camera kicks in, but have the yellow light timed for the bare minimum for the lower speed. Greg Fink: Yeah, that's where it was. Scott Miller: So there's a lot of people that come up to that light and they're like, the light turns yellow and they're like, whoa. And have to make a choice between clearly running a red light or slamming brakes so hard that you get rear ended. Greg Fink: Exactly. Well, how's your planning? Mike Bates: Right. And the national statistics on red light cameras, advocates of them will say, accidents at intersections go down when these red light cameras are put in. Here's the actual truth. Now, these are national stats, not just for Florida. It is true that T-bone collisions go down slightly. But rear end collisions, because of the scenario you just described, go up dramatically. And so the overall of crashes at intersections Greg Fink: No they did not. Mike Bates: rises. It's all about the money. It is not about safety at all. Greg Fink: Exactly. Scott Miller: No, statute requires every jurisdiction in Florida to publish those accident statistics and annually published and you can look at them and the places that don't show those things aren't reporting their statistics. mean, ⁓ they're they're like zero crashes. I'm like, well, that's not true. Greg Fink: Right. So real quick, just to close on a state ⁓ political here, the governor's race, we're not going to mention any names because we're getting some text messages and emails from crazy people running for governor. who knows, hire one day. But we think that some might be out of touch with reality and what they're communicating to their voters. ⁓ Mike Bates: Yeah. Yep. Scott Miller: It just tears me up to watch these just canned talking points. not going to name names either, but it's so lazy when they say that you're to cut taxes and shut down the woke agenda and cut property most one to me is cut property taxes. Because this guy was an elected official in state legislature and ⁓ Greg Fink: Exactly. Scott Miller: He's apparently completely unaware that we're passing, that a constitutional amendment is going to be passed because you ask people if they want to lower their taxes and they'll say yes. To eliminate property taxes. So is he credit for it now or is he going to take credit for it then? I don't know, but he's certainly well on top of it. But you you say all that, I mean, of these words are just, they're lazy consultants who string a bunch of words together. Greg Fink: Exactly. Scott Miller: I bet they've used this exact sentence in probably 50 campaigns. Greg Fink: Exactly, and that kind of goes back to the polling that we started out the show with here is that nobody's really doing any research and finding out exactly what is, you know, the voters are actually wanting that that person can actually do. I mean, the biggest thing about campaigning is to make sure you can keep your promise. You know, we had a candidate that promises made promises kept. And that was, you know, that was a really good campaign slogan because it's actually a realistic situation. And but in order to do that, you have to be attainable. It has to be in your purview. You can't be promising things that you're not able to do even if you get elected. mean, so basically, mean, this bait and switch propaganda of BS is just ridiculous. Mike Bates: I have written a lot of campaign commercials in my life, as have the two of you. yeah, and I mean, it's been this thousands between the three of us. But when I write them, I always sit down with the candidate and I ask what their genuine beliefs are. And then I put it in the best words possible. But I don't spoon feed them the issues. I want them to genuinely believe those issues. Greg Fink: Yeah, yes we all have. Hundreds, thousands. Tellson's. Exactly. Exactly. But it also has to be an issue they can do. Scott Miller: ⁓ that's why what we do is normally we run an issue poll. ⁓ when we get a client, we run an issue poll to see what the issues are resonating the district. And then we ask them what their issues what they believe are, and the things that they believe in the most. And we'll ask them the same sorts of questions. And we'll say, the public agrees you most on these three issues. So. I don't care what you think about these over here. You focus on the ones where the foot where the public agrees with you the most because that's going to be the thing that comes out as most genuine. You already hold this belief. So you focus on this thing, this thing, and this thing and don't don't focus on the things that are that are not are going to be controversial within your district or you won't be the guy in your district. Greg Fink: Exactly. We should go to the whole next thing is that, you know, we talked so much about authenticity, about, you know, just being honest ⁓ cannot, you know, oversell that enough. Is that Candace who are just trying to be something else. Everybody to be Trump. Everybody wants to out-Trump Trump. And that's just the most frustrating thing in the world because there's only one Trump. There's only one you. And so, I mean, the whole point is just to be yourself and be honest, be authentic. That's the reason why all these podcasts that you're watching are ours and Scott Miller: Darn it! Greg Fink: Thousands of other ones are actually selling it now more because of the visuals and the nonverbals and the authenticity of being honest and open with the audience and looking at them straight in the eye and stuff like that. mean people want that feeling of openness and honesty. Whenever you're starting to sell something that you can't do and that you're misleading people about and you know it is not possible to get done, it's like you're not going to raise the money. You're not going to raise the votes. And without either one, you're just a drop out. Scott Miller: Yeah, only Democrats say going to give everyone free homes and free education and free medical care, knowing full well they can't do any of those things. Greg Fink: A guy named W.D. Childers always used to say, I want all the votes and all the money. But in order to do that, he was very authentic and very honest with, know, everybody knew who the Bantu Rooster was. He was the Dean of the Senate in Florida for 35, 40 years. He actually was one of the architects of the Florida, you know, political landscape here throughout most of the eighties, nineties and early two thousands before he became a County Commissioner in Scambia County. But I mean, and people like him and your cousin, Johnson was the same way. whenever he is the Speaker of the House in Florida ⁓ Evers. And I mean, we've come across and worked with so many powerful in Florida and the Southeast, but they all exactly what you saw. None of them were fake. They were all as raw as pure. ⁓ Go ahead. Scott Miller: Mm-hmm. Mike Bates: Can I tell you a funny story about the Banty Rooster? All right. So we're talking about W.D. Childers, as you mentioned, Dean of the Senate for long time, 34 years. I got him to shine my shoes once. True story. I kid you not. I was in a meeting with him in Tallahassee in his office. And as were ⁓ walking out the office, he had one of those shoes shine machines. Scott Miller: ⁓ sure, those stories are legendary, please. Greg Fink: 35 years. Mike Bates: that has the spinning electrical brushes and then the post and then the little control thing at the top. And he was standing right next to me as we approaching the door. And I said, how does this thing work? he said, hey, put your shoe in there. And I put my shoe in there and he hit the button and it spun. So I'm like, the other one in there. So I say I'm probably one of very few people who have had my shoes shine by W.D. Childers. ⁓ Scott Miller: RUN! Greg Fink: Good idea. Yeah. Scott Miller: Having each other's, for sure. Greg Fink: And with that, we'll go ahead and call it a night. You guys go ahead and find us on the social media platform of your choice. We are very happy that people are starting to follow us a lot more now. We are on Apple podcasts, Deezer, which I never heard of Deezer before, but we're on Deezer, which is actually one of our bigger listening channels, ⁓ of course, TikTok, YouTube, and so on and so forth. But there'll be logos all over the screen here throughout the show and just stay tuned and have a good evening. Scott Miller: Amen, there we go. Mike Bates: Thanks guys. Greg Fink: Thank you.