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Above Image: Seth Grossman is a guest on John DeMasi’s “Talk with a Purpose” every Saturday morning from 9:10 to 9:30 on WPGTalkRadio.com and 95.5FM and 1450AM near Atlantic City, NJ. Here is a summary of what was discussed this week.Â
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Lawful vs. Unlawful Orders (Military Context): When I took basic training during the Vietnam War era, recruits were taught the difference between lawful and unlawful orders. Every soldier has the right and duty to disobey orders that violate International Agreements signed by the United States like the Geneva Convention. There may be a problem when soldiers, sailors and airmen are ordered to kill people on the high seas without first demanding permission to board and inspect.
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Democratic Strategy and Trump: But I think those Democrats did that video to provoke Trump. They wanted Trump to say something careless or reckless and they succeeded. I just got back from a bagel and lox breakfast with some typical seniors at a Boardwalk high rise. They were livid about Trump suggesting that the Democrats who did the video be tried for treason and possibly face the deaty penalty. If Democrats wanted to provoke Trump to say things to work up their base, Trump did exactly what they wanted. The biggest issue ahead of us are the midterm elections for Congress next year. If Democrats win, they could stop Trump’s agenda and impeach Trump again. Is there so much hate against Trump that these moderate Democrats I talked to will vote against a popular Republican like Jeff Van Drew next year. I didn’t ask them, but I think they see Van Drew as being very close to Trump.
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Origin of New Jersey Transit: Last week we talked about New Jersey Transit and its socialist monopoly on public transportation in New Jersey. I forgot to mention how we got here? Back in the 1960s, the state government made private bus companies follow so many stupid and expensive rules that they all went out of business. Our politicians created a transportation crisis. Then to fix the crisis they created, these politicians had the state go into the transportation business. It created New Jersey Transit which is a corporation owned by state government. It runs all the buses and trains and sets all the routes, the schedules and the fares.
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And the state made two new laws. First, it said that New Jersey Transit did not have to follow any of the state laws that put all the private bus companies out of business. Second it made it a crime for anyone to run a bus company that competed with New Jersey Transit. So we real started socialism in New Jersey with New Jersey Transit in the 1960s.
- Solar Panels Are “Money Laundering Scheme”: We talk a lot about people with solar panels who have low electric bills. They actually believe if they save $400 on their electric bills, its because their solar panels produced $400 worth of electricity. The truth is that this is a money laundering scheme. Roughly 2% of homeowners have solar panels and 98% don’t. The $400 that the 2% of people with solar panels get comes from raising the rates on the 98% of people who don’t have solar panels. This is nothing but money laundering.
- Now, there is a no program in Atlantic City where people get some of this laundered money without having a house and without having solar companies. A company just announced a plan to build solar panels on a vacant lot, and let people who live in apartments rent those solar panels and get a share of that laundered money. If were were honest, we’re recognize that the solar panels are nothing but props to launder money. If we want to have a socialist system that skims a little money from 98% of the people and gives big payoffs to the 2%, why waste money on solar panels. Would just giving the money work just as well?
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Rising Antisemitism and Marjorie Taylor Greene: He highlights a “dark thing happening in politics” with rising anti-Jewish feeling among young people in both Democrat and Republican circles. He discusses Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation from Congress and her break with Donald Trump, noting that three of the four major issues involved Jews and Israel, including:
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Attacking Trump for going to Israel and giving aid to Israel.
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Demanding the release of the Epstein files, with supporters hinting that Trump was covering up for a Jew.
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Using Trump’s 50-year mortgage proposal to suggest that “Jews want to get people in debt forever”.
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The Problem with 50-Year Mortgages: Grossman argues that 50-year mortgages are ridiculous and simply enable the problem of expensive houses by putting people into debt, rather than addressing the root causes like high property taxes, zoning, and planning laws. He compares this to the college tuition crisis, where the government gave students money instead of addressing the spiraling costs.
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Need for Education (Jewish-Christian Relations): He states that the Jewish community is making a mistake by attacking people for antisemitism instead of teaching the basic facts that young people no longer know. He contrasts the shared basic values between Jews and Christians (Bible, Ten Commandments, holidays, etc.) taught in the past with today’s youth, who are influenced by “horrible lies” online and through movies. He argues that this ignorance leads people to believe that Jews are violent or stole land from Arabs, saying that basic facts need to be taught to counteract this propaganda.
TRANSCRIPT:Â Â
SETH GROSSMAN: When I was in basic training back in the Vietnam era, they taught recruits, the difference between lawful orders and unlawful orders. Of course, we were taught the chain of command. We took orders from our sergeant. He reported to the captain. Then the colonel, then the general, right up to the president. We were taught to obey their orders. However, we were also told that, we were to disobey any order to shoot prisoners or to shoot civilians or to do anything in violation of the Geneva Convention. That’s the law. It’s embedded in the military.
And knowing that I worry about our soldiers, sailors and helicopter pilots being ordered to kill people on the high seas without using the normal Coast Guard procedures going back to the days of Richard Somers. Back then, if an American navy ship saw a suspected pirate on thehigh seas, it could not just blow it away. It had to hail the ship, order it to close its gun ports, and allow the ship to be boarded.
You could not open fire on that ship unless it failed to follow those instructions. So there are some legal questions.
ummers, you know, you see a suspected pirate, uh, you wouldn’t just blow the pirate ship away. You’d call for the, you know, the the the pirate to, you know, to lower his weapons and and allow it to be boarded, and only if the pirate ship did not allow itself to be boarded, then you’d blow it away. Uh, so there there are some legal questions here. But I agree with you that the the main point of what the Democrats were doing was to provoke President Trump into saying something careless. And uh, and they got the reaction they wanted. And before I go to the, uh, I speak to you on the air, and go to the Liberty and Prosperity meeting, I I have, uh, you know, informal bagels and lox, uh, coffee and conversation with the, with mostly Democrats who are at the, uh, in a high-rise in Atlantic City. And uh, and they were livid this morning, you know, how who is President Trump who’s threatening to kill political opponents and and he’s dangerous, I mean so that so they’re all worked up. So, if the Democrats wanted to provoke Trump into saying something that would work up the Democrats, uh, I I would say they absolutely succeeded in that. And uh, you know, this is something we have to deal with.
