Bert Martinez:
Welcome back. So glad you’re here. Today on the show, Norm Blumenthal. Norm Blumenthal is an attorney for workers and consumers selected as one of top one of the top attorneys in Southern California. Norm was also inducted and recognized as one of America’s most trusted lawyers in employment law. Norm Blumenthal, welcome back.
Norm Blumenthal:
Nice to be back, Bert. Nice to be here with you. Today, I I thought we’d, make some assumptions and then see where we wanna be, out there in the audience. And the assumption is, it looks like, that Trump’s gonna be president. So I think we have to live with that. And some of it, gets shot, then they live. And they you get a a lot of voters who were, MAGA voters and they have stayed home, but they’re they’re gonna vote now. And then at the same time, the dysfunctional Democrats, as I like to call them, are still trying to figure out if they’re gonna support, Biden or not, you know, over a a year into the, election process, which is set.
Norm Blumenthal:
In any event, that’s where we are. And so the senate and the house, though, are are up for grabs. And so you need to support your local democrat, because I think that what I’d I’d like to show today is that the Democrats have had done a fine job from top to bottom over the last 4 years from, having salaries key keep up with inflation in, most of the states. We have we’ve been able to do that. And so for for wages in 40 states, the salaries have been greater than the increase in the cost of living. As the salaries increase, they they increase more than the cost of living. And that’s across the board in these states and and for these people. So we’ve had a pretty good run.
Norm Blumenthal:
And so what I would urge people to do is continue to vote for, your local and state, democrats who have accomplished, this feat. You know, with the start of, it all started COVID was, in 2020 was when it started. Now it’s all a part of this process, and we still and government printed money. Like, there’s no Lamar to keep it going, and we still kept up with with inflation.
Bert Martinez:
Right. Yeah. I I think that, you know, we we’re we’re seeing that the economy is stabilizing a little bit. There there’s obviously some room for for improvement. There are a lot of people who are, struggling, and and and I think that this is one of the one of the issues that affects all of all of the voters or I should say, voter turnout. Right? A lot of people get frustrated. They think that their vote isn’t gonna count, so they do a no show. Right? And and it’s one thing if if your pay has kept up with inflation, you’re in a better position.
Bert Martinez:
But if you’re, like a lot of people who their pay is not kept up kept up with inflation, and and they have to sometimes get a second job or whatever, these are the people that don’t get out there and vote. And these are the people that should be out there voting because they can make a difference.
Norm Blumenthal:
Yeah. I think it goes both ways. I think everybody makes makes a difference, and we want every we want everybody to vote. There’s what the the information shows that I’ve, have put together is over the last 4 years, inflation nationwide has rose 19 a half percent for these 4 years. So the question is, well, okay. If if that’s true, where I live, how did I do in terms of how my salary went? And the fact is is that wages in in 41 states were able to best the the bump in the cost of living. So that’s a a good percentage of states. There’s only 9 states where that wasn’t accomplished, and it it was across the board on jobs too.
Norm Blumenthal:
You know, you had the, jobs went from, workers making 94,000 a year. Those were the ones where wages did not grow as much. Right. But they still ended up, by the end of the year, making, over 90,000 doll over over $90,000 for there. And these are the jobs this is interesting. These are the jobs where workers are are well paid, 94,000 on average, but their wages grew only 16% in 4 years. And you’d look at the jobs. Alright.
Norm Blumenthal:
Health care, they only were raised 19%. Professional services, 18. Agriculture, 18. Government, construction, private education, these were only 14 or 15. And so you see in in some of these jobs, it it didn’t work, but across the board, it did. Business support was the number 1, up 30% for 4 years. Manufacturing, up 29%, transportation, up 28%, warehousing, up 26, wholesale trade, 25, hospitality, 24, retail, 23, finance, 22. So across the board, we’re getting this bump of inflation.
Norm Blumenthal:
And the question is, well, you know, if I’m getting this bump of inflation, which states do I want it to live in? And, it’s you know, you have your pick of of, 41 states where where it rose. So look at it by the way of the biggest raises were found in Montana, 28%, New Hampshire, 28%, Florida, 27%, Washington, 27%, Maine, 27 percent. Texas, was right there with California at at 20%. And so, I mean, we’re right in the group, and these wages have subs have increased substantially. The wages, if you take the yardstick of it, in California, the wages for 2019 for office workers were 75,000. That’s going to 20, 1,000. And that’s a nice bump, and it’s well above, the bump for everybody else. So I I think it’s a misnomer to think that, there’s there’s any there’s not any increase in wages across the board and across the country.
Norm Blumenthal:
And, I think that people should look at look at I know the cost of living has gone up, but, wages, to all the businesses credit, have have kept up. And I when you look at this information, I’m pretty impressed with what business has done to do to keep up with inflation.
Bert Martinez:
I think that the process has worked out fairly well. Look. Trying to combat inflation is painful. And something I wanna say, Norm, is that one of the reasons that we’re having this inflation and maybe it’s the only reason is because of the 1,000,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000,000 of dollars that were printed during COVID. And that was a bipartisan print that that that it wasn’t just the Republicans or it wasn’t just the Democrats. It was both parties wanting to support their constituents, adding a bunch of, of, fluff in there so some of their their their bigger donors can get a little taste of it. But bottom line is our government trying to do the right thing, printed up a bunch of money, and I and I hope that we’ve learned the lesson that when this happens again, that maybe shutting down the economy isn’t the best way to go.
Norm Blumenthal:
Yeah. The, they, I think we talked on earlier shows. It was it was kind of like throwing money out of an airplane, you know, to everybody. They were giving out $300 checks and to big companies. And if you had a company, they were giving out checks in the, mega 1,000,000 of dollars, as long as you kept everybody working. And so that there was a a lot to work through. And then at the end of the day, the Federal Reserve, they raised interest rates. And so what that ended up doing was is a mad, you know, like a drain draining the money out of the economy because of what people had to pay back to to banks and lenders that, wasn’t anticipated.
Norm Blumenthal:
But we’re kind of, like, at the end of that road. The indications now are that the Federal Reserve Bank is going to, start to reduce interest rates. And as it does that, the economy then will show a a lot a lot more life in it, and so will come through with without, hopefully, without a major recession that getting this far. But you’re right. There there’s tremendous amount of debt that the government has incurred, and the question is, you know, how do you pay that debt? And what I’m hearing is no one wants to talk about it.
Bert Martinez:
Right.
Norm Blumenthal:
Yeah. It’s kinda like to to describe it, it’s kind of like, you know, the game of musical chairs. You know, nobody wants to when the music stops playing, no one wants to be the president without a chair. And right now, the US dollar is the strongest currency in the world. It’s a Fiat currency. Everybody uses it in in exchange. And as long as that keeps up, I will be okay. But it’s at some point, at in time, hopefully, way in the distant future, the music’s going to stop.
Norm Blumenthal:
And and then you look at at debt just like we we are now looking at inflation and wages, and you look at the debt and you say you say, well, this is looks like a large number, but at that point in time, it may not be that large a number.
Bert Martinez:
Right.
Norm Blumenthal:
I mean, comparatively speaking, you have to look at it in terms of a percentage of the gross domestic product, which right now where the debt’s going to be over a 100%. But what I hear from Wall Street is no one wants to talk about
Bert Martinez:
it. Yeah. It’s become the another third rail of politics. Right? Because if if you bring up a solution, the opposing party is gonna say first, they’re gonna say that, hey. Your solution is not gonna work, and it’s your fault that we’re in this mess to begin with. And so, yeah, nobody wants to touch it, but it’s it’s obviously something that needs to be addressed and maybe not. Maybe in another, I don’t know, couple of years, this thing works itself out. However, my opinion is this, a lot of these prices aren’t gonna change.
Bert Martinez:
The the the there’s not gonna be a motive for these companies to say, hey. Now that our consumers are used to paying this higher price, we’re gonna we’re gonna drop down to pre pre COVID or pre inflation prices. It’s not they’re not gonna do that. Yeah.
Norm Blumenthal:
They’re you know, the the the idea that prices are coming down isn’t gonna be the solution. The idea is is that, smaller government. I mean, how do we get to a smaller government if the world was a peaceful place? We could, reduce our defense spending substantially and, across the the world. And doing that, you can reduce government spending. Right now, they wanna, reduce the, discretionary spending on Social Security and Medicare and and the other, childcare, food stamps, head start, you know, all these wonderful, programs that we have that, you know, we need to keep working, and we need to keep people, from starving. And we need to, you know, create housing to get people off the streets. There’s there’s a lot of of challenges we have, in this country that we need to take care of to take care of the of the people, and then the question becomes, well, no one wants to talk about is do you raise taxes, and who’s gonna pay the increased taxes? And if you don’t raise taxes, then what where are the cuts? And then your your problem is there’s no place. So at some point in time, something’s gotta give, and we we you know, right now, our spending on the interest on our national debt is is becoming a substantial issue.
Bert Martinez:
Yeah. Yeah. There there’s not a there’s not gonna be a clear solution. I think that, we have one party, the Republican party that that that is, for lack of better terms, they’re they seem to be pretty cohesive. They have a lot of strategies that I think are going to really hurt Americans. They they’re, you know, they they they’re not done with with the abortion stuff. They I think they wanna make that near impossible. Some of the states have, like Texas has made it, where you can’t get an abortion even if it is rape or incest or medically necessary.
Bert Martinez:
That, I believe was tested earlier this year or late last year. And and then you also have this idea that once the Republicans if the Republicans get back into power, then they wanna, initiate or implement project 20 25, which is really gonna gut a lot of the, what do you call it, departments that are in place now. They wanna they wanna put basically, MAGA loyalists in all these departments, and and I think that people are not considering all of the, consequences that can happen. I mean, I know a lot of people were happy that the supreme court said, hey. Trump’s got, you know, total immunity or almost total immunity. What they failed to understand is is that might work this year or or for this election or and and and maybe if whether Trump or Biden become in office, maybe they won’t abuse it, but I think that’s not likely. I think that former president Trump is an aggressive, abusive kind of personality. I think that, I think if he gets into power again, he would definitely abuse his his his full immunity thing.
Bert Martinez:
And it’s just a matter of time whether he does it, whether Biden does it. Sooner or later, there will be somebody in power that will take that that immunity and totally change our government. It wouldn’t surprise me at all, Norm, that that if if Trump gets into office, that they’re going to try to figure out some way to either limit the constitution, radically change the constitution. They have they have a lot of things in mind for the government that that people that that are voting for for this change do not understand all the consequences. Because, again, if you have one person with all that immunity, all that power, what is to stop them from doing whatever they can to stay in power? They literally could say, hey. As the new president, I’m gonna be here until forever.
Norm Blumenthal:
Yeah. And I think you’re, you know, you’re spot on on everything that you’ve said, and that just leads to, well, what what do we do, at to to blunt some of this power, and you start with the, Supreme Court. This is the most runaway, out of control, court that that that I read about and been a lawyer for 50 years. And in all the cases I’ve read, you know, these cases, the things that they’ve said have to go down with the Dred Scott decision and, Plessy versus Ferguson. I mean, just decisions that are just cuckoo.
Bert Martinez:
Right.
Norm Blumenthal:
You know? It’s and there’s there’s no support for them. They don’t believe in the rule of law. They don’t believe in stare decisis. They just believe in what they believe in, which is a one party system in total control being the Republican Party, which they need to keep in office, and no could no ability of the, departments across the board from, being able to run the the country. They’re gonna destroy this country, that this court, unless we do something. So that’s why we need a a a senate and a house that are democrats in the big d and can be a, in the in a position where they can stop this court. This court needs to be increase the size to, 15 with 6 more members on the court at, some point when the Democrats have some control to end, this one party system that we have, and it’s it’s gonna be damaged. There’s no question about it.
Norm Blumenthal:
What they’ve done to women’s rights or and are going to do with the Comstock law from 1872. I mean, you you won’t be able to have contraceptives in this country.
Bert Martinez:
Right. Well, look. They they started attacking, they started attacking IVF.
Norm Blumenthal:
Yeah.
Bert Martinez:
Why why would you why would you care how a couple conceives? IVF is is is not an abortion, but they’re they they are going after families. They’re they want to destroy IVF. They wanna make that illegal, which I just find shocking. I think that
Norm Blumenthal:
That is is shocking. I mean, you look at the second amendment, all of a sudden, you end up with every whack job in the country has an AR 15 as evidenced by this kid who just, you know, decided on his own that he was gonna change the course of human events by taking out the, presidential candidate. That’s all as a result of the Supreme Court. They are just a falling group of individuals. I feel sorry for the 3 that lost it. And it was too bad, and I feel sorry for the Democratic Party, in the Joe Biden promised to be a one term president. And he went back on his word, and nobody challenged him for the last 2 years, and this is where we are. We don’t have somebody strong enough to go toe to toe with, with Trump.
Norm Blumenthal:
I mean, it’s like, you know, the the days, you know, the price fight where, you know, you had Muhammad Ali, you know, in his prime early going against, some fighters that, you know, didn’t belong in the ring. And so this is this is what you know, where we are. I peeled my hats off to, president Biden. He’s as I said, they’ve done a lot of good. We’ve kept up salaries have kept up with inflation in in 41 states. The the problem is is that there’s going to be a lot of states’ rights, and they manage the Supreme Court to gerrymander the the seats in all of these state legislatures so that the Republicans control them, and that’s where we we stand. And so in in states just like the, federal government, in order to have some control, you need to win the statewide elections in the house, in the state senates, and governorship, and attorney general, and lieutenant governor. You need to win it across the board so that you can protect, you know, states’ rights, and everything’s flipped.
Norm Blumenthal:
States’ rights now are the rights to women to choose, the white right to control gun use, you know, one right after the other, education. We’re in a position now where everything that’s there, is going to be, you know, taken away from women to start with, but, certainly, minorities will be next in line. This is a group that is a white supremacist organization that in its evangelical backbone, and that’s where we we are we’re all up against so that we don’t have a a country run by 1 group. It’s a homogeneous group run by everybody where people have their own rights to choose and rights to marriage. And, unfortunately, we’re just not gonna be there anymore. We’re we’re seeing that that equates to the fall of the Roman Republic. You know? Caesar is caught across the Rubicon, And Right. And he’s and the the people are are very excited about it, but it, you know, it ended up where you had an autocracy for the next 500 years in the Roman Empire until it fell.
Norm Blumenthal:
And that’s where we’re headed. This is this is a as you point out, this is a potential autocracy where, the president, if Trump wins, he could declare, an insurrection during his term at some point, call out the, troops and decide to stay in office and not hold elections. That could that could very well happen, and this court will support it. So it’s pretty frightening where we are, potentially in in, heading in the future, but, hopefully, we don’t get there, that better heads will prevail, and the the Democrats can at least have a a buffer to these potential outcomes in in the states and in in Congress. Congress is, you know, 1 or 2 votes either way. It’s it’s who’s gonna control Congress, and if the Republicans control the judiciary and the executive and legislative branches in in federal government, which laws are supreme to the state governments, we are going to be in trouble.
Bert Martinez:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Look, so so you’re looking at the Supreme Court, we have at least 3 of the Supreme Court justices, Clarence Thomas, who I think they they they’re calculating. He’s taken something like $4,000,000 in in I’m gonna call it bribes, but gifts, whatever. Roberts has received something. Alito has received something. And because they’re appointed for life, Clarence Thomas was like, well, there’s nothing you can do about it. He’s like he he’s totally prideful or or or confident.
Bert Martinez:
Hey. There there’s nothing you can do to me, which is not true, but it’s it’s just this is something that should have should have been processed much faster because this has been going on for a couple of years, and they could have started impeachment process a year ago or whatever, but I don’t know why they slow walked it. Then Yeah.
Norm Blumenthal:
I don’t think anything’s right there right now that they just don’t have the votes for anything to happen.
Bert Martinez:
They don’t.
Norm Blumenthal:
And and rumor is is that Alito and, Thomas, if Trump wins, they’ll resign and, the and Trump will appoint 2 more judges. So he’ll have 5, of his appointments on the court, which is fairly frightening because you’ll get 2 more younger, acolytes, to the the cause here. And, the cause is a frightening cause because it takes away all of the ability of, of people to control their own destiny.
Bert Martinez:
Absolutely. And and I I think that one of the reasons that that that the justices gave Trump immunity was because if Trump gets in the office, then he will grant these people, any kind of federal pardon pardon that they need. And and so it is the you’re seeing the what do you call it? The the washing of the hands. One hand washes the other kind of a thing. I I I thoroughly enjoyed. There was a a, Twitter or x comment by Mark Cuban, and I think he did a great job of surmising what happened. This is regarding the the debate. You know, he talked about that, Biden’s performance was awful, but so was Trump’s.
Bert Martinez:
Biden was feeble. Trump couldn’t directly answer a single question and lied with every response. The question is what feature what feature voters believe make a better president, feeble, capable, and ethical versus vigorous, unethical, and incapable of telling the truth, I’ll vote for ethical every time. And then he goes on to say, and I like this his his summation here that that the reality is Joe Joe wasn’t capable last night of debating someone who only lies. He doesn’t have the energy or ability to to shout him down and hold him accountable and and laugh at Trump’s responses. So, you know, again, this is one of those things that makes Trump a very sly debater because he attacks, he lies, and you don’t know what he’s gonna say, which in and maybe in some cases, that gives him an edge. His supporters obviously like that kind of performance. But but bottom line is, I I love this idea that depending on what you believe makes a better president.
Bert Martinez:
Feeble, capable, and ethical versus vigorous, unethical, and incapable of telling the truth. You know, president former president Trump, he likes to blame everybody but himself. He likes to say, hey. The reason that the that all these charges are being filed against me is for for, election election it’s an election interference. This is all this is. But here’s a man that that won’t answer any straight answers doesn’t have any straight answers for January 6th. Calls these people patriots, calls them hostages. He’s vowed to pardon all of them.
Bert Martinez:
This is a guy that I’m not saying he deserved to be shot at yesterday, but he is a guy who incites violence. He has leaked out sensitive addresses to witnesses and former presidents. People have been caught trying to hurt some of these people that he leaks information out about. Yeah. And so when he gets into power if he gets into power I agree with what you’re saying, Norman. It’s gonna be an absolute devastation to our rights, to our freedoms. And and by the time people realize, oh, this is the guy that we voted into office, it’s gonna it’s gonna be too late.
Norm Blumenthal:
Yeah. He he’s not gonna he’s not gonna leave if they put him in again. He’s just not gonna leave. I mean, you you listen to the things that, you know, trying to get the votes, coming up with the fake electors, his, what I should say, the bottom of of his depravity has no balance. Right. You know, he’ll do whatever it takes to stay empowered, and so we all we all can expect that. And, you know, we’ll we’ll see where it takes the country, but it’s it’s I don’t see anything good coming out of all of this Once the republican get it’s if they get total control, and so that brings me back to the most important point, which is the vote. And, you know, there there’s some people out there that that may vote for Trump, and he may win because the way the electoral college is set up.
Norm Blumenthal:
But at the same time, you need to vote for for Democrats because that’s the only buffer that will be there for this, radical judiciary and radical potential president that we will have. And, you know, the the Democrats have nobody to blame but themselves. When, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Obama was president, asked her to, you know, retire so that he could appoint a new Supreme Court judge, She, with her big ego, rest in peace, refused instead of Obama taking charge and going, uh-uh. You know, you’re not refusing. You’re going. And every Republican judge, Kennedy, left, left. When they told them to leave, the O’Connor left. They leave.
Norm Blumenthal:
And so this is how the Republicans maintain their longevity, and so now we’re stuck with this court that is just off the charts. It’s like it’s like nothing I’ve learned in law school about how far this court can go, and it’s obviously gonna affect all of us. There is no you know, I went and looked at the constitution just a few days ago. There’s nothing in there about official acts or executive, privilege for official acts. There’s nothing like that in there. This is the same argument that Nixon made in 74 when he wanted to stay in power. His argument was, if the president does it, it can’t be a crime.
Bert Martinez:
Right.
Norm Blumenthal:
And everybody laughed at him then. They said, you know, and and he and he was in trouble. That’s why he before he left, he got immunity, got a pardon from, from Ford, but that that’s actually what they’ve decided the law is. And but there’s nothing in the constitution that that that limits, that has gives the president unlimited powers. His powers are set forth with particularity in the constitution, and none of it talks in terms of, oh, you when you do this, you have immunity for official acts. It’s just something that this court made up.
Bert Martinez:
Yep.
Norm Blumenthal:
And that’s what we have to live with. Now we’re in fantasy land. Fortunately, it’s it’s it’s getting to be the fantasy is becoming nightmare land in my mind for especially for women and minorities and people that, you know, have other sexual preferences. And so everybody’s rights are gonna be taken away, and and everybody out there will have a gun to to protect what rights they want. And it’s it’s it’s not where we wanna be, and it’s not where the rest of the world is. And it’s it’s just sad that we’re here, but we we still have a chance to do something about it by voting for Democrats across the board. And, you know, cast your vote for Biden. I just don’t you know, looking at the numbers, I don’t know how he’s gonna do it, but you have to be voting for Democrats.
Norm Blumenthal:
You can’t let yourself vote for Republican because it’s all gonna be in a bad end from top to bottom if we have, Trump in power and Republican house and a Republican senate.
Bert Martinez:
Right. And and, you know, something else that really cracks me up is is, for the last, whatever, 4 or 5 years, all all that Trump has said, election fraud election fraud, our system is full of of fraud, and it’s broken. And but, of course, he’s running for president. Nothing’s changed except the fact that he wants to see if he can get in power again. He knows that the election wasn’t full of fraud. Otherwise, why would you run again? Of course, what he did say is if he doesn’t win, it’s because of election fraud. So he’s already set it up. It’s you know, he he says, hey.
Bert Martinez:
If I if I if I don’t win, it’s because of election fraud. And it just always cracks me up how how, what do you call it? The Republicans love to yell election fraud when they lose, but, hey, it it’s okay when they win. It’s, it’s just one of those things that, it doesn’t even register the news anymore. It’s just hysterical. And and to your point, I I was I’m just amazed. I don’t have nearly the the legal acumen that you do, but I think that for most Americans, the the supreme court has always stood for for for justice has always stood for making these analytical, statements or explaining their their their views when they make new law. And
Norm Blumenthal:
Yeah. For the last 50 years, the the Supreme Court, starting with the appointments by president Franklin Roosevelt, has been a body where, starting with the Board of Education, it protected the rights of the minority. They stood. They were the last bastion knowing that the president and congress was there by the will of the majority. And they were they put the the the brakes on what the the majority wanted them to do. There would be no desegregation without the Supreme Court. There would be no rights of women under Roe v Wade without the Supreme Court. They came in and put into effect these these laws, and they ended up giving the, departments under the Chevron rule of the power to, be in a position to pass regulations that protected our our water, our air, our safety, our everything that we have now, and this is all going to disappear.
Norm Blumenthal:
And so there this it’s in in a position where it created this fantasy, which is gonna be a nightmare for all of us.
Bert Martinez:
Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Look, ladies and gentlemen, maybe you don’t wanna vote for Biden. Totally get that. Consider not voting for Trump. That’s that that that could be the ticket. You don’t have to if you don’t feel like voting for Biden, great.
Bert Martinez:
I get that. Maybe just don’t vote for Trump. I think that, we have to figure out what we’re gonna do with the Supreme Court justices that are that are clearly, in my opinion, are clearly on the take. They no longer respect the rule of law. They they are, I guess, they’re, it seems like they’re really trying to take away some of our rights and make it harder to hold people accountable. I don’t wanna get into it, but, there was that Chevron deference reversal that it’s gonna make it harder for some of our investigators and and and, what do you call it, regulators to enforce, enforce the rules. And so to me, it is it it’s already happening. Right? The shift has already begun.
Bert Martinez:
We’re we’re seeing more and more of this. And and one of the things, Norm, that that I find interesting, what what I what I kind of termed it is there is no more shame in the Republican Party. Maybe the the Democrats will get there eventually, but right now, the democrats have no shame. They they feel as though you can’t you can’t touch me. I don’t care. They they will just do whatever they want to achieve the results. You know, back in the day, just a short, I don’t know, 15 or 20 years ago, if a politician was caught with with, a criminal situation or a a kind of sexual scandal information, situation, they would have the decency to drop out. The few that didn’t drop out ended up getting kicked out.
Bert Martinez:
That that that is no longer the situation.
Norm Blumenthal:
Yeah. There’s it’s you know, it’s hard to to talk about it. But at the end of the day, you have to vote for Democrats up and down the ticket, up and down the line because that is really our only hope of turning back the this loss of rights that everybody has. You you you still don’t have feel safe walking the streets anymore because everybody, has a gun. And, you know, you can’t go to a party and can’t send your kids to a party with, teenagers without the fear of of these teenagers having a gun. The last thing you wanna mix is children and guns. They shouldn’t mix, and that’s what we’re seeing in young adults and guns. Yeah.
Norm Blumenthal:
It’s it’s proliferated the this country, and it’s all because of the Supreme Court. Now you have women, you know, running from one state to another to to be able to, make a decision on their own, health. And the the this is a really sad sad thing we’re going through, and and the big lie you know, like, they have the big lie. Like, the last election was rigged, and they keep saying it long enough, people will believe it. It wasn’t rigged, and there’s there were 60 lawsuits that went through. None of them found the any, fraud. The attorney general investigated, Bill Barn, and he found no fraud. Yet, this is just a big lie that everybody and they they these MAGA Republicans, this is their battle cry, and they still believe it.
Norm Blumenthal:
And this is what we’re we’re forced to live with is this fantasy land that they’ve created. There is no right or wrong. There is no true or false. And even the the concept and the point I made at the beginning was, you know, salaries have kept up with or exceeded the inflation, and they’ve exceeded it in 41 states. And in the other 9, they’ve kept up with it. So everybody can complain about the cost of things going up, but you should also look at the the what you’ve got in terms of salary. We’ve been able to, protect labor rights and in so doing, created a situation where the employers are at least paying their employees a sufficient amount to cover, the inflation, that they that would was here. So that’s something we should all be proud of, and that all happened during the Biden administration, basically from, 20 to 24.
Bert Martinez:
Yeah. And and I’m glad you brought it back to that. That that is a positive news. Look. Our country has some challenges, and and I’m reminded of what JFK said all the all those many years ago. Do not ask what the government can do for you, but what you can do for the government. And one of the things that you can do for the government is to vote the right person in. Another thing that you can do for the government is get involved, not not only just in voting, but maybe around your community.
Bert Martinez:
There there is there’s a lot that we can do to make our our country better, and it it does start with all of us because we’re we are both the problem and the solution. We can make the difference.
Norm Blumenthal:
Yep. God bless America.
Bert Martinez:
God bless America. Norm, thank you so much for stopping by. We’ll have you back soon, my friend.
Norm Blumenthal:
That’s great, bro. I look forward to
