Focus with Paul W. Smith ~ March 2, 2026 ~ Full Show

0:00Well, a very good Monday afternoon to you. Well, it was a busy weekend to put it mildly and I did put it mildly. It was a busy weekend. We find ourselves at war. And there's a lot of conversation about that. We'll have some of it with some of the guest experts, our own opinions, and then we'll get through this. And as special reports come up, we'll take them. The president is in a medal of honor ceremony right now, celebrating the valor of American service men and service women. We carried a little bit about that with Kevin Dietz in the just the last half hour or so. We'll go back to it if something's going on. And he's telling us more. We've got the team together. First of all, let me say the team, the team, the team, Mike Parsons, our executive producer, Daniel Mason, running all the controls. She prefers the queen of the switches. Rich Luzinski, who keeps an eye on WJR traffic and weather first doing a marvelous job with that as we all work together to do relentless positive radio while you're on your way to making each and every day count.

1:19Because you know each day is a gift. The unknown is the QTR. How much quality time remaining? Do we have bear that in mind? I do want to thank you for choosing once again to be a part of the breast and brightest audience in all of radio. You listen to WJR. That's what you are no matter what time of day or night you're listening. You can stream us live here. You can go back to us at podcasts. If you miss us, can't be here noon to two like we are. Please podcast us at WJR.com. Also be sure to get the free WJR app. And we have a Facebook and YouTube pages live video streaming this show right now. So there are kinds of ways you can be a part of it. It occurs to me that we are sometimes dealing with generations that haven't gone through various wars like other generations have. And terminology comes up. And the terminology of the day today is friendly fire. Friendly fire. What's that mean? Well, in this case, it means Kuwait mistakenly shot down. I think three of our fighter jets. The good news is everybody bailed and got out.

2:42And we have no reports of any deaths in that friendly fire circumstances. That's still correct, Mike Parsons. Yeah, last I heard everybody walked away. Thank God. And I do mean thank God for that. So three jets hit by friendly fire Kuwaiti air defense. No deaths reported. However, as we were warned by the president, there are deaths. Four of them that we're aware of right now. And of course that could change at all times. Now the argument will be should the president have gone to Congress. I don't know. Does he have to tell them or does he have to ask for their permission. I'm not sure how that works. From what I understand, he needs, you need congressional approval to go to war with another country. But, you know, maybe our experts have a different interpretation or maybe, you know, he found a loophole or something here.

3:44But I was always under the impression that you had to notify Congress and eat congressional approval. Here's what it sounds like what happened. And I could see this happening. The Israelis are the best at keeping track of their enemies. And I do believe that with Mossad and the people that they have infiltrated the Iranian leadership with they found this situation that is most unusual. We had a Khomeini and that's what we used to call him because he's been around a long time butchering his own people and causing murders for Americans and other things. Let's not act like. Oh, Khomeini, what a grandfatherly like old guy where they shouldn't have killed him. No, he should have been killed several presidents ago. But be that as it may. They found that Khomeini was in a meeting with his basic team, you know, be the team, the team, the team. He was in a daytime above ground meeting with his team.

4:51And I think Netanyahu called the president and said, Mr. President, we have an unprecedented opportunity here, but we would have to move right now to take advantage of it. The president weighed the options listened to Beten Netanyahu at BB and Betanyahu. I put them together. Listen to BB and said, OK, let's do it. I mean, they've been building up for it for quite some time. They've been getting nowhere in the negotiations. Now, here's something you will not hear anywhere else, but right here. Because I'm not in a position to make decisions or defend or whatever. I'm here to express what I know through observation. And I bet you haven't heard this. Did you know 51% of people pulled were for an attack on Iran? You didn't know that did you?

5:56Because everything you see today says that's just not the case. Way more people were against this than for it. Well, here's what you need to know. CBS News, you gov pole. A day before the strikes. A day before the strikes shows 51% of respondents said they would favor US military action against Iran in order to stop Tehran from making nuclear weapons. Why isn't that being talked about 51% the day before these strikes happened? It's just it bothers me so much, my friends, that you and I can no longer get news from news sources that we grew up depending on. It's really very unfortunate, truly unfortunate. You can despise our current president as many in the news media do and others.

7:04But you can't lie, make things up and leave information out of the conversation just because it helps you. For example, if you want to know how obvious some of these things are and how Iran and any other country that hates us knows how to play us, all you have to say upon the first bombing, oh, they took out a girl's school. Well, if you know anything about Iran, girls aren't allowed to learn. They remember what happens in Iran. Does anyone remember what has happened to the women of Iran once it no longer was Persia and the Islamists took over? Girls couldn't learn past a certain grade. So they knew the best thing to say right away. Well, you took out a girl school. If that's the case, it must be the only girl school in the history of the Iranian regime.

8:08But they knew the media would run with it. They didn't have to work very hard to get that out there. There's a lot to talk about and think about, my friends. I am not thrilled we're at war. I am worried about our own families and our own people in these United States. And much of that comes from the previous administration, letting so many people come in, unabated. Do you think countries that didn't like us didn't use this as an opportunity to bring in their own cells? To respond and react at a time like this? Of course they did. This is not brain surgery. I'm not a genius. I'm an observer. I just need us all to open our eyes and observe and be especially observant right now of anything that's unusual. And if you see something, say something, do something for all of our sakes. That's all. We're underway. It's Paul W. Smith in focus with relentless positive radio on this Monday, March 2nd, 2026.

9:17You know, when it comes to health care costs, we often focus on one thing, our insurance premiums. No one can blame us for that. That's what we have to pay. But we really are only saying part of the picture, and I need to point that out because the truth is our health insurance cost reside downstream at the end of the cost equation. But to really, really understand what's driving up costs, we need to look upstream to the health care system itself upstream. There are costs like the prices charged by hospitals and doctors, oh my, the cost of prescription drugs, are you kidding me? Health care administration, technology, these costs flow downstream directly into our health insurance premium. You know who knows that?

10:17And is attacking that and trying to get to the bottom of that and trying to fix that is Trisha Keith. The president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Trisha Keith and her entire family and team at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. That's why Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is advocating for system wide solutions to address the rising cost of health care. Blue Cross knows that health care is personal. That health care needs to work for everyone and in health care especially affordability matters. Yes, it does. Affordability matters. That starts with shedding light on the entire cost equation from upstream costs to downstream premiums. If you want to learn more and I hope you do, visit the same website I visited. MI BlueDaily.com slash affordability. That's MI like in Michigan.

11:18MI BlueDaily.com slash affordability. I do believe you'll be glad you did because you're getting the whole picture there and isn't that what we all want. We continue with focus Paul W Smith and the team at 1216. That's a good question, Ryan. I'm glad you're attacking that should the bottom law go away. Has it been has it been. Oh, look, there's my baseball logo and my red wings logo, my Detroit Tigers and my anyway. I just wonder if it has done what it was supposed to do. It was supposed to make people not be throwing their bottles out of their car and the trash. It's unbelievable that we used to do that. People used to throw their trash out magically thinking it would go away. Whatever, but I don't know, Mr. Parsons, do you like the bottle law? Do you think we should keep it?

12:22I love to pay money on it. I loved it when I was a kid because that's how I'd make all my extra money. But now I just give my bottles to my my father-in-law. So for his sake, I hope they stick it sticks around. What a nice guy you are taking care of your your your father-in-law, one nickel at a time or a dime. Don't spend it all in one place. You're very thoughtful. All right, a little levity. We do our best, but it's not easy to have relentless positive radio at a time like this. I mean, we are at war. And as I mentioned a moment ago, it's it's astonishing to me, but not really that the news media keeps from us, things like what I pointed out, that the day before the strike, the first strike, a CBS news, you government pool, found 51% of respondents said they would favor US military action against Iran. 51% that day before that's not seen anywhere, but you heard it here, my friends, because we are observers and we try to spread the truth.

13:29We welcome our friend, our own Levin, freelance journalist. He was born in Israel. Yes, he's a supporter of Israel. He served in the Israeli military with his wife Adina, who was an officer. And he's here now. He was reaching out to me over the weekend to talk about this massive military strike against Iran that started over the weekend and continues today to own nice to be with you. Sorry, it's under these circumstances in war, but anybody paying attention knew that this was inevitable, right? Yeah, I wish we had better circumstances and I'm happy with the subject to talk about maybe the bottle or whatever, but we got to talk about this now because of what's happening now is very, very dangerous for the world, but very positive for putting to sleep, to putting to bed a regime and a country that was basically dedicated for the last half century to sponsor terror around the world.

14:32And they've got blood on their hands, the blood of American service personnel in the Middle East and actually all over the world. And I'm really grateful as an Israeli, but also as an American that that the government has decided finally to move against the regime in terror on. And when you really think about what's at stake here, it's not only about stopping state sponsor terrorism, it's also about the human potential for peace in the Middle East, which is very, very difficult to achieve what you have a country like Iran doing what it was doing. This is a potentially magnificent country with lots of energy resources, with lots of human resources with a with a brilliant civilization behind it. And it's just a shame that it's been devoted to building nuclear weapons and building ballistic missiles and murdering people and that has to stop.

15:33And murdering people is something they've been doing since the Islamists took over. Since this Khomeini, and that's how we used to pronounce it, so I still pronounce it. The Ayatollah, all of these years he's been in his position, he has led bloodshed around the world and much of it aimed at America. And I don't know that I don't think people remember Persia because that's what Iran was before it was stolen, taken over by the Islamists. They changed the flag, they changed the people, women flourished when it was Persian. Now, women can't do anything, which was why they brilliantly said the first thing we hit was a girl school. You'd be hard pressed to find a girl school in Iran because they're not allowed to be educated but don't even get me started on that. The pack to the matter is we don't need an excuse to attack these monsters. They could have been attacked in the last five, ten, twenty years and reasonably it would have reasonably made sense to do away with this Ayatollah Khomeini period.

16:42Forty Iranian medical workers describe a massacre. It's in the New York Times who's against the president and against the war. This is not just the worst mass killing in the contemporary history of Iran, it is one of the worst mass killings in contemporary world history. It's appropriate you're on the line right now because I'll say Holocaust and all of us around now who weren't around then say we would never let that happen. Well, we were letting it happen in Iran. Thousands and thousands and thousands of Iranians were being killed by this monster and it continued to happen. And we allowed it to happen until this weekend that stopped. And you have to really have to wonder about a regime that would put to death thirty thousand of its own people. That's kind of the rough count of the people who were protesting what was going on and were gunned down by the IRGC and by the Bajiz.

17:43And it's unbelievable that a regime would do this. And then did you hear a peep from around the world of people protesting this? Now, nobody seemed to care about these thirty thousand Iranians who were trying to agitate for a new regime, a new future and were murdered in cold blood by their own government. And nothing was said, nothing was done. And I give the president all the honor and glory in the world for stepping up to do this. Now, is it a constitutional mandate that a president of the United States has to go and ask Congress's permission? I don't exactly know how that works. It's a very, it's really a very tricky kind of a requirement, but I heard Dave McCormick, the Republican Senator from Pennsylvania talking about it. And he and the others in Congress are satisfied that the requirements were met. I don't think that a president can start a war for no reason at all out of the clear blue sky.

18:51But when there's an imminent threat, such as a population that's being decimated or an atomic weapon that's being put together or a country like Iran that has blood on its hands from countless U.S. service personnel who were killed and named by IEDs, then I think the president has lots of latitude to do what he wants to do. And you've heard this really from both sides of the aisle from the Republicans and the Democrats. Now, of course, there are left wing progressives who are going to oppose this, but fortunately, they're in a small minority. Maybe I feel so strongly about this because the morning that we were supposed to have ABC's Bob Woodward on my morning show, he couldn't make the call. And we thought, well, I hope he's okay. He wasn't okay. He was almost killed by a roadside bomb. And it has Iran's initials all over it.

19:51So when you know somebody who personally was almost killed by the work of this madman, maybe you don't feel the same way. Maybe you applaud taking this guy out a little louder than the usual person, but you're right about those who will be against it. They're against it. Many of them because it's president Donald Trump. And so there's nothing he can do. That's right. And that's unfortunate. And it shouldn't get into what here's my other feeling, Daron, for people to question these things. We're at war. Our men and women are in harm's way right now. Now's not the time for all of us to be divided and to argue about it. Now's the time to support our fighting men and women to the fullest, to bring them back as quickly as possible, as safely as we can. We've already lost four. And there will be more.

20:52Anyway, Daron. Listen, I think that the majority of your audience agrees with you, Paul, and don't forget we've been fighting this battle for a long, long time. It goes back even further than 9-11. There has been this extremist ideology that's spread all over the world, that's spread to Venezuela, that's spread to our hemisphere, that even exists within our borders. And it's dangerous. Why we have a government that is that is tasked to make sure that this doesn't spread and it doesn't grow larger and it doesn't grow more dangerous. And thank heavens, thank God that we have people who are willing to sacrifice because without freedom, without sacrifice, there is no freedom. We'll live in best to you and the Dina and I pray we get through this as easily as quickly as we can and that the people, the people of Iran get another chance that maybe they had given up on and thought they weren't going to get now, maybe they'll get it.

22:00And I also pray they'll make some proper good decisions for their own futures. We'll talk again to Ron. Absolutely. Thank you. We continue in focus at WJR. The Daily Dose of Deets. I love that. D-D-D. Daily Dose of Deets. I'm going to use it. I'm going to steal that and act like I made it up. Congratulations to the entire WJR family, the people you hear on the radio or see on the streams and especially the people behind the scenes, whether it be the producers, the engineers, the producers, the engineers, the people who work in the back office, who am I missing here, Mike? I want to congratulate everybody because everybody at WJR should take a bow for raising over $1.34 million through the 39th Bed and Bread Club radio, just spectacular.

23:09And Antonis also received yet another award from the Salvation Army. So God bless her. God bless everybody that made that thing happen. All right. Last week, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former president Bill Clinton appeared before, separately, for closed-door depositions before the House Oversight Committee as part of its ongoing investigation into the late Jeffrey Epstein. With more on what went on in the hearings, we check with our director of community affairs and newsly, one and only, Marie Osborne. Good afternoon, Marie. Hi there, Paul. So Hillary Clinton testified first. She spent about six hours answering lawmakers questions. She repeatedly stated she had, quote, no idea about Epstein's criminal activities. And insisted she never met him and said she never visited his island homes or offices. Clinton also said she knew Elaine Maxwell only occasionally and that Maxwell's attendance at Chelsea Clinton's Wendy.

24:17That was as a guest of somebody else. She criticized the committee, though, for refusing to hold the hearing publicly. The following day, her husband Bill Clinton appeared under subpoena that marks the first time in more than 40 years that a former president has been compelled to testify before Congress. And he told lawmakers, quote, I saw nothing and did nothing wrong, acknowledging he had known and traveled with Epstein in the past but denied any awareness of criminal behavior. Committee members described his deposition as productive, though Republicans said they were hoping to learn more. Now Paul, both Clinton's emphasized that neither had information that would advance the investigation while the committee signaled that more testimony and document releases could be forthcoming. Well, I understand they both were very angry, supposedly they're going to show us the video of what took place. The problem is I can't believe anybody who's talked about this.

25:21Yet, first of all, it was all confidential and then, like I said at the time, after Hillary went in there within 10 minutes, there were reports of what she said. I mean, this is just ridiculous. And then we heard from some Republicans that she screamed. She lost it. She screamed. Well, show us the video because we're supposed to see the video and let's see what happened. And he was very angry. And here's what I'm going to go out on a limb on and say. All of these people that they're going after, I'm not even just talking about the Clintons right now because Bill's had some trouble in the past. But do we really believe that there would be that many people, Marie, that you and I would know, for example, that would see this kind of atrocity and let him keep getting away with it? I don't believe that. I just don't believe there's a whole bunch of people that knew what he was doing and look the other way. I don't want to believe that I don't want to live in a world where that would happen.

26:30I have to agree with you. I don't want to believe that either. But do you think maybe there were some people, maybe one or two people, maybe three who did see something questionable and not, you know, not say anything, not step forward and say anything. I just wonder out of all those people that not one of them, you know, and then we're looking at the people too. We're talking about people who've had problems in their past as well, you know, Bill Gates. We know that he's had issues Woody Allen. There's another one Bill Clinton. You know, these are the people that we're talking about here. Those are the people it, it's a handful, but it's, it's more than one. And I think, you know, you might be absolutely right about those people that you mentioned because they have all had troubles and have their, their hands full, if you will. The first thing I think about are the pilots. I think about anybody who worked on the island. There were people. They're cleaning people, maintenance people, lawn people. There were a lot of people around there.

27:40Now, even if they signed those, what do you call them? Non-non-compete or non-disclosure. NDAs are something like non-disclosure. If you sign a non-disclosure, I believe this is the case and you could be able to find this out quickly. If you sign a non-disclosure, but then the person that you sign the non-disclosure for is doing wildly illegal, immoral things, I think you are free and clear to call the authorities. I believe that's the case. If it's not the case, shame on lawyers who came up with NDAs or whoever came up with non-disclosure, whatever they're called. Now, they did have some workers on that island. They did come forward and say that they saw, I know specifically that they'd seen Bill Clinton on the island and they'd seen other people. And Bill Clinton said he under oath that he's never been on the island. I know. I know. I know. I know.

28:40And then in an online, online there was a picture of Hillary with Bill with Epstein standing in the middle and she said she never met him. But the problem is with AI, run a muck, I have no idea if it's a legitimate picture. I don't trust anything I see online anymore. Exactly. And will we ever know the truth is what I'm curious about here? Is there a, what do you call it when time runs out? Maybe there isn't a statute of limitations on this or did that get removed? I don't know. Or a shelf life, like at the grocery store, someone should just stamp it with an expiration date. It's all everything we talk about anymore has gone past the shelf life, if you ask me, but I don't know about from a legal standpoint where they stand on all that.

29:41All right. Anything else, Riri? No, we're just keeping an eye on developments in the Middle East and thank you for that. And thank you for doing a great job over the weekend with our coverage. Oh, you're very welcome. It was very important. I'm going to step up and decided to carry the Fox News Network. It was all great. WJR continues to be the place to be when news is happening. That's a fact. We proved it again this past weekend. Thanks, Marie Osborne, WJR's director of community affairs and news as we continue on WJR. Well, it's a it's a nice day, still a bit chilly, but it's a nice day and a great day to think about the weather warming up and thinking about home improvement projects. And the most important yet overlooked spring home improvement project is getting your roof inspected to make sure it is still keeping the water outside of your home.

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31:49If they say they're going to be there, they're going to be there. That alone is a big deal. It shouldn't be, but it is. Prompt follow-up on time appointments, clear communication, perfect installation, the first time they also offer, by the way, an interesting interest industry leading 50 year leak free guarantee on every roof they install. So call today before the spring rains get into your home. It's 1-866, Victor's 1-866, Victor's of course you can go online simply at victors.com, victors.com. We continue in focus with Paul W Smith on WJR.

32:50Since 1929, the Children's Center has helped children and families shape their own future serving over 4,000 children and their families each year. They provide specialized behavioral health, child welfare and community-based services that promote healing and hope. And the woman that leads them and does such a great job as a president and CEO of the Children's Center, Desiree Jennings is on the other end of our line right now, Desiree, always a pleasure to have you on board. Thank you so much. Always a pleasure to be here. I appreciate it. The Children's Center is turning 313 pride and dependent support for children. Explain that to me. Yes, so 313 is March 13 and we are taking that day to create a moment to celebrate Detroit, but also an opportunity to invest in this future. So we're turning Detroit pride into something permanent for kids. We want a stronger Detroit than we have to invest in children today.

33:52And so Detroit pride is just not something we celebrate is something we invest in. And we can all help you with that. We can invest as well. And there are going to be ways to invest on that day especially where I believe you've got some funding. All funds raised on 313 day will actually be matched. Absolutely. And so the matching comes from the Michigan Central Station Children's Endowment Initiative. So this endowment was kicked off by Bill and Lisa Ford where 11 children's charities are in awardee of a permanent endowment. So they started an endowment seed with 500,000 each charity has to raise 500,000 and then they'll match it with 500,000. So we're in the process of raising that 500,000 so we can earn a match and every dollar raised is doubling the impact, which is helping to create sustainable annual funding for children and families forever.

34:56We've been around almost 100 years and so this endowment has helped to ensure that we'll continue to be around far beyond another 100 years. And so we have some, I'm sorry. No, go, go, go. I thought you stopped. I was going to say, I'm just going to say God bless you and I can say God bless you at any time. Yes, I'm so excited because it's a new thing for the Children's Center. The endowment is new and then also us utilizing 313 day a moment to celebrate Detroit and our kids forever. That's a new thing too. So we're also going to have auction at live auction. It just kicked off yesterday and anyone who wins the auction, those proceeds will go towards the endowment. So we're auctioning off of privacy at Ford Field for an Ed Sheeran Concert and we're also auctioning off furniture from our age, which used to be restoration hardware and now they have a new name called our age for these big ticket items are also going to help support Detroit kids forever.

36:05If we go to the Children's Center dot com, will we see this information? Will we note, by the way, the 313 day auction item that's sweet. That's 24 tickets at Ford Field for the August 29th Ed Sheeran concert, a $10,000 retail credit for the new Detroit restoration hardware store, which has already changed its name to our age. They see all the pictures and everything they need at the Children's Center dot com. Yes, everything is live. So they would just go to the Children's Center dot com flash endowment and they'll see everything related to 313 day right there. That is spectacular. Now I remember hearing about this Michigan Central Station Children's Endowment initiative. I think Kim and I were somewhere along the way involved with that. I think the people who really are behind this and have been for the Children's Center since I've known them, Bill and Lisa Ford, who are so generous in so many different ways we don't even know about.

37:07This is one of them I'm aware of and why I like to tell everyone about it whenever I can. They have been angels to the Children's Center and to so many other people in need, but, but especially the Children's Center, it has a very special place in their heart. Yes, and we appreciate their support and they've been connected with us for at least 40 years that I know of and they have been there with us through the years, through changes, through evolution and supporting 11 children's charities in and around the city of Detroit is an amazing thing where permanent endowments are set up for nonprofit organizations, which quite a few of us haven't had one in the past. Or now we're at the point where we can expand our sustainability and it was their vision that created this opportunity for us. Well, Lisa isn't old enough to have been involved 40 years, but Bill certainly. Bill certainly is, but, but both seriously, both Bill and Lisa have been involved. You say 40 years. That's incredible. Great news there.

38:18And I salute them. I salute Melissa Bunker, who gave us a heads up on you being available, Desiree Jennings, President and CEO of the Children's Center. And if you don't think that the award you gave me the heart of Hope Award is important to me or not, I have it in my hand right now, which I know on the radio is hard to see. But if anyone is streaming us on our YouTube pages or live video streaming, they see this beautiful award maybe for the first time. And I really hold this close to my heart because it means so much to me. And I thank you for that and I will help you for the next 40 years anyway that I can Desiree. I appreciate it and it was an honor to give you the award. It truly was. Don't forget my friends 313 pride and going online to the Children's Center dot com. The Children's Center dot com to get more information on how you can help one of the auction items a suite with 24 tickets at Ford Field for the August 29th Ed Sheeran concert. That's incredible.

39:24$10,000 retail credit for the new R8 store. We used to call it restoration hardware store. I mean, this is big stuff. Don't miss out. Go to the Children's Center dot com. God bless you. Keep up the good work Desiree. Thank you. Have a great day. Thank you. You do the same as we continue in focus on WJR. I remember two of focus with Paul W Smith. Nice to be with you and to spend a decent day with you that is giving us the idea that before you know it. It will be spring. And then summer. And then fall and then winter. Wait a minute. I don't want to walk down that path. We have ourselves. Yeah, that's way ahead of ourselves. But the team, the team, the team together, Mike Parsons executive producer Danielle Mason, Queen of the switches, Rich Luzinski keeping track of the WJR traffic and weather first.

40:27As we bring you relentless positive radio on your way to making each and every day count each day is a gift. And then I do want to thank you for being an important part of the best and brightest audience in all of radio. Whether you're streaming us now coming back and podcasting us, which I hope you'll do both are done at WJR dot com. And of course we've got the free WJR app. And as I speak Facebook and YouTube pages live video streaming while we're on the air right now. As much as we want to do relentless positive radio, it's not easy when we're at war, which is what happened over the weekend. Today kind of good timing, a medal of honor ceremony, celebrating the valor of American servicemen and women. And though I've not been able to watch the whole thing and have audio, what I did to see was that a Michigan man was given a medal of honor for saving several of his compatriots in the Vietnam war.

41:36Yeah, I'm seeing 85 is that astonishing and that that he had to go this long without getting the award I imagine posthumously. Yeah, that's amazing. And yeah, if it was posthumously, it's great that he was honored, but yeah, it would be I'm just trying to see if it's posthumously or not. I assume I mean Vietnam is back when I was a kid and I just got lucky because I had a high lottery number and I've had guilt because of that for years, but I'm still happy I didn't go, but I feel for the friends that did go and never came back. We were just getting out of high school when all of that took place. So Paul, good news. He actually live live and while yes, excellent. How does it say how old? I want to hold on. No, it doesn't. I thought I saw 85, but that's the amount of people he saved. Okay, but it said that he was later found by his team in Vietnam. He was shot in the leg and he had both eardrums ruptured.

42:40Wow. So he paid quite a physical price. We in and just jump ahead to today. The guy we learned about in the state of the union address. We had the gentleman officer chief warrant officer Eric Slover piloting his helicopter through the withering enemy fire during a daring raid that brought Maduro to justice. He took multiple rounds to the legs shattered bones and all yet refused to abandon his crew or the mission. He landed that damage to birds safely. He could have crashed it very easily and killed all the vows people on board and really ruined the what they were trying to do. It's amazing the way that these soldiers are able to just put fear aside. It's astonishing. There's only one thing more astonishing that when he got the Medal of Honor from President Trump,

43:46there were Democrats that would not stand in honor of that soldier. That is just astonishing. I don't care what you think of President Trump. What do you think of chief warrant officer Eric Slover for God's sake? Yeah, I mean, that's that's not even a partisan recognition. It's just crazy. So I'm reminded of that as you just told me this guy was shot in the leg several times and his guys had to go out and find him and carry him back. After he saved 85 people. Right. All right. I was not alone looking for Mitch album on 60 minutes on Sunday. But I believe that he got bumped because of the war. Wouldn't you guess that's what it was? I mean, they did a first segment on the war that lasted forever. And I thought, oh, Mitch might be in trouble. And I watched all of 60 minutes and I never saw Mitch. So hopefully they'll put him on next Sunday.

44:47Yeah. I mean, what happened with the strike in Iran? I think it kind of threw all plans out the window. As it as happens. Right. That happens. But congratulations to Mitch. He and Anderson Cooper went with with our own Mitch album, four to six right here on WJR. He's also I guess an author of some sort. It's right in a book or two. A newspaper column or five or five million. But but he's on here, four to six. And they're going to follow him. That's a portal prints orphanage with their 60 minute cameras. So so maybe they'll do that next Sunday. I hope they will. Yeah. I mean, they already shot it. So they should they should use it. All right. We we congratulated everyone involved for raising over $1.34 million through the 39th bed and bread club radio. On our own and Thomas got a wonderful award throwing the most good award, I believe it was called doing the most good award.

45:54We had great mid east conflict reports on Marie was in, but so was the Fox News network, which was a very smart decision on amps part to carry that so that we had everything. And Paul, we were striking over a thousand Iranian targets. Yes, sir. Well, I know there's bigger things going on in the world, but a little bum. The sonic and knuckles era is over here in Detroit, David Montgomery being traded to the Texans. Yeah, I saw that in one of the things you sent me and didn't he just I might get all this. Yeah, so so that wasn't he just say he wasn't saying on on social media that he wanted to go. Well, so there were reports surfacing from ESPN and being picked up that he wanted out of Detroit. And so he posted on his social media, he reposted one of the articles and says, oh, did I tell you that? You know, alluding that that he never said it. And then today we got word whether he wanted to be traded or not. He has been the Texas.

46:58Yeah, this was a story from Jason Castle or Ian Castle. Yeah, Detroit lines running back David Montgomery is denying a report that he wants to be traded or released by the team. That was then now he has been whether whether he really wanted to or not. It doesn't matter. He is. Where is he going to the Houston Texans. Is that good? Is that good or bad for him? I don't know. I mean, they they did make the playoffs this year. And I think everyone kind of knew that this was a possibility because we've got your mere gifts. And you know, Montgomery was getting less and less carries as the season went on. So I hope I hope it works out for David Montgomery, but I hope it works out better for us. Of course, FBI investigates Texas bar shooting that the last member I have was it killed two and wounded 14 cracked as a possible terrorist act. And I've been frankly worried about follow up sleep or sell terrorist acts since we attacked on the weekend.

48:05So this I guess wouldn't be a surprise that guys wearing a sweatshirt. It says property of Allah or a law. So that's that. Do we know anything more about it? Mike's on the phone. Okay. Great. All right. Well, we don't know anything more about it. He would have given me the update on that. And let's see US on high alert for homeland attacks by Iran. Yeah. Well, we kind of knew that was going to be the case. It is now always the case, but Iran has not needed to be attacked by us to attack us. They've attacked us so many times over the years. We'll be talking we'll be talking more about the the bar shooting and US being on high alert later on with Sheriff Booshard. Oh, did he check in? Yes. So we'll have him at 145.

49:05And we'll look forward to that. We try to do the best. And it keeps Mike Parsons hopping in Daniel Mason to and Rich Luzinski as well. That's the team, the team, the team as we continue in focus right here. Paul W Smith and W J are. We always worry about our guests when they're not there. And it's especially worrisome when it's a guest who is always reliably where she is saying she's going to be. We had a problem of the last week that we were having on Congresswoman Debbie Dingell and we never did get her on. At that time, we wanted to talk about the state of the Union address. We didn't have a war to talk about, but we can cover both. I am glad you were okay, Congresswoman Dingell. I say that as a long time friend. Paul W apologize, believe it or not. There are parts of my district that do not have good cell phone reception on a good day and in a bad day, you're helpless.

50:07So I'm in the cell lot at the airport because here in township doesn't always have good reception. And I knew this a lot would. Are you in the cell lot because you're flying away again? Well, I will fly back, but I'm in the cell because I wanted to make sure that I had good cell phone connection with you. God bless you. All right, a quick question. You did not go to the state of the Union address. It's not the first time you missed because if I'm not mistaken, you and your late great husband, Congressman John Dingell, once invited me to use your tickets to go to the state of the Union address. And in fact, I did and that was probably the first time I ever attended out of a couple, the state of the Union in Washington, D.C. But for the life of me, I can't remember when that was or which president it was. So you don't actually use our, well, the members' ticket because the members on the floor, but we get one guest ticket. And I wanted you would never been. So that's why I gave you that one.

51:10And you know, there were years when it was crazy and you might miss. I'm not. This is the first one I did not go to since I've been a member of Congress and I did not make the decision until the day of. And I just, I want to be really honest. Last year was very uncomfortable for me. Our leadership didn't want to stand a reacting. I applauded at some of the heroes in the gallery. I got really. I've spent my whole life fighting for kids with cancer and Fox News went after me for a month, making it sound like I didn't care. And I quite frankly didn't want to be part of this theater of the drama. I wanted to hear every word. I think of state of the Union, like the old high school chair stand up, sit down, fight, fight, fight. And it's not what I wanted. The state of our Union is serious. And I was really glad I didn't go because there were too many theatrical moments that I didn't want to be part of any of it.

52:13Well, I'm not, I'm not going to ask you to go backwards, but could you believe they were the Democrats hand of the Republicans. Of course, the Republicans are stupid and they've already used it way earlier than they should have. They should have brought that out as a reminder near the election. But be that as a man. I don't make decisions for any of you guys. But my point is I saw it happening. It was a commercial in the making when he asked if what's that? I was totally a commercial in the making and that was the moment that I was like, I am glad that I am not there. All right. We'll go beyond that. You're a pressure and let's go beyond it. Doesn't it remind you though of the old high school chair stand up, sit down, fight, fight, fight. That's pretty good. It is. It's exactly enough. Do I stand? Do I sit? Am I going to get killed by my colleagues? I'm like, it's ridiculous. We should be talking about the state of the union.

53:13Yeah. All right. So that's behind us. The United States Congresswoman of Michigan Sixth District Debbie Dingo with us. Now we've got a war on our hands. Here's a statistic you didn't know because no one's given it, but me CBS news and you gov had a poll. That poll was concluded a day before the strikes that we just went through over the weekend. The day before 51% of respondents said they would favor US military action against Iran in order to stop Tehran from making nuclear weapons. 51%. Now you don't see that anywhere. What you see from the mainstream media is that everybody was against this. Well everybody wasn't against it. In fact, the day before 51% of the people asked by CBS, which by the way was certainly not trying to be in favor of the president.

54:17I can promise you that 51% said they were in favor of attacking Tehran to stop them from having nuclear weapons. Be that as it may give me the Debbie Dingo take on what we've just gone through in the last two or three days. Look, American people have lived through decades of born in the Middle East, Paul W. And I don't want to be pulled into an open and conflict again with no clear strategy or where we're going. We can't just drift into another endless war. I do believe that Congress has got to exert that we are the ones that decided we're going to war and there will be a war power effect. This is what I think America is always that a defendant's national security interest and protect its personnel. I want to tell you, someone said to me, I mean, Ayatola was an awful man. The regime was brutal.

55:19He slaughtered his people. He massacred thousands. There was a New York time story about when protesters were taken to an emergency room after a protest in January, the military came in and shot and killed them all. I mean, it's, you know, in his pursuit of nuclear weapons put is something they would never stop doing in something that we always have to look at. But I guess what I'm going to say to you is now looking at the evil of a regime doesn't leave us of the responsibility to ask hard questions about what comes next. You know, I think the New York Times believe it or not on March 1st have a story 40 Iranian medical workers describe a massacre. They went into this story saying this is not just the worst mass killing in the contemporary history of Iran. It is one of the worst mass killings in contemporary world history. That is before our strike, all of the Iranians who have died at the hands of this monster.

56:22This guy, Khomeini's been around doing this since you and I were young and he's gotten away with it. It nobody has to say, should we have taken him out? Yes, we should have long ago. And I believe this is what happened to Congresswoman. I believe not that Netanyahu doesn't, you know, pull some of Trump's strings because he understands how to do that. But the reality is, I believe Masad, who's so good at this sort of thing and they have people in the ins on the inside said, we have an opportunity that has never existed. We have Khomeini and all of his top leaders all together above ground in the middle of the day in a big meeting. Mr. President, if we strike now, we can take them out and that will save a lot of lives over the next several weeks, months, years. And I believe that's what happened and I believe the president said, well, then you better go and do it.

57:22That's what I think happened. What do you think? I think there is decidedly an element to say it. I think people knew we were going in because I've heard enough stuff that I actually do believe and before others do. But I think they were planning on going in Saturday night and got the intelligence that you just talked about and moved it out. But Paul W. I think we've got to get some, you know, what's our exit strategy? Are we putting US troops on the ground? What's this going to mean to American service members and their families? I mean, what's this going to do to the region? You know, we need answers. We don't see it. We don't see a lot of it because it doesn't fit the narrative of the mainstream media. But there's a heck of a lot of people around the world and in Iran who were dancing in the streets happy that this dictator, this, this monster. Come in, he was taking out.

58:22That's what I'm worried about. We want somebody else that's going to be the same way. How do we, in telling the people to go to the streets and take over? You got to have somebody that knows how to run the government and what are we going to do to support that person? Did you ever know the show of, did you know the show of Iran? Back in the day. When I was at Georgetown, there were family members when I was there. And then one of those family members said, son, the son is acting like he wants to come out there and run it now. Is that good or bad? I don't know. You know what I spent the weekend doing, calling ambassadors from all of the countries in the region. You know, people that we know, people families from our region, they bombed a room yesterday. There are a lot of people with families. I just want, I don't want another endless war. Is that fair? Do we want another endless war? No, I can't imagine that anyone wants another endless war.

59:22I'm sorry to, I'm sorry to cut you off. No, I know we got to go, but we got to all work together because what we want is peace in the middies, not another endless war, a world instability. Amen. United States Congresswoman Michigan Sixth District Debbie Dingell. Thank you, Congresswoman Dingell. Always a pleasure. Thank you. Bye bye. We continue at 130 on WJR. So happy to welcome our next guest to verify some things that I certainly need clarification on. I'm not embarrassed to say so. I don't know the difference between open AI, which I just thought was a process, but apparently it's the name of the company and their, their competitor, anthropic. We're going to get some help here from Brent Yaxx, the CEO of a com strategies Brent welcome back nice to have you here.

1:00:24Thank you. The open AI CEO, Sam Altman announced late Friday that the company had signed a deal with the Pentagon for its AI tools to be used in the military's classified systems. But with seemingly similar guardrails that rival anthropic had also requested, can you tell me what's going on? First of all, what's the difference between open AI and anthropic? There are two different companies, but they both have a very, very similar product. So open AI owns chat GPT, which everyone's pretty familiar with now. Well, anthropic owns a similar one called Claude. So very similar technologies, just two different approaches. And is one in your mind? I think your disinterest at third party is one better than the other. Well, honestly, they're both good at certain things where open AI and chat GPT are pretty good at everything. Most people use them. It's a little bit bigger of an engine and Claude is a really great tool for developers and more technical minded users of the system. Both great.

1:01:32Who stands to benefit from the choice of open AI over anthropic other than the obvious the companies and their employees? What the government's asking for, they've asked for from pretty much everybody. And the position they're making is that anthropic said, hey, there's some lines that we're not going to cross. And this is what we put in place. And we want to protect and safeguard the constitution. And open AI came and said, look, you're not doing anything illegal. You have access to the information anyway. So for us to take that out of the contract really materially doesn't change anything. So it's just two very interested approaches to this. It's a it's two approaches and two different interpretations, I guess. And that's really what it comes down to the big stink and everybody seeing Claude right now. I'm fighting about it. Not funny, I guess for Claude, but because of this news and they're in the media right now and the whole thing with the current administration rejecting that contract is that they had so much traffic come in that it actually took anthropics Claude offline for the last 12 to 14 hours.

1:02:40I'm sorry, explain that again. Why would they do that? Well, he said that they had such a new influx of people that wanted to try out Claude, new signups, new logins, new subscriptions over the past 12 hours because of the stance with the government that it actually crashed their site of the last 12 hours. Well, that's I mean, I guess that's that's good in one hand, but it's not so good on the other you want whoever you choose to be able to be able to handle the number of people that want to use the service. And maybe they could fix your phone for us in the meantime because I don't think it's working very well. We keep missing the first parts of what you're saying. Yeah, no, you're right. I think I think one of the things you should demand is that the actual site functions. That would it seems like that would make some sense. So now let me ask a question. You may or may not have the answer to, but I'm rent acts. You're the only expert I've got right here and we're glad to have you the CEO of all calm technologies.

1:03:44We're talking about the Pentagon made a deal with open AI after banning competitor and thropic. I didn't know even that open AI was a separate to company. I thought that it was just open AI, but now I understand. So we're an under we have a war going on right now. Would you suggest that AI is being used dramatically in this war already. I think it would be hard to argue that there's not some artificial intelligence being used for data collection just the power of AI to absorb information and monitor what's going on and listen to the things that are happening and provide feedback. I think it would be very surprising if it wasn't being used heavily right now. You help companies understand how this artificial intelligence can help them. Am I summing that up correctly for all calm technologies. That is correct. We help companies get an idea of how to use this stuff.

1:04:45And I would suggest at least from what I've seen and know it's it's almost any company out there. You might need them to be of a certain size or whatever, but it seems to me that there's a that there's a usefulness for AI for virtually every company. And now I'm reading in the newspapers this morning earlier that some people are starting to say, wait a minute. Is this going to cost us a lot of jobs? You know, they watched what was it. What was the company that just laid off a lot of people and they said it's because they have AI? What was that? There's a few actually some of the bigger ones that are doing it are Amazon's and Microsoft's Microsoft really out quite a few actually for AI, but they. Those companies, those large companies every five, six years when they lay off people, it's always a different technology reason. I know AI is kind of the easy scapegoat right now, but usually companies that size get a little bloated. And I think that was just an easy argument for them.

1:05:47And I think the one I was trying to think of I think they don't call themselves. I don't know why, but I don't believe they call themselves H and R block anymore. They just call themselves block. But it was like 6,000 people being cut loose. And the reason given that block is now using AI very significantly to cut numbers of employees and save money. And that's that's going to get a lot of people's attention, but it shouldn't be a surprise. No, it shouldn't. And it's not necessarily directly related to AI. I think it's just the advancement of technology in general. AI is just a technology. It's just another tool. It's not anything crazy special right now. It's just an advanced tool that creates productivity. And some of the people writing now are saying they're not sure this is stunning to me, but that they're not sure AI might be worth the price involved. Is that am I hearing that incorrectly, Brent? You know, I'm an advocate for AI. And I can say I also agree with that statement. It is in kind of a hype cycle right now. It's a little bit of a bubble. And we're going to see how it fills us out.

1:06:53Well, you know who we're going to call upon whenever we need some advice and some information. You happy happy to be here. Right. If you, and by the way, you'll see something before we will. So don't be afraid to give Mike Parsons my producer a call. And and you're not horning your way on. You're helping us. You'll be the first they call. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great rest of the day, Brent. Thanks much. Brent yaks the CEO of Arkham technologies and we need to call upon him because he's the expert and we appreciate the help. And I know you as a listener from noon to two focus with Paul W Smith appreciate that we reach out to these experts on your behalf 142 at 760 WJR. You probably know this if you've been a listener and this goes back certainly to the morning show as well as this show noon to two Monday through Friday on WJR. And that is I've known Mike fallahey for a very long time.

1:08:04He is indeed now a good friend. His family's been running merry grove into trite for over 90 years, 90 years. That means they were building shade in this town before most companies even existed and they still do it the Detroit way strong precise built to last. Merry grove only makes motorized onings no crank handles no gimmicks hit the remote instant shade rain coming in adjust the pitch sun goes down built in LED lights. When kicks up add the sensor it rolls in automatically premium framing fully enclosed housing to protect the fabric backed by a 10 year warranty. And here's what really separates them. Merry grove can often complete the entire process in as little as 48 hours. That's not six weeks.

1:09:09That's not we'll get back to you when we can. That's this week this week. No third party installers no dealer games real merry grove employees from start to finish and believe me that matters. I've done business with Mike fallahey and merry grove for years and have always been happy with the results you will be to find out all the different things they can do to make your house even better and give you more usage expand your usable space it's astonishing. If you're going to put something on your home make it something built by a Detroit company that's been doing it right for over 90 years go to merry grove dot com or call 1 844 awning that's merry grove dot com or call 1 844 awning schedule the free in home appointment please tell him Paul W sent you that'll help us a lot.

1:10:13Tell him Paul W sent you to merry grove at 1 844 awning or merry grove dot com tell him Paul W sent you merry grove to try tough 90 years strong good job like fallahey and all the men and women of merry grove. We continue in focus on w j r we turn to our Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard because of his national and international experience we're lucky to have him in Oakland County but we're lucky to have him period and he's here to weigh in on a few things he can weigh in on the war that is underway having had a son just come back from his military fine military service. But the first thing we wanted to talk about was what could be a retaliation frankly I thought there'd be many more by now but if this is one then it is a gunman wearing clothes with an Iranian flag design in the words property of a law killed a couple of people and wounded 14 others yesterday at a Texas bar.

1:11:25Mike Bouchard Sheriff it's always a pleasure to have you here even if it is to talk about these bad bad stories. Yes, sadly all that seems what we talk about a lot I'd be nice to talk about fun weather and great Michigan activities but yet we're in one of those situations again we are indeed and I frankly I imagine without giving too much away that your deputies and all law enforcement within the sound of my voice are on. Special alert after an attack like this because we know that because of the last administration many sleeper cells from people who don't like us like Iran. Snuck into this country well walked in without any problem walked into this country and there's concern that they're going to respond and react. Yes, shortly after this kicked off I began receiving messages I'm part of a number of different groups and associations obviously as you mentioned I'm on the joint terrorism task force I've got a top secret plans I work on both local national and international levels with different friends and groups and then we also have an intelligence thread that we chat on that major county sheriff of America across the country and communicate with our federal party.

1:12:44So that started to light up shortly after hostilities began and went kinetic in the Iranian fear and so we began to communicate about you know what may be in the offing as a result of that and what things we should queue up and be prepared for and as I got information in I reached out to some of the chiefs in our area especially those that have either large Jewish facilities congregations or critical infrastructure. And began to share some of that intelligence or information with them I ordered our folks to go to a ready footing if you will and specifically focus on some of our critical infrastructure. Well, I appreciate that I mean it seems impossible to have to remind people that the monster that come any has been for so many years and that Iran has waged war against us the US for like 47 years they've murdered thousands of Americans they've cried out death to America for as long as I can remember and they've been a sponsor of terrorism all over the world it's astonishing that anyone would ask why would we take this guy out.

1:13:57Now there is the question that will be discussed ad nauseam in Washington and elsewhere that there's a certain procedure that the president is supposed to follow so I'm not going to get in the way of that I'm just saying nobody should be surprised that when given the opportunity rare opportunity where this guy. Comeini was above ground with like 40 of his his staff sergeants soldiers lieutenants whatever you want to call them that there was a chance to take them all out and one fell swoop and save a lot of lives that we jumped all over that I can understand that I'll let the arguments go the other way for whatever reason they want to but some of these people are the same people who did not represent themselves or their country well. At the state of the union address and I don't need to go through the details we already know when they didn't stand and all of that other stuff yeah yeah and you know you would hope and it and would love to see that there's continuity in reaction whether you know a Republican or a Democrat isn't controlling the White House that you know it used to be politics stuff that our nation sure.

1:15:13But unfortunately it doesn't seem to be in a case some people that spoke nothing when previous administrations did some hospital activities over fees you know are completely different you know when a different administration is empowered. It's just you know one of those things is always kind of striking but from our point of view you know we would just want to make sure that we're partnering with everybody we're communicating if you see something say something share that information but you're right. I mean, if a country's primary chant is death to America, we should take them at their word. And they've been at war with us going back to 1979. They killed the Marines and they root. There's one list after another. They're the largest clearly sole source for exporting terrorism and killing American troops all across the Middle East for many, many years, directly attributable to this administration in Iran. So it's not a brand new war.

1:16:14It's one that's been going on for a long time. And there just has been no direct kinetic action. Well, I'm going to have to say I'm glad there was some direct action here. And may it put us on the path to freedom and a safer world everywhere. And certainly, especially in this case, women who generally stand up for women and the women in Iran have been so knocked down and all of their rights taken away. They were not taken away when it was Persia. And before the Islamists got there and this Khomeini got there, all of their ability to get an education, to drive a car, to vote, to all these things were taken away from them along the way. And this is going to notably make their lives better. I can't believe we're not hearing from Democrat women saying how great this is going to be. But that's the problem with the hypocrisy we live with today.

1:17:15Always a pleasure, Mike Bouchard. There's a story of a child being killed by an unmanaged gun this afternoon. We don't have time to get into it. Thanks for your help. Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard. Stand by for J.R.F. to noon with Ryan Armani, regards Paul W. Smith.