Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Don't you dare touch that Dowary channel because it's Sunday
at seven pm on ihearts WRKO and you're listening to
the hard truth. I'm John Deaton. Hey everybody, Well, it's
been a busy week. Last week we talked about the
three options that President Trump had as it relates to Iran,
(00:23):
and we ended up even though President Trump said he
was going to give Iran two weeks to consider that
that was a distraction. That was camouflage because within thirty
hours after Trump said he was going to give him
two weeks and had him distracted, he dropped bombs on
(00:46):
Iran's three nuclear sites. Two B one B two bombers
left Kansas, flew for thirty six hours, not landing one time,
refueling in the air several times, gets over Iran and
(01:08):
drops those bunker buster bombs that we talked about that
penetrate the ground two hundred feet, have a delayed fuse,
and then explode. And the preliminary reports from President Trump
and the White House is that it was a complete success.
(01:30):
In President Trump's words, the Iran's nuclear plans and facilities
were obliterated. Now, there's been some inconsistencies and some CNN
reporting and others saying that, oh no, they didn't obliterate it.
They've only delayed it by a few months. So we
(01:50):
don't have the final report, but we must acknowledge the
amazing feat of American pilots, the American military. God bless
us those pilots, God blessed the crew. It was a
flawless operation. You know, whether it completely destroyed the nuclear
(02:11):
facilities that are underground or didn't, we don't know. You
got to remember also, those bunker buster bombs have never
really been tested in combat, so we don't know if
they you know, implement and execute it the way that
they're designed. But needless to say, it was a big
(02:33):
moment for the military for the Trump presidency. Last week
I said that this would be possibly the single biggest
decision of the presidency of Donald Trump in his second term,
his final term. And you know, he chose what he
did it right now looks like it was the right call.
(02:58):
And I always told you I'm going to give credit
where credit is due. We all agree that Iran can't
have a nuclear bomb. Last week I questioned the intelligence
because there seemed to be some inconsistency. Did they have
a bomb? Were they close to nuclear weapons? How close
(03:19):
were the nuclear weapons? I played that videotape of Benjamin
nittn Yahoo, who's been saying that they're close since two
thousand and six. Every year he says they're close. Obviously,
I don't know how close they are. But President Trump
felt they were close enough, or he simply felt that
(03:39):
the opportunity was there to at least set back their
nuclear aspirations. Whether it's months or years or decades, we
don't know. While Iran was so weakened, a lot of
people feared Iran's response would attack American bases, American lives
(04:01):
would be lost, and then President Trump would be forced
to even engage Iran further. That was the fear, and
what happened was extraordinary. Iran basically wanted to make a
symbolic hit back to the United States. But what they
did is basically picked up the phone, called President Trump
(04:24):
in the White House and said, listen, we're going get
your people out. We're gonna send you know, the same
amount of bombs. We're gonna send the same amount of
missiles that you dropped, and you know your air defense
systems will be able to knock them out and what
ended up happening. I think they sent thirteen missiles. Twelve
(04:44):
of them were shot out of the air by American
Patriot missiles, and they allowed one to land because it
wasn't going to cause any problem. But that's an extraordinary
thing when Iran says, hey, we're gonna respond to you
dropping bombs on us, but here's the time and the
place and the coordinates so that you can you defend yourself. Obviously,
(05:11):
Iran did not want to take a chance with President Trump,
and so that's an extraordinary thing. And we have to
give President Trump credit because immediately then he negotiated a ceasefire,
and that cease fire, he got pissed off, very angry
(05:33):
because there was an inadvertent missile from Iran. And then
as Trump went to bed, Israel bombed a lot of
Iran in response when it's supposed to be a cease fire.
So some of you probably heard the Trump tape where
(05:54):
he dropped the F bomb, said that both sides have
been at war so long they don't know what the
f they're doing. So but right now it looks like
there is peace. And if President Trump negotiates a peace
deal with Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and he's able to
(06:16):
negotiate or help negotiate a deal between Ukraine and Russia.
It will go down monumental and the critics aren't going
to want to give him credit. But on this show,
it's called the hard Truth, and we're always going to
give credit where credit is drew, so where credit is due.
So we'll see. Okay. Now, the other big news that
(06:39):
happened this week, other than the Iran situation was the
election of the primary in New York City for the
mayor race. Zo ran Man Danny, a Democratic Socialist in
New York State Assembly member from Queens, won the Democratic
(07:05):
primary for mayor of New York City over Andrew Como,
the former governor of New York. He is the first Muslim,
or at least we'll be the first Muslim mayor of
New York City again. He's a Democratic socialist, okay, And
(07:26):
I'll talk about some of his policies here and why
I believe he won. He got big endorsements from aoc
Leticia James. He has now been congratulated by former President
Bill Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Ed Markey. They're all
(07:48):
coming out saying, you know what a great guy this
democratic socialist is, and he's also said a lot of
anti Israel comments. Is very controversial. You have to give
him credit because he ran against the mainstream. He was
(08:12):
able to create a grassroots campaign, really a TikTok campaign
with young people. He captured the attention of South Asian
and Muslims in New York City. There's five hundred thousand
Muslims that live in New York City, and his policies
(08:32):
are resonated with people. And you know what he wanted
to do is he says he's going to increase the
minimum wage in New York City to thirty dollars an
hour by twenty thirty. He is going to say he's
going to implement New York City owned grocery stores that
will be able to give more affordable prices for people
(08:57):
for groceries in New York City. The bus rides need
to will be free. He will implement rent control in
New York City. As you can see, very progressive, socialistic
type policies that are quite controversial, and a lot of
(09:19):
people are shocked that this guy, you know, engaging in
those policies was elected. And I'm not shocked. I'm not surprised,
and I think we're going to see more of this listen.
I said, when I ran against Elizabeth Warren, she was
(09:40):
claiming that the number one issue was climate change, and
I said, no, climate change is real and it's a concern,
but it's not the most immediate concern. Grocery price prices,
housing prices, housing crisis, a lack of affordability for people
(10:00):
living day to day is the real problem. I said.
The number one problem in America is a wealth gap.
The top one percent in this country own thirty three
percent of all the wealth. The bottom fifty percent owned
two percent. So think about that top one percent owns
(10:23):
almost forty percent, bottom fifty percent owns two percent. That's incredible.
And the wealth gap gets worse and worse. We've eviscerated
the middle class. Housing prices in Massachusetts averages six hundred
and fifty thousand the Greater Boston area. It's over one
million dollars. People can't afford to live, and we've got
(10:45):
to address it. Credit card debt is at one point
two trillion, student loan debts at one point eight trillion dollars.
People cannot afford to live and when we shut down
the government and gave them six hundred dollars from the
federal government, plus their were their unemployment benefits, they were
(11:06):
making more money. Do you realize that twenty percent of
the people made twice as much as they did before
COVID when they were working full time. Sixty six percent
of the people made one hundred and forty percent more
than they did when they were working full time. And
(11:26):
now prices are so high, and they got to work
their butts off, they got to have two jobs just
to keep the lights on. People are going to turn
to politicians who promised them that they're going to have
cheaper groceries, that they're going to have rent control, that
they're gonna have free bus rides. They're going to turn
to those socialistic principles. We've got to take issue with
(11:50):
the wealth gap in this country. The tax code favors
the rich. We've we've bailed out the banks, we bailed
out the auto workers, the airlines. It's time to worry
about main street and regular people. All right, everybody, welcome
back to the show. Listen. We are at a period
(12:10):
in the show where I read an email that I
received from one of the viewers. Sometimes I do one
of these emails. Sometimes I do more emails in each show,
but this one caught my attention, and I'm going to
read it to you, Okay, And here's the email, Dear John,
and this happens to be from Brian in Sea Conk.
(12:34):
Brian from Sea Conk, thanks for listening, Brian, even though
I apparently you are not a fan of mine. But
this is what Brian in Seaconk says and writes to me, John,
I listen to your speech about ending the division between
MAGA and rhinos and how we need to come together
(12:58):
as Republicans or conservative It is well John fu. Of
course he spelled it out in the email. F you,
John Deaton, don't tell me how to be You weren't
even born here. Go back to Detroit where you were born.
MAGA is the only way I will vote. If you
(13:22):
don't one hundred percent adopt MAGA and America first and
agree with Trump one hundred percent of the time, I
won't vote for you. I'd rather vote for Ed Markey.
That's what Brian from Seacock had to say after he
(13:44):
heard my speech that I played on one of my
last shows that I gave when it talked about unifying,
coming together, where I brought up the fact that you know,
Republicans eat each other alive this division and maga versus rhinos,
purists versus pragmatists, right, that you're searching for perfect and
(14:07):
you're letting good go away, and where you focus on
the twenty percent that you disagree with a candidate and
ignore the eighty percent that you agree with. Why I
gave a speech that listen, while we argue over who's
conservative enough, Democrats keep winning in Massachusetts, and so all
I said was we need to come together. Stop that
(14:30):
right that we believe in predominantly the same things. Lower taxes,
for example, so that we work in families can have
more money to take home that they earn. We all
believe in that right. You believe in that, don't you, Brian?
Lower taxes, You believe in less government overreached, don't you,
(14:51):
so that small businesses can thrive and parents can raise
their kids their way. You believe in that, don't you?
Because I do I believe in that. Do you believe
in that? Brian from Sea Konk. I believe in innovation,
school choice and a place where hard work still matters.
Do you believe in that, Brian from Sia Konk, is
(15:14):
that a Maga platform, Is that a Rhino platform? Was
that just an American platform? That was my speech basically,
and Brian from Sea Konk, you know he wants to
take issue with it. So let me first address while
you were born in Detroit, Brian wins the Moron of
the Week Award Hard Truth Here, The Hard Truth Show
(15:38):
is going to send Brian a plaque that says you
are the Moron of the week. Where you're born doesn't
dictate the circumstances of your life. Yes, I was born
in the ghetto in Detroit. I was born with a
deadbeat father, a single money on welfare and food stamps.
(16:02):
And I chose to not let those circumstances dictate my life.
I explained to you, and I wrote my book Food
Stamp Warrior. Howard's raped for a period of two years
between the ages of nine and eleven. I could have
chose to been a victim all my life. I chose
not to be. I chose not to let the circumstances
(16:22):
of that childhood dictate my life. And I came to
Massachusetts to go to law school to achieve the American
dream in Boston and New England School of Law. And
guess what I decided to do something, Brian. Have you
served and you wore a uniform? Because I wore the
greatest uniform that's ever existed in the United States Marine
Corps uniform. And you want to know what else, Brian,
(16:45):
I was selected by the Marine Corps to represent the
entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the nineteen ninety four Judge
Advocate Law Contract. One of the greatest honors of my life.
I beat out Harvard Law, b C Law, b U Law,
Northeastern Law, Western New England School of Law, and Suffolk
(17:07):
Law School students to have the honor to represent the
Commonwealth for the nineteen ninety four Judge Advocate Law Contract.
So I represented this commonwealth in the Marine Corps. I
was good enough for that. So I think I'm good
enough to run for Senate because I got news for you.
(17:28):
I got news for you, Brian from Sea Conk. Serving
in the Marines representing Massachusetts to me is a greater
honor to going to Washington and being around career politicians.
I'll serve with those Marines and represent the Commonwealth in
that way. So if I was good enough for the
Marine Corps, I think I'm good enough to run for Senate,
(17:50):
all right, So being born here that is a That's nonsense, dude,
it's nonsense. Expand your horizon. Now, know who else would
call you a moron? Brian? President Trump? President Trump would
call you moron, you know, because you say I have
to agree with everything. President Trump would take the position.
(18:13):
I really don't care if he's not the biggest Trump supporter.
I really don't care if he disagrees with me on
certain things. I want the seat. We want the Republican
to have a seat in Massachusetts because we live in
a divided world and Republicans only control the Senate by
three seats and the House is only controlled by five seats.
(18:35):
And guess what happens if the Senate flips Elizabeth Warren
becomes the chairwoman of the Banking Committee. President Trump doesn't
want that in his last two years of his presidency,
so he would say, yeah, Deeton is better than Markuye. Okay,
doesn't take a genius to figure that out. But since
(18:59):
you'd like to talk about you don't think I'm conservative
enough for you? Why am I not conservative enough? Is
it the abortion issue? Yes, I'm pro choice. I have
three daughters. I believe a woman has an absolute right
up into a certain period of time before the child
(19:19):
is viable outside of her body, to have an abortion.
You want to know who agrees with me? Brian from Seacott.
Eighty two percent of voters in Massachusetts, not fifty, not sixty,
not seventy, eighty two percent. When we voted for an
(19:39):
audit of the state legislature, it passed by seventy two percent.
In Massachusetts. The citizens here, the residents, eighty two percent
believe a woman has a right to abortion. It doesn't
mean I favor late term abortions, because I don't unless
it's the life of the mother or the child of
the fetus is already dead. Okay, So is that it
(20:01):
is that the issue? I supported gay marriage, you know,
even before the Democrats did. Is that the issue you
disagree with me because I don't support biological men competing
against women? So again, are you going to focus on
those couple issues that maybe you think I'm not conservative
(20:23):
enough and then say that I'm just that Ed Markey
is better than me. You might as well vote for
Ed Marky. I have a zero tolerance for illegal immigration.
I went to the border because and talk to border security,
learn that twelve million illegals came to this country in
(20:44):
the four years under Biden. I had a zero tolerance.
I said, shut it down. Ed Markey wants to give
amnesty and citizenship and voting rights to the twelve million
illegals that crossed the border in the last four years.
I don't support that nonsense. He supports biological boys going
against biological girls. I don't support that nonsense. He Ed
(21:07):
Markey wrote with aoc the Green New Deal, all those
mandates that you're paying subsidies for a solar and wind
and all that that's causing your electric bill to go
through the roof every month in Massachusetts. That's because of
policies like Ed Markey. I don't support that. I don't
support form wars. I don't support any of that. So
(21:31):
you're gonna choose to focus on the twenty or thirty
percent you disagree with me and ignore the seventy or
eighty percent. Okay, And the other thing I would say
to you, Brian from Sea Conk is you do realize
where you live right? You realize you live in Massachusetts?
Since you brought up where I was born, you were
born here, presumably have you paid attention? Did you know
(21:54):
that in twenty twenty, Joe Biden got sixty five point
six percent of the vote for the president to Trump's
thirty two percent. That's a thirty three percent margin difference.
It's the highest in the country. It's a liberal landslide.
(22:15):
And in twenty twenty four, although I predicted that Trump
would do better in Massachusetts, I said, he's still gonna
lose by over twenty points. People like you probably suffering
from living in an echo chamber, like, oh no, no,
he's gonna win. That's nonsense. You live in Massachusetts, dude.
And in twenty twenty four, Trump did improve, He improved
(22:37):
by eight points, but he's still lost by twenty five points.
Kamala Harris got sixty one percent, Donald Trump got thirty
six percent. That is a spanking. That is a liberal landslide.
Get out of your echo chamber, dude, look around. Just
don't just talk to your friends and your family. You
(23:00):
live in one of the most liberal states in America.
And by the way, I got one hundred and thirty
thousand more votes than Donald Trump, Yet I wasn't good
enough for you. Right, So it just shows you, since
I outperformed President Trump, that you have to accept where
(23:21):
you live. You don't live in Georgia. You don't live
in Alabama. You don't live in Mississippi. You don't live
in parts of Texas. You don't live in Florida. You
don't live in Ohio. Man, you don't live in Wyoming, Oklahoma, Nebraska.
You live in Massachusetts. All right. We have the most
liberal abortion laws here. We have the most restrictive gun
(23:43):
laws here. It is ranked. Every single federal seat and
state wide seat is held by a Democrat. All nine
congressional seats, both two US Senators all Democrats. That's where
you live. And you're going to take the position that
(24:06):
I'm not conserved enough. Dude, you're a moron. We'll be back.
Welcome back to the show. This is John Deaton, and
you're locked into the hard truth. I got a special guest.
I said that I was going to highlight small local
businessmen or women in the community. I have a friend
of mine on the show. His name is Ray. Ray.
(24:26):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Hey, thank you, John, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
All right, Now, listen, everybody, I got a little confirmation
bias and my fondness for Ray. He was out there
pounding the streets supporting me when I ran for US Senate.
He's a Patriot fellow XRP holder, so we got a
lot in common. But the goal here is to highlight
what you're doing, not what I've done or what I
may do in the future. Ray, tell us a little
(24:51):
bit about yourself. Who's Ray Jennings, where you live and
what business you have.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Okay, so I'm a attorney. I graduated in nineteen ninety six.
As a matter of fact, I almost went to New
England School a lot. I think we would have been
classmates if I did that. I went to Massachusetts School
of Law and I graduated actually nineteen ninety five, so
I started practicing in ninety six. I have a local
(25:17):
law practice. It's kind of hard to describe, Like people
will always say, what kind of lawyer are you? You know,
It's like, well, you kind of go where your cases
take you, right, So it's not like I do any
one thing. I can tell you what I don't do.
I don't do divorces. I don't do I don't do
criminal law. I don't do bankruptcy. But I know a
(25:38):
lot of you know, fine lawyers that do that stuff.
So I started as an attorney, you know, doing civil litigation.
I did some collection work. I did cases, just you know,
cases that came along, mostly business disputes, mostly civil litigation,
that kind of thing. My father was a lawyer here
(26:02):
in Weymouth. He was actually the town mottertor for a
number of years. He had a very well established practice,
and so you know, I sort of fell into that,
and then he passed in two thousand and you know,
his name still carries the day as far as I'm concerned.
It's just everybody knows the name. My name, Ray Jennings,
it's the same as his, and it's just it's taken
(26:25):
away from there. So back in twenty nineteen, I had been,
prior to that, a patron of a place called the
Union brew House in Weymouth, and it's just a it's
like a beer bar, you know, seventeen taps, constantly rotating
the different beers from around the world. The prior owner
(26:46):
was a friend of mine, and I saw it as
an opportunity actually to develop the real estate. It had
recently been rezoned, so there was a zoning, and I
had been doing zoning for other clients and practicing before
the boards. I saw this as an opportunity to develop
the real estate and I wound up with the business too.
(27:10):
So that's the way it kind of went.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
All right, So where are you locate? Where is the
what's it called?
Speaker 2 (27:17):
It's the Union brew House in Weymouth, Massachusetts, five point
fifty Washington Street. If you know Weymouth at all, on
Route fifty three, that's Washington Street. And we're right near
the Bjys in town.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
So and how long have you been the owner? We
bought this.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
We bought this in twenty nineteen, in November, I think
we closed, and in March we shut down for COVID
like everyone else.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
So your timing was impeccable, right right, Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
So yeah, but we got the development approofs. We've had
some setbacks just in terms of developing it interest rates,
so if there any went out, you know, in the
Biden administration, the interest rates became. The project is a
(28:10):
proof of twenty eight residential units in a new thirty
two hundred square flip restaurant for the retail space and
through circumstances which your your your listeners don't need to know.
You know, we're we're we're actively marketing the project to
people that might be interested in either buying it outright
(28:32):
or developing it in partnership.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Now, now, when you say buying it outright, would that
include the pubhouse?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yep, so we could we could we could package that up.
Part of the attraction is is the Weymouth created a
few years ago an overlay district. So rather than change
the underlying zoning, which still exists as the one, they
created this commercial corridor overlay district. And it encourages the
(29:00):
mixed use of retail with the residential aspect. And and
so we presented the project to the town. Uh, they
approved us for the development. And now we're just we're
we're marketing that as either buy it all and have
(29:22):
a nice day, write me a check or or you know,
you know, five years, I've I've grown accustomed to, you know,
known the customers and obviously the staff and so forth.
And so we have a really vibrant, you know sort
of operation here and I'd like to see it continue
just for posterity sake. Uh, but you know, if you
(29:44):
write me a big enough check.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Of course, listen, what's the seating capacity?
Speaker 2 (29:50):
So technically we have seventy inside, but we have a
nice patio where I'm seated. Now that probably been another
hundred if you wanted to, a thirty two hundred square
foot restaurant would probably have close to one hundred and fifty.
I imagine that would be able to seat in the
new facility.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
You know, all right, what kind of food, if any?
Speaker 2 (30:12):
So it's I wouldn't call it pub food, it's a
step up from that. We get our fish from Boston,
sword fish and tuna delivered twice a week, so we
we're the place to go on the Cell Shore. My
customers tell me we have the best seafood on the
Self Shore. So haddock, it's fresh, it's not frozen. We
(30:35):
get it. We literally delivered ourselves twice a week. So
we'll have steamers at times. We'll have you know, haddock,
we don't use cod. It's everything. So the fish sandwiches.
We have a bar pizza traditional self throw bar pizza.
So I'm sure you're familiar known Dave PORTNOI what that
(30:57):
is ten inch pan pizza that with the laced edges
and so forth. And then the burger is a terrific
und eight ounce angus beef patty. So people love it.
So yeah, just comfort food and uh, you know, we
keep it interesting and you know, keep it simple.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
All right, what's your hours operation there?
Speaker 2 (31:17):
We're open noon to close. So ever since COVID closed
has been like sort of a vague vague thing, a thing,
you know, but certainly no sooner than eleven. Uh, but
you know, the culture has changed, John, It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
The culture is so you you decided to go into
the the pub business. I know that you had real
estate to deal with, and you close and then the
next day practically the government shuts you down. Click click.
Couldn't have been the way you envisioned launching the business.
(31:56):
I assume it.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Was crazy, you know. But the we own the land.
There's one point seven acres here. We own the land.
There's a rental property on you know, residential resid rental property.
So we were because we weren't leasing. I think we're
in a better position than most of the businesses in
the area to survive like a setback like that being closed.
(32:18):
And we had the outdoor area already set up. So
when we reopened, we were already set up. We had
we put up tents out back, and you know, we
we we opened as soon as we could, you know.
And uh, and then you know, it's been a it's
been a transition to you know, trying to get back
to normal. But I think it really has changed the
(32:39):
way people go out and eat and enjoy themselves. They're
not out late at night anymore. And the younger people
that used to come here and pack the place just
they don't. They don't go out like they used to. Uh.
And I say that from knowing other business owners in
town too. So I as a practicing attorney, I advise
(33:00):
a lot of those that a lot of those other
business owners, and so they have noticed the shift as well,
and you know, we just have to deal with it.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Is that do you think, Ray? Do you think that is?
Is that the door dash impact or would you attributed
to just fundamental behavior change because of the lockdowns? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
I think people's behavior change because of the lockdowns. And
I think people that would go out two or three
times a week don't go out two or three times
a week. They go out less. Uh. You know, it
was funny. I I just got my POS system set
up like there was no POS system, like no like
one that was communicating on the internet right before we
(33:41):
shut down, like literally days before, and so we weren't
in a position to stay open in order to take
out We had no you know, no track record or
anything like that. So it really hit. It hit us.
The timing was terrible, but we paid all our employees
all the way through COVID, and I'm happy that we
(34:01):
came out on the other side. And you know, I
can't say it made us stronger, but you know, we're
here and we're doing great. You know.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
So what lessons do you think obviously at the time
was Governor Baker shut down businesses, we have experienced something
like that again, do you think are there lessons to
have been learned? Do you think?
Speaker 2 (34:26):
John? I was. I was sitting here on a Sunday
night when one of the one of my partners, said
that they're shutting down the state and I thought, they
shutting it down, that's shutting down all the businesses. And
I thought they can't do that, Like what authority do
(34:46):
they have to do that? Like, I don't even I
couldn't even wrap my mind around it. I was like, well,
you went.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Back to constitutional law in law school, right exactly.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Went back to constitutional law the third year of law school.
I'm like, you got to be kidding me that where
did Where does the governor get the authority to tell
me I can't operate my business? Like you know, I'm
you know, drafting the complaint in my head. I'm gonna
run into superior court. And then you know, the s
JC in Massachusetts sort of just like supported the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
They shut down the court system, and I'm like, well,
I've already lost, Like where am I going to go?
But uh, yeah, I think it's I think it's a
I think we have some lessons to learn, uh from
that whole experience about uh, you know, I think it
taught us some deep lessons about you know, the Constitution
(35:40):
and our rights and our freedoms and privileges and all
of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
It's like a it's a it's a it's a great
textbook example. Like I think it would come out differently
on a law school examination than uh than it did
in reality. You know what I mean. I think that
right answer is not the way we got it, is
what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Welcome back to the show, everybody. Remember the show is
sponsored by my law firm, the Deeton Law Firm. For
the last twenty five years, I've been a lawyer in
Massachusetts and I've been representing mesothelioma, in lung cancer, and
aspestosis plaintiffs in court against some of the major corporations
(36:24):
in the world, some of the largest insurance companies. I've
battled with Travelers Insurance. I've battled with Dow Chemical. I've
battled with just about every fortune one hundred company that
incorporated asbestos into their products. A lot of people are
shocked by this, but there was about almost five thousand
(36:46):
different products that asbestos was an ingredient in. It wasn't
just the pipe insulation that was on navy ships or
in your basement, or those cast iron boilers that we
call them snowmane and boilers that have all that white
asbestos insulation over them. But I've represented you know, plumbers
(37:06):
and pipe fitters and people who removed those boilers or
put the pipe covering on. But I've also represented people
who never had that kind of field. They were exposed
because they used the makeup or they used Johnson and
Johnson baby powder that had asbestos contaminated talk in it.
I've went up against cover Girl Avon. I've represented people
(37:31):
at Fall River, four River Shipyard, represented people at four
River Shipyard in Quinsy. I've represented people on the cape
at Sandwich power Plant, the Canal Electric I've represented people
who worked at Boston Edison ge Plant and Pittsfield Farmers
(37:53):
in Southampton who were exposed to all the asbestos that's
on the brakes and the clutches on track. You know,
I've went up against John Deere, Caterpillar, heavy equipment manufacturers
who used and incorporated asbestos into their products. So I've
represented those auto mechanics, those heavy mechanics, heavy machinery mechanics,
(38:16):
and so if you've been exposed to asbestos, if you
suffer from mesothelioma, lung cancer, aspestosis, you can contact me
at the Dalton Law Firm that's d E A T
O N L A W F I R M. Dtonlawfirm
dot com. And you can also reach me here at
the Hard Truth at John at Hard Truthshow dot com. No,
(38:42):
I agree with you, you know, on one hand, I
want to be somewhat forgiving because you know, it was
a pandemic. You don't know what's going on. But at
the same time, there were other decisions Florida and other
examples where the shutdown certainly wasn't to the extent it
(39:04):
was here in Massachusetts. And so I'm hoping that future
leaders learn those valuable lessons because small businesses is eighty
percent of the US economy, and go ahead, I know
you have something.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
It didn't make a whole lot of sense to me,
like any time in history, Like if you look at
other pandemics or other outbreaks, you don't quarantine the healthy,
you quarantine the sick, right, you know, you don't lock
people in their house if there's a virus. You let
them out to walk around because the air is fresher
outside than it is going to be in your house
(39:38):
with who knows what. And it just it seemed like
upside down world to me, and not just from a
like a not just from like my experience of it,
but from a legal perspective. I don't know how people
came to the conclusion that they should just sort of
hand their rights to you know, or walk away, just
(40:00):
take it, you know, whatever the government says, I do,
you know, and like it was not a healthy amount
of skepticism. I mean, there certainly was on my part.
The first thing that I did was tweet out, you
know what the hell like? You know, is that a
mask or a muzzle? I think I said. And it's
set off Facebook social media crazy because it is It's
(40:25):
like people were afraid to say anything about it. Now,
let's talk about it, let's have reasoned discussion, let's look
at the medical evidence. And it was just just I
was a little bit disappointed with how easy people were
to sort of just subjugate themselves to authority. And that's disturbing.
You know, that's disturbing.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
No, listen, you appreciate to the choir there, brother, I
mean my you know, the one book that probably impacted
me the most was George Orwell's nineteen eighty four and
obviously Animal Farm and the other things. But you know,
we big brother, is only one generation away. Uh is
(41:05):
the way I look at it. And if if we're
that close, that easily going to just, you know, give
the government complete utter control over our lives and our
ability to make a living. You know, a small business
person such yourself, you know, takes that leap of faith, uh,
you know, possibly going in debt whatever, signing contracts, you know,
(41:29):
obligating yourself for years to open a business and be
part of what drives the economic engine in this country.
Be your own boss, your own person, all those things,
you know, part of that that that piece of the
American dream pie. And then the government tells you no, sorry,
you don't get to do that, which is gonna shut
you down. And I agree with you. In this world
(41:52):
where you know, whether we're talking about that or we're
talking about vaccines or or any of the other issues,
almost people don't don't want to have what you'd recommend.
Let's talk about it, Let's talk about the science. Let's
let's have an honest debate about what's the right course
of action. They're too quick to just accept whatever the
government tells them to do.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
And then, knowing what we know now about the effectiveness
of masks and the effectiveness of you know, the you know,
preventative equipment or whatever, knowing you know, knowing what we
know about viruses now, because we've all learned like how
they're transmitted, there's people still walking around with masks. Now.
I understand that there's some cultural thing. I was in
(42:32):
Japan many years ago, and as a cultural matter, people
wear masks it's a it's a they've done it for generations,
and they do it when they're sick. You don't do
it to prevent you from getting Who wears the mask
in a surgical setting? You know, the doctor wears the
mask so he doesn't infect the patient. The patient doesn't
wear a mask, like just like these basic sort of
(42:54):
like observations that were just over everybody else's head. I
noticed that they're in the pandemic. So it was good
in that respect. Is that woke my mind up to
like sort of how easily we can be manipulated and
how easily we can fall into sort of that you know,
subjugated role. And I and I'm disappointed in a lot
(43:17):
of ways with with people in the way that they
reacted to that, because it's in a crisis that you know,
we really sort of, you know, figure out what your
character is. And I can't say that I'm not disappointed.
And you know how readily we just dispensed with all
of that like common sense without the window. And I'd
(43:39):
like to see people learn the lesson from that. I
think there's some people that never really learned the lesson
and never really apologize for the behavior, and they really,
I just want them to learn and become more freedom oriented,
you know more. You know, individualism in our system is
(44:01):
an important value, you know what I mean. It's not socialism,
it's not it's individuals.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
Unless you're in New York City. I don't know if
you saw the election in New York City when you
bring up. So listen, we live in fascinating times. But listen,
we could talk forever. Let me ask you where is
what's the business called? And where's it located? Again?
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Okay, we are the Union brew House in Weymouth, Massachusetts,
five point fifty Washington Street. It is a pub classic
sort of almost like an Irish pub, you know. It's
kind of got the low ceilings, you know, very cozy decor.
(44:45):
And we are open seven days a week at noon
and probably ten thirty at night or so. So we'd
love to have you, love to introduce you. By the way,
the Gulf of Weymouth t shirts originated out of here.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
Oh yeah, let's we got a couple more minutes. Tell
us about the Golf of Weymouth.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
Yeah, phenomenon. The mayor was here, although he denies that
he was here, but he was here.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
And you're not talking about Bob Headlin.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Are you Bob Headlin?
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
It was dry January and he was here, so he
wasn't drinking, and he it was all over the news,
the Gulf of America, and Bob was here, and he
looked at his phone and then he looked at a
map and then he scratched out, crossed out Hingham Bay
and rode in Gulf of Weymouth. So he renamed the
golf the Hngham Bay Gulf of Weymouth on his phone.
(45:37):
And then my good friend Jason there who you know,
got the idea to make it into a T shirt.
We sold over a thousand T shirts, so we raised,
we raised. I think we've given close to eighty five
hundred dollars to the Veterans Memorial here in Weymouth, and
in particular it funded a project of Bob's Headlands, which
(46:02):
was a memorial dedicated to the Fitzgibbon family, which was
a father and son who both died in the Vietnam War.
The father was in nineteen fifty six, I think, part
of the conflict which later became the Vietnam War, and
then his son who was twelve years old when his
(46:23):
father died enlisted and was also killed in Vietnam, and
so there is now a dedicated a memorial to the
Fitzgibbons for that and it's a beautiful tribute. We also
have five Medal of Honor winners in Weymouth which Bob
(46:44):
Headland and through a contribution from Peter Hale, Peterhill, I
think at Peter Hale of Quincy dedicated a new memorial
most Medal of Honor recipients in the entire nation in
anyone time and it's a beautiful memorial right next to
the town hall now. As a result of that, so
(47:05):
we turned a silly little T shirt and a joke
into thousands of dollars for you know, veterans and veterans
causes and we're happy to do that. That's the kind
of people we are around here.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
So that is great. And listen, I can attest got
great burgers. I've had them, that's for sure. And I
didn't know that you had the best seafood. But that's great.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
Buy a T shirt and get ten percent off your.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Buy a T shirt goes to a great donation and
come down to the Union Pub. But if you're willing
to write a big enough check you can have it all?
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Is that right? That's exactly right, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
All right. Well listen Ray Jennings. It's a pleasure you're
having you on the hard truth. And look forward to
seeing you soon.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
All right, Love you brother, Love you back, brother.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Have a good one.
Don't you dare touch that Dowary channel because it's Sunday
at seven pm on ihearts WRKO and you're listening to
the hard truth. I'm John Deaton. Hey everybody, Well, it's
been a busy week. Last week we talked about the
three options that President Trump had as it relates to Iran,
(00:23):
and we ended up even though President Trump said he
was going to give Iran two weeks to consider that
that was a distraction. That was camouflage because within thirty
hours after Trump said he was going to give him
two weeks and had him distracted, he dropped bombs on
(00:46):
Iran's three nuclear sites. Two B one B two bombers
left Kansas, flew for thirty six hours, not landing one time,
refueling in the air several times, gets over Iran and
(01:08):
drops those bunker buster bombs that we talked about that
penetrate the ground two hundred feet, have a delayed fuse,
and then explode. And the preliminary reports from President Trump
and the White House is that it was a complete success.
(01:30):
In President Trump's words, the Iran's nuclear plans and facilities
were obliterated. Now, there's been some inconsistencies and some CNN
reporting and others saying that, oh no, they didn't obliterate it.
They've only delayed it by a few months. So we
(01:50):
don't have the final report, but we must acknowledge the
amazing feat of American pilots, the American military. God bless
us those pilots, God blessed the crew. It was a
flawless operation. You know, whether it completely destroyed the nuclear
(02:11):
facilities that are underground or didn't, we don't know. You
got to remember also, those bunker buster bombs have never
really been tested in combat, so we don't know if
they you know, implement and execute it the way that
they're designed. But needless to say, it was a big
(02:33):
moment for the military for the Trump presidency. Last week
I said that this would be possibly the single biggest
decision of the presidency of Donald Trump in his second term,
his final term. And you know, he chose what he
did it right now looks like it was the right call.
(02:58):
And I always told you I'm going to give credit
where credit is due. We all agree that Iran can't
have a nuclear bomb. Last week I questioned the intelligence
because there seemed to be some inconsistency. Did they have
a bomb? Were they close to nuclear weapons? How close
(03:19):
were the nuclear weapons? I played that videotape of Benjamin
nittn Yahoo, who's been saying that they're close since two
thousand and six. Every year he says they're close. Obviously,
I don't know how close they are. But President Trump
felt they were close enough, or he simply felt that
(03:39):
the opportunity was there to at least set back their
nuclear aspirations. Whether it's months or years or decades, we
don't know. While Iran was so weakened, a lot of
people feared Iran's response would attack American bases, American lives
(04:01):
would be lost, and then President Trump would be forced
to even engage Iran further. That was the fear, and
what happened was extraordinary. Iran basically wanted to make a
symbolic hit back to the United States. But what they
did is basically picked up the phone, called President Trump
(04:24):
in the White House and said, listen, we're going get
your people out. We're gonna send you know, the same
amount of bombs. We're gonna send the same amount of
missiles that you dropped, and you know your air defense
systems will be able to knock them out and what
ended up happening. I think they sent thirteen missiles. Twelve
(04:44):
of them were shot out of the air by American
Patriot missiles, and they allowed one to land because it
wasn't going to cause any problem. But that's an extraordinary
thing when Iran says, hey, we're gonna respond to you
dropping bombs on us, but here's the time and the
place and the coordinates so that you can you defend yourself. Obviously,
(05:11):
Iran did not want to take a chance with President Trump,
and so that's an extraordinary thing. And we have to
give President Trump credit because immediately then he negotiated a ceasefire,
and that cease fire, he got pissed off, very angry
(05:33):
because there was an inadvertent missile from Iran. And then
as Trump went to bed, Israel bombed a lot of
Iran in response when it's supposed to be a cease fire.
So some of you probably heard the Trump tape where
(05:54):
he dropped the F bomb, said that both sides have
been at war so long they don't know what the
f they're doing. So but right now it looks like
there is peace. And if President Trump negotiates a peace
deal with Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and he's able to
(06:16):
negotiate or help negotiate a deal between Ukraine and Russia.
It will go down monumental and the critics aren't going
to want to give him credit. But on this show,
it's called the hard Truth, and we're always going to
give credit where credit is drew, so where credit is due.
So we'll see. Okay. Now, the other big news that
(06:39):
happened this week, other than the Iran situation was the
election of the primary in New York City for the
mayor race. Zo ran Man Danny, a Democratic Socialist in
New York State Assembly member from Queens, won the Democratic
(07:05):
primary for mayor of New York City over Andrew Como,
the former governor of New York. He is the first Muslim,
or at least we'll be the first Muslim mayor of
New York City again. He's a Democratic socialist, okay, And
(07:26):
I'll talk about some of his policies here and why
I believe he won. He got big endorsements from aoc
Leticia James. He has now been congratulated by former President
Bill Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Ed Markey. They're all
(07:48):
coming out saying, you know what a great guy this
democratic socialist is, and he's also said a lot of
anti Israel comments. Is very controversial. You have to give
him credit because he ran against the mainstream. He was
(08:12):
able to create a grassroots campaign, really a TikTok campaign
with young people. He captured the attention of South Asian
and Muslims in New York City. There's five hundred thousand
Muslims that live in New York City, and his policies
(08:32):
are resonated with people. And you know what he wanted
to do is he says he's going to increase the
minimum wage in New York City to thirty dollars an
hour by twenty thirty. He is going to say he's
going to implement New York City owned grocery stores that
will be able to give more affordable prices for people
(08:57):
for groceries in New York City. The bus rides need
to will be free. He will implement rent control in
New York City. As you can see, very progressive, socialistic
type policies that are quite controversial, and a lot of
(09:19):
people are shocked that this guy, you know, engaging in
those policies was elected. And I'm not shocked. I'm not surprised,
and I think we're going to see more of this listen.
I said, when I ran against Elizabeth Warren, she was
(09:40):
claiming that the number one issue was climate change, and
I said, no, climate change is real and it's a concern,
but it's not the most immediate concern. Grocery price prices,
housing prices, housing crisis, a lack of affordability for people
(10:00):
living day to day is the real problem. I said.
The number one problem in America is a wealth gap.
The top one percent in this country own thirty three
percent of all the wealth. The bottom fifty percent owned
two percent. So think about that top one percent owns
(10:23):
almost forty percent, bottom fifty percent owns two percent. That's incredible.
And the wealth gap gets worse and worse. We've eviscerated
the middle class. Housing prices in Massachusetts averages six hundred
and fifty thousand the Greater Boston area. It's over one
million dollars. People can't afford to live, and we've got
(10:45):
to address it. Credit card debt is at one point
two trillion, student loan debts at one point eight trillion dollars.
People cannot afford to live and when we shut down
the government and gave them six hundred dollars from the
federal government, plus their were their unemployment benefits, they were
(11:06):
making more money. Do you realize that twenty percent of
the people made twice as much as they did before
COVID when they were working full time. Sixty six percent
of the people made one hundred and forty percent more
than they did when they were working full time. And
(11:26):
now prices are so high, and they got to work
their butts off, they got to have two jobs just
to keep the lights on. People are going to turn
to politicians who promised them that they're going to have
cheaper groceries, that they're going to have rent control, that
they're gonna have free bus rides. They're going to turn
to those socialistic principles. We've got to take issue with
(11:50):
the wealth gap in this country. The tax code favors
the rich. We've we've bailed out the banks, we bailed
out the auto workers, the airlines. It's time to worry
about main street and regular people. All right, everybody, welcome
back to the show. Listen. We are at a period
(12:10):
in the show where I read an email that I
received from one of the viewers. Sometimes I do one
of these emails. Sometimes I do more emails in each show,
but this one caught my attention, and I'm going to
read it to you, Okay, And here's the email, Dear John,
and this happens to be from Brian in Sea Conk.
(12:34):
Brian from Sea Conk, thanks for listening, Brian, even though
I apparently you are not a fan of mine. But
this is what Brian in Seaconk says and writes to me, John,
I listen to your speech about ending the division between
MAGA and rhinos and how we need to come together
(12:58):
as Republicans or conservative It is well John fu. Of
course he spelled it out in the email. F you,
John Deaton, don't tell me how to be You weren't
even born here. Go back to Detroit where you were born.
MAGA is the only way I will vote. If you
(13:22):
don't one hundred percent adopt MAGA and America first and
agree with Trump one hundred percent of the time, I
won't vote for you. I'd rather vote for Ed Markey.
That's what Brian from Seacock had to say after he
(13:44):
heard my speech that I played on one of my
last shows that I gave when it talked about unifying,
coming together, where I brought up the fact that you know,
Republicans eat each other alive this division and maga versus rhinos,
purists versus pragmatists, right, that you're searching for perfect and
(14:07):
you're letting good go away, and where you focus on
the twenty percent that you disagree with a candidate and
ignore the eighty percent that you agree with. Why I
gave a speech that listen, while we argue over who's
conservative enough, Democrats keep winning in Massachusetts, and so all
I said was we need to come together. Stop that
(14:30):
right that we believe in predominantly the same things. Lower taxes,
for example, so that we work in families can have
more money to take home that they earn. We all
believe in that right. You believe in that, don't you, Brian?
Lower taxes, You believe in less government overreached, don't you,
(14:51):
so that small businesses can thrive and parents can raise
their kids their way. You believe in that, don't you?
Because I do I believe in that. Do you believe
in that? Brian from Sea Konk. I believe in innovation,
school choice and a place where hard work still matters.
Do you believe in that, Brian from Sia Konk, is
(15:14):
that a Maga platform, Is that a Rhino platform? Was
that just an American platform? That was my speech basically,
and Brian from Sea Konk, you know he wants to
take issue with it. So let me first address while
you were born in Detroit, Brian wins the Moron of
the Week Award Hard Truth Here, The Hard Truth Show
(15:38):
is going to send Brian a plaque that says you
are the Moron of the week. Where you're born doesn't
dictate the circumstances of your life. Yes, I was born
in the ghetto in Detroit. I was born with a
deadbeat father, a single money on welfare and food stamps.
(16:02):
And I chose to not let those circumstances dictate my life.
I explained to you, and I wrote my book Food
Stamp Warrior. Howard's raped for a period of two years
between the ages of nine and eleven. I could have
chose to been a victim all my life. I chose
not to be. I chose not to let the circumstances
(16:22):
of that childhood dictate my life. And I came to
Massachusetts to go to law school to achieve the American
dream in Boston and New England School of Law. And
guess what I decided to do something, Brian. Have you
served and you wore a uniform? Because I wore the
greatest uniform that's ever existed in the United States Marine
Corps uniform. And you want to know what else, Brian,
(16:45):
I was selected by the Marine Corps to represent the
entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the nineteen ninety four Judge
Advocate Law Contract. One of the greatest honors of my life.
I beat out Harvard Law, b C Law, b U Law,
Northeastern Law, Western New England School of Law, and Suffolk
(17:07):
Law School students to have the honor to represent the
Commonwealth for the nineteen ninety four Judge Advocate Law Contract.
So I represented this commonwealth in the Marine Corps. I
was good enough for that. So I think I'm good
enough to run for Senate because I got news for you.
(17:28):
I got news for you, Brian from Sea Conk. Serving
in the Marines representing Massachusetts to me is a greater
honor to going to Washington and being around career politicians.
I'll serve with those Marines and represent the Commonwealth in
that way. So if I was good enough for the
Marine Corps, I think I'm good enough to run for Senate,
(17:50):
all right, So being born here that is a That's nonsense, dude,
it's nonsense. Expand your horizon. Now, know who else would
call you a moron? Brian? President Trump? President Trump would
call you moron, you know, because you say I have
to agree with everything. President Trump would take the position.
(18:13):
I really don't care if he's not the biggest Trump supporter.
I really don't care if he disagrees with me on
certain things. I want the seat. We want the Republican
to have a seat in Massachusetts because we live in
a divided world and Republicans only control the Senate by
three seats and the House is only controlled by five seats.
(18:35):
And guess what happens if the Senate flips Elizabeth Warren
becomes the chairwoman of the Banking Committee. President Trump doesn't
want that in his last two years of his presidency,
so he would say, yeah, Deeton is better than Markuye. Okay,
doesn't take a genius to figure that out. But since
(18:59):
you'd like to talk about you don't think I'm conservative
enough for you? Why am I not conservative enough? Is
it the abortion issue? Yes, I'm pro choice. I have
three daughters. I believe a woman has an absolute right
up into a certain period of time before the child
(19:19):
is viable outside of her body, to have an abortion.
You want to know who agrees with me? Brian from Seacott.
Eighty two percent of voters in Massachusetts, not fifty, not sixty,
not seventy, eighty two percent. When we voted for an
(19:39):
audit of the state legislature, it passed by seventy two percent.
In Massachusetts. The citizens here, the residents, eighty two percent
believe a woman has a right to abortion. It doesn't
mean I favor late term abortions, because I don't unless
it's the life of the mother or the child of
the fetus is already dead. Okay, So is that it
(20:01):
is that the issue? I supported gay marriage, you know,
even before the Democrats did. Is that the issue you
disagree with me because I don't support biological men competing
against women? So again, are you going to focus on
those couple issues that maybe you think I'm not conservative
(20:23):
enough and then say that I'm just that Ed Markey
is better than me. You might as well vote for
Ed Marky. I have a zero tolerance for illegal immigration.
I went to the border because and talk to border security,
learn that twelve million illegals came to this country in
(20:44):
the four years under Biden. I had a zero tolerance.
I said, shut it down. Ed Markey wants to give
amnesty and citizenship and voting rights to the twelve million
illegals that crossed the border in the last four years.
I don't support that nonsense. He supports biological boys going
against biological girls. I don't support that nonsense. He Ed
(21:07):
Markey wrote with aoc the Green New Deal, all those
mandates that you're paying subsidies for a solar and wind
and all that that's causing your electric bill to go
through the roof every month in Massachusetts. That's because of
policies like Ed Markey. I don't support that. I don't
support form wars. I don't support any of that. So
(21:31):
you're gonna choose to focus on the twenty or thirty
percent you disagree with me and ignore the seventy or
eighty percent. Okay, And the other thing I would say
to you, Brian from Sea Conk is you do realize
where you live right? You realize you live in Massachusetts?
Since you brought up where I was born, you were
born here, presumably have you paid attention? Did you know
(21:54):
that in twenty twenty, Joe Biden got sixty five point
six percent of the vote for the president to Trump's
thirty two percent. That's a thirty three percent margin difference.
It's the highest in the country. It's a liberal landslide.
(22:15):
And in twenty twenty four, although I predicted that Trump
would do better in Massachusetts, I said, he's still gonna
lose by over twenty points. People like you probably suffering
from living in an echo chamber, like, oh no, no,
he's gonna win. That's nonsense. You live in Massachusetts, dude.
And in twenty twenty four, Trump did improve, He improved
(22:37):
by eight points, but he's still lost by twenty five points.
Kamala Harris got sixty one percent, Donald Trump got thirty
six percent. That is a spanking. That is a liberal landslide.
Get out of your echo chamber, dude, look around. Just
don't just talk to your friends and your family. You
(23:00):
live in one of the most liberal states in America.
And by the way, I got one hundred and thirty
thousand more votes than Donald Trump, Yet I wasn't good
enough for you. Right, So it just shows you, since
I outperformed President Trump, that you have to accept where
(23:21):
you live. You don't live in Georgia. You don't live
in Alabama. You don't live in Mississippi. You don't live
in parts of Texas. You don't live in Florida. You
don't live in Ohio. Man, you don't live in Wyoming, Oklahoma, Nebraska.
You live in Massachusetts. All right. We have the most
liberal abortion laws here. We have the most restrictive gun
(23:43):
laws here. It is ranked. Every single federal seat and
state wide seat is held by a Democrat. All nine
congressional seats, both two US Senators all Democrats. That's where
you live. And you're going to take the position that
(24:06):
I'm not conserved enough. Dude, you're a moron. We'll be back.
Welcome back to the show. This is John Deaton, and
you're locked into the hard truth. I got a special guest.
I said that I was going to highlight small local
businessmen or women in the community. I have a friend
of mine on the show. His name is Ray. Ray.
(24:26):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Hey, thank you, John, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
All right, Now, listen, everybody, I got a little confirmation
bias and my fondness for Ray. He was out there
pounding the streets supporting me when I ran for US Senate.
He's a Patriot fellow XRP holder, so we got a
lot in common. But the goal here is to highlight
what you're doing, not what I've done or what I
may do in the future. Ray, tell us a little
(24:51):
bit about yourself. Who's Ray Jennings, where you live and
what business you have.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Okay, so I'm a attorney. I graduated in nineteen ninety six.
As a matter of fact, I almost went to New
England School a lot. I think we would have been
classmates if I did that. I went to Massachusetts School
of Law and I graduated actually nineteen ninety five, so
I started practicing in ninety six. I have a local
(25:17):
law practice. It's kind of hard to describe, Like people
will always say, what kind of lawyer are you? You know,
It's like, well, you kind of go where your cases
take you, right, So it's not like I do any
one thing. I can tell you what I don't do.
I don't do divorces. I don't do I don't do
criminal law. I don't do bankruptcy. But I know a
(25:38):
lot of you know, fine lawyers that do that stuff.
So I started as an attorney, you know, doing civil litigation.
I did some collection work. I did cases, just you know,
cases that came along, mostly business disputes, mostly civil litigation,
that kind of thing. My father was a lawyer here
(26:02):
in Weymouth. He was actually the town mottertor for a
number of years. He had a very well established practice,
and so you know, I sort of fell into that,
and then he passed in two thousand and you know,
his name still carries the day as far as I'm concerned.
It's just everybody knows the name. My name, Ray Jennings,
it's the same as his, and it's just it's taken
(26:25):
away from there. So back in twenty nineteen, I had been,
prior to that, a patron of a place called the
Union brew House in Weymouth, and it's just a it's
like a beer bar, you know, seventeen taps, constantly rotating
the different beers from around the world. The prior owner
(26:46):
was a friend of mine, and I saw it as
an opportunity actually to develop the real estate. It had
recently been rezoned, so there was a zoning, and I
had been doing zoning for other clients and practicing before
the boards. I saw this as an opportunity to develop
the real estate and I wound up with the business too.
(27:10):
So that's the way it kind of went.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
All right, So where are you locate? Where is the
what's it called?
Speaker 2 (27:17):
It's the Union brew House in Weymouth, Massachusetts, five point
fifty Washington Street. If you know Weymouth at all, on
Route fifty three, that's Washington Street. And we're right near
the Bjys in town.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
So and how long have you been the owner? We
bought this.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
We bought this in twenty nineteen, in November, I think
we closed, and in March we shut down for COVID
like everyone else.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
So your timing was impeccable, right right, Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
So yeah, but we got the development approofs. We've had
some setbacks just in terms of developing it interest rates,
so if there any went out, you know, in the
Biden administration, the interest rates became. The project is a
(28:10):
proof of twenty eight residential units in a new thirty
two hundred square flip restaurant for the retail space and
through circumstances which your your your listeners don't need to know.
You know, we're we're we're actively marketing the project to
people that might be interested in either buying it outright
(28:32):
or developing it in partnership.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Now, now, when you say buying it outright, would that
include the pubhouse?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yep, so we could we could we could package that up.
Part of the attraction is is the Weymouth created a
few years ago an overlay district. So rather than change
the underlying zoning, which still exists as the one, they
created this commercial corridor overlay district. And it encourages the
(29:00):
mixed use of retail with the residential aspect. And and
so we presented the project to the town. Uh, they
approved us for the development. And now we're just we're
we're marketing that as either buy it all and have
(29:22):
a nice day, write me a check or or you know,
you know, five years, I've I've grown accustomed to, you know,
known the customers and obviously the staff and so forth.
And so we have a really vibrant, you know sort
of operation here and I'd like to see it continue
just for posterity sake. Uh, but you know, if you
(29:44):
write me a big enough check.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Of course, listen, what's the seating capacity?
Speaker 2 (29:50):
So technically we have seventy inside, but we have a
nice patio where I'm seated. Now that probably been another
hundred if you wanted to, a thirty two hundred square
foot restaurant would probably have close to one hundred and fifty.
I imagine that would be able to seat in the
new facility.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
You know, all right, what kind of food, if any?
Speaker 2 (30:12):
So it's I wouldn't call it pub food, it's a
step up from that. We get our fish from Boston,
sword fish and tuna delivered twice a week, so we
we're the place to go on the Cell Shore. My
customers tell me we have the best seafood on the
Self Shore. So haddock, it's fresh, it's not frozen. We
(30:35):
get it. We literally delivered ourselves twice a week. So
we'll have steamers at times. We'll have you know, haddock,
we don't use cod. It's everything. So the fish sandwiches.
We have a bar pizza traditional self throw bar pizza.
So I'm sure you're familiar known Dave PORTNOI what that
(30:57):
is ten inch pan pizza that with the laced edges
and so forth. And then the burger is a terrific
und eight ounce angus beef patty. So people love it.
So yeah, just comfort food and uh, you know, we
keep it interesting and you know, keep it simple.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
All right, what's your hours operation there?
Speaker 2 (31:17):
We're open noon to close. So ever since COVID closed
has been like sort of a vague vague thing, a thing,
you know, but certainly no sooner than eleven. Uh, but
you know, the culture has changed, John, It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
The culture is so you you decided to go into
the the pub business. I know that you had real
estate to deal with, and you close and then the
next day practically the government shuts you down. Click click.
Couldn't have been the way you envisioned launching the business.
(31:56):
I assume it.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Was crazy, you know. But the we own the land.
There's one point seven acres here. We own the land.
There's a rental property on you know, residential resid rental property.
So we were because we weren't leasing. I think we're
in a better position than most of the businesses in
the area to survive like a setback like that being closed.
(32:18):
And we had the outdoor area already set up. So
when we reopened, we were already set up. We had
we put up tents out back, and you know, we
we we opened as soon as we could, you know.
And uh, and then you know, it's been a it's
been a transition to you know, trying to get back
to normal. But I think it really has changed the
(32:39):
way people go out and eat and enjoy themselves. They're
not out late at night anymore. And the younger people
that used to come here and pack the place just
they don't. They don't go out like they used to. Uh.
And I say that from knowing other business owners in
town too. So I as a practicing attorney, I advise
(33:00):
a lot of those that a lot of those other
business owners, and so they have noticed the shift as well,
and you know, we just have to deal with it.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Is that do you think, Ray? Do you think that is?
Is that the door dash impact or would you attributed
to just fundamental behavior change because of the lockdowns? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
I think people's behavior change because of the lockdowns. And
I think people that would go out two or three
times a week don't go out two or three times
a week. They go out less. Uh. You know, it
was funny. I I just got my POS system set
up like there was no POS system, like no like
one that was communicating on the internet right before we
(33:41):
shut down, like literally days before, and so we weren't
in a position to stay open in order to take
out We had no you know, no track record or
anything like that. So it really hit. It hit us.
The timing was terrible, but we paid all our employees
all the way through COVID, and I'm happy that we
(34:01):
came out on the other side. And you know, I
can't say it made us stronger, but you know, we're
here and we're doing great. You know.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
So what lessons do you think obviously at the time
was Governor Baker shut down businesses, we have experienced something
like that again, do you think are there lessons to
have been learned? Do you think?
Speaker 2 (34:26):
John? I was. I was sitting here on a Sunday
night when one of the one of my partners, said
that they're shutting down the state and I thought, they
shutting it down, that's shutting down all the businesses. And
I thought they can't do that, Like what authority do
(34:46):
they have to do that? Like, I don't even I
couldn't even wrap my mind around it. I was like, well,
you went.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Back to constitutional law in law school, right exactly.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Went back to constitutional law the third year of law school.
I'm like, you got to be kidding me that where
did Where does the governor get the authority to tell
me I can't operate my business? Like you know, I'm
you know, drafting the complaint in my head. I'm gonna
run into superior court. And then you know, the s
JC in Massachusetts sort of just like supported the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
They shut down the court system, and I'm like, well,
I've already lost, Like where am I going to go?
But uh, yeah, I think it's I think it's a
I think we have some lessons to learn, uh from
that whole experience about uh, you know, I think it
taught us some deep lessons about you know, the Constitution
(35:40):
and our rights and our freedoms and privileges and all
of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
It's like a it's a it's a it's a great
textbook example. Like I think it would come out differently
on a law school examination than uh than it did
in reality. You know what I mean. I think that
right answer is not the way we got it, is
what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Welcome back to the show, everybody. Remember the show is
sponsored by my law firm, the Deeton Law Firm. For
the last twenty five years, I've been a lawyer in
Massachusetts and I've been representing mesothelioma, in lung cancer, and
aspestosis plaintiffs in court against some of the major corporations
(36:24):
in the world, some of the largest insurance companies. I've
battled with Travelers Insurance. I've battled with Dow Chemical. I've
battled with just about every fortune one hundred company that
incorporated asbestos into their products. A lot of people are
shocked by this, but there was about almost five thousand
(36:46):
different products that asbestos was an ingredient in. It wasn't
just the pipe insulation that was on navy ships or
in your basement, or those cast iron boilers that we
call them snowmane and boilers that have all that white
asbestos insulation over them. But I've represented you know, plumbers
(37:06):
and pipe fitters and people who removed those boilers or
put the pipe covering on. But I've also represented people
who never had that kind of field. They were exposed
because they used the makeup or they used Johnson and
Johnson baby powder that had asbestos contaminated talk in it.
I've went up against cover Girl Avon. I've represented people
(37:31):
at Fall River, four River Shipyard, represented people at four
River Shipyard in Quinsy. I've represented people on the cape
at Sandwich power Plant, the Canal Electric I've represented people
who worked at Boston Edison ge Plant and Pittsfield Farmers
(37:53):
in Southampton who were exposed to all the asbestos that's
on the brakes and the clutches on track. You know,
I've went up against John Deere, Caterpillar, heavy equipment manufacturers
who used and incorporated asbestos into their products. So I've
represented those auto mechanics, those heavy mechanics, heavy machinery mechanics,
(38:16):
and so if you've been exposed to asbestos, if you
suffer from mesothelioma, lung cancer, aspestosis, you can contact me
at the Dalton Law Firm that's d E A T
O N L A W F I R M. Dtonlawfirm
dot com. And you can also reach me here at
the Hard Truth at John at Hard Truthshow dot com. No,
(38:42):
I agree with you, you know, on one hand, I
want to be somewhat forgiving because you know, it was
a pandemic. You don't know what's going on. But at
the same time, there were other decisions Florida and other
examples where the shutdown certainly wasn't to the extent it
(39:04):
was here in Massachusetts. And so I'm hoping that future
leaders learn those valuable lessons because small businesses is eighty
percent of the US economy, and go ahead, I know
you have something.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
It didn't make a whole lot of sense to me,
like any time in history, Like if you look at
other pandemics or other outbreaks, you don't quarantine the healthy,
you quarantine the sick, right, you know, you don't lock
people in their house if there's a virus. You let
them out to walk around because the air is fresher
outside than it is going to be in your house
(39:38):
with who knows what. And it just it seemed like
upside down world to me, and not just from a
like a not just from like my experience of it,
but from a legal perspective. I don't know how people
came to the conclusion that they should just sort of
hand their rights to you know, or walk away, just
(40:00):
take it, you know, whatever the government says, I do,
you know, and like it was not a healthy amount
of skepticism. I mean, there certainly was on my part.
The first thing that I did was tweet out, you
know what the hell like? You know, is that a
mask or a muzzle? I think I said. And it's
set off Facebook social media crazy because it is It's
(40:25):
like people were afraid to say anything about it. Now,
let's talk about it, let's have reasoned discussion, let's look
at the medical evidence. And it was just just I
was a little bit disappointed with how easy people were
to sort of just subjugate themselves to authority. And that's disturbing.
You know, that's disturbing.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
No, listen, you appreciate to the choir there, brother, I
mean my you know, the one book that probably impacted
me the most was George Orwell's nineteen eighty four and
obviously Animal Farm and the other things. But you know,
we big brother, is only one generation away. Uh is
(41:05):
the way I look at it. And if if we're
that close, that easily going to just, you know, give
the government complete utter control over our lives and our
ability to make a living. You know, a small business
person such yourself, you know, takes that leap of faith, uh,
you know, possibly going in debt whatever, signing contracts, you know,
(41:29):
obligating yourself for years to open a business and be
part of what drives the economic engine in this country.
Be your own boss, your own person, all those things,
you know, part of that that that piece of the
American dream pie. And then the government tells you no, sorry,
you don't get to do that, which is gonna shut
you down. And I agree with you. In this world
(41:52):
where you know, whether we're talking about that or we're
talking about vaccines or or any of the other issues,
almost people don't don't want to have what you'd recommend.
Let's talk about it, Let's talk about the science. Let's
let's have an honest debate about what's the right course
of action. They're too quick to just accept whatever the
government tells them to do.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
And then, knowing what we know now about the effectiveness
of masks and the effectiveness of you know, the you know,
preventative equipment or whatever, knowing you know, knowing what we
know about viruses now, because we've all learned like how
they're transmitted, there's people still walking around with masks. Now.
I understand that there's some cultural thing. I was in
(42:32):
Japan many years ago, and as a cultural matter, people
wear masks it's a it's a they've done it for generations,
and they do it when they're sick. You don't do
it to prevent you from getting Who wears the mask
in a surgical setting? You know, the doctor wears the
mask so he doesn't infect the patient. The patient doesn't
wear a mask, like just like these basic sort of
(42:54):
like observations that were just over everybody else's head. I
noticed that they're in the pandemic. So it was good
in that respect. Is that woke my mind up to
like sort of how easily we can be manipulated and
how easily we can fall into sort of that you know,
subjugated role. And I and I'm disappointed in a lot
(43:17):
of ways with with people in the way that they
reacted to that, because it's in a crisis that you know,
we really sort of, you know, figure out what your
character is. And I can't say that I'm not disappointed.
And you know how readily we just dispensed with all
of that like common sense without the window. And I'd
(43:39):
like to see people learn the lesson from that. I
think there's some people that never really learned the lesson
and never really apologize for the behavior, and they really,
I just want them to learn and become more freedom oriented,
you know more. You know, individualism in our system is
(44:01):
an important value, you know what I mean. It's not socialism,
it's not it's individuals.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
Unless you're in New York City. I don't know if
you saw the election in New York City when you
bring up. So listen, we live in fascinating times. But listen,
we could talk forever. Let me ask you where is
what's the business called? And where's it located? Again?
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Okay, we are the Union brew House in Weymouth, Massachusetts,
five point fifty Washington Street. It is a pub classic
sort of almost like an Irish pub, you know. It's
kind of got the low ceilings, you know, very cozy decor.
(44:45):
And we are open seven days a week at noon
and probably ten thirty at night or so. So we'd
love to have you, love to introduce you. By the way,
the Gulf of Weymouth t shirts originated out of here.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
Oh yeah, let's we got a couple more minutes. Tell
us about the Golf of Weymouth.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
Yeah, phenomenon. The mayor was here, although he denies that
he was here, but he was here.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
And you're not talking about Bob Headlin.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Are you Bob Headlin?
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
It was dry January and he was here, so he
wasn't drinking, and he it was all over the news,
the Gulf of America, and Bob was here, and he
looked at his phone and then he looked at a
map and then he scratched out, crossed out Hingham Bay
and rode in Gulf of Weymouth. So he renamed the
golf the Hngham Bay Gulf of Weymouth on his phone.
(45:37):
And then my good friend Jason there who you know,
got the idea to make it into a T shirt.
We sold over a thousand T shirts, so we raised,
we raised. I think we've given close to eighty five
hundred dollars to the Veterans Memorial here in Weymouth, and
in particular it funded a project of Bob's Headlands, which
(46:02):
was a memorial dedicated to the Fitzgibbon family, which was
a father and son who both died in the Vietnam War.
The father was in nineteen fifty six, I think, part
of the conflict which later became the Vietnam War, and
then his son who was twelve years old when his
(46:23):
father died enlisted and was also killed in Vietnam, and
so there is now a dedicated a memorial to the
Fitzgibbons for that and it's a beautiful tribute. We also
have five Medal of Honor winners in Weymouth which Bob
(46:44):
Headland and through a contribution from Peter Hale, Peterhill, I
think at Peter Hale of Quincy dedicated a new memorial
most Medal of Honor recipients in the entire nation in
anyone time and it's a beautiful memorial right next to
the town hall now. As a result of that, so
(47:05):
we turned a silly little T shirt and a joke
into thousands of dollars for you know, veterans and veterans
causes and we're happy to do that. That's the kind
of people we are around here.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
So that is great. And listen, I can attest got
great burgers. I've had them, that's for sure. And I
didn't know that you had the best seafood. But that's great.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
Buy a T shirt and get ten percent off your.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Buy a T shirt goes to a great donation and
come down to the Union Pub. But if you're willing
to write a big enough check you can have it all?
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Is that right? That's exactly right, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
All right. Well listen Ray Jennings. It's a pleasure you're
having you on the hard truth. And look forward to
seeing you soon.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
All right, Love you brother, Love you back, brother.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Have a good one.
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