How Louisiana Took Over Washington, D.C. / 80th Anniversary of D-Day

Hy and Christopher are joined by consummate D.C. insider Curtis Robinson, to explore "How Louisiana took over Washington!" With Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise in charge, everyone looks to the Pelican State for the latest power moves on Capitol Hill.

Curtis is also the co-host (with Christopher) of Hunter Gatherers, The Podcast of Hunter S. Thompson stories. We discuss what the author of “Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72” would have thought of the ‘24 campaign, and the incredible parallels. If you'd like to hear more on that topic, click or tap here!

We then turn our attention to the D-Day Anniversary and the loss of a great hero of Normandy, sponsored to attend the 80th commemoration by the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. Robert "Al" Persichitti was 102 years old.  We speak of the legacy of the war and its greatest military leader, Dwight Eisenhower.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Battles, the politicians addressed, thedigitators and magicians. Who's to see the
money? Then you don't, there'snothing to fill the holes while then are
filling their pockets Bioles, the politiciansbouncing down the road. Every body'sition for

(00:25):
no moment, corruption and dysfunction.It's gone on date, Divide it Avention
how Louisiana took over Washington, dC. On this edition of The Founder's
Show, and a little insight intothe legislative session is making news around the
country others with a special guest fromWashington, DC, and God bless all

(00:47):
out there. You are now listeningto The Founder's Show, the voice of
the Founding Fathers. You're Founding Fatherscoming to you deep within the bowels of
those mystic and cryptic alligator swamps ofthe BAGHASI that old crush City, New
Orleans, Louisiana, And Hi upon top of that old Liberty Cypress tree
way out on the Eagles Branch.This is none other. Then You've s

(01:08):
been gary by by all the republicChaplain Hi mceinry with Christopher Tidmore. You're
roving reporter, resident radical moderaten,Associate editor of The Louisiana Weekly Newspaper at
Louisiana Weekly dot net. And Hi, we have a very special show.
You've heard this voice before by phonelink and across commercials, and if you
listen to a podcast I do calledHunter Gatherers, you heard him as the

(01:30):
main host of the show, joiningus in studio at our studios and Historic
Magazine Street New Orleans. Is thenumeral and irreplaceable Curtis Robinson. Curtis,
welcome to the program. Well,thank you, thank you. It's good
to be here, and thanks forhaving me. Great to have you,
Curtis. And I'm maybe we'll heara little bit about a Hunter and on
this show, certainly a lively fellowfits well in New Orleans. Oh yes,

(01:53):
yes, that's the last time Isaw him. And I have to
resist the temptation to say last timeI saw him alive, because people are
have you seen him a lot since? But the last time I was with
Hunter was in New Orleans? Actually, yeah, right right? He fit
and his personality type fit well inthis city. He did, you know,
he moved about it fairly easily andwithout a lot of disruption. There

(02:16):
were a lot of hunterd fans,but they tend to leave him alone.
Have you seen the Toughest Man inAmerica? It's like a documentary. I
have not. Okay, they pickedcertain Americans and they have like three or
four and it's who's the toughest one. You know, they have Abraham Lincoln
a great wrestler, and Jackson agreat warrior, and all this kind of

(02:37):
stuff, and who's the toughest one? And Hunter was in one of those.
And I think out of four peopleor five people, he came in
number two. And I had noidea. He was such a wild man.
That guy was a fighter, abarroom brawler. He took on motorcycle
gangs. He loves shooting his gunoff all of us. He even tormented
one of the famous movie stars onenight to kill him and then goes and

(03:00):
shoots all firecrackers and guns, alljust kidding him, playing. But the
guy didn't know what he was scaredto do. Well, he was uh
uh. He did lose that fightwith the bikers though, but then again
he did. But that's what itwas, the whole club. But the
thing is that what made him toughwas not just said he had a fight
with him, but he one guyagainst a whole biker team and and yeah,

(03:21):
eventually they whipped his ass, buthe took the whipping like a tough
man. He also had just publisheda book on the Hell's Angels and they
kind of thought that they should geta royalty from this book at the time.
So when you're fighting for your wallet, this this is something I don't
think they understood how the intellectual propertyrights work when you when you do a
book. Uh. And he,by his own admission, he could have

(03:42):
done a better job explaining it.They actually understand because they know how to
enforce it with chains and knives andguns. And yeah, there's no there's
very little appeals process, I thinkwith street justice. But you can hear
these stories of course at hunter gatherersCom and also by going to Spotify or

(04:02):
any of the platforms out there andlistening to Hunter Gatherers. You just have
to type in hundred gatherers. Butwe got to talk a little bit about
politics, right, and that againHunter is the lead in for that.
He was such a while man.Now we're going to get to talk about
the wild men of Louisiana politics andhow we tend to take over DC because
of our wow, crazy ways let'stalk about that, guys. Well,

(04:25):
and it comes into I mean,so Curtis and I do talk about politics,
and we like to make historical comparisons, and on the hundred Gatherers,
we spent a year talking about fearand loathing on the campaign trail seventy two,
which is comparing the current election tothe nineteen seventy two race that Hunter
wrote about. But one of thethings that was interesting in nineteen seventy two
was Louisiana was pretty much running everythingelse on Capitol Hill. F Edward Abert

(04:49):
was finishing his time as a longtimehead of the Armed Services Committee. Hail
Boggs had been recently relatively recently lostover Alasko, but he was a major
already leader. And of course,the the uncomparable Russell Long, son of
Huey was the was the Master ofthe Senate. And all of this is
going on at the same time,and our and our subtext, and you

(05:12):
know, Louisiana was you know,basically you had to go part of the
reason the Washington Marty gras Ball goes, they say it's for lonely staffers.
No, it was Russell Long andthe group to saying executing their power.
And it was interesting to go tothe Washington Marty Gras Ball this year because
it was very similar to that experienceas it was suddenly a very difficult ticket
to get. I'll say that itwas very very difficult to get that Tod

(05:34):
and uh, you know, andit and then suddenly you look around one
day and and you know, Ithink, I think the the sudden and
unexpected rise of the speaker. Uh, it was like, where did that
come from? And then of courseyou see uh Representative Scalise advancing. Uh.

(05:54):
A friend of mine says, Iswear to god, that man looks
more like Frank Underwood every day.I'm like, I don't know how he
would fit about that. Well,let's see, I've known Steve Scalise now
for a little over twenty five,you know, about twenty nine years.
And I've known Mike Johnson. Iliterally shared a floor sleeping with Mike Johnson
during the nineteen ninety six James's campaignelection challenge. He was dating, gonna

(06:15):
sound different when they read it backto you. Yeah, it's gonna sound
very good. Mike is Mike was. Mike and I were working these impossible
hours, our reputation here, Chris, things like that. Watch it.
Yeah, we were at opposite endsof the room and we're both were exhausted
staffords. Trust me, nothing elsewas on our head was like hitting our
head to the ground. But thepoint being that it did seem like Louisiana

(06:35):
came from nowhere. The fact iswe didn't. Louisiana's always had this tradition
of keeping its representatives in office fora long time and working together across party
lines to make sure that those representativeswere very powerful. This is the state,
of course of John Brow, oneof the key players of through the

(06:57):
nineteen eighties work basically working ross partylines with the Reagan and in the Democratic
leadership, the Reagan minsitry and theDemocratic leadership. This is the state of
Bob Livingston, who almost did becomethe speaker. It's not like this happened.
It is it was a speaker,but for a short while, he
actually never was elected speaker. Thisis important. He was elected by the

(07:19):
Republican Caucus to be speaker, butthe actual election of speaker was supposed to
happen the following Monday, and heresigns on Saturday. During the impeachment thing
trying to get Clinton to resigned.So he actually never became speaker, but
he, you know, for allintents and purposes, was serving in that

(07:40):
role. This but the point I'msort of curious about this Curtis. So
for those that don't know Curtis,because a lot of people hear me and
Curtis and they're like, oh,he's the expert hunter. And they kind
of know your newspaper background that youknow, you were editor of the Aspen
Daily News, you were a majornewspaper publisher all over the country. You
know all this, and they forgetabout the fact that you've been in public

(08:01):
affairs in Washington, d C.For three decades now and you are one
of the players inside the Beltway.My resume is carefully designed to make you
forget. Yeah, I'm not youknow, I want you to understand that
I am not the droid you're lookingfor. Of course, I'm not the
droid you're looking for. Whatever whateverelse may happen. They is, you
hang around these guys so much,and you watch what you're right off the

(08:22):
hill and you watch what's happening,and were you surprised when not just the
quickest cent of Mike Johnson, buthow it seemed like between Bill Cassidy sort
of as the Republican opposition to Trumpand all this, but also John Kennedy,
who comes off as Senator fal HornLeghorn is more like Frank Underwood than
any person I know in the entireUnited States Congress and the whole works.

(08:45):
And yeah, you know, Idon't. I don't know that I could
say I'm surprised by any of that, because you could say I was.
I was surprised by Speaker Johnson.I didn't see that coming. I thought,
I don't think anyone could could haveseen that coming. I will say
that that once he was in position, I was one of the people who
said because everyone was like, youknow, over under was three weeks on

(09:07):
him keeping the job, and I'mlike, I don't think so. I
think the Democrats saw that that uhinsisting on that change was not going to
always benefit them, and and Ithink that's the I think he's there for
a while. I think he's Ithink he's played the politics of it is
well as And here's the thing,if he's still there, he played the

(09:28):
politics as well as he could becausehe's still there. It was, it
was it was saved by the Democratsand people people are surprised, and I
point out and I said, look, Mike Johnson, one of his benefits,
the part of the reason he gotelected to speak when nobody else could,
was because he was a genuinely niceperson. And I said, don't
underestimate. I mean, he's he'sa doctrinaire conservative, but he was actually

(09:50):
friendly and nice and got along witheverybody. And so that no one,
at Marjorie Taylor Green put it purpose, no one actually hates him, and
that was the new standard. Thatis the new standard. That's it's like,
who's hated the most is the newstandard. And what a testimony to
this man that in d C hecan literally be the only unheted politician.

(10:11):
That's phenomenal. And if you watchhim, look you can see he's very
gentle, very nice. It's likehe really wants to be your friend,
which is great. Yes, itis one of the strongest, if you
will, political personalities. I thinkI've evert and you don't think of that
in politicians. But that's that's howhe conquers through love, really love and
kindness and goodness to people. Orhe's really a good actor. But having

(10:37):
known Mike for his I think there'sactually a genuiness to to the I think
that I think comes through with him. And then you know, and you
know, as I was telling someonethis morning, that you know, there's
something in the water in Louisiana.That's why I came down here is for
the water, immediately, for thebranch water. Yes, it's for the
branch water. Well, you camedown the dirtiest water in America. About

(10:58):
it, if you think of it, we're kind of like the anal opening
of the country. Everybody's waste,industrial, biological, whatever flows right past
us every day. In mind inMississippi. Well, he was coming for
the brown water, but it wasn'tthe ones flowing in the Mississippi anyway.
The fact of Curtis Robinson, aWashington insider, an expert on politics,

(11:20):
and a longtime newspaper publisher and commentator, is joining Hi McHenry and Christopher Tidmore
in this edition of The Founder Show, and Curtis one of the things that's
important and I wanted to get yourtake on it. I don't know if
you know anything about this, butthe fact that Mike Johnson was saved by
the Democrats astonished a lot of people, and they said, it's got to
be exhaustion. But there were Democratswho had that conversation, you know,

(11:43):
without giving it away any confidences withMcCarthy, so I have heard. And
the fact is Johnson convinced them inways to help him against his right that
others couldn't. So it says somethingabout the difference and skill. And I
say this knowing have known Kevin McCarthyfor twenty five years, for more than
a quarter century, and he wasone of the best fundraisers and best organizers

(12:05):
I've ever seen the Republican Party.But he couldn't pull it off. Mike
Johnson could. Well. I thinkthat the Democrats, I mean, they
made a conscious decision not to interveneuh in the in the first go round.
I think that in the second goround they made a conscious decision to

(12:26):
do that because I think they probablyregretted not doing it earlier. I think
they they decided, you know,they made that decision that they could deal
with him, and uh, they'rethey're they're dealing they're dealing with him.
I mean, they're making decisions andgoing for there, and it's going to
be I think it's gonna be oneof the most fascinating things in politics to

(12:46):
see how he threads the needle throughthat. And by the way, the
you know what are the things andthis would be a good show to bring
this up on. Is he's oneof the most overtly religious people we've had
on the national stage. I toldsomeone that I tell you a Democrat friend
of mine, but he was fromthe South, which is which makes it

(13:07):
a bit different. I said,well, you know, he's saved by
the by the Democrats. The guy, without hesitation said he would say he
was saved by Jesus Christ. Andhe said it without hesitation, And I
thought, all right, that that'sI've not heard that about a speaker all
the time. Well, I knowyou heard it as a kid as a
good Baptist, right, Yes,I was. I was raised. I
was raised as a Baptist. Youknow the great thing about being raised a

(13:28):
Baptist in the particularly in Appalachias,that it prepares you for politics. Because
this is the one thing you knowabout Baptist is we we have almost supernatural
ability to spot hypocrisy and others.I love it. I'm an Ordain Southern
best minister here and I call mychurch the split and Baptist because every the

(13:50):
first chance they get, the churchsplits. Yes, yes we uh yeah,
we we. It's good political training, I will say that. And
also it's uh, you become almosthigh persensitive to rededication. And if politics
in this country is not that rededication, I don't know what is well,

(14:11):
I mean, I got it.One of the things is having grown up
in a tradition of some ideological Idon't know sense being made of parties positions,
watching the parties changed overnight on politicalpositions. I mean, after all,
Joe Biden suddenly shuts the border atsomething that wouldn't go oh yeah.
At the same at the same time, the Republicans, the party of free

(14:33):
trade in the flat tax, becomingthe ones can we get into race to
close down international trade with other peopleused to you got to change it,
but you could rededicate every time.Are they remind me of my grandmother used
to say, because in our churchpeople would rededicate themselves and they would go
back through the baptism again to illustratethat. And she said, you know

(14:56):
of one person, she said,is I believe I'll get it right.
I believe he has confused the baptismalwith the bathtub. Curtis Robinson is joining
High mccenry and Christopher Tidmore here inthe Founder show this Wonderful Week, and
we're talking about so Louisiana's in growinginfluence in Washington, d C. And

(15:16):
to me, this is a goodthing. And the reason so a lot
of just like, you know,you got calls because you knew people in
Louisiana. I got a lot ofcalls from people who would imagine I would
imagine, I would imagine, oh, wait, have you ever met this
guy Mike Johnson. We don't knowbecause no one knew who he was,
even though he was head of theHouse Republican Conference. And they're like,
who is this guy? And Isaid, well, yeah, I've actually

(15:37):
known him since I've known him sincecollege. In fact, I've made an
observation that in order to be aleader in Congress you had to have been
a member of the LSU College Republicansbetween nineteen eighty six in nineteen ninety specific
group, because that's pretty much everybodyspecific group. I was asked several times
for by people who know you fromthe Hunter Thompson world. There does your

(16:00):
friend Christopher. You think he knowsany Republicans And I'm like, brace yourself.
I went to school with almost allof them. But the the thing
that's interesting is, you know,they didn't know how to handle this.
And the thing that I find interestingand I told people when Johnson was when

(16:21):
when the motion of vacate first cameup. I said, actually, I'd
known this with Steve Scalise. Andthey said, well, what if it
comes down to one or two votes, what's going to happen? And I
said, I guess the Democrats won't. I said, Troy Carter, the
Democratic congressman from Louisiana, will votefor whoever you know will vote for Scalie.
And then I said, we'll votefor Johnson. And they're like,
no, he's a Democrat. Isaid, you don't think like Louisianians do

(16:45):
You're saying you're saying that that's thatwould that would that would that's what if
it had been like if it hadjust been one or two. I was
going to say, you think thatwould trump the other thing. But I
don't say that. I happen toknow for a fact, and because I
have let's just say I have goodcontacts in Hakeem Jeffers's office, and I
happen to know for a fact thatCongressman Carter had had very unofficial conversations that

(17:10):
said, look, I can't notI can't take a person who's a friend
of mine away from my state.Well, scalicien here, and this is
a very Louisiana thing. Troy Carteris a congressman because Steve Scalice raised money
for him in an open primary.Stuff you would never hear in other states.
The politics here, I will say, the politics in Louisiana, in
my in my experience, it's justtotally different. It's a it's a little

(17:33):
uh, it's a little bit oldschool in that exactly that it's people do
that. And here's the other thingis that in a world of everybody trying
to just sort of never say anythingwrong, a blindness of the Louisiana politicians
are are pretty are are pretty forceful. Well it's because I mean I point

(17:59):
this out. You know, Earlonghas probably the best in My uncle,
who's a federal judge, was talkingabout Earl Long and he said, you
know, really, Earlong is kindof the progenitor of Donald Trump in so
many ways, and it was whenI thought about it, because you wouldn't
say a long a Democrat, Butit makes sense, you know, how
do you say outrageous things that peoplewere like you, I'm fighting for you.
The whole works. But the pointthat it was made was they said,

(18:23):
there is kind of an understanding herethat well, if you're black,
you're a Democrat. If you're white, you're likely a Republican. And but
that's just a fact. That's likesaying that the sky is blue. What
you actually believe and vote for,is it? Yeah, exactly. So
it's like, and I point thisout, and so I thought, advanced

(18:45):
on the legislature is the Ten CommandmentsBill is going to now it was passed
by the legislature, signed by GovernorJeff Landry, and it's going to be
on every wall and everything. Andwhat I point out to people is even
though the Republicans of the supermajority,he had quite a lot of members of
the Black Caucus vote for this billwho come from Baptist, Black churches,

(19:06):
Atholic And my point being the headof the pro life movement, Katunior Jackson
is an African American Democratic woman andso the issue we're in a state where
the issues don't necessarily align with whatyour partisan position are or what your race
is, which you don't see inother states. The best example I say

(19:30):
this is when Governor Jeff Landry wantsto get rid of his major political opponent,
who's this major political Garrett Graves,who is now unpopular because he didn't
support Steve Scalice for speaker. Andso what does he do. He makes
sure that Cleo Fields, probably themost liberal African American senator, but one
of his best friends, becomes thechairman of the committee in a Republican supermajority

(19:52):
legislature to redraw the congressional district todraw a second congresional for himself. That
he's only perfect. It looks somuch like a salamander. Elbridge Gary would
be proud of this accomplishment, runningfrom Baton Rouge to shreet board, connected
by no road only impenetrable swamps insuch a way. And I said,

(20:15):
that is Louisiana politics. I've beenfamiliar with southern congressional districts for for years,
and some of them do look veryvery much like Picasso had something to
do with this. Yeah, Curtis, you're from Appalaysia where an Appalaysia Eastern
Kentucky. Oh, I love it. One of my best friends from Kentucky

(20:36):
also. And by the way,I love bluegrass. I play it all
the time, especially at the gym. I dance all of the gym.
Everybody watches me dance. I thinkit's, you know, so cool and
and like they'd say country rocks,but bluegrass rue and I love bluegrass anyway.
I was also gonna say Hunter S. It's name is Hunter S.
Thompson. We didn't give his lasttime, y'all hurt maybe hurt us talking

(21:00):
at least? Oh, I knowyou, but and you are especially and
Christopher, but uh, he wasa famous literary figure and a fascinating fellow.
We're worth checking out. Yeah,and it's uh uh for some reason
that that triggered a memory. Uh. The last time I was on this
show, shortly after, someone gaveme a video. It was a clip

(21:23):
and it was if I'm not mistaken, it was either you or someone that
looked a lot like you. Uh. That was essentially Sean Penn's boat boy.
In other words, referring Yeah,he was referring to you taking around
Sewn Penn, which is in aclip after Katrina right right. He he
showed up. He was good friendswith our local two lane famous historian here

(21:44):
and uh Brinkley and we got theythey bought or they rented the CNN boat
and they arrived Brinkley and him andthe photographer when they wrote, I mean
here here on Napoleon Avenue at thewater's edge, and I've seen I've seen
there's a documentary. Yeah, Imay have given it to you. I

(22:06):
don't know. Anyway, I'm ina documentary like that, and Shawn Pin's
in the documentary anyway. So theyget there and they're getting now we you
know, we're real pros. We'vebeen doing this the whole time. They
just show up and a lot ofus have backgrounds and that this type of
thing anyway, and they didn't.They had no really background, and they
didn't know what they were doing.We could see that. So we said,
you want to let us help youget that boat in the water.

(22:27):
They couldn't get in the water,and they said, no, no,
we get to this, we knowwhere, Okay, we're back off.
Then they say they finally get itin the water and the boat begins to
sink. They forgot to put theplug in the boat basic scess. Then
they couldn't start the engine. Finallythey said, okay, okay, help
us, help us. So weended up in the boat with not alls
but some of us. And uh, that's where we saw Sean Penn as

(22:48):
a very different kind of person,really like he had a lot of humanity
to him and a lot of humilityand it was very impressive to see.
And he opened. You know,when men get on boats, they do
two things. They just like dropall their their their masks or whatever,
and they get real. They getvery real. It's strangest saying in the
world. They also can get veryangry on boats. Have you ever seen

(23:11):
that. You get the milest midlessguy you've ever known, put him on
a sailboat. They're screaming, screaminghigh like Captain Bly or Captain Ah.
I mean, they get wild.I don't know why water does that,
but it hasn't affect on them.And so we're on the boat and he's
just starting to talk about his lifeand everything. He says, you know,
there's just one thing I want inlife, one thing. I just
want a good wife and a goodfamily, and that's all I want,
That's all I want. He's almostcrying because he'd had a lot, I

(23:34):
don't know how many wife seasons,and the one he had he thought might
be the right one. Well,a year later they were divorced. But
they had this case of a lady, crazy lady who's gone back, and
I played it and that wife endedup going onto onto U House of Cards
and being the white the wife fromhell on House of Cards. The guy
had a little trouble picking women anyway, so but this woman he picked properly.

(23:57):
She's this crazy lady. I havea lot of them here, nos.
And she kept running back and forthacross the street, water up to
her neck. And by the timeyou got the Clayburne Avenue in eight to
twenty feet of water, it wasat bad. So we would find all
these people and bring them in andshe wouldn't get Some of these people wouldn't
take up, she wouldn't take help. So she kept walking. For some
strange reason. One location, keptwalking back and forth across the street up

(24:18):
to her neck. And we seeher again and she's walking, and all
of a sudden she goes down andwe know what had happened. She stepped
in a manhole. The manhole coverswere bowling off from the back pressure coming
in from the seventeenth Street Canal,and if you ended up in the manhole
cover, you were going to getsucked into the undertoe heading out to the
leg. Yeah, you're done.You know you're gonna die. So he
dives in this. It was aseptic tank. The pollution levels were off

(24:41):
the charts when they tested for biologicaland chemical pollution. He dives in that
mess. I mean I got upto it, up to my knees and
my waist, but he dives allthe way in and he finds her under
the water, and he pulls herup and saves her life. I was
astounded. And then guess what hisphotographer does. The whole time he sits
in the back of the boat.He won't do anything to help us.

(25:02):
He's moping, and he's in arage fit because Sean won't let him take
photo ops. Sean said, Iwant this to be pure. I don't
want to be here because I gota lot of pictures taken. You know
I'm gonna be famous for being atthe hurricane. I didn't. I don't.
I don't want any that I'm tiredof that. I just want to
be real. So I was veryimpressed with him about that. It's very
interesting experience. How do you getthis is not the way I thought that

(25:22):
story would go. No, you'reright. One thing he did though.
When I first met him, hehad this big smile on his face.
He's couldn't wait to tell me this. He pulls up his sleeve and on
it is his tattoo of this likehorrible looking demon. He says, look
at this, look at this.I know this guy. I met him.
I met him down here in NewOrleans at an LSD party ten years

(25:44):
ago. It's one of the bestthings I ever did. I'm going,
well, okay, that sounds likea Seany minutes later, he's diving into
the cesspool to save a woman's life. Is once he got on the boat?
Interesting? Interesting? Where did Jesusdid so much of his work on
boats? With whom fishermen? Well? It is? It is interesting.
You bring this up, and we'rekind of off the topic. But it's

(26:07):
a good topic because we're coming upon the twentieth anniversary of Katrina, and
so a lot of the people aregoing to be looking back at Louisiana and
it's and and what happened, Soit's kind of it takes it full circle,
you know, Katrina. A lotof people said Louisiana didn't have enough
influence to be able to get enoughmoney to support and so we made up
for We've made up for lost time. So you know, Washington is that

(26:29):
when we come back, we'll continuethis conversation about the state of American politics
and Louisiana's role in it. Obviously, we're not going to be a swing
state in this election anymore than Maine, where you you put hate in your
hat when you're not in DC.You're gonna be clearly, clearly not a
swing state. Yeah, but it'sbut what's going to be playing in this
election is going to be affect usin many sub ways. We'll talk about
that and a few other political issues, including some upcoming changes. As the

(26:53):
conventions come in. We can findsome interesting things happening, especially you know,
with with the sentencing of Trump fourdays before the Republican Convention. All
that more. After this edition foundthe show, we'll be backcraft this next
Sunday, June sixteenth is Father's Day, folks, and there's nothing like giving
the gift for Father's Day of oneof the perfect baskets for Father's Day for

(27:17):
Hillary's Florist. You might not giveyour dad some flowers, but Hillary's Florist
actually has a lot more than flowers, including these incredible Father's Day baskets of
food items that every dad would wantand it can be delivered straight to your
house. Give them a call Villary'sFloors at one eight hundred vi l Eeri
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My father was literally like John Wayne. I wish I had time to develop

(27:41):
this. He was one amazing man, hardcore man. He loved his comedians.
Real men folks love flowers, butthe rest of us would rather just
have a gift basket for Villaries Flors. Either way, folks, they're available.
Give them a call one eight hundredvil Eeri or check out one of
their two locations on the South Shoreon Martin Burman right off Veterans Boulevard,

(28:03):
right near the Orleans Jefferson Line,and on the North Shore on Highway one
nineteen Covington. Walkin's available will openevery day until six o'clock and even on
Sundays from ten am to three pm. So in Father's Day itself, if
it's not too late to get agift, you can walk into Villary's Florist
before three o'clock on either their locationsand walk out with a fantastic Father's Day
basket. Or and remember those folksabout men and flowers. Jesus's name,

(28:29):
the greatest man, the most powerfulman that ever lived. One of his
names is the Rose of Sharon.The other name is the lily of the
valley. In French we say Fleurde lys so the symbol for the Some
of the most manly men in NewOrleans are Saints football players. Is what
a flower? Folks? Whatever yourdecision, folks, Villary's Florist for all
your floral needs and tell them youheard it here on the Founder's show.

(28:53):
Well, folks, howdy doody,this is Chaplinheigh mcgenry and I'm the director
and founder of Lamb Ministries and InnerCity Ministry with Inner City Focus and Formula
four Inner City Folks. If youwant to find out more about us,
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(29:15):
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prayer warriors. So please get intouch with us. We've had tremendous success
in this ministry. We've had closeto five thousand kids come to Christ over

(29:36):
the past twenty eight years that we'vebeen operational here in New Orleans, and
we've had hundreds going to live productive, good lives who themselves now are fathers
because they're getting married and raising theirchildren, which is a rare thing with
our target audience, inner city kids, urban poor here in NW Orleans.
Please, we need all the helpwe can get. Just contact me chaplin

(29:57):
Heimich Henry at er Code. I'vezero four seven two three nine three six
nine, and thank you so veryvery much. There is now a place
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(30:18):
the corner of Washington and Britannia fromfour to seven pm every evening. There
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(30:38):
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(31:00):
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(31:23):
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on the Founder Show. Well,folks are back and this is Chaplinhi,

(32:14):
McHenry, and we're here to talkto you about how you can listen to
us on the Founder's Show, theVoice to the Founding Fathers. You can
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(32:37):
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you can just go to our website, the Foundershow dot com with two s's
and you can listen to us anytimeyou want to. Are the really best
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So check us out, folks.We are the number one rated weekend
show on WRNO now one of thelargest talk show stations in the Gulf South.

(33:00):
And again this is the Founder Showand I am with Christopher Tidmore and
folks, I do want to acknowledgethat we're actually taping the show on June
sixth, the eightieth anniversary of DDay and The reason I want to acknowledge
it is not only because of thesacrifices that were made from eighty years ago,
but because someone very key to thoseof us who do World War II

(33:22):
history and powles passed away on hisway to be honored as a veteran of
D Day. For anybody who goesto the National World War Two Museum here
in New Orleans, Al Paschetti isa well known figure. He lives in
Rochester, New York, but hefrequently came to the museum about three or
four times. Is he actually diedon the boat going there for his one
hundred and second birthday for the eightiethanniversary of D Day. He was twenty

(33:45):
two years old when he crossed atOmaha Beach, and so I wanted to
point that out that we want tohonor those veterans who came in an incredible
fire and unbelievable circumstances some eighty yearsago. And Folks, is an airborne
veteran myself fighting airborne needs right now. I feel very close to all that.

(34:06):
I got to go to D Daya while back with my sister in
ninety seven, and as we werewalking back from the beach, up to
the little village. We ran acrossan old French couple and as we got
closer to him, I could seetears in their eyes. And when we
got right up to him, theysaid Mars c mayor c libertis, meaning

(34:28):
they were saying thank you for ourliberty. That many years later, they
were still that deeply emotional about thewhole thing. And then I ran across
from British commandos and whatnot who hadlanded on D Day, and I think
they were commandos. They had thatbeautiful insignia that the Brits always have on
their blue blazers, and I wassaying, God, I'm so honored to
be in the midst of these guys. And I walked up to one of

(34:49):
them and said, man, Igot to thank you for the great work
you did with the sacrifices Sholeman.He looked at me, he said,
no, no, no, you'rewrong, he said, we need to
thank you. We have no idea, unfortunately in America the impact that that
war had on the entire world,and how America really did save the world.
This is an important, very importantday, the D Day celebration.
And by the way, the founderof that museum Christopher was very good friends.

(35:13):
In fact, he was his understudy. May want to tell you a
little bit about that, Uno Professor. I always in as understanding, I
was as research assistant, but StephenAmbrose, and I was proud to work
for him. In the formation timeof the National World War Two Museum,
I was actually around when we wereputting together. It was called the Allisenhower
Archive, which became the core ofthe intellectual stories of the museum. And

(35:35):
you learn a lot about your family. You learn a lot about people who
don't often tell their own stories untilthe very end of their lives. And
I don't know if this was anexperience you had. Curtis Robinson is joining
us when talking a little politics.I didn't intend to make this a long
segment, but you know I experiencedthat. You know. The fact of
the matter is I talked to mygreat uncle, who I always thought just

(35:55):
was served state side, because youwanted to get everybody who served stateside participate
in the war anyway, and Ijust thought I was doing something perfunctory.
And I went to him and Isaid, you know, uncle, Jimmy,
Jimmy James Villery. He said,you know, what did you do
in the warning and he responds,I really don't think I can talk about
that on record. I said why, He said, well, it took

(36:16):
me about an hour and finally hewouldn't let me record it, but he
said it. I said, well, I worked here, and I said
who is who do you work for? And he kind of says meekly Leslie
Groves? And I said, wheredid you work oak Ridge? What turns
out my uncle was one of thepeople who designed the fissionable materials for little
boys, a Navy lieutenant and asfar as a as a physicist. My

(36:40):
point being, you never know whatpeople will do until you talk to him,
and we're losing an entire generation ofstories that we want to have.
And so Curtis, that's very truebecause there's so many people this whole country
turned up turned out for World WarTwo. Whether they went overseas or not,
they were here on the deck doingtheir jobs. In fact, my

(37:00):
mother, my dear precious mother,Cajun mother, was none other than one
of the Rosy the riveters during WorldWar Two. Now, her rivets were
punch cards because she was one ofthe first two female computer programmers in the
history of this city. So shewasn't really you know, in a factory,
but she was next to the factoryat the ADMIN building for Delta Shipping,

(37:22):
which was producing an enormous amount ofliberty ships out of here Normans for
the war effort. Believe me,all hands were on deck, whether you
were in the military or not duringthat war. You know, in Portland,
Maine, there's a beautiful seaside tributedthat it's an outline of a ship

(37:42):
with with with the mast and everyyear folks come from the small town in
Russia, uh to to honor peoplethere. And it's from during the the
German siege of Leningrad, say Petersburg. Uh. The way they broke the
way they got materials in was waspeople from their merchant seamen. It was

(38:07):
before we got in the war.Uh would risk that and many many of
them were killed. And one ofthe things that that's interesting about that when
I covered it for for newspapers thereis that Uh they are that's taught in
their schools. They know that theRussian kids know the role that that was

(38:30):
played. UH. And and youwould try to do local react to well
what you and nobody had any ideawhat you were talking about. We we
don't. If we teach that,it's in a cursory way, it's not
in any emotional way. And it'sit's uh, it's one thing for to
meet French people that that are sothankful for that. It's another to meet

(38:52):
Russians who are who and they justthey're just flabbergasted. There's you know,
you you should be and they were. They called it, they call it
the Great Patriotic War. It's it'sit's taught not once, but multiple times
throughout the Russian school system, andit's some of it's he giography, but
some of it is I mean thatwe gloss over everything, mainly because it's

(39:16):
not a conspiracy. I taught highschool history for a year and the fact
is you get to your chucking Americanhistory. It's always played in American history
tends to end sometime around the eighteeneighties because you run out of time.
That is, that is very true. But you know, the the they
they felt that that we should addso much more pride, and you know,

(39:38):
and and foreigners don't always think Americanslack pride. Right, yeah,
you're right, we have pride,maybe the wrong thing anyway today dead in
Uston, but no, Unfortunately we'vemade this is my story. And as
Bekastan, we were at K two, right on the border of Afghanistan when
we went in an O three andwith twenty Special Forces Group and they had
big celebrations and Uzbekistan, I'll neverforget it, huge celebrations. All the

(40:04):
old veterans came out and they werecelebrating their victory in World War Two,
and they all knew the history andthey were all enthusiastic about it. They
weren't ashamed and had forgotten what hadhappened. We should never forget some things
that are so important in our history. That's how we keep learning and remembering
so that we won't make the samemistakes of the past. Let's say,
has so many great hist ORMs insteadof you don't study the past, you're

(40:25):
doomed to repeat it. Well,we can keep going on World War Two
stories and I want to. Actually, I was at the opening of the
National is then National D Day Museum, and I did eight hours of coverage
with veterans, over five thousand DDay veterans in one room, and I've
been wanting to take pieces of thosereporting and put it in We're thinking I'm
going to do it over parts ofthe summer. We have it, but

(40:47):
I want to bring in since I'vegot one of the leading journalism experts in
the United States who started multiple newspapers, I wanted to show them a picture
of The Times Picky un on theday after the D Day invasion, and
it was it was actually the dayof the special edition. And what struck
me about the newspaper is not justwhat it was as the invasion of France
on Germans say they got German sourcessaying it's going on, not the Allies.

(41:13):
But the front page of that newspaperis full of information and it's twice
the size of a current newspaper.To me, it was a testament of
journalism. Literally, uh, ninecolumns full of news, full of information.
There's probably more written words on thefront page of The Times picking you
in today than there is not onlypicking are most newspapers in America, including
the New York Times. And itkind of says something about journalism as well,

(41:35):
Oh this is beautiful. Yeah,uh caught the cut of unwarning.
I think that that is that.Yeah, the way the way they did
that, uh just just solid print. It's uh it reminds you of some
of the newsletters you see now thath uh just just are you know they're
they're just text and text and jumpingand it it was. It was truly

(42:00):
another era and it's it's one thingI'm hoping in journalism we get back to
folks that it's we we actually theyon the reports of that. And sometimes
we ask what are our schools teaching. We have to look at ourselves and
what our attention span is to thenews. The average person was reading the
effective of a book every day justto read the newspapers, and they were

(42:22):
doing it, and so we lookat ourselves sort of take this full course.
Curtis Robinson, thank you so muchfor joining us on this edition.
Well thanks thanks for having me.Well we can come back soon and you
will always can always hear Curtis bygoing to Hunter gatherers dot com or looking
at Spotify and other platforms for HunterGatherers. The podcast of Hunter S.
Thompson Stories, which Curtis and Idid, it is literally everywhere you get

(42:44):
your podcasts. Everywhere you get yourpodcasts, and folks check it out and
we'll be back for the patriotic momentafter these important messages, stay tuned,
rescue, recovery, re engagement.These are not just words. These are
the action steps we at the NewOrleans Mission take to make a positive impact

(43:05):
on the homeless problem facing the greaterNew Orleans area. Did you know in
twenty twenty, homelessness in our communityincreased by over forty percent. We are
committed to meet this need through thework being done at the New Orleans Mission.
We begin the rescue process by goingout into the community every day to

(43:27):
bring food, pray, and sharethe love of Jesus with the hopeless and
hurting in our community. Through theprocess of recovery, these individuals have the
opportunity to take time out, assesstheir life, and begin to make new
decisions to live out their God givenpurpose. After the healing process has begun

(43:49):
and lives are back on track,we walk each individual as they re engage
back into the community to be healthy, thriving, and living a life of
purpose. No one is meant tolive under a bridge. No one should
endure abuse, no one should bestuck in addiction. The New Orleans Mission
is a stepping stone out of thatlife of destruction and into a life of

(44:14):
hope and purpose. Partner with ustoday. Go to www dot New Orleansmission
dot org or make a difference bytexting to seven seven nine four eight.
Well, folks are back and it'sChaplinhi, McHenry, and it's not time

(44:35):
for us to go into our chaplain. Bye, bab patriotic moment. We
just take a brief moment to remindyou of the biblical foundations of our country,
our Judeo Christian jurisprudence. And todaywe're going to talk about none other
than one of our most famous presidents, now ranked number eight in the lineup
with the great presidents of all ourpresidents, and that's Dwight Eisenhower. Oh,
I like ike fame. Of course. He was a committed Supreme Commander

(44:57):
of all Allied Forces and World WarTwo in the in the in Europe,
and he wrote a letter on DDay to be distributed to all the forces,
and this is what he said.He addressed it to all military personnel.
I can't read the whole letter,but you'll get the salient parts.
But he went on to say thathe had great confidence, and I'll read

(45:20):
it like he wrote it. Yourcourage, devotion to duty, and skill
in battle will accept nothing less thanfull victory. This is for for dy
day folks. And then he said, good luck, and let all beseech
the blessings of Almighty God upon thisgreat and noble undertaking. Dwight Eisenhower,
Folks, I think old President Eisenhowerand General Eisenhower, four star General Eisenhower,

(45:44):
really believed in the need for Godin our lives. Remember, he's
the one who put in the inthe Pledge of Allegiance under God. He
added that to it. So certainly, here's another example of the biblical foundations
of our Judeo Christian jurisprudence in America, the big foundations of our government,

(46:06):
not institutionally, but philosophically or youmight say, spiritually critically important. The
Finding Father said, if we don'thave this, we're gonna lose the country.
And where are we today? Arewe losing it because we've kicked God
out? I hope not. Well, folks, have you kicked God out
of your life? Well? Ihope you haven't, because I'm going to
have a testimony time in a littlebit about a man who did kick God

(46:27):
out of his life, big time, kicked him out of his life.
You'll be hearing that in just alittle bit. But what about you?
Is God in your life? Ifhe's not, you need him there,
And I'm going to show you rightnow in just a brief moment, because
it doesn't take long. It waswritten for children, it was given for
children. Jesus said, unless youcome as a little child, you shall
in no whys enter in as wenow go into our chaplain. Bye bye

(46:49):
gospel moment. You know, theBible says God loves you with an everlasting
love. Folks, He loves youso much he became a man. He
went from glory to this septic plantank. I call the planet Earth a septic
tank. And it's been like thatsince Adam and Eve. It's been a
mess, this poor, poor planet. He came down here to live a
very hard life, become fully humanbecause Jesus is God, the son who's

(47:15):
all the way God, but alsoall the way man, perfect God and
perfect man. He came to thisearth to take care of your love problem,
because in the end, God's allabout love. God loves us all
the Scripture says, with an everlastinglove. So, folks, what will
you do with that love? Willyou take it or will you reject it?
That is the question. Please takeit, folks, And this is

(47:37):
how you take it. The scripturesays, the gospel is the power of
God into salvation to whosoever believeth.And so what is the gospel we've heard?
Gospel? Muse the gospel of thiswhatever? What is it? The
gospel truth? Whatever? Well,the word planing simply means good news.
That's what it means in Old English. It's an Old English word gospel meaning

(47:58):
God's spell are good news, folks. This is the gospel before I declare
unto you the gospel in one Corinthiansfifteen, first one, that Christ died
for all of our sins, allfolks, from the day you born,
the day you die, your tiniesttear, great sins. He died for
all of our sins, was buried, and rose from the dead to win
for you that precious free gift ofresurrection, ever lasting life, to whosoever

(48:22):
believeth. Not paraphrase most of that, because it's about seven verses long.
We don't have time on this show. But check it out. First Corinthians
fifteen, verses one through seven.Folks, have you done that? Have
you come to that place where youknow for sure you've trusted Christ with all
of your heart. The Bible says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. ForGod so loved the world. That's you,

(48:45):
that's everybody that he gave his onlybegotten son. Of course, that's
Jesus. That whosoever believeth in him. Believe what, believe He really did
die for all your sins, allof them, your tiniest, your greatest,
first to your last sins. Hedied for all of them, and
Bible says he it was turned intothat sin. That's how intimately he's gotten
to know you, folks. Hewas turned into every sin you'll ever do,
ever will do. And then hebeat sin. He grappled with it,

(49:07):
and he defeated it and got victoryover it, just like we did
a d Day eighty years ago.Folks. He is a winner. He's
a man among men, and hewants to be your man if you just
let him in. All you gotto do to let him in is believe
that he did die for all yoursins and rose from the dead. But
before you do that, you gotto believe something else too. One last

(49:27):
thing very important. Jez kept sayingrepent and believe, well, what is
repentance. Repentance is when you believeyou can't do it yourself. It's part
of your faith. It's not anact. That would be your righteousness,
which the Bible calls filthy recks,and that would be an act that would
cancel this gospel contract God wants tohave with you. He's signing in his
blood, all right, He's justwaiting for you to sign it with your
faith. But it all starts offwith believing you cannot save yourself. It's

(49:52):
strictly faith. That's what repentance is. And the Scripture says, godly sorrow
work with repentance. And whereas whenyou really take an honest look at yourself
and see what loser you are andhow you're damned to hell forever because you're
such a loser, maybe you'll wakeup and realize I cannot help God,
I cannot save myself. He's gotto do it all. In the split
second you do that, you justrepent it, and it's the rest of

(50:15):
it's easy. First part's hard becauseit attacks your pride. That's the hardest
part of this whole thing for you. So if you can finally get over
your pride and get rid of it, because it's worthless anyway, and it's
only damning you. Then the nextpart is so easy, anybody. It's
made for little kids. It's madefor children. Unless you come as a
little child, you shall have nowives entering. Believe that Jesus died for

(50:36):
all of your sins, was buriedin roseved and you're guaranteed ever lasting life
forever. Well, folks, Ihave a story to tell you about a
guy who found this. This isour testimony time. We've added that to
the show along with signs of theEnd, but this is today is going
to be the testimony time. Andthen I want to talk to you about
a brilliant man, perhaps the mostbrilliant man of the twentieth century. Many
thoughts so, one of the greatestintellectuals of all times. In fact,

(50:58):
his speeches and his radio time hewas a radio preacher, by the way,
was only bested by Churchhill himself.People knew about this man and his
speeches as much as they knew aboutChurchhill. He was that big. He
was an Oxford don He did somethingnobody'd ever done in Oxford. They had
this special award the effort. Issuedactually for honors like you know Magna cum

(51:20):
Laudia and Summa cum laudey all that, but this is a very special one.
It's issued about once every hundred totwo hundred years. It's so hard
to get. No one ever getsthis award, but this man did.
C. S. Lewis known tohis friends as Jack Lewis. He won
it, and he won it twicetwice. Well. He lost his mother,
his beloved mother, when he wasa teenager. Even though he knew

(51:43):
about God and had some level ofbelief in church experience, from that point
only he hated God. He turnedagainst God. He blamed God for it
all, and he became a hardenedatheist. He went through World War One
like that, was wounded, wasa great war hero in World War One.
And then sometime along the line,as he began to examine the biblical
claims, that began to see moreand more they're actually based on fact in

(52:04):
reality. Some kind of way alongthat route he found Christ and was born
again. And then he became oneof the most zealous preachers of Mary Old
England. We don't remember him.That we remember him was in Oxford Down
He wrote chronicles of Narnia. Hewrote that to communicate the Gospel through a
mythological story, which has had ahuge impact. It was a long parable
Jesus taught in parables, folks.He was truly one of the most dynamic

(52:28):
men of God the world's ever known. One last single I'd see is Lewis
because it's D Day. He becamea preacher, if you will, to
the military. It became a volunteerchaplain during what and he did radio broadcast
encouraging the troops and whatnot, whichhad a huge impact on the encouragement and
morale of the troops, preaching theGospel to them on D Day and for

(52:49):
D Day. And so I'll leaveyou with that, another great father who
actually was more of a volunteer fatherfrom many students. As we close right
before Father's Day, thank you sovery much. It's not time close with
a mon Saint Martin singing a creolegoodbye and God bless you all out there.
Does this have to be the endof the nerd? You know?

(53:14):
I love you. In the pamonland, I can see across a million
stars. When I look at wecan pose it's the sun. I suppose

(53:37):
you couldn't call little Cray if wetake just a little little longer to see
our good, the calling cREL good