The Epoch Times Senior Political Analyst Roger Simon Explains His Recent Article on Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Big Tech

The Epoch Times Senior Political Analyst Roger Simon Explains His Recent Article on Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Big Tech

 

Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed the founder of Pajamas Media and all-star panelist Roger Simon to the studio to talk about his recent article at The Epoch Times.

Leahy: In the studio with us the famous Rogers Simon and now political columnist for The Epoch Times. Roger people have questions for you. Mark from Nashville has a question for you. Mark, you’re on with Roger Simon and Michael Patrick Leahy. (Takes a call from a listener) Roger Simon, are you related as do you have any connection with the playwright Neil Simon?

Simon: I knew him. I played tennis with him, but I have a funnier story about it. And hat is when my first film came out that  actually got made because anyone who writes in the movie business writes about 53 movies before one gets made.

Leahy: Which film was this?

Simon: It was the Big Fix with Richard Dreyfuss.

Leahy: Great movie. And based upon your novel.

Simon: Based upon my novel. In those days, the movie was taken on the road by the studio to do the last refinements. They’d show it in Denver or some other place and the audience would write down what we call cards about what they thought of the film. And then the writer and the director and the star in this case because Richard also produced we’d sit there and read the cards that night in fear that we’re going to be killed or people would love it. And that movie most of the people liked it a lot but some didn’t.

Simon: I Will do it every time. (Leahy laughs) I was riveted about that one for years.

Leahy: You were not related to Neil Simon.

Simon: Not related.

Leahy: But you played tennis with him.

Simon: Yes.

Leahy: How did that come about?

Simon: He was a good player.

Leahy: How did you playing tennis with Neil Simon come about?

Simon: I don’t remember exactly but I got called up by this producer Larry Turman who produced The Graduate and he knew I liked to play tennis. I’ve been playing tennis since I was six.

Leahy: So you’re pretty good.

Simon: I’m pretty good but I’m not great. And it turned out that the fourth player was Neil Simon. Then we got to know each other a little bit but not very much. But he did come to The Big Fix opening party and so forth.

Leahy: That was nice of him.

Simon: Yes. Well, he was very close to Dreyfuss because he wrote The Goodbye Girl.

Leahy: Of course, I forgot all about that. Which Richard Dreyfuss won the Academy Award for. Yeah, a great movie.

Simon: A fun movie.

Leahy: Not quite as great as The Big Fix. Perhaps the best movie ever made. But a good movie.

Simon: A good movie. People still watch it.

Leahy: Yes, they do. Roger, you wrote a great piece at The Epoch Times. All Red States Must Join Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida Restrain Big Tech. tell us about that article.

Simon: Well, you know, I saw DeSantis speak at CPAC. He was very popular at CPAC. And everybody loved being in Florida because they have to wear a mask very much. But that’s the sort of minor part of it. The big part of it is to say it has has done some smart things. He is initiating legislation to give trouble to Big Tech. now Big Tech is I think the enemy of the people in this country.

Leahy: I agree.

Simon: And the federal government because it’s run by the Democrats that are loved by Big Tech and essentially support Big Tech and vice versa are not going to do anything about it. So the states have to do something about it in defense of the people. And DeSantis started it and now Abbott in Texas has done something. And every one of the states should really look to that legislation and start enacting legislation that restricts Big Tech and stop them from canceling people like me. (Chuckles) They haven’t canceled me yet.  but they’ve canceled everybody else. and I’m sure I’m on the list. They certainly canceled Dr. Seuss. And that’s I mean that’s beyond the Beyond.

Leahy: The Cat in the Hat is now bad. It’s crazy.

Simon: (Inaudible talk) In the Soviet Union. So I think we have to stop this in its tracks before it ruins the Country and really essentially ruins freedom of speech.

Leahy: Now there is a bill like that and currently under consideration in the Tennessee General Assembly. Next time you’re on we’ll have an update on where that is. Senator Mike Bell is one of the sponsors in the Senate. Well, we’re going to have him on he will talk about that. I want to talk to you a little bit about this Ron DeSantis fellow. What kind of speaker is he?

Simon: He’s good. I think at CPAC the surprise best speaker went to Kristi Noem.

Leahy: That’s what I’ve heard.

Simon: But DeSantis was good.  But I think the other thing is they had the straw poll at CPAC and it was surprising in a way because Trump is a better speaker than any of them. Trump is an electric speaker. Let’s admit it.

Leahy: Let’s also admit he tends to meander a bit.

Simon: He meanders the whole time. But personally, I like to follow along. He’s fascinating.

Leahy: He’s entertaining.

Simon: If he had a late-night talk show, good by Jimmy Kimmel. (Laughter) But in the straw poll, DeSantis came in a small second.

Leahy: Even including Trump.

Simon: I mean, I think we even including Trump. I think it was 51 to Trump and 26 to DeSantis. I got it was a few weeks ago. But anyway, it’s just a straw poll at all that but I think the rank-and-file of the Republican Party really likes DeSantis and I think that he’s going to be, if Trump doesn’t run he’s going to be stepping in as a front runner very quickly.

Leahy: I think you’re right about that and Kristi Noem of course has ambitions in that regard as well.

Simon: She wouldn’t be bad.

Leahy: It was interesting to some extent, I mean here we are and it’s March of 2021 we haven’t even been through the first two months I’m sorry to say of the Joe Biden maladministration.

Simon: It feels like six years.

Leahy: It does! It feels like six years of misery. And moving towards totalitarianism at lightning speed. But back to your point. Look it’s got to be the state’s pushing back for the next two years next 15 months.

Simon: I’m telling you, it’s all in the hands of the states. and look Trump won more States than Biden did. If we were right and the election wasn’t kosher.

Leahy: It was not kosher in five states because of the unlawful elections.

Simon: But even more states. And we’re going to find out interesting things from in Georgia.

Leahy: They’re looking at the Fulton County ballots. And I think they’re going to what they’re going to find it’s not going to be good for the Democrats.

Simon: Let’s hope.

Leahy: It’s not gonna make any difference in terms of who the current president because of the failure of many institutions to stop unlawful, like election procedures in those five states.

Simon: Exactly. Which circles around the same thing. The states are the ones who have got to do the work right now. We’ve got a Republican government here in the state. As citizens, we have to keep our foot on these on all our politicians from our own party if we are Republicans to make sure they stick to it because boy they haven’t got much time really.

Leahy: I agree completely. I think this is an exec substantial challenge to the ongoing survivability of our constitutional republic. My senses are Tennessee General Assembly is doing a good job. Our governor in my view is more than a little bit weak and push back.

Simon: Well if he should be listening to us this morning.

Leahy: He’s not. (Laughter)

Simon: What? He sleeps in like me usually when I’m not in.

Leahy: Look, Governor Lee is not a bad guy. But he’s not a courageous guy in terms of pushing back. And he’s wrong on a number of issues for instance as an example in my view he said welcome. We want more refugees in Tennessee. We don’t want more refugees in Tennessee, and he could have done something and he didn’t.

Simon: He did one thing that was good the other day.

Leahy: Tell me.

Simon: He walked around downtown and Broadway without a mask on and god filmed. Step one. That’s good. Now keep it up. Get further along. Take some risks.

Leahy: But he created his own problem and I’ll tell you why.  I think he unlawfully gave counties the authority to determine whether or not they should have masks. He didn’t have the authority to give counties that authority. Now Davidson County Mayor John Cooper has a stupid mask mandate still. And so he’s he kind of created his own problem in that regard. That’s a mistake in my view.

Simon: I agree with you. It’s a mistake. The whole COVID thing is so filled with mistakes we could sit here for 14 hours and we wouldn’t get through it.

Leahy: I know.

Listen to the full third hour here:


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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Star Panelist Roger Simon Reflects on Being a Journalist at CPAC and the Cancelling of Dr. Seuss

All Star Panelist Roger Simon Reflects on Being a Journalist at CPAC and the Cancelling of Dr. Seuss

 

Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed the founder of Pajamas Media Roger Simon to the studio to discuss the energy and reception at CPAC and how Dr. Seuss is the recent victim to fall prey to the cancel culture.

(Trump Clip Plays)

I said that I think he should have 10,000. I think I gave the number. I definitely gave the number of 10,000 National Guardsmen. I think you should have 10,000 of the National Guard ready. They took that number from what I understand. They gave it to the people at the Capitol which is controlled by Pelosi and I heard they rejected it because it wouldn’t look good.

Leahy: That was Donald Trump talking about the generally sixth event. In-studio Roger Simon my former boss at PJTV now a columnist at The Epoch Times. And of course, Andy Ogles mayor of Maury County in the studio with us. I want to ask you this question, Roger. So you’re with The Epoch Times. It seems to be the juggernaut of conservative reporting these days supplanting, the old staple like National Review and The Wall Street Journal. What was it like being a journalist at CPAC for The Epoch Times?

Simon: Well the bottom line is what journalists need is access. You want to be the one to interview a Mike Pompeo or someone like that. And to be with The Epoch Times now, it’s simple. they all want to be on The Epoch Times. And the reason is that it’s the only kind of serious newspaper online and in your mailbox on the right anymore because The Wall Street Journal sort of deserted it. So we’re growing like crazy. And I can tell your listeners here if you haven’t subscribed be there or be square as we used to say.

Leahy: So who did you interview down there?

Simon: Oh, I talked to all of them Jim Jordan. All of them. My job is not to do that. That’s (Inaudible talk) job who had the video.

Leahy: You do the reporting. You are actually a commentary.

Simon: I’m the wise guy who gives you the sense of the ‘room’.

Leahy: So Andy, let me tell you why Roger Simon is a wiseguy. Like one of the other people in this anti-lockdown party in our studio today he’s an Ivy Leaguer. He went to Dartmouth. Dartmouth is in the news today.

Simon: Yes.

Leahy: You’ve got to tell our audience about this.

Simon: We all love the cancel culture. Anyway, who’s your favorite children’s author? Well, chances are if I would say 50/50 it’s Dr. Seuss. Have you ever read Dr. Seuss to your kids? Anyway, Dr. Seuss was just canceled. Six of his books have been rescinded by the publisher. So I don’t know which ones I haven’t read the full article yet, but I hope…

Leahy: Was it green eggs and ham?

Simon: I hope it’s not If I Ran the Zoo said Gerald McGrew because I love that one.

Ogles: But anyway, I do think that is one of them, but I mean, we’ve lost our collective minds. Mr. Potato Head. It’s not inclusive enough?

Leahy: It can’t be Mr. Potato Head. It has to be Potato Head.

Simon: Right.

Leahy: Unbelievable. So Dr. Seuss’s real name was Theodor Seuss “Ted” Geisel, a Dartmouth graduate.

Simon: Who donated the copyrights to all his books in his will. He’s dead. And there are the guys at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and it was a lot of money he gave him.

Leahy: He gave the rights to Dartmouth.

Simon: As a royal alum. Let’s hope Dartmouth complains.

Leahy: So the publisher says we’re canceling six Dr. Seuss books. Andy, can you imagine Dr. Seauss being politically incorrect. Is it anti-green eggs?

Ogles: Again, we’ve lost our minds. This cancel culture of inclusivity or non-inclusivity. I mean look, if you are a dude and you want to wear a dress, wear a dress. I don’t care. But you are still a dude. (Laughter) I’m sorry. That’s the way God made you. And maybe that’s the problem that you don’t have a relationship with God and you need to get woke with yourself. If you want to get woke read scripture follow Jesus and be woke. But at the end of the day, I’m not going to hold your hand and pander to you because you’re a dude in a dress. You’re still a dude.

Leahy: Yeah, absolutely.

Simon: But it is something that Michael said that occurs to me that it’s Dr. Seuss who came up with green eggs and ham. The left should love him.

Ogles: I don’t know.

Leahy: The left should. But again this is like the French Revolution. We have of the French Revolution and we’ve got this permanent class funded by various left-wing nut case billionaires of all these activists who don’t have any common sense whatsoever.

Simon: There may be a guillotine here in 15 minutes if we go off the air. (Laughter)

Leahy: If there is dead air when the show opens at 5:00 a.m. tomorrow morning you’ll know what happened. So I want to go back to the CPAC adventure. It’s interesting what you said as very upbeat. Now, why do you think it was upbeat? And where do you think that leads us?

Simon: Well, I think that part of the reason is up rate is that Trump is absolutely back. And he looked really good physically. A lot of people on the comments section of my Epoch Times piece were saying how much weight he lost.

Leahy: You know, it’s the old thing about Nixon back at after he lost the 1960 presidential race. Lost the governor’s race in ’62 for California. But then in ’66 and ’67, he was back. He was tanned, rested, and ready. That was the phrase. Trump you can tell just on the camera that he looked tanned, rested, and ready.

Simon: But he’s always tan. (Leahy laughs)

Leahy: That’s another story.

Simon: Yeah, but I think that dominated the whole thing and I think people have sort of figured out that the left has really overstepped and because they have overstepped it’s time to take things back and to get things on. And also it’s time to get on some of these wishy-washy Republican officials in our state and other states. One of the great things is DeSantis’s state. Everybody was saying that DeSantis should be the template for Republican governors across the country. And I really agree. How do you feel?

Ogles: Absolutely. I think DeSantis has done a great job managing COVID and defending liberty. Early on in March and April when we were all terrified he took action. But as soon as the data said otherwise, he reversed those actions and that took real courage.

Simon: The other thing that was true about CPAC is that Fauci became a curse word. (Laughter) Quite literally at the Reagan dinner Larry O’Connor who was the host.

Leahy: Larry O’Connor used to work for Breitbart and is now with the WMAL in Washington D.C. doing a great job in the afternoon.

Simon: He does a great job on the radio. But he is a funny host and he used Fauci as a replacement and as the new F-bomb. (Laughter) Fauci you!

Leahy: Now that’s funny.

Simon: I won’t go on with the whole thing.

Leahy: We might get in trouble. We don’t want to do that.

Simon: We don’t want to go off the air before they cancel us.

Leahy: What’s interesting to me Roger is I think people had a lot of fun down there.

Simon: They did. I mean, I kept saying, When can I go outside? It was 80 degrees out there. But aside from that it was great and everybody was super friendly. Another interesting thing about what’s happened with CPAC is that there now is a Korean CPAC, French CPAC, and various others.

Leahy: In those other countries?

Simon: Yes, and they had videos of their events that were shown to us. CPAC as a movement is spreading globally as the conservative movement of the kind of Trump direction it’s going. The populist direction is spreading. It’s very heartening.

Leahy: Of the speakers there, which one’s got other than Donald Trump, of course, who capped it off with an hour and 20 minutes. It was very well received. Which of the speakers also were received with that same level of enthusiasm?

Simon: The same level, no one. But I would say very high-level was Kristi Noem. What’s interesting to me about her is she’s a really good public speaker. And she knows how to underplay lines like an actress. And I come from that world so I watch that. She underplays everything just well. She said very quietly like to the audience. I don’t know if you agree with me, but I think Dr. Fauci makes mistakes a lot.

Simon: The place broke up! (Leahy laughs)

Leahy: She knew how to play it. She knows how to deliver a line. And she knows pacing.

Simon: Yes. She knows the line’s good. Don’t scream it.

Listen to the full third hour here:


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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.