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The following program is sponsored by What's Right, What's Left Ministries and is responsible for its content. Portions of the following program may be pre-recorded. I am Pastor Ernie Sanders, the voice of the Christian Resistance. Stay tuned. My radio broadcast, What's Right, What's Left, is coming up right now.

Coming to you live from Independence, Ohio. We change our life for the better in many different ways. Heard around the world every Monday through Friday. Pastor Sanders is always years ahead of the rest of the media telling you exactly what they're covering up.

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A lot of the other news media don't pick up the news items like he does. And bringing to light the enemies of freedom who are out to steal your rights, your children, and enslaving you. You really get the truth out.

I can tune into your show and hear the unvarnished truth. Thank you. This is What's Right, What's Left with Pastor Ernie Sanders. Good evening and welcome everyone. This is Randy Gage sitting in for Pastor Ernie Sanders, your co-host tonight with Pastor John Holman. How are you John? Very well and good to hear you Randy. Lord's blessings to everyone.

Well thank you very much. It's a blessing to be on here with you. How about you John McTernan?

Yes, I'm doing real well tonight. I'm glad you're here and we want to have a good show for everybody. Oh come on, you guys are going to be the backbone of the show. I'm just the third wheel.

And then we got back there our engineer who makes everything work. And you are, come on, the straw that stirs the drink. Come on, say hi Craig. Hey everybody, have a good weekend.

Hey, good evening. And it's Friday, February the 25th. I talked to Pastor Sanders earlier today. He told me a couple things appointed to say to you all today. One, he's just a little under the weather. He'll be back for us on Sunday because he'll be at church and we'll be at church on Sunday. And hopefully he'll get a restful two days here. We had an ice storm here in Cleveland and it wasn't the best time.

It hasn't been the best weather, but a lot of you are used to us anyway. What I'd like to do if we can is let's open up the program with a prayer for certainly our shepherd, our friend, and Pastor Ernie Sanders. Would one of you Johns want to pray for Pastor Sanders?

And then I've got a couple other people he'd ask me to pray for as well. Sure. Yeah. Go for it, John. All right.

Yeah. Father, thank you that we can come before you were Pastor Sanders, Lord. He's so important in so many ways.

His chest was kind of really congested. So I'm asking now for clearing his chest, the breathing Lord, and that you'd get him back real quickly and that he'll be ready for Sunday at church and then Monday for the show next week. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen.

Thank you very much. And then also, Father, I'd like to ask prayer on Les Warrens, who is an inmate who's been in part of Pastor Sanders' prison ministry for well over 30 years. He comes up for parole and what he needs is two people with two different addresses to co-sign for him as sponsoring him upon his release. And we pray, dear Lord Jesus, because you came to set the captives free, I ask that you would literally set this captive free. This is a man who's waited a long time and who certainly knows you, dear God, and has been incarcerated for a while. And I thank you for the privilege of praying for him. And thank you, Father God, for the privilege of this program. And we pray today that whoever hears, that if they know you, that they might know you more. And in another way, when they come off the program and those that don't, that we might somehow connect the dots of the Bible and the news all the way to salvation for those who are listening.

In Jesus' name. What I'd like to do, if I can, is that I don't know if one of you guys had a Bible study. I do, if you don't, and we can kind of go from there. But obviously, I'm going to follow your lead tonight. Thank you, gentlemen.

And I was thinking- Oh, Andy, I'm good with where you're going to go. Okay, then let's go to Psalm 107. And I'll wait for you guys to get there. And what I'd like to do is give praise and thanks to the Lord. And I think that there are a lot of people that a lot of times when we ask for prayer, they call up with burdens on their heart. And so I chose this one, because if you've messed up, if you've ever messed up, which we all have, if you've ever been depressed, I think this is a great Psalm, because it shows you about the goodness, the graciousness and the mercies of God. I'm going to read something out of Nahum chapter one, verse three, and then we'll go right over to Psalm 107. It says, The Lord is slow to anger, great in power, and will not at all to quit the wicked. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and the storm, and the clouds are the dust on his feet. So remember that, that when you find yourself in the storm, the clouds are the dust on the Lord's feet.

And if you think about it, God doesn't come most of the time in the sunshine, he comes in the storm. And if that, I'll tell you what, let's do it like this. If you, John Holman, will go verses one to six, and then one through six, excuse me, and then if you, John McTernan, will go through 13, and then I'll go through 14 to, what is that, through 19, and all of them end with, They cried unto the Lord.

So if you'll start, John one. I'm going to go to verse six. Yes sir.

All right. O give thanks unto the Lord for his good, for his mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered them out of the lands from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way.

They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of all their distresses.

Second John. And he led him forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men. For he satisfieth the longing soul.

He filleth the hungry soul of goodness, such as sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron. All the way to 13, please. To 13. Yeah. Yeah, I lost my place there.

Okay. And iron, because they rebelled against the words of God, and condemned the course of the most high. Of the most high. Therefore he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down, and they were none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distress. And I hope you guys are, I know you guys are, but people out there catching the rhythm of this, that these are people who have messed up, who've done things that they may have caused, but when they cried unto the Lord, he didn't turn from them. So those of you that might have financial problems, health problems, even those of you who've taken the poisonous poke, I want you to kind of, you know, look at this as kind of an allegory of your own life, but also this is the encouragement to go to the Lord, because it says, look at that, they cried unto the Lord, and he, in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distress. He brought them out of darkness, the shadow of death, break their bands asunder. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men. For you have broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder. Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.

Their souls abhorred, all manner of meat, and they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they cried unto the Lord in their troubles, and he saved them out of their distresses. You want to go John 1 down to 28 where then they cried unto the Lord?

Sure. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men. And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing, that they may go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these that work, these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths. Their soul is melded, because of trouble.

They reel to and fro, and stagger like drunken men, and are at their wits end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of all their distresses. You want to go again John 2? He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad, because they be quiet, so he bringeth them out, bringeth them unto their desired haven. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders. He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the water springs into dry ground, a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. He turneth the water wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into water springs.

And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they might prepare a city for habitation, and sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruit of increase. You want to finish, or you want me to take over? It's up to you. No, you can take over.

Okay. He blessed them also, so that they are multiplied greatly, and suffer if not their cattle to decrease. Again, they are finished, I'm sorry, menaced, and brought lowly through oppression, affliction, and sorrow.

He pours contempt upon princes, and causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way. Yet sitteth he, the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. The righteous shall see it, rejoice, and all iniquities shall stop her mouth. Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the love and kindness and the goodness of the Lord. And I, I, I, amen. And may God add a blessing to the reading of his word. I, I want to, I want to, I want to, blessing to the reading of his word. I, I, I want to lay this out to people, because obviously I think some of you are realizing that it appears that we're sitting on the verge of World War III, but remember that at the end of the book, that it's all here when Jesus comes back. So the, this talk of nuclear warfare and all that, regardless of what happens, the earth is not going to be destroyed, because it's here when Jesus comes back.

Anything you guys have to say, say about that? Well, I would add, look, how I've always looked at the future. What's the greatest thing you can trust the Lord with, that you possess? The greatest thing you got is your life. Yeah, your soul, your eternity, all that. So here's the way I looked at it.

If you want to keep your heart, in fact, I just read this verses this morning, it's Philippians, it tells you a guy to pass. Craig, I think he's breaking up. He's, we're losing him. I don't know what happened there. Yeah, I don't know either.

I did, yeah, we're having some trouble. Yeah, well, God tells you to think of these things, to have, he wants you to have peace that passes all understandings. So when you trust God with your eternal salvation and your eternity, what is it that you can't trust him with?

Oh, I agree. And if God gave you his son, which is the greatest gift he could have given, how can we not trust him for all other things that pertain to life and godliness? And what else is there but for us, life and godliness? There's nothing else.

Yeah, the advice is to go to heaven. So come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Amen. I'll let my opponent add his part now. I think we're getting John back here in one second. Did he get cut off? Yeah, he did.

He got cut off. John? Yeah, hello. Yes, I'm back. Okay, good. Yeah.

Welcome back. Yeah, did you want to finish your comment? Well, I'm John number two, I guess. Okay. No, we were, yeah, we were talking about, what else can you trust God with?

I mean, what can you trust God with in this, with your life, which is really all that there is, the greatest gift that there is. Yeah, is John number one back? Yeah, he's back. He's back now. Oh, okay.

And he's finished. So you're asking me to comment now? Yeah, I am. Yes, I am. Okay.

Yeah. I look at it from a different little perspective. I look at it as, of course, I trust the Word of God and Jesus Christ's work on the cross for eternal life. But now I live with the blessed hope. And the Bible says, looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. So my feet are here on earth, but my eyes are looking up into heaven for Christ's return. And it gives me joy.

It gives me great peace. And he's in and he's in control. There's nothing that we can do about what's coming down, brother. All we can do is really pray and seek God's will of where we should be. But he warns us in his Word.

There's all sorts of warnings. So my life revolves around looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Yeah, I think that that's it. I think that's it.

I think that's, as they say, if you get that in your head, you'll have it in a nutshell. Right? Yeah.

Isn't that right? Yeah, that's what I like to add. I like that to you. And so moving right along here, what I'd also like for us to start to look at today, maybe I'd like for us to talk about some current events today. And maybe in the last hour, we can sort of open up the phones and have people call in. I mean, obviously, for us, we've been kind of decimated by the ice storm. So we're kind of here, and we're all, you know, we can't replace Pastor Sanders, so let's not even try.

But did you guys hear about the UN resolution today? Hey, Randy? Yes, sir. I guess Pastor didn't tell you. We got a guest tonight. Okay, is he on? Is he on? Well, it's Representative Russ Diamond from Pennsylvania. I don't know if he called in yet.

No, he hasn't. Because I'm looking at the board. And that's what I thought, so too, he had told me that, but I don't see him on the board.

And I wasn't sure. They're calling at 1030. 1030? I'll tell them, you know, Bible studies from, you know, 10 on it, but 1030 started guest time. So it's up to them whether they want to come call in or not. But we're- Well, do we need to maybe have the song a little bit sooner?

If he's coming on 10th, and we don't have to do that? Okay, Craig, thank you. All right. Yeah. Well, could you give us a little bit of heads up and a bio on your guy from Pennsylvania?

Sure. Yeah, it's Representative Russ Diamond. He's been an activist in Pennsylvania and then became involved in Pennsylvania political life and wound up being elected Pennsylvania State Representative. And really, he's been on the forefront leading the charge here on really critical issues that have faced Pennsylvania for years. And most recently, he's been leading the charge for like medical freedom so that, you know, they can't force you to get the vaccines, schools, voter, you know, the voter fraud, you name it. Russ has been on the forefront, the most public, the most vocal. He's been at the rallies that we had when the election happened.

Very active, a good Christian man. And so he's going to come on here tonight and give us his vision if he's elected to become Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania. And I know he has a lot of experience and he'll be given a lot of good information. So hopefully, I mean, I know we're heard in Philadelphia. And, you know, I'm really hoping that he prevails and his effort to become Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania. So Russ will hopefully be here in a little bit and turn him loose and let him tell you about him and his vision for Pennsylvania.

Oh, you know, you know, that's a great thing because we're trying to do the same thing here in Ohio. You know, Portman went out. Obviously, he's retiring and we're hoping to find somebody like you have there. And obviously, if he comes with your recommendation, then obviously, he's our kind of guy.

And I want to thank you very much for that information. And so we can kind of be ready for this guy. But the other thing I forgot that Pastor Sanders said to tell the listening audience is that if you're looking at what's happening over in Ukraine, and you're really upset all of the 81 million people who voted for that guy in office, that you can take a bow now because you're the cause of all of this. Because we know that if Donald John Trump was president, what's going on over there now wouldn't be happening. Yeah, that's, to me, that's pretty obvious. We have the weakest, snivelingest, incompetent president that we've ever had.

I can't imagine. We have not had a more evil president. But don't forget about the vice president now. The vice president. Don't forget the vice president said that, you know, there's, you know, we're sitting on the verge of war.

Did you see her? She said we're on the verge of war. There hadn't been a war with there in 75 years.

And I like the fact that two days after she went over there, they invaded the place. But anyway, but I think that that one of the big problems with that, that we have as a nation now is that we've lost credibility. I mean, look at the two things and then because it's probably going to bring us down to the 1030.

But at 230, at the two issues are one, think about this. If Ukraine had agreed not to join NATO, that the whole thing probably would have went away. But the other thing that happened was that when they requested the nuclear weapons, basically, then Putin made his move. And they went into what the Russians called the cauldron, the military cauldron, where they surround you and they crush you. And basically what they what they've done and is is textbook Soviet warfare, they surround a nation, they basically crush the military, they did the Navy and the Air Force there. And then they realize that whatever the political powers are that we're supporting that military that's crushed is going to collapse. And that's exactly what's going to happen there. I mean, Zelensky has suddenly said he would negotiate with Putin. Well, that's gone. That's gone. Oh, yeah, no, I agree.

Listen, no, no two ways about it. He's put on, he's got a, you know, the military equipment on him, the gun, he picked it up. It looks like the Ukrainians are going to fight to the finish. Well, yeah, that because all that's left of those 60,000, for one of a better word, the the the the expert troops, I guess their version of the SEALs or the Green Beret or whatever, but they've surrounded them. And they've got like two days.

And if not, then they're going to wipe them out. And that's that's basically what they said. But the other thing that's interesting to me is that, first off, it's it's proven one thing that one, our sanctions didn't work. And what I found out about our sanctions, guys, was that the sanctions did not include food or energy. So what kind of a sanction is that? If you're going to sanction a region and not include food or energy, what kind of hardship was that going to cause anyway?

I've been following this every day for months now. What's going on there? What's going on with China? And what's going on with Israel? And Israel is kind of clear cut what's going on. And China is very clear cut what's going on. But it's absolute chaos trying to figure out what's going on with Ukraine, Russia, Biden, NATO. It still doesn't make full sense what's going on. I mean, well, but but if you think about it, if you look at the history of it, when Khrushchev basically gave Crimea back to Ukraine, they were all part of the Soviet Union anyway.

And obviously, the dynamic has changed a little bit over the years. But what I'm beginning to see the more I read about this is that this isn't this wholesale, nobody wants Russia here. There's a faction of people there that are kind of welcome in the Soviets. There's two provinces in East Russia. Okay, how much time?

Okay, go ahead. Yeah, there's two provinces and they are primarily Russian. Right. Crimea is primarily Russian. Now, if Putin would have stopped with that, I think he probably couldn't get away with it. But now, it's gone way beyond that. And there's almost like a bloodlust in Putin to destroy the Ukraine now.

If you'll hold that thought, Craig is signaling that he wants to come in. Okay, go ahead. Oh, yeah. He looks the other way I know he's a liberal, even if he won't admit it He pooped on my living room rug and tried to tell me George Bush did it He ain't got no papers and what really gets my gold Is if he could find a ride to town, well I know they'd let him vote Well sure we've had some good times and he's been fun to have around But if he ever barks about my right to bear arms I'm gonna have to have him put down Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? I pay for all his health care and I buy everything he eats I provide him with a place to live just to keep him on the streets You'd have to be a socialist to ever act like that So my dog must be a Democrat His behavior has been hidden But his mom might be Mrs. Clinton I save my dogs I spread the wealth, government health, flea-bitten Democrat Dang it Hey John, your guy is on, let's call him Senator if you will, Russ Diamond is on And I'll turn it over to you Hey Representative Russ Diamond is with us tonight folks so I guess he's with us right now Welcome to the show Russ Well it's a blessing to be back, how are you guys doing? Great We're doing well, John McTernan abandoned Pennsylvania and he went down to Texas Isn't that something? Hello Representatives How are you tonight? I'm doing very well, I'm doing very well down here in Texas Good deal, well Texas is a wonderful state, they do some things right there that we get wrong here in Pennsylvania despite all my efforts It's one of those things, it's like Sisyphus, pushing the boulder up the hill and just trying hard but you know you keep trying because you know there's light at the end of the tunnel Amen and I know Russ I've been following you pretty closely for a long time and I know that, I think the last thing I saw you needed some, and I don't know if you still need, you needed some petition signers? Well yeah Are you over the hill, over the requirement there? No, the process only started today, usually we have three weeks for this petition process in Pennsylvania to get a candidate on the ballot The Supreme Court messed around with the congressional maps here in Pennsylvania and everything was determined based on that, on that ruling That came out on Wednesday and they said we could start today and we have until March 15th and my requirement for Lieutenant Governor is a thousand signatures total across the whole Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Including at least a hundred signatures from five separate counties, so we just began working on that today Actually the Department of State was very late in actually getting us the petitions, that only happened after close to business last night, so that's a kind of a rigmarole in itself Because they give you this one long petition that has all 67 counties on it, then you have to break it down out of a PDF document and get it out to each county Because every, every petition must have the county name on top and only people from that county can sign that petition It's really just kind of a cottage industry for a lot of lawyers in Pennsylvania, you know to pick people apart who have never done it before But I've done this, I've been doing this for 18 years, so we're pros, we have a machine going across the state, we have people out there hustling, getting signatures already I have no fear that I'm going to make the ballot, we'll make the ballot and then we're going to win Amen Well if you don't need to tell people how to get signed up, I mean I'd like to sign for you, but anyway Sure, let me tell you how you can do that, actually it's kind of easier, I don't know if anybody's ever done this, I actually put them online Each PDF for every county in Pennsylvania is online at RussDiamond.Vote, RussDiamond.Vote Not.com, not.org, not.net, but.vote, like you're going into vote for Russ Diamond It's RussDiamond.Vote, you can go on there, there's a link on the main page that says, you know, help Russ get on the ballot or help Russ get some petitions You click that link, you go to the bottom of that page and every single county has a link to that petition, you can download it as a PDF You can print it, you can get your signature on it, you can get your family's signature on it, you can get your congregation's signatures on it if they are Republican voters And then you sign the back as the person who actually circulated the petition, put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it, get it in the mail to me We have some instructions that folks can download there on how to do it properly too to help us avoid legal challenges Of course we are relying on the mail there and we all know how rotten the mail is right now So we're asking people to get it done this week, get it in the mail so that I can have it on hand at least two days before my filing deadline which is March 15th So we want to have that by at the very latest March 13th so we can assemble them all together, we have to number the pages, we have to confirm all the signatures are valid Republicans, all that sort of thing, so we need a couple days to do that So we're asking people to get in there and do this at least in the next five days and get it in the mail so the mail will deliver it to us by March 13th So Russ, this is Randy in Ohio, I wanted to ask you a couple things to clarify that and that's it So now you just need a total of 1,000 signatures out of the 67 counties, is that correct?

But a minimum of five, is that right? Yeah, a minimum of at least 500 of those signatures included in the 1,000 is a minimum of 100 signatures from five separate counties Oh so five separate counties have to have 100 Right, within that 1,000 Okay, yes Of course, we don't shoot for 1,000, we shoot for 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 Right, right, right You know, so the lawyers can't pick it apart Yes Yeah Alright, very good So Russ, what do you think, here's a question, we know that Pennsylvania, at least from what I read, is losing population And we know one of them, what do you think is the main cause people are moving out of Pennsylvania? Well it's bad government, I mean that's the only way, look, Pennsylvania is the Saudi Arabia of the United States I know Texas has a lot of stuff going on there and they're much larger than Pennsylvania But per square mile we probably have more energy under our feet than any other state in the nation We have continuously lost population over the years, you know, at one time Pennsylvania had 33 seats in Congress 33 seats in Congress, now we have 17, we just lost another congressman this year The reason people leave is because people, shall we say executive branch, people in our government have totally mishandled what Pennsylvania is all about All the good working jobs, they've shipped them offshore And, you know, part of that's a federal problem, but some of it is mismanagement here at the state level as well In that, at least for the last eight years, we've had a governor that has overspent by almost a billion dollars every single year Over what the General Assembly appropriates for welfare programs I mean they call it human services now, but it's welfare programs, he intentionally overspent that We have a gas tax, we have one of the highest gas taxes in the nation here in Pennsylvania And although that gas tax is supposed to go to pay for infrastructure, roads, bridges, that sort of thing The governor has pilfered off about 4.2 billion dollars of that over the last seven years to pay for state police coverage And, you know, when you see a bridge like that bridge in Pittsburgh that falls down because it is just rusted out I mean I saw some pictures of the underside of that bridge I mean we had steel beams that are probably 8, 10, 12 inches thick, literally just broken off And this has been like that for four years When the governor is pilfering that kind of infrastructure money away that's supposed to be dedicated to roads and bridges You know you have a management problem And, you know, this is kind of why I'm running for lieutenant governor Because in the last seven years that I've been a member of the General Assembly I've just seen things get worse and worse and worse and worse We really need to turn Pennsylvania around And I do believe, you know, as a lieutenant governor candidate you don't really have your hands directly on the levers But you can influence the governor And I believe that we need a lieutenant governor candidate who can help our governor win against Josh Shapiro Who is currently our attorney general And he's in the same vein as Tom Wolf, our current governor, except he's way more aggressive Way more aggressive Things in Pennsylvania will get worse so We need a lieutenant governor candidate who can help our governor win against Shapiro Then we need a lieutenant governor candidate who can help our next governor hit the ground running And what I mean by that is We need a positive partnership between the General Assembly and the executive branch A lot of people in Pennsylvania don't realize this and don't know this But it's been almost a dozen years since a governor has been inside the House Republican caucus room in Harrisburg To talk about policies or priorities Governor Tom Corbett visited right after he got inaugurated He said hello, he never went back That's a crying shame A dozen years of that You need an executive branch and a legislative branch that work in tandem as partners Not at odds with each other, especially when you have courts that seem to think that they're in the business of writing laws So I think that with my relationships with current House members, my colleagues in the House, and my colleagues over in the Senate I believe I can help bridge the gap that's been sitting here for 12 years now And help the governor hit the ground running with policy and priorities that are going to be positive to turn the state of Pennsylvania around The third thing I think that is most important for a lieutenant governor candidate is the whole reason that we have a lieutenant governorship in Pennsylvania That's in case some tragedy, God forbid, occurs and the governor passes away You need somebody who has a vast well of life experience to pull from Who's going to step into the governorship then and make that transition as smooth as possible for the people of Pennsylvania And what I bring to this race that other candidates don't bring is a vast life experience I mean I've been in Harrisburg for seven years now, but before that I ran an audio-video production business We're celebrating our 30th year in business this year I was a factory worker for seven years, I pulled 12-hour shifts overnight Before that I've been an over-the-road trucker, I've been a working musician, I'm an author, I'm a pilot The vast wealth of experience in life just to pull from, to have a steady hand That could step into that role of governorship if, God forbid, a tragedy occurs and something happens to the governor So this is why I'm running for lieutenant governor, to help beat Josh Shapiro To help our governor win, to help our governor govern as soon as he's elected And to be prepared to take over if some tragedy should occur I like that, I like that a lot And I couldn't agree with you more, we are losing population in my opinion and I think you expressed it very well There was a study done, I don't know, seven or eight years ago, Pennsylvania came up with number five in the most politically corrupt states in the nation And it was based on the number of elected officials that are behind bars So we've had a long problem of political corruption here in Pennsylvania So yeah, I believe you're right on Yeah, we have, and look, at one time it was both parties had people dragged off We had a speaker of the house that was a Democrat, we had a speaker of the house that was a Republican They both went to jail, they actually shared a prison cell at one time But in the last seven, eight years, really Republicans have not been involved in anything like that That I can recall, although we've had, at least in the house, we've had Democrat after Democrat after Democrat Who's been in trouble with the law We just had a Democrat who was the chairman of a house state government committee on which I sit We oversaw all the hearings about the election and election reform and those sort of things Pardon me But she sat there the whole time and said, you know, the election was the freest, most secure election in Pennsylvania history Yet, after those hearings were ended, she got in trouble with the law She took some campaign funds, no, actually it wasn't campaign funds She took some state funds and kind of double dipped and got into trouble And of course, our Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, in the end, I think this happened just last week or the week before Her total fine for these crimes was $150 But we've seen Democrat after Democrat in my career in Harrisburg get in trouble with the law And they all kind of like get a soft landing, they get to keep their pensions, you know, that sort of thing It's crunching, but we haven't seen any Republicans go out like that since at least I've been in Harrisburg I believe Republicans have cleaned up their act a lot And, you know, Pennsylvania is what Pennsylvania is And we're trying to clean it up and sometimes it's a long slog Oh, you mentioned something, you know, about the police getting, the state police getting all this funding There's two issues that I'd kind of like to ask you a question about One is, would you favor the sheriffs having their power restored here in Pennsylvania? And the second question is, why is so much money being funneled off to the state police? Well, here's what's really happening in Pennsylvania Is that we have municipalities who are disbanding their local police forces Because, quite frankly, for many small municipalities, it is very, very expensive to have a full-time police force So in their stead, the state police actually cover that Whereas the state police used to be more like a serious crime investigative unit And highway patrol out on the interstates and the US highways Now, the state police are providing regular kind of beat cop coverage Responding to accidents and incidents in smaller municipalities That have either never had police coverage or have disbanded their police coverage Because that coverage becomes too expensive for a small community that has limited growth So that's what's really happening in Pennsylvania You alluded to re-empowering our sheriffs Pennsylvania's constitution is not like other states' constitutions where the sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer As we consider it commonly So we don't really have that kind of system in Pennsylvania I do believe there is a lot to be said for instead of having state police coverage And by the way, when the state police run out to these municipalities to investigate incidents, crimes, that sort of thing They have no authority to enforce a local ordinance So that's kind of a problem there And you know, quite frankly, I don't believe that state police are the best suited to be a beat cop in any neighborhood And we had an incident like that right here in my own county We had a farmer who was barn caught on fire And the state police that responded, that state policeman, he was from the city He just happened to be stationed in this area as part of his career He doesn't really understand our area, doesn't understand our way I mean, we're a real rural county here And he doesn't understand the farm ways And he kind of got into a scuffle with the farmer who was trying to save his cows And that farmer got in trouble, got threatened with a felony charge for that scuffle with the state police officer Meanwhile, the firemen come in And what the firemen are doing, they're actually going in and saving the cows And these are volunteer firemen Just like what the farmer wanted to do himself So the state police are not really the best suited to be local cops If we had either a county-wide police force or some sort of regional police force I think there would have been a better understanding of what that farmer was doing in trying to save his cows The scuffle wouldn't have happened And there wouldn't have been any trouble other than a barn burning down Which is a tragedy all in itself So I think in Pennsylvania what we have to do is model ourselves a little bit more like other states Where we have county-based police forces or regional police forces Where those officers actually live in the community, have been raised in the community They understand the community And that way we're funding them locally And then it's a better solution, it really is It's really tough to do that in Pennsylvania Because we have 2,400 individual municipalities in Pennsylvania Actually it might be over 2,500 And any time you get kind of like a regionalization And we see this in the volunteer fire service You get companies that are all hurting And they're kind of in the same region And they try to merge And sometimes it's successful We've had a successful merger of some volunteer fire companies here in the northern part of my county But a lot of times there's like a turf war that happens then It's like, well, no, this is our little turf and that's our little turf But we in Pennsylvania, we need to take a broader, more holistic view Not just of fire service, but police service and ambulance service as well We need to start focusing on doing that more on a regional basis Rather than assigning each little municipality its own responsibilities Because it's simply not manageable like that anymore Things are too expensive Services are too expensive I mean, even to become a fireman A fireman one course costs over $900 now And that's a real problem because 30 years ago we had 300,000 volunteer firemen in Pennsylvania Now we have less than 30,000 That's a real problem And I think all those emergency services in Pennsylvania We really ought to take a more holistic look at how to reform And I mean reform them Not correct them, but reform them More as regional units or county-wide based units And like they do in other states, it's very successful in other states And the Constitution kind of makes it so that the sheriff himself is not in a position to be that We would have to change the Constitution for that But the idea of having a regional police force or a county-wide police force And a county-wide ambulance service And a county-wide fire service that's all united under one umbrella With different equipment here and there where it's needed, that sort of thing Rather than a million little different fiefdoms that, you know, you're going to have turf wars bringing up It's a whole culture change And, you know, in Pennsylvania, especially here where I live in Lebanon County We're Pennsylvania Dutchmen And some people call us stubborn Dutchmen Pennsylvania, for some reason, whether it changes for the better or not Pennsylvanians are very resistant to change So it's a long conversation we're going to have to have But we have to have a rational conversation about how we handle all these emergency services Not just the state police, but our fire service and our ambulance service as well Well, I agree with you a hundred percent I actually had a personal experience with that cultural difference with the state police And I live in a country So I experienced that right on about that So Russ, what other issues, I guess, are hot topics McDonagh and I followed very closely when John was living here The election, I read the Supreme Court's decision They basically became judicial activists and changed the law I'm looking from memory It was about the voting for the election Yeah, during the 2020 election cycle, the Supreme Court, the Department of State, the Wolf Administration And certain election administration officials in certain counties took it upon themselves to alter the law Outside of, well, who writes laws? Well, it's the legislature, that's me Okay, well, I'm one of 253 that do it But we're supposed to be the ones who write laws But in the middle, and through the process of the 2020 general election And somewhat in the primary election in 2020 These folks took it upon themselves to reinterpret or rewrite the laws Simply because, and using COVID as an excuse And one of the laws that they abused was, we had passed the law the year before Creating no excuse mail-in voting here in Pennsylvania Now I know a lot of people, that's kind of all The name of the act was Act 77 And a lot of people blame that for what happened in 2020 here in Pennsylvania However, when folks do that, I like to point out to them that this happened in other states as well And the way they did it in other states was to abuse that state's absentee voting system And we had an absentee voting system here in Pennsylvania for many, many years And I think the courts in the Wolf Administration and the Department of State And these local elected officials would have done the same thing with our absentee ballot system Here in Pennsylvania, given COVID But at any rate, they did abuse their positions to rewrite the law Outside of the scope of legislative authority And now that act, actually Act 77 itself, was challenged in a court And it was challenged successfully So as of right now, our predominant court ruling on no excuse mail-in voting in Pennsylvania Is that it is unconstitutional Now let me back up the truck here I actually voted for that law Why? Because when we had that law and we were running that through committee and through the House of Representatives I actually read the Constitution And the Constitution has no language in it that prevented us from creating a new method of voting in Pennsylvania So I fully believe this law was constitutional Until a gentleman named Doug McClinko He is a county commissioner Representative Diamond, I hate to interrupt you, but we're rolling up on the station break Will you stay with us past the top of the hour, please? I absolutely will Alright, thank you Yeah, we got about 10 seconds in and we're going to a station break Go ahead Okay, 10 Yeah, here we go 14781 Sperry Road, Newberry, Ohio, 44065 If you missed part of tonight's program, you can check out the podcast at thewordcleveland.com Thewordcleveland.com Once again, thank you for listening and supporting What's Right, What's Left Ministries The voice of the Christian resistance Stay tuned, the second hour is coming up next