We’re Talking The Border On The Bob And Steve Show Tomorrow

There’s been a lot of talk about a border wall and border security on the news lately and that’ll be the topic for a large portion of The Bob & Steve Show tomorrow.

Bob and I are going to bring some perspective to the situation on the border for our listeners. Lately folks have heard me say to Bob on the show that if you have never lived in a border state you have no idea what life is really like on the border.

Thanks to the fact that I lived for several years in New Mexico, Bob and I enlisted the help of our friend (and my New Mexico mom) former four-term NM state Representative Janice Arnold-Jones and have farmers and ranchers living in New Mexico’s southernmost county, Hidalgo County, calling in to the show to tell us what life along the border is really like.

 (Hint: there’s not a wall, no steel posts, just seven strand barbed wire fence)

You’ll hear from a farmer who had an illegal border crosser walk through his back door at 4:00AM. You’ll hear a rancher tell the story of finding 700 pounds of marijuana on his property, calling border patrol and then dealing with the retaliation of having called border patrol.

We’ll also have rancher and Hidalgo County Commissioner John Hatch call in assuming he has cell phone service as he’ll be traveling to Reserve, NM (I remember the difficulties of getting cell service in some of the high desert areas of the state).

And, of course, we’ll have former NM state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones call-in.

Tune-in, it’ll be an interesting and educational show tomorrow.

PRESS RELEASE: Editorial Board Says Murphy Ignored South Jersey Because Of “Spat.” Fiocchi Says South Jersey Was Ignored Due To A Lack Of Leadership.

Senate candidate in the GOP LD1 primary, former Assemblyman Sam Fiocchi, issued the following press release in response to a South Jersey Times editorial today:

Editorial Board Says Murphy Ignored South Jersey Because Of “Spat.” Fiocchi Says South Jersey Was Ignored Due To A Lack Of Leadership.

Fiocchi: “Governor Murphy is going to continue to ignore South Jersey for as long as there is a lack of leadership.”

VINELAND – Republican candidate for state Senate in the first legislative district, former Assemblyman Sam Fiocchi, said that an editorial published this morning “is only partially correct.”

At issue is an editorial published in today’s South Jersey Times (“Slight to South Jersey in Murphy message was petty”). The opinion piece takes Murphy to task for ignoring South Jersey in his State of the State address.

“It’s extremely rare I find myself agreeing with anything written in the opinion section of the South Jersey Times, but this morning they were partially correct.” Sam Fiocchi said, “The editorial board was likely correct when they wrote, ‘It seems obvious that the governor’s choice to ignore South Jersey was intentional, probably the latest incarnation of an intra-party spat with Senate President Stephen Sweeney,’ but it’s not the whole story.”

Fiocchi continued, “While Sweeney is the likely reason the western portion of South Jersey was ignored by the governor, the eastern portion of South Jersey, specifically LD1, was ignored by the governor because there is a lack of leadership in our district.”

“A perfect example of the lack of leadership in LD1 is the state budget,” Fiocchi added. “We know at least $1.2 million was removed from the Department of Military and Veterans’ Affairs in the state budget. This is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, two radio stations, one in Atlantic City and one in Vineland interviewed Bob Garguilo of the Brigantine Elks Veterans Committee at length on the issue. It doesn’t matter how the legislators from LD1 voted on the budget, what matters is they didn’t fight to keep that money in the Department of Military and Veterans’ Affairs. Even worse, that’s half the money the governor has set aside to help illegal immigrants with legal defense and we’ve had nothing but silence on this issue from our legislators in the district.”

Fiocchi asked, “Where is the leadership on this?”

“The bottom line here is Governor Murphy is going to continue to ignore South Jersey for as long as there is a lack of leadership,” Fiocchi said. “I’ve served this district as an Assemblyman, I know what’s needed and I intend to go to the state Senate and provide the leadership necessary to meet those needs and ensure no governor ignores South Jersey.”

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The Soccer World Recognizes Phil Murphy’s Dismal Record Of Poor Treatment Of Women

Last week was a short blogging week at The Bob & Steve Show. I planned on doing a piece last Thursday about Phil Murphy’s professional women’s soccer team, Sky Blue FC, holding open tryouts next month and that it will only cost women $100 to try out for a team with owners who treat women like crap. I didn’t write the piece because the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) held their draft, so I decided to watch the livestream and then add to the piece. Then life got in the way the rest of the day and I was too busy to get a post up Friday.

We did end up talking about Murphy and his soccer team for a little while on Saturday’s radio show and suggested that if he cares about women as much as he claims that maybe he could pickup the $100 tab for anyone trying out for his team. To be fair, we did mention that it appears to be a league-wide rule that open tryouts come with a charge but could find nothing in the rules posted on the NWSL website about who has to pay the fee. Murphy could afford it.

Anyway, back to the draft. One would think getting drafted by a professional sports team would be a happy day in the life of a young athlete. Not if the young athlete is drafted by Murphy’s soccer team. The Tweets during the draft back that up. Some were brutal:

Julia Ashley was the sixth pick overall, she’s a Jersey girl. It appears she would rather go to Europe. According to Philly.com:

One of Sky Blue’s marquee first-round picks, University of North Carolina defender Julia Ashley — a northern New Jersey native, by the way — told reporters after she was selected: “I’m not positive of what I want to do in regards to if I’m going to stay or go abroad. I have to explore those options. I’ve been talking to my agent about possibly France, Sweden or Germany. I’m not sure yet.”

Ashley wasn’t the only issue with a drafted player. Sky Blue also had the second overall pick, Hailie Mace, a women’s soccer superstar, doesn’t want to play for Murphy’s team either. Again, according to Philly.com:

A few hours later, Equalizer Soccer reported that Sky Blue’s biggest prize of the day, UCLA and U.S. women’s youth national team defender Hailie Mace, does not intend to report to the club. Novo acknowledged “there are challenges” with Mace, the No. 2 overall pick, and acknowledged they’ve been caused by the club’s off-the-field troubles.

It’s obvious the soccer world knows how Murphy, or at least his soccer team, treats women. At The Bob & Steve Show we’ve been talking about Murphy’s mistreatment of women since August of last year. We basically were saying the soccer team was the tip of the iceberg and to watch for problems in his administration. It looks like we were right, just ask Katie Brennan or Allison Kopicki.

We’ve also complained a lot that local media has been letting Murphy off the hook on the issue of the mistreatment of the women on his soccer team. We are hopeful that the recent Philly.com report means local media is going to stop giving Murphy a free pass. Time will tell.