Hour 3 of NMN, Brian Wilson + Medical Fraud & Opioid Crisis

Welcome on in to a Wednesday, June 24th. How are you? My name is Dan Mandis along with Joan Jay Jones, Sam Rutherford. Brian Wilson joining us here. It is Wednesdays with Wilson. Talk to Brian every Wednesday at this time, if not more frequently. Brian, how are you? I'm doing very well, Dan and you? I am doing outstanding. I'm going to talk about one of the biggest stories of the day and probably of the week is... Zohran Mamdani's trifecta, I mean, he's got a hat trick, as they say, in New York. Three Democrats socialists have won their primaries in New York. We're talking about people that support abolishing prisons, abolishing ICE, abolishing borders, defunding the police. One of these... People said all deportations are wrong. She called the U.S. an effing disgrace. At one point, she did post on social media that she didn't have a napkin, so she wiped her hands on the American flag. That is Dari Elisa Avia Cheviévié, that is New York's 13th District. Rise of communism in the Democrat Party. I know. Isn't it scary? And that the Democrat Party continues to go hard left. I mean, really out there further than we've seen in some time. And it makes you wonder, you know, what's going on out there with the American electorate? Is that going to? And I wonder. The thing that keeps coming back to me is I'm wondering if perhaps we, the Democrats, have overshot. In other words, the power brokers within the Democrat Party have always been more to the left than mainstream Democrats, you know, who, you know, average Democrat voters. They're way out there to the left. And I'm wondering if there's a part of the Democrat Party that will look at this and go, you know what? Uh, no, I can't be a part of that. I wonder if there'll be a backlash, but, but the going right now suggests that socialism and communism, unbelievably in America, is on the rise, and it's very concerning to me. It's the antithesis of everything that we believe in as Americans, and, and it's, it's getting, it's getting a foothold, and it's a little scary. Well, you know, Brian, we were talking about this earlier today where, all right, so. Number one, I think that this is actually a gift to the Republicans because it really does define, because, you know, in politics, you've got to define your opponent. This really gives the Republicans the ability to define their opponents in a very big way. And let's be honest, you're right, Brian. Most of America finds the, you know, what these people stand for as abhorrent. The problem is I think that we're going to get more of these people in places, ultimately like, you know, Chicago and Seattle and a lot of these bigger cities. So ultimately, is this going to be good for Republicans heading into the midterm elections and beyond? Well, I think, like I say, I think it's one thing to win a primary.

When it's dominated by people who are party activist and the party activist by and large are way left of average Democrats. So that's one thing. But to win an election, I don't know. I don't have a good feel of what's going on on the streets of New York City and New York proper right now. It gives me an idea of what's driving this. But it's very concerning. And I think Republicans probably will benefit because I think that the left of the Democrat Party has just gone way too far to the left, and they are out of step with a great number of Democrats. And I think there could be a backlash. I do. Van Jay Jones agrees with you, Brian. This is what he said. And by the way, you and I agree on this. Well, New York City matters because the two most exciting left-wing candidates were here, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Momba. But also, this is the stronghold for the establishment, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. This is a battle. between the establishment and this insurgency, and the roof is collapsing on the Democratic Party establishment tonight. If Zohran Mamdani gets a hat trick three out of three, this is a new era for the Democratic Party, and you can't write off New York City because this is the place where both, it's a power center for the establishment and the insurgency, and they're going head to head tonight. And right now, this is not no longer a movement. This is a movement and a machine at the same time. And there's just no way to sugarcoat this. If Zohran Mamdani pulls off the hat trick is a new era in Democratic Party politics. Well, and if you're a moderate Democrat who's on the election, who's on the ballot this November van, I mean, they're all going to get asked about the positions that we're hearing from these other fellow Democrats. Well, look, I think, you know, from our frontline Democrats will be able to make their case for themselves. I think they'll be able to do okay. We've got a lot of national security Democrats in other parts of the country. But this is a big deal tonight. And I think that, look, I don't know what you want me to say here. This is a straight up battle between the establishment and the insurgency. And the establishment is getting its butt kick tonight in New York City. There you go. Scrolling with Haley. I'm Haley Karania. I scroll with the homies here in the live chat because there's a lot to scroll through on X, on Instagram, on TikTok. Cutting through the clutter, one hot take at a time. Love seeing you all in the chat before the show. I tried to jump in just a few minutes before to say hello. I love the chat interaction. Thank you for helping. But I do it to get all of the videos and all of the content that you won't find anywhere else. Scrolling with Haley. Just search that up and I will be there. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You know who's really screwed? You know who's really screwed is Hakeem Jeffries because he endorsed the establishment or the incumbent candidates and all three of them lost. I know. So it's going to be. This is, this is, I just don't understand what it is that is going on in New York City that causes the Democrats there to feel like that, you know, communism.

is the answer. Or, you know, they call themselves Democrat, Socialists. But, I mean, honestly, a lot of what they believe is borderline communism and if not full-on communism. And I just, I can't understand how folks think that's the answer. But it does show that there is a, there is a power between what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani are selling in New York. And, and I just hope it doesn't spread beyond the borders of New York. I think they call themselves Democrats, Socialists, because they're trying to sanitize what they are, which is, as you said, Brian Communist. We had some interesting manufacturing news. Talk about, it sounds pretty good to me. Talk about the numbers and talk about your analysis because you can tie this back to Donald Trump. Well, you know, and what they say is look at where the economy is at Labor Day, and you'll have a pretty good idea what's going to happen in the midterm elections. And I have been making the case for some time now that I think we're going to be okay, that things are going to fall into line once gas prices start to come down. So very quickly, let me just run through it. West Texas intermediate crude was at 111 at one point. It's now at $71 a barrel. I think Brent was around $120 a barrel. It's now at $75 a barrel. And the national price, the national average for a gallon of gas is $3.92. The Tennessee average is $3.46. I won't bore you with my analysis of how it's so different in different counties. I mean, but the bottom line is if you fill up your tank in Williamson County, it will cost you $11 more than it does if you fill up your tank in Wilson County from where I am broadcasting. I just don't understand that. That's $12, almost $12 a tank. But one way or the other, the prices are coming down. I've gone a little to stray on my analysis here. But here's the thing. Manufacturing is also at a five-year high. And that is, I think, largely because Trump is making it very attractive for companies in America who have factories overseas to come back. That is starting to show up. The economy is, I think, a lot stronger than people perceive it to be because they're so frustrated and so focused on gasoline prices. But as gasoline prices come down, I think we're going to reveal very quickly that this economy is juiced to grow. and grow in a big way. I heard Newt Gingrich say a while back, show me the price of gas on Labor Day, and I'll tell you who's going to have a good midterm election. There are other signs out there, Dan, and this is very exciting that the Democrats who, you know, in past midterm elections, have been able to pull down 30 seats, you know, and take them away from Republicans. Right now, that blue wave, if the polls are accurate, does not seem to be developing.

I think they could go back into Iran and go back after Iran in a big way. Well, and you and I have talked about this probably ad nauseum, but you can't trust Iran. There's so many different angles to this. We could talk about the Israel angle and Hezbole and all that. But. As far as the polling goes, in my own personal poll on YouTube, 52% said no, it will not impact JD's chances. 48% said yes on X at Dan Manda's show. 45% said, yes, it will impact his chances. 54% said no, it won't. But, you know, usually these polls are rather lopsided. This one is not. We've got... You may be right, yeah. All right, Doug, very good. We'll say that JD Vance is solid, but I've got to tell you, Marco Rubio's on the rise as far as 2080's concerned. He's really making the right moves. And interestingly enough, watch Marco Rubio. He's not very visible on this Iran deal. Well, that's what I've been saying. I mean, it almost feels like he's on his way to the United Arab Emirates to have some discussions there. But, you know, really, it feels like he's been... purposely left out of this whole thing. I would say he may have strategically decided he doesn't want to be involved in the thing. Or Donald Trump. Donald Trump decided not to get Mark or Marco Rubio involved either. So real quick, Brian, I know that you spent a lot of time in Washington, D.C. I know that you've been watching everything that's been going on with the reflecting pool. Earlier today, I was playing audio of some leftists, actually, you know, purple-haired in the whole thing. And they were cheering on the algae. It is just getting so ridiculous. You know what? If the Department of Interior had just very quietly gone over there and put up the fences and repaired the thing and not said a whole lot about it, it wouldn't have been a thing. Past presidents have worked on that reflecting pool. It was in terrible shape. It smelled bad. It was leaking horribly, 40,000 gallons of water a day. And Trump came in and did a solution. I think when they started to pump the water in, they had a short-term problem with algae. And I think that they were starting to get that under control. But I think that there was sabotage. It doesn't take much to cause an algae bloom in warm water. You could throw in a couple of handfuls of fertilizer, and that would be all that it took to sort of cause the algae to bloom. And I think that they were sabotaged. And I know that there was damage done by people. You know, the president said there was a 350 foot slice in it that looks like somebody took a box. box cutter and ran right down the middle of that thing in the middle of the night. So, you know, if any, this had Trump not had his name associated with it, there wouldn't have been, nobody would have even noticed this thing. This is the result of Donald Trump trying to do good things for the city of Washington. And, and because his name is associated, the TDS kicks in and the wackos come out. And they're singing to the algae and they've damaged it. And it's going to.

They're going to have to drain it and start over. But how sad is it that we can't have nice things in America? Because if Donald Trump, his name is attached to it in any way, the loony left is just going to lose their minds and do radical stuff like that. You know, Brian, you bring up such a great point, which is if he just wouldn't have said anything and not made it a thing, then the left wouldn't have... If this had been any other president who was supportive of, and you know, it really isn't Donald Trump. It's the interior department that's running this thing. But he's very excited about it. And he did have some input on the color of the coating that they're putting. And that's it. And somehow because he chose a color of blue and it got some coverage, the left sees on, well, we must, if Donald Trump is for, you know, improving the reflecting pool, then we must be again. You know, not everything that Donald Trump is for is a bad thing. But if his name is associated, they just react viscerally. And it's, it's, it's, it's, it is TDS all the way. You know what I think Donald should, Donald Trump should do. He should get on true social. And he should say, moving forward, it will be known as the Donald J. Trump pool of reflection. Oh, can you imagine the masterclass trolling? Well, you know, I don't know. Let's not give them anything else to seize on. It's my feeling, but you're right. It's so silly. It really is. Brian, you've been doing a great job of filling in for, like, everybody under the sun. I thank you for filling in for me last week. My pleasure. You did a great job. So do you have any other fill-ins that we should know about? I think I'm filling in for Matt on the 2nd, July 2nd, and we'll be filling in for him. Then after that, I think it's been a busy time. I really have put in a lot of shows, but I think it sort of slows down because, you know, I'm the vacation filling guy, and everybody's got their vacation in. All right, very good. Wednesdays with Wilson, brought you by the Wellness Institute of Nashville. Brian, always great to have you on. My pleasure, Dad. Always a pleasure to be with you. A Tennessee doctor has been caught up in President Trump's crackdown on health care fraud. I know what you're going to say. That the millions or billions of dollars that they have found and that they're able to claw back from these fraudulent, oftentimes foreigners, that it's really just a drop in the bucket. And I do understand that. But what the president is trying to do and what the DOJ is trying to do is they're trying to catch the perpetrators, which they're doing. That's number one. And number two, they're learning how all of this fraud with Medicare and Medicaid has actually happened. This health care fraud is happening so that they can combat it in the future. So a big announcement yesterday that there have now been. hundreds of arrests across the nation as the president and his DOJ is cracking down on health care fraud. I love this, actually. This is obviously an extension of one of my favorite stories, which was Nick Shirley going to Minnesota and then California.

shining a light on the fraud in those two Democrat-run states. Today we are announcing federal and state charges, all of which were charged or unsealed at some point over the past two weeks, the past 14 days, coordinated nationwide action. Since June 8th, we've charged 455 defendants across 56, like I said a minute ago, U.S. attorney's offices, and 45 U.S. states and territories. Yeah, so that is good. That is obviously an acting attorney general Todd Blanche. Now, one of those arrested is a former doctor here in Middle Tennessee, guy named Ramon Aquino out of Clarksville. He's accused of prescribing controlled substances, including opioids, in excessive and inappropriate quantities. This is from Fox 17. The filing also claims some prescriptions were without medical necessity and could cause patients to abuse, misuse, and become addicted to the drugs. I saw a headline the other day. Sam, can you see if you can find this headline? It was... A headline where they had a total number of pills, opioids, that came over the southern border. It was under the Biden administration. It was like a million or something. It was some astronomical number. And so those drugs were, and by the way, they are still coming across our southern border as well. We still have this problem. And any attempt or... What's the best way to put this? Any notion that China is actually helping in this situation is a complete and utter fabrication. Over a seven-year period, getting back to this doctor, over a seven-year period from July 2017 to July 24, court documents say this doctor in Clarksville, Aquino, prescribed 43, 103. Controlled substance prescriptions. The filing says that included approximately 525,000 pills or doses of narcotics and 569,455 pills or dozens of other types of anxiety drugs. Aquino was a doctor at North Clarksville Medical Center on Dover Road. Now, it's interesting, Joan, you covered this earlier in one of your previous newscasts. And people are hitting the super text line saying he was my doctor. He was my kid's doctor. So people apparently knew this guy. He is now 77. The clinic is, Keena was a doctor again, North Clarksville Medical Center Road on Dover Road. The clinic is now North Star Medical Group and is under new ownership. One of the U.S. attorneys for the Middle District of Tennessee, Braden Boutchek. says that Aquino's case is part of the larger crackdown that I've been talking about and that we've been covering. But the impact of alleged over prescription is being felt in local communities. Aquino, and I got to tell you, every time I go down this road of the opioids and the fentanyl coming across our southern border, I get just a huge crush of response. I think that just about everybody.

Out there, if you're listening to the sound of my voice, you know someone who has been impacted by what happened, mainly under the Biden administration. Again, it is still happening where all of these opioids came across our southern border. Well, and to that end, Tennessee's age-adjusted drug overdose rate is approximately 35.2 deaths per 100,000 residents. A figure that places the state roof. Hey, I'm Chris Fanfleet. Go behind the scenes and beyond the headlines with the biggest names in pro wrestling and beyond. Jeff Jarrett, great to see you. In this business, the story behind the scenes. So much more entertaining than what you see on camera. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul Heyman. Mr. Heyman. You are a master at the little things. That's how you turn good into great. What does it take to achieve greatness? Whatever it takes I'm willing to do. That's an Emmy winning performance. How about it? Insight with Chris Fanbley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. 52% higher than the national average. Wow. Sad. And that's a lot of people. Akino, part of that discussion. Prosecutors say pharmacies submitted claims to Medicare and Ten Care for those prescriptions, meaning taxpayer-funded programs were billed for drugs prosecutors say should not have been prescribed. One of the things that there's basically, you know, you know how. You'll have people the doctor shop. Remember how Prince did this? He would doctor shop looking for some of these drugs. I think Aquino was one of these doctors where people knew to go to, allegedly, where people knew to go to to get the kind of drugs that they needed. Then they became addicted. And some people died. They say in Aquino's case, court documents alleged nearly $890,000 in false claims were submitted to Medicare and 10 care and more than $335,000 was paid out. Aquino is charged with one count of health care fraud. I'd be interested to know. Joan, in your version of the story, this guy Aquino, I mean... Those numbers seem astronomical to me. They're crazy, yeah. Yet he's only been charged, according to my version of the story, with one count of health care fraud. So a lot of times prosecutors will charge something just to make it a holding charge, just to get them under wraps. Got it. And then they'll dig in and they'll develop a whole case around them. But they want to get them. charged so that they can't escape. They can't go anywhere. They've got to be arrested and charged. And anything they say can and will be used against them in a court of law while they build that case and then take it to a grand jury for an indictment. It'll be interesting to see how many actual counts of health care fraud he ultimately ends up charged with because you're talking about $890,000 in false claims. Yeah.

crazy how much. It is. It was crazy and it's sad because, again, not to belabor the point, you folks know that people have been dying and people do continue to remain addicted because of things like this. More from an acting attorney general Todd Blanche in what I would say, a big story today. And that is that Tennessee doctor been caught up in President Trump's crackdown on health care fraud. By the way, Joan. Make sure that I do this. Sam, remember to remind me to do this. An accusation against Donald Trump regarding his bathroom. Don't let me forget to talk about that coming up on Super Talk 997 WTN. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and talking about all of the health care fraud that has been happening here in America. As alleged in the various indictments, these individuals participated in health care fraud schemes involving over $6.5 billion in false claims submitted to Medicare. Medicaid and other health care programs. Yep, that is Todd Blanche. Altheir, you are telling me, Sam, the total number of pills that have come across our southern border since 2020. Well, it's almost hard to even calculate that. A ton of these are counterfeit prescription pills. In a single recent phase of nationwide interdiction campaign, the DEA seized over 44 million fentanyl pills, while state-level border operations in California alone intercepted an additional... 54 million lethal pills over a multi-year period. So there's hundreds of millions of these pills pouring across the border in some capacity. That is insane. And we're starting to hear some of these stories like this doctor out of Clarksville. You have a combination, by the way. The folks doing this fraud, you've got a combination of illegal aliens like we saw in Minnesota, transnational criminal organizations, and Americans as well. There's this story. And I think that this story, I think. Because there's a lot of different elements of fraud that are going on. Of course, in Minnesota, we had the fraud regarding the transportation to the hospital. We had other kinds of fraud as well. The Somalian community in Minnesota. We've had all of that fraud in California as well. Massive $27 million.

LA hospice fraud, Los Angeles hospice fraud, revealed as medical scammer using dead patients to fund his lavish lifestyle, including a flashy car collection, including a Rolls-Royce Phantom, which I guess is some sort of a fancy car. You know, and I think we've said this before, Joan, but I watched Breaking Bad, and I've learned all I know about money laundering from Breaking Bad. And what... One of the very first things that they told Walter White is don't start living large because people are going to notice and they're going to start investigating you if that's what you're doing, which is, as Walter White was doing, was money laundering. If he bought the phantom new, it's between $550,000 and $650,000. If he got it pre-owned, it's about $300,000 to $500,000. Yeah. And also, on this drug overdose... issue in Tennessee because it is. There's no denying that it is a problem. In 2024, 2,500 people overdosed and died, and the bulk of that was fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. Yeah, I remember, oh, it was so long ago, but I remember interviewing a mom of a man who had overdosed a young adult who had overdosed. I interviewed her here on WTN. She was advocating for some piece of legislation. I forget some of the details. But hearing her story about her son and how he had become addicted it's one of those situations where he had like thrown out his back or something and he had some back surgery whatever it was and he ended up getting addicted to the painkillers that were prescribed to him and you see that all the time the The thing that I take away from this is that this can happen to anybody. You know, oftentimes you have people that will say, oh, well, they're just a bunch of druggies. No, there are people just like me and you who throw out their back. They have back surgery. They end up getting addicted to these pills and their lives are just destroyed. I mean, that's what has been happening. And it is incredibly sad. I forget. I remember I told the story about my mom? I don't know if you guys remember this. You probably don't. But years ago, when my mom died, we went to California. And we were clearing out her apartment after she had passed away. And we found enough pills to like... I don't know, kill an elephant. I don't know what. There's a lot of pills. I mean, there were like, you know those big trash bags? Yeah. Right? We had almost an entire trash bag full of pills. There was some like fentanyl in there and some other stuff that, I mean, we looked it up at the time. And it's like, why in the world did she have all this? Well, she had had, you know, some surgeries and so forth. And it was like, My brother made the joke. He and I were joking around. We could go to L.A. right now and probably retire.

on if we went and sold all of these drugs. We ended up taking it to a drugstore, and you had to drop them into a bin, if I remember correctly, at the drugstore. Disposal Center? Yes, yes, exactly right. So, I mean, I'm telling you what, this stuff is going on, and my mom, here's the crazy part. My mom, not to go on and on about this, but my mom was an alcoholic. So my entire family full of alcoholics is crazy. So a very family that is very sort of addictive, you know, they get addicted to things. And I remember her telling me when she was alive, they were giving me all of these pills. She wouldn't take them because she knew. Yeah, she knew that she would get addicted. I said, well, then mom, why are you filling the prescription? She would say, just in case I need him. So she had like years and years of all of these drugs. Anyway, one more sound bite from Todd Blanche. We're taking back the money, the luxury cars, the jewelry, and these alleged fraudsters will face justice. The coordinated actions of the past two weeks have resulted in over $182 million in cash and other assets seized, making clear our health care fraud enforcement efforts generate a significant return. on investment for our taxpayers. So there you go. And as I said, they're going to try to claw back some of that money. By the way, 969 says this. The doctor busted in Clarksville sounds like an amateur. Many, he says, or she says, are even worse. I was a nurse for 43 years, never had drug problems, but everyone in any place can get addicted. Well, and they're incentivized to push them. You know, the pharmaceutical companies come to some of these physicians and go, prescribe X amount of pills a year or give out X amount of prescriptions, you know, what will give you this percentage. Duffy says on the supertext line, I was on opioids for 20 years. People have known what they are for decades addictive. He says personal responsibility needs to be had at some point. I guess... I don't take them, by the way. I had to have stitches in my face, and they offered me fentanyl for it in the hospital. And I said, no, I don't want that. Can I have something else? And she goes, well, it's going to hurt because it's going to be in your face. So, you know, what about an Ativan, which is like... It's not an opioid. It's more of a mood controller than anything else. Right. And... I point blank acid doctor. I said, could I self-medicate at home with something? And he said, absolutely, I think I would prefer that considering you're not going to be in that much pain and you don't need to go home with hydrocodone. Well, that's what my mom. I also told the story, I think, where when we went into my mom's apartment, she had, oh, my goodness, not only did she have all these drugs. She had a lot of, oh, what do you? like medicinal pot like gummies she had a bunch of gummies too like she had I mean it was she was in a lot of pain that that's one of the reasons why she did what she did but so she was in a lot of pain and so for her I mean again I can imagine if somebody walked into her apartment and saw all of the things that she was part of like the South Polo loco's dealing out the house or something that's exactly right anyway moving right along

But is that a legit thing to say, though? Like Duffy says, and I'm going to get stuck on this point because this is what I do. But Duffy says personal responsibility needs to be had at some point when talking about opioid addiction. He's got a fair point. We've known for decades that these are addictive. I got opioids for something. I can't remember what it was. And it was years ago now. And again, I can't remember. I was very hesitant to take them. I don't remember what it was, and I wish I could remember what it was. But it was something I'd had a back surgery kind of a thing. And they gave me something. And my wife at the time, and this is a long time ago, to Duffy's point, my wife at the time said, you probably shouldn't take this because it is so addictive. And you know that your family, you have this thing with addiction. And I don't remember if I took any. I may have just taken one just to see what it was like. And to Duffy's point. Yeah, no, definitely some self-responsibility, but your brain chemistry gets altered after a certain point, right? And you become dependent on needing that feeling in order to feel normal. And that's where it leads to you build a tolerance. And so, well, now instead of taking one a day, you're taking two a day. And then next week you're taking three a day. And then, you know, you come around to week four or five. And this is how people accidentally overdose. They're not feeling it anymore. Yep. By the way, at 3996, Joan, you and I talked about this story before the radio program about Cheekwood, the Cheekwood controversy. Yeah. So I'm just here to tell you, Sam. Joan is absolutely fired up about this whole thing at Cheekwood. So we're going to talk about this. Good. Coming up at, but Joan, you're going to have to carry the segment because I'm... I've been to Cheekwood. I love Cheekwood. Yeah. But you're going to tell the story and we'll all react to it like we did maybe at 5.30 this morning. So, because there's some people who are Cheekwood supporters who are really angry. And Cheekwood, it's like a, would you call it like an arboretum kind of a thing? Yeah. A bunch of plants, right? All right. All right. We'll talk about what's going on with Cheekwood. Thanks for bringing it right down. There you go. A bunch of plants. Scrolling with Haley. I'm Haley Karenia. I scroll with the homies here in the live chat because there's a lot to scroll through on X, on Instagram, on TikTok. Cutting through the clutter, one hot take at a time. Love seeing you all in the chat before the show. I tried to jump in just a few minutes before to say hello. I love the chat interaction. Thank you for helping. But I do it to get all of the videos and all of the content that you won't find anywhere else. Scrolling with Haley. Just search that up and I will be there. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.