Josh Filler- Segment 1

You've counted on Inside Maine for over 20 years for smart political talk and real conversations with the state's leaders on 985 FM, AM 560 and WGAN.com. All right, welcome to another edition of Inside Maine. I'm your host, Josh Filler. We've got a great show for you this morning. We'll be talking to John Featherston from the Main Wire. They, of course, just hosted the Republican gubernatorial debate where all eight candidates that are going to be on the ballot clashed in what was a very interesting and lively debate at times. We'll also be talking to Leland Strife. From Maine Girl Dads, he's the founder of that organization. We'll be talking to him about what the organization is all about, what they're doing, and what is going on in the world of girls' sports. and locker rooms and so forth with the transgender debate and so much more. And of course, we'll be taking your calls, 879-9426, 879 WGAM. If I sound like I'm a little bit under the weather, that's because I am, but fear not. I am here, highly medicated, highly caffeinated, and ready to go. So give us a call, 879-9-4-26. Be very interested to hear what's on your mind if you saw the Republican debate. And if you did, who do you think won, who do you think lost and why? Like I said, it was a very interesting debate. It was almost, I think, two hours long. And I think the candidates really got a chance to show. who they are, what their primary focus is, and just how they come across to the people of Maine, to the voters of Maine. And hopefully we'll get more opportunities to see that. Well, our phone lines are ringing. We've got Steve from Westbrook. Steve, good morning. What's on your mind? Hi, John. How are you? I'm well. Well, I'm doing all right. How are you doing? Well, I'm actually sad to say that... The Republican Party I grew up in is facing cascading and compounding failures. You know, one bad thing is leading to another even worse thing. You know, and Republicans have lost virtually all of their off-year and special elections in 2025 and 26, Josh. There's, you know, the collapse of affordability. just collapse of affordability, and the Epstein scandal, chasing Trump, and his sudden attack on Iran to flood the news zone with war stories instead of scandal stories.

So you think the attack on Iran was to distract from the Epstein files, which is actually boomeranged on the left. And it's actually had a bigger impact in the Great Britain that it has here in the United States. Really, Steve? Absolutely. Absolutely. And let me just tell you. Let me speak to the fans that are listening of privatization. They love privatization. Trump has privatized government. economic, foreign, and judicial policies to his own selfish self-interest, Josh. You know, America... How was he privatized it, Steve? Enlighten me a little bit. He's gone after his enemies. How does that privatize? Going after your enemies has nothing to do with privatizing. What has one got to do with the other? Going after your personal enemies is not privatizing the DOJ. Come on, man. You're a lawyer. Yeah, that's, well, first of all, that's not unfortunate. Look, I will concede this. I really do wish the administration would not go after its enemies to the extent that it has with the DOJ. I think what was done to Trump was an abomination. What was done to the people around him was an abomination. Robert Mueller, who recently passed away, who I served with, by the way, in the Bush administration. I think destroyed his reputation by fostering the weaponization of the DOJ. So I do tend to agree that I think the administration is not living up to the standard we at all hoped for when it comes to de-weaponizing DOJ. But there's a fine line, Steve, between accountability and retribution. Not every act is an act of retribution. The John Bolton investigation, for example, for classified documents, I don't think that's retribution. I think that's accountability. I think Mr. John Bolton is probably, probably responsible for what he did. Go ahead. Let me finish with this, Josh. This is Trump's revenge tour, clearly. But here's what I'm really, really upset about. America is on the brink. We're on the brink of putting boots on the ground. in a nation of 92 million people, for God's sake. And these people who have been suddenly unified by Trump against the U.S. because of our massive attacks on them, this is way bigger than Vietnam, Josh. You know, 92 million people is three and a half times bigger than Vietnam's population. You know, given all of our domestic problems, do we really want to friggin do this? All right, Steve, thanks for the call. Well, it's a serious question. I mean, the war in Iran, as I said, in fact, the war started when I was last hosting inside Maine, that President Trump was, in effect, banking his presidency on this. And especially if boots do go on the ground. If they do, I don't think it's going to be an Iraq-style invasion and takeover of the country. What they're talking about is... maybe taking over Karg Island, which is the island in the Strait of Hormuz, which is critical to being able to secure the strait and allow oil to flow through it freely. Right now, the Iranians are blocking not all oil, but enough oil, particularly oil to U.S. allies and others.

changes in your view as to who you may support going forward. Let us know. 879-9-4-26-879 W-G-A-M. You know, I did watch the debate. I thought it was, I thought it was informative. I thought the candidates got an opportunity to show, you know, kind of who they are and what their priorities are. But before I go any further on that, let's go to Ethan and Sacco. Ethan, good morning. What's on your mind? Good morning, Josh. How are we doing? Doing well. How are you? Oh, yeah, I hope you feel better, by the way. Oh, I appreciate that. I'm working on it. Yeah, yep, yep, yep. There's something going around, I guess. Look, so the governors were talking about affordability. Yep. And I think it's just everyone's talking about it, but it just drives me crazy because... It really isn't a state issue. This is where we overspent in the federal debt, national debt, is so high. It devalues the dollar and causes inflation to go up, and then we have to pay it all the money back. And that also just goes right into what I wanted to say about. You know, as I'm talking to people, especially on getting signatures, I'm talking to people door to door. And, you know, the baby boomers are probably the most, in my opinion, indoctrinated in the old school way of thinking that, you know, we just need to go bomb everybody and blow everybody up. especially Republican. Well, it's funny that you say that because the baby boomers cut their teeth protesting against the Vietnam War. So I'm not sure I really follow the logic. It's the baby boomers and the greatest generation who, and not to denigrate them, but it's the kind of like the old George H.W. Bush group where. You know, we need a kinder, gentler nation, a thousand points of light. We're going to, you're either with us or against us. And this is what has got us into this kind of, look, Trump is taking us into a, he's just, he's just forwarding this mentality. And it keeps us in never-ending wars and the national debt goes higher, the military budget goes higher. He, MAGA didn't want this. It's craziness, and people don't know the backstory on Iran, so they're like, yeah, well, they're all terrorists over there. That is not the case if you go and study the... any kind of a travel guide or like well hold on Ethan Iran is the number one state sponsor of terror around the world well why why would they be because we surrounded them with our bases it's like it's kind of like if uh Russia or China surrounded us with bases and then and then did we surround them with bases in 1979 when they took our people hostage no

Well, why did they take us hostage? Because we put in a puppet named the Shah, and we took over that country, and they knew it. The Shaw wasn't perfect either, but this is the empirical hegemonic mentality of the USA. We go everywhere. Everyone's a bad guy. Everyone, if we say it, there's nothing wrong with us, you know. You know, BP was in there in Mossadegh. We took out Mossadegh, because he wanted to nationalize the oil for them and give them and give them what they wanted, which was to take care of their own people. We put in the Shah, then they overthrew it, and voila. And now the Middle East is between the U.S. and in Israel, we've been funding dictators. and doing a slow-boil kinetic war here and there. And so they're pissed. They're mad at us. They're mad at us. All right. I appreciate you. I can tell. I'm wearing out my welcome. I appreciate. I hope you feel better, buddy. We appreciate the call. Yeah, so that, to me, is a bit of an oversimplification. I mean, he threw a lot out there, BP, which is British Petroleum. They were in Iran big time back in the 1950s, but that was under the British, not us. And there was an attempt to nationalize, which is a polite way of seizing private property without compensation by the Iranian government. They were also getting very close to the Soviets during the Cold War as well. So it's a lot more complicated than I think Ethan lays out there. And, you know, I hear this, this sort of blame America, that the fight with Iran is America's fault. We're the ones who are guilty of this. These people are radical Islamists. They slaughter their own people. They just murdered anywhere between 3,000 and 30,000 of their own people just a few months ago when there was an uprising against the regime. Okay. So you don't have to support the war. You can make a logical cogent argument for why a war with Iran may not be in the United States best interest. But you don't have to flip the script and say, well, the Iranians are the victims here, that they're the good guys, or we're the bad guys, or they're benign and we're malignant or whatever. You don't have to do that. The Iranian regime is awful. They're one of the worst regimes in the world. Whether or not we, you know, this war is a good idea and how it's going to end is an entirely open, I think, and different question. But I'm getting this sense of, you know, sort of blame America, blame Trump. It's all our fault. It's much more complicated than that. You're listening to Inside Maine on WGAN. I'm your host, Josh Filler. We're coming up on a break here. When we come back, we'll talk to Leland Strife from Maine Girl Dads. He's the founder of that organization. He'll give us an update on what they're doing and how things are going on that front.

Later, we'll talk to John Featherston from the main wire. We'll talk to him all things politics, how he thought the Republican debate went, the state of the political races, including the Senate race between Governor Mills and Graham Platner, all that and much more on Inside Maine on WGAN.