Bill Belichick’s Collapse, America’s Refugee Retreat, and the Dinner-Table Challenge Everyone Needs

Across the country, septuagenarians are redefining what it means to retire, launching new startups, new ideas and new careers with the energy of people half their age. Meanwhile, Bill Belichick's collapse at North Carolina is a reminder that even the most celebrated geniuses can stumble when they leave their lane. In Washington, both parties are waging a full scale messaging war over the government shutdown, each trying to frame who's responsible for the pain ordinary Americans are feeling, especially as health care costs become a political weapon. We'll also explore the moral and economic toll of cutting America's refugee admissions. And I'll end with a dare. The Filtered Digital Detox Challenge. Can you make it through one dinner, one night, truly unplugged and fully present? All that and more today on Filtered. Welcome to Filtered with TJ Walker. Okay, welcome back. My name is TJ and this is Filtered. This is the show where we look at the top news stories of the day. Business news, technology, economic and culture news filtered through the lens of communication skills. All with the goal of improving your success, your personal success, and your professional success, both communication and personal development skills. So let's launch right into it. Story 1 Septuagenarians are launching and winning. The new startup wave isn't 20 somethings in hoodies. It's 70 somethings with Rolodexes. According to the Wall Street Journal's Claire Ansberry, nearly 30% of employed people in their 70s are self employed, almost double the share in their 60s. The appeal? Being your own boss, setting your own schedule, and finally solving problems you've seen for decades. Babson's Donna Kelly says technology has flattened the Runway. People can now sell from home and don't need much startup capital. Take Charlotte Bishop. She's 80 and runs Life Finance Files, professionals helping older adults organize their lives remotely. George Koenig, age 70, launched E Caregivers, a platform linking families directly with caregivers to save up to 50%. And actor Judson Vaughn, 71, teamed with attorney Judson Graves, 77, to teach courtroom performance skills through online courses. As Vaughn put it, they're boring as hell. But now, even at 70, he says, I want to pass on what I've discovered. Experience may be the ultimate unfair advantage if you're an entrepreneur. Okay, so what's the real message here? This idea that if you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to be 19, wearing a hoodie, barely shave is not reality anymore. There are lots of people in their 60s, 70s and 80s starting new businesses and they are thriving. That's a Good thing. Thing. Don't use your age as an excuse. If you have an idea for a business inside, let's dig a little deeper here. Now one caveat. If you are trying there's different types of businesses and the word entrepreneur is thrown around loosely. Starting a business where you're delivering newspapers, I don't think anyone does that anymore. That's a part time job. It's not really being an entrepreneur. I think of an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is someone who is starting something new, something innovative, something that is, you know, no offense to anyone who is running a McDonald's hamburger franchise. It's a difficult job, I couldn't do it. But that's not what I think of as being an entrepreneur. It's starting some new business where it's an actual new idea. So having said all that, I don't think you're going to have venture capitalists give you $5 billion or $5 million if you're 75 years old running a business and it's your first time business. Now obviously if you're an Ellison or a Musk in his early 50s, you can be any age. If you already have a lot of successes behind you in publicly traded companies and exits, sure you can raise money. But it was interesting to me that the Wall Street Journal did take the time to interview a lot of people in their 70s. Of course a detractor gets it. Well, of course TJ they're doing that because cost of living is so high and so many other expenses are housing as high. They're not entrepreneurs. They're just taking an extra gig at the local Safeway to be able to afford rent. That may be some of it, but I don't think that's what they're talking about here. It's just there are a lot of people actually starting new businesses because they want to. I mean these are not businesses digging ditches that rely on raw strength and bra. These are businesses that rely on your brain, your people skills, your social skills, your communication skills. And for many people, 70s, 80s, 90s, they can still be at, if not their peak performance at a very, very high level. So why not use it? So let's look at some more of the statistics. As the article points out, 30% of working 70 somethings are self employed. That is a little bit different. Yeah, you could always say, well grandma babysat and took in sewing once a week in the olden days she was self employed. This is a little bit different. Many are starting real businesses. As I mentioned in the opening newsread, some People are doing online courses, which is the subject I know a little about since that's my primary business of, of selling my 300 courses to 12 million online student enrollments. So that is something you can do at any age. It's certainly something I hope to be doing in my 70s and 80s and 90s. And who knows, let's not get ahead of ourselves. So 30% of 70 somethings are self employed if they're working. According to AARP, they have something called work for yourself at 50 helps older adults explore self employment. Part of it is, I mean, I've experienced this in my own career. It's just so much easier to start a business early in my career. The whole idea of starting a business was complicated and expensive. It was, the whole concept was you had to find an office, sign a lease. No one worked from home in the early 80s, mid-80s, you had to sign a lease for a year. You had to have a executive assistant, secretaries, as they were called, logo, letterhead, it was. You had to mail things out back and forth. You needed someone to carry your packages and letters to the post office. It was an expensive, time consuming, sort of bureaucratic thing to start any kind of a business nowadays, you can really sit it in your bed. Even if it's a hospital bed, if you have access to a computer, you can do everything you need to start a business. Now let me not sound like a junior varsity, Gary Vaynerchuk. And I like Gary, but it's not easy. Most people who start businesses don't make any money. So let's be blunt about it. But you can make money. And it's never, it's not easy, but it's never been easier to start a business with limited capital and to do it on your timeframe. Now it used to be he wanted to run a store, okay, you got to be open 12 hours a day, at least six days a week. And if, and if you're not there to man the store, well, then you got to hire people and they don't want to show up. So you have to fire them. And you got to recruit new people. And it's a whole big management night. Forget going on vacation. Well, these days retirees and other people, people in their 70s, people in their 20s, can start a business. The store can be open 24 hours a day and you can still have a life. If you only want to work four hours a day, you can't. Doesn't mean it's going to make you rich. But maybe your aspirations are low. Maybe your goal is to make an extra $20,000 a year and you want to work two and a half hours a day. That is a reasonable plan for a lot of seniors. And for that matter, high school kids can do that as well, if you're willing to work on it and bootstrap. Again, there's some confusion over the term entrepreneur because then people do think, oh, you want to be the next Apple, the next Facebook, the next Google? To have a business that scales at that level even today typically does take massive amounts of venture capital. Now, if you're here in the United States, you do have a huge advantage of companies that do receive venture capital funding. In America, they're averaging $5 million per startup, whereas in Europe it's only $1 million. So you have a huge advantage being an American. But I won't kid you, I don't think if you're 79 years old and your name is not Larry Ellison, the venture capitalists are going to be lining up to give you cash. But again, you don't necessarily need it. I'd urge you to check this out at the Wall Street Journal. In the news today, they also profile e caregivers, list bio professionals, and Judson Squared, the continuing ed program for teaching lawyers performance skills. They all sound like great ideas. And more important, these people in their 70s, I think are having the time of their life. They're being useful. Part of the problem with aging, frankly, and I see this already with some of my friends, it's not that you descend into poverty because traditionally, across every culture, for 99.9% of human history, the problem with getting older is you couldn't earn your keep, you couldn't gather enough food, and you starve to death. And as recently in the United States, going back to the early 1960s, senior citizens were the poorest demographic. Social Security, other entitlements did change that. You could argue we've gone too far in the extreme of having government not help kids, young people, and it's all going towards senior citizens. But that's a debate for another day. The reality is most senior citizens today are not fighting for their next meal. Not to say there isn't some hunger, but most are not fighting for their next meal. They're not fighting trying to figure out how to pay for their health care costs because they're on Medicare, so they actually have time. If you have your health, you have your brain. Why not use it? Because as many people as I've seen who retire, they're going to live it up. I'm going to enjoy it now it's me time, and they're sitting back and all they're doing is watching cable TV news, people screaming at each other, getting angrier and angrier, and they're yelling at the TV. That's a horrible retirement. Why not spend, you know, 10 minutes a day looking at that stuff, watching a show like this, and then spend the rest of your time actually doing a business? Maybe you don't care about the money, maybe you don't need the money, but the money can be for your children, your grandchildren, your charities, your legacy. People who work because they have a purpose, because they have a mission, because they have some joy, don't feel tired at the end of the day. They're not grumbling on Monday morning. I've seen people who are retired and, yeah, they don't have to get up early Monday morning. They don't have to have a commute they don't like. They don't have to have a boss they don't like. Does that make them happy? No, it often makes them grumpy. Ah, there aren't any good movies made anymore. Ah, there's no good restaurants in my neighborhood. They need something to do. So that is my other big message to you. If you are getting closer to retirement age, whatever that is in your culture, don't do it. Start a new business. That is my. It will keep you young. It will keep your brain active. I have friends my age who've already retired. I would not want to be them. I find great joy in engaging with you here on a daily basis. Now, I'm going to say something. You're going to say, this is hubris. I'm not comparing myself to Paul McCartney. But Paul McCartney is over 80. He's not retired. He is traveling the world, making music, performing, speaking out. He's not doing it for the money. He's already a billionaire. Jerry Seinfeld's pushing 70. You don't see him retiring. He's not doing it for the money. He's not a billionaire. He's pretty close to one. He is doing comedy because he enjoys it. So that's, I think, the huge luxury of a lot of senior citizens. When they start businesses, they can truly focus on something where they have expertise, passion, and it brings them joy. I hope you have joy in your career, regardless of whether you're 70 or 27. More in a moment. Filtered is brought to you by the following. You don't need a new degree. You don't need another expensive coach. You need the right communication habits. And I'LL teach them you in just a few minutes a day. @mediatrainingworldwide.com I've created the most comprehensive library of online communication and personal development courses anywhere. You'll learn public speaking, media training, persuasion, executive presence, and more. These are the same methods I've taught to world leaders, but now they're affordable and accessible to everyone. You can start for free and upgrade anytime. Go now to mediatrainingworldwide.com confidence isn't a personality trait, it's a skill. And it's trainable. Welcome back to Filtered. Bill Belichick and the Great Man Myth Bill Belichick's rough start at the University of North Carolina isn't just about football. It's about the myth that greatness is somehow universal as the athletics. David Ubin reports. UNC was blown out 38 to 10 by Clemson, the latest embarrassment for one of history's most successful NFL coaches. But Belichick struggles. Expose what I call the great man myth, the belief that mastery in one field automatically predicts success in another field. And I'm sorry, professional football is a different field than college football. It just is. History shows this again and again. Michael Jordan, greatest basketball player ever according to some hit just 2.02in baseball. Not a very good baseball player. Wayne Gretzky, the great one great hockey player was an ordinary coach. Bob Dylan tried filmmaking and critics begged him to stop. Howard Hughes, aviation and Hollywood pioneer, nearly destroyed his fortune running TWA airlines and Elon Musk can build rockets and cars, but running government or social media, that's another universe entirely. Belichick's NFL brilliance came from discipline and hierarchy. But college football now thrives on chaos, transfer portals, nil deals and social media stars. Adaptation, not reputation, wins. Now even legends can misread the playbook when the rules change. So what's the real message here? It's time to face reality. Bill Belichick as a college football coach is a disaster. Just because you're a good NFL coach doesn't mean you are a good college coach. There's been failures before and there have been plenty of college coaches who were great, went to the NFL and they stunk. It is a different skill set. So let's dig a little bit deeper here and look at this now confession. Let me be totally transparent. You are at least within the United States, you would have a very hard time finding somebody especially sorry if this sounds sexist, but it's true. You would have a very hard time finding a man in the United States who knows less about football than I Do. It's just not a sport I really care about. I watch maybe one NFL game, the Super Bowl a year, and that's about it. So I come to you not as an expert on football. What I am trying to look at is a more universal truth of how we as a society receive messages. We think, oh, this person's really smart here. They got to be smart here. Henry Ford was great at automating the production system of cars, at creating the factory, the assembly, great. But if you're looking to him for a philosophy on religious tolerance, not the guy to go to. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check it out. So it's a different skill set. And unfortunately, we live in a world where once you have high name ID, you have fame in one area. It's easy to transport that into another area and have people just give you lots of money. I mean, Bill Belichick got a gigantic, gigantic contract. Enough money to pay for probably half the professor's salaries at unc, a state institution. And he's losing. He's not just losing. He's losing big time. He's losing by 10, 20, 30 points. Some of these games, not even close. They've all been blowouts so far. So here's what I want you to think about. It's not that I don't ever want you to try new things. If you succeeded at one thing and you want to take time off and try something adjacent, that's okay. But if you're thinking of investing your money, if you're on the trustees, the trustee committee of a major university, and you're thinking about taking all the cash the university has and just giving it to someone who's never coached a single college game, maybe you should think twice. And a lot of the folks at the University of North Carolina thought this was clever. It's like, oh, he's so famous that we'll sell more tickets. Well, they did sell tickets. That's part of the battle. But if you looked at the stands and the photos of the stands a little bit after halftime, everyone left. They were so embarrassed for their school. Bored and embarrassed about being trashed on the field, destroyed. That's not a great way of building camaraderie in a school building, school spirit, getting people more excited, recruiting more people. So sometimes what seems like the quick, temporary fix is not a fix at all. It's a warning to all of us. Just because you're good at one thing doesn't mean you're good at something else. And again, I have to stress try things. I don't begrudge Bill Belichick trying to get like, hey, they're willing to give me the money, I'll take it. I don't begrudge him. I do begrudge the unc, I guess, athletic director and the whole organization for just saying here, basically take all of our money. If we have to shut down the entire English department, we'll just give you all the money you ever to dream up even though you're already rich and come be our coach because you're a famous coach for a whole different league, professional football, college football, different beast entirely. I'm TJ Walker. There's lots more to come today. Stay tuned. Back in a moment. We'll be right back after this break. Want more? Grab my Five Book Success Library for $9.95 at tjwalker.com books. It's the fastest way to level up your communication. Imagine being the most confident person in the room whether you're on zoom or on stage. That's what thousands of professionals are learning to do right now. Through my online communication courses at Media Training Worldwide. You can access my complete training library on demand. Affordable and actually effective. Whether you're preparing for media interviews, client presentations or TED style talks, I've got you covered. Check it out mediatrainingworldwide.com you'll never wing it again. Welcome back to Filtered. Issue three, the government shutdown, spend, blame and healthcare. Washington may be closed, but the spin machines are open 247 as the government shutdown drags on both parties. And former or not Freudian slip there, current President Trump are fighting less over budgets and more over perception. Republicans have flooded social media and even federal agency websites with banners blaming, quote, radical left Democrats for refusing to fund the government. Their core claims Democrats are blocking spending to protect so called border giveaways and health care for illegals. Fact checkers repeatedly and virtually every major news media website call these claims false, but the message sticks. With enough repetition, Democrats have made health care their emotional counterpunch. They say roughly 4 million Americans could lose affordable health care. They could lose the Affordable Care act coverage if funding lapses continue. And they warn that premiums could raise more than 50%. That's a huge, huge amount, in some cases doubling from about $900 to nearly $1,900 a month. Republicans call that fear mongering. Democrats call it math. Either way, this shutdown isn't just about the numbers. It's about who wins the story. Polls show most Americans oppose the shutdown and independents are leaning toward blaming the GOP in 2025. The real battle in Washington isn't over budgets. It's over who controls the narrative. Okay, so what's the real message here at this stage with the government shutdown? Anyone who can tell you this party's going to win or this party's going to lose, they are selling you something. They're talking out of their, you know what. They don't know what they're talking about. It's just too early to tell. This is a complicated issue right now. A small plurality of voters are blaming Republicans more. But let's not forget the Republican message machine is more powerful and more disciplined than anything the Democrats have in the mainstream media. Let's dig a little deeper here. This is an extraordinarily complex issue. The Democrats are in a real bind. There's no doubt about it. To recap, especially for those of you in other countries, one political party controls the White House. Republicans, Donald Trump, the very same political party controls the United States Senate. They also control, by a few votes, the United States House. So they control both branches of Congress, the White House, and they have appointed more members of the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court essentially rolls over and plays dead anytime a decision goes to them and they say, hey, the President can do whatever he wants. We're not going to say unconstitutional things that a president has done in the past that we call out. We're not doing that anymore. We're just saying he can do whatever he wants. So right now, the Democrats have basically no power at all. The one exception is there is this weird, quirky thing in our Congress where the senators, it's not a law, it's just a rule. The senators have that for major legislation, it has to have 60 votes out of 100, not a majority. You could argue it's not Democratic, but it's called the filibuster. And a lot of senators in both parties like it. It gives them a lot more power even when they are in the minority and they don't like giving up power. So the way the rules are written, right now, the Senate has to have 60 votes. Well, there aren't 60 Republicans. Which means in order to pass the bill to fund the government, it would require several Democratic senators to do so. And their position is, we're going to pass our bill if it does what we want. And the Republicans are like, no, we're not negotiating. We just give us what we want. And the Democrats attitude is, we have nothing to lose. You're giving us nothing. Every deal we've made in the past legislation we agreed upon. The Trump administration just ignores it and spends money on what they want to, and they stop spending money on things where there was bipartisan agreement to do it. So why should we keep funding tyranny? They're not saying it like that, but that's essentially the message coming out of the administration. So now there's a messaging problem because Americans do not like government shutdowns. Americans love to say they hate government, big governments waste, and I'll get the government out of my pocketbook. People love bashing government in the abstract, but in the particular, they like their farm subsidies, they like their water inspected. They like an air traffic controller making sure when grandma comes to visit her, her plane doesn't go into somebody else's plane and die a fiery death. Actually like government when it comes to they like being able to go to a grocery store, get some hamburger, cook it, eat it and not die because it's filled with poison, because it was never inspected. So people actually like government, but they don't know it until it's not there. Now the government has been closed for less than a week, so the pain hasn't really started showing up for most people. But it's going to if this shutdown continues. And I haven't seen any reputable sources suggesting there's going to be some compromise or any resolution to this anytime soon. Naveen is asking. Nabnath is saying, what about $2,000 stimulus checks to every American citizen? I don't know what you're talking about. I don't think that's a part of a proposal right now for anyone, but if you care to elaborate, let me know. By the way, we are live today and every day, so if you ever want to watch this, just sign up for notifications for YouTube or any other platform and you'll be able to watch the show live. If you are watching this show or listening to this on any podcast platform, thank you for doing so. Please follow the show, subscribe to it, leave comments, give me feedback, and you can always post your questions or criticisms or thoughts directly on my YouTube page on the post section, the community section of the YouTube page. But those of you watching on TikTok, you can post right here on TikTok, on Facebook, any format. I look at all of them. So let's go a little deeper here because this is a complex issue because here's the dilemma for the Democrats. There is a part of the Democratic Party that says just shut the government down because Trump is turning our country into A joke. He is turning this country into an authoritarian dictatorship. If we're giving money to him, we're essentially giving a blank check. Check to destroy ourselves, to destroy our very society, to rip apart the fabric of our country further. So why do we want to enabled, why do we want to pay for our own destruction? Specifically, they are upset that Trump has thumbed his nose at constitutional provisions that presidents of all parties have always respected throughout the history of the country. Things like using the military against American citizens is just unprecedented. It's extremist, it's vile. But the Democrats are afraid to use that issue because then Trump can turn around and say, look, they're being soft on crime and soft on these criminals and soft on refugees and immigrants. So they're afraid of talking about that issue. They're really upset about Trump trying to replace members of the Federal Reserve and trying to replace Sherman Powell because they fear this could completely destroy the independence of the Fed and could turn us into Argentina or Turkey or countries where once that happens, inflation's 80%, you've destroyed the entire economy and people are starving to death. That's a legitimate fear that not just Democrats, but centrist, right of center, even libertarians fear. But that's considered too arcane of an issue to talk about to the American people and to try to convince them. That's why you're not voting to extend the debt ceiling. Democrats are also extremely angry at virtually everything Trump does on a daily basis. It's not because they think it is a bad policy, or clearly they do. It's because they believe what he's doing is just completely illegal. Taking the money from USAID and consigning hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people to death, even though the Congress appropriated money for that, just strikes most Democrats and most fair minded observers, regardless of what political party they are, as unprecedented. Our Constitution allows the Congress to establish priorities and pass budgets for spending. And once they do that, it's supposed to be spent. It's not supposed to be a mere suggestion to the President of okay, here's 100 things we want to spend money on. And it's roughly, let's say it's a dollar for each one, it's $100. The president is not supposed to be able to say, well, I like these 30, the other 70, eh, I'll just pocket the money and put it in my own bitcoin, my own meme coin, collab, that's supposed to work that way. But that is essentially what's happening. Democrats are very upset. The way. This, this administration has cashed in and this president has cashed in in an extraordinarily unprecedented way, using his name, his likeness, selling everything from bibles to cell phones to meme coins, and cashing in for billions of dollars. The problem is with, with Trump, he does so many constitutional atrocities on a daily basis that it becomes tiresome and your head just spins. It's like playing whack a mole. So the second you talk about this atrocity, here's one that's 10 times worse than the one you're talking about. So go here and you're bouncing around. It's very, very difficult from a messaging standpoint to even put your finger on what would be the worst thing. So that's why the Democrats have said, we're not going to talk about him acting like a dictator. We're not going to talk about him destroying democracy. We're just going to talk about the fact that what he wants to do is take health care away from 4 or 5 million Americans and he wants to double the cost of health care for millions of other Americans. And we want to keep health care the same because that's what the Congress supported in the past and that's what we want to do now, and that's what the American people want. Interestingly, the so called Obamacare, the American Health Care act, has widespread approval now among Republicans. A majority of Republicans support it, not a majority of Republican senators or presidents, but among voters it has widespread approval. So taking away would be an extraordinarily unpopular thing. So the Democrats have made a calculated decision that this is the one thing that most people could understand. Oh, I don't want my health care doubling. Oh yeah, the Democrats are right to have a proposal saying, let's not double my health care. That is what they're bargaining for now. The Republicans have their own messaging too. Their message is the far left, radical Democrats want to take all your tax money and give it for health care for illegal aliens. That's their message. There's only, and it may be an extraordinarily effective message. And the Republican talking points machine has been very disciplined. The President saying it, Mike Johnson saying it. The White House press secretary is saying, the only problem is it's not really true. But there is a well established track record among politicians, populists, demagogues of all stripes to just say, hey, it doesn't matter if it's true. Seems like it could be true. People like it. So just, it's kind of like, oh, Obama wasn't born in America. Doesn't matter what the facts say. A lot of people liked it. That was initially what brought Trump to national prominence as a political figure, simply passing on that big lie. It's the big lie theory. You say it often enough. It's a big enough lie. People will believe it after a while. Wish it weren't true, but it is in fact true. So who's going to win this now? I will say one caveat. One caveat. It is true that if you keep the government open, the government is going to have to follow rules. Well, under President Reagan, a law was passed saying that if you're a hospital and you get any kind of government funding and somebody shows up on your doorstep, I show up, there's blood gushing out of my heart. I'm on my last breath, save me. At that point in the emergency room, they're not supposed to say, okay, show me your birth certificate, your citizenship papers, your passport and all of your health insurance. They're not allowed to do it. This was passed under President Reagan. What they're supposed to do is not just let the person bleed out right there on the street in front of the hospital, they're supposed to bring them in, save a life, then figure out how it gets built. Nothing specific to a Democratic plan. It's what formerly decent people of all parties believed doctors should do. So the Republican message is essentially, hey, you're wanting to continue that policy. So if we squint the right way, what we're really saying is you're not funding the government because you want a policy we've had for decades to continue. Again, it's technically illegal for illegal aliens, illegal immigrants, anyone who's not a citizen or a green card holder in America to have a government sponsored health care and to get the government to pay for it. But again, it's a practical matter. You're a doctor, you're an emergency room attendant. Someone has been brought in, they're unconscious, blood is gushing out. Are we really telling these people, well, take a look. Does the person have skin, a certain color? Does the person have a tattoo where the language isn't English? Do we really want them to start going through a checklist and say, no, just go into the gutter and die? Is that the mess? Now, some people might like that message, but it doesn't really resonate very well, I think, with most decent American. So where does all this go? I'm giving it to you honestly. I'm here not as a partisan, but I'm here as a sane, sensible centrist. And I'M calling it like it is. I'm not calling it to help one party. I'm telling you what I think based on my 40 years of experience helping political leaders all over the world, prime ministers, members of parliament, yes, the occasional US Senator on how to communicate effectively. And I honestly don't know where this is going to go temporarily right now at the beginning phase, according to numerous reputable polls in the United States, there is between 9 and 17% more people blaming Republicans for this. But I am by no means confident that that's going to hold or expand. A month from now, we may see that the Republican messaging machine from. Because it's not just Trump, it's not just the White House press secretary. It's not just Mike Johnson the speaker. It's not just John Thune, the Senate Republican leader. It's not just Fox News, it's not just Newsmax. It's not just the war room and Steve Bannon. It's thousands and thousands of podcasters and YouTubers and cable and quasi TV networks all on the same page with remarkable discipline. The Democrats just don't have anything like that. The Democrats always like to complain amongst themselves. The Democrats spend more time frankly saying, oh, I don't like Chuck Schumer's voice. He seems whiny. I don't like Chuck Schumer. He seems wimpy. The Democrats, it's not that they're. I'm not saying they're morally better in every aspect or regard, but in this area, they are remarkably undisciplined most of the time on messaging. So this really could go either way, friends. And the big lie might work if you just tell enough people enough times. The Democrats are bad because they want all your money to be spent giving free. I mean, before this is over, they'll probably be saying all the money's gonna go to give boob jobs and a liposuction to illegal immigrants. I mean, it's absurd, but it's no more absurd than what they're saying right now. So you can anticipate it may stretch and stretch and stretch and become something so crazy, so beyond that, it jumps the shark for most people. But it works with the swing voters. Now we're seeing that in other aspects. Just this week, Trump said that the Democrats were the party of Satan. Now, this used to be the stuff of caricature and satire on Saturday Night Live, but now we have the President of the United States putting out memes, making fun of the Democrats. As, you know, the Frito bandido with Hakeem Jeffries, with little mustache drawn on and a sombrero, calling the Democrats Satan. It's turning off some people, but it also resonates with a lot of voters, too. And I'm here to tell you, I'm calling it like I see it. It is effective with some people. Here's the bigger macro issue, the lens we have to view all this through. The Democrats are the party of making government work. The whole idea that we should have a government, it should help people with health care, education, roads, cleaner air, externalities that the marketplace doesn't solve. That's a basic aspect of liberal democracy, and the Democratic Party believes in that. The Republican Party is the party that says government is not the solution, government is the problem. That was Ronald Reagan's mantra. So, to some extent, destroying the government is playing into the hands of Republicans and Trump. That's what they want. And he's taking this as an opportunity to say, great, you're going to shut down the government. There's no money. I'm not going to put government workers on leave. I'm just going to fire them. They're gone. Good luck trying to rebuild the FAA and the center for Disease Control. All these people are going to have to go get jobs elsewhere, perhaps move cash in their 401ks, start their own online courses with the other septuagenarians we talked about earlier. So this could play into the ultimate policy objectives of the Republicans. Trump, larger conservatism values. So that's why I don't think you can just say categorically the Democrats have the upper hand. The one thing the Democrats do have, frankly, that the Republicans sell is the Democrats have nothing to lose. Their poll ratings are abysmal. Most Americans don't like them. I've seen polls showing that if the election were held today for president, we wouldn't see much difference. People would continue voting as they did before. So the Democrats just don't have much to lose. They don't have to worry about losing the White House. They don't have it. They don't worry about losing control of the Senate. They don't have that. They don't have to worry about losing control of the House. They don't have that. Don't worry about losing the Supreme Court. They don't have the Supreme Court. So desperate times call for desperate measures, and the Democrats are desperate. There's no doubt about it. We'll see if they have the discipline. We'll see if the message changes over time. It may be that certain things you and I have no idea. Cause pain to people that perhaps didn't happen in other shutdowns start to emerge this time and get more and more media attention and get people angrier and that that is what creates a change, a new opening for messaging. Anytime you're in the world of politics and crisis communications, you can't go into this saying I took a poll six months ago and I know exactly what to say. These things have to be fluid. You have to check your surroundings, see what's going on, adjust your message, calibrate and go from there. We're going to be back in just a moment. I see other comments have come in regarding Trump's stimulus check. What do you know about these tariffs funded pitch? Well, I haven't followed that. I'll take a look at that. Medical tourism may be on the rise next if this continues. So we do have a lot of Americans, primarily for my understanding, cosmetic surgery, hair plugs, nose jobs, things that are not technically essential, who go to other countries where they go to Mexico, they go to Turkey, they go to other places where they can get the surgery done much less expensively. But if you are in a car crash on the way home from work and all of a sudden you need emergency surgery, brain surgery, you don't have the luxury of that. And if you don't have health insurance, guess what? You could have been a great saver your whole life. Think your fight, your family's financial situation is set, maybe your kids college is paid for, you don't have medical insurance and you get in a big wreck like that and you have some assets, boom, your entire net worth is destroyed. You could see your net worth go to zero. And that's the kind of chill that goes up the spine of Americans when they hear people talking about making radical changes in health care. That's one reason why it's hard to change health care or go to a single payer plan in America. People fear change. But it's also why it's difficult for politicians to take away benefits that people are used to. There's usually a huge, huge punishment to receive for politicians when that happens. More in a moment. Filtered is brought to you by the following Want to advertise here? You better be legit. No crypto, no junk food, no supplements. Go to tjwalker.com advertise want to become a better speaker, leader or communicator? Start with the TJ Walker Success Library. It's five of my most practical books covering everything from public speaking to media interviews and persuasive messaging, all for only $9.95. I've trained presidents and Fortune 500 CEOs, and now you can get the same wisdom in a fast, affordable format. Go to tjwalker.com books and download your copies instant. And we are back. I'm TJ Walker. This is Filtered. Thanks so much for joining me today. This is the program where we look at the top stories of the day. Business news, economics, technology and culture stories filter it through the lens of communication and personal development skills, all with the goal of helping you become more successful in your personal life and your professional life. This is not a political talk show. I'm here as a sane, sensible centrist who has 40 years of experience working at the highest levels of government, business, the nonprofit world, teaching leaders how to communicate effectively and how to have personal development habits that can make them more successful. Let's dive right into issue four. America's refugee promise shrinks. The Trump administration plans to slash refugee admissions to 7,500 people. That is going to be one of the smallest ever the low. In fact, it's the lowest ceiling in more than 40 years. According to the New York Times, most of those few slots will reportedly go to get this white South Africans framed as victims of unjust discrimination. That decision effectively halts resettlement for thousands of approved families, people from places like Sudan, the Congo and Iran who spent years in camps waiting for safety. Critics call it a moral betrayal of America's legacy as a refuge for the persecuted. It's worth remembering who'd we lose if this had always been our policy. Albert Einstein, a refugee from Nazi Germany. Sergey Brin, the Google co founder, fled Soviet persecution. Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger, Andy Grove, Gloria Stefan, and even Steve Jobs father, a Syrian refugee, all built lives that reshaped America. The refugee camp has always been a mirror of our national values. Right now, that reflection is getting smaller and meaner. Okay, so this is an issue that is near and dear to my heart. Full disclosure. For many years I worked with the United nations refugee organization, unhcr. I did all the media training and presentation training for them for a decade or so. I'm not currently working with them in part because all their money has been taken away. But that's not why I'm talking about this. I've had the privilege of meeting a number of refugees and the things they've gone through to just survive and to try to get to another country. You're talking about people who are the most resilient people in the world. These are the winners. You know, it's bizarre to me, someone like President Trump and Pete Hegseth, they're always talking, we want winners. We want to be winners for winners. These refugees, almost by definition, are the most resilient, strongest, most resourceful. Better at saving, better at planning. Trying to plan to get out of a country where their entire family could be destroyed and killed and their entire futures destroyed. You're really getting the cream of the crop, I hate to tell you that, but you really are. And now we're throwing it away. I mean, this, this is bizarre at so many levels. It's not just not letting people in for university students and HB1 visas for top tech companies, that's harmful too. But refugees are often the source of tremendous diversity. And sorry, but diversity isn't always a bad thing. Diverse ideas, diverse talents, diverse drives. And people who hunger for America. They come here, they want to work hard, they want to create businesses, they want wealth. They really do want wealth. And that filters down to others in their community and their society. Again, do we really wish we could get in a time machine and prevent Steve Jobs father from coming from Syria to the United States? Would that be better? Now, it doesn't necessarily mean Apple would have been created in Syria. No, but it might mean it wouldn't be created at all. It might mean the United States. And looking at the Google co founders, it might mean the United States is just a pretty good place for technology. Kind of like Europe, kind of like China. Well, no, we are supreme. We are number one right now, in part because of the brains that come here. Sometimes through HB1 visas, sometimes through university students, sometimes through refugees. Now the cap is going to go to 7,500, down from 125,000 under Biden. And if I said 75,000, I messed up, you know, 7,500. It's a laughably small number. But to add insult to injury, the fact that so many white Africaners from South Africa are going to the front of the line. Look, there are a lot of Republicans who say, oh yeah, you, you Democrats, you're so quick to call racism. You know, you see something you don't like, everyone's a racist one. Racist, racist, racist. And you talk about racism so much, you have no credibility. And you call us white nationalist. That's ridiculous. Well, when you see something like this white African, of all the people in the world, all the refugees in the world fleeing from their lives, fleeing from tyranny, fleeing from dictators, sometimes chasing them with machetes to suggest that white Africaners are some uniquely persecuted group, I'M sorry, there's just no way you can look at that anyway, other than to say, trump in the corner. This will really piss off the liberals. Let's stick it to them. And it's white nationalism. I'm sorry, it's saying there's something unique and special about white people, that the minor inconvenience a white African. And I understand, like in every country, somebody can get killed occasionally, but the idea that the minor inconvenience of a white Africaner compares to the typical life experience of millions of refugees around the world trying to flee horrible, dangerous oppression is utterly ludicrous. This is a way for Trump, once again, to sort of show, I believe in genetics and white racial purity, white superiority. And it's really just utterly bizarre and despicable. I mean, I've been to, I've been to South Africa. I've been a white person in South Africa. And I can tell you people were really nice to me. Why is that? Well, it's in part because still in South Africa, white people have so much more wealth than anyone who's not white. So they're walking around in Kika. Mr. Walker, may I carry your bag? It's not because I'm special. Nobody knew who I was. I was discriminated against in my favor for being white in South Africa. And yes, I'm not going to tell you I know every single nuance of South Africa just because I've been there and worked there. But I can tell you, anyone who tells you that white Africaners of South Africa should get a majority of the slots of refugees coming into the United States, that is utterly crazy. There's just no way you can make that case without tacitly or overtly embracing white nationalism. That's really what it's about. It's about saying, hey, we're a country founded by white people. We like white people. We want more white people here. Enough of these people coming from Asia and Africa and brown places and South America, none of that. It's really saying, we want more white people. And there is a word for it, a phrase. People don't like to be called this, but it is a phrase. White nationalism. More in a moment. Hey, if you're enjoying this kind of take and want to hear more stories filtered through the lens of communication, make sure you're following the show, whether you're watching or listening. New episodes drop every single day. And if there's a little notification option where you are now, go ahead and turn it on. It helps you stay in the loop. Okay, we are back. This is Filtered with TJ Walker, and we're going to go into the final issue today. It's a little bit different. I call it the Filtered Digital Detox Challenge. Here's the challenge, and it's harder than you think. Next time you have dinner with friends or family, leave your phone at home. Not on the table, not in your pocket at home, or at least 50ft away from where you are when you're having dinner with the power turned off. Call it the filtered with D.J. walker digital detox Challenge. Why am I suggesting this? It's because our devices have rewired how we connect. Research from the University of Essex at Harvard show that even a silent phone on the table lowers empathy, weakens recall, and cuts connection in half. We're so busy documenting our lives. Oh, look at this food. No one's ever seen a picture of a pizza before. Let me take a picture. And you're not talking to the person you're having the pizza with. We forget to actually live with the other people we're dining with. When you remove the glowing distraction, you'll notice people more. You'll listen better, you'll laugh harder. You'll remember conversations instead of checking notifications. So I dare you. One meal, one evening. No screens. See what happens when your full attention becomes the rarest thing in the room. Okay, so what's the real message? You. I. What is the message here? I dare you. I double dare you. Have a meal tonight or this week with some friend. Leave your cell phone at home. No, you can't check your phone when they're checking their phone. No, they go to the bathroom. You can't check. Check. Oh, look at this email from my boss. Just be in the moment. Actually listen to them. Think about them. Rather than. I wonder if I'm missing an important text. I just heard a ping. Guess what? You're not that important. You can go several hours without looking at your cell phone. No one else will care. Let's dig a little bit deeper here again, why am I talking about this today? Last night, I went to dinner, and I'm ashamed to say I don't do this more often. My family and I were invited to a dinner party in the neighborhood. I consciously left my phone at home. Let me say that again. You're probably thinking, well, tj what you really mean is you put your phone on silent and you had it in your pocket. No, I literally left my phone at home. My daughter left her phone at home. We went and had dinner with another family. We had a great time we had real conversations. I wasn't thinking when our dinner host were talking about some geopolitical event or what they're doing with their backyard or how their golf game is going. I wasn't thinking about as soon as they get up to check the kitchen, I'm going to check my email. As soon as they go to the restroom, I'm going to check my text. As soon as they get up to look at the dessert, I'm going to check and see how many likes I have on my Facebook post. I wasn't thinking about any of that because. Not because I have great self discipline, but because I made the decision to simply leave my cell phone home. Tj, how could I possibly drive two blocks to get there? I don't drive anywhere without my cell phone. Use your brain. Print out a map if you have to. Now in my case, I took my family and I took my quadricycle and we biked the four blocks to where we had dinner. But you can figure it out and it will change how you listen. It will change how you connect with people. I don't know about you, but I'm frankly sick and tired of getting together with a friend for a dinner or drink. And oh yeah, tj, yeah. And they're looking at their phone. Now. I'm doing it right now because I have to, because I'm trying to connect and stay connected with my friends on TikTok. And TikTok is telling me if I don't push a button then I will be locked out permanently. So I'm doing this right now to my TikTok friends and welcome back. But when you do that in a conversation, I have some dear friends. I adore them. But one friend in particular who's single. I can't remember the last time I had a conversation with him where he was like, yeah, that's Great. Gives me 30 seconds and then 30 seconds to swiping on Match.com and Bumble. You know all the other places single people are on and I just want to say we'll call him Jim. Jim, can we just have a conversation for once? I haven't seen you in three months, but it's awkward to say. There's no doubt about it. You can't necessarily control other people, although you can if it's your child and you're paying for the cell phone. But you can lead by example. I'm trying to lead by example. You've heard me say before, one of the reasons I feel like I'm successful and have at least A level of wealth that makes me happy is that I consciously turn my cell phone off and go for an one hour walk each day to give my brain time to think of new ideas. Ideas for courses, ideas for books, creations that ultimately end up making me money. Wouldn't happen if I were just creat connected every second of the day. And now I want to expand that even more. Family time, meal time, entertainment time, socializing party. So I urge you to give some thought. I challenge you. So please take the filtered digital Detox challenge in the next week. Do something you maybe you haven't done in years, but go have a meal with someone. Don't even take your phone. If it's a lunchtime meal and it's lunch at the office and you're used to checking an email, just leave it in your office and go down the block, have lunch someplace else. Come back an hour later. It's highly unlikely you'll be fired because you didn't respond to an email or a call that hour. Again. If you're an emergency room doctor in a small town and you're the only doctor who can perform life saving surgery, okay, you have an exception. But most of us aren't like that. I'm not that important. And chances are you're not that important. And when I got home last night, it still wasn't late. I did check my email, I did check my phone, I did turn it on. Guess what I missed? The three hours I was gone. Absolutely nothing. So please give it a try. I'm TJ Walker. I want to thank you for spending time with me on this Sunday. We're here seven days a week because there's always something going on in the world and there's always a way to understand it at a deeper level and to learn from it in a way to make you and me more successful in our personal lives and our professional lives. I want to thank you for spending time with me today. Please, whatever platform you're consuming this on, whether it's YouTube, Twitch, TikTok X LinkedIn, whatever it is, please leave a comment like the video. Sign up for notifications if you can subscribe if you can. If you're listening on any of the podcast platforms, we've only been on as a podcast for not even five full weeks. So we're still still new in this and very excited to have so many great listeners on Apple Music and iTunes and YouTube Music and Spotify and Amazon Music. So whatever podcast platform you're on, we're happy that you're there. Let us know. Leave comments and follow and subscribe. Thanks so much. See you tomorrow.