Elitist Politicians Schooled By New Jersey Farmer – With John Rigolizzo: Did you hear Mike Bloomberg’s comment about farming? How is an elitist mentality harming our nation? Tune in to hear how the character and hard work of those in farming and ranching benefit even those who suffer from ignorance that plagues so many in the developed world!

Air Date:03/31/2020

Guest: John Rigolizzo

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith and the Culture

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. It’s WallBuilders Live, we’re talking about today’s hottest topics on policy, faith and the culture, coronavirus, all that good stuff, whatever the hot topics are, we’re going to cover them. We’re also going to be sharing some interviews with you that don’t necessarily have anything to do with the virus. We don’t want to think too much about the virus.

We want to make sure that we’re going on with our lives as best we can. And one of the ways we do that is we study the Constitution. We know what our constitutional rights are. We know what the foundation of our nation is. We know what the principles of liberty are and how to restore those things. As you know, we’re in tough times right now, we’re not glossing over that, we’re not ignoring that. I mean, this is very difficult on many, many people across the country and both financially, physically, you name it. And so, we want to talk about solutions as well.

So, we are going to have an interesting interview today that actually does get us back at, I think a little bit to the basics. Interview, we did a couple of weeks ago, and I think it’s going to be fun. I think you’ll actually enjoy it. We mentioned yesterday what it was going to be, but we’ll jump to that in just a minute.

ConstitutionCoach.com

But I also want to encourage you today to check out constitutioncoach.com, really talking a lot about that today and yesterday. Because tonight at 8pm Central and 9pm Eastern, I’m going to have a live webinar that we’re going to talk about the constitutionality of these quarantines, constitutionality of how our government’s responding right now, a response absolutely as necessary, but we’re going to talk about where those lines should be. And we’re also going to talk about what you can do during this time period. What’s our job as citizens? What can we the people do right now, to make sure that we put ourselves in a position to pick up the pieces together and make our nation even stronger as we rebuild and restore on the other side of this thing? Clearly, and we need to be talking about solutions right now in the middle of it, but we need to be preparing ourselves to rebuild and be even stronger on the other side of this. So, be sure to join us tonight.

You can sign up for that webinar at constitutioncoach.com. It is limited. We only have so many digital seats available on this webinar to be able to do that tonight. So, make sure you get in there and get signed up and be one of the last ones to be able to join us. The registration link again is at constitutioncoach.com. That’s constitution coach.com.

Alright, David, Jonathan, we’ll have John Rigoletto with us later in the program and yesterday, we actually were talking, David, you were talking about working from, how’d you say it, not sunup sundown, it was can see…

What Can We Learn From Farmers?

David:

Can see the can’t see.

Rick:

Can see the can’t see and so, today’s interview is going to be perfect for that. But we just thought it’d be really good for Jonathan to hear a little bit more about good work ethic, getting outside, you know, working with his hands.

Jonathan:

That’s right. Well, I can’t learn it from you guys. So…

Rick:

Oh, there was a time, you know. Alright, so you know, this isn’t good for all of us action and I think for our listeners as well. But this whole thing came about. We ended up with John on the program was he responded to Bloomberg, while Bloomberg was still in the race, you know basically, dissing farmers and anybody that really works for a living.

Bloomberg’s Insane Comment

David:

Well, when I saw the article came out and we all looked at it, I sent you guys back think, this is crazy, this is insane. And here’s what Bloomberg said and you know, understand, I got an agricultural background. We still got the ranch, still do work on the ranch. So, this is like, you know walking in front of you, smiling at you and they kicking in the teeth. It was ridiculous. Here’s this comment. So, Bloomberg, and I don’t know who he was talking to. He was maybe in a room with all of his New York folks, I don’t have a clue as New York City. New York folks has a lot of agriculture in New York, but not in New York City so much.

So, he said, “I could teach anybody, even people in this room, which seems like kind of a diss on them, but I could teach anybody, even you guys in this room to be a farmer. It’s a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn. You could learn that.” He go, oh my gosh, what you don’t know, you just revealed your absolute ignorance of what goes on. I mean, just Bloomberg, If you’ve got the guts, hang with me for a month on the ranch and let’s see if you can keep up with me for a month. Let’s see if you can make it to those 14 hour days that we do six days a week. Let’s see if you can be… there’s times we need to be a plumber, we need to be an electrician, we got to be a mechanic. Let’s see if you can move all the stuff you have to do to get a field ready, all the stuff involved in harvest. Matter of fact, Jonathan, we kind of covered this at LTP at times.

School in the “Olden Days”

But let’s go back over the concept of, in early America, how long did the school year last in early America?

Jonathan:

It lasted for as long as there weren’t things to be done on farm really.

David:

Which meant you went to school about three months out of the year, wintertime.

Jonathan:

What a glorious idea. Can we go back to that, please? Just without all the other.

David:

So, you go for three months a year and you only go for eight levels as long as you went school. So, until the progressive got ahold of education 1920s, you’re talking about school being three months and you’re talking about eight levels. And before you could graduate, before you can get your diploma, you had to take an exit exam. Now, the exit exam has…

Jonathan:

I’m familiar with those.

What Was On Exit Exams?

David:

You got exit exams. It’s right. So, you’ve got them on math and you got them on science and you’ve got them on reading and you got them on history and government. Part of what every kid in the state had to know was agriculture.

Jonathan:

Yeah. So, yeah, in our library, we have a eighth grade exit exam from the 1920s. This is out in the wild, wild west to Colorado at the time.

David:

Okay, so this is all Colorado kids to get out of school, to graduate to get a diploma. If you’re going to be given a diploma, you’ve got a section that deals with agriculture. And so, these are three months a year school, eight levels. Let’s see what you got to get out of school.

Jonathan:

So, here you go. Why is alfalfa grown so successfully in this state?

David:

Alright, Mayor Bloomberg, what is your answer?

Jonathan:

For Colorado.

Would Bloomberg Fail?

David:

I don’t think he’s going to have a clue.

Jonathan:

Alright, next one. Explain how a plant secures the food material and give the name of each element required for the plants, food material absorption…

David:

He’s now scratching his head.

Jonathan:

I’m scratching my head and I have…

Rick:

The only word I know here is photosynthesis. No, no. Is it? Totally wrong? Okay, I don’t know. I haven’t a clue.

Jonathan:

Alright, here we go. For the next year’s test, describe the proper care of milk. I know this one. You put it in the refrigerator.

David:

Yeah, that’s right. Not back on this one. Sorry, bro.

Could You Answer These?

Jonathan:

Alright. In what way does tillage benefit the soil? It’s like a massage. Right?

David:

Oh my gosh, you guys.

Jonathan:

Alright. Describe a simple experiment to show that plants need air in the soil? I thought air was in like the sky.

David:

Yeah, that’s what you think.

Jonathan:

Discuss the importance of crop rotation. Heard about that. Name three breeds of the draft horse and then indicate the qualities of good draft wars. How are seeds tested? What sort of corn should be selected for a dry County? Explain the part played by insects in cross fertilization. Name to troublesome insects and give the remedies for controlling each. What is a hotbed? And what are its uses? And how may the moisture in the soil be conserved? Also, what are some of the leading breeds of beef cattle? Name the two types or classes of hogs and state important differences between them? And lastly, name classes of chickens common in America and a few breeds of each class.

Eighth Graders Could Pass

David:

Alright, every eighth grade kid in Colorado can handle that. So, Mayor Bloomberg, how smart are you? I don’t think he’s going to get those. And see, this is how absurd that was. But we were talking a little bit yesterday on the program and I’ll go back to it again. What I have seen in with people raised in farm, agriculture, ranching, there’s a difference between farming and ranching. You know, farming is more on the ground and ranching is more what you put on top of the ground, not in the ground. So, in ranching, generally means your soil is not such that you can harvest crops or plant crops. So, we got too many rocks, too many ravines, too many canyons, whatever. Well, in agriculture, so we don’t get to do any planting per se, because you just can’t till the rocks, you don’t grow rocks very good. But you can’t put catalog, remember, you can put seed…

Jonathan:

You can’t grow rocks.

David:

No, they can’t grow rock, they grow up by themselves. We fertilize when they grow.

Jonathan:

So, that’s what I’ve been doing wrong.

Causes And Effects

David:

You have being fertilized in the rocks, that’s it. So, we’ve got rocks all over the place. In our part of the country, if it’s grain, is going to stick and sting and bite you. It’s just a hard place to work. So, what I’ve noticed people who are raised that way, they have much more common sense than the average person, because they’re able to do so many more things. You have to learn a little bit of everything to be an agricultural person. Again, you got to be a mechanic and you got to be a plumber, you got to be an electrician, you got to be a carpenter, you got to be able to do concrete work, everything. They’re really good at problem solving, because that’s what they have to do all the time. You can’t look this stuff online and get a YouTube video on how to do some of the stuff.

So, observation, thinking they’re really good at, they are better on consequences, causes and effects. If political people thought more in terms of causes and effects what Tim has always pointed out, that Soul points out stage two thinking, everybody is stage one thinking, here’s what I want to do, but you don’t ever think about stage two, what effects they’re going to have. Their work ethic is so much more, because as I said, yesterday, you go from can see to cant’s see. So, you’re talking about a 14 hour day, oftentimes, you’re doing this for nine months of the year.

Arrogance

I mean, there’s so much in the way of character traits, endurance and hanging in there and you may get knocked down eight times, you’ll get up 9; you get knocked down again, you get up 10. You just, there’s so much character that goes with this. Bloomberg clearly does not understand. But that’s the elitist kind of mentality. What I do is really important, what you guys do is not. I could teach anybody do what you guys do. But very few can do what I do. That kind of elitist stuff just drives me crazy.

Rick:

Yeah, I think that’s what really drew our attention to it. You know, it’s one thing to say, I don’t really know a whole lot about farming, it seems like this is all they do. It’s another thing for him to have this attitude of, you know, I’m so special and set apart and just yeah, I’m glad he’s out of the room…

David:

Yeah, me too. This is not the kind of arrogance. No, you got to have some self-confidence to run for office. Anybody that does, you get to believe that they’ve got answers. But arrogance, no, that’s a step beyond. And to tell anybody that I could teach you your job, that’s crazy.

A Farmer’s Response to Bloomberg

Rick:

And just being dismissive of, you know, really, what, for many, many, many years was the backbone of our economy and we could not survive without them even now. But the level of work and intelligence and work ethic and all of those things it takes to be successful in agriculture or ranching or any of those areas, to just dismiss that as an insult to a great number of people.

David:

Well, that’s why it’s going to be fun to have an actual farm person own, somebody who does this for a living, who wrote an article in response to Bloomberg comments with an alright. This is really good. We got to get this guy on.

Rick:

John Rigolizzo, he’s going to be with us when we return. Stay with us, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

BREAK

Hey friends, Rick Green here from WallBuilders Live and listen, I know that many of you are scared right now. You’re scared, this whole thing is going to get out of control and destroy your company, your job, your income, everything you’ve built over the last few years. And for many people, it’s worse than even those things I’m describing. But listen, we do not live by a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. We can work through this. And we can be prepared to make sure that we don’t destroy each other in our institutions and our liberty in this situation. But instead, we put ourselves in a position to pick up the pieces and together make our nation even stronger as we rebuild and restore institutions.

And so Tuesday night, this week at 8pm Central, 9pm Eastern, we’re going to have a webinar where we’re going to be sharing with you what you can do during these times. I’m going to talk about the constitutionality of what’s happening right now at the State and Local level at the Federal level, and talk about what we the people can do during this time to be prepared to defend our freedom, defend the constitution and make sure that these timeless principles of liberty are kept intact for future generations.

Be sure and join me. Go to constitutioncoach.com and it’ll have information for how you can sign up for the webinar. We have limited availability for this digital webinar, but it will be live. And we’ll be sharing these things with you and you will get some action steps on things you can do to make sure that we pick up the pieces and preserve freedom and rebuild our nation even stronger when this is said and done. Go to constitutioncoach.com today and sign up. It’s Tuesday night at 8pm Central, 9pm Eastern.

Moment from America’s History

This is David Barton with another moment from America’s history. With the upcoming elections, is an opportunity to changed the direction of our nation for the better or the worse, to change the very future that our children will face. In previous generations, it was this concern for our children which often guided our vote. In a sermon before the Connecticut legislature in 1803, the Reverend Matthias Burnett reminded us, “To you voters and whose power it is to save or destroy your country, consider well the important trust which God has put into your hands. To God and posterity, you’re accountable for them. Let not your children have reason to curse you for giving up those rights and prostrating those institutions which your fathers delivered to you.

In this year’s elections, for the sake of our children and the type of country that we will leave them, vote and vote wisely. For more information on God’s hand in American history, contact wall builders at 1808REBUILD.

Welcome John Rigolizzo

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live, thanks for staying with us today. Pleased to have from New Jersey, John Rigolizzo who had a great article on the Hill called, “What Mike Bloomberg doesn’t understand about farming.” I know he’s out of the race. But this article fits the political elites of today. John, thanks for your time today, man.

John:

You know, you’re quite welcome.

Rick:

Hey, you’re a farmer yourself and sort of this elitist attitude just rubs you the wrong way. I think Bloomberg said something to the effect of anybody can farm. You dig a hole, throw a seed in the ground and water it.

John:

Yeah, if it was only that simple, it’d be wonderful.

God Provides the Food

Rick:

Now, would it be, but not the first time you heard that? You start your article saying, hey, that happened to you many years ago.

John:

Yes, it’s true. I even had a priest in church one time said, that to the whole family when we were there, oh, years ago and the farmers just throw the seeds on the ground and God provides the food. Well, you know, was very simplistic. But that’s simplistic attitude is fairly normal I guess today, because is really hardly any people in our general population that are as connected in some way to the farm.

Rick:

That is true. Even 20 years ago, I served on the Ag committee in Texas, in the legislature and that was a topic we often discussed, was how few people have any relationship. In fact, we started doing programs at, you know, getting public school kids out of the inner city, especially, to these livestock shows, just to see, milk isn’t, you know, born in a carton and to figure out what it’s actually like to be from the farm or the ranch and see where these things come from. You’re right, it’s so few people actually have any relationship to it anyway.

Compared to the Turn of the Century

John:

And in the connection is, there’s so much food available that nobody has to worry about that. So, you know, the connection is just not there, you know, compared to what it was at the turn of the 20th century. And you know, everybody, half the people lived on a farm those days.

Rick:

Even with the big corporate, you know, entities in agriculture now, the American farmer still exists. I mean, you guys still work the land and it’s still a tough job. And as you mentioned in the article, it takes a whole lot more than just digging a hole. You got to be an expert in many different areas.

John:

Correct. And you can’t get away from it. You know, if you’re going to be halfway successful, you got to do your own things from repairing your own engines and tractors to figuring out ahead of time, what you’re going to plant, how much and then you got the market situation.

It’s Backwards

The farmers always, we buy everything retail and then sell everything wholesale. So, it’s, you know, backwards. And, you know, but that’s how farming is today. We’re dependent on the demand, you know, more than the supply and the supply from other countries sometimes gets in the way of us making a good profit.

Rick:

Now, that’s an aspect I hadn’t thought of, you know, the things you mentioned in the article. From having to be a plumber, electrician, mechanic, physicist, chemists, biologists, all those things, I kind of thought of. But you got to read the market as well. You got to be a financial analyst so that you can make good decisions on how much to do and what to do this upcoming year.

John:

That’s true. In my primary business of doing fruit and vegetables, you deal with the market every day in season and some of the other guys, you know, deal with the futures and things like that. Maybe it’s a little bit easier to plan far ahead, but not necessarily. Any little thing, you know, on a world stage affects the wholesale market, the world price situation.

China

You know, China, now the coronavirus, you know, maybe the supply chain is going to go down for some of the industries. I am aware the Chinese buy as much soybeans and corn as they used to or they promised to buy more this year with the new trade deal. You know, it’s up in the air completely. You might as well go to the casinos and have more fun.

Rick:

Yeah, right. What does it say to you as a farmer when elite politician like Bloomberg makes a comment like he did because that’s not in a vacuum? I mean, most political elites think of not just farmers, but frankly, anybody that really works for a living in that way, unfortunately, I’m not saying all of them. I mean, there’s really good people in the arena and we’re not, you know, we try to be very positive on our programming, because there are good people out there.

But when the elitists say things like that, what does that say to you to how little they understand about what it takes to do what you do?

It Starts in School

John:

Well, it’s something that, I guess, they’re not aware of what reality is, number one. And number two, the only way to combat something like that is you get started with the children in school. And you know, we have these school to garden programs and things like that for the young kids and they get a little bit of sense of it. But it needs to be more.

There’s so many other issues that teachers are mandated to deal with that they really don’t have time for agriculture. They don’t worry about it, because their school lunch programs and the kids go home at the end of the day. It’s a problem that’s not easily solved. And the only way and I hate to say it, but the only way people will become more cognizant of their food and the food supply is if we have some major downturn economically or you know, medically or something that people will be forced to grow or produce their own food or more of it.

And you see now in Europe, where they’re restricting the amount of the poundage of food that people can buy every day in the grocery stores, because they’re worried about this coronavirus in the food supply. So, I don’t think that’s going to last very long. But it’s something to wake people up.

The Work Ethic of the Nation

Rick:

Yeah, it’s a good point. And that actually leads me into my last question for you. Is, what does it say about the work ethic of the nation itself? You know, you used to you had a much higher work ethic, because as you just described, if people had to work for their food, they had to actually be a part of this process. And I mean, we hear it all the time, the lack of work ethic, not just in millennials and Gen Zs, I mean as Gen X. It’s a multi-generational challenge and issue. How much good would it do for the work ethic of the country, if every kid in high school had to go out and spend a month working with you?

John:

Oh, that will be wonderful. It’d be wonderful for them. It might be a little bit of a headache to manage all that but on the farm. But we could do it. I think that you know, jeez, if people had a chance to do that, it wouldn’t be remarkable about how the way attitudes changed. It really is goes back to the education thing. People today have life very easy. They don’t think about it. They don’t realize it.

People Need an Awakening

But they have their food, they have their clothes, they have a nice house, the whole bit. And yet, I always said you could take any farm kid, even if they don’t work on the farm anymore, they will learn quickly and become productive and good at whatever job you give them. The opposite is not always true. It’s really hard to get good help today, especially young, high school kids, where the form is a good first job opportunity. But a lot of times, they just don’t have their heart in it because they go home and they’re on their own a table.

A Taste of Reality

Rick:

Yeah, yeah, man. Well, it’d be a good experiment to have. And, you know, not necessarily, government forcing people to do, but parents that are listening out there. Hey, man, what a great opportunity to do something good for your kid while they’re growing up and give them a chance to experience something like this. And I’m sure folks out there like John would welcome the opportunity to give them a little taste of reality.

John:

Absolutely.

Rick:

Hey, John, thanks for writing the article. I really appreciate you coming on the program with us today and sharing a little bit. Thanks for what you do. And thanks for being a great American

John:

Anytime, thank you.

Rick:

Stay with us. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

A Providential View of American and Christian History

Hi, friends. This is Tim Barton of WallBuilders. This is a time when most Americans don’t know much about American history or even heroes of the faith. And I know oftentimes for parents, we’re trying to find good content for our kids to read. And if you remember back to the Bible, the book of Hebrews, it has a faith Hall of Fame, where they outline the leaders of faith that had gone before them.

Well, this is something that as Americans, we really want to go back and outline some of these heroes, not just of American history, but heroes of Christianity and our faith as well. I want to let you know about some biographical sketches we have available on our website. One is called the Courageous Leaders Collection. And this collection, it includes people like Abigail Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Francis Scott Key, George Washington Carver, Susanna Wesley, even the Wright brothers. And there’s a second collection called Heroes of History. And this collection, you’ll read about people like Benjamin Franklin or Christopher Columbus, Daniel Boone, George Washington, Harriet Tubman, friends, the list goes on and on. This is a great collection for your young person to have and read and it’s a providential view of American and Christian history.

Back with Jonathan Richie

This is available at wallbuilders.com. That’s www.wallbuilders.com

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us. Special thanks to John Rigolizzo for joining us all the way from New Jersey. Back with David Barton and Jonathan Richie. Alright, Jonathan, what do you learn buddy?

Jonathan:

I, so apparently, the food that I eat doesn’t grow at the store. I didn’t know that. No, I mean…

Rick:

No, did that milk come in that carton?

Jonathan:

Yeah, I had no idea. I thought that just, I can’t believe they would torture those poor cows like that.

Agricultural Founders

Rick:

Oh, no. Working Phoenix and he invaded the studio.

Jonathan:

Oh, man. Alright, yeah, those cows. Yeah, I mean, going back to the founding fathers, all of those guys were agricultural guys. I mean, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson. I’ve actually got a great quote. It’s Thomas Jefferson writing to John Jay. Now John Jay, he was one of those guys, he became Supreme Court Justice…

David:

Those were New York guys.

Jonathan:

Exactly. That’s what I’m getting at. So, it’s basically, you know, it’s almost exactly like Rigalizzo’s article to Bloomberg. But Jefferson writes to Jay and this is in 1785. So, it’s pretty early on. He explains, “Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds. As long therefore, as they can find employment in this line, I would not convert them into mariners, artisans or anything else.”

Backbone of the Country

David:

Yeah, that’s the backbone of the country right there. I mean, it’s interesting Benjamin Rush and Thomas Jefferson, several others had this discussion over when you’re in the country, the morals are much higher, the crime is much lower, the work productivity is much better. It’s the urban areas that they called, Benjamin Rush called them ‘Boils on Society. I mean, he said that’s the abscesses of the society, to where all the poison goes…

Jonathan:

Dallas.

David:

Exactly. You look at the blue cities, you look at crime rates, morality rates and productivity rates, very different. You look at this overall in America, America’s agriculture is 1% of America’s GDP. And America produces a lot agriculturally, not because we’re the best in the world, America is actually number 66 in the world in percentage of farmable land. So, America is 66 in the world percentage of farmable land. We’re two in the world in productivity with that small amount of land. And America, every year, produces enough food to feed the entire world. Now, tell me you can do that Bloomberg? I mean, come on. There is no way. And, so you look at all the things that go into this.

Elitist Politicians Schooled By New Jersey Farmer – With John Rigolizzo

I really appreciate common people like quote you had Jonathan from Jefferson, was really, really good. He said, I would not try to convert farmers into any of these other things. What they do, what they bring to the moral table, what they bring to the work ethic, what they bring to the backbone of America, it really is key.

Rick:

It’s absolutely key. Thanks so much. Jonathan Richie for joining us today on WallBuilders Live and John Rigolizzo. Thank you, our listeners out there. I hope that you’re with me tonight on our live webinar? It will be at 8 o’clock pm, Central Time, 9pm Eastern Time and look forward to being with you to talk about solutions, talk about the constitutionality of the quarantines and other things going on in our country and talk about how we the people as citizens can prepare ourselves now, make the most of this time to make sure that we’re making our nation as strong as possible on the other side of this thing.

Check it out today at constitutioncoach.com and get signed up. Limited seats available. And I hope that you’re with us tonight. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.