Today's Poll Question: Do schools need less technology and more pencils and books?

**Michael Smerconish** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:34)
Get ready to vote on today's daily poll question at smerconish.com.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:38)
But first, Michael explains it for you, right here.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:41)
Welcome to The Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM for Independent Minds.

**Michael Smerconish** (0:47)
Hello, hello. Hi, gang. I am so grateful that you are tuned in for the Friday, July 17 poll podcast that I offer you a bit of amuse bouche, a little gift from the chef as we get started. And it comes in the form of my note from today's daily newsletter. Every day, I pen an original thought for the newsletter. I don't read it every day as part of the poll podcast. Occasionally, I will if I'm motivated to do so. But clearly, I want you to sign up for the newsletter.
Here's what I wrote in today's note. This is the sort of original thinking you get from me on a daily basis if you sign up for the newsletter, which is free and is worthy, and you just go to smerconish.com. But I really wanted to get this off my chest today. And yes, it's an original thought. Here we go. Washington has no plan for our $39 trillion debt and no solution for however many entered illegally or overstayed their visas. Heat records are falling around the globe, yet climate change sits on the back burner, pun intended. Nobody seems concerned about the possibility of civil disorder born of societal disconnect and wealth disparity. But hey, at least the Senate found time on Wednesday to unanimously pass a resolution at the behest of Senators Ruben Gallego and Cynthia Loomis, opposing any pardon for Sam Fried, serving 25 years for the fraud that felled his crypto exchange FTX. Gallego said it, quote, should not be considered controversial, that a convicted fraudster should not be allowed to walk away scot-free. Then I note, perhaps this was his, meaning Gallego's, last legislative achievement. Because a day later came the New York Post report of Gallego's past sexual relationships with two house staffers and his very flirtatious nature after a couple of drinks.
I doubt any senator who signed off on the resolution had read in on the file. I have. In February, CNN asked me to interview SBF's parents, hours spent in their living room. My first brush with the case was Michael Lewis' 2023 book Going Infinite, which raised doubts about the case against him. Lewis, as in Liar's Poker and Money Paul, is no intellectual slouch. His 2024 paperback added an afterward, just so he could amplify his view. As he put it, the truth is closer to young person with an intellectually defensible but socially unacceptable moral code makes huge mistake in trying to live by it, than criminal on the loose in the financial system. I myself question whether SBF has the requisite mens rea. And I wonder how many Senators know FTX customers are being repaid in full with interest. Yet the Senate celebrates Judge Lewis Kaplan's 25 years for a 32 year old with no criminal history. Meanwhile, just this month, nine years concurrent for an Indiana man's rape, child molesting and sexual battery of two young girls, 12 to 15 and a half years for a North Carolina woman who shot her boyfriend in the back, 21 years parole possible in 2031 for a fatal West Virginia gas station shooting.
Unanimity, it turns out, is easy when the target is already in prison. Yeah, that is my note today in the Friday newsletter. Thursday poll results, yesterday 31,276 should ICE end all vehicle stops.
82.07% said yes, 17.93% said no. Yesterday on the program, I tried to go into the weeds and give you the standard, the legal standard that actually applies to ICE. It's in very limited circumstances, really when carrying out a search for someone very specific that the law allows them to make a vehicle stop. They can't pull you over for a taillight, they can't pull you over for speeding. You know, all that stuff is left to the stateys and the locals.
Today, agree or disagree, schools need less technology and more pencils and books. What's that all about? Agree or disagree, schools need less technology and more pencils and books. I'll explain in just a moment.