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The latest episode of Rush to Reason dives hard into America’s trucking crisis: fatal accidents involving immigrant drivers, unsafe practices by certain companies, and the federal policies that make it possible. The discussion begins with headlines about driver deportations, paid protestors, and the questionable integrity of some grassroots movements. Next, the host digs into the explosive story of Sikh truckers, sanctuary states issuing licenses to undocumented immigrants, and the real-world consequences for US road safety. Through interviews with authors and callers, hot topics like tariffs, China’s impact on American business, insurance hurdles, and changes in federal funding are explored
SPEAKER 11 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 10 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes.
SPEAKER 11 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 10 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did! Get a job first!
SPEAKER 05 :
You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference!
SPEAKER 06 :
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 03 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 13 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, happy Monday, a week away from Labor Day. So all of you that are getting set to make your last trip of the year, vacation time, camping, whatever it is, this week it’s seeming like we’re getting closer to Labor Day. Now the weather’s going to get nice again, of course, but… And, yeah, it’s just a reminder that, you know, that season change is coming. So happy Monday, everybody. Hope you all had a great, fabulous weekend. I did. And, again, hope you guys all did as well. Impossible question from Friday, which we answered on the air. But in case you missed it, what country’s cuisine is the most popular in the world? Italian. is the number one answer. 84% of the world’s population enjoys Italian, while 78% enjoy Chinese. So Chinese was pretty close, which Andy thought Chinese would be number one. But anyways, the answer is Italian. Today’s a possible question, which state became the first state in the United States? So which state became the first state in the United States? That is the question of today. Again, answer that on our social media. Facebook page. OK, some of you probably saw the news on this. I caught it briefly as I was prepping early this morning, and that is that ICE has once again arrested. I’m sure I’m going to butcher this. Abrego? Abrego Garcia? Am I saying that right, Andy? Or Charlie, I mean? Abrego Garcia? Anyways, that was the famous individual that was sent down to El Salvador. Yeah, quote, unquote, the Maryland dad. Yeah, yeah, the Maryland dad. Yes, that’s exactly right. Good one, Charlie. I’d forgotten that. You’re exactly right. So the Maryland dad. Anyways, he was down there, and then, of course, they made, you know, so much fuss over that that they went ahead and, you know, because of judges and so on that honestly are interfering at times when you wonder whether they should be or shouldn’t. But bottom line, they shipped him back. Well, he had to report into his, you know, ICE, quote, unquote, appointment. And in doing so was arrested again. And this time, because of an agreement we have with an African country, he won’t be deported this time to El Salvador. He will be going to Africa instead. And it looks like in this particular case, I highly doubt that this will be reversed. Now, here’s where it gets interesting. And it’s Uganda, by the way. He’s going to go to Uganda. This is where it’s interesting. There’s a change.org petition. Not that that means anything because anybody can start a change.org position. And most of the people that sign up for those are dumb as rocks. I’ll just be straight up honest. They don’t have the foggiest idea what they’re even signing up for, what’s even going on, the back story. None of that. They just get on and sign up. But there’s been like two million people that have signed on to the thing to protest his being deported. And I think of all the things in the story, I think that’s the one that I find the most puzzling. It’s like, okay, why? I mean, my feeling is if he were an upstanding individual, he wouldn’t have the background that he has, which, again, he’s got known ties to MS-13 and so on. And if he were an upstanding individual, then that would show. And frankly, if he was an upstanding individual, I don’t think he’d be in this situation in the first place. If he was just a regular, average, everyday Maryland dad, like he claims to be, they wouldn’t be after him. This wouldn’t be an issue in the first place. But he’s got faith leaders and other in the community that are amassing in certain areas and doing the protests. There’s been a protest where there was about 200 attendees that were there and so on. And By the way, some of the signs they show with Bible verses and such on them are so out of context. These are people that you can tell are paid to be there. that have no idea what Deuteronomy 10, 19 actually means, but they put it on the sign. These are folks that I guarantee you don’t know what Deuteronomy even is and can find it in the Bible. I’m being very honest. They wouldn’t know whether it’s in the Old Testament, New Testament. They wouldn’t know how to open the Bible and even find it if they had to. And I mean that with all sincerity. But it’s on the sign. And there’s other things that are on here as well, other signs as well. But that’s the one that really caught my eye. It’s like, you’ve got to be kidding me. And, again, this is one where I just don’t have much sympathy. He was actually arrested on human smuggling charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. He’s still in federal detention right now, or he was as of Friday. And he will be released from custody, ordered to return to Maryland, where a judge said he could remain under electronic surveillance and under ICE supervision awaiting trial. ICE officials notified his attorney shortly after his release on Friday that they plan to deport him to Uganda, an East African nation that reached a deal with the US to accept migrants deported by the Trump administration. So of course, they’re going to try to fight this, but this is one where I don’t see this one really being fought. And again, the part that really stupefies me in all of this are just the knuckleheads that support this nonsense. And I get it. These are folks that even those that are protesting, are they really protest or are they paid? Do they even know what they’re protesting? We’ve seen that over and over again where there’s a lot of people that get involved in these things that they’re not there for anything other than the job. The $18, $20 an hour or whatever it happens to be for them showing up and actually holding a sign, that’s what they’re there for. They’re not there for any other reason. And, you know, it’s a free country. There’s nothing against the law in having that, that I think it’s immoral to pay protesters to go and do these things. But there’s nothing illegal about paying protesters. That would have to be a law that would have to be enacted and changed, and no, I wouldn’t be for that, because I don’t want any more laws. We already have enough. And some of you probably don’t necessarily agree with me on that, but yeah, no, we don’t need any more laws. What we need is more awareness as to what’s really going on, as in what I just said a moment ago. People just need to be aware that most of these protesters are there being paid, and the more people that start to acknowledge that, the press won’t, but the more that we on our side talk about that, vocalize it, and explain it, to where it’s not as effective, then they’ll stop doing it. You don’t need a law to prevent this. You need teaching and common sense to stop this. That comes from us. which I know a lot of you do a good job of that as well. But this is the part of the story that, again, one side of the aisle will never tell. But again, this is just a reiteration of the big, you know, a reminder, I guess I should say, of the big protests that went on after he first got arrested and he was sent down to El Salvador. And, you know, we had politicians even going down there trying to get, you know, trying to get in and have him be let out and all of that. So this is just a continuation of Of that, other than this time, I don’t think there’s going to be a whole lot can be done in this particular case. He would have been better off to have self-deport himself. Pick the country you want to go to and self-deport rather than doing it this way. If he was really smart, that’s what you’d do. You know, I’m not him. I wouldn’t be him in the first place because I like to do things, you know, legally speaking. And evidently he doesn’t or he wouldn’t be in the predicament that he’s in. All right. Roof Savers of Colorado. 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SPEAKER 11 :
God. Country. Reason. Now back to John Rush.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, this next story is very interesting because, A, not this last Saturday, but the prior Saturday, we got into a big discussion about semi-truck drivers, so CDL license holders, that’s commercial drivers’ licenses, and we got to talking about that on Drive Radio, kind of spilled over into Monday because over the weekend… There was a truck driver on a Florida turnpike that, after I did a little bit more studying and watching some more videos and things on, I’ve learned some things over the weekend, so I wanted to talk about this today. But essentially what happened is this particular truck driver and his partner did not want to – they had gotten – they were going the wrong way, basically. Missed an exit, something along those lines. And they were on a toll road. And instead of going all the way down the turnpike and turning, meaning they had to get off, get back on, pay the toll again, all of that, instead of doing all of that in the proper fashion, they took one of the emergency turnouts that are supposed to be used for emergency-only or police vehicles. And in doing so, as they were pulling back around on the other side of the road, blocking the road, with an 18-wheeler, a minivan, couldn’t stop in time, and it killed all of the occupants. And they then fled, believe it or not, after all of that, they fled to California, where they were extradited back to Florida to face homicide charges. In this case, there’s no bail or anything because the judge felt like they would be a flight risk. Now, that’s the story. You guys probably already knew that and heard that. This is another one that I don’t understand. Two and a half million people in this case have signed a petition supporting these knuckleheads. Now, here’s what I learned. And I’ve not verified all of this, but I will tell you I know enough about the trucking world where I don’t think this is wrong. And I did a little bit of studying just to see, okay, I watched an individual that was an expert in the trucking world and even understands what went on here. And I watched a long, about 10-minute long video on what this individual feels like happened. So these two drivers are Sikhs. And if you don’t know what a Sikh is, or am I saying that right, Charlie? I think it’s Sikh, right? Am I saying that right? Yeah, it’s a Sikh. It’s a belief system, I guess you could say. It’s Indian. It’s much like you would find a Christian or a Muslim or a Jew or whatever. It’s their belief system. They’re Sikhs. And it’s… I don’t know a lot about the Sikh religion other than I know that, especially where they’re coming from in India, they sort of all stick together. Once they come over here, they will get each other jobs. In fact, they’re kind of indentured servants to the rest of the family until they get that debt paid back to the family and so on. And there’s a lot of ethnicities that do something similar. So they’re not the only ones. And by the way, I’m not picking on anyone. This is just how it is. What I learned, though, is this particular trucking company that owns this truck is a Sikh-owned trucking company. And the way that they work things is they will operate that trucking company really on the edge. They do things for a lot less money than what other trucking companies can because of how they operate the trucks. The majority of the trucks are leased from Volvo in this case. They’re literally driven into the ground, very, very little maintenance. They drive them to the point where if they start to use oil, they add oil. They might spin a new oil filter on periodically, but they do literally no maintenance on these trucks. They literally run them until they won’t run any longer. On top of that, and this is sick and twisted, but this is how they do it. They run two people in the truck because the truck only shuts off. It doesn’t even shut off. The truck only stops to fuel. Other than that, it’s running. They even go as far as cutting a hole in the floorboard of the truck in the sleeper unit so they can use the restroom while going down the highway. And Charlie’s looking at me like you’re kidding me. No, I’m not joking. I did some research, and, yes, that’s what they do. And that was verified, by the way. I did some research on the Internet. There’s a lot of diesel technicians that will vouch for what I just said. So they will literally do number one or number two through the hole in the floor, meaning they’re never stopping. They pack a lunch, pack dinner, whatever. That truck is running nonstop with two drivers for the most part. Not for the most part. It is running nonstop. That’s how they can get their rates down so much. They specialize, by the way, in reefer units. Reefers are refrigerated units. There’s a lot of food and such that comes out of California. And given that California is a sanctuary state and will give CDL licenses, commercial driver’s licenses, to illegals, that’s why a lot of these companies are based there. And in this case, it’s the white whatever trucking company. And the way it was explained is it will always be the white whatever trucking company, even after this accident, and they most likely will go broke. There’s probably not enough insurance to even pay these people what they need out of this particular accident. They will… go out of business, and literally the very next day start a new LLC, the White XXX Trucking Company. And I didn’t know this. White meaning that’s the Sikh family in this case, and it will always be the White something or other. That way all of the other Sikh families know that’s the family in charge of that particular trucking company. Because they’re all working together. And this company will go broke, this particular one, because of this particular accident. And they will fire up another one. And because the government and financial institutions and even Volvo, the truck manufacturer, deals with companies, not people, it won’t matter. They’ll go back out, start all over again, and off they go. And that’s the routine here in how that works. And I kind of knew some of that initially because, you know, you see a lot of these trucking companies running around and you can see exactly how many violations they’ve had, how many inspections they failed and so on. And in this particular case, this particular company failed 23 and 24 months. And these were not just little, how should I say, little misgivings on the trucks. These were lockout situations where the truck’s not supposed to be driven. 23 times in 24 months. That pretty much tells you what their maintenance and safety record is for these drivers that are driving these across country. There’s a name even in the trucking industry for these guys that I will not repeat on air because it’s very derogatory that they call these individuals. And you can look it up for yourself if you want to. I won’t mention it on air, but you can look it up. And it’s very well known in the trucking industry of what these guys do, and it’s why they can get their cost per mile down so much is because they’re literally spending nothing on a cost per mile other than fuel. Fuel and insurance is about it because they’re literally running the trucks until they’re done, and they go get another one, and they do it all over again. So the part with the hole in the floor was the part that really, I guess, I shouldn’t say shocked me, but I’m just like, you’ve got to be kidding me here. I mean, what extent will people go to to do things? Well, here it is. And again, because they’re here illegally and they’re working off their quote-unquote debt to the family by driving a truck, they’ll do that for several years until their debt’s paid off, and then they get somebody else to drive the truck. And in a lot of cases, these drivers have little to no training in driving the truck. And also, for a lot of you listening, you may not know this, but a lot of these trucks are automatics, meaning there’s not a lot of mechanical skills needed in driving the truck because it’s an automatic just like a car would be. And you see some of the crashes and things that we’ve even had here in Colorado and our mountains and so on. Well, now you’re starting to understand more as to how this works. So this is all coming out, of course, because of what happened in Florida with this accident. I’m telling you, this happens in a lot of cases. It’s just not as bad as what happened in Florida. So here’s my advice, especially if you see any trucks running around that have white on the side, and there will be those in the future, even after this company goes under and gets sued and they go broke, there’ll be another startup. It’ll be the white something trucking. Stay away from those trucks. It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to try to figure out how many of these types of companies own these types of trucking companies. In other words, who owns them, and stay away from those as well. In other words, if you’re driving down the road and you see one of them, I would do everything I possibly could to get away from that particular truck. So that’s the story. I have no reason to believe that what I watched for 10 minutes was wrong. Again, because I have some knowledge and some experience and live partially in that world. So I do know some of how that works and what a lot of these companies actually do to get past a lot of the stuff that’s out there, a lot of the regulations that are out there. And there’s a lot of unsafe trucks and drivers on the road. Now, I’m not trying to throw the trucking industry away. Under the bus, by any means. There’s a lot of you listening to me that are really good, solid individuals. You do things correctly. You drive the trucks like they’re supposed to be. You’re doing all the safety things necessary. Unfortunately, you’re also the ones typically that get singled out because they know you can write the check. So unfortunately, when it comes to a lot of these things and a lot of the roadside tests and so on, you’re singled out because you can write the check or your boss can write the check when these other guys are running around scot-free. And I’m sure it’s maddening to those of you that actually drive a truck legitimately to see these guys out there stealing money out of your pocket because that’s what they’re doing. They’re literally taking money out of your pocket. They’re taking money out of the good driver’s pockets. This needs to end, by the way. That’s why I wanted to mention it. This somehow needs to end. Trump and the cabinet and so on, they need to figure out some legislation that they can put in place to actually eliminate this from happening whatsoever. And something needs to happen whereby, federally speaking, because they run across federal roads, they’re no longer allowed to have a commercial driver’s license as an illegal without proper paperwork, period. That needs to happen on a federal level and eliminate this nonsense of California being a truck driver sanctuary state for illegals. And there’s other states, and they’re not the only ones, but you get my drift on this. So a lot of you probably didn’t know all the details of that story. You’re going to see some things. I read a story today even on Fox News that mentioned nothing about what I just told all of you. And the reason is if you’re not an insider and you don’t have information inside the trucking industry, you would never know some of this. The average reporter, well, I’m sorry, I don’t care whether on the conservative side or the liberal side, the average reporter doesn’t even know who to go talk to to find this information out. They’re not in it. They don’t eat, breathe, sleep, all of that. They don’t know any of this. But there’s a lot of folks out there that do. And I’m happy that they’re out there speaking their mind. And fortunately, we still have a First Amendment where they can speak. For now, anyways. And that’s the whole scoop behind what happened in this particular situation. So I hope these guys end up going to prison for a very long time and then deported on top of that. Well, deport them. Whatever they do there is up to them. But I hope they get deported. Now, should they do jail time here in the U.S.? That’s a whole conversation in and of itself. We could probably spend an hour on it and take calls. Because at the end of the day, it’s costing you and I money as taxpayers. On the same token, they took people’s lives by their actions. Didn’t need to happen, but they did. So and also that’s why they were too cheap to go down and repay the toll, even though they were going the wrong way. So we’ll be back here in a moment. Dr. Scott is up next. He is my doctor. He would love to be yours as well. And he’s looking out for your whole health and wellness, not just a portion of. In other words, he’s not there to do crisis care. He’s there to do wellness care. And he’s a great doctor. 303-663-6990.
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SPEAKER 07 :
All right. And Michael Bailey is next. He is our mobile estate planner. Find out today what he can do for you in getting your estate in order. And, yes, he’s very busy, but he can still talk, make an appointment, get things dialed in for you. Just find him today. Just go to klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 11 :
The best export we have is common sense. You’re listening to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 07 :
And we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Thanks for listening to us today. Lee Smith joining us now. Lee, welcome. How are you?
SPEAKER 03 :
Hey, thank you very much for inviting me on. It’s great to be with you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Author of The China Matrix, the epic story of how Donald Trump shattered a deadly pack. I always start with Lee. Why the book?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I wanted to. I mean, obviously, China is the top foreign policy priority for Donald Trump, and he believes it is part of his legacy. So I wanted to do I wanted to give a full account of what’s happened there. To America since 1972, since the Nixon and Kissinger trip to Beijing and how that’s proved to be a catastrophe for Americans. And it was only thanks to Donald Trump now that that America is aware of it and that someone in the White House is doing something about it.
SPEAKER 07 :
That makes total sense. And by the way, I’m glad you did that. Bringing the awareness up on some of this is major. And I, for one, for years have just questionedly, not even on, I mean, I’ve been on air for 10 plus years here daily, but not only on air, but even prior to that, just why are we allowing, quote unquote, why are we allowing China to do the things that they do?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I mean, because there’s a lot of them. The fundamental problem is there’s a lot of Americans who are making money from it. There’s a lot of, you know, we’re talking about the corporate establishment. We’re talking about the political establishment. And, you know, the China Matrix, my book, really sort of shows how that cycle works, how the corporate elites are paying the political elites to keep that relationship open. and to keep the wheel going so they all make lots of money. So that’s what’s going on. We’re talking about something really rather unique in American history, how we’re seeing people who should really be responsible for American peace and prosperity, how they’re selling out the country for their own money. for their own bank accounts. It’s that simple. And I have to point out, it’s a bipartisan thing. Yes, it is. You’re right. In fact, it started with Republicans. Absolutely. Among the worst is George H.W. Bush.
SPEAKER 07 :
I was questioning when we were doing some of those things and even some talk show hosts back in the day were talking about how it would be a great relationship and look at the things we’ll get out of China and this, that, and the other. And, you know, this is good for Americans at the end of the day because goods will come down in price and so on and so forth. And I was thinking the entire time, Lee, yeah, but on the same token, they’re our worst enemy and they’ll steal everything. They would steal us blind in a heartbeat. They’d steal their own mother blind. They don’t care.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, that’s exactly what happened. And you’ll see one of the other big things that’s happened over the last 50 years. People have papered over the fact that it’s a communist regime. That’s right. They say stuff like, oh, no, no, they’re not really communists. They want to make money. Yeah, right. What communist regimes do is what communist regimes do is that they have they need money. Right. But typically in the past. What they’ve done is they’ve taken, they’ve emptied out the middle class. They’ve taken their money. The problem was in China, it was only peasants. There was no middle class. So which middle class have they impoverished? Americas. That’s what they’ve done. So everyone has been talking about this. Look, to a certain extent, you could give them a break for their hopefulness and naivete. But there were lots of indications over the last 50 years that it wasn’t going to work. And one of the things that Donald Trump did, you know, I interviewed Donald Trump for the book and the stuff he says is so keen and so insightful. And he’s one of the few people who said, no, this was a dumb idea from the very beginning in 1972. And my research, my reporting shows that that is absolutely correct.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. And yet we hear from the other side, of course, because they want to try to do anything they can to. you know, lead to eliminate any opposition that would upset their money making machine. And I appreciate the way you say that, because that’s exactly what a lot of people making money when this is all said and done. And I think the reason why they’ve painted Trump up the way they do at times, in other words, well, he’s a friend of China. He’s in bed with the Chinese, blah, blah, blah. Nothing could be farther from the truth. But they paint all of that up because they don’t want anybody knowing what the reality is.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. I mean, look, this is I mean, this is a standard move. Right. I mean, this is what this is what happened with Russiagate. Yep. And, you know, that was my you know, I wrote plot against the president in 2019. And now we’re seeing stuff coming out about Russiagate. That was about Russiagate. I mean, you know, thanks to Devin Nunes and then his lead investigator, now FBI director Kash Patel. Right. That that got to what was going on with Russiagate. And thankfully now we’re seeing a lot of documents disclosed that are shedding more light on this. But my book captured the essential story of Russiagate six years ago. And so I hope people understand that this is what I’m doing with the China book as well. This is really laying out the whole story from 1972 to the very present.
SPEAKER 07 :
And and I’ve been talking about this now for, well, since Trump started announcing, you know, different tariffs and so on. He did that during the first administration. He’s doing it even more wholeheartedly now. And I talk about that on a routine basis. And while some things might be a little bit more. It might be a little bit of pain here and there at the end of the day, Lee. It is the right answer. We’ve got to get things back to a level playing field. Use the power that we as a country, our buying power, I guess is what I should say. Use that finally to our advantage and start setting the record straight in some of these areas. I mean, I think even China forgets, and they’re realizing it now, I think, that when your biggest customer isn’t happy and they start doing other things, it doesn’t bode well for you.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, look, it’s very important for all of us to understand that tariffs have been a major part of America’s, not just our trade policy, but our national security policy from the beginning. So you have a lot of people now complaining about the tariffs saying, oh, Trump’s crazy, Trump’s nuts. Well, Alexander Hamilton used tariffs, right? Tariffs are a big part of keeping America safe and prosperous. The other important thing that people forget all the time know uh is that our trade deficit is not when we talk about our trade deficit with china what we’re talking about is our trade deficit with american manufacturers and other manufacturers who have moved their manufacturing to china right right and that’s not only cost americans jobs that’s made china rich and what have they done with that trade surplus What have they done with American dollars? Well, they’re investing in their military. They’re investing in all the technology and what you said before is right. All these companies that go over to China. They’re stolen blind by the Chinese Communist Party. That’s right. So this is a large part of Trump’s effort.
SPEAKER 07 :
This is a whole topic in and of itself, but the national security ends of things here, Lee, is just absolutely enormous. If you ask me, some of the things that have happened through the years are borderline or full-out treasonous when it’s all said and done and what some of these companies have actually done. Because believe me, some of these companies knew full well what they were getting into. The money was just so good, they turned a blind eye to it.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. That’s exactly right. Look, a lot of people are focusing on Taiwan, and that, of course, is a big deal. The first island chain in Taiwan, that’s a very big deal. The chips that the Taiwanese manufacture, that’s a very big deal. But there are a lot of national security issues, and frankly, the trade deficit is the number one national security issue. Because without that money, China is not building out its military the way it is. China is not building out its tech the way it is. So this is crucial. And the reason that we’re going to see this trade war heat up, the reason that we’re going to see more tariffs imposed on the Chinese is because Donald Trump, this is a core part of his legacy, and he can’t leave the country that he loves and the country he governs vulnerable to the Chinese Communist Party. So, look, I want to say that the book is the book you can preorder now. The book is going to be out now. October 16th. And I’m really excited about it. You know, the president is behind it. I have lots of other great endorsements from Senators Tom Cotton, Senator Ted Cruz. So it’s really exciting. And I hope you’ll have me on in October as soon as the book comes out, too.
SPEAKER 07 :
Give me that date one more time. October what? October 16th. Okay, I’m writing that down.
SPEAKER 03 :
Perfect. People can pre-order now from Center Street Books. Okay, I’ll write that down as well.
SPEAKER 07 :
Center Street Books. Okay, one thing that I was going to ask you is, and be careful how I say this because I’m not trying to be derogatory here at all, but the one thing I’ve explained to some people that I’ve talked to face-to-face about tariffs in china specifically there’s there’s other tariffs of course that we can talk about but china specifically and we all know that yeah the the exporter is going to eat a little bit uh some of the folks that are importing might eat a little bit at the end of the day there may be some costs that rise from you know chinese goods that are imported you know places like walmart and others i mean typically speaking it’s lower end items i get it some people buy higher end items but Not many. Most of what we talk about, Lee, coming out of China, on that level are the routine things people would get at lower-end stores. I’m sorry to say, but that’s just the way it is. Because if you’re looking to buy something that’s higher quality, you’re typically looking for a label that doesn’t have China. And I’m not saying anything derogatory, Lee. That’s just the way things are. China has mastered that and has literally, as you said, they have literally gotten filthy rich off of what I just said.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think it’s fine to be derogatory, by the way. We’re not talking about Chinese people. We’re talking about the Chinese Communist Party. This is a disgusting, sick regime. that is responsible for more deaths over the last hundred years than Stalin and Hitler combined. So by all means, be derogatory. It’s a disgusting regime. And the fact that American elites have tied our peace and prosperity to these animals is repulsive. I’m sorry. No, no, no, you’re fine.
SPEAKER 07 :
And where I was really going, and all that’s true, and I feel exactly the same way you do. I have no… In fact, I have utter hatred for that regime. Not the people, as you said, but the regime itself I have utter hatred for. Now, one thing that I don’t think a lot of folks, and you don’t hear this in the press because nobody wants to go here, but as some of these lower-end things raise in prices, and I’ve talked about this on air so I can talk about it again, And again, this is not to throw anybody under the bus, Lee, but the majority of people… that are buying some of these Chinese goods that there may be some increase in tariffs on. And those tariffs, of course, are going to go back into the coffers for us as government when it’s all said and done. And I mean this sincerely. The majority of people that are going to be paying a little bit more for some goods are net tax receivers. They don’t pay any taxes where I’m going with this. And so at the end of the day, some of these people are actually going to now, in a very, very small way, start paying some tax that they haven’t been in the past.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s very interesting. I hadn’t thought about it like that. It’s very interesting. Look, I think the big thing here is, though, what we want is we want our country to be rich and prosperous and we want our neighbors to have jobs. Right. We want our neighbors to make money. We want that. And look, this is one of the reasons why Trump keeps showing off Tim Cook. Remember, he he he brought Cook to the joint session of Congress in February and he talked about him the other day when he was in the White House. Tim Cook keeps saying, yeah, I’m going to bring some facilities back to the United States. And look, what we don’t want is for these guys to be trying to outweigh, outlast Donald Trump. We want them to make good on their pledge because it’ll be good for them, it’ll be good for American workers, and good for American consumers.
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 03 :
So, you know, what you say, that’s a very interesting take, and I’m probably going to steal it from you. You can. Feel free. The big thing is Donald Trump wants to get these American manufacturers back home weaken the Chinese Communist Party, eliminate the trade deficit, make America super prosperous again, rich again.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, make us wealthy, healthy, and wise again, I guess is the best way to say that, Lee. And again, I appreciate it. Thank you for the book. Yeah, definitely have you back. You can tell we think a lot alike. I’d love to have you back and appreciate it very much. I look forward to it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, thanks. Have a great Labor Day in the meantime. I will. And, again, the book is out October 16th, The China Matrix.
SPEAKER 07 :
We’ll get you back. Lee, I appreciate it. Again, Lee Smith, yes, The China Matrix. You can get that from Center Streets. That is the website you can get it at. And as we get closer, we’ll definitely have him back as he launches the book. Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning is up next. And, yes, still a little warm out at night, or in the daytime I should say, a little cooler at night is what I meant to say. Warmer in the day, cooler at night, and we’re going through a little bit of a cool spell now, but it will start to warm back up again. Trust me, I looked at the forecast heading even through the weekend. It’s going to get warmer again. Now, I also know it’s going to start getting cold again in the not-too-distant future, meaning you may have put off doing something with the furnace in the past, knowing that you need to do something. Don’t worry. Wait until you go to turn it on, then have a problem, and then call Hunter because by then he’s just as busy and swamped as can be because everybody else did the same thing. So if you know you had some issues last year, get that taken care of now. Call Cub Creek. Find them at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 12 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560. All right, we are back.
SPEAKER 07 :
Going back to our story prior to our last guest, several of you have texted in in regards to this whole trucking situation where you’ve got sanctuary states whereby illegals can end up with a commercial driver’s license in a lot of cases, not able to read road signs, speak English, things along those lines. And a couple of you have given some good ideas. One said, you know, we need to figure out a way to withhold drivers funding from these states that do that. In fact, some of you want to do things stronger than that, although I don’t think you can do much more than, and this is one where I’m not an expert, not a legal expert constitutionally speaking or anything along those lines, but I would think that you could tie some of the federal road tax dollars that do go back to the states from the feds I do think that you should be able to figure out a way to tie some stipulations to that, because it happens in a lot of cases where they’ll say, if you don’t do X, you don’t get your road tax money. I would think that you could have the ability, and by the way, those are large numbers. Those aren’t small numbers that we’re talking about on a state-by-state basis. California, I can only imagine the amount of people they have, the amount of fuel they pump, what their collection would actually be from the feds. I’m guessing it’s billions of dollars. And I would think that you could put some sort of a catch to those federal funds coming from the road tax sides of things saying, listen, if you’re still going to allow illegal aliens to get commercial driver’s licenses until that stops, we’re not giving you your road tax money, your federal funding of roads, in other words. Again, I’m not an expert. I don’t know exactly how that works. I know there’s been times in the past, for example, the way they enacted the speed limit laws back when they went from whatever it was, 70 to 55. That’s how they got states to drop the speed limit to 55. Any state, this is to my knowledge, now I didn’t look this up, so if I’m incorrect on this, please let me know. But if I’m not mistaken, Charlotte, I remember where there were some states that didn’t want to go to the 55 miles an hour, and the Carter administration at the time said, yeah, okay, well, if you don’t do that, you’re not getting your federal funds for road maintenance and so on. You’re not getting that tax back. We’ll eliminate that. Either you drop to 55 or we’re going to withhold funds. So it’s been done in the past. That’s just one example that I was thinking of. So I believe it’s been done in other ways. So I don’t know why you couldn’t tell California, you don’t stop this nonsense of letting illegals have commercial driver’s licenses forever. We’re going to put a stop to it for you. You can keep doing it if you want, but you’re not going to get any federal funding on roads, bridges, and so on. Would that stand? Would that go all the way to the Supreme Court? Probably, because you know they would fight that. They would sue over that. There would be lawsuits. It would go through different courts. That one happens to be the Ninth Circuit, meaning they would win that one. Then it would have to be appealed, and it would go all the way up to the Supreme Court most likely, because I highly doubt the Ninth Circuit would side with the federal government. Not in this case. But it would be an interesting thing to see how that would go. And some of you also were saying that, you know, three hot meals and three cots, in other words, having a place to lie down and getting three square meals a day for these guys that are now going to be in jail is too good for them. I agree. I agree. I can’t disagree with you at all on that. And again, I could be completely wrong in how the federal funds work, but I would think there’d be ways to tie some things to that to eliminate some of this. It’s literally utter nonsense. There are people dying. We see it constantly. We’ve seen it here in Colorado. This one was in Florida. We’ve had several accidents in Colorado along these lines. I don’t know how many in Florida they’ve had, but we’ve had them here on an annual basis. And it’s ridiculous. It shouldn’t be happening. There is a way to stop this. And one of those is these states that are allowing illegals to get driver’s licenses with little to no training. This is a debate that we had on Drive Radio a couple of weeks ago. There is no mandated federal, you know, federally, there’s no mandate for how many hours of classroom time a commercial driver’s license person, you know, student has to have. Some, you know, I had a caller call in and say it’s 120 hours. It’s not. There is no federally mandated hour requirement. In a lot of cases, it can come down to the school itself. And remember, in a lot of these situations, the trucking companies themselves run their own schools. I know some of you are going to find that hard to believe, but yes, that’s how it works. Now, they are quote-unquote overseen by officials, but there’s times I wonder, when I look at the way some of these guys drive at times, I just wonder, you know, who gave them the license? They can’t drive for crap. It’s getting to the point where even the depots themselves, they actually have other drivers that can drive to hop in the front seat and even back the unit in because the guy driving the truck can’t do anything but go straight. I’m not exaggerating when I say that. They’re lucky to get from A to B. So I’ve got to believe there’s ways to shore some of this up. We just have to be, you know, we have to put our thinking caps on and think harder about this. And I know Donald Trump and his administration, they’ve got a lot of things they’re working on. But, folks, this affects all of us daily on our roadways. And for a lot of you truckers out there that are doing it the right way, it’s affecting your paycheck as well because it’s lowering it. So there’s a way to cure this, and I really wish that, federally speaking, in the Trump administration, they would take a harder look at this, especially with what’s happened to them so close to home. Not that things that happen in Colorado don’t matter, but you know what I mean by that. When it’s closer to where you live and eat and breathe and sleep and so on, it’s more of a reminder than two-thirds of the way across the country. So, by the way, thanks for all the input. There’s a few messages that have come in. I’ll read those here during the break and see if there’s anything there I need to comment on when I come back. But bottom line, and this is where Paul Leuenberger comes into play as well, bottom line, you’ve got to be properly insured. Because I can tell you right now, this trucking company that killed these people, they weren’t This family, I’m guessing when it’s all said and done, will be lucky to get much of anything out of this. The heirs of the family is what I should say. The family’s passed, so it’ll be the heirs of the family. I’ll be surprised if they get much at all. So you’ve got to be insured for these sorts of situations. Paul Leuenberger, my agent, can help you with all of that. He’s actually a broker, not an agent. He’ll shop what’s best for you, teach you how to save money, make sure you’re properly insured. All of that, all under one roof, 303-662-0789.
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SPEAKER 11 :
Live and local, back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, some of the comments coming back in. Montana was one of the states that refused to drop to 55, so I was correct in my statement along those lines. A couple of you have verified that. Thank you for that, because I wasn’t super old when all of that was going on and wasn’t paying as attention to things as, of course, I do today, because I just wasn’t that old when all of that first happened. took place others were talking about how there was an example of actually a truck pulled over up in wyoming that evidently didn’t pass inspection and something wasn’t right and they were hauling it towing it good we need to see more of that a couple of the other a couple others of you have agreed with me on the whole thing that’s happening in the trucking industry the pay all of that and it’s a problem it’s a problem for a lot of you that are legitimate truck drivers that have done things the correct way in some cases you’ve done it for decades And yet at the end of the day, you can get a newbie from wherever, in this case India, to show up, end up with a commercial driver’s licenses, poop in a hole in the floor, and off they go. Sorry to be gross, but that whole thing, I just, it’s sick and twisted to even think that way. But that’s what these guys are doing. Not only is it sick and gross and all that, but look what’s being left on the roadway that everybody else behind them is running over now. It’s nasty. It’s nasty. It’s disgusting. Now, one of the things that was commented on about this, keep this in mind, these Sikh drivers that have come from India, keep in mind the way they drive over there is completely different than here. Those guys driving some new truck that’s outfitted halfway well and having to go to the bathroom in a hole in the floor of it is a no big deal to them. In fact, that’s an upgrade from what they’ve been doing. So they’re happy at the end of the day. They’ve had a huge life upgrade. Because most of what’s over there, you’ve seen the videos and so on. I’ve never been to India, but I’ve seen enough pictures to know they drive crap. There isn’t a good truck. I don’t think there’s a truck on the road that have a dent in it. The way they all drive and rub each other and run into each other and so on, it’s like a stinking NASCAR race. That’s what those guys are used to. So they are used to driving and operating in a completely different realm. And to them, I’m sorry to say, to them, life doesn’t matter. So three people got killed. Who cares? The shipment still is going where it needs to go. Who cares at the end of the day? That’s how they look at it. I’m being honest. They don’t care. Their value of life is completely different than what ours is. All right, that’s it for Hour 1. We’ll be back with two more hours. Don’t go anywhere. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 10 :
Bye. Bye.
