Jersey Joe joins John Rush for a fast-moving hour that hits politics, policy, and markets. They dig into polling and street interviews around voter ID—and the “soft bigotry of low expectations” argument—before pivoting to a brutal real-world case study: electric school buses that spent more time parked than driving, with manufacturer bankruptcy making the mess even worse. The conversation also hits culture and education (including the claim that many college students can’t read at an eighth-grade level), then shifts into market turbulence—Fed leadership chatter, leverage getting squeezed, and why “clickbait economics” sells fear faster than facts. John closes with
SPEAKER 15 :
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.
SPEAKER 15 :
There are no magical fixes. With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 10 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did.
SPEAKER 22 :
Get a job, sir. You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference.
SPEAKER 26 :
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 10 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 09 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 19 :
Okay, hour three, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Jersey Joe joining us now. Joe, how are you?
SPEAKER 12 :
John, I’m great. How are you doing?
SPEAKER 19 :
I’m good, as always. I’m very good. No complaints.
SPEAKER 12 :
Hey, John, I feel like I’m back living in Syracuse. It snowed here yesterday. Twelve days ago, we got 12 inches. It hasn’t been above freezing since, and every bit of that 12 inches is still on my lawn.
SPEAKER 1 :
Oh, man.
SPEAKER 12 :
Oh, man. We’re waiting to get above freezing here. This hasn’t happened in the New York City, New Jersey area in about 15 years. It hasn’t been this cold. That global warming is going to be the death of you.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, it’s going to be the death of you. Yep.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, we talked last week about the Hudson River being froze over, and the ferry still can’t run. Wow. Amazing. Anyway. Hey, John, before we get in, I’ve had a, you know, from our calls every week, I get people, some of whom follow my podcast, say, hey, can you send me the, how do I get the clips you talk about? And I just, if anybody wants me to send them a clip of what we talk about tonight, either a video or the printed story, just email me at Joe at JerseyJoe.com. Just remember to spell Jersey, J-E-R-Z-E-E, JerseyJoe.com. And I’ll be happy to, you know, send you any of the links we talk about tonight. And if you want to see the weekly podcast, just go to JerseyJoe.com. Just remember to spell Jersey with an R or a Z and two E’s.
SPEAKER 19 :
Awesome. Good stuff, Joe.
SPEAKER 12 :
All right. John, I heard you talk about voter IDs before.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yes, I had a guest on talking about that.
SPEAKER 12 :
So I’ve got a couple of things. I’d like to start with a quote by Thomas Sowell, who’s an economist. He’s also a black man. But it’s going to kind of lead into two other things, this voter IDs. And so this was my quote of the week for my podcast this week. And here’s what Thomas, he calls this, the soft bigotry of low expectations. And here’s his quote. If you want to see the poor remain poor generation after generation, just keep the standards low in your schools and make excuses for their academic shortcomings and personal misbehaviors. But please don’t congratulate yourself on your compassion. Now, and of course, that’s, you know, that’s the liberal mantra all over. No, we have to, you know, we have to advance everybody. And by the way, There’s a story later on about college kids can’t read at eighth grade level. We’re going to get to that, too. But he calls that the soft bigotry of low expectations. And I’d like to tie that into voter ID. So I sent you a clip. It’s a CNN poll. on how black and Hispanics feel about the voter ID. It’s really, it’s a 30-second clip. Can we play that clip?
SPEAKER 19 :
Let me see if I can find it. So it’s the CNN one. Give me one second. Charlie, I’ve got my laptop up. Am I ready to go? Yep, he says yes. Okay, let me make sure I’ve got my sound up. Joe, here we go.
SPEAKER 07 :
Take a look here. Favorite photo ID to vote. 85% of white people favorite. 82% of Latino. 76% of black Americans favorite. So the bottom line is this. Voter ID is not controversial in this country. A photo ID to vote is not controversial in this country. It is not controversial by party, and it is not controversial by race. The vast majority of Americans agree with Nicki Minaj that, in fact, you should have a photo ID to be able to vote.
SPEAKER 19 :
So why can’t the leftists figure that one out, Joe?
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, and here’s why, John. Now, let’s go on to this soft bigotry of low expectations. There’s another clip. It’s a short one. It’s only a minute. Interviewer talks to a bunch of white people about why they think voter ID laws are racist. And then he switches over to black people in Harlem and ask them the same question.
SPEAKER 18 :
Do you have an opinion on voter ID laws?
SPEAKER 22 :
Yeah, they’re usually pretty racist and they’re bad. I think voter ID laws are a way to perpetuate racism.
SPEAKER 18 :
Do you think it suppresses the African American vote? Definitely, because they’re less likely to have state IDs.
SPEAKER 17 :
You can always get IDs over the internet. Does that also make it difficult for black people in particular?
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, you have to have access to the internet. You have to be able to pay an internet service provider for certain fees. Do you think that’s harder for black people to go online? Well, I feel like they don’t have the knowledge of how it works. Now I’m here in East Harlem to ask black people their thoughts on what you just heard. Do you carry ID? Yes, I do. Do you know anybody, any black person who doesn’t carry ID? No. Why would they think we don’t have ID? That’s a lie. Why would they say that? Do you have ID? Yes.
SPEAKER 10 :
Everybody that I know have ID. Like, that’s one of the things you need to walk around with New York with.
SPEAKER 18 :
Do you have a problem if when you go to vote, if they say, could we please just see your ID to make sure you are who you say you are? Do you have an issue with that? No.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, Joe, that one, I’ve played that one even in the past before. I mean, that one just to me is like, it’s demeaning, literally demeaning. Some of the people that were being interviewed, the white people being interviewed, talking about, you know, basically black people. I’m sorry, I’m going to paraphrase, but they’re too dumb to get an idea is essentially what they were saying.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, they’re too dumb to use it. And by the way, if you have a cell phone, you don’t need to have an Internet service provider. Your cell phone is here. You don’t need to have a subscription to any of these.
SPEAKER 19 :
They all know where DMV is. They can go down and get a license. It’s not a big deal.
SPEAKER 12 :
So this ties back to the soft bigotry of low expectations. And I think the Democrats, the politicians probably know better, but they’re pandering to all those white liberals that you heard at the beginning of that clip. Now, maybe there are some who believe the way that what those white liberals did. But I think that many of the Democrats know better. Chuck Schumer knows better. Right. But he’s pandering to that crowd. Right. That’s exactly who he’s pandering to. So anyway, so that’s my— It’s insulting and demeaning. Exactly. Insulting and—couldn’t say it any better. And let’s kind of move on, John. A story came out—now, there are literally thousands of colleges in this country— And, John, you probably couldn’t name more than 50. True. Yeah, Harvard, Yale, Ole Miss, University of Florida, University of Tennessee. But there are thousands of colleges you’ve never heard of and never will hear of, and they don’t bother with SAT scores. Their admission standards are nonexistent. All they want to do is fill the seats and fill the beds in the dorm room.
SPEAKER 19 :
Money.
SPEAKER 12 :
They will take anybody, John. Right. It doesn’t matter if you’re a C-minus student, if you can pay the tuition. Well, there was an article by a professor, and he’s talked to his colleagues. He goes to these conferences, and he says it is stunning and sad how many students in college these days can’t even read at an eighth-grade level. Can’t even read at an eighth-grade level. And, John, that’s why, you know, I think I’ve told this story. I used to go to the Starbucks near the airport near Centennial. And 13 of the 17 baristas had college degrees. You know, you’re spending $80,000 to $100,000 over a four-year period to get a degree that literally has zero market value, and you’re going to wind up as a barista. So that’s part of this downfall of education in this country. Right, right. All right. Well, staying with education, John, there’s a – Back when the Biden EPA was throwing money to electrify everything, I think we did a story a couple months ago about how Philadelphia got stuck with a bunch of electric school buses that eventually wind up burning up in a fire when one of them caught fire. Now we have Maine. There’s two school districts in Maine that spent, and I think these school buses are going for about $350,000, $400,000 apiece. You can buy three diesel buses for the price of one EB. Two different school districts bought EVs with federal tax dollars from a Canadian bus company that has since gone bankrupt. So can we play the clip of what happened to them? Yeah.
SPEAKER 19 :
Let me bring it up.
SPEAKER 12 :
Here we go.
SPEAKER 22 :
Road for electric school buses continues for two main school districts. Winthrop and Yarmouth are keeping those buses off the road this school year after the manufacturer filed for bankruptcy.
SPEAKER 23 :
CBS 13 Sam DeCoste reports both districts now still mulling their next moves.
SPEAKER 13 :
Two years ago, Winthrop Public Schools rolled out brand new electric school buses. They were hoping it would bring students to and from school for the next few decades. But instead, these buses sit in this parking lot. They can’t be used due to safety reasons and officials are waiting for them to be discarded.
SPEAKER 24 :
It doesn’t help that they’re really in the parking lot.
SPEAKER 13 :
Winthrop has four electric school buses made by Lion Electric, a company based out of Quebec. Superintendent Becky Foley says the buses have been nothing but trouble. In its first year, one bus lost its brakes and ran into a snowbank. Nobody was hurt, but the buses spent months in repair shops, faced parts recalls and failed state inspections.
SPEAKER 24 :
It’s very unfortunate that we did not get a different model from a different company.
SPEAKER 13 :
Winthrop’s bus warranty will not be honored by Lion Electric since the company has filed for bankruptcy. But because Winthrop received the buses through a grant from the EPA, they are required to keep and maintain the buses for five years. Foley hopes the EPA will give them an early out.
SPEAKER 24 :
We just really want to hear from the EPA and learn how we can dispose of them, get rid of them, and move on.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yarmouth also went electric. They have two line electric buses through a State Department of Education grant. Superintendent Andrew Doloff says in two years, the buses have been operational for one month total. Doloff is still weighing options, which includes selling the buses, trading them in, or working with another service provider and repairing the buses on their own dollar.
SPEAKER 25 :
I don’t think anybody could foresee this happening. I could have. What took place with the menu.
SPEAKER 19 :
I’ve got to stop that, Joe. I could have. Nobody could have foreseen this. They should have called Drive Radio on a Saturday, and I would have informed them of how that would have worked out.
SPEAKER 12 :
You know, John, they may, you know, if you’re in Florida or Arizona, you know, maybe you can get by with it.
SPEAKER 19 :
Even then you can’t, Joe. I mean, the reality is, and I know some of this just from being in that industry and being around those things and so on, and the problem is the heavy market especially here in Colorado. There’s been several manufacturers that have tried to make the heavy market work well, and these are heavy buses. The reality is the technology just isn’t there yet, Joe.
SPEAKER 12 :
Right, and Ford, I understand, just discontinued the Lightning and took a $30 billion write-off.
SPEAKER 19 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 12 :
They couldn’t even make it viable in a pickup truck.
SPEAKER 19 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 12 :
And you’re trying to do school buses and, you know, 40 passenger school buses.
SPEAKER 19 :
Not going to happen.
SPEAKER 12 :
In cold climates, not going to happen.
SPEAKER 19 :
Nope.
SPEAKER 12 :
All right.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, sorry, that guy is very mistaken because he could have called me and had a 15-minute phone call, and I would have advised him, don’t do that.
SPEAKER 12 :
I think we played, I think we had a clip about a month ago, John, from a, The head of the – it was either Michigan or Wisconsin, same thing. They had a bunch of school buses that were parked in operative.
SPEAKER 19 :
I guess, Joe, because I don’t have a Ph.D. in whatever, they don’t call me.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, this guy knew better, but the town overruled him.
SPEAKER 19 :
Oh, yeah, the town overruled him. Yeah, I remember that one.
SPEAKER 12 :
Overruled him, yeah. He didn’t want him. The town said, you’re going to take him. And this kind of gets to the cult, the cult of liberalism. And, John, if you’re quick on the stop button – Bill Maher’s got a segment on the cult of liberalism, but you have to stop it before the minute 14 mark, because it’s a very bad word at the minute 14 mark.
SPEAKER 19 :
Okay, I’ll do that. Here we go. Let me make sure the sound is up. Here we go.
SPEAKER 04 :
The new rule, if you’re part of today’s woke revolution, you need to study the part of revolutions where they spin out of control because the revolutionaries get so drunk on their own purifying elixir, they imagine they can reinvent the very nature of human beings. Communists thought selfishness could be cast out of human nature. Russian revolutionaries spoke of the new Soviet man who wasn’t motivated by self-interest, but instead wanted to be part of a collective. No, it turns out he wanted to be on a yacht in a Gucci tracksuit holding a vodka and a prostitute. Not standing in line all day for a potato. The problem with communism, and with some very recent ideologies here at home, is that they think you can change reality by screaming at it. That you can bend human nature by holding your breath. But that’s the difference between reality and your mommy. Lincoln once said that you can repeal all past history, but you still cannot repeal human nature.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yep, he is 100% correct.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, and that’s where we are. It’s the cult of liberalism, John. As you said, it’s a mental illness.
SPEAKER 19 :
It is.
SPEAKER 12 :
Facts don’t matter. It’s virtue signaling.
SPEAKER 19 :
It lacks reasoning. It lacks critical thinking. You can’t sit and have a conversation and really take in all of the facts. the things that are there in front of you, the facts that are in front of you, and make a decision at the end of the day. Yeah, really, I have no other way to say it. Those of you that are on the left that believe wholeheartedly in that, yes, it’s a mental illness because you block out reason 100%.
SPEAKER 12 :
And I always get this mixed up between left brain and right brain, but there’s been, I’ve read several studies, and more conservative, whichever one is logical, mathematically oriented, problem solving, you know, engineers like me, you know, we tend, and I don’t know if that’s the left brain or the right brain, but those tend to be overwhelmingly conservative. And the other people, artistic, musicians, people who operate in feelings and emotion, are overwhelmingly Democrats.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, the left brain is more verbal, and the right brain is the orderly side.
SPEAKER 12 :
Orderly, all right. So you and I, John, we’re right-brained people. That’s right. And we look at facts and logic and equations, and we weigh the pros and the cons. The left brain, it feels good. It feels good. It’s a It makes me feel good inside.
SPEAKER 19 :
And for those of you listening, we have some left brain people, even in the Republican Party on the conservative side. And I talk about those people on an occasional basis. They’re just left brain in a different way than the left is with their left brain. But there’s a lot of folks out there, Joe, that just can’t sit down and look at things in a reasonable fashion, putting all the facts together and then making a decision out of that.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 19 :
Which baffles me because, again, the way my mind works, that just baffles me. I don’t get it.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah. Well, John, it always will for people like us who are so used to just attacking things. What I learned in engineering school, John, was how to analyze a problem and then look at the various alternatives and how to select the best alternative. That’s what they teach you when you go to engineering school. What are the key elements of the problem? What are the key variables? What do you know? Then what are your list of options? And then how do you sort through option A versus option B versus option C? And you learn that in real life in fixing cars. You encounter the same problem. Okay, this car’s brakes aren’t working. Is it the master cylinder? Is it the pads? Is it the calipers? And you learn the same thing.
SPEAKER 19 :
It’s critical thinking. It’s a process of elimination and knowing which one of those you want to start at. And I’ll tell everybody straight up, some technicians do really well at what we’re talking about, and others tend to struggle. And it’s why… And frankly, and I’m not exaggerating when I say this, this is why a lot of the manufacturers and even the aftermarket has come up with flow charts and so on, Joe, to even help some of those technicians that may not be as critical thinking as you and I are how to repair cars.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 19 :
It’s a system whereby anybody can follow that.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, and I’ve had to do the same thing, John. You know, in some of the factories I’ve run, I’ve had to come up and break it down to very, very simple steps.
SPEAKER 19 :
Correct. Otherwise, nobody’s going to fix anything because, unfortunately, we’re not training the likes of you and me anymore. We don’t do that in school anymore.
SPEAKER 12 :
John, I have to tell you, I was interviewing people to work down in Savannah, Georgia. I was getting a new factory up and running. We were interviewing people. And, John, it struck me, and this was just a recalibration of my part. We were interviewing people, and it dawned on me that, many of them didn’t know that three quarters of an inch was the decimal equivalent of 0.75 inches. Now, I’m not trying to make fun of those people, but I had to recalibrate. I just assumed that everybody knew that 0.750 and three quarters was the same number. And so I just had to recalibrate my expectations and the level of training and then how we had to simplify things. So, hey, John, before we run out of time, there’s a great story that’s, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I hope something happens. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and her husband created a fake winery. And the year that it was created, they said it was worth $15,000. One year later, it was worth $5 million. And we’ve got a story here. We don’t need to play the whole thing. We can play it through the 227 mark. We can play that about her winery. Here we go.
SPEAKER 06 :
Investigated Ilhan Omar’s official financial disclosures, and what I found was so dark and criminal, I don’t know how she gets out of this without going to jail. Have a look at this. Here’s Ilhan Omar’s financial disclosure from the congressional record year 2023. I want to bring your attention to this company right down here, Est Crew LLC. This is a winery in Santa Rosa, California. It’s not doing that well. The total value of the winery is listed at $15,000 and Ilhan Omar’s barely making any money off of it at all. Hardly enough to pay a parking ticket. Okay, that’s fine. Nothing really mysterious there. Businesses fail all the time. But go ahead and look at her filing for 2024, and you’ll find that Est Cru Winery, the same company in the same location, is now worth $5 million. That’s incredible. Up from $15,000. And now Ilhan Omar’s making enough to pay rent. So this must be one of the most successful companies ever. Let’s go ahead and check in on this winery. You know, maybe we could, uh, maybe we could buy some wine. I like wine. Why not? Let’s see if we can buy some Eskru winery. Here’s Eskru’s social media Facebook page. You’ll see here that the last post, oh no, was in 2023. Wasn’t this the year that they were supposed to, you know, go really big and make Ilhan Omar millions of dollars? Same thing on their Instagram post. and they don’t have an X, so let’s go ahead and check their official website. What is Est Cru? We are winemakers and memory curators, okay? West Cru, Est Cru Winery has a bunch of brands that’s led by these people. creators of eye-catching labels so uh i’m sure i can go and get some of their wine right well they don’t have any activities here so maybe i could just go to their location and buy some of their wines or maybe give them a call let’s try and go to their location here this is the google street view of est crew winery and what you’ll find here is an empty parking lot doesn’t actually
SPEAKER 19 :
Basically nothing there, Joe.
SPEAKER 12 :
Nothing there. They haven’t produced or sold a single bottle of wine since they’ve been in business. And, John, let me tell you what’s happening here. If you want to bribe a congresswoman, you create a business. Your husband creates a business. The people who want to bribe her invest several million dollars into this fake business. And the husband, now they said, well, the business is only showing a $15,000 profit. That’s because the husband is paying himself a million dollars a year in salary as a CEO. And so she’s not getting the money directly. I mean, the people who are bribing her are putting the money into this fake company, knowing full well that her husband’s going to be taking the money out. And, of course, it’s a community property state, so she’s going to be the beneficiary. This is, you know, pay the spouse to bribe the politician.
SPEAKER 19 :
And by the way, really quick, because we got corrected, and I don’t know why I read that wrong the first time. The left brain is what you and I are. The right brain is what the left is. Okay.
SPEAKER 12 :
But it’s the same principles. It’s the same principles, exactly. Same principle. But anyway, and he’s right. I don’t know how she gets out of going to jail. I don’t either. By the way, that’s what happened in New Jersey with Bob Menendez and his wife. That’s right. They were bribing the wife. You know, they weren’t paying him. They were paying his wife. Millions of dollars, free cars, gold bars, and that’s how they do it. You bribe the husband, and you don’t ever pay the politician directly. That’s right. That’s exactly right.
SPEAKER 19 :
John, all I got. That’s good, Joe. As always, I appreciate it, man. Have a great night. You too, John. All right, we’ll be back in a moment. Geno’s Auto Service coming up next. Make sure your vehicle’s all dialed in for the rest of winter. Geno’s can help you with that. It’s genosautoservice.com, and Geno’s starts with a J.
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SPEAKER 19 :
Okay, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. As always, thanks for listening. I appreciate Jersey Joe and all that he adds to the program on literally a sometimes daily but weekly basis with his Thursday night conversation. I appreciate it greatly. Scott Garlis joining us now. Scott, how are you today, sir? John, I’m well. How are you? I’m good. Thanks for switching to Thursday for us. Talk to us about what’s going on in the crypto world, because I’ve been even watching this, and is it just a sell-off? Is it lack of confidence? Is it the dollar getting stronger? What’s happening here?
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, it’s a combo of a lot of those things. So, pardon me. One of the things that you and I have been talking about for a while… You’ve been asking me time and again, like, you know, where the whole Fed governor conversation stood.
SPEAKER 16 :
Right.
SPEAKER 11 :
And one of the things we talked about was who could wind up there. And the one guy for me that I said I didn’t think would be the best choice was Kevin Warsh, because he’s got a history of being a very hawkish Fed governor. Excuse me. So. One of the things now with Kevin Walsh coming in as potentially coming in as a Fed governor is that people are worried he might tighten interest rates or not cut anymore, even though he has said, yes, I would. But maybe he gets in, does it one time, and then says, I’m doing whatever I want. You can’t get rid of me. Who knows? But. until the markets get more color around that they’re, they’re worried about that. And that’s why you’re seeing the dollar rally. Um, that’s why you’ve seen bond yields creep back up a little bit. Um, but so then as a result, as the dollars rallied, you saw, and we’ve talked about this too, about the potential, you know, speculative Fuhrer we’ve seen in gold prices and silver prices because they’ve, they’ve run so much in the last few years. Um, So what happened was you had a big sell-off late last week in precious metals. The CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, came out and raised their margin requirements. So all of a sudden what you have is people either had to decide to get out of their precious metals positions or they had to put more money in their accounts potentially to cover margins.
SPEAKER 16 :
Got it.
SPEAKER 11 :
So then on top of that, you have people levered. in crypto. And then to what you were saying earlier, you know, again, crypto is sort of looked at similar to gold and silver as a play against a weaker dollar.
SPEAKER 16 :
Right.
SPEAKER 11 :
And then so as you have people that are leveraged in crypto, you know, the dollar starts getting stronger. They’re worried about, you know, a more hawkish Fed governor getting in there. All of a sudden you have crypto start to drop and it sort of cascades across a couple of different asset classes because The same people that are levered in crypto might be levered in silver and gold. And to meet those margin requirements, like crypto has a 50% margin requirement. And silver and gold, we’re talking about them going like 11% or maybe 8.5% for gold and 16, 17% for silver. But all of a sudden, what you see is they sell one asset to cover a margin. Another asset will get out of it altogether. Right. So another part of that momentum trade has been software stocks, too. And so what they’ve done as well is they’ve started selling off some software stocks, again, to either raise cash for margin or just kind of getting out of the way until they get more color from the White House and Warsh. in terms of what his plans might be.
SPEAKER 19 :
Okay. Makes total sense. And again, for those of you listening, I haven’t talked much about this because that decision was made late last week. And again, I’m not a super fan, although I don’t know all the inner workings and don’t know the conversations and so on. Although if you look at who he is, who his parents are and so on, Scott, I’m not saying Trump made a mistake, but I wouldn’t have picked him.
SPEAKER 11 :
I mean, Mike, the guy I really thought and I’ve said this a couple of times, Chris Waller, who’s on the board of governors, I thought he’s probably the best guy for the job. Again, he was he’s always been very pragmatic about things. He called the rebound from covid. long before others did. He called inflation was going to be a problem when we were talking about it a while ago. And he also called for, he’s been calling for rates to be cut. He actually was one of the two people who dissented at the last meeting in favor of another rate cut. So a guy like that who has a proven track record of sort of seeing the economy for what it is and what’s going on, I just think he would have been a better fit as the guy in charge. But look, it doesn’t mean it still can’t happen. Warsh could wind up having a hard time getting approved. We don’t know yet.
SPEAKER 19 :
True. Good. Yeah, you know, I didn’t think about that. In fact, you never know how some of these things work. I mean, there could be actual play here where Trump, because of big donors and so on, which this guy’s dad is, maybe throws his name in knowing that he’s not going to get confirmed anyways. I’ll end up getting the guy that I actually want, but I don’t tick off any of my donors in doing so. I mean, you just never know, Scott. I have no idea on the inner workings of that.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, and look, they still have months. We’ll see where this whole process goes. I mean, I would think Waller is still a possibility. Yeah, it’s again. I mean, the other thing I would really point to in some of this turmoil that’s going on right now is, what is it? This is the second year of a presidential cycle. Typically, because of midterm elections, the second year of a presidential cycle can have a lot of chop in it. So what we’re seeing right now, it really isn’t surprising. These things are going to happen. We’re also, in terms of this stuff going on, Bitcoin and silver and gold have really pulled back hard. Software stocks, too. But again, there’s a lot of runway ahead. The year always starts out with uncertainty, and then as we get more – so people, the old saying is they sell first and they ask questions later. But then as we start to get more detail around plans, remember last April, things start to even out, and that’s when stocks start to rebound once more.
SPEAKER 19 :
Big article today. I didn’t send it to you, but in Wall Street Journal talking about how, you know, we as a country really need to start decoupling ourselves from China even more than we already have. And, of course, that’s going to raise some some hair on some people’s neck. Scott, especially, you know, the farming community and so on, because there’s so much that we do with China along those lines. But I, for one, have said for years that we should have been working towards this. We shouldn’t be so dependent upon selling things to them. in the first place, so I am one where I think this is good. I think it puts us in a better position, because China really needs us, and I think if we start decoupling, all it does is make it harder for them financially at the end of the day.
SPEAKER 11 :
I would agree. I mean, you know, China is looking out for China, and China wants to be the number one country in the world in terms of economic superpower, defense superpower, and what China wants what’s good for them and bad for us.
SPEAKER 19 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 11 :
And I get it. They’re competitive, I understand. But look at the – we’ve talked about this in the past, too. Look at the rare earths industry, the critical minerals. China undercut everybody in the world to dominate that industry. And so now it’s become a supply chain concern because of the growth of technology. But the White House is doing things to bring rare earth production and mining back to this country or other places within allied nations. And a lot of other countries, they want to get on board with this. So, yeah, you know, look, I think China is causing its own problems.
SPEAKER 19 :
I agree. I want to also talk to you about, because there’s always folks that are out there, and Sun sent me an article the other day from a guy by the name of Pete Earl. I don’t know him, but no tariffs are not delivering a manufacturing boom. And I mean, without even reading through all the points, I almost could respond with, yeah, dummy, there hasn’t been enough time yet. It takes a while for those manufacturers to, or for the manufacturing, I should say, to come back to rebuild factories, start a new factory. I mean, of course it’s not going to happen in a matter of, you know, really, it’s been barely a year with Trump. If you really start talking about tariffs and all the things that have been happening there, you’re talking about two quarters. Of course you’re not going to see a big bump in manufacturing, Dodo Head.
SPEAKER 11 :
I mean, look, just to get the… permits the approval for the area the ground where you want to build these things takes i would think it takes at least a year maybe 18 months and then you got to get pinched i mean we’re talking a three to four year process at least for big facilities to start to really be completed um yeah i know like in the in the semiconductor industry i think between approval permitting or unless they can speed it up somehow you got to pour tons of cement i mean It takes about five years to get a facility all set and in place. So, yeah, two quarters, it’s not going to happen. But I would also direct that person back to – or anybody that sort of wonders about this, why we want to go down this road. Let’s go back to COVID for a minute. Let’s remember all the goods that we had to source, like – Gosh, I’m trying to think of the – was it the PPE? Was that what it was? All the gloves and all the other things that we used to make here, and then we outsourced them. China started making them all because they could make them cheaper. Well, think about all the stimulus money that was approved and spent by the government that actually wound up going to China because of things like that. Mm-hmm. If we bring those processes back here and we can do more of that stuff locally or say we have it in Central America or Canada, I mean, again, I think there would be less need as a nation to have massive spending bills or stimulus bills in situations like that because all that money would stay home. And I think it would actually one-up. helping solve a lot of the problems we’re dealing with right now and we’re still talking about.
SPEAKER 19 :
Agreed.
SPEAKER 11 :
But like you said, it’ll take a few years.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, and I think anybody’s, you know, I’m not trying to say people are foolish, but in a way they kind of are. I mean, if you’re thinking that immediately you’re doing these things on a worldwide basis and all of a sudden manufacturing is going to jump overnight, I just think that’s silly for someone to think that in the first place. It’s not going to happen.
SPEAKER 11 :
No. Yeah.
SPEAKER 19 :
Good luck. I mean, and even, you know, this particular article talks about steel production. And, yes, we’re exceeding that of Japan, but it takes some time on that one again. I mean, the reality is, Scott, we’re talking in some cases several years to get some of this stuff back. It’s not going to happen in several months. I mean, you would think these guys would be smarter than that. But on the same token, I get the fact that, you know, these guys – how do I want to say this? These guys – And you and I have talked about this. They rely on clickbait, which in a lot of cases I consider some of this to be, to further their cause, and that’s how they make money at the end of the day.
SPEAKER 11 :
Completely the case. Some of the stuff we’re seeing going on with software over the last couple of days, it’s really interesting to me, because back in August they cited this article from MIT saying that AI isn’t going to happen. It’s a waste of everybody’s time and money. Only 5% of companies are trying it out, and they can’t figure out how to use it. And now the same outlets are saying, oh, my God, AI is going to destroy every software company out there and every job. Like, well, wait a second. I thought you said we should be able to figure out how to use AI or employ it, and now it’s going to take everybody’s job and ruin every company. It’s just to your point. They just want you to click and they want to suck you in so you’ll keep coming back.
SPEAKER 19 :
And, again, they do that on purpose because they know at the end of the day that’s how they make money. I always have to remind everybody of that because, again, there’s certain folk both sides of the aisle. By the way, Scott, this is something where it’s equal. Both sides of the aisle can do this. Completely agreed. Right? Am I 100% correct?
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, yeah. And the more they talk about things that – It might affect your finances, too. That’s what really gets people’s attention, right? Yes, it does. Nobody wants to lose money.
SPEAKER 19 :
Nope, that’s exactly right. So, yeah, the money sides of things especially does that, absolutely. That’s right. Yep, absolutely. Scott, how do folks find you, sir? What’s the best way for them to do that?
SPEAKER 11 :
Sure, Bent Pine Capital. You can look me up, C. Scott Garlis, on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Substack.
SPEAKER 19 :
All right. As always, I appreciate it, Scott. John, thanks so much for your time. You betcha, man. Have a great evening. Appreciate all of your time. Let’s do this. We have got Roof Savers of Colorado coming up next. And when these days are warm like they’ve been, yes, roof treatment can be done. The RoofMax product can be done, extending the life of your roof up to 15 years. 303-710-6916.
SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 19 :
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SPEAKER 19 :
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SPEAKER 15 :
The best export we have is common sense. You’re listening to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 19 :
All right, I got one more break to squeeze in here, but before we go to our next break, I was reading this this morning. This came up on one of my feeds that the city of Arvada has now adopted new building codes impacting construction materials, renewable energy requirements, wildfire resiliency, and much more. Now, I didn’t watch, there’s a YouTube video that goes with this. I honestly didn’t watch the YouTube video because I don’t need to because all I’m reading in all of this is costs are going up. In a time where all you hear about From the governor on down in the state of Colorado, it was affordability, affordability, affordability. You now have cities, and it’s not going to just be Arvada. There’s going to be others that are going to do the exact same thing. They’re going to now raise the building codes, meaning prices will go up. Isn’t it – I mean, it’s almost laughable, but – This is what happens when you get a bunch of hypocrites in charge where they talk out of both sides of their mouth. And, yes, I’m calling out the city of Arvada for being a bunch of hypocrites. They’re the first ones. I know because I live over in that area. They’re the first ones to talk about affordability and how bad it is, and yet they go and pull something like this, whereby at the end of the day, nobody’s benefiting. I mean, nobody’s benefiting. Now, I saw comments on the page like, well, that just means that houses won’t be built with matchsticks anymore and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I mean, folks, and I need to make sure that I really stress this, the wildfire resiliency, there’s no such thing. There is no such thing. And that’s something that I don’t quite understand why cities and contractors especially can’t figure that out. And what I mean by that, and I’ve talked about this on this show many, many times as having lost a home in a fire. Until you make windows fireproof, it doesn’t matter what the structure is made out of. Because everything inside of the home, even if it’s built out of brick or cement, everything inside is still burning up. There is no such thing as wildfire resiliency when it comes to building. And they can claim there is. They can make things out of harder material, cement and cement board and things like that. But at the end of the day… The inside and what’s inside of the home still burns up. And I don’t understand why others can’t figure this out. Again, I don’t have a college degree. I don’t have a Ph.D., but I know how fire works, and I know it looks for oxygen, and I know the first thing it tries to do is knock out windows because there’s oxygen inside of that box, that air box that’s there, and fire is trying to get in, and it does. And it’s its own animal at that point. I’m making it sound like it’s its own thing, but it really is. It throws things around, sticks and boards and trees and so on, and it knocks things out and windows and the wind blows and so on. And before you know it, a window’s out and all of a sudden the fire’s inside the house. It doesn’t matter what you did to the outside. I don’t understand why this is so hard for some of these folks to figure out. So they’re going to make things more wildfire resilient. There’s no such thing. And there’s partial things you can do, but there is no such thing. And yet you’ve got the city of Westminster, or sorry, city of Arvada in this case, and it’ll carry it to other cities as well, by the way. It’ll do the exact same thing. So, all right, I’m running out of time. Let me do this. Golden Eagle Financial coming up next. Make sure you’re dialed in when it comes to your future finances. Talk to Al Smith today. Find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 23 :
I’ll see you next time. We’ll be right back. including covering the what-ifs of life. Be confident and prepared for retirement. Contact Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial today and get started on your personal path to retirement by finding him on the klzradio.com advertisers page. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Investment LLC, a registered investment advisor. BCM and Golden Eagle Financial Limited are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.
SPEAKER 19 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
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SPEAKER 19 :
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SPEAKER 15 :
It’s time to leave your safe space. This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 19 :
All right, we are back. Thanks for listening. And one last thing that I didn’t get a chance to talk about. Probably I’ll push this off to next week because tomorrow we do movie reviews and all of that. But Colorado is pushing for a plastic pellet bill. In other words, they want to not necessarily eliminate, but put really stringent rules around plastic pellets. Now, plastic pellets are little pellets that are used in the manufacturing of things that are made out of plastic. And their claim is that if there’s a problem, a truck spills, a train, whatever, those plastic pellets get all over the environment and screw things up and so on and so forth. And I’m not saying they don’t, but… This article talks about how the industry itself will tell you that we’ve had little to no issues in the state of Colorado when it comes to spills. So, again, this is the left doing what the left does best, control. This isn’t looking out for what’s best for you. It’s looking out what’s best for you. All right, tomorrow, movies. Andy has got, let me go make sure I get this dialed in, Iron Lung and Solo Mio. And then Hour 2, because of the Super Bowl and commercials and so on, it’ll be the best commercials of all time. Not Super Bowl commercials, but just commercials in general. So if you’ve got your favorites, please let me know. 307-200-8222. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
