Join Mike Gallagher and Mark Davis as they delve into the intricacies of societal shifts with a focus on the abbreviation ‘Xmas’ and its impact on traditional celebrations. Set against the backdrop of Trump’s influence on cultural sentiments, the episode navigates the delicate balance between historical accuracy and modern interpretations. They then transition to the intense discussion on security and public safety, with New Orleans serving as a focal point amidst growing concerns surrounding high-profile events.
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Mike Gallagher. Every day, Mike visits with Mark Davis, morning host on 660 AM, The Answer in Dallas. Here’s today’s M&M experience.
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You do this thing where you get into the weeds and people are going to immediately rush to your defense. Oh, it’s true. It comes from the 16th century, the Catholic Church. You can’t have that accuracy. You can’t have that. I get it. It’s not accuracy. What’s accurate? I don’t know that we ever anticipated watching Christ get stripped out of Christmas.
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Are you going to Home Depot and seeing holiday trees? What? Listen, you and I were warriors locked in arms. I know. And we always will be. Stay in the fight. I would ask you this. What is an example? Find me. Here’s homework. Find me an example of anybody who you think in their use of that abbreviation is being dismissive toward Christmas. I mean, just find it. It’s a total straw man. Find it. You won’t find it. You won’t find it. It’s a tempest in a teapot. Let me speak.
SPEAKER 02 :
Let me speak, Chatty Cathy. I don’t think you’re intentionally being dismissive of Christmas. You’re as fine a Christian man as I know. You’re you’re inadvertently stripping out what Christmas means. Xmas may have some historical significance, but in the culture we’re in today that that and look, it’s getting better. I mean, this I think I think Trump has brought Merry Christmas back.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, 27 things to talk about. I’m going to make a buddy out of you again. If your point is and it’s a good point. even as historically accurate as I always am, if your point is don’t ever miss an opportunity, even if it varies you, don’t ever miss an opportunity to type C-H-R-I-S-T. Don’t ever miss an opportunity.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. And look, and I’ll stipulate, you’re probably right historically or whatever, but that’s so kind of, I don’t know.
SPEAKER 01 :
Arcane. Arcane.
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I don’t know. Let’s just agree that Merry Christmas is back. It’s great to celebrate the season. And like you said, any chance you get. Now, let’s get down to business. First of all, with Granny Clampett there in New Orleans. And you know that her big thing when she’s not… standing there not even acknowledging that she knew they had sidewalk barriers available in New Orleans. This is how incompetent she is. But her big thing, she teaches DEI to fellow officers. That’s her big thing. I mean, this is what happened. This is a product of diversity, equity, and inclusion. You know, you mentioned that the FBI assistant guy that they brought in, he’s right out of central casting. They took one look at nose ring and they said, get her out of there. I mean, and put in the guy, the big, burly, bald guy that can talk like an FBI agent.
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Period.
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Oh, yeah, yeah.
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We found multiple devices.
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Yeah, I mean, my goodness. And the nose ring. I mean, and the nose ring gets to me only because somebody sent me. I had an FBI agent, an active FBI agent send me their policy. They prohibit it. So what do they do? Wave it for her because they don’t want to make the young woman mad? It would be racist. Don’t be racist. Don’t be racist. So it just frustrates the heck out of me. Every time something like this happens, you know what cities do? They start putting up, like, barricades everywhere. They start putting up. And, you know, you can’t prevent evildoers from committing acts of evil.
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I think. Bush 43 used this about terrorism. He said, we have to be successful in stopping it 100% of the time. All they have to do is be successful once.
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And the one time they get through, then we say, oh, it’s a massive failure on our part. Except I think this one kind of was. Well, especially because there’s reporting that there were already briefings a year or two ago that Bourbon Street was particularly vulnerable. Yes.
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And you know what the thing was on the calendar, the glowing thing on the calendar they were looking at at the Superdome coming up in a couple of months? Super Bowl. Next month, Super Bowl. It’s like, but somehow the same number of people in the same stadium yesterday did not warrant a beefing up of security in time for that, which is also attached to what’s that little holiday? Oh, yeah. New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Eve.
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Yeah, yeah. And look, there’s also reporting now that Axios is reporting on concerns about the inauguration. There’s a part of me that wishes Trump did the inauguration inside somewhere, safe.
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Don’t the terrorists win?
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Well, we already changed the date of the Sugar Bowl. I mean, you know, like you said. And by the way, the timing, I know you were frustrated by why they played it yesterday at 4 Eastern, 3 Central. I think it wasn’t because of the second game. There was another game last night.
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Well, yeah, which is stupid because you had to have Duke and Ole Miss. How about you make everybody in Jacksonville move their schedules rather than people who are coming to a game with the national impact? Okay, so the inauguration will be on the west front of the Capitol. I’d say that’s a deeply, deeply secure area. Every rooftop, unlike Butler, PA, I don’t think anybody’s going to take Trump out as his hand is on the Bible. And funny, funny. And, you know, you can can Monday. Can you and I talk about Jimmy Carter? Because I’m going to spend some time, which we did not get a chance to do. He passed away while we were both away. A legacy of a man of much personal virtue. Wrong. Virtually every policy and both can be true at the same time. Anyway, though, Carter, I believe, was the first to get out of the limo and walk Pennsylvania Avenue and everybody went. Wow, man of the people, that’s awesome. I said that, and I just finished voting against him in my first election ever. I think Trump did it in 2017, right? He did it. Okay, so I’m here to tell you, Pennsylvania Avenue locked down hard. I would love to think there is no way anybody can squeeze off a shot at Trump or Melania walking that mile and a half of Pennsylvania Avenue, but are we confident enough to We are not. So, no, let’s not move the inauguration indoors. No, but don’t be walking down Pennsylvania. See, I want him. I want it to be the most Trumpian thing in the world to walk it again. Walk it again.
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Well, I don’t want to put anything bad out of the universe.
SPEAKER 01 :
I know.
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Let me end with a cool story about the intimacy of what we do. So I’m in L.A., and I’m flying back after visiting with Dennis in the hospital, and I’m in the lounge at LAX. And a guy comes up to me. I’m sitting there minding my own business. I talk to the people working in the lounge a little bit. And a guy comes up to me and says, pardon me, I don’t mean to bother you, but are you Mike Gallagher? I said, yeah. Hi, how are you? He goes, I knew it was you. And it was the coolest thing. He said, I had no idea what you looked like. I’ve never seen you before. I recognized your voice. Mm-hmm. And I thought, that’s like the third or fourth time. Has that ever happened to you before? All the time.
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You bet.
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That’s the strangest thing to me. I don’t think I’d recognize anybody by their voice. Just their voice? Sure, unless it’s somebody you listen to on the radio every day. Well, and he did. Well, anyhow, so we talked for 15 minutes. Great guy. Nice guy. He’s off to Cabo, you know, with his fiance. And I asked him in the course of the conversation, what do you do? He goes, I work in the film business. I thought, well, sure, it’s Hollywood, Los Angeles, whatever he works at. So then I get back to that five minutes into the conversation. Mark, he is the co-chairman and co-founder of one of the biggest movie studios in the world. Wow. I almost, and like a schoolboy, I’m like Googling him after the. Oh, yeah. That’s wonderful. It was the coolest thing, and I was telling Hewitt about it a couple weeks ago. He says, yeah, you forget that, like, famous people do listen to us. Absolutely. He told the story of Clint Eastwood being a fan of Hugh’s, you know? And so it’s the – Kelsey Grammer I met once and said, oh, Mike, I listen to you. It’s neat to neat. But this guy is, like, a big deal. So anyway, it’s kind of neat. It’s a sidebar that he’s famous in the movie industry. But what I think is really special is that somebody can recognize you by your voice. Absolutely. We just forget how intimate our medium is and how people relate. And, of course, now with Salem News Channel, our faces are plastered everywhere.
SPEAKER 01 :
I was going to say, how does somebody not know what you look like? He didn’t. He said, I’ve never.
SPEAKER 02 :
He was in L.A. And, you know, it’s though it was the funniest story because he said, I’ve never I’ve never seen you before. OK, well, great. And but that was just the coolest thing. I just wanted to share a little bit of that with you.
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Download the podcast and hear all of Mike and Mark’s conversations at MikeOnline.com for the M&M experience.