The episode also highlights the contentious issue of district court judges issuing nationwide injunctions, a judicial practice that has raised concerns about overstepping authority. With insights from West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey, we explore the legal and constitutional challenges posed by this trend. Moreover, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo provides a perspective on moral clarity and leadership, touching on international relations, notably the dynamics between Russia and Ukraine, and recent events in Iran.
SPEAKER 04 :
In a surprising move, President Trump nominates Mike Waltz, his former National Security Advisor, to be the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
SPEAKER 03 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome to Sekulow on this Friday. And if you joined us yesterday, you heard us talk a lot about National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who would be departing the White House. And there was some curious language about this because he's Trump's National Security Advisor. He was caught up in the Signalgate kind of scandal that the media reported. was pushing so hard and some of the language early in the day said mike waltz to depart the white house then some people maybe suggested it was fired but depart we thought was kind of a curious word used there and then as it developed we now know the reason he's departing he's not necessarily being fired or forced out he's moving to a different position And this is actually a position that requires Senate confirmation. If you'll remember, Elise Stefanik, who was originally nominated to be the ambassador to the United Nations, withdrew her nomination at the request of the president because of the concern about losing another seat in the House. But there was someone who had already resigned from the House. who was in the Trump administration, and that was the National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz. He has now been nominated by the president to be the next ambassador to the UN. So this will require confirmation hearings. This will take some time before this is official. But I'm going to read for you what President Trump put out yesterday afternoon about this after all the media was in a tizzy about what was going on. And the logic seemed to be that he was forced out. And even my analysis here was that it was probably to kind of shift or distract from the attacks that the left was perpetrating against the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. But here's what President Trump had to say. I'm pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States ambassador to the United Nations. From his time in uniform on the battlefield in Congress and as my national security advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our nation's interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role. In the interim, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as National Security Advisor while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department. Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to make America and the world safe again. Thank you for your attention to this matter. So we've learned quite a bit from this. Now we know that this wasn't a firing or an ouster or even him leaving the administration. He's just moving to a different role and he will now have to go through confirmation. Um, there is a very strong role and I think it's important to have a strong individual like Mike Waltz. He is a former green beret has served, uh, has some national security chops. Obviously he was a national security advisor. Now he will fill that role at the UN, which, uh, We were very saddened when Elise Stefanik was not going to be in that role. She's very strong for Israel, a good friend of this broadcast. But we understood also what she was asked to do to remain in the House to kind of keep that majority intact for now. But now we see Mike Waltz moving there. And I think this is an interesting note as well, that Marco Rubio will be the acting national security advisor, or at least an interim position, which makes sense also. He's a secretary of state. National security is very much in what he does as secretary of state. And advising the president on this during the interim time, I think, will go smoothly. There won't be a hiccup. But we will keep you updated as we see what comes next and who that non interim position will be. We'll tell you as well. We've got a great show ahead, folks, as we take a look at this week, all the action the ACLJ has done, even looking at those judges that have been arrested for obstructing or harboring illegal immigrants cases. We've got a lot ahead, but we also thank you if you participated in our April Life and Liberty Drive. We couldn't continue this work without you. It was a critical month, and we appreciate ACLJ members and champions who stood with us during that Life and Liberty Drive. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. Stay tuned, and we'll talk to you after this break.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you, by the way, at 1-800-684-3110. I want you to join us on air because we are going through a lot of great content today. I also want to hear from you. How do you feel about the work of the ACLJ? Do you feel like we are doing the work that you want us to do? What could we do? What topics could we cover? What would you like to see? And also... If you have any good words of encouragement, words of prayer, I'd love to hear from you as well. Of course, we want to start, Will, and break down some of this breaking news with this judge that's facing felony charges in Wisconsin. It almost sounds comical, like we're making light of it. And you're only making light of it because she was caught so quickly and because it happened so fast. And this is what's happening. And there's a bit of ridiculousness that comes from these kind of moments in our society.
SPEAKER 04 :
That's right. So the immigration officials had from an authorized immigration official found probable cause to believe that Flores Ruiz was removable from the United States and issued a warrant for his arrest. So they're going through the process. And upon his arrest, he would be given notice of intent decision to reinstate a prior order, which is removal from the United States because he had been prosecuted. previously deported and then he would have an opportunity to contest the determination by making a written or oral statement to an immigration officer so this wasn't someone that was being picked up in a part of trend de aragua or ms-13 and going to be put on a flight to el salvador this is normal immigration enforcement process so it's not even something that the judge could have a uh an issue with saying you know there's these injunctions against or anything yeah This is normal process of someone who had already been deported and was before her court for very serious criminal charges. And they even make note.
SPEAKER 07 :
Again, not criminal charges that are just immigration related. Right. Actually not immigration related. Offenses within the United States. Violent crime within the United States is the charges that were why he was there in the room.
SPEAKER 04 :
And they even say that when they're going to these courthouse issues, they say this within this charging document, that they don't go to family court issues or civil court issues. They only use the courthouse as the venue when they know someone is there for a criminal charge. So just that fact alone. But they went through the entire process here. The immigration officials talked with the sheriff's department, who's in charge of keeping the courthouse safe. They talked with clerks and administrators at the courthouse to make sure everything was in line. And they also say they do this, especially with criminal offenses many times, where they will pick up someone for arrest. because it's safer for the arresting officers, for the individual, for the people around, because they know that person's coming through security. They're not going to be armed. There's not going to be an issue that could escalate further and cause violence or harm to other people. So this is a routine thing they do when they have the information that someone that they are after, that they have a warrant for, is going to be in the court. Now they went there, they spoke with people at the court, the clerk said, can you please wait to do the arrest until after his case has gone through its hearing? So don't obstruct our state process, let that play out before, and they agreed. So these agents are there, there's people from ICE, there's border patrol, there are FBI agents, and they wait, and then the attorney for this individual goes and tells the judge, there's ICE agents out there. This part is where it turns to the point of absurdity. And they say that she got visibly angry in the courtroom, called the clerk over, and then she went outside and confronted them visibly angry many witnesses said and said you have to go she said do you have a warrant a judicial warrant no i have an administrative warrant which is what a uh an immigration warrant would be and she says no you have to have a judicial warrant to do this here you need to go talk to the chief judge So they say, okay, they're obliging and everything. They are trying to keep this calm and do this by the book. They go to the chief judge's office. One of the agents that was there because they were all plainclothes was not a part of that discussion and was on the other side of the hall. watched her then go look around for other agents to make sure they're all gone goes back in the courtroom confers with the attorney of this defendant takes him through she summons him over takes him through the jury chamber and then directs him, and that's all non-public areas, so they can't do an arrest there. Takes him, gets him through a different exit. Then after they talk to the chief judge, and he says, you may make arrests within the public areas. This is fine. They then go back out. They see him going through another door, very Scooby-Doo, as you mentioned, that was not directly behind that courtroom of Judge Duggan. And then they pursue him in a foot chase and end up catching him. And they have all this very matter of minutes. As you said, it wasn't even successful, but she orchestrated this elaborate distraction. Go talk to the chief judge.
SPEAKER 07 :
By the way, didn't we find out also that the people on the other side of the case, I don't know, the lawyers of the people who were...
SPEAKER 04 :
potentially allegedly beaten including a man and a woman that were beaten by this guy weren't involved in this weren't told right so the lawyer for the defendant was talking having this sidebar with the judge but the lawyer for the state the state's attorney was told none of this and all of a sudden is like where's the defendant and the clerk goes oh the judge has informed me that his proceedings have been adjourned for the day and he's like well why didn't you tell me any of this also the victims are here and the victim advocate was there and still this judge thought she had the authority this arrogance To say, you know what? I don't care about the law anymore. I am going, I don't like what the administration is doing with this immigration stuff. I've already told people if they're scared to come in my courtroom, you don't have to come into court. You can come into Zoom. I am going to subvert the law. That's where people lose faith in our institutions.
SPEAKER 07 :
I want to take this call, Scotty's calling, because I think he's asking the question that certainly I'm asking, which is essentially, why are you risking your life, your career, over someone who is again this is not oh your favorite family man who came over who brought his fam through and they're being deported there's a lot of heart there i understand those you know i understand having a heart for people who need help but when it's talking about somebody who their alleged crime is beating a woman who is his roommate and another man uh this is why risk it all and scotty go ahead
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, just that. What kind of tie...
SPEAKER 07 :
does this judge have with this illegal immigrant whether it's relational or or monetary that she would put her life in jeopardy for this guy doesn't make sense i think it's somewhat it could mean look there's a lot of obviously corruption that goes on but there's obviously the sort of you don't want to say it but the trump derangement syndrome that breaks people down i've seen a lot of good friends get broken down by this and look sometimes i understand it's tough But if you're a judge, a sitting judge in Wisconsin or anywhere in this country, you still have a job to do and you got to do it. And your responsibility as an American isn't to do this.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, and there's a question coming in from YouTube. This is Patrick that asks, how do these people get appointed in the first place? Well, this is a state court. This person's elected. This person is elected by the people of Wisconsin. So she will have a reelection, which we'll see how that plays out if she's even still able to serve as a judge because of a conviction or things of that nature. But that's what you're looking at here. These state court judges are elected by people and then they feel like they have the utmost authority. Now, they do have a lot of authority when it comes to the courtroom and making decisions and interpreting the law. But that doesn't give them the right to take the law into their own hands. This wasn't even some excuse she could come up with that there's an injunction, which we'll talk about those injunctions in the next segment. Yep, absolutely. But there's this injunction in place. And so I was concerned he was going to be put on a plane to El Salvador. No, this was a warrant warrant. That was valid. Someone who'd already been deported and still violated that and came back and she ignored it. You can't ignore the law. That's the famous thing from Letitia James where she said, no one's above the law when going after President Trump. They think that they are above the law. And you know what? You're not. And you can get arrested for that.
SPEAKER 07 :
And that's what happened right now. Look, in one minute, we're going to be back. We're going to take a quick break. When we get back, my dad, Jay Sekulow, is going to be joining us. But in this next minute that we have on the air with you, it's an important time. You may feel like we are amped up right now. It's because we are, because these are some of the biggest days of our year. We need your support right now. It is also a day of thanks for me because I want to tell you, thank you so much for all your support during our life in Liberty Drive. Know how important it is to us that you support the work of the ACLJ during those critical months where my donations were doubled. It really meant the world to us. And now we are able to set our budgets and soldier on, able to continue all the incredible work we're doing here. And whether that's for us, whether that's for your clients, whether that's when you need us, we want to be there for you. So I encourage you, easy way to help, hit that subscribe button if you're watching. If you're brand new to this broadcast, great way to support the work and to stay updated with the truth because hit that subscribe. So if you can't support the work of the ACLJ, I'm just going to read you a few things that we're doing because there's no case too small and no case too large for the ACLJ when we're going to protect your constitutional rights, the precious life of the unborn and your freedoms. We're fighting for right now. These are just a few. A grandmother was told she can't hold a Bible study. A student who was told she can't pray. A preacher arrested for sharing the gospel. A nurse who's being forced to participate in abortions. Pro-life centers are being attacked just for providing hope and life. FBI whistleblowers whose livelihoods were wrecked by the deep state. And a president who was banned from the ballot. That is just what we've done in the last, I don't know, year or less. Some of those are ongoing right now. Give today if you can. at ACLJ.org. We'll be right back with Jay Sekulow. to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you. I want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. We also know a bunch of you are joining us live on YouTube right now, so I encourage you, if you haven't yet, hit that thumbs up. It really does help us get into more people's feeds and get this message out there. My dad, Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel for the ACLJ, is joining us right now. Dad, obviously you and the team have been hard at work, but there are some interesting new cases that are coming out of the ACLJ. We wanted to make sure that we keep everybody updated.
SPEAKER 08 :
We're going to have more detail on this tomorrow on the broadcast, but let me just start. We have, we're going to, we are representing what the state of West Virginia. So the ACLJ is counsel to a state challenging these district court judges that are issuing nationwide injunctions against the executive order signed by president Trump. Now, the problem is, A district court's jurisdiction is supposed to be very narrow, very limited to the locale where they're sitting. That's not the case that has happened now with President Trump. So here's what's going on. There's an emergency stay at the Supreme Court of the United States. We worked on this brief through the weekend and are ready to file it momentarily, hopefully. And it will, in fact, be, I think, the seminal, the key brief on limiting the jurisdictions of these U.S. district courts that are issuing, instead of issuing their injunction covering, say, the Northern District of New York, they issue an injunction covering the entire country, even though they only sit in the jurisdiction for Northern New York. It has to stop. When we talk about law and order, when we talk about separation of powers, what's the president's authority, what's the judiciary's, the one thing the judiciary cannot be is a policymaker. But a lot of these judges have taken that element. And the answer to that at the Supreme Court needs to be, you can't do that. So we are front and center on that. Like I said, very significantly, and you'll have more details on it tomorrow, we are representing the state of West Virginia in this cause of action. We've got a lot of other cases breaking right now, but I want to spend some time on this, Logan, because the implications are very significant.
SPEAKER 07 :
It's a big day and a big case that will come in, like you said, tomorrow. We're going to have my brother Jordan will be on. We're also going to have some friends from West Virginia joining us. So it's going to be a great show. You want to make sure you tune in for that. But Will,
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, this is just obviously this is an issue everyone has been paying attention to and concerned about. But I think it's important to reiterate that at the ACLJ, we watch and we find the appropriate time to file in something like this so that we can make the strongest impact that sometimes we want that immediate. How can we fight back? But this is the example of the ACLJ hard at work. finding the right avenue, the right representation to go after something. That is an issue that I know that our listeners and members at the ACLJ are very, very concerned about. And this happens to be that moment.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, it is, Will. And let me talk to our ACLJ members and our ACLJ champions, especially. Let me tell you this. This case is the repercussions, the reason we've gotten involved so aggressively and so quickly. this case has huge ramifications i mean gigantic ramifications uh when you elect a president they're supposed to be able to work through their executive authorities without a court doing what these courts have been doing and they've been doing it pretty much without stop now the spring court has got this application they've asked for briefings so this is going to it's going to move in days here so i want everybody to understand this but we have to fight back on this because what you have is an unelected judge somewhere in the country the issue with the stroke of a pen in order to stop the administration policy for the entire country. Then you ask yourself, well, why can't they stop that for foreign policy as well? And the answer is, under these judges' interpretation, they have authority to do anything. The answer has to be no. So, you know, it's one thing that the government's fighting it, but now the states are fighting it. And I said we're in a very unique situation, folks. And we are fighting back aggressively. I want to say also something to our ACLJ champions. We couldn't do this without you. We appreciate it so much. Also to our ACLJ members, so continue to support the work of the ACLJ. Maybe you can become an ACLJ champion and we could use your support in a big way. These cases are, look, the one thing you know is these cases are complex and they're different than what we've done in the past because they're moving at a different pace. So we have our Supreme Court team is fully engaged on making sure that we're moving forward on these. Jordan is as well. And I'm very optimistic on where it goes. It's going to take some time. But like I said, the time on this, Logan and Will, is going to be days, not months on this one.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, we'll keep updated on that. That's precisely when you'll hear from people like my dad, my brother, when there is really important, incredible things they need to come on and share. Obviously, Will and I are always going to be sharing the updates on the ACLJ. We're going to have on some of our incredible legal team that's here in studio, you know, Harry Hutchinson or CeCe Heil. We're going to have a lot of those people always on this broadcast. We have great guests coming in. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us a little bit later in the broadcast as well. But know that everyone is hard at work. The ACLJ team is in full action. I think when you have a case like this, Dad, in West Virginia, it can get a little lost in what we're doing. When you look at what we're doing on a local level, like we said, we'll talk about the grandmother who can't hold a Bible study. But on a bigger, bigger scale, the ACLJ can still get involved on these really... world-changing if not just america changing laws that are happening right now as they battle against this administration no you're absolutely right logan and let me let me take it you talk about like the bible study can't happen in an extra way so what if the court rules against us
SPEAKER 08 :
in a case like that, and issues a nationwide injunction banning Bible studies from happening in neighborhoods. Now that sounds absurd, but it's the same principle of when these judges don't have jurisdiction, they think they can, without limits, Do whatever they want. So the answer has to be no, the way you handle this is not is not by just speaking and talking about it, which is important. You have to litigate it. And that's why we're honored to be representing West Virginia. Jordan will be on with you tomorrow to talk more about that, but it applies to any case. So this case involving jurisdiction. is critical to moving things forward we have to win this uh it may take additional briefing we'll see how it goes but like i said it's moving very very quick and we'll keep everybody updated on that look we got two minutes left in this segment and this some some of you lose us here it's the first half hour the show is wrapping up
SPEAKER 07 :
If you feel engaged, empowered, you hear what we're doing here and you want to get involved, you need to do it right now. You just heard from my dad, Jay Sekulow. Later on, you're going to hear from Rick Grinnell, this incredible team that we're able to put together and get hard at work. Because remember the ACLJ, we do this show and we also do incredible amounts of great media content, but we also are on the front lines of the legal battles. I believe those go hand in hand. We have to have support for both. And you need to support both. And when you support the ACLJ, it does that. It supports our media team here. Like I said, if you look just beyond this camera, you'd see dozens of people that are working on this show right now to make sure we're on the air. And of course we have our legal team, some right here in studio, some in Washington, DC and others around the world, some places you don't even get to know about because of how incredible their work is and how brave some of this media team and this legal team is.
SPEAKER 04 :
And so you're seeing a lot of wild things happen. But we're here to protect the rule of law, to the Constitution, to defend it. Because if you can't trust our institutions, if you have rogue judges trying to make policy or rogue judges trying to break the law, people lose faith in those institutions. But not all hope is lost. We are here to fight for the Constitution. the america that we know and love that we can have trust in these institutions the way they're set up the way our founders envisioned so that the justice system is preserved and that people have faith in it that it will work out so we're going to get into all that and more today on seculo and i hope you enjoy the show and we'll talk to you soon in the next segment
SPEAKER 03 :
keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome to Seculo on this Friday. And if you joined us yesterday, you heard us talk a lot about National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who would be departing the White House. And there was some curious language about this because he's Trump's National Security Advisor. He was caught up in the Signalgate kind of scandal that the media was pushing so hard. The White House and some people maybe suggested it was fired, but depart, we thought was kind of a curious word used there. And then as it developed, we now know the reason he's departing. He's not necessarily being fired or forced out. He's moving to a different position. And this is actually a position that requires Senate confirmation. If you'll remember, Elise Stefanik, who was originally nominated to be the ambassador to the United Nations, withdrew her nomination at the request of the president because of the concern about losing another seat in the House. But there was someone who had already resigned from the House. who was in the Trump administration, and that was the National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz. He has now been nominated by the president to be the next ambassador to the UN. So this will require confirmation hearings. This will take some time before this is official. But I'm going to read for you what President Trump put out yesterday afternoon about this after all the media was in a tizzy about what was going on. And the logic seemed to be that he was forced out. And even my analysis here was that it was probably to kind of shift or distract from the attacks that the left was perpetrating against the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. But here's what President Trump had to say. I'm pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States ambassador to the United Nations. From his time in uniform on the battlefield in Congress and as my national security advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our nation's interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role. In the interim, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as National Security Advisor while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department. Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to make America and the world safe again. Thank you for your attention to this matter. So we've learned quite a bit from this. Now we know that this wasn't a firing or an ouster or even him leaving the administration. He's just moving to a different role. And he will now have to go through confirmation. There is a very... strong role, and I think it's important to have a strong individual like Mike Waltz. He's a former Green Beret, has served, has some national security chops. Obviously, he was a national security advisor. Now he will fill that role at the UN, which we were very saddened when Elise Stefanik was not going to be in that role. She's very strong for Israel, a good friend of this broadcast, but we understood also the... what she was asked to do to remain in the House to kind of keep that majority intact for now. But now we see Mike Waltz moving there. And I think this is an interesting note as well, that Marco Rubio will be the acting National Security Advisor, or at least an interim position, which makes sense also. He's a Secretary of State. National Security is very much in what he does as Secretary of State. And advising the president on this during the interim time, I think, will go smoothly. There won't be a hiccup. But we will keep you updated as we see what comes next and who that non-interim position will be. We'll tell you as well. We've got a great show ahead, folks, as we take a look at this week. All the action the ACLJ has done, even looking at those judges that have been arrested recently. for obstructing or harboring illegal immigrants. We've got a lot ahead, but we also thank you if you participated in our April Life and Liberty Drive. We couldn't continue this work without you. It was a critical month, and we appreciate ACLJ members and champions who stood with us during that Life and Liberty Drive. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. Stay tuned, and we'll talk to you after this break.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. Again, it is a packed show. My brother Jordan Sekulow is here, and of course, Will Haines is in studio. Later on, Jeff Balaban, Rick Grinnell. It's going to be packed, so make sure you stay tuned. But now we're joined by a very special guest, one of our good friends, and also happens to be the Attorney General of West Virginia. Now, I'll pitch it to Jordan, because I think, Jordan, you need to set up what we're doing here, and then introduce our guest today.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, people know about this injunction issue. They know it's a huge issue. It involves immigration. It's a huge issue. It involves enforcement by the executive branch of basically carrying out their functions. Usually we're talking about executive agencies and bureaucrats out of control. But now it's our court system. And people, I think, in this first hundred days have said, What are groups going to do? What can West Virginia do? What can the Attorney General do in West Virginia to stop these judges who are issuing orders to affect all of our lives when their jurisdiction is in a district of a state? For instance, in this case, before we go to JB, Maryland, Washington, and Massachusetts are affecting how the federal government is able to carry out its job in West Virginia and nationwide. So let's go to our good friend, J.B. McCuskey. I always like to say this. General McCuskey, this is, I think, was a great example of how your team and our team were able to work together in a matter of days to go before the court to honestly put forward what these issues are really about. And it's about these out-of-control judicial—we talk about judicial activism all the time. We are now seeing it in real time.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I think one of the most interesting parts of this, Jordan, and it was interesting that Logan brought up the confirmation process of district court judges. If we're going to allow district court judges to act like Supreme Court justices, their confirmation proceedings are not going to be like that anymore. And, you know, if you say every president has to appoint, you know, 75 or 100 district court judges. Right. If every single one of them takes three weeks like a Supreme Court justice, we will run out of judges pretty soon. Right. But on a more important note, I mean, I think the point here is. is that district courts are set up under our constitution to resolve issues and controversy that are in front of them. And what they're now doing is they are resolving constitutional issues where there isn't an actual plaintiff. They are resolving questions that are not designed for their courts to be resolving. And it has really dangerous precedent setting It almost doesn't matter the topic. Right. And to be fair, I don't want Republican judges doing this when there's a Democrat president either. Right. The system works beautifully and it works in the way that our framers set it up. And what our office and what we're so grateful for your help in doing is arguing is that district courts need to get back to what it is that they do. And that is resolving issues and controversy with actual plaintiffs in front of them. and leaving the constitutional review that affects every American, not just the Americans that are in their districts, should be left to the Supreme Court.
SPEAKER 04 :
JB, when you look at this, I'm sorry, Attorney General McCuskey, I'm so used to just calling you JB. All right, thanks. When you look at this issue, judges were never meant to be policymakers. And what we have effectively now are... hundreds, if not thousands of potential policymakers in the United States that aren't constitutionally equipped to be policymakers. They're not elected. They don't have a mandate from the people to affect policy on the United States. But we're seeing individuals and you see the percentage. It's like 92% of those that have issued these injunctions against President Trump were appointed by Democrats. you're seeing that they are now carrying out policy of even prior administrations, if you want to take it to that level, by blocking moves that they don't believe, because of their political ideology, should be the policy of the United States. And I think that's what really should hit home with every single American, especially if you did vote for this current president, and even if you didn't, That's not how this works in the United States. And that's one of the main things I think that we, along with the state of West Virginia, are trying to put a stop to.
SPEAKER 05 :
yeah and i think you know there's an important distinction to be made here right we have a supreme court and we have appeals courts for a reason and that is to determine whether the application of the law to a specific instance was done properly and when that application of the law is being done improperly or the law in and of itself is unconstitutional that is a question for a circuit judge or for the supreme court and what we're finding now is that district court judges in the interest of political expediency are overstepping, in my opinion, their bounds and what our brief says also. They're overstepping in order to stop things that they find politically untoward. And that isn't their role. and you know if these things get to the u.s supreme court and those nine judges make a determination that the that these trump executive orders i don't think that's going to happen i'm i'm hopeful it doesn't happen but at least we know that the the the venue was correct to determine whether or not the federal government's actions were constitutional that is that is not in these instances the place of a district court and it is is the place of our circuit courts in our Supreme Court. And they are skipping what is generally the most important step. And the reason why it's so important is that's where you build the record so that the appeals courts can start to understand the totality of the issue and make an informed decision about the policy that they're reviewing.
SPEAKER 06 :
you bring up an interesting point because this is these cases had no trials and when I say trials I mean they weren't fully briefed they weren't fully before the court these were injunctions issued that then can try to what they tried to do is stop the executive branch for carrying out its lawful duties, how they interpret laws that have been passed by your elected officials, by Congress, to empower the executive branch to carry out those laws and a judge in a random district says, I don't agree with the interpretation of the executive branch on how to carry out this law. And just to put into example, this is not normal, JB, 67% of all federal injunctions issued by these courts have been against President Trump that is in the the history of the United States of America 67% and then you have to get into the politics unfortunately we know when we talk about judicial activism politics plays a role 92% of those were issued by Democratic-appointed judges, and you talked about the confirmation process. We want to get back to a place in the United States of America where we aren't politically identifying a district court judge and saying, well, they were appointed by a Democrat, so they're going to be able to stop the President of the United States from carrying out action that officials we elect at the level of Congress, so at your district level, and then at your state level with the Senate, because they don't like the way it's being carried out.
SPEAKER 05 :
or they find a lawyer that they're friends with, or it is a politically... Honestly, I think some of these judges are trying to get famous, and that stinks to say, but I think a lot of these folks love to see their name at the bottom of these rulings because it makes them feel like they are a part of a process that they don't like. The problem is that they've all sworn an oath. They're all lawyers, they're all good lawyers, or they wouldn't be district court judges, right? And there's a level of importance that they end up feeling for issuing these kind of things. But we don't live in a world of fields and we don't live in a world of importance. We live in a world of rules and we live in a world with a constitution. And we cannot allow this piecemeal system to continue or it will completely halt the all executive actions from now on, and it'll hold it for Democrats too, right? We don't want a world where our judges are doing this either. We're looking for a world where these courts have the same function no matter what party the president's in, and the president is allowed to do the things that they're constitutionally asked to in an expedient way. And if those actions do end up crossing a line, We want that process to be heard in the appropriate courts. And that is very clearly the United States Supreme Court. And that is very clearly what's not what's happening now.
SPEAKER 07 :
And that's why we're headed there, JB. And the ACLJ team has been working with you, working with other people to try to figure out what's our best method here, because we see the outpouring of voices from our audience that says this is an issue we care about. We didn't even know judges could do this. And of course, there's obviously the nerves of like you said, What happens when it does go after our smaller cases, our Bible school cases, our Bible study cases, the home churches, all those things that could be easily almost re-weaponized this way. And if you allow, if we allow this to continue on this way, that is why the ACLJ team has to get involved.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, and we have to do it quickly. So we have to have the resources to be able to work with the team in West Virginia and JB's team, the Attorney General of West Virginia, to represent the people of West Virginia. And JB, I think that's an important note. The final question to you is... We are in a state, you are standing up for all of your constituents to say we are not going to be bound in West Virginia by what a judge decides at the district court level in Maryland. It does not make sense. It is not how our founding fathers decided to set up our judiciary. Based off, we could go through a long history there. This is judicial activism at its worst.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. And I mean, I have you know, I live in a state that believes in the Constitution. And so it's easy for me to stand up for my constituents in this way. And thankfully, the way that attorney generals, the way that our offices are set up is that we can represent both our constituents. But we also when we use the proper channels, which we're using. are able to stand up for people outside of our borders as well, because we are challenging the constitutionality of actions in the proper format that was delineated by the Constitution. And we're doing it in sort of an ironic way in this instance to fight against people doing it the opposite way.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, well, JB, thank you for joining us. Time to stand up, everybody. Have you heard about the new case that we are taking on with the state of West Virginia? You heard from JB. We know this is a issue that you have felt really passionate about, and now we have a roadmap, a path. We can't do it without you. If you're watching, we'll be right back with more on Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are jammed right now, but they'll open up at 1-800-684-3110. We're now joined by Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, of course, former Secretary of State. Mike Pompeo, who is joining us right now. And Mike, you have a terrific piece we're going to get into a little bit later on the ACLJ website. But of course, we wanted to kick this off talking about what is going on in Russia and Ukraine. It was someone who's visited. You had over the weekend some meetings between President Trump and Zelensky. And then obviously you had Putin announcing now a three day ceasefire with Ukraine starting May 8th, claiming that is to celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany. So the question is, should America and Ukraine see this as a test for Putin, who is obviously famous for breaking these ceasefires? Is this just another show? I want to get your thoughts.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, look, the connection to World War II shouldn't escape anyone. President Putin has talked about this for a long time. He always rewrites that history, frankly, in the same way he has tried to rewrite the history with the Soviet Union and Ukraine. I do hope that they're closing in on a solution here. I hope that they're going to get the guns to settle down. President Trump has been working diligently. He's got a team that's been working hard on it. But, you know, the American people get the joke. We all want peace. We want there to be no wars. But we're not prepared to surrender 16000 kids that the Russians have taken into their country out of Ukraine. We're not we're not willing to give Vladimir Putin the victory of aggression. And that's the that's the rub. That's why we haven't been able to pull this off in the first couple of months of President Trump's time. And I hope I hope this ceasefire for three days. I hope it lasts three days. He's often announced these fires and then not live it up to them. That's also true for the Ukrainians. They've done the same. But I hope he'll live up to it. And then I hope it can be extended. And I hope the Europeans can step forward, provide the resources necessary for a security arrangement in the aftermath of this aggression from Vladimir Putin, and that we can get a solution that is lasting and long-lived in Europe. And we don't have to deal with these issues of thousands of people being lost lives, innocent civilian lives being lost every month.
SPEAKER 04 :
Mr. Secretary, one of the big pieces to this that's being reported, that a potential peace deal between Ukraine and Russia would involve Crimea remaining under Russian control. Obviously, this is the region that was taken by Vladimir Putin under the Obama administration. Really interesting. When the beginning of this conflict started, if you if you want to kind of pinpoint it, then there was some calm for years. And then when Joe Biden took office was the full fledged attack by the Russians. Where do you think with this this potential carrot that's maybe being dangled by the Russians that will accept this deal? This is kind of our sticking point, though. Where do you think Ukraine would land on this? It kind of seems like a very hard sell for Zelensky, but we know that Zelensky met with the president and the Vatican over the weekend and just kind of wanted to get your thoughts on that. Is it a trick by Russia because they know it's not going to be accepted or what do you make of it?
SPEAKER 02 :
No, I think actually both of these leaders are very serious about Crimea. It is a pivot point strategically. It's got the important Russian access through Sevastopol and the Russian port there into the Black Sea, which leads out into global trading waters. I think both sides really want this. They want the political control that comes with it. So I think this will actually turn out to be the hardest issue to resolve but that's that's what good diplomacy is about there may well be a solution that looks like something that goes back to pre-2014 where the russians still have their access to the port but it is under ukrainian control you can imagine that where the russians claim it the ukrainians claim it in the united states is agnostic you could you could imagine that being a solution i think that's where president trump's head is at um I, for one, think it's really important that the United States not acknowledge Russia owning and controlling Ukraine. That's why I made the statement that I did with President Trump's approval back in 2018. I think we have to try to get that right. But we've got to bring this conflict to an end. And it's very clear that the Russians have military control of that place today. Very difficult to get it back.
SPEAKER 07 :
Secretary Pompeo, I also wanted to pivot a little bit and talk about a piece that you wrote on ACLJ.org called Be Not Afraid. And it really is about having moral clarity, leadership clarity and faith and how it can shape the future. I encourage everyone to go read it. I just did even right before the show just to get myself back familiar with it over as you wrote it. It's really a wonderful piece about sort of that mix of faith, morality and when it comes to leadership in our country and in our world. Obviously, it's talking on the heels of the passing of the Pope. And you also mentioned your time watching and observing the previous Pope, Pope John Paul II. So I just wanted to give you a little bit of time to elaborate on this article and why you think it's important to have that kind of clarity going in to a future.
SPEAKER 02 :
thanks for the question you know this is why i'm so proud to be part of the what the aclj is doing this is right the aclj stands for this exact concept the central thesis that we know good from evil we know right from wrong we know decent people from the inhuman and what i talked about in that piece was the importance of those of us who are of faith to never walk away from that faith, to always maintain our faith and to try to live our lives that way. And when we lead, when we have institutions for which we're responsible or trying to interact with others in the world, make sure that they understand with absolute clarity the moral principles that we have. It's not that from time to time there aren't practicalities that appear in the world. There are. You know, talk about what this pope had done, allowing the Chinese Communist Party to select the bishops in China. I just think they didn't do everything they could have to speak with the power of the Catholic Church in a way that would protect the human dignity of the worshipers inside of China. And so I always try to do that in my public life, and I hope each of us in our current walks will do the same. Try to live with that moral clarity that we all know is the right thing to do.
SPEAKER 04 :
quick final question here. Over the weekend, there was a massive explosion at an Iranian port that just so happened to be coming from fuel that would fuel Iranian ballistic missiles. The Iranians are claiming it was an accident, that it was caused by someone on the ground there. Many people died and were injured in this, but always has that lingering question in the back of your head. Could it have been some sabotage? Just want to get your take on this real quick.
SPEAKER 02 :
Easy answers. It could definitely have been some sabotage. I don't know that. I'm not suggesting that it was. There are also chemical accidents that happen all across the world almost every day at some level. So it could have been either. But two things are certain. One, it's great that they're not going to have this fuel for their missile program. And the second is, I think this does tell us a lot about the Iranians and their efforts as we are now engaged in negotiations with the Iranian leadership. These folks are diligently working to build out not only the nuclear weapons, but the missile capability, that is the ability to deliver those weapons not only into the Middle East, but more broadly. And so great caution is required in those negotiations.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you so much, Secretary Pompeo, for joining us today. Hey, everyone who's watching right now, I do encourage you to go read that new article on ACLJ.org. And while you're there, it's a great time to support the work and we appreciate all the support. And of course, you continue to support if you'd like. But again, I just wanted to say thank you. And again, say a prayer for our team at the ACLJ. If you'd like to get our prayer guide, we have a prayer guide that our team puts out. Go to aclj.org slash pray. It's a free prayer guide that will lead you through some prayers about some of our top issues.
SPEAKER 04 :
We get involved both in local matters, such as people who can't hold a Bible study or or people that are harassed by the police or arrested even, incited for sharing the gospel, or if they are just protesting abortion, standing up for life, but as well as representing the state of West Virginia, the Supreme Court, with that brief, trying to put an end to these nationwide injunctions by district courts. All that work is possible because of your support. It is also...
SPEAKER 07 :
A day of thanks for me because I want to tell you thank you so much for all your support during our life at Liberty Drive. Know how important it is to us that you support the work of the ACLJ during those critical months where my donations were doubled. It really meant the world to us. And now we are able to set our budgets and soldier on, able to continue all the incredible work we're doing here. And whether that's for us, whether that's for your clients, whether that's when you need us, we want to be there for you. So I encourage you, easy way to help, hit that subscribe button if you're watching. If you're brand new to this broadcast, great way to support the work and to stay updated with the truth. Just hit that subscribe. We'll talk to you next week.
John Rush is back from vacation and ready to tackle major news in the world of food manufacturing. With guests Dr. Kelly Victory and Steve House, the panel discusses how PepsiCo and other major brands are responding to health concerns by removing synthetic food dyes. They touch on the psychological implications and the potential for reshaping dietary habits across the nation. Join the discussion on the significant shift towards natural ingredients and its potential long-term benefits for generations to come.
SPEAKER 14 :
This is Rush to Reason. 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. With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 12 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did. Get a job first.
SPEAKER 03 :
You haven't made everybody equal. You've made them the same, and there's a big difference.
SPEAKER 09 :
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 05 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 15 :
It's Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right. Happy Thursday. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Back from vacation. Appreciate Andy and a lot of others filling in for me while I was gone. Dr. Scott and others, I appreciate it very much. But we've got Dr. Kelly Victory with us today as well as Steve House. Dr. Kelly, how are you?
SPEAKER 03 :
I'm doing great. I hope you had a good vacation. Happy to be back together. I certainly am feeling very good about the celebration of the first 100 days of this administration. And I hope you are, too.
SPEAKER 13 :
You know, it's always good to get away. Always good to come back. And, you know, I don't keep up on the news as much as I probably should while I'm gone. But there's probably a reason for that kind of gets my sanity back. But, yes, I agree with you fully. Steve, welcome as well.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I mean, I'm not so sure I believe that statement that it's always good to be back, John. I mean, you were in Hawaii, for God's sake. I mean, who's happy to be back from there?
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, that's a place I could live pretty easily. Other than their politics and the way they handle things stinks. I don't know if I could do that part of it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, that's true. There has been that. You know, Mazie Hirono is still out there. Maybe you could go and run against him.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, there you go. There you go. Although, you know, not to get off track, but in some of this, we'll come back to probably some political things here locally as well. But, you know, Steve, on the same token, Dr. Kelly, you know this as well. Colorado's not far behind.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, yeah, no question. Colorado has lost its way. It's gone the way of California and Hawaii. It used to be, when I first moved there, really a ranching agricultural state. Now it's been taken over by the progressive liberals that run places like Denver, and it's almost unrecognizable.
SPEAKER 13 :
No, you are 100% correct. All right, moving on to some things that are newsworthy, and we'll get into the first 100 days and kind of get some recap of some of that as well. But before we do that, I was reading. We didn't send this back and forth to each other, and I was going to, and I figured, well, I'll just bring it up, and we'll talk about it. PepsiCo, which for all of you that listen, maybe you don't know, but PepsiCo isn't just – Pepsi, there's a lot of other things that they make and own as well, like Lays and Tostitos and so on. And Dr. Kelly, I'll start with you. They have already agreed to start removing some artificial ingredients in a lot of their popular food items by the end of this year.
SPEAKER 03 :
And this is great news. And kudos to Bobby Kennedy Jr. for driving this initiative. I think companies like PepsiCo, Frito-Lay, those companies are going to have to fall into line if they want to maintain any market share. Certainly, they will not be allowed to participate in federally funded school lunch programs, for example, if they don't. And I think they know it's a very unpopular position to be continuing to add foods that have been identified as potentially poisonous to foods that are being consumed by any American and certainly by our children. So this includes not only artificial dyes, the vast majority of which are petroleum based. Just think about that. Right. petroleum on a regular basis when you're eating your Skittles or your M&Ms or your Doritos or whatever else it is. There is nothing in nature, by the way, that is that color orange of a Dorito. So when you're eating a Cheeto or a Dorito, just be aware that there's nothing that occurs in nature that is that color. So I think this is great news.
SPEAKER 13 :
Steve, and on the marketing end of things, and I agree with Dr. Kelly, I mean, yes, I'll give them a hand. On the same token, I believe this is really, you know, this is the opposite of Bud Light marketing, Steve. This is what you should be doing as a company and be ahead of all of your competitors and be able to, you know, leverage off of that. They can now start talking about, yeah, we were one of the first to do these things, and that's a huge marketing ploy on their part.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. By the way, Kelly, I think there are things in nature that are that color orange, but they've had to go through significant decay and decomposition to get to that color. True. But here's the thing. I'm serious. First of all, if you think about all those things where a McDonald's hamburger on a shelf for nine years doesn't mold, what do you take out? What's left in Pepsi? What's left in some of these products, number one? And number two, the bigger concern I have, And we were talking a little bit about mental health and, you know, post-COVID stuff. Did you take out not just dyes, but you take out some of the other stuff that's in these processed foods? Are we going to see people who get depressed because they're not getting satisfied by the foods or anything? They don't like the taste. They're having to move to things they don't really like. I mean, eventually your taste buds will adjust. But, I mean, there could be a crisis of, you know, people just being addicted to processed foods and then dragging them out of that.
SPEAKER 13 :
So I want to read this really quick to Dr. Kelly, because you can probably talk more about this intelligently and from the scientific end of things than I can. So they are initiating the process to revoke authorization for two synthetic food coloring, citrus red number two, orange B, within the coming months and working with the industry to eliminate six remaining synthetic dyes. FD&C green number three, FD&C red number 40, FD&C yellow number five, FD&C yellow number six. FD&C Blue No. 1 and FD&C Blue No. 2, and they want to eliminate those from the food supply by the end of next year.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. And as I said, I think that that's a great place to start. As Steve said, the list is quite extensive and one wonders what will be left after you've removed it all. That said, we have got to get back to eating far less processed foods. And what that means, unfortunately, is that the shelf life will be less. You have right now a product that we consider to be, you know, pastries, whether it's a Pop-Tart or a Twinkie that has a shelf life of like four years. And in order to do that, you have to add a tremendous number of artificial ingredients, preservatives and other items that allow it to be shelf stable. The types of fats, for example, that are being used are in order to make it not only less expensively, but to increase the longevity of these items. we are going to have to change the way we live. When Bird's Eye first started back in the 1940s with frozen foods, it was a convenience issue for women who were going back into the workforce or going into the workforce for the first time following the war. So frozen foods were a relatively brand new thing there. The idea of having a frozen entree or a frozen vegetable or a frozen side dish that you could easily and conveniently take out and get on the table to feed your family after you worked. Now it has become that the vast majority of Americans eat nothing but that. They don't ever make a homemade vegetable or a homemade whatever entree. They're always buying these hyper-processed foods. So it is going to change the way that we live, I think, for the better if people spend more time coming home and preparing a meal and cooking together and doing that. And we have to go to the grocery store a little more often because things don't last in the pantry for six or eight months or longer.
SPEAKER 04 :
Or longer, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, but I honestly believe that it's going to be in the best interest of all Americans and certainly the health and welfare of our children.
SPEAKER 13 :
Steve, your thoughts on all of that, and I agree with you, and I appreciate what you said initially because I've had some of the same questions in my mind. It's like, okay, when a society is, for a lot of, let's say it how it is, addicted to certain things, and in the case of a lot of what PepsiCo and others put out, there is an addictiveness going on. When they make these changes, how will that affect society in America?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. I mean, people could end up with headaches and depression and all kinds of good things. It's still got to be done though. I mean, I find it interesting. First of all, the shelf life of a Pop-Tart when I was growing up with five brothers and sisters was measured in seconds, not in months and years because everybody loved the taste of them. But in reality, you know, I was just going through, and this may be a name you've heard, V Shred, which is a guy that, you know, is on a lot of commercials, right? And looking at his diet, Dr. Drew, I think went through this process and When you really look at the carb cycling diet, not doing keto, but this is more like what you should eat every day, how you get your sugars, your carbs, and how you get your proteins, you need more carbs than you think. When you look at that and you go, you know what, if we're going to convert away from processed foods, We've got to be able to go to something like that because I actually enjoy the diet. I enjoy eating what they have on the schedule, and it makes sense. But it's going to be painful for a while because there's a lot of people who eat a lot of Doritos and chips and candies. And I ran into a guy the other day in the dentist's office who was 93 years old where his dentist said to him, you have two really bad teeth. And he said, I'm afraid you're going to have to give up M&M's. And this guy literally went to the dentist and said, Doc, when M&Ms came out, the very first bags that hit the stores, that's when I started. Wow. Do you want me to give it up? I'm like, well, at 90-something, you might not. But, I mean, the reality of it is that there's some people who have been living on this stuff for a long, long time. It's not going to be simple.
SPEAKER 13 :
No, and you brought up something earlier, and again, Dr. Kelly, I don't know if anybody knows the exact answers as to how society is going to react, I guess is the way to say this. I don't think it'll be, you know, response is positive, react is a negative. I don't know how they're going to react, but I've got to agree with Steve. I think there's going to be some folks that are frankly going to be at their wits' end when some of this stuff gets taken away.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, there's no question. We are going to have to retrain our taste buds. So as I was intimating, not only are you going to have to change your lifestyle in terms of the frequency with which you go to the grocery store, how much time you spend in meal prep, but it is going to be a retraining period for your taste buds. It's remarkable to me how many people do not even appreciate the natural sweetness, for example, of a strawberry or of a piece of fruit because we are so used to decoying sweetness of things that have added sugar. I remember once giving one of my nieces regular natural peanut butter, meaning ground peanuts and salt. That's all it was, ground peanuts. And they didn't like the taste of it because it doesn't taste like Skippy or Jif because all those peanut butters have gobs of corn syrup in it. They have all this added sugar. So people don't appreciate the actual taste of the native food by itself without the adulterous. So, yes, it's going to take a while. It's going to be a retraining. And for all I know, we may still allow some of these products to be available, but people may have to pay a heck of a lot more to buy them.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, or what if, Dr. Kelly, really quick, Dr. Kelly and Steve, I want you to chime in on this as well, especially when it comes to the kids. And a lot of what you just mentioned, by the way, I think we've got generations, plural, of course, multiple generations that are hooked on this stuff. But you start looking at the younger generations. We've talked about childhood obesity on this program and this hour. in the past and i gotta believe this will have a positive effect once you can get some of these kids to actually switch my point dr kelly is i don't want to be some of these parents that are then going to have to go through some of this because the reality is there's going to be a lot of unhappy kids
SPEAKER 03 :
I agree, but it's one of those, you know, it's not like we're feeding them castor oil or cod liver oil.
SPEAKER 13 :
But Dr. Kelly, some of these kids have never tasted actual, and sorry for saying it this way, some of these kids have never tasted actual food.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, I agree with you. And it's interesting because I honestly, on a regular basis, when I was practicing full-time in the emergency department, not a week would go by that a mother wouldn't come in with a child with a bottle with a nipple on it filled with Coca-Cola or Pepsi. And I would say, what in the world is in that bottle? This child is trying to develop his first teeth. And they'd say, well, he won't drink milk or he won't drink water. He'll only drink Coke. And I'd say, give that child to me for a week.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Trust me, that child will drink water. Great point. Let me tell you something. If you don't put the Coca-Cola in the bottle and you put water in the bottle, trust me, that child will drink water in less than 24 hours. It will be a remarkable conversion.
SPEAKER 13 :
Amen. Steve, your comments on all that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, you know, my question was going to be kind of a direct question to Kelly, which is, has there ever been a study – That shows, and I'll use pizza as an example. I rarely ever get pizza. But when I do eat pizza, I get excited about eating it. I'm anticipating it. I eat it. I feel good when I'm eating it. Is there a dopamine effect? Is there some physiological effect you get?
SPEAKER 03 :
of certain kinds of foods that aren't good for you because of your anticipation for the taste and you're used to eating it you know even if it's a little bit rare maybe some eat every day i'm not sure oh there's no question there's a there's a dopamine effect and there's a you know there's that feel good runner's high feeling that people get uh in some with some foods it's very actually healthy uh dark chocolate for example has that effect has actually an endorphin type effect But there's no question that there is overlap, Steve, in terms of the pleasure receptors in the brain, things that drive desire, drive cravings, that there's an overlap between things, you know, between drugs, alcohol, sex, things that there is an overlap there. And people do. There's no question that people do. feel good and that some people in particular crave for example sugar because they get that pleasure sensation from eating sugar even when they they are eating beyond when they are hungry the kind of thing where you eat so much that you feel sick because you ate so much sugar but it it triggers that sort of feel-good part of your brain. There are people doing studies on using low-dose naltrexone, a drug that's been used to help people with opiate addiction, to help people get off both sugar and off of alcohol because it blocks that pleasure receptor and makes it so that you just don't really get the high when you eat the sugar, and therefore you say, well, it's not worth it. If I'm not getting the buzz, then I won't bother eating the M&M's.
SPEAKER 13 :
Interesting. All right, great segue, guys. Hang tight. Questions, send them in. 307-200-8222. We'll be right back. Dr. Scott Faulkner is up next. Scott hosted yesterday, by the way, which I want to say a special thanks for him in doing so. I appreciate him filling in for health and wellness on that Wednesday. If you need him, though, 303-663-6990.
SPEAKER 06 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
No liberal media bias here. This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Dr. Kelly, victory. Steve House with us as well today. Okay, let's move into, because I think we've got enough time to do this, might even throw something else in here. But I wanted to make sure we had time to cover this. And Steve, you had sent out something I've not had a chance to read and or listen to this particular book, but I will. And so I'll start with you. You sent out something to Dr. Kelly and I about the indoctrinated brain. Talk about that particular book.
SPEAKER 05 :
It's written by a doctor, and, you know, it kind of goes over, you know, I haven't finished it entirely. Kelly, I know you have read it, but here's the concern that you run into with this, and that is, you know, COVID was kind of a pre-designed, planned invasion of our minds and, you know, our lives. You know, I mean, you know, they knew that a pandemic itself, I mean, they're still talking about another pandemic. I guess there's a lot of words about bird flu now, but essentially what happens, John, is that When you make people afraid, afraid of something, right? I mean, we couldn't see COVID. We could see the effects of it. When you make people afraid of it, you know, there's a saying they have in there that says something like, you know, if you're weak, you seek the we, right? You know, a weak, you know, you is going to seek the we, the strong we, right? So I'm going to find myself two groups. that believe in something that I can attach myself, which quite frankly was probably, you know, vaccinated people. I mean, some of the things that people did and said about vaccinated and unvaccinated is so far out of the normal character that you know that it was a psychosis that was being created by what they were doing. And quite frankly, there's an intention, I believe, on the Great Reset to take it all the way to 2030. and keep pushing people on this issue of fear and the government's the savior and all this other stuff, and people are really adapting to it because they're doing things they shouldn't do. For example, and then I'll let Kelly comment on this, for me, I think there's an irrational fear of the IRS. We live in a country where taxation without representation is the reason why we were founded. You know, people are scared to death of the IRS, right? They're watching what's happening with Doge and all this money and then the audits and the DOD, and they're still paying their taxes. And I'm not advocating, you know, that you do anything that you don't want to do, but why do we have so much fear about so many things surrounding the government? And that's by design, in my belief. And this book, from what I've done so far, indicates to me that there's a lot of depth to the idea that COVID was designed, built, and implemented just to create this mental fear challenge in people across the globe so that we could be manipulated.
SPEAKER 13 :
Dr. Kelly, your thoughts, and we've talked a little bit about some of this all the way through, you know, clear back to where you started with us in 2020. We've kind of brushed across this numerous times, but I was not aware of this book until Steve sent it to me.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and there's a lot of overlap between the premise of this book, The Indoctrinated Mind, and Matthias Desmet's concept of mass formation psychosis and an area of expertise of mine, which is mob mentality. There's a lot of overlap. What you're talking about is taking people who, in and of themselves, by themselves, left to their own devices, would not have the backbone or the wherewithal or the courage to stand up and fight, but together in a group when they have identified or have been led by the government, for example, to identify individuals a common foe. Back in Nazi Germany, it was the Jews. During COVID, it was the unvaccinated or the people who didn't wear masks. When they get people to rally around the idea of a common foe, you get people to all of a sudden develop great courage when they are in the mob, when they are part of the masses, when they feel that they are part of the majority, when they are the moral right. And they do things, say things and act in ways in which they would never otherwise do. And it's very scary because there's nothing more dangerous, frankly, than the mob. Honestly, really nothing. And what we saw during, although Matthias Desmet renamed it, you know, mass formation psychosis. and this book by Dr. Niels lays it out as the indoctrinated mind, what you are talking about is getting people to act sometimes very immorally, very unethically, because they feel empowered by the idea that they have others behind them. And you watch it. Look at what happened with the Antifa riots. Those people are literally faceless. They covered their faces with masks, yet they will do things that are absolutely abhorrent as a mob, and they feel that they are somehow justified in doing it because they have identified a common foe, and they are fighting together. And in general, these people left to their own are weak, gutless wonders in general.
SPEAKER 13 :
Okay, so question. Steve, I'll go ahead. I've got a question for you, but go ahead, Steve.
SPEAKER 05 :
Not only is that accurate in what Kelly's saying, I think the issue is where's the tipping point? Because if you're trying to force people into these 15-minute cities and all the other stuff that we've seen in this Great Reset, at what point do you have enough people that if you're in the minority and unvaccinated are clearly in the minority right now, at what point is the tipping point such that you have a hard time surviving it not being part of the mob? Great point.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, it's a very good point. And I think that, frankly, it's why that, you know, to a person, the people who did stand up, the unvaccinated, those of us who didn't do it are really pretty strong people where people are very much our convictions and saying, I will die on this bill. You know, I will not. I will not fall prey to this. They're people who are critical thinkers and are able to stand up. They're people who do not give in to mob mentality. They don't give in to social pressures. They are not the people who have ever been pushed around or bullied. And frankly, although we are a minority, I think it's a very strong, it's the group of people who are really strong and able to ascend to leadership roles. So it becomes difficult. But I think at this point, we are far enough out with regard to that vaccine issue with COVID that I don't see the people who, you know, if you made it this long without getting vaccinated, I don't see anybody folded at this point.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right, I'm going to go back to my question to Steve that really dovetails into, Dr. Kelly, a lot of what you just said a moment ago so you can follow up with Steve. And that question that I have is, okay, then given the indoctrinated brain and so on, how then are there certain individuals like the three of us, I'll even throw Charlie into this, so the four of us, How are there individuals like us that really, I'll be honest, Steve, for my entire life, I always looked at groupthink and even some mob-type mentality and always questioned, okay, wait a minute, yeah, I get it, everybody's going that direction, but is that really... the right direction. I guess I've always been one of those individuals, even from a young boy, where I would look at certain things and say, is that really the right thing to be doing and the right way to go? Now, the question I've got, is that nature? Is that nurture? Is that the family I was raised in? You know, was that because of my dad and even a church upbringing and so on? I mean, where does that come from? Or is that just something that's intrinsic in certain people?
SPEAKER 05 :
I think it's a bit of all of it, John. Let me just give you a couple quick examples. I mean, you know, there have been experiments, right? MKUltra is out there publicly now and what it was. I mean, they did the coffee cup experiment where they exposed 50 people to a subliminal message. 40 of them brought the same coffee cup in next week. The next day, having never heard it in an audible tone and 10 did not. You know, what was it about those 10? Well, the difference is you are a critical thinker. Most people are critical thinkers. But part of what, you know, the doctor talks about in this book is that when you use fear and I mean, you really make people afraid for some, they'll lose their critical thinking skills. They're too weak, as Kelly said, and they want to run to the mob, and they want to be part of it because they don't want to think their way through. They don't want to think about the risk. What if I don't file a tax return? What if I don't follow the government? What if I don't take a vaccine? So some of it's probably just your genetic critical thinking skill set. The other is how you were brought up. I mean, people might have encouraged you to take risks, but we've gotten to the point where you can't take risks. I mean, people aren't taking risk without the repercussions for society and social media. Social media is a big factor, right? Because you take any risk at all, you put something out there and somebody starts to tell you that you're an idiot, people get fear that they're going to be looked at a certain way and they lose those critical thinking skills. And we've lost a lot of it.
SPEAKER 13 :
Dr. Kelly, again, I've always wondered that same thing. I like Steve's explanation. And it's always that question even when it comes to leaders. Are leaders born or are they made or is it a combination of the two?
SPEAKER 03 :
I think it's a combination of the two. There's no question you can train leadership skills. Some people are natural born leaders. They just ascend to that. They have a, you know, a personality type that just allows them to they're confident uh it may be you know partly by how they were brought up but some people are clearly uh born leaders other people you can train you know i teach a course on leadership in times of crisis you can train leadership skills you can train people to have self-awareness you can train people to be better communicators so some of it is absolutely trainable so i think it's i think there's a combination things. There's no question in my mind that Steve's correct. We have lost so much of our critical thinking skills. I credit, unfortunately, social media and the spoon-feeding that has happened to us over these last decades as part of that. Everything is easy. It's a click of a mouse, and it's just spoon-fed to you. Back in the days when I had to go get the encyclopedia off the shelf, look it up, If I asked my parents a question, my dad would say, well, go get the dictionary or go get the encyclopedia and look it up.
SPEAKER 13 :
True.
SPEAKER 03 :
When's the last time? I bet you I'm gathering anybody under the age of 20 doesn't know what an encyclopedia is.
SPEAKER 13 :
No.
SPEAKER 03 :
Let alone ever. No, it's called Mr. Google. Yeah. Correct. And so you don't develop critical thinking skills if you don't ever have to look for the answer, if it is automatically handed to you. And when I say look for it, you need to know what to search. You need to know. To look up something in an encyclopedia, you've got to be able to spell. Right. Good point. Good point.
SPEAKER 13 :
You know, really quick back then, Dr. Kelly, you needed to know even which volume to go to to begin with to even find where the other volume you needed was at. So, in other words, to your point, you had to know some basic lookup skills. And the Internet, I know, has solved a lot of that for us, but it's made us lazy as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I don't think it's soldier. I think it is. It is eradicated critical thinking skills. It is stultified certain areas of people's brains. Your average kid can't spell, can't punctuate, uses horrible grammar. They don't know any of these things. They cannot do basic math because they have a calculator and are allowed to use it. They don't know how to look anything up. I appreciated what I learned. You don't understand how important the skills were of going to a library, going to the card catalog and using the Dewey Decimal System and having to go and find a book on a shelf based on those numbers. That is a training of a part of your brain that is now entirely lost. And you can't replicate it by, you know, a video game.
SPEAKER 13 :
Good point. Steve, I remember, you know, going back to my automotive side, a lot of what Kelly just said a moment ago I can relate to back to when you used to have to look up things for cars originally in books, and then it went to the microfiche. system, which, by the way, most kids today would not have the first clue as to how to use microfiche and how all that worked. And I will tell you, you know, early on being very young and learning some of that was extremely frustrating. But to your point, Steve and Kelly, you learned that, which made you a better person when it was all said and done.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, no doubt about it. I think it also started, it started back when everybody got a trophy, right? So it was one of those areas where the theory was everybody wins today. Well, actually nobody won that day. Right. Nobody had to work harder because you knew, and that's the mob mentality too. It's like, okay, so if you do have somebody break out and actually win, you know, clearly win, then they get ostracized on social media. And, you know, if the issue with, you know, transgendered women playing women's sports, Everybody wants to go, look, you've got to be fair. You can't upset people. You've got to do this. It's like, you know what? Fair and ethical and moral are very clear concepts. And you try to distort them because you don't want the mob to go against you. And it's really, really bad. And I think that this book and the one Kelly was referring to as well, they're really illustrating where we're going. And I do think that we are nowhere near done with this because we've lost so much of the critical thinking.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right, we'll come back with more on that. I've got a couple more questions for you guys as well. So hang tight, guys. Questions for us as well. 307-200-8222. Golden Eagle Financial coming up next. Al Smith, who wants to help you with your financial future and the planning of and really teaching you the tools, giving you the tools necessary to achieve that. 303-744-1128.
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SPEAKER 13 :
And we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Myself, Dr. Kelly Victory, Steve House. Okay, so Dr. Kelly, I want to jump to you again, going back to this, the indoctrinated brain. And again, we've got a lot of folks out there listening that have kids. They've got grandkids. They know of other families maybe that might even have some influence on kids. How would you, Dr. Kelly, not only we were talking earlier about taking dyes out and how that's going to affect young kids and so on, now we're talking about how do we teach kids to be critical thinkers and so on. And let's face it, the school system, the general public school system is not going to help us in those areas. So what would you do to help kids learn, A, not only how to eat right, but also how to think right?
SPEAKER 03 :
Honestly, I think you need to start, number one, backing them away from the social media, the iPad, the phone, the computer and the television. We need to go back to kids being creative. You know, honestly, coloring books. Little kids don't need an iPad on an airplane. They need a coloring book and crayons. OK, they need to learn. Creativity is fostered. It's something that will die out if you don't use it. It's like any other muscle. Kids need to go back to playing with kids. Toys that don't require batteries. My father used to say that we weren't allowed to have toys that had batteries. He said, children are batteries. You are a battery. You are a little energy source. Now, kids don't only have things with batteries. Every single thing is automated. It requires almost no sort of creativity, let alone critical thinking. So I think it's going back to playing things like board games. Get out the board games after dinner. Get out a Scrabble board. Get out a Monopoly game. You know, teach kids about, you know, how to count out the denominations of dollars. You know, a six-year-old can learn. They can do that quite easily.
SPEAKER 13 :
How to earn boardwalk.
SPEAKER 03 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 13 :
What is the strategy behind that, by the way? And all those things, absolutely.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, all of those things. So it's going back. I would encourage people to put down that stuff, play cards, whether it's Go Fish or Little Kids. That's how they learn things. Good point. It's so much easier, no question, to give your child an iPad, to plunk them in front of the television. and to give in to that because it's what will make them happy in the immediate time. But you will get so much more out of it if you will sit down as a family with a board game, with a book, and do those sorts of things. Remember games like Twister? Remember those sorts of games where we actually were physical? Those are the kinds of things that actually teach kids critical thinking skills.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, Dr. Kelly, can't disagree with you on anything you said. Steve, one of the things I loved as a kid was Lincoln logs and erector sets, because a lot of what Dr. Kelly just said, you had to figure a lot of that stuff out yourself and what you were going to build with the pieces you had in front of you, meaning you had to be critical thinking as to what you were going to do.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, quite frankly, in my growing up, you know, being around farms, I mean, we had to create things and invent things, right? I mean, sometimes if the, you know, the baler broke and you had to find a way to get it past that point to get the hay baled, you know, those are interesting things. We had erector sets too. There's a stat out there, I think, that says today that you have your highest level of creativities when you're about three years old, four years old, and you lose 88% of it by the time you're 18. And that's because of the way we teach school. Think about the Montessori concept, right? What did the Montessori folks do? They put you into school and said, go explore. Follow your pathway and what you want to explore. Experiment. And they learned that way. I mean, there's all kinds of ways that we've killed the creativity, the innovation, the seeking of...
SPEAKER 13 :
new knowledge and ideas and and the system has made that made us do that and i think it's part of us sort of america for sure no and and to dovetail into that dr kell you can chime in on this once you once i get steve's answer because steve i think you're going to agree with me i think killing small business and going all big business has happened even in the farm uh end of things you just mentioned a moment ago and what i mean by that and you you know firsthand steve when you are In a family business, typically, I know not always, but at least it was for me. When you grow up in a family business, to your point a moment ago of figuring things out and having to make things work at times, even financially speaking, you learn all sorts of things in a family business that, frankly, when you're not in one, you don't learn.
SPEAKER 05 :
No, you're absolutely right. I mean, think about some of the things that have happened even since COVID. I mean, I used to enjoy going to the tattered cover in Denver, grabbing a coffee. You know, you'd run into people, you'd sit and read and you'd talk. Now, you know, kids go to a Starbucks and they're all on their phones and they're texting each other from three feet away. You know, we don't interact well with each other. We don't really bond with each other. We don't have group projects. It's hard to do that when everything is remote. I mean, just it's hurting us at work, at school and everywhere.
SPEAKER 13 :
Dr. Kelly, your thoughts, especially on what I said a moment ago about the whole small business end of things. And I just, as you know, I've got a heart for small business. I've been a small business owner since I was a very young man. And I guess even going further back, had a paper route when I was, you know, nine and ten. So I guess I even had one at that point in time. And the reality is we don't, in fact, we discourage that anymore.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, there's no question. And the point is, though, you can reinitiate some of these things. Obviously, if somebody saying, well, yeah, but I don't own a small business or I don't live on a farm or I don't know. So how am I going to do that? It's small changes. You don't have to go. OK, just make a commitment that you're going to institute a few small changes. For example, it's very easy to say we are no longer going to have our cell phones at the dinner table, people. You know, so you can have your cell phone before dinner. You can have it after dinner. But for the 45 minutes we are sitting here as a family eating dinner, there will be no cell phones. We are actually going to talk. When I was a child, I have six brothers and sisters. We obviously this is way before cell phones. But every single night we sat down at the dinner and we played what we called Rosebud Thorn. We had to go around the table and every single person, whether you were the six-year-old or my dad, you had to say, what happened that day that was a rose? What was a good thing that happened to you that was your rose? What was a bud? What was something that you were looking forward to happening in the next coming days? And what was your thorn for the day? What was the thing that was tough for you? And it might have been something simple like, you know, I had tough time with the test or that I fell on the way to whatever it was. But it forced you to stay in front of your siblings to articulate things about your day and to share with others. We have lost that. That ability. People don't do it anymore. I got to hear as a young child about every day something about my dad's day as a lawyer at work. I got to hear his rose, his bud, and his thorn every day. And same thing with my mom. She shared hers. And those... Small changes make a huge difference. And it's not just in the lives of children. It's in the lives of the adults as well who have lost the same critical thinking skills.
SPEAKER 13 :
Steve, I've said it on air many times. I get criticized at times for saying this, but I also feel like. We live in a generation where everybody is so worried about their kids doing things out on their own, even before they're 16, 17 years of age where they can drive, that we're keeping these kids so sheltered that, frankly, I think we live in one of the safest times ever. I mean, when I was a kid, there weren't any electronic trackers. You didn't have a cell phone. If you got into trouble, you had to find the local pay phone and figure out a way, and hopefully you had a dime or a quarter with you where you could actually make ends meet when it was all said and done. The reality, Steve, is... Our kids today have the ability to, quote, unquote, be more safe than ever, and yet we shelter them more today than we ever have.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, you would think that, I mean, I remember, you know, my own children and even my own upbringing. the fact that you didn't have those safety nets, you were a little bit more cautious. I mean, we weren't cautious when we were on a dirt road growing up in the middle of nowhere, but generally speaking, if you were in a city, you were a bit more cautious. But then again, you also didn't have, you know, you didn't have the same sex trafficking and all the other stuff that goes on. You didn't have, people couldn't lure you into bad situations quite as easily as you can today with all the things that go on. So yeah, it's, And then again, if you were, you know, around in 1850, 1875, you know, people were still getting shot on the street every day. True. I don't know if it's any safer then or if it was any safer now than it was then.
SPEAKER 13 :
True.
SPEAKER 05 :
There's a lot of different things that go into that.
SPEAKER 13 :
And again, Dr. Kelly, I am by no means telling people to just let their kids run around willy-nilly without any kind of, you know, you know, wherewithal in what they're doing and where they're at and so on. In fact, I think at times we rely so much on the electronic devices, to your point earlier, we kind of forget to be parents. And I mean that sincerely, and I travel quite often, and I see how parents interact with kids a lot and so on. So I think I can say firsthand that everything you said is pretty much spot on. And yet, yet, with all of that, we still shelter them to the point where they can't think critically.
SPEAKER 03 :
There's no question. I've talked about this over and over again. In fact, I'm writing a book on the topic called Protected to Death. We are trying to de-risk all of life for our children. We don't allow them to fail. We don't allow them to suffer any negative emotion, rejection, failure, loss, defeat. Because, and Steve referenced it earlier, the idea of everybody gets a trophy is where it all started going off the rails. Because we led people to believe that you will never fail. You will never lose. You will never get rejected. You will never not make the team. You'll never fail the test. And on and on and on. And that simply isn't life. We have tried to de-risk life. Kids have got to fall off their bicycles. Training whales do not ever fail. you know, help in the long run. Kids have got to fall down. You've got to scrape your knees. You've got to, you know, ask a girl to the prom and get turned down. Right. You've got to. OK, really quick.
SPEAKER 13 :
You know, I got to I got to stop you. I got to stop you just for one second, Dr. Kelly. And again, I'm not trying to be critical of anybody out there and how you run your family and so on. But we have gotten from we've gone from that, Dr. Kelly, to where you ask somebody. Because for the fear of being turned down, back to Steve's point of everybody gets a trophy and everybody's a winner, even those things have changed. Now it's group dates. Nobody even asks one person. It's 10 of them all going together because nobody can ask another person to go to prom.
SPEAKER 03 :
Exactly. Because otherwise you might get rejected. Everybody makes the team. Everybody passes the test. Everybody makes it onto the club. And nobody ever gets turned out. And as a result, we have now two or three generations. of kids who have no ability to handle negative emotion.
SPEAKER 13 :
Right. Right. You're right. And, Steve, that is really, you know, that goes back to the whole indoctrinated brain making it, and by the way, I think a lot of this is totally by design. Everything that you and I and Dr. Kelly have been talking about today in regards to these things is all by design. Again, I'll read the book and, you know, know exactly what's in it and what it says. But at the end of the day, Steve, this really is by design.
SPEAKER 05 :
It is, and then there's some natural phenomenon. I would highly recommend people read John Eldredge's book, Wild at Heart, which talks about how a boy becomes a man. There's a version for women as well. I tell people, I told my own son, your son's going to have to build something, break something, burn something, probably kill a bug or step on an ant or a spider. Those are the kind of things you do to get your own courage up and become whatever. It's not destructive in nature. It's just that At some point, your son's going to have to challenge you or your daughter's going to have to challenge their mother. You know, they're thinking and question whether they're telling them the truth or the right thing. And, you know, I believe children should be obedient to their parents. But at some point when they get old enough, they have to challenge them. Otherwise, they're not strong enough on their own. And we've lost that, too.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, no, we have. And again, by the way, Dr. Kelly, great book. I mean, I can't wait till that comes out and read it. It's a lot of the things that we keep talking about here on a weekly basis. And I talk a lot about it even when you're not with us. So believe me, my heart is with you on that one, because that needs to get into the hands of parents sooner than later.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, and it's something I've been thinking about for a long time because it's really – it was born out of my work on active shooter scenes and understanding the dynamics of these sort of huge number of active shooter events that we had over the past couple of decades. But I think it's really a toxic – It's your perfect storm when you take a group of kids, a generation of kids who have not learned how to deal with negative emotion. You add to that training them to have require immediate response. They have no ability to delay gratification, which is what happens with social media and cell phones. They immediately. You know, text response immediately can call somebody or send out. And then you add in the third component, which is access to a firearm. And you are you have got the perfect storm. You have people who's who have no ability, have no impulse control and no ability to delay gratification and no ability to handle negative emotion. And that is a really bad combo.
SPEAKER 13 :
Guys, that is it. The hour always rolls by extremely fast. I'll start with you, Dr. Kelly. Thank you again. I missed our last two weeks not being together, but it's always a joy, and I look forward to coming back and doing it again. And here we are, and we just keep at it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thanks for having me. We'll look forward to next week.
SPEAKER 13 :
Look forward to it, Dr. Kelly. Thank you, Steve, as well. You're the one that put all this together, and I appreciate you greatly, sir.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, I was glad to learn today that Kelly's dad called her the battery because if you've ever been to the gym with Kelly, you understand now that he got through to her. There you go.
SPEAKER 13 :
As always, man, appreciate you, Steve, very much. Thank you. All right, have a great night. Vector Munoz indoors coming up next. Dave always has a great deal at Veteran Windows and Doors when it comes to upgrading your home. And by the way, he can tell you exactly what you need, what window in what area of your house to fit your basic needs and what you have going on in your house. And he does it in a way other window companies don't and won't do, by the way. Find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 12 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 10 :
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SPEAKER 14 :
It's time to leave your safe space.
SPEAKER 13 :
This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560. All right, that's going to about do it for us for this first hour. We've got, of course, two more hours coming your way. And, yes, I'm back from vacation, live program today. And, again, I appreciate not only Andy but others that helped fill in, Dr. Scott also. And Andy and I will be back together, of course, tomorrow for movies. Again, really appreciate them filling in, giving me the time off, and I appreciate that greatly. And we've got a lot more to come, of course. I will give you a little update. We've got a special guest here at the top of the 4 o'clock hour, but then I'll give you a few observations like I always do when I come back from vacation. Don't have a lot from this one, but I've got a few things I'll share with you. Well, we'll be back. Hour number two is next. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 14 :
I'm a rich guy.
In this engaging conversation, John Rush sits down with Greg Berry, the mastermind behind Municibid, to explore the dynamic world of online auctions. Greg explains the transformative impact of taking municipal auctions online, making it accessible to the general public while ensuring competitive market prices. Listen in to learn how Municibid is breaking barriers in the auction industry, providing a hassle-free way for individuals to find, bid, and buy items previously limited to an inner circle. Whether you're a public sector employee or a private buyer, this episode will illuminate new opportunities in the world of auctions.
SPEAKER 13 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 09 :
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 13 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 09 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did!
SPEAKER 11 :
Get a job, Turk! You haven't made everybody equal. You've made them the same, and there's a big difference.
SPEAKER 02 :
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 04 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 12 :
It's Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 07 :
And we are back. Second hour, Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Thanks for joining us. Greg Berry joining us now. Greg, welcome. How are you?
SPEAKER 04 :
I'm doing great, John. How are you?
SPEAKER 07 :
I am very good. So you are the CEO and founder of Municibid. Talk about that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, thank you. We're an online auction platform that state and local governments across the United States use to auction no longer needed items to the public. So it's open to the public. Anyone can buy.
SPEAKER 07 :
So this isn't just, you know, you don't have to be a, you know, licensed reseller or a contractor or something along those lines. Anybody at all that's looking and see something can participate. That's correct. OK, because typically and for a lot of you listening and Greg, I'm sure you know this. I've been to a lot of, you know, local type municipal auctions and so on. And typically, you know, you've got to be, you know, somebody that's got some sort of standing or, you know, quote unquote, a reason to be there. And and not that, you know, not that it's that difficult to get in, but it's not as easy as what you're making this to be, is my point.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, exactly. It's the reason I started Municibid. I was on a local town council, and I saw how we were having trouble selling an old police car for a true market value. So we would sell old police cars for $300 when the Blue Book value was $3,000. and um you know and then a couple agenda items later we're arguing over a thousand bucks and i'm like well we just gave away three grand right and i noticed a lot of other good points we're having the same the same problem and yeah it was because the processes that they use uh they used to use or you know just kind of out of date not very convenient for uh for the public uh intimidating you have to go down the town hall fill out a bunch of paperwork you have to go out to a drive somewhere for a live auction. And so, yeah, we just made it super easy and very convenient to be able to find the stuff the governments are selling, for one, and then make it very easy to bid and buy the items.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, so I'm online right now. I'm looking at what you've got. listed. I just happened to jump into because I'm in that area. I'm in the landscaping end of things. So I jump over to landscaping stuff. You've got all sorts of different things from, you know, steel chainsaws to some Makita push mowers and so on. So if I were to buy one of these, is it self-explanatory as to how all that works?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, we make it extremely simple and, you know, walk you through the process once you're interested and ready to go.
SPEAKER 07 :
And for everybody listening, it still is, Greg, an auction whereby, you know, you're bidding against others that may be interested in the same item. So you have to be kind of aware of what you're doing there, right?
SPEAKER 04 :
That's correct. So and all that information is very clearly available and visible. And we are also very transparent. You can go on, you can see what things sold for, you know, obviously see what the current bids are. And yeah, so it's all available right there. We make it extremely easy to be able to view and to bid.
SPEAKER 07 :
How does the and or does the sales tax end of things come into play? Or is that, you know, is that location dependent? Maybe it's for me the way for, you know, the best way for me to ask that I should say.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it's typically location dependent or item specific dependent. So, for example, with a vehicle, typically the tax is not charged at the time of sale. It's charged at the transfer. So, yeah, it really just kind of depends on the type of the item and or the government that's selling it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. Shipping and all of that, is that something you guys help with or is that something that I as a buyer have to arrange on my own?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it's pretty much the buyer's responsibility to pick up the items, and it's pretty much pick-up only. There are some cases where if the items are smaller and the government is willing to, they'll ship items, but pretty much everything is the responsibility of the buyer to pick up. Okay.
SPEAKER 07 :
So in other words, those of you that are maybe looking at this, kind of keep that in the back of your mind. And if you're bidding on something that's on the East Coast, for example, well, who do you have there that could assist you in some of this? And if you've got relatives or friends or somebody that would be willing to do so, well, then great, you're golden. But that's something to keep in mind, right, Greg?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and we'll help in that scenario, and we do all the time. And it's amazing how often cross-country bidding happens.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, I can imagine. Yeah, because, you know, we have, how should I say, it used to be, Greg, everybody sort of lived and grew up, and I'm unique. I still live in the area that I grew up in, which doesn't happen much anymore. Most everybody, you know, sprouts wings. They go off. They go other places. So point being, because of that, you've now got family members in all different parts of the country. So to get some things handled along these lines because you have somebody else there that's willing to help you on the other end isn't as big of a deal as it used to be.
SPEAKER 04 :
Exactly. And we work as a liaison between the buyers and the selling agencies as well to make sure that everything happens smoothly.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. For those that are listening, because we get all different walks of life, Greg, that listen to me, a lot of other business owners, even folks that are in county, city governments and so on. I know they work there because I get messages from them and so on. And so I know there's some of those that are listening. How do they get in touch with you if there's somebody out there that's listening that would like to put something up for auction?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, we make it very easy. So we have a bunch of different ways. So the website is munisabid.com. And on there, there's a live chat. So that comes to an actual human. We have our phone number, email. However you feel comfortable getting in touch with us, we're here and ready. to respond.
SPEAKER 07 :
So those of you out there listening where you think, hey, I'm a larger contractor and I've got a bunch of things I'd like to sell or I'm a municipal, you know, maybe you're a buyer seller for one of the municipalities or you're on council somewhere and you're thinking, hey, you know, we might be able to do a lot better than what we've been doing in the past. Question I have for you along those lines, because I also know that on the typical auctions, this is where I think a lot of these towns, by the way, And I'm not against guys that do auctions. I want to make sure I'm very clear on that because I think a lot of the folks that are out there locally doing things, Greg, you know, they're doing what they need to to make a living and so on. But a lot of the fees that get charged from the buying and selling aspect, I hate to say this, but there are days where the only way you're making money at the end of the day is the guy running the auction.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. So, you know, it really it depends. But in our case, it's very clear. So the governments are it's 100 percent free for them. They keep 100 percent of what they sell. So if something sells for ten thousand dollars, they keep the ten thousand dollars the way we earn money. revenue is we charge a buyer fee just to the winning buyer only and that's it. There's no extra fees or other charges or anything like that. And that fee, both the percent and the dollar amount is shown to you each time you place a bid and
SPEAKER 07 :
And the reason I say that, for a lot of you listening that are thinking of doing auctions or something along those lines, especially on the municipal side of things, Greg, it's anywhere from 8% to 12% on the auction fee, typically even for that city or county that's selling off said items.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, ours is 7% to 9%, no higher than 9%.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, so there you go. So, again, folks, great way for you to, A, for those of you listening that may be looking for some great deals on some items that you know a lot of these are going to be well-maintained and taken care of, that's the first thing. And then for a lot of you that are listening that may be finding yourself in a position where, hey, I want to get some things auctioned off, I guess last question for me, Greg, is there a min-max on what they can auction off, or can it be one item?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, so a government can list something as small as a desk or a chair or as big as acres of land, and literally we've had everything in between.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, so it doesn't have to be a minimum of 100 items or something along those lines to be listed. They just call you and get things rolling. That's correct. Okay. Greg, I appreciate this very much. I will keep passing this around. I'll be watching it myself as well because I do a lot of these from time to time as a business owner as well. So, Greg, thank you again. I appreciate it very much.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, thank you so much, John.
SPEAKER 07 :
You bet. Have a great evening, sir. You too. All right. So it's Municibid, M-U-N-I-C-I-B-I-D, municibid.com, for those of you listening. And as he said earlier, and I checked it all out before we had him on, it's pretty straightforward. And for those of you that are listening that might even be in some of these areas where you have some influence upon how things actually – gets sold at the end of the day, there could be another option for you that might actually generate your city, town, school, whatever it happens to be. Keep in mind, a lot of you that are even on school boards and things like that where you're looking at auctioning things off, charter schools and so on, this is another avenue for some of you out there to raise some money that you might not have otherwise been able to have done or maybe would be more beneficial for you to go this way because your overall fees are going to be less at the end of the day. Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning, by the way, they're there to take care of all of your HVAC needs. Call them today. Find them at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 06 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
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SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 14 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive. This is John Rush.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right. And really quick, by the way, somebody called in even and asked for Dr. Scott's phone number. Anytime you guys need that, you can always text or email or call Charlie. But Scott's number, really quick, 303-663-6990. 303-663-6990. He hosted, by the way, filled in for me yesterday, which I appreciate greatly. And he is a guy, by the way, where even if you've just got a question medically speaking, a lot of things even that come in for Dr. Kelly outside of our program, I anymore am just referring people. Call Scott directly. Kelly can't take those calls on a personal basis because of all the different things she's involved in and has going on. But Scott can definitely take those phone calls. So any question you guys ever have, do not hesitate to call him. He is a super nice guy. Whether he's your doctor or not, he will still spend some time and talk to you. And he's just that kind of guy. So anyways, really quick, back to Municibid. Another great way for those of you listening to save some money maybe on buying something. Some of you that have even some hobby farms, businesses, things along those lines. Today, Word Password Day. I should say not word, world. So it's World Password Day. In other words, reminding folks to evaluate your passwords. I do PSAs on this from time to time as well, because a lot of the ways that people end up getting... know scammed and or have their identity taken and so on is by not having good strong passwords i'm not going to get into details i've done literally almost complete shows along these lines or several segments dedicated to so i'm not going to spend that much time on this today but the weakest password of all of course is the word password or one two three four one two three four five six you get the drift don't do that i've gone again i've done many shows on this in the past as to how you should handle uh getting the correct passwords or having the correct passwords remembering them and so on i'm not going to get into details on that there's many a program out there nowadays That will help you with the generation of and the storage of passwords, meaning you only need to remember one master password to be able to then have on file all other passwords. In a lot of cases, it will even store those for you with those particular websites you may use and so on. So bottom line, be really careful. When it comes to the password end of things, we want everybody to be safe. We don't want anybody to get scammed. And I hear horror story after horror story along these lines. And I've even had some family members almost luckily not get scammed, but almost due to things along these lines. So be very, very careful when it comes to those things. Something else that's going on, I read yesterday, speaking of scams, that I wanted to go ahead and bring to everybody's attention, is the scammers are now preying on people. That have previously been scammed. And the way they're doing it is they will invite you to a quote unquote. chat room or a three party chat whereby they're pretending one of the persons involved in the chat is an FBI person that will help you with the recovery of what you've lost, therefore even scamming you more than you were originally. But they're preying on people that have already been scammed in that way. So be really careful when it comes to who you talk to online. Yes, like Charlie just said in my ear, they get you to repeat all of the same information once again that you've already been scammed with, therefore opening the door to be scammed again. Because all you're going to do is give the FBI quote unquote person all of your, you know, unique information that you should not be giving out to anybody, anytime, anywhere. The other scam that's also big and going around, and this affects a lot of individuals, especially those that start to get maybe a little bit older. is the cryptocurrency scams that are out there. There are so many people out there, and I get these sort of text messages and things on a routine basis where they want you to invest in this, and they want you to do that, and they're going to help you make this, and they're going to help you make that. It is all a scam. There are individuals out there that I can refer you to that if you decide you want to invest in anything along those lines, there are places you can go and do that in a very safe way and have somebody really help you legitimately along the way. And we even interview those folks here from time to time. One of those, of course, is David. He is the CEO of Sound Planning Group. He does a lot of crypto and things like that. So if that's something that you really want to get involved in, we have ways to help you with that whereby you're not going to get scammed. At the end of the day. All right. What did I learn from vacation? Charlie always asks, you know, what did I learn? And number one, and I say this all the time when I come back, because it's one of the reasons why I go. I like to go and observe and watch people and what's going on and what's their spending habits like and so on. And I will tell you that despite what you'll hear from the news media. People still spend money. And I will tell you that this is not to be critical, but you can typically not always, but you can typically see the quote unquote caliber of individual that you're traveling around, you know, based upon lots of things. Actions, how they talk, what they're wearing, on and on we go. Now, I get it. Some people that maybe have a lot of means will still travel in their pajamas, but not usually. Not usually. I'll just tell you straight up. Most people traveling in their jammies. are not well to do. And I'm sorry, if you're somebody that travels in your jammies and you do, and you do have means, okay, then you're the anomaly. But typically speaking, what I have found is most people traveling in their jammies don't have a lot of means. And yet I continue to see people on airplanes continually that just travel in jammies. And I get it. Some do. They want to be comfortable, whatever. But gone are the days of dressing up and being classy on an airplane. I complain about that constantly anytime I travel because it's still the number one thing that I view. When I'm traveling is just how do people travel? What do they look like? How do they act? How do they behave? How respectful to one another are they? And the one thing that I continually just continually am down on when it comes to people in general is their route. They're not nice in a lot of cases. They're only out for themselves. Let's just say that at the end of the day. But, you know, outside of that, what did I learn? There's still a lot of people traveling. And when I go through the airports and granted, it was kind of the tail end of spring break, but literally the tail end. where a lot of the traveling should start to be dropping off. And typically the two slowest months of the year for travel and destinations and so on are May and September. Some of October as well, but typically May and after Labor Day. So before Memorial Day in May, after Labor Day in September. Those are typically the two downtimes of the year that if you want to travel anywhere and have a lot less people to deal with and have more room at the resorts and so on, that's the time of the year to travel. But in my end of things... I there's still a lot of people traveling, still a lot of people out there doing things, spending money at restaurants and so on, you know, still had to make reservations at a lot of places to get in. And at the end of the day, even in a downtime of the year, still people traveling and doing things. And again, in spite of all of the naysayers that are out there in the media, which I'm going to come back and talk about some of the, quote unquote, possible shortages from tariffs. And I you guys know me. I'm just not a naysayer on that end of things like a lot of people are. I read a lot of things that are out there on social media and so on. I do not watch any news, didn't watch any while I was gone. In fact, I don't think I watched hardly an ounce of TV while I was gone on vacation. I don't know that I even turned the TV on if ever, and if I did, it had to have been for a very, very short amount of time, but I just don't watch much TV anymore, and I definitely don't watch much news. And that's on purpose because most of them are complete knuckleheads reading from a script that has gone out to literally, you've seen the reports on this, literally almost every single public type news organization that's out there has the same script. If it's on any kind of a topic, tariffs, et cetera, they're reading from basically the same script that's out there. and the majority of stations are owned by probably one of three or four different companies nationwide, and that's about it. Yeah, there's a few little guys here and there that own some things, but most of it's all underneath one conglomerate, and they're being fed the information that they're wanting to be read on air. So I didn't watch much television or anything along those lines, but one of the things that I did see and did keep up on was some of the tariff talk, and I'll talk about some of that here when we come back in a moment. But was there any big... You know, things that I learned from vacation, different things I saw. I will say, and my wife even said this, I will say on this particular trip, outside of a couple of different families, all in all, on this particular trip, kids were well-behaved. I was actually very surprised, and that came from airplane to the resorts and dinners and so on. I will say that this particular trip, and I don't know why, I don't know what the different makeup of individuals were, but the kids seem to be a lot more well-behaved on this particular trip than what I've seen before. in the past because most of the time they're little monsters running around and mom and dad have no clue what they're doing this particular time around it was not that way at all so that one that one probably was the biggest surprise for me this last time around was how well behaved a lot of the kids actually were and i was very shocked at that and just so you all know i don't know if i've ever said this on air i'm even though most adults can be somewhat intimidated by me because my voice is loud and I don't mince any words, and you all know me. You listen to me on a regular basis. Kids, on the other hand, it's like the opposite. I can be anywhere, and some kid will be nearby, and I can have a conversation with some little kid just because they are not intimidated by me one bit. They will just start a conversation or bring me a toy or do whatever, and it's the weirdest thing ever. But kids are not intimidated by me at all, and I've always had good – communication, I guess you could say, with even little kids. I mean, kids that are all the way down to where they're just first starting to walk and so on. And again, this particular trip, the kids seem to be a lot more behaved than what I've seen in the past. And I don't know why. I'll just leave it at that. We'll talk about possible, possible. I'm going to put air quotes around that. Possible shortages from tariffs. I'll get into that here in a moment. Don't go anywhere. Up next, Golden Eagle Financial. Speaking of finances and all of that. And the other thing I was going to say, too, is there's a trend I'll talk about as well when I come back. No buy 2025. I want to talk about that along with the tariffs as well. But when it comes to everything financially speaking. Give Al Smith a call today from Golden Eagle Financial. Al has got things dialed in, and if you don't, he will for you. And if you have had a plan in the past, a financial plan, review that with Al today and make sure that it fits where you're at in today's world because things will change, and you need to have that updated, upgraded from time to time. Find Al today. Call him direct 303-744-1128 or go to klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 10 :
Retirement planning with Golden Eagle Financial isn't about products or spreadsheets. It's about you. Al Smith spends more time listening than talking when he meets with clients. He understands that before he can build a strategy, he must understand the person for whom it's designed, fears, dreams, wants, needs, and comfort with risk. That's why clients trust Al Smith with comprehensive retirement planning, from pensions and Social Security to owning property or donating time and money. Al wants to know the things you really want to do with your money in retirement. Once he understands you, he will use tools to help you understand different scenarios to fine-tune your plan. Al Smith says it's easy. Once he knows someone, the planning is simple. Call Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial if you're ready to make your dream a reality. No pressure, no upfront cost. Just a conversation and a unique plan crafted for you. Find Golden Eagle Financial on the KLZ Advertisers page to start the relationship your nest egg deserves. 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 07 :
All right. Mile high coin. If you've got a collection of things that have been kicking around for quite some time, in fact, some of you could be decades, most of your life, by the way, you could be collecting this and that and even have some old gold coins and jewelry and things like that, which you may have accumulated over the years that you're just not even using any longer. And frankly, maybe don't even want to leave it to your heirs, because frankly, if you're not using it, why would they? Turn that into cash. Mile High Coin can help you with all of that. Not only appraising what you have, but turning it into cash if you want. 720-370-3400.
SPEAKER 03 :
People often receive a collection after the passing of a loved one and trusting someone with that collection can be difficult. This is David Gonzalez at Mile High Coin and with 37 years of experience in the precious metals and coin industry, I guarantee that you will be pleased with our process regardless of whether or not you choose to sell your collection. We are highly trusted and highly rated. We will take the time to help you understand what type of collection you have as well as its value. Our goal is to educate you so that you can make an informed decision. At Mile High Coin, we understand the various situations which may have brought you to the place of needing or wanting to sell your collection. I appreciate the importance of right timing, so I will never pressure you to sell. People sell when they're ready to sell. Oftentimes, there are estate planning issues that involve multiple family members and attorneys, and we can provide information needed to assist in that process. A coin or jewelry collection can be a burden, and we are here to simplify something that can be quite complicated. We offer a no-charge, complimentary evaluation and appraisal for all of our KLZ listeners, even if you're not quite ready to liquidate. Call us today at 720-370-3400 or visit our website milehighcoin.com to get more information. We look forward to meeting you and seeing your collection.
SPEAKER 05 :
Is your office ready for a new copier? Business Equipment Service has you covered. Whether you're a small business or a large corporation, Business Equipment Service has current model Konica Minolta and Canon copiers on sale right now. Our models have very minimal usage at a fraction of the cost of buying new. We stand behind our equipment with a 90-day parts and labor warranty, as well as a one-year or 100,000-page performance warranty. giving you the reliability you need to keep things running smoothly. Right now, get free delivery and installation when you mention this ad. Why choose us? Aside from saving thousands on high-performance copiers, we have lease options starting at $100 per month, we service and supply what we sell, we offer full service maintenance plans, fast on-site service, and remote support. For over 20 years, Business Equipment Service has helped hundreds of Colorado businesses find affordable, reliable office solutions. Visit us at besofcolorado.com or call 303-825-5664. Live and local, back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, there is a trend going on right now. It's all over social media. No Buy 25. And it's a trend that's encouraging consumers. And by the way, this trend isn't for people to just save money. This is a way to put another notch in the belt against Donald Trump. That's what this is all about. This has nothing to do with helping people save money at the end of the day. Don't be fooled. Now, we on this program talk all the time about making good decisions, good purchases, stay out of debt, on and on we go. And we will continue to do that. That's not going to change. But would I ever encourage somebody not to buy in 25? No. That's how you cripple an economy. That's the idea. Quote, unquote. That's what they're trying to do with this particular movement, I guess you could say. Now, I will tell you, and my wife said the same thing on the trip we just took, No Buy 25 wasn't working out too well for people. Because they were all spending money. Didn't matter where they were, they were spending money. What you do when you travel, you spend money. So anyways, it's a trend encouraging consumers to reduce or eliminate non-essential spending for a year. Well, isn't it interesting? That's the first year of Donald Trump's presidency, and that would have a huge impact upon the midterms next year in 2026. So again, folks, you have to read between the lines when you see these movements come out. And this isn't Dave Ramsey. This isn't something Dave Ramsey came up with. For those of you maybe that don't know, Dave Ramsey, I think most everybody knows who he is, but he's the financial guru that for a lot of people I think works very well, especially for folks that are somehow deep in debt and they don't have too many means to help get out of debt. He's got all sorts of ways where he helps people with things along those lines and so on. And yeah, in some cases he will tell you, stop spending money. But believe me, this is not from Dave Ramsey. This is and by the way, this isn't what these individuals want this to be. This is not so people will be more financially independent when it's all said and done. This is to put a hurt on Donald Trump and his presidency. That's all this is about. So the goal is to save money. This is what they're saying. The goal is to save money, reduce clutter and potentially address consumerism. Participants also focus on spending on necessities like groceries and utilities while cutting back on discretionary items like clothes, entertainment, and travel. So, folks, again, this isn't what it seems. And I guarantee you, I would bet my life... That if you sat down with the organizers of said event and had the ability to speak candidly one-on-one, not with the press or anybody else around, what I'm telling you is exactly what they're after. This has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with helping out individuals on a financial basis. This is being done strictly financially. to go against Donald Trump, his administration, and what's happening along those lines. That's all this is. So, number one, don't buy into this. Number two, tell anybody you know what I just said, that this isn't anything to do with people saving money. Now, like I said earlier, and as I opened with, I would always tell everybody, don't buy things you don't need. Now, if you've got nice disposable income and you've got the ability to buy something that you like, you know what? You guys know me. Knock your socks off. Go buy a new car. Great. Go for it. If you can afford it, go for it. I'll never stop somebody from buying something that they can afford. I will tell people not to buy things they can't afford. That's just dumb. That's being dumb with your money. If you can't afford it, don't buy it. And unfortunately, in the United States of America, we get caught up in that trap of buying things that you can't afford. Everything from big screen TVs to houses to cars to boats to you name it. So, yeah, unless you can afford it, don't buy it. But I'm also one and you know me. If you can afford it, go for it. Knock your socks off. You've earned it. Have at it. Go for it. You can't take it with you. So you know what? Enjoy it while you can. Have fun. I'm also one that I believe, yes, you need to help others, different charitable organizations, churches, et cetera. You guys know what I mean by that. There needs to be a proper balance, but I would never tell somebody don't spend money on something that you'd like as long as you have it. This movement is telling you that. Even if you have it, don't spend it. And again, they're doing that as a way to have a dig at Donald Trump when it's all said and done. There is no other way around it. Trust me. I don't care what anybody says, what they tell you, what you read on social media. This is by no means to help individuals out. That's not what the left does. Keep in mind, they don't help individuals. We've proven that on this program over and over and over again. They're not out to help individuals. So this is by no means going to help individuals. That's not the goal here. The goal is to how do we defeat Donald Trump? How do we gain seats in the midterms in 2026? This is what this movement is about. This isn't about anything other than that. So, all right, tariffs, possible shortages. Now, you're hearing a lot of talk on this. I watched several different videos on the airplane yesterday, even as I was traveling back and watching a few people and some quote-unquote experts, which I don't really consider them to be experts. Oh, my word. The hype around potential empty shelves is ridiculous. I mean, these people out there that are pushing this nonsense are making it sound like this is going to be COVID 2.0. And it's not going to be. It's not going to be, folks. I've even heard people, we had one friend of a family member say, well, you better get stocked up on toilet paper. Toilet paper is made here. We don't import that. There's no tariffs on toilet paper. Or a lot of other products along those lines. A lot of the quote-unquote consumables, groceries and so on that we use on a daily basis, they're not imported, folks. We have total control over those. And somebody's going to call and say, well, yo, what about such and such? It comes from such and such. I'm not talking about the one-offs. There's always going to be that one-off food item that we're bringing in from somewhere. Yeah, I get that. By the way, China's the biggest one that we're going to talk about when it comes to tariffs because that's the one that's being talked about mostly in the news media and the fear porn that's out there. They're the ones that are really pushing this. We import very little food from China, if any. Very little. I mean, there's some weird kind of odds and ends that we may get in from China, but it's not much. I even looked it up today. I wanted to double-check myself because I knew this, but I really wanted to double-check myself to see what is the majority of things that we see coming from China that there could be shortages on. Low-cost footwear, apparel. Those two are givens. You know, cheap crap. Sorry, I'm just going to say it as it is. Cheap crap. Footwear, et cetera. Apparel, like I said. Toys, that's a given as well. Electronics, but that's also another given. Most of those are heavily concentrated in China. Now, did any of that say food? Or paper products? You know, toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, you know, things along those lines. No, folks. None of that list included items that we ran short of in COVID. And by the way, the only reason we ran short in COVID is because people hoarded. Now, if they start hoarding, you could see some shortages along those same lines of paper towels and toilet paper and so on. But it's not going to be because we're getting that from China and there's no tariffs. That's not where that's going to be coming from. Again, because we don't import that. So we do get some perishable items from China. Believe it or not, apple juice and fish. Now, I will tell you that in most cases, apple juice, some, you know, get it and they feed it to their kids or do whatever. But do you have to have apple juice to survive? No, you do not. And do you have to have only fish from China? No. In fact, you're better off not eating any of that imported fish but buying directly from some of the fisheries that are in places like Alaska and the sorts and actually buying directly from them, which you can, by the way. You can get right online and order directly from some of those fisheries. They'll be fishing as we speak, gearing up for the season. If you want to do anything along those lines, my suggestion is get with a local fisherman from Alaska that will ship you product right down to your front doorstep that you take out, put in the freezer, and you're good to go. You do that, you'll have no issues with getting fish whatsoever. None. That could be halibut, salmon, etc., So could there be some shortages in those areas regarding tariffs in China? Yes, but no offense, you can do without apple juice and fish from China and we'll be just fine. And probably better off in the end. All of the other items I just mentioned, footwear, apparel, toys, there's other sources for that as well. There's other countries, by the way, that make apparel and footwear and toys. The electronic thing is probably going to be the biggest, and that's going to affect different industries. I've been telling everybody that I coach that has an automotive repair shop to be very careful in what you quote to your customer, making sure they understand that that price could change tomorrow. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that. It could change tomorrow. You know, that electronic item that's needed for your car, it very well could go up in price tomorrow. Or there could be a shortage on it. Yes, those sorts of things there could be a shortage on. But by the way, those aren't on a store shelf that you would normally shop at anyways. Those are coming through, you know, normal supply chains coming through, people that would be working on your vehicle and so on, Napa Auto Parts, those kind of things. Could there be some shortages there? I doubt there'll be shortages. There'll just be higher prices in some items. Now, at the same time, in your reading about this, a lot of these companies are doing their best to try and figure out how can we move some of this back home or to another country that wouldn't have the amount of tariffs that China will have. The other thing, too, that there's a huge misconception on is who's paying the tariff? Not China, by the way. Not the Chinese companies. The importers of said item are paying the tariff. Now, remember, the tariff is only going to be charged at the cost of said item. It's another misconception everybody's got. They're thinking, well, if a tennis shoe is $100 and there's a 100% tariff on that, then that's on the retail price. No, it's not. It's not. That's on the cost of the product, not the retail selling price of the product. Something else, by the way, that news media out there is not telling you anything about what I just said. Part of it because they don't know. Part of it is because they don't want you to know. They don't want you to think about it the way that I just said. So I'll come back, talk a little bit more about that. Paul Leuenberger is up next. He is my insurance agent. Would love to help you with all of your insurance needs. He is a broker now. He will shop what's best for you and help you save money at the same time. 303-662-0789.
SPEAKER 08 :
Looking for top-notch home, auto, classic car, and business insurance? Look no further than Paul Leuenberger. Paul is now an insurance broker with access to industry leaders like Hartford, Travelers, Safeco, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, Allstate, AIG, Chubb, Pure, Berkeley, Grundy, and Hagerty. Paul has you covered. Paul is also proud to continue his work with American National for all non-property insurance needs as well. Paul Leuenberger now serves Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, Nevada, and Texas, with more states on the way. Paul's mission is simple, to connect you with the right coverage at the best value. Are you ready to protect what matters most? Call Paul Leuenberger today at 662-0789. That's 662-0789.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, something you should look at and refer to on a routine basis to make sure things are updated, much like your finances, is, of course, your estate and your estate planning. I talk a lot about Al Smith from Golden Eagle, but your estate plan coincides with that as well. Talk to Michael today. He is a mobile estate planner. He'll come to you. Find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 06 :
When it comes to your estate, you really don't want to leave things up to luck. Michael Bailey doesn't rely on chance. He relies on solid, thorough planning and getting to know you as you develop your plan together. That's because a good estate plan isn't about luck. It's about wisdom, preparation, and making sure your family is protected no matter what. Think about it. When you pass on, will you leave your family to guess what to do with your possessions, investments, and other assets? Or would you want to make those instructions very clear so your family can know your final wishes in detail? That's what an estate plan does. It's not about luck. It's about making sure what you want to happen is followed, your assets are protected, and your family isn't left searching for answers. Rely on solid planning from Michael Bailey, not good luck charms. Find the mobile estate planner Michael Bailey on the klzradio.com advertisers page to make sure your last wishes are followed.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, Ridgeline Auto Brokers. As I said earlier, they've got a good stock of inventory right now when it comes to used cars. If there's something that you would like to have they don't have, they'll do their best to find that for you as well. RidgelineAutoBrokers.com.
SPEAKER 12 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560. All right, going back to tariffs really quick when it comes to, again, a lot of the, it's just fear. And folks, it is. I've had this conversation even with certain family members whereby I just tell them, turn off the TV. Quit reading the news. Quit reading Twitter even and some of those things that are out there. Because the reality is if you go about your day-to-day life, turning all of that off, Not knowing any of that's even going on, will you notice any effect? Probably not. Probably not. You might even notice some things changing in price and might even be a lessening of depending upon what said product is. And remember, the whole idea of this is to make an even playing field. Across the board, when it's all said and done, yes, I've heard all of the arguments for and against. I get emails and text messages from people, both sides of the aisle continually. And some hate them. Some love them. Some are in between. Some are more of the, well, I guess we'll see how it pans out. And it's everything in between. I'm one that will say something had to happen. We couldn't keep going down the path that we're going down. It's sort of like Social Security. If we keep going down the same path, eventually it's going to be insolvent. At some point, somebody's going to have to buck up and make a change. Terrorists and this lack of free trade that was going on between other countries, China especially, has to have some adjustments made. Yes, it might be painful for a little bit, just like a family going through some sort of an adjustment financially. No one likes that. We've got to cut a vacation out. We can't go do this. We can't go to the movies. We've got to make some adjustments. Got to eat in a little more than we were once before. Everybody goes through those times at times. And it's never fun. Because change, for the most part, no one likes. And it's never fun. But I'm telling you, it has to happen. We don't have any choice. And I've heard everybody from the trucking industry to folks in stores to you name it. And a lot of people are really upset with what's going on. And I get it. You know, in your own little microcosm of your world, these things can have a huge impact on you. And I get that. And I'm sympathetic to that. Believe me. But on the same token, just because it's hurting you. Doesn't mean that overall it won't be a help across the board. And I'm sorry to say it that way, but there's times where, yes, some things are going to hurt and hurt different things differently. I get that. But at the end of the day, is it what's needed as a country to get things on a more level playing field? It absolutely is. And remember, too, and I say this a lot, China's not in as good a shape as everybody says. I've been saying that for years. Jordan Goodman and I were having arguments about China, you know, years ago. And as it's turned out, I've been right. Not that Jordan's been wrong, but I've been right on China. And they're not the fear or, you know, they're not the country to be, you know, to be fearful of. Like, I think a lot of people want us to be. They want us to be. Donald Trump's not afraid of China at all, by the way. I'm not either. China has their own set of issues economically speaking. They are pumping. You know, billions upon billions of dollars into their economy right now. Huge amounts. In fact, I think I read the other day, I've got to double check this, but I think they pumped a trillion plus dollars into their economy recently. They just printed the money, pumped it in. They're struggling. Their real estate's struggling. They're laying off workers because of what's happening right now with these tariffs because as people cancel orders and they're not ordering as much, there's not the ability for those people to actually work. It's a snowball effect. And frankly, we can outlast China. We can outlast China for a long time. That's something China doesn't, well, they're going to understand. I think actually they understand it full well right now. They're just playing tough. They want a safe face. They've got that Asian, you know, ideal to whereby, you know, they can never be wrong. And they've got a safe face and they can't, they'll never say they are. But they are. A lot of products get made in China. They have done very well at producing things on the cheap. Now, keep in mind, when you have basic slave labor, you can do things on the cheap. You can build things very inexpensively when there's no labor involved, or very little cost, I should say. And in a lot of things that are made in China, that's the way it is. There's a lot of these factories whereby the workers are literally, you might as well call them slaves because that's what they are. They work there because they have to. And it's long hours and it's hot and it's sweaty and it's conditions that the majority of people in this country would never sit through. Wouldn't be allowed in this country, by the way. Our laws won't allow it. It's why we can't do labor the way they do, because we have laws that protect workers from that. So it's always interesting to talk to a liberal especially about all of this topic and then mention to them that, well, wouldn't you rather have people working in America that aren't in those types of conditions that are in some of these other countries, especially China, and then get the look on their face? Because they don't think that way. No one's ever told them that these things are like that or they've chosen to ignore that that fact is out there. But the reality is these products that are made in those types of countries, China included, they're made exactly like I just said. The working conditions, no American would work under or few Americans would work under, I guess is what I should say. And again, as I will repeat, our laws wouldn't allow that in the first place. You couldn't have the conditions they have in a lot of countries like China here in the U.S. because our laws don't allow it. So my point with all of this is, is are you going to see a lot of empty shelves? Like a lot of lefties, folks on the left are predicting. No, I don't think you're going to. Unless people get scared and there's a run on products like toilet paper and paper towels, you're not going to see any shortages. If there's shortages, it's not because of what we've done, China and tariffs. It's because of the fear porn that has been put out by the news media. That's the only reason you're going to see shortages. Remember that if, in fact, they come. And I don't know that they will, truthfully. Roof Savers of Colorado coming up next. All under one roof. They can take care of your commercial roof, your residential roof. Extend the life of your residential roof, by the way, and take care of all of your roofing needs. 303-710-6916.
SPEAKER 01 :
At Roof Savers Colorado, we are about more than roofs. We are about helping you make the best decisions with the right information. Being a homeowner isn't getting any easier or cheaper, and neither is getting your roof the solution it needs. Deductibles are going through the roof, and with every passing year, insurance covers less than the one before. Due to a record amount of hailstorms recently, insurance companies have started limiting your coverage and pulling out of states entirely. We know the industry. With over 3,000 roofs under our belts and 23 years of experience, Dave Hart and his team are ready to complete a free roof inspection and discuss the option that is best for you. Don't wait. Policy renewals are increasing by as much as 50%. Now is the time to get the solution you need. Call Roof Savers Colorado today at 303- 710-6916 or go to roofsaversco.com that's 303-710-6916 or go to roofsaversco.com to schedule your free inspection and start saving your roof today this isn't rage radio this is real relatable radio back to rush to reason
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, we have a, for you car guys, a Corvette expert coming on next. Douglas Ernst is going to join us, and we're going to talk about tariffs in light of him and his business. And by the way, it's been good for his business. So we'll talk about that here in a moment when we come back. Hour 3 is next. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
Rich guy.
In this episode of Rush to Reason, host John Rush sits down with Douglas Ernst, the author of 'The Spirit of a True Patriot' and owner of Corvette Warehouse. Douglas shares his remarkable journey from enlisting in the military at 17 to becoming a successful business owner with a passion for Corvettes. Delve into how his wartime experiences in Iraq shaped him into a patriot, spurring his love for his country and influencing his life’s work. With engaging anecdotes, Douglas discusses his venture into the auto industry, sharing the challenges and triumphs of turning a childhood passion for Corvettes into a thriving business. He provides insightful commentary on the economic policies and tariffs affecting the auto industry, and how recent changes have brought unexpected growth to his business. Listeners will be inspired by Douglas's unwavering determination and strategic vision that led his business to new heights. Join us for an invigorating discussion about entrepreneurship, patriotism, and the driving forces behind success. Whether you're a car enthusiast or interested in business insights, this episode offers a powerful narrative of resilience and innovation.
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 17 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did. Get a job, sir. You haven't made everybody equal. You've made them the same and there's a big difference.
SPEAKER 23 :
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 15 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 06 :
It's Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, Hour 3, Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. As I said earlier, Doug, Douglas Ernst joining us now. He is author of The Spirit of a True Patriot, the inspiring story of retired Captain Douglas J. Ernst. Doug, welcome. How are you?
SPEAKER 15 :
Oh, I'm doing great. I appreciate the chance to voice my perspective with you and your listeners this evening.
SPEAKER 04 :
I appreciate you very much. Now, before we get started into your business, I want to talk about that a little bit because I'm a Corvette guy myself, and you've got a Corvette dealership, so we'll have a lot of fun with that. But before we do that, talk about the book.
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, the book. The name of my book is The Spirit of a True Patriot, and it's a story about my life and how I joined the Army at the age of 17 years old. My parents didn't have money to pay for college, so I joined the Army, something called the infantry and armor, having no idea what that was when I signed up. And six months later, I was in Iraq and Saudi Arabia back in 1990, fighting in the war. And from that point in time, I turned from a little boy, 17 years old, into a man that became a patriot, someone that not only adored his country, but a person that was in love with his country. And it transformed my life and set the trajectory of my life that turned me into the person I am today.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, thank you for doing all that as well. By the way, we appreciate your service to our country. Without guys like you, we don't have the freedoms that we have, so we're very thankful for that.
SPEAKER 15 :
Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. So now let's get into the business end of things, because part of your story involves you also starting out, I guess, having an interest in Corvettes, purchasing three Corvettes on a credit card, and then you now own the Corvette warehouse.
SPEAKER 15 :
Yes, that's correct. And I started out as a Corvette dealer when I was about 23, 24 years old. I did it simultaneously while I was serving in the military. And I decided as a kid that I loved these Corvettes because my, you know, back when I was a kid, there was Vietnam veterans everywhere and old Corvettes, 1979 to 82s were on the street when I was a kid. My uncle was a Vietnam vet and he had a Corvette and he was my role model. So as I got older, I decided I wanted to play with these cars and I was in the Army and I was in the reserves and bouncing back from active duty to reserve time and different contracts. And I started dabbling in this card as a hobby back in 93, 94. And then I launched it as a business in 1996. And I've been doing this business now for about 30 years. buying Corvettes, putting them back together, buying new Corvettes, everything from 1953 up to 2025. I've been dabbling in these cars for now 30 years, and it was a career that supported my 10 to 12 employees, my over 100 outsourced partners' employees, and my family, my life, and all my 25,000, 30,000 customers we've served over the last 30 years.
SPEAKER 04 :
That is awesome. All right, so got to ask, what's your favorite Corvette of all time?
SPEAKER 15 :
My favorite Corvette is a 1967, the mid-year. I actually have a 67 blue 353, excuse me, 327, 350 horse with side exhaust, with no AC, so it's 110 degrees in Texas with no AC. It's my favorite car. When I was a kid, those were on the road. They were only three grand back then, and my uncle said, if you work real hard, you'll get one of those by the time you're 40. That's awesome. And that was something I wrote about in the book. That's what inspired me. That's awesome. Yep, it's funny how you talk about what happened to you as a kid and how it shapes the trajectory of your entire life.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. No, it does. And again, I understand the value of the old cars because I have some of those myself. I understand the value of the new cars as well because it's something about getting in it, not having to worry much about it, push a button and go.
SPEAKER 15 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 04 :
That is the plus side to the modern end of it, I guess, right?
SPEAKER 15 :
Yeah. And, you know, we're fortunate enough in this great country with the prosperity that we have, we can afford both. And not all people can, but for those that do and can, you know, and I've always told my customers, you know, especially the younger customers, they all can afford it. you know corvette i said you just work hard and smart because i didn't have two nickels to rub together when i was a kid and now i got almost 200 of these cars and it took me it took me 30 years to get to this point of working 70 80 hour work weeks and serving my customers to the best of my ability to get to that point so if i did it you could do it too so you're the number one corvette dealer located in dallas how many units a year do you guys sell Well, that's an interesting question and a loaded question. For decades, we were selling roughly 50 a month, 40 a month, 60 a month. I'd say on average, the median was about 50 a month. But for the last two years, that number has gone down to about 25, and our sales went down by about 50% over the last three years.
SPEAKER 04 :
Gotcha. Attribute it to what do you think?
SPEAKER 15 :
Oh, there's no doubt in my mind that was the Biden-Harris administration's economic policies and something very similar to the terror policy, unfair trade that shifted the American consumer to the Porsche, to the Lamborghini, to the Mercedes, and didn't give small business owners that sold American products a fighting chance. And I was one of those victims.
SPEAKER 04 :
So now that some of those things are being changed, as we know, and I'm with you, by the way. I don't think that – I was talking about that even before you coming on. I spent some time in the last hour talking about terrorists and my view of different things and a lot of the fear porn that's being propagated by – media in regards to empty shelves coming up in may and just a bunch of nonsense that frankly is just not uh realistic at the end of the day but when it comes to things like what you're talking about where you know we've had you mentioned you know porsche european cars where we've had a very little tariff you know five percent roughly on cars coming in and yet overall cost to take one of our cars and go there it's almost 30 that's not fair
SPEAKER 15 :
Yeah, General Motors can't ship a car to China. They can't ship a car to Europe. They don't have those cars in that part of the world because they don't allow them to come out without the 100%, 150% tariff, but yet they have a 12%, 15%, 20% tariff on the goods that come into our country, and even some of those tariffs are excused if they bring in a massive amount of goods. It was unfair trade policy, and it was one of the deciding factors that just destroyed our business. You know, that coinciding with the bad economy, rising interest rates, the Biden inflation, it just pummeled our business. And we were, you know, I've been on hundreds of these news interviews for the books over the years. And when I tell people when they started talking about Corvette Warehouse and its losses, and I say we lost six figures a month, people are taken aback by that. Their face looks like they saw a ghost. Our company was losing $100,000 per month, month after month after month. We literally blew through all the caps that we have saved for 25 years. I was actually planning an exit strategy for this business. I didn't think it was going to make it. I read the Rob Rob books, and I know you keep a positive attitude, but when the fighting forces of the institution, and that being the government, are fighting against you, and the pendulum has swung so far... I just thought the Lord wanted me to go in a different direction. So we were actually planning an exit strategy, and then the election came, and the changes started to happen, and they happened dramatically, swiftly, and fast, and we actually had a record month last month from the history of our business.
SPEAKER 04 :
That was going to be my next question, was given the tariffs and things that have happened along those lines, how has it affected business?
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, just to give you a quick backdrop, the slow calculated tariff rollout program that the Trump administration put out with a smart layered balance program. Back when Trump was elected back in November, December, we didn't see any change in Fed. It was still horrific in November, December, and I thought it was over. But I was glad that President Trump got elected because I thought, hey, at least we got a chance. We can at least break even now. You know, that's what I was hoping for. When he became president, he put out preliminary statements and talked about these phased announcements about how he was going to implement the TARIC programs, and immediately our business ticked up. We had the best January we had in four years. We had the best February we had in four years. And in March, this is the most ironic thing that the mainstream media doesn't want you to hear or understand because it goes against the narrative of the legacy media. And that is that week that we had that temporary stock market correction when it went down real low. That was a record week for us. We sold 23 Corvettes that week. Under Joe Biden, we were selling 23 Corvettes a month. Now, the pendulum swung in our favor because the American consumer was telling themselves, hey, I'm going to buy an American product. If I buy a Mercedes, I might have to pay more for parts. If I buy a Porsche, I might have to pay more for parts. And the American Corvette has been in existence for almost 80 years. It's the true icon of the sport, legendary Corvette. It's the longest-running American product line. You wouldn't understand that because there's so many product lines that come and go, but it's the longest-running American product line in history. And we are the quintessential leader of the product lines of the American sports car. So right now, it completely shifted our business where we went from trying to downsize, trying to lay it off everybody we could. We stopped spending money. We were trying to have conversations through an attorney on how to exit our 25-year lease. And all of a sudden, we are trying now to talk about how to grow our business. We're actually recruiting people again to come back into our business.
SPEAKER 04 :
Very nice. Really quick, do you feel like part of the enthusiasm also, though, for the Corvette, and I'm not disagreeing with anything you've said along the lines of the tariffs, and so I think that has a lot to do with it, but do you feel like that coupled with the new ZR car coming out and a lot of the excitement around that car, even though a lot of the average everyday Corvette owners will never be able to touch that car because of the lack of and the sheer expense of owning that car, which, you know, unless you're For those of you listening, by the way, you're not going to get a new ZR1 Corvette unless you know somebody, Doug. You know that as well as I. But do you still think that the excitement around that car has built some enthusiasm into Corvette again?
SPEAKER 15 :
Not at all. That's not a conversation that's on the consumer's mind at my business. Our average car is 40 to 50 grand, and people are buying the inventory that's been on the road for 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 years. If you think about it, Corvette's been making 25,000 to 50,000 Corvettes a year for almost 80 years. That's like 4 million cars have been put on the street. So if you think about all this inventory, you're reselling the inventory. The reselling of the inventory brings the government so much more money than it does for the new car sales because you're flipping 40, 50 years of inventory over and over and paying taxes on it to your local government, your registration. The new cars is great, and it does give them their gas bill for tax, and it gives them their their consumption tax, and it gives them their sales tax, but it's a one-time sale. Our sales are the competitive run, the wheel that keeps spinning that provides that tax dollar to our local authority. Right now, we've got some little bit of buzz about the Zorra. But that's just, you know, it's like the buzz of the C8. It's just a little bit here and there. My direct effect, I'm not a scientist, but I'm a smart person, and I can put statistical averages together. It's not a happenstance that in... November, December, and that entire year, I lost more money that gutted this business. And then January, our business directly took off. We had a record month, record week, and we sold 81 Corvettes last month. That's the best we've ever done. We sold 76 as a previous record when Trump was president, and we did 81 last week. It's not a coincidence. There's a direct effect. It's not correlated. It's causal. And I'm positive that's what happened. And we are so thankful that he was put into place to lead our country and to develop the economic policy of our country, because that is going to dictate the future of my life and my children's life.
SPEAKER 04 :
I agree. No, amen. I agree with you wholeheartedly. All right. For everybody listening where they're thinking, hey, you know what? Thought about owning a car like this. Never really gotten around to talking about it. Now that you guys are talking about it, I'm piquing some interest, I assume. Douglas, that you can sell cars pretty much anywhere, handle transportation and so on. So somebody out there listening wants one, they can go to you and buy one.
SPEAKER 15 :
We sell cars internationally. We sell them locally, continental U.S. And I'm hoping with the Trump tariff program that we're allowed to sell internationally instead of selling two or three a month international, that we can increase that number because the tariffs will be fair and equal and balanced. But, yes, you can go to CorvetteWarehouse.com. If you click on Meet the Owner, the link to the book is in there. I hope that everybody would buy the book and take that opportunity to give a little something back to the veterans because all proceeds from the book go to our veterans groups that desperately need your money. And if you go to CorvetteWarehouse.com, all 150 Corvettes are listed on there. I'd like everybody to take a look.
SPEAKER 04 :
enjoy themselves shoot us an email call us whatever you like we're always happy to talk about cars and enjoy ourselves and the trade that we enjoy well i i appreciate you doug i've got another program i do on saturday's drive radio i've done it for about 25 years we take three hours of literally just car talk and people with questions and so on and i might have you on on that program here in the near future as well if you'd be willing to do that
SPEAKER 15 :
Oh, that'd be great. I love talking cars. It's my passion, it's my life, and I'm up all night looking at cars.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, I will take you up on that, and we'll figure out a time to make that work as well.
SPEAKER 15 :
All right. My pleasure talking to you and your listeners today. And I just got one thing to say. I want to tell these people that are listening today, trust in the Trump administration, the people that he selected, the cent to lead our government and our treasury. He is a billionaire. He's a self-made billionaire. They know what they're doing. They know how to make money. They know how to put money in the American people's pockets. They did it for us and they saved our business. Their programs that they roll out are going to not only spark this economy but it's going to lead us to the next decade or two of American growth and give prosperity and growth to all Americans that want to participate.
SPEAKER 04 :
I now have people texting me pictures of their Corvettes, so you got them going there, Doug. So I appreciate you very much, sir.
SPEAKER 15 :
All right, John. Take care. All right, man.
SPEAKER 04 :
Have a great night. Appreciate you very much. Douglas Ernst, and again, yes, he is owner. And, of course, let me mention the book again, The Spirit of a True Patriot. And, yes, you can find that on the About Us page of his website, Corvette.org. We'll be back here in a moment. Geno's Auto Service, speaking of cars and all of that, they can take care of your car, keep you running long-term. And right now, the cheapest thing to do is keep what you have running and keep it on the road today. Go to genosautoservice.com. Geno starts with a J.
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SPEAKER 16 :
This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, we are back. One thing Charlie just mentioned in my ear as well that you're not seeing a lot of coming out of the news media is the Ukraine mineral deal that was just put together, signed, and all of that. And I did read one little article on that today where it talked about, okay, now that the deal's done, how's this going to work for the U.S., actually extracting them, and so on and so forth. And literally, to Charlie's point, one little blurb that I saw, I think that was on the Wall Street Journal, by the way, which is sort of a middle-of-the-road publication, not far right, not far left, although they can be either or, depending upon the article. But that's the only place that I saw anybody even mention that that deal had been solidified. So, again, as I said in the last hour, news media, and this news media especially, mainstream media, will do their best to dictate what you hear and don't hear. And nine times out of ten, they are... in some cases, lying to you. They're not even checking their sources on a particular story. Jersey Joe sent me a couple of different things while I was on vacation along those same lines to where they will run news stories and not even go see if the story they're running can be validated. News media doesn't care. The mainstream media, I should say, they don't care. They don't care if they're lying to you. They are the majority of the time. They don't care. Although they're getting a dose of their own kind, if you would. on the White House lawn right now, or at the White House, I should say, because the reality is they're not getting the same front and center attention they used to get. I was watching a video on that earlier today whereby a lot of the mainstream media is really being put off kind of on the sidelines at the White House, and other alternative sources of media are getting much more attention, and they are fuming. They are upset because they have been used to being front and center at all times when it comes to the president and the White House. And they're not getting that attention now. And frankly, they shouldn't. That should have ended a long time ago. The reality is they don't have the same leverage. They don't carry the same clout that they used to. I, for one, and there's a lot of others, a lot of you listening, by the way, that don't pay any attention to them either. watch anything they say and yet and their viewership and charlie we talk about this all the time their viewership just continues to plummet you know report after report after report they keep losing market share and yet they want to be noted as being you know top tier when it comes to people that actually are viewing them or watching them the reality is they're not The alternative sources are getting a lot more views. There are influencers, quote unquote, folks that are on social media, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and others that, I'm not exaggerating, not probably have more viewers and followers than what mainstream media has. And I will go as far as to say, because Charlie and I look at the book at times on what mainstream media is actually getting as far as viewership and such goes. There are some influencers that I would reckon to believe that there are combined influencers. together, influencers that have more than they do. You take somebody like Joe Rogan, by the way, Joe will have more listeners to his podcast than Charlie. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that. You could take all of the big four, combine them together, and they don't have what a Joe Rogan would have, as far as market share is concerned. Yeah, he does a three-hour podcast that has, what, 25, 30 million or more followers, Charlie? The other, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, you could combine all of those together, and I'm guessing Charlie at any given time don't have the 25 million. So, yes, folks, there are influencers out there. Joe's one of them, but there is others. that have far more influence on people and what they do think and receive as far as news than the news organizations themselves, but you'll never hear them admit that. I'm so removed from mainstream media anymore, I can't even tell you the personalities that are there talking. Charlie always has to remind me, well, you heard about so-and-so, so-and-so, and such-and-such, and I'll be like, no, tell me. I don't watch it. I can't tell you anymore, folks. I can't tell you the big names that are even on mainstream media anymore. I don't watch it. Don't pay any attention to it whatsoever. And that's their problem. I'm not the only one doing that. I'm one of millions that are now doing that. Meaning they're becoming less and less relevant, which, by the way, is a good thing. Because the less influence they have upon population, young people especially, the better off we'll all be when it's all said and done. All right, we'll take a break. Come back. Roof Savers of Colorado coming up next. Get back on track here. All under one roof. They'll take care of Dave Will, all of your roofing needs, commercial, residential, you name it, they'll do it. 303-710-6916.
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SPEAKER 11 :
The best export we have is Common Sense. You're listening to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, we are back, Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush. Joe, what's going on, sir?
SPEAKER 09 :
John, regarding that story that all the news outlets published two days ago without fact-checking, well, the rest of the story came out today. First of all, the woman was lying. There were no FBI agents there. There were no U.S. Marshals there. It was simply ICE. And no, they didn't have the wrong house. It turns out that she had just rented that house from a woman who, who was a wanted human smuggler.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, geez.
SPEAKER 09 :
The house was in the name. So no wonder they were there. No wonder. And by the way, the woman who owned the house and the tenant are both Hispanic. So ICE shows up at your house.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. How do they know?
SPEAKER 09 :
We all know how easy it is to get a fake ID.
SPEAKER 04 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 09 :
So they show up at this house. The house is owned by the woman they're looking for. They don't know that she's rented it out to somebody else two weeks ago. So it was the right house. They weren't looking for a prior tenant. No, they were looking for the owner of the house. And when they broke in, okay, well, you say you're so-and-so, but, you know, we're looking. The woman who owns this house is, you know, not at my fingertips, but she's also of Hispanic name. So how do we know you're not the woman we're looking for? And until we determine that you're not.
SPEAKER 12 :
Right.
SPEAKER 09 :
we're going to take your stuff, and if we determine that you're not the woman we're looking for, we'll give it all back to you. That's all that happened.
SPEAKER 04 :
In other words, you fit the description, prove who you are.
SPEAKER 09 :
You're not the description, prove who you are, and you handing us what could be a fake driver's license... Doesn't mean anything. Doesn't mean anything. So I'm sorry, we're going to have to go through your phone and your laptop to make sure that you're not this person. And that's all that happened, John.
SPEAKER 04 :
Especially in that particular case.
SPEAKER 09 :
In that particular case. But the fact that the entire nation, including Rachel Maddow and MS, you know, they made it the lead story. And, John, it was no big deal. It was perfectly logical. I mean, if you were eyes and say, okay, we've been looking for this woman for six months. We finally found out that she owns this house in this town on this street. You know, how are they supposed to know she hadn't rented it out to somebody? Right. possibly looked a whole lot like her. And that was the whole story. No big deal. And no, the FBI wasn't there and the U.S. Marshals weren't there.
SPEAKER 04 :
So it was just a... So just a fabricated story basically at the end of the day.
SPEAKER 09 :
Fabricated story. Well, a raid did take place.
SPEAKER 04 :
But not to the extent of the way they described it.
SPEAKER 09 :
Not to the way they described it. And it wasn't the wrong house. It was absolutely the right house.
SPEAKER 04 :
And, you know, how would you know if this... In other words, this is like Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story.
SPEAKER 09 :
The rest of the story, exactly.
SPEAKER 04 :
Which the news media, as I said earlier, Joe, they never want to investigate the rest of the story.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. And, John, you're going to have to look very, very hard. Now, you can find, if you check for the original story, you'll find, I don't know, 50, 60 news outlets ran with the original story. John, you're lucky to find four or five that ran with the rest of the story. Now, by the way, I also sent you a clip. I don't know if you have time to play it today or even a portion of it. There's a compilation of TikTok videos out there with people who are pleading with somebody to please assassinate Trump.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, my word. Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, no. I just sent it to you, John, if you want to play it on the break. Even if you only want to play it three or four minutes. And the others who are not pleading, they're saying, I'm so looking forward to the day where I wake up and I turn on my phone and see breaking news where Trump's been assassinated. I pray for the day that I wake up. And that's the lead story on the news. John, it's sickening.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it is. But if you just want to... And by the way, those folks should be really careful because those are the kind of things the Secret Service does take seriously.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, I mean, to say, you know, freedom of speech, John, if I say I wish somebody would assassinate Trump, you know, I can't wait for the day when I read about it, when that's the lead story in the evening news, that's freedom of speech, John.
SPEAKER 04 :
That's, you know... Yeah, depending upon how it's worded.
SPEAKER 09 :
Depending on how it's wording. But if you want to... Play that on the break, and it's too long to play the whole thing, but if you want to play two or three minutes, and particularly the first three or four, the first 90 seconds are hilarious.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
In terms of how sick these people are. Wow.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay. Joe, appreciate you very much.
SPEAKER 09 :
You're welcome, John.
SPEAKER 04 :
Have a great night. John and Cheyenne, you're next. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 14 :
Hey, John. I didn't want to say anything about news to get you down, but the funniest thing, we were listening at about 425. And as soon as you said pajamas on the airplane, my wife started chuckling. And said, that is so tacky.
SPEAKER 04 :
It drives me crazy.
SPEAKER 14 :
If you're going, say you're doing like my wife does for work, Dallas, Madrid, and you don't want to wear dress clothes, that's okay. But there are nice casual slacks. And a nice, comfortable shirt that you could wear where you don't look like you just rolled out of bed.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER 14 :
I mean, it's class. And, you know, that's what people don't have anymore is class.
SPEAKER 04 :
I'm sure your wife has story after story after story after. I can only imagine.
SPEAKER 14 :
You know, the difference is she usually flies international for probably the last 20 years. So, as you see. It's a different kind of people. So you were talking about how the kids were well-behaved. I mentioned this to the wife, and I wanted to mention it to you to see what you think. When you went on vacation with the tail end of spring break, not many kids were out.
SPEAKER 04 :
True.
SPEAKER 14 :
I would say most of those kids... were either homeschooled or private schooled.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, and you bring up a great point. And you could very well, I kind of thought of that same thing, John, and you could very well be correct on that. And if that is, in fact, the case, and you probably are right, that would be the answer.
SPEAKER 14 :
If you do your research, they say if you want to go, like for us, we're a little older, you know. We're both, all right, it starts both of us with a six. So we can go on vacation at different times. We don't have to worry about kids and everything. They say from that Easter Sunday to Memorial Day is some of the best times to travel because the flights are usually not packed.
SPEAKER 04 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 14 :
Even though you had to make reservations, the island wasn't packed, was it?
SPEAKER 04 :
No, I mean, I wouldn't say that it was extremely busy by then. Any means, John. And you know me. I mean, if anybody's listening to me for any length of time knows that that particular time of the year, I mean, I have taken that week off after Easter and maybe 10 days or so after Easter. I have taken that time off for probably, well, even long before I started doing this daily show, John, I've been doing that time of the year for that reason.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, I had that same week vacation, and we just did some local stuff because we had stuff to go on. We went to southwest Colorado. Oh, by the way, why do people have to flock to the Front Range when there are so many beautiful places in the rest of Colorado?
SPEAKER 04 :
That is a – I don't know. That is a great – I think because a lot of people think there's some allure with, you know, some of the restaurants and different things we have in the Denver Front Range area, John, which, honestly, you can get the same food all across the state. So, frankly, I don't know why.
SPEAKER 14 :
So we went down just to see if we could do some early season hikings because they've had it dry in the San Juans to Durango. And I took the scenic route back. The only stretch of interstate I went on – was the little piece between Frisco and Silverthorne, because that's really the only way you can get over to Highway 9 to get up to Laramie. But the rest of it, we took all the back roads, all the back highways, the state roads, and gosh, it is such a... If you're doing a road trip, that is a beautiful road trip across from Durango up to Breckenridge through the mountain roads. Oh my gosh, John, so beautiful. And then... And you're not dealing with the interstate people. So if you hit a tractor trailer or something, they're few and far between, and you can get around them in the passing zones. But other than that, you're not worried about getting cut off by 20 tractor trailers. So just got back. I just wanted to say hi. Did you go to Kauai this time?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yep. Yep. Actually, I went to Maui and Kauai both. We on and hopped a little bit this time, so it was nice.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah. Kauai is still my favorite.
SPEAKER 04 :
Kauai is great. I love it. I mean, again, for anybody that's never been there, it is definitely worth going to. They've got so many different activities and things that you can do there that, you know, honestly, John, you couldn't get them all done. I mean, you'd have to spend a month plus to get all the activities done if you went and did everything.
SPEAKER 14 :
Or if you just want to go and unwind and relax, Kauai is, in my opinion, the quietest of all the islands.
SPEAKER 04 :
It really is. We always have a great time there, and that's, as you know, one of my favorite places.
SPEAKER 14 :
Last question, what was the price of gas in Hawaii?
SPEAKER 04 :
$5.15 a gallon.
SPEAKER 14 :
All right, so pretty much, yeah, that's what I thought it would be. Not as much as California, but close.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yep, it's always the highest.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, John, you have a great day.
SPEAKER 04 :
You too, man. Appreciate you, John, very much. And I tell you what we'll do. I'll see if – I have not listened to – I didn't ask Joe if there were bad words in the particular video that he was giving us. I sent that to Charlie a moment ago where maybe during this break he can listen to at least the first minute or so of that and make sure we don't have any – anything that we could not play. Let's just say that. And I didn't ask Joe if that were the case. So we'll double check that. And if that's all good, we'll play a little bit of that as soon as we come back. Golden Eagle Financial is next. Al Smith wants to help with your financial future. The planning of getting a plan set, by the way, making sure you stick to that plan, make changes as needed. Golden Eagle Financial. Find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 20 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
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SPEAKER 18 :
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SPEAKER 19 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
It's time to leave your safe space. This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, we are back, and Charlie listened to a little bit of this. So, Joe, we're in good shape. I'll play, you know, as much as we want. We've got a little bit of time here, so not a ton, but I've got enough time to play some of this to Joe's point. Really quick, too, somebody else had texted in on the text line, which I forgot to mention before I took Joe that last segment, talking about the ratings, networks, and all of that. CNN, he sent me the article, Food Network Does Better Than CNN. So just to give you an idea of what I was talking about earlier, proving the point that you take some of these big influencers that have far more followers and influence than what major network does. There's a great example of that. So. OK, yeah. So this video Joe sent me is it's called it's on YouTube. The Trump assassination videos on TikTok are out of control. So I'm going to play you just a little bit of this. This thing's a total of about 20 minutes. We won't do all 20, of course, but we'll play just a little bit of it for you to understand. Now, Charlie viewed some of this and told me, you know, in the first minute or so, it's all women. So I'll go I'll play it. I've got some commentary on this that I want to make afterwards. But, Charlie, I've got my sound up here. Yeah. Younger women. Here we go.
SPEAKER 17 :
Who's gonna take one for the team and do it? And I'm not gonna say what it is. Because I know that you know that I know what we're all thinking. Who's gonna do it? It can't be me. I'm a dance teacher. I got things to do. But somebody's gotta do it. Someone's gotta take one for the team. Because we're six weeks in. I can't do four more years of this, guys. I don't give a f***. Just kill them. You have to. I'm not asking.
SPEAKER 24 :
Somebody do it already, please. Please, I'm begging you. Somebody take one for the team. I can't do it anymore. Can't all wait for the day that I wake up and I see the headlines. I'm throwing a party. You're all invited. Everyone's invited. I need someone to do it soon, now, please.
SPEAKER 21 :
It's coming. We're all gonna wake up one morning and roll over and grab our phones and that headline's gonna be right there. It's gonna happen and I can't wait.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, I'll leave it at that because there's a commercial that pops up after that that I'm not going to watch or play. I find that interesting that other than one of those individuals, the last lady was an older, probably in her mid-50s maybe, maybe even 60s. It's hard to tell because some ladies do a very good job of taking care of themselves, so it's always hard to tell exactly how old somebody is as they age. But outside of her... Let's just say that she was the only person in there that was over the age of 50. All of the rest of those. In fact, the way I looked at it, Charlie, was they kind of went from the youngest. The next one is a little older. The next one was a little older than that. The next one's a little older than that. And what is with the anger of young women and women in general today? Is it what we have fostered, I guess? I mean, you're cuckoo. First of all. Even with all of the craziness that has gone on on the other side of the aisle, I have never once, nor would I ever, in private and or publicly say I wish so-and-so was dead. I would never say that. I can't say that. That can't come out of my mouth. I guess it's the way I was raised. It's the respect for life that I have. As much as I may disagree with someone, and there's a lot of people I do, The whole administration we had in there, I really disagreed with. You guys know I talked about it for the four years that Biden was in office. As much as I can't stand the George Soroses of the world and feel like he is nothing but a scourge on the planet, and I've said this before and this one I will say, he is like Satan incarnate. That's how that guy looks at things. That's the destruction that he has done on this earth. Even somebody like George Soros, I would never say what these ladies are saying. I would never say that. And I don't think most sane individuals, and especially sane Christian individuals, would say anything along those lines. You have got to be an absolute, absolute nutjob literally, to talk that way. I mean, these are people that are literally, literally unhinged. I know no other way to say it. Joe, thank you for sending that because I had not watched that. I mean, and by the way, a minute of that is about all I can take. There's 20 minutes of that. I couldn't watch 20 minutes of that. One, I didn't even do 90 seconds. I did 59 seconds, I think is what I just played. It's about right because the commercial pops up in a minute. So it was 59 seconds. I can't do any more than that. That sort of stuff just it just it grinds on me. I don't know how else to say it. It just it it bothers me to no end to know that there are people out there that would celebrate the death of someone else, especially one of our leaders. And I get it. They don't like Trump. They don't want to acknowledge he's even the president. They think it was a scam in the way that he was elected. And they forget about the other people that actually did vote for him and elected him. And some of them are probably family members of themselves. They don't want to acknowledge any of that, of course. But the one thing that, and this is something I should probably do a whole topic on, maybe even get a guest to join me. And that is just this whole anger that's especially coming out of young women. And by the way, it's mostly white women. And it's old women, too. Yes, Charlie, it is. A lot of the folks that have been at these Bernie and AOC rallies have been older white women. Yes, that is correct. Retirees and so on. And yes, I get it. But I do see a large amount of young, especially young white women that are so angry, they're going to be old widows when they die. They're never going to have, not widows, they're going to be old, unmarried widows. Women that frankly have never had any kind of a life with a man, family, whatever. Maybe that's what they want. Maybe that's what they're desiring. But they're going to die very old and lonely when it's all said and done. And that's sad. That's sad. That's not the way things are supposed to work, especially when you're young. That should be the most vibrant, enjoyable, you know, fun times of your life. You know, for a lot of us, those of you even listening, those were the times where you got married, you struggled, you had kids. There was all sorts of things going on, but you pushed through it. You made it work. You're a better person for it. You know, you've got kids and grandkids now for a lot of you that are listening. Some of you, by the way, are at that age where you're doing the same things. And I think about these women that are single and angry now. And just the pure agony they're living in. And honestly, I feel sorry for them. I'm not mad at them. I feel sorry for them. What a miserable life to live. Because frankly, these are the kind of people that aren't even happy when Joe's in power. You know, when Joe Biden was president, there's still something they're not happy about. Somebody's doing something that they're not happy about and they're going to be on the bandwagon over and they're not happy about it. And again, my heart goes out to him because what a miserable existence to go around being that lonely and that hard up for, I'll just say it, that hard up for love that you're now angry at the entire world over it. And they might tell you otherwise, but I will tell you, you can look at them. You can look at their eyes. You can look at their expressions and know they're miserable. Right. I'm not wrong in what I'm saying. And you could ask other women, my wife included, she will look at these same women and say, yep, there's somebody that's in misery. People see it. And by the way, it's one of the things I can probably attest to with traveling. You can see those that are truly happy, and you can see those that are truly unhappy. And it doesn't take much to figure out which is which at the end of the day. Body language, facial expressions, and so on will show that. So Dr. Scott, again, he filled in for me yesterday, which I appreciate greatly. And Scott is a great guy. If you need any kind of medical care, you want a great concierge doctor, Scott is there for you. And literally, he would love to be your doctor. He does things way different than anybody else in the medical world does because he's not beholden to big pharma or big insurance. 303-663-6990.
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SPEAKER 16 :
Stay up to date with Rush to Reason after the show on Twitter at Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 04 :
One last thing in closing that did happen while I was gone, of course, was the Pope died. And yeah, that was big news to a lot of people, especially those of you that are Catholics and so on. The Pope dying was a big deal. What was a bigger deal, though, was Trump wearing a blue suit to the funeral, which, by the way, as I looked and you panned out on the picture of everybody at the funeral, he wasn't the only one. In fact, I would tell you that probably a third of the people that attended the pope's funeral had some sort of a blue outfit on and they weren't wearing black, which is for most funerals traditional. But, you know, at the end of the day, good gravy. That's all they can whine about is the fact that Trump wore a blue suit. Anyways, we'll leave it at that. Have a great night. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
In a riveting conversation, Kim Munson welcomes Holly Kaysen to the show to discuss her ongoing legal battles against NGO lawsuits. Accused of voter intimidation in a baseless lawsuit, Holly and her co-defendants were forced into a lengthy court battle. We talk about the Christianberg Standard, an outdated legal doctrine that allows NGOs to sue with little risk, leaving defendants with hefty legal costs even when they win. This episode is a testament to the power and necessity of standing up for one's rights and the challenges that come with navigating through coercive legal structures.
SPEAKER 17 :
It's the Kim Munson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
SPEAKER 09 :
An early childhood taxing district? What on earth is that?
SPEAKER 17 :
The latest in politics and world affairs.
SPEAKER 09 :
I don't think that we should be passing legislation that is so complicated that people kind of throw up their hands and say, I can't understand that.
SPEAKER 17 :
Today's current opinions and ideas.
SPEAKER 09 :
And it's not fair just because you're a big business that you get a break on this and the little guy doesn't.
SPEAKER 17 :
Is it freedom or is it force? Let's have a conversation.
SPEAKER 09 :
Indeed, let's have a conversation, and welcome to the Kim Munson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. You're each treasured, you're valued, you have purpose. Today, strive for excellence, take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body. My friends, we were made for this moment in history. And thank you to the team, Producer Joe, Producer Luke is behind the boards here, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, Amanda, and everybody at Crawford Broadcasting. Thank you, and Producer Luke, thanks for being behind the boards. Producer Joe's a little under the weather, so thanks for stepping in. Yeah, absolutely. I'm happy to do it. It's great to have you. And of course, you were one of our featured guests earlier in the week as we're doing our book review of The Prince by Machiavelli. Machiavelli, that's right. Machiavelli. Got to get it right. It's a hard name. I don't think anyone blames you. I still don't think I have it spelling it correct, but I will by next month for sure. But that's always great conversations. Do check out the website. That is kimmunson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. And while you're there, sign up for our weekly email newsletter. That way you'll get first look at our upcoming guests as well as our most recent essays. You can email me at kimmunson.com. Text line is 720-605-0647. We do want to hear from you. I appreciate all of you who support us. We're an independent voice on an independent station searching for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, Force versus freedom. If something's a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And it's never compassionate nor altruistic to take other people's rights, whether or not it's their property, freedom, livelihood, opportunity, their childhoods, or their lives via force. And force could be a weapon, but we see it with policy and An unpredictable and excessive taxation, fear, coercion, government-induced inflation, the agenda by the World Economic Forum and the globalist elites, the United Nations, this Colorado State Legislature. We've got just a couple, well, three more days. I think that their last day is the 6th. And this governor, who knows what's going to happen between now and then. But land use codes and zoning regulations and forest fees and conservation easements, national monument designations, transmission lines easements, CO2 pipelines. We've got to make that list smaller instead of bigger. And the other thing on the show is we focus on the issues and try to stay out of all the personality stuff. Now, we'll mention people that are pushing those issues, but we're trying to stay out of the eighth-grade girl fighting. That's what we're trying to do. In studio with me is my friend Brad Beck. Welcome. Well, thanks for having me, Kim. It's always a pleasure to be here. It's always fun and it always goes... It goes by so quick.
SPEAKER 16 :
It's a time machine. It is a time machine. And that list, you know, we need to use it as target practice. Put it out there and just shoot holes in it because it's just too long. It is too long. And we just saw some demonstration of more government trying to be implemented recently in a town hall meeting, and I'm sure we can talk about it at some point. But it's amazing what people want to do quickly so others can't see what's really going on behind the curtains.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, and you and I were at this meeting regarding Douglas County is going to be asking the people of Douglas County to change to home rule. And I don't yet really understand it, but I think that one of the things that I was concerned about is it seems to be on a fast track. And these things, I think, should be done slowly.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, government by its nature should be debated, and people should have opinions. And it's great that you have a civil dialogue, and I think they did a great job. Deborah Flora and Jonathan Flora did a great job moderating with Mandy Connell. But, boy, I tell you, there's a lot of people that were very upset at that event that wanted to know more and wanted to hear more about a process and seemed like they were active citizens but really didn't know what was going on.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, and so I think that we need to make sure. On these things with PBIs, politicians, bureaucrats, and interested parties, when instead of you're getting the real explanations, it's more like it just trusts us? Yeah.
SPEAKER 16 :
It means a different thing in Yiddish.
SPEAKER 09 :
Does it? Can you say that? No, I can't. You'll get kicked off the air. Well, let's get into some of the things that we like to do. The show comes to you. Colonel Rutledge always says, make sure that you tell everybody this. The show comes to you Monday through Friday at 6 to 8 a.m. The first hour is rebroadcast 1 to 2 in the afternoon. The second hour is rebroadcast 10 to 11 at night. And then after that, everything is on Spotify and iTunes. But it's on all the KLZ 560 platforms, which is KLZ 560 a.m., klz 100.7 fm the klz website the klz app and apparently you can say alexa play klz and it comes in loud and clear well you should yeah i guess you should and uh so yeah check all that out brad let's get over here To our word of the day, and this is temerity, and it is a noun. It could be excessive boldness or rashness, foolhardiness or recklessness, unreasonable contempt of danger, extreme adventurousness, that's a hard one to say, and rashness. And so our challenge will be to... Use this in a sentence today. Again, it's temerity. It's T-E-M-E-R-I-T-Y. And I would say that there's a lot of temerity down at the statehouse with some of these wild bills that they are presenting down there.
SPEAKER 16 :
There is. And I was so happy to see so many citizens show up, especially on this parents' bill of rights aspect of what's going on down at the Golden Dome. Because too many people are just somnambulant. They're sleeping. They're going through life. And yet those folks that showed up did have the temerity to speak their mind to power. And it's interesting because we need more people doing that all the time.
SPEAKER 09 :
The challenge on this, Brad, is that I feel that the PBIs that have government out of control are flooding the zone, particularly down at the statehouse. So, for example, this legislative session, as of right now, 729 bills or resolutions have have been introduced. Now, the session will be over here in just a few days, but everybody really did focus on this House Bill 1312, which would... And what happened was then they said that they were going to strike different sections. Yeah, sections. Which changed the bill, but you really can't amend bad bills. You just need to get rid of them.
SPEAKER 16 :
You do, and... Don't start with them. Get rid of a lot of bills. I mean, do we need 700 more rules, laws, things that control our lives? And, you know, if you go back to the Ten Commandments, I think that's pretty good. You know, go back to the basic ten and the rest, let's have a debate about. But there are thousands of rules, laws, edicts that we have to live under. And you and I don't know. We break ten a day.
SPEAKER 09 :
And our founders knew that that was not the way it was supposed to be. Jay Davidson had, we were talking, maybe it was offline, we were talking about Of course, there's Republican and Democrat trying to put people in those boxes. There's people that don't want to be in those boxes. They're unaffiliated. There's libertarians. And I was using the word conservative. And he said, I think I want to use some different words. And that would be those that support big government and those that support limited government. And I kind of like that. What do you think about that?
SPEAKER 16 :
I think it's great. I like freedom versus force. People are for freedom instead of collective force. I like what Anders Ingvarsson talks about, right versus wrong rather than right versus left, because it's a spectrum. And there's so many positions that people take. And if they're 80, 90 percent, as President Reagan once said, hey, they're in our tent. And let's work with them. There's going to be differences. Married couples, talk to them all the time. Any group in a relationship, you're not going to agree 110%. So there are going to be differences, and that's okay. It helps make you stronger. It makes your position stronger.
SPEAKER 09 :
But I think the other thing is, because there will be differences, but if the difference is that they believe in force versus freedom, if we believe in freedom and we're trying to get to that goal, which I think that's what happened with the founding fathers. Hamilton and Jefferson didn't like each other, but they had this goal of liberty, the responsible exercise of freedom. If your goal is total government control, we're not going to be coming together on much at all.
SPEAKER 16 :
And there's a lot of people down in Denver who think they know better. They have a quandary because they want to control everybody else, but they don't want somebody to control them. And if the shoe's on the other foot, all they do is do the usual stuff, which is have rallies and complain and hold all kinds of gatherings that don't do anything. I want to know what people who disagree with us, what they're doing to make a difference and convince me, persuade me, use the oratorical skills that the greats use to persuade people. And if it's through a gun, if it's through force, that's not the right way to do it.
SPEAKER 09 :
If it's a good idea, shouldn't have to force people to do it. An idea has to stand on its own two feet in the battle of ideas. So let's get into our quote of the day. And since it's Friday, as you know, we will take a quote from the Medal of Honor quote book from the Center for American Values. And really, the school's going to be out soon. I can't believe it. But would really recommend that.
SPEAKER 16 :
It's a good thing. They don't get indoctrinated.
SPEAKER 09 :
That's true. Unless they were going to that camps. You saw that about that Boulder sex camp, didn't you? Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Be careful where you're sending your kids, for sure. But I can guarantee that going down to the Center for American Values will be a great day for you. And they've got these beautiful portraits of valor and these on values presentations and Drew Dixon's. now doing a podcast. You can check all that out at their website, which is AmericanValueCenter.org. But the quote of the day comes from Jack H. Jacobs, Medal of Honor recipient, United States Army. He was born in 1945. And Brad, go ahead and take the first half of this, and then I'll take the other half.
SPEAKER 16 :
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, Captain Jacobs, then First Lieutenant, Infantry, distinguished himself while serving as Assistant Battalion Advisor, 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division, Army of the Republic of Vietnam. The 2nd Battalion was advancing to contact When it came under intense heavy machine gun fire and mortar fire from the Viet Cong battalion positioned in a well fortified bunkers as the second battalion deployed into attack formation. Its advance was halted by devastating fire. Captain Jacobs with the command element of the lead company called for and directed airstrikes on the enemy positions to facilitate a renewed attack. Due to the intensity of the enemy fire and heavy casualties to the command group, including the company commander, the attack was stopped and the friendly troops became disorganized.
SPEAKER 09 :
Although wounded by mortar fragments, Captain Jacobs assumed command of the Allied Company, ordered a withdrawal from the exposed position, and established a defensive perimeter. Despite profuse bleeding from head wounds which impaired his vision, Captain Jacobs, with complete disregard for his safety, returned under intense fire to evacuate a seriously wounded advisor to the safety of a wooded area where he administered life-saving first aid. He then returned through heavy automatic weapons fire to evacuate the wounded company commander. Captain Jacobs made repeated trips across the fire-swept open rice paddies, evacuating wounded and their weapons. On three separate occasions, Captain Jacobs contacted and drove off Viet Cong squads who were searching for Allied wounded and weapons, single-handedly killing three and wounding several others. His gallant actions and extraordinary heroism saved the lives of one U.S. advisor and 13 Allied soldiers. Through his effort, the Allied company was restored to an effective fighting unit and prevented defeat of the friendly forces by a strong and determined enemy. Captain Jacobs, by his gallantry and bravery in action and the highest traditions of the military service, has reflected great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army. That's quite a day.
SPEAKER 16 :
It's amazing. And you corrected me when I said it when I walked in. It was the recipient, not the winner.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. You do not win the Medal of Honor. That's not a competition, as you can see, that he was going through here. Exactly. The date for that was March 9, 1968. And he said this. He said, freedom is purchased with the lives of those magnificent people who value American liberty above all. And as we're reading this, Brad. I was thinking, I've said to Drew and to Brad, the co-founders of the center, that I think it would change Colorado if every year, every student in Colorado had to take one of these guys. their quotes and do a report on them get to know them and understand these sacrifices I think it could change our state and as we're sitting here I'm thinking maybe we should start some kind of a summer camp or something along this but he said this freedom is purchased with the lives of those magnificent people who value American liberty above all don't you love it
SPEAKER 16 :
It's amazing. And to be in the military service is the highest calling. But it also is something that people do freely. They're not forced to do it. We don't have a draft. And I think it should remain that way unless something changes.
SPEAKER 11 :
They did back then, though.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yes, they did. But I think those people that went, went willingly for the most part. Maybe Vietnam was a little different. But I think for the most part, folks saw what was happening and said, hey – This is an opportunity to see the world, an opportunity to do things that challenges themselves. And they grew and they learned.
SPEAKER 09 :
However, and some did want to see the world, but when that first bullet came by, it was a whole different ballgame. Yeah, the game's all, you know, all the training goes out the door. Everything changed, that's for sure. Yep. So, Brad, we're going to go to break. When we come back, I'm really excited to have an update from Holly Kaysen regarding her appeal and this appeal on stop NGO lawfare. Pretty exciting what's happening there. But I wanted to say thank you to the Harris family for their gold sponsorship of the show. And then also, and we're going to be in, I guess it's going to be in next week, we're going to do some recordings, is Roger Mangan with the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance Team. He's been in business for 48 years. Brad, you're not in business for 48 years unless you're taking pretty darn good care of the people that you serve. And so give them a call at 303-795-8855 for a complimentary appointment. If you bundle your insurance together, you might be able to save some money.
SPEAKER 18 :
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SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
Focused and wise marketing is essential for your success, especially during tough economic times. If you love The Kim Munson Show, strive for excellence and understand the importance of engaging in the battle of ideas that is raging in America. Then talk with Kim about partnership, sponsorship opportunities. Email Kim at KimMunson.com. Kim focuses on creating relationships with individuals and businesses that are tops in their fields. So they are the trusted experts listeners turn to when looking for products or services. Kim personally endorses each of her sponsors. Again, reach out to Kim at KimMunson.com.
SPEAKER 09 :
It is Friday. Welcome back to The Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is KimMunson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at KimMunson.com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We're an independent voice, and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something's a good idea, you shouldn't have to force people to do it. My friend Brad Beck is in it. I'll take bad Brad. That's fine. Brad Beck is in studio with me, and on the line is Holly Kaysen. And we're going to get an update with what's going on in her life. Holly Kaysen, welcome to the show. Oh, good morning, Kim. Good to have you. And let's set this up just a little bit. Why are you giving us an update if people have not heard your story yet? So give us kind of a quick synopsis of what has happened with you.
SPEAKER 06 :
OK, well, about three years ago, I was sued by the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and Me Familia Vota in a sham lawsuit. And they accused me of and my co-defendants of intimidating voters, being violent, racist, who were going door to door, threatening minority voters. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. What we were actually doing is canvassing the Colorado voters to merely check the Secretary of State's voter data. And that's basically the heart of the story. We ended up fighting this lawsuit, taking it to court and winning last July. And from there, the plaintiffs appealed, and we are still waiting for that answer from the 10th Circuit. And we're very confident that the court is going to uphold our victory. But after that case was wrapped up, we ended up having to appeal for our, or excuse me, file a motion for our legal fees. And the lower court said no because of a 1978 legal standard called the Christianberg Standard, which automatically grants NGOs and individuals the automatic award of good faith in their lawsuits. And so we were unable to get our legal fees back from this case that we never planned on being in. We were the defendants in the case, and we won. And so that's where we're at. We're appealing the judge's ruling on our legal fees. But the heart of that case is about the Christiansburg standard.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and so in layman's terms, my understanding is Christian Berg basically says even if an NGO sues and they lose, and so you have to lawyer up. You and your co-defendants had to lawyer up just to protect yourselves, which was significant legal fees in that. So you get sued. You have to lawyer up. And they lose, and they don't have to pay your legal fees. And so this is one of the, I think, tools in the toolbox of NGOs that just go out and sue because there's no risk to them. And so you and your co-defendants did not know this at the time when you were asking for your legal fees. And then you find out that there's this Christiansburg decision. And so you are appealing that, correct? Yes.
SPEAKER 06 :
That's exactly right, Kim. It is a weapon in the lawfare toolbox because if the NGOs win, they win. I mean, if we would have lost, we would have had to pay damages and their legal fees. But if they lose, they win because they don't have any financial downside. And so that Christiansburg standard was a law for a different era. I mean, it just doesn't apply now because the balance of power is incredible. I mean, these NGOs have, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars. They have endless funds to sue anybody they want.
SPEAKER 09 :
And so this is a big deal. But you guys have spent a lot of money. I think you even took money out of your 401k for this whole thing. And so you had called and you said, Kim, we really want to appeal this. This seems like it's a big deal. And I said, this does make sense. So we went to work. to help you raise the funds for this appeal. And I have to say, Holly, you and I are both so grateful because of what you and Ash and Sean have done. And my listeners, between all of us, we've raised the $60,000 that you needed for the appeal. And so this is moving forward. This is pretty exciting.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, I can't thank people enough, especially you, Kim, and And, dear listeners, we were able to raise the $60,000 that this appeal is going to cost. And I think this may go all the way to the Supreme Court because this Christiansburg standard is a secret that these NGOs know and they use to their advantage. and to Americans' disadvantage, to average people's disadvantage. And we've got to change that. We can't keep allowing these NGOs to just run roughshod over the Constitution and over our freedom and our ability to, you know, I guess check the government's work, at least in our case.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, this is so the appeal is the attorneys are working on this now. And the bulk of the checks, I got those sent off and they received those. They were working on this. And so what's next steps? What's going to happen now?
SPEAKER 06 :
We are going our brief is due on May 27th, which is. you know, just a few weeks away. We're already working on the brief and the court has been notified that we are appealing. The NGOs know that they are going to be challenged on this. And I'm really confident that we're going to prevail on this appeal. I really feel that we've got what it takes to to overturn this Christiansburg standard.
SPEAKER 09 :
This is huge. Brad Beck, any questions?
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, I do, Holly. Thanks for standing up for this type of right of the individual not to be sidetracked with this standard. I've never heard of it before. What could citizens do to find out more about it? Because I think it's important with having that information. And anytime somebody does take an action, there's all these legal things that are embedded in various laws. And I've never heard of this.
SPEAKER 06 :
You know, I just found out about it myself. I guess the first thing to do is, you know, you can Google some of these legal standards, but this principle applies only to civil rights cases. And so, you know, people can read up on it. It's a 1978 Supreme Court case called Christiansburg. It's much longer than that, and I cannot remember. the entire name of the case. I just call it Christiansburg standard, but it's pretty easy to find. And yeah, I guess that's part of why having legal representation is helpful because lawyers do know about this. And a lot of lawyers do understand that even if you fight these civil rights cases, you may not get your fees back, which disincentivizes defending yourself against these frivolous cases and kind of forces you into settling when you maybe shouldn't settle. Maybe you should fight.
SPEAKER 09 :
So Holly, we have some other questions. We need to go to break. So let's do that. And I have some other questions on this. So stay on. Brad Beck is in studio with me. All this happens because we have amazing sponsors. And one of those is Karen Levine. Talk to her about anything residential real estate.
SPEAKER 02 :
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SPEAKER 19 :
You'd like to get in touch with one of the sponsors of The Kim Monson Show, but you can't remember their phone contact or website information. Find a full list of advertising partners on Kim's website, kimmonson.com. That's Kim, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 09 :
It is Friday. Welcome back to the Kim Munson Show. Check out our website. That's Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at KimMunson.com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We're an independent voice searching for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. Something's a good idea. You should not have to force people to do it. And wanted to say thank you to the Harris family for their goal sponsorship of the show. And want to say thank you to all of you listeners. that contributed to help Holly Kaysen and her co-defendants for this appeal that very possibly may go all the way to the Supreme Court and start to take a little chink out of the armor of the stuff that these NGOs have been doing. So Holly Kaysen You and I talked a little bit about this judge. Initially, when you told me the judge that you had, and it can be kind of the luck of the draw on who you might get, when I describe her, everybody goes, oh, Biden appointed, activist judge, I think makes a point saying she's an activist lesbian judge. And so, you know, looking at it, I'm thinking that the chances of you getting a ruling in your favor would be slim. But that was not the case. But there's some interesting things going on.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. Well, our judge, her name is Charlotte Sweeney. She came from Boulder County and then was appointed to the 10th District. And she was the first openly... gay woman judge appointed in the 10th district, I believe, and you're right, she was a Biden appointee. At first, we had Judge Brimmer, Chief Justice Brimmer on our case. And then once Sweeney was appointed, our case got shuffled over to her. And apparently that happens It was nothing out of the ordinary. We were a little bit surprised because Judge Brimmer was definitely ruling in our favor in some of those early motions. But fast forward to trial, we thought Judge Sweeney did a great job running our case. She was calling balls and strikes fairly, and she ran a really tight ship. Now, since she denied our... So you win the case, basically.
SPEAKER 09 :
And the other side actually, about the only real witness they had, they knew they weren't telling the truth. But they went ahead, right? And she said, okay, that's not okay, right? Again, this is more my armchair commentary. So what happened on that?
SPEAKER 06 :
That's right. Well, during the case, the plaintiffs had no witnesses. They had no evidence. They had no factual support for their case. And we kept trying to alert the court that this was the situation. And, you know, our emotions would get turned down because of timeliness or, you know, technicalities here and there. And plaintiffs went all the way to trial with this completely flimsy case. But what happened is they had fabricated evidence saying that we had canvassed in Mesa County, which we hadn't. Our group had never even operated out in Mesa County. And they submitted an affidavit that was falsified. And the witness that they brought in to back up these these false claims was an elderly woman who on the stand basically admitted yeah the lawyers told me to say this and yeah it was it was quite the moment but what was interesting is the judge's ruling she kind of um watered watered down that moment because the entire case hinged on this woman's testimony, and she said that it was caked. So it was an odd ruling, and I think maybe Charlotte Sweeney was, you know, trying not to come down too hard on an elderly gal who obviously had been cajoled and manipulated. But it made a big difference to us because, you know, we were – about a half a million dollars out of pocket on our legal fees. And we're saying, hey, this is not fair. You know, we need to be reimbursed for our output. And, you know, Charlotte didn't rule in our favor there. Now, it's interesting because, you know, I thought Charlotte was, you know, right down the middle, calling balls and strikes judge. But Recently, she's made national headlines for defying Trump's executive order on deportations.
SPEAKER 09 :
So this this makes this whole thing even more intriguing, this appeal, because because she's the judge in that she's the judge over here. I don't know how all this is going to be connected, but something it's just really interesting, Holly.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, and she was also the judge that is ruling, and you helped me with the pronunciation on this the other day. Yeah, the school district is having a book banning case that's being fought now, and Sweeney is the judge in that case as well. And so it seems like, you know, some of these judges are getting, you know, called on to activate. you know, to resist or to kind of fight back against the powers that they believe they don't like. I don't know. It's an odd situation. But given the egregiousness of our case, it seems to me that, you know, Sweeney gave us the win on paper, but she wasn't going to punish the... COMPLAINTIVE FOR BRINGING SUCH such a frivolous case and let them off the hook financially.
SPEAKER 09 :
So that is why this is so huge. And again, the good Lord gives us these nudges, Holly, and we just step forward. And so when you called and said, can you help us? I said, I just had this nudge said, absolutely. And then we went to our listeners and thank you to all of them. Brad, do you have any other questions? I see you. I can just see you're thinking and perplexed about this whole thing.
SPEAKER 16 :
It just boggles my mind that it should have been thrown out just on the mere fact of what you said about the witness. And I'm just curious if there's some entity out there on social media, Jay Seloff or one of these other legal groups that do little tidbits that can get the information out to people. Because it seems like it's a way to prevent citizens from saying, hey, there was a wrong. I'm going to go to court. And I was pulled into court by no fault of my own, and yet, you know, there's no recourse if you win.
SPEAKER 09 :
So that's why this is so important, right, Holly?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, that's exactly it. And, you know, your listeners are so generous, and your donors are, I mean, it's incredible how much they've helped. It's unbelievable, especially because there are these legal groups out in the world who you know, supposedly support cases like ours, you know, who could help financially or with, you know, legal services. But nobody would touch this case because it had to do with the election. And it was it really didn't have anything to do with the elections. We were just looking at voter rolls. But it was so toxic at the time that we were just stuck. I mean, we were absolutely stuck in terms of how we were going to fight this case. And so to have people step up now and help is just so incredibly generous, and it means everything to us to fight. And not just for us, but for the rest of Americans, because at any point, this lot there could be turned on us. On anybody. On any of us. For no reason.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. Well, and you'd had some attorneys initially that had just suggested that you guys should settle. And you said, we're not going to settle. You ended up thinking that you would just represent yourself. And then you got connected with this law firm. And they've got a really great record as well. So this is a... And the other thing, Holly, is we really need to ask for prayers for you and Sean and Ash as well on all of this.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, definitely prayers help. And we do have a really good law firm for this appeal. They work with us hand in glove, and I really trust them. They're very smart guys. Yes. Yeah, we're going to win this. We are definitely going to win this. And we know this is a big deal to the plaintiffs because when we gave notice that we were going to appeal, I think now there's maybe 15 lawyers that have signed on to this appeal from their side. Yeah. This is huge. They're really fighting this. This is a big deal. And one of the main guys... On the other side, his name is John Bonifaz. He runs this activist legal law firm called Free Speech for People out east, and he's written books on lawfare. He's been connected to the Obama administration, the Biden administration. I mean, this is pretty serious stuff. And the head of Mi Familia Vota, which is another one of the plaintiffs, He just announced he's on the board of the Tides Foundation. Oh, nice. And I'm sure.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. George Soros. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. You're taking on the big boys here, Holly. And we're glad to be in the fight with you.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
We're glad to be in the fight. Your final thought, Holly.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you so much for everything, Kim, for your help. and for your audience's support. And we feel the prayers, and we're going to fight this. And we are going to take on the big boys, and we're going to take them down.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, Holly Kaysen, love you. That is just awesome. So thank you so much. And Brad, exciting, isn't it?
SPEAKER 16 :
It's amazing. And it's amazing that they give the positive aspect of it, the good faith to the NGO, not to the citizen.
SPEAKER 09 :
I know. It's pretty amazing. So Holly, thank you. And we are doing all of this because of all of you and your support and our sponsors. And so for everything mortgages, reach out to Lorne Levy.
SPEAKER 03 :
Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. If you'd like to explore what a reverse mortgage can do for you, call Lauren Levy at 303-880-8881. That's 303-880-8881.
SPEAKER 19 :
Call now. You'd like to get in touch with one of the sponsors of The Kim Monson Show, but you can't remember their phone contact or website information. Find a full list of advertising partners on Kim's website, kimmonson.com. That's Kim, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
And welcome back to the Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That's Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at KimMunson.com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We're an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something's a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And we're into May. May 15th is the USMC Memorial Foundation's second annual golf tournament. And it's one of the first ones of the season. And I would really recommend that you partake in that if you're a golfer. You'll meet some great people, have a great round of golf. And Teresa Irby, our partnership liaison, and myself will be out there for lunch. So we'd love to meet you there as well. And so to get more information, and if you are not a golfer, like I'm not a golfer, but want to go out for lunch, you can just go ahead and purchase the lunch there. And all that's at their website. That's USMC Memorial Foundation. usmcmemorialfoundation.org. Brad Beck, it's almost like it was a perfect segue from what Holly Kaysen is doing to your essay that we're going to roll out this weekend.
SPEAKER 16 :
It really was. We were talking about that in the break, and she used the word unbelievable, and that's the title of my essay. And I love that word simply because it's, you know, you can think of whatever it is that it means. You know, it has a couple different meanings. And so I was at an event called at what was then called the Pepsi Center.
SPEAKER 09 :
We're dating ourselves. I remember that.
SPEAKER 16 :
Or the can, as we called it. And they had a group of business people there, and it was called Motivate This. And one of the speakers there was a gentleman named Tom Hopkins, who's an author and a sales trainer. And out of all the folks there, he said something, one word that just blew me away. And he said, whenever he travels and he gets on a plane and We've all experienced this. You know, the flight attendant is there and she says, how are you doing? Good morning. And everybody usually says, oh, I'm just fine or OK. And he walks in and he'll say, unbelievable. And the flight attendant will say, well, that could be good or bad. And he'll say, yeah, I'll let you decide and walk away. And the fun thing about that interaction is it usually, like you just did, smile or make people laugh. But it gets them to think he's different. He's separated himself using one word from every other passenger. And he usually gets a little better service, gets a smile, gets treated a little more professionally. And I started thinking about the words we use. And I love using that all the time. When I call a customer, I'll say, it's unbelievable. And they'll say, well, that could be good or bad. And I say, absolutely. I'll let you decide. Again, it's a way to start a conversation. And we have Google and Harvard did a study. They were scanning books. And they found that there's over a million words in the English language. Now, most of them aren't being used. A lot of them are archaic. They're old English or they're words that just aren't around anymore that are used in a daily lexicon. And yet, you know, when you start thinking about it, you can distill it down to about 20,000 to 35,000 words we use. have in our vocabulary that most people use more or less. And I'm always repeating myself. And so I sit down every once in a while when I write an essay and I use a thesaurus. I have to put my tongue up to the front of my teeth. My wife taught me because I could never say it. And it works, by the way. And I'll look for other words. And I find it's fascinating how we use words and even our word of the day. How do people think about the words they use? And a lot of times we just... Say things that are in the colloquial, you know, I saw Representative Omar yesterday and she was using the F-bomb as she was talking to somebody walking by. It's like, really? I mean, we've devolved to that level in our professional and our representative work. Representatives in Washington, D.C. are using that kind of foul language, really. I mean, I'm not a prude. I don't care how people talk, except when you are representing people, when you are in the public eye. There's a decorum. There is a decorum, and we've lost that.
SPEAKER 09 :
She might say that in private. Right.
SPEAKER 16 :
And we've lost our sense of civility, our sense of dignity. respecting the other individual. And so there's many stories out there. The famous one I love is the one that Philip II, who was the father of Alexander the Great, used when he was warring with the Spartans. And on the Peloponnese, the part of Greece where the Spartans lived, Philip was going to attack it because it was the only place that the Macedonians hadn't taken over. And he said, you know, I'm going to be coming there how am I going to be received, as friend or foe? And he said one word, neither. And then he repeated himself and he said, if I invade Laconia, I shall turn you out, to which he replied, if. I mean, simple words used effectively to make a point. And the Spartans were very concise in their language. And we use too often big words that we don't know what they mean. And I find it fascinating. So using simple language to communicate an idea, to get people to think about the words that they're using. And even in World Champions of Public Speaking, who we talk to and interact with through Toastmasters, I remember I was at an event and It was Mark Brown and Darren LaCroix were putting on an event for Toastmasters prior to the world champion of public speaking and the Toastmasters International Convention several years ago in Denver. So they had this event and you put your name in a hat and my name was picked. I was shocked. I had nothing prepared. And the deal was you were going to come up and do the introduction of your speech in And then they would give you criticism, which I thought, oh, that's awesome. But my gosh, what if I get chosen? Well, I was the first one picked. And my mind went blank. And so all I could do was come up with this little song that I had written for a program called Growing Up With Flowers. And it's a little flower song. I will save your listeners' ears by not singing it. But it basically was a song I wrote. And it started every sentence, I, I, I. I have a little seed. I put it in the ground. I covered it with earth and I watered it around. It has arm and gestures and so forth. And Darren stopped me. First, he said, thank you for differentiating yourself. He was evaluating me. And he said, you know, you tried to sing and you did an okay job. And we all laughed about it. But his point that he wanted to bring up is why not use the word you rather than I? You have a little seed. You put it in the ground. You covered it with earth. You watered it around. The difference being I'm talking to an audience. And how do you want the audience to perceive you? Do you want them to think, oh, he's always talking about you, me, you know, yourself personally? Or do you want to connect with them and say one of the most powerful words, you, or their first name? And that makes a difference in how people perceive you. And I thought, boy, that's great criticism. You know, we always rebuff criticism, but... You know, concise criticism like that really makes you better.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, it does. And that's why evaluations at Liberty Toastmasters is so important. Question for you then. As I'm writing different things, I write a lot of copy for our newsletter. I write all that copy for that. And I think I was writing the copy for the Second Syndicate and talking about our Second Amendment rights. And I had initially used the word, your rights are under attack. And then I thought I should make this more inclusive and put us all on the same side of the table. So I started to – I changed it to our rights are under attack. Do you think it's better if I use our or your?
SPEAKER 16 :
I always find it more powerful with the word you or yours.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, okay.
SPEAKER 16 :
Now, that's my personal because I believe that people understand when you talk about you – And you're having a dialogue when you say, I did this and I happened to go through this experience. Yes, it gives credibility, but you really want to connect with the audience. It's all about the audience. It's not about you. Okay. At least in my purview.
SPEAKER 09 :
Then I'll change what I was attempting to put us all on the same side of the table in my mind.
SPEAKER 16 :
I'm not a grammarian, but, you know, when I play one at Toastmasters, to me, it attracts the ear more and it connects with the audience.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, okay, that's good to know. This is going to be a really important piece, unbelievable. We'll roll it out this weekend. And I took from Liberty Toastmasters on this word of the day because I think that it makes us better if we can attempt to use those words in a sentence each day. I think that's really important. And words are important. We're in this battle of ideas, right? And America was founded on this idea. And, oh, you had used in one of your essays something, the group of big thinkers. Something of the agent.
SPEAKER 16 :
Oh, the host of worthies.
SPEAKER 09 :
The host of worthies. I loved that.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, I got that from, gosh, now I'm losing his name. But anyways, he was a well-known objectivist. And I heard him speak before. And he does a whole CD on the 4th of July that's out of print. I've been looking for it for years. But anyway. He talked about the founders as a host of worthies, those individuals that at that time came together and created the most incredible idea for a country based on the rights of the individual. It never happened before. And even though they were different, different backgrounds, they created something that we are so fortunate to be the ones that get to carry it on. And we're in one of those moments, as you often say, and I think we're at an inflection point where we're We need to be using better language. Gosh, I know I do.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and that is why I've added in the word of the day to the show. Guess what? We only have a minute left. How would you like to wrap this up?
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, you know, as my wife always encourages me, sit down with a thesaurus. It's not a dinosaur. It's a book. And look at all the different words and where they come from. Be curious and stay active and just keep looking for ways that you can improve yourself. I think that's the bottom line message. And join us at Liberty Toastmasters. Love to have you this Saturday at the Independence Institute at 10 to 12.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. And our quote for the end of this show is from J.R.R. Tolkien. And he said this, and I look for courage quotes on Fridays because of the Medal of Honor. He says, Courage is found in unlikely places. So, my friends, today be grateful, read great books, think good thoughts, listen to beautiful music, communicate and listen well, live honestly and authentically, strive for high ideals, and like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. My friends, you are not alone. God bless you, God bless America, and stay tuned for hour number two.
SPEAKER 10 :
young like a new moon rising fierce through the rain and lightning wandering out into this great unknown I don't want no one to cry but tell them if I don't
SPEAKER 15 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
SPEAKER 17 :
It's the Kim Munson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
SPEAKER 09 :
An early childhood taxing district? What on earth is that?
SPEAKER 17 :
The latest in politics and world affairs.
SPEAKER 09 :
I don't think that we should be passing legislation that is so complicated that people kind of throw up their hands and say, I can't understand that.
SPEAKER 17 :
Today's current opinions and ideas.
SPEAKER 09 :
And it's not fair just because you're a big business that you get a break on this and the little guy doesn't.
SPEAKER 17 :
Is it freedom or is it force? Let's have a conversation.
SPEAKER 09 :
Indeed. Let's have a conversation. And welcome to our number two of the Kim Munson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. You're each treasured. You're valued. You have purpose. Today, strive for excellence. Take care of your heart. I can't remember. Take your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body. My friends, we were made for this moment in history. And thank you to the team I work with as Producer Joe, Luke, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, Amanda, all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting. Great first hour, Producer Luke. Yeah, a lot of very good stuff. A lot of great stuff. In studio with me is my good friend Brad Beck. He is a co-founder of Liberty Toastmasters. And Liberty Toastmasters, I've not been getting any attendance awards right now, but I'm going to change that because it really is so important for communication. Just communication. one-on-one with people, but if you're going to go down to the Capitol to testify or in front of your school board or your town council, it makes us better people. We need to be working to improve ourselves, and Liberty Toastmasters should be in your repertoire.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, interesting story. Liberty Toastmasters North met a couple weeks ago. We met last weekend. And we had a gentleman who showed up and we said, where did you hear about us? And the guy said, well, I listen to the Kim Munson Show. Awesome. And, you know, we get that often. So it's great to be on here and to promote Toastmasters. But more importantly, promote the skills of oral communication, oratory, and listening. That's the big key. You come in for public speaking, but you really leave being a better listener.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and I think that people don't realize it's important, yes, to learn how to speak. But that evaluation component, being an evaluator, has served me so well when I was on city council and also in just dealing in life. It's really a really great component of the meeting. Okay.
SPEAKER 16 :
One of the things that we teach people to evaluate is we use a thing called the sandwich technique. We offer something positive, something that a speaker does well, and then in the middle, some things that they can work on. And then at the end, again, praise. I like the reverse because I've been around a long time. So I like it when they dump on me first. Give me what I'm doing incorrectly that I can improve on. And then if there's one or two things you like, great. But I need to hear from somebody else what I can be better at. And so I just did something wrong. I said at at the end of the sentence, my wife, who's listening, will probably say you caught yourself. So that's good.
SPEAKER 09 :
That makes us better. So when does Liberty Toastmasters meet?
SPEAKER 16 :
So this Saturday at 10 to 12 at the Independence Institute. You can look online on our website. And that's on the first and third Saturday of the month. The second and fourth Saturday, we meet at Liberty North up in Longmont. Okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
And people can find more information by going to Toastmasters International website and just put in Liberty Toastmasters. They can find that as well. In the spirit of Liberty Toastmasters, word of the day is temerity. It's T-E-M-E-R-I-T-Y. It could be excessive boldness or rashness, foolhardiness or recklessness, or unreasonable contempt of danger. Rashness. And... I guess we need to have temerity as we're engaging in this battle of ideas. How's that?
SPEAKER 16 :
That's good.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 16 :
I would even say that what Elon Musk is doing with Doge takes some temerity, and even more so President Trump for giving him the opportunity to do what they've been doing to find the fraud and corruption. There's a lot of good people that work in the government. Yes, sir. And yet they just need the tools to do their job. And a lot of people will come to the Doge folks. I watched that interview on Jesse Waters last week. I'm going to find it. And it was brilliant because they said they were not looking to cause problems. We're looking to find things that were expensing into these different government organizations and bureaus. And they're finding so much corruption that people don't even know what the funds are for. So the people that work there that want to do a good job are saying, have you guys looked into this or that? Or, you know, the software we're using is archaic, if they even have software. So much of it is paper. And, you know, paper's okay, but... Well, I do like paper, as you see. But, you know, the thing being that we're in a... 2025, gosh, if you're not using AI, you're going to be missing the boat. And so it's important to know and be aware of these things. It's not to scare people. It's to say, hey, do some research. If you find out about things, you might get better at what you do.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and have temerity as you're doing that as well. So you're challenged to use that in a sentence today. And then our quote of the day comes from the Medal of Honor quote book from the Center for American Values. I'd really recommend that you have this quote book. At your home, talk with your children, your grandchildren, about these different quotes, about these men, what they went through. And you can purchase that by going to AmericanValueCenter.org. That's AmericanValueCenter.org. But this quote is from Jack H. Jacobs. Medal of Honor recipient, United States Army, born in 1945, actions that he took on March 9, 1968. He said this, he said, freedom is purchased with the lives of those magnificent people who value American liberty above all. And at the end of my America's Veterans Story show, I close it with, we stand on the shoulders of giants. 250 years ago, 1775, things were hot right now. In fact, Paul Revere's ride was just last week, Battle of Lexington, Battle of Concord. I think we are in our third founding of our country. But the real battle is not picking up arms. And our founders founded a country where we would settle our differences at the ballot box and not have to pick up arms. But they knew that the right to pick up arms was pretty darn important.
SPEAKER 16 :
Absolutely. And debate and dialogue and talking to your neighbors, your friends, your coworkers in a civil way listening and asking questions and then coming up and saying hey that's interesting can you give me a source on that original source i'd like to share with you what i have as well and we can have a discussion about it that doesn't happen enough we need to challenge ourselves to do it more
SPEAKER 09 :
So Brad Beck, they put in place, we have this vision of the Declaration, that all men are created equal with these rights from God of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. And then ended up, they tried the Articles of Confederation, didn't work, so 1787, deliberated. came up with the Constitution, again, a way that we can govern ourselves, that we can live together with each other. But they also realized, and this is one of the amazing things that I can't even believe this regarding Madison, who's known as James Madison as the father of the Constitution, is that many of the states, they needed to get the states to ratify the Constitution, and many of the states said, we want a Bill of Rights. And Hamilton felt that we didn't need to have a Bill of Rights because if it wasn't enumerated in the Constitution, then you couldn't do it. But many wanted that Bill of Rights. And Madison said, you ratify, we'll do it. And he did. I find that remarkable.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, they didn't agree with everything with each other. They would talk to each other for hours and hours at the state house in Pennsylvania. And then they'd go to the pub. And, you know, when you go to the pub, you have a beverage. You get smarter, right? Your thoughts get a little more lucid. Yeah. But you have strong dialogue back and forth, and they'd come in the next day, and they'd start all over. And they realized that through their differences, they could find some compromise. That does not mean that you compromise your principles. It means that you compromise on things that you can agree on and say, okay, I'll give a little here if you give a little there, but I'm not going to say, hey, you know what, I'm not going to give up what I really believe in. And one of the beautiful things about those founders is they listen to each other intensely. Yes. And they would recite, what you said here is this. Is that correct? And they would go back and forth and back and forth. They don't do that under the gold dome. They don't listen. They're too busy listening or looking at their devices. We saw that recently with several representatives. They're not listening to the other side to make a better argument.
SPEAKER 1 :
Right.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, but they did listen to each other. Madison listened. He said, okay, we're going to do the Bill of Rights. We're talking about engaging in this battle of ideas. But they knew that you needed to – the first thing a tyrant does is they disarm the people. And that's why the Second Amendment is so important. And that's why I am so pleased to have the Second Syndicate as a new sponsor of the show. And we have – Teddy Collins on the line with us and Alicia Garcia with the Second Syndicate. Teddy, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER 04 :
Good morning.
SPEAKER 09 :
You kind of like this Bill of Rights talk, right?
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, yeah, of course. Most important part of the Constitution.
SPEAKER 09 :
Definitely. And Alicia Garcia, welcome. Good morning. And just wanted to quickly, well, I had it, I thought at my fingertips. We were talking about the piece that we published regarding Senate Bill 003. And as of yesterday, there were 7,200 likes on that, Alicia, which means there were a whole bunch of eyeballs that are looking at that piece. It's wonderful. I really appreciate that. And so let's talk a little bit about this, that Senate Bill 003 is an egregious attack upon our Second Amendment rights, our right to keep and bear firearms, to protect ourselves and our families against bad actors. And, Alicia, many people are asking, is there going to be a legal challenge? And so what's your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I'm absolutely sure that there will be. We have actually procured a plaintiff for this case quite a while ago when we knew that this was being heard in public committee. And the way that that works is that we can't test or we can't challenge it until it actually becomes an enforceable law. So we can't do anything about it until August 1st of 2026 when it becomes actual law in the state of Colorado. Then once we have standing in court, we can file paperwork and sue against this. But until that date, what we're really focusing on right now is reaching out to Pam Bondi, focusing on who we're going to get as an attorney general, and just making sure that we have other methods as well to attack this and flank this from other sides and other perspectives as well, because it's such a ridiculous piece of legislation.
SPEAKER 09 :
So, Teddy Collins, should people be probably securing firearms and ammunition at this time just to have? Because with Senate Bill 003, when it goes into effect, there's going to be the legal challenges. But now is probably a time to do some shopping, yes?
SPEAKER 04 :
A hundred percent. And also, we have to keep in mind that even when a legal challenge is filed come August 2026, It's going to take time. So the Supreme Court has not really taken up very many cases that have had temporary injunctions. So a lot of the tactics that we're seeing 2A organizations use right now is not seeking that temporary injunction anymore and just trying to get this through to the Supreme Court as quick as possible, especially here in Colorado, since we have not the most friendly practices federal court districts that we are dealing with here in the state of Colorado. We unfortunately will need to get it up to the Supreme Court as quick as possible to try to get some relief.
SPEAKER 09 :
OK, so the second syndicate, you founded that, Alicia and Teddy, to bring people that value our Second Amendment together. There's there's seems like we have a lot of infighting on all kinds of things here in Colorado, Alicia, and you're doing a really good job of bringing people together. And so how can people can we join the second syndicate or what should we do?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, that's a wonderful question. Thank you for asking that, Kim. What people can do, first of all, is make it more of a priority in their life. They can head to our website, thesecondsyndicate.com, the2ndsyndicate.com. They can buy merch. They can go to our links. Any social media platform that you have of ours at The Second Syndicate on every single platform, We have a link tree in all of our bios that has links to our merch. They have links to sign up for our information. They have links to our gifts and go where you can donate money to our cause. We are a 501c4, so we do take donations, and we are a nonprofit that can focus on preserving the Second Amendment. So what anyone can do to partake...
SPEAKER 09 :
and preserve and donate we appreciate okay and teddy do you guys have a newsletter that you're going to be getting out to people or from the second syndicate or or how you know if you sign up is there anything to sign up for or or what uh what does that look like
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, so memberships are coming very soon. That's something that's actually in the work right now. Newsletters and all that good stuff we will be doing on at least a biweekly basis coming up here very shortly. Also, we are going to be scheduling some legislative briefs where people can actually come and attend and hear speakers and listen to what's going on in the legislature. I mean, our legislative session is over now, but we are getting prepared for 2026. Because, you know, we have another election coming up in 2026, but unfortunately we need to get through another round of this left-wing legislator first next year.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. What is that website, Alicia Garcia, for people to get more information and sign up and support you? They can go to the second syndicate, the 2ndsyndicate.com. Okay. Well, Teddy Collins with Spartan Defense and Alicia Garcia, greatly appreciate you and the Second Syndicate being a new sponsor of the show.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. Thank you for letting us do so.
SPEAKER 09 :
Absolutely. I get to work with amazing people, Brad Beck. I'm just blessed. And another great sponsor is the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance Team. Give them a call for a complimentary appointment and sit down and go over your insurance coverage.
SPEAKER 18 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
We'll be right back. Knowledge is power and preparation leads to success. Call Lauren Levy at 303-880-8881 so that you are prepared for the opportunities in the mortgage market. That's Lauren Levy at 303-880-8881.
SPEAKER 19 :
You'd like to get in touch with one of the sponsors of The Kim Monson Show, but you can't remember their phone contact or website information. Find a full list of advertising partners on Kim's website, kimmonson.com. That's Kim, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 09 :
It is Friday. Welcome back to The Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at KimMunson.com as well. And thank you to all of you who support us. We're an independent voice on an independent station searching for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something's a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And I do want to say thank you to the Harris family for their gold sponsorship of the show. Brad Beck is in studio with me. It's great to have you here.
SPEAKER 16 :
Always a great time.
SPEAKER 09 :
And I can't wait for our next guest.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
Mark Schneider is a historian. He's an actor at Colonial Williamsburg. And he portrays both Lafayette. And we had a great interview about Lafayette that I think it was one of our special interviews. Maybe we did that the week of Thanksgiving. But Colonel Rutledge from northern Colorado, he's 96 years young. And he's on there. I think that he's a member of Colonial Williamsburg or supports them. And he said, Kim, the Louisiana Purchase. It was right around this time, some say May 2nd, some say April 30th in 1803. And he said, the guy that does Lafayette also portrays Napoleon, and you should try to get him on again. So here he is, Mark Schneider. It is great to have you on the show.
SPEAKER 08 :
It's great to be here. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, absolutely. So when I reached out to you, I thought it was May 2nd that was the Louisiana purchase, but some say it was April 30th. But I guess they didn't have iPhones back then, right?
SPEAKER 08 :
Correct. And of course, the signing of the Louisiana purchase, when it was actually done in Paris with Napoleon and the American representatives, Robert Livingston and James Monroe, and the French finance minister, Barbe Maboua, and Maurice de Talleyrand, of course, it's going to take a minimum of six, eight, ten weeks for it to go back to the United States for it to be then interred, given to the president, Jefferson, and then put before Congress. So whether it's the 2nd of May, 1803, or the 30th of April, 1803, I don't think that's really such a big deal.
SPEAKER 09 :
But it was right around this time. And we were such a young country, if you really think about it, 1803. Jefferson was president, right? I'm trying to go back to my grade school days to remember details about the Louisiana Purchase. So What should people know?
SPEAKER 08 :
So the Louisiana Purchase is such a significant moment in the history of the United States of America. And it was really through opportunity. It was through great... delegates that were, or rather representatives that were sent by Jefferson to Paris that could think on their feet, because as you just said, there were no iPhones for them to call the president or call members of Congress to find out if they should go ahead with this. They really had to make that decision. And the entirety of the Louisiana Purchase, we have to look at the Louisiana territory. Of course, France, is going to colonize the Louisiana Territory and what will become the Louisiana Purchase in the latter part of the 17th century with the establishment of New Orleans in 17 and 18. It's really a significant city because all shipping that's going to go up and down the Mississippi River has to pass through New Orleans. So if you have control of New Orleans, you have control of the shipping. So in the 18th century, the French and the English had a series of wars, and one that was really catastrophic for the French was the Seven Years' War. We often refer to it as the French and Indian War here in the United States. In 1762, in the Treaty of Fontainebleau, the French ceded or gave New Orleans and the Louisiana Territory to the Spanish. Now, the Spanish had a Bourbon or a Bourbon family member on the throne. So the idea of Louis XV was give it to a family member in case we need to negotiate it. to get it back again. Well, the Spanish would then hold on to New Orleans and the Louisiana territory until 1800. In 1800, there was a man in France who had just came to power with a coup d'état in November of 1799. His name, of course, was General Napoleon Bonaparte. And he became what they called in the French Republic the first consul. That was the name for the chief executive. By August of 1802, he becomes consul for life, so that means he's going to rule as the chief executive for life. But in 1800, with Spain, he organizes what they call the Secret Treaty of San Ildefonso. And in this secret treaty, the French will reacquire New Orleans and the Louisiana Territory for what purpose? Napoleon had visions of establishing a Western empire with New Orleans as its seat of power. The sugar islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint-Domingue, and others were so lucrative. For example, an island as small as Martinique was worth more financially to France than all of Canada combined. simply by its production of sugar and coffee and spices and all of those things that people couldn't do without. So he acquires that with Spain and Spain would in turn be given a small piece of Italy in the Tuscany region. So the thing for Napoleon was that he could not begin this Western Empire without creating peace with England, their chief enemy. And France and England, as I mentioned, throughout the entirety of the 18th century were almost perpetually at war. Well, he negotiates a treaty with them. It's called the Treaty of Amiens. And it was signed in 1802. And this is the first time you're going to see peace between England and France from 1792 all the way till 1815. And this treaty lasts less than one year. But during that time, Napoleon is very diligent, and he decides to establish this. The big challenge for the French Republic at that time is that if they're going to make money off these sugar islands, they need to put order out of the disorder and chaos that occurred there. Because in 1794, the French Republic actually abolished slavery. And so there were lots of revolts on the island, especially that of Saint-Domingue. And Saint-Domingue today, of course, we call Haiti. And as a result of that, there was a man who rose to power. His name was Toussaint Louverture. And he was really in control of the island at that time. So obviously, the production of sugar and everything else they wanted, they could not get their hands on unless they somehow negotiated or worked or fought against Toussaint of Iter. So Napoleon, in through one of his great regrets of his rule, decides to reestablish slavery on the island of Saint-Domingue and in Martinique and in Guadeloupe. Obviously, this is not going well with the inhabitants of the island. You think? Yes, you think, exactly. So he dispatches an army of about 30,000 men commanded by his brother-in-law, a man by the name of General Leclerc, And they're going to try and restore some sort of order there. They go. There's battles that are fought. But the climate is horrible for the French soldiers who are northern Europeans. And upwards of three quarters of the expeditionary force died, to include his brother-in-law, General Leclerc. Now, the Treaty of Amiens was falling apart, and Napoleon had possession of New Orleans, and he didn't know what to do with it, because he knew when war resumed that the English could simply sail into that city and gain control of the entire area, and then they would gain a lot of wealth and power and problems. So he began negotiating with the Americans. he felt it was much better for the Americans to get it than for the English. So as I mentioned, Robert Livingston, James Monroe were dispatched to France to negotiate with the first consul. And at first, Napoleon was going to sell it for about $21 million, which is still a great deal, but the Americans had about $9 million in the treasury, so they felt that that was just too much. Now, Napoleon was not only going to sell New Orleans, but he was going to sell the entirety of the Louisiana Territory, of which the Americans were not expecting. But thinking on their feet, Robert Livingston said, yes, we will take the entirety of it. But they somehow haggled and worked the price down to $15 million. And it was, in fact, agreed before they informed Congress, before they informed the president. But once again, they really needed that iPhone at that time. Now, again, they had $9 million in the Treasury. So how was the remainder of that money? some going to be paid. Well, there was an English bank that the Americans were working with, and they were going to make up the difference. So when France and England went back to war in 1804, the French money that was funding cannons and muskets and powder was coming from an English bank to be used against them.
SPEAKER 09 :
That's crazy.
SPEAKER 08 :
One of the great ironies of history. Yes, indeed.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. Hey, Mark, let's go to break. We're talking with Mark Schneider from Colonial Williamsburg. And he's, as you can tell, a great historian. And he portrays Colonial Williamsburg Lafayette. And so we're going to go to break. Brad Beck is in studio with me. We get to have these discussions because of our sponsors. And if you've been injured, reach out to John Bozen at Bozen Law.
SPEAKER 01 :
Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty, wrote founding father John Adams. Remax realtor Karen Levine has been working diligently at the local, county, state, and national levels to protect property rights and home ownership. Karen has navigated the often challenging Colorado metro real estate market for years. We'll be right back.
SPEAKER 02 :
The Second Amendment was established to ensure that all individuals have the right to resist oppression, stand firm against government overreach, and protect our ability to defend ourselves, our families, and our freedoms. Today, that right is under relentless attack in Colorado. Colorado's premier grassroots Second Amendment organization, the Second Syndicate, is on the front lines, fighting to preserve and protect your constitutional rights. We expose the most pressing threats to the Second Amendment and provide the education, resources, and tools to stay informed, empowered and prepared. Join the movement. Protect your rights. Visit the second syndicate dot com. That's the second syndicate dot com where the second is first.
SPEAKER 12 :
All of Kim's sponsors are an inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Munson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmunson.com. That's kimmunson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 09 :
And welcome back to the Kim Munson Show. Check out our website. That's kimmunson.com. On the line with us is Mark Schneider with Colonial Williamsburg. And we're talking about the Louisiana Purchase. In studio with me is Brad Beck, co-founder of Liberty Toastmasters. And Brad, you've got a question for Mark.
SPEAKER 16 :
I do, Mark. You're fascinating, your history and your knowledge. I'm just curious. I've always heard the controversy, and I'd like you to address it, on whether or not Jefferson had the constitutional authority to really do this purchase. I've heard both sides, and I want to know what your thoughts are.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, great question. I think from a 21st century perspective, we would say what transpired, absolutely, he didn't have the right to do it because such a land acquisition and such an incredible amount of money, even though $15 million does not sound like a lot, the Americans simply did not have that money in their treasury. Not that we don't spend outside what we have now. But regardless, many could say that it was out of bounds for him to do that. He needed to present that before Congress, and Congress needed to agree that this was being done, and then the agreement would be made. The problem for the representatives, the outstanding representatives of Livingston and Monroe, is that they needed to make a decision immediately, states to more than double in size, the control of New Orleans. So they had to make that decision. And I think in a very early 19th century way, it was in their right to make such a decision, knowing that the passage of time of several months would have transpired before the answer could have been given to First Consul Bonaparte. and he might not have been willing to wait. And also, we know in hindsight, of course, France and England would be at war once again, and who knows if England would have sailed into New Orleans to try to take it back. All these what-ifs of history, but certainly from a 21st century perspective, if a president of the United States tried to make such an acquisition before notifying Congress, I think there would be problems with that.
SPEAKER 09 :
Probably. So this is interesting that we didn't have all the money, so we borrow from an English bank. Correct. And so Napoleon gets that money, and then he is using that in a war against England. Correct. Wow. Of course. So when they're doing the negotiations, Mark, is Napoleon and Monroe and Livingston at the same table, or what did that look like?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes. So, of course, Napoleon coming to power needs to consolidate his power. He only just takes power in November of 1799. And the first form of their republic with the consulate, there are three consuls. But Napoleon is the one to reign or rule or to be the first consul first. and the others never get an opportunity because Napoleon is actually quite successful. He consolidates that power, and then he makes a great many reforms. He reforms the law code. He creates the Bank of France. He returns religion back to France, which had been abolished in 1794. It creates roads and universities and monuments to friends. So he's consolidated his power. And there are many things upon his plate when this transpires. Once he gets news of the failure in Saint-Domingue and the death of his brother-in-law, and he knows he needs to get rid of New Orleans, that's when really these negotiations begin. We must remember with Monroe, of course, Monroe is a very, very skilled diplomat. His family, actually, Elizabeth Monroe and their children are friends with Napoleon's family. Josephine's daughter, Hortense, and her son, Eugène, they all travel in the same circles. So that was probably really an excellent negotiating tool. And it's not the first time that Napoleon would have met Monroe before, and Livingston as well. And people like Talleyrand and Barbé-Marbois also had been to America before. So really, the best people were in the best place at that time. So, yes, they were negotiating at tables with Napoleon. And Napoleon was very, very decisive in making these decisions of state. So once, you know, the decision was to get rid of it, he was going to do whatever it took to get rid of it. And, you know, with this signature, as I paraphrase, I make the United States of America the next world power. And he really did. And, of course, England would never gain control of New Orleans, though she would try in January of 1815 during the War of 1812. But it would be for naught because of the success of General Andrew Jackson.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. Okay, Brad, you had a question?
SPEAKER 16 :
I did. Mark, I'm just curious because we're benefactors here in Colorado. We were part of the Louisiana purchase. A lot of people don't know that. But the Louisiana purchase went all the way up into Canada. Alberta and Saskatchewan were part of this purchase. So when President Trump says the 51st state, it's already happened.
SPEAKER 09 :
I didn't really. Yeah, tell us the area. I don't know the area, Mark.
SPEAKER 08 :
It's massive. You're right. It goes all the way up into Canada. It stretches across so many states. And this land acquisition is, of course, going to need to be discovered. And that's why Jefferson is going to dispatch the Lewis and Clark expedition to find out what is out there. Because We also need to remember the indigenous peoples that were living there, the landscape, the varied landscape, the raw materials, the natural resources that were available to the United States, the other settlers that were on those states that would become states, I should say, rather. So it is such a massive area that's going to need a lot of work, and it won't just end with Jefferson after this Lewis and Clark expedition. It's going to take a lot of administrations to work out how this land will be broken up into states, if it will be broken up into states, what it can be used for, how the United States government is going to work with these indigenous tribes that are going to be found there. So there's a lot of questions. And also, of course, the English all the way in the north and the Spanish further to the west, you're going to have conflicts or disagreements with them as a result of that. So it's really a daunting task to acquire such a massive landholding for the United States. But in hindsight, as we look upon it, I think as the United States was growing, It was such a great opportunity for Jefferson's administration to be able to acquire such a thing. And when you look at, of course, the presidency of Washington, which is a great success because Washington is the founding father. And Adams, of course, how do you follow Washington, does not have such a great presidency. But Jefferson does. He rebounds with the Louisiana Purchase, with the fighting of the Tripoli Pirates. With the building of the United States Navy, the establishing of the academy at West Point, so many positive things came as a result of that presidency. But the task of finding out what to do with that Louisiana territory, I think, was quite a difficult one.
SPEAKER 09 :
What a time it was at that time. So kind of a side note, I'm just fascinated by this conversation, Mark, and I just would love to just go read history, history, history. But one of my favorite movies is The Count of Monte Cristo. And Napoleon is depicted in that movie that he's been banished to an island. So tell us more about Napoleon.
SPEAKER 08 :
So Napoleon really is one of those great people of history. Whether you like him or you don't like him, he left his mark upon history that's still evident today. And Napoleon was a product of his revolution. You know, some say that had the French Revolution not come, that he would be an underpaid captain living in Marseille. I don't know about that. But certainly as a result of the French Revolution, a promotion by merit, he was able to rise up in rank. but very, very quickly from captain to general in 1794 and then become master of France in 1799. What you see in that book, The Count of Monte Cristo, is that Napoleon, after he becomes first consul, he's actually made emperor of the French. in May of 1804, and he's crowned in Notre Dame de Paris on the 2nd of December, 1804. So he's an emperor. He's exchanged the Bourbon family and the kings for the emperors of France and the Bonapartes. And he will rule until April of 1814. And then he's forced to abdicate, and he is sent into exile on the small island of Elba, just off the west coast of northern Italy. And that is where... You're going to meet him in the Count of Monte Cristo, and he gives a letter, and that's how he gets into a bit of trouble. But Napoleon will escape from the island of Elba and go back to France in February of 1815, and will begin what we call the Hundred Days in the history of Napoleon that will end today. on June 18, 1815, in Belgium at the battlefield at Waterloo. Napoleon is then exiled for a second time, but this time to the island of St. Helena, which is equidistant between South America and Africa. It is a tiny little island that sticks out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, very inhospitable, and that is where he will expire on May the 5th of 1821. So the anniversary of his death is coming up in just a few days. Yeah, so really a meteoric rise. You know, with the seven coalitions that were pitted against Napoleon from 1792 to 1815, even before he came to power, You know, there's a series of wars that are fought, and as I mentioned with the Treaty of Amiens, it's really the only time of peace between France and England, but he's also at war with Russia, with Prussia, with the Austrians. There's a war in Spain, in Portugal, so lots of conflict is taking place during the Napoleonic Wars. But he's also, at the same time, spreading the ideals of the French Revolution of liberty, equality, fraternity, or brotherhood. And it will really be the chief cause for the unification of Germany that won't come until 1870 by abolishing the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, really the unification of Italy, which won't come until the 1870s as well. So he's spreading a lot of these ideas that will change the old feudal system of Europe forever. into more of representative government, which still exists today. And his law code, of course, is still in use today. Ironically, it is still used in Louisiana, the Napoleonic Code or the Code Napoleon. A lot of his ideas and changes within France, whether it be the Bank of France, the creation of the Légion d'honneur, which is an award of merit not only given to military men, but also to great artists or scientists or playwrights or painters. And it's not limited to just Frenchmen, but to anybody who's done something great in the service of France. So there are a lot of far-reaching effects for the time period of Napoleon Bonaparte. And, you know, there's more books written about Napoleon, it is said, than any one person save Christ or Mohammed.
SPEAKER 09 :
Interesting. So we're just about out of time. Let's talk just a little bit of, well, do you have any questions, Brad?
SPEAKER 16 :
I was just curious how you stay in character when you're in Colonial Williamsburg with today's audiences having, you know, the iPhone mentality, that quick attention span. How do you keep them enthralled?
SPEAKER 08 :
Absolutely. That's such a great question. And I think the key to keeping them involved is, you know, all of these stories of history are human stories. We have all as human beings experienced happiness, sadness, trials, tribulations. And I think by telling that human story and being really confident in your information, people become very, very interested. They want to know a little bit more. For you to read about the Declaration of Independence in some textbook, it might not be very interesting. It might not draw your attention. But if you can meet Thomas Jefferson and ask him why he wrote the Declaration of Independence, I think it becomes much more interesting. And by immersing yourself in that time period, for example, when I portray the Marquis de Lafayette, if I come up on a horse, I have a very accurate uniform on, my information is directed to the point. I'm so thankful for my college professor, Theodoric Bostic, because she taught me how to write praises, which is a one-page description of a massive subject. And I didn't like doing them at the time, but it's become so helpful for me as a performer by getting directly to the point. What is pertinent? What is most important for a person to walk away with on that particular subject? And I'm forever thankful for her.
SPEAKER 09 :
And so Mark Schneider, it's been many years since I was at Colonial Williamsburg. I'd like to go get on a plane right now and get there. But what can people expect? This is really something families should probably put on their list of places to go with their kids. So if you go to Colonial Williamsburg, what are you going to find?
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, you're going to find history coming to life. I'm a firm believer that all of the answers to the future are found in the past if we study our history. And Colonial Williamsburg does that the best in the world. I'm not bragging. I'm just telling you the truth. We have such a great team of staff of tradesmen that bring those 18th century trades to life, to the buildings, 89 original buildings to the 18th century buildings. that have been restored. So you can walk back in time and meet Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, enslaved individuals, women who worked with trades and ran businesses. You can meet a wide scope of people of the 18th century to include the Marquis de Lafayette and find out why they're significant, why they're important. What part did they play in the development of this great nation of the United States of America? I think it's such an important place because we call this the historic triangle. The establishment of the first lasting English colony at Jamestown in 1607 is nine miles from Williamsburg. The victory at Yorktown took place 13 miles from Williamsburg. So all of these historic, important places that formed the United States of America are right here in Williamsburg. FDR said of the Duke of Gloucester, the main street in Williamsburg, it's the most historic street in America. So we welcome you all. Come. You can find us online with Colonial Williamsburg or www.history.org. We would love to see you and share the history of this great nation.
SPEAKER 09 :
I'm going to be there soon, Mark Schneider. Thank you so much. My pleasure. And thank you so much for having me. Oh, my gosh. So interesting, Brad. It's amazing.
SPEAKER 16 :
I was there when I was a kid, and I was just enthralled.
SPEAKER 09 :
We've got to go back. That's for sure, all of us.
SPEAKER 16 :
We'll be waiting for you.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, okay. Thanks, Mark Schneider. And these discussions, so inspirational. They happen because of our sponsors, and one of those is John Bozen and Bozen Law.
SPEAKER 07 :
You don't have to suffer the consequences of someone else's negligence on your own. The attorneys at Bose & Law have extensive experience handling all types of personal injury and wrongful death claims involving motor vehicle accidents, medical malpractice, defective products, catastrophic injuries and more. Bowes & Law also assists clients with matters related to workers' compensation and Social Security Disability, SSD. Bowes & Law takes pride in truly getting to know their clients and genuinely cares about helping you seek the justice you deserve. Call Bowes & Law at 303-325-7000. 999-9999 for a complimentary consultation. That number is 303-999-9999. Call Bowes & Law now.
SPEAKER 13 :
marketing is essential for your success especially during tough economic times if you love the Kim Munson show strive for excellence and understand the importance of engaging in the battle of ideas that is raging in America then talk with Kim about partnership sponsorship opportunities email Kim at Kim Munson com Kim focuses on creating relationships with individuals and businesses that are tops in their fields. So they are the trusted experts listeners turn to when looking for products or services. Kim personally endorses each of her sponsors. Again, reach out to Kim at KimMunson.com.
SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
It is Friday. Welcome back to the Kim Munson Show. Thank you for joining us. Check out the website. That's kimmunson.com. The show comes to you because of our sponsors. And a great place to see the Game 7 of the Avalanche and the Stars is Hooters Restaurants. They have five locations, Loveland, Aurora, Lone Tree, Westminster, and Colorado Springs. And when I went to bed, the stars were ahead. I thought, ah, but the series has evened up, Brad Beck.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, that's what happens when you go to Hooters. You have a beer and you have a good juju.
SPEAKER 09 :
There you go. And they're known for their wings and great specials for lunch and a happy hour. And also on May 18th, no, May 15th, excuse me, will be the USMC Memorial Foundation Golf Tournament. Teresa Irby, who is handling our partnership liaison component of our team, and I will be out there for lunch. So if you're not a golfer but you'd like to come out, and we'd love to see you, you can just come out for lunch as well. And Brad Beck, we've talked about so many different things. We've talked about history. I look at Holly Kaysen, and I think she's a modern-day patriot. It's been just quite a show.
SPEAKER 16 :
It has. And, you know, when you tie it all together, people like Jack Jacobs, who is the Medal of Honor recipient and part of history, and then you hear Mark Schneider, who reenacts history, and Holly, who's making history. History is so fascinating and it's so important. And, you know, when you're in school, a lot of kids today, they're just told, wrote things. Well, there's a great book out that I've read called Land of Hope. It's a great primer written by Wilford McKay, who is an instructor at Hillsdale College. If you have a school that you have any influence in, that'd be a great book to bring because he brings history to life. And history is so fascinating. And if we learn, as Mark said, from our past, we're more likely not to make the same mistakes over and over again. And one of the mistakes we have down here in the Capitol is we have people who don't understand their roles. It's not to help people. It's not to give citizen things. It's to protect their equal individual natural rights and leave people alone. 700 new laws that the legislature has made. is unconscionable. And citizens should be up in arms. And yet we're so busy living our lives. You know, we need to really have the intrepidity to get involved.
SPEAKER 09 :
We do. And you and I were at a meeting recently where an elected representative And my friends, let's not be calling them officials because it's almost like we give them some power when we call them officials. They're elected representatives and who said that his role was to enforce the laws. And you and I both looked at each other and said, oh, that's not what the representative of the people are supposed to do. That's the police's job to enforce the law.
SPEAKER 16 :
It's the representative's job. opportunity to protect the rights that we all have that are inherent and they're unalienable and those are the things to pursue our happiness but people have to understand what happiness is it's self-mastery so if people are doing the things that they need to do to pursue that They have to be in control of their own lives, their own faculties, not do stupid stuff. That's why the police get involved. That's why the courts get involved, to adjudicate the differences. But people have to understand it's their government. And at all levels, they should be informed, engaged, and ask questions. Why are we doing things that way? Why is that important? Could we try something a little different? Is there some opportunity that we can come together on and move the ball forward rather than having edicts from high with more laws?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and all the laws or city ordinances, everything really should have to pass the mustard of the Constitution. And this idea that we're all treated equally under the law and there's a proper role of government. And that's what you and I are really focused on. We're in. We're in the third founding of our country. We're in this battle of ideas. And more and more people are waking up. I do believe Colorado is at the tip of the spear on this. So what you're doing with these pieces that you're writing and all that you do, you've helped so many people find their voices and just all of the different things that you do. It's an honor to be in this battle of ideas with you, Brad Beck.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, same here, Kim. When you have the voice here, the gills all over the place. front range of Colorado and Wyoming and people hear your opportunity to see and hear more things that are going on around them that they're not aware of. And it's the awareness that we have to bring to people. But more importantly, they got to get involved at some point, learn to be a better speaker and communicator, learn to be a better listener. Learn to be an inquisitive citizen. Go down to the Capitol like so many of our fellow citizens did and give their testimony to those folks who are on the opposition. Maybe something will click.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, absolutely. And so we're out of time. And our quote for the end of the show is from J.R.R. Tolkien. He said this, courage is found in unlikely places. And you saw a lot of courage down at the Capitol the other day. Absolutely. So, my friends, today, be grateful, read great books, think good thoughts, listen to beautiful music, communicate and listen well, live honestly and authentically, strive for high ideals, and like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. My friends, you are not alone. God bless you, and God bless America.
SPEAKER 10 :
Young like a new moon rising fierce through the rain and lightning wandering out into this great unknown. And I don't want no one to cry, but tell them if I don't survive.
SPEAKER 15 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
Join us as we unravel the complex matrix of U.S.-China trade tensions and their ripple effects on markets and investments. Bill Gundersen reveals the strategies behind his bold predictions and contrasts them with media headlines that often generate noise rather than clarity. This episode does more than discuss stock movements; it delves into the logic of investment recommendations in an unstable economic atmosphere, providing listeners with powerful insights into market resilience.
SPEAKER 02 :
He's been seen on CNBC, the Fox News Channel, and the Fox Business Channel. His articles can be found on MarketWatch, Seeking Alpha, TheStreet.com, and many other places. He's the author of the weekly Best Stocks Now newsletter and the inventor of the Best Stocks Now app. He's president of Gundersen Capital Management. Here is professional money manager Bill Gundersen.
SPEAKER 04 :
And welcome to the Friday, Friday the May 2nd. It's the pre-Kentucky Derby Day version of the Best Stocks Now show with professional money manager Bill Gunderson, president of Gunderson Capital Management. And I'm here with Barry Kydar, chartered financial analyst. And we have a full-blown rally. And believe it or not, we have regained almost all the losses during the tariff fear sell-off in the market, believe it or not. And I'm just going to review the article I wrote at the bottom of that sell-off. But right now the Dow is up 373 points, which puts it back to 41,125. The S&P 500 is up 59 points. That's a 1% move.
SPEAKER 1 :
5,662.
SPEAKER 04 :
And the NASDAQ, despite Amazon and Apple weakness yesterday, is up 195, that's 1.1%. That puts the NASDAQ at 17,906. The small caps back above 2,000 on the Russell 2000, it's up 1.32%. And we've got the bond market. I haven't even looked at yet today. We had a good jobs report, depending on which headline you read. I'm going to read a couple of headlines here and show you. There's different takes, one a very negative take on the same job report, depending upon the source. Right. The 10-year is at 4.27, so it's up a little bit. Gold is up a percent to 3,253. So welcome to today's Best Stocks Now show with professional money manager Bill Gunderson, president of Gunderson Capital Management. And I'm reading here that Wall Street's eight-day win streak brings it to the cusp of erasing all tariff-related losses. All right, now why do I bring that up? Well, on April the 8th, published at 5.34 a.m. was the article that I wrote. Only the second article I've written this year. I think the tariffs are going to work. That was at the very bottom of the tariff sell-off.
SPEAKER 03 :
Sentiment was at its lowest.
SPEAKER 04 :
I'm going to wear my shirt all weekend. Someone printed one up for me. It's hashtag BWRA. Bill was right again. But I'm just going to read one line from that. Well, there's a couple. I'm the guy that said to go all in during the darkest days of COVID in an article that I wrote on March 19th, 2020. Go back to March 19th, 2020 and try to remember how dark it was. And then I gave a link to the article. It's pretty bleak. i followed up just eight days later with my a new bull market has been born okay that's pretty gutsy i mean you could be really wrong you know and you could look really stupid and that those articles could not age well uh and then i wrote uh back on december 31st of of last year i said hey the nasdaq's going to be a little choppy we've got some high valuations well a lot of that valuation was taken out but i said now i'm ready to make another gutsy call the nasdaq is now down almost 20 so far this year and now i'm ready to make another gutsy macro call and then i made the case for a bottom in the market and a rebound in the market uh coming why would you listen to any other guru that's my next shirt uh barry why would you listen to jim kramer
SPEAKER 03 :
I like your choose your gurus wisely.
SPEAKER 04 :
That's a good one for this. There's some horrible gurus out there. I mean, if you do the opposite of what they say, Mike Wilson and Stanley Kalanovich or whatever his name is, Kalanovich, I would follow Bill Gunderson. That's who I would follow. You can follow me on Seeking Alpha. You can follow me on my radio show every day where I put my neck on the line. I lay it on the desk with the guillotine above it here because you could be really, really wrong. And anyways, here we are with a big rally in the market. We've erased almost all the gains. Now, as far as media coverage goes, unfortunately, most... of the media outlets are slanted and influenced by their bias. Okay, I've been blamed for having a bias. I just look at the facts. I'm a logical person. And I don't care who produces the plan, what party they come from, but most of your negative bias here, it was horrible. Like the market's gonna, the economy's gonna collapse. Here's a good example today. I thought it was a very good jobs report. It was, what, 192,000, something like that? Here's the ABC News.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, 177. The consensus was 130. Okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is so stunning. Here's the ABC News headline. You can look it up. Hiring slowed in April amid turmoil set off by Trump's Liberation Day tariffs. Okay, that's about as negative as you can get. I would not get my news from ABC News, even if they were slanted the other way. I don't want slanted news. I want the truth. That's all. I want the truth. And the truth is becoming a very precious commodity in the world today because it's very hard to find. Now, MarketWatch... Same news, same day, within minutes of ABC News, Market Watch says, April jobs report, little sign of damage from tariffs on labor market. Okay, a 180-degree different headline than ABC News. And I just say, shame, why would I ever watch ABC News? Never. Hiring slowed in April.
SPEAKER 03 :
And there's only an 8,000... Amid turmoil. Yeah, think about this. There's only an 8,000 job difference, 185 in March, right? 177 added in April. So you're talking, what, we're talking 8,000 jobs? And then read that ABC headline one more time.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, okay. ABC News, one hour ago, hiring slowed in April amid turmoil set off by Trump's Liberation Day tariffs. Try to find any positive headline whatsoever. And conversely, try to find a negative headline on the four years of Biden. So you know what? You guys are so... It's so easy to spot what you're doing. It's just horrible. You should really be ashamed of yourself for being... That's not news. The news is what happened yesterday, okay? That's news. We don't need opinion pieces, and that's for, you know, the columnists to do. But somehow they've all become columnists. And someday I'll tell you about my story.
SPEAKER 03 :
What's the old dragnet?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, just the facts, ma'am, just the facts. Okay, now. It would appear at this point in time, even though I have my issues with Donald Trump myself, I have my issues with the way he treats people and calling people morons and this and that, his policies, the tariffs seem to be working. Last night as I was getting ready for bed, I saw a headline, China says it's assessing U.S. initiative on trade talks. Okay, China is evaluating proposals by the United States for tariff negotiations aimed at resolving the trade war that has unsettled financial markets. But it wants Washington to show sincerity. China currently has 145% tariffs slapped on their goods earlier this year, prompting Beijing to impose retaliatory levies of 125%. In the meantime, ships in our harbor are not being unloaded. They're sitting there. There's only three ships in the harbor. There's usually six to eight ships unloaded. And something's got to give. Now, this may be pushing things here. It is called, okay, we're calling this De Minimis Exemption Ends. Ends today. The e-commerce players and shippers brace for impact. In other words, D-Day has come here. The de minimis trade loophole, which allowed duty-free access for cheap shipments from China and Hong Kong, has ended. with e-commerce players in the shipping industry basing for potential disruption. The provision allowed shipments worth $800 or less to avoid the U.S. duties. Now, most Chinese shipments will be subject to the new 145% tariff plus other levies based on the product. So what they've been doing in the background, Barry, they didn't have enough inspectors. To go through all these little boxes under $800, you know, of artificial flowers.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Little parts for a model train. And anything could be in there, by the way. Oh, man. So now they're geared up. They're ready to go. uh you know and chinese discounters like shine and pdd and timu are now going to be hit with that tariff starting today the de minimis loophole ended and the inspectors are ready that's pushing china to the bargaining table we'll be right back
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 04 :
And welcome back here to the second quarter of today's Best Stocks Now show. The Asia markets are surging on China's U.S. trade talk signals. FXI is the ETF I look at there for China. It's up 2.8%. And you know what? Look, we've got the leverage over China. There's no question about it. Scott Besant was right. He said, you know, what we're doing to China, it's unsustainable for them. Something has to give. And it finally is starting to crack. And I think because there's a deadline here, now they're going to start adding that tariff to everything that's unloaded from China going forward. I don't know if you watched the... I watched Brett Baer. I like Brett Baer from 6 to 7 p.m. because it's basically the old just the news, folks. Okay, here's the news. Did you see where it was from last night, Barry? It was from... Hugie, South Carolina, which is basically our backyard. That's where the Nucor steel plant.
SPEAKER 03 :
And guess who was there yesterday? Yeah, which is spelled, by the way. I was wondering where. That was where J.D. Vance went, right? Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mean, his motorcade went right down Clemens Ferry Road yesterday and showed up there and was interviewed by Brett Baer. And, of course, they entered into the U.S. Steel with their hard hats on. I have two people at our church that I go to church with that work for U.S. Steel. Not U.S. Steel, Nucor. Nucor. One's retired from Nucor. He was there for like 35 years. He retires, he builds a machine shop. Okay, I guess he just can't get away from it. And then the other guy I know is kind of an executive there at Nucor. You know, when you think about it, your steel industry is pretty important. Look around the world and how much is made of steel. I mean, when you go over the Ravenel Bridge and you see the... The freighters coming in and out and the Navy ships and the warships and the roads and the girders and the railroads. I mean, steel, your armaments, your battleships, it goes on and on and on. Airlines, I mean.
SPEAKER 03 :
Driver of Industrial Revolution.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, and I think obviously there's a very big emphasis on the blue-collar guy from this current administration. Even though, you know, Biden said he was out for the little guy and looking for the working man and this and that. But J.D. Vance was there yesterday with his hard hat on. Brett Baer does not look good in a hard hat. Most people don't. I don't look good in a hard hat either. But they were there just a few miles from our home here in Hugie, South Carolina, at the Nucor plant, and they interviewed the Nucor CEO.
SPEAKER 03 :
And that's H-U-G-E-R.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, ER. How do you get Hoogie out of that? I don't know. Right. It must be the British way of pronouncing that. I'm going to go drive by that plant here in the next few days just to see where everybody was. It looked like there was a big locomotive or something. It's kind of blurry in the background. Okay, who's the elephant in China? Huawei. Huawei. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Wang discussed concerns about Huawei technology growing AI prowess with U.S. lawmakers. Wang met the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee where these concerns were shared. The discussions included talks on Huawei's AI chips and how restrictions on NVIDIA's chips could make Huawei's chips more competitive. Well, Huawei has already taken away the mobile phone market in China from Apple, and that's why Apple is moving everything to India. They're pulling out of China, basically, is Apple. And Apple is going to move their chip making. They're going to make billions of dollars worth of chips. Guess where, Barry? In the U.S., I mean, there's more evidence that the tariffs are pushing jobs and manufacturing, and I'm not talking trinkets, chips, okay? And they're going to really put the heat on Taiwan Semiconductor on the Arizona plant. That's where Apple wants their chips built. And there's more, you know, there's more results coming from, you know, the trade war that's taking place. It is pushing. But Wang, especially in China, right? Yes, and the amount of investment is up to a trillion dollars, I think.
SPEAKER 03 :
something like well i mean you've had a soft you know 500 billion i saw something that said 8 trillion over a handful of years because you had uh you know 500 i think 500 billion announced by taiwan semi maybe a month and a half ago and there's just you know you keep adding these numbers up and we're not talking you know 5 billion they're talking you know 500 billion i saw where Intel was going to invest, I think they're trying to invest $125 billion, and then I looked at their market cap, and I think their market cap was like $150 billion. I'm like, how do you invest $125 if you're only worth $150? But you've got some serious, I mean, it's kicking off some serious investment, or at least saying that people are going to invest, right, in terms of what they're announcing. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
So anyways, this is good that Wang is giving them boots on the ground details of what is going on. I think he doesn't want the chip restriction. I think he wants to be able to sell the NVIDIA chips to China. But he says by far that their most formidable company in China is Huawei. And, of course, you know, Huawei was kicked out of the U.S., if you remember. Huawei was selling their phones at Best Buy. And Huawei had a spokesman, an American guy that worked as the spokesman for Huawei, and he would go on, no, we're not putting espionage chips in the phones, et cetera. But apparently they were, and Huawei, you cannot buy Huawei phones anymore. So what did Huawei do? I mean, they've really made their phones a lot better. uh you know when you make the phones and in china at an apple plant at or at foxconn i'm sure you learn all the secrets and can reverse engineer everything so anyways it's sticky business right now trump says countries that buy iran's oil won't be allowed to do business with the u.s so go ahead buy some iranian oil you will not be allowed to do business with the u.s and It appears that a deal with Iran is coming to fruition, a nuclear deal. He calls it something part two, new and improved or something like that. And oil prices, $58 a barrel right now. It got down to $56 yesterday. Let's see. We got Apple. Okay, Apple is the elephant in the room, two of them. Well, Amazon is always the Amazon. It's the Amazon in the room. Those two companies have reported earnings. And you know what? Apple, I'm sorry, they're not coming up with anything new. They've lost their innovation. And Apple is down 3.1% after a very soggy report. Has Apple become a soggy company? Absolutely, yes. I mean, it's not as soggy as Kimberly-Clark. But here's their quarter that they presented. You can't hide behind the numbers. Their sales were up 5% year over year.
SPEAKER 1 :
5%.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mean, those are Johnson & Johnson-like numbers. And their earnings were up a measly 8%. You now have a single-digit grower in Apple who just lacks the innovation these days under the Cook regime. We'll be right back. This is Bill Gunderson. Thank you for tuning in to today's Best Stocks Now, Best Inverse Funds Now show. I put several hours of research in during the wee hours of the morning each day to bring you the very best cutting edge stories that I can. To get two free weeks of my newsletter, go to GundersonCapital.com. To talk to us about our fee-based only money management services, call us at 855-611-BEST. Now, back to the second half of the show.
SPEAKER 06 :
And welcome back here to the second half of today's Best Stocks Now show. Well, we've got a lot of earnings in the books after this week.
SPEAKER 04 :
I just look at the headlines of every earnings report during the week, early in the morning before the market begins, when I can think straight, and there's been a lot. There's been a lot of earnings. I would guess we're up to about 75% of the companies. The one takeaway for sure is the fear of the tariff impact was way overblown, and that's one of the reasons why you've seen the market come storming back as these earnings reports have come in. One by one, most of the companies have said, as of now, we see very little impact from the tariffs on our particular business. Now, yes, there have been some that are in the direct line, especially if they offshore in China and bring it here. If it's an important thing, like Apple iPhones, they're getting a pass. But if it's a lot of the trinkets and whatnot... uh... in smaller stuff you know they're in the direct line uh... but that's by far the minority of companies i've looked at the headlines of every earnings report this week and i would say maybe ten percent are saying you know we think it's going to have a material impact on our business that's just my own uh... uh... you know i haven't documented i haven't kept track that's just my own take And you're seeing it show up in the markets here with getting back to almost where they were before, you know, at the bottom of where they were before the tariff fears. The tariff fears really began. It wasn't Liberation Day. It was before Liberation Day. Liberation Day was exactly one month ago, right? And I think if you go from Liberation Day, which was April 2nd, To May 2nd, I think we're at least back to where we were then. But the markets did.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think we're back to where we started.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, but before that, we were down just on the fear. It was when he actually imposed the tariffs.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, yeah, before we had Canada. It was kind of the Canada-Mexico kind of spat.
SPEAKER 04 :
That's when it started. and that's i mean when he was elected the markets went on a on a run that was way overblown to the upside okay and the market seemed to have forgot that he part of his what he ran on was tariffs i mean that was probably that and the border were probably the two biggest things that he ran on And the market just seemed to discount the whole tariff thing. And then they seemed to be caught by surprise when he actually started to announce the tariff, starting with Canada and Mexico, which is kind of strange. I mean, yeah, well, that was the fentanyl. I'll tell you what he was mad about. It was the fentanyl. And them allowing that fentanyl and killing, you know, 100,000 people, more than 100,000, 200,000 people. And that's why he began there, and that's when the market started selling off. Okay, back to Apple. Apple, a member of the Dow. Apple, a member of the S&P 500. It fits right in the Dow right now because the Dow is full of a lot of soggy stocks. And Apple has now become a soggy stock. They declared a dividend. Okay, yes, it's a dividend payer. Their earnings of $1.65 beat by 3 cents. Revenue beat by $840 million. But at the end of the day, you've got a single-digit grower in Apple. these days. But, you know, look, you can't knock what it's done. It's 2.8, let's see, Apple's market cap right now, AAPL, the market cap is 3.1 trillion. 3.1 trillion. And that compares with Microsoft, 3.1 trillion. Microsoft is 3.2 trillion. So there's your Trojan dollar babies. And I don't think NVIDIA is $3 trillion anymore. NVIDIA is $2.8 trillion.
SPEAKER 03 :
I saw a stat where yesterday you had, I think it was yesterday alone, $8 trillion worth of companies in the S&P 500 reported. $3 trillion of that was Apple.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes. Now, at the same time, Apple said they're going to source billions of dollars worth of U.S.-made chips in a supply chain shift. So if you want to see evidence, I mean, Besant said it. He said, watch what the companies do. What has Apple done this year? Apple has moved all of their production of iPhones out of China. Obviously, China's been the biggest violator of dumping stuff on the market, counterfeiting, whatever the case may be, violating patents, copyrights, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so they're taking the brunt of this tariff war. And I think really the tariff war is aimed at China mostly. Look at the tariff on China, 140%. And so Apple not only has moved their production out of China, They're sourcing, okay, the supply chain. They're moving it in a big supply chain shift. They're going to source billions of dollars worth of U.S.-made chips in supply chain shifts. So I would just say that's a piece of evidence that the media doesn't want to admit that is working in the favor of the United States against the rest of the world. Now, Amazon's caught up in it. They talk up AI potential on their earnings call. But listen to this. They point to limited tariff impact so far. We'll see what happens today. Now, it's going to be interesting when you log on to, I'm sure they're still carrying a lot of inventory that's not tariff impacted, but you're going to start seeing it on Amazon's website and Timu. I've bought a few things from Timu. I haven't been too happy with it. It takes forever to get and the quality is garbage. I mean, if that's what you're looking for, I mean, you get to get the bottom price, that's for sure. But we'll see how this all affects Amazon. Of course, they've seen a lot of front running at Amazon, getting ahead of it before the tariffs hit. But let's just take a look at Amazon's quarter here. I think if they didn't have the AWS, I think it would be a soggy stock by now, really. Amazon sales were up 9%. I want to say that's their first single-digit earnings or sales growth. I can't ever remember a single-digit number from Amazon. But their earnings were up 62% year over year. That's a pretty healthy jump in earnings.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right, especially based off that revenue number.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and it's the front-running. It's the front-running. I think they're going to have a pretty rough quarter coming up. because now you know the front running is over there's invent people have the inventory has shifted to people's homes that have gotten ahead of all of this amazon stock is up three quarters of a percent right now and we we backed out of amazon stock we own it in our value portfolio the relative value out amazon has had a forward pe average of about 35 over the years 30 to 35 And it's currently trading at quite a discount to that. It's trading at, let's see, 188 divided by 7. It's trading at about 25 times forward earnings. So we own it in our relative value portfolio, which, by the way, is off to a very good start. That's my favorite portfolio. right now okay amazon talks up ai potential but look at the bottom line it's a pretty sluggish report uh from amazon okay now we get to big oil this is not a good place to be invested right now oil and gas is not a good place to be invested right now The product that they produce costs a lot of money to get out of the ground and get it to the refineries. And, you know, oil's selling at $58 per barrel right now. That's a big negative for the oil and gas patch. ExxonMobil, their earnings down 33% year over year, and their sales down 1%. And it is also in the Dow, a soggy Dow stock. They pay a dividend of 3.75%, but the Spring Texas headquartered company, ExxonMobil, just not a very good investment these days. Now, you could call it a pure value, not a relative value stock. It's always traded at a low P.E. Its P.E. is currently 6%. And that's about where it belongs, to be honest. So anyways, we don't own it. Trading at a forward P of 13, and that's about right where it belongs. So it doesn't make sense from a relative value basis, does Exxon. Okay, when we come back, a lot more reports that I want to go through. Some good, some bad. We'll be right back.
SPEAKER 07 :
You gotta go where you wanna go, do what you wanna do, and win whoever you wanna be. You gotta go where you wanna go, do what you wanna do, and win whoever you wanna be.
SPEAKER 04 :
And welcome back here to the final segment of today's Best Stocks Now show. We talked about ExxonMobil. How about Shell and Chevron? They're both in that same business, that same industry. Shell is up 2.9%. It's based out of the U.K. I just don't think that's a very good place to be invested right now, the oil and gas sector, because of the price of the commodity that they sell. And it doesn't look like world demand, worldwide demand. Now, if U.S. and China could get a trade deal, Barry, That could set the world economy on fire very quickly and get Chinese factories really up and running again. I've got to believe that things are kind of coming. I would say the weakness in oil. Don't you think a lot of the Chinese factories are kind of grinding to a halt right now? You can't afford to produce inventory that's not going to sell. Right?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I mean, that's where I said yesterday where, I mean, we're at a point where, you know, it seems like a deal needs to get made or will get made, whether it's, you know, China's potentially slowing down on the factory side or at some point, right, we may have some empty shelves on this end, right? So there's a deal to be made. It's just, you know, when do we get there, right?
SPEAKER 04 :
So yeah, what, what is that a big motivating factor for us to get a deal to start to see the, uh, the stuff that home Depot and Lowe's and I mean, how much in the things do you open a box and it says made in China, the inventory is going to start drying up on the shelves. Uh, and of course in China, however, they're having to shut down the factories and stop production of things because they can't afford to have inventory piling up that they're not going to sell. So anyways, I think oil demand will come back if there's a deal made. Magna International is an interesting one to look at. They're a Canadian. They provide a lot of parts to the auto. They build a lot of parts for the auto manufacturers. They're headquartered in Ontario, Canada. That stock is down 2.9%. They give an update on their tariff mitigation plans. And that's another one that we still don't have a deal with is Canada. And Canada's biggest thing, obviously, their oil, their timber, wood, and I would say also the auto manufacturing. They have a big part of the manufacturing that obviously Trump would like to bring that back to the U.S. on our side of the border. Wendy slashes guidance. Now, this isn't a tariff thing. They call it the current consumer environment. And I would just say, you know, we saw the same thing at McDonald's. We saw the same thing at Domino's Pizza. There's more competition for your dollar now. Out there with DoorDash. That's the fastest growing restaurant company in the world is DoorDash and Uber Eats because they're involved with all of them. And in the meantime, a company like Wendy's is being hurt by all of the competition out there. Not a good area to be invested in. Chipotle, Wendy's, McDonald's, the fast food restaurants right now. Ah, let's see. Here's another one. Reddit. Reddit had a very good report. We owned Reddit for a while and it just got slammed during the sell off and I backed out of it. Sold it at $169.82. From there, it went down to 80. It got cut in half after we sold it for a 15% loss. You have to mitigate. You have to have some kind of a... Once in a while, one will get away from you where it's like an overnight thing. It goes down 48%. That happens. That happens in the market. The mitigation against that is diversification. You never want one position to be too big in your overall portfolio. You can't own one stock at a time unless you're owning some great big company. You work for Home Depot or Costco. Costco has been a good one stock if you were going to own one stock. But Reddit had a good report of 2.2%. And I talked to a guy. He's worked for Costco for over 30 years. He's done real well. With all his options and his 401k and everything like that. Not bad at all. Here's the disaster of the day. And let's remember that this is the guy that used to own Twitter. This is Dorsey's Square. That is another area with tons of competition. Point of sale software.
SPEAKER 03 :
Payments.
SPEAKER 04 :
Payments. The competition is just unbelievable. And Block, you know, has so much competition. That stock is downtown. 21.6%. Now, Dorsey's done all right. I mean, he sold out to Musk at a very high price, walked away. He started Twitter, which was a game changer. Twitter was a very disruptive company in the way we communicate, give you access to big stars and whatnot, follow what they're saying, etc., Of course, Trump used it heavily during his first presidency. That may have costed him the next four years because he didn't come away looking real good with some of the tweets he sent out. Now you've got Elon Musk at the helm of that company, but Block is just getting destroyed today, down 21%. Okay, another one is Duolingo. That's been a very good growth stock here recently. It's not cheap, but it's a growth stock. It's used in the high schools. It's used in the colleges. It's the number one software for learning languages. Duolingo, D-U-O-L, is up 14.7% today. Phenomenal growth. Phenomenal growth there for Duolingo. Their sales up 26%. Their earnings up 38%. And I think we are out of time. We are out of time. Now, that trip to Cleveland, just three weeks out right now, and that's filling up the workshop and the appointments during the day. You can make a reservation for the workshop or to meet with the team in person, the same one you hear here on the radio at 855-611-BEST, 855-611-BEST, to get a four-week trial to the newsletter, the app, all of the messages I send out during the day, including the buys and sells I make in each of the six portfolios. Go to GundersenCapital.com. GundersenCapital.com. Have a great day, everybody.
SPEAKER 01 :
This show is not a solicitation to buy or sell any securities. Bill Gunderson or clients of Gunderson Capital Management may have long or short positions in stocks mentioned during the show. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Gunderson Capital Management is a fee-based registered investment advisory firm. All accounts are held at Charles Schwab. Schwab is a member of SIPC and FINRA.
As the conversation shifts, Gallagher and Davis explore the intricate dynamics of identity politics, illustrating the sometimes absurd lengths to which public figures go to appeal to their audiences. With anecdotes about political figures and real-time reactions from listeners, this episode offers a candid look at the challenges of navigating public opinion in an age of instantaneous feedback. The result is a humorous yet thought-provoking discussion that underscores the necessity of not only having a sense of humor but also understanding the power of perception in modern media.
SPEAKER 02 :
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.
SPEAKER 04 :
Let me ask you, do you get that criticism? Oh, all the time. And it's deserved.
SPEAKER 05 :
It's deserved. I absolutely do.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I know it's deserved with me, too. The criticism is we interrupt callers too much.
SPEAKER 05 :
I mean, you can't let people go for seven minutes. I mean, dude, but every once in a while, should I give people a little more rope, a little more time before jumping in with whatever golden point I have? And I'm constantly working on that. So you had great idea. Number one, you said, and I want to get this right. You said, listen, tell you what, here in the hundred days, I want Kamala voters to call and tell me what you guys think about the fact that Trump has sealed the border. Correct. People start to call you.
SPEAKER 04 :
And it seemed like a simple formula. I'm like, OK, you don't like Trump, but just tell me how you're receiving the news. Absolutely. That confirmed by Maggie Haberman of The New York Times that our border is closed. How do you feel about Trump accomplishing his signature policy goal? And so John from Chicago called. It all went downhill from there. So here's what's funny about this. And so you set it up perfectly. But let me just tell you that let's stipulate all the years you and I have been in this business. A talk show bit. requires you to either be in on the bit or you're not. And if you're not in on the bit, you tend to get really agitated. It can be weird. It can be weird, and it can be frustrating for people who get mad at a bit. Here was the bit. I can break it down quickly. John in Chicago called, just babbling, and I'm like, he wouldn't answer the question about the border. He wanted to go through his MSNBC talking points, and I was trying to get him to stick to the question. All I want to know is... How do you feel about Trump sealing the border? And he would not. And he was interrupting me. And he kept yelling at me. So then I said, okay, you win. People are mad at me for interrupting him.
SPEAKER 05 :
I'm turning the mic. Did the text line light up?
SPEAKER 04 :
It's like, Mike, let him talk. Let him finish. Let him talk. Precisely. Which I got. So I thought, okay. All right, I'll fix your wagon. You don't want me to talk? I'll turn the damn mic off. So then I took calls, and I didn't say a word. I only wanted Kamala voters. So then they were mad at me for not saying anything. Let me give you an example. And you asked for this yesterday, so I had the team pull an example. So here's a guy. I said, okay, you win. You beat me into submission. I'm a big mouth. I interrupt too much. I'm a terrible person. I'm a horrible talk show host. I don't know what I'm doing. So here's what I'll do. I'll turn the mic off. I'll say, hello, Bubba in Grapevine, and the floor is yours, and I'll turn the mic off. And I did it repeatedly. Here's an example. Here's Harry in Anderson, South Carolina. Hello, Harry in Anderson.
SPEAKER 03 :
I'm Hey, Mike, how are you? Am I correct saying happy belated birthday? Did you not recently have a birthday?
SPEAKER 04 :
Hello? I'm not interrupting you.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I'm just calling. I'm calling in. No, I did not vote for Trump. So that's how it went. That is so uncomfortable.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, it was awkward. The poor man. And when I felt bad about doing it, even though I'm doing a bit.
SPEAKER 05 :
It's genius. It's genius.
SPEAKER 04 :
But he was a nice man.
SPEAKER 05 :
I imagine, I told you this last night when you told me about this. I said, please, let's discuss it. Is there were people who were not familiar with what had preceded this. Correct. Who might have just, let's turn on the Mike Gallagher show today. And they thought he might have slumped over with a stroke or something.
SPEAKER 04 :
Is Mike seizing up? What's going on? Well, here's what's funny. So I've got this text line, which I admit I obsess over. It's an instant feedback. If you're a jerk, you get blocked right away. But I do like getting the feedback from people through my text line, which is 800-655-MIKE. 800-655-6453. We get a lot of comments during the M&M experience, which I share with you. The same people who were attacking me for interrupting the first caller, you're an ass for...
SPEAKER 01 :
Hi, everyone. Tom Mustin here for the Legal Help Center. If you or someone you know were diagnosed with lung cancer or mesothelioma, listen up. This could be the result of asbestos exposure, and you could be entitled to significant compensation. Call us at 800-260-8700. That's 800-260-8700. To find out if you qualify for a cash settlement, we have legal professionals standing by right now to take your call, and they'll tell you if you qualify. The call is free, the consultation is free, and you'll speak with a live agent right now. So, if you or someone you know were diagnosed with lung cancer or mesothelioma, Call right now to find out if you qualify for a cash settlement. Call 800-260-8700. That's 800-260-8700 to see how much money you could potentially get. Advertisement sponsored by Legal Help Center. May not be available in all states.
SPEAKER 04 :
interrupting john how dare you you're stupid you're well then they got enraged well then they didn't like silent mike then they're mad at me you're being a petulant child this it was the same people it's the same ones you're so stupid how dare you these people are trying to be nice to you and you're not responding it's like you can't i said and then of course because it was a bit Quote, unquote, capital B-I-T. It was a shtick.
SPEAKER 05 :
How long did you let this go? Five minutes. How many calls did you take?
SPEAKER 04 :
Five minutes is forever. Oh, yeah, maybe eight. It took forever. It was an eternity.
SPEAKER 05 :
People would call you, Bill in New York, and, yeah, Mike, hi.
SPEAKER 04 :
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. How are you today, Mike? And the trouble was a lot of them sounded like nice people. So here I am, the bully, the ogre. But the best part was, again, people not getting the bit. There was a guy, an American Airlines guy. He literally signed his email, his flaming email, with American Airlines at the bottom. He's from Chicago. So an American Airlines guy, you're the rudest, most obnoxious thing. I'm like, I couldn't help it. I wrote it back. Oh, man. Your lack of self-awareness is stunning but amusing because it really is. It's like you don't even get it. How do you not understand the bit? You've got to have some fun, man.
SPEAKER 05 :
You've got to have some fun.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, we've got to have a sense of humor over Tim. You know, you mentioned Tim Walz, and I've got to get to this.
SPEAKER 05 :
And I don't know why I did, but okay, sure.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I'm with you. I don't want to hear cackles. I don't want to hear her giggling. And she did. She did the same thing. Something about elephants in India. Have you seen the video? I mean, it's so bad. I'm thinking, dear Lord, thank you for blessing us with dodging that bullet.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank God he won. Thank God he won.
SPEAKER 04 :
Mark, I would have retired. I couldn't do it. I could not. Can you imagine every day playing clips from her?
SPEAKER 05 :
I do. And not just for the content or the horrible things that she's doing, but just that voice. And listen, there's nothing misogynistic about that. There are guys who I don't want to listen to a lot as well. Maybe some I even agree with sometimes. Like, boy, I don't know about this. And just thank heavens, thank heavens, thank heavens. And so, yeah, so there she was out there talking about chaos and constitutional crises. And it's like, I'm sorry, you are who?
SPEAKER 04 :
So along comes Tim Walz. They're both coming back for some reason. And Tim Walz thought it would be smart to tell on a panel that the reason he was picked for the ticket. Was so that he could code talk to white guys. Yeah. Mark, when you admit that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Guys who watch football and fix their trucks. Because when I think manly man watching football and pulling the linkage on a 67 truck, I think of Tim Wall.
SPEAKER 04 :
But the admission that we're going to talk in code to white guys fixing their truck and put them at ease.
SPEAKER 05 :
To give them permission to vote for this.
SPEAKER 04 :
For this.
SPEAKER 05 :
He put it in some weird dismissive way. It's like, what?
SPEAKER 04 :
The black woman is this? I mean, and he said it out loud. Mark, do you know, I mean, do people realize how awful that is? To code talk, we're going to talk in code to white guys. Identity politics is everything to these people. Last night on CNN, Ana Navarro, who is this smug, sanctimonious, really, really... reprehensible... The meltdown? Well, the meltdown with Scott Jennings?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, there's one with Scott Jennings and one with Sir Michael Singleton.
SPEAKER 04 :
And that meltdown was, wait a minute, blacks brought over on slave ships. Here she is telling the black guy. He's like, wait a minute, you're telling me about blacks and slavery? And she's like, well, my people are Latino. My people are Latino. We're being oppressed. It's like, no, I'm oppressed. No, I'm oppressed. No, I'm a victim. No, I'm a victim. It's unbelievable. That clip, and incidentally, the host, what's her name, Abby, whatever her name is?
SPEAKER 05 :
Abby Phillip.
SPEAKER 04 :
She got so uncomfortable with it, she tried to toss to break. They were yelling at each other into the break. They were still yelling at each other. I mean, it touched a nerve.
SPEAKER 02 :
Download the podcast and hear all of Mike and Mark's conversations at MikeOnline.com for the Eminem experience.
As we pivot to environmental discussions, Larry Elder brings insights from his latest documentary on electric vehicles, shedding light on the complexities beneath the surface of the EV industry. From technological marvels to environmental concerns, Larry explores what truly makes an EV. Listen in to get a comprehensive look at the conversation surrounding America's policies and innovations.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thanks for watching.
SPEAKER 13 :
Phillip, welcome to MyPillow in Minnesota. How are you?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I'm doing pretty good, Mike. Good. I'm sick and tired of what America has come to. Okay, we live... these illegals in for four years, and now they're just destroying America. Everybody's against everything. Schools are very important. I know. And they should be number one on our list, especially for that gentleman, because my daughter was dyslexic. Right. And so I understand his sentiments on this. having his boy, I think it was a boy, in school.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, I mean, the bottom line, you look at, Philip, you're so right when we look around right now and see the condition of America. Look at Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security. She does an Easter Sunday outing. She lays her purse down by her table, and a guy snatches her purse. They catch him. He's an illegal immigrant. Tom Holman was addressing this on Fox News last night.
SPEAKER 12 :
If you're going to rob from the Secretary of Homeland Security, that means you're going to do just about anything. So he picked the wrong target. He got right on it. He's now arrested. He'll be held accountable. Secretary Nome is a no-nonsense secretary, and she's going to continue to enforce the law. So I think this is a pure example of illegal animals committing crimes across the city, big and small, shoplifting, armed robbery, up to murder and rape of young women. Again, you look at what we've done since President Trump's been in office, ISIS arrested just under 70,000 illegal aliens in the interior. And border patrols arrested another 34,000. CBP altogether arrested about 67,000. This administration is breaking records every day. ISIS already arrested three times more criminals in three months than Joe Biden did in a year. And we're going to keep it going.
SPEAKER 13 :
And, you know, as we approach Trump's 100 days, that's this week, and they're going to do polls that say, oh, Americans are disappointed and they don't like the direction. Check this out. You know, the Washington Post had a headline that Trump deported U.S. citizens. Children were deported. Here was Marco Rubio, and this is so important. Here he was on NBC News. I believe he was on Meet the Press.
SPEAKER 06 :
Three U.S. citizen children have been deported with their mothers. Now, this is according to The Washington Post. The family's lawyer says one of them is a four-year-old with stage four cancer, deported without medication or ability to contact doctors. The family's lawyers are also saying their clients were denied communication with family and legal representatives before being deported. And it's raising concerns about the issue of due process, that it's being violated. So let me ask you, Is everyone on US soil, citizens and non-citizens, entitled to due process?
SPEAKER 16 :
Yes, of course. But let me tell you, it looks at an immigration standing. The laws are very specific. If you're in this country unlawfully, you have no right to be here and you must be removed. That's what the law says. Somehow over the last 20 years, we've completely lost this notion that somehow or completely adopted this idea that, yes, we have immigration laws. But once you come into our country illegally, it triggers all kinds of rights that can keep you here indefinitely. That's why we were being flooded at the border. we've ended that and that's why you don't you see a historically low number of people not just trying to cross our border trying to cross the border into panama all the way down in the darien gap i mean it's been a huge help for those countries as well on the headline that's a misleading headline okay three u.s citizens ages four seven and two were not deported their mothers who are legally in this country were deported the children went with their mothers those children are u.s citizens They can come back into the United States if there's their father or someone here who wants to assume them. But ultimately, who was deported was their mother, who was their mothers who were here illegally. The children just went with their mothers. But it wasn't like you guys make it sound like ICE agents kicked down the door and grabbed a two year old and threw him on an airplane. That's misleading.
SPEAKER 06 :
That's just not true. Just to be clear, because I do want to get to the overhaul at the State Department. Is it the U.S. policy to deport children, even U.S. citizens, with their families? And I hear what you're saying, without due process. Just to be very clear there.
SPEAKER 16 :
No, no, no, no, no. Again, if someone's in this country unlawfully, illegally, that person gets deported. If that person is with a two-year-old child or has a two-year-old child and says, I want to take my child with you, with me, you have two choices. You can say yes, of course you can take your child, whether they're a citizen or not, because it's your child. Or you can say, yes, you can go, but your child must stay behind. And then your headlines would read, U.S. holding hostage two-year-old, four-year-old, seven-year-old while mother deported. So the parents make that choice. I imagine those three U.S. citizen children have fathers here in the United States. They can stay with their father. That's up to their family to decide where the children go. Children go with their parents. Parents decide where their children go. The U.S. deported their mothers who were illegally in America.
SPEAKER 13 :
Does that make sense to you? Doesn't that make sense? Doesn't it make all the sense in the world? Wow. Now, some would say my decision to bring my show to Minnesota today for My Pillow Day didn't make sense either. And I thought if we could deliver over 100,000, I think we might get close. Christian says we have a final number for this hour that should make us all smile. Let's do a little drum roll here, Dan. Again, our goal was to do 100,000 in one day. Here's the new number. Wow, $101,344. You did it. The Mike Gallagher audience took us over our goal of, wow, I'm going to start weeping. I'm going to be like Jerry Lewis. I'm going to start breaking down right live on the show. Thank you. Over $101,000 in sales in one day to show MyPillow that we've got your back. And this is so uplifting. Believe me, there's a bunch of smiles all over the place. All the employees here at MyPillow are so grateful for your support, and I am too. Thank you for making today. Look, this is what we wanted to do. I thought, wouldn't it be crazy if we go to MyPillow for a day and sell over $100,000 in product? $101,000 and change. Thank you, thank you, thank you. God bless you for your support for the one and only MyPillow.
SPEAKER 18 :
Thank you all again for supporting a great American company in my pillow. Next, we hear from the sage of South Central, Larry Elder, as he discusses his findings from his new documentary, Electric Vehicles, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
SPEAKER 13 :
Larry, tell us about your documentary, Electric Vehicles, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. It's available now at salemnow.com. I saw it and I was riveted by it because, look, my position has always been, if people want to buy an EV, buy an EV, just don't mandate it. You can't shove that down our throats. But what were your surprising takeaways? What did you learn as you dove into this subject? And why did you want to tackle this particular subject matter?
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, impactful pictures came to me and asked me what I thought were some issues that should be tackled that were tackled. And I mentioned that because I'm here in California. Governor Gavin Newsom has mandated by the year 2035 no more sale of new gas powered cars. Joe Biden made similar statements. And however you feel on the issue of climate change, whether you feel, as Joe Biden does, that climate change represents an existential threat. whether you feel it's much ado about nothing or whether you're sort of in the middle, that there is climate change, that man, activity has had something to do with it, but we ought not force-feed so-called renewables down people's throats. However you feel about that is pretty irrelevant. My question is, is an EV, all things considered, better for the planet than a gas-powered car? Before I started this, Michael, I'd never driven an EV. I just sort of assumed that EVs were better for the planet than gas-powered cars. And then I got into it and drove an EV for the first time. The technology is absolutely amazing. The self-driving stuff is amazing. I went to one of the biggest auto shows in the world and saw all the cutting-edge technology involved in an EV, and it was quite riveting. But then you look at the other things. It takes fossil fuel generated energy to manufacture the EV, to transport the EV, to get it to the dealership. It takes primarily fossil fuel manufactured energy to make the electricity to charge the EV. So you look at the overall carbon footprint, it's probably not any smaller than a gas powered car, arguably might even be bigger. And then you get to the ugly part, which is the growing dependence on China for the computer chips that go into the car, and more importantly for the minerals, some called rare earth minerals, lithium, cobalt, and nickel that go into the battery. And China either manufactures this stuff or produces this stuff or mines this stuff in China or in places controlled by China, like the Republic of the Congo, where kids, children, boys and girls are using their bare hands to dig out this cobalt, which is toxic. I think if people knew that slave labor was being used, these kids are being paid a dollar or two a day to do this, they would rethink what they think about EVs. This is from just a humanitarian standpoint. And then you have the national security standpoint. We're enriching China, making us more dependent upon China. Do you really want to do that? So if you look at all these things, the good, the bad and the ugly. I think you're going to come away with saying things like, well, you know, maybe I should think this through just a little bit more. I don't tell people what to think. I don't put it down their throats. It's up to you to decide. But make sure you know exactly what goes into manufacturing, transporting. The battery has to be disposed of. The battery has a shorter shelf life than a battery used in a gas-powered car. And because of the toxic minerals that are in it, if you bury the battery, it can leak and threaten the underground water storage. There are all sorts of things that I would urge people to take into consideration before they think about buying a DV.
SPEAKER 13 :
It's like everything you do. It's a real balanced, reasonable approach to what has been a one-sided conversation. And look, again, the movie's available now at SalemNow.com. You go to SalemNow.com to watch it. And, you know, I just had a brainstorm. We ought to screen Electric Vehicles, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly starring Larry Elder on the cruise ship. You know, they got a movie theater on the ship. What do you think?
SPEAKER 14 :
That's a wonderful idea. And by the way, the reviews have been extraordinary. I got a review by the Daily Signal. I got a review by a guy named Paul Bond. He used to be with Newsweek and Hollywood Reporter, some other reviews. And if you go on IMDb, it has a higher ranking right now than Casablanca. Now it's early. There's a smaller sample size of reviews. But right now it has a higher IMDb rating than Casablanca, one of America's most beloved movies. So I'm pretty proud of that.
SPEAKER 13 :
Move over, Humphrey Vogart. Larry Elder is here. Larry's in town. I can't wait to see you in August for the big cruise. I know, look, and I'm getting a ton of text messages. You're so beloved and so popular. In fact, I just talked to Carolyn Cassidy, our general manager here in Tampa and Columbus. They had a big event the other night, I guess Friday in Columbus, big sold-out event in person where hundreds of people came out to see you. So we're going to have hundreds of people on the cruise ship, my friend, in August. I can't wait to see you then.
SPEAKER 18 :
Sometimes Mike gets feedback saying he interrupts callers too much. Well, now he has a new approach.
SPEAKER 13 :
Okay. All right. So I'm going to read some texts. At one point with John, I literally sat back. I turned my microphone off and let him ramble for nearly a minute. It was like 47. I watched it. It was 48. I didn't say a word. Didn't say a word. And look at these text messages. Chicago, OMG, you are like a petulant child when someone disagrees with you. Let the guy make his point. You are the worst debater on air. Debater? I turned the mic off! Florida, Mike, you do interrupt. You get frustrated with the caller and cut him off. Why don't you let him talk? He ultimately will hang himself. South Carolina, you kind of did interrupt the guy. I turned my mic off. Okay, all right, so you know what? You win. And here's the final one that really got to me. Michigan, I'm 100% behind Trump, but tell Mike to shut the hell up and let the man talk. Boy, he can be an ass. And he finished the word. Again, I'm sitting here turning the... So here's what I'm going to do. All right, you win. You got it. You're right. I just interrupt. So here we go. Linda in Michigan. Linda, hold on, Linda. Let me just first of all say hello. How are you, Linda? I'm good. Good. I'm turning my mic off now. Go.
SPEAKER 19 :
I voted for Kamala twice. I mean, I voted for Kamala. I never voted for Trump, in other words. And my point is you always interrupt a person. They can never finish what they got to say before. You step in because you don't like what they're going to say. I don't like the way that you talk when you divide us. You say we, them. I don't like that. That's ugly. But to say you're a Christian man, you shouldn't do that. That's not appropriate for you to do that. And you like to argue with people, so you know you're wrong. And that is all that I have to say. So, goodbye and have a great day.
SPEAKER 13 :
24 minutes before the hour. Here's line one. Here's Harry in Anderson, South Carolina. Hello, Harry in Anderson.
SPEAKER 11 :
Hi, Mike. How are you? And am I correct in saying happy belated birthday? Did you not recently have a birthday? Okay.
SPEAKER 13 :
Hello? I'm not interrupting you.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, I'm just calling. I'm calling in. No, I did not vote for Trump. And I do think he did what he said he was going to do as far as the border goes. But no, I did not vote for Trump.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
Is that it? I'm here. I'm here. Okay, thank you. Is that it? Okay, thank you. Candace, Clemson, South Carolina. Hello, Candace. Hi, Mike.
SPEAKER 17 :
How are you doing? No, I didn't vote for Trump. I voted for Kamala, but I love what he's doing with the border. It should have been done. The only thing I have against Trump is they're not with the FEMA funds for North Carolina. When we got hit pretty hard, they're not matching that. I saw on the news they weren't matching that. They had stopped matching the FEMA funds 100%, and they're not helping Arkansas. Other than that, I love this show. I listen to it every day. I am a Democrat, but I don't agree with that men in sports and kids operation. We don't agree with that. I don't know what happened to the Democratic Party. It just went crazy. I mean, a lot of us are very conservative. You know, I like some of the Republicans. I like some of the Democrats. That's all I have to say. I thank you.
SPEAKER 13 :
Thank you, Candace. I kind of like this. This is actually easier for me. I mean, really, I don't have to put any work into this. This is actually going a little better than I thought it would. You happy now? Hey, South Carolina, you happy? Hey, Michigan, am I being an ass? Let's just keep going here. This is kind of good. I may be on to something here. Raul in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hi, Raul. How are you?
SPEAKER 10 :
Hey, Mike. How you doing? I didn't vote for Donald Trump, but there's something about a politician that says he's going to do something and actually does it. It's, you know... It makes you kind of like the man, you know what I'm saying? I am a transplant to Cincinnati from California, and I guess I could see the world different now. You know, when you're around a lot of people that think a certain way, then you think the same way as they do. And now that I've gotten away from California and the West Coast, I could see that. Maybe, uh, wasn't always right. So, um, I didn't vote for Donald Trump. I can honestly say as a liberal, uh, liberal at that, uh, I agree with it. I can see, I can understand how the wages were, were going to crap because I am in the transportation industry and I could see it now. Um, and I'm probably going to vote for him again if I get an opportunity. Thank you, Mike.
SPEAKER 13 :
Thank you, Raul. I appreciate your call very much. I'm turning my mic back on now. You should read the text messages from the jerks who were mad at me for interrupting. Now they're mad at me for not talking. I'm not kidding. Chicago, the stupid teenage OMG, you're like a petulant child. Now OMG just wrote back and is mad at me for not engaging with the caller. So OMG says, first OMG writes, Chicago writes, OMG, you're a petulant child when someone disagrees with you. Then they just wrote back a minute ago and said, oh, grow up. Now you're just acting like a spoiled brat. You're rudely. No, I can't win. I can't win. If I interrupt because I'm emotional and I get frustrated with stupid things people say, you get mad at me for interrupting. When I literally sit back and turn the mic off. Let people say whatever they want to say. Now you're mad at me because I'm being a spoiled brat for not talking. You can't win. You cannot win. That's the way it goes in this world that I'm in. That's just the way it goes. And I proved it. And Marlene, really nice. Marlene gets it. Marlene in Minnesota says, Mike, I am sitting here convulsing in laughter. I know it's making you crazy to not engage with these crazy callers. I love you. I love Trump. This is Radio Gold. And by the way, it is your show. So there is a point. Oh, my gosh. And listen, it's just the way it kind of goes. Sometimes, as somebody just said from Pennsylvania, you can't win with these people. You know the old saying, Mike, the haters are always going to hate. That was good. That was fun. I really did. It was kind of fun to do that. Just to sit back, go ahead, and tell me how you're glad the border's closed, but you don't like the way we closed the border. You're concerned. Okay, that makes sense.
SPEAKER 18 :
You might hear people say you don't hate the media enough. Well, this montage that Mike played earlier in the week helps drive that point home even more.
SPEAKER 13 :
There's a montage of all the times we were told you can't just close the border. What do you mean close it? It's a big border. There's thousands and thousands and thousands of people every day who come. Listen to this montage from from Media Research Center.
SPEAKER 05 :
Republicans keep saying Biden doesn't need Congress. He can stop what's happening at the border all by himself. Can you fact check that for us? Because we here all know that's not true.
SPEAKER 02 :
Republicans have been saying largely wrongly, right, because saying that the president can close the border unilaterally on his own president actually doesn't have the authority under law to do that.
SPEAKER 16 :
There's only so much President Biden can do with executive action.
SPEAKER 05 :
And he did try to do whatever he could. They actually are doing everything they can. The president's hands are tied. There's only so much that he can do.
SPEAKER 14 :
President Biden has issues, certain executive orders, but there's only so much he can do within his purview.
SPEAKER 06 :
What an intractable problem this is for the president with no easy solutions.
SPEAKER 07 :
No easy solutions here. There are no easy solutions here, folks. The president insisting there's only so much he can do without Congress. How much can actually be done quickly without Congress acting? How would this happen without the power of the purse, without Congress getting involved? They need Congress to act to fix the broken immigration system. This cannot happen without Congress resourcing this.
SPEAKER 16 :
There's only so much a president can do with his pen and his phone.
SPEAKER 13 :
And you wonder why Americans distrust the media. And you wonder why trust and confidence in the American media is at a historic low. Let's fast forward. Let's go to just last night, CNN. Here's the New York Times' Maggie Haberman having to reluctantly, and you can hear the the regret in her voice. You can see it on her face if you're watching us on Salem News Channel. But here she is having to confess to Anderson Cooper, yep, President Trump did exactly what he promised he would do, and that's close the border.
SPEAKER 07 :
There are a number of things that Trump has done that his advisers feel incredibly good about. And when you talk to them in private conversations, the main thing that they all point to is the near total sealing of the border. And that is that is not a small thing. That is something that he has been talking about for many years. This is something he finally did. It happened to some extent during covid. It is it is now basically closed. And that was a promise during the campaign.
SPEAKER 13 :
Oh, really? You mean he fulfilled his promise, Maggie? Is that what you said? I don't know. I've got to slow the tape down a little bit. Oh, you mean he promised, made a fundamental, epic promise that he would close the border, and now it's closed? Thank you, Maggie Haberman. Thank you. And I mean that. Thank you, Anderson Cooper, for having that conversation. You're more honorable than Chuck Schumer. Did you hear what he did yesterday? Check this out. A reporter asked Schumer, well, you know, Trump is pointing out that the border is 90, 95% closed. And it's true, incidentally. I mean, the New York Post has a chart here. Check this out. Illegal border crossings. In December of 2023, they hit 249,740. In March of this year, last month, 7,181. Check this one. In the first 100 days of the Biden presidency, there were 184,000 border crossers who were allowed to stay in the United States. You know how many have been allowed to stay under Trump during his first 100 days? Nine. That's right, nine. Nine border crossers have been allowed to stay in the United States under Trump. 184,000 were allowed to stay under Biden. And, of course, you know what that means when they're allowed to stay. That means they are released into the general population, and some of them do horrible things to American citizens. So we voted for this, okay? But Chuck Schumer is left lying about all of the data and all of the facts and all of the truth that the border is essentially now sealed, closed, shut down under Donald J. Trump. Check out what Chuckie Schumer was reduced to saying yesterday.
SPEAKER 15 :
I'd say one thing to you. I don't trust Trump's numbers.
SPEAKER 13 :
I don't trust Trump's numbers. You don't have to trust Trump's numbers. Trust maybe the New York Times and Maggie Haberman. Trust the associate. Look, it's not even an argument. So again, in the good mood that I'm in, let's try this. If you didn't vote for Trump, How do you react to the knowledge that he fulfilled this fundamental major campaign pledge that he would close the border? I mean, my gosh, he did it in the first 100 days. So, you know, maybe you'll argue with me about, well, maybe you think that Biden actually did it somehow. I don't know. I don't know what you'll say. But let's try. Teresa, let's open up the phone lines to people who are not Trump supporters. I'm just in that kind of mood today. 800-655-MIKE. Be civil. Be polite. I'll be polite and civil with you. Let's not call each other a bunch of names. Let's not start shrieking at each other. Let's not turn it into a food fight. But if you didn't vote for Donald Trump, if you don't like him, if you don't like what's happening in America, will you at least address the closed, sealed border? The fulfillment of this major promise that Trump accomplished.
SPEAKER 18 :
And lastly, President Trump gave a fiery interview with ABC News' Terry Moran. What shined most was Trump being Trump.
SPEAKER 13 :
There are images that law enforcement officials say is absolutely confirmation of the MS-13 gang on Gilmar Garcia, whatever his name is, Knuckles. Okay? And that came up during this rather contentious interview with President Trump on ABC last night. So I'm going to play this for you because you know what's happening. The media has gone from, it's like the Hunter Biden laptop story. They've gone from not covering it at all, trying to cover it up, to lying about it. And they're doing it now with the gang tattoos on this gangbanger's hand. Listen to the back and forth first between Terry Moran and President Trump in the Oval Office on ABC.
SPEAKER 09 :
But the court has ordered you to facilitate that. I'm not the one making this decision. We have lawyers that don't want to do this. But the buck stops in his office. No, no, no, no. I follow the law. You want me to follow the law? If I were the president that just wanted to do anything, I'd probably keep him right where he is. It says what the law is. Listen, I was elected to take care of a problem that was it was a unforced error that was made by a very incompetent man, a man that turned out to be incompetent, that you always said was wonderful, great genius. Right. And now you find out all of the media now they're saying what a mistake they made. A man who was grossly incompetent allowed us to have open borders where millions of people float in. I campaigned on that issue. I wouldn't say it was my number one issue, but it was pretty close. I campaigned on that issue. I've done an amazing job. I have closed borders. He said you couldn't do it. You wouldn't be able to do it. It would never happen. Well, it happened. And it happened very quickly. Wait a minute. When we have criminals, murderous criminals in this country, we have to get them out, and we're doing it. And you'll pick out one man, but even the man that you picked out, he said he wasn't a member of a gang. And then they looked, and on his knuckles, he had MS-13. There's a dispute over that. Wait a minute. He had MS-13 on his knuckles.
SPEAKER 08 :
He had some tattoos that are interpreted that way.
SPEAKER 09 :
But let's move on. Wait a minute. Terry, Terry, Terry. He did not have the letter MS-13. It says MS-13. That was Photoshopped. That was Photoshopped, Terry. You can't do that. Hey, they're giving you the big break of a lifetime. You know, you're doing the interview. I picked you because, frankly, I never heard of you, but that's okay. I picked you, Terry, but you're not being very nice. He had MS-13 tattooed. We'll agree to disagree. I want to move on to something else. Terry, do you want me to show you the picture? I saw the picture. And you think it was Photoshopped? Here we go. Don't Photoshop it. Go look at his hand.
SPEAKER 08 :
He had MS-13. He did have tattoos that can be interpreted that way. I'm not an expert on them. I want to turn to Ukraine. No, no, Terry, Terry. I want to get to Ukraine. No, no.
SPEAKER 09 :
No, no. He had MS, as clear as you can be, not interpreted. This is why people no longer believe the news, because it's fake news.
SPEAKER 08 :
When he was photographed in El Salvador, they aren't there. But let's just go on.
SPEAKER 09 :
They aren't there when he's in El Salvador. Oh, they weren't there, but they're there now, right?
SPEAKER 08 :
No.
SPEAKER 09 :
They're in your picture. Terry. Ukraine, sir. He's got MS-13 on his knuckles. All right. OK, we'll take a look. It's such a disservice. We'll take a look. Why don't you just say yes, he does.
SPEAKER 13 :
He gets frustrated, like, why don't you just admit it? And it absolutely is fascinating to watch this cycle about the tattoos, because they've gone from pretending it doesn't exist to now denying it. They're moving from refusal to cover it to denying it the same way they did the Hunter Biden laptop.
SPEAKER 18 :
And that does it for this week's Week in Review podcast. For Mike Gallagher, I'm Christian Russell. God bless America.
SPEAKER 13 :
Portions of our show brought to you by MyPillow and Big Deal. Two sales in one. First, they're having a closeout sale on the percale bedsheets. Any size, any color, $25. You can get Queens, Kings, Split Kings, California Kings, any size, any color, $25. It's a crazy sale from MyPillow.com. Look for the Mike Gallagher Special Square. The second sale, Mike Lindell has introduced a brand new energy drink called Rev7. It's a premium energy drink that's good for you. It tastes great, gives you energy all day. I sampled it yesterday for the first time. It is delicious. No sugar, no caffeine. Rev7 is so special because it's powered with a premium nootropic that helps fuel your mind. MyPillow is so confident you're going to love Rev7 that for a limited time you can try their introductory three-pack absolutely free. Now, these offers aren't going to last long. So go to MyPillow.com. Use the promo code MikeG. MyPillow.com. Promo code MikeG. Or call 800-928-6034. 800-928-6034. Sing along with me.
SPEAKER 05 :
For the best night's sleep in the whole wide world, visit MyPillow.com.
SPEAKER 13 :
Promo code MikeG.
In this episode of The Flatline, Rick Hughes guides us through the concept of the Flotline, a forward line of troops that helps us learn the unique problem-solving devices taught in the Bible. By building this line of resistance in our souls, we can protect ourselves from the internalized stress of external adversities. Rick emphasizes the importance of making wise decisions and the consequences of rejecting true wisdom, as outlined in the scriptures.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to The Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you'll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flotline. I'm your host, Rick Hughes. Flotline, F-L-O-T, Forward Line of Troops. It's all about learning the unique 10 problem-solving devices taught in the Bible so you can establish a main line of resistance in your soul. By doing that, by using those unique problem-solving devices, it's possible you can stop the outside source of adversity before it ever becomes the inside source of stress. So building a flat line is a wonderful way to live. It relieves all the pressure in your life. No worry, no fear, no bitterness, no animosity. Actually, it's accumulating the mind of Christ, thinking like our Lord Jesus Christ thought. He had a flat line in his soul, although he never needed to confess any sin like we do. That's our first problem-solving device. Rebound, problem-solving device number one. If we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us and purify us from all of our wrongdoing. So building a flat line is what this show is about. you know god gave you two ends i tell you that every week two ends one end to sit with one end to think with and success in your life is going to depend on which one you use remember bad decisions limit future options and if you make enough bad decisions you're not going to have any options left and obviously the worst decision anyone could make in their entire life is to reject Jesus Christ as Savior. You leave God no choice when you do that because you rejected the love of God. Remember where it says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son? When you reject the gift that God gives you of his son, you leave the justice of God no choice but to judge you. And that will occur at the great white throne of judgment, which you don't want to be there. You don't even want to have any part with that. So the Bible says, he that believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. And he that believeth not, the wrath of God abides on him already. You know, living in the devil's world, living in the presence of this great country of ours, there's a lot of stuff going on. There is, as a pastor friend of mine says, a spiritual climate change, a shift. And it's happening. And we're going to talk about that for the next few shows. And by the way, you will be able to access these through Spotify, the website where we post a podcast of these shows. And hopefully soon we'll be on the Apple podcast as well. So you can get to these by using your internet or your cell phone. And you can always go to our website, rickhughesministries.org, and you can access the radio shows there and listen to them online. or you can contact us through the website and we'll send you MP3s of the shows. So let's talk about the spiritual climate change in the great old United States of America. The frantic search for happiness that we see today in this country kind of leaves a cluttered trail of destruction and despair. It's no wonder that suicide is the last option. I think I read the other day that on the average there are 123 suicides committed every day. Why do people do that? Well, I'll tell you why. Because everything appears empty. What's the use of going on, they may say. Many young people, teenagers, are used up at an early age and they wind up ending it all because they see no future, no hope. I mean, they spend money they don't have to buy things they don't need to impress people they don't even like. And they do all of that to deaden the pain of an empty life. I think hopelessness is a national disease. And there's so many people that are hopeless today. In the National Post, we read headlines suggest we become consumed by loneliness. There's a word I want you to key in on, loneliness and hopelessness. Loneliness, a new generation, the National Post says, of Eleanor Rigby's, half a century after the Beatles sang it. Why are 30-year-olds lonely? That's a question I want to ask you. Why are they facing a loneliness epidemic in their life? I've read where loneliness is a human catastrophe, and a recent Angus Reid Institute survey found that half of Canadians often feel alone. And in the U.S., the number of Americans who feel they have no one with whom they can speak to has tripled. Seventy-five percent of Americans, I read, claim they're lonely. There is an American poet named Sylvia Plath, a novelist, and she wrote in her journal four decades ago, God, but life is lonely. Despite all the opiates, despite the shrill, tinsel gaiety of the parties with no purpose, despite the false grinning faces we all wear, people across the West are reporting higher levels of loneliness, persistent loneliness. More than ever before. But don't worry about it. You know, really, come on. I mean, they're going to soon get a chill pill for loneliness. Did you know that? University of Chicago scientists think that the hormone they've come up with called pregnenolone might reduce lonely people's fear of connecting and their risk of serious health problems. So for the past year and a half, the study is scheduled to end this June, by the way, that was 96, lonely but otherwise healthy people were receiving 400 milligrams or oral doses of pregnenolone, a hormone primarily produced by the adrenal gland, and it's been associated with memory enhancement but also stress reduction. That's the world's system of solving the lonely problem. If the research ultimately leads to a pharmacological treatment for loneliness, it would be a timely breakthrough, many doctors say. So one particular person that I read, and this is very interesting, said her name was Robbie Ludwig. She's a psychotherapist. And she said, as a society... We have not been adapted helping young men manage their feelings of hopelessness and emasculation. We need to educate our youth, that's what she says, uh-huh, and help them identify and deal with their uncomfortable emotions, uh-huh. We must teach them that feeling vulnerable or weak doesn't make them failures. So listen to this brilliant idea she comes up with. There needs to be a way to provide emotional management to all young boys, especially the troubled ones. It's extremely important to help them identify and recognize their anger as it arises. We must help these young men, she says, handle feelings of weakness and desperate in more effective and non-destructive ways. We must ensure they are not fueled by hateful rhetoric or xenophobia. That's the dislike or prejudice of people from other countries. We also need to expand what it means to be a man, so the disenfranchised don't choose killers as their idols. This is all human viewpoint thinking. What we've done is we've kicked the word of God out of our homes, we've kicked the word of God out of our schools, we've kicked the word of God out of our public agenda, And young people today are victims to cosmic thinking. They have no choice. They don't even see the difference. Their parents don't give them any scripture to give them any background to give them a choice in life. And they grow up falling sucker and victims to the cosmic system. What is a man? She wants to know what is a man? I'll tell you what a man is. A man has momentum in his life. Jesus Christ, our Lord said, happiness, happiness, happiness, that's opposed to loneliness. Happiness belongs to those who hear my father's word and keep it. Hearing and keeping the word of God on a consistent basis relieves loneliness for the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. A man has momentum in his life, and he has authority orientation. He has authority orientation. Where does he get it? He gets it at home from his parents. Children, obey your parents. Honor your father and your mother. And when they don't obey, they get disciplined. It has to be that way. If you don't discipline your children, then you bring them into the world undisciplined maniacs. doing what they want to do. So we have to have authority orientation. That's gone today. They sneer at the police officer. They laugh at the police officer. They don't obey the police officer. They cheat on their tests. They cheat on one another. They lie to their parents. They lie to their friends. No authority orientation. And finally, a man, M-A-N, has nobility or virtue or honor. Great character is what God's looking for, and that's what makes a real true man, nobility and virtue. But a male on the other side of the coin, a male, M-A-L-E, well, the M says he's minus any momentum in his life. He may have the body of a male, but he doesn't have the mind of a man. He doesn't have any momentum. He doesn't hear God's word. He doesn't keep God's word. So his frame of reference is totally cosmic thinking. He's anti-authority. He doesn't obey authority. He does what he wants to do when he wants to do it and gets away with it. And technically, M-A-L, L means he's a loser, a loser in life and a loser in eternity if he rejects Christ as his savior. A loser in life can't handle responsibility. A loser in life can't handle routine. A loser in life can't handle unfair testing. And so their emotions take over and they go goofy on you. And they get into E-M-A-L-E. The male gets into emotional override. He lets his emotions control him rather than his thinking. The Bible says let this mind control. being you that was also in Christ Jesus, not these emotions. Emotions are bonafide and wonderful and a great appreciator of the soul, but they're never designed to dictate policy. And yet so many people today live by emotional revolt of the soul. They let their emotions dictate policy. You can see it on the interstate. You can see it on the highways. You can see the rage and the frustration and the loss of temper. It's all there, emotional override. So what does the Bible say about this sort of thinking, this cosmic system thinking, this human viewpoint thinking that we need a pill for loneliness or we need to counsel our young boys and teach them to be real men? Oh, my gosh. Well, here's what the Bible says, Ecclesiastes 10, 2 and 3. The heart of the wise, the wise, the person who wants wisdom, inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left. That's kind of interesting, what's on the right and what's on the left, but there it is. The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left. Even as fools walk along the road, they lack sense, and they show everyone how stupid they are. Ecclesiastes 10, 2 and 3 in the NIV edition of the Bible. There you have it. They show everybody how stupid they are because they live by human viewpoint thinking. They have rejected the word of God, the plan of God, the assets that God gave them. They stuck their nose up at it and rejected all of that and bought into some sort of cosmic system thinking. So I'd like to entitle this message, America 2019, the land of the foolish. Why do I say that? Well, because the change in values in this country, the change of the insight, the change of the future, we've changed. Everything that used to be evil is now sort of good, and everything that used to be good is now almost evil. If we continue on the course that we're headed in this country, we will have no future. So what is the solution to this problem? I mean, I can highlight the problem, but is there a solution? And the answer is yes. Ecclesiastes 9, 11 through 12, one of the wisdom books of the Bible, and this is what Solomon wrote. He said, I've seen some things, something else under the sun. He said, I've learned that the race is not won by the swift, and the battle doesn't always belong to the strong. Nor does food always come to the wise, or wealth to the brilliant, or favor to the learned. But time and chance happen to them all. Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come. As fish are caught in a cruel net or birds are taken in a snare, so people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them. That's the thing you can count on. There are times of evil that are going to fall on you unexpectedly, and if you don't know how to handle it, you will be trapped, trapped in loneliness, hopelessness, and despair. One of the things that happens to everybody is death. There's no way around it. It's appointed unto man once to die. After that, the judgment. Some of you listening to me today are half dead. Some of you are three quarters dead. Some of you may be eight tenths dead. We're all getting there eventually, sooner or later. So no one gets out of it. And that was part of the wisdom of Solomon. So he notes here that all people share the same distribution of adversity and prosperity and the same eventually ultimate fate. They will all eventually join the dead. So the question is, how do we handle what appears to be coming our way since we have no idea of what we might be facing? My own pastor has been teaching something in conferences this year that I've attended. that is really great. We have the example of the importance of wisdom and how even the wisdom of, how, let me back that up, how even when the wisdom is life-saving, the giver of such wisdom will be forgotten. Wisdom is what we need, W-I-S-D-O-M, and the New Testament calls it Sophia. I'm gonna show you why the wisdom is important. But here's the issue, even the person full of wisdom the person that knows the answers and the solutions to the troubles of life will soon be forgotten because somebody else wants to take credit for it, someone else thinks they're smarter, or someone else appreciates the gift but goes on down the highway as soon as the trouble's gone. This is not very good news for pastors who hope to be remembered for their teaching of biblical wisdom, because the wisdom that I'm speaking of is found in the Bible, something the majority of Americans have forsaken. So I'm going to read to you out of another book of wisdom, Job 28, verses 12 through verses 28. And here's what it says. Where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell? No mortal comprehends its worth. It cannot be found in the land of the living. The deep says it's not in me. The sea says it's not in me. It cannot be bought with the finest gold, nor can its price be weighed out in silver. We're talking about wisdom now, wisdom. Neither gold nor crystal can compare with it, nor can it be had for a vase of gold. coral and jasper are not worthy of mention the price of wisdom is beyond rubies the topaz of cush cannot compare with it it cannot be bought with pure gold so where then does wisdom come from and where does understanding dwell it's hidden from the eyes of every living thing concealed from the birds of the sky Destruction and death say only a rumor of it has reached our ears. But God understands the way to it, and he alone knows where wisdom dwells. For he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When he established the force of the wind and measured out the waters, When he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm, when he looked at wisdom and appraised it, he confirmed it and tested it. And he said to the human race, the fear of the Lord, that's wisdom. And to Sean, evil is understanding. The fear of the Lord, that's wisdom. Verse 28. Proverbs 3.8 says, do not be wise in your own eyes. That's human viewpoint thinking. Fear the Lord, respect him, and depart from evil, Satan's cosmic system. In the New Testament, Paul wrote in Ephesians 5.17, don't be foolish. But understand what the will of the Lord is. Don't be stupid. Ephron, lack of knowledge. The inability to use knowledge wisely. It's the difference between knowledge and wisdom. You know, the Bible says a little bit of knowledge puffeth up. The Greek word for knowledge is gnosis, but the Greek word for wisdom is sophia. There's a difference in the two. Knowledge is something you've heard and you've understood, but you haven't applied it. Wisdom is something you've heard, understood, believed, and applied. So do not be foolish. Don't have a lack of understanding, Ephesians 5, 17, but understand what the will of the Lord is. The word foolish or moros denotes simple stupidity, but it's also ignorance and willful rebellion against God and his will. As an example, you can read Romans 1, 18 through 32, where it talks about those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Professing themselves to have wisdom, they became fools. because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. Pick it up. Open the Bible. Read it. Romans 1, 18 through 32. You'll see where a lot of our problems come from today. But God has given you and I the opportunity to understand his wisdom. It comes through the mind of Christ, Philippians 2, 5. In Proverbs 1, 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Here we go again. The fool is not interested. America is the land of the foolish. By and large, most Americans are not interested in what the Bible says about marriage, what the Bible says about family, what the Bible says about freedom, what the Bible says about internationalism. They're not interested. They're only interested in what they want, a good many. Now, there are some Americans that are interested in that, some really great Americans. But most just could care less about the Bible. They got one. It's a good luck charm. Some of them put it in the back window of their car, hoping they don't get hit. Some of them have it under the coffee table at home, but they don't ever read it. They don't go to church. They don't get instruction from God, not at all. Will the America you and I know today, will it survive? If in fact it continues on the current path? Well, what kind of path? The path made by the decision of fools. One, most of our leaders reject the notion that God's wisdom is found in Christ. Most do that. Most leaders in Congress, House of Representatives, the Senate, government, don't want to know about that. They reject the idea that God's wisdom is found in Jesus Christ. In my own state, they threw the Ten Commandments out of the courthouse, threw the Ten Commandments out of the Capitol. We can't have God's wisdom, they said. It's offensive to people. That shows how stupid and foolish we really are. We are so stupid that we actually think we're smarter than God. As a nation, we are so foolish that we actually think we don't need God's instructions, that we can handle it all on our own. And you can see we're doing a pretty good job of messing it up. We are a divided nation today. And this is what Satan is really good at, dividing and conquering. If we continue on the path we're on, there will not be a free America in the future. Most of our leaders reject the idea of God's wisdom concerning divine institutions like marriage. As an institution, God has given away to humanism and diversity. They're not interested in what the Bible says about marriage, a man and a woman being married. No, no, we've gone for humanism and diversity. The family as an authority structure is now denied. There's no discipline allowed. If you whip your child, you're going to call some sort of government agency to come in and take your children away from you. And our freedom is surrendered for some sort of temporary security. You want somebody to take care of them. They want somebody to take care of them. Many politicians today promise free college, free health care, free this and free that. And it's all a farce. nationalism is rejected for internationalism, thinking that we need to be friends with the world and we needed to group together and we all need to have the same currency. We need one guy to lead us all across the world. The Bible says eventually that's going to happen with the Antichrist, but not now. The words of Solomon ring out true today. I mean, it's just as true today as it was when he wrote it. Proverbs 1.22. How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? And how long will you mockers delight in mocking? And how long will fools hate knowledge? Repent at my rebuke, God said. And then I will pour out my thoughts to you, and I will make known to you my teachings. But since you refuse to listen when I call and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand, since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke, the Lord said here in this passage, then in turn I will laugh when disaster strikes you and I will mock when calamity overtakes you. When calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelms you, then they'll come calling to me, but I won't answer. Then they will look for me, but they won't find me because they hated knowledge and they did not choose to fear the Lord. That's wisdom. Since they would not accept my advice, they spurned my rebuke. Now they will eat the fruit of their own ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. But whoever will listen to me will live safely and be at ease without fear or harm. Man, you talk about a critic of America today. This is us. We refuse to listen. We're not interested in listening. We're interested in doing it our way. We don't want to offend anybody. We want to stay in the middle of the road, so to say, and we are filled with the fruit of our own schemes. Our nation is being divided. Our nation has fallen apart. Our young people are killing themselves. They're unhappy. They're lonely. They're miserable. They're empty. Is there anything you can do about it for the future of this nation? Yes, there is one thing you can do, yes. You can be a man with wisdom. Because sooner or later, people are gonna need it. You can be the one who has wisdom. Wisdom in the knowledge of Christ and the claims of Jesus Christ. Wisdom in the simplicity of faith alone in Christ alone, not trying to work for your salvation, not trying to earn it or buy it, but faith alone in Christ alone. That's wisdom, but you can't buy that wisdom and you cannot inherit that wisdom. You have to acquire it for yourself before you can have any sort of impact in the world. So in Ecclesiastes 9, 14, and 15, I encourage you to read it. There was one man with wisdom that delivered an entire city from a king. One man with wisdom. That's all God needs. One person with wisdom. One person with the word of God in their soul. One person who thinks divine viewpoint. One person who's committed to the cause of Christ with objectivity. That's what God's looking for. Wisdom comes from knowledge. And when you have the knowledge of the word of God, it produces insight and it produces discernment. Wisdom is acquired as a byproduct of personal love for God. If you love me, the Bible says you'll obey me and my mandates are not grievous. Obey me. If you love me, you will obey me and my mandates are not grievous. Well, what exactly am I supposed to obey? Well, I may need to come back, but Psalm 34, 12 through 16, you can read it for yourself. Do you want to really live? Would you like to live a long, happy life? Then make sure you don't speak evil words or use deceptive speech. That's some wisdom. There's so much more to say about this, and dang, my time is gone. I hope you're interested. I hope you're listening. And I hope you'll come back next week because I will continue this and we'll press on in this study of America, the land of the foolish. Until then, it's your host Rick Hughes saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you'd like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
In this episode, Mike Gallagher delves into the murky waters of political identity and rhetoric. He discusses controversial statements made by Tim Walz and takes calls from listeners sharing their reactions. The conversation turns to how politicians often use code talking to sway certain demographics and the risks that come with such strategies. Join Mike as he unravels the implications of these tactics and what it means for the political landscape. The episode also features breaking news about Mike Waltz's reported departure from his role in the White House. The discussion explores the potential reasons and rumors swarming around this decision. Gallagher provides an engaging and critical analysis of these developments, highlighting the ongoing challenges faced within political parties and administrations. Listeners can also enjoy various segments including promotions for products and experiences, all wrapped neatly within the usual vibrant style of the Mike Gallagher Show.
SPEAKER 04 :
He's the happy conservative warrior. Mike Gallagher. Broadcasting across hundreds of radio stations nationwide. And seen on your trusted conservative TV network, Salem News Channel. Here's Mike.
SPEAKER 02 :
Sometimes I'm a dog with a bone. I can't get over the thing that Tim Walsh said yesterday about... why he was on the ticket. I don't want to play the Kamala Harris clip. I can't torture you. I tortured you enough with a little bit of a bit that I did, a shtick I did about turning my mic off over disagreeable callers. We're not going back to that. Don't worry. I can't do that to you or me again. So I don't want to torture you, and I don't want to upset you. It's not my mission to come to work and figure out ways to aggravate you. So I'm not going to play Kamala, and it was more of the same. My goodness, we were so lucky. We dodged a bullet in such a huge way, I can't even begin to tell you how fortunate we are that we're not having to deal with a Kamala Harris presidency. I just shudder. I shudder at what we would be going through if Kamala Harris and Tim Walz were in the White House. But Tim Walz said something yesterday that was so ugly, and it's not even sort of a... You can't slough it off. You know what I mean? You can't just shrug it off and say, you know, oh, well, so be it. That's okay. It's not okay. It's not okay. The Democrats crave identity politics. The left loves... Identity politics. They're all about it. I'm more oppressed than you are. There was an exchange last night on CNN that proved it. Ana Navarro got into a shouting match with a contributor who happens to be conservative and black, and that smug, sanctimonious Ana Navarro tried to equate illegal immigration with blacks coming over in slave ships from Africa. And the guy, the conservative, was understandably upset. She doubled down. And it was so cringy. He said, you're going to tell me about blacks and slave ships? She goes, well, I'm Latino. I'm Latino and my people are being oppressed by Donald Trump. Look at me. I'm more oppressed than you are. It was just hideous. These people can't help themselves. They say out loud what we're all thinking about them. And what Tim Walsh said is so shocking. He was on a panel somewhere, and he was talking about why he was on the ticket, why he was selected to be president. Kamala Harris's vice presidential running mate. We all know the story. We all know what really happened. The smart pick would have been Josh Shapiro. She didn't want to offend the anti-Semites in her tribe, in her party. The AOCs and the Rashida Tlaibs would be angry if a Jewish man was her vice presidential running mate. So she went with this doofus. And the guy is a doofus. He's just a goober. He's kind of a clown. He's not a serious guy. Every time you see him, you just get embarrassed for him and for Minnesota. I don't know. Is he popular there? Do people like this guy? How can you like him after what he admitted to yesterday? I have to play this for you. Again, I don't think there's anything funny about it. I know people mock the flamboyance of the guy in the jazz hands and he pretended to change the carburetor and all that crap. But it was by design. Remember the video when he was trying to, you know, he was under the hood of the car or the truck? Look at what I'm doing today. I'm changing, I'm fixing my carburetor. And then he was out hunting one day. And it was just, according to hunters, it was embarrassing. He didn't know how to load the gun, they said. But it was by design. And he admitted it yesterday. Yesterday.
SPEAKER 11 :
I knew I was on the ticket. I would argue because we did a lot of amazing progressive things in Minnesota that improved people's lives. But I also was on the ticket, quite honestly, you know, because I could code talk to white guys watching football, fixing their truck, doing that, that I could put them at ease. I was the permission structure to say, look, you can do this and vote for this.
SPEAKER 02 :
What? You were on the ticket to talk in code? to white guys fixing their trucks? You were the permission slip to vote for this? What does he mean by this? The black lady? Oh my gosh! That absolutely takes my breath away. Am I overreacting here? Or is that as bad as I think it is? Let me ask you. Let me turn to you. 1-800-655-MIKE. Give me your reaction to what you just heard coming out of the mouth of the governor of Minnesota. I was picked so I could talk in code to white men to give them permission to vote for this. Meaning Kamala Harris. Wow. 800-655-MIKE. 800-655-6453. I need your voice front and center here in this Thursday episode of the Mike Gallagher Show in the Relief Factor Studios. Honest to gosh, I come to work thinking nothing can shock me, nothing can surprise me about these loony leftists. But that's about as bad as it gets. Give me your reaction to it. 800-655-MIKE. Join us.
SPEAKER 06 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
Mike Gallagher.
SPEAKER 11 :
I knew I was on the ticket. I would argue because we did a lot of amazing progressive things in Minnesota that improved people's lives. But I also was on the ticket, quite honestly, you know, because I could code talk to white guys watching football, fixing their truck, doing that, that I could put them at ease. I was the permission structure to say, look, you can do this and vote for this.
SPEAKER 02 :
That's hard to believe. That's just absolutely hard to believe. Let me get your reaction to all of it there, because that's about as bad as it gets. Admitting that the ticket was all about talking in code to white men to give them permission to vote for this. I can only presume he means a black woman. Brian's in Columbus, Ohio. We'll start there. Hey, Brian, thanks for joining us. How are you? How are you, Mike? Good, good. What do you make of Tim Walsh's remark yesterday?
SPEAKER 03 :
I think it's a continuation of divide and conquer. I think it's a part of the division exclude and intercept policies. And he spilled the beans. He admitted it. He basically proved that they have to talk to different groups of people, whether it's race or background, so they can get their message across. They can't tell you their message out front to the masses. They have to divide and conquer, and it's just part of that.
SPEAKER 02 :
And they've got to talk in code. They've got to try to deceive people, I guess.
SPEAKER 03 :
When you have to get dumber candidates, because... Smart people won't run on this party, and smart people won't listen to their policies. The dumber the person, the easier it is for them to slip up and steal the beans.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and speaking of which, I think Tim Walz lacks the sophistication that's required to try to fool people by keeping this agenda quiet. He's just not bright enough to, you know, he once called himself a knucklehead. He's a self-described knucklehead. And so here he is saying, I'm the token white man for the Democrat Party. Now look, it's not that far removed from the whole decision for Kamala to be Joe Biden's running mate in the first place. Biden admitted it. I'm going to check a box, he essentially said. I want a woman of color. I want a black woman. And that's who he found. It doesn't get any more identity politics driven than that, does it? Phil in Pittsburgh. Phil, hi. You're on the Mike Gallagher Show. Hello.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hey, good morning, Mike. Yeah, it's Phil with a B. No worries.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, sorry, Bill.
SPEAKER 01 :
Got Phil on the screen. No worries. No worries. It's all good. Hey, yes, I'm calling from Pittsburgh. So, you know, I'm one of those white guys that watches football. I'm not a fanatic. I am a fan. However, you know, I look at the Democrats. They just don't get it, Mike. They don't get the message. You just use the word identity politics. Another thing that I'll bring up is projectionism. You know, what they often accuse, and again, I'm a longstanding, what I'll call hardcore conservative. I'm a conservative first, Republican second. So why say that? I'll give due consideration to any candidate. Certainly, Josh Shapiro here in Pennsylvania has done some things that I will agree with. He's a moderate. He is a very commonsensical politician. Sometimes he'll obviously make decisions based upon... you know, what the wins are telling him to do. But he just seems a lot more genuine. He would have been a better pick. Do you know what I'll suggest?
SPEAKER 02 :
You know what I'll say? And we'll never know, thank goodness. Had she picked Josh Shapiro, I think she would have won.
SPEAKER 01 :
She might have won Pennsylvania for sure. But you took the words right out of my mouth. Even if she would have picked him, A Harris presidency would have been an absolute disaster. We could talk about all those things there. But, you know, and you just mentioned with the other caller, I'll reflect back to the debate. You know, J.D. Vance, very, very intelligent person. I just think the guy is cool, calm, collected. He has a sense of humility. You know, even during that debate, Tim Walz admits, you know, he just can't talk himself out of a situation.
SPEAKER 02 :
And I'm also intrigued by the relative low profile of J.D. Vance. I'm glad you mentioned him. Thanks a bunch for the call. Have you noticed how J.D. Vance is not really front and center? And that has to be by design. And I think that's part of the gig with Donald Trump. Nobody steals the spotlight from him. But it just seems intriguing to me that J.D. Vance has not been, I would argue, maybe not even as prominent as Mike Pence was in Trump's first term. He's doing the work, and he's slugging away, and he's doing what he needs to do. But he's just not... Top of mind. And I find that a little bit intriguing. Nobody really seems to have pointed that out yet, but I've noticed it. Here's a lot of text messages on the MyPillow text line. And incidentally, just another big thank you for our big, successful MyPillow day on Monday. We sold over $121,000 of merchandise on Monday alone to celebrate Mike Lindell and MyPillow. Portions of our show are sponsored by MyPillow. And gosh, if it's been a while since you've been there... to been to the site, go to MyPillow.com. They've got a whole new look. If you look for the Mike Gallagher Special Square, click on that box, and with anything you order, enter the promo code MikeG. Pillows, slippers, the Giza Dream Sheets, great gifts. You're sending a kid off to college in the fall. You might want to stock them up with sheets and pillows and loungewear and slippers and everything else. And even the cross. Have you seen the story in the New York Times? This is hysterical. The New York Times did a story. Oh, people are wearing crosses around their neck all of a sudden. Like that's a new phenomenon. That the New York Times just discovered. Anyway, the cross that Mike wears, which is a beautiful cross. I was with him in person on Monday and saw it up close and personal. That cross is available as well on the site. So go to MyPillow.com. Again, find that Mike Gallagher special square. Click on the box and with anything you order, you've got to enter the promo code MikeG to get the huge cost savings. MyPillow.com, promo code MikeG. MyPillow.com, promo code MikeG. Or call 800-928-6034. 800-928-6034. Sing along with me. For the best night's sleep in the whole wide world, visit MyPillow.com. Promo code MikeG. So speaking of the MyPillow text line, here's Minnesota. This is Rick. Sad to say, Tim Walz has ruined the state of Minnesota. There was a day when Minnesotans' only embarrassment was the Minnesota Vikings losing four Super Bowls. West Virginia. So Tim Walz thinks he's the smartest guy in the room by demeaning white guys and blacks? What an arrogant idiot. And finally, from Dayton, Ohio, Mike, Tim Waltz is the sales guy who thinks his customers like him, but he has zero relationship and zero rapport. Just a total lack of awareness, total lack of self-awareness, and that's true. Incidentally, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe my read on J.D. is a little bit off. Nevada writes, Mike, J.D. Vance is all over the place. What do you mean by that? And Georgia, J.D. made several prominent speeches four or five weeks ago. Maybe it's just my perception, you know. And we're all kind of in bubbles and we get our information from certain sources. And, you know, I'm paid to kind of have a good working knowledge of everything across the board. Maybe I'm all wet on that. Maybe J.D. is everywhere. That just isn't my perception. What do you think? 800-655-MIKE. 800-655-6453. There's so many messages being hurled at you about how to lose weight, the medications. Do your homework on the medications. The millions and millions being spent on semaglutide. Are you kidding? You want to be addicted to a shot in the belly for the rest of your life? Take a natural approach, not connected to Big Pharma's bottom line. You can do it with the help of PhD Weight Loss, and I've got a big offer for you today. The first 11 callers who mention Mike will get two free weeks added to their program. When you call their number, I'm going to give you the number in a minute. And when you fully commit to PhD weight loss, you'll get 15% off your entire program and a free weight loss and energy supplement bundle. Your program is always backed by their get results guarantee. Some restrictions apply. Just mention the keyword Mike when you make the call. it is. 864-644-1900. If I can lose 53 pounds and keep it off, you can too. Anyone can do this. You can do it from anywhere in America. PhD Weight Loss. Schedule your consultation today by calling 864-644-1900. That's 864-644-1900 or visit MyPhDWeightLoss.com.
SPEAKER 04 :
He's the happy conservative warrior, Mike Gallagher, broadcasting across hundreds of radio stations nationwide and seen on your trusted conservative TV network, Salem News Channel. Here's Mike.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay, we start the hour with some breaking news. Mike Waltz is reportedly out as Trump's national security advisor. He is reportedly out, as well as his deputy, Alex Wong. I'm getting a lot of text messages and feedback, which I love. I love the real-time feedback I get. Well, not always. Yesterday was a little bumpy because I had fun doing a little bit of a bit. I did a shtick that not everybody understood or got, but I had a good time with it. Mark Davis had a good time with it. He called me. He was all jazzed about the new me turning off my mic and letting people talk after I got yelled at for interrupting too much. And incidentally, I know I interrupt too much. I work on it. I try. But it's not easy. I'm an emotional guy. I sit here and people say things that I want to challenge and I can't put a sock in it. I am, you know, paid to be a talk show host. It kind of is. It is my show. But I always say I try to work on it. So yesterday we had some fun because... I invited people who didn't vote for Trump to tell me why, how you're reacting to the news that the border is secure finally, after just 100 days. And a guy called, I know why I got in trouble, because I mixed it up with him and I kept, I did interrupt him, and he was a nice guy. He was a little lost, he didn't really, he couldn't make his point, and I just wanted to try to get him to stick to the point. Anyway, the bit went over very well with many of you, but not everybody liked it. There was an American Airlines employee in Chicago who hated it. You're so rude and you lost a listener. I'll never listen to you. I always love it when one moment makes you write me and tell me you're never going to listen or watch ever again. And I always, I love the line I've seen on social media. You're not a train station. You don't need to announce your departure. We'll miss you. Bye-bye. Sorry that the one thing I did with one caller enrages you enough that you're going to write an email with the American Airlines auto signature. That was the best part. I couldn't help it. I wrote him back. I don't often write emails back, but I couldn't resist. I said, are you representing the views of American Airlines or just your own? Because if you're trying to impress me by working for American Airlines, I'm unimpressed. He didn't like that. He goes, this is my auto signature. I've been here many years. Okay, knock yourself out. The people like that who have such a complete, shocking lack of self-awareness crack me up. Sometimes I want to say, you realize you're emailing and arguing about a disembodied voice you hear on the radio or a face you see on the Salem News Channel screen. You understand that, right? I'm just a big mouth talk show host. You don't need to get that agitated. So when I have some fun, and then I did a bit, and it was a bit. The poor guy that was trying to wish me a happy birthday, I didn't answer him. So then the same people who were mad at me at interrupting the guy from Chicago said, Then you were mad at me for not talking. I can't win. I cannot win. I interrupt too much or I don't interrupt enough. I got an idea. If you're so good at this, you come do the show. I'll take a nice vacation. You come in and do it. Anyway, let me get back to work here. So CBS and Fox News and other news media outlets are reporting that the National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, and his deputy, Alex Wong, will be leaving their posts in the Trump White House. Now, this is coming after, of course, this infamous online chat. A lot of people don't even know what Signal Chat means. Signal is an app that either government officials may or may not use. I don't know. All of it kind of gave me a headache. where it was an error and somehow Jeffrey Goldberg, a lefty from a leftist publication called The Atlantic, wound up on that chat. And there were allegedly discussions disclosed about plans for a military strike on the Houthis in Yemen. And at the time... Trump seemed to be standing by Mike Waltz. Now, the rumor mill is just spinning wildly right now. There's one rumor that Mike Waltz and Pete Hegseth don't really see eye to eye. They have competing world views. There's a rumor that Steve Witkoff is going to replace Mike Waltz. Mark Halperin, the longtime political analyst, has a podcast called Two-Way, and he addressed it moments ago. We grabbed the clip. I want to share it with you.
SPEAKER 05 :
So this morning, just to take you a little bit behind the curtain, I was headed into my location to do the program, and I got a text from a very nice source who said, you want to call me. And it turns out that three different people, the original source and two others, have confirmed that the plan now by the White House is to remove the National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, who was on Fox News this morning just not that long ago, and his deputy, Alex Wong, and much of the member current staff team at the National Security Council. because of unhappiness throughout the national security establishment of how they're doing the west wing's unhappy the state department the treasury unhappiness and of course this was around before signal gate it was widely reported that signal gate ironically may have saved waltz's job because the president didn't want to be seen as if he were giving in to jeffrey goldberg his new best friend um But there's lots of levels of unhappiness. And it's less about Signalgate than it is about, as I understand it from my sources, a general belief that it's not being run efficiently in an organized way.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yikes. Well, he was right, apparently, because it sounds like Mike Waltz is out at the White House. You know, and the comments that I'm getting from people are saying the bigger problem was Alex Wong. And that guy has a little bit of a checkered history and a surprise to have such a high-ranking position in the Trump administration. But there it is. A lot of people believe that it was Alex Wong who added the journalist, and maybe, perhaps, not so innocently. I don't know. Again, lots of rumors. Trump's got to make sure people are around him who are loyal, who are going to do the job. Trump is very, very loyal to those who are loyal to him. And I'm a Mike Waltz fan. I think he's fantastic. We've interviewed him a few times over the years. But that's the breaking news that you get ready for. Also, get ready for this. Get ready for Anna Navarro. The CNN panel last night, I got to play the latest Abby Phillips panel meltdown as Anna Navarro tried to use identity politics and sure Michael Singleton, one of the conservatives on that panel, wasn't having it. It got so bad that the moderator had to cut to commercial. On top of that, I've got Will Kane mixing it up with Congressman Dan Goldman from New York. maybe one of the dumbest members of Congress. I don't get this guy. Trying to invoke the 25th Amendment against Trump, and Will Kane wasn't having that either. So buckle up. We've also got a lot of great things to cover on this busy Breaking News Thursday in the Relief Factor studios. Welcome in.
SPEAKER 04 :
The Mike Gallagher Show on Salem News Channel and the Salem Radio Network.
SPEAKER 10 :
You think Vladimir Putin wants peace? I think he does, yes. Still? I think he does. Even with the raining missiles on? I think he really, his dream was to take over the whole country. I think because of me, he's not going to do that. Do you trust him? I don't trust you. I don't trust a lot of people. I don't trust you. Look at you. You come in all shooting for Barry.
SPEAKER 04 :
In the ReliefFactor.com studios, here's Mike.
SPEAKER 02 :
Got a nice email from a lady in Michigan, one of the first people to sign up for our Patriots Alaska crew. She is so excited. She said she's counting down the days till we set sail. August the 16th, we're going to leave the port in Seattle and spend a week. cruising Alaska and its beauty and wilderness and wildlife. Larry Elder and I are your co-hosts. We'll be joined on the ship by our colleagues Joe Piscopo, Jennifer Horn, Joey Hudson from South Carolina is going to be coming along. We do a bunch of events on the ship, and incidentally, you've got to book through us to be able to gain admittance to these on-ship events that we're going to be hosting. There's nothing like being on a cruise ship with hundreds of like-minded patriots, and the ship itself is beautiful, the Eurodam from Holland, America. We're going to have a great time. And the countdown is on because we're going to have to cut things off here in the next few weeks. So don't put this off. If you want details about the Patriots Alaska cruise, I remember when Denise and the kids and I, we took Denise's parents with us on our first trip to Alaska, and we couldn't believe how magnificent this cruise was. There's nothing like seeing the wilderness, the beauty, the fjords, the glaciers of Alaska. You're always landlocked. You're not like out to sea. It's not like a Caribbean cruise where you go days without seeing land. There's nothing like it. For details, text the keyword TRAVEL to 94878. We'll send you back the link to give you all the information about the pricing, the itinerary. Just text TRAVEL to 94878. If you want to call Inspiration Tours, reach a live person. Here's their number, 855-565-5519. We set sail August 16th through the last frontier. The Patriots Alaska Cruise, second annual. Can't wait to have you join us. And don't put it off. Come on, don't delay. It'll be a summer vacation you'll never forget. Call 855-565-5519. That's 855-565-5519. Text the word TRAVEL to 94878. Text the keyword TRAVEL to 94878. Or, if you prefer, just go to TravelWithSalem.com. TravelWithSalem.com. You've got to hear this exchange with Will. I don't know much about Will Cain. I know he's a popular podcaster. He got his own show in the afternoons on Fox News. And boy, did he take on Congressman Dan Goldman from New York, who stupidly tries to pretend that there's concerns about President Trump's mental capacity. Can you imagine being a Democrat after the Biden era and having the audacity to say that? Will Kane wasn't having it.
SPEAKER 09 :
It is absurd after years of refusing to acknowledge the truth when it comes to Joe Biden and seemingly manufacturing a truth when it comes to Donald Trump. I hope that's where we can agree and then move to more substantive debate.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, look, Will, I don't know whether it's incompetence, cognitive abilities, ignorance, or just plain flat-out lying, but Donald Trump doesn't know that a photo he's showing is Photoshopped. He doesn't know that the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 against him. He's got Elon Musk in the Oval Office doing press conferences. He doesn't understand what trade deficits are and is tanking our economy. So you can call it whatever you want, but it's been a pretty disastrous first 100 days. Wow.
SPEAKER 09 :
First of all, I could debate you on each and every one of those things you just laid out, but I don't think you can call it whatever you want. I think that's an incorrect statement, Congressman. I think words have meaning and they matter. And I think you know that. I think we have to be careful with our words, especially if we're not trying to inflame the public and most certainly if we're trying to arrive at the truth. And after four years of having us gaslighted over the... The competency, the mental acuity of the previous president, it's absurd to question, even if you disagree, Congressman, and clearly you do with much of the president, the competency of the sitting president today. I think the accuracy and truth of those words do matter.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I don't think he's competent, Will. I don't know what to tell you. Whether his cognitive abilities are sufficient to get past the 25th Amendment, we don't know that right now. But I think what is clear is that he has driven our country into a disastrous economy. He is undermining the fundamental rule of law in democracy. He is taking away benefits in order to cut taxes for the rich. I think even you, Will, would have to agree with me that this first 100 days is not at all what he promised the American people.
SPEAKER 09 :
No, I'm sorry to notify you. I do not agree with you. I think this first 100 days is exactly what he promised the American people. And more importantly, exactly what was voted on by the American people.
SPEAKER 08 :
Really? I think the American people thought that he was going to lower costs, not raise them.
SPEAKER 09 :
Congressman, first of all, he talked about bringing tariffs in for 40 years. He did lower. Inflation is down. The stock market has been on a roller coaster because of tariffs. And it has never been promised to be an overnight solution. It is a long-term play to reorganize the global economy to bring manufacturing back to America. It's fair to you to point out that it's going to be rocky in the beginning. That's fair. But I would hope that I'm not the only person trying to have a fair conversation here. I have here a list of topics that I thought maybe you'd be interested in talking about. I looked at your feed. You have concerns about potential cuts to Medicare, Medicaid. You have potential concerns about cuts to FEMA. But you have chosen to come here with me today. And I'm disappointed in this. I'm being honest with you, Congressman. And talked about the 25th Amendment. There's a difference between you and I disagreeing. And there's a difference between you disagreeing with the president and what the minority leader in you have now just done. And you suggested to the American people, because you disagree, which you have an American right to do, that somehow all of a sudden he needs to see the 25th Amendment invoked on the president of the United States. I'm not confident we're off to a productive conversation on potential cuts to FEMA.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, look, I didn't bring up the issue. You brought up the issue, and I said I don't know whether or not the 25th Amendment would apply. I didn't bring up the 25th Amendment. Well, that's what, yes, I'm referencing the standard for cognitive competence in the presidency is the 25th Amendment. I have not spoken with him. I don't know whether he is or he isn't. What I'm just talking about is what has actually happened in these first hundred days. And I'm happy to have that conversation with you because it is not what he promised America. It is not what he campaigned on.
SPEAKER 09 :
Look, I respect that you and I, or you and the president, have different visions for America. I can respect if you want to come out here like Bernie Sanders and say that you envision Medicare for all. That's a substantive debate that we may have. But to sit here today and question the competency of a president... because you don't like the current policies, is exactly the kind of position that puts us in when we see, I think, Congressman, two attempts on the life of the president. For the right to question, for Republicans to question the competency of Joe Biden over the past four years is legitimate because it was the truth. But there is no truth. You have no evidence to bring up whatsoever about the mental competency of President Trump.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, look, I'm trying to focus with you right now on what he's actually done. The tariffs that he has imposed are completely reckless. Every executive I talk to, I represent Wall Street, Will. I speak to bank executives. They have no idea what his strategy is because what he claims his strategy is. will not work. It will be three years before any manufacturing comes here. And are we trying to go back to the 1950s with manufacturing? What he is doing makes no sense. And that's why the stock market is tanking. That's why the economy, for the first time since COVID, shrunk in the first quarter. The GDP shrunk, we learned today. So let's focus on what he's actually doing, not inflame all these allegations that I frankly don't really care about. I'm focused on how the American people are hurting right now and will hurt more if this reconciliation bill passes.
SPEAKER 09 :
I've let you talk because I do want to move this conversation into a substantive environment, but I also want the record to be clear and reflect the fact I'm not the one that took it to the 25th Amendment. I'm not the one looking to inflame. I'm looking for substance.
SPEAKER 02 :
They say that guy Dan Goldman is some kind of darling of Wall Street. If that's the case, that doesn't speak well of Wall Street.
