In this episode of Fix It Radio, the hosts tackle a crucial topic: preparedness for disasters like wildfires and the importance of insurance coverage. Learn valuable tips on creating a comprehensive home inventory, ensuring proper policy coverage, and avoiding the pitfalls of underinsurance. From video documentation to the nuances of renter's insurance, this episode is packed with actionable advice to help you protect your assets and stay prepared. Plus, insights on how policy changes may affect you and why a good relationship with an agent is key.
SPEAKER 01 :
Walter? Upstairs! Are you alright?
SPEAKER 03 :
In the floor behind the chair. This is America.
SPEAKER 01 :
Does everybody know what time it is? Fix It Radio.
SPEAKER 10 :
and it is that time fix it radio klz 560 myself larry unger charlie grimes and today is january the 11th so uh happy january 11th one of my son's birthdays today so happy birthday happy birthday yes appreciate that as well and for those of you listening to us on tuesday on the replay thank you for that as well now i am going to start off and talk about some things related to the fires in california i did some of this ready radio yesterday as well for some of you that listened to that it might be a little bit of a duplicate but I thought you know it's a big enough topic that given everything that's happened out there and it's at the top of people's minds right now we should probably go ahead and cover a few of those things today Larry when it comes to just insurance and different things along those lines and as I said even yesterday you may not realize it or really care, but what's happening out there will have a direct effect upon all of us when it's all said and done.
SPEAKER 09 :
It always does. In the insurance industry, whenever you have a major catastrophe, it's shared throughout the country.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yep. So be prepared as much as possible for these things as you can. We'll try to get into some cold weather things as well because we've had some snow this past week, potentially more snow coming possibly later this afternoon and then more even this week ahead. And for those of you that think winter is over... Not even. It is not. We still have a lot more to go, so we'll talk about some of that as well. But on the insurance front, and this is something that we've talked about a few times in the past, but first things first, and this doesn't really matter what policy you have, although we'll get into the policy end of things in a few minutes, but first things first, everybody now has cell phones with video. Yep. Very few don't. And if you don't, you probably have a video camera kicking around or something. But whatever you have. Easiest thing to do to inventory what you have and own is just get your camera out and start walking around. So start it however you want to do it, whatever room you want to start with. I would video each individual room. And what I mean by videoing the room, not just standing in the room and panning the camera around, but literally going up to each individual thing that you own, opening cabinets and drawers and things along those lines. The biggest thing is so that if you ever have a total loss... you now have the ability to go back and remember, oh, yeah, these are the things that I had.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, it's also proof to the insurance company of what you do have.
SPEAKER 10 :
That as well. So this goes into the policy, which I'll get into a little bit later in today's program. Each insurance company handles that end of things a little differently. My point is, number one, just go around your house. Get your video camera out. You can also take pictures, I guess, however you want to do it. But video is easiest because you can just click the record. Yep. And it's super simple. And you can talk through it. You can explain things. Yep. You can say, well, you know, these are things that I just purchased or these were purchased. a year ago, or this is an antique, or whatever. This has been handed down for generations, whatever. And this includes anything you would have on the wall, your furniture, again, inside of cabinets, some of you that have maybe fancy stereo AV systems, things along those lines, security systems, your computers, and coin collections, or any... Your closets, coin collections, clothing. Some of you may have family heirlooms that have been passed down. Could be watches, could be coins, could be whatever. You could have a very nice gun collection. Now, one thing I want to say, and I'll throw this out for Burke Payne at BP Appraisals, if you've got any kind of classic car or gun collection, my advice would be get that appraised. Yes. Because once it's appraised... you really don't even need all your pictures they're nice to have and it wouldn't hurt but having an actual literal here's what a professional appraiser said and then again we'll get into this in a few minutes making sure you're insured for that because sometimes those things are excluded from you know the guns especially might be excluded from a regular policy that's another conversation we'll have in a little bit but bottom line for some of you that have some of these collections probably should have an actual appraisal on those items done. Now, also throwing out for Burke Payne at BP, if you have any kind of a accident where there's some diminished value and things along those lines, you may very well need him to help you along those lines as well so this isn't just for the estate side this is in a lot of cases even on day-to-day things which i can talk about more and drive radio but burke's really good about helping you with the official quote-unquote value of things and then you can proceed accordingly well and thinking of that john how often should you do an appraisal Well, I think what Burke would say is probably every five years or so, unless something significant in the market has changed. So, for example, this gun collection. We'll use that as an example. You've got a really decent gun collection. Some of them maybe have been heirlooms handed down and so on. And market changes everywhere. It does with classic cars. It can with certain antiques, guns, and so on. Well, all of a sudden, maybe you're checking a few of the items that you have, and you notice that, wow, Something in the markets happened because the demand has really gone up for this particular weapon that I own, and it's now worth double what it once was. Okay, that's where that would be worth talking to Burke, saying, hey, I've been watching this. I know this is in my collection. I know we appraised it two years ago, but it looks to me like it's really changed in value. All you do is call him and say, hey, here's my thoughts. What do you think? He'll tell you what to do. There you go. So to your point, though, Larry, yes, it's not a one and done. Right. You need to keep up on these things if you want to have them insured and handled correctly. But back to the whole take an inventory of your home. And for a lot of you guys that listen, that even have things out in the shop, tools, things along those lines, really important to get that video camera out and go through your entire house. and literally record everything you own. And then for most of you, those things can be stored in the cloud. As long as you've got your phone or computer, you can typically retrieve those. You could download that onto a flash drive and put that in a safe place or another family member's, whatever you want to do. There's all sorts of ways to handle that. Anymore you put those videos up into the cloud, typically you'll be able to retrieve those about any time you want to. And I am guessing that right now today, There's a lot of folks out in California that probably wish they had done what I just said and hadn't. And I said this yesterday, when you have a total loss, it's a game changer. I've been through it. So total loss means everything's gone. And you saw some of the pictures from what happened out in California. I mean, literally, it's ashes. Maybe you can see a foundation left of the home, and that's about it. And I had a similar experience to where literally you walk up on the house, Things might still be smoldering, which was the case for me. And you can't hardly recognize anything because literally everything is gone. Those fires get so hot. I think I've told this story before, but I had a couple of snowmobiles parked in my cabin. And it got so hot, Larry, that you couldn't find any single remain of those snowmobiles. Really? Nothing of the engine. I mean, you would think that you'd even see a crankshaft or something along those lines left when it was all said and done.
SPEAKER 01 :
Nothing.
SPEAKER 10 :
Wow. It got so hot, it actually scarred and melted the concrete. That's how hot some of those, in our case, that's how hot the fire got. And I guarantee you some of what you see in California is the same way. So people that think that, oh, well, you know, I'll still be able to build on top of the foundation. Maybe not. Maybe not. So, again, make sure you have a really good inventory. of all of the things that you own just walk through your entire house and don't leave a stone unturned because remember what you're what you're i'll get into the policy into this in a moment but you're insuring for all of your personal belongings that includes shoes if you have an extra pair of shoelaces If you've got, you know, clothing, belts, I mean, your personal items, you name it. I mean, all of those things is what you're ensuring and you want to be made whole of when it's all said and done.
SPEAKER 09 :
And some of those things may not be strictly of value, but it's sentimental value to you. Well, there's still a replacement cost.
SPEAKER 10 :
Exactly. If you can't replace them. I'll be kind of maybe silly here, but some of you may be Costco shoppers and you buy some things in bulk. Okay, maybe you just got done buying a six-pack of shaving cream or something along those lines.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
You want to be made whole on those things because you've invested that. It's now all burned up and gone. And you want to make sure you get your replacement cost back out of that. And you don't know unless you do what I'm saying. Right. There's no way to know. And this is the other thing I will say. No matter how well insured you are, you will still not come out a winner. Because of the time factor it takes to even get everything handled, you will not come out a winner.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and how long did it take you to get your settlement done? A year. A year. That's the point.
SPEAKER 10 :
A year. Yep. So you're dealing with all of this during that entire time, and I will tell you that in our case, we were fortunate. We had good video, had the ability to piece everything together and so on, and it made things way easier having all of that, and that was a real lesson learned, and make sure all of you that are listening, you do the same thing. So first things first, run through, take inventory of everything, and don't forget the outside things.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right.
SPEAKER 10 :
Garden hoses, garden hose fixtures, planters, planter boxes. Sheds. Sheds, patio furniture, on down the line we go. Real barrels, tools. All of that. Some of you have the she shed and things along those lines. Make sure you're getting all of that stuff captured because all of that hopefully is insured. I'm going to talk about the policy part of this. here in just a moment, but you wanna make sure that all of those things are insured, insured properly, but now you've gotta back it up as to what you actually had in your home, as far as your personal belongings go, personal property.
SPEAKER 09 :
That's why, as you say, I had a neighbor whose house got broke into. And when he tried to explain to the insurance company what was stolen because he didn't have any pictures of anything, he couldn't prove it. And they were very reluctant.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, and a lot of that is because there's insurance fraud now, as we know.
SPEAKER 09 :
Sure.
SPEAKER 10 :
Where people will claim they own something that they, frankly, didn't. Right. And... That's where having a good relationship with hopefully your salesperson, in our case, you know, Paul Lewenberger is a great friend of mine and one of our advertisers. So you have a good relationship with your agent, have the right policy written for you. If you've got collections and things like that, having the right writers in your policy to handle those things as well. And every insurance company does those a little bit differently. Some may include a certain amount of those items. We'll take the gun collection, for example. Some may give you a certain amount of coverage for guns, but anything over that has to have a separate rider. Some may not cover them at all. Some might cover your wife's jewelry. Others may not. I mean, every one of these is going to be a little different. And that's where, in the insurance world, it's not a one-size-fits-all. Just like we talk about the roof thing. With Dave Hart from Roof Savers of Colorado, not every policy is the same when it comes to the roof aspect. And I can just tell you right now, by the way, that's also going to change. Yes. We talk to him about that constantly, but with what you're seeing happen in California right now, trust me, it's going to tighten up in a lot of areas, Colorado included, even when it comes to hail damage and things like that. They will be changing the way they reimburse for all of those things. And what's happening now in the trend in the insurance world is they're looking at your house. Let's say it was built in, I don't know, we'll say 2020. So now your house is 25 years old. So if they feel like the roof is 25 years old, guess what? You're probably not going to get much out of that if there's a big claim because they know the life expectancy is about the end, is near end anyways. So unless you can get Dave out, do some sort of a roof max treatment where he's extending the life of that and he's certifying that, hey, yeah, this roof is good for another 10 years. In other words, it's only at half life right now, something along those lines. And you've got proof of that from somebody like Dave that can show the insurance company this is where things are at. you're liable to not get any coverage on that. So these are things that as time goes by, and we'll have more shows along these lines, those are things that, trust me, out of these, between hurricanes and fires and so on that have happened this last year, you're going to see insurance companies change the way they do some of these things. Point being, you don't want to be caught empty-handed.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. That's one of the things Dave can do for you is even if he doesn't do any preparation on the roof, he can give you an estimate value and condition of that roof structure.
SPEAKER 10 :
Correct. Point being, Larry, just on the roof side, I think what you're going to find, and we could do a whole show off of this, even on people buying and selling homes and so on, I think gone are the days where the insurance company just comes in, writes a check for a complete roof replacement. You as an owner are going to be on the hook now for a certain percentage of what's going on there. And frankly, Larry, there's going to be some people that don't have the ability to to make that extra step. So say the roof cost is 15 and the insurance company is covering five. They're not gonna have the 10K to make that happen, meaning I don't know what happens with the roof at that point. My point is I think you're gonna see roofs get in worse and worse shape as time goes by and or you're going to need to use people like Dave that can keep your current roof quote unquote running longer do the maintenance on it, spend a little bit here and there versus one big chunk, much like we talk about on Drive Radio with your cars, keeping that maintenance up on it, which most people don't know you can do on a roof, but you can, and by doing so, extend the life of. So those are things that Dave at Roof Savers of Colorado can help you all with. But that's the first side of it with the insurance. I'm going to come back in a moment and just talk about the policy end for a few minutes. But bottom line, take inventory. Make sure you've got everything handled as far as that goes. A lot of things, you know, that you might use daily, you just forget about. It could be everything from, I don't know, Larry, you know, just miscellaneous items that you don't even think about that you own that all of a sudden it's gone and you realize, oh, and by the way, here's the other thing that happens in these things. You realize about a year later that, oh, crap, I had such and such and, yeah, it got burned up.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 10 :
suits, ties. All sorts. You name it. Socks, underwear, on down the line we go. So don't forget any of those items. Make sure that you catalog all of those. Take a nice video of them. And for some of you that are a little bit more particular, if you want to, start a spreadsheet. Have all those things dialed in as you acquire new things or old things go. Good point. Adjust your spreadsheet accordingly because trust me, if there's ever a total loss and you've got all that already dialed in, it makes things much, much easier. So All right, we'll come back. I want to talk about the policy end of things in just a moment because you're going to find that even in California, you're going to find a lot of those folks out there, unfortunately, are underinsured. Even though a lot of them are very wealthy, you're going to find a lot of those properties were not insured properly, and we'll talk about that in a moment as well. So don't go anywhere. Fix-It Radio, website fixitradio.com, KLZ 560.
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SPEAKER 10 :
All right, we are back. Fix-It Radio, KLZ 560. Okay, let's talk policies for just a moment. I got a message from Dave Hart just a moment ago from Roof Savers of Colorado where we were talking about things are going to be changing when it comes to insurance and so on. He's like, John, it's already... happening it's here so and it's gonna do nothing but get worse so so yeah trust me folks Dave is in this stuff knee-deep every single day it's happening don't be that person make sure that you know on the front side what your policy is covering again Dave has a way to renew your roof extend the life of I'm living proof of that he's done it with mine and we'll monitor and watch it when it's due again we'll do it again and my goal is to not have to put a roof on at all if I can I Do my very best not to. I kind of look at that like paint on the car. I don't want to mess with it if I don't have to. So if I can keep that up there as long as possible, I will. And the RoofMax product that he puts on and treats and renews the roof, yeah, folks, it does in fact work. If you haven't had any experience with it, call Dave. Have him give you a little demo on it. He can give you a roof inspection at the same time, which, frankly, you should be doing on an annual basis anyways. I think every roof should be inspected most regularly. are not. So back to the insurance side. And again, all of Dave's info is on our website, fixitradio.com. Just give Dave a call and he'll take care of you. All right, the policy. This is where it gets really dicey. So first thing I'll tell you is don't buy your policy online. Okay, just find a good agent. We have Paul Lewenberger that we work with here. Great agent. He's a broker now. He's got about six or seven different companies he can put things out to to try to figure out what works best for you. And he's got the ability to know what your needs are and then fulfill those needs. The robot online doesn't know you. Doesn't care. Doesn't care. Doesn't know your needs. You might be clicking all the right boxes, but are they the right boxes? Are you getting the right coverage when it's all said and done? And if you're just doing it to make sure the mortgage company is satisfied, well, you know, to each his own, I guess, you know, more power to you. But typically, you're underinsured when you do that. The mortgage company might be happy. Well, sure. And you may get them paid off if there's a total loss, but then you're left holding the bag and you have nothing left when it's all said and done. Don't be that person, which, by the way, our fires even here in Colorado up in Superior and Louisville, some of those people found themselves in that exact same position. They were so underinsured that when it was all said and done, they had to literally go find a new place to live. They sold off their lots, and they had no ability to rebuild where they had been at one time. Don't be that person. Give yourself options. And what I'm saying, and I said this yesterday on Ready Radio, is what we want to be able to do with insurance is, number one, be made whole when there's a total loss like this, which when you're made whole, you have a lot better decision-making power as to what do you want to do next. You may not want to live in a place that everything's been burned down. You may want to rebuild the house differently than it was before. You may want to go to another state. I mean, you have all sorts of options when you've got a nice fat check from the insurance company because you did all of your diligence on the front side like we're talking, and you end up being made not only whole, but you're coming out just great because now you can go out and buy new things for what was old and so on and so forth. So my point is at the end of the day, you might actually – houses are never fun to lose but financially speaking you may come out ahead when it's all said and done than you were prior if in fact you're insured properly right most don't find themselves in that position it's the opposite they typically come out thinking oh man how in the world are we going to make this thing work because we don't even have enough insurance to rebuild right and then here's the other thing that happens people get mad at the outsiders That come in and buy up the lots and build another house, and the developers that come in and buy a lot and build up the house, and everybody gets mad at those people, but yet they're not the ones that they should be mad at. Who you should be mad at is the person who was underinsured that caused that to happen in the first place. Right. Because the developers come along and just buy up what somebody else can't afford to rebuild, and it's not their fault. They're just taking the opportunity that's in front of them and running with it, which I'm not blaming them for that. Nope.
SPEAKER 09 :
But that's where your insurance agent comes in. If you have a decent insurance agent that you have worked with, He'll make sure that you're taken care of in those areas so you're not at a loss.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, and I said this before many times. We don't want to be insurance poor, meaning that we spend so much on insurance we don't have any other money. On the same token, you want to make sure that you're properly covered, and that's we're having a relationship, to Larry's point, with an agent like Paul where he knows you, he knows your budget, he knows what we really need to insure for and so on. he can set up a policy that will work for you. I had a good question that came in yesterday on the text line asking, how do you know what replacement costs are? So we were talking earlier about the she shed, or you might have a pole barn. Some of you listening have pole barns and outside buildings and things like that. How do you know what those real values are? Some agents, Paul, for example, can help you with that and tell you what some of those values are. There's construction per square foot pricing that's out there that most of them can look at and say, well, based upon your current home, and its current um quality let me say it that way because there's a big difference between a construction grade house and a custom house right so depending upon where you lie with that might depend on the square foot price but based upon that you can get pretty darn close as to what a replacement cost is based upon a per square foot price now keep in mind if you've got a construction grade you know contractor grade home and you insure it, and you go to rebuild it, and you want a custom home, that ain't gonna work. Not exactly. No, not exactly. That ain't gonna work. Now, I don't know what the rules are, nor would I suggest doing this. I would not insure a construction-grade track home for more than its value to replace because if you do that, number one, I'm not sure how that works on the insurance side. Number two, I don't know that you'd want to put that back in the same neighborhood because now you're probably overbuilding for the neighborhood, and I don't think that works out real well either. So you really need to insure like for like. But for some of you that are listening, you live in some custom home areas. You live in areas where your per square foot price is going to be double that of what somebody is in a track home situation. So you really need to watch that. All insurance policies are a little different. They'll handle some of that differently. This is something you've got to be aware of as well. Some policies will allow you to do code upgrades. Some will not. some fall short in that area so those are all things again that you need to look at if you've got a home for example that was built in the 70s it is not going to be a code that i can assure you because the code in 70s is way different than the code today in 2025. And so if you go to take that home and rebuild it, your per square foot price just because of the code upgrades is going to be different.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, much different.
SPEAKER 10 :
So those are also things that you've got to factor in. And these are things that, again, agents like Paul can help you with and make sure that you've got the right replacement value, code upgrades, and so on to handle all of that. Because the majority of homes will need code upgrades unless it was just built. Yep. The code changes annually, electrical, plumbing, and so on. That stuff changes annually, and highly doubtful that any of you living in a home today are up to code, according to the new code. You're at code of what was built, but it's not code as of today. For example, we've talked about this with some others in the past. Kitchen Islands used to be able to have a plug in the Kitchen Island on the end. Yep. New code is you can't. Yep. So those are the things I'm talking about. Things change in the code, and right, wrong, or otherwise. It's just things that change. And if you go to rebuild, things have to be to code or you won't pass inspection. Because people also forget, Larry, that when you go to rebuild, there's a whole process of now you have to have engineering plans and all of your construction plans and everything has to be approved by the city and you've got to get a building permit and, and, and, and, and. And then you go through the whole process of building, and you have to have your inspections done, and the city inspector has to sign off on things, and, and, and, and, and. Everybody thinks just go pop a new house up. It doesn't work that way. The other thing that happens, you've got to make sure that you're covered in your insurance policy as well, is how long are you going to be out of the house? So Larry and I just talked a moment ago that when I had my cabin loss up in Granby, it took me a year to get everything settled with the insurance company. So if that had been my primary residence, where am I living for that year? And keep in mind, rebuilding, even once I decided what to do, could have been another year, year and a half after that, meaning you could have been out of the house for two to two and a half years.
SPEAKER 09 :
No, there's still people out of the house. They can't rebuild because they're waiting for...
SPEAKER 10 :
equipment or whatever you look at i drive through that lewisville area quite often and i said back then i wasn't trying to be you know negative about things but i said back then it'll be 10 years before this place is back to normal i wasn't far off because there are still a lot of empty lots and places that have not even been started to rebuild in that area yeah there's a lot of new construction things going up but keep in mind as well there's only a certain amount of carpenters running around to get things done
SPEAKER 09 :
And material.
SPEAKER 10 :
Everything else. So the supply chain. So when we, like California right now, it will be, and I don't think I'm exaggerating, it'll be 10 years before that's back to normal. By the time you get everything redone, most of those were custom homes. Get in line, by the way. Yeah. We already know in the trades there's not enough people to even get all of that stuff done. The cleanup alone will take months, probably a year, just to get everything cleaned up. with people coming in and loaders and tearing out foundations. Because I can tell you right now, those fires were hot enough, they need new foundations in the whole nine yards. So you've got to haul all that stuff off. That's the other thing, too, in your policy. Make sure you have enough cleanup costs in your policy. As I said yesterday, loaders, equipment, dump trucks, none of that runs for free. The landfill, they don't let you dump for free. a lot of that is environmental hazardous waste now that doesn't get dumped for free so my point is it can be extremely expensive i think when mike with uh... i could go back to look at my receipts but i believe in my granby house which was not a very big house all just cabin The cleanup costs alone, granted it was in Granby and you had to truck some things off, and this is where they actually had established a site where you could dump for a lot less money to help a lot of the people in the fire area out. But I believe, Larry, my costs, insurance company paid, but I believe my cost just the cleanup alone was $15,000. Didn't surprise me a bit. So just the cost to have everything scraped and hauled off, not foundation taken out. Just taking everything off the top of it and hauling it off, the debris and so on, not clearing any trees, anything along those lines. Just that bare house, hauling it off, 15 grand. So for a lot of you that are listening, make sure in your policy that you have enough coverage for those things. Because if you don't, you're writing the check. You have to be the one to figure that out. And some of you listening say, well, you know, my house is all paid for. I just carry liability. Okay, fine. That's great. I get that. If you want to self-insure, that's fine. Can you handle everything I just said? financially speaking, if something were to, you know, because it's not just the per square foot to rebuild that you look at. It's all of these other things I just said as well. So my point is with what's happening in California, it's a friendly reminder to all of us, especially us in Colorado, because we have fires here as well. We've experienced some of the same things California has gone through. Some of you that live in the mountains can experience this more often than others. Although people in Superior and Louisville, I guarantee you, I guarantee you, never thought their house would burn to the ground from a wildfire. Yep. If you would have asked them prior to that, what's your chances of your house burning to the ground because of a wildfire? They would have laughed at you. Well, that'll never happen. It's just field grass. How in the world would that burn my house down?
SPEAKER 09 :
Doesn't take much once you get the wind kicking up.
SPEAKER 10 :
Once the wind kicks up, and as I said yesterday... Oxygen or fire seeks oxygen. So here's what happened. And this is a misconception, I think, that's out there. And again, I only know this from from experience. Fire seeks oxygen. So when this wildfire is going on around the house. Again, that fire is ravenous. it is looking for oxygen it knows it can't continue to burn without oxygen so the minute a window or a door opens or something along those lines happen window breaks most people think well you know it starts on the roof and then it burns through um sometimes but typically no what you're typically going to find and if you can look at some of the videos of where the fire is actually you know raging A window breaks, the fire jumps inside, and the house burns from the inside out. It's typically not the outside in. That big air box called your home is what the fire is seeking. So the minute that that ember, that fire, can jump through something inside the home, it now is like oh holy cow here we go again and then all it does is jump to the next one to the next one to the next one to the next one you saw what happened in california and it literally burned block after block after block and some of those people there probably thought they were far enough away from even some of the The open space area, the brush and so on, that would never have any effect on them. I've got a lot of nice green trees. I've got green grass. The chances of that happening, when the fire gets that hot, as you can see from some of the pictures now that are out on the Internet, all bets are off.
SPEAKER 09 :
Green foliage doesn't mean anything.
SPEAKER 10 :
You know, because it turns to tinder in a second. That fire gets that hot, it just devours it, Larry, as you can see from the videos. And so my point is a lot of people think that's never going to happen to me. And by the way, we hope it doesn't. Pray that it doesn't. Although I will tell you, I never thought it would happen to me either. But it did, and it can, and the reality is you need to make sure you're prepared on the insurance side, make sure you're made whole when it's all said and done. And again, I go back to the personal belongings end of it. A lot of policies handle that differently depending upon the policy. What I mean by that is some of them will make you take an inventory. Some of them will make you have receipts for some of the things you have bought of late. Some of them... All sorts of stipulations. And you can check what those requirements are on the front side of the policy before you even agree to go with that particular company. And it's very valuable to do that. Now, one other thing, too, that most companies will not do. I think the only one that does, and Paul Leuenberger now sells this, is Chubb. No one covers landscaping. Not to my knowledge. So if you've got a bunch of old mature trees and they're all around your property, which by the way, get very, very expensive. Just for example, a very mature spruce tree, Here in Colorado, couldn't be 20,000 bucks. And I'm not exaggerating. So count, some of you that live in some of the older areas where you've got some very mature trees and things that are around you, count some of those up, realizing that if you ever had a fire and a complete loss, you're putting saplings back in. Because you won't be able to afford to put back in what you had. And there's only, I believe, chub that will insure the landscaping, and it's costly. If you really want to do that, again, you can buy insurance for anything. I said this yesterday. But you have to pay the premium, and there's a cost to it, and most don't. So that's the other misconception. People think, well, I've got all these trees and this, that, and the other, and the insurance company owes me. No, they don't. They might replace your fence and do a few things along those lines, but they are not replacing your shrubs and your trees and your this and your that, and no, that is likely not in your policy. So those are other things that you need to look at that people get real bent out of shape when there's fires because they're seeking – you know damages and some of this I know because even you have a tree that blows over for example if it blows over on the house they'll fix the house you're not getting a new tree that's right not happening another to clean up the tree either you you better make sure again every policy is different depending upon the company that's writing it and it's going to tighten up trust me with everything that's just happened in California so point being get with Paul review your policies Make sure that you're all dialed in, and you should do that on an annual basis anyways. And if those of you that are listening on Tuesday to the replay, please make sure you're reviewing all of these things. The last thing I would ever want to see happen is, number one, somebody having a total loss, but number two, having a total loss and then not being made complete afterwards.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right.
SPEAKER 10 :
Because that's now on you, not the insurance company.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and that's one of the things that Paul is very good at. He will annually, when your policy is renewed, will go through your policy with you and make sure that you're properly insured.
SPEAKER 10 :
Correct. And again, as I said earlier, most are underinsured. You're going to find that even out in California. Joe, what's going on?
SPEAKER 08 :
John, going back to trying to buy homeowners insurance online. Just don't. No, no. And here's one of the ways you'll get burned very badly. When you talk to your insurance agent, one of the questions they'll ask you is, how big of a deductible do you want?
SPEAKER 1 :
500, 1,500, 2,500?
SPEAKER 08 :
When you apply online, there's no question about your deductible. What they do is they'll put in a provision. They'll never ask you, but they'll simply default it to something like 3% of the structure value. So if you have a $600,000 home, 3% of 600,000 is 18 grand. So if you lose a roof, you're going to pay for 90% of the replacement cost of that roof because you didn't realize that you signed up for a 3% deductible.
SPEAKER 10 :
And that's just one of, I mean, there's a bunch of other things about... And really quick, Joe, along those lines, I told people this on Ready Radio, and I want to add this today while I'm at it. A lot of you are thinking, man, John, everything you're talking about is going to raise my rates. No, because here's the other thing you can do. Get the highest deductibles possible in a lot of the areas where you know you can self-insure, so at least, Joe, if there's a total loss, you're made whole. I can handle the little things. It's the total loss. I don't want to be out.
SPEAKER 08 :
True, but how many people are prepared to pay $18,000 of a $22,000 roof replacement?
SPEAKER 10 :
Most are not, but if you were smart, you'd tuck a little money away each month into a little fund, and you'd have the highest deductible possible so that when those times come, Joe, you're not spending too much on insurance, but you have the money yet to do that. You've got to be disciplined.
SPEAKER 08 :
And if you've got the financial – discipline and surplus income to do that, but of course... Most don't. Most don't. And by the way, I just got a credit card notice from a department store. You know what the... It was a notice of the increase in the... You know what the annual credit card rate on... And this is for big name department. You know what the new APR is?
SPEAKER 10 :
28 to 32?
SPEAKER 1 :
34%.
SPEAKER 10 :
34. Okay. So I was off a little.
SPEAKER 08 :
So my point is, if you're putting money away... you know, for like a big deductible, but you're carrying a credit card balance, you're not doing yourself any favor. No.
SPEAKER 10 :
You know, if you had... No, pay those off first.
SPEAKER 08 :
Pay those off first. So, I mean, so if you're in a situation where it's, you got all your, you're not carrying any credit card debt month to month, and you've got excess money, put, you know, go ahead, you know, put it in a CD or something.
SPEAKER 10 :
well and i said this yesterday to joe the other way you can save money on insurance but again you've got to be disciplined have a little money set aside to handle it but those of you that are car insurance everyone's class replacement because you get that pit you want a new windshield those are getting very expensive now it's not uncommon to have a you know two to three thousand dollar windshield replaced joe but one of the easiest ways cheapest ways or easiest way, I should say, to save money and have a cheaper policy is waive the glass policy on your auto policy. You'll save a boatload of money, but put some money away for a windshield and or fix them as they come along.
SPEAKER 08 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 10 :
And Joe, these are things that the Internet, going back to your initial comment about buying online insurance, they will not teach you any of the things you and I are talking about.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, and again, they've just taken the whole question of, How big of a deductible would you like? They don't even ask anymore. They just tell you this policy has a 3% structure value deductible.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right.
SPEAKER 08 :
And most people don't even read the fine print. I mean, it's buried in there, John. There's probably 2,000 words in the policy, and somewhere in there, if you get to the paragraph about deductible, it'll tell you 3% of the structure value. Mm-hmm. And you don't even know that you just signed up.
SPEAKER 10 :
Joe, I would venture to guess, and I guess I'll ask you this, how many people actually read their policy, not even the fine print, but even the larger things about here's the structure, here's the personal belongings, here's this, here's that. How many people do you think even read that?
SPEAKER 08 :
I'm going to say 10%. And it's called the declarations page, John. And I'm going to say 10% maybe. But what's your guess?
SPEAKER 10 :
You're probably not far off. 90% don't. Yep. Yeah, I would agree with you. They have no idea. All they know is they're covered. The mortgage company is now happy. They're going to go ahead and make their monthly payment. Escrow is paying that, and that's all they care about.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right. And things that aren't covered, we've talked before. If you have a gun collection, your gun collection is not covered. furs aren't covered, jewelry's not covered. Yep.
SPEAKER 10 :
So heirlooms, things like that, you know, those are typically going to require additional riders. And again, I have to be careful when I say that some policies, depending upon the policy, Chubb, for example, Joe, I guarantee you that Paul can put a Chubb policy together that could probably cover the majority of what you and I just talked about all under one policy, but that's Chubb. Chubb meaning not cheap. Right?
SPEAKER 08 :
Right, not cheap.
SPEAKER 10 :
And by the way, for all of you listening, Chubb is a great insurance company. They are very well known for covering things most anybody else won't, but you're going to pay for it.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes. And, John, I know we talked about this before, but I heard you talk about earlier about, you know, documenting what you have. And, again, taking a video, because, number one, I guarantee you, if I had to list, everything in my house, you know, personal property, I would be lucky to come up with 70% of it. And then second, in terms of proving to the insurance company that I had $3,000 worth of tools, you know, the first thing they're going to say is prove it. So when I take my homeowner's video, I do floor by floor. I also annotate it. Like I'll say, okay, this is a 65 inch Sony TV purchased, you know, July of 2020. So it's not just enough to take the video. They're going to say, well, you know,
SPEAKER 10 :
If you're really smart, and I know this is tedious and most won't do this, but if you're really smart, you just keep a running tab spreadsheet on these things, Joe. At least the large items.
SPEAKER 08 :
At least the large items. But even then, if I say, well, I've got 12 dress shirts, and dress shirts these days are, what, $30, $35 a piece? They're going to say, prove it. I've got 10 pairs of slacks. Prove it. Well, I've got a picture of my closet I haven't worn. I've got sports coats, dress shirts. And it may not seem like a lot, but you start talking about $1,000 worth of clothing. My wife's closet, by the way, I bet you if she had to replace everything in her closet, we're probably talking five grand easy to replace her clothes. But could I document what those $5,000 worth of clothes were? You know, without some sort of... Yeah, right.
SPEAKER 10 :
Good point.
SPEAKER 08 :
Couldn't possibly do the same thing with shoes and boots. And, you know, what are shoes and boots these days? $50, $100 a pair?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, well, depends on what you're buying, as you know.
SPEAKER 08 :
Depends on what you're buying.
SPEAKER 10 :
I mean, Joe, there's women's shoes out there that are $1,000 plus. So what are you buying?
SPEAKER 08 :
And that's where the video comes in handy. And I think I've told you the story. My parents lost the house, vacation home, 30 years ago. And for years after the fire...
SPEAKER 10 :
be sitting around and she'd go and she'd go oh crap that's another thing we forgot to put on the claim they were remembering stuff oh joe i'm still doing that with my cab and it just is what it is you know and i did pretty well at having video and all of that on it and i thought i did a pretty good job of the inventory side but there's just a little piddly thing and not not huge value but it's just like oh crap yeah i forgot that was there i forgot to put that on the claim yeah so Yep.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, John.
SPEAKER 10 :
Joe, as always, I appreciate you, man. Have a great rest of your day and weekend. And, yeah, folks, again, I cannot stress enough. And I've said this before, but I want to close with this before we move on to our last little segment when we come back. Having something like this happen is very emotionally stressful as is. I mean, I sympathize with the folks in California because I've been there and it wasn't even my primary home. And it's still very emotional when you lose that much, when you have a total loss like that. Doesn't matter if it's total on a car or your house burns to the ground. It's very emotional already. Your mind is whirling. There's a thousand things going through it. How are we going to do this? How are we going to do that? How's this going to work? How's that going to work? Where are my kids going to go to school? On and on and on. The last thing you need is to be worrying about, was I insured for enough? Yep. So my point is, when you have all that done, and you know you've got the right insurance, yeah, you may have to fight with them, get a public adjuster, whatever, to make sure that you're made whole. But as long as you know your policy is good, solid, intact, it takes a huge burden off of a lot of the other things that are going on in your world emotionally. Because at least you know that piece is handled and I'll handle the rest. One last thing I want to add, and this is something that you need to check with your policy on as well, is, and I think I mentioned a moment ago, but I want to make sure I reiterate it. How long are they going to support you as you're out of that house? So you've got to go now rent a house. How's that gonna work? What's that work moving to, from, all the different things that are involved in that logistically, how's that going to be handled? And do you have insurance to cover all of that? And if so, for how long? Double-check all of that stuff. Again, Paul Leuenberger, he is the guy to call. Really quick, before I forget, let me just give you his number, because this is a great segue where you can just call him on his own and ask him these questions. Paul's number, by the way, 303-662-0789. That's Paul Leuenberger. He is my agent. Give him a call. He'd love to help you out. Fix-It Radio, KLZ 560. We'll be right back.
SPEAKER 07 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
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SPEAKER 10 :
All right, we are back. Fix-It Radio, KLZ 560. Charlie asked a great question during the break, which I can finish off with, and I'll talk some cold weather stuff next week. Some of you that maybe have more limited resources with your electronic recording devices. So let's say you've got a cell phone, but it doesn't have a lot of storage capacity. And that's true. Some may have it filled up with all sorts of other things, and now all of a sudden you're going to walk through your house and have an hour-long video that could take up to a gigabyte, potentially, of storage. How are you going to handle that? Because you don't want to necessarily leave that on your phone and limit what else you can do with your phone. Some of you have more than enough room not talking to you. I'm talking to some of you that would have a little bit more of a challenge here. Here's how I would do this. Go ahead and take your video. Make sure you've got enough storage capacity to do that, but take your video. And you don't have to go buy anything to do this because most of the time you'll have enough to at least get temporarily this much space on your phone done. So take the video. Once the video is done, though, you can go to the computer. Sometimes you can buy a device on your phone where you can download directly to a USB drive. But just buy a USB drive. And by the way, they're so inexpensive now. They're giveaways for a lot of companies at trade shows and so on. They've become so inexpensive now. So if you don't have one kicking around the house, go buy one. They're really, really inexpensive now. You don't need a huge one for what we're talking about. You don't need a terabyte jump drive. Go buy the smallest one you could find. But do this. Buy about three of them, maybe even four, but at least three. And here's why. One, you're just going to keep it home. So find a safe sock drawer or whatever and keep that. Download this video to that drive. Copy one you're going to keep in your home. Or some of you have briefcases and things like that. Throw it in your briefcase. Typically that's always with you. In my case, if anything ever burned to the ground, my briefcase won't because it's always with me. Pretty much any time I leave the house, that thing's with me. So if I had a copy there, I'd be good to go. Second one, though, as Larry said earlier, you could have a safety deposit box. You might have an office at work. You might have some kids floating around. Whatever the case, go put that second copy someplace else. Yep. Okay? Now, there's also cloud storage options. Dropbox, by the way, will give you several gigabytes of storage for free. Google, with a Google account, they will give you a certain amount of storage for free, well more than the one gigabyte that this video might actually take. That's another option. I would actually do that on top of the jump drive as well, you know, the flash drive. But if you really want to have something stored solid, you know where it's at at all times, put it on a flash drive, keep a copy for yourself. If you have a safety deposit box, go stick it in that. If you've got a fireproof gun safe, stick it in that. Give one to one of your kids, wherever. And if you want to make four copies and go put another copy someplace else, fine. Point being, now you've got them. The only downside to that that there is is as you add things to it, which Charlie and Larry were talking about during the break, you want to make sure you've got those things added in. But you could keep those even kind of on a separate basis. Charlie had a great idea on the electronic side for a lot of you listening. So you go out and buy a new big screen TV for the Super Bowl. Don't take a picture of that thing once it's up on the wall. Take a picture of the UPC, the code, the box, all of that. while it's in the garage before you ever put it up on the wall, there's your proof you bought it. You've got everything you need at that point, not even on the wall. There it is, it's in your garage, there's pictures, insurance company can see, yep, it's in the garage, I can see he's unboxing it, blah, blah, blah. Now it's easy to prove, I bought that TV even without having a receipt. which you probably would have anyways, but you've got all that at that point and could show them that particular copy. But back to the, this video will take up some space. How do you get it off of your phone and then store it? I gave you a couple of different ideas. Some of you are more technical and can figure out even other ways to do it. But you can do the cloud, several services for free, Dropbox, Google for one. or two of those I should say, put it on a jump drive, store that with different things. You may even have kids that are out of state. Fine, mail it to them. You know it will be safe at that point. So mail it to them if you ever needed it back. You've got the ability to get it right back. I would not give it to a neighbor because if you have what happened in California, that's not doing you any good. So you want to get it out of your particular area for obvious reasons. I mean, I suppose if you were really careful and knew how this could potentially work, you could take a small container of sorts and take these particular items and go to the backyard and put them in a mason jar and bury them and then retrieve them. But let me tell you what, when a fire comes through like that, finding that spot once again when there's no landmarks around, might be really difficult, so I probably would do the other route instead and just find people you can hand this off to and have them store it for you. Point being... We wanna make sure we have, like Joe said, good catalog of all the things that we own. We can document all of those things. To Charlie's point, when you buy some new high-end items, some of you buying new furniture, big screen TVs, things like that, record those items as well. Even a snapshot picture of those would work. Store those someplace, again, where you can have easy access to them in case there's a complete loss. And then last but not least, renter's insurance. Some of you listening, you may not own, but you still need insurance. And we have resources on that end of things that if you send me a message, I can let you know because they're not a sponsor here, but they are of some of my other shows. I can get you into touch with somebody that specializes in renter's insurance, and I can help you with that end of things very well because even if you're a renter, you should make sure you've got proper insurance because even then, a total loss could set you back, and you want to make sure you're covered. And renter's insurance, by the way, is pretty cheap.
SPEAKER 09 :
I know Paul can do that for you also.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, so there you go. We can get you all handled on that end of things. Guys, that's it today for Fix It Radio. I know we spent a lot on the fires and different things. We want you all to be prepared and be safe. And most of all, just make sure you have yourself ready no matter what would happen. All right, next program is up. Don't go anywhere. This has been Fix It Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 05 :
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.
In this episode of Reverse Mortgage Radio, Bruce Simmons delves into the complexities of negative amortization and its impact on homeowners with reverse mortgages. Bruce breaks down the concept with practical examples, highlighting how reverse mortgages can offer financial flexibility without the immediate burden of loan repayments. He also addresses common misconceptions about reverse mortgages, ensuring listeners have a clear understanding of how these financial tools operate.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to Reverse Mortgage Radio, hosted by Legend's very own reverse mortgage professor, Bruce Simmons. You have so many options with a reverse mortgage, everyone has a different opinion, and the government keeps changing the rules. You need to hear from the first certified reverse mortgage professional in Colorado to specialize exclusively in reverse mortgages, one of few in the state with the letter CRMP after his name. Bruce has the specific training and education you need to understand what you're buying. Now, here's your host, Bruce Simmons.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hello and welcome to another episode of Reverse Mortgage Radio. Very glad you can join me today. We're gonna be talking about Negative amortization. I know that's one of those silver dollar words like my grandpa used to say, but it's important with reverse mortgages that you understand how they work. And so today on today's show, we're going to talk about what it is, what is reverse or negative amortization and how it affects you if you have a reverse mortgage. However, first, I do need to kind of tell you a quick story because I was kind of in a panic last week. I ran to the doctor really quick and I was in a panic and I told the doctor, I said, doctor, I had this strangest feeling like I was shrinking. And the doctor calmed me down and he said, just take it easy. And then he looked at me and he said, Bruce, you're just going to have to learn to be a little patient. So that's how I start off my show today. Gives you a little bit of an idea what you might be in for anyway. If you have any questions, not criticisms of my dad jokes, but actual questions about reverse mortgages, or you have some input about reverse mortgages, feel free to give me a call. My direct line is 303-467-7821. My name is Bruce Simmons. I'm the Reverse Mortgage Manager for American Liberty Mortgage in Denver. 303-467-7821 is my direct line. You can also visit me online at ReverseMortgageRadio.net. ReverseMortgageRadio.net is my website. And you can go there, download my free consumer guide. Totally free. Just download it. It's got a ton of information. I believe I also have information in there about negative amortization. But you can also get a free quote. And this is a true free quote. It's not putting your information in and waiting for me to call you back. You put some information in. We do not ask for a social security number. It's like your name, your address, your value, how much you owe on the house, your age. And then it'll give you an idea of how much money you could get from a reverse mortgage. It's not 100% perfect. It's usually a little lower than what you actually can get because I need to be conservative in that. I'd rather under-promise and over-deliver. You know what I mean? So it might say you qualify for $150,000 when... When I do the numbers myself, I might come back and say $160,000 or $170,000, depending on the numbers and what was put in and things of that nature. Also, too, a lot of people don't know the actual value of your home. I get a lot of people who tell me a value, and then I do some research online, and it looks to me like it might be higher or lower sometimes, too, than what you think. So I do that for you if you call me and want a quote directly. I'll get your address and I'll plug in some information online and do my own research. I'll ask you some information about your home, if your basement's refinished and what kind of improvements you've made, things of that nature. It just gives us a little bit tighter picture of what you might qualify for. So please feel free to visit my website at reversemortgageradio.net or just give me a call. But today we're going to be talking about negative amortization. The reason I chose this topic for today is I was looking over the website performance over the last number of months, and it seemed like the phrase, what is negative amortization, Far outpaced any other phrase that led people to my website. I mean, by like four or five, six times the amount that the other keywords ended up directing people to my website on. So I figured I should do a radio show on it. And then also, too, I probably should do a video. I haven't done videos in a long time. I probably should do a video on negative amortization and how it impacts reverse mortgages because we're going to be talking some numbers today. I'm going to get a little bit in the weeds, not too much hopefully, but we're going to get into some examples and I'm going to be talking about some numbers. Things like that are just easier when you can actually see the numbers that I'm talking about. That's why I'm thinking this would be better suited for a video, but I want to get the information out to you. First of all, what is negative amortization? Negative amortization is where you're not paying enough on your mortgage loan. payment to cover the interest that's charged. So your loan balance actually gets larger. Let's say you've got a $1,200 interest payment on your mortgage, but you only pay $1,000. Well, you ended up owing $200 more than you did before because you didn't pay enough to cover the interest. Well, with reverse mortgages, you don't have to pay any interest at all. You're charged interest, but you're not actually required to pay it. Let's talk about what a reverse mortgage is real quick because I feel like I should explain that first. Most of the time, a reverse mortgage is an FHA insured loan. An FHA is the Federal Housing Administration. It's a government insured loan. It's not a loan from the government. It's a loan that the government insures. It's from private companies, but the government guarantees certain aspects of it. So the way a reverse mortgage works is it's an FHA-insured loan, and it allows you to access a portion of the value of your home. that you can take out and you never, ever, ever have to repay it as long as you live in the home. However, you're still charged interest every month, interest and mortgage insurance, in fact, because all FHA loans require mortgage insurance. That's how they provide the guarantees, the insurance on it is you pay for it. Well, with reverse mortgages, you don't actually pay anything. You're charged for it. You don't pay it until you sell the home. So anyways, the reverse mortgage, you're charged interest and mortgage insurance every month, but you're not required to pay it. Since you're not making any payments, that interest and mortgage insurance get added to the loan balance because they're still charged, but it's not paid for. So it gets added to the loan balance. If you took out a reverse mortgage for $100,000 and you kept it for one month and then paid it off, you would end up owing like $100,500 or $100,600 or something like that. Because the interest that you did not pay got added to the loan balance. And so your loan balance went larger over time. That's kind of the way reverse mortgages work. Now, as long as you live in the home as your primary residence, you or your spouse, if you're married, live in the home as your primary residence, you pay your property taxes and your homeowner's insurance because the home stays in your name. It's still your house. The bank does not take ownership of the house. I think for the most part, most people understand that now, but there's still a lot of people who think the bank is going to take your home when you leave. pass away. And that is not the case at all either. Your heirs inherit the home. But you have to live there as your primary residence, pay the property taxes, pay the homeowner's insurance, maintain the home, and keep your name on title to the house. As long as you do those five things, you are never, ever, ever required to make a payment and nobody can ever come back to you and tell you you need to get out of the house let's say you use up all the equity in the in the house they can never kick you out that's part of the guarantee that fha offers because this mortgage insurance is in place they guarantee that you can never leave a debt beyond the value of your home to your estate or your heirs if you had to leave your home let's say 20 years down the road but your home value dropped and now your home, let's say, is only worth $200,000, but you owe $300,000 on the reverse mortgage. You can never be kicked out of the house, but what happens is there's no equity left. If you had a regular mortgage and that situation happened, you would still be responsible to pay the full $300,000 that's owed. With a reverse mortgage, you are not. You can simply sign the home over to the lender and walk away. It's that simple. Or if your heirs wanted to keep the home, they could pay 95% of the current value. They would pay 95% of the $200,000 value on the home, even though 300 is owed, and they could keep the house. And that's a different topic, really, for what happens at the end of the loan. But there's protections. Just keep that in mind. There are protections with a reverse mortgage. The guarantees from FHA that you never can leave a debt beyond the value of the home. That's very important. Because this is a negative amortized loan, meaning that the loan balance does get larger over time. One way that I like to think about negative amortization on a home with a reverse mortgage. It's like, even if, let's say there's an appreciating market, because that's what a lot of people think. They say the loan will chew up all your equity. Well, it's unlikely because we don't loan a high percentage of the value. We don't loan 70 or 80 or 90% of the value. We typically loan 30, 40%, maybe 50%. If you're like in your mid 80s, you can get close to 50% of the value. And that changes based on interest rate. If the interest rate drops, then we can loan more. If the interest rate goes up, then we loan less. That's just the way it works. But if you think of a negative amortization on a home with a reverse mortgage, even in an appreciating market, is like filling a bucket with a slow leak while the water is also being poured in. Just imagine your home is the bucket, okay? And the water being added represents the increase in your home's value as it appreciates. However, when you have a reverse mortgage, the loan balance is growing over time because of the accrued interest and fees. This is the leak. So there's a leak in the bucket. And odds are, the water being poured in, the appreciation, is growing faster than the leak. But if the appreciation isn't fast enough to outpace the growing loan balance, the leak, then your equity will shrink despite the rising value of your home. And over time, even in a market where home prices are going up, you could, it's very rare, but you could still end up with little or no equity left in a reverse mortgage and as the balance grows faster and faster. And if it's growing faster, then the home's appreciating. And it takes a long time for that to happen, but it's possible. I always tell people it's possible. You have to be okay with the fact that your loan balance is increasing over time. If you're not, you should not do a reverse mortgage because every month you're going to get a statement in the mail. you're gonna see that loan balance getting bigger and bigger and bigger. What I tell all my customers is that if looking at that statement and seeing that loan balance get bigger and bigger and bigger is gonna cause you more stress than the benefits of the loan that you get, then the benefits you get from the loan, excuse me, then you shouldn't do the loan at all. It's not for you. But what you can do is change the gears a little bit in the way your mind thinks about it. And we're going to go over a couple of examples here in a minute. How... reverse mortgage still works and the money you're saving if you're paying off an existing mortgage and things of that nature. But in the meantime, you are listening to Reverse Mortgage Radio. My name is Bruce Simmons. I'm the reverse mortgage manager with American Liberty Mortgage right here in good old Denver, Colorado. You can reach me directly at 303-467-7821. That's my direct line. It rings right to me. Actually, it's forwarded to my cell phone. That's a landline. Don't text me at that line, but it'll be forwarded to my cell phone, 303-467-7821. You can also visit me online at reversemortgageradio.net. You can apply or get a free quote online. You can actually even apply. You can fill out some additional information after you get your quote. That all comes to me. Then I'll reach out to you to fill in the gaps and make sure that that we're on the same page. And typically what I do is I'll schedule a time to meet with you where I come out to your home and go over the numbers with you so you can have a good visual of how the numbers look and you can see how a reverse mortgage would affect you. And then you can make a decision if you want to proceed. But even then, let's say you say, yeah, I want to sign right now. I'd say, no, you're not allowed to. You can't. I won't bring paper for you to sign when we meet. All you're doing is gathering information because then you have to talk to a reverse mortgage housing counselor. before you can sign any paper because the counselor wants to make sure you understand it as well. And it's good because you hear it from a different person. I explain things a certain way, the way that I think makes the most sense. Maybe that doesn't make the most sense for you, the way you hear it. You might hear it differently. You might see things differently. And so when this counselor is talking to you and it's all done over the phone, they might explain stuff a little different and clarify it for you. So it's a little better. Sometimes, unfortunately, it happens. They confuse you more. But most of the time, it's a good thing, believe it or not. All right. So feel free to visit me online at reversemortgageradio.net or call me directly at 303-467-7821. Now what I want to do is I want to go through a couple of examples. One is where you have a $600,000 home, you're 62 years old, and you own the home free and clear. That would be awesome. If that's the case, you're in great position because you've got a ton of flexibility with the reverse mortgage. But what a lot of people do, because there's different ways you can take money out from a reverse mortgage. You can receive a monthly payment. That's what a lot of people say where the bank pays you instead of you paying the bank. That's one option. Another option is taking a lump sum. Now, there's restrictions with that. You can't take all the money in one lump sum. But you can take 60% of it that's available in one lump sum. And then the rest would be available to you a year later. You can also set up a line of credit. So you leave all that money in a line of credit for emergency purposes down the road. Or what most of the time happens is a combination where you take out $100,000 to pay off an existing mortgage, and then you take out $20,000 to do some home repairs, and then you've got $50,000 or $60,000 or $80,000 or whatever in the line of credit that's still available to you. It just depends on your specific situation. But for this person, for this scenario, I'm showing somebody who has a $600,000 home. They own it free and clear. They're 62 years old. They take all the money from the loan balance. And after closing costs and everything, they end up with $169,000. That's the amount of money that's available to this 62-year-old. They keep it for 23 years until they're 85. And this is one of the key, key benefits with reverse mortgages. If you have the ability to leave money in a line of credit, I highly recommend it. If you're talking to somebody about a reverse mortgage and they're trying to tell you you should take as much money as possible out up front in one lump sum, hang up. you don't need it. I mean, well, you might need it if you have a bunch of debt and you really want to pay it all off or whatever. You take as much money as possible. I've done those like that for people sometimes. Most of the time, they don't need the money right away. And in that situation, you don't want to take it because then you're charged interest on whatever you take out. But you're only charged interest on what you take out. If you leave it in a line of credit, you're not charged interest on it. In fact... That line of credit grows over time. It grows at the rate of a half a percent greater than the interest rate you're charged on the loan balance. Let's say your loan balance in this scenario or your interest rate you're charged on the loan balance is 6.375. That's what the rate would be today, 6.375. That means your line of credit is growing a half a percent greater than that. The line of credit is growing at $6.875. You start off with $169,116. That's what's available in the line of credit after closing costs. And we finance the closing costs. Those are rolled into the loan. But now you keep that money just for emergencies. But luckily, no emergencies happen in the next 23 years. Now, 85, you need to start drawing some money out to help out with in-home care. You want to stay in your home, and it's a challenge. Or maybe you need to improve your home to make it safe for you to be able to stay in. That line of credit that started out at $169,000 has grown to almost $917,500 today. That's, I've got the numbers right here. I'm looking at it. Believe it or not, if you want, I can send you the numbers on this scenario just so you could see. $917,000 when you're 85 years old. Would that come in handy? I would think so. I mean, I hope I have something like that when I'm 85. You know, that would be a nice little, and that's regardless of the value of your home. Your home could go down in value. You could owe, your home might be worth 300,000. that $900,000 is still available to you. That's because the mortgage insurance that you're charged by FHA. It guarantees it. So the lender is never going to lose any money. So they're never going to come after you, your estate, or your heirs if there's a loss. The mortgage insurance will cover it. Now, let's think about the value. Value at $600,000 in 23 years using the same appreciation, right? Basically, it's 4% per year, 4% appreciation per year on average. Now, it might be negative one year and 10% the next year. We saw that in 2009, 10, 11, 12, and then, you know, 2013, 14, 15, it started growing like crazy. In 19, or excuse me, in 2002, The average home value in Denver, Colorado, was $220,000. Today, the average home value in Denver is $550,000. I've heard up to $750,000. I don't know... I checked online and the online stuff said 550, although I've seen reports from industry professionals that said 750. Even using the conservative value, 550 is the average value now. That's two and a half times the value it was 23 years ago. So if we take the $600,000 value and multiply it times 2.5 times, that's $1.5 million that your home would be worth in 23 years. And basically, that's exactly the numbers that come out on this computer model that we have with 4% appreciation. So your house value would be worth about $1.5 million. And that means that you could sell your home anytime too. You could sell your home and walk away from it and you just pay off the loan balance. You don't have to pay off that line of credit because you never used it, right? But then you could tap into all that money to stay in your home if you wanted to. That's a pretty incredible thing. The line of credit, even though the equity grew two and a half times, the line of credit grew like five and a half times because it's tied to the interest you're charged on the loan. Now, obviously, if the interest went down to 3% and the growth rate on the line of credit's only three and a half, that's a different story. You're not going to have as much money. If the interest rate goes up and now it's 8% and your line of credit's growing at eight and a half, then it's going to be a lot higher even. You'll have over a million dollars, well over a million dollars. So it just depends, and it changes. The interest rate on these loans can change monthly. Now, let's say you own your home, but you have a mortgage on it. Let's say that $169,000 you qualify for, all of it has to be paid towards the mortgage. And I did the numbers on this. If you took out a $180,000 mortgage in January of 2012, January of 2022 at 3.5% for 30 years. All right, and that's 3.5%. A lot of people say, I really hate to get rid of this 3.5% mortgage. And I say, hey, you can keep that 3.5% mortgage along with that $1,322 payment because that's how much the interest in principal payment is on an $180,000 balance. But now, four years later, or three years later, because you have 22, 23, and 24, we're early 25 now, The loan balance has been lowered to $169,000. So you're using all the money from the reverse mortgage. You're taking it all out. There's no line of credit available. But you're saving $1,322 a month. And if you kept that loan for 23 years, remember that mortgage was originally a 30-year loan, so that was going to last you until you started at 62 until you're 92. I'm counting until you're only 85. So at 85, you would have saved. Over 23 years, you would have saved $365,000. That's extra money in your pocket. $1,322 every single month in your pocket that you'd keep. Now, your loan balance would grow up to a million dollars. $1,031,000, almost $1,032,000 is what you'd owe on that loan. But you saved yourself $364,000 in out-of-pocket expenses. And what could you have done with that money over that time period? Just answer that. Yeah, you say, holy cow, I owe a million dollars. That's unbelievable. Well, remember, the value of your home very likely could be a million and a half. $1,500,000. So you still have $500,000 in equity. You started out with less equity than that because you had a $600,000 home with $169,000 mortgage on it. So you only had, what, $421,000 or whatever, $431,000 in equity. But now... 23 years later, you have $500,000 in equity and you didn't make a mortgage payment for 23 years. Is that a sweet deal? I think it is. That's my plan. Well, my goal is to get a reverse mortgage to buy a home and overfund that loan so I end up with a line of credit. It won't be the full amount, but it'll be a line of credit. And I just think that if you look at the negative amortization in the proper light, yeah, your loan balance is growing over time. There's no way around it because you're not making payments. You're keeping that money in your pocket. Something has to happen to the interest you're charged. Interest is charged on everything, every loan you've ever had. And a lot of people will tell me, they'll say, why should I have to pay interest on money that's mine anyway? Well, it's not your money. You're taking money, you're taking a loan against your house, but you're borrowing somebody else's money. They're just using your house as collateral. Remember that. It doesn't matter if you take out money on a credit card or a house loan, a HELOC, refinance on a regular mortgage with cash out. You're borrowing money and you're charged interest. The only question here is whether you pay it because with a reverse mortgage, you don't got to pay it. That's what I really love about this loan. Now, you can make payments. Let's say that you're a commission real estate agent and business is slow right now and you're trying to slow down anyway because you're 62 years old. You're thinking you're going to retire here in the next few years. Well, Imagine you have no sales this year, or maybe one sale, so you have a little money in savings. That doesn't help you. But then next year, interest rates come down, the housing market booms, and you have 10 closings next year, and you make $30,000 or something on whatever. You're at $30,000 on a sale, and you've got this extra money. You can apply it towards your loan, and that would be credited towards your line of credit. It'll lower your loan balance so you're charged less interest, and it'll increase your line of credit so your line of credit will grow at a faster pace, and you'll have more money available to you down the road. That's what I plan to do because I'm going to get a reverse mortgage when I sell my home here in the next few years, and then I'm still going to continue to work even with a reverse mortgage, and I'm going to plan on making payments on this reverse mortgage that I get. to increase my line of credit so that I have more money available later in life when I might need it for health reasons or for travel, whatever the case may be. I want to be able to live a comfortable, enjoyable retirement. And that's the goal with a reverse mortgage. So if you have any questions about how reverse mortgages work or negative amortization, I'd love to explain it to you. I can do these numbers for your specific situation. Please call me. You can reach me directly at 303- 467-7821. My name is Bruce Simmons. I'm the reverse mortgage manager with American Liberty Mortgage here in Denver. Bruce Simmons, 303-467-7821. You can also visit me online at reversemortgageradio.net, reversemortgageradio.net. Download my consumer guide, get a free quote. Look at the videos, the testimonials that I've got online as well. I've got a ton of great information there. Please feel free to visit me online or call me. However you want to reach out to me, I'd love to talk with you. Thanks so much for listening today. I hope you have a fantastic day.
SPEAKER 01 :
Call Bruce Simmons today. Ask about his free Colorado Consumer Guide, 303-467-7821 or reversemortgageradio.net. Bruce will come to you anywhere across the front range to make sure you understand how reverse mortgages work. Regulated by DORA, NMLS number 409914. American Liberty Mortgage is an equal housing lender.
We are one in Christ. When we believe in Jesus Christ we become a new racial species—a member of the royal family of God. “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation” (2 Cor 5:17). God offers us a different way of living. You can have a life filled with meaning, purpose, definition, and lasting happiness. To live it, renovate your thinking—think divine viewpoint, not human viewpoint. “When wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you, understanding will keep you” (Prov 2:10-11).
Click for Full Transcript https://rhem.pub/bottom-line-0795ea
The Bottom Line
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 634 aired on October 22, 2017
Good morning and welcome to The FLOT Line. I'm your host Rick Hughes and for the next few
minutes I’d like to ask you to stay with me. The FLOT Line is designed to remind you of
Biblical truths and introduce you to an in-depth way of studying and learning God's Word. It's all
done with no manipulation, no solicitation, just 30 minutes of education, some motivation and a
lot of inspiration. My job is to verify and identify God's plan for you and hopefully you will
orient and adjust to this plan. It all starts with the good news that Jesus Christ, the anointed Son
of God, has redeemed us out of the slave market of sin, thus our debt to God has been paid. We
are now free of the penalty of death and free of the power of sin. So if you receive Christ as your
Savior you in effect accept the offering that He made on your behalf. It's a free gift complements
of God. Listen to Ephesians 2:8-9,
“For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of
yourselves it is the gift of God and not of works lest any man should boast.”
Titus says the same
thing in Titus 3:5-7,
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His
mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which He
shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord, that being justified by His grace we should
be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
When you accept Christ as your Savior you
are free of the second death mentioned in Revelation 20:13-15 and this says,
“Anyone's name not
found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life is cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death.”
When you accept Christ, you are freed from slavery to your sin nature by means of having
a new nature.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says,
“If any man is in Christ he is a new creature; old things
are passed away and all things become new.”
When you believe in Jesus Christ you become a
new racial species. You are a Christian. You're not black, or white, or red or yellow. You’re a
Christian, a new species, and the challenge is now that I'm saved what should I do? In James
1:21 we are to
“Put aside all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, and receive with
meekness the engrafted word, which is able to deliver your souls.”
Paul uses some similar
wording in Ephesians 5:3-4 where he says,
“Fornication and uncleanness or covetousness, let it
not be named among you, as becoming a saint. Neither filthiness
[the same word that James
uses]
nor foolish talking nor jesting, which are not fitting but rather the giving of thanks.”
The
lifestyle of many unbelievers in Paul's day, as well as our day I guess, is a lifestyle of a frantic
search for happiness. People spend money they don't have to buy things they don't need to
impress people they don't even like and I guess that sexual deviancy is just one way people seek
to have meaning and purpose apart from God but it's a dead end street. When Paul uses these
words in Ephesians 5:3-4,
“Fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, let it not be named among
you, as becoming a saint”
we don't really know what they are, but the Greek word for
fornication is
pornia.
We get an English word from that, pornography, and Paul is saying that any
believer in Jesus Christ is not to be involved in pornography. Then he says,
“Neither filthiness
nor foolish talking.”
Filthiness is a Greek word called
aischrotes
and it's only used once or twice
634-The-Bottom-Line-transcript.pdf
in the Bible. It is the filthiest of filthy sexual deviance practices. Then you go into foolish talking
which is
morologia
in the Greek New Testament and that means to talk like a fool. We’re talking
about sexual practices so this is the 1-800 dial up whatever you want to dial up thing. Then he
uses the word jesting, which is to trap or tease,
eutrapelia
in the Greek New Testament. It means
to trap, tease, trick, have ready wit and this is part of the dating scene where a lot of people tease
each other on dates. It says this is not fitting, this is not the way the believer should live. So this
sexual deviancy is a way that people seek to have meaning and purpose as I said apart from God
and it's a dead end street. In fact, it's ironic that the lost man will wind up making all of the things
that are good, evil and all of the things that are evil, good. He’ll switch the roles. He will try to
say, “Well I know that this is not suppose to be allowed, but it's okay.” So he winds up making
the very things that are evil, good, and all the things that are actually good in the Bible, he makes
them evil. In other words he violates the divine standards of order to try to find something in his
life that does not exist. Some sort of freedom and some sort of happiness, some sort of
fulfillment and he never finds it. The reason is because he ignores the laws of marriage. He
ignores the laws of morality. He ignores the laws of privacy and property and all because he
justifies it in his own mind it's really okay for him to do this. Proverbs has some strong words for
this gentleman. In Proverbs 1:24-29, this is what God says to the person that does not listen, to
the person who goes down the My Way Highway, to the person who has the frantic search for
happiness,
“I called and you refused. I stretched out My hand and no one paid attention. You
neglected all of My counsel and you did not want My reproof so I will laugh at your calamity and
I will mock when your dread comes, when your dread comes like a storm and your calamity
comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. They will call on Me but I
will not answer. They will seek Me diligently, but they won't find Me because they hated
knowledge and they did not choose the fear of the Lord.”
Did you hear that? Here's an individual
that is so steeped in his own arrogance that he will not pay attention to the warning that God
gives through His Word.
God warns through His Word what these evil things will cause in your
life. For example, what sexual deviancy causes in your life. He warns through His Word what it
means to ignore the laws of morality, to ignore the laws of privacy and property, and people don't
listen because they justify in their own arrogance why it doesn't really apply to them. Since they
don't listen, since they reject knowledge, the most important thing in their life is the knowledge
of the Word of God and they reject it. They do not choose to respect God nor choose to respect
His Word. In other words, they make everything that is evil, good, and everything that is good,
evil. Then they wind up eating the fruit of their own ways and they may call on God when the
bottom falls out. They may run to God in prayer when things get tough. They may ask God for
mercy, but He said He's not going to listen. What does this mean? Will He listen to you if you
ask Him to save you? Yes, anytime, any day, anywhere, He will answer that prayer. But this is
written to the reversionist, the person who consistently ignores the plan of God, the person who
over a period of time goes down the My Way Highway so far that he hits the point of no return
and then when the hammer falls, when divine discipline comes into his life, when he finds
634-The-Bottom-Line-transcript.pdf
himself under the sin unto death wishing that he could go back, there's not going to be any
answer because he ignored God the whole time and now he just wants a genie behind the eight
ball to pull him out of his trouble. God doesn't work this way. Your life is about choices. It's
about bad decisions that limit future options.
You must make the right kind of decisions. The
Word of God offers you this.
It offers a different way of living, a way of living that guarantees
you can have a full and a meaningful life. A life with direction and purpose, without guilt or
shame.
You must renovate your thinking if you hope to have this sort of happiness.
Proverbs 2:10-11 says,
“When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge becomes pleasant to
your soul, then discretion will guard you and understanding will watch over you.”
This is a
supernatural way of living. It's supernatural insight for the believer in Jesus Christ. The wisdom
that he speaks of here is the wisdom of God's Word. Now the wisdom of God's Word is called
epignosis,
full knowledge. The wisdom of God's Word is full knowledge. When you get
knowledge you convert knowledge to wisdom and the word for wisdom is
sophia
. The objective
of the Christian life is to get under the ministry of a well-qualified pastor, let him teach you the
Bible where you learn full knowledge and not just
gnosis
knowledge. That's knowledge that you
understand but
epignosis
knowledge is knowledge that you metabolize. The reason I bring these
words up is because they are both translated knowledge in the English. If you don't understand
from the Greek New Testament what they are, you'll miss the whole thing. There is knowledge
which is
gnosis
, always translated knowledge and there's knowledge which is
epignosis
always
translated knowledge. The difference between the two words is the word
epi,
the preposition in
front of it, and this means full knowledge. Full knowledge is the Word of God you've learned and
applied by faith into your life. That's full knowledge and that's the knowledge that gives you
wisdom. When you have this wisdom, then when you have a decision to make. you will have
discretion, you will be able to weigh in your mind the right and the wrong and you will have
understanding. Understanding means you will know if there's a trap laid there by Satan. You will
know if it's something you should or should not do. It says,
“Discretion will guard you.
understanding will watch over you
[but this only happens]
when wisdom enters your heart, and
knowledge is pleasant to your soul.”
If you're not interested in the Word of God, then you're not
ever going to have any
epignosis
knowledge. If you don't have any
epignosis
knowledge, you're
not going to have any wisdom and if you don't have wisdom, then you have no discretion and no
understanding and you are a sucker for whatever the devil throws at you. You will go willingly
down the My Way Highway and ultimately destroy yourself because of your own arrogance. If
you want to change, the change requires you to change the way you think. I'm talking now to the
believer in Jesus Christ, the person who's accepted Christ as his Savior. The change of thinking
requires humility. You have to move away from any type of self-justifying arrogance. For
example, Romans 12:2-3.
“Don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind so you can prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and
perfect. For through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you don't think of yourself
more highly than you ought, but think so as to have sound judgment as God as allotted to each
634-The-Bottom-Line-transcript.pdf
one of us a measure of faith.”
What this verse is saying in Paul's words is
do not let arrogance
control your thinking because arrogance will always justify its existence.
“Stop thinking in
terms beyond what you should think but think in terms of humility as God has assigned to
each one of us a standard of thinking from His Word.”
That's a modified expanded translation
of this verse. God wants you to think something. He wants you to have an attitude that He
approves of. It's the same humility attitude demonstrated in the life of Jesus Christ when He
came to this earth to redeem us out of the slave market of sin. In fact we are told in the book of
Philippians that we need to learn to think like He thought. Philippians 2:5-7,
“Let this mind be in
you that was also in Christ Jesus who humbled Himself and made Himself of no reputation, took
upon Himself the form of a servant.”
The word doulos means being servant. Remember when He
washed the disciples’ feet He told them,
“If I your Lord and Master washed your feet, you ought
also wash one another's feet”
(John 13:14). This isn’t about foot washing, that was never
practiced, it is about forgiveness. He knew what was going to happen and He taught them
rebound, problem-solving device #1. He taught them rebound by washing their feet, He forgave
them. He showed them, He demonstrated to them an attitude of humility. Can you demonstrate
that same humility, not in foot washing, that's not what I'm talking about, but in forgiving those
who've wronged you? He even told Peter,
“Before the daylight comes, you’re going to deny you
know Me three times”
(Luke 22:34), but He still washed his feet. He knew what Judas was about
to do. Later after the supper He told him, “Go ahead, do it. I know what you're up to,” and yet He
washed his feet and He washes your feet every time you sin and go to God the Father and
confess your sin. When you do this you are in effect having your feet washed. You see, Peter
thought he needed a whole bath. He said, “Well, just give me a whole bath.” The Lord said,
“If I
don't wash thee, I have nothing to do with thee.”
But it wasn't a bath Peter needed. Peter used the
word for bath and the Lord said, “You don't need a bath. You just need your feet washed. You
need to be cleansed of your sin.” This is the perfect way to teach it and this is what we have to
learn in our life. We have to have this same attitude that the Lord Jesus Christ had, the attitude of
humility. Do you remember the night in the Garden of Gethsemane when they came to take Him
captive? He went alone to pray and He said,
“Father, not My will but Thy will be done”
(Luke
22:42). That's an attitude of humility. That's where He was willing to do what the Father sent
Him to do. What did the Father send Him to do? To go to the cross, to die on the cross, and to
pay for my sin, to pay for your sin. This is why 2 Corinthians 5:21 says,
“He that knew no sin
was made sin in order that we may be made the righteousness of God through Him.”
This took
humility to die for the sins of Judas, to die for the sins of Peter, to die for your sins and my sins.
Every sin you ever did, everything I ever did, He paid for it. If He didn't, there's no way we can
go to heaven because there's nothing in us that can justify the perfect righteousness of God. This
is what Romans 3:10 says,
“There are none that are righteous, no, not even one.”
Isaiah 64:6,
“All of our righteousnesses are like a filthy rag in God's eyes.”
You can't conjure up God's
forgiveness. You can’t earn God's forgiveness. You can't pay your way out of it.
Only through
the redemptive work of Christ on the cross, when He became your substitute, can you have
634-The-Bottom-Line-transcript.pdf
a relationship with God that's eternal.
Philippians 2:5 says,
“Let this mind be in you that was
also in Christ Jesus”
(1 Corinthians 2:16), learn to think in terms of humility. Where can I find
the thoughts of Jesus? “I want to do that.” Okay you say, “I want to think like Jesus thought.”
What did He think? 1 Corinthians 2:16 tells us,
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, that
he may instruct Him? We have the mind of Christ.”
The Bible is the mind of Christ. Why do you
need this? Why do you need the mind of Christ in your life? I will tell you exactly why you need
it. Because Ephesians 3:18-19 says,
“So you will be able to comprehend with all of the saints
what is the breadth and the length and the depth and the height
[of God's plan]
and so that you
will know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge so that you might be filled with the
fullness of God.”
Did you hear that?
Why do you need to know the mind of Christ?
“So you
can comprehend with all believers, what is the breadth, the length, the depth, and the height of
God's plan.”
That's a builder’s metaphor. Only a builder would understand how wide, how long,
how deep, how high it is.
God's plan is unimaginable to you and to me. It’s a perfect plan
and it comes through the love of Christ to us.
This love is an impersonal love because He
loved you before you loved Him. You don't believe this? John 3:16 says,
“God so loved the
world that He gave His uniquely born Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but
have everlasting life.”
The demonstration of the love of God was giving Jesus Christ His Son to
pay for our sin and the demonstration of the love of Christ was going to the cross in obedience to
the will of the Father. This is what you have to do, you have to have this same type of love, the
love that allows you to be obedient to the Father's will in your life and thus you have to replace
the way you think. You can't think the way you use to think with human viewpoint thinking,
“Dear Abby, what should I do?” No, that's not the way the believer thinks. The way the believer
thinks is, “Dear Father, what should I do?”
God will speak to you through His Word, the
Bible.
The most important thing in your life is to replace your human viewpoint thinking, which
is hopelessness, with divine viewpoint thinking, which is security and confidence. The only place
this transfer of thought can take place is under the ministry of a well-qualified pastor. I'm not
talking about the typical nod to God crowd who attends the ritual but have no reality. I'm talking
about a church where the Bible is taught from the pulpit and where the people apply what they
learn. You see, the Word of God acts like a mirror. It reflects your true image when you look into
it. It doesn't reflect what you think you are, that’s your arrogance. It reflects what you really are.
The arrogant person has an unrealistic self-image and if he has an unrealistic self-image, he has
unrealistic expectations. In other words, he expects to be treated in the way he's not worthy of
being treated. God doesn't play that little game. So if you want to see what you really are then
you look into the mirror of the Word of God according to the book of James and you will see
yourself.
The Word of God humbles us. The Word of God exposes us.
Thus many people
don't like to hear it taught. You have to remember this.
Romans 10:17,
“Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God.”
If you intend to live by faith you must live by what the Bible
says and the only way to learn what the Bible says is to get in a local church under a well-
qualified pastor and let him teach you. I've heard people say, “I don't need church. I can just take
634-The-Bottom-Line-transcript.pdf
my Bible and go out in the woods and sit under an oak tree and commune with God.” I’ve got a
word for you, you're full of it. First of all, the Bible is a textbook, it's not a novel. I don't care
how many times you’ve read it through. Yeah, you'll pick up some principles but you will miss a
lot more than you pick up. If it wasn't true then why did God give men the spiritual gift of pastor-
teacher, the Greek word
poimen kai didaskolos
. They have a spiritual gift and it's their gift that
enables them to study and see it and reveal it to you. That's the gift, that's the way the gift works
and thus it's not designed for you to take it by yourself and try to figure it out. If I gave you an
algebra book and didn't give you an instructor and said, “Here, go learn algebra,” you could
never do it.
You will never fulfill the plan of God without a pastor to explain it to you.
This is
the way God intends for it to be. I get a lot of letters from people. I want to share some of them
with you. This particular person said, “I'm not much of an email writer, but I want to let you
know your program has really helped me tremendously in learning what it means to live the
Christian life and for that I'm greatly appreciative. I listen safely in my hometown every Sunday
morning. I pray God will bless you and I pray God would bless your ministry.” Here's another
one. “Hi, I enjoy listening to you every Sunday morning in Cheyenne, Wyoming. This morning
you mentioned you like to hear from folks so here it goes. I'm 61 years old and I've been to
church five or six times in my life, but I've listened to you for about a year now and I guess I
bought a Bible and I've been reading it and I'm going to try a church that my buddy goes to. I ran
into him lately, a couple of times and he's doing great, even after his wife passed away, the wife
he loved very much. He says he’s in a good place with God and it really shows in his life. I've
known this guy for 45 years and he's always been a good person. He was a little while in his
younger days like me, but nobody could ever out-fish him. Anyway, you and he are the reason
I've asked God to save me and I'm looking for the Lord to help me be a better person. Thank you
for your radio show. I'll be listening.” Another listener wrote these words, “I’m from Meridian,
Mississippi. I was in Jackson, Mississippi over the weekend with my six-year-old son for a
baseball tournament when I heard your message yesterday on Super Talk Radio. My six-year-old
and I were headed to Bass Pro Shop and he asked if we were going to go to church. And I
explained that being out of town we would not today but we would on Wednesday night when
we got home. I had been struggling with my spirituality, or lack thereof, and it's become
concerning and heavy on my heart. I put feelers out to some close to me, but I have not found
any peace. On our drive from the hotel I aimlessly changed radio stations and was immediately
excited to hear you discussing the very matter that I've been praying about. My son and I actually
sat in the parking lot for 20 minutes after arriving at Bass Pro Shop listening to the remainder of
your message. I sure wish I could have listened to it from start to finish. My son said, ‘Dad.’ He
spoke up and he discussed spirituality. He discussed being carnal and he said, ‘The Holy Spirit
lives in us daddy.’ My son was interested. I know we need to encourage each other as Christians
so I wanted to contact you in hopes of encouraging and in appreciation for encouraging me. It’s
not easy to keep the attention of a six-year-old child, but you did it and I'll be researching the
times and places where I can hear you more often.” There are other letters that I could read. I just
634-The-Bottom-Line-transcript.pdf
don't have the time but it's fantastic when I get these, when I hear from folks like this. Why don’t
you take a moment if you're listening. If God's using these shows in your life let me know. It's
always encouraging to me. Don't send money. I'm not asking you for money but I love to hear
from listeners how you’re learning and how you’re growing. The announcer at the end of the
show will tell you how to get in touch with me and I hope next week you'll come on back and
join me again, same time, same place for The FLOT Line. Until then, I'm your host Rick Hughes
saying thank you for being with me today.
John Rush sheds light on the often misunderstood topic of insurance, emphasizing the need for annual reviews and understanding true replacement costs. With tales from his personal experiences, he underscores the importance of ensuring adequate coverage, not just for the present but to provide peace of mind against unforeseen catastrophes. Whether it's about understanding your insurance policy or considering modern alternatives for emergency communications, this episode is packed with essential information every homeowner needs to hear.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is Ready Radio, preparing you to be ready for anything, now. Here's your survival guide for Ready Radio, John Rush.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right, welcome. Ready Radio, KLZ 560. First live program of 2025. January the 10th is today's date. If you're listening to a replay, you know what the date is. And I appreciate you all listening. We're doing this now for several years. So thank you all very much. Thanks to all of our sponsors, the folks that make this happen on a weekly basis. And please utilize. Those, if you would, go to ready-radio.com. Find all of our partners there, and when you use one of them, please let them know that you hear them here on Ready Radio, and I appreciate that greatly. All right, several things I want to cover today. First things first, the California fires, which we've talked about in the past here on Ready Radio in regards to even some of the fires we've had in Colorado as to how do we prepare ourselves. We have been victim to similar fires to what they've had out in California right now. Not maybe to that degree, although what happened up in the Boulder area and even what happened up in Granby, had Granby been more populated earlier, Like California was, it would have been very, very similar. But in both situations, you know, houses and belongings and everything completely burned to the ground. And things like that can happen. Now, before I get into what I feel each of us should do to be prepared for those sorts of things, and I have some life lessons along that line because, as a lot of you know, I lost a house up in Granby. and the Troublesome Fire years ago. So I have a little bit of experience with how a lot of this stuff works, the insurance side and so on. And yeah, frankly, even out in California, with a lot of those folks just like happened up in the Louisville Superior area, most will be underinsured. We'll get into some of that today. And what's going to happen in California next, who knows, because it may get hard for them to get insurance, period. Now, I do want to talk about some of the things that are going around the internet and so on I read some different things today and at times I do just have to shake my head at what some people post because it's like you're not really that ignorant are you I mean you really show your ignorance at times with some of the things that get posted and I'm not directing this at any of you that listen because I don't think that's you that do but for example you'll see a meme floating around where it's circling the ocean it's circling the fire saying there's water there use it something to that effect Well, let me explain as somebody that understands that end of things pretty well because in some of the things that I do, the salt component of that, in this case the water, creates some issues. It's not as simple as just pumping it and shooting it on the fire. Some of you may think so, but it's not. And not saying they couldn't do that. In fact, if you prepared, which is what we talk about here on Ready Radio, if you prepared in advance to be able to do some of those things on the front side, pump ocean water up and onto some of those structures and so on, that's a whole different scenario. Problem is, of course, they didn't plan for that. But given the fact that they didn't plan for that, you can't take... the same equipment that they're using for freshwater and pump saltwater through it. It's possible to do it, but it won't last long, folks. And you may put out a few structures and do some things along those lines, but that piece of equipment that you used to do that likely will have to be completely rebuilt when it's all said and done because the saltwater and the corrosion from and so on is enormous. And again, it's just not feasible. And for a lot of you that maybe don't know this, and I think some of the people that post some of these things probably don't, some of the fire trucks and fire apparatuses and so on, you know, they can start in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars per unit all the way up to a million dollars plus for a rig. So you're going to risk as a city, county, whatever the case may be, the investment that you've used taxpayer dollars for in that piece of equipment and run saltwater through it. No, you're not. So for some of you that are posting some of those memes, please stop. You show your ignorance when you do. Show you really don't know what you're talking about. Yes, I've also seen some of the planes that are able to take the seawater and then go dump it. But keep in mind, those are made for that. Completely different scenario with that. Now, I'm not saying there's not fault with what's going on in California, the preparedness, the water, the shortages of not cutting back the growth and so on. I've talked about that on The Daily Show a couple of different times now this week. I'm not giving them a pass by any means, but what I'm saying is, especially we as conservatives, when we post things that are technically not accurate, It makes us look really dumb. And I say that a lot, especially on this show, because the whole preparedness thing, you know, quote, unquote, being a prepper, a good friend of mine and I, in fact, we'll talk to him next week. Bill, if you're listening, we've talked about this and the fact that just the whole term prepper is a negative connotation to some people. It makes you sound like you're really out there and you're some sort of a weirdo. And that's not what this program is about. We want you to be prepared for the what-ifs or for anything that comes along in life. That could be a big snowstorm, could be a tornado, could be a hurricane, could be a power outage, could be an EMP, could be a flood, you name it. just bad wind here in Colorado. I mean, there's all sorts of things that can come along, and we even get into some of the preparedness end of things on what do you do if your car breaks down on the side of a busy freeway? I mean, I get into all of those different things, which your average, quote-unquote, prepper show won't do, because I want everybody to be prepared for everything, not just that, quote-unquote, end-of-the-world scenario, which, by the way, may not ever come in our lifetime. I have no idea. I don't have a crystal ball. No one does. So my point with some of these posts is, number one, like anything with social media, think twice before posting. I don't care what it is. I saw somebody else posting today talking about how, you know, what's happening in California is, you know, Revelation, whatever. And I went and actually read that particular passage in Revelation and trying to figure out how that correlates. And I know my scripture pretty well, and the reality is it doesn't. So, again, where I'm going with this is be extra careful when you post those things because you have influence probably more than you think. And people are looking at what you post. And the last thing that you want to be known for is a weirdo that posts all sorts of things that, frankly, might have a little nugget of truth but are probably not true truth. wholeheartedly, and you're discounted easily, meaning that when you do actually have something worthwhile to say and post, no one is going to recognize that or read it because you're a nut job. No one wants to be known as a nut job. And sorry to say there's too many of them out there on our side. So I just want to do a little explanation on there's a reason why ocean water is not used to put out those fires in their current situation. Like I said, I'm not saying that they couldn't prepare for that and have some pumping equipment and things along those lines that potentially would work for that. But you're not going to take your normal, typical freshwater fire truck And do that. no matter what anybody out there says. Now, I've also heard from different people that, you know, they worry about the saltwater on the vegetation and so on. You know, honestly, I think that's the least of their worries. You're going to have a certain amount of things going on after a fire, regardless of what you've done with the salt and the vegetation and so on. All of that dirt and land and so on is going to have to be completely gone through, scraped, redone anyway. So that's a non-issue. That part doesn't bother me at all. And you could use saltwater to put those fires out. But you have to have proper equipment to do so. And I can tell you right now that most likely, well, I already know, they don't have that equipment out there. They've probably never thought through that. Now, I'll go one step further. Part of the problem, and I've said this many, many times on the weekly show, one of my biggest complaints with California is, number one, there's no management. It's a disaster as a state goes. The whole water management thing is another disaster. Why there isn't desalinization. If they want to go ahead and divert all the water out to the ocean and save the fish, great. Then put some desalinization plants in and have extra water that way. Using that water for drinking and so on and saving some of the other reservoir water for some of these things that they're encountering right now. There are solutions to this, by the way. They're just not willing to step up and make those things happen, whether it be because of cost or environmental concerns or whatever the case may be. You know, no offense. They would rather go put money into homeless things and illegal immigration and, and, and, and, and. They would rather do that and make sure that their fire departments are woke. And then brag about all the lesbians that are now trying to put out fires. And I'm not joking when I say that because there are actual postings and things out there of these particular ladies bragging about the fact that they're lesbians working in the fire department. So I'll get into more of that probably next week as more of that continues to be uncovered. But my point really was be careful what you repost. Making sure that it's accurate. So that at the end of the day, you don't look like a fool. Because ultimately, that's not what we want to look like. All right. A couple of other things. Now, let me get this one out of the way, too. Here's another one I don't believe. I saw something today that basically showed P. Diddy's house burning, which I don't even know if it is. P. Diddy's house burning, and that's the reason the fire started. Because of all of the evidence and things that are inside. Come on, folks. Really. Honestly. Honestly. That is a huge stretch. So that's another one where you repost that and you just look like a fool. So don't. Even if you're tempted to. Even if it sounds great, don't. All right. One other thing I did look at, which would have applied to this situation. Elon Musk now has given the folks the ability to be inside of that area and text and so on, and he's worked out a deal with T-Mobile where they're linking up to Starlink and people can now text and communicate and get in contact with loved ones and so on. I was looking at some things over vacation, over the holidays. I haven't ordered any of these yet because I'm still doing some research, but I found a product called Rapid Radios. Rapid radios. And they're not a ham radio. They're still working off of the cell network that we have coast to coast, but they do it in such a way that their packet usage, quote unquote, is done to where it's very... low usage in the tower meaning that it gets priority when it actually goes through so even if a lot of people are using a particular tower chances of that particular packet going through is much higher than if somebody were trying to use a cell phone and because they're able to use everybody's towers not just Verizon or T-Mobile or AT&T or whatever they're able to piggyback onto all towers through the agreements that they have their radios pretty much work coast to coast, even in very remote areas. Now, they're not GPS. They're not satellite – sorry, they're not satellite-driven, GPS satellite-driven. They're not ham. They are using the existing cell network, meaning that if that network goes down, those radios are inoperative. But in this situation right now in California, or anything that we would have even along the front range here – This is not a bad alternative, and they're not too badly priced. And I know you can go out and do the ham radio thing and all of that, and for some of you, that's a great alternative. For others, that's way above your head, and you'll never do it. This is simply you go buy a pair or four or six or however many you want for your family. You pull it out of the box, and it's usable. There is no programming. There's no dinking around. There's no nothing. You pull the two out, and they will talk to one another. And if you buy enough of them, they're about $170 a piece. Now, some would say, man, that seems really high. Well, if you look at what a cell phone costs and some other things that are out there, not really. It's really not that expensive. To be able to have communication in a situation like these folks are going through in California and not having to wait for an Elon Musk with Starlink or whatever, I mean, even looking back in the Carolina region with the hurricane and so on, these radios, these rapid radios would have most likely worked even in those situations. So, food for thought. I may very well order some. I've got some communication going on back and forth with them. I'm not looking for any freebies or discounts or anything along those lines. I'm just trying to figure out if it's a good solution for a lot of you listening and then be able to get some feedback. actual physical use in on them and determine whether that's a good alternative or not and i will most likely here in the first quarter of this year do so just to get some experience with them and see exactly how they work before i actually endorse them one other product that i noticed this is in regard to the fires and even kind of some end of the world stuff And this came up as an ad. I don't know why, to be real honest with you, but this came up as an ad, and I clicked on it and thought, oh, this really is not a bad deal at all. For a lot of you that have wells, so you're on a well and you're trying to figure out, how am I going to get water if all power is out? How am I going to get that water out of the well? There's a company called Flowjack, F-L-O-J-A-K. Take the C out of jack. So F-L-O-J-A-K. They make a ready-made hand well pump kit that you literally can put on the top of your well and pump it like a bicycle, like a bicycle pump, and pull water out. It's 500 bucks. So for some of you that are on wells where you're thinking, hey, I need to figure out a generator system or something to where I could pump out some drinking water and things like that, this is a lot less money than trying to figure out generators and hookups and all of the other things that would coincide with that. And keep in mind, in an end-of-world scenario, you're only going to let that work for so long until things run out, propane, natural gas, fuel, whatever. This, because it's manual, would literally run forever. So, food for thought. I'll put this link in our notes where you guys can take a peek at this. Those of you that have wells that might be interested in this, I've never seen a product like this. it's designed for again for those of you that already have a well you've already got a cap you know what i mean by that you take the cap off put this on top of where the cap is and it'll draw you can pull the water up and out of the well and it's all diagrammed you can look at their particular website and it shows you exactly how it all works how you install it and so on so for a lot of you that i know live in some of our rural areas or even in town you may still have a well You might be on city water in a well for irrigation. This would work even in that particular case to pull water out. In the case of an all-out, complete power outage, you have no ability to get your well fired up. This would give you fresh water out of your well. with this particular device. So Flowjack, F-L-O-J-A-K. And no, they're not paying me. I just happened to see, again, an ad for this. And when I did, I clicked on it, did a little bit of research and thought, you know, not a bad product at all. Some of you ag guys where you're out in some of the other areas where, again, you're working off of a well or you might have a well for the house and a well for your animals and so on. You might want a couple of these depending upon what your particular scenario is. So anyways, take a peek at that. I'm going to come back and talk about the insurance sides of things and what you should do to be prepared for a fire if, in fact, something like that were to happen like what just did in California. I want to make sure you're all prepared for that. So we'll get into that in just one moment. Don't go anywhere. Ready Radio, and it's ready-radio.com. That's our website, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 09 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
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SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
All right, we are back. Ready Radio, KLZ 560, and talking insurance now. And for a lot of you, this is a hot topic. It is for everybody. I shouldn't say a lot of you. It's always a hot topic. No one likes buying insurance. I saw a Facebook post earlier today, insurance is a scam. Well... No, it's not. I mean, some may feel like it is, but insurance is a business whereby they collect premiums based upon what they feel the risk is for a particular thing that they're insuring. And they ask you to pay a fee for said insurance, and they realize that they have a risk that they may have to pay out on a claim for whatever it is you're insuring against. That's how insurance works. Now, they also know that it's rare for everyone to turn a claim in at one time. It doesn't happen very often. And insurance companies also know that. This is where it gets interesting in places like California where you burn down – there are some estimates that about 4,000 homes have burned. I don't know if that's true. I have not been able to verify any of that. I know here in Colorado, we lost about 500 or so. Maybe – I think it was close to 1,000 homes actually. So – When that happens, yeah, that's hard on insurance companies. They don't plan on those sorts of losses. Let's call it that. So, yeah, it's a sore subject to a lot. A lot of us pay a lot of money for insurance, and it's everything from your home to your car to your business to, in some cases, you guys have toys, motorcycles, boats, planes, things like that, life insurance, disability insurance, you name it. There's insurance for all sorts of things. And as you guys know, you can pretty much buy insurance for whatever you want to, depending upon what it is and how much you want to pay for a premium. At one point in time, didn't J-Lo have part of her butt insured or something, Charlie, I want to say? So, yeah, you can buy insurance for anything. Lloyd's of London, I think. You can buy insurance for about anything. Now, in most cases, if you have a – not in most cases. In all cases, if you have a mortgage, you have to have insurance. If you don't, they're going to provide it at a very inflated price over what you could go to the open market and buy. So you want to go out, shop, and have your own insurance because otherwise your mortgage company will do it, and it's going to be a lot higher price than if you had it on your own. So, yes, if you have a mortgage, insurance is a must. If you don't have a mortgage, that's your call. You want to insure it? Fine. If not, fine. You probably should at least have liability insurance in case somebody slips and falls or falls off the roof or something along those lines. But whether you insure the structure or not, if it's paid for, that's your call. You're kind of self-insuring and taking the risk on your own if you decide to do it that way. And I don't know how many of these homes in that California area might fall into that. Some of those people are very wealthy. They may very well have just said, you know, we'll do liability only and we're not going to insure the structure. We'll take our chances. I don't know. I'm sure some of that will come out in the news as time goes by. Now, most people can't do that. Most cannot self-insure. Very few can self-insure. Now, there are things when it comes to insurance you can do to save money and have good coverage. and that is doing some self-insurance by having high deductibles. In other words, don't nickel and dime the insurance company. Have a high deductible, $2,500, $5,000, $7,500, whatever the max is. Anytime I go to quote insurance, first question I ask, how big of a deductible can I have? Because I know the higher the deductible, the cheaper the premium. And I'm willing to take a risk on a claim and pay a higher deductible than I am to pay higher rates. Because in a lot of cases, fortunately for me, I have a lot of contacts and the ability to do things on my own and so on. And in a lot of cases, unless it's a catastrophic claim, I can handle it on my own. Fender benders, things like that, I can pretty much take care of those things on my own without ever turning a claim in. You have to sit down and determine that on your own. What can you bear if something were to happen? So if you had a total loss, and everything's wiped out and you've got a $10,000 deductible, are you okay at the end of the day? That's only a question you can answer. But what I will tell you is most people don't do what I just said. They sit down with an agent or they go online, they plug in a few things, they answer a few questions, out pops a premium, and off they go. And they don't even bother going through some of the things that I just mentioned. I'm going to talk about limits in a moment, but first things first. If you want to save money on insurance, raise your deductible. And those of you that have auto insurance, if you really want to lower your auto insurance, drop your windshield coverage. You just heard an ad for Novus a moment ago. Yes, windshields are getting expensive. Insurance companies know that, and they're building the price of that windshield on that particular car back into the premiums, knowing that you're going to put one in every so often. So if you want to save money on insurance, drop your windshield coverage. Drop your glass coverage. So food for thought. There's all sorts of ways to save money. And my good friend Paul Leuenberger, who's a good advertiser of ours, you can always call him and he can walk you through some of the things that I'm talking about. And he knows how to save money on insurance. And where I'm at with this is most people never ask. And most people are undercovered. They're more worried about having a low deductible and a low premium and this, that, and the other. And at the end of the day, they get that, but they're also underinsured. So when a total loss does come, they're left holding the bag, just like what happened with folks that had a lot of money up in the Louisville Superior area, and the same thing is going to happen in California. So first things first, and I'm a big one on this, you should review your insurance policies, plural, all of them annually. You know when your renewal date is. It should be on your calendar, by the way. So if you renew 1st of March, let's say, right now in January, you should be looking at that policy changes too and or is there somebody else out there that can offer me a better deal? And shop it and do that every single year. And some of you would say, well, why would I waste all my time doing that? That's how you save money, folks. And that's how you do some of the things I just mentioned a moment ago in regards to deductibles and limits and, and, and. Now, for a lot of you listening as well, not maybe all people, but for a lot of you, you should have an umbrella policy as well. An umbrella policy is an add-on. It's an umbrella to what you already have, depending upon the claim and the coverage you have and so on. It's a good thing to have, and it's not very expensive. All insurance agents, including Paul, can explain how that works. So first things first, make sure you're properly insured. Try to save the most money by some of the things I just said, some of the tips I just gave. And then, for the love of God, make sure you have enough coverage. And most people are underinsured. They don't look at what the actual replacement costs of a home would be. If it's completely wiped out, something happens, there's a natural gas explosion, a fire comes through, you name it. most don't know what that cost is. And I'll be the first to tell you, a lot of agents don't even know. Paul does, but a lot of agents don't even know. Rule of thumb in our area, by the way, a low-end house, figure 250 to 300 a square foot to rebuild in a high-end house can be anywhere from 400 to 600 a foot. So do the math. 2,000 square foot house, 400 bucks a square foot, 800K. And it adds up fast. Now, keep in mind, that's just the building cost. And this is where you've got to be careful on your policies. That does not include cleanup. That does not include anything else that might have to happen to get it into the shape of actually having to rebuild. May not include digging out the old foundation. You may have plumbing things to deal with, sewer lines, on and on and on we go. You need to make sure that you're asking all the right questions of your agent so that they're building the policy necessary so something like what happened in California were to happen here. And it has happened here. And some people out there are thinking, because I've read some of the comments, how does an entire neighborhood burn down? One house ignites, fires are very strong, or winds are very strong, 80, 90, 100 miles an hour, and one house burns, the next house burns, you get the drill. It just jumps from house to house to house to house to house. And the other theory that I have on it after being through this is, as you guys all know, fire seeks oxygen. That's how fire stays alive. A house, by the way, is full. Of what? Inside air and oxygen. So the minute that a window or something along those lines breaks, door blows in, whatever the case, where do you think that fire is going? Right inside the next house. Most people think that the fire kind of jumps up and sparks on the roof and then it starts to ignite. No, that's not how that works. Typically speaking, a window, something like that, gets so hot, it shatters, it breaks, and the fire just goes right into the house, and it burns from the inside out, not the outside in, in the case of what's happened in California. So some of you think, well, man, I'm immune. The next house over is a long way away. Is it? You know, is it? We saw houses up in the Boulder County Superior area that were on acre to two acre lots that still burned from one to the next to the next to the next. And they were a long distance away from one another. So you don't have to be on a postage stamp lot and be an arm's length distance from your neighbor to have it jump from house to house to house. Because again, like I said, it seeks air, the fire does. And when it finds it, off it goes. So once again, make sure that you're fully covered. Look at all of the things that go into the policy, especially when it comes to total loss. Look at how each individual insurance company handles a total loss. And what I mean by that is some insurance companies will insure your contents several ways. One of those ways might be just flat out blanket. You tell us what the value was inside. You go out, buy replacements, and off you go. Some of them will require receipts showing what you actually owned prior, what you paid for certain items. It can get very intricate and you have to know what your policy says. Don't assume that you just have full replacement cost without asking and reading the policy. Because it might surprise you what your coverage actually is. In some cases, you may be generating an entire spreadsheet of personal items. And this goes back to Joe from Jersey always saying, with now having the ability on your cell phone to take a video, walk through your house periodically with your cell phone to record all of the items you own. So that as time goes by, if something like this were to happen, you can document it. And folks, it comes all the way down to even the groceries you had at that time. How many box of cornflakes were on the shelf? Did you have a case of ramen noodles? Did you have this much in silverware, utensils, pots and pans? You get the drift. Those are all personal items that will have to be replaced in a total loss situation like what's happened out in California. I mean, everything from your toothbrush, personal items, all of those things have to be replaced. And you guys all know it's not cheap to do so. So once again, go through your policy. I'm not a big one for buying things online because most of them will not have the ability to walk through what we're talking about right now. So talk to an actual agent, somebody like Paul, preferably Paul, and go through that process so you know exactly what you have and how it's covered. Some things get excluded. You might have a gun collection. It may very well not even be in your current policy. You might have to buy an addendum for that. A rider, they call it. You might have some heirlooms, some paintings, jewelry, something along those lines. You have to make sure you're covered on those things properly or you won't be. You'll be either without those when it's all said and done or you'll be out of pocket on your own to replace them. And again, that's something you have to determine on the front side, what risk do you want to take? But far too many people say, oh, I'm insured. Are you? Really? Pull your policy out and let's look. I can't tell you on the coaching side how many businesses through the years I've pulled out policies and looked at what they have for even their business insurance and found it not to be enough. The same is true with people on their homes. Just because it covers the mortgage, which by the way satisfies them, doesn't mean you have enough insurance. Now, I also am not telling people to be insurance poor. You don't need to buy more than you need. But far too many people, the vast majority, are underinsured. They do not have enough for what's going on. Now, and here's my complaint on that. You heard Joe Biden yesterday talking about how 100% federal government, taxpayers, we're going to kick in and write a check for everything that's happened out there. Now, I don't know if he's talking about homes or just infrastructure or just cleanup or what. I mean, he didn't give all the specifics, but we're on the hook for 100% now because that's what he promised. People in other disaster areas didn't get that, by the way. Ironically, Blue State, California gets 100%, but North Carolina didn't. Florida doesn't. Other places don't when that happens. That'll be something, again, I talk about next week on The Daily Show. But the reality is my beef when folks are underinsured is they then expect the government to come in and pick up the tab for the difference. No, folks, we as conservatives believe in personal responsibility. You should have all that covered on your own. And if you didn't insure for enough, that's on you. Sorry, I do not feel sorry for you. That's on you. You had the opportunity prior to do the insurance side of it the way you needed to. You chose not to. That's now on you. So at the end of the day, if you can't rebuild your home, put the lot up for sale, sell it off, do something else. And no, I don't have any sympathy. I have sympathy that you lost your home, but I don't have sympathy that you can't rebuild it because you didn't plan ahead. So I know I sound a little... angry at that but i am because it costs all of us taxpayers money when people are underinsured because then they expect others to come in and backfill and that's not how this should work We should be filling in on our own with our own insurance. Now, if you've got to fight the insurance company, that's a whole other conversation, which I could get into. But reality is, make sure you're covered properly. And if the insurance policy says X, Y, Z, you'll get the money. Trust me. You can hire a public adjuster if you have to and get the money. So reality is, you'll get the money. But far too many people are underinsured because they don't take into account all of the different things that I just talked about. So please, by all means, get all that done. I've got a few more things to say about the insurance side. If you have a comment on that, you can text me, 307-200-8222. You can call in as well, 303-477-5600. We'll be right back. This is Ready Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 07 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
All right. Welcome back. Ready Radio, KLZ 560 website, ready-radio.com. Got a great question that came in on the text line. How do you establish values for certain things? Your house, a pole barn, etc. Let me go through some of that. Now, really quick, I also want to put a plug in for one of our great sponsors, BP Appraisals, because when it comes to certain things like cars and gun collections... Burt Payne can actually give you a written-out, factual, here's what things are worth, stick that in a file, give it to your insurance agent, and off you go. That's easy. Now, when it comes to other items, it gets a little more difficult. Now, depending upon your house and the value, some insurance companies have their own team that will even come out and analyze what's a rebuild cost for this property based upon current market conditions. And then they will update that depending upon what inflation does and supply chain issues and so on annually. Now, if you're in an area where that's not going to happen and they're basing everything off of what you feel values are, do some comps. you can pretty well look around and see, okay, if I were to go buy this new, if this completely burned to the ground and I had to rebuild from scratch, what are the going rates? And like for like, by the way. So in other words, if you've got a house and it has construction grade type countertops and doors and sinks and so on, then you need to look at the per square foot cost along those lines and you're not going to be in that $400 to $500 a square foot range. On the same token, if you've got more of a custom home and things are a little nicer and you've got different types of even toilets and sinks and faucets and so on – because, by the way, those things add up really fast. And there's a huge difference between contractor grade versus the other end – That's where that price per square foot starts to increase. We talk to Dave from Veteran Windows and Doors during the week all the time, even windows and doors and things like that. Dave Hart from Roof Savers of Colorado, who you heard an ad for a few minutes ago. Even the way the roof is done, huge difference in the bottom of the barrel shingles to top-of-the-line shingles, even on asphalt shingles. So those are things where, number one, what do you have now? And what's it going to cost to replace that like for like? You know, I don't believe in insuring for more than what you own. You just want to be made whole again if something like this were to happen. So you want the ability. This is my opinion and how I look at it. If you have a total loss and at that point you're looking at a total claim of X. So let's use some round numbers. You've got a house and property and so on, and you've got the house valued in our area. It's not hard to get to the $500,000 range. That's a nice round number. So you feel you've got a house that to replace it would be 500 grand. So you're going to insure it for 500, most likely minus the land, plus, though, the contents. So let's say that you're going to insure it for 400 because you feel the lot is worth $100,000. but you know you've got 100 of contents, and I'm just using round numbers. So we're still back up to the 500 range on what you're insuring. So you get a policy for 500K. Now, most policies will allow for some increases. The other thing you've got to be really careful of, will they allow you to build the new home up to code because your old home probably isn't? Unless it just got built, it's not up to code, trust me. There will be things when a new builder comes in to rebuild what you have, Codes have changed, and they will have to upgrade certain things, which adds to the per square foot cost. Some policies will include that code updating in the policy. Again, you have to get with your agent and find out exactly what it says in each one of these areas. So, going back to, we're insuring it for 400 contents of 100, so we're going to get 500. Now, A lot of insurance companies, you could just settle up right off the bat, have them write you the check for $500, and you determine what you want to do from there. Some will require you to rebuild before you get a check. This is where, by the way, public adjusters come in. What a public adjuster does, by the way, is they look at their entire policy, all the ins and outs of it, everything that, by the way, you probably don't know, and not even your agent, but the adjusters won't tell you. They determine what the whole claim should be, what the policy will cover, and they go after that full amount. Yes, you pay them a fee to do that, but you will get much more money out of a claim with a public adjuster than you ever will yourself. That I can guarantee you. And that's true for me. My cabin that burned down up in the mountains, same thing. I got a public adjuster, got far more out of that with them than I ever would have gotten on my own. And I tried it on my own for a while and started getting jacked around by the insurance company. And so I went a different direction, got a public adjuster, and off we went. So going back to this $500K, you think you've got a lot that's worth $100K. So let's say you go the public adjuster route and you get a 500K check. You know your lot's worth 100. Well, at that point in time, you can make the decision, am I rebuilding? Am I buying a bunch of new stuff? Or am I moving? And for a lot of people, by the way, just because of the memories of what's gone on there, they don't want to live there anymore anyways. They're going. They're going to go someplace else. So at that point, you take your 500K, you put the lot on the market, you get your 100K back out of the lot, you now collected 600, and off you go. Go buy the next place. So my point with insurance is you want to be in that position. At the end of the day, if something happens, you want to have that scenario to where you've got enough cash in the bank, literally, because you'll get a check. You have enough cash in the bank to then make a decision. Am I rebuilding? Or are we going to sell a lot and move? What are you going to do? And trust me, this is personal experience speaking. When the money's in the bank... And you can then go look at all the different options that you have on what you want to do. It makes it a whole lot easier than when you don't. And I'm a big one on, and this is what I would even advise these folks in California, they should be hiring a public adjuster today. House is burned to the ground, go get a public adjuster. Be first in line. Get a settlement from the insurance company on the front side. Worry about rebuilding later, but have that money in the bank now. Whatever the maximum is, contents and so on, get it now. And my point is you want to have enough insurance to where if and when that day comes and you're looking for that payout from the insurance company, it gives you the ability to make those decisions necessary, like I said a few minutes ago. That's the position you want to be in, not a position of, oh, I've got a five hundred thousand dollar house that I insured for three hundred. It's going to cost me four hundred to replace it. And I kind of forgot about the contents and and or didn't value those correctly. So I'm under there. So now what do I do? And this happened in Louisville. By the way, I'm giving you real-world examples. These things were in the news that happened in our own backyard up in the Louisville, Boulder County area, Superior Louisville area, where people literally found themselves in that position. And by the way, these were not poor people. These were people with means, but underinsured. In some cases, keep in mind, they lost cars that were in the garage. All sorts of things happened. And they didn't have enough insurance, so they were really left trying to figure out what do we do next. And for a lot of them, they had to literally just sell the lot, try to recoup as much as they could, pay their mortgage off, and hope they could go somewhere else. That's not the position you want to be in. That is the last place you want to find yourself in. You want to be on the opposite end. You want to have all your ducks in a row, go to a public adjuster, get as much money as you possibly can out of that claim, be made whole, and then make a decision, am I rebuilding or am I selling my lot? What am I going to do? And by the way, as far as selling a lot goes, when you have all the money in the bank off of everything else and you can go make a decision on where else you want to live, you don't have to make a decision on selling that lot right then. You could wait a year or two and decide. You could wait for some of the values to even come back up if you wanted to. Totally your call. The pressure, my point is the pressure of what you have to do goes away. Because you planned ahead. That's what this show is all about. We want you to plan ahead. Yes, we call it Ready Radio because we want you to be ready for anything. But we're big on planning ahead so that you have things handled on the front side and you're not trying to worry about it on the back side trying to figure it out then. And folks, I'm giving you real world examples. You're going to hear all sorts of sob stories coming out of California. And while I feel bad that people lost their entire homes, I really do because that's not fun. I do not feel bad for people that are underinsured. They had plenty of opportunity over the past decades to figure out how to be insured properly. And if they aren't, that's on them and should not be my responsibility as a taxpayer to make them whole. nor your responsibility as a taxpayer. So this is one of those things, and for a lot of you, a lot of us think, where I live, that's just not going to happen. There's not enough trees and brush and things around me. That's not how to look at it, folks. Again, all it takes is one house igniting, Strong winds, which we have in Colorado, and pretty soon it's house after house after house after house after house. And as you guys have seen, even from what happened here in Colorado, it burns the cars on the streets. It burns everything in the house itself. I don't think most people have any comprehension of how hot it is. those fires actually are and what they do. A lot of folks even that put the memes and things out there, these are people, frankly, that have no clue how hot fire is and what it actually can do and what happens when you blow that fire at 100 miles an hour. And they want to blame all sorts of things, government, not saying that there's not some nefariousness going on inside government and so on, but they want to blame it on everything other than the fact that things happen And unless you're prepared on the front side, you're going to lose. So in the case of the folks in California, those that were insured really well, that had everything all dialed in, they will be made whole. They will not have any issues. Yes, there's always sadness over the things that you lose because it's your personal items. But financially speaking, those people that are insured correctly will be just fine. That's what I want for all of you. Be insured correctly so that if something comes along that is what we call a total loss, you have the ability to be made whole again, and you're now in control of your future and somebody else isn't. And again, I will guarantee you that inside of my own listening audience, there are a lot of people that don't understand the things we've just gone through this past 55 minutes or so, And they have no idea whether they're insured for enough or not. And going back to the question, how do I know if I am? Do some research. Do some comps. What's it going to take to replace what you own? The pole barn situation a moment ago. Stay up to date on that. Those things go up in price on an annual basis. What is a, you know, if you've got a 20 by 20 pole barn or a 40 by 40 pole barn, what does that cost to replace right now? And by the way, you've got to figure in not just the replacement value of the building going up, but what's inside of it. electrical and heat and so on, if that's what you've done. Did you put a concrete floor in? On and on. So you've got to look at everything along those lines, factor that all in, and then insure it correctly. And what I will tell you is, most of the time, it's more money than you think. And real quick as a reminder, please make sure in your policy you have cleanup costs covered. Most will include it, But look at that and determine, is it enough for all of the cleanup? If there's a total loss like what's happened in California, am I going to be able to even afford to get all this stuff hauled off and even start over again at that point and be where I need to be? Because in a lot of cases, your policy will be way low in that. And I will tell you that those cleanup costs add up really, really quickly. When I had my cabin burned down up in Granby, I think the cleanup costs alone were about $15,000. just getting everything leveled off, cleaned up. That wasn't taking the foundation or anything out. That was just getting all of the debris and everything that had burned to the ground out of there. It was about 15 grand. Most would say, holy cow, how did it get so high? Trust me, folks. They don't haul the stuff away for free. And whoever's taking the debris doesn't take it for free. And it doesn't load itself into the dump truck for free. You're paying people to do all of those things, and there's a cost to it. And in some cases, it's hazardous material at that point, and there's even costs on that, which, by the way, also makes sure that you're covered inside of your policy for as well. So, guys, that's it. If you have any questions on that directly, you can always text me, 307-200-8222. We'll be back with our next program. Don't go anywhere. Ready Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 06 :
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.
Amidst the electric backdrop of recent political upheavals, The Mike Gallagher Show delivers an episode fueled with powerful moments and impactful revelations. The episode opens with a contemplation of the sentencing of Donald Trump — a decision that, despite sparing him jail, brands him a felon to a divided crowd. With humor and fervor, Mike calls upon listeners to play an integral role in deciding the program content through a lightning round of responses, and to not shy away from the swirling vortex of American politics and media biases. Furthermore, the episode brings to light the shifting dynamics at play beyond the world of politics, unveiling the human side of national events. As Brad Parscale, a key figure behind Trump's digital conquest, shares his vision for Salem Media Group, listeners gain insight into the potential evolution within the digital and media frontier. Meanwhile, reflections on the funeral of Jimmy Carter offer a lens into the deeply personal nature of institutional work and the intricate webs woven within America's political fabric.
SPEAKER 03 :
He's the happy conservative warrior. From the Relief Factor studios, here's Mike Deller.
SPEAKER 13 :
I came into work today with a dilemma. This hour, this despicable Judge Juan Merchan is going to sentence... Donald J. Trump. Now, he's not going to get jail time, apparently. He's not going to get any kind of penalty, except for the ability for the Trump-hating universe to call the 47th president of the United States officially a convicted felon. It makes me so angry, I want to jump out of my skin. And we got a lot of breaking news today. We had the Carter funeral yesterday, and wow, we have hours' worth of material from those five presidents sitting together with their wives, except the one wife, Michelle Obama, who couldn't bother to attend because she undoubtedly didn't want to be in the same room with Adolf Hitler. However, Barack Obama apparently likes Adolf Hitler because they're chums. They're buddies. That was wild, okay? We'll get to all of that, I promise, because it was quite the image to see Barack Obama and Donald Trump laughing, giggling, Kamala glaring at them. She's sitting in front of them. I'm telling you, the Real Housewives of New Jersey had nothing on this show yesterday. You could do a five-part miniseries on Jimmy Carter's funeral. Isn't there a movie, Three Men and a Funeral? Two Women and a Funeral? I don't know, something. Well, this was five presidents at a funeral, and I could watch it on a loop. I could watch Kamala glaring at Barack for the rest of my life. Just put it on a loop, inject it into my veins. I'm a happy camper. So we're going to get to that. But before we get to that, here's my struggle, and this is why I'm going to turn to you. And Teresa, we're going to do a lightning round of calls. And Teresa, our screener, who is knocking it out of the park. We're so thrilled to have Teresa join our team, and she is magnificent. Of course, she was a Joey Hudson recommendation, so why wouldn't she be fantastic? But she's absolutely amazing, and she's all excited about the challenge of a lightning round. And Eric, get our lightning round music queued up. I'll tell you when to start. But Teresa said, I'm ready. I'm just going to get their names, and I'm going to put them up, and we're going to be really quick. Here's my lightning round programming question for you. I love it when you're my program director. I don't really have a program director. I have a boss. I listen to him. I bounce off. I've got a lot of great resources to help me with content. But I love turning to you for advice on how to run this show. I don't mind. I mean, it is my show. I love doing what I do, but I like advice. So here's what I need to ask you, Mr. or Mrs. Program Director. In about 20 minutes, Marchand is going to sentence Trump for the stupid, bogus, witch-hunt, ridiculous sham, the 34 felony convictions that Alvin Bragg and company twisted out of an expired misdemeanor. Business records being falsified. It's the stupidest thing I've ever witnessed, and it was only done to try to stop Trump. Well, Juan Marchand... degenerate that he is, he sees fit to provide an audio feed of the sentencing. He wants everybody to hear him sentence Trump. Now, he didn't allow any cameras or microphones in the trial because we would have all seen, the world would see what a witch hunt it was and what a political joke it was. But now that he gets to sentence him, he wants the world to peek in on that and he wants people to hear it. And because he wants people to hear it, my inclination is I don't want people to hear it. But I also have a responsibility as a talk show host with millions of weekly listeners to do my job. It is history. And it's despicable. And it's awful. But maybe we ought to hear it. Well, we're about 15 or 20 minutes away. Let me have a bunch of program directors call 800-655-MIKE. Cue the music, Eric. 800-655-6453. Cue the music. Cue the music. And I want you to tell me whether you want me to carry it or not on this show. That's all. Do you want to hear it or not? I mean, it's going to make you mad because it makes me sick. I don't think we can ignore it. I don't think we can avoid it. I think we ought to be able to confront evil... front and center. But let's find out. I want to know what you think. And let's get as many calls in here as we can. 800-655-MIKE 800-655-6453 800-655-6453 Quickly to Jennifer, Dayton, Ohio. Jennifer, should we carry it or not? Jennifer, you there? Maggie in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Maggie, should we carry it or not? Not hearing anybody, Eric. Maggie, you there? Well... Okay, so we've stopped the music. This is like a typical Mike Gallagher production. I swear, I could mess up a one-car funeral. I could screw up. So let's take a quick timeout. Let's go ahead and regroup. I'll try again when we come back. We'll get the phones to work. And I swear, I'm not kidding you. Everything I try to do, a contest, if I tell a joke about a little person, a little person is in the background. Anything I try to do just gets exploded. And, of course, I blame Eric. So thank you, Eric, for not having the phone set up. So we'll get this fixed, and then we will take your phone calls. I want to know, and I want to get a good, seriously, and you can text me as well. I mean, I've got five texts in a row. Ohio, don't play it. Michigan, don't bother. New York City, please don't air it. Pennsylvania, I'll turn it off, but I'll turn you back on afterwards. I think most people don't want to hear this. And guess what? If you don't want to hear it, I'm not going to play it. So you keep voting. Either call or text 800-655-MIKE. I know the text line is working. Maybe we can get the phones to work, and then I'll get some on-air responses as well. There's one yes from Florida. Do you want to hear... the audio of Judge Juan Marchand sentencing Donald Trump? Or do you just want me to talk about it maybe afterwards? I don't know. This is a real dilemma for me, and I mean it. I'm really torn on this. 800-655-MIKE, 800-655-6453. You get to judge. You get to vote. We'll continue to poll you next here on The Mike Gallagher Show. I want to welcome some brand new partners to the Mike Gallagher show like Equity Protect. And this is a big, big deal. Your home's title is often the most valuable thing you own. Next generation criminal technology is more advanced than ever. I've been an identity theft victim. It is no fun. You got to have Equity Protect in your corner. If you own your home mortgage free or you got a lot of equity, you got to have Equity Protect so that scammers do not steal your equity or title. For a limited time, Equity Protect is offering you a tremendous deal, 30% off your first year, giving you one year of protection for less than $12 a month. Just go to EquityProtect.com. Use the discount code Mike30. That's EquityProtect.com. Use the promo code Mike30. Once you have Equity Protect, you don't need to check. Trust the team at Equity Protect. Go to EquityProtect.com and use the promo code Mike30.
SPEAKER 02 :
don't go changing to try and please me you never let me down before
SPEAKER 03 :
Breaking now on the Mike Gallagher Show.
SPEAKER 13 :
Here's the headline from the New York Post. Donald Trump gets no penalty in hush money case, but will still become the first felon in the White House. And that's what you're going to hear all day long today. This despicable Manhattan judge, along with the despicable jury of New Yorkers, convicting Trump of 34 felonies over a business records error that was a misdemeanor originally that got turned into 34, and an expired misdemeanor because of the statute of limitations, got turned into 34 felony convictions. The president-elect is the first person convicted of a felony to assume the White House. I'm not going to even use the word justice with this guy. Judge Juan Marchand. who oversaw a trial where jurors heard evidence that Trump paid off the porn star, sentenced Trump to an unconditional discharge. Mershon said, Sir, I wish you Godspeed as you assume a second term in office. Of course, Trump faces no jail time, probation, or fines. Look, does he lose his right to vote? Does he lose his right to keep and bear arms? He does, right? I mean, we've stripped the 47th president of the United States from his constitutional rights, like voting, all because the supposed conservative justices on the Supreme Court didn't have the guts to do the right thing. John Roberts, he's a lost cause. He's no conservative. But Amy Coney Barrett? I mean, it was five to four. If only one of the supposed conservative majority of Supreme Court justices had done the right thing, Trump wouldn't have been subjected to this debacle. Now, I want to share a really nice story. text I got. It's a lengthy text, but I want to read it to you before we take some more phone calls at 800-655-MIKE. But I really do appreciate the note from Ohio. This is from Columbus, Ohio. Mike, just to set the record straight, in the whole time I've listened to you, I think I've only disagreed with you twice. I agree with you more than I do anyone, even in my circle of friends. Your opinions are usually very well thought out, and one of the things I like about you is you're willing... to consider another opinion and even change yours from time to time. I think you may be wrong about Amy Coney Barrett. And let me tell you why. Trump put her in the position she's in because she takes a contextual, literal approach to the Constitution and the law. Basically, the law means what it says, and it says what it means. You don't read extra stuff into it. I think she would have liked to have put off Trump's sentencing, but a justice who believes in the law the way it's written and the Constitution may not have been able to find a legitimate reason to pause his sentencing, particularly in light of the fact that it isn't going to interrupt the operation of the government or take away his freedom. Oh, really? Does he have the right to vote? Not anymore. And I do. I appreciate it. The texture goes on and on and ends it with, God bless Mike. Keep fighting the good fight. And Columbus, Ohio, I appreciate your text to me very, very much. But let me give you a very simple response that allows me to say why I think you're wrong. If that's true, that you think that she's a justice who takes a contextual, literal approach to the Constitution and the law, you mean to tell me Neil Gorsuch does not? Do you mean to tell me Brett Kavanaugh does not? You mean to tell me Samuel Alito does not? You think Clarence Thomas does not? Why did four justices last night vote to uphold Trump's request to throw this sentencing out. She's not the only one, you know, Ohio. And I've got great respect for Clarence Thomas. I've got great respect for Alito. I've got great respect for Neil Gorsuch. And there are four justices who did the right thing last night and two that did not. And that's John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett. I think she was spooked by the protesters. I really believe that's what her problem is. Her kids were doxxed. Her kids were threatened. She doesn't like people on her front yard. And she doesn't want to tick off. the Trump-hating universe. I can't believe there's... Because again, all of your points are great, Ohio. Now do the other four. Now do the four true conservative justices. And incidentally, what we've seen with this ruling last night is that it truly is a Supreme Court with four justices who are conservatives. Four. Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Alito... and Clarence Thomas. Deborah's in Jacksonville, Florida. Hi, Deborah. Welcome to the Mike Gallagher Show. Deborah, are you there? You guys took away control of my phone lines again. Teresa's grabbing my phone lines. Let's try it again. Deborah, are you there? Hi, Deborah. I am here. Sorry about that.
SPEAKER 01 :
How are you?
SPEAKER 13 :
Yes, loud and clear.
SPEAKER 01 :
I'm doing all right. I had a similar incident in 2019. I had a constitutional case before the D.C. Court of Appeals.
SPEAKER 13 :
With all due respect, Debra, I'm so sorry. I don't want to get sort of bogged down or distracted with a personal case that you had where you had a bad experience in the court. So my apologies. Feel free to write me a note if you don't mind, Debra, and I'll make sure we take a look at it. Mike at MikeOnline.com. Dave's in Colorado Springs. Hi, Dave.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hey, good morning, Mike. What I see happening today was that... They finally put the last knot in the rope of this coup with malicious intent towards Trump. And the good thing of it is I believe that gag order is going to be lifted as of today.
SPEAKER 13 :
You know, I'm glad you mentioned that, Dave, because I think the gag order is over. And I expect Donald J. Trump's going to go DEFCON 1 on Juan Merchan. The audio is being released. We're going to take a moment to regroup, and the audio playback is now being released, and we'll share with you what it sounded like when this awful, awful travesty of justice took place. Look, I appreciate all the texters who are saying, hey, success is the ultimate vindication, and that's true. In 10 days, we'll be in Washington, D.C., broadcasting from the president's inauguration. I'm going to get to go to a couple of inaugural balls I got the tux ready to go. I got the overcoat, the gloves, the scarf. It's going to be chilly, but we'll be there. And I don't want to get too down. It just frustrates me when people can do the right thing and they don't. It just is annoying to me. It's just aggravating. But we're going to get through it all together. 19 minutes before the hour, portions of our show brought to you by MyPillow and the Patriots Alaska Cruise. Details on the big trip coming up in August. And again, the audio playback of the Trump sentencing next here on the Mike Gallagher Show.
SPEAKER 05 :
Said I don't want to go. Lord, look at how the people stand. Said I don't want to go.
SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
He's the happy conservative warden. From the Relief Factor studios, here's Mike Deller.
SPEAKER 13 :
Gird your loins, because you're going to hear, we've got the first convicted felon in the White House in the history of America. A finale to this sham in New York City. Judge Juan Marchand sentenced President Trump to no penalty, no jail time, no anything. It's called an unconditional release. But nonetheless, his haters are going to get to refer to him now officially as a convicted felon. Here was the president a few moments ago. And I can't wait to get the reaction from Brad Parscale, who's going to join us in just a couple of moments. Let me just quickly play. The audio was released because this judge, who didn't allow any microphones or cameras in the sham trial, made sure that at least the audio portion of his sentencing was released to the public. President Trump appeared virtually on screen and was beamed into the New York City courtroom.
SPEAKER 06 :
It's been a political witch hunt. It was done to damage my reputation. so that I'd lose the election and obviously that didn't work. And the people of our country got to see this firsthand because they watched the case in your courtroom. They got to see this firsthand and then they voted and I won and got the largest number of votes by far of any Republican candidate in history. And won, as you know, all seven swing states. Won conclusively all seven swing states. And won the popularity, the popular vote by millions and millions of votes, and they've been watching your trial. So they understood it.
SPEAKER 13 :
That was President Trump addressing the court during his preposterous sentencing today. And talk about a great guest to react in real time. You know, the media world has been following with great interest the news that Salem Media Group, the company that I've worked for for the past, well, 24 years, announced the appointment of Brad Parscale as chief strategy officer. Now, Brad, of course, you recognize his name and his face. He was just pretty revolutionary in the role he played as digital and media director for Trump's campaign in 2016. But he's been a digital architect and entrepreneur for decades before that, and now our company, Salem, is going to utilize his skills and his insights as our chief strategy officer. That's kind of neat to be able to welcome a guy who doesn't give a lot of interviews, but what an honor it is to get to meet Brad Parscale. Do I call you chief, commander, general? What's the right title, Brad? How are you? Okay, we lost audio. Doggone it. Okay, we'll try to get the audio fixed here and figure it out. All that big buildup and no audio for our chief strategy officer. So we'll try to figure out why we lost the audio. And this guy is pretty brilliant in terms of – there we go. We got your audio back, Brad. Was that on your end or ours?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER 13 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes, there it is.
SPEAKER 13 :
It's nice to meet you, and I appreciate you joining us here. I know you don't do a lot of interviews, but this is pretty timely because you know President Trump as well as anybody. You worked closely with him in 2016, of course, and here comes this dark day where he's sentenced today in a New York City courtroom. Just if you can, I want to talk about your role with Salem and media and digital in general, but give me your initial reaction to this sentencing today in New York City, Brad.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, first, I've been with the Trumps for 15 years. I was the digital media director, media director of 16. I was campaign manager in 2020 until July of 2020. And then I stepped down and still continued with the software and data. In 2024, our software powered the Trump campaign. So, you know, I'm still with him today. Look, I was pissed today. I've been texting with Eric and Don Jr. and Laura and everybody. This is... This is just them with framing. This is they've lost. They don't have much left to do. And what they're trying to do is to be able to say convicted felon. They want to try to set up a whole series of framing to win the 26 elections in the House and the Senate. This is all they're in trouble. They know they lost on immigration. They know they've lost. They don't have a lot of framing battle left. The left is in a lot of turmoil, even worse than 17. They need to find a new brand. They need to find a new way to get people to donate against Trump. And this is it. This is their moment to try to get something to capture, to raise money and to start a war for 26 and to create a media narrative. There's nothing more. Trump knows this. The family knows this. Anybody that knows politics knows this is all it's about is to get a new hook and put new bait on the hook to bring in new donors and to try to get them riled up to start a new movement.
SPEAKER 13 :
And yet, on the other hand, nothing can take away from this light we see on the horizon. In 10 days, he's going to get inaugurated. And I keep thinking about the term a golden era. You know, we're returning to a president that believes in the rule of law, who believes in our borders, who believes in our sovereignty. We've got a president who wants to drill and use our own resources. We've got a president who, you know, his first term, there were no wars – breaking out all over the world. I mean, he's inheriting a mess. But gosh, we've got a House and a Senate majority of Republicans. We can't lose sight of the optimism that millions of us are feeling right now, Brad.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I mean, look. We also have a President Trump that I think is different than the President Trump I worked for in 2017, you know, for years. I think he's been—the humility after the assassination attempt that came across him, I think the team he has around him—you've got to remember, in 2017— Nobody really, we'd won the election, but nobody had actually ever run the government before. So now you have a Trump administration that's going to come in firing on day one. I think there's less anti-Trump people, you know, let's just, let's not forget the Paul Ryan, you know, the ASCO of trying to do the medical thing, the McCain, everybody, you have now a party that is Trump. There's a lot of data out there shows now that we've moved from the Reagan party to the Trump party. And if you start putting all that together, I think you're going to see a much more successful campaign. I think we have a real target for reconciliation. We have a target on immigration. We have a party that's really more aligned. Now, I wish we had a bigger majority in the House. I still think Speaker Johnson has a lot of work in front of him. We have we have a slim majority. So we have to instead of fighting to, you know, just save the you know, this, you know, these majorities, we need to grow them in 2026. But again, this is all about them having a narrative to fight because they're losing on all the policies right now. Sure. And they know and they need a message. And the only thing that's really worked for them in the last five, six years has been hate Trump.
SPEAKER 13 :
I want to pull the curtain back a little bit because I consider this audience family, my extended if sometimes dysfunctional family. I've gotten to do this with Salem for 24 years. The Salem Media Group is different. You know, there's something different about the Salem way of doing things. And for people who listen to us and watch us and, you know, Town Hall and Red State and all of our properties that we own and our radio stations around the country and Salem News Channel, all of our assets are There's a Salem way of operating. Our mantra is sort of, you know, we want to do good as a company while doing good for others. I mean, in December, my show, we raised almost a quarter of a million dollars for the Prison Fellowship Angel Tree campaign. Our audience donated $240,000 to send Bibles and Christmas presents to the children of incarcerated people in America. I mean... This audience, we're connected in an amazing way. And I've been reading and hearing about your meetings already with Salem. It was announced a couple of weeks ago or a week or so ago that you're going to be the chief strategy officer for the Salem Media Group. Can you talk a little bit about your perspective about where Salem sits right now as a media company, what the future holds, and frankly, what your role is going to be as chief strategy officer?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, I think it was a little divine. I've gone through kind of a Christian awakening for myself over the last four or five years. I lost two children years ago, and they would probably be about, you know, that really awakened me into what got me into my life. And also what's happened in this country. What was turned for me to visually see what cancel culture and the destruction of the Marxist leftist socialist machine uh awakened me but let's let's just talk about salem for a minute it's not about me um salem's in a great position um i had this vision about four months ago and i literally a dream about what i thought what the importance of salem could be and i was driving a month after after that that vision i had i ended up getting into a bus with a board member of salem and telling them about my vision and that board member said you know brad that could be possible Within a week, I was talking to Ed Essinger at Salem and having a meeting where we discussed it. Within 60 days of that, my investment group I represent called Waterstone had made a purchase, and we had made a deal to make Salem debt-free. That all happened from my vision to 90 days, and only God could make that happen. And I truly believe that. And I believe that now Salem is one of almost the only almost every other media company that would say competitors are in this market have nearly half a billion in debt, two billion in debt, big numbers. Salem Media has a balance sheet right now that is. The best in the business. I believe it has unwavering values. And I think God is seeing that and the people see that. I think that's what you were talking about a minute ago, these unwavering values. And I believe right now it's in a position to be a significant player over the next four years with this Trump administration. I also believe we're going through, we're about to be 250 years old as a nation. A lot of countries don't make it past that in the history of the planet. I believe that Trump has torn down what was destroying our country, almost like, you know, Samson in the Bible and things. And what we've had to do is now we're rebuilding. And I think the next 250 years of America look good. And it's companies like Salem who are going to drive that message. There's a lot of uneasiness in the media world right now. I mean, look at the Washington Post just exploding. You know, there's a war for truth. And I think Salem is going to be a leader in that truth. And I think people are looking for that information. And the reason why I helped bring this investment to turn Salem into this powerhouse plus join is because I believe tremendously that Salem is the voice of the spiritual reckoning and revitalization that's occurring in America with Trump. with the entire thing it's if you look at the day i came in in 27 16 to help run this campaign it was i had to have three armed guards people wanted to kill me i couldn't i was being cancelled from everything i've been cancelled from everything because what they wanted to do is exile us you can't you can't say anything like this And today, I can walk down the street with my MAGA hat on. I can say what I want. I can say First Amendment's been protected. It is a tired, different world than it was eight years ago in America. And I think that's mostly because of Trump and his family. And I want to make sure that Salem is the strongest voice of that message.
SPEAKER 13 :
I had a friend who's in another media company much bigger than this one, and they're facing all kinds of challenges. And he is in amazement. He said it absolutely is a God thing the way this deal came together so quickly. You couldn't have put this thing together if you spent years strategizing a way to do it. And it was. I believe that this is a divine intervention. And I will tell you internally, everybody is so excited about Brad Parscale joining our team and what you're going to be able to provide in terms of your insights and your expertise in the digital space and what we do on air. We're just all so excited. On a personal note, of course, and I know your story, I've followed your career for years. Our hearts go out to you and your wife over your loss. And that is a life-changing experience that I know that people can relate to. And I just feel so honored to be able to meet you this way. I can't wait to spend some time with you in person very soon. And, again, you're kind of a recluse with interviews. You don't do a lot of them. So thank you for coming on the Mike Gallagher Show. I know our audience appreciates it very, very much, and best of luck. Keep fighting the good fight, and can't wait to work with you as our Chief Strategy Officer for the Salem Media Group. Thank you, Brad, very, very much, and Happy New Year.
SPEAKER 10 :
Thank you, Mike, for having me on.
SPEAKER 13 :
Appreciate it. Brad Parscale joining us, our new chief strategy officer. You know, you've heard me say in the last few days that 2025 is going to be the year for Gallagher with X and Facebook and digital and Instagram. And I mean it. I meant it. That's right. And he's the reason why. We're going to end, again, Salem Media Group now poised to be a lot less stress-free than some of our other media competitors and Hey, we can't do it without you. Got a lot of breaking news today. Let's get right back to it here in the Relief Factor studios from the upstate of South Carolina, where I'm getting ready for some snow and ice as well. 20 past the hour. Welcome in. Christmas means giving, and for my money, Christmas means MyPillow. Make it a MyPillow Christmas for somebody on your list because the Christmas extravaganza is well underway. Because a big box retailer canceled an order, Mike Lindell has thousands of MyPillows to move. Well, he wants to pass the savings on to you, so check out this offer. You can order a standard classic MyPillow, and it's normally $49.98 for just $45. 1488 with promo code Mike G. Limit of 10. This is the pillow that started it all, the pillow that never goes flat, stays nice and cool all through the night. You can throw it in the washer and the dryer as often as you want. You can get a classic standard MyPillow for 1488 with promo code Mike G. A queen size, normally $69.98. You'll get it for just $18.88 with promo code Mike G. Or a king size. Normally $79.98. You can order it for $19.88 apiece. Limit $10, please, during Mike's incredible Christmas extravaganza from MyPillow.com. Look, if you haven't been to the site in a while, you can get all your Christmas shopping done by going to MyPillow.com. Look for the Mike Gallagher Specials Square. Click on that box, and then with any order you place, enter the promo code MikeG, and you'll save big. MyPillow.com. Promo code MikeG. MyPillow.com, promo code MikeG, or call 800-928-6034, 800-928-6034. It's the Christmas extravaganza sale going on right now at MyPillow.
SPEAKER 05 :
I promise to always love. Cause I think the whole world can't change that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Mike Gallagher.
SPEAKER 13 :
No, you can't change that. We can't change what happened today. We can't change any of it. We just have to go forward. I saw a great note on social media from somebody who said, when your smug liberal friend says, oh, Trump is a convicted felon, ha ha, your reply can be, so was Martin Luther King Jr., so was Nelson Mandela, so was Mahatma Gandhi, and Jesus Christ. Have fun. ticking them off even more. Let's get your reaction to it. Leif in Ronkonkoma, New York, as we go back to your calls. Hey, Leif, welcome to the Mike Gallagher Show. How are you?
SPEAKER 08 :
Hi, Mike. Doing well.
SPEAKER 13 :
Good, good, good. Give me your reaction to what you just heard from Judge Juan Marchand.
SPEAKER 08 :
I think President Trump should say thank you very much. This is the icing on the cake of all the lawfare nonsense that has helped America revote him into being the next president of the United States.
SPEAKER 13 :
You know, you're right. It's a backfiring the likes of which I've never really seen. I've been at this a long time, 40 plus years. I've never seen America respond as collectively as we did to the lawfare. You know, we can talk all about how bad a candidate Kamala Harris was. We can talk all day. And we've got a lot of great, great Republicans in leadership. We could talk all day long about, you know, the Democrats and illegal immigration and crime and the lawlessness. I think it was the lawfare. Americans said, wait a minute, if they can do this to him, they can do it to me. That's why Americans said, I'll crawl over broken glass to vote for this guy because we can't let him get away with it. And they didn't. In 10 days, we're going to be in D.C. covering an inauguration that shouldn't have happened. Look, when you've got the whole beast behind one candidate, the odds are against you. Something's different now. Something has changed. Here's cut number one. I want you to hear Ron DeSantis. Cut three. Look, it started out DeSantis. There were DeSantis people. There were Marco Rubio people. But it was Trump and only Trump who could get it done. Trump, I'm not sure that anybody else... would have beaten Kamala Harris, to be honest with you. You could argue that. That's fine. Ron DeSantis is a tremendous governor. Ron DeSantis has got an incredible political future. I don't know what it's going to look like in 2028 and beyond, but I know that he has no problem coming to the defense of President Trump. I know he has no issues whatsoever with defending Trump. our Constitution and the rule of law. Listen to what happened yesterday when a reporter tried to stir the pot, bring up Trump and Trump's criticism of Gavin Newsom and the horrible, horrible way Democrat leaders have handled the wildfires, particularly that mayor, Karen Bass, who declared a state of emergency, then hopped on a plane and went to Africa. as her city was burning. Inexcusable, unforgivable. Maybe the voters of California are going to wake up someday. But in the meantime, here's what Ron DeSantis said when a reporter tried to stir the pot.
SPEAKER 11 :
Is it appropriate for the president-elect or a president to be criticizing?
SPEAKER 02 :
Is it appropriate for people in your industry to try to create division and to try to create narratives anytime these things happen? Now, you're not as interested in doing that because Newsom is a D. If Newsom was a Republican, you guys would have it nailed to the wall for what they're doing over there. And I know we've dealt with it. We just assume in Florida anytime something happens, it's going to be politicized by the media. So you guys sitting in judgment of Donald Trump, I mean, excuse me, I think your track record of politicizing these things is very, very bad. Okay, last question.
SPEAKER 13 :
I mean, that is so good. That's Ron DeSantis just shutting it down. Game, set, match. Got a lot of great Republicans. Not only in positions of authority now who are probably going to have more prominent positions. What does 2028 look like? I mean, Trump gets one term. J.D. Vance as the Republican nominee? Does Ron DeSantis go back for another bite of the apple? Who are we going to see? There's a lot of rumors. Somebody told me, oh, you know, Nikki Haley is coming back. A lot of rumors here in South Carolina, too, about people like, what's her name, Nancy Mace. She wants to run for governor. Dave is in Governor Ron DeSantis' state of Florida, Callahan, Florida, to be exact. Hey, Dave, welcome back.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hey, Mike, love your show. I just wanted to say... That whole thing with the sentencing, I just giggled through the whole thing because they don't understand that this is what gave President Trump a landslide victory, just what this guy just did. It's hilarious, and it's not going to hurt President Trump one bit, I don't think.
SPEAKER 13 :
I don't either. And it is amazing, Dave, how they have no self-awareness, do they? They don't even realize how their own actions have backfired.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I just had trouble understanding where their mindset is. And that's great because in 28, we're going to carry on Trump's vision with another victory. I believe the country's eyes are open and we're going to carry forward.
SPEAKER 13 :
No, no question about it. Thanks for your kind words. And, you know, MAGA is here to stay. You know, an America First agenda is here to stay. But we've got to deliver. We must deliver. Trump has, and he will. I feel very confident about it. And he's got some unlikely allies. Look at John Fetterman. This guy just blows my mind. Here's cut 13. This is Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman talking about going to Mar-a-Lago. He's going to be the first sitting Democrat in the Senate to formally meet with the incoming president of the United States. You know, the rest of them are busy calling Trump fascist and Hitler. Not this guy.
SPEAKER 11 :
I am not the senator for just Democrats in Pennsylvania. I'm everyone's senator in Pennsylvania. And so it's just having a conversation with the president.
SPEAKER 13 :
So how about what Trump said, incidentally, and we're so excited about the inauguration. And don't miss our inauguration coverage. I'm making Joey Hudson suffer through the snow and the cold and the bitter winds. I'll be in the confines of my studio. kind of anchoring. But I'm going to see if Joey's going to be able to co-anchor. We're working out a lot of that. But he's going to be in the stands at the inauguration. We'll be bringing you all the coverage here. And to our affiliates all over the country, we'll be covering the entire inauguration on our show, leading right up to it. Here's what Trump said, cut 16, about the drones and how we're going to learn about these mysterious drones the day after his inauguration.
SPEAKER 12 :
Do you have any idea what ever happened to the drones? What happened to drones? Well, you said that you thought the government knew what was happening with these drones over New Jersey. There were some by Bedminster.
SPEAKER 06 :
I don't know. They were over Bedminster a lot, so I can imagine. I'm going to give you a report on drones about one day into the administration because I think it's ridiculous that they're not telling you about what's going on with the drones.
SPEAKER 13 :
I love the way he talks. What about the drones? What do you mean about the drones? What about the drones? What drones? The planes. The planes. Never forget, in Springfield, Ohio, they're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats.
SPEAKER 04 :
I don't really like working. I'm going to need a priority parking space. I only work remotely. Can I bring my dog to work? You're triggering me. Is this interview almost over? What's your policy on paying employees to attend protests? I demand eight weeks of vacation. I need at least 12 weeks of paid vacation. I'm going to need a lot of mental health days. Do you have a game room? My pronouns are Zs and Zs.
SPEAKER 07 :
Isn't it time you hired grown-ups? Call RedBalloon.Work and skip those high-priced recruitment agencies. Call 833-880-0600 for a free consultation. That's 833-880-0600 for a free consultation.
SPEAKER 03 :
Mike Gallagher. Every day, Mike visits with Mark Davis, morning host on 660 AM, The Answer in Dallas. Here's today's Eminem experience.
SPEAKER 13 :
Let me tell you a story about the Los Angeles fire because there is an image that a lot of us who aren't near it have. Oh, it's a bunch of rich Hollywood celebrities. I haven't yet got formal permission from the person impacted, but it is somebody in the Salem family. That I know well, somebody who has already been through a lot and that person who, you know, is not a wealthy person, lost his entire home, lost all his possessions. He was renting his home and he thought he had renter's insurance and the renter's insurance expired in September and he didn't know it. He's wiped out. He's got nothing. He's living with his mom. He's obviously just devastated. And these are not all wealthy people. People have that image. It's just a bunch of movie stars. And I'm sorry for Billy Crystal, and I'm sorry for these famous stars who've lost their homes. And James Woods and all these folks. But they are multimillionaires, and they're going to be okay. A lot of people, like in Western North Carolina, frankly, who aren't going to be okay.
SPEAKER 14 :
You mentioned insurance. So a lot of people are taking the headline as the insurance companies canceled a lot of people's insurance in Southern California. Would you like to know why? And it's kind of funny. I don't know what your lifelong experience with insurance is. Mine is, thank God they exist. They have helped me in car insurance and home insurance at various junctures. I'm glad the industry exists. But over my lifetime, I'm going to pour squillions of dollars into insurance payments and not get a fraction of it back. But you know what? If the worst ever happens, I'm glad they're there. About the industry, I would say. They're not a charity. It is every insurance company's job to pay out as little as they humanly possibly can while still technically doing what they need to do. And it's also their job to extract as much from us as they can without us changing companies. That's called business. Having laid all that down, the reason insurance got canceled in Southern California is companies looked at the fact that, wow, here's somebody with a $10 million house in a huge apartment. fire zone we might need to raise the premiums that's a hundred percent fair and the state of california said you can't do that and so the insurance company said flipped them off and said see ya and i don't blame the insurance companies for that well i'm going through it in florida i've gone through it since i lived here because the the same situation exists in the state of florida and it's one of the big challenges that governor desantis faces yeah well there you are living on the gulf of america
SPEAKER 13 :
Right. Tons of insurers have left Florida. They won't even insure people. People get their insurance canceled left and right. And it's because of the high risk with the hurricanes and all the damage. And now we've been, you know, this double whammy with these hurricanes we got recently. And, you know, speaking of insurance, I know we're going to wind up talking about something that I don't want to talk about. This is my 65th birthday year. As a result, I am getting hit up from every insurance agent in America. Oh, Mike, I know April is your 65th birthday. Let me give you your Medicare advice plan. And they're all hitting me up. And what I don't know about Medicare, and I don't even want to know about Medicare because I don't want to acknowledge that I'm going to be 65 in a couple months. I'm pretending I'm 39 and holding, I think, as Jack Benny was. But I, honest to gosh, have no idea how to navigate this. I mean, just a goofy question. I'm obviously insured through Salem. Right. Do I need insurance through Medicare? The short answer is no. Right. I don't, right? But I have to take some part of it, don't I? Or I get penalized.
SPEAKER 14 :
You can. It's funny. I, because I'm... Respect your elders. I'm 67. So you've been through this? Yeah. And they basically said, you don't really have to. Isn't it cheaper? It might be smart to. Yes, there are benefits to going ahead and playing. Not abandoning your corporate. Because the thing that you and I do have in common is they're going to have to drag our rotting corpses out of a studio. Because we're going to do this until we die.
SPEAKER 13 :
Oh, I'll be 99 years old. Who can stop doing this? Who can stop doing this? Joe Biden will look like a spring chick compared to you and me in about 20 years.
SPEAKER 14 :
Since we got about two minutes, one of the reasons that we can't stop doing this is every once in a while the news simply gives us this. Can we please do two minutes of Carter funeral? First of all, God rest his soul. But can we do two minutes of the interactions? These were my takeaways. Clinton likes Bush, resents Obama, kind of digs Trump. Bush likes Clinton and Obama, hates Trump's guts. Obama resents Clinton, likes Bush, kind of digs Trump. And Trump has no ill will toward Clinton or Obama, but has forgotten Bush was ever born.
SPEAKER 13 :
I could do two hours on the funeral yesterday. I watched it on a loop. I watched Kamala Harris glare at Barack and Trump, giggling like a couple of best friends forever. Yes, it was so cordial, so cordial. Kamo looks back over her shoulder at them and then looks forward and sighs like, oh, you can almost hear her voice in her head. Oh, my Lord.
SPEAKER 14 :
And why do you think? Was it because that's a club I could have been a part of, the ex-president's club? Or is it because they're getting along and being gracious to each other, which is a DNA strand I just don't have?
SPEAKER 13 :
It's all of the above. She can't believe. But let's talk about the classlessness of Karen Pence. Unbelievable. And it breaks my heart, the classlessness of George W. Bush. Now, he ignored him, too. And W., I love the guy. I really do. I've met him. I've spent time. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with him once in his office in Dallas. Bush hates Trump more than Obama does. Clinton and Obama don't hate Trump. Bush does. And it's personal for George W. Bush because of what Trump did to Jeb. However, however. However, if you meet somebody at a funeral that you don't like, you can at least give a modicum of graciousness and say, you know, hello, shake his hand. You don't have to give him a sloppy kiss, but at least be polite. Karen Pence sitting there like a schoolmarm with her little, her program. And Melania tried to extend her hand of, you know, a hand of, you know, a hand shake to her. Karen Pence wouldn't even look up at her.
SPEAKER 14 :
What the heck is wrong with these people, Mark? And on the what the heck beat for our roughly last 60 seconds, the reason Trump and Obama were able to sit right next to each other and share those pleasant moments was because Michelle was not there. I'm not a mind. She was apparently, what, vacationing?
SPEAKER 13 :
Oh, yeah, sure.
SPEAKER 14 :
Vacation, my foot. So I don't know what it was. I can't. Oh, I know what it was. She didn't want to be in the room with Donald Trump. I think that's a better theory than she's completing her transition surgery, which was everybody's favorite online.
SPEAKER 13 :
And frankly, I have more respect for staying away than I do watching people sit there and not shake somebody's hand and act like a jerk, act like a tool.
SPEAKER 14 :
I'm going to make them equally dismissive and equally deserving of scorn. She should have been there. It was an incredible— Who cares? Well, the short answer is I don't. But to not show up because Trump broke you is just, you know, so spare me. First of all, spare me the Christ-like habits of the Pence couple. Well, Mike was very gracious to him.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, yesterday he was, but over the past few months. At least he didn't sit there pouting like his wife did. I couldn't believe it. I mean, I just can't believe grown people—the Mark Davis mandate, Trump derangement syndrome makes nice people mean and makes smart people stupid.
SPEAKER 14 :
Makes unchristian people—makes Christian people unchristian.
SPEAKER 13 :
And I love me some George W. Bush, but my gosh, I couldn't believe when I saw that. Come on, given—and he gave Obama the little belly tap, and he's a— W is a hail fellow, well-met guy. And I love him. I really do like him. But I can't believe that Trump does this to people. He just gets it. And incidentally, forget just being polite to somebody who's also at a funeral. He's the incoming president of the United States. You're part of a very small club, W. That's right. What's wrong with you? And guess what? The American people, George W. Bush, not you, the American people said, this is the guy we want. Yeah. And maybe what is awful to admit, and I say this with a broken heart because I do love the guy, Donald Trump is light years more popular than George Bush ever was.
SPEAKER 14 :
Of course. A thousand times more. The Bush era of the Republican Party is forgotten.
SPEAKER 03 :
It's gone. Download the podcast and hear all of Mike and Mark's conversations at MikeOnline.com for the Eminem experience.
Join Dana Lash as she takes a deep dive into the most absurd yet true stories from Florida, where crime seems to take on a bizarre life of its own. From the antics of Florida Man to the peculiar situation with LA firefighters, this episode combines wit and a critical look at current social dynamics, shedding light on conversations many avoid. We question how identity and inclusion play into everyday heroes and dive into an enlightening discussion on diversity, equity, and what it means for emergency services.
SPEAKER 09 :
Liberty Nation with Mark Angelides.
SPEAKER 07 :
Can Donald Trump hit the ground running? Will Democrats find a raison d'etre? And is the Never Trump movement a thing of the past? Find out on this week's Liberty Nation Radio.
SPEAKER 09 :
Author, columnist, managing editor of LibertyNation.com. Podcast host and conservative policy advocate. We dismiss history at our peril. Liberty Nation with Mark Angelides.
SPEAKER 06 :
Dana Lash's Absurd Truth Podcast, sponsored by Kel-Tec.
SPEAKER 10 :
It's his life mission to make bad decisions. It's time for Florida Man.
SPEAKER 03 :
So I have two. This is crazy. So in this shoplifting scheme, I had a listener that sent this to me, and they got my attention by going, uh-oh, D. Lash, clean up on Isle Brown. It's from the Miami Herald. And there's also a story from Fox 13. They got the CCTV footage. Deputies are searching for a couple that are accused of stealing $500 of items from a dollar store. The suspect, the woman, intentionally defecated on the store's floor as a way to distract while the man she was with began to steal everything. Polk County deputies are investigating. They said that Ms. Dookie is on the run after a messy burglary at the Mulberry Family Dollar Store. So they walked in. He walked around the store, gathered $500 worth of products like Gain Tide, Clorox. And while he was getting that, the woman distracted everybody by doosing on the floor. And an employee had to clean up the mess she made. It's a poo and run. How do you not find them? How do you... I mean, go into a dollar store. You... Okay. Something is wrong with you. If you're like, okay, here's my idea on how to steal from Family Dollar. I'm going to go and poop on the floor. And you can just grab everything, throw it in a basket, and let's run.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, that whole last part... I made a question. That whole last part would have worked fine without the first part. Well... That whole needing to poop on the floor isn't a need.
SPEAKER 03 :
But how do you... Okay. Okay. How much time do we have here? I don't like public restrooms. I hate them. I'll explore before I have to use them. It's a thing. It might be TMI. But my question is, how does a woman... How do you just do that in public, like theatrically? You just do something on the floor like that. I know it's part of your shoplifting scheme, but how do you get to the point where you're like, okay, I'm saving it up. I'm going to go and dookie on the floor the family dollar.
SPEAKER 10 :
Seems like you have to plan your eating 12 plus hours in advance.
SPEAKER 03 :
That has to be... That's like... That has to be timed out. I don't know. Oh, gosh. A Florida man went on a smash and grab at a St. Pete Publix. Oh, well, at least he didn't dookie in the floor. He went on a string of smash and grab burglaries. Corey Kendrick, 11 vehicles stealing the items inside. They think he's responsible for other other thefts and that more charges could be coming. But apparently he did not care about any of the videos as he's just on camera running through smashing everything like full view. Great CCTV footage of him. And a Florida man suffered severe injury while selling fireworks illegally. He was selling them literally off the side of the road in a U-Haul van, and he blew off two of his fingers. Stick with us. It's our friends over at All Family Pharmacy. This is such a great service. You need to memorize the website. They make it so easy. All Family Pharmacy helped my family out a lot over Thanksgiving because, you know, right on Thanksgiving when offices are closed and you end up getting sick, it's a mess and you've got to get medicine. All Family Pharmacy made it super easy. And you can visit allfamilypharma.com slash Dana. Use code Dana and you'll get 10% off of your entire order. So this is affordable access, easy and cost effective for medicine. You don't have to break the bank to access these medicines. There's no red tape. There's no hassle. Everything's made in the USA. You're not getting Chinese antibiotics. It's not how that's working. They got a proven track record. and you work with their doctors. Their doctors get you the medication that you need, fast delivery right to your door. You can even overnight stuff if needed. And you can rely on all family pharmacy to keep your health needs on track. If you need antibiotics, if you need things like hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin, which is actually a good antiviral, you can get those at All Family Pharmacy. Visit allfamilypharma.com slash Dana. Get 10% off using code Dana. 10% off your purchase using code Dana10. It's Dana10 for 10% off of your entire order only at allfamilypharma.com slash Dana.
SPEAKER 05 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
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SPEAKER 08 :
You want to see somebody that responds to your house, your emergency, whether it's a medical call or a fire call that looks like you. It gives that person a little bit more ease knowing that somebody might understand their situation better. Is she strong enough to do this? Or you couldn't carry my husband out of a fire, which my response is he got himself in the wrong place.
SPEAKER 03 :
If I have to carry him out of a fire, I don't believe that she could carry. That's one of the Kristen's. That's one of the fire department Christens. Remember, so Kane missed this yesterday. Welcome back. Dana Lash here with you. Kane, I don't know if you knew this, though, because Kane was iced in. He was literally in his own heat glue.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I like that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, you were all, like, trying to stay warm in a heat glue, dude. I love it. He was all iced in. Juan was in a heat glue. They were all iced in yesterday. They couldn't move. They did not, in fact, want to build a snowman. And I found... And a friend told me, you know, there are a lot of Christens, lesbian Christens that work in the fire department. And I'm not I'm not talking about then like, oh, well, why are they lesbian? That's not why are they all named Kristen is my big thing. Number one, I'm going to get to the meat and potatoes of this video. Kane, you missed that, though. They're all named Kristen and they're all old white lesbians, except for that Kristen. And she is an older black woman. They're all literally named Kristen, like all of them.
SPEAKER 10 :
I don't even know how to explain that.
SPEAKER 03 :
It reminded me of that episode of Shorzy. If you haven't seen it, it's hysterical. It's a Canadian. It's very blue humor. It's a Canadian series.
SPEAKER 10 :
That's what your mom said.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sanguinette! But it has this... It's a guy who does Letterkenny too, right? So he does Shorzy. And it's one of the funniest shows I've ever seen in my life. But you've got to like that humor. But it is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. And it's this guy, you know, he's going up... What is it? A AAA hockey league? Like somewhere up in Saskatoon or something like that? Anyway, they... recruit these and one of them apparently is a real hockey there are a lot of real hockey players in it but this guy is like apparently a brawler and there's these three dudes and they're all named Jim and I'd play part of the show but they'll cite us on YouTube so they're all named Jim And, you know, you got Shorzy, who's the title, you know, the star of the show, who's trying to figure out how they're going to make that work on the hockey team. He's like, so what, you know, if I call Jim, all three of you can't get up. And they all want to be called Jim because it's their first name. And it just gave me such a Shorzy feel. Like, why in the world are you, they're all Kristen. So what happens? You're at the fire department. Kristen. There's like a million lesbians. And you can't even go, lesbian Kristen. You can't even do that because they're all lesbians too. You can't even go, old lesbian Kristen. Because they're all old lesbians named Kristen. The only thing you can do is go, the black lesbian Kristen. But that might not work very well in Los Angeles, right? I don't think you're supposed to do things like that. But they're all named Kristen. How else do you, literally all of them are Kristen. All of them. I mean, to make it even worse, you can't even go the old blonde lesbian Kristen because they're all old blonde lesbians named Kristen. All of them. I'm not making this up. Literally all of them. Kate, I know you said... What is... That's very diverse. Is it diverse if they're all old white lesbians?
SPEAKER 10 :
I think we should just go with middle initials.
SPEAKER 03 :
See, you have Kristen Crowley. She's the fire chief and they're like, she's the... Gosh, it's Friday. How many of you are really listening today? Everybody. She's the first. Cain, she's the first. Oh, my gosh. She's the first that. Nope. She is an alphabet fire chief. I'm totally fine with that. But why are all of you named Kristen? She went to Harvard Business School. Her apparently mission in life is to the creation of systemic equity and inclusion. I don't even know what the hell that means. Then you got Kristen Kempner. She's the chief assistant chief of the fire department, Harvard Kennedy School for Managing Diverse Organizations, WTF that means. Her greatest achievement was she got accused of domestic violence because she whooped on her girlfriend. Then you have Kristen Larson. She's the first lesbian equity bureau. So that's the black lesbian. She's also I don't know. She got her job because everybody's racist. That's why she got her job. And then, oh, and then you got also a lesbian, but her name's not Kristen. The lone exception, Jamie. Her big thing, her claim to fame is she's not named Kristen. So you got Kristen, Kristen, Kristen and Jamie. The three Kristen's and Jamie. Kristen cubed and Jamie. All unable to carry a human male out of a. Not a damn one of these women could carry a dude. So back to the video. the hell does that mean like she's shaming people for getting caught in fires like how are you drowning you should be drowning in the first place like what the hell kind of video is this how is it not victim blaming how is that not victim blaming should have got raped in the first place you're somewhere you shouldn't be if you're getting raped shouldn't have wore that yeah you're somewhere you shouldn't be if you're drowning you're somewhere you shouldn't be if you got hit or by another automobile I mean, it's like someone's like, I think I'm going to go into that fire over there. That's not what happened. What kind of video is this? I love how she thought she was being super clever. Now how she like paused for a beat. This is so Hollywood. She's doing a fire thing, a little fire PSA. But she's like, you know, if I'm there carrying your husband out of your house, he got himself in the wrong place. Yeah, he must be in purgatory if you're carrying him out of the house because no way on God's green earth in this real scape could you do that, Jamie. Or no, wait, she's Kristen. That's right. What are the odds, though? Right?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, that is weird.
SPEAKER 03 :
Like, who's handling HR over there? Kristen?
SPEAKER 10 :
Is there a book of lesbian names?
SPEAKER 03 :
That's like when you're playing Uno and you have all green and you really need the color to be green. So you're encouraging everyone, make the color green. Is that why they're all named Kristen? Because the fire chief is Kristen and she's like, I need some Kristens. Need a whole crew of Kristens over here. The Kristen crew. Hope not. Jiminy. Well... I could go on about this forever. Not a single damn one of them apparently can do my... I think all the... Like, the people who are actually out there fighting fires are the ones, you know, doing everything. And the people who are making the calls are the problem. Kind of like a DOD, right? Same situation like a DOD. You know, these people are the problems. They're the problems. It's wild. I don't know. I mean... For her to say that, well, he shouldn't have got himself in the fire in the first place. Who says something like that? And then when she was going on in the video, you know, yeah, people that look like you rescuing you from a fire. You caught that part, right? You caught that part where she's talking about being rescued and how it must be nice for people who are in fires to be rescued by people who look like them. As opposed to what? Like a dolphin coming up and rescuing you out of the fire? As opposed to what? A two-headed Martian? As opposed to what? I don't want anybody that looks like me coming to get me out of fire because they couldn't lift my ass up. I'm a buck 20. I lie a little bit. I'm like, ah, I lie about my height and I try to make myself sound bigger than I am. I'm like, no, I'm really 5'8 and I weigh 145. Yeah, that sounds good. It's not real. It's fake news. I mean, I don't want anybody that – my friend Dave Burge says he doesn't want anybody that looks like him because he's an old, fat drunk coming and rescuing him from the fire. He's not fat and he's not a drunk.
SPEAKER 10 :
He's old. We're missing the point that everybody, every firefighter would come into a fire completely in gear, helmet, face thing the whole night. No one's looking like anybody.
SPEAKER 03 :
Dude, this is Los Angeles. Their uniforms might say, like, I'm an old white lesbian, or I'm a black lesbian, or I am just black, not a lesbian, so I am lower on the totem pole. They probably can't even say totem pole out there. I'm lower on the ladder than the other people with more identity boxes checked. It's a long tag, but it's on the front.
SPEAKER 10 :
Mental illness aside... No one looks like you.
SPEAKER 03 :
Is it mental illness or do they just have too much damn free time on their hands?
SPEAKER 10 :
I think it's too much free time that led to mental illness.
SPEAKER 03 :
People are sitting around making up problems.
SPEAKER 10 :
Mental illness.
SPEAKER 03 :
Like when you're burning to death in a fire, do you care if it's a white or black lesbian or a lesbian at all?
SPEAKER 10 :
People without mental illness don't think so.
SPEAKER 03 :
I mean, oh man, it's taken everything I have right now to not go full George Carlin. It's crazy. Oh Lord, put a hand over my mouth. taking everything I have.
SPEAKER 10 :
No one's looking like you when they're coming into a fire.
SPEAKER 03 :
Like you're dying to death in a fire, right? Do you care if it's a... that shows up?
SPEAKER 10 :
I almost had the button done. Did anyone hear that?
SPEAKER 03 :
No, I don't think they did.
SPEAKER 10 :
I heard echoes. That was it. Did you?
SPEAKER 03 :
I'm just saying.
SPEAKER 10 :
Stop.
SPEAKER 03 :
Does it matter? Nobody cares. I'm going to be grabbing onto anybody.
SPEAKER 10 :
If I am burning. Martians. Yes, if I'm burning.
SPEAKER 03 :
Dead burnt lesbians. I don't care. I'm going to hold on to you. Give me out.
SPEAKER 10 :
If I'm burning and an alligator walks by and offers the tail.
SPEAKER 03 :
I'm grabbing that alligator.
SPEAKER 10 :
I would take it. I would take it.
SPEAKER 03 :
If Bigfoot came in and was like, yes, give me out.
SPEAKER 10 :
Even Littlefoot.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, or Littlefoot. I mean, give me another cryptid. Any cryptid. I don't care. You know, I mean, if Joe Biden came by, I'd accept the help if I'm dying in a fire. You know what I mean? Like, nobody cares.
SPEAKER 10 :
I'd see him.
SPEAKER 03 :
Why is it such a big thing with the left?
SPEAKER 10 :
That I would die.
SPEAKER 03 :
Like someone would go, I was going to allow myself to be rescued out this fire. But then I saw that you don't check enough identity politic boxes for me. So no, thanks. I'm going to burn to death. Just snuggle on into the flames. You know, like I said.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hence my diagnosis of mental illness.
SPEAKER 03 :
Or they have way too much free time. No. Some of them I think are mentally ill. Some of them I think are bored. They're bored. What else would these women be doing right now? Landscaping? What else? They're bored. I don't know, man. All of them. I've never been more fascinated with an aspect of a story than this. I cannot tell you, by the way, and this is the funniest part of it. We've got a big coalition that listens to the show. We have a lot of People who you might say are in the alphabet community, unwillingly, they don't like the labels, and they're conservative. They just want to, you know, not be taxed to death, and they want to be left the hell alone. Don't we all? It's the new American dream. And I actually had conservative-leaning lesbians write in and go... First off, I had two different listeners who are of that persuasion who said, yeah, there are a lot of lesbians named Kristen. I have never heard this in my life, and I about died reading the email. I did die, and I came back to life. It was hysterical. And then some were saying, what you were saying, that's just the mental illness out in California. I doubt that they were even born with that name. It's like half and half, the community. It's one of the most fascinating things I've ever... I'm just dying laughing over it. I mean, I shouldn't, but if there is any kind of... lightness to the story at all. Maybe it's that. But also, it's bad because this is apparently what they focused on. Look, the right doesn't want to sit here. I mean, some of them do. But we all don't want to sit here and dice up everybody's little identity politic box. I don't care. It's the people in these groups that are trying to make you care. We don't care. In fact, Kane and I were raised in a generation where you were raised to not GAF. And you were encouraged to not GAF. And in fact, you were told in multiple PSAs to stop giving a GAF. And so guess what? We don't care. Leave us alone. When you stop leaving us alone, that's the moment that you cross the line and you make us care. But otherwise, leave us alone. But this is like it has to – that's like listed on someone's resume as though it's an achievement. Well, I worked really hard and decided to like vagina. Like, you know, how does that – it's not an – they list it on a resume like it's an achievement. It's like they want to other themselves so bad. And I am floored because that's not at all how, you know, we – that's not how society was when we were coming up. No.
SPEAKER 10 :
Also, not how society was, was our emergency people saying things like, oh, well, if I'm having to come and help you in an emergency, you just found yourself in the wrong place.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, you're in the wrong place. Well, duh, bitch, I'm in a fire. It's not a right place to be at. Just saying. I just, I am... Oh, my gosh. And then Lorraine adds more fuel to the fire. She goes, now, you know, the Christens are also all paramedics as well.
SPEAKER 10 :
Wait, is Kristen going to be the new Karen?
SPEAKER 03 :
I don't know.
SPEAKER 10 :
There's a lot of Christens.
SPEAKER 03 :
I only know one Kristen in my life. I only know one Kristen. She's not a lesbian.
SPEAKER 10 :
I don't know.
SPEAKER 03 :
It's just a fascinating thing to me. I don't know. But I wouldn't want that woman to carry me out. I don't care. I don't think she she don't have the if someone said an actual firefighter told me when it comes to blazes like this, upper body strength matters. Upper body strength is the difference. And they said that's why it's really difficult for women. And that's a great perspective. There's an actual firefighter who works in California up northern California who emailed that. And I thought it was a great point. And that's true. I mean, look, in my mind, I like to pretend that I'm like super hardcore. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe. But I'm I'm a buck 20. I lie all the time and I'm like, no, I'm five, seven, five, eight and five, six. But this doesn't leave us. This is our private discussion. Right. And I try to inflate how large I am. And see if like you guys don't know if I can just if I just sit here and I shrug down and I wear a baggy sweater, I could be. I don't know. But I know my limitations physically as well. I know what I can lift. I know what my limit is. And you can't just bend those rules or suspend them altogether because you want to promote a false sense of inclusiveness. And it is a false sense of inclusiveness because it's not about the mission. This is mission creep stuff. The folks over at Kel-Tec. Kel-Tec, longtime friend of the show. I'm a huge fan of what Kel-Tec does. I'm a huge fan of their firearms. Everything's built right here in the US of A in Florida. They have got a great story, great all-American story. And as we head into the later part of January, this is about the same time every year that Kel-Tec unveils the new things that they've been working on. This year is not going to be any kind of exception for that. George Kellgren, who's the president, founder, designer, mad scientist. He's actually one of the few major firearms designers still alive today, leading the way in innovation. You know, they invented the micro compact pistol category. They came out last year with the lightest, thinnest double stack nine millimeter on the market. That's the P-15. Everything they do is quality made right here in America. They've got the fold-in half carbine, the sub-2Ks, that whole family, that whole line. They have the KSG shotguns, the RDB bullpup series, and they stand behind everything that they make. Now, they're going to be dropping some new product later this month. I'll be at SHOT Show broadcasting live for that industry event. So there's going to be some new product, and we'll talk all about it when it happens. You can visit caltechweapons.com, sign up for... their newsletter, check out their social media, and you can also get on the inside track so you can be made aware when they drop new stuff. Innovation Performance Kel-Tec, K-E-L-T-E-C, Kel-TecWeapons.com.
SPEAKER 06 :
Superman derives his power from the yellow sun. D.C. politicians get their power by giving handouts. In 1913, the tax code was 400 pages long. Today, it's 75,000. This is how politicians derive their power. Check out the Watchdog on Wall Street podcast on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER 10 :
And now, all of the news you would probably miss. It's time for Dana's Quick Five.
SPEAKER 03 :
Is When the Levee Breaks by Zeppelin, is that just not one of the best songs ever? I'm just telling you. The TikTok band going to SCOTUS. And they're battling for survival, TikTok, in the United States as the decision over its fate is now underway. I don't know. I just, I don't know why people are defending it so much. It doesn't help when you have politicians who are like, yeah, we got to get rid of TikTok. And then they're like, TikTok's great. I'm not on it. I just don't have time, and also I can only watch so many videos of people looking at the camera.
SPEAKER 10 :
The Supreme Court just came out and said that they're looking to uphold that ban. That's what the SCOTUS just said. I got this one minute ago.
SPEAKER 03 :
They're looking to uphold the ban? Yep. A minute ago. So unless they're able to get like a... Well, you can't in the Scottish. You can't appeal it.
SPEAKER 10 :
We'll dig deeper. All right.
SPEAKER 03 :
So I don't know if you guys saw this. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was reportedly kidnapped by Maduro in Venezuela. You know, because they have free elections and all that good stuff there, right? Yeah. In Venezuela. Isn't that how it works? There's a couple of different reports of how it happened, but she was apparently reportedly freed after she was violently intercepted, is how it was described. And she left her hideout to protest Maduro. So that's... You know, if you want to know where free and fair elections don't happen, it's there. Novak Djokovic said he was poisoned by lead in his food after he was detained over COVID during the Australian Open. He had refused to get the experimental injection. And he said he was poisoned by food that he ate while he was detained during that 2022 whole thing. He was in a Melbourne hotel room. And they said he goes, I was fed some food that poisoned me. And he monitors his diet pretty strictly. It's like a thing that he's actually pretty famous for. GQ did a whole piece on it once. So he said that he had flu like symptoms and he had an emergency medical team treat him when he got back to Europe. But he said it was lead. Somebody poisoned him? That's good night. Bank of America is bracing for massive bond losses as yields soar. New headline. The sharp rise in rates since the end of their third quarter has widened losses on bank securities portfolio on their portfolio. And it could become an investor issue again when banks start reporting their fourth quarter results. That's like next week. Excuse me. Beginning of next week. And let's see here. We've got a couple of other things as well, which we're going to talk about. The president saying 100 percent help for. people affected by the fires out in California. We're going to have to revisit Hurricane Helene here. And this also happened this morning. Four injured after a Delta flight aborted a takeoff at a snow-covered Atlanta airport because it's been snowing in Atlanta. They said it was about 9 a.m. local time. They told passengers to duck down and evacuate after the plane accelerated to take off. They said they had ongoing severe weather. There were people who were treated on the scene. Everybody's okay now, apparently, but they said it was due to an engine issue.
SPEAKER 04 :
What we know right now is that the incident occurred, started here, and about 20 minutes, 30 minutes later, a suspect was detained over in Woodland Hills area by citizens. So someone purposely set the Kenneth fire? At this time, that's what we believe, yes. Do you know how or why they did that? That I don't know. Is this a crime scene right now? It's being closed off. Yes, it's being investigated as a crime.
SPEAKER 03 :
Wow. Unbelievable. Yes, it's being investigated. You know, there were a lot of questions about that. There were a lot of questions about whether or not there was arson that was involved in this. And... Everybody was the media on the left was so quick to climate change, climate change. Is that a new name? Maybe that's all the arsonists. You know how like all the fire people in L.A. are gay lesbians named Kristen. Maybe all the arsonists are named climate change. Clive, for short, you know, could be. Welcome back to the program. Dana Lash with you. We are at the top of this second hour. There's ice and snow on the ground and I'm forever wearing turtlenecks on this show. Someone asked me in an email, how many of those do you actually own? An ungodly number. I buy something in black and I'll buy the same thing three times. Because I don't like to think about what I wear. I am very like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg about that stuff. If I could just wear the same thing every day, I would. It's less energy that you have to exert over that. But it's cold. It's cold. And houses in Texas, building structures in Texas are designed to let the heat out, not keep it in. So it's the code in Texas. So you're lucky that I'm not wearing a scarf and a sock hat too, all at the same time with mittens. Guys are lucky. Anyway, so welcome. Dana Lash with you. Find us at YouTube and Facebook. Like and subscribe. And you can also find us over at Substack, chapter and verse, the newsletter. And this whole... I was listening to some of the stats for this and, you know, with the arsonists because there's now two arsonists that have been arrested. I think maybe potentially three. Listen to this extent of the damage. So this is just the Palisades fire. There's several different fires. Audio soundbite 30. Listen to how bad this fire is.
SPEAKER 01 :
Palisades fires. This fire was currently tracked at 20,438 acres with 3,073 personnel assigned. Crews worked very, very hard overnight strengthening our containment lines and addressing multiple spot fires in and around the Topanga Canyon area. Resources responded to the area included our air assets to aid in the containment efforts. Due to the favorable overnight weather conditions and the diligent, and I'll focus on the diligent work and effort and commitment of our first responders, we can report that the Palisades fire is now 8% contained. Wind gusts are expected to increase in daylight hours that will test our containment lines. Our firefighters will continue to respond.
SPEAKER 03 :
So they're saying that it's scorched over 20,000 acres. So it's like basically larger than Manhattan. The Manhattan is 14,600 acres. This is over 20. But they said in this, play this audio soundbite. I know this is brand new. This is from LAPD. This is about one of the arsonists that they caught specifically that had the blood torch. We had some of that video for you. Listen to what LAPD says here.
SPEAKER 07 :
They responded, they interviewed this suspect. After the interview and additional investigative steps, looking at some additional evidence that was present, they made the determination that there was not enough probable cause to arrest this person on arson or suspicion of arson. And therefore, this person was arrested on a felony probation violation.
SPEAKER 03 :
If you caught him in the act, though, and the video shows that he's literally there with a blowtorch trying to set stuff on fire. It was like one of those ring camera things. How is that not probable cause? Right. Enough by itself there. Kane, how is that not?
SPEAKER 10 :
It's plenty, but they're going to do what they're going to do is they're going to say, well, we got to do this investigation. Then they'll gather that video evidence and then they'll go over it and then they'll change your story later. But this is that they do PR wise every single time.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is also goofy. You don't have enough. There's not enough. We don't have enough probable cause to charge him. I mean, yeah, you know, we got him with a. Literally on camera. Trying to set stuff on fire with a blowtorch. Like literally he had a blowtorch and was setting stuff on fire. And he got caught by a ton of passerby.
SPEAKER 10 :
I wonder how long it's going to be before.
SPEAKER 03 :
They had five people that watched him set things on fire. Five people who don't even know each other. Who saw him independently try to set something on fire. And that's why they all intervened and took him down. But they don't have enough probable cause for that charge. So they just got him on felony probation. And his name isn't out there? Really? Oh, I want to know these people's names. Oh, yeah. I want to know their names. If I knew if somebody was a firebug, I would just put their name out there as law enforcement because, man, oh, man, you would watch a community come together to hunt somebody down real quick. I mean, no, it's not illegal to carry a blowtorch at all. It is illegal to take the blowtorch you're carrying and try to set stuff on fire and alleyways. That's illegal. And that's what five people saw him do. And they told this to police. So I don't know what that, you know, can you make a good point? Bring up the point you just put. Yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
I just wonder how long it'll take before they start demonizing the people that actually caught him doing that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. I wonder if he did it alone.
SPEAKER 10 :
I think he was by himself at the time it happened, but whether or not he did everything alone is a good question.
SPEAKER 03 :
I'm just – that was weird to me that that was treated that way. It's just weird, right? I mean, yeah, that's – because people were saying we watched him literally set with his blowtorch. And I'm all about due diligence and due process. I'm all about those things. But when you see someone use their blowtorch to set it on fire, you're not just in possession of a blowtorch. You're literally using it to set fires. It's arson. So I don't know. This is all – I mean it's just – I don't know. The way in which they're still running things out there, I worry for the people who are going to have to rebuild how long that's going to take. to get that done, how long it's going to take for that to happen, because you have to think of the insurance nightmare that's out there too. That's a huge nightmare.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thanks for tuning in to today's edition of Dana Lash's Absurd Truth Podcast. If you haven't already, make sure to hit that subscribe button on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
As California battles devastating wildfires, hear firsthand accounts from affected residents and understand the broader implications for communities grappling with loss. This episode also questions narratives around climate change and arson, presenting a compelling discussion on accountability. Insightful and sometimes emotional, our podcast looks at the intersection of justice, natural disasters, and the human spirit.
SPEAKER 04 :
Liberty Nation with Mark Angelides.
SPEAKER 07 :
Can Donald Trump hit the ground running? Will Democrats find a raison d'etre? And is the Never Trump movement a thing of the past? Find out on this week's Liberty Nation Radio.
SPEAKER 04 :
Author, columnist, managing editor of LibertyNation.com. Podcast host and conservative policy advocate. We dismiss history at our peril. Liberty Nation with Mark Angelides.
SPEAKER 21 :
After careful analysis in obedience to governing mandates and pursuant to the rule of law, this court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of a judgment of conviction without encroaching upon the highest office in the land is an unconditional discharge. which the New York State Legislature has determined is a lawful and permissible sentence for the crime of falsifying business records in the first degree. Therefore, at this time, I impose that sentence to cover all 34 counts, Sir, I wish you Godspeed as you assume your second term in office. Thank you.
SPEAKER 14 :
We could talk about probably a dozen different reversible errors in this case, but the jury was not asked to find unanimously the crime that Trump was supposedly covering up when he allegedly falsified his business records. It's a bedrock principle of the criminal law that if it's a fact, that is going to drive the sentence and we're talking now about the fact that turned this what's ordinarily a misdemeanor in New York law into a felony if it's that kind of a fact that's that consequential for sentencing it has to be found unanimously by the jury and this jury didn't and no one in his right mind thinks that you have to give voice to a jury verdict when there's patent constitutional error in the case that's our friend Andy McCarthy who's talking about this
SPEAKER 19 :
This decision, this weird decision that came in from the judge today, this Judge Mertron, and this has to do with this New York case. Look, I know it's important to get into some of the details of it. I hate it. And I have avoided it because I think it's just a performative witch hunt. And I cannot stand giving it any kind of... The credibility of coverage. Does that make sense? Like, it's so infuriating. It's such an infuriating topic. And we have Lorraine that covers it for the newsletter. And she gets into all of the minutia. So if you subscribe over at Chapter and Verse, that's what she does. She gets into all the minutia of it because some of the stuff is so petty. And it just is disheartening to see the state of our judicial system. And I mean, you can hear Andy McCarthy talking about how weird all of this is, but they just all of this is about them being able to say he's a felon. They want to be able to say he's a felon without he didn't have to serve a single sentence, single day. They just want to be able to say he's a felon. That's why you have this this weird, unconditional discharge. And isn't it true that they were just like telling the jury, just go find whatever. Just go find whatever. I mean, it's really difficult to believe in justice. When this is the system and this is the stuff that you're seeing happen, it's really difficult to believe in the concept of justice after this. So welcome to the show, Dana Lash with you. And we've got a number of things to get into, including this. We also have the latest with the fires. And there's a lot of arson. I mean, it's really unbelievable, some of this stuff that we've been able to see. They had a press conference just a little bit ago. And, I mean, listen to this. This is Audio Sunbite 6. This is one resident. Not everybody who lives in Malibu has mansions, by the way. Listen to this resident, Audio Sunbite 6.
SPEAKER 12 :
So I kept spraying all the embers, and then the next thing I know, a 30-foot wall of fire was coming at 60 miles an hour, and I couldn't see, and it was so smoky. And I said, well, it's time to leave. We lost everything we owned, but it doesn't even look like a house anymore.
SPEAKER 19 :
It just looks like something. And they said a lot of that is still smoldering. A lot of the fires that they have, they're still smoldering. So that you have this, you know, this complete devastation. You have people who are absolutely heartbroken and they're looking for, you know, they're trying to go back to their property when the worst of the fires have passed. And they're trying to go back, understandably, and go through, find anything that they can find that they can, you know, keep, that they can have, you know, something from anything. And they have to be careful because you have these, the smoldering that's ongoing. And that's really, obviously it's super dangerous for folks because that, I mean, there's still a fire there and they, and the fire department even said in one of their, uh, one of their pressers that, you know, there's pockets that they haven't checked all the way. There's pockets that they haven't checked all the way. And so they're desperately trying to make sure that they find all this stuff, get it all out. And it's just, you know, it's terrifying. There are a number of people, we had two more friends Well, one more friend who lost their home, another friend that they had extensive fire damage, but the structure was still standing. And they're not millionaires, by the way. They don't have like big bougie houses. They're just like regular average everyday people. And. that's that's you know they they ended up losing you know everything it's it's and not just that the schools too it's the schools it's i think what the high school in pacific palisades is gone is it the high school or junior high i think it was the high school that that people were saying that was um that yeah that had that serious damage serious damage and um I don't know. I'm like looking at some of the pictures. I don't know how the kids go back to school. This is the other thing I was thinking of. The damage to the schools. Wasn't California the state that was locked down the longest with COVID? I think that was the one that was locked down the longest, that state. And the reason I bring this up is because What are they going to do now with their schools? What are they going to do with their schools? If the kids have no schools to go to, what the hell happens? Because now you have a number of schools that have been damaged. You have a number of businesses that have been damaged. People have lost their property. So what do you, what happens in the meantime? I feel so bad for these kids because think about it. A lot of these kids that are in high school now, they were like in junior high, right? When COVID hit. Now think of it. Same generation. They're like, oh my gosh, now our schools are burned down. Because it's not just Pacific Palisades. I think it's... There's a couple of other areas where I think it's been junior highs or elementaries or high schools. I mean, think about that. Think about kids that are... Their schools burned down. Their... I'm thinking their field, the football field, whatever it is, burned down. And what if they were what if they were going on scholarship? What if they were trying to get scholarship? What if they were trying to get anything? It's just it's so heartbreaking. So we're going to have the latest with this. And we have some other pretty interesting developments as it pertains to this. I know that the left is trying to say to not. politicize it, but holding people accountable, Kane, we talked about this yesterday while you were iced in, is not holding them, I mean, critical criticism and expecting accountability is not politicizing it.
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, I don't get it. I think it's spelled out in our Constitution that we have the right to actually redress our government. I don't get why all of a sudden people in government feel as though that's un-American or unpatriotic to do and why they would want to avoid it. It's part of the job. Also, with these fires, we know the fire... the structure that they actually have that firemen operate from, that money, the school money, all of that comes from property taxes, property that is now burned down. Are they going to do to North Carolina or do to them what they did to North Carolina?
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, and that's one of the things we're going to talk about getting into this. So first off, I forgot to even say hello. Dana Lash here with you. We're at the top of this first hour and I've just got a lot of stuff open before me on my four and a half foot wide gaming screen. And I have people who are like, why don't you look into the camera all the time? Because I don't have a teleprompter. All my prep is right here. I've told you this. I've told people this. And some people, I guess, just want me to gaze at them. That's great. But what am I going to refer to when I'm reading and sharing news articles with people? So this... We followed, like I said, we followed some of this over at Substack. I wanted to play... Forgive me, because I've got a million different odds and ends that are open. It's a weird news cycle. This... First off, they've been saying it's climate change. There's all kinds of video. I think, is it three separate videos or is it two firebugs and then just three videos of two firebugs? I want to make sure I'm being accurate because they arrested definitely two people for arson. One of them... was it the Kenneth fire? I think one of the fires was absolutely 100% arson and they arrested a guy and it's on camera. New York Post has one story where citizens swept his, like used a MMA move, swept his legs up from underneath him and took him into custody because they saw him with a blowtorch, literally setting things on fire. There was another guy that we had yesterday He was out in the middle of the road and somebody caught him on camera setting a fire. And so they arrested him there. I believe a lot of this is serial arson. Because, and I mentioned this yesterday, it just is the way that some of the fires have spread. It's just weird to me. I'm not a fire science expert, but I just think it's a little weird if you have fires happening in the Pacific Palisades and then you hop miles and miles and miles away beyond the point of where the wind can take embers. And especially if it's not even in the direction of where the wind is going and you have a whole other problem. wildfire that breaks out you know what i mean it's a little weird i'm just saying especially not like the the one that they just the the arsonist that they arrested that was one of those areas where they actually i mean you can see from the video when they approach him when citizens approach him he's like in the like somebody's driveway and he's there's there's no fire damage there's no fire they're not in a fire zone And they catch him. And I was looking on the map. This actually is an area that is not in the fire zone. So that's what's weird to me. And I just... Because a lot of people have been... Lifelong residents in that area have been saying, how is it that... In some instances when it's not even downwind from the fires, you have a whole, you know, it's just there's a lot of questions. I think that there's a lot of arsonists out for sure. I think that you had natural with wildfire and then I think it was further compounded by arsonists. And so I don't know. They got this guy in custody. But the reason I bring this up is because everybody's been calling it climate change. The media has been insisting that this is climate change. The left has been insisting that this is climate change. And the reason that they're insisting that this arson is climate change is because, again, what I tell you yesterday, they're trying to absolve their elected officials of any kind of culpability with us at all. Any culpability. They're trying to absolve their elected officials of any of it. And I don't know, I'm just saying. I don't think that that's gonna work. This is sort of like what happened with some of the Canadian wildfires. They figured out that a lot of that was arson as well. You guys remember all of that? Yeah, they figured out a lot of that was arson. So just, I've got a lot of questions here. As we move, the folks who helped bring you the program, it's our friends over at All Family Pharmacy. This is such a great service. You need to memorize the website. They make it so easy. All Family Pharmacy helped my family out a lot over Thanksgiving because, you know, right on Thanksgiving when offices are closed and you end up getting sick, it's just, it's a mess and you got to get medicine. All Family Pharmacy made it super easy. And you can visit allfamilypharma.com slash Dana. Use code Dana and you'll get 10% off of your entire order. So this is affordable access, easy and cost effective for medicine. You don't have to break the bank to access these medicines. There's no red tape. There's no hassle. Everything's made in the USA. 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SPEAKER 02 :
Superman derives his power from the yellow sun. DC politicians get their power by giving handouts. In 1913, the tax code was 400 pages long. Today, it's 75,000. This is how politicians derive their power. Check out the Watchdog on Wall Street podcast on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER 11 :
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SPEAKER 18 :
And now, all of the news you would probably miss. It's time for Dana's Quick Five.
SPEAKER 19 :
So how much ice did we get here in Texas? I don't know. It's still 35 degrees, and I'm just not feeling that. It's icy. Kane and Juan made it in. How was it out there?
SPEAKER 18 :
The side roads are a little chunky, a little ruddy with ice and stuff. But the main roads are not that bad. You'll see little parts of the main road that are not great. But it was doable. We were brave men this morning.
SPEAKER 19 :
came out dead. I gave them the option. I was like, you guys don't have to try to make it in today. But, I mean, you should have seen it. It was like a cave here yesterday. You guys didn't see it because we didn't have video. I'm going to share a picture with you though on social media. It was pitch dark. It was amazing. But, they said, because it's still kind of What's in out there? I don't know what you would call it. There's like some snow, some ice. It's weird. Still kind of doing it out there. But yeah, we did get a couple of inches, I will say. How apparently we could all soon freeze our bodies and outlive an apocalyptic disaster. First off, who was building it? Secondly, why do I want to? I don't want to do that. I mean, we're having a hard enough time, not even in an apocalypse. I can't imagine being on Earth with some of these insufferable people. And trying to survive in an apocalyptic situation with these insufferable people. Could you? It's called time shift. They want to preserve and prolong your misery here on this rock. By offering the world's first cryopreservation facility. Whatever. I don't know. You can become a human meat sickle. If that's your jam. It's not my jam. I don't want to be a meat sickle. I'm like when I'm done, I'm done. Like I'm going to tell my family. I look at my great grandkids. I'm done with you people. Bye. See you later. Yes, I do view everything that way. It's very, very true. The U.S. warns of risk from the from most of the world's online pharmacies. I think this is a lie, actually, because a lot of them are incredibly reputable. Like all family pharma dot com slash Dana where you can go and use Dana Dana 10 to get 10 percent off. They're saying that some of these online pharmacies, yeah, if you're like buying from an online pharmacy that's like van on the side of the road dot com, that might not be great. But I think it's a lot of it is just people looking for the government wants to regulate it. That's what I look at it. We have a whole bunch more on the way. Stick with us. Imagine a young woman facing an unplanned pregnancy, feeling alone and unsure of what to do. And she's searching for hope. And that's where Preborn Ministries comes in. You can make a difference for just $28. Your generosity can be the key to a mother choosing life for her baby. And with your gift, you will receive the story of a mom who chose life as well as the ultrasound image of her precious baby. And like the story of Kelsey, who found pre-born and after hearing her baby's heartbeat, she chose life. Consider making a larger, life-changing donation of $5, $10, or $15,000. Maximize your gift that can help women in unplanned pregnancies receive ultrasounds and even help place an ultrasound machine in a women's center. Donate for the gift of life. Just dial pound 250 and say the keyword BABY. That's pound or hashtag 250 baby, or visit preborn.com slash Dana to donate online. Every contribution counts. So again, that's pound 250, say the word baby or donate securely at preborn.com slash Dana.
SPEAKER 26 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
Superman derives his power from the yellow sun. DC politicians get their power by giving handouts. In 1913, the tax code was 400 pages long. Today, it's 75,000. This is how politicians derive their power. Check out the Watchdog on Wall Street podcast on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER 05 :
Keep your finger on the pulse with the Dana Show podcast, delivering timely news with insightful analysis. Whenever you want, straight to you on YouTube, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER 25 :
You want to see somebody that responds to your house, your emergency, whether it's a medical call or a fire call that looks like you. It gives that person a little bit more ease knowing that somebody might understand their situation better. Is she strong enough to do this? Or you couldn't carry my husband out of a fire, which my response is he got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire.
SPEAKER 19 :
I don't believe that she could carry. That's one of the Kristen's. That's one of the fire department Christians. Remember, so Kane missed this yesterday. Welcome back. Dana Lash here with you. Kane, I don't know if you knew this, though, because Kane was iced in. He was literally in his own heat glue.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, I like that.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, you were all trying to stay warm in a heat glue, dude. I love it. He was all iced in. Juan was in a heat glue. They were all iced in yesterday. They couldn't move. They did not, in fact, want to build a snowman. And I found... And a friend told me, you know, there are a lot of Kristen's lesbian Kristen's that work in the fire department. And I'm not I'm not talking about then like, oh, well, why are they lesbian? That's not why are they all named Kristen is my big thing. Number one, I'm going to get to the meat and potatoes of this video. Kane, you missed that, though. They're all named Kristen and they're all old white lesbians, except for that Kristen. And she is an older black woman. They're all literally named Kristen, like all of them.
SPEAKER 18 :
I don't even know how to explain that.
SPEAKER 19 :
It reminded me of that episode of Shorzy. If you haven't seen it, it's hysterical. It's a Canadian. It's very blue humor. It's a Canadian series.
SPEAKER 18 :
That's what your mom said.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sanguinette! But it has this... It's a guy who does Letterkenny too, right? So he does Shorzy. And it's one of the funniest shows I've ever seen in my life. But you've got to like that humor. But it is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. And it's this guy, you know, he's going up... What is it? A AAA hockey league? Like somewhere up in Saskatoon or something like that? Anyway, they... Recruit these and one of them apparently is a real hockey other a lot of real hockey players in it but this guy is like apparently a brawler and there's these three dudes and they're all named Jim and I'd play part of the show, but they'll cite us on YouTube So they're they're all named Jim And, you know, you got Shorzy, who's the title, you know, the star of the show, who's trying to figure out how they're going to make that work on the hockey team. He's like, so what, you know, if I call Jim, all three of you can't get up. And they all want to be called Jim because it's their first name. And it just gave me such a Shorzy feel. Like, why in the world are you, they're all Kristen. So what happens? You're at the fire department. Kristen. There's like a million lesbians. And you can't even go, lesbian Kristen. You can't even do that because they're all lesbians too. You can't even go, old lesbian Kristen. Because they're all old lesbians named Kristen. The only thing you can do is go, the black lesbian Kristen. But that might not work very well in Los Angeles, right? I don't think you're supposed to do things like that. But they're all named Kristen. How else do you, literally all of them are Kristen. All of them. I mean, to make it even worse, you can't even go the old blonde lesbian Kristen because they're all old blonde lesbians named Kristen. All of them. I'm not making this up. Literally all of them. Kate, I know you said... What is... That's very diverse. Is it diverse if they're all old white lesbians?
SPEAKER 18 :
I think we should just go with middle initials.
SPEAKER 19 :
See, you have Kristen Crowley. She's the fire chief and they're like, she's the... Gosh, it's Friday. How many of you are really listening today? Everybody. She's the first. Kane, she's the first. Oh, my gosh. She's the first that. She is an alphabet fire chief. I'm totally fine with that. But why are all of you named Kristen? She went to Harvard Business School. Her apparently mission in life is to the creation of systemic equity and inclusion. I don't even know what the hell that means. Then you got Kristen Kempner. She's the chief assistant chief of the fire department, Harvard Kennedy School for Managing Diverse Organizations, WTF that means. Her greatest achievement was she got accused of domestic violence because she whooped on her girlfriend. Then you have Kristen Larson. She's the first lesbian equity bureau. So that's the black lesbian. She's also I don't know. She got her job because everybody's racist. That's why she got her job. And then, oh, and then you got also a lesbian, but her name's not Kristen. The lone exception, Jamie. Her big thing, her claim to fame is she's not named Kristen. So you got Kristen, Kristen, Kristen and Jamie. The three Kristen's and Jamie. Kristen cubed and Jamie.
SPEAKER 18 :
All unable to carry a human male out of a family.
SPEAKER 19 :
Not a damn one of these women could carry a dude. So back to the video. the hell does that mean like she's shaming people for getting caught in fires like how are you drowning you should be drowning in the first place like what the hell kind of video is this how is it not victim blaming how is that not victim blaming should have got raped in the first place you're somewhere you shouldn't be if you're getting raped shouldn't have wore that yeah you're somewhere you shouldn't be if you're drowning you're somewhere you shouldn't be if you got hit or by another automobile I mean, it's like someone's like, I think I'm going to go into that fire over there. That's not what happened. What kind of video is this? I love how she thought she was being super clever. Not how she paused for a beat. This is so Hollywood. She's doing a fire thing. A little fire PSA. But she's like, if I'm there carrying your husband out of your house, he got himself in the wrong place. Yeah, he must be in purgatory if you're carrying him out of the house because no way on God's green earth in this real scape could you do that, Jamie. Or no, wait. She's Kristen. That's right. What are the odds, though? Right?
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, that is weird.
SPEAKER 19 :
Like, who's handling HR over there?
SPEAKER 18 :
Kristen? Is there a book of lesbian names?
SPEAKER 19 :
That's like when you're playing Uno and you have all green and you really need the color to be green. So you're encouraging everyone, make the color green. Is that why they're all named Kristen? Because the fire chief is Kristen and she's like, I need some Kristens. Need a whole crew of Kristens over here. The Kristen crew. Hope not. Jiminy. Well... I could go on about this forever. Not a single damn one of them apparently can do my... I think all the... Like, the people who are actually out there fighting fires are the ones, you know, doing everything. And the people who are making the calls are the problem. Kind of like a DOD, right? Same situation like a DOD. You know, these people are the problems. They're the problems. It's wild. I don't know. I mean... For her to say that, well, he shouldn't have got himself in the fire in the first place. Who says something like that? And then when she was going on in the video, you know, yeah, people that look like you rescuing you from a fire. You caught that part, right? You caught that part where she's talking about being rescued and how it must be nice for people who are in fires to be rescued by people who look like them. As opposed to what? Like a dolphin coming up and rescuing you out of the fire? Yeah. As opposed to what? A two-headed Martian? As opposed to what? I don't want anybody that looks like me coming to get me out of fire because they couldn't lift my ass up. I'm a buck 20. I lie a little bit. I'm like, ah, I lie about my height and I try to make myself sound bigger than I am. I'm like, no, I'm really 5'8 and I weigh 145. Yeah, that sounds good. It's not real. It's fake news. I mean, I don't want anybody that my friend Dave Burge says he doesn't want anybody that looks like him because he's an old fat drunk coming and rescuing him from the fire. He's not fat and he's not a drunk.
SPEAKER 18 :
He's old. We're missing the point that everybody, every firefighter would come into a fire completely in gear, helmet, face thing the whole night. No one's looking like anybody.
SPEAKER 19 :
Dude, this is Los Angeles. Their uniforms might say, like, I'm an old white lesbian, or I'm a black lesbian, or I am just black, not a lesbian, so I am lower on the totem pole. They probably can't even say totem pole out there. I'm lower on the ladder than the other people with more identity boxes checked. It's a long tag, but it's on the front.
SPEAKER 18 :
Mental illness aside... No one looks like you.
SPEAKER 19 :
Is it mental illness or do they just have too much damn free time on their hands?
SPEAKER 18 :
I think it's too much free time that led to mental illness.
SPEAKER 19 :
People are sitting around making up problems.
SPEAKER 18 :
Mental illness.
SPEAKER 19 :
Like when you're burning to death in a fire, do you care if it's a white or black lesbian or a lesbian at all?
SPEAKER 18 :
People without mental illness don't think so.
SPEAKER 19 :
I mean, oh man, it's taken everything I have right now to not go full George Carlin. It's crazy. Oh Lord, put a hand over my mouth. taking everything I have. No one's looking like you when they're coming into a fire. Like you're, you're dying to death in a fire, right? Do you care if it's a, that shows up?
SPEAKER 18 :
I almost had the button done. Did anyone hear that? No, I don't think they did. I heard echoes. That was it. Did you?
SPEAKER 19 :
I'm just saying.
SPEAKER 18 :
Stop.
SPEAKER 19 :
Does it matter?
SPEAKER 18 :
Nobody cares.
SPEAKER 19 :
I'm going to be grabbing onto anybody.
SPEAKER 18 :
If I am burning. Martians. Yes, if I'm burning.
SPEAKER 19 :
Dead burnt lesbians. I don't care. I'm going to hold on to you. Give me out.
SPEAKER 18 :
If I'm burning and an alligator walks by and offers the tail.
SPEAKER 19 :
I'm grabbing that alligator.
SPEAKER 18 :
I would take it. I would take it.
SPEAKER 19 :
If Bigfoot came in and was like, yes, give me out.
SPEAKER 18 :
Even Littlefoot.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, or Littlefoot. I mean, give me another cryptid. Any cryptid. I don't care. You know, I mean, if Joe Biden came by, I'd accept the help if I'm dying in a fire. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER 18 :
Like, nobody cares. I'd see him.
SPEAKER 19 :
Why is it such a big thing with the left?
SPEAKER 18 :
That I would die.
SPEAKER 19 :
Like someone would go, I was going to allow myself to be rescued out this fire. But then I saw that you don't check enough identity politic boxes for me. So no thanks. I'm going to burn to death. Just snuggle on into the flames. You know, like I said.
SPEAKER 18 :
Hence my diagnosis of mental illness.
SPEAKER 19 :
Or they have way too much free time. No. Some of them I think are mentally ill. Some of them I think are bored. Right? They're bored. Like what else would these women be doing right now? Landscaping? Like what else? They're bored. I just, I don't know, man. All of them. I have never been more fascinated with an aspect of a story than this. And I cannot tell you, by the way, and this is the funniest part of it. So there, you know, we got a lot of, a big coalition that listens to the show. And we have a lot of People who you might say are in the alphabet community. Unwillingly. They don't like the labels. And they're conservative. They just want to, you know, not be taxed to death. And they want to be left the hell alone. Don't we all? It's the new American dream. And I actually had conservative leaning lesbians write in. And go... First off, I had two different listeners who are of that persuasion who said, yeah, there are a lot of lesbians named Kristen. I have never heard this in my life. And I about died reading the email. I just I died. I did die. And I came back to life. It was hysterical. And then some were saying it's what you were saying. That's just the mental illness out in California. I doubt that they were even born with that name. It's like half and half, the community. It's one of the most fascinating things I've ever... I'm just dying laughing over it. I mean, I shouldn't, but if there is any kind of... lightness to the story at all. Maybe it's that. But also, it's bad because this is apparently what they focused on. Look, the right doesn't want to sit here. I mean, some of them do. But we all don't want to sit here and dice up everybody's little identity politic box. I don't care. It's the people in these groups that are trying to make you care. We don't care. In fact, Kane and I were raised in a generation where you were raised to not GAF. And you were encouraged to not GAF. And in fact, you were told in multiple PSAs to stop giving a GAF. And so guess what? We don't care. Leave us alone. When you stop leaving us alone, that's the moment that you cross the line and you make us care. But otherwise, leave us alone. But this is like, it has to, that's like listed on someone's resume as though it's an achievement. Well, I worked really hard and decided to like vagina. Like, you know, how does that, it's not an, they list it on a resume like it's an achievement. It's like they want to other themselves so bad. And I am floored because that's not at all how, you know, we, that's not how society was when we were coming up.
SPEAKER 18 :
Also, not how society was, was our emergency people saying things like, oh, well, if I'm having to come and help you in an emergency, you just found yourself in the wrong place.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, you're in the wrong place. Well, duh, bitch, I'm in a fire. It's not a right place to be at. Just saying. I just, I am... Oh, my gosh. And then Lorraine adds more fuel to the fire. She goes, now, you know, the Kristen's are also all paramedics as well.
SPEAKER 18 :
Wait, is Kristen going to be the new Karen?
SPEAKER 19 :
I don't know.
SPEAKER 18 :
There's a lot of Kristen's and they certainly.
SPEAKER 19 :
I only know one Kristen in my life. I only know one Kristen.
SPEAKER 18 :
She's not lesbian. But I don't know.
SPEAKER 19 :
It's just a fascinating thing to me. I don't know. But I wouldn't want that woman to carry me out. I don't care. I don't think she she don't have the if someone said an actual firefighter told me when it comes to blazes like this, upper body strength matters. Upper body strength is the difference. And they said that's why it's really difficult for women. And that's a great perspective. There's an actual firefighter who works in California up northern California who emailed that. And I thought it was a great point. And that's true. I mean, look, in my mind, I like to pretend that I'm like super hardcore. Maybe, I don't know, maybe, but I'm a buck 20. I lie all the time and I'm like, no, I'm 5'7", 5'8". I'm 5'6". But this doesn't leave us. This is our private discussion, right? And I try to inflate how large I am. And see if, like, you guys don't know, if I can just, if I just sit here and I shrug down and I wear a baggy sweater, I could be. You guys don't know. But I know my limitations physically as well. I know what I can lift. I know what my limit is. And you can't just bend those rules or suspend them altogether because you want to promote a false sense of inclusiveness. And it is a false sense of inclusiveness because it's not about the mission. This is mission creep stuff. Our partners that are bringing the program, it's Tax Network USA. They want to help you out because the government... The government claims that they want to help you out by generously taking some of your money to pay themselves. And it seems to increase every single year. And they are very, very aggressive in getting what they think they're owed. And so Tax Network USA, this is where they come in. It's the top tax relief expert. They have secured over a billion dollars in tax relief for clients. So if you're overwhelmed with back taxes or unfiled returns... I know those pay up notices are going out. That's something that you can immediately get help for help with by going to Tax Network USA. Reduce or eliminate your debt. And they have a track record, a proven track record of handling these matters. They can get it set up whether or not you owe anything at all or whether or not, you know, it's 10,000 or 10 million if it's business or personal. You can call them, schedule a complimentary consultation. They make it easy. The number is 1-800-958-1000. Schedule your free, your complimentary consultation. And you can also visit TNUSA.com slash Dana. Don't let the IRS's aggressive tactics control your life. Call Tax Network USA today. That's TNUSA.com slash Dana, 1-800-958-1000.
SPEAKER 05 :
Get the lowdown on the latest news with a side of laughs whenever you want. Subscribe to the Dana Show podcast on YouTube, Apple or wherever you get your podcast.
SPEAKER 16 :
Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of the United States.
SPEAKER 15 :
Hey, Senator, can we ask you what you hope to get out of your visit to Mar-a-Lago to talk to Donald Trump? What are we talking about here?
SPEAKER 12 :
Is there some news? There's some news. We hear that you're going to be heading down to Mar-a-Lago. Yeah, I've heard that. Yes, I've heard that. Yeah.
SPEAKER 20 :
What will you be discussing with the president?
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, yeah, I demand that I need to be made Pope of Greenland. Do you have the resume to be Pope? I'm having a conversation. Like, he's the president. He's going to be... So, you know, I am not the senator for just Democrats in Pennsylvania. I'm everyone's senator in Pennsylvania.
SPEAKER 19 :
The Pope of Greenland. I still... I understand that they've got lots of natural resources. I'm still like, no, can we just focus on what we voted on first, please? And then when we accomplish that, then we can talk about... I'm not talking about expanding government right now. But he is having... Is it lunch or dinner? He's going to Mar-a-Lago to dine with Trump. And the left does not know what to do. Because remember, the left made it like, oh, he had a stroke, so you can't criticize him on anything ever. Well, now that he's bucking them, what are they going to do? Oh, my gosh, we can't criticize him because he had a stroke. Why did we do that? Second hour on the way. The latest on the fires movement in D.C. So much more. Stick with us. But if I have to go to a gun-free zone, I don't want to necessarily, but sometimes for my job, I have to. I have friends who live in D.C. and New York, and all of them got there very difficult to get licensed to carry. But half the places where they live and work, you know, you can't carry in there. It's crazy. I have a friend whose apartment in Manhattan, they live outside in Westchester, but they work in Manhattan, them and their wife. They can't even bring guns into their apartment building. So they can't even have their firearm in their apartment building in Manhattan. And then they can't drive it because of their stupid laws all the way to where they live out in Westchester. This is a problem. These people don't want to be made. They don't want to be made into victims by these stupid laws. And so as a result, they have decided to diversify. They keep their guns. But when they got to go to certain places, they have the Berna gun. In fact, they went out and got the Berna SD. That's the most popular model. Five round capacity, a lot more than your average one to two round stun gun. And it shoots out chemical irritant projectiles that can stop threats from up to 50 feet away. Now, they've got different models. They have different projectiles, different accessories. But I think it's wise to have diverse options for self-defense in those instances where the state or property owner wants to disarm you. And there's no waiting period, no background check, none of that. Berna SD does not care about stupid gun-free zone signs. And they'll send it right to your door. The only place where you can get a 10% discount is where I'm about to tell you, Burna.com slash Dana. That's the only place to get 10% off your whole purchase. B-Y-R-N-A, Burna.com slash Dana to get 10% off.
SPEAKER 24 :
What we know right now is that the incident occurred, started here, and about 20 minutes, 30 minutes later, a suspect was detained over in Woodland Hills area by citizens.
SPEAKER 23 :
So someone purposely set the Kenneth fire? At this time, that's what we believe, yes. Do you know how or why they did that? That I don't know. Is this a crime scene right now? It's being investigated as a crime.
SPEAKER 19 :
Wow. Unbelievable. Yes, it's being investigated. You know, there were a lot of questions about that. There were a lot of questions about whether or not there was arson that was involved in this. And... Everybody was the media on the left was so quick to climate change, climate change. Is that a new name? Maybe that's all the arsonists. You know how like all the fire people in L.A. are gay lesbians named Kristen. Maybe all the arsonists are named climate change. Clive, for short, you know, could be. Welcome back to the program. Dana Lash with you. We are at the top of this second hour. There's ice and snow on the ground, and I'm forever wearing turtlenecks on this show. Someone asked me in an email, how many of those do you actually own? An ungodly number. I buy something in black, and I'll buy the same thing three times. Because I don't like to think about what I wear. I am very like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg about that stuff. If I could just wear the same thing every day, I would. It's less energy that you have to exert over that. But it's cold. It's cold. And houses in Texas, building structures in Texas are designed to let the heat out, not keep it in. So it's cold in Texas. So you're lucky that I'm not wearing a scarf and a sock at two all at the same time with mittens. Guys are lucky. Anyway, so welcome, Dana Lash with you. Find us at YouTube and Facebook. Like and subscribe. And you can also find us over at Substack, chapter and verse, the newsletter. And this whole... I was listening to some of the stats for this and, you know, with the arsonists, because there's now two arsonists that have been arrested. I think maybe potentially three. Listen to this extent of the damage. So this is just the Palisades fire. There's several different fires. Audio soundbite 30. Listen to how bad this fire is.
SPEAKER 01 :
Palisades fires. This fire was currently tracked at 20,438 acres with 3,073 personnel assigned. Crews worked very, very hard overnight strengthening our containment lines and addressing multiple spot fires in and around the Topanga Canyon area. Resources responded to the area included our air assets to aid in the containment efforts. Due to the favorable overnight weather conditions and the diligent, and I'll focus on the diligent work and effort and commitment of our first responders, we can report that the Palisades fire is now 8% contained. Wind gusts are expected to increase in daylight hours that will test our containment lines. Our firefighters will continue to respond.
SPEAKER 19 :
So they're saying that it's scorched over 20,000 acres. So it's like basically larger than Manhattan. The Manhattan is 14,600 acres. This is over 20. But they said in this, play this audio soundbite. I know this is brand new. This is from LAPD. This is about one of the arsonists that they caught specifically that had the blowtorch. We had some of that video for you. Listen to what LAPD says here.
SPEAKER 06 :
They responded, they interviewed this suspect. After the interview and additional investigative steps, looking at some additional evidence that was present, they made the determination that there was not enough probable cause to arrest this person on arson or suspicion of arson. And therefore, this person was arrested on a felony probation violation.
SPEAKER 19 :
If you caught him in the act, though, and the video shows that he's literally there with a blowtorch trying to set stuff on fire. It was like one of those ring camera things. How is that not probable cause, right, enough by itself there, Cain? Yes, it is. How is that not?
SPEAKER 18 :
It's plenty. But what they're going to do is they're going to say, well, we've got to do this investigation. Then they'll gather that video evidence, and then they'll go over it, and then they'll change their story later. But this is what they do PR-wise every single time.
SPEAKER 19 :
This is all so goofy. You don't have enough. There's not enough. We don't have enough probable cause to charge him. I mean, yeah, we got him with a... Literally on camera. Trying to set stuff on fire with a blowtorch. Like literally he had a blowtorch and was setting stuff on fire. And he got caught by a ton of passerby. I wonder how long it's going to be before. They had five people that watched him set things on fire. Five people who don't even know each other. Who saw him independently try to set something on fire. And that's why they all intervened and took him down. But they don't have enough probable cause for that charge. So they just got him on felony probation. And his name isn't out there? Really? Oh, I want to know these people's names. Oh, yeah. I want to know their names. If I knew if somebody was a firebug, I would just put their name out there as law enforcement because, man, oh, man, you would watch a community come together to hunt somebody down real quick. I mean, no, it's not illegal to carry a blowtorch at all. It is illegal to take the blowtorch you're carrying and try to set stuff on fire and alleyways. That's illegal. And that's what five people saw him do. And they told this to police. So I don't know what that, you know, can you make a good point? Bring up the point you just put.
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah. I just wonder how long it'll take before they start demonizing the people that actually caught him doing that.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah. I wonder if he did it alone.
SPEAKER 18 :
I think he was by himself at the time it happened, but whether or not he did everything alone is a good question.
SPEAKER 19 :
I'm just, that was weird to me that that was treated that way. It's just weird, right? I mean, yeah, that's because people were saying we watched him literally set with his blowtorch. On fire. And I'm all about due diligence and due process. I'm all about those things. But when you see someone use their blowtorch to set it on fire, you're not just in possession of a blowtorch. You're literally using it to set fires. It's arson. So I don't know. This is all... I mean, it's just... I don't know. The way in which they're still running things out there. I worry for the people who are going to have to rebuild how long that's going to take. To get that done. How long it's going to take for that to happen. Because you have to think of the insurance nightmare. That's out there too. That's a huge nightmare. You know what I'm going to tell you. DeSantis. He was at Mar-a-Lago with a bunch of Republican governors. This was Sunday evening. And then the video of this is just coming out. And the reporters. It wasn't all just friendlies. Because Trump just lets reporters come in. He's not like Biden. He doesn't terrorize the media. And audio soundbite 13, DeSantis just busted their ass in this. This was epic. Listen to this.
SPEAKER 03 :
for the president-elect or a president to be criticizing.
SPEAKER 15 :
Is it appropriate for people in your industry to try to create division and to try to create narratives any time these things happen? Now, you're not as interested in doing that because Newsom is a D. If Newsom was a Republican, you guys would go try that. You would have it nailed to the wall for what they're doing over there. And I know we've dealt with it. We just assume in Florida, anytime something happens, it's going to be politicized by the media. So you guys sitting in judgment of Donald Trump, I mean, excuse me, I think your track record of politicizing these things is very, very bad. OK, last question.
SPEAKER 19 :
You would nail him to a wall. That is such a great response. You could tell he got ticked off. Because they kept asking... The questions that they were asking and the excuses that they seemed to be intimating for Newsom, it made him mad. I watched a long clip of it. That's the important part that we got. But you could see he's just getting madder and madder, standing over there like, uh-uh, I ain't even... He's best when he's allowed to be himself. Because he's really good at handling the media. Here's another example. This was... This is Audio Sunbite 14. It's a little longer. This is a master class and answering a question while neutralizing a fishing expedition for sensational headlines. This reporter wanted a narrative. You got DeSantis there. You had Matt Gaetz who left his Congress. I'm not a Gaetz fan, and I've made that very clear and nothing personal. This is just I just I think that he has no idea about tactics or strategy, and I've never seen anyone so politically toned up in my life. That being said, he left his elected seat and then he's saying that he's thinking about running for governor. DeSantis turns out in 27. He's he would be up against Byron Donald's and a whole bunch of other people, which, you know, and the press immediately wants to use it. They were trying to find some kind of division. Right. The press. What did I what did I say on Jesse Waters earlier this week? And what did I say the other day? that the media wants to find any kind of crack, any kind of division. If they have to play to people's egos or play to tribalism, they will do that. So they were trying to see if they could get DeSantis to, I guess, like stand against Trump over Gates or something. I don't know what they were looking for, but this was a masterclass in how to handle the media. Audio Sunbite 14.
SPEAKER 22 :
Just a reaction to Matt Gates mowing a gubernatorial bit.
SPEAKER 15 :
I don't really have a reaction to it. I mean, it's so far away for that race to happen. You know, I think my thing is I had to do a special election to fill that seat because he resigned from the seat. I wish we had full strength in the House to help the president get his agenda done. That's where the fight is right now. Florida, you know, the fight was in 18 here when we were at a crossroads. If you look now at the results across the state, the left is lying in ruins. The Democratic Party is on the mat. So we've got it handled here. I think the people need to be up there fighting for President Trump and to deliver on his mandate. And so any congressman should be wanting to go up there and do that. And we expect all our Florida congressmen to actually deliver on these promises.
SPEAKER 03 :
Governor DeSantis, have you and President Trump spoken about the possibility of you serving as Secretary of Defense?
SPEAKER 15 :
We speak frequently. We haven't really gotten into any particulars on anything. I think we're looking forward to being able to be helpful in any way we can. Clearly, as governor, I think we'll have a better future these next couple years than we've had the last four. Our success in Florida has been in spite of the Biden administration, not because of it. Now I think we're in just a good runway. These are just great answers.
SPEAKER 19 :
Absolutely great answers. He just just neutralized because they were on a fishing expedition. They wanted a sensational headline. They wanted to be able to say, oh, DeSantis goes against whatever Trump favorite Gates or something like that. I don't know if Gates has a shot in hell at, by the way, winning even the nomination for governor's office in Florida. I mean, he's he he got his seat because his dad's been in office for a long time. It's a family that's been in elective office. It's kind of dynastic down there. And I'm immediately I'm just allergic to that kind of stuff. I just just I have visceral reactions to any kind of dynastic anything. I'm so such an American. I can't help it. And but he gave the great answers like I wish we had full strength. And he's right. He's right. He made a really great point on a number of different levels and just, you know, smack their ass and then neutralize their argument. It's great. That's that's how you handle the press. We have more on the way, including this unconditional discharge. This goofy case. They just want to be able to say felon. And a couple of things. Colorado, they're trying to push a gun ban, another gun ban. We've got that. We've got a whole bunch of stuff. As we move, our partners. who helped bring you the program. It's our friends at ReadyWise. ReadyWise is always ready, even if you aren't. And I'm telling you, out of a lot of the companies out there that make claims, ReadyWise really is it. I mean, they are really good, good survival food. Survival food doesn't have to taste horrible. It doesn't have to be low quality either. And ready wise is neither of those things. It's high quality premium survival food. That's not only sustenance when something goes sideways for you and your family, but it's also comfort in a crisis and beyond because it's made so well. These are U.S. ingredients. packed in a U.S. plant, sent to you from that plant by U.S. workers. So you know the chain of command for your food. I don't know of any other company that can say that. You know the chain of command for your food from start to finish. And what's more, they have an in-house team of culinary experts that make sure everything that you buy is meeting your nutritional needs, your caloric needs, the healthy carbs, protein, all of that. And they have an array of product choices to meet every budget, like the emergency one-month bucket supply, the two-bucket bundle, the three-month bucket bundle. Great taste. And like I said, comfort in a crisis and beyond 25-year shelf life. Visit ReadyWise.com. Use promo code Dana20 at checkout for 20% off of your entire purchase. ReadyWise.com. Promo code Dana20 for 20% off.
SPEAKER 18 :
And now, all of the news you would probably miss. It's time for Dana's Quick Five.
SPEAKER 19 :
Is When the Levee Breaks by Zeppelin, is that just not one of the best songs ever? I'm just telling you. The TikTok band going to SCOTUS. And they're battling for survival, TikTok, in the United States as the decision over its fate is now underway. I don't know. I just, I don't know why people are defending it so much. It doesn't help when you have politicians who are like, yeah, we got to get rid of TikTok. And then they're like, TikTok's great. I'm not on it. I just don't have time, and also I can only watch so many videos of people looking at the camera. It's an insufferable epidemic.
SPEAKER 18 :
The Supreme Court just came out and said that they're looking to uphold that ban. That's what the SCOTUS just said. I got this one minute ago.
SPEAKER 19 :
They're looking to uphold the ban a minute ago. So they're good. So it's good. And unless they're able to get like a net. Well, you can't. You can't appeal it.
SPEAKER 18 :
All right.
SPEAKER 19 :
So I don't know if you guys saw this. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was reportedly kidnapped by Maduro in Venezuela, you know, because they have free elections and all that good stuff there. Right. In Venezuela. Isn't that how it works? There's a couple of different reports of how it happened, but she was apparently reportedly freed after she was violently intercepted, is how it was described. And she left her hideout to protest Maduro. So that's... You know, if you want to know where free and fair elections don't happen, it's there. Novak Djokovic said he was poisoned by lead in his food after he was detained over COVID during the Australian Open. He had refused to get the experimental injection. And he said he was poisoned by food that he ate while he was detained during that 2022 whole thing. He was in a Melbourne hotel and they said, he goes, I was fed some food that poisoned me. And he monitors his diet pretty strictly. It's like a thing that he's actually pretty famous for. GQ did a whole piece on it once. So he said that he had flu-like symptoms and he had an emergency medical team treat him when he got back to Europe. But he said it was lead. Somebody poisoned him? That's good night. Bank of America is bracing for massive bond losses as yields soar. New headline. The sharp rise in rates since the end of their third quarter has widened losses on bank securities portfolio on their portfolio. And it could become an investor issue again when banks start reporting their fourth quarter results. That's like next week. Excuse me. Beginning of next week. And let's see here. We got a couple of other things as well, which we're going to talk about. The president saying 100 percent help for. people affected by the fires out in California. We're going to have to revisit Hurricane Helene here. And this also happened this morning. Four injured after a Delta flight aborted a takeoff at a snow-covered Atlanta airport because it's been snowing in Atlanta. They said it was about 9 a.m. local time. They told passengers to duck down and evacuate after the plane accelerated to take off. They said they had ongoing severe weather. There were people who were treated on the scene. Everybody's okay now, apparently, but they said it was due to an engine issue. Stick with us. We got more in store next. Pain can really affect your life, so you should consider a New Year's resolution. And it's not about taking it easy or slowing down. It's about making 2025 the year of feeling good again, the year of doing more and living more and waking up excited every day. And you can do it by trying Relief Factor. Relief Factor is a 100% drug-free daily supplement that helps your body fight pain naturally. Developed by doctors, it works by supporting your body's response to inflammation. And Relief Factor doesn't just mask pain for a short time, it helps to eliminate it. It's like turning back the clock on pain so you can feel like you did years ago. Whether it's neck, back, joint, or muscle pain, Relief Factor can help you feel better. Become one of the over 1 million people that have turned to Relief Factor. Trying Relief Factor is easy. Get their three-week quick start for just $19.95. That's less than a dollar a day. Call 1-800-4-RELIEF. Whether it's neck, back, joint, or muscle pain, Relief Factor can help you feel better. That's 1-800-4-RELIEF or visit relieffactor.com.
SPEAKER 05 :
The Dana Show podcast, your fast, funny, and informative news companion for those always on the move. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER 19 :
Welcome back to the program. Dana Lash with you at the bottom of this second hour. And we're following everything with the fires and everything else. And it's I mean, it's the arson now as well, because that's the other thing. Now they're saying that they've arrested a couple of people for arson so far, which you knew that some of this was going to be arson. You just knew it was going to be. One of the guys was even I'm looking at this. finding this video, one of the guys was even caught on video. And you have a blowtorch and you're using it to light stuff on fire. It's kind of a big deal. In the meantime, in New York, the president faced sentencing in this stupid... I hate this stupid story because it's such a fraud. The whole thing is so dumb. It's that Stormy Daniels hush money case. Lorraine's written about it quite a bit over at Substack. And the... decision it's a weird one so the judge had imposed a jail sentence and under new york state law because they were the lowest level of felony jail sentences are not mandatory they wanted to just be able to say he was a felon so remember this is the case where uh he paid money to stormy daniels and i don't care how look there's two things that are happening here yes i understand the people who are arguing about the morality of it okay that's a separate thing set that on one side and then this then i'm going to talk about you can set on the other side regardless of how you want to look at it on paper it's a business arrangement that's just the way it is you there's certain things with regards to morality that are not actionable in the way that Alvin Bragg wants to make them actionable. And so Trump had already said that he had given Stormy Daniels money. He came out about that and had said that, uh, The way that they had logged it in their financial record keeping, that's what New York State wanted to go after. They were saying that it was a bookkeeping error. Regardless, it's your money. You should be able to do whatever the hell you want. So at its core, I reject this whole story. I don't even like talking about it because I think it's stupid. You are making a huge issue out of a non-issue. So they were saying, well, it's a bookkeeping error and you should have stipulated such X, Y, Z at all. the most, at the most, you could maybe, I really don't think you could, but you could make the argument that it was a misdemeanor in the manner by not following precise New York law with regards to keeping records pertaining to this whole thing. You could maybe make that argument. But that's not what Alvin Bragg did. He went beyond that. He was trying to say that there was an additional crime that they would not articulate in any of the charging documents, an additional crime that they weren't actually going to bring a charge for, that they weren't even going to instruct the jury to fully consider, an additional crime that makes this, for the sake of argument... expired misdemeanor, it elevates it to where they can charge it as a felony. And they barely made it an E-level felony charge, which was the lowest level. So he was never going to be up for jail time because the jail sentence by New York law with an E-level felony is not a The judge had to consider the fines and the charges for that. So what Judge Merchan did was give Trump what they call a no penalty sentence. And they call it an unconditional discharge. So there's no jail time. There's no probation. There are no fines. But it goes on his record. They just wanted to be able to say that he was a felon. They, I mean, pun intended, trumped up a charge to say that he's a felon. Let me put this in a different context because they were trying to make this out to be an NDA. I've signed NDAs. NDAs are commonplace. The people who are talking about how sketchy it is to have NDAs have never been in an important enough position to have to sign one. Yes, that is to be mean because I see these people all over social media throwing their weight around going, oh, well, NDAs. No, literally, if you've never had to sign an NDA, you've never had to work at a place that was considered like high risk or anything like that for whatever reason. In fact, low risk, regular everyday businesses have people sign NDAs. It's par for the course. It is not an unusual, exceptional circumstance. Literally, everybody signs NDAs. I sign DAs to work with people I work with. The people who work with me sign NDAs. It's literally boilerplate. So that argument that, oh, Trump had her sign an NDA and all this stuff, that's like sketch. That's actual commonplace. So does that mean you took hush money because you signed an NDA and you get paid for signing an NDA? I have literally entered contract negotiations that have an NDA that goes along with just the negotiation. And I have literally told people that my silence costs. So if you want me to sign an NDA, you got to pay. I have literally told people that at the negotiating table because it's a non-starter for me. And that's not taking hush money. That's a business arrangement. So that's why this is so stupid. So it would be like you say you get a job at some company. I don't know. Pick a pick a vocation and you go through, you know, you sign your paperwork to work for the company, the company, you sign your contract and you sign your NDA and you get, you know, like a signing bonus. Is that hush money? I mean, that's if you were Trump in New York, they were they would say that it's hush money and that because you didn't write hush money in the ledger, that that's somehow a misdemeanor, although it's passed. It's beyond the statute of limitations. So it's kind of moot. But what they'll argue is that, well, you probably didn't report it correctly because you were hiding something else. Now, we're not going to tell you what that something else is. We're not even going to bother mentioning it in the charging docs. And when we instruct the jury to make it during deliberation, we're going to tell them to just bypass whatever they think it is. It exists. And we're just you have to have it exist so we can elevate this to a felony. That's what happened here. Imagine you having to go through that. That's why this is so stupid. I don't even like talking about this dumb story because it is literally a straw man argument that they just they trumped up so that they could call him a felon. That's the only reason. It's the dumbest. Now, there are other cases where you look, you can sit here and be like, well, you shouldn't have done anything with Stormy. You can have that argument all day long. I'm not telling you you're wrong or telling you not to have it. But what's stupid is them weaponizing the justice system to go after him for that. That's how dumb this is. This is lawfare. This isn't justice. This is lawfare. Masquerading as justice and justice for what? Who's heard in this? That's the other thing. It's so stupid. I don't even like talking about it. I get so mad talking about it because it pisses me off because it's a non-story. It is a stupid, fabricated, lawfare situation that you're expected to take seriously by the legacy press. I don't take it seriously. I think it's a joke. It makes a mockery of our justice system. I feel stupid for even talking about it on air because it's such a dumb witch hunt story. Of all the things to get mad at Trump about, this is not one of them. it's not it legitimately isn't and i will i have no qualms in pissing off everybody criticizing someone's precious lawmaker over x y or z i have zero issue this is one of the dumbest things i've ever had to talk about in my entire professional career it's a stupid story it's hard to even explain because there's no legal basis that's why it's so weird Never before has anything like this been done in New York. Never before has anything been cobbled together like this in the justice system. They fabricated it so they could get a conviction and say felon. That's why it's so weird to talk about. Because I've had listeners go, well, what was the other thing that elevated it? I would love to know. I'm sure the jury would too. So it's so dumb about all of it. Kane knows. I get ticked off any time this story comes up because it's stupid.
SPEAKER 18 :
I heard Andy McCarthy saying that they were trying to make the underlying crime the 2016 election that they're claiming Trump stole that.
SPEAKER 19 :
They're saying that he—the argument is that the reason that he paid Stormy Daniels, according to the prosecutor, is that he was—it was— Election interference. I feel you. He was trying to help his own campaign by keeping the Stormy Daniels stuff out of the news. And so that's why. And they're arguing that that's election interference. Did they argue that with John Edwards? No. Because some of that money actually came from assets in New York when Bunny Mellon was giving him cash. Did they argue that with John Edwards? Did they argue that with Anthony Weiner? No. Did they argue it with Bill Clinton? No. I mean, do you want me to sit here and run down the list of all these Democrats who made their side pieces? Sign like NDAs or I mean, we can sit here and do it. The reason it wasn't done with them is because, first off, there was no legal foundation for that to even that case to even be built. Number one. Number two, they didn't do it because those people were Democrats. Look, I get it. There are things I criticize Trump about. You guys know I'm very forthright about it. This is not one of them. And so when I see people that I've always thought previously were smart, pretending that this is a big deal, I lose respect for them because this is a stupid story. There's so many other things to talk about. And this is a headline today. This is a stupid headline. You have people burning to death in California and these jackasses in New York with this stupid fabricated witch hunt. This is what they're pushing today. It's so dumb just so they can say, oh, he's a felon. He can't own a gun. He's a felon. He's not even going to be able to really travel. He's a felon. Well, he's got diplomatic immunity as an elected official. So that's a stupid, you know, but still there's some considerations here for what? No penalty, no probation, no jail time. And they didn't even actually articulate the underlying crime that elevated this to the lowest level classy felony in the state of New York. Now, of course, he's going to appeal the sentencing. He'd be a moron to not appeal the sentencing. Think about it. There are some left-leaning prosecutors in New York, more left-leaning than Alvin Bragg, that did not want to touch this case. And it's not because they're weaker as communists. It's because they're smarter legal strategists. They know at some point, and it's going to take time, but at some point, this is going to get overturned. You just, this is only, this only happens in New York. Outside of New York, this falls apart because you don't have the partisan pettiness as the framework to keep it all together. It's only in New York. So there, for the people who are asking, that's why I don't talk about it because I get mad and it's stupid. It makes me hate the justice system more than I already do. It makes me hate government agencies more than I already do. And I'm trying to be, you know, we're not even a first week in the new year. I'm trying to be lighthearted for everybody. I don't want to talk about this stupid story. It's so dumb. Imagine, and this is with... Somebody who has, you know, all of the name recognition and everything else. Imagine what they're doing to average everyday people. Look at Dexter Taylor, an innocent black man who's sitting in jail because he's black. I've never said anything like that before. That's true in this case. He is a gun owner and he's a conservative and they went after him because he is a black man. gun owner and a black conservative. And that is dangerous to their narrative because the left does not want minorities to leave the party. They have to be Democrats. I've talked about this for years. Democrats think they have a patent on you. If you're a woman, if you're a gay man, if you're a lesbian, if you're Hispanic, if you're black, if you're Asian, they think that that is a tool of political exploitation. And you're not allowed to leave the Democrat Party if you're any one of those things. And if you do, then it's a betrayal so badly. It's a betrayal so bad that they'll throw the full force of their lawfare at you like they did with Dexter Taylor. And with Trump. Imagine a young woman facing an unplanned pregnancy, feeling alone and unsure of what to do. And she's searching for hope. And that's where Preborn Ministries comes in. You can make a difference for just $28. Your generosity can be the key to a mother choosing life for her baby. And with your gift, you will receive the story of a mom who chose life as well as the ultrasound image of her precious baby. And like the story of Kelsey, who found Preborn and after hearing her baby's heartbeat, she chose life. 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SPEAKER 10 :
Did God bless the United States of America? Pastor Alan Jackson says yes.
SPEAKER 09 :
I believe God has blessed this nation, that he's called it into existence. It isn't perfect. There's no such thing as perfect. But we continue as we lean towards the Lord to make improvements. There is no greater expression of liberty and freedom amongst civilized human beings than we've seen from our own nation in the last 250 years. As imperfect as it may be, that's true.
SPEAKER 10 :
Subscribe to Culture and Christianity, an Alan Jackson podcast, on your favorite podcast app.
SPEAKER 18 :
It's his life mission to make bad decisions. It's time for Florida Man.
SPEAKER 19 :
So I have two. This is crazy. So in this shoplifting scheme, I had a listener that sent this to me, and they got my attention by going, uh-oh, D-Lash, clean up on Isle Brown. It's from the Miami Herald. And there's also a story from Fox 13. They got the... CCTV footage, deputies are searching for a couple that are accused of stealing $500 of items from a dollar store. The suspect, the woman intentionally defecated on the store's floor as a way to distract while the man she was with began to steal everything. Polk County deputies are investigating. They said that Ms. Dookie is on the run after a messy burglary at the Mulberry Family Dollar Store. So they walked in. He walked around the store, gathered $500 worth of products like Gain Tide, Clorox. And while he was getting that, the woman distracted everybody by dousing on the floor. And an employee had to clean up the mess she made. It's a poo and run. I, and they're, they're literally, how do you not find them? How do you, I mean, go into a dollar store. You, okay. Something is wrong with you. If you're like, okay, here's my idea on how to steal from family dollar. I'm going to go and poop on the floor and you can just grab everything, throw in a basket and let's run.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 18 :
That whole last question, that whole last part would have worked fine without the first part. Well, that whole needing to poop on the floor isn't a need, but how do you, okay.
SPEAKER 19 :
How much time do we have here? I don't like public restrooms. I hate them. I'll explode before I have to use them. It's a thing. It might be TMI. But my question is, how does a woman... How do you just do that in public, like theatrically? You just do something on the floor like that. I know it's part of your shoplifting scheme, but how do you get to the point where you're like, okay, I'm saving it up. I'm going to go and dookie on the floor the family dollar.
SPEAKER 18 :
Seems like you have to plan your eating 12 plus hours in advance.
SPEAKER 19 :
That has to be... That's like... That has to be timed out. I don't know. Oh, gosh. A Florida man went on a smash and grab at a St. Pete Publix. Oh, well, at least he didn't dookie in the floor. He went on a string of smash and grab burglaries. Corey Kendrick, 11 vehicles stealing the items inside. They think he's responsible for other other thefts and that more charges could be coming. But apparently he did not care about any of the videos as he's just on camera running through smashing everything like full view. Great CCTV footage of him. And a Florida man suffered severe injury while selling fireworks illegally. He was selling them literally off the side of the road in a U-Haul van, and he blew off two of his fingers. Stick with us. Caltech, longtime friend of the show. I'm a huge fan of what Caltech does. I'm a huge fan of their firearms. Everything's built right here in the US of A in Florida. They have got a great story, great all-American story. And as we head into the later part of January, this is all about the same time every year that Caltech unveils the new things that they've been working on. This year is not going to be any kind of exception for that. George Kellgren, who's the president, founder, designer, mad scientist. He's actually one of the few major firearms designers still alive today leading the way in innovation. You know, they invented the micro compact pistol category. They came out last year with the lightest, thinnest double stack nine millimeter on the market. That's the P-15. Everything they do is quality made right here in America. They got the fold-in half carbine, the sub 2Ks, that whole family, that whole line. They have the KSG shotguns, the RDB bullpup series, and they stand behind everything that they make. Now, they're going to be dropping some new product later this month. I'll be at SHOT Show. broadcasting live for that industry event. So there's going to be some new product and we'll talk all about it when it happens. You can visit Keltechweapons.com, sign up for their newsletter, check out their social media, and you can also get on the inside track so you can be made aware when they drop new stuff. Innovation Performance Keltech, K-E-L-T-E-C, Keltechweapons.com.
SPEAKER 20 :
It was wild. We just started seeing all these cars pull up. and groups of men running off our street, going up to the doors of these houses. And we weren't sure what was going on. I'm thinking, are these people here to help my neighbors? I hope so. And I left and then my husband talked to the police and said, what are those guys doing? These guys don't live here, get them out. My next door neighbor said, his quote, there were like 100 people that came up on scooters and were trying to get into any and all houses on the street.
SPEAKER 19 :
Looting. The looting has begun. And the DA down there now, he ended up beating the source back DA. Was saying, look, we're going to prosecute everybody. We're going to go after everybody. Nobody's going to be... If you're doing this stuff, we're coming to get you. So good on them for laying that out. Because previously... I mean, when people would loot stores, they weren't doing a single thing. This is just, it's, man, it's bad. Like, basically the size of Manhattan has burned. More than. Manhattan was what, 14,600 acres? Over 20,000 has burned. That's just the Palisades fire. Welcome back to the program. Dana Lash with you. We are at the top of this third hour this Friday. And you've got this. Audio Sunbite 4. Biden was remarking on this. This has to do with the debris and some of the cleanup recovery efforts. Listen to this.
SPEAKER 22 :
This morning, due to the magnitude of the disaster, I was talking with the governor. He requested if I could increase the federal funding that was authorized under this legislation from 75% to 90%. We're increasing it to 100% of all costs to be covered by the federal government. for both the Fire Management Assistance Grants and the elements of what they call the Disaster Declaration. So today I'm announcing that the federal government will cover 100% of the cost for 180 days.
SPEAKER 19 :
So that's, he's covering 100% of recovery costs for six months. They gave all of the people in Appalachia who were dealing with the effects of Hurricane Helene, they, uh, They got to check out all their motels. Was it January? Oh, tomorrow. Tonight at midnight. They said FEMA said due to the incoming winter storm, we're extending our transitional sheltering program for just 24 hours to households scheduled to check out if you still need assistance. So that's like about 3,500 families in that area. They're like, okay, go. They said that FEMA tried to evict these hurricane victims hours before the storm went through. they've there have been people on the ground there who have been taking videos of these people working at these shelters and They said it's wild it's wild like they've they they had these people have nowhere to go it's over 3,000 families 3,500 and They were told okay. That's it. That's it. That's all we're gonna do for you. Now. You got to go and Told to get out That's just so that's amazing. How I I am without words, but that's what they're telling everybody. No, no, no, you've got to go. So Los Angeles, they get 100% covered. They were giving them money in North Carolina, but they had to pay it back, right? Isn't that how it went? They would get money, but then they had to pay all of it back.
SPEAKER 18 :
And they had to pay their full property taxes.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER 18 :
On homes that washed away.
SPEAKER 19 :
Was that last week or week before?
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, last week.
SPEAKER 19 :
Unbelievable. I know that was right before Christmas. They had to pay all their property tax like that Friday before we were off air. That was the deadline. They had to pay property taxes. They said that they had no catastrophic events that that fall into exclusion. And so they had to pay property taxes based on assessments that are now inapplicable.
SPEAKER 18 :
So officials in California clearly, through neglect and inept activity, have ruined what's going on in California, costing the locals a lot of money. But now they're asking the federal government for more money as well. And we're just going to hand it over to them to the tune of 100% when this was mismanagement. The Helene thing in North Carolina had nothing to do with mismanagement. That was absolutely natural disaster.
SPEAKER 19 :
Although I will say the response was mismanaged because it's Democrat run.
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, without a doubt. Horrifically mismanaged.
SPEAKER 19 :
But you're right. Because in California, in fact... It's their mismanagement that caused it in Los Angeles. Let me pull up. Forgive me. I have a million tabs open here. I don't even know how my computer functions, quite honestly. You don't see the tabs I have open. If you're opposed to all the tabs, then you would be having a stroke right now. The... Karen Bass, because I think it came out just last week that she had asked for further cuts. They were already going through the 24-25 fiscal year with a $48.8 million budget reduction. And one week before these fires, she called for an additional $49 million in cuts. And that would have shut down 16 fire stations. Now, keep in mind, this is after Cal water, fire and water, all of that. The state agency said that this they said this back in fall. in I think in September and October, actually, according to my notes, they were warning people all the way back in August, because they had two years of record rain. So they had all of this that contributed to a lot of vegetation overgrowth. And then of course, you know, typically, It starts getting really dry going into December, January. That dries up. You know, everything turns brown again. And then the Santa Ana winds start. And then you just have the perfect recipe for a massive firestorm. Not only were they stopping efforts to clear out underbrush, but literally a week before the fires, after months of being warned that they were going to actually be in a prime wildfire season and that every element of of the perfect storm exists for a major wildfire. She was demanding an additional $49 million in cuts to the fire department. And that would have completely closed, completely closed 16 different fire stations. Oh my gosh. So I had, she gotten those. I mean, it's already bad. They're already they've already had firemen say that they don't have enough firemen. They've already had them say that. I can't even imagine. I'm just like, how else they wouldn't have been able to survive. Now, in addition to that, this is the Los Angeles Times. Hold up. Let me pull this up. they came out and said they had this big story this morning. Pacific Palisades Reservoir was not only empty when the firestorm exploded, but it was also offline. It's the Santa Ynez Reservoir. Now, you actually can see the reservoir when you fly into L.A. When you fly into L.A., depending on the flight path, and I've flown over it, you can see it. It's up in the Santa Ynez Mountains. And it's actually, sometimes the pilot will point it out for you. It's totally empty. Completely, totally empty. They let all of the runoff that they had from the two years of record rain just go right back into the ocean. They didn't do anything to catch, they did nothing. And then they emptied this reservoir. What was left of it. Here's my question. How do these people sit here and go, yes, climate change, it's such an existential threat. Also, we're not going to do anything to we're going to keep the reservoirs empty. We're going to make sure that our hydrants don't work. I mean, the bottom line is they don't have the infrastructure. California doesn't have the infrastructure to deal with it. And it's not an uncommon occurrence for California. You have the winds that were really crazy and that contributed to it. But, you know, the other factor that contributed to it was the horrific land management. There are more stories. I would sit here the rest of the hour and I could just recount all of these different stories that span a three-year period where they are warning California officials, whether it's LA Times, whether it's San Francisco, whether it's local media there or KTLA. They did all of these reports where they were saying that you know, you have officials and people who are into fire science and land management that are warning that these steps need to be taken in order to, you know, do as much as possible to quote unquote fireproof areas or to make it to where any kind of wildfire could at least be contained. And the other problem is, That they have in California is their developments. Everything is so dense. The developments are so dense. The houses are right on top of each other. But what's more, the newer builds have to go along with new regulations, which require like concrete walls, like literal firewalls. There was an architect who was tweeting about his properties. None of his properties burnt. This architect and he builds like exclusively in Southern California. And he was saying that none of his properties burnt, but he also had pretty. What's the word I'm thinking of the land? He had like no greenery in his landscaping. So the landscaping, this architect, and it was all like really modern looking houses. It was stones. It was materials that actually are kind of flame retardant, concrete, brick, stone, things like that. And then anything that had to be wood, because one of the problems with California is that wood is more absorbent when you have shifts in the earth. So it's It's a lot harder for structures that are stone, concrete, and brick to withstand major earthquakes. And so that's why a lot of the frames, a lot of the stuff is wood out there. But what his firm did was they reinforced all of that with concrete, with certain paneling, a bunch of stuff. All I know is that they use materials that are not receptive to flame. And none of his properties were burnt. And he had a picture of one of his houses in the Pacific Palisades where everybody else on either side, front and back, were burnt down to the ground. but they didn't have like the lush garden greenery that you have come to associate with that area. And they think that that saved them. And they also think that having that big concrete, you know, firewall literally between that property and the properties next to them saved it, which then brings up, I know it's really expensive, especially in California for existing properties to, like if you're retrofitting stuff, you know, if you're going out and you're trying to make things more flame retardant, Because newer construction has to go by newer regulation, but a lot of the existing structures there are old and it's very expensive to, or pre the new regulations that I think went into effect in like, what, 21, 22? And so it's really hard for, it's expensive to do that. So what's the solution? What do you do? I mean, if you're not going to have the federal government that's going to properly manage federal lands and you're not going to have the state to properly manage state lands and you're emptying reservoirs and you're making it to where you don't have enough water supply. What the hell else? You know what in the world? It almost doesn't even matter what you do. They got lucky. That architect was like, the only reason it didn't burn is because the two concrete firewalls on either side. That's the only reason they're like, that's how crazy this fire is. And there's only so much individual homeowners can do when the state and the federal government are not being a cooperative partner. What else do you have? I don't even want to know what the insurance nightmare is going to be like for these people. Because think about it. If you're an insurance company, can you cite, well, the federal government didn't do this, so we don't have to pay. Or the state didn't clear it out. Look at all these warnings. Like I just told you, all of the stuff that's in the media, that's all evidence that insurance companies can use to say, well, the state didn't do it, so... That's like a class action lawsuit against the state. Wouldn't there be a class action lawsuit against the federal government if they're not properly managing federal lands and you know that it's absolutely instrumental in creating these fires? I mean, I'm made of questions right now. As this gets going, we may have to have on like insurance experts that specifically deal with this type of stuff because I don't know what recourse they're going to have. It's going to be a mess.
SPEAKER 18 :
And now all of the news you would probably miss. It's time for Dana's Quick Five.
SPEAKER 19 :
All right. So David Muir, I don't like him. I don't like anybody. But did you guys see this? So he was wearing this. What was it? A fireman's jacket that had the ABC logo on it?
SPEAKER 18 :
It's like the raincoat that emergency people wear.
SPEAKER 19 :
And he had it pinned in the back. Now, did he have it pinned in the back because he was trying to look fit? Or did he have it pinned in the back so it wouldn't blow around and make noise? I don't know. You know what? I feel like we should give them as much benefit of the doubt as they give us. That's my rule. By the way, sidebar. David Muir and George Stephanopoulos hate each other. Hate each other. You think that you have seen inter-workplace drama with chicks before? Apparently, what's going on between Muir and Stephanopoulos is out of control. It is the worst workplace drama ever. Just some fun gossip for you. They both want each other fired. Uh... A pizza chain expansion was their plans to expand with was thwarted by the city council because the town's kids are too fat. The city council is like, we got our all our kids are too fat. We got too many fat kids here. It's in Manchester. The pizza chain wanted to expand and they said, no, it's in Britain. They said, no, all children are too chonky. And they said that they are not allowed to explain it would and it would not do any justice. They said it adds nothing to the food and drink offering of the town. And so they were not going to they nixed it. Imagine that because parents don't monitor what their kids eat. This business can't expand. Luigi Mangione's case was hit by delay as prosecutors reveal when he's going to next. I don't care about this guy. They're trying to make him out to be some kind of folk hero. It's disturbing. Oh, I was reading about this earlier today. So a lot of these muscle building protein powders apparently have lead in them. They're in organic and chocolate-flavored products. They said that there's lead and whatever the hell else this cadmium is. I don't know. Yeah, whatever. I don't know. Does it taste good? I don't know. Yeah, but they said that there's stuff in it. So what are the brands? I don't know. They're not going to actually tell you right outright. You're going to have to sleuth it. But some of them, when they said organic and chocolate, I got some ideas. Stick with us. We've got more in store.
SPEAKER 05 :
Not able to catch all three hours of The Dana Show? Subscribe to the full podcast and get news and laughs delivered in short, easy-to-digest episodes. Ideal for your busy lifestyle on YouTube, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER 08 :
One important topic I want to talk about is that we did have a drone incursion yesterday at the Palisades fire. Unknown exactly what time this small drone hit the wing of our CL-415 Super Scooper aircraft that we currently have on contract from the province of Quebec. The pilots were unaware that they hit the drone. It wasn't until they landed at Van Nuys Airport that the maintenance staff noticed that there was a fist-sized hole in the leading edge of the wing inboard of the landing light. That super scooper will be prioritized for repair 24-7. It should be flying Monday. We only have two of them.
SPEAKER 19 :
You know, I'm listening to everything that he's saying and I am so distracted by the sign language guy. All the sign language interpreters, they got to be theater kids. I mean, he's a good one. I mean, I don't even, if you just like turned off what the guy was saying and I was watching him, I'm like something scooping sad, mad rain and what that is. Don't know. He's writing and flying and what? What is that?
SPEAKER 17 :
It's like jazz hands and sign language together.
SPEAKER 19 :
I mean, I feel like I'm watching Rent Part 2. I don't know. He's so expressive. And he spit his tongue out like that at one point. And then the reindeer came down. He's so expressive, his face. I love... I used to know, like, I know the alphabet and sign language, and I only know a couple of things in sign language, but it actually makes me want to learn sign language because that would be so fun to just really get in, you know, like, especially if you go to like concerts and you do the sign language at concerts. Okay. Anyway, let me get away. He was just really distracting this guy. He's really good at his job. He's like, this is his best moment right now. So what they're telling you is that some jack wagon flew a drone up and it hit one of their water support. They only had two of them. What is it, two of them? Or three?
SPEAKER 18 :
That's all they have is two.
SPEAKER 19 :
Two! And it was on loan from, I'm trying to think what province. A Canadian province. Was it British Columbia? It was on loan from a Canadian province. And they had some jack wagons like, well, I'm going to get my drone out. I'm going to go fly my drone, take some drone images of the fire. And he clipped the wing of this thing. I hope that drone was destroyed. They said they're going to find out whose drone it was because now they had to take it out of the air. They had to take one of the two water support that we don't even have. First off, how the hell do you not have that, California? How do you have to get it from Canada? What do you do with all your tax money? What do you do with it? It can't all be for Gavin Newsom's hair gel. Jiminy. So, I... I don't know. I'm amazed at this. But they said that, you know, it's... You know, sorry, we... You know, got to take it out of the air. Got to take it out of the air. And so, you know, tough. We're not going to... We're going to be short one... Super scooper is what they call them. Super scooper aircraft. And the drone... Don't you have to register your, well, if it's a certain size, don't you have to register the flight path and all that stuff? Is that true? I know you've got to register the drone, no matter what size, like if it's like a smallish size and up. And some of the drones, you have to have a pilot's license to operate. I'm just curious. Why are they having to contract stuff out from Canada, though? Why do you not have that? Oh, my gosh. They spent billions upon billions of dollars over two decades for a high speed rail from L.A. to San Francisco that legit never got built. The company was a French company that was going to come over and do it. And they were going to have it done in like three years. And they said that there was so much corruption and so many pigs at the trough that they just said, screw it. They left, and they went over to a nation in Africa, and they did it in three years. Had their high-speed rail very similar to what they wanted in L.A. Done. In the meantime, all they got was 1,600 feet of an unusable rail overpass built. That's it. That's it. That's one-fourth of a mile. That's it. Over $12 billion to build it. 1,600 feet. That's it. I ran that in track when I was in high school. 1,600 meters, not feet. So somebody thought they were going to take their drone out. They hurt the plane. I'm just so goofy. People stop it. Nobody cares about your stupid drone footage. There's enough footage out there. No one needs your, I got to hurry up and provide footage to the tens of people that follow me on social media. Oh my gosh. Oh, if that was my neighbor, I'd be in jail. Can we talk about the sign language guy again real quick? Because he's happy. He makes me happy. Like I'm hearing this stuff and I want to get real mad at the stuff that the fire chief is telling us. And then I see this sign, this like Bradley Cooper looking dude who's like all very expressive. He's so expressive. There's so much joy in this guy's face. He's like, I'm giving you bad news with a whoop. And that is bad. And it's so great.
SPEAKER 17 :
I've heard of bad lip reading, but bad sign language?
SPEAKER 19 :
Bad sign language, I could do that. I could totally do it. Look how, he's so expressive. I would rather, much rather pay attention to what he's telling me than what the fire chief there's telling me. Because he's boring. That guy, making faces, spitting his tongue out. It's great. Like he's disgusted by this story, clearly. So, I love it. That guy's the real MVP right there. It is wild. And then you've got Gavin Newsom begging Joe Biden to dispel wildfire disinformation. Check this out. This is new. This is new coming in. And this was just earlier today. Gavin Newsom in a video call with the vice president and president for the next like week and week or so there. He wants to prioritize dispelling wildfire misinformation. Listen to this.
SPEAKER 07 :
I ask you, we've got to deal with this misinformation. There are hurricane force winds of mis and disinformation lies. People want to divide this country and we're going to have to address that as well. And it breaks my heart as people are suffering and struggling that we're up against those hurricane force. forces as well. And that's just a point of personal privilege that I share that with you because it infects real people that are out there, people I meet every single day, people the mayor's been meeting with. And they're having conversations that are not the typical conversations you'd have at this time. And you wonder where this stuff comes from. And it's very damaging as well. But we're here to get the job done.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, I mean, why don't you just fight the fires, you jack wagon?
SPEAKER 18 :
We're concerned about the theories on how it started as opposed to fighting the actual fires.
SPEAKER 19 :
Fight the fires first. Good grief. Fight the fires first. You know what gets me? When they held their press conference, LAPD was saying there's no probable cause for arson regarding the guy who was arrested. He was arrested in possession of a blowtorch, but what they're not telling you is that there were five witnesses that were independent of each other, and they were the ones that apprehended him because they caught him using the blowtorch to literally try to set fire on things. And Now, all of a sudden, California is acting like it's very concerned about due process. Well, you know, just because you have a just because you have a blowtorch in your possession doesn't mean you're setting fires. But when people catch you using the blowtorch to set fires. Yeah, you got probable cause. They're so they're pretending to care about due process. California, the state, the first state in the nation to enact red flag law. Remember how I warned you a lack of due process was dangerous. OK, OK. Now they're going in full reverse. Oh, no, we got to be careful to process just because, you know, he has a blowtorch, except that's not how they treat anything else. They have red flag law, which would just assume that you're guilty because red flag law. Let's let's put it this way. Say the guy wasn't caught trying to actually set fire to something. Red flag law applied in this situation. Again, remove the variable of a firearm, substitute a blowtorch. They could say, well, if my people said that he's dangerous, we're going to have to come take his property and basically render a penalty against him. He'll have to go clear his name in a court of law after the penalty was rendered. Now you see. But they're pretending to care about due process, which is amazing. Another quick note. So different topic. So John Cornyn's office sent to us Was it yesterday afternoon came? They sent us an email saying that Cornyn is introducing a bill for concealed carry reciprocity nationally. We're like, oh, this is interesting. Because he worked to pass Joe Biden's gun control compromise. So, OK, what's this about? So we asked him to come on air with us next week about it. And what they say, Kane, they're just too busy.
SPEAKER 18 :
i'll quote it here it said next week is slammed with nominee hearings in the senate and his schedule is jam-packed being on five committees so because of that we'll have to uh connect dana and him a little later so or their idea was me just talk to him not even on air which i have no interest in doing right so he's just too busy i'm just curious i'd like to talk about so i followed up and said i'd be very flexible in timing next week and i'll be in touch
SPEAKER 19 :
What is if only there was a way that you could join even, you know, like video on your like your mobile device. It would be great if there was like a way to do that.
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah. Make that happen.
SPEAKER 19 :
You know, just a couple of minutes because everybody does interviews all day long up there in the rotunda. Or even just if you if there was a great mobile device that you could even if it's just audio only.
SPEAKER 18 :
That's yeah, they've had those for a while, I think.
SPEAKER 19 :
yeah have they yeah maybe they don't maybe his office is unaware of them they were tied to cords till about the late 80s yeah early 90s and now they're wireless i mean well maybe they just don't have it in dc yet i mean i'm willing to extend the benefit of the doubt you know am i just saying so we'll We'll keep you up to date on that because I would like to talk to him about that, that proposal. That's one of the things that Trump said that, you know, I'm just curious. I'd like to have a conversation about it. So let's we'll keep an eye on that and let you know if he still continues to be too busy. Usually that's how I get. We have lawmakers that always reach out to us that they want to promote a book. if they want to promote whatever. And I'm really weird about lawmakers. If a lawmaker never wants to come on to talk about voter criticism of anything that they've supported, or if they never want to answer difficult questions, but then they want to come on to promote their books, I don't let them on. I'm like, if you can't come on when we need you to come on to answer to voters, don't think that we're going to have you on to sit here and sell something for you or promote something for you. Happy to give you the names of the lawmakers that do that on the regular because we got a list.
SPEAKER 18 :
We have a list of ones that actually their main focus is to communicate with the American people. We have some that are great. We've got the Jim Jordans and the Chip Roy's and the Thomas Massey's. They love coming on because they love communicating with their constituents.
SPEAKER 19 :
And sometimes when they have to reschedule, they can almost be TMI about it. Right. Like, oh, they're sick. It's coming out of both ends. It's so bad. And you're like, okay, I didn't need to know all that. That's great. You just say that they're sick. I understand that you want to make sure that it looks like you're not ditching us. We get it. Some of them are really, really great with communication. But other ones, like we've got some that are like, oh, we got a book out. Or we have an editorial that we want you to share. Or this or that. But we don't want to come on to talk because heaven forbid you might actually ask us a tough question. They're really weird. And so... We match that energy and we're weird back. So there's there's. Yeah, it's fascinating. So we'll see. We'll see if he because that would be, you know, is that something that could pass the Senate? The House, I think it could pass. So we'll see, you know.
SPEAKER 05 :
not able to catch all three hours of the dana show subscribe to the full podcast and get news and laughs delivered in short easy to digest episodes ideal for your busy lifestyle on youtube apple or wherever you get your podcast welcome back to the program dana lash here with you and uh this is we're rolling into friday rolling into the weekend i said conclusion of our first hour before break i thought in my head i said third hour but i didn't uh
SPEAKER 19 :
I mean, some of the stuff that comes out, listen to this, Audio Summit 24. This is a Democratic representative trying to defend why the hydrants were basically empty. Listen.
SPEAKER 13 :
I had a briefing yesterday when I was with the FEMA administrator, and there is enough water, but what there was was a problem that occurred right at the height of the fire. which is that they had to turn down the electricity in order to make sure that the fire wasn't aggravated because of the electricity. They need electricity in order to pump water. So they turned that down, and then at the same time, there were so many hydrants that were being used all at once.
SPEAKER 19 :
So you see, because all the hydrants are being used at once that you couldn't get all the water to those hydrants all at the same time. So see, it's an issue of people all using the hydrants to put out the fire with water, not an issue of water. So she's trying to argue. That's the dumbest thing ever. That's dumb. Stop it. We're not idiots. These people think you're stupid. They think you're absolutely a moron. And then they had another little brush fire that broke out. At some point, like I said, it's arson. Well, we know at least a couple of them. Arson. Do I have time for one more thing? I don't think so. Because we're rolling towards days today in stupidity here. I can't believe this first New Year week back. I mean, it's not even the first full week yet. We've had fires and all kinds of nonsense. And it wasn't even burn loot murder. What in the world? It was just Democrats. Okay, same thing. All right, today in stupidity, Cain.
SPEAKER 18 :
All right, this is out in L.A., the Los Angeles Police Department, believe it or not, caught these five citizens, caught an arsonist in the act, and yet this is what they had to say. Juan, go ahead and play this for us, will you?
SPEAKER 06 :
An additional investigative step. They responded, they interviewed this suspect.
SPEAKER 18 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 06 :
After the interview and additional investigative steps, looking at some additional evidence that was present, they made the determination that there was not enough probable cause to arrest this person on arson or suspicion of arson.
SPEAKER 19 :
Not even on suspicion of arson? They only pretend to care about due process except for red flag laws. That's as dumb as this guy who showed up, a hot dog vendor, to provide hot dogs and snacks for free. to firefighters who were fighting the fires. He showed up, just started distributing them for free. Somebody snitched on him to the health department and they rolled up to harass him while the neighborhoods burned because he wasn't licensed to sell food. He wasn't selling it. He was giving it away. Morons. We got folks sign up over at Substack chapter and verse. Find us YouTube, Facebook, like and subscribe. Stay warm. Stay safe this weekend. Back with you Monday. God bless.
The ongoing devastation of California wildfires and the community's response takes center stage in today's Washington Watch. Joseph Backholm speaks with Dr. Josh Swanson, a pastor offering updates from the ground, detailing the resilience and solidarity shown by affected communities. The episode not only highlights current events but encourages discussions rooted in biblical worldview, probing into the nature of natural disasters and how faith communities respond. Enhanced by informed interviews and pivotal legal updates, this episode guides listeners to view complex issues through a faith-driven lens, urging unity and prayerful reflection during times of trial.
SPEAKER 02 :
from the heart of our nation's capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and soundbites into conversations with our nation's leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Sitting in for Tony is today's host, Joseph Backholm.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hello and welcome to this Friday edition of Washington Watch. I'm Joseph Backholm, a senior fellow for biblical worldview here at Family Research Council. It's my pleasure to be sitting in for Tony and with you this afternoon. Quick news. Note and reminder, as we prepare for the transition of leadership in Washington, we believe this is the season calls for heightened spiritual vigilance and unity. So during this pivotal time from now until January 20th of 2025, we invite you to join us for Operation Prayer Shield, a collective effort in which we'll seek God's divine protection and guidance. So to be part of the effort, text SHIELD, S-H-I-E-L-D, to 67742. You'll receive weekly alerts, daily prayer points, and more. Again, text SHIELD, S-H-I-E-L-D, to 67742. Today on the program, fires continue to devastate California. A local pastor will join us to give a report from the ground and tell us what we can be doing to help. Also, a court ruling out of Kentucky has stopped the Biden administration's efforts to redefine gender. We'll tell you the details of that decision and what it means practically for people's lives coming up as well. Also, in our worldview discussion, is God the one burning California? And what should we think about the fact that the Beatles song Imagine was sung at Jimmy Carter's funeral? We'll discuss all of that coming up in the program. But first, our headlines. Different groups of House Republicans will be meeting this weekend with President-elect Trump at Mar-a-Lago, starting later today with the House Freedom Caucus.
SPEAKER 05 :
I talked to the president about those meetings and his idea. It was his idea to bring in small groups of House Republicans to come together and just have fellowship together and talk about the issues and talk about the vision that we have for the year ahead of us.
SPEAKER 09 :
That was House Speaker Mike Johnson yesterday speaking with reporters. What can we expect from some of the discussions to include, and what are some of the conclusions that Republicans will be hoping for? Here now to discuss this and more is Congressman Russ Fulcher, a member of the House Freedom Caucus. He represents the 1st Congressional District of Idaho. Congressman Fulcher, welcome to Washington Watch. Joseph, thank you so much. Appreciate your program. Great to have you. What do you anticipate will be the focus of the meeting with President Trump and the Freedom Caucus?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, first of all, President Trump is a businessman, and he knows the importance of relationships and a positive rapport. And I'm confident that part of the reason that we've been invited is to work on that rapport and build that relationship. And that's a good thing. And I'm very thankful for the opportunity to do it. I know that my colleagues are as well. I'm sure that as we go through these discussions this evening, that it's going to have to do with the debt ceiling. It's going to have to do with the upcoming reconciliation bill or bills and all the budget content that comes along with that. But that's the genesis and I think the baseline for what we're going to be talking about.
SPEAKER 09 :
So do you expect these meetings to be as much relational as they are policy?
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, I really do. And at the same time, it's important for those of us that are on the fiscal conservative side to be able to communicate to the president just how important it is to us that we address some of these debt-related issues, Joe. So if we've got a $36 trillion-plus debt that's just simply unsustainable, and I know that the president has requested a debt ceiling increase. A number of us opposed that. But it wasn't because we were opposing the president. We're simply concerned about the spending that's coming out of Washington, D.C. And so that policy is going to be talked about a lot and the importance of changing the paradigm in Washington, D.C. so that this is not just always growing the spending side of the ledger, but we're also cutting things, too.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, there are very narrow Republican majorities in the House. Do you think that gives the House Freedom Caucus more leverage when it comes to negotiations about things like spending and raising the debt limit?
SPEAKER 01 :
Oh, no question. But to be honest, everybody's got leverage when you're when you're this evenly yoked, if you will, Republican Democrat on the House floor. And so I think right now we've got about a one person margin that can go on a swing that will that will potentially change as some of the the the members that got appointed to or potentially appointed to various offices get replaced. However, any way you slice it, it's going to be very, very narrow and everyone's vote, everyone's opinion is going to be very important. It's extremely important that we know where everybody is at before we go out there and cast votes.
SPEAKER 1 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
Do you have a sense for the Trump administration's priorities when it comes to spending in the budget?
SPEAKER 01 :
Not by line. Well, I shouldn't say that. Border, of course, first and foremost appears to be on the agenda, and it should be. We've got a lot of damage that we need to try to fix regarding the border. Right on the heels of that is going to be energy-related issues. The United States has tremendous potential to once again embark on more domestic energy production. and energy exports, which also gives you leverage on the foreign policy front. So those are gonna be right up there. Of course, the foreign wars issues and how that gets dealt with is gonna be right there as well. And then just the overall swamp, if you will, and how you deal with these major bureaucracies and the leverage that they have gained over the years. We've got a full plate, Joseph, and I think that that's probably going to be on the discussion roll tonight.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, Congressman, apropos of nothing, probably, why are all these meetings always happening at Mar-a-Lago? Everybody seems to be going to Trump's house to do everything.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, well, I can tell you I left 25 degrees in Washington, D.C. this morning and it's 70 degrees here. So maybe that's part of it. But seriously, I think it's wherever the the incoming president is. I think is where you need to be. And right now, he extended an invitation, and I think it's probably most convenient for him to do it where he lives. And the least we can do is to accommodate that. Once again, this is not only, I think, for rapport building, but it's going to be discussions of the major policies that we're all going to be voting on within a few days. And so if we need to come to Florida, And in order to have those discussions, I am more than happy to do it.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. And the weather, of course, is a great bonus. Congressman, we mentioned the very narrow majorities that exist right now and kind of the challenge that presents. What do you get – what's the sense of the mood in Congress? Is there like – A lot of anxiety because of how narrow those majorities are and some of the differences that have flared up in very recent years? Or is there a sense of optimism that we really do have shared goals, we expect to get on the same page, we all want to get on the same page, and we think we can't?
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, that's a great question. I just have to respond by saying since the election, it's like a dark cloud has been lifted over Washington, D.C. Of course, I'm on the conservative Republican side and there's more evidence there of that. However, I would argue, Joseph, that even my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are somewhat encouraged because. They don't have to necessarily defend all the stupid policies that they've had to defend for the last four years. And I apologize about being so blunt, but let's be honest. My friends on the other side of the aisle are very good at towing the party line. They're very good at following and defending what the administration on their side puts out front. And some of those policies, quite frankly, are just plain stupid. And I'll start with electronic vehicle mandates in a very short period of time, transgender issues, open borders, and all the things that come negatively with that. These are policies that my friends on the other side of the aisle have had to defend. And that's why, in my opinion, they lost the election. That's why the Republicans came out on front. And I think that everyone is relieved that we're just not having to defend stupid anymore. And again, I apologize for the bluntness, but that's just the reality as I see it.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, I think there are a lot of voters who would agree with that. And to that point, the 119th Congress has already been sworn in. You guys are already busy working. A lot of attention given to the reconciliation bill and how we're going to get that passed. There's a debate over whether that should be two bills, one bill. What's your preference and how do you see that going?
SPEAKER 01 :
I don't particularly have a preference, and that's going to be discussed tonight as well. But here's what is important. We need to demonstrate that we are willing to cut spending. And so part of the discussion tonight will include things on the docket that can be done. If we simply put workforce requirements, for example, on some of the Medicaid recipients that are able-bodied, there's over $100 billion there. If we get rid of these electronic vehicle mandates, there's over $100 billion there. If we get rid of this IRS Army funding that the previous or the current administration wanted to do, there's billions and billions of dollars there. How about the Federal Department of Education? These are all things that uh our as far as is i'm concerned and my conservative colleagues this is low-hanging fruit and that's just a start so we intend on communicating that to the president frankly i think that he has already exhibited a willingness to listen to those things but uh more than anything we've got to be able to demonstrate to the american people who put us in charge who gave us this responsibility and this privilege of leading that we're not going to just continually run up the credit card. And so that's going to be a real focus for our discussions.
SPEAKER 09 :
Congressman, are the 80,000 new IRS agents going to survive?
SPEAKER 01 :
I hope not. And I don't think so, to be honest. Because again, I'm going to go back to my blunt comments earlier. I think that falls in the category of stupid when we start looking at doing things like that. And those are some of the policies that just don't need to be there. You know, there is a argument, a fiscal argument for raising the debt ceiling. I did not support it prior. And I know at least I think I know why the president wants to do it. That's to give some fiscal running room for default and the bond markets and all of that. However, when you do that, you send a message to the people of America that you're willing to increase that credit card limit that we don't have backing for and you're willing to spend it. I'm not saying necessarily I wouldn't support it for fiscal reasons, but I would need to see some spending cuts with it. And I think my colleagues are of the same mindset.
SPEAKER 09 :
Programs like Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare are something that a lot of people have come to depend upon and expect kind of the third rail. Is it possible to reduce spending in the way that you would like to see so that we see that $36 trillion debt go down rather than up without touching those kind of programs?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, that's a conversation that's going to take longer than what we have. However, I think the short answer is long-term, no. That's simply too big of a part of the overall budget that is on kind of an autopilot. And it's not been solvent for some time. It does need reform, but it's not a simple one to address. But there are some things we can do in the meantime. And so we want to try to attack first things first. But to your point, I think that will have to be addressed if we're going to solve this problem long term.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. It's easy to blame politicians. But in reality, there's a lot of people in the public who want what comes with that debt. And we're all going to have to take our medicine if we're going to fix this, I think. Congressman Fulcher, thank you so much for your time today.
SPEAKER 01 :
My honor. Thanks for having me on today.
SPEAKER 09 :
Coming up, we'll get an on the ground update from the historic wildfires in Los Angeles from a pastor of one of the oldest churches in the area. Stay with us right here on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 10 :
During these challenging times for our nation, Family Research Council continues to serve as a watchman on the wall for faith, family, and freedom. And together, thanks to your support, we're making an eternal impact. 2024 has been another year of shining the light for biblical truth in Washington, D.C. This fall, over 1,000 spiritually active, governance-engaged conservatives gathered for the Pray, Vote, Stand Summit to pray for our nation and ensure that the issues impacting sage cons were understood and advanced. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins marked a major milestone this year, its 900th episode, and added the Washington Watch News Desk, a new production that presents the top news each day from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand published 2,000 articles of news, commentary, and podcasts in 2024, garnering over 5 million views. FRC's outlet for news and commentary continues to pursue the truth on the issues that matter most to you and your family. And with the launch of the Stand Firm app, you can listen to, watch, and read our content in one simple place. Pray for current issues, stay rooted in the scriptures, and engage the political sphere with a community of believers on our new platform. In 2024, FRC shaped public policy and culture, organizing the national gathering for prayer and repentance, where members of Congress and Christian leaders came together to seek God's intervention in America. In May, FRC called upon believers to pray for and stand with Israel by dedicating a portion of their worship services to pray for Israel's peace, prosperity, and protection. With Pray, Vote, Stand Decision 2024, FRC and Real Life Network led a powerful evening of election night coverage to analyze the election results and pray that our nation would turn back to God. We also filmed a transformative educational course, God and Government. Launching in January 2025, this series will explore the biblical and historical foundations of our government, empowering you to stand confidently in your role as a citizen of heaven and earth. Family Research Council thanks you for partnering with us for another year of standing for faith, family, and freedom.
SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. I'm Joseph Backholm sitting in for Tony today. As devastating wildfires ravage Los Angeles County, the toll on the community is staggering. With over 35,000 acres burned and at least 10 lives tragically lost. These fires are among the most destructive natural disasters in California's history. Tens of thousands have been forced to evacuate, and as critical fire conditions persist, the heartbreak and uncertainty weigh heavily on all those affected. Communities hit particularly hard by the Eaton Canyon fire include Pasadena, Altadena, and the town of Sierra Madre. Residents are grappling with immense loss and are searching for hope. Joining me now to provide an on-the-ground update on the latest and what the needs are is Dr. Josh Swanson, senior pastor of one of the oldest churches in the area, Christ Church Sierra Madre. Dr. Swanson, welcome to Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thanks. It's great to be with you.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you for taking some time from I know very important things that you have. Give us an update about how things are in your community.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, so it's been really devastating on so many people in our church family. There's been a number of families in our church who have lost literally everything. I was talking with a friend of mine yesterday who had lost his home. He was up in Altadena and he said he drove up the street and he said he just saw person after person standing in front of these empty lots, almost like people at a graveyard. you know, standing over a grave. And so it's really, really devastating. And the loss is immense. And so, you know, we're seeing on the one hand, people grappling with immense loss, but we're also seeing really beautiful ways in which people are stepping up and caring really well for each other. And so we see both a mixture of grief and loss, as well as hope and the love of God kind of emerging in this place right now.
SPEAKER 09 :
We know that fires are constantly moving and understand they're still burning. Is the threat ongoing in your community or has it moved through?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, so the threat has moved through for now. They have lifted some of the evacuation mandates in Sierra Madre. And so more of the residents are coming back. Our family was evacuated and we returned home last night and talked to many other families who have kind of had the same thing. So we're not in imminent danger right now. And we're thankful for that. I understand that on Monday, It sounds like winds are supposed to pick back up again. And so they're trying to get a handle on things over the weekend to prevent the communities that are most at risk from being in danger.
SPEAKER 09 :
What you're dealing with is just a husband and a father in your own right, but also as a pastor of a broader conversation, you're going to have church on Sunday. What are you thinking in terms of how are you going to talk about what it is that you're experiencing and what is the way for Christians to navigate this?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, so one of the things that we've done as a community last night and then the night before that and then tonight we're going to do it again is we've just had these prayer gatherings where our community gathers together for support and for sharing and just to pray together. And so we've had people who have lost. who have dear friends that have lost everything. There were people at our gathering that I went to a couple nights ago who had themselves lost everything. And so to come together and to be able to share with one another about where we're at, we're feeling disoriented and confused or maybe some people oddly at peace in the midst of the chaos, and then just to pray together. So that's what we've been doing over the last couple days. And as we move into Sunday, we're also going to spend space in our church service in prayer. We're going to have somebody get up and share who's lost. a home. And yeah, and we're just going to lean into God and to him as our great rock in the midst of all of the chaos. So that's the plan moving into Sunday.
SPEAKER 09 :
Amen to that. And I know it's very early in terms of the reaction, but do you expect this to create hostility amongst your community and a closeness to a God who would allow something like this to happen? Or are they going to look for perspective and hope that the gospel might be able to provide?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I don't at all expect hostility. I actually look forward to seeing our community, as they have been over the last couple of days, really unite together. And you see first responders, you see government officials, you see church leaders, you see leaders in the community and teachers and this sort of thing kind of working together toward a common end. And so that's really hopeful for me. And so I... And I do think that in periods of chaos and crisis, oftentimes people do look to God, and so we look forward to that. I had a conversation with a guy the other day who had lost his home, and he just said, you know, I'm recognizing in losing everything – what really matters to me. It's relationships. It's God. And I think that this moment can really provide that for a lot of people, kind of a wake-up call in some respects. But yeah, I haven't experienced anything like hostility, and I wouldn't expect that in the future. I think people will work together and unite together across denominational lines and people who believe, people who don't believe, working together for the common good.
SPEAKER 09 :
That's encouraging to hear and we will pray for more of that. But Josh, last question I think I have time for. A lot of us from around the country are just observing in horror what's happening there in California and our hearts go out. How would you like us to pray? What are the practical things that we may or may not be able to do from our vantage points in Iowa and New Jersey and wherever we are around the country, just being sympathetic? What would you ask us to do?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, thank you for that question. And thank you to everyone who is watching this, who you've been praying for us and we don't know one another, but you love the body of Christ and your heart is broken over what you're seeing. So thank you for your prayers. And there's been a number of people that have given financially to organizations in the area that are working. That's something people can do. Our church is collecting funds and resources to distribute to those who have needs. And people I know are rallying together to support us in that way. And that's really helpful, you know, way to support. And I think one thing that that has just kind of occurred to me over the last few days in watching how people have lost everything has felt like supported during this time is what came to mind is that phrase, think global, but act local. And in many respects, what is carrying people through is the body of Christ being the body of Christ. checking in with each other, caring for each other, loving each other, having each other's lives.
SPEAKER 09 :
I'm gonna have to cut you off right there. Do that. Because we are out of time. We will try to do that, bear one another's burdens. Dr. Swanson, thank you much for joining me today. Godspeed. Yeah, blessings, thanks. We'll be right back here on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 04 :
So if you like to think and you like to pray, FRC is the place for you. I think it is the best program out there
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I've absolutely loved my experience interning at FRC.
SPEAKER 04 :
They really are making waves out in the political world and doing it from the light of the Lord. It's really humbling for me as a college student who has been involved in the life movement for only a couple of years to be able to witness it alongside of some of the people who have spent their entire lives fighting. A huge thing that sets FRC's internship apart from others is they are looking for what they can pour into you instead of what they can get out of you. I have talked to so many of my friends who have interned other places and they're responding to emails or taking phone calls and doing things like that, but here we get real hands-on experience and get to talk to important people and do important things that we get to see the impact of.
SPEAKER 11 :
The throne of Jesus Christ is unchallenged. His name was never on the ballot to begin with, and it's never gonna be on the ballot. He's the King of Kings, and he's the Lord of Lords, and nothing's gonna change that. And so our mission stays the same, preach the gospel, make disciples, get ready for heaven. In the meantime, that we're to advance the concerns of the kingdom of God here on earth.
SPEAKER 12 :
America has entered a critical and vulnerable period from now until January the 20th. Join Family Research Council for Operation Prayer Shield, a 10-week prayer initiative for our nation. From now until January 20th, our country faces global challenges, a transition of leadership, and a lame duck session of Congress. This season calls for heightened spiritual vigilance, discernment, and prayer. Text the word SHIELD to 67742 to join us. You'll have access to prayer points, scripture, prayer calls. Text SHIELD to 67742. Unite with us and pray for our nation.
SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. I'm Joseph Backholm sitting in for Tony today. Yesterday, a federal district court in Kentucky issued a decision blocking the outgoing Biden administration's unlawful attempt to change the meaning of sex in Title IX of the Civil Rights Act to include gender identity. Now, Title IX is a federal law designed to create equal opportunities for women in education and athletics. We touched on this briefly yesterday, but we want to get a legal perspective today. So here to discuss the ruling in the state of Tennessee versus Cardona is Matt Sharp. He's a senior counsel and the director of the Center for Public Policy at Alliance Defending Freedom. ADF attorneys represent a West Virginia high school female athlete and the Christian Educators Association International in the lawsuit alongside the state of Tennessee. Matt, welcome back to Washington Watch. Hey, thanks for having me on. Well, give us your rundown of this ruling and what it means.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, this was a colossal ruling. We've had several courts across the country that have issued a preliminary injunction against the Biden administration's unlawful Title IX rule, this rule that impacts women's privacy, safety, fairness, and sports. But what the Kentucky court did for the first time is actually vacate this rule. That means it's essentially wiped off the books nationwide. So whether you're in a red state, blue state, no matter where you are, The Biden administration and any future administrations cannot use this rule to try and force a school or college to allow men and girls locker rooms, restrooms on women's teams or violate any other rights to free speech or parental rights.
SPEAKER 09 :
How do you expect life to be different now post this decision?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, you think back, 2016 is when this whole battle first started. We had the Obama administration issue this dear colleague letter trying to rewrite Title IX to include gender identity. So we've had these ups and downs that all culminated with earlier this year, the Biden administration pushing this Title IX rule. So across the country, we've had parents, female athletes, and others reach out saying, our school's telling us they have to allow a boy in my girl's locker room, in the restroom, on even overnight school trips. And everybody kept pointing to this rule and to what the Biden administration was doing. So this federal court ruling, wiping the rule away, is going to really take the government's boot off the neck of schools across the country and make sure that they're doing good policies that protect privacy, that protect speech and parental rights, rather than undermining those important constitutional rights.
SPEAKER 09 :
I know that's very encouraging news to a lot of people who are watching and listening to our conversation who have been, you know, dazed and confused by the developments over the last four years in particular. But Matt, this is one lawsuit involving Title IX where we got this good decision, but there are many more. How do you expect this decision out of Kentucky to impact all of the other litigation around Title IX?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, as I mentioned, when this rule dropped, Alliance Defending Freedom, we filed five different lawsuits across the country on behalf of students, teachers, even school districts challenging this rule. And so far, every single one of those courts in our cases has issued a preliminary injunction, but it's been limited. It's only applied to the specific states involved, the specific school districts involved. So this ruling, number one, makes a difference because it has that nationwide application. But second, because this is the first time the court has actually said we're going to vacate the rule, we determined that the Biden administration didn't have the authority to do this. that as the court described, it actually flies in the face and turns Title IX on its head to try and say that a man can be a woman and have access to women's spaces and opportunities. So we think this is sound ruling. What we hope to see is that in those other court cases I mentioned, the four other court cases that have been going through the process, that those courts are gonna adopt this same ruling. And so that we end up with court after court after court consistently ruling that this is unlawful, the administration doesn't have the authority to do it. What the next step is though, is while this takes the federal governments out of the role, while it takes it away from the pressure on schools, we still have a lot of states that are adopting bad policies. So you have like the situation in Connecticut where they as a state have adopted a policy saying men should participate in women's sports. So the next step is taking the same reasoning that Title IX doesn't require this and that it could actually violate Title IX to put men on women's teams and take that into states that are adopting bad local or statewide policies. So we've got a big victory at the federal level. We've still got work to do at the state level to go any place where they're trying to undermine privacy, safety or fairness in sports and challenge those policies as well.
SPEAKER 09 :
That's a good reminder. Matt, why is this case different in the ruling? You mentioned the other cases where there were favorable results, but they were limited to the circumstances of that case in a preliminary injunction. But in this case, the judge made a much broader decision. Is that because the facts in this case were different or the judge just saw the situation differently?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, it's actually because this is what all of these cases were working towards. Every one of them, we were asking the courts there involved to vacate this rule, to wipe it off the books so that it couldn't be applied anywhere. The court so far had not reached that final determination. So this Kentucky case was the first one to sort of go to the finish line, to look at all of the facts, look at all of the evidence, look at all of the arguments and properly determine that if you look at Title IX and its original intent, that the goal there was to ensure women had equal opportunities in athletics and education, that that original intent was completely undermined by what the Biden administration was doing with this rule. So this is really the culmination of all of those cases. Every one of those other ones, this is what we're asking for as well. And so we hope those courts will follow suit and reach the exact same outcome. But again, the big part of this is it is a nationwide ruling. No matter where you live, the Title IX rule cannot be enforced against you.
SPEAKER 09 :
That is great news. Matt, very quickly in our remaining seconds, because we are seeing a change in administration, do you expect this decision to be appealed?
SPEAKER 08 :
We hope not. You know, we've only got a few days left in the Biden administration. We fully expect and hope the Trump administration will not appeal this and, in fact, start taking steps to enact better rules that protect women's privacy and safety and equal opportunities in sports.
SPEAKER 09 :
Matt Sharpe, thank you so much for your time.
SPEAKER 08 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 09 :
When we return, our weekly worldview conversation with David Cross. Stay with us.
SPEAKER 12 :
Hello, I'm Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council here in Washington, D.C. Behind me is one of the most recognizable buildings in all the world, the U.S. Capitol. What does it stand for? Well, most people say government. But do you know the Bible talks about four institutions of government? Do you know what they are? And do we have a republic or a democracy? Well, what do you say? Also, what about this thing, separation of church and state? Does that mean Christians shouldn't be involved in government? Guess what? We address those issues and more in our new God and Government course. I invite you to join us to see what the historical record and the Bible has to say about government. Join us for God and Government.
SPEAKER 09 :
The world is hurting, streets are filled with crime, families are broken, sin is celebrated, and God is mocked. Everywhere we look, the wages of our sin are on full display. As Christians, we know that surrender to God's will is the solution to our biggest problems, but not everyone agrees. Even in church, we hear people say the most important thing is to be tolerant, that we shouldn't impose a morality on other people, and that loving our neighbor means celebrating what they do. but you can't do that. It's not that you don't love your neighbor, you do, but you care about God's opinion more than your neighbor's opinion, and this makes you different. In fact, sometimes it makes you feel alone, like you are the only one. But there is good news. You are not alone, not even close. Research has found that there are 59 million American adults who are a lot like you. There are millions of people around the country who are born again, deeply committed to practicing their faith, and believe the Bible is the reliable Word of God. But that's not all. They're also engaged in our government. They're voters. They're more likely to be involved in their community, and they're making a difference in elections. The problem is that a lot of them feel alone, too. We want to change that. FRC wants to connect these 59 million Americans to speak the truth together, no matter the cost. If you want to learn more about this group and what it means to be a spiritually active, governance-engaged conservative, or if you want to find out if you are one of these sage cons yourself, go to frc.org slash sagecon and take the quiz to find out. The world is hurting, and we have the solution. We can't do it alone, but we can do it if we work together. That's what we're working toward every day. Join us. Go to FRC.org slash S-A-G-E-C-O-N, SageCon, to learn more. That's S-A-G-E-C-O-N, SageCon, to learn more. Welcome back to Washington Watch. I'm Joseph Backholm sitting in for Tony today. Quick reminder that FRC and Wellverse to the ministry of Jim Garlow are hosting an inauguration praise and prayer convocation on Sunday, January 19th at Greater New Hope Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. If you plan to be in the area, I invite you to join us as we worship the Lord and pray for our nation leading up to the presidential inauguration. Registration is free, but space is limited. So register today. You can do so at frc.org slash prayer. Well, we're now 10 days into the new year, and there has been no shortage of news so far. With so much going on, it can be easy to gloss over the headlines. But as Christians, we want to make sure we analyze every headline through the lens of Scripture. How do we think about these things biblically? That's why we like to conclude the week on Washington Watch with a biblical worldview conversation. So joining me now for that discussion is David Claussen, who is the director of the Center for Biblical Worldview here at Family Research Council. David, good to see you. Happy New Year.
SPEAKER 07 :
Happy New Year. Great to see you as well, Joseph.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, we're going to cover a couple of stories, and I think we want to start with the fires in California, because that really does have the nation's attention. Our hearts go out, of course, to everybody who is suffering a tremendous loss. Did God do this?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, Joseph, this is kind of an age-old question. I think I first, as a young boy, had to think about a question kind of along these lines. It would have been the summer of 2004. I was living in Orlando, Florida, and we had three hurricanes blow through in a series of, I think, four or five weeks. And I think that's where I first started to really think about kind of what you would now call natural evil. And I think it's important for Christians to realize there is a distinction between natural evil, versus moral evil. I think moral evil is a category we're more familiar with. These are sins that are carried out by moral agents, individual people, whereas natural evil is kind of what you just observe, things that take place in the natural order. And I think it's important to note, Joseph, this is part of the consequences of living in a Genesis 3 fallen world. Romans 8, Paul makes this point, actually, that creation itself groans, creation itself longs for redemption. And so we live in a fallen world. Now, you know, we could look at some of the political decisions, Joseph, that have led up to why some of these fires are maybe as big and bad as they are. And maybe there is some moral blame there. But I think in short, this is a good example, such as a hurricane or tsunami of natural evil, the fact that we do live in a fallen world that, again, we see reflected in the headlines.
SPEAKER 09 :
Does that make us feel better about what we're experiencing? I mean, what's the way to process this, whether you live in a hurricane region, and a lot of people do, and they've had their lives ruined in that way, their homes, I would say, ruined in that way, and now you're seeing entire neighborhoods and maybe even towns just obliterated by these fires. Is this just, you know, we just chalk it up to we're unlucky?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I don't know if I would put it like that, Joseph. I think, you know, as a Christian looking at this through the lens of the biblical worldview, even, you know, unimaginable evil, we know, and if you're a regular listener to this program, you've heard me reference Romans 8.28 that says, all things work together for good to those who love God. You know, Christians do have a category that even the worst things that can happen in our lives can be used for good. They can accomplish purposes that we can't see in the midst of it. But, again, some of the images that my wife and I are watching on cable TV last night of people losing their homes and their possessions and just getting out by the skin of their teeth, I think the category that we as Christians have is, again, the category I mentioned earlier of natural evil. The fact that we live in a Genesis 3 fallen world, again— Theology is always just behind the headlines, and I think that is kind of the theological category. But again, as Christians, and praise God for some of the stories we're hearing of churches there in L.A. that are just doing heroic ministry, mercy ministry, and helping folks. Again, we have the category of prayer as well, and I think around the country, we need to be praying for our brothers and sisters who are living through something that, again, is pretty unimaginable.
SPEAKER 09 :
David, one of the things that we've observed from those who are observing this situation is the tendency to blame. And, you know, of course, sadly, we live in a world where everything is the fault of your political opponent. And so that's kind of an instinct that seems to have been hardwired into us. You know, somehow I've seen people blame Trump I don't know what the logical connection is there because he hasn't been president for a while, but certainly they do it. And, you know, oh, it's climate change and it's all you mean, you know, Republicans and conservatives who haven't done enough to stop climate change. And then you've seen from right to left. Well, you didn't capture the water because you cared too much about climate. smelt and so you didn't have any water to fight this thing and you did bad forest management because you worship the forest and you thought it was bad for people to go in there and clear the underbrush, so you've made this much worse than it needs to be. Now, how much logic there is to any of those arguments, you know, we'll debate that for a long time, but there does seem to be in kind of our human nature, this desire to blame someone when something bad happens. But you just kind of described, well, in a fallen world, Things are broken and things decay and there are storms and there are fires. And, you know, our life is just going to be challenging because we live in a world infected by sin. What do you make of the instinct to find someone to blame?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I think that speaks to the human instinct to try to explain our lives. I think all of us are, you know, when something like this happens, you want an explanation. We are rational reasoning creatures and we're trying to explain. And for a secular kind of world that's almost post-christian in many ways i think the only rationale or the only justifications that a lot of people have is well there must be some sort of political problem that look for the political solution again the category that i described earlier of natural evil and of living in a fallen world that is an alien concept to a post-christian world joseph And so, again, I do think, you know, in the months and years to come, I'm sure there's going to be the political blame game. And some of the things that are being suggested by whether it's a CNN anchor or a Fox News anchor, there might be merit to some of these critiques on how the forests are managed and whatnot. But I think right now. As the fires are still raging, I would say that the first impulse of a Christian should just be prayer, praying that people, those who are made in God's image, are safe for wisdom, for the authorities that are on the ground, from President Biden all the way down to the fire chiefs there in L.A. County. I think that needs to be kind of the first impulse, first instinct of a Christian.
SPEAKER 09 :
And there's one other point that I hesitate to make, but I'm gonna make it anyway, because really the harm is ongoing and we are genuinely sympathetic for the loss that people are experiencing moment by moment in California. But Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 6 specifically, gave us some wisdom that I think this is a great reminder of, and the fact that we should not store up for ourselves treasures on earth where moth and vermin destroy, or fires destroy in this case, where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. where moths and vermin and fires do not destroy, where thieves do not break in and steal. And this seems to be a painful but important reminder of how temporary everything that we have is. And some of the neighborhoods that are being destroyed are some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in America and therefore in the world. And these are people who presumably Five days ago, felt a tremendous sense of security and financial security and that all is well in the world and in many ways. And then in a moment, they've lost so much of what made them secure. And again, while we remain sympathetic for that, it's a reminder of the fact that everything here is temporary. And if we hold too loosely, to material things for our security and for our joy and our satisfaction and our contentment, we may get a very rude reminder and we can't take it with us. And it's a good reminder to really store up our treasures in places where they are eternal and where storms and fires cannot take them from us. But David, let's pivot to the next story, kind of of this week. I think it's got some important worldview implications for us. And that's the funeral of President Jimmy Carter. And we know he died at 100 years of age, lived a long life. By all accounts, a good, honorable man. By many accounts, not our best president. You know, that's debated, of course, but this isn't the time to go over his presidential record. What were your thoughts from a worldview perspective, again, as you observed how our country honored him?
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, a moment ago, Joseph, I used the term post-Christian, this idea that we've kind of moved into an era that is—we've moved beyond supernaturalism. We've moved beyond theism or Christianity. And yet— This week has reminded us that maybe we're not quite as post-Christian, or maybe another way to put this is that when something of the magnitude of a world leader passes from the scene, the only language that really can communicate the moment is language borrowed from the Christian tradition. So even in the cathedral, the National Cathedral built in the late 1800s, it took them over 80 years to build that. Even the architecture of that building, Joseph, is kind of based on the medieval architecture The idea is that when you walk into a cathedral with these huge, lofty ceilings, the impulse is that you look up. Well, Joseph, I'm sure you know this, but that's intentional. That's why cathedrals have been built that way. They're communicating the transcendence of God. And so even you have the kind of the vestiges, investments of Christian worship service yesterday. You had scripture readings. You had hymns, a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace. And so, again, it's interesting that a lot of our culture wants to move beyond Christianity, and yet I think we're, I guess, Christian enough that, again, in a state funeral, the Christian vocabulary is really the only thing that communicates kind of the seriousness of the moment, the transitory nature of life. But I'm sure we can talk about other aspects of the survey yesterday, but those are initial thoughts that came to mind.
SPEAKER 09 :
yeah the architecture of a cathedral and indeed is a an exhortation and maybe even a tool to help us do what i think it's colossians to set your mind on things above not the things of earth right and it is an encouragement to look up because that's where we find ultimately our purpose and our meaning and and our creator But despite the, as you described, unambiguously Christian nature of parts of this service, there was another moment that was less Christian, and because The song Imagined by the Beatles was played. And we know that Jimmy Carter was a lifelong Baptist, self-described born-again Christian, an actual Sunday school teacher, not just a proverbial Sunday school teacher. So a committed Christian man. And then, at his service, honoring his life, the song Imagine was sung by the Beatles. Quick reminder of what this song says. Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try. No hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. Now, that is... not a Christian message to imagine there's no heaven and there's no hell, because Jesus exhorts us to live with a constant awareness of the fact that there is a heaven and there is a hell. What do you make of that interjection into this service, David?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, yeah, John Lennon in the lyrics goes on to say also the idea that no religion too, no possessions. And what's interesting, Joseph, is we know that President Carter planned this to the minute. You know, presidents actually, I've been told, weeks into their presidency are asked to plan out their funeral in the case of a national emergency. So we know President Carter's fingerprints were actually all over the service yesterday.
SPEAKER 09 :
So he actually requested Imagine to be part of the service?
SPEAKER 07 :
which would be my understanding, because again, presidents are told that they need to plan this out. So again, a lot of thought went into this, that there wasn't anything that just happened accidentally.
SPEAKER 09 :
That's news to me. It felt like somebody hijacked it and wanted to do kind of what the secularists do whenever they're trying to be like poetic and philosophical, which is play the Beatles song, Imagine, because we've seen that in other contexts. But okay, continue your point.
SPEAKER 07 :
My understanding is, again, every president plans every detail out. But what's so interesting, Joseph, is the juxtaposition of this Christian architecture, Christian hymns, Christian scripture, and then basically a song to secular humanism. John Lennon, by the way, himself admitted that the lyrics sound a whole lot like the Communist Manifesto. Lennon himself recognized that. And I think the point I'll make, Joseph, briefly, is that here in our Center for Biblical Worldview, we talk about a lot how 6% of Americans have a biblical worldview, but 88% have a synchronistic worldview, meaning that most of our friends and neighbors pick and choose ideas and thoughts from this worldview. Then they'll pick some thoughts from this worldview. They put them together. That's their worldview. Now, because they're picking and choosing, almost like you go to a cafeteria, your worldview is going to have ideas, thoughts, thoughts. that really don't cohere. They're not coherent, but again, most people don't realize that or even care. And so I think this is a reflection of the modern age of, again, even a worldview that Jimmy Carter had apparently really influenced by Christianity. Nevertheless, these other ideas, these other thoughts clearly found a resonance in his worldview. So I think it really is in one sense that funeral yesterday is a parable of the modern age that wants to leave Christianity but it maybe isn't ready to make the break cleanly yet.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, it does. It is kind of this syncretistic symbolism of very Christian and then very secular, all kind of compiled into one as if they are consistent. But that does seem to be an explanation of kind of the confusion that our country is experiencing spiritually in many ways. But I saw somebody, I think it was on Twitter, They said that if Imagine was ever played at their funeral, they would jump out of the coffin and make sure it was your funeral as well. I kind of share that sentiment, but hopefully that won't happen. I'm confident it won't be at my funeral, and it definitely won't be at yours. David Claussen, thanks for joining me today. I imagine it won't. God bless, Joseph. Well played on that one there, David Klassen. Thank you for joining us, friends. We'll see you next time here on Washington Watch. Until then, fear God and nothing else.
SPEAKER 02 :
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council and is entirely listener supported. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information on anything you heard today or to find out how you can partner with us in our ongoing efforts to promote faith, family, and freedom, visit TonyPerkins.com.
The guys discuss the friendly encounter between Donald Trump and Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter's funeral. They also tackle the ongoing Southern California wildfire disaster.
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Join us as we explore the complex relationship between positive economic data and market downturns. Bill Gunderson, accompanied by Barry Kite, delves into the shadow of rising interest rates over a generally healthy economy. Despite strong job numbers, investor fears are magnified by inflation concerns and a volatile bond market. Tune in to gain insights on hedging strategies, emerging opportunities in the nuclear energy sector, and the ongoing challenges posed by natural events like California's wildfires on insurance markets. This episode is a comprehensive guide for understanding the broader financial ramifications tied to everyday news.
SPEAKER 07 :
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 Gunderson Capital Management. Here is professional money manager Bill Gunderson.
SPEAKER 05 :
And welcome to the Friday. It is the Friday, January the 10th edition of the Best Stocks Now show. After a day off in the market yesterday, this is Bill Gunderson, President of Gunderson Capital Management. I'm here with Barry Kite, our Chartered Financial Analyst. And we've got a good news and a bad news. The good news is the jobs market is still strong. It came in very good, those numbers, on this Friday. The Friday jobs report, the monthly Friday jobs report. The bad news is the bond market doesn't like it. Interest rates don't like it. Fear of inflation comes back into the market. And right now you've got the Dow down 579 points. to 42,056. The NASDAQ, which was bumping up against 20,000, is down almost 1,000 points from there now at 19,057. Remember, my first article of this year was about that NASDAQ valuation, and rising interest rates certainly don't help that situation at all. The S&P is down 1.6% right now, or 95 points. The Russell 2000 down one and three quarters, down 39 points. And it's the bond market, stupid, I guess you could say. The bond market's stupid, not the economy. The economy's good. It's the bond market that is hurting us. The 10-year right now is at 4.74%. which is just above that 52-week high of 4.70. So welcome to today's Best Stocks Now show with professional money manager Bill Gunderson, president of Gunderson Capital Management. And I'm here with Barry Kite, our chartered financial analyst. And, of course, that equation for valuation is earnings. multiplied by a multiplier PE ratio equals a target price. Nothing's happened to the earnings at all. They look very rosy for this year. They look very rosy for next year. The problem is the multiplier, the multiple. As interest rates go higher, the multiple shrinks a little bit.
SPEAKER 04 :
And we haven't been this high in the last 12 months. I mean, we're at a... We're at a point right now on the chart that we haven't seen since a level we really haven't seen, I guess, since right about around November of 2023.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, and I think I read that since the Fed started cutting rates, we're up 100 basis points.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
Isn't that crazy? In other words, the Fed is wrong in the market's opinion about inflation. The market still fears inflation. And just to add a little bit of fuel on the fire here today, oil's hitting $77.07. I don't know what's up there. I heard about a big port in China that's having some issues that's causing a little bit of a clog. But that's 4.3% jump in oil, which is also inflationary, obviously. It's at $77.07.
SPEAKER 04 :
And it's a global jump in yields. I mean, I keep lengthening the chart and still haven't gotten there. I mean, you look at the U.K.' 's in the news today, and they're sitting at 4.85. And I ran the chart back 10 years, and that's the highest in 10 years. Wow. So, you know, it's not just the U.S. 10-year. It's kind of a global increase. Yes.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, volatility has been the name of the game really since right around Christmas, and that volatility remains. The oil and gas sector, energy sector, is the number one sector so far. in 2025. We ended Thursday or Wednesday, actually. The markets came back. They were down in the morning. They did come back somewhat. Wednesday was the day the quantum stocks sold off after Jensen Wang's comments. I have an update there on the quantum stocks. Some of those quantum stocks, the CEOs are starting to defend the sector And there was news from two of them today. And also there is huge news on the nuclear front here today. We have a huge winner in Constellation Energy. That's Three Mile Island, folks. That's one of the most controversial nuclear incidents. Not quite as bad as Chernobyl, but right up there. And there's really good news. That stock was up 20% the last time I looked at it. So that's helping offset some of the losses. The losses are occurring in big tech, AI. The hottest stocks in the market.
SPEAKER 04 :
What's unique is that Constellation Energy Purchase, usually the acquirer usually goes down. And they went up significantly as the acquirer.
SPEAKER 05 :
I sent out a message this morning. I believe that Constellation is becoming more of a Vistra model where they become a broker in energy. Because that's what the cow pine was. I remember cow pine for many years ago during California wildfires, of all things. And so that's probably what's driving that. So anyways, I didn't expect a good report like this, but we do have non-farm payrolls jumping in. by $256,000 in December. To be honest, Trump is inheriting a bit of a mess in 10 days. With the bond market being so sour and interest rates rising so much, that's hurting the stock market. And all of that Trump rally is long gone. I mean, it's been sold off, and now we're actually probably below where we were in those seven days, six days after the Trump election. So anyways, I would say that he is inheriting a bit of a mess. Then you've got California. Debt ceiling. I mean, debt ceiling coming up. Debt ceiling coming up. But interest rates really are the biggest issue, I think, right now. Fear of inflation. Okay, I grew up in Southern California. I'm a native. I was there for almost 60 years. Jeff Webster, my vice president, native of Southern California. We've been through this many, many times. I've personally been evacuated at least a half a dozen times. I remember as a little kid in kindergarten being evacuated and them telling us, have your mothers come get you. The fire is moving down the mountain. This was while we lived in Burbank and we could see the fire moving closer. And when I got home, my father was up on the roof. He had been sent home from his work. He was watering down the roof, which back then was shake shingles, which didn't take much to ignite those. And we had other many incidents in San Diego, wildfires all the time because, you know, it's a dry, it's a very dry state. You look here in South Carolina and, you know, we have greenery everywhere.
SPEAKER 04 :
You'd run into the marsh at some point.
SPEAKER 05 :
In California, it's very brown in the summer and in the fall, and they have not done a good job in managing... the overgrowth, the brush. They've done a terrible job of that. A lot of it's because of the environmentalists, etc. And the other thing they do a terrible job of, California actually gets quite a bit of snowpack. It gets a lot of rain, and it all runs off into the ocean. All of our rivers... end up basically running off into the ocean because they don't want to build any dams in California. They haven't built a dam in years. And, you know, so a lot of that water just goes to waste as it heads out into the ocean. Now you've got fire hydrants running dry. It looks like the management of the whole thing is totally inept. People are getting evacuation notices that aren't even near the fire. And the people sending out the notices are going, whoops, that was a mistake. They did it yesterday. They did it again today. It's just, you know, inept management and whatever causes that that. Los Angeles is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The San Gabriel Mountains and Pasadena and Arcadia and Malibu and all those beautiful... Topanga Canyon. I've never seen such a fire during the years I lived there. This is the worst I've ever seen. And, you know, I mean, it comes right down to some of the stocks you own. We own Mercury General, which is a property and casualty and automobile insurance stock, and it has a big... uh exposure to california that stock broke below its uh support level just a little bit mcy mcy right and i sold it as a precaution it broke below its support level we sold it for a little bit of a profit i don't know seven percent or something that stock is getting killed today I think it's down 29, let's see, MCY, Mercury General, it's down 17.6% today. That's going to be an insurance nightmare. Imagine all the homes that have to be rebuilt. Think about all of the cars that were lost during this crazy fire. So, you know, right now the damage estimates are up around $135 to $150 billion, making it one of the most expensive natural disasters of all time. And it ain't over yet. More high winds predicted for next week. Okay, how much can Doge really cut from our bull? Are you late? And welcome back here to the second quarter of today's Best Stocks Now show where we've got a sell-off in the market because of good news. Yes, good news. The jobs report came in 265,000. Beat expectations. The bond market selling off. Interest rates going higher. And the market selling off. The Dow down about 600 points right now. As we've opened up 2025, on a very volatile note, do we have any inverse funds in place? Yes. Because of the valuation situation, we have PSQ in place, which is inverse the NASDAQ one time. We have that in place in our large dividend portfolio and in the growth, large growth. In the more aggressive portfolios, we have QID in place. That's two times inverse the NASDAQ. So obviously it's soaring today. No, it's not taking away the losses from big tech. But it is easing it, and I may have to step up my positions there in those. We'll just have to wait and see. I'll be looking at the charts here throughout the day.
SPEAKER 04 :
A sea of red, and in the middle I see some inverse green, and then the constellation energy. The constellation is unbelievable.
SPEAKER 05 :
And then we also, in the trading portfolio, I have a couple. Oh, no, we also, in the emerging growth, we have EPV and QID. Right. EPV is inverse Europe, which is falling apart. I'll tell you what else is falling off a cliff. The emerging markets, VWO. So you have to ask yourself, if you've got a 401k, if you've got an asset allocation, check and see if you've got exposure to the emerging markets, which are basically Asia and Latin America, et cetera.
SPEAKER 04 :
Or pure international funds.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, international. I wouldn't own anything outside of the U.S., And, you know, where the traditional allocation model calls for exposure to these areas. Right. I don't buy into that. There's a lot more than age factors to take into place. There's world factors to take into place.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, in a strong dollar environment, right, it's not good for foreign assets because when you take those stock returns and bring them back, when you do the currency exchange in terms of if the dollar goes up, that's a headwind for international-only funds or emerging market funds. And so if you look at the U.S. dollar, certainly since Trump was elected – It's in a pretty solid uptrend. Well, an America First policy doesn't bode well for international. Well, only strengthen the dollar, right? Exactly. Any tariffs that go in place, that's going to be a little bit more fuel right behind a strong dollar. Just not a good place to be, particularly at the moment. And emerging markets haven't been a good place to be. You've heard that allocation story for years, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
Now, there are three or so emerging market inverse funds, and there's China-specific inverse fund. But the emerging market, EUM, is one time inverse and EEV, I believe, is two times inverse, maybe even three, the emerging markets. And then we also do on DXD in our trading incubator portfolio, which is double short the Dow. And that's doing very well today. That's the green. That's the island of green in the midst of red today. And we are believers in hedging. We've also, you know, I've been trying to diversify away quite a bit from, you know, it's been the tech sector. It's been AI and all of that. And I've been lowering my exposure there.
SPEAKER 04 :
We've had some significant gains there.
SPEAKER 05 :
We've had some significant gains, and I've lowered my exposure because of the valuation of the NASDAQ. which impacts a lot of different things. Now, as I go through the charts, I've got about 600 to look at today. I always note a few that jump off the page at me. USO, that's oil prices. That's a breakout on oil. And I don't know what the driver of that is. There's some kind of clog in the system somewhere. It's not demand coming from China, I don't think. Yeah, I don't think it's demand driven. Cold weather might have something. Then the other one is UNG, which is natural gas, is having a big jump today. So we do have some exposure, a little bit of exposure to energy, mostly in the incubator trading portfolio. But we do have a little bit of exposure in, I think, in the ultra growth or the emerging growth portfolio also. How much can Doge... They're coming to a realization that, you know what, you take a look at a budget of $6.75 trillion, $5.3 trillion is fixed that you can't cut because it's Social Security, health care defense, veterans benefits, and debit and interest payments. That leaves about $1.4 trillion. But Musk thinks that maybe they can get a trillion. Hey, I'd take a trillion, right?
SPEAKER 04 :
And, I mean, that's another thing for today. I'm thinking, you know, obviously we had the good payrolls report. But then when I saw this, right, I'm thinking, okay, well, you know, does that mean that interest rates should be higher for indebted countries? Because, by the way, it's hard to cut that budget, you know. I mean, it's hard to get off the path once you're on it, particularly if things are legislative or built in already.
SPEAKER 05 :
A trillion of that budget is the interest payment. Okay, a trillion. You can't cut that one because that's the interest you're paying on the debt. And the interest rates are going up. Okay, the big winner today. This came out of nowhere, really. We have been an investor in nuclear. And, you know, the two biggest plays in nuclear are Vistra. These are big, giant utilities. And Constellation Energy, which has been around for a long time. You know, it goes back to Three Mile Island. Constellation Energy is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. Constellation is a $91 billion company. It pays a dividend of a half a percent, so we own it in our dividend portfolio.
SPEAKER 04 :
Which makes it not the old utilities that you think of in the past that were basically purely yield plays, by the way. So this thing only pays a half a percent. but a forward yield of just under 0.6%, which means they're also reinvesting into the business to grow power.
SPEAKER 05 :
It's a growth company, too. I mean, I look at the growth. They're looking for $8 in earnings this year versus $4.50 last year. Now, adding Calpine is going to make them even more of an energy broker, where they kind of control who gets the energy. It's kind of a deregulated market there, and that will be a good spot for them. It will make them more of a Vistra broker. And the Constellation is up 21% right now, which is strange because, like Barry said, usually the buyer gets hit. In this case, they are buying a growth company that's going to add to Constellation's growth over the years. It's going to be accretive, in other words. When we come back, news on the quantum, the beleaguered quantum computing sector. 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. And welcome back here to the second half of today's Best Docs Now show. Well, one of the big controversies on Wednesday was Jensen Wang's comments, who carries a lot of weight, that's for sure, as it relates to future technology. And his comments that quantum computing was 20 years off, at least in the future, just was a knife in the heart of the quantum computing stocks, which had made a big, big run. I mean, a lot of them were up 200%, 300%. Well, a few of them are fighting back here today. IonQ.com. Chairman CEO Peter Chapman issued an update on Friday. He said he expects bookings for the quantum computing company to be at the high end of its forecast. That he forecasts revenue could reach $1 billion by 2030. That's five years from now. $1 billion by 2030. Let's see how that stock is behaving in a rough market for tech, especially future tech. IonQ is up 8.8%, so that's actually a good sign. Rigetti, which is also in that same space, which got whacked on Wednesday, is up 5.7% today. QBTS is up 9.7% today. So I would just say don't count them out yet. Oh, and D-Wave would be the other one. Let's see. D-Wave is up 9.8%.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I think that's the CEO who kind of came out first and was saying, basically, we already have some actually generating revenue. Do you think Jensen, after the fact, was like, man, sorry, guys. I didn't mean to take your stock. They asked me a question. I didn't mean to. I don't think he would do it on purpose.
SPEAKER 05 :
It just seemed a little... Yeah, I mean, he really clobbered that sector. And, you know, others in that area of the market are coming back. D-Wave expects fiscal year bookings to top 23 million. Okay. So they are bringing in, I mean, there's a lot of investment going into this area. And maybe there will be some breakthroughs. And maybe there is some use for it now. I mean, the way these stocks are reacting today. That's what I would think, that you can't just count them out and say there's not going to be anything coming from them in 20 years. QBTS up, let's see, 9%. There's one other one, QUBT. QUBT is up 3.6%. So they're all bouncing. And they did come back quite a bit from their lows. But like I say, you know, that's why you own it in an incubator part of your portfolio. It's like a 2% or 3% overall position in our most aggressive portfolio out there. We own two of them, okay? Now, here's another one in the news today. MicroVast Holdings, they're trying to come up with solid state batteries to get around the lithium market. to get around a lot of things. And solid-state batteries would give electric vehicles a lot longer range. And they've been working on it for a while. Last I heard, Toyota was all in on solid-state, with Panasonic and a few others. Well, apparently, microvast has made a big breakthrough through one of the barriers. And that could happen in quantum also. MicroVast is up 40.5% today, MVST, following the company's announcement of a major milestone in the development of its true all-solid-state battery technology. This represents a significant advancement in battery safety, energy density, and efficiency, offering solutions for applications like data center backup, power systems, and electric school buses while also paving the way for innovations in electric vehicles and robotics. So that's one I put on my watch list. It has been moving, by the way. Did I have it? I didn't have it in my database. It's very small. It was 18 cents four months ago. It's in the database now. And I'm sure it will start showing up as an A-plus momentum stock. And we'll put it on our daily watch list. And there may be some opportunities. The thing about MicroVest, too, is they have... about three hundred million in sales right now uh... so this could be something definitely worth looking at into MVST now this wouldn't go into your retirement dividend income portfolio again this is this is outside of the spectrum this is it's just above venture capital really is where i place incubator type stocks i mean it's just above venture capital To get to being a publicly traded stock is a big step. That's a big step, Barry. You know, a lot of these venture capital stocks never make it to that stage. They get bought out or they never make it. So at least with the incubator, you've got a much bigger hit rate.
SPEAKER 04 :
It's like a batting average. Exactly. Yeah, it's a batting average. And a lot of times, too, it's... Sometimes it's just being aware of these stocks, right? I mean, there's so many different symbols and names out there. That's what kind of the app does in terms of sifting through all the needles in the haystack at some point, right? The cream is going to rise to the top, and that's usually where you see it first on the momentum side.
SPEAKER 05 :
Exactly. Okay, now, an IPO coming, and this thing is getting a lot of play, Newsmax. I've seen them advertising during their show where you can get in early and buy private shares. Newsmax has upsized its preferred offering to $175 million. uh and you know they've ex they've exceeded the 150 that they were trying to raise i think newsmax is a pretty good player i listen to newsmax as one of my sources i get more raw news there than from the others i think newsmax could be a significant uh competitor to fox newsmax obviously leans conservative The symbol is going to be NMAX, and we'll add it to the app. It's not a public company yet when it goes public. Okay, let's see. There is a biotech in the news today, Precision Bio, which is D-T-I-L. That's stocked up 22%. It's a gene editing company. A phase 1, 2 trial for ornithine transcarbamylase. Try selling that. Try doing a commercial with all of those disclaimers for that.
SPEAKER 04 :
I'm always glad when you tackle those things.
SPEAKER 05 :
It's a rare metabolic disorder. Maybe that's what I've got. I don't know. you know how you always think you got something and you're looking it up on wikipedia oh no i think i got this but anyways dtil now a stock that's not doing well macy's is going to close 66 more store how many will be left i don't know well they have 718 so there's your answer It's now a $4 billion company, and of course we know that Nordstrom's recently, it's going private, will no longer be a publicly traded company, and it will basically be owned by Mexico, Mexican ownership. Liverpool, which is kind of a Nordstrom's of Mexico, bought a big stake or maybe the whole company. Okay, let's see what else we got. Well, we've got some earnings today. Let's begin with Taiwan Semiconductor. It doesn't get much bigger than that. I mean, were it not for Taiwan Semiconductor, they make about 80% of the chips out there. Someone's got to make the chips. You've got to realize that the Qualcoms, the NVIDIAs of the world, design the chips. But it's Taiwan that takes those designs and spits out a product. And also Taiwan is in a very volatile area of the world that we hear about all the time. And he said it again within the last week. Xi said, well, it's just a matter of time before we unify China.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mean, Elon has made that point. He said the same thing. That's what he said.
SPEAKER 05 :
It's in their charter. You know, Taiwan Semi had a phenomenal quarter. Their sales were up 41%. Their earnings were up 57%. That's got to bode well for NVIDIA, I think.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know it has to bode well, right, for all of the chip makers you would imagine. I mean, it's certainly good news. It kind of gives us a quick peek into what the potential will look like.
SPEAKER 05 :
The strength of AI is still there. It's still the best growth story in the market. There's no question about it. AI is the best growth story in the market.
SPEAKER 04 :
It's just what's the priced-in expectations, right? It's one of those things where, to me, they've got very visible good, go-forward earnings, right? The question is, how much are you paying for a dollar of those earnings? And that's kind of where the story is at.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, TSM is up $1.18 on a day when the NASDAQ is plunging, and the yield on TSM is 1%. We have owned it in the past. I just got a little nervous when China started circling Taiwan with those battleships, you know, and flying over it and all this and that. I just don't want that added risk. But it is a great company. Okay, we'll be right back. We've got some more earnings starting to trickle in here. This is the Best Docs Now show.
SPEAKER 03 :
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.
SPEAKER 05 :
And welcome back here to the final segment of today's Best Stocks Now show. And once again, Taiwan Semiconductor saying that it's the growing demand, AI demand, which Taiwan produces chips for Apple, NVIDIA, AMD. It's a very, very important company. And it also produces chips for Google and Microsoft. So it is the picks and shovels company, along with ASM Lithography, that makes the equipment. But Taiwan is the factory that produces the chips. And that stock is having a very good day in a very weak market today. walgreens shares rally as turnaround gains traction okay well you know look there's a there is a big industry in our industry a sub sector of the industry that loves good value turnaround plays that sees assets uh that have value and you know there's a walgreens on every corner practically they're well established across the country uh But, you know, then again, I saw all the false starts. Remember Rite Aid, how many times there was a false start, false start, Rite Aid's coming back, and they just kept getting deeper and deeper and deeper into debt. My issue with Walgreens is it's not a growth company anymore. It becomes really an asset play, a value play, where you go in, And that's the old model, Barry, Mr. Chartered Financial Analyst, of looking at the assets, looking at the intrinsic value of the company. That's a whole different discipline.
SPEAKER 04 :
Book value approach. Yes. Essentially, if you were going to break that thing apart and sell it off piece by piece, what would it be worth?
SPEAKER 05 :
I mean, do they own any of the real estate, or do they lease everything? There's all kinds of things that come into play. It is the dominant player in that space. The stock is up 25%. I've got to believe there was a lot of short interest in Walgreens, thinking that it's going the way of Rite Aid. How many, you know, you pass an old Rite Aid store, and it's like a skeleton, right? You can still see the faded.
SPEAKER 04 :
Some of them are, yes. And some of them will turn into, like, something for Halloween with us. So, like, some costume is out of there, and then it goes back to, you know, to empty.
SPEAKER 05 :
Just horrible.
SPEAKER 04 :
Eckerd's. Eckerd's was the other one, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
It was Eckerd's and Rite Aid. If that's not Walgreens destiny someday. I don't know. It just seems like with all the online...
SPEAKER 04 :
competition they have uh for the stuff you get there and well in drug cost right i mean they've been talking about uh you know part of the savings you know potential savings at the budget level right has been uh you know the cost of drugs both sides have talked about that so
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. You know, there's a lot of winners in the market today, despite a down day. I'm not really seeing that many. The sell-off must be very focused and concentrated in just like the big stocks, the big influentials, the Amazons and the NVIDIAs of the world. Delta's having a great day. Delta's up 10%, hitting a new all-time high today. Delta is now a $43.6 billion company. We prefer Delta. I don't know for what it's worth. I've flown American. You kind of have to fly American.
SPEAKER 04 :
But, yeah, those pop-up thunderstorms around Charlotte, man, they'll ruin your whole day.
SPEAKER 05 :
And Delta headquartered in Atlanta where, you know, just north of Atlanta, not too far where our chief operations officer, COO, lives. She sent us a picture of pretty good snow on the ground. I'm guessing six inches or something like that. Just north of Atlanta, which is pretty rare. We could get some here today if it starts raining. I don't know if we'll get it or not. It's pretty rare for us. I remember I think Myrtle Beach and this area got it about ten years ago. okay the other one the first winter when i first moved here yeah it was they didn't know what to do i think the international airport was shut down for like four days yes and you know the fishermen they for years they cried about all the trout the sea trout oh yeah lost exactly in the river that floated to the surface they took a big hit now they've come back pretty nicely but we don't want that to happen again Okay, the one that's getting clobbered today, Constellation Brands. Man, there was a time when that was a great stock. But I just think that you've got a very diluted market now with all of these private brands and homegrown brands and the competition. And now they've got to face possible tariffs on their foreign holdings that will be coming into America, like Corona beer, etc. Constellation is down 12.4% today. That's a big hit. That was one of the great stocks for a long time, but we haven't been in it for years. Very competitive industry. And then the other one that reported earnings or lack thereof, Tilray. Boy, I remember a time when the cannabis stocks were all the rage. Kind of like the quantum stocks have been here this year. Cannabis was all the rage. Everybody wanted in on the cannabis. I remember when Tilray was a $300 stock. Now it's $1.21. And I warned people back then. I said, do not get involved in investing in these stocks. And now I see a lot of these cannabis ETFs are shutting down and liquidating. because the sector has just been absolutely clobbered, absolutely smashed. Well, I'll be working on the newsletter, as always, giving you an update on the valuation situation of the market, the interest rate situation of the market. Believe it or not, I'm seeing a lot of really good charts in the market right now, but I'm seeing sector rotation taking place. away from kind of the high flyers and the winners. Really, the winners have had two years in a row of leading the market, which really makes it ripe for sector rotation. And I'll be pointing that out tomorrow in the newsletter. We've still got the four-week trial going on where you're getting my messages all throughout the day. I've already got a buy lined up here that I'll be sending out here. in a little bit go to gundersoncapital.com gundersoncapital.com it's unprecedented i've never offered a four-week trial of you know getting the whole enchilada the newsletter the alerts the access to the app i just can't tell you how much the app guides me on a daily basis i'm down to just like 300 stocks we were up to 1200 a week after trump was elected That was way too high. It had to come down. That's a pretty good indicator, pretty good market indicator too when the market's overheated. Now I would say the market, there's some opportunity now that we're down to just 250, 300 stocks. That's more normal. If anything, it's oversold here right now. So anyways, if you'd like to set up an appointment with us, GundersenCapital.com. GundersenCapital.com or 855-611-BEST. 855-611-BEST. Have a great day, everybody.
SPEAKER 06 :
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.