In this episode of Rush to Reason, host Andy Pate takes the lead filling in for John Rush, alongside Luke Cash and Ashley Carter. As they reminisce about the eventful year of 2024, the hosts delve into the significant political shifts, particularly highlighting the concept of political dynasties from both sides of the aisle and the everlasting changes within media consumption and trust. The conversation expands on how political allegiances have morphed into a culture of dynasty loyalty, examining how this has shaped public perceptions and participation. Further dissecting the year, the discussion deviates into the myriad happenings that nearly escalated but didn't quite culminate as anticipated. From global political tensions to domestic shifts, 2024 was a year punctuated by beginnings without definitive conclusions. The narrative reflects Ashley's and Luke's insight into what defined the year for them and invites Jerry, John, and other callers to share their perspectives. The theme of evolving firearm storage laws also surfaces, with callers questioning the implications of new legislation and how it aligns with existing laws in Colorado. Luke provides insights into legislative ambiguities, tackling concerns with clarity and comprehensive understanding. As advertising intermissions punctuate the dialogue, the episode rounds off with a broader critique of the waning influence of traditional media outlets amidst a transition towards diversified news sources and individual narratives hijacked by public opinion.
SPEAKER 05 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 04 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you're scared. And you're scared because if you try and fail, there's only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes.
SPEAKER 05 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 04 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did. Get a job first. You haven't made everybody equal. You've made them the same, and there's a big difference.
SPEAKER 02 :
Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 09 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 07 :
It's Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by High Five Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, and Electric, where every call ends with a high five.
SPEAKER 10 :
Filling in is Andy Pate, party of choice. And I'm your host, Andy Pate, filling in for John Rush, along with Luke Cash and Ashley Carter.
SPEAKER 15 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 10 :
Cart-her. Cart-her. So Luke Cash, man.
SPEAKER 15 :
Gotta emphasize the last bit there.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes. Once again, here at John's show, Rushed Reason, we believe in two genders, and they are both right in front of me.
SPEAKER 03 :
It's me and Ashley. You're either a Luke or an Ashley. Yep. Those are the two genders. There's no in-between. No in-between. You're either me or you're her.
SPEAKER 10 :
Were you never fully warm as a kid because you're Luke? Yeah. Okay, I was wondering. All right. This is the last live show of 2024. So thank you for being here, both of you. And I want to ask a question here because 2024 was a huge year news-wise. And there was so much happening. Anybody could pull out five, 10 stories where these were the biggest ones to me. No, these were the biggest ones to me. And you could do that and disagree on all of them. I think everybody would mention the election, but outside of that, there were so many. So I want you guys to answer this question. Finish this sentence. And by the way, if anybody wants to call in, 303-477-5600, you can finish at 2. 2024 was the year when, or it could be the year of, right? But what was it about 2024 that totally stuck out? Ashley?
SPEAKER 15 :
I finished the sentence with 2024 was the year of political dynasties.
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, go ahead and explain that.
SPEAKER 15 :
So I believe that in the year of 2024, we've kind of saw the fall of the Obama political dynasty because it was Obama to Biden, hopefully to Kamala. So it was trying to get a dynasty going there. It's the rise of a Republican or Trump dynasty because the way that a lot of Republicans are seeing it, it's going to go Trump as president. Then it'll probably go to Vance as president. Then it'll go to Reema Swamy as president.
SPEAKER 10 :
Then it'll go to Gabbard as president. Let me jump in, too, because you know what? You make a point because people on both sides... had started to value people on their side insofar as they were loyal to the head of the dynasty. For so long, the Democrats, how loyal are you to Obama? How loyal are you to Obama? I mean, we had posters of him everywhere.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
And it was just, it was like a cult everywhere you looked. Now Trump comes along, and so many people within the Republican Party and on the right and in conservatism value people insofar as those people, what, align with Trump. Yeah. Well, I'm a really good conservative lifeline. It is now almost a bad thing. It's pejorative to call yourself a Reagan Republican.
SPEAKER 15 :
Almost. Yeah. Yeah. It's it started as, oh, we're Republicans. And, you know, the biggest thing is, oh, well, you're just a Trump cult. No, we're not a Trump cult. We're starting to become the Trump cult. It's getting there and it's becoming a problem.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. And there are days when it is like that. Luke, real quick. Go ahead. What was 2024 the year of for you?
SPEAKER 03 :
2024 was the year of something interesting almost happening. There was a lot of... There was a lot of things that started, but not a lot that came of it. Right. You know, Russia invades Ukraine. World War III. Okay. And then it kind of petered out. And then, you know, Hamas in Israel. World War III. And then nothing happened. The Trump assassination. Civil War. And then nothing happened. Something interesting was almost always happening. Nothing interesting did happen.
SPEAKER 10 :
I like this. So basically for Luke, 2024 was the year of almost.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, it was the year of almost stuff happening, but nothing ever did.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, and by the way, Trump gets elected and people were just like immediately. Now, granted, he's not in office yet, but he really is.
SPEAKER 03 :
There's going to be riots in the streets.
SPEAKER 10 :
There's going to be riots in the streets. The world's going to burn. Death everywhere.
SPEAKER 15 :
We're going to be living in the handmaid's tale.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, exactly. I think you make a very good point.
SPEAKER 03 :
Nothing happens. 2024 was the year of almost. Almost. Not quite.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. Okay. Jerry is on line one. Jerry, can you fill in this statement here? 2024 was the year when?
SPEAKER 14 :
You know, I really don't know what to say about 2024, but I do have a question about 2025. Go! I rarely get to listen this time of day, so maybe you've dealt with this, but... I don't know yet about the new vehicular storage of firearms law that goes into effect in a couple of days. And when I print out the act off the Internet and read it, it's not super clearly worded to me. And the way I read it, somebody that's got a long gun in a soft case, they also have to have a lock on the action or the trigger. So they need two locks, basically, a lock on the soft case and a lock on the gun itself. and uh so we don't oh wait wait a minute so they gotta have a lock on both right i i'm guessing that the reasoning is that a soft case as opposed to a hard-sided case is super easy to cut open right so that's my guess but you know it's all it's all garbage to me but um And then it's not abundantly clear whether they're counting a glove box or a center console, you know, a locked glove box, for example, as a hard-sided case that'll meet the terms of the act.
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, I would think they would count, I mean, a locked... Yeah, I would think if it's locked, then they would count it. Go ahead, Luke.
SPEAKER 03 :
From what I understand, this new law that's coming into effect in 2025 is sort of built upon the foundations of some of the rules Colorado already has. For example... In the state of Colorado, you're already not allowed to have a long gun or a rifle, anything that's not a handgun, essentially. You're not allowed to have a mag in the firearm, not allowed to have a round in the chamber. It comes from old hunting laws, right? They don't want you to pull over and fire off shots and do a nice eight-point buck on the side of the road. That's where the law originated from.
SPEAKER 14 :
Right. Luke, I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude or interrupt, but I'm pretty clear on that one already. And like you're saying, yeah, it does come from hunting laws, but the current statute specifically addresses a loaded firearm as defined by a round in the chamber. So you can't have a loaded magazine when a long gun, as long as you don't have a round in the chamber, you know, for that, like you're saying, the hunting laws. Right. But this new Safe Firearms Storage Act that goes into effect in a couple of days, yeah, the three things that I'm not 100% clear about is whether my glove box or my center console, if they're locked, if that counts.
SPEAKER 10 :
I would think it would, but Luke's going to look into it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I think it will. Again, from what I'm reading here, like you said, they're not super clear, which is very frustrating. But at the very least, my interpretation of what I have pulled up from the Colorado General Assembly is that it's predominantly for firearm storage when the vehicle is unoccupied. So they want you to have it in a hard case when you're not in the vehicle. Again, don't fully quote me on this. They're not really clear. With the purpose of the bill to prevent gun thefts from unoccupied vehicles, where if you leave your gun in the back seat and someone busts the window and pulls the gun.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, that's actually not bad.
SPEAKER 03 :
They don't want that if the firearm is unattended in the vehicle to lock it in a hard case to prevent that firearm from easily being stolen and used.
SPEAKER 15 :
So, yeah, I would almost assume that a glove box or something like that would count.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right, I would assume a glove box counts. Again, my understanding of it.
SPEAKER 10 :
Jerry, I would think it does, too. Go ahead and really quick give us your other questions, and Luke's going to be doing some reading, and if he can come up with some answers during the show, he will bring them to light. What are your other questions?
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, the third question from the new act, if I read it right, towards the end there are imposing upon firearms retailers or FFLs a duty to advertise this new act. That they say, okay, you've either got to hand out cards or have a sign at your place of business with letters one inch high that tell people about this new act. And then they also refer to having material that the FFLs can print out from the Office of Suicide Prevention within the State Department of Public Health And when I go to that website, I don't see anything for anybody to print out. So I don't know if they were just behind the curve, not quite there yet, or what's going on.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, I think any time they can squeeze you for more money, the answer is yes. They want to. How's that sound?
SPEAKER 15 :
Requiring retailers to have printouts for things is not new. I personally do not partake in drugs or anything like that, but I've been to a couple of dispensaries before, and they are required to give you a paper of the dangers of using concentrated marijuana. And it's a fairly new thing, but requiring retailers to give you just a printout of, oh, here's the health risks, and here's this, and here's that, is not a new concept at all.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay, well, tell you what, Jerry, Luke's going to be reading up on this, and he will report in later in the show. Sorry, that's all I can give you, but I want to make sure we give you good answers. Sound fair? Sounds good. I appreciate it. Thank you. Awesome, Jerry. Thanks for the call. Next up is John in Cheyenne. John, what about 2024? It was the year of what?
SPEAKER 08 :
The death knell of the lamestream media.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes. The legacy media lost control of the narrative, didn't they?
SPEAKER 08 :
They did, and they've died, but they haven't crawled into the grave yet. You can just look at their ratings on most of them. Even on the conservative side, like a Fox News, their ratings are down, too, because everyone's like, I'm not going to listen to this crap anymore. I'm going to look it up for myself, whether it's on X or 100 other websites where you can research from every point of view.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, for one thing, you can look at so many sources. Like you're saying, you can go to X, you can go to YouTube and get a lot of sources. But what about this also, John? I think that there was just such a letdown in the aftermath of the election. Not a letdown in happiness for people like me, of course, I'm thrilled. But I'm talking about people after the election, they were building up, building up, building up, building up, building up. We got to win, got to win, got to win, got to win. And also our chosen outlets for news were telling us we were going to win, going to win, going to win, whether you were on the left or the right. In the aftermath, after the left lost... Their viewership dropped by over 50% almost across the board. And I just get a feeling that their people on their side are now some will come back, of course, but right now I think they're deflated. And I think on the right, even on the right, it's almost like we're just exhaling for a moment here.
SPEAKER 15 :
I think it's also just people are tired of the extremes of mainstream media. I mean, CNN is always, oh, a Trump win will be the worst thing in the world. Fox News, a Kamala win would be the worst thing in the world.
SPEAKER 10 :
So it's like we just got tired of the extremes. Andy Pate also says a Kamala win would be the worst thing in the world. Just so you know. But I am extreme. I am, by my own admission, extreme.
SPEAKER 08 :
You know, Andy, I'm kind of like you. My first presidential election was for the first Reagan campaign. And I haven't looked back since.
SPEAKER 10 :
I agree.
SPEAKER 08 :
But ask me the question again and I've got a second answer for you.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay, here we go. 2024 was the year when?
SPEAKER 08 :
The people of Colorado lost their rights.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, that seems to happen annually here, but in what way this time?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, $8 for a dozen eggs.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, gosh.
SPEAKER 08 :
Um... You can't buy a high-capacity magazine. You can't buy fireworks. You pay $8 for eggs.
SPEAKER 10 :
By the way, I hate the whole range-free thing that jacked up the costs on eggs. I want all my chickens in shackles. And I want them marching across the barnyard in a row.
SPEAKER 15 :
With the farmer singing cadences.
SPEAKER 10 :
With the farmer singing cadences, right? And holding a shotgun behind them as they work on ditches. Okay, this is what I want. I'm sorry, but the cost skyrocketed.
SPEAKER 08 :
If I want cage-free eggs, I'll go and shop and buy them. If I want... Right.
SPEAKER 10 :
Cage... John, you dropped out.
SPEAKER 08 :
I'm sorry. I hit that dead spot on I-80. You know Wyoming. Right. Um... I want my choice, and it seems like the people that are in power in Colorado have taken away your choice.
SPEAKER 10 :
Colorado is anti-choice, anti-liberty, more and more and more and more, John, and I think you're right. And unfortunately, I've got to let you go with that, John. Great answers. Thanks, sir. And real quick, I'm going to give my answer and then we're going to come back. We're going to come back to Eli Brimmer on the other side of the break here, but I'll give my answer and we'll talk about it later. I believe 2024 is the year wokeness died. It's been coming for quite a while, right? But wokeness, I believe, finally bit the big one. It's done? It is. Well, you know how you, let's say you're walking up a hill and you finally get to the top and then you start down the other side? We have finally gotten to the point where wokeness has become an insult. Wokeness has become a pejorative. Wokeness, if you are woke, more people now look at you in a bad way than a good way.
SPEAKER 15 :
Yeah. You're less likely to make friends. You're less likely to get jobs if you're outwardly woke.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, and I think, and we'll talk about this later, but I think we saw that reflected in the election. A lot of the election, yeah, it was about Trump, but you know what? It was also just about people getting sick and tired of wokeness being shoved down their throats. And they were like, you know what? Some of the stuff I like, some I don't, but I want to choose which, okay? And I don't like it being imposed on me. Let's take a break. When we come back, folks, we are going to be talking about, there's a witch hunt coming. in the Colorado GOP. And I mean, it's going to be huge. But up first, we're going to talk about somebody who never does a witch hunt because they care about you. That's Golden Eagle Financial. Prepare your financial future by maximizing your present with Al Smith, who, by the way, is just a great guy. No one does it better. So call Al at 303-744-1128, or you can find him at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 10 :
And welcome back to Rush to Reason. Denver's Afternoon Rush. KLZ 560. Andy Pate filling in for John Rush along with Luke and Ashley. And let's get right to the phones here. We've got Eli Bremers on the line. Eli, how you doing, sir?
SPEAKER 09 :
I'm doing great, Andy. How are you doing?
SPEAKER 10 :
I am doing pretty well, although I'm a little bit worried about what's coming with the Colorado Republican Party. I wish I had queued up the Inquisition from Mel Brooks' History of the World Part 1, which is great, by the way. The Inquisition. Eli, explain to me, what is an anti-corruption committee?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, it's what you just said. It's like out of Mel Brooks, like nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. You basically have a bunch of corrupt people running around and and attacking the enemies of the state. And so there's a little bit of money left that the state party has not been able to successfully move from the account that was supposed to be spent on our candidates that came in from national funds into their own pockets. So I think what they're going to do now is they're going to pay friends to go do the Spanish Inquisition Republican edition and pay for the service so that they can bleed all the funds down before hopefully being thrown out in March.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes, but here's the thing that's very concerning is who they chose to run it. I call Matt Arnold, who they're going to have over the Anti-Corruption Committee, he is a newly christened lawyer. I call Matt Arnold the Colorado godfather of lawfare. I mean, nobody does lawfare like Matt Arnold. What's his history of lawsuits?
SPEAKER 09 :
what that's not just that in the ending but you think if you wanted someone to actually address corruption you would put someone who doesn't have a history of it in charge and this is like putting hunter biden in charge of the drug enforcement agency uh... i mean it it utterly ridiculous If you Google Matt Arnold, you're going to discover lots of fun things, one of which is that he lied on his resume while running for public office. He lied about having a master's degree. And this is all public record. I've known him for many years. He's never been a decent human being. He's never been ethical or principled. When he was in the Colorado Guard, I turned him in for a UCMJ violation because he was doing politics on active duty, which is a UCMJ violation. and had several other offenses. So he has done lawfare inside the GOP. He only attacks Republicans. And this is who the Colorado Republican Party is now paying money to. And again, this is not money that they raised. It's money that the National Republican Congressional Committee sent to Colorado to support our congressional candidates. And that is the money that they're now using to do their Spanish Inquisition on their political enemies.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, but here was Matt's main way of doing it. He would flood lawsuits at the county parties, at the state party. What he would do is kind of the buckshot approach and have all kinds of lawsuits that he could launch. So when we're talking about Matt Arnold, because keep in mind that the state party could have chosen all kinds of lawyers, right? They could have chosen a lawyer.
SPEAKER 09 :
And to be fair, they couldn't because there's no real lawyer that would ever take this case. McDonald's does not carry liability insurance for a reason. Right. His entire strategy is sue me because I have no money to pay it with because he's broke as a joke.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, but what I mean is this. But Eli, what I mean is this. They're not just looking to put out a couple, one or two lawsuits. This is going to be spread, okay? Matt Arnold, when he gets in charge, is going to want to shoot lawsuits all over the place at anyone who is considered an opponent of Dave Williams. I mean, isn't that kind of what you expect? It is what I expect.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, I expect it, and we don't have to guess. They've already said this is what they intend to do. What did they say they intend to do? they intend to basically sue everybody that has opposed them, that has written anything that is opposing them. And let's remember here, Andy, these people are not elected on a primary ballot. In fact, not only were they not elected on a primary ballot, these people opposed the people that were elected on a primary ballot from your listeners. Okay, so these are not, I'm going to put air quotes, the Colorado Republican Party. This is a group of insiders who have hijacked the organization and are doing things with it that would make the Democrats blush if you handed it over to the Democrats. And so the strategy now, I think there's about $100,000 or $150,000 left that the National Republicans sent out here to help Gabe Evans and Jeff Hurd, who won on their own, despite the state party not because of it. And a lot of us, you, me, and many others worked very hard this year to mitigate those damages. But they're trying to take that money, put it back in their own pockets. and keep on running this insider you know this insider dictatorship and they're going to use lawfare to do it i mean that the democrats have used lawfare and this is the republican version of lawfare they're turning it against members of the republican party because andy these people cannot win with with Republicans. Don't forget that these people have been rejected by actual Republicans. And they're trying to set up a system where whereby they can control the party. And they're fully insulated. So they don't have to answer to any voters.
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, yeah, every time they run in a primary, they get absolutely destroyed. And I mean, avalanche destroyed. And it's really something to watch. Here's what really worries me, Eli, let's say that. I mean, how many counties do we have? Is it 64 or 65? I forget. 64.
SPEAKER 08 :
64 counties.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay. It doesn't matter what county you're in. Almost every county has a Dave loyalist who wants to, you know, get on the state central committee and vote for Dave. Dave has loyalists throughout the state. Okay. Now, if Dave has to run in a general primary, his people as activists cannot overrun a primary, so he loses huge, and that's why he lost by over 30 points in his primary. Okay. While he was state chair, which is hilarious. But his loyalists can overrun assemblies. They can overrun caucus. They can overrun these small groups of people because less than 1% of Colorado Republicans attend caucus or assembly. Okay. The reason I'm saying that is this. So let's say that you are in, I'll just say, Wakatomi County. I'm making it up. Okay. And your name is Bob. Okay. And Bob is opposing a Dave Loyalist. to get into this position. Okay, now you have a fully funded state committee, because not just Matt Arnold, he's gonna have a nice committee of people full of tons of volunteers. They snap into action. Here's what they can do. They can do a full background check on Bob. They can talk to places where Bob's worked. They can talk to people Bob has known. They can grill Bob's past and dig for dirt. This is what political activists do, okay? They dig for dirt on Bob, and then what does Matt do? Well, for the safety of the party, because Bob, we have found, is actually a very dangerous guy, you launch lawsuits. Or you threaten Bob with lawsuits. So you go to Bob and then say, Bob, I'm afraid we're going to have to bring a suit against you if you keep pursuing this position. Because, you know, we have to protect the integrity of the party. OK, we got to protect the integrity of it. So if you keep pursuing this position, here comes a lawsuit. Isn't that what Matt Arnold could do? And as he's shown in the past, that's probably what he would do with that kind of power.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, actually, Andy, it goes a step beyond that. They don't even bother with the research phase. They just make the accusation. I am getting ready to I'll be announcing very shortly legal action that we are taking against not just the party, but several individuals acting in their own capacity who publicly put out all over the state a saying that I had incited murderous violence. Oh. And several other people.
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Eli, Eli, that's too good. That's too good. Can we go to break? And I want to take an early break so we have more time in the next segment. When we come back, I want to read what they said about you per Rhino Watch. Is that okay?
SPEAKER 09 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 10 :
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SPEAKER 10 :
And let me just play something that's very special to me. Here we go.
SPEAKER 16 :
Welcome back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 10 :
Denver's Afternoon Rush. KLC 560. Andy Pate filling in for John Rush. Eli Bremer on the line. Eli, do you like the Inquisition?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, whether or not I like it, I mean, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. I know.
SPEAKER 10 :
It is so funny. Okay, this is what was written by Rhino Watch, and the reason I'm reading it is it really kind of crystallizes what they're accusing people of. It says, a town hall led on X by Eli Bremmer, which, by the way, I don't even think you led it, but here we go. Led by Eli Bremmer, Britt Horn, Todd Watkins, Natalie Tennant, Steve Peck, and RNC National Chair Committee woman, boy, that's a long title, Christy Fedura, took things to an entirely new and dangerous level. Threats of violence are directly linked to the town hall. These same people who attempted a failed coup have been continually lying about the Colorado GOP in order to sow division and hate, which is now instigating others to literally threaten to murder, yes, murder, the elected Colorado GOP officers. Okay, respond to this, Eli.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, yeah, as you pointed out, it's so factually false. I was texted a link to it and said, hey, this is an interesting town hall. You might want to pay attention. So I jumped on. The only participation I had in it was that a vice chairman in Douglas County had incorrectly reported summarized state law. So I looked up the reference and I read it. I said, here's the actual reference to the state law. It was a very technical conversation about how a vacancy is filled when a county commissioner vacates, which is interesting to me. My wife is a sitting county commissioner in El Paso County. She has pondered stepping down because she's also the CEO now of a major nonprofit. So she's a pretty busy woman. And so obviously this topic was of interest to me.
SPEAKER 10 :
Eli, do you often foster violence by reading state law?
SPEAKER 15 :
Yeah, do you encourage murder by telling the truth?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, do you often encourage murder by reading state law? I mean, do you do this at the mall?
SPEAKER 09 :
I think, you know, in court, if you apply the reasonable standard version, yes, it's very reasonable to assume that when you read a copy of the state law, and it was a technical piece, it said who would constitute the members of a vacancy committee. That's pretty violent. Yeah, that incites violence pretty much every time. OK, so and so actually the whole meeting, in fact, Hope Scheffelman, the vice chairman who, you know, for your listeners are probably familiar. She's filed false police reports and she's under investigation for false fine police documents and stuff like that. She was actually on the call and enacted civilly, which surprised me. Everybody was civil. There was no raised voices or anything like that. Following the the Twitter spaces town hall, which, again, was totally benign. It was just about the technical requirements to fulfill a county commissioner seat and how that happened in Douglas County. Whoever's running the state party. twitter account or x account i believe it was darcy shaning or one of those people uh they were they were attacking this guy who had listened in on the call and then asked the question that was again a benign question are you talking chavez
SPEAKER 10 :
Anthony Chavez. And wait, wait, wait a minute. So they were actually attacking him and provoking the guy.
SPEAKER 09 :
They were, yeah, they were, they were on social media deep into the night. Okay. And I'm not really much on social media, but they were deep into the night at like being very inflammatory and, and all that. So the next day, this guy who I've never met, I don't, I actually don't even know who he is. I couldn't pull him out of the lineup. Me either. He, he puts, he puts some stuff out that was inappropriate and, you know, 12 hours after a town hall and after the, you know, Darcy or whoever was on the state account that night drinking probably, you know, was putting inflammatory stuff out. And so they come out and they accuse me of, you know, inciting murder, which then now is when you should cue the music. Like, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. And so this is... That's Monty Python, by the way.
SPEAKER 10 :
I just want to make sure people know. Monty Python. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes. Oh, that's right, yes. But anyway, this is how devolved the system is right now, that then they go use that for lawfare, and they're taking the money that should be being used right now. Look, we have an incredible opportunity in the state. I was on your show ahead of the election, and I said there's a very real chance we're going to get four Republicans elected to Congress. That's 50% of our delegation. Right. I'm reasonably good at math, and I'm pretty confident if I take Jeff Craig, Jeff Hurd, Gabe Evans, and Lauren Boebert, that gets me to four congressmen. We got half of the state congressmen here. Now, Gabe Evans is in a very tough reelection already because that's a swing district. Right. And there's an incumbent president. OK, everybody who watches politics will tell you being in a swing district when the president from your party is one of the toughest environments to run in.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right. And that's where we and that's where the state party should be moving resources.
SPEAKER 09 :
They should be hoarding resources already to support that campaign. We should probably bolster Jeff Hurd up a little bit, and instead, I'm hearing that they're trying to primary him, or worse, they want to cancel the primary. In fact, Andy, there's been emails that are going out, and people are openly talking about saying that the state Republican Party is desperately trying to cancel the primary. So the hundreds of thousands of people, or tens of thousands of people that are listening right now, I want you to hear this. The cabal running the state party, Dave Williams, Darcy Shaining, Hope Shepelman, Tom Bjorklund, they want to discard your vote because you don't vote the way that they tell you to. And that is the cabal that's running this. And they are OK losing two or even three congressional seats. as long as they are the ones who get to pick the candidates. Right now, they've got a state senator who is closely aligned with them, who's hired a consultant out of Texas, who is going around and telling lobbyists, you have to give me money right now because the state party is going to cancel the primary, and they've already got it rigged to pick their buddy to be the gubernatorial candidate. So this is the level of corruption that we're dealing with. And the irony is they hire one of the most absurd corrupt incompetent frauds in the history of colorado politics to run the spanish inquisition integrity committee as i said before it would be like putting hunter biden in charge of the dea or in charge of the treasury department well who has a committee and not get a worse i mean just think of the title of it who has a committee for anti-corruption
SPEAKER 10 :
I mean, that just, I'm sure he does. That screams witch hunt. I mean, it just screams. Look, if you want to go after corruption, you don't need a committee. Anybody can do it. Feel free. What's stopping you, Dave Williams? What's stopping you, Hope Shepelman? Just go after corruption. Call it out.
SPEAKER 09 :
Look at this. This reminds me of the Hunter Biden or the Joe Biden era, which, thank God, is coming to an end in just over three short weeks. Yes. Actually, I think it is three weeks from today. So it's coming to an end. But this is the same type of thing that they were accusing everybody else of being corrupt. The Biden family is a syndicated crime family that engages in international financial crimes. They were taking money out of Ukraine, Romania, China, all over the world. Okay. Okay. And they were the ones who were screaming anti-corruption. Thank God Donald Trump's coming in because he's not going to put an anti-corruption committee in. He's putting Kash Patel in there. And we're going to clean up the FBI and the Department of Justice. That's what you actually do. And the liberal media is terrified of that. But the reality of it is Donald Trump is doing to the federal government what eventually is going to have to happen to the Colorado Republican Party. which is to drain the swamp, get the self-interested people out of there, and get rid of the actual corruption. And you don't do it by putting – again, Google Matt Arnold. I mean, there's a famous national article, The Dog Ate My Homework, when he lied about having a master's degree at Johns Hopkins. And, oh, by the way, when I helped expose him on that in 2012, he had committed resume fraud. Guess what? He threatened to sue me. He threatened to come after me. I mean, this guy has been – he literally is the worst person I can think of to have any – any credibility on anti-corruption because he is one of the most corrupt, just fraudulent people that I've ever seen in politics, which is saying something.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, his modus operandi is lawfare. It is launch lawsuit after lawsuit. And for those who don't know, Eli, didn't he tie up all kinds of like county and state party elements with constant lawsuits and then basically told, I think it was the state party, hey, give me $10,000 for... you know, my business venture, and this can all go away. How'd that go? What did he do?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, he's tried to, he has a history of trying to shake people down. He's a thug, too. I was standing there at the stairwell at the Republican Party organizational meeting, I believe it was in 2017, when he got into a physical altercation with Wayne Logeson, who's a journalist. I think I even had to submit a formal piece of paperwork to the court because Um, he, he wound up, you know, in a huge legal battle over that, but I saw it with my own eyes. I mean, the guy's a thug and, uh, you know, and he, he uses, he'll try to beat people up physically or he'll use lawfare, but, but that's the quality of person that the current corrupt Colorado GOP organization. is bringing in to supposedly bring integrity. I mean, that's like saying we're going to use toilet water to disinfect a wound. I mean, it's just, it's asinine.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, Eli, thanks for coming in today because I got to be honest, this is scary, okay? This is an inquisition. And I think anybody who's going to be running in any of the counties, running against a Dave Loyalist to get on these positions, has got to be worried because you've got a committee that is going to want to turn your background upside down and look for dirt on you in order to protect their power structure in the party.
SPEAKER 15 :
Or even make up dirt on you.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, or even make up dirt on you and then have this guy who's willing to launch lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit with state party money. This is dangerous, Eli. It scares me.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and Andy, here's what people can do. Call your Republican elected officials because they all sit on the state central committee and tell them you're watching how they vote on this issue, because there's a lot of them that want to hide in the shadows and that don't they're scared because they don't want the lawfare to come after them. If your listeners want to be able to do something, call your local Republican Party chair and say, I expect a change at the state party. Call your state reps, your board of regents, your congressmen, if they're a Republican, and say, I need you to be very, very straightforward. Use your position to force change and get rid of the corruption at the state party. Because, Andy, if we don't do this, your listeners are going to be sitting here in a year and a half and saying, the candidates that were chosen for us are all wholesale corrupts. And they're all going to lose in the general election. And Colorado will go to the left of San Francisco if the leadership right now continues to get their way.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I want to bring up one little reminder for everybody, Eli. And by the way, thank you for what you're doing. Had the state party gotten its way in its endorsements for the U.S. House election, Republicans would not be running the U.S. House right now. We would not be leading it. The Democrats would have probably won three out of the four seats here in Colorado. I mean, out of the four seats that we won. The Democrats would have taken at least two of those in CD3 and CD8 for sure. And they very well could have taken CD5, which would give them the U.S. House. The only reason... Republicans hold the U S house is because here in our little state of Colorado, the primary voters went against the Colorado state party. Eli.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, that's correct. And, Andy, I think that is so important for people to realize and remember that Colorado, that if Dave Williams, Darcy Shaining, Hope Shuffman, all these people had gotten their way, we would not be having a battle over Speaker of the House. And thank God Donald Trump did the right thing. He came out and endorsed Mike Johnson. We need to end the nonsense there, too. But we would be having Speaker Hakeem Jeffries. If the Colorado GOP had gotten their way, it would be Speaker Hakeem Jeffries saying, And we would be in a micro-minority again in the Colorado House and probably in the Colorado Senate. This has consequences.
SPEAKER 10 :
Eli, thanks for all you're doing. Let us know when this lawsuit goes forward. I'd love to hear about it. How's it going, Andy? Thanks. You bet. Take care. Okay, up next is Cub Creek Heating and Air. When you need help with your heater, beware of coupons with crazy offers. Those are just hooks so they can get in your house. You know how they do that? They get in your house because they put out this really cool coupon, so you bring them in, and then they discover all kinds of extra work.
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SPEAKER 05 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 10 :
And welcome back to Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560, Andy Pate filling in for John Rush, along with Luke Cashman and Ashley Cart. Her. Her. That's right. Okay. Hey, Jerry called in earlier and wanted to know a little bit more about the new gun law. Luke, you've been doing some reading. Give us some info.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, real quick, you can find this for yourself at leg.colorado.gov. Just because I flubbed that last little part there, that's leg.colorado.gov.
SPEAKER 10 :
Not glove?
SPEAKER 03 :
Not glove.
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is House Bill 24-1348, the secure firearm storage in a vehicle. Bill's summary in plain English. Three quick little paragraphs. I'll try and run through them real fast here. Go. The act prohibits knowingly leaving a handgun in an unattended vehicle unless the handgun is stored in a locked hard-sided container that is placed out of plain view and the container is in a locked vehicle, the locked trunk of the locked vehicle, or a locked recreational vehicle.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay, so glove compartment that is locked.
SPEAKER 03 :
That is locked and out of sight. Right?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, you can see the glove compartment.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right, but the firearm itself is out of sight. Okay, making sure. Second paragraph. The act prohibits knowingly leaving a firearm that is not a handgun in an unattended vehicle unless the firearm is stored in a locked, hard-sided, or soft-sided container that is placed out of plain view and the container is in a locked vehicle, the locked trunk of the locked vehicle, or in a locked recreational vehicle. A firearm that is not a handgun, that is stored in a soft-sided container, must have a locking device installed on the firearm while stored in the soft-sided container.
SPEAKER 10 :
Which is because, of course, you can get into the soft-sided container very easily.
SPEAKER 03 :
Very easily. All right. Third paragraph. A person who is considered to have a disability who stores a firearm in a locked, soft-sided container does not violate the requirement to store a firearm in a hard-sided container. The act includes exceptions for the storage of requirement. Okay. The final little bit, which is very important... Unsafe storage of a firearm as it pertains to what I just described in a vehicle is a civil infraction, which means it is lower than a misdemeanor. The worst that can happen is a maximum $100 fine. Oh.
SPEAKER 15 :
So it's kind of like we talked about. It's just something to tack on of like if you leave your car unlocked, you left a gun in there, someone steals it, and now you have to pay somebody.
SPEAKER 03 :
You get an extra $100 on your ticket.
SPEAKER 15 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Is what that is.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay. Well, what do you think? What do I think? I mean, that actually... Look, that doesn't sound that bad. I don't want cars unlocked with unlocked weapons where people can get right in and get the weapon.
SPEAKER 03 :
It just sounds like common sense.
SPEAKER 10 :
I mean, there's too many weirdos out there, okay?
SPEAKER 03 :
You're putting a law on common sense. I'd say... I would like to exist in a world where this wasn't necessary.
SPEAKER 10 :
No, no, you're in Denver.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. With the way things are now, I think, unfortunately, it is kind of necessary. Again, it's not like the punishment for it is substantial. It is a civil infraction. The lowest you can possibly get.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay, two quick questions, and you've got about a minute and a half. Yeah. Number one, was this really opposed by many people here in Colorado, the gun lobby? And number two, do you have any concerns, though, that the left could use this and weaponize it and misuse this law against gun owners?
SPEAKER 03 :
I don't know how you misuse the law. Again, it's a civil infraction. The worst that will ever happen is a $100 fine. It's so low, I guarantee you, you won't have anyone actively searching for it. It's not worth the effort.
SPEAKER 15 :
Except for maybe a Denver cop.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. Did anyone oppose it? I have no idea. I think it makes – I can see it, right? I think it's – I don't think it's unreasonable. Do I think it's a little inconvenient? Sure. But, you know, I don't see any – like, nothing's glaring at me as this is a huge issue.
SPEAKER 10 :
Look, I mean, let's make it simple. If your glove compartment locks and all you've got to do is lock it in your glove compartment and have the car locked, which you better have your car locked anyway.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. You should do that. Otherwise, you're nuts.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right. So that doesn't seem that inconvenient to me.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, I think it's perfectly reasonable.
SPEAKER 10 :
And most gun owners, they don't leave the gun in the car anyway. They're carrying it.
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, yeah. I mean, I've been shooting guns pretty much my entire life. I own them, shoot them. I go out.
SPEAKER 10 :
I know. You were doing it as you walked into the studio. I know. Sorry.
SPEAKER 15 :
I just can't help it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Brandishing.
SPEAKER 15 :
Brandishing.
SPEAKER 10 :
And now we're not soundproofed anymore. But go ahead. You got 10 seconds.
SPEAKER 15 :
But it just it's common sense. I never leave a gun in my car in plain view. That's just the stupidest thing you could do.
SPEAKER 10 :
I agree. You know, this this law, you know, and I am one of these knee jerk against gun laws kind of guy because I'm sorry, but I've seen the left use them so much to rob people of their rights. Right. This one doesn't sound so bad. Are we agreed?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I think it sounds fine.
SPEAKER 10 :
At least on the face of it. All right. All right, folks, that is it for our number one. And our number two, we're going to be talking Broncos in the NFL in the first half of the hour with Richard Rush. And then we're going to talk a little bit about Trump. And I also want to talk about the 2020 election because. Yes, I'm not one of these 2020 steel zealots, but I will tell you this. There's some reasons to believe that there was some real chicanery there, and I want to take one last easy look. Until then, keep it right here at Rush to Reason, KLZ 560.
In this episode of Rush to Reason, host Andy Pate dives deep into the political strategies that could shape the future of the Democratic party. Joined by Jersey Joe, they pose critical questions about policy reform and the Democrats' need to move away from identity politics to reclaim the trust of the American people. The conversation also covers the potential impact of a strong economic performance under Republican leadership and what this means for future elections.
SPEAKER 07 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 11 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you're scared. And you're scared because if you try and fail, there's only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes.
SPEAKER 07 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 11 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did. Get a job first. You haven't made everybody equal. You've made them the same, and there's a big difference.
SPEAKER 17 :
Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 11 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 04 :
It's Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by High Five Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, and Electric. Where every call ends with a high five.
SPEAKER 08 :
Filling in is Andy Pate, party of choice. And welcome to our number three here on Rush to Reason. I'm Andy Pate filling in for John Rush. And on the line right now, we got Jersey Joe. Joe, how you doing? doing my goombas they all gone they left they left you know uh just so you know those two young people they just worked a very long day so you and i are letting them out at five because we are nice old people well hopefully they're listening hey by the way uh being that it's the last show of the year i'm going to try to keep it as light as possible i got some really heavy stuff but i got i'm going to save that to the end and maybe with any luck we won't get to it
SPEAKER 10 :
But I want to try to keep it very, very light for as long as we can.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay. Before we get into your stuff, I don't know if you heard the question I posed at the end of the hour. No, I didn't. Okay. What do the Democrats do to remake themselves going forward? What are their biggest issues where people hate them, and what do they got to do to turn it around?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, they need to run as quickly and as hard and as far away from everything the squad is supporting. I mean, if I had to put it in general terms, But they need to get serious about border security. The stories we've had this year about illegal aliens murdering nurses, setting people on fire, they're just horrific. And even though they might be only a couple of dozen, these are the stories that hit home with people and they remember them. So they need to get serious and they need to get on the side of getting serious about border security. and deporting criminal illegal aliens in this country. That's number one.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I mean, that's the low hanging fruit. You know, later on, when we get into the wider range of illegal aliens, maybe it gets more difficult then. But the ones that have committed crimes, my goodness, I think you're going to get 75% support on that.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right. And you know, the ones in Aurora, the trend, they do. Trendy Aragua. Right those. And, and cutting back on spending, you know, some of the spending We've all seen the list, you know, the waste of the DEI spending and the study about why do monkeys throw poop and whatnot. You know, they need to come out and say, yes, we are behind reducing the size and scope of government. They need to do that.
SPEAKER 08 :
Do you think Elon and Vivek will succeed? in for the first time, almost in my lifetime, in making it unfashionable to waste money in government? Because let's face it, until now, yeah, yeah, yeah, everybody talks about government wasting money. Nobody does anything because everybody wants their vote to be bought. All right. Do you think for the first time we may see that turn a corner?
SPEAKER 10 :
I think we might because they have, number one, they're a huge megaphone in terms of X and a huge microscope. They have the ability through X to to put a magnifying glass on all this stuff. And if you're a politician and you don't want people to be angry at you, so I think even Democrats, if they want to put a magnifying glass on some of this stuff, and you're a Democrat, even though you may want to spend the money, for your own political survival, you're going to have to come out against it. So I think, yes, I think. Now, will it be 100%? No. Will it be 80%? No. Will it be 40%? Maybe. Maybe. 40% would be a huge home run.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay. You know, one thing that they were both saying, Luke and Ashley, was that Democrats have to start speaking to the people again. And what they were talking about was more than changing their actual policies, it's how they talk. Bernie sells. Why? Because he talks like Trump. Okay. Bernie and Trump are populists. They talk right to the people. They don't speak in political ease. Right? Right. Now, and I think that there's really something to be said for that, because one reason Trump just relates to a lot of people.
SPEAKER 10 :
He doesn't. So does Bernie. Now, they obviously they relate to different segments of the population, but they speak to them and they resonate with those people. Now, you know, you know, what Bernie says is mostly B.S. and a lot of what Trump says, by the way, is B.S. E. You know, he over promises, you know, he promises things he can't possibly deliver.
SPEAKER 08 :
Everything's the greatest of all time or the worst of all time.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, right. But again, but he speaks to the people directly and a large percentage of the people that he speaks to believe most of what he says. And the same thing with Bernie. I mean, most of what he says is complete BS. And but, you know, the people who listen to him, that resonates with him and they believe him. I feel sorry that they I feel sorry for them that they believe him. But to your point, he speaks to people, not at people, and he resonates with them.
SPEAKER 08 :
What about this? What about this, Joe? I think if Democrats want one way that they can resonate when they first of all, I totally agree. They got to just talk like normal people again, which they haven't been. But also, I think they need to dump the identity politics. I think people are sick and tired of politicians coming along, carving up society and pitting it against each other. I think because what we're going to see now going forward, which we have not seen in many, many a decade, is that almost every demographic now has a foothold for the right within it. OK, you now have within the only demographic, major demographic that does not have that is black women. OK, but black men, Hispanic women, Hispanic men, young people, even suburbanites. OK, all of them have a pretty fair number of Trump supporters in them. And so what this means is this. When these when these groups get together, because all groups, you know, birds of a feather, we generally fly together. That's what we do. Go to the same places, hang out, go to school together, whatever. All of these groups now for the first time in a long time. have conservatives among them, right in there embedded among them, which means it's harder to simply demonize the right and have everybody around you be a bunch of clapping seals.
SPEAKER 10 :
Because in doing that, they would have to demonize friends, relatives, and neighbors. Right.
SPEAKER 08 :
You're demonizing Uncle Ed or whoever, right? You're demonizing somebody you actually know. And by the way, that person is a pretty cool guy.
SPEAKER 10 :
That's right. So you have to start thinking... Uncle Ed's really not a bad guy, so if he believes this, maybe what I've been told isn't 100%, and maybe Uncle Ed's got a point of view that I need to understand.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, so maybe what they need to do instead is... Because, look, they can't just become Republicans. They can't give up. And Luke made this point very well. They're not going to give up socialism. It is who they are. Okay? They can't stop being them. But... What if they go strictly into class warfare and drop the race on race? You know, the LGBT is everything kind of stuff. You know, all the identity politics drop that or at least, you know, lower it down and go strictly into class warfare.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. And there and these liberal websites that I visit almost every day, they are hitting that heart hot. And I mean, it's you know, the whole thing now is we need to hate the wealthy. You know, I think Thomas Sowell said there was a time when success in this country was something to be emulated, you know, to be admired and emulated. And today, success is something to be hated. You know, you look at everybody, all the Democrats, they hate Bezos. They hate Musk. They hate Zuckerberg, you know, for being successful. It's envy. It's class warfare. And they're playing that up strong. Elizabeth Warren, the wealth tax, the fair share. You know, that is the message I see five or six times a day, seven days a week.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, so let's say that the left totally focuses on class warfare because, let's face it, carving up society in all the other ways is selling worse and worse and worse. And I think you made a great... You know, look, the border, they've got to become border hawks. I'm sorry, open borders will not sell. People don't like it. You've got to become a border hawk. So... What if they go to class warfare only, but what if more and more Republicans are listening to people like Jersey Joe and giving the answers to that stuff and saying, hey, the rich are already paying far more than their fair share. Here's a few numbers.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, and I think that's what they have to do, is you have to counter that with easily verifiable facts. Like, hey, the top 1% are already... paying more in income taxes than the entire bottom 90% combined. Right. You tell that to people and they're, no, you're like, they don't, they're incredulous. They don't believe it. And when you finally say, you know, here's the link to the, to the IRS website, here's cash pay statistics. It's like, oh crap. I never knew that. I've actually been able to, I'm going to use the word, turn some people and convince them that they've been lied to. And trust me, these left-wing propaganda sites, they are, they, they, they do lie to people. They are propaganda sites And they tell you that the rich aren't paying their fair share. We both know that they are.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, yeah, of course they are. Well, Joe, don't you think the biggest problem that the Democrats have right now is that they had power and blew it? OK, everywhere they run things. First of all, the Democrats run all the urban areas. They run the inner cities. And that's where it's the worst to live. People are fleeing the inner cities. They all look forward to, gee, I hope I can buy something out in the suburbs and get away. Right. They're all running away from everything the Democrats run. OK, the Democrats run California. They run New York. They run New Jersey. No offense. They run Illinois. Where are people running from? If you look right now, I just saw an article. The five states that people are running from are all blue states. The five states people are immigrating to are all red states. OK. And so, you know, you take a look at even in blue states like California, they just voted in. criminalizing a lot of stuff that they were not criminalizing. Why? Because crime was running rampant. And so these George Soros DAs are getting thrown out left and right. Everything that the Democrats got where they got to run things imploded. And how do you now turn around and say, oh, gee, we're not that? I mean, that's rough. Look at it from our side. What if Trump and the Republicans, let's say we hold the Senate and House in 2026. You know, probably won't, but you never know. We might. And so let's say we're in charge four years and let's say we blow it. Let's say we're in charge four years. Crime is running rampant, right? People are dying from fentanyl everywhere. You've got race riots. You've got all the same stuff. Let's say, you know, inflation is through the roof. Let's say we get our way and everything goes badly. We're going to get killed in 2028. You know that.
SPEAKER 09 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 08 :
Which, by the way, I don't think is going to happen. Okay. But that is what just happened with the Democrats. How do you come back?
SPEAKER 10 :
Andy, I don't know the answer. I wish I had the answer, but I just don't know.
SPEAKER 08 :
Would you agree they're in a hard place? I'm sorry? Would you agree, basically, they're in a hard place?
SPEAKER 10 :
That's why I said, I don't know. They're in a hard place. I don't know how they get out of that box. So, you know, Andy, I wish I had an answer. I don't.
SPEAKER 08 :
I'm going to give you my, and then we'll go to break. We'll come back and do all your stuff, okay? But I'm going to give you my prediction. All they've got left is to demonize the right. So I think what they're going to do, is just basically say every time that Tom Holman deports somebody, you know, deports anybody who is not a criminal, they're going to get it on the news and say, this is somebody who lived next to you. Okay? Now, I don't know how that's going to sell because people are going to say, yeah, but they're still illegal and I'm really mad because they're taking our jobs. But I'm just saying. OK, any time, any time the Republicans do anything, they're going to demonize because they can't they can't sell their own products. So all they can do is attack the other persons.
SPEAKER 10 :
I think it's all they got left. Comebacks, you know, if you look at, for instance, you know, the homelessness, I saw the statistic this morning. Homelessness, I think, is up another 18 percent this year over last year. Well, wow. You know, when you're when you've got another four. These 4 million illegal aliens that came in this country last year, they're not sleeping on the street. They're in living quarters someplace. They're in housing. Well, if you've got 4 million people, if the number of housing units is relatively fixed and you push 4 million extra bodies into those fairly finite number of housing units, of course, rents are going to go up, people can't afford rents, and people are going to wind up homeless. And I think Republicans have to play up that message That, yeah, homelessness has grown by 18%. I think we've gone from 630,000 last year to 770,000 homeless people this year, by the way. And last year was up 12% from the year before. And illegal aliens, obviously, the people living on the street, by and large, are not illegal aliens. No. They're housed. They are housed. They're being housed in hotels. I think there were stories in Denver where some of those long-term hotels where people who had been there for months, that was their home. They had a dog. That was their mailing address. They were displaced by illegal aliens. The city of Denver went and says, we need to rent your entire hotel. You have to tell all your existing tenants to move out. And you had American citizens, taxpaying American citizens, living in those hotels or were displaced and became homeless to make room for illegal aliens.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. Bottom line, Joe, if Trump brings an economic boom and you got to understand going forward, the Democrats don't get to run against Trump. Trump's at least had the big weakness of being a bad debater. Right. Right. So if he brings an economic boom and now they got to run against Vance or a DeSantis or one of these people. Right. Right. I don't know what they're going to do. In fact, I'll just say it. If we have an economic boom, the Democrats are in deep, deep doo-doo.
SPEAKER 10 :
They're toast. Unless this administration screws up royally, it's going to be a slam dunk.
SPEAKER 09 :
I agree.
SPEAKER 10 :
And I would hope for even bigger majorities in the House and Senate and hopefully even a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate. Wouldn't that be great? No more filibuster.
SPEAKER 08 :
That'd be fantastic. Okay, before we go to break, how do people reach Jersey Joe?
SPEAKER 10 :
All right. First of all, if you want to send me an email and get put on my distribution list, you go to just send me an email to joe at jerseyjoe.com. Just remember to spell Jersey, J-E-R, as in Robert, Z as in zebra, E-E, jerseyjoe.com. If you want to listen to my podcast, you can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, just do The Situation with Jersey Joe, J-E-R-Z-E-E, or go to my website, JerseyJoe.com.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, and we, of course, have all of that on Rush to Reason. Joe, hang on. We're going to come back and do more with Jersey Joe from Politics Cross Country. Up next is Affordable Interest Mortgage with Kurt Rogers. No one finds the best rates and packages like Kurt Rogers. If you need a loan, call Kurt at 720-895-0500, or you can go to AIMortgage.net.
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SPEAKER 06 :
This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 08 :
And welcome back to Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Andy Pate filling in for John Rush, Jersey Joe on the line. Joe, what do you got for me?
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, I'm going to try to keep it light. First, Andy, are you getting ready to make any New Year's resolutions?
SPEAKER 08 :
I haven't chosen which ones to break yet.
SPEAKER 10 :
But go ahead. All right, because I've come up with one I'm going to make here. And I've decided that I actually like being a miserable, grumpy, old, sarcastic bastard. So for my resolution this year, I'm going to try to kick it up a notch for next year. Good. Good for you. Second thing, you know, Times Square, I was watching 100,000 people going to meet Times Square tomorrow. And, you know, there are no public bathrooms within six blocks of Times Square. No, I didn't know that. Yes, no public bathrooms in all the restaurants and businesses, you know, bathrooms for our customers only. So this is, you can find this published. So do you know what the recommended solution for these 100,000 people are who are going to be in Times Square tomorrow? What? Adult diapers.
SPEAKER 1 :
No!
SPEAKER 10 :
Andy, I am absolutely serious. No, no one wants to celebrate after that. Adult diapers. I know it's going to be 10 o'clock in Denver, but when you're watching these 100,000 people in Times Square, just remember there's no public bathroom within six blocks of Times Square. So ask yourself. Now, maybe some of the guys can go down the side street and, you know, pee up against the building. But for by and large, the women in particular, adult diapers are the recommended solution.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, let's face it. The side streets are going to be packed, too. There's just too many people down there. And no, just no. Come on, adult diapers. Let me ask you this really quick, Joe, before you go on. Do you like celebrating New Year's around a lot of people?
SPEAKER 10 :
No, hell no. Hell no. Never have.
SPEAKER 08 :
I don't either. I don't like the crowds. I really don't. But I wonder, though, if there's going to be a lot of Republicans out celebrating together, because I have not been this excited about a new year in so long.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, you and me both, but I think there's other ways to celebrate than to go out. And by the way, it's going to be kind of a freezing drizzle tonight in Times Square on top of that.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, is it really?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. Yikes. It's not nice here. By the way, here's another one. Smart water, which is now $6 a bottle, if you're still buying it, here's a clue. It's not working. What do you mean? Oh, it's smart water. If you're still paying $6 a bottle for smart water, here's a clue, guys. It's not working. I agree. I agree. All right. Here's one. A little boy, and this happened last week. It was Christmas, and they had all the department store Santas. So a little boy's on Santa's lap. And Santa says to the little boy, what do you want for Christmas? And the little boy says, Santa, I want a Porsche for Christmas. And Santa says, no, no, come on, be serious. I can't give you a Porsche. Well, what else would you want? And the little boy says, well, I would like government to stop lying to me. And Santa says, what color would you like that Porsche to be?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, you've got to stick with the easier. Yeah, absolutely. I like it.
SPEAKER 10 :
Now, Andy, you just had a birthday recently, didn't you?
SPEAKER 08 :
No.
SPEAKER 10 :
But you're getting up there, right?
SPEAKER 08 :
I am definitely up there.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right. So here's a quiz. And I know many of our listeners fall in this category. So here's the are you old quiz. Starting with, do you have something called cash in your wallet? If you do, that's a dead giveaway.
SPEAKER 09 :
I do.
SPEAKER 10 :
It's a dead giveaway. You're old. Now, do you sometimes get the urge to play a Steely Dan CD? Do you have CDs? If so, you're old. That's true. That's good. Do you have reading glasses, driving glasses, TV glasses, and you can't find any of them? If so, you're old. If you took or are planning to take an Alaskan cruise vacation, you're old. Yes. And if you need to take a minute to plan your approach before picking something up off the floor and figuring out how you're going to get up again, you're old. I would say so. That's good. I like that. Here's something factual that came out. This antivirus company does this once a year. And they publish the 20 most commonly used passwords in the United States. And they get these, you know, they go to the companies like, you know, Google and whatnot and Gmail and say, you know, who can see your passwords? And they say, you know, what are the most commonly used passwords? You want to guess what the most commonly used password in the United States is for the second or like the third year in a row? Password? I don't know. The password was number three. One, two, three, four, five, six.
SPEAKER 1 :
Really?
SPEAKER 10 :
Password is number three. Then they had, oh, then password one, ABC, one, two, three, QWERTY. You know what QWERTY is, right? The letters across the top of the keyboard. Yeah. Password with a capital P. So password made it twice. Password all lowercase and then password with a capital P and then password lowercase followed by a one. So password made it three times. Princess Football, Monkey, Sunshine, 1-1, 1-1, 1-1. I love you. Monkey? Monkey.
SPEAKER 08 :
Monkey?
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 08 :
Monkey. I wouldn't have seen that one, but okay.
SPEAKER 10 :
But apparently, so if you're a hacker, the very first thing you do is you run those 20 passwords through somebody. So, folks, if you're using any of those and you want to get hacked, just keep using them. Okay. All right. All right. You know, I got a clip. We talk about guns and gun violence. There's a town in Georgia, you may have heard, called Kennesaw. And they actually have a law in the books. Many people, I wasn't aware of this law, but I heard about this law. And they actually passed a law many years ago that said if you live in the city, if you're a resident town of Kennesaw, you must own a gun. It can be a rifle or a pistol. Not only a gun, but a gun and ammunition. So if you have a For instance, if you don't want to carry a gun, you have to have a rifle and ammunition in your house. So this guy went down to Kennesaw to see if it was really true. And I think we've got a clip, and then I'm going to give you some stats on the homicide rate in Kennesaw when we're all done. So can we play this clip of the guy in Kennesaw? Here it comes.
SPEAKER 19 :
That's me turning myself into the police in Kennesaw, Georgia, where every head of household by law must own a gun. But does everyone here actually own a gun? Is there less crime? And is this law actually enforced? Is it true you legally have to own a gun in Kennesaw? It's on the books. I heard.
SPEAKER 14 :
Hell yeah, bro. Are you strapped?
SPEAKER 19 :
Yes. You're strapped? Yeah. You have a blippy.
SPEAKER 14 :
not with me now do you have one at your house yes i think everybody's strapped people come in here all the time with a lot of concealed carriers yeah or just like rifles oh really when i moved here they're like yeah just make sure you got your gun like what huh we were already strapped but they were like you gotta have a rifle do you have to own a rifle to live in kennesaw yes and everyone here knows about it yes and people actually follow through with it Yes. Everybody's trapped, even my grandmother.
SPEAKER 05 :
That ordinance was passed 41 years ago, and given the level of gun violence in the United States, I think it's time for Kennesaw to make a statement to repeal that ordinance.
SPEAKER 19 :
After hearing from the people, I drove downtown to an antique store to see if I could find the law in writing. What is this? It's the law. Every head of household residing in the city limits of the city of Kennesaw is required to maintain together with ammunition. Therefore, in the city penal code, this is real. Would you say everyone was strapped back then? We all are. Wow. Wow. I like this place.
SPEAKER 10 :
For those who aren't familiar with the jargon, strapped means carrying a gun. Yes. That you're strapped. So anyway, Kennesaw is not a tiny little town. It's got 35,000 people in it. You know what the number of homicides in Kennesaw was in 2022? Zero. Correct. You know what the number of homicides in Kennesaw, Georgia was in 2023? Zero. You know what the number of homicides in Kennesaw, Georgia is so far in 2024? Ten. Just kidding. Zero. So here you have a town where if not everybody, I'm sure there's some people who ignore the law, but the vast majority, it's probably the most armed city And by the way, I looked at their other stuff, like burglary. If you're a burglar in Kennesaw, Georgia, you have to be insane to break into somebody's house if you know their home.
SPEAKER 08 :
I would think home invasion would be next to nil. In fact, I would think that basically thieves in general just steer clear.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. And store owners have guns. There was a seven-minute video. We only played the first minute, 30. But this guy goes into a store, and every store owner reaches under the counter. Yep, here's my gun. I mean, you've got to be crazy if you think you're going to hold up the corner market because literally everybody in that town has a gun.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, and it's not just when everybody has a gun, Joe. It's not just the gun at the place that you go into, right? Well, gee, I don't want to rob this place. They have a gun. It's even worse than that. When their alarm goes off and you're running out the door, everybody around you is armed.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, or the other three or four customers. Yeah, or the other three. Imagine you're in there. Maybe the clerk doesn't have a gun. and there's four customers in the store behind you. They're armed. They're armed. Kennesaw has an incredibly low crime rate. Home burglaries, robberies.
SPEAKER 08 :
You know what I don't think happens? I don't think anybody sets somebody on fire on the bus there. No, nobody would set it up. No, and I'm not even joking there. I'm saying, guys, no one sets anyone on fire on the bus there. Do you get it? New York, strict gun laws. This place, yeah, strict gun law. You better have one.
SPEAKER 10 :
Better have one, yes. So I just think it's an interesting... People are saying, you know, more guns, more gun violence. No, Kennesaw probably has more guns per capita than any city in the country, and they have the lowest rate. You know, no... no homicides of any, nobody gets stabbed. Nobody gets shot. Uh, burglaries are nil, uh, armed robberies and stores are nil.
SPEAKER 08 :
Joe, let me ask, let me ask you a question looking forward with Trump here. Okay. Because Trump believes in the second amendment. He does. He's not a big time guy on it, but he believes in it. Do you think that we are going to see schools across the country under Trump turned into harder targets?
SPEAKER 10 :
It has to. And I think they, they will, you know, and, I don't know how many people know this, but we already have 12 states that have embraced this. You familiar with the FASTER program? Sort of. It's a program that's active in at least 12 states where volunteers, staff and teachers can volunteer to go away for a week to receive extensive training in handling school shooting situations. These classes are taught by active duty SWAT officers, and they get more intensive training than your average police officer does. And when they come back to their schools, whether they're the principal or a custodian or the gym teacher, they are authorized to carry or have access to a concealed weapon. And there are literally hundreds of schools in 12 states where this program has been in place for over a decade, and not in one school where this program is in place. Has there even been an attempted school shooting? And one of the reasons is each and every one of them puts this massive billboard out front that says something to the effect, warning our teachers and staff are armed and prepared to repel any attempt to injure our students with lethal force.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, well, let's look at the other side of that, because the left will hear that and say, what? You've got all these people. With guns? How many of them are going crazy and just shooting up their schools, shooting up the kids?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, it's been over a decade and hasn't happened once. Exactly.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 10 :
Thousands of it. Again, I said it's I think it's almost a thousand schools and every school you typically have several people. You know, they go as a group, you know, typically two to five per school. So you've got thousands of people who have been trained carrying lethal weapons in these schools in 12 different states. For more than a decade now, and not once has any of them misused the gun. There's not been a single accidental shooting. No student has gotten a hold of the gun. So I think the secret is, number one, you have, you know, if you can afford to pay for armed security and teachers and staff don't have to take these volunteers, that's fantastic. But you have to have only one entrance. It has to be secure. There has to be some sort of armed security to repel somebody. was intent on harming you. You can't have back doors propped open, and you have to have classroom doors that are capable of being locked and bolted from the inside and that are impervious to somebody trying to shoot their way in. Now, can you ever prevent 100% of school shootings? No. But can you mitigate the damage and the death toll? Yes. So can somebody burst through and shoot one person, two people? Yes. But 26 people? No. Not if you properly... design and protect your schools. Steel doors, so...
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, I totally agree. I think with Trump, we're going to have better laws in place and things are going to go better. But let me ask you this one. Okay. Do you think we're going to see more Daniel Pennies or fewer? Because, you know, we have Daniel Penny. He's found innocent. We realize, my gosh, the guy's a national hero. And then some lady gets set on fire. A lot of people are calling for more Daniel Pennies. Do we see it?
SPEAKER 10 :
I think the fear of becoming a Daniel Penny, and that was certainly life-altering for him, I think that is going to dissuade people from becoming the next Daniel Penny.
SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 18 :
Reading is fundamental to understanding the world, and that's why author Mike Goldstein wrote American Stonehenge. This breathtakingly beautiful book was written in order to bring parents and grandparents together with their children to enjoy stories while they learn to read. The book follows a boy and his immortal telepathic dog, with whom he communicates as they travel through time to learn about the dog's experiences through history. The book is historically accurate, including the illustrations, so you and your little one will learn something about the history of God's beloved Earth. The time that you spend with your children laughing and enjoying this beautifully written book will be something you treasure for a lifetime. Learn more about American Stonehenge and the adventures of Jimmy and Andrew by going to klzradio.com and flip through a free preview of the beautiful prose and illustrations. That's klzradio.com to learn more.
SPEAKER 04 :
Back to Rush to Reason, presented by High Five Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, and Electric, where every call ends with a high five.
SPEAKER 08 :
And welcome back to Rush to Reason. Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Andy Pate filling in for John Rush on the line. Jersey Joe. Joe, what do you got next?
SPEAKER 10 :
Just to follow up on the end of our last conversation, Colorado does have a chapter of FASTER. Armed staff is permissible by law in Colorado, but not every school district has adopted it. So if you go to fastercolorado.org, O-R-G, you'll see the programs. And if you're a parent in a school district and your school district doesn't have it and you think it's a good idea for there to be armed response in your schools and your school district hasn't adopted, why don't you go to fastercolorado.org, learn about the program, and at the next school board meeting, ask your school board, why haven't we adopted this program? Because if you want to keep your kids safe through, I think, having people inside your school who can immediately react Because, you know, if you call the 911, you know, they might get there 10, 12, 15 minutes. A lot of damage can be done in that 10 to 15-minute window versus somebody meeting that person with bad intent as they come through the door. Okay. Moving on. Yeah. Progressive. This was in Denver. What channel is Brian Moss on? Is it CBS or?
SPEAKER 08 :
I'm not sure. Channel 4? Channel 4. Anyway.
SPEAKER 10 :
General Ford, all right. He did an article about a month back about insurance companies adding phantom people to your insurance policy and charging you for it, and some people haven't even noticed it. Have you heard that story? No. Yep. It's called Phantom Drivers, just Brian Moss. This guy got his insurance policy, and he saw a big bump in his premium, and he looked and he questioned. They said they added a driver. And apparently what Progressive, just one of many, does is they look at driver's records. They look at, for instance, the registration. Like if you bought a car from somebody else and you bought the car with the plates and you put the plates in your name, they're looking at these old records and they're saying, oh, you've got two drivers or there's three people living at your address. And they found this is running rampant where they are, without your knowledge, just adding unnamed additional drivers to your policy. and there's one guy in particular, he lives alone, he's not married, no kids, and they added a second driver to his policy.
SPEAKER 08 :
Why would they do that? Joe, but if they get caught doing that, it's fraud. They're going to get sued and nailed.
SPEAKER 10 :
No, no, it was a good intention. It was based on what they thought to be, quote, credible information.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, gotcha.
SPEAKER 10 :
And they're using public records, and they're saying, well, based on public records... We assumed that there was more than one licensed driver in your household. In fact, that's one of the things they did. They looked at driver's license records and they looked at the street address on those driver's license. So, and if you moved into a home and that home previously had three licensed drivers in it and they do a driver's license check and those people haven't updated their driver's license, say they even moved out of state, according to their records, there's you plus three other licensed drivers in your house. So according to them, there's Ford-licensed drivers in your house. Wow. So, folks, if you've got your policy renewal, make sure that they haven't attacked on phantom drivers. Just Google phantom drivers progressive. It was a big story, at least in Denver. And I found out it's nationwide. It's not just Denver, but Denver was the first one to uncover it about phantom drivers. So just throw that out there as a... You may be charged for people that don't exist on your insurance policy. All right. You want to move on to more stupid taxes? I do. New York State. Yesterday, Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law a new law that is going to charge fossil fuel companies $75 billion over the next 25 years that works out to $3 billion a year for the damage done their products are causing to the state of New York's environment.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I saw this. This is going to be devastating, Joe.
SPEAKER 10 :
Now, if you're one of these... By the way, they don't even make $3 billion a year in profits in New York State alone. So one, they either have stopped selling fossil fuels in New York State, or they're simply more likely, they're simply going to pass through that cost to the consumers. So the consumers, the people... Who's going to wind up paying this $3 billion per year in fossil fuel penalties? The consumers, the residents of the state of New York, not the oil companies. They're going to pass it through with a markup to maintain their profit margin.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, and that crushes everything in New York. I mean, let's face it. When you jack up the price of gas, you kill the economy. And diesel fuel.
SPEAKER 10 :
I mean, we're talking about drivers. You know, if you get on like the New York State Thruway, half the vehicles on the New York State Thruway are tractor-trailers. moving freight into the state. And that fuel is going to be passed on in their transportation costs, which gets passed on to the price of the product on the shelf. So what they've just done basically is passed a $3 billion tax increase on the residents and the businesses. And, of course, as they pass it on to the businesses, the businesses will pass it on to their customers.
SPEAKER 08 :
Do you think that's going to be – I mean, $3 billion, though, in a state that size, do you think that's going to be spread out so much that most consumers won't feel it?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, let's say you've got, I think, 20 million people, but that's only about 9 million households. It's a couple hundred bucks per household per year, and I think you'll see it in the price of fuel. I think it'll come out to be another 60 cents a gallon on the price a gallon of gas. Okay.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I don't think they're going to like that, Joe.
SPEAKER 10 :
No, I don't think they're going to like it. But, you know, that's New York State. By the way, you know, it's not the producers. You know, a lot of fossil fuel, we call them fossil fuels, but a tremendous amount of Crude oil gets turned into things that never get burned. Asphalt. How much blacktop roadway is there in the state of Colorado? Tons. How many asphalt shingles on homes? Tons. Tons. How much plastic is there in Colorado?
SPEAKER 08 :
Look, any time people talk about getting rid of oil, all you've got to do is take one look at everything in their lives that is derived from oil, and you realize they're insane.
SPEAKER 10 :
Fertilizers are derived from oil.
SPEAKER 08 :
That I did not know.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, they're fertilizers. But the point is, not all oil gets burned. Again, we're talking asphalt roads, asphalt shingles, every piece of plastic in your house, in your car. By the way, your car is probably almost as much plastic weight in your car as there is metallic weight in your car these days. So not all... Again, when they impose this stuff on the oil companies, it's just to pass through the consumer. Okay.
SPEAKER 08 :
Tell you what, when we come back, I'm going to look at that. But also, could we look at a little bit of what it's going to take for mining for electric cars? We can. We can. Because we need to get rid of them. Let's take a break here. Flesh Law is next. Kevin Flesh, that's F-L-E-S-H. He represented me and my wife in a traffic accident. And we won easily. No one's better than Kevin. So call Flesh Law at 303-806-8886 or go to FleshLawFirm.com.
SPEAKER 03 :
Here's why you need personal injury attorney Kevin Flesch on your side. He understands the way the jury thinks. In the context of a personal injury case, you've been hurt by someone else's negligence. The idea is that you're going to try to recover so that you can get back to where you were just prior to that incident occurring. What that really means from a jurist's perspective is that you're going to be asking them to award you money. So when we talk about fairness, we're talking about six people that you don't know. Those six people view the evidence and make a unanimous decision that will decide what the fair value is. When you're the one who's hurt, you have a good idea of what you think it's worth. The question is, can you persuade those other individuals whom you don't know and were witnesses to believe that's what the case is worth? Kevin Flesch understands the way the jury thinks. Call now for a free consultation, 303-806-8886.
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SPEAKER 02 :
The good news for seniors on Medicare is that you have more options today than ever before. The challenge is that all of these new options can be very confusing and making the wrong choice can cost you thousands of dollars more out of your pocket. Call Paul Linegro at GIA Insurance and his team of Medicare specialists will help you find the right plan for your needs. Call 303-423-0162, extension 100, or go online to e-gia.com.
SPEAKER 07 :
This isn't rage radio. This is real, relatable radio. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 08 :
And welcome back to Rush to Reason. Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Okay, Jersey Joe on the line. Joe, really quick here. One of the things that excites me the most about Donald Trump is he's going to get rid of EV mandates. And for those who say, oh, what about the planet? I want to remind people that's a 1,000-pound battery in a lot of these EVs. And to get that 1,000 pounds of battery, you've got to chew up 500,000 pounds of rock. And then you've got to process it, and you've got to do all kinds of other things, which, by the way, take oil to do. It is a huge, huge dent on the environment.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right. And you didn't even touch on coal. You know, I'm going to tell you where the coal is.
SPEAKER 08 :
No, I didn't.
SPEAKER 10 :
One of the major components of these battery cases is stainless steel because you can't put them in regular steel because that will rust in the battery. So all these battery enclosures have to be stainless steel. Well, I know you're not a chemist, but in order to make stainless steel, you need nickel. And let me read you. I sent this to John about six months ago. One of the largest countries in the world for producing nickel ore is Indonesia. They used to be the world's leader, and they used to just mine the ore regularly. and ship it off to other countries. Well, Indonesia said, you know, we're shipping this off and making other countries rich because they're refining our ore into nickel. And the EVs have just exploded the demand for nickel. Let me just tell you what's happened to Indonesia since they decided to go from just being a producer of ore to a producer of the nickel itself, which means you have to smelt the ore. And how do you smelt ore... into the metal. How do you smelt something? How do you smelt ore? Coal? Coal. Let me read you this quote from this report. The region of Wida Bay is now one of the world's largest nickel production facilities. Fiery smelters and multiple coal-fired power plants burn nonstop to refine nickel ore into material for batteries and steel. Indonesia aims to dominate the world's nickel supply, and it's succeeding. The country has gone from having two—now, remember the number two— to now 27 over the last 10 years, with 22 more planned. They went from two to 27 with another 22. And to make room for these 27, soon to be 49, coal-fired smelting plants, which are huge, what do they have to do? They have to clear the rainforest to make room for them. So they're cutting down rainforests.
SPEAKER 08 :
To burn coal.
SPEAKER 10 :
To burn coal, to smelt nickel ore into refined nickel, which they're shipping to these companies that make battery enclosures for electric vehicles.
SPEAKER 08 :
All to make electric vehicles that, by the way, would not sell without massive subsidies. This is the stupidest thing in the world. By the way, you've got about a minute left. Go.
SPEAKER 10 :
The one ugly story, did you hear about, and if you didn't hear about, I'm going to ask why, about the gay couple in Georgia who were arrested for having sex with their two adopted children.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes, yes, horrible.
SPEAKER 10 :
And my question, it's a horrible story. A gay couple, two guys, adopted two kids who are now 9-11. Not only did they have sex with their own adopted children, they were pimping them out to other gay people. My question is, they were arrested in 2022. They were sentenced about a month ago. Why didn't that story... make the news, either at the time of their arrest or at the time of their conviction.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, it doesn't fit the narrative.
SPEAKER 10 :
Why didn't the media cover it?
SPEAKER 08 :
Because it doesn't fit the narrative.
SPEAKER 10 :
It doesn't fit the narrative. I mean, it was a horrible, disgusting story about these two poor children, who at the time, I think, were seven and nine years old at the time, being sexually abused by their adopted gay parents. And what gets me shaking my head is why did the media decide this isn't newsworthy?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, it is newsworthy, and so is everything else you said. Jersey Joe, thank you so much, and hope to hear from you on Friday. Take care. Folks, that's it for today. Hour number one replays next this Friday. We're going to be back with the first live show of 2025, and here's the Hour 2 topic, Best Female Recording Artist. That should be fun. Until then, have a great, safe New Year's. Drive safe. God bless. Thanks for joining us at Rush to Reason, KLZ 560.
"Rush to Reason" is a no-holds-barred talk show hosted by John Rush, offering bold perspectives on politics, culture, and everyday issues. Join John and guest hosts Andy Pate, Luke Cashman, and Ashley Karcher as they tackle controversial topics with candor, humor, and the kind of spirited debate you won’t find anywhere else. From football rivalries to election mysteries, no subject is off-limits. Presented by High Five Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, and Electric, where every call ends with a high five!
SPEAKER 14 :
This is Rush to Reason. You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you're scared. And you're scared because if you try and fail, there's only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes. With your host, John Rush. My advice to you is to do what your parents did. Get a job, Turk. You haven't made everybody equal. You've made them the same and there's a big difference.
SPEAKER 07 :
Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life. That there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 14 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 15 :
It's Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by High Five Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, and Electric. Where every call ends with a high five.
SPEAKER 03 :
Actually, it's Andy Pate. Party of choice. And welcome to our number two. This is Andy Pate filling in for John Rush along with Luke Cash. Man. And Ashley Karch. Her. That's right. Okay. We are waiting on Richard Rush. He'll be calling in shortly. But... First, Ashley, this is very important to you because I know you like J.K. Rowling. I do. And she had a comment recently, which I thought was brilliant. As you know, even though she is a liberal, strong liberal, she is the author of what? Harry Potter. The Harry Potter series. She had some people come against her and they said this. I wish you would use your immense power to help the trans kids. I'm sorry. Use it right. I'm sorry. That's kind of I can't see it here. But it says you're you're hurting trans kids and it's hurtful and unnecessary what you're doing. You're bringing hate upon trans kids.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yep. That's been their argument against her for a long time.
SPEAKER 03 :
OK, here was her response. There are no trans kids. No child is born in the wrong body. There are only adults like you prepared to sacrifice the health of minors to bolster your belief in an ideology that will end up wreaking more harm than lobotomies and false memory syndrome combined. More harm than lobotomies, that might be a little heavy.
SPEAKER 11 :
I think a couple tweets after that, she retweeted an article or an essay or something written by someone that basically has the same title, There Are No Trans Children.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, I happen to agree with this statement. You know, as you know, and Luke knows this about me, I'm a right-wing evangelical Christian wacko. I understand. He's insane. He's crazy. I'm insane, people. Put him in a straight jacket. Look, I know who I am, but I've always been a live and let live kind of guy. You know, I believe we are born as what we are. I think it's literally mental illness to think you are literally in the wrong body. I think that's crazy. However... Do what you want with your life. Do what you want with your life. Just don't impose it. And also, don't expose it with kids who are 18 and under. Let them grow up first and make their own decisions. What do you think, Luke?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, I think I've always been of the opinion, you know, you live your life, I'll live mine. Yeah. And I have one rule. It's very simple. Stop messing with kids. Yeah. Stop messing with kids, dude. I think that's a very solid rule. I don't think it's a hard one to follow either. Stop messing with kids.
SPEAKER 03 :
I'm not going into schools shoving my Christianity on kids even. No. Right? I'm not going... Those schools are tax-funded places to learn to where you are supposed to become... Oh, get this. Ready to win in the free market. Get a job. You're not there to learn how to be trans or to learn how to be Andy.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, that's what schools are supposed to be, but now they're indoctrination centers.
SPEAKER 03 :
Pretty much, yes. On the line right now, we've got Richard Rush. Richard, welcome. Hello, sir. How are we? You know, we're doing okay. I know you had kind of a rough weekend. And before we even get to the NFL, I got to talk a little bit about CU. I was surprised by the CU-BYU game because Flash met Smash and Smash won.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, Andy, I was not surprised for a few reasons. Number one, we have played in that bowl. Well, basically, I think our last three bowls have been that bowl, the Alamo Bowl, and we have gotten destroyed each time. So it's just not a friendly place to us for whatever reason, right, wrong or otherwise. And then in addition, I just kind of felt like, I mean, I was hopeful that maybe it was sort of one of those things, Andy, in an Oregon situation, right, where Oregon of old would just get against one of these, you know, quote-unquote power teams, but they're not like super, super, super power, and so you can sort of use your athleticism to beat them and hit them, you know, where they can't catch you sort of a situation. It just didn't materialize like that. Maybe, you know, some kids were looking to get out of there early for the holidays.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don't know, Andy. Richard, were you surprised, though, by the raw physicality of BYU? These Mormons are tough, I'm telling you what.
SPEAKER 05 :
They've got to be.
SPEAKER 03 :
I'm kidding, but go ahead.
SPEAKER 05 :
Honestly, Andy, that is who CU is. And I think Dion is smart, and he actually has got a lot of respect for the coach that is there. If I were him, I would sort of replicate my program in a lot of ways after him, which is the trenches. And that's one area where CU improved, believe it or not, over last year. But they need to continue to get better. And so, yeah, the physicality, I mean, that's who BYU always is, Andy, right? You know, some, you know, smart, I'll just say it, smart white and Samoan kids. And then, obviously, you mix in, you know, some good size and... as far as some of the black athletes and the players that way. But most of the kids that are going to BYU, a lot of them, I should say, are white and Samoan kids, right, Andy? And they're just tough, hard-nosed, really smart players.
SPEAKER 03 :
I was surprised by how many Samoans they had on their team, which I actually thought was kind of cool. I'll just say this, and I'll close on this game with this statement. BYU looked like a junkyard dog. Mean. Just mean. And I mean, they were hitting CU in like five different directions on every play. It was crazy.
SPEAKER 05 :
CU deserves it. It's something, Andy, that Shador, you know, the new Giants, or maybe not, we'll talk about that here.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, he'll still be great.
SPEAKER 05 :
Should probably be getting used to because it was sort of an awakening of, you know, what happens when you, you know, it just gets tougher, right? The NFL... is the creme de la creme, right, Andy? The creme of the crop. You've got grown men that are chasing you rather than boys. Maybe it was a welcome.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, taking a look at the NFL, and before we even get to Denver, who I think is going to win this week because I think KC's going to rest their players, but... Have you ever seen this many teams check out? And I mean, you always have two or three teams, right, at the end of the year like this who are checked out. But we have had, like, for the last few weeks, I would say like eight or nine teams who are totally checked out.
SPEAKER 05 :
Andy, I don't recall a situation in which It seems like this is a very – I don't want to call it a down year, but it is. It's a very – you just have got a lot of mediocre teams. You've got a lot of middle – and I'm not even talking like – sorry, less than mediocre, right? You've got a lot of bad teams, a lot of teams that – don't care or rebuilding or whatever it might be in it with interesting in asking to see because I mean look at the top the Jackie I mean you've got normally in the in a normal you you know that could you pay the draft as much as I do in fact more in a lot of cases Normally, you've got one really bad team, right? You win two games, maybe three, and then you've got some teams that are sitting around four or five wins, but they're competitive. Right. This year, Andy, you've got a massive amount of teams that are three, four wins, and none of them look any good.
SPEAKER 03 :
It's horrible, Richard. I mean, when you watch CU, right, and right at the beginning, I'm back to college for a moment, and right at the beginning of the game, they run out on the field, and one of them is carrying the CU flag. And they race out on the field. In the NFL, you got like nine teams who race out on the field with a white flag right at the beginning of the game. They don't care. The Giants are almost begging you to beat them. The Browns are begging you to beat them. The Jaguars had no choice but win because they played the Titans, who are begging you to beat them. The Saints, dear Lord in heaven, help them.
SPEAKER 11 :
If you know the draft better, I'm not familiar with football draft. I know hockey draft. So does the last team get first pick?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes. So it's a race to the bottom. No lottery. It's not the lottery like the NHL is.
SPEAKER 11 :
The NHL works. It's somewhat of a lottery, but the NHL does still work with the bottom team usually getting the first pick.
SPEAKER 03 :
It's a weighted lottery. But yeah, Ashley, you're right. Basically, it's a race to the bottom, and they are racing, Richard. I have not seen anything like it. Really quick here before we go to break, because I want to come back to NFL picks. The Broncos, are they going to make easy work of the Chiefs? I mean, I just don't think the Chiefs are going to play anybody.
SPEAKER 05 :
Andy Reid doesn't care. I think the Chiefs are going to be – I think Carson Wentz is going to play motivated. You do have a lot of guys that are still going to play. They still have to field a team with the guys they have, right, in regular season.
SPEAKER 03 :
Will they play a fair number of offensive linemen just out of concern for his safety?
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, they could, but I don't think they play Tooney, right? You know, they're new, not newfound, but, you know, guard, move to tackle. Right. And they're probably going to play the young kids. DeAndre Hopkins is not going to play. Obviously, Kelsey is not going to play. Mahomes isn't going to play. I would doubt Pacheco plays. I mean, so you're taking out your offensive weapons. What about Taylor Swift?
SPEAKER 03 :
Maybe they can have her suit up.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hey, Andy, depending on, I will say this for the Broncos. Yes, Kansas City should come out. You should be able to smack this team. You should be able to get yourself in the playoffs. Because if you cannot beat a backup Chiefs team, and because the Chiefs are already down anyways, but that's a whole other conversation probably for next week, Andy, after this. If you can't beat a backup Chiefs team, you don't deserve to be in the playoffs. Which, real quick, and then we've got to run a break. They should have gone for two at the end of regulation to beat the Cincinnati Bengals.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 05 :
That's what I was screaming at my TV. Oh, yes, and they should have. They absolutely should have gone for two. You had the momentum because, Andy, we knew that Joe Burrow, especially, I mean, the fact that he got three possessions in overtime is crazy. I thought with one possession he was going to drive down and score a touchdown, to be honest with you. The fact that you gave him three possessions – is insane. What did you expect to happen? So they really shouldn't even be in this case because they should have won the game on Saturday night, but that's neither here nor there.
SPEAKER 03 :
Richard, with all due respect to Josh Allen and some of these other QBs, Joe Burrow's the best QB in the NFL, bar none. He's on a lousy team, and they're playing 500 ball. on that rotten team. It's insane. This guy has no defense, no running game. Every team is blitzing him nonstop like you guys did. You had seven sacks on the poor guy. I felt bad for him. I was about to call social services on the Denver defense because this looked like something illegal. They were hitting him so much.
SPEAKER 05 :
This guy is great. I know we talk about this a lot, and obviously you had the era of Brady and Manning, and obviously you had Roethlisberger. This may be one of the greatest eras of quarterbacks that we are in the midst of. Agreed. Between Mahomes, Burrow, Allen, obviously Lamar Jackson plays really well at times, and that's not counting how well Goff is playing, your guy Jordan Love, right? Jalen Hurst, depending on if you... Hey, don't forget about the Vikings. Yeah, Sam Darnold back from the dead. Oh, does he look good. Incredibly, incredibly well. And so it's really something that when you're in the thick of something, you don't really realize it, but I think you've got to realize and say, wow, this is sort of the golden age of football, and we're kind of getting into it. And it should be fun, although it makes it less of an accident. The Broncos have something in Bo Nix, some of the throws he made, Andy. Oh, he's good. It's just really unfortunate because he's never going to be in the top five of his conference. but maybe you don't need to because he played well enough, Andy, for them to win on Saturday.
SPEAKER 03 :
I disagree. I think by, I don't know, by year two, because you never know, sophomore slump that could hit. I think by year three, this kid is in the top five in the AFC, definitely.
SPEAKER 05 :
He's going to be better than the four I just mentioned, plus Justin Herbert.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, because Herbert, well... I don't know. No, no, not better than Herbert. But, okay, we'll talk about it later. Let's go to break. We'll come back, do NFL picks. We'll do them quick. Sound good? All right, up next is Bruce Simmons with American Liberty Mortgage. If you're 62 or older, call Bruce Simmons, and he'll show how a reverse mortgage makes your home investment pay off right now. That's 303-467-7821.
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SPEAKER 12 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is John Rush. And welcome back to Rush to Reason. Denver's Afternoon Rush. KLZ 560. Andy Pate filling in for John Rush. Richard Rush is on the line right now. Richard, let's blow through these games. You ready?
SPEAKER 05 :
Let's go for it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, this first one we can really blow through. The Browns. They're waving the white flag. They are on the road at the Ravens. Ravens favored by 18.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, Andy, that's a massive spread. I actually don't know if it gets there because I think the Browns may let up off the gas, Andy, because it should be that bad as they continue through the game. But yeah, this will be the Ravens. They get the division and they get that home game.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I agree. Who knows how many points the Browns score in the fourth quarter. But yeah, Ravens win easily. Next game, big game. The Cincinnati Bengals are on the road at the Pittsburgh Steelers. Steelers have been struggling. Cincinnati favored by one and a half.
SPEAKER 05 :
Steelers are struggling, Andy. I'm going to go with the Bengals here because they've got nothing to lose, although it is, you know, basically it's either a date with the Steelers, or the Steelers are basically playing for a date with the Texans or a date with the Ravens. And for that very reason, could motivate them. Well, it is at home for the Steelers. I just think Russ is showing his true colors of what he was last year, Andy, and what Broncos fans were sort of... well, basically what they begin to not like about Russ. So I'm going to go with the Bengals here, Andy, and hopefully give the Broncos that much more of a push. So I'll go the Bengals.
SPEAKER 03 :
I agree. I think the Bengals on the road take it. Next game, the Panthers have been showing a little fight in them, but they're still losing a lot. They're on the road with the Falcons. Falcons favored by 8.5.
SPEAKER 05 :
They are, Andy, and then Falcons have got to win and have the Buccaneers to lose and Michael Penix, even though he has some great throws. I'm going to go with the Falcons here, Andy, at home. They've got to win that game. But I like where the Panthers are going. You and I have talked about that for a few weeks, but I'll go with the Falcons here.
SPEAKER 03 :
I'll take the Falcons, too. Next game, the Commanders are on the road at the Cowboys. Commanders favored by 3.5. Should it be more?
SPEAKER 05 :
It probably should, but Andy, I'm going to go upset here, and the only reason because the Cowboys are that type of team where they just want to spoil the commanders of basically going either to the second seed or the commanders could obviously be the sixth seed going to the third seed, which is a potential difference there, obviously, in the NFC, basically going to either the Lions or the Vikings or the Eagles, right? And I think that they could potentially choose that. I'm going to go with the Cowboys. They're going to pull the upset.
SPEAKER 03 :
These teams really hate each other, don't they? But I'm going to take the Commanders. Next game, speaking about hating each other, the Bears are on the road at my Packers. Packers favored by 8.5. Do you guys have anything to gain, Andy? No, not really. You know, and let me just say this about my Packers. You know, I love my team, but they're not a playoff team, okay? And this is why I'm not so sure I like the playoffs being seven teams in each conference, okay? Green Bay doesn't belong in the playoffs. They're going to go in and get slaughtered. So maybe they just rest a bunch of guys this week. I don't know.
SPEAKER 05 :
They may. I mean, the Bears are terrible. They are. I'm going to put a cap down. If Jordan Love plays, which, again, if you guys can't move up or down, they may not play him at all. If Jordan Love plays, you guys win because the Bears are terrible. If you don't, you still may win because the Bears are terrible. So I'll go with the Packers either way, I guess.
SPEAKER 03 :
I'll take the Packers. I think the Bears are looking at the draft, like Ashley said earlier. Up next is the Texans. They're 9-7. They're on the road at another team that has given up, Tennessee. However, Texas has nothing to play for, and Tennessee is actually favored by a point.
SPEAKER 05 :
They are, Andy. I'm going to go with the Texans just because I think they're a better team. Tennessee has something to play for, Andy, in that if they lose, they get that, I think, they have a chance for the second pick, which depending on if they're going to go quarterback or not and depending on how you view this draft as a big deal, a top two pick is way different than a top five pick, right?
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
Two or five. So I'm going to go with the Texans here, Andy, although I could see the Titans hurting themselves, shooting themselves in the foot, being a typical Tennessee Titans thing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, this is the time that the Titans would actually win and hurt their draft position. But I'll take the Texans next game. The Jaguars, hey, they just won big, but it's over the Titans. They're on the road at the equally repulsive Colts. Colts are favored by five and a half.
SPEAKER 05 :
Colts are terrible, Andy. I don't know if you go look at Pat McAfee's sort of rebuke of them. They're awful. They'll come back and win again because the Jags are inept, maybe more inept than the Colts. But yeah, just a terrible division as a whole. So I'll go with the Colts.
SPEAKER 03 :
I'll take the Colts, too. And by the way, that rebuke was hilarious. I loved it. Okay, next game. The Bills, they were on the road at the Patriots. Their records are in inverse. 13-3 against 3-13. Together, they're 500. The Bills are favored by three, even though will they be playing anyone?
SPEAKER 05 :
Um, no, Andy, they won't be playing anyone. But again, and honestly, again, this is a Patriots thing, Andy. Hopefully they can get this right to where I know they have their quarterback of the future, but they should just lose because if they lose. then they can sell the first pick like they're supposed to to a team that doesn't. Or if they don't get the offers, Andy, you take one of the all-time best weapons to ever come out of college football in Travis Hunter, and you give Drake May a great wide receiver along with, obviously, a stud cornerback as well. So I'm going to go with the Bills here, Andy, just because I think the Patriots want to lose that bad.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think Hunter would look very good in a Patriots uniform. I'll take the Bills as well. Next game, another team that's given up the Giants. They are on the road at the Philadelphia Eagles. Eagles favored by three.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, Andy, they have, and I don't think the Eagles have anything to gain either. I think they're kind of locked into their, I think they're locked into the three seed, to be honest with you. And then the Giants, obviously, Drew Locke, old Broncos guy, helping out the, not the Broncos, but basically the Giants and essentially crushing their dreams of getting the first overall pick, which was likely going to be Shador Sanders. Maybe they still get up there, Andy. Yeah, I'm going to go to the Eagles here, Andy, just because, again, they're a better team even if they're playing their backups.
SPEAKER 03 :
I agree. Eagles. Okay. Saints. Boy, have they been awful lately. They're on the road to the Buccaneers. Buccaneers favored by 13.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, Buccaneers favored by 13, Andy. Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Have you seen the Saints lately?
SPEAKER 05 :
They're terrible, Andy. And I like Baker. He actually won my son the fantasy football championship last in our league here. So kudos to Josh. Shout out to him. Yeah, Andy, I'm going to go to the Buccaneers here. They should win and be in the playoff, which is where they belong. They've really kind of come on the end of the season here.
SPEAKER 03 :
I agree. Buccaneers next game. The Chiefs coming in and playing the Broncos. Broncos are favored by nine and a half. Chiefs aren't going to play anyone. Taylor Swift.
SPEAKER 05 :
I don't even know if we covered the spread there, Andy, but we should win this game. I'm going to pick the Broncos because we should. There's no jinxing, no nothing. Broncos should win this game. They should be in the playoffs.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, Taylor Swift is, you know, she's very tall. She's got the height, but she's way too light to be an offensive lineman. I am going to take the Broncos big. Next game, the Chargers, they are on the road at the Raiders who are awful. The Chargers favored by five and a half.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I don't think Chargers have anything to play for either, Andy. I don't think they can catch the Steelers. Does it matter? I'm not sure. It doesn't matter. Again, the Raiders are a team where they shouldn't have won this last weekend against the Saints, but different conversation. Yeah, Andy, I'm going to go Chargers here.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I'll take the Chargers. Seahawks, they are 9-7. They're on the road at the 10-6 Rams. Seahawks actually favored by three.
SPEAKER 05 :
Another team that has nothing to play for here, Andy, the Seahawks. Well, they're out. And the Rams, well, I should say both teams have nothing to play for. The Rams really have nothing to play for because I think they're locked in, too. So I'm going to go with the Seahawks just to maybe put a bow on the season, I guess.
SPEAKER 03 :
I agree. Seahawks next game. Dolphins are on the road at the Jets. Oh, my gosh. Jets need a quarterback. How does that sound? Dolphins favored by one.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, Andy, that's a conversation that we may have at a later point in time. Yeah, Dolphins should win this, although it does not look like Tua's going to play. But wouldn't that just be the Jets' thing to do to just really... sort of get Miami over by beating them and potentially keeping them out of the playoffs. Yeah, I don't think that happens. I'm going to go with the Dolphins here just because the Jets are so bad, Andy. I'm not even sure Aaron Rodgers plays, to be honest with you.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, I agree. I've got to take the Dolphins next game. 49ers are on the road. The Cardinals, two teams that have nothing to play for. Niners favored by one.
SPEAKER 05 :
Andy, I do not remember a week like this where there was so few to play for for these teams. You know what I mean? There's a lot of games that don't matter, and there's very few that do. I'm sure the NFL is actually not very happy about it. Probably a lot of conversations happening behind the scenes. Yeah, Andy, I'm going to go literally sort of flip the coin here. I'll go Cardinals.
SPEAKER 03 :
I'll take the Cardinals. Last game, game of the week, the Vikings, 14-2 against the Lions, 13-2. But they'll be 14-2 after tonight. The Lions are favored by 2.5.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, Andy, I'm still not sold on the Vikings, although they keep making me eat crow every single week with Sam Darnold and that lineup and how they're doing. So I'm sure if you're a Vikings fan, Dan, maybe you're out there, you're listening to this, and I'll just keep it up. I'm going to go with the Lions, Andy. I think that they're getting some of their guys back. I think they'll be too good. That's not to say Minnesota's not really good, but it's the difference between the one seed home playoff game and a bye, Andy, and having to travel to the four-seat. How crazy is that, the NFL playoffs? But I'll go with the Lions.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, I agree. I think the Lions are finally going to be getting some guys back on defense. I'll take the Lions as well. And that is it, Richard. Thank you so much for joining. Thank you, sir. Have a happy new year, and I'll talk to you next year, Andy. Happy new year. Talk to you next year. Okay, folks, up next is Veteran Windows. They tell you to shop around first because they've got the best value. Call Veteran Windows and Doors. Let them know Rush to Reason sent you, and you're going to get their best deal. 303-529-0720.
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SPEAKER 15 :
Back to Rush to Reason. Presented by High Five Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, and Electric. Where every call ends with a high five. And welcome back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 03 :
Denver's Afternoon Rush. KLZ 560. Andy Pate filling in for John Rush along with Luke Cash. Man. And Ashley Carter. Her. That's right. Okay. I've got to ask you guys a question. I'm not asking you to say definitively like you know. Okay. Just your opinion. My opinion. The 2020 election.
SPEAKER 06 :
2020 election.
SPEAKER 03 :
Was it stolen?
SPEAKER 06 :
No.
SPEAKER 03 :
No.
SPEAKER 06 :
I don't think so.
SPEAKER 03 :
You don't think so?
SPEAKER 11 :
I don't think it was stolen.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 11 :
I think that maybe some... I mean, there's evidence that has come out that maybe some votes have been miscounted, but I don't think that necessarily dictates that it was stolen.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think there was a fair amount of chicanery. I will say this. I think it's awful. It's dumb for Republicans to run on that, to run on the 2020 steal and say we've got to stop the 2020 steal from happening again. The voters outside the Republican base don't want to hear it. OK, they don't want to hear about it. And it's like I always say, folks, let's say you broke up with someone five years ago. OK, in the first month, you know, your friends at work, they'll listen to you talk about the breakup because, you know, they sympathize. They empathize. Oh, yeah. He was terrible to you. She was terrible to you. Whatever. Right. Yeah. But OK, now it's six months and you're still talking about it. Now it's a year and you're still talking about how Luke, how's that go?
SPEAKER 06 :
No, it doesn't go very well. I think people forgot what it's like to be on the receiving end of that. For as much as Republicans hated the Russia collusion, Russia collusion, Russia collusion, Democrats hated the, you know, it's stolen, it's stolen, it's stolen.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, it's not just Democrats. I think it's people in general. The people in the middle don't want to hear about the 2020 steal. And the people in the middle also didn't want to hear the Democrats go on about Russian collusion. They're looking at them saying, you know, we're not buying this.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. It's the same song sung by a different group. You get tired of it after a while.
SPEAKER 03 :
Exactly. Ashley, what do you think?
SPEAKER 11 :
I'm thinking the same thing. After a year, two years, three years, it's like, okay, it happened. Stop talking about it. We're over it at this point.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. Put it behind you. Move on. Okay. But guys... Here's a little piece of information, and this has always made me very curious about it, and I just got to throw it out there because it's powerful. It is very powerful. Bellwether counties, there are 19 Bellwether counties that have basically as a whole chosen every single winner of every single election, and we're going back to 1984 when they started this. These 19 counties around the country. In 1984, 100% of these 19 counties chose, they went for the winner, okay, which was Reagan, okay? In 1988, 88% of them, that means it was 17 to 2. So two counties descended, okay? 88% of them went for the eventual winner. You with me? Uh-huh. Let's whip through these.
SPEAKER 1 :
1992, 94%.
SPEAKER 03 :
That means only one out of these 19 counties went against the eventual winner of the election.
SPEAKER 1 :
1996, 100%.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, understand these are flipping back and forth between Democrat and Republican winners.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
These are bellwether counties. They really go for the winner. All right. So 1996, 100%. That was Bill Clinton. 2000, George W. Bush, 100%. Think about that. 100% of them went for the Democrat in 96. 100% went for the Republican in 2000. 2004, Bush again, 94%. 18 to 1. 2008. Barack Obama, 94%, 18 to 1. 2012, Barack again, 100%, 19 to nothing. 2016, Donald Trump, the year he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by actually a fair margin. 100% of these bellwether counties went for Donald Trump. I'm going to skip 2020. In 2024, this year, 88%, 17 to 2, right, went for Donald Trump. In 2020, what percentage do you think went for Donald Trump? I mean, went for the eventual winner, Joe Biden.
SPEAKER 11 :
Considering the fact that you skipped it, I'm going to assume like 33% went for the winner.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, you think it was that bad that only roughly 33% went for the winner. What do you think, Luke? 50-50.
SPEAKER 1 :
6%.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh! 18 out of the 19 counties, bellwether counties, went for Donald Trump in 2020. Okay, guys. Now, look, I'm a math guy, okay? As you know, and Luke, you kind of know this. I'm really into math. I love math. I do. I think math all the time. I'm sorry, but statistically, 188, 94, 100, 100, 94, 94, 100, 100, 688. Can we kind of call that, you know, an outlier? Can we pretty much call 2020 and say something incredibly, incredibly unusual happened that year? Can we at least fairly say that?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. Now, once again, I have never said, I know. Well, maybe I have. I can't remember. It's been so many years. But, you know, but for the most part, I don't say, I know that election was stolen. But. Ted Cruz, on January 6th, the day when they had the riot, he said, look, all we're asking for is this. We want a 10-day audit of several of these counties that it looks like some real chicanery has happened. And these counties have thrown several major states to Joe Biden. Okay. You had Fulton County, of course, in Atlanta. You had Maricopa down there in Arizona. You had a couple counties in Philadelphia, which, wow, some of the stuff that went on there. Okay. And Ted Cruz said, look, and we will, you know, certify the election. What's the hurry? Give us 10 days to do a full audit of these counties. And people don't seem to remember this. Donald Trump agreed. That's all he was asking for. I mean, he never called for an insurrection, folks. He called for a 10-day audit, all right?
SPEAKER 11 :
Oh, but it's the same thing with Eli. He was calling for violence by asking for that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, terrible violence. Calling for terrible violence by... OK, guys, it's kind of hard to say that, you know, the Trump supporters don't have a point. I think the Trump supporters do have a point. I think there was a lot of cheating. And let's keep in mind that party that they're complaining about is openly across the board against voter ID. Now, there's only one reason to be against voter ID. You want to cheat.
SPEAKER 11 :
I remember seeing a map breakdown where it's like the states that are that always go blue are some of the only states that don't require photo ID.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. They don't. But that's going to it's going to be that way because Democrats, you know, is it the chicken or the egg? What produces what? You know, Democrats win there. And then Democrats, of course, don't want any photo ID. They don't care about cheating. OK, they want to cheat. You can only the only reason you can be against photo ID is you want to cheat. That can be the only reason. This idea that photo ID is racist is ludicrous. Because at that point, you're telling me black people can't have an ID. That's nuts. They're fine. They're the same as anybody else. That's racist to think that. Guys, can we at least say that the Trump supporters, and I'm one of them, have a point? When you look at those numbers, at least they have, I'm not saying they should harp on that point going forward, but can we at least say, look, they got a point. This looks really bad.
SPEAKER 11 :
Sure, they have a point, but what happens if you just continue to hammer on a point? Eventually it dulls and you don't have it anymore.
SPEAKER 03 :
Agreed. Agreed. Totally agree. Whenever I see a candidate really wants to harp on this issue, I always say, get the other candidate in the primary. Carrie Lake, I opposed her in her primary in Arizona. I said, look, she's a brilliant speaker, an excellent debater. She's a terrible candidate. Why? She was big on the 2020 steal. Ron Hanks here in Colorado, I said absolutely anyone but Ron Hanks.
SPEAKER 04 :
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 03 :
Because he's big in the 2020 steal. It will not sell outside the base. So I hate it as an election issue. Setting that aside, 188, 94, 100, 100, 94, 94, 100, 100, 6, 88. I don't, I mean, any statistician would look at that and say that election was stolen. Yeah. Yeah. I know, because one thing that I used to do, guys, is I worked in a couple companies where I would catch thieves, all right? I would catch crooks. I did this both in theater companies, where I was a manager, okay, in the Midwest, and I also did it when I was managing a casino up in the mountains here.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right, right.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is exactly how I caught thieves. I would look at basic statistics of what was happening and why with the money, at what shifts, at what times, and how. If I saw something like this, I mean, I would be going ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. There's a thief there. Find the thief. And guess what? I had people walked out in chains multiple times. Okay. I would look at this and say, not only was this stolen, this is highly likely it was stolen. that there was enough chicanery done in several counties around the country that through several key states that this was stolen. So what I'm saying is, was 2020 stolen? I don't know. We never did the audit, okay? But I am saying that those who are saying it is or that it was have a pretty good point. What do you think?
SPEAKER 06 :
I think – Is that fair enough? I think everyone is entitled to be suspicious of the people in power because everyone knows – Agreed. That the government has only ever had your best interest in mind. They've never done anything to hurt you or harm you. Oh, no, never, never. No, they are – They love us. Yeah. I think – oh, my God. God forbid someone be suspicious of the people in power, right? It's – I feel like it's only natural after everything that's happened throughout all of time. It's – Right.
SPEAKER 11 :
I just always think of, I think it was Ronald Reagan. It's my favorite Ronald Reagan quote where it's like the nine scariest words are, I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. Exactly. They don't care about you. I think everyone is entitled to skepticism.
SPEAKER 03 :
Which party believes in, absolutely believes in big government? Controlling lives.
SPEAKER 11 :
Gee, I wonder which one.
SPEAKER 03 :
And don't get me wrong. It's not like the Republicans never fall into that. OK, I'm the first to criticize Republicans when I think they have it coming. And I do. OK, I do. I'm big time pro-lifer, but I think are my pro-life fellow cohorts at times are very unfeeling Republicans. Toward people who are pro-choice and toward the young girl who the guy got her knocked up and he skips town and she's in a terrible way and they don't seem to care about what she's going through in her life. We're not very caring. I'm quick to rip on her side. But I can't look at those numbers and not say, look, if I were still working at a company, I'd say there's a thief there. Go catch him.
SPEAKER 06 :
Fair enough.
SPEAKER 03 :
Fair enough. All right. But when we come back, I want to look at California and shoplifting. By the way, if you're ever planning on shoplifting, the best shopping is in California. That's what I hear. Okay, up next is Ridgeline Auto Brokers. When you're looking at used cars, you want good selection and the best inspections. Ridgeline. They got both, and you can find both locations at klzradio.com.
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American Stonehenge by Mike Goldstein is more than just a children's book. It's a way to connect with the children in your life and encourage them to read to you and for themselves. When Mike Goldstein started writing American Stonehenge, he went after a specific problem. Children today don't think for themselves, and test scores nationwide show that. American Stonehenge is gorgeously put together, so it'll draw their attention. It's filled with action, the prose flows as smooth as sand through an hourglass, and it's historically accurate from the stories and the illustrations. But it's also a portal to quality time with children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. It's a way to connect with them while tacitly teaching them the importance of critical thought and giving them a break from scrolling in their free time. Find American Stonehenge on klzradio.com slash read and bring your family together this holiday season.
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SPEAKER 03 :
And welcome back to Rush Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560, Andy Pate filling in for John Rush along with Luke Cash. Ma'am. I'm sorry you say that so well. That's all I can say. That's what I'm here for. Okay. And Ashley Carter. Carter. Her. Okay. You know what? I don't really want to spend time on the shoplifting. Bottom line, for those who don't know, California has now made it not legal to shoplift up to, what is it, $950?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, $50.
SPEAKER 03 :
And they have streamlined it, and a lot of people are now getting arrested for shoplifting in California, and they're shocked by it.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I saw some of those videos.
SPEAKER 03 :
I mean, I'm sorry, but California is insane. And this actually gets me to the question I really want to ask. The Democrats just got their butts handed to them in the election. And right now they're smarting. But I want to ask you guys both. I'll throw this to Ashley first. What is wrong? What are the areas where the Democrats are least popular in our country right now? What do they have to change going forward?
SPEAKER 11 :
Surprisingly, one of the areas that they really need to change on are the young voters. It used to be that the young voters were all going Democrat. Right. They were 100% for the Democrats. But the Democrats will say, oh, we're for the young voters in the exact same breath that they say young voters are really stupid and we can't trust them. Because that's something Kamala Harris said. There was video of her saying that they're really stupid. That's why we put RAs with them. So it's like they are trying to get young voters in the same breath that they're insulting them.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, but clearly Democrats think young voters are dumb because Democrats want to prop up today's economy by spending young voters money. Yeah. I mean, in every way possible. By the way, not just because deficit spending is all going to be paid for by young people. Not me. I'll be dead. It's going to be paid for by young people, but also things like Obamacare. All Obamacare is this. Obamacare is young, healthy people paying more so that old, unhealthy people can pay less. That's all it is. All Obamacare is is robbing young people. I don't think young people, I don't know if they understand that.
SPEAKER 11 :
Probably not. I mean, I think we're starting to because I think it starts with young people who used to believe the lie, and I do call it a lie, that if you go to college, you'll go get a really great paying job and you'll be really successful in this world and you're going to be better off for it. And now we're sitting there going, well, college was just a waste of money. I'm not any better off for it. And you're sucking me dry for every cent that I make.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think young people are starting to see a lot of the promises of the Democrats aren't being fulfilled. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Luke, what do you think?
SPEAKER 06 :
What do I think? If I was a Democrat, what would I do right now?
SPEAKER 03 :
What do they got to fix? What's wrong?
SPEAKER 06 :
What do they got to fix? They got to move away from the establishment Democrat party. They've fallen too in line with establishment Democrats. You look at a lot of young voters. I mean, not even just Democrats. Look at people in general. A lot of people who sort of fall left of center, they really like Bernie Sanders. Say what you will about Bernie Sanders and his policy. He is honest and he is consistent. You're right.
SPEAKER 03 :
He doesn't talk politics. He talks straight to you.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. And they've thrown Bernie under the bus so many times. They're pushing these figureheads, these politicians. The Democrats need to stop pushing politicians. The Democrats need to push issues, things that matter to people.
SPEAKER 03 :
I agree. Now, you guys are both talking about young people because you both are young people. What about this, though? What about other demographics where they are hemorrhaging support? Look at black men. Look at the inner cities. Hispanic men, Hispanic men actually voted for Donald Trump this time around. OK, he won Hispanic men and Hispanic women. He did much better. And I think they're losing the inner cities. OK, not losing them, but I mean losing a healthy percentage of them where they can't afford it. They need to win the inner cities by about 95 to five. They or at least 98 to 92 to eight.
SPEAKER 11 :
They're losing the people that they continue to promise. We're going to make things better for you. We're going to make things better for you. We're going to make things better for you. And year after year, nothing ever gets better.
SPEAKER 03 :
OK, but the thing that's failing is socialism. So can the Democrats actually turn away from their bread and butter, which is we are going to rob other people to make your life better?
SPEAKER 06 :
No, Democrats aren't moving away.
SPEAKER 03 :
Democrats, their main message, they don't say it, it's their unspoken message, but it's their main message. I'm going to steal for you and make you feel good about it. I'm going to tell you you deserve this because other people have done bad to you and I'm going to get them. I'm going to get the rich for you. I'm going to get the white people for you. I'm going to get men for you. I'm going to get them for you. And now it's not selling. How do you go back from that? How do you build from that?
SPEAKER 11 :
I don't know if there really is a way. Because if you backtrack, you lose the people that you still have.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, I don't think Democrats are going to move away from socialism. I do think they're going to take a more softball approach to social issues because I think they found that pushing too hard for ultra-minority groups didn't work because ultra-minority groups don't have the votes to make up that difference, especially when you're talking down to other percentage of your voter base, right? When you talk down to the inner cities, when you make them feel like they're stupid, that's not going to fly very well.
SPEAKER 03 :
So maybe support trans rights but don't impose trans rights on other groups.
SPEAKER 06 :
The Democrats aren't going to turn into the Republicans because their strategy is failing. They're going to employ Democratic strategies in a different way. They're not going to turn away from socialism because that is the party. You're not going to see Democrats go, we need to embrace capitalism now because we lost. They're going to embrace socialism in a different way.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, Ashley, you've got 15 seconds, so can that sell? I mean, doesn't the country kind of want capitalism now?
SPEAKER 11 :
It really depends on who you ask. There's still a good majority. I'll go back to the young voters. There's still a good majority of young voters that see socialism as the best direction for the country. But they don't want extreme socialism.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, socialism is bankrupting them. So I don't know. I don't know. I think they got a big problem. And I'm going to sum it up with this. Go woke, go broke. I think the Democrat Party went woke. I think a lot of people are sick of identity politics. They're sick of watching a party say, anybody but a white, straight, heterosexual man is a good person. Let's demonize them.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don't think it'll sell. Okay, folks, that's it for hour number two and hour number three. You're going to have Jersey Joe. We'll have to ask him about this with politics and humor on the national scene. Until then, keep it right here on Rush to Reason, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 14 :
I'm a rich guy
Join Craig Collins as he delves into the wildest Florida Man stories of 2024, from bizarre challenges to heroic neighbors. These stories capture the spirit of spontaneity and chaos that surrounds the infamous Florida Man. As the year closes, we reflect on the humorous yet thought-provoking moments that made headlines.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
Dana Lash's Absurd Truth Podcast, sponsored by Kel-Tec.
SPEAKER 06 :
It's his life mission to make bad decisions. It's time for Florida Man.
SPEAKER 08 :
Thrilled I get to pay off what I started last Friday. This is The Dana Show. My name is Craig Collins filling in. These are the 10 best Florida man stories of 2024, including one that just happened over the weekend. A Florida man crashed into a trooper after a high-speed chase with other cops in Tampa. Running from cops usually doesn't end well if you crash into a different cop that's not part of the pursuit. But that happened. That occurred just over the weekend. Some of the other craziest ones from this year that are great. A Florida man took on a bizarre challenge of eating raw chicken every day. He promoted this on social media in the earlier parts of the year and then stopped posting on social media by about June of this year. We assume he's okay. We hope he's okay. At one point, he had half a million followers on Instagram specifically as he talked about the fact that he was planning on consuming raw chicken every single day as much as he could until bad things occurred, which again, you hope for all the best there. No one's heard from him in a while. A Florida man saved his neighbor from the jaws of an 11-foot alligator in This happened back in April of this year. The way he did it, hit the alligator with his car. A man said that he saw his neighbor in a potentially deadly situation, so he did the only thing he could do, waved his arms, waved his hand, got in his car and started driving, and the alligator regretted the entire situation. Interesting story. A friend for life, as far as the neighbor goes, if they weren't already. You made it all the way to the top was a question that was asked to a Florida man who for no reason at all scaled a cell phone tower. As the Florida man climbed back down the cell phone tower, the police seemed to be impressed with his ability to climb and then promptly arrested him for the illegal activity, which I love a lot. The guy was proud of himself. He's like, yeah, pretty crazy. I didn't think I could do it, and I climbed it, and now I'm going to go to jail. A Florida woman led deputies on a chase in a stolen ambulance. That was a real story that happened in the middle of this year in June. And then one final one, and I think this might be my favorite Florida man. A Florida man got arrested after sending in a bomb threat against himself and then complaining that nobody in the police seemed to care about the bomb threat he made about himself. There's no top to that. There's a bomb. It's going to go off on my property. There's people who told us they're going to leave a bomb here. There's a bomb threat situation. You guys got to come out. And then when they didn't do it, the guy was eventually like, what do I got to do, man, to convince you that my bomb threat against me is real? And that's probably the part where they went a little too far. He says he made a mistake in the threats he made against himself, and he was attempting to get revenge on someone else and just mistargeted a little bit or a lot. Sounds like there might be some mental health issues there. But that Florida man probably both regrets the initial bomb threats against himself and then also eventually asking the cops why they're not doing their job better and taking down him, the bomb threat individual. But those are some of the best Florida man stories of the year. That is Florida man. Dana will be back next year with brand new ones. Craig Collins filling in on the Dana show.
SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 08 :
By the way, a lot of media is having a comeuppance. No, I'm kidding. They're not truly admitting what they did wrong, but they're at least saying that they should have done better in not being as on the take on the Democratic side of the aisle as they evidently were during the entirety of Biden's presidency and now with Trump coming into office. I want to play this. This is CBS News and one of their correspondents, Jane Crawford, saying we should have done a better job. of asking questions about the mental health of a president that couldn't figure out how to walk off a stage or disappeared into the rainforest, if you remember that one, which was uniquely amazing. Here we go.
SPEAKER 04 :
Undercovered, underreported. That would be, to me, Joe Biden's obvious cognitive decline that became undeniable in the televised debate.
SPEAKER 02 :
At the president. The presidential debate was unquestioned.
SPEAKER 04 :
And, you know, it's starting to emerge now that his advisers kind of managed his limitations. It's been reported in The Washington Journal for four years.
SPEAKER 08 :
Who thought that was happening the entire time? A whole bunch of conservative media.
SPEAKER 04 :
And yet he insisted that he could still run for president. We should have much more forcefully questioned whether he was fit for office for four years, which led to a primary. For the Democrats, it could have changed the scope of the entire election.
SPEAKER 08 :
I love that the the next thought there is how it would have impacted politics, because that's why you didn't tell the truth about Joe, is you wanted to impact politics in a positive way and for you a positive way and make sure that Biden got reelected and Trump didn't. The other big challenge with Democrats ever being honest about Biden, and this doesn't get talked about enough, is if they had told us the truth, say, two years in. Three years in, whenever they thought that the campaign season truly was starting, when Trump announces that he's running again and you want a candidate to be running against him from jump and having that entire process. How do you not also have to impeach Biden if you admit that he's not mentally capable of being president for the next four years and you do it in a way that media is now calling for actual honesty? and just he doesn't want to do it anymore he's he's giving up you know sooner um as opposed to you know telling us that he can't do it then how would you keep him and if you didn't keep him in office if they had told us the truth and this is the reason they didn't do it and they had impeached him which you would have to do if you admit that his brain doesn't work you would have broken a glass ceiling by accident in a way that you didn't want to do it the democratic party wants their politicians elected by more than just their policies. Actually, they want them elected in spite of their policies. They want you to elect the first woman president because it's a candidate on the Democratic side of the aisle. They want you to elect the first black woman president. Who knows? As they continue to look for other different things that they're going to say, yeah, elect somebody for this reason. And if Biden had been impeached, Kamala Harris would have become the president and you would have lost the breaking of the glass ceiling. And I don't even think Harris wanted it, which is kind of crazy. Not in that way. Not then. And what I mean by that is she didn't want to feel blamed for the first few years of Biden's failures. Everybody wanted to pretend they were starting new, although Harris did a terrible job among other terrible jobs while running for president and trying to distance herself from Biden because, darn it, she's the vice president. And she'd have more say and probably even knew. you know, in the back corners, as did many of the people in her administration, that she was more in power than he was. Although other people in power, I think Jill, Dr. Jill, Dr. Biden, as I'm contractually required. I love that all the time. I stole that from another radio guy that I respect a lot. But anyway, I have to call that person, Dr. Jill, Dr. Biden, much because even though she's not a medical doctor, I got to make sure I remember that she received a doctorate. But I think she wielded a lot of power. and did it behind the scenes and behind closed doors, and Hunter Biden was doing his own stuff and selling art. It's just crazy the amount of things that happened over the last four years outside of just the cratering of our economy or a few other of the issues that everyday Americans face, but the true scope of lying. And again, in retrospect, pretending as though you wanted to ask more serious questions, challenge things more and force a primary process as if you didn't evaluate what also would come with that and how that would have been bad for your political side of the aisle. The only reason that media can be honest now is they know Trump was inevitable. They couldn't beat him. It didn't matter who they picked. He wasn't losing. And they refused to accept that all the way up until Election Day. And now that they have to accept it, they're going to look back and be like, well, we should have done more to try to tell you the truth. We had no interest in telling you because we knew it would hurt us and we knew it would make Trump a shoo-in, even though him also surviving an assassination attempt and standing up and pumping his fist in the air. was one of the more American things you're ever going to see anybody do, much less Donald Trump, if you love him or hate him. That, according even to, I think, Mark Zuckerberg, probably crystallized his opportunity to be the next president because, darn it, it was incredible to watch for anybody. Again, if you hate him or like him, Bullitt barely didn't kill him, and then he stands up and yells, fight. That's something. That's the kind of thing you want from anybody that's in a leadership position anywhere in this country or world, for that matter, to not be intimidated, even if you should have died that day, as horrible as it is to say that out loud. All right, quick break. A lot more, and he's lucky he didn't. And by the grace of God, in his own admission, he says he didn't.
SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 06 :
And now, all of the news you would probably miss. It's time for Dana's Quick Five.
SPEAKER 08 :
This is a new story. This isn't an old story. A bubble boy was rescued. I feel weird in the way I just said that. In Brazil, a sailor by the name of Rafael Garcia de Prado found a dude, a kid, eight years old, drift in the sea in a bubble. The bubble seemed like it was fragile, maybe even punctured a little bit. So the guy moved his ship into a spot where he could rescue the eight-year-old who thanked him. repeatedly in Portuguese since this was in Brazil I can't play the audio we're getting him out of the bubble and into the ship and bringing him back to safety some questions still exist like how did the boy get into the bubble and get in the ocean in the first place but darn it saved a kid on the water that part is a great I love part of that story So, so much. A police commissioner has been ousted after dozens of NYPD bosses complained and a bunch of other information has come out. It's one week after a sex scandal also rocked the NYPD. I am pro-cop, definitively pro-cop. Being pro-cop means that when cops do bad things, you tell the truth about it, but you don't allow that to overshadow all the cops who do great things every day in our society, in our country, in the world. But what's interesting about this is sometimes the way the New York PD behaves, say, compared to other departments, maybe more their press people than the actual people serving and protecting the city. And sometimes the arrogance of some of those individuals winds up hurting them, like I think it did in the place of this commissioner, who had spoken negatively quite a few times about quite a lot, even called reporters pieces of trash and winds up out of a gig for, well, seeming to be someone who's not exactly living up to to the standard you're supposed to live up to. I said that nicely. I didn't have to be nice, but it's almost the new year. I saw this story, too. There was someone with a sword in a parking lot. An Indiana man was arrested in Indianapolis after allegedly pulling out a machete at a family dollar. I feel like a lot of things about this story are terrible, mostly the family dollar machete part. Who brings a machete to the family dollar? I have that question first and foremost. Can't exactly buy one there. I don't think that's something you're picking up on the way. But apparently an argument of some kind causing an issue in a parking lot ends with luckily no one being hurt, but a machete being wielded, which got to be a weird moment. too, once that happens. And then finally, one last story that I thought was interesting. Three relatives actually passed away after eating the same Christmas cake months after a baker's husband died from food poisoning. This story has begged a whole lot of questions about what the heck is going on as far as this bakery is concerned, as far as individuals connected to this story are concerned. This feels like a conspiracy theory that's going to deserve more attention. although probably it will pale in comparison to all the political stuff we talk about in the new year. But three relatives have passed away after eating a Christmas cake months after someone's husband also died from consuming products from this baker's store. But all right, that's a story that's real and out there in the world and terrifying and not uplifting at all. Hey, college football is coming up in a few days. At least that's going to be wonderful. All right, another thing out there that I thought was pretty interesting is Mexico is going to be creating an app that lets migrants send alerts if they're detained in the United States. This typically will be used for people who are coming into the country illegally. I don't know that the people will even all be from Mexico per se, but they would be using an app created by the Mexican government that can alert family members to being detained and even try to alert, you know, authorities to the fact that they're being detained illegally. This app seems to be designed in trying to, at least in some way, shape or form, benefit people that think that they're being detained, you know, legally unfairly, but also might have a byproduct that's valuable of telling a lot of people that they're not succeeding in an attempt to, say, get into our country illegally. And that's what we need. We need a deterrent that needs to be a thing that causes us to get a grasp or a handle on what's going on. Mexico is also alerting citizens about the likelihood of being detained in the United States. So that's something that's certainly growing in, you know, awareness as Trump gets closer and closer to becoming the next president. And as Tom Holman, the border czar, continues to say out loud the amount of stuff he's going to do the moment he's actually in that role as president, because darn it, there's a whole lot of things that matter, and a whole lot of things that become important about doing much better than we've done so far. And actually, when you talk about the border specifically... One of the more interesting discussions on CNN was about the cost of handling, you know, deporting a lot of people, moving people out of this country that shouldn't be here. And one of the more ownership moments that I've seen in a while with Abby Phillips on CNN involved talking about exactly this topic and having her own people, her own talking heads on the TV, telling her how wrong she was about what she was saying. because she was claiming that the expense of deporting people is just going to be too high. Darn it. We're just not going to be capable of doing it. And there are some issues with that way of thinking. There are some issues with that way of discussing this topic, because the amount of money that it's costing us to have people be here illegally and be supported by our government is, well, darn it, through the roof. But I thought that that was an interesting moment on television because if people say the part out loud that you don't like them to say, you eventually just get quiet enough to where you try to ignore that you just lost. And then I think the go-to move is also to take a break and to get away from the topic entirely. But that was interesting to me because more and more often, I guess I can say it this way before I play any of that audio for you. More and more often you are watching parts of media at least accept the person on the other side who's saying the thing that, you know, is true, that many Americans believe to be true, that many Americans would say is one of the bigger reasons that they say voted for Trump to be in office. And what I what I think is so fascinating about that is these are the types of rhetoric points that you wanted to ignore in the past that now you just have to silently accept. And here I'll play an example and then I'll tell you what I mean. This is that conversation back and forth with Abby Phillip and her panel talking about how she thinks it's going to be too expensive to actually remove people who are here illegally.
SPEAKER 02 :
One of the things I've heard him give a lot of interviews, and I know he understands the problem that they want to solve, but he doesn't seem to have a sense of the scope of what it's going to take, what it's going to cost. And that's a critical question.
SPEAKER 07 :
I actually had a meeting with Tom Holman the other day, along with a number of my colleagues, and we talked about this very issue.
SPEAKER 08 :
That's Mike Lawler, by the way, being like, we do know about this.
SPEAKER 07 :
It's already costing states like New York billions of dollars of taxpayer money to provide free housing, clothing, food, education and health care to illegal immigrants. Then you have the situation where you have criminal aliens committing violent crimes, just as we saw a woman being burned alive on a subway by a man who was previously deported and then came back into the United States illegally.
SPEAKER 08 :
So that's another moment that we've seen this conversation evolve. If you were to say that people who are here illegally sometimes, not always, commit horrible crimes, in the past, the left would yell at you for being a racist. But now that there have been enough high-profile instances of people who don't have the right to be in this country, who also did horrible things like that person who lit someone on fire on the New York subway, now you have to accept that there is an increased amount of dangerous people that have come into our country. Again, I'm not trying to say that everyone who comes across the border is in that group. It's sort of insane to say that, and Democrats are pretending Republicans say that even when they're not. And Tom Holman's stated mission is to remove the dangerous people from our society, not people who are simply here illegally, but people who have done terrible things after coming into our country illegally. That should be a no brainer discussion for most Americans. Like, yeah, I don't think I want people to be allowed to stay who've committed horrible acts of violence or, you know, serious crimes who also don't have any right to be here. There's no real argument to keep someone in our country when that is the scenario they're in, even for those bleeding heart people who want to say that there is an argument on the other side. for other individuals, and yet somehow this is still a debatable point. Well, people are now finally ceding that part of the discussion and not attacking a person on a CNN for saying it.
SPEAKER 05 :
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.
In this thought-provoking episode, Craig Collins steps in for Dana Lash to deliver a robust analysis of current political events and figures. He begins by reflecting on the life and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter, exploring the contrast between his presidency and current political climate. Collins offers an intriguing perspective on how former presidents are revered differently posthumously and how political narratives take shape over time. The discussion then pivots to the controversy surrounding the H-1B visa, where Collins breaks down the issues of quota breaches and financial disparities involved with the visa's misuse. Collins critiques the decision-making shown by the current administration, particularly in light of foreign policy and governance lapses. The episode also delves into media's portrayal of political figures, mainly focusing on Joe Biden's cognitive abilities and its implications for the upcoming electoral cycle.
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SPEAKER 04 :
This is The Dana Show. My name is Craig Collins filling in. Thrilled to be with you. Follow Dana Lash all over the place. You can go to danaradio.com or dlash or danalashradio on X on Twitter to stay connected to her and all the things that she's up to. Incredibly talented, famous, smart individual in the world of politics that I highly recommend. you stay connected to, and obviously you do if you're listening to this show with an idiot like me filling in. Thrilled to be here right before the holidays. U.S. President, former President Jimmy Carter passed away at 100 years old. It is interesting the longevity, the lifespan of our most recent presidents. 93 is the age at which several of our most recent presidents passed away, and now 100 is the age of Jimmy Carter. In retrospect, A lot of people are being nicer about a one term president than say they would have been shortly after he left office. The comparisons to Carter's presidency and Biden's are often kind of, you know, all over the place. But after Jimmy Carter passes away, probably not the right time to have a deep dives into some of that. Even Trump put out something relatively nice about Jimmy Carter, which is interesting to me. And you shouldn't do this. I don't mean to do this. But Carter was fairly not nice, fairly mean to Trump, calling him an illegitimate president, all kinds of things, blaming Russia for his election. And yet what Trump said about Carter seems to totally ignore that. For anyone that's narrative is that Trump's just a mean guy who hates people who hate him, this seems to not be the case. Here is what President-elect Trump put out in response to Jimmy Carter's passing. I just heard about the news of the passing of President Jimmy Carter. Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as president understand that it is a very exclusive club, and only we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leading the greatest nation in history. A great start to the sentiment, sir. The challenges Jimmy faced as president came at a pivotal time for our country, and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude. Jimmy was a good person. By the standard of today's politician, to say the least, a lot of people could live up to the individual himself, something that they actually often pretend Biden is, even though Biden is someone who's had controversy after controversy surrounding him and his own family and the behaviors of his family and the pardoning of Hunter Biden being the latest version of he's not the guy you thought he was, while also not just being mentally capable of being the president of the United States over the last few years, according to many, someone who has a lot of corruption, it seems like, in his potential past that we may find out about in the near future. So it seems even crazier that in response to a question about Carter and his significance, President Biden tried to reference Trump, in some way, shape or form, tried to say how decency was part of Jimmy Carter as a person and decency will be lacking when someone takes office in the near future. It is amazing the things that Biden did that were just terrible during his time in office. The failure in Afghanistan, you can go through the whole list. Inflation being as bad as it was partly because of his war on energy, etc., etc., and for him to also say, even after pardoning his son for crimes that really feel like they tie to the big guy, you know, after all of that, saying that decency is something that apparently he thinks we have now, we had when Carter was president, and we won't have in the near future.
SPEAKER 22 :
Decency. Decency. Decency. Everybody deserves a shot.
SPEAKER 04 :
By the way, it was almost as if he was trying to be a ventriloquist for a bit there because he smiled as he said decency multiple times. And I don't know that his face moved as much as it should. It's a weird criticism, but I can't help it. But that was Biden's response to is there something that Trump should take from Carter? And granted, again, Trump really took the high road in what he said about Jimmy Carter after Jimmy Carter passes away. I thought George W. Bush said something nice, too, in his reference to the family members, naming several of them and saying that Jimmy Carter is someone that will be missed and your heart goes out out of the family. That's kind of the human response we don't get as much from others in society. But George W. Bush would have had his own. a loss in the last few years in his own family, so maybe he understands it better. I'm not really sure what the reason was for that, but I thought that was uniquely good. All right. Another big thing that's been a discussion for some time now has been the H-1B visa. Donald Trump, over the weekend, President-elect Trump came out and said that he likes it. This is something that he hasn't exactly said in the past before. Some of his policy has even made or attempted to make the H-1B visa harder for the government or harder for companies to get. This was right before he exited the White House in 2020. It's something they ran out of time in actually getting done. But here's the thing. And I guess what MAGA, or whatever they call it online, mainstream media hates when people seem to get together and have a consensus opinion that seems to be conservative or supports Trump anywhere. Twitter is a hellscape to those individuals because there's people that actually like Trump and like certain things that are there, including Elon Musk. But here's the takeaway for me, is that you did have a real debate a debate where people went back and forth. And maybe Elon was the only guy that got over the top for a bit with some choice words about it. And at the end of it, you seem to have a consensus opinion that will push us in a better direction. Robert Sterling is probably the best person on social media to dive into as far as this issue is concerned in actual data. at Robert M. Sterling on Twitter, on X, if you want to find it. He dove into the numbers. And one of the best things he pointed out is that that visa is only supposed to be approved a little under 100,000 times a year. About 85,000 of these visas are supposed to be available annually. However, in 2024, we gave out almost 900,000, meaning 10 times the limit we were supposed to give out. And if you look at the financial numbers for people who gain this visa and then the salary they have when they first come into the United States, And you should take as a caveat a grain of salt there. It's not necessarily pointed out in this data that this would be someone's first job, more likely than not, in coming into our country. But the numbers don't seem to make sense compared to what you'd expect them to be. $75,000 a year or less? 17% of people who gained that visa in 2024 had a salary in that range. 21% of people had a salary range between 75 and 100,000. Again, if you're hiring high-end, top-shelf programmers, coders, tech sector people, you'd assume they're making more money than this. 22% make between 100 and 125, and only 15% make more than $125,000 a year when you dive into this data. which seems to show you that there are a lot of companies that are using this visa to convince somebody, whoever they need to convince, that they need a worker of a certain skill set, when in reality they just need to pay somebody less money, and they know they can do that with someone who's coming to the United States, and in some way, shape, or form, according to some online, would even be sort of an indentured servant, because if they lose their job, they also lose their status in the United States, so they're going to be a more agreeable employee than, say, someone else might be. So there's certainly issues. Elon Musk responded to this thread by saying this is easily fixed by forcing the costs of the visa to go up significantly to make it harder for employers to actually net benefit from using it. They should net lose. compared to hiring an American, which would incentivize them to hire an American, even if the American isn't as good at the job as a foreign person is. This seems like the best possible course of action. But again, the thing that a lot of people seem to love about this is that you had a debate. The side of the aisle that didn't like it was within the side of the aisle that was saying it was okay. So an infight. And it ended in us having a clearer path forward. That's how a mature party handles some sort of friction. And you have to ignore everything in the world of mainstream media, everything in the world of far left politicians who are desperate for this relationship to crater completely. They would like Elon Musk and Donald Trump to hate each other. They want X and Twitter to hate Elon Musk or to also hate Trump more than it does. They want everything about the coordination of it to go away because it's harming them and their ability to do things behind closed doors. The biggest way to beat DC, Washington, the elite crap that goes on is to stop having our eyes closed, is to stop plugging our ears, to stop pretending that there's good guys and bad guys and not mostly bad guys. And that if your team is the team doing something that you don't have to be critical of it. And my favorite audio actually out there in response to this is some audio from CBS. So one of the pundits on CBS News said that her biggest regrets of 2024, at least when it comes to, you know, media in general, is not trying harder to push on the question of is Biden's brain broken. which to me is hilarious for a variety of reasons, because a whole lot of us knew that the brain was broken, and when we yelled and screamed about it, most of the rest of media said that we were being far-right crazy people who, how dare you, enhance a conspiracy theory or a, quote, cheap fake. Here, I'll play some of this audio quickly, because I do really love it, because there's no more unaware than this to say out loud that whoopsie daisy this is what we got wrong and we should have tried harder when the reality was you you adamantly fought against this narrative for as long as you did and you use the excuse of there being bad guys and good guys and the media that you say is bad was the one that was talking about this for four years mainstream media missed this Conservative media did not. We didn't even come close to missing this point that Biden can't think, can't exit stages, can't say words and sentences together. And I love how much of media is pretending that didn't happen.
SPEAKER 07 :
Undercovered, underreported. That would be, to me, Joe Biden's obvious cognitive decline that became undeniable. in the televised debate.
SPEAKER 23 :
At the presidential debate with Donald Trump.
SPEAKER 07 :
Unquestioned. You could not hide it anymore. Sorry, continue. You know, it's starting to emerge now that his advisors kind of managed his limitations. It's been reported in the Wall Street Journal.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it has been reported. But a lot of other people were saying time and again when, say, Biden would say something and then his own administration would correct him via a press release that we kind of seem like they were managing him before or when there were more reports of the amount of access and the lack thereof for the president, for anyone within the White House, let alone press and people wanting to ask tougher questions.
SPEAKER 07 :
That was something we knew about for a while, lady. For four years. And yet he insisted that he could still run for president. We should have much more forcefully questioned whether he was fit for office for another four years, which could have led to a primary for the Democrats. It could have changed the scope of the entire election.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, it wouldn't have. To be honest, I really doubt that anyone would have been an heir apparent to come forward and defeat Trump. And the biggest reason why I believe that, that Trump was unbeatable in this last election, is the way that they went after him. It didn't matter who they were running against him. What mattered is how they were trying to hold him accountable in federal courts for things that made no sense. Or they found him guilty in a court in New York City of a crime that's almost always a misdemeanor that he didn't even seem to commit, but is a felony for some reason because his name is Trump. Those reasons, the attacks on Trump from the left is what made him unbeatable. Oh yeah, and then they tried to kill him and he stood up and he said, fight, fight, fight. That seemed like another moment where Trump became an unbeatable politician in the world of this country. and what this country stands for and believes in. So I don't think that pushing Biden into the closet earlier would have actually helped the Democratic Party. But I digress. They could have shot the messenger a tad less and not been so mad that the thing that was being pointed out that was obviously true was coming from the conservative media places that they like to pretend aren't actually telling the truth ever. And that's why they ignore or at least claim that they're ignoring and not just willfully helping the other side in whatever way they ask. All right. Quick break. A lot coming up. Greg Collins filling in on the Dana Show.
SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 26 :
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SPEAKER 20 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
This is the Dana Show. My name is Craig Collins filling in. Let's do a real quick, quick five.
SPEAKER 17 :
And now, all of the news you would probably miss. It's time for Dana's Quick Five.
SPEAKER 04 :
That's right. Warren Upton is the name of a 105-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor who sadly passed away over the weekend as well. Jimmy Carter passed away at 100. Warren Upton passed away at 105. Again, oldest living Pearl Harbor survivor. Benjamin Netanyahu underwent a prostate removal operation. Court testimony was delayed in informing people about this. That's not exactly unsurprising. You delay that information. Greg Gumbel, CBS sports broadcasting legend, also passed away over the weekend. He died at 78. That was a sad thing to a lot of people who were big fans of sports in general because Greg Gumbel at one point was a lot of places. in sports media and quite good at his job. And finally, one last one that I thought was interesting. Abortions are actually up in the United States since Dobbs, since the overturning of Roe versus Wade. I know it's not something I'm going to celebrate or I'm not happy about. It's just an interesting stat that flies right in the face of anyone that said that the woman's right to choose was being overly controlled, that women's health was in tremendous jeopardy, etc., etc., all those different narratives. It would be the weirdest counterpoint possible to be just a simple, demonstrable fact that this, in fact, is a procedure that's increasing within our country, not decreasing, maybe not increasing in every single state. Of course, ones that have made it harder make that more challenging. But there are states that are seeing more of this. And then also, and I keep reminding people about this whenever I talk about it. which is really seldom, I hope, especially during the holiday season. In the actual decision by the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, of all people, said that there should not be any punishment if someone chooses to cross the state line and do something in one state that's legal that might be less legal or not fully illegal, but controlled in another state. So there is no fear-mongering about that topic either. I think. But that's a real story out there in the world that you're not going to hear about from a lot of Democrats who claimed other stuff. All right, quick break. A lot coming up. Craig Collins filling in on The Dana Show.
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SPEAKER 04 :
This is The Dana Show. My name is Craig Collins filling in. Follow Dana everywhere at DLash or DanaLashRadio on X on Twitter. One of the best ways to stay connected to her. You can't predict him. He's all over the place. He's here. He's there. He's everywhere. I feel like I almost want to do like a Roy Kent chant. If anyone watched any version of that TV show, Ted Lasso, that got terrible. by the third season. All right, anyway, Donald Trump came out today and endorsed Speaker Mike Johnson and said that he has, quote, my total and complete endorsement, and then MAGA with exclamation points as well put in there. The reason I say this was unpredictable is you had many people believing, and I strongly think this as well, that Mike Johnson's days were numbered as the Speaker of the House because he has not done a good job of having a backbone. That seems to be the biggest issue with him, as he has on multiple occasions, especially when it comes to preventing the shutdown of the government, went ahead and sided with some Democrats behind closed doors to come up with some plans that really didn't make sense spending-wise to a whole lot of, well, Republicans or conservatives or just American people, I'm going to go ahead and say. I think this makes sense, though, from a political strategy standpoint, whether this remains to be the case, say, after Trump is inaugurated and our president. We'll see, because if you disappoint the man, once you're actually in the position of power, he will let you know that, too. And anything that he's done maybe before, maybe it's like 2025. Let's start fresh. Let's start new. Let's see how much more of a backbone you have when I'm actually in the White House. Because that feels to me where this is going. But to give you some of the post that was put up on Truth Social and then shared all over social media and actually even Speaker Johnson put it up on X and thanked President Trump for his support, saying he was humbled and honored by it. And a lot of us, I think, hope that it's not misplaced. Although, again, it might be temporary support more so than long lasting, if I'm going to guess about it. But Trump said, we are the party of common sense. a primary reason that we won in a landslide the magnificent and historic presidential election of 2024. All seven swing states, 312 electoral college votes, and the popular vote by millions of voters, despite large-scale voter fraud taking place in numerous states, including California, where votes are ridiculously still being counted and under review. That is true. By the way, Trump's saying that it's kind of insane that California is still trying to figure out what happened there. And yet we knew that somebody won the Powerball in California within 24 hours of that occurring. That feels like something you got to fix a little bit. Jumping ahead in Trump's tweet, or I guess he put this up as a truth first, and then it got shared on X. $11 million to Beyonce, who never even sang a song. $2 million to Oprah, who did next to nothing. $500,000 to Reverend Al, a professional con man, an instigator who agreed to interview, with quotes around it, their star-spangled candidate, Kamala and Joe. That's hilarious. He said that this demonstrates just how terribly the Democratic Party wasted $2.5 billion. Most of it's still unaccounted for, according to President-elect Trump in their failed attempt to beat him in a presidential election. Finally, getting to the tail end, it says they ran a very expensive sinking ship embracing the DOJ and FBI weaponization against their political opponent, me. But it didn't work. It was a disaster. Let's not blow the great opportunity which we have been given. The American people need immediate relief from all of the destructive policies of the last administration. Here it is. Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hardworking religious man. He will do the right thing and he will continue to win. Mike is my complete and total endorsement. MAGA. He will do the right thing is the part that I like because it's not necessarily saying out loud that you have 100% faith that he has done the right thing so far, but he'll do it. And if he doesn't do it, we'll let him know. The biggest reason for this, by the way, and I know I took a lot of time to read a lot of that message that I probably didn't need to. You can go find it on Truth Social or on X.com. is that you can't have turmoil right now. You just can't. And I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that it takes the Republican Party, or at least recently did take the Republican Party a while to land on a speaker. That's politics like we used to have it way back in the day. However, when you have to certify an election, when you have to go ahead and let the president become the next president of the United States, you can't have anything throw a wrench in that system. That's a self-inflicted wound. And the biggest debate and Fox News was one of the places that put this out there over the last week or so is if there was a new speaker fight. Would it take so long as to disrupt some of President Trump becoming President Trump again? And if so, that would be bad. So I imagine that's the biggest reason for this is for now. Mike Johnson's got to stay the Speaker of the House. But if you need him removed, if Trump turns on somebody in the next, I think, six months to a year, that person's political career is over. Trump just decisively won. And so up until maybe two years from now, he loses, if he even does, any sort of ownership of House and Congress and connection in the Senate, connection between branches of the government. I think for now, what he says will wind up working. And I think it actually is a reflection of people voting him into that office in the degree in which they did, which he points out there. You love him. You hate him. I don't care. He is at the forefront of political power right now, demonstrated mostly by the fact that he's wielding so much influence and he's not even actually the president yet, which seems to matter. And actually, I thought one of the best analysis of Biden will be that he'll be most remembered as the guy who served between two Trump terms, as opposed to someone who had a significant presidential impact. All right, I want to play some audio that, for the most part, I just use as a silly story and wouldn't treat it seriously. And I'm not trying to treat it more seriously by doing it here. But you had a doctor, Dr. Wen, pop up on Face the Nation over the weekend. and say how bird flu is a big deal, how we have vaccines and all this other stuff about, and I'm about to play a bunch of this audio, and we need to do more before Trump takes over to essentially mimic some of the worst mistakes we made during COVID. And she's saying it as if we learned good lessons during coronavirus, seeming to forget all of the valuable analysis that has finally been made public that demonstrated how many huge mistakes we actually made. But here's a little bit of this audio.
SPEAKER 24 :
What should be happening in the Biden administration right now that isn't going on?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, there are two main things that they should be doing in the days that they have left. The first is to get testing out there. I feel like we should have learned our lesson from COVID that just because we aren't testing, it doesn't mean that the virus isn't there. It just means that we aren't looking for it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, even though our tests were tested, terribly flawed and didn't tell us the right things more often than not. Continue.
SPEAKER 01 :
We should be having rapid tests, home tests available to all farm workers, to their families, for the clinicians taking care of them so that we aren't waiting for public labs and CDC labs to tell us what's bird flu or not. And the second very important thing is this is not like the beginning of COVID where we were dealing with a new virus, we didn't have a vaccine. There actually is a vaccine developed already against H5N1. The Biden administration has contracted with manufacturers to make almost 5 million doses of the vaccine. However, they have not asked the FDA to authorize the vaccine.
SPEAKER 04 :
I got to stop right there. How amazing is that? That apparently we paid a whole crap ton of money to the pharmaceutical industry to make 5 million doses of a vaccine that we haven't even actually tried to make available. Not that I'm telling you to take it. I think that maybe a whole lot of Americans would go ahead and say no to this. But that sounds like we just lit money on fire and handed it to the pharmaceutical industry for them to enjoy, basically, is the admission there. But what's crazy to me is that this is happening again today. in December, around the holidays, right before Trump takes office. Maybe it's another reason that he's coming out in so much support of Mike Johnson and trying to put out the fires on the MAGA side of the aisle, or whatever you want to call it. Again, I don't always believe that as many people are the version of MAGA that the hard left describes as, or what they think it is, than the reality in the world. But I digress. The fear-mongering, the whatever it might be that's going on here, hopefully it goes in one ear and out the other for a whole lot of Americans, unless a lot of people actually get sick. Don't tell us we're going to get sick. Let's react to it after the fact, and let's make sure it actually is that, and not somebody who got hit by a car and then was diagnosed with coronavirus, which happened a bunch of times, and then, this is why this is a serious problem, even though probably the getting hit by the car part might have been the issue for the individuals that had those types of things happen. But anyway, this is the latest version of this. There's many stories out there about it. A whole lot of trying to convince us that this is going to be terrible and bad and then eventually starting to surrender our rights all over again. I think this will fail. At least I already assume it's failing so far because it's definitely already being attempted. And this is the best part. of what COVID did for our society. It taught whoever was skeptical lessons that a lot of us needed to know or needed to understand the depth of them and essentially allows us to now see anything going on at a DC in these places as a boy who cried wolf at best and something worse. at much worse. All right. Another great montage. And this is the year of montages, the year of this kind of stuff coming out. But another great one emerged on social media over the weekend of media telling us just how intelligent and sharp our president was, even though he was absolutely anything but that for the entirety of his presidency and even while running for that office. He was someone who was diminished and the people around him knew it. His wife, if you think about the first lady, one of the people who will go down in history as the most deceptive to the American people will be someone who barely had the impact I think she wanted to have, at least, you know, impact that we give her credit for. Who knows the amount of impact she actually had behind closed doors is Dr. Jill, Dr. Lady Biden. who, again, I think contractually, I have to say that several times, that MD is not in health. I just like to point that out, too, because she would have known more than anyone else the decline in her own husband. And she hit it as hard as everybody else did. I mean, look at Hunter Biden, if you believe the narrative and the fact that he did a bunch of stuff behind his dad's back for years, which we don't believe. A lot of us obviously think that Joe is in on it. But the other narrative isn't much better. And then you have Jill Biden essentially allowing her husband to be a puppet. for several years and wielding whatever power she could from it, that will be one of the darkest legacies of this presidency. But I'll play this montage of all the times we were told that everything's great, which literally sounds like the state media of places like North Korea, China, Russia. This seems real bad, and I'm sure this is something that media will not apologize for to the degree that it should, or it'll blame somebody else, conservative media, whoever, for being so willing to lie to us as profoundly as they did.
SPEAKER 15 :
Does the president have the stamina, physically and mentally, do you think to continue on even after 2024?
SPEAKER 09 :
Don, you're asking me this question. Oh, my gosh. He's the president of the United States. You know, he, I can't even keep up with him.
SPEAKER 14 :
The most difficult part about a meeting with President Biden is preparing for it. Because he is sharp, intensely probing, and detail-oriented, and focused. I can tell.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know another reason that it's difficult to prep for one of those meetings? According to the Wall Street Journal, you had to submit all your questions in advance, and you weren't actually allowed to ask any during. So you had a lot of homework before you met with Joe.
SPEAKER 21 :
Testify, because I've been working very closely with this president for the past two years. I've been knowing him for 30 years. And I'm telling you, this guy's tough. He's smart. He's on his game. Joe Biden has vision. He has knowledge.
SPEAKER 09 :
He has a strategic thinker.
SPEAKER 27 :
The president is focused. He's detail-oriented. He's always thinking about the big picture.
SPEAKER 04 :
He's a man's man. He's an Adonis. I don't know what other roads they went. It honestly sounds a little bit like Chuck Norris jokes, if I'm not dating myself and making that reference. The amount of Joe Biden is, which would probably be a viral trend on Twitter, on X, to tell us just how great of a person and how intelligent he was. It sounds exactly the same. as those jokes about the ridiculousness of, you know, the sun doesn't rise, Chuck Norris allows it to get up, that kind of stuff out there. That's what they said about Joe, and Joe's brain was broken the entire time. He's probably not even aware of all the gushing praise he got until eventually he was shoved into a corner. All right, quick break. A lot coming up. Craig Collins filling in on the day of the show.
SPEAKER 13 :
We got a lot more on the way as we roll towards headlines. Our partners who helped bring us the program. It's our friends over at Caltech, the P15. It stands for 15 pews, standard capacity. That might be a little bit more for the people who have weak arm muscles. I don't know. But Caltech is a great company, a Florida-based company. And they have a lifetime warranty on everything that they do. They are the inventors of the micro compact pistol category. They have two versions, metal frame polymer as well. Metal frame has a gorgeous walnut wood panels, textured grips. You get the polymer gator grip for a true classic look and feel. Just they're great pistols. They come with two magazines. One is the standard 15 round, minimal pinky extension. The other more concealable even. Flesh fit double stack mag that holds 12. It's the lightest, thinnest double stack 9mm on the market. I mean, it's just, you know, there's no bones about it. Quality made right here in the U.S. of A. Innovation, performance, and Kel-Tec. Only at Kel-Tec. Learn more at keltecweapons.com. Ask about the P-15. Again, you got the metal frame in the polymer version. You're going to like it. It doesn't matter if you're a seasoned pro or you're just looking for another EDC. It's the P-15 at Kel-Tec. Kel-TecWeapons.com. That's K-E-L-T-E-C-Weapons.com. Tell them Dana sent you.
SPEAKER 20 :
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 04 :
This is the Dana Show. My name is Craig Collins filling in for just one more day. Dana is back after the holidays. D-Lash, Dana Lash Radio. Great ways to stay connected to her on X on Twitter. The University of Iowa announced in the middle of this month that they were going to get rid of American Studies in Gender, Women's and Sexual Studies. and also end some of the majors that existed in American Studies and Social Justice. Iowa said that they had less than 60 students combined in those fields, and they're also responding to the changing landscape of, quote, DEI or the terribleness of it. I love the fact that in light of that, recent video has gone viral of a teacher at the University of Iowa being very upset that this is going away, saying she's disappointed, saying it was a growing major at the school. 60 total students across all of it. Again, something we learned about several weeks ago. Here we go.
SPEAKER 10 :
It's disappointing. It's a little, it's sad. She teaches gender studies and social justice courses and says she's seen a spike in student interest. We've seen our majors grow and social justice was one of the fastest growing majors.
SPEAKER 04 :
of the units that are being sort of restructured i love if she says that as in like we used to have 10 now we have 20 students that seems insanely big 100 growth in our field but they're going away maybe common sense is finally prevailing at least in some places of education but i like how disappointed she is in uh what's being taken away and what it's being replaced with because actually a course of study called social and cultural analysis Sounds like it might replace it. And that maybe will have two viewpoints as opposed to one. Maybe you'll be told that some of the viewpoints you were taught in these previous versions of, you know, departments or whatever majors was actually opinion and not necessarily fact, as often was the case and usually the problem for a lot of these things. But I loved everything about this decision comes after Iowa State Board approved 10 recommendations to scale back diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the Hawkeye State. Because, again, this is brainwashing. This isn't actually teaching people how to be critical thinkers. This is telling them that a specific version of facts are the only facts they need to care about, even if they're not facts at all. Darn it. And even if they're written by people who have tremendous opinions and not necessarily a lot of information to back that up. But I did like that story being all over and out there, especially since, again, she called it one of the fastest growing majors at the school. One more time, just to make sure that the people in the back heard it. Sixty total students in those majors across multiple different focuses at the University of Iowa. Probably not exactly taking off and becoming the thing that she's claiming it was being. One last thing, too. I just thought this was interesting. Democratic policies have devastated San Francisco. There are housing prices that are plunging and widespread tech layoffs. So when you declare war on some things or allow certain things to exist, guess what? You harm the place in which you actually live as San Francisco is further falling apart. More on that later. Craig Collins filling in on The Dana Show. This is the Dana Show. My name is Craig Collins filling in. Thrilled to be with you. Bunch of stuff to talk about just before the holidays. D-Lash, Dana Lash Radio. Great ways to stay connected to her or danaradio.com as well. Donald Trump issued a statement about the passing of Jimmy Carter, who died at 100 years old. Several of our former presidents who passed away recently made it at the age of 93. Kind of eerie that you have a couple people pass away at that same age. And then Jimmy Carter makes it to 100. So the longevity or the life expectancy for former presidents is certainly quite high, which actually, to be honest, is probably a good thing. It says something about the quality of our country if our presidents live long lives. And also, I think, interesting, the way that Trump praised Jimmy Carter, while not necessarily saying he was a great president, was presidential in behavior, especially since you have to remember that Carter called Trump an illegitimate president who won because of Russia's interference in our election, at least in 2016. This is what Donald Trump said on social media. I just heard of the news about the passing of President Jimmy Carter. Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as president understand this is a very exclusive club, and only we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leading the greatest nation in history. The challenges Jimmy faced as president came at a pivotal time for our country, and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude. I will play one other piece of audio. I'm not trying to celebrate the passing of an individual. That is sad, of course. The heart goes out to family, to loved ones, offer prayers, all that stuff. Any sort of loss in our families is tremendously difficult. It always is. Be a human about that. But Mike Francesa probably said it better than anyone as far as not relitigating the Jimmy Carter presidency itself as anything other than what it was.
SPEAKER 16 :
President Jimmy Carter has passed away at the age of amazingly 100. I don't know if he's the first president to ever make 100. He is. He was not a great president.
SPEAKER 04 :
He's not a great president. That was simply accurate. A one-term president who lost 44 out of 50 states when Ronald Reagan defeated him because a whole lot of people were upset about it. I kind of feel this is a weird way to say this, but part of the praise of Jimmy Carter coming from the left, especially from people like Biden, is because they see Biden as the next Jimmy Carter. Everything about Biden's presidency has mirrored, if not done tremendously worse, than Jimmy Carter did. On top of that, Biden seems like a much worse person than Jimmy Carter, even though we were sold as him being like this great guy. The amount of controversies and potential horrible doings that are tied to Joe and his family are through the roof. You can't say the same about Jimmy Carter as far as being a man of faith, of God, of character. That is true. And if you're Joe Biden, you also want to take a shot as you're going out toward and going out of the office of president toward President Trump and say that he's not a person of character. Again, with a straight face, as the amount of things you're accused of are crazy. Here's a little bit of audio of President Biden saying that you can't picture Jimmy Carter behaving the way that Donald Trump behaved. I will tell you that right before I play this audio, my immediate thoughts goes to all the horrible things this president and a whole lot of Democrats have said about MAGA Republicans, not just Trump, which they say is a horrible threat to democracy, dictator, whatever, but a lot of people who vote for him. They've said horrible things about those people, too. But again, let's pretend that we've always taken the high road in any of these discussions.
SPEAKER 12 :
Thank you, President Trump, to take from President Carter.
SPEAKER 22 :
Decency. Decency. Decency. Everybody deserves a shot. Everybody. Uh-huh. Can you imagine Jimmy Carter walking by someone who needs something and just keep walking? Can you imagine Jimmy Carter referring to someone by the way they look or the way they talk? I can't. I can't.
SPEAKER 04 :
We can think about you, sir, attacking people for a whole lot of things that seem like they were outside the scope of what presidential elections were supposed to be about. We can think about you doing that. We can also think about you blatantly lying to the American people about a bunch of stuff and also pretending everything's fine when it's not, which is what you and several people around you have been doing for years now. But darn it, go ahead. pretend you can get on the high and mighty horse and judge those around you when talking about Carter. And also the press who want to ask the question about how does Trump connect to Carter? What's the difference there? Well, one thing that Trump does get to say is that he resoundingly beat, not even Biden, I wonder what that actually would have been. I wonder if Biden had stayed in the race and they didn't replace him with Harris. Would things have actually gone worse or better for Democrats? I know they wouldn't have won. I know Trump would have won the popular vote and won all the swing states just the same. I wonder if it would have been a more resounding defeat that echoed the 44 to 50 state victory from Ronald Reagan over Jimmy Carter. Again, not trying to be mean to a man who passed away, who lived a long life at 100. but also not pretending that the truth isn't the truth because of what happened over the weekend. I will play this audio. This is a talking head on one of the TV public whatever or cable stations. I don't know why I called it public for a second. I'm just saying something very quick about Kamala Harris. Could Biden have beaten Trump?
SPEAKER 21 :
What do you think?
SPEAKER 25 :
think he would have had a better shot than Kamala Harris. Nobody ever liked Kamala Harris back in 2019 when she was running. She couldn't get a foot in the door.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I know. Nobody liked her. Nobody liked her very much at all. That is absolutely true. I don't think Biden would have done better, though. To be honest, I think that the mental decline of Biden would have caused a lot of people to be incapable. even voting for him, even if they wanted him and hated Joe, or excuse me, hated Trump, which I think would have made even less people show up to vote this time around than did. I think, if anything, Harris did get more votes of people who could say, I'm voting against Trump, and I'm willing to accept whatever bad comes with it. You couldn't say that about Biden anymore after that debate, and that was one of the biggest issues, I think, that we saw. All right, another thing out there that I thought was pretty interesting is Mexico is going to be creating an app that lets migrants send alerts if they're detained in the United States. This typically will be used for people who are coming into the country illegally. I don't know that the people will even all be from Mexico per se, but they would be using an app created by the Mexican government that can alert family members to being detained and even try to alert, you know, authorities to the fact that they're being detained illegally. This app seems to be designed in trying to, at least in some way, shape or form, benefit people that think that they're being detained, you know, legally, unfairly, but also might have a byproduct that's valuable of telling a lot of people that they're not succeeding in an attempt to, say, get into our country illegally. And that's what we need. We need a deterrent that needs to be a thing that causes us to get a grasp or a handle on what's going on. Mexico is also alerting citizens about the likelihood of being detained in the United States. So that's something that's certainly growing in awareness as Trump gets closer and closer to becoming the next president. And as Tom Holman, the border czar, continues to say out loud the amount of stuff he's going to do the moment he's actually in that role as president, because darn it, there's a whole lot of things that matter and a whole lot of things that become important about doing much better than we've done so far. And actually, when you talk about the border specifically, One of the more interesting discussions on CNN was about the cost of handling, you know, deporting a lot of people, moving people out of this country that shouldn't be here. And one of the more ownership moments that I've seen in a while with Abby Phillips on CNN involved talking about exactly this topic and having her own people, her own talking heads on the TV, telling her how wrong she was about what she was saying. because she was claiming that the expense of deporting people is just going to be too high. Darn it. We're just not going to be capable of doing it. And there's some issues with that way of thinking. There's some issues with that way of discussing this topic, because the amount of money that it's costing us to have people be here illegally and be supported by our government is, well, darn it, through the roof. But I thought that that was an interesting moment on television because if people say the part out loud that you don't like them to say, you eventually just get quiet enough to where you try to ignore that you just lost. And then I think the go-to move is also to take a break and to get away from the topic entirely. But that was interesting to me because more and more often, I guess I can say it this way before I play any of that audio for you, More and more often, you are watching parts of media at least accept the person on the other side who's saying the thing that is true, that many Americans believe to be true, that many Americans would say is one of the bigger reasons that they say voted for Trump to be in office. And what I think is so fascinating about that is these are the types of rhetoric points that you wanted to ignore in the past that now you just have to silently accept. And here I'll play an example and then I'll tell you what I mean. This is that conversation back and forth with Abby Phillip and her panel talking about how she thinks it's going to be too expensive to actually remove people who are here illegally.
SPEAKER 02 :
One of the things I've heard him give a lot of interviews, and I know he understands the problem that they want to solve, but he doesn't seem to have a sense of the scope of what it's going to take, what it's going to cost. And that's a critical question.
SPEAKER 05 :
I actually had a meeting with Tom Holman the other day, along with a number of my colleagues, and we talked about this very issue.
SPEAKER 04 :
That's Mike Lawler, by the way, being like, we do know about this.
SPEAKER 05 :
It's already costing states like New York billions of dollars of taxpayer money to provide free housing, clothing, food, education and health care to illegal immigrants. Then you have the situation where you have criminal aliens committing violent crimes, just as we saw a woman being burned alive on a subway by a man who was previously deported and then came back into the United States illegally.
SPEAKER 04 :
So that's another moment that we've seen this conversation evolve. If you were to say that people who are here illegally sometimes, not always, commit horrible crimes, in the past, the left would yell at you for being a racist. But now that there have been enough high-profile instances of people who don't have the right to be in this country, who also did horrible things like that person who lit someone on fire on the New York subway, now you have to accept that there is an increased amount of dangerous people that have come into our country. Again, I'm not trying to say that everyone who comes across the border is in that group. It's sort of insane to say that, and Democrats are pretending Republicans say that, even when they're not. And Tom Holman's stated mission is to remove the dangerous people from our society, not people who are simply here illegally, but people who have done terrible things after coming into our country illegally. That should be a no-brainer discussion for most Americans. Like, yeah, I don't think I want people to be allowed to stay who've committed horrible acts of violence or serious crimes who also don't have any right to be here. There's no real argument to keep someone in our country when that is the scenario they're in. even for those bleeding-heart people who want to say that there is an argument on the other side for other individuals, and yet somehow this is still a debatable point. Well, people are now finally ceding that part of the discussion and not attacking a person on a CNN for saying it. All right, quick break. A lot coming up. Craig Collins filling in on The Dana Show.
SPEAKER 20 :
Brighten up your timely news consumption with a Dana Show podcast, where every update comes with a little dash of not so serious. On YouTube, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is the Dana Show. My name is Craig Collins filling in. Let's fire off a quick five.
SPEAKER 17 :
And now, all of the news you would probably miss. It's time for Dana's Quick Five.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is a new story. This isn't an old story. A bubble boy was rescued. Feel weird in the way I just said that. In Brazil, a sailor by the name of Rafael Garcia de Prado found a dude, a kid, eight years old, drift in the sea in a bubble. The bubble seemed like it was fragile, maybe even punctured a little bit. So the guy moved his ship into a spot where he could rescue the eight-year-old who thanked him. repeatedly in Portuguese. Since this was in Brazil, I can't play the audio. We're getting him out of the bubble and into the ship and bringing him back to safety. Some questions still exist, like how did the boy get into the bubble and get in the ocean in the first place? But darn it, saved a kid on the water. That part is great. I love part of that story. So, so much. A police commissioner has been ousted after dozens of NYPD bosses complained and a bunch of other information has come out. It's one week after a sex scandal also rocked the NYPD. I am pro-cop, definitively pro-cop. Being pro-cop means that when cops do bad things, you tell the truth about it, but you don't allow that to overshadow all the cops who do great things every day in our society, in our country, in the world. But what's interesting about this is sometimes the way the New York PD behaves, say, compared to other departments, maybe more their press people than the actual people serving and protecting the city. And sometimes the arrogance of some of those individuals winds up hurting them, like I think it did in the place of this commissioner, who had spoken negatively quite a few times about quite a lot, even called reporters pieces of trash and winds up out of a gig for, well, seeming to be someone who's not exactly living up to to the standard you're supposed to live up to. I said that nicely. I didn't have to be nice, but it's almost the new year. I saw this story, too. There was someone with a sword in a parking lot. An Indiana man was arrested in Indianapolis after allegedly pulling out a machete at a family dollar. I feel like a lot of things about this story are terrible, mostly the family dollar machete part. Who brings a machete to the family dollar? I have that question first and foremost. Can't exactly buy one there. I don't think that's something you're picking up on the way. But apparently an argument of some kind causing an issue in a parking lot ends with luckily no one being hurt, but a machete being wielded, which got to be a weird moment. too, once that happens. And then finally, one last story that I thought was interesting. Three relatives actually passed away after eating the same Christmas cake months after a baker's husband died from food poisoning. This story has begged a whole lot of questions about what the heck is going on as far as this bakery is concerned, as far as individuals connected to this story are concerned. This feels like a conspiracy theory that's going to deserve more attention. although probably it will, you know, pale in comparison to all the political stuff we talk about in the new year. But three relatives have passed away after eating a Christmas cake months after someone's husband also died from consuming products from this baker's store. But all right, that's a story that's real and out there in the world and terrifying and not uplifting at all. Hey, College football is coming up in a few days. At least that's going to be wonderful. I'll throw that in as the last topic as a palate cleanser. A quick break. A lot more. Craig Collins filling in on the Dana Show.
SPEAKER 20 :
Make some common sense of the crazy headlines with the Dana Show podcast. Your on-the-go guide for getting up to speed on today's most important stories. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple, or your favorite podcast platform.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is the Dana Show. My name is Craig Collins filling in. Thrilled to be with you. Bunch of stuff out there to talk about. Find Dana at DLash or DanaLashRadio on X on Twitter. One of the best ways to stay connected to her. Speaker Mike Johnson has thanked Donald Trump for his endorsement. Speaker Johnson put up on X, Thank you, Mr. President. I'm honored and humbled by your support. As always, together we will quickly deliver on the America First agenda and usher in the new golden age of America. Now, here's the thing. Trump did endorse Mike Johnson, which might have surprised some people. Essentially, he's bobbing when people expect him to weave and vice versa right now before getting into the office of president. But that's the biggest reason why he's not in there yet. So let's not have turmoil, I imagine, is the position that he or anyone in his incoming administration will have, incoming group, because darn it, the last thing you want to do is a self-inflicted wound that delays the process of making Trump our next president, opening the door to Democrats doing crazier stuff that would be exactly the kind of stuff they claim that they would never do and that only Republicans do again and again. Let's not have any of that happen. But anyway, Trump put up on Truth Social a long post about how successful of a presidential campaign he ran, how convincing of a win he gained all seven swing states, 312 electoral college votes, etc., etc. He put up there how Democrats wasted $2.5 billion dollars. which is insane. $11 million to Beyonce for never singing at all. $2 million to Oprah for doing almost nothing. $500,000 to Reverend Al to do a quote-unquote interview with their, I love this, star-spangled candidate, Kamala and Joe. That's something that Trump said on Truth Social. He said, we ran a flawless campaign, have spent far less with lots of money left over. They ran an expensive sinking ship campaign that embraced DOJ and FBI weaponization against their political opponent, me. And he put me in big, bold letters, which is absolutely true. I agree with you, sir. Toward the end of this post, he says, Speaker Johnson is a good, hardworking, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue to win. Mike has my complete and total endorsement. MAGA. I imagine. If you're Trump, you make a phone call that you've been making a lot recently that said, hey, the past is over. I mean, look at who his vice president is. Trump seems to be someone who's going to say, let's start fresh. Let's start new. I'm not going to care about the past. Even when you read Trump's praise of Jimmy Carter, which is not, you know, long, but certainly kind. The words he said about the passing of the former president who died over the weekend at 160. Jimmy Carter had called Trump an illegitimate president and someone who won because of Russia. So it is interesting the way that Trump moved forward. Totally different than what people tell you the behavior of the man is. But nonetheless, I imagine that starting in day one of his administration, he will see everyone as starting from scratch. And he will be hopefully very quick to, you know, pull the plug if you don't do the stuff he wants. So I imagine this was a bending of the knee sort of thing from Mike Johnson. You will have a bigger backbone. You will fight more for issues that we think matter. We will have control of the House, control of the Senate, control of the White House. We want to see you actually behave as though you're in a position of power, something you failed to do even though you are Speaker of the House for the last couple years. We want to see something change there. I imagine that was the discussion. And then if it doesn't work out, we will very quickly say that you've disappointed us if that needs to come to that. But it doesn't have to happen now. And I've kept saying that. And I'll keep saying that, by the way, before I move on to something else about the totality of Trump's nominations and all the crazy discussion of them or whatever the issue might be. And I'll get to the visa stuff in a second, too. But nonetheless, all of these issues. You can have one opinion right now, and if it doesn't work out, given some level of opportunity to that position, you can go ahead and say, all right, we tried it. Let's go ahead and do something else. That's better than going crazy and saying horrible stuff to begin with or what media is doing and trashing. the idea of everything that's being attempted or hopefully will be attempted over the next several years to clean up the broken corruption that exists in D.C. and our bureaucracy in general. It seems like a good thing that we're going after that, but I digress. I thought this audio was interesting. This was a CNN debate in which someone was actually trying to say that President Biden will go down in history favorably, which is insane. And actually, it's odd that Jimmy Carter passes away now at 100, you know, lived a long, valuable life. And some of the people who are talking about Jimmy Carter and his one term presidency are seem to be remembering it differently than a lot of Americans felt it went when he was in office. I'm not saying that to be mean. I'm saying that to not be dishonest, even though someone sadly has passed away and the family is rightfully in mourning. It feels like the way that Jimmy Carter was remembered for most of his life after his term in office... will be similar to the way that Biden will be remembered after he leaves office. And maybe that's the reason that Democrats are so quick to say nice things about both of them right now. But here was a back and forth in which Scott Jennings absolutely owned somebody on CNN. It was pretty great.
SPEAKER 08 :
I think he still, look, he showed up for the job. He got the work done. I think some of the accomplishments also.
SPEAKER 04 :
I got to stop it, by the way, too. I love that the barometer for Joe is he was there. We're not sure if he was actually the one thinking things or saying stuff, but he was at least in the room. We're pretty sure.
SPEAKER 08 :
At least informed policy will also stand the test of time.
SPEAKER 03 :
You think the Middle East is in better shape today than when he took office?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I think he got our hostages home. I think that's a big deal. I think it's important.
SPEAKER 03 :
I'm sorry, which hostages?
SPEAKER 08 :
He's gotten a number of people home.
SPEAKER 03 :
There's still 100 people over there.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, there were more than that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Including some Americans.
SPEAKER 04 :
Look, nothing is funny about the fact that there's still hostages there. What is funny is how quickly the wilting of that narrative goes when someone questions it right now. He did a good job in the Middle East? Well, no, but he might have gotten some hostages. He got a lot of them home? Well, he got some of them. He showed up for the job. Remember I said that at the beginning?
SPEAKER 03 :
I think he's going to leave office in disgrace. The Hunter Biden pardon was disgraceful. He's going to be remembered largely for inflation and for the disastrous Afghanistan pullout. And I think as we continue to—we're just getting the first draft of this now, but as we continue to learn about the massive cover-up that went on not about his health, but about his mental acuity, to cover that up, the efforts that were undertaken by the White House staff, by his family, not in the last couple of months, but for all four years, I think it's going to be a really ugly chapter. It's a diminished presidency because of it. And I think we still don't know the full extent of what they did to try to hide what they've been doing over in the West.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, over in the West Wing, I absolutely agree with him. I will say this. I think time will be even less kind to the mental acuity or lack thereof of Biden and the stories that, and this is what Jennings is saying, we're getting a first draft version of understanding it. And what we probably will remember most about these 12 years from when Joe Biden takes over from Trump or when Trump first gains the office of president to begin with or when he regains it now is media's obsession with Donald Trump. That'll be all it is. Left-wing politicians or just politicians in general who are afraid of any of the we're going to clean up the swamp stuff that gets said, whether it happens or not, is something that immediately they knee-jerk and fight about. But I really think that's it, because if you look back to 2020, regardless of if you believe the election was legitimate or not, Trump got a whole lot of votes. That's undeniable, regardless of what you say about it. But a vast majority of people who probably admit to voting for Biden didn't vote for him. They voted against Trump and the campaign was all anti-Trump. And they tried it again in 2024 with both Biden and Harris, and it failed. But everything about the last eight years and the next four years will overwhelmingly be the dominance of Trump in the news cycle. And I think there's no denying that, no debating that. And honestly, if Trump actually in these next four years creates the legacy that people hoped for him his first term in office... The true dismantling of the, you know, bureaucratic crap that exists in D.C., the true ripping apart of a lot of the, say, hidden, you know, behind closed doors, a terribleness. I think he'll go down legitimately as a tremendously important president. People won't all still like him and the things he said. But if he delivers on what he promised, and I don't think the promise is just to lower the price of groceries. I think that's important. I think we'd like to see that. We'd like to see the economy simply do better. People make more money, even if grocery prices don't go down. The percentage of which they cost of our income would be nice if that changes. But what I think is even more important is, and truly the reason that even Democratic friends of mine say they voted for him, or at least decided not to vote at all because they didn't care if he won and they couldn't vote for Harris, is because that system has gotten so broken we hate it. I keep comparing these things. And I can't help doing it. So when you look at the debate about the visa, the H-1B visa and how it's supposed to be designed to bring in a lot of very high value individuals, which it does to some extent. That's not all it does. According to a data deep dive, it probably brings in a lot of less high-value individuals who are willing to be paid less money to do jobs that Americans are qualified for. But there are some jobs out there that we don't have the entirety of the elite market as far as job applicants go, and that's not a bad thing. That's something that makes us a stronger country by taking the cream of the crop from everywhere else. But I digress. The thing that's so interesting to me about this is the hope that the way that america stops losing these jobs at least in some of these circles of the debate would be to simply make it something the government overly controls and for so many other issues usually the side of the aisle that might be advocating for this is against that And we want a meritocracy where you rise to the top by being the most successful, the person that deserves the opportunity or the role you're being given. That's usually something that we praise and we look for in this issue. It's something that's getting more complicated than that. And I understand that there's a certain value in the discussion and a certain amount of people who are mad, even if they don't work in tech at all or have never lost a job because someone with this type of visa took that job from them. But I understand that what we actually need to do is fix the brokenness of the system. The education system itself needs to be reformed. The education department needs to go away because it's tremendously corrupt. We know it. You know it. No matter what side of the aisle you're on. And yet some people behave as though it couldn't go away because that would cause chaos. And yet it would be better for something that's broken to vanish and something new to replace it than to try to root out all of the deep-seated horribleness that exists in these places. I'm a huge proponent of that, at least trying to do it. Because the opposite is just letting Washington live as it's lived, letting D.C. do the same as always business. And that's why you need outsiders to be appointed into positions of power within these organizations. You need people who are truly willing to root out a bunch of the crap, don't have friends that they're going to protect along the way in order to change the system that is not benefiting many of us. And I think that that's something that would be universally thought of and agreed upon if it happens as a good thing. But the H-1B visa could also change. I think the back and forth debate was actually good. And Elon Musk, even though he came hard at one point in the paint on a lot of people, saying the F word and whatnot, quoting tropical thunder, tropic thunder, which was actually kind of funny, in my opinion. But eventually relented and said, yeah, there are parts of it that's broken. I've always said they're broken. And Trump saying that he actually likes the visa and he's used it before was surprising, almost as surprising as him being, you know, in on supporting Mike Johnson, at least for now. But again, with all this stuff, I think that the end result was healthy debate. and then a path forward that looks to change a system or completely remove a system if it's too broken to be fixed. In the case of the Visa, Elon says, you know, it's an easy fix. Make it more expensive. Make companies have to pay more in order to obtain it and keep it. uh... make you know certain restrictions possible that just make it all a financially uh... you know uh... not valuable thing to do you can't hire someone at a lower wage that would be anywhere near the price of an american worker i'll let it be for just the truly elite where the company doesn't mind spending even more money and we're typically the person coming from the other country doesn't mind getting less than what they deserve in order to i have a job that someone in our country probably get paid more for Let it be for a very specific amount of workers at a negative cost to an employer to the degree that they don't want to do it a whole lot. And also just stop approving it as much as you do. You're supposed to do something like 80,000 of these a year, and they did 800,000 last year. That seems to also be a broken part of the system. Let's fix that part too. But I like that. The debate turned into a potential change that might actually make something better and not worse. An adult version of a political party does that and does a lot of that. Quick break. A lot more. Greg Collins filling in on The Dana Show.
SPEAKER 18 :
It's his life mission to make bad decisions. It's time for Florida Man.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thrilled I get to pay off what I started last Friday. This is The Dana Show. My name is Craig Collins filling in. These are the 10 best Florida man stories of 2024, including one that just happened over the weekend. A Florida man crashed into a trooper after a high-speed chase with other cops in Tampa. Running from cops usually doesn't end well if you crash into a different cop that's not part of the pursuit. But that happened. That occurred just over the weekend. Some of the other craziest ones from this year that are great. A Florida man took on a bizarre challenge of eating raw chicken every day. He promoted this on social media in the earlier parts of the year and then stopped posting on social media by about June of this year. We assume he's okay. We hope he's okay. At one point, he had half a million followers on Instagram specifically as he talked about the fact that he was planning on consuming raw chicken every single day as much as he could until bad things occurred, which again, you hope for all the best there. No one's heard from him in a while. A Florida man saved his neighbor from the jaws of an 11-foot alligator. This happened back in April of this year. The way he did it, hit the alligator with his car. A man said that he saw his neighbor in a potentially deadly situation, so he did the only thing he could do, waved his arms, waved his hand, got in his car and started driving, and the alligator regretted the entire situation. Interesting story. A friend for life, as far as the neighbor goes, if they weren't already. You made it all the way to the top was a question that was asked to a Florida man who for no reason at all scaled a cell phone tower. As the Florida man climbed back down the cell phone tower, the police seemed to be impressed with his ability to climb and then promptly arrested him for the illegal activity, which I love a lot. The guy was proud of himself. He's like, yeah, pretty crazy. I didn't think I could do it, and I climbed it, and now I'm going to go to jail. A Florida woman led deputies on a chase in a stolen ambulance. That was a real story that happened in the middle of this year in June. And then one final one, and I think this might be my favorite Florida man. A Florida man got arrested after sending in a bomb threat against himself and then complaining that nobody in the police seemed to care about the bomb threat he made about himself. There's no top to that. There's a bomb. It's going to go off on my property. There's people who told us they're going to leave a bomb here. There's a bomb threat situation. You guys got to come out. And then when they didn't do it, the guy was eventually like, what do I got to do, man, to convince you that my bomb threat against me is real? And that's probably the part where they went a little too far. He says he made a mistake in the threats he made against himself, and he was attempting to get revenge on someone else and just mistargeted a little bit or a lot. Sounds like there might be some mental health issues there. But that Florida man probably both regrets the initial bomb threats against himself and then also eventually asking the cops why they're not doing their job better at taking down him, the bomb threat individual himself. But those are some of the best Florida man stories of the year. That is Florida man. Dana will be back next year with brand new ones. Craig Collins filling in on the Dana show. This is the Dana show. My name is Craig Collins filling in thrilled to be with you. Dana is on vacation. She'll be back just after the holiday. You can find her D lash or Dana lash radio on X on Twitter. One of the best ways to stay connected to her. For anyone that's actually been reaching out to me and found me on social media, Radio Craig C is how you find me if you want to. Nowhere near as active or interesting as Dana, so follow if you feel like it, and thank you for it. Let's play first the breaking news audio and then some other audio that's making the rounds.
SPEAKER 29 :
I do want to take you on to some breaking news that we are following at this hour as a federal appeals court has now upheld a $5 million verdict that E. Jean Carroll won against Donald Trump when a jury found the U.S. president-elect liable for sexually abusing and later defaming the former magazine columnist.
SPEAKER 04 :
There was not a lot of evidence in this case to begin with, and then there was a piece of video that has gone viral again in the wake of the challenge also winding up, failing for Donald Trump, the appeal court not finding a reason for Trump to get to revisit this case. That video that's going viral is from Eugene Carroll's own interview on CNN when she said some odd things to Anderson Cooper. This was a video that was not allowed to be played in the courtroom when people were deciding what the likelihood is that Eugene Carroll was telling the truth and that the claim she was making against Trump, which very much were. I am the only person that is aware. There are no witnesses that are coming forward and saying things. And Trump is the only one who can defend it. So it's my story versus their story. But this is part of that audio that's going viral yet again. E.G. and Carol probably wishes didn't exist at all. But darn it, it does.
SPEAKER 21 :
Don't feel like a victim.
SPEAKER 09 :
I was not thrown on the ground and ravished. The word rape carries so many sexual connotations. This was not sexual. It hurt.
SPEAKER 21 :
I think most people think of rape as a violent assault.
SPEAKER 09 :
I think most people think of rape as being sexy. What?
SPEAKER 21 :
Let's take a short break.
SPEAKER 09 :
Think of the fantasies.
SPEAKER 04 :
Let's take a short break, is what he wanted to say in response to that, because it made absolutely no sense. And again, this is something that they were not allowed to play in court to try to question the veracity of E.G. Carroll's claims. Only two people know for sure, and then God, what actually occurred and whether or not it's a extension of all the other weaponizations against Trump in all the media places and all the places within our judicial system that went after him. I don't know. I've always about that one story individually. I wondered how someone can come forward that many years later with that little evidence, a claim what they claim and get a win like they got a five million dollar lawsuit. And it's not exactly forgotten on me that this also happened in New York, the only place that found Trump to be guilty of any sort of felony, a felony that's almost always a misdemeanor that having nothing to do with Eugene Carroll, but having to do with uh businesses and um you know record keeping in businesses which is crazy in and of itself and that's the only thing that he was found guilty of whenever somebody says 30 counts felony they don't seem to always understand it was only the one case By the way, there is reporting saying that Joe Biden is most disappointed in the fact that the judicial system didn't move quick enough, the DOJ, against Trump, and that he essentially regrets having Merrick Garland be in a position of power within the DOJ because he should have made someone else powerful who would do more to harm Trump quicker. That's real stories and reporting out there. Biden also seems to not regret a lot of the things he actually did while he was in office, Which is insane because he did a lot of terrible stuff that you would think looking back on it, he would be able to say out loud, I wish I had done that differently. But some reason he can't do that, which is shocking for a variety of reasons to me and everyone else. But it's just politics as usual. Deny, deny, pretend everything went great. Actually, speaking about that, Jamie Raskin went viral for some of what he said about the weaponizing of the DOJ. He's scared of it. He's scared that it'll be politicized. And of course, Jamie Raskin says stuff out loud that a whole lot of Trump people like this just happened. This just occurred. You guys did this. But here we go.
SPEAKER 28 :
And he seems to want to treat the Department of Justice as a mere adjunct under the unitary executive theory of his own presidency. So we are going to try to defend the principle of the independent integrity of the law enforcement function under the Department of Justice. And we will resist and oppose any efforts to politicize the department so that it goes after the president's enemies in the current parlance or goes easy on his friends. That is simply not how the rule of law works.
SPEAKER 04 :
By the way, just for your information, not that Raskin has a whole bunch of hair on the top of his head, but it looks like for some reason he got in a fight with like a fork that he tried to comb his hair with right before he went on television. Things seem real bad. Things seem to have gone or a wind tunnel somehow was a part of his commute to this hotel that he's in. Nonetheless, Raskin claiming that all this stuff Trump wants to do is terrible and bad. And of course, not what anyone should do, even though it feels like they just did it. By the way, a lot of media is having a comeuppance. No, I'm kidding. They're not truly admitting what they did wrong, but they're at least saying that they should have done better in not being as on the take on the Democratic side of the aisle as they evidently were during the entirety of Biden's presidency and now with Trump coming into office. I want to play this. This is CBS News and one of their correspondents, Jane Crawford, saying we should have done a better job of asking questions about the mental health of the president that couldn't figure out how to walk off the stage or disappeared into the rain forest if you remember that one which was uniquely amazing here we go recovered and reported that would be to me uh... joe biden's obvious cognitive decline that became undeniable
SPEAKER 07 :
in the televised debate.
SPEAKER 23 :
At the presidential debate with Donald Trump.
SPEAKER 07 :
Unquestioned. And, you know, it's starting to emerge now that his advisers kind of managed his limitations, which have been reported in the Washington Journal, for four years.
SPEAKER 04 :
Who thought that was happening the entire time? A whole bunch of conservative media.
SPEAKER 07 :
And yet he insisted that he could still run for president. We should have much more forcefully questioned whether he was fit for office for another four years, which could have led to a primary. For the Democrats, it could have changed the scope of the entire election.
SPEAKER 04 :
I love that the next thought there is how it would have impacted politics, because that's why you didn't tell the truth about Joe, is you wanted to impact politics in a positive way and for you a positive way and make sure that Biden got reelected and Trump didn't. The other big challenge with Democrats ever being honest about Biden, and this doesn't get talked about enough, is if they had told us the truth, say, two years in. Three years in, whenever they thought that the campaign season truly was starting, when Trump announces that he's running again and you want a candidate to be running against him from jump and having that entire process. How do you not also have to impeach Biden if you admit that he's not mentally capable of being president for the next four years? And you do it in a way that media is now calling for actual honesty. and just he doesn't want to do it anymore he's he's giving up you know sooner um as opposed to you know telling us that he can't do it then how would you keep him and if you didn't keep him in office if they had told us the truth and this is the reason they didn't do it and they had impeached him which you would have to do if you admit that his brain doesn't work you would have broken a glass ceiling by accident in a way that you didn't want to do it the democratic party wants their politicians elected by more than just their policies. Actually, they want them elected in spite of their policies. They want you to elect the first woman president because it's a candidate on the Democratic side of the aisle. They want you to elect the first black woman president, who knows, as they continue to look for other different things that they're going to say, yeah, elect somebody for this reason. And if Biden had been impeached, Kamala Harris would have become the president and you would have lost the breaking of the glass ceiling. And I don't even think Harris wanted it, which is kind of crazy. Not in that way. Not then. And what I mean by that is she didn't want to feel blamed for the first few years of Biden's failures. Everybody wanted to pretend they were starting new, although Harris did a terrible job among other terrible jobs while running for president and trying to distance herself from Biden because, darn it, she's the vice president. And she'd have more say and probably even knew. you know, in the back corners, as did many of the people in her administration, that she was more in power than he was. Although other people in power, I think Jill, Dr. Jill, Dr. Biden, as I'm contractually required. I love that all the time. I stole that from another radio guy that I respect a lot. But anyway, I have to call that person, Dr. Jill, Dr. Biden, much because even though she's not a medical doctor, I got to make sure I remember that she received a doctorate. But I think she wielded a lot of power and did it behind the scenes and and behind closed doors, and Hunter Biden was doing his own stuff and selling art. It's just crazy the amount of things that happened over the last four years outside of just the cratering of our economy or a few other of the issues that everyday Americans face, but the true scope of lying. And again, in retrospect, pretending as though you wanted to ask more serious questions, challenge things more and force a primary process as if you didn't evaluate what also would come with that and how that would have been bad for your political side of the aisle. The only reason that media can be honest now is they know Trump was inevitable. They couldn't beat him. It didn't matter who they picked. He wasn't losing. And they refused to accept that all the way up until Election Day. And now that they have to accept it, they're going to look back and be like, well, we should have done more to try to tell you the truth. We had no interest in telling you because we knew it would hurt us and we knew it would make Trump a shoo-in, even though him also surviving an assassination attempt and standing up and pumping his fist in the air. was one of the more American things you're ever going to see anybody do, much less Donald Trump, if you love him or hate him. That, according even to, I think, Mark Zuckerberg, probably crystallized his opportunity to be the next president, because darn it, it was incredible to watch for anybody. Again, if you hate him or like him, Bullitt barely didn't kill him, and then he stands up and yells, fight. That's something. That's the kind of thing you want from anybody. that's in a leadership position anywhere in this country or world for that matter to not be you know intimidated even if you should have died that day as horrible as it is to say that out loud all right quick break a lot more and he's lucky he didn't and by the grace of god in his own admission he says he didn't quick break a lot more craig collins filling in on the dana show
SPEAKER 20 :
not able to catch the full dana show follow dana's absurd truth podcast and get news and laughs delivered in short easy to digest episodes ideal for your busy lifestyle on apple or wherever you get your podcast this is the dana show my name is craig collins filling in thrilled to be with you let's fire off a quick five and now all of the news you would probably miss it's time for dana's quick five
SPEAKER 04 :
A couple of these stories I really, really like. First, a Colorado suspect wanted an alleged failed bank robbery after handing a letter to a teller that was incapable of being read. It was illegible. The person's like, I don't know what you want. Are you robbing me? Are you threatening me? Are you complimenting me? How it's happening here. The delay in the process for the would-be thief and the teller to understand what the message said left enough time for police to get there and arrest somebody. I love the jokes online saying that this was probably a doctor or somebody else with terrible handwriting just trying to knock off a bank that wishes they had at least just typed this message out or something, man. Take the extra minute, print it. I'm not trying to help you do crime better. I just think it's hilarious that this was the issue. I also saw a stat about how terrible customer service has gotten, according to most Americans in 2024. Many people say that they're having terrible interactions with companies and companies are losing a likely three point seven trillion dollars due to bad customer service experiences of any kind. I've actually had a terrible one recently as well. I don't want to give you too many details and bash the company necessarily. But well, who knows? Maybe later I will. No, I'm kidding. But essentially, I wanted something to do better. That wasn't working great. It was working. But I thought that the place I was giving it to, they could improve it. And then they broke it completely. That was my favorite part. So when I went in there and I'm like, well, this is not better. This is worse. They somehow got mad at me for a while. And I was happy that I stayed the calmest out of anybody in the scenario. It made me feel real good. But if you hand something over to someone and ask for them to make it better and they break it entirely, that's probably a moment where you want to say sorry to a customer and not be upset for some other reason. But I thought that was funny. $3.7 trillion. I think a lot of people just don't have patience for customer service. I think even if you're being frustrated but polite about it, and you're just complaining for more than a couple minutes, people want that interaction to stop, even if they're on the end that's supposed to be listening to whatever the issue is. And I find that to be the biggest challenge that maybe some might face in making that better in 2024. Also, apparently we will end the year with a black moon. This is something you've probably not seen before. It's something that's not necessarily bad, even if it might feel ominous to many people out there. It's similar to a blue moon. I guess it's just the way in which the lunar cycle works and what you see in the air. But it's it's rare. And they're saying that, you know, again, if you look up in the sky around New Year's Eve, you're likely to see a black moon there. which is going to make you question if 2025 is going to be any better than 2024. And we all hope it is. We all assume it is for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is that the Biden administration will be out of the White House. And then finally, a backpack, backpacks containing one point one million dollars worth of cocaine were discovered in the wilderness near Canada. I know Cocaine Bear was a movie somewhat recently, like a year or two ago. This feels like how that movie becomes a reality. And actually, I think it was based on a somewhat true story about a bear that had consumed cocaine. Maybe didn't go on the killing rampage that happened in the movie itself. But this story happening this year, when that movie came out, I think it did at the beginning of the year, if not maybe just last year. is kind of amazing. But $1.1 million just kind of discovered, discarded. My first question was also, where's Hunter Biden? I'm curious where he's at. Has he been to Canada recently? Has there been a trip that was scheduled and planned? And also, sadly, anyone, you know, taking any sort of security efforts in that area of the wilderness probably was using the same security system as the White House, which means it was terrible, which would be amazing if that were actually true. I would love it if that were true. All right, one last one. I saw this too, and I thought this was pretty interesting as well. U.S. homelessness is up 18% as affordable housing remains out of reach for many Americans, whether that's actually rent going up or purchasing a home going up. So more and more, you're seeing an increase in some of the biggest struggles in our society. Also not exactly great news. which again means you hope that 2025 will bring way better things, at least in the world of the economy, to fix some of these horrible issues that we're facing. But even in the world of places like San Francisco, a lot of these issues wound up causing a lot of other harm to the housing market, to all kinds of things there, and even now giant tech layoffs, which are happening too. On that note, uplifting note we will take a quick break we have a little bit more coming up i promise we'll have as much fun as we can have and maybe talk about something completely silly and ridiculous this is craig collins filling in on the dana show keep your finger on the pulse with a dana show podcast delivering timely news with insightful analysis whenever you want straight to you on youtube apple or wherever you get your podcasts This is The Dana Show. My name is Craig Collins filling in. Dana is back just after the holiday. It's been very fun, and I'm very thankful to them, everyone involved with Radio America, for letting me sit in and be a part of the show with you, including the entire staff, Dana, Kane, everybody that's a part of the show, Stephen, for making it so easy to be a part of this this holiday season. Let's play this audio. This is a Chicago Teachers Union vice president accidentally creating an ad for Donald Trump that they're not aware that they're creating. I do like this quite a bit. Here we go.
SPEAKER 11 :
You can tell this Trump administration is hellbent on our destruction. If we sit back and watch the show, it's going to destroy us.
SPEAKER 04 :
What's it going to destroy, by the way?
SPEAKER 11 :
And we have to be heavily involved. For example, this new proposed person for Secretary of Education loves charters, loves privatization, loves vouchers, hates unions.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hates unions, loves vouchers. Loves all kinds of things that might actually be good for a competitive school system that might thrive and educate our children better than the one that is failing our kids right now. The United States is shockingly bad at educating people between the ages of child, you know, 5, 6 to 18. Compared to the rest of the developed world, we are doing bad on scores across the board. Some people within, I think, a public education want to fix things so that we do better on tests. that we can claim that we're doing better for our people. But this debate about H-1B visas or anything else, it does simply call into question why we don't have the best of the best to a degree necessary to populate all of the jobs in California and elsewhere. Because when people like Elon Musk or Vivek Ramaswamy make that claim, even if they make people mad in just how they articulate it, the truth is... that a lot of people wouldn't argue, that it's accurate to assume that some of these people coming from outside of our country are people that do deserve these jobs. Exactly how many? Darn it. Some of that data seems to indicate not as many as you'd think, but still some. And so how can we be failing? How can we not be living up to whatever standard we should live up to? It's probably that stuff, especially the union stuff, where the money is getting filtered to the unions and not even the teachers who are teaching the kids in the first place. That part also seems bad. The Biden administration has also had to promise, with just a few weeks left to go and Biden still on vacation again, that it won't keep selling U.S.-Mexico border material that it's been selling for a while. This was after an injunction caused them, the federal government, to have to agree to not do this, to continue actually working on the $1.4 billion that was allocated to a wall project which is something that the Biden administration absolutely tried not to do and sold materials anyway. Whoops-a-daisy, you got to go ahead and fix this. Of course, doing it on purpose the entire time, not whoops-a-daisy genuinely, as I'm saying it, but nonetheless, a crazy story. I think first reported on by the Daily Wire and the Daily Caller, some of the discussion about just how crazy and broken that has also gotten. And also this story, which I thought was really interesting and kind of terrifying. So another plane crashed. It was not shot down by Russia this time. And Russia didn't apologize for a terrible situation without admitting that they shot down a plane that was just carrying civilians. But this one, which happened on a flight between Bangkok and another place, I think South Korea, when it was flying, it landed in a way that the, and I guess this is the report, the landing gear failed, which caused the plane to crash, roll into a fence, and kill almost everyone on board. 179 people died. There were two survivors, which is crazy as far as the report itself goes. But nonetheless, as you talk about this, you think to yourself, if it was a landing gear failure and a Boeing plane, excuse me, specifically, what caused this to be an issue there in South Korea that wasn't necessarily an issue anywhere else? And you don't have a good answer for that, or at least we don't have a good answer quite yet for that. So hopefully we know more in the future as to why exactly that happened, but a uniquely terrifying story. story, I would imagine, mostly because this is the kind of thing we've been afraid of and talking about for a while now, as air travel is something that I think you have more reason rationally to at least be a little bit afraid of. I don't think you truly believe that something as horrific as this is going to happen to you. Because you're, you know, for whatever reason, traveling by plane. But when you hear about doors flying off and people doing all kinds of crazy things in airlines and Boeing then seeming to cover up a whole lot of stuff publicly, you at least have some ability to wonder and fear. And then this story coming out and information going to hopefully be available at some point. But it's going to take a while. And that is definitely something that's scaring a lot more people than before. But we'll see. And hopefully whatever the issue is, is something that would never be repeated again for whatever reason, although it's still a tragic story nonetheless. Something else that I thought was really interesting that's out there and all over news media. Of course, the debate about the H-1B visa is something that's caused a lot of people to overly report at the fractured relationship between Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and MAGA, which is what they usually just call Americans who supported Trump in any way, shape, or form. even though a lot of people who were part of whatever that online Internet debate is, I think that inevitably ended with them gaining a better solution to a problem that actually does exist. But CNN debated the Elon Musk issue and tweets and everything else, and I thought Scott Jennings did a good job of responding to some of this discussion here.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think Donald Trump having a relationship with one of the greatest innovators of our time across multiple sectors, And having that person be as invested in the United States and the success of the United States as he can be is unequivocally a good thing. And I'm sorry if people had their feelings hurt by that. This country needs people like Elon Musk to create, to innovate, to participate in our civic affairs. This is a good thing.
SPEAKER 06 :
To run government policy by tweet, though? It's not running.
SPEAKER 03 :
It's not running anything.
SPEAKER 06 :
The president's allowed to have advisors and aides. And some of the best accomplishments from his first term were by non-cabinet aides. Like Jared Kushner ran point on getting peace between Israel and five countries. And Elon Musk, he's been very successful in many domains. And, you know, I think he just blew up an effort to keep the government open by tweet.
SPEAKER 04 :
That's what I'm talking about. He actually didn't blow up that effort because the government did remain open. He blew up an effort to overspend in doing that and allowing us to do something that was much, much different. I love this debate, though, in this discussion, because the thing that I will keep saying to you or anyone whenever I get an opportunity to talk on platforms as giant as this one is the scariest thing to you. or the most worrisome thing or the thing that you should most notice is the desire level to which politicians and mainstream legacy media want this relationship to go away. They are desperate for it. Anything and everything, whether it's manufactured or in some way, shape, or form real, that seems to be throwing a wrench in Trump to Elon to the American people is something that they will report about constantly. They'll trash Twitter X, even though it's doing better than they thought it would be doing. They'll appraise Blue Sky, even though some data came out recently that said it's a wasteland of racism and other things. Which, again, I'm not trying to say that somehow... That's something that's an accusation on Twitter and is only true of Blue Sky or vice versa. I don't really care. It's just amazing when you think that it's heavily, heavily censored and apparently has all the problems that they claim Twitter has and none of the apparent solutions, even though it is silencing a whole lot of conservatives and making liberals very happy. They can say whatever they want on the platform. I haven't been on it. I don't really care about it. But nonetheless, what I think is kind of amazing in all of this is that by noticing the degree to which they want this to go away, you have to find some way to use it and to use it for the benefit of everybody, whatever that might be. Whoever it is that you would be, you know, listening to, following, paying attention to, based on those platforms, to, you know, turn on completely, which just seems illogical and it won't happen. someone like an Elon Musk because he said something you disagree with once. If I can talk about that for a second. That's one other thing that's been bouncing in my head since this all started, is the idea that we all have to agree on everything. I like the fact that the Conservative Party fights within itself on some stuff. I like the fact that the Speaker of the House took so long for them to choose, and Trump just came out in support of Mike Johnson. I assume mostly because you don't want to see that fight take a while and have any sort of impact that delays his inauguration into becoming the next president. But I digress. There's things about that infighting that's good if the end result of it is a more balanced decision or at least a decision where the sides have been debated better. When you watch the Democratic Party move as, you know, sheeple or whatever you call them, which I love when people get mad about that, but essentially move as a hive mind mentality. That's that's horrible for any sort of progress, any sort of a change or in reality, one of the biggest challenges they're seeing right now, people like AOC failing to become heads of important positions or, you know, important any sort of campaigning that she's doing to be in charge of any sort of committee. All of that is so stupid to me. Because it further demonstrates how much of a fight is going on for whatever the soul of the Democratic Party is supposed to be, how far left it's truly going to become, and how far left people want it to go, and how that's much worse in silencing whoever the critics are to the degree that you have to shove them in the box just like you did Biden and assume that it's for the betterment of the party, but it leaves the party completely without any sort of leadership or any sort of direction. And I'm not saying the party would be better off by going further left. But the people that are pulling it that way are not being silenced, no matter how much you're trying to stop them. They're just not effectively wielding the power they want, which means you have a broken system and not a, you know, a central leader at the top. And that's amazing. uh... to me again that there would be an advocacy for uh... just accepting a certain narrative because enough people said it and not being able to question it even if it's coming from your own side and this is the same political party that rejects a whole lot of narratives simply because they come from the right without even trying to see if those narratives are true stuff like hunter biden laptop bad and real or joe biden's brain doesn't work and this is all a big lie how much they're pretending he's in charge and pretending he's sharp when he's not those are things they should have questioned and they didn't and now they admit they didn't question them but they still want to operate as a hive mind and they still think it's bad when conservatives don't operate that way that's amazing But also the idea that you'd give up on Elon because you disagreed with him on one thing is sort of insane in and of itself. All right, quick break. A little bit more coming up. Craig Collins filling in on The Dana Show. This is the Dana Show. My name is Craig Collins filling in. Thrilled to be with you over the holidays. Dana is back just in the new year, just after the next couple days. She'll be back toward the tail end of this week. Sad news, Linda Lavin passed away, 87 years old. Of course, famous for Alice.
SPEAKER 18 :
Early to bed And in between I cooked and cleaned and went out of my head
SPEAKER 04 :
I'll be honest, theme songs are not what they used to be. Theme songs were much better before the TV shows are not quite as good in today's society. For the most part, there's some exceptions to my rule, but for the most part, that's true. But anyway, just sad, quick news out there that went viral earlier today that I figured I'd share for anyone that was unaware. A couple other things and people that care about that. Other things out there, two different parental stories that just amused me a lot. First, there's a woman that was praising herself for being a, quote, horizontal parent, which sounds dirty, but it's not. A horizontal parent is someone who raises their kids by lying down. Whether you're lying down on the ground, in your bed, whatever it might be, you are essentially raising your kids without being physically active. And apparently this is a good thing because it allows you to relax mentally and be quote unquote lazy while also being proud to not be thought of as lazy. Or at least you yourself don't think of it as lazy. You think of it as more relaxed parenting. Then there's this other story about a woman who says she lost 100 pounds simply by playing with and lifting her children. She said the physical activity all the time, exercising with her kids, helped her to get in better shape, helped her to lose a lot of weight, and is the kind of thing she encourages other parents to do. I'm sure she'll also be hated or told that somehow she's a bad person and shaming somebody for what she said out there. But I love those two stories and how they are both going viral at the same time. Not with the same people, probably, on social media. But one saying that you should just be a parent who lays around all the time as you raise your kids. And another one that does the exact opposite. And then finally, this story was interesting to me. Redheads feel both pleasure and pain differently, according to scientists. A new study coming out says that whatever genes are in the human being that is a redhead makes a lot of things different. different for the redhead. Actually, also in the headline, and I'm not sure why this is there, I'm not sure who this makes happy and who this doesn't make happy, or if this was the goal all along, there are some references to adult activity, romantic activities being more prevalent for redheads than others. I don't know how to even respond to that part, but Oxford was the university that studied this, and they said that there's something about those differences that make pain not as bad. And pleasure better, which apparently means that if you're a redhead, you should thank your lucky stars for being one because medically things are going in your direction. And not a lot of wins for gingers out there in the world. I'm not a ginger. I have brown hair. So that feels like one of them. Even though I'm sure that there are people who are going to object to this for all different kinds of other reasons, it'll be out there and in the world and good luck to you. But I just thought that was interesting too. And I do wonder who studied it and what the motivation was behind that. Even asking the question itself before getting the answer feels like the kind of thing that I might not have done. And then finally, and I do love this story. I thought about playing this audio, but it's kind of hard to hear it. But it's a woman who got a $100 tip on a food delivery, an Uber driver, who thought it was a mistake. And so she went back up to the house, rang the doorbell, said to the person who gave her the $100, whoops, you made a mistake. You gave me a bigger bill than you intended to, out of which the person had to go viral and say, no, I'm doing that on purpose for the holidays, for this time of year. I'm tipping delivery drivers more than the average amount of money. My favorite reason for this is tipping culture is so insane and people complain about so much of it all the time that that's probably the biggest reason the driver didn't believe it. They were like, no, nobody was trying to give me 100 bucks. That's not appropriate. That's not OK. And so they tried to return it and then be and they were told that they get to keep it. Now, probably the Internet's going to send them even more money, I imagine. That's usually what happens. Usually see a story like this. Somebody do the right thing when most people would do. Well, not that it was the right thing. I mean, the tip was intentional. If you had just kept it and been happy about it, that's fine, too, to me. But someone does a very, you know, humble thing or whatever you want to call it. And then the Internet rewards them with even more cash. So this is the kind of thing that I guess you should do in these moments and then hope for even better stuff. even though that probably flies in the face of all the reasons to do it in the first place. I don't care. I don't know. That's my tip for 2025. Hope the internet gives you even more of what you deserve because you're nice virally. What a great message to end this on. I'll see you guys at some point. Dana will be back after the new year. Craig Collins filling in on The Dana Show.
In this insightful episode of Washington Watch, guest host Jody Heiss delves into the pressing issues discussed at the recent PrayVoteStand Summit. Listen as Vanessa Sivage, a former FRC intern and whistleblower, shares her courageous story of confronting Medicaid fraud related to transgender procedures for minors. Her experience shines a light on the ethical challenges and risks faced by those who choose to expose corruption.
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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, Jody Heiss.
SPEAKER 02 :
Good afternoon. Welcome to this special edition of Washington Watch. I'm Jody Heiss, Senior Vice President at the Family Research Council and President of FRC Action. Happy to be filling in for Tony today and thrilled to have you on with us as well. Well, the end of 2024 is fast approaching, and today we want to bring you some special content from our most recent PrayVoteStand Summit. For those of you who may not know, PrayVoteStand is an annual event that draws Christian voters literally from all across America to our nation's capital. And the summit addressed many very important issues, and it included sessions with leading political as well as theological experts who talked about topics like Israel, education in America, the transgender movement, corporate wokeism, the war on women, and lots of other things. It was an outstanding event. And today we're going to share with you two sessions from that summit. One is the session featuring whistleblower and former FRC intern Vanessa Sivage, who was fired from her job as a nurse after exposing alleged Medicaid fraud related to transgender procedures for minors at the Texas Children's Hospital. The second is a powerful address by ministry leader Dr. Voddie Bauckham. And like all the speakers did at the summit, both Vanessa and Voti really encouraged those who attended. So we've got a great, great show lined up for you today. I want to encourage you. If you miss any portion of it, you know where to go, TonyPerkins.com. Well, as I mentioned this past October, Family Research Council and FRC Action held our fourth annual Pray, Vote, Stand Summit. Again, drawing tons of Christian voters from all across America to our Capitol. And what an amazing event it was. Among the sessions at the summit was one featuring whistleblower and former FRC intern, Vanessa Sivich. She drew national attention. earlier this year when she exposed the alleged Medicaid fraud at the Texas Children's Hospital for transgender procedures that they were performing on minors. Well, for this session, she sat down with FRC's Joseph Backham to share her story. Here's how Vanessa got it all started.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, it is such an honor and privilege to be here today. And the ironic thing is that three years ago, when I was interning at the Family Research Council, I came home and not knowing what was awaiting me at Texas Children's Hospital. I am a pediatric nurse, and I came home from that internship here at the Family Research Council and immediately started seeing children confused about their sex at my clinic on a weekly basis. and started noticing how parents were manipulated and deceived into believing that a hormone would solve the confusion and the inner turmoil of their child. And I noticed how these girls were confused, they were depressed, they were anxious, and they had multiple instances of harm. ER visits for suicide attempts, and I decided to come forward to show what was happening at the nation's largest children's hospital, and that's exactly what happened in May of 2023. I worked with a phenomenal journalist named Christopher Ruffo, and together with Dr. Eitan Haim, who is now public, we both separately anonymously came forward to reveal how the hospital had engaged in a pattern of deception to conceal the fact that there was a robust transgender program happening. And parents and lawmakers had no idea who we're looking in. And two months later, the FBI showed up at my house. I was having dinner with my husband, who's here today, and with some friends, and there was a knock on my front door. And the Department of Justice had sent two federal agents to my house, and they informed me that I was a person of interest in an investigation targeting a whistleblower. They proceeded to tell me that they had come to my home because they knew what I believed. They knew of my views against transgender medicine. And they told me that if I did not cooperate with their investigation, that there would be consequences, that I was not safe, that my job was at risk, and my safety was at risk. And in the months that followed that FBI visit, my husband and I came to the realization that children deserve to be defended. and that the Bible holds the blueprint for believers in Jesus who are faced with trials and tribulations. James says that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, and that if you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously to all who ask. And so that's exactly what we did. We fell to our knees and we begged God for his wisdom. Because despite the fact that the FBI visit was unforeseen and unexpected, this was not a surprise to God. God knew exactly that this would happen when it did. And so we also turn to Ephesians 5, which says to take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness, but expose them, and that everything exposed by the light becomes visible. And so from that moment on, we decided that we would not make decisions out of fear, but we decided to move forward with faith and with conviction.
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And there has been a cost because you chose to move forward and tell us about that journey. You clearly made a choice. You made a prayerful choice and you thought you knew what God wanted you to do and you did it. So the good, the bad, the ugly of that, what has been the consequences for you?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, you know, one of my favorite quotes, Booker T. Washington once said that a lie does not become true. Evil does not become right. And wrong does not become good just because it is accepted by the majority. I pledge allegiance to the unchanging word of God. And that is what has driven my decision to speak out and to do the things that I've done. In August of this year, I was fired in retaliation for blowing the whistle on Medicaid fraud as it relates to transgender treatments, cross-sex hormones, and puberty blockers. For those of you who aren't familiar with the story, in June, just a couple of months ago, I came forward publicly this time with my name and my identity, with journalist Christopher Ruffo, once again, to reveal that Texas Children's Hospital had violated Texas law by using Medicaid to cover these treatments for children. And since 2015, gender-affirming care covered by American tax dollars in the state of Texas has been illegal. Doctors and organizations and hospitals in Texas cannot use Medicaid to cover transgender medicine, and yet the hospital was doing this very blatantly and very obviously. And I came to the realization that American taxpayers deserve to know what their tax dollars were going towards. And so I came forward in June to bring that to light. Promptly, the hospital placed me under investigation and placed me on leave. And two months later, in August, I was officially fired. And this is illegal for multiple reasons. Whistleblowers have protections under Texas law. But the hospital chose to ignore that and chose to fire me in retaliation for my decision to come forward in alignment with my beliefs. And many good things have happened as a result of my coming forward. Number one, our State Attorney General has opened an investigation into the misuse of funds at the hospital. Our Texas Speaker of the House has also initiated a probe into the hospital. And the House Oversight Committee of the United States House of Representatives has also issued a letter into the misuse of Medicaid funds on a federal level. So good things have come about, God is so faithful, even though I have now retained attorneys, I'm fundraising for my legal defense, because I do believe that I was wrongfully terminated, and I am very committed to challenging this in a court of law.
SPEAKER 11 :
Now, Vanessa, a related issue here is that you're part of a profession as a nurse and part of an industry that we all want to believe has our best interest in mind. And that when we go see healthcare providers, all they're interested in is what's good for the patient. How do we make you well? How do we do the right thing in this situation? As you have walked this path, What has been the response from your colleagues, now former colleagues, your friends? Is this a situation where the medical industry basically sees the problem, but they're just too afraid to say anything? Or is this something where the medical industry has been captured?
SPEAKER 07 :
That's a great question. You know, I do believe that there are wonderful people left in the medical industry, that there are doctors or nurses who affirm biological truth and who are committed to defending that. But something that I want to just make sure everyone is aware of is how... highly lucrative the transgender medicine industry is. There is so much money to be made in this arena of medicine. And many people estimate that when a child is initiated into this irreversible path, starting with hormones, weekly checkups, lab draws, and then, God forbid, if they continue on and then get the surgeries, which is the most egregious of all, that could result to a total of upwards of $80,000 per child. And the medical industry looks at that, and unfortunately, they only see a dollar sign. They only see that dollar sign. And I think it's also important to talk about parents in these situations because Most parents are well-meaning and they love their children deeply and they want nothing but the best for their child. But it's a very intimidating thing when a doctor comes in in a white lab coat and tells the parent emphatically that if they do not affirm their child's confusion and initiate them into this path of transition that the child will commit suicide or harm themselves. And what parent wants to be responsible for that? And so, in my view, that is the most egregious lie, the most egregious form of emotional manipulation that the medical industrial complex has ever sold to parents. And unfortunately, the children are the ones who pay the price.
SPEAKER 11 :
Vanessa, last question for you here. What's your word of advice to somebody today who, in their own context, in their own life, is facing a situation where they see the truth, they know the truth, there's a cost potentially for speaking the truth?
SPEAKER 07 :
The cost is always worth it. And I have tremendous compassion for people in the medical industry or otherwise who are working in an environment that is hostile to their beliefs. I remember what that felt like. It feels like you're alone, that you're overwhelmed. You feel helpless because you're outnumbered. But the reality is we must fear God over the fear of man. We must ground ourselves in what is true. And God will take care of, the consequences will take care of themselves. But we must ground ourselves in what is true and affirm what the Bible calls true.
SPEAKER 11 :
Amen. Please join me in thanking Vanessa Sivage. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER 02 :
That was FRC's Joseph Backholm and whistleblower Vanessa Sivich during the 2024 PrayVote Stand Summit. You're tuning in to Washington Watch, and today's a special edition as we're talking about some of the content from the PrayVote Stand Summit. You can catch it if you download our StandFirm app. Do so by texting the word APP to 67742. We've got much more to bring your way today. After the break, we're going to share another session from the PrayVoteStand Summit, a powerful address by ministry leader Dr. Votie Bauckham. So stick around. Much more coming your way in a moment.
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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.
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Looking to grow closer to God in the new year? FRC's Stand on the Word spiral-bound journal is here to help. Dive deeper into scripture with thought-provoking questions, note-taking space, and context for each book and author. This second edition, covering Isaiah 2 Revelation, will guide you in tracking your journey through God's word while deepening your faith in Christ. Order now at frc.org slash store or text journal to 67742. Perfect for you and your loved ones.
SPEAKER 02 :
GOOD AFTERNOON AND WELCOME BACK TO WASHINGTON WATCH. I'M YOUR HOST JODY HEISS. THE WEBSITE TONY PERKINS.COM. TODAY WE'RE BROADCASTING SPECIAL CONTENT FROM THE 2024 PRAY VOTE STAND SUMMIT AND IN THIS NEXT PART YOU'LL HEAR FROM MINISTRY LEADER DR. VOTEY BOCKHAM WHO STARTED HIS ADDRESS BY NOTING THE MARGINALIZATION OF CHRISTIANS TODAY AND BY THE WAY THAT MIRRORS THE EXPERIENCE OF THE FIRST CENTURY CHRIST FOLLOWERS AS WELL. HE TALKS ALL ABOUT THIS IN CONTEXT OF ACTS CHAPTER FOUR. So we'll start from right there.
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Look at verse 13. Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated common men, they were astonished, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. Now, they perceived that they were uneducated common men, The Greek words used here would almost lead you to believe that they thought these men were illiterate men, but that's not what's being said here. Not that they are illiterate men. Unlearned men does not mean that, you know, they didn't have education. In fact, these were incredibly literate men. If you don't believe me, these men gave us 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2, 3 John, and the Gospel of John and Revelation. They could read and write. So that's not what's being said here. This terminology of them being, you know, unlearned, unsophisticated, uneducated men didn't mean that they weren't educated. It mean that they didn't have the right kind of education. They're being marginalized because they don't hold to the right truths. They're being marginalized because the things that they believe and hold dear are seen to be on the outskirts of what is acceptable. We have that in our day, do we not? It's very interesting. It doesn't matter how much education you have. It doesn't matter how many letters you have behind your name. If you don't hold to the right beliefs, then they still call you an untrained, uneducated man. It's interesting, as I said earlier, I was born and raised in Los Angeles, but I spent most of my adult life in the promised land, in the great state of Texas. Yeah, I'm a Californian by birth and a Texan by the grace of God. And it's really interesting. There are a couple of Texans who, on a political level, they're shining examples of this. One of them's a former president. George W. Bush. George W. Bush is seen to be this untrained, uneducated man, although he graduated from Yale. Many people don't know that. Another one is a current senator by the name of Ted Cruz, who went to law school at Harvard. but because of their views, they're seen as untrained, uneducated men. They're marginalized. And from a spiritual theological perspective, those of us who have the audacity to believe the Bible are seen as untrained, uneducated men. It doesn't matter how many letters we have behind our name. It doesn't matter where we've been educated or where we've been trained. had this experience once in my own life, because I've often, because of the things that I believe, I've often been marginalized, basically as an untrained, uneducated, or unsophisticated man. And I remember on one occasion having an interaction with someone and them basically making this charge about the simplistic nature of my faith because I believe crazy stuff like, you know, six-day creation and inerrancy of the Bible and marriage between one man and one woman. I mean, just all kind of just crazy, you know, out there stuff. And as I was being, you know, marginalized, there was one person as part of the conversation, I was on a college campus, and they kind of, you know, nudged the person and said, this guy did postdoctoral work at Oxford in England. That's about how the other person responded. But at the end of the day, it didn't matter. It didn't matter that I have an earned doctorate. It didn't matter that I studied at Oxford. Nobody cares. If you don't hold the right ideas, you are still marginalized as an untrained, uneducated man. We're marginalized. in this post-Christian culture, just like they were in their pre-Christian culture. But beyond the marginalization, look at verse 14. But seeing that the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. But when they had commanded them to leave the council, conferred with one another saying what shall we do with these men for that a noteworthy sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of jerusalem and we cannot deny it here's the second similarity neutrality is not an option That's what they're saying here. Neutrality was not an option. Here's this man that this miracle was performed on, and we all see him. We've all seen him at the gate. We all know that he was lame. And now he's walking. We know it. They know it, everyone in the city knows it, and it's spreading like wildfire. What are we going to do? Because neutrality is not an option. And you need to know that that's where we are today. Neutrality is not an option. There are many Christians who believe that if we just keep our heads down, that if we just go about our lives That if we just stay off social media and if we just don't say the wrong thing, that somehow we will come out of this unscathed. You're naive if you think that. Because what they want from us is not our silence. What they want from us is our submission.
SPEAKER 02 :
That was ministry leader Dr. Votie Bauckham during the 2024 PrayVote Stand Summit held in Washington, D.C., and you're tuned in to a special edition of Washington Watch. After the break, we'll continue with Votie's address, so don't go away. We'll be back.
SPEAKER 14 :
So if you like to think and you like to pray, FRC is the place for you.
SPEAKER 13 :
I think it is the best program out there.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, I've absolutely loved my experience interning at FRC.
SPEAKER 13 :
They really are making waves out in the political world and doing it from the light of the Lord.
SPEAKER 14 :
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.
SPEAKER 13 :
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 05 :
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 04 :
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, in 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 02 :
Good afternoon. Welcome back to Washington Watch. I'm your host Jody Heiss filling in today for Tony. Glad to have you with us today. We're giving a special edition of our 2024 Prevost Stan Summit and some very special speakers over there. The last segment had Dr. Votie Bauckham. We're going to continue his discussion about the marginalization of Christians in the first century. and how that mirrors what we're seeing today. So we'll go back and recap a little of his first point before we dive into his second point. This is a great info. Here's Votie.
SPEAKER 06 :
We're marginalized in this post-Christian culture just like they were in their pre-Christian culture. But beyond the marginalization, look at verse 14. But seeing that the man who was healed... standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another, saying, what shall we do with these men? For that a noteworthy sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. Here's the second similarity. Neutrality is not an option. That's what they're saying here. Neutrality was not an option. Here's this man that this miracle was performed on, and we all see him. We've all seen him at the gate. We all know that he was lame. And now he's walking. We know it. They know it, everyone in the city knows it, and it's spreading like wildfire. What are we going to do? Because neutrality is not an option. And you need to know that that's where we are today. Neutrality is not an option. There are many Christians who believe that if we just keep our heads down, that if we just go about our lives, That if we just stay off social media and if we just don't say the wrong thing, that somehow we will come out of this unscathed. You're naive if you think that. Because what they want from us is not our silence. What they want from us is our submission. It's not enough for you not to speak. You have to speak. Use my pronouns or lose your job. Acknowledge this marriage, in quotation marks, between these two men or these two women. Bake the cake or lose your bakery. Make the clothes. or lose your business. Neutrality is not an option. It's not enough. It won't work like that. Eventually, this will come to your door. Now we have a law in Minnesota where if you don't believe in this transgender nonsense and someone gets wind of the fact that your child believes that they were born in the wrong body and they want to have something done about it, your child can be taken from you so that they can go there and be treated. Neutrality is not an option. There's a third parallel. Verse 17, but in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name. So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Don't use that name. Don't speak that name. And that used to be, The end of it. Just don't speak that name. That's where a decade or so ago, that's where we were. Just don't speak that name. Valedictorian, you've got the highest grade point average in the class and you get to make a speech at graduation. That's awesome. Thank you so much. Can I quote Gandhi? Absolutely. Quote Gandhi. People will think that you're an enlightened person. That's cool. How about if I, can I quote the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi? We don't know who that is, but sure, sounds great. Can I quote Jesus? Ah, separation of church and state. Any other name but that one. And still, we love it when people are out and they're public and they're religious, even if they're Christian. As long as they're the kind of Christian that does not believe too strongly in that name. As long as they're the kind of Christian who does not hold their faith too firmly upon that name. As long as they're the kind of Christians who go along with the culture, who smile and nod at all of this nonsense and won't use that name. But the minute they recognize that you've been with Jesus, it doesn't matter that there's a man standing in front of them who was lame and is lame no longer. In other words, they don't care about your deeds.
SPEAKER 02 :
That was ministry leader Dr. Votie Bauckham speaking at the 2024 PrayVote Stand Summit back in October. You're listening to a special edition of Washington Watch. After the break, we'll share the conclusion of Votie's address. So don't go anywhere. We'll be back.
SPEAKER 04 :
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 :
Let's not be discouraged. Don't lose heart. Don't lose the faith. Stand now strong because the Lord has given us the great privilege of living in a time when our choices matter, when our lives matter, when our courage matters. So let's stand together and save this great country. God bless the United States of America.
SPEAKER 01 :
The American Republic has a freedom like no other. It has roots in the scriptures far more than any other heritage. And if we as followers of Jesus and conservatives don't defend it, who will? Neutrality is not an option.
SPEAKER 06 :
There are many Christians who believe that if we just keep our heads down, if we just don't say the wrong thing, that somehow we will come out of this unscathed. You're naive if you think that, because what they want from us is not our silence. What they want from us is our submission.
SPEAKER 08 :
Part of the dilemma of Christianity in our generation is that we've relied a little too much on human wisdom and human reasoning, human strength, human resource, and we've relied too little on the power of God and God's ability to open doors that we can't open and do things that we couldn't even hope to begin to do.
SPEAKER 03 :
This may not be an easy task, But we are living in a moment of challenge, but also a great opportunity. And we know always that we are not alone, that his spirit empowers us and protects us, and that he can do the unimaginable. Dobbs, after all, was never supposed to have it.
SPEAKER 04 :
father we thank you you have entrusted us with this moment in history and i pray that we would be found faithful and that as a result of our faithfulness to you that thousands millions would come into the kingdom as they would experience the forgiveness of sin and the new life that is found only in jesus christ amen
SPEAKER 02 :
Good afternoon, and welcome back to Washington Watch. I'm your host, Jody Heiss. Thrilled to be filling in today for Tony, and thanks for tuning in to this special edition. We've been playing some of the highlights from the 2024 PrayVote Stand Summit that was held in Washington, D.C. Hope you've been enjoying these. Before we jump into the last segment, I want to again encourage you to help Family Research Council shine the light of biblical truth in the new year. Time is running out, but you can still give a tax-deductible gift by the end of the year and double your giving. Simply text the word LIGHT to 67742. Remember, it will be doubled. You have until midnight tomorrow. That's LIGHT at 67742. All right, to close out today's special edition, we're going to finish up with the address that was delivered by ministry leader Dr. Votie Bauckham at the 2024 PrayVoteStand Summit. In this last segment, Votie was discussing how many in this post-Christian culture are fine with Christians so long as they're the kind of Christians who go along with the culture. They just smile and nod at all the nonsense. Is that what we saw recorded in the book of Acts? Well, I'll let Vody do the preaching.
SPEAKER 06 :
If you notice, Christianity is often maligned in the media. We all see that. We all talk about that. But what I've noticed is there's a certain kind of Christianity that's never maligned in the media. The kind of Christianity that just does soup kitchens and 12-step programs. The kind of Christianity that just focuses on, you know, feeding the poor. The kind of Christianity that's involved in sort of leftist, you know, political movements and things like that. Nobody ever worries about that brand of Christianity. Nobody cares when a Raphael Warnock runs for Senate. Why don't they care? Cuz he's a leftist that doesn't take this book seriously, and that's fine. But the minute you do, we have a problem. And the problem is that you are using that name. By the way, when I say using that name, I don't just mean putting those five letters together because those people over there will use that name, but they will not use the name the way it's intended in this book. They're not referring to the Jesus of Scripture. Don't use that name. Well, here's where the parallel ends. Verse 19, today would read something like this. But Peter and John answered, that's okay. We'll just witness with our lifestyle. Not in there. But Peter and John answered, it's all right, we'll just keep our faith within the four walls of, no. But Peter and John answered them, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge. for we cannot but speak of what we've seen and heard. Isn't that the testimony that we just heard? You do what you have to do, but we have to speak. And this is difficult. This is hard, and we've seen it, we saw it recently. And I know we don't like to go here, but we saw it recently with the COVID lockdowns. Stop meeting together. Yes, the Bible says, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, but I'm saying stop meeting together. And the overwhelming majority of us said, y'all's a boss. There were very few who said, you do what you have to. Very few. On the issue of abortion, back in 73, 74, 75, early on, there were Christians who spoke out who were outraged because of the Roe v. Wade decision. But over the years, all of that changed. And it just was what it was. There were Christians who stood up and who boldly opposed this whole movement toward so-called same-sex marriage. But after Obergefell in 2015, now the response is, well, it's the law of the land. How long before we roll over and play dead on all this transgender nonsense? This is where the parallel falls apart. Because we're just not willing to say, you do what you have to, and we will accept the consequences as they come. Instead, we shave off the edges, just a little here, just a little there, until eventually the sound of that name is so faint that we may as well not be saying it anymore. But what's the difference? Verse 21. And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people. For all were praising God for what had happened. For the man on whom the sign of healing was performed was more than 40 years old. There are two things present here. The first thing that's present here is that ultimately they couldn't deny the power of God working in the lives of these men. The evidence was there. But there's a second thing. I love that phrase, it says, and when they had further threatened them. How does that work? I have this picture of it in my mind, right? And the members of the Sanhedrin, they come and they say, you know, yeah, this man is healed and that's fine. You know where you want to go and you want to heal people. You want to do this, you want to do that. Just don't use that name. Just stop using that name. And Peter and John apparently said, no. I mean, essentially, that's what we see there in verse 19. No, we're not going to be able to do that. And I can just picture, you know, whoever brought that news going back to the Sanhedrin saying, hey, we warned them and we told them not to use that name. And they said, do what you got to do. Well, threaten them further until he comes back. Stop using that name. Because if you don't stop using that name, we're going to take your stuff. Bro, this is Acts chapter 4. We gave our stuff away in Acts chapter 2. Like, what? They got no stuff. Okay. Okay. Stop using that name or we'll kill you. You mean like you killed Jesus? How'd that work for you? Besides that, for us to live is Christ, to die is gain. Last time I checked, the death rate was one per person. I didn't look today, but I don't think that's changed. They'd laid down their lives already. At the end of the day, it's impossible to threaten a dead man. And that's how they considered themselves. And that's why they were able to stand. Here's our problem. Many of us are not dead yet. Many of us have not laid down our lives. Many of us do not consider ourselves crucified with Christ. So now we say no longer I live, but Christ who lives in me. And we're holding on with everything we have to every bit of this life because we do not value highly enough the life that is to come. Saints, may I encourage you, may I beseech you, lay down your life, take up your cross, follow him. May I remind you, this is indeed not our home. We are just passing through. May I remind you, Ultimately, there is nothing that they can take from us when everything that we have and everything that we are already belongs to Christ. My time is gone. But let me say this. Currently in Lusaka, we're having load shedding, and we're on a rotating schedule. We get two or three hours of power. First 24 hours, no power, two or three hours of power. Then 36 hours, no power, two or three hours of power. Then 48 hours, no power, two or three hours of power, and then back to 24 again. You know what we've been reminded of? That there's a whole lot we can live without. There's a whole lot that we just take for granted and get used to and hold on for dear life because we believe that somehow we can't make it. But as long as we have Jesus, as long as we have his word, as long as we have his promises, ultimately, they can take from us everything. And in the end, if they take our very lives, they've only taken what doesn't belong to us in the first place. And they've taken what will ultimately pale in comparison to what is in store for us in the age to come. And so while we're marginalized, and so while they won't be neutral toward us, but ultimately will be hostile toward us, while they get angry with us because we use that name, when our lives are hidden with Christ, we will say, You do whatever you have to do, but we cannot but speak of what we've seen and what we've heard. Let's pray. Gracious God, our Father, we thank you and we praise you for your goodness and your kindness and your mercy toward us. We thank you and we praise you for Christ and for the redemption that we have in him. We thank you and we praise you for the lives that we live, for this great country of ours. Because as much as we see that's going wrong, the fact still remains, there's no better place. And it is our hope that as you continue to pour out your judgment on America, because you are, that it will drive us not to despair, but to repentance. And that you would grant us grace and faith to continue to proclaim and stand firm on the gospel regardless of the cost. Because ultimately, there is nothing that matters more. We pray this. We ask this. the name of our Lord, Savior, Master, and soon coming King.
SPEAKER 1 :
Amen.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, amen to that. And thank you so much for joining into this special edition of Washington Watch. I'm Jody Heiss. And what you just heard was an address by ministry leader Dr. Votie Bauckham. He was part of our 2024 Pray, Vote, Stand Summit. And it was powerful, as you just saw. If you missed any part of the summit or if you want to go back and watch this again or revisit other portions of it, you can do so if and only if you have our Stand Firm app. So go to the App Store or Google Play, wherever you get your apps, or you can simply text the word APP to 67742. And again, let me also remind you that you can double your impact for faith, family, and freedom by partnering with Family Research Council before midnight tomorrow. You can give your gift by texting the word LIGHT to 67742. Help us shine the light of biblical truth into 2025. Again, thank you so much for joining us today. It's always an honor to have you on board. Together, we are bringing faith, family, and freedom to our country all from a biblical worldview perspective. Thank you so much. Look forward to being with you again tomorrow right here on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 10 :
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.
Dive into the latest episode of Sekulow, where hosts discuss President Trump's unwavering endorsement of Mike Johnson for Speaker, highlighting the political and legal implications. We delve into the push for legislative unity and the importance of cooperation among Republicans to ensure a smooth transition of policies that are crucial to the MAGA agenda. Through the conversation, insights are provided into the strategic roles that both President Trump and Speaker Johnson play in shaping the forthcoming political landscape.
SPEAKER 07 :
Breaking news today on Sekulow as President Trump destroys the rhino narrative.
SPEAKER 05 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey folks, welcome to Sekulow. We are taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110. We are, again, you can see I'm traveling. I'll be traveling with a different backdrop tomorrow, but we want to be with you this important time of the year. As we are finishing out the year, you know how critical it is for the american center for law and justice and listen this is critical time for you too because congress is coming back into session when congress comes back into session at the end of this week what do they do first they elect their leadership and what is the first vote that we take the first vote that we take is going to be who will be the speaker of the house in the republic controlled house of representatives and it now uh looks pretty clear Because there was a lot of talk about, well, could Mike Johnson, who is a great friend of ours, did the same kind of legal work we do at the ACLJ. I mean, really committed to the issues that we care about, that you care about. You've been on this broadcast a lot before you were Speaker and after becoming Speaker. So it's been great for the ACLJ Government Affairs team to have his team in place in the Speaker's office. As you can imagine, to have that long of a relationship with someone who is third in line to be President of the United States and the most powerful, powerful person in the Congress. But there was some people saying, well, maybe he's gotten too soft. Well, President Trump has made it clear today, Will, he has endorsed Speaker Johnson 100%. And I think with that Trump endorsement, especially in the House of Representatives that is more MAGA than the US Senate, that that Trump endorsement really does matter. And I think probably takes Mike Johnson over the line. It doesn't mean we won't have some who try to start an insurgent campaign but it makes it a lot more difficult when president Trump has put his weight behind the full weight of his team behind Mike Johnson.
SPEAKER 06 :
That's right, Jordan. And in a lengthy truth, social posts this morning from president Trump, he started out by talking about the campaign and how we're the party of common sense. And then it ended with this says we ran a flawless campaign having spent far less with lots of money left over. They ran a very expensive sinking ship and, Embracing the DOJ and FBI weaponization against their political opponent, me. But it didn't work. It was a disaster. Let's not blow this great opportunity which we have been given. The American people need immediate relief from all of the destructive policies of the last administration. Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hardworking, religious man. He will do the right thing and we will continue to win. Mike has my complete and total endorsement MAGA. So right there, he's leaving no room for interpretation that it's a soft endorsement or something of that nature. And if we believe that President Trump deserves the benefit of the doubt in who he picks for his cabinet and that he needs this team in place to get the agenda forward, I think that People that may have been on the fence about Speaker Mike Johnson should think that way as well, that President Trump knows what he's doing. This is the person he believes is best suited to get the Trump agenda forward in the House of Representatives with a very narrow margin, mind you. And I think that complete and total endorsement speaks volumes there, Jordan.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yep, and you know what, folks? This is the most important time of the year for us. I want you to know, if you're new to our broadcasts, and we were talking about this earlier in our meeting, we don't usually fundraise like this so regularly. This is just because December is the most important month of the year for the ACLJ financially, not just for 2024. It's really for 2025 and the work that we know we're going to be doing on January 1st. So right now we've got, again, our matching campaign. We want you to be a part of that right now. There's a midnight deadline on the 31st on New Year's Eve. And right now when you donate, it's tripled. Triple the impact. Think about that, folks. Usually it's double. So for the ACLJ, you know, we don't do those crazy matches where it's 100 times match. This is triple the match. So if you donated $20 right now at ACLJ.org, that is equivalent to $60 to the ACLJ. $100 becomes $300. $500 becomes $1,500. Think about these numbers, $200 to $600. This is the time to make sure we never have to say no to a case and our team is ready to keep fighting in the new year. I want to know folks from you, what do you think about President Trump's endorsement of Mike Johnson to continue to be Speaker of the House? Let me tell you something, folks, it is a very difficult job to be Speaker of the House. A lot of people say they would like to be Speaker of the House. Let me tell you, there's only a handful of people that will usually ever put their names forward. And why is that? it can become a very thankless job. You've got to weigh a lot of different decisions, especially when you're talking about the government shutting down and how that can affect an incoming Republican president. You want to make sure that we are doing everything we can in these first 100 days to get as much of the Trump new agenda done legislatively, get that moving as fast as possible. We have two years left where we have slim majorities in the House and the Senate that are Republican and a Republican president. They are pretty in line in the U.S. House, I have to say, though they sometimes differ on a few smaller items, on the big items. But we've got to really work in the Senate to make sure we get across with the 51 votes, and J.D. Vance can assist with that matter. But we've got to have a Speaker of the House who will fight with the Senate leaders to make sure we get the most conservative votes legislation possible that we can support, that President Trump is asking for. And that is why I believe President Trump has said, you know what, we're not doing these crazy, we shouldn't do these crazy fights to undermine the strength of the speaker. We need a speaker who is Willing to take the hits. Mike Johnson is willing to do that for the American people, for his fellow members of Congress. And remember, he's one of us. I think a lot of times you forget that when they become speaker after a while. You forget where they came from. He is not this lifelong politician who he thought, you know, all I want is I want to make my way to speaker and I want to become this national speaker. major leader where i've got to you know negotiate budgets with the president of the united states he's a religious liberty guy a free speech guy he was an attorney just like so many of us at the aclj that's what he spent his life doing until he ran for congress and again he's i think stepped into the shoes of a major position where a lot of people thought he would not last very long i remember in a meeting with a senator you know he went around the room and said what's the the biggest prediction you can make that right now seems like it would be unlikely, and it was that Speaker Johnson would last a year. Well, now we're talking about a lot more than a year, and he's got President Trump's endorsement. What I want to know from you at 1-800-684-3110 is how important is that endorsement? I'll tell you, Will, why I think it's important. If you voted for President Trump, you want the Speaker to be the person he wants to deal with. You don't want to put a Speaker in that the president doesn't like to work with, or that is an attack dog against the president. He's not doing enough. He's not conservative enough on every single issue. We know President Trump is unique. That's why he's brought more people to the party. That's why he won the way he did. against uh against harris and uh and look at the fear he put into the the democrats by taking out joe biden from the race and now we're hearing those articles about joe biden wishing he was still in the race but will i think that that has to be known and yes he's a friend of ours i'll say that right off the bat but if you're an aclj supporter how great is that that The few of us at the top of the ACLJ can go right to Speaker Johnson if we ever need to. Our government affairs team works with his team very closely on all of the issues that you care about. And we've been able to expand the issues we work on, Will. So I think, again, this endorsement should matter a lot if you voted for President Trump because you want his guy in as Speaker of the House. The Senate is tougher. So we've got to have a united House that will then go into the Senate and make sure we get the best legislation done in this period of time that you only usually get for a couple of years in your presidency, if you ever get it, which is a united Republican party front in Washington, D.C., with every branch of government, whether it's the legislative branch, the executive branch, and of course, the judicial nominees, all of that will be so important as well. And so I think, Will, it should carry a lot of weight, even if you were someone on the line maybe yesterday thinking about maybe someone else should take that role on. President Trump has said, this is the guy I want to work with. And I think by that statement alone, if you're someone who got elected because you told people you were gonna support President Trump, how on earth do you get in there and then say, you know what, I support President Trump, but I wanna pick someone that he doesn't want for Speaker of the House?
SPEAKER 06 :
That's right, Jordan. And I know that a lot of people were concerned when the spending fight here at the end of the year started to bubble up in Congress. And the original package that was kind of brokered to go forward was shot down pretty quickly by President Trump and Elon Musk and those like saying, hey, this isn't really the agenda we're putting forward. And so that's when a lot of people start to say, Mike Johnson is a rhino. Mike Johnson, he's not actually on our team because of this omnibus spending package that was only for three months to avert a crisis at the beginning of a Trump presidency. And my take on this, and I want to get yours as well, is that one, I think it also showed that as soon as President Trump, who is not president yet, so would not have signed that bill, said this isn't the fight or the way that we want to start off. What did they do? They pulled the bill and didn't vote on it and they ended up coming up with a different plan. I think that one shows you that Mike Johnson is willing to listen to the president to put forward what the fight will be. The other side of that is that the Republican caucus right now is still almost a European style parliamentary coalition. Because there's still some hardline, old school Republicans that don't really represent what make up the party today. You have the Freedom Caucus. You have the Warhawks. You have a bunch of different Republicans that come together and that Speaker Johnson has to corral into some sort of coalition that can move forward in the agenda. I think Mike Johnson was trying to get ahead of a fight early by putting something that would be a three month spending package that didn't end up getting signed. But knowing that one, it had to get through the Senate, which is still controlled by Democrats today. and a president that is also a Democrat. So therefore, he had to play the Washington political game to get something to go forward so that he didn't trigger a crisis before President Trump even got into office and then stalled the agenda forward. Now something better came out of that, but I honestly think that Mike Johnson is savvy enough to know that he's trying to not place landmines in the path of president Trump's agenda before he even takes office. And so what many people think was a rhino move, I think was actually him trying to shield president Trump from a big disaster before he even gets there. I'd like to get your thoughts on that too, Jordan.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, absolutely. I think that, listen, The speaker's job and the job of the Republican Party, if you are not the president, from the vice president down, if you support what the president is doing, if you believe he is the leader that you supported and you want to get his agenda through, what do you need to do? You need to make it as easy as possible. And that means take as many of the hits for him as possible so that by the time the legislation gets to him, he can sign it with widespread support. Republican support and widespread support, not just from Republicans in the country, but the American people. Because remember, these big legislative issues, we have to not only pass, but then we have to actually go out into the congressional districts. President Trump has to address the nation, go out into the country, and tell them why this is the best way forward, why we need this legislation, why it was worth a major reform. All of this work, by the way, the ACLJ is uniquely situated now to do a lot more work on. And let me tell you about ACLJ Action for a little bit too. ACLJ Action is a C4, so we do issue advocacy campaigns. And It is a sister part of our organization. It's not uncommon in Washington, D.C. So we have doubled the impact of our government affairs team when we are now operating in Washington, D.C. I like to say that our team in D.C. now has another major tool in their toolbox, if you will, and that is this other entity that can go further into the battles on issue advocacy, on really educating people about legislation. So I think Again, this is the time where we need your financial support. We've got a couple calls in. We're going to get to your calls. We come back from this break. I want to hear from you. If you had a member of Congress and you voted for them and they were a Trump-supporting member of Congress, Would you expect them, would you want them to say, you know what, if President Trump wants Mike Johnson, well, I trust President Trump's judgment because I voted for him to be President of the United States, the most powerful person in the world. So I think I should trust him when it comes to who should be the leader of the House. And it's obviously someone he likes to work with. And I will tell you, his team, while they were new, and it was a while back, they have become a really effective team that has been great to work with. for true conservatives. And I'll tell you, I mean, I don't want to get into too much, but he really does great work in bringing organizations like ours into the fold as much as possible on all of the issues and asks then what issues we want front and center. I can't guarantee that with other members of Congress who might want to be Speaker of the House. I can tell you that's the case with Mike Johnson as well. And that's why we want your support. Because we can really take our efforts in Washington, D.C. to the next level. Our legal efforts are certainly going to go there because we are going to help drain this swamp. And that is going to be a fight just like it was before. But we also want to take our government affairs work and get the legislative work done. And it's going to help you help the American people so much. Donate today. ACLJ.org. Triple match. Secco. This is Jordan Secco. Folks, these are the most important two days of the year for us at the American Center for Law and Justice. As you can see, we're on the road. I'll be on the road again tomorrow before, even on New Year's Eve, speaking with you live because of the importance of this month to our year fiscally. And what I mean our year, I mean 2025. I want to go to the phone calls, but Will, right before I do, we've got a few lines open and I want to hear from you folks about, again, what you want to see the ACLJ focused on in 2025. I think one focus that a lot of you would agree with is making sure we can get as much done positive with this new Congress and President as we can when it comes to policies. Get as much as we can done in the first 100 days, in these first two years, And also make sure we're ready for potential judicial nominees. And again, making sure President Trump gets the cabinet he wants confirmed and gets those leaders confirmed to the cabinet. That's also something we do as we, again, have that kind of unique role where we've got a very good relationship with U.S. senators and the Republican Party. across the board from kind of the more moderates to the most conservative. But also, just knowing that if you really do believe in what President Trump is trying to do, I think when he says, this is my guy, you have to say, you know what? This is the person he wants to work with. Let him work with that person. And if down the road that doesn't work out, President Trump is not the kind of person who's just going to stick with him if he's not able to deliver. So I think you could have faith kind of two ways. One, trust President Trump. He likes working with Mike Johnson. Two, if Mike Johnson isn't able to get the job done, and I think he'd be the first to say it as well, then he would step aside and let someone else in his place if They thought they could, President Trump thought there was someone who needed to be fresh in there. So again, I think it is very important that Mike Johnson got this endorsement. But I also want to hear from you about the issues you want kind of done right off the bat. Where do you want the focus to be in 2025? And Will, before we go to the phones, just a few things, let people know a few of the things we've already got that we're working on in 2025.
SPEAKER 06 :
That's right. Just as soon as we're into the new year, and I know our attorneys are working on it right now, that case in Massachusetts where we filed a lawsuit because of the funding the state was using to target pro-life pregnancy resource centers, the state filed a motion to dismiss. In our response to that, is due January 10th. So our attorneys are working, even working through the holiday as they already and typically do, but they will be having that brief ready for January 10th to file our response to the motion to dismiss from the state of Massachusetts and that pro-abortion organization that was running an ad campaign targeting pro-life pregnancy resource centers. We also have a filing at the Supreme Court coming up in a case which would allow states to defund Planned Parenthood. So using their choice of how they use Medicaid dollars and not being forced to fund groups like Planned Parenthood. We have a sidewalk counselor case, a lot of pro-life work coming up in 2025 that's pending at the Supreme Court. That's the Turco case you've heard us talk about. working on a second major amicus brief right now that will go to the International Criminal Court to defend Israel after the arrest warrants were issued against Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and former defense minister there. And then we are defending three Christians right now that are on death row in Pakistan. for their faith so this is religious persecution at its worst these individuals are on death row facing death for being christians and we also as i mentioned earlier in that lawsuit with massachusetts we're also preparing to launch that half million dollar ad campaign to stop the mass deception out of massachusetts and give expecting mothers' resources and babies' resources in the state of Massachusetts, where the state wants them to only have one choice, which is abortion. So Georgia, get ahead in this very early days of 2025 that we look forward to.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, just to run that campaign in Massachusetts and really to test to see if we want to take that to other states around the country. We know it's going to cost about $500,000 to run it the way we want to fully respond to what Massachusetts has done with this pro-abortion organization. So the state, the Commonwealth, took about a million dollars of taxpayer money and combined it with a pro-abortion group. And they're spending close to eight. We think we can be a lot more effective in our reach. We've got the ads ready to go. We've played them for you here before. We've got billboards ready. We've got social media ready. We've got lawsuits ready, potentially, because of the way that really they are. They are just the way that they are. Talking about these pregnancy resource centers is just disgusting. But to do it right, we're going to have to have $500,000, and then we're going to know if it works in Massachusetts. It gets the attention, and people realize, wait, there are other options. And we fight back against how these pregnancy resource centers really have been defamed by the commonwealth. who is working hand in hand with abortion organizations that, again, make their money off doing abortion. So it's like fighting a big business, as I always say, with almost endless resources. And we want to take it to more states. We don't want to just do this. And it's not just for people in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This is where the battle started. If we can be successful in this effort and see that it does change the discussion, we want to bring it to your state too. So we've got to get there. We've got to fundraise. And that's why we've got the triple match right now at ACLJ.org. I haven't done a triple match in a very long time by donating to ACLJ, even during these deadlines. And this, again, the most important two days of the year for us financially. You can talk to anyone on our team. They know it. It's the 30th and 31st this year, the last two days of December, the most important days. And you have until midnight on New Year's Eve to be part of that triple match. Will, let's get to a phone call now. Let's go to Robert in Maryland on line one. Hey, Robert.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, I wanted to ask the both of you, now that President Trump has said he's given his full support of Mike Johnson being the Speaker of the House, are they going to be able to get through, meaning the House of Representatives and the Senate, the Trump agenda on foreign policy, on taxes, on regulatory policy, and also inflation? And I wanted to add another one, the pro-life issues.
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, I think so. Let me start with foreign policy. Foreign policy, the president has the most power to act on his own. So you see this rush at the end of the year where President Biden is getting the last remaining money he can, I think, to Ukraine. It's like $1.7 billion. Because he knows that when President Trump comes in, even if that money was allocated by Congress in legislation, the president doesn't have to exactly use it immediately or could decide to use it a different way or not use it all at one time. So I think, again, when it comes to those issues of foreign policy, the president is at his highest point of power. that's where he has the most power to act unilaterally. And there's a lot of constitutional scholars work, Supreme Court cases on that. When it comes to the taxes issue, that's legislative battles, Will. That's where we've got to make sure, yes, we know we can probably get the votes in the House of Representatives. We got to make sure we can get the votes in the US Senate. And it's why it's critical the ACLJ team, our government affairs team, the ACLJ action team, has all the resources we need, kind of like the cases where we never have to say no to a battle, a legislative battle either, and cutting taxes and making sure we get that through. It sounds like it should be easy when you've got a Republican House and Senate, but the Republican House is a lot more conservative than the Senate. So we've got to be ready to fight, Will, and that's what we're doing through this match is making sure we've got the resources necessary to go to battle on all of those issues that Robert just brought up. Some are more difficult than others. Some the president can do on his own. Some we need legislation. And when you need legislation, that means you got to bring the Republican votes together. And we can do that with your support. Donate.
SPEAKER 05 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 07 :
the secular folk, you know, there are going to be a lot of battles. I mean, Lord, just the last eight hours, we saw the battles, Will, with just the H1B1 visas and kind of where the reform should go there. And, you know, I think where people kind of landed is that there was some confusion on H1B1s taking jobs from Americans, which should never be the case, but that they should be utilized when there are not enough Americans that have the highly skilled Usually it's in the tech world to be able to assist these companies that are trying to do wonderful and great things for the country. But because we have not had the best math and science programs, it doesn't mean that those companies aren't being run and the majority of the staff are American. But what it does mean is that if they could find someone in a different country around the world who's one of the best at the job that they're looking for, that as America, we do want to be able to bring that person in. Because I think Elon Musk is right to the point, I'm not endorsing everything he said, but he's right to that point where he says, listen, if there's somebody out there and everybody knows how great they are, this team that's out there, from a smaller company overseas that everyone knows this team is really smart, really good. They are gonna go to whoever comes to them first with a better offer. And America can always make the best offer. That's where people wanna be. But if they don't get that offer, guess where they go? They end up with China, or they end up with Russia, or even worse, they could end up with Iran. We don't wanna see that happening, Will. I mean, so we wanna make sure as a strong country, know that the system isn't abused and we're not taking jobs from the American people. But if we've got a group of highly trained scientists and mathematicians who think they can provide something that can be really created in America, made in America, let's make sure we do make it in America. And I think tied to that is bringing more of those jobs and also teaching people who want to work with their hands to encourage those jobs as well. And I think that President Trump is the right president because he knows the importance of having great contractors and having great people on job sites who can uh get buildings done on time and get get the construction done rebuilding our infrastructure rebuilding our roads uh getting the wall done in mexico where so we can secure our border you've got to have a lot of people with a lot of special uh sometimes special knowledge and they don't all come here. They're not all Americans, but we're a country that can really pick from the best. Why give that away? Not on a large scale where we're trying to mass fire Americans from jobs, but on a micro scale where we need someone or their group, their team, so that we can bring them onto the American team. And we've been successful throughout history by doing that. I mean, my Lord, this is why Elon Musk is in America, Will. I mean, he wanted to come here because he knew this was the only country he could realize this pretty wild vision he had as a young person, young entrepreneur, to send rockets to space, ultimately build a base on the moon that could then eventually take to take humans to Mars. I mean, think about that. And he's getting about halfway there right now. Only in America does that happen. While at the same time, starting the first electric car company without subsidy, without lots of subsidies from the government. In fact, he likes to point out, he didn't ask for that tax credit. It was American car companies, like the big ones, like GM and others who needed the tax credit because they needed to create those electric cars, which could not at the time keep up with what Tesla was doing. And now we're seeing some of the prices come down, some of them being more reasonable. But we've also gotten a reality check from people like Elon Musk. And it's why the left doesn't like it, which is that even though he benefits from electric cars being sold, you don't have a grid ready for everybody to be driving electric cars. So what do you have to do? You have to invest in the right kind of infrastructure in America. That's both oil and gas. You can look down the future to the electric cars thing as well. Make sure that they're going to work in wintertime in other places. They're not just kind of a novelty. We want to do all of that in the United States. We keep America number one at every – the first job of the president is to keep us safe. Making sure our military is ready to go, border is secure. And you know this president's going to do that. He's going to have a lot of pushback through lawsuits. We're going to fight back in all of those lawsuits. You know what that takes? Money. takes resources that is not free so donate today so that we can say yes we can file we can fight for that wall we can fight for that issue donate your donations tripled aclj.org today Thank you. We're going to be with you live wherever we are in the country, as you can see, moving around the country today. I want to go first to Jeff Balaban is about to join us from our office in Israel that he oversees. But I want to take a caller first who's been holding on the line. Whitney out of Texas online, too. Hey, Whitney.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hey there. Thanks so much. Yeah. You know, Speaker Johnson's really good for us. And Ted Cruz made some comments that gave me some clarity. He said the number 218, our speaker can't do anything unless the Republicans don't coalesce. And to that, you know, I said right after the election, that's great. We've got the House. We've got the Senate. We've got the White House. But our congressmen especially have to get very comfortable with one word, and that word is lockstep. I love that there are certain congressmen I really like, but they make declarative statements like I am always a no on a CR or I am always a no on the debt ceiling. And we don't have the luxury of having those kind of principles. We need to. We need to cooperate. We need to get behind our speaker. We need to get behind something that might be 75 percent instead of 100 percent and get over that finish line that gets things through. And that's the number 218. We need 218 votes. And that's where we can sort of step in and tell our congressmen how we want them to vote on our behalf.
SPEAKER 07 :
And I think it's key when you have someone like Ted Cruz, who I see as kind of the the leader of the conservative movement in the Senate. He was there before a lot of those other now well-known names were there as kind of an outlier at first. And now it's become much more mainstream. You've got the Josh Hawleys. You've got the, again, you've got the Tom Cotton's. You've got others, many others, Mike Lee's, who kind of came up with Ted Cruz as well, who are eloquent, but also very tough. But they understand that That to get things done in Washington, you want to get 100% of what you want. But even when you've got Republican control in the House and the Senate and the White House, you know that it's, again, it's slim, as you said, Whitney. And we just need more people to keep that in mind. That if we get 75% or 80% of what we want in this legislation, that is a whole lot better than what we would be getting if we didn't have a Republican-controlled Senate. by, you know, with Athun as leader or a house by, you know, controlled by Mike Johnson and we'd be getting nothing or maybe 10% of what we want. So again, 80%, 75%, those are victories. Let's stop acting like those are losses. That's self-inflicting wounds. And you can get to the 100% victories by building on the 75% victories and showing the American people why your ideas work. And that's at all levels of government. Now, Will, I want to get right to Jeff Balaban, too, because Israel and the world, because you got new kind of Again, conflicts erupting all over the world right now. That is what Joe Biden is leaving to the incoming president, President Trump, and not just in Ukraine and Russia, but still a very kind of convoluted message in Israel and also with what Israel is dealing with now with not just Iran, but Syria being run by supposedly a reformed, the former militant wing or army wing of al-Qaeda.
SPEAKER 06 :
That's right. And Jeff, I wanted to bring you into this discussion because we started the show talking about President Trump endorsing Speaker Mike Johnson to be speaker again. And I sent you an article this morning where Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu said there's no hostage deal because Hamas doesn't want one. As we look forward into 2025 under a Trump presidency, we know that the hostages, especially the fact there are still American hostages being held by Hamas, is of utmost importance to President Trump. But it can't be lost on everyone that one of the first actions as Speaker of the House by Speaker Mike Johnson was hosting ACLJ and our clients who are families of people taken hostage by Hamas on October 7th. And giving them a room, giving them an audience to the media and showing support from the American Congress for those families and those hostage families as well as the hostages that were being held by Hamas. So as we look forward, it's important. That we have someone who is, as the caller said, in lockstep with President Trump, wanting to get the agenda done, but also understands those issues and can be a light in areas that we need him to as we look at things like trying to finally end this hostage crisis with Hamas.
SPEAKER 04 :
That's absolutely correct. I'm going back, as far as I can remember, I don't recall there ever being an alignment as favorable, as hopeful, for resolution of these very difficult issues. And not just this terrible war that's been raging since the attack on October 7th, not just the horrible hostage situation that, as obviously, we're very involved in trying to help fight. certain hostage families the ones that have come to us for for assistance uh but i've never seen an alignment here you know donald trump was fantastic as a president for israel the first time he was in the white house and now we have speaker johnson who obviously is very close with us we see eye to eye with on these issues and so god willing look it's a very difficult situation the announcement by prime minister nathaniel today It's not really a shock that what Hamas has been doing has been playing a brutal game to try and keep its own survival on the one hand, but also really to torture Jews around the world, on the other hand, by holding these hostages. And until now, they've dealt with a feckless administration in America that has really been unhelpful, to say the least. And I think they're confronting an entirely new reality now. What unfortunately that may mean for the individual hostages remains to be seen, and it might not be good. They've been held hostage not for their benefit, but for Hamas's benefit. And the fact that Hamas understands that its days are probably numbered with the incoming administration is, you know, we have to really hope and pray that these hostages are able to survive it.
SPEAKER 07 :
I think this would be helpful to our audience right now who are really asking to financially support the ACLJ at the end of the year. So we're ready to go for the new year in 2025 with all these battles. And just to kind of talk about what the work of the ACLJ Jerusalem is going to look like in 2025. Obviously, some of this work that you just described will continue, but we also have to be able to kind of double down now, as you said, on these issues like the hostages, because it takes that much more work to bring attention to it, to make sure people don't forget. about these conflicts to make sure people realize what Israel is dealing with on so many different fronts right now. And we know our supporters care about it. It's just a lot of information that they're trying to take in every day. So when they're supporting the ACLJ, they're supporting ACLJ Jerusalem. What are the priorities for ACLJ Jerusalem going into 2025?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, thanks. As you know, Jordan, internally we've been discussing even expanding some of the operations that we have until now programmatically. Until now, people in Jerusalem recognize that ACLJ is uniquely informative and understands and connected and powerful in Washington. And obviously what happens in Washington is incredibly important to Israel. We've seen it this past year again, more than in decades, how important it is to have a favorable climate in Washington and a good relationship between the White House and Congress and Israel's Prime Minister and Knesset. For us, it's being really probably one of the most trusted, I don't want to say the most trusted, but we might be, source of information between Washington and Jerusalem Because we are so, thank God, so well connected, because we are so trusted on both sides, both in Jerusalem and in Washington, and each trying to understand the other side without the white noise of people with their own agendas. And that's the role we play. I think that we're going to be expanding that role. Well, naturally, we already are, because we're being constantly asked to prognosticate the future and also to try to have influence on both sides. And so I think the role here is just going to expand and grow as it's perceived and understood that we understand and are so well connected with the powers that be, both in Washington and in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and I mean, I think, Jeff, too, the issues that the people of Israel are facing, I always tie this to American security, because I think it's important, is that, you know, when the U.S. provides aid to Israel, oftentimes it is working hand in hand with Israel on developing defensive or sometimes offensive weapons that will be utilized by the United States military. And then it's tested in Israel. So that Israel is the test case because they are in a constant state right now of conflict, of these rockets coming in. So I think that really started publicly with the Iron Dome and then the mobile Iron Dome units that can be utilized, and now drone warfare that we have to be prepared for as well. That this is not just money that goes into the IDF to decide they can do whatever they want with it. It's really a partnership with Israel to make sure that our men and women in the United States benefit from the best technology that has been tested on the battlefield.
SPEAKER 04 :
So historically, we see that America's benefits tremendously from Israel's intelligence and weaponry development. And of course, the future holds even greater promise for that. And this is that great moment where people think foreign aid is just helping Israel. It's not. It's America's interest. And that's why America should continue to do it. And God willing, we'll continue to work closely with Israel on these matters.
SPEAKER 07 :
Jeff, thank you for joining us from ACLJ Jerusalem, folks. Again, that may be the issue for you that you care deeply about. Know that your donation matters there so much. Donate right now at ACLJ.org, and until midnight on New Year's Eve, your donation will be tripled. You can use the QR code if you're watching the broadcast right now. Go to ACLJ.org if you're listening. And as long as that donation is in, by midnight where you are on the 31st, on New Year's Eve, that donation will be tripled, triple the impact. We've got to have your financial support. We can't run all these offices in Israel, in Pakistan, all over the world without you, from France, at ACLJ.org. All right, welcome back to Seculo. Again, you're going to be seeing me in a couple different locations today and tomorrow, but we're going to be with you live, breaking down all the news and, of course, trying to raise as much as we can these final two days of the year through this triple matching challenge. Again, you've got time to talk to us on air. I'd love to hear from you. If you support Mike Johnson, 1-800-684-3110. As speaker, if you agree with President Trump, if you're going to Call your member of the House of Representatives. If they're a Republican, tell them to vote for Speaker Johnson. You can take that kind of action. But also, you know, what issues you kind of want the House to jump on and President Trump to jump on on those first 100 days. I think a lot of us know it's the economy, the border, and kind of just making America just with, you know, It's giving us kind of an insight into an endgame there. But what's why I just want to do one more time and then I will to take it from here. But I just have to underscore to you because I got to hop on a plane is how important your financial support is to the American Center for Law and Justice. This end of the year, why we're here with a lot of people still on holiday is because of your financial support. And it has been great. And, you know, my number one goal is this. I never want to get a call from a potential client, from the White House, from a member of Congress or the Speaker or someone in leadership in the Senate on something they need help on. And we have to say, you know what, I'd love to do that. Let me check and see if I've got the resources to do it. I don't ever want to have to do that. Now, if we're going to do something new, like in Massachusetts and run a brand new advertising pro-life campaign, that we want to grow a new budget for because that's something new. But if it's work that we've already got the whole team in our wheelhouse for, just like in the legal work, I always want to be able to say yes. I always want to be able to say yes to our international teams in Israel and France and Pakistan and other countries. And I always want to be able to say yes to our government affairs team in Washington, D.C. I can say yes and know I can say yes when I know that we've got the financial support from you. And right now, if you donate to the ACLJ until tomorrow night at midnight, wherever you are around the world, your donation will be tripled. We're not crazy. We don't do these 10 times match things. We don't even usually do a triple donation. But this time we can. So if you donate 50 bucks right now at ACLJ.org, that's like $150. And Will, we need that support so that we can always say yes to the best cases, the best issues, and whatever help is necessary around the world to do what our members would want us to do, which is to fight.
SPEAKER 06 :
That's right, Jordan. And this actually brings me to another point. We talk a lot about how President Trump kind of reshaped the federal judiciary with all his appointments. But this is a story that's not talked about enough. And I've brought in Professor Harry Hutchison to kind of break this down. But he, President Biden, has now surpassed President Trump in judicial nominees. So we think of all the good that happened with having strong constitutional conservative judges on federal benches. And now we hear that President Biden has surpassed President Trump in the number of appointments to the federal judiciary. 235 nominees in his four years. That's one on the Supreme Court. So not as many as President Trump got, but... One on the Supreme Court, 45 appeals courts, and 187 district courts. Two on the Court of International Trade. Professor Hutchison, when you look at that and 187 district court judges, and I know that Chuck Schumer said the judiciary is going to be the first line and strongest line of defense against President Trump. It means the work here at the ACLJ as we fight in federal court. is going to get that much more difficult and take that much more resources as we now look at a federal judiciary that in some ways, especially at the district court level, which then ties things up in litigation and appeals for years, when you have that many district court judges appointed by Joe Biden, it can make the legal work that much more difficult looking ahead.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely. And so the ACLJ is prepared to file briefs in district courts, appellate courts, and before the United States Supreme Court because essentially Chuck Schumer has announced publicly that the judiciary is the leading source of defending the Biden-Obama bureaucratic agenda that has been operational really for the last 10 to 15 years. Now, it's important to note that although the Democrats see a judicial insurrection as perhaps their best plan to preserve an elite bureaucratic revolution, the United States Supreme Court on June the 28th, 2024, issued a landmark decision in Loper Bright Enterprises versus Raimondo, Why is that decision important? Because it overturned 40 years of judicial jurisprudence that basically elevated or reified the so-called Chevron decision. What did Chevron do? Chevron empowered the bureaucrats to rule instead of the legislature. And so the Supreme Court has now said that the bureaucrats no longer rule. So this is very, very important. If we want to move forward with Dodge, basically the new department, which improves federal efficiency. It's going to be important in basically stopping what the Democrats have already started with respect to open borders in the South and in the North. So it's very, very important to keep in mind what the United States Supreme Court has done, but we also need to be prepared to fight back and we need to confirm conservative judges going forward.
SPEAKER 06 :
Folks, when you hear Chuck Schumer say that the judiciary is the Democrats' strongest defense against Trump, what he's really saying is that the judiciary is the Democrats' strongest defense against what you believe in. the things that we fight for at the ACLJ every day. When we talk about the agenda of the ACLJ at the beginning of 2025, we have a filing at the Supreme Court that would allow states to defund Planned Parenthood. A sidewalk counselor case where a pro-life individual is able to freely counsel those that are seeking just hope or a choice in the matter. And when they're told by the leftists that the only choice they have is abortion, that is pending at the Supreme Court. ACLJ case, Turco. Working on our second major amicus brief to the ICC to defend Israel after the arrest warrants were issued. Defending three Christians on death row in Pakistan for their faith. We're fighting in Massachusetts against a state campaign targeting pro-life pregnancy resource centers. In all of the constitutional, free speech, religious liberty cases that we have here at the ACLJ, that's what Chuck Schumer's talking about when he says that the judiciary is the Democrats' strongest defense against Trump. It's against your values. And if you donate today, your gift will be tripled. As we look ahead to a fight where Joe Biden has now confirmed more judges than Donald Trump did in his first four years. The fight ahead is going to be tough, but it's nothing we haven't handled before at the ACLJ. And you can join us in this fight. Our deadline's tomorrow night to have your donation tripled. ACLJ.org.
Join Bill Gundersen as he navigates the complexities of the stock market on a particularly challenging day. With a close look at the NASDAQ's performance over recent years, Bill shares insights into the reasons behind market volatility, including historical patterns and current technological innovations. Explore the potential impacts of U.S. politics on market behavior, and understand the importance of active management in uncertain times. With a focus on fundamental analysis and a bit of humor, Bill invites listeners to consider strategic investments amidst a backdrop of sector rotations and economic predictions.
SPEAKER 01 :
He's been seen on CNBC, the Fox News Channel, and the Fox Business Channel. His articles can be found on MarketWatch, Seeking Alpha, thestreet.com, and many other places. He's the author of the weekly Best Stocks Now newsletter and the inventor of the Best Stocks Now app. He's president of Gundersen Capital Management. Here is professional money manager Bill Gundersen.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome to the Monday. It is the Monday live edition of the Best Stocks Now show with professional money manager Bill Gunderson, president of Gunderson Capital Management. I'm here with my vice president. Jeff Webster, who will be adding a little color here after we get through our little introductory opening here to the market. We have a bah humbug day in the market. This is no way to celebrate the holidays. The NASDAQ right now is down, let's see, 1.68%. That translates to 335 points. We're clear down to 19,388. After we hit that 20,000 level here, big round number, sometimes that can be a big obstacle in the way of an advance. Valuation is also a big issue. I hope you read my newsletter over the weekend. The Dow is down 670 points. What kind of happy new year is that? That's 1.6% drop. Big tech taking it on the chin again today. The Dow hit 45,000. Big round number. Valuations got high. Now we're back to 42,308. The S&P down 1.5%. It's down almost 100 points. Very light volume, though. That's kind of hard to gauge. S&P is at 58.77. And even the bond market is selling off today. How about that? It's down six basis points. 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 my vice president, VP of all kinds of things, so I can stay focused on managing portfolios and looking at the markets, etc. I'm here with Jeff Webster. Barry Kite is traveling today. On another holiday-shortened week, tomorrow will be a half-day in the market. Hallelujah. And then we call it a wrap for 2024. I hate to end on a sour note. Maybe we'll get some buying coming into the market here by the end of the day, Jeff. Maybe Jeff will open up his wallet and start doing some buying to get this market turned around. Okay, Jeff, can you do that for us?
SPEAKER 06 :
It's crazy out there. First of all, good morning to everyone. I hope everyone's having a great holiday season. with their families and friends. It is crazy.
SPEAKER 03 :
I mean, the last few days have been bonkers. Have you ever seen days in the market where it makes no sense? Well, yes. Many days, they just make no sense. I couldn't figure out where the big update on Christmas Eve came from. I mean, that was only a half a day. And then really no rhyme or reason as to why the big sell-off happened on Friday and it's following through today. Light volume always magnifies moves in the markets. It's kind of hard to gauge. But, you know, I was really struck as I wrote my newsletter on Saturday. I really was struck by going back, Bill, and look at your nasdaq article that you wrote two years ago it'll be two years ago uh in one week january 6 2023 when i wrote an article saying the nasdaq has bottomed and that came after a pretty big sell-off in the nasdaq you know in 2022 the nasdaq was down 30 percent and uh you know to call a bottom after that but pretty pretty sharp shooting there from gunderson And, of course, now we're two years into that big uptrend in the NASDAQ. And along the way, we've seen some innovation. What can I say? You know, AI came out of nowhere and became a reality. You know, the driverless cars are still a thing. NVIDIA came along. A lot of advancements. have come along over the last couple years in the NASDAQ. But the bottom line that I found in going back and reviewing that article, and if you didn't read the article in my newsletter on Saturday, you might want to read it. What I really noticed more than anything, when we started this NASDAQ run, and by the way, I haven't rescinded my buy call on the NASDAQ since January of 2023, the NASDAQ had a P.E. ratio of 20%. 20 times earnings which is pretty that's pretty cheap for the nasdaq actually and it had come down from about 37 times earnings you know during the covid years when there was all that money sloshing around in the market and all that speculation and all of that buying and all of the long duration stocks you went from 37 down to 20 okay so very cheap market The technicals backed that up. The technicals were bottoming in late December of 2022, finally bottomed in early January, and we went all in on the NASDAQ. We've been all in for the last two years. Guess where the P.E. ratio is now? Well, we're back to that. I think we're at 33 or 34. We're not quite back to the 37 ratio. But now keep in mind that we also have a higher interest rate environment right now. So today's 33 P.E. is probably equivalent to the P.E. of the NASDAQ two years ago. uh... and of course uh... we've come a long ways you know we had a two-year sell-off in the nasdaq and now we've had a two-year run in the nasdaq does the nasdaq run in two-year cycles i don't know only time will tell uh... but uh... we have come back and i mean if you look at any valuation measure price to book value Price to sales, price to cash flow, price to earnings, price to forward earnings. We're back where we were at the height of the NASDAQ four years ago. So that's definitely a yellow flag, Jeff. You could argue, well, we're in a much more innovative phase of the NASDAQ right now and new things are coming out at a faster pace. Well, they tried to make that argument back in 2000 about the dot-coms. Oh, we're in a new paradigm was what I heard. And no, I mean, valuations did finally matter. at that point in time and you had a huge sell-off in the nasdaq now am i saying that the nasdaq peaked to 20 000 well it's too early to tell but i mean the probabilities of a repeat in the nasdaq in 2025 of what we got last year uh is not very probable, I would say, number one. Number two, you could argue, well, Jeff, you know, Trump's coming in, he's pro-business, he's going to roll back regulations, he's going to do what he can to juice the economy. Well, that doesn't change the valuation of the market. How much of that is already priced into the market? But as always, okay, there's always opportunity in the market. And I think what I'm doing here is convincing myself once again and making a case for active management. Absolutely. Yeah, I think you're going to see some sector rotation. I mean, it's too early to tell. The only sector that's up today is the oil and gas sector. Are we going to have a big year in oil and gas? I don't know. At the same time, I'm seeing a lot of inverse. Inverse is a tool in your tackle box. that you've got to pull out sometime when things get a little bit rough. And, you know, I would also say this, Jeff. When I went back and visited the NASDAQ and I really looked into Granite shares, there has been a pretty big move towards these single-stock ETFs that are inverse ETFs. Okay, let's say you have a huge position in Amazon. You consider it a core position. You don't want to sell your Amazon. Well, you can now hedge that position by buying the inverse Amazon. You can neutralize that position, right? So if Amazon goes through a 20% correction, the inverse Amazon will go up 20%. And you've basically protected your position during a rocky time in the market. And you know, I mean, not many fee-based money managers. I mean, you have to kind of get into hedge funds and whatnot to get any hedging in your portfolios. But we're big believers in hedging during volatile times in the market. And I do expect more volatility in 2025 than we had in 2024, although we had plenty of volatility. One thing that is certain in the market is volatility, Jeff. I'm sure you've seen that since you've been with us and are more focused on the market than probably ever before in your career. You've seen that volatility. So anyways, that's where we begin a new year. It would be wise to read. I wrote a very simple, easy to understand article about And not only did I show a graph of the NASDAQ, I showed graphs of the valuation charts of the NASDAQ. And I've also submitted that article to Seeking Alpha. And if there's anybody working this week at Seeking Alpha, we'll find out. I mean, it's... I submitted it like 12, 14 hours ago and haven't heard a peep yet. But hopefully we'll get that article out there for the general public on Seeking Alpha 2. Okay, when we come back, lots of predictions coming out on this year in the market.
SPEAKER 1 :
We'll be right back.
SPEAKER 03 :
And welcome back to the second quarter of today's Best Stocks Now show on the second to last day. It's the last full day of the year, trading year. Tomorrow will be a half day. I'm just trying to come up with ideas in my head, theories. Jeff, what all of a sudden turned the market really on Friday? It was Friday that you had the big sell-off, especially in tech.
SPEAKER 06 :
I mean, could it be, Bill, all the changes that we're seeing out there with You know, we're now seeing a big surge with quantum computing, with the AI stuff. Are people just saying, you know what, 2024 has been a great year. I'm going to take some profits. I'm going to do some tax harvesting on my losses and, you know, go into 2025 with a relatively, you know, clean slate.
SPEAKER 03 :
and and look for you know good opportunities is that a possibility i would buy into that except most people are going to wait to they don't have many losses in 2024 it's mostly gains and you know the the logic is that you wait until after the first of the year to do your selling of big gains and an ira obviously it doesn't matter so you could be seeing some Some sector rotation in IRAs saying, yeah, you know, it's been a good year. And a lot of times you'll see a very speculative sector like quantum computing have a big rally. And that kind of is, okay, now that rally has extended to every single little nook and cranny in the tech sector. And now it's time to begin the selling. Sometimes that's the last little firework, you know, before things start to fall apart due to valuation. That's one theory. Another theory is, you know, I think there's going to be a lot of, there's a lot of people in the country and the government around the world that aren't happy that Trump's going to be the president. Will they try to sabotage him and cause trouble? You know, there is the theory that they won't, if they don't elect Johnson as the Speaker of the House before January 20th, they can't certify the election. Okay, that's another one I've heard. And, of course, I've heard a couple of congressmen that absolutely are not going to vote for Johnson. And guess what? They can't have one person. They can't have one person jump ship. They need every one of those boats. So, I mean, that's another theory that you get a little bit of chaos around the transition and everything. I think probably the most likely theory is that sector rotation taking place, selling off some of the red-hot sectors of 2024, but not in taxable accounts. That'll come. Now, that's the scary part. That could come after the first of the year when we come back to work on Thursday. You could see some heavy selling then from the taxable accounts. And, you know, which mostly have big gains in them. And, of course, they're putting off their big gains until the 2025 tax year. So that's another one. So anyways, you know, the Magnificent Seven are bleeding. Tesla's bleeding right now. Palantir's bleeding. Facebook, all of them, Microsoft, etc., And, you know, I mean, I'm thankful for, at this time of year, I'm thankful for inverse funds, and I have more at my fingertips than I've ever had before. I had some free time a little bit on, let's see, Saturday, I guess. And I did add every single inverse fund that I could find. I added it to my database. And there's a lot of new ones, okay, between GraniteShares and Direction. Direction has a lot of single stock inverse funds. Now, they have some that GraniteShares doesn't have. GraniteShares has a lot that Direction doesn't have. I found a Magnificent Seven inverse fund. Let's say you own, which we do. We own a lot of those Magnificent Seven stocks. I could hedge the whole darn thing. The only issue is the liquidity. Some of those funds aren't big enough, don't have enough money in them. I have to look at the volume that they trade. It would be hard for me. But there are some very large inverse funds. NASDAQ, obviously, would be an obvious one. And NASDAQ two times inverse would be an obvious one. I don't really like the three times inverses. If you look at the math on those things, I mean, they're only good for a week or less maybe, and then it starts getting pretty fuzzy. Yes, it gets pretty fuzzy, the math. You would think, okay, so, you know, in theory, you would say, well, if over the next three months the NASDAQ goes down 20%, The three times inverse NASDAQ would go up 60%, but it doesn't quite work that way, okay? Almost, but not quite. I mean, you might get 45%, and you could even get an adverse kind of a situation, depending on how the math works out, and especially how the volatility works out. But anyways, okay, we had another crash. It did happen to be a Boeing this time. Okay, the one in Russia was an Embraer, which are made in Brazil. And I don't think it was the Embraer's fault. I think a missile, an anti, you know, what do they call those? Defense, an air defense missile brought that thing down.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, it was filled with bullet holes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and bullet holes. Which almost makes, so they might have been fired from the ground, I guess. It looked like a machine gun. because you didn't see really an f-35 or whatever what do you call mig a Russian mig pull up next to it and riddle it unless there was somebody very important on that on that plane now the South Korea plane was a Boeing 737 which is a little bit worrisome I'm just going to look at Boeing stock today was it a Boeing issue it was something with the landing gear I mean, they tried to blame bird strikes on the Russian one. And the Boeing one, okay, the South Korea crash, they don't know what did it. And I will say this, that's one of the big reasons that the Dow is down so much is Boeing is a big constituent of the Dow. Boeing's down 4.2% today until they figure out. South Korea is going to inspect all of the Boeing 737s through the 800 series after the deadly crash. And really all we know is it looked like there was an issue with the... with the landing gear. Okay, and there was a bird strike of some sort that got jammed up in the landing gear and they couldn't deploy the landing gear. But, you know, I don't know. The pilot, he came down on that runway and he had no brakes at all. Didn't he hit a wall? Yeah, and at the end of the landing strip there was a wall, which is really crazy that they have a wall there. So anyways, we'll see. That wasn't good. I don't know how two of the crew survived. I mean, they must have maybe, who knows, jumped out on the run tarmac, opened the door. I don't know how the two crew members survived, but that'll be interesting. Okay, on a lighter note, now my grandkids went and saw Sonic the Hedgehog. They didn't invite me. That took in $38 million. But the one that I'm really interested in, I want to see A Complete Unknown, which took in $11.6 million. That's the story of Bob Dylan in his early years back in New York. And I've heard a review from my brother, who is a big Bob Dylan fan. He said it was fantastic. We'll be right back. This is Bill Gunderson. Thank you for tuning in to today's Best Stocks Now, Best Inverse Funds Now show. I put several hours of research in during the wee hours of the morning each day to bring you the very best cutting edge stories that I can. To get two free weeks of my newsletter, go to GundersonCapital.com. To talk to us about our fee-based only money management services, call us at 855-611-BEST. Now, back to the second half of the show.
SPEAKER 05 :
And welcome back here to the second half of today's Best Docs Now show. One other theory.
SPEAKER 03 :
conspiracy theory no not really i mean there's usually a reason there's usually a reason catalyst of some sort behind buying or selling whether it be in an individual stock or whether it be in indexes the debt limit was suspended for two years okay that was they kicked the can down the road how many times have they kicked the can down the road well guess what that two-year And suspension, it will be over, let's see, I saw this this morning because Janet Yellen says U.S. debt limit will be reached in mid-January. Okay, so the debt limit will kick back in and it's going to come back in. at where it left off okay and we're already over that so we've got the debt limit will be reached so they've got to extend the debt limit or everything comes to a screeching halt and that's going to cause a lot it's not going to be a smooth process Market doesn't like things that are not smooth, that are rough. And, you know, obviously they're going to have to extend the debt. They're going to have to increase the debt limit. There's no way around that. Because the budget that, you know, that is in place right now, the spending that is in place right now takes in $4 trillion and spends $6 trillion. So obviously you've got to increase the debt limit by $2 trillion every year until... you start cutting into that, right, trying to move towards a balanced budget, which is not an easy thing to do. And it takes time. So there's going to be a massive fight on that. And that could also be an issue. You just see kind of we're entering into a time, Jeff, with the new regime coming in. But, you know, look, Trump is a lightning rod. People either love him or they hate him. And they're going to do what they can do to mess things up. Schumer's not going to just go along and make things easy for Trump. And Trump tried to get the debt limit taken out of the budget negotiations there before they funded the government to avert a shutdown. But Schumer would have nothing to do with that. He wants the debt limit, raising the debt limit on Trump's watch, not on the Democrats' watch.
SPEAKER 06 :
As we talk about politics, I mean, of course, yesterday, former President Jimmy Carter passed away. He was 100 years old, the oldest living former president, whether you like his politics or not. He was the longest living president. You know, George Herbert Walker Bush was the second, followed by Ford Reagan, ironically, the fifth longest living president. was John Adams, who was the second president. All right.
SPEAKER 03 :
He's still living?
SPEAKER 06 :
90 years of age. Still living?
SPEAKER 03 :
No. 90 years? No, no, not living.
SPEAKER 06 :
He was 90 years old when he received.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, that's pretty good, too, because that time period, I mean, it was probably more in the mid-60s range or so.
SPEAKER 06 :
Exactly. He would have been 130 in dog years, if you will. John F. Kennedy, youngest president to die at age 46. Just a little bit of presidential trivia. There were eight U.S. presidents that died while serving in office.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, let's hope Trump isn't nine, you know, I mean, the way things are going. Anyways, we have what I was going to say. Carter actually became more popular after his presidency because when I think of his presidency, I remember I'm a little older than you, Jeff. I remember the long gas lines, number one. I remember the Iran hostage crisis, which Reagan solved within the first few weeks of his presidency. And I also remember 18-19% inflation and him having to bring in the big guy Volcker to put us into a recession.
SPEAKER 06 :
It was stagflation is what they called it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Stagflation. That's what I remember Carter for. And then, of course, you know, he was a good Christian man with his Habitat for Humanity, and he taught his Sunday school and all this and that. But at the core, I think he was pretty much a social, leaned very heavily towards socialism.
SPEAKER 06 :
Definitely a social democrat. He actually established the U.S. Department of Energy and the Department of Education. I'm sure the DOE, Department of Education there, is in the crosshairs of Elon.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, absolutely. They want to get rid of it and give it back to the states, which I think is a good idea rather than having a federal government run the education of all of our people. children that i think it should go back to the states and that's that's my opinion on that okay now yeah so anyways yellen says u.s debt limit to be reached in mid-january okay that's another problem you saw how much it was not easy getting that spending bill passed to keep the government uh open or open uh you know through i think they're good till march now Okay, and we're having some changes in the Federal Reserve. We're getting three hawks and one dove, and a partridge in a pear tree. I don't know how he'll vote, but FOMC, three hawks. Okay, so you're not going to see any rate cuts in January. You know, maybe May, June, we'll just have to see, okay? All right, now... Tariffs, obviously, are out there on the horizon also, which is another thing to be worried about. China, I saw a prediction from, there's a very well-known economist that works for Apollo. Apollo is a private company. equity like Blackstone or BlackRock or one of those. And their strategist is Torsten Slocke, who's pretty well known. And I was looking at his outlooks for this coming year. He mentioned tariffs. He says NVIDIA's earnings are going to disappoint. All right, we'll see. He also says the U.S. economy will reaccelerate and animal spirits come back. Well, that's fine. But the market's at a very high level right now from a valuation point of view.
SPEAKER 06 :
Phil, ironically, NVIDIA is one of the few notable securities right now that's in the green today.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, hey, okay, things are happening. That's good. Okay, he also says that you could have an outright recession in China and an outright recession in Germany. And he gives the probability of a recession in the U.S. in 2025, 0%. How do you like that? I can't see Trump putting us into a recession unless outside events should occur. Okay, what else do we got here? Well, you got this debate over the H-1B visas for foreign workers. You know, most of those H-1B, aren't we talking India? Aren't we talking software developers and whatnot, the Hewlett Packards of the world? You were in the software industry. My friend Douglas was in the software industry. He worked with many people. And you go to San Francisco, there's Indian restaurants all over the place, right? What's your thoughts on the H-1B visas? Do we have enough talent here in the U.S.? I mean, Indians start learning in India pretty much software development from birth, kind of like Dominican Republic and baseball. What are your thoughts on this H-1B visas?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I think I've worked with a lot of good people that held that status. I also spent some time with an organization that We provided, we placed people, and a number of those individuals held H-1B visas. And, of course, it can be very tenuous if they end up losing that visa. You know, they have to get out of Dodge. Unlike some other... folks from other countries, they would actually leave as opposed to, you know, try to hide under the covers. But, yeah, a lot of good, smart people. We do have a lot of great talent here in the U.S. The question is, are talented people willing to do that? Are there other things that they want to do? Certainly the H-1B visa holders are folks that say, hey, look, I'm happy to roll up my sleeves. I'm happy to contribute. And they do good work.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. Well, the question is, it sounds like there's a shortage. That's the gist I get. Trump is for the H-1B. Musk is against it. But I think Trump will win out there. Musk himself worked out as an H-1B at one point in time in his career. So anyway, Google CEO asked employees to brace for challenging 2025. And he's talking more on the regulatory front where you could, I don't know. Look, there's no way you can say that these companies aren't monopolies, huge monopolies. Will they come after them? Could it be a crazy year in big tech? Could that be another reason? But I think Trump's going to be more friendly to tech myself. Okay, when we come back, we're going to take a look underneath the surface of the market. I left my snorkel and mask somewhere in my office. You've got to go where you want to go.
SPEAKER 04 :
Do what you want to do. And then whoever you want to pay for.
SPEAKER 03 :
And welcome back here to the final segment of today's Best Stocks Now show. Well, I would like to say that the market's improved. It's improved a little, not much. The Dow is still down 625, and the NASDAQ is down 320 points. We came up with a few theories. I think the overvalued theory is probably the best one. That's the one I put forth. on Friday, on Saturday, when I stopped, paused, thought about it, reflected on it, and I said, you know, it's been two years since I wrote that NASDAQ article. I went back and referred to it, read it, and most importantly, I compared the valuations of the NASDAQ two years ago to where they are today, and it was quite telling. And, you know, I didn't sleep on Saturday night. No, I'm just kidding. But, you know, look, The NASDAQ could go higher from here. It could go a lot higher from here. You can't measure momentum and exuberance. And here you've got this guy from Apollo saying that exuberance is going to come back into the American economy. And what do they call it? Animal spirits is going to come back. Well, that would also bring animal spirits to the market, too, although we've had a fair share of that in 2024. But, you know, valuation does matter. I'm a guy who was there in 2000. I remember visiting the Bay Area, you know, during the frothy days of the NASDAQ in the late 90s. I've called on several hedge fund managers that were all tech. They were all tech. One of the guys was Apodaca. His dad was the governor of New Mexico at one point in time, Jerry Apodaca, and his son was a hedge fund manager. Man, they were all tech, and they had tech guys working for them. They were buying innovative disruptors back then. I've always kind of leaned in that direction, obviously. And then I saw it all come tumbling down like Humpty Dumpty who sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty fell. The NASDAQ went down 79%. They put Humpty Dumpty back together again. And now he's 20,000 after getting way down below 2,000, way below 2,000. I want to say the low in the NASDAQ, oh, it was 1,200, something like that. And now you are, again, at a very lofty level in the NASDAQ. And I will never forget that experience. You know how some things are emblazoned in your memory? I rode a horse one time when I was a little kid, and a dog came barking out in the street, barking at the horse. This was in Montana. And the horse dragged me for a couple of blocks, and I skinned up my knees and everything. And I've always been a little leery of getting on a horse ever since then. And the NASDAQ, I've always had that in the back of my mind, is the valuation of those tech stocks. Okay, if we look at the, you're right, I mean, the Dow, that's the only stock up in the Dow is NVIDIA. Go figure. Volume is really light today. And that's another thing. I can't really make a good judgment call on the NASDAQ until we really get back to full strength next Monday. Okay. I think the first several days of January could kind of be telling. And I think the first five days actually could be a little bit on the rough side because I think people have been putting off, putting off, putting off, taking those capital gains until the new tax year. Okay, so NVIDIA is up. The biggest loser in the Dow right now is poor Boeing. Boeing has just had a rough year. And yet, you know, I drove by Boeing's plant yesterday. Yesterday or Saturday? Saturday. Saturday. It's loaded with planes ready for delivery, Jeff. I mean, we're talking 20 planes there in their parking lot?
SPEAKER 06 :
It's always one of my favorite things to do when I go to the airport is to see which airline from which foreign country has something there in that parking spot closest to the street. And I'm thinking, okay, they're getting new interiors. Yeah, Lufthansa's there right now.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, so Boeing is down 3.3. Nike, which has had a terrible year. I don't like consumer discretionary right now. In fact, that chart on consumer discretionary, it had a good year, consumer discretionary. It's fallen off a cliff right now. Nike's down 2% on the Dell. Now, as we go to the S&P 500 and look inside that index, I just wouldn't be an index investor this year, although maybe, I don't know, maybe it'll smooth out the ride a little bit. There's just a lot of bad stocks in that S&P 500. That's my issue with it. The biggest loser there, solar, Enphase, down 5.7%. Lee Jeans, which I believe is VF Corp., down 4.8%. They do other things. They do uniforms, etc. Kohl's is down 4.4%. There's that consumer discretionary. There is an inverse fund on consumer discretionary, SCC. And I actually have a small position, inverse consumer discretionary. Haynes Brands, another consumer discretionary, down 3.6. Macy's down 3.5. Well, at least it's more consumer discretionary than it is tech that's bringing down the market today. On the upside, Really, the only up sector, and I wrote this in my newsletter on Friday. I said, you know, the one that's putting in a bottom is the energy sector. And those are the stocks that are up today in the S&P. EQT is up, Devon Energy, APA, which used to be Apache, Diamondback Energy, Occidental Petroleum. My only issue with the energy patch is the weakness in China, which is dampening demand. But we'll see. The worst sector in the market today is retail. in the best sector in the market today is oil and gas very light boy
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, most of the retailers will be reporting at the end of January.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER 06 :
Or not reporting, but that's when their fiscal years will end so they can kind of take all that holiday coverage. And so they typically delay their fiscal year by a month.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 06 :
They don't delay it, but they offset it.
SPEAKER 03 :
They want to include their returns, too, in January. Return-a-wary. They call it return-a-wary.
SPEAKER 06 :
It will be interesting to see what happens with those guys.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, yeah, okay. But suffice it to say, it's not going to get any better for bricks and mortar in 2025. You're going to continue to see more companies go belly up. All right, well, we're out of time. I'm just amazed at the response we've gotten from the four free weeks of... of the live trading. People from all over the world are joining me on a daily basis and we're having nothing but fun. I just did a buy here and sent it out during the show. Join us, won't you? Go to GundersenCapital.com GundersenCapital.com or make an appointment with one of my staff here to talk about your portfolio. 855-611-BEST 855-611-BEST Have a great day, everybody.
SPEAKER 02 :
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 SIBC and FINRA.
Join Kim Munson as she delves into the pressing issues of our time, from the socialization of essential sectors to the stark contrasts between freedom and force. This episode invites listeners to reflect on the power dynamics at play in government policies, how they affect our daily lives, and the critical need for independent voices in media.
SPEAKER 16 :
It's the Kim Munson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
SPEAKER 13 :
The socialization of transportation, education, energy, housing, and water. What it means is that government controls it through rules and regulations.
SPEAKER 16 :
The latest in politics and world affairs.
SPEAKER 13 :
Under this guise of bipartisanship and nonpartisanship, it's actually tapping down the truth.
SPEAKER 16 :
Today's current opinions and ideas.
SPEAKER 13 :
On an equal field in the battle of ideas, mistruths and misconceptions is getting us into a world of hurt.
SPEAKER 16 :
Is it freedom or is it force? Let's have a conversation.
SPEAKER 13 :
Indeed, let's have a conversation and welcome to the Kim Munson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. You're each treasured, you're valued, you have purpose. Today, strive for excellence. Take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body. My friends, we were made for this moment in history. Thank you to the team. That's Producer Joe, Luke, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, and all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting. Happy Monday, Producer Joe. Happy Monday, Kim. How was your break? It was great. It was nice to get some respite and get a lot done. How about you, Joe?
SPEAKER 07 :
I felt the same way. I rested a lot.
SPEAKER 13 :
And that's great because we've got a lot of work to do as we're looking forward into 2025. We will be pre-recording for Wednesday, which is New Year's Day, with Susan Harris, who she and her family are great sponsors of the show. And we'll talk about looking forward into 2025, both personally and for our country. And then Trent Luce will also be pre-recording with him as well. So I cannot believe, Joe, that 2025 is... is here and it seems like the the last year just went so quickly this is the fastest year i've ever had And you're young. They shouldn't be going by so quick. I think it's because each day it is just these great conversations with so many experts. I'm learning a lot. I know you're learning a lot. We hope that we are bringing this to you, the listener, that you're learning a lot as well. And we really do appreciate each and every one of you. So check out the website. That is Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You'll get first look at our upcoming guests as well as our most recent essays that comes out on Sundays. You can email me at Kim at Kim Munson dot com. as well. The text line is 720-605-0647. Thank you to all of you who support us. We are an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something's a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. It's never compassionate to take other people's stuff, whether or not it's their rights, their property, freedom, livelihoods, opportunities, or lives be a force. And force can be a weapon, but it's policy, unpredictable and excessive taxation, fear, coercion, government-induced inflation, the World Economic Forum agenda, along with all the globalist elites, the United Nations, the Colorado State Legislature, the Colorado governor, the World Health Organization, land use code, zoning regulations, force fees, conservation easements, and the list goes on and on. And... We've got to get this turned back around. These are all forced kinds of things. And remember, if something's a good idea, you should not have to use force to implement it. On the show, we focus on the issues, not the personalities. We will talk about the people pushing those particular issues, but we want to stay focused on that and not get in the eighth-grade girl fighting that we can see happen in politics on a regular basis. The show comes to you 6 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday a.m. And the first hour is rebroadcast one to two in the afternoon. Second hour is broadcast 10 to 11 at night. And that's on all KLZ 560 platforms, which is KLZ 560 a.m. KLZ 100.7 FM, the KLZ website, and the KLZ app, and then also podcasts of the shows can be heard on the streaming services as well. Our word of the day is earnest, and it is spelled E-A-R-N-E-S-T, and it should be easy to use this in a sentence today. So number one, it's a noun. It could be a serious and intent mental state. So the example is a proposal made in earnest. number two a considerable or impressive degree or amount it says the example is the sap started running in earnest number three it could be something of value given by a buyer to a seller to bind a bargain so earnest money say in a real estate deal or it could be a token or a pledge so your challenge is to use earnest in a sentence today that's e-a-r-n-e-s-t and our quote of the day is from John F. Kennedy. And I chose this because we'll be talking with Dan Meyer as our featured guest in this hour. And his book is Upside Down, How We Can Avoid Becoming the United States of China. And so JFK was born in 1917. He died in 1963. He was assassinated. He was the youngest person ever elected president, and he served at the height of the Cold War. And he was a Democrat, and he represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress prior to his presidency. And he said this, he said, the cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission. Okay, next thing, this day in history. 1809, wearing masks at balls were forbidden in Boston. I don't know how many of you watched the halftime show for the football game on Christmas. I actually turned it off. uh but uh beyonce was the halftime entertainment and they walked her through a guy had a horse and was leading the horse she was on the horse and a guy was leading the horse and he had a mask on and i thought you know what i cannot believe that this is in 2024 the guy has a mask on doing that what kind of message is that trying to send to people and then She and J-Lo have been pretty close to nasty stuff going on with Jay-Z and Sean Diddy Combs. And I just, you know, it's coming out. Just a lot of really nasty stuff that these people are doing. And I'm just not jazzed about watching it anymore. Joe, you're a young guy. What do you think about this? Because as these stories are coming out about Diddy Jay-Z and just nasty stuff. You've got your ear to the ground. What do you hear?
SPEAKER 07 :
I might have a little more of a tinfoil hat, but I've always thought that Hollywood society has had some weird things going on in the background that we just don't know about because high society has secrets.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, and, you know, I think the truth is coming out on all this, Joe. And I think these people were held up as great artists. And I remember listening to or looking up the lyrics of one of Beyonce's songs. And I'm like, this is nasty. This is not art. This is just nasty. And I think that it's been an effort to.
SPEAKER 07 :
kind of brainwash people into to thinking nasty stuff is okay and i i think that i think that we're going to get this this turned around with the the truth coming out on this joe i think so too and i i i don't necessarily think all of them are really great artists i think a lot of them are really great business people and that's what really got them to where they're at
SPEAKER 13 :
Really, promoters, I think you're right. I think you're right. So anyway, I turned it off. I'm like, I am not interested in watching this. And so I turned that off. So a bunch of really interesting things, though, in this day in history. And I think, my friends, it's important to look back in history and understand that. Of course, we'll talk about some headlines as well. But first thing, 1903, the American Political Science Association is founded in New Orleans. And so after the Civil War, that's where we really started to see this progressive movement. Of course, it culminated with the presidency of Woodrow Wilson in the teens. But I found it, I thought, this is interesting. This has been a long progression. uh and not in progress but a long progression to get us to the point where we are now and i had talked to marley hornick she was one of our our guests last week that we had featured and she is a co-founder of united sovereign americans and i said to her i said i really think that we are in the third founding of america And she said, huh, I hadn't thought about it like that. But it's been a long, long time in getting to this point. But we are in this extreme battle of ideas. And that's why we do the show is so that we can engage in this battle of ideas so that we can reclaim our country. Now. Global warming. Of course, global warming has now been called climate change. And of course, we'd recommend that you watch A Climate Conversation, which you can watch it for free at aclimateconversation.com. And then we have put together some really great podcasts with scientists and experts as well that you will find. gain even more understanding of this particular issue. And I'd asked our last guest, I said, so what is the perfect temperature and who decides what that is? And so this whole thing is really about control. But when the earth is cool, Plants don't thrive, means we don't have as much food for us, for animals. And so I thought this was interesting how cold this has been in our country as well. So in 1917, negative 32 degrees Fahrenheit in Mountain City, Tennessee, which was a state record, and a negative 37 degrees Fahrenheit the same year in Lewisburg, West Virginia. That's pretty cold for there. And then there was a couple others. I'll mention those. This is 1933, negative 50 degrees Fahrenheit in Bloomfield, Vermont, a state record. And in 1968, negative 48 degrees Fahrenheit in Mazama and Winthrop, Washington. I think when you look at those temperatures, Joe, a little global warming is probably a good idea. What do you think?
SPEAKER 07 :
It definitely sounds like it to me.
SPEAKER 13 :
So, yeah. Oh, there was one other one here. 1995, the lowest ever UK temperatures were recorded at 27 degrees point two Celsius in the Scottish Highlands, equaling the record set in Aberdeenshire on February 11th, 1895 and January 10th, 1982. So, again, with these kinds of temperatures, that's why they had to change. the narrative from global warming to climate change. So a couple of other things. In 1922, the creation of the USSR was formally proclaimed in Moscow from the Bolshoi Theater. It was organized as a union of Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Republic. That was 1922. 1941, during World War II, the Nazis require Dutch physicians to join the Nazi organization. And then it was in 2021 on this day, there was the wildfire over in Boulder. Now I can't remember the name of it, but it destroyed a thousand homes. And that was just in 2021. So, yeah, this day in history, a lot has happened. The show comes to you because of our sponsors, and I thank LearnMe Energy for their goal sponsorship of this show. It is reliable, efficient, affordable, and abundant energy that powers our lives and fuels our hopes and dreams. And that industry is so under attack here in Colorado, both from a legislative standpoint and also from an administrative standpoint. And so that's why we need to shed light on this, because it is this reliable, efficient, affordable and abundant energy that powers our lives, that we're able to control our own personal climate. And that would be to be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. And all of that is under attack. And then also the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance team is wonderful sponsors of the show. They carry my home and auto insurance. And if you bundle it together, you may be able to save a lot of money. If you put your home and your auto and boat, anything like that, if you bundle that together, you might be able to save a lot of money. The way to find out is to give them a call at 303-795-8855 and make a complimentary appointment. Like a good neighbor, the Roger Mangan team is there.
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SPEAKER 12 :
Focused and wise marketing is essential for your success, especially during tough economic times. If you love The Kim Munson Show, strive for excellence and understand the importance of engaging in the battle of ideas that is raging in America. Then talk with Kim about partnership, sponsorship opportunities. Email Kim at KimMunson.com. Kim focuses on creating relationships with individuals and businesses that are tops in their fields. So they are the trusted experts listeners turn to when looking for products or services. Kim personally endorses each of her sponsors. Again, reach out to Kim at KimMunson.com.
SPEAKER 13 :
And welcome back to the Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter and you can email me at Kim at Kim Munson dot com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We're an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something's a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. My friends, as we are looking forward to 2025, and I have a couple of things that I would highly recommend. One of those is to at least visit Liberty Toastmasters. And Liberty Toastmasters Denver meets the first and third Saturdays of each month at the Independence Institute. And Liberty Toastmasters North meets in Longmont the second and fourth Saturdays. Saturdays of each month. And being able to communicate is so important. It takes practice. It takes thought. I am recommitting myself to Liberty Toastmasters this year. I had missed quite a bit during this last election season. And I realize that I need to continue to try to get better at my communication skills. So I'd love to have you join us on that. So that's the first thing. And if you decide you're going to run for office or you're going to help a candidate or you're going to make public comments at the school board at the city council county commissioner meetings down at the state house need to be able to get your thoughts together and be able to communicate in concise effective manner and i really would recommend that you join us For Liberty Toastmasters, you can't just snap your finger and all of a sudden be a good communicator. It takes time and it takes practice. And the speaking component is important. The table topics is important, which we have on the show on a regular basis. But also the whole evaluation thing, I think, has really served me the best in being able to put thoughts together in in a manner when you're in a back and forth with others and so check out Liberty Toastmasters would love to have you join us next thing we will be having our legislative kickoff January 23rd for the Colorado Union of taxpayers we would really recommend that you join us as well it's $25 to join the event will be down at the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association And the cost is $10 to join us for that. And you will, for $25, so basically $2 a month, you will receive hours and hours of work from our volunteers as we have gone through the legislation that is proposed and scheduled for hearing. And so instead of just these headlines, you'll really be able to see the guts of what is happening down at the Statehouse. And I want to say thank you to this team that I get to work with, all volunteers, Steve Dorman, Greg Golianski, Russ Haas, Bill Hamill, Carl Honiger, Rob Knuth, John Nelson, Joseph O'Loughlin, Wendy Warner, Marty Nielsen, Ramey Johnson, and Mary Jansen. If you are interested in joining us on rating bills and might be interested in joining our board, please text me at 720-605-0647. I'd like to add three more people in to our board to rate bills. And so text me at 720-605-0647. And I would love to chat with you about that. Let's get through some of these headlines here. And the first headline I think that many of you have seen is Jimmy Carter, this is USA Today, 39th U.S. President, and they said, and noted humanitarian. And again, this is, that is their opinion. He was also, he was the president that gave up control of the Panama Canal. And of course, Trump has been talking about we need to regain control of the Panama Canal. And then he's Trump's out there saying we might annex Canada, Greenland. Certainly. Certainly interesting talking points there. But it was Carter that gave up the control of the Panama Canal. Certainly want to rest in peace. I think that I think that he was I'm going to just say naive. He was really, I think, one of those progressive presidents used a lot of. force, I would say, for humanitarian causes. And our country was in a very difficult position when he was president, just like we are now with the Joe Biden-Harris administration. And the great thing about it, though, is we can reclaim this. We can get this turned around. That's why I think so many people are looking forward to 2025. But certainly a rest in peace, Jimmy Carter. And I do thank him for his service to the country. Next thing many of you have seen. This was unbelievable over Christmas break. And that is, is people being set on fire in New York. And this is from Fox News. It says Trump borders are blast the New York governor for touting subway safety hours after horrific murder. Says shame on you. And apparently an illegal alien set someone on fire. And then there was another one. And this was a few days later, says the New York Police Department. This is from Fox News investigates after a homeless man catches fire in the Manhattan subway station. And I used to go back to New York on a regular basis. I was in the ladies' clothing business and would go back for the introduction of each of the new seasons. And I didn't really like to ride the subway, but I did, but I would not ride the subway now. And, of course, Daniel Penny, who was the Marine veteran who – A homeless man who was making all kinds of threats to people on the subway was brought up on charges. And so here is somebody that is trying to protect people. And fortunately, he was exonerated on this. But the fact that they would even bring charges against him is beyond belief. So New York police. Apparently, Eric Adams, the mayor, is going to try to get a handle on this. But but it is it's pretty tough stuff. And of course, Kathy Hochul is one of those progressive government governors who really I don't think she cares about the people. Next thing. This is from Fox News again. A Texas judge blocks Biden's sales of the border wall and the Biden-Harris administration on their way out. They've parroted that there's going to be a smooth transition to the Donald Trump presidency, but they are putting all kinds of marbles in front of the administration to try to prevent their success. And the idea that he would sell off the border wall steel. at cents on the dollar. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, this is from Newsmax, Biden announces $2.5 billion in fresh military aid to Ukraine. So trying to secure their border. Meanwhile, ours is wide open and even preventing the border wall from being built. It is truly unbelievable. And then this is super interesting, though. And this is the again, Fox News, MSNBC host Rule and Read are taking pay cuts following their major rating slump. And It says if they want to remain with their network, the MSNBC host Joy Reid and Stephanie Ruhl may have to take these pay cuts. It says MSNBC has been looking to negotiate new deals and they've been asked to reduce their salaries. So this whole thing with mainstream media, which has been really indoctrinating people. I was on a walk yesterday and ran into one of my neighbors yesterday. who said that she has a friend who is Democrat and wanted to know how, this friend wanted to know how my friend could support Trump. And then in the conversation, I think basically they realized, my friend realized that they only watch this mainstream media. And I have many colleagues whose family members or friends only watch mainstream media. and really are so indoctrinated for a hatred for Donald Trump and really not tolerant to take a look at any other points of view. And so anyway, though, I think that mainstream media is losing its effect. And we're seeing this with these two women having to negotiate pay cuts. A couple of other things that I did want to mention, and all this happened over Christmas break. First of all, I needed to mail some things on, I guess it was Saturday, after the post offices were closed. And there is a reason why the post office is losing billions of dollars. I go to the first post office, my local post office, and the line is really long. And this was for the automated, where you could buy stamps or mail a package. So the line was long. I thought, okay, I'm headed this other way. So I went to another post office. And I've seen this happen before. And that is somebody has used that automated after hours system and put something in and it jammed the post. um where you could put the packages so that meant that i couldn't mail anything there so i thought okay i'm going to go to i have to go to another place i'll go to another post office well they didn't have the after hours automated system so i went back to the first place by that time i'd done all my errands and there was one other woman there and myself And she said, are you needing to buy stamps? And I said, no. She said, well, I needed to buy stamps. And it is doing a little metered stamp one at a time. And she had to buy 100 stamps. So that was ineffective. And if this was private enterprise, they would not stay in business. So there is a reason government typically doesn't do things really, really well. I think they should probably put Chick-fil-A in charge of post offices and we would be able to get very fast service. Next thing, I was at Whole Foods and I looked over and there was on a corner, there was a guy with a sign, looked like a very able-bodied man. And his wife was sitting in a lawn chair next to him with maybe a baby or a child. And then there were two teenage daughters sitting on lawn chairs as well with cell phones. And I thought, what is wrong with this picture? Instead of trying to figure out a way to do value for value, how can I do work that you would pay me for? than instead just out there begging and how is it that those girls are able to afford those cell phones? Well, I think it's us. And I was talking to a millennial over the break and maybe leaned a little more to the left and he said, you know what, I'm just about over the free stuff. And I think Americans really are about over all of the free stuff. I'm really excited, though, when we come back from break, we're going to be talking with Dan Meyer regarding his book, Upside Down, How We Can Avoid Becoming the United States of China. We have these important discussions because of our wonderful sponsors for everything residential real estate, whether or not buying a home, selling a home, looking at a new build. Talk to Karen Levine.
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SPEAKER 15 :
All of Kim's sponsors are an inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Munson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmunson.com. That's kimmunson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 13 :
back to the kim munson show be sure and check out our website that is kim munson mon son.com sign up for our weekly email newsletter and you can email me at kim kimmunson.com as well thank you to all of you who support us we're an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force force versus freedom if something's a good idea you should not have to force people to do it Text me at 720-605-0647. Would love to hear from you. And please tap on the line with me, Dan Meyer. He's the author of the book, Upside Down, How We Can Avoid Becoming the United States of China. He says freedom cannot exist in the absence of truth. Dan Meyer, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER 18 :
Well, good morning. You are very perky for 6.33 in the morning, I must say.
SPEAKER 13 :
That's my job to be perky at 6.33 in the morning.
SPEAKER 18 :
Do you get up at 3.30? How many cups of coffee do you have before you get to this level?
SPEAKER 13 :
Both.
SPEAKER 18 :
Good answer. That's wonderful.
SPEAKER 13 :
So this is an important book. And is this the first book that you've written, Dan?
SPEAKER 18 :
The first and only.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 18 :
I know. I'm working on a second about trying to destroy the myth of the woke. The woke is a joke as far as I'm concerned. All of this go-along-to-get-along stuff and just kind of slide through life, that's got to stop. So I'm trying to write a second book, but the problem is it's about 1,000 pages, and I don't know how to cut it down.
SPEAKER 13 :
That's the tricky component of it. And you have such an interesting career, but you were in the automotive business with GM for many years. And freedom of mobility, the open road, is one of the things that I think is so important. And everyday people being able to go where they want to, when they want to, has been really a source of freedom. That whole thing is under attack now. But but you you learned a lot in all those years in the automotive business.
SPEAKER 18 :
I did. You know, I started out in 1977 with Chevrolet Motor Division and was in Los Angeles for over 20 years. And L.A. is the most competitive market in the world and the largest car and truck market in the world. If you survive that, you end up learning a lot. Donald J. Trump is an expert in real estate and has a lot of experience in business, but some of us have probably equal experience through the school of hard knocks in advertising, marketing, distribution, sales and service of Chevrolet cars and trucks. And it really taught you, it taught me anyway, that you never have success when you centralize anything. And I'll kind of get to the mobility part of it that you hit on. It's so absolutely critical to our way of life. But Detroit always wanted to pull field goals. into Detroit and centralize it, and you can't do field from Detroit. If you're in Los Angeles, you have to be in Los Angeles on the ground, knowing what the dealers and the customers want and need. When you centralize it in Detroit, you lose contact with everything that's important. You kind of turn your back on the customers and the owners, and you how this relates to my book and life in general is, is, um, the last four years, uh, I won't say who the president was supposed to be, but regardless of that, the last four years, everything was trying to be centralized in Washington, DC. And, uh, that's the fastest way to lose contact with you and me and all of, uh, the customers, who really aren't customers, we are the bosses. And centralized Washington, D.C. seems to have forgotten that simple little fact that everything we do supports them and they're supposed to support us back. So I guess my main, the main thing I learned is you have to be If you're going to be successful and you care about customers and people for any sales and service organization, including our government of buying for the people, that belongs to us. You can't run that from Washington, D.C., and you cannot run that from Detroit. It just doesn't work. Those of us in the field in the early 2000s warned Detroit that you know, don't tell us we're part of the team and then cut the sales force by 10%. You need to cut Detroit by 10 or 20 or 30% and add people to the field so that we have a contact with the consumer. They refused to do that. And in 2009, GM filed for, I guess it was Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which for what was at one point the biggest corporation in the world, and at one point had 50% of the U.S. market, to file bankruptcy is unheard of. But there were things like nepotism and other things internal to General Motors, but it was the attempt to centralize and control everything from Detroit that literally destroyed GM, and it's clawed its way back, thankfully, because I have a pension that I rely on from them. But the same thing translates, Kim, as you know, you can see this coming a mile away, is the exact same thing applies to Washington, D.C. You know, the government, the federal government, should be about the same size regardless of whether the population of the United States is 100 million or 300 million. It only takes so many people to man the border, which has been abandoned. It only takes so many people to be in the military, which has been turned on its head, unfortunately. So I just recoil at the thought that government can grow just because population grows. That's not true. It's absolutely not true. And I want to address your mobility. There's a reason why we hear about all these 15-minute cities, and I guess Britain is far worse than we are to try to control movement, control mobility, control your life. where you go, what you can buy, and on and on and on. But my wife and I love to go to South Glen, for example. There's some great places to eat left, but I would say over half of South Glen, which is supposed to be a 15-minute city, that's the idea, about half of it is shuttered. There's plywood in the windows, and, you know... It's just a failed attempt to control us, control our movements, and eradicate our freedoms that come from God and not man. So that's the mobility part. And I think it's, thank God, it's disintegrating under its own weight because it's just impractical. people in this country have tasted freedom. And we know freedom. We know mobility. We know how to make money through hard work. And when the government tries to sit on us, I think it largely, we don't have to protest in the street with a sign. It just fails if it's on the court because it's a bad idea to begin with.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, and Dan, they keep throwing money, though, incentives at these terrible ideas. And Dan, I really think that, and I'm talking with Dan Meyer regarding his book, Upside Down, I really think that Colorado is at the tip of the spear. And there's a variety of reasons for that. But I think that the battle of ideas is right here and now. And this freedom of mobility, you see them trying to, in fact, there was a headline recently that I had pulled, let's see if I can find it. I can't find it right now, but basically it is that they're going to be using, again, trying to move us into transit and using that for social engineering. And I saw that when I was on city council. 2012 to 2016. And it took me a while to put my finger on what was happening. But they're using incentives. They're using federal dollars. And I think that we see the Biden-Harris administration trying to put all kinds of marbles in front of Donald Trump and his administration before they take office. And I think that Trump is really going to be making changes at the federal level. But what I think is going to happen, Dan, is that we're going to see at the local, the county and the state level here in Colorado, them pushing this radical activist agenda. And a lot of it's going to be with federal grant money. So I think one of the first things that we need to do, I'm calling it DOGE Colorado, Department of Government Accountability, is that we start as citizens, go through and take a look at all of this grant money that is being used to push these agendas, and you mentioned the WOKE agenda as well, and go to our local, county, and state representatives and say, we don't want to take that money anymore. What do you think about that?
SPEAKER 18 :
That's absolutely perfect. in any fight, I guess, or war, and we're in a war for the survival of the United States, which has become the divided states of America. Thank you very much, Washington, D.C. But in any fight or battle, if you take the weapons away from your enemy, you've won by default, and it's over. If we accept bribes from the federal government, which is just a redistribution of our wealth to begin with. And as far as I'm concerned, all taxation is theft, but I didn't say that. But to take our money and then give it back to us in the form of grants or whatever, I call them bribes, blackmail, lobbyists, out of control government, If we allow that to happen, then we've submitted to it. We need to stand up and refuse. And I'll go a couple steps further. We need to, it'd be nice if voters actually had the vote and we could rely on fair elections, and I'm talking about 2020 and I'm talking about Dominion and I'm talking about all the rest of it that happened here in Colorado. I believe Dominion's headquarters globally was here in Denver, we have problems and we have to disarm. And what you're talking about is disarming people who would sit on us, take away our God-given freedoms. And when I was writing the book, you know, if you want to find the truth, don't try to prove yourself right. Try to prove yourself wrong. And I tried to prove myself wrong about certain things. I hone in on global warming, climate change, for example. That's a green scam set to redistribute our wealth as government sees fit. It's all just bogus.
SPEAKER 13 :
And I'll give a plug again for our documentary, A Climate Conversation, which you can watch for free at aclimateconversation.com. And it has aired on Newsmax many different times. It's the project of Walt Johnson, who he just wanted to have a conversation about this whole narrative. So check out aclimateconversation.com. I'm talking with Dan Meyer. Upside Down is his book. Dan, where can people buy the book?
SPEAKER 18 :
People can buy the book at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com online. My website is www.UpsideDownUS, and there's a purchase page there, and there's also some background on the book itself, how and why it was written. So just those three. I'd like to find somebody – My publisher is a self-publishing company called iUniverse, and it'd be helpful if I had a real publisher that could get hard copies into bookstores, but I don't have that luxury right now because the nature of the book, Upside Down, is so controversial that a lot of folks wouldn't. touch it with a used 10-foot pole.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 18 :
So that's an obstacle I have. But, yeah, you can get it at Amazon and Barnes & Noble online.
SPEAKER 13 :
And Dan Meyer, Meyer is spelled M-E-Y-E-R. We're going to continue the discussion here, but did want to mention the USMC Memorial Foundation, which you know that is a nonprofit that I dearly love. The memorial is located at 6th and Colfax in Golden. It was dedicated in 1977. It's time for a remodel. And you can get more information. You can contribute, make a year-end contribution, which is tax deductible by going to usmcmemorialfoundation.org. That's usmcmemorialfoundation.org. And we get to do all this because of our sponsors. And for everything mortgages, reach out to Lorne Levy.
SPEAKER 05 :
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SPEAKER 17 :
You'd like to get in touch with one of the sponsors of The Kim Monson Show, but you can't remember their phone contact or website information. Find a full list of advertising partners on Kim's website, kimmonson.com. That's Kim, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 05 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
of the Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is KimMunson.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at KimMunson.com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We're an independent voice. We search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something's a good idea, you shouldn't have to force people to do it. And do check out the Center for American Values. They're nonpartisan. They're nonpolitical. They focus on a couple of things, honoring our Medal of Honor recipients and telling their stories, and also these educational programs to reclaim honor, integrity, and patriotism for our country. And so that website is AmericanValueCenter.org. That's AmericanValueCenter.org. I'm talking with Dan Meyer regarding his book, Upside Down, How We Can Avoid Becoming the United States of China. Freedom cannot exist in the absence of truth. And Dan, as you start your book, You said this, our nation is dying. You know it. You feel it. The American people, we the people, have lost control of our own country. And I think that people have realized that. I think the election of 2024 is so important with Donald Trump being elected. However, the down ballot races, I'm concerned about that. But we at least are taking a big step here at the federal level. What do you see looking forward into 2025, Dan Meyer?
SPEAKER 18 :
Well, I see Donald Trump is known for waiting in the weeds for the perfect opportune time and then pouncing. I think it's going to be a whirlwind starting on January 21st. As a matter of fact, the whirlwind has already started. As far as I know, all the world leaders have contacted Donald Trump and As he says, the first time around, people avoided him because they kind of didn't know what to think or what to do about this businessman becoming president, for heaven's sakes, you know, a political non-politician. But his method is to sit, wait, look, and learn, and then, boom, at the right time, buy a building or buy a piece of ground or fix a nation. And I think the nation will be fixed post-haste. I fear right now I'm kind of like Robert Shaw, the captain of the boat in Jaws, when he talked about going into the water and having his mates eaten by sharks. And he was never more fearful than when the saving boat was five minutes away. That's how I feel, frankly. We've got a ways to go until January 20th, and I'm still laughing about your marbles in front of Trump, and that's what they're going to do. My question is, and guys like Dan Bongino's question is, how bad is it going to get before we're over the hump? And we've got to keep pressure on Congress and mayors and governors and whoever we can reach out to to say enough. You know, the people have spoken. If you try to block Trump or try to block the progress that we have mandated him to do, we're going to hold you accountable, whether you're primaried or whatever is going to happen to you. But I'm fearful right now for the next 30 days. And I pray to God every day that we make it to January 20th intact. But if we do and when we do, I should say, I think Trump is going to be a whirlwind. I think Ramaswamy and Musk, especially Kash Patel, I can't wait to see what he does with the FBI. My Lord. Talk about an out-of-control federal agency. I think it's going to happen fast. And I shouldn't say this fast and furious. It was an Obama gun-running into Mexico deal, but— For Trump, it will be fast and furious, I believe. And like I said, I pray to God that happens every day.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yes. And to that point, and I'll just reiterate this, though, what we're going to see is at the local level. Dan, I have seen this. Very well-meaning people have gotten on to city councils or county commissioners and They forget that they are representatives of the people and they start to think that they are the executives of this little municipality or county or whatever. They forget that they are working for the people. And so many times they're looking at driving revenue for the people. city or the county, when in essence that revenue that they're trying to drive is money of the people. So we need to remind them that they're representatives of the people and that it is the people's money and government needs to be limited not only at the federal level, but at all other levels as well. And that's even school boards, I would say, Dan Meyer.
SPEAKER 18 :
That's absolutely right. I'm in Douglas County. I'm in Highlands Ranch. And a friend of mine is a lady named Laura Thomas, who is one of the three county commissioners for Douglas County. The other two have been just persecuting her. I and a lady named Cindy Dalton and a group of us have traveled down to Castle Rock three, four, five, eight times, some of us, defended Laura because the other two commissioners are, like you say, they think they've got their own little fiefdom in Castle Rock, and that's not true. It's not your fiefdom. It's our turf. We pay for this stuff, and I guess my point here is I believe Laura Thomas is simply trying to do the most she can with the least amount of money, and the other two commissioners are supporting craziness like this 2050 water commission plan to pump water from southern Colorado to Denver. And, oh, my Lord, it just smacks of corruption and graft. And you're right, we've got to stand up with it, school boards, counties. I think the sheriffs are extremely important because they're They are grassroots and frontline, and I think the sheriffs are strong enough if a bad FBI agent comes into Douglas County, our sheriff can kick his butt out. So, yes, we've got the downstream stuff is absolutely crucial.
SPEAKER 13 :
So, Dan Meyer, we're out of time. But again, your book, Upside Down, Dan Meyer spelled M-E-Y-E-R. And people can buy this at Amazon and everywhere. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And thank you for sharing this book with me. I really do appreciate it, Dan Meyer.
SPEAKER 18 :
Thank you, Kim. You're the voice of truth. Keep going, please.
SPEAKER 13 :
Okay. Well, thank you. And yes, we're an independent voice. And again, that's Dan Meyer. His book is Upside Down. And our quote for the end of the show is from John F. Kennedy, JFK. He said, one person can make a difference and everyone should try. So today, be grateful, read great books, think good thoughts, listen to beautiful music, communicate and listen well, live honestly and authentically, strive for high ideals, and like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. My friends, you are not alone. God bless you. God bless America. Stay tuned for hour number two.
SPEAKER 09 :
And I don't want no one to cry, but tell them if I don't survive, I was born.
SPEAKER 04 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
SPEAKER 16 :
It's the Kim Munson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
SPEAKER 13 :
The socialization of transportation, education, energy, housing, and water, what it means is that government controls it through rules and regulations.
SPEAKER 16 :
The latest in politics and world affairs.
SPEAKER 13 :
Under this guise of bipartisanship and nonpartisanship, it's actually tapping down the truth.
SPEAKER 16 :
Today's current opinions and ideas.
SPEAKER 13 :
On an equal field in the battle of ideas, mistruths and misconceptions is getting us into a world of hurt.
SPEAKER 16 :
Is it freedom or is it force? Let's have a conversation.
SPEAKER 13 :
Indeed. Let's have a conversation. And welcome to our number two of the Kim Munson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. You each are treasured, you're valued, you have purpose. Today, strive for excellence, take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body. My friends, we were made for this moment in history. And thank you to the team. That's Producer Joe, Luke, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, and all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting. It is Monday, Producer Joe. Happy Monday, Kim. Happy Monday. And two more days in 2024, and then 2025 is right around the corner. And we're looking forward with hope to 2025 to reclaim our country, to reclaim our state. Check out the website. That is Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly e-mail newsletter. You'll get the first look at our upcoming guests as well as our most recent essays. You can e-mail me at kim at kimmunson.com. Our text line is 720-605-0647. And Dan – or excuse me, Dave – Thank you. I mentioned Colorado Union of Taxpayers, that we have a few openings on the board to help rate bills. And Dave, I will be giving you a call because he's responded. So if you might be interested in talking about that, 720-605-0647. Thank you to all of you who... Support us. We are an independent voice. We search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something's a good idea, you shouldn't have to use force to implement it. And we focus on the issues and the people that are pushing them, not the personalities. We're really working hard to stay out of all the eighth grade fighting that can happen with eighth grade girl fighting, I should say. in politics. Our word of the day, let's get to that. Before we do that, we have great sponsors and Hooters restaurants, how I got to know them is a really important story about freedom and free markets and capitalism. and it occurred when I was on city council. You can find the whole story at my website. But Hooters Restaurants is a great place to watch the games and get together with friends. They have lunch specials Monday through Friday and happy hour specials, and you can find all those at my website as well. But they have five locations, Loveland, Aurora, Lone Tree, Westminster, and Colorado Springs, and I do thank them for their partnership here. So our word of the day is... is earnest. And it is spelled E-A-R-N-E-S-T. Your challenge is to use that in a sentence today. And it is a noun. That's first definition. It could be a serious and intent mental state. So a proposal made in earnest. Number two, a considerable or impressive degree or amount. So their example was the SAP started running in earnest. Number three, something of value given by a buyer or seller to bind a bargain. For example, earnest money in a real estate transaction. Or number four, it could be a token of what is to come, a pledge. So earnest, E-A-R-N-E-S-T. Your challenge is to use that in a sentence today. And my friends, this gets our brains going to try to be able to do this. That's the reason that I have put this online. into each show. And of course, it's something that we do at Liberty Toastmasters all of the time. Our quote of the day is from JFK, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was born in 1917, died in 1963 from assassination. He was the youngest person ever elected president of the United States. He served at the height of the Cold War. And I chose this quote because of our guest in the first hour, Dan Meyer, and his book, Upside Down, How We Can Avoid Becoming the United States of China. And John F. Kennedy said this. He said, the cost of freedom is always high. But Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission. We are in a time right now to reclaim our country, to reclaim our state. And we're earnestly in this battle of ideas that is raging right now. So again, the cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission. And great sponsors of the show. I get to work with a lot of really great people, and I'm really blessed to do so. And I'm talking with Roger Mangan with the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance Team, and there is something that people are concerned about, but maybe confused about, and that is cyber security, Roger.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yes, Kim, it is the season for cyber breaches and cyber theft, for sure. So let me define cyber first as relating to our characteristics of a culture of computers, information technology, and virtual reality. So anything that deals with electronic communications becomes cyber. So I want to tell you a quick story about what happened to Roger and Alice Mangan. We applied for passports and went into a website. Roger actually did this. I should have probably not. But I got into this website and it showed an official government document to fill out to renew your passport. So I went in, did it. In that process, of course, I put my Social Security number, credit card numbers. It cost me $89 to fill out those applications for my wife and myself. Only later to find out that it was not the official website. And so panic struck, and it's like, okay, who has all this information? Well, after a lot of fretting, we were able to figure out this was a legitimate company, third-party vendor company. who was helping me fill something out that I didn't really need to pay them $89 to fill it out. I could have done it on my own. So they took the $89 and... I filled out the application, and I still had to go to the government to finish the work. And we're like, ooh, did I make a big mistake? So we froze our credit cards. We did all kinds of crazy things that we didn't really have to do. But my admonition to anybody listening here, be very careful. You can get... duped and suckered into something that looks obvious. If it's an email you don't recognize, don't open it. And if you really, depending on your age, if you're younger, this is probably automatic. But if you're a little older, I'd say 50 and over, you probably should get some help or some second opinions. But as far as cybersecurity, there's an endorsement you can put on your homeowner's policy with State Farm. It's $20 a year. It's worth the stress relief if you have an issue. It covers cyber attacks, pays for data recovery and system restoration costs. It will pay for cyber extortion if you do get extorted. It identifies you for restoration case management services. It identifies fraud expense reimbursements up to $50,000. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's amazing. So that includes, for example, that 50 would include the cost of obtaining credit bureau reports, fees for repayment of loans, grants, or other credit instruments. telephone and postage fees, notary and certain legal fees, $1,000 to take care of financial institution costs that you may be subjected to. gets into credit monitoring after the fact. So it's really, really worth your time as a consumer to call and find out if your company has that endorsement at that cost to add it to your homeowner's policy. $20 a year. I mean, $3 a month? No, not even that, $2 a month. It's worth it.
SPEAKER 13 :
It is worth it. I think I need to make sure that I've got that on mine, so I need to give you guys a call on that. Roger Mangy, what's the best way for people to reach you?
SPEAKER 14 :
You can call us at 303-795-8855. We would love to talk to you about... This and other things that you may wonder, do I have any gaps in my coverages? And we can certainly discover that for you and discuss solutions.
SPEAKER 13 :
And again, that number is 303-795-8855. Like a good neighbor, the Roger Mangan team is there.
SPEAKER 11 :
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SPEAKER 17 :
You'd like to get in touch with one of the sponsors of The Kim Munson Show, but you can't remember their phone contact or website information. Find a full list of advertising partners on Kim's website, kimmunson.com. That's Kim, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 13 :
and welcome back to the kim munson show be sure and check out our website that is kim munson m-o-n-s-o-n.com sign up for our weekly email newsletter you can email me at kim kimmunson.com as well and thank you to all of you who support us we're an independent voice we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force force versus freedom if something's a good idea you shouldn't have to force people to do it And I want to say thank you to Laramie Energy for their gold sponsorship of the show because it is reliable, efficient, affordable, and abundant energy from coal, natural gas, and oil that powers our lives and fuels our hopes and dreams. Very pleased to have on the line with me Nathan Wooster. He is a national politics reporter with the Epoch Times. Nathan, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you so much for having me again, Kim.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, it's good to have you and really interesting pieces that you are writing. But the first one that I wanted to chat with you about was Trump's freedom cities. And I love this idea of using federal land and creating new cities. But set this up for us, because I had not heard of this until I was looking through your articles.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, it's one of those proposals from Trump that really slipped through the cracks. He made a lot of them as part of his Agenda 47 on the campaign trail. And this is one that came during early 2023 at a point when he had not yet received the nomination. Indeed, there were many who doubted he could even be a serious contender at that point, given all the emerging and existent legal challenges he had at that time. So the Freedom Cities idea, it is still a little bit sketchy because he only released a video and there was a little bit of accompanying material produced. But basically the notion is, according to Trump, we could use something like one two hundredth of the federal land that the government has. And as a reminder, that's about 30 percent of the land mass in the United States, at least the lower 48 in Alaska and Hawaii, I believe. We could use just 325 million acres is what that would translate to, to potentially hold up to 10 billion. chartering contests to designate these, what he called, freedom cities. Basically, the notion is we would be able to build new cities that were chartered according to some set of rules that would make them less high regulation, perhaps lower tax, geared towards innovation and geared towards providing some sort of housing. Given the issues with the housing crisis, given what some would argue are significant issues with the American economy as a whole, was initially, at least in some quarters, dismissed as, well, kind of a fantastical notion. One of the more interesting, and we can get into this in more detail, but one of the more interesting conversations I had while putting together this article was I spoke with an expert on charter cities, a man named Jeff Mason, who in 2023, when this idea was new, said, well, this is going to be difficult to execute in the U.S. It's not a place for You can do things like this very easily. A lot of the federal land is not close to existing big cities, outlining a lot of reasonable concerns and possible issues. But then when I spoke to him again just a few weeks ago after Trump had been reelected, he said, well, no, it certainly seems like there is more now energy behind this proposal.
SPEAKER 13 :
I'm thinking for people, for example, we're in Colorado. We're in the Denver metro area. It's very expensive. And property taxes are attached to home values. And so we saw significant property tax increases throughout Colorado. And people are really getting squeezed out here in Colorado because of housing. So bringing new competition on. onto the market would more supply would would probably start to maybe reduce values of existing homes or what do you think about that nathan
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, you know, I think that one issue that has been brought up as a counterpoint by advocates of, you know, more conventional liberalization of housing policy would be to say, well, what if we just try to change some of the zoning that already exists in, yeah, certainly in places in California that's often raised as an issue. I can't speak to the specifics in Colorado, but yeah, it certainly seems that in the Front Range, in many of these other, you know, Greater Phoenix, for example, many of these other big urban corridors in the Mountain West area in particular, there has been this great increase in demand. Supply has not kept up. On the other hand, in the case of Colorado, certainly once you get into Wyoming, in the not too far away. You have places like Nevada, Idaho. There's lots of federal land that could be potentially included that would be pretty close to existing cities that would not be in the middle of nowhere. And in fact, there was a report analyzing a similar notion from Senator Mike Lee. The Joint Economic Committee Republicans estimated that In Wyoming, Arizona, Nevada, various other states, basically all of the housing crisis could, in theory, be addressed by using some federal land in this fashion.
SPEAKER 13 :
So would these be home ownership properties where people would actually own the land and also own their home? And I ask that question because I've seen out here in Colorado something called land trusts, which I don't like at all, where government owns the land underneath and people might own the home, but it's kind of like renting the land. I really like property rights and home ownership. So what's that look like?
SPEAKER 03 :
That is an incredibly good question, and it's one of the, I would say, unresolved active debates about what this would look like. I think, again, I spoke to another person in the D.C. policy world. I'm not going to name him, but he told me, well, this is an interesting idea, but we are not going to weigh in formally until there's more meat on the bone. And that would mean something like articulating, okay, is this going to be land that's just ultimately owned by the government, but leased in perpetuity? Is it going to be fully auctioned off? And is this going to be something that is no longer federal land in any sense whatsoever? I think it is going to be the latter. But yes, this needs to be spelled out more clearly by the people. I think in particular, Doug Burgum of the Department of the Interior, he would likely play a crucial role in this. So that's something that needs to be spelled out more clearly.
SPEAKER 13 :
Okay, so Nathan, as you're talking about this auctioned off, I like that idea. Does this offer the opportunity for cronyism, though, as well on the people that might get the contracts to do that? I know these are questions that would all need to be kicked around. What's your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I think that, you know, from my perspective, you see certainly a lot of interest. A lot of it is coming from, for example, the Frontier is this foundation that has very quickly branded itself as an advocate in D.C. Freedom City's movement, you have pre-existing, I think, real estate development interests that even if they're not explicitly articulating an interest, they're clearly probably positioning themselves in some way to be, okay, well positioned to provide a bid, to attempt to put forth some sort of plan as part of this chartering contest. I do think that cronyism, the opportunity, especially if the bid process, the chartering process is not done in an adequately transparent form for there to be that sort of corruption. I think, yeah, I think that's a very basic first concern and first instinct that people would have about this plan. And that in some ways, the sketchiness of the plan so far, despite the interest, means that It's a good thing because the rules – it's like we have not even quite a drawing board yet, but we do have a point where these questions, especially on the free market side from people who I think are maybe just more temperamentally or ideologically inclined to be excited about this idea, it's good to see people – raising questions and maybe trying to set out, okay, what are the parameters around? For example, if someone is, say, involved in Doge or involved in some of these outside but at the same time insider government proposals that are being put forth and advanced right now in the Trump team, how are we going to make sure those people aren't in a great position because of insider knowledge or something to then have the best bid for something like this?
SPEAKER 13 :
Boy, I really love the idea. The intricacies will be super interesting because whenever you get government involved in things... Interesting things happen. I'll just put it that way. One of the examples that you had was this East Solano in California. And that proposal was to take farmland. And that's not federal land. And I'm very concerned about us losing food production. So tell us a little bit about that proposal.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, East Solano, again, it's a great example for various reasons, one just being the players who are involved. On the one hand, you do have farmland in this area east of the bay. And, you know, in favor of the proponent's vision, let's say – they are addressing what is a significant, serious issue with lack of housing, lack of supply to meet the demand in the Bay Area. This is a place with some of the most expensive housing in the country, in a state that already is due to property taxes, due to factors specific to California, but also just due to sheer demand. They've had this issue, even given California's overall shrinking population, and given, I think, some positive trends for the perspective of people trying to buy houses in, say, San Francisco, it's not a cheap place right now to live there. And so, unsurprisingly, a lot of the people behind this are tied up in the tech world. You have people who, I think, are on the more libertarian side of Silicon Valley who are in favor of this East Solano idea. But as you point out, this would impinge on the interests of farmers, potentially. It would not necessarily be so popular with people who exist in in those communities um but but certainly a big immediate distinction to draw would be between that and what is being proposed here which would involve federal land it would not involve existing farmland one likely conflict that i could imagine uh playing out though would be federal land if it's very close to adjoining maybe um you know in pockets that are uh almost overlapping with ranch land or farmland or other private land in particular areas of the Mountain West, there could be conflict even if it's not overstepping into that private land. Maybe those people would feel that they're being put under pressure to move out or they're then offered deals to have their land purchased because there's just so much federal land nearby. Those are conflicts I could imagine happening and raising these same basic issues. But I do think that When it comes to housing supply, when it comes to meeting that demand, especially in the Mountain West, you're going to probably end up in a situation where people say, okay, there's a trade-off here. Some percentage of ranch land is some percentage of productive land. It's okay if some of that ends up going to housing instead, just because there's so much demand. And the alternative is either continued densification, which is slow and tedious and runs into the same issues with objections from stakeholders, or or continually rising housing prices.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, and the federal government is very involved in housing now. And out here in Colorado, we've seen this real push towards building these four- and five-story apartment buildings. And there's incentives to do so. One might be favorable financing from the federal government, and then there might be streamlining of the housing. approval process at the city the municipal and the county levels and so we have seen government very involved in housing where that agenda has been to put people in these these small apartments and have them walk or ride buses or trains with this whole 15-minute city which I I think that that That takes away freedom. It takes freedom of mobility. It takes away property ownership, building wealth. And so the government's been very involved in pushing housing one way. I really do love the idea of property owners and these freedom cities. I think it's very exciting. Nathan, your final thoughts on that? We'll go to break. And then I really recommend that people check out your articles at the Epoch Times. You are just... writing about really important issues of our time. So your final thought on the Freedom Cities.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I would say when it comes to that whole issue of densification and whether or not they're 15-minute cities or not, it seems very situationally dependent. I can speak for myself. I live in a pretty dense urban area. And so for me, that level of density, the access to things like buses and trains and the possibility of biking as opposed to walking, it's a good thing. It's also a very dense area where that makes a lot of sense. That's a problem that they tend to have in some of these big West Coast cities where they've got this significant housing demand that exists, but you still have many, many places where it's basically all just single family homes. So that's a problem that's different than in North Dakota or some other states where, yeah, I don't think there's enough demand necessarily. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of people who would want to sacrifice the kind of American dream that a lot of people have of the individual house, the possibility of just having a kind of conventional suburban community where you can raise your kids in a lot of space with a lot of, you know, access to nature and not have to have some of those denser features. And I think that, you know, the 15-minute cities thing, depending upon how this vision plays out, I don't think it's going to be too relevant. And I would say that's because this vision that has been described as one based around lack of regulation and the kind of movement in the direction of you know, more greater freedom for the people developing it. And I mean, there might be incentives to provide that density. But if we really do have these constructed upon not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of acres of land, that seems like a great deal of space for single family housing, for something more akin to what a lot of Americans are looking for.
SPEAKER 13 :
I love that idea. I think it's so creative. And I'm talking with Nathan Wooster. He is a national politics reporter with the Epoch Times. And these are really important discussions. And we have them because of our sponsors. One of those is Lavaca Meat Company. And it really is a premium product. It is a great treat and a great source of protein.
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SPEAKER 13 :
And welcome back to the Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at KimMunson.com as well. And thank you to all of you who support us. We are an independent voice. We search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something's a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And before the kids get back into school, I'd recommend that you take the kids to the Center for American Values in Pueblo. and the Center for American Values is located on the beautiful Riverwalk, and it was co-founded by Drew Dix, Medal of Honor recipient, for actions he took during the Vietnam War, and Brad Padula, who is a Emmy Award-winning documentary maker. And they focus on honoring our Medal of Honor recipients, and then also great educational programs to reclaim these values of honor, integrity, and patriotism. The Center's nonpolitical, and it's nonpartisan, and would really recommend you Check that out before the kids get to school. That website is AmericanValueCenter.org, AmericanValueCenter.org. I'm talking with Nathan Wooster. He is the national politics reporter with the Epoch Times. And before we move on to the next subject, one of our listeners, Jenny, said, no bid system on these freedom cities, a lottery. I think she's right. I think that that would eliminate the potential for cronyism, Nathan.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, that's a very interesting way of possibly framing it, I guess. You know, with any such lottery, you want to make sure that the participants actually have the means to build those cities or something like that. But, yeah, I mean, I'm not going to claim to be an expert on the possible best processes to insulate something like that from cronyism. But, you know, if something works and it has a demonstrated record of preventing those issues from cropping up, that seems like something worth exploring to me.
SPEAKER 13 :
It says she's really she's got her her brain around these issues big time. She does a great job on that. OK, next thing. You're one of your most recent articles was December 22nd in The Epoch Times. Trump responds to claims that Musk is the shadow president. And then Musk apparently on Twitter, excuse me, on X has been been trending about these articles. Is it H-1B visas exactly? So talk to us about that, Nathan.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. So just for some context, the initial article was prompted by something that Trump said that made a lot of headlines during his speech at America Fest. There's been this narrative building. I think you could accurately say it's being stoked by Democrats and by many people who are opposed to the administration that is taking shape, claiming that Trump is effectively functioning as a shadow president or something to that effect. You have Nancy Pelosi and similar politicians. uh... pushing this idea and then you have republicans objecting to it uh... it trumpeteer as well you know market not yet a president and he he couldn't be president anyway because he was not born in the u.s he's not a natural born citizen uh... which is uh... an accurate point unless we were to you know push through an amendment altering the circumstances by which someone could become president, there's no chance that a Musk or a Arnold Schwarzenegger, as I recall, is the last person that was discussed when this debate last week really came up around possible presidential prospect. It came up around Schwarzenegger. That's just not a possibility. But then in the subsequent days, we have – this was especially over Christmas – a big debate on x had this apparent push and pull over skilled immigration visas where it certainly looks a bit like trump responded to influence from musk and from some not all i want to stress but some in the silicon valley tech world In favor of expanded immigration and against what a lot of people in the core mega base oppose, which would be an expansion or removal of country caps or something to that effect for H-1Bs, this category of skilled visa used in the tech world to a large extent for various purposes. But suffice to say, it's been very interesting to watch, kind of feeds into this whole debate about what influence is Musk exerting? Is it too much? Is it perhaps a good thing? Is it a bad thing? Very, yeah, very, very active issue right now.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, I think, Nathan Wooster, though, the question is, is why do we need to import these people in the technology industry? And I think that Americans, and I think something was said along this line, maybe not as often, striving for excellence, maybe don't work as hard. I think the whole indoctrination at our colleges and universities focusing on that instead of focusing on real education. What do you think about that?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, there's a lot of immediate issues with the culture point. One I'll point out is that when you look at the international educational testing and you look at the American figures and you actually decompose it by certain demographic factors, certainly a lot of Americans perform at the very top of the world or near the top of the world. Asian Americans, white Americans are at or near the top of those tests. I think that anybody looking at the history of the United States, specifically its contributions to technology over the past 50 to 100 years, is left to conclude that pretty much all of the original innovation, pretty much everything of substance came out of the U.S. and was developed by Americans, American citizens. There have been and will continue to be very significant contributions from people born outside the U.S. who come here for opportunities. Certainly at the very top, you do have people, leaders who have that background from abroad. And the general point that the United States shouldn't lose the top 0.001% of global talent, that I think most people are taking well. What people are objecting to is the notion of using some of these programs that have a demonstrated history of abuse And that when you delve into the details, you find actually function as a means of suppressing wages. Often they're executed using these consulting firms with specific ties to countries and interest groups. The one that has been highlighted is India, but ones that seem to ultimately disincentivize hiring skilled workers. especially young americans young if you look at what americans what people you know a few years younger than i am majoring in college and then go on to study a lot of them are going into tech a lot of them are studying that but they find that the entire sector um not even just in the world of silicon valley but if you look at these graduate programs in engineering and science Not only are there not enough Americans, but they function as kind of a system – people will describe it as essentially slave labor for many of these grad students who could, in certain other areas, in finance, for example, if they're intelligent young people, they'll realize it just makes more sense for me to take my talents there rather than compete in this kind of race to the bottom against – a labor that is either being not really brought over in the most transparent way or with a real consistent view towards skill, but that, yeah, in some cases you have nepotism operating, you have other factors operating well beyond the pure free market factors that advocates of these visas tend to stress.
SPEAKER 13 :
So what do you think the administration and Musk, in their support of these visas, what's your ear to the ground say on that, Nathan?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well... So, one conversation I had a few weeks ago was with Kevin Lin of U.S. Tech Workers. He's a strong advocate for American, I guess you could say the big middle class of American tech workers who've been most affected by these visas. And I would just point out, since I have a few minutes here, it's not just H-1Bs. You have what's known as OPT, optional practical training, for people on F-1 visas, which is a route to much the same outcome. There's lots of visas involved here that people, especially in the tech sector, have serious issues with. But my sense from talking to him was he likes a lot of what he has seen, but he doesn't like a lot of what he's hearing behind the scenes. This entire debate was touched off by the possible appointment of a man named Sriram. His last name I can find here, but he's someone who would be involved potentially in AI decision-making, but Sriram Krishnan has these very marked pro-H1B views and views. I think that it's impossible, especially based on what Trump has said, to argue that he hasn't, at least in terms of his language, changed what he was saying in 2016. In 2016, both on the stage and in written statements and other forms, he was very, very critical of H-1Bs. And indeed, he went on to put forth – an executive order that was aimed at significantly reforming the system. And you saw then the results of at least, I believe, a decrease in the number of those applications that were accepted. But now. Very recently, when he was on the campaign trail, he said something to the effect that we should be stapling visas or green cards to diplomas, even junior college diplomas. And whether that was Trump maybe trying to please, in that case, a group of Silicon Valley elites that he was speaking to, whether that's really what he's going to do or whether it's going to be something more moderate, we will have to see. Musk himself did go on to moderate what he was saying initially. He was He said some really rather explosive things, claiming that Americans are untalented, referring to people who disagreed with him with the term subtard. But he then said, well, no, I actually have always believed H-1B is in need of serious reform. We should raise the salary associated with it to ensure that there are not people brought on who are simply being brought on to lower Americans' wages. I mean, from the perspective of critics of these programs, that's a start, but it leaves a lot of questions in people's minds. Steve Bannon, various other commentators have been hitting this issue hard. You also have people who appear to have been penalized, at least they will claim that they've been penalized for their views on H-1B. Gavin Wax, a young Republican activist, had his verification stripped in the midst of this debate. It's definitely one of these important key conflicts that is, and I would just stress this, still going on. It seems like a lot of the debate that is happening on X is leaking over into the way that people in the inner circles are thinking. And we'll just have to see, is it the case that Trump has meaningfully changed his view on this very key issue for his supporters? Or are we looking at This debate being hashed out publicly in a way that will ultimately influence the way that the administration governs, because, again, nobody is in office yet.
SPEAKER 13 :
Really fascinating. Nathan Wooster with The Epoch Times. 2025 is right around the corner. What's your what's your thoughts, particularly over the next 20 days or so for America?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I think we should all be looking towards what exactly signals are sent on this issue, but on various other issues, I think especially on the economy and on trade. That's another issue where you have a great deal of push and pull. And so we're going to see more, I think, statements, more debate happening on those issues. And really, it's going to come down to many of the same conflicts that you already saw. not just between Trump and the original Republican Party that he in many respects kind of redefined through his election and then re-election. But this broader conflict over populism and the more, I would say the more core MAGA constituency as compared to people who tend to come and have more of a pro-free market with respect to trade and a pro-immigration, at least when it comes to H-1B and some of these other categories, more of an orientation in favor of those conventional not even necessarily Republican, but conventional neoliberal priorities. It's going to be very interesting to see just how, what sort of signals are sent out.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, Nathan Wooster, people can find you at the Epoch Times. This has been very enlightening. Thank you so much and very interesting. So again, I would recommend that people check you out at the Epoch Times. That is Nathan Wooster and I really appreciate it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely. Thank you so much, Kim, for having me.
SPEAKER 13 :
Absolutely. Boy, these are important discussions, and they come to you because of our sponsors. And if you have been injured, reach out as soon as possible to John Boson and Boson Law.
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SPEAKER 15 :
All of Kim's sponsors are an inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Munson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmunson.com. That's Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 05 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
And welcome back to the Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at Kim Munson dot com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We're an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. Something's a good idea. You should not have to force people to do it. And we're at year end. I'd recommend that you make a tax deductible. donation to the USMC Memorial Foundation. They are raising the money for the remodel of the Marine Memorial, which is the official memorials right here at 6th and Colfax. And my friends, it is just a small thing to show your appreciation by making this contribution. so that we can remember those that have given their lives or been willing to give their lives for our liberty. And liberty is the responsible exercise of freedom. And so for more information, go to usmcmemorialfoundation.org. That is usmcmemorialfoundation.org. And we'll talk with Trent Luce about this again. But this was a law that was passed a while back. The implementation is starting January 1st. And here in Colorado, January 1, every egg sold in the state must come from cage-free hens. Here's what this means. And this is from the Post Independent up in Glenwood Springs. And it says, then there's a sign, it says, in order to be compliant with Colorado state law requiring cage-free eggs by January 1, we may experience temporary shortages. We apologize for the inconvenience. And that was posted at one of the grocery stores. So when government gets involved, the price goes up. And the price of eggs has gone up significantly. Many times the quality goes down and the supply becomes limited. We're going to see that happen with these eggs here. And it says legislators passed this law in 2020. And it was a multi-year ramp up to 2025. And it says all of our producers, both in Colorado and who sell into Colorado, have been prepared for cage free for many, many years, said Kate Greenberg, the state commissioner of agriculture. Our producers are producing. There should be eggs on the shelves. And they've done a great job of adapting to this challenging environment. And that challenging environment, my friends, was put in place because of the Colorado State Legislature. And again, this is force. If people want to have cage-free eggs, they should have that option. They can pay more at the store. But just think about that young family, that they're just trying with high insurance costs, inflation. property taxes, all of this, they're getting squeezed. And now this is taking away the choice for them to have more affordable eggs. And that is because of the Colorado State Legislature. And it is crazy here in Colorado that we have legislators that are concerned about the square footage of what hens could have in producing eggs, but yet this is a state that is very radical regarding abortion, aborting children, and don't seem to see the value in our children. And so it's just really kind of crazy. It's really more about control. That's what this is all about. This just came across the wire, my friends. This is from Reuters. I mentioned earlier that Biden announced two point five billion in fresh military aid to Ukraine. This just came across. It says the United States on Monday today announced nearly six billion in additional military and budget assistance for Ukraine as President Joe Biden uses his final weeks in office to surge aid to Kiev before President-elect Donald Trump takes power. And. I think there's a lot of cronyism going on with this money here. It says Biden announced that $2.5 billion in additional security assistance for Ukraine. We talked about that earlier in the show. But then Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the United States has made available $3.4 billion in additional budget aid to Ukraine, giving the war-torn country critical resources amid intensifying Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure. This spending, this printing money and giving it out, what that means, again, for everyday people is it devalues our dollar. Inflation is that silent thief. And so if the money that you have only buys 80 percent of what it used to, that 20 percent is theft by inflation and that inflation is caused by. The Fed printing money, pushing money out into the money supply, as we've talked with Jay Davidson with First American State Bank on a regular basis. So this aid to Ukraine to protect their border while ours is wide open is really beyond belief. But that just came across the wire. Let's see. Next thing, just a couple of headlines that I wanted to mention. That is, okay, this was Colorado employment reports are too unreliable for, it says the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And again, we look at government. This is some of the things that they're supposed to be doing. We looked at these reports, and let me get to the whole thing here. And this is from the Broomfield paper, the Broomfield Enterprise. It says that Colorado's employment reports are so unreliable that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has stopped using them. And this is very unique. And it says that BLS has absurd data quality. Whoops, these pop-ups are such a challenge here. Sorry about this. I had everything ready for you. It says every quarter employers must – here we go. I want to get back to this. BLS has observed data quality problems because of ongoing issues with the modernization of Colorado's unemployment insurance system. As a result, BLS is temporarily suspending publication of Colorado employment, unemployment, and wage data, the Bureau said in a statement that was issued on December 18th. And again, private enterprise, if they were this incompetent, they would go out of business. And again, I've gotten to a point where I really don't trust so many of these different reports as well. And so again, that was from the Broomfield Independent. My friends, it's great to be back in the saddle. It was wonderful to take some time off. I heard from many of you that you really enjoyed all of the programs that we prerecorded last week. We will prerecord for New Year's Day as well. But our quote for the end of the show, I love this from JFK. And this is what he said. He said, one person can make a difference and everyone should try. So today, be grateful, read great books, think good thoughts, listen to beautiful music, communicate and listen well, live honestly and authentically, strive for high ideals, and like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. My friends, you are not alone. God bless you, and God bless America.
SPEAKER 09 :
young like a new moon rising fierce through the rain and lightning wandering out into this great unknown and i don't want no one to cry but tell them if i don't survive i was born
SPEAKER 04 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
Join host Kim Munson as she explores the heartwarming story of the American Saint Nick, a tale of kindness and reverence during World War II. Discover how a small gesture of goodwill by American soldiers became a cherished tradition for a Luxembourg town. Hear from Don Brookens about his father's role in this remarkable historical narrative that brings to life the essence of service and humanity.
SPEAKER 09 :
World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and our other wars and conflicts. America's fighting men and women strapped on their boots and picked up their guns to fight tyranny and stand for liberty. We must never forget them. Welcome to America's veteran stories with Kim Munson. These stories will touch your heart, inspire you and give you courage. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Here's Kim Munson.
SPEAKER 04 :
And welcome to America's Veterans Stories with Kim Munson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteransStories.com. The show comes to you because of a trip that I took in 2016 with a group that accompanied four D-Day veterans back to Normandy, France for the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day landings. Returned stateside realizing that we need to know these stories. We need to record them and broadcast them. and archive them, so hence America's Veterans Stories. And I have in studio with me Don Brookens, and we're talking about his father. The story is American Saint Nick, and we've recorded something before, Don, but I thought at Christmastime and during the time of the Battle of the Bulge, let's just meet again and do an interview. So it's great to have you here.
SPEAKER 10 :
Nice to be here.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thanks so much. Thanks for thinking of me. Well, and American St. Nick is a true story. It's a book by Peter Lyon, right? Peter Lyon, spelled like the animal.
SPEAKER 10 :
Peter Lyon was a friend of my brother's in Pittsburgh who was going to take over for him while my brother was gone visiting Luxembourg, as the rest of us were, because what my father did was done 30-some years prior to And the town never forgot what he did. So when they discovered that my father survived the war, it took that long to find that out. They invited him back, and the whole family went along. And Peter Lyon said, where are you going? He says, well, I gave him a thumbnail of what was going to happen. He says, I should write a book about that, or someone should write a book about that, and he ended up doing it. So Peter Lyon's got American Saint Nick, and it's available probably on Amazon at least.
SPEAKER 04 :
Any place where you can buy books.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
It's a remarkable story, and as we were preparing for this, Don Brookins, you said that there's also a film.
SPEAKER 10 :
There was. As a matter of fact, the same year that the book came out, there was a fantastic organization that is out of Providence, Rhode Island. Tim Gray heads this up, and it's called World War II Foundation. And you can look up WWII Foundation dot org and find that Web site. And Tim is a great storyteller. He found this story. He came over and shot a documentary and it came out the same year that the book came out. And I think that was around 2010. 2016 or so it's a hard time for hard thing for me to remember now it's been a few years but um he did 2015 2015 okay and uh he also has done many other stories of And it's just stories of World War II. And I think it's something that people would want to go take a look at. And it's available for free viewing, by the way, if you go to the website. WWIIfoundation.org. All of his documentaries are up there, and you can also, I think, download the streaming app on a Roku TV and watch all of his productions. You'll really like the American Saint Nick, but you'll also enjoy what else he's done.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay. Well, let's talk about American Saint Nick. It's your father, and when did you find out that he was the American Saint Nick?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, I'm originally from western New York State. I've lived in Colorado for several years now. It was 1977 I came here. And soon after I got here, I learned about But prior to that, I was a little boy and I remembered seeing a fax picture, an AP or UPI fax picture of my dad playing St. Nick back in the war. But I and I kind of. I kind of understood somewhat about it, but that was all that was mentioned. And the way this all came about was my father was serving in the 28th Infantry Division, came over to France in August of 1944, and then went on to the front, and he was in a message unit of the 28th Infantry Division there. small group of guys and they were put into this horrendous battle called the hurtkin forest and not many people know about it in fact i don't really know enough about it but it was quite a just a terrible uh decision to be made and they were really against all odds and it was a meat grinder they called it as a The 28th Infantry was a part of the Pennsylvania National Guard, and they had a patch. Their patch was a keystone, a red keystone, and the Germans named it the Bloody Bucket. from that battle of Hurtgen Forest. And they were so devastated by that, they cycled them out to R&R up into Luxembourg. And at that time, the Americans advanced to the German border so rapidly that they got well ahead of their supply chain, and they were waiting to go into Germany And so it was kind of a thinly protected area because they thought the Germans were pretty well defeated and they weren't going to be doing anything aggressive. So this was a beautiful little country. storybook looking villages they all were billeted there and they were all kind of relaxed and finally eating properly and not living in the mud but able to take showers and sleep in clean beds and everything was was going along just fine and my father was in a town called wilts wiltz and uh That's kind of central, north central part of the country. And his job there, in addition to whatever else he was doing around Wilts, he was sent out to local towns to show movies to the troops. So he had a Jeep that was packed with people. um projectors and in film and matter of fact the movie he was taking around was called going my way with bing crosby as a matter of fact i i found that out so anyway he while in wilts his roommate was harry stutz was his name and he was a little short more short guy and he uh... was talking to doubt that uh... give you the significance of that in a minute but uh... he was talking some locals and they were very very pleased and happy that the americans came in save their town and the germans withdrew of the town was left intact and he came to find out that they were happy that the americans came but they were unhappy that that there was nothing left. The Germans took everything with them, and the children, who have not been able to celebrate their big holiday celebration every year, St. Nicholas Day, which usually occurred around December 6th. It was fast approaching. There was just nothing for the children, and a lot of the children didn't even know what St. Nicholas was because the Germans were not allowing anyone to celebrate local traditions.
SPEAKER 04 :
And they'd been under German rule for four years, probably? Five years.
SPEAKER 10 :
Five years. Yeah, they came in in 1940. As a matter of fact, Luxembourg conducted a strike in protest, and that didn't end well for them. So they finally succumbed to their rulings. But they felt bad for the kids, and so Harry Stutz... decided to go up the chain of command to see if he could put on a party for the kids. The town was pretty much nothing but women and children because the male population of Army age were all conscripted. And some were hiding out in the Ardennes Forest. And there were just the women and children in town. So he got a little party together among his message unit. They donated their cookies from home, maybe, and their cookies. They made chocolate. They made cocoa out of their chocolate bars. They got donations from a lot of the guys and made donuts and made little bags for the kids. And they said that St. Nicholas would come. And so my dad said, well, what can I do to help you? And he looked at the height of my dad, because I'm sure Harry would have easily... played the part of St. Nicholas, but the local priest was a tall fellow, and all of his garments fit my dad better. So he said, well, I need a St. Nicholas. My dad said, no, I can't do that. I don't know anything about it. And he says, oh, heck, all you got to do is just chuck him under the chin and pat him on the head, give him a little bag of stuff. That's all you got to do. So He put them in the back of a Jeep with an angel on either side of him, a couple of the little girls from town. And they drove through town a little bit, and they ended up at the castle because everybody's got a castle around those parts. And so they arrived at the castle, had a little party. show and tell, and kids did little demonstrations, and my dad didn't know any of the language, so he just stood there and was St. Nicholas. He had to put on this garb, and they fixed for him a beard made out of rope that he said was very scratchy. and very hard to deal with. And his mitered hat was a little too tight on him, gave him a heck of a headache. And as a matter of fact, Harry Stutz says, well, if it gives you a headache, take it off. He said, I can't do that. St. Nicholas wouldn't do that. So anyway, they went on with this party, and it was just, I guess it was the GIs were just as happy about it as the kids because it gave them a break. Sure. That happened. It was enjoyed by all. And everybody else after that went back to work. And my dad went and showed movies and went up to a town called Clairvaux, which is north of there. And on the 15th of December, which was 10 days later, and then came the Battle of the Bulge, which nobody expected.
SPEAKER 04 :
So we're going to go to break here, Don Brookins, in just a minute. We're talking about this book, American St. Nick, your father, who is portraying St. Nicholas. And one thing before we go to break, these young GIs, they were young GIs. They weren't very old at all, were they? My dad was 22.
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, my gosh. He was born in 22, and this was 1944. And they were all about that age.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, they were young guys. Just really young guys, but doing something special for these kids. And the town remembered it. But the book is American Saint Nick, A True Story by Peter Lyon. And I did want to mention the Center for American Values, which is one of the nonprofits that I dearly love and support. It is located, the center is located in Pueblo, Colorado, on the beautiful Riverwalk. And it's co-founded by Drew Dix. who's a Medal of Honor recipient for actions he took during the Vietnam War, and Brad Padula, who is an Emmy Award-winning documentary maker. And they thought, we need to keep these stories alive. We need to honor these guys. So their Portraits of Valor is something very special at the center. And the center, like I said, is located on the Riverwalk. I'd recommend do a day trip. and go to Pueblo, check out the Center for American Values. They've got great restaurants for lunch or dinner. That website is AmericanValuesCenter.org, AmericanValuesCenter.org, and we will be right back.
SPEAKER 02 :
Remax Realtor Karen Levine helps bring to life the individual stories of our servicemen and women. With her sponsorship of America's Veteran Stories with Kim Munson, Karen honors the sacrifices of our military and is grateful for our freedom. As a member of the National Association of Realtors Board of Directors, Karen works to protect private property rights for all of us. Karen has a heart for our active duty military and veterans and is honored to help you buy or sell your home. Call Karen Levine at 303-877-7516 to help you navigate buying or selling your home. That's 303-877-7516.
SPEAKER 05 :
All of Kim's sponsors are an inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Munson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmunson.com. That's kimmunson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome back to America's Veteran Stories with Kim Munson. I am talking with Don Brookens regarding a story about his father, the American Saint Nick. It's a true story from World War II written by Peter Lyon. And you said also there is a documentary that people can watch as well, correct?
SPEAKER 10 :
That is correct. It's got the same title and a gentleman named Tim Gray of the World War II Foundation wrote Put that came out and shot the documentary and had it ready the following year while my dad was still alive. He was not physically able to play the part again, but he rode in the Jeep and they they did the background story about it. And here's here's another story. That might be interesting, but just the chance that this story is a good story and it can be told verbally. But two guys from two combat cameramen were walking back from whatever assignment they had in Wilts that day. and came to the end of a street, and all of a sudden they look, and here comes St. Nicholas on a Jeep with two angels going by. And typical of their profession, they said, well, let's go find out what this is. At 30 seconds either way, they never would have seen it happen. So as a result... there is film, black and white film, of this entire event, which, by the way, is on YouTube. I think if you go to YouTube and type in American Saint Nick, you'll find the raw footage of the event. So there's... There it is. It's all laid out. Perfect for a documentary.
SPEAKER 04 :
Isn't that something?
SPEAKER 10 :
It's amazing to see.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, this was on, I think you said, 5 December in 1944. And the byline on this is the day American soldiers brought Christmas back to one Luxembourg town during the darkest days of World War II. Now, the Allies were having success, and you had mentioned that supplies were limited. I've heard in many of the interviews that I've done is that Patton was moving so quickly with the Third Army that they were having trouble keeping the supply lines up with the guys. And so the line was thin there at Luxembourg. And I think that we, and you alluded to this, that we thought that things were going to be winding down and Hitler had other things in mind, right?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, they figured that Hitler was pretty much done and they were beaten back and they were going to be just pretty much on the defensive from that point on. It was anybody's guess as to how it was going to come out, but they just figured that that was pretty much done. They were hoping to be home by Christmas, but of course they realized that wasn't going to happen. So they were just hanging out and waiting, including winter clothing. Waiting for winter. Waiting for things like winter clothing, which they didn't have. And then when the surprise came, the Battle of the Bulge came through, you heard a lot of stories about... brutal cold it was a hundred year winter i understand from what from what i read and lots of snow and lots of cold weather and these people went through well they had been through the hurtkin forest battle and they didn't think things could get worse than that but it got pretty bad
SPEAKER 04 :
It did get pretty bad, and the Battle of the Bulge was fought, let's see, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945, so clearly they were not home by Christmas. Nope. And Hitler was trying to make a last-ditch effort to get to, my understanding is, fuel supplies.
SPEAKER 10 :
And a port. I think that they also wanted to split... the Allies in two. They wanted to make it to Antwerp, which was an inland seaport. And they figured if they could split the Allies into two sections, they could eventually sue for peace. So he had a very elaborate offensive move That surprised everyone, came through the least possible place that people expected it, which were narrow roads and lots of hills and lots of trees, and the Ardennes is a pretty thick forest. And so that caught everybody by surprise, and my dad happened to be up in a town north of Wilts, never got back to Wilts. And then with the... Counterattack, the town of Wilts was pretty much beaten up by all kinds of artillery and taking it back. So it was a couple of years before the town was functional. And a lot of these guys, you know, got scattered everywhere. And so it's amazing to me that... My dad got through the Hercan Forest and he got out of the bulge somehow. He also got out of landing at D-Day because of General Patton. He slapped a soldier in Italy. Right. That caused a big kerfuffle. Right. And he was disciplined. They were going to send him back to the States. And he begged Eisenhower to resign. let him stay in Europe, but he lost his opportunity to land at D-Day, which is what Patton wanted to do. So he put Patton in charge. of what they called the Phantom Army. And those were all inflatable tanks and inflatable trucks and parked along the outskirts in New England. And so my father's unit who trained for an amphibious landing, they went with Patton. The 28th ended up in England, and the 29th ended up landing on D-Day. So I might not be here talking to you if he didn't slap a soldier, which tells you what little things... How it can change things. How it can change everything. And so, as I said, he came across in August the 28th. I don't know if you remember a very famous photo of the American Army marching down the Champs-Élysées. Yes. Well, that's the 28th Infantry. So they got off the boat in August, went to the parade, and then off to the front. So... Anyway, where are we? Oh, so, you know, this happened. Everything got scattered. The war finally ended. And everybody pretty much all but forgot, you know, what they did on that afternoon on December 5th. But the people there never forgot. And so when the town got back in, living conditions they about 1947 they decided that they were going to commemorate this event every year and it wasn't St. Nicholas it was the American St. Nicholas and they have a jeep and they have kids that vie for the honor of playing the angel. And every year since 1947, they duplicate the festival, unbeknownst to anybody who participated in the first one. They tried to find out for a long time whatever happened to a lot of these people, not knowing whether or not they survived the bulge, because 22,000 guys were killed in that. And I think there was a... an archive of military history in St. Louis in the early 50s, maybe, that had a fire. So a lot of things were destroyed, a lot of information. So all they could do in those days was write letters, and they wrote letters, and they wrote letters, but nothing seemed to happen. Until one day, just like a lot of guys in 1975, 1977, in particular this time, I think it was in 77. that a fellow named Frank McClelland from my father's division, he was a military policeman. He didn't know my dad. My dad didn't know him, but Frank was a sergeant, and Frank McClelland came back to, who was from Pittsburgh, he came back to go over his career his war path where he was, and as a lot of guys did. But Frank had a group of guys that was trying to find their way back to the front during the bulge in the snow, and he was in charge of several guys, and they got pinned down by the Germans, and Frank ended up having to surrender and spent the rest of the war. The war is a POW. And he went back because it bothered him, thinking that maybe he could have done something else. And so he went back. To Luxembourg. To Luxembourg, to the Wilts area, just outside of Wilts. And he went to the spot where he was killed. He was made a POW and where he surrendered and he sat in the rain for. an hour and pondered it and realized that, no, he did the right thing. He felt better about that. So he went back into town after that and went to the hotel that he was billeted at. And it turns out that the gal behind the counter was the same lady that was behind the counter while he was there. And so he... She said, are you a soldier from World War II? He says, yes, I am.
SPEAKER 04 :
So was this 1977? This is 77.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay. She's still the same.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, my gosh.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, she's the same person. So she said, he says, I'm a little hungry. I see your restaurant is closed. She says, don't you go on up and get some dry clothes on, and we will cook you anything you want. But do you mind if a couple people from town came to see you? Because we're always interested in knowing who came through here from the 28th. And he said, no, that would be fine. So he's having dinner, and here comes these two guys. And Gene Schweig was the main individual, and he wanted very much to have McClellan come the next morning and see the museum that they put up in the castle for the 28th. And he says, I can't. I've got to be on an early train and so forth. But they were persistent. So he shows up and he sees the museum and he also sees the picture of my father on the Jeep. And they said, of course, they consider the United States about as easy to get around in as Luxembourg. So they figured, well, maybe you can find this place. This guy, he's he's from Rochester, New York. And could you please see what you can do to find out what happened to him? So he goes he goes back and he calls a friend of his who works for the phone company. And of course, these people in the message unit, a lot of these people in the signal core would respond. get out of the Army, and they'd work at telephone companies, which my dad did. So he worked for the Rochester Telephone Company, and McClellan goes back to Pittsburgh, and he calls a friend of his who happened to work at the phone company, because maybe you know a way to find somebody.
SPEAKER 04 :
So let's keep that as a cliffhanger. Yeah. OK. OK. That's a pretty good story. Yeah. I'm talking with Don Brookins. These amazing stories and just an amazing story for Christmas time here as well. And the show comes to you because I have amazing sponsors.
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SPEAKER 1 :
And that I love thee
SPEAKER 04 :
And welcome back to America's Veterans Stories with Kim Munson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteransStories.com. And I dearly love another nonprofit, which is the USMC Memorial Foundation. And the actual Marine Memorial is right here in Colorado at 6th and Colfax in Golden. And it was dedicated in 1977. And the foundation has determined that it's time for a facelift. So they're raising the money for the remodel, and you can get more information and help them by going to usmcmemorialfoundation.org. That is usmcmemorialfoundation.org. I'm talking with Don Brookens regarding his story, his father's story, portraying the American Saint Nick during World War II. And it's a great book by Peter Lyon, but also there is a documentary people can see video of as well. Right. Correct? Correct. I was just taking a nap. Yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, anyway, let's see where we were.
SPEAKER 04 :
We were back where? Okay, so we are at, let's see, it is George... Frank McClellan. Frank McClellan. Frank McClellan, from Pittsburgh. Has gone back, and they're saying, and showing him the museum at the castle, and they said, can you find this guy? We want to know what happened to the guy that portrayed St. Nick.
SPEAKER 10 :
So, yes, indeed. And he goes back to Pittsburgh and he calls a friend of his who works for the phone company in Pittsburgh, figuring that maybe he'd have a way of looking it up. So he says, well, I'm trying to find this guy named Dick Brookins from Rochester, New York. And he was in Wilkes-Luxembourg just before the Battle of the Bulge. And his friend said, Dick Brookins? I worked with Dick Brookins. He trained me in Rochester.
SPEAKER 04 :
What's the chances?
SPEAKER 10 :
I tell you. So, okay. So he gets his phone number. My mom answers the phone. My dad's at work. And he said, is this the same Richard Brookins that played Santa Claus in Luxembourg during the war? And my mom said yes. He said, okay, well... you're going to get contacted pretty soon. And Gene Schweig, who was a kid who was 17 years old at the time of this party, he happened to be in town, too young to conscript, I think. And he was blown away by this kindness. It wasn't the most lavish party, I'm sure, due to circumstances, but he was amazed that these people would show this much love for the children in this town. especially since the people who were there in charge of the place prior to then were nothing but, you know, brutal and evil people. So anyway, he decided that he started up this thing that had been going on for 30 years. And he got a he got a letter, long letter inviting my father back to. to play St. Nicholas again in 1977. And we were told about this and that we were all invited back. And I had just moved here, started a job the previous May. This was in November. And I hadn't acquired any vacation time by that time. So I ended up going into my new boss and telling him that I'm taking vacation. I'll be gone for a while. And kind of explained what it all was. I was working at Channel 9 at the time as a news photographer. And as was typical... in the business, well, okay, take a camera. Shoot a story, which I guess was a good way around it for him letting me go, but I ended up really kind of missing a lot by documenting it, if you can understand that.
SPEAKER 04 :
It's difficult to do both things at the same time.
SPEAKER 10 :
In fact, for many years, my siblings would talk about events and people. And I thought, am I stupid? I don't know these people as well as my siblings do. Well, I couldn't hang around at the bar with them and talk to them all. And I was busy. But anyway, I went and just shot some stories and put some stories on the air when I got back. Never forget sitting there Christmas Eve when nobody's in the building and I'm sitting editing film. Film is stuff with little holes in the side.
SPEAKER 04 :
That was the old days, yeah. I know what that is, but I bet producer Joe doesn't. No, Joe's never heard of it.
SPEAKER 10 :
And so we all went back. How many children in your family? There were four. Okay. And all four of us went. My older brother... And my younger brother, I'm number two, they were married. So they and their wives and my younger sister and I went back there. And so here he comes down the street. There's the bands playing. Oh, not only that, they arranged for the Army to fly him in by helicopter there. And he had a really fancy outfit on that time, no rope beard. He got out of the helicopter and this town of about 5,000 people, there were 10,000 people there. And so here he comes down the street, my father, dressed up as St. Nicholas. And, man, it was just amazing. There wasn't a dry eye in the house, I'll tell you. So he had gone back there. He ended up going back there three or four times after that, every five years or so. Prior to that, you know, as was typical, there were – people in town who played the part of St. Nicholas. And it's a big honor. But they go all out. And to this day, as a matter of fact, my older brother just came back from the 80th anniversary celebration. And these people, I tell you what, if you want to go on a nice European vacation, go to Luxembourg. These people in Luxembourg love Americans. American flag flies there every day, and there is not enough they can do for you. Not enough.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, that's what I found, Don, when we went to Normandy in 2016, is they revere our World War II veterans. And it was like traveling with Elvis because everybody wanted to get to know them, get their autographs. There was 24 of us, I think, that all went with them. And it was quite the experience. it is amazing just to yeah it's but how american uh this idea of of kindness and i remember uh when we were in in normandy there were pictures on the sides of buildings and in the windows of stores of of rgis and and there's a There was a picture of a GI who was knelt down and giving some candy to a little girl. And we were talking during break. These are guys that grew up during the Depression, the battle there of the Hurricane Forest, you said, and then the Battle of the Bulge. They didn't have the proper equipment. They were outside sleeping on the ground. During that time, because of them, we lived such comfortable lives. And they came back. You said something interesting also during the break is they came back and we ended up with the hippie generation. But I think part of it was they... They'd seen war. They wanted to take care of their families. They wanted to, in I think some ways, try to forget what had happened. But they wanted to make sure that they gave their kids all that they could. And that is a good thing, and it's a bad thing sometimes.
SPEAKER 10 :
Sometimes it is. You don't appreciate what you have unless you've gone through some tough times. But, yeah, a lot of the guys just did not want – when they came back, they didn't want to visit the past, either in their own minds for what they saw and didn't want to share it with family. And as a matter of fact, my dad was the same way until this happened. Then he became a star. I'll tell you what. I remember he... got interviewed by the local newspaper or local TV station. In Luxembourg? No, in Rochester when he came back from one of these trips. Okay. And he says he made a great, they used a sound bite that was pretty funny. He said at the end of the piece, he says, yeah, the guy lives two doors down from me, doesn't know who the heck I am. But over there, I'm a big deal. He is. He's amazing. Well, when my brother was there this past week, he and his wife were he was the sole representative of our family for this trip. And he and his wife were walking down the street downtown and car came up and stopped right in the middle of the street and he got out. I want to shake his hand and talk to him. And everybody, they just waited. It's remarkable. And now a lot of little kids that he gave the party to, they've all passed away. I remember when we went back there in, I'm trying to think what year was it, that we went in 94. In 1994, we all have been, gotten married, have kids and so forth. And my dad, he says, I'm spending your inheritance. And he flew us all over there for the 50th anniversary. And it – let me see, where was I? Oh, so we all participated. I'll tell you what, if that plane went down on the way over, that would be it. Wow. But we all went over there for that event, and all of our children got to experience it, and they – A lot of them were pretty young, but they never forgot that. As a matter of fact, it's really strange, too, that my wife and my first daughter, my first child, have the same birthday, and it happens to be December 6th, which is St. Nicholas Day. And her son, my grandson, is named Max Nicholas.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, wow. So we're going to finish up. We have one more segment that we'll continue with next. Don Brookins regarding the story of the American Saint Nick. But the show comes to you because of sponsors and a sponsor that's been for all these years is Hooters Restaurants. How I got to know them. It's a very important story about freedom and free markets and capitalism. And they have five locations, Loveland, Aurora, Lone Tree, Westminster and Colorado Springs restaurants. Great place to get together for lunch specials, happy hour specials, and, of course, to watch all of the games. And we are into playoff season now, so be sure and check that out. We'll be right back with Don Brookins.
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SPEAKER 08 :
From the mountains to the prairie.
SPEAKER 04 :
And welcome back to America's Veteran Stories with Kim Munson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteranStories.com. I'm talking with Don Brookins regarding the story of the American Satanic, who was your father. And they have celebrated this every year since 1947. Finally, in 1977, they found your father, and he went back several different times. Did they bring any of the other guys back that were involved in that?
SPEAKER 10 :
As a matter of fact, Frank McClellan. who started this whole thing. He showed up in 77. Of course, Gene Schweig, who started the party, was there. But another GI was Harry Stutz, who had the idea for the party. He showed up. My godfather, who my dad served with, Tommy Makovic, he came. And that's my greatest recollection right now as to who was there. But there were some people that showed up. And as I said, there was speeches and dinners and oh, my gosh. The best beer I've ever had in my life to this day is Simon Pills and they make it in Wilts. I would kill for another one of those.
SPEAKER 04 :
Sometimes I wonder, Don Brookins, if it's... If it's that good, or is it all of the memories, is it all of it together? You never know for sure.
SPEAKER 10 :
It's that good? It's that good. You can't really, you can talk about it all you want, but being there and being among the people. And as I said, there is a brand new generation now, and they've been taught about it.
SPEAKER 04 :
And that's what I saw when we were in Normandy as well, because with our veterans, our four veterans, we went to a number of schools. And in fact, we went into a school in Normandy and a big portrait on the wall in the gymnasium was Thomas Jefferson. They love Americans because they understand just the sacrifice, the fact that these young men were far from home and had their lives on the line for people's liberty, something bigger than ourselves. And so the stories are so fascinating. And where can the book American Saint Nick, a true story by Peter Lyon, and it would be a great gift or a great book to have at home. But also, you said there's some places that people can watch the documentary.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, first of all, prior to the. watching the documentary or not aside from watching the documentary, you can actually watch, um, which the documentary incorporates into it, but there is the raw footage that these GIs took of the event and that's on YouTube. So if you go, if you go to YouTube and type in American St. Nick, you could start watching the raw footage of, of, of the party. And, uh, And then the documentary, if people would go to W.W.I.I. Foundation dot org. Peter Tim Gray's World War Two Foundation documentary documentary. A website which has many stories that he's done over the years are all available there. Plus, I think on the Roku channel, you can even look for the World War Two Foundation app and you can watch it on your television. All these, including this story.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I think that would be a great thing to do over the holidays, something very special. And we've got a little bit of time left. And you had mentioned that there's another veteran, a Colorado kid, that a lot of people don't know about.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, a lot of people don't know about. It's it's quite an interesting story. I ran into this story by happenstance when I worked at Channel 9 and I did in 96. I did a little story about about this and it's quite involved, except to say that there was a. Only child from Ray, Colorado, who moved here his senior year of high school, went to East High. And his name was Ronald Joseph Fisher. And it so happens that. If you learn about the Battle of Midway, where the entire Pacific War was turned around, Ronald Joseph Fisher was on the USS Hornet, and not only did he participate in the battle, but he was one of the first people to discover the location of the Japanese fleet. Really? Because he was a radio man slash gunner on a Devastator. There was a two-man crew. And it was Torpedo Squadron 8 off the Hornet. And they were sending planes off all the carriers looking for the fleet. And... It's really worth delving into that. The movie Midway that was done in 2019 crammed an awful lot into that movie, but they really tried to stay accurate. And the Torpedo Squadron 8 was able to be shown in that movie for about a minute. But it's really amazing what this kid did because they were by themselves, and they didn't have the other support from the rest of the squadron, and they went in anyway with their torpedo planes, and every one of them was shot down, and all but one was killed. There's one famous person in that particular event that ended up floating around in the water watching the battle, go from there, but it looked like a suicide mission, but as it turned out, they disrupted things so much by their presence that it caused a lot of confusion on the Japanese carriers, and they couldn't get planes landing, fueled, taking off, plus they were surprised to find out that these torpedo planes were there at all because the only way they could be there were from aircraft carriers, and they didn't think there were any aircraft carriers there. And, in fact, they had the Battle of Bidway to entice the aircraft carriers to come up there, but the aircraft carriers already were there, and that's another story how they found that out, but... They sunk three out of the four Japanese carriers in five minutes, and they sunk the fourth one later on that day. And Ronald Joseph Fisher was on one of those planes on Torpedo Squadron 8. And if you go to YouTube, John Ford, who shot a lot of the John Wayne movies, happened to be on Midway. shooting the attack on Midway Island. But prior to that, he also filmed Torpedo Squadron 8 in color on the deck of the aircraft carrier. And if you go to Torpedo Squadron 8 on YouTube, you will be able to see Ronald Joseph Fisher for about 10 seconds, and they have pictures or film of the pilot and the gunner separated by little, what would you call it, just a little notification of who's coming up next, and they go through the whole torpedo squadron, and Ronald Joseph Fisher, good-looking kid, he just stands there and he kind of winks at you. He didn't survive? He did not survive. He was killed in that. And there's a memorial stone at Fort Logan, the missing in action section for him.
SPEAKER 04 :
Because they did not ever find his remains?
SPEAKER 10 :
No, he's at the bottom of the ocean. In fact, Ensign Gay, who survived, had a good life. He was a pilot for, I think, Continental Airlines, I believe. And when he passed, he had his ashes strewn over that area. Wow. So that's a very interesting story. So the movie Midway is pretty well done, and I was so glad that they got a little cameo in there.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, and Ray Colorado, I'm from western Kansas, so that's my people. And he couldn't have been very old, was he?
SPEAKER 10 :
He was 21. 21. I think he was born in November 2nd of 21. I've done as much research as I can about him. There's not really an awful lot. Right. But I happened to learn of him, and he's quite a hero. And, you know, it's really funny because I guess his dad passed away in 58, and And his mom in 89. Now, her only son was killed in that battle. And I tried to look her up where her grave site might be. And it's in Golden, the cemetery in Golden. And I went in to look for it. And I went to the person in charge. And they still have everything on paper. And she got the book out. She said, OK. She pointed to the map. And she's up here. So I went walking up there. It's an unmarked grave. That's not right. There's probably a reason why. Well, I don't know why. I don't know why.
SPEAKER 04 :
There's no stone.
SPEAKER 10 :
I would like to, because it was just a small family.
SPEAKER 04 :
Who knows? But losing only son, only child, boy, that tears a mother's heart. It really does. Don Brookins, we're just about out of time. This has been... Absolutely fascinating. And so what's the final thought you'd like to leave with our listeners?
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, I don't know. I think a good place to go on vacation is Wilts Luxembourg. Then you'll know. You can't believe how people appreciate Americans.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, and we do this show because these stories are so important, and we've got to know our history, and we've got to know these stories. And so I so appreciate you taking the time to do this interview, and I've learned even more. So, Don Brookins, thank you so much.
SPEAKER 10 :
You're very welcome. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER 04 :
And my friends, indeed, it is such an honor to get to bring these stories to you, and it is very apparent that we do stand on the shoulders of giants. So my friends, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. God bless you, and God bless America.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you for listening to America's Veteran Stories with Kim Munson. Be sure to tune in again next Sunday, 3 to 4 p.m. here on KLZ 560 and KLZ 100.7.
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.