10.07.2024 -- NLS -- [BONUS: SNL mocks Vance/Walz debate bonding] - Trump returns to Butler, Kamala begins media word salad blitz, LDS Conference announces 17 new temples

On Monday's episode:

Neal includes a funny bit from SNL mocking the bromance displayed in the Vance/Walz debate.

Other topics:  
-- Trump returns to Butler, PA, with support from Elon Musk, and the medical providers who treated him on July 13th.
-- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints announce 17 temples including one in Coeur D'Alene, and one in Price, Utah. 
-- Neal compares responding to Prop One misinformation like the assembly line scene from "I Love Lucy"

Transcript

Now exclusive bonus content on The Neal Larson Show podcast. Well, it is the Monday edition. I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I'm flying solo today. No, Julie Mason, she's been out of town on a much needed break, spending some much needed time with her grandson. So right now, for our bonus content, I want to play you part of Saturday Night Live skit over the weekend showing the debate depicting JD Vance and Tim Walls kind of bonding.

It was very funny. Here it is. You're welcome. Okay. I'm not sure why you two are connecting, but let's move on. Governor Walz, you claimed you were in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre when you were home in Minnesota. Can you explain that? So I think what happened is I went to Epcot and you can go around the whole world.

And I had a couple in the Germany section that I thought I went to China. Anyway, I'm a knucklehead, but I'm sure this guy has some some things he'd want to, you know, back out of as well. He's right about that. That's that's an area where we have a lot of common ground.

And can I just say it's refreshing to see Saturday Night Live? Any getting back to what they used to be? Equal opportunity. Skew. Let's get to the podcast on this Monday right here in.

Your show.

An ambition. I will never quit. I will never bend. I will never break. I will never yield. Not even in the face of death. Itself. I mean, it's just categorically for false. It is not true. It is a false statement. We had one president who couldn't climb a flight of stairs, and another who was fist pumping after getting shot.

Good morning. It's 808. It's Monday on the Neal Larson Show. And for all of us. How are you? All right. Did you have a good weekend? It was very busy. We had lots and lots going on with the news. It was my daughter's 16th birthday. Anna. Our caboose, our baby is turned sweet. 16. So we had a little party for her yesterday, and I just wanted to retroactively wish her a happy birthday and tell her that I love her.

And so then we had a nice little, family get together as well. But I came in this morning, and I will tell you, by the way, Julie is gone. Her. She'll be back tomorrow. But she'll she's traveling today back home from visiting her grandson. Well, and her kids, too. But you know what? You know how it is when you become a grandparent.

The kids become sort of secondary to the grandchildren. So, much needed time for, for her to spend with, little Asher. And we look forward to having her back. But we have a lot going on. We have the October 7th, one year anniversary. That, of course, is Israel's 9/11. The horrific attack by radical Islamic extremists to try and destroy their way of life and their civilization.

And of course, much has happened since then. We also have, Donald Trump returning triumphantly to Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of an assassination attempt that I will make a claim right now. In fact, I'm going to be a little bit over the top. No, you know what? I'm not I'm actually going to I'm I'm going to show some restraint here.

And I want to ask you a question. If I'm going to give out two dates, significant dates I want you to tell me and feel free to text in. I may open the phones on this a little bit later, but I think this is worthy of a discussion. But which of the following two dates was a bigger threat to our quote unquote, democracy?

Was it January 6th of 2021 or July 13th of 2024? Which do you feel posed a greater threat to the integrity of our republic? I'm curious. I mean, you'll choose one or the other. I'm actually curious to know your rationale behind it. So Donald Trump returns to Butler, and man, what a spectacular I don't know if you saw the aerials of this or even just the the crowd shots.

There were people that went back for a long, long ways. And this, of course, was historic. They set up the perimeter very, very differently. This time you saw high barricades that prevented any kind of line of sight at the president. You all. So now, when you see this at a lot of other rallies where you have the bulletproof plexiglass panels or I don't know what they're made of, but they are, made to protect the president.

And it's the same thing that they used to protect the Pope, for instance. And now they put that around Donald Trump, which I know he probably finds it irritating, but I'm glad they're doing it if it helps to protect his life. And he gave a bang up speech, I thought it was spot on. In some ways it was just vintage, classic Donald Trump.

In other ways it was super, inspiring a very free and open press. And to give it back to the country you believe in and I believe in. It's a country that we were born in and the country that you deserve. You have to you deserve this. And that mission. I will never quit. I will never bend. I will never break.

I will never yield. Not even in the face of death itself.

And I believe that every citizen deserves an America with a grand, very, very grand ambition, great opportunities and limitless. We just want limitless potential. Anyway, he goes on, I'm not going to play the whole clip for you right now, but he says we need the best of everything. We need the best in education we need. And I love that sentiment.

The unapologetic pursuit of not just excellence, but superior excellence. For whatever reason, that approach makes the left uncomfortable, as though we are somehow obligated to keep ourselves in theory and I don't, I don't get it. I, I don't know if I'll ever get it. Y'all always strive to. For the best and for excellence in in what you do.

Now, I'm a hip. I don't always strive for excellence in everything that I do. I should and I should do it more often. But I love that attitude in a candidate and in a president. In addition to Trump, you had Elon Musk, who stumped for Trump in Pennsylvania. Here's a little sample of that. Well, first of all, I want to say what an honor it is to be here.

And, you know, the true test of someone's character is how they behave under fire, right?

And we had one president who couldn't climb a flight of stairs, and another who was fist pumping after getting shot. Flight. Fight, fight. But blood coming down the face fell. America is the home of the brave.

And there's no. There's no true a test then courage under fire. So who do you want representing America? Yeah, absolutely. And, I think this, this, this election, I think the most important election of our lifetime. Okay. And I think you can make the case that that is true. In fact, have you heard from both sides that if the wrong person wins, it's going to be the last election?

I I've heard this. I, I've heard this from people on the left. They think that if Donald Trump wins this election, that he will somehow, in the span of four years, become Fidel Castro. Although they, like Fidel Castro, see this. While I don't even understand that they're worried about the thing that they actually show fondness for in other in other contexts.

But whatever, that he will become a dictator, that somehow Donald Trump will be able to wave some executive wand and do away with future elections. And of course, he won't. That's what our system is built around. But yet I think that we have others who are saying, if Kamala Harris gets elected, it's the end as well, because our country is very fragile right now and the foundations are are well, let's just say they're they're broken and they're fractured.

So, depending on how you look at it, it does feel like there is an elevated level of, stress or anxiety or the stakes are higher somehow around the 2024 election. Sometimes I think we have a tendency to use hyperbole when we go into an election. However, I will be quick to add to that. I do think that this is a very, very consequential election.

I don't know that we've ever been this divided where because of social media, because of media consumption, because of, rhetoric, because of all so many factors that you truly have two very, very different general ways of viewing our nation and where we used to have common ground. And I think this this fracture actually started probably 12, 16 years ago, maybe even a little bit earlier than that.

I, I feel like that it's reaching a fever pitch right now where the common ground is kind of gone when you hear Donald Trump talking about having the best education system and having, as strength and he doesn't use the word like hegemony, like I would he. But when he talks about having dominance in the world, that doesn't scare me at all.

The world is a much, much better and much safer place when America's in charge and when America leads, it is more peaceful. It is more stable. The bad guys are more isolated and the, And I love our country. I want our country to be strong. And I want our country to win. So I'm all for any candidate who can truly, or at least the candidate that will most likely elevate our nation back to its former glory and greatness, which is one of a thousand reasons why I'll be voting for Donald Trump this November.

So it's a great rally. You had an EMT, you had a doctor. Both of them spoke in favor of Trump. They were involved in his treatment right after he was shot back on July 13th. And, I think it was a good week. And meanwhile, you have Kamala Harris, and I'm not not really sure the status of the Harris campaign and the reason I say that Tim Walls seems to be on defense.

He actually went on Fox News and all sorts of alarm bells went up because Tim Walz is now having to go to places like Fox News Shannon Bream, who's very Shannon Bream is not a pit bull. She does ask tough questions, and I certainly would consider her a good faith journalist, but she might be a little more gentle than some of the other, other questioners.

And so Tim Walz goes on Fox News with Shannon Bream over the weekend, and she does a very good job of pressing back on him. Now, look, they may see this as an election issue. We see it as a right of women to make their own bodily decisions. And that's what the states like my state, have the ability to put that in.

States like Georgia force women to cross the border, and then we have a death, of Amber Thurman. So let's be very clear. Trying to cut hairs on an issue on this is not where the American public said they want the restoration of Roe versus Wade. Vice President Harris said she would sign it. That's what we'll do. But to be clear, that Minnesota, right, is far beyond Roe v Wade.

And about the Amber Thurman case in Georgia, her family has. And it's tragic. She is a young mother who left behind a young son. But what her family has said is it was a complication from an abortion pill that she received, and she didn't get proper care when she went to a Georgia hospital, which had multiple opportunities to intervene there.

Her own attorney, the family's attorney, says it wasn't the Georgia law, it was the hospitals. What he claims is malpractice, not treating her when she clearly showed up in distress and still had the byproducts of her pregnancy because of that rare complication from the abortion pills. So just to be clear on the Georgia law and how her family and her attorney sees it.

Okay, so Shannon Bream very concisely fact checks Tim Walz that it wasn't the law in Georgia that led to her death. It was bad medical care by the hospital and even Amber Thurmond's family is saying that. And I would imagine if you're suffering grief in your family and you have one particular party that has plucked your daughters or your sisters or your significant others case and is now on the campaign trail utilizing it for their own purposes.

That's that's got to make anybody, any family feel icky. But the narrative, the truth actually does not assist the Democrats in their narrative that it's Donald Trump's fault, that it's the overturning of Roe v Wade fault, that no, it was a reaction, a bad reaction to medication and then poor medical treatment after the fact. That's the case that the attorney and the family are making.

But the Democrats have zero problem taking a case like that and then just lying about substantive facts around the case. It's quite sad. There was another moment where Shannon Bream pressed Tim Walz on his repeated lies. Not against it. Long before President Trump indicated he didn't like it either. Listen, before we go, because I wish that we had a full hour.

I want to give you a chance because you called yourself a knucklehead this week to talk about some of your misstatements. You've modified your story or explained that you misspoke about things involving your military rank, about carrying a weapon in war, your 1995 DUI arrest, using IVF to have your beautiful children gotten hope. Being in Hong Kong and China in the summer of 1989 during the Tiananmen, events, a lot of people would say they couldn't get away with saying, I'm just too passionate.

My grammar is not right. I'm a knucklehead. What do you say to the American people who think, I don't know that I can trust this guy with all those modifications to be the potential commander in chief of this country? Yeah, well, I think they heard me. They heard me the other night speaking passionately about gun violence and and misspeaking.

And I got to be honest with you. Shannon, I don't think people care whether I used AUI or IVF. When we talk about this, what they understand is Donald Trump would resist those things. Look, okay, I got to stop there. I'll play the rest of the clip that I, I don't know what I would classify that as if I'm playing armchair psychologist.

I don't know if it's narcissism. I don't know if he's a psychopath. I don't know what it is, but it's excuse making. And I'm sure there's a clinical term for this where he's saying he flat out lied on multiple occasions. They are just untruths. And he said, I was speaking passionately. I was speaking passionately about an issue. Now, I think that quote unquote excuse might actually play well with a certain group of people.

Now he's just a passionate guy. He lies. He's passionate. You know, he he told substantive lies, not exaggeration, not just sloppy with the facts. He told flat out lies about the core of these stories, about where he was and what he was doing, and then dismisses it by saying, I spoke passionately. And then he takes probably the the least egregious most people would give, grace if you said I you I instead of a u d I don't know the difference, but you know what I'm saying?

They're like, okay, well, that's a that's a medical term that a lot of people might get wrong. And you can understand that he tries to blanket all of his lies under that very understandable mistake. It's more excuse making. He never he never owns it, which is such a strange phenomenon. And he did the same thing in the debate when he said, well, I'm kind of a knucklehead.

Okay? Knucklehead doesn't mean you have to be a liar. Speaking passionately doesn't mean you have to be alive. Here's more I speak passionately. I had an entire career decades before I was in public office. They know, and I'm very proud of my 24 years in service. And my record, I have never disparaged someone else in this, but I know that's not what Donald Trump does.

They disparage everyone did personal attacks. I will own up when I misspeak. I won't up when I make a mistake now by saying the word misspeak. You are not owning up to him. Those are lies. They're not misspeaking. That's just, a it's just infuriating. All right, here's the last, clip here. Shannon Bream asked him about Minnesota's illegal immigrant law.

The Wall Street Journal says this after you were chosen to join the ticket as the Democratic governor of Minnesota, Timberwolves signed into law, initiatives allowing immigrants in the country illegally to apply for driver's licenses, qualify for free tuition at state universities, and enroll in the state's free health care program for low income residents. Are those not magnets to draw people here?

Many times on dangerous journeys for themselves? And why should your taxpayers in Minnesota or across the states pay for those programs? Well, that that's not the vice president's position. But I will say this Minnesota ranks as a top five business state. We rank as a top three state for, children living, and we're the top state for health care access.

I would also add this. We also have some of the safest roads, that had absolutely nothing to do with the question. Shannon Bream was like, your law says you can give driver's licenses to illegals. And his answer is, well, we have safe roads. We have a good economy. Okay? Now. Like I, I could not be around people like this.

Okay, we're going to break away. It's 827 on Newstalk 179 (208)Â 542-1007 nine is the number. If you'd like to call or text on this Monday morning.

I.

All right. It's 832 on Newstalk on A79 on this Monday. 20854210790I want to mention something. We have had, a chat, sort of an ongoing challenge. And sometimes it might bleed through on air in this regard. Someone calls in and they say, is it me? So the problem is the on hold is identical to what they hear when we go to put them on the air.

And sometimes I think there's a little noise, but not everybody catches that. Well, so here's what we've done. When you call in, you're immediately placed on hold. You're actually going to hear, and I apologize if this might be a little annoying, but you're going to hear a little bit of music and you're going to hear a voice telling you that you are on hold, and that every minute or so someone will come on.

And then it gives advice like, keep your points concise and to the point. Don't use a speakerphone or a Bluetooth tucked directly into your handset. And another, you know, just basic, basic common sense when you come on the air. So when you call in and you hear something different, then just I just want you to be aware of that.

And then when you no longer hear that and you just hear me, then that means you're you're on. So at some point, I believe very soon we'll have a, a call screener and it'll be a much more interactive experience. But want to go to the phones I believe Robert is standing by. Robert, how are you this morning? Good.

And yourself? Doing well, doing well. What's up? So, you know, my wife went to, trade school in California, and, these trade school got shut down by Kamala Harris, and she very frequently takes credit for this as she was somehow helping veterans out. But in reality, these kids came to school one day and, there were locks on the doors and they weren't able to finish their education.

And, you know, the colleges that she shut down were, Corinthian colleges. So pretty much the only game in town, in interest. And, you know, she used this a lot of times to take credit for helping out veterans. But in reality, she she wasn't really thinking about the students that had to go there that now just wasted months of their time.

That that's too bad. That's a shame. So it's probably clear where your wife is at on this then. Yeah. And you know, what's a shame is that, you know, no one ever seems to call her on it. Well, and that may be one of the reasons why she limits her interview time. Because there's a lot there.

And I think a problem with an issue like this is it requires a back story. This is not a controversy that's on the national public consciousness at all. This is I wouldn't say it's anecdotal. It's bigger than that. But it it's there's a lot to parse through when it comes to, to Kamala Harris. So yeah. Yeah. Well thank you for your time.

Thank you. Robert, appreciate your call today. And if you'd like to join us, the number (208)Â 542-1079. By the way, we do want to, mention a couple of things about the hurricane relief. If you would like to donate, the Red cross is taking donations. If you text the word Helene at any to 90999, you'll have a chance to donate for that cause.

Also want to recognize and thank Melaleuca, who, certainly not unprecedented for them. But, in this hurricane relief effort, they've stepped up and put together a very, generous shipment to the hurricane zone to help people out, help people out there. So I just wanted to to give some credit and kudos, where they are, where they're due.

All right. It's 836. I don't want to get too far off schedule here, so we'll take another quick break. If you'd like to join us on this Monday morning. (208)Â 542-1079 that's the fall River propane call and text line will return just ahead. All right. It's 842 now on Newstalk 179. Well, you may have heard the news that Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, is getting a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints that was announced as one of 17 temples by President Russell M Nelson, the president and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.

So, you know, I get into trouble sometimes and I really am happy for, you know, for Coeur d'Alene and but yesterday and this is actually a recycled joke of mine, I, I posted a picture of the Tabernacle Choir on, on Facebook and I said, well, I'm thrilled for those who live in any of the 17 locations where new temples were announced today, my heart hurts for the saints in West Rexburg who've been waiting so long.

Maybe next time K maybe you think that's funny. Maybe not. I thought it was. I was just being funny. All right. But there are some people who I don't know if if that kind of humor just doesn't register with them. Like, they took me literally. They thought that I was actually complaining or quasi complaining that Rex West Rexburg did not get a temple in addition to the first Rexburg Temple, plus the South Rexburg Temple and they're there now, I, I don't even want to explain it to like, I feel like it ruins the whole thing.

In fact, one of the one of the commenters no names here, but one of the commenters said, well, Rexburg has one and another one being built. Do they need three? So I stayed in character and I said, well, I think it's a bit much to expect people to cross highway 20 to get to the temple. Well, it just got worse there.

There's a little more and I just want and anybody who happens to be friends with me on social media never take anything I say seriously. If you're ever offended by what I've said, I'm probably joking. If I ever come across as ungrateful or put out or whatever, I am very likely joking. I don't know if I can state that with absolute certainty every time, but I just want you to know, there's a 99% chance I'm just joshing and and kidding.

So I really am happy for Coeur d'Alene. Price, Utah. Probably the next closest. Actually, that price Utah might be a little closer than call. I don't know, I'd have to look on a map, but, So. Price, Utah, Coeur d'Alene, several from around the states. Whole bunch in South and Central America. And then you had some in Europe as well.

Dublin, Ireland is one, I think. Did they say Milan, Italy. Anyway, there's, there's, there's quite a number of them. And we've become accustomed every, every conference to have these longer, longer lists of temples that are being built and truly happy. For those, those saints in those areas. All right, enough of that. Got a text this morning.

It's actually a screen shot. Apparently there is an informational presentation, we'll call it that on proposition one, which, of course is the ranked choice voting proposition that they are calling the open primaries proposition. And it has been our goal to be upfront about a couple of things, our biases and our opinions, that this is bad news for Idaho and for elections, but also to be upfront about the truth of what it is.

And we just think that if anything, the whole story needs to be told because the proponents of it, the people who were out gathering signatures, I will just state very, very plainly without any hesitation in their verbal conversations with signatories. They were not upfront. They didn't tell you the whole thing. And there there's also an effort underway to continue to not tell you the whole thing.

So this presentation will be Wednesday evening, 7 p.m. Shelley Fire Station Training Room, and it will be presented by Ben Furman and Ben Furman, of course, is I we can't call him representative elect yet. But he is unopposed in on November 5th and he defeated by a handful of votes. Julianne young, you may remember that primary that they had to do the recount and it was very, very close.

So he'll be putting on, a presentation which I and I'm playing this just so you have background. I want you to go to this thing. I want you to go informed. And I want, if you don't know, a lot about it, you should go. If you do know a lot about it, it's probably even more important that you go.

Now. You know, you can probably think about the reason why I'm saying this. Because we're we're having these events happen. And some of them, they've been different formats. You have a pro and a con. Others have pitched themselves as well or just here. Informationally. So, Ben Furman and this is I'm going to play this clip because I think it's very important.

We've kind of seen lawmakers shy away or back away from where they stood on this initially. Listen, I am disappointed. And I've had this conversation with the leaders of I think it might be Reclaim Idaho that's pushing this one again. Yeah. And I said, I am not in any way, shape or form in support of ranked choice voting.

I don't like it. I don't think it works is confusing. I like our system as it is. We get good people to run against candidates and let people choose, okay, I need you to hold. I like Ben, but I need you to hold Ben to the standard he just articulated, which is I like the system the way it is, so I'm assuming I did not.

I listened to this whole interview. I did not listen to a follow up, or I didn't ask him a follow up on a how are you going to vote on this? I had just assumed, I think, in the midst of that interview, that he simply was voting against it, because when you say I like it the way it is, that means you're probably not going to vote to change it.

So as time has gone on, though, and this has been a little bit, I don't know, frustrating is is the right word. I think you have lawmakers that might be a little more moderate. We'll just say, I don't want to be. I don't want to be brutal here. They can be a little flexible with their with their stands on things.

I pragmatic is is I, I don't know how exactly how to characterize this, which is why I want to put the onus on every lawmaker out there. You have access to social media, you have blogs, you have email lists, you have this radio show you can call up. And I want you to make it very clear where you stand on prop.

What I don't want you to vague your way to November 6th is what I'm saying. Now, if you're a Republican, you you probably have this in the bag. If you're challenged by a Democrat in a purple district, maybe you're trying to play a little more coy on this. However, I think that it's important that you do make your voice heard and that you are clear where you stand.

So, I, I just want to make sure that people who don't know a lot about this, please feel free to show up to the event Wednesday night. Shelly, the fire station, 7 p.m.. But more importantly, those of you who do know what's going on, show up Wednesday night, 7 p.m., at the Shelley Fire Station. Make sure that it is presented correctly.

Always, always, always be civil. Be kind, be firm, and be clear. But it's important that we stay active, in every single one of these, these forums, because there is a good chance for misinformation. One example, the Idaho for open Primaries group, that's Bruce Snookums group out of Boise. Jim Jones is a part of that. The former Republican and self excommunicated Republican for lack of a better term, former Secretary of State services part of it.

Lots of formers involved here and they are advocating in favor of this because they say that it is they want to open primaries. And the mailer went out a couple of weeks ago. We actually have screenshots. I didn't receive one of these, but I did get screenshots sent in to us that only talks about open primaries. And it actually, in my mind, conveys a missed truth, which is it's just going to go back to the way it was before.

No, it ain't. Okay. That's just a flat out lie. It ain't going back to the way it was before. There might be a similarity in that anybody can show up and vote in the Republican primary, but you're not going to get a nominee the way you did before. The parties won't function the way they did before, as insinuated by Bruce, in this mailer.

So just know that's that's not how this thing, works. All right, let's go to the phones. Our next caller. Welcome to the show caller. How are you? Good morning. I like your name system. Oh. Thank you. Yeah, I noticed a real difference. Okay, this is Kerry, and I just wanted to give a shout out to the all the other people working in harvest right now.

I'm driving a spy truck again this year, and we've had amazing weather, so, yeah. Then good for that. Good, good. So, Yeah, so a couple things. I did want to say you were, talking about, donation of Mercury to Mercury 1.org is a really good one, too, because they know of who's, on the ground.

And so they, shoot the money to them and the supply. They buy the supplies and stuff. So that's another good, organization. Okay. And so that was one thing. And then the other thing is just, I do appreciate all that you and Julie are saying and trying to get people informed about this ranked choice voting. I've actually gotten two mailers that only talk about the open primaries.

Yeah. And we're still we're still getting information out. We have a few signs left. But I appreciate that that you've told people that I have signs because I, I have signs and then I know people with signs. I know people like a Kerry. Do you know how many signs you have? Like, do you have a lot of signs?

I personally only have a couple left. Okay. One of my friends has a lot. Okay. He's kind of covering the Rigby area and I'm trying to cover up in like, Saint Anthony and ask them, okay. So yeah, we we have access to signs. Okay. And just trying to get those out and inform people of what it's about because a lot of people still don't know.

Yeah. Well they don't I mean I'm, I'm a little surprised by this. And I think a lot of people may end up voting for prop one, thinking all it's about open primaries and it's it is so much more Kerry. So disingenuous. Yeah. Thank you for calling in, Kerry. Be safe driving your truck. All right, all right. Thanks, Neal.

All right. 854 on Newstalk 1079 back after this.

All right. It's 859. Our two coming up with Covid in that mission. I will never quit. I will never bend. I will never break. I will never leave. Not even in the face of death itself. I mean, it's just categorically for false. It is not true. It is a false statement. And we had one president who couldn't climb a flight of stairs and another who was fist pumping after getting shot.

Yeah. One of these candidates is not like the other. Good morning. It's our two. It's the Neal Larson show. And if you'd like to join me on the program, the number, of course, we like to call it the fall River propane call and text line is (208)Â 542-1079. On that note, when you call, if you've called before, you're going to have a little different experience.

And I don't want you to get frustrated. It's going to be less frustrating, actually, than before, because sometimes you'd call in, you'd hear the show. And then when I went to a listener, you didn't know if it was you or if it was somebody else on hold that I was bringing it anyway. So to clear up that confusion, we've overlaid on top of my voice or whatever's on the program, a music bed and a pleasant voice that comes in every minute or so saying, you're on hold.

Now, when we bring you in, keep your points concise and to the point. Please don't use a speakerphone or a Bluetooth. I mean things like that. Just little info to prep you to be on the air and to reach the standard of excellence that we have here. For every caller on the Nielsen pregnant pause there. Anyway, so we want you to, just just let you know.

And then when you no longer hear the the pleasant voice, you hear my ugly voice, but when you no longer hear the pleasant voice in the music overlaid, then that means when I call for you, it's you. And you're going to be gone. So that's how. That's how that works. You know, do you remember the scene from I Love Lucy when she was working at the factory with her friend, and I think it was chocolates or something, and she started eating them and could not eat, or keep up with the assembly line that was feeding up whatever.

And so she wasn't eating them all, but it got to the point where she, she started to do that because she couldn't keep up with, with the I feel like it's that with the misinformation around prop one and, someone just texted me a copied and pasted post from a local page. Doesn't really matter where necessarily. But it seems like there's a much more active pro prop one effort in some communities than others.

Even some of the reddest. So here's the post. So and I, some of you may be under this impression and you may get this. And I just want to I want to clear it up. In case you had questions about ranked choice voting, also known as proposition one, say for the sake of argument that two Republicans ran for office here in the state of Idaho, we'll say one is a traditional small government conservative and the other more modern.

I don't I don't know if I should be offended by that or not. In the election, the traditional conservative gets 31% of the vote. The modern Republican gets 29%. In our current system, the Democrat would win with only 40% of the vote, despite the fact that 60% wanted a Republican of some form. Okay, pause. There. No, that's not our current system.

That's simply a flat out. I don't know if it's a lie, because I don't know if I think maybe they just don't know. We don't have a race in Idaho that would ever pit one Democrat against two Republicans. In fact, it's for that very reason. We've had a the primary system that we have so that you narrow down your Republicans to one choice and you narrow down the Democrats to one choice, and then they have a binary race in November.

So that if you've read this or if you've heard similar sentiments, is just a blatant, inaccurate characterization of the system that we have. I go on this is called the spoiler effect. Sorry, my head. Okay. This is called the spoiler effect and is why we only have two parties, despite the fact that most people can't closely associate with either one.

What? Right. Well, I mean, not most people. There's a good chunk of people, ranked choice voting solves that problem. Under ranked choice, the Republican win with 29% of the vote would be eliminated. Their second choice votes would be distributed overwhelmingly to the other Republicans, who would go on to win the election. Keep this in mind. This is mathematically identical to the situation where the last place candidate never ran in the first place.

Okay, there's some big ifs in. First of all, the conversation is sort of over because they have a a gross misunderstanding of what we actually have right now. The current system solves the problem they're putting forward, they say needs to be solved by ranked choice voting. And we have a real life example, actually, of this that I feel I don't even know who said, I know who sent me the copy of this.

I don't know who wrote this original thing, because if they have influence in a voice, I want to present them with the truth so that they can turn around and go, oh, let's take Alaska for just a moment. If you're unfamiliar with Alaska, I can tell you this story in one minute. The 2022 election, you had one Democrat, Mary Tola.

You had two Republicans, Nick Begich and Sarah Palin. Okay. Now, oddly enough, the totals were very similar to this situation presented here. Paul Tola got about 38, 39% in the first round of ranked choice voting. You had Sarah Palin and Nick Begich splitting the rest, and Sarah Palin had a few percentage points more than Nick Begich. Nick Begich eliminated.

Now there was an inconsequential libertarian that ran. I want to be very clear about this. Got like maybe 1 or 2% of the vote. So that round went really quick, gone. But then in the subsequent round you had Begich, who was gone because he was the third place getter, a vote winner, and then it was a head to head to between Sarah Palin and Mary Portola.

Peltz won because the Begich supporters didn't like Sarah Palin. But if you're starting position, is that, well, you only have a Democrat that gets about 40% of the vote. You don't want them winning a race. That's precisely what happened in Alaska because of ranked choice voting. Here's something else that is infuriating about ranked choice voting. Nick Begich is what you would call a condor.

Say winner, a condor, say winner. The simplest way to define it, and we absolutely know this from the the cast vote data. The Condor say winner is the candidate that can beat every other candidate in a head to head race. If it's a binary choice, the Condorcet winner is that candidate that can beat anybody else. Sometimes you don't have a Condor, say winner or Condor.

Say, I don't know. I'm not sure which syllable I'm supposed to stress here, but it's Condor, say, or Condor say. Sometimes you don't have that because you have a paper rock scissors situation with three candidates where any candidate can always be beaten by one of the other two. So you don't always have a condor, say winner in a three way race.

And but in Alaska, which was probably the highest profile ranked choice example that we have, ranked choice voting handed the win to the Democrat, who got about 40%. So whoever wrote this, I say this lovingly. It's hogwash. It's it's not it's not accurate at all. And then they go on to say, well, ranked choice voting allows two candidates to run with similar views without sabotaging both.

And ranked choice allows voters to vote their conscience under ranked choice. You can vote for somebody and not have to vote against someone. Okay, these are all the bromides. Well, there's way more bromides that are expressed about ranked choice voting. But it the primary already solves this, consolidating the conservative vote into one candidate is exactly what our current system is designed to do.

Someone said this November, we have the opportunity to enact ranked choice voting. We can vote yes on proposition one and make voting better for everybody. Bla bla bla bla bla. Okay, at least tell the truth or at least be accurate. If you're going to use an example. Do you see why I feel like I love Lucy? Like I feel like Lucy on the on the assembly line, stuffing chocolates into my mouth.

That's what I feel like right now. I can't keep up with this stuff that gets put out there. That's why I encourage you if you are in the know about ranked choice voting, show up Wednesday night. Shelley Fire Station, 7 p.m. and Ben Furman, who, is going to be putting on a presentation. And I'm happy to hear this because Ben Furman is on record opposed to ranked choice voting.

So, he does say, and I want to be very, very fair about this. He does say that he is for open primaries. Here's the clip. I am disappointed. And I've had this conversation with the leaders of I think it might be Reclaim Idaho that's pushing this one again. Yeah. And I said, I am not in any way, shape or form in support of ranked choice voting.

I don't like it. I don't think it works. It's confusing. I like our system as it is. We get good people to run against candidates and let people choose. However, we wouldn't be at this position right now even talking about ranked choice voting and open primaries if we didn't have such a restrictive and litmus test driven, Republican leadership at the moment.

So for me, I would love to open our Idaho primaries. I think that you have Democrats right now who are registered as Republicans to vote. I would rather know that they're Democrats voting in a Republican primary than not even know who they are. And so I am not in favor of the closed primaries, but I'm also not in favor of ranked choice voting.

Okay. So, because he said I like the system the way we have, I didn't ask the clarifying follow up, which in retrospect, I should have, which is how are you voting on on prop one? I'm assuming, because he said, I like the system the way it is. He's voting no on on prop one. So and Ben, if you're listening to send me a text or an email, let me know if you need to to clarify the position here.

But, I think we need to hold lawmakers to what they have been saying about this. And so I would encourage you, if you're in Shelly, show up, especially if you're informed because as you you want more people there that are asking the right questions, even asking questions you know, the answer to, there's a there's so much missing information out there about this.

And quite frankly, there's there's a lot of information vacuums out there. There's I can't even tell you how many times I've stumbled across people who just think this is about opening up the primaries. That's what they think. But even that I, I've been working on a project. I'm not going to reveal everything right now, but I, I feel even even in Ben's comments here, we aren't actually creating an open primary where we have a wide swath of people able to vote to choose nominees for the individual part, it's not the same.

We're not going back with prop one to something we had before. If you vote for prop one, we transition to something very, very different. It's it's not a return to the way we did it before. Despite what people like Bruce Newsom say. And it's just it's disappointing because I look at people like Ben Foster, Bruce Nukem and even Jim Jones.

Like I expect them to be honest. I expect them to come to the table in good faith. But when you send out mailers asking people to vote for this proposition and you say absolutely nothing about ranked choice voting in these mailers, I don't I can't see in any way that you're operating in good faith. I know you're advocating for the piece that you like about this, but you're not operating.

In the spirit of full disclosure, the name of this proposition that they've given it is the Open Primaries Initiative. Think about that. They don't they don't call it the ranked choice voting initiative. They don't want to tell you about that. They don't want you to know the specifics about it. Now we have forced the issue, not we the radio show, but we as conservatives, we are making this in my mind at least, an effort to make the ranked choice voting piece to be just as visible as the open primaries piece, so that at the very least, people are informed when they vote, even if they vote the other way.

Even if you're like, I'll take ranked choice voting, I'll take it because I want open primaries. I mean, that's Rick Cheatham, position representative Cheatham, we interviewed him and we asked him, where do you. He's like, I don't like ranked choice voting. I've got a friend up in Alaska says it's a disaster. That's how the Democrat who never could have gotten elected otherwise got elected.

But I like open primaries, so happy voting on it. Well, I'm going to vote for it right now as it stands, because I really want open primaries. To me, it's sad because you're actually not getting open primaries. You're not. It just it isn't. You're not getting what you think you're getting if you're not informed on this. 923 on Newstalk 1079208542 179.

Okay, sometimes I inadvertently hit this bumper music. I feel like I'm just in a lounge in 1967 somewhere. All right. You'd like to join the program? The fall River propane call and text line is (208)Â 542-1079. Let's talk about Grand Peaks primates for just a moment. Now, in the last couple weeks we've had fajitas from our our freezer. We I love and my wife especially loves the cryo bagged pre vide ready to heat up and eat meals from Grand Peak's prime meats.

And they really are. They're, they're they're so easy and I, I really can't stress this enough. Julie would totally back me up if she were here today. That it really is. You take them out of the freezer in the morning, let him let him, you know, thought maybe at night and let them thought overnight and then put them in the crock pot in the morning and slow cook it all day long.

That's a that's an amazing way to do it. But let's say you don't plan ahead all that. Well now there have been there have been days where I've been in charge of dinner because my wife runs a dress shop and I sometimes I, I step up and take care of dinner. I'll take it out of the freezer, I'll put it in hot water, then I'll cut it open, throw it in a big, nice, big frying pan and just heat it up over 20 minutes or so, just about as good.

It's not quite as good as the crock pot, but it it works and it's so simple. The the prices are competitive as well. And you'll be like, wow, that really is good. They've got just basic cuts of meat. Meat. They have steaks, they have roasts. They, they have pork chops. They've got dogs. If you're into grilling and you want to make a good hot dog, they've got brats.

They've got so much and you can see their wholesale. And that's just a by the way, that's just scratching the surface. You can see their selection online at GH Prime meats.com. See what would work well for your family and fill up your freezer for the winter again. GH primates.com free delivery in the Idaho Falls area if for orders $75 and more if less than that, it's a more.

It's a nominal fee, like $10 for delivery. Okay. What do we want to what do we want to go? I had one thing I wanted to hit, but it's escaped me. Now, before we break for our news break at the bottom. But, let's see. Well, let's talk about this. Let's talk about Hillary Clinton. Your First Amendment rights are pretty important.

But she was on with, I think it was Michael Mirsky, Sean McCormack Scottish on CNN. And she talked about how these social media outlets need to be regulated. There are people who are championing it, but it's been a long and difficult road to get anything done. Actually, we can look at, the state of California, the state of New York.

I think some other states have also taken action. But we need national action. And sadly, our Congress has been dysfunctional when it comes to addressing, these threats to our children. So you're absolutely right. This should be at the top of every, legislative political agenda. There should be a lot of things done. We should be, in my view, repealing something called section 230, which gave, you know, platforms on the internet, immunity because they were thought to be just passed through that they shouldn't be judged for the content that is posted.

But we now know that that was an overly simple view, that if the platforms, whether it's Facebook or Twitter X or, Instagram or TikTok, whatever they are, if they don't moderate, and monitor the content, we lose total control. And it's not just the social and psychological effects, it's real harm. It's, you know, child porn and, threats of violence, things that are terribly, dangerous.

So I couldn't agree with you more. We need to remove the immunity from liability, and we need to have guardrails. We need regulation. We've conducted this big experiment on ourselves and particularly our kids. And I think the evidence is in, that we've got to do more take phones out of schools. I'm so happy to see, schools beginning to do that, where the kids turn their phone in when they walk in the door.

And guess what, Michael, it won't surprise you because you're on this. Kids are paying better attention in class. They are talking to each other in the lunchroom. Things that used to be part of your daily life when you were a child in school. Okay, there's a point during this interview where she says we will lose control.

First of all, I'd like her to define we. What does she mean by we, as in we collectively as a country? Or is Hillary Clinton saying we, the elites who like to guide the direction of society so that that's pretty important to me? My hunch, because, what Hillary Clinton has been part of the American fabric for 30 years now is the latter.

My guess is that she is saying we, the elites, the social planners in society, are going to lose control if these social medias now, by the way, under control of Elon Musk, at least in part, remember they wanted to they wanted it controlled before I have the tables turned, because it seems to me if if this hasn't been totally memory hold by now that it was the left that that cheered, they cheered the suppression of information like the Hunter laptop story.

They were all in on this kind of of regulation. Now Hillary Clinton, this is a complicated issue because you have to look at this a number of different ways to get a full idea of of how this goes. Now, she's not wrong, actually, that social media platforms have enjoyed kind of a sweet spot with section 230. They've enjoyed immunity from being sued.

So if there's a Facebook post that is slanderous, they really can't be sued because they're simply a platform. And but yet when they introduce an algorithm that suppresses stories like the the Hunter Biden laptop story, then they, our, publisher in in spirit because now they are making editorial decisions. So for years now the social medias have had a heads.

I win tells you lose proposition when it comes to their operation. They can't lose. They don't want to be liable for anything that goes out over their platforms. But at the same time, they don't want to be limited or scrutinized on what goes out. They've really had the best of both worlds, which I think is problematic. And in my mind, these socials just need to decide what they want to be.

Now, all of us, I think, have a consensus that things like child porn calls for violence, that the the overt stuff, that can be regulated by government right now, like obscenity, those things that they should be able to curtail those corners of, of expression without fear of being considered a publisher with all of the requirements that go along with it.

But should they be allowed to curtail a story that they're just going to say is not true? Because it's not verified yet, but they, they know that it hurts one site, I guarantee you would find massive examples of stories that were not true, that were negative against Donald Trump, that were being spread all over the place. Good people on both sides.

Bloodbath. I mean, all the things they would never say, oh, that's First Amendment. They have the right to express that. They can put that out there. Well, Hunter Biden's laptop from hell. Oh, you can't put that out there. So they're very selective about how they want to apply this. And my position is I don't want to say it's agnostic, but my position is okay, Social's decide what you want to be.

But the last thing I want is for Hillary Clinton and her people, her cabal, her ilk, to decide how information gets disseminated and through what channels in in America. That's danger. That, and I'll use this cliche term that's almost lost its meaning entirely in recent years, but that is truly a threat to democracy. When you have elites dictating what information can be shared and what cannot.

You know, it's fascinating. I feel like they played their hand, perhaps prematurely, because you have media outlets that think simply showing a Donald Trump rally is, what's the word, irresponsible when you're just bringing the events to the people and letting them decide, but they can't let you decide because you might decide wrong. So we already have information on controllers now.

Thank goodness we have the internet, because I can't stand the internet and I love the internet because you have Tucker Carlson, who loses his job at Fox because he went to places too sensitive. He pivoted and said, okay, I'll do my own thing. And he started his own thing, and he's thriving. And the information he puts out is widely available and easily accessible.

So thank goodness in that regard for the internet, even though I can't stand what it's doing to our kids, it is harming them. It is stealing life and joy and goodness and self esteem and all the things from from them. And it's sad. So it it truly is a love hate relationship that we have with the internet. But that does not mean because the internet presents danger to people, to our republic, to everything else, that it's okay to turn the keys over to Hillary Clinton and her people, to decide what gets put out there and what doesn't.

That's an even worse scenario, in my opinion. Do I know the full breadth of what the answer is to all of this? No, I don't I know what the answer isn't, though, and the answer isn't to put Hillary Clinton in charge. Got a break. It's 940 on this Monday morning getting you underway here on your workweek on Newstalk 109.

We have less than a month to go for weeks and a day until the election. How are you feeling? How are you holding up? We'll talk about it coming up.

It's 946, the fall River propane text line (208)Â 542-1079. Very active texting going on this morning. And I'd love to for you to call or to text either way. And, we'd love to hear from you as we get the week started here of course, we have a week from a month from tomorrow, the election. It's close. And I'm curious how you're all holding up.

I know it's easy in an environment like this to fret, to feel anxiety when you look at the polls and there are some days Kamala Harris seems like she's got the edge, other days Donald Trump feels like he's got the momentum. I think we got to sort of check on each other here because there is a bit of emotional whiplash.

If you tie your emotions to what's happening in the happening in the news cycle, I don't recommend doing that. We do that by default, I think. But unhitch your emotions from the news cycle, it's kind of like watching the stock market don't don't worry if it goes down too much. Just just know that over time it goes up.

I will say this with a with a tone and a hint of optimism. I think that there is a lot of reason to believe that Donald Trump will come out victorious on November 5th. I we do have a few fatal ists in the audience. They think it's stolen. They think it's rigged. They think it's all over. And I'm not going to deprive them of that.

But I will just say this. I don't think that you would have the Harris walls ticket shifting gears, kind of scrambling now, rushing to do these interviews. If underneath they knew they have it no matter what. They just continue on with their styrofoam campaign given out, blah blah at the, at the different, rallies. No, I think they are acting afraid and for good reason.

So I hope when you see that at the very least year like, okay, maybe they don't just have it in the bag. Maybe it's not entirely rigged. I do think there is an ambient level of rigging that's going on. There is a it's like we have a term in radio and in audio production. We call it the noise floor.

And in any studio or any environment, you, you boo and everybody just stops talking. You can still hear noise, you can still hear the fan in the room or the wind that's out. So whatever it is, there's a noise. I think there's a fraud floor. I think that that much of the fraud in America's elections comes from the Democrat Party.

I believe that they are the. When you find that dead people are voting, they almost always vote for Democrats. When you find that illegals are voting, they almost always vote for Democrats. When you find people voting multiple times, not always, but they almost always vote for Democrats. Again, it's not 100%, but it's the overwhelming majority of fraudulent votes that are cast.

They go to the Democrat Party. Donald Trump has to rise above that ambient level of fraud. How much there is, I don't know, but I do know. And this is what I learned, that in this election, you have tens of thousands of volunteers that will be at polling locations, mostly in swing states, that will be watching very closely, which is something we did not have in 2020.

Will they make an attempt? Yes, they will undoubtedly they will. But it's much less likely to be successful, or they're much less likely to try in such a brazen manner. And so I, I feel like we've got to be optimistic going into this. Work hard. It's never in the bag. Don't get complacent, but be optimistic and have hope.

That's super important. All right. Let's go to the phones. Caller we have about 2 or 3 minutes. Go ahead. Yeah I don't think morning meal hi suppression of the news has been going on as I've watched it for the last 40 years now. For example, watching news quite regularly when we had mostly newspapers and then radio or Rush Limbaugh, it turns out around as far as that goes with Am radio.

I mean, that was the out to get all that suppressed, conservative information out there. Now, for example, you know, these newspapers, post Register was a very good one. They would say, oh, well, you know, they would their editor would decide what was going to be printed and what wasn't. Well, he suppressed, you know, news articles that were favorable to conservatives.

Yeah. And I offered to be on the board to decide some of that stuff because they think, well, this is not interesting. You know, this is not really, newsworthy to print. Well, they did they would find articles in other papers around the state that printed things that I thought was important to me as a Republican or a conservative, you know, and so whenever you dam stuff up like that, it's going to find its way around it.

Yeah. Some point that's where the internet came in, found its way around it. Social media still trying to dam it all up again. Yeah. But it will find its way around. Yeah, generally. Well it will, and thank you. I wish we had a lot more time to, to talk about this, but I I've got to let you go.

I think that the internet pre-social media. So up until about 2007 eight nine was the wild Wild West. And I think social media was the effort to redirect much of the information flow through narrow channels so that it could be curated and manicured, in some cases censored entirely. But there is a, push back. And I think we have, again, reason to be hopeful.

It's 953 on this Monday. We'll take our final break. I'll be back. I'll wrap up the show after this. 958 on this Monday on Newstalk 179 final minute here. And I would just encourage, hopefully not in any kind of a preachy way, but in a gentle way. I hope you'll include the victims of Hurricane Helene and those in the Pathway of Milton in your prayers.

If you feel like you can donate there, there are a lot of legitimate, recipients of, donations that I think that you can. And I'll let you find your own. There's so many options to donate as well, but keep them in your prayers. Have a wonderful Monday, Juliana. Julie. We'll be back tomorrow and will be here bright and early on.

Newstalk 179 Martin, Mark Lee, VanCamp and Robbins up next.