11.20.2024 -- NLS -- The Fight for Senate Power & Greater Idaho’s Bold Gamble

On this episode with Neal and Julie, they delve into several engaging topics, beginning with an analysis of the Republican leadership struggle in the Senate, particularly the dynamics between Senators John Thune, John Cornyn, and Rick Scott. Neal shares insights about the secret vote and the broader implications for conservative leadership in Congress.

They also highlight the Greater Idaho movement with guest Matt McCaw, exploring the idea of merging eastern Oregon with Idaho. The discussion examines the cultural, economic, and political differences driving the push for secession. Neal and Julie analyze the hurdles involved, such as legislative approval from both Oregon and Idaho, and whether public pressure could make the movement viable. Matt outlines how eastern Oregon's values and governance preferences align closely with Idaho’s, while Julie questions the feasibility and potential compromises required for such a dramatic shift.

The episode concludes with a reflection on broader political dynamics, from shifts in conservative influence to how grassroots efforts like the Greater Idaho movement could set a precedent for other regions. Neal and Julie bring their signature mix of thoughtful analysis and lively debate, offering a compelling conversation about the future of regional governance and representation.

Transcript

Now exclusive bonus content on The Neal Larson Show podcast.

It's a Wednesday podcast. And Julie, we thought, you know what? Senator Crapo made time for an interview today. We thought we'd do an interview with him. Yeah. And it was a very informative and beneficial interview. So perfect thing to share with our listeners. Of course, things have changed in Washington significantly in the last few weeks and about to change big time in the coming weeks.

We talked with him about the leadership changes in anticipation of some of the policy goals that they have on today's bonus content on the Nielsen Show podcast, and so, Senator, welcome. It's good to have you with us this morning. It's great to be with you, Neal. Well, let's dive in. A lot has changed since we spoke last.

Of course, the Republicans. Yep. One one the majority. And that's been confirmed. We're, you know, there's still a couple of things that we're watching, but we know that Republicans will have the majority come January. Senator John Thune will be the majority leader. And I guess give us your take. Weigh in on this seismic change in Washington.

Well, it is an absolute reversal of what we've lived with for the last four years. And I consider that, as you know, to be a very positive thing. But it's it's already starting to reverse. Chuck Schumer is making a mad dash to do as many judges on the floor as he can, and and he'll get some more through before the new Congress is sworn in.

But it's it's sort of the last gasps of the far left as we bring some sensibility into the government. And I'm excited for the direction we can go. You mentioned Chuck Schumer. It was interesting. The change in tone that he had when it was clear that Republicans were going to have the majority. He basically said, we hope that you'll be nice to us and that we'll be bipartisan and all of that.

But yet, doesn't the public rhetoric sort of not match what he is doing, trying to rush all these lefty judges in really fast at the last minute? Oh, you're absolutely right. I mean, the public rhetoric is, hey, we want to be bipartisan and all of that kind of stuff. And look, we we are not going to be, how should I put it?

We're going to be solid and we are going to be standing, I think, with extreme unity in reversing their policies. But we're not going to do it with impunity, you know, with who trying to be punitive. We are just going to be solid and strong with them and that's not the way they were, by the way. Not at all.

No. Well, with that concept moving forward, Trump has made some, some high profile choices for his cabinet positions. Why don't we talk about what that's going to look like for the Senate and and what kind of a fight you expect is going to be on your hands? Well, there will be a huge fight, and it'll be just the same as it was when Trump was first president.

You know what most presidents over history have been allowed to have? Their cabinet picks and their cabinet picks were mostly put into place within a week of the inauguration of the president. Last time around, they stopped President Trump from getting his full cabinet put into place for months. I think it was May before they finally let him all through.

They're going to try those same kind of tactics. And so fortunately, we'll be in control and we will be able to move them rapidly. We are going to move them rapidly. I don't know whether we'll have them all in by the day of his inauguration, but we're going to try our very best to get back to the prior precedent.

And there's going to be a terrific fight, as you said. So, Senator, let's let's talk about, something that it's all done now. Senator Thune is going to be the majority leader, but there were a couple of days there where there was kind of a struggle between John Cornyn, John Thune and and Rick Scott and I know that they held a secret vote.

Are you willing to tell us who you voted for in the majority leader? Pick? No. Mike and I have consistently said that that vote is a, secret vote. And I've kept my vote throughout the years. Years to myself. Yeah. And so, no, I'm not going to disclose my vote. However, I will tell you this, the the battle that was going on between those three, great leaders was far, mischaracterized.

I think, in the media. The reality is they were three strong leaders. I thought all three of them were solid and could be a good leader. And that the the debate between them was, statesmanlike. And, so I do think that there was kind of a, an incorrect characterization of it throughout social media as to what happened there.

Oh, okay. Let's talk about that characterization, because if we were to follow the mainstream media, it seems like the Republican senators are completely divided on these cabinet picks. When you said that you're going to work to get them through as quickly as possible, do you think it's going to be a united front between all of the senators? I don't let me put it this way.

My default position is to support the president's pick. I think the president, particularly President Trump, is entitled to have his picks unless there is some completely disqualifying factor. And I believe that we are united on that in our caucus. The difference is, there may be some senators with regard to some of his nominees who feel after the vetting process, where we have the hearings and do the vetting that we always do on nominees who feel that there is some kind of a disqualification of one or more of them.

I my point there is that the criticism that's coming in on some of them, and I'm not going to get into the details of it, but the criticism that's coming in on some of them is not coming from just the left. It's coming from the right, the left, Republicans, Democrats and conservatives and liberals. And since there is that conservative element of concern that is being raised, I think there's a possibility that there may be some of my colleagues on one or more of the candidates or nominees, that will differ with the president, but I'm not going to predict that that will happen.

But I think all of them want to get to. Yes. And we'll just have to see what the what the hearing process produces in terms of some of the charges that are being made against some of the nominees. So obviously, the plan would be to have the Senate approve the, the, the, the president's picks. That's what he would like.

But there is this issue of recess appointments, and we've we've kind of gotten confusing messaging about that. I know that Representative Massie basically told reporters, Matt Gates is going to be the AG because of recess appointments. But but the president hasn't been given that option yet of recess appointments by the Senate. So can you sort that out for us and how that might play out in the next 2 or 3 months?

Yeah. I'll try. It's a little bit confusing because it's going to depend on Supreme Court precedent. That is not entirely clear. But, the bottom line is, I think there is a strong belief among most Republican senators that we should use resource resource recess appointments. As a last move. That being said, it is something that I and a number of others think we should give the president the authority to do in the appropriate circumstances.

And the problem with that, though, is that it's really hard to get into a recess that that matches what the Supreme Court says allows a president to, to do a recess appointment. And what I'm talking about, there's again, this is where I can't tell you that I'm a constitutional expert, but I believe that under the Supreme Court president precedent, the recess has to be, approximately ten days in length.

It's extremely rare for the Senate to go into a ten day recess. So we would have to we'd have to intentionally do it. And there may be resistance in, in our caucus to doing that. For not not for reasons to stop a particular candidate, but for reasons of just stopping the operation of the Senate for so long.

And so it's kind of hard to predict. But bottom line is my position is, I'm not opposed to doing recess appointments. If we are running into a circumstance where procedural tactics are stopping the president from getting his people put into place in a timely basis. But I believe that we're going to be doing some pretty significant negotiating to be able to get that done.

I know that kind of the elephant in the room here, I think is probably Matt Gates. He's he's the most controversial pick by the president. And I think you're I could ask you, do you plan on voting for or against him? You're not going to answer that question, nor should you, because you you want to wait until the process plays out.

And and what we learn, what you learn and and make that decision later. I really appreciated your message. Yesterday I saw about Doctor Oz and that you're, you know, you feel like he. He has great qualifications, but you you're deferring to the process before you signal how you're going to vote on those, right? Yeah, you're exactly right.

The the the vetting process is very thorough in the Senate on nominees. I mean, they go into their their IRS filings, they go in, they they do background checks. And then, of course, people are always sending in, making attacks and sending in data on that in the Senate will vet all of that. And, I'll just go back and tell you my response, whether it's, Matt Gates or whether it's Doctor Oz is, I default to supporting the president's nominee, but I will listen to the vetting process and see what is presented.

And if a disqualifying amount of proof on something comes up, then I, you know, I will not support the nominee, but I don't want to create anything out there about that. With regard to any of these nominees, my default position on all of them is to support President Trump's nomination. Right. You know, all right. You are going to be it looks like chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, as this new Senate gets underway, what are your plans?

What are what kind of things will that committee be tackling right off the bat? First of all, yes, it does look like that. And I'm very hopeful that that's the way it plays out. The finance committee has jurisdiction over massive parts of the American government. We have jurisdiction over the entire Internal Revenue Code, which touches people's lives in hundreds of different ways across our economy and across our our populace.

We also have jurisdiction over the health care entitlements and we have jurisdiction over international trade. And all three of those categories are really critical categories for Americans. So what we'll be doing first, and I think most obviously is looking at the tax code, because the Tcga, the legislation that we were able to the the tax cuts that we were able to get put into place under President Trump will expire in 2025.

And so if we don't act on that, there will be a four plus trillion dollar tax increase, the majority of which will fall on the backs of people making less than $400,000 and most of it people making less than $200,000. It really it hits everywhere, all the way down the code. And it will also be a very damaging thing to our small businesses and pass through entities, that will lose the the pass through tax credits for operations that keep them competitive with corporations.

And so, that's one of our top priorities. And that's what we will hit first. And our objective there will be to extend those tax provisions, those tax cuts. And we're being attacked because if you don't extend those tax cuts, then taxes will go up by $4 trillion and the federal government will have another $4 trillion to spend.

So they are claiming that we are stopping the federal government from having the necessary resources to deal with its needs. And I just hope the American people see through that and realize that we're we're not talking about a spending program. We're talking about a tax increase. Senator, let let's talk about Pennsylvania for a minute. It may be a non-issue because now even their governor is pushing back against these election officials that were illegally counting votes.

Yeah. Are you are you, confident that McCormick is is going to take that seat? And if that doesn't happen, would you join Mike Lee in voting to not seat Bob Casey? If if they found some way to get him more votes, then McCormick? The answer is yes. I yes to both questions. Yes. I remember how your questions with but but the bottom line is, I do believe that it's very clear that, we won the Pennsylvania race, you know, and the margin is so big that even the votes that these, county officials in the four counties who are clearly violating the law by trying to count illegal

ballots, even if they count every one of their ballots, I think we still win. But we need to get that resolved. And and I'm hopeful that we can get judicial support for tapping that down. If that's not successful, then I will join with Mike Lee and others to to, reject, Bob Casey on the floor because he will not have been legally elected.

Yeah. All right. We will leave it at that. Senator, I'm sure we had much more we could talk about, but we're out of time. We appreciate your time today, and I look forward to talking with you in the future. Thank you. Great to visit with you. All right. Again, big thanks to Senator Mike Crapo. Julie, let's get on with the podcast.

Here we go.

You want to show us?

Happy Wednesday. Good morning, East Idaho. It's good to have you along today. And we have a great show planned for you today. We will continue to chronicle the demise of the Democrat Party. You know, I know that, karma. I'm going to mix two religions here. Karma and Christianity. It's probably bad karma and unchristian to cheer for the demise of a complete political party.

Like I get that and it would come back to bite me in the rear end at some point down the road. Because it's not out. You know, that's the one thing about politics is it never stays the same. And when you think a party, there have been moments when I've thought the Republican Party is is done dead, defunct and and finished.

And yet look at us today we are going to have a Republican White House. We will have a Republican House, a Republican Senate. We have a conservative majority on the Supreme Court. We have a very spectacular opportunity ahead of us that doesn't last forever. And right now, I know the Democrat Party is a dumpster fire. They are disorganized.

They don't have a leader, at least not a consensus leader. They are fighting against themselves. They are still grieving. And I actually mean that in the literal sense. The clinical I don't know if there's a clinical term called grieving, but they are grieving in the very real way right now, the loss of their political power. And it's beautiful.

I'm I am going to celebrate it. I, I'm not a perfect human being. I'm not celebrate their grief, but I'm celebrating what they're grieving. Because I'm going to tell you that if you look back in history, the more power you give to progressives, the worse things. Get it? It's so clear. It is so obvious that when you put Joe Biden in power and Joe Biden wasn't really in power, he was a puppet.

But the people who had their hand in that puppet running, Joe Biden had power and we had malaise. We had cultural brokenness. We had inflation, we had economic challenges. We had foreign policy failures. We I mean, the list could go on and on and on. They make life better for themselves, those few at the top. But it's at the expense of everyone else's peace and prosperity.

So I'm thrilled over this. And, I got to get to a clip. Jake. Jake is his name. Jake Yuga. He's the Young Turks guy. He and Alan Lichtman got into a shouting match. Now, keep in mind they are both far-left liberals. They both hate Donald Trump. They both hate everything MAGA and everything Republican. But they got into a shouting match on Piers Morgan and Piers just let him go like he didn't try to stop and interrupt and and calm them, calm the waters at all.

He just let them let him at it. We have that. I do want to tell you, coming up in about 25 minutes or so, we're going to talk with Matt McCaw. He heads up the Greater Idaho movement. Of course that's the effort to join as much of Oregon as would like to the well Idaho where we would expand the boundaries of Idaho to take in a big chunk of Oregon, which I, I love that, I mean, I there are problems with it, obviously, and in the end, I don't know.

But in concept, if you don't feel represented over there, then maybe you can be represented here. I also, again, in the spirit of spiking the football, I do have to say imagine what the Idaho Legislature would look like. The Republican Democrat. I was going to say balance, but that's not the right word. Imbalance. If you added named a big number of reliably Republican seats, I mean, either you'd get more Republicans or you'd get fewer Democrats, depending on how they wanted to apportion and draw legislative boundaries.

Would we still have 35 legislative seat? I don't know, I don't know how that would work, but nobody actually really knows at this point. If it were to happen. But we'll talk with him coming up at 835, he was actually on Fox and Friends either yesterday or the day before. And this idea is getting more and more. We honestly, when I, when I look at the, the mood and the attitude, I think we live in a although this might be changing.

Well, we'll have to see and this should be a great question for Matt McCaw. Donald Trump shifted the country rightward significantly. Even states like California, New York, they saw significant shifts toward the right. Now they're still lefty. They're still liberals. They're going to be a majority Democrat state for a long, long time to come. However, you saw a rightward shift almost everywhere in the country.

Does the appetite for secession from your own state stay as strong in an environment like this? And I don't know, we'll we'll see. But having said that, listen to this. I'm not even quite sure is such a such a mess on Piers Morgan. I'll just start it from the beginning. Look, I debated, sort of like Ben before I told him his theories about the keys are absurd.

I was right, he was wrong. I said he'd lose his key. By the way, I need. I failed to give you a little bit of background. Allan Lichtman is the guy. Well, up until this year, they called him the Nostradamus of presidential elections because he has these 13 different keys that he uses and predicted with some level of false certainty.

You only find in the halls of academia that Kamala Harris absolutely was going to, to defeat Donald Trump. Now, I went back because liberals like to just gaslight and make things up. I looked at Jake Younger's thoughts on the election leading up to the election. He's actually consistent here, and his official position was, I don't know what's going to happen.

There were factors going both ways. So he really did not know and stated that he didn't know how it was going to turn out. And now he's mocking the good professor, Allan Lichtman for his level of certainty and how wrong he got it. Look, I debated, Professor Lichtman before I told him his theories about the keys are absurd.

I was right, he was wrong. I said he'd lose his keys. No, you wouldn't find them before the election. Wrong. And that's a cheap shot. And I won't stand for who one should not be to watch people like me who want to make you live long, make it world of denial. I read your own followers comments and they all trashed you.

Every one of them and supported me. Yeah right. It was personal. Yeah. Come find out again. Make whatever point you are. You don't make it. You don't know anything you don't know. Attacked me personally. So download right. I've always been a professor. 51 years on this program. I've never been able to finish up. How many books have you published?

But no, because you're personally attacking me again. Say whatever you want, but I'm not one for other. You got it wrong. Say you were preposterously and stupidly wrong, so. Okay. All right. Can I just finish a goddamn started ever on this show? No, not a feel, personally. Well, you put it, I was wrong. I don't need you to call me stupid, okay?

Hey, Allen, you deserve a tall glass of. Shut up juice. So can you just shut up for a second and let someone who knows what they're doing so right? You're so right. So you want. So I will not sit here. And so for personal attacks, for blasphemy against me. You don't need to do that. You don't. Blasphemy against you are you?

Are you? Jesus Christ, you loser. Okay. All right. That was a lot. All right, I been I apologize, for that being 90s of a mess, but it was a mess. You needed to hear. You know what? That's the sound of that fight between Jank Yuga and Allan Lichtman. That's the sound of. We're winning. Because that conversation right there is happening all throughout the Democrat Party, right now.

It is systemic when you watch. And I hate to bring this up. We've actually gone all morning long. And I don't think we've mentioned the view even once until just now. They're fighting each other. Sunny Hostin absolutely believes it's just simplified down to misogyny and racism. That's why America did not vote for Kamala Harris, because she's a woman of color and she's a woman.

I guess that's written on it. But you know what I'm saying? That that's that's the only reason Kamala Harris could possibly lose is that America is a misogynist country. So and then you have a list of who doesn't like Trump, by the way, she's sort of the token conservative, but she's not really a conservative. They they I think you have to hate Trump to even get to sit at that table.

But, they had a shouting match that we highlighted for you yesterday morning, this crosstalk. And then you had what's your name? Sarah Haines. She came in sort of tried to give a balanced, nuanced opinion and sort of bring some calm to it, but she countered Sunny Hostin, I mean, they are in disarray. And what I would say is that we need to capitalize on this.

We need to look and see the opportunity that lies in the Democrat disarray and disorganization right now. I do think that you do have a few level heads in the Democrat Party that are recognizing how bad it's going to be if they don't get their crap together, and I hope that they don't get any traction and voice because the well, look at look at Pennsylvania, look at these four election officials that were blatantly, openly, and one in particular was bragging about breaking the law.

She has sense knowing that she can be prosecuted for overt voter fraud. It's trying to reframe it and gaslight and say, well, I was taken out of context. She didn't offer the context. She actually says she meant. The problem in that regard is they have gotten so comfortable trying to cheat, trying to steal elections, having ballots come in late, but using ballots that don't have a postmark, that can't be verified, that don't have a chain of custody, they've gotten so comfortable in counting those ballots, they just do it out in the open today.

They've arrived at that point. Think about that for just a moment. It's interesting when we look back at 2020 and if you dare say the s-word, everyone would if you remember, in the couple of years after 20 to 1 and probably three years, it's not quite as militant now. They don't have any power to be militant anymore. But, it used to be you couldn't even utter the word stolen or rigged or infer at all that there was anything amiss or wrong with 2020.

Remember the environment. And I can remember talking to two people immediately after 2020 who said the election was stolen, but then that all that talk stopped because the media backlash against those people became so, so strong. Yet think about let's let's look at this from a little broader perspective here. You have election officials in Pennsylvania openly bragging about breaking the law, counting these votes just in defiance.

They got so used to it. But you're trying to tell me that that attitude just suddenly appeared in the last little bit, that prior to that, they were dedicated to election integrity. Prior to that, they were dedicated to making sure every vote was illegal and legitimate vote. When did it happen then? If 2020 was sterling and all good and, the gold standard of election integrity, at what point did these election officials in Pennsylvania get so brazen that they bragged openly and publicly that they were doing something that was clearly illegal?

When did that some is those of you out there who are the vigilant defenders of 2020 being an integrity filled election, tell me when the flip happened, because the Supreme Court not once, not twice, but three times. And and Josh Shapiro, apparently the third time was the charm for their governor. And he finally came out guess gaslit his own people and said, oh, the rule of law must be followed.

Well, you should have been followed after the first and the second time, and finally after the third. He sees the way this is going, and he doesn't want to be on the quote unquote wrong side of history, because that would make his lived experience even worse. There. But now and you're trying to tell me, look, I'm going to tell you before I break away here, one of Donald Trump's biggest tasks in my mind as not just a Trump voter, but an American and someone who supports and respects the office of the presidency.

And soon that's going to be Donald Trump. You've got to restore trust in America's elections. And having people like these for election officials in Pennsylvania, you cannot have trust and have them counting votes. You just you can't you can't do it. So I'm hopeful that and maybe we've got a Supreme Court now that will be saying on this issue that voter IDs are not too tall and an ask when people vote.

It's so crystal clear. Once you see it, you don't unsee it after this. But it is so crystal clear that Democrats want to steal elections. I got a text yesterday. Guess what I hate? I hate bearing this news. I got a text from my Alaska friend yesterday. The repeal of ranked choice voting in Alaska is now behind. And you know why?

Late ballots coming in from these little remote villages in Alaska. Now, I don't think Begich is in trouble. I think he's going to be the congressman because he won in a way that was too big to steal at this point. But it appears that the repeal of ranked choice voting in Alaska because of late ballots coming in may now be at risk.

14 he told me $14 million was spent in Alaska on this issue. So it's a gaping, gaping security hole in our elections to allow ballots to come in days and weeks after the election's over, because the cheaters know how many ballots they need to come up with. So we've got to fix that. We've got to fix the culture around, elections or we're we're in a bad way.

All right. It's 825 on Newstalk 179. It's a chilly morning, low teens in a lot of, areas. We have a lot of great stuff to talk about. Bathrooms in the Capitol. Nancy Mace was on fire yesterday. We've got some audio from that. We have the ongoing FEMA scandal. The FEMA director, she testified in Congress as well yesterday.

And Jim Jordan had a great line of questioning against her. So we'll have all of that for you coming up on this Wednesday on Newstalk 109. Phil is a board certified dermatologist and most surgeon. If you've been putting off your skin evaluation, use your end of the year benefits before you lose. Matt McCaw, can you hear us? I can, this must be Neal.

Yes, this is Neal. We're excited to have you on. Julie's here with me as well. Good morning Matt okay. Good morning. Yeah thanks for having us on. Well we saw you on, Fox and Friends the other morning, and we're like, you know what? We ought to have him on, because this is obviously a big Idaho issue, too, so.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. No, we are happy. I, I was telling Julie, I always enjoy getting a chance to talk to Idahoans about, you know, how this benefits Idaho, why they should support us. Because it does benefit Idaho in a lot of ways. And I think a lot of times Idahoans are like, they hear about us and they're like, what is this that, you know, like, yeah, they don't even, you know, they feel like they're not even asked about it.

A lot of times it's just something that's happening with their name in it. So, yeah, I'm very happy to talk about what we're doing. Yeah, well it's great. We're still probably about, oh, 3 or 4 minutes away from, from going on the air, but okay. We were texting with representative Barb iHeart a while back and she asked us to tell you hello.

She says you have work. Oh, awesome. Yeah, I love representative Art. She's a great, great lady and has been super supportive of our movement. You guys are lucky to have a representative like that out there. So Matt and and we will pass that on to, to Barb. She's a great friend of ours and of the show, but I, I know we interviewed a 3 or 4 years ago, someone from the Greater Idaho movement, but I don't remember if it was you or if it was someone else.

Know that was probably our president, Mike McCarter. I came on board about four years ago, but then I didn't take over all kind of the public speaking duties until a year into that. So and I don't remember ever doing something with you. So that was probably Mike. Okay. Yeah. That name actually sounds a little bit familiar, but it's been a minute.

It's been a minute since we it gets confusing because we got Mike McCarter and Matt McCall, and it's a lot of Eds and a lot of mics, but that. Yeah. Well, I hope you you have a bowl of M&Ms at your, Right. Yeah. So, right, I soup. What city do you live in, Mike or I. Look, I just did it.

We mixed up the name. Yeah, that's all right. Yeah. What city do I live in? Powell. Butte. So we're over on what would be the new western edge of Idaho. We're right along the Cascade Mountain range. And, I mean, it's beautiful there. I love it, and I grew up in this area. So moved to the Portland area for, like, 20 years.

Said there's no way I can raise my family here and move back to where we're surrounded by like minded people, conservative Fayetteville people that that, want small government and to be free, which is what, you know, the people of Eastern Oregon are so wonderful. So I'm assuming the the website you'd love us to promote is Greater idaho.org.

Is that right? Yep. That's it. I'm good I got it I got it pulled up. So this is I you know it. This is one of those issues that I like I look at and I think this there's no way this is going to happen because Congress would have to be on board. The legislature in Oregon would have to be on board.

But then I'm thinking, look at all the things in politics that we said were impossible. Well, just a few short years ago. Absolutely. And now they've come true. And so I, I, I'm, I'm at a point where I'm like, never say never. You know, that's right. That's right. And, and, you know, that's something we can talk about in, especially in this modern era, it only takes, you know, if President Trump said, you know what I think this is a great idea.

That's all it would take to to build the social pressure to make something like this happen, you know, and so you exactly what you said, it seems like a long shot because people are like, well, the state of Oregon will never let you go. But longer shot things in this have happened and it's just a matter of, you know, building the public support and and the social pressure for Oregon to act.

Yeah. I, you know, I'm, I'm in favor of the idea in of course, Julie and I are both very conservative. We can understand. Absolutely. Why why conservative in Oregon would want to to make this shift. Yeah. I you know, there are some pragmatic, practical questions of how this this would work out, but but yeah, no, I, I actually have family a lot of family in the Corvallis Philomath area.

Okay. Yeah. And it's they're they're conservative as well. Most of them are. And okay. They, they shake their heads sometimes at the. Well they're in the minority in Corvallis. I, I went to college at Oregon State, you know, lived in Corvallis for eight years. And it's, it's a pretty blue little area. Yeah. But good for them.

I mean, there are conservatives in western Oregon. They're just massively outnumbered. And, you know, and that's why, you know, the flip side, you come here to eastern Oregon, where 70% plus people, you know, vote conservatively and, it's just the polar opposite. Yeah, yeah. I visited a friend. She lives in Coos Bay. I was surprised along that coastal area she settled.

There's a lot of conservatives on the southern part of the coast in Oregon, which I didn't anticipate. So, yeah. Yeah, southern Oregon is actually very conservative. Southern Oregon. We actually went to votes in southern Oregon in two different counties, but they did not approve it. And I think it's not because they're not conservative. It's because people here in Eastern Oregon are very comfortable with Idaho.

A lot of people do business in Boise. We you know, they travel back and forth over the border. They don't think anything of it. Yeah. People in southern Oregon, Idaho seems like a really long ways away. Yeah. All right, Matt, here we go. Okay. It's 837 on this Wednesday on Newstalk 107, Neal Larson along with Julie Mason and Julie, we have a great guest this morning.

Yeah, we're joined by Matt McCall. He's with the Greater Idaho Movement. And this is the movement to join Eastern Oregon into Idaho. We've mentioned this on air before. Actually talked with Representative Barbie hard about it before, but we wanted to get someone directly from the organization. So thank you for joining us this morning. Matt. Well, thanks for having me on.

I really appreciate the opportunity to get to talk to Idahoans, especially. Well, Matt, the origin of all of this was actually your appearance on Fox and Friends. Was it was it Monday morning that you went on? Yeah. Yep. And so we saw you up there and Julie and I talked were like, we we should try and get, Matt on.

You were more than, happy to to join us when you do a national hit like that, do you get a, like, a big influx of people messaging you and, and increased levels of support and that kind of thing? Yeah, absolutely. So I've got several I've got this this morning, and then I'll have a couple, TV appearances later this week as well.

They kind of feed on each other, but when you get a chance to go on a big platform like Fox and Friends, you know, a lot of people see that. And and the truth is, people are intrigued by our idea. They like our idea. One of the things that's still a commonality in the United States. I mean, we're very polarizing people.

You know, it seems like we're far apart on lots of things. But one of the things that people still have in common is that they do believe in self-determination. They believe that the people should be in charge of government, and that the people of a place should get to determine what that government looks like. And that's what our movement is offering.

The people of Eastern Oregon would prefer to get their state governance from the state of Idaho over the state of Oregon. The people out here are voting and saying, we want this to happen, and most people think that it should happen if that's what the people want. Give us the nuts and bolts. Matt. How many counties in eastern Oregon have, joined into this movement?

And then you had some measures that were on the ballot in November and those got defeated. So give us the nuts and bolts of the whole thing. Yeah. So we're looking to move 17 full or partial counties from Oregon governance into Idaho governance. And so of those 17 counties, 13 of those counties have already voted on measures to ask their elected leaders to pursue making this happen.

And so in eastern Oregon, we've gone to vote 13 counties. All 13 of those counties have passed these measures. The people of eastern Oregon want their elected leaders to try to make this happen. So as part of that, in Oregon, we have an initiative system. So some of those votes were commissioned. County commissioners put it directly on the ballot.

In other of those votes, there were citizen led petitions that, they got enough signatures to get on the ballot. Some of those votes required meetings to happen. So in this last election that that vote, those votes you're talking about in November, three different counties, the county commissioners or citizen led petitions tried to revoke those in a sense to say, hey, we want some more flexibility about these meeting requirements.

We want to be able to, you know, kind of give our commissioners a break about having to meet and pursue this. All three of those measures were soundly rejected by voters. And what that tells us is that voters, you know, we've been doing this for four years. Voters haven't changed their minds. They still are wanting to pursue making this happen.

And they expect their elected leaders to keep advocating for it. Matt, I do want to ask you, because if you go to your website, Greater idaho.org, the map is right there and you can see the county by county, you know, the numbers of counties that have joined this movement or expressed an interest in it. Are you are you still looking to expand that map?

Are there other counties in Oregon that you think will will join, or are you close to completion on that part of it? Yeah, that's a great question. We are close to completion. The only two counties that that we would still go to for a vote, because there's some partial counties that that we're not going to go to a vote countywide.

It wouldn't make sense. Are Gilliam County and Umatilla County. Those haven't happened yet, just for a variety of reasons. But we expect that those will be added in, and we would expect the result to be very similar to the other 13 counties that have already voted. But at this point, Neal, we know what the people of Eastern Oregon want.

People eastern Oregon are very conservative. They voted for Donald Trump over 70% in eastern Oregon. And and they're very similar and like minded in all of these counties are very rural, very conservative, and share similar feelings about what kind of government they want. So even though we haven't voted yet in Gilliam and Umatilla, we have a pretty good idea of how those votes will go.

And we would expect that that they would vote in the same way, wanting to pursue joining Idaho. So there's kind of a, I guess, political common sense here that that I'm prone to. And a lot of people have said that when you look at the hurdles to making this happen, both legislatures in each of the states would have to to greenlight this.

It would take an act of Congress as well. They would have to get involved in this and and some of those hurdles. A lot of observers would say those are just too high. They were you're just not going to get past that are around it. But yet, as we were talking before you came on the air, there's a number of things that have happened politically in recent years that I thought would never happen.

But but here we are. And and we did see those things happen. So maybe lay out the pathway for this and how you could actually see it passing the Oregon Legislature, because I think that I think Idaho's legislature would give it very strong consideration. I don't think that's a huge hurdle. But Oregon's legislature would, because why would they give up two thirds of the land of their state to another state?

Yeah. So so that's a great question. You know, and it's probably the number one question we get is how why will Oregon ever let you go, which in and of itself is kind of a sad commentary on our politics, is that people just assume that if somebody has power over another group, they would never just let them go because that group wants to go.

But but set that aside. There's kind of four pieces to making this border change happen. One is the popular support, we know there's popular support for this. The people of Eastern Oregon are voting for it. Idaho polling has been done in the state of Idaho, and it pulls very strongly in the state of Idaho, especially with Republicans who understand the value of adding 400,000 conservative voters, to the state of Idaho.

So it's got the popular support it has to pass both state legislatures. The Idaho Legislature has been very supportive of what we're doing in 2023. Representative Ihad represented Boyle, sponsored a memorial in the Idaho House that passed the Idaho House. And we had a bill sponsored for the Idaho Senate as well. The Idaho Legislature, we believe, is a willing partner.

Again, they see the value of adding all the land and resources and conservative voters, to the state of Idaho. They're ready to have this conversation. Even the federal Congress, which is the last piece that would have to happen. We've always believed that that would not be a huge hurdle if a blue state like Oregon and a red state like Idaho came together and said it, it's going to work better for both of us to move the border here.

We don't see why US Congress would have a big problem with that, especially considering the fact that we're only talking about 400,000 people. That's not even one full electoral vote or a federal representative. So it would have very, very minimal impact on, on federal elections. So the big hurdle, the big stopping point is the Oregon Legislature. How do we get the Oregon Legislature to let us go?

For the last four years, we've been making the case to the Oregon Legislature that it makes sense for Western Oregon to let it go, because financially it makes sense. Although eastern Oregon could join Idaho and benefit Idaho financially because of the disparity in incomes between western Oregon and Idaho and eastern Oregon. We're actually a financial drain on western Oregon.

So if they were to let us go, it would be a financial win for all three areas for Idaho, western Oregon and eastern Oregon. It also would stop the gridlock that happens in Oregon. Oregon is almost a super majority state of Democrats, but there are still Republicans that can stop legislation through things like walkouts. And I don't know if you guys are familiar with that, but that's something that's been happening in Oregon for years.

So we've been making the positive case as to why Western Oregon should let us go. And but that has not been super successful. So how are we going to get the Oregon Legislature to let us go? We're going to have to get enough pressure from people not only inside the state of Oregon, but also from people across the country, across the world, on the state of Oregon, to say, hey, you've got these people in Eastern Oregon.

They voted. They've said they would like to join this other state. They're just trying to peacefully separate, and you're holding them captive against their will. That's not okay and that's wrong. And most people understand that that's wrong. When somebody wants to leave an association peacefully, you don't hold them against their will. You let them go. And most people understand that with enough pressure on the Oregon Legislature, we believe that they'll come around and let us go because it's the right thing to do.

Plus all those other positive reasons. And you were mentioning, you know, there's things we think, oh, gosh, this will never happen. But the truth is, things happen all the time. Borders have been moved in the United States. New states are created, ideas that we would have thought unthinkable as a kid. When I was a kid, the idea of legalized marijuana was that I.

You know, that was a crazy idea. And now, you know, it's in a majority of states across the United States. So as as social pressure changes, as social ideas change, that can make a huge impact on what our politicians do. And we think that if we bring enough pressure on the Oregon Legislature, they will let us go.

You mentioned that you need some people outside of Oregon to do to create that pressure. Do you have some target people in mind? Who would you like to see get on board with this movement that doesn't live in Idaho or Oregon? Well, I think, you know, one of the exciting things about the incoming Trump administration is President Trump himself is not a politician.

So so part of the reason that stops these sorts of things is that you get these people that are stuck in the Democratic Republic, and this is the way we do things, and it's all a power grab. And about building seats, but we have people in this incoming administration that are outside the box thinkers. They're not stuck in this normal kind of political tug of war.

They are innovators and people from the business world who are saying, how do we actually solve problems? How do we take a different approach, think outside the box. And the Trump administration is bringing in a lot of people like this. All it would take is a person like Elon Musk picking up our idea and saying, you know what?

This makes a ton of sense, and it's not okay to hold those people captive against their will. And something as simple as, as one person with a huge platform could really, you know, help this take off. We're talking with Matt McKay. He's the executive director of the Greater Idaho movement. Their website is Greater idaho.org. Now, one of the questions I wanted to ask you, because I, I've, you know, been aware of this movement for quite some time and I think Idaho would welcome Eastern Oregon's into our, our ranks and our state and add you on very, very warmly.

And and I would look forward to that. However, I want to take one example, and I think you could find multiple issues where you'd run into this problem. We just had a big water issue in eastern Idaho, where a bureaucrat in Boise decided to shut down our water wells in the spring, and it led to a massive, massive problem and a lot of angst for farmers.

So water rights is an issue that actually can defy, divide people who otherwise agree on just about everything. How how would we navigate an issue like water rights where that's that's scripture. Here in Idaho, you're senior water rights holders and your junior water rights holders. If you bring in this much geography and 400,000 people, how are you?

How are you going to navigate an issue that is that important to people? And I'm like I said, there's probably other issues that that would create problems like this. Sure. Yeah. There's going to be issues. There's minimum wage differences. There's there's you know, the fact I mentioned earlier about legalized marijuana, which the people of Eastern Oregon voted against, that got forced on us by western Oregon.

But but you you highlight water rights, which is a huge issue. It's a huge issue in eastern Oregon, just like it is in Idaho, because eastern Oregon and Idaho are so similar geographically and agriculturally. So but but the good news is the state of Oregon already has water rights in place for for these lands inside the state of Oregon.

And the water rights, system of how how they give those out. And, like you said, like the seniority and how those things are determined are very similar between Oregon and Idaho. So, you know, there would be some sort of grandfathering in, we would imagine where that the water that people in Oregon already use would fall under Idaho, governance, but it probably would not change much.

Those are the questions, though, Neal, that that's why the legislatures need to have study groups. That's why the two legislature need to sit down and talk about these things and say, well, what will it look like when we bring, you know, central Oregon into Idaho governance and central Oregon currently gets their water from, you know, here. And and how will that change or how do we grandfathered that in so that it doesn't that so that it's a seamless process and not, you know, a headache.

And another and these are probably questions that we just wouldn't know the answer to. But right now, Idaho has 35 legislative districts with two representatives and one senator. Would you anticipate that we would add legislative districts with with Greater Idaho, or would we just keep the same number and redraw the boundaries of of the 35 districts? Yeah, another great, great question.

And I think that's something that, you know, you really would have to hash out between the people of Idaho. Would the people of Idaho want would they rather, I'm sure right now that constitutionally they're, required to have a certain number of seats, but would they rather reapportionment seats and have a greater land mass and more people per representative, or would they rather change that constitution and add, you know, so many legislators from the new part of Idaho, which would be eastern Oregon?

Again, those are questions that are going to have to be decided. But that's why, you know, the process. It's called an interstate compact, which is essentially a contract. And the idea is that the two state legislatures would get together and they would meet, they would form study groups, they would have work groups that figured out some of these problems, so that when the actual border change happened, there would already be solutions in place.

You know, one last question here. And we're almost out of time, Matt. But some of the maps that I've seen show even some areas of eastern Washington and Northern California being incorporated into this, are you trying to keep it as simple as possible and stick strictly with Oregon or or is there this anticipation that if you made it happen with Oregon and Idaho, why not parts of other states?

So the answer is yes on both. So so our original plan was to include three counties in eastern wash, southeastern Washington, who we thought would be a good fit for Idaho, some counties in Northern California. As we started moving down the process, going to votes, what we found is that the people of Eastern Oregon specifically are a very, very good fit for Idaho, as I think we mentioned earlier, people and a lot of the people in eastern Oregon, they already do business in Idaho.

They're big city they travel to is Boise. It's not Portland. So so the people of Eastern Oregon already identify with Idahoans and are comfortable with Idaho and vote the same way and have the same sort of culture. And, as the people of Idaho do. So that would be a really, really good fit. So as we've gone along in the process, we said, let's just focus in on getting these counties in eastern Oregon, which are a really good fit with the state of Idaho, and let's see if we can make that happen.

Once that happens, what we would perceive happening is that this is going to throw open the doors across the country for for counties to start looking at. What state does it make sense for us to get our state government from? Does it make sense for us to stay in Washington, or should we explore joining a state like Idaho?

So we think that once we make this happen in eastern Oregon, you're going to see counties across the US reevaluate where it makes sense. And then at that time, you know, the state of Idaho would then, you know, have a new decision to make, which is do we want to expand further? Do we want to stay with what we got?

But that's down the road for now. It's a big enough challenge just to get these eastern Oregon counties in. All right. Matt McCall, executive director of the Greater Idaho Movement, it's Greater idaho.org is the website. Matt, thank you for your time and, your expertise and insight. We appreciate it. Well, thank you for having me on. All right.

We'll break away. We'll be back after this on Newstalk 179. It's 855. Matt. Thank you. Great interview. Yeah. No thank you Neal. Yeah I sure appreciate the opportunity and I'd love to come back and talk. Any time your viewers want to or listeners want to hear more. All right. We'll keep your number. Yeah, I have it saved, Matt.

Thank you. Awesome. All right. Thanks, Julia. Bye. Did he call you Julia? Yeah, I think so. Or else he was rolling into another word. One or the other. Yeah, it's it's 859 now or two coming up. Right. All right. Welcome back. It's 907 on Newstalk 179. Julie, do you think with this Greater Idaho movement, obviously the biggest obstacle is the Oregon Legislature.

It's it's predominantly Democrat. What if we sweeten the pot and said, we'll give you Blaine County? You gonna have the island? Let them? Yes. They'll they'll just be like, it's like an embassy, you know, like it's technically it's like the Vatican. Yeah, right. It'd be it'd be like, Yeah. It's not nearly as religious, so. Well, well, there's worship at the altar of Democrats.

Different, different different religion. So. And we love you, Blaine County. So let's talk about this for just a second, because both you and I are a little surprised at the pushback on our text line. Yeah, for Greater Idaho. Yeah. We didn't expect so many people to not be warm to the idea. I would and I think what I'm maybe sensing is just the general atmosphere of distrust that we have.

I mean, we just went through, a really heated election cycle where the prop one proponents just repeatedly lied to us over and over and over again. The people that liked ranked choice voting lied to us over and over and over again. And so I think we're getting used to being scammed, by by the political realm. And so I think that's part of it.

I will say this is a movement I've been following. Like, I'm not like all in on it. However, I don't think there's anything nefarious here. I think this is just a group that genuinely feels unrepresented in Salem, in Oregon, and they're values it look, Eastern Oregon geographically is an extension of Idaho. Have you driven through it? It's just more Idaho I love it's more southern Idaho.

I should say that it's more Jerome Twin Falls, you know. Yeah. It's like it just keeps going on like Nebraska. Yeah. So geographically it's an extension. But when you get into those communities, you would just think you're in Idaho. They are they are conservative, traditional people. And they want to feel like they belong to a state that cares about them, that represents them, and that their values are represented as well.

Because I do think that that gap I mean, we kind of see a gap here in Idaho. It's a major gap when you try to mesh Portland weird with LA grand normal, you know, like it's it's just, just a weird, weird mix in, in Oregon. And I think there's a big chunk of the state that just says, okay, they want to be weird.

Let's let them be weird, but we want to feel like we're represented. And so I like I don't know if right now I would say I will cast my vote in favor of this, but I absolutely think that we need to hear what they have to say, look what they have to offer, vet the issue thoroughly, and then decide if that's something that we'd want to take on as as Idaho, it's still such a long ways away.

It's a long shot. It's a long shot. But I like I said, I'll never. I'll never say never. I, I think maybe if you wanted to convince the Oregon Legislature to say yes to this, you might have to sweeten the pot with something. Maybe part of the federal legislature that would approve it might have some incentive for what remains of Oregon to say yes to it.

So I but I you know, like I said, I don't know, it feels like a long shot or maybe, I don't even know if this would be possible, but maybe, hey, we get to make this much money off the farming and agriculture for ten more years or whatever as we adjust our state budget, or that doesn't really match because he said Eastern Oregon is actually a drain on on western Oregon.

So I don't know if they need the financial, you know, push. But people like money, so they do like money. It do you dangle a couple of bucks in front of it? Yeah. And they change their minds real quick. Someone said, it weakens the state. They lose the conservative voice and strength that they had. I'm not quite sure I follow that.

It's not just the distrust. It also weakens that state. Well, not it weakens Idaho. I think that's what they're meaning. That it weakens Idaho at that state. So, I don't know if they mean Oregon or Idaho, I guess. Clarify, I think the Democrats in Salem would be thrilled to get rid of a few Republican lawmakers in in Oregon legislature make their life easier.

It would. And here's the thing. And I will say this. I just want to balance the conversation here, because we've got a very robust text line going today. If you're worried about Idaho turning blue, this is a good way to offset it. These counties, well, he said it. They voted 70% for Trump. Those those counties did. So you're you're getting really good conservative people that want to join.

That offsets some of the blue shift that we've seen in places like Boise. Yeah, I, I don't I don't see that that people think that I would I should say this way, I don't understand the fear that it's going to turn Idaho more blue. I don't see that. I do think that, I would have fear about how the state budgets then work out.

Are they bringing enough financial benefit to Idaho in order for us to then fund all of their schools and all like everything else? Yes. That's my question. Yeah. And and if for those people who are asking, well, what's the downside I would say that's the downside. They, they they're looking at this going, there's no way this can all be perfect for Idaho.

Well, we're going to have to start reallocating money to these people. And are they going to bring enough in in, a balancing situation or is that going to actually harm other parts of the state because they'll have to give up part of their budgets in order to take care of this new portion of Idaho? Well, and yeah, and that is a great question because Matt mentioned that it it would be a net financial benefit to Oregon to get rid of eastern Oregon.

Does that mean it's a financial loss for us to take on and your point is well, take and I don't have the answer to that. I'm not saying it's one or the other, but I have far greater concern about that than the demographics of the people and whether or not they're going to be voting conservative. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

That's true. Someone also just said, my gut tells me most of your texts opposing this idea are coming from people who don't want to see Idaho become more conservative or more red. Just to that. I don't know if that's true. Like a lot of these, I think it's just distrust of a big change. Yeah, they just don't like government and they do it.

They're worried that somebody is trying to scam them. You know what? Let's I don't really we've spent a lot of time on this already. And there are other things to talk about. And people can feel free to call in if they want. However, I would love for people to text in yes or no to to the question, should we take on two thirds of Oregon?

Are you in favor of the Greater Idaho movement? Just text in yes or no. I'd like to see where most of our audience here we're hearing from some of the more passionate ones. If you don't give a crap text in right now. I'm just kidding. I don't give a crap. No, because right now I think I would lean toward it, but, again, devil's always in the details, so, see, we're getting a bunch of yeses now, so.

Yeah. Yeah. We have had this question a couple of times. Why don't they just create a new state? Well, there's there's several reasons to that. First, the hurdles that they'll have to overcome to create a new state are much larger and bigger than the way that they're doing it. Now. If they could have created their own state, they probably would have.

Yes. And so this is a more viable path. You and you also have to think about DC. This is going to take years, and DC is never going to be in favor of it, simply because it will give two conservative senators. Yeah. We would add two senators to our total, that total chamber, and they would both be conservative.

Yeah, it can't be because I sent that message back to somebody and they said, what we have all of the we have the Senate, the House and the presidency. It can't happen that quickly. There's other things that have to happen in pre getting to that point that aren't going to happen. Yeah. And so I this would to do it to add these counties to Idaho is a more viable option for those in eastern Oregon.

Yeah. And you are exactly right. They're they're never going to allow a new state because that's two more conservative senators. So yeah. I would say right now at least three fourths of these instant flash poll texts are yeses. They want they want to see this happen. So, yeah. And I'm I'm with you on this. I don't see a lot of downsides, but, man, I'd really, really want to see some numbers.

Yeah, I really want to see. What are they bringing to the table besides good people? Because I think they are good people. Yeah. And that that is very valuable. Yeah. But there also has to be some economic talk and how how much are you going to blend to Idaho? Are you going to move shift immediately to our school system shifted maybe like how much are yeah.

Are you going to change your personality coming from. Yeah, eastern Oregon and I mean the personality of the politics. Yeah. Because you are used to certain things in eastern Oregon. Yeah. Well, if you're going to come in and start the initiative process to legalize marijuana, that's got to be part of the conversation. Yeah. Because you're used to having marijuana, right.

You wonder though, I mean, how much of that. Well, although there is a dispensary in Ontario, right. Like so yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's right. You're going to give that up. So those are questions that have to be asked. There's a few people are like, oh heck no, I'm against it now. But someone said would ruin the shape of the Idaho stickers.

On our vehicles Idaho. We now just have a badonkadonk. Yeah, that's true. That's like a really big rear end on Idaho. Yeah, as someone said, I'm on the fence about the Greater Idaho movement. My dad and grandparents live near Lake Grand, and I've spent a lot of time there, so I know how good the folks are around there, but I feel like there's just so many moving parts, it's hard to wait.

That's the thing. Like my 30,000ft view of it, I'm in favor of it, I like it. I think there's a lot of upside to it, but the devil's in the details. They would have to get the water rights thing rock solid. Yeah, and it's not even rock solid in Idaho right now. So I you know, you're you're going to place like marshmallow fluff.

You're Idaho right now. You're, you're you've gone from Tiddledywinks to 4D chess real quick. You know, on, on some issues. So but I, a lot of people but really. Yeah, people have a lot to say about this. Yeah. All right, let's go to the phones. (208) 542-1079 and caller go ahead. You're on it. Not well. Thank you. I just wanted to comment on this, proposed, annexation of part of Oregon.

Yeah, I and this is the way I understand it. Correct me if I'm wrong. Would not each state have to have some kind of a referendum in their states? They have the people to vote. Yes. We want to give up part of this. And yes, we're willing to accept before I can go to the state legislatures. And then on the Congress.

No, no, I don't think so. I think the legislatures can make the decision. Okay. So once they've made the decision, then it goes to Congress. Is that correct? I believe so, yes. Okay. And they have to, vote to allow to change whatever it is. So on a reality meter saying one is it'll never happen to number ten.

Welcome. But you'll have to take individual training on out of pump gas. But here it goes. Yeah. It's like that. Yeah. You're going to have to pump your own gas. That's true. Yeah yeah yeah. Bring some weed too. Yeah. Oh you got, they got those liberal drug laws. Where do you think it has a chance to stand? One out of ten.

Two out of ten. Yeah. And you say I, you know, I put it at a 20, 25% chance a little bit more. I think there's a chance here. Like I the fact that the movement has persisted this long. I remember talking about this probably seven years ago, something like that, and interviewing people about it, back then. And, you know, usually if something doesn't have a chance, it kind of fritters out after a while.

But I think the fact that you have, what is it, 13 counties now that have voted to do this, that's not really an electoral result that our, our political leaders can ignore. Like I think it it it gains legitimacy simply because the voters have said, we want this and and because of that, I you know, when when Matt McCall laid it out, I think Idaho's legislature would be on board with the right plan.

Congress would probably be on board if both states wanted it. And, and, so I think the one hurdle is the Oregon legislature, and I think that's a hurdle that maybe you could look at, at, at overcoming. So I'd give it a bit of a chance. A chance. Yeah. And then just one other real quick, comment.

I would not be and, you know, I wouldn't be opposed to this happening, but I would not want to pick Northern California counties out of Washington. I think that that would be just too big of a burden on the state. Yeah. And I think that's off the table right now. So, yeah, we've gotten we've gotten we've gotten texts about that.

People really believing that they're there is, like Coos Bay would come in. That's not going to happen. That is not what the Greater Idaho movement is even looking at it. Yeah. It's basically like they've drawn a line down the middle of Oregon, and everything on the east side is what they're referencing would be coming to Idaho, to Idaho.

Very good. Well, you're to have a fantastic day. And thank you for your program. All right. Thank you for the call. (208) 542-1079 we go to our next caller. Good morning and good morning. How are you now? We're hanging in there. What's on your mind? Yeah. Well, I moved here from Portland, to the Idaho Falls area a couple of years ago.

And I got to say that I think that marijuana should be part of that because I moved to Portland, because the state produced marijuana wasn't near as good as what I used to get on the black market and the weed here in Idaho, although you can't pick it up at I intersection, it's better. It's it's it's a real stuff.

And, I voted for Kamala. I mean, I, I, I think all of Oregon should become Idaho. And they should legalize marijuana. I, I haven't had to work since Obama came into office. He support me. I only do what I want to do. I work what I well, I don't even work, but I, I can stay home and smoke weed and watch Netflix on the government and yeah, so roll that in your blunt.

Okay Vic thank you. All right. I don't even care if that was a fake call or not. That was very, very entertaining. We'll just we'll just take it. All right. Let's go to the next caller. Welcome to the show. How are you today? Good. I'm trying to form my thoughts after that. Oh, yeah, that's a little a little destabilizing, isn't it?

Yeah. Okay. Good call. So first of all, I own a small company that does stickers and patches, and. Yeah, that would ruin the heck out of my business. So I can't do it for that reason. Yeah. But no more. Seriously, though, I do wonder, like, it feels like we are fighting for a year or two to create influence in different states and to, you know, either stop a culture from changing or to bring back a culture.

And it seems like we are trying to do both over in those, states next to us. So should we take those voices away from their state? Wouldn't that just make it even harder for for those people that are trying to change that state and create influence in their station, they state her state well, I don't think we're taking them.

They're leaving us. Yeah, I would say sure is what we're what we're fighting with. This is can Eastern Oregon be saved? I mean, isn't that your your your question, can Eastern Oregon be saved if we take the conservatives out of Oregon? It's a complete loss, right? It's not going to be saved. But I think then you have to decide if you're an Eastern Oregon Oregonian, if you're an Eastern Oregonian, can you save your state?

I think that's the question they've posed themselves. That's fair. And I would say really quick and I'll, I'll let you finish. Hold on one second. I think those 13 counties that voted to want to join Idaho have already said, we're not going to try to change our state anymore. We just want to leave that. So you might have more hope for Oregon than they do.

Caller that might be the case. Which is sad. I think the only way I would, agree with it is if the rest of that state joined Canada. I think that would be awesome. Okay, we just get rid of them. Maybe we can create a sever where the land just goes out into the ocean. There you go.

See, I, I think there's ideas to be had anyway. Thank you. All right. Thank you. 2085 for 270. They say that Oregon is due for a massive earthquake. Really? Yeah. Okay. Maybe it'll just happen all on its own. Yeah, maybe that's why they'll. Eastern Oregonians want to get out of there. My my uncle, who lives in Oregon, was a science teacher.

So he be, you know, taught this stuff. But there's a fault line off the ocean and there's usually there's a massive earthquake about every 600 years. We're very, very do for it, for that. So that's why when you go to the coast there soon, Army route is like signs everywhere. So, okay, let's go to our next call.

Welcome to the show. Hey, can you hear me? Yes, yes, we can hear you. Great. Hey, so that guy that texted in, about weakening Oregon, I think what he meant was. Yeah, it'll strengthen, Idaho. But in the bigger scheme of things, when you look at it politically, we want those policies voted against. When they're trying to pass all these ridiculous, you know, agendas.

They want to pass. We want people to say, hey, you know, we're going to stand against it. Yeah. Yeah. No. And, and, and I understand that. But what do you think should happen in this case? Honestly, I'm all for strengthening Idaho. You know how we are. I mean, the stronger, the better. And just hold the line and, you know, don't I?

I'd rather Idaho. Yeah. I'd rather Idaho, be stronger. Yeah. And all seems so. All right. Well, thank you for the call, Julie. We have some breaking news. I'll go ahead. Oh, I was just going to say the breaking news is Jose Ibarra. That is the man who was accused of killing the nursing student in Athens, Georgia.

The illegal immigrant. That trial's been huge. You'll remember the name Lincoln Riley. That was the name that was, mistakenly mentioned. Like it? He, Joe Biden said it wrong in the state of the Union. Caused a lot of problems. Okay, well, that trial has been happening. It was not a jury trial. It was a judge trial. And Neal and I were talking off air a little while ago, and I thought the judge would hold on to this, for about a day and think about it.

He thought about it for about a half hour. He's guilty. He's guilty? Yeah. Yep. Judge was like, no, don't even need to go back to my chambers. We're done. Deal. On all ten counts of the Lincoln Riley murder. That's got to come as some big relief to the family. Yes, I would imagine so. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Yeah, we thought it might be a minute.

Yeah, we thought it wouldn't be till tomorrow that we'd be talking about that. But the judge came right back. Okay. Really quick, let's go back to the phones. Caller. Welcome to the show. Yes, I would like to thank you too personally for the effort you put in to overturn or to, vote down prop one. No thank you.

I also vote for court. Trump appointed the last three Supreme Court justices, which made it possible to overturn Roe versus Wade. Thank you. Thank you. And indeed, in fact, that was sort of my consolation after 2020 when we thought, well, maybe Trump is going to be a one term president. I thought in some ways he accomplished more in his one term than a lot of presidents do in two.

And one of those was three Supreme Court justices that have truly delivered and I'll take that. I'll take that. Were were, prime for it again. Yeah. Because we can have Clarence Thomas retire in the next two years and and place a much younger conservative judge, not more conservative than Clarence Thomas. Clarence Thomas is very conservative, but much younger than Clarence Thomas, and is also conservative and have them for 25, 30 years.

Yeah, it it is it's going to be, a good window here. In fact, they wanted Sonia Sotomayor to retire because her health may not allow her to keep going for four more years. So. All right. It's 930 on Newstalk 179. We're going to break away for a bit, but we'll come back if you'd like to join us.

The number the fall River propane calling text line is (208) 542-1079. Idaho's new shape would be giving a middle finger to what's left of all. It does kind of look like that. Like this is the bottom part of Idaho. And then there's the little part of Idaho sticking up. Yes. That's true. And then he sent a link about the earthquake that I was talking to.

It is kind of fun to have a state that has such a unique shape to it. I mean, people know what Idaho looks like. Yeah. You, you you could throw the shapes of, like Ohio, Indiana and Missouri all on a page. And I bet only a third of the people at Walmart could tell you what the states were.

No, I think that I might be overshooting that. But you put a state you on the same piece of paper. You put Idaho, let's say Idaho, Texas and Florida. Everyone knows what those states look like. That's true. That's true. Yeah. I think, Colorado's probably the most boring state is a very boring state Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota.

They're like, I don't even know. I don't know which ones these are. Do you think when they were drawing Colorado's shape, they're like, okay, let's put a straight line here and then let's put a straight line here. Then let's put another straight line here, and then let's make one more straight line to connect them all. Oh. Got it.

Was it the last state that they drew. And they're like I'm just tired. Line line line line done. Yeah I actually read something that they're actually little differences all along the border. So it's actually not a straight line like it's little shifts alone. If you could really go in microscopically. Yeah. Yeah. I actually really like Idaho's shape.

It feels good. When I was a little kid I used to bite into a cracker a saltine and try to make the shape of Idaho, you know like bite on the corner of it and make the shape of Idaho. I think you're, I did the exact same thing, I think when I was eating graham crackers after school, watching The Brady Bunch, I would end it.

That kind of looks like Idaho. You take a little off the top, and honestly, I don't know if I stopped doing it when I was a kid. I think I've probably done it in my adult years. How close to I don't get? Okay, that should be a short. That should be like a real yes. I haven't talked to you about this.

A mutual friend of ours. Yeah. Was texting with me last night. Yeah, he was in some sort of a conference. I don't know what he's doing. Anyway, they were reviewing. I. He is going to send me I options that will create our shorts for us. Oh, really? Once we give them the video. Yeah, I chop set up.

Really. I've seen some of those things advertised, but yeah, no. Yeah. Interesting. I'm trying to think which. Oh it did Jim habla. He won't care that I said oh, gotcha. Yeah, yeah. Okay. He was wanting to know how often I use. I. Yeah, he was thinking of like he's seen what happens with my podcast. Yeah. And so that's why he was texting me and I didn't get that at first.

And so I was informing him what you and I do with I. Gotcha. Okay. And, and so our, our conversation probably went on a little longer because I was confused. Yeah. Gotcha. But it ended up being a good conversation because, I haven't used I very much in my podcast because I really like it to be conversational.

I want to be. Yeah, I want it to feel like when people are sitting with me. Yeah, that they're sitting with me. Yeah. And I fear that goes away with I yeah, I would agree. But if you're taking that conversation like you and I just had. And then letting I chop that up, you don't lose the conversation.

Yeah. That's true. So I'm good with that. Yeah. Yeah yeah. We don't want fake people. But if we can use AI to go here's a natural thought break here or whatever. Yes. Yeah. Guess what I had a day or two ago. Julie, tell me. A big old honking brought from Grand Peak. Spam me. Oh, good for you.

You got to be about. Oh, we probably need to make another order. You know, something that I make? From time to time, and everybody in the family likes it when I do. This is I cut up potatoes and fry them. It's not hash browns. People are like, you know, it's hash browns, you moron. No, but I cube up potatoes, and then I fry them.

I always try to put some meat in it, like a sausage. Whatever. Yeah. Anyway, what I found was the broths, and I thought, you know what? This should work. And I cut up a couple of the brats and put it in the fried potatoes. It was perfect. Yum. You can get those brats at GP Prime meats.com. Super easy.

You can order online. It's a very friendly website, by the way. But here's the great deal. If you don't like ordering online, just give them a call because they'll take your order over the phone and handle it all for you. And it's time to fill up the freezer. Yes, absolutely it is. And, free delivery in the Idaho Falls area, for orders $75 or more.

It's a very nominal fee if it's less than that. But I'm thinking, those are called country potatoes, right? Hash browns are shredded. Cubed potatoes are called country potatoes or home fries. What are home fries? I don't know, I think some places call it home. Let me do the little Q potatoes, home fries, home fries. Yeah. Home fries.

Home fries. Let me see images of home fries. What is it. Yeah. Home fries. That's okay. Yeah yeah. It's basically home price. All right. There you go. But I, you know, I had, like, onion and other stuff too. Yep. Super good then. Not me things. Do you like potatoes? Yeah. Could I can you be an idahoan and not like potatoes?

I don't think so. We would have to revoke. We would have to query those eastern Oregon to want to join the state. To what degree do you enjoy potato? Do you insist upon smoking your weed? And do you like potatoes? Right. Those are the two major questions. What do you like more? Your weed or potatoes? No.

No. Okay. Let's see. Well, I was, I had something I had something that I was going to bring up and I've lost it. I've since lost it. I don't know, we we in the Neal Larson show have not talked about the Nancy Mace audio. If you want to go there. Yes. Let's let's go there. So Nancy Mace is Stan.

Oh heck no. We're not going to let men use the the Capitol restrooms and the reporters, the paparazzi. Reporter people are coming after her. She's handling them deftly. Listen to this. So that being a feminist makes me an extremist. I'm totally here for it. Is this effort in response to Congresswoman McBride's coming to Congress? Yes. And absolutely.

And then some. I'm not going to stand for a man. You know, if someone with a penis is in the women's locker room, that's not okay. And I'm a victim of abuse myself. I'm a rape survivor. I have PTSD from the abuse I've suffered at the hands of a man. And I know how vulnerable women and girls are in private spaces.

So I'm absolutely 100% going to stand in the way of any man who wants to be in a women's restroom, in our locker rooms, in our changing rooms. I will be there fighting you every step of the way. Okay. All right. So that's Nancy Mace, very strong. This all happened because there has been someone elected who's a man that believes they're a woman.

Yeah. And so Nancy Mace is like, I'm not sharing this bathroom with this person, but I'm going to do it. So Hakeem Jeffries now is characterizing what Nancy Mace is doing as bullying, as Kathryn Clarke indicated, the notion that this incoming small House Republican Conference majority is beginning to transition to the new Congress by bullying a member of Congress.

This is what we're doing. This is the lesson that you've drawn. Okay, now, I will say, and I only say this because it's relevant to this conversation. I don't think that Nancy Mace lives in victimhood, but what Hakeem Jeffries is doing here is shaming a rape survivor for not wanting a man in her restroom. Think, think through this.

The bully who is the bully in this case, when you are shaming a rape survivor for not wanting a man in the restroom with her. Oh so cute. Let's just look at the words he chose very end. He says this is the lesson you've learned. I don't need to learn any lesson because biology tells me boys should be in the boys restroom and girls should be in the girls restroom.

There's no lesson to learn here. No. Yeah, I know you want to think there's a lesson, and you want to change biology and you want to go against science. There is no lesson to learn here. No. So what I'm. What I'm noticing, though, is that Democrats have not learned the lesson of November 5th. They are doubling down on absurdity.

And this is exactly why they lost in pretty big numbers on November 5th. It's why Donald Trump, in part, is the president of the United States. It's why the Senate is now going to be led by John Thune and not Chuck Schumer. It's why there are a number of counties in California that shifted red. We are sick and tired of the left gaslighting us.

Unreal. Men are men and women are women. Period. That's it, that's it. It's it's it's done at that point. And you can live in delusion. You can live in absurdity if you want, but you do that at your own peril, because America largely is done with this garbage. Yeah. And I'm I'm done having to change for one person.

This is how we grow up. Girls go in the girl locker room. Boys go in the boy locker room when you are like, we don't want the Joe Biden way of doing this where your 12 year old is showering with you. This is not it's not healthy. It's not good for little children. It's not good for women to feel threatened like this.

I don't need to change because some person decided they're the wrong gender. Yeah, take that up with God. It's not my business. No. And you're not going to infiltrate what I'm doing because you have an issue. Yeah, and I'm really. That's one of the things I'm kind of over with this election. And the response to the election is stop diminishing the way I feel, because you think the way you feel is more important.

Yeah, I'm over that. So many people did this with the election post-election the day after, two days after, oh, poor me, the world is going to be over as we know it. You took away my rights. No. Maybe use some birth control. Yeah. I didn't take anything away from you. You get to decide who you sleep with, when you sleep with them and how you handle it.

And there's ways for you to handle that. Julie, are we? I mean, let me boil it down. I you feel free to add to this if you think I'm being too simplistic, but I think this comes down to social discomfort that if you're trans, if you're a man but you believe you're a woman, it's uncomfortable for you to go in a men's bathroom, even though that's the bathroom that's geared to accommodate male urination.

You're anatomy. You're anatomy. That's what a bathroom is for. And that's why we have different bathrooms, is because we have different anatomy. Okay. So it's social discomfort for you because in your mind you've connected all these things with, well, the, the gender I feel like is the one I want to go into. Okay. Why do they elevate the social discomfort of this very, very tiny slice of the population above the social discomfort of half the population?

That's the question. That's you said it perfectly. That's what I'm tired of. And I'm not going to run away from it anymore. I told people after the election, don't be scared to tell people who you voted for. You don't have to do that in today's world anymore. We kind of broke through that. I'm not going to be scared of of of talking about your social discomfort.

I'm not going to do it anymore. Like there's lots of ways for us to manage difficulties in our lives and our our difficulties in our lives. Very. Your difficulties are not more important than my difficulties. I'm going to manage mine. You manage yours and stop trying to make places unsafe because you want comfort. You want to be comfortable managing your difficulties.

Yeah, everybody has to morph to them. Yes. Yeah, yeah, I think we're done with that. I, I'm tired of big traps. Big trucks acting like they own the road. So should I make everyone who owns a big truck not drive their big truck anymore? That's stupidity. I'm socially uncomfortable with the way big trucks just come over in front of everybody because their vehicle is bigger than everybody else's.

Only only gamma males driving trucks, whatever it is. Yeah, but I'm not I don't you know what you do. I change the way I drive. I watch out for big trucks. See how easy that was to manage? See how easy? Surely you can't expect other people to be grown ups. I, I guess not, I guess not. All right.

944 (208) 542-1079 went long in the first segment. We got to turn right back around, take a break here, but we'll come back if you'd like to join us on the program. (208) 542-1079. Somebody said as a big truck driver, it's called superior tonnage. Best get out of the way. At least it has a name. Yes. Right. Is that.

Yeah. That's funny. Maybe Nancy Mace should pull the fire alarm every time that new representative tries to use the women's bathroom, then Hakeem can't be mad about that. That's funny. It's a good day. I think what's threw me over the edge with the post election was there was a lot of sharing of 6 or 7 different memes.

Of your, your desire for cheaper eggs and bread has ripped away my women's rights. And I just finally hit a wall and was like, oh shut up. Yeah. Stop. Why do you get to decide for that father or mother who can't buy groceries for their kids? Yeah. Why do you get to decide for that? Dad, who's working three jobs to make sure his kids can have the needs met?

You know, because you want to be able to have an abortion at will. Stop. Yeah, yeah, well, you part of the the broken. What's the word? What is the left? What's a good word for them. Well, they're just defective. It's kind of like a religion. They've chosen to follow a new religion. But. But part of it is you need to be inconvenienced.

You need to feel pain, even if it's not necessary, I. Well, here's an example. Oh, did I miss you? I just oh. Yep. There we go. We're good. Okay, okay. You said I don't know why that did that. Here's an example. Yeah. Like, I believe that if we found an abundant and environmentally, friendly supply of energy in this country, the left would hate it because they don't want you to have abundant energy.

They they need to be in the mix of changing your lifestyle and curtailing your life. That's a great example. They wouldn't celebrate it at all. Not at all. If Elon Musk came up with a new way. Like, like back to the future burning refuge. Yeah. Creates energy. They would find a problem with it. Yes, I think they've already found it.

It's called nuclear energy. But they they find something wrong with it. But I, I realized early on in my understanding of politics, that the left needs to create artificial scarcity. So that they can be relevant in your life. Yeah. They've got relationship and attachment issues in control issues and it very much is like a toxic relationship.

It's very similar to the person we were talking about earlier today. Give me a little more. You sent them a message. Oh yes. Yes yes. It's very similar to that. Yes. It has to be toxic in order to be fulfilling. Yeah that's true. And and they need to know that you've suffered some level of misery in their name.

Yeah. And I think that toxic relationships are that way. And the worst thing that you could ever do. Well best thing, but the most the thing that would make them do that would make them panic the most is to not need them. That's what they can't abide. Except.

949 Newstalk 179 if you'd like to reach the Nielsen show. 2085421079I have a few minutes here. Juliana. You were about to say something else. Julie, in our Facebook Live conversation. Oh, I was just going to say that I think that you explained it perfectly on these personalities who need to control, you know, because we are referencing a person who is who we feel like this is their, their way of functioning in a relationship.

If they're not being toxic, if they're not controlling, you know, if they're not hurling names, if they're, then they're not fulfilled. Yeah. And I think that when you when it comes to politics, we see this a lot on the left. Well we in the conversation that we were having during Facebook Live was the example that I gave was if if we found an abundant energy source that was environmentally friendly, the left would hate it because they need scarcity.

They need you to not live an abundant life, and you need to feel shameful if you want to live an abundant life. Because if there's scarcity, then that creates the need for a solution that they're going to be a part of. And so they, they will intervene somehow. And your misery is a key to their happiness.

Yes. And that's what's toxic about the left is they need you to feel shame for being white. They need you to feel shame for being a man. They need you to feel shame for driving an SUV. They all these things, they manage fracture these arbitrary metrics of inferiority so that they can shame you and therefore have relevance in your life.

And it's you got to just be done with it. There, there we have, a handful of people who text in, and that's what we were talking about, are these people that need to a constant shame us, and it's incredibly toxic. It's not enough for them to just say, you know what? We have different opinions and we'll just have to agree to disagree.

You and I are radical right wing extremists. In some some days we're stupid other day. And so you just have to put up really good solid boundaries with those kinds of you do. And there is a portion of me that actually feels bad that people have these kind of people in their lives. You can put a boundary there too, because, yeah, that's not being it's not Republican.

It's not Democrat. It's not it's not independent. It's not it's not human. Right. So when when someone is telling you the importance of putting bread and eggs on your table doesn't matter because I matter more. Yeah. That's not human. Yeah. You you should continue to embrace and enjoy inflation as long as I don't have all the reproductive rights that I want.

Yeah, that's basically the argument. Yeah. That's why would anybody voluntarily have that dynamic in their life I don't know and invite that in their life. Yeah. What do you what do people get out of it that's not a toxic relationship. Well I know, but what's in it for them? I guess I would ask that if you're if you're a Democrat, what's in it for you?

What are you getting out of those kinds of relationships where you're made to feel guilty for being white or a man, or like, what are what are you getting out of that? And for something that everybody has to eat, not everybody has to have an abortion. Everyone has to eat to live. So tell me, what if we were to put a weight value on the two things?

Do we want a human race? Then we have to have food right? Like, yes. I don't understand how I should be ashamed that I want to not pay so much money for groceries, because your misery is key to their happiness, I guess I you know what I find funny about that though? I don't even remember who said this, but I remember us talking about it.

They are admitting that Donald Trump will fix the economy, and Joe Biden will not say right, right by making that point. Yes. All right. 954 back. We'll wrap it up just ahead.

Okay. They're even saying that he may get sentenced today to, that's a quick move like in this judge, because I thought he would take the the politically neutral. Yeah. Arena go slow. You know, I don't I don't want to appear too quick on this decision. Maybe he's like, let's just rip the Band-Aid. I'm pregnant. Hopefully because we got lots of things I need to fix in Georgia.

Is the left sticking up for this guy? I think they want to pretend like he doesn't exist. I think that's their hope. They hope this. They hope no one pays attention to this. Yeah, because our tax dollars paid for this guy to be in that city to rape that girl. Yeah. And kill that girl. We paid for him to get there, right?

Yep, yep. In fact, we got paid today so we could go. I've got my pay stub right here. I could open it up. Yeah. Look and see how much money went to the federal government. And I could apportion a part of that to his flights and. Yeah. Housing and. Yeah. Yeah, you know what? I just we're never going to stop the insanity 100%.

I think we can I think we can cut out 80% of it though. I think so too. Okay. Can we talk about something. How much time. We have. Two minutes. And 40s. Okay. Trump nominated Linda McMahon for Secretary of Education. Yeah. Okay. The left thought they were making a slam dunk point last night on X, that obviously he's keeping the department.

He nominated somebody to run it. How stupid are these people? Like, I don't, you know, I don't think they're stupid. I think they're in denial. They're they're clinging to you. Don't get rid of it by not appointing the director of it. That's somebody has to oversee the getting rid of even remember Mitt Romney vulture capital. Yes. Yeah.

You can name a CEO of a company you know, you're getting rid of. Yes. Oh, yeah. It happens all the time, actually. Yeah. There's a whole industry where you buy companies that are falling apart to divert, to break them into pieces and sell them. You don't buy the company. I'm gonna save it. Sometimes you buy the company cause you're going to break it apart, and you're going to use a little bit for yourself and sell this portion over here.

And I, you know, it's funny, and and sorry if this imagery is offensive to some people, but I think the department of Education is a teat that a lot of people have been sucking from. Yeah, but it actually doesn't do much for educating kids in America. Yeah. It's not nutrition. Yeah. And you're right, it's not. It's we could we could further this analogy, but maybe we've would be better off not doing that.

But I, I think that, It's about to go dry. Yes. Yeah. Qaboos you want to go back to sugar I love Qaboos. He let me find the right spot. Pause it right there. Sorry Facebook. You can't hear it because if I played it for you Facebook would shut us down. So let's talk about the monetary thing in Facebook on the next break okay.

Here we go.

958 on Newstalk 117 on this Wednesday. Julie, that's going to do it. But we have Senator Risch tomorrow. Is that right? We do. And we'll also be talking with the new representative out of Pocatello Chubbuck area, Tanya Burgoyne. Yes. Yeah. Okay. That'll be great. What time is at seven 3730? Senator issued 805. Right. Correct. Okay. Big day tomorrow.

Have a wonderful Wednesday. Stay warm, and we'll see you back here tomorrow.