12.9.2024 -- NLS -- Media Meltdowns, Bundy Backlash, and School Vouchers

On this episode with Neal and Julie, the conversation explores a wide range of current events and cultural observations. Neal reflects on a controversial statement by Ammon Bundy regarding the United Healthcare CEO’s assassination, noting that while Bundy claimed to "understand the sentiment," such rhetoric only fuels division. The pair also delve into the shifting landscape of media, with Neal critiquing CNN’s challenges and the future prospects of high-profile anchors like Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. Neal suggests that their transition to digital platforms may not yield success, paralleling similar struggles faced by other prominent media figures.

Julie and Neal analyze the implications of a recent Supreme Court discussion on birthright citizenship, with Senator Mike Lee’s remarks about the 14th Amendment’s interpretation making headlines. They also consider the ongoing impact of voucher programs on education, highlighting concerns about public schools potentially being left with underperforming students.

The episode wraps with a nuanced conversation about Daniel Penny’s acquittal in a high-profile subway incident, emphasizing the complexity of legal precedents and public opinion. Throughout, Neal and Julie's sharp commentary and candid insights provide a thought-provoking look at the intersections of politics, media, and society.

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Transcript

We haven't had a functioning president. Let's just be honest for God knows how many months. And thank goodness Donald Trump is willing to go represent this country on the world stage. Will you concede the 2020 election and turn the page on that chapter? No. You can say he had fascist rhetoric and still go in and talk to it.

Yeah. You know why I do that? To get the read of the man. Hello and good morning. It's 807 on Newstalk 179. Welcome to the program. It's good to have you along on this Monday, this cold December, Monday. But we haven't had a lot of wintry weather so far. And, of course we always hope for a white Christmas, right?

Right. At any rate. Good morning. There's, some interesting stuff going on. Of course. President Trump appeared on Meet the Press. Kristen Welker did a sit down with Trump. And I feel like by Trump standards, he knocked it out of the park. He's much less combative, but he's still strong and holds his own. And I think that that's a that's a great, a great, trait to have.

You have that we also I just need to set the table here really quickly. You have, this I'm going to float this question out to the ether, and maybe some law enforcement or corrections officials types out there can answer this question for me, but you have this Kevin Quintal guy or Quinn Solar. Quinn Lee, I don't know how you say his last name.

He is a first degree murder suspect. And they had him at a work camp in Saint Anthony. How does that happen? Someone tell me how that happens. Because I don't I don't know why you would take anybody who may be facing life in prison or the death penalty. Not sure what they're pursuing in this case. How is it that you have that going on a that he ends up in a minimum security situation?

Because at that point, if if there's a chance you might be going to of course, they're a flight risk. Just the nature of the situation. So that and also Ammon Bundy has triggered the media again. And this was well, it's the Idaho Statesman. Usually there's about 3 or 4 Boise area statewide ish kinds of outlets that can get triggered by Ammon Bundy.

And, it was the Idaho statesman's turn to get triggered by Ammon Bundy. Apparently, he went on on social media or on YouTube and said that he's not saying that the murder of the United Healthcare CEO was right, but he understands the sentiment, and he has to fight those sentiments every day. Keep in mind, it's a hospital health care system that has decimated, him financially through very high powered attorneys and lawsuits.

And he's, you know, his his finances. He's in financial ruin. And some would say he did that to himself, which is a, a fair discussion point. So, you you've got that. And then, you have hold on one second. I gotta do a couple things here. And then you also have Joe Biden, we have Syria, and Joe Biden is talking about US support of this Syrian rebellion.

Now, this posed a little bit of an opportunity for the United States. You know, over the past four years, my administration pursued a clear principle policy towards Syria. First, we made clear from the start sanction on the right, on Iran. Assad would remain in place unless you engage seriously in the political process and the civil war. Okay. So during the upheaval and, Assad has sort refuge, exile, whatever it is in, in Moscow because Moscow has backed Assad, we've quasi backed the rebels in Syria because Assad's, not a good guy.

Although, you know, you say that and he had trigger people in your audience who think Assad's a good guy. You know, I'm not going to get into it, but on the surface, Assad's the bad guy. And, regime change could turn out to be, a good thing. And then there's this. I don't know if you saw this story or not.

Joe Scarborough sitting there with Mika, losing his crap because he continues to get criticized, that he and Mika went to Mar-A-Lago and had an out what was 90 minute sit down with Trump. Two things. You can do two things at the same time. You can say he had fascist rhetoric and still go in and talk to it. Yeah, yeah.

No way I do that to get the read of the man. You know, I went in and talk to Macron to get the read of the man at a crucial time and EU funding and NATO funding. Do you know why I went to leaders in the Middle East who were angry at the United States? And I sat there and I listened to them attacking me personally for 45 minutes because of U.S. policy.

You know why I do that? To get the read the leader, to get the read. Okay, I can't take anymore more. What would you do if that were your stepdad? And he was always talk to you like that? I mean, every sentence, the tone adds, you moron at the end. So here's my read on, the read of that man.

Let me do the read of that man. My read of the man. Joe Scarborough, is that the days are not good at MSNBC, and the days are numbered at MSNBC, and he knows it. He knows he and Mika are going to be looking for another gig soon. And what audience is left he's angry at because they don't adore him.

Someone was saying he thought he was saying to get the weed of the man. No, that's that's, it's gonna say that's Willie Nelson, but never mind. So, yeah, I hear that. And I'm thinking, now, I've used this tone before, but never directed at you, the audience. I mean, he's treating his own audience with disdain because they had a problem with going to, to Mar-A-Lago to meet with the future president of the United States.

I mean, that is an obvious, obvious interview that you you do you do. I don't know why any the problem here is the audience. But but the added problem is, Mika, no, just need to keep moving. They just don't get mad at it. Just say, look. Yeah, we met with the future president of the United States. You're going to have to deal with that.

But the I mean, I don't understand it. Kristen Welker met with him two over the weekend for Meet the Press. Like, and maybe the audience is upset because it felt like Joe and Mika were groveling. Like they were going hat in hand or tail between their legs. Something very sheepish that that might be. I don't I don't know what their beef is.

I don't get that audience. I don't watch that show deliberately. The only time I see it are when, frankly, when Julie sends me clips, I'm like, okay, I gotta make my way through a couple of minutes, Joe yelling at him like he's the lousy stepdad gonna yell at you till telling you to get your life together and whatever.

So. Yeah, they're they're on their way out. I here's my prediction for Joe and Mika. They are going to try and take what they've been doing, and MSNBC is going to come to some kind of an end here. Either Elon Musk will buy it or Comcast will shutter it, because it just the numbers aren't there for them to make money with it, and they might sell it for a dollar.

I don't I don't know what will happen, but we know that things are about to happen at MSNBC. They'll they'll follow the Tucker Carlson trajectory. They'll start a podcast. That podcast will fall flat on its face. It won't get anywhere near what, what Tucker Carr if if they were going to be popular, they'd have a lot of viewers.

Tucker Carlson left Fox, but it wasn't because he didn't have enough viewers. You have to look at the reason here. I think they know the end of the road is is coming for them, and they're going to have to travel the same journey that Chris Wallace and Don lemon have traveled, which is transitioning from a pretty cush position into trying to make it on your own in the digital wild, wild West.

And I think what they're going to find is, well, it'll be something probably not in the way of success. Did you hear Chris Wallace is leaving CNN and he try. He left. He left. That's such an interesting story to Chris Wallace left Fox News, and they felt like Chris Wallace was their key to make the CNN what they called it.

Plus, I believe to make that successful, it lasted almost literally 15 minutes. And the numbers weren't there. People didn't want it. People just are like, I don't I'm not going to tune in to that. I, I barely like CNN enough to watch it. I'm not going to pay for an additional service to, to to get more of it.

And it folded very, very quickly. So they kind of readjusted, made a space for Chris Wallace. And now he's leaving CNN because I think a lot of people are leaving CNN and he's going to try to make his way forward. But I'm like, look, Chris Wallace, you've done quite well. I'm sure financially just retire. Just enjoy the the your nest egg and, and you know, go enjoy the beach.

Go eat ice cream, dude. It's okay to hang it up after a while. So I think that's the future for Joe and, and Mika. And then you had Scott Jennings, who had a another stellar weekend. Speaking of CNN, we saw him at the tree lighting ceremony and he took his hat off and his hair was crazy. I mean, thank God we haven't had a functioning president.

Let's just be honest for God knows how many months. And thank goodness Donald Trump is willing to go represent this country on the world stage. He's not taken office yet, but you can already see the attitude change of the American posture and the posture of the rest of the world to the United States of America. We've had a weak presidency for four years.

We will now have a strong president. Love him or hate him, this man project strength Joe Biden has projected weakness. I'm glad Donald Trump is there. This church, this cathedral reopening is a big deal to Catholics and Christians all over the world. Thank goodness Donald Trump made this trip. It makes America look good for the U.S. president to be engaged in a historical moment like this.

So I'm glad he made the trip. Okay, I don't know what kind of backroom discussions are had at CNN, but I almost feel like there's either an unspoken or spoken expectation that when Scott Jennings is speaking, nobody should interrupt him because he is the last good thing at CNN, one of the last good things, just in case Jake Tapper and Dana Bash are listening.

But he they know that he's a drawer. I'll just leave it like that. It that CNN hasn't had a lot of draws recently and Scott Jennings is a drawer. So I think they're like, look, we have to have, a new actually not a new. It's a return to the old ethic of allowing both sides to be heard.

In a normal media environment. You say anything that seems to support Donald Trump, it's met with tons of cross talk and interruption and that it will happen with Scott Jennings sometimes when they're doing a big roundtable panel. That wasn't the case this time. But typically there usually is some kind of interruption because most people that are lefty media figures, they cannot abide any praise of Donald Trump without losing their minds.

And I think perhaps it's being, been reinforced at CNN. Look, we gotta we gotta let Scott talk here because he he might be part of what saves us now. I think he's probably going to move on. I think that he'll, go to greener pastures probably fairly soon, but I, he's a fish out of water CNN.

But I will tell you, he is very much a bright spot and kind of out of the blue, too. Like, I don't know if I expected CNN to have someone like this, or maybe more accurately, to allow someone like this to be prominent on their on their programing. All right, Mort BSU big win over the weekend. ESU won over the weekend.

And, we have a lot actually, especially by Monday standards to get to. So if you'd like to reach us, the number to call (208) 542-1079. Julie Mason, Neal Larsen and the remnants of a Clif Bar. And I'm eating. They're going to break. I look whenever Neal and I eat together, I always plan my meal according to what is he going to finish?

So like, we have our Christmas party this week and we each order a meal. Oh yes. And then I pick something that Neal will eat the rest of. I know my Clif Bar. I know he'll eat the rest of it. Yeah, it's true, I, I, I have finished your meal a time or two. Yeah. All right, if you'd like to join us on the program, the fall River propane call and text line is (208) 542-1079.

I don't know what that was. Peter Brady, is there helium in the Clif bar? What's going on here?

I'm glad you're finally going through puberty. Finally? Yeah. 51. It was due. Yeah. Yes. So apparently, Meet the Press is getting some criticism. Senator Mike Lee took NBC news to task for selectively omitting a key part of the 14th amendment in a question about birthright citizenship during an interview with Trump Sunday, he was asked about a number of changes he intends to implement once he assumes office.

During a sit down released on NBC's Meet the Press, including his plan to end birthright citizenship under the 14th amendment, someone born in the US is granted citizenship regardless of whether their parents are citizens. Trump confirmed that he intends to end the policy on day one, calling it ridiculous. So let's let's, play that clip for you. It's less than a minute long.

Here, let me ask you about some of your other promises on this topic. You promised to end birthright citizenship on day one. Is that still your plan? Yeah, absolutely. The 14th amendment, though, says that, quote, all persons born in the United States are citizens. Can you get around the 14th amendment with a change or maybe have to go back to the people, but we have to end it with the only country that has it through an executive action.

You know, we're the only country that has it. You know, if somebody sets a foot of just a foot, one foot, you don't need to on our land. Congratulations. You are now a citizen of the United States of America. Yes, we're going to end that because it's ridiculous. Executive action. We well, if we can to executive action. I was going to do it through executive action.

But then we had to fix Covid first, to be honest with you. We have to end it. Okay. So she admitted, I mean, the text of the 14th amendment, I don't know if you knew this or not. It's widely available. It's not hard for her. It's not hard to find. But there's, one, two, three, four, five, six words.

All persons born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof. So it doesn't say everybody born in the United States is automatically a citizen. It just says all persons born in the US and subject to the jurisdiction thereof. That's what has not, I don't believe has been fully decided in the courts. I also don't like her.

I mean, Kristen Welker obviously has a laundry list of things that she doesn't approve of with Donald Trump. It's it's very clear in the interview. But you, Kristen Welker, are supportive of a current administration that signed in the most executive orders in the first I it was something like 30 days that has ever been signed in, ever by any president.

Yet she's asking the question to Donald Trump as if, well, if you do something by executive order, it's going to be a horrible thing. You dare do that? You you Nazi, you're taking all of your power. Yet she supports an administration that signed in massive amounts of executive orders. Yeah. So why is it such a negative thing when Donald Trump does it?

Kristen. Right. Well, I you know what? I let's go back to a discussion we had last week, Julie, where we talked about being a loyalist to Trump. There are several instances and contexts in which it's only bad if Trump's doing it. Everybody else, it's fine. Other presidents use executive orders. No problem. Other people loyal to other presidents fine.

But if Donald Trump has loyalists, that's an epithet. If Donald Trump signs an executive order for some reason, that's there's something nefarious about that, right? Right. Can't be good for America. There's no reason he would only do it if it's good for him. Yeah, that's her belief. So Mike Lee went on, he said Congress has the power to define what it means to be born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.

While current law contains no such restriction, Congress could pass a law defining what it means to be born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, excluding prospectively from birthright citizenship, individuals born in the US to illegal aliens. Those who suggest Congress is somehow powerless to limit birthright citizenship, ignore important Constitution texts giving Congress power to define who among those born in the United States is born, subject to the jurisdiction thereof.

And then he said, it bothers me that Meet the Press, long revered as America's leading Sunday political news program, has become so one sided. Hey, man, Mike Lee has become the new Twitter senator, or the new ex senator that speaks out so boldly. Yeah, I like it. Question. Because Clarence Thomas is going to resign or retire.

Yeah. Mike Lee could very well be named as a replacement. Would you rather have Mike Lee as a Supreme Court justice, or as the counter to the Mitt Romney 2.0 senator that, Utah just elected? That's tough because I'd want to factor in what committees Mike Lee is on. Like, what does he you know, I would need to look at that and see what the possibilities are of who steps into that role, things like that.

Because that is important. You want you want strength in in your leadership there. Yeah. But here's the deal. I think we could find a strong Republican to replace him, especially with the guidance of Mike Lee's hand if he was going to the Supreme Court. So it's not like he's going from an ultra blue state, and it's just this weird Republican senator who somehow in a blue state makes this kind of a yeah, a splash like Mike Lee has made.

Yeah. However, we've got to remember, Utah is not as safe as it used to be. And it did move a little bit blue this time around just a little bit. So I you have to also factor that in. So I would need to know what Mike Lee would be giving up in the Senate. And then I would also need to know, is he going to be super active in his replacement?

Because I think that would be necessary. We can't let the Mitt Romney wing of the Republican Party pick the next senator for Mike Lee's. Yeah, I would agree with that. We got to keep that that safe or else we're going to have another Jones East. Yeah. Lisa murkowski, whatever. We we can't afford very many of those. Right. They only have a three seat advantage.

So anyway, one last Welker clip. This was sparring over fact checking. Listen, and the Venezuelan gangs are the worst in the world. They're vicious, violent people. And you see what they've done in Colorado and other places? They're taking over, literally taking over apartment complexes and doing it with impunity. They don't care. They couldn't. They just okay, they're in the real estate.

You know, the local police say that is not the case in Colorado. It's totally the case. I mean, I don't believe the local police, I play it I used to play it at my rallies every single night. No, it was breaking into doors. They're taking over the building. But, sir, you. And by the way, the police. The police are afraid to do anything.

Well, and we also know that those Venezuelan gangs taking over the the apartments are also eating the cats and eating the dogs. They're eating the cat? Yes, they're eating the dogs. They're eating the pets in Chicago. No. Do you know what? You know what bothers me about this? Here's here's Kristen Welker. Kirsten or Kristen. Kirsten. Is it Kirsten?

I think it's Kirsten. Sure. I don't know, I'll look it up. How much do you care? Not that much. So here she is. In one other statement or other, part of the interview, she said, well, Bennie Thompson signed a letter saying they didn't destroy the January 6th evidence, and then she did the same thing. Well, the police in Chicago say that's not true.

You're a journalistic organization. The whole definition of why you exist is to go find the truth, not to just repeat what somebody has signed on a paper, or what some police chief who may be acting politically says to the public, you go find out if those gangs have occupied the apartments. You go find out if Bennie Thompson destroyed and Liz Cheney destroyed evidence or not.

Don't don't just say, well, here's what they said. You know, I guess you'd want her as a mom because when you're 16 year old says, oh, yeah, I do have my homework done. I don't need anything. I can go out with my friends. I'm all good. And you just blindly believe it. You get what you deserve. Yes. Yeah, that's very true.

Yeah. You do, you do get what you deserve. So. Right. Well, you've been following this very closely. Gangs have taken over these apartment complex. Absolutely. Hey, that was Aurora was where my son worked in Colorado. They didn't live there. He commuted about 15, 20 minutes to get to his place where he worked. Yeah, but there was massive homelessness, massive gang activity.

And it's it's really kind of depressing because Denver's a great city. Yeah. And the leadership and the Democrat run principles there have destroyed what is a really great city. Yeah. But yeah, they're absolutely they have broken in and you have, almost like warring factions in Colorado. You do have one certain police chief saying, absolutely not. But then you have city council members saying, no, this is absolutely happening.

So for Kristen or Kirsten or whatever her name is, Welker, to take that, as you know. Well, that's gospel truth. That's exactly what's happening. You haven't done your general journalistic duty. Yeah, I, I had a great year repeating talking points that are supporting your biased CIA talking points. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. All right. It's 837 on Newstalk 10792085421079 is the number, if you'd like to reach us.

842 on Newstalk 1079. Julian I fully diving down the rabbit hole of the murder of the United Health Care CEO and so Julie Brian Thompson, of course, is the CEO's name. We now have some very, very good detailed images of the alleged shooter. And you're saying that there are inconsistencies from one picture to the next. I'm just so confused at how many coats this man had.

Now the backpack they found in Central Park did have a jacket in it. So okay I don't know what they're calling a jacket in a coat. I, I don't know what their definition of that is, but they have released via Crime Stoppers and the NYPD pictures of who they believe is the killer in a retrofitted Uber or a taxi, or it's some sort of transportation.

And there's a picture of him outside of that car that was taken from inside the car, because the car has cameras, that is not the same coat. And I would call that a coat. I wouldn't call that a jacket, but I don't know what NYPD is calling it. So he's in a different coat in that picture than the coat at the hostel.

And even before we saw these pictures outside of the Uber or the lift, there was already complaints that the picture in the hostel and the picture on the CCTV footage had different coats. Yeah. So does he have three coats? I don't know, but that's a good question. Maybe. I mean, there are elements of this that looked planned. Who's to say that he maybe didn't stuff a coat here or there or you know, yeah, maybe there was a coat hidden by the electric bike.

Yeah. At I don't. Well. And the conspiracy theories are flying too. Like, apparently he and his wife are separated that they. Maybe we're in the process of a divorce, which obviously that isn't any evidence, but it begs some further questions. It's context. It raises some, you know, some. And I wouldn't say red flags, but you know what I'm saying?

I did hear a take on Friday. I think it was mostly VanCamp and Robbins. They were playing some clips from another guy who investigates these sorts of crimes, and he says it's not unheard of, especially among the super wealthy. They'll hire their own assassin. It's a form of suicide, but they want the insurance payout to go to their kids or their family or whatever.

And so, they, you know, for monetary reasons, they have to stage their own death in this case of murder. Now, I'm certainly not going to make that accusation. That seems wildly outlandish to me. But don't don't rule anything out at this point here. One of the pieces that is weird to me if it's not a hired hit of some sort because people are moving away from the hired hit concept, how did they know where he was going to be?

Good question. How did they know he was sleeping in the hotel across the way? Like, you might be able to figure out that he's taking a trip because he's supposed to be part of this conference that was happening. Yeah, but how did you know he was sleeping across the way and would be walking across the street to go to the conference?

I think that's a good question. I mean, maybe somebody was scoping it out the night before and he. So he's staying in this hotel. So this will be his likely route to my I don't know I don't know either. Yeah. It there's a lot all I know is that what we've seen so far is worth it. At least 3 or 4 episodes of Dateline.

No, I think we're going to be entranced by this. Yeah, because this guy was so wealthy. Plus, there's a lot of emotions attached to how poorly health care is administered in our country. And I don't mean the actual health care. I mean the financial economics of health care. What a mess it is in this mess. And then you've also got the potential of him, maybe giving a, deposition or a testimony about insider trading on on.

Yeah, on some things. So because this United Health Care had been, their security had been breached. So information had gotten loose. Who's going to be the top of the food chain asking those questions? It's going to be the CEO. So he's going to have to be giving answers about that. And somehow it seems we've had some politicians who made money off of the the company that went in and cleaned up this cybersecurity breach.

Okay, okay. New new elements to consider. Yeah, obviously. So, yeah. So question that I have and I certainly do not I want to kind of disconnect this point from this murder of this insurance executive because murder is terrible. And I don't think it's it's only in self-defense is it ever justified. Okay. However, since the issue of insurance is on the table, make the case for me.

Julie, I want to phrase this correctly. That anyone should be getting filthy rich in the insurance industry. Oh, this is going to be hard for me because I believe in capitalism. And if if the government screws up and brings forward something like affordable care Act and we're subject to these, these issues, this is what this is this situation that was created.

So that's why they're making this much money. Yeah. Should they do it and can they do it. Those are two very different things. Yes. Can they. Yeah. The government created the situation I mean can is the laws are what they are. So that that's sort of off the table. I'm talking about the ethics of you pay thousands and thousands of dollars for a health care plan that you really don't use that much.

Hardly ever, hardly ever get somebody in the insurance. So you have to work extra hard to pay for those insurance premiums. And yet you have executives that are making millions and millions of dollars that it feels imbalanced here, that you've that it didn't used to be this way. Health care used to be fairly affordable. It's now they've changed it.

So you have a chunk of the population that gets it pretty much for free. And then you have a chunk of the population that pays out the wazoo, covering everything else so that other chunk can get it for free. And and you know what? There's even another layer of this that, and, we had the, you know, doctor that calls up, every so often here that doesn't take insurance that if, if medical providers did not, take insurance, that alone would make our health care cheaper because there's a massive amount of overhead to process the billing and the insurance and everything else.

That's just the requirement for handling all of that and all the regulation that comes along with it. Everything. If you're a medical office, wouldn't you be afraid that somebody could catch you for, committing fraud, for instance, when you didn't do anything wrong like it? If you're not incredibly careful, it's sort of like the tax code. Most the IRS could probably get about everybody on something in a in a, just a moderately complicated situation.

I think medical medicine is probably a lot the same way. So that being said, when when you look at it, if we could reduce all that overhead, everybody paid for their own insurance. And then the only thing we had insurance for was really expensive stuff like cancer, car accidents, you know, just catastrophic injury. I think the the costs would be much more, affordable at that point.

I can tell you very honestly, I don't know what the answer is. I don't know. I know the Affordable Care Act is not the answer. I know that we're requiring people who file solidly middle class, operating small Ma and pa shops to cover themselves in for their insurance because they're not going to fall into that group that, the Affordable Care Act helps take care of.

So you're punishing the people who are actually making the everyday commerce go round. Yeah. And I if that's the solution for health care, it's the wrong solution. It's not us. Yeah. You're right. You're right about that. I, I also add another layer you mentioned like three different layers. Another layer. I was speaking to someone whose wife is a, was a cancer nurse.

She works specifically in a doctor's office. She quit that field not because it was taxing to take care of patients who are most likely going to die. She had the bandwidth for that. She had the love. She had the grace. Yeah, she had all of that. You know, she couldn't stand anymore watching the families lose everything they owned to fight the cancer of their loved one.

Yeah. Because the insurance that they had still left them penniless, pushed back. Yeah. And then you have executives of that insurance company that are, you know, $10 million salary. Yeah. But, probably tons of perks above and beyond that. Right. Well, probably so. And and, you know, we're not going after CEO CEO's do a very important job. They, you know, they work their way up.

Their job is to make that company profitable. So they're they're they're paid but something feels imbalanced. So let's let's take a break. (208) 542-1079 we'll be back after this. It's 857 on Newstalk 107. And of course Christmas is coming. Julie. And that means gifts and the. I don't know if there's a better gift that I can think of than a nice big box of steaks and ribs and dogs and sous vide crock pot meals that you can get from Grand Peak's Prime Meats.

Okay, so let me tell you something that went through my head earlier today in the 6:00 hour. We were we said to the audience that we're up against the clock because our company party is on Thursday, and neither one of us have our white elephant gifts. Frequently we buy them together and we haven't done it yet, so we're kind of in trouble.

So people were sending us white elephant suggestions and somebody said, give them some, steaks and for this briefest moment I thought because I would go big people with it, they would fight for it. Yeah. For the briefest moment I was like, oh, yeah, we could go get stuff from Grand Peaks. And then I was like, no, I'm selfish.

I'm keeping that for myself. I know we're not sharing that. I'm not giving up that treasure. It's in a white elephant gift. Yeah, and that crap. Sorry. And don't mean crap in the best way possible. So. But it does make a great gift. Go to GP Prime meats.com and, see what fits, see what works. And again that's GP primates.com free delivery in the Idaho Falls area for orders $75 or more.

All right we're going to break. It's our two coming up on Newstalk 179.

True. All right 907 welcome back. (208) 542-1079 that is the fall River propane. Call and text line on this Monday. Getting your well getting your butts back to work here. Julie likes it when I manhandle the, But unlike Joe Scarborough, who just yells and screams at his, you know what? I as he was. I don't know if you heard my monologue or not, Julie, but,

And I've never had a stepdad. I'm glad I never had a stepdad, but, I feel like Joe Scarborough's rant felt like the lecture that you're getting from a stepdad. You hate him? I think that that's fair to say that it's it's definitely not a conversation you want to be part of, whether it's your boss or your stepdad or the neighbor who feels like they can tell you everything that you're supposed to be doing.

Let's just talk over it will run it just slow enough that we can talk over like it'll be background. You know what? Anyway, you know why we have the man at a crucial time. And then I'll turn it up a bit here and there. But most of the time, you just want to talk over him, you know? Why make you mow the lawn?

Because you don't pay for a darn thing in this house. And you can give a little bit back and pay for and mow the lawn for me like it's it's the part of the movie where thoughts are verbalized with reverb in the background to get the I hate my stepdad, so I think he just keeps yelling at me to you.

I don't know why my mom ever had to marry you going, oh, he's such a dirtbag. Yeah, all he does is ever yell at night. That's all he ever does. Anybody we have on this show any context. And you know, everybody that we have on this show, they speak on background. Yeah. Okay. Why would anybody tune in to that?

I look, they're not. That's why it's getting sold. That's why Comcast is like, we can't stem the bleeding cost. It's like it's a turn ticket. Okay, here's here's my sense though. Like it's crumbling. They know it's crumbling. They know they're the it's they're last hurrah at MSNBC. Either Comcast is going to sell it. Ellen's going to buy it and immediately fire them or it's just going to cease to exist.

They'll just shutter it. It'll go away. I'm just going to look up if they already have a podcast, because a lot of these people do. I mean, there's several Fox personalities that do something above and beyond the show that they're on on Fox. Yeah. And so I, I'm wondering if they've already got a podcast and if they do and it's not doing very well, I why would you think if you went to a platform like X you're going to do.

Well, they're I don't know. And but I talked about that too, that Tucker Carlson did not leave Fox because his ratings were low. He left Fox because they didn't like what he was talking about. It was pushed out. Right? He did. They're like, we don't talk about January 6th anymore. Don't show that video of it. And I think he's like, okay, I'm gone.

That's fine. He had enough of a following that he I mean, he started his own thing. He hasn't looked back. He's done a stellar job. What's what's the new blue sky? Yeah. Good luck on blue Sky Joe and Mika. Good luck. Yeah. You and Don lemon. Good luck hanging out. Remember when they put Don lemon on the morning show and then for like 3 or 4 months it was just these constant little spats because he wanted to be in charge.

And it was like that was missing too many divas, too small of a set. Yeah. Do you kind of wish, like when Joe and Mika get the news, they're pink slip and they. However, this ends, how much would you pay to be a fly on the wall in that room? Oh, I'd love to see it. I would too, I'd love to see that.

In fact, they could probably become more financially viable if they would do a pay per view of when they fired Joe and Mika. I'm serious. If there was some way that they could charge, you know, 1999 or 29, 99 to watch that meeting between whoever and Joe and Mika, I think people would actually pay to watch that.

You know what I, I was telling Neal, we watch the US UFC fights with my kids on Saturday night. Yeah, 70 bucks, 69, 99 to stream those fights. And I was talking about how Dana White, whether you like him or hate him because Dana White has a whole lot of baggage. Yeah. Whether you like him or hate him, he's done a great job with the UFC.

He has marketed it very well. Let Dana White by MSNBC. Oh yeah, and turn it into a hybrid news and cage match combo. That'd be awesome. Oh, to be amazing. Like, you have a news desk over here and you have a fighting cage over here. Just let Scott Jennings go after somebody on the left in the in the cage.

And it would almost be like they, like Michael Coates and Jeff Roper could do the weather. And then they could fight over the barometric pressure in the cage. I like that idea. I'm all in. And Michael would go all scholarly on him, and Jeff would go all southern phrases, and we'd have to be dissecting what Jeff was saying.

Here's something about biscuits and gravy and fried chicken. And that's all you know.

We're going to hear about this later. I'm sure we will. And that's a that's a and they show like the first 15 seconds of it. And to see the rest of it like you have to. Yeah. Yeah. You got to pay. You got to drop a few bucks. Yeah, yeah. But that see we need to do this kind of thing.

I don't know why MSNBC is failing in the current model. It's in. Don't just keep doing that. Yeah, I and we are being outrageous. But why not? Why not change it up? Why not do something different? Try something. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm not saying the cage fight is a good idea. We're being outrageous, but do something different.

It's not working for you. Okay, so here's a question that, let. Can we brainstorm for just a moment? I like I like Newsmax, but I feel like they they had a bit of a start in the wake of 2020. There were a lot of people mad at Fox because Fox called Arizona very early. They were not viewed as very Trump friendly.

They went over and above, you know, saying 20 everything was fine with 2020 and, and, you know, so there was there was a lot of strife. And I think the relationship between Fox and its traditional viewers was strained for a little while. A lot of those people are like, I'm watching Newsmax, but I feel like Newsmax has kind of plateaued.

Like I don't see them more prominently or prevalently. I think they probably got that windfall for a year, a year and a half, and I feel like they're just kind of coasting along right now. What if Elon says, okay, I'm buying MSNBC, but we are plugging the Newsmax, product into that show that has instant distribution. Yeah. So create and and you can even have, still have the two separate wings.

Yes. You could they could bounce off of each other I look I, I'm game for anything. I think we live in a world. Yeah. You wouldn't because Neal and I had an extended conversation about marketing. It started with Taylor Swift because she's a crazy marketer. Yeah. A at best average talent. And go ahead and throw your hate at me.

She's an amazing marketer, a good songwriter, writer at best. An average singer. Yeah. So the girl has done it correct somehow. Yeah. So we were trying to dissect that. Right? I think in today's world, you have to think outside of the box. Yeah. In these traditional models of news, they. Are they still viable? Yes. Are they going to make you the big money that other platforms potentially can get?

No. So start changing it up a little bit. You already have an audience migrate with them. Yeah. Yeah I, I would agree with that. I would agree. So it'll be fun to watch I think I think Ellen is worth so much money now. He actually doesn't I don't want to say he doesn't care, but I don't think his priority is to have something become immediately profitable.

It took a little while to kind of turn the corner. It's now starting to make some money, and I think he probably looks at MSNBC if he's going to buy it, and he's sort of dropping hints that he might, I think would probably see the same thing he'd put into it. Whatever it needs to become a successful network, which I applaud.

I think Fox needs some competition. I, I wouldn't have a problem with that. And, and I'm, I'm a fan of Fox. I'm not a fox hater. There's some things from time to time that irritate me, but I haven't, you know, I still watch them a lot, but I. But I think competition is good. I think people having to hustle and fight to to stay on top is a very, very good thing.

I think it's fine too. I, I don't have any heartburn over the fact that Fox would have to step up their game a little bit. It will look better. You can if you're a supporter. I'm going to compare two industries here. If you're a supporter of school choice and that it will help, it will actually help the public schools because it'll create this market of competition.

Yeah. Why wouldn't that crossover? You should be a supporter of it in all areas. Yeah. You want the best hamburger. Have some competition for the one hamburger joint. Yeah. Agreed. You want the best doctor have don't have a drought of physicians in an area. Yeah. Have the doctors actually have to give quality care so that they can keep their patient base?

Julie, if you and I came to the table and our task, if someone gave us a task and said, I want you to create a breeding ground for mediocrity, like that was what we were supposed to do, okay? We would create the education system that we have. Yeah, yeah. Tell people to find a group of taxpayers or a group of people and say you have to fund this and you're going to fund it.

And we're going to always complain about lack of funding, and we're going to always be pointing our fingers at you, but you're not allowed to scrutinize what we do. Yeah, right. You would say, look, you're going to keep your jobs almost no matter what. And we will protect you from any outside competition using the same source of revenue that you have.

Okay. You, you've just set it up to have a mediocre system. That's not to say every teacher's mediocre or every element of education is mediocre, but the overall system, systemically becomes a mediocre system. And you get better when you have someone against whom to compete. You just do the best way to have, to make your good quarterback better is bring on a close number to a backup.

That's a close down. Amazing. And then both of them are fighting for that. Starting position. They both get better. Also, it doesn't always have to be that kind of competition either, because there is a lot of valuable things to learn as the backup quarterback. And you you narrow that gap between you and the number one guy. Yeah. When you start learning and growing and achieving and there's a lot of great things to be learned in the education system from school districts that are doing it a little bit better than you, but even that seems to be not accepted in the education realms.

No, we're absolutely doing it right. Well, maybe you're not. You might not be. Which is why I said, why don't you look at Oklahoma and Arizona when it comes to school choice. Learn from what they've been doing. Yeah, yeah. No, I you're you're you're right. You know, it's interesting because I hear the talking point and I don't we didn't sort of accidentally waded into education here.

This could apply to burger joints whatever. But when you talk about education, you hear people say that. Well, what we're finding out is that if you had, if you redirected money or just put new money into the system that most people that are going to private education or that would use those vouchers are already paying for private education, okay.

And I'm like, okay, that is such a naive point for them to make. I'll tell you what's going to happen. If Wendy Harman's bill gets passed or if a just a full on voucher program became a viable option, you're going to have lots of private schools crop up because there's a new revenue source. It it all of a sudden you have and I do think in terms of this because I know what the clapback is, of how the public schools, they have to take everyone, they can't turn anyone away unless the kids are violent or something like that.

They have to accept everyone and whatever their learning capacity is. But private schools can pick and choose which students they want, so their fear is what will happen is that the private schools will take all the good kids, and it will show that they are succeeding because they've handpicked all the good kids. And then the the public school, the public education system will be left with underperforming kids and they're going to look terrible by comparison.

It's a valid point. Yeah. It's a valid concern is there. Yes I agree. So I think what you do is you build in with this program, you can't turn any student away that if you're going to take public dollars, then if if that student is eligible to go to public school, they're eligible to go to your school. That's that's what you sacrifice.

Because I do think with the tragedy of the Commons to use that, that reference, all of the schools taking the public money to educate kids need to bear a share of that, of that burden. Okay. Yeah. I think that, that I think we're that close. What you're, what you're offering up there are I think are the nuances to Wendy.

Hormones bill or a voucher bill or a tax credit bill. Whatever makes you smile more about this option. You you can choose your words. That those nuances are what going to make it are is what is going to make it possible for us to get to this end point. Yeah. And I want to say something that I feel like gets lost in all of this.

If you're a parent and your desire is to have the best atmosphere your child could possibly exist in, you're not a bad person. Yeah, because there are. There's a lot of finger pointing that goes on that says, well, that just the elitist parents are blah, blah, blah. No, there are really great parents who aren't making a ton of money, but they want their child in the best atmosphere possible.

They're sacrificing greatly when you when you assign a parents love only exists in a wealthy home, you're the one that has pointed the finger wrong. Yeah, that. You know what? That's that's true. And I also believe that now this may be somewhat true, but just because a kid is in a private school don't automatically assume they're wealthy, right?

And I think that that's that's an assumption that gets made and it gets passed over in, in this, in this debate about it, you have middle class families that are sacrificing greatly to put their kids into into public school or, private private school. Yes. You do. Yeah. So all right. 923 Newstalk 1079 quick break. We'll come back if you'd like to join us.

(208) 542-1079 roundabouts Ukraine. What other trigger words can I use? I'll be right back after this. Oh, okay. Okay. So you know what happens in some areas. Yeah. Some one of our mutual friends sent me a text that said Taylor Swift is successful because she made a deal with the devil.

Okay. Did she though? I don't know, I don't know. Okay. So if you guys don't know, my daughter lives in Highland and my brother lives in Highland. Two different areas of Highland, an older area of Highland. And, and, a newer area of Highland, and I'm talking Utah. My brother teaches in the current Alpine School district, which includes Lee high.

It includes, it is huge. All of the developments in Highland, in alpine, all of it, all the massive behind the outlet malls, all of that is part of that school district. Well, in November, the very, very wealthy people in Highland and Alpine got together and put on the ballot that they were going to break apart that school district.

And it passed. Oh, wow, that school district will break apart. And you have now created one, one, two school district that has much more socioeconomic challenges. Yeah, than another school district. So when the legislature doesn't step in and make these options possible for school choice, you're going to have residents step in. Yeah. And make changes. And it happened here.

Yeah. You have to have exactly the right geography to make it happen. But it happened. Yeah. Well, and I think some of the, the, well, I don't say sexier issues, but I think like immigration and inflation, have kind of taken over the national discussion. But this is a big part of, of Trump's plan is education choice.

And and because he knows how this works, he knows that competition makes everybody better. Right. Well, he approaches it like a business. I don't think I sent. Did I send you the clip on his take on the Syria thing? You. No, he he looked at the, the person who asked him the question. He said we shouldn't be getting involved.

Let them fight it out. Let him do it. I mean, that's a very business approach. Yeah. You know what he does? He lets two companies fight it out, and then he would step in and pick up the pieces. Yeah, and make lots of money that way. He's not he's not going to fight for that. Yeah. You got a big compliment.

Other than the killing the Hamas.

That's nice. Okay. So they flattened where the prison is in Utah. Okay. Apparently, one of the big homebuilders, I want to get the name wrong. I think it's edge is building huge residential tracks over that spot. Really? You have two questions. A I wouldn't buy a house that was built on prison land. There's too much bad juju.

Yeah. Would not do it. Yeah. Second, that corridor is already a nightmare. Yeah. What does this do to it? That's a good point.

Good. All right. We're back. 928 on Newstalk 1079 Neal Larsen, Julie Mason and you, if you'd like to reach us. (208) 542-1079 and, let's see, I put a lot on my sheet. Look at this. Julie, you did make a lot of notes this morning. Apparently. Part of their last gasp, like it's one of the last spasms of the Biden administration is they sign an executive order, to try and, get the leverage project through.

Yes, that's in the Minidoka area. And, of course, Senator Rish, this has been a big priority for a big pet project for him. And he's been one of the most vocal opponents. It has bipartisan opposition, but Senator Rish has probably been the most vocal opponent to this. And, he I mean, he has made it very clear nobody wants this thing.

Not even Democrats in Idaho want this thing. Right? I that's how bad of an idea it is. Yeah. And it makes you wonder what's the money trail for the Biden administration? What's his benefit for doing this? Because this could be a very easily forgotten thing. Yes, it could, it could. And, again, we so many issues, Julie, we've gone back to this particular point where the biggest question now is the companies who are going to benefit from putting in the energy projects in that area.

How much of that will make it into the Biden family portfolio? Yeah, yeah, there's got to be a money trail somewhere here because of all the things that he could be finishing out in this last month. Yeah, this is a very forgettable project. Yes it is, and I'm hoping that Rish has enough of an audience with Donald Trump that this will get reversed early on this next, I hope.

Is it? It should it absolutely shouldn't happen. So I had that, Ammon Bundy, I wouldn't even say Ammon Bundy stepped in it. I would say the Idaho Statesman just overreacted. They just can't help themselves. Ammon Bundy made a YouTube video and just said, look, I'm not saying that the assassination of the United Healthcare CEO is okay, but I understand the sentiment behind the shooting.

Okay. Yeah. Look, you probably shouldn't go on YouTube and say things like that. But he said, I mean Bundy I mean he, he's done a lot of things he probably shouldn't have done. Yes. I actually had a very funny conversation that I will share with you privately, but okay. It was this exact conversation, not about this issue, but it was with someone.

And they said, you know what? I'm not saying I agree with it, but I understand it. You'll laugh when I tell you what this is about. So we've all had these conversations, like when you buy about anything, you think about this and people who go to jail for things, you're like, yeah, that guy shouldn't have done that.

But I understand why he did it. Okay, now again, you can never condone murder. And and I don't. But this is an incredibly common sentiment. I have no idea why the Idaho Statesman woke up one morning and said, you know what? We don't like what Ammon Bundy said. So we're going to put a megaphone in front of it.

Yeah. Like, why did they amplify this if they're so offended by it? I don't understand that. You know, what's funny is that we talked earlier when we discussed this. That newspaper is a dying a dying industry. Yeah. It's very difficult for them to operate. The profit margin is so slim. Okay. So, you know, I'm sorry you know, rest in peace.

Whatever. Whatever you want to say to a newspaper. Maybe, just maybe, the Idaho Statesman thinks the only way they will stay alive is to keep fueling the bitter hatred that people have for Trump, for Ammon Bundy, and locally for it. And because that way those subscribers will at least still fund their newspaper. Yeah, maybe if they went more neutral, they're not going to have anybody.

And that could be it. But isn't that it? If that's what you're resorting to, isn't it time to get out of the newspaper business? Yeah, but I mean, in my mind, I know they have to try and stay in business as long as they can, but if if that was a cheap ploy to sell newspapers, because honestly, when I saw this story, you know what my reaction was?

Of course, Ammon Bundy said that. Yeah. Yep. That's just Ammon Bundy. Yep. Okay. It's it's it's who he is and what he does. This was not I mean, after a while there, there's the old journalistic cliche about, you know, a dog bites man, that's not a news story. Man bites dog. There's a news story. But if you wake up every morning and the man keeps biting the dog after a while, it no longer is a news story.

Well, that's this is a this is a tired. It's like, oh, Ammon Bundy said something controversial. Let's write a news story out of it. And what is their fear about Ammon Bundy? The man is not going to run for governor again. And if he does, Ammon, I'm sorry. You're not going to win. You've already bankrupted his family. You've decimated him financially.

You have, I mean, how many pounds of meat is it that they that they always reference in that cliche? Get your 2 pounds, I don't know. Oh, yeah. Pounds of flesh. Something your pound of flesh. It's not the only one. Are you trying to get a pound and a half of flesh out of him? Well, what are you doing?

I don't know. Well, that's. Try let it go. Let's, let's let's try and, you know, shoot the dead horse one more time and see what happens. I don't I don't understand what they're trying to do here because everybody already has settled in to how they feel about Ammon Bundy. Yeah. Yeah. You're you're not okay. I don't have an answer for you.

I it was a it was a non-controversial take because not that it's not that the actual take makes me feel warm and fuzzy. It's that that take is everywhere and seems to be almost the predominant take. That's that's out there on the internet. So what he said isn't that controversial and he's just not that relevant anymore. Not to interrupt, Julie, but someone just texted in.

Daniel Penney has been found not guilty. Oh, yeah. Daniel Penny acquitted of criminally negligent, harmless homicide. So the judge, they had a hung jury on manslaughter. So the judge reduced the charge. He dismissed the manslaughter. So talk about something that's controversial. That's weird. That was very controversial that he did that. So he said, find something else. And now the jury is said acquittal not guilty.

Okay, okay. Wow. How many minutes or maybe hours before we see riots? I don't know, because somebody's going to have to fund the riots. So that's the question. Is there, is George Soros willing to fund a riot outside in New York City? Yeah, probably. It's going to get headlines because this is going to be very controversial here or very I don't even know if it's controversial because I think this is the right verdict here.

Yeah. So that controversial is not the right word. It's going to be very it's like gasoline that can be lit. Gasoline alone. Fine. Gasoline to run a car. Great. Gasoline mixed with fire. Not good. Can I ask you a question a follow up question? Everybody knew George Floyd's name. I mean, I recalled it like that. If you went out and asked 100 people, who did Daniel Penny kill?

How many do. Yeah, subdue. How many people could and it could answer that and and and say the name. Not very many. Not very many at all. And that's probably why there won't be a lot of riots. Yeah, that could be. I feel like people, if they simply look at the facts of this case, here's a guy, ex-Marine, he subdued a violent criminal.

And I actually think that maybe we are growing up a little bit about race, that it's not just this automatic white person harm to black person, therefore it's an automatic riot. It's more like, okay, but let's look at the facts here, because Daniel Penny was protecting other people on the subway. What you know, however you want to you want to frame this.

And I think people can see the nuance in this story. Whereas before it was just almost very robotic. And they did what the media told them. Yes. I hope you're right, man. I hope you're right, because this was a ridiculous case. Even the EMTs and the police who showed up didn't want to give aid to the guy. Okay, Julie, explain something to me.

It's a hung jury on a on a bigger charge. A more severe charge. How was it? An acquittal on a lesser charge as opposed to a hung jury on a more serious charge? I don't know, you know what? I'm guessing I totally get where you're going with your question, and I hope the audience understands, too. It shouldn't. You would think that that this would have been an automatic guilty because you gave them an option to get out of that.

Yeah. I mean, the half that wanted him guilty on on manslaughter. Now, say he's not guilty. Maybe the half. So we'll find that out today because things will leak, because a hung jury can just be one person can hang the jury. So maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was only 1 or 2. Yeah. And they finally just wore him down.

Maybe. Yeah, that that could be. It's the holidays we've got to go home. Like. And if you guys don't think that happens on juries, it does. I don't say it happens on every jury, but it happens on some juries. I read 12 Angry Men in AP English. I remember how that went. 938 on Newstalk 179. Quick break. We'll be back after this.

Okay. Here we go. Okay, so the acquittal means there's there's some there's some like details to this that we have to walk through. Yeah. Since the acquittal happened they cannot file the lesser charge against him. Okay. That can never exist again. I think they, I would have to I would have to do a deep dive to see if you could file a different charge.

You might not be able to, like, the whole thing might be screwed for New York now. Yeah, I don't yeah, I don't even I can't double jeopardy. They can't find anything in this case. So they this judge didn't help them. No. It would have been better to leave on a hung jury, retry the case on a lesser charge.

Yeah, with a different jury. Yeah, yeah. No, that's double jeopardy. He. He's not guilty of whatever happened on the subway, so. Wow. Boy, I'm sick of winning.

You know, I, I also it's something I don't love is that he will probably lose the civil suit. This man's life is not good again. Yeah. That's true. He does have a nightmare ahead of him. Yeah. Okay. Do you know what that commercial just reminded me of? What? Real quick, I felt epically, one of my goals last year, which was to get a colonoscopy.

I didn't go do it. You guys did. I know this was one of your goals, Yeah, I talked about it on air. I would have badgered you about that. You know, one of my problems. This is so stupid. I don't want to take a day off of work for it. I want to take days off of work for my family to go see my grandson, to go.

I don't want to take a day off of work to go have that done. Yeah, but I, I turned 52 in 3 months. I've got to make it happen. Oh, I just got corrected because I use the term ex-Marine. So what is the correct what is a former marine is the appropriate label. It says our oath of service doesn't end ended.

Our discharge from service. Okay. Have an excellent day or week. Okay. Holy soda. Do you need to go to the bathroom again? Yes I do. We walked across the street and got a soda this morning. So he's had all of that and drink that water also. Yeah.

What you said badgered me about it and Robert said, you mean you would have been up her butt about it? You know, I thought about making a joke like that, but I ain't that man. Man's. Well, hey. So Craig says consider the color guard test. That was the commercial. Maybe I should just do that before I take a day off, because I don't have a family history of it.

Okay. Yeah. And I don't have any markers like that. Make me like I don't have issues or anything. I, I had one, I think I was probably 43. Have I had it. We didn't work together. That's the only one. You've had been at least 78 years probably 43. And they said you're good for ten years but I'm nearing that ten years.

So I probably have to have another one. I hate the prep, I hate, I don't, I didn't care about I was asleep during the procedure. So I it's the prep that's the worst side. You're going to be asleep during the procedure. It doesn't matter on. Here we go. Okay.

944 Newstalk 179 it's you and us. (208) 542-1079 if you'd like to reach us on the fall River propane call and text line. And, Julie, where do we go from here? Danielle Penney acquitted, not guilty on the the reduced charge that the judge. People are complaining because they're like you reduce the charge to the and then tell them to go back and keep deliberating because aren't the guidelines for it.

Don't you have to kind of start over at that point? It well they there were a lot of people that felt like this was bad precedent by this judge, because what happens from here on out if, if you could draw this judge or draw this kind of a courtroom and you're a prosecutor, you you file multiple charges because you'll always have this sort of little failsafe in the background that if they don't, if they get a hung jury on one, you can go for the other.

Yeah. That's not the goal of the prosecutor. The prosecutor should be filing them the the charge that's appropriate for the evidence that you have. Yeah. And that's why there's multiple charges. That's why it's not just black and white murder or not murder. Yeah. That's why there's multiple charges. Because there's multiple reasons that people commit crimes. Yeah. So it's a prosecutor's job to file the appropriate charge.

Yeah. So we were talking about this, and the criminal case is over now. Double jeopardy. He won't be tried again. But the civil case the family already has said they're going to sue is that they. They already filed suit. Yeah. So the the the black guy on the subway who was threatening people already had, like three dozen plus, felonies.

His family has stepped in and filed suit against Daniel Penney. Okay. So my question there is the fact that he was acquitted probably is helpful in his civil case. It doesn't mean he won't get sued successfully because OJ Simpson got sued successfully, even though he was acquitted. But I would imagine that an acquittal in a criminal case probably is beneficial to winning a civil case, right?

I would think it's beneficial. The problem is, is that a civil case? The bar is so much lower. Yeah, so much lower. Lower. And the reality is, Daniel Penny did end up killing this guy. Not it wasn't instantaneous, but it it created an atmosphere for this man to die. And so my fear is that he will they the civil suit will be successful.

Right. Was it justified? Yeah. I think there's a lot of people who could say it was justified. What Daniel Penny did apparently earlier. I use the term ex-Marine and, was gently and friendly corrected. That's actually former marine. Yeah. And they pointed out that your your duties don't end when you're discharged, that you took the oath and it last beyond that.

So. Right. My apologies if anyone was offended by the term expert. Thank you for fixing that. Yeah. In behalf of the person who texted, look, the last people that I want to offend are the Marines.

And the Idaho Statesman. You guys get in line. Yeah. Right. Right. Oh, right there behind them. K-T-V-B, you're in line. Yes, I do, you guys all day long. No, no. Get plenty of people I'm willing to offend. But I appreciate the the Marines. All right, Julie, there's, a little story you and I need to be very aware of.

Okay. Apparently, texts between apples and androids and vice versa are hackable. If it's apple to apple, and it's a game, but apple to apple, it's encrypted. If it's Android to Android, it's encrypted. But now the FBI and the Cisa, they're talking about, there's a massive espionage campaign underway, and it's it's Chinese based, and that's the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

That's what space is. They say that hackers have connected, or that hackers connected to Communist China have infiltrated the U.S. telecom infrastructure as part of a broad and significant cyber espionage campaign. Those targeted were a limited number of individuals who are primarily involved in government or political activity, stolen or customer call records, data, and certain information that was subject to U.S. law enforcement requests pursuant to court orders.

Apparently, they still don't have this resolved, that the vulnerability still exists, and it's possible that text messages between androids and apples could be intercepted and and seen. Can I propose a solution here? Yeah. Every member of your family has an iPhone. I have an iPhone. Yeah. Maybe Neal should just get an iPhone. How did this turn into that?

Or can Neal present a solution? Just get an encrypted app like WhatsApp or signal, and the problem is solved. Julie, I should have predicted it was going to go that direction. You should have. Yeah. They're. Larry, it's true though. No, it's not true. Both Jason and Ryan have androids. Oh. Do they? Jason has a Samsung. Ryan has a pixel.

Okay, so it right now it's 3 to 3. No, it's. Well, Emily and Ethan both have iPhones, so we're still outnumbered. But. Yes. Yeah, I like my android. I'm not. Okay. I'm not getting rid of it. All right. Although sometimes, though, like if, if there's a password or maybe I know that before, like if my daughter needs to order something and I need to send her a, I'll send her a picture of our credit card just so she has to put it in whatever, or I'll send a password.

I'm like, I'm can't do that anymore. Yeah, that's not safe. I didn't realize that cross-platform messaging to your Social Security number. Yeah, that's true too. I think my kids were like 24 before they memorize their Social Security number. Not because I hadn't asked them to write. I. I've had to text that multiple times. Do you know any of your kids Social Security numbers?

Oh, by heart. Now. No I don't either. Yeah. Nope I know the last four of one of my kids. I'm not going to say why. Because it, I don't want to a security breach. I needed to quickly dial my daughter's phone number. While we were down there because we had gotten separated as a group. And, they had the phone, like, the actual keypad open.

Yeah. And I had to give pause to remember her number. It's the same number she's had since she was 12. And I had to go, oh, wait, what is that? And then I hurry and put it in. Okay. Why is it not in your phone? It. That's what I mean. The keypad was open, so I just was going to type it.

So I just went wait, what is it like? It was very brief. Oh I see, yeah, I could have gone to the next screen and gone it, but the keypad was open, so I was just going to hurry and type it. See, on an Android you can just wait. You got your shot in it? Me? I didn't make a shot at all, I said I proposed a solution.

Is that what that was? That's exactly what it was. I said, I have a proposed solution. All right. Felt felt a little bit like a it's just a proposed solution, that's all. Well, I have a proposed solution. I know you said what's up? If you have an Android, when you type in the first three letters of their name, it that contact actually pops up.

Okay. What I would have had to have gone to a different screen. When I opened my phone, I was already on the keypad. No, I mean on the keypad on an Android. Oh, if you just push. Yeah. Like what? Like T9? No. Yeah. Check this out. So if I go to this and let's say I'm going to tell you, I just go J you and you're at the top right there.

And I hit call. I have no idea if that option is available in an Apple. It probably I've never tried it. I have no idea. For okay. So usually go to contacts and then. Oh really. Yeah. Okay. And I have my favorites are listed. Okay. Yeah. Oh that's. Yeah. That's just as easy problem. So all right 953 look I don't want to get into fisticuffs here over Android versus Apple.

That's wasn't the point of bringing this story up. We'll be back after this. Okay. Let's try that on your phone. I bet your phone does that. I bet it does. Okay, just type in E or D dirtbag and see if my.

Okay. An e. Oh, yeah. It works. I've just never done that. Oh, yeah. That's how I do all of it. Yeah, I've never used that feature. Not even once. Yeah, but okay, this is what it. Because I call you most frequently. Yeah. You're the first one that pulls up there, but it's letting me know I have 83 more contacts.

That would have been. Yeah, I into that because there's lots of combination possibilities. Yeah. So but because I call you most frequently that pulled you first. But if you do a an L and I bet you I'm one of 2 or 3 at that point, like, you know, two characters. Yeah. You're going to have a lot of combos or potentials.

You're the only one. Okay. Yeah. When I type out, yeah, it starts to really narrow it down. So. Okay. Do I have time? One, two. Almost three. Can I go? Go. Okay. So I had to do some shuffling for our studio for covers. And so this, Friday, we're actually going to have a Christmas themed one of, some of the choir students from Bonneville High School.

Super excited about that. That'll help get us in the Christmas spirit. They have two groups. They're at Bonneville High School. They're acapella groups called Apollo six and Shan Chartreuse Shan truce. And, we're going to do a combo. Couple of girls, couple of guys, they're going to come in and sing and it's going to be Christmas themed. So super excited for that.

So make sure Facebook Live audience we start early on Fridays 835. And you can watch them. Oh, Peter tried it on his phone and it didn't work. Do you have the latest update, Peter? To your iPhone? I have the latest update, and there's some weirdness that has been made fun of extensively online with the way that Apple changed their photos and how you get your photos.

It just is a lot different. And I don't know why they insist upon doing those things, but they've been taking some heat for that update. What else did you guys do this weekend? It was crazy packed in Utah. We went to a German Christmas festival. I think it's called Kindle now, Chris. Kindle. Christ. Kindle. First time I've ever been to it.

It was so busy. Oh my goodness. Fun. And we had a blast. But very, very busy. What do you guys do? Yeah. So, Peter, I bet that's why. Because you don't have the update. And John, I agree, the photos kind of stink that update. I wouldn't be surprised to see them to go back. What's going on? When the most recent Apple update.

They changed their photo app in here where your photos are stored. It's just kind of wonky. It's real. It's a little different. Yeah, most people don't like it. They've been made fun of quite a bit online for what they did. Okay. You know this would be a great post. Show. Let's because I have a feature and it's not a phone thing, but it's a feature that, I'm shooting.

Probably disable it, but I bet you there's a ton of features that people wish would just go away. Yeah, I think so, too, in technology. So that'll be like a post-show discussion. Okay, here we go. You. 957 on Newstalk 179, Neal Larson, along with Julie Mason. And we have just stumbled across a post-show topic. Julie. Yeah.

Somebody was complaining about the new photo app and I was on Facebook Live. I think it's wonky. The new photo app is wonky. Yeah. There is a feature on windows that I cannot stand and I don't know why they've done it. But I and I'm not going to give it away here. I'm going to I'm going to make people join us on Facebook Live.

That'll pull them in. Yeah. About Neal's solution for that portion of windows actually I might actually try and find a solution during Facebook Live to it. But it's a, it's a certain feature of windows that is nothing but irritate to me okay. Can't wait. And it has to do when you're moving a window and you get to near to the top of the screen.

Oh, we talked about this the other day. I hate this, I do too, I don't know why they do it. It's ridiculous. Yeah. Have a great Monday everyone. Julie and I back tomorrow right here on Newstalk 1079. And you can join us on Facebook Live.