12.19.2024 -- NLS -- Omnibus Resolutions, Pardons, Government Inefficiency

On this episode with Neal and Julie, things take a different turn as they delve into a wide range of political and social topics with sharp commentary and humor. They tackle pressing concerns like government shutdowns and the complexities of continuing resolutions, exploring why Washington struggles with seemingly straightforward solutions. Neal highlights the spending chaos and inefficiencies in Congress, while Julie reflects on the public's frustration with systemic mismanagement.

They also examine the political dynamics of presidential pardons and their long-term impact, including the controversy surrounding high-profile figures and debates over border wall funding. The duo doesn’t shy away from discussing the polarized views of Trump, the "derangement syndrome" claims, and the broader implications for democracy.

With a sprinkle of lighthearted humor, Neal and Julie even muse about assembling Ikea furniture as a metaphor for government inefficiencies. Their insightful and candid approach offers listeners a refreshing perspective on the week's most compelling issues, making for a lively and thought-provoking episode.

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Transcript

Drones. Cars. Border parts. Oh, my. That's all we're going to talk about today. And joining us from the Nation Capital is one of our U.S. senators, Senator Jim Risch. Senator. Always great to have you. Hello. How are things this morning? They're a mess, Neal, as usual. But it's nice to talk to you. Well, it's a better mess. It's a mess that Republicans are soon to be in charge of.

So, yes, that that is that's true. And and and, you know, that's, there actually is a different feel about how we're handling the crisis as we always get to a crisis when, when the funding runs out, you. Yeah. Or we get to the debt limit ceiling. When that happens, there's always a crisis. And it's it is different this time because, obviously we're we're going to do things very different.

We don't have, the reins yet. But, there's indications that, things are going to be very different than what they were. Well, let's talk about this continuing resolution. They call it a crumb nimbus, which is, I think, a fairly accurate term because it's not just a continuing resolution. They also throw in a whole bunch of added spending.

We're hearing things like spending for an NFL stadium. What were some other things, Julie. Well, there's lots of word changes spending for the NFL stadium. Some, some research projects that are ludicrous, a pay raise for, members of Congress. So it feels like this is a business as usual, spending package, Senator. And so we'll ask you to put it into perspective for us.

Well, it is, you know, when when I first got here, cars were just that they were continuing resolution. And, what it did was it just continued spending at the current level and move forward, to work further on the on the budget. Now, what they do is, and that's called a clean CR. Now, what they do is they, as you say, add, other things on it that, they want to, to get votes.

It's a, it's a vote buying scheme is what it is. And the like the, like the stadium for here in, in DC. I mean, they've got no business being in there and that's, that's just a boondoggle. But, that, that's just the way it is were is developed, to where it's, the process is bad.

It gets worse every time that, that we go through it. You know, most Americans, Senator, look at this and, their response, I think is very understandable. I had the same response that this is just absolutely unacceptable, that they attach these things, as you call them, a vote buying scheme. And I agree with that 100% that really if the big concern is not shutting down the government, keeping it running, there should just be a standalone CR, keep things going until middle, in this case, the middle of March when when President Trump is in in place, why can't Washington get that done?

I mean, why is that so hard to do? Something that is so common sense? Yeah, yeah. You you hit the nail on the head. It is absolute total 100% common sense. But what they do is they take advantage, of the situation where they don't have, votes for it. I, you know, Mike and I, well, in fact, our whole delegation, we generally vote against, all of this kind of thing and all spending because it's done so badly, and it's, it's so out of control.

I'm. I'm actually cautiously optimistic that, that we're going to see some, some changes. I noticed, last night that Trump had, suggested we get rid of the, the debt ceiling. And, you know, at first you go, wait a minute. You shouldn't get rid of the debt ceiling. Well, you know, the fact of the matter is, he is as frequently happens, it's a, a legitimate, proposition because, number one, we're the only country in the world that has it, which would be good if it worked.

But it doesn't work when we get to the debt ceiling, the way they get through the debt ceiling is simply to raise the debt ceiling. It does not, constrict spending at all. It was intended to be put in. It was intended when it was put in place a long, long time ago, that you'd have a debt ceiling and everyone would respect it.

And, and, spending wouldn't go, to the point where you had, where you added more money to the national debt. That's not the way it works. When you get there. What they do is they make a bunch of deals with people to vote, to raise the debt ceiling, and to do that, they wind up having to give them, more money for their whatever their desires are.

And it works exactly the opposite of what it was intended to do. So. So Trump's, on to something there. And that's that's a new idea that's just kicking around within the last 12 hours. But, I'm not so sure he isn't. He he is right on track on that. We're we're doing some, some research on that right now, but I, I've watched this thing, in operation for the years I've been here.

And if you just shake your head on stuff like this, a debt ceiling. That's wonderful. We should have a debt ceiling where we can't spend beyond that. But it doesn't mean anything, because as soon as you get there, you blow through it and blow through it. You spend more money, right? You indicated that you and Senator Crapo typically vote against these things.

We saw social media posts, from your offices saying that that's probably what your you're looking to do with this C.R. comes through to the Senate, what is acceptable for you and the deal for you and Senator Gray Poe and the and the delegation. Well, the spending levels are are just simply not acceptable. So, I mean, the obvious thing would be lower spending levels.

That's, really difficult to do, cutting back. So we're not going to get, to that point. Having said that, if we have some real reforms put in place, in and in the past, Mike and I have talked about this when if you get some real reforms, put in place and you and you actually, see a budget that's less than the previous budget, I'd be tempted to vote for that.

But I've never seen anything like that. I've never seen. I've never seen, spending cuts. It just goes up and up and up. It's never cut. And, so, you know, it's got a long ways to go. It's just the philosophy here is just so different than, than it is in, in a business or in your home or anything else.

And that is, it's always more and more and more and and not hey, listen, we ought to have a look at this, and, we don't need to be spending the money for, for these things. Senator, let's talk about Elon Musk for just a moment. And he's the world's richest man. And his net worth has skyrocketed since Trump's election.

Somewhere around $500 billion is what I saw. But he has said, look, if you vote for this CR, we'll primary you. And how much is that weighing over some of these Republican senators that are, you know, obviously they're interested in reelection and they don't want to have to run against Elon Musk's, wealth. Yeah, I doubt that.

I doubt that is, it is weighing on them because most of them know with or without, Elon Musk. Same that, that they will be primaried. I mean, that's what happens, in our party. It's if people vote, for, the spending, at these ridiculous levels, they do get primary. The reversal. That is true on the other side with the Democrats.

If they don't vote for this, these higher spending levels, they get primaried. So, you know, I'm, I think what he did was he he just stated the obvious. I, I don't think it was, it really moved anybody. Everybody already knows. What what, what what's going to happen, based on how they vote? I mean, we all, look, we represent the people who sent us here, and we know how we know how they think.

And, and that's true with everybody. Even if you come from a far left district, you know how they think. And, so I, I don't I don't put too much stock in there. Yeah. He said that, he said it's like the sun's going to come up, tomorrow morning. Oh, yeah. No, in the east. Right.

You know, I mean that it's we got it figured out. Senator, let's shift to, a rather intriguing end to a lot of people concerning topic that's been in the news for the last 2 or 3 weeks, these really strange drone sightings, a lot of them over new Jersey. But they've spread Connecticut. There even are some potential sightings over Ogden Hill Air Force Base in in Utah.

I know you receive intelligence briefings, and you may not be able to share what you've learned, but tell us what you can about these strange drone sightings. Well, I will do soon. As you know, I'm a senior, Republican. And it's isn't just briefings. I get on the senior Republican on the, Intelligence Committee in the Senate.

So I, we get we get ready to do something. You're right. I can't say everything they know, but on this particular one, I can give you some facts that may, may help, understand this, every one of these that they have nailed down and been able to identify it has either been a drone or a or a, private airplane.

And so you say, well, what are these drones? Well, today in America, there are three quarters of a million drones that are registered with the FAA. Like airplanes are, in addition to the three quarter of a million that are registered with the FAA. There are hundreds of thousands out there that are not registered with the FAA because as you fly them, there are certain, things you can do or not do and not have to register them.

But this is a fact that may help, help everybody understand this last year, the FAA changed the rule and said, you can you can fly at night. You didn't used to be able to fly at night. Now you can fly your drone at night, but you got to put lights on it just like a, private aircraft.

So there's been none of these that have been determined to be nefarious. About, by the way, about half of the drones are formed by hobbyists, and about half of them are flown by, people who have legitimate interests, like law enforcement or people who are serving, rights away and stuff like that. So, there has been I can tell you, there is absolutely not one shred of evidence that anybody has to worry about, that these are coming from Iran or from a mothership from Iran, from space or anything else.

There is no there is zero information, that facts, point to that. But but everybody's worked up about it because you see a lot more than, what you've seen. So before, Senator, I'll, I'll press you a little bit on this then what needed to be classified. Why the need for a classified briefing, if that's all it is?

You know, the briefings they give us on this, and this and other things, they will, classify, and it's up, you know, it's up to the agencies, whether they classify or not. But I walk out of hearings all the time. Best example was when we had Covid, come they put us in these classified briefings. I walked out there and said, what?

What did I hear that was classified? I mean, everything I've heard is stuff that the public should know and within 24 hours didn't know because it wound up in the in the media. But, you're right on that. They way over classified stuff. But there was there's nothing I've heard about these that, that, I think should be classified.

All right, all right, Senator, let's shift gears. I know we have spoken with you about some of the pardons that, President Biden, issued in this waning hours of his presidency. I just wanted you to be able to weigh in. There's a lot of talk over the last couple of days that there might be some potential pardons coming for forward, maybe for Liz Cheney.

So I'm asking you, have you had any knowledge that there will be more pardons coming forward from, President Biden and my second, my follow up to that is, are you concerned with the amount of pardons that he has put forward? Yeah. Two questions there. Number one, I am not aware of, what he's going to do in that regard.

I would say this I will be surprised if he doesn't issue additional pardons. I think he's done this simply to cover the fact that, he pardoned his son, and I, look, he he's going to go down in history remembered for, one thing. And that is, he pardoned his son in the way out of the, out of office.

I mean, anything he did of consequence is all going to be overshadowed by the fact that he pardoned his son. And that's what people are going to remember right now. The more pardons he does, I think he thinks that it's, somehow, going to mask the fact that he pardoned his son. It's not going to work that way.

And, and and these, this it was, I don't think the founding Fathers who gave, that kind of power to the president ever intended that they were going to do these mass pardons, that, that he has done. It's, it's concerning. And, I started my career as a prosecutor, and I, I can't help but think this is really disheartening for the prosecutors.

That worked really hard to put those people in jail because they committed crimes and the justice system to put them there. So it's, it's, it's discouraging, but it is a constitutional right. It does have, Senator. And we're talking with U.S. Senator Jim Ridge, Senator, I want to ask a little follow up here, because there's been a lot of discussion about pardoning Liz Cheney, for her role in January 6th, perhaps witness tampering or maybe even destruction of evidence.

You know, we all are kind of aware of the facts. That case, why in the world would the Republicans press this right now while while Biden still has a pardon pen, why don't they just hold off for a month and a half, wait until Trump is the president, and then pursue this? Because doesn't it make it more likely that they, in the future, can't pursue it?

If Liz Cheney gets that pardon. Yeah. A couple of there's a lot to unpack there. The first thing is, that there hasn't been a test to see whether a president can pardon something that's unknown or a general pardoning or that sort of thing. Pardons have always been for specific conducted a specific time, specific place. So we don't we don't even know if he can do a, a general pardon, of something that hasn't happened or isn't even known.

Which is what he's what, what he tried to do. That's that's the pardon he gave his son. He pardoned everything, whether we know it or don't know it or anything else. There's a real question as to whether that part of the pardon, is, acceptable, or not. The courts courts really haven't ruled on that yet.

So I guess the first impression, but the, as far as he's concerned, you know, that's happened in over in the house, and, I'm not really privy to what, what the House Committee is doing on, on those investigations, but your, your sense there, I think is, is right. And that is all he got to do is sit tight for, the next 30 days or something like that before the, before the roll that out and is, is it make it much more likely they could make it stick.

Yeah. For sure. All right. Well, Senator, we appreciate your time this morning. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas holiday next week. And we look forward to chatting with you in either the New Year. Maybe we'll get you the it before the end of the year or two. But, we thank you this morning. A merry Christmas to you guys, too.

I'm, anxious to get home to spend the time with my family like everybody else is, and I'm sure. So, thank you for those wishes. And, the same to you and to all Idahoans. I hope we all have a good Christmas. All right. We'll talk with you soon. Senator is joining us this morning. It's 8:23 p.m. on Newstalk 179.

Quick break. We'll be back. 828 on Newstalk 179, Neal Larson, along with Julie Mason and you, if you'd like to join us in the fall River propane, call and text line (208) 542-1079. How are you doing, Julie? I have a mouthful of protein bar, but I'm good. Yeah, you've started doing what I do. We're going on the air. Let's stuff our face full.

Let me take another bite of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We didn't even get to the border parts we like. We got, like, 823, and that's about the time and got to let him go. But, we'll ask him next time about the the border pieces that the Biden administration is selling for pennies on the dollar. Likely that Trump could use those for his agenda.

And you wonder, how do they get away from that? Like they are looking at selling them for like five bucks, like they could the bidding can start at five bucks for these border wall pieces. I think I'm a little chapped by all of this simply because when Trump was in office and he talked about building the border wall and the construction began, the Democrats were losing their minds over the $8 billion price tag.

Yeah, $8 billion to protect our country. And they were losing their minds at that cost. Yet we've sent billions and billions to Ukraine, where we're funding these ludicrous projects for for DIY, things like that. And they hot when when Biden came in, he halted it. Now he's selling it off. Okay, so you were mad about the cost of it.

You're not even going to get top dollar for it. Yeah, it's just such liars. The misrepresentation is so frustrating to me. Well, yeah, it really is. And I it's it's all it's not about the money though. I mean if we're just going to be honest and let's just state it there. It's not the money. They've never had the problem with the $8 billion price tag to begin with.

They spend that like you said, they spend it the talking point in a foreign aid package. A it's the it's the issue itself that they oppose. They don't want the border wall. And so they'll do whatever they can right now to slow down progress on the border wall and preemptively now Trump's going to get it built no matter what it's going to happen.

But it's going to be more expensive to the American taxpayer. That's what's infuriating about this, is that somebody out there may bet on this stuff. They'll get a a what are they buying it for scrap metal probably. Yeah. To melt down and use for other things probably. And there was some I think it would only be fair to talk about how some of the pieces already have concrete poured into them, because that's what the that's how the wall was.

It was metal. And then you, you poured down the, the like the openings of the metal with concrete so that it couldn't be pushed over. Yeah. And, some of them do already have concrete in them. So I'm not sure if that's even valuable at this point. Yeah, but even with that, it's the concept. It's just the, it's it's their version of flipping Trump off before they leave.

Yeah. It's true. Which is really a little I mean but isn't that what we've come to expect. Yeah, yeah. All right. Let's go to the phones. 285421079. Caller go ahead. Oh, they, they hung up on the. Hang on. Says the Montana Supreme Court upholds a decision that says global warming can't be ignored. I don't know anything about this.

I don't either. We'll have to look into that. Yeah. While we were talking to, Senator Rish, there were flashes of headlines that, Fani Willis has been disqualified from that case. So basically, Georgia has fallen apart. There is going to be nothing there. What happened with the case itself was it's still active because I. I don't keep it.

It's all lawfare to me. It all ought to be tossed to me. None of these cases really had a lot of legitimacy in my mind because they were just weaponized prosecutions. What's the status of that case still active against Trump? It didn't fall under the immunity. I'm not I'm not sure what they were classifying it as I my guess is that they would have called it, quote, active, but it was on pause because they had to review everything that was going on with Fani Willis and her boyfriend.

And there has been more discovered. Wait, that is that's the boyfriend's name. Oh, yeah. I remember his first name. Yeah. And, more has been discovered that he that verified that he was having these meetings with the white House and that they were involved in it. So it was on pause while they were doing all of this investigation.

I don't know where it moves to now since she was disqualified. Okay, okay. All right. And I don't know for sure, but I would think it may not be very easy to find a another prosecutor that is going to pick up the case if the, if it still has life. Yeah. If it has anything left. But maybe this is just the way for them to quietly go away.

They blame her for it. And then there is no case. That's true. She's the fall fall gal. The fall gal. Yeah. And hey you know what. It frees her up to spend more time with her boy. They go on more and more trips. It was a little bit contractual because he was receiving money to spend time with her.

I don't know if he's going to be so willing if there's not a money, you know, a hook there with the money. Yeah. Well, somebody pointed out the amazing thing is how, Fannie, I know she likes the name. Funny, because he wants to be named Fannie, but how Fannie was reelected even in a blue area. That's true.

Which I think it underscores the point that we make from time to time that the left actually hates itself. Yeah, they just keep harming themselves in every way possible. Yeah. Someone said anyone buying that right now, speaking of the border parts, is simply foreign investment. They buy it low, they sell it back high, and they make a pile of cash.

Yeah. That's true. Could be. You know, it'd be cool if Elon Musk bought it all up and then sold it back at cost to the federal government. The parts that could be used to complete the wall. Yeah, I mean, it would be an end run he wouldn't make any money on. You know, we talked about a completely separate issue this morning.

That's not worth bringing up right now. But I said the phrase, well, if it wasn't government doing the project, it would have got done quicker. I feel this this way about the border wall. Get the government out of it. Contracted out. Yeah. Oh, that thing will get built so fast. Do you know how fast they put up Taco Bell?

Now? Yeah, I think they have it down to 18 minutes. Get the government out of the middle of it, and we'll have a border wall in three months. Yeah, the same people that put up Taco Bell's and the high density housing. Yep. You you put those people on the border wall. Boom. They'll have it done. Yeah. They will.

Have you ever had that experience like you're driving down a, like a street that you don't go down every day, but you might go down every couple of weeks and all of a sudden you're like, there's a brand new Taco Bell there or a maverick. Yeah, whatever. I think they arrive on a kit on a pallet. It's like Ikea furniture.

Yeah, that or like those plastic model car kits that we had as kids who just, like, bust off the extra plastic pieces, snap it together and boom, you have a chalupa. What? What? Your loop. But what if the Taco Bell in the Mavericks are like when we all build Ikea furniture, and there's all these parts left over at the end, and the construction workers are standing around staring each other with, that's supposed to go in somewhere, I don't know, there's an extra piece.

Okay, let's hope this doesn't fall over. Yes, right. Yeah, that that is always worrisome. I will I will say that. Yeah. Someone said the Empire State Building was built in 14 months. Is that true? I don't know if that's true, but it was probably private industry because we can't get a road construction job done in under under six months in this area when the is involved.

No kidding.

I don't know, let's not go down this road. We need this road. How freakin long does it take to make a bridge over a canal? I don't know, but when it's the government, it's gonna take a long time. We just make it a church service project. Oh, it'd be done in a weekend. It'd be done? Yeah, they'd do it in a few weeks, hire the Amish, and then they could go down to the Taco Bell to eat afterwards.

Yeah. Let's hire the Amish to build the wall. It'll be done in two weekends. How? Instead of a barn raising, we have a First Street bridge building. I mean, just as a hypothetical example.

And then they'll have it. Or they'll have, like, a potluck afterwards, like a linger longer afterwards. That's true. They could do that. Parked the horses in the buggies. They could do a like a pancari bridge racing or something. I mean that one finally got done. I think it was Eagle Rock that was known as Eagle Rock back when it started.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Back then. Right. I mean that's when the project started. Oh I, you weren't getting the joke.

I'm like yes. The area was known as Eagle Rock. Are you gonna follow that up with anything I know, I mean they're they started the band Carey Bridge project back when everything was known as Eagle Rock. Okay, yes, they did. Don't get under their skin. They're going to go put up the barriers again and say they're not finished.

Look, I know I'm sure there's some government fund they can pull the money from. Yeah, but probably so really. So, you know, and you'd think you would think that one guy with a shovel and eight guys standing around watching could get stuff done fast. That screams efficiency. Yes, it does, it does. Sorry, Neal. And Julie, your brother cynical today.

(208) 542-1079 let's break for our news here at the bottom on this Thursday morning.

Okay, this might be one of the best bass in all of pop music. Good. All right. To (208) 542-1079. If you'd like to join us on the program that is the fall River propane call and text line where I feel like the drone frenzy has died down. We just don't have that kind of bandwidth to keep going with it.

The drones are still happening. There's some kind of report on them anymore. Yeah, got other stuff to report on now, but apparently they're just all hobby drones are pilots. And where this is, you know, it's no big deal if you ask them, what's your question? There's something going on. There is something going on. I don't I don't think we're in huge danger.

I like I said, I don't think it's a foreign entity. I think something is happening and the government's prepping or whatever and what and it's fine. Like they do stuff behind our backs all the time and sometimes it needs to be in secrecy. It does. Yeah. And and I just hope I'm going to be non cynical. Julie, for a second.

I am hoping that it's actually a form of protection that they are putting in place, that they know we can make these drones function this way over a large city. If this kind of disaster was happening, like I hope they're yeah, they're like test struts testing their capability. Yeah. That's that's that's true too. But but I, I feel like it is.

And this is not an attack on Senator Risch at all. It's just the whole response by the government is kind of an insult to people's intelligence, to be honest with you. Oh, these because they cite, well, hobby drones. There's lots of hobby drones out there. Well, there are, but are these that and it seems like they're just acting weird, about, about this because they're not overtly stating all of these are just hobby drones.

Yeah, they're not saying that. And whatever I. It wouldn't be the first, nor is it going to be the last that an excuse is given. That isn't the actual reason. Yes. Right, right. Yeah. It it feels like classical gaslighting to me. Yeah. Now it will say there can be a psychological phenomenon. Remember the summer the sharks. Like 20 years ago, shark attacks were not any higher that year than other years.

Maybe, maybe very slightly, marginally. We just focused on it. That became the drama that year and we were focused on it. So I think you can have those kinds of dynamics that things just sort of go viral, but it's not necessarily an anomaly. It's just the thing we're focusing on at the time. I don't think that's it here, because you see the footage of multiple drones up in the sky at the same time.

We're not seeing that everywhere. And so something is different about this, but I think maybe it can be exaggerated by this particular psychological dynamic. I think it can be exaggerated. And look, the mainstream media, me and you, like we were covering this so I yes, it did it become more heightened in aware for people. Absolutely. I don't think you can have that much activity over new Jersey at Not and just explain it away by hobbyists.

Yeah, yeah. Gotcha. Okay. Julie, do you have Nancy Maze's feed up? I do actually, yeah I do. Okay. Well, you send me that link really quick, I will. And, so I did a thing and, I went to ChatGPT. Okay. And I put in a prompt in chat, GPT and basically I said, give me some fictitious examples of pork barrel spending that would be controversial if they were true.

Okay. And I didn't know what I'd get. But, so we're we're going to have this feed from Nancy Mace because she listed a whole bunch of stuff that's in pork barrel spending issues. The whole issue with this, I also have I you'll you've got that one. I've also got a Jesse Watters one, which is a pretty good one too.

So between the two of us, we've got it going. Yes. And so, I, I'm going to give this out. It might be from my fictitious list, and it might be from the actual, bill here. Okay. And then people have to decide whether or not it's real. Okay? And we'll just have them text it, okay?

All right. Do you have the. Did you send the Nancy Mace? Yeah. Okay. Gotcha. Oh, wait. Did I do it in the wrong one? Yeah. I think maybe it did. That's okay. There you go. It's in the right one. Okay. All right, so real or not real, I guess would be the the, question. Are you and Julie feel free to play along here unless you look through the entire list on Nancy Mace.

I looked through a good share of it, but I. There were so much that I could forget. So go ahead. Okay. $3 million for molasses inspections. Is that real or not real? Okay, I don't remember this one. I'm going to say that's real because it sounds like something that the, like, the molasses industry would lobby for and get.

Yes. Or that, you know, maybe a compete industry would lobby for and get. Yeah, that is real. Okay, okay, here is another one. You tell me if it's real or not. Real government sponsored space luxury tourism, a program offering free space tourism experiences to American citizens, chosen via a lottery. Okay, I'm going to say that one's not real, but not because I don't think it would be in there.

I just don't think we're far enough along for that to exist yet. Okay, I could see that in seven years being in a pork spending bill. Okay. You're correct. It's not real. Okay, okay. You ready for this one? All right, I have either Nancy Macy's list of pork or I told ChatGPT to give me some fictitious examples.

Tax on corporations replacing human workers with AI and automation redistributed as direct payments to displaced workers. Real or not real. Oh, goodness. Well, I'm going to say that one's real because I think they that I could see somebody giving day workers who got fired over the last six months. Yeah a handout, it's not real. That was that was one ChatGPT came up with.

Okay. Which is pretty good for chat. GPT yeah, in fact, I kind of hesitate to do this because that will give the left some ideas. Some ideas of what? Yeah. This one you already know, but I'll do it for our listeners. Benefit redefines criminal offender to justice involved individual. That one's real. Yeah. Israel. Yes. Let's see if there's any more here.

Okay. Okay. Here's here's another one, $850,000 for a gay senior home. Real or not real. You know the answer to this, Julie. I know the answer to this one. Yeah, that's it's real. That's real. There's a gay senior home. Yeah. Why are we again? It's private industry. Why are we infusing private industry? Sure. If, like, seniors want to live in, gay seniors want to live together, you go right ahead.

Why are we infusing private industry? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. This is infuriating. Yeah, it is, by the way, which tells you it's real.

Here. Here's one. A dedicated agency with billions allocated to researching and disclosing information on unidentified aerial phenomena called the National UFO Investigation Bureau. Real or not real? I want to say that it's not real. You'd be correct. Okay. Not real. Okay, here's another one. Subsidies for social media addiction treatment. Oh, I bet that one's real. Not real.

That's ChatGPT, is it? Really? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Here's some that are real. $400,000 for a gay activist group to teach elementary kids about being trans. Kicked out of the schools. Oh, my goodness. Oh, but they're not. They're not proselytizing. Julie. Oh, that's so infuriating. Get out of the schools. 400,000. Fight! I don't even know what this is.

$500,000 for a zoo. What is it? Die zoo. Are you only allowed to go if you're a member? Do they only hire? Like, what? Have the rest of the litter is the only the only thing on it? What? What? I don't know what a DIY zoo is. I got it. We got to dig in to that, because that's a real thing.

$400,000 for a group to give clothes to teens who help them hide their gender. Okay. I can't do it. I can't do it. Oh, there is equity inclusion at the associate of Zoos and Aquariums. There is an association of Zoos and Aquariums, and they are elevating diversity and equity. Oh, it's happening at the Tennessee Aquarium. That's shocking.

Okay, that's just dumb. These are animals. They're animals. Okay. So the staff here's what it is. All of the staff and all of the workers are going to be DIY appropriate. People. Oh, okay. And you there. They all have to be, trained in, some a 14 hour course and certificate program. Guess what? The the pandas don't care.

The giraffes don't care. They want you to bring them food and that's it. Do you think the elephants are happier that it's a zoo? Oh, wow. 855 on Newstalk 107 nine quick break and we'll come back and wrap up this hour just ahead on Newstalk 179. All right, Julie, you don't want me to tell this joke, but, I know it.

D stands for dingoes eating infants. Remember the dingo ate my baby?

I think our whole entire listening bases questioning you right now. What is wrong with him? All right. And, good morning. It is 907 on Newstalk 179. We'll get to the bottom of that, whatever that is. I want to welcome you back for an hour or two on the program. And, if you'd like to join us.

(208) 542-1079 and, Julie, you sent this to me. Can I play this now? Is that okay? Sure. I mean, we can play it again next week when the year ends and play it both times. End of year. I think this is a montage our listeners can appreciate. Listen to this in my humble view. Lights out. Please welcome back the next president.

United States.

I think it's going to be a blowout. Actually. I don't think it's going to be a close race. I think there are going to be those Republicans. It's just go for Harris. It'll be tied on Election Day, as always. It will. The polls will be tight and then he'll lose. You call us trash. Oh. Oh, oh, Charlie Vance, you just stepped up in a way that I've never seen in my political life.

And I worked for Sarah Palin. Then I would say, take Harris over 270 electoral votes. Let these fools in these crypto markets do something them, let them drive the betting line into a favorable price and then take advantage of it. That's what I would do. I think she's going to win this month. You wrote Trump is toast. You stand behind that today.

Oh, even more so. I feel the same way that I felt a few weeks ago that Trump is toast. Okay, so you had Michael Moore, you had James Carville, you had the lady who does nobody knows her name on CNN, the o. JD Vance, you've used up I don't know her name either, but, you had that.

You had the the wonderful ladies from The View, like Whoopi and Sunny, you had, who else? I know there was another 1 or 2 in there. All of. Well, you had Bill Maher thinking Trump was gonna gonna lose this. These clips are delicious. Julie like to watch this, to play these montages. And it's funny, in particular, Sunny Hostin and I would say Michael Moore, they say it with such an air of certainty and authority that Donald Trump is going to lose it.

Of course he's going to lose. Yes, he's he will lose. Yeah. How much they have felt on election night. And the next morning as the returns came in and it became very, very clear that their pick was not the pick. Well, honestly, I'm okay. If they felt a whole bunch of pain and some shame and some wow, I was so stupid.

I actually hope they felt that. I don't think they did. I think they instead feel disdain for most of the country. I think you played the Jimmy Kimmel clip earlier today where he by proxy calls that most of America stupid. Think. I think that they live in this realm. So no, I don't think they felt weird after Trump won about the comments that they had made.

I actually think they think they're superior. And oh, the stupid Americans and what they did to our country. Yeah, here's that clip. It's worth playing again. I'm an optimistic person. I'm not hysterical. I laugh when people say, oh, you've got Trump Derangement Syndrome. I think you if you're a reasonable person, you should have Trump Derangement Syndrome. And by the way, I think he has derangement syndrome about us to the fact of the matter is, this is a dangerous person.

This is a stupid person. And that's a bad combination. Okay? Trump's dangerous, Trump is stupid. And if you're normal, you'll have Trump Derangement Syndrome, which is laughable because isn't built into the definition of deranged. Meaning you're not rational, You've got something wrong with you. Yeah, yeah. Now, he would probably say, what I mean is if the rational person would oppose Trump at every turn.

So, you know, and if he feels like he's got to be this over the top, whatever. I'm concerned about all politicians. I don't trust a single politician with 100% of my of of the gift of trust that I could give to them, I never will. They they can be so easily manipulated. Can we have an uncomfortable conversation? Julie?

Not you and me. Uncomfortable, but I do. I do think that as supporters of Trump, always, always, always keep your eyes on the guardrails of our republic. And and the reason why I say that is, I think sometimes in our our zeal for Trump and, and we're thrilled that he won. We're hoping for significant change in Washington. We love what he delivered his first four years, and we look forward to the next four, that we don't take our eyes off those guardrails of of our republic because he still has only limited power, and we shouldn't support him having power beyond what the Constitution and what our Republic allows.

I still think we need separation of powers. I still think we need that. And I'm I'm sensing that there are some that think Trump should get his way at every corner and every turn, and I would I would encourage caution if that's the road that you're going down. He is not a king. He's the president of the United States, and he has significant power within the confines of the Constitution to make some really good changes in in America and I hope that those those boundaries stay paramount in our minds.

I had a good friend tell me once, every single person is 30 days away from destroying their life. I think that that's incredibly accurate for me, for you, for the listeners, guess what? It's also accurate for J.D. Vance. Yeah, it's also accurate for Donald Trump. It you there can't be, an elevation of the man over the country.

You can't do that because then you're all you're doing is repeating what has destroyed nations. You're repeating history. Yeah. So don't don't get into that. Now do. What does that mean? That I question where we're headed or not? Know. I feel so much more comfortable today than I did three months ago. Yeah. And I think we're headed down the right direction.

I, I do believe that there's been some fantastic changes for America in a short amount of time. I hope that that speed continues. I hope that those changes continue. But I am going to do it with my eyes wide open. Yeah. And and I, I think we should I saw I don't know what platform I was on, but on social media someone said I wish he were our king.

And, inside I just want, don't go down this road, all right? We we fight to not be under the rule of a yes. I mean, this is this is sort of the, I don't think they were saying we want him to be Hitler or, you know, but it it will fuel that sort of adoration at the expense of what our system wisely is, is a really dangerous pathway to go down.

Yeah. Yeah. So we just have to be careful. But I with all everything that we just said and that's not what Jimmy Kimmel means. He doesn't mean that Jimmy Kimmel has kind of lost his mind a little bit. Yeah. And by admittance there he is a little bit certifiable. And maybe it's time for him to look at himself in the mirror.

And when Trump has been given the mandate that he's been given, you have to start asking, am I off base just a little like, yeah, have a has my have my concerns gone too far? Yeah. Because how does he dupe so many people. Yeah. It's an that's a that's a very good question. So yeah I had one other thought but I can't, I can't remember what it was.

It it has escaped me. So. Yeah. It's fun. You know what I love about Trump? I love that his political impact is causing the left to implode on itself. I could play a counter clip to Jimmy Kimmel. Van Jones saying Trump is smarter than all of us. And we ought to recognize that he really is smarter than everyone.

Look at the results. Look at the outcome. He's got the white House, his party won Congress and will be in charge for at least two years. His picks now dominate the Supreme Court, and it's now, for the first time in a very long time, it's a conservative court that is Trump winning. That means, at least politically, he is smarter than you.

You have to at least accept that. Jimmy Kimmel I mean, you've got to at least accept that. Yeah. But in turn, he calls. I mean, he he says, he's stupid and dangerous. Well, then you're calling everybody stupid and dangerous. Yeah. I also, if I, if I could have just a private conversation with Jimmy Kimmel or maybe we were interviewing him or whatever.

Here's what I would say to him is, when do you stop making one man the villain? And you start looking at, at things more, broadly, because what we're experiencing today with the House members not being willing to vote on the continuing resolution last night, they want, like Jimmy Kimmel would, blaming Donald Trump for that. He he may he force them to do it.

He didn't force them to do anything. All he did was talk about how if you choose not to do, if you choose not to follow what the American people expect, which is not to build this massive crime bill, if you choose to vote for that and bring it in, there will be heck to pay. Yeah, we're going to fund the primaries of these of these elected politicians, and you're probably going to lose your seat.

You do whatever you want to do. Yeah. But that that's the natural consequence for not following the mandate of the people. Yeah. And somehow that makes Trump the bad guy. I don't I don't get it at all. That makes Elon the bad guy. Yeah. Hey, that's how our our country was built. Yeah. That when you're dissatisfied with the way that you're being represented in government, you vote them out.

And that's all that Trumpian Elon asked of people yesterday. The people are back in charge. And yes, that's that's how it that's how it should have been all along. That these these omnibus massive, horrific, expensive bills that get passed should have been rejected all along. And if we had politicians that listen to the people, then even though they're doing it for vote buying.

Well, I'll ask you this question. If you lived in Washington DC, would you say, I'll give up you funding the NFL stadium if we don't have to have all this other pork in it? Yeah. Does that make sense? Yes. Yeah. I think, a standalone CR just to keep the government going for 2 or 3 months would be overwhelmingly passed if it was the people voting on it.

But you, you do have these politicians, they simply cannot help themselves. They can't like it's, it's this really sick addiction they have to spending and to utilizing the American taxpayers dollar to benefit themselves politically. And it's, it's terrible. It's got to change. I was explaining to somebody last night about a mutual acquaintance of ours that, the parents own massive amounts of land.

Yeah. And, she was asking me, how did they get that land? And I said, well, they worked for the government. I'm sure it was some sort of kickback. I made sure that this and this and this got into the into the, you know, a bill like what we're talking about with this CR and because of that, I got to buy land for pennies on the dollar.

Yeah. Those kind of things are happening all of the time. That's who you want elected. That's who you want representing you. No you don't. Yeah. So you have the power kick them out. Yeah I and I don't know why they why they don't. Maybe they will maybe they will. Okay. 920 on Newstalk 1079 we're going to break, but we'll be back after this and we'd love to hear from you on this Thursday morning.

Okay. Oh they're back are they. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. It's for text down.

This isn't our regular troll but it's another troll. They took quite a long break. More than a month. Yeah. And now they're back home. What was the national vote for Trump. 76 million 77,000,077.27 million something. So he got 49.9% of the vote because and Kamala got 48.4. But here's the thing. This is what's dumb. And these these trolls that text in and and he's taking issue with the fact that Trump does not have a mandate because he got less than 50% of the vote.

The popular vote is, is an afterthought, because if we had a popular vote system, these numbers would have been different. There are people that just if you're in California and a Republican, you just don't show up to vote. Sometimes if you're a California in Idaho, you don't show up to vote because you don't think it matters, right?

Yes, exactly. And so we can't really count the popular vote and utilize it as a meaningful metric, right, because we have an electoral college system. And so voting patterns are different. So the he won with 312 electoral votes to 220 something. That is a mandate because it's an electoral vote. Yes. I agree that it was mandate. I completely disagree with this person, and I think this is the person, you know, just reaching for anything.

Yeah. To make sure that they feel better about. Yeah. The way that they voted. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. Okay. If I ever want to see I actually you know what I search when I want to see if our troll is back. Favorite felon. Because that he typed it over and over and over again. Oh, it doesn't come up. Oh, no.

There it is. No, we have not heard from that troll since November 20th because I gave them an ultimatum. I said to them, I'm giving you a choice. We don't mind at all if you have a different viewpoint than we do, but your continual attacks on our character won't be tolerated. You've called a stupid. You want our show to be shut down.

You typically say you right wing extremist, etc. if it continues to be personal, I'll block you. And that solves everyone's problem. In other words, different opinions are welcome. Attacks on our character and expressing a desire to silence us is not. It's all up to you. And then they went silent. So which they probably made the right choice. They probably did.

Yeah. Hey, I actually thought about them the other day. Yeah, I'm hoping that they found some peace because I know I, I kind of made fun of this, but I can't imagine that their family relationships are very good, I think. And right about that. So yeah, I hope that they have found. Yeah, something.

924 on Newstalk 107 nine Neal Larson and Julie Mason. The fall River propane calling text line is 285421079. Well, Julie, one of a handful of our trolls, appears to be back on our our texting feed. Woo-Hoo! Yay! Welcome back. We need to return. And they. They said this. Trump garnered less than 50% of the vote. Yet again, there is no mandate.

The problem with that argument is that we don't. The popular vote is an afterthought. It is a meaningless metric that is only interesting data, because in our system, the president of the United States is the president of the states. He's not the president of the people. He's not elected by the people. He's elected by the states. And so when we go to the polls, we vote.

If you look at the fine print, we're actually voting for electors of a president. And because we have the system that we have. People's calculations are different. You have a whole bunch of Republicans in California who just don't show up to vote, because they know all of the electoral votes from that state are going to go to Trump.

And I'm sure you probably have Democrats in Idaho that don't show up because they know all of our electoral votes do. And and so the point in all of that is that it's a meaningless metric to try and toss the popular vote results out. And I've seen this before. You have Democrats that are cheering the fact that Trump didn't get to 50%.

He got to 49.9%. And and I always say this is a meaningless conversation because we don't have a system where the popular vote elects the president. So that has nothing to do with the mandate, is he won 312 electoral electoral votes to 226 electoral votes. That's a mandate. And it was down ticket. There, the Republicans recaptured the Senate.

So that's another metric. The Republicans held onto the House. That's another metric. A I mean, this would be as far as this person's concerned, and they feel like this is a slam dunk. Well, you've only been able to present one thing, and it's probably the least powerful of the ones that we've talked about. You're right. You've cherry picked a metric to bolster your case when in reality, Trump kicked the crap out of Kamala Harris and he won every swing state.

That's that is remarkable. If it were that razor thin close, Trump would have won about half the swing states. Kamala would have won about half the swing states. He swept them well. And all of that under the under the concept that they have a 12th man on their team. Yes, they have the media. So they had I.

In fact, I credit Elon Musk with helping the win. You can't give you can't give him all of the glory. But without the opening back up of X and the ability for information to be shared. The 12th man would have probably been too powerful again. Yeah, yeah. Agreed. And and furthermore, what is the definition of a mandate? Like why did they arbitrarily say in a multi-candidate race?

Because you had Jill Stein, you had other yet other candidates in the mix when you have more than two candidates. What? Who made you king to wave your, your wand or whatever and say 50% is the magical threshold at which you get your mandate? It doesn't work like that. It's like the they kind of create their own reality and, and it's, it's a weird.

But when you're hanging on by a thread, that's when even your, your, you know, your I don't know if you'd call them mentors or your media leaders or whatever are, are faltering. Some of them are now saying we were stupid for doing what we did. You're about to lose one of your platforms with MSNBC. You really are hanging on by a thread.

Yeah. Yeah, it is. Excuse me. And that's. It's kind of sad. Sad for you. Okay. Again. Julie, this is pretty big. Sorry, I got the hiccups. Okay? I got the hiccups. Fani Willis has been disqualified. If you haven't heard that big news this morning. And that effectively ends the case in Georgia. And, the Georgia Court of Appeals this morning disqualified Fani Willis and her team from prosecuting Trump.

And the codefendant. Codefendant in her election interference case. The court did not toss the indictment, but they declared that Willis and her team now have no authority to proceed. In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Trump said, quote, the whole case has been a disgrace to justice. It was started by the Biden DOJ as an attack on his political opponent, Donald Trump.

They used anyone and anybody and she has been disqualified and her boyfriend has been disqualified. And they stole funds and went on trips. And then Trump said the case should not be allowed to go any further. Did he just refer to himself in the third person? Right. I wish we could. Yeah, he did, because it says right there Donald Trump.

Yeah, he is kind of referring to himself in the third person. He said there. That's what Bob Dole used to do. Bob Dole is looking out for you. There is no way such corrupt people can lead a case, and then it gets taken over by somebody else. It was a corrupt case, so how could it be taken over by someone else?

The case has to be thrown out because it was started corruptly by an incompetent prosecutor who received millions of dollars through her boyfriend, who received it from her. And then they went on cruises all the time, Trump said, referring to Willis's relationship with the former prosecutor on her team, Nathan Wade. Therefore, the case is entirely dead. Trump said everybody should receive an apology, including those wonderful patriots who've been caught up in this for years.

Oh, goodness. Look, I agree with him. I agree with him. And he's obviously feeling good this morning, if that's what he was saying. Just off the cuff with an interview with with Fox News this morning. He's obviously in a great place. He he's not tired of winning yet. No. There we go. And I was just going to make some crack about the wins.

Just keep stacking up for him. Is there anything left? Criminally. Like the the cases that you're talking about? Is that what you're asking for? Because McCann there is. He didn't dismiss that all the way either. Yeah. So are they are they still on life support? Probably. It doesn't mean they're going to survive. Yeah I think don't you think ultimately that case gets tossed?

I think it does. I think that case gets tossed. I don't think they ever resurrect the FBI case. So the the documents at Mar-A-Lago, I think that ones that gone, gone, gone, nobody else is going to pick up the pieces of that one. And I feel the same about this. I don't think anyone walks in and picks up the pieces from here, because part of the evidence was sham evidence put together by Nathan Wade.

Yeah. So if you don't have him anymore, how do you how can you justify that evidence? Well, that's that's true. I mean, if it's a case brought by people who this judge may not have been the judge, his words. But these people that are corrupt, something disqualified them, then how can the case be filled with integrity? Yeah. How do you how can you trust the evidence that they said they had?

Yeah. I don't think you can. No, I don't, I don't I don't think you can't either. So anyway the winds just keep stacking up for Trump. Yeah they do. And as it should be, these law fair cases should have never happened. And I would say that if it had been something brought against someone on the Democrat side, this is not how you win.

You win. You win in the elections. You win in the well. You win in your individual communities. That's where you can start. That's the biggest the biggest win of all. It's it's important that these things are happening on the federal level. It's important that we talk about the continuing resolutions that that, that we've talked about all morning and how, it's been stopped and hopefully that omnibus bill has been trimmed down drastically before they bring it forward.

All of that's important. Yeah. The most important things you can do or on your community. Yeah. So eat, learn, learn from the wins and start winning in your community. That's. Yes. And that you know what? That's a that is a point that we often forget and overlook. Julie. You you're going to impact your life much more if you elect the right city council people, the right school board people, the right county commissioners, the right legislators, the.

That's where you can really have an impact. They're not as sexy as the presidential race or these big federal races. But I, I would I would say you're you're benefiting your community more when you become active in those local local races. And the wins that I'm talking about are wins. Like Representative Hart brought to our community and then went nationwide with.

I mean, that woman can be credited for so many things when it comes to fairness in women's sports. She didn't do it alone, but she was brave and she started here and worked forward. You can do the same thing in your communities. Don't be scared to talk about the ill effects of Dei. Do not be scared to stand up at your school board meeting and advocate for children, since a lot of education totally leaves them out of the equation.

Yeah. These are things that you can learn from the winds and then take them into your community. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. 285421279. Julie, I thought it was great governor Little's response to. Yeah. Jay Inslee because Inslee I mean, just the taxes that they're raising in Washington. So, the governor thanked him for being the Idaho realtor of the year.

Somebody smart on his social media team because that's funny. And whomever it is, man. Woman, he needs to keep them. Yeah. Yeah. Don't don't let that person move on, because they're doing a lot better with his social media right now than they have for years. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Can we talk about the broader politics of this, though? I think it's clear.

Here's my theory and I don't I don't know this. I don't I haven't been talking to anybody. I have no insight information. I'm just looking at the surface politics like everyone else. I think that Governor Little was probably planning on not running again, passing the baton to Scott Bedke, then Watergate happened. The second Watergate red tag. Watergate? Yes.

Watergate. Colon. Red tag. Yes. Right. Then that happened, and, both Brad Little and Scott Bedke did not come out of that. Looking good. Right. And in fact, I think drew the ire of it. And I think that that ended any kind of a political pathway for Lieutenant Governor. Bedke to win the governorship. So what I've seen since Watergate last well, earlier this year is Governor Little making lots of very public friendly declarations on these cultural issues about kids playing in sports.

And you know, I, I love it I love the social media, you know, thanking Governor Jay Inslee for being the Idaho realtor of the year. That stuff's just funny. It's a good politics. If if you're in in Idaho. But they know that Scott Bedke could not beat Raul Labrador in a governor's race. Absolutely. And so I think Governor Little is saying I we can't let Raul Labrador be the governor.

So I'm going to have to run again in 2026. That that's my hot take, my quick read of the of the governor's race in 2026. And I think it's a fair hot take. Like, Scott Bedke is very neutral for me. I, I don't have mass criticism for the man. I don't have mass enthusiasm. Yes. I'm pretty neutral when it comes to Scott Bedke.

And I'm if if we're just reading the room, I think Raul Labrador probably has a stronger presence. Yeah. And and if it is a two man race. Yeah. Because in that case, it would be with Scott Bedke and Raul Labrador. I think he wins hands down. I do too. I do too now. An incumbent is very difficult to beat.

I think you have Governor Little who's been working really hard to try and change the subject from Watergate. And probably doing a fairly effective job of it. I mean, he's he's not the most dynamic politician in the world. He's a great political tactician though. Yeah. And so I don't know that if Raul Labrador wants to run for governor, that he'll run directly against Brad Little.

I think that's, that's a tough race. He'll just keep being ag. He'll wait it out until it's a little better. But I don't know for sure. Like, I, I don't know, I could ask him, but every time you ask him, he's like, you know what? I will cross that bridge when we come to it. He's not going to rule it out.

But so I, I don't. What I do know is this really quick. I know you have more to say here. I believe that when you saw Butch Otter and other former important Republicans joining up with prop one, that horrifically failed effort that we saw, their motivation was probably we cannot let Raul Labrador win. And if we have a ranked choice voting scenario, that does not bode well for Raul Labrador.

And I think that was maybe not the only, but it might have been part of what fueled them is they don't want, much more conservative governor in the I don't I don't think it was the only factor, but I think it absolutely had something to do with it. Because it's going to be top down. Right. That's been a frustration of conservatives in Idaho that Governor Little doesn't need them on that level.

That he's not as conservatives as they would wish or that they would hope for. Well, if you have, Governor Raul Labrador, those conservatives are getting their their desired candidate, right? Yeah. And all that does is embolden the conservative movement. So that had to be a portion of ranked choice voting. They can't let that conservative movement become more healthy, become stronger.

Right. You're just lifting weights the whole time. And the stronger you get, the harder it is going to be for them to knock you over. Yeah. And they don't want a more conservative governor in place. Yeah. No, you're right. You're right about that. And I do remember when we asked Governor Little one time about, it was actually Take Back Idaho.

That was Jim Jones. We couldn't get him to say that he's opposed to it. It was more like, well, look how it's turned out. Kind of punting on on the question and because he has so many friends in that movement, Ben Sirsa, Butch Otter and and all the others that were, that were part of that push to invite Democrats and independents to infiltrate and vote in the Republican primary.

And, you know, it was a weird answer because you're either for it or you're against it. And and I could tell he just didn't want to say something publicly that was going to be really offputting to some of his dearest friends in, in the movement. Yeah. Anyway. Do you think Jim Jones has done. That was so humiliating.

7038. I what I what I think is that the tactics that they've been using have got to be scrapped. Yeah. And and a new version has to be brought forward. And I believe that they're in the planning stages of that. They're not done. They're going to keep going after it in this costume, in this, you know, fashion. I think they've got to scrap it.

It's too tainted at this point. And they've got to develop something new. Yeah. Yeah I would agree. 941 Newstalk 179. We got a break. But we'll be back. (208) 542-1079. Do you think it's sort of inevitable that at some point Raul Labrador is the governor? I think he will. I think if he wants it, I'm not 100% sure he wants it.

I don't know. We'll have to see. Yeah. He might get really comfortable where he's at. Yeah. That's true. And and really love that work. I don't know. Yeah. If he wants it, I think it ends up being his. Yeah, I do too. I, I really like Labrador because he's just he's a very smart campaigner and he has managed to find that space where he still has the support of the I say far right.

I hate that term because it you say that and people think, well, that's the white supremacist. That's and I don't mean it like that. I mean the libertarian wing, the that he still has their support, but yet he also appeals to the mainstream very well too. Like he's just he's just smart at at how he proceeds. So yeah.

Checking that text number. Oh, oh. Did we get another man. I just we got one that's making me think. Oh, yeah. I don't have it. I don't know who it is. Yeah I don't know what that stuttering was at the beginning of the show or Jeannie. You don't know what the podcast was that Jim Jones was in.

But what podcast. What happened. She said Jim Jones was on a podcast I saw advertised on Instagram just the other day. I had Neal look up the weather on his computer and then I compared it to my weather app. It doesn't look like we're going to have any snow for Christmas. Yeah. I don't think we are going to have a very white Christmas.

That makes me sad. I do like snow on Christmas, so I'm sad with you on that. Although sometimes you'll get a little surprise too. Yeah. Okay. Sorry if this word offends people on Facebook, but who exactly is cat turd? I don't know what his real name is. He's gotten a headline on Gateway Pundit cat Turd Strikes Again. After making Adam Kinzinger cry, the internet sensation roasts rhino Dan Crenshaw in an explosive x Twitter war.

Here's my deal. Oh, she did find it. Okay, I'll open that up in just a second. Okay. 946 on Newstalk 10792085421279 on the fall River propane calling text line. If you'd like us, in the last light to join us in the last few minutes here. So, Dan Crenshaw, apparently his critics call him eyepatch McCain.

Okay. I guess that's a nickname for him. All right. He had a heated exchange with a popular conservative commentator. Can I say that? Sure. He. This is his. This. It's not a word we would use on the air, but this is the word. This is the name. He goes by Onex and he has for years, and he's kind of anonymous.

So, cat turd. So we'll say it once, but that's who it is. The skirmish follows accusations that Dan Crenshaw has been lobbying for congressional pay raises raises, drawing ire from grassroots conservatives and internet heavyweights alike. It all started after conservative journalist Nick Sautter accused Crenshaw of being the mastermind behind a push for increased pay for members of Congress.

And, post said DC sources tell me that Dan Crenshaw is spearheading the effort to get a pay raise for Congress. Last week, when he was asked about his stock trading, Crenshaw whined that members of Congress haven't had a pay raise since oh nine. Crenshaw almost got his way with a pay increase for members, plus benefits being included in today's massive spending boondoggle.

Recently, Crenshaw even said, you have no way to better yourself as a congressman without being able to trade stocks. That's insane. This guy is responsible for loads of the garbage we see being thrown into spending bills, all for his own benefit. Time for eyepatch McCain to go. Okay. Anyway, I will say this about. We'll call him. He he doesn't hesitate to go after people Republican.

He is a conservative, but he will go after Republicans who he feels steps out of line. I think I don't think it was such a big deal that they asked for a pay raise. I think it was the amount. Yeah, that was kind of staggering to people. Right. Okay, so apparently Elon Musk weighed in and said Congress should only get a raise when the budget is balanced.

I like that. Okay. Threshold. Rather than address the accusations with decorum, Crenshaw fired back at shorter with a profanity laden tirade, calling shorter and effing lying piece of excrement. Wow. And effing incels. Which Dan Crenshaw is usually a pretty. Yeah, that's extreme civil guy. Wow. Anyway, he said, hey, whatever gets you pathetic bottom feeders, your clickbait bleeping incels, Crenshaw wrote.

Enter CT, the online conservative voice whose previously rattled politicians like Adam Kinzinger. He wasted no time. Yeah. Get it right. Dan Crenshaw is the America last. Ukraine first war pig who doesn't need a raise because of all the money he makes when he miraculously became a stock expert. Since joining Congress. This is why CT's account is so big.

Yes. The jab struck a nerve, prompting Crenshaw to unleash another tirade attacking CT as an anonymous coward and touting his military service. Anonymous coward like CT talking bleep without any evidence. I'm used to it. Sorry. I was the guy fighting the wars. That little B-word like you would never dare to Crenshaw. This is like gutter language for Dan Crenshaw.

He got pulled down in. Wow. Yeah. Wow, that that is an extreme reaction when you could just completely ignore it. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Okay. All right, well, now I will say I have enjoyed the left cannibalizing itself. So this is like. I don't like it when Republicans are so publicly going after each other. However, I do think that Congress doesn't deserve a pay raise.

They haven't delivered what we want. They're one of the most disliked institutions in the country. This only makes it worse when they're like, we know. Or one of the most disliked institutions in the country. And guess what? We're going to raise our pay by a massive amount. Yeah. It wasn't it wasn't like you got your cost of living $0.28 an hour raise.

That's not what we were talking about. This was a massive pay increase. And here's the deal. They are. They could they are able to secure themselves wealth in other ways. Which seat? So, you know, mockingly pointed out. Yeah I promise. Dan Crenshaw, along like the others, has become far more wealthy in public service than he ever would have in private industry.

Yes. Yeah. What? You're right. I mean, they can virtually inside trade. Yes. They have. They have ways around it. But. So it's legal. But they can essentially become very, very wealthy while they're in office simply based on the things that they know and, and that are happening. So yeah, I don't I don't have a lot of sympathy for this.

Yeah, I don't either, which let's, let's play that. Interesting exchange between Dick Durbin in that CNN reporter members are giving themselves a pay raise. Do you guys deserve a pay raise? Well, that's news to me. It's good news. You know what has it been ten years or 14 years? And no core, no change at all. I think it's about time something said.

Here's a piece of marketing. Giving yourself some privacy. How would I not know about that? But there is. But I mean, but I mean, people look at the performance of Congress, say, why should we give them more money? What about the media? Think about that for a second. We're not paid by public money. I know you're not, but I mean, half of your listeners are not there anymore.

You're still getting the same paycheck. What's going on? Yeah. Okay. Now, now you have Dick Durbin taken a page out of the Newt Gingrich Donald Trump playbook. Is when the media is coming after you. Go right back at them, right. And insult them and and put them on the defensive. So, there are things I liked about both of these.

I like holding Dick Durbin accountable for, the pay raise and the CR, whatever. But I don't mind Dick Durbin pushing back on the media either. They need to be scrutinized as well. So it's a it's a terrible point because, you know, the media, those journalists are paid privately. It's not like this is on the taxpayer dime, right?

Right. I, I appreciate him going back at him. And, here's the deal. They shouldn't have got a raise or shouldn't have been included in this. That was that large. I've also had always had massive problems with the fact that I have to pay for my insurance, and companies are required to provide insurance for people because of the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare.

Yeah. Yet Congress gets to just pick and choose their own medical coverage. They have the best medical coverage of anyone, and they don't pay like everybody else does. Yeah. So why was it good for America but not good for them? Great question. This it was beefed up even more with this pay raise. Great question. We'll be back. Okay.

Cut you off. Last time we were going to say we got good news. What? Are you ready? Yeah. Michael Coates is listening. Yes. He's asking. And I guess we owe him an apology because we didn't get it. From your information, Michael. He says, where are you getting your weather? We got four systems moving in. There's a really good chance of snow on Christmas Eve day.

And into early Wednesday. Okay. Well, there you go. Yay! Oh, Michael, please make it come true. Please, Mr. weatherman, please. Oh, white Christmas would be nice. It would be wonderful.

Okay, I don't agree with that. Did you read the one about school vouchers? No. Says school vouchers. School tax credit. It's going to be a big topic for the legislature this year. Will you advocate against this? Like you did for ranked choice voting primary elections? This will be damaging to the education system in Idaho. Private schools want public money, but without the same rules that apply to the public schools.

No parents want to choose where their kids go to school. I believe the proponents of this will present misleading information like they did with ranked choice voting. Please advocate against this and keep all public schools funded. Okay. That's misinformation. All of that's misinformation. I had only read the first paragraph, not the second. The first paragraph had misinformation. The second is completely misinformation.

Public schools are not going to be defunded. Okay. Oh, no. No, Michael, it didn't come off Matt at all. You know where I go for my weather, Michael. The app that was installed on my iPhone. So what I need to do is install no local news eight and go there and then I will get it. Be getting Michael Coats information.

All right. I just ruined their day. All right. 957 Julie, we just got this text. Can I read it real quick? Sure. Go. School vouchers. Choices. School tax credit is going to be a big topic for the legislature this year. Will you advocate against this like you did for ranked choice voting primary elections? I did against ranked choice voting.

But whatever, I get what they're saying. This will be damaging to the education system in Idaho. Private schools want public money, but without the same rules that apply to public schools. I believe the proponents of this will present misleading information like they did with ranked choice voting. Please advocate against this and keep our public schools funded. I hate to disappoint you, but we will be very, very strong advocates for school choice.

And, we don't believe in protecting institutions. We believe in educating children the best way possible, as many of them as possible in Idaho. And that's exactly why we are in favor of bills like Wendy. Hormones. In previous years, Tammy Nichols, we think parents should have more choices, not fewer. Yeah. And the the primary relationship is parent child.

And the parent gets to decide what is the best education for their child. Sometimes that's not the public school system. Yeah, sometimes it is. Sometimes public schools. Great for those kids. Sometimes it's not. Yeah. Okay. That's going to do it for the show today. Thank you all. Julie and I will be back tomorrow for a Friday edition right here on Newstalk 179.

Mark Lee, VanCamp and Robbins, coming up next.