1.2.2024 -- NLS -- New Year Attacks, School Vouchers, and RFK Jr.

On this episode with Neal and Julie...

The duo delves into recent tragic events that gripped the nation: two attacks occurring just hours apart, one in New Orleans involving a U.S. Army veteran driving into a crowd, and another in Las Vegas involving an exploding Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel. Neal and Julie examine the implications of these events, the federal government's response, and the broader discussions about societal safety and evil.

They also shift gears to explore public education concerns, discussing parental frustrations with the traditional system and the debate around school vouchers. Dorothy Moon’s political legacy comes under scrutiny, with Neal and Julie using literary references to analyze her impact and some of the internal divisions within the Republican Party.

The episode takes a lighter turn when addressing food safety, with an animated conversation about the controversial use of red dye in food. They weigh the balance between government regulation and public safety while acknowledging the challenges of navigating conflicting research and corporate influences.

Finally, Neal and Julie touch on public perceptions of political figures like Trump and RFK Jr., emphasizing the nuances of loyalty, criticism, and public discourse in today’s political climate. This episode combines hard-hitting analysis, cultural commentary, and the classic Neal and Julie banter listeners love.

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Transcript

Good morning. Happy new year. Welcome to our January 2nd edition of The Neal Show. And here we are. Finally, it does look like winter outside. And be careful. We've got slick, nasty roads all through. In fact, I was out driving last night. Run some errands and, slipping and sliding around. But I want to welcome you to the program we have.

Well, I would call them terror attacks. You have ISIS flags. You have a guy who's been radicalized and a it has to me all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack. Although you have people saying this wasn't a terror attack, this was IEDs. I don't think those things are mutually exclusive. And let me play the clip for you here.

Because, well, this is the cyber truck that exploded, and I'll, I'll have to find the, the actual clip, but, as you listen to it, you're like, wait, wait a minute. No terrorists use IEDs. But the logic just didn't, flow there. Also, we're finding out more about the Las Vegas attack. It appears that maybe there's a connection.

The driver has been identified as 37 year old Matthew Little's burger, also a U.S. Army veteran who had served at Fort Bragg. So it happens. On the same day, two guys, both former Army, served at Fort Bragg, and it happens well, just hours apart, of course, in New Orleans. Sham Soo din, Baha jabar is a 42 year old U.S. Army veteran, drove a rented Ford F-150 into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, and then hours later, that Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Vegas, killed the driver, injured seven people.

The back of that vehicle had fireworks, gas canisters and camping fuel, suggesting it was deliberate and the vehicle had been rented through the Turo app. Same platform used to rent a pickup truck involved in the deadly attack in New Orleans earlier that day. Now that's not rock solid proof, but E but it it's a little it's a little suspicious, right.

Obviously. Sources told chief investigative reporter Tony Kovaleski for Denver7 News that both Jabar and Little's Burger served at Fort Bragg. Sources also confirming levels burger served at the same military base. Is the terrorist responsible for the attack in New Orleans? Authorities are investigating a possible connection between the two men. Now, we don't know if the timelines crossed, if they knew each other, if they worked together.

All of those things have yet to be, determined. So we have that. And I think everybody's kind of on edge. They postponed the sugar Bowl, the matchup between Georgia and Notre Dame until today. And I think that's happening this afternoon. The governor of Louisiana is going to the game sort of a show of of courage and trust in the security.

You had Joe Biden and I, I've got to tell you. January 21st cannot come soon enough. Listen to his response after the terrorist attack. Here's what we know so far. The FBI has reported to me the killer was an American citizen born in Texas. He served in the United States Army and active duty for many years. He also served in the Army Reserve until a few years ago.

The FBI also reported to me that mere hours before the attack, he posted videos on social media indicating they were inspired by ISIS expressing a desire to kill, desire to kill the ISIS flag was found in his vehicle. Would you read it to conduct this attack? Possible explosives are found in the vehicle as well, and more explosives were never found nearby.

The situation is very fluid and the investigation has a preliminary stage. And the fact is that right now. Excuse me.

Tackled by the teleprompter. The law enforcement and intelligence community are continuing to look for any connections, associations or coconspirators. We have nothing additional reported at this time. The investigation is continuing to be active. Okay. No one should jump to conclusions. All right, so Joe's got the slurred speech and trying to bring calm to a nation. And, meanwhile, you have President Trump who has weighed in on this, and he said that our country is a disaster.

And, he said when I said that the criminals are coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country. That statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the fake news media, but it turned out to be true. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department.

Just hours later, a Tesla Cybertruck. Excuse me. The Trump administration will fully support the city of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil. Now they're going to say back, this guy wasn't an immigrant. He's a U.S. citizen. He was born in the United States. He just happened to be radicalized here. There's still a point to be made.

Number one, we still have yet to figure out other people who may have been involved. And it appears that others could have been involved in this, the placing of the bombs and that that sort of thing. But at any rate, I'm just looking forward to new leadership and better leadership. I want to make, one last clip here before we move on to other things, because we do have other things.

We've got state politics that are beginning to heat up. But here's Senator John Kennedy in and he talked about evil. And he said, if you don't believe in evil, just watch what happens in New Orleans. Watch what happened in Las Vegas. And then he said this, that he, hadn't personally spoken to the FBI. Perhaps his staff had, but he did talk to Alejandro Mayorkas.

The federal government is now in charge of this investigation. By that, I mean the white House, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice. I have not talked to the FBI. Maybe they've talked to my staff. I don't know. I did talk to the Secretary of Homeland Security a little while ago, and I told him that with all the respect I could muster, that we expect to put the full force and resources of the federal government behind this investigation.

Okay. Now, I want to focus on one phrase. You probably caught this, too. He said, I spoke with the head of the Department of Homeland Security. With all the respect I could muster, meaning he didn't have a lot. He had to dig deep to find any respect for Alejandro Mayorkas, because Alejandro Mayorkas has been an unmitigated disaster. He's lied.

He's misdirected. He has misinformed. He has shown incompetence and just a willing to gaslight. So yeah, that's that's a tough conversation to have. I do like that Senator Kennedy put the expectation that we're going to have the full support and resources of the federal government in in recovering from this and also going after whoever, whoever did this. So we're on edge.

I think all of the country is on edge. I know there were clips being passed around about potential ISIS and jihadist sleeper cells around the country, and a lack of faith and confidence in our intelligence agencies to effectively combat the threats that are out there. But I will say this, and this is no conspiracy theory. This is Neal thinking out loud.

It's been an interesting few weeks where we have unexplained drones that our government seems very disinterested in, that is causing some unsettled feelings around the country. You have ramped up rhetoric about bird flu and there potentially being another pandemic, and it's time to disperse 5000 vaccine doses. Now you have these terrorist attacks that happened hours apart into significant cities in the country New Orleans, Las Vegas.

And of course, we are now less than three weeks away from Donald Trump becoming the president of the United States. Look. Buckle up. This is going to be a ride now. Look, life is life. Bad things happen. Rough things happen. But make no mistake, you're going to have certain elements and forces that are going to exaggerate and exploit this craziness for their own political ends, because they hate the idea of another four years of having Donald Trump as the president of the United States.

We also have domestic I say domestic politics. When I say domestic, I mean Idaho domestic politics happening. The legislature will be getting underway very, very soon. Matter of days here and they'll get things going. And I believe that education reform is going to be the issue that will not go away. And it should not the education system, the K through 12 system that we have today is not the same K through 12 that we had even five or 10 or 15 years ago.

It's filled with people doing their best, but it's been infiltrated by some avenues of ridiculousness. And what that has led to is parents saying, I want something different for my kid, because the traditional system is not doing enough to stop the leftist indoctrination, to stop the DEA, to stop the boys playing against girls in sports, too. I mean, there's a number of things that parents largely feel, and we could debate each one whether or not it's warranted.

But parents largely feel like the traditional public education system is not adequately addressing the challenges that are not even on the horizon. They're much closer than that now. And they want different choices. They want different options. And I think this change, this cultural change as it's infected. The education system has brought on a very new dynamic. Now, I'm all in favor of this.

I feel like in general, you might you might find some areas where you have to have a deeper discussion or whatever. But I find in general, competition is a very, very healthy element for nearly every industry to have to compete for. Customers compete, clients compete it. It makes everybody better. It makes everybody work hard. It makes everybody strive to improve.

Again. You could probably find an exception here in there. I'm saying in the main here that is true. And so I welcome I welcome alternatives to the traditional K through 12 model. Not because it will destroy it, but because it will improve it. It will make it better. They don't quite see it the same way. And now we're hearing and by the way, this is, it Barb Hart has been very, very respectful.

But there is now a letter that's been sent out to lawmakers from the Bonneville County Central Committee that just set some expectations for any bill that would they don't want vouchers. They don't want education savings accounts. They don't want tax credits. They don't want anything that is going to put any kind of elevated pressure on K through 12.

Now, as I read through this, the what I read was very familiar. And it's the exact same sentiments that you would find in literature put out by a teachers union. For instance. My guess my question is why are Republicans putting it out? I could read a sample to you. You're probably wondering, what are you talking about, Neal? Let me just read just a little bit of this to you.

And not not a terribly worded letter. I just don't know why it's coming from Republicans on behalf of the Bonneville County Republican Central Committee, we urge our local legislators to either one oppose any legislation promoting vouchers, essays. That's the savings accounts or tax credits for K through 12 educational purposes or at a minimum. Here's option two. Oppose any legislation promoting vouchers, essays or tax credits for K through 12 educational purposes.

That does not require equitable regulations for all recipients of government provided education funding, thus ensuring fair competition and accountability. So basically, what they're saying is we don't want anything, but if we have to have something, then here's what we want you to do. While the intent of school choice legislation may be to provide more educational options, we believe this proposal will have a detrimental impact on the education of our most vulnerable and At-Risk children by diverting resources to vouchers, ISAs, or tax credits.

We risk segregating students who are easier to educate. Typically those with involved parents from the public school system, leaving behind those who face the greatest challenges, often from disadvantaged backgrounds. This shift would disproportionately burden public schools with less money and resources, and a higher concentration of students who require greater financial support. Now, first of all, I again, I'm not going to go through this line by line, but I believe very much their thinking is flawed because, for instance, let's take the most recent viable education choice bill.

That's Wendy Harmon's bill. It would not have diverted anything. The K through 12 budget would have stayed fully intact if Wendy Harmon's bill had been passed. So it's not either or. It's in addition to they still they still don't want. Now, I would say, and I know this is a little bit over the top in North Korea. The way North Korea survives is they don't let you leave.

You must stay. You have to be locked in. Now, this is not North Korea, but there is an element that feels similar in that we're going to make it really hard for you to leave the public education system, because for a lot of middle class families, it's just not an option to pay for private school and to pay for private education.

It's just not it's just it just isn't. It's not financially feasible. And so in a way they're locked in. Just from a financial reality standpoint, this opens it up. If we were to, I mean, people are afraid of the word vouchers, but I think that that word has been kind of spoiled in public discussion. Absolutely. In favor of education savings accounts and tax credits.

And I also think that Representative Harman says it best. Aren't parents your accountability? If the schools private schools aren't doing their job, then the parents will say, I'm going to get my kid from this school. They're not learning a thing. They're not getting prepped. Right. So, I understand the argument. I don't understand that it's coming from a formal organization of the Republican Party.

I will also say this in my lack of understanding here, this is at odds with the state party. Quite frankly, it's at odds with basic Republican ideals. And so I feel like you you can express this. It's weird to be expressing it through the vehicle of the Republican Party. We got to take a break at 826 and touching the ground.

I'm on the hunt, I must die. You smell like I sound. I mean, you're a girl and everything, so, you know, welcome back. And say you're not a biologist. Knock it off over there. It's 831 a on Newstalk 1079. We just had. Well, here's a snippet of the conversation. I was bragging about how I shower every day, and I said my morning bathroom routine takes between 10 to 12 minutes because I've become a James Clare devotee.

Like the the book Atomic Habits and the whole idea of habit stacking just it it's it's fascinating to me how that works. So one of the things that I do is I actually set a timer on my phone because I want to see how long my bathroom routine takes in the morning, and if I can do it in under ten minutes, that's a that's a good morning.

And I mean that's everything. That's the bathroom. That's the shower. That's the shaving the everything. And so I said I know it takes longer for you. And then that's what led to because you're a girl and everything is. Maybe I'm just more detailed. It's not a, it's not a competition. It's just you know at any rate welcome back to zero eight competition.

It says the man who measures everything. It's not a competition. Not against each other. It's not men versus women. It's just, you know, 020 8542 1079. So now I'm not competing. I didn't set my watch to go. I'm going to do this faster than Julie is. I just it's I'm just curious how long it takes. So. Okay. Try to find areas where I can maximize a little more efficiency or whatever.

Great. I just appreciate the shower. Whether it takes ten, whether it takes 12. I just appreciate the shower. Right. Right. And we live in an age where that daily shower is minimum expectation. Yes. Yeah. Be a commune minded soul and clean yourself up. Yes. Yes, please. Yes, please. Okay. Well, Welcome back. Julie. I don't know if you heard my, monologue on the Bonneville County Republican Central Committee waiting into it.

I just looked at that idea is out there. It shouldn't be coming through Republican channels. If that's what your belief is. Then join the teachers union joint. If you're a Republican, you believe that parents should have choice in education. And then we should make it easier for families to make choices about where their kids are educated, not harder.

Right. Especially when we have so many other states that that have implemented various versions, you know, of this and pick the best of the best and do it. Yeah. We're not blazing new trails here. Yeah. No we're not. Find a Republican state that's making it work. Compare it to our state. See what can work here from that. Put it into practice.

Yeah. It's that easy. It's that easy. Can we talk about the podcast the BBC podcast. So this is from a podcast from September. Julie and I stump. Well, we didn't stumble into this. We had a listener who heard it, and I don't know how this got shopped to the BBC, that that would be a story in and of itself.

How did the BBC podcast called The Coming Storm pick up on the complexity of Idaho's politics, and do an episode about it? I guarantee you, somebody shopped this to the BBC. Oh, they fed it to the, There's too many intricacies about personal beliefs. Yeah. In this, for it not to be shopped. It wasn't like someone just stumbled across this.

Yeah. So here's an excerpt. And I will tell you, I don't even real other than what we've just said. I don't know how to summarize this podcast episode because there was no cohesive storyline. It was here. We're going to throw this into the story without a completion to it. And then they were on to Ammon Bundy, and then they were on to Eric Parker.

And then they talked about Dorothy for a while, and then they it's like, I just have a list of gripes that I want to get out there. And the BBC will, will echo those for us. Yeah. I that's exactly how it would explain it. There wasn't a beginning, there wasn't a middle, there wasn't an end. It was.

Oh. And guess what. We don't like this. Yeah. Oh and guess what. This one too. That was the whole podcast. So we have hindsight here. This podcast was in September and this was before the the judge in the case took out the massively big paddle and swatted the Bingham County Republican Committee and Matt Thompson. And so he this is in that context before all of this happened.

But listen to this little, little piece here. The man opening proceedings. He's the head of the committee. Dorothy Moon tried to remove the guy behind the restraining order. I'm the man that's got my name on the lawsuit. His name is Matt Thompson. We had a chat with him backstage. I'm rock solid conservative, but I also don't put up with a bunch of B.S..

Matt is a cowboy. The real one. A quietly seething man in a checked shirt. He thinks Dorothy is the wicked witch. You know, I think, Dorothy Moon's time in Idaho. I think it's time for her to click her heels and wind back up in Kansas or wherever it is she's from. But her time in Idaho needs to be done.

Take her dog, Toto, and go. We drift back into the hall. Do we have time for a trip? Anyway, so there was. There was there. We drift back into the. This podcast was so over the top. Yeah, it was so over the top. It was over the top. This is a very mundane meeting that is happening at a high school.

And it's it wasn't there. We drift back into illegal.

It didn't need to be told with that sense of flourish. Yes. And so whatever. And I sauntered down the hallway into the restaurant, quietly seething. Man. And. Gingerly, I filled my mug with filtered water. And then the crisp spring of water quench my thirst on this cold January morning, and 45 minutes later, I. Felt the need to urinate like, okay, they had a they had a Republican meeting.

They had a Republican meeting. And, I Matt Thompson's just a dude. He's not a quietly seething cowboy. He's a dude who doesn't like the person in charge. That's the bottom line. I just told you what was going on here without dressing it up in the BBC terms. Yeah, well, again, and I know we talked about this earlier this morning.

I'm still a little. Dorothy was the protagonist in The Wizard of Oz. Yeah.

But you have the podcast host presenting her. Has the Wicked Witch. And then they made the reference to clicking her heels, going back to Kansas and taking Toto and like, no, Dorothy was the good guy.

Like, what are you doing? Not understanding literature. Apparently not. Like, it didn't even make sense because you're a quietly seething cowboy. And I will interpret it however I want to. Wow. Julie, it's it's frustrating. Earlier, I didn't play these clips there. There was one moment where. And Ben Furman was interviewed quite extensively in the opening segments of this, and he did say that, in fact, that's what key to into this.

He did say Dorothy Moon's not even allowed in our county. Well, yes she is. She can go to Bingham County any time she wants. Yeah. Now, she was barred from re-organize housing the county Republican Party. That's it. That's the only thing that she was barred from doing. But he acts like, you know, if she stopped at the rest area and, you know, the the the hell's Half acre, or if she goes to Walmart or whatever.

I saw her at the Ridley's Deli. Call the police. Yeah. Well, they're in there implying that the podcast host is implying that the restraining order is how he referred to it. So that's the that's the implication of the podcast again over the top much. Yeah. And when we when our listener clued us in to this podcast. So on New Year's Eve we talked about this that morning I said this is actually really embarrassing.

It's embarrassing for the people that participated in this podcast. Like, especially when just a couple of months later you got told you're completely in the wrong. Yeah. It's embarrassing. It is embarrassing. And and I can understand why he probably wanted to get this behind him. Yeah. All sorts of wrong. Yeah. I don't like the buttons. Conservative. Not crazy.

What does that even mean. I mean I know I know what he's saying. He's like you know what. How can I wear a button. That is a double middle finger to the people I don't like inside my own party. I'll just call them crazy. Yeah. And what, what he's also saying is that crazy is adjacent to conservative.

And if you're truly conservative you don't have to tell people you're conservative. Yeah. Well that was an overarching theme of this podcast. I mean if we're we're going to pick a theme that was we don't like Dorthy Moon or Republicans. That was the theme. Yeah. And it didn't clearly tell a story, but that was the theme. And if you're not a Republican, if you don't align with Republican values.

I don't know how much more we need to say that to these people pretending to be Republicans. Yeah. But if if you have to claim you're conservative, rock solid conservative, that's what Matt Thompson said. Yeah. My point of that is you shouldn't hate Dorothy Moon then, because she's a conservative. And and if we can highlight 18 items that are conservative, you should probably be agreeing with her on about 14 or 15.

Yeah. But you can't stand her. And you hate her. So that means to me, you're not really the conservative you think you are. Yeah. Not sure you understand rock solid conservatism. Not sure you get it? Yeah. No, I don't, I don't. You know how I view this, Julie. And and maybe this has application in other, other places where you have people who are not conservatives.

They don't really believe what the Republican Party stands for, but they see that as the low hanging fruit vehicle by which they can accomplish some political end. So they'll masquerade. They'll, they'll they'll put on the costume and they'll win the precinct. They'll even win the legislative seat. They'll delete their Twitter account and try to gaslight everyone into believing that they're a Republican.

They'll do all that because that's really the only viable organization by which they can accomplish what they want. I'll tell you, there is a very strong, I would say, anti conservative, but there was a group that was against proposition no. They were for proposition one. And we saw kind of these contingencies of people, these groups that wanted it advocated for it.

And sometimes they, they're like a little leadership group that'll meet for brunch every few weeks. And they'll, they'll mastermind some ideas. A lot of times those are the same people that have overlap in taking over the reins of the Republican Party. Now let's go to Bonneville County for just a moment. If you want to fight vouchers, essays, tax credits in education, feel free.

But the Republican Party is not the the vehicle to do that. The Republican Party very much wants parents to have have choice here. So stop hijacking the party. Start your own thing. Join the teachers union to do whatever you want, but at least be intellectually honest enough to not strive to occupy the leadership positions in an organization that is in opposition to what you're trying to achieve.

Yeah. I like that phrase intellectually honest enough because you're not being honest and you're not being intelligent. When I'm going to go back to what I just said, if you're going to come forward and say conservative, not crazy, you're going to come forward and say, rock solid conservative. What you're you're you're either not being honest or you're not being smart because it's a dishonest statement.

Yeah. Okay. So pick one or the other and repair it, whichever one you're falling into. And if you're falling into both, maybe get into a different party. Yeah. Be honest to something. Because you're, you're living kind of a double. Yes. A double thing here. It would kind of be like you know what, I believe in Allah. But that Presbyterian Church is I love the architecture and they've got lots of money and they have plenty of parishioners and they have coffee every Sunday afternoon.

So I know I'm Muslim, but, I'm going to join the Presbyterian Church just because there are things I like about it. And it'll scratch my itch. And you know what? They'll help me paint my house, too. Yeah. They're going to serve me. And I also need to get a job at this certain place. And they've got people connected to that place.

So if I go to their church, then maybe I'll get that job. I mean, and I'll echo an actual question. Do you have to believe in Jesus to be a Christian? Does everybody have to believe in Jesus to be a Christian? Sure. Yeah. If you can do your mental gymnastics, you can. You can come up with whatever answer you want.

That was actually asked of me. Do you have to be a conservative to be a Republican in good faith? Yes. Yeah. Yes. You do. Yeah. All right. It's 847 on Newstalk 179. We are starting out the new year with a dose of sarcasm. I'm sure there will be more where that came from. It's all coming up on Newstalk 179.

It's, 853 on Newstalk 178. Neal Larson along with Julie Mason. Julie, what's your wish list for the legislative session? What you like to see. Oh, she's a lot. I would love to see them cut a little bit more regulation. I would like, Idaho to continue to lead out on that. I, I will say this preemptively because I do have a little bit of worry about this.

We have new leadership on the Senate side. Yeah. And, I am hoping the new leadership does not behave the way the old leadership did that when the House does pass a bill that it's not, then put in a drawer on the Senate side. Yeah. That'll be an unknown that I'm watching. So my wish list is please let the behaviors of the Senate be a little bit different, that they actually let all things be heard and argued and, you know, completely fleshed out before they say no to them.

You know, and I would say that that's absolutely true of the dynamic between the House and the Senate. I would also say, and I'm thinking specifically of education choice, if there's an issue that is ripe, but you're worried about the outcome, if your leadership, that you'll be courageous enough to let that issue be debated. And because you're you're actually denying the will of the people, if you believe that we're government by and for the people.

If you take an issue like that and yeah, it can be controversial, but it's an issue that a lot of people want addressed somehow. But you put it in a drawer or you ignore it. Yeah. I feel like you're you're doing a disservice to our to our state. Yeah, I would agree with that. And I just want to see that happen.

I, I feel like people were elected I and I, I don't think I'm being dishonest, intellectually dishonest here because people were elected that I don't like that I wouldn't have chosen. But when they are elected, I say, go over there and prove yourself. You really are a conservative. Go do it. Yeah, go. Go prove that you're conservative. I like it.

All right, it's 855. Got to take our final break this hour, but we'll be back after this. On Newstalk 179. All right. It's 858 on this Thursday on Newstalk 1079. That's going to do it for this hour, but we have a whole new hour ahead, Julie, and we'll open up the phone lines. I'm looking forward to hearing from our listeners as we get a new year underway here.

All right. All right. We'll do it. Coming up. For those people who don't believe in objective evil. All you have to do is look at what happened in our city early this morning. If reported to me the killer was an American citizen born in Texas. He served in the United States Army and active duty for many years. I'm not playing, you know, like 3000ft.

You. Is about the viewership of CNN these days. Welcome back. It's our two. And if you'd like to reach us, here's the number to call (208) 542-1079. I'm Neal Larson, she's Julie Mason, and we're here in 2025. Happy new year. Happy new year. Back atcha. Are you saying it to me or audience? I was saying it to the audience, but you can be included in that.

Well. Thank you. Yeah. Yes. Is it weird? We've had this moment. Julie, where you realize we are a quarter century into this century now. Yeah. I was saying that on our New Year's Eve show that I remember Y2K. I it it feels like yesterday, which makes me sound really old. And I am old. Yeah, but it's been 25 years since Y2K.

I know we were barely over 25 when Y2K happened. There we are. We are now. I'm here. It's been 25 years since then, so. Yeah. Okay. We we have that, the roads. Let's talk about the roads for just a moment. If you go on the 511.idaho.gov website, there's a lot of purple that means difficult. I don't see anything closed, but I do see a lot of purple.

This is a question that I have very gently for the Idaho Department of Transportation. It goes from difficult to fair. North of Dubois on I-15. But if you look at the cameras in that section of fair, the roads look like total crap. So my suggestion is because the roads do look like total crap. In recent webcam shots.

Plan on them being total crap. Okay. Okay. Fair enough. Neal's confused about your metric at the Department of Transportation. I think maybe it's just more likely somebody didn't update the status in, you know, but, you, I mean, we're talking about midnight, a pass, which, if you be dicey, it can. It looks like the left hand lane.

You can see pavement, but the right hand lane looks really nice. Well, no, actually, no, no. I'm wrong. I have to look closer. It. You can see pavement, but it looks not good. Okay. So overall, just be careful. Yeah. Just be careful. Yeah. And that is an official status, by the way. Total crap. Total crap. And just be careful.

Those are. Yep. That's. That's how it is. Okay. If you'd like to join us. 285421079 and, someone said roads are okay, but there are some random bad spots, so be careful. I almost took out the Arby's yesterday. Did you? You really did slide. Oh, yeah. Okay. Going around a corner, and I. I was not going fast at all.

I felt like I was driving appropriate to the conditions, but I lost the back end a little bit, and I slid right into the curb like it was, I don't think two wheels left the ground, but it felt like it easily could have. I didn't almost take out the Arby's, but it it was it was a pucker moment for a second.

I will say that no damage, everything's fine. But you know, you and I did that in a car you were driving and we went around a corner probably like five years ago. Oh, yeah. Probably five winters ago. Yeah. And, it was a really good thing there were no parked cars anywhere. And I think we referred to that corner with a special name for a couple of years.

After that, we did the corner. Yeah. Yeah. It's so, Yeah. Someone said, okay, Julie, let's talk about this Clinton video you sent me. Oh, okay. Wikipedia is. This is some dude on TikTok. Okay, listen. They're deleting Epstein connections off of Wikipedia right now. I was working on something for a little documentary today, and went to go and look at Bill Clinton's Wikipedia page to get the number of times he flew on Epstein's plane.

And it turns out that Epstein is only mentioned one time on Bill Clinton's Wikipedia page, and it's in the footnotes in reference to Jennifer Epstein. Clinton family speeches netted as much as $26 million. Excuse me. So I went to the Wayback Machine and found out when did they delete all of this? Because it used to mention Epstein 47 different times.

Because there used to be a whole section about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, which was, shall we say, extensive. And so it turns out, sometime on July 22nd, someone deleted all of Bill Clinton's connections to Jeffrey Epstein from Wikipedia. And ever since July 22nd of this year, no Wikipedia editor has saw fit to change that. That is despite numerous witnesses extensively documenting Bill Clinton's friendship with Epstein and his indulgence in the services that is, despite Bill Clinton threatening news publications for talking about it.

Bill Clinton being photographed numerous times with his buddy Bill Clinton being photographed with girls. Jeffrey Epstein literally had this painting of the old Clinton in his apartment. Can't imagine what that means, but it's just weird timing. Why do you think Bill Clinton is having his Epstein section deleted from Wikipedia right now? Okay, so this is put forward. It's Elon Musk tweeted this video out and said, don't donate another penny to Wikipedia.

The guy below that, after Elon Musk had put that out there, said that once he aired the video, Wikipedia put the Epstein section back in to the Bill Clinton Wikipedia entry. So let me get some context here about this TikTok, content creator. He does deep dives on, especially the food industry. He'll walk you through a supermarket and he'll highlight that 80% of the cereal shelves are owned by this same company.

You know, like he's highlighting this. They they have a vested interest in causing problems because now they're connected to the pharmacy industry. And he he ties all of these industries together. He has multiple deep dives on Blackrock. And so this guy is is gonna move the needle. He's got that big of an audience okay. And people trust him because he has done these deep dives and shown who owns land in America.

What is Blackrock buying in and how are the pharmacy industries connected with agriculture and all of it. He's he's very good at what he does and it's a very type a methodical approach, just like he I mean he didn't say anything. Not true there, right? Everything he said in the video was completely true. Yeah. And so I can see that Wikipedia would switch that immediately.

They also are in the middle of their campaign. I was on Wikipedia yesterday for my podcast. Yeah. And I was I was looking something up and they are in the middle of their. Please help us say stay afloat finance and donate this much would help us like they're in the middle of asking for it at the top of the page.

So it's appropriate that he he goes ahead and calls them out. And then Elon Musk says, don't give them another dime until they're an honest platform. Yeah. Good. Good. Hopefully it'll make them better. Yeah. Because that never should have been taken out in the first place. He has a clear connection to Epstein. Now you can get on and make an edit on Wikipedia.

But isn't that like a suggested edit. And then you have a moderator at Wikipedia going okay that's legitimate will allow that. Yes. Yeah. It's just not automatic. Yeah. So I have a story similar to that. This goes back close to 30 years in the mid 90s when the internet was like crazy. You know it's still great wild West.

It was that version of crazy. I remember Snopes was one of the early, early sites. And I would go to Snopes quite often because back then they were called urban legends, and they would either debunk or affirm urban legends. Sometimes it was mixed. Whatever. So whenever I would hear something that seemed a little kind of crazy or outlandish, Snopes.com was, common visit for me.

And I remember learning about it. I'm even afraid to say it. Skull and bones at Yale. Oh, yeah. Because I had heard it might have been a little later. Because I did hear that George W Bush was in Skull and Bones. I heard that John Kerry was in Skull and Bones, and that there were all these big names in American politics there in Skull and Bones.

Guess what was not at Snopes? Skull and bones. Any mention or analysis of leaders that had been part of Skull and Bones and that was their wheelhouse. That that kind of law that attracts a lot of attention. It's out there. Like that is absolutely what they should be doing. And I remember that's weird. That's weird that that here's a story that you can either confirm or you can debunk whatever it ought to be on Snopes.

It wasn't at least back then. It was not on Snopes. They didn't even address it. And then I thought it's got to be true then. And they have control of somebody at Snopes. They're hiding it for a reason. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, weirdness I, I think the, the takeaway from all of this is that there will be industries that will be protected.

I was always. Yeah. And, and that's one of the great things about TikTok. It's got plenty of downsides. But one of the great things about TikTok is it has allowed content creators that actually take their their content seriously, like this gentleman, to provide information to the American public that you're not getting quick and easy anywhere else. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. I have another question for you, because I've seen this story a couple of times. RFK Jr wants to ban red dye. Like number five or something. It's got a number. But there are a lot of people that are sounding the alarm on this particular red dye that it can cause ADHD that has neurological impacts and effects.

Are you okay with. Because you and I have a libertarian streak. Are you okay with the government banning food companies in America from using, this this red dye? I look, I think I think you can draw a really clear line here. If you take any government subsidies to do what you do. Yeah. Then you have to follow the rules.

If you think you can do it without any government subsidy at all. Then go ahead and do your thing. That's where my, where I draw the line at. And I think that we have to, I think one of the things that that would do is it would unveil how many people get grants from the government. How many people taxpayer dollars go to to fund these, these what we think is completely private industry.

But it's not. Yeah. So, let me give you an example. The government will fund a, a research project that is being held up by. I'm just going to pick some random company. Pepsi Cola. Yeah. Okay. And they have a research department. And they can apply for grants and they might get a grant. Well if you're going to accept money to figure out what products are healthy and not healthy and, and will be good for Americans and not good and it's part of your business model, then you have to follow the rules and not use red dye.

Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah. That's I think that that's a very simple way to do it. I it not having red dye is not going to affect my life at all. I don't have little kids who are enticed by bright food. Yeah. I, I don't eat a lot of junk food, so it doesn't matter to me. Like, none of it matters to me.

So I'm like, take the red dye out. I don't even care personally. But if we're going to look at it from like a libertarian stance and we don't want a lot of government regulation, then for me the tie in is then don't take government money. So I, put on the table here because I think if you think deeply about it, you could argue either way.

We do a ton of regulation of all different kinds of companies in the interest of public safety. There's certain ingredients that you like. You can't put something in food that poisons people. Like. Absolutely. Just you can't. Although people would argue there are foods that have poison in them. They're just a very slow acting poison that, amasses over years.

So that's a different discussion. So at the same time, when I look at municipalities that are banning how much sugary drinks you can buy, I've always been opposed to that because my argument has been people are in charge of their own health. And if you're transparent with your labeling, they can decide for themselves how much sugar they want to put in their in their bodies.

So I feel like whatever position I take on this because I am, I'm okay with government regulation often happening in the interest of public safety. We do it all the time, right? Like our roads have to be built a certain way in the interest of public safety. Our, products have to be manufactured. If you're if you're going to manufacture a baby crib, that's going to be regulated because you want your baby to be safe, choking or asphyxiation and that and that issue is separate from whether or not a company's getting a subsidy or not.

That's just, a manufacturing regulation in the interest of public safety. So in a way, it's sort of an art form because I don't want I don't want dangerous cribs or baby seats out there. I've had kids, I've grandkids now. At the same time, I don't want a government overreaching and saying, you can only have 12oz of sugary soda at this restaurant.

I get it, that's too far and that's too much. But where in between is the right answer? And does red food dye fall in the in between? I don't need red food. I've never I, I'm sure I've been impacted by the marketing of brightly colored foods. Sure my kids have, but I, I don't, I'd prefer it not be in the food, but I don't know if I want the government to ban it from being in the food.

So I, I because I don't know the full scope of the dangers of what red food dye will do. Right. You know, I, I get exactly what you're saying because I don't want government government overreach either. And. Okay, how about this? How bout it's like cigarets? If if RFK Jr makes a a a studied list. So it's been proven that it's harmful.

A studded list of harmful substances to the human body. There has to be a warning label on it like there is on cigarets. Yeah. Somebody in the test. Did somebody say that? Yeah. Warning labels just like cigarets. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yes. But let me give a counter to that. Sometimes there's no alternative. Like, you know what I'm saying?

Like, it's in so much food. Cigarets is a very specific niche item. Whereas a nicotine is a very specific and niche item. But you have red food coloring in cereal, in punch in any food. Sometimes food that doesn't have much color at all can have this in it. I what. Well you're going to have to do the dance one way or the other.

So which one do you want. Nothing. Yeah. No it's a good question. I mean you're going to have to there. I don't know if there's a clear cut answer here. I would say independently a clear cut answer is darn it. Be smart enough and in control of your body enough that you don't buy these foods. Yeah. That's clearly not going to work to say that.

So the clear cut answer can't be implemented. Yeah, because people look to government to fix their problems. Yeah. And that's all people Republicans, Democrats, everybody look to government to fix their problems. Yeah. So if the answer isn't, we should be independent enough and smart enough to not put this junk in our body. Then you've got to have something.

And maybe the warning label is it or maybe it is overreach and it's just not allowed to be used. I don't know. Yeah, I don't I don't either. And this might be something where maybe the industry does not want it, but I do remember the fight over smoking and bowling alleys in Idaho. I've told this story before.

The dirty little secret is the bowling alleys. Wanted the legislature to pass it because they wanted a different clientele coming in, but they didn't want to be the bad guy and ban smoking because that was going to harm their current clientele. But if the legislature could take the fall for it, they. There's. This is out of my hands there nothing I could do.

Right. Maybe there is that kind of a dynamic in the food industry where a lot of it is cost based. There are other things that will color food red. It's just more expensive. Somebody saying like vegetable juice and there's like a natural stuff, but it's not as abundant as the red dye, the red pigment that you can get for almost nothing and put in your food.

So it's a cost cutting measure. But if they're all on equal footing, maybe they're okay with it. They just they just don't want their competitor to have the advantage. Maybe maybe they if it's maybe they're all secretly hoping for RFK Jr. I would doubt that because I think that they much like the TikToker you know he's outlined that these companies are gigantic and they own multiple arms right.

Like okay let's just let's take one company that has nothing to do with this. Yamaha makes pianos and motorcycles and ATVs and everything. Right. Those are two arms to the to the company. Well, we have massive behemoth food companies that also have their hands in other places. Yeah, and sometimes it's beneficial for them to keep you sick. Yes.

Yes, I, I would agree with with that. I think that does happen. Yeah. Or overweight or. Yeah. Addicted. Well, I mean, we've talked about the substance they put on Takis to make you want to keep eating them. I that doesn't offer anything other than to sell more of their product. Do you know Julie? And and I will say this without hesitation.

One of the biggest drivers of disease in America has been the food pyramid that they put in place several decades ago. I had farmers involved in it, putting the the carbs and the grains at the top like that led to a plague of insulin related issues and not even chemicals. That was just the food that we were eating, was just bad for the way our bodies responded to it.

Yeah. Yeah. But that food pyramid benefited certain people. Yes, there was a purpose for the food pyramid, and it was to enrich certain businesses. Well, there's also a global ideological element to this. For a while, I haven't heard much about this lately, but for a while there, probably from the 60s to the 80s and early 90s, you had this big overpopulation scare, these people saying, the Earth can't sustain these billions of people and blah, blah, blah.

There might have been people that just wanted to to wipe out part of the population. And you don't live to be 95 if you're diabetic. You know, my sub theory on Covid 19. Yeah. And that they failed epically at it, that they were hoping to kill far more of the geriatric population than they did. Yeah. It helped. It would help solve Social Security.

It would help solve housing crisis. It would like they could go in and buy up land that people vacated. It definitely makes you wonder. All right. We ran out of bumper. You did? I can. There's more where that came from. We'll be back. It's 929 on Newstalk 12792085421079 is the number. If you'd like to reach us. How do you do about, food additives?

Well, that's an interesting book. Did you see that? Yeah, the one that the person said. Yeah, yeah. Warning labels would create alternatives. I would agree with that. And I would pay more for food that had a healthy source of red dye than a chemical source. I this is a weird conversation to have to expect government to solve.

You and I had a a subvert none of this conversation. Are we about to cut back on? Yeah. We, I can play a couple of these. Okay. And we we were talking about how one diet works for one person, and and another diet works for another person. Like, there are people that have cured their cancer, and they credit the fact that they're now eating a carnivore diet.

Yeah, a carnivore diet is not going to work for everybody. No it's not. And so we're asking government to do an all inclusive solution. I would assume some people can have red dye and not have it be harmful. I think it's increased harmful for a, growing brain. Yeah. And that's where we're seeing the most harmful effects.

I would agree. But that's only a, that's a subset of our, our population kids. Yeah. Right. And quite honestly there's a whole bunch of white elites who don't even care about kids. They don't they don't care if kids are sick. Yeah. Or so we're asking people to be honest when they're not going to be honest. Yeah. That's true.

Here's an interesting text. A coworker of mine used to work in poor processing. She just said that she in food processing. She just said she had to wear special suits to protect themselves when working with certain things. Red dye was one of them. Okay. Wow. Oh, here we go. All right. To 933 on Newstalk 179, we're talking about Red 40.

It's not 6 or 5 or whatever. I said it's Red day 40. It has been deemed safe for consumption by the U.S., FDA and also the European Union. However, some studies and by the way, this is a an AI generated answer. So take that for what it's worth, which might be the red dye of. However, some studies have linked it to health concerns like behavioral disorders and allergic reactions, particularly in children.

The research is inconclusive, but many believe the risk outweighs any potential benefit. So, yeah. Here's the deal. Find what makes you feel healthy. For me, it's as close to a raw diet as I can get. Yeah. If there's less additives in the food, I have less inflammation. That works for me. Which means I'm not going to be eating a lot of red dye 40.

It's not going to naturally happen. So be aware of your body enough to know, hey, this one. This is not making me feel good. Yeah, right. That's true. I it might be like anything else. Your body can totally handle a certain amount of it, and everybody may have a different threshold. But once you get over that threshold, that's when you start seeing the negative effects.

Someone said red dye 40 blue one is bad apparently. I'm reading from a site called Our Everyday life.com. Here's my deal. About what you just read from I. Yeah, I really don't. I don't really trust the FDA right now. I don't either. I don't either, and I feel bad saying that because I sound like you don't trust anybody.

You don't trust the FBI because I don't trust the FBI. Yeah. You don't trust the FDA? Well, guess what? I don't trust the FDA. Yeah, I don't I think they've all been led around by the nose with money dangling in front of them. Well, look at what's happened to Congress. Yeah. All right, let's go to the phones. Hi, caller.

How are you today? Hi. I've got a riddle for you. Okay. See how close you can get to the number. I'm working on an update to my book. So, high price of socialized medicine. And I'm going to call it Why American health care is Broken. This is Doctor Jim Filippi. The the riddle is this how much does the government spend per American household?

Total? Federal, state and local. Oh, wow. I have no idea. No idea. Take a wild guess. Go for it. 150 grand. Oh. Wow. Okay. Nope. Not not that high at 74,000. Okay. I think is absolutely astonishing. That is a lot. It's $51,000 per household from the federal government, and another 23,000 from state and local. After accounting for money that comes to the states from the federal government.

Subtracting that. So it's not double counted. Oh, gotcha. Oh, wow. $74,000 per household. Could you imagine what it would be like for families if our government only did what was in the proper role of government, and then we would spend, what, maybe 18,000 per household, something like that. What would you do with an extra over $50,000 per year in your family?

Well, the ugly part of that is a lot of that amount that you're talking, the higher amount is actually on the tab for future generations to pay. So yes, we, but we're paying the tab for previous generations with the interest that we're paying on the debt. Yeah. No. It's true, it's true. You're you are not wrong at all.

I thought you were going to call and talk about the the the red food dye, but no, no, no, but what I could say about, things having to do with the FDA and food products. The government is always trying to make raw milk sound scary. Correct. Yeah. There have been just recently stories about it. Scary and dangerous.

The mainstream media puts out any supports, whatever the federal government wants, basically. So therefore, if there were deaths that were occurring from raw milk, like you sometimes hear with yellow onions or lettuce, you know, E.coli, things like that, we would hear about it when we. Yeah, definitely. So that's a testament to the safety of raw milk. Yeah. That we don't hear about it.

All they've got is trying to to make a link to bird flu. They're really stretching to try to make it sound scary. Yeah, because they don't have anything. It's actually very safe. Yeah. No, thank you for the call. We we appreciate it. (208) 542-1279. Let's cut in really quick. The FBI is holding a, presser in Louisiana, New Orleans, the lower third right now, saying there's no definitive link between the two attacks in, that happened two hours apart yesterday.

New Orleans Field Division and ATF's primary mission is preventing, reducing and solving violent crime throughout the United States and abroad. Solving part is the focus of this investigation. ATF resources that have been brought to bear to the city and, to focus with our federal, state and local partners have been our national response team. We spoke about the scene that's still being processed.

Now, the national Response team of ATF is a team of certified fire investigators, certified explosive explosive specialist, fire engineers, electrical engineers. These folks will give us, additional investigative leads to help the investigative team identify, what happened at, location and Mandeville and identify how that, fire started and move the investigation forward from there. Additional resources that ATF has brought to bear and to the city as the ATF Special Response Team.

This is a tactical team capable of handling. Handling, any sort of enforcement operation. This team is deployed on set and ready for the Sugar Bowl today. This team is also made available to, Louisiana State Police and also New Orleans Police Department to assist with any, any efforts they may have, during this period, additional resources. As the governor alluded to, he executed executive powers and had an emergency declared to where we were able ATF was able to tap in to assist emergency support functions.

13 resources. This allowed us to bring additional explosive detection canines so we can safely sweep the city and safely sweep the Super Bowl in preparation for the game today. These resources will still be in the city as we lead up to, in to up to the, Super Bowl and through Mardi Gras. These tap ATF resources will be here.

The last resources ATF has brought to bear. And probably the most important one is a victim witness coordinators. These folks come in and they provide resources to the victims and the family members that have suffered greatly during this tragedy. The entire city hurts, but the victims and the family members are need of resources and care. Long after this investigation wraps up this time next year to be hard for the families and friends, who suffered during this event.

So our victim witness coordinators are working with the FBI, the city of New Orleans, current coordinators to, provide resources, to these folks out here. And as we move forward, ATF will be committed. We will work with the investigative team moving this investigation forward, but also will be here to make sure the city is safe and prepared as we move into the Super Bowl.

And with that, I'm going to turn it over to. All right. So that is Joshua Jackson. He's the ATF special agent in charge. So yeah, they're working on it. They're working on it. I, I'm a little concerned about what I've seen as a headline. I haven't done a deep dive. Obviously we've been doing radio show. Yeah. They're now saying those 3 to 5 people, they were looking for that they don't exist.

Well, the reporting yesterday was that they had people on camera planting those IEDs. How do we go from that to to now? They don't exist. It's called gaslighting. Yeah. All right. Let's go back to the phones. Caller. Welcome to the show. How are you? Good. How are you doing this morning? Doing pretty well. What's up? I wanted to talk about the red dye and the food regulation.

You know, I think that we feel like we all know that we shouldn't have red dye. At least a lot of us do. And there are probably other substances we feel like we shouldn't have. But I think the real problem comes back to the final arbiter of what is good or bad for you. Because, you know, like not that long ago they said that butter was really bad, but you shouldn't eat butter.

It's saturated fat. You know, you need hydrogenated oils instead. And I think a lot of people have found that that's just not the truth. So whenever you put the role in to saying what's good or bad for somebody into the hands of somebody who's susceptible to regulatory capture, all you're doing is creating a situation for the same thing.

To repeat itself, you have to cigarets and butter and whatnot. So, I mean, I think we shouldn't have the bad stuff in our food, but when you put it into the hands of somebody who's going to dictate what's good or bad, who is likely to be captured by the industry. Yeah, you just don't fix it. Yeah. I mean, that's a, that's a that's a sad view of things.

But I think it's very, it's very real that, that these interests, we'll just call them that I don't know if they're companies or political ideologies, but they are powerful enough that they can. That's why I think a guy like Trump scares some people is that he really doesn't care. And and I don't think RFK Jr cares either. I think there is a there are people out there who will will act in good faith and with courage and won't be captured by these interests, as you say.

Right. So I think I think the real and only solution to it is that people, the general public, has to be informed and involved enough that they elect people that won't be susceptible to regulatory capture and that the inform themselves about what what's did for themselves, rather relying much on the government. Yeah, yeah. Well stated. Thank you. For that.

We're past time. We've got a break. We'll be back minutes away on Newstalk 179. If you'd like to join us, 208 5421079.

A couple of things about this press conference. First off, the, the woman they had out front yesterday hid who from the FBI. Yeah. She's taken a lot of heat online. A couple of reasons she called it, not a terror attack. When everybody in the room is going to terror attack. And and she was so concerning that Senator Kennedy.

Kennedy actually stepped in front of her and took the mic away. Okay. She's in leadership in New Orleans for the FBI. She also had a nose piercing. I saw it all over ex the exact text from the FBI guideline book. You're not supposed to have facial piercings if you're in the FBI. And here she is in a news conference that saw millions and millions and millions of views, and her her comments are going to last forever on platforms like X.

Oh yeah. And she's got a piercing in. So that is just so minor. And in comparison to what's wrong with the FBI. Yeah, but it's kind of an example of they do whatever they want to do. Yeah, I think you're right. If you're Di you can get away with whatever you want. You get a blank check, don't you?

Yep. I, I'm really confused. I, I mean, CNN is running the headline FBI. We do not believe anyone else was involved in the New Orleans attack. Okay, well, there's videos all over X. I don't I don't know how to explain those away. I am not sure. See? It's fishy. Right. Look. I don't trust them. Yeah I don't I don't I don't either.

I actually sent you a text yesterday. No matter how this turns out, with the way that it started, it's a very bad look for the FBI. I think they're probably in CYA mode. Yeah, I think you I mean it, it's a real bad. Look at the Houston. Where was the Houston FBI? Where were the regional FBI agents? Yeah, the new York Post was camped out in front of the home of the guy who got killed in the terrorist attack.

And there was no FBI there. There's no police presence. There was nothing. Explain that. You can't you can't. There's no explanation. But it just looked bad for them from from the get go in this. Yeah. I've never been to New Orleans. You know, everybody says it's so amazing. It's actually not on my bucket list. Really. Now I, I have had acquaintances, not really close friends, but like clients who have taken kids to New Orleans and they've told me, I have no idea.

They've told me the debauchery on Bourbon Street. I've heard about this. Yeah. Is like open nudity during Mardi Gras. And I don't know, it's like it just doesn't match up with me. It's just not me. Yeah. Do you like Jim Gaffigan? I have to take Jim Gaffigan in doses, and I've had to forget that he's said really stupid things politically.

Yeah. There's that. I feel like I like Gaffigan as a comedian because he's pretty clean. But I feel like he has a dozen jokes and he just says them over and over. It is like fill in the blank. But he's in the news right now because apparently he had some anti-Trump social media posts back in 2020. And listen to this.

He regrets that supporters of President Trump took his criticism personally. You can't have regret for something somebody else does like Gaffigan, who recently played former Democratic vice presidential candidate Governor Tim Walz on Saturday Night Live, discussed his negative feelings surrounding the old tweets in a new interview with The Daily Beast. He said I regret the people think I was criticizing people that support Trump and that was never the intention.

I regret someone said, like, now I can't follow you anymore and I kind of said, f you to them. The comedian stated, okay, that's like the that's like the pedophile pedophile saying, I regret that you find my sexual preferences disgusting. Yeah, I right, or that the famous Dick Durbin apology. I'm really sorry that you took my comments the way you.

950 on Newstalk 179 Neal Larson Julie Mason it's a Thursday. Are we having a meeting today? I don't know if we are or not. Thursdays are our regular staff meetings. We'll watch. We have, we can see out the window and and and look and see if they start setting up the meeting. Okay. The chairs will watch. So Gaffigan is in the news.

Okay. Tell him. Apparently, he regrets that this stems back to tweets that he sent out during the pandemic in 2020. And he says he regrets that Trump supporters thought he was attacking them and followed it up with, they will never forgive me, superstar. Well, first of all, the tweet, this is what he said. You know, Trump just creates enemies.

You know you can't trust him. You know he's been incompetent during this crisis. You know all those people didn't need to die. Trump talks about the space program and you can't safely go to a movie. Wake up. So there's nothing funny about this tweet. So he steps out of his role. But he had an interview with The Daily Beast.

And here's what he said. I regret that people think that I was criticizing people that support Trump, and that was never the intention. I regret someone said, like, now I can't follow you anymore. And I kind of said, F you to them. Gaffigan lashed out at Trump in a series of tweets back in 2020, when X was still Twitter.

Trump was running for reelection. In one, he wrote, look, Trump, I get it. As a kid, I was a Cubs fan, and I know you stick by your team no matter what, but he's a traitor and a con man who doesn't care about you. Deep down, you know it. I'm sure you enjoy pissing people off, but you know, Trump is a liar and a criminal.

Okay? That's way more than the tweet that I just read. Yeah, like you're dismissing their support of Trump as blind loyalty. That is an insult. That is an insult. And man, Covid made people crazy. Yeah. Because somebody was saying you can go spend time with your family. They were automatically labeled as unsafe to the community. Yeah, right. Covid made people crazy.

Gaffigan told The Daily Beast he regrets his regrets about how the posts were taken by some people, but insisted he doesn't regret posting them. But it's weird because I think authenticity is really an important thing, not only as a comedian, but also with your children, he said, adding, for me, I don't regret it. But I also do acknowledge that there are true diehard Trump fans who probably enjoyed my comedy, but because they feel so passionately will never forgive me.

Gaffigan went on, acknowledging that alienating people in such a way is just part of being a comedian. Okay, the last part's true. I'll take that. The last part's true. But I would also say he's classifying all those people as diehard Trump fans. No, there's just people who saw what was good for the country and didn't buy into the government.

B.S.. Yeah. That there were plenty of people who weren't die hard Trump fans who were looking at Covid and going, this is ludicrous. Yeah. Yeah. No, you're. Yes. And he refused to maybe see it through that lens. Yes. You can disagree. Yeah, but but don't don't take the worst possible motive and then assign it to your opponent to everyone.

Yeah. 954 we're going to break. We'll come back. We'll wrap up the hour here. And the day on Newstalk 179.

We've also rolled the death count back to 14. Okay. It was 15 with rumors of 16 this morning. And now we've rolled it back to 14. How does that then? I don't so often. How does that happen? I don't know. I don't know. That makes no sense. It makes no sense, Julie. No, it doesn't. Okay, we have a minute and a half when we get back.

I bet I fed my kids so much red food dye. Yeah. We've never. They always had fruit snacks. That's loaded with ice. Trying to think what else would have been. We weren't a big soda family. Like, they couldn't just go to the fridge and get a soda. Yeah. So that wasn't really a thing. How far?

Far later. I don't know. Like, cereal? Like cosmic brownies were a statement piece in our home. Gotcha. My kids loved cosmic brownies. I can't even imagine, like the Little Debbie. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That had to be not good. You know what's interesting to like a lot of it is just. I like snacks. Julie knows I like, but I would say I probably enjoy buttered popcorn as much as I enjoy any snack.

And you have no preservatives. You have nothing added other than some salt and butter. Yeah, I make mine. I buy actual seed. Yeah, and make mine. I don't buy the bags. And I mean you can easily run it through an air popper. Do you do it. I do it in the microwave. Oh you do okay. And what do you have a special dish for it.

Yeah. It's a dish with a vented lid. Yeah. We have one of those too. But we've got an air popper in our corner, lazy Susan that I. You know, that's easy. Easy to use. And I'm thinking, why did Susan get the bad name for a lazy Susan? I don't know who had it out for Susan's back then.

You're. You're right. We sort of graduated on to common people, Karen. But if you're Susan, you ought to be. You're like, I'm a hard worker. Yeah. Why are you. All right. 957 On Newstalk 179, Julie and I were just trying to figure out why is it called a lazy Susan? Yeah. Who did Susan make mad? Every Susan I know is not lazy.

I don't know if I don't know a ton of Susan's, but the ones I do know, I bet I know, but if it does, you know what those Brenda's.

They're a sketchy bunch. We should know. I know Brenda's too. Like, I know several Brenda's. Margaret's. I've always had an issue with them as well. I feel bad, Karen. Like I have two clients, both named Karen and I. I feel so bad for them because they're the sweetest people. Yeah. They are. They've kind of gotten a bad rap the last five years, haven't they?

Do they complain about it? I don't know if we've ever had a conversation about it. I don't think so. Okay. Yeah. I don't think we've ever know if they have. They're just another Karen. So. I'm kidding. All right, everyone, have a wonderful, have a wonderful Thursday. Julie and I are back tomorrow for a Friday morning right here on Newstalk 107.

And I will see you then.
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