2.20.2025 -- NLS -- Idaho Politics, Elon Musk & Job Security

 On this episode with Neal and Julie, they dive into the latest developments in Idaho politics, including the impact of the Empowering Parents program and the complexities behind recent legislative votes. They discuss the dynamics within the state legislature, examining how certain lawmakers align with conservative values—or don’t. Neal and Julie also touch on national trends, the shifting political landscape, and how figures like Elon Musk have influenced discourse. Plus, they explore the challenges of job security in government positions and the broader implications of policy shifts. Tune in for a thought-provoking discussion with their signature mix of insight and candor. 

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Transcript

The panic is a spectacle on several. You know what? I could apply that to several fronts. Doge and Elon Musk. I could apply it to passage of a parental choice bill. And, it passed the Senate. They debated for hours yesterday, and it ended up passing, garnering 20 of the 35 senators votes. And I just want to lead with some kudos for Senator Doug Rex.

He was the lone Idaho senator. Excuse me, East Idaho, member of the Idaho Senate that voted for you as a parent to have, to have school choice and I, I deeply appreciate that. Now, you you you might say, wait, what? Because this was this was Wendy Horseman's baby. This is what she has worked incredibly hard to occur.

She does so much more than this. I'm not saying it's the only thing she's done, but she has put so much time and effort into getting this right. She had a bill last year. It didn't, quite succeed this year. It passed the house with flying colors again, though, with very little East Idaho lawmaker support. Didn't matter.

Thankfully, we have good conservatives who care about parental rights in other part of the state. They came through and got it through the Idaho House. And then over on the Senate side. Now it's it's a complicated situation on the Senate side. Let me tell you, the the drama here. I can do it in 30s. Senator Dave Lynch chairs the Senate Education Committee.

He put forward an alternative parental choice bill. It basically was an expansion of the Empower Parents Empowering Parents program. And it also had a $50 million price tag on it. The expansion didn't I think the overall empowering parents price tag was going to be 50 million. It ended up, there's no other way to say it. It went down in flames.

It did get a vote on the Senate floor and it got six votes. And so there, and Dave Land is very respected. And he is he's a very nice man. And I like Senator Leonard. And I think sometimes votes will happen out of politeness. They'll happen because, you know, you got to work with people and you see them all the time and they are your friends.

And so I think it it does happen that, that perhaps yesterday, knowing that this was going to pass anyway, maybe they felt like it, it would have been a stick in Senator Lindsey to vote for Wendy. I don't know, I don't know what the dynamics are on the inside, but I think that made it a little bit more complicated because he had put forward a competing bill that went down in flames.

And so now the big question, because it it passed by wide margins in the House, it passed, I would say pretty well in, in the in the Senate, the governor, the governor. And it all has to do with that pen in the governor's hand. And will he sign it? Will he veto it? Will he do nothing? And so we'll see.

I actually think this is what I would advise Governor Little. I would say sign it enthusiastically, sign it enthusiastically, because you might have Raul Labrador nipping at your heels in the next election cycle. You need to build cred with your right wing. That, I mean, if I were a paid consultant to Governor Little, that's probably what I would tell him.

You don't need that. They don't like you anyway. They're they're they're the far left and at best, they like you because you're not far. Right, but they don't like you. They just like you because you're not far. Right. And so there's no actual love lost there. And I would encourage him to sign it with enthusiasm and fanfare. But I, I think I know, governor little enough.

Here's my hunch. He will sign it, and he will also issue a measured cautionary statement about the bill. He's done that in the past where he said, okay, look, I'm reading the room. This is wanted and it's needed. And there's a lot of political agitation for this to happen. But please do it carefully and let's not let the cost get out of control.

It can't threaten public education and K through to us. I, I can kind of see that that's probably the most likely scenario, but I want to congratulate Wendy Harmon. This, has been a a long journey. And there's one last hurdle here. And, I think that kudos are in order to her. Now, that opens up a broader discussion.

And I want to ask you a question. It's mostly rhetorical, but it's partially real, too, because I love your feedback. Maybe it's in the text on the Stones Automotive Group call and text line, I, I am going to do a little bit of research. It's not going to be that tough, and I'm not going to go back multiple years.

I'm only looking at this legislative session, but there is a very, very regular common phenomenon that I'm noticing among East Idaho's lawmakers. They seem to be voting with the Democrats more often than they are voting with the Republican majority. So and they might have a great explanation for it. That's me making a data point, observation, not condemnation, but a data point observation.

If it is in fact true that East Idaho's representatives and senators are voting more often with Democrats, the Democrat majority, then the Republican majority. My follow up question to that is, do you believe you are being represented fairly and accurately, or did we have some left Leaners sneak into office? That's my question to you. Now, this is not a new phenomenon.

You don't you don't need to send in your text saying, are you naive, Neal, where have you? Where have you been? I know, I get it. I will say this, that, Well, you know what? Yes, I will, I will absolutely say this. There are some lawmakers that I was concerned about in our interviews with them during the election, and those lawmakers happened to be turning out exactly the way I had worried and feared that they are not there.

They they run saying they're conservatives. They certainly put the R behind their name. But then when they vote with the opposing party more often, then they vote with the party. They say they are. Does that become problematic? I also don't want texts from people saying, well, we tried to we tried to fix that with the tribunals. Now the tribunals was the worst thing you could do.

And we you have to look at it. And these are the hard discussions that I have to have with my friends. I'm I'm going to say something and I this always triggers some people. They don't like it and it ruffles them kind of the wrong way. But I say it with love and I truly say it with a desire.

I want good conservative outcomes in Idaho, I, I don't really put a lot of stock in intentions. And we tried and this is what we wanted and that's all great, but it's all fluff until we see it show up in the final product of legislation and policy. And I, I believe that there are candidates who, if they so closely align with groups like the Idaho Freedom Foundation and these very hard core libertarian groups, their intentions are amazingly good, but their outcomes are less than stellar.

And maybe that's the hill they're willing to die on. I'm not because I don't want a crop of lawmakers that are voting with the Democrats more often than they're voting with with good, solid conservative Republicans. I, I am deeply invested in the outcomes of what we get. So I would say as we move forward and if, you know, I think a lot of people want want this to change and they want to replace this, you can overextend yourself.

You can get out over your skis in your libertarian quest and make yourself ineffective and unelectable. That's what I want you to stop doing. We need candidates who are truly devoted to conservatism, but not to their own political peril. Because if you can't get elected and you can't pass legislation, what good are you? At least it I mean, you're good in other areas.

I don't mean to say you say you're worthless, but I mean to the legislative process. So we need as conservatives to cultivate these good candidates, electable candidates, likable candidates, candidates that understand that 80% of a loaf is is better than no loaf at all. And quite often when you go for 100% of the loaf, you end up with no loaf at all.

And that is what we are facing. I believe in the next couple of election cycles and that is our task as truly devoted conservatives, that we find people that will, operate independently, that they don't measure their political worth based on the Freedom Index score. And I'm sorry if that offends you, but I'm not sorry that that offends you.

Okay? It's fun. I want I want the best representation, the closest representation that we can get in in Boise. And I do not believe that we are at large getting it right now from this region of the state. We have a crop of representatives and senators that are voting more often with Democrats than Republicans. I will get, more specific numbers.

Some are worse than others. This is not carte blanche. They're all identical. We can't characterize them all identically. Because, like I said, there is a spectrum here. Some are better than others, but it is a problem that appears to be systemic among our, our elected people from, from this side of the state. So that's the the challenge that we have.

I want to play a couple of things actually, no, I want to save this until, Julie's and John Kennedy knocked it out of the park. He had multiple one liners that I want to share with you. Also, this on a trump note really quick. We are winning and we can win and we can continue to win.

Listen, Donald Trump and the Republican Party has changed the electorate. What do I mean by that? Well, let's take a look at party identification. Democrats versus Republicans. You go back to 2017 five points more of the electorate was Democrats than Republicans. You go to 2021 when Joe Biden was starting out. Look at that. Six points. More of the electorate was Democrats than Republicans.

But look at what's happened in February of 2025. Look at this, Republicans. There are more Republicans in the electorate than there are Democrats, Republican plus two. So Donald Trump and the Republicans have remade the electorate. They've turned some people over from being Democrats are independents to become Republicans. New folks have entered the electorate who are more Republican leaning.

And so when you combine that with the fact that Republicans are really, really behind Donald Trump, all of a sudden you get a winning recipe whereby you break the normal rules of politics and give Donald Trump that positive net approval rating when he had pretty much a consistently negative one. And term number one. As I said at the beginning, he's copying Frank Sinatra, doing it my way.

Okay, I really like this guy. You know, I like this guy. He's kind of a throwback from like the 1930s in New York. I don't know, I just love his presentation. He's great and he tells the story. Well, I don't even know his name, younger guy, but he just tells the story so effectively. And he's honest about it, which that's a that's a rare trait in a CNN personality.

So I really appreciate this. There has been an eight point swing since the last election cycle. We've gone from plus six Democrats to plus two Republican in the electorate. That's seismic. I know it may not sound like a lot to be up plus two, but compared to where we have been and when you combine the level of everything that the Democrats have tried to do, the influx of illegals coming in, it has been amazing to watch this, this transformation.

And truly, Trump is, transforming, the electorate in the United States of America. And you know why he's doing it? I, I there's not any magic to it. He's just delivering. He's just doing what he said he would do. That turns out that's pretty good politics. We'll be back. It's 823 on Newstalk 1079. It's 829 on Newstalk 1079.

Neil Larson, along with Julie Mason and, Julie, I'm still a little butthurt. You think that I was exaggerating my sneeze earlier? And Josh, you mockingly awarded me an Oscar. I heard from the panel and they were like, we had no idea somebody in Idaho could make that sound. You deserve an Oscar. They're also putting you up for, Nobel Awards.

So we'll meet. We'll see if that one happens with your sneeze as well. Okay? Okay. Mock away lady.

Stare at me in my eyes and say, you don't embellish. No, I don't want to.

Just I want it. Okay? We can. Can we tackle this text? Ask. Read. With respect, Neil. You're misdiagnosing the problem. The East Idaho problem is not about ideology or if scores. Kelly Golden was a likable and perfectly reasonable candidate. She's not an extremist libertarian in any way, shape, or form. Her politics are undoubtedly closer to the median of East Idaho voters than the person who won that race.

She didn't lose because of ideology. She lost because of power, control of the narrative, and the informal political hierarchy that exists in eastern Idaho. I want to say I 100% agree with the characterization of Kelly Golden. Yes, I agree too. She was awesome. We interviewed her three times. Yeah, I think it was three times. And, if I lived in her legislative district, I would enthusiastically vote for her.

There were some issues there, though, not with her, but with the dynamics of that race. She was an unknown. Okay. And she was running. Can I just put the elephant in the room? Just say it. Say it. She wasn't the right religion. Yep. And she was running against a bishop. Okay, that's a hard thing to do. No.

She ran. Didn't she run against Stephanie? Oh, yeah. Is Stephanie Bishop now? No, she's she's not. I didn't think so. Okay. But I just I didn't want people going. Oh you're right. That okay? For some reason I, I had it in my mind. That was the Wheeler. Right. Okay. Yeah. Okay. But same sort of dynamic same concept. So concept you're you're right.

But but what I'm saying here again, it's not a dig, but we have to get people that can match that. And I think didn't we talk about that race wishing we could reshuffle some, some of the head room. Had Kelly gone up against a different opponent. Yeah. Not Stephanie Mickelson Kelly Kelly would be over. Yes. She would be serving at the state Capitol.

Yeah. Now that that's true. So again every race is unique. But but I will say we have lost some races at the altar of if worship. I would agree with that. Is that fair to say? Absolutely. And quite frankly, I care about the losing candidate. I like them and I'd consider them friends. But I will say we have to be really smart and and we've got to find the people that understand a close alignment with that group.

You can believe everything they have if you align with them. That comes with a cost, a political cost. And quite frankly, it can often be fatal politically. And so what you did by explaining the if thing and then also, by the way, just received clarification that Stephanie Mickelson's a bishop's wife. Okay. I didn't know that. So we're in the same realm.

But the clarification of all of that, you have to understand the culture of where you're running. Yeah. And the IAF isn't playing well with the culture right now. People in Bonneville County were also tired of the old guard. Yeah, at the Bonneville County Central Committee. That's not everyone, but that some of them were tired of that and that made a difference.

Yeah. So. And then there's some who fall into the religious realm that they're going to vote for anybody who is of a certain religion because they've got to be a good person. Yeah. Well, that doesn't mean they're going to be a good lawmaker. Yeah, they probably are a good person. They probably are. Doesn't mean they're going to be a good lawmaker.

Yeah. So it's a mixture of all of these things. And that's why East Idaho is currently suffering with elected officials who are acting as Democrats with an R behind their name. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah it's true. Our worst fears Julie. Well and I feel like you and I both went okay we had a handful of candidates that did not win that you and I thought wouldn't.

We're going to be the most effective lawmakers in Boise. All right. Well except that the slate is clean. Now go do go show us. You're actually a Republican. You keep telling a Republican and we keep pointing out ways that you're not. Now go show us you're a Republican. Yeah, well, we're more than halfway through the session. You're showing us you're not a Republican.

Right. And I would just ask this question very innocently. If you run as a Republican, you win as a Republican. Can we expect you to vote as a Republican? I think you should be able to expect that. I think that's a naturally reasonable expectation. It doesn't have to be 100% like, hey, you know, some of these issues are are a little, you know, the the Medicaid, the Medicaid, they're calling it the Medicaid repeal.

That's one where you really have to think about how you're going to vote on that. And and it was very close in, in the very conservative House because they feel like okay, if we put Medicaid expansion on the altar here and it gets repealed instantaneously, which is what would happen, then all of a sudden you have tens of thousands of uninsured Idahoans, which creates a whole new problem of its own.

Right. So it's like Obamacare. You can't really you can't get that. You can't. It's not an on off switch. It becomes the fabric of of your society. You got to roll it back and easy out of it. And I think that that's the hesitation that a lot of people have. And so, you know, I get how you could look at that issue and go, I don't know if this is the right approach.

A I appreciate the spirit of it, but when on every issue you're falling on the side of the left, that's when we start to get a little suspicious of this. We understand. Gray area. I'm not a person who thinks you have to be 100% anything, but I, I, I do believe that when you can start to see a trend of things happening, when over and over and over again, they fall to one side in cluding a bill from a week and a week and a half ago that every member of the House voted one way Democrats and Republicans.

Yeah. Guess who was the lone person who voted the other way? Representative Josh Wheeler. Yeah. Explain that. What was that single vote? Yes. And it had something to do with ending a useless Department of Transportation program. Yeah. Another one that I, you know, we already this morning have discussed the constitutional amendment that failed yesterday. Yeah, I, we I felt like there were a lot of unanswered questions.

It wasn't a Republican Democrat thing. It was what's best for kids. And I feel like there's a whole bunch of unanswered questions here. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Give every lawmaker that leeway. Yeah, 100%. Well, when something's as clear as the flags hanging in school classrooms. Yeah. You don't get any more leeway with me. Yeah. That's true. That's a very clear, straightforward issue.

Not not much gray area there. Let's go to the phones. I believe we have Steve calling from Rigby. Hi, Steve. Hello. You know, just. And, Julie, I just want to say there's something really satisfying with the sneeze that registers on the record. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Yeah, fine. I have I never tell him he I, I don't go, you can't do this.

But I will tease him when he does do it. So I want to point out a little bit about I, I'm actually from Grant which is just outside Rigby. But the three, the two representatives and the senator, the kind of the three amigos, they campaign together, they advertise together. They got pushed over. I wouldn't say van, but I would say the other two that pushed over the finish line by their Democrat support, much more than the hindrance of the I have.

I if on on their opponent and and let me let me add that to that that Mr. furnace was was campaigning for I was advertising let me rephrase that. My neighbor ran on the, on the Democrat ticket for Red furnaces position in 2012, and now he actively campaigns for Rod Furnace and Van Burton. I think that's a pretty clear definition that they figured out we can't run ads, but we can support the others.

Who really are these? Yeah. You know, and yeah, Rod Furnace would not be back there today if he didn't have the Democrats that pushed him over the finish line. They even campaigned their ads, even said, here's what you gotta do to get on the Republican, to get it to get registered as a Republican by this date. So you can vote for us in the primaries.

They did not go after the conservative vote. They went after the Democrats and the unaffiliated to get them on the on on their side. Yeah, that's what and that's why they support the Democrats. Yeah. And that's why they vote with the Democrats because that's who put them in that position. Yeah. Well that and I think that's truly what they believe philosophically.

But thank you. I thank you for the call. And also thank you for that's my sneeze brother. You guys can have a little club. I love the way he characterized it. What's satisfying if it registers on the Richter scale? I'm not even going to say it's a little club. I bet that club's going to be pretty big if you start it.

Yeah, I think right. I bet it's big. I bet, yeah, we'll call it the Seismic Sneeze Club. Who's in text in who's part of the Seismic Sneeze Club. I'll still make fun of you, but you guys enjoy. If you weren't making fun of me for that, there'd be something else anyway. So what? Why not? You know, sometimes I know I'm not going to admit it.

I almost just admitted it, but I'm not going to admit it. I gotta keep the. I gotta keep it going to play the facade. That is a legitimate, authentic sneeze. Okay. And I will insist that to my to my grave. Okay. Somebody already texted her. I'm in. Okay. I told you the club would be big. This is a man thing.

You guys do it? Yeah. I'm. But it'll be big. You can have maybe the the Bonneville County, precinct officers can bring balloons, blow up balloons and bring cookies. Yes. And you, it can be part of the club. Yeah, we could. Okay, well, we'll take a break. It's 840. We're just causing all sorts of problems. Yeah, well, we'll be right back.

It's 847 on Newstalk 1079I. I just want to say Julie, there is lots of sneeze love in the text area. I told you your club is big. Yeah. Just because your club is big though, doesn't mean it's not full of over actors. Yeah. So true. Yeah. It's okay. Just admit it. Admit it's a bunch of dads who have to do it big to keep their dad card.

Someone encapsulated it perfectly and said, if I sneeze and don't get some reaction of amazement from my family, well, take my dad card now. It's it's that's what it is. I agree, I'm just turning my dad card. It's grandad card by now though. Yeah. One time I had a very legitimate, authentic sneeze that the tail end lasted like 15 seconds.

I'm sure that was authentic. They loved it. I'm sure the my teenage daughters thought it was like. I'm sure they did. Yeah. Amazing.

I should I, I should record it once in a while. We'll catch one on on the air every once in a while and or on Facebook Live. Here's the problem. People. Why can I tease him? Because I've heard the real sneeze. Because he's had to sneeze real before. Yeah, because we're on air or something. Yeah. And he can't do the embellished sneeze, so I know both.

Right. Or we have a guest or, you know, whatever.

This isn't for everyone.

And lucky me, when it's just he and I, you get a front row seat. You're lucky you. Okay. What thoughts? Really? Quick. We're going to take a break in about four minutes. Here. On what? We've been talking about the legislature? Yeah, I mean, I don't I am going to do some research. It might take me till early next week, but I want to go through specifically East Idaho's lawmakers.

Some legislation will not even be relevant because if if it passes with a majority of both parties like that doesn't, that's not a measurable thing. But I think on bills that pass that got majority opposition. Like Democrat majority opposition. That's when I want to look at the Republican votes and see if those dissenting Republican votes, how often do they vote with the Democrat majority against the Republican majority.

You're right. It's going to just take a couple of minutes and you'll be able to figure this out. I have another problem though, that that bothers me as much. And I'll say it fast so that we can take the call. But I also have an issue with East Idaho lawmakers who ran as Republicans on this desire to go over and serve, and they actually don't do anything.

They don't bring anything forward. Yeah, their efforts over there are pretty long, long, I'll be there. I'll be a reliable vote. Yes for one side or the other, but yeah, yeah. And that bothers me as much. You're getting paid. Go do a go to a job. Yeah, go do it. Do it effectively and do it as a representative of the Republican Party.

If you put an R behind your name yeah, yeah I yeah you're right. Let's go to the phones. Hi, caller. How are you today? Good. This film folktale. Oh, hi. Film. Hi. I got a question for you on air. And then a question for Julie off the air, that I'm curious about. But anyway, is there a list of these rhino Republicans where we could go to it and find out so we can vote them out of office next time?

Yeah. Yes. This is somebody asked why won't you name names? And we've we've tossed out a couple of names here. I want to get the actual data before I start listing names, so that I can tell you that here's this Republican, but they vote with the Democrats 80% of the time, or 70% of the time. That's why I've kind of hesitated naming.

I'm not afraid to name names. I just want to have the actual data to to back it up. So, yeah. Yes. And that's very smart and responsible for you. So and I agree with that by that. Anyway, I appreciate your, your show. And if I can, off the air, talk to Julie for a second. You'll have to wait till our commercial break here in a couple of minutes, but I'll put you on hold and we'll talk to you off air, okay?

Okay. Thank you. All right, let's go to the next caller. Hi, caller. How are you today? I'm doing really well. These, these Republicans. There's a real easy way to root them out. Neil. Yeah. Bring all in a room, sneeze like a freaking man. And if they all get scared and offended, get him out. And if they think and you got you find some people that can sneeze, like, man, I mean, I bet when Donald Trump sneezes, everyone's like, oh, crap.

He's got the look on his face. He's like, that's right. It's common. Yeah. And, I think that would be a lot better way because I get a feeling like he's like, oh, excuse me, dear. Now get out of here, man. Not what you. And he's out, out, he's out. So, all I know is that I sneezed.

We now have a U.S. geological Survey truck in our parking lot, and a guy is getting out with a seismometer, so we'll have to. First, he's going to come in and look for the middle aged man in the building, and then it'll be like, oh, there's five of them currently. We know what it was. Yes. Right. Exactly. All right.

It's 853 on Newstalk 179. Someone said please name names. Well, we'll give you what how? We'll give you the numbers. Not today. It's going to it's going to take a minute to go through the voting records of all of them. And I'm again, I'm not doing a comprehensive going back three years. No, I'm just going to look at the legislation that has that they voted on so far this year and how they line up and who they're aligning with in the legislature.

I think this year's a good year to look at because it's a non election year. Yeah. And I don't care who you are, you behave differently as a politician in an election year versus a non election. Oh yeah. Absolutely. That phenomenon is is fascinating to watch. Yet it. Well it's not true for every politician. But I think it's true for politicians whose loyalty doesn't actually match their electorate or their party designation.

Yep. Yep. We've seen it. Oh I it we're seeing it in real time. Yes. Yeah yeah we I was going to make a pun joke but I I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll refrain. So. All right, let's, take a break and we'll be back in just a few minutes. We'll wrap up this hour, but we have an entire hour ahead of us.

On Newstalk 179. Okay, caller, you're on with Neil and Julie. What's up? Okay. Caller you're on. It's Neil and Julie now. We're off air. Okay. I heard, Julie say the other day, about, somebody that she knows or is a client of hers at this other job that is special needs. And I have a special needs granddaughter.

And I was just curious. Is this something that, other people with special needs could use? Well, what it is, is it's the program that's run by district 93. So I don't know where your special needs granddaughter lives. And not all school districts are the same. Some programs run really well. Some don't run really, really well. The the the district 93 program seems to be functioning at at a high level like the the parents are satisfied.

Yeah. 90 three's in Idaho Falls. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah I own my own business I which yeah. It's just you don't talk about the businesses you own when you're on air. But I do lashes, I do lash extensions on about 30 women. Yeah. All right. Thank you. You too. But all right. It's 859 on Newstalk.

Well, 79, listen to this text. I've held a sneeze back and it blew the wax out of both ears. Okay, I think you have a bigger problem after it. Okay, now we're two coming up. Look, we just need to stay calm. We need to stay calm as a as a Hindu cow and just go about our work and get our bills passed.

And what the Democrats should be the Democrat. And so far, it's working. You never interfere with your opponent when he's kicking his own ass. No, never get in the way of that process. Good morning. It's our two. It's 907 on Newstalk 1079. By the way, that was not the only funny one liner from John Kennedy in that interview.

Here's this one. I've got a lot of friends are Democrats, and they're going to ask me for advice. But if I did, I'd tell them, look, you just got to try harder not to suck.

Sound advice for lots of people. Just try harder not to suck, as they're not good at a lot of things, but they are good at that. They're truly there. I feel like they're a little more organized than they were, but they're organized around the things that made them so horribly unpopular. Like they're doubling down on what caused their political demise this last election.

Yeah, they are they're doubling down on it. And it's unfortunate because, my goodness, it I don't know why you want to spin it some other way. Yeah. When Republicans have control of the House as as slim as it might be, the House, the Senate and the white House, you got your butt kicked. Yes you did. There's no spin.

Yeah, there's not a. Well, you know what? I actually it was one of those moments where I commended Barack Obama for being truthful. And it he got elected in oh eight. And then the Tea Party revolution came along in 2012 to 2010. And Barack Obama said, there's no way around it. We got shellacked. And that word kind of became part of the lexicon for a little while.

And, the Democrats got I think they got more than shellacked this time because they didn't just lose an election. And this is what you have to remember. We could look at the election just in terms of data points, and they point out, well, Trump didn't even get to 50% and he only won by a couple of percentage points.

And like you could hone in on that. That's probably true. But when you look at the larger picture, they didn't just lose an election. They are losing massive portions of the culture that they've been trying to build for decades, like the transgender stuff and the the DIY garbage and all of that is being rolled back very, very quickly.

And that to me, I think is probably the more devastating loss to the left that now everybody is ditching their their preferred pronouns. They're, they're sort of trying to get back and looking like a normal human being rather than some carnival spectacle. When John Kennedy says you need to suck less, what do you mean by that?

Is there are demographics that show you you are not performing well when you're losing part of your base. The black vote, the Hispanic vote, when you're losing what you used to take care of the lower middle class and the middle class, they don't want anything to do with you anymore. Yeah. Hey, you've lost the portion of your base that was going to bring you the win.

That means you're not doing well. Yeah, no, I spin it however you want. Yeah. I agree, you're right about that. And I think they are so far removed. It's sort of like the CR discussion we had yesterday. We haven't had a regular budget since 1994. Congressman Simpson pointed that out, and we're so far removed from regular order now, we don't even know what that feels like anymore.

I feel like the left is so far removed from just kind of being, commonsensical. Joe Manchin, Tulsi Gabbard kind of Democrat. And she's not a Democrat anymore, thankfully. But they're so far removed from they don't know how to go back to it. It's not like riding a bike, and they don't know how to go back to being tip O'Neill and Tom Daschle and and the other, you know, irritating but reasonable Democrats from our past.

Well, that used to be Joe Biden. It did used to be Joe Biden. Yeah. Yeah, they've moved that far. Yeah. And I think they're just completely disoriented. Now, I do want to add one more layer of discussion here to the culture part of this. I feel like republicanism, conservatism is somewhat returning to our national political life. I played the CNN clip earlier this morning.

We've swung it from the electorate being Democrats plus six to now, Republicans being plus two. That's an eight point swing. That is not insignificant at all. But when we look at the culture, we as conservatives, we have to claw back academia, we've got to claw back entertainment. And I think we're doing it. I you, I, like Angel Studios has become a big thing.

They're putting out movies left and right. They're not a big Hollywood studio, yet. But when you look at the stuff that, like Daily Wire has put out in the documentaries, what is a woman or am I racist? And those things do incredibly well, even in wide release in theaters across America. I think we are starting to see that pendulum moving back.

I, I don't know, I don't know if I would even advocate that we get back to a Puritan ethic in, in our media, but can we make it not so filthy? Can we make it so that you don't tune in to some, any, any random Netflix series? And it's the F-word every 15 seconds. Can we get back to it not being so crass and so dark?

And I think we're starting to see that pendulum kind of moving back to a place of of rationality. We're long ways to go. We're not there, not even close. But I believe that we're starting to see the needle move back that direction. I was watching a, video by a psychologist a couple of days ago. She happens to be a black female.

I don't think it's necessary to to put that out there, but I will tell you that because for some people, this would be, like, they would be like, look, a member of what is considered a minority group actually speaking some truth. I think lots of minorities speak truth, but just giving you context here, which is she's talking about ways that we fail with our, our, our psychology in today's world.

And she listed three. One of them is that you become your personality trait of like your race or your sexual preference. It becomes everything about you, including every excuse for your failures, every, every reason for your successes, every purpose behind even a decision about where you eat or what you watch. Like when that becomes such a focal point, you have failed psychology.

It's psychologically for yourself. It's a failure. Yeah, people think it's a victory. It is not. It is a failure. You should be more well-rounded than that. You should be more resilient than that. You should be able to have a multifaceted, not A11. No wonder you should be able to have multiple parts of you that make you interesting and complimentary to a workforce.

And when you identify a point about yourself and that frames everything, you've you've sold it, you gave it away that you know what you said just earlier, that it's actually a failure to do that, to put all of your eggs into one basket, one facet of your life, and that becomes all consuming. That's actually failure. But there's part of the culture that treats it like it.

It's victory. Part of the problem with treating it like it's victory is that you're then stuck because you feel like you've triumphed. You feel like that. So you stop. You. You stop trying to grow at that point because you feel like, oh, I've achieved this. But in reality, we're very complex. Genders. It's an important feature. It's not the only feature.

Your sexual orientation is an important feature, but it's not the only feature that we're very complex, multifaceted beings. And you're right, Julie, it's like the left will pluck the one thing and then you are the one thing. And if you believe them, you're either a villain. Because if you're a conservative talk show host, you're the devil. If you're, black lesbian who's liberal, you're a saint.

And so there's this sort of judgmental ism that they have that can be positive or negative, really puts it. It puts a label on people that just boxes them in. And we don't actually really get to know each other because of that. She added a subtext to that, which was this concept that, typically people who fall in this category, that they define themselves by their their sexual preference or they define themselves by the color of their skin, but then they have they're only comfortable when they're in a safe place.

And she just destroyed that concept and said, your skin should never determine a safe place. We grow by being uncomfortable. You're going to face uncomfortable situations at all. Fact, all ages of your life, age to age 72. There will be uncomfortable situations. How you handle that situation is the true character that you build, not changing the situation. Yeah.

Not going. I can't be in that situation. It's not safe. I need a safe place. You're again failing yourself psychologically when you do that, because we become better people when we have to grow and expand and deal with difficult things. And that way we enjoy the wonderful things that happen in. Yeah. So let me ask this question. Sort of a food for thought question.

Are there certain designations that give people a pass on emotional resiliency? Like if you are a certain thing you don't need to be emotionally resilient? I believe that we've tried to enact that. Let me give you an example that's far less like atomic bomb. People will claim well I have, I have anxiety. And then that defines absolutely everything they do in life.

Yeah. Instead of learning to manage anxiety, yes, you could have anxiety, but that isn't a fine every it's situation. Yeah. Manage the anxiety and and go forth and become great. Another one is I don't think it's so much now because we now know the positive effects of ADHD and ADHD. But ten years ago you were I'm sure you were told you have A.D.D..

It's going to it's going to make you fail. You can only reach a certain amount of success because you have ADHD now. Yeah, well, we look at it differently now because it actually there's some very seriously successful people who have had ADHD. Yeah, those people have learned to manage it and use it for their good. But there was a moment of time there where we were conned into believing that that could ruin your life.

So can I tie this into a current dynamic that we have? This sudden zero expectation for emotional resiliency among certain people right now, if you are a federal worker who lost your job because of dosh, you're not expected to be emotionally resilient. You're expected to be pampered, utilized by the media to tell your emotion porn story.

I'm sorry you lost your job. When people lose their jobs all the time. Four and a half years ago, almost five years ago, Julie, we left a job. We were not fired, but we left a job because we were not going to be told what we couldn't say or what we had to say. So we made an exit.

When we made that exit, I had nothing. There was no next step for me, and but I was we were not. And I was not going to remain in that environment. Where in the when freedom is at stake, when government power is on display. We were not going to be silenced and said, you won't ever say that again.

We were challenging Governor Little's stay at home order. We we were pushing back against he didn't do a mask mandate, but against this growing culture of masks. Vaccines weren't a thing yet at that point in the pandemic. But there there was a point where we said, we're not going to do this. I didn't know how I was going to pay my power bill.

I didn't know where groceries were going to come from. We made an exit anyway. But do you know what I did? I didn't I mean, the media picked it up because we're public officials. I, I picked up the phone and I started making phone calls to people that I knew. And I said, we're in this situation. We didn't fully expect this to happen.

And we left, last, last part of April, on May, June, actually. April 20th. April 20th. Yes. On June 8th, we launched Newstalk 1079. Six weeks later, I didn't sit around feeling sorry for myself, feeling like I got the shaft or I'm in this terrible, unfortunate situation. I said, we've got to do something. And and I, you know, we we took the steps and we made something happen.

And so when I see all of these poor me stories about a BLM worker or something, I don't really have a lot of my heart doesn't bleed because I'm like, you're a capable person. Okay, stop your whining. Pick up the phone, brush up your resume, start making contacts online, update your LinkedIn. Get busy. You'll find something. Well, you have a good friend who took the buyout from President Trump.

Yeah, and both you and I said what a fun opportunity for him. He's going to get paid until October. Prime Prime opportunity to start his own gig. Yeah. You still got a paycheck coming in. Yeah. Stop sitting around and whining. That's true. Take advantage of this. Yeah. Travel if you if you can secure a job that doesn't start until August, go enjoy life.

If you if you have to. If it's going to take that long to get your own business up and running. Good for you. Yeah, yeah. Look at the look at the positive. Now there are some that are just getting fired. Like to say they didn't take the deal and the deadlines come and gone. Yeah right. And so but but even regardless of the situation you have way more power then you're wanting to put to work here.

And I, I'm getting I really am getting tired and I, I if it seems unsympathetic I understand why you would take it that way, but it's actually the best thing that you could really face is that you're not nearly as helpless as this stupid AP article is characterizing you as right. Right. Yeah. And there's plenty of options out there.

Yeah. Nothing is guaranteed in this world. What's the old saying? Death and taxes. Those are your two things. Yeah. Nothing's guaranteed in this world. No. What made you think your government job was going to be around forever? You and I exist in an industry that could go away tomorrow. It could? Yes, it could. Even make some plans. And if it doesn't work out, then you try something new, you know.

Shouldn't that be a question, Julie, that everyone should have at all times? If this ended tomorrow, what would I do professionally? You should always have a plan B. You don't need to be actively pursuing it, but you should know in case you show up and that pink slip is there, or you know, a tornado knocks your building down or whatever the case may be, go.

What would I do if this suddenly went away tomorrow? Yeah. And can I also add this Donald Trump's been talking about cutting back the federal workforce for months and months and months. It's not like this came without warning. You've known that if Donald Trump gets elected the instant November 5th happened, you should have anticipated that you might lose your job, especially if you were in that probationary period that several of these people in Idaho got fired during.

Yeah, you're there's a reason it's called a probationary period. And I don't want to feel like we don't have sympathy for them. We actually have empathy because we've been in it like, weird that we've been there. Yeah, I, I had never applied for unemployment until that time in my life. It was new. It was unchartered territory. Yeah.

I always had people come to me and offer me jobs. I had never really looked. Guess what? It was a skill we had to brush up on. Yeah, we had to figure it out. Yeah. And you just learn and grow. That's that uncomfortable to return back to what we were talking about. Guess what? A safe place doesn't exist.

Yeah, that there is no safe places. What exists is resiliency within yourself. I where did we get the idea that a federal job was supposed to be an immovable object? Like what? Where did that where did that even come from? I, I have no idea. I, I think that that's hard for you. And I don't understand because we don't look at it that way.

Yeah, but maybe if you have been, able to perform in a job at a substandard level and get paid more than other people get paid, you become, entitled, like it? You deserve it. True. Yeah. And, I just I have never had a job like that. I've always had a job that if if I wanted to excel or grow and become better, I needed to work harder.

Yeah, I needed to perform. Well, I will also say this, and I think this is a core point as well, when the person paying you is paying you with their money, that's a different environment. When the person paying you is paying you with confiscated money from somewhere else. Yeah. Totally different environment. Yeah. You know, in an environment when the whoever's signing your paycheck, it's their money that's you.

You know what I'm saying? Like, you totally get it. You that they're scrutinizing your value more than a perceived bottomless pit of money. That's always going to be coming in one way or the other. Yeah. I felt like congressman's Simpson said it perfectly yesterday when explaining Doge, he said I don't know why anyone is surprised by Elon Musk's behavior.

He bought Twitter, changed to X, fired more than half the staff and he's now making so much money off of it and everyone told him how stupid he was. Yeah, maybe all of those people who told him stupid were relying on too much government money. Yeah, because you don't know how to risk and reward. Yeah, yeah. No, I think that's a good point.

He's so good at identifying what's either what's not needed or whatever is needed. Can we make something redundant? Can we take a person and have them do both jobs? I mean, he's just good at it. We'll be back at 928 on Newstalk 179 208542 179. That is the Stones Automotive group calling text line. Hello, Facebook. How are you?

So there's a text in here that says, I don't get the whole black Jesus thing. What's going on? So what that is, is there is, a, Broadway play called Jesus Christ Superstar. I've never seen it. I actually don't even know that. I don't even know the storyline. I think it is about Jesus's life. But whatever.

So the girl role who was in wicked. That played Elphaba. Yeah. Is going to do the motion picture version of Jesus Christ Superstar. Okay. So it's going to be a black lesbian playing Jesus. Do you know how bad this is going to fail? Yeah. Sign me up. Charity got a lot of bad press despite how good everybody has told me wicked is.

She didn't come off incredibly likable in the press tour. Yeah. Just because you made a good movie doesn't mean you're likable. How many times has Tom cruise made people go, yeah, right. Yeah, that's a good point. He still makes really great movies. Yeah, but you look at him and you kind of go, oh, like, I don't know.

I don't know. We'll see. Maybe, maybe it'll be great for. But that's that story. I feel like, I don't know, Disney has had to learn over and over and over again. When you throw in these blatantly woke angles on things, nobody wants to pay money for that. You know, I was on the treadmill yesterday. Yeah. And, it was the first time I had seen.

Let me give you a glimpse. Of who? Julius. I was listening to my novel, but my mind moves like a crazy pace, so I actually had the TV on, too. With the volume down. I was watching a college baseball game on TV. I'm listening to my book. Yeah. So, it went to commercial, so I couldn't hear the sound because I had it down because I was listening to my book.

But it was the first time I have seen a commercial for the upcoming Disney Seven Dwarfs and the revamped version. Oh, and and it kind of made me sad. I couldn't hear it. Yeah, the animation is amazing. It is so cool. Yeah, I really hope they fixed it and it's not all messed up. Yeah, it's so sad because you can do such amazing things now and I can watch that commercial and be like, that is amazing.

Don't kill the story. And then you ruined it. Yeah, it it really is amazing like that. And some of the AI generated stuff. Have you seen some of that? Yes. That's amazing. Yeah. How far away are we. Yeah. Yeah. We're. No we're not far away from having to go on right now. Well over zoom later.

I've got a lot of friends who are Democrats and they're when to ask me for advice. But if I did, I tell them, look, you just got to try harder not to suck. But I have to mention the president's name. And it was like they got shot with a dart in the in the jugular that contained, like, the methamphetamine and rabies.

Of course, there's some wasteful spending, but you don't use a meat ax and cut everything.

I'm a little surprised that Chuck Schumer didn't actually bring out a meat ax as a visual aid for him, and smack that avocado with it. You know what? Elon Musk is awkward there. There's no way around. The dude's awkward. But that was funny. It's like shooting a dart that has meth and rabies. And yeah, that's how people react to Trump these days.

I, I actually don't think it would be all that enjoyable to be around Elon Musk. He's a little weird and I don't know if I feel unsteady the whole time I was around him. Maybe. Maybe it's normal when you're with him, but I think I would feel a little unsteady. Yeah, that doesn't mean the man's not wickedly smart.

Look, I have said over and over again, I love Trump. I love what he's doing. I voted for him three times now and I don't think I'd want to work for him. I for I think that he goes through a lot of people and there's a reason and I'm not sure that I'd, I'd want to work for him day to day.

I'd, I'd love to work for the cause. Right. But, but you know just on a personality standpoint anyway. But with, with Elon. That was a funny, funny quip. Somebody sent in a text that said my job is federally funded, but I am not technically a federal employee. That said, I suppose, I suppose it's possible my job could end.

I am not worried. I have confidence in my abilities and knowledge that I could find a new job easily. Not the end of the world. That's the attitude. Yes. Thank you. Yeah, that I and I hope you really enjoy your job and I hope it doesn't end. And I and I hope that they see your abilities and and and what you bring, to the position that you're in.

But if it doesn't, it's not the end of the world. You can do something else. I think quite often the end of a job is actually the beginning of something great in your life. Yeah. Well, you and I have talked about, you know, on our own personal level, seasons. Yeah. Everybody has seasons in their life. Nothing stays the same.

No. Why did you think your job was going to stay the same? Right. It's true. Why did I think that I'd sneeze any other way? By the way, there's some breaking news to the seasons. Seasons? Yeah, yeah. Nice. See, now even you're making dead jokes. So, some breaking news. Mitch McConnell has announced he will not seek reelection in 2026.

Probably a good choice. Will he make it till there? Yeah. Is he going to be alive for another year? Another one? Kash Patel, they have ended the debate on Kash Patel, which means the vote is not far away. In fact, they're pitching it. That it will happen today. Yeah, I think about 1130. Is the expected time 11 30 hour time.

Okay. He's going to get through, right? I mean, they whipped all the votes. They know. So this is going to and now the Democrats are just trying to get their last licks in here and just you know yeah they're they're holding press conferences saying that Patel is the word. Here's the thing. What Elon Musk with Doge has been to our fiscal landscape.

I think Kash Patel might be that same thing to our intelligence landscape. So I saw an interesting take this morning on Fox and Friends about Cash Patel. And I actually think it had validity. I was like, I get that, I get what they're saying there. With the way that certain cabinet members were brought forward, the timing was very important.

And by Kash Patel being moved towards the latter part of the cabinet members versus the first part of the cabinet members that were put in front of the Senate, committees. It gave Trump time to go in and clean a little bit of house without Kash Patel taking the heat for it. Oh, okay. And it's like, that makes some sense.

I get that, because now he can go in and go, oh no, they already took care of this and this and this, and now I'm just following up okay. And I like that. Took the heat off of him a little bit. He was a controversial pick. Yeah. And by moving him in the order the timing it kind of lessened his control over sort of a chess game.

Yes. Little little of yeah. Lessen this controversy a little bit. Strategic, strategically. George W Bush ism.

You know, we have to take a break. Okay. We were, we were, a little long in that first segment. We'll be back and continue after this on Newstalk 1079. Strategic re did he actually say strict? I think that was a Saturday Night Live. I don't know if he actually said strategic Genie. Genie said Musk. Musk has 13 kids.

There's plenty of women who feel really great around him. He must be more dynamic in person. Sure, or must be the wealthiest man in the world. It's one or the other.

That's funny. I mean, have you seen, Bill Belichick's girlfriend? Yeah. How old is Bill Belichick? 78. I don't think she's 24. Yeah, he's up there. I'm not sure she's dating him for his Dynamo personality. Hey, I don't think so either. Yeah. Okay. This is funny. Apparently, there's a podcast called The Strategic Strategist.

Okay. And it's presented by the George W Bush Presidential Center. This is several years old, so this may not be true anymore, but it's named after the fictional Bush malapropism strategic, which was coined by Saturday Night Live. I was right and embraced by the Bush administration, but this is really funny. Bush revealed that he had thought for years that he mistakenly had said strategic.

At some point. But Saturday Night Live creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels informed him at a dinner that the show came up with the word and basically stuck it to you. And Bush said, I think it's very important not to take yourself too seriously. He said he saw his father, former President George H.W. Bush, mocked while he was in the white House.

Now the other Bush accepted that it was very instructive, which made it easier for me, when I became president, to accept humor as part of the job. Anyway, yeah, apparently Lorne Michaels said no, we came up with that. You never said strategically, don't take our script writing yet. There's another one that has a funny quote here, let me get to it.

Just a minute. Oh, he apparently was on Kimmel. He said. So you want to hear something terrible? So I had dinner with Lorne Michaels, the head of Saturday Night Live, and he said, so I put a great speechwriter on you. And he came up with strategic CRE. And I said, wait a minute. I said, strategic re.

And then Lorne said, no, you didn't say strategic re. And then I said, I damn sure said strategic re he said, we invented it. And I said, well, let me ask you this. Did he come up with mis underestimate.

Anyway so he actually did say mis underestimate. Yeah, yeah. That's funny, I there are things I don't like about George W Bush, but he personally was. Now, would I like to have dinner with George? Yes I would, that would be a lot of fun. As much as I think he's kind of there's a little bit of snake ism going on I think.

Yeah. Yeah. I think it would be enjoyable. Yeah. Jeannie, did you, do a deep dive on mother of the 13th kid? I think her name is Ashley Saint Clair. Is that right? Yeah. That's a really interesting story that she told the New York Post. It implies that their interactions have been actually pretty limited. Yet she fathered a kid with them.

Yes. It's weird. Yeah, weird. But now she's got a kid and, 40,000 a month apartment that he pays for. Yeah, yeah. You wonder how, you know, let's what I don't. You know what? I don't know if I want to know. Like his. Yeah. The I saw Democrats trying to make an issue out of that. And I'm like, you know, don't even start I don't I you've got Eric Swalwell.

Yeah. He's like, don't even start. If somebody has constructive skills that we need, they show up and they put him to use. That's what that is. I, you know, he's not my bishop and he's not mine. You know, there's yeah. Yep. Someone said, I think Elon gets too much credit. He's good at noticing what companies are or should take off.

He hasn't created anything. He gets in fairly early and builds a company up. Twitter is the exception. It was already substantial before he arrived. He and gates are both called tech geniuses when they are both really marketing geniuses, which is fine, but they both ride the hype, which is unearned. They think it's entered them like, okay, either he's the one that's made it happen, man.

I you know, maybe. But I mean, I guess that's I, I think that I gives near similar constructive criticism about Taylor Swift. Yeah. I don't think she's a good singer, but she's convinced millions well of, of teenagers and women that she's a good singer because she's a fantastic marketer. Can I, can I say something? Can I demonstrate absurdity by being absurd?

I think Leonardo da Vinci gets too much credit because there were already paint brushes, and paint had been around for a long time. There was canvas. I think Da Vinci is overrated.

I mean, at what point? Yeah. I mean, yeah, that's true, but we wouldn't know the word Tesla is a car company without Elon Musk. Yeah, okay. We I yeah I like the Boring Company. You know that's that's pretty revolutionary. I don't know if he invented that or if it's, you know. Right.

Can we reenact our it? Sure, sure. We had a clip. I, I like Elon Musk. He's certainly a complicated, fella without, with the, you know, with a with a lot of baggage. Right. Someone texted me, and I think Elon gets too much credit. He's good at noticing what companies are or should take off. He hasn't created anything.

It gets in fairly early and builds the company up. Twitter is the exception. It was already substantial before he arrived. He and gates are both called tech geniuses when they are both really marketing geniuses, which is fine, but they both ride the hype, which is unearned. So I'm like, oh, you know what? That's that's that's a certainly legitimate critique.

I don't know that I agree with it. But I said to Julie, in the spirit of being absurd, I think Leonardo da Vinci's overrated paint was already around. Paint brushes, and canvas was already around like, I don't. Why? Why does Leonardo da Vinci get so much credit? Because so much of what he created was already there. Yeah, yeah, I, I don't know Elon's day to day workings with these people.

So I'm not going to tell this person that they're wrong. Right. I am going to say if someone's the richest man in the world, there's a reason. Yeah, well, he's not just the richest man in the world. All of our lives are different because of Elon Musk. Perhaps a little early. He is the Thomas Edison of our time.

He's is impactful, if not more so than than Einstein. Like he is someone that the history books are going to look back and go, oh wow. And he he absolutely made massive waves. And he crossed over into other arenas. It's not just one place that he made waves. Yeah, he switched up. It's changed all of how we we we consume media.

Yeah. That was you. You get your news differently. Yeah. Because Elon Musk bought Twitter. Yeah that's true. Okay then cars you tell me that the other the car companies weren't pushing to have their hybrids or their EVs on board. Yeah because of Tesla cars. I mean that's just too he has so many more. He wrote PayPal the way we well, the way we pay for online services and products like, well, so much.

I will also say that, if Elon Musk had not purchased Twitter, turned it into X, which I don't know why he did that. That's my criticism of you. It doesn't leave it Twitter, but whatever. I don't know that Donald Trump would be the president today if Elon Musk had not leveled the playing field. When it comes to our public discourse, yes, I would agree with that.

And you know what I actually think notice, notice, because Elon Musk bought X fix the algorithm. So it wasn't just this massive thumb on the scales for the Democrats that moderate Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg said, I can't really be as aggressive with my algorithm. I think Google moderated. I think Amazon moderated. All those guys were at the inauguration. And there I think that that Elon Musk, the reverberation of him purchasing X and bringing free speech back to the public square, I think that that had massive effects beyond just X.

You to go back to the very first point you made, which is Donald Trump. Quite possibly wouldn't be president without it. Yeah. You had two major publications, the LA times and, The Washington Post that did not endorse a candidate in 2024. It had been. Yeah, that's true. Years since they have not done that. Yeah, it changed the election.

Who are they going to run I mean Kamala no there's no they're not, they're not I don't even think Kamala at this point has a chance for to take over as governor. I agree, I know who are they going to get. I mean, we didn't really play the clip because we had such a heavy news day and I think we had three interviews.

This was a couple days ago, but Kamala spoke at an event. Oh, it's I know we've made jokes. Jokes that she's inebriated. Yeah. This was a whole oh, you level and I don't think it was necessarily just booze. I don't think so either. And if you're not making any more public appearances and all of a sudden you show up and that's what you bring, you don't have a chance to be governor of California.

Yeah. No, I'm not going to work for you. I would agree with that. That must have been Monday. I think it might have been Monday. Yeah, yeah. You want to. Should we play? Sure. Let's play it. By the way, while we're waiting for this to load, Michael Jordan's overrated. Like basketball was around long before he. Okay, now I'm going to put my foot down.

Winning basketball had been invented long before Michael Jordan came around like I. You don't really love basketball. If you watch a game with Michael Jordan in it, one of his famous games, and then you watch a game with LeBron James and you choose LeBron over Michael, you're not being real. No, you're you're not you know all right. Here's here's here's Kamal.

You know I don't get out much. Do you think there's enough room for spirits to not be defeated. Let anybody see that because then what do we have left when we think about like these moments where we see things that are being taken. But also let's see it as you know nature abhors a vacuum. So where somewhere there's a vacancy.

Then let's fill it. Right. You know, the audio is not that great. And you really have to see the video. Like watching her eyes. There's something there's something. Well, they're absolutely blurry. They're they're blurry. They're kind of blank. And she's kind of making, you know body language like my one month old grandson who can't hold up their head.

Yeah. That's what she's doing. Maybe just just a little bit. And did you, did you notice Doug Emhoff was standing behind her? You know, who knows, maybe I was I was looking at it, and I was biased, but he looked like he was kind of embarrassed, like, she is totally. She's toasted. Yeah. Yes. So I don't.

But you know what? It's a devastating loss for somebody like Kamala. That's so it. It wouldn't surprise me if she's turning to the bottle. Look. And especially if she's got an ongoing issue with it. And that's not worth making fun of or anything, because that's something she's got to deal with in her life. But the the analysis is I don't even think she can.

I don't think there's a leadership position for her past this point. Yeah, I yeah, I think she's reached she's reached the cul de sac. Nowhere else to go. Where else? All right. It's 952 on Newstalk 179. We'll take a break. And in the spirit of our discussion, a little bit of Garth Brooks little bit of that, that this song takes a minute to develop, is hoping to get to the chorus before we went to the break.

Sing it now. No, you know the words better than I do, I so do you, said, honey, we may be through. All right. We can all sing this together. And I got friends in low places with. Okay. Okay. Oh, wow. That's super, super loud. All right. Yeah. You know what? This person who texted in thanks for sparing us can hardly stand hearing her voice.

I can't stand it. Like when I see her and hear her talk, she infuriates me because she's so fake. Yeah, it let me throw, a scenario past you. You tell me what you think and tell me if I'm just being rude. I don't know if liberals actually like each other because they're not that likable. They're just bound by a common desire to overthrow America and to implement their all their lefty agenda ideas.

I would say, we have evidence of that. So one, one situation where I felt like that was so blatant. Do you remember when there was something happening and they were outside the white House and, and, Kamala is sitting there dancing as somebody singing and like, four people down from her is a man dressed as a woman in a literally glittery orange gold ish dress.

Yeah. Oh, that was and he had the the full facial hair and everything. And she's acting like she's having the time of her life. Yeah, and you could tell it was complete acting. Yeah. They don't actually like each other. No, they just had to pretend in that moment for everyone. Yeah. It's cosplay. Yeah, yeah. That's true. And by the way, I don't know, that dance just grossed me out the way she was.

Dances like, I don't even want to look at it. Yeah. Oh, it's Thursday, you guys. Oh. Earlier on I need to answer. Earlier on somebody asked how Will is doing. He has been at our last two meetings. His speech is difficult. He would say that I'm not speaking out of turn here. But his mind is functioning well.

He's recovering. It's going to be a long haul and he gets tired quickly. But he's he's doing better than I think almost everybody expected him to be doing. Yeah. He's he's upright and and working. Not a full schedule but he is. He has been busy. So I have let him know that you guys have asked about him before.

And it touched his heart and he really appreciates it. He. Yeah, he knows how many people were in his corner to battle this. So I let him know. Yeah. Do you remember when I started telling you the story that you were like, oh, yeah, I understand now why I felt like I had more time? Yeah, I it won't load.

I'm it's not loading my wide orbit. Oh it won't okay. I don't know what's going on. Oh. Gotcha. See, you were seeing the wrong. I was seeing the wrong thing. Okay. Yeah. Because I had counted it up. I had like a minute and a half. Yeah. Last stretch here, a couple of minutes and, Watch this. Today is Julie's Friday.

She's actually headed to see a brand new grandbaby, Dawson, in Arizona. And are you excited? Like, so excited. That's fun. And, of course, snuggles. How can you not be excited about that? Your little grandson, buddy? Asher down there, too. So. Yeah. I have a playdate at McDonald's scheduled with Asher, and then lots of baby snuggles. So I'll be back Monday.

I'll be on air Monday, but, yeah, just taking a longer weekend. What that means is I will be flying solo tomorrow, but I hope you'll join us. For studio for covers. My daughter is actually going to perform tomorrow. And you now know the song I. Well, yeah, but you know what? Jesse is prone to just changing her mind.

But as of now, Rascal Flatts. Yeah. God bless the broken road. That's what I love, that song. It is a great song. Such a good song. Yeah, she was over kind of practicing last night, and, we were, It is, it's it's good. And, looking forward to that. That'll be at 835 and Wendy, Wendy Harmon as well tomorrow.

Okay. We'll be joining Neal at 730 to talk about her education bill. Okay. And, that'll be a good opportunity to congratulate getting passed. We'll ask her what she thinks about the prospects at the governor's desk. So we'll see. And, we don't have time to carry any of this, but Mitch McConnell is speaking on the Senate floor after announcing that he won't seek reelection in 2026.

So watch for some headlines around that. All right. Have a great, a great Thursday. I'll see you tomorrow. Julie. You on Monday. I'll be there.