3.4.2025 – NLS – Trump, Zelensky, & The Media’s Spin

On this episode with Neal and Julie, they dive into the media’s reaction to Trump’s latest speech, discussing how narratives are shaped and public perception is influenced. They explore Trump’s negotiations with Zelensky, questioning whether European support for Ukraine is as strong as portrayed. The conversation also touches on school choice, Idaho politics, and Republican lawmakers who align with Democrats. With their signature humor, they joke about political campaign ads, Trump’s potential big announcements, and even Star Wars Day. Plus, a look at Trudeau’s stance on trade and how the media continues to handle Trump coverage. Tune in for a mix of political insights and sharp-witted commentary! 

Let’s talk advertising. When you want to advertise on the radio, you call the station, right? But what about Facebook, Instagram, Hulu, Disney+, Peacock, and other streaming platforms?

You could try clicking around, reading books, or taking online courses to figure it out—or you can let us handle it. At Sandhill Media Group, we’re your local experts in both radio and digital marketing.

Visit SandhillMediaGroup.com today.

Sandhill Media Group
The Sandhill Media Group LLC consists of 7 radio stations in East Idaho

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Now exclusive bonus content on The Neil Larson Show podcast.

Yes, we are doing exclusive content today. Julie just moments ago said there is nothing fun in the news, nothing exciting to talk. Well, there's stuff exciting but not fun to talk about. And my mind instantly went to Babylon B because there's always funny stuff at Babylon B, so this is how this usually goes. I throw a headline, Julie, and I just get her response.

Okay, let's do it. Here's the headline. Trump orders Zelensky be sent to bed without his supper to think about what he's done.

Okay. I never punished a kid by not feeding them. So, yeah, he probably deserves that. This is this is good. You like this? Health tip instead of a glossy bag of potato chips. Go for the Matt bag with a picture of a farmhouse.

You. Europe pledges to send Ukraine their entire military might of three Panzer tanks and a Nazi motorcycle with a sidecar. Okay, but that's the point I made yesterday. And this is just a funny version of it, because the point I made yesterday, everybody's acting like Europe's going to be able to step right in and really make a difference in this military fight.

They got nothing. They got nothing to give. You're right. They don't have anything to give. Okay. Are you familiar with the rock band Weezer? Yeah, yeah. Here's the headline. Weezer voted Most Just okay band of all time.

You're the best c-plus band ever. Yes. The Academy announces a new Oscar award most likely to be on the Epstein list.

They're all there. Hey, I'm likely to be on that. Why do I get the award? I bought a dress and everything. I have a speech prepared. Okay. You'll love this one. Because you've taught Sunday school before. Pastor hoping worship goes long. Because, to be honest, he doesn't really have much to say about film.

I totally forgot about the Book of Filament. It's so true. It really is true. I prepared for I for those that are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. I was the gospel Doctrine teacher for almost all four books, like almost four years. There were weeks where you prepared and you're like, oh yeah, I got this.

I can go an hour and a half. Yes. Other weeks were like, please let people talk. Please let people talk, please. How do I make this relevant? Yeah, yeah. We never taught the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament either. Dirty book. Yeah, right. Isaiah, Jeremiah and Lamentations. Did Song of Solomon in that? Yeah. Is Song of Solomon.

And then my seminary teacher taught to add the dirty book behind us, a Song of Solomon dirty. But Isaiah, Jeremiah and it's so, so true. Here's one I think you sent to me or somebody did Trump Institute's military draft for everyone with the Ukraine flag in their Facebook profile.

Insult to injury. Trump change his Netflix password, and now Zelensky has to get his own account.

And then? Then finally, a man who works two jobs during the week preparing himself for chaotic, stressful weekend with wife and kids. I can do this. I can do this. I can get through this. I should I take on a third job? All right. That was so much better. So much better than keeping our our finger on the pulse of the headlines.

All right. That is our exclusive content today. Let's get things rolling into the podcast here on this Tuesday.

And.

It's.

New on the show. I got.

Good morning. And welcome to a Tuesday edition of the Neil Larson Show. Always great to have you. It's fat Tuesday. I didn't I've always heard of it as Mardi Gras, but apparently it's also known as Fat Tuesday, a day of indulgence prior to Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of lent, is there? I'm not Catholic or one of the faiths that follows it, although I know people who do participate in it because it's not a terrible, terrible practice anyway.

It's also March 4th, as I mentioned. And tonight, the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Boy, those words are beautiful to string together. The president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, will address a joint session of Congress, which is actually addressing the nation. And he's expected to talk about some of the accomplishments over the last five weeks.

He'll also, talk about his agenda. He'll probably mention Ukraine. I'm guessing that's that's one of the biggest blips on the news cycle radar screen right now. So I'm guessing the president will address this and the media. Let me just tell you right now, I want to I'm going to look into my Neil Diamond crystal ball and tell you that the media is going to tell you how terrible his speech was last night.

Tomorrow you follow. So and furthermore, they will talk about how vile he is, even though the country doesn't believe it. But they do. And they're going to make you think you do too. So all of that dynamic is going to happen. This is a president that the country largely supports, not not consensus. We're still pretty divided, but a big chunk of the country, either vocally or quietly and carefully supports what the president of the United States is doing when it comes to the economy, when it comes to the border, when it comes to his his domestic and, quite frankly, his foreign policy agenda.

Of course, tariffs went into effect last night at midnight. And, luckily the sun came up this morning. I was glad to see that. I didn't know, you know, listening to the media last night, going to bed, I thought, boy, is there even going to be a tomorrow because the tariffs are going to, to take effect. So we, we have, an interesting thing happening tonight.

We will air that, by the way, in its entirety. We're going to start right smack dab at 7 p.m. tonight. And then we'll carry the ongoing coverage until 9 p.m.. So it will be a two hour broadcast. It's not expected that the president is going to go beyond two hours, though I suppose it's possible. So but this will feel very much like a state of the state address.

Somebody sent me a screenshot out of this issue. Social media is abuzz with speculation about the auspicious date, March 4th, mainly because it was the original constitutional date for the inauguration, later moved up to January 20th by federal statute. In 1933, the very first Congress met on March 4th in 1788. It's also the date when 28 other presidents have made similar addresses.

There is a sense that Trump picked the date on purpose for its historic significance. Of course, March 4th is also National Pancake Day. Oh, then it goes on to other stuff. Can I ask a question? Is there a, double meaning here? For instance? May the 4th is Star Wars Day because it's quite frankly, I think it's insensitive to people with Lisps.

But the, the whole May the 4th thing being, Star Wars Day is, is March 4th. Also basically a March 4th? Let's keep going like March forward, but March 4th is there. I don't think they did the same thing. I think it just happens to be the fourth day of March. And the fact that we can re repurpose this date into a little rallying cry like, move ahead, keep going, keep at it.

March 4th. Maybe, maybe that's just a creation of my own, twisted mind. So, we have that. We also have I, I have to make a little confession. It's not a confession. It's just a moment of being candid with you. When we went into the legislative session this year, I thought, you know what the big get is for me, it's parental choice in education.

It is widening the menu of options for parents using public dollars to make choices about their kids being educated. And I really liked the the bill that Wendy Harmon has put together and put forward. And I was thrilled when the governor signed it on Thursday of last week. It was a great day. Great day for Idaho, great day for parents.

Not nearly the catastrophic day for public education that the opponents of the bill say that it is. And all of that will bear out. We are not going to see a collapse of public education. If anything, we're going to see a greater effort by those in public education to teach in a way that will quell this strong desire by parents to migrate their children out of the traditional K through 12 system.

But I do have to say, because I, sadly and I wish this weren't the case, I really wish this were not the case. But I am on social media and I get tired of it. Some days I wish if I were to wake up and social media had been poof vaporized, I'd be so thrilled. But on social media, I'm trying to wrap my mind around this.

We had both Josh Wheeler and Stephanie Mikkelson put up graphics that were designed by somebody. They I don't think they did this organically because they're not graphic designers, but they put up graph. So I think it's coming from a consultant. That's my hunch. But it's been this was 15 hours ago. So yesterday evening and Representative Mickelson wrote HB 93, the school voucher bill, which it's not okay that I am not afraid of the word voucher, but at least tell the truth.

It's a tax credit. It's not it's not a voucher. You've you've you've group tested different words. Voucher is the most denigrating terms. So that's the word you use. So when you say voucher it actually says more about you than it does about the actual bill. You're not describing the bill accurately, but the school voucher bill was signed into law despite significant public opposition.

According to official tallies, the governor's office received over 32,000 messages asking for a veto, compared to roughly 5000 supporting the bill. I have serious concerns about how this legislation could impact our public education system. Our constitution establishes public education as a fundamental responsibility, and I remain committed to helping our public schools have the resources they need to provide quality, quality education for all Idaho students.

Now, I have heard this when we interviewed Senator Kevin Cook, he he raised his own constitutional concerns about House Bill 93. And, look, I'm not I'm not, Sam Alito, I'm not Clarence Thomas. I'm certainly no Scalia, so I will not I will not sit here and declare what is constitutional and what isn't, but I will ask some questions because there is a few things that the the Constitution in Idaho requires that the legislature provide using taxpayer funds, which is a thorough and uniform system of public schools.

None of that changes the system that you have. Nothing happens to it other than you might have some kids, a handful, not a lot. About 10,000 at most. That will try something else out of a system that educates 313,000 kids right now. It this is not this is not create. And it doesn't migrate money. It doesn't siphon money, it doesn't move money.

It this is new, different money. Nothing gets touched from this. And furthermore, let me ask you a question because I was under this. And look, I it's my job to be informed and to know things. I was under the assumption that if a child went to school, the state that school gets money, and if the child doesn't go to school on that day, they don't get the money for that day.

And you may have been under the same assumption. That is flat out not true. They look at attendance over time and the way the formula is constructed. You can actually see a decrease in attendance and an increase in an allocation. And the reverse could also be true. You could see an increase in kids coming, and a decrease in the amount of money that you get from the state.

Now, those are somewhat anomalous situations. It's not the norm, but that being said, simply because you might have a kid or two for every elementary school that's out there choosing something different. And this only, this only 2%, 1 to 2%, it's not even 2%. This is like the the amount of funding there is it it's very, very little.

And so you might let's say an elementary has how many kids 405 hundred. You might see ten kids from an average elementary school try something different that that could happen demographically. That could happen because the factory shuts down or that demographics change or that, you know, people move in and out all the time. This is the amount of kids that you'll lose, will simply get lost in the noise of the fluctuation, the natural fluctuations that you have.

So this is not anything as dire as it's being presented to you. But I guess the basic question here, the fact that I've spent more time on this than I wanted to, because we want parents one kids one choice wins, options wins. And the constitution of the state of Idaho remains untouched. Why? That's my question. Why would you?

I don't know if you're burning a bridge, but, you know, you you brought some matches and some gasoline to the edge of the bridge. Why? Why are you shredding the governor and implying that the governor is ignoring Idahoans? Okay, I promise you now. I like Governor Little, and I always preface my criticism of Governor Little with the fact that I like Governor Little because I really do like him.

Like he's a great guy. He's he's good to talk to. One of the things is he's he's not the the slickest retail politician out there, but he is very, very good at strategy. So I would ask a question, if you really believe that you have 37,000 and change phone calls to the governor, and only 5000 want him to sign the bill, if you're actually extrapolating from that, that's representative of the entire state.

Governor little is not stupid. He would have been crazy to not veto that bill if in fact, that's true. So you're either accusing him of being stupid, which I don't. I would hope you're not because he's not. Or there's something else afoot. And that something else afoot, I think, is you just didn't get your way on this issue.

But why? Why you take the L. It's okay. You know what the I. When I look at legislation, I give it maybe a 20% chance that I'm going to get what I want out of this. So what? It's passed. It's signed into law. It's going to happen. Why not just move on? And Josh Wheeler, same thing. He put this this kind of thing out there.

Now if in the next election cycle you go out and you want to make the case, parents shouldn't have this choice that that they shouldn't have the opportunity to if you're going to make the case. And man, I wish I were a political can maybe I'll get into political consulting. Maybe I'll help some of these lawmakers manage campaigns because there is some really low hanging fruit and the low hanging fruit in this.

And I hope whoever may decide to run against Josh Wheeler or Stephanie Mikkelson in the future is listening. Right now. Your campaign is any well, certainly any Democrat, but we expect it from them. But if you're a Republican to argue that middle class kids should not have the opportunity for a private education, go after that. How can how can you win?

By the way, if that's your message, that middle class and lower class kids should not have a private education or to have that option that is something different than the regular flair and or fair and flavor from our K through 12 offering. How do you defend that? That's that's what I would do. I that's how I'd go after him.

All right. It's 823 on Newstalk 179. If you'd like to reach us. The stones automotive group Collin Text Line is (208) 542-1079.

It's 826. On Newstalk 179, Neil Larson along with Julie Mason, who's wearing barrel pants today. Did I use that term right? Okay, I, I made the mistake early this morning of calling them baggy pants. And I was very quickly. You weren't chastised. You were educated. Yeah, I was quickly, educated. Well, yes. That's right. It wasn't. You didn't chastise me.

But, I had never heard him called barrel pants, and he said, why are they called barrel pants? And I stood with my legs together and said, they look like a barrel. Well, and I think my follow up and and I don't think here, here's my mistake. I don't think you can apply logic to fashion. And I said, how are they not baggy?

Because I use that word baggy. And yeah, they're just not baggy because they're barrel so they're barrel, they're tight around my hips. That's the where the barrel comes in. Yeah. They're a little tight around the ankles, tight around the hips. And then they go wider as the pants go down and then they narrow again. They look good. Thank you.

It's good fashion. Thank you. What was that? Well, we already established that we are in Saint John's Bay man this morning. So yeah, that was the first thing out of her mouth. She called me. Yeah. Saint Johns Bay. Like, okay, I'll own it. I'll own it. You know, Julie, we, I, I think that we could come up with mock political ads for especially Republicans.

Like I said, we expect Democrats to want to restrict parents from having choices. Right. But I think the mock campaign ad should be Mickelson and Wheeler keeping middle class kids out of public school or private schools. Right? Mickelson and Wheeler taking all parental controls away? Yes, that's that's what what it ought to be.

Parental choice. It's overrated.

Mickelson and Wheeler. Cause play is our name. Yes. All right, if you'd like to join us. 28542107. Here's what I. What I don't understand is there's nothing to be gained by this stuff. That's what I said earlier. I don't know why. This is a time where you didn't have to weigh in. Yeah, the deed is done.

Yes. It has been signed into law. Yeah. Hold back. It's okay to hold back. But you know what? They were probably told to share it and they do what they're told, I think. Yeah, I think that's true. That's true. Yeah. I had one other thought, but it has escaped me, so. Yeah. Yeah. It's fine. I here's my thing about this all is that I have I have always said this is consistent.

You can go back and roll the tape. Yeah, I have been consistent. That once you win elections, then. Okay, I'll clear. I'll erase the board. Clear it all. You can go and show us what you're made of. If you claimed your Republican and the people in your district think that you're awesome and you were elected, go show us what you're made of.

Yeah. Wheeler has consistently voted with the Democrats over and over and over again. That's true. And I told you this morning, if his district had voted for a Democrat, they would have gotten largely the same voting record. Absolutely. Yeah. So, I'm just I am not personally attacking the guy. I'm not telling you he's a bad dude. I'm reflecting the job that he was elected for.

Yeah, he was elected as a Republican and he votes with the Democrats. That's just pure facts. Yeah, yeah I it it it is, it is. And so I did look because I, I had sensed a similar trend with Representative Ben Furman. So I, I started looking at exact voting records. And what I found was kind of interesting and a little bit surprising to me, which was there have actually been a number of votes where Furman voted with Republicans, and a number of those votes were on things.

That and and understand me when I say things that don't matter, like when they praised Boise State for the volleyball team, for standing up for women in sports. Right? Yeah. Kate, that it it is an important vote, but it it changes nothing about our day to day lives. Exactly. Like it's not a regulation policy. It's not a taxation issue.

It's not, a freedom issue. It's just, you know, it's it's an important thing to recognize that. But it doesn't adjust our day to day life here in Idaho. Yes. Right. He he has voted with Republicans on that. I want to be clear, and I've been wanting to to follow up on that. But there have been a number of votes.

It's not all the way through on things that really did matter that could impact our day to day lives, like being able to choose which school your kid's going to go to. That he has voted with the Democrats. So the day to day quality of life issues, he's left the farm on a number of those, Wheeler is is significantly more consistently voting with Democrats than he is Republicans on those direct impact to day to day life issues.

So if that's what you want, keep voting for it in that in that district. I'm not I'm not going to stop you, but I know what you're getting. And don't don't be deceived by the R behind the name because he he is voting on these critical issues with the Democrats far more often than not. Absolutely I and that's every person.

This isn't a Neil and Julie thing. Yeah. Every person should be doing that analyzation of what the lawmaker is doing for the job that they're getting paid. Yeah. Yeah I would agree. And and we'll do this analysis about any, any lawmaker and and and give you our honest opinion, not in a mean spirited way, but in, in a way that like I like a lot of these lawmakers.

I really do like I like Dave Lente, but I feel like he's when it comes to education, he's not with us. He's not with the Republicans. He's not with the conservative viewpoint. The the IEA has spent a lot of money to help him get elected. And I think you you can get compromised by that. And I know him.

That sounds like I'm calling his motives into question now. I'm just recognizing the reality of politics. And and that's just how politics seems to work. Okay. I just want to I just have a question for these people who get all ruffled. Yeah. When you examine how the lawmaker vote. Do you think they should just have unlimited power to do whatever they want to over there once they're elected?

That's my question. I would also I would also challenge the lawmaker as long as there is no personal attack happening people should be analyzing what you're doing. Yeah. That's actually in the job description. Yeah. Because they're your boss. They're the ones that are going to hire you. You would hope that they were looking at what you were doing.

Yeah. So let me ask you this question, though. Going back to these after it's all signed and done, putting these posts up because wherever the graphics are different, like if you look at Stephanie's, it's different than Josh is, but the information's identical. Somebody designed this and gave that to them and had them put that out on there.

Like you can just smell it right. Like at some point you see that. So my question then would be why do you think this is good politics. Because the governor you're look, as I said, I like Governor Little. But you've got to build a rapport with him and you've got to have a good relationship with him because he's not it.

She's calling out the guy she is directly contradicting Governor Little here. We already knew that. She doesn't. She wasn't going to help Wendy Harmon at all with this, and we already knew that. But why would you deliberately create friction with the governor over this issue after it's all said and done? That's the part I don't understand. You already made your voice clear.

You voted against it. Yeah. That was your opportunity. You voted against it. Now can you go on and and continue to politically campaign on this? Sure. I don't understand what benefit you think it gets you so that you can you can rub shoulders with 4 or 5 teachers that you're friends with. You have a whole bunch of people who aren't teachers that are voting for you.

Yeah, this was just a time to not say anything at one of the and I don't know this guy personally. I'm friends with him, but he he is very politically active. He does a lot of analysis and he said the numbers are highly suspicious. I ran the data for some analysis. The numbers and time period suggest possible artificial astroturf, robo calling or similar.

I'm doing some more digging to see if I can confirm that suspicion, but something smells funny. Now, I'm not a phone expert, but I've learned maybe a little bit more than the average person because we deal with that in this industry a lot. You know, setting up multiple phone lines, you can set up a phone system to put out any caller ID you want.

I could make it say Internal Revenue Service if I want it. It's easy. If you know the software and you know how to do it, and you could automate those calls so that you call it recognizes. When it picks up, you press one. You might wait 2 or 3 seconds. You press one again. Or in this case it would be two for the veto.

You could set up a script to call that over and over and over again with a different caller ID every single time. That would be A208 number. This, it could be. So easily compromised, so easily compromised. And I know the governor said only one call per household or one, one per number, which they could filter that out pretty easily.

But there's an easy way to get around that and that, that would take a little bit of, of intelligence and, and figuring out a really simple way to get around it is most teachers have children. Yeah. And most of those children have phones. That's true too. And most of those teachers have spouses, I would say. I think it's fair to guess that 50% of them do.

Yeah. So you're adding multiple phone lines, to just one person's thought process. They get all of their, their, you know, their significant other, their children, their siblings. And you have one teacher's opinion now having ten votes. Yeah. Great. That's another way. It's not scientific. No it's not. And it it's anything that's voluntary response I mean it just it's so it's so vulnerable to hacking in in a lot of different ways.

Yeah. I also I keep losing my thought today. Why why is that, I don't know, drink drink your water. Okay. Good thing. Good clarification. Because the first one could drink really fast water. I don't, I don't know, I just think that for me, I, I'm actually I look at their posts and I, I'm not emotional about their posts.

I look at their posts and say, why would you do that? I don't see what benefit. I don't I don't know what you thought. You were getting out of that. Other than now, a radio show with thousands of listeners are talking about what you posted. Furthermore, you are galvanizing the opposition against you. Yeah, I I'm not there was there's no website.

No, you already have the votes of the teachers. You've already clearly sided with them and the union and you're getting money from them. That's a done deal. It's not in jeopardy for you. Yeah. So what did you win I, I don't there's no reward. I almost feel like this was, an impulsive indulgence. Like I'm still mad about this, so I'm going to put this out on on social media.

Or maybe a consultant did that. I don't know, somebody gave them this graphic like this is not just a natural thing that is on Facebook. So I there's and I've said this about different people besides Wheeler and Mickelson. I've said this about Trump before. There was no reward here. Yeah, I've said this about our our two debacles that we've had with the Bingham County Central Committee and the Bonneville County Central Committee.

There was no upside to their behavior. Yeah. Like politics is a shrewd business. Yeah. Learn to play it. That's all I'm saying. I I'd unless the only thing I can think is they. Because the governor. Let's be honest, the last better part of a year, he has shifted to the right dramatically. And I will just stayed at candidly, because this is my theory.

I think they know that Raul Labrador, he has run in for governor in the past. He may be gearing up to run again. I have no idea. But we know that that is a very possible scenario. So Governor Little has to shore up the right. We've seen it in his social media posts. We've seen it in the bills that he's signed.

We've seen it in the policies he's put forward. He's embraced Trumpism. He's, you know, all of those things. Although he was real good with Trump even in the first administration. So I don't think that's really that much of a shift. He's sent, National Guard to the border. He's, you know, so he's doing a lot here to shore up the right, which I'm like, great.

That just means we get better policy out of him. I wonder if they are trying to erode his left so they can run a different candidate against him, a more moderate candidate, because they actually believe these numbers? They actually think these numbers are reflective of where Idaho is. Sure. I guess I guess that that would could be a potential.

I would still respond with, this wasn't the place to do that. Like, if you're going to run a moderate candidate, get that person in place, get that person trained up, and then hammer away at it closer to the election. Yeah. But maybe that's what they're doing. I just know that this was all full of downsides. No upside for them.

Yeah, no, I, I yeah, I would agree if it's a consultant that led to them posting this. Whatever you're paying this consultant, it's too much.

Probably 80% too much. I'll tell you. Okay. Look, I'm going to add one thing. I'm sorry. I'm talking over your bumper music. It's okay. I'm going to add one thing. If I had a child that was currently attending in a school district, I don't. My children are grown, but I have a child. And if I read this, you know what I would feel that the teachers union means more to Stephanie Mickelson and Josh Wheeler than my child.

Yeah. And your ability to to take a kid, that's what I would take. So next time you talk to him, say, why don't you want middle and lower class kids going to private school? So I'd be interested to know what they say. Right. All right. We'll be back. It's 843 on Newstalk 1079.

It's 847 on Newstalk 179. Neil Larson and Julie Mason, who both think that, middle class kids should be able to go to private school, here with you. We also believe that, kids with, learning challenges should be able to get a little bit more money to go to school. Agreed. Agreed. I'm with you on that.

Julie sent me a video. It's a libs of TikTok and you just. I'll just play it. Yeah. There aren't any cuss words in it. Tell them the three that are in it. It's just this Warren, Chuck Schumer and Cory Booker. So these three and you're going to hear their voices side by side. But listen closely when I will immediately bring prices down starting on day one.

Today. That ain't true. That's what you just heard since day one. Do you want Donald Trump's presidency? Prices are not there. So inflation is getting worse and they're getting prices of groceries, those eggs of essential housing. It's not getting better. It's getting worse. Meanwhile, getting some eggs prices to lower instead violent and violent savage basically. So at least letting Elon on, setting off and not letting Elon Musk assault chainsaw cutter government programs.

And then even worse, giving source to American citizens social security, social numbers. Okay, I can't play the rest of it, but it's word for word. Julie. It's phenomenal that they can't. You have been a senator forever. These three have been in a long time Cory Booker the least. But they have been in enough that you should be able to create content all on your own without them.

A script that was handed to you, you know what? Pathetic. This tells me they don't give a crap about what they're saying. Nope. They're playing a game. Read the script, read the teleprompter. And this is our Democrat Trump destruction machine. And we just need you to do this. And so they they do it. You know how easy this would be to fix.

Sorry. Tell ChatGPT here's the talking points. Give me three different versions of this. You can even say the first one put it in Chuck Schumer's voice. The second one put it in Elizabeth Warren's voice, and then one for Cory Booker two. And that way the words would be different. The presentation might be a little bit different, the order might, and nobody would have caught on.

But this is the word for word. Word for word. So lazy. Yeah, yeah it is. Did they really say that Bleep ain't true. Yeah the beginning I'm not sure if they all said it because they're talking over the top of each other. My favorite is that everyone has decided that Elon on the left that Elon Musk is the most evil man to have existed next to Trump.

Yeah, it's Trump then Elon, the most evil man to have ever existed. Yet they all have pictures with George Soros who was walking around collecting them like baseball cards. Yeah, as he got them to vote and change and introduce laws that were beneficial for his business interests. They know the game because they've been playing it for so long.

It's so annoying that they hate Elon. Now, when you have plenty of rich people on your side that you've been manipulating for decades. Yeah. Did I say something about Joi Bayard doubling down on the the anti-apartheid or the apartheid that she did? Well, I saw something on I don't know, I may be speaking out of turn here, but I did see some headline on it this morning.

I haven't, but she could have yesterday on The View. I have no idea. I do my best to stay away from that show. It's much a sports book. Yeah, yeah. Me too. So anyway, politics is so ugly. Yep. It's really ugly. Okay. Should we break. Sure. I by the way do you want to remind our listeners and we will break here.

But tonight we will carry President Trump's president Donald J. Trump. Is it John is absolutely Donald. John Trump will carry his joint message to Congress. In its entirety. We'll start right at 7:00. And, our coverage will go until about 9:00 tonight. As a side note, people have started to refer to JD Vance as 48.

I love that. Might as well create some inevitability right now. Yeah. All right, we'll be back.

To see Julie, that's one of those conversations that could be in our podcast that would, get us in big trouble. But it would be. It would be fun. All right, if you'd like to join us. 285421079. And that's the Stones Automotive Group call and text line. All right. What's on your mind? I don't know do you think that Trump's going to say anything new tonight.

Or is it just going to be a reflection of all of the things that he's been doing. And he's going to I mean there's going to be a lot of self-congratulation. He know he's teasing something big. Okay. What do you think it's going to be knowing Trump? It's probably well, I don't know like it could be an economic development announcement.

I think that maybe it could be a moment. Remember we don't remember this. We weren't alive. But the the moment in history when JFK said, we'll put a man on the moon by the end of this next of this decade, maybe Trump will announce something big, like, we're going to cure cancer, or we're going to, you know, something and big shout out, yeah, big.

I mean, it's got to be it's got to be something like, we're going to cure cancer. Yeah. Or it might be a new policy that he wants to implement. I could see that, I scrolled to find a tweet. Let's just talk about the investments in the US over the last five weeks, okay? Okay. We've got 14.1 billion from the steel company, okay?

20 billion from Hussein Saujani, 500 billion from Apple, 500 billion from Stargate, 600 billion from Saudi Arabia, 100 billion from the Taiwan Semiconductor that was promised yesterday if we could get 100 billion from a Taiwan semiconductor, why did we need to pass the Chips act? Great question. Great. They're bringing the money. The Chips act was you and I paying for it?

Yeah, I know they're bringing the money $100 billion. Yeah, I know I don't have an answer for that question, but you're right. In fact, we don't have the time here. But Caroline Leavitt was talking about the massive amount of investment in five weeks that exceeds all of Biden's, time. All right, we'll be back. It's 859.

907. Welcome back. It's our two. It's Neil Larsen and Julie Mason. If you'd like to join us on Facebook Live. Julie's got that rolling. All you have to do is text the word live to (208) 542-1079. By the way, we will carry the president's speech tonight beginning at 7 p.m. local time. And the fully covered broadcast will run until 9 p.m., so we'll have that for you.

We also announced last week that beginning March 17th, our daytime lineup shuffles a little bit. What a great day. March 17th I love Saint Patrick's Day. It's an amazing day. It is top of the morning. World changes on that day. That's true. Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And oh, it might be Julie's birthday as well.

And a new programing day. Yes. Stock? Yes, very much so. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton will make their debut right here on Newstalk 117. It's all a domino effect. Well, it's Donald Trump. It's Donald Trump's fault. Because it's not his fault. We can credit Donald Trump because he has asked Dan Bongino to go to work for the FBI.

Dan Bongino makes an exit from talk radio, which leaves us with three hours of programing to to replace him and the choice. After looking at all of our options, we are bringing on Clay Travis and Buck Sexton on. On March 17th. They will be on from 10 to 1, and Markley, Van Camp and Robbins will be shifted to the afternoon 1 to 4 slot.

So that's the plan. And we're we're about ready like a yeah, it's still a, you know, week and a half almost two weeks away. But we're we're ready to roll and excited. Yeah I think Clay and Buck are going to be great. Yeah they are they are I think you're all going to you know what I just I feel like, you know, I've listened to their show enough.

They will fit very, very well in what we are about here at Newstalk 117. Yeah. That's just going to be a great, great fit for our lineup. So it's going to be awesome. All right. What do you all think Trump is going to say during his speech tonight? The all the media is abuzz anticipating this speech. They they believe he's going to tout what he's done and he should they it's been a very historic first five weeks for him.

He'll talk about things that he plans to do. We did see a headline on ABC that now Zielinski is saying, we're ready to come back to the negotiating table. Well, how about that? When I pointed at the headline, I said, you think he's worried about what Trump's going to say tonight? I think there may be some worry or concern there.

Yes. So, yeah, he may try to soften whatever Trump is, is going to say about about Zielinski also use him. Is CNN really not carrying this I don't know I saw a tweet last night. So I'll give you some background. I screenshot the tweet and send it to Neil while he was at the issue game. And I said, when we were looking this up the other day, did you see CNN on CNN on there and you sent back it just said major media outlets.

But this tweet says that CNN is choosing not to run this. I this address to Congress. Yeah. They also only ran one Trump rally live in all of the campaign season. Yeah. Last year. And it was the Butler, Pennsylvania rally. So I saw an excerpt of a Joe Rogan interview about this. And some guy said we did. We want to make sure we're not saying CNN knew what was going to happen, but the questions absolutely should have been asked.

Did someone tell top brass at CNN, you may want to carry this butler. It's a big one. Something may interesting may happen there. And yeah, it is weird when you look at their pattern. That's the one Trump rally that they decided to carry live. So yeah. Yeah that that is odd. But I like I look at CNN and they have been sort of trying to rehab their image a little bit.

I Jake Tapper has been pushing back quite a bit. Yeah. He yeah, I mean they, they've gotten in recent years they've gotten rid of Don lemon. They got rid of the potato. Brian Stelter. Stelter yeah, we live in Idaho. I can say that. So Stelter but they can. Yeah. That's true. Yes. Yeah. So he's a spud jester.

Let's do that. Yes. Yeah. That's that that is much more appropriate. But I think they've been they know that Trump broke them. All right. Let's just face it. When they when Zucker was in charge they he took CNN to the basement like it was terrible. So I think they're trying to salvage what they have. This is a big step backwards for them because this is going to be an historic speech.

And it's not like people aren't going to watch it. It's going to be widely available. You're not censoring Donald Trump by not carrying this this speech actually just harming yourself. Yeah. You're it's it's a weird it's a weird take for me. Like why why they would do that. News is news. Yeah. And if you really are trying to rehab your image and say you're playing it down the middle, you're on the you run the address.

I don't think they got the memo that they are not determining what's consequential and what's not. Trump does. Trump has been incredibly consequential as a president, and CNN operates down stream of that. And they they still think they're upstream. They still think they're the ones determining what's consequential and what's important for the American people. And the truth is, no, the new media has completely circumvented you.

Americans don't need CNN to cover anything. You're only harming yourself if you fold your arms, pick up your marbles, and go home and say, we're not covering the Trump the Trump speech. You just look petty and stupid. Yeah. And make yourself less relevant. Yeah. And your audience isn't very big. So if you're the person who is, saying, well, that doesn't speak to their audience, why would they carry it?

Well, that's exactly it. You're supposed to be broadening your audience, and that's not going to broaden your audience at all. Yeah, yeah. No it's not it's yeah. I don't know why they would make them. Here's the thing. Carry the speech and then you can put all the anti-Trump hacks on the air you want afterwards to slice and dice the speech.

But I know you would anyway. Yeah you will, but then Scott Jennings will be on the panel and he'll slice and dice you. So yeah, they're in a no win. Yes. Yeah. No it's true. Okay. (208) 542-1079. If you'd like to reach us on the, the program this morning, are you seeing as much on your your social media feeds, Julie, about the meltdown over the Trump Zelensky meeting?

Oh, no. Because these people don't have endurance. They don't. They needed another two minutes of hate. Yes. Yeah, they they'll find something else to hate. Yeah. And so yeah you knew it was going to go away. You knew that was going to level out. Also I think it's interesting how much change has happened since Friday. It's Tuesday.

Yeah. We well I mean that is four days. Yeah. Three active days. Four days. So much changes happened since that blow up if you want to call it that at the white House. And we knew it was going to move this fast. Zelensky needs the the money. He's got it work something you can't just keep doing what you're doing.

If the gravy train ends you don't have any more gravy. Yeah that's true. And then Trump announced today again fast moving all all aid is cut off at this point to Ukraine. All eight you if you had listened to the media on Friday night and then going into Saturday, all of Europe was aligned against the United States. That's not accurate.

All. Yeah. And Poland has been such a friend to Ukraine. Guess who's not united with Zelensky. Yeah. Poland. Yeah. Well, they see the need for change. Right now, let's shift gears. Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, is talking about the Trump tariffs. Let's listen in. This is lived. There was a 97% drop in fentanyl seizures from January compared to December, to a near zero low of less than half an ounce seized in January.

Even with all the further enforcements and actions we've taken at the borders in some, we stepped up. We engaged closely and constructively with the president and his administration. We did everything we promised. We stuck to our word, and we did it because we believe in working together to protect our citizens. Now, I want to speak directly to one specific American, Donald.

In the over eight years, you and I have worked together, we've done big things. We signed a historic deal that has created record jobs and growth in both of our countries. We've done big things together on the world stage, as Canada and the US have done together for decades. For generations. And now we should be working together to ensure even greater prosperity for North Americans in a very uncertain and challenging world.

Now, it's not in my habit to agree with the Wall Street Journal. But Donald, they point out that even though you're a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do.

We two friends fighting is exactly what our opponents around the world want to see.

And now, to my fellow Canadians, I won't sugarcoat it. This is going to be tough, even though we're all going to pull together, because that's what we do. We will use every tool at our disposal. So Canadian workers and businesses can weather this storm from expanding AI benefits and making them more flexible to providing direct supports to businesses.

We will be there as needed to help. But Canada, make no mistake, no matter how long this lasts, no matter what the cost, the federal government and other orders of government will be there for you. We will defend Canadian jobs. We will take measures to prevent predatory behavior that threatens Canadian companies because of the impacts of this trade war, leaving them open to takeovers.

We will relentlessly fight to protect our economy. We will stand up for Canadians. Every single second of every single day, because this country is worth fighting for. The what it is stressing prison and okay, okay. Thoughts? I think he's trying to play tough, which I would expect him to do. I don't think that that's a bizarre reaction here.

He's trying to play tough. He's also saying, hey, we can work on this. It didn't need to go to this. Now that that might be accurate, but quite honestly, Trudeau, you're the one who took it here. Yeah. It's not like he sprung this on you yesterday at 7 p.m. and enacted it at midnight. Well, you know, can I ask him what I would hope would be an obvious question if in the course of a month, he was able to reduce the influx of fentanyl down to basically nothing, why didn't you do it before?

Yeah. Why was it okay to be harming the United States with that, that he. If we're such good friends and within a month, you can shut down the fentanyl flow? Why haven't you done it? Because you know what? He was doing it on purpose because of Biden. And he was flooding the United States with it. Yes. He's scared now.

That's why he can shut it down. Okay, so this is Trudeau trying to go toe to toe, which is spelled to you up there. He's trying to go toe to toe with Donald Trump. I can I make a prediction? By this time next week, he will have caved. Yeah, he will have cried uncle. And they there will be some adjustment made.

Trump will probably get 80% of what he wants more out of, out of Canada. But the fact that he's sort of bracing his people for this because, look, if America stops buying Canadian stuff, their economy is gonna be hurting badly. Very badly. Yeah. You negotiate tariffs knowing that you're going to feel a little bit of pain. Yeah.

That's the reality with this specific tariff. I love how, like people who hate Trump want to just lump tariffs all together. That it's far more complicated than that. So don't get sucked into that if you're listening to that. Canada is different than Mexico, and Mexico is different than China. With Canada specifically, he is the one who has the least amount of leverage in all three of those countries.

I just list it. Yeah, they purchase far more from us than we purchase from them. Yeah, this is going to be far more harmful for them than it is going to be for that. For us, this is a much bigger hit to their GDP versus our GDP. Yeah. So this is a very winnable tariff fight with Canada. Very winnable.

Yeah. We absolutely have the upper hand. So I like I said I, I also the media is already making a note that he has repeatedly called him Donald instead of President Trump, which is sort of a disrespectful snub. This isn't going to end well for Trudeau. It it is not going to end well for him now. His I'm sure his ego is so beat up and bruised by by Trump.

I'm sure it is. He keeps calling him governor. So this is him just going well I'm giving it back. Great. You can you can. That's fine. It's fine. You don't have the leverage here. Well, you don't get to choose the consequences to doing that. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. So yeah, we'll we'll see. Back to this is so you know the multi facets of Trump are just awesome.

Because he's he's taking on Canada Trudeau like you know as much as you need to. But you've got Zelensky now groveling back wanting to sign the minerals deal. Does Trump say you know what that deal's null and void. We'll make the same deal. But we want this. Additionally, we're adding this in now because you walked away from the first one potentially.

I think he ought to. Yeah, I think he should. Because if I mean, Zelensky signaled he was going to sign it and some TDs, Democrats got to Zelensky and he decided not to sign it. And I don't think that should come without consequence. I think Trump should get now a better deal. And I think Zelensky will know I can't walk away from this one because then the goalposts will get moved for the next time and he'll look, I if I were Trump, I would actually up the up to requirements on this.

Yeah it it can't look real good for Zelensky right now. He he probably was when he was invited to leave the white House which is what. But what did happen I don't know if you've all followed the reporting, but after the fight between Vance, Trump and Zelensky, he was asked to leave. There was a big luncheon that was scheduled.

Trump held the luncheon anyway. Yeah, had the press cover. It had the photos taken, he went on with life as Zelensky walked away alone and got on his plane. Yeah. Okay, so Zelensky runs to Europe and says, you have to help me. Well, right off the bat, some talking points came out from Europe that everybody was so scared about.

Those talking points have all shifted within 48 hours. Those talking points shifted. Yeah I this is a a much it's a much, deeper and complex situation than the headlines that you read and the people saying, I stand with Ukraine on face, but please give yourself more credit than that. Yeah, please read deeper than that. There's far more to this than some stupid headline that CNN is putting out.

I also think that the broader context of that meeting where everybody lost their ever loving minds and lit their hair on fire because Trump and J.D. Vance pushed back. If they had seen the entire meeting, like, you could take that meeting and pluck a selective ten minutes out of three different parts of that meeting, and you could get three completely different takeaways from that.

And I think people are realizing that that the media did it again to you. They plucked the the little stretch that they could use to make Donald Trump look terrible. And then they pounded the news cycle with that. But they can't hide it anymore because X because of social media, because of TikTok, because word actually gets out. Look at Zelenskyy rolling his eyes.

Look at how disrespectful he was. Prior in in that meeting. And I think, you know, there are people that just hate Trump. So they they reject all that and they stick with their I stand with Ukraine. I hate Trump narrative, but I think if you have honest people who watch it, they go, oh yeah, this is a different context.

This is not this is not the, the the story that I was getting from the mainstream media. It's bigger than that. Yeah, I would hope I would hope that people are just giving more thought to something that is so relevant to your safety, both monetarily, militarily. I give it more thought than a headline and give it more than the emotion of I stand with Ukraine because I've already said that phrase is irrelevant now, and go ahead and be angry at me if you if I just said that and you think that that's horrible because there's two different Ukraine's here, you need to clarify.

Do you stand with the Ukrainian government or do you stand with the Ukrainian people? Yeah, because they've molested the phrase I stand with Ukraine. Yeah. So you better pick which one you stand with because Zelensky is currently not representing the Ukrainian people. Yeah, yeah. No it's it it's true. And I think I think that setting in I think people are realizing it.

All right. 927 Newstalk 1078285421079. If you'd like to reach us on the Stones Automotive Group calling text line back up after this, okay? Trudeau says he will be talking to Trump in the coming days. Yeah, you're going to fold. Okay, so we had an interesting text. It's a copy and paste of a person who is shooting a documentary in Ukraine.

I, I quickly scanned it. It's kind of interesting. Where'd it go? Hold please. Water mean. So this person is saying they feel like this, person, the person who wrote this is suffering from Trump. Trump derangement syndrome. It could I also look this person up and they're a documentary maker. I think they also might be watching their bottom line.

They're trying to make a documentary. And if it if the documentary or if it is shown that Zelensky is a traitor, it screws up their documentary. Yeah. Okay. So you got to keep that in mind. Okay. I will give some allowance for the very first point. The first point is Zelensky showed up in military fatigues, as he has done at every international meeting since day one of the 2022 Russian invasion, the second Russian invasion of Ukraine since 2014, to show his solidarity with Ukrainian soldiers, risking their lives to defend Ukraine and to emphasize he is the leader of the country at war.

Okay, I'll give you that. It doesn't excuse his arrogant attitude. Yeah, we can have a conversation about what he wore. I don't think he should do that. I think he should show some respect, especially to people who have given him so much. But I have far more problem with his attitude than I do with his clothing. Yeah. Far more.

Well, the clothing could be a cultural, you know, I don't. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'll give them point one. We can we could have a conversation about .1.2 and point three and point three is Holy cow. But point two is Zelensky is not a dictator and he is not an unpopular leader. Yeah. He didn't hold an election. How do we know if he's unpopular?

You're right. Cancel the election. I don't even need to go on and read it. And if you're popular, why would you cancel the election? Yeah, you. If the people are really supporting you, like the rest of the point makes, he should have been able to hold an election easily. Were they saying that because it's a war torn country, they didn't know if logistically they could carry out a fair election?

Is that why you can't? I have no idea. But if you're really that popular, you shouldn't had a problem. Yeah. Okay. And then point three, which is so long but it says Ukraine and Zelensky doesn't. Ukraine. Angela he doesn't have to thank the US or Trump the US and Trump need to thank Ukraine and Zelensky okay okay. Well the US has funded the entire war.

So I think it's perfectly this is the attitude that has gotten us to the point where at yeah, I don't even I don't even need to go on and read. There's two very long paragraphs after that. Yeah, I saw it. I just I'm like, yeah, if you.

931 on Newstalk 1078 Neil Larson and Julie Mason. (208) 542-1079 is the number. If you'd like to reach us on the program today, we'd love to hear from you. Every single Democrat, every single one in the Senate is opposing fairness. And for women and girls in sports. Let that sink in every lie they could not a single Democrat would vote to defend your daughters and your sisters to it when they, when they play sports or you when they, when you play in sports.

Yeah. So the breakdown right now is 5347. Two senators from missing I don't know which two. So 45 Democrat senators who were in attendance for that, special vote voted against protecting women in sports like they they're not representing their people. This is a this is a solid, solid majority of people. Somewhere near 80% believe this is this is gone way too far.

So that that is near consensus level like that. That is that's an issue that ought to get nearly every vote. It should just be settled and done. It ought to be near unanimous. It I mean if you have some member of Congress that has a trans child or, you know, maybe there's a personal reason, but for the most part this ought to be a near unanimous vote.

But the Democrats I think they maybe they feel challenged to just completely decimate their brand, I guess, like empty the bank account fully, hey, who's going to go again? See, I would ask someone from a very moderate area that's a Democrat who's gonna call against you when you vote for this, and you're no one. No one's going to do anything.

No, you you were given marching orders to vote against this. That's it. By who? I don't know, I don't, I don't I don't know if Schumer sends out an email and says, you better not. Okay. But Schumer I mean your job is to be electable. Like you can't you can't function in a way if you want to have political power and do good with it, you have to prioritize electability.

I people hear me say that and they think I'm taking it off. They've oh that's icky. That's a that's not icky at all. If you can't get elected, you can't do any good for your for your constituents or for your people in your district. And I'm really sorry, I, I think I just spit on you. It's okay. Yeah.

I you you spit on me. Yeah. So, Soledad, but your job is to we use the term political power, and we have this instant negative connotation. And I'm here to tell you political power can be a good thing. It's like electricity. It can electrocute you. It can kill you. It can do terrible things. It can also save your life.

It can be a defibrillator when it's used correctly. Yes. It doesn't have to be an electric chair. It can be a defibrillator. So I look at political power that way. And if you function in a way that makes yourself unelectable, you're not any good to anybody, at least in a I mean, you are to your mom, you know, like you're.

Yeah, but. But what? Your position. Yeah. In your position. So, you know, you can you can cling to your precious agenda if you want. But if, if by clinging so closely to it, you make yourself unelectable. You've sacrificed all that. And so yeah, I, I feel like the Democrats, but I don't know if they're clinging to it because they I don't know why.

I don't know what they get out of this. I don't know what the benefit of, of this vote is either. I also I just can't have it shoved down my throat any more about the tolerance of that party. They think they're the most tolerant. They think they're the most inclusive. They were the inventors of Dei that is now being bombed by the Trump admin.

Castration via Elon Musk. It is not inclusive for a young man to pretend to be a woman and destroy the competition in a track and field competition last week. Yeah, he jumped and exceeded the the best female jump by eight feet. Eight feet. All of the other girls were probably within inches of each other. Yeah, I and I.

That is not inclusivity. You've stolen the opportunity for a trophy from. Well, overall cumulatively, millions of girls, but every other opponent and not absolutely in that particular competition. Every other opponent has zero opportunity to win. But yet they think that's inclusive. It's tolerant. It's inclusive. It's we're recognizing no you're not, you're destroying. Look we're we're never going to, to cave on this.

We're never going to agree to it. Yeah. It would be like trying to convince us that two plus two equals nine. It isn't going to happen. And I you know what I like? The needle was moving for a while toward irrationality on this issue. I think the needle's moving the other way. I think it's it's a nut because enough politicians and enough powerful people are losing everything at this altar.

And apparently November 5th wasn't quite painful enough for them. But in the in the coming years, it they're going to keep losing elections if they continue to go down this road. And at some point they'll realize we've got to abandon this all. They keep doing it. This is just a cultural side note. They ran an Oscar celebration on Sunday night.

That was down. How many percentage points did I tell you? 18. 17? Something like that. Yeah. We never know. The movies that are when that. When nobody watches them. Yeah, I, I saw a clip of the winning movie. Very pornographic. It's them believing that they are actually including everybody. You're actually creating a really tight, toxic circle that nobody wants to be a part of.

Yeah, that's not inclusion. Well, what's interesting to you? You said 18 million people watched, which that's down a lot. That sounds like a lot. It's really not a lot. 18 million people. I want to know which 18 million people what they look. This celebrity class thinks you are the filthy peasants. Yeah. They don't they don't like you.

They don't care about you. Why would you watch them I don't know, I don't know, I didn't, you didn't, I didn't know. Yeah. Yeah. For me Oscar is still that Sesame Street monster that lives in the trash can that somehow lovable even though he lives in a trash can. Yeah. Somehow. Yeah, yeah. Was that Oscar? Oscar the Grouch?

Because the grouch. Yeah. Who was your favorite Sesame Street character? Cookie monster. You never got frustrated that he wasted all those cookies, that they just broke into crumbs and did not get eaten, because at a very young age, I recognized he has no mechanism to actually swallow those cookies. That's why the pieces have to go flying out the side.

But I knew if Cookie Monster could swallow the cookies, he would. He would. I did like Cookie Monster. I'm a fan. Yeah, we didn't have Elmo when we were little. I was a little terrified of Snuffleupagus. Me too. I didn't know what he was, and I kind of scared me. I had mixed feelings about Big Bird. Oh.

Did you like. I liked Big Bird, but I also recognize I can't think of any bird that actually looks like Big Bird. Yeah, so it was like the shaped like it? Yeah, it was okay. It didn't really make sense to me in your brain. Yeah. Bert and Ernie were fine with me. I didn't get creeped out by them or anything, but I do remember thinking early on.

Yeah, that Bert wasn't a very good friend. He's not nice to Ernie. And I remember thinking, I don't I wouldn't want a friend like Bert. Why are they friends? Like it didn't make sense in my brain. Yeah. That's true. He was really boss. Yeah, he was mean to Ernie. Okay, so can we go down the conspiracy rabbit hole for just a minute?

Some people say that Bert and Ernie were a soft introduction to acceptance of homosexual lifestyle. Like they weren't, like there wasn't anything overtly sexual about it. But here you have two guys. They were roommates. They slept in the same bedroom. They each had separate beds, but they never had girlfriends. They never know whether characters were interacting and address the same.

So they could be twins, you know, like, it was just. And, you know, looking back, I didn't. I mean, when you're a kid, that stuff doesn't register. You know, they were just two guys that were always together. But like, in retrospect, yeah, I think there probably was some who they were. Yeah, I'm sure they were trying to introduce that a little bit.

Yeah. Like they couldn't push the envelope too far, but guess what. Let's put it in. Let's place things at least what we can. Yeah. And get away with. Yeah. So we're there I'm trying to think did you have any heterosexual relationships on Sesame Street? Like romantic heterosexual relationships? I mean, you had Miss Piggy and and Kermit who had a thing, but that was cross-species, so that was weird.

Pigs and frogs. Don't, you know, like each other, but whatever. But did was there any any other I don't know, the people who owned the grocery store. Was there a man and a woman that owned that grocery store? I don't I pay attention to the humans. I didn't pay enough attention to remember them either, or who was with whom.

As far as humans. Other than that, I'm thinking about the characters. I don't think so. I think that was probably the the closest relationship. Well, isn't it the only relationship where we we really saw the inside of their house? I think so, yeah. Because you don't see the inside of Count Dracula's house. Yeah. You don't see, you know, that, Oscar the Grouch lives in a trash can.

But did we go down into his trash can? No, I don't think so. See? See the inside of his house? I always wondered what did it look like down there? How dirty was it? Yeah. How far down did it go? Because there was sure a lot of stuff that came out flying out of there. Yeah, yeah. So Bert and Ernie might have been the only house you ever saw, which then would give credit or or validity to your, that they were trying to imply.

Hey, these two lived together. Yeah. Yeah. That's maybe. And you had one that was more dominant than the other like that and kind of abusive. That's true. Say yeah it's it's true. All right. 940 (328) 542-1079. It's the stones automotive group. Colin Text Line. We'll be back after this. Okay. The shop owners are married. Louis and Maria, I think is what the text line is saying.

That they had a baby. Yeah. Someone said on one episode of Bert and Ernie, they showed their bedroom and they had two single beds, but I. I thought of them as brothers. I think that's a very common thought process for a five year old kid. Yeah, I think he would go there pretty quickly. As a five year old kid, I don't know what I thought of their mouse.

I do believe I thought they were friends. I just remember being bothered by how mean Bert was. Yeah, yeah, he was mean. Someone said, Julie reminds me of Neil. What's that text about? Something we're talking about, I'm sure. Hey, Julie, that reminds me of Neil is what I think they're trying to say. They just didn't put in that.

That or a comma. Hey, Julie reminds me of Neil. Okay, I don't know what I did, though. That or said or I don't know. Oh, good. The person made the the banana peanut butter oatmeal cookies for their grandson yesterday. Craig Wheat I made cookies last night. I had college students from BYU. I at my house and we we.

How did that go? Very good. Good. So I made cookies and I made sure they were a little bit bigger than what I usually make. And then Little Debbie's has an ice cream line now, and they come in the Ben and Jerry's size cartons. Yeah. Because I don't want to support Ben and Jerry's. Yeah. So I bought the little Debbie's, and then you just slice through the carton, which makes a perfect circle.

Yeah. That's smart. And you put it between two cookies. And then I had a couple of plates, like four plates of different things. They could roll the side of the ice cream sandwich in. So it made them an ice cream sandwich with my cookies. And then the little Debbie's flavors were like there was a nutter Butter flavor or Nutter whatever those, those Little Debbie snacks are.

Yeah. There was a birthday cake flavor. There was an oatmeal cream pie flavor or cosmic brownie flavor. There was one more I can't remember, but they loved them. That's good. So it turned out good. Great, great, great. Way to kick off Fat Tuesday. Yeah, there we go. So Westwood One did announce who they're putting in Bon Gino's slot.

Oh, who? Tell me if this name's familiar Vince Coughlin's, He's a host. I've heard him. I believe, fill in for a national host here and there. And he's out of WMal in Washington. Gifted host, but not a household name, so. Okay, hopefully it's a good move for him. Yeah, I do too. I there's room for more. Yeah there's room.

So I hope he does. Well yeah he he's tight end I think to the Daily Caller I want to love the Daily Caller man it's a frustrating website. Lemon Rumble yeah go do your thing. Let me know when you get a fix. So he's filled in for Dan Bongino. He has something called the Vince Podcast. Vince Quigley, how do you spell it?

Vince Coughlin ease Coughlin SC pulled right up okay. Gosh, he doesn't even look familiar. Yeah I haven't looked young, though. That'll play well yeah, I think so. Part of the rising generation of conservatives. Good for him. It was interesting. One of the apartments that came from BYU Idaho last night. It was a group of missionaries that served in Richmond, Virginia together and now they're roommates.

Oh cool. So many stories. Yeah, I'll bet. All right. We're back now. It's 949 on Newstalk 107. I, Neil Larson along with Julie Mason. And we're going to jump right to the phones. Caller. Welcome to the program. Hi. Listening to Justin Trudeau talk about the tough fight he's going to take to Donald Trump on a tariff war. Sounded like a midget talking about how he was going to take a tough fight in the high jump against Harvey.

Sotomayor, a six foot four Cuban who jumped a shade over eight feet. Yeah, this will be fun to watch. Like I said, I think he caves by this time next week. Probably. Yeah, by. All right. Thank you for the great point. Yeah. Can you say that word? I sure I don't know anymore, but you and I had this conversation off air about an hour ago.

Yeah. It's changing. It is changing it. It the pendulum is shifting back. You can say things that three years ago would have gotten. You can't. I'm going to share this not for its potential comedic value, but it was a comedy routine. I saw where it was a a reel or a TikTok or something. And this guy is saying, you know what?

I think it's so racist and inaccurate to suggest that female pilots can't fly female pilots can fly. They just can't land. And like, now notice Julie's the one laughing. I'm not. I'm only sharing it as an example of the kind of humor that we're seeing, that is becoming more acceptable mainstream. Now, here's the thing. This is what's a little weird about it.

I've seen humor that I am offended by, like a comedy routine, and I'm like, I'm so happy it's back. Yeah, I don't care that I'm offended. Hey, I we need to for a while, the margins of what you could and couldn't say got so narrow. I remember Julie, there was a couple of years there. I genuinely worried about our jobs and about somebody out there plucking the wrong sentence or the wrong syllable or the wrong word and and trying to cancel the show.

I don't feel that fear now on, on a daily basis. And, and so I think people are just like, we're sick of that. We're sick of the cancel culture. Sometimes people say things you don't like. Get over it. Right. So this just happened last weekend. Not the weekend that just happened, but the weekend prior. So BYU in men's basketball was playing Arizona.

And a chant that led them off the floor was F the Mormons. Yeah. Did you get offended by that? Well, what do you mean, like like I, I just looked at it my, I, my very first reaction was, well, I wasn't very creative. Like I am not going to take personal offense. They can say whatever they want to and I don't need to cancel Arizona because they said it.

No, I like I look at that and my reaction was, it tells me everything about the kind of people they are. Yeah, that was my reaction. Arizona State or was it Arizona? They they apologize guys. You know, which whatever they don't want that be didn't need their apology either. Yeah I, I didn't either. But they had to give it because.

Yeah. You know there there are still people that do get offended. So that that brings on another question, because there was a similar story out of Oregon a couple of years ago where BYU was playing. I think it was a football game and a chant started that was pretty offensive, and Oregon had to apologize. I'd like us to up our discourse.

I would like us to to not have to worry about hearing an f the Mormons chant in an arena where BYU is playing, or bleep the Catholics or whatever. Yes, but I don't want to create a better culture out of this abject fear of cancellation. I want to create a better culture because people know that's just the right thing to do.

I want to create a culture to where the the they look at it and they go. They just have a thought process of, well, this is a game and we should actually win on the on the court or on the field. And this is just stupid. Like I would hope their intelligence level would go as set a step higher.

Yeah. And they just wouldn't become part of that. Now there's probably a lot of alcohol on board with some of these kids, especially at the football games. Yeah. So you're asking for a lot here with an underdeveloped brain that is then attacked by alcohol. However, I would love for just the intelligence level to go up. And that's true.

Get more creative. Stop being an idiot. That's what I want. If you're going to insult me, at least be creative. Yeah. All right, we'll be back. We'll wrap it up after this on Newstalk 1079. Okay. Debra, I'm sorry about your granddaughter. She said her granddaughter got in an accident yesterday. Oh, how how are things? How? She's okay.

Oh. She's okay. Okay. Cut her face. Okay. Someone in the text said that word when the caller referenced for a short person is like the N-word. I don't think it's doesn't carry that punch, so I'm not defending it, but I don't think it carries the same. Don't be morons. What do you think that means? Also, somebody told us, it's back on in Pocatello.

Oh, maybe, my wife got it figured out. Yeah, maybe Marv got there and did his thing. Did you see the meme about the Ukraine flag? Yeah, I just finished reading. What kind of an ugly society kind of is. I don't disagree with a meme, but now who said we're back on because we just got a text saying, Will you be on the air soon in Pocatello?

Don't be morons. The text above it that oh, that was March 3rd. So it came back on yesterday, then went back down. I thought that had just come in. Yeah, okay. Okay.

So who threw. Oh, I am your father for a more a fino. I'll tell you guys this. I was in the airport in Arizona. I was staying away from people, and I took a picture of my two pilots and sent them to Neil, and I said, no, die on my Allegiant flight because it was two alpha males who also chose to be away from people.

So it was just us three sitting in a portion of the airport by ourselves. It's 957 on Newstalk 107 nine. Quick reminder for you, we will carry President Donald J. Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress tonight. That'll start right smack dab 7 p.m. tonight, and we'll carry whatever coverage we have for about two hours. That should be enough for Trump speech plus the analysis.

Now, we know you're probably going to watch it on TV or the internet, but if you're out and about and you're driving and you can't get it any other way, good way to get it now or just get it on the radio anyway. Oh, yeah. Or the app. Yes, the app. And, Julie and I will have full recapping coverage tomorrow.

Do we have an interview tomorrow to Senator Crapo to we have Senator Crapo at 730. And then at 835, we're going to be joined by Representative Brant Crane. Okay. He's been very active this session. Sorry. We have a lot to talk with Representative Crane about. Everyone. Have a wonderful day. Mark Lee VanCamp and Robbins is coming up next.

And Julie and I will be back tomorrow. And be sure and join us on Facebook Live as well by texting live to (285) 421-0079 for our post-show.