4.24.2025 -- NLS -- Trump’s Coalition, AI Classrooms & Wendy Horman’s Fight

On this episode with Neal and Julie, the conversation dives into the political and cultural divides shaping America today. They explore how internal party battles are emerging as some figures push to primary incumbents, risking long-term consequences if they can’t deliver results. Neal and Julie reflect on the transformation of the Democratic Party and how disillusioned working-class voters, once Clinton supporters, now feel more at home in the Republican fold—largely due to Trump’s appeal.

They scrutinize how media like 60 Minutes edits interviews to favor Democrats, and express frustration over educational content and policy. From controversial books in elementary schools to debates over school choice and tax credit-funded private education, they emphasize that the focus should remain on what’s best for the child. Julie shares personal insights from her experience as a parent and educator, calling for efficiency, accountability, and openness to innovation—like AI in classrooms—while resisting bureaucratic roadblocks.

This episode is packed with critiques of the public school system, calls for parent-teacher partnership, and a defense of giving families more educational options.

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Transcript

You want to show us? The decision of whether to run for reelection has not been easy. I truly love the job of being United States Senator. But in my heart, I know it's time to pass the torch. So I'm announcing today that I will not be seeking reelection at the end of my term. All right. Not really sure why I needed the piano music there, but, Dick Durbin announcing yesterday that he's leaving Congress.

He's been in the Senate for about 30 years. And I just want all of my listeners to know I am here for you as you make your journey through the trauma of Dick Durbin retiring from the US Senate. We are here. You're probably not going to find this level of selfishness on any other radio station or in any other venue, but we are here for you to be your support group as you face the reality of Dick Durbin not being in the Senate after this year.

In fact, maybe we might even do a flagpole, a therapeutic flagpole, of course, where we ask you, on a scale of 1 to 10, how devastated are you that Dick Durbin is, is leaving the Senate now from a political standpoint? I don't want to get to for clamped here. So I'm distracting myself with other political analysis.

But, that seat is safe. It's going to be for them. It's it's likely just going to stay in Democrat hands so it doesn't really shift the power at all. But the fact that Durbin is leaving, I mean, he is a guy that has been there for ever. And it makes me wonder if this is well, there's a there's another controversy going on with David Hogg.

He's one of these young wacko voices in the Democrat Party. You place him right in there with Jasmine Crockett. AOC seems almost sane compared to him. And they there's now revolt. He's like in the leadership of the National Democrat Party. And they want to oust him because he is openly calling to primary incumbents, which will tell you, I, I feel like that might be an indication of his own intelligence level.

Like you can primary incumbents, but you better be able to deliver the goods on getting them out, because if they win and you've opposed them, you've got a problem on your hands down the road. So now they're trying to get rid of David Hogg. And I got to tell you, I can't make enough popcorn to sit and enjoy what's happening in the Democrat Party right now.

It has been a thrill and a pleasure. It has been an exquisite spectacle for those of us who are Republicans watching what is happening on the Democrat side. I know it's not very Christian. I know it is schadenfreude to see what's happening on the Democrat Party, but it couldn't happen to a better party. It couldn't happen to a better party that spent four years gaslighting us about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and about our kids and about their genders and about, I mean, the list can go on and on and on, and they are now getting their just desserts, and they have absolutely no idea what to do with themselves.

This is Scott Jennings, who spoke the truth on CNN, one of the few truth tellers on CNN. And here's what he had to say. My dad, working class guy, worked in a factory, was a garbage man for a while, was the biggest Clinton guy I knew in the 90s. He was the first guy to tell me Donald Trump was going to be the next president, United States.

And of course, I told him he was full of it, and I was wrong, and he was right. And I think about that all the time, because all those Clinton guys that you're talking about, those working class guys from the 90s, they're all Trump guys now. And that's also explain some of the evolution of the Republican platform. But that base of the party is gone.

Okay, Scott, we all know it over on this side. I don't think they've absorbed it on that side. We don't need to tell them. Now here I am, you know, relaying it on my radio show. So, you know, I, I guess I'm part of the, amplification of the, of this message, but it's really true. If you want to look at the analysis, this is a very important part of traditionally the Democrat Party, the blue collar union or union ish type workers in America that typically will vote Democrat.

But when in 1980 and then again in 84, you had Ronald Reagan winning those people over because Jimmy Carter was that bad economically. Inflation was terrible, fuel prices were terrible. You had foreign policy issues. You had all sorts of things happening and not happening with Jimmy Carter. That that group said, we're migrating. We're placing our bets on a different horse.

Well, you had, you know, Ronald Reagan served them pretty, pretty darn well. And then, of course, George H.W. Bush came in, was the president was more of an elitist. He wasn't quite the everyman that Ronald Reagan was. And by the time Bill Clinton rolled around, that core of people had migrated back to the Democrat Party because Bill Clinton, middle class, blue collar.

Well, he was a lot of things. But he he did represent that demographic fairly well. He had a message that resonated with them. And the Democrats won them back over, and they enjoyed that for a few years. And, really quite a few. We went back to Bush, Obama. Sort of did not offend them. So he didn't totally lose them.

But then you get Joe Biden again, an economic loser, a cultural loser, and you have the working class again going, this is a party that has made a beeline for the blue hair and the gender bending and the transgender athletes and, all this stuff, it just complete ridiculous, approach to politics. And they said, we're done. And the stars aligned because Trump, even though he's a billionaire, he's never not been poor.

Or no, he's never not been very wealthy. Excuse me, I misspoke. He, he he is always been from the economic upper crust, but he gets the working man, and he can, And woman don't misunderstand here. And he is able to relay, a message to them that resonates. He's won them back over. Now that they're over here, keep him.

Keep them. If we can keep them for another presidential cycle or two. And I'll tell you, I think JD Vance is the guy that could do this because he's. He came from, lower class roots. He came from blue collar roots. And I think that he's the kind of guy that makes that group that will migrate and swing like a pendulum sometimes, feel welcome in the Republican Party.

So, let's let's keep that. Speaking of Trump, he's just absolutely knocking it out of the park. I got to tell you, his superpower is he does not care. What if you. This is a actually good lesson for your own personal life. If you want to give someone power, care what they think, and sometimes we do want to empower people.

People we like, we want to empower them. And when we want to empower them, one of the ways we empower them is we care what they think. The same thing is true for your political enemies. When you care what they think, you empower them. And most people, this is bipartisan criticism. Care what the media thinks of them and says about them.

So if you live in a high profile situation and environment, you're a politician, you're a U.S. senator, Congressman, whatever. Then the media is going to be talking about you. You empower them when you care what they think. And Trump doesn't. In fact, Trump right now is suing CBS for $20 billion with a B billion dollars because they engaged, in my humble opinion, in election interference when they selectively edited Kamala Harris's answer to a question.

Her actual answer was clunky, and it was cumbersome. It was word salad, at least. The immediate answer was, and then a part of the answer later was better. It was more concise, and they actually cut out the clunky, cumbersome word salad part. And then they used the the better answer. I don't know if it was stellar, but it certainly was better than the part that they cut out, which look, media outlets have to do this all the time.

They have to go through and edit things for length. But it seems like there's a trend and a pattern with 60 minutes where they are editing in a way to make the Democrats look better than the answers they actually gave or the words they actually said. And then the opposite of true for the for the Republicans. Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a tiresome battle.

And now CBS news, whose parent company is Paramount, is on the cusp of a merger with a company called Skydance. And they're worried that this lawsuit that Trump is filing against them is going to jeopardize the merger. So the scuttlebutt is that they are encouraging 60 minutes and CBS news to settle with Trump. No, they're he's not going to get $20 billion, but he might get a few million or a few hundred million, enough that he can claim victory in this.

They don't want to jeopardize the merger over this. But then you have the CBS news crew that has now become a liability on the brand of CBS news and the economic viability and they're they're basically, this guy that ran CB Bill, what's his face? He's being pushed out and and leaving rather than apologizing and changing how they do things.

He says he's leaving, which, okay, decisions have to be made. Right? Well, everybody is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth inside CBS news. And I'm thinking about this. Donald Trump is winning, even if he doesn't ever get a dime from CBS news or 60 minutes. He is revealing their lack of character and their lack of journalistic integrity, and they're collapsing.

And people are wondering, could this be the end of CBS News in Ariz? Scuse me, the end of 60 minutes, which used to be their goal. It used to be that 60 minutes was the the shining gem of CBS news. And you could watch it. You could trust it. They actually had journalistic integrity. But now you have the selective editing of Kamala Harris to make her look smarter than she is, more concise than she is.

You have Lesley Stahl, who is showing deference toward Hamas. Well, they maybe they didn't feed you because they ran out of food. Not that they were trying to starve you. They just ran out of food. Like that's how broken these people are, that Hamas who parachuted in and killed hundreds upon hundreds of innocent Israelis. That's who Lesley Stahl wants to try and find the benefit of the doubt for.

It's insane. And yet, here they are, Trump deranged, their own hatred, and they are offering what is in the media business and in the news business. It is priceless. It is invaluable. Your credibility, the trust that you have with listeners and they have committed enough of these journal listed sins. Now nobody trusts them anymore. And the the the brand is getting less and less viable as as time goes on.

And now not just viable, they are a liability because Donald Trump's making a claim in part of Jake Tapper talked all about it. We're not going to go too deep into the weeds on this. But Jake Tapper talked about how legal experts believe that Trump's lawsuit is without merit, that that's why you have the lawsuit. That's why you have a judge.

That's why you might have a jury in a civil case. They're the ones that determine whether or not something has legal merit, not some anti-Trump lawyer that you scrounged up to do an interview or to act as a source. Which, by the way, Tapper didn't even name who these legal experts are. It reminds me, when you hear reporting about the white House and they say, well, senior white House officials or a person close to the white House, which could be the parking attendant, I mean, it, they never name names anymore so they can make that claim.

And it sounds like all legal experts have said that. Well, if legal experts have said that, then it must be true. Well, we'll find out. I will say not to back up. Jake Tapper and his claim. I don't see any scenario where Donald Trump gets 20 billion, but Donald Trump has this way of forcing the an issue or forcing a process with a somewhat ridiculous starting point, and it sets a ball in motion, and the ball being in motion becomes a very, very important thing.

It's what they hate about Trump. He does with this. With tariffs, everybody's running around, the sky is falling and everyone's chicken, chicken little running around over the tariffs like you don't. Are you slow learner Donald Trump always starts with a ridiculous starting point. That's scary to a lot of people. Yeah $20 billion is scary. That I would imagine.

I don't even know if CBS news is worth $20 billion. They may have to cry poverty if they were to get that, that, judgment against them. He's not going to get the 20 billion. But guess what everyone's talking about now getting rid of 60 minutes, which sadly for the last few years have they've just largely hated on conservatives.

And they really they don't deserve the credibility that CBS news took decades to build. They're in their in a structure they don't deserve to be in. Now, I'm not saying every single journalist there, is corrupt and wrong, but there's enough there that it makes you go, no, okay. We're not getting from them what we used to get from them.

So again, this is such an I try to wrap my mind around this quite frequently at the historic sea change that we are watching in American politics today. Some people, because things are changing and they are that the the DNA. And I don't mean the DNA of our republic. I think if anything that's getting restored, but the DNA of our corrupt political system is being changed dramatically.

Here's, al here's another example of this. Al Gore. I didn't even know he was still bobbling around. But I will say before I play this clip, I think al Gore is now talking much faster than he used to. And it might be. What was that movie, the curious, the Benjamin Button movie where they age in reverse? I think al Gore, who used to talk like this, I think he he's actually speeding up.

He might be Benjamin Button, but listen, we've already seen by the way, how populist authoritarian leaders have used migrants as scapegoats and have fanned the fires of xenophobia to fuel their own rise to power and power seeking is what this is all about. Our Constitution, written by our founders, is intended to protect us against a threat identical to Donald Trump, someone who seeks power at all costs to get more power.

Okay. It might be a theatrical device to yell into the microphone with a guttural tone. And when you do that, you can speak lies. You can speak mistruths. And if you do it with enough of that, people will believe you. In fact, he goes on and he sort of carefully said, I don't know. There's there's nothing that actually is identical to Hitler.

However, we can learn some things from Hitler. And he he talks, he makes some comparisons to Trump and Hitler. Yeah. And I thought, well, that's fascinating because if you listen and I was actually going to pull some audio of Hitler speaking, of course it's in German. So we wouldn't understand it unless you speak German. But sort of that pacing, that guttural tone, that was a rhetorical device that Hitler, used to use.

And no, I'm not saying that, that what's his face? Al Gore is Hitler. What I am saying, though. Oh. And and one point on this before I go to a break is that, al Gore, you need to get caught up. That was about four false narratives ago. And, yeah, the Democrats would still like to compare Trump to Hitler.

It's just it wasn't working, so they had to move on to something else. All right, quick break. It's 827 on Newstalk 179. Welcome back. It's, 832 on Newstalk 179. That felt like that. I don't yeah there you go. The rim shot. Yeah. How are you Julie I'm good. How are you? I'm good. Good. Am I off base thinking that al Gore sounded a little bit like Hitler in his speech?

Oh, no. No, I think you're okay. Yeah, yeah, I'm talking much faster, I would agree. Yeah. It's it's I think he has been coached. I think somebody said, okay, al, you can talk and you can give speeches. You are a former vice president. Yeah. And you did win the popular vote in 2000, but you lost the presidency like Hillary Clinton.

Rub rub, rub rub. Salt knife wound. Rub it in. It's like a wash. Rinse, repeat. Yeah. Salt wound rub. Yeah, but you might be a little more effective, al, if you talk a little faster, like, you don't have to be Ben Shapiro. But you really can't be. What's his name? From Kentucky. The turtle. Oh, you know, w what was his name.

I've already forgotten he's still in Congress Mitch McConnell. McConnell. Yes. Like why you how are you getting that name. Oh I don't know why. Okay. Anyway, so, but, you can't talk that slow and it's 833. You're right. You know what? We're just going to we're going to wait till he calls in. So, he's on zoom right now.

Oh, he is okay. Yeah, I did all right. It's good times. Good times here in studio four. I know I need to set reminders on my phone because, yeah, I was waiting for it to go somewhere. I'm like, oh, he's going to tie this up. And then I'm like, no, we're not, we're not. So like, you get, you get lost in a certain direction and that's what happens.

But, he, we're talking about who is on zoom is, Steve Yates. Yes. Our Chinese and Taiwan expert. So. And, I believe we have him right now spared the city. Oh, hold on one second. I'll fix this. And left. And. Okay, there we go. Steve. Steve Yates, can you hear us? Right again. Thank you. You're probably embarrassed to be a part of this crap show this morning, so,

No. It's go. Well, we're actually really excited to have you on this morning. How are things doing? Well, thank you very much. It's a beautiful day in the nation's capital. And, you know, nothing happening here. Nothing to talk about. No, no, no, it's not a quiet, peaceful place. I mean, our primary reason for bringing you on today, Steve, was talk about China.

But I would love to get your take because you're you're in the nation's capital. You're you're in that bubble a lot. And, what is it like with with Trump in power, Republicans in power? What is just the overall feel of our of our country? Capital. Right. Well, I would confess to say, with the passing of age, I don't socialize around the capital the way I did when I was younger.

And, I, I could be guilty of, walking around in circles that, tend to agree with me because they don't have really the time or patience for people who have totally lost their mind about Trump and MAGA and the executive branch. But they definitely it's it's just an odd thing where you'll hear, you know, our heritage colleagues had an event last night that we went to to, get together, and it was sort of the new conservative place to get together near Capitol Hill.

But all the staff at the place are basically DC people. So guess where leaks come from in Washington? It could be from your waiter, your maitre d, whoever. Is at your, your favorite conservative hangout. But in general, it's glorious to me to watch people freak out. I just wish that the the boundaries of, you know, sort of the level of mental health disorder would get a bit more under control.

And, and I say this with love because I'm related to some of these people who seem to believe everything MSNBC says. Well, yeah. And I you know, the latest episode talked about it earlier this morning. Dick Durbin announced yesterday that he is not going to seek reelection. He'll retire after this term. Meanwhile, there's another part of the Democrat Party with David Hogg, who is I don't know what his title is.

Oh my gosh. Yes. Yeah. And and they're trying to oust him now because he's openly calling for primary being the some incumbents which that that's not a that's not a terribly smart messaging. You know sometimes you may need to but you don't make it a public issue and and lead with that. And that's what he's doing. So the whole Democrat Party right now and I could cite other examples that we're all familiar with.

They're kind of in meltdown right now, and I don't really see a lot of order coming to that party on the horizon any time soon. Would you agree with that? I do, I think that though the sort of two different worlds that are coexisting at the moment is that the governing coalition that President Trump brought together is tackling some enormous and difficult and complicated things.

And, I think he's taking risks that are necessary. But we have to admit that are risks and might not work out, as we hope, because it relies on bad people being less bad and unreliable people being a little more reliable in other parts of the world. And so this big reset on tariffs and economic relationships is very, very important.

But it's digging out of a generational hole. And so we may have inflation, we may have a recession. We may have other kinds of things over the horizon that are the spinach that we have to eat. If we're going to get to the better landing place. I think President Trump has a clear vision for that. I think that's mission is necessary.

But when you go back to the tit for tat of media cycles on TV and, you know, people's anxieties, I think Main Street is going to be very well represented in what the Trump agenda is trying to do, but it's still going to be a hard adjustment that may affect some households. So there'll be risks going to the midterms.

We have a lot of people at the national level that are scared of their own shadow when it comes to if something changes in the markets, they don't take long term points of view. And the Democrats, they are in disarray, but they all can just take pot shots from the cheap seats on their media and wherever else.

That's the easy thing to do. It's always easier to tear down than to build up. And so those are the two different worlds. And I think Trump is in this for a legacy. And his vision for America, and the Democrats are just in it for power. And if you can pull people down and kind of pull yourself up by doing so, that's how they claw back in the midterms and think they've got a shot for 28.

But, my goodness, the people they're putting up as their standard bearers. I it's just hard to imagine they go anywhere with Flyover America. Yeah, yeah yeah. We couldn't agree more with that. So let's talk about those risks because we love to have conversations with you because of your expertise with Taiwan and China, and Taiwan is trying to strike a deal on these tariffs with the U.S., but it's taking some time.

I saw this morning that, Premier's proposing an additional $10 billion in order to help Taiwan bridge this time frame with the tariffs. What are you hearing from those that you know in Taiwan and and is are the U.S. and Taiwan close to a deal with these tariffs? Well, from what I can tell from the U.S. side, they they're they're fielding all of these offers right now, like in the dozens, and under normal circumstances, each of these negotiations might go on for a year or multiple years and sometimes multiple terms or administrations.

But these are not the traditional free trade agreements that have gone through the system. And in the initial early harvest, what they're looking at with Japan, Taiwan, India, maybe South Korea and some others are kind of framing principles that they'll get into agreement with the the pledge for movements on tariffs. And frankly, with some of these trade partners, tariffs are very, very low.

Anyway. And promise for manufacturing investment in America for manufacturing. And that's where Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and others have put up hundreds of billions of dollars in pledged, expanded manufacturing in the United States. They also play critical roles in deterring China and trying to avoid a broader conflict. And so we're pushing them to invest more.

They are, and that combination of helping, minimize American risk and expenditure on the national security side and maximize American economic benefit and rebalancing some of these trade and investment manufacturing relationships. That's where the rubber meets the road. But I think in the next two weeks, we should have an announcement that would be with Japan. And that will be the standard setter for Asia and other major economies.

Taiwan shouldn't be too far behind on it, but we still play this song and dance with Taiwan about are they a country or are they not a country? And frankly, that's bad for business. But, it's probably too hard for people to get over the, the mental relapses that they have entertained for the last generation. So we'll uphold the pretense that Taiwan doesn't exist as a country, but we're going to negotiate with a government that operates on its own with a currency of its own, and have them invest on their own with us.

So that's in train. It should happen. But, you know, we're in, times while they're going through all this, they also face unprecedented coercion from blockade like military exercises. And there's also coercive military and quasi military action against the Philippines, treaty ally of the United States. So all this is happening at once. Never has there been an administration that has taken on so many significant fronts at once.

Economic and national security in every major region. Steve, let's talk about China for for just a moment here. And in terms of the trade negotiations that the Trump administration is is trying to engage China. And what do you think that looks like in in the end, if they arrive at an agreement? Well, fundamentally, President Trump wants to find a more stable and sustainable, balance point with our economic and strategic relationships with China.

He wants to avoid a war. And sometimes when you explicitly say you want a war that allows aggressors to push you further because they think they have escalated escalatory dominance, and in some ways they do, because they might be willing to take risks and have costs that we would really rather avoid. But President Trump is also not seeking reelection.

He's governing for legacy. And I don't think he's interested in a bad deal. I don't think he's interested in something that would roll back poorly on alliances in which we've invested trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives to sustain. Why would we, why would he roll back on that? So, he wants to talk with XI Jinping.

There was a phone call with XI Jinping before the inauguration. He was happy to engage in sort of the preliminary exploration of where things would pick up from his last term. But since then, the United States has explicitly given China multiple opportunities to choose between negotiation and de-escalation or confrontation and escalation at every single point, Beijing is choosing escalation and confrontation.

So XI Jinping has refused to call President Trump, unlike every other world leader. After the major tariff announcements, he has continued to press Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan and others in national security ways. In the face of the demand that they stop fentanyl precursors, from flooding the United States markets by way of the cartels. They have refused to even talk about taking meaningful action.

And Trump wants meaningful action on that. And that's linked to 20% tariffs. You'd think that would be an easy thing for China to do because they're a dictatorship. They can stop this now. So I think unfortunately, while the president has goodwill to try to engage in a conversation that's good for rebalancing on America's behalf and maybe sustainable for China, China's leader hasn't been willing to play ball at all so far.

And so we're stuck. And we may remain stuck. Okay, there's so much hope for rice and that's what it feels like. I also wanted to say to you, Steve, if we cut back to the Taiwan, conversation, you know, it is really bizarre. You're entrenched in that, right? And we pay much more attention to what's happening on this continent here, our, and this country here.

But I, I don't even think of Taiwan as not a country. It is it is interesting that there is still this this tug of war between figuring out if Taiwan's a country or not, and that people continue to just, rely on the definition that China gives. Yeah. Well, you might be guilty of being a common sense American and shame on you for that.

And you like me every day you might be speaking English, which. Yeah, sometimes people who engage in these negotiations leave behind. I mean, actually, the the first fatal mistake in negotiating with a communist is to allow them to control your words. And that's basically the the trap that Henry Kissinger stepped into. He made a lot of concessions I didn't think were necessary at that time.

I was two years old when he was making those concession. But I was an expert at the time, I promise. But, these these things that we have said were meant to be able to talk past problems and contradictions in order to pursue bigger strategic objectives. The problem is the generations, since those strategic objectives have not been met, world trade is not better and more fair for Americans.

International security is not easier and more stable for us and our allies. And China has not become less aggressive and better reformed internally, etc., etc. so those bets failed. And part of those bets were using words like one China policy, which is English words that make no sense in English. I know Americans don't question how many Chinese there are.

And when they say reunification, well, in English that means you must have been unified at some point. And of course, the People's Republic of China has never been unified with Taiwan. You know, and if there is this division that you're threatening war over, that seems to imply in common sense that there's a division and somehow you you seek this divided entity to join you.

Well, then you must acknowledge that they have a government with which you need to negotiate, or there's a people you intend to kill and conquer. And so, they they've just pushed all these boundaries of common sense and our elected officials play along, even people that you would think are common sense. Conservatives, spout off these nonsensical things, and it gets in the way of real life economics, trade, energy security and dealing with national security.

And so, some countries are moving back. The Philippines just announced they will start pulling back some of the restrictions they put in place to deal with Taiwan. And Japan has been inching back towards normalcy in that regard. Oddly enough, even in the English language, Americans are late to that game. Steve, we just have a couple of more minutes here.

Before we we have to let you go, but, I two, I guess two really quick things on on the Taiwan issue. I think what Julie said was really spot on. I think in a lot of people's minds, you have all the features of Taiwan being an independent country, but we're hampered to consider it that diplomatically for a lot of different reasons.

If you were directly advising the president of the United States, and we know Donald Trump likes to do big, bold things, the Abraham Accords is a good example, wiping out ISIS. I mean, there he's done big, bold things before. Would you advise him to take a big, bold step and recognize Taiwan as an independent and sovereign nation? Or or do you look at it and say that would jeopardize too much of what we're trying to accomplish in other areas, to move forward with that step?

Well, there's a couple of truisms that have crossed my ears over the years. And one was, you can't be more Catholic than the Pope. And in this regard, if the elected leader of Taiwan is not asking for that, why would we be pushing for it? And so, with regard to just formal diplomatic relations, if the elected president of Taiwan isn't pushing for asking for, then maybe we don't need to cross that bridge at this point.

The other is dance with the date that brung you. And so what that means in diplomatic terms, is our most important allies in the region, in this case, Japan. This the second largest economy after America. If you exclude communist China, but also a neighbor and formal colonial power over Taiwan, if we go as far as they are willing to go in staying together with us to extend deterrence, prosperity and things that isn't Abraham accord like approach, but to call Taiwan Taiwan doesn't mean you've called it an independent country.

You're just using the name that's proper for them. And to deal government to government also doesn't mean you've established diplomatic relations. We have had government conversations with the Palestinian authorities and they're not a, legitimate country, you know, and so, just speak truth, speak simply. And for President Trump, be yourself. When have you ever let people control your words, speak your truth as you understand it, as best any American president has to the every man and let the Chinese figure out how they want it translated into their language.

Okay, Steve, give us your hottest two minutes about China and the Panama Canal. Well, I agree very much with a lot of the the statements the administration has made. We paid. We built it. Carter made a mistake that was unnecessary. And the Chinese have, through private sector companies, had an immense strategic impact on it. And at a time when we faced potential crisis with China, you can't afford to have that risk in our hemisphere.

And so I, I really strongly support, Secretary Rubio and Secretary heads, us and others that have reinvigorated engagement in this hemisphere and have pushed for American influence, investment and allied control of the canal. It also has to stop the flow of illegal people that went through the Darien Gap. But the president did what he promised. And border crossings are at an historic low now, and it gives us an opportunity to solidify an alternative path to peace and prosperity in this hemisphere.

I say seize it while we've got the opportunity, and that will minimize Chinese malign influences in our hemisphere. Okay, we'll leave it at that. Julie. Anything else? I know? Just if you want to give us an an update on what you've been working on with your position, Steve. Well, folks are more than welcome to check out the Heritage foundation@heritage.org.

It's where I'm currently a senior research fellow for China National Security. And if they would like my plate and occasional hot takes on X, they can follow me at Yates coms. But I hope everyone in East Idaho are doing wonderful. I miss friends and family that are out there from time to time. But I keep updated on the temperate temperature differential between Idaho Falls and DC and Florida from time to time.

Do it. Steve. Do they still have the radio studio at heritage? They do that well. They have a big, glorious, the best ever studio. So if you ever come here, there's a massive television, podcasting and radio studio facility. That is a joy to work with. It's one of the benefits of working here. It's really great. I have broadcasted from there their radio, studio there.

We should talk. We'd love to schedule a trip and do that. Be great. We could find lots of things to do in DC, so definitely we need to do that. Will make East Idaho great again here. Okay. Steve Yates, thank you so much. We really appreciate you joining us this morning. Take good care. All right. It's 854 on Newstalk 179.

All right I hope everyone has on their calendars Saturday night 6 to 10 p.m.. Be sure to stop by town and country gardens. It's called Illuminate the Night Band. The firefly Petunia a glow in the park. Glow in the dark. It could be in the park. You don't know. They're going to reveal that at Town and Country Gardens.

Julie. Yeah, we're going to talk to Rex tomorrow, 730. He's going to bring one of those petunias and he'll fill us all in on that event. You don't want to miss it. Go to my garden Wkyc.com to get all of the details. All right. It's 859, our two of the Neil Eisen Show coming up. I want to read this with.

But, you know, just as an example, my pronouns are like the weather. They change depending on how I feel. And that's okay because they're my words. Sometimes I use all the pronouns I can think of just as one example here he put his parents. Put it this way. Go ahead, Martha, and I think that this will be shocking to you.

It these would not be the books I would be reading as a classroom teacher to kids who are 4 to 6 years old. 907 good morning. It's our two underway. Neil Larson, Julie Mason and you, if you'd like to reach us on the, stones Automotive Group. Collin Text line, that number is (208) 542-1079. And we'd love to hear from you again, Julie.

An hour ago during the monologue, I offered this radio show up as trauma therapy for people upset over Dick Durbin's retirement announcement. And so far, no takers. I think they're good. I understood well, no, I think they're just not ready yet. Like they're they're in the throes of their agony right now. And I think at some point we will start to get some.

Okay. You keep waiting for that. I'm not going to wait. Okay. All right. Yeah. You played that clip from Randi Weingarten. Yeah. I think this is so interesting because, there's a, story on Fox News today that's referencing Neil Gorsuch during this Scotus. Yes. Case and I, he read a specific LGBTQ book that is is meant for young kids five, six years old.

Like, that's your target audience with these kids in this, Scotus testimony, Neil Gorsuch is saying it's got bondage in it. And the lawyer's like, no, it doesn't. And Neil Gorsuch is like, I read the book. Yeah, I read it. It does talks about leather and drag queens and yes, yes it does. And so the lawyer wasn't willing to even admit that in the Scotus testimony, which is not going to play well for them because I don't think anyone likes to be lied to.

Yeah. And so that that lawyer was outright lying. But here you have Randi Weingarten in the, in the clip that you just played going, yeah, I wouldn't I probably wouldn't read that book to those kids either. Then what are you arguing for? Right. Why are we having this disagreement then? I it's so weird to me. And it's one of those things where when you stay at 30,000ft, you can sort of make your your claims and.

No, no, these kids need to learn tolerance, blah, blah. But when you present them specifically with information, the actual words and images that are in these books, then they go, well, I wouldn't read that to little kids. Well no kidding Sherlock. Yeah, that's exactly why parents don't want you reading it to their little kids. Oh, how many times?

I bet there's been at least a dozen times that I have either provided you audio, or you and I have talked about audio of school board meetings, city council meetings, even congressional hearings where excerpts from these books are read. And they have to stop that because it can't go out over air. Yeah, but your seven year old is supposed to be reading it.

It's uncomfortable to read in a room in mixed company of adults. Oh, and seven year olds are not supposed to read, or they're all good reading it. Go ahead, give it to the seven year olds. I. I love it when you have that courageous parent showing up to a school board meeting and reading these books, and then the the school board has to gavel them like, you can't read that here.

You can. Yeah. Oh point proven. Number one. But but I also think that, you know, this might be a nine to nothing decision. It might be, but I think about the argument that the school district in Maryland is making, which is, well, we we can't logistically handle that many kids opting out of this. So let's reverse engineer this for just a moment.

What's leading to the logistical problem? Is it parents wanting their kids to opt out, or is it. Let's go back one more. One more step here. Is it you presenting material to the children that's causing the parents to want to opt them out? You're acting like you're powerless here. Like you had nothing to do with the fact that parents are wanting to keep their kids out of this material.

Yeah, this just doesn't make any sense. Okay, let's say, you had a I'm going to be really over the top here, but let's say you had a principal who believed in burning sage throughout the school, and you're burning it at levels that it's like causing people to have irritation in their eyes, blah, blah, blah. And parents are going, my kids are not coming until you stop burning that.

My kid's not coming. And the principal is like, well, I don't know what you want me to do about this. I can't handle all of these kids not being at school. Yeah, the answer is stop burning the sage. Yeah, that's the answer, right? Yeah, it is the what is the initiating event? That's what you need to ask yourself.

And in this case, the initiating event is not parents wanting to opt out. The initiating event is that the school district is reading books to kids that are that are controversial enough. Yeah. And we don't know. It's more much more complicated than that. And I simplified it a lot. But their their complete refusal to even take responsibility that your ideals are not matching parents ideals.

That's ludicrous because you work for the child in the parent. Yeah. You don't work for the government. Yeah, they may pay your salary, but you exist because of the child in the parent. Yes. Yeah. No, that's that's true. And, we're their boss. It's not it's not the other way around. And I, I feel like that's the ongoing battle, Julie, that we have with government is teaching re teaching and teaching again, the fact that we are in charge of them and not vice versa.

If there was one thing I wish that all the camps could come to agreement on in education is that the job exists because of the child schools. Public schools do not exist to employ people. Yeah, public schools exist because children need to learn and grow and thrive. And if we could all come to an agreement on that, I think we'd solve about 70% of the problems.

Yes. Yeah, I, I would too, but I don't think they're ever going to come to an agreement like I don't think it's possible. Yeah. But if we put the child first, most of the problems would go away. We'd still have some weights. All right. Like, I think we're always going to argue over what's taught in a health class.

At least that argument has like pros and cons and and room for moving around on stances and going, okay, we'll give up on this. And but when you when you're outrightly trying to teach a five year old about bondage, there's not room to move here you are no longer caring about the child. Yeah. You're not. You're elevating your own career, your own political ambition, your own agenda above the kid.

So, all right. So I want to share something. This is, a couple of days old. This is, Jim Jones garbage piece in the, Well, I don't know. He just it's his guest editorial. I think it gets published in multiple places, but he said a district. Well, no, he would say a district judge in Utah issued a marvelous decision that close this pretty good on April 18th, finding Utah's school voucher law to be unconstitutional.

The 60 page decision was based on a variety of constitutional flaws that the Utah law shares with Idaho's recently enacted education tax credit law. The Utah laws, enacted in 2023 with 42.5 million in state funds as state funding increased by 40 million in each of the next two years, the Utah judge said. The Utah Constitution gives a direct command to the legislature to perform a single duty, establish and maintain the state's education systems.

So that's the Utah Constitution. Okay. The judge continued, this clear expression of one duty, coupled with the absence of any general duty to provide for the education or intellectual improvement of the Utahns Impliedly restricts the legislature from creating a publicly funded school or education program outside of the public school system. In other words, Utah's legislature is restricted from using public funds to support any form of private education.

At least that's the interpretation. Right of interest is the fact that every member of Idaho's legislature was sent a legislative alert on the first day of the 2025 legislative session, warning that any scheme to use taxpayer money for private education would be violative of the Idaho Constitution. In a number of respects, that alert was provided by the Committee to Protect and Preserve the Idaho Constitution.

Oh, wait, a group that participated in the successful lawsuit to overturn the Restrictive Initiative law enacted in 2021. The alert identified the same constitutional flaw focused upon by the Utah judge that Idaho's constitution prohibits the funding of private and parochial education that has been the law of Idaho ever since statehood in 1890. The alert spelled out several other constitutional infirmities that any voucher scheme would entail, including a deliberate transgression of Idaho's strong prohibition against state support for religious education, discrimination against rural kids, and Idaho religions that don't operate parochial schools, lack of accountability for taxpayer money expended on private schooling, and diminution of state money necessary to support Idaho's public school system, which has been

chronically underfunded for decades. You're a I c I'm watching you. The Utah judge's decision mentioned a number of other infirmities in the Utah law. Private schools often exclude students with special needs or condition admission upon adherence to certain religious beliefs, or fail to provide free schooling is constitutionally required for taxpayer supported education. These flaws are also inherent in House Bill 93, the subsidy bill approved by the legislature this year.

The Idaho Legislature was clearly warned of the serious constitutional problems with HB 93, which will subsidize private and parochial education to the tune of $50 million in just the first year. Yet because of massive funding from out of state groups that are seeking to weaken public schools across the nation, a majority of our legislators cast aside the Constitution and pass the subsidy bill.

The governor lacked the courage to veto the legislation despite overwhelming public outcry against it. Now, as with the similar travesty in Utah, concerned, concerned Idahoans will have to resort to the courts in order to protect the wishes of Idaho's constitutional drafters. Please stay tuned. What he didn't tell you, and I want to include this. And there's all these groups that that form and this group that he referenced as though it's some other group, the Committee to Protect and Preserve the Idaho Constitution is led by none other than him.

I was smiling through all of that because I'm thinking, okay, my little my little area of my little cul de sac area, there's 19 houses, right? We don't have an HOA. Yeah, thank goodness we don't have an HOA. But what if I just decided to build a group that was like an HOA and I call it some fancy name and let it go around it, maybe 2 or 3 houses that I don't appreciate the way their yards look.

And I issue a quote alert that this group is saying you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing, and it's harming everybody else. You need to take care of it. Guess what? I have no power. This group I made doesn't have any substantive value. I just pretended to be something. And those two, those two houses wouldn't have to listen to me.

Yeah, but Jim Jones thinks he has that power. Oh, I know he still thinks he's attorney general. He really does. Yeah. And then my second, my second thing, from what you read at the very end, he says out of state money, that is that is working to weaken the public school system. Nothing is weakening the public school system more than the people who lead the public school system.

Yeah. That's why public schools are not working. Has nothing to do with out of state money. Now, does out-of-state money come in Idaho? 100%? Yeah, we see it all over the place. Both sides. I don't like it. It's not my favorite. But to claim that that's what's weakening the system. And that's why parents want to leave. Man. You refuse to take any responsibility.

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. So the Mountain States Policy Center, they issued a piece and it it showed up in my inbox yesterday morning. It's pretty short. I want to read that to you. And it counterbalances what what Jim Jones is saying. They couldn't convince legislators. They couldn't scare the public. They couldn't pressure the governor. Three strikes and you're out.

In the week since Idaho Governor Brad Little signed House Bill 93, an education choice program that provides a simple tax credit for needy families, opponents have only ramped up the criticism they now claim to have new momentum from a dubious and already appealed lower court ruling in Utah regarding the Beehive State's Education Choice program. Jim didn't tell you that, did he?

To keep up the baseball analogies, they are guilty of a balk. Idaho's new Ed Choice program is not a voucher. It's not an education savings account or a program that takes money away from public schools. In fact, the state's K through 12 education budget isn't touched. It's a simple tax credit, and it goes directly to families. In reality, it is no different than any other tax credit provided by the state.

Setting tax policy is the prerogative of the legislative branch. It would be absurd to suggest that policymakers could not adopt a higher grocery tax credit, for example, simply because families may buy their groceries at one store or another. Good point. A ruling against the education choice tax credit would be folly, calling into question the constitutional authority of the legislature to set tax policy, as we previously highlighted in our study, answering the legal questions on expanding education choice.

Every state constitution has an education provision, with some containing language that calls for a uniform system of free public education or something similar. Education choice opponents have argued that such language not only requires the government to establish traditional public schools, but also prevents the government from doing anything else. Uniformity clauses, however, were never intended to be a ceiling or limitation on creativity.

Instead, they were simply meant to ensure there was a floor. This is the argument you've made forever. Forever. It does not restrict the legislature as long as they provide those basic requirements for a free and uniform system. There's no limitation in the Constitution that says you can't do anything else. For example, Idaho's constitution says the stability of a republican form of government, depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of Idaho to establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.

Nothing in house Bill 93 changes or takes away from that requirement. In fact, the legislature has once again increased the amount of money going to the state's uniform and thorough system throughout the nation, many state cases have determined the constitutionality of education choice expansion. Basically, you had Utah. Jim Jones cherry picked the Utah case and wants to copy and paste it into what's happening in Idaho when there's not really a good comparison.

And in the meantime, you have multiple other states, Arizona is a good example and a recent one, but you have multiple other states that are saying no. If if parents want other options, it means that they're not happy with what the government has been giving them with the current K through 12. So we're going to find ways to give them other options.

It's not, constant. It's all a bunch of noise. It it really is just a bunch of lefties. Some of them have an R behind their name, but it's a bunch of lefties clanging the pots and pans, trying to distract you from the fact that parents do want other choices. They pay their taxes, and yes, they can get a tax credit that will allow them to make some expanded choices about education.

And it's so interesting that lots of policy is written by those on the left that's like, hey, let us just try. Let us see if this works. And in the state of Idaho, Republicans are supposed to go, okay, let's give it a shot. But when Wendy Horman brings a bill forward year after year and it finally gets passed this year, making concessions to what people wanted in it, it's still not good enough because it's going to fail no matter what.

Yeah, that is their destiny for this. They believe it's going to fail and it's only going to cause harm. Well, where is your your mantra of well, let's get let's just give it a shot and see it doesn't they will not extend it to anything that threatens their control ever. And this threatens their control. And it no matter what, it's going to fail.

That's just what they're saying. It's going to fail. Well, you don't even know. You don't even know. And we have multiple states who have done versions of this and are having great success with it, you know? So why would Idaho be different? But you just identified the problem. They don't want the great success. Yeah, they they don't want that because they're being showed up.

They they don't they don't want somebody outshining them. They, they don't want another model that will teach kids at, at a, at a better, level with less money. And but we know it, we see this happening when you compare what happens in the private sector to what happens in government. We see it all the time. The private sector comes along, they eliminate inefficiency.

They phase out things that aren't effective and don't work. And then they they're in a constant process of refining what they do, which delivers a better product at a lower cost. It's the beauty of capitalism. Capitalism can have some downsides, but that's one of the beautiful things about it. And, they don't want the competition. They have enjoyed being a monopoly for so long, and now they feel so incredibly threatened when middle and even lower income kids are going to be able to to choose something other than the government school that is, that is foisted upon them.

They can't handle the competition. And that's really what I think it comes down to. It is so interesting. You just triggered a thought in my mind a while back. I was talking to somebody involved in the education system, and she was mentioning to me that one of the reasons that she approaches the job the way she does is because she wasn't a teacher right out of college.

She didn't she didn't go to college at age 18, graduate at age 21 and become an age a teacher at age 22. Like, that's not that wasn't her trajectory. She worked in the private sector doing different jobs for a few years, went to college a little bit later, later in her 20s, and then became a teacher. And now she has a master's degree and she's working, in a different form of education.

She said to me that because she worked in the private sector, she approaches education differently. She doesn't believe she deserves a job. She believes she earns a job. And she says that I got that from working private first and understanding how the real world worked. But so many of people who were in education went to college immediately out of high school, never had a job, didn't have a job in college and crude debt, then went straight into the education system.

And they believe they earned that job clear back when they were 19 years old and took on that debt. Yeah, because they don't under they've never had to work in the private sector. They don't understand how it works. And they believe they deserve the job and they deserve the money and they deserve to have it exactly like they say they should have it without any threats whatsoever.

And school choice threatens that concept. Can I throw a thought experiment at you, Julie? And by extension to our audience? I would love their thoughts via text and if they want to call in, that's great too. I saw it was just a very short clip. I didn't watch the whole thing, but I is getting very, very good and it is going to be a big influence in education.

So I'm going to I'm going to create not so much for you because I think I know what your answer is. But for those of you who are very protective of traditional K through 12, I'm talking to you. Imagine a scenario where we use AI to its full capacity. Your children learn faster because I can be customized to the single user in a way a teacher can't.

Now, there are certain things that a teacher can only teach that I can't. Okay, so I'm not. It's not all or it's not one or the other completely. But I do foresee in the next few years AI picking up a large amount of the burden of educating kids because they are now creating powerful visuals. They can retrieve audio, they can respond to a kid's needs.

I mean, we're using AI in medicine to diagnose cancer. Breast cancer all the time. It's happening all the time. It's getting very, very smart. And I will tell you, you probably already know this. I want whatever pathway is going to result in my child being the best educated possible by the time they are done with 12th grade. That's what I want.

But I think you're going to have people that are going to say, oh no, we can't have teachers losing their jobs. That's not. And they would sacrifice the quality of their own kids education to protect the K through 12 institutions. And I'm thinking, that's pretty sad because this whole thing exists for the child. That's why we do this.

And we should be pursuing every avenue that maximizes the education overall. And for the individual, but maximizes education for kids. And if that means a transformative change using AI and teachers need to go find something new to do, and we don't get as many new teachers into the field, then that's what it means. And that's okay. It's like any other industry.

When technology starts to take the place of expertise and skill that humans used to provide. Yeah, now we've gone full circle. Education doesn't exist to create jobs. Education exists to educate the child. And if that means less jobs, more AI a marriage between the two and it can be done safely and efficiently. Then that's the direction we go.

But you've got to break that model of no, no, no, no. Education exists to employ adults because that's not what it's there for. No, no. And keep in mind before I'm sure maybe somebody already has, people are going to text in angry that we want to fire all the teachers. We don't. That's not that is not the point.

Okay. And, and and they're going to also put words into our mouths that we've said that I can 100% replace teachers. We haven't said that either. But I will say as AI grows exponentially and its capabilities increase, we are probably going to have more teachers than we need. So then you gotta you make a decision. I'm, I am all in on the Trumpian offer where you say look you're probably going to get fired if you try to persist in this industry or in this, in this role, if, if you want to quit now, we will pay you for the rest of your contract or will it'll be a generous buyout or something.

I'm all for that because it does kind of stink when your industry gets taken over by technology and all of a sudden your skill set is becoming more obsolete. You do need some time. You need a little cash. You need to get educated so you can go and find something new and something else to do but it. And it's just a harsh truth.

We're not being cruel. I think most parents are like, yeah, I just want the best education for my kid. I don't I don't want to sacrifice the quality of my kid's education so we can keep, employing adults at a certain amount by a certain amount. Well, the reality is, is there's not enough teachers in Idaho as is.

Right? We looked it up during that while this legislation was being debated in the House. In the Senate, there are hundreds of vacant jobs across the state. Yeah. And I Idaho is not unique with that. There are vacant positions all over the place. So it's always interesting to me that we're we're always fighting for these salaries and these safety of these jobs.

When why don't we start to blend these two things and make it easier on the teacher? Yeah, make the job more enjoyable. Yeah, I agree, that's frustrating. So far, not a lot of hate. No, no. Let's go to the phones. Caller. Welcome to the show. How are you? Oh, I'm doing good here. Good. Yeah, I'm. I'm from southeastern Washington, and I left a while ago.

Several years ago. Most a business down here. The education system is better here. Up there. It's it's ridiculous. And it's because it's so liberal. But I think they had to go back to get rid of teachers unions and do a performance based pay. And then we probably find out that a lot of these teachers will stop acting like LeBron James and get their act together.

So, I mean, I mean, I'd say it's funny, but it's true. I yeah, I somebody used to come along just Charles Barkley I mean take care of the problem would have a have that again so yeah. All right. Thank you. Well thanks for becoming an Idaho and to yeah we appreciate that. Someone said they're not telling you or what they're not telling you is that private schools are having to raise their tuition just to meet the guidelines.

To qualify for the tax credit. You should dive into that. The school is going to take our kid to nearly doubled their private tuition fees, because that is what is required to meet the criteria for the tax credit. It's ridiculous. Okay, maybe that's one option that gets out of reach. But there are multiple options. Like you're choosing one scenario where you met a roadblock.

But this tax credit, that's the beauty of it is you can redirect it so it will benefit your kid. There's lots of online curriculum that you can sign them up for there. I mean, there are a lot of ways to use this money. So you've cited one problem that I will admit can be a little bit unfortunate, but I hope that we're not going to scrap it.

An entire idea or dismiss. Rather, we're not scrapping anything. It's the law of Idaho now. But dismiss an idea simply because you've identified a scenario where it didn't work out the way you had hoped. And potentially maybe some other schools will come online that I that's our hope. And what we honestly believe is going to happen in the rural areas is that the the tax credit will enable more schools, more private schools to be come into existence.

Yeah. And so if if you're local, let's say you're Pocatello, Blackfoot, wherever. I would also keep hope that there will be some other schools that will that will come on board that won't cost that much. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I will I would too. And you know what? That's that may be where I comes in. You might have schools Julie, where I does the lion's share of the work which reduces your, your costs.

You don't have to pay as much for teachers, but you still have adults there that can help shepherd kids. And some kids do great. Being guided by technology when it comes to education. Yeah, let them let that happen. Let let let let technology serve where it can. Yes. Someone text it in I can and I want to get your take before I respond.

I can never love a child and can never care about their emotional needs the way my daughter does with her students. I, I don't think you or I are advocating for that to go away. Yeah, I, I don't I don't feel like we're advocating for that at all. I do believe there needs to be interaction, but if I combined with that interaction can make the job more efficient because some of the things that I see that these teachers do with their contracts is just so silly.

Yeah. So if I can make the job more efficient and, and free up time for the teacher to play games with the kids and show love to the kids and and be that great mentor, isn't that a win for everybody? That that was my first thought. Here is and again, I want to say we're not suggesting a 100% replacement.

If I can educate as well as or better than your daughter and your daughter's better at loving kids and caring for their their individual needs better, then she can focus on that and let the I do the educational portion of it. Absolutely. I mean, this is synergistic here. It's it's not exclusionary. It's synergistic if you're willing to look at it like that.

Yeah, I just think I think it's worth looking into my and I have said this before, my thing with Wendy hormones Bill was I have talked to enough educators in this area in East Idaho. The model is not working perfectly. And in fact, some kids are falling through the cracks. That should be savable and someone will send in and say every kid is savable.

Well, good luck because it's very, very hard to save every kid. But we need to decrease the amount of kids that we lose. Yeah. And if we can get there and and this tax credit bill helps that because everybody starts to, to find new solutions to do the job better. Isn't that a win for the kid? Well, why can't we just look at this tax credit as a safety net to catch some of the kids who aren't thriving in traditional K through 12?

Oh, it could be that too. Hey, I don't know why people have to be so jaded about this. All right, quick break, 940. We'll be back. Okay. We're going to have to make up for some. Oh my gosh, we talked a lot. I didn't even know it was that time. Yeah. Oh please. What we're going to do we're going to move the, national news and we're going to two minutes.

Did you see that? Somebody called you a nerd. What's going on? Is your voice acting weird? Oh, yeah. It's just it's just like repeating, repeating, repeating, repeating that four minute block, four minute block, four minute block, maybe, it's trying to regenerate some. Oh, that was weird. It's it's like somebody reloaded my playlist. Yeah, that was weird.

Oh, it's doing it. It. Oh, no, it did it just start. That block is that way. It just did that I don't. Oh, now it says it's caught up. Yeah. Weird. Okay. What could we be at a better place with education if those involved in education finally admitted it's not working perfectly like we pretend it is. Stop being so self-protective.

Yeah. Elevate the interest of the child above everything and anything else is a distant second. Yes. And then say what works best. We'd be in a much better place. Unions ruin everything. I, I just really struggle with the. Because as a parent who took three kids through public education, 95% of it was great. But I had two specific run-ins with teachers, with three kids in, you know, 12 grades.

So that's not that bad. Yeah, that's actually pretty good ratio. Yeah. Both of those issues would have been better if the teacher had wanted to parent or partner with me and getting the best result for my child. Yeah, they were both exacerbated because the teacher refused. Yeah. To even try to do something different. Yeah, yeah. Had a couple instances like that to and they were getting a mother who showed up and said in one of them that was my son.

The other one was my, my, first daughter. I would look at the teacher and go, oh, no, I get that. My son wants to make everybody in class. Laughs I understand. I understand that he gets done before everybody else. And this is creating an issue. Can we stop punishing him for that and find alternate routes to use his time.

This teacher refused. Refused. For me that means the kid wasn't the primary. Yeah. Well and the other kids weren't the primary. Yeah. Because he's harming them. Yeah. Right. Right. If you, if he's distracting them then. Yeah I mean yeah it it is it's a I'm going to punish him and do. But it's such a deep cultural issue in education.

Yeah. And I don't know how we fix it. All right. Nolan.

945 on Newstalk 1079 I know this sounds really stupid, but I was, playing with my sprinklers again last night. Julie. And, just making sure I went through it like an entire cycle and watched it. Made sure that, you know, there weren't any really bad glaring problems. I still have some tweaking to do, but I'm very excited.

The grass is already fairly green, but as the humains take effect as the lawn, fertilizer and lawn food takes effect, I've seen it before, multiple years now. It just green gets that deep, almost forest green hue to it, and it I love it. Absolutely love it. With the four step lawn program at Town and Country Garden. And of course that's available there.

And they can give you directions, show up knowing about how much lawn you have, about your your total square footage of yard. And then you'll know exactly what to buy. There is a discount if you buy all four steps at once, so I would recommend that. And as a side, little benefit at Town and Country Gardens this week they are having a special event on Saturday night.

Last night I was looking at social media and one of my daughter's friends, who is an incredible artist, is actually going to be at town and Country Gardens on Saturday night. Oh, she's got a little pop up booth there. So there, it's like a total party at this thing. You're you're going to see the glow in the dark petunias.

That's the reason to go. Yeah, but the wonderful atmosphere is going to be the party. Like, yeah, I'm just evening that you're spending with people at Town of Country Gardens. Get all the info my garden wkyc.com and make sure you're listening tomorrow. Seven 3730 Rex is joining us. Rex will be in studio. He's bringing one of the Firefly petunias so he can put it in a dark room.

We can see it, for ourselves. Yeah, we'll share that with you. 947. We'll be back. By the way, town and Country Garden, south of Idaho Falls on the Yellowstone Highway, across from the Mont plant. Back up to this. Are you reading this long text we just got, just started at a can of froze hundreds of pounds fruits, valves and a deer, elk, beer grass.

We never learned to be held to a time clock. I usually work 60 plus hours a week as a teacher, all the while still hand milking a cow, gardening and cooking on a wood cook stove. I considered myself lucky, blessed to have a teaching position based on earning money by selling raw milk and eggs. I thought I'd hit the motherload as a teacher.

Sorry for my random stream of consciousness going so long. Yeah, see, I love this is because she had a perspective that didn't just include her college professors perspective. Yeah, she had lived life. Yeah. And that's what she brought to the table as a teacher, I love that. Yeah. Someone said your real world example of AI is the GPS driving the tractors so the operator can pay more attention to the implement that the tractors pulling.

You still need a human at the wheel for all the other driving needs, but for the back and forth straight passes, the GPS can drive. Thanks, brain. Good. So that's Brian Murdock? Yes. Brian Murdock, that is. I think that's a great analogy. It is. That's really good. Yeah. That's good. There is also a text in there that says that Utah has a standard curriculum and that teachers in Idaho spend too much time creating their curriculum.

And if you if you freed up that time, yeah, you could do other things. I've actually spoken with a few teachers who I am shocked at how much time they spent creating plans with because they work as groups. So like, you're all the third grade teachers work together and all the fourth grade teachers work together, and the amount of times they spend coming up with their weekly plans is kind of shocking to me.

Yeah, it yeah, it's a lot of effort. Yeah. And I think I could help with that. Yeah. I totally use ChatGPT. Yeah, I think it, I mean, you're obviously going to have to edit whatever I comes up with, but have it help. Yeah. All right. 949 on Newstalk 1079 got a text from Farmer Brian and he said, you're real, real world.

Example of AI is the GPS driving the tractors so the operator can pay more attention to the implement than the tractor, or that the tractors pulling. You still need a human at the wheel for all the other driving needs, but for the back and forth straight passes, the GPS, can can drive, can drive the tractor. I think that's great.

That's a great analogy. Yeah, yeah. We also had somebody else who has worked in a, an area school district, and that person mentioned that the teachers spend so much time developing curriculum and that they wished that it was much more like Utah, where there was a streamlined curriculum. You and I said in the commercial break that, well, potentially I can cut down that's that efficiency portion you're talking about.

Yeah. Yeah. So if I you still have to be the editor of it, but it can help with the I want to search for a new game and you spend 45 minutes on three different websites for searching for a game. To help teach this concept to kids. I search all of those for you in a matter of 30s.

Yeah it does. Julia and I are not arguing that I is perfect, that it's not be all end all that it it it. There are no flaws to it. There are. And we are still in its infancy. Absolutely. We're still figuring it out. But these are the years. Like when you have a little baby, you have to change their diaper for a couple of years.

You have to potty train them. You have to put up with their tantrums. You have to. We're it's learning and it's growing. And as we go along, it's going to the hope is it will get better at what we want it to do. So yeah. All right. Let's go to the phones. Caller how are you today? Good, good.

What's up? Well, I had a simple three step idea for improving education since that's what's been talked about. And the first thing is it starts at home with parents. And my parents told me when I first went to school, if I had a problem with a teacher, they would be on the side of the teacher. In other words, the that tells you go to school, work hard and be good.

Be a good kid at school. Second is reduce or eliminate the amount of sugar they can get their hands on while they're at school. Because when a kid is sugared up, it's hard for them to concentrate on learning and doing the things that they're asked to do at school. Yeah, and third, have the teacher sign a contract every year and get rid of that thing that ensures that they have a job every year.

They need a a new contract every year. In other words, if they do a good job, they get to keep their job. Okay. All right. All all not bad ideas. Yeah. Those are great ideas. I did talk to somebody in a local district. They were saying that, I didn't realize this is as much as it happens in college, but in some of the local districts, you kind of get tenure after three years.

You're contracted in after three. Uhhuh. Holy moly. Yeah, I'm sure it varies from district to district. I don't think that's an across the board thing, but that's an interesting concept of his three step program that he brings up. There. All right. We'll be back. We'll wrap it up after this. I think radio host should get tenure. Should we.

Yeah. And then, but I was in my first year when I said kerfuffle wrong. So that's true. I wouldn't have tenure yet, That's true. Okay. We have not talked about this too much, but the woman pulled after disturbing the peace of the of the event, pulled from the event. She is now suing for $5 million for battery.

Yeah she's a gem. Yeah she is I mean she already raised a third of $1 million on Go Fund Me. It's an industry now, Neil. It really isn't in. It's an industry. We've got a kid dead in Texas. Wow. And the industry has benefited that family and the the the genocide. The suspect who admitted. Yeah. Doing it.

Yeah. There's not a question that the kid did it right. He admitted it. Witnesses were there. They have video. They have everything. But they there's a racial component to this. Right. And it's an industry. And that family is benefiting monetarily off of it. Okay. We're sick. We are. We're a sick, sick society. Yep. Oh my word. The school district that I was referencing was not district 91, but Paul, Jackie just messaged me and said that is the policy in district 91 as well, that it's three years and then you're that seems awfully quick.

Doesn't that seem quick to you? I don't even care if it's quick. I don't want it. Yeah. I don't know if you know, if the policy's good after ten years. I don't want it. I don't know, ten years, so I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, I don't have that, which I, I mean they're very few jobs that have.

That is it, is it actually tenure or is it just an elevated level of union protection? What it means is that if you start to not meet up to the standards that a teacher should be doing. Yeah. And the school is recognizing that after three years, there are multiple steps that have to happen before you can be let go.

Like you have to go through these plans and then you have to give a certain time frame and you have it and that. So when I ask this of this teacher, I said, what is the onboarding process like? Is it just too hard to hire new teachers? And we did discuss it. The onboarding process is a little difficult.

A lot of school specific training that has to happen. Yeah. And you're usually not gifted the luxury of the time to do that. It is you're thrown in the classroom and you just got to go. So that's one of the reasons they do it. But it's not the only reason. They also do it because, the union demands that there be some sort of protection.

Yeah. So that's involved there. I mean, there's all these little extras, but but here's, here's the, I guess the trade off, you might attract more candidates with that policy. But if that makes it harder to get rid of bad teachers down the road, is it worth it? I don't know, I would say no. Yeah.

Not there we go. 958 on Newstalk 1079. That is going to do it for the show today. It is going to be fascinating to watch this whole education thing roll out. Julie, we talked with Attorney General Labrador. He he said it. It's it's without question going to be litigated. I mean Jim Jones has made it clear he's he's going to run to the courts over this and, try to challenge it.

So that'll be a saga. It'll be interesting to watch and see how that, that turns out. Also, be sure and join us tomorrow. Rick Sanderson joining us with the glow in the dark petunias tomorrow, that that'll be fun. And then we have a studio for a cover session at 835. All right, everyone, have a safe and wonderful Thursday.

Julie and I will be back tomorrow right here on Newstalk 179.