5.8.2025 -- NLS -- Trump-UK Trade Domino & Epstein Silence

On this episode with Neal and Julie, they await President Trump’s press conference announcing a historic trade deal with the United Kingdom. The discussion centers around how this agreement could trigger a domino effect with other nations, influencing global trade patterns. Neal argues that despite political resistance and market volatility caused by tariffs, Trump’s strategy could ultimately restore economic stability and investor confidence. Julie notes the psychological tension many feel—balancing personal discomfort with hope for national prosperity.

They also touch on media cynicism, the implications of the elusive Epstein list, and growing distrust in government transparency. The conversation shifts briefly to education, where both express concern about declining trust in public schools and highlight the rising appeal of charter schools and technology-driven learning. To close, Neal shares his weekend plans to garden with help from Town and Country Gardens, praising the value of local expertise.

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

Good morning, East Idaho. It's seven minutes after 8:00 on Newstalk 179. Welcome to the program. We are awaiting the press conference with President Trump announcing a trade deal with the UK. At least that's what this is reported to be. And, as we talked earlier, Julie, you said this could be a domino that will fall and it will start other dominoes to fall as well when it comes to, to trade.

And I guess my question here is I think it was Steve Martin, the actor who once said, you have to be so good they can't ignore you, okay. And that's why he worked so hard to become a good actor, a good comedian, good entertainer, so he could be so good that they couldn't be ignored. I think that's what Donald Trump's standard is as president.

He is going to have to deliver so much accomplishment that it simply can't be ignored by the by the media. And. Well, and the thing is, is that he got the votes believing that he could. Yeah. Like, this isn't a pipe dream. People believe this is going to happen. Yes, I believe so too. And I also think, I don't know, I don't I don't really try to make a lot of political predictions now, but I think if the Democrats continue to just be the loyal opposition, the automatic no vote, the stone wall to what Trump's trying to accomplish, they do it at their own peril.

Because we had we had statistics yesterday polling that CNN, Harry Enten talked about when it comes to crime, Trump's not underwater on that when it comes to immigration. He's not underwater on that. If he starts to deliver on these trade deals, I think he's had to spend some political capital because the tariffs are not that popular and it's caused some volatility in the stock market and people are seeing their 401 K's fluctuate weight and go down.

Yeah they're worried and understandably so. But if he shores this up and brings stability with new and better trade deals with big nations around the world, that is going to send the stock market flying and we'll see everything and more restored to our 401 K's. And I think at that point he when you are solid on the economy, you have a bully pulpit that the the opposition they might try to and they will no doubt they'll try to gaslight for a while and tell us we're not seeing what we're seeing with the Dow or with, you know, the S&P or with employment numbers or whatever the metric might be.

But I think they're just going to continue to make themselves less and less relevant if they try that approach. I agree, and I really do feel like this is what the American public has been wanting. I'll read you his, x that he put out to just kind of give you an idea of how confident he is in this.

The agreement with the United Kingdom is a full and comprehensive one that will cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come because of our long time history and allegiance together. It is a great honor to have the United Kingdom as our first announcement. Many of their deals, which are in serious stages of negotiation to follow.

Yes, I really I do believe that this will be the domino effect that people have been clamoring for. It will be interesting. Something I'm watching for is a template that Trump will use to approach these countries, and to seal these deals where it can't be all in our favor and other countries have to get screwed by it. I don't think we're going to see that.

I think it's going to be a reasonable deal. It will feel unfair to them because historically, they've been getting the far better end of the deal. So it's going to be a more even keel trade deal. But I think that he's probably using similar standards for each country that he's he's approaching. And we're going to see some patterns emerge in the trade deals that are that are coming.

Yeah I agree this is exciting. It's great news. I, I think that if I've had some unsteadiness about what Trump has been doing, I've had some nervousness about the tariff wars. I don't think that you're going to, you know, about a thousand with that. I think there's going to be a few swings and misses. But I do believe he's got the upper hand in every part of this.

China's coming to the table. Those talks are going to happen. It may just be barely incremental movement, but at least it's a start. And maybe it's going to be more. You know, it's funny, there was a story a day or two ago where China at first they were they were just sort of ignoring us, obviously. But then they said, I guess there would be no harm in having some discussions.

Yeah, yeah, that's got factory worker striking. Yeah. It's sort of like, you know, you break up with your boyfriend or girlfriend and you're like, I'm never talking to them again. And then a couple of weeks go by and you send a text, hey, do you want to just go get ice cream and talk? And they say, well, I guess there would be no harm in that.

Like, I would be no harm in that. Right, exactly. So two hours later, you're making out in the backseat of your car, right? Yes, yes. So. But I think that China knows that again, it's it's not going to be a sustainable situation because you're you're right. If they lose the US as a customer, if they decide they want to keep trying to play hardball, they'll lose their economy.

I mean they send so much stuff to us that it is in their best interest, and it might even be an existential thing for the Chinese Communist Party. Yes. Because you, you do you have people who are protesting not showing up to work. You've got people pushing back now in China. And that's that's not something they're used to.

And I think they realize we are far outnumbered. If the people actually decided to rise up in China. We have our hands full. I kind of like Trump's approach to this to about, hey, this is an opportunity, Americans, for you to figure out your spending habits. Yeah. So one product doesn't keep coming from China that you consume regularly.

Find a new product. Yeah. Like it's okay. Yeah. People act like I deserve zero disruption in my life. How dare you disrupt my life in any way? Yeah, well, that's not reality. Businesses come and go. Businesses open, businesses closed, products rise in cost. And sometimes we change what we do so that we can buy, a cheaper version of it.

Or maybe we just cut that thing out of our life. Yeah. I don't understand why we're so tender. We. We are tender and we're we resist adapting really strongly sometimes. So. Yeah. Yeah. It's true. So, this is Scott Jennings on CNN talking about the very thing we're chatting about while the president has taken a very hard line on China, he doesn't think there are good actors, and he thinks that they need to be dealt with in a in a harsh way.

And so I but he's not talking about the Chinese when he's talking about these dolls he's talking about. But he is. But he is. But he's saying like, we don't need the junk. You don't need the junk. You can have $2 instead of 30. Well, I think when you put his comments together with Secretary Besson, what they're saying is the American dream is not solely based on our ability to get the cheapest junk we can from China.

The American dream is built on us not being reliant on our economy, but having jobs here, having better jobs, or having a better pathway for your family to make a better living for yourself. That has nothing to do with being able to get cheap junk from China. So I do think what their message is rooted in has to do with a long term, statement about what constitutes the American dream.

And don't fall into the trap of believing that we have to be reliant on our economy for you to have a dream of what? Owning a bunch of junk the dream is. We make stuff here. It'll be high quality, and the people who make it will make a fair wage. That's the American dream. But you're raising the correct point.

Is it good for us to be reliant on our economy for medicine and car parts and things that go into national security implements? It's not about the dolls. It's about everything else. And we're so entangled with people who cheat and who are ultimately our enemy on the world stage. Detangling us and making us not reliant on our economy is the point.

And I know it's a hard message, but that's what leadership means. Going out and getting a hard message when it will be to the benefit of the country long term. And, and I think today the announcement with the UK and we'll see what the details are. We'll see what the implications are. This is only going to build momentum, as you move in the future.

And if the UK does it, if other first world countries or even superpowers, join in and decide they'll it sort of makes it inevitable, I think that China is going to have to, to deal with us better. They are I well, what was the first duty of the Prime Minister of Canada? He got elected his first trip to the white House to touch a like this is how this is going to all get done.

And they are looking at each other. China is looking at Canada. Canada is looking at Mexico. Mexico is looking at the UK. They're all looking at each other going, are you going to do are you are you going to deal. Oh you got that kind of deal. Okay. And I'll use that as my negotiation to get my deal.

Yes. They're all paying attention to one another. Who has the control here? Donald Trump? Yes, he absolutely does. And I wonder, Julie, because I think there's this sort of assumption and expectation from the media and people on the left, even some conservatives who don't like Trump, that we're supposed to have a less than beneficial relationship with these other countries.

And my question to them is who gave you battered wife syndrome? Yeah. Like what makes you think that you're obligated to get the short end of the stick? When we deal with these other countries, I say have a fair deal that works for both sides, and I think we can. That's what fair trade and free trade is about.

But there's a weird psychological phenomenon among certain people that almost feel obligated that we need to absorb some kind of misery or pain in these deals with other nations. Would you ever look at your child and go, you know what? You have so many positive attributes. You've had a good life to parent home people who love you. You have hobbies.

That's pretty privileged. So when you're picking a significant other, make sure you pick someone who has far less than you because you need to make sure they get the better end of the stick. Yes. Would you ever say that to your kid? You need to go into an imbalanced relationship? Yeah, we would never I. If you do, I hope you change your attitude.

Oh, you know what, though? I think there are actually some parents who parent that way, but they're there. I think they are the people that are hyper obsessed with the idea of racial privilege or economic privilege or some kind of cultural privilege. I think they actually want their children to enter into toxic relationships that they wouldn't call toxic.

But any objective observer observer from the outside would say, you're only asking for pain and misery moving forward. If you're going to if you're going to enter it like that, where you feel like you've got a, you've got to take on added misery because you've been privileged. The balancing of the scales is more important than the love for your child.

Yeah. Yeah. And so I love the approach. I think that's one of the things that characterizes the difference between the left and us. It is they are ashamed of who they are. They are ashamed of their whiteness. They're ashamed of America's affluence. They are ashamed of our hegemony, the dominance that we have throughout the world. And they feel like we well, look at Barack Obama.

One of the first things he did as president of the United States was go on a world bowing tour. He he bowed before foreign nations. And I remember those of us on the right. It was kind of a collective whatever is, you know. What is this? Why would you go to another nation and bow to their leaders? And I think that was in indicative of their mentality, which is I'm ashamed of how much we have.

We just have it so good here. And look at the size of our carbon footprint. We need to go and and debase ourselves a little bit with these other countries. And I'm like, no, America. First we look out for our own. We look out for our own security. We look out for our own economy. We don't try to do it by screwing other nations, but we secure those things for a great life here in the United States of America.

Once we've secured that, let's try to help other nations get there as well, with their political systems and their economic systems, I have no problem exporting American affluence and greatness, but you have to secure your American affluence and greatness before you're in a in in a true capability to do that, put on your own oxygen mask mask first.

Well, I think it it's the faulty thinking of the left that they view everything as a zero sum game, that Julie, if you and I have something, it means somebody else doesn't have it. That there's just a finite amount of wealth and goodness and, and abundance that goes around and I don't that's not, that's not accurate at all.

At all. Yeah. So I, I like Trump I like his approach. I think it's great. And I'm excited for the announcement. This is turning out to be a little bit weird though. Usually there's some sort of podium set up and we we see like the pre-shot that's not happening anywhere. So I'm not sure how this announcement is coming out.

I yeah, I don't, I don't know either. I don't, I don't know, it's we're waiting. We're waiting on both ends. It's going to happen, you know, when it's going to happen. Exact. Exactly. Soon. That's what it's saying is soon. Yeah. So this, Thursday morning waiting game we're playing. We're waiting to figure out who the pope is.

We're waiting to figure out the exact announcement from the president. Yeah, we're. Yeah, we're on smoke watch today, so. Yeah. Yeah, I here's the thing. I'm interested in it because obviously it's a historic moment for the Catholic Church, but I'm not familiar with any of the cardinals, so it's sort of like watching a Super Bowl, but I have no idea of anything about the teams.

Like, we like, we like curling, but if they're not wearing shirts telling us where they're from, we don't know who to cheer for. We have no idea. No idea whatsoever. Yeah. So yeah, that's that's right. Now. Yeah I don't well I you caused me some PTSD this morning Julie because a lot you know with the news cycle. Yeah you kind of do.

But you made the reference to how there are different rounds of voting and we're like, maybe it's ranked choice voting. Yeah. They might go in there and go, okay, who who am I going to list? One, two, three, four. You get to list eight of your favorite Cardinals and then they do a like a round the bottom. The bottom vote getter gets kicked out.

Yeah. And then they reassign the votes of those ballots and redistribute them. And I'm getting nauseated just thinking about it. And, maybe, you know what? They're just playing games in there. Maybe there's just they're like, oh, let's leave everybody on edge. We already know who it's going to be. Yeah. And they all acknowledge it. And instead they're like up.

They're in a full blown bridge tournament. Yes. Yeah I know. Can we revisit that for just a minute? Sure. I had I don't know, I hadn't forgotten it, but I had kind of forgotten that element of proposition one and ranked choice voting. And I know we won that battle. Like, I don't know why I'm revisiting it because we won at 70 to 30.

We we destroyed them. They will never they're probably more twitchy than we are talking about. Yeah, that's ludicrous that they took the losing ballots. And if you were rewarded, if you chose a loser. Yeah, your ballot gets counted more often and more times. If you chose the loser, it's insane. That alone probably would have gotten the whole thing tossed.

And everybody knew. This is the thing. Everybody knew that that particular method of voting. Is about the lousiest way to to do it in. And I can't remember what the word is that there's actually a field of study where they study different voting methods. I'm glad I'm forgetting this actually. Usually I get frustrated. I'm actually happy that I forgot what that word is.

But they said it. It produces unexpected wonky results at the highest rate. Wow. Pathology I think is what they like a negative pathology and that. And that's exactly why you had liberals wanting it in Idaho. Because a weird, unexpected result for them might mean a far left Liberal wins the legislative seat. Yes. The whole thing was just going to be so harmful.

Yeah. And it's just not the way it should be done. Yeah. People invent these kind of issues. Yeah. To get a result that they can't get the legitimate way. And this isn't the only place we see this. It happens in other areas of life too. Yeah. And they just chose to implement it via ranked choice voting. Yeah. Across America and here we are.

Can job Idaho. Can I invent a new term retro rage. Yeah. Road rage. It's relitigating battles. You've already won. It's a form of celebration. I know it's it's true. I yes, man, we were invested in that. It took a lot of us. I can tell you there have been three topics that have dominated everything we've talked about in the eight years that you and I have worked together.

The first one Medicaid expansion. Oh yes. The second one, Covid third one ranked choice voting. That's true. That's true. It it did sort of take over. Was it as prevalent in the public mind as it was in Neil and Julie's mind? Covid absolutely was. Yeah that's true. Yeah. Covid it was I think the other two issues, which oddly enough, two of them were Reclaim Idaho's sham efforts.

And we were the watch men and women on the tower. You call me a watchman. I'm okay with it. Yeah. We were I think we were the ones on the tower going, you gotta look out for this because they're not telling you everything. Yep. They're not. So okay. 828 on Newstalk 107 still no. Press conference yet, but we're keeping an eye on things.

Will join. We're also watching for the smoke to rise from the Sistine Chapel. Could have two more votes today or three. Two more. Two. We've already had two failed ones this morning. Okay. All right, well, keep an eye on things. Plus, we've got some local stuff to talk about as well. That's all ahead on Newstalk 1078. It's 832 on Newstalk 179, Neil Larson and Julie Mason and you.

If you'd like to reach us on the Stones Automotive Group. Colin text line (208) 542-1079. Still no pressure yet about the UK USA trade deal, so let's talk about flowers and lawns and gardens and mulch and fertilizer and hanging baskets and. Well, the connection between those two is there's always a level of B.S. in both of those fertilizer. And that's true.

Yeah, that's true politics. Yeah. Yeah that's good. So it makes it makes a good segue. But whatever it is you need for your lawn and garden and even inside your home, if you're looking for a nice, plant to put in the corner in your living room, whatever, they can help you. And if you tell them, you know, I, I have an area.

It's by a window or it's not by a window. They'll help you with the plants that we're going to work out for your home. That, Now, Julie would probably kill it, but most people can probably keep. I have kept my my plant alive from town and country gardens. It's thriving. Actually needs repot it. It's grown so big.

Oh, really? Well, before you said that last part, I was going to ask you if it was plastic. But anyway, we've kept it alive. I went to the expert and I said, Nicole, what should I do? Because I kill everything. And she took me by the arm and led me to this plant. Okay. It's see, that's why you ask the ask the experts.

And it's the beta fish of, house plant. You can't kill it. You start somewhere. There's super hardy. Yeah. That's true. Town and country gardens. Be sure to ask about the four step lawn program while you're there. And also the Firefly petunias asked to see one. They'll take you into a dark room so you can see it glow in the dark.

It's really cool. They really are the place to get all of your lawn and garden needs. Town and country gardens, located south of Idaho Falls off Yellowstone Highway, across from the malt plant. Okay, Julie, while we're waiting, I saw yet another headline negative about Kilmer, Abrego, Garcia, and human trafficking. Like, the person in charge of him said, oh, yeah, we hired him to to to human traffic for.

Yeah, he was absolutely smuggling humans through Tennessee when he was pulled over. Like, well, at what point does the left go okay, we were wrong. Yeah, we got this one wrong. Well, they're not talking about it anymore. So I think that's their version of that. That's that's the best apology we've ever going to get out of them. All right, let's go to the phones.

Hi, caller. How are you? I'm great. How are you? Good. Doing well, today we talked tariffs. Sure. Go ahead. Well, I'm a manufacturer here in southeast Idaho. We manufacture fly fishing gear and I work with China, Korea, Pakistan, Japan. And so I felt the impacts of this. But I fully support Trump. Trump's Trump's job is not to make my life easier.

His job is to make America better. Yeah, I love that outlook. I, I got to tell you, I'm I'm grateful for people like you. We've we've had some people text in and to them, if they are negatively impacted at all financially then they're against it and they're they're opposed to it. And I'm I'm glad that you see that larger picture.

And it I think for a lot of people it's kind of cognitive dissonance because they, they might be harmed it a little bit in one area of their life, but they want the country as a whole to do well. And sometimes those things can be in conflict. So thank you. I think you're being a good example with that thought today.

Yeah. Well, manufacturers can get creative to figure out ways to do things to keep prices down too. So sometimes we have to we have to go back to the drawing board. And we haven't raised prices since pre-COVID. You know, because we've been able to get creative and doing different things and stuff. So can I ask you a question?

Because I'm really curious. You manufacture fly fishing equipment. I would imagine you did okay during Covid, right? Because people were encouraged to get outside and and they had spare time. We did. So the industry as a whole did phenomenal during Covid pre after Covid, the industry seeing a huge decline. So as an overall I think the industry was was down last year, whereas my company saw double digit growth.

Yeah. So we're we're creative and we're focused on certain things that help the consumer and that I think that's why we're still growing. Okay. Prepared. Well done. Good. Good for you. And if you want you can shout out your business on the show today. If you if you feel inclined to. Sure. Yeah I don't moonlit fly fishing here in southeast Idaho out of Pocatello.

Okay. All right. Very cool. What do you just absolutely love that. That to me sounds like you get to do your passion every day. I do. Absolutely. Yeah. Good for you. Yeah. Well, good. Thank you. Thanks for sharing your, your experience, Jay. Shoot it. He drummed up a thought in my mind. So, during Covid, manufacturing for my supplies, for my business shut down.

Yeah, I had a really hard time getting where supplies from the place that I was currently getting. In fact, I never got refunded about $1,500 worth of, that I had paid for and was and was never sent to me because I was getting it from Asia. And we actually interviewed Steve Yates during that time and he's like, oh, you're not going to get that.

That country has completely shut down. They took Covid that seriously. They're not in their factories. You are not going to get your supplies. Yeah. But you know what that did? It made me go searching for different supplies. I had to not be lazy. Yeah. So I started searching and searching and searching. I absolutely love my new supplier. Oh, good luck you.

It opens new doors. You can either whine and let it shut you down. Was that enjoyable? No. Did I lose some money? Yes. Because of Covid. Okay. Fix it. Yeah yeah yeah it can be a good thing. Yeah. I mean you and I can attest to. Yeah a door opens when a door closes. Yes it does. 838 Newstalk 170 still no press conference yet on the trade deal.

And we're still seeing the live shots of the stack. Smoke, smoke whatever. The conclave. Yeah, the conclave waiting for, some some smoke. So. All right, we'll be back after this. Yeah. All right. It's 844 on Newstalk 107. Hi. Neil Larson and Julie Mason. And, you know, Trump's usually late, but he's not usually this late. Yeah, I'm not sure why this was supposed to be at 830 8:00.

So we're 45 minutes behind. So we'll see. There we go. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Conclave trade UK. Speaking of the UK, Julie, this, I'm sure, is what caused James O'Keefe to make the video that he made last week about how I'm going to go off off grid for a while because I'm going to be threatened for what we're about to break and what broke overnight was that a crisis advisor to the royal family was very much inside their orbit.

Told the story of Prince Andrew once it was revealed that he was connected to Epstein, and there were allegations that he was doing things with underage girls. And I think we all know what doing things meant. And he he again, hidden camera, he's probably liquored up a little bit. And he's talking to an undercover O'Keefe reporter and he said, yeah, Prince Andrew was having sex with underage girls.

Now I watch this and obviously that's a big blockbuster story. But then at the same time, I'm like, I think we kind of already knew this. Like, this is not that big of a leap from what we were already suspecting Prince Andrew was involved in. It's pretty much just Ockham's razor, right? If you're going to guess at what kind of a person Prince Andrew is, we've had enough context clues that you would go, what's the if if we're going to talk about Prince Andrew, what's the biggest scandal around him?

This is where you're going to go. Yes. This is what you're going to say. Yeah. Now, I, I applaud the work that James O'Keefe and his his minions. I don't mean that disparagingly, but the people who work for him, that they do, because we discover lots of things that way. And, I, I'm not in the mood to hide anything for Prince Andrew, either.

This is the kind of person you are. Gross. So, yeah, I I've got zero problem with the fact that that this has been talked about and that James O'Keefe did it. I'm just not sure why he didn't. I just don't know why he took such a drastic stance a week ago, other than it being a publicity stunt. I think it was.

Yeah. And I think it was a way to build interest and and hype because they had a split shot. They had different camera angles and it just didn't. It did. It felt like it was a produced deal. But he says that in the coming days, there is going to be more coming up out about more people involved. So I don't know if he started with the big bombshell first to bring attention to the subsequent revelations.

Or is his strategy. We're just starting with Prince Andrew because it's a recognizable name, but the big bombshell is going to be saved for later. Like, I don't know how he's meeting this out. You know, Prince Andrew is the order of and there is a main course coming. Yeah. Right. And and furthermore or this is going to cause an issue in my mind, Julie, if O'Keefe is putting all of this stuff out, why isn't Pam Bondi putting all this stuff out?

She was asked about the Epstein list yesterday because we talked about audio from James Comer, who said they think that he believes that most of it's been destroyed. Yeah, burned or shredded or whatever. Well, she did come out yesterday and vaguely say there's thousands and thousands of documents and we're reviewing them. And that takes time. A little, which is not a very satisfactory answer for people who are like, really can't be that hard.

Scan all that junk into ChatGPT and or whatever secure AI source you have. Yeah. And start learning. Yes. And you could put out a preliminary report of details. You know, you can put out, and just say, this is preliminary. Here are some things that we are learning that we can tell you about. And and then meanwhile in the background, keep pouring through the documents, protect the identities and the reputations of the innocent, do all the things that you need to do, but at least give us something.

And because the more we we live in a very distrusting and conspiratorial age right now. And I'll tell you, there's a lot of people that are watching the delay on this Epstein stuff because it was promised it was going to come out. Even Trump's answer was kind of weird when he was pushed on this. So again, it's not me criticizing Trump, but there's weirdness around.

Yes. And, our theory is unless they're all in on it and they don't want themselves to be harmed by it, the the best explanation I could come up with is the people who will be harmed by it can cause great harm to our country because they have national security secrets and they've got a gun being held to Pam on his head or Trump's head, whatever.

And we don't want to put our country in peril just so we can find out. Who's on the Epstein list? Like, I, I would even understand that that you you would not want to have all of our secrets out there to China, to Russia, to Iran, to all of our enemies. That's that's too great a price to pay just so we can know who's on the Epstein list.

Okay, let's say that's true. What if they came out and actually copped to that? Said, you don't want to know what's on this list, and it's going to harm America, and we're going to have to keep it secret, at least for now. Yeah. How do you respond and how does the American public respond? Outrage. I'm not I wouldn't be outraged because I, I would kind of understand that.

I don't think that would be enough for the American people. Yeah. That's my thought is that they're backed into a corner. If they're brutally honest with it, it's not going to be enough. Yes. You're right. Well, it's a darned if you do or don't situation because if you if you announce it, they will pull the trigger on this.

And it would cause massive problems for whatever. They hold some cards. And that's the tough thing about all this. Yeah. So. Yeah. All right. 851 Newstalk 179. Let's let's break while we're still waiting for this press conference and still no smoke from the Sistine Chapel, there is a seagull, though, also interested in the outcome because it is standing right there like five feet away.

That seagull is very religious. This matters to him. It is. We should have. I make it into a dove. That would even have more religious. It would all be back into this. All right. 854. Let's join in progress. The Trump's and Trump's announcement from the Oval Office that because it's been a great ally, truly one of our great allies, I mean, a lot of people say our greatest ally, I don't want to insult people by saying that, but I can say it's certainly one of our greatest and right at the top, and they're the first one we're talking about.

And by the way, we have many meetings planned today and tomorrow. And, every country wants to be making deals. And we have a meeting. As you know, Scott will be going over to Switzerland on Saturday. That'll be very, very interesting was find out. But I think they want to make a deal very badly. Do both countries have agreed that the economic security is national secured, and we'll be working together as allies to ensure that we have a strong industrial base and appropriate export controls and protections for key technologies and industries like steel.

Steel is a big factor. Both countries will become stronger with steel and things necessary for military. You know, we used to build ships and other things, literally at a level that nobody's ever seen. And, we haven't we've eased up. And I would say that the UK certainly eased up, but now we're going to be unleashing both.

And we work together once again. I want to thank Prime Minister Starmer. He's been terrific for his partnership in this matter. The special relationship and external bond. It's really an external and an internal relationship. I want to just say that the representatives of UK have been so professional and, it's been an honor doing business with all of them, and in particular the Prime minister.

And I'd like to introduce him now to say a few words. Mr. Prime Minister, please take it away. Thank you, Mr. President. Donald. And, this is a really fantastic, historic day, which we can announce, this deal between our two great countries and I think is a real tribute, to, the history that we have of working so closely.

Together. Can I pay tribute, Donald, to your negotiating team as well, particularly Howard and James, who've done an incredible job, a very professional job. And my team as well, two negotiating teams have worked up pace now, for a number of weeks to bring in this, deal, today, really important deal. This is going to boost trade, between and across our countries.

It's going to not only protect jobs, but create jobs. Opening market access. And, as you say, Donald, the timing couldn't be more, because not only was it 80 years ago today, that, victory, came for Europe after but at the end of the Second World War. But of course, on that day, the UK and the US stood together as the closest of allies of Donald.

I think, they went down to the island because, you may or may not know what it was about this time of day, exactly 80 years ago, for Winston Churchill about, Victory Day in Europe. And that led to great celebrations, across Europe, across America, but particularly in the United Kingdom. Literally people going out into the streets, putting on a cigar, going up to the palace.

And, so to be able to put out this great deal, on the same day, 80 years forward, almost at the same hour, and as we were 18 years ago when the UK, the U.S. fighting side by side, I think is incredibly important to makes this truly historic, that close relationship with England over those 18 years.

You know, so when it comes to defense and security and intelligence sharing, of course there are no two countries that are closer than our two countries. But now we take this into, new and important territory by adding trade of the economy to the closeness of our relationship. It it felt, as you say, all of those nations have said that, reciprocal arrangements.

We've always had a fair and balanced arrangement between our countries. They say all right, that's the voice of Keir Starmer. He is the prime minister of the UK. Also, President Trump spoke just before him announcing a big, beautiful, big historic trade deal with the UK. I'm sure there's a lot of details to unpack with it, but essentially it's designed to reduce the red tape, between the two countries.

So good win for Trump today. Great. Great job. Like this I really believe this is the domino. Our two coming up. 907 on Newstalk 1079. And here's what Trump said on his social media earlier this morning. The agreement with the United Kingdom is a full and comprehensive one that will cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come.

Because of our long time history and allegiance together, it is a great honor to have the United Kingdom as our first announcement. Many other deals which are in serious stages of negotiation to follow. So okay, so the press conference had him speaking with a leader from the UK. Keir Starmer is the prime minister. Okay. So yeah. They did that.

Now you've got Jamison Greer. He's a U.S. Trade representative. He's speaking. Let's let's listen in. And they're moving to Greer right now. I just have to echo the president, the prime minister, and we talk about V day. This is something we've been waiting for for decades, and there is no more appropriate day to do this. And when we step back and we look back a few weeks from now or months from now or years from now, we're looking back at this day and and better appreciate the significance.

I think, and I'll just say as well, in terms of negotiating, I mean, the UK negotiators, you know, we we've got we got one right here, did an incredible job. Right. This is why this is why you win wars, right? When you act like this. And, the ambassador, he knows more about trade than a lot of us, here, based on his background and I would say on this deal, Mr. President, what we've shown is that it is time to change the way we do trade.

People said we couldn't do, a global tariff. We did a global tariff. They said no one would want to deal with us. People want a deal. They said no one give offers. You saw that stack of offers I showed you yesterday. All those countries said we wouldn't get deals. And here we are with the deal with the six largest economy.

We've agreed to have fair reciprocal trade and we've done it in record time. Thank you sir. Great job. Thank you sir. Term best swap Mr. President. Thank you very much indeed. And, hosting us this morning. And thank you very much indeed also for that very typical 11th hour intervention by you with your phone call to the president, demanding even more out of this deal, than any of us expected.

So thank you for that, Prime Minister. It delighted, obviously, to take that call tonight. But you took it to another level. And I think the point I would make is, is twofold. One is that if we're going to rebalance and rebuild international trade, in a way that serves all our interests, then we're better doing that together than separately and under part.

And that's what we're on a mission to do. But secondly, you've done what you said you would do. You said to the Prime minister, when, he came, we visited in the Oval, that you would do a good trade deal with the United Kingdom, that you would do it at pace and that we would be first.

And you have delivered that, and you've been true to your word. So thank you very much indeed for that. For us, it's, not the end. It's the sort of the end, just as the beginning. I mean, there is yet more we can do in reducing, tariffs and trade barriers so as to open up, markets, to each other even more than we're agreeing to do today.

But it also provides us with the platform, the springboard, to do what I think will be even more valuable for both our countries in the future. And that's creating a, a technology partnership between the United States and the United Kingdom, so that we can harness science and technology in order to create future industries and future jobs, and to do that together in the way we work so closely already in the national security and defense, area.

We can just take that to yet further areas of science, enterprise and endeavor. So we're looking forward to doing that in the, coming months. You've launched us extremely well, today, it just, in my view, as the Prime Minister has said, just shows what two countries who trust each other, who are confident in each other and are familiar with each other, can do not just for ourselves, but for those the rest of the world who need to benefit from a bigger and better international trading system.

All right, that was Lord Peter Mandelson. He's the, ambassador to the United States. Lord Peter, thank you, Lord Peter. My favorite part of that was that this this is a broadcast to everyone else when he says two countries that trust one another. Yes. It's like looking at somebody and going, this is my best friend and announcing it to everybody else.

Yeah. Like telling them all you guys snooze, you lose. Look at what we're building here. Yeah that that's true. And I think that's a good point. They don't want to be other countries. You're not going to want to be left behind. No good good win for Trump I you know it's interesting because I, I think that you have the optics.

Can we talk about the politics of it? I know that's a little seedy, but the Democrats want to behave like Donald Trump is illegitimate, that he's not to be taken seriously, but yet he just got off the phone with the British prime minister. Yeah, we just heard from the British ambassador to the United States speaking Trump's praises.

And how good of a deal this is for both countries. And both sides are speaking it's praises. I guess my question that I'll ask to the ether, the ethereal Democrat listening out there, how many of these will it take for you to finally acknowledge that Donald Trump is very, very good at this? The answer is there isn't never.

It's limitless. Yeah. They will never bow. How like how, at some point, why won't they say, okay, I don't like the guy, but he is delivering. There are times when I've done that with Bill Clinton, for instance. Didn't really like the guy. Some things about him disgusted me, but he was pretty good at some things. And and he delivered on some, some, issues that I think that I would even say benefited the American people.

Barack Obama didn't do a whole lot for the country, but I would acknowledge his strengths at times. And but the left, they can say absolutely nothing good about him, which I think there is legitimacy to this idea that Trump Derangement Syndrome might be a little bit more than just a mocking joke. I think there may be some level of mental illness among the left when they can't see a morning like this.

With this big historic announcement about trade, and things are now kind of stabilized and starting to move in the right direction. Like Trump strategy calls for. And just acknowledge that, like, I don't I don't understand how you can't look at a math problem and go, I don't like that two plus two equals four, but two plus two equals four.

Yeah. Well I don't know about the Trump Derangement Syndrome as a specific psychological diagnosis. But there is absolutely a commitment of irrational behavior towards inanimate objects. Like I'm sure there's a diagnosis for that. Yeah. And and people attach themselves to politics as if it's a religion or a god and you will not go against it. And the irony here is those same people are always accusing people who voted for Trump of, engaging in cult like behavior.

Oh, it's this is the yeah, this is the epitome of cult like behavior that you have to hate something so much. You're so subscribed to it, you're so invested you can't even see any good. Look, I, I will acknowledge that Trump has some sycophants. I no doubt about it. I'm. I'm a big fan of Trump, but I have my limits with him.

But I think there are some that would run over a cliff with him. Yes. And that that kind of scares me a little bit, no doubt about it. But there is a cult of hatred against Donald Trump that is every bit as toxic, every bit as mind controlling, every bit as dangerous as anything that they're projecting onto the other side.

Yeah, just compare it to other religious cults. Not all religious cults include, like death and sexual malfeasance like that. There's other cult like behavior. All you have to do, you can look it up on ChatGPT. I did a story on my podcast about cult behavior. There's some I believe there's eight signs, and if you have a certain amount of those signs involved in your behavior, you're probably in a cult.

Yeah. Hey, these people are engaged in that kind of behavior. You know, when you look at the, Well, Julie, you can look at on the right, some people get obsessed with, like, the Book of Revelations and End times and apocalyptic thinking, and sometimes they go out and buy remote land and build a compound and stock up supplies because they're certain that it's coming.

Right. That is an end times cult. Is that all that different then people on the left who are obsessed with climate change and rising sea levels and warming temperatures, and it's an existential threat to the planet? Are those two things really that much different because they're they're predicting the end of the end of end of days, they're predicting end times, and and the end of the earth is coming.

It's not any different. It's just on different ends of the political spectrum. Yes. And when you can suspend reality like those people who are involved in the cult like behavior with the end of times because of climate change. Yeah. When they decide that they hate someone ala Elon Musk, all of a sudden this glorious machinery that Elon Musk creates is evil and bad.

Yes. Even though it's solving the problem, you say that you're so religiously connected to. Yeah, well, there's no there's no rhyme or reason there. Right now they are actually taking questions inside the Oval Office. So let's tune in to some of the Q and A here. Reducing of tariffs from 19 to 0, which for our road croppers is a huge deal.

But also for beef. And as we move forward I know our incredible trade. By the way, this is Brooke Rowland. She's the ag secretary. Really all of our agriculture exports. And I don't know if there's an industry that has been treated more unfairly and has suffered more than our agriculture industry. So we look forward to I'll be in the UK on Monday, talking to my counterpart over there for the next really for next week.

And I look forward to to moving that out across the country. The president is I think we can say that we have the best in the world, best tractors, the best everything in the world. And, they say that our agriculture is, you know, second to none, you understand? And it'll be a great asset. People are going to be able to have up options choice and they'll have more of it.

And that usually means lower prices. How about will do you. And then you've got a question, for the Italian TV that looking for at least 70,000 front end media. So congratulations for the deal. Will see a big revenues from the chart. But what's the rest of Europe there? It's a victory day. But other European countries are. It seems like they're losing three and ten to make a deal with Europe.

We have found that the European Union treated us extremely unfairly and very difficult and hurt themselves in doing so, and they very much want to make a deal. We'll be dealing with them. We are dealing with them currently. So that will cover, pretty much the rest of it. But this was separate because of Brexit in particular.

You know, this was a separate a separate deal. And it always seemed so natural. I mean, no other media would say that this seemed to be like, why did this happen 25 years? Why did it happened a long time ago? And it was always, amazing to me that somebody would say, hey, we got to make a deal, we have to make a deal.

But this deal just fell into place. The Prime Minister did a fantastic job. His representatives are terrible professionals, and they got along well, and it just seemed to work. And I think one of the reasons it did is because we blew up the whole system. If we would have just been dealing with you separately or, you know, country by country, when we blew up, the whole system was very fair to the united and very unfair to the United States.

And I think because of that, this worked out so nicely, and I'm honored that it was the first deal. Please, sir, you mentioned well, why don't you go in the back? Yes. Oh thank you sir. It's, I'm with the London Times. I would say this is a great day for James Bond because now, as the masters will be available to American, it even better by extending it to Phil.

We've talked about big tariff on films and we'd like some have to be released. Well we're going to have a discussion of that separately. And as you know, we're putting tariffs on that particular film, he said. And the movie makers and we're going to be doing some tariffs to get that, because a lot of them have left this country.

They all live here. The money comes from here, everything comes from here. But they may come in other countries. So we're going to do something to bring them back. Maybe to a large extent. But, James Bond has nothing to worry about that I can tell you. And, you know, Sean Connery was a friend of mine. Sean Connery was responsible for my getting zoning in Aberdeen.

He said, let the bloody bloke build his golf courses. I was like four years into the process and it was impossible in Aberdeen. And he, I don't know, he just stood up one day and he said that as soon as he said that, I got the approvals in about two minutes. So yeah, a great deal was a great guy, Sean Connery.

And he if they got enough likes in the air, are you going to Scotland? And I will be sure to go ahead. And we have a lot of investment over there. We have Turnberry, Aberdeen, we have, as you know, and doing big in Ireland right on the ocean. They're all in the ocean. I only have interest if they're on the ocean.

And, we have we have good investments over. They've been beautiful. Yes. Mr. president, if the talks go well this weekend between Secretary Best and Ambassador Graham with their Chinese counterparts, not preemptively, but if the talks go well, would you then consider lowering the tariff rate on China? Well, it could be. I mean, we're going to see right now you can't get any higher.

It's at 145. So we know it's coming down. I think we're going to have a very good relationship. You know, I, I always got along very well with President XI. That relationship was greatly disturbed by Covid when Covid came in. But we get along very well now. I mean, we had a I mean, the relationship was hurt with a lot of people, a lot of countries when Covid came in.

But, I think we're going to have a very good relationship. I expect to have a very good relationship with China. Scott. I think, it's a very friendly meeting. They look forward to, doing it in an elegant way. China, as you know, has a tremendous trade surplus with us. And we can't, you know, we just can't have that.

And, but I think it's going to I think it's going to be very good for both countries. I would like to see China opened. You know, one of the big things here is and nobody would know this, but the UK was largely closed. It was very much closed to trade. And now it's opened. And a lot of the financial reporters aren't very happy about that because so much I would listen to them.

I hope they get countries opened up and then you compete in a fair basis, but you can't compete when you're not allowed to go there. China would be the number one example of that. You know, it's very close. We almost had it last time before Covid, and that didn't work out. But we made a great deal with China.

They had about $50 billion worth of our food products, and it was a great deal doing very well for our farmers. And then when Biden came in, as usual, nothing happened. You know, he didn't enforce it. And it got less, less, less. And ultimately, you know, destroyed a great deal. That was a great deal. But, no, I think that we're going to have a I think we're going to have a good weekend with China.

I think they have a lot to gain. I do think they have far more to gain than we do in a sense. But, we're going to have a good I think we're going to have a very good week. When you speak to XI after the weekend talks, I mean, yeah, sure. Depending on what Scott says, we sort of, Scott is doing certain countries and Howard is doing certain countries.

I mean, I wish I had like ten more of each week then we could do them all at one time. But there will be a time we'll do we'll do a number of them, and then there'll be a time. I think I can say this, Scott, an hour where we're just going to say, because we understand the countries, we understand what they want, we're we're just going to make the deal.

In other words, we don't need the country involvement because we've already had it. And we'll say this particular country, which had big surpluses, let's say we had therefore, deficits, that this particular country is going to pay a 25% tariff or 30% or 50% or 10% or whatever it may be. This was I think we should explain it now that one of the things we did here that will rarely do is on cars.

We took it from 25 to 10 on Rolls-Royce, because Rolls-Royce is not going to be built here. I wouldn't even ask them to do that. It's a very special car, and it's a very limited number to. It's not, you know, one of the one of the monster car companies that makes millions of cars. They make a very small number of cars that are super luxury, and that includes Bentley and Jaguar.

So we have, some very special cars. So in order to help that industry and that's, really, you know, handmade stuff. And they've been doing it for a long time in the same location. And I said, yeah, that would be let's help them out with that one. But that's different than a car company that, comes out and makes millions of cars, which they'll be doing in our country.

They're going to build it. All right. It's 926 on Newstalk 117, getting up to to, take a break. So this is a great example that Rolls Royce a moment where Trump goes in and he's a firebrand and he sort of sets a tone, but he'll deal. He'll look at it and go, yeah, Rolls Royce is never going to pick up a lot of market share in the United States.

They don't make enough cars for them to hurt Ford or Chevy or whatever. You know, local area, not local, but National car company. So he's I mean, like, he's not he's not unbending about it. He acts that way at the beginning. But then he's like, you know, that's a that's a I got it's something I can offer back to you to get a concession out of you.

Right, right. I think this I'm looking at a chart that Donald Trump put out on True Social and then obviously has been reshared on X showing just the details of what's going on. So, the UK tariffs used to be 5.1%. They're now down to 1.8% okay. So that's the change there. The use of tariffs. The U.S. tariffs used to be 3.4%.

They're now up to 10% okay. Which is going to be the tariff revenue that Trump is expecting is going to be somewhere around $6 billion. Okay okay. We're we're taking care of America with that. And now we have access to the UK market in things like ethanol, beef, cereals, fruits, vegetables, animal feed, tobacco, soft drinks, shellfish, textiles, chemicals, machinery.

And then he writes more because I'm sure that's not an exhaustive list. Yeah, but for the for people who have been kind of running around with their heads on fire thinking we're going to run out, the grocery stores are going to be empty. No, that is not going to happen. And it's deals like this that will make sure that doesn't happen.

Yeah, yeah. It's true. Do you think Julie food for thought question here. The threat of the tariffs being very painful have expedited this process. Oh sure sure thing. That's actually an important element of it. Yeah. It's 928 Panama. Panama. I just sent you an email. Okay. Concerning, an opportunity for your daughter to sing somewhere.

Oh, now, Trump saying we're going to have a good weekend with China. He's feeling positive about the talks. Of course he's going to say that. But yeah, I hope it's right. But I hope it's accurate. Okay. While he reads that you guys I saw a story on East Idaho News. It said Krispy Kreme partnership with McDonald's to sell its donuts at all of the burger chain's U.S restaurants didn't turn out as sweet as it thought.

The donut chain announced in its earnings release on Thursday that it is reassessing the deployment of the rollout, with the partnership pausing at 2400 locations. The deal was intended to expand the reach of Krispy Kreme, which has far fewer locations than McDonald's and relies on grocery and convenience stores for most of its sell. So they have brick and mortar buildings.

But they they send those donuts out to grocery stores and convenience stores. So their idea was that they were going to put these donuts and have them sold it, roughly about 13,000 McDonald's restaurants. And that would all come online by the end of 2026. Now they're saying, oh, not so fast. We don't think we're going to be profitable with it.

Would you buy a Krispy Kreme donut at McDonald's? Would you have added that to your order? Maybe, I don't know, maybe. Want to hear my unpopular opinion about Krispy Kreme donuts? Yeah. Go for it. They're only good when they're hot. A Krispy Kreme donut in the grocery store or at the convenience store is very subpar. So what is different about their glaze, like the the flavors different?

Like what do they do it. Do you know what I'm saying? Super sugary. Yeah, it's very sugary, but I it's I don't know, they put something in it. But yeah, I would agree with you. I mean the almond does it almost. Well they I would doubt they would do that because of nut allergies maybe. But could you have almond extract and an artificial.

Yeah, probably. Yeah. It could be that I don't know. I just don't like a Krispy Kreme donut unless I'm at the brick and mortar and it's hot and it's warm. Yeah. Yeah. Well I already know your answer. I was going to ask you, if you have donuts like at home, do you pop it in the microwave for like eight seconds so it warms up.

Okay. I don't eat leftover donuts. You don't, you do. I feel like donuts have a very, very short shelf life. Yeah. That's true. I have been known to refresh a donut in the microwave for.

Yeah. Stephanie is reminding us that Wendy's has Cinnabon. Oh, yeah? Yeah. So maybe they're looking at that and seeing maybe Cinnabon is not doing so well. And this isn't that great of a pairing. Possibly. Okay. Because Cinnabon and Krispy Kreme actually have very similar models. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Is Krispy Kreme still because what 1520 years ago they were the big.

Are they still or I don't know have trends moved on to something else. I haven't had a Krispy Kreme donut in. It's been a while three years. Four years. Yeah pre-COVID. Let's be honest I'm sure it was. Yeah I would get a Krispy Kreme donut every once in a while when I was down seeing my daughter, because the condo that she lived in, there was three quarters of a mile from Krispy Kreme.

Okay. Very close. 933 on Newstalk 1079 are still along with Julie Mason and so that's going to be the big story today that the, Trump deal with the UK and the United States is, big first step. And I think it will this calm Wall Street jitters a little bit like because I think part of the reason why Wall Street's been so volatile in the last few weeks is because there's uncertainty, not so much because the real economic situation is dire, as opposed to what are the expectations of investors and traders?

And and I think when Trump moves things in the direction of sealing deals, I think that actually brings more stability and more investment in the market. I think it absolutely is completely connected to the market. I think this is exactly what people were looking for. I was asking for this two weeks ago. If you remember, I was saying he needs to announce set deals.

He knew he needs to do something. And so that's here today. I think that stabilizes the market even more. By the way, it has been stabilizing. We did our is anybody talking about that. No no no no no. But it already has been stabilizing. And so I think it stabilizes it even more. Can you imagine if he can come home from this trip and make great progress with Ukraine and great progress with the trade deals and China?

Hey, that is going to give a lot of consumer confidence. Yeah, I, I agree, I, I think it's all all positive here. Let's go to the phones. Hi caller how are you today. Good. How are you doing today. Good good. Hanging in there. Well, now that we have some agreement with Great Britain, how long do you think it will take us to come to something with Canada and Mexico?

I don't I have no idea what the timelines are on those, but I think it will probably happen pretty quick. It sounds like there is a multi-pronged, simultaneous effort here and, you know, but in terms of what's going on behind this, I have no idea, but I bet it's I bet it's pretty quick. I bet it'll happen pretty quickly.

I mean, just one real quick question that you discussed education yesterday quite a bit. Do you have any facts on what it costs to, teach students here in Bonneville County? 9193 yes. I'm going off memory here. Julie's going to look up the actual numbers, but I think it was around 14 in district 91 and 11 and change in district 93.

Okay, good. So good. Well, you two have a fantastic day and thank you for your program. Well thank you. Appreciate you calling in (208) 542-1278. So Bonneville Scudder School District 93 and then the Blackfoot School District have very similar numbers. Just over 11,000 per student in Bonneville. Blackfoot is almost 12,000 11,800, basically. And then let me check Idaho Falls School District take told please 15,000 302 and Jefferson County is 15,000 965 per kid.

Per kid. I was I was explaining this to Neal over the break. One of our breaks that I had a conversation about this report with an educator. So some of the variances, we talked a lot about demographics because we were asking the question, why is it so, much less in Madison County? Yeah. So there's there's reasons that add into all of it, the assumption built into this report, and we'd have to check.

But the assumption built into this report is this is an average of the cost of students. So if you have a special needs population that is higher than other districts, you are going to have a higher cost per student just simply because it might cost the average kid maybe $12,000 to be educated. A special needs student is more like $50,000.

Yeah. So the the the bigger or more voluminous their special needs programs, the higher that's going to go. Also we talked about the packages for the teachers. If the teachers are paid more and their benefits packages are better, like they have better compensation on their insurance and everything that's going to raise the cost per student as well.

So you're looking at differences there. And district 91 does have that beefed up. Insurance policy for their teachers. So it would be interesting to know how much of that have they pulled from different funds to pay for, and how much of that actually gets transferred to the per student ratio? So the question that I have and again, I don't I don't know the answers to these, but I guess I'm just curious if you work in another state position like the Idaho Transportation Department or if you're an Idaho state trooper, the state just has a basic state health insurance plan, right, that a state employees get.

Why do teachers have a different health insurance plan? And it seems to vary district by district, I don't know. That would be great. And that would be a great question for Paul. We did, Paul Harkey, we did interview him about this once, but I distinctly remember we were in the other studio, which means it was like a year and a half ago or so.

So it's been a minute. And, he referenced that they had to really do some tetra sync to get that better insurance upgrade for their teachers to be an incentive to, fill some positions there. So I don't know the answer to that. I don't know why. Maybe they do have a standard and district 91 did just like an above and beyond.

Maybe, I don't know. Okay. I, I think if you follow this, it's the unions because the unions come along and that can be district by district and they negotiate for different which again, do you know how much inefficiency is built into that? Yeah. If you just said, here's the state insurance plan, everybody gets the same offering when it comes to health insurance.

Like I, I wonder how much money we could save with that with that alone. Yeah. It's very interesting that you asked me that question because we had to stop the conversation we were having because we had to go back on air. Yeah. So one of the things that I brainstormed with this educator was that standardization would actually save the state money.

Yeah. We have a very, open ended approach to education in Idaho, meaning let the school districts decide what they want to do. There's positives to that and there's negatives to that. Some of the positives are it's very, parent driven, meaning this school district has a certain demographic and they want things done a certain way. So that's the good side of that.

The downside of that is you got a lot of duplicate processes going all over the place. And that that cost money. Massive redundancy. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's true. And that's a good point. Okay. All right. Well 941 Newstalk 109 got to break away here for just a bit, but we will, come back if you'd like to reach us on the Stones Automotive Group.

Collin Text Line, that's (208) 542-1079. Okay, I did ask that educator the question that you had posed about the payroll. Yeah. And she said she does believe every school district does their own. And that could be one standardization that could happen. Why would they do that? I don't know, I mean, you need somebody that would, you know, if a teacher moves in human resources.

Yeah, you'd need a human resources person, but to input their hours or their weekly. You know, we have a weekly payroll process here. Sometimes if you paid for something out of pocket, you get reimbursed in your paycheck. You know, whatever. You need people locally to, to submit those things. But just to cut checks and to I mean, that just seems like you could totally do that on the state level.

I don't know why, I don't know. She did mention that there are states that are far more standardized and that, she would recommend legislators and Debbie Critchfield and everybody really deeply examining those states for the positive and negatives from that her. If she was a betting woman, she would bet that standardization in Idaho would be very beneficial.

Yeah. And you know what? The teachers may like it more to I can't imagine how hard it is. Freshly graduating from a school in Idaho and then giving you, let's say, a third grade class. And that's your first, you know, I'm the big I'm the big kid now. I'm doing it all. And they look at you and go, okay, go do your lesson plans.

Have fun. That would be overwhelming. Yes it would. Yeah, it really would. Year 22. Some of these some of these girls are 21 because they got their associate's degree and. Oh, yeah. True I that's overwhelming. Yeah I can't imagine. And some of them are equipped to do it. Some will do a great job. But what's the best for the kid.

That's the question to be asking. What's the best for the kid? Well, and I've always felt there are some kids when we talk about students teacher ratios. In general, I think that there is an ideal student to teacher ratio, but there are kids that will thrive in a self-guided technology driven in by like they can, you know, they can go through a virtual set of, lessons and learn a lot and do great.

Why don't we shepherd the kids that will thrive in that environment, to that environment? I, I, I don't know why that's that's a that feels like a no brainer. Not that they wouldn't have access to a teacher, but it would be less of a burden on the teacher. I think we experienced something in Idaho, and I don't know if it's unique to Idaho, but I think here we experienced, we've built this thing and it's a beautiful thing.

And look at our private education system. And we have put so much into it and we're doing it and it it might not be perfect, but it is good. And don't don't touch it. It's gentle. Don't touch it. Yeah. Times have changed. Your education system that you built three and four decades ago needs an update. Yeah. They don't want one.

Yeah I you know I do I will say I think that there are some superintendents that are I think charter schools were a big wake up call and they knew okay parents now have a choice. Because in Idaho I remember growing up private schools were always somewhere else like in there. And the homeschooling was just a weird concept, like you heard a little bit about it, but nobody was doing it.

But they also weren't teaching crazy weird stuff in school either back then. I mean, it really was kind of reading, writing and arithmetic, and so there just wasn't. Everybody was fine with that. What was I going I don't know, I just, I feel like today's education environment, once the loyalty that it's traditionally enjoyed, but they're not doing the things that led to the loyalty.

Yeah. They're now trying to inject all, you know what? It's wokeism. It's progressivism. It made its way into K through 12 education. And now they're trying to teach our kids about gender and sexuality at young ages. That I think is probably the biggest driver of parents wanting to get their kids out. Yeah, I would say that, too, that the parents were willing to work with, maybe the, you know, the inefficiency and whatever.

But when you start messing with the kid's mind. And messing is the, the, the word there that can be switched. Yeah. If you enrich a kid's mind. Oh yeah. You mess with the kid's mind. Well it's the difference between teaching them what to think and teaching them how to think. And we need to create nimble, independent brains, not clones.

And I think the system has become more interested in creating clones. You have to think a certain way on climate change, have to think certainly on gender, have to. And I, you know what, though, here's the thing. It's it's the same thing. One door closes, other doors open. I think we're seeing education innovation that is going to be revolutionary.

I think when you combine it with what I can offer, the fact that kids embrace technology very, very quickly, far faster than then grown adults do. I really think education looks completely different in 5 to 10 years. And, and it'll be weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth because every big adaptation results in that. But I think, I think we're we're actually headed for an education renaissance.

If we if we just keep going down this path. The really vindictive part of Julie wants to look at those teachers unions and go, oh, you got what you deserved. You destroyed children for two straight years and Covid. Yeah. And now you're mad that people are on to you and they want to leave. Yeah. Good point. 1109 48 on Newstalk 179.

Do you know what I think I'm going to do this weekend? Julie, tell me, I'm going to head out to town and country Gardens, get some tomatoes and plant them in my tomato buckets. I'll be getting some soil, some the right fertilizer for it. Price some gravel in the bottom for drainage, and I'm going to do it right this time.

I actually talked with Rex about this a few weeks ago when I went to to visit, and I said, you know, I, I tried this a couple of years ago and my tomatoes just struggled all year long. They weren't totally dead, but they just never thrived. And he started asking me a couple of questions, and I answered him and we figured out the problem and and know why I didn't thrive.

So with those modifications this year, I'll move forward with the the potted because I love fresh tomatoes. Like I absolutely love fresh tomatoes. So I look forward to that. So I think that's going to be my one of my little outside projects this weekend. That's fun. And you're going to get everything you need at Town and Country Gardens because they'll have all that.

Yes they will the fertilizer, they'll have everything that you need to prep that soil and to make that a positive experience this time around. Maybe tomatoes aren't your thing, but you want to do something else. Maybe you need some help with your potted plants and they get too sun where I too much sun where I put them or something like that.

Ask they'll help you. Yeah. And there's different varieties of flowers in those potted arrangements. Make sure you get the right ones for where you're putting the pots. Not just the ones that you think are pretty. Yeah, like ask the questions and you're going to have a much more successful summer season. I actually think that that may be one of the most underused things they offer at town and country, which is their expertise.

And every one of us who's done any gardening or yard yard stuff has a frustration like they can't get the, the, the blossoms to whatever, you know, and and that's when you just need to start asking questions. It's almost like a doctor, but they don't charge you like a doctor, right. And they're going to become friends. Yes. Hey, great staff there.

Rex is awesome. We love everything from town and country gardens, so visit them there. South of Idaho Falls, across from the malting plant on Yellowstone Highway. Okay. It's coming up on 951 now on Newstalk 1079 and still no smoke Oak, but I are they actively in the conclave right now or as they're doing it later this afternoon.

So between each vote they take breaks. Yeah. And I do know that there was a, like a lunch break that was supposed to be three hours long. They might be in the middle of that. I'm not sure how what our time difference is. Maybe that already happened and now they're doing an afternoon break. I'm not sure. But they do take breaks between each vote.

But there are two more votes that can happen today. Okay. All right. Now they have the constant steady shot on the smoke pipe at the Vatican. But I don't know if the smoke could come at any time because I don't know if they're where they're at in the process. But you know what? It makes people go, ooh hoo, what's happening?

Let's watch. Keep checking. Keep checking in. Which is, you know, yeah, it's like clickbait.

They're good at it. They've been running it the whole day. They absolutely are. All right. We're going to break and we'll come back. We'll wrap up the hour here just a few minutes away here on Newstalk 179. Okay. Have you watched the video of the pet raccoon in the filthy, filthy car? No. Is this the one that had the crack pipe?

Yeah, I heard about it. Oh my goodness, he knows what he's doing. The raccoon is holding the crack pipe in his little teeny paws, appropriately to his mouth, trying to mimic his owner, which is a a very sad and unfortunate, commentary on what happens when people do meth. Because she looks like she does. She's older, probably not as old as she looks like.

It's a sad situation and this car is disgusting, but she's done. And I don't know if the raccoon knows how to do it. Okay, okay. That's weird. Yeah. That's weird. Yeah, I bet that cop in Ohio was like, well, I thought I had seen everything. Nope. Today topped it today topped it. I seen a raccoon try to smoke meth.

Do you think it's actually addicted to it or is it just mimicking? I bet it's just mimicking. But who knows, maybe. Oh, yeah. Boy, more anti-Israel protesters at Columbia. Yeah, they locked him in last night. And made them all show IDs. They had vandals at the library. So they locked him in there and they let him out one by one.

And then he arrested several of them. Yeah. Good. Send him home if they're here. Foreign. Yeah. Marco Rubio is very been proactive saying they're reviewing the visas. So do we have good weather this weekend? I don't know, I was just thinking about that when I was talking about the tomatoes, I think. So I checked 3 or 4 days.

Oh yeah. It looks good. Yes it does 80 degrees on Saturday and sunny. Okay. Yeah I got to have some outside time. Yeah I've had too much inside time the last few days. I haven't walked outside for my workout any of the days this week, and I think I will be able to go for a walk at about 530 tonight.

So I think that's what I'm going to do. Okay, looks like we do have a storm coming Tuesday Wednesday though. Yeah that's a good weekend. That's a very good look okay. So we have 2 or 3 minutes which last three minutes. Did we have any clips we didn't use that were good. We have the one where Bezzant triggered that Democrat and said well one believes that it was oh Joe Biden okay.

Did he totally missed the whole he took it is it wasn't a legit election. I took it as he was half witted. Yeah. Meaning somebody else was controlling the auto pen. Somebody else was doing everything. Yes. Yeah. And he, Besson's my take on here. Hold on. We got to go on. It's 956. So this happened in a House committee hearing.

Yeah it was a yesterday I think so. Anyway, Scott Besson, the Treasury secretary, was being grilled by a Democrat and, let me start this. While the president has taken a very hard line. My apologies. Here it is. Hold on. Who was the president who has been the president since January 20th, 2025, Donald J. Trump. Okay.

And who was the president in 2024? The one believes President Biden once believed, you one of those nonbelievers that the election the American people didn't vote. I, I am not you're not you said one believes, it's triggers. Do you believe in the Constitution of the United States? Mr.. I believe in the Constitution of the United States.

So you believe in without any second thought. You don't have to think about it. You believe in it and you will abide by it. Is that correct? I have and I do, sir. Okay. What do you know that a president has said? He may or may not. He don't know. Let me ask this question. I can't I couldn't believe my he just lost it.

Yeah. And I don't even think he got the joke. Yeah. He he went to the election results. That's not the way I interpreted what he was saying. Yeah. What he said one believes he's referencing that we had a dementia ridden president. Yeah. And so somebody else was running. The president was really in charge. Yes. Like, well, when one believes that it was Joe Biden, but he had handlers that were.

Yeah, it wasn't a commentary on the 2020 election. It was the commentary on the auto pen. I just wanted to clear so dance decision to withdraw it like. Yeah, well, he is. However, is this a methinks thou dost protest too much moment where Besson was over some target. Yeah, maybe. And and that's why that guy got, got all triggered.

Anyway, it was an interesting, exchange. Have a wonderful Thursday, Julianne. I return tomorrow for a Friday right here on Newstalk 179. We'll see you then.