June 3, 2026 • 36 mins
In Hour 3 of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, the hosts shift into a data-driven and philosophical discussion about the U.S. economy, declining consumer confidence, cultural psychology, and generational change, while also covering election integrity concerns and a Republican primary result in Iowa with ties to Rush Limbaugh. This hour stands out for blending economic analysis, behavioral insights, and political commentary into a broader examination of why Americans feel pessimistic despite measurable improvements in key indicators.
Clay opens Hour 3 by addressing what he sees as a disconnect between economic reality and public perception, citing multiple data points showing significant improvement since 2022. He outlines how inflation has dropped dramatically from over 9% to around 3%, gas prices have declined from over $5 per gallon to closer to the low $4 range, murder rates have fallen substantially, and the stock market has surged, with the S&P 500 doubling over four years. He also adds that average life expectancy has reached an all-time high, arguing that by virtually every measurable metric—economic growth, safety, and quality of life—conditions in 2026 are significantly better than they were just a few years ago.
Despite these improvements, Clay questions why consumer confidence remains near historic lows, framing the issue as a psychological and cultural problem rather than an economic one. Buck expands on this by offering a broader explanation rooted in human behavior and evolutionary psychology, arguing that people are naturally wired to focus on threats, negativity, and risk as a survival mechanism. He explains that modern life has largely eliminated many immediate dangers, but human brains still seek out perceived threats, which can lead to persistent anxiety, pessimism, and dissatisfaction even during periods of progress.
The conversation evolves into a deeper discussion of modern media and social media’s role in amplifying negativity, with both hosts suggesting that negative news, fear-based narratives, and even conspiracy theories tend to attract more attention and engagement. They argue that this dynamic creates a feedback loop in which bad news dominates public discourse, overshadowing positive developments. Clay adds that people are often nostalgic for the past, forgetting how challenging recent years—particularly during the COVID-era economic disruptions—actually were.
A major theme in Hour 3 is the impact of social media and comparison culture on mental well-being and public satisfaction. Clay argues that previous generations compared themselves primarily to people they knew locally, whereas today’s individuals are constantly exposed to curated highlights of wealth, success, and physical appearance from across the world, leading to increased dissatisfaction and resentment. He describes this as a form of “comparison overload,” where people judge their own lives against unrealistic standards, contributing to the broader decline in perceived well-being even as objective conditions improve.
The hosts also explore cultural and generational shifts, including changing attitudes toward hardship, resilience, and personal responsibility. A caller reinforces this theme by arguing that earlier generations were more willing to endure economic challenges and make personal sacrifices, while modern culture tends to expect comfort and stability at all times. Clay builds on this by suggesting that a decline in shared community structures and local accountability may also contribute to the current sense of disconnection and dissatisfaction.
Election integrity returns as a topic later in Hour 3, with discussion of mail-in voting and prolonged ballot counting, particularly in states like California and Nevada. A caller with investigative experience raises concerns about the reliability of mail-in systems, and the hosts argue that widespread mail-in voting introduces risks and delays that can undermine confidence in election outcomes. They advocate for in-person voting systems with stricter controls, presenting this as a way to restore trust and efficiency in elections.
The final segment of Hour 3 turns to Republican primary results in Iowa, where Zach Lahn emerges as the GOP nominee for governor in a closely watched race. Clay highlights a viral moment from 2009 in which the candidate, as a college student, challenged Barack Obama on healthcare policy during a town hall. The clip, later praised by Rush Limbaugh, is presented as an example of early conservative political engagement and is framed as a full-circle moment now that the same individual is running for statewide office. The hosts emphasize the symbolic value of this moment for conservative audiences and express interest in having the candidate appear on the show.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back in Clay and the Buck. Okay Buck. Yesterday,
I was a bit of a debbie down. I was
sitting around looking at the data. Consumer confidence is low
registering at the University of Michigan, basically the lowest in
the last fifty years.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Of late.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
When I go online and I post nice things, immediately
somebody in the first comment scroll down, that's great if
you own stocks. By the way, you should own stocks,
even if you're starting at five dollars, ten dollars, fifteen dollars,
twenty dollars. Bill, teach yourself the value of growing with
(00:41):
the best businesses in America. Make long term decisions five, ten, fifteen, twenty,
even longer years into the horizon. But I decided because
one of our callers, I think it was a caller,
It might have been an email, it might have been
a talkbacker. I apologize for not remembering exactly her name,
but I do remember it was a woman. She said,
(01:02):
and we kind of dismissed it. She said, hey, you
need to talk about the fact that the price of
oil and gas was over five dollars a gallon in
June of twenty twenty two, four years ago. And Buck,
you said, well, I think that's going to be a
hard argument to make in the midterm here because people
are going to say Trump's been in office for two years.
(01:23):
I'm not really concerned about what the situation was four
years ago. But after she made that comment, and now
I was driving around, I mentioned that gas prices have
started to come back down in my neighborhood. This past weekend,
I paid three dollars and ninety cents a gallon, so
we're under four dollars yere in the Nashville area where
(01:44):
I live. If you look, not every single gas station, right,
I'm not speaking to what every gas station is in
your neighborhood, and certainly the people in California are paying
a lot more than the people in Texas are, for instance.
But I did think it was instructive. I was thinking, like,
why is there this national malaise? Why are so many
(02:04):
people out there unhappy with the state of the economy,
Why is confident so low? And buck I decided, you
know what, the worst economy in the last fifteen years
or so, I think it's fair to say, was actually
June of twenty twenty two. This is leaving aside the
fact that everything shut down for COVID. This is the
(02:27):
fallout of COVID. Everybody deciding, hey, we can spend trillions
of dollars, there's no impact whatsoever. And I decided to
go back in time and do a little bit of
a research project and try to remind myself of what
almost exactly four years ago we were dealing with. And
here is what the data reflected for me Buck that
(02:47):
I do think is pretty significant. The inflation rate in
June of twenty twenty two was nine point one percent
nine point one percent in June of twenty twenty two. Also,
the price an average price of gas nationwide was over
(03:09):
five dollars. That is roughly seventy percent more, seventy cents
more per gallon than we are paying right now four
years later, when everybody is saying, oh my god, gas prices.
The murder rate was roughly six point three percent per
one hundred thousand. It now has dropped to four per
(03:31):
hundred thousand. So in four years we have gone from
nine percent nine point one percent inflation to frankly around
three it's about two point eight if you discount for
the fluctuating price of oil and gas. We've gone from
over five dollars a gallon to down to about four
twenty and we have dropped the overall national murder rate
(03:53):
from around six per one hundred to around four per
one hundred. That's a big decline. That's pretty extraordinary accomplishment. Simultaneously,
the stock market, the S and P five hundred has
doubled since June of twenty twenty two. That means if
(04:13):
you had a dollar in the market, you now got two.
That's pretty incredible. And that's just in the last four years.
Now are there And by the way, that doesn't even
factor in that people were being fired for not getting
the COVID shots, that we were still being lectured for
not wearing masks. How is it possible that people today
(04:37):
in twenty twenty six have a lower level of consumer
confidence than they did in twenty twenty two, despite the
fact that everything is better. Is that a crazy question?
There's some optimism for you, buck. If you look four
years ago, you and I were on this radio program
in June of twenty twenty two, murder skyrocketing nine percent, inflation,
(05:04):
the stock market was half of where it is right
now and was down about one thousand points from where
it had been, and people were still getting fired for
not getting the COVID shot. You were still getting lectured
in some parts of America for not wearing a mask
when you went into a restaurant. That was just four
years ago. How is it possible that national consumer confidence
(05:29):
is lower today than it was four years ago? When
everything is not just better, it's light years better in
twenty twenty six than it was in twenty twenty two.
Is this crazy? Is that too much optimism to start
off the third hour of a Wednesday with Buck? This
is what I was doing last night. Research. I'm looking around.
I'm like, all right, I want to look at the data.
(05:50):
I want data, not feelings, facts not feelings. As our
friend Ben Shapiro.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Likes to say, why are human being drawn to negativity?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
That's the you know, this is actually a big picture questioned.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
No, it is, though, and I think that it is
the only real answer to what you were saying. We
are And I'm gonna go way deep here for a second,
or way back for a second. We are a mammalian
species that has been evolving for tens of thousands of years,
and we have very much the same biochemistry, with some
(06:31):
tweaks and things here and there, but the same biochemistry
that we did clay when we had to be worried
about saber tooth tigers, yep, when we had to which
I've always thought were particularly scary, the big teeth, all
kinds of either the short faced bear for example, which
is like a grizzly bear on steroids. It's like a
double grizzly bear. If you will, there are these things.
(06:52):
Whatever it was, actually other human beings was probably the
single biggest threat that we faced.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
If you actually read about early.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Mankind and tribe and how we interacted with each other, it.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Wasn't very nice.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
But my point here is we have systems set up
for anxiety to be a thing that preserves your life,
for concern to be something that has to be at
the front of your mind.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Because it used to.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Be we got to be on our game and vigilant
all the time so that we can survive. Now we
have to remind ourselves to get off the couch, stop
eating the pistachio ice cream, the most delicious flavor, turn
Netflix off, go get some steps, and you know, basically.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Find things.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Our brain now is finding things to be concerned with,
to be unhappy with, to be anxious about. I think
this is a really big problem in just the modern
world in general. I do think you're right about social
media amplifying a lot of these things I don't want
to you know, like, to me, cigarettes are nothing but downside.
So that's why I think social media actually has a
lot of really beneficial uses. So maybe that's a little
(08:06):
bit of my to your cigarette point. I think the
downside of social media was greatly underplayed and we didn't know.
We were still really figuring out what it is, especially
for children.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
You and I didn't grow up with it, right, Yeah,
definitely one reason we're a little bit psychologically healthier than
some kids who did. I mean, yeah, h Clay was
you know, Clay was graduating from college and like everybody
was still doing Napster and you know, this is a
very different time, very different time. This is a big conversation.
But I do think one reason that people roughly in
our age groups are able to have success in media
(08:42):
is we grew up without the internet, largely many people
in our age, but we are young enough that we
learned how to use the internet, so we have actual
real world life growing up experience. But then we also
can translate that into how to communicate on the Internet.
And I think that's that hybrid that bridge generation is
(09:05):
actually particularly skilled in this space in a way that
others might not be.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
And so but back to the overall thesis, I just
think that if you can reason this out yourself, and
I believe it will come the same conclusion. And this
is also why people not only are drawn to negativity
and also to conspiracy. Conspiracy is essentially interlocking series of
extreme negativity, and like there's always this overarching there they
(09:35):
are going to get us, or there is some evil
group that is doing all these terrible things that it's
going to keep getting more terrible. There's a reason why conspiracy,
especially online, does so very well. And yes, I know
some conspiracies a lot lately have actually come true, but
in general, whether it's true or not, it automatically grabs
your attention, right, And I think that human beings are
(09:56):
hardwired in this way. We're meant to find negativity. We're
meant to say, oh my gosh, there's a real what's
the most classic hackneyed thing you can see clay on
local news, The product you have in your house that's
killing you that you don't even know about tonight at eleven,
you know, like this is why does that work so well?
And so to what you were saying about why people
(10:17):
don't want to hear right now. And by the way,
we might have had people who are like, literally, you know,
like I'm gonna listen to some country music now we're
turning off.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Everything you're saying is true.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
I totally agree with you, and I think that it's
important that people hear this the same way that I
thought was important to say Trump year one was just
ass kicking for America. It was fantastic. Trump Yer two
has been you know, some bumps here and there, but overall,
I think is still going very well. And you want
to enjoy these moments because they're not going to last.
But a lot of people would rather just tell you
(10:45):
everything is always screwed, everything is always set against you.
It's a way to get attention, it's a way to
get people to believe you. And I think it just
goes to the exploitation of our underlying hardware, which is
to look for threats, look for the negative, look for
the scary thing, and you know you, part of wisdom
and part of virtue is looking beyond those things. And
(11:06):
overcoming that and actually appreciating what is good. But already
I feel like I'm boring people by agreeing that things
are really good actually in a lot of respects in
this country. In fact, I think you could argue that
from on a material basis, there's no question that Americans
are better off now than they have ever been on
a material basis, not on a relative basis to their
bills or whatever.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I'm talking about. This is the Warren Buffett thing.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
The food you have, the medical care you have, the
average size of the American house, the average access to
AC and the Internet, and all these things better now
than it has ever been. People get pissed off when
you say that, and if you want to win an election,
you tell everybody, look at how bad everything is, and
then you find the person to blame for it. So
(11:50):
this is what we're up against.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
The Other part of this that I should have added
on more positivity murder rates collapsing. A lot of people
didn't believe that possible. But also average life spans have
set an all time record, So we are killing people
less frequently than ever before, and we are living longer
(12:13):
than ever before. Both of those are very positive and
for people out there that don't want to hear it,
because to Buck's point, there is a proclivity for negativity.
If it bleeds, it leads. Has been a phrase that
I've heard my whole life, particularly when it comes to
local news. Just compare to twenty twenty two. I also
think Buck, you were talking about the instinct for negativity,
(12:35):
for bad news to be leading the news cycle more frequently.
Here's another part about this. I'll say it's not only
that bad news leads, it's that retrospectively, we remember bad
times nostalgically better than they are. Oh yeah, right. So
many people have already forgot or they don't want to
(12:57):
live through and recollect what happened during COVID and twenty
twenty two nine point one percent inflation, the worst for most,
the worst of my life, the worst for most of you.
If you're that you can remember, if you're in the
neighborhood of fifty or younger, if you're in that world. Now, nostalgically,
(13:18):
people are looking back on twenty two. So people are
gonna be mad at me for sharing all that data.
But the S and P five hundred is doubled in
four years. The murder rate has dropped from six per
thousand to four per one hundred thousand. That's unbelievable. Inflation
has gone from nine percent to roughly three percent. Gas
is nearly seventy cents cheaper per gallon than it was
(13:38):
four years ago on almost this exact day in June,
and the average lifespan is higher than it has ever
been in the history of the United States. Things are
actually trending very well in many different parts of American life.
Now people might not feel like they are.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Yeah, they're throwing arras at you in their heads right now, buddy,
you're getting tomatoed.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
There is a difference between how people feel and what
the reality of the numbers can reflect. We'll take some
of your calls, some of your talkbacks. Also, I want
to hit you with some more details on this Platner
story that is out there not yet what Buck said
(14:21):
might happen, but we'll get to that and more. And
I want to play for you what happened in Iowa,
a big Russian Limbaugh fan is now nominated to run
for governor. I think you guys are really going to
enjoy that conversation when we play it for you from
(14:41):
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Speaker 3 (15:47):
Present your pals clean book on the iHeart app, Welcome
back in here to Clay and fuck, I.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Like all the productivity if you were starting to stuff
with today loaded lines with my positivity. By the way,
we get to some of these in the second and
out of the program.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Here we go Charles and Palm Beach County, Florida.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
What's going on, Charles?
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Yes, how are you doing today?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
We're good, We're great.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yeah, you're okay, basically yeah, basically I called because I
heard you talking about how people are complaining because of
the gas because just because of that. But I remember
when I when my grandmother used to talk to us
about what they went through in the thirties where they
had to really make sacrifices when they had to go
it out, and they sacrifice and went through that period
(16:33):
of time knowing that there was gonna be something better
on the other side. But now people feel like, you know,
if it gets a little tighter whatever, they want to complain,
but they won't say, well, we need to cut back,
we need to manage our money better. But within our means, hey,
let's drive slower, let's leave earlier, let's let's make spewer trips.
We can do things to adjust to the situation. Knowing
that This situation is not permanent, but now it seems
(16:56):
like there's an attitude where nobody wants to make a sacrifice.
Nobody don't want to persevere through anything difficult. We won't
ease the street.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
All the time.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
And the president can't make those changes. He has to
make structural changes. The fact that people talk about, well,
we want to uh, we want to fight about the
tax you got you can cut tags. That means the
people who go to invest and open up jobs and factors,
everything can do that and then there's more money. People
prot but they don't want to cut taxes because they
want the government to grow or the business grow. I
mean the government to grow so that they can spend
(17:26):
more money on nonprofit program that really don't empower the people.
It just keeps them in slave to a system.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Got wise call is nodding along with everything. Thank you, Charles.
We're going to a break. I agree with I co
sign on everything that Charles just said. I'm sad we
have to go to a break. I was gonna let
Charles just do the next segment. Charles can say, look,
when we come back, this is UH. I will take
more of your calls. A lot of you want to
weigh in. I also think Charles hit on something significant
(17:54):
and I'm going to kind of build on it a
little bit more. Uh, when we come back about what
the culture is nowadays and how it's changed. Some we
can't imagine what it's like to live in a nation
constantly under attack with bombs reigning down every day, thankfully,
but a lot of people in Israel, well that's their reality.
And for those of us out there that are Christians,
(18:15):
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You can join me in helping them by going to
(18:37):
PRAYIFCJ dot org to submit a prayer to people in
need that's PREYIFCJ dot org. Pray IFCJ dot org. Welcome
back in Clay and Buck. I tried to be super optimistic,
doubled SMP five hundred, murder aid has collapsed, Inflation has
(18:58):
gone from nine to three percent an average lifespan has
hit an all time high infinitely better number since four
years ago.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
This is important because going back to my you know,
I actually took anthropology in college.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
So yep, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
So I stayed at a holiday at Express last night.
You know what I'm saying, I know some things about
some stuff. It was actually economic anthropology, that's what they
called it. But Clay, in this example, before we get
to these loaded lines, which I want to do, you
are like the caveman who is telling everybody, oh, no,
it's fine, there's no saber tooth tiger out there. And
(19:36):
now even if you are correct, people are gonna get
ticked off at you because they're like, what do you mean, buddy?
Why am I gonna listen to you if i'm If
you're wrong, I get eaten by a saber tooth tiger
if I am freaked out and stay in the cave.
We got a fighting chance if that thing comes in here.
So my point is not only do people get drawn
(19:57):
to negative in commentary, but they get annoyeded people who
push the positive, because.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
You, in this example, are the one telling them come on,
a short face bear. It's like a big puppy no
big deal. Let me give you another good data point.
I just saw this come across my thread. May and
Baltimore eight homicides so far this year. That compares to
thirty nine in May of twenty twenty and May of
(20:26):
twenty twenty one. So what is that? A eighty percent
decline in murders in Baltimore as an example of what
we have seen since twenty twenty. Let me get you
with one more idea and then I'm gonna go to
these calls. I want you guys to think about this
because I spent a lot of time thinking about it
when I was using social media and made the analogy
that it's cigarettes. Mentally, it's like cigarettes for your brain.
Doesn't mean that there's not some benefit to it. But
(20:49):
I think one reason why people are so unhappy, Buck,
think about this year anthropological background here. I think it's
because the analogy I used was when we were growing up. Buck,
you remember Robin Lee Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
You could probably do his voice well, because I think
you can.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
He's got a two hundred foot yacht waiting for him
off the back of his incredible mansion.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
You might be different because you lived in New York City.
I didn't know anybody that was actually that rich, and
I didn't know anybody certainly that was famous at all.
My point on that is, we watched television and we
saw people, you could also say younger people cribs. Back
in the day, people who were super rich were removed
from us. And let me also build on the analogy
(21:35):
people who were super attractive, Pamela Anderson, Carmen Electra. You
run through any of those women, we knew we were
probably never going to meet them. Nowadays, on social media,
people are exposed to wealth. They may have a friend
who's wealthy, they may have a friend who's incredibly good looking,
and they're constantly judging themselves by the best cure rated
(22:00):
version of somebody else's life, and comparison is the thief
of joy, and it leads to overwhelming I think dismay
at your own life. You used to judge yourself by
people that you actually knew and interacted with. Now you
judge your life by what somebody else has and that
(22:22):
you don't even know very well, and you're resentful because
you don't have it. I think this is growing. I
think there's a rising tide of resentment. I think democrats
are going to tap into it. And it doesn't matter
what the facts are in your life. It's not as
good as the richer person that you're experiencing.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Right, But now I get to hear people yell at you,
Steve and Allentown.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
What have you got for us?
Speaker 5 (22:48):
Take a quick comment on when I was little, if
I got in trouble at my friend's house after miyan
Helen got done disciplining me before I got home, she
had called my mom and when I got home, I
got disciplined again. I didn't misbehave because I knew better.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Thank you, kay. Well, we don't know how that connects
with anything. Did we miss that? I appreciate the fact
that you didn't misbehave because you knew you were going
to get in trouble. There's a gold star on the
chart for good behavior. You know he was good.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
I'm saying is there's a lot less. There's not the
kitchine kind of community now that there used to be
when I was. When I was a kid, and everybody
knew everybody and you couldn't get away with anything. I'll
never forget my idiot brother. My older brother got caught
for soap and windows and Halloween and he wasn't smart
(23:50):
enough to go out of the neighborhood and somebody saw him.
And what was really funny was we got to watch
him clean wash all their windows.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Thank you, thank you for the I will say this
and I don't know. My kids can't get away with
anything because of the neighborhoods that we have lived in
for their youth. They do anything. And we like to
make jokes about buck that the moms are like a
CIA core. They're on the phone before they can get
home and texting and everything else. Every kid that does
(24:19):
anything in my neighborhood for the last ten years, they
know way more about them than my generation when we
just rode the bus home and nobody had any idea
what was going on. My parents both worked like the
moms these days, it feels like to me are a
lot of them are very Plagualy.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Wait, what was the prank that you saw someone else
do or the thing you saw someone else do as
a kid that you were the most Oh my gosh,
this person's in so much trouble, you know what I mean?
Was there anything you ever saw?
Speaker 1 (24:48):
So the kids still do this, but the throwing eggs
thing is not a good thing to do. You used
to egg somebody's like you know, their mailbox or the
house or god forbid a car. And I would be like,
this is a really bad decision, Like I don't know
that kid's egg as much as they did back in
the day. Eggs might have gotten too expensive to egg
(25:08):
there for a while. But I do think, what about you?
Was there some what did people do in New York City?
Speaker 3 (25:13):
There was a there was a well known incident in
my school, my Saint David's school. It was a little
more rough and tumble back in the day. It's now
very very posh, but it was a little bit rough
and tumble for a for a private Catholic school. And
there was a teacher who was a substitute teacher. And
(25:34):
remember when they used to have those televisions that were
on the you know, the like the trolley, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
The television day television got rolled into the room. Back
in the day, they roll the TV.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
And that's this is how old school we are with
the VHS tape and the teacher. I was not in
this class, but I remember hearing about this, and I
remember hearing that It was an absolute panemonium in the class.
The teacher had put a videocasset in that was like
a sort of Bill Nye, the science guy, like let's
look at Adams together. And they knew that this was
(26:07):
going to happen to a substitute teacher day. Someone in
the class switched out the videotape with a with pornographic material.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yes, this happened that in a Catholic school.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Yes, And the teacher stepped out like basically told one
of the students, would you just press play for a second,
and stepped out to have a conversation. So I again,
my my brother was My older brother was in this
in this class, so I've heard the story many times,
my older brother Mason. The teacher stepped out for maybe
thirty seconds out in the hallway, and you can imagine this.
(26:44):
I think there were seventh or eighth graders at the
time went absolutely bonkers.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
At the That's actually really really funny. The poor teacher
that actually stepped out. That is tough. The kids.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
They found the kid, and the kid got expelled like that.
I don't think I.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Would have expelled him. I mean, that's I get it,
but that's kind of funny. I would have been a lenient.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
First of all, no one thinks that Principal Clay would
expel again.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
I would. I would have been a phient, a lenient
judge on that one buck. This is actually dark. I
hadn't though about it in a long time. When I
was in seventh or eighth grade, a kid tried to
burn down the school arson who he did not want
to go to our school, and he lit like multiple
(27:33):
times that people were like, who's this would be? Arsonist?
He caught the curtains on the stage in the on
fire and we were minutes away from the whole building
going down. And that was when we had you know,
you're you're a kid. You have fire drills, and you
know you're most of the time you kind of roll
your eyes. It's not usually an actual fire. I remember
(27:56):
going out and they're being smoke everywhere, firefighters. I don't
know what they did to the kid, vaguely remember his name,
probably not a good one to say on the air.
He was a minor. But I kind of wonder what
happened to that kid who tried to burn down the
school multiple times. Let's see Mark in Las Vegas. What
you got for us.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Hey, guys, thanks for taking my call. I listened to
you as much as I can, and I thank you
for being so informative.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yeah, for sure, thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Reason for the reason for my call is I tuned
in when you were talking about how long it's going
to take to count the votes in California. I live
in Nevada and we're just we take almost as long
as California does. And I was a lead investigator on
election matters in our state for a period of time
(28:47):
when I was working. I'm retired now, and I'll tell
you mail in ballots are the biggest threat to our
election process. Also, in the Batta, we don't acquire ID
to vote, and I would go out on stainings tell
guys that are registering people to vote, Hey, I'm from Canada.
I'm just down here for a couple of months enjoying myself.
(29:09):
Can I Can I register? Absolutely? Yeah, I just sign
right here. In fact, back in Acorn, I don't know
if you remember that situation where Acorn was operating in
different states, especially in Nevada, registering people. We went out
to investigate Acorn outlets here in Nevada that would registered
(29:30):
the entire front line of the Dallas Cowboys because I'm
getting paid for this.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Thank you for the call. Look, mail in ballots. This
is where again we've been hammering this. Trump's right, we
should do away with mail in ballots. I think New
Hampshire has got this right, Buck. I believe it's in
New Hampshire. They almost give no absentee ballots and everybody
has to show up pretty much on election day and vote.
That to me is the perfect way to have a
(29:58):
secure election. Now. I also think early voting. If you
want to allow early voting in person for several weeks,
I'm fine with that too. But this idea of hey,
we're gonna let millions of people, We're just gonna send
out ballots like California does to every registered voter. Who
knows what happens to those ballots, how many versions they are,
(30:19):
how long it takes, the tally we're dealing with this
right now, it's broken.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Let's go in to a quick break here, Clay, because
you mentioned this rush talking about Zach Lahn and Obamacare,
and we have these clips, so let's come back into
that because we said we would get to it. Technology
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Speaker 1 (31:36):
It's like having your house at the perfect temperature all
the time. Preset Clay and Buck on the iHeart app.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Closing up Chop today on Clayndbuck and Clay, you actually
were the one beating the judge on this, so I'll
let you. But before that, I just want to say
thank you to the Normally Podcast Carol Markowitz and Mary
Katherine Ham. They co host that show on the Clay
and Buck podcast network. They threw that party from me
in DC yesterday is great time. We had doctor Oz
show up, we had Andrewliani, we had Gorka, we had
(32:03):
all kinds of fun folks in the mix and uh yeah, man,
it was great.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
It was great. Clay take it away. Yes, So we're
still waiting to see what the results are going to
be in California, unfortunately, but we do have the results
from Iowa and there was a bit of an upset
as Zach Lane has beaten Randy Feenstra. Zach Lane is
going to be the Iowa nominee for the Republican Party
(32:31):
to be the next governor of Iowa. And I saw
this circulating now that Zach Lane has won the primary
very close race in Iowa. He challenged Barack Obama back
in two thousand and nine about Obamacare. This is going viral.
He also is a big fan of Russia Limbaugh. We
need to get him on the radio program. But I
(32:53):
thought you guys would enjoy this. We have broken it
up into two parts. This is back in two thousand
and nine. Listen.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
This is from Grand Junction, Colorado on Saturday. Obama and
a town hall meeting Zach Lane.
Speaker 7 (33:07):
I'd love to have a debate, just all out anytime,
Oxford style, if you'd like. I understand how I'm willing
to do that. But my question is this. We all
know the best way to reduce prices in this economy
is to increase competition. How in the world can a
private corporation providing insurance compete with an entity that does
(33:30):
not have to worry about making a profit, does not
have to pay local property taxes, they do not have
to they're not subject to local regulations. How can a
company compete with that? And I'm not looking for anything.
I don't want generalities, i don't philosophical arguments.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
I'm just asking a question.
Speaker 6 (33:46):
This kid is amazing, and there's no question in my mind.
This kid listens to this program. In fact, well, now really,
and there's a New York Times column today Ross doubt it,
and he just point blank says that these town hall
meetings are filled with limball this how does a private
entity compete with a company he doesn't have to make
a profit? The government stop talking generalities and philosophical arguments.
(34:07):
This kid named zach Lane, this student challenges the president
to a debate then with one simple question, an Obama
camp answer, nuke's the entire foundation of Obamacare.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
I thought this was awesome. We have a second part
of the clip, but that is Russia. Limbaugh giving a
shout out in two thousand and nine to the current
nominee to be the next governor of Iowa on behalf
of the Republican Party. That's pretty cool, right, this is
going viral. Here's the second part. I think this is
Obama responding to zach Lane's question. Again, zach Lane back
(34:43):
in the day, going at it with Obama over Obamacare. Listen,
listen to this answer.
Speaker 8 (34:48):
It is true that there are certain costs associated with
a private business that a government would not have to
worry about. You mentioned a couple of them. It's conceivable
that a private anity that's having to pay a certain
interest rate for their money would be really undermined if
the government is able to get money much cheaper implicitly
(35:09):
because Uncle Sam backs this operation. I think there are
ways that we can address those competitive issues.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
And you're absolutely right.
Speaker 8 (35:16):
If they're not entirely addressed, then that raises a set
of legitimate problems.
Speaker 9 (35:21):
Well, I mean here you have a rambling answer, and
Obama just agreed with the student and explained why the
centerpiece of his plan, the public option, won't work because
he can print money.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
He didn't say that, but when he.
Speaker 6 (35:33):
Says, well, uncle Sam get money much cheaper implicitly because
Uncle Sam Beck printed.
Speaker 9 (35:43):
Our tax people just go ahead and take it from people.
Private insurance companies can't do that. So this student gets
Obama to admit that his whole plan won't work.
Speaker 6 (35:54):
As he himself said, this kid is amazing.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
I just what a perfect circle here now, Zach Lane,
congratulations the Iowa Republican nominee to be the next governor
of the state of Iowa. And I would imagine when
you get him on the program. But I would imagine
that anyone listening to us right now in Iowa is
pretty gung ho about going to vote for this guy,
(36:18):
and certainly major salute from us on behalf of the
rush and this program to taking people back to two
thousand and nine and now it's come full circle. That's good.
I like, I like, I like how we brought it
all full circle tod at the end.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
You know what I'm saying, there's some there's some balance
to that, there's some synchronicity.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
You could say, how we're gonna watch You're gonna watch
your knicks tonight? Are they gonna win?
Speaker 3 (36:44):
I am the Spurs, the Knicks in six, my friends
the Knicks in six,
Welcome back in Clay and the Buck. Okay Buck. Yesterday,
I was a bit of a debbie down. I was
sitting around looking at the data. Consumer confidence is low
registering at the University of Michigan, basically the lowest in
the last fifty years.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Of late.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
When I go online and I post nice things, immediately
somebody in the first comment scroll down, that's great if
you own stocks. By the way, you should own stocks,
even if you're starting at five dollars, ten dollars, fifteen dollars,
twenty dollars. Bill, teach yourself the value of growing with
(00:41):
the best businesses in America. Make long term decisions five, ten, fifteen, twenty,
even longer years into the horizon. But I decided because
one of our callers, I think it was a caller,
It might have been an email, it might have been
a talkbacker. I apologize for not remembering exactly her name,
but I do remember it was a woman. She said,
(01:02):
and we kind of dismissed it. She said, hey, you
need to talk about the fact that the price of
oil and gas was over five dollars a gallon in
June of twenty twenty two, four years ago. And Buck,
you said, well, I think that's going to be a
hard argument to make in the midterm here because people
are going to say Trump's been in office for two years.
(01:23):
I'm not really concerned about what the situation was four
years ago. But after she made that comment, and now
I was driving around, I mentioned that gas prices have
started to come back down in my neighborhood. This past weekend,
I paid three dollars and ninety cents a gallon, so
we're under four dollars yere in the Nashville area where
(01:44):
I live. If you look, not every single gas station, right,
I'm not speaking to what every gas station is in
your neighborhood, and certainly the people in California are paying
a lot more than the people in Texas are, for instance.
But I did think it was instructive. I was thinking, like,
why is there this national malaise? Why are so many
(02:04):
people out there unhappy with the state of the economy,
Why is confident so low? And buck I decided, you
know what, the worst economy in the last fifteen years
or so, I think it's fair to say, was actually
June of twenty twenty two. This is leaving aside the
fact that everything shut down for COVID. This is the
(02:27):
fallout of COVID. Everybody deciding, hey, we can spend trillions
of dollars, there's no impact whatsoever. And I decided to
go back in time and do a little bit of
a research project and try to remind myself of what
almost exactly four years ago we were dealing with. And
here is what the data reflected for me Buck that
(02:47):
I do think is pretty significant. The inflation rate in
June of twenty twenty two was nine point one percent
nine point one percent in June of twenty twenty two. Also,
the price an average price of gas nationwide was over
(03:09):
five dollars. That is roughly seventy percent more, seventy cents
more per gallon than we are paying right now four
years later, when everybody is saying, oh my god, gas prices.
The murder rate was roughly six point three percent per
one hundred thousand. It now has dropped to four per
(03:31):
hundred thousand. So in four years we have gone from
nine percent nine point one percent inflation to frankly around
three it's about two point eight if you discount for
the fluctuating price of oil and gas. We've gone from
over five dollars a gallon to down to about four
twenty and we have dropped the overall national murder rate
(03:53):
from around six per one hundred to around four per
one hundred. That's a big decline. That's pretty extraordinary accomplishment. Simultaneously,
the stock market, the S and P five hundred has
doubled since June of twenty twenty two. That means if
(04:13):
you had a dollar in the market, you now got two.
That's pretty incredible. And that's just in the last four years.
Now are there And by the way, that doesn't even
factor in that people were being fired for not getting
the COVID shots, that we were still being lectured for
not wearing masks. How is it possible that people today
(04:37):
in twenty twenty six have a lower level of consumer
confidence than they did in twenty twenty two, despite the
fact that everything is better. Is that a crazy question?
There's some optimism for you, buck. If you look four
years ago, you and I were on this radio program
in June of twenty twenty two, murder skyrocketing nine percent, inflation,
(05:04):
the stock market was half of where it is right
now and was down about one thousand points from where
it had been, and people were still getting fired for
not getting the COVID shot. You were still getting lectured
in some parts of America for not wearing a mask
when you went into a restaurant. That was just four
years ago. How is it possible that national consumer confidence
(05:29):
is lower today than it was four years ago? When
everything is not just better, it's light years better in
twenty twenty six than it was in twenty twenty two.
Is this crazy? Is that too much optimism to start
off the third hour of a Wednesday with Buck? This
is what I was doing last night. Research. I'm looking around.
I'm like, all right, I want to look at the data.
(05:50):
I want data, not feelings, facts not feelings. As our
friend Ben Shapiro.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Likes to say, why are human being drawn to negativity?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
That's the you know, this is actually a big picture questioned.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
No, it is, though, and I think that it is
the only real answer to what you were saying. We
are And I'm gonna go way deep here for a second,
or way back for a second. We are a mammalian
species that has been evolving for tens of thousands of years,
and we have very much the same biochemistry, with some
(06:31):
tweaks and things here and there, but the same biochemistry
that we did clay when we had to be worried
about saber tooth tigers, yep, when we had to which
I've always thought were particularly scary, the big teeth, all
kinds of either the short faced bear for example, which
is like a grizzly bear on steroids. It's like a
double grizzly bear. If you will, there are these things.
(06:52):
Whatever it was, actually other human beings was probably the
single biggest threat that we faced.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
If you actually read about early.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Mankind and tribe and how we interacted with each other, it.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Wasn't very nice.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
But my point here is we have systems set up
for anxiety to be a thing that preserves your life,
for concern to be something that has to be at
the front of your mind.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Because it used to.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Be we got to be on our game and vigilant
all the time so that we can survive. Now we
have to remind ourselves to get off the couch, stop
eating the pistachio ice cream, the most delicious flavor, turn
Netflix off, go get some steps, and you know, basically.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Find things.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Our brain now is finding things to be concerned with,
to be unhappy with, to be anxious about. I think
this is a really big problem in just the modern
world in general. I do think you're right about social
media amplifying a lot of these things I don't want
to you know, like, to me, cigarettes are nothing but downside.
So that's why I think social media actually has a
lot of really beneficial uses. So maybe that's a little
(08:06):
bit of my to your cigarette point. I think the
downside of social media was greatly underplayed and we didn't know.
We were still really figuring out what it is, especially
for children.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
You and I didn't grow up with it, right, Yeah,
definitely one reason we're a little bit psychologically healthier than
some kids who did. I mean, yeah, h Clay was
you know, Clay was graduating from college and like everybody
was still doing Napster and you know, this is a
very different time, very different time. This is a big conversation.
But I do think one reason that people roughly in
our age groups are able to have success in media
(08:42):
is we grew up without the internet, largely many people
in our age, but we are young enough that we
learned how to use the internet, so we have actual
real world life growing up experience. But then we also
can translate that into how to communicate on the Internet.
And I think that's that hybrid that bridge generation is
(09:05):
actually particularly skilled in this space in a way that
others might not be.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
And so but back to the overall thesis, I just
think that if you can reason this out yourself, and
I believe it will come the same conclusion. And this
is also why people not only are drawn to negativity
and also to conspiracy. Conspiracy is essentially interlocking series of
extreme negativity, and like there's always this overarching there they
(09:35):
are going to get us, or there is some evil
group that is doing all these terrible things that it's
going to keep getting more terrible. There's a reason why conspiracy,
especially online, does so very well. And yes, I know
some conspiracies a lot lately have actually come true, but
in general, whether it's true or not, it automatically grabs
your attention, right, And I think that human beings are
(09:56):
hardwired in this way. We're meant to find negativity. We're
meant to say, oh my gosh, there's a real what's
the most classic hackneyed thing you can see clay on
local news, The product you have in your house that's
killing you that you don't even know about tonight at eleven,
you know, like this is why does that work so well?
And so to what you were saying about why people
(10:17):
don't want to hear right now. And by the way,
we might have had people who are like, literally, you know,
like I'm gonna listen to some country music now we're
turning off.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Everything you're saying is true.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
I totally agree with you, and I think that it's
important that people hear this the same way that I
thought was important to say Trump year one was just
ass kicking for America. It was fantastic. Trump Yer two
has been you know, some bumps here and there, but overall,
I think is still going very well. And you want
to enjoy these moments because they're not going to last.
But a lot of people would rather just tell you
(10:45):
everything is always screwed, everything is always set against you.
It's a way to get attention, it's a way to
get people to believe you. And I think it just
goes to the exploitation of our underlying hardware, which is
to look for threats, look for the negative, look for
the scary thing, and you know you, part of wisdom
and part of virtue is looking beyond those things. And
(11:06):
overcoming that and actually appreciating what is good. But already
I feel like I'm boring people by agreeing that things
are really good actually in a lot of respects in
this country. In fact, I think you could argue that
from on a material basis, there's no question that Americans
are better off now than they have ever been on
a material basis, not on a relative basis to their
bills or whatever.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I'm talking about. This is the Warren Buffett thing.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
The food you have, the medical care you have, the
average size of the American house, the average access to
AC and the Internet, and all these things better now
than it has ever been. People get pissed off when
you say that, and if you want to win an election,
you tell everybody, look at how bad everything is, and
then you find the person to blame for it. So
(11:50):
this is what we're up against.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
The Other part of this that I should have added
on more positivity murder rates collapsing. A lot of people
didn't believe that possible. But also average life spans have
set an all time record, So we are killing people
less frequently than ever before, and we are living longer
(12:13):
than ever before. Both of those are very positive and
for people out there that don't want to hear it,
because to Buck's point, there is a proclivity for negativity.
If it bleeds, it leads. Has been a phrase that
I've heard my whole life, particularly when it comes to
local news. Just compare to twenty twenty two. I also
think Buck, you were talking about the instinct for negativity,
(12:35):
for bad news to be leading the news cycle more frequently.
Here's another part about this. I'll say it's not only
that bad news leads, it's that retrospectively, we remember bad
times nostalgically better than they are. Oh yeah, right. So
many people have already forgot or they don't want to
(12:57):
live through and recollect what happened during COVID and twenty
twenty two nine point one percent inflation, the worst for most,
the worst of my life, the worst for most of you.
If you're that you can remember, if you're in the
neighborhood of fifty or younger, if you're in that world. Now, nostalgically,
(13:18):
people are looking back on twenty two. So people are
gonna be mad at me for sharing all that data.
But the S and P five hundred is doubled in
four years. The murder rate has dropped from six per
thousand to four per one hundred thousand. That's unbelievable. Inflation
has gone from nine percent to roughly three percent. Gas
is nearly seventy cents cheaper per gallon than it was
(13:38):
four years ago on almost this exact day in June,
and the average lifespan is higher than it has ever
been in the history of the United States. Things are
actually trending very well in many different parts of American life.
Now people might not feel like they are.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Yeah, they're throwing arras at you in their heads right now, buddy,
you're getting tomatoed.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
There is a difference between how people feel and what
the reality of the numbers can reflect. We'll take some
of your calls, some of your talkbacks. Also, I want
to hit you with some more details on this Platner
story that is out there not yet what Buck said
(14:21):
might happen, but we'll get to that and more. And
I want to play for you what happened in Iowa,
a big Russian Limbaugh fan is now nominated to run
for governor. I think you guys are really going to
enjoy that conversation when we play it for you from
(14:41):
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Speaker 3 (15:47):
Present your pals clean book on the iHeart app, Welcome
back in here to Clay and fuck, I.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Like all the productivity if you were starting to stuff
with today loaded lines with my positivity. By the way,
we get to some of these in the second and
out of the program.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Here we go Charles and Palm Beach County, Florida.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
What's going on, Charles?
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Yes, how are you doing today?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
We're good, We're great.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yeah, you're okay, basically yeah, basically I called because I
heard you talking about how people are complaining because of
the gas because just because of that. But I remember
when I when my grandmother used to talk to us
about what they went through in the thirties where they
had to really make sacrifices when they had to go
it out, and they sacrifice and went through that period
(16:33):
of time knowing that there was gonna be something better
on the other side. But now people feel like, you know,
if it gets a little tighter whatever, they want to complain,
but they won't say, well, we need to cut back,
we need to manage our money better. But within our means, hey,
let's drive slower, let's leave earlier, let's let's make spewer trips.
We can do things to adjust to the situation. Knowing
that This situation is not permanent, but now it seems
(16:56):
like there's an attitude where nobody wants to make a sacrifice.
Nobody don't want to persevere through anything difficult. We won't
ease the street.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
All the time.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
And the president can't make those changes. He has to
make structural changes. The fact that people talk about, well,
we want to uh, we want to fight about the
tax you got you can cut tags. That means the
people who go to invest and open up jobs and factors,
everything can do that and then there's more money. People
prot but they don't want to cut taxes because they
want the government to grow or the business grow. I
mean the government to grow so that they can spend
(17:26):
more money on nonprofit program that really don't empower the people.
It just keeps them in slave to a system.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Got wise call is nodding along with everything. Thank you, Charles.
We're going to a break. I agree with I co
sign on everything that Charles just said. I'm sad we
have to go to a break. I was gonna let
Charles just do the next segment. Charles can say, look,
when we come back, this is UH. I will take
more of your calls. A lot of you want to
weigh in. I also think Charles hit on something significant
(17:54):
and I'm going to kind of build on it a
little bit more. Uh, when we come back about what
the culture is nowadays and how it's changed. Some we
can't imagine what it's like to live in a nation
constantly under attack with bombs reigning down every day, thankfully,
but a lot of people in Israel, well that's their reality.
And for those of us out there that are Christians,
(18:15):
for those of us that are Jews that are trying
to make the world a better and safer place, that's
exactly what the IFCJ does. It's an American based organization,
the Fellowship of Christians and Jews. They've worked for over
forty years to try to make life better for people
that need a lot of help. You can help them.
You can join me in helping them by going to
(18:37):
PRAYIFCJ dot org to submit a prayer to people in
need that's PREYIFCJ dot org. Pray IFCJ dot org. Welcome
back in Clay and Buck. I tried to be super optimistic,
doubled SMP five hundred, murder aid has collapsed, Inflation has
(18:58):
gone from nine to three percent an average lifespan has
hit an all time high infinitely better number since four
years ago.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
This is important because going back to my you know,
I actually took anthropology in college.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
So yep, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
So I stayed at a holiday at Express last night.
You know what I'm saying, I know some things about
some stuff. It was actually economic anthropology, that's what they
called it. But Clay, in this example, before we get
to these loaded lines, which I want to do, you
are like the caveman who is telling everybody, oh, no,
it's fine, there's no saber tooth tiger out there. And
(19:36):
now even if you are correct, people are gonna get
ticked off at you because they're like, what do you mean, buddy?
Why am I gonna listen to you if i'm If
you're wrong, I get eaten by a saber tooth tiger
if I am freaked out and stay in the cave.
We got a fighting chance if that thing comes in here.
So my point is not only do people get drawn
(19:57):
to negative in commentary, but they get annoyeded people who
push the positive, because.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
You, in this example, are the one telling them come on,
a short face bear. It's like a big puppy no
big deal. Let me give you another good data point.
I just saw this come across my thread. May and
Baltimore eight homicides so far this year. That compares to
thirty nine in May of twenty twenty and May of
(20:26):
twenty twenty one. So what is that? A eighty percent
decline in murders in Baltimore as an example of what
we have seen since twenty twenty. Let me get you
with one more idea and then I'm gonna go to
these calls. I want you guys to think about this
because I spent a lot of time thinking about it
when I was using social media and made the analogy
that it's cigarettes. Mentally, it's like cigarettes for your brain.
Doesn't mean that there's not some benefit to it. But
(20:49):
I think one reason why people are so unhappy, Buck,
think about this year anthropological background here. I think it's
because the analogy I used was when we were growing up. Buck,
you remember Robin Lee Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
You could probably do his voice well, because I think
you can.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
He's got a two hundred foot yacht waiting for him
off the back of his incredible mansion.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
You might be different because you lived in New York City.
I didn't know anybody that was actually that rich, and
I didn't know anybody certainly that was famous at all.
My point on that is, we watched television and we
saw people, you could also say younger people cribs. Back
in the day, people who were super rich were removed
from us. And let me also build on the analogy
(21:35):
people who were super attractive, Pamela Anderson, Carmen Electra. You
run through any of those women, we knew we were
probably never going to meet them. Nowadays, on social media,
people are exposed to wealth. They may have a friend
who's wealthy, they may have a friend who's incredibly good looking,
and they're constantly judging themselves by the best cure rated
(22:00):
version of somebody else's life, and comparison is the thief
of joy, and it leads to overwhelming I think dismay
at your own life. You used to judge yourself by
people that you actually knew and interacted with. Now you
judge your life by what somebody else has and that
(22:22):
you don't even know very well, and you're resentful because
you don't have it. I think this is growing. I
think there's a rising tide of resentment. I think democrats
are going to tap into it. And it doesn't matter
what the facts are in your life. It's not as
good as the richer person that you're experiencing.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Right, But now I get to hear people yell at you,
Steve and Allentown.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
What have you got for us?
Speaker 5 (22:48):
Take a quick comment on when I was little, if
I got in trouble at my friend's house after miyan
Helen got done disciplining me before I got home, she
had called my mom and when I got home, I
got disciplined again. I didn't misbehave because I knew better.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Thank you, kay. Well, we don't know how that connects
with anything. Did we miss that? I appreciate the fact
that you didn't misbehave because you knew you were going
to get in trouble. There's a gold star on the
chart for good behavior. You know he was good.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
I'm saying is there's a lot less. There's not the
kitchine kind of community now that there used to be
when I was. When I was a kid, and everybody
knew everybody and you couldn't get away with anything. I'll
never forget my idiot brother. My older brother got caught
for soap and windows and Halloween and he wasn't smart
(23:50):
enough to go out of the neighborhood and somebody saw him.
And what was really funny was we got to watch
him clean wash all their windows.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Thank you, thank you for the I will say this
and I don't know. My kids can't get away with
anything because of the neighborhoods that we have lived in
for their youth. They do anything. And we like to
make jokes about buck that the moms are like a
CIA core. They're on the phone before they can get
home and texting and everything else. Every kid that does
(24:19):
anything in my neighborhood for the last ten years, they
know way more about them than my generation when we
just rode the bus home and nobody had any idea
what was going on. My parents both worked like the
moms these days, it feels like to me are a
lot of them are very Plagualy.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Wait, what was the prank that you saw someone else
do or the thing you saw someone else do as
a kid that you were the most Oh my gosh,
this person's in so much trouble, you know what I mean?
Was there anything you ever saw?
Speaker 1 (24:48):
So the kids still do this, but the throwing eggs
thing is not a good thing to do. You used
to egg somebody's like you know, their mailbox or the
house or god forbid a car. And I would be like,
this is a really bad decision, Like I don't know
that kid's egg as much as they did back in
the day. Eggs might have gotten too expensive to egg
(25:08):
there for a while. But I do think, what about you?
Was there some what did people do in New York City?
Speaker 3 (25:13):
There was a there was a well known incident in
my school, my Saint David's school. It was a little
more rough and tumble back in the day. It's now
very very posh, but it was a little bit rough
and tumble for a for a private Catholic school. And
there was a teacher who was a substitute teacher. And
(25:34):
remember when they used to have those televisions that were
on the you know, the like the trolley, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
The television day television got rolled into the room. Back
in the day, they roll the TV.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
And that's this is how old school we are with
the VHS tape and the teacher. I was not in
this class, but I remember hearing about this, and I
remember hearing that It was an absolute panemonium in the class.
The teacher had put a videocasset in that was like
a sort of Bill Nye, the science guy, like let's
look at Adams together. And they knew that this was
(26:07):
going to happen to a substitute teacher day. Someone in
the class switched out the videotape with a with pornographic material.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yes, this happened that in a Catholic school.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Yes, And the teacher stepped out like basically told one
of the students, would you just press play for a second,
and stepped out to have a conversation. So I again,
my my brother was My older brother was in this
in this class, so I've heard the story many times,
my older brother Mason. The teacher stepped out for maybe
thirty seconds out in the hallway, and you can imagine this.
(26:44):
I think there were seventh or eighth graders at the
time went absolutely bonkers.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
At the That's actually really really funny. The poor teacher
that actually stepped out. That is tough. The kids.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
They found the kid, and the kid got expelled like that.
I don't think I.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Would have expelled him. I mean, that's I get it,
but that's kind of funny. I would have been a lenient.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
First of all, no one thinks that Principal Clay would
expel again.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
I would. I would have been a phient, a lenient
judge on that one buck. This is actually dark. I
hadn't though about it in a long time. When I
was in seventh or eighth grade, a kid tried to
burn down the school arson who he did not want
to go to our school, and he lit like multiple
(27:33):
times that people were like, who's this would be? Arsonist?
He caught the curtains on the stage in the on
fire and we were minutes away from the whole building
going down. And that was when we had you know,
you're you're a kid. You have fire drills, and you
know you're most of the time you kind of roll
your eyes. It's not usually an actual fire. I remember
(27:56):
going out and they're being smoke everywhere, firefighters. I don't
know what they did to the kid, vaguely remember his name,
probably not a good one to say on the air.
He was a minor. But I kind of wonder what
happened to that kid who tried to burn down the
school multiple times. Let's see Mark in Las Vegas. What
you got for us.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Hey, guys, thanks for taking my call. I listened to
you as much as I can, and I thank you
for being so informative.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yeah, for sure, thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Reason for the reason for my call is I tuned
in when you were talking about how long it's going
to take to count the votes in California. I live
in Nevada and we're just we take almost as long
as California does. And I was a lead investigator on
election matters in our state for a period of time
(28:47):
when I was working. I'm retired now, and I'll tell
you mail in ballots are the biggest threat to our
election process. Also, in the Batta, we don't acquire ID
to vote, and I would go out on stainings tell
guys that are registering people to vote, Hey, I'm from Canada.
I'm just down here for a couple of months enjoying myself.
(29:09):
Can I Can I register? Absolutely? Yeah, I just sign
right here. In fact, back in Acorn, I don't know
if you remember that situation where Acorn was operating in
different states, especially in Nevada, registering people. We went out
to investigate Acorn outlets here in Nevada that would registered
(29:30):
the entire front line of the Dallas Cowboys because I'm
getting paid for this.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Thank you for the call. Look, mail in ballots. This
is where again we've been hammering this. Trump's right, we
should do away with mail in ballots. I think New
Hampshire has got this right, Buck. I believe it's in
New Hampshire. They almost give no absentee ballots and everybody
has to show up pretty much on election day and vote.
That to me is the perfect way to have a
(29:58):
secure election. Now. I also think early voting. If you
want to allow early voting in person for several weeks,
I'm fine with that too. But this idea of hey,
we're gonna let millions of people, We're just gonna send
out ballots like California does to every registered voter. Who
knows what happens to those ballots, how many versions they are,
(30:19):
how long it takes, the tally we're dealing with this
right now, it's broken.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Let's go in to a quick break here, Clay, because
you mentioned this rush talking about Zach Lahn and Obamacare,
and we have these clips, so let's come back into
that because we said we would get to it. Technology
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Speaker 1 (31:36):
It's like having your house at the perfect temperature all
the time. Preset Clay and Buck on the iHeart app.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Closing up Chop today on Clayndbuck and Clay, you actually
were the one beating the judge on this, so I'll
let you. But before that, I just want to say
thank you to the Normally Podcast Carol Markowitz and Mary
Katherine Ham. They co host that show on the Clay
and Buck podcast network. They threw that party from me
in DC yesterday is great time. We had doctor Oz
show up, we had Andrewliani, we had Gorka, we had
(32:03):
all kinds of fun folks in the mix and uh yeah, man,
it was great.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
It was great. Clay take it away. Yes, So we're
still waiting to see what the results are going to
be in California, unfortunately, but we do have the results
from Iowa and there was a bit of an upset
as Zach Lane has beaten Randy Feenstra. Zach Lane is
going to be the Iowa nominee for the Republican Party
(32:31):
to be the next governor of Iowa. And I saw
this circulating now that Zach Lane has won the primary
very close race in Iowa. He challenged Barack Obama back
in two thousand and nine about Obamacare. This is going viral.
He also is a big fan of Russia Limbaugh. We
need to get him on the radio program. But I
(32:53):
thought you guys would enjoy this. We have broken it
up into two parts. This is back in two thousand
and nine. Listen.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
This is from Grand Junction, Colorado on Saturday. Obama and
a town hall meeting Zach Lane.
Speaker 7 (33:07):
I'd love to have a debate, just all out anytime,
Oxford style, if you'd like. I understand how I'm willing
to do that. But my question is this. We all
know the best way to reduce prices in this economy
is to increase competition. How in the world can a
private corporation providing insurance compete with an entity that does
(33:30):
not have to worry about making a profit, does not
have to pay local property taxes, they do not have
to they're not subject to local regulations. How can a
company compete with that? And I'm not looking for anything.
I don't want generalities, i don't philosophical arguments.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
I'm just asking a question.
Speaker 6 (33:46):
This kid is amazing, and there's no question in my mind.
This kid listens to this program. In fact, well, now really,
and there's a New York Times column today Ross doubt it,
and he just point blank says that these town hall
meetings are filled with limball this how does a private
entity compete with a company he doesn't have to make
a profit? The government stop talking generalities and philosophical arguments.
(34:07):
This kid named zach Lane, this student challenges the president
to a debate then with one simple question, an Obama
camp answer, nuke's the entire foundation of Obamacare.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
I thought this was awesome. We have a second part
of the clip, but that is Russia. Limbaugh giving a
shout out in two thousand and nine to the current
nominee to be the next governor of Iowa on behalf
of the Republican Party. That's pretty cool, right, this is
going viral. Here's the second part. I think this is
Obama responding to zach Lane's question. Again, zach Lane back
(34:43):
in the day, going at it with Obama over Obamacare. Listen,
listen to this answer.
Speaker 8 (34:48):
It is true that there are certain costs associated with
a private business that a government would not have to
worry about. You mentioned a couple of them. It's conceivable
that a private anity that's having to pay a certain
interest rate for their money would be really undermined if
the government is able to get money much cheaper implicitly
(35:09):
because Uncle Sam backs this operation. I think there are
ways that we can address those competitive issues.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
And you're absolutely right.
Speaker 8 (35:16):
If they're not entirely addressed, then that raises a set
of legitimate problems.
Speaker 9 (35:21):
Well, I mean here you have a rambling answer, and
Obama just agreed with the student and explained why the
centerpiece of his plan, the public option, won't work because
he can print money.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
He didn't say that, but when he.
Speaker 6 (35:33):
Says, well, uncle Sam get money much cheaper implicitly because
Uncle Sam Beck printed.
Speaker 9 (35:43):
Our tax people just go ahead and take it from people.
Private insurance companies can't do that. So this student gets
Obama to admit that his whole plan won't work.
Speaker 6 (35:54):
As he himself said, this kid is amazing.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
I just what a perfect circle here now, Zach Lane,
congratulations the Iowa Republican nominee to be the next governor
of the state of Iowa. And I would imagine when
you get him on the program. But I would imagine
that anyone listening to us right now in Iowa is
pretty gung ho about going to vote for this guy,
(36:18):
and certainly major salute from us on behalf of the
rush and this program to taking people back to two
thousand and nine and now it's come full circle. That's good.
I like, I like, I like how we brought it
all full circle tod at the end.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
You know what I'm saying, there's some there's some balance
to that, there's some synchronicity.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
You could say, how we're gonna watch You're gonna watch
your knicks tonight? Are they gonna win?
Speaker 3 (36:44):
I am the Spurs, the Knicks in six, my friends
the Knicks in six,
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