Is the Government Watching You? Harvard Losing Billions? Conservative Analysis You Need

Pope Francis passed away on Easter Monday at age 88 after battling health issues including double pneumonia, triggering worldwide reactions and the process of selecting a new Pope.

• Pope's passing sparked controversial reactions including jokes about JD Vance's recent visit
• Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sent sensitive information via Signal app for a second time
• Real ID deadline approaches for May 7, 2025, raising questions about government surveillance
• Harvard's $2.2 billion in federal funding threatened despite having a $53.2 billion endowment
• AOC tops several Democratic presidential candidate lists for 2028
• Lancaster, California's Republican mayor made shocking statements about handling homelessness

Keep Moving, Keep Shooting by Clay Novak is available now, and look for Elsa's upcoming book Truth Bombs and Grace Grenades, releasing May 6, 2025.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's the Elsa Kirk Show, with Clay Nova Serving up
trending news and conservativeviews Brought to you by the Elsa
Kirk Collection and RefugeMedical.
And now it's time for the show.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, hey, friends, it's another week, it's another
episode of Elsa and Claytogether again to talk about all
the stuff and things.
How are you, clay?

Speaker 3 (00:33):
I'm good Another packed show.
You know, the world never letsus down, never does.
Tons and tons of stuff to talkabout.
So I don't probably.
Maybe not as packed as lastweek, maybe it is, I don't know,
but we got a bunch of stuff.
There's a bunch, a bunch totalk about.
How are you?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm good.
I'm good Fresh off the plane.
Well, no, I shouldn't say freshoff the plane.
Got home yesterday fromvisiting the grandbabies,
spending Easter with them.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
It was magical, amazing, exhausting.
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Speaker 2 (02:09):
So, right, the second .
Before we came back on air here, I realized that my my chair,
the swivel lock is disengaged,which means I have to spend this
entire time trying to stopmyself from swiveling around
like a five-year-old in a claychair here.
So Clay's going to have to giveme the, the uh it's a good core
workout, right?

Speaker 3 (02:25):
I know I mean.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
I can totally justify .
Yeah, no, it's the littlethings Clay.
This is just so fun for me.
I'm so easily amused.
Yeah, so if you see me, right, Imean I'm pre apologizing, I'm
doing it on purpose right atthis moment, so you can see what
I'm talking about.
But it's such a comfy chair andI can sit cross leg on it, you
know, like, like what do theycall it for kids?

(02:48):
Crisscross applesauce.
Yeah, it's just so fun, so fun,so anyhow, anyhow, on to real
things to talk about today.
I mean shame on me forsegwaying so poorly, very poorly
here, but our first topic,right off the bat, is Pope
Francis passed away on EasterMonday, which I honestly did not

(03:10):
know is referred to as EasterMonday.
This is news to me, but thatwas how it was referred to.
He was 88, correct, 88.
And, yeah, very sad for theCatholic community.
Lots of lots of things beingsaid, jokes being made in regard

(03:31):
to JD Vance having been thelast person publicly to, in the
public eye, to visit with him,which started a whole firestorm
of, you know, not not so nicethings being said, yeah,
obviously suggesting that youknow that he had something to do
.
And of course it's, you know,people from the left saying like

(03:52):
, oh, you know, he goes to visithim and the next thing, you
know, the Pope dies the next day.
Well, I mean the guy has haddecades probably worth of health
troubles, you know, welldocumented.
So the scary part was therewere definitely some people were
actually serious when theyimplied, or flat out suggested
that it's just come on now.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Yeah, if you're, listen, if, if you're Catholic,
this is an emotional event, youknow it.
It this is, I don't know, Ithink, the fourth time or third
time.
Fourth time in my life I'vebeen through this, raised
Catholic, no longer practicingCatholic.
I was eight years of Catholicschool.
I know that'll surprise a lotof people, but eight years of

(04:33):
Catholic school and then so I'vebeen.
You know, this has been kind ofin my life, my whole life.
But you know it's not an exactthing.
But if you haven't seen themovie Conclave, if you haven't
seen it, it kind of gives you a.
It's a good movie, nice twistat the end is somebody who
writes, you know, but it givesyou a, an insight into the

(04:53):
process that you know ofchoosing a new Pope, done, you
know, by the leadership withinthe church.
But for you know, for Catholics, this is a.
It's a period of mourning and,you're right, the reactions are
bad.
You know there's a lot oftradition and we're talking
centuries old tradition when itcomes to things like this.
And if you've seen theprocession of them moving the

(05:14):
Pope's body location to another,you know that the escort is
draped in dark robes and they'vegot like very Ku Klux Klan,
like pointed hoods on that areblack.
You know there's people thatare making you know, intimate,
you know, intimating that thisis satanic and all kinds of

(05:34):
crazy stuff.
You know, and then and thenthere will come the process.
After the morning of the Pope,there will come the process of
selecting a new Pope.
I know that Pope Francis was nota favorite of many.
He was pretty progressive in alot of ways for the Catholic
Church, which a lot of peopledid not appreciate.
He looked the other way on somethings.

(05:55):
For somebody like me who grewup in the Catholic Church, when
they change things that you weretold your entire life, this is
the way things are.
There's a reason for this.
You have to follow this to theletter and then all of a sudden
they say well, it's no, notanymore.
It's a little hard to swallowand Pope Francis did quite a bit
of that while he wore the hat.

(06:15):
But anyway, you've got thosereactions.
Like you said, you've got theJD Vance.
There was a similar one forZelensky.
I don't know if you saw thatone.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
I actually did not see that one yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
It was a bunch of pictures of him with different
people that he has met with thathave now died.
Um, you know, but again in poortaste, right?
And then you even had MarjorieTaylor green.
Did you see this mess?

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Oh geez, what did she do?

Speaker 3 (06:38):
So she said, uh, in a in a tweet.
Um, I think it was in a tweet,might've been in a live speech,
but she said evil is beingdefeated.
Now she is an ex-Catholic, isChristian and is not a fan of
the Catholic church.
She's made statements in thepast about Satan is running the
Catholic church and some otherthings.
Now there was some speculationbecause Klaus Schwab, who is

(07:01):
kind of the definition of evil,stepped down from the World
Economic Forum on Sunday andthen, of course, you have the
pope pass away on Monday and shemade that statement.
There's been no clarificationfrom her, but there are some
people speculating.
She may have been talking aboutSchwab and not the pope, or
Schwab and the pope Right.
Either way, in poor taste andpoor timing.

(07:21):
So you've got that, but youknow we're going to go through
this.
It'll be interesting to seewhat the church decides if they
go to a more progressive oranother progressive Pope.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, that was going to be my question for you what
you think they're going to do,because it was so polarizing or
he was, I should say, andcontroversial in a lot of his
statements and choices andactions and all of that.
So it would be very interestingto see what the Catholic Church

(07:53):
decides to do with that.
And, similar to Marjorie TaylorGreene, as a Christian I
certainly have opinions aboutthe Catholic church and um, the
way they do things and um.
But yeah, you know, I guessthere's a a little bit of it's a
timing issue, I guess I listen,I, I got, I got beat up a

(08:17):
little bit in the commentsections of a of a post that I
made and you know, I certainly Ihonestly I don't take it back.
I don't apologize for it.
The only thing I maybe wouldapologize for is not giving some
clarity with it and us makingthe, the assumption, the wrong
assumption that everybody seesthe same things that I see.

(08:38):
So so I w I will tell everybody.
In case you missed it and youdon't, I mean and you don't
follow me on Facebook, what, howrude.
I'm kidding.
Of course, obviously I'd loveyou to follow, but you know what
I mean.
Okay, so I posted.
I posted this, okay, and yes, Iabsolutely understand why.
Hang on, let me get this guyout of here.

(08:59):
I of course I understand whyanybody would have been reactive
to that if they didn't know whyI posted it and what about it
that I found funny.
So this is why, for those ofyou who have no idea why I would
post something like that clutchyour pearls, gasp.

(09:19):
It was actually in response tothe many, many posts like this
of people, particularly on theleft, essentially accusing JD
Vance for being the cause, thereason why the Pope died.
So it wasn't making fun of thePope passing, it was making fun

(09:42):
of the people who thought such aridiculous thing.
So, listen, I certainly hopethat clears the air for people.
I'm pretty sure I got a handful.
At least people announced theirdeparture from my page.
They're like unfollow mebecause that's not funny.
Shame on you.
You're a Christian.
Shouldn't you know better?
Listen, it was a joke.

(10:02):
Poor taste, I don't know Maybe,but I thought it was funny.
So that's that.
But yeah, so lots of reactions.
I stopped reading them after awhile.
I was like looking at a handful, I'm like, oh, touched a nerve
there a little bit, I guess.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, you know that for Catholics, and truthfully I
mean for centuries, the Pope hasbeen not just a religious
leader but a world leader, or atleast has been put in that
category because of theinfluence you know globally by
the Catholic church and him.
You know whoever him is at thetime.
The Pope is that, you know, theleader of the Catholic church.
So people do, you know it doeshit home with some folks, but at

(10:40):
the same time, you know you'vegot a lot of folks who are who
are leaving the Catholic church.
Um, because of you know thisPope, um, I know a lot of people
when, when he, you know he, hetook his stance, you know, with
with president Biden, uh, youknow about, you know abortion
and and you know, and so, um,again, it's the.

(11:01):
You know the way the church hasbeen presented for many, many
years to many, to a lot of us,and then all of a sudden they
take a left turn on things andyou scratch your head.
You know this Pope outlawedLatin mass.
Why, like it, didn't?
You know there's a lot ofquestions asked, you know, but
in reality he's been very, veryill for the last few months
Respiratory issues and all kindsof things.
And double pneumonia Doublepneumonia, yeah, and all of that

(11:22):
.
And then they say that this waspotentially a stroke, that you
know that finally took him.
So you know it'll beinteresting to watch.
You know what the CatholicChurch decides to do, not just
in what type of pope, butgeographically there's always a
precedent or not a precedent,but there's always a
consideration for where the pope, the new pope, comes from in

(11:44):
relation to the last few Popes.
So what we haven't seen yet is ais a Pope of any sort of color.
You know we have seen Hispanic,but they they have been like
Pope Francis, you know, verylight skinned, you'd think they
were Caucasian, you know kind ofthing.
But it'll be very interestingto see where the next Pope comes
from geographically.
And then, and then of leaningsthis pope has, whether it's very

(12:09):
conservative and traditional orvery progressive.
And I know that Pope Francis,his concern was loss of people
in the Catholic Church as awhole.
So he was trying to be moreprogressive, to recruit more, to
bring more people to the church.
And I think, just from anoutsider, I think it kind of
backfired a little bit.
But it's fun.
It'll be interesting.

(12:30):
Not fun, but it'll beinteresting to watch as they go
into the conclave and there'sthe voting and the smoke comes
out and everybody cheers and weget a new Pope and all that good
stuff.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
Yeah, how long does that usually take?
Is there any time frame?

Speaker 3 (12:41):
It could be a day, it could be weeks.
Yeah, again, if you watch themovie again, it's not a hundred
percent accurate, but it doesgive you an idea of the process.
There's probably a number ofCardinals right now that are,
you know, considered to be thenext Pope, you know, within the
church, and then they'll all gettogether and there's a lot of
politics involved.

(13:01):
You know, again, it depends onwhere you know they want to take
the church.
You'll have some that aretraditional, you have some that
are progressive, you have somethat are this or that, and then
they'll vote, and then they'llnarrow down, and then they'll
vote again, and then they'llnarrow down, and then you know,
so it could come to, you know,days, it could be a day, it
could be weeks, depending on howlong it takes them.
So they bring in all thecardinals from around the world,

(13:22):
they house them in Vatican cityand then they lock them all
down when it comes.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
I was going to say it's like they're very
sequestered, it's very like hush, hush, right Like very little
contact with the outside worldwhile it's going on all that
stuff, yeah.
Fascinating.
Yeah, it's going to be veryinteresting to, I think, but is
it always an elderly man Like?

(13:47):
Is it always somebody like inour lifetime?

Speaker 3 (13:49):
Yes, In our lifetime.
Yes, it has been somebody whois, you know, pope John Paul II,
which is, you know, the Pope,pope Mobile, the Pope that got
shot with you know.
You know there's a lot of folksthat consider him the last real
Pope.
He was very traditional, andyou know, but in our lifetime it

(14:10):
has been someone like that.
It has been an elderly or olderman, you know, taking on the
duty.
So I don't know, that's aconsideration too.
Do they pick somebody younger,right?
And who knows, I mean they maypick somebody older on purpose,
because it's a.
It's a lifetime appointment oran appointment until you choose
to retire.
So you know, if they putsomebody in there who's in their
40s, that pope could be therefor 30, 40 years.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
Right, yeah, yeah, when you put it like that, it
certainly does make sense thatthere there does need to be some
kind of reasonable expirationdate on that, right.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Yeah, for sure yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
I'm really stepping in it with the Catholics, I
think, this week.
Listen, I genuinely don't needA true Catholic will forgive you
and move on.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
That's right.
I mean, isn't that our wholething?
I mean, catholicism is a branchof Christianity, so we are, you
know, same family, differentbranches, right?
I certainly hope that there isa move towards back, towards
traditional, simply because inrecovery mode from all of the
you know um sexual issues withminors and altar boys and all

(15:15):
those things over the years that, you know, still doesn't sit
right with an entire generationof people.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
So we'll see what they do to to try and recover.
But uh, it'll be interesting towatch the process, if nothing
else.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
Right, yeah, yeah.
I'm uh I wouldn't say I'mlooking forward to watching, but
I'm interested in seeing how itplays out.
Right, you're always like kindof prefacing how you say that,
but yeah, interesting times andboy oh boy, like I said, you
know just to kind of expand onit a little bit that the comment
section of those posts besidesthe you know wanting to fight me
was really a fascinatinginsight to the sentiments of
Catholics and non-Catholics andand just people in general and

(16:10):
and yeah, I mean it wasdefinitely representative of um,
all the sentiments you know ofthe.
You know extreme reverence andsupport and and love um for the
Pope and sadness at his passingto the outright, you know mean,
and everything in between.
So you know, it's like you said, that the reactions to this and

(16:32):
what they do next is really, Ithink, incredibly pivotal for
the Catholic Church as a body,right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
Well, and listen, I'm not going to make any
predictions.
You know me, I love to makethem and I'm usually pretty
accurate.
You're pretty good at it, yeah,yeah.
Well and listen, I'm not goingto make any predictions.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
You know me, I love to make them and I'm usually
pretty accurate, but you'repretty good at it.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yeah, I'm a little too far removed from this.
I'm not.
I'm not predicting it.
However, changing topics, yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
My boy is trying to make me right.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
He is.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
Dude, he's got to stop it.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
He's trying to prove me right, Dude.
He's got to stop it.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
He's trying to prove me right.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
So for those that didn't see or didn't hear.
For a second time, secretary ofDefense Exit sent on the same
app on Signal.
He sent another message aboutanother bombing operation
against the Houthis to his wife,his lawyer and his brother.
Now his wife used to work orstill works for Fox news.

(17:28):
Used to work.
Um, you know, his lawyer is hislawyer and his brother, I think
my understanding is, does worksomewhere in the department of
defense.
However, um, why?

Speaker 2 (17:41):
why didn't?

Speaker 3 (17:42):
learn his lesson from last time.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, yeah, I, I, I don't understand what's
happening here.
I don't, so I don't understand.
I don't.
I simply don't know how thisone was leaked.
What, what exactly?
Do you know?
What exactly happened that thisbecame public information?

Speaker 3 (18:01):
So there are, I think I I read four confirmed sources
or four sources.
Reliable sources confirmed thisand I'm I'm interested in the
fact that there were threepeople who were escorted out of
the Pentagon in the last week.
Um, all AIDS or or closelyrelated to sec, death Um, and

(18:21):
then, and then this story comesout shortly after.
So that may have played into it.
But you know, often enough likethis, I'm sure, based on my
experience around people likethis and at this level, the sec
def does not carry his own phone.
Okay, he's got an aid or seniormilitary advice.

(18:41):
Somebody else carries his phonefor him, um, and so not hard to
get.
You know someone's trusted withthat, but you never can tell um
.
You know who you can trustnowadays.
So that may be it.
Um, somebody may have hadaccess to his brother's phone,
his lawyer's phone, his wife'sphone, who knows Um.
But it did leak out and again,the timing of those three

(19:02):
individuals that got literallyescorted out of the building
like yeah, pack your stuff,you're out of here.
I walked them out and tooktheir badge away from them, the
timing of that relation to thisis very, very interesting and, I
would guess, related.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, yeah, I mean so it's, it's.
I think it's really fair andsafe to say that Hegseth has had
a target on his back from theget-go.
And you could take that in afew different directions.
And one is to kind of besympathetic that he's just got a
target on his back and there'snothing that he can do, that

(19:40):
they're not scrutinizing,attacking, going after.
And it's especiallydisheartening and frustrating
and frightening, really thatit's people in his own camp.
I guess the flip side of that isprobably where you would be
more coming from correct me ifI'm wrong, of course is that you
damn well should know better.
Like, what are you doing?

(20:01):
You know, and it andunfortunately um lends to your
critique of him that he'sinexperienced, um and and just
maybe not the man for the job,and I honestly I don't have an
opinion on this.
I mean I have like I wish Ican't.
I don't have an opinion on it.
I don't know if he's right orwrong for the job.

(20:24):
These are definitely bigmissteps.
Whether it was his fault or not.
It's a bad look.
The optics obviously are bad,you know, and I guess it's just
because, knowing that he has, heknows that he's got this target
on his back so you can't havemissteps, you can't make

(20:45):
mistakes.
Now, what do you think is goingto happen next?
Of course, people are obviouslyspeculating that Trump, the
White House, they're looking fora replacement and he's going to
be out.
They are currently denying that.
They're saying everything'sgreat.
What do you think?

Speaker 3 (21:02):
I think he's going to get fired.
Yeah, I think it's going tohappen.
They won't need another excuse.
If they're smart and if Hegzethis smart and I don't and
truthfully I don't think he is,but if he was smart he would
walk in, or this would be playedout that he walked in and
handed his resignation to thepresident and leave with some

(21:24):
some dignity and face right, andleave with some dignity intact,
save some face, right, right,save some face, go back to Fox
News, sit back on the couch inthe morning or maybe get his own
show or whatever.
Right, I would assume that's howit's going to go, but I think
he is going to get fired.
But here's the problem isthat's not his personality,
which is why he rubs a lot ofpeople within the DOD the wrong
way, because, as a culture,humility is that.

(21:48):
That's who the military is, youknow, that's who we are.
Right, you know, it does.
You know, and the people whoaren't, the people who don't
have that humility, getostracized.
You know there's nobody thatveterans hate more than the
veteran who goes into, um, youknow, outback Steakhouse on
Veterans Day and demands hisfree meal.
That is.

(22:09):
It rubs veterans, a lot ofveterans, the wrong way.
Um, you know, quietprofessionalism, um, you know,
hey, thank you for your servicemakes a lot of us, including me,
uncomfortable, um, cause wedon't really know how to handle
it.
Um, and we, we don't do it tobe thanked, right, right, here's

(22:30):
the problem is that you've gotsomebody like Hegseth who and
I'll put it in the context ofyou know, he keeps talking about
this meritocracy.
He's reestablishing ameritocracy within the
Department of Defense.
Yeah, do your job, do it welland you'll be rewarded.
There's no politics, it's notabout race, it's not about cre.
Pete Hegsit, with zero humility,stands in front of the entire

(22:53):
Department of Defense knowingthat he earned no part of his
appointment.
He is loyal to President Trump.
That is his qualification.
That is politically appointedand has no, you know, humility
to say listen, folks, I'm here,I'm learning every day, I'm this

(23:15):
, I'm that.
He does two mistakes like thison signal and and and.
The first time it was, you know, it's not a big deal, it wasn't
classified, I didn't doanything wrong.
You know, blah, blah, blah.
And everybody around him looksat him and goes seriously shut
up, man.
And then he does it again,right?
So that's what rubs people thewrong way, and I think it's it's

(23:35):
going to start to breed a lotof discontent within DOD, even
for people who are supporters.
It just looks bad and I and Ithink he is not long for that
office.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Truthfully, is there anyone that you can think of
that you would like to see inthat position?
Can we nominate you?
No, wait, no, then I'll loseyou as a co-host.
Nevermind, I take it back.
I take it back.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
I have volunteered to take over the ATF.
Like I said, I will do that.
Like they handed that off, theytook it away from Kash Patel
and they handed it off to thesecretary of the army, for some
reason, to be the actingdirector.
I'll do that job, give me that.
But SECDEF, no, no thanks, nothanks.
But you know, are there peoplethat I know, you know, I think

(24:26):
we probably.
You know, general Austin,secretary Austin left such a bad
taste in people's mouths abouta former general sitting in that
seat.
There probably needs to be sometime and space before they do
that again.
They do that again.
I think there's probably plentyof business leaders out there
that can handle the job, thatare familiar with the Department
of Defense, who are notconnected to it.
So, nobody from the defenseindustry.
We don't need anybody fromHarris Communications or General
Dynamics or any of the bigdefense contractors, but there's

(24:49):
plenty of people out there whocan do that job.
I'm still Connie Rice, I think,is still.
That was always her dream job,um, and I and I think she would
be a great sec def, but I don'tthink, uh, I don't think
anybody's, you know, knocking onher door for that, so, but she
would be, in my opinion, a greatpick.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Nice, Okay.
Well, we're going to see whathappens.
Do you think it was thesethings that have just happened?
The signal things, genuinesecurity risk or just simply bad
optics?

Speaker 3 (25:21):
Yeah, truthfully, I've seen in a couple of places
what he transmitted to folks andI will tell you it does not
qualify as classifiedinformation.
Classified information those ofus and listen, I've said this
before I have Signal.
I have used it with friends ofmine in the military or retired
folks and we've talked aboutwhat you would refer to as
sensitive but not classifiedinformation.

(25:41):
And we all know there's alanguage that most of us speak.
It's very much like the mafia,like hey, did you take care of
that thing?
And everybody knows what you'retalking about.
You're just saying it out loud.
So we, most of us, know how totemper our language.
You know to say the things thatyou can say and leave out the
things that you can't say.
And people still understandwhat's going on.

(26:01):
And and his transmissions onsignal are a lot like that.
So you know he didn't give out.
He's walking a fine line,believe me.
But it's like hey, you knowoperation, who thinks so he's
given a general area, he's notgiven a specific, he's not
necessarily given you knowaircraft, time and packages and

(26:22):
you know who's flying what andwhere and what time.
He's not giving away any of thesuper details, but it is very,
very sloppy and shouldn't becoming from his account.
So did he really violateregulations?
Not that I could see, but is itreally poor professionally?
Yeah, it's really bad.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
Okay, all right, we will see what happens.
What's your so you?
Oh wait, no, you gave yourprediction, you, you think he's
going to be out, okay.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
I think what's today, that, by the way, it's
Wednesday.
Yes, I think what's today, bythe way, it's Wednesday.
It's Wednesday at 4.
What?
We started this at 4 Easterntime.
What's the date?
The date is the 23rd.
I'm going to say mid-May.
He's gone.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
Wow, okay, all right, guys, listen, clay's been right
, see what happens.
Yeah, I will be fair and say notevery single thing, but only
because I'm not positive and Ican't say that with like 100%
certainty, but probably prettygosh darn close.
We should have been keepingscore.

(27:28):
We should have like a tallyboard or whatever it's called up
, where we can just kind of putthe little, the little tallies
on there.
Might happen, that could happen, could happen.
Oh, my goodness, what we gotnext?
Oh, real ID.
So I'll be honest with you.
I did mine like I don't knowwhenever.

(27:48):
The last time I had to renew mylicense like maybe I think I'm
getting due again, it's likethree years ago.
I think I did it.
Well, I don't know Whenever Ihad to do.
Let's put it this way whateverit was, they were first offering
it and they're like, oh, it'sgoing to become a mandatory, and
whatever date they gave, andthat date like came and went and
and and now here it is.

(28:09):
What is it?
May 7th?

Speaker 3 (28:10):
Yeah yeah, this is.
What kills me is that this waspassed.
Real id was passed in 2005right, it's like obama era.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
Right, this is george bush.
This is still like, oh yeahright.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
Yes, 2005.
It was passed initially, andthen 2008,.
Dhs started sending out like,hey, this is going to be the
requirement, yeah, and then 2012is when they started really
kind of discerning andimplementing some things.
This is not new news.
Now, you're right, there was adate and it was COVID ish, so it

(28:49):
got.
So it got pushed Right.
So this was actually supposedto happen three or four years
ago and then they pushed it.
And now they've said yes, it'sMay 7th 2025.
So for the people who are like,oh my God, I had no idea this
was coming and you've beensleeping because this is not new
news and there is thespeculation I mean, you see the
banner at the bottom is thisgovernment surveillance, with a

(29:10):
smile?
And there's a lot of peoplethat say news.
And, and you know, there is thespeculation.
I mean, you see the banner atthe bottom, is this government
surveillance, with a smile?
And there's a lot of peoplethat say yes, and I would tell
you, because it was associatedwith the Patriot Act, there is a
government surveillance aspectto this.
I have no doubt in my mind thatthat's part of what this is,

(29:31):
because of the genesis of it all.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean I don't know.
I don't know how to feel aboutit.
To be honest with you, you knowyou look at both sides of this.
You know, as as Americancitizens do, we want more
government watching us like bigbrother, blah, blah, blah, that
stuff.
You know there's this fine linebetween our, our safety and the

(29:55):
deep state police state.
You know all of that stuff.
I don't know.
I mean, I don't know what theanswer is.
I don't even know.
Again, I'm just making peoplemad left and right this week.
I mean I don't even know if Icare enough right now at this
point, because we, everything wedo is is watched, is public,

(30:18):
publicly accessible to, to othercountries, to our government,
to everything.
I mean, if you exist in thisday and age and you use the
Internet and you use socialmedia and you buy things, you
know on Amazon and on Timu andthe other one that I never know
how to pronounce, your stuff isout there.
People are tracking your everymove, your shopping habits, all

(30:38):
of that stuff.
If you don't want that tohappen in this day and age, you
have to literally, physically,digitally, go off grid.
I mean, it's the only thing Ican tell you, like if this makes
you angry, if you don't want tobe a part of it, you absolutely
have to go off grid, cut upyour credit cards.
You know all of the things Imean right, am I, am I, am I

(31:00):
wrong?
You're?

Speaker 3 (31:01):
you're right, you're 100 percent right, and the
reality is is that you know thisis all this is is verification
of information.
That's already out there.
So, if you like, if you have adriver's license Right already
out there so, if you have like,if you have a driver's license
right and you know, I know youdid this like three years ago
but if you have a driver'slicense and you went from your
old license to a real ID,verified license, that's all
they're doing is verifyingwhat's on the driver's license,

(31:23):
right.
Right, you're not giving themmore info, you're just verifying
what's true on there.
Yeah, you know.
And, and you know a lot ofpeople are upset because, yeah,
you know.
And, and you know, a lot ofpeople are upset because, oh it,
this, you know, restrictstravel, blah, blah, blah.
One again this is not new news.
You don't have time to react tothis.
Two, nobody says you have aGod-given constitutional right

(31:46):
to fly in an airplane, right?
If you don't like it, drive,just drive, yeah.
And if you don't have access tothat or you can't do that, oh
well.
There's choices in life and Iget the people that you know
Patriot Act and they're trackingus.
But everything you said is true.
Unless you live with cash, youknow, unless you, you know,

(32:20):
don't have a credit card anddon't have a cell phone and
don't have any digital footprintwhatsoever, an email address or
anything else.
You know, if you have any ofthose things, then there's, you
know, there's data beingcollected.
It's just how things operatenow.
So, you know, and I kind oflaugh.
You know, there's a lot ofpeople who are like oh, you know
DNA, you know, you know 23andMeand all these other things and
you're contributing DNA to thisbig depository.
Is it true?
Sure it is.
You know what I can tell youpersonally?
They took a DNA sample from mewhen I joined the Army.

(32:41):
Mine's been in a big databasesince like 1993.
Okay, this is not new news, youknow.
It's just.
People get worked up about thisand, trust me, I'm not for
government surveillance.
But you know, is this meant tokeep all of us safer?
Sure, it is.
You're a person who says Idon't want real ID, but close
the borders Like you're notmaking it.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
Yeah, well, there you know, uh, excellent point,
because there's, um, what mightbe the irony a little bit there?
Uh, only in the sense that weoften, when we have these all
our topics, we're referencingreactions from the left, but
this is actually a strongerreaction from the right.
The right is very displeased,you know, that's a

(33:23):
generalization, of course, butthe right is who is very
displeased with this and havinga problem with it.
So, but again, I mean, whopassed it?

Speaker 3 (33:35):
Right, 2005,.
Go back and look who'sresponsible for this.
Yeah, yeah, this is a veryconservative post 9-11 George
Bush era administration thatpassed this Right.
So you know, you're right, thisis a reaction from the right,
this is a reaction from, youknow, the the MAGA world of you

(33:56):
know, and it is.
You could almost say it's alibertarian thing, but it's not.
It really is the conservativeright, Um, who are complaining
about this the most, who are thesame people who passed this.
So, um, you know, I'll tell youthe same thing that you tell
everybody else who's complainingabout America If you don't like
it, go live somewhere else.
Yeah.
I mean the same answer thatconservatives give to people who

(34:18):
bitch and moan about.
You know America as it standsright now under Trump.
If you don't like it, go livesomewhere else.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
Yeah, I mean, that's kind of what it comes down to.
I tell you and I don't knowabout you guys watching or
listening, whatever the case is,because we are so constantly
inundated with things to beangry about in the world.
Right, I have taken this kindof stance more so than ever.

(34:48):
I think I've always kind ofbeen like this, but more so than
ever these days.
I've always kind of been likethis, but more so than ever
these days, and maybe it's partof my Christian walk here that
I've taken such a step back innot learning, definitely not
learning.
I love to learn about what'sgoing on in the world and
understanding it, but caringless, getting less worked up

(35:11):
over the things, at the sametime assessing them and seeing
for what they are like.
Yes, in this, in a context, thisis a big deal in the grand
scheme of everything and in myday-to-day life, this is nothing
to me.
This means nothing.
And you know and maybe withthis specific topic, because I

(35:32):
have grandchildren out of statethat I go see just about every
single month listen, I don'tcare how I get there, I'm
getting there, and if that meansgetting a little gold star or
whatever it is on my driver'slicense, do it, I don't care, I
don't care.
So if you care kind of echoingClay here if you care, if this
is your hill to die on, you knowwhat you got to do then.

(35:53):
So there you go.
What do you people want me todo?

Speaker 3 (36:13):
that's one thing.
If you are upset because it'sbeing implemented and you
haven't done anything about ituntil now, like no, you haven't
voted for anybody to step in, oryou haven't lobbied to have
this repealed, or you haven'tdone and you're just upset about
it now, then again I I thinkyou're right, elsa, and that is,
people are being mad becauseit's just something to be mad at
so I mean, geez guys, come,come on like this is, this is,
is the hill you want to die on,really?

Speaker 2 (36:34):
This is the big thing to be so angry about, and
especially within the context ofwhat we were just talking about
, that our every move you'rebeing recorded as you're walking
in.
I remember, during the COVIDdays, I remember there being the

(36:57):
scanners in the doors for yourtemperature, taking your
temperature.
You know that was weird in andof itself.
Just walking into a restaurantand your temperature is being
taken.
You know, I don't know.
This is the world that we livein.
These are aspects that, youknow, kind of suck, certainly,

(37:20):
but I just don't think it's thehill to die on.

Speaker 3 (37:21):
That's all.
That's all I think about it.
Oh, by the way, if you'rereally opposed to real ID, don't
ever go to Las Vegas or stepfoot in a casino.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Oh yeah, they have your entire right.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
Yeah, that is the most advanced surveillance,
facial recognition, any of thatanywhere probably on the planet.
So if you're if you're really,really worried, then don't go
there either.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, get rid of your , your iPhone, android, all of
them, for that matter.
Yeah.
Yep, you know.
So, yeah, I mean plenty of morethings to be mad about in the
world.
Or how about just not, just notEverybody chill.
There's that.
My high school friends would ifthey saw this, if they see this

(38:03):
are probably at this momentwould sit there and go yeah,
that is so on brand for her.
I was like if they could have aback in the day, if they could
have vote for girl, most likelyto just go end up on some Malibu
beach somewhere.
They're like, yeah, that'd beyou, because you just, you're
just, your vibe is very chill.
That's my vibe.
Guys, it's a great place to be.

(38:23):
You should all try it.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yeah, you'll probably live a lot longer than the rest
of us.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
I, you know, listen, listen, I better.
I mean, what's the pointotherwise here?
Oh, my goodness, look at metaking us off track.
All right, let's move on to ournext one.
What's the next one here?
Oh yeah, harvard's federalfunding is being threatened.
I love this title.
To be honest with you, whenwoke meets wallet, yeah, they're
getting the hammer droppedright $2.2 billion in federal
funding.

Speaker 3 (38:53):
I'm going to say that again Federal dollars, $2.2
billion.
Right, and this is related toDEI.
This is related to massiveantisemitism.
There's a lot of things goingon at Harvard and the president
and others are saying this is it, we're done with you, we're

(39:14):
done with the money.
If you don't fix yourself,you're not getting any cash.
Now Harvard has turned aroundand sued the federal government,
the Trump administration, fortheir money.
Okay, for all of us, normalpeople, right, we are
contributing.
Our tax dollars Say it again$2.2 billion is going to Harvard
.
Here's what's the crushing thingabout this all of this.

(39:36):
They have a $53.2 billionendowment, they have the money.
They don't need this $2.2billion.
In fact, I would question whythey get it in the first place
if they got $53.2 billion accessto that amount of money.
Right, that's crazy.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
It's insane, absolutely insane.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
Yeah, but a lot of it has to do with the
anti-Semitism.
There is a history ofanti-Semitism at Harvard, yes,
and so that needs to be cleanedup.
I've seen some very interestingopposing views from current and
former Jewish students.
You know some very you knowkind of academically have said

(40:22):
you know, free speech is freespeech.
I don't like it, but that's theway it's supposed to be.
Some have made accounts ofblatant anti-Semitic sentiments

(40:45):
from other students targeted byinstructors, professors,
withholding, changing grades,those kinds of things.
So it's been there for a whileand it doesn't seem like it's
going away.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
But at the crux of it is this money which they
shouldn't get in the first place.
You think, yeah, I, you knoweverything else aside for that
alone, why?
Why would my tax dollars gothere?
Like no, no, thank you, so forthat alone.
If you want to take out everyother element, no, thank you, I
would like to opt out.
You know what I mean?
I mean that's insane to mewould like to opt out.

Speaker 3 (41:15):
You know what I mean.
I mean that's insane to me.
I understand federal fundingfor even state run schools,
right?
Yes, I'm a directional.
I went to a directionaluniversity, as we call it.
I went to Western IllinoisUniversity.
Okay, that's a state school inthe state of Illinois, and those
types of schools.
I understand federal funding,federal assistance.
Yeah assistance Privateuniversities?
I don't get.

(41:36):
I really don't get.
Our dollars do not need to begoing to a university that,
truthfully, is unattainable by Ithink their selection rate is
7% or something like that someastronomically low number.
Why are we sending them money?
Because most of our kids willnever go there.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
Right, exactly, I would love if somebody is
watching this and they do feelthat private universities,
institutions like that, shouldbe getting federal funding.
I would really love to hearyour explanation for why you
think that, because, I mean, Ihonestly can't think of one good
reason for it, can you?
I mean, are you able to playdevil's advocate on this?

(42:15):
Are you able to think of likeone good reason?

Speaker 3 (42:19):
The only, yes, the only thing that I can think of
and you could even play devil'sadvocate against my devil's
advocate and that is research,so especially medical research.
In a lot of cases you know thatthey do that is funded, or at
least partially funded, by thismoney for the betterment of
humanity.
But again, like that, I dounderstand that coming, you know

(42:40):
, from federal dollars.
However, you could argueagainst that and say,
altruistically, why aren'tpeople just donating directly,
right?
I mean, if you're doing let'sjust call it cancer research,
right, there's like 8 millionfoundations out there.
You know that people aredonating to.
Why doesn't that money just goto Harvard or wherever else

(43:00):
that's doing cancer research?
Right?
I think there's plenty of moneyout there.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
truthfully, yeah, I think this, oh, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
Yeah, or do that research at a state school and
not a private university.
There you go.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Even better actually.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
There's a lot of state schools that have medical
programs, dental programs,whatever other programs, that do
this kind of research.
Send them the money, let themdo it.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
You see where the problem lies, with the
government sending these privateuniversities the money that
they send.
They do research, but they doresearch on, you know, I don't
know why orangutans aren'tattracted to chimpanzees.
I you know what I mean.
Like they do these.
You know gender studies onarmadillos.

(43:49):
You know, like the, I mean thisis the kind of crap that they,
they do.
So you know, that's really theproblem here.
If I were to play, if I were todo, you know, the devil's
advocate to that, that would beit that, like you know, the,
unfortunately the type ofresearch that they do doesn't
really benefit humanity.
And I'm not saying that, that'sa blanket statement, a
generalization.
Yes, I do believe that thereare some studies that have been

(44:12):
done, perhaps are being done,that are beneficial to humanity.
But you know, really, this,this has to do directly with,
you know, d, I still D, like yousaid, the DEI initiatives and
studies and all of those thingsand, of course, the antisemitism
that they're not addressing,they're not doing anything about
.
You know, and it's no, it'sjust no.

(44:33):
We don't need to fund that sothey can raise the money
themselves, like you said, getdonations.
You have a lot of wealthypeople who want the status of
going there and sending theirchildren there.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
I'm sure they are willing to pay for it you know,
or they can wait three years andnine months until a new
administration who may or maynot flip this policy back.
I will tell you, based onrecent polling.
The Democrats are puttingtogether like their candidacy

(45:09):
list is unbelievably bad.
Wow.
Yeah, I've seen a bunch.
I've seen a bunch that probablythe most prominent one is from
the Hill.
Let me just read you their top10 in descending order right.
These are folks.
These are I'll do it DavidLetterman style.
These are the top 10, right Forthose of us that are really old

(45:31):
.
Uh, the top 10 picks, uh, forthe democratic party to run for
president, presidentialcandidates for 2028.
Number 10 is Stephen A Smith ofESPN.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
I did see that.
I did see that yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
He's gotten very political in the last probably
nine months or so, uh, but he'son the list.
Number 10, uh.
Number nine Rahm Emanuel from,uh, the Obama administration and
former mayor of the city ofChicago, disastrous Pete
Buttigieg.
At number eight, right Mediocremayor.
Even worse, transportationsecretary, jd Pritzker, governor

(46:07):
of the state of Illinois, isnumber seven, although I will
throw a prediction at you.
So Dick Durbin, who is asenator, one of the most senior
senators, and has been inIllinois for a long, long time,
is not running for reelection intwenty twenty six.
Ok, Novak's prediction is thatPritzker is going to, is going
to take his seat.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
Oh, ok, yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
Building the resume for a presidential run later on.
So he's number seven.
Number six, your friend andmine, Kamala Harris, which will
be also right back in business.

Speaker 2 (46:40):
I mean, you know, for that alone let's go, let's go.

Speaker 3 (46:44):
Number five is Governor Moore from Maryland,
not, you know, not truthfully,all that well-known.
Number four is my personalbelief, which is Gavin Newsom.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
I think he's the number one.
Number three is GretchenWhitmer, yep.
Number two is Governor Shapiro,who, who got a phone call from
president Trump after the fire,by the way you know so um, and
the number one on multiple lists, not just this one from the

(47:15):
Hill, but on multiple lists.
I cannot believe this.
The number one Trump, pleaseCandidate is AOC.
Yeah, AOC, she's number one.
Speculated to be the number onepreferred candidate or
president for 2028.
Thoughts.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
Okay, questions, first One being really Is her
popularity with that crowd thathigh?
I mean, is that really?
I mean, is that really?

Speaker 3 (47:49):
Oh, so you context matters, right, and so here is
the thing to really to put allof this in context, and then you
can keep going.
But the approval rating forDemocrats in Congress is so it's
the worst it's ever been.
Yeah, so when you say, say, isher popularity that high?

(48:11):
Yes, but in a very, very smallpopulation.
So you know, truthfully, youknow to be the number one vote
getter out of seven people.
I mean like if seven people arepicking, not really saying much
not saying a whole lot, but sheis number one, please continue.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
Okay, so I mean this is probably.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
I'm going to show you a little image here.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
This is one.
Please continue, okay.
So I mean, this is probably.
I'm going to show you a littleimage here.
This is, you know, do you thinkthis would be their version of
the dream team?

Speaker 3 (48:40):
oh, I'm sorry guys that's a suicide squad, that
that is like there's no waythat's getting elected ever, her
and crockett, not a chance way.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
I mean.
So I think I can speakcollectively for everyone on the
right, which I normally wouldnot dare to do ever, on any
circumstance.
But this time I will dare tospeak for everyone on the right
and say please, please, make AOCand Crockett for all, for all I

(49:10):
care, make that your dream team.
Please.
I'm begging you, just do it,just do it.
We're going to have so much funwith that.
And the challenge for me, ofcourse, we'll be working on a
AOC impression.
I guess I've been asked.
I'm getting asked a lot.
Clay, people keep asking me yougot to do an AOC for us.

(49:31):
I'm like I don't, I don't know.
I mean, do I have the wig forit?
Probably.

Speaker 3 (49:34):
Can you do the the selective Spanish accent?

Speaker 2 (49:38):
I, you know I can, I can, I can do the select, I can.
You know she's got a fewdifferent ones too, right?

Speaker 3 (49:43):
Yeah, yeah, I think on that the other day she was
talking in LA.
She was talking in LA and youknow her accent changed a couple
of times and she got nailed onthat in.
You know in the media, yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
My favorite one is still you know it's a.
It's maybe a little, a littleobscure, but there was one where
she was speaking at a.
It was like a.
They were in like a gymnasiumand it was like a little town
hall type thing and she wasanswering questions and and her
own constituents were likeyelling at her and, and you know
, they were just fed up with herand everything.
And she takes them over to allof a sudden all her Hispanicness

(50:15):
comes out in one one flood andshe, and it's just this clip of
her going, listen, listen, okay,listen, see, I can do it, guys,
and you know, I just probablyhave to bring my pitch up a
little higher, make my eyes bugout a little bit more, and we
might have it right.
You guys can vote on that, tellme how close I was, but yeah,

(50:35):
but that one sticks in my mindthe most and you know, and of
course, five minutes laterchanges it up again, so that
that's, that is a Democrat move,though that's their playbook.
I mean, we know this, you cango probably even further back,
but first one that comes to mindis, of course, hillary Clinton,
with her hot sauce in her purse, you know, and just down the
line and, of course, kamalaObama.

(50:57):
Obama's notorious You're right,you're right, yeah, they did.

Speaker 3 (51:02):
I want to say it was near the tail end of his second
term.
You know, he's ESPN used to goto him every year and he would
fill out his bracket.
They would do a special withhim and he would fill out his
bracket on a big board and hewould, you know, cause he was a
basketball guy and all this, andsomebody I remember in his last
term, um, took two clips of himin the same day and you could,

(51:25):
he was wearing the same suit,right?
So when he did the ESPN thing,I think he was maybe just in the
dress shirt with, like thesleeves rolled up, so he looked
like a cool guy.
In the same day, he was in hisvery political mode and he
talked in his very politicalfashion.
And then when he was fillingout the board, you know he was
talking to the basketball, thecollege basketball fan base, you
know.
Kind of very, very differenttempo for them.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
Oh yeah, 100 yep and, and I'll tell you what I have
never, ever even once heardpresident trump do that couldn't
, never.
If he tried, no, he definitelycould not, he couldn't, he
couldn't.
It would ring so false first ofall.
Um, but yeah, I mean, you know,my only point being is, like
that is definitely a primarilyDemocrat thing to do, to pander

(52:13):
to your audience of the moment.
I mean, how much more proof canyou have of that?
And please, if you've got proofof anybody on the right doing
it, I would love to see it.
Throw it in there.
Throw it in the comments,because I'll go check it out and
I'll call them out for it too.
So it is.
It's at best obnoxnoxious, atworst highly offensive to

(52:34):
everyone.

Speaker 3 (52:36):
Yeah, anybody on the right that does it deserves the
same ridicule.

Speaker 2 (52:40):
Heck, yeah, yeah.
So if you know anybody to giveme a link, show me.
I want to.
I want to bust on them too,cause I don't care.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
Interestingly not on that list that I saw on.
It wasn't on the Hills list andI think I only saw him in one
other place was a Cory Booker,but I did see him out there, who
I?
Thought was interesting yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:01):
Yeah, I mean, and he's positioning himself.
I mean I remember his wholegrandstanding there, his whole
nonsense thing in Congress.
Yeah, he is trying to positionhimself and he did not make that
list Interesting.
The only thing I can guess isthat he's so thoroughly unliked

(53:21):
by everyone around him.
I mean, he is really just onsite.
You kind of want to give himone.
Totally unrelated, we only havea few, just a minute or so left
, but I just have to.
You said something about apicture or an optic or something
, and it made me remember this.
Did you see the Easter?
The Easter picture from theBiden family?

Speaker 3 (53:45):
Oh yeah, photoshopped in the back, yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
It's terrible.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
Yeah, it's awful.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
I mean.
Really bad, they weren't eventrying.
There was like no effort.
There Everybody's in their nicedressy casual clothes.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
And there's Grandpa Joe in his suit in the back.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
Yeah, and making it look like you know.
So they just like cut him inhalf and tucked him behind
everybody else.
There is no way that man couldkneel down or sit like that,
like the impossibility of it.
So, yes, and I just have to say, if you are thinking that that
was not Photoshopped, I mean,what's the old, old, another old

(54:25):
fashioned statement to date usand show all the way around Like
I got a bridge to sell you, Igot some land.

Speaker 3 (54:33):
We have one more and this is a.
This is a weird one.
And again, folks, you know,elsa and I we call it like we
see it.
This has nothing to do with youknow very, very little, as, but
we're both conservatives, butthis one we got to call out for
general stupidity.
So the mayor of.
Lancaster, california, is a guynamed uh, what is it?

(54:54):
Rex Paris, that's our, our RexParis is his name.
This guy is so off his freakingrocker.
Okay, he is a Republican, right, he's a conservative.
They have a homeless uh issuein in Lancaster, uh issue in in
Lancaster, california and his um, his solutions are um one, give

(55:14):
them as much fentanyl as theywant.
Right, there's a fentanylproblem in their town.
He says give them.
You can't fix these people.
Give them as much and as muchas they want.
By the way, when asked aboutthis for clarification, he
doubled down, right.
Then he also said he wishesPresident Trump would give us a

(55:37):
purge.
Are you kidding?
And this guy's been in officefor a long time.
This is the one who justelected this year.
He's been in office a while.
This guy is a lunatic, and Iknow California is crazy, but
for those of you in LancasterCalifornia, you got to get rid
of that guy.
He is off his rocker.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
Yeah, I tell you, playing our little game of
devil's advocate, and I'mcertainly not saying that this
is the case.
I'm just trying to find somebenefit of the doubt here, like
I'm reaching here, probably, butI'm just trying to imagine,
like maybe this is a case ofthis guy One.
Maybe he's just like a reallystraight shooter, maybe he's

(56:20):
like really old school, maybehe's just like fed up and tired
of the BS and he, I don't know,maybe he was trying to read the
room.
As far as like we, you know, asconservatives, we've got like
kind of like this hard, hardline attitude.
This was so next level that,yeah, I mean, I'm trying, I'm

(56:43):
trying to help the guy here andhe's not making it easy, not not
at all.
Yeah, you can't, you can'treally say things like that.
And maybe I could say somethinglike that because I'm not in
leadership, I'm not leadinganybody into anything.
So if I want to say somethingthat's, you know, at best salty,
at worst highly inappropriate,I can say it because I'm not in

(57:06):
leadership, I am not a publicofficial in charge of an entire
town or county or whatever it is.
Yeah, that was a bad one.

Speaker 3 (57:15):
Yeah, that.
That is not something that Ithink any sane person advocates
for in any position ofresponsibility whatsoever.
And, more surprisingly, whenchallenged, he was like I meant
every word of it, like I, yeah,do it.
I think this is, this is thebest way to handle it.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
So, yeah, the proper response at that point should
would have been if he had a goodPR person saying no, here's,
here's how you fix this buddy.
You have to say that listen,I'm just fed up and you know I'm
saying what other people arethinking.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
But of course I don't mean literally.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
Yeah, passionate, emotional, frustrated there's a
lot of things that you could putin there.
You could have said there, butyou chose to double down.
I don't double down, don'tthink he's me.
I mean, listen, I don't know.
We're in such an upside downcrazy world.
I mean maybe the people are like, yeah, that's great no,
absolutely not I know, but y'allcan understand now why I do
this really big personal stepback from all of it, like the

(58:13):
inundation of crazy is just Yep,it is what it is.
Excuse me, sir, did we do likewhat?
Six, seven topics?

Speaker 3 (58:24):
I think we six and a couple of yeah we did A couple
little sidewinders.
Yeah, a little bit yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
I mean I might dare to say we're kind of pros at
this.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
This is where I think we're over a year and a half
right.
I think we're, we are, we're.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
August will be two years for us, I think right, it
will be two years.

Speaker 3 (58:41):
Yeah, that is for sure, yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
Yeah, awesome, I love it.
We did it, we did it, guys.
And um, as always, you know, welike to close out the show with
a little appreciation for y'all.
Yes, I just came back from theSouth.
You got to let me have it.
Yeah, you guys are amazing.
We love engaging with you inthe comments section.
We highly, highly encourage youto like, share, follow,
subscribe, do all of the things.

(59:05):
It helps us help you get all ofyour information in one spot so
you don't have to watch all ofthe stuff and things, right?

Speaker 3 (59:13):
Yeah, I mean that's you know.
I almost feel an obligation toElsa every week just to have
this conversation to keep her onpoint.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
Yes, yes, you do, you do.
And look, I mean, are you proudof me?
Because I don't think I wasrocking in my chair when I
watched this.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
No, you did good.
Yeah, you were not distractingat all.
There was a little bit ofmovement, but not like you know.

Speaker 2 (59:33):
Not like we thought, exactly Not like we thought I
was going to do.
I mean, it was very tempting,Like my intrusive thoughts
definitely kicked in and I wasso tempted once or twice to just
do the full spin just for noreason whatsoever.

Speaker 3 (59:54):
That's the comedian in me that you know.
I got to do silly things hereand there, but I try and keep it
a little straight.
Laced for the show, I wasexpecting the uh, the little kid
stuck at the bank or the cardealership with the parents
while they're filling outpaperwork and spinning around
randomly on chairs, things ofthat nature.
But you did good.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
Yeah, I did good, yes , I'm, I'm patting myself on the
back for that.
I just, you know, I'm childlikelike that.
I like praise, I love it.
It's good.
Oh, my goodness, guys, allright.
So Clay told you right at theuh, right at the start there,
pretty much, that this isWednesday for us.
We're all watching together onThursday and, um, yeah, and
we'll be back with more funstuff next week.

(01:00:21):
Clay, you want to close themout?
Do you have any additional uhupdates?

Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
No, nothing.
Yet.
I do have another phone callwith new publisher.
Tomorrow.
There's discussion of audiobooks, which I know people have
been clamoring for, and there'sdiscussion of me narrating audio
books.
We'll see how that turns out,but but that's it.
So.
You know, we'll see in thecomments section and and we will
see you next week, but in themeantime, keep moving, keep
shooting.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
I love it.
Take care guys.
Warrior leader author.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
Patriot.
From ranger school to thebattlefield, from the front
lines of combat to the frontlines of culture.
Retired Lieutenant Colonel ClayNovak isn't done fighting for
truth.
Catch him on the Elsa Kurt Showand read his no-holds-barred
blog at claynovakauthorcom.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
Keep moving, keep shooting, if you've ever looked
around and Keep moving, keepshooting.
From woke theology to spiritualapathy.
We're hitting it all straighton, straight up and back by
scripture.
This isn't a rage-fueled rant.
It's a rally cry, a wake-upcall to stop apologizing and
start boldly living out thegospel.

(01:01:42):
Whether you're a new believeror a disillusioned disciple
trying to find your footingagain, this book is for you.
It's packed with truth bombs,grace-filled strategies and
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The culture doesn't need morecompromise.
It needs courageous Christians.

(01:02:02):
So if you're ready to push backagainst the chaos with bold
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Let's shake things up withtruth and grace.