The Rod and Greg Show: Ending Homeless Encampments in D.C.; CDL Mills Make Roads Dangerous

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
New car in the in the arqueat home, new car
in the race, car red mad had to make Mama happy. Yeah,
that's like it's a. Is that a Ferrari? I think
I saw that on Magnum p I. That car, I
think I did.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
That's what we've been watching so much of that lately,
marked back to the path. We have bought a Ferrari.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
It's a. It's a. It's a folks, it's as if
you've watched magnif p I. You've seen Rodeo Queen's new car.
That's it. It's a Ferrari.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Rodeo Queen wanted new car and we got her a
new one. Well, we got a lot to get to today.
I mean, think about this greg flag burning America's death trap,
dangerous out there on the highways. We'll talk about that. Uh,
We'll talk about homelessness. We'll talk about banning cell phones
and schools. We'll talk about sending troops into Chicago. We

(00:46):
have got a plethora of issues to discuss today.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, you know, I've we're getting ready for the program.
You try to get your head straped, your head around
everything that's going on. I wake up in the morning.
We got more information being to classified, you know, parts
that were blacked out. Now you get to see find
out that Komy's really sending a lot of stuff to
the New York Times illegally. All the people that knew
about it and just buried it, including the in the
Trump Department of Justice, which is really frustrating his first term. Anyway,

(01:15):
you're doing all that, and then all of a sudden
you get to hear to the show and you think
you've got your head around everything, and then someone throws
a wrench into it and you're like, well, wait a minute.
Some of these things that Trump's doing, it might not
be what I thought.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
It was, because.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Questions about a couple of things he wants to do.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Does he ever troll those Democrats? He knows how to.
He's got a on a nose ring and about a
two link chain. If he's just leading them around, it
is something to behold. So I'm starting to doubt my
own take on what Trump's doing right now. I think
it might be.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Game here we have figured out.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
I can't wait to go over with our listeners because
they they'll know, they'll tell me, Yeah, they'll tell us.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
They'll tell us a lot of things. They normally do,
so it should be a great show today. We invite
you to be a part of eight eight eight five
seven eight zero one zero cell phone dial pound two
fifty and say hey Ron. And of course if they
download the new iHeart Radio.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
App, they can use a talkback button. That's that red
little microphone button that's on the top right hand corner.
Hit that gives you three It counts down three seconds
and gives you a thirty second take love our talkback messages.
They're always really informative and insightful.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
All right, let's talk. Let's start today, which I think
is the most entertainment entertaining story of the day today.
Snoop Dogg.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
You know, Snoop Dogg was like at my age, he
was kind of a hardcore rapper. He had every parent
worried about his rapping songs. Well, now it's Grandpa Snoop.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Grandpa Snoop.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Now Grandpa Snoops a little different than nineteen ninety one,
ninety two Snoop. This guy he's got gram he's got
grandparent issues. Yeah, and so he tried to take the
grand son of the movies. It was a little bit tough.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
And is he taking the heat from the LGBTQ one
A plus whatever is.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Commuterity that it is such a natural response.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
I totally get what but he raised the question. So
he appeared on a podcast. Apparently he took a couple
of his grandkids to see the latest movie vers of
but buzzs Late Year and Toy Story. And here he
is watching the movie and all of a sudden this
comes up. Let's to what he had to say.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
I took my grandson to see what was the movie
with a buzz like Toy Not that one.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
But the new the New Buzz the Late Year.

Speaker 4 (03:25):
I think it's like cheeky Palmers in that movie plays
like the Daughter. So we're watching it and the lady
which is Kiky's mama, they move on into the space years.
They moved down the line. They're like, then she had
a baby? What a woman? Or my grandson in the
middle of the movie like, Papa snoop, how she have

(03:48):
a baby with a woman?

Speaker 5 (03:49):
She a woman? I didn't come in for this. I
just can't watch the movie. Man, watch the movie. They
just said she is he had a baby? They both women?
How does she have a baby? Ain't So it's like
I'm scared to go to the movies. They're like, y'are

(04:10):
throwing me in the middle of answer.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
You know, he doesn't know what to say. Thanks a lot, Disney.
You know that used to be The Bells. That's used
to be the most stress free movie to go to.
See a Little snow White, seven Doors, see a Little Cinderella,
see Bambi or something. Now they got this going on.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Ye, well, as grandson says, Grandpa, Papa snoop, how can
two women?

Speaker 1 (04:36):
I don't know who's still going Maybe they'll tell us
at the end of the movie. Just keep watching. Yeah,
don't ask me. I don't know. Yeah, you know, once
you get into space, you don't know.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
You don't know what happens next space.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, but it is so funny to the Snoop Dogs. Now,
Grandpa Snoop, that's kind of funny because you grew up
with grand as I did, and it was a big deal. Yeah,
here stressing a lot of parents out himself. I mean,
some of this might be karma fer Old Snoop Dogg
because he had a lot of parents stressed with his
You got that, But I think that that's some pretty

(05:11):
can't whoever's whatever you know alphabet soup organization's mad at him.
They again, everybody's got to be offended. Everybody's got to
be that has the most heartfelt, like human experience. You're
gonna hear in twenty twenty five where you're like, I
have no idea, and why am I getting thrown into this?
I didn't bring this up, This wasn't my topic. Well,
I was just here to watch a movie and have
fun with my grandkids.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
It is a great question. How do you explain two
women or two men having a baby? Yeah, I mean,
you know, and Disney movies are I don't think that's
their intent, or maybe it is. Now they're trying to
make it so they're trying to assimilate everybody into accepting
the gay lifestyle. Well, I'll tell you that's what That's
what Disney has been doing over the last several years.
And that's why you know, parents are going away about

(05:52):
I don't want to be a part of dude.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Well, and that dovetails into the question they've been asking themselves,
why don't young men actually like Disney anymore? Well, you
don't know why. Let's tell you why. You're You've you've
you've gone into this social engineering place that Disney hasn't
gone before, and that Frankly, Grandpa Snoop and I don't
want to go. We don't want to go there. We
don't want to talk about that adult topic.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
I love that, Grandpa Snoop. I know, you know, did
you do you like him on the Olympic coverage.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
I didn't watch the Olympics. I never watched it, so
I couldn't even tell you.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, you know, I always questioned it, but I whenever
the last Olympics were he was on. He's actually pretty entertaining.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
He is an entertaining guy.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
And you're wondering, Okay, why are they putting Snoop Dogg
on the Olympic coverage. He's an entertainer. Really, it's kind
of fun.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
He is, he actually has been. I actually like enjoy him.
And he's a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Oh yeah, and
he likes both and he likes to Pittsburgh. He's a
hockey fan, by the way. He loves the Penguins.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Oh I didn't know that.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Well, he's done a lot for youth football in southern California,
hasn't He created his own league and provided equipment.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
You know, that was a star high school athlete.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
He couldn't know that.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yeah, he could have had a scholarship and and then
his son ended up I think as a scholarship athlete
and one I think he went to USC or somewhere
like that. Yeah, so his son, his son is really good.
So he coached his kids team. I think they made
a reality show out of it. But he's actually stayed.
He loves sports. He was and as I said, he
was an athlete at himself. So he under I mean,
he's good at sports, and so he has stayed involved

(07:22):
in youth sports as he's gotten more wealthy and more
you know, has more ability to do things. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Well maybe it's a warning to grandparents. If you're going
to see a Disney movie, just tell your grandchildren ahead
of time. If you have any questions, don't ask me
because I don't have the answer.

Speaker 6 (07:38):
Do you know what?

Speaker 1 (07:39):
The funny thing? You know what this reminds me of
so my grandmother for different reasons. My grandmother used to smoke. Yes,
she didn't smoke. She smoked those unfiltered cigarettes K And
she she could not sit through a movie with me
long enough before she needed a cigarette. And you couldn't
smoke in a theater, so she'd have to leave for
a cigarette break during the movie. Well, when I was

(07:59):
a kid, Star Wars was just coming out and I've noticed, Wow,
she needs a cigarette break really quick, so she comes
back in.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
She might take two d then check in for the
first time today with Abby in the latest.

Speaker 7 (08:09):
News, Thanks Rodin Greg, the Utah National Guard asked to
assist with President Trump's federal crackdown on crime, and Salt
Lake City Police now renewing a nineteen ninety five cold.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
Okay, folks, welcome to the Ronen Gregg Show on this Monday,
starting off the weekend strong. I've got a lot of
issues to go over. You're listening to Utah's Talk Radio
one oh five nine. Canter s I'm Citizen Houghston.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
And I'm Roder Kent, Florida today ramping up its illegal
immigration enforcement in light of what happened with the trucking accident.
What was it last week on August twelfth? I think,
in which a man who shouldn't be in this country anyways,
who somehow got a CDL deciding I'm going to make
a U turn in the middle of the highway and
three people are three people in a van slammed into

(08:54):
his trailer, killing all three of them instantly. And this
guy got out of the vehicle and didn't look like
he cared good care less. Yeah, goold care less. And
have you seen this story? Greg? There is a more
than two million people have signed a petition calling for
leniency for the trucker accused of killing three people. Yeah,
I'd like to ask people sign for that.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
You know, just one question to two million people. If
your family member was killed by that that sudden turn
that way, and your family member lost their life, would
you would you want?

Speaker 2 (09:22):
You want?

Speaker 1 (09:23):
Or is that just? Is that just does that rule
just apply for everyone else but not you?

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah? Well, this has certainly opened up a huge discussion
about safety on the highway. Has America's highways turned into
death tramps because of some of these drivers? Most drivers,
I mean truck drivers are great people. I mean they
really do. But there's some segment out there, some's going
on in the industry. And that's why we wanted to
bring on our next guest, Gordon McGill. He is a
trucker contributing columnist and an author as well. Gord, thank

(09:49):
you very much. Gord. I saw today that uh headline
and a story about this that American trucking is now
at a crossroads. What's say you about this?

Speaker 8 (09:58):
Well, took place in Florida, struck a nerve across America,
and it struck a nerve for many reasons, one of
which is that the gentleman behind the wheel clearly not
trained very well, because you made a pretty stupid mistake
making an illegal U turn across a turnpike and you know,

(10:19):
unfortunately killing those three people. But this revealed something that's
been ongoing. That collision is not the first and it
won't be the last, and it's been on the increase
because the trucking industry, unfortunately, has been parasitized by migrants,
illegal or legal refugees, and all kinds of people coming

(10:41):
into this country who are using the trucking business as
a sort of value extraction project. And one of the
things I last time when he spoke, was about the
fact that I don't believe there's ever been a truck
driver shortage, and I've plenty of statistics to point that out.
What's happened is is that the trucking industry has dug
so far down into the bottom of the human resources

(11:03):
barrel because instead of paying people better and doing something
better to retain them, given that some mega carriers have
one plus turnover rates a year over year, they've now
moved on to employing migrants instead, And sometimes those people
fall through the cracks or issued CDLs illegally by certain
states and then go to really short CDL mill schools

(11:25):
that don't actually teach them how to operate properly. And
all of that became apparent after the Florida crash.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
You know, we've been discussing that issue of that crash
here on the program. We've had some of our callers,
one that has a CDL school and actually condemns those
schools or he calls them CDL mills in California and
other states where the bar is very low and they're
handing out CDLs where they have no business to be
doing that. And so what I think I'm hearing are

(11:53):
good players in the industry. So I think you said that,
do you think we have the ready workforce? Why can't
we see some basic standards that would be that would
apply in Utah here as well as California, so that
there isn't CDL mills pushing out unexperienced drivers inexperienced.

Speaker 8 (12:10):
So the FEDS sort of I don't know if they
actually set the minimum basic requirements. What they do is
they track it. So the CDLs are tracked by the FEDS,
so that you can't rack up a bunch of points
in one state and then go get a CDL in
another state, because that was something that used to happen
way back in the day. But the issuance of CDLs

(12:32):
and the training standards are set by the states, and
in some of the states that are really pathetically low.

Speaker 9 (12:38):
I saw the.

Speaker 8 (12:41):
Governor or the attorney general of Florida is trying to
have Washington and California's CDLs not be recognized nationally anymore.
But Florida is one of the worst places for this.
They recently had a DMD busted and they'd gived out
over a thousand licenses. This isn't a bribery scam. A

(13:02):
number of trucking schools down there cater to migrants from
Central America and Cuba and don't have them get be
taught English and don't teach them enough. So like there
is no there's really very few states here who are
not affected by this sort of nationwide scam gord.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
The the large trucking companies, how much of an effort
do they put into making sure a CDL has been verified,
the trucker has been a you know, can drive a
big rig also can speak English. Do the big trucking
companies how much do they take into the CDLs?

Speaker 8 (13:38):
So the mega carriers. Ironically, a lot of people are
trying to blame the big trucking companies.

Speaker 9 (13:44):
They they own the blame.

Speaker 8 (13:47):
For how we got here. They don't own the blame
for what's actually going on right now. Okay, So typically
they don't hire people who don't have work jisus, who
are illegals, or who have questionable work permits, because a
lot of work permits a lot of time women on them,
and they won't hire those folks. And they have their

(14:07):
own truck driving schools and they do put a little
bit more care into this. The people hiring most of
these recent arrivals are other recent arrivals. There's thousands upon
thousands of these small trucking companies who are owned by
people from other countries, and to make matters worse, are
often managed and dispatched from those other countries. In the industry,

(14:30):
We have a sort of slang term for a bunch
of carriers based in the Chicago area. We call them
the Chicago Volvo mafia. And that's typically companies run by
and employing Eastern European drivers, mainly from Serbia, Russia and
the Ukraine. And those guys like they're just as bad

(14:50):
as this with the Indians, and they actually discriminate against
American drivers. They advertised in Facebook groups, come work for us,
but we have a flexible ELD. They backdoor into the
elds to allow their drivers to work eighteen twenty hours
a day, and they actively discriminate against American CDL holders
because we know that we won't work illegally like that.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
So what's the What's is there a short answer? I
was going to say, what's the short answer? But it
sounds pretty complicated. A lot of layers?

Speaker 9 (15:19):
Is there?

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Is there a short answer and a fix for this?

Speaker 8 (15:24):
Oh man, there isn't. You're right, it is very complicated.
There are many layers. Senator, or i should say Secretary
of Rubio announced last week they were turning off the
tap on visas. Unfortunately, a lot of the drivers coming.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
Here don't have any of those visas.

Speaker 8 (15:38):
At all, or they're here on separate work authorizations, and
turning off the tap now doesn't do anything about the
hundreds of thousands of guys on the road here now,
and there are hundreds of thousands. The Biden administration on
their twenty twenty one Trucking Task Force, you know, they
use the COVID demands spike of temporary spike and trucking
rates in order to flood the market. And they worked

(16:00):
with about ten states to reduce CDL requirements and give
CDLs to people who otherwise wouldn't qualify for them. And
in that the twelve months following the issue of that
pass course, they effectively doubled the production of CDLs in
one year by about another four hundred and fifty thousand licenses.
And then there's been more ever since. So there's at least,

(16:22):
by my reckoning, half a million of these guys on
the road in the United States right now who ought
have their CDLs investigated and their work ferm it's investigated.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
So Gordon, a final note, you say, America's highways have
have turned into death trams. So I'm a listener right
now driving Mark Carr, and all of a sudden there
is an eighteen wheeler right beside me. How do I
know if that driver is certified, if he's well trained,
and if he can even speak English? I mean, how
would you even know that? Gord?

Speaker 8 (16:50):
Well, if you've been in the trucking industry a long time,
you learn who the good guys are and the bad
guys are by their equipment and the sort of places
they're from.

Speaker 9 (17:01):
How clean it is. Uh, you know your your.

Speaker 8 (17:05):
Local homeboys has been in business a long time, typically
have much better looking equipment, your own names on the door. Uh,
they don't have some piece of cardboard duct taped to
the door of their truck with a NC number scribbled
scribbled on it in magic marker. When you see those guys,
let them go and stay out of their way.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Gord McGill trucker joining us on our any hour Newsmaker
line on the Rod and Greg Show right here on
Utah's Talk Radio one oh five. Dine k nrs city leaders,
or in this case, federal leaders to decide to do
something about homelessness. Hey, some point, Washington, d C. They
cleaned out the camps in less than a week, right
in the nation's capital.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
It takes, It takes the political will takes leadership. Some
of the toughest issues are tough because you don't have
UNI just conformity where everyone agrees. That's what makes it hard.
But you have to have leadership to do some tough
make some tough decisions, do some hard things. You're seeing
that play out very well in DC. You see none
of that, certainly in Los Angeles or California's.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
A stay yeah, or anywhere. Well. As we mentioned, DC
was able to dismantle in a week, the homeless encampment
California has endured it for decades. The number of homeless
people has grown. The raid is unbelievable and all around
the country, including here in Salt Lake City, Greg, as
you well know, we have a homeless encampment situation. Nothing
is being done about it.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Twenty seventeen and July of twenty seventeen, a speaker I
asked the governor to call publicly call in the National
Guard because of the homicides and the murders that were
going on. It was just absolute chaos in human carnage. Yeah,
that was seventeen.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Well, joining us on our newsmaker line to talk more
about that. It's our good friend Susan and Shelley. Susan
is a columnist with a southern California news group. Susan,
how are you welcome to the Rod and Greg Show.

Speaker 10 (18:46):
I'm good, great to be with you. Thanks for having me, Susan.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
If they can do it in DC, why can't they
do it all around the country and get this situation
under control.

Speaker 10 (18:54):
Well, they absolutely can. It's a question of whether public
camping is going to be an option. And what happened
in Washington is the Interior Department said they will have
a no tolerance policy for public camping, no more tent encampments.
So people will be offered sheltered, they'll be offered services,
they'll be offered care. If they refuse, then they can

(19:17):
be fined or jailed. But it is not an option
to set up a tent in a public park or
on a sidewalk or a street, or a freeway encampment
or an overpass or an underpass or a public plaza
or everywhere they are in California. It's not an option
in Washington, DC anymore, you.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Know, Susan.

Speaker 6 (19:36):
Not.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
None of the trajectories of these encampments go well, it
just gets larger and then you see a lot of lawlessness,
or it's just chaos, and that's where they always go.
So it sounds so intuitive and so simple that DC
would take such a or you know, those that are
in charge right now would take such a measured, but
a strong step. See some progress from it. Now, let's
go to Los Angeles. They're spending you've noted in your

(19:57):
article billions with an s. How on earth can they
not get this? Can they not do something like you
described about having shelter They can take them to, but
they can't have an encampment. How can you have raised
billions of dollars in taxes and not even begin I mean,
they're worse off than before they raised billions of dollars.

Speaker 10 (20:16):
Well, you know there's a lawsuit about that very thing
that was filed in twenty twenty by some downtown Los
Angeles business groups and residents saying to the City and
County of Los Angeles, why have you not sheltered these
people after all the money that's been spent. It's six years,
it's still in the courts because there was a settlement
and then the City of Los Angeles violated the settlement

(20:38):
by not meeting their benchmarks. And now the City of
Los Angeles has paid millions of dollars to an outside
law froom to defend themselves from accountability for wasting all
this money. So it just gets worse and worse. Clearly,
there are a lot of people who are taking some
skim off the top of these billions of dollars and

(20:59):
they are fighting to keep things the way they are.
But it's terrible for the people who are in the encampments,
it's terrible for the businesses, it's no good for the taxpayers.
It's just corruption and it has to be stopped.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yeah, obviously, too many chefs in the kitchen and dealing
with us. What is the process currently like in California?
If someone says, all right, we're going to clean up
some of these encamments, what is that process like? How
many steps do they have to go through even to
begin thinking about this?

Speaker 10 (21:27):
Susan, Well, there are various policies in different places. At
the state level, the California Highway Patrol, which has the
responsibility for all the freeways and the freeway on ramps
and off ramps, they have a policy where they bring
in the California Highway Patrol for protection and then the
Caltrans workers have to make an assessment, they have to
bring in a hasmat coordinator. Then they have to post

(21:51):
they have to post a sign. They need the CHP
officers again for security for that because there are always
protesters who want to keep the encampments going, which is
another story altogether. And they post the signs and then
within forty eight hours. After forty eight hours, they can
come in and they can start the cleanup. But here's
where it gets really difficult. Because of all the lawsuits.

(22:11):
They have to protect all the private personal property of
the people who are residents, So there are certain things
that they have to preserve and store and bag and
inventory and photograph and keep for sixty days. But in
order to get to that, they have to go through
all the stuff that they're not required to collect. Everything
that's infested with rats and insects, anything that's moldy or

(22:36):
covered in human waste, all of these things that are
toxic or dangerous or filthy. They're not required to collect those,
but they have to sort it all out or they
get sued. And then they need files and records and paperwork,
an entire file of everything they took and everything they
didn't take with the photographs in case somebody wants to

(22:58):
sue them over it, and there's lots of lawyers who
do so. This has been a nightmare for the cities,
a nightmare for the state. And really watching it cleared
in one week in Washington, d C. Would have anyone
want to go be a tourist there just to see
how it was done.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Well, I don't know about you, but I'm so really
they're preserving those tarfs and those bicycle parts, those bicycle frames,
and those three wheel shopping carts that they've got. Thank goodness,
they're inventoring that. Because you're talking to some high dollar
items that you don't want to lose track of. Let
me share with our audience that some numbers that you
shared and then just get your commentary from it. So
in twenty fifteen, when Los Angeles as the city was

(23:37):
worried about homeless population, they had gone up, and so
they the LA voters passed a one point two billion
dollar city bond to deal with housing homeless and also
at point twenty five temporary sales tax. Fast forward, they've
made that sales tax permanent. They've also created a one

(23:57):
and a half percent sales tax on high I value
real estate and four percent of five point five percent.
But now when twenty fifteen, when they wanted to do
all this they passed the bond, you had a population
homeless population in twenty fifteen of forty four thousand, three
hundred people. In twenty twenty five it went from forty
four thousand to seventy two thousand people. So you've so

(24:22):
all those percentages of sales tax, the one point two
billion dollars bond, you're talking billions. I think it's more
than skimming at this point. I mean, it sounds like
they're making they're just printing money that they're not actually
directing towards housing or something helping people transition out of
a homelessness. Shouldn't there even be arrests at this point?

(24:42):
Or it seems criminal to me?

Speaker 10 (24:45):
Well, you know Bill A. Saley, who is recently appointed
as the acting US Attorney for the Central District of California,
formerly an assemblyman in California. He has set up a
task force to prosecute if he finds criminal activity in
what's fondly called the homeless industrial complex. Because the taxes
in Los Angeles, that's just a fraction of what's been spent.

(25:08):
You have state money, you have federal money. It's been
tens of billions of dollars and it's totally unaccounted for.
No one can find it. There's no There have been audits,
and what the audits find is no one is tracking
where the money goes. So it's frustrating for the auditors.
It's frustrating for the taxpayers. It's not helping the people
on the street. But there are some very big salaries

(25:31):
in the nonprofit organizations, the developers who take some of
this money to build housing. It a million dollars a
unit for these studio apartments with services. This has been
a honeypot for everybody who can get a piece of
this action. And now that there's a permanent sales tax
in La County of half a percent just for homelessness services,

(25:55):
that's going to bring in a billion dollars a year
in La County for more of this. And it's a failure.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Someone is making money off of this. Susan has always
great chatting with you.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
Thank you, Thank you.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
All right, Susan Shelley, columnists with the Southern California News Group.
We've got issues with that. We certainly do in this
country and in this city and state as well. All Right,
more coming up on the Rod and Greg Show and
Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine. Okay, An, you've
got a mansion. What have you got seventeen bedrooms in
your home? Would you like that? I'm firmly middle class.

(26:27):
So your kids are leaving the nest. So how many
open bedrooms do you have a few?

Speaker 3 (26:31):
A few?

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah? You want to say, three kids, three empty bedrooms?

Speaker 2 (26:35):
I've got four? Okay empty? Well, yeah, kind of four? Yeah,
all right. Australia wants to do something. They don't like
this idea of people having you know, a a a
couple and they have more than two bedrooms, they have three.
So what's Australia you want to do?

Speaker 11 (26:49):
Taxim It's a match between the average size of households
and the average size of a home is prompting experts
to propose attacks on spare bedrooms. Search from Catality revealed
a third of Australian households is made up of just
two people, while the most common property is three bedrooms.
It suggested that a levy, along with the removal of

(27:10):
stamp duty, may encourage shrinking families and empty nests to downsize,
freeing up supply.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
Well, let's just tax you your unused bedrooms.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
You know, you don't feel like you ever really owned
your homies. You have to pay taxes on it. Now
they're going to come in and they're going to inventory
how many rooms you have empty, because heaven forbid, you
get your own home office. Heaven forbid, when the rug
rats leave you can do something else with the room,
They're going to start charging you for it.

Speaker 12 (27:33):
You know.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
The thing that disappoints me about that country because I
was always thinking that was my bailout. I thought that
they were just rugged individuals, and I thought that place
was going to be the where you escape if America
went crazy as it's you know, China is better only
because they admit their communists where and where this that
you don't you really don't own your property. If they
let that scam go on, where they're going to start

(27:54):
charging you for your empty bedrooms, that is that is
worse than communism to me. And they don't, they don't
admit they're communists, But that is that country has clean
lost its mind, It really has. You go you go
to the you go to the Australian open. Remember they
ripped on Dokovic. They still want about that. He's actually

(28:15):
won this debate about that stupid vaccine, and they're still
giving them grief.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
They still give them grief, that's for sure, all right.
Our number two of the Rodding Gregg Show, We've got
a lot to talk to you about. Still to come tonight.
A discussion with you about cell phones in schools and
the flag burnings issue.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
Oh yes, we'll.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
Get into both of those with you coming up on
the show.

Speaker 3 (28:34):
Stay with Us.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
College football started this past weekend. The big big rollout
is this weekend.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah, Hawaii upset Stanford. That was that was that was
That was the last minute kick. Great story. Kid from
Japan watched it. Came to America to visit as a
tourist and as the kid, and he loved American football.
He goes back to Japan, goes on YouTube, gets a
YouTube video on how to kick a football like true story.
Really it goes to a small universe in small college

(29:06):
in Ohio or something comes over uh and then gets
gets a scholarship in UH in Hawaii and kicks the
winning field goal good for him against Stanford. So and
then that mucky game against Kansas and uh case state.
It was a case state of Kansas against Iowa, Iowa state.
They look. I love Ireland. I'm Irish descent. They don't

(29:27):
know what in the world's going on in that field?
Was garbage. I'm done playing our games overseas. I think
that's just a waste of time.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
I don't know why they do it. And you predicted,
and I hope this never happens. Someday the NFL may
try the Super Bowl over there.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
It's so mad. Just leave it here. They want to
see it, they can come here and watch it.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
A lot of Utah teams, including the youths and the Cougars,
in action this weekend, So a lot going on. Football
is back. School is back. Speaking of school, yes, oh
you're going.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
To I was just going to say my Corner Canyon,
uh Quarter Canyon Chargers when went to Florida. Yes, they
played a highly ranked Brower County team that was talking
a lot of smack before the game. And that's two
times that Corner Canyon has beating a highly ranked, nationally
ranked high school football team.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
You know what, I've seen a trend in high school
I don't, you don't, I don't know how they pay
for all of this. I don't either teams from out
of state. Are team's going out of state to play
high school football? I don't try.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
I mean, so, I know we're off topic a little bit,
but I know that some of those teams, like the
IMC team that was from FIDA IMG team that Florida
that came here last year that that Corner Canyon beat
by a point, they're almost recruiting nationally because they do,
and so the local Florida high schools don't let them in,
so they actually have to travel around and play other

(30:43):
schools just to have a season because they're that good.
I think Bishop Gorman is a private school in Vegas.

Speaker 2 (30:49):
And they're coming here this year.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
I think they do a lot of traveling because again
it's a Catholic school, they do a lot of a
lot of money, and they got a pipeline to the
Division one school. So I think they have to play
a lot of out of state games as well, because
the local schools, made up of the students that live
in those areas, find those schools to be fundamentally unfair.

Speaker 6 (31:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
So yeah, and they kind of actually are schools that
really promote we're going to get your kid into a
Division I school, so they must be paying that, they
must be. But the Broward County school that the Corner
Canyon played is, I think it's just a local school,
public school. So we boy. They had a lot to
say before the game, but you never should chirp before

(31:27):
the game goes if you can't back it up. And
they won by a hardy score this time. So good
on you at Corner Canyon.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, well, we thought we'd talk to our great listeners today.
School has been in session for some now in a
second week, others maybe a little bit longer, others maybe
just getting back in. But all the students this year
are facing a new law. They have to follow the
cell phone bands. Yes, seventeen states I believe have begun
the school year with a cell phone ban. Ours went

(31:56):
into effect the governor signed it into law. I think
ours went into effect the first of Jill. I think
it does give school some options, but basically they're saying
no more cell phones in classes. And the early feedback
that I've seen around the country is teachers are loving this.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
They are they are They're getting more of their students'
attention less distraction. I see them holding a pencil for
the first time in a long time, maybe taking some notes. Yeah, No,
there's been some t there's been some feedback from teachers
that they feel like they're getting their classes back without
the devices being so readily available.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
With this sitting there, I mean, how, I know you,
how long can you sit in this studio without even
grabbing your cell phone?

Speaker 3 (32:39):
Me?

Speaker 2 (32:40):
Usually when we're talking, you're doing.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
Oh I don't look at it for three straight hours?
Oka' Is that true?

Speaker 2 (32:46):
That's no? He raised in there, going nah, that's that's true.
I might have been even your line, dog faced pony soldiers.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
You're slow on that. I expected that a lot faster,
you ray.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
But we kind of have to.

Speaker 12 (33:01):
We do.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
We stay because because we're going, we're live. Things are happening.
We want to stay on top of it.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
If our good president would hold still for three hours,
then I wouldn't have to sit and look. But do
you never know what's going to happen next living minute
a minute on this show?

Speaker 2 (33:15):
Yeah, but if you're a student, I mean, now you
and I didn't have to deal with this. You know,
I'm still using stone tablets. That's right, that's right. But
you know, the the the temptation of reaching for that
phone if it's in a classroom has got to be hard.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
Well, let's let's even take it one step further. There's
a there's a teacher that said they got rid of
their chromebooks, they got rid of their laptops. Yeah, and
what that did is they didn't have the charging problem.
They didn't have the cords stretching over to plugs across
the way. They didn't have to move chairs and move
desks because kids chromebooks weren't charged up. Just the just
the hardware of the chromebooks and having them charged and

(33:54):
all that is involved in that. Having none of that
in the classroom and let it with no cell phones,
no on even chromebooks. And now we're just going to
go old school man. These teachers are saying they had
the kids that hello, this class starts, they're not They
don't have to move them around, they have to do
all that. It makes for a more and more substantive
class classroom experience.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Well, we're into this early, but i'd like know what
our listeners are are are hearing or thinking maybe they
you know, their parents, they've got kids in school, can't
get a hold of them. During class time anymore. That's
not allowed. Got to go the old way, call the
audis and get over it.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
Cut the apron strings, I say, come on, none of
us had that before.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
The kids themselves. I'd like to hear from some teachers
if they've noticed a change in their classroom because of
stories we're reading now. A lot of teachers have noticed
a really stark change in the way the classroom is
being run.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
Let's just put it this way. I haven't read a
negative review yet.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
I don't think you know.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
Odds are there's probably some negative negative outcome to this.
But right now and in the brand new school year,
and as Americans are going back to school nationally, as
I'm reading stories out of state and maybe even social
media posts, I don't see anything bad coming out yet
about the cell phone band or even even the tablets
either the chromebooks. Some some teachers are a liking not

(35:09):
being dependent on the on the laptop.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
Now, this this, this a a stark revelation that without
cell phones in a classroom, students may have to talk.

Speaker 13 (35:19):
To each other.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
Wouldn't want that.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
I wonder if they're going back remember passing.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
Notes, man, I was a champion at that and trying
not to get caught. Yes, I could.

Speaker 2 (35:29):
Well, First of all, were you in class effort?

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Yes, I was in class okay, but you.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
Did pass notes, yes, passing notes used to speak, you
had you had to develop. There are some guys that
really developed, made it into an art form. You could
do it, probably working for the c I A now,
for all I know.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
Sometimes you had to get the cooperation of other students
to hand it row after row, and yeah, without your
notes to.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
Other guys or other girls. You're stumbling.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
I'm just trying. I'm just trying to think I would
frame this family. I probably communicated with the ladies in
my classroom, and the guys probably you know, they're very motherly.
I got to tell you a lot of them will
take notes for you and take care of you in
the classroom if you need. Girls, yes, if they like,
if they like, yeah, you can get a lot of

(36:15):
You can get a lot of help if you needed it.
And I did so. It was nice?

Speaker 2 (36:19):
Could that because you didn't pay any attention?

Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah? But I had a backup? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Did you get that?

Speaker 1 (36:27):
I thought it through, Rod, I thought it through. I
knew what I was going to do in the event
I wasn't paying any attention.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
I went parochial school. We weren't allowed to any of that.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
I'm sure. Well, those nuns are tougher than the public schools.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Teachers man blest therapy, pick and hearts, all right.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
But did you get paddled three times in one school
year before?

Speaker 2 (36:45):
I don't recall that we knelt in the corner.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
Yeah. I got paddled three times in seventh grade, three
separate times.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
Seventh grade.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
Seventh grade paddled. Yeah, hold on to the chair.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
Who really hard?

Speaker 1 (36:57):
I'm talking. Well, back in that the early eighties, they did.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
Eighty three three times in one year.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
Three times in one year. I got paddled three different teachers,
three different paddles. Do not test the middle of the chairs? Yes,
I did the metal and I stopped in each case.
I became a model student with all those teachers after
the paddlings.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yeah, that's true. Well, it may be too early to tell,
but Greig and I were thinking, you know, any Ray
weighed in on this as well, seeing these stories out
there about teachers who were saying it's really changed the
atmosphere in the classroom. It's early. We're in the early
part of the year. But I wonder Mom and Dad
if teachers have noticed a change out there. I really
see what their reaction is.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
One comments. One comment is that they all use chromebooks.
No one uses pen and paper anymore. But I'm telling
you I read it. I read an account from a
teacher that said getting rid of those chromebooks and the
plugs and the charging and all this stuff that goes
with it, and going back to paper and pencil was preferred.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
Yeah. So all right, we'd like to hear from you
as you work your way home on this Monday afternoon
eight eight eight five seven eight zero one zero triple
eight five seven o eight zero one zero on your
cell phone dial pound two fifty or two pound two
to fifty. Thank you, Rod, and or you can leave
its comment on our talk back line. I love to
hear you from you tonight, Aaron the Rodd and Greg
Show in Utah's Talk radio one oh five nine KNRS.

(38:16):
It was called Senate Bill one seventy eight. Devices in
Public Schools. The law here in the state of Utah
prohibits students from using cell phones, smart washes, smart watches,
and similar devices during class time by default, citing distractions
and negative impacts on mental health. School districts can opt
out by creating their own policies to allow device use,

(38:37):
and exceptions are permitted for emergencies and medical necessities. And
apparently schools like Granger have used simmers with those up
pouches to lock phones during the school day. So, you know,
do we need a stricter bill? Is this bill working?
Too early to tell yet, but we're looking for your comments.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
Well, if I thought I heard an abbey's news report
that the governor thought maybe the state should have just said,
how maybe put a little bit more prescriptive language in
the bill. The only reason he would say that if
he did, is that is that schools aren't following it.
Because when you give them the you make your own rules.
This is the end goal. But their rule is, okay,
we're going to define not having your phone as it

(39:16):
stays in your pocket, you know, or something like that.
So he gave a lot of autonomy to the school
districts to really come up with their own policy. But
if at the end of the day their own policy
is just I don't want to be bothered with it,
I don't know how to enforce it, So we're just
going to ignore it, then that would that will not
have met legislative intention.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
Yeah, he wanted bell to bell. He wanted what bell
to bell?

Speaker 1 (39:42):
Bell to bell? Oh, I see bell de bell Ok.
I was in tracking with that.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
When the bell starts and no phones until the bell
rings at the end of school.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
Yes, that's actually the way I took the legislation into
it should have Yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
And that's what he wants. So maybe we do need
more restrictive.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
Well see, I would hope that, you know, because school
districts really don't like states acting like super school districts.
They want to have the automic But if you use it,
if you just ignore what the law says, or you
don't have a way to do, if you're not doing it,
then that's when you're going to see them get a
little more prescriptive. Because we're not like Congress. Congress just
doesn't do anything. Ever, they never run a bill, they
never pass a bill. Here there's a way to get

(40:17):
water the end of the row. So anyway, so hopefully
it'll work. I have I hope the school districts take
up the challenge and they do make it bell to bell,
and that they do keep the phones out of the
kid's hands.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
It's not going to kill us. If we go for
a year with a very strict rule, we find it's
too straight, then cut it back. But I'm with you,
I'm with what the governor says, Bell to bell Man,
let's just keep them out of school for.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
The entire school day. I got hurt in that's what
that's what they meant. I mean we didn't have locker.
If you get a locker, you know where you start lockers?
What in middle school or junior high? Middle anyway, I
think there's a way to do it. And you said
to some of who are using those bags, I think
that's a smart way to go too. But again, a

(41:00):
new school year, we'll see how that's being implemented. And again,
you can't have it both ways. The school districts can't.
They can't say we don't want you creating all this
prescriptive language being a super school district. So they make
it open ended, saying, you come up with the policy,
but this is what we want the end result to be,
and it gets ignored it or there's some work around
at one.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
Georgia and Florida do have the bell to Bell rule.
Other school districts, you in class. You can't use them
between class breaks at lunchtime.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
You can if you went to if you had time
to go to your locker and check it out before
you shut it and went to the next thing. I
guess that would be fine with me, right, if it's
in your locker. So yeah, By the way, one of
our listeners paddled three times in sixth grade in one
school year. So I'm not alone. I'm not the only one.
I'm not the only miscreant running around there, or was

(41:48):
when I was a kid.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
So, you know, and I wonder how mom and dad
feel that they can't get a hold of your kids
anymore in schools. You know what call the office? Yeah,
not what we used to do.

Speaker 1 (41:57):
I don't call me old fashioned, but I just I
just don't think. I think during the school years, school, school, day, school,
you don't need it, So I really don't. Yeah, you
don't cut the apron strings.

Speaker 9 (42:09):
Remember this.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
We used to leave get on our bikes even in
the morning if it's summertime. No one saw hide nor
hair of us till it till at night. We didn't
want to be No, we're gone. There was a GPS
on a phone. You there's no phone to contact as
we are gone, there were feral children in the good
old days.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Well, the idea that kids have to focus more, they
may even interact more. And if you're a teacher, does
the fact that this band now give you a little
more control in your classroom because you know there are
kids in the back like you. If you got sell
what you're doing, you're doing that.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
Of course I am. I'm a smuggling my Look, I'm
trying to speak as a father, but I'm going to
tell you as a kid, I'd be smuggling that phone
and if so, I could use it when I was
in there.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
I know you're not sending a very good aga.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
I know I'm not. I'm saying that you for kids
like me. You got to watch those little mongrels. Yeah,
that's why you get the paddle back out. I'm still
for it. When I tell you that I got paddled,
I'm not saying it like it was a bad thing.
It was I was. I was misbehaving. I deserved it,
and I after I got paddled by that teacher, that
teacher didn't know a day of problems for me. Once
I knew they go to they go next level.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
I was.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
I was staying out of their way.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
Okay, So and back to the phones. You'd like to
talk about this paddle story, I'm.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
Just saying, I'm contrasting it with a rule about cell
phones is nothing like, if you're misbehaving, you're getting paddled.
So if we can live through those days, we can keep.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
The take the cell phone away, take it to the
office so you can pick it up at the end
of the school day. Uh, and not take the phone
away just in school. Take it away if they're violating
the rules. There you go that easy. They catch little
rascals like you who are in the last row in
the corner texting somebody thinking you're getting.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
Asked why I keep bringing up the paddle, it's because
you keep bringing up that as a rascal. I'm just
saying there was a there was a consequence for it.

Speaker 14 (44:00):
Ye.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
Well, be interesting to see, well, you know it. It's
like we said, we've only been in school a couple
of weeks. I don't know, you know. And with what
the governor said, maybe the lawmakers need to be very
clear as to what they expect, because if you give
them a little latitude, they're gonna, you know, do their
own thing. Wow, it may not be achieving the ultimate

(44:22):
goal that I think a lot of parents and state
leaders would like to see.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
Doing nothing's always easier, should do something. So if there's
an easier path, sometimes the path of leash resistance. Eight
eight eight five seven zero eight zero one zero is
the number to call if you have any any takeaways
so far in this early part of this new school year.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
Yeah, give us a call. All right, more coming up.
It is the Rotting Greg Show right here on Utah's
Talk radio one oh five nine kN RS. There was
another issue today, Well, there were actually two issues today
that Greg and I disagreed with the president on. Yes,
and that's really rare. We think he's doing good things.
But it was about sending troops into Chicago, yes, and

(45:03):
the flag burning issue. We'll get into both of those
here in a minute. But there's a local story and
there's some breaking news on this tonight. This was the
story that we had what the beginning of this year. Yes,
as I recall, wasn't it Greg?

Speaker 6 (45:14):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (45:15):
Keny.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
Now there's a big decision being made in this story.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
So ktv's investigative reporter Wendy Hallerin has been covering this
issue about a young man. He was a miner at
the time, and really even the case itself as it's
narrated by the prosecution, is one where this kid was
attacked by an adult in his twenties who was hopped
up on drugs, and that the kid was defending himself
and that in the effort of defending himself for in

(45:39):
the process of it, killed the one that was coming
after him. Every witness to this, including the girlfriend of
the one that was ultimately shot and killed, said that
this young man, who I think he was fourteen at
the time, that he was defending himself. Everyone was saying
the same thing. He was fourteen tried as an adult.
Where this whole whole situation got really sticky was it

(46:03):
didn't look like the Salt Lake, the sim Gills office,
the Salt Lake Attorney's office was going to pursue it.
They they took those statements. It looked like it was
self defense beginning. And then lo and behold, one of
the assistant DA's develops a relationship outside of the bonds
of marriage with with one of the one of the
arresting officers. One of the arresting officers and all of

(46:25):
a sudden, out of nowhere, this whole case gets turned
on it's ear and he they do pursue charges against him,
and then they do find him guilty and he goes
to he goes to prison like an adult and whnny
allern is Again the investigative journalists really brought some bright
lights to this, to the point where they brought it
an appeal and they said, we're going to disqualify this
the this Salt Lake County Attorney's office because of the

(46:47):
relationships with the arresting officer that were going on inside
of here. Uh, and we're going to take it outside
and have it looked at well. The judge that case
was being then pursued in the judge ultimately today this afternoon,
dismissed the charges entirely, citing that the team was acting
in self defense and that they lacked any evidence. There
was no evidence that there was being presented that would

(47:09):
contradict that. And it's true. I mean, really, everybody's testimony
was consistent that this kid was defending himself and that
this guy was coming after him. I don't know if
he had a gun or knife, but the kid was
as I heard this case and I'm no pushover. I mean,
if you did something wrong, I'm not going to make excuse.
I'm telling you this kid sounded like he was really
defending himself from someone that was out of his mind

(47:30):
on drugs. And I think that that judge dismissing the
case is justice delayed but justice served.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
Yeah. Yeah, it was a very interesting story that KUTV
had come up with. And as they know, like you said,
the case took a complete turn all of a sudden,
and people going what's going on here? Well, come to
find out the prosecutor deputy prosecutor had a relationship with
the West Valley City police officer who I believe greg
was investigating this case. Y. Yeah, he was arresting the

(48:00):
arresting officer apparently to make him look good or whatever.
I'm not sure what. I'm sure he thought they were
behind what.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
I think a lot of times these guys think guilty
of this or guilty of something, they're guilty. And I'm
tired of this guy. His kid and he's fourteen years old,
and he'd probably had thought the kid had some reason
to be in jail anyway. But the issue was one
when it was exposed that there was this, this relationship,
this this romance between these two and they were affairs there.

(48:25):
They weren't singles people when they were doing this. I
think that I would have imagined that Simgel would immediately
know he's got a massive problem inside of that office
and that this case was tainted by those decisions. But
he didn't. He defended it. He said that actually that
relationship had no bearing on what they were doing, even
though she was the one that was handling the prosecution
of it. So I was shocked that he didn't find

(48:48):
any problem with his own office given the conduct. Well,
I think the judge ultimately did find that that that
case was brought without merit, so he just just summarily
just dismissed the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
Well, and we would not have known about this without
a whistleblower, that's true. Whistleblower who worked in the office
came forward or contacted somebody and said something going on here,
this is not right. And if that whistle blower would
not have brought this up, and I think her remember
her name, I think her lat Megan Mills. And if
she hadn't brought this up, you know what, Greg, we

(49:19):
would have known about this then this port kid be
sitting in jail.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
Yeah, and that's a because we're seeing whistleblowers federally that
are showing their misconduct that's happening inside that swamp in DC.
But this she didn't want to deliver herself, knowing what
had happened, why it happened. She actually tried to go
through the proper channels, was ignored, and then ultimately I
put the media onto it.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Yeah, sim Gell did not agree to an on camera interview,
but he did issue a statement today he said this,
We believe then and continue to believe now that this
case is a chargeable with the alleged murder. We screened
the case with the input of seasoned homicide attorneys who
prosecuted more murder cases and addresses more self defense justification

(50:00):
hearings than any other office in the state. Each offense
exercises their prosecutor prosecurial discretion differently. Our decision was supported
by our process. But he won't go on camera and
say anything about this. He should.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
It's he'd have a tough time. I'll tell you if
he did this one.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
Yeah, all right, more to come here on the Rod
and Greg Show in Utah's Talk Radio one O five
to nine kN rs. All right, it's rare we disagree
with Donald Trump. But in this case, there were two
incidents in Greg one mentioned over the weekend and then
one today that both you and I went, mister President,
we don't think so.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
That's right now. I will say that I will give
plenty of space for the President to have an objective
that I'm that I'm not quite grasping, or that I'm
that I'm not seeing right away that rolls out as
we see. Yeah, because look, I mean if you take
his tariffs and his Independents Day or whatever it was,
you know, that was the beginning of negotiations and how

(50:59):
things went, and a lot of what he does is
he comes out this is what we're going to do,
and then there's some movement that can happen. So I
think a lot of conservatives are and I actually just
anyone that's aware of our civil liberties. You know, the
Constitution understands. I think a basic principle about freedom of

(51:20):
speech and flag. Flag burning, to me is an issue
that is not new. It's one that we talked about
for a very very long time, and in fact, somebody
brought it up when I about ten years ago, and
I said, the eighties called they want their issue back,
because for me, I have I have no interest in
seeing our flag disrespected. I have no I have. I'm
upset by it. But I think freedom of speech does

(51:42):
allow for the burning of a flag for various reasons,
to protest to your government. And this government's been worthy
of protest. Maybe not touching old Glory in my book,
but some may want to do that. But that's the
first mement, right, and I think we all know that.
So I was surprised that this is that he would
like to put a one year penalty on someone who
burns a flag. But I read the executive order and

(52:04):
I think there's some wiggle room in here.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
Well, here's what the President said when he talked about
it this morning.

Speaker 13 (52:08):
Flag burning all over the country. They're burning flags all
over the world. They burn the American flag, and as
you know, through a very sand court. I guess it
was a five to four decision. They called it freedom
of speech. But there's another reason, which is perhaps much
more important. It's called death. Because what happens when you

(52:29):
burn a flag is the area goes crazy. If you
have hundreds of people, they go crazy.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
You could do other things.

Speaker 13 (52:36):
You can burn this piece of paper, you could and
it's but when you burn the American flag, it incites
riots at levels that we've never seen before.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
People go crazy in a way. Both ways.

Speaker 13 (52:49):
There's some that are going crazy for doing it. There
are others that are angry, angry about them doing it.

Speaker 2 (52:56):
And now what the president said and what he's doing
here greg him in direct conflict with former Supreme Court
Justice and and Scalia because Scalia said back in what
was it? It was uh uh, several years ago after
the ruling that he in fact was the fifth vote
that allowed for flag burning. And here's what he said,

(53:17):
patriotic conservative, that I am. I detest the burning of
the nation's flag. If I were king, I would make
it a crime. But as I understand the First Amendment,
it guarantees the right to express contempt for the government, Congress,
Supreme Court, even the nation or the nation's flag. That's
why he cast the fifth deciding vote on the issue

(53:37):
of flag burning years ago.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
Yeah, and I agree with him.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
You know, And I can't find it'd be difficult to
find anybody who is not offended by the flag being burned.
It bothers the day. I hate seeing it.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
Yes, and it's just like the what the what the what?
What the leftists did to our national anthem in these
NFL football games. They made a disgrace of it and
it's caused it such as worse than a distraction. It
was wrong what they did. And you know they're getting
their act right there, you know, the pendulum swinging back.
But here's where it gets interesting. You know, Democrats right now,

(54:13):
when they hear him say that, and he's now got
an executive order, they just like a Democrat, they should
start burning these American flags right away because probably because
the prediction is you aren't going to get arrested for it,
because I don't think any I think all prosecutors, and
even with this executive order out there, I don't know
what county attorney or prosecutor would actually charge you with

(54:36):
this crime. And but what I think might be happening
is at the very end of his executive order, it
says this, my administration will act to restore respect and
the sanctity to the American Flag and prosecute those who
incite violence or otherwise violate our laws while desecrating this
symbol of our country to the fullest extent permissible under

(54:58):
available authority. He's talking about the inciting of riots and
the violence, and if you did that and the burning
of the flag was part of the trigger that created
the dominos default, now you have yeah, now you have
you have violence, and you have a riot, and you
have something like that. He's actually going after after the

(55:20):
violence and the riots, and that he said if you
remember heard that statement that he believes starts when people
burn the flag. I think it's a right. I think
it's funny because I think that the Democrats will actually
start burning flags they would have never decided to burn before.
And we're gonna have all these burning flags going on.
No one's gonna get arrested, but you're going to see
a bunch of Democrats burning flags. And what he's talking
about in this executive order is if there's a riot

(55:43):
or violence that erupts when you do this, the burning
of the flag is one of the mitigame factors.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
So I can burn a flag peacefully, yeah, I think so.
But if I burn a flag and it incites a riot,
it starts starts violence, then I could be prosecuted. But
I'm with you. I think there'll be Democrats, probably some
Democrats protesters who will go out there and burn flags peacefully,
all right, and the American people will look at that

(56:10):
and say, what are you doing here? Folks? It will
turn the American people, in my opinion, Greg, even more
against the Democratic Party if they do that, and that
may be huge the end results. We don't know, because
you know, we've got to take a break, and when
we come back, we want you to weigh in on
this on the flag burning issue, because I don't think
there's anybody who enjoys seeing the American flag burn, not

(56:32):
at all. But you have a right to do jo.
Donald Trump is saying, maybe not in certain circumstances. Get
into that with you. Coming up our number three on
the Ry and Greg Joe on Talk Radio one O
five to nine. Okay, interest, stay with us.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
I don't know when this whole concept of freedom of
speech was introduced to you, but I remember it in
high school being a concept, and I think the classic
example that's never gone away, even though we don't go
to movie theaters anymore in twenty twenty five, is that
you have a freedom of speech, but if you were
to yell fire in a movie theater and it causes
stampede where people run over top of each other. That's
where your freedom of speech ends and someone's right to

(57:08):
not be stampeded ends. I honestly think when you read
the end of this executive order, this is the fire
in the movie theater speech with the burning of the flag.
If burning the flag incites violence or otherwise violates our laws,
it only is triggered if it's intended to do insite

(57:28):
violence and it's accompanied with other lawless action. I think
that's the fire in the movie theater yell that you
can't do. So, I think there's some method to the
madness here on this. My first blush was not you
can't burning the flag. As you read it, I think
there's something. I think there might be something there.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
Well, let's go to the phones and see what our
great listeners have to say. Tonight eight eight eight five
seven eight zero one zero triple eight five sevenage zero
one zero on your cell phone dial pound two fifteen
and say hey Rod or leave it on our talk
back line. We begin Insult Like City with David, who's
been waiting patiently to weigh in on this. Hi, David,
how are you good? How are you, I'm doing well

(58:07):
your thoughts on I'm.

Speaker 9 (58:10):
I'm a defender of a free speech and I would
I would normally say if it was equal across the board,
that this would be allowed. But most straight states, including Utah,
have passed hate crime legislation which makes it illegal to
ban to burn Pride flags and other flags that are

(58:31):
deemed to be a hate crime. So what's the difference
between burning the United States flag? They obviously hate America,
that's why they're burning the flag. So how is that
not the same principle?

Speaker 1 (58:42):
I like that, you know what. I like that you
bring up a good point, and I and I I
you know, I would say, David, we should be even
handed about it. I think you should be able to
burn the University of Utah utes running Utah flag, ORBAU flag,
or or a Pride flag or whatever, or a Utah.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
You could burn the new state.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
Man, do you know how many I was just gonna say,
so many people don't like that new Utah flag. Maybe
that one gets burned. But I think, David, you bring
up a great point. I think this has to be
across the board and even handed in the way it's enforced.

Speaker 2 (59:12):
Yeah, I think it does too. Burning American flag, that's
a hate crime. Yeah, I would say, hating the government.
Let's go to Patrick in Springville, who wants to weigh
in on this tonight, Patrick, go ahead, what say you?

Speaker 6 (59:25):
Hey, guys?

Speaker 3 (59:26):
As far as the flag, that's what the symbol of
our freedom of choice is the symbol of freedom of speech.
So logically, it's like you're burning your symbol of the
right just free speech. You're you're burning your symbol of freedom.
And to say what you want to say, it makes

(59:48):
no sense. And it's no longer a fight between Republicans
and Democrats. It's good and evil. So remember that when
it doesn't make sense, it's not common sense. That's why.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
Yep, all right, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
And and to that, I I know where Patrick's coming from.
I I hold those sentiments myself. But but you've heard
members of the military say I have fought for this
country and for your right right, for your right to
be able to do that, even though it disrespects and
and and so there's been this, uh, there has been
an association with freedom of speech and be able to
do something that we don't agree with that, but we

(01:00:22):
do think that's what speech means. So that our speech
isn't ever ruled as something we're not allowed to say.
Let's go back to the phone. Let's go to Will,
who's been patiently waiting in West Jordan. Will, welcome to
the Rod and Greg Show.

Speaker 12 (01:00:34):
Hey, how's it going. I just want to tell you, guys.
I think this is classic Donald Trump genius. The Democrats
are absolutely going to take de bait. They're going to
burn every flag they see, and it's going to push
so many more people to the right, and even legal
immigrants are here love that flag and they're just going
to be further into the Republican Party. It's genius to

(01:00:54):
Donald Trump.

Speaker 6 (01:00:55):
Move.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
I you saying that, Will, Greg and I were saying
to ourselves during the break. Trump's got an endgame here.
He's doing something here that we haven't figured out yet.
And I think you touched on it. Will. I think
the Democrats they may have a one big flag burning
and the American people will go, you're gonna watch it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
It's not going to side of violence. So it's gonna
be a peaceful burning of all these flags. And so
these Democrats are going to be burning American flags and
protecting the Maryland man who doesn't speak a word of English.
I didn't know till today. But it's still messing around
with our course system. So I think we'll called it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
And the trucker from India who killed the support for you, I.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
Mean, he's totally trolling them. I'm telling you, we're gonna
see all of these examples. All but if we we
have to be quiet, don't let them don't know because
they're in a hall. They're digging, they're digging faster. We
don't want to interrupt them. Let them start burning those
flags and see what we all think.

Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
All right, let's go to Rick and Bear River tonight
here on the rod In Greg show, Hi, Ray, how
are you?

Speaker 6 (01:01:52):
I'm good and I normally agree with you guys, but
I disagree with you on this one.

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:01:57):
Flag is an action. It's an action, it's not speech. Now,
if I went in front of the White House when
Biden was president and dropped my pants and moond him,
would I get away with that with spree, with free speed?
Or if I took a spray can and I and
I painted you know, Biden's an idiot somewhere on the
on the Capitol grounds, would I get away with that

(01:02:18):
with for free for free speech.

Speaker 10 (01:02:20):
To me, it's the.

Speaker 6 (01:02:21):
Same thing burning a flag and cause you know, it's
bound to cause very heightened emotions with people that love
this country and very much. It is like yelling fire
in a crowded theater.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
Well, Rick, I agree, and I think that's what the
President's saying, isn't Greg's saying, Hey, if you burn a
flag and it causes violence or causes property damage, you
could be prosecuted. You could be charged with that.

Speaker 15 (01:02:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
And so what Rick is saying is if the President
said it just you can burn a lot of things,
and his examples. You can burn a piece of paper
right here and no one would you burn the flag
and the emotions go through and violence breaks out. And
if you do something that, if you burn this flag,
our flag, our American flag, and violence breaks out, this
is going to be a crime. And I do think

(01:03:08):
it's tethered to the action. It's tether to an action
that would create you know, that would incite violence and
create or accompanied with other lawless action. And so to
the point of like, if you're going to burn something
and you're burning it in a public area where someone
could be harmed by it, you know, I'm just imagining
a scenario where I go purchase the flag, so I
own it. It's my property, and I want to burn

(01:03:30):
it in a place where I'm not going to hurt anyone,
but I want to make a statement. I think that
falls into freedom of speech. If you're doing it in
a public place where the flames or anything can harm someone,
or if it incites people to get you know, crazy
and start incites violence or other lawless activity, that is
where I think it's he's calling it fire in a
movie theater.

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
Yeah. Well, but we aren't the only conservatives out there
who are raising questions about this. Jesse Kelly, who show shows.
The show comes up after hours at seven o'clock, he said,
today this FEWU. This just lit him on this one.
Today he said, I am a free American citizen, and
if I ever feel like torching one, I will. This

(01:04:10):
is garbage.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
She said, wasn't he a marine he served?

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
Yeah, he served in the armed person So he is
a veteran who fought for this right. But he says
this one. I think he's on base.

Speaker 1 (01:04:20):
I'm going back to call her. Will he's got it.
I think he's got to figure it out. I think
this is I think he's trolling the Democrats and he's
baiting them, and I think that that there's gonna be
a ton of people that are gonna burn flags. They're
not gonna get arrested for it, but that boy, are
they gonna turn off this country for doing it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
Oh, if they have like a group flag burning, yeah, they're.

Speaker 1 (01:04:38):
Total go try it, try it out. Okay, let's go
to will from We're ready for that. Yeah, are you
ready for that? Okay, well from Vernon, welcome to the show.

Speaker 16 (01:04:48):
Hey, how are you good?

Speaker 7 (01:04:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 16 (01:04:51):
I was just I would just call him about the
whole flag burning thing. Uh, I'm just we're not allowed
to burn because of the drought you know out here.

Speaker 9 (01:05:03):
I didn't.

Speaker 16 (01:05:03):
I didn't think you could even burn. Why would you
be allowed to burn in the city when you can't
You can't openly burn in the city.

Speaker 3 (01:05:13):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
Yes, I'm with you, I with you, But look, I
think those laws actually apply to I mean, if you
have laws you can't burn anything because of a drought
because it could cause a fire in the summer, that
all that I think still applies. I had a friend
who said, look, it's the beach says that you can't
have any glass containers, So I guess I can drink
the booze in the can and a beer can. No,
it says no alcohol. I mean you can say that glass,

(01:05:36):
but it's still still open care. Open carry still applies.
When it says no glass. It doesn't give you the
permission to do it, to drink it in a can,
just because it says no glass. So if you can
burn a flag, but you can't burn period. You can't
burn a flag, that's your that's your loophole.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
All right, let's go to talk back Line. Get to
come in from one of our great listeners on the
talk back line.

Speaker 15 (01:05:57):
I think Donald Trump is correct. If I just walks
outside of my home and decide to burn my flag,
I guess I can do that for whatever reason. But
if it's involved in a riot that's already that's already
in place, that's.

Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
Where the difference is.

Speaker 15 (01:06:17):
That's where I think Donald Trump is coming from.

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
Yeah, and I think you're right. As a matter of fact.
That's what Greg has read earlier in an explanation is
what the president means if it incites a riot, or
causes property damage, or prompts others to take violent action,
you could be charged in that case.

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
Yep, it says exactly. Then prosecute those who incite violence
or otherwise violate our laws while desecrating this symbol of
our country. That's so, it's where you where it incites
violence or break breaks is associated with other lawless conduct.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
All right, We've got more calls and comments coming up
as we talk about the issue of flag burning right
here on the Routing Greg Show and Utah's Talk Radio
one oh five nine. Okay, An, right now, we're talking
about flag burning.

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
Yes, John Trump has an executive order where he is
saying that there would be illegal you would be charged
of the year crime if you were to flag, to
burn a flag and it were too inside a riot
or be attached to any other lawless activity. We're talking
about whether it's a freemom speech issue or if it
is a good executive order that the president has signed.

(01:07:21):
Let's go to use our listeners. Let's go to Alana
from Ogen If I've said that, right, Alana, welcome to
the show.

Speaker 17 (01:07:29):
Yep, yeah, thank you. So, I'm sorry, I'm going to
go with Jesse Kelly on that one, because let's take
another example than the American flag. Let's say to Kuran.
If I wanted to burn a Koran and the Muslim
community said that it will incite riot, I would still

(01:07:50):
have the right to burn the Koran because it is
freedom of speech. And then the second point is that
most of the time those guys don't burn their own flag.
They go up the pole on the police station or whatever,
they kill it and they burn nuts, and then we
should go after them for that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
For the sets you are, I love every everything. I
agree with them. And you said, I think that is
a really really good take.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
You go take the flag off a pole and burn it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:18):
Yeah, that's someone else's property because my whole fire. And
in a in a movie theater might fail on the
uh on the if you burn a Koran, everyone wants
to get crazy on that. I still might want to
burn that krean. I don't know. I'm kind of in
a salty mood.

Speaker 3 (01:08:35):
You know, what do I do?

Speaker 10 (01:08:36):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
I actually I love that take. I you'll always find
I try to be as consistent. I want to apply
the laws consistently across the board. As we know how
Lady Justice is blind she's you know, blindfold. She's got
the sword, she's got the scale. It's supposed to be fair.
Supposed to be it's supposed to give everyone their fair
shake and their fair due, whatever good or bad. And
they're supposed to be blind and not picking winners and losers.

(01:08:58):
And so I think laws should be evenly applied. I
think flags should fall in that category. And I think
that in the circumstances described by the listener, if you
were to burn someone else's property, there's a problem there.

Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
Yeah, there's a charge there. Here's an email coming into us.
Question number one. This comes from Mike to the Rod
and Greg show. He says, question number one, Rod and Greg,
how many arson tickets have been written for all those fires?
Tell me there is a public permit for all the fires.
I see when they burn Old Glory two in June
of next year during the Pride month, what's gonna happen

(01:09:33):
to me? And when I burn a Pride flag? I
believe that's called hate speech. It is, and you can
be arrested for burning a Pride flag.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
Correct, Yeah, that's again I would if we're going to
get this right, we're gon we're gonna apply the law
evenly and fairly across the board. I can't stand, you know,
picking the winners and losers. There's some people more equal
than others. It's just insane to me. I don't get it. Yeah,
and so I think all of that. That's why I
love going to the phones. That's why I love the
response we get back from listeners because there's been so
much context played with this. I know we're coming to

(01:10:03):
the end of the show. But the other one we
never got to, which is kind of my fault maybe,
was the talk of bringing in national guards or military
into Chicago and other metropolitan areas. Again, that's broadly like,
that's broadly described, but I will say that in LA
when they had the riots going for two days, these
were law enforced federal law enforcement agents ICE agents that

(01:10:24):
were being stopped, even their vehicles destroyed. ICE facilities were
being overrun. The LAPD and the LA Sheriff could not
contain it. And then President Trump deployed the National Guard
and military. That I think is appropriate if the if
the National Guard and military were to be deployed by
the president. The only constitutional authority I see inside of

(01:10:45):
states and DC is not a state, it's a federal district.
They have unique jurisdiction there, so that's a different beast
all by itself. But in a state, I would believe
that it would be with the cooperation of that governor
to come into that state unless there is a federal
law that requires federal agents to enforce and there is
some way they are unable to or they need to
be assisted in enforcing or executing the federal law, or

(01:11:08):
they have property or assets that need to be protected.
That is where the federal nexus would be. But you
got to have that federal nexus. We like this, we
love this president. We trust him. I do not trust
a Biden to haul troops in to cities and tell
you what's what. I want to make sure states are
a part of that. But when it comes to federal property,
jurisdiction's land, or even the enforcement of federal law, you've

(01:11:33):
got to do what you got to do to make
sure you can enforce the law.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
He can do what he wants to do. In Washington,
d c. It is a federal district. It is a
federal district.

Speaker 1 (01:11:42):
He has not a state.

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
He has the sole authority to do what he wants
to do there.

Speaker 1 (01:11:46):
With Congress too.

Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
In Chicago, it's completely different. It is not a federal
he has no federal overview of what's going on in Chicago,
and I agree with you. If ICE agents are being attacked,
if federal buildings or under it, he can call in
the National Guard to protect those buildings. Any other reason,
I don't unless there's a justification out there that.

Speaker 6 (01:12:07):
You yeah, he do.

Speaker 1 (01:12:10):
Utah has been listed as one of those states where
they're looking at maybe deploying National Guard or military. Well,
you also hear right now that there is that request
being made by the White House to our governor saying, well,
will you see if national Guard want to help them
participate in the execution of enforcing federal law, you know,
with with ICE agents and what they're doing. I can
tell you back in seventeen when we were dealing with

(01:12:31):
the cartels and everything up in the Rio Grande area,
Pioneer park Man I called then for the deployment of
the National Guard. I was asking our governor to do it.
But if you can get federal resources to see some
of these laws that you know, the cartels are in
our state breaking in that there's a federal you know,
you're lucky to have them. And I would I would
hope that our governor would want to cooperate with the
with the Trump administration and working together to that end.

(01:12:54):
But that's the key. These states would have to work
together or you have to have a federal nexus where
that federal law. You can't do it with who you
have on the ground, and you need reinforcements to help
do it or protect it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:04):
All Right, more coming up. It is the Monday afternoon
edition of the Rod and Greg Show right here on
Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine. Okay, n Ars, Well,
before the break, we were taking your comments and calls
on the flag burning issue. That the President wants to
ban flag burning in cases of violence or inciting a riot.
That's one of the reasons that he gave today and

(01:13:24):
announcing this were beginning your reaction. We've had some more
colors way in on our listen back line. Let's let's
do a couple of them. The national symbol.

Speaker 18 (01:13:33):
And you can't harm an American eagle, you can't arm
the national force deliberately anything like that National parks.

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
And it should be protected as such.

Speaker 1 (01:13:51):
I don't think it falls under freedom to speak.

Speaker 19 (01:13:55):
Rod Greg Offer from Fountain Green again, I totally agree
with that caller will about President Trump. Goden needs Democrats
into buying every flag and burning it. While I disagree
with that, if a Utah Democrats want to head over
to Colonial Flag there, support a local business by as
many as you possibly can to feel free to burn them.

Speaker 2 (01:14:13):
Their party's at a down spiral, and this is just
unmask the rest of them. So let them do what
they're gonna do. They'll fafo.

Speaker 14 (01:14:22):
I'm as patriotic as they come, and I fly the
flag on appropriate holidays. But back when Orn Hatch wanted
to have a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning, I
was totally against it because the flag is a symbol
of our right to protest. And then when I see
other people burning the flag, you know, it doesn't bother
me because I don't let other people's actions affect the

(01:14:45):
way I feel, even though I think it's a bad
thing to do.

Speaker 2 (01:14:49):
Yeah, interesting comments. Now I know Paul over at Colonial Flag.
He's a great guy. It's great patriotic American. You know
him as well, say, and I think he would love
people buying flags, but not for the purpose of No.

Speaker 1 (01:15:01):
He loves those flags, spends his life making them. He
would want you to burn and we'd be like no, no, no, no,
no no.

Speaker 2 (01:15:07):
I don't want that, So Paul, maybe you should ask
any new customer who comes in, are you using this
flag to fly or burn?

Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:15:14):
I know he might want to ask that qualifying as
that qualifying question, Paul, just a thought, Justice though. All right,
let's change topics. Let's talk about COVID nineteen and the
role the media played. You know, the media just yeah,
anything public health officials were saying, or government officials were saying,
they were taking the hook line in Syncred never questioned

(01:15:34):
it and went to the public Greg in the media
telling him, You've got to do this or you're gonna die.

Speaker 6 (01:15:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:15:40):
In hindsight, I don't know how we're not all. I mean,
we many of us are up in arms. But I mean,
I just think history is proving our instructs were right.
This was wrong from beginning, middle and end. And and
I think this next discussion we're gonna have is going
to show you just how they were coordinating to really
get us to compel behavior in a way that should
have ever happened.

Speaker 2 (01:16:00):
On our Newsbaker Line Joy Pullman, she's the manager editor
of the Federalist. Always ready to talk with Joy Joy.
What kind of role do you think the media played
when it came to the COVID lockdowns.

Speaker 20 (01:16:10):
Well, the media played an enormous role, and then frankly,
it was really their role was spreading a lot of
misinformation and disinformation and on behalf of largely a political agenda.
And we now have a lot of receipts to really
demonstrate that that is really unmistakably true. And there's a
lot of it in the book that I was reading
for their freerest. It's called an Abundance of Caution by

(01:16:32):
a fellow who is a left lanning journalist. He's worked
for major magazines and he freelances, you know, skill to
this day, to publications like The New York Times, the
New Yorker, Wired, you know of a bunch of publications
like that. But he's just one of many, many people
who have written books that are really showing that corporate
media played a completely key role in forcing Americans into

(01:16:56):
unprecedented lockdowns and really a number of measures that were
absolutely not actually truly supported.

Speaker 8 (01:17:01):
By good science.

Speaker 1 (01:17:02):
You know, Joyce I I. You know, when this first
came out, it was flattened the curve. The thought was
everybody can't catch this virus. At the same time, on
the same day or number of days, because then you'd
fill your emergency rooms and the heart attacks and real,
real serious medical emergencies wouldn't be able to be attended to.
So we're going to take this two weeks, go home,
try to flatten the curve, and then I don't know,

(01:17:25):
it's just changed. And to your point, this new narrative
emerged where there was no flattening the curve. It was
we can't see each other anymore, We're never coming out
again for quite some time. How are they so successful
at getting a Maybe what even seemed intuitive is we
can't catch this all in the same week to stay
in your home for a you know, undetermined amount of time.

Speaker 20 (01:17:48):
Well, there's a good deal of that, of course in
this book. And in fact, I was just today at
a conference with doctor Peter McCullough, who was, of course,
you know, one of the top doctors who was one
of the few to discent about the coviddowns and really
point to the hard evidence that we had. And one
thing that he points out is that, you know, really
basically what the media was doing in that instance that
you're asking about, is really doing a lot of shillings

(01:18:10):
for big Farmer, which, by the way, Big Farmer is
one of the number one advertisers on major media, you know,
sort of platforms really backing and creating, cropping up the
big outlets that are also you know, frankly boosted by
government censorship programs such as we've talked about it the Federalist.
So you have this artificial information ecosystem really created by

(01:18:31):
a bunch of people who have you know, a lot
of money and a lot of agendas, and frankly, you know,
truth is not one of them. It's their own topics,
pockets and their own power typically, you know, the they're
using and manipulating the media environment in order to boost themselves.
Then we saw that happening with the lockdowns, right the
world's riches got richer and all the rest of us,
you know, really substantially got poor. We're seeing that with

(01:18:52):
of course the inflation and everything else. We got sicker,
you know, with a lot of interventions that were not
very well tested before they were tested and wholesale on
the entire population.

Speaker 2 (01:19:02):
We're talking right now with Joy Pullman, she is with
a Federalist.

Speaker 14 (01:19:05):
Joey.

Speaker 2 (01:19:05):
You talked about what the media did, but another role
they played how much of a role did they play
in blocking out some common sense voices in this dispute
that we had over COVID and blocking people who are saying,
wait a minute here, I don't believe this. I do
think it came from this lab. I don't think these
vaccines are going to work. I mean, what kind of
role did they play in blocking out some of the

(01:19:27):
common sense voices?

Speaker 20 (01:19:29):
Well, I would say that there are two kinds of
things that the media does that shuts people up and
shuts out a discussion that helps us get to the truth,
and that's kind of one of the United States has
this tradition of free speech, is that when you allow
the voices to speak openly, you're more likely to get
more quickly to what the truth is. As well as
you have the public allows their opinions to be aired,

(01:19:50):
and they feel they have a participation in their own governance.

Speaker 15 (01:19:52):
Right.

Speaker 20 (01:19:53):
But what the media does is contribute to a censorship environment.
Corporate large media. We know where they are basically working
on for half behalf of people who can control what
we see listen to and here I either turning down
the dial right, so you know, for example, there's huge
you know, fact checking programs Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You

(01:20:13):
know they're they're allegedly disbanded, but I have a lot
of people paying attention really think those algorithms are still
kind of baked in. Google just today announced that they're
basically offering their fact checking, which basically means censorship proverbs.
So you have a few media monopolies who are basically
can control the entire conversation, and they you will use
keywords and algorithmic censorship to shut down what is allowed

(01:20:36):
to spread and be shared with different people and the
other So that's kind of participating in that and a
propaganda censorship ecosystem as something media does. But the second
thing that they do is deploy their massive audio boosted firepower,
their audio visual firepower, in smearing the living daylight out
of anyone who stands out of this scent with the

(01:20:57):
Demo whatever is in the Democrat Party's best interest. So
for example, if you think about like I just mentioned,
doctor Peter McCullough, doctor Scott atlast, you know the man
whose book I was reviewing, David Dwig. He said that
people were texting him top epidemiologists, you know, people in
public health field working at John Hopkins, CDC, you know,

(01:21:17):
really top institutions. They knew that what the CDC and
other major boothsuit organizations were telling us was not in
line with the science. They were scientific, the highly credentialed
able to you know, tell that. And but they instead
of coming out publicly and saying that and help reveal
to the public there was not a complete consensus the

(01:21:40):
way it was portrayed to us, they did not say
anything because they did not want to be subject to
the smear tech, smear engine of the media, the way
men like Scott Atlass and Peter McCullough were.

Speaker 1 (01:21:51):
You know, there really was this this emperor has no
clothes and you couldn't speak a word of it, and
you could feel that here. But there was a moment
in the Hughes home, in our home where we looked
at it. My wife and I looked at each other
and went, this is this is just where it's wrong.
And that is the moment where our churches are closed,
our schools are closed. Were all these things have happened.

(01:22:13):
And then the George Floyd riots are coming out and
I see and I see doctor Fauci say no, no,
you can safely participate in these in these uh, these protests,
and we thought, I don't know that this virus has
a political opinion. I don't know that you should be
able to go to a protest, but you're not allowed
to go to church. And I think that was the

(01:22:34):
moment where we really really did know that something was wrong.
Why would a moment like that, because it's one thing
to censor people, but if your message is so intuitively contradicting,
why did we in hindsight, why did we play along?
And when I say we, I mean most of the
country or world. Why did we let it go on
for so long?

Speaker 14 (01:22:56):
Oh?

Speaker 20 (01:22:56):
I do think that we have a society that no
longer really cultivates independence of character and independence of thought.
And there's a good side to that, right, Humans are
social creatures. I mean, there's famous experiments right about you.
You know, for example, showing people in a group one
line is clearly longer than the rest, but they're the
person who's really being tested is the last person to go,

(01:23:17):
and everyone before him points out a different line that
is clearly shorter, right, And so you know, eight times
out of ten, even though he can see with his
own two eyes, you know which line is longer, and
which line is shorter. The person will go with the
consensus and what the other piece and not kind of
want to go against the group that you're in, even

(01:23:37):
if it's a completely artificial group like that in a
nesting environment. So I mean, so you just have human
nature at work there. But I also think, you know,
America has traditionally been a place that cultivated independent thinking descent.
That's part of the culture of free speech. And I
really think that, for example, our media environment and our
public school system are two top kind of ecosystems that

(01:23:58):
incubate conformity rather than judging truth and encouraging people to
think for themselves and really assess based on evidence. Really,
those two major institutions that everybody in our society to
one way or another, participations are more culturals than forming.
So I think they really accelerate that human nature that
we have.

Speaker 2 (01:24:19):
Joy Pullman from the Federalists talking about the role that
the media played in the COVID nineteen lockdowns, and you know,
we're all afraid at times to do anything because the
media kept on telling us you will die if you
do this, or you could infect others.

Speaker 3 (01:24:33):
You know, I just.

Speaker 1 (01:24:36):
They played such a vital role in creating such fear,
fear and in really demonizing I mean, I remember speaking
with physicians who would speak freely, privately, but would never
do it broadly where they would be where their reputation
or their profession could be taken from them. That's how
bad it was. And we lost. Remember we couldn't even
if we crossed state lines. Our phone would erupt like

(01:24:58):
an amber alert and tell you that you know, and
ask you what's your name? Where are you going? Where
do you live? I mean, we went, We descended into
that so quickly as a country and as even a state.
You know, Christy Noman the only governor in America that
held off the entire time. She is the only governor
that never shut down her state.

Speaker 2 (01:25:16):
Absolutely not all right more, Coming up, final segment of
the Rod and Greg Show on Talk Radio one oh
five nine can alright. I want to share a story
with you. You're well aware that over the weekend Abrego
Garcia was released. He's the Maryland man who has been
treated so poorly by US immigration officials because basically we
want to get him out of the country because he's

(01:25:37):
a criminal.

Speaker 1 (01:25:37):
Yeah, I'm thirteen, human trafficking smuggler, wife beater. It just
goes on.

Speaker 9 (01:25:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:25:43):
Well he was released yesterday, right and immediately picked up
by ice and detained to send him to Uganda or
Costa Rica possibly right, well, and.

Speaker 1 (01:25:56):
Both are brilliant places, I hear, great place to go, right,
great of a year, it's a hot really good. Yes, well,
in such today block dies from sending him to Uganda.
Now before that, yesterday, his attorney just made a brilliant
argument as to why he shouldn't be sent to Uganda.
Do you know what it was?

Speaker 2 (01:26:16):
What he came out and said, Abrego Garcia should not
be sent to Uganda because he doesn't speak the language.

Speaker 1 (01:26:23):
What language is speak Swahili?

Speaker 2 (01:26:26):
Speak there little? Did he understand that the official language
of Uganda is English?

Speaker 1 (01:26:33):
And it's true he doesn't speak that language, does he?
Well he maybe not very well so, but it didn't
certainly what it didn't have a chilling effect for being
in this country. So why would I have a chilling
effect to be in Uganda? If you can't speak English
and you've been fine with that here, well you can
be fine with that Inanda.

Speaker 2 (01:26:51):
Yeah, I see no difference, no difference at all. By
the way, did you think hitting tennis balls would make
you a billionaire?

Speaker 1 (01:26:59):
No, I wish I knew that.

Speaker 6 (01:27:01):
I did.

Speaker 1 (01:27:02):
I missed that life hack.

Speaker 2 (01:27:03):
Roger Federer is now a billionaire. Good for him, he's
become I think it is make that much money? Yes,
they do. With Hallands endorsement, he's become the seventh billionaire
athlete in history.

Speaker 1 (01:27:15):
Do you know who's mad about that? Pete Sampras, he's
the greatest officer, greatest. There's no way he's got even
hundreds of millions all beat That group includes Michael Jordan.
Is what a billionaire?

Speaker 2 (01:27:27):
Billionaire?

Speaker 1 (01:27:27):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (01:27:28):
Magic Johnson.

Speaker 1 (01:27:30):
His business decisions?

Speaker 2 (01:27:32):
Yeah, Lebron James, Okay, Junior Bridgeman, who's that?

Speaker 6 (01:27:36):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:27:38):
He's a chess player, tiger Woods, tiger Wood millionaires. But
can you think that hitting golf balls would make you
a billionaire?

Speaker 3 (01:27:46):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:27:47):
No, it's it's it's a it's a life hack to
do what you like, do what you love, and maybe
if you're good enough at it, you'll make some serious
dough at it. Oh he played for see he must have.

Speaker 2 (01:27:58):
Oh okay, yeah, yeah, imagine it made a lot of
his indistiness.

Speaker 1 (01:28:01):
I add that he must have made some smart investments.

Speaker 2 (01:28:04):
All right, That does good for us Tonight, head up,
shoulders back. May God bless you and your family and
this great country of ours. Enjoy your Monday. We'll be
back tomorrow, and for have a good

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