The Rod and Greg Show: Energy Affordability; Reclaiming Pop Culture; Radical Left Education

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Weekends over head into another full week.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Yep, a lot of football this weekend. A lot of controversy.
Uh oh really signed notice said football? But yeah it was.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
It was.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
I had a enjoyable wee can't about yourself.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Yeah, I didn't have a very very nice week. Actually
got some Christmas shopping done. I know you don't do
any but I do Christmas shop. That's I'm kind of weird.
I like to go out and Christmas show.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
You've mentioned that you like the people like you like.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
The buzz the energy.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, so there's still buzzing energy in these malls.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yes, but it wasn't as crowded as I thought it would.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
That would make sense to me. I I find and
I'm an old headline job because I'm an old head
And if I feel like shopping is like being on
a scavenger hunt now and it feels so antiquated. I
don't want to go searching, you know, physically for things.
I just want to just buy things. If I feel
that way, I gotta imagine people younger than me don't
even think to go there.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
I think a lot of online shopping it's taking place
to kind of it. But I enjoy getting out it
was fun. Then got it?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
So you got me something.

Speaker 4 (00:59):
I hope.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I can't even give you my list yet of things
I want and you can.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Go ahead and keep it because I'm not getting it.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, that's a bit harping. I thought thought maybe I
got something.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Me and the Rodeo Queen, we always get you a
little something. Okay, quit your all right, Ryan. We have
got a lot to get to today. We'll talk about
how the cost of electricity has become a kitchen table topic.
We'll get into that. We'll talk about Hollywood. Are conservatives
starting to reclaim Hollywood and pop culture? We'll get into
that a little bit later on. We'll talk about all

(01:34):
the media hype surrounding climate change and how it's all
falling apart so quickly. We'll talk about radical left and education,
and we'll talk about dismantling the education department. So we
have got a jam packed show for you, and as always,
we invite you to be a part of it. Eight
eight eight five seven O eight zero one zero triple
eight five seven O eight zero one zero on your

(01:54):
cell phone dial pound two fifteen, say hey Rod, or
just download the iHeartRadio and look for Kayan arrest and
you can leave us a talkback comment as well. So
a lot to get to today.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
There is there's so much going on, there's I'm anyway,
we got we've got a lot of Crockett's gonna be
run for the Senate in Texas, so she's all.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Now before we get into all the political stuff. You know,
I equate the NC two A with the federal government.
And here's why they pledged to fix a problem. Remember
a couple of years ago they went from four to
what the current twelve team system something like that, saying
it would fix the problem. Now it's created a bigger problem.

(02:36):
It's like the federal government, Oh, we'll fix it. Let it.
Let the federal government take care of it. No, and
the MC two way has failed again on this.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
I think, yeah, the playoff we you know, we had
the championship conference games that went with the different respective
conferences power four conferences as they say, and those are
supposed to mean something and they should certainly find be
a pathway to a national playoff and championship, but not
for everyone. And some teams that didn't have any championship
because they didn't play well enough to get into one

(03:05):
or in notre Dame's case, their independence, they don't have.
One didn't move a muscle this weekend, and one leap
frogged a bunch of two teams and the other one
got left out. So I don't know. It is a
lot of chaos, and it is very subjective, not objective
in terms of what teams are making the playoffs, the
college football playoffs, and that's what the hope of the twelve.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Team, you know, usually the problem.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
We used to have two and then we went to four,
and this twelve was supposed to be the big answer.
And it's really hard to follow the logic of why
some were good enough to get in and others were not.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
But I have a solution. Just make it a sixty
four team field like they do in BASTA.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
That would solve it. I need another extra few months
to play that out, that.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Would solve it.

Speaker 5 (03:49):
No.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
But you know, someone mentioned, you know why is BYU
being punished for losing in their conference championship? Well, Alabama,
who really got whacked as well, were able to make
it in. And I just think, I don't know what
it's going to take for BYU to gain a reputation
that these other schools have. I don't know if it's
playing other schools, playing some in the Big ten and

(04:10):
the big you know, in the se I don't sure
know what it is. But I just don't think they
get their respect.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
They don't.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
I don't, and I don't know what it will take.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
If they were still independent, I would understand that that
less than serious consideration because they're independent, and you could
look at the strength of schedule or strength of record,
but where they're in the Big twelve, and then you
see a graphic where they have the ninth ranked team,
the tenth ranked team, and the twelfth ranked team, and
they omit the eleventh ranked team, which is right there
or better. With strength of schedules, strength of record, and

(04:39):
in top you know, their only losses coming from a
top five team. They match up shoulder to shoulder pretty good.
I actually don't. I don't think if you can't beat
Texas Tech and you had two bites at the Apple,
I'm not as upset that BYU didn't make it. I
just have no clue how Alabama can lose three games
and still still make it. That's the part that I
think is just such a show.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
I just think its reputation well.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
And if that's the case, then get rid of conference championships.
Let's not have them anymore because they're not there's no
upside to them. And you know, if it's not, if
the record's not going to matter and the conference doesn't matter,
because we're not going to call it a power for
make it a big two, say it's a big ten
and SEC and everybody else's and also run let's do something.
But when you say that the record, the wins and
losses matter, you say those four conferences matter, and then

(05:22):
you you get people in and out on you know,
logic or that's not consistent with wins and losses and
conference records. Then that's where you get in out of trouble.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Well, the story we want to start off the show
with today, that's our sports rate. Yeah, that's said for
the day. I want to start out a certain member
of Utah's congressional delegation, Yes under John Curtis, is stirring
things up with a comment he made on CNN yesterday.
I want you to hear what he had to say,
and then Greg and I are going to talk about
this for a minute.

Speaker 6 (05:52):
The best thing I can do is set my example,
and I think all of us need to wake up
every morning, look in the mirror and say what are
we doing? What am I doing specifically today to make
this country a better country, to make all of our
immigrants feel more welcome. That's what we've always had and
if I think if more of us would do that,
it would matter less what individuals said.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
So he's referring to what President did or the day
or two ago where he called the Somalis garbage, and
he said, I don't worry about name calling like that.
I want to you know, I guess his theme is
it's it's hugging immigrant day today. Is that is that?
I don't get this.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
It's cheap retail, sentimentality and emotionalism, it everything he said,
you know it's Christmas season. Yeah, we want to treat
our fillow man respectfully. I get what he's saying. It
would take far it would take more courage. And we've
had Senator Curtis on the show, and we had him
on when he's a member of Congress, and he is
he's a great orator, and he explains himself, well, it

(06:50):
would be a lot. It's a much more difficult issue
than the way he just contrasted his good you know
his his You'll throw my arms around everyone and give
him a hug and hug it out attitude, which sounds
great with the realities of four years of Biden that
has fundamentally changed and impacted in a negative way Americans
across the board entry sector section, in our public schools,

(07:12):
and our housing, and our own employment and healthcare and
in public safety. It's it would take a take a
greater leader to try and thread the needle of that
kind of compassion he's talking about with broad strokes, with
the absolute nightmare we have that has no equal in
our in our country. Going back, I mean, why we
just saw stats that said eighteen ninety was the last

(07:32):
time we saw the percentage of foreign born population United States.
If this had been done natural, if you showed me
a potato famine somewhere in the world, I can understand
back in eighteen ninety, you don't. You have NGOs that
partnered with that administration that allowed millions of people to
come into this country illegally and then set them up
and gave them welfare benefits, and it has just it
has had its negative impact. Talk about that, Senator, about

(07:55):
how you're going to navigate this new world that we
have abruptly found ours in. That's a that's it's part
of the immigration debate that we've always had, but it
is so much more volatile and detrimental right now than
it's ever been.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
And then follow that up, here comes the New York Times.
I get. I guess The New York Times is going
to do a little journalism now because they had a big, big,
big story this weekend on how the Biden administration ignored
warnings from there, you know, the top officials with the
Biden administration from their own staff saying you better do
something about immigration because you're going to it's chaos, which

(08:31):
we know it was down on the border a few
short months ago, and we've lost faith in the immigration system.
And you know, I can't believe the New York Times.
I mean, why did they just realize this now? This
has been going on for five six years and they're
just waking up that, you know, Biden did something that
really caused a problem.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
It was it was casting the New York Times and
its consequences. And the byline for the New York Times
article should have been in the twenty twenty one, twenty two,
twenty three or twenty four even, but for that to
come out in twenty five that they there were warning
signs everywhere that there were people inside of his administration
saying this is a disaster. It's yeah, you know, it's

(09:11):
just it's it's too convenient, is it that?

Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah? And I don't understand it's under Curtis. I know
what he's saying. But I tell you what hugging an
immigrant when you've got, you know, small leaves, stealing billions
of dollars from the American taxpayer, you had the impact
on this disaster that Joe Biden created, Like you mentioned healthcare, education,
law enforcement, you go down the housing. You In fact,
there was a story out over the weekend that the

(09:35):
administration worked to approve FHA loans, low cost housing loans
for illegal immigrants, and we wonder why we have a
housing crisis in this country today.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
And then what it does. It's just such an unfair
contrast to say, well, all I can do is speak
for myself and just be good. Yeah, I just want
to be a good person. Is if this is what
we're talking about, the good people versus the bad people,
it's not. You have to be able to constructively talk
about our immigration nightmare, this absolute attack on all of
our foundational institutions because of what that Biden administration did

(10:09):
over its four year term and be able to maturely
and honestly speak to the American people about that, not
with the media's narrative that you're a racist. This is
how that Somali nightmare or fraud in the billions was
able to get away from with it in Minnesota, was
any question about it meant that you were playing the
game that John Curtis just played. You're a bad person

(10:31):
if you don't throw your arms around him and just
love them. Why are you asking critical questions? Why are
you being hostile or critical? We should just find every
single day away to throw our arms around him. The
Somalis that committed this fraud and this is a this
is systemic fraud. They played that card and if you
ever challenged them, they would go after Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
You'd be col erasist. All right, we've got a lot
to get to today, and when we come back, we're
all talk about what are you talking about around the
kitchen table? Could it be the Power Bill? We'll get
to it coming up right here on the right Greg
Show and Utah's talk radio one oh five nine k
n R S. People are looking for a little shelter. Yeah,
I pick, did you pick the shelter? Give me shelter
for the Stones? Great song.

Speaker 7 (11:10):
You give me a chance to react. You were already
on me. I say, just wanted well, sure you recognize that.
I'm glad you did well. A lot of people are
looking for shelter from affordability. But you know, if you
and we'll hopefully a little bit later on, we'll be
able to carry some sound and audio of people saying, look,
things are going down, folks. I mean I paid prices
going down. Yeah, prices are going down. I paid Greg

(11:32):
over the weekend for gasoline, the lowest I've paid in
a long time. Three twenty four gallon.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yep, we are, we are. We are also coming down
finally that we were still higher than we should be,
but we are. We are finally under that. I think
that three dollars mark we're seeing for regular, yeah, eighty
five octane. But even the even the premium, which gets
gets fifty cents a gallon more expensive, sometimes has come down.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
To what you know is coming there.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Three twenty I saw it, three three thirty five. I
thought I had a ski mask on and got I
thought I was rob in the place at three thirty.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Well, affordability certainly is a kitchen table topic right now
as people are trying to figure out how to pay
their bills, but prices are in fact coming down. Joining
us on our Newsmaker line to talk more about electricity
bills is Bill Murray. Bill as a former EPA speech writer,
former editor at Real Clear Energy. Bill, thanks for joining
us tonight. Do you foresee that the cost of electricity,

(12:25):
the cost of power will be a key issue in
the upcoming twenty six campaign?

Speaker 3 (12:29):
It could become the issue of the twenty six campaign.
We saw in the previous off year elections in November
that it was a big issue, and that because of
the party in power in the White House with President Trump,
it seems that there may have been some penalties involved
just for simply showing up and being on the job

(12:50):
when you're having these problems happen.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
You know, I hear you, and I'll tell you that
we know the presidence digging this country out of this
affordability crisis that was really created by the Biden administration.
But we're all kind of hesitant to say, you know,
it's not. We don't want to sound like the Biden
administration by denying that there's a problem. We're trying to
say that it's the economy so good, you're just not
good enough to realize it. My question is, in your column,

(13:15):
you're saying that these subsidies for solar and wind have
to go away and are going away. That's going to
help us out a lot. What about this? And then
you get into the data centers, which the narrative there
is that that's really going to cost all the region
around data centers a lot more money in their power bills.
You say that the data doesn't support that premise. Maybe

(13:35):
you share our listeners how that's the case, because that
is kind of a common theme that data centers are
going to make your electricity bill go up.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
Right, well, for the first time in about fifteen years,
energy prices are going up. But there's a lot of
confusion out there because at the same time, as as
you were saying, the Biden administration was pushing a lot
of intermittent wind and solar onto the grid that makes
the grid less effective, and so a lot of these
price increases that we're seeing don't have to do with

(14:04):
data centers which haven't been built yet. Additionally, in places
like Virginia, where they have enough capacity to adjust to
the demand for these centers, you're not seeing prices rise.
Other places like Pennsylvania or places like California and Massachusetts,
prices are rising dramatically, but you don't really see you
don't really see the demand in the same way. And

(14:25):
the prices are rising there because intermittent energy. Intermittent power
is pushing out fossil energy, which is cheaper, and it's
being subsidized, and these unsubsidized power plants end up being
pushed offline, and so it's kind of a cycle, and
so it's very inefficient. And in a couple of years

(14:47):
a lot of these subsidies will go away, but some
of the damage has already been done, at least for
this winter bill.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
We're fortunate here in the state of Utah. I think
Greg agrees with me on this. Our energy costs are
relatively low here in this state. We're very fortunate at
least up to this point. But over the years, have
Americans been kind of lulled into a false sense of
security that electricity and energy, you know, to heat the home,
take care of the home. The electricity we need to
power everything in our home has been relatively stable and

(15:15):
not that expensive for many people.

Speaker 3 (15:18):
A lot of the efficiencies that came with digitization have
kind of been all used up in the last fifteen years. Additionally,
natural gas to discover your shale gas with such a
boon to the economy for the last fifteen years. The
prices are higher now people are using more natural gas
and less coal, so a lot of these demands are
the days of flat electricity rates are probably going away

(15:43):
for a while. It's interesting because electricity is such an
important part of you know, the American economy and American
household economies. You know, residential electricity rates are rising about
six percent a year, has risen thirty percent in the
last five years, which is a lot for anybody. At
the same time, some things aren't going up naturally. Gasoline

(16:03):
is cheaper than it's been in a long time. Eggs
are cheaper. But there are other things that matter that
people like I don't know, ground beef and coffee. Those
prices are high and we all notice it. So until
President Trump in the administration can get a hold of
this problem and make some show some improvements that are
tangible at the dinner table when people are doing the

(16:25):
math about their home finances. It's going to be a
tough road in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
So the irony for me is that everybody was saying
the sky was falling leftists, I say when I say everybody,
we're saying that the sky was falling because of fossil fuels,
your coal, your you know, the coal fired power plants
and all of those things. But really looks like what
the scarcity or the danger is not having the meeting

(16:49):
being able to meet the demand of electricity period, forget
how you're generating it. And it seems like guys like
Bill Gates, who used to be a climate you know, catastrophe,
you know, end of Day's pusher, now says it's not
so bad as he's pursuing nuclear power generation. What is
the fate of our grid? How do you see that
coming together? As AI and all of these other As

(17:09):
technology grows, it needs more power, We need more electricity generation.
How are we going to fulfill that? Are we going
to be able to use coal fired power plants again?
Or we have been too many have been shut down?
How do you see that playing out?

Speaker 8 (17:22):
So fair?

Speaker 3 (17:23):
Amount have been shut down in the last ten years
on pollution grounds, but President Trump is actually ordering some
of them to stay open. It's actually been some reopening
of some nuclear plants which were shut down for similar reasons,
not for pollution reasons, but just for price and age reasons.
So there probably won't be too many shortages more than
we see right now. But the fact is that there's

(17:44):
going to be a lot of demand coming forward, and
you're going to have to have new natural gas up
of plants sub built in the near future. More coal,
less coal will be shut down than was previously thought.
And we're still a while from new nuclear being built.
So we're bit in a crunch in the middle part
of this decade, and I think it will be solved.
I think the administration is probably the right administration to

(18:08):
be here. They understand energy more than others, and I
understand that demand is supply and demand go together. You
need more supply and create more demand, and then more
demand creates higher prices, which creates more supply in a
proper market system.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah, Bill, please tell us that we aren't going back
to the days of Jimmy Carter who told us all
to wear a sweater in the house. Are we going
back to those days? Bill?

Speaker 3 (18:33):
You know, I'm sorry to break it to you, but
I'm wearing a coat right now in the basement.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Of my home in Maryland. I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
So some things go around comes around. But I hope,
I hope. I don't see us getting into a malaise
period like we did in the seventies with the President Carter.
I think the idea the supply of energy in the
United States is better than it's been. You know, a
lot of time we are exporting more energy than we're

(19:04):
using right now in because of the radical change and
the benefits of shell gas essentially, so we have more
advantage to do the right thing and make the electricity
system work better. We have some bad policies on the coast.
You guys aren't near the coast. You have some better
policies out west. You guys have more fossil energy availability.

(19:25):
So it's less of a problem in the Mountain Midwest
or Mountain West than it is in other parts of
this country. But stay tuned, you know, mistakes can mistakes
can be made.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
Elections happen, all right, Bill, Thank you for joining us.
Bill Murray from Real Clear Energy. Coming up, we'll talk
about Hollywood, our conservatives reclaiming pop culture, say it ain't.
So that's coming up next on The Rod and Gregg Show.
You don't go to movies anymore.

Speaker 9 (19:50):
Do you.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
There's not good movies to go to, and then you
get out of the habits. So if there's a rare
good one, you still don't. I don't go unless it's
like a big blockbuster, like I went to The Mission
Impossible one and I into f one, and I've been
to a couple of big ones, don't.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
It's out of my usually part of my habiting.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
Usually holidays, I like to go, Like you said, if
there's a good movie out there. We took our grandkids
to see Zootopia two.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
I've heard that's good.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
Yeah, And that's a cute show. The Blue People Avatar.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
Ever saw I ever saw any of those movies.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
I've got a grandson that wants to see it, so
we may go to it. But what about Hollywood in general?
Our next guest wrote a terrific column this week in
The Blaze talking about reclaiming the pop culture and what
conservatives are trying to do in that regard. His name
is Christian Toto. He's editor of Hollywood intoto dot com.
Also has a podcast called the Hollywood in Toto Podcast.

(20:42):
He's joining us on our newsmaker line, Christian, do you
see a conservative movement to try and reclaim the pop
culture in Hollywood?

Speaker 9 (20:49):
I think for the last few years we've seen some
I guess green shoots coming out of the ground where
it wasn't just the same, all same old perspective. You know,
you had the Daily Why are the Blaze? Some independent
film companies have been poking their heads out and making
films and TV shows that are a little bit I
guess you could say subversive, but I don't really kind

(21:10):
of follow the Hollywood playbook. And you know, it's certainly
a David versus Goliath situation. Any sort of right leaning
or center right voice is drowned out by the cacaphane
on the left. But you know, there were more and
more signs. You know, with last year's election, you had
this sort of the quote unquote dude bro podcasters who
weighed in and maybe had an impact on who people

(21:31):
would want to vote for. And now you've got this
big deal with the paramount and whether they are able
to Acquire Brothers, which is a you know, a sort.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
Of another day.

Speaker 9 (21:41):
But you know, the owner of the company is David Ellison,
who doesn't loathe half the country and doesn't loathe President
Trump is his daddy, Ry is one of the wealthiest
men in the planet, and he's a Trump supporter more openly.
But you know, just the fact that we could have
one major studio with significant power that is willing to
tell stories to the other half the country that's big.

(22:02):
NORD seems like a big deal to me.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
And I think you pointed this out in your article
that the stories of Taylor Shared and the Witch are original,
and they're gritty, and they're and they are meant to
appeal maybe to the normies as I call them in America.
It isn't politically correct, and yet it's been seen great
commercial success. I know that Taylor Shardon found a new
deal with NBC eventually, but do you see his type

(22:24):
of original content on the horizon for this new paramount
that's teamed up with skuy.

Speaker 9 (22:29):
Dance possibly And listen, Taylor Sheridan's also very talented, so
it's not just that he's telling stories that other people
are and he's good at what he does. Yeah, great storyteller,
He writes interesting dialogue. He has all these different perspectives
that are fresh and novel and new. So you know,
that's not easy to replicate. But I do think that
the powers that be a pairamount seem more open. There

(22:51):
was a story and a variety. A few weeks could
have talked about his emergence at Paramount and some of
the possible projects that were happening there. And you know,
we've all kind of chuckled at the whole Rush Hour.

Speaker 3 (22:59):
Four, which we don't need exploit.

Speaker 10 (23:01):
We had three.

Speaker 9 (23:02):
That's enough that that kind of story, a kind of
unapologetic action comedy, poking fun and maybe cultural stereotypes.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
But doing it in a sweet way, and they listen.

Speaker 9 (23:13):
I don't think the stores that movie were offended, but
I think our own product, you know, I think that
may suggest that we're willing to kind of tell stories
again and not worry about stepping on toes. And obviously,
you know, you always want to do it from a genuine,
heartfelt place. I don't want mean spirited stories, but I
think we've moved away from that where we're just so
afraid of saying the wrong thing. So I think any

(23:35):
cultural movement to more freedom, more expression, more openness, and
more opportunity is a good thing.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
You know this as well as anybody does. But Hollywood,
as we know Christian or early so, I've always believed
it's all about the money. Does Hollywood see money with
a lean toward heartland story stories that would appeal to
the heartland?

Speaker 9 (23:55):
Well, I have to disagree to a small extent because
I think you're right show business. But I also think
there have been signs over the years where Hollywood's willing
to lose some money just to get the message out.
And I look no further than.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
The Late Show. It's Stephen Colbert.

Speaker 9 (24:10):
Now no one has disputed this on the record, but
they were saying that they were. That show was losing
millions and millions of dollars every year, So why was
it on? Yeah, I mean, you know, you could say
you like Stephen Colbert, you could hate Stephen Colbert. Let's
put that aside. If that show was losing money every year,
it shouldn't be on the air. And unless it was
some sort of service, the public service, it was committing.

(24:31):
So I think Hollywood is a little fuzzy when it
comes to the math. I think that they Yes, it
is a business, Yes they want to make money. Yes
they're happiest when they make money. I don't blame her
for that, but I think they're willing to tackle projects
that maybe won't be money makers if there's other films
and TV shows that do generate a big profit. I
think that's what we're seeing, sort of a push and

(24:53):
pull that, oh, it's okay that this movie flopped because
it sparked a conversation and it got the message out. No,
by the way, we just did you know Superman twelve,
Then that would made all the money, so we're fine.

Speaker 3 (25:03):
But I think that's I.

Speaker 9 (25:04):
Think that's been what's going on in Hollywood. So it's
a little complicated.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
So I don't know if you're tracking the Netflix Warner
Brothers merger, but it's actually brought pause to a lot
of people. I've even our own center Lee thinks there
might be some antitrust issues if that merger were to
go through. Netflix has a reputation of loving the Obamas.
They had Susan Rice on their board. People think they
have a political agenda. Netflix does, and so I've even

(25:27):
heard some talk even today that maybe Paramount tries a
hostile merger with Warner Brothers. What's that? I don't know
enough about Hollywood to know what the consequences are of
a Netflix Warner Brothers merger or Paramount or any of it.
Are you tracking that story?

Speaker 9 (25:44):
I am, and you know, business is not my forte.
But there's a lot of real hardcore Hollywood entertainment angles
to explore here. One is that was a Netflix as
a streaming platform. They wanted in Netflix and chill. They
don't want you to go to the theaters, and even
when their original films do the theaters, it's very very
short period of time. So if they acquire that Warner
Brother's catalog, all those ips, you've got Looney Tunes, you've

(26:05):
got DC comics, you've got Harry Potter. You know what's
to stop them from saying, Hey, if everything is great
and new and exciting on our streaming platform. Now they're
saying just the opposite. They're going to say that they're
going to hold that a theatrical model alive for now,
but what if it isn't as economically viable in five
years or less? You know, they who's going to stop

(26:26):
them from changing? So there are a lot of big
issues here, and you know, I generally the fact that
one big company is buying another huge company and making
one massive company that does kind of make your skin
crawl a little bit. As far as you know, we
want more competition, and Netflix is already the king of
the hill when it comes to streaming. They are leaps
and bounds better. I have one other thing to say

(26:47):
about streaming about Netflix, though, and I don't disagree with
their partnership with the Obamas. They've had some wow content
in the past, but in the last couple of years
they've also reached out to the right or center or
the heartland to a degree. You know, they could have
canceled Dave Chappelle after that controversial special he did, they didn't.
They've had people like Tim Dillon, they took a show
or two around Shane Gillis, they had killed Tony, which

(27:09):
is not exactly a put a quick correct podcast at all.
So I think that Netflix in the last few years
has learned that, hey, there's actually more money to be
made if we don't alienate half the country. And of
course they're a global company as well, and it's kind
of talking state side, so I'm not as down on
Netflix as other people. I think they've learned to a
degree the lesson of the marketplace. But you don't know,

(27:31):
maybe if they'd become so big, maybe they fall back
on that kind of message here and they say, the
heck with the rest of the country. We were making
enough money. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
We all love going to the movies during the holidays.
Christian Utopia two did very very well at the box office.
We get The Blue People coming out in a couple
of weeks, another version of Avatar. What do you see
coming out? I mean, what's your prediction on the holiday
movie season? Is it going to be a good one
for Hollywood and for viewers out there alike.

Speaker 9 (27:57):
Well, I think the big movies are going to suck
up all the actually oct it in the money, and
that's of course. You know, Zootobia two is doing just that.
Avatar Fire and ash Roll will scoop up the rest.
It'll be interesting to see what the other films do.
There's a really terrific movie and the embargo lifts, so
I can talk about it briefly. Was Marty Supreme with
Timothy Shalomy. It's a base on a loosely based on
a true story about this Ping Pong Prodigy, and I know,

(28:19):
you know Ping Pong box office doesn't really kind of
work together. But it's a terrific movie. He's great in it,
it's very entertaining, it's very original. That was going to
be out around Christmas Day, give or take, so you know,
that's something I hope get some eyeballs.

Speaker 4 (28:32):
But the way it works right.

Speaker 9 (28:34):
Now is that a lot of these adult minded films
that are smart and sober, there's not getting a lot
of people going to the theaters. It's just sort of
these big blockbuster ro you know, roller coaster rides that
are getting all attention. So not to wait and see.
I think for now it's gonna be Wicked for good,
it's gonna be Zotopia, and then eventually Avatar will get
the rest of the people exited for movies. But that's
that's why it's so tricky, and that's why this whole

(28:56):
Netflix conversation makes you think, oh gosh, you know, it's
the metrical experience and life support.

Speaker 10 (29:01):
I have to wait and see.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
Christian Total join and us on our Newsmaker line talking
about what's going on in Hollywood. Now we have another
Hollywood story that we'll share with you after this break
right here on the Rod and Greg Show and Utah's
Talk Radio one oh five nine k n RS. I'm
citizen Greg Hughes and I'm Roder Urk a little bit
more Hollywood news we wanted to share with you as
you work your way home today. I don't know if

(29:22):
i'd how he characterize this, if it's a surprise or
not a surprise, but Jimmy Kimmel apparently has signed a
contract extension carrying him through twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
So in the last segment, we had an interview and
you had made the point that you know, it's business
and has to make money. And by the way, Bill
Murray is not the Bill Murray from Hollywood. This is
William Murray. Yeah, but he said that, you know, they
lose the business sense sometimes and there's some you know,
social agenda in what they do. I think the Jimmy
Cammell extension through the twenty seven year is one of

(29:57):
those examples, because he doesn't have the rating. I mean,
I think Colbert's ratings on CBS were higher that are
happening at NBC and or ABC and Jimmy Kimmel. But
I think that politically. I think that extension was important
because they had taken them off the air and there
was all this liberal and leftist outrage, and so they
have extended that contract another year that I don't think pencils.

(30:22):
I think late night television is gone. I think these
individuals kill it. They went far too political. They used
to not do that on late night, or they used
to at least be equal opportunity.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
You know, satires on someone, but you never kind of
knew later on. You knew where Letterman stood early on.
You didn't Jay Leno. You never knew where Jay Leno stood,
or Johnny Carson for the most part. So these guys
really dip their toe deep into this thing. And I
think from a lot of people like myself, many of
our listeners, we don't watch late night television anymore. It's

(30:54):
just not interesting. No, once they pick a side like
they did, it's it. They lose the math Carson, and
Carson warned against that. He was asked that question by
Mike Wallace years ago in sixty minutes, said not going
to go there.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
It's just a temptation. It's born arrogant.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
Yeah, yeah, that's for sure. All right, We've got another hour.
Couple of more hours coming your way here on the
Rodden Greg Show with you on this Monday afternoon. Thanks
for listening to us. More coming down. We're going to
talk about radical left and what they're doing to education

(31:32):
and also about the dismantling of the Education Department. But
we want to go back this hour and get some
of your reaction. Open up the phones to you on
this comment made by Utah Center John Curtis on CNN
yesterday talking about a variety of issues, but then got
into the discussion with was it Dana Bash I think,
was the host of the show, talking about the comment

(31:53):
that Donald Trump had made about Somali's a couple of
days ago. He called them garbage and he's and he's
saying that simply because how this group you can't blame
what are their seventy five eighty thousand in Minnesota, but
how this group of people within that community we're able
to rip off the United States to the tune, I
hear of eight billion dollars.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah, and I will some background is he's in a
cabinet meeting. He's and he's highly highly frustrated. And I
don't know if you've noticed from this president, but he's
one that will share his frustration, and he will speak
authentically and candidly sometimes and so it's it's choice of
words that only Donald Trump uniquely will express. But the

(32:36):
frustration is genuine and real, and it's a frustration that
I think many Americans are feeling in real time when
he is saying what he's saying. Because the percentage eighty
eight percent we're told of those Somali refugees that reside
in Minnesota or on public assistance, and by the way,
the global numbers of where Somalis have sought asylum in
other countries, they're well into the sixty seventy percentile range

(33:00):
in public assistance in those respective countries as well. And
I think that he feels like the narrative of those
Somalis that come are always very very critical of the
United States. You get that with Omar the representative. She's
very Omar, Yeah, she's very critical. And I even have
a clip of a state representative from Maine who really

(33:21):
complains about having to move to Kansas when being you know,
when leaving Somalia and count or she's actually in Kenya,
her family was relocated here and really was disparaging Kansas
and white people. And she's a state cold weather and
she's a state representative in the Mainz State legislature now.
But the attitude you hear from her is one that

(33:42):
you would think there would be a gratitude for living
in the United States, and I think there's a I
think that's the frustration you're seeing from the president. And
so to be asked about what the President said, and
to what I would I would just characterize as saying, well,
I'm just good. I'll just worry about me and I'm
just really good, so i will just love them and
I'm just gonna hug it out with every immigrant. It's
such a cheap answer.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
Yeah, this is what he said, By the way, on
CNN over the weekend. This is Utah Senator John Curtis.

Speaker 6 (34:09):
The best thing I can do is set my example.
And I think all of us need to wake up
every morning, look in the mirror and say, what are
we doing? What am I doing specifically today to make
this country a better country, to make all of our
immigrants feel more welcome. That's what we've always had and
I think if more of us would do that, it
would matter less what individuals said, Now, I.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
Wonder if he wants to qualify that comment make all
legal immigrants feel better, or if he means all immigrants, well.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
What about the American people and the people he represents,
because people are being detrimentally impacted by what happened in
the four years that Biden allowed for illegal immigration to
be a first happened, then second to facilitate it, where
they moved and relocated the people that came over illegally
through these NGOs to almost every state, certainly in the
continental United States. And then the impacts that we saw

(34:59):
in our public schools, our housing, our jobs, our employment,
our public safety. These are real impacts. And if he
wants to wake up every day and wonder, how can
I do right by by by people people, generally American people,
specifically his constituents. You don't start by throwing it by
by characterizing the whole thing about how do I focus
on immigrants to make sure they feel loved and welcomed

(35:21):
there is This is a much much more complex issue
than how he just described it, and the way he
describes it, it's I'm good and I can just worry
about I just want to love. I just want to
love everyone, and if you don't do it the way
I do, then you're part of that. You know, that
bad group that just hates the immigrants.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
Well here's one, just one example, Greg and I heard
this today and just couldn't believe it about how this
group of people in the small population what is about
seventy five to eighty thousand I think in Minnesota, how
this one group set up this this organization to get
federal money was about treating autistic children, right, yes, well,
they their research, they started putting this together. They found

(36:03):
out there weren't enough autistic children in Minnesota to warrant
and to merit this organization. So what these guys did.
They would go to other Somali families and ask, would
you declare that your child is autistic so we can
qualify for federal money. And those parents went along with it.
So their children weren't autistic, but they said yes they are,

(36:25):
so they could boost their numbers and go and get
federal money to deal with autism. They're in Minnesota. That's
how low some of these people are. And I believe
I agree with Trump. I think some of them are garbage.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yes, well, look, then let me tell you about let's
talk about the scale of what you just described. The
funding that started in three to four years increased by
seven hundred percent. And we were talking about a program
started in the single digit million, six million, It was
up to one hundred and ninety two million or something
like that within four years. There's no poss way that

(37:01):
a children who suffer from autism or have autism could
explode exponentially in those percentages. So they knew immediately. The
Minnesota state employees, and I don't think they're Republicans, by
the way, but they are hired to prevent fraud, waste abuse,
they saw those percentages and knew for facts something's wrong here.
The more they tried to bring it up, the more

(37:21):
they confronted a John Curtis answer of what are you
doing to show that you love them? Is this really?
Is this really loving them? By challenging this Somali autism program?
Are are you really being that loving and generous when
you do it that way? I can only control me
it is. We got to have stronger leadership than that.

(37:41):
These issues are so much more complicated and they're difficult
to talk about, but you had better be strong enough
to talk about how this is detrimentally impact. How many
people for the public assistance that were given fraudulently to
this community did not reach elderly people who he should
wake up every day wondering how can I help the
elderly my state or in this country, the sick, those

(38:02):
that are terminally ill, are those that need the benefits
or children who live in poverty or need to there
there is there is real need, There are real needs
out there. How are you waking up every day to
make sure all people are are being treated that way?
It isn't by casting a blind eye to the Somali
community or any community that's that's wasting and fraudulently spending

(38:24):
finite dollars and and so I just, I just I
am very frustrated by that answer, because it's I think
it's lazy, and I think it's cheap emotional emotionalism.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
You know what bothers me as well, Greg, And that's
why we want to open up the phones to our
listeners here in a minute. I don't get a sense
of outrage, just unbelievable outrage in this country over what
we see happening in Minnesota. Do you get a sense
of outrage, I don't know, I Mac, we're talking about it.
Some more listeners talk about it. But there should be
outrage as to how they ripped off the American people.

(38:54):
Some say to the tune of eight billion dollars, and
where where's the outrage? Why aren't we saying enough is
enough here and let's go get this real quick and
stop this.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
I just read a headline that said Democrats don't think
that Trump's pivot to the Minnesota fraud is going to work.
They see it with a prism of it's just a
political pivot. They don't feel any of the weight, They
don't take any accountability or say, I don't know. A
billion dollars of fraud is something we should be angry
about and that we should want to all correct without

(39:28):
regard to political affiliation. No, it's a political pivot by
Trump to even mention or to even want to find
a resolution to the billions of dollars of fraud that
happened in the state of Minnesota. And it's not a
This can't be seen as a political pivot. It has
to be seen as one of the worst fraud you know,
fraud cases that the American people have ever been privy

(39:51):
to that's what it ought to be framed by.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
Well, you know, I would I think both of you,
both of us today would be applotting John Curtis if
he'd come out and said, immigrants, we're tired of you
having an impact on education, health, almost every face out
of our lives, and we've got to get this straightened out.
Instead of him coming out and say, well, I'd like
to hug an immigrant every day to let them know
how concerned I am about then, you know, John Curtis,

(40:15):
you should be speaking to the American people, not immigrants
in this country right now. That's my opinion.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
Let me ask you this buck buck that killed the
University Utah football player. Yes, that's a small what's a
smally small.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
Refuge he wasn't that, That's right. I forgot about that.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
I think that Utah has and I'll tell you that
when I was when I was speaking and we were
dealing with the Operation Real Grand and the homeless problem,
we were dealing with the drug traffickers, the Somali spice
drug trafficking was was a big, big problem. And that
was within that that community of those that had received
that were refugees from Somalia and they were controlling that

(40:50):
and threatening business owners who had complained to the police
about their presence and the crime and the violence they
were bringing, and they would they would go out of
their way to threat those business owners. That's not something
I've read, That's something I've seen and that I've spoken
to those business owners myself about.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
Yeah, yeah, Well, John Curtis says we should be more
compassionate toward immigrants in this country today. He's making that
pledge and asking you to do the same. Agree or
disagree eight eight eight five seven eight zero one zero
on your cell phone dial pound two fifty and say
hey Rod. Or of course you can leave a comment
on our talkback line. Just download the iHeartRadio app to

(41:28):
learn how you can do that. That's all coming up,
your calls, your comments right here on the Rotten Gregg Show.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
I'm Citizen Heughs and I'm.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
Rod Arquette taking your calls tonight. Is you work your
way home? Bout some weekend comments made by Utah Senator
John Curtis on CNN talking about the treatment of immigrants.
He says he wakes up every morning thinking about what
he can do for his neighbors and also for immigrants
in this country, and this coming in light of what's
happened in Minnesota with Somalia, the attack of the National

(41:56):
guardsman in the nation's capital, killing one of them by
an Afghan refugee in this country, you know, and then
you have this. It's just ridiculous. Liberals covering their proverbial
butt this weekend with the New York Times articles saying, well,
the trumpet or the Biden administration was warned not to
let this illegal thing get out of control, but they
didn't do anything about it. That's the you know in

(42:18):
New York Times life story. He's been around for five
six years.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Where were you then, right, Yeah, in twenty twelve, when
when Romney lost the election, these neocons or these Republicans
did a big study and they said, you know, we
have to stop talking about illegal immigration is illegal. We
have to start being more you know, inclusive and all
this other kind of language. Well, Donald Trump proved that
the American people were very concerned. And that was in

(42:41):
a time before Biden got in office where he could
just basically open that border, have an unsecured border, and
then facilitate the migration across the continental United States the
way he did so what we're dealing with today is
not the same issue they were even dealing with back
in twenty twelve, completely different. But what say you, folks, Well,
I'm interested in our listeners. You're take on center Curtis's

(43:01):
comments over the weekend that we just have to love.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
More, hugmore, hugmore.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
I think what you can do for immigrants.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
And today let's go to the phone. Steve Is on
the freeway listening to Rodin Greg Steve, how are you
welcome to the show.

Speaker 10 (43:15):
Thanks you guys for taking my call. Hey, just my opinion.
John Curtis is a hidden Democrat again, the Mitt Romney,
the governor, all three of them hide behind whatever they believe.
I don't really know, but the citizens should come first.
I don't want to be mean to anyone. I don't care.
Color matters, not, nationality matters not. But our people that

(43:39):
work hard, that built this America deserve to be considered first,
should be and the rest last or second to whatever
you want to call it. And nine eight or nine
billion dollars lost? How can that happen with an inept
government leader, governor up there that ran for vice president
and that whole group had to have let it go.

(44:01):
You can't be that blind. I don't care who you
are in that position. You should see what's going on.
And you know it's time America gets America back instead
of catering to everybody. That's what's dissolve in our country.
And unfortunately you feel like you don't have a country anymore.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
You're right, Steve well Put, I totally agree with you.
You know what I think. You know, this whole idea
of a simple bring the immigrants in will assimilate them
to the way of life that's dead.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
These some all they don't want to become Americans. They
hate I mean you hear ilan Omar constantly say how
much she hates America. So why is she here?

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Yeah? And I think, and again, you can't take this
like this is this issue is static. It's the same
issue as it was two years ago, three years ago,
four it is. It has accelerated and it isn't even
close to it was already tough.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
It was.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
It is a catastrophe now and that's what we're dealing
with and we should be able to talk about it
differently today than you've talked about in the past. Let's
go to Ed, who's in Lehigh. Ed, thank you for
holding Welcome to the Rodd and Gregg Show.

Speaker 8 (45:03):
Yeah, I'd just like to make a comment about Mick Curtis.
I didn't vote for the man. He's not a statesman.
He's nowhere even close to Mike Lee as far as
being a statesman and the true senators truly representing the
people of Utah. And yeah, he teachs to worry about
Americans first and his his fish ones first. I have

(45:26):
a good friend that just became an American citizen. He's
from the Philippines. He's been here working in obeying all
the laws and doing everything for twelve years and he
was absolutely thrilled to become an American citizen. And he
thinks it sickening because I talk with him the work.
He thinks it's sickening that people are going to sit

(45:46):
here and have the goodness that this country has blessed
them with and then sit there and criticize and say
they hate this country and death of America. His response is,
get them the hell out. I don't need to be here.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
Yeah, yeah, Ed, thank you you've been to some of
those ceremonies I have. I have spoken become American citizens
I remember what it was years ago, stadium well fire.
I think there are four or five hundred that they
welcome there and I think Orne Hatch as a matter
of fact, led that ceremony. But it was very touching
days see these people finally become American citizens, and I

(46:23):
want to a moment.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
I want our listeners and some may already have friends
or just like Ed did someone he knows who's gone
through this process. But there is a deep respect for
the laws of this land. And it's not an easy
thing to do to become to become a citizen. There's
even a civics test you take that. I worry that
some of our kids might not have any easy time
to being able to pass. But there's a lot of work.
There is an inherent respect of the laws of the land.

(46:44):
In a celebration with American flags that they're holding as
they're being sworn intos American citizens, it's a very emotional moment. Yeah,
you know, we have to have standards, we have to
have a system that works, but you can you can
have different A number of you know that you accept
in to immigrate every year. We can there's I've never
been told what that magic number is that what we're seeing.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
By the way Democrats sometimes what is the number of
immigrants you think we should allow into this country? They
don't have an answer.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
They don't And I'm telling you that the way it
happened under the Biden administration is unsustainable. It's breaking down
our institutions, and so you got to have a process
that works. But I think those that have gone through
the process and have done it legally are they don't
have to hide in the shadows. They don't have to
be paid under the table. They are full state, they're's
American citizens, and that's the way it ought to be.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
Well, I here's another thing, Greg and we've got a break.
We'll get to your calls here in just a minute.
We'll take a break. But there are stories out there
over the last several days about corruption in Ukraine with Selensky. Yes,
here we go again, right, I mean, when are the
American people going to wake up and say, no, you
do not get any more of our money. We're done
with it.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
Yeah, further away it is. It seems like the more
palatable all this ends up being, can't even fight in
our own hemisphere to protect our country without the Democrats
getting mad. Okay, if you're on the line, please hold.
We want to hear from you when we come from
the break.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
All right, more coming up. It is the Rotten Gregg
Show right here on Utah's Talk Radio one O five
nine KNRS.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
Senator Curtis's comments over the weekend on one of the
Sunday shows about how we should just be thinking every
single day, how can we be more welcoming and how
can we hug it out more with the immigrants in
our country. We'd like to know what you think, So
let's go to Sally, who's in Salt Lake. Sally, thank
you for holding, and welcome to the Rotten Gregg Show.

Speaker 11 (48:28):
Thank you.

Speaker 12 (48:29):
Just one comment on Senator Curtis. I think he's a fool,
and whether he's he has to know more than he's
letting on. I just wanted to make a quick comment
that I'm seventy four. I grew up with believing that
everything was good, everyone was good, and all is well.

(48:51):
And five years ago I decided.

Speaker 11 (48:54):
I need to know.

Speaker 12 (48:55):
I feel like my rights are being violated or threatened,
and I need to know what my right laws. So
I started reading the Constitution and studying the Constitution, the
US Constitution. I now I've been teaching it because it's
so critical to know the truth. You can't judge if
you don't know what the Constitution says. I listened two

(49:18):
days ago to a YouTube video of a man who
said he had fought in the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars.
He said, I, like thousands and thousands of men enlisted
after nine to eleven and went over there and gave
their lives and there fought for us. And they were promised,

(49:41):
if you'll come here and fight here, you won't the
threat will not come back to our shores. You won't
have to fight in our homeland again. But we have
been blind and stupid and allowing things to infiltrate that
we're not even paying attention to. I have my best
friend lives in South Felt Lake, next door to Muslim Mock.

(50:08):
Most of the people there are very nice. She's a
little grandma and they watch out for her. She has
little she loves the Lord, and she has scriptures printed
on birdhouses in her yard. And everyone is peaceful and calm,
except two times an individual has come who has been

(50:28):
a visiting in mom and threatened her. And the last time,
which was the early last spring. He said, if you
do not convert and stop what you're doing here and
what you're believing, you're going to be killed. I mean,
it was a literal threat. And I don't say this

(50:51):
to startle anybody, except what this man said on the
YouTube video is we it is a just being dearborn Michigan.
There are people among us who are threatening and want
us to go down, and yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
That's Sally, I need to cut you off there. We've
got other colors. But boy, that's a frightening story.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
It is. And I think that those threats and I
share a communication too. A great listener gave some perspective
their perspective too where this is. There is a criminal
justice Utah criminal justice issue going on. Yeah here, it's
not something that's just happening in Minnesota. If we have time,
maybe I'll be able to share some of the details
of that. But let's go right now to Matt, who's
in Salem. Matt, thank you for holding sir, and welcome

(51:34):
to the Rodd and Greg Show.

Speaker 5 (51:37):
You're welcome, thank you for having me. I'd just like
to say that the socialist John Curtis is a typical
politician that'll either loves himself or the money he can
slide from me role to give to other people, especially
those who don't belong in the station.

Speaker 2 (51:53):
Yes, look, I might be wrong about Senator Curtis. I
don't think I am. But if he was out there
rattling the same during the Biden administration, saying, what's happening
to this country is gone beyond our border states and
our sheriffs on these border counties, we have a serious problem.
And he was fighting this all a while along. Then
maybe I've misspoke, but I don't remember. I don't recall

(52:14):
him drawing a bright line over this invasion and what
has happened, the facilitation of illegal entry by the NGOs
and everyone. And it was done. It was done in
a way that now The New York Times wants to
admit everyone he within his own party said, you know,
this is unsustainable and bad things are going to happen.
Where was he during that time? He wants to say today, well,

(52:36):
we need to just figure out how we can love everyone.
Where were you then, Because it's not news to us
this thing was a problem back then. I mean, my
orcist was impeached by the House. Everyone nobody talks about
this the Senate for the first time in its history
unless someone had died who'd been impeached, they refused to
take up those articles of impeachment. And when we see
these consequences just keep unfolding on this country of anyone

(52:59):
who was warned to defend the constitution of the state
or of this country, he failed so mightily in that
effort and should have should have been impeached and removed
from office. And where was he back then, especially when
he's saying today that the solution is we just need
to love more, hug more. I think, what can we
do to help facilitate, you know, be kind of immigrants more.

(53:21):
That is such a cheap and superficial answer to a
really big problem.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
Update Another angle on the Somali story that's coming across
tonight Greg Two democratics, Somali politicians who condemned the President
for calling Somali's garbage right, Well apparently they are now
They had close ties to an organization in Maine accused
of stealing millions of dollars from US tax dollars. Yeah, oh,

(53:46):
I ssn't politicians again? This alon Omar, She's involved in
this so deep and I hope I'm not sure if
it's DOJ. I'm not sure if it's Scott Bessen and Treasury.
But they tracked down you.

Speaker 2 (53:59):
Said that was in Maine, was in main So I
got a state representative who's a smallly uh you know
immigrant that's here, who's a state representative just ripping on
this country or her opinion of this country when she
arrived as a as a young girl in Kansas.

Speaker 3 (54:13):
Uh that.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
I I think that if you they're playing the same
playbook they've played in what looks like Maine and is
in the story you're reading now and what happened in Minnesota.
And that is if you challenge them, if you question them,
if you say fraud exists, they just flip the script
and do it kind of like Curtis did and say
you're just not showing compassion. You're not showing enough compassion
that you would ever have a critical eye towards anyone

(54:36):
in this community. Means that you just don't care enough.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
It's almost like, how dare you you question what we do?

Speaker 2 (54:42):
Yes, even when there's even when there's fraud, just that's verifiable.
The questioning of it, the talking about it makes you
the racist, makes you the one that's intolerable, intolerant.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
This is how we dared to do it. You're leaving
in our country, not yours. We opened up our doors
to you to come here. You're using our tax dollars
to rip us off. So how dare we at the
same time we're putting in America first and then attack
us by calling us racist. I tell you what, folks,
I hope people are paying attention to this and become outraged,
because I don't know if they are becoming outraged enough.

(55:15):
All right, let's go to our talkback line. Due to
a few of our listeners leaving his message, you have
to say.

Speaker 13 (55:20):
Tonight, Hey, guys, I don't know why you would expect
anything different from John Brady. I mean John Curtis. He
just wants to be the most popular guy in the
room and everybody that just love him. He's kind of
like cocks, you know. Uh, I don't know. I've got
nothing but disdain for both of them.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
All right, thank you appreciate that comment. Let's get another comment.

Speaker 14 (55:44):
John Curtis is a used car salesman in a politician suit.
He's a weather vane politician. Where's the wind blowing? I
guess I'll go there. You know, it's people like John
Curtis who are going to allow Utah to become like Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
Hm, there's some there's some there's some truth to that.
I mean, if you can't confront fraud and if you
and if this whole immigration issue amounts to you're a racist,
if you even notice or say something, then that is
how they get away with it. That's how they got
away with it in Minnesota. It looks like it's happening
in Maine. Probably happens here. But we have got to
be adult enough to have uncomfortable conversations. And that includes

(56:26):
fraud without regard to the communities that might be organized
and being looking on perpetrating that fraud.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
Aren't we one of the first states who generally, I mean,
will step up and say, hey, we'll take Afghan refugees,
bring them on in, we'll treat them. We'll take some
Wali refugees. You know. It shows the compassion that we
have in this state. But I wish we were a
little bit smarter in that compassion and say, wait a minute,
let's not rush into this, let's analyze what really the
impact it could happen. Sometimes I think our desire to

(56:55):
be so good gets in our way.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
Uh yeah, and there's that, there is, there is. There
are a lot of resources behind a lot of dollars
behind it, even with these NGOs on facilitating these refugees
and illegal immigrants that have found their way into this country.
And you know people profited off of it for sure.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
Ye all right, more of your calls and comments coming up.
It is the Monday evening edition of The Rod and
Gregg Show on Talk Radio one O five nine Ken
r S.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
I'm citizen Greg Hughes and I'm Roder Kent.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
We're talking about the weekend comments that Utah Center John
Curtis made on CNN basically saying we need to hug
an immigrant every day. I'll make your life.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
Just wake up every day and think, but what can
I do more for the immigrants, immigrants, community country. It's
it's it's it's the answer to everything. It's it's the
silver bullet.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
All right, back to the bones we go. Let's go
to Paul in Salt Lake City. Paul, how are you
welcome to the Rod and Greg Show.

Speaker 11 (57:45):
Hi, guys, how are you?

Speaker 1 (57:46):
We're doing well? Thank you? Paul.

Speaker 3 (57:48):
I think we are. I think we are to listen,
Old Johnny, do nothing, and we need to love everyone.

Speaker 15 (57:56):
A lot more, especially illegal immigrants.

Speaker 8 (58:00):
We all love to get them the hell out of
our country faster than we are.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
Paul, you're so veiled. I don't know where you're coming
from with thank you for the observation. No our listeners,
I love it. They just speak. It's just bottom line,
you know, looks it's the I mean it is. I
think it's a cop out because I think it goes
without saying. We've raised kids, We've got some of us
have grandkids. We know how, we know how we teach

(58:27):
our kids to treat other people. That goes without saying.
But we have some very serious problems here. And I've
never known that any of these public policy problems are
just boiled down to just be nice.

Speaker 1 (58:37):
Just be nice.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
I can alway speak for myself. I think if we
were just nicer, then we wouldn't care what one person
says that that is just a side step of a
very hard issue, and it would be much more becoming
of a US senator to really talk about what our
real challenges are that we're facing as a country and
do it in an honest way. And that is not.
We just need to hug it out more. Just think

(58:59):
about how we can be nicer every day.

Speaker 3 (59:01):
And we are.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
We aren't saying you don't treat these people with respect
and as humans, right, We weren't saying that we want
to be We do want to be nice. But this
niceness can only go so far, and I think it
has gone too far. And sometimes we want to welcome them,
we want to make them inclusive, but we don't really
thoroughly think through the impacts of doing that. Well, it's

(59:22):
it's we can see how it's been played out for me.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
It's twofold. Don't you're not nice to people? It's the
expensive everyone else. Yeah, And second, it's just cheap to
say that when if you really cared, tell me how
we're going to navigate these classrooms that have so many
kids coming in that the school district didn't know was
going to be there, that the classroom and the teacher
aren't prepared for, that don't speak the same language, where
some of the mothers are showing up with their students

(59:45):
because culturally they don't understand the difference and they don't
know what they're supposed to do. Tell me about that.
Tell me about the people like our callers have called
in and said it's hard for them to find jobs
on uber or door dash because those jobs are taken,
or the housing issues that are created, the public safety
shoes that are created. We have a great message from
someone that said the juvenile justice system is being clogged

(01:00:07):
with some of these immigrants that are miners, that are
really violent and are really causing some problems here in
our state of Utah. All of those none of those
things I just described are compassionate solutions. They are problems
that need to be first talked about, being be honest
enough to talk about the real problems that we're confronting,
and then find the right public policy to address them.

(01:00:27):
None of which is with some broadbrush saying just love more, just.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
Hug them, hum huggin and immigrant today.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
Just think, wake up every day and think what could
you do to me more welcoming? You know that's not
an answer, No, that is it's just again cheap retail
emotionalism is all that is. It doesn't have a serious
answer found in.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Here's one of our comments on our talk back line. Here,
Rodd and Greg, this is chere Iman American Fork.

Speaker 15 (01:00:50):
My friends and family are pretty politically informed, but none
of them realize the scale of this fraud.

Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
A lot of them knew that call, yeah we've heard
something about a little bit of fraud.

Speaker 15 (01:00:59):
They didn't realize this eight billion dollars and there wasn't
just a couple of people, but it was basically the
entire community, and that it was going to Somalia. They
were taking our taxpayers money sending it to Smalia and
there were reports that's funding al Shabab and Smalia.

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
They didn't realize how bad this was. And now that
they know, they're outraged. Yeah, and they should be. Like
I said, I don't understand why the American people aren't
more outraged by all of this.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
And look, some of it is. Once you hear about
fraud and waste and abuse and it's so frequent, maybe
we become numb to it. But I will say that
that the regime, media and even the people that are
guilty of this, walls is out there. This governor who
his own state employees tried to tell him, and they
have proof that he silenced them and reassigned them when
they were making noise that this was happening. He's trying

(01:01:46):
to play on the hatred towards Trump to say Trump
is the real problem. Trump just hates everyone, and I
don't hate everyone. And he's trying that, he is trying
to pivot into this being a Trump issue. So everybody
that hates Trump and has Trump arrangement syndrome will for
yet about the malfeasance and the dere election of duty
that this governor is committed by not reigning in this fraud.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
That's the Democratic came plan on almost everything. Don't blame
the issue, don't blame people involved, Blame Donald Trump. Yeah,
he's an easy scapegoat for every issue that comes up.
The attack on the drug boats, blame Donald Trump. Don't
blame the drug runners. What's going on in Minnesota with Samalia,
don't blame the people there from Samalia. Blame Donald Trump.

(01:02:26):
If he wasn't so mean, this wouldn't be an issue.

Speaker 8 (01:02:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
It's amazing that for years we've talked about the government's
cdy and unseemly relationship with cartels and all those things.
We are now drawing bright lines and stopping it. Now.
The Democrats have a problem.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
Yep. All right, when we come back, we change topics
and talk about climate change and how the debate gets
rapidly crumbling.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
We'll talk about the next Jordon will it is. It's
on this third hour. We've had a great two hours. Yeah,
we're going to dive into some really interesting topics here
and you know, nothing, stay static. Everything's moving politics, policy,
and I think our next guest has some very interesting
information to share with us in regards to climate change,
or global warming as they used to call it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
Well, guess what, another day, another climate change lie. Yet
another study, another report has now been retracted simply because
well was wrong. That's funny to be a trend. I
think it is too. Let's bring on the next guest.
She's always great to talk to. We're talking about Leslie Eastman.
She is a writer for Legal Insurrection has been looking

(01:03:30):
at the media hype and global warning. Leslie, how are you?
And welcome to the Rod and Greg Show.

Speaker 11 (01:03:35):
Well, thank you very much for having me on. It's
a pleasure being here and talking to staying people as
I reside in the Gleft Coast also known as the
People's Republic of California, So you add a little bit
of warmth to my heart today as I'm talking with
people who are sensible and some actually understand policy and

(01:04:01):
science back.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
Yeah, well, Leslie, the New York Times, who today admitted
we had an immigration problem and Joe Biden didn't do
anything about it. Well now or admitting defeat when it
comes to climate change, exactly what is going on? Leslie?

Speaker 11 (01:04:15):
Well, it's interesting. It's basically been a cascade of information
from our leaf media since Bill Gates basically acknowledged while
he still believes Global women could occur, it's not a
crisis and we shouldn't substantially change our energy profiles to
address this crisis. But in a way it's been building

(01:04:40):
for quite some time, is more and more reputable and
respectable scientists has challenged the narrative, and the courtesy of
Elon Musk and X, their information and their analysis has
begun to make it to more general public. So there
has been substantial more pushback on the client changed narratives,

(01:05:01):
and what The New York Times has begun to do
is begin to roll back the progressiveness by blaming, of course,
Big Oil. The reason that it is no longer a
climate crisis is because Big Oil, the evil people, have
basically gutted, you know, the message, and so they won

(01:05:24):
the information war and really what it was is that
we won the information war based on science and data
and the fact that we have a whole geological history
to look at and clear data that's been fraudively exercised,
or as we've noted in an earlier most mentioned of

(01:05:45):
a retracted science study, that the data has been false
and models has been broken, so lots of important development.

Speaker 8 (01:05:53):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:05:53):
And I the distinction you just made is the one
I was going to go to, and that is they're
saying they lost the information war because of online propaganda
and the big oil is keeping the right, the real
data from people so that the consensus is changing. But
you accurately point out that the real data is on
the side of there isn't a catastrophe becoming. Bill Gates

(01:06:16):
is now seeing that this agenda and controlling energy, which
was what it was always about, isn't in his best
interest anymore as energy becomes more of a finite resource.
My question is how great has Environmental Protection Agency Administrator
Lee Zelden been he I think he has really revealed

(01:06:37):
that this climate hoax is a hoax. I think he's
gotten down to the I think the bottom line on
real environmental issues going on what's your take on lee
Zelden's leadership of the EPA right now?

Speaker 11 (01:06:48):
Well, I'm learning to have to say, not only are
we talking lees Alden, who's been magnificent by the way,
don't get me wrong, he's you know, really dealed in
wide open what a hoaxed and where the funding was
manipulated and was throwing gold bars off the Titanic to

(01:07:08):
a bunch of NGOs and progressive activist organizations who had
interested in only promoting their own message and not real science.
But we have Chris Wright, who's been stellar on energy,
We've got Treasury Secretary, got that best Neet who has
been outstanding in just where the financial sense and all
of this is. And don't forget Pete access to his

(01:07:30):
Ditchen environmental climate crisis nanity by the military. The whole
Trump administration had been on the same page and has
really worked wonders. But getting back to Leezelden and the EPA,
pulling out the Green New Deal that Biden tried to
implement and allowing our car manufacturers to produce cars that

(01:07:52):
we want to actually buy has been a significant development.
It's going to help so many Americans.

Speaker 1 (01:07:59):
Leslie isn't This a classic example of don't use scare
tactics to try and scare the American people. I mean, gosh,
for fifty years now we've been hyping, you know, population,
we have too many people on the planet. The Earth
is going to heat up, the Earth is going to
cool down, the Earth is going to do this. The
Earth is going to do that if we don't something
about it. Don't do something about it. Scare tectors don't

(01:08:19):
work with the American people, do they leslie?

Speaker 11 (01:08:23):
Well, you know it can if that's all you're hearing.
And like I said before, I really do credit X
and some of the phenomenal people like Judith Curry and
a beach Webblern Kotier and so many others, very very
consistent and getting messaged out. I have been at it
for fifteen years and this is the first time I

(01:08:43):
have seen substantial change, And so really kudos out there
to everybody who stood strong when we're basically told we
were nothing more than minions of big oil. I certainly
have seen a big oil dollar. I would, you know,
I would have loved to have gotten paid, but I didn't.
It was all my own opinion based on the data,
based on my knowledge of geology and weather patterns I

(01:09:05):
obtained from my own courses studies and my environmental background,
and the others are just similarly credentialed and outstanding and
presenting message. So that has been great, But I think
the important thing is here is that science is no
longer science. Science has been used to promote policy, so
it's been distorted. Do you think about how much more funding,

(01:09:29):
so many more percentage, so much more percentage, about dollars,
tax dollars going to science studies and we still haven't
seen the innovation. We still haven't seen it, like the
cancer cures and all the other promises that this money
was supposed to do. And it's gone to institutions. It's
gone to promote people, and it has not gone to

(01:09:49):
learn new things and to develop new technologies to make
life better for people. And I think people are beginning
to see that, as ihow It warned, the science military
industrial complex and the science have they progressives, The people
who want power, the people who want funding and to

(01:10:09):
elevate themselves have been in charge of those institutions for
far too long, and we're beginning to see some roll back.
So that had this very exciting time, you.

Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
Know, Leslie, one of the things I always thought that
when talking about the climate hoax and everything that was
going on, it was social engineering. It was a way
to try and gain power and to compel behavior for
a few. But then I always introduced to this cap
and trade game that's going on with countries all over
the world, and actually thirteen states in the United States
actually play this cap and trade game where it's actually

(01:10:39):
a money maker to take someone's field, tell them to
stop making food. Say look at all the non carbon
that's not being used here, and we'll use that as
a credit, and someone's going to buy that from you
and give you money every month every year. Have you
looked into that cap and trade game that's really a
I think a profit to some of these people that
don't isn't really based on anything.

Speaker 11 (01:11:00):
No, I've been a while since I've looked at it,
to be honest, But yeah, these these are nothing more
than schemes again to divert money from useful entities and
from useful projects, to line the pocket of those who
want to control us, and uh on on small and
large scale. And uh you know that we can now

(01:11:24):
see and and no longer enforced inte electrical vehicles, We
can develop new sources energy like nuclear UH that we
have the potential you know, to to have our own
mining for critical minerals. All of this plays in the
significant role but growing back climate change, getting rid of
the uh NGOs and climate grifters UH is going to

(01:11:49):
make a significant difference in both that prosperity and our freedom.
So it is exciting to see the New York Times
admit defeat in its own way, even though they're blaming
a big oil But it wasn't the a boy that
was a problem. It was the bottom paid for scientists
who decided to promote a nritive rather than data.

Speaker 1 (01:12:07):
In fact, Yeah, well, Leslie, knowing where you live and
knowing the type of people that you have to speak
with every day, we hope Greg and I have made
your day a little bit brighter by actually hearing from
some common sense people. Have we made it easier?

Speaker 11 (01:12:21):
Yes?

Speaker 8 (01:12:21):
You here.

Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
All right, Leslie, thank you for your time. I know
we'll be talking again. Enjoy the rest of the evening.

Speaker 11 (01:12:29):
Good evening, and have a fabulous holiday season. Gentlemen, you
guys made my twenty twenty five so much better looking
for talking to you all next year.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
All right as well, Thank you, Leslie. She is a
writer with Legal Insurrection, and she spot on. I mean,
you know she There are two obvious questions in this.
First of all, Greg, why did the medium, academia and
even the clergy buy into all of this? Because they
all did, yes, even clergy.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
Yep, No, it's true. You know, there's been a there's
been this push, this play push for a long time,
and it's actually more profitable than I understood. I see
some of the origins of why this is being pushed
because you could make a lot of money. Frankly, if
you had to build a ten billion dollar power plant
in Japan, you paid twenty billion, you had to spend
ten billion and so called carbon credits to be able

(01:13:17):
to build a ten billion dollar.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
Power plant made a lot of sense. Now Bill Gates
has come out and said, folks, this was wrong. We
need to manage this. I wonder if anyone else is
going to step up.

Speaker 2 (01:13:27):
Well he once he realized it was going to hurt
his bottom line, he can clean with it all.

Speaker 1 (01:13:31):
Well, he knows he could make some money with this
nuclear power too, right, and the data center need for
power as well. All right, We've got a lot more
to get to. It is the Monday evening edition of
The Rod and Gregg Show on Talk Radio one five
nine k NRS.

Speaker 2 (01:13:44):
Our next guest is Ryan Staley, director of Research and
Research Defending Education. We're going to talk about the radical
left and these teachers who have you know, traditional trust
and institutional trust for parents teaching their kids. What's going
on inside that classroom? We might we want to talk
about that a little more deeply. Staley, thank you for

(01:14:06):
joining us on the program.

Speaker 3 (01:14:09):
Hey guys, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (01:14:10):
Well, exactly is taking place?

Speaker 10 (01:14:12):
Ryan?

Speaker 1 (01:14:12):
When it comes to when it comes to this pipeline
of activists that are going into education and then using
that information to influence our kids? What is taking place? Ryan?

Speaker 4 (01:14:23):
Well, you've got two angles here. One, the colleges of
education are training a lot of the young teachers up
in social justice. And we're not talking about the nineteen
nineties social justice, right, We're talking about wokeness and driving
this this neo Marxist mindset. So you have that one angle,

(01:14:44):
but then you also have education has been really attractive,
especially since the ninety Since the nineteen sixties in the radicals,
including the Weather underground, you know, where they fled into
the colleges of education and the universeies to hide and
push their stuff in their their ideology. And so you

(01:15:05):
have an attractive nature for really aggressive radicals to go
into the classrooms and and so you know what's the
purpose there, Well, it's to create the next if you
want to pull from maw, the next red Guard. They're
they're implementing curriculum that is actually a political programming under

(01:15:32):
the guise of ethnic studies. And so so, by the way,
this interrelates with the op ed that I wrote talking
about these radicals, because a lot of times these radicals
on the street are legitimately the same exact people that
are pushing the Ethnic studies political programming. And so it's
it's really this, there's this ecosystem they've been working on

(01:15:55):
for quite a long time to shift the the window
way far to the left inside of both the university
and K twelve, to shove you know, to really move
the entire country and the culture in the far left,
you know, socialist Marxist direction. And I guess the greatest

(01:16:21):
example right now that you can you can look at
is what is happening in New York City behind Mamdani,
and you had a lot of young people come out
and vote for him, thinking that, you know, socialism is
neat and cool and everybody's going to have awesomeness and
they get to live there. You know, really what the
you know, guys, the analogy I've been using a lot

(01:16:41):
because I've my background. I've got teaching in K twelve,
but I also spent about ten years coaching collegiately from
Division one to Division three. And what I see with
the sum of these young people coming out of college
is they want to continue to live that posh collegiate lifestyle,
but as adults. And that's the impression that I get

(01:17:03):
when I look at the young voters who are interviewed
voting for Mom Donnie in New York City, is that
he's promising them this collegiate lifestyle where they really don't
have to care for themselves. They don't have to really
house themselves or provide certain things. The government will provide
it for them and they get to go and you know,
be jolly and be merry and so on so forth.

Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
You know, Ryan, in your column, you point out that
teachers unions, they promote these teachers they protect them if
they find themselves on the wrong side of perception or worse,
if we in Utah see a candidate who is highly
funded by a teacher union. Is there any daylight between
those those teachers unions in our state of here in
Utah and these and some of the examples that you're

(01:17:49):
sharing where unions have protected these radicals inside the classrooms
of our kids, Well, we.

Speaker 4 (01:17:56):
Could both probably agree to some extent. The teacher junians
are fairly far left, but they to date, they have
not been fully co opted by these specific extreme radicals.
Even though I highlight that they backed up a woman
who's actually legitimately Antifa when she was causing some issues

(01:18:18):
back in twenty seventeen, she still does not necessarily have
power within the AFT, even though she's tried, and she
has some counterpower parts out of Oakland Unified School District
who are also part of a group called by Any's
means necessary, which is also Antifa and or the at
least Antifa adjacent, and they've been trying also to gain

(01:18:41):
power within the teachers' unions. So so far, these radicals,
extreme extreme radicals have not been able to get a foothold.
But my warning comes back to the Democratic Socialis of America,
the DSA, which is right now gaining power in New
York City through Mamdani.

Speaker 3 (01:18:58):
Same thing.

Speaker 4 (01:18:58):
Not too long ago, they were let's say, more mainstream socialists.
But in the last since at least twenty nineteen, the
radicals started eating away at those powers, to the point
where things got so bad, like a year or two ago,
that all the Jewish members or a lot of the
Jewish members of DSA left because it got so far radical.

(01:19:22):
Palestinian Wow, and the marx basically the Marxists claiming to
be Democratic socialists have really taken over the or I
should say communists have really taken over the DSA. And
you can see that now with what's happening in New
York City. And so I guess to answer your question

(01:19:44):
is it's I think it's a matter of time before
these radicals really get a foothold, if let's say, more
traditional teachers union people who do love America, if they
allow these people to take.

Speaker 1 (01:19:59):
Over, it'll be a frightening time if in fact it
does take place. Ryan, a great conversation. Thank you for
joining us tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:20:07):
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
Thank That's Ryan Staley. He's with Defending Education, talking about
the radical pipeline that is feeding our education system in
this country today. More coming up it is the Rod
and Gregg Show on Talk Radio one oh five nine. Okay, nrs,
let's talk about efforts to dismantle the Education Department. Of course,
Linda McMahon has but in charge of that by President Trump.

(01:20:30):
She is doing a fantastic job. The effort, of course,
is try and take control away from the FEDS and
give it back to the states where it belongs. Well,
let's talk more about that right now. Joining us on
our newsmaker line is Mac Nielsen. He is with a
Freedom Foundation. He's been talking about this, looking into this. Max.
How are you welcome to the Rod and Gregg Show.
Thanks for joining us tonight, Max, Well.

Speaker 16 (01:20:51):
It's my pleasure, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:20:53):
Fact, how difficult of a task is this to dismantle
a federal agency.

Speaker 16 (01:20:58):
Wow, it's an extremely tall order, there's no doubt about it.
But we think the administration started certainly in the right
place here in trying to find a way to shutter
the federal Department of Education. President Trump back in March
issued in executive order directing the Secretary of Education to
essentially take whatever steps are legally possible, go as far

(01:21:20):
as legally possible to facilitate the closure of the department,
and to return as much control over public education as
possible to the states and local school boards where it belongs.

Speaker 3 (01:21:31):
Now.

Speaker 16 (01:21:31):
The challenge with implementing that is the fact that Congress
authorized in statute and created in statute the Department of
Education during the Jimmy Carter administration in nineteen seventy nine.
So there's some challenges. The President can't unilaterally abolish the Department,
it's not that simple, but the administration is trying to

(01:21:52):
work through as best as it can the practical closure
of the Department of Education, even if it can't quite
get to the technic legal closure of the department. It's
it's a challenge, there's no doubt about it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:04):
So one of those challenges they look to be efficient.
They saw some maybe some repeated efforts from other government agencies.
So there were some of the work that the Department
of Education was doing that they wanted to see fulfilled
in otherment government agencies or departments, and that was challenged
in the courts. I think, rather quickly, what do you

(01:22:24):
what do you give the prospects of that. Do you
think they will that the Trump administration will prevail in
court in terms of where they have reassigned or wanted
certain work that the Department of Education used to do
to be done by another agency or is that spitting
in the wind.

Speaker 16 (01:22:41):
Well, it's a great question, and you know, nobody can
never fully predict how the courts are going to come
down on anything, but yeah, the basic mechanism that the
Trump administration is used here is what's called an inner
agency agreement process. And basically, the Department of Education can
contract with other federal agencies and say we want your staff,
we want your your resources to administer or help administer

(01:23:05):
our programs. And those types of arrangements are extremely common
between federal agencies, uh and and not at all questionable
on legal grounds as a general matter. Now, in this case,
the Trump administration has entered into some pretty comprehensive inner
agency agreements that would hand off administration of dozens of

(01:23:28):
Department of Education programs to other federal agencies, including the
Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services,
and the Department of the Interior, and even the Department
of State So while the general mechanism here I think
is quite sound. Uh, the objection that you're going to
get from interest groups like the National Education Association, the

(01:23:49):
Big Teachers Union, and the certainly the unions that represent
the Department of Education employees is going to be that
this is too sweeping. You're you're you're not just getting
some administrative assistance from another agency. You're you're passing on uh,
you know, these programs will sale to another agency. So
how the courts resolve that hard to say. But like

(01:24:10):
I said, I given that the fundamental process of coordinating
one agency with another is pretty well established, I think
the administration's got a pretty good case to make.

Speaker 1 (01:24:20):
That sounds like they do. Max. What would be the problem, Max?
If they did something like this, give give the Secretary
of Education in office with two assistants and say there
you go, that's your education department. Would that be a problem?

Speaker 16 (01:24:36):
Well, that's essentially I mean, maybe that might be going
a little bit further than the administration is proposed, but
you're not far off that. That is basically the idea,
Let's let's shrink the administrative footprint of DOE down to
its absolute minimum and pass off the other the other
functions to other agencies. Now, as admirable as that is,

(01:24:56):
you know, the practical challenge and kind of the unfortunate
reality is, even if you can get that far, these
programs are still going to exist. Federal taxpayers are still
going to be funding these federal education programs that are
going to be run now by different federal agencies. So
maybe you've shrunken your administrative footprint a little bit by
getting VOE paired down as much as possible, But really

(01:25:19):
fundamental change in a true devolution of power from the
federal government back to the states and local schools is
going to require at some point congressional action to make
it happen. Now, hopefully, I think the administration's plan is,
let's try to demonstrate that we don't need this entity,
We don't practically need this entity called the Department of Education.

(01:25:39):
And you know, everybody is for education, but I think
people would be surprised at how, you know, we really
don't rely that heavily on the Department of Education to
run K twelve. In the United States, federal government's about
thirteen percent of the K twelve funding. There's a lot
of strings attached to that money. But it's not as
though the public education system is entirely reliant on DC

(01:26:05):
to operate, and it shouldn't be. But I guess my
point is the money that the federal government does provide
comes with a disproportionate amount of conditions and strings that
allows the federal government to have its hand in these
educational systems around the country that really doesn't need to.

Speaker 2 (01:26:20):
So what about a competency standard? Okay, so the NAPE scores,
the National test scores for all the kids, two thirds
of kids are not able to read at grade level
with third or fourth grade. That's the that's the big
crossroads where you learn you read to learn after third grade.
Here in the state of Utah, shockingly, fifty two percent
of fourth graders are not reading at a grade level,

(01:26:40):
which is new news to us here in Utah. It
doesn't sound like the Department of Education is really getting
wired the end of the row, it's not getting its
job done. If we're spending so much more money and
we're seeing these test scores on something as fundamental as
reading and reading comprehension plummeting by way of statistics, can't
you argue against this department just on its abject failure

(01:27:01):
to the student.

Speaker 16 (01:27:04):
Well, I think the test scores of public school students
across the country and Utah is a little better than
the national average, but still has a long way to go.
I don't think anybody would say that, you know, thirty
forty percent of students testing at proficiency.

Speaker 1 (01:27:18):
Levels is a success.

Speaker 16 (01:27:20):
I honestly, I think that's an indictment of the entire
public education system in our country, and certainly the Department
of Education has not proven its worth or its ability
to turn around those trends. If anything, it is contributed
to them. I think what needs to happen writ large
in America to reform public education is removed to the
bureaucratic constraints at the federal level. Certainly there doesn't need

(01:27:44):
to be DC dictates going down into every school district
in the country because of the federal money with strings attached.
But even at the state level, you know, state and
local policymakers have a huge amount of authority and a
lot of responsibility for how their schools perform. Bates like Utah,
it's like California, maybe have different different values, but you
might be surprised at how how comparable their public education systems.

Speaker 3 (01:28:08):
Look, so's there's.

Speaker 16 (01:28:09):
A lot of creative thinking that state and local lawmakers
can do to introduce accountability mechanisms into public schools, increase
parental choice. Gosh, that's got it. That's in every other
industry we've We've discovered in America that competition breeds accountability,
creates success, creates incentives to improve products and quality, and

(01:28:30):
in school context, increased educational outcomes. And I think the
more we can change our thinking from public education as
a factory model where you know, we've got government monopoly
schools all run by the same interest groups and teachers unions,
to a model of you know, choice and in some
competition and accountability, I think those are the basic fundamentals

(01:28:52):
that need to change to get education back on track.

Speaker 1 (01:28:54):
And sat Max is in the message pretty clear. Look,
we went more than two hundred years with how the
Department of Education, and ever since we've had one things
have gotten worse in education. So we just need to
get rid of it. Isn't that the simple and clear message, Max.

Speaker 16 (01:29:08):
It's a really simple it's a really straightforward message. If
people can just get past the idea that ending the
Department of Education at the federal level doesn't mean we
end public education in America. It just means we give
control back to the states. I think that's the only
big hurdle. But you're absolutely right. No trying to argue
for federal Department of Education which has only existed since

(01:29:31):
nineteen seventy nine and has presigned over a period of
at best stagnating educational outcomes. It's a stinging indegment. And
you know, for most things, people really shouldn't look to
DC for solutions on policy in any area, and certainly
not when our kids.

Speaker 1 (01:29:48):
Education is at stape, that's for sure. Max, interesting conversation.
Thanks for joining us tonight.

Speaker 16 (01:29:54):
My pleasure, gentlemen, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:29:56):
All right. That is Max Nielsen. He is a researcher
with the Freedom Foundation, talking about the effort underway, and
I think it is very worthwhile, Greg, to dismantle the
Department of Education. Hopefully we're successful.

Speaker 2 (01:30:08):
We need to be the kids. We're not seeing a
return on investment on this in any Really, it's taxpayers.
It's pretty bad.

Speaker 1 (01:30:15):
Well, just think about what I said in asking Max.
We went more than two hundred years, Greg without a
Department of Education. Yes, we've had one since the end
of the nineteen seventies almost into nineteen eighty and where
is education gone?

Speaker 2 (01:30:27):
Yeah, and a sad part downhill. It's a nice feel
good bill to vote for. Tell me you're going to
get sixty votes out of the Senate to end it statutorily.
I just don't see the votes. So I think the
best you can do is just manage it, as you
point out, in a way that's very few full time employees,
and block grant it to the states.

Speaker 1 (01:30:44):
I think a secretary of education and two assistants.

Speaker 2 (01:30:48):
Here's five hundred bucks. Don't spend it on one place.
Good luck.

Speaker 1 (01:30:51):
I like that idea. All right, boy, coming up on
the Rod and Greg Show and Utah's Talk Radio one
oh five nine kN rs Monday, as we begin another
week of excellence in broadcasting, broadcast Hall of Fame and
calling already asking for a copy of this show today.

Speaker 2 (01:31:06):
Sure, well, duh, it doesn't surprise me. It's my shocked face. Yeah,
will be at Minky Gatur tomorrow, Is that right?

Speaker 17 (01:31:13):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:31:14):
We will be. Yeah. So all you guys, I know
there are a lot of men out there will go
to get her.

Speaker 2 (01:31:20):
Use that voice when you're talking about us. I'm sitting
right here.

Speaker 1 (01:31:22):
You know, to use that, you know what to get
your wife, don't you know.

Speaker 2 (01:31:26):
I'm with I'm with the guys. I'm with them.

Speaker 1 (01:31:29):
She dropped little hints.

Speaker 2 (01:31:32):
There's no such thing as a little hint with me.
You got to drop it like a ton of bricks
for me to pick up on it. So haven't done
it yet. But guys, I'm on your side. Come to
Minky Coatur and they'll help you out.

Speaker 1 (01:31:43):
Yeah, we'll be there tomorrow, will be there tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:31:45):
They always use like a rod fifty five. They use
the rod's name, my age on the on the discount.
Should we actually robbed fifty six?

Speaker 1 (01:31:54):
Now? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, you hate that, don't you. You
are getting older. One of our favorite cabinets members, and
there are a lot of good ones out there, has
really been Treasury Secretary Scott Besson. Yes, right, Well, he
was at a forum this week talking about the FED. Now,
the FED meets tomorrow and again on Wednesday to determine
if interest rates are going to drop yet again. Listen
to his description of people who work at the FED.

Speaker 17 (01:32:17):
My worry is that the FED is turning into universal
basic income.

Speaker 1 (01:32:22):
For PhD economies. Yeah, but I don't know what they do.
They're never right.

Speaker 9 (01:32:29):
If if you were to me, you should double the
number of PhDs, if you go to seven hundred, they
might get it right.

Speaker 17 (01:32:34):
Well look, I mean if you were to look at
the central value tendency versus how they've done, it's shocking.

Speaker 1 (01:32:42):
It's shocking though.

Speaker 17 (01:32:43):
I said, like if air traffic controllers did this, No
one get an airplane.

Speaker 1 (01:32:49):
They have three hundred and fifty PhD economists at the FED.

Speaker 2 (01:32:54):
What do they do. They play Solitaire in their computers.
That's what they're doing now working playing chess. It can't work. Yeah,
I'm getting I like to play chess.

Speaker 1 (01:33:03):
Yeah. Did you see the story out of India, No,
where a three year old has been certified as a
professional chess player.

Speaker 2 (01:33:12):
At three at three wow?

Speaker 10 (01:33:15):
Wow?

Speaker 3 (01:33:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:33:15):
No, I actually got back into playing chess a little
bit and playing it like you know on your as
an app you actually you can learn a lot more
than the way it used to be played. You know
that sounds obvious, but I've been away from it for
a while, so it's a little different now.

Speaker 1 (01:33:32):
Yeah, I can't play chess. I just haven't got the
kind of brain that you do.

Speaker 2 (01:33:36):
Oh, I don't know. I just picked up on it
a little while ago. Long time ago, long time. Yeah,
you haven't had anyone challenge though. Do you any your
kids play?

Speaker 3 (01:33:44):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:33:44):
I play the bots on the app, and I have
to play the intermediate bots, but I whooped every intermediate
bought there is.

Speaker 1 (01:33:50):
Oh really yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:33:51):
And then on the other one, I most of the
time the advanced ones beat me, but I beat the
advanced one.

Speaker 1 (01:33:56):
Before A quick note on the economy, We've been talking
a lot about affordability. The President will be talking about
that tomorrow in Pennsylvania. But apparently people are flocking to
restaurants during happy hour now, ordering appetizers and skimping on
entrees as affordability. It's US restaurants nationwide. Years ago, Greg

(01:34:16):
I was down to I was in Florida for a Meetian.
I served on the broadcast advisory board for the Wall
Street Journal at the time, and they took us to
a place called Cafe Tango Tutu, and all they served
were appetizers, and you got to choose from all kinds
of appetizers. I don't know if it's still there, but
I love the idea. I mean, you just ate appetizers

(01:34:37):
nice apps. Different kind of apps. Yeah, yeah, different kind
of app. It's called Cafe Tango to tou as.

Speaker 2 (01:34:44):
I recall, do I have time to play? This lady
that wants all the Maga people to wear the hat?

Speaker 1 (01:34:49):
No, no, no, she wants, she wants, she wants people
who are a Maga.

Speaker 2 (01:34:52):
Support She hates Trump so much and anybody that voted
for Trump she thinks is a menace. And so she
wants everyone to wear their Maga hats so she knows
who the met, who's the menace. And it sounds like, uh,
didn't they try that Germany one time. I think they
try to, you know, put signs and symbols on people
so you know, news that they knew they were Jewish. Yeah,
this list lady hurt. What she wants sounds menacing, it does,

(01:35:15):
all right, that does it for us? Tonight, Head up,
shoulders back, man, God bless you and your family and
this wonderful country of ours. We're back tomorrow live from
Nicky Go Tour.

Speaker 1 (01:35:24):
Talk to you, f