The Rod and Greg Show: Texas Redistricting; Fed Control of DC; Free Range Kids

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I want to thank Rod myself. It's Friday. I think
I think we you know, we brought this upon us.
We've said it's time. It's been four days, it's time
for another Friday. And so we started Monday and.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Here we are, so we created Friday.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
I think it is I think it's the I think
the whole thing started with us and happy to bring
you Friday from the Rod and Gregg Show.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
That's what we should say from now on Friday, brought
to you by Rodd and Gregg.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
That's right. It's our gift to you, gift to you.
We want you to have two days on this weekend
to just relax and.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Enjoy any big weekend plans.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
No, just but you know we were we were back
in DC last weekend. Yeah, so you're just kind of yeah,
just hanging out, hanging So I'll play a little golf.
I haven't played golfer.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, I'm gonna play golf tomorrow too.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I got well and pickle By the way, today is
National Pickleball Day. Oh gee, and do you know how
bad I feel? Do you know how bad I feel today?
How bad I did not play pickle ball on pick
National Pickleball Day? I didn't this morning. Usually I played
Friday mornings. I didn't today. I feel off.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
I've not been a supporter of your pickleball obsession because
I think it has undermined your golf game. I think
that you would, we would play more golf if you
weren't so obsessed with this ping pong game. That's without
you know, that's a little bigger I don't get it.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Do you know that there was a story today in
the paper, one of the newspapers.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Do they do?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
We say, yeah, we have newspapers that that that Utah
is the second that we have. We have an obsession
with pickaball, and we're the second highest obsessed obsessed state
with pickleball in the nation.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Who was first? Do you remember?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
I can't remember.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
It makes perfect sense because there is there is a serious,
uh obsession, and.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
You always making fun of me.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
You know what, aren't you a little advanced in age
to be picking up a new hobby. I mean, how
long have you been doing this whole pickball thing? Is
it five years?

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Five years?

Speaker 1 (01:48):
You pick a ball? I've heard about to pickleball my
whole life. But all of a sudden it just went
on steroids. Everyone went crazy on it. Why would you
pick up a new sport now because it is different?
Golf's not good enough for you.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
No, golf's fine, but I like a little more hysical
exercise than just I don't sitting in the cart getting out.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
I want to drink the coke and sit there and
I'm immersed in sport. That's what I want.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Well to all my pickleball colleagues at at Barnes Parking
Ksville and the pickler in Ksville, Happy pickleball Day. Sorry
I didn't show up today.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, they survived.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
I guarantee you that they don't need me.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Well, when we were golfing golf with one of your picks,
we've met one of those. One of these golfers plays
pickleball too, and they mentioned that, you know, they like
you around the courts and they you seem to be
a good player from their assessment.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
No, No, When you were growing up as a kid,
were you always picked last?

Speaker 4 (02:37):
No?

Speaker 1 (02:38):
I wasn't.

Speaker 4 (02:39):
I was.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Now pickleball, you know you're not.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
You weren't picked last. You can't play hockey. Here's a
coordination with hockey that that means that you're you're an athlete.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Well, thank you Thank you. We've got a great show
lined up for you. Today were some insight. This is
the story I did not did not realize today, Greg
until I read this article about what is really going
on in Texas and why this redistricting slash Jerry Mandarin
battle is going on. There is a reason behind it.

(03:10):
And guess what is not political?

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, if it was political, I've lost no sleep. But
it turns out there's that there was an important judicial
decision about their maps that they drew, and also the
Justice depart I think it is just Trump Justice Department
said you're out of compliance. And so that part of
the story in Texas gets missed all the time. Yes,
And I didn't need that part to say that a
legislature and a duly elected governor have the right to

(03:35):
redistrict when they want, because they do have that right,
but it is it has been omitted from the regime
media that there was a ruling, a court ruling, and
they are out of compliance with the way they drew
the districts back in after the census. Yeah, well that's
kind of important.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Slightly. We'll get into that. The Secretary of Laborer is
in town today and she will be on the show
today talking about jobs and labor in America has some
rather interesting things to say.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
It's just a secretary labor folks, you know Trump's secretary.
We always you know, Cabinet members, you know, White House
economic advisors, we get. We bring them all to you
here on the Rodney.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Well they have to come on this show.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Well, we are the gatekeeper.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
We're the gatekeeper of all the information. We'll talk about
what the Feds can can can do to control crime
in Washington, and later on you will join. You'll love that.
Leonor's get asy. Lenore is well known here in the
state of Utah. You were in the legislature. You are
a part of this when they pushed the bill the
Free Range Kids built to let kids go out and

(04:35):
be kids. What a novel idea.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Right now, you don't want the faral child like I was,
But the free range kid is good. Let let them
let them walk home from school, let them, you know,
let them, let them get out a little bit. They've
been cooped up too much.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Well, she they find I loved it. Utah has joined
this list growing list of states which is banning cell
phones from high schools. Okay, right, they're they're doing that.
Has anyone asked the kids what it would take to
get you off your cell phone? I don't know if
anybody has.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
It is an interesting way because you would think that's
so obvious, but no, I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Well, Lenord's Gones has asked and she has got some
fascinating results from the question. So we've got a lot
to get to today. By the way, I heard a
new term today I've never heard before. Okay, do you
know what EDM is?

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Sounds kind of like you supposed to sit on the radio.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
It sounds kind it is not what you're thinking. Okay,
all right, m Remember the The Mission Impossible movies last
couple where Tom Cruise and others are in this big
dance with flashing lights and you know, electronic music going on.
Remember that that's called electronic dance music. And I talked

(05:48):
to someone, you know, one of one of the young
ones here in the building. Yeah, one of the younglings,
and they're going to an DM this weekend.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Electric dance music.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, it's like, you know, it's like a rave party,
but it's with electronic dance music. I've never heard of
that term. Is this is it.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
Are you just talking about strobe lights, because we've had lights.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
That's basically what it is.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
I seem dancing with strobe lights.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Running with electronic generated kind of music and kids just
jumping up and down. That's what it is.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Because in my young young days, you days, we had
strobe lights that we had rock roll bands. These were
I don't know what these were. This was like Ivy Tower.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
That's back in New Term.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Ninety one in Provo, the Ivy Tower.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Was there a dance place called the every Tower.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
I did not know that Ivy Ivy Tower, the Ivy
Tower yourself. I had multiple floors, It had the soul
room in the basement, it had the it had the
main dance, it had alternative music that had the main
relace for everybody. Yeah, and there are strobe lights and
smoke and lights flashing everywhere. It is great.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Wow. Wow, Well I've never heard that term eight M.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
I said.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Now I'm him.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
I missed that place. I shouldn't have brought up Ivy Tower.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Probably.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
It's a beautiful time in my life.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
One sad note today, a real American hero after that
gym level died today. Fame Apollo thirteen Commander remember that
great movie with Tom Hanks playing Jim Level.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Good movie with the immortal words.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, this, these are those immortal words.

Speaker 5 (07:32):
Hey we've got a problem here.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
What did you do?

Speaker 6 (07:36):
Nothing?

Speaker 2 (07:36):
I stirred the text.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Hey this is Houston.

Speaker 4 (07:44):
Say again, please Houston.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
We have a problem, ymous Lyne Houston, we have a problem.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
By the way, our our crack producer just said Florida
was the most popular.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
That makes sense. Yeah, a lot of old people in Florida.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Getting of that that that whip you just played. I
thought you were playing some of that e d M
music that was like the modern day disco.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
No, but Jim Level real hero. Yeah, it really was
ninety seven, seven years old. I hate to say, I'm
not trying to be rude, but I would have I
would be. I was surprised that we still have It
was still I had a lot of ninety seven.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
That's a long life. I yeah, I didn't know you
are living longer. Really, I don't actually think that's true.
I think people are croaking earlier. If I had to
hear one more heart attack at sixty, I'm just going
to lose my mind. I'm tired of these inflamed heart issues.
We got that's true.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
That's true. All right, We've got oh some breaking news.
The President just announced he will be meeting with Vladimir
Putin next Friday in Alaska.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
I think he's required uh Zelenski to be part of this.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
It was brilliant.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
One of the requirements of him meeting with Putin is
that he needed he had to have a face to
face with Zolensky. I don't know if it's the same meeting,
but that was one of his conditions.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Their White House is just confirming that right now that
he will meet with Putin next Friday in a.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
And the show just started thirteen minutes ago. But before
the show began, we were listening to the President on
the Fox News and he had not confirmed that yet.
So that is really just within the last breaking Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
All right, the truth behind what's going on down in Texas,
Greg and I will explore that with our next guest
coming up on the Friday afternoon edition of The Rotten
Greg Show right here on Utah's Talk Radio one oh
five nine k n RS.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
I'm citizen Greg Hughes.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Great to be with you on this Friday afternoon. Heading
into the weekend, going to be a little bit cooler,
according to the ku TV two news weather team, like
low to mid eighties.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah, well it I don't know what the Temples tape
is very comfortable? Was it it oppressively hot at all?

Speaker 2 (09:37):
I've been slaving away in this studio. I'm going a
chance to get out enjoy fresh air because.

Speaker 4 (09:41):
They you of me.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
It actually was folks because of me. But we won't
go there.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
We won't go there. All right, let's go to Texas
and talk about the jurymandering store. Do you see what
they did today? They called the special session. Democrats course
didn't show up, so they left. The governor says, we'll
call another one for Monday. But I loved what they do.
The Speaker of the House announced today that the Democrats
who were not here, they will no longer electronically deposit

(10:09):
your pay in your bank account. If you want to
get paid, we can't stop from paying you. But if
you want to get paid, you have to come home
to Houston and go to the state House to pick
up your check.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
That's funny.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
I don't know how much they make, probably not a
lot in Texas, but you know, if you want your paycheck,
because they only meet every other year, and I think
for only forty five days. Yeah, in Texas, it's very short.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
I don't know that's actually a good approach. That's the
way to get you that Come pick up your check
if you want it, come get your check. Well, much
of the Democrats, of course, leaving the state, they made
a big deal out of this, basically saying the only
reason Donald Trump and the governor there want this done
is to get their Republicans more seats. But there is

(10:52):
a different story, isn't it, Greg, Well, there is, and
it's why I was critical, and we were critical yesterday
of our own Utah Congressman Blake Moore criticizing for some reason,
you know, the Texas governor, the Texas Legislature, his own
Speaker of the how the speaker at the House of
which is elite member of the leadership team, even his
own colleagues in Congress from Utah, who all support what's

(11:13):
happening in Texas. He's an outlier and he shouldn't be.
And I think that this discussion we're about to have
shows the merit and the importance of why Texas Governor
Greg Abbott and the Texas legislators looking at redistricting like
they are there are good reasons for this.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Well, they kind of have to, according to Hans von Spicosti.
Hans a senior legal fellow at the Election Law Reform
with a Heritage Foundation. Hans, Great, have you back on
the show explain the real reason behind why Texas is
trying to redistrict a few of these districts.

Speaker 4 (11:45):
Well, the real story is basically this last year, the
Fifth Circuit US Court of Appeals, and that's the appeals
court that governs Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, said, you know, we
made a mistake forty years ago and they overturned a

(12:05):
prior decision. And what was that decision. That decision had
said that what are called coalition districts are protected and
required under the Voting Rights Act. Well, one of those,
you know, the Voting Rights Act protects districts in which
a particular minority group, say black Americans or Hispanics, are

(12:27):
a majority of the voters, even if they may be
a minority in the entire state. Well, forty years ago,
the Fifth Circuit had also said that, well, if you
can't get enough of a racial minority group together so
that they're majority of the voters in one particular district.

(12:50):
You can combine two different groups. You know, you get
a group of black voters, you get a group of
Hispanic voters, and you put them together so that they're
fifty percent of the vote. Those are protected and required
by Section two of the Voting Right Set. Well, the
court said, nope, we were wrong about that. Those are
political alliances. The Voting Rights Act protects against racial discrimination.

(13:16):
Therefore they're not protected. Now why is that important? Well,
because in twenty twenty one, after the census, when Texas
did redistricting, they drafted up four of those coalition districts.
These were districts for the to elect Democrats, and they

(13:36):
got a warning letter Texas did a month ago from
the US Department of Justice saying, Hey, under that decision
when you drew up those four districts four years ago
and you used race as the factor in how to
draw those lines, you engaged in an unconstitutional and legal

(14:00):
racial gerrymander. You need to fix that. So that's what
they've done. They've they have fixed it.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
So Hans, this really counters the narrative that you're hearing
out there from Democrats and sympathizers and pannikins. As I
call them, any Republican that would actually team up with
the Democrats on this narrative that this is purely and
shamelessly political. I've always just fallen back to the legislative
legislati bodies and the governor have a right to redistrict
when they want that. That's not out of the ordinary. Yes,

(14:30):
But but to your point, and this is a very
strong point, I'm surprised I didn't know it until you
put this article out. There is a there's a Fifth
Circuit Us Court of Appeals decision. They're on the wrong
side of the law. What would happen? They've been given
the warning that they're on the wrong side law in
terms of how they've redistricted. If they ignored it, would
there be a penalty to that? I mean, I think

(14:51):
that they're if they're doing it, it's because they got
to get within the law. Am I right?

Speaker 4 (14:57):
You're absolutely correct. We would happened is the Justice Department
would file a lawsuit against them and get a court
to order them to fix those districts. And look, if
you want an example of that, I'll give you one.
There's a case out of North Carolina from the nineteen eighties.
Called Reno versus Shaw. And in that case, the state

(15:21):
legislature took two African American basically communities or neighborhoods that
were at opposite ends of the state and connected them
with an interstate highway. So it looked like a it
looked like a barbell, and that was a congressional district. Well,

(15:42):
they got sued, and what in the US Supreme Court said?
They said, that is unconstitutional. It's the violation of equal protection,
you know, the one person, one vote standard of the
fourteenth Amendment. Why because the only factor that was drying
you in drawing up those boundary lines was race. And

(16:05):
race cannot be the predominant factor in drawing up congressional districts.
It can be one of many factors, but it can't
be the predominant factor. And it tossed out that out.
And this is exactly what would happen if Texas didn't
remedy this. I mean, they've already gotten a letter telling them.

(16:27):
Right they don't fix this, you're gonna get sued.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
You know, Hans, both Greg and I were surprised as
we read your article on this, We went, Wow, why
isn't Why aren't more people explaining it to the American
people like you are, so that people can understand they've
got to do this. They have no choice. If they
don't do it, they're going to get fined or the
Justice Department is going to come after them. Why aren't
more people trying to explain that to the American people.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
Well, because unfortunately, unfortunately Democrats has got a good job
painting this is just oh, this is just a horrible
political jerrymandering. And because they don't want to admit that
they want racially jerrymander districts. Keep in mind, those four

(17:12):
districts were drawn at the insistence of Democrats because they
knew or they hoped that those districts combining Hispanics with
African Americans would elect to Democrats. Yeah and so, But
but just come out and say that, oh, yeah, yeah,
we want to maintain these districts that they basically use

(17:36):
race to draw up. I don't think they want to
be able to say that publicly, But that's what's really
going on here.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
So where do we go from here? I think that
there's I think the Attorney General Paxson has just actually
asked the court to vacate the House Democrat seats if
they won't come into session so they can have a quorum.
Do you think that a judgment would grant and vacate
those seats so they were open seats and would need
to be filled. Do you think that just that action

(18:04):
is going to bring back those lawmakers? I just I
wonder what's your view, Hawns, of the landscape of where
we're going to go from here, not just in Texas,
but maybe nationally as this story has had a national
has had a lot of national attention.

Speaker 4 (18:19):
Well, look, I don't know whether a local state judge
will stay. Yeah, they've abandoned the seat and therefore it
can be filled. I mean, I I don't know the
answer that all these threats that I'm hearing from places
like California and elsewhere that oh, well, well they're going

(18:40):
to read district too. Well, big deal. Those are democratically
controlled states and they've already politically jerry mannered them to
do the max. I mean, I give you an example
of that. Massachusetts, right, thirty five percent of the state
wide vote was Republican. They have nine congressional seats. You

(19:05):
two care to guess how many of them are held
by a.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
Republican oh, I could guess. I think we both could
guess a big zero.

Speaker 5 (19:10):
This is zero, that is that.

Speaker 4 (19:12):
Is exactly right. And like where did they all flee to?
Many of them? They all they all went to Illinois, right,
and Governor Pritzer came out Illinois. In the last presidential election,
Donald Trump got forty five percent of the vote. They
have seventeen congressional seats. Well that's almost half, right, so

(19:34):
they ought to have close to half the congressional seats. No,
they so in the Democrats to control the legislature. So
Jerry mannered the state that out of seventeen seats, Republicans
have free.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
That kind of tells the whole story, doesn't Greg. Thank
you for joining us, But thank you, Hans. That's the
real story that I'm being told about all of this.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
It is it is I And again, I just think
that right now the Democrat Party is in such shambles,
and you're seeing really strong leadership doing some very important things.
You're seeing Texas do some very important things. By the way,
these districts are redrawing our Hispanic districts, which if you're
a Democrat you should be able to you know, appreciate

(20:15):
and not be so afraid of. So let's see how
the dust settles. But I like to have the facts.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Going to be interesting, all right, More coming up on
the Rodded Greg Show and Talk Radio one oh five
nine k NRS. We get you ready for the weekend.
Sounds like we're going to have a weekend. And as
you're by the way, there are a couple of big
highway closures this weekend, particularly I think northbound I two
fifteen and I fifteen in Davis County over overnight. So
they're doing a lot of construction up there. So you

(20:42):
know a few people are traveling late at night, just
be aware of that. They're red them down to a
single leane. Yeah, I think you know you DOT usually
shuts things down around ten or eleven o'clock, and they'll
be doing it this weekend. So just be aware that, folks.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
That is good.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
Not that I'm allowed out passed one clock.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Say that's you turn into a pumpkin and here out that.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
Liane, why I go to bed at seven, eight at five?
That's not true.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
But yeah, hey your dage, you probably should have some
warm milk when you go to bed. No, okay, just check,
just checking, just you know, asking for a friend, asking
for a friend.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yea, thank you. Let's talk about Blake Moore. Let's do this,
the wonderful congressman from Utah's first congressional district who announced
yesterday that he's critical of what the Republicans are doing
down in Texas when it comes to redistricting and Jerrymanderin.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
I got to tell you, folks, this has really hit
a nerve with me. And I think it's because it's
it's so out of his his lead. It's he's talking
about something that if he didn't support it, the best
he should do is just stay quiet. Why. Because this
is a duly elected governor of the state of Texas,
it is the duly elected legislature, which is also Republican,

(21:50):
and they are redistricting for reasons, as we just discussed
with Hans Ban Spakowsky, for legitimate reasons of which, yes,
Congressman Blake north More, looking at his comments at KSEL
and the Soultic Tribune, he knows nothing of So for
him to weigh in on an issue that he doesn't
know anything about, on a state's process that he doesn't
live in, Uh, it just it really is not well

(22:14):
thought out and not serious to me and I and
I think it's what it ends up doing, is it
undermines that the Texas Uh, it somehow makes what they're
doing harder because they have a Republican because you know,
the regime media loves Republicans, you know, going after that
is their definition of statesmanship. That there's no such thing

(22:34):
on the Democrat side. Only Republicans that attack Republicans do
They herald and say is so so important? But it
he not only makes the job in Texas harder when
they're doing the right thing, but President Trump clearly supports this.
His doj has said there's a legal problem with those districts.
He's going against them.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
An appeals court, an appeals court in New Orleans and
said you got to fix this, folks. You got a
problem with this.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
That's right. And then when you look at our delegate,
we only have four members of Congress that are from
Utah by by population. When you have met you have
colleagues who have stated their support for Texas and what
they're doing. And now you're on the other side of that.
You're putting your fellow Republican Utah members of Congress out
on a thin limb in a very unfair way. You're

(23:18):
a member of House leadership. The speaker of the of
the US House supports this. You're contradicting him. What is
going on here? Why is this the case? So here's
ksl's headline, Blake Moore calls Texas GOP's redistricting plan a
step too far. Tribune says Rep. Blake Moore a member
of GOP leadership that announces Texas gerrymandering scheme.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Yeah, okay, And that's what rubs me the wrong way. Greg.
He is a he's leadership in the US House, fourth
ranking leader, yes, in the US House, and he's going
against what the House leadership is doing. And they support
what Texas is trying to do. Just fix a problem
it is.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
And so a lot of our conservatives and people, we've
all left the regime media, even the local regime media
far behind. So we're not tracking these headlines as closely.
But I'll tell you what happens when this stuff happens.
You have there's a Calvin Coolidge project. It's an X
page that covers the news. It covers this story. And
who sees it, Glenn Beck? And what does Gunbeck say? Perfect?

(24:22):
Just what the Utah goop needs another Democrat that pretends
to be a Republican. Wake up Utah before you become California. Now,
once Glenn Beck has weighed in, now you start to
see people that will follow him more closely than they
do KSL or the Salt Fake Tribune. Now it's news
to them. They didn't know that Congressman Blake Moore was
doing this. And now you're seeing a lot of chatter

(24:43):
going on in the state, and I think even more
broadly asking the same question, I am what is in
his head? Why is he doing this? I think it
is ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
We can't figure it out, especially after listening to Hans
just a short moment ago in our last segment, where
he's saying, you know, a court has ruled this. The
Justice Department is telling Texas they've got to fix this.
And does he understand that because you know how the
Democrats and the legacy media portraying this greg is nothing
but a power grab by Donald Trump. Well, who's telling

(25:13):
Texas I need five more seats, get them for me
with redistricts And it's not the story.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
And when Blake Moore is a Republican, a member of
leadership which the Tribune is happy to say the GOP leadership,
he denounces this. He's saying it undermines established norms. What
does he know about the establishment norms? Because I can
tell you right now the legistate legislatures. Governors have the
right to redistrict at any time. And in this case,
you have a Texas that has a very good reason

(25:39):
with that court ruling that happened that they didn't redistrict
constitutionally in the past. But now you have Governor DeSantis
looking at their map. They had some drama. He vetoed
the Florida legislative map and they kind of drew their own.
Their Florida Supreme Court affirmed it, but it's not up
to snuff. They could revisit that and are considering is

(26:00):
Blake More going to go tell Governor DeSantis he doesn't
know what he's doing. Is he going to go after him?

Speaker 2 (26:04):
And you have states greg like Florida and Texas who've
had a mass influx of new people coming into that.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
State in the last five years.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
In the last five years, so we're supposed they're supposed
to sit and wait until twenty thirty to do something
about it. They have very very right to do it.
They have the authority to do this.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
I think what also upsets me is that, you know,
this Republican against the Republicans ploy that always seems to happen.
If if Congress from Blake Moore wants to take all
this outrage about redistricting and the unfairness of it or
whatever it is, do you know how many Blue states
he could go to and have this conversation and demand
a better fair process. You've got millions and millions of

(26:44):
people that live in the northeast states of this country
who don't have a single member Republican district of Congress,
millions of people with zero representation. Once you get to
the northeast of the United States, go go there, go
to those blue states, and go make this Yeah, all.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
Right, more coming. It is the Rodin Greg Show with
you on this Friday afternoon in Utah's talk radio one
oh five nine KNRS.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
Allows us to have these talkbacks.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
The little red microphone button gives you thirty seconds to
share a message, and we've had a couple come.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
In, yeah, coming in. As we've been talking about Blake Moore,
there are a few of our great listeners that have
their own opinion about the Utah congressman.

Speaker 7 (27:23):
Well, when California stops Jerry Mandarin against Republicans, that will
be the day when I start listening to Blake Morgan.
He's a rhino. Vote him out, get a good Republican
in there.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
All right, there's one comment from a listener. Here's another one.

Speaker 7 (27:39):
Blake Moore is a rhino, and the next chance I
get to vote him out for another decent Republican, I will.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
All right, So a question I have, Greg, there're two
voters who mentioned he's a rhino. Why don't voters recognize
that before they vote him into office.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
It's a very easy answer, because attack making Republicans, it
doesn't make it on their campaign flyer. That's true, every
one of these people. They are rock ribbed conservatives. They
are there's no daylight between them and Trump. They are
everything you would want in a conservative. They are in
their campaigns, and then they get elected, and then then

(28:17):
you see that they'll go after Republicans all day. Nothing
like a Republican in a safe Republican seat punching other Republicans.
It seems to be one of the cases that you have.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
It's sickening and you know what, Greg, this is a
complaint that I've heard in past elections. You probably have
as well. You know, you elect a guy who says
all the right things during the campaign, then goes back
to Washington and either doesn't do anything about it or
does exactly the opposite, and that irritates voter. And that's
whit I think they like Donald Trump. Donald Trump says it,

(28:50):
and he does it.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
I got to tell you a personal story. Mett Romney's
running for the US Senate. I'm Speaker of the House
at the time. We meet face to face in my office,
and I know he's been of Donald Trump in the past,
and it's important. You know, it's twenty eighteen President Trump
as president, and I ask him, what said, are you
going to support this president? He could not have had
more praise, He could not have had more support. He said,

(29:12):
he's a better president than I ever thought he could be.
Support him all the way as soon as he got elected.
Before he was even sworn into the Senate, he writes
an op ed in the Washington Post. Just yeah, just
eviscerating President Trump. That's where you feel you've been completely misled,
And that's saying it nicely.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Yeah, and I still don't get I mean, you know,
and we talk about this a lot. We have very
smart listeners to this radio state, Yes, who see right
through things. Then why don't other voters in the state
see right through politicians who end up being rhinos like
Mitt Romney and now Blake Moore.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
You know, I think that campaign contributions have a lot
to do with it. Or if you can sell fund
if you come from wealth and you can fund your
own or you have networks where you can raise a lot,
your media buys your saturation rate so people know who's
actually on the ballot. It's not the same. All candidates
are not the same in terms of how voters know
of them or what they stand for. The more money

(30:05):
you have in a RaSE, the more you can get
that whatever narrative you create, whether you mean it or not,
that's what voters see. And so in the absence of
another message or another candidate that they don't see as much,
they're going to go with the one they know.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yeah, what I find so interesting about this if, in
saying what he has said about what's going on in Texas,
if Blake Moore was hoping to get some national publicity
on this he ain't given a whole lot right now.
I mean internally, you know, and here in the state.
There's a lot of discussion about this, but I'm not
seeing anybody nationally pick up on this story. Now. Glenn

(30:39):
was not on today. It was taking a break today.
I think he's back on Monday. He'll be interesting to
see if he picks up this story because of what
he said in that text message about Utah going down
the path toward you know.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
California so tired of the Romney years where Utah was
this just as you know nationally was Romney against the
pre and everything else. I don't really want I'm embarrassed.
I'm embarrassed that we have a member of Congress who
wants to go against President Trump, wants to go against
Speaker Johnson, wants to go against the Texas Governor Greg
Abbott the legislature. I don't want Utah known for that

(31:13):
because I don't we know the people with this listening audience,
We're not like that. I don't want that to be
the national story.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
Yeah, could be, well, I see if it develops in
the week ahead. That's all coming up, all right, another
hour the Rod and Greg Show, coming your way on this.
Thank Rodin Greg. It's Friday. Coming up next, we'll talk
with the Secretary of Labor. She's in town today. We'll
talk about labor and the challenges facing the US. That's
all coming up to stay with us.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
No, you bet.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
I feel bad I didn't play today because I should
have on National Pickleball Day.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
Wow, is it a multiple guy? I swear you said
it's been National Pickaball Day for like three days.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
No, I've been teasing it. It's coming up today. It
is the official day.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
Because I are you sure? Because I thought you said
it was it was competing with the two hundredth day
of Trump's president.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
No, I thought that I would mistake, and it is
actually today.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
So folks, he has made us celebrate this day now
for was that two or three days?

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Three?

Speaker 1 (32:06):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (32:06):
So yeah, there's You don't how many pickleball players there
are out there.

Speaker 8 (32:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
I'm look, I'm not doing what I did with bicycle riders.
I am not going after the pickleballers.

Speaker 6 (32:14):
I'm not.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
I'm just saying for me, I'm not picking up another sport.
I have to be I have to you know, be
mediocre at the best. I mean, I do that with golf,
and I like golf, so I don't want I don't
need to frustrate myself.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Do you ever play tennis?

Speaker 1 (32:29):
I used to play tennis.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
Well, you could play pickleball.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
I used to play tennis, and I like to play
ping pong. I used to I used to play ping
pong a lot. Actually, when the kids were young, we
had a table them. Yeah, they got better though, even
my nephews and stuff, they all got they all got better.
But yeah, there's a lot of trash talking and ping
pong too. I like that.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Yeah, there isn't trash talking and pickleball. There's a very
genteel sport.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
It's a gentleman's a gentle ladies gentleman. By the way,
do you play You play couples, Yeah, mixed.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
And the ladies are pretty good. The ladies are very good.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Are they?

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (32:59):
They ever spike it at you?

Speaker 2 (33:01):
Yeah, see there's that. The ladies tend to be a
little bit more vicious than the men. No, yes, really
when they're spiking lugout.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
Yeah, it will be a popular sport, super And I'm
all in, folks, No, I'm not.

Speaker 4 (33:17):
I'm not.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
I'm not bagging on it. No, I just think, you know,
I think Rod's golf game would have hung on there
a little bit more if he wasn't playing, if he wasn't,
you know, dividing his time.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yeah, with two sports. Well, I'm trying to remain active
as I can in my older years.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
It's over.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
Yeah, that's true, that's true, all right. The Secretary of
Labor was in Utah today with congress Woman Celeste Maloy.
They held a conference earlier today talking about the challenges
that Utah's workforce faces. Right now, we had a chance
to talk to her a little bit earlier with congress
Woman Celeste Maloy. We're talking about Laurie Ramirez de Raymer.

(33:53):
She is a Labor secretary, and as we began our
conversation today, I asked her, first of all, you know,
she's on a ka at work tour, going around the
country listening to people. What she's heard from people, what
are their concerns and their challenging Well.

Speaker 6 (34:06):
Thank you Rod, thank you Greg, and of course thank
you to the Congresswoman. It's great to be in the
state of Utah, my twenty fourth state on my fifty
state tour to talk to not only the American worker,
the American business, but really try to understand from the
perspective of what they go through every single day. And
that's been at the direction of the President to understand

(34:27):
that two hundred days in office, growing the American economy,
really trying to reignite the excitement that we're investing in
the American workforce. So that's what I'm hearing on the ground.
The certainty is starting to feel like, hey, you know
what the promises that he made in the campaign is
now what he's delivering on. While the President has spent

(34:50):
a ton of time in our trade negotiations, our tariff talks,
really laying the groundworks for reinvestment in the United States,
it is now up to me. My part of the
equation is to make sure that the workforce is there
and available, and that there's really an upskilling and rescilling
so that these manufacturing and advanced manufacturing, and that we

(35:11):
have the skilled trades ready to go. So on the ground,
I was in Wyoming yesterday as well. I'm here in
Utah today. I met with a roundtable of business owners.

Speaker 3 (35:20):
Farmers, ranchers, all different industries, ski resorts, you know, family
owned businesses who really struggle and say we need the
federal government to be on our side.

Speaker 6 (35:33):
And for the first time, the President has given the
secretaries and specifically me, the leeway to be on the
ground and understand that we're going to be their ally,
not their adversary. We're going to assist our state partners
and giving them the funds that they need to really
train and understand the market demands that they're asking for.
So we've seen the numbers. We've seen the job gains

(35:55):
that the President five hundred thousand jobs since he's been
in office. Two million of those jobs, all jobs have
been native born. So we're focused on the American worker,
but we want to understand the immediacy of some of
the gaps where I can assist them in getting those
workers ready to go yesterday. And that's going to be
the Apprentice program, the intern Program, to Earn YU Learn program,

(36:16):
so people can earn more dollars, keep more of their
hard earned dollars, and still grow the American economy and
so that consumer confidence is up and the Congress is
then that's why you know, being here with congresswomen molloy,
they passed the one big, beautiful bill. I cannot do that.

Speaker 9 (36:31):
As the Secretary of labor.

Speaker 6 (36:32):
But I can certainly assist them and that let them
know how to affect the American people. And they were
successful in getting that across the finish line. And that's
exactly what the President wanted to see.

Speaker 9 (36:42):
Yeah, and by Rodrick, Yeah, right.

Speaker 4 (36:46):
Go ahead, Gregory.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
I did not mean to interrupt.

Speaker 10 (36:48):
You're you're the big way finish.

Speaker 9 (36:52):
That's the right, congressman.

Speaker 6 (36:53):
Go ahead, and then let's take Greg's question. Go ahead, Congressman.

Speaker 9 (36:55):
I was just going to build on that in that
you know, as Congress, we has the one big, beautiful
bill to support American workers and American families, the kind
of people who work for a living, and you know,
maybe even the people who shower after work, not before work.
So the increase of the child tax credit, that's really
important in Utah. We have big families, no tax on tips,

(37:16):
no tax on overtime, the no tax on social Security,
the death tax fix for small businesses and farms. All
of those things are really good for Utah's businesses, including
in the agriculture sector. And today we had agriculture, construction,
seasonal workers, in the tourism and hospitality industries.

Speaker 4 (37:39):
All of those businesses.

Speaker 9 (37:40):
Were here talking to the Secretary about how we actually
need more labor. We need to have the workforce. Utah
has a strong economy and a really low unemployment rate,
and that is a blessing. That's a great problem to have.
And so they were here and talking directly to the
administration about the needs of Utah's and we have had that.
We didn't have that in the last administration. That's a

(38:03):
big change. And I just want to give my friend
and also the Secretary of Labor, Laurie Chavin's Dreamer, a
big shout out for being willing to be here and
listen to Utah businesses talking about not just big national
talking points, but things that are impacting the businesses in
our neighborhoods. Our friends who own small businesses are having

(38:23):
a hard time getting workers, and this administration is listening
to them and responding to them.

Speaker 10 (38:30):
Congresswoman Lloyd, thank you for the relationships that you have
in your service to our state. It's a big deal
to have the Labor Secretary here and so, and we
appreciate the time what we're talking because these are specifics
that we know our listeners want to understand. Madam Secretary,
here's the question I have. You've got a border that's closed.
You have a very heavy responsibility of visa program. There's

(38:53):
been a lot of discussion about do we have the
workforce for all the job creation for everyday Americans. Finally,
the Americans, every day Americans feel like they have a
government that's on their side giving letting them have the
opportunity to have a career, a life, support and raise
a family. If you don't have a legal and efficient
way for people to come into this country, then it

(39:14):
promotes the illegal entry. How do you measure the job
the job force and demands of the workforce with everyday
Americans who haven't had that chance and need it. With
who you let in through the agriculture, whether it be
the H one be visa for skilled labor or the
H two visa that's for agriculture for unskilled labor, how
do you measure that? How do you find what number

(39:37):
that is that's right without leaving out the American worker?

Speaker 6 (39:42):
Oh, you know what, this is one of the topics
that I have heard across the country. But let me
start off by saying, this administration and the President delivered
on the promises that he made the American people that
he was going to secure that border, and that is
exactly what the American people demanded and wanted. And now
that border has been secure, we're seeing over the last
two and a half months that there have been no

(40:02):
illegal entries based on the fact that the President said,
we need to know who's coming into this country. We
need to make sure that we are following the laws
of this country, and that's exactly what he delivered on
Now when we're talking about immigration policy, immigration reform, it
will be up to Congress to finally have this conversation,
and I think for the first time in over thirty years,

(40:23):
the conversation is starting to happen. My role in that
is to assist them with the technical assistance by testing
the market, being out on the ground and understanding what
the businesses need. I cannot do that from Washington, DC.
It's nonsense to think that a one pager briefer is
going to tell me what the American people need. That's
why I'm talking to the sheep farmers, That's why I'm

(40:45):
talking to the miners. That's why I'm talking to all industry, tourism, understanding, fishermen, shrimpers.
I've been in Louisiana, I've been in so many different
states where we have a very finite amount of time
to make sure that our business owners can keep their
doors open and that we can have legal immigration and
legal employees. So within the law that is already there,

(41:06):
we have to find efficiencies and modernization and streamlining. One
of the things I hear often from people who use
the visa programs is that it's complicated, it's cumbersome, it's expensive,
it takes too much time, and they feel like they're
constantly digging themselves out of a hole. We created within

(41:28):
the Department of Labor Office of Immigration Policy for the
first time to answer that call of concierge service to
our farmers, ranchers, producers, or anybody who's using any of
the age programs or visa programs because they often have
to touch Department of Labor, they have to touch the
Department of Homeland Security to make sure that we're vetting

(41:48):
who comes across, and then they're issued by the Department
of State. So I've worked with the administration those agencies
where we're going to have a one stop shop. People
can see where their applications are, they can understand what
it's costing them, and they also have an expectation of
when it's going to happen. That will take some time
to develop. The systems and themselves need to be upgraded.

(42:08):
They're antiquated, and so we are fixing giving a solution,
an immediate solution until Congress can have a formal immigration
policy reform and I can assist them with that.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
We'll continue our conversation with the Secretary of Labor and
Congresswoman celest Malloy from Utah's second congressional district coming up
on the Friday afternoon diedition of the Rod and Greg
Show and Talk Radio one oh five nine k n RS.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
Thank you Foch for listening to Utah's talk radio one
oh five nine. Canter ess everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm citizen Greg Hughes.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
You were going to say something, Did I interrupt you?

Speaker 1 (42:45):
No? Oh, I was just gonna say, and we're going
to continue our discussion with.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
Well, go ahead and pick labor. You've already identified me,
so go ahead and pick this up.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
So Secretary of Labor came here with the Congresswoman Malloy
today and we have that had the opportunity to really
dive into these issues about American jobs American work all
these things, let's continue that conversation.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
We had a conversation. We asked congress Woman Maloya about
the H one b N H two b VSAs one
deals with skilled employees, skilled workers, the other one deals
with agriculture workers. Says well, and we asked her about
what she's hearing from her constituents there in Utah's second
Congressional district. Here's what she had to say.

Speaker 9 (43:26):
Yeah, that is absolutely what I'm hearing and have been hearing.
So a fun fact about the Secretary. When she was
in Congress with me last year, she was my co
lead on the Free Act, which is my permitting reform
bill that would be a sweeping change that directly addresses
that it would streamline these processes. And today, when the
two of us were sitting there talking to people from

(43:47):
Lagoon and Ruby's Inn and Snowbasin, it sounds like the
exact same problem. They hire as many domestic workers as
they can. They hire people from Davis County and Salt
Lake County and Garfield County, and then they still have
jobs that are going backing, but every time they apply
for a permit, they have to go through the same
process as if we've never done this before and we're

(44:08):
not getting better at it the longer we do it.
And so we talked about which legislative fixes we need
through Congress and which regulatory fixes we need through the administration.
And here we are working on these same problems again,
side by side, on how the two of us can
help Americans save money and get the work done that
we need done.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
Congresswoman Celeste Molloy joining the Secretary of Labor today, Laurie
Chavez Draymer, you're in Salt Lake City. It's part of
her America at work, listening to her Greg and this
idea that the Secretary mentioned a moment ago, kind of
trying to streamline the system, trying to help people get
a response because it takes a while, it costs money,

(44:49):
and people get very frustrated with it. This is what
you and I have talked about for quite some time.
Now that we've got the border under control, I think
we would agree for the most part, it is Yes,
now let's look at our immigration process and see if
we can modernize it. What a mazing idea.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
So we're in the event, there's no conclusion as to
what we should do, but what I think would be
the worst thing you could do is not have a
If we want people to follow the law and we
don't want people to break the law and across the
border or try to cross the border illegally, then you've
got to have something insane. I've always set a tall wall,
but a wide gate. You've got to have a sane

(45:25):
way to and whatever those laws are going to be
for people to be able to do that so that
you're incentivizing legal entry and not illegal entry. But what
is that number? Because I know for a long time
when I was a lawmaker, politicians will say, oh, we're
going to add fifty thousand jobs. You actually got to
go get people have to have either skilled labor, they
got it, whatever it may be, there's human beings that

(45:46):
you have to be able to employ. Now that, now
that we've dealt with the under the table maybe below
market wage of illegal immigrants working. I think wages will
go up. I think you'll get a good pay for that.
But what what will there be whether it's in agriculture,
whether it's in manufacturing, whether it's in tech, whatever it is,
will there be gaps Once we have the jobs available

(46:08):
and we've gotten the under the table market out of
the way, and if there is gaps, I think that's
where I would hope the Secretary and Congress would would
have a visa program that matches what that gap looks like,
but only after everyday Americans have had a shot at
the very jobs and opportunity that we used to have,
but we don't have it right now.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
Very very critical to streamline that. Now, one other topic.
Let's stay on the topic of jobs now. Typically on Thursday,
we invite Steve Moore, top economists with a Heritage Foundation,
one time economic advisor to President Trump, to come on
the show. Well, we couldn't get hold of them yesterday.
We called and called, and then we look on the
television and here's Steve Moore live live, standing side by

(46:49):
side with Donald Trump in the Old Office and showing
the President some new information they found out about jobs.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
This is a standing Thursday interview.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
What was for the White House.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
Steven Stephen Moore, his priorities needed. Really, we need to
really question him when we get him back on the show,
because I'm sure that phone was just buzzing in his
pocket as.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
We well, we could see a buzzy because we didn't
realize he was doing the show.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
Why is he with Trump when he's supposed to be
with us? Does he not dance with Hugh Burnham? Great show?

Speaker 2 (47:18):
But he did have some interesting news to share with
the President. Here's what he says, thank you, mister President.

Speaker 11 (47:23):
So I called the President because I had some very
good news from some new data that we've been able
to put together that no one has ever seen before.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
And I'll just very quickly go through these.

Speaker 11 (47:34):
So I was telling the President that he did the
right thing in calling for a new head of the
Bureau of Labor Statistics, because this show is that over
the last two years of the Biden administration, the BLS
overestimated job creation by one point five million jobs. That's
a mister, that's a gigantic error. And I don't know
if she's that might.

Speaker 9 (47:55):
Never have been an era.

Speaker 4 (47:56):
That's the bad part.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
It was an era, it would be one thing.

Speaker 11 (47:59):
I don't think it's an I think they did it purposely.
Whether that you may well be right, But even if
it wasn't purposefully, it's incompetence.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
Right, it's in competence. But would you tell the president, no,
he's wrong. There was just a mistake. They didn't mean
to do it. President doesn't believe that at all.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
He doesn't and it is a good right tonight.

Speaker 4 (48:17):
You know.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
I don't blame him, No, I would have a jaundiced
eye if I'd been through everything he's been through. And
when we come back, there's something I'd like to talk
about in terms of how he's turning over some of
these bureaucratic positions that the Democrats are losing their minds
over the regime media are when we come back after
the break, I'd love to get into that.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
Jobs is the message today. You heard people saying where
are the jobs?

Speaker 4 (48:37):
You know?

Speaker 2 (48:37):
You know, I'd like to hear from employers or employees
out there as well about people finding the right people
like you were saying, Greg, do they have the skills
to do the jobs we need? Are they finding people
if you're looking for a job, are they easy to
find or hard to find here in the state of Utah.
We'll get your calls on that as well as well
as some of the comments that Greg has on all
of this that's coming up on The Rotting Greg Show

(48:58):
and Utah It's Talk Radio one O five nine, Okay
nrs to the weekend. I hope you all have some
very nice plans. Weatherwise is going to be very nice.
You just heard the ku TV two news weather teams
say some northwest winds are going to cool things down
this weekend into the eighties. We go, I love I
think our days of the nineties are getting close to
being done.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
You don't chinse it, but yeah, I do well because
you hear about August being the dog days sometimes of summer,
but now it's this will be a great weekend.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
Yeah, I love it.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
All right?

Speaker 2 (49:28):
The President announced who was it today? The did he
resign or did the President ask him to step down?
The Commissioner of the Internal Revenue.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
Service headline, at least from the Wall Street journals, Trump
removes Oh, okay, Billy Long as head of the i
r S.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
Only been there a couple of months.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Has he. I So, here's here's my take about all
of this. Actually it says, yeah, he's a former congressman
and he's been commissioner of the Commissioner of the Internal
Revenue Service. The Democrats, the leftists, the regime media, they
want to make these changes. The person that was in
charge of of the jobs numbers, who amaze you? Got it?

(50:04):
So wrong by way of competency based employment, should have
been let go anyway. But they all just want to
shriek that there's some there's something totalitarian about it, there's
something wrong.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
Is it dictorial?

Speaker 1 (50:16):
Yes, because if these federal employees have a right to
that job without regard to performance, without regard to anything,
and where in life is that? How did And I'm
not saying I'm conditioned this way, but where did we
get conditioned or why are we being conditioned to believe
that Washington bureaucrats are never allowed to be removed? I mean,

(50:37):
I mean this is why President Trump was elected. So
these are the exact decisions we would expect him to make.
And my comparison would be this happens, I'm sure. I
know it happens in business all the time. But where
America probably watches. You know, the big overhaul and change
of organization is in sports. So you have an NFL team,
if they get rid of the general manager, they get
rid of the head coach, there's nobody entitled to assistant

(51:00):
coach job or another job or a personnel job. They
clean house and they rebuild. And when you watch this
a you're not outraged. You expected you expect a restructuring
of an organization like in sports, to restructure and to
replace those leadership positions. DC is proof of how swampy

(51:22):
they are. Somehow all those people are supposed to stay
and if you remove them, then you're somehow bad. Trump
should be able to remove every single one of these
people that have been running DC for however long they have,
if he thinks they're not doing a job. He's a
chief executive officer, he's been elected. He should be able
to fire anyone he wants, and we should thank him.
If he doesn't think that the performance is as it

(51:45):
should be.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Well, look at the decision he did on the Bureau
of Labor Statistics, the commissioner there see more. We just
heard Steve Moore. They've been doing some digging, told the
President yesterday and had charts to prove it, saying, look
it they overestimated the number of jobs by one and
a half million people. Yeah, that's overestimated. And Steve said,
you know, now the President thinks and kind of agree

(52:07):
with them, thinks they did this on purpose. But if
you're it'd be you know, everyone up sells a little
bit and whenever they're talking, but you don't upsell that much.
And if you're making that, just think of the impact
that has on everything and the economy when you've got
a government agency saying, hey, we created this many jobs,
when in fact they didn't.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
So if you've missed the market, if you've missed the
mark by a million and a half jobs because you're
incompetent or because you were malicious, it doesn't really matter,
does it, because you shouldn't keep that job. I don't
care if you're incompetent. I don't care if you we're malicious.
Whatever the scenario being wrong by a million and a
half that benefits one president. I just you haven't earned

(52:52):
your keep and you are well it's the Trump president
is well within his right to remove them. This is
where I wish the FED share would just design. They
don't want to cause it. You know, they don't want
to create a new precedent of him being fired. But
I'm telling you that he should just get out of
the way because he doesn't subscribe to President Trump's vision
of this country. He is artificially keeping our interest rates high,

(53:14):
and you know he should just step aside for the
good of the country, because that's another position. It needs
to change.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
Well, it's like the promise that you were just saying, Greg,
Why is it in the world of business in this
country and really all over the world. But the world
of business, if you aren't getting things done, it happens
in sports, entertainment, you name it, then generally you're probably
treading on thinnites. Yep, you may be fired, that's right.
So why is it in Washington If you aren't getting

(53:41):
the job done. You can do that forever and they
don't care. You won't be fired. And if you're fired
by the chief executive who happens to be the President
of the United States, he's going to get criticized, not
the job that you have or haven't done. And they
don't get that thinking.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
And it's only this rule that you keep your job
regardless of performance only applies to the swamp. It only
applies to government bureaucrats. Not one Democrat cared when they
eliminated all those jobs on the Keystone Pipeline, all the
jobs that were destroyed. They did not care a wit.
They never talked about them. Boy, these people are getting

(54:19):
let go. You know that was part of the USA
idea and everything. They're crying and they're holding up signs
as if they were supposed to be employed forever. And
the growth in the number and ranks over the last
five years has been exponential in terms of how quickly
they've grown. They have this entitled attitude that they are
never to ever lose their job. We know Trump has
been probably elected for no greater reason than to try

(54:42):
and clean out that that that swamp.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
Well remember two three weeks ago, now, maybe more than that,
when Marco Rubio announced some layoffs in the State Department, right,
and people were walking out carrying their boxes with stuff
in and they got standing ovations, and oh, look what
he's doing. The State but department has the staff employees
of about fifty thousand people. Yes, that layoff affected thirteen hundred.

(55:08):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
That's it. And that was and you would have thought
the sky was actually falling. It was. The sky was falling. Yeah,
And so it's there. There's a lot more. The more
we see President Trump in action, the more it's at
least to me, speaks that more of it. We need
more of it, please more, please, We need more people
walked out of the building. We need more new fresh
eyes into these government bureaucracies. To try and make them

(55:32):
more efficient. We need more of it. And you got
a lot of people in there that would love to
keep the president from doing his job. They've talked about
the left have talked about before trying to trump proof
of the federal government. He needs the clean house.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
That's what it's all about. Folks. All Right, We've got
a lot more to come as we roll along on this.
Thank Rod and greg Is Friday right here on Utah's
Talk Radio one oh five nine knrs. You know Bill
Maher who you know, he used to drive me nuts,
but he's kind of making more sense occasionally. Well, I
do you agree?

Speaker 1 (56:02):
I think is that party has just gotten crazier and crazier.
He held up, he said, he tapped the brakes and went, whoa,
I'm not going the rest of the way with you. Well,
so he was nuts with him until they went full
they went full crazy.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
Well, I don't think I don't think he cares about
what unhinged liberals are radicals within the Democratic Party say
about him anymore. I don't think he cares.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
I don't. I actually think he has a sincere interest
in maybe keeping the party that he used to identify with,
that he clearly doesn't any longer. Yeah, and because he
doesn't want to be a Republican, so he's trying to
do something about it in his own way.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
Well, on the show last night, he talked about the
oppressed versus the oppressors, which you and I have talked about.
We had guests on the show Victim talking about this
the whole victim class mentality, and he talked about the
problem the Democrats face.

Speaker 12 (56:47):
The world is a complicated place and it's not just
about oppressor and oppressed. They have a thought in their
head that white people did some very bad things, and
white people did some very bad things, and they're all calm,
but so did everybody else in the world.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
But they don't know that.

Speaker 12 (57:02):
They just see the world through this one prison and
until they do, I don't think you're going to get
them off this issue. And I don't think the Democratic
Party is going to be able to go forward until
they make a decision.

Speaker 1 (57:13):
Whose side are you on here?

Speaker 12 (57:14):
Are you on the side of Western civilization and Western
values or are you on the side of the terrorists?
Are you with those kids? Because you know Mandami, he's
the perfect candidate for them.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
Yeah, I agree with Mark he's absolutely white people did
bad things. We know that history of the world. They
did bad things. Well, we're still paying for it today.
We're still considered the oppressor today.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
I just don't know where you decide to start that
outrage or end that outrage, because in five thousand years
of recorded human history and some very primitive people have
been fighting with each other all over the place. They've
been walking around. They've never stayed in one place or
you know, if they lived here, they went over there,
they took that region. This is what human beings have done.

(57:58):
And I don't know where you start the clock and
the clock. The best analogy I've ever heard of that
is if you were, if you're if you were the
child of someone who committed a heinous crime, is that
child now a criminal? Does that child now carry the
weight and the and the punishment of whatever their father
had ever committed. I would think that we would all

(58:19):
instinctively say no, that that child would be in fact,
we'd feel sorry for that child that their father had
been such a you know, degenerate criminal. Why in the
world would we take generations back of whatever bad things
happen with people and with society and civilizations and lay
it at the feet of anyone today. Okay, yeah, it's
it's why when did you start the clock? And why?

Speaker 2 (58:41):
And there has been slavery and the mistreatment of people
in this entire world for the world's history. I'm sure
one group of people conquer another group of people, the
conquered or now slaves to the conqueror. That is exactly,
and it's been going on forever, and that's what it's
just the fact they don't get that now. Another thing
that came up last time this on CNN was Frank Luntz,

(59:02):
the Polster, Yes, and he talked about Donald Trump, who
just passed two hundred days in office for a second time.
Listen to what Lunce's found out with his research.

Speaker 8 (59:10):
If you voted for Donald Trump, this is exactly almost
to the letter, which you wanted. He didn't mind about
the anger, He didn't conflict between the Republicans and the Democrats.
What you wanted was to make a border safe and secure,
which they've done. What you want to wear task cuts,
which he's done. What you wanted was cuts to spending,

(59:31):
which he's done. Element after elements. He delivered exactly what
he said he was going to do. And that's why
his own voters believe that this has been an incredibly
successful presidency.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
And it has, and his own voters believe it. I
voted for him, You voted for him. We're looking at
what he's doing and you wow, in the first two
hundred days to do this pretty impressive.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
Yes, and it has been. And even with that slim
majority in the House to get them when they were
in the past very difficult to get anything done and
really handing control over the Democrats because they couldn't coalesce.
To see that that thin thin majority come together and
pass the big beautiful bill, the Recisions Package of more cuts.
We need more of it. I'm not saying the job

(01:00:13):
is done, but I think what's been accomplished is is
really historic. Yeah, I do.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
It really has been in his first year.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
You can get that, you know. You ever hear the saying,
you know the far right, you know what, I think
we are right so far?

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
Very good?

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
Yeah, I think we're right so far. I show me
where we're wrong. I'm not wrong. I picked the right horse.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
You like that? Like that?

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
So far? What happened three years ago? Today? The rad
on mar A Laga.

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
Yeah, now, now we know they were looking for that
little document that declassified. That's what they were in search of.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
You remember all the lights in the police guards and the.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
Flat jackets and automatic weapons. They made such a big
under they you know, they crossed line and now they
want to say, oh, look, you're targeting your political enemies.
Actually know there's some accountability that's due.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
All right, what can be done to fight crime in
the nation's capital? Join us, we'll talk about it. Coming
up next our number three of the Rotting Gray Show
on its one.

Speaker 10 (01:01:19):
Y.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
It's Friday in the weekend. It's just an hour away
for you and I so you know one five nine
can r s live everywhere on the iHeartRadio AP.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
I'm Rod Arquette, I'm citizen Greg Hughes.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
All right, a lot has been made this week about
what's going on in our nation's capital. There's no doubt that,
and you just got back from there that the American
people want our nation's capital truly to be a shining
city on the hill. You know, they have wonderful museums
and monuments. The seat of power sits there, but it
has been struck with crime. What's the number I saw

(01:01:53):
today that nearly. I can't remember the percentage, but the
number of juveniles who are involved to carjackings I think
fifty two percent greg have been involved in carjackings in
the nation's capital. And the President has threatened to federalize Washington,
d C. And to get control of our great city. Well,
guess what. Washington has been federalized since about seventeen ninety one.

(01:02:16):
Just thought we should bring that up. But people are,
you know, it's time to do something about it, and
I think people are asking for that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
So joining us on the program to discuss this is
Shane Harris, editor in chief of amacamac amak the news Line. Shane,
Welcome to the Rod and Greg Show.

Speaker 5 (01:02:36):
Yeah, absolutely, thanks for having me so interesting article.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
Federalizing our law enforcement. Lawlessness is run rampant. Trump is
suggesting to do this.

Speaker 5 (01:02:46):
What say you, Yeah, listen, I think it's a great idea, right.
I lived in DC myself for three years when I
worked in the last Trump administration, I saw firsthand the
crime problem that the city has, and I also saw
first and how beautiful that city could be. There's amazing
monuments there, there's great restaurants, gets about twenty five million
visitors a year, and unfortunately when they get there, what

(01:03:09):
they're treated to as a city that's basically allowed to
send into chaos by the Democrat politicians there. And so
uniquely more than any other American city, because our seat
of government is there, President Trump and those in power
in the federal government have a responsibility to ensure that
the city is safe. And right now that responsibility is
not being met by the local leaders. And listen, all

(01:03:30):
of us, every single taxpayer sends their money to DC. Okay,
so we all have a stake and how that city
is run and how safe it is. And as I mentioned,
right now, the local leaders there are simply not doing
their job. And so I think this is a great
idea by President Trump, and I think he should move
forward with it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
Shane, as I mentioned in the intro, miners account for
half of DC's carjacking arrests since twenty twenty three, including
pipe sized perbs as young as twelve year years old
involved in carjackings. That says to me, something's wrong with
the juvenile court system. Is there a swinging door there?
What is going on with the juvenile court system in Washington, DC?

Speaker 5 (01:04:11):
Yeah, Well, I think you hit the nail on the
head right. What we're seeing with you know, a lot
of these carjackings is that it's repeat offenders. You know,
there was obviously the high profile beating of a former
dose staffer in DC over the weekend, and there were
two fifteen year olds that were arrested in conjunction with that,
and I think, as you said, swinging door, that's that's
the perfect way to put it. You know, young people,

(01:04:32):
they're getting arrested, they're not getting any sort of rehabilitation
and just being released back.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
Out on the streets.

Speaker 5 (01:04:37):
And what message that sends, especially to young people, is
that there's no consequence for their actions. And so younger
kids see a little bit older kids doing this stuff
and getting away with it looks like fun. You know,
you want to be just like the people that are
older than rom. Before you know it, you've got basically
a city wide problem. Where As you said, something crazy
fifty two percent, I mean, that's totally insane to have

(01:04:58):
that many young people involved in and so yeah, something's
absolutely got to change. And I think the obvious answer
is you've got to punish these kids, and you've got
to set the precedent that this type of stuff is
not going to be tolerated.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
Shane, And I heard the gangs are putting these young
kids up to doing this. It's almost like a badge
of honor. If you're a young kid and you do
a carjacking, you're accepted by the gang. The gangs are
actually using these kids to carry out some of these crimes.
Is that true?

Speaker 5 (01:05:25):
You know, I haven't heard that, but I certainly believe it.
So a quick story for you.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
When I was.

Speaker 5 (01:05:30):
Actually an intern in the Trump administration, I did a
ride along with the DC police officer and talk to
him about some of these problems that they were having.
This is all the way back in twenty eighteen, and
things were bad then, and what he told me, he
did tell me that, you know, the gang problem in
DC was a huge issue. And so unfortunately what we've
seen since really a passage of the Home Rule Act

(01:05:51):
in nineteen seventy three, that city has been run exclusively
by Democrats. There have only been two Republicans elected in
DC since nineteen seventy three, and the results have been
predictably disastrous.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
So the you point out in your article that that
this home Rule, this ability for Washington, d C. To
actually govern itself. I've been there when during the inauguration
back in seventeen where all the storefronts had to board
up because they were getting smashed. You know, the windows
are getting smashed. There is violence everywhere. My son just
did an internship this summer, and it can be completely

(01:06:27):
peaceful in one block and you can have a shooting
a block over. You don't know. It's the randomness is there.
You suggest that it's time to end the farce that
they've never really Washington Seed has never really excelled at
this home rule and governing themselves, and we should just
put an end to it. Do you think that extends
beyond just law enforcement?

Speaker 5 (01:06:47):
You know, I think it does, and it obviously brings
up the practicality question right in order to completely repeal
home rule, that would likely take a bill passing through Congress,
which would require overcoming the sixty vote threshold in this now,
I don't think that's going to happen. But one option
that Republicans do have where they don't need to get
Democrats on board, they can just pass it by simple
majority is attaching budget writers and other funding mechanisms to

(01:07:11):
bills that just require a simple majority to pass through
the House and the Senate. And so what that means
is Republicans essentially saying, okay, leaders of DC, you want
your federal funding that you need to keep this city afloat.
We need to see X, Y and Z changes to
make this city safer. And I think that's a real
avenue that more Republicans than Congress should be talking about
and should be exploring.

Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
Shane, let me ask you, this is it the problem?
Does it rest with police, does it rest with a
court system, does it rest with city leaders or all
of the above?

Speaker 5 (01:07:41):
Well, I think it's a little all of the above.
I wouldn't put too much of the blame on the police.
You know, there are a lot of you know, the
police leadership in DC is certainly somewhat to blame, right,
I mean, they've had bad police chiefs for a while.
But you know, the rank and file cops they want
to do their job, they want to enforce the law.
And what's happening is they're essentially being restrained by the

(01:08:02):
politicians on the city council and the mayor's office. And
so what we saw after the BLM riots in twenty twenty,
for instance, is DC's police officers a number of officers
they had on staff dropped to I don't know, I
don't remember it was an all time low, but something
maybe like a fifty year low, remarkably low compared to
where they'd been in the years prior to that. And
so they're just warn enough cops on the street. And

(01:08:25):
so I think at the end of the day, the
real blame at rest with the city Council and the
Mayor's office for essentially waging a war on the police force,
creating a toxic culture there, and not giving police the
tools and resources they need to enforce the law.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
So we're talking about systemic change and how to maybe
on a long view, how to correct what the lawlessness
in DC the short term, do you I've heard the
presidents say this should be the safest city, the most
beautiful city. This is not acceptable. Do you foresee maybe
the National Guard being deployed or the military being used
in the short term with crime the way it is?

Speaker 5 (01:09:00):
Yeah, you know, I'm not sure.

Speaker 4 (01:09:01):
I hope, I will say, I hope.

Speaker 5 (01:09:02):
It doesn't come to that. You know, the crime problem
in DC is very severe. But I think what President
Trump is doing here, and we've seen him do this before,
right is, he comes in very strong and he says, listen,
this is what I could do. Let's avoid Let's avoid
that because you know, at the end of the day,
nobody really wants that. He'll do it if he feels
like he needs to do it to keep the city safe.
But I think what he's saying is, listen, none of

(01:09:24):
us want this, but I need to get your attention
so that we can make some changes to create some
real progress here. And you know, whether it's with trade
or foreign policy, We've seen this strategy from President Trump
work time and again, and I think it's going to
work again here. I think he's got the attention of
the leaders in DC, and I would be surprised if
we didn't see at least some changes in the months ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
And I also think the appointment of former judge and
Fox News personality Janine Piro, putting her into the MAX
is going to help things out. No, jew, Shane, Yeah,
absolutely absolutely is.

Speaker 5 (01:09:57):
She is as strong as they come, and I'm definitely
looking forward to seeing what her tenure looks like.

Speaker 2 (01:10:01):
All right, hey, Shane, we appreciate a few minutes of
your time. Enjoyed the weekend. Thank you all.

Speaker 5 (01:10:05):
Right, you as well. Thanks guys.

Speaker 4 (01:10:07):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
Joining us on our newsmaker line Shane Harris, editor in
chief of the AMAC News Line, talking about what can
be done in the nation's capital. More coming up on
the Rod and Greg Show in Utah's Talk Radio one
oh five nine. Okay, NRS ready to head into the weekend.
We've got a bit of a clarification, I guess on
the IRS commissioner being let go.

Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
Super smart listeners always keep us in keep, you know,
keep the conduit of communication going. Pointed out, and I'm
glad that Billy Long, who is the commission of the IRS,
who Trump is removing from that position, is actually going
to is asked him to serve as the ambassador to Iceland,
and Iceland is not it's actually it's not like Siberia.
There's actually a strategic.

Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
Oh yeah, very important as a matter of fact.

Speaker 1 (01:10:50):
Strategic advantagment in terms of Iceland. So that's actually an
important position. But what I think it shows is that, well,
that was Trump's appointment. If you're not doing the job,
even if you're his guy, he's gonna give you something
he thinks you're gonna be able to do, and he's
gonna move you on, and it's not gonna be He's
not gonna worry about people's emotions or feelings. He's just
go you need he needs performance, and so Billy Long

(01:11:10):
is not completely out of the administration. He will serve
as the ambassador to Iceland. Thank you to our listeners
for the extra deats on that.

Speaker 2 (01:11:18):
I think that would be one of the best jobs
to have.

Speaker 1 (01:11:21):
Yeah, ambassador, man, the Marines escorts you around everywhere, you know,
and you just.

Speaker 2 (01:11:27):
And yeah, you know, all you are there is to
kind of party. I mean, what does the ambassador do
other than to maintain relationships between that might.

Speaker 1 (01:11:38):
Be a small thing, or maintain the relationships between the
country and the United States. I'm sure they deal with
like visa issues and they deal with uh, there's a
lot of Americans if they're in that country, you gotta
gotta have someone that can go to if there's trouble.
I don't know, Okay, I'm sure it's very I'm sure
it's very involved.

Speaker 2 (01:11:56):
Really, yes, Okay, let me ask you this. Then, why
do all the big donors to campaigns usually get the investorships.

Speaker 1 (01:12:07):
Because the campaign Yeah, because it's an easy job.

Speaker 2 (01:12:11):
It's an easy job. Fine, I mean, come on, think
about it. I mean, what country would you like to
be an ambassador too?

Speaker 1 (01:12:18):
You're asking me, yes?

Speaker 2 (01:12:20):
Well, no, who else is in the room.

Speaker 1 (01:12:21):
Well? I like Australia. I mean I lived in Australia
for a while, so I know about.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:12:28):
Not the Malloris I love. I love the Mallories.

Speaker 6 (01:12:30):
I love them.

Speaker 1 (01:12:30):
But I wouldn't want to do New Zealand.

Speaker 4 (01:12:32):
Uh one.

Speaker 1 (01:12:34):
That one that's just nobody wants would be Papua New Guinea.
I like Papua New Guinea. Oh okay, New Guinea. But
Australia would be pretty cool. That'd be a pretty cool
gig man. They've gotten so there. I swear they they've
lost their minds in Australia. They used to be a
tough crowd and they've Oh. I really think their government
is more heavy handed than China. And that is not hyperbole.

(01:12:54):
I really think they've gone that bad. I mean, they
have censored everything. They are just it's unbelievable to me.
It's unbelievable what Australia has become. It's not the country
that I lived in between eighty nine and ninety one,
that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:13:07):
I would want what would you like to make. I
would want a warm weather ambassadorship.

Speaker 1 (01:13:12):
Yes, warm with a lot of beach. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
Well and maybe Australia.

Speaker 1 (01:13:18):
Yeah, I think that. Yeah, I think that works. I
think that's I think that you.

Speaker 2 (01:13:23):
Kind of like get tickets to the Australian Open and
the tennis thing.

Speaker 1 (01:13:26):
I'm sure. I'm sure if you were, you get all
the goodies and what do you do well, I'll bet
you anything that trade is more of a of a
topic a universation.

Speaker 2 (01:13:36):
You sit down and you be nice to each other
and you talk about things. You have people go do
your things. You probably get a nice residence to live in.
I mean the embassys are usually pretty nice.

Speaker 1 (01:13:46):
And like I said, you get that, you get a staff,
and I just like the idea of that of the
US Marines or your like your bodyguards. They just like
they take you around, make sure you're okay.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
Now, I would want to be the ambassadors or to Iran.

Speaker 1 (01:13:59):
I'm crazy enough I would. I would.

Speaker 2 (01:14:02):
I don't even think we have one any run right now?

Speaker 4 (01:14:04):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:14:04):
But what's some what's you know, what's the poor guy
and Benghazi that was he was the ambassador and that
they was killed kill the curates. Yeah it is actually
and but that's but yeah, there's some pretty hot spots
in the in the world. But they you know, not
all ambassadorships are filled by donors. There's some that nobody
wants and their their civil servants their career, uh could

(01:14:26):
be in the in the I don't know what they
called them, the core of if it's a civil servance.

Speaker 2 (01:14:31):
Think about this ambassador to England the Royal Party that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:34):
That's probably I bet that's the most highest, one of.

Speaker 2 (01:14:36):
The highest could tell us about that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:39):
Yeah, Abby could be the ambassador. She could because she
she had dual citizens, that's right, so she could do it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:44):
She could do it.

Speaker 1 (01:14:45):
Man, it's good. Let's let's let's put some calls in.
Let's get Abby to the ambassador.

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
Of all right, more coming up on the Rod and
Greg Show and Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine
k n R S you had a hairball something back
outs something like that. Oh, there it is on the floor.
Welcome back, final half hour of the Rod and Greg
Show with you on this Friday afternoon in Utah's Talk

(01:15:11):
Radio one oh five nine. Can arrest live everywhere of
course on the iHeartRadio up I brought Arquette.

Speaker 1 (01:15:16):
I'm citizen Greg Hughes.

Speaker 2 (01:15:17):
You know there are I Does it begin in Utah
this year? Greg? Where cell phones are not allowed in
high schools?

Speaker 1 (01:15:23):
I think so yet?

Speaker 2 (01:15:24):
Does it? Does it start this year? And many many
other states have been trying to do that, and a
lot of people are trying to figure out the impact
of cell phones social media on our young children today.
It's a real concern.

Speaker 1 (01:15:36):
It's a dilemma in real time. It is.

Speaker 2 (01:15:38):
Yeah, yeah, well, uh, you know, the one question that
hasn't been asked, and it finally has been where someone
actually went to kids and said, what would it take
to get you off your cell phone? What a unique idea.

Speaker 1 (01:15:53):
This is novel. I actually this isn't where I would
have gone. I think it makes so much sense to
actually ask these young ones, yeah, what it would take?

Speaker 2 (01:16:01):
And what kids told people who actually asked that question, well,
one of them asking it was our next guest. Her
name is Leonora SKANESI many of you know Leonor. She
played a vital role here in Utah and getting the
Free Range Kids Act past. She loves Utah.

Speaker 1 (01:16:15):
It's amazing. I have a lot to let the kids
walk around. Yeah, you know, like free range chickens. They
know it's so crazy, but it's true. It's time we live.

Speaker 2 (01:16:22):
Yeah, but she's joining us on our Newsmaker line to
talk about this. Leonor always great to have you on
the show. Whose idea was it, Leonor to ask kids
how to help get them off cell phones?

Speaker 3 (01:16:33):
Oh?

Speaker 13 (01:16:33):
I wish I could say it was me, but I'm
working with the with John Height, who wrote The Anxious Generation.
I was just interested in asking the kids what they're
allowed to do in the real world and how they
feel about not getting much freedom. And he was the
one who connected it with well, let's just ask him
what they would be doing if they weren't on their phones, and.

Speaker 2 (01:16:51):
What did they tell you, Leonor?

Speaker 13 (01:16:54):
What they told us is so both sad and heartening,
which is that if they had freedom, if they could
go out in the morning and play with their friends
and run around old schools, stranger things, free range kids like,
they would be off their phones. I mean, it was
really amazing. We asked a couple of really salient questions.

(01:17:15):
One was, if your kids had a choice, these are
kids eight to twelve, You had your choice between playing
outside with friends or playing just playing with friends, you know,
no schedule, no no adults watching whatever, just free play
or being in an organized activity like ballet or soccer
or whatever, or being online with your friends playing and

(01:17:35):
socializing with them. What's your preference, And by far, by far,
the the kids chose just being with their friends, just
hanging out without an agenda. You don't have to give
my trophy, they don't have to be in a two
to two. It's just old passion play. And what was
said is that they don't get that, and we'll get
to that in a second. But with heartening is that

(01:17:58):
they barely have this, they know they want it. I mean,
it's not like you and me who grew up, you know,
in the morning on a Saturday, just go and you
say goodbye and you see them and you see your parents,
you know, for meals if then, so they don't have that,
but they know they wanted it. It started to feel
like it's almost, i don't know, hardwired into them. And
it's like wanting food even if you're starving, you know

(01:18:20):
what food is. You know you want it even though
you don't have it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:23):
Leonora, this article really resonates with me. I'm generation X.
That's so stranger things is a show about kids in
the eighties. That's the time I grew up, and I
was a fairal child. If you were raised by roleves
and gypsies, you might have had more supervision than me.
I was just running around loose and crazy. So I
get this, But back then it was like, don't spend
so much time watching TV. But my question is this,

(01:18:45):
Is it the helicopter parents that don't know how to
let their kids out of their sight or is it
that the kids are just so consumed with the with
the devices and the games and social media. Is it
one or the other or some strange combination.

Speaker 13 (01:18:59):
Well, I to blame parents because it's almost a culture
that requires helicoptering. I mean, even if you want your
kid to play outside, first of all, there's not other
kids outside. Secondly, there's all these rules and restrictions. A
lot of schools won't even let a kid get off
the bus at the school bus stop in the afternoon
unless there's an adult there to walk them hall right.
And then there's so many programs you have to sign

(01:19:21):
the kid in and sign the kid out. Sometimes you
have to stay. You're considered a lazy parent if you
don't stay at the birthday party or the play date.
And so there's a whole culture out there conspiring to
keep parents sort of velcote to their kids. That being said,
what's really happening is that the kids are not allowed anything.
They can't do anything on their own. Here's another I

(01:19:42):
was going to tell you the second poignant fact that
we found out from the Harris pol and it was
this the kids, will you know you agree or disagree?

Speaker 1 (01:19:50):
Quote?

Speaker 13 (01:19:51):
I would spend less time online if there were more
friends in my neighborhood to play with in person. And
that was an overwhelming majority of the kids. It was
over seventy five percent of these kids said that. And
so what we're begging parents to do and I realize
it's hard, and it's better to do it if you
have a couple of parents doing it together or through schools,
which I'll explain in the second. But you got to

(01:20:12):
open the door. If you want to take away the phone,
if you don't want your kids to be on their phones,
if you don't want them glued to their screens, you
got to give them what they actually want more, which
is to be in real life, you know, be with
their friends. It's so interesting to me that we took
away the chances for them to play, have adventures, go
to the store. Our studies showed that less than fifty

(01:20:33):
percent are allowed to be outside ever without a parent,
or go to another aisle at the store. Only twenty
five percent. Twenty five percent are not even allowed to
play on their front lawn. And actually it was just
on CNN yesterday and they had done their own pull
and two thirds of the parents said they would not
allow their children to play on their front lawn. So
kids are on lockdown and if you want, And then surprise,

(01:20:57):
they found an eskate patch. It's called the iPhone. Now
suddenly they can meet up with friends, they can have adventures,
they can talk to people, they can flirt, they can
they can conquer entire universes. And we won't even let
them go to another aisle at the grocery store.

Speaker 9 (01:21:12):
Of course, you're going to.

Speaker 5 (01:21:13):
Hop online, right, Leonora.

Speaker 2 (01:21:16):
As I listen to you, all I can think of
is the final scene in Brave Heart with Mel Gibson
or Justell's freedom. Yes, I mean, please give me a
little more freedom.

Speaker 13 (01:21:29):
It's exactly what they're asking for. And it's not even freedom,
it's like, give me a little bit of life. Some
guy wrote to me this morning. He's an addiction expert,
and he said what we described in the Atlantic article
was addiction and he believes and there's a whole Johann
Harry book about this too. He said, A smart guy,
which is that when you can connect with something meaningful,

(01:21:51):
when can you connect with you know, with people or
your family or a cause or a community, you know
you're in good shape. I mean that's why, you know,
it was great when more people were going to you know,
church or synagogue or the you know, the Elks clubs,
because you are connecting to something. When you're not connecting
to people, you look for something else to connect to,

(01:22:13):
and often that's you know, a bottle of beer or
a joint or worse. And in a way, kids are,
as we just heard, longing to be with their friends
and make fun happen, not just have things happen for them.
You know, they go and they're in a soccer game
and they're told when to start and when to finish,
and certainly not just being online. But we don't let

(01:22:34):
them do any of any of the anything remotely resembling
making their own lives and having an impact on their
lives being outside. Let's climb this hill, let's dig a hole,
Let's ride our bikes. So when they're not connecting to
real life, they have to connect to something else. And
they're not connecting to meth, they're not connecting to sentinel

(01:22:54):
that they are connecting to their phones, just like an
older person might get addicted to a drug because their
life was so meaningless. This is becoming like a sad,
sad story. Yeah, all I'm saying is that you can
open the door again, and I have to say let grow.
So let grow led Grow is the nonprofit that I
started with Jonathan Hayatu's my co author of this piece

(01:23:16):
and two others, and it is trying to make it
normal again to open that door. And we do it
two simple ways. One is a free program that we
suggest schools do where teachers give kids the homework assignment
that says, go home and do something new on your own,
with your parents' permission, but without your parents. And the
reason this is so important is because suddenly all the

(01:23:38):
fourth graders, or the entire school or the entire district
has kids zooming around. Oh I went to the store,
Oh I went to the park, I went to my
friend's house. I went, you know, to grandma's house. It's
just you've renormalized opening the door, so parents are less afraid,
they feel less crazy, and there's more kids zooming around.
And the other let Grow Experience. The other that's called

(01:23:58):
the lect Grow Experience, their Let Grow program. All of
this stuff is free, all our materials are free. Is
to keep the school open for a Let Grow play club,
which is simply letting the kids play on the playground
without their parents after school. And you put out some
balls and some chalk and a couple of cardboard boxes
and the sandbag or two, and they are happiest clams

(01:24:20):
because they are having what these kids are longing for.
They're making something happen. They're arguing about the rules, they're
making friends, they're building a fort. It's just it's what
they're longing for. And it's off phones. So why not
keep the school open for free play. There's an adult there,
but they're not organizing the games, they're not solving. They're
like a lifeguard. And then send kids home with the

(01:24:42):
Let Grow experience, so parents have to let go and
then they get the experience. The parents get the experience
of seeing that their kids is perfectly fine walking to
the park and coming back, or going and getting a
loaf of bread. So it's just these are the two simplest,
freest things we could think of that could start, you know,
going back up the phone based childhood and just making

(01:25:03):
your childhood again the gen x Stranger Things without the
Demi Gorgon.

Speaker 1 (01:25:09):
I love the fact I love that show, Stranger Things.
I love it all the you know, the kids growing
up in the eighties, and that that monster in the
upside down world very scary.

Speaker 6 (01:25:19):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:25:19):
I watched the first two years of it, and then
I got scared, so I did. It got scary, weird,
It's very dark. But I thought they were going to
have one more season, but those kids got old.

Speaker 1 (01:25:29):
I mean, I don't know if you could keep it
wait too long. You can't have another.

Speaker 2 (01:25:33):
The first two or three years of that show, it
was great, and then it got demonic or something.

Speaker 1 (01:25:38):
It got dark, for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:25:40):
It got dark. And I love Leonor and I love
having her on the show because my mom we're growing
up as kids. She said, get out of the house.
I don't want to see you till tonight. And we
did exactly what we created games. We did fun things together.
We found creative things to do. Now I grew up
in a small town in upstate New York. Different times.
I don't know parents feel they can do that nowadays.

Speaker 1 (01:26:02):
Yeah, we we we We ran a muck. If someone
were to say, let me know where you are, the
best I could do is tell you where I was
going to start. I wouldn't wherever I started the day.
It wasn't going to be where I ended it. But
I could tell you where I was, who I would
be hanging out with. But we just we had a
lot of fun. You could actually, there were a lot
of creeks where I grew up, crieks and you could

(01:26:22):
catch crayfish. You could pull the rock slowly and then
you could catch a little crayfish. They're just little. So
you did that. That's that's that's something to do that
if you're young, you can. You could build tarzan swings
and swing, you know, tie it to a big tree
limb and try to swing around and build forts.

Speaker 2 (01:26:39):
You'd have snowball fights, you'd go sledding.

Speaker 1 (01:26:41):
You'd go find some wood. I don't know where, but
you find by four in some supply wood in a construction.
So I don't know where, but you go up build
up a treehouse. You go up the tree and you
just start hammering nails like you know what you're doing
and you don't. I mean, there was that. I'm sure
these are not like I mean, I don't know if
I'm endorsing these things for kids the funny to do.

Speaker 2 (01:27:00):
But see the problem where I grew up, it was
a small town. Okay, problem just at your old man,
just outside a smaller town or a little bit bigger town.
So is a There was a town of twelve thousand
where I went to school, but there was a suburb
maybe three thousand. My father was a businessman.

Speaker 1 (01:27:19):
Everybody everyone you get daymarked.

Speaker 2 (01:27:22):
Oh they would say your your bill are kid's kid,
aren't you? Yeah, I'm going to tell them, oh no,
please don't.

Speaker 1 (01:27:29):
That was like that was like, you know, we have
a surveillance with our phones. You were being surveilled every
day without without phones because they would tell on you.

Speaker 2 (01:27:37):
They did too. Yeah, all right, were coming up final
segment here on the Rod and Greg Show and Talk
Radio one O five nine k n R S.

Speaker 1 (01:27:44):
We have like just a little bit more. You're listening
to talk radio one five nine canters. I'm citizen Hughes.

Speaker 2 (01:27:49):
And I'm right our kid. Now, you just got back
from vacation with your family going to when you got home?
Was everything okay? Inside the house?

Speaker 1 (01:27:54):
Yes? It was fine?

Speaker 2 (01:27:56):
Was it fine?

Speaker 1 (01:27:56):
I think we were broken into once years ago. Now
I would I got that ring doorbell now people.

Speaker 2 (01:28:03):
And we do do, which I think is is really
but it was years ago. But we we're just gone
for a day trip and during that time someone had
broken into our house. And you walked into the house,
you knew something was wasn't right and you just felt
kind of like violated.

Speaker 1 (01:28:18):
Well, you don't know what they're going to come back, No,
you don't know what they took.

Speaker 2 (01:28:21):
You can't really get they really. I think it was
two or three people who had broken in and they
were looking for things that they could trade in for
money so they could buy drugs.

Speaker 1 (01:28:31):
How they find them, I'm so surprised.

Speaker 2 (01:28:33):
I'm not sure how well. They turned some of the
stuff into a pawn shop or something and police were
able to track it down and one of them spend
time in prison and sent us a check every month,
with a very small check, but as part of his restitution.

Speaker 1 (01:28:49):
Wow, that's that's a good that's a good ending in
the story. Usually people get ripped off and there is
no jest.

Speaker 2 (01:28:54):
Well, I bring this up because two men have been
arrested in Texas. Well, they're well, they brought squatted at
a family he's home in the Houston area. They found
the squatters who ate their brisket, drank their alcohol, and
left meth in the car.

Speaker 1 (01:29:12):
Yeah, that's that. That's not very nice. That's not an airbnb.
That's not a success story. I wonder how long they
how long did they about a week? Jeez?

Speaker 2 (01:29:25):
About a week? And neighbors, well, the neighbors thought, you know,
they were on vacation, no one's in the house. But
apparently one of the guys who broke into the house, uh,
stepped out on the front door one day and one
of the neighbors said, uh, who is that guy? What's
he doing there? And that led police to find out

(01:29:45):
what had happened. Well, not that, I bet it's happened
to others too.

Speaker 1 (01:29:53):
Get to know your neighbors so they can.

Speaker 2 (01:29:55):
You know, I keep an eye out on things. When
when we go out of town, we'll ask neighbors, Hey,
will you watch a home? All world with the mail
especially or cancel the mail.

Speaker 1 (01:30:04):
And I'll tell you nowadays that with you know, all
the stuff that comes delivered to your door, you got
to get.

Speaker 2 (01:30:09):
That, get that off. But I think I think you're
right that that ring doorbell and I have one of those,
and a lot of people have them nowadays. Uh, it's
the best thing out there.

Speaker 1 (01:30:18):
That's when I knew the packages are being delivered while
we were in dec because.

Speaker 2 (01:30:22):
I did you have someone to pick them up?

Speaker 1 (01:30:25):
We did?

Speaker 2 (01:30:26):
You mean neighbors like you? Of course? Oh, I didn't
know that.

Speaker 1 (01:30:29):
We have listen. We have neighbors that are avid listeners
to the program.

Speaker 2 (01:30:33):
Really my neighbors. Yes, how you doing.

Speaker 1 (01:30:35):
I love my neighbors. They're smart.

Speaker 2 (01:30:39):
Yes. Well we made it another week.

Speaker 1 (01:30:41):
Another week. Yeah, it's good to be back. You know
I was gone last week. Here this week.

Speaker 2 (01:30:45):
Nice to have you back to hear the listeners. Well,
we want to tell everybody have a great, great weekend.
Looks like the weather's going to be fantastic, So get
out enjoy this great state of Utah. As we say
each and every night, head up, shoulders back, May God
bless you and your family. This great hundreds of hours
be safe out there. We'll talk to you on Monday
at four.

Speaker 1 (01:31:03):
See if folks