December 5, 2025 • 45 mins
Freedom Friday is going strong! Jon is joined in studio by Kathryn Johnson where the conversation turns to Minnesota's Paid Family Medical Leave and fraud. The group has opposing views on gingerbread houses.
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hour two Twin Cities News Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
AM eleven thirty and one O three five FM on
a Freedom Friday.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Guest joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
At studio Catherine Johnson from American Experiment. She should be
here in the next ten minutes or so waiting to
hear from Representative Walter Hudson and ak Kamara. Should be
in some time before the final hour of the show
we just played, Hope Walls. She apparently thinks that all
of these posts online suddenly regarding Minnesota and her dad
and something but a bunch of Russian bots. She's very,
(00:43):
very confused.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
The bots on this app lately are insane. I've literally
never had so many bots in my comments.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
I don't know. I think it's because like trumped that.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Minnesota is something he's gonna go after and be like
extremely racist towards.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
A really awesome community in Minnesota.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
And then well, Hope, sorry to say it, but your
daddy's on the way out, and so are you.
Speaker 6 (01:17):
Good riddance our word, good morning. John Does Hope Alls
think getting likes on your comment means just saying like
every other word?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Maybe that's what it is. Maybe it's like a Jedi
mind trick, She says, like a lot in her post.
She'll get a lot of likes in her videos. We
continue the show from the six five to one carpet
plus next Day install studios here on Twin Cities News Talk.
Speaker 7 (01:42):
I'm like Hope Walls, and like, I like the word
like because it's a likable, liking kind of a word,
and it's like, you know the way it is here,
and like Trump is racist, and.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Like I want to play the clips again. I have
more of Walls, but I got a couple of comments
that rolled in from last hour. This one, of course,
went viral yesterday.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
This creates danger.
Speaker 8 (02:10):
And I'll tell you what, in my time on this,
I'd never seen this before. People driving my house by
my house and using the R word in front of people.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
This is shameful.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I want the details of what actually transpired. I honestly
want to know what were the circumstances, What were the circumstances,
Where was Governor Walls, what place were they driving by,
Who was saying the R word, and who were they
saying it too. I'm genuinely curious.
Speaker 9 (02:41):
Tim Wallas thinks he's in danger because people are driving
by the Governor's mansion calling him retarded, but he was
in full support of protesting on the front lawns of
the Supreme Court.
Speaker 6 (02:55):
Good morning, John.
Speaker 10 (02:56):
There's no way Governor Walls heard anybody's scrap yelling outside
of his door. There's a tunnel between his mansion and
his garage. He never sets foot outside of the door.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
He goes through the.
Speaker 10 (03:11):
Tunnel to get in his chauffeur limousine and goes wherever
he's going, comes back the same way. I worked on
it recently. I know about the tunnel, it's there. He
never goes outside. He never heard a damn thing.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, maybe there's some insider at the Capitol that can
give us the backstory on what exactly Walls was referring to.
I'm an adventure I guess probably not because I'm an
adventure I guess the Walls is probably making the whole
thing up.
Speaker 11 (03:34):
Good morning, John Mitch here. So Tim Walltz is trying
to play the victim card. Obviously, we can see that
they always turn around the facts of what they're doing
and accuse their opponents.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
Of doing it.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
So I want to play.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Also, I got a couple of clips that rolled in
from another portion of the press conference yesterday talking about
the budget.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
We'll be getting into that later on in the hour.
Speaker 8 (03:55):
I tell our Tomale neighbors, I tell our Mong neighbors,
I tell all of our neighbors in minut so, do
you're respected, You're valued. We're proud of this state that
ranks near the top in almost every single category. And
I will tell you the only thing that's hurting this state,
as he so falsely claimed to a group of people,
(04:17):
is Donald Trump himself.
Speaker 12 (04:20):
Hey, John Jerry Rosemound, Happy Freedom Friday. He says that
we're the top of the list in every category. What category?
We're not top in education, we're top in taxes, we're
toping fraud. We don't even have a winning football team.
(04:40):
What is he talking about?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, and we're not even triple bond rated anymore. So
he can't even lay claim to that.
Speaker 13 (04:47):
The one thing in that press conference about the budget
yesterday was there's one dffler who was talking about, let's
put this myth to rest about us wasting money or something,
and you know, us playing all the money goes when
we had a surplus in money, he said, we've had
a surplus every year for I don't know how many years.
But we also have a deficit the next year when
(05:08):
it comes to the budget thing, and he said, we
don't have a spending problem. If you have surpluses and
deficits at the same time, something's wrong and you are
talking both.
Speaker 6 (05:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
No, you're absolutely correct, And we're going to get back
into that very issue coming up in a bit here
on Twin Cities News Talk this issue of that eighteen
billion dollar surplus that went up in smoke, and it
may have been because of fraud, as DHS has now
halted the payments relating to the different programs and disability
(05:39):
waivers that a year ago Walls had said contributed to
going from an eighteen billion dollar budget surplus to the
largest deficit in the state's history. Now it was one
contributing factor, don't you know. Don't forget though, too the
Democrats went and blew through that money on these various programs.
(06:00):
They went and spent the surplus on top of what
may have been a portion of that eighteen billion dollars
going to fraud. Before we dive into that and get
to more of your talkbacks, I want to go here
briefly with an immigration update. US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement
did arrest at least twelve men in Minneapolis this month.
The Department of Homeland Security announced this on Thursday. Six
(06:21):
of the arrested men were from Mexico, five from Somalia,
one from El Salvador. The Department called ICE's focus on
the Twin Cities Operation Metro Surge. ICE agents have had
an increased presence in the Twin Cities in recent days,
including a raid in Saint Paul.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Last week.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
President Donald Trump indicated Somali's in Minnesota would be targeted
following his string of derogatory comments about the Somali community.
I'm working off the version here from the Star Tribune.
Dhs AS Secretary Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a
news release that ICE is protecting Minnesotan's by arresting the
worst of the worst. She said, sanctuary policies and politicians
(06:59):
like Tim Walls and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob frye that's man
baby me or mom jeans.
Speaker 14 (07:04):
Jacob Fry.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Allowed criminals to roam free in the streets. Jacob Fry
has voice concerns that federal agents would mistakenly target citizens. Listen,
if that happens, then you go and you do something
about it, you go through the necessary protocol to make
sure that that gets rectified.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Mistakes do happen.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I'm not saying that they don't, but you don't simply
stop enforcing the law for fear that a mistake might
be made. And I haven't seen in the examples of
that actually occurring.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Either.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
It's not clear how long ICE agents are planning to
continue Operation Metro Surge or if these arrests are related
to last week's raid in Saint Paul. Now, keeping with
the theme of illegal immigration, we will get into this
as well. The Minnesota paid family leave program is now
making national news. I have an article here from the
Daily Wire. Tim Walls just released a paid leave plan
(08:01):
for Minnesota that includes illegal immigrants. Now, what was really
interesting about this Yesterday? I want to play this clip
for you from Walls as well. This clip was when
Walls was talking about paid family medical leave earlier this week.
Speaker 8 (08:21):
And one of the things is that has been missing
in America is what happens if you have a child,
how do you take time away and how do you
bond with that child? Which we know all the research
shows how big a difference that makes, or what happens
if you've got a family member that's sick. My family's
going through that right now with a mother in law,
Or what happens if you yourself have an illness and
(08:42):
have to be either through treatments or hospitalized.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
The choice in the past was.
Speaker 8 (08:48):
Lose your job or go broke, or care for yourself
or as we were just saying, if you're lucky enough
to have family support and people who do that, it's
not the way things should be done. And I continue
to say that the United States is about one of
three or four countries it doesn't have some type of
program like this. Now we join the states that are
going to implement a paid family medical lead program.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
It's such a fabricated argument. I'll bring some details from
the article from Daily Wire. We're going to get to
your talkbacks. I know a lot of you had comments
regarding paid family medical lead that we have not had
a chance to address this week because we've talked about
the issue. But this really is the biggest issue heading
into next year in my opinion, next to fraud, because
(09:31):
it impacts everyone who is working here in Minnesota. Every
single working taxpayer owner to employee is affected by paid
family leave. Plus there seems to be a bit of
a battle online over how many hours people listen to
the show, so we'll continue to take your talkbacks on that.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I still have my gingerbread question that I will be unleashing.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
And Catherine Johnson from American Experiment has a right she'll
be joining us in studio and the next segment here
on Twin City's News Talk along with your talkbacks from
the iHeart Radio app brought to you by Lyndall Realty.
Speaker 6 (10:08):
Good morning, John, to quote the Lake Chris Farley, Holy schnikes.
I just looked at my hours or time that I
listened ten thousand and thirty seven minutes, which translates to
just under one hundred and sixty eight hours or an
entire week. Yikes, I've been listening to a lot.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Happy Friday.
Speaker 15 (10:31):
I just looked, and I've listened to iHeartRadio twenty six thousand,
two hundred and ninety seven minutes in twenty twenty five,
and of course, John, you were the most listened to.
I go back and I listened to all episodes. I
am completely caught up.
Speaker 16 (10:49):
I want to know all.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
The juice, all the tea, all the deeps. Have a
good weekend.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
You know why you listen to me so much. It's
because an optimistic person. I'm not hysterical.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Jwentna City's News Talk Am eleven thirty one oh three
five FM from the six five to one Carpet plus
next day install Studios on a.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Thin freedom Friday.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
So Ak Kamara should be here hopefully by eight o'clock
this morning. I do not know where Representative Walter Hudson
is at this point in.
Speaker 16 (11:25):
Time paging I made it, but I am looking.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
At Catherine Johnson from American Experiment.
Speaker 17 (11:30):
You're here a.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Little bit later, but you have an excuse because you
guys had a big party last night.
Speaker 16 (11:34):
We did have a big party last night, Thank you.
I met multiple john Justice people at our American Experiment
Christmas party. It was packed, our biggest one ever. We
had three hundred and fifty people in the room. It
was nice, nice, and so I said I would take
it easy tonight, get here nice and early. I didn't
take it particularly easy, but turn it out here.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
That's all right. I'm glad you're here, Thank you. Yeah,
because I need your help.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I have a very important question that I've been holding
off on regarding gingerbread houses that I absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Need your opinion on.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So we're gonna save it, okay, because we're gonna talk
paid family medical leave. And it's been really interesting this
week on paid family medical leave. We have the comments
from Walls that we played on the show. We played
him a moment as a matter if I don't go
ahead and repeat him now for those that may have
missed it.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
This was earlier in the week.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Walls had a press conference prior to the one he
did yesterday where he complained about people driving past his
house using the R word.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Have you had that happen in front of your house?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
In front of the Johnson household and people going driving
by your house? And are they uttering different? You know
they slurs of any kind?
Speaker 16 (12:38):
Thinkfully, not that I know of. However, if I listened
in a if I lived in a gorgeous gated mansion,
I don't think I would really be so concerned.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Do you think it happened.
Speaker 18 (12:49):
I'm sorry if it did, I want to know what
the circumstances were.
Speaker 16 (12:53):
But now it's going to okay because people like me
could not stop laughing at this clip. And I don't
know if I reformed myself in Saint Paul and then
your future, it's miss maybe on my to do list.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Well, I want to, I just I just want to.
I want to mention people shouldn't do that. You should
not drive past the governor's mansion and record yourself using
any sort of slurs or shouting any words.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
And you certainly shouldn't record yourself and then go and.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Put it online and tell us you should you should
absolutely do not tag us do not you should not
do that. That would not be appropriate. I just want
to put that out there. Here's what Walls had to
say earlier this week about paid family medical leaves.
Speaker 8 (13:32):
And one of the things is that has been missing
in America is what happens if you have a child,
how do you how do you take time away, and
how do you bond with that child, which we know
all the research shows how big a difference that makes,
Or what happens if you've got a family member that's sick.
My family's going through that right now with the mother
in law, Or what happens if you yourself have an
illness and have to be either through treatments or hospitalized.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
The choice in the past was.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Lose your job or go broke or no, it wasn't
that wasn't a choice in the past. As a matter
of fact, Samantha Sansea here is out right now because
she just had a baby and she was able to
take time off and has plenty of time off, and
most women who take maternity to leave do have time up.
They created this fake argument to push forward with this plan,
(14:21):
and every single time Catherine I brought.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
It up on the show this week, I've just been
i mean slammed with.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Talkbacks and it's not At first, I was like, well,
this is really interesting, and this is really you know,
this is really obviously important to people. And then I
thought about more about the reason why, and suddenly it
began to sort of I began to sort of sit
with it longer, and like, this is a program that
affects every single working taxpayer here in Minnesota, from the
(14:49):
owner all the way down to the employee. Regardless of
the of the of the level, money is coming out
of your check to go and pay for this. If
you don't take these twenty weeks off, then you're eventually
having to go and pay for somebody else to take
that time off. And then on top of that, of course,
we have the very relevant concerns relating to fraud. So
(15:10):
this is really going to be, in my opinion, heading
into next year and heading into next year's legislative session,
the biggest issue next to getting a grip on the
fraud here in Minnesota.
Speaker 16 (15:20):
Yeah, and I've heard from a lot of people that
were notified, you know, this week that this is a
change that's coming to their company. And I've heard from
multiple people who it's changing for the worse because they
had a better policy in place, and now they're going
with the state policy because it's not easy to opt out.
You've to jump through a lot of hoops, and so
now they actually have a worse policy than you know,
what was previously offered. So it is it's crazy, and
(15:44):
you know, it's just completely wrong that people were not
offering this as something that woman could do. As a
woman who thinks about these kind of things in this
age in my life, that's something i'd factor into any job.
I was looking at, what is your policy?
Speaker 2 (15:57):
The one thing that I haven't who's who's benefiting.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
The most from this? That's what I'm curious about.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Is who's what was the And I guess I just
simply don't know. I mean, maybe we've talked about on
the show in the past, and just in light of
how much we cover here on City's News Talk that
I lost sort of the where this started from.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
But where did this push initiate.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
From and which organizations were the ones that were really
really pushing to make this happen, because it didn't just
come out. This wasn't just out of the goodness of Democrats' hearts.
They did this intentionally, unless it was just simply designed
to put a switch many of us believe to put
a strain on on businesses to make individuals more dependent
on the government.
Speaker 16 (16:41):
Well, and yeah, new tax from businesses and people. Now,
I think, of course, there's no way this tax is
going to cover the cost of this enormous program. I
think they've completely underestimated that. They've already you know, had
to raise the amount of the tax because they were like, oh,
it's not going to work. So I think it's likely
that'll happen again. But I don't know. I mean, they
(17:02):
love taxing. They love the more money they can get
their hands on in this government they want.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
We're going to continue to go through this article from
the Daily Wire and we'll certainly get to your questions
and comments regarding paid family medical leave.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
We will be diving into the.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Budget talk from yesterday, what the future outlook looks for
the state. There's some fantastic commentary coming out of Center
of the American Experiment. As a matter of fact, Bill
Walsh put up some key takeaways from that yesterday that
we'll be sharing on the show, and we'll be hearing
from you on a Freedom Friday and the iHeartRadio app.
Your talkback's brought to you by Lynn Dahl Realty here
on Twin City's News Talk.
Speaker 19 (17:37):
John, here's how easy fraud and medicaid happens in Minnesota.
Saw a fifty nine year old patient yesterday who moved
to his daughter's basement for the last couple months from
North Carolina because he needed a hip replacement, so he
got a free hip replacement on us. Then had a
appendicitis and had to have surgery. Now he's recovered, so
he's moving back to North Carolina.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Thanks everybody for paying for.
Speaker 17 (17:59):
His Good Morning, John Dan in New Brighton what Tim
Wall says about how are we going to pay for
people to take time off for medical I worked for
the post Office. I saved up my sick time three
years ago I had to have ANEE replacement. I was
(18:19):
offered three months. I was able to do that because
my job offered the sick time that I could save up.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, but according to Governor Tim Malls, then you couldn't
do that. You couldn't take this time off without losing
your job before paid family medical leave. We'll get into
more of your thoughts coming up on twin Cday's News
Talk AM eleven thirty and one oh three five FM.
All right, so we have arrival times for the other
(18:49):
Freedom Friday guests. Catherine Johnson from American Experiment is in studio.
Good morning, fresh off of the holiday party for American Experiment.
Speaker 16 (19:00):
I'm up in shipper.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I had the moment with Melinda again.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
She was like, oh, did you see that in American
Experiments having their holiday party. And I'm like, yeah, just
giving me this look like wren't why aren't you going?
It goes because people know better than to invite me
to anything if it's not on a Friday or Saturday night.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
I do not take offense to any of that.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah, And Catherine and Grace are fully well aware of
my sleep habits and know that I'm sure you would
love to invite me, but at the same time, I
thank you for not putting me in that position.
Speaker 16 (19:27):
Certainly. Yeah, I knew you would be long asleep before
it even started.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
I think.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
So your schedule goes so we have ak Kamara R
ANDC Committee been. He should be here hopefully right at
the top of the hour, and then Representative Walter Hudson
will be in studio next to hour. I'm gonna hold
off on I've got a lot of your paid family
medical leave questions coming in. I'll play a few of
your talkbacks, but I really want to have Walter Hudson
in studio to help assist with that, since he's more
(19:53):
on top of that certainly working in the legislature than
I am. We will take a few of your of
your comments on here working through the article though from
the Daily Wire covering this, the program does allow workers
to take up to twenty weeks paid leave each year
for various reasons, and it generally guarantees that their job
will be protected until they return again. Every time, I, Catherine,
(20:14):
every time I see that twenty weeks, it just it
blows my mind.
Speaker 16 (20:19):
Yeah, the things you can take time off for two
are crazy, because you know, if you give birth. Obviously
that's a pretty heavy lift. You might need, you know,
some time off, but you can take time off if
your cousin is having health issues, maybe even if your
dog died.
Speaker 6 (20:36):
Well.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I can't imagine any excuse being brought forward that won't
be allowed. I mean that's where the controversy is going
to come in. I mean, what employer is going to
be the first one to want to deny somebody taking
paid family medical leave, only to have that be challenged
because you.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Know that is going to happen.
Speaker 16 (20:55):
Yeah, the language is so ambiguous that it's like it
just is so broad, trying to cover so many things,
and you can have two different life events in a
year for up to twenty weeks. It's an incredible amount
of time.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
The state run program takes effect on the first of January.
Is generating tremendous criticism, especially in light of the recent
Somali tied fraud of scandal that allegedly culminated in billions
of stolen tax dollars, some of which were allegedly funneled
to al Shabab terrorris including according to City Journal. Critics
note that the fraud occurred under Walls's nose and view
(21:28):
this coming program as fertile ground for fraudsters. Now again,
Walter Hudson will be in studio hopefully next hour. He
was quoted in this Daely wire piece though, by the way,
so the program will destroy small businesses and noted it's
widely broad as Catherine was just mentioning, we're one month
out from destroying small businesses in Minnesota, unleashing a fresh
wave of fraud where thirty people can claim time off
(21:50):
to take care of the same random person they have
an affinity with, he wrote. Notably, the program also seems
to include illegal immigrants, and immigration status is not a requirement.
A website for the state expressly states then undocumented workers,
youth workers, and new workers are also covered. For those
(22:11):
of you that are leaving talkbacks now relating to questions
that you have for paid family medical leave as we
revisit this next hour. If you've left a talkback already
and I did not play it, feel free to leave
another one to sort of get it back up in
the queue.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
You're always welcome to go and do that.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
I try to stay as on top of them as
I can. But as we move through various topics, sometimes
the talkbacks get lost in the shuffle from previous conversations,
so if you have a question it doesn't get answered
right away, you can always leave another talkback via the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
Looking forward for the FMLA taxes and it going wrong?
But where's the money been going for the stupid delivery fee?
Speaker 6 (22:56):
Tax dollars delivery? Where's that going? Has any forensics we
can do on that?
Speaker 5 (23:02):
I have a feeling that it's being wasted or not
using what it was said was going to be used.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
For I have a great day.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah, I'm not going to hold my breath for any
sort of any quick analysis on where any of that
money is going. But he's absolutely appropriate to go and ask.
Speaker 16 (23:14):
Yeah, they clearly don't know where the money is going,
I think, is the answer.
Speaker 6 (23:19):
Thank goodness.
Speaker 14 (23:20):
Up until now we haven't been able to have children,
and we haven't been able to take care of our
elderly parents. Thank goodness for Timmy Walls and the Democrats
for allowing us to do that now by taxing the
living crap out of us. Here's a little hint to
hope it's better like to keep your mouth shut and
(23:42):
have people assume like you're dumb. Than to open your
mouth and like prove them right.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Uh oh, he invoked a hope wauls. Did you hear
the clip I played earlier time?
Speaker 16 (23:51):
I did?
Speaker 1 (23:52):
I did well For those that may.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Have missed it, Sam went ahead in the master control
booth and he basically edited down to just the most
relevant parts of her commentary in her latest post.
Speaker 20 (24:04):
Before you Play, John, it's the it's still the full
clip from this morning, but it's calling out highlighting the legs.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Okay, gotcha, Yeah, most relevant parts. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
The bots on this app lately are insane. I've literally
never had so many bots in my like comments.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
I think it's because like Trump decided that Minnesota is
something he's gonna go after and be like extremely racist
towards a really awesome community in Minnesota, and then like
they get programmed to just like flag anything Minnesota and
just like be racist and horrible in people's comments. I
(24:47):
don't know, actually, but like I've I've never had so
many bots.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
I always have like some, but it's like overrun. I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Someone in Russia decided to program literally every bot on
the internet to play anything Minnesota in any like person.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
That has anything to do with Minnesota.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I don't know, so weird, like so weird. Good luck, y'all,
it's not gonna work.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
This is actually really sad because what happened here with her.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
This is my take on it.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Okay, my take on this is that Hope Walls is
getting inundated because of all the negativity surrounding her dad.
She's seeing all this negativity online. She's having a hard
time reconciling it. And as as as a daughter would,
I would anticipate that my son's if they were spending
time online and saw the amount of negativity that Walls
(25:45):
is receiving aimed at their dad, they too would be
questioning and wondering what was going on. And so the
cope here for Hope is to go and say, oh,
these where are these bots coming from? Because she simply
doesn't want to reconcileile what her subconscious is doing her.
And that is the reality that No, it's a lot
of people pointing out that your dad is a complete
(26:06):
and total failure as the governor of Minnesota.
Speaker 16 (26:09):
Yeah, I've always been surprised that she has a TikTok,
that she seems to be able to go on freely
and talk about these issues. My advice to her would
be stop doing that and do not respond, do not
do anything, or at least think about it and maybe
run it by your dad first. I mean, to have
all this stuff in the public view, that she's stating
(26:31):
her opinion on her views are going to change so
much in a couple of years. Let's what a lot
of people go through at that age, and so to
have all of that out there, I've always been surprised.
I've always been surprised, but I do I'm a little
sympathetic to the like girls. Okay, I've maybe fallen into
this category once or twice.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
But you know, out of all of our Freedom Friday guests, Catherine,
you making that statement does not surprise me. And I
also know that you are not going to take offense
to that at all either. So I appreciate the yeah.
Speaker 16 (27:01):
Well, and I did have a dad and a brother
who when it got to extreme would go, you know,
do like a mocking and say like like like. So
I had a little check insistent in place growing up.
I'm not sure howpe had that, but I appreciate that.
I that I got that.
Speaker 21 (27:16):
Hey, John, they paid family leave benefits all the big
box stores and all the big corporations. It's just like
raising the minimum wage. The higher these things go, the
harder it is for the momb and Top Shop, and
the easier is to do everything with automation, AI and robotics.
That's what it's all about, is getting rid of people
and not having benefit packages.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
So we're going to return to the paid family medical
leave again. We're going to wait for our guests to
join us in studio, and if you have further comments
on that, feel free to leave us talkbacks and we'll
try to get those questions in once we have RNC
Committee man Akkmar and Representative Walter Hudson in studio with us.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Catherine Johnson from American Experiment is here.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Katherine, I have a question for you before we talk
about the budget forecast here in Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Yes, on gingerbread houses, you're familiar.
Speaker 16 (28:03):
I'm familiar. It's a bit of a triggering subject for me.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Maybe do you are you supposed to eat them?
Speaker 16 (28:10):
No, that's like a hard lesson that I had to
learn as a child, that you don't eat them is
what I was told.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
You were told you, you were told you don't eat gingerbread. House.
Speaker 16 (28:20):
I believe this was maybe in preschool and I made
maybe kindergarten was a little young. He was, can you
run it? And I made a gingerbread house. I take
it home. It sits on the counter or whatever for
weeks until Christmas. Right after Christmas, I'm like, all right,
time to dig in, you know, to the gingerbread house.
And my mom said, absolutely not. It's been sitting on
the counter for weeks. It's not gonna be good anyway
(28:43):
from a food safety perspective. Okay, not probably what you
should do. We don't eat those, but we can go
get like the gram crackers if you want and like
eat that. And that was that's not appealing.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
So we are talking about though, and I know Sam's
gonna chime in on this, but I just want to
and I'll get back to how this whole thing came about,
but not to push back because I I haven't landed
on a definitive opinion on this yet, which is why
I wanted to bring it up on the show this morning.
But you know, we are talking about food products that
for the most part, if you're gonna.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Have stuff sit out, it's pretty.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Much everything that is entailed relating to a gingerbread house.
I mean, these are these are these are solid food products.
You know, the frosting maybe, but the gingerbread itself.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
But that's sitting out.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
That's not a big deal when you look at all
the little details of the candies and whatever you put
on there.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
So, Sam, what did you what did you want to
you want to chime in on this?
Speaker 20 (29:36):
I just well, Catherine, I just had a question for you.
Were you not allowed to eat your gingerbread houses because
of the Hoa's or what's going on there?
Speaker 1 (29:44):
He's he's bringing it back to the to the ho
A because of your views on h He went deep
on that. I know were you, I know where you were,
you know where you were going there.
Speaker 6 (29:53):
I know.
Speaker 16 (29:54):
You know what, that's a great point. Maybe maybe my
gingerbread house was involved in HOA where I was allowed
to eat it. I don't know.
Speaker 20 (30:01):
I have a community of Hoa gingerbread houses at home.
Speaker 16 (30:04):
Is that my happiness lives in an hoa run by
a fascist?
Speaker 4 (30:09):
I forgot about that.
Speaker 16 (30:11):
I was still true by the way.
Speaker 20 (30:13):
I was the kid. This kind of tells you a
lot about me. I was the kid that had to
use milk cartons to keep my gingerbread house stable. So
I would not have eaten my gingerbread houses anyway because
they had milk cartons.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
So Melinda and I are watching, So I like watching.
We like watching the baking shows together.
Speaker 16 (30:29):
Oh, which one like Great British.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Yeah, we didn't watch.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
We didn't We watched the new holiday episodes of The
Great British Baking Show. We haven't watched this season of
The Great British Baking Show. There's a bunch on HBO Max,
by the way. It just has a real quick side
note on that. Apparently HBO Max has gone and purchased
or Netflix is buying Warner Brothers and HBO Max for
eighty two point seven billion dollars, So potentially all of
(30:57):
Warner Brothers and HBO Max content could just end up
on Netflix. We're gonna have like one streaming platform rule
to rule them all.
Speaker 16 (31:06):
We're getting closer and closer to that point where we
just have cable in a different form of cable, and
I'm here for it.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
So we're watching this gingerbread competition because what happens is
we get caught up on the baking shows and we
got a way for the new ones to air because
they don't release them all at the same time. So
we're looking for shows to watch and this is what
we watch, saying, you know, this is what we watch
it during the week, and so we're watching it and
I'm realizing watching this, this this gingerbread house baking competition
where they're given, you know, different themes for every.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Competition that they're not there's no taste test involved.
Speaker 16 (31:36):
Why why is it The taste isn't relevant.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
But it is in every other, every other baking show.
Speaker 16 (31:42):
That's a good point. But you're not really baking, are you.
I mean, what did they make? Yeah, they're making your
gingerbread assembling.
Speaker 18 (31:47):
Oh yeah, they're making all the all the items and
the gingerbread. So, like I asked her, we got through
like two or three, We got like through two episodes
that I'm like, wait a second, they're not having any
taste portion to the competition, which raised the question of
are you supposed to eat a gingerbread house.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
I think that's how this whole thing came about.
Speaker 16 (32:07):
I think to solve this, along with the sides of
the house, you got to make some little guys or
or gals, little ginger gal guys, and uh, you can
snack on those while you're while you're putting the house together,
and then the house is decorative and the people are edible.
Speaker 20 (32:20):
Okay, if I was the producer that see, my mind
went to, if I was the producer on that show,
just put the bowls with all the batter off to
the side. I'll taste test those and let you know
who the winner is.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
I was just genuinely I would want to go and
eat the gingerbread house, like I think it's okay, even
if it was maybe there's a maybe there's a limitation,
maybe there's so many days at which but to me,
that's the fun of having it.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
I think if we're if.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
I'm going to land somewhere, I was gonna land on,
I want to go and eat the gingerbread house when
all of a sudden done.
Speaker 20 (32:50):
In this case, I would agree with you, John, because
I'm assuming they made the gingerbread houses right then and there,
so they're they're fresh, right.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Yeah, so they're making them on the floor.
Speaker 16 (33:00):
But why are you putting together a gingerbread house if
you're just gonna eat it?
Speaker 1 (33:03):
I know, I know.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Right after well, I guess that to that question, I go, well,
why are we having this baking competition at all. Why
don't we just have a competition on you building little
miniature houses. I guess that's what we're doing. But they're
calling it a gingerbread house. Just the food aspect of
it seems lost. I do like what the creations that
they make. Eat the gingerbread houses. I'm with you, John,
You're with Anything's okay, you're on your pro eat the
gingerbread house. I say, eat the gingerbread house. You were
(33:26):
told in the past, don't eat the gingerbread house. But
what do you how do you really feel?
Speaker 16 (33:31):
I'm kind of don't eat it. I don't think it's
that good anyway. I mean, I think it's better as
a decorative object.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
All right, do you have any thoughts on this? Leave
us a talkback on the iHeartRadio app. Those are brought
to you by Lyndahl Realty. You know, see this is
what I said. Remember, I thought that this was gonna
be like a massive like everybody's gonna want to chime
on this every single time I do that got nothing
so far. I've got fifty paid family leave talkbacks in
here that I haven't head of. Jest to get to you,
but I expected that I've been holding off on this
(33:58):
very topic because I'm like, I'm gonna get slammed. I'm
gonna get slamm with people wanting to talk about gingerbread houses.
And all I'm getting is.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
You're fascinating to talk to.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
We'll see.
Speaker 20 (34:08):
I wish I had a cricket sound effect.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Every I know we do. I know everything is on
a slight delay. So maybe everybody's just holding off on that.
So while your talkbacks roll in and you prove that
I was correct that you are very interested in gingerbread
houses on a Freedom Friday. Five takeaways from the budget Forecasts.
So Minnesota's Management and Budget released the budget forecast yesterday
(34:30):
showing a two point four billion dollars surplus in the
current biennium going through twenty twenty seven and a two
point nine billion dollar deficit in the next twenty eight
to twenty nine. So Bill Walsh, the center of the
American Experiment Rights, Here are the five takeaways from Bill,
whose opinion I greatly respect. First off, the structural imbalances
(34:55):
he mentions, even though there's enough cash in the bank
to support the current surplus, structural deficit between spending and
revenues persists. So when the dust settles, Minnesota is projected
to take sixty six point two six two billion and
spend sixteen point four billion, a difference of two point
one billion. Essentially, the structural deficit will grow to four
(35:19):
point four almost four point five billion in the next
biennium if nothing is done to align spending with the
projected revenue. And that's one of the questions I want
to ask Walter Hudson when he joins US is how
do we do that? I mean, are we capable of
aligning with the spending with the projected revenue given the
makeup of the legislature right now?
Speaker 16 (35:38):
Well, you know, if they did something about fraud, that
would make a good tent there is that.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
I agree with you.
Speaker 6 (35:45):
Here.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
The other takeaway that Bill Walsh has on the budget
forecast is Governor Wallson Democrats in Minnesota continued to blame Trump,
as Walls did yesterday.
Speaker 8 (35:54):
I tell our to Molly neighbors, I tell our long neighbors,
I tell all of our neighbors in Minnesota your inspected,
You're valued. We're proud of this state that ranks near
the top in almost every single category.
Speaker 6 (36:09):
And I will tell you. The only thing.
Speaker 8 (36:12):
That's hurting this state, as he so falsely claimed to
a group of people, is Donald Trump himself.
Speaker 16 (36:18):
Can I make one point of it, absolutely before we
get to this.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Week, make all the points you want.
Speaker 16 (36:23):
Don't bring the Mung into this. Who's mad about the Mung.
I've not done anything wrong whatsoever. They are a great community,
I think, and to say the other one isn't. But
we do have a problem right now that's persisting within
the Somali community. This isn't just a racism issue against
all people of color, which is what he seems to think.
This is a specific fraud issue within a community and
(36:46):
within his government that we're trying to address. He just
fundamentally can't understand that.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
I had a really interesting conversation with fellow iHeartRadio talk
show host Mandy Connell out of Denver early this week,
and obviously she had me on to talk about the
issues we were facing regarding fraud here in Minnesota, and
they've had similar circumstances with an influx of immigrants from Venezuela.
(37:13):
Of course, we haven't talked about it in a long time,
but remembered we had you had the the Venezuelan immigrants
that were taking over entire housing complexes that were basically,
you know, ruling them ruling over these housing complexes.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
They couldn't get them removed, and it was it.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Was an interesting conversation in terms of the comparison of
what a state like Colorado is dealing with with their
influx of immigrants and a place like Minnesota, because they
too have various groups of immigrants that live in the state,
but there was a commonality here wherein while they're facing
an issue relating to Venezuelans causing difficulty, the other immigrant
(37:50):
populations are just going about living their lives, abiding by
the law and not causing any problems. And we have
a very similar circumstance here in Minnesota. We have a
lot of different immigrants groups here, but it really just
appears at the moment that the only one we're having
a significant issue with is the Somali community. It is
a fraction of that large Somali community, but it is
(38:12):
the majority. Once again, of the fraud that is taking
place is coming from that Somali community and not from
other immigrant communities as well.
Speaker 16 (38:19):
And it is okay to talk about the difficulties that
some communities have assimilating more than others. That is not
a racist thing to talk about. Whatsoever, assimilation into America
and an American culture is crucial for us to stay
connected and for us to stay functional as a country,
and so it is not a problem at all to
(38:40):
point out there is much more of an assimilation problem
in some communities than others.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Getting back to Bill Walsh's briefly, we have gotten we
have received quite a few gingerbreadhouse talkbacks.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Yes, some good ones in here. I feel so much
better about myself now.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
So Bill Walsh also says takeaways from the budget forecast
outside audit scope of fraud is due in late January.
US Attorney Joe Thompson says that we're still looking because
we have outside auditors working on getting a number that
will be released in late January. Because Walls challenged the
public estimates relating to fraud, so we do have some
(39:18):
independent investigation in an audit going on. So we'll have
a firm number come late January.
Speaker 16 (39:23):
Okay, we He challenges the When Joe Thompson is the
one who said billions, what you challenge him? You think
he's wrong? Governor Walls.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Walls is trying to say face for as long as
he possibly can. He's on a sinking ship. I'm convinced
the clock is ticking on him, and Bill Walsh in.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Points to this.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
He talks about the Capitol press corps turning on Walls.
Governor Tim Walls used to be used to have a
very friendly press corps in Minnesota. It explains how surprised
the rest of the country appears to appears to be
when they hear about his exploit, stolen valor visits to China.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Of course, the fraud.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
But if Thursday's press conference is any indication, the friendliness
might be gone the press as Walls repeatedly about the
fraud issue and even yelled some questions at him when
his handlers cut the press conference off. I don't think
that has happened in the six years as governor. I
want to play this clip. It's probably one of the
best clips from yesterday. He's asked about fraud. Walls's new
(40:15):
name is word salad. Walls listen to the dance that
he does, the word salad that he delivers while never
answering the question. He basically just spoke as many words
as he possibly could until he could find an appropriate
stopping point and try to move on to somebody else.
Speaker 8 (40:32):
Keep looking out for Minnesota.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
The cliffs question about when you knew or became aware
of you, I mean growth in these programs.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
We can squeel about everything.
Speaker 6 (40:41):
Other yes come up in these.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Forecasts before some of the programs that were.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
So Again, she's asking him, like, how long did you
know the growth in these programs that exploded? How long
were you aware of the growth of the increase in
these programs. It is a completely fair question to ask.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Here was his answer, letting a pathic program to autism
that didn't raise any alarm.
Speaker 8 (41:04):
These are new programs, a lot of them. Some happened
ahead of time, and I think for all of us
that there have been these incidents, whether it's in Medicaid, medicare,
whatever it would be. And as soon as they're brought forward,
we address them. We have commissioners that deal with them
in each of that, we have the professionals who deal
with them in each of it. When we bring them
forward and we believe it's happened, we refer them to
the BCA, who then refers them for prosecution. I can't
(41:27):
tell you one thing is these are programs. I care
deeply about. These are programs, and I have a track
record of doing this as being very fiscally responsible and
fisically conservative. I can assure you that there is no
one angrier about this than me, because I know what
the Republican response is is to cut these programs, just
cut them in.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
See, he's angry that people are allegedly driving by his
house using the R word. He's not angry about these programs.
And in no way did he ever bother to go
and answer the question.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
It was the most word salad of word salads.
Speaker 16 (41:56):
Yeah, and you know he's lying because he has bragged
a numerous occasions about the number of people on these programs.
He thinks it's a good thing when people are roped
into government programs, and you see that kind of growth,
not evidence of obvious fraud.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
The last takeaway from Bill Walsh on the budget was
the cost of fraud is not baked into the current
budget forecast. State budget officials had to answer several questions
about how they are accounting for fraud in the budget forecast.
The answer is they're not. They don't budget for fraud.
Bill said, it were, it would be pretty alarming. If
your state budget office projected a certain percentage of fraud
in the upcoming budget. But maybe that's where we are
(42:32):
in Minnesota today. So we'll continue to talk about this
heading into next hour. Speaking of baking, we do have
a couple of thoughts relating to gingerbread houses and whether
or not you're supposed to eat them. Let's go, let's
get to those talkbacks brought to you by Lyndahl Realty,
and we'll have our guests joining us in studio. Along
with Catherine Johnson from American Experiment, we have RNC Committee
and ak Kmara and Representative Walter Hudson on the way
(42:53):
here on Twin Cities News Talk.
Speaker 22 (42:55):
Good morning, John. For me, it's a hard pass on
eating a gin your bread house. Not only has the
gingerbread and the frosting and all the candy been sitting
out for weeks, think of all the people that have
touched it, sneezed on it, coughed on it.
Speaker 5 (43:13):
Yuck.
Speaker 22 (43:14):
The germs would be disgusting.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
I guess, I guess I would ask the question, who
are you inviting to your house and what are they
doing around your gingerbread.
Speaker 16 (43:22):
Sitting on the counter.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
You know, are sneezing, like they're like pawing at it
and like hovering over it and just coughing on top
of it. Just you imagine all these people just loobread.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
I don't think that's happening.
Speaker 6 (43:38):
It's more work than it's worth.
Speaker 5 (43:40):
But first of all, when you deconstruct a gingerbread house,
take the candies off and then put the pieces of
gingerbread in the whitewave with a wet paper towel turned
on for thirty seconds, instantly waste again.
Speaker 4 (43:52):
I have a great day.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Okay, yeah, you lost me.
Speaker 6 (43:54):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
This is this who This is why I don't eat
crab legs. It's just too much work.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
I just don't.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
Linda loves crab legs, and every single time I come
is she's like, you're not getting any of my crab legs.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
You won't put in the effort. She's absolutely right, I won't.
Speaker 16 (44:08):
And you know, the quality of the gingerbread house is
significantly below that of a crab leg. I would say, so,
I don't know about the effort. Yeah, it's worth it.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
Well, you get very little. It's a really big crab.
You get very little out of the crab leg.
Speaker 14 (44:21):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
That's just me though apparently.
Speaker 5 (44:25):
Of course, Catherine probably thinks gingerbread isn't that tasty. But
she was also told that graham Cracker is a substitute
for gingerbread.
Speaker 6 (44:34):
Nah, not in close.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Did I miss something or he just trying to take
a really arbitrary swipe at you.
Speaker 16 (44:41):
Well, he makes a good point. I should note that
I did that in kindergarten class or something, you know,
and so not to slander my mom and all. My
mom would never allow graham Crackers as a substitute for gingerbread.
But that also could explain the germ issue she was
concerned about. I think it was sitting on table in
a kindergarten class.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
So all right, We'll continue to tackle the hard issues
on the show, budget takeaways, fraud here in Minnesota, and
whether or not you should eat a gingerbread house.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
It's all coming up on Twin City's News Talk
Hour two Twin Cities News Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
AM eleven thirty and one O three five FM on
a Freedom Friday.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Guest joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
At studio Catherine Johnson from American Experiment. She should be
here in the next ten minutes or so waiting to
hear from Representative Walter Hudson and ak Kamara. Should be
in some time before the final hour of the show
we just played, Hope Walls. She apparently thinks that all
of these posts online suddenly regarding Minnesota and her dad
and something but a bunch of Russian bots. She's very,
(00:43):
very confused.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
The bots on this app lately are insane. I've literally
never had so many bots in my comments.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
I don't know. I think it's because like trumped that.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Minnesota is something he's gonna go after and be like
extremely racist towards.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
A really awesome community in Minnesota.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
And then well, Hope, sorry to say it, but your
daddy's on the way out, and so are you.
Speaker 6 (01:17):
Good riddance our word, good morning. John Does Hope Alls
think getting likes on your comment means just saying like
every other word?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Maybe that's what it is. Maybe it's like a Jedi
mind trick, She says, like a lot in her post.
She'll get a lot of likes in her videos. We
continue the show from the six five to one carpet
plus next Day install studios here on Twin Cities News Talk.
Speaker 7 (01:42):
I'm like Hope Walls, and like, I like the word
like because it's a likable, liking kind of a word,
and it's like, you know the way it is here,
and like Trump is racist, and.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Like I want to play the clips again. I have
more of Walls, but I got a couple of comments
that rolled in from last hour. This one, of course,
went viral yesterday.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
This creates danger.
Speaker 8 (02:10):
And I'll tell you what, in my time on this,
I'd never seen this before. People driving my house by
my house and using the R word in front of people.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
This is shameful.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I want the details of what actually transpired. I honestly
want to know what were the circumstances, What were the circumstances,
Where was Governor Walls, what place were they driving by,
Who was saying the R word, and who were they
saying it too. I'm genuinely curious.
Speaker 9 (02:41):
Tim Wallas thinks he's in danger because people are driving
by the Governor's mansion calling him retarded, but he was
in full support of protesting on the front lawns of
the Supreme Court.
Speaker 6 (02:55):
Good morning, John.
Speaker 10 (02:56):
There's no way Governor Walls heard anybody's scrap yelling outside
of his door. There's a tunnel between his mansion and
his garage. He never sets foot outside of the door.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
He goes through the.
Speaker 10 (03:11):
Tunnel to get in his chauffeur limousine and goes wherever
he's going, comes back the same way. I worked on
it recently. I know about the tunnel, it's there. He
never goes outside. He never heard a damn thing.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, maybe there's some insider at the Capitol that can
give us the backstory on what exactly Walls was referring to.
I'm an adventure I guess probably not because I'm an
adventure I guess the Walls is probably making the whole
thing up.
Speaker 11 (03:34):
Good morning, John Mitch here. So Tim Walltz is trying
to play the victim card. Obviously, we can see that
they always turn around the facts of what they're doing
and accuse their opponents.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
Of doing it.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
So I want to play.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Also, I got a couple of clips that rolled in
from another portion of the press conference yesterday talking about
the budget.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
We'll be getting into that later on in the hour.
Speaker 8 (03:55):
I tell our Tomale neighbors, I tell our Mong neighbors,
I tell all of our neighbors in minut so, do
you're respected, You're valued. We're proud of this state that
ranks near the top in almost every single category. And
I will tell you the only thing that's hurting this state,
as he so falsely claimed to a group of people,
(04:17):
is Donald Trump himself.
Speaker 12 (04:20):
Hey, John Jerry Rosemound, Happy Freedom Friday. He says that
we're the top of the list in every category. What category?
We're not top in education, we're top in taxes, we're
toping fraud. We don't even have a winning football team.
(04:40):
What is he talking about?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, and we're not even triple bond rated anymore. So
he can't even lay claim to that.
Speaker 13 (04:47):
The one thing in that press conference about the budget
yesterday was there's one dffler who was talking about, let's
put this myth to rest about us wasting money or something,
and you know, us playing all the money goes when
we had a surplus in money, he said, we've had
a surplus every year for I don't know how many years.
But we also have a deficit the next year when
(05:08):
it comes to the budget thing, and he said, we
don't have a spending problem. If you have surpluses and
deficits at the same time, something's wrong and you are
talking both.
Speaker 6 (05:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
No, you're absolutely correct, And we're going to get back
into that very issue coming up in a bit here
on Twin Cities News Talk this issue of that eighteen
billion dollar surplus that went up in smoke, and it
may have been because of fraud, as DHS has now
halted the payments relating to the different programs and disability
(05:39):
waivers that a year ago Walls had said contributed to
going from an eighteen billion dollar budget surplus to the
largest deficit in the state's history. Now it was one
contributing factor, don't you know. Don't forget though, too the
Democrats went and blew through that money on these various programs.
(06:00):
They went and spent the surplus on top of what
may have been a portion of that eighteen billion dollars
going to fraud. Before we dive into that and get
to more of your talkbacks, I want to go here
briefly with an immigration update. US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement
did arrest at least twelve men in Minneapolis this month.
The Department of Homeland Security announced this on Thursday. Six
(06:21):
of the arrested men were from Mexico, five from Somalia,
one from El Salvador. The Department called ICE's focus on
the Twin Cities Operation Metro Surge. ICE agents have had
an increased presence in the Twin Cities in recent days,
including a raid in Saint Paul.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Last week.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
President Donald Trump indicated Somali's in Minnesota would be targeted
following his string of derogatory comments about the Somali community.
I'm working off the version here from the Star Tribune.
Dhs AS Secretary Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a
news release that ICE is protecting Minnesotan's by arresting the
worst of the worst. She said, sanctuary policies and politicians
(06:59):
like Tim Walls and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob frye that's man
baby me or mom jeans.
Speaker 14 (07:04):
Jacob Fry.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Allowed criminals to roam free in the streets. Jacob Fry
has voice concerns that federal agents would mistakenly target citizens. Listen,
if that happens, then you go and you do something
about it, you go through the necessary protocol to make
sure that that gets rectified.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Mistakes do happen.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I'm not saying that they don't, but you don't simply
stop enforcing the law for fear that a mistake might
be made. And I haven't seen in the examples of
that actually occurring.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Either.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
It's not clear how long ICE agents are planning to
continue Operation Metro Surge or if these arrests are related
to last week's raid in Saint Paul. Now, keeping with
the theme of illegal immigration, we will get into this
as well. The Minnesota paid family leave program is now
making national news. I have an article here from the
Daily Wire. Tim Walls just released a paid leave plan
(08:01):
for Minnesota that includes illegal immigrants. Now, what was really
interesting about this Yesterday? I want to play this clip
for you from Walls as well. This clip was when
Walls was talking about paid family medical leave earlier this week.
Speaker 8 (08:21):
And one of the things is that has been missing
in America is what happens if you have a child,
how do you take time away and how do you
bond with that child? Which we know all the research
shows how big a difference that makes, or what happens
if you've got a family member that's sick. My family's
going through that right now with a mother in law,
Or what happens if you yourself have an illness and
(08:42):
have to be either through treatments or hospitalized.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
The choice in the past was.
Speaker 8 (08:48):
Lose your job or go broke, or care for yourself
or as we were just saying, if you're lucky enough
to have family support and people who do that, it's
not the way things should be done. And I continue
to say that the United States is about one of
three or four countries it doesn't have some type of
program like this. Now we join the states that are
going to implement a paid family medical lead program.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
It's such a fabricated argument. I'll bring some details from
the article from Daily Wire. We're going to get to
your talkbacks. I know a lot of you had comments
regarding paid family medical lead that we have not had
a chance to address this week because we've talked about
the issue. But this really is the biggest issue heading
into next year in my opinion, next to fraud, because
(09:31):
it impacts everyone who is working here in Minnesota. Every
single working taxpayer owner to employee is affected by paid
family leave. Plus there seems to be a bit of
a battle online over how many hours people listen to
the show, so we'll continue to take your talkbacks on that.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I still have my gingerbread question that I will be unleashing.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
And Catherine Johnson from American Experiment has a right she'll
be joining us in studio and the next segment here
on Twin City's News Talk along with your talkbacks from
the iHeart Radio app brought to you by Lyndall Realty.
Speaker 6 (10:08):
Good morning, John, to quote the Lake Chris Farley, Holy schnikes.
I just looked at my hours or time that I
listened ten thousand and thirty seven minutes, which translates to
just under one hundred and sixty eight hours or an
entire week. Yikes, I've been listening to a lot.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Happy Friday.
Speaker 15 (10:31):
I just looked, and I've listened to iHeartRadio twenty six thousand,
two hundred and ninety seven minutes in twenty twenty five,
and of course, John, you were the most listened to.
I go back and I listened to all episodes. I
am completely caught up.
Speaker 16 (10:49):
I want to know all.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
The juice, all the tea, all the deeps. Have a
good weekend.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
You know why you listen to me so much. It's
because an optimistic person. I'm not hysterical.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Jwentna City's News Talk Am eleven thirty one oh three
five FM from the six five to one Carpet plus
next day install Studios on a.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Thin freedom Friday.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
So Ak Kamara should be here hopefully by eight o'clock
this morning. I do not know where Representative Walter Hudson
is at this point in.
Speaker 16 (11:25):
Time paging I made it, but I am looking.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
At Catherine Johnson from American Experiment.
Speaker 17 (11:30):
You're here a.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Little bit later, but you have an excuse because you
guys had a big party last night.
Speaker 16 (11:34):
We did have a big party last night, Thank you.
I met multiple john Justice people at our American Experiment
Christmas party. It was packed, our biggest one ever. We
had three hundred and fifty people in the room. It
was nice, nice, and so I said I would take
it easy tonight, get here nice and early. I didn't
take it particularly easy, but turn it out here.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
That's all right. I'm glad you're here, Thank you. Yeah,
because I need your help.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I have a very important question that I've been holding
off on regarding gingerbread houses that I absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Need your opinion on.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So we're gonna save it, okay, because we're gonna talk
paid family medical leave. And it's been really interesting this
week on paid family medical leave. We have the comments
from Walls that we played on the show. We played
him a moment as a matter if I don't go
ahead and repeat him now for those that may have
missed it.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
This was earlier in the week.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Walls had a press conference prior to the one he
did yesterday where he complained about people driving past his
house using the R word.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Have you had that happen in front of your house?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
In front of the Johnson household and people going driving
by your house? And are they uttering different? You know
they slurs of any kind?
Speaker 16 (12:38):
Thinkfully, not that I know of. However, if I listened
in a if I lived in a gorgeous gated mansion,
I don't think I would really be so concerned.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Do you think it happened.
Speaker 18 (12:49):
I'm sorry if it did, I want to know what
the circumstances were.
Speaker 16 (12:53):
But now it's going to okay because people like me
could not stop laughing at this clip. And I don't
know if I reformed myself in Saint Paul and then
your future, it's miss maybe on my to do list.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Well, I want to, I just I just want to.
I want to mention people shouldn't do that. You should
not drive past the governor's mansion and record yourself using
any sort of slurs or shouting any words.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
And you certainly shouldn't record yourself and then go and.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Put it online and tell us you should you should
absolutely do not tag us do not you should not
do that. That would not be appropriate. I just want
to put that out there. Here's what Walls had to
say earlier this week about paid family medical leaves.
Speaker 8 (13:32):
And one of the things is that has been missing
in America is what happens if you have a child,
how do you how do you take time away, and
how do you bond with that child, which we know
all the research shows how big a difference that makes,
Or what happens if you've got a family member that's sick.
My family's going through that right now with the mother
in law, Or what happens if you yourself have an
illness and have to be either through treatments or hospitalized.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
The choice in the past was.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Lose your job or go broke or no, it wasn't
that wasn't a choice in the past. As a matter
of fact, Samantha Sansea here is out right now because
she just had a baby and she was able to
take time off and has plenty of time off, and
most women who take maternity to leave do have time up.
They created this fake argument to push forward with this plan,
(14:21):
and every single time Catherine I brought.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
It up on the show this week, I've just been
i mean slammed with.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Talkbacks and it's not At first, I was like, well,
this is really interesting, and this is really you know,
this is really obviously important to people. And then I
thought about more about the reason why, and suddenly it
began to sort of I began to sort of sit
with it longer, and like, this is a program that
affects every single working taxpayer here in Minnesota, from the
(14:49):
owner all the way down to the employee. Regardless of
the of the of the level, money is coming out
of your check to go and pay for this. If
you don't take these twenty weeks off, then you're eventually
having to go and pay for somebody else to take
that time off. And then on top of that, of course,
we have the very relevant concerns relating to fraud. So
(15:10):
this is really going to be, in my opinion, heading
into next year and heading into next year's legislative session,
the biggest issue next to getting a grip on the
fraud here in Minnesota.
Speaker 16 (15:20):
Yeah, and I've heard from a lot of people that
were notified, you know, this week that this is a
change that's coming to their company. And I've heard from
multiple people who it's changing for the worse because they
had a better policy in place, and now they're going
with the state policy because it's not easy to opt out.
You've to jump through a lot of hoops, and so
now they actually have a worse policy than you know,
what was previously offered. So it is it's crazy, and
(15:44):
you know, it's just completely wrong that people were not
offering this as something that woman could do. As a
woman who thinks about these kind of things in this
age in my life, that's something i'd factor into any job.
I was looking at, what is your policy?
Speaker 2 (15:57):
The one thing that I haven't who's who's benefiting.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
The most from this? That's what I'm curious about.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Is who's what was the And I guess I just
simply don't know. I mean, maybe we've talked about on
the show in the past, and just in light of
how much we cover here on City's News Talk that
I lost sort of the where this started from.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
But where did this push initiate.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
From and which organizations were the ones that were really
really pushing to make this happen, because it didn't just
come out. This wasn't just out of the goodness of Democrats' hearts.
They did this intentionally, unless it was just simply designed
to put a switch many of us believe to put
a strain on on businesses to make individuals more dependent
on the government.
Speaker 16 (16:41):
Well, and yeah, new tax from businesses and people. Now,
I think, of course, there's no way this tax is
going to cover the cost of this enormous program. I
think they've completely underestimated that. They've already you know, had
to raise the amount of the tax because they were like, oh,
it's not going to work. So I think it's likely
that'll happen again. But I don't know. I mean, they
(17:02):
love taxing. They love the more money they can get
their hands on in this government they want.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
We're going to continue to go through this article from
the Daily Wire and we'll certainly get to your questions
and comments regarding paid family medical leave.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
We will be diving into the.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Budget talk from yesterday, what the future outlook looks for
the state. There's some fantastic commentary coming out of Center
of the American Experiment. As a matter of fact, Bill
Walsh put up some key takeaways from that yesterday that
we'll be sharing on the show, and we'll be hearing
from you on a Freedom Friday and the iHeartRadio app.
Your talkback's brought to you by Lynn Dahl Realty here
on Twin City's News Talk.
Speaker 19 (17:37):
John, here's how easy fraud and medicaid happens in Minnesota.
Saw a fifty nine year old patient yesterday who moved
to his daughter's basement for the last couple months from
North Carolina because he needed a hip replacement, so he
got a free hip replacement on us. Then had a
appendicitis and had to have surgery. Now he's recovered, so
he's moving back to North Carolina.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Thanks everybody for paying for.
Speaker 17 (17:59):
His Good Morning, John Dan in New Brighton what Tim
Wall says about how are we going to pay for
people to take time off for medical I worked for
the post Office. I saved up my sick time three
years ago I had to have ANEE replacement. I was
(18:19):
offered three months. I was able to do that because
my job offered the sick time that I could save up.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, but according to Governor Tim Malls, then you couldn't
do that. You couldn't take this time off without losing
your job before paid family medical leave. We'll get into
more of your thoughts coming up on twin Cday's News
Talk AM eleven thirty and one oh three five FM.
All right, so we have arrival times for the other
(18:49):
Freedom Friday guests. Catherine Johnson from American Experiment is in studio.
Good morning, fresh off of the holiday party for American Experiment.
Speaker 16 (19:00):
I'm up in shipper.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I had the moment with Melinda again.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
She was like, oh, did you see that in American
Experiments having their holiday party. And I'm like, yeah, just
giving me this look like wren't why aren't you going?
It goes because people know better than to invite me
to anything if it's not on a Friday or Saturday night.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
I do not take offense to any of that.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah, And Catherine and Grace are fully well aware of
my sleep habits and know that I'm sure you would
love to invite me, but at the same time, I
thank you for not putting me in that position.
Speaker 16 (19:27):
Certainly. Yeah, I knew you would be long asleep before
it even started.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
I think.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
So your schedule goes so we have ak Kamara R
ANDC Committee been. He should be here hopefully right at
the top of the hour, and then Representative Walter Hudson
will be in studio next to hour. I'm gonna hold
off on I've got a lot of your paid family
medical leave questions coming in. I'll play a few of
your talkbacks, but I really want to have Walter Hudson
in studio to help assist with that, since he's more
(19:53):
on top of that certainly working in the legislature than
I am. We will take a few of your of
your comments on here working through the article though from
the Daily Wire covering this, the program does allow workers
to take up to twenty weeks paid leave each year
for various reasons, and it generally guarantees that their job
will be protected until they return again. Every time, I, Catherine,
(20:14):
every time I see that twenty weeks, it just it
blows my mind.
Speaker 16 (20:19):
Yeah, the things you can take time off for two
are crazy, because you know, if you give birth. Obviously
that's a pretty heavy lift. You might need, you know,
some time off, but you can take time off if
your cousin is having health issues, maybe even if your
dog died.
Speaker 6 (20:36):
Well.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I can't imagine any excuse being brought forward that won't
be allowed. I mean that's where the controversy is going
to come in. I mean, what employer is going to
be the first one to want to deny somebody taking
paid family medical leave, only to have that be challenged
because you.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Know that is going to happen.
Speaker 16 (20:55):
Yeah, the language is so ambiguous that it's like it
just is so broad, trying to cover so many things,
and you can have two different life events in a
year for up to twenty weeks. It's an incredible amount
of time.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
The state run program takes effect on the first of January.
Is generating tremendous criticism, especially in light of the recent
Somali tied fraud of scandal that allegedly culminated in billions
of stolen tax dollars, some of which were allegedly funneled
to al Shabab terrorris including according to City Journal. Critics
note that the fraud occurred under Walls's nose and view
(21:28):
this coming program as fertile ground for fraudsters. Now again,
Walter Hudson will be in studio hopefully next hour. He
was quoted in this Daely wire piece though, by the way,
so the program will destroy small businesses and noted it's
widely broad as Catherine was just mentioning, we're one month
out from destroying small businesses in Minnesota, unleashing a fresh
wave of fraud where thirty people can claim time off
(21:50):
to take care of the same random person they have
an affinity with, he wrote. Notably, the program also seems
to include illegal immigrants, and immigration status is not a requirement.
A website for the state expressly states then undocumented workers,
youth workers, and new workers are also covered. For those
(22:11):
of you that are leaving talkbacks now relating to questions
that you have for paid family medical leave as we
revisit this next hour. If you've left a talkback already
and I did not play it, feel free to leave
another one to sort of get it back up in
the queue.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
You're always welcome to go and do that.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
I try to stay as on top of them as
I can. But as we move through various topics, sometimes
the talkbacks get lost in the shuffle from previous conversations,
so if you have a question it doesn't get answered
right away, you can always leave another talkback via the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
Looking forward for the FMLA taxes and it going wrong?
But where's the money been going for the stupid delivery fee?
Speaker 6 (22:56):
Tax dollars delivery? Where's that going? Has any forensics we
can do on that?
Speaker 5 (23:02):
I have a feeling that it's being wasted or not
using what it was said was going to be used.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
For I have a great day.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah, I'm not going to hold my breath for any
sort of any quick analysis on where any of that
money is going. But he's absolutely appropriate to go and ask.
Speaker 16 (23:14):
Yeah, they clearly don't know where the money is going,
I think, is the answer.
Speaker 6 (23:19):
Thank goodness.
Speaker 14 (23:20):
Up until now we haven't been able to have children,
and we haven't been able to take care of our
elderly parents. Thank goodness for Timmy Walls and the Democrats
for allowing us to do that now by taxing the
living crap out of us. Here's a little hint to
hope it's better like to keep your mouth shut and
(23:42):
have people assume like you're dumb. Than to open your
mouth and like prove them right.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Uh oh, he invoked a hope wauls. Did you hear
the clip I played earlier time?
Speaker 16 (23:51):
I did?
Speaker 1 (23:52):
I did well For those that may.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Have missed it, Sam went ahead in the master control
booth and he basically edited down to just the most
relevant parts of her commentary in her latest post.
Speaker 20 (24:04):
Before you Play, John, it's the it's still the full
clip from this morning, but it's calling out highlighting the legs.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Okay, gotcha, Yeah, most relevant parts. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
The bots on this app lately are insane. I've literally
never had so many bots in my like comments.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
I think it's because like Trump decided that Minnesota is
something he's gonna go after and be like extremely racist
towards a really awesome community in Minnesota, and then like
they get programmed to just like flag anything Minnesota and
just like be racist and horrible in people's comments. I
(24:47):
don't know, actually, but like I've I've never had so
many bots.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
I always have like some, but it's like overrun. I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Someone in Russia decided to program literally every bot on
the internet to play anything Minnesota in any like person.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
That has anything to do with Minnesota.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I don't know, so weird, like so weird. Good luck, y'all,
it's not gonna work.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
This is actually really sad because what happened here with her.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
This is my take on it.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Okay, my take on this is that Hope Walls is
getting inundated because of all the negativity surrounding her dad.
She's seeing all this negativity online. She's having a hard
time reconciling it. And as as as a daughter would,
I would anticipate that my son's if they were spending
time online and saw the amount of negativity that Walls
(25:45):
is receiving aimed at their dad, they too would be
questioning and wondering what was going on. And so the
cope here for Hope is to go and say, oh,
these where are these bots coming from? Because she simply
doesn't want to reconcileile what her subconscious is doing her.
And that is the reality that No, it's a lot
of people pointing out that your dad is a complete
(26:06):
and total failure as the governor of Minnesota.
Speaker 16 (26:09):
Yeah, I've always been surprised that she has a TikTok,
that she seems to be able to go on freely
and talk about these issues. My advice to her would
be stop doing that and do not respond, do not
do anything, or at least think about it and maybe
run it by your dad first. I mean, to have
all this stuff in the public view, that she's stating
(26:31):
her opinion on her views are going to change so
much in a couple of years. Let's what a lot
of people go through at that age, and so to
have all of that out there, I've always been surprised.
I've always been surprised, but I do I'm a little
sympathetic to the like girls. Okay, I've maybe fallen into
this category once or twice.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
But you know, out of all of our Freedom Friday guests, Catherine,
you making that statement does not surprise me. And I
also know that you are not going to take offense
to that at all either. So I appreciate the yeah.
Speaker 16 (27:01):
Well, and I did have a dad and a brother
who when it got to extreme would go, you know,
do like a mocking and say like like like. So
I had a little check insistent in place growing up.
I'm not sure howpe had that, but I appreciate that.
I that I got that.
Speaker 21 (27:16):
Hey, John, they paid family leave benefits all the big
box stores and all the big corporations. It's just like
raising the minimum wage. The higher these things go, the
harder it is for the momb and Top Shop, and
the easier is to do everything with automation, AI and robotics.
That's what it's all about, is getting rid of people
and not having benefit packages.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
So we're going to return to the paid family medical
leave again. We're going to wait for our guests to
join us in studio, and if you have further comments
on that, feel free to leave us talkbacks and we'll
try to get those questions in once we have RNC
Committee man Akkmar and Representative Walter Hudson in studio with us.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Catherine Johnson from American Experiment is here.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Katherine, I have a question for you before we talk
about the budget forecast here in Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Yes, on gingerbread houses, you're familiar.
Speaker 16 (28:03):
I'm familiar. It's a bit of a triggering subject for me.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Maybe do you are you supposed to eat them?
Speaker 16 (28:10):
No, that's like a hard lesson that I had to
learn as a child, that you don't eat them is
what I was told.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
You were told you, you were told you don't eat gingerbread. House.
Speaker 16 (28:20):
I believe this was maybe in preschool and I made
maybe kindergarten was a little young. He was, can you
run it? And I made a gingerbread house. I take
it home. It sits on the counter or whatever for
weeks until Christmas. Right after Christmas, I'm like, all right,
time to dig in, you know, to the gingerbread house.
And my mom said, absolutely not. It's been sitting on
the counter for weeks. It's not gonna be good anyway
(28:43):
from a food safety perspective. Okay, not probably what you
should do. We don't eat those, but we can go
get like the gram crackers if you want and like
eat that. And that was that's not appealing.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
So we are talking about though, and I know Sam's
gonna chime in on this, but I just want to
and I'll get back to how this whole thing came about,
but not to push back because I I haven't landed
on a definitive opinion on this yet, which is why
I wanted to bring it up on the show this morning.
But you know, we are talking about food products that
for the most part, if you're gonna.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Have stuff sit out, it's pretty.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Much everything that is entailed relating to a gingerbread house.
I mean, these are these are these are solid food products.
You know, the frosting maybe, but the gingerbread itself.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
But that's sitting out.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
That's not a big deal when you look at all
the little details of the candies and whatever you put
on there.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
So, Sam, what did you what did you want to
you want to chime in on this?
Speaker 20 (29:36):
I just well, Catherine, I just had a question for you.
Were you not allowed to eat your gingerbread houses because
of the Hoa's or what's going on there?
Speaker 1 (29:44):
He's he's bringing it back to the to the ho
A because of your views on h He went deep
on that. I know were you, I know where you were,
you know where you were going there.
Speaker 6 (29:53):
I know.
Speaker 16 (29:54):
You know what, that's a great point. Maybe maybe my
gingerbread house was involved in HOA where I was allowed
to eat it. I don't know.
Speaker 20 (30:01):
I have a community of Hoa gingerbread houses at home.
Speaker 16 (30:04):
Is that my happiness lives in an hoa run by
a fascist?
Speaker 4 (30:09):
I forgot about that.
Speaker 16 (30:11):
I was still true by the way.
Speaker 20 (30:13):
I was the kid. This kind of tells you a
lot about me. I was the kid that had to
use milk cartons to keep my gingerbread house stable. So
I would not have eaten my gingerbread houses anyway because
they had milk cartons.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
So Melinda and I are watching, So I like watching.
We like watching the baking shows together.
Speaker 16 (30:29):
Oh, which one like Great British.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Yeah, we didn't watch.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
We didn't We watched the new holiday episodes of The
Great British Baking Show. We haven't watched this season of
The Great British Baking Show. There's a bunch on HBO Max,
by the way. It just has a real quick side
note on that. Apparently HBO Max has gone and purchased
or Netflix is buying Warner Brothers and HBO Max for
eighty two point seven billion dollars, So potentially all of
(30:57):
Warner Brothers and HBO Max content could just end up
on Netflix. We're gonna have like one streaming platform rule
to rule them all.
Speaker 16 (31:06):
We're getting closer and closer to that point where we
just have cable in a different form of cable, and
I'm here for it.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
So we're watching this gingerbread competition because what happens is
we get caught up on the baking shows and we
got a way for the new ones to air because
they don't release them all at the same time. So
we're looking for shows to watch and this is what
we watch, saying, you know, this is what we watch
it during the week, and so we're watching it and
I'm realizing watching this, this this gingerbread house baking competition
where they're given, you know, different themes for every.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Competition that they're not there's no taste test involved.
Speaker 16 (31:36):
Why why is it The taste isn't relevant.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
But it is in every other, every other baking show.
Speaker 16 (31:42):
That's a good point. But you're not really baking, are you.
I mean, what did they make? Yeah, they're making your
gingerbread assembling.
Speaker 18 (31:47):
Oh yeah, they're making all the all the items and
the gingerbread. So, like I asked her, we got through
like two or three, We got like through two episodes
that I'm like, wait a second, they're not having any
taste portion to the competition, which raised the question of
are you supposed to eat a gingerbread house.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
I think that's how this whole thing came about.
Speaker 16 (32:07):
I think to solve this, along with the sides of
the house, you got to make some little guys or
or gals, little ginger gal guys, and uh, you can
snack on those while you're while you're putting the house together,
and then the house is decorative and the people are edible.
Speaker 20 (32:20):
Okay, if I was the producer that see, my mind
went to, if I was the producer on that show,
just put the bowls with all the batter off to
the side. I'll taste test those and let you know
who the winner is.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
I was just genuinely I would want to go and
eat the gingerbread house, like I think it's okay, even
if it was maybe there's a maybe there's a limitation,
maybe there's so many days at which but to me,
that's the fun of having it.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
I think if we're if.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
I'm going to land somewhere, I was gonna land on,
I want to go and eat the gingerbread house when
all of a sudden done.
Speaker 20 (32:50):
In this case, I would agree with you, John, because
I'm assuming they made the gingerbread houses right then and there,
so they're they're fresh, right.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Yeah, so they're making them on the floor.
Speaker 16 (33:00):
But why are you putting together a gingerbread house if
you're just gonna eat it?
Speaker 1 (33:03):
I know, I know.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Right after well, I guess that to that question, I go, well,
why are we having this baking competition at all. Why
don't we just have a competition on you building little
miniature houses. I guess that's what we're doing. But they're
calling it a gingerbread house. Just the food aspect of
it seems lost. I do like what the creations that
they make. Eat the gingerbread houses. I'm with you, John,
You're with Anything's okay, you're on your pro eat the
gingerbread house. I say, eat the gingerbread house. You were
(33:26):
told in the past, don't eat the gingerbread house. But
what do you how do you really feel?
Speaker 16 (33:31):
I'm kind of don't eat it. I don't think it's
that good anyway. I mean, I think it's better as
a decorative object.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
All right, do you have any thoughts on this? Leave
us a talkback on the iHeartRadio app. Those are brought
to you by Lyndahl Realty. You know, see this is
what I said. Remember, I thought that this was gonna
be like a massive like everybody's gonna want to chime
on this every single time I do that got nothing
so far. I've got fifty paid family leave talkbacks in
here that I haven't head of. Jest to get to you,
but I expected that I've been holding off on this
(33:58):
very topic because I'm like, I'm gonna get slammed. I'm
gonna get slamm with people wanting to talk about gingerbread houses.
And all I'm getting is.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
You're fascinating to talk to.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
We'll see.
Speaker 20 (34:08):
I wish I had a cricket sound effect.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Every I know we do. I know everything is on
a slight delay. So maybe everybody's just holding off on that.
So while your talkbacks roll in and you prove that
I was correct that you are very interested in gingerbread
houses on a Freedom Friday. Five takeaways from the budget Forecasts.
So Minnesota's Management and Budget released the budget forecast yesterday
(34:30):
showing a two point four billion dollars surplus in the
current biennium going through twenty twenty seven and a two
point nine billion dollar deficit in the next twenty eight
to twenty nine. So Bill Walsh, the center of the
American Experiment Rights, Here are the five takeaways from Bill,
whose opinion I greatly respect. First off, the structural imbalances
(34:55):
he mentions, even though there's enough cash in the bank
to support the current surplus, structural deficit between spending and
revenues persists. So when the dust settles, Minnesota is projected
to take sixty six point two six two billion and
spend sixteen point four billion, a difference of two point
one billion. Essentially, the structural deficit will grow to four
(35:19):
point four almost four point five billion in the next
biennium if nothing is done to align spending with the
projected revenue. And that's one of the questions I want
to ask Walter Hudson when he joins US is how
do we do that? I mean, are we capable of
aligning with the spending with the projected revenue given the
makeup of the legislature right now?
Speaker 16 (35:38):
Well, you know, if they did something about fraud, that
would make a good tent there is that.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
I agree with you.
Speaker 6 (35:45):
Here.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
The other takeaway that Bill Walsh has on the budget
forecast is Governor Wallson Democrats in Minnesota continued to blame Trump,
as Walls did yesterday.
Speaker 8 (35:54):
I tell our to Molly neighbors, I tell our long neighbors,
I tell all of our neighbors in Minnesota your inspected,
You're valued. We're proud of this state that ranks near
the top in almost every single category.
Speaker 6 (36:09):
And I will tell you. The only thing.
Speaker 8 (36:12):
That's hurting this state, as he so falsely claimed to
a group of people, is Donald Trump himself.
Speaker 16 (36:18):
Can I make one point of it, absolutely before we
get to this.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Week, make all the points you want.
Speaker 16 (36:23):
Don't bring the Mung into this. Who's mad about the Mung.
I've not done anything wrong whatsoever. They are a great community,
I think, and to say the other one isn't. But
we do have a problem right now that's persisting within
the Somali community. This isn't just a racism issue against
all people of color, which is what he seems to think.
This is a specific fraud issue within a community and
(36:46):
within his government that we're trying to address. He just
fundamentally can't understand that.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
I had a really interesting conversation with fellow iHeartRadio talk
show host Mandy Connell out of Denver early this week,
and obviously she had me on to talk about the
issues we were facing regarding fraud here in Minnesota, and
they've had similar circumstances with an influx of immigrants from Venezuela.
(37:13):
Of course, we haven't talked about it in a long time,
but remembered we had you had the the Venezuelan immigrants
that were taking over entire housing complexes that were basically,
you know, ruling them ruling over these housing complexes.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
They couldn't get them removed, and it was it.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Was an interesting conversation in terms of the comparison of
what a state like Colorado is dealing with with their
influx of immigrants and a place like Minnesota, because they
too have various groups of immigrants that live in the state,
but there was a commonality here wherein while they're facing
an issue relating to Venezuelans causing difficulty, the other immigrant
(37:50):
populations are just going about living their lives, abiding by
the law and not causing any problems. And we have
a very similar circumstance here in Minnesota. We have a
lot of different immigrants groups here, but it really just
appears at the moment that the only one we're having
a significant issue with is the Somali community. It is
a fraction of that large Somali community, but it is
(38:12):
the majority. Once again, of the fraud that is taking
place is coming from that Somali community and not from
other immigrant communities as well.
Speaker 16 (38:19):
And it is okay to talk about the difficulties that
some communities have assimilating more than others. That is not
a racist thing to talk about. Whatsoever, assimilation into America
and an American culture is crucial for us to stay
connected and for us to stay functional as a country,
and so it is not a problem at all to
(38:40):
point out there is much more of an assimilation problem
in some communities than others.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Getting back to Bill Walsh's briefly, we have gotten we
have received quite a few gingerbreadhouse talkbacks.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Yes, some good ones in here. I feel so much
better about myself now.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
So Bill Walsh also says takeaways from the budget forecast
outside audit scope of fraud is due in late January.
US Attorney Joe Thompson says that we're still looking because
we have outside auditors working on getting a number that
will be released in late January. Because Walls challenged the
public estimates relating to fraud, so we do have some
(39:18):
independent investigation in an audit going on. So we'll have
a firm number come late January.
Speaker 16 (39:23):
Okay, we He challenges the When Joe Thompson is the
one who said billions, what you challenge him? You think
he's wrong? Governor Walls.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Walls is trying to say face for as long as
he possibly can. He's on a sinking ship. I'm convinced
the clock is ticking on him, and Bill Walsh in.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Points to this.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
He talks about the Capitol press corps turning on Walls.
Governor Tim Walls used to be used to have a
very friendly press corps in Minnesota. It explains how surprised
the rest of the country appears to appears to be
when they hear about his exploit, stolen valor visits to China.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Of course, the fraud.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
But if Thursday's press conference is any indication, the friendliness
might be gone the press as Walls repeatedly about the
fraud issue and even yelled some questions at him when
his handlers cut the press conference off. I don't think
that has happened in the six years as governor. I
want to play this clip. It's probably one of the
best clips from yesterday. He's asked about fraud. Walls's new
(40:15):
name is word salad. Walls listen to the dance that
he does, the word salad that he delivers while never
answering the question. He basically just spoke as many words
as he possibly could until he could find an appropriate
stopping point and try to move on to somebody else.
Speaker 8 (40:32):
Keep looking out for Minnesota.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
The cliffs question about when you knew or became aware
of you, I mean growth in these programs.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
We can squeel about everything.
Speaker 6 (40:41):
Other yes come up in these.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Forecasts before some of the programs that were.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
So Again, she's asking him, like, how long did you
know the growth in these programs that exploded? How long
were you aware of the growth of the increase in
these programs. It is a completely fair question to ask.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Here was his answer, letting a pathic program to autism
that didn't raise any alarm.
Speaker 8 (41:04):
These are new programs, a lot of them. Some happened
ahead of time, and I think for all of us
that there have been these incidents, whether it's in Medicaid, medicare,
whatever it would be. And as soon as they're brought forward,
we address them. We have commissioners that deal with them
in each of that, we have the professionals who deal
with them in each of it. When we bring them
forward and we believe it's happened, we refer them to
the BCA, who then refers them for prosecution. I can't
(41:27):
tell you one thing is these are programs. I care
deeply about. These are programs, and I have a track
record of doing this as being very fiscally responsible and
fisically conservative. I can assure you that there is no
one angrier about this than me, because I know what
the Republican response is is to cut these programs, just
cut them in.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
See, he's angry that people are allegedly driving by his
house using the R word. He's not angry about these programs.
And in no way did he ever bother to go
and answer the question.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
It was the most word salad of word salads.
Speaker 16 (41:56):
Yeah, and you know he's lying because he has bragged
a numerous occasions about the number of people on these programs.
He thinks it's a good thing when people are roped
into government programs, and you see that kind of growth,
not evidence of obvious fraud.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
The last takeaway from Bill Walsh on the budget was
the cost of fraud is not baked into the current
budget forecast. State budget officials had to answer several questions
about how they are accounting for fraud in the budget forecast.
The answer is they're not. They don't budget for fraud.
Bill said, it were, it would be pretty alarming. If
your state budget office projected a certain percentage of fraud
in the upcoming budget. But maybe that's where we are
(42:32):
in Minnesota today. So we'll continue to talk about this
heading into next hour. Speaking of baking, we do have
a couple of thoughts relating to gingerbread houses and whether
or not you're supposed to eat them. Let's go, let's
get to those talkbacks brought to you by Lyndahl Realty,
and we'll have our guests joining us in studio. Along
with Catherine Johnson from American Experiment, we have RNC Committee
and ak Kmara and Representative Walter Hudson on the way
(42:53):
here on Twin Cities News Talk.
Speaker 22 (42:55):
Good morning, John. For me, it's a hard pass on
eating a gin your bread house. Not only has the
gingerbread and the frosting and all the candy been sitting
out for weeks, think of all the people that have
touched it, sneezed on it, coughed on it.
Speaker 5 (43:13):
Yuck.
Speaker 22 (43:14):
The germs would be disgusting.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
I guess, I guess I would ask the question, who
are you inviting to your house and what are they
doing around your gingerbread.
Speaker 16 (43:22):
Sitting on the counter.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
You know, are sneezing, like they're like pawing at it
and like hovering over it and just coughing on top
of it. Just you imagine all these people just loobread.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
I don't think that's happening.
Speaker 6 (43:38):
It's more work than it's worth.
Speaker 5 (43:40):
But first of all, when you deconstruct a gingerbread house,
take the candies off and then put the pieces of
gingerbread in the whitewave with a wet paper towel turned
on for thirty seconds, instantly waste again.
Speaker 4 (43:52):
I have a great day.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Okay, yeah, you lost me.
Speaker 6 (43:54):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
This is this who This is why I don't eat
crab legs. It's just too much work.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
I just don't.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
Linda loves crab legs, and every single time I come
is she's like, you're not getting any of my crab legs.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
You won't put in the effort. She's absolutely right, I won't.
Speaker 16 (44:08):
And you know, the quality of the gingerbread house is
significantly below that of a crab leg. I would say, so,
I don't know about the effort. Yeah, it's worth it.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
Well, you get very little. It's a really big crab.
You get very little out of the crab leg.
Speaker 14 (44:21):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
That's just me though apparently.
Speaker 5 (44:25):
Of course, Catherine probably thinks gingerbread isn't that tasty. But
she was also told that graham Cracker is a substitute
for gingerbread.
Speaker 6 (44:34):
Nah, not in close.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Did I miss something or he just trying to take
a really arbitrary swipe at you.
Speaker 16 (44:41):
Well, he makes a good point. I should note that
I did that in kindergarten class or something, you know,
and so not to slander my mom and all. My
mom would never allow graham Crackers as a substitute for gingerbread.
But that also could explain the germ issue she was
concerned about. I think it was sitting on table in
a kindergarten class.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
So all right, We'll continue to tackle the hard issues
on the show, budget takeaways, fraud here in Minnesota, and
whether or not you should eat a gingerbread house.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
It's all coming up on Twin City's News Talk
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