December 5, 2025 • 35 mins
Freedom Friday rolls on! Jon is joined in studio by MN Rep. Walter Hudson, Kathryn Johnson, and AK Kamara. The group hears from listeners about gingerbread houses. Walter Hudson answers questions about Minnesota's Paid Family Medical Leave.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Dang it.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I just burned my call in about gingerbread, and you
guys are talking about the Somali community all of a sudden.
Don't forget that we had Somali community leaders who were
on the GOP side, and those people are also frustrated
with the level of fraud and criminal activity in their
(00:30):
own community.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
It's not just us.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
No, you're absolutely correct. And first off, don't worry. It's
a Freedom Friday, so we can talk fraud, we can
talk budgets, and we can talk gingerbread houses.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
I still have some really good comments that have rolled
in this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Catherine Johnson from American Experiment joins me on a Freedom Friday.
We're still waiting for RNC committeem Ak Kamara and Representative
Walter Hudson to join us in the studio on a
Freedom Friday. We've got Sam next door in the Master
Control booth.
Speaker 5 (01:03):
Well, you know, John to his point, one of the
things that we've always said at an American Experiment is that
all of the best tips we've gotten are from people
inside the Smali community. There are plenty of people there
that are very disappointed about what's going on, and I
would encourage those people to speak up publicly too, because
I think that would mean a lot.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
One hundred percent, I completely agree.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
And just like we had voices during the election of
the Somali community coming out in support of Donald Trump,
and we've heard, I haven't seen anything tangible relating to this.
This is just what I've told, what I've been told
from different sources. Individuals in politics that follow closely to
what happens in Minneapolis, independently of each other, tell me
(01:50):
that there are factions within the Somali community that led
to the divisions that ushered in Minneapolis man maybe may
Or Mom Jeans, Jacob Fry getting another term as governor
and Omar Fate losing because there was there was a
group of faction ory ring of the Somali community that
was in support of Fry and another group that was
(02:12):
in support of of Omar fat And so what I
hope to see is, like we saw in the election,
that those individuals within the Somali community that are just
as outrage as what is going on, I hope that
they can feel confident and are brave enough to step
up and to speak about what's going on, because that's
the conversation at this point we need to have because
(02:33):
a lot of people are asking why is this specific
to this particular community, wherein we're not having the same
issues relating to other communities. And there's there's a lot
to unpack there with where they're coming from in Somalia,
what life is like there, what the culture is like there,
the lack of assimilation here into the United States to
(02:55):
the Twin Cities into Minnesota, and those are the tough
conversations that we need to continue to have as we
tackle this problem of fraud here in Minnesota.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Certainly, and if you go back to what we saw
in twenty twenty, there were people from within that community
also talking about how they felt that certain members were
taking advantage of other people within the community when it
comes to things like ballad harvesting, going door to door
and telling people, hey, give me your vote, and doing
kind of you know, corrupt things that maybe they were
(03:25):
really taking advantage of these people. So there's that aspect
too that I think adds to the nuance in that conversation.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Got a couple of comments here relating to these things
called gingerbread houses. We were asking last hour in the
midst of a Freedom Friday covering all our bases today
during the holiday season, whether or not you're supposed to
eat a gingerbread house, because I was just I was
curious watching a baking show because there's no eating component
of the competition, so I thought.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
That was odd. Don't some people make gingerbread houses with
real glue?
Speaker 6 (03:55):
Isn't that why you're not supposed to eat them?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I was under the impressions of those are the ones
you absolutely want to eat? Were the ones made with
like Elmer's wood glue?
Speaker 5 (04:08):
John was the glueseniffer in class.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Is that what I'm hearing?
Speaker 7 (04:11):
No?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I was the one who covered my hand in Elmer's
wood glue and I'm forward to dry and.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Then oh, look, impeeling me skin up. It's a if
you can looking to see my fingerprints.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
And now thousands of people across the state trust you
for their advice.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
That's on that and the news on them. Can you
trust me for anything or believe anything I say? That
is on you? Hey, John?
Speaker 8 (04:35):
On the gingerbread house, I would always wait for the
kids to forget about it after sitting there for a month.
Then I'd soak it in a bunch of milk, watch
a good movie.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I eat the whole thing. Yeah, yeah, listen, Yeah, Oh,
I'm down with that. So soggy gingerbread is your response.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
That's a great idea. If Linda makes one this year,
I think what's going to happen is she's probably listening,
but I'm giving I'm giving this all away. But she
makes a gingerbread house, right, it's time to get rid
of it. Oh honey, I'll take care of.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
It for you. I'll throw it out. Don't get it in milk. Yeah,
just just just soak it, soak it in milk. That's
the worst city of yet.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
It's a fantastic idea. I used to back during the
dark days, I would go and get a I've told
the story before, but it's been a long time and
you've probably never heard of Catherine Sam. I don't think
you've probably heard this before you heard my ding dong.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Sorry nope.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Okay, So we'll get back to more of your relevant
talkbacks here in a minute. So I used to get
ding dongs, and then what I would do is, because.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
You know, so you have describe it ding dong. Okay,
So a ding dong.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Ding dongs are the in the center, is the white,
creamy filling, and then it's then it's a then it's
a chocolate cake looks like a hockey puck.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Squiggly lines.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
No, no, not in not in the regular ding dong. Okay,
you're you're close, but no, the regular ding dongs are
just osed ding dong and then they're covered in a
semi hard chocolate shell. Okay, and they look like a
hockey puck, right that.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
I get that? You agree there? Sam? Okay, Catherine, do
you know what a Swiss cake roll is? Yes? So
it's it's like it's the outside crust of kind of
like a Swiss cake role. I feel like there's a
squiggly line. There's no squiggly line.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
There are some that you can buy in the store separately,
but I don't think those are specifically ding dongs because
I think they have an extra layer of frosting on
top along with the squiggly line.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
So these usually come in a package and they're in
like a silver tinfoil.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Okay, So I get a box of these, and.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I get milk, and then what I would do is
I'd bite just a little teeny portion of the outer
shell off and then I would dunk the ding dong
into the milk.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
I would allow the milk.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
To soak up into the cake so that it's now
encapsulated because of the hard outer shell, and then I would.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Go and proceed to eat it. It was very messy.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I was by my I was I was living alone
in an apartment by myself when this took place. Just
wanted to point that out. And yes, you come to
me for your news every single day.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
That's right. M m hey John.
Speaker 8 (07:02):
On the gingerbread house, I would always wait for the
kids to forget about it.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Oh no, we already heard from that guy.
Speaker 9 (07:09):
Sorry, Hey, good morning, guys. Not to get too serious
on a Freedom Friday. Not with the gingerbread houses. But
when I was younger, they were always made out of
what I would call table candy. My grandma had it
in bowls on the counters and it sat there forever.
I think the issue is we started changing and adding
what we put on them. And then also everybody decides
(07:30):
it's time to decorate for Christmas fifteen minutes after they
take their Halloween costume off.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
So it's stale and young, all right.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
So we're gonna get back to more of your comments
coming up. We will get back into the paid family
leave waiting for our guests to arrival. Continue to take
your gingerbread commentary as well.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Time permitting.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Later on in the hour, we will get to the
top words of the year have been bestowed. Hey this
every single year. We also have the most mispronounced words
of the year. Oh so potentially we will. We will
get to that corporate one. We'll get to that as well,
and more of your talkbacks. One more quick point before
we take a break the whole the other impetus to
(08:11):
this whole thing. When we're watching the gingerbread baking show,
Melinda had purchased a an atat and ad at walker
from Star Wars gingerbread house. Okay, And so when I
posed her the question, are we supposed to eat gingerbread houses?
Speaker 5 (08:28):
Like?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
You know, you bought the Star Wars ata t gingerbread house, Like,
do we eat that after you make it? And then
Melinda looks at me and goes, well, we're not going
to eat that one because it's Lego.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
I went, oh, yeah, I forgot what Yeah it was,
it's a it's a Lego.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
It's a Lego Star Wars Holiday themed ginger Like, you're right,
it is Lego not referring to that one, to which
Melinda looked at me and.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Said, you're fascinating.
Speaker 5 (08:52):
There are also the kids in class who would you know,
stick legos out there nose?
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Were you also one of those? Okay? No, I did
get too Good and Plenty he shoved up my nose.
Do you remember? Do you remember Good and Plenty's Okay?
Is it a candy?
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yeah, it's a candy. So they're a little pill shaped candy.
They're pink, they're pink and white ands. Yeah, so I
put they're covered it so this liquor is covered in
a clear shell. And I put them up my nose
when I was a kid, And then my brothers made
me laugh and I ended up sucking them up my
nose and they got stuck. By the time I got
them out, the complete outer shell had worn off. At
(09:25):
all I had was the licorice left. We are embracing
Freedom Friday this morning on twit City's news top.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Demitrious here from South Dakota. No, we don't eat the
gingerbread house, but we do put the GRAMD crackers with
the frosting on and eat it. While we're creating the
gingerbread house.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Me and my four year old son. Morning, John, this
is Alex.
Speaker 10 (10:03):
You had mentioned other parts of the country and other
immigrant communities. I think it's time we educate ourselves to
the culture of Somalia. There's Peace on Health and News
by Liz Collin. Very interesting. I think we're dealing with
a different thing here culturally. That's one thing. As far
as the gingerbread houses, there's no way I'm eating something
(10:24):
at fence, sitting on the counter for two and a
half weeks collecting environmental fallout in a house with a dog.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
And a cat.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
You guys are the best audience ever. You really really are.
What other show in this country is going from? Like
immigrant communities, Somalia, fraud and gingerbread houses. Come on Twin
City's News Talk Am eleven thirty one oh three five
FM from the sixty five point Carpet plus Next Day
(10:51):
Install Studios. Katherine Johnson, American experiment ak Kamara, RNC Committeemen,
business owner.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I am here.
Speaker 11 (11:00):
It only took me an hour and forty minutes to
drive into the studio, which it usually takes me forty minutes.
So shout out to poor planning on my part, because
I mean I could check the weather and see who's
snowing and be like, I could just know my whole
life and I should know to do that. But uh no,
I thank you so much for always being part of
(11:21):
the show.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Here's what I got to say about that talk back.
Speaker 11 (11:24):
I think that when we talk about the culture aspects
of different immigrant communities, we have to be able to
be critical. And I would say this, I believe that
we're made by God as individuals. But if you are
going to be immersed in a culture okay, meaning that
you live in neighborhoods that are ethnically very similar to yours,
I think you then take a responsibility to have to
(11:45):
call out the community that you associate with in the
same way that I live in Forest Lake. And if
Forest Lake started passing some crazy rules and regulations and
I want to call myself a forest Laker, I need
to stand up and I need to call out the
things that are happening within my community. And I think
that the same type of thing has to happen within
the Somala community. And it's not that you have to
(12:08):
I mean, listen, you could go and move out to
Forest Lake if you're Somali and say I'm just going
to adopt the forest Lake lifestyle, then you don't have
to say anything because it ain't your community anymore. I
just think that that's just a responsibility that falls good, badter,
and different. But I just one last piece real quick
about the gingerbread cookies and the ginger bread houses using
(12:28):
gram crackers. It's not gingerbread crackers on ginger bread.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
I've addressed this. It was in kindergarten.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
You know the Talkbacker just mentioned gram crackers.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know what be
a graund cracker house.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Gram crackers and gingerbread are different.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Right, so much easier to use gram crackers though, than
like bake.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Gingerbread in the right shapes. That's insane.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Do you like gingerbread and itself?
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Like?
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Would you just eat gingerbread cookies?
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
I'm not a ginger bread guy. If I've got I
dont like the flavor.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
If I've got gingerbread and graham crackers in front of me,
I'm going gram crackers.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Now again, I need to have milk. What I'm going.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
I'm going gram crackers over if I'm just if I
have a cookie, yeah, if I have over a ginger
Brecker gingerbread.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Cookie, gram crackers front of you. What you're going for.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Ginger bread cookie?
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (13:22):
So you like molasses, Sure, it's fine, I deserve I
like them both. I don't like it, but I prefer
I prefer gram crackers. And see what I do is
what the gram crackers is. You you know how they
come in.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
The crackers don't taste like anything they grab.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, so you know you know how the gram crackers
they come in. Those they come in, they're four, the sheets,
the sheets of four. So what you do is you
take two sheets of four, okay, and you put them together.
Then you make sure you got a glass that's wide enough,
and then you dip you dip down doing.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
This, you're eating all soggy food.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yeah, And it's this you have.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
But the timing is crucial, so crucial, because you put
it in and if you wait too long, its alves
in the bottom.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
You will pull the gram cracker out and the portion
you have just will be gone.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Now that in and of itself, can end up being
a very nice treat at the end of drinking your
glass of milk. And I prefer right exactly, but I
prefer to lift it out and have the just soggy
enough toward doesn't fall out.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
I can get it in my mouth, and I can
I can mention.
Speaker 11 (14:25):
It and and I put peanut butter on my gram crackers. Okay,
so I'll take my gram cracker. I put peanut butter
on it.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
And that dip it, don't it?
Speaker 4 (14:32):
I like that too? Agreement this time? All right, let's go.
Let's go here.
Speaker 6 (14:38):
Did you catch when Tim Walls said, almost said palace
when people were driving my my He changed it very quickly,
almost said palace again.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
I will let's do it right now.
Speaker 12 (14:53):
I tell our to molly neighbors. I tell our long neighbors.
I tell oh, that's not this one.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
True.
Speaker 12 (14:58):
This creates danger, 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 by the palace.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
He did one more time.
Speaker 12 (15:14):
True, this creates danger, 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 So
is it?
Speaker 7 (15:26):
So?
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Is it the house of Walls? Is that what we're
is that where we're going with here?
Speaker 3 (15:29):
It's just the house of No Okay, inured by gingerbread,
ginger red house, ginger bread houses. All right, I believe
we have Walter. Okay, we'll go ahead and take a break.
We have ak Kamarin studio, Catherine Johnson representative.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Walter Hudson is in the house. He'll be joining us
in the studio.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
So we'll take this last segment and we will get
back into paid family leave. This is what I've been
waiting to have Walter Hudson join us for this morning.
We'll of course get back to more of your talkbacks
as well. We'll see if we have some time first
the further lighter subjects be that is a mayor talk
back of the day is on the way too. Here
On twinsday's news talk Am eleven thirty and one oh
(16:07):
three five FM.
Speaker 13 (16:16):
Youwer contacted us about houses purchased with stolen money still
owned by people who've been charged, in some cases even convicted.
Our investigative reporter Eric Rasmussen recently went door to door
at three properties marked for seizure and confirmed that it
has still not happened. Is it fair for the public
to want answers about what's being done?
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Absolutely, it's our money.
Speaker 9 (16:41):
This is something in criminal law that too often gets
forgotten the money side of it.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Properties linked to story from Channel five, Properties linked to
Feeding Our Future for auds still owned by defendants despite
the forfeiture plans, and prosecutors of the US Attorney's Office
in Minneapolis estimate that they've recovered more than sixty million
out of the two hundred and fifty million stolen from
taxpayers in the fraud connected Defeating Our Future. Court records
(17:09):
reveal the government has targeted many of the properties for forfeiture,
but long after some of the defendants were charged, convicted,
and sentenced, Channel five found out five investigates that there's
still they are still the official owners of the houses
that were purchased with stolen money, something we'll continue to
follow as we talk fraud this hour here on Twin
Cities News Talk. Our full House is here. We have
(17:31):
Catherine Johnson from American Experiment. We have business owner and
R and C Committeemen Ak Camargo.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Jesse, my uncle Jesse in the full House.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Representative Walter Hudson, you've been traveling. You were down in
Florida earlier this week.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Good morning, I was.
Speaker 14 (17:44):
I had the opportunity to visit the President's residence in
the mar A Lago for the Prager You Gala, and
it was quite the experience, especially like the difference in
weather right sure, waking up the next day and it
being so hot and humid that I had to stand
in the shade and then getting off the plane in
(18:05):
thirteen degrees was quite jarring.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I have further thoughts on that and the final segment
of the show this morning, we'll get back to paid
family leave, We'll get back to fraud.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
We have questions that are rolling in.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Representative Walter Hudson has joined us in studio, and I
certainly want to get your take on everything that's transpired
so far of the course of the past few weeks,
and then try to get some questions answered, because, as
I mentioned at the start of the show, every single
time I've brought up paid family medical leave, the comments
have just exploded. And I finally sort of I'm like, well,
this is really interesting that people are so interested in this,
(18:38):
and then the slow realization came in, you know, came
to me that well, we're talking about an issue that
does impact everybody visiting though, from the employer right on
down to the employee, every single working taxpayer here in
Minnesota is going to be impacted by this, and so
we'll we'll dive into it. Got to take care of
the talk back of the day brought to you by
minieleafminileaf dot com. First, it's a good one this morning
(19:02):
from Tim. Here's your talk back of the day.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Please, can we have the podcast titled b Sam.
Speaker 11 (19:10):
Have you heard my ding Dong story?
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Please?
Speaker 3 (19:16):
That is sure talk back in the day. It's brought
to you by Mini Leaf minileaf dot com. Head on over,
am I an any l e a f dot com.
I am just thankful that it wasn't. Hey, Catherine, have
you heard my.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Asking? You shall receive by the way, Hey, let's get
that clip asap. All right, let's go here.
Speaker 7 (19:37):
I just got a news blast to cross my iPad.
It says Tim Waltz promotes new Minnesota paid leaf program
open to undocumented workers.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Is this true?
Speaker 3 (19:49):
So we were working off an article from the Daily
Wire of which you were quoted in this morning. They
were picking up on this very issue relating to a
paid family medical leave. So first off on that front,
just to answer her question straightforward, Representative Walter Hudson undocumented
workers paid family leave what's the deal?
Speaker 14 (20:07):
Uh, they get it, just like everything else in this state.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
All right, Hi, what's your thoughts on gingerbread houses?
Speaker 14 (20:13):
They do not exist. My gingerbread houses exist. My thoughts
on them do not. No thoughts, no thoughts.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
You don't eat?
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Do you eat them?
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Or no eat them?
Speaker 14 (20:23):
I've never even I mean I've had gingerbread cookies.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Have you built a gingerbread house? Come on, people are
so mad at me here, Like, I don't want to
talk paid family.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
You haven't built a gingerbread house.
Speaker 14 (20:34):
I grew up as a Jehovah's witness, so there's lots
of there's lots of things I didn't do.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
As a kid. We need to eat gingerbread house.
Speaker 11 (20:42):
I've never made one either, and that's because I grew
up poor and black in America.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
All right, you don't play with your food, man.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Right.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
With so much focus on paid family medical leave, now
that we're almost to the date of its start on
January first, we do have another legislative session coming.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Up next year. What do you think?
Speaker 3 (21:04):
What is your prediction on what's going to happen? I mean,
everybody now that we're here seems really worried about this.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
I know, you guys tried to tackle it. You tried.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
There were those even on the left that we're saying,
can we put a pause in The Democrats said no,
Walls is you know, I mean, there's a whole wall
factor in this now too that he is facing more
scrutiny than I think he has ever faced in his
entire political career. So I'll just hand it over to you.
What are your thoughts for a few minutes here, Walter Hudson.
Speaker 14 (21:30):
It's going to be an unmitigated disaster. It's going to
make everything that we've been talking about in regards to
fraud and dysfunction look like a walk in the park, because,
as you point out, this is something that impacts literally everybody.
Nobody is exempt from it. If you have one employee,
(21:52):
you have to contend with this losey goosey process that
is administered by the state. That same state that can't
seem to determine whether or not businesses that are all
located twenty four of them in one building claiming to
feed a million people a day are actually legitimate or not.
(22:13):
Like those same people are the people who are going
to be deciding whether or not your employee is legit
when they say they need to take time off to
go take care of their cousin in quotes who they're
not actually related to, right, And the other people who
this is going to really really hurt are people with
(22:34):
great work ethic who show up every day to do
the job, because you're going to find yourself increasingly having
to pick up the slack for people who are going
to just embrace the sense of power that comes with
being able to do what they want with no consequence.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Well, the unintended consequences of this, I mean that's the
aspect of this is because we've continued to sort of
work through the various different angles on it is than
just the number of unintended consequences, including as I mentioned
earlier this week, you know, the possibility of employers being
much more stringent regarding who it is that they are hiring,
(23:16):
making sure the vetting process is even deeper on individuals
on whether or not they're going to be you know,
somebody more inclined to go and take advantage of a
program like this.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Somebody mentioned yesterday, like the.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Possibility of preemptive layoffs because of the concerns over this,
like here within iHeart and with what we do here. Like,
first of all, I couldn't. I couldn't do this, like
the company would be forced to. But the position that
I would put the company in if I took twenty
weeks off of doing my show and then I had
to get hired back and they had no choice in
the matter, I mean, the economic devast and it would
(23:48):
be it would be economically devastating.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
For Twin Cities News Talk.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
I'm not patting myself on the back, it just would
if I took that level of time off from the
show and they would be forced to have to hire.
Speaker 14 (23:59):
Me back, well, it would It would destroy I mean,
it would be a brand disruption, right because people expect
to tune it in the morning and here are you
right anytime you have and programs change all the time.
You know this, really you've got a pretty long standing.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
They would probably find a very clever way to move
me someplace else or do something else with me if
that was the case it took that much time off.
Speaker 14 (24:19):
But yeah, it's it's it's not just your your employee.
And that you bring up a third category. So there's
the employer, there is other there's good will work ethic
employees who are affected by this. And then there's consumers.
What's the impact on the consumer going to be in
terms of what they expect in terms of value from
the businesses that they're engaging with. When you take the
(24:42):
operation and you flip the game board and let the
pieces go flying everywhere.
Speaker 11 (24:47):
The thing, the thing is that I look at in
order for programs like this to actually operate, there is
a high level of trust that has to exist within
the society that you are implementing a benefit program like this.
We have proven that the amount of trust that we
have is low. And I think that the unintended consequence,
(25:08):
and some people would argue intended consequence is that you
will now see people that say, you know what, I've
tried to live my life above board, but what's the
point That's why should I even try anymore? And I
think that you will see a catastrophic, cascading failure to
the point that the back end is going to be
pushing universal basic income, like they're going to say, like
(25:31):
in order to take care of the people. Because listen,
if you tell the job you can't replace me long term,
and then you try and have a temporary worker to
cover the weeks that that person's out for and then
your bottom line suffer, so you just have to go
out of business, and we start to see unemployment shoot
through the roof. Then the counter to that's gonna be like, oh, well,
(25:52):
we still have to have something in place. And I
think that that's kind of the deeper play at all
of this is like, let's completely destroy and get the
business community so we can push our far leftist Marxist
belief system.
Speaker 15 (26:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 16 (26:06):
I mean it's just a peak power play from the left,
like they have an insistence on regulating every single interaction
between individuals. I work out a small nonprofit. We got
our first person ever a few years back who got
pregnant and needed maternity leave. They worked it out amongst
themselves because they did what was best for our small organization,
and every person thereafter that's had the same situation they
(26:28):
worked out amongst themselves.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
That's not acceptable for Governor Walls.
Speaker 5 (26:31):
He needs to be involved in those negotiations moving forward.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
What was the impetus? Where did this start from? I mean,
Walls is out there talking of Blanke and just just
uplay the quick clip here.
Speaker 12 (26:39):
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
(26:59):
have to be uh either through treatments or hospitalized.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
The choice in the past was.
Speaker 12 (27:06):
Lose your job or go broke, or care for yourself.
Speaker 14 (27:09):
You know, it's it's amazing to me the way that
Tim Walls talks. And it's not just him, it's it's all.
It's all the establishment democrats, as if the entirety of
civilization started a couple of decades ago. Yeah, and we
have no idea how to do anything.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Yeah, right, like.
Speaker 15 (27:28):
Hanfore, every achievement of mankind for thousands of years, I
have no idea how it happened until Tim Walls came
wrong to show us the way.
Speaker 11 (27:40):
And so you asked a good question, John, where did
this come from? So if you actually go back, it
starts tracking at having early child education and daycare provided
because of the rise and costs of daycare, and then
it turned into like, well, these are other things that
that quote unquote families have to deal with and struggle with.
And then was born from that was like, well, what
(28:00):
if we provide a generous benefit package to people and
we force employees and employeers to be able to offer
these benefits to their employees.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
And that's where it all came from, and so.
Speaker 11 (28:12):
They modeled it after other states like California, who give
less weeks and more stringency of what qualifies. Now, if
you remember, President Trump's administration talked about having paid family
medical leave at a national level and implementing that for
a very very narrow set of mothers and fathers to
(28:33):
a certain degree, but it was a very very small
window because again, it's become this kind of like, oh,
we need to find a better way to offer benefits
to the working class because of rising costs. But the
Democrats took that and then they stretched out as far
as humanly possible to create what this awful, fraudulent program
is going to be. You know, in the state of Minnesota,
(28:54):
I want to go to the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
With the addition of this program in January, doesn't the
state have three different leave programs.
Speaker 14 (29:02):
Yeah they do.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Is that really the case?
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Yes?
Speaker 14 (29:05):
It is so Yeah, it's just so ridiculous. So there's
earned sick and safe time. Right, that's the thing that's
already out.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
I've conflated these. I've had people that keep correcting me.
Speaker 14 (29:15):
No, they overlap they okay, all right, So there's there's
that there is a pregnancy leave that they passed under
their trifecta, which is supposedly the justification for paid family
medical leave is pregnancy is one of those things. And
now there's going to be the paid FAMLA medical leave
on top of it. And we've tried to figure out
how these things are going to interact. Nobody can give
(29:37):
us a clear answer. I don't think they care. I mean,
you asked earlier, why did they do this? Yeah, same reason.
They did eighty percent of the stuff they did on
their trifecta just to virtue signal to their base.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
How quickly are we going to see the ramifications of this,
like how I mean, because immediately you've got a okay,
how okay if that's the case house So because i mean,
assuming assuming negative, assuming negative, you know, negative aspects of
this even potential for fraud. You're gonna have to get
down the line a bit and the program is gonna
have to be implemented. And I'm just carrious from an
immediate basis, what are your concerns?
Speaker 14 (30:12):
Well, I mean, just look at the operational burden that
it's immediately going to place on literally every employer. Now,
all of a sudden, you are you are taking on
a new business partner, and that business partner is the
State of Minnesota that gets to interject itself into all
of your employee relationships. As of January one, you are
(30:35):
no longer in charge and your employee, frankly, is no
longer in charge of your relationship with each other. You
now have to work through this intermediary, which is the again,
the same people who can't figure out that a guy
operating out of a closet in North Minneapolis can't feed
a thousand children a day, right, those are the people
(30:56):
that you know, no offense to DMV workers, But you're
taking the d and putting it in charge of your
business operation.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
That's gonna have an immediate impact.
Speaker 14 (31:05):
And here's what really concerns me is that we are
already on the verge of facing enormous disruption with the
advancements in AI that are coming in that are gonna
hit people. You interject this into it, that presents another
reason for employers to say, I'm not even gonna deal
(31:26):
with people. I'm not even gonna have people as part
of my operation. Morning John, My two cents on universal income.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
I think it'll.
Speaker 14 (31:36):
Destroy everybody that is saved for the retirement.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
It's gonna push up the bottom end and basically make
worthless everything we've been saving.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
We're not worthless, but devalue.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
It's not good. Have a good eight.
Speaker 14 (31:53):
Okay, I'm hearing a new government program.
Speaker 12 (31:55):
We need to subsidize gingerbread houses for those left.
Speaker 14 (32:01):
Don't play with their because they can't afford to.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
Oh, it's going to make me kind of sad.
Speaker 11 (32:06):
It was kind of a joke when I said it.
I mean poor people. I'm edt can buy gingerbread houses
because it's a food product. I just it was not
part of our culture to gingerbread house.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
I also believe in the intrinsic worth of while people
just like UAK and I think everyone deserves a gingerbread house.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
So before we wrap up, just really quick, cause we
only have just a couple of minutes left. Representative Walter Hudson.
We had this yesterday DHS announcing they were pausing a
moratorium on all new HCBS licenses relating to these disability waivers.
We had Governor Tim Walls last year, one year ago
talking about the eighteen billion dollar surplus turning into the
(32:45):
largest deficit that we've been facing, and he pointed out
these disability waivers into making that announcement. So the potential
here is that they're concerned of fraud and these disability
waivers in these different programs. How much of that do
you think possibly contributed to sucking up that eighteen billion
dollar surplus that we don't have anymore and putting us
in the deficit.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Do we know yet or will we find out?
Speaker 14 (33:06):
Do you think we don't know entirely yet? I mean,
so it's been claimed that as much as eight billion
dollars has been lost to this fraud over the years.
What percentage of that comes out of recent years budgets,
I don't know, but it's certainly measured in the bees right,
(33:29):
It's certainly measured in the billions. And there's simply no
doubt that had we done things a different way and
not just trusted people to take bags of cash and
go out and do benevolent things with them.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
We would be in a much better physical position as
a state.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
I want to go around the room as we wrap
up this morning and ask one quick question in Catherine
Johnson for American Experiment. I'll start with you and then
we'll ast the other guests and studio. Is Wall's still
the nominee for the Democrats next year going into the
governor's race.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Yeah, I don't think they're getting rid of them. Akkamar
your thoughts?
Speaker 11 (34:05):
Oh, yeah, because unless he has some type of mental
acuity or he gets federally indicted.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
That's my coffe Yachts.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Representat of Walter Hudson. Does he survive all this?
Speaker 14 (34:16):
I'm concerned when you have, after years of completely ignoring
everything going on in Minnesota, you have the Start Tribute
coming out attacking him, you have the New York Times
coming out attacking him. It's very clear that Democrats are
engaged in some sort of a mutiny right now.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
I still say it's way greater than fifty to fifty.
I think he's in big trouble. The question is who
do they replace him with?
Speaker 3 (34:38):
And all the prominent individuals in the state have already
announced runs for other races, So all right. American Experiment
Podcast Every Tuesday you can catch Catherine Johnson and Grace Keat.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
Thank you so much for coming in this morning.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
Thank you John It's great to be with you guys
as always.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
RG Committee been business owner ak Kamara, thank.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
You, Thank you on.
Speaker 11 (34:54):
It'll be out in DC for the Vice President Christmas
cocktail party on Tuesdays.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
I traking cam going great.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
AH. Representative Walter Hudson, thank you so much for coming
in this morning. We'll certainly get you back on and
continue to have questions answered by the listener, but I
appreciate you getting in this morning.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Man.
Speaker 14 (35:11):
Always nice to being here.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Sam Master Control both Thank you, sir. If you missed
any portion of.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Today's show, you can check out the podcast available on
the iHeartRadio app. Had a fantastic weekend. We'll talk to
you guys on Monday.
Speaker 13 (35:22):
Bye.
Dang it.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I just burned my call in about gingerbread, and you
guys are talking about the Somali community all of a sudden.
Don't forget that we had Somali community leaders who were
on the GOP side, and those people are also frustrated
with the level of fraud and criminal activity in their
(00:30):
own community.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
It's not just us.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
No, you're absolutely correct. And first off, don't worry. It's
a Freedom Friday, so we can talk fraud, we can
talk budgets, and we can talk gingerbread houses.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
I still have some really good comments that have rolled
in this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Catherine Johnson from American Experiment joins me on a Freedom Friday.
We're still waiting for RNC committeem Ak Kamara and Representative
Walter Hudson to join us in the studio on a
Freedom Friday. We've got Sam next door in the Master
Control booth.
Speaker 5 (01:03):
Well, you know, John to his point, one of the
things that we've always said at an American Experiment is that
all of the best tips we've gotten are from people
inside the Smali community. There are plenty of people there
that are very disappointed about what's going on, and I
would encourage those people to speak up publicly too, because
I think that would mean a lot.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
One hundred percent, I completely agree.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
And just like we had voices during the election of
the Somali community coming out in support of Donald Trump,
and we've heard, I haven't seen anything tangible relating to this.
This is just what I've told, what I've been told
from different sources. Individuals in politics that follow closely to
what happens in Minneapolis, independently of each other, tell me
(01:50):
that there are factions within the Somali community that led
to the divisions that ushered in Minneapolis man maybe may
Or Mom Jeans, Jacob Fry getting another term as governor
and Omar Fate losing because there was there was a
group of faction ory ring of the Somali community that
was in support of Fry and another group that was
(02:12):
in support of of Omar fat And so what I
hope to see is, like we saw in the election,
that those individuals within the Somali community that are just
as outrage as what is going on, I hope that
they can feel confident and are brave enough to step
up and to speak about what's going on, because that's
the conversation at this point we need to have because
(02:33):
a lot of people are asking why is this specific
to this particular community, wherein we're not having the same
issues relating to other communities. And there's there's a lot
to unpack there with where they're coming from in Somalia,
what life is like there, what the culture is like there,
the lack of assimilation here into the United States to
(02:55):
the Twin Cities into Minnesota, and those are the tough
conversations that we need to continue to have as we
tackle this problem of fraud here in Minnesota.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Certainly, and if you go back to what we saw
in twenty twenty, there were people from within that community
also talking about how they felt that certain members were
taking advantage of other people within the community when it
comes to things like ballad harvesting, going door to door
and telling people, hey, give me your vote, and doing
kind of you know, corrupt things that maybe they were
(03:25):
really taking advantage of these people. So there's that aspect
too that I think adds to the nuance in that conversation.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Got a couple of comments here relating to these things
called gingerbread houses. We were asking last hour in the
midst of a Freedom Friday covering all our bases today
during the holiday season, whether or not you're supposed to
eat a gingerbread house, because I was just I was
curious watching a baking show because there's no eating component
of the competition, so I thought.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
That was odd. Don't some people make gingerbread houses with
real glue?
Speaker 6 (03:55):
Isn't that why you're not supposed to eat them?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I was under the impressions of those are the ones
you absolutely want to eat? Were the ones made with
like Elmer's wood glue?
Speaker 5 (04:08):
John was the glueseniffer in class.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Is that what I'm hearing?
Speaker 7 (04:11):
No?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I was the one who covered my hand in Elmer's
wood glue and I'm forward to dry and.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Then oh, look, impeeling me skin up. It's a if
you can looking to see my fingerprints.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
And now thousands of people across the state trust you
for their advice.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
That's on that and the news on them. Can you
trust me for anything or believe anything I say? That
is on you? Hey, John?
Speaker 8 (04:35):
On the gingerbread house, I would always wait for the
kids to forget about it after sitting there for a month.
Then I'd soak it in a bunch of milk, watch
a good movie.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I eat the whole thing. Yeah, yeah, listen, Yeah, Oh,
I'm down with that. So soggy gingerbread is your response.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
That's a great idea. If Linda makes one this year,
I think what's going to happen is she's probably listening,
but I'm giving I'm giving this all away. But she
makes a gingerbread house, right, it's time to get rid
of it. Oh honey, I'll take care of.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
It for you. I'll throw it out. Don't get it in milk. Yeah,
just just just soak it, soak it in milk. That's
the worst city of yet.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
It's a fantastic idea. I used to back during the
dark days, I would go and get a I've told
the story before, but it's been a long time and
you've probably never heard of Catherine Sam. I don't think
you've probably heard this before you heard my ding dong.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Sorry nope.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Okay, So we'll get back to more of your relevant
talkbacks here in a minute. So I used to get
ding dongs, and then what I would do is, because.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
You know, so you have describe it ding dong. Okay,
So a ding dong.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Ding dongs are the in the center, is the white,
creamy filling, and then it's then it's a then it's
a chocolate cake looks like a hockey puck.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Squiggly lines.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
No, no, not in not in the regular ding dong. Okay,
you're you're close, but no, the regular ding dongs are
just osed ding dong and then they're covered in a
semi hard chocolate shell. Okay, and they look like a
hockey puck, right that.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
I get that? You agree there? Sam? Okay, Catherine, do
you know what a Swiss cake roll is? Yes? So
it's it's like it's the outside crust of kind of
like a Swiss cake role. I feel like there's a
squiggly line. There's no squiggly line.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
There are some that you can buy in the store separately,
but I don't think those are specifically ding dongs because
I think they have an extra layer of frosting on
top along with the squiggly line.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
So these usually come in a package and they're in
like a silver tinfoil.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Okay, So I get a box of these, and.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I get milk, and then what I would do is
I'd bite just a little teeny portion of the outer
shell off and then I would dunk the ding dong
into the milk.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
I would allow the milk.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
To soak up into the cake so that it's now
encapsulated because of the hard outer shell, and then I would.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Go and proceed to eat it. It was very messy.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I was by my I was I was living alone
in an apartment by myself when this took place. Just
wanted to point that out. And yes, you come to
me for your news every single day.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
That's right. M m hey John.
Speaker 8 (07:02):
On the gingerbread house, I would always wait for the
kids to forget about it.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Oh no, we already heard from that guy.
Speaker 9 (07:09):
Sorry, Hey, good morning, guys. Not to get too serious
on a Freedom Friday. Not with the gingerbread houses. But
when I was younger, they were always made out of
what I would call table candy. My grandma had it
in bowls on the counters and it sat there forever.
I think the issue is we started changing and adding
what we put on them. And then also everybody decides
(07:30):
it's time to decorate for Christmas fifteen minutes after they
take their Halloween costume off.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
So it's stale and young, all right.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
So we're gonna get back to more of your comments
coming up. We will get back into the paid family
leave waiting for our guests to arrival. Continue to take
your gingerbread commentary as well.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Time permitting.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Later on in the hour, we will get to the
top words of the year have been bestowed. Hey this
every single year. We also have the most mispronounced words
of the year. Oh so potentially we will. We will
get to that corporate one. We'll get to that as well,
and more of your talkbacks. One more quick point before
we take a break the whole the other impetus to
(08:11):
this whole thing. When we're watching the gingerbread baking show,
Melinda had purchased a an atat and ad at walker
from Star Wars gingerbread house. Okay, And so when I
posed her the question, are we supposed to eat gingerbread houses?
Speaker 5 (08:28):
Like?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
You know, you bought the Star Wars ata t gingerbread house, Like,
do we eat that after you make it? And then
Melinda looks at me and goes, well, we're not going
to eat that one because it's Lego.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
I went, oh, yeah, I forgot what Yeah it was,
it's a it's a Lego.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
It's a Lego Star Wars Holiday themed ginger Like, you're right,
it is Lego not referring to that one, to which
Melinda looked at me and.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Said, you're fascinating.
Speaker 5 (08:52):
There are also the kids in class who would you know,
stick legos out there nose?
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Were you also one of those? Okay? No, I did
get too Good and Plenty he shoved up my nose.
Do you remember? Do you remember Good and Plenty's Okay?
Is it a candy?
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yeah, it's a candy. So they're a little pill shaped candy.
They're pink, they're pink and white ands. Yeah, so I
put they're covered it so this liquor is covered in
a clear shell. And I put them up my nose
when I was a kid, And then my brothers made
me laugh and I ended up sucking them up my
nose and they got stuck. By the time I got
them out, the complete outer shell had worn off. At
(09:25):
all I had was the licorice left. We are embracing
Freedom Friday this morning on twit City's news top.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Demitrious here from South Dakota. No, we don't eat the
gingerbread house, but we do put the GRAMD crackers with
the frosting on and eat it. While we're creating the
gingerbread house.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Me and my four year old son. Morning, John, this
is Alex.
Speaker 10 (10:03):
You had mentioned other parts of the country and other
immigrant communities. I think it's time we educate ourselves to
the culture of Somalia. There's Peace on Health and News
by Liz Collin. Very interesting. I think we're dealing with
a different thing here culturally. That's one thing. As far
as the gingerbread houses, there's no way I'm eating something
(10:24):
at fence, sitting on the counter for two and a
half weeks collecting environmental fallout in a house with a dog.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
And a cat.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
You guys are the best audience ever. You really really are.
What other show in this country is going from? Like
immigrant communities, Somalia, fraud and gingerbread houses. Come on Twin
City's News Talk Am eleven thirty one oh three five
FM from the sixty five point Carpet plus Next Day
(10:51):
Install Studios. Katherine Johnson, American experiment ak Kamara, RNC Committeemen,
business owner.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I am here.
Speaker 11 (11:00):
It only took me an hour and forty minutes to
drive into the studio, which it usually takes me forty minutes.
So shout out to poor planning on my part, because
I mean I could check the weather and see who's
snowing and be like, I could just know my whole
life and I should know to do that. But uh no,
I thank you so much for always being part of
(11:21):
the show.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Here's what I got to say about that talk back.
Speaker 11 (11:24):
I think that when we talk about the culture aspects
of different immigrant communities, we have to be able to
be critical. And I would say this, I believe that
we're made by God as individuals. But if you are
going to be immersed in a culture okay, meaning that
you live in neighborhoods that are ethnically very similar to yours,
I think you then take a responsibility to have to
(11:45):
call out the community that you associate with in the
same way that I live in Forest Lake. And if
Forest Lake started passing some crazy rules and regulations and
I want to call myself a forest Laker, I need
to stand up and I need to call out the
things that are happening within my community. And I think
that the same type of thing has to happen within
the Somala community. And it's not that you have to
(12:08):
I mean, listen, you could go and move out to
Forest Lake if you're Somali and say I'm just going
to adopt the forest Lake lifestyle, then you don't have
to say anything because it ain't your community anymore. I
just think that that's just a responsibility that falls good, badter,
and different. But I just one last piece real quick
about the gingerbread cookies and the ginger bread houses using
(12:28):
gram crackers. It's not gingerbread crackers on ginger bread.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
I've addressed this. It was in kindergarten.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
You know the Talkbacker just mentioned gram crackers.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know what be
a graund cracker house.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Gram crackers and gingerbread are different.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Right, so much easier to use gram crackers though, than
like bake.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Gingerbread in the right shapes. That's insane.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Do you like gingerbread and itself?
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Like?
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Would you just eat gingerbread cookies?
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
I'm not a ginger bread guy. If I've got I
dont like the flavor.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
If I've got gingerbread and graham crackers in front of me,
I'm going gram crackers.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Now again, I need to have milk. What I'm going.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
I'm going gram crackers over if I'm just if I
have a cookie, yeah, if I have over a ginger
Brecker gingerbread.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Cookie, gram crackers front of you. What you're going for.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Ginger bread cookie?
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (13:22):
So you like molasses, Sure, it's fine, I deserve I
like them both. I don't like it, but I prefer
I prefer gram crackers. And see what I do is
what the gram crackers is. You you know how they
come in.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
The crackers don't taste like anything they grab.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, so you know you know how the gram crackers
they come in. Those they come in, they're four, the sheets,
the sheets of four. So what you do is you
take two sheets of four, okay, and you put them together.
Then you make sure you got a glass that's wide enough,
and then you dip you dip down doing.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
This, you're eating all soggy food.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yeah, And it's this you have.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
But the timing is crucial, so crucial, because you put
it in and if you wait too long, its alves
in the bottom.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
You will pull the gram cracker out and the portion
you have just will be gone.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Now that in and of itself, can end up being
a very nice treat at the end of drinking your
glass of milk. And I prefer right exactly, but I
prefer to lift it out and have the just soggy
enough toward doesn't fall out.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
I can get it in my mouth, and I can
I can mention.
Speaker 11 (14:25):
It and and I put peanut butter on my gram crackers. Okay,
so I'll take my gram cracker. I put peanut butter
on it.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
And that dip it, don't it?
Speaker 4 (14:32):
I like that too? Agreement this time? All right, let's go.
Let's go here.
Speaker 6 (14:38):
Did you catch when Tim Walls said, almost said palace
when people were driving my my He changed it very quickly,
almost said palace again.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
I will let's do it right now.
Speaker 12 (14:53):
I tell our to molly neighbors. I tell our long neighbors.
I tell oh, that's not this one.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
True.
Speaker 12 (14:58):
This creates danger, 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 by the palace.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
He did one more time.
Speaker 12 (15:14):
True, this creates danger, 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 So
is it?
Speaker 7 (15:26):
So?
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Is it the house of Walls? Is that what we're
is that where we're going with here?
Speaker 3 (15:29):
It's just the house of No Okay, inured by gingerbread,
ginger red house, ginger bread houses. All right, I believe
we have Walter. Okay, we'll go ahead and take a break.
We have ak Kamarin studio, Catherine Johnson representative.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Walter Hudson is in the house. He'll be joining us
in the studio.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
So we'll take this last segment and we will get
back into paid family leave. This is what I've been
waiting to have Walter Hudson join us for this morning.
We'll of course get back to more of your talkbacks
as well. We'll see if we have some time first
the further lighter subjects be that is a mayor talk
back of the day is on the way too. Here
On twinsday's news talk Am eleven thirty and one oh
(16:07):
three five FM.
Speaker 13 (16:16):
Youwer contacted us about houses purchased with stolen money still
owned by people who've been charged, in some cases even convicted.
Our investigative reporter Eric Rasmussen recently went door to door
at three properties marked for seizure and confirmed that it
has still not happened. Is it fair for the public
to want answers about what's being done?
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Absolutely, it's our money.
Speaker 9 (16:41):
This is something in criminal law that too often gets
forgotten the money side of it.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Properties linked to story from Channel five, Properties linked to
Feeding Our Future for auds still owned by defendants despite
the forfeiture plans, and prosecutors of the US Attorney's Office
in Minneapolis estimate that they've recovered more than sixty million
out of the two hundred and fifty million stolen from
taxpayers in the fraud connected Defeating Our Future. Court records
(17:09):
reveal the government has targeted many of the properties for forfeiture,
but long after some of the defendants were charged, convicted,
and sentenced, Channel five found out five investigates that there's
still they are still the official owners of the houses
that were purchased with stolen money, something we'll continue to
follow as we talk fraud this hour here on Twin
Cities News Talk. Our full House is here. We have
(17:31):
Catherine Johnson from American Experiment. We have business owner and
R and C Committeemen Ak Camargo.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Jesse, my uncle Jesse in the full House.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Representative Walter Hudson, you've been traveling. You were down in
Florida earlier this week.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Good morning, I was.
Speaker 14 (17:44):
I had the opportunity to visit the President's residence in
the mar A Lago for the Prager You Gala, and
it was quite the experience, especially like the difference in
weather right sure, waking up the next day and it
being so hot and humid that I had to stand
in the shade and then getting off the plane in
(18:05):
thirteen degrees was quite jarring.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I have further thoughts on that and the final segment
of the show this morning, we'll get back to paid
family leave, We'll get back to fraud.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
We have questions that are rolling in.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Representative Walter Hudson has joined us in studio, and I
certainly want to get your take on everything that's transpired
so far of the course of the past few weeks,
and then try to get some questions answered, because, as
I mentioned at the start of the show, every single
time I've brought up paid family medical leave, the comments
have just exploded. And I finally sort of I'm like, well,
this is really interesting that people are so interested in this,
(18:38):
and then the slow realization came in, you know, came
to me that well, we're talking about an issue that
does impact everybody visiting though, from the employer right on
down to the employee, every single working taxpayer here in
Minnesota is going to be impacted by this, and so
we'll we'll dive into it. Got to take care of
the talk back of the day brought to you by
minieleafminileaf dot com. First, it's a good one this morning
(19:02):
from Tim. Here's your talk back of the day.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Please, can we have the podcast titled b Sam.
Speaker 11 (19:10):
Have you heard my ding Dong story?
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Please?
Speaker 3 (19:16):
That is sure talk back in the day. It's brought
to you by Mini Leaf minileaf dot com. Head on over,
am I an any l e a f dot com.
I am just thankful that it wasn't. Hey, Catherine, have
you heard my.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Asking? You shall receive by the way, Hey, let's get
that clip asap. All right, let's go here.
Speaker 7 (19:37):
I just got a news blast to cross my iPad.
It says Tim Waltz promotes new Minnesota paid leaf program
open to undocumented workers.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Is this true?
Speaker 3 (19:49):
So we were working off an article from the Daily
Wire of which you were quoted in this morning. They
were picking up on this very issue relating to a
paid family medical leave. So first off on that front,
just to answer her question straightforward, Representative Walter Hudson undocumented
workers paid family leave what's the deal?
Speaker 14 (20:07):
Uh, they get it, just like everything else in this state.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
All right, Hi, what's your thoughts on gingerbread houses?
Speaker 14 (20:13):
They do not exist. My gingerbread houses exist. My thoughts
on them do not. No thoughts, no thoughts.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
You don't eat?
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Do you eat them?
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Or no eat them?
Speaker 14 (20:23):
I've never even I mean I've had gingerbread cookies.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Have you built a gingerbread house? Come on, people are
so mad at me here, Like, I don't want to
talk paid family.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
You haven't built a gingerbread house.
Speaker 14 (20:34):
I grew up as a Jehovah's witness, so there's lots
of there's lots of things I didn't do.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
As a kid. We need to eat gingerbread house.
Speaker 11 (20:42):
I've never made one either, and that's because I grew
up poor and black in America.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
All right, you don't play with your food, man.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Right.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
With so much focus on paid family medical leave, now
that we're almost to the date of its start on
January first, we do have another legislative session coming.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Up next year. What do you think?
Speaker 3 (21:04):
What is your prediction on what's going to happen? I mean,
everybody now that we're here seems really worried about this.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
I know, you guys tried to tackle it. You tried.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
There were those even on the left that we're saying,
can we put a pause in The Democrats said no,
Walls is you know, I mean, there's a whole wall
factor in this now too that he is facing more
scrutiny than I think he has ever faced in his
entire political career. So I'll just hand it over to you.
What are your thoughts for a few minutes here, Walter Hudson.
Speaker 14 (21:30):
It's going to be an unmitigated disaster. It's going to
make everything that we've been talking about in regards to
fraud and dysfunction look like a walk in the park, because,
as you point out, this is something that impacts literally everybody.
Nobody is exempt from it. If you have one employee,
(21:52):
you have to contend with this losey goosey process that
is administered by the state. That same state that can't
seem to determine whether or not businesses that are all
located twenty four of them in one building claiming to
feed a million people a day are actually legitimate or not.
(22:13):
Like those same people are the people who are going
to be deciding whether or not your employee is legit
when they say they need to take time off to
go take care of their cousin in quotes who they're
not actually related to, right, And the other people who
this is going to really really hurt are people with
(22:34):
great work ethic who show up every day to do
the job, because you're going to find yourself increasingly having
to pick up the slack for people who are going
to just embrace the sense of power that comes with
being able to do what they want with no consequence.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Well, the unintended consequences of this, I mean that's the
aspect of this is because we've continued to sort of
work through the various different angles on it is than
just the number of unintended consequences, including as I mentioned
earlier this week, you know, the possibility of employers being
much more stringent regarding who it is that they are hiring,
(23:16):
making sure the vetting process is even deeper on individuals
on whether or not they're going to be you know,
somebody more inclined to go and take advantage of a
program like this.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Somebody mentioned yesterday, like the.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Possibility of preemptive layoffs because of the concerns over this,
like here within iHeart and with what we do here. Like,
first of all, I couldn't. I couldn't do this, like
the company would be forced to. But the position that
I would put the company in if I took twenty
weeks off of doing my show and then I had
to get hired back and they had no choice in
the matter, I mean, the economic devast and it would
(23:48):
be it would be economically devastating.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
For Twin Cities News Talk.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
I'm not patting myself on the back, it just would
if I took that level of time off from the
show and they would be forced to have to hire.
Speaker 14 (23:59):
Me back, well, it would It would destroy I mean,
it would be a brand disruption, right because people expect
to tune it in the morning and here are you
right anytime you have and programs change all the time.
You know this, really you've got a pretty long standing.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
They would probably find a very clever way to move
me someplace else or do something else with me if
that was the case it took that much time off.
Speaker 14 (24:19):
But yeah, it's it's it's not just your your employee.
And that you bring up a third category. So there's
the employer, there is other there's good will work ethic
employees who are affected by this. And then there's consumers.
What's the impact on the consumer going to be in
terms of what they expect in terms of value from
the businesses that they're engaging with. When you take the
(24:42):
operation and you flip the game board and let the
pieces go flying everywhere.
Speaker 11 (24:47):
The thing, the thing is that I look at in
order for programs like this to actually operate, there is
a high level of trust that has to exist within
the society that you are implementing a benefit program like this.
We have proven that the amount of trust that we
have is low. And I think that the unintended consequence,
(25:08):
and some people would argue intended consequence is that you
will now see people that say, you know what, I've
tried to live my life above board, but what's the
point That's why should I even try anymore? And I
think that you will see a catastrophic, cascading failure to
the point that the back end is going to be
pushing universal basic income, like they're going to say, like
(25:31):
in order to take care of the people. Because listen,
if you tell the job you can't replace me long term,
and then you try and have a temporary worker to
cover the weeks that that person's out for and then
your bottom line suffer, so you just have to go
out of business, and we start to see unemployment shoot
through the roof. Then the counter to that's gonna be like, oh, well,
(25:52):
we still have to have something in place. And I
think that that's kind of the deeper play at all
of this is like, let's completely destroy and get the
business community so we can push our far leftist Marxist
belief system.
Speaker 15 (26:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 16 (26:06):
I mean it's just a peak power play from the left,
like they have an insistence on regulating every single interaction
between individuals. I work out a small nonprofit. We got
our first person ever a few years back who got
pregnant and needed maternity leave. They worked it out amongst
themselves because they did what was best for our small organization,
and every person thereafter that's had the same situation they
(26:28):
worked out amongst themselves.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
That's not acceptable for Governor Walls.
Speaker 5 (26:31):
He needs to be involved in those negotiations moving forward.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
What was the impetus? Where did this start from? I mean,
Walls is out there talking of Blanke and just just
uplay the quick clip here.
Speaker 12 (26:39):
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
(26:59):
have to be uh either through treatments or hospitalized.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
The choice in the past was.
Speaker 12 (27:06):
Lose your job or go broke, or care for yourself.
Speaker 14 (27:09):
You know, it's it's amazing to me the way that
Tim Walls talks. And it's not just him, it's it's all.
It's all the establishment democrats, as if the entirety of
civilization started a couple of decades ago. Yeah, and we
have no idea how to do anything.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Yeah, right, like.
Speaker 15 (27:28):
Hanfore, every achievement of mankind for thousands of years, I
have no idea how it happened until Tim Walls came
wrong to show us the way.
Speaker 11 (27:40):
And so you asked a good question, John, where did
this come from? So if you actually go back, it
starts tracking at having early child education and daycare provided
because of the rise and costs of daycare, and then
it turned into like, well, these are other things that
that quote unquote families have to deal with and struggle with.
And then was born from that was like, well, what
(28:00):
if we provide a generous benefit package to people and
we force employees and employeers to be able to offer
these benefits to their employees.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
And that's where it all came from, and so.
Speaker 11 (28:12):
They modeled it after other states like California, who give
less weeks and more stringency of what qualifies. Now, if
you remember, President Trump's administration talked about having paid family
medical leave at a national level and implementing that for
a very very narrow set of mothers and fathers to
(28:33):
a certain degree, but it was a very very small
window because again, it's become this kind of like, oh,
we need to find a better way to offer benefits
to the working class because of rising costs. But the
Democrats took that and then they stretched out as far
as humanly possible to create what this awful, fraudulent program
is going to be. You know, in the state of Minnesota,
(28:54):
I want to go to the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
With the addition of this program in January, doesn't the
state have three different leave programs.
Speaker 14 (29:02):
Yeah they do.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Is that really the case?
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Yes?
Speaker 14 (29:05):
It is so Yeah, it's just so ridiculous. So there's
earned sick and safe time. Right, that's the thing that's
already out.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
I've conflated these. I've had people that keep correcting me.
Speaker 14 (29:15):
No, they overlap they okay, all right, So there's there's
that there is a pregnancy leave that they passed under
their trifecta, which is supposedly the justification for paid family
medical leave is pregnancy is one of those things. And
now there's going to be the paid FAMLA medical leave
on top of it. And we've tried to figure out
how these things are going to interact. Nobody can give
(29:37):
us a clear answer. I don't think they care. I mean,
you asked earlier, why did they do this? Yeah, same reason.
They did eighty percent of the stuff they did on
their trifecta just to virtue signal to their base.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
How quickly are we going to see the ramifications of this,
like how I mean, because immediately you've got a okay,
how okay if that's the case house So because i mean,
assuming assuming negative, assuming negative, you know, negative aspects of
this even potential for fraud. You're gonna have to get
down the line a bit and the program is gonna
have to be implemented. And I'm just carrious from an
immediate basis, what are your concerns?
Speaker 14 (30:12):
Well, I mean, just look at the operational burden that
it's immediately going to place on literally every employer. Now,
all of a sudden, you are you are taking on
a new business partner, and that business partner is the
State of Minnesota that gets to interject itself into all
of your employee relationships. As of January one, you are
(30:35):
no longer in charge and your employee, frankly, is no
longer in charge of your relationship with each other. You
now have to work through this intermediary, which is the again,
the same people who can't figure out that a guy
operating out of a closet in North Minneapolis can't feed
a thousand children a day, right, those are the people
(30:56):
that you know, no offense to DMV workers, But you're
taking the d and putting it in charge of your
business operation.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
That's gonna have an immediate impact.
Speaker 14 (31:05):
And here's what really concerns me is that we are
already on the verge of facing enormous disruption with the
advancements in AI that are coming in that are gonna
hit people. You interject this into it, that presents another
reason for employers to say, I'm not even gonna deal
(31:26):
with people. I'm not even gonna have people as part
of my operation. Morning John, My two cents on universal income.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
I think it'll.
Speaker 14 (31:36):
Destroy everybody that is saved for the retirement.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
It's gonna push up the bottom end and basically make
worthless everything we've been saving.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
We're not worthless, but devalue.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
It's not good. Have a good eight.
Speaker 14 (31:53):
Okay, I'm hearing a new government program.
Speaker 12 (31:55):
We need to subsidize gingerbread houses for those left.
Speaker 14 (32:01):
Don't play with their because they can't afford to.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
Oh, it's going to make me kind of sad.
Speaker 11 (32:06):
It was kind of a joke when I said it.
I mean poor people. I'm edt can buy gingerbread houses
because it's a food product. I just it was not
part of our culture to gingerbread house.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
I also believe in the intrinsic worth of while people
just like UAK and I think everyone deserves a gingerbread house.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
So before we wrap up, just really quick, cause we
only have just a couple of minutes left. Representative Walter Hudson.
We had this yesterday DHS announcing they were pausing a
moratorium on all new HCBS licenses relating to these disability waivers.
We had Governor Tim Walls last year, one year ago
talking about the eighteen billion dollar surplus turning into the
(32:45):
largest deficit that we've been facing, and he pointed out
these disability waivers into making that announcement. So the potential
here is that they're concerned of fraud and these disability
waivers in these different programs. How much of that do
you think possibly contributed to sucking up that eighteen billion
dollar surplus that we don't have anymore and putting us
in the deficit.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Do we know yet or will we find out?
Speaker 14 (33:06):
Do you think we don't know entirely yet? I mean,
so it's been claimed that as much as eight billion
dollars has been lost to this fraud over the years.
What percentage of that comes out of recent years budgets,
I don't know, but it's certainly measured in the bees right,
(33:29):
It's certainly measured in the billions. And there's simply no
doubt that had we done things a different way and
not just trusted people to take bags of cash and
go out and do benevolent things with them.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
We would be in a much better physical position as
a state.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
I want to go around the room as we wrap
up this morning and ask one quick question in Catherine
Johnson for American Experiment. I'll start with you and then
we'll ast the other guests and studio. Is Wall's still
the nominee for the Democrats next year going into the
governor's race.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Yeah, I don't think they're getting rid of them. Akkamar
your thoughts?
Speaker 11 (34:05):
Oh, yeah, because unless he has some type of mental
acuity or he gets federally indicted.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
That's my coffe Yachts.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Representat of Walter Hudson. Does he survive all this?
Speaker 14 (34:16):
I'm concerned when you have, after years of completely ignoring
everything going on in Minnesota, you have the Start Tribute
coming out attacking him, you have the New York Times
coming out attacking him. It's very clear that Democrats are
engaged in some sort of a mutiny right now.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
I still say it's way greater than fifty to fifty.
I think he's in big trouble. The question is who
do they replace him with?
Speaker 3 (34:38):
And all the prominent individuals in the state have already
announced runs for other races, So all right. American Experiment
Podcast Every Tuesday you can catch Catherine Johnson and Grace Keat.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
Thank you so much for coming in this morning.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
Thank you John It's great to be with you guys
as always.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
RG Committee been business owner ak Kamara, thank.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
You, Thank you on.
Speaker 11 (34:54):
It'll be out in DC for the Vice President Christmas
cocktail party on Tuesdays.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
I traking cam going great.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
AH. Representative Walter Hudson, thank you so much for coming
in this morning. We'll certainly get you back on and
continue to have questions answered by the listener, but I
appreciate you getting in this morning.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Man.
Speaker 14 (35:11):
Always nice to being here.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Sam Master Control both Thank you, sir. If you missed
any portion of.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Today's show, you can check out the podcast available on
the iHeartRadio app. Had a fantastic weekend. We'll talk to
you guys on Monday.
Speaker 13 (35:22):
Bye.
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