December 17, 2025 • 27 mins
There are brutal realities in the world today. Cancer is one. Terrorism is another. And political division is one that could wreck this country. What will it take to confront and rise above them? This is a bitterly honest Wildcard Wednesday. Michele Tafoya is a four-time Emmy award-winning sportscaster turned political and cultural commentator. Record-setting, four-time Sports Emmy Award winner Michele Tafoya worked her final NBC Sunday Night Football game at Super Bowl LVI on February 13, 2022, her fifth Super Bowl. She retired from sportscasting the following day. In total, she covered 327 games — the most national primetime TV games (regular + postseason) for an NFL sideline reporter. Learn More about “The Michele Tafoya Podcast” here: https://linktr.ee/micheletafoya Subscribe to “The Michele Tafoya Podcast” here: https://apple.co/3nPW221 Follow Michele on twitter: https://twitter.com/Michele_Tafoya Follow Michele on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realmicheletafoya/ Learn more about the Salem Podcast network: https://salempodcastnetwork.com/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to a brand new episode of the Michelle Tafoya Podcast.
Please click that subscribe button so you never miss an episode.
It's free to subscribe, So why wouldn't you. We'd love
to have you with us every single time. Today I'm
going to be honest with you. This is a tough
one for me today. I've pulled some sound to play
for you, to share with you my thoughts on but
I can't get around what's going on around the world,
(00:32):
from Brown University, to Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle
and that whole entire family being plunged into complete turmoil,
to Bondai Beach in Australia. That place is beautiful and
it's shocking. So having said all that, we'll revisit that
at the end. Right now, I want to talk a
(00:54):
little bit about Congress. Here we are, it's December. I
don't think a lot's going to get done in Congress
before the first of the year. But we've got this
representative McBride. She's Congresswoman Sarah McBride, and she is condemning
(01:16):
the administration for the healthcare issues that we're all facing
here in America. I don't know how well. Look she's
a politician. She can make that leap if she wants to.
But let's just play this for you and let's let's uh,
let's chat about it right afterwards. Let's roll Representative McBride.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
We are currently in the beginning stages of a one
trillion dollar ticking time bomb going off in the center
of the American healthcare system, and to your point, around
the ACA tax credits, that's just the first part of
that time bomb going off there. We are essentially now
living under trump Care. Donald Trump likes to own things
(01:57):
and slap his name on them, while he now owns
the American healthcare system. It is trump Care. And at
the end of this year, the Affordable Care Attax credits
without action by Congress will expire, and that means skyrocketing
healthcare premiums for the millions of Americans that rely on
the ACA marketplace for insurance, people seeing one hundred two hundred,
(02:17):
three hundred percent increases in their healthcare. But the consequences
of Trump cared on end there. A year from now,
the largest cut to Medicaid and American history will go
into effect, and in its totality, Trump Care will leave
fifteen million more Americans without health coverage. But as that
(02:38):
bomb goes off, those fifteen million Americans, they will not
only they will not be the only casualties of that
bomb going off, because the reality is, when you have
fifteen million people who lose coverage, it's not that they
never get care. It's that they get care when they're
sicker and it's more expensive, and someone fill us to
pay for that, and that cost gets passed on to
all other premium payers. And when you have one train
(03:00):
dollars removed from the American healthcare system, what happens to
cash strap oral hospitals, health clinics, and doctors' offices. They
cut services and in some cases close entirely, leaving those
communities having to drive longer, wait longer, and take more
time off work to get care. And that really is
what trump Care is. It's fifteen million more people uninsured
(03:20):
and everyone else having to pay more and wait longer
to get care. And I'm going to continue to fight
against it.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Okay, that was you know, she's called it trump Care,
so obamacare. You probably remember when that was passed. Joe
Biden was the vice president and said it was a
big effing deal. When they went up to sign that
new law that was supposed to take care of this stuff.
But during COVID they gave out subsidies the Democrats did. Remember,
(03:48):
it was a Democrat led effort to give out subsidies
for these healthcare premiums. Obamacare is such a big, complicated mess.
This is what happens when governments get involved in planning
your healthcare. So in addition to the original ACA, which
(04:12):
shouldn't have been called the Affordable Care Act, it made
it completely unaffordable because it lumps everyone into the same pool,
so that if you're a really healthy human being and
you take care of yourself and you eat right and
you're doing what you should and all that taking care
of yourself, you're lumped in with the same people of
pre existing conditions, and we're all paying for each other,
(04:32):
so that we're already experiencing socialized medicine in a sense.
And what this congress person is trying to do is
blame everything on the White House now and rename it,
and it's just wrong. Now, Let's make some decisions, folks,
Let's make some corrections and do some things that put
(04:54):
power back into the hands of the people. This is
why I'm such a limited government fan because when you
make the government so big, each individual gets really small.
So much bloat and weight in the federal government makes
every individual that much smaller. It when government gets involved
(05:18):
in funding education I'm talking about higher education, the prices
go up, and gets involved in healthcare, the prices go up,
and they've been going up dramatically since the ac since
Obamacare was passed. So she can try to relabel this
as Trump Care or anything she wants to do, she's
dead wrong. She's absolutely wrong. And this is what happens
(05:43):
when these massive bills get passed without vetting, without without
real concern for the American people. We end up paying
for it in one way, shape or form. And really
what we ought to be doing is focusing on the
people who truly need a safety net, but not letting
every nets tangle people too. You get entangled in nets,
(06:03):
people get stuck in nets, and unfortunately, I think that's
so much of what's going on. How we fix it.
It's a conversation that is far too long for this podcast,
but I just want you to be aware of what
the effort is here. The Democrats put these subsidies in place,
they set them to expire at the end of twenty
(06:24):
twenty five, which is where we are near, and they're
going to blame that on anyone but themselves. Don't fall
for it all right. Next up, it is Christmas time.
People know the story of Jesus. Whether you believe it
or not is up to you. But in Minneapolis, our
chief of police, it's hard to believe this, you know. Look,
(06:52):
Immigration Customs Enforcement is a law enforcement group and they
are trying to enforce the law, and they're trying to
do it in cities that have major issues. They have
determined that Minneapolis has won such city. But here is
(07:12):
what the police chief, another law enforcement professional, is saying
about Ice roll It.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
It's especially personal to me, having been raised a Catholic,
to be in a Christian church this morning as we
are approaching Christmas, and I cannot help but think of
what is happening in our city today and how that
(07:41):
echoes with how outsiders have been treated for thousands of years,
How Mary and Joseph themselves were considered outsiders and forced
to stay in a barn. That's what we're getting ready
to commemorate as Christians around the world while all of
(08:01):
this fear is happening, right here in our town.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Okay, I don't know, first of all, if it hits
with you personally, that's really your business. You're the police chief.
You're there to enforce the law. And let's try to
remember this. Every country on the planet has limited resources,
(08:31):
limited food, limited money, limited living space, limited jobs. Everything
is limited. We don't have an infinite amount of anything.
And so imagine you were a person who's working really
really hard to try to make ends meet here. Either
you were born here or you're a legal citizen. You've
(08:53):
become a citizen of this country, and you're working really
hard to provide for your family, to provide everything that
you need to live a safe and productive life. And
then there are people who have come in illegally. They
have entered the country illegally, and they're getting a bunch
(09:16):
of stuff, a bunch of limited resources from the government
to stay here and to they're getting it. So I
read this in an article just today. On the plane
ride home, You've got two people drowning in the ocean.
One is swimming so hard, has done everything right, swimming, swimming, swimming.
(09:38):
There's another one swimming next to him who's kinda eh,
I kind of swimming hard, and then the lifeguard comes in,
and who does he throw the one that one life
saver ring to? Not the person swimming really really hard.
And so the person swimming really really hard. It's not
(09:59):
that they don't care about the person who's next to them,
also struggling but not swimming that hard. They are just
pissed off that the life saver, the life saving device
is being thrown to not to them, and they are
looking at that decision made by the person who's got
(10:22):
one ring to throw, one life saver to throw, and
they're throwing it to the people who have not done
all the right things to be here. So try to
picture it from that perspective if you can. All right,
(10:42):
next up, this is really this is sad joining all
the sadness in the world. And it's just been a
rough week, hasn't it. I got to keep it together.
Scott Adams, who created Dilbert and has had a successful
podcast for years and years. It's known now that he's
(11:02):
suffering prostate cancer and it's gotten very advanced and he
is now paralyzed in the hospital, but he posted an update.
I think his connection with his listeners and viewers is
keeping him alive. Let's roll what he recorded.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
When do I go home? Maybe never, I don't know.
I can't go home until there's a way to take
care of me home, and right now, right now, it
would requires some setting up. But what we don't know
(11:39):
is after the after the treatments are over, I just
wait a few weeks to see if it worked. And
that will be a very long few weeks, because if
it doesn't work and I don't give back any mobility,
my life will be quite quite different and probably a
(12:02):
lot of shorter.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
The man is a fighter. He continues to fight, and
he continues to share his journey and take from it
what you will think. There, but for the grace of God,
go I take care of yourselves, get check ups, do
the right things, and then let's just send a good
prayer or good thought to Scott Adams. He's been really
(12:32):
public with this journey, and I think that's noble and
I hope it's helped somebody somewhere. I'm sure it has.
Not sure this is helpful When it comes from AOC,
it rarely is, but she posted this. The normalization and
acceptance of Islamophobia in our politics is disgusting. Our Muslim
(12:57):
neighbors are not Republican scapegoats for anti Semitica tacks and
Trump's failed policies. We must absolutely condemn Islamophobia loudly and
hold those perpetuating it accountable. Now, she posted that as
a sort of a response to another post. You know
how it goes on X. If you're not on X,
(13:18):
God bless you. If you don't feel the need to
go on, don't live a blissful life of not dealing
with this. But I like to know what's going on
in the world and with people. Congressman Randy Fine, if
you don't know the name, he is Florida's sixth Congressional
District congressman, and he wrote the following, and it's not
(13:41):
altogether inappropriate given what we've been seeing the last few days.
Here's his post. A Muslim immigrant burning Holocaust survivors alive
in Colorado wasn't enough. A Muslim immigrant executing National guardsman
in Washington wasn't enough. Muslim immigrants attacking and killing non
Muslims in Australia wasn't enough. Nine to eleven wasn't enough.
(14:05):
October seventh wasn't enough. Now the FBI has announced that
they have arrested five Muslim terrorists who are planning Muslim
terror attacks on New Year's Eve in Los Angeles and
New Orleans. This has to stop. We all know there
are good people and bad people in the world. Generally,
(14:31):
when you have a party or you host people at
your house, you invite people that comport with your values,
that share your values, whatever those values might be, and
you can find out rather quickly if you don't share
each other's values. And all of my friendships and relationships
(14:54):
really are based on common values. You know, I value liberty,
I value freedom, I value America, I value family, I
value friends, I value our armed services, I value law enforcement.
(15:15):
There are a lot of things that I value integrity,
I value honesty. These are the things that I value.
In Minnesota, we have had fraud way disproportionately committed by
the Somali community, not all of them. But to ignore
(15:38):
that this particular community has robbed Minnesota blind is to
and it's not racist to think that this is not
a race issue. This is a particular community that shares
their values and in doing so, stole not only Minnesota's money,
but American's money, because this was federal dollars. But what
(16:02):
people want to do is distract you by saying, oh,
you're a racist if you think that all Somalis are responsible.
No one said all Somalis. So there are different ways
to handle this, and I think we should stop shaming
(16:28):
people for their concern about certain communities that behave a
certain way and that are very much against American values.
Ilhan Omar represents a district in my state. She claims
to love America. I have yet to see the evidence.
(16:49):
I have yet to see the evidence. So I love America.
I want to save America. I want America to be
safe and happy and prosperous and productive. And I want
everyone to have their shot at the American dream. So
I want people who share my values. It's not about religion,
(17:12):
it's not about race, it's not about gender. It's about
what do you value. But that's right on brand for
AOC to excoriate someone for pointing out some kind of
obvious things. Okay, let's go back to healthcare one more time,
(17:36):
because this is Chuck Schumer talking about Obamacare, followed by
Senator John Barrosso of Wyoming talking about Obamacare. This is
healthcare and affordability. They're the topics of the day, and
they should be. They should be. We're facing real problems.
(17:57):
But just pointing at one team or the other, or
just pointing at the opposing team doesn't always work. Anyway,
Let's roll this video.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
When it comes to healthcare, the damage has been done
and Americans know it's all thanks to the Republicans.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
The damage was done the day the Democrats passed Obamacare,
which Republicans said is going to go to rise, and
costs for health care, fewer choices for Americans, and hassles
and headaches when it comes to healthcare in terms of
the paperwork and the denials and all the issues that
come when the government tries to run healthcare. That's when
(18:36):
the damage was done. And I should point out to
the minority leader he has no solutions to Democrats have
no solutions for the disaster that that have brought on
to the American people.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Okay, so here's what happens when the government takes control
of a lot of stuff. You lose your choice, You
lose your freedom to choose, You lose your freedom to choose.
That's why school choice is such a big deal right now.
People want to be able to choose where their kids
go to school. And as a Washington I'm talking west coast,
(19:12):
northwest corner of the country. Washington, a very liberal state.
Had someone there, a politician there, recently say the government
is not co parenting our children. And he's absolutely right,
absolutely right. You ought to be able to choose where
(19:33):
your child gets an education, and if public dollars aren't
going to be spent on your child's education, you ought
to be able to direct those and where they go.
And let's have competition. See that's the other thing about
socialized healthcare, and we see it in Canada and we
see it in England. You've got a bunch of bureaucrats
(19:56):
and by that I mean government workers. Their fault, someone's
got to do it. But they are making decisions about
your health care. They are overseeing how healthcare is run.
So this is you know, Look, we have plenty of
(20:19):
examples where the government has failed in its administration of things,
student loan debt and forgiving student don't loan debt, inflating
the cost of college because they are all these you know,
national grants, and they're just inflating the cost of college
(20:43):
at a time when we need so many people working
in the trades, working to build energy centers. There is
so much really tangible, productive work that needs to be
done in America. Check out Microw sometimes Rowe. If you
(21:03):
don't know Micro, you should, you should look at It's
just a smart guy who understands that there's this massive
gap between the kinds of work that needs to get
done and the number of workers willing to do it.
So again, it's when the government gets involved things don't
(21:27):
tend to go so super smoothly. I don't know if
you've ever had to deal with the IRS. I don't
know if you've ever had to deal with the DMV.
I don't know if you've ever had to deal with
you know, listen, and it's not just government medical plans.
All of these other health insurance plans have to comport,
have to comply with what the government says it has
(21:50):
to do. Your freedom of choice on these matters is
going out the window. I want everyone to have choice.
I want everyone to say, you know what, here's the
American dream. The American dream is I have the opportunity
to work my butt off, to be self reliant, to
build my family and to build my future in a
(22:10):
way that I want. I have that opportunity doesn't mean
I'm going to get to where Elon Musk is. Doesn't
mean I'm going to get to where Bill Gates is
or Lebron James or Steph Curry or you name it,
Josh Allen. It doesn't mean you're gonna get there. But
at least you have the chance, and you get to
(22:31):
control how much effort you put into that nobody else.
And yeah, unfortunately there are people who are taking advantage
of all of the benefits that the government doles out
and they're just living on them. And we're not talking
about people who are really need the safety net. We're
(22:52):
talking about people who maybe get stuck in the safety net.
There's so much here, you guys, There's so much to
get to and I'm just scratching this. Follow me on
X at Michelle with one L underscore Tafoya Tafoya. And
the reason I say that is I'm going to be
sharing some articles that I've been delving into that are
(23:14):
fascinating and really show you what's going on. It's hard.
We don't have time for all this, right, we don't
have time to read. But I always say, just try
to read one thing a day. Maybe it's on your
commute to work, or listen to a podcast, or just
try to read one thing a day, and I try
to post what I think are really valuable reads or
(23:35):
articles or clips. That's what I try to do. So
follow me on X so you can get into some
of that, just one a day. One. Maybe it's before
you go to bed, maybe it's the first thing you
wake up, whatever you decide. It's been a rough week.
I think about out in La Rob Reiner, and everyone's
(24:00):
going to say, oh, you couldn't have been more diametrically
posed politically. I don't care to think that you are
watching as your child murders. You a child you've tried
to do everything for, because if you're a parent, you
know that is your goal in life is to love
and take care of your child and make sure that
(24:22):
they're safe and that they're productive humans and that they
can live on their own. It's a tragic, awful story. Yeah,
I'm getting a little emotional because it's just awful, and
it's coupled with what happened at Brown. Two young lives
is taken, just snuffed out, and you know, I know
(24:45):
you're going to want to talk about the guns. Some
of you a person made that choice to take those
lives and shoot others. A person, a human being. Same
thing at Bondai Beach in Australia. I covered the two
thousand Olympics in Sydney, Australia. It was one of the
best experiences I've ever had, not only as a sportscaster
(25:05):
but as a human being. The people down there are tremendous.
Follow that story because there's a lot there. It's just
absolutely gut wrenching. Gut wrenching. The people celebrating Hanukkah were
just taken out. And again you can say the guns.
(25:29):
Australia has some of the strictest gun rules in the world.
They did a buyback of guns. We need to hold
people accountable for their choices to hurt other people. We do,
we do, and until we do that, we might as
(25:50):
well expect more of the same behavior. If no one
faces accountability, they're just going to keep doing it. We're
getting close to Christmas and New Year's I wish happiness
and joy, celebration and family and light and love to everyone.
(26:11):
I really do. In the meantime, be brave, Be brave
enough to read one thing a day, do good, smile
at someone tip your paper boy, whatever it is, do
good and we will see next time. You can keep
(26:50):
up with the Trump administration when you subscribe to the
Trump Report. It's an email that brings you daily highlights
from the Oval Office right to your inbox, five days
a week. Subscribe today at salempodcast network dot com, slash
Trump
Welcome to a brand new episode of the Michelle Tafoya Podcast.
Please click that subscribe button so you never miss an episode.
It's free to subscribe, So why wouldn't you. We'd love
to have you with us every single time. Today I'm
going to be honest with you. This is a tough
one for me today. I've pulled some sound to play
for you, to share with you my thoughts on but
I can't get around what's going on around the world,
(00:32):
from Brown University, to Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle
and that whole entire family being plunged into complete turmoil,
to Bondai Beach in Australia. That place is beautiful and
it's shocking. So having said all that, we'll revisit that
at the end. Right now, I want to talk a
(00:54):
little bit about Congress. Here we are, it's December. I
don't think a lot's going to get done in Congress
before the first of the year. But we've got this
representative McBride. She's Congresswoman Sarah McBride, and she is condemning
(01:16):
the administration for the healthcare issues that we're all facing
here in America. I don't know how well. Look she's
a politician. She can make that leap if she wants to.
But let's just play this for you and let's let's uh,
let's chat about it right afterwards. Let's roll Representative McBride.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
We are currently in the beginning stages of a one
trillion dollar ticking time bomb going off in the center
of the American healthcare system, and to your point, around
the ACA tax credits, that's just the first part of
that time bomb going off there. We are essentially now
living under trump Care. Donald Trump likes to own things
(01:57):
and slap his name on them, while he now owns
the American healthcare system. It is trump Care. And at
the end of this year, the Affordable Care Attax credits
without action by Congress will expire, and that means skyrocketing
healthcare premiums for the millions of Americans that rely on
the ACA marketplace for insurance, people seeing one hundred two hundred,
(02:17):
three hundred percent increases in their healthcare. But the consequences
of Trump cared on end there. A year from now,
the largest cut to Medicaid and American history will go
into effect, and in its totality, Trump Care will leave
fifteen million more Americans without health coverage. But as that
(02:38):
bomb goes off, those fifteen million Americans, they will not
only they will not be the only casualties of that
bomb going off, because the reality is, when you have
fifteen million people who lose coverage, it's not that they
never get care. It's that they get care when they're
sicker and it's more expensive, and someone fill us to
pay for that, and that cost gets passed on to
all other premium payers. And when you have one train
(03:00):
dollars removed from the American healthcare system, what happens to
cash strap oral hospitals, health clinics, and doctors' offices. They
cut services and in some cases close entirely, leaving those
communities having to drive longer, wait longer, and take more
time off work to get care. And that really is
what trump Care is. It's fifteen million more people uninsured
(03:20):
and everyone else having to pay more and wait longer
to get care. And I'm going to continue to fight
against it.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Okay, that was you know, she's called it trump Care,
so obamacare. You probably remember when that was passed. Joe
Biden was the vice president and said it was a
big effing deal. When they went up to sign that
new law that was supposed to take care of this stuff.
But during COVID they gave out subsidies the Democrats did. Remember,
(03:48):
it was a Democrat led effort to give out subsidies
for these healthcare premiums. Obamacare is such a big, complicated mess.
This is what happens when governments get involved in planning
your healthcare. So in addition to the original ACA, which
(04:12):
shouldn't have been called the Affordable Care Act, it made
it completely unaffordable because it lumps everyone into the same pool,
so that if you're a really healthy human being and
you take care of yourself and you eat right and
you're doing what you should and all that taking care
of yourself, you're lumped in with the same people of
pre existing conditions, and we're all paying for each other,
(04:32):
so that we're already experiencing socialized medicine in a sense.
And what this congress person is trying to do is
blame everything on the White House now and rename it,
and it's just wrong. Now, Let's make some decisions, folks,
Let's make some corrections and do some things that put
(04:54):
power back into the hands of the people. This is
why I'm such a limited government fan because when you
make the government so big, each individual gets really small.
So much bloat and weight in the federal government makes
every individual that much smaller. It when government gets involved
(05:18):
in funding education I'm talking about higher education, the prices
go up, and gets involved in healthcare, the prices go up,
and they've been going up dramatically since the ac since
Obamacare was passed. So she can try to relabel this
as Trump Care or anything she wants to do, she's
dead wrong. She's absolutely wrong. And this is what happens
(05:43):
when these massive bills get passed without vetting, without without
real concern for the American people. We end up paying
for it in one way, shape or form. And really
what we ought to be doing is focusing on the
people who truly need a safety net, but not letting
every nets tangle people too. You get entangled in nets,
(06:03):
people get stuck in nets, and unfortunately, I think that's
so much of what's going on. How we fix it.
It's a conversation that is far too long for this podcast,
but I just want you to be aware of what
the effort is here. The Democrats put these subsidies in place,
they set them to expire at the end of twenty
(06:24):
twenty five, which is where we are near, and they're
going to blame that on anyone but themselves. Don't fall
for it all right. Next up, it is Christmas time.
People know the story of Jesus. Whether you believe it
or not is up to you. But in Minneapolis, our
chief of police, it's hard to believe this, you know. Look,
(06:52):
Immigration Customs Enforcement is a law enforcement group and they
are trying to enforce the law, and they're trying to
do it in cities that have major issues. They have
determined that Minneapolis has won such city. But here is
(07:12):
what the police chief, another law enforcement professional, is saying
about Ice roll It.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
It's especially personal to me, having been raised a Catholic,
to be in a Christian church this morning as we
are approaching Christmas, and I cannot help but think of
what is happening in our city today and how that
(07:41):
echoes with how outsiders have been treated for thousands of years,
How Mary and Joseph themselves were considered outsiders and forced
to stay in a barn. That's what we're getting ready
to commemorate as Christians around the world while all of
(08:01):
this fear is happening, right here in our town.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Okay, I don't know, first of all, if it hits
with you personally, that's really your business. You're the police chief.
You're there to enforce the law. And let's try to
remember this. Every country on the planet has limited resources,
(08:31):
limited food, limited money, limited living space, limited jobs. Everything
is limited. We don't have an infinite amount of anything.
And so imagine you were a person who's working really
really hard to try to make ends meet here. Either
you were born here or you're a legal citizen. You've
(08:53):
become a citizen of this country, and you're working really
hard to provide for your family, to provide everything that
you need to live a safe and productive life. And
then there are people who have come in illegally. They
have entered the country illegally, and they're getting a bunch
(09:16):
of stuff, a bunch of limited resources from the government
to stay here and to they're getting it. So I
read this in an article just today. On the plane
ride home, You've got two people drowning in the ocean.
One is swimming so hard, has done everything right, swimming, swimming, swimming.
(09:38):
There's another one swimming next to him who's kinda eh,
I kind of swimming hard, and then the lifeguard comes in,
and who does he throw the one that one life
saver ring to? Not the person swimming really really hard.
And so the person swimming really really hard. It's not
(09:59):
that they don't care about the person who's next to them,
also struggling but not swimming that hard. They are just
pissed off that the life saver, the life saving device
is being thrown to not to them, and they are
looking at that decision made by the person who's got
(10:22):
one ring to throw, one life saver to throw, and
they're throwing it to the people who have not done
all the right things to be here. So try to
picture it from that perspective if you can. All right,
(10:42):
next up, this is really this is sad joining all
the sadness in the world. And it's just been a
rough week, hasn't it. I got to keep it together.
Scott Adams, who created Dilbert and has had a successful
podcast for years and years. It's known now that he's
(11:02):
suffering prostate cancer and it's gotten very advanced and he
is now paralyzed in the hospital, but he posted an update.
I think his connection with his listeners and viewers is
keeping him alive. Let's roll what he recorded.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
When do I go home? Maybe never, I don't know.
I can't go home until there's a way to take
care of me home, and right now, right now, it
would requires some setting up. But what we don't know
(11:39):
is after the after the treatments are over, I just
wait a few weeks to see if it worked. And
that will be a very long few weeks, because if
it doesn't work and I don't give back any mobility,
my life will be quite quite different and probably a
(12:02):
lot of shorter.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
The man is a fighter. He continues to fight, and
he continues to share his journey and take from it
what you will think. There, but for the grace of God,
go I take care of yourselves, get check ups, do
the right things, and then let's just send a good
prayer or good thought to Scott Adams. He's been really
(12:32):
public with this journey, and I think that's noble and
I hope it's helped somebody somewhere. I'm sure it has.
Not sure this is helpful When it comes from AOC,
it rarely is, but she posted this. The normalization and
acceptance of Islamophobia in our politics is disgusting. Our Muslim
(12:57):
neighbors are not Republican scapegoats for anti Semitica tacks and
Trump's failed policies. We must absolutely condemn Islamophobia loudly and
hold those perpetuating it accountable. Now, she posted that as
a sort of a response to another post. You know
how it goes on X. If you're not on X,
(13:18):
God bless you. If you don't feel the need to
go on, don't live a blissful life of not dealing
with this. But I like to know what's going on
in the world and with people. Congressman Randy Fine, if
you don't know the name, he is Florida's sixth Congressional
District congressman, and he wrote the following, and it's not
(13:41):
altogether inappropriate given what we've been seeing the last few days.
Here's his post. A Muslim immigrant burning Holocaust survivors alive
in Colorado wasn't enough. A Muslim immigrant executing National guardsman
in Washington wasn't enough. Muslim immigrants attacking and killing non
Muslims in Australia wasn't enough. Nine to eleven wasn't enough.
(14:05):
October seventh wasn't enough. Now the FBI has announced that
they have arrested five Muslim terrorists who are planning Muslim
terror attacks on New Year's Eve in Los Angeles and
New Orleans. This has to stop. We all know there
are good people and bad people in the world. Generally,
(14:31):
when you have a party or you host people at
your house, you invite people that comport with your values,
that share your values, whatever those values might be, and
you can find out rather quickly if you don't share
each other's values. And all of my friendships and relationships
(14:54):
really are based on common values. You know, I value liberty,
I value freedom, I value America, I value family, I
value friends, I value our armed services, I value law enforcement.
(15:15):
There are a lot of things that I value integrity,
I value honesty. These are the things that I value.
In Minnesota, we have had fraud way disproportionately committed by
the Somali community, not all of them. But to ignore
(15:38):
that this particular community has robbed Minnesota blind is to
and it's not racist to think that this is not
a race issue. This is a particular community that shares
their values and in doing so, stole not only Minnesota's money,
but American's money, because this was federal dollars. But what
(16:02):
people want to do is distract you by saying, oh,
you're a racist if you think that all Somalis are responsible.
No one said all Somalis. So there are different ways
to handle this, and I think we should stop shaming
(16:28):
people for their concern about certain communities that behave a
certain way and that are very much against American values.
Ilhan Omar represents a district in my state. She claims
to love America. I have yet to see the evidence.
(16:49):
I have yet to see the evidence. So I love America.
I want to save America. I want America to be
safe and happy and prosperous and productive. And I want
everyone to have their shot at the American dream. So
I want people who share my values. It's not about religion,
(17:12):
it's not about race, it's not about gender. It's about
what do you value. But that's right on brand for
AOC to excoriate someone for pointing out some kind of
obvious things. Okay, let's go back to healthcare one more time,
(17:36):
because this is Chuck Schumer talking about Obamacare, followed by
Senator John Barrosso of Wyoming talking about Obamacare. This is
healthcare and affordability. They're the topics of the day, and
they should be. They should be. We're facing real problems.
(17:57):
But just pointing at one team or the other, or
just pointing at the opposing team doesn't always work. Anyway,
Let's roll this video.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
When it comes to healthcare, the damage has been done
and Americans know it's all thanks to the Republicans.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
The damage was done the day the Democrats passed Obamacare,
which Republicans said is going to go to rise, and
costs for health care, fewer choices for Americans, and hassles
and headaches when it comes to healthcare in terms of
the paperwork and the denials and all the issues that
come when the government tries to run healthcare. That's when
(18:36):
the damage was done. And I should point out to
the minority leader he has no solutions to Democrats have
no solutions for the disaster that that have brought on
to the American people.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Okay, so here's what happens when the government takes control
of a lot of stuff. You lose your choice, You
lose your freedom to choose, You lose your freedom to choose.
That's why school choice is such a big deal right now.
People want to be able to choose where their kids
go to school. And as a Washington I'm talking west coast,
(19:12):
northwest corner of the country. Washington, a very liberal state.
Had someone there, a politician there, recently say the government
is not co parenting our children. And he's absolutely right,
absolutely right. You ought to be able to choose where
(19:33):
your child gets an education, and if public dollars aren't
going to be spent on your child's education, you ought
to be able to direct those and where they go.
And let's have competition. See that's the other thing about
socialized healthcare, and we see it in Canada and we
see it in England. You've got a bunch of bureaucrats
(19:56):
and by that I mean government workers. Their fault, someone's
got to do it. But they are making decisions about
your health care. They are overseeing how healthcare is run.
So this is you know, Look, we have plenty of
(20:19):
examples where the government has failed in its administration of things,
student loan debt and forgiving student don't loan debt, inflating
the cost of college because they are all these you know,
national grants, and they're just inflating the cost of college
(20:43):
at a time when we need so many people working
in the trades, working to build energy centers. There is
so much really tangible, productive work that needs to be
done in America. Check out Microw sometimes Rowe. If you
(21:03):
don't know Micro, you should, you should look at It's
just a smart guy who understands that there's this massive
gap between the kinds of work that needs to get
done and the number of workers willing to do it.
So again, it's when the government gets involved things don't
(21:27):
tend to go so super smoothly. I don't know if
you've ever had to deal with the IRS. I don't
know if you've ever had to deal with the DMV.
I don't know if you've ever had to deal with
you know, listen, and it's not just government medical plans.
All of these other health insurance plans have to comport,
have to comply with what the government says it has
(21:50):
to do. Your freedom of choice on these matters is
going out the window. I want everyone to have choice.
I want everyone to say, you know what, here's the
American dream. The American dream is I have the opportunity
to work my butt off, to be self reliant, to
build my family and to build my future in a
(22:10):
way that I want. I have that opportunity doesn't mean
I'm going to get to where Elon Musk is. Doesn't
mean I'm going to get to where Bill Gates is
or Lebron James or Steph Curry or you name it,
Josh Allen. It doesn't mean you're gonna get there. But
at least you have the chance, and you get to
(22:31):
control how much effort you put into that nobody else.
And yeah, unfortunately there are people who are taking advantage
of all of the benefits that the government doles out
and they're just living on them. And we're not talking
about people who are really need the safety net. We're
(22:52):
talking about people who maybe get stuck in the safety net.
There's so much here, you guys, There's so much to
get to and I'm just scratching this. Follow me on
X at Michelle with one L underscore Tafoya Tafoya. And
the reason I say that is I'm going to be
sharing some articles that I've been delving into that are
(23:14):
fascinating and really show you what's going on. It's hard.
We don't have time for all this, right, we don't
have time to read. But I always say, just try
to read one thing a day. Maybe it's on your
commute to work, or listen to a podcast, or just
try to read one thing a day, and I try
to post what I think are really valuable reads or
(23:35):
articles or clips. That's what I try to do. So
follow me on X so you can get into some
of that, just one a day. One. Maybe it's before
you go to bed, maybe it's the first thing you
wake up, whatever you decide. It's been a rough week.
I think about out in La Rob Reiner, and everyone's
(24:00):
going to say, oh, you couldn't have been more diametrically
posed politically. I don't care to think that you are
watching as your child murders. You a child you've tried
to do everything for, because if you're a parent, you
know that is your goal in life is to love
and take care of your child and make sure that
(24:22):
they're safe and that they're productive humans and that they
can live on their own. It's a tragic, awful story. Yeah,
I'm getting a little emotional because it's just awful, and
it's coupled with what happened at Brown. Two young lives
is taken, just snuffed out, and you know, I know
(24:45):
you're going to want to talk about the guns. Some
of you a person made that choice to take those
lives and shoot others. A person, a human being. Same
thing at Bondai Beach in Australia. I covered the two
thousand Olympics in Sydney, Australia. It was one of the
best experiences I've ever had, not only as a sportscaster
(25:05):
but as a human being. The people down there are tremendous.
Follow that story because there's a lot there. It's just
absolutely gut wrenching. Gut wrenching. The people celebrating Hanukkah were
just taken out. And again you can say the guns.
(25:29):
Australia has some of the strictest gun rules in the world.
They did a buyback of guns. We need to hold
people accountable for their choices to hurt other people. We do,
we do, and until we do that, we might as
(25:50):
well expect more of the same behavior. If no one
faces accountability, they're just going to keep doing it. We're
getting close to Christmas and New Year's I wish happiness
and joy, celebration and family and light and love to everyone.
(26:11):
I really do. In the meantime, be brave, Be brave
enough to read one thing a day, do good, smile
at someone tip your paper boy, whatever it is, do
good and we will see next time. You can keep
(26:50):
up with the Trump administration when you subscribe to the
Trump Report. It's an email that brings you daily highlights
from the Oval Office right to your inbox, five days
a week. Subscribe today at salempodcast network dot com, slash
Trump
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