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0:00
Listen and you will know. First of all, if you haven't heard this
0:03
yet, I love this Rod Arcat on Talk Radio one oh five nine o
0:07
KNRS. You know, typically on a Friday, you know, you know,
0:25
I think Friday is a great day. That's why we call it.
0:27
Think Rod is Friday. And typically on a Friday, you know, I'm
0:30
in a good mood. And today we've got some beautiful weather on the outside.
0:33
I think we hit eighty degrees today out at the airports, winds blowing
0:39
a little bit, but it's really a nice day. So you think,
0:41
come on, Rod, it's Friday, end of the week. You're always
0:44
happy on a Friday, and I'm happy today. But the one thing that
0:47
just just kind of ruined the day today, and I bet a lot of
0:51
you are going to be going through this over the next couple of days,
0:54
because what Monday is tax day. I had to pay my taxes today.
0:58
I hate sending the Internal Revenue Service and the federal government of ours, which
1:03
is absolutely a joke anymore in my opinion, more money. And that's what
1:08
I had to do today. And I know a lot of you are probably
1:11
going through the same thing. And it just bugs me to think that here,
1:15
I am giving them a good amount of money back to the federal government
1:19
today for them to waste it, for them to waste it on stupid programs
1:23
and not getting anything done to helping the American people. So you can see
1:27
why today is kind of a bittersweet day. Sweet in the fact that it's
1:32
Friday. It's nice and sunny on the outside, feeling more and more like
1:36
spring each and every day, and then the bitter part of it, I
1:38
had to send a check to the government just drives me nuts. How are
1:42
you everybody, Hello, Utah, Welcome to the Rod Arcuatcho on this Thank
1:46
Rod, It's Friday. Always great to be with you. We've got a
1:49
great show lined up for you today, as we do each and every day,
1:53
and we invite you to be a part of the program. Today.
1:55
We'll open up the lines to you in the five o'clock hour. We'll talk about Thank Rod, It's Friday, some of the time topics I've got on
2:00
my mind. Love to hear from you as well. That number to call. Write this number down eight eight eight five seven oh eight zero one zero
2:07
and on your cell phone dial pound two fifty and say hey Rod. Now
2:10
before I forget a program. Note. Starting on Monday, you know a
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lot of people getting ready, you know, thinking about Okay, what about
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summer vacation. Well, we're going to add a little bit of joy to
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3:00
him all right. I always have a Friday favorite story. I like to
3:04
start the show off on Friday. And I don't know how this one got
3:07
past me, and I don't recall a lot of news about this, but
3:12
this is a pretty amazing story. This speaks to American's desire to own a
3:17
gun to protect themselves, and this is a case that is a classic example
3:23
of what that really really means. It happened to an eighty five year old
3:27
woman. She lives up in southeast Dadaho, somewhere in the Blackfoot Rugby Shelley
3:31
area up there, and she's been hailed for her heroic actions. I haven't
3:37
heard this story. It's a story that's not getting a lot of coverage at
3:39
leads that I know maybe you had before. But she was the victim of
3:44
a brutal and I mean a brutal home invasion. Here's what happened. Authorities
3:50
were called to her home. They found a man there deceased dead from gunshot
3:54
wounds, and the elderly woman was also injured. Here's what happened. According
4:00
to police, they say a home invasion began around two o'clock in the morning
4:09
when the man who was killed. The home invader, his name is thirty
4:12
nine year old Derek Ephraim Condon, Partile about a mile away, broke into
4:16
the home through a window with a screwdriver. According to the county prosecutor,
4:21
he was wearing a military jacket and a black ski mask. Well, the
4:28
woman or the intruder, I should say, awoke the woman. Her name
4:33
is Christine Jenniahan, I believe is how it's pronounced, bashed her head in
4:39
with a gun. Pelisse found blood on the pillow to substantiate that claim.
4:44
The man then dragged the woman Christine to the living room, and that's where
4:49
he handed her cuffed to a wooden chair. He demanded that she'd tell him
4:55
where her valuables were located, and grew angry when she said, I just
5:00
don't have much, you know, I'm eighty five years old. For crying al lot, she said that he put his gun to her head. At
5:06
that point, she told him there were two safes downstairs, and he and
5:11
he left her handcuffed to rummage around those safe downstairs. That's when he discovered
5:18
that her disabled son was also in the home. He grew angry that she
5:24
didn't tell him about her son. Well, he left again. According to
5:28
the story, that's when Christine was able to drag her chair over. I
5:33
mean this, an eighty five year old woman drag her chair over to her
5:36
pillow and retieve a three point fifty seven magnum revolver. She hid the gun
5:42
and waited to see what he would do next. Jo prosecutors then say that
5:48
the man threatened to kill Christine while burglarizing the home, so she decided to
5:54
take a chance. She shot at him. The man was struck. Trice
5:59
was able to shoot back at the woman, striking her several times. She's
6:02
okay. The man made his way to the commission the kitchen, where he
6:06
fell and died of his wounds. The woman. When police finally arrived,
6:13
I don't know how they got the attention of this. They found her still
6:15
handcuffed to the chair and remained on the floor for ten hours before her son
6:23
was able to bring her a phone so she could call the police. She
6:26
was given life saving treatment, taken to a hospital and doing well. Now.
6:30
Police say they determined and really that this was a classic case of justifiable
6:35
homicide. Really, and the prosecutor said it is one of the most heroic
6:43
acts of self preservation that he has ever seen. He said, her grit,
6:48
her determination and will to appear to be what saved her that night.
6:54
Christine was justified in taking all and any means to defend herself and her sun
7:00
that night and that's exactly that's exactly what she did. So when you hear
7:04
you know, you don't you always hear stories about, you know, mass
7:09
shootings, you know, but you never hear a story it's rare you hear
7:13
a story of someone using a gun to protect themselves. Eighty five years old.
7:19
Eighty five years old. Can you believe that eighty five years old she
7:24
managed to polar wouldn't share with her whether it's intruder in her house. She
7:28
shot and killed the man. So when you hear people, and we'll talk
7:30
about this. Clark Composion is going to join us a little bit later on
7:33
the show because the administration, in all this great wisdom, has now issued
7:38
some new background check rules, and Clark will join us. We'll get reaction
7:42
to those rules from Clark coming up. But you know, whenever you hear
7:45
people who defend themselves using a gun, you never hear it in the news.
7:49
Now, I maybe this story was reported, I don't remember seeing it,
7:53
and I'm checking the news twenty four to seven, you know, here,
7:57
just to do this show every day. This one got passed me.
7:59
But when I say, all that story is, I was putting the show
8:01
together this morning, looking for ideas and things to talk about. I was
8:05
impressed with this story because it's tied into what the administration did yesterday with his
8:09
new rules on background checks. This administration no doubt wants universal background checks,
8:16
red flag laws, a ban on assault weapons. This is where they're headed.
8:22
And this is why people who own guns, and I'm a gun owner need to protect their rights, their Second Amendment rights. And when you have
8:28
a story like this of what happened to this woman eighty five years old facing
8:35
a home intruder who is already beating her, it's pretty amazing story something we
8:39
should not forget. All right, Still to come a lot to come tonight
8:43
here on the rod Arcutcho on this Thank Rod, it's Friday. We're going
8:46
to be talking about the modern presidency. Is the president now a uniter or
8:50
a divider? And I'm not talking just about Joe Biden, but the position
8:54
itself has the position of an individual being president of the United States now more
9:01
of a divider that he ends a united And also there is a term that
9:05
you're starting to hear, this is directed right of people who support Donald Trump.
9:09
Those of you who do who live in rural America, you have white
9:15
rural rage. There's a new book out talking about that. We'll talk to
9:18
somebody who's looked at that book and said, that's a bunch of baloney that's
9:22
coming up on The Rod ar Kens Show. As I said, always great to be with you on this Thank Rod is Friday. If you want to
9:26
be a part of the program eight eight eight five seven eight zero one zero
9:31
eight eight eight five seven eight zero one zero, or on your cell phone,
9:35
I'll pound two fifty and say, hey Rod. All right, welcome
9:54
back to the Rod ra Kenshow on this Thank Rod. It's Friday on Talk
9:58
Radio one oh five nine KNRS Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app don't forget.
10:03
Starting Monday morning, nine oh five during the final hour of the Glenn Beck
10:07
Show, your first opportunity to win one thousand dollars in bonus bucks cash.
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We'll tell you all about it on Monday and very easy to win, and
10:16
we'll be doing that for the next several weeks at five past the hour between
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nine am and five pm Monday through Friday, right here on k and RS.
10:24
Boy the rough week for the president again. You know the inflation numbers
10:28
come out, you know the numbers are showing this new poll from the Wall
10:33
Street Journal is showing that the black men in this country are abandoning the Democratic
10:39
Party. Maybe they've finally gotten the message that the Democratic Party has done absolutely
10:43
nothing to improve their lives and they're now looking at Donald Trump. There was
10:48
a Greg and I talked about this on Wednesday where on MSNBC Morning Joe,
10:54
there was a exercise done a portion of the program where they had nine different
10:58
independent voter on the screen all at once, one of those multi screen things
11:03
that you can see, and the question was asked who would be better on
11:05
the economy, Joe Biden or Donald Trump. All nine of the independents raised
11:11
their hands to Donald Trump. Pretty amazing. There's another part of that story,
11:16
and we'll let you hear that a little bit later on in the show. Well, speaking of the president, the modern presidency, is the president
11:24
of the United States now a united or a divider? It's become maybe the
11:31
offensive president has become way too powerful anymore to be anything else than a divider.
11:37
Joining us on our Newsmaker line to talk about that right now is Jeen
11:41
Healey. He is a senior vice president for policy at the Cato Institute.
11:45
He wrote about the culture warrior in chief. Jeen, great to have you
11:48
on the show. Gene, I can't recall, and I've been on this
11:52
good old Earth for a long long time now where a president in his inaugural
11:56
address does not say he's there to unite the country. How many of them
12:01
have actually united the country? Gene, Well, that's it's you know,
12:05
we've been hearing that long before it started to feel like the country was coming
12:09
apart. I think I say the piece, you know, kinder, gentler
12:13
nation from hw Bush, We're going to kumbai everyone into one America from Barack
12:20
Obama, so on and so forth. That seems like one of the more
12:28
ridiculous promises among many ridiculous promises that presidents are making these days. And one
12:35
thing that's happened is as the country has become more polarized, the American presidents
12:41
of both parties have intervened more directly with the pen and the phone and the
12:48
weapons of executive power into the kinds of issues that they used to stay out
12:52
of and the kinds of issues that divide us the most. I think this
12:56
is really very dangerous given where we are. Is that what the fold of
13:00
Congress for not stepping in and trying to take some of that power back.
13:03
I know, I've had conversation with lawmakers over time, and they basically said,
13:07
Gene, that the you know, the balance of government, the three branches of government almost don't exist anymore because the White House, the president has
13:15
become so powerful. Is that what's happening, Gene? It is, you
13:20
know, Congress is dependably pretty feckless, and Congress has over the decades seated
13:26
an enormous amount of power. But because of past fecklessness in some ways,
13:31
it's very hard in Congress to take charge of some of these issues. The
13:37
president has at this point so much power through the administrative state that he can
13:45
actually settle questions like which kid gets to go to which bathroom, who gets
13:50
access to the girls' locker room, and whether the entire force of the federal
13:54
government should be directed against combating systemic races. And that's actually very hard for
14:03
a congressional majority to overturn, given the power that past Congress has succeeded to
14:09
the executive branch. Gene. It wasn't set up this way in the beginning,
14:13
was it, Gene? That was not the idea behind all of this
14:16
was it not at all? The president was supposed to be not even in
14:24
any sense the national leader. Congress was supposed to be in the driver's seat
14:30
on a limited numbers of number of truly national issues. The notion that the
14:37
federal government would be involved in educational matters down to what books go on local
14:46
school, middle school library shelves, would have been anathema to anyone at the
14:54
time of the founding. But that's increasingly where we are. Gene. Of
14:58
course, we've got the election coming up on November fifth, and you'll hear
15:01
this time and time again that this is the most important election in the history
15:05
of the country. In the past, Americans haven't paid much attention to that.
15:09
Are they paying more attention to that now? Because the presidency has become
15:11
so powerful they are And you know, yeah, it's true that we always
15:18
hear that whatever the next election is is the most important election in history.
15:22
We didn't used to take it that seriously. The polls show that the polsters
15:28
who have attracted you know, about forty five percent of people around the two
15:33
thousand, the two thousand election thought it really mattered who became president. That's
15:41
up I think above seventy five percent now. And maybe one of the reasons
15:45
that people think it matters is it increasingly does matter because presidents from both sides
15:54
of the isle have intervened in a very local, hotly contested culture war issues.
16:03
As I said, even down to you know, whether certain books go
16:07
on local school library shelves. And I think that's that's incredibly dangerous because if
16:15
you want to discourage this idea that all is lost if somebody from the other
16:21
team takes the presidency, the last thing you want to do is raise the
16:26
stakes of all these local cultural differences that could be settled closer to home.
16:33
If everything from what books go on your kids school library shelves to you know,
16:38
what bathroom the kid gets to use, becomes a matter of presidential politics,
16:45
then a lot of people are going to think every election is the so
16:48
called Flight ninety three election, where everything depends on winning the election, and
16:56
a lot fewer people are going to be willing to take a loss and strive.
17:00
We're talking right now with Jean Healey. Jean, let's talk about what
17:03
is it going to take to dial this back. I mean, the elections
17:07
a beer to be so close anymore, and you don't have one party dominating
17:11
another party is pretty well evenly divided. Is it going to take a dominant
17:15
party to try and dial this back or will it get worse if you have
17:18
like the Republicans or the Democrats controlling all three branches of government. Well,
17:25
I think what happens is you each side has lined up to war, to
17:33
pursue war to the knife once they seize the presidency. I think what would
17:40
be would benefit the country more is getting power out of the presidency and that
17:47
are possible out of the federal government, so that a lot of these issues
17:52
disputes over white privilege and transgender identity, other things that where Americans are deeply
17:59
divided, get settled closer to home where there's more common ground. And right
18:06
now I don't see either party pursuing that with any vigor. The dominant dominique
18:17
ethos seems to be more you know, winner take af Geene Heally joining us
18:22
genius from the Cato Institute talking about the president. The role of the president
18:26
now not so much a united in chief but a divider in chief. You
18:30
know, I'm trying to remember the last time that most Americans felt good about
18:37
the president that we have. It's you know, maybe Reagan, but you
18:41
know a lot of people like Ronald Reagan. I mean, look at his
18:44
victory in nineteen eighty four over Walter Mondale. What a joke that was for
18:48
that guy to even run against Ronald Reagan. But he has an opportunity to
18:52
do so. But I'm term they of the last time. Maybe you didn't
18:55
think about it the last time that America, you know, and most of
19:00
Americans felt good about the president. We certainly don't have that debate today,
19:04
the way the country is divided. I feel good, I'm fine with Donald
19:07
Trump, support the president, the former president. But you know how many
19:11
Democrats are feel good about Donald Trump. They hate the guy. They have
19:17
Trump derangement syndrome. They can't get him out of his head. And certainly
19:21
we on the conservative side look at Joe Biden as a joke, someone who
19:23
is just not not capable to do the job anymore. Kind of an interesting
19:27
thought from Geene Heally. All right, more coming out here on the Rod
19:30
our Cat Show and Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine k n r S.
19:33
Listen and you'll know the state A dirt road to a place as long
19:44
as a long radio. So the show on Talk Radio one oh five to
20:02
nine. Knrs. All right, welcome back to the Rod urchinscha with you
20:08
on this thank rod Is Friday. The Biden administration has released a brand new
20:14
set of rules on background checks and the purchase of guns. Clark Oposion,
20:18
the head of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, will join us coming up at
20:21
five oh five. He'll explain what that all means, and we'll get some
20:25
of your reaction to that coming up as well in the five o'clock Cower.
20:29
You know, it has been interesting to UH over the years since Donald Trump
20:33
came onto the scene back in what twenty fifteen with his announcement that he was
20:37
going to run for president and then of course beating Hillary Clinton in twenty sixteen,
20:41
how the media in this country and Democrats have tried to figure out what
20:45
Donald Trump's appeal is. Well, there's a brand new book out there that
20:49
is circulating around and a lot of Democrats and the media are reading it saying,
20:55
oh, we now know the answer to Trump's success. It is white
21:00
rural rage. That's right, white woral rage. And this book claims that
21:06
white world rage is a threat to the world's oldest constitutional democracy, that,
21:12
of course, is the United States of America. It is not a constitutional
21:17
democracy. It is a constitutional republic. Just to set the record straight,
21:22
but this book is feeding those minds. Well, what about this book and
21:25
how accurate is it? Well? Joining us on our Newsmaker line right now
21:29
is Nicholas Jacobs. He is a political science professor at Colby College and he
21:33
wrote about this book. Nicholas. Thanks for joining us on the show tonight.
21:36
Let me ask you, Nicholas, to start off, I mean, where do they get these ideas in this idea of white rural rage. Well,
21:42
they're coming to it from the fact that if you take a bunch of
21:47
different public opinion polls that are cherry picked and appear across a a wide variety
21:52
of different sources, some of which only have a few dozen rural people in
21:56
them, you can find numbers to support whatever conclusion you want. I mean,
22:03
this book has the telltale signs of writing a catchy title that no doubt
22:10
is going to grab the attention of some folks in DC and members of a
22:15
certain political persuasion, and then you go through it and try to back it
22:18
up with facts. And uh was I surprised when one of the facts or
22:23
one of the academic studies that they tried to use to support this claim of
22:29
rage was mine. So that's what led me to start digging and digging.
22:32
I went through every source and every study that sided throughout this book, and
22:37
I walked away more convinced than ever that rage. You know, there's there's
22:41
a little bit in certain pockets, but it's no more than what you find
22:45
in suburban America, no more than urban America. It's not the definitive feature
22:48
of rural America. How do these how do these authors characterize people who have
22:55
white rural rage? How do they how do they characterize it? Nick,
23:00
It's very clear, and if you were to go and listen to any interview
23:03
that they've given, it is essentially real. People are the most racist,
23:07
most xenophobic, most conspiracist, most whatever value that they don't like, that's
23:15
what rural That's what work people or white rural people exemplify. As simple as
23:22
that. I mean, this book, in some ways, it's really a
23:26
shame. In some ways, it confirms and a lot of people, unfortunately
23:30
think about what intellectuals think about rural America with a lot of inside DC that
23:37
way people think about rural America. I assure you it's not all of us,
23:41
but in some ways they're the ones typifying the stereotype. Nick, does
23:48
a book like this even further divide the country? I mean, is this
23:52
helpful in uniting the country at all? Do you think, Nick? No,
23:57
I don't know, Like this isn't but this isn't an academic debate,
24:03
This is not a professional tealousy. I've never met the two gentlemen that wrote
24:07
this book. I have no personal, real royal or animosity towards them.
24:12
But I care deeply about this country's future. It is why I'm a political
24:17
scientist. That's why I have dedicated myself to teaching young people about how our
24:22
democracy works and the problems that confronts it. And it's ultimately why I find
24:27
this book to be, in and of itself, a threat to American democracy
24:33
because I see no honest effort to celebrate, emphasize, and show people in
24:42
rural and urban areas what does unite them? And you know, I find
24:48
that to be incredibly problematic. In your opinion, Nick, and you've done
24:52
a lot of research. You mentioned you're a political scientist. What unites rural
24:56
America? Right now? Is it still America itself? And the idea within
25:03
rural America and among rural Americans. You know, I think most rural Americans
25:10
are thinking about politics and issues in a much more local sense, you know.
25:15
And here's the thing. This is the thing I wish we would emphasize
25:19
in the book. My research and my studies show, and so do many
25:23
other scholars, that patriots right, people that love this country are found throughout
25:29
rural and urban America. People that are committed to work, ethic, hard
25:37
work, and entrepreneurship are found throughout rural and urban America. Although I do
25:44
focus on rural politics and rural peoples, I often find that the differences between
25:49
rural and urban people are less than what we tend to think. Let me
25:55
ask you this, Nick. You know, I often talk about on my
25:59
radio show what I describe as Americans who are use common sense and are fair
26:03
minded, and they all have that that theme through them. They want to
26:07
look at an issue in this country and use their common sense and make sure
26:11
it's fair minded. Does that describe rural Americans? Do you think, Nick?
26:15
I think it describes a lot of Americans. Yeah, regardless of where
26:22
they live, you know, it was the you know, so I wrote
26:27
it. I just wrote an article about white rural rage and focused on all
26:32
Americans. But I'll tell you the overwhelming response came from people living everywhere across
26:40
this country and rural communities I heard from them, but also in urban communities,
26:42
just saying, you know how refreshing it was to think about politics in
26:48
the slag. They right, The conversation we should be having and that I
26:52
think most Americans want to have is not who to blame, who's who's the
26:56
evil side and who's the good side? And I want my party is better
27:00
than your party high Honest to god. That sounds optimistic, and I know
27:06
that we've got a whole bunch of challenges in front of this country. But
27:10
overwhelmingly people wrote me and just said, you know, talking about what we
27:14
have in common and thinking about these issues rationally and not just trying to blame
27:18
people, that's what we need to do. Do you see white world?
27:22
You know, they characterize it, and I think you mentioned this a moment
27:26
ago, that white rural Americans are a threat to democracy. Do you see
27:30
any evidence of at at all? Nick? So, their argument, as
27:36
I understand it, is based on two interrelated ideas. The first is that
27:42
as they're writing the book, it's the chapter of one of the titles,
27:45
or the titles one of their chapters. Excuse me that rural Americans have been
27:49
given the greatest political hand ever. Doubt that's a quote, And that's because
27:55
rural America has some political advantage its institutions like the Electoral College and the Senate.
28:03
Now, now to every small state that's overrepresented in those institutions, is
28:07
rural by any stretch of the imagination. Think of Rhode Island, think of
28:12
Hawaii. There's a lot of urban people in those small states, and small
28:15
does not mean rural. But because of this, I don't deny that there's
28:21
a small advantage. Because of this, They then go on to say,
28:26
because rural America allegedly has a higher percentage of people that endorse political violence,
28:32
or because rural America has a higher percentage of people that you name it,
28:36
that that's where the threat comes from. What I don't understand, and when
28:41
I think anybody looking at the landscape of American politics can't understand, is how
28:49
so much force can be attributed to sixteen percent of the American electorate. That's
28:56
how much white rural Americans make up of given that very small institutional advantage,
29:04
you know, it's laughable to attribute any amount of power to that small group
29:11
of people. A group of people, by the way, who are poorer
29:15
than average, don't have the same level of access to political and elite institutions
29:21
like higher education, all these other things that we know lead to unequal political
29:26
influence. Rural Americans have in drugs, but because of some small institutional advantages,
29:33
apparently they're the ones that are the threats. I don't buy it,
29:37
neither do I. Nicholas, Thank you, Nicholas Jacobs. He's a political
29:40
scientist. They're at Colby College talking about this idea of white rural rage.
29:45
It is a book that's making its rounds, of course, in the media
29:48
and the liberal circles progressive circles of this country. As it tries to paint
29:53
white rural Americans is being angry and being a threat to democracy. Really,
29:59
we may tal talk about that with you in the five o'clock hour as well.
30:02
All right, more coming up right here on the Rod Arcat Show and Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine can arrest time now for a news update.
30:14
All right, welcome, back to the rod Ar Kit Show on this Thank Rodas Friday, before we hit the news update at the top of the
30:18
hour, I want to squeeze in this audio sound bite. Now. Earlier
30:21
this week, Greg and I were talking about this exercise they did on MSNBC,
30:26
I think The Morning Show with Joe and in which they were interviewing a
30:30
group of independent voters and they were asked, They're about nine of them on
30:33
the screen, and they were asked, in fact, you know who would
30:37
handle the economy better? Joe Biden, no hand went up, Donald Trump.
30:41
All nine hands went up. But there was a follow up question to
30:44
that as well. Listen to this. Is there anything Joe Biden could do
30:47
or say between now and the tiny vote that would make you feel differently about
30:52
feeling that his policies would not be as good for your family on the economy
30:56
or you pretty much decided that Trump's policy would be better for the economy.
31:00
I mean, I feel like he doesn't even take accountability through us at all
31:03
with what's going on in the accounty, and not even accountability like he's in
31:07
denial that it's happening. The point is Biden needs to hear the people because
31:11
when he's talking about the economy doing instellar, he's talking about the stock market.
31:15
He's not looking at homelessness or joblessness. He's not AG's point and thinking
31:18
about how much it costs go to the grocery store. And he's gas lading
31:22
literally everyone in the process. And omer you voted for Joe Biden last time,
31:26
right, yeah, yeah, he's gaslighting everybody. And now there's this
31:29
report today that Biden reportedly a word coming out of the White House today is
31:33
that he has absolutely no plans whatsoever to address inflation with any apology policy changes
31:41
heading into the election in November. The issue of inflation how Biden is handling
31:45
it has resurfaced. Of course, the CPI came out increasing three point five
31:49
percent in March alone, while a lot of people are saying, you know,
31:53
they just don't have confidence in Joe Biden anymore to do about anything about
31:57
the economy. And then you've got the word that apparently the White House doesn't
32:00
care about it. The White House is going to be running against Donald Trump,
32:05
attacking Trump. Now they've got the abortion issue. That's what they're going
32:07
to be running out because I think most Americans now feel there's not a whole
32:12
lot that Joe Biden wants to do or will do about the economy, and
32:15
this is an indication that he has no plans to do so kind of interesting
32:20
to watch that. All right, our number two of the rod Arcetcho coming
32:22
your way. Thank Rod. It's Friday, new rules on background checks for
32:27
you gun owners. So our composition will to join us and we'll take your
32:30
calls on. Thank Rod, It's Friday. Stay with us another full hours
32:34
on its way. It is our number two, the rod Arcetcho with you
32:51
on this, Thank Rodis Friddy right here on Utah's Talk Radio one oh five
32:55
nine, Kate and rs live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. And of course
33:00
you can catch our podcast. We upload it when the show is done every
33:04
every night right at seven o'clock, and you can find that at Kanars dot
33:08
com. All right, we'll open up the phones to you. We've got
33:10
a lot to talk to you about today. But before we do that,
33:13
I want to talk about what the Biden administration announced yesterday. They in fact
33:17
announced that all gun dealers now must conduct background checks, no matter where or
33:24
how they sell their merchandise. This is a first step toward what eventually they
33:30
want to do is I think take our guns away? You know, they
33:34
say, well, we respect guns and gun owners, but they want to
33:37
make it so restrictive. Joining us before we talk to Clark Opposion, and
33:40
Clark's waiting. I'll get with Clark in just a minute. I want to
33:43
hear the announcement that was made yesterday by President Joe Biden. Folks, I
33:47
spent hours of families who've lost loved ones to gun violence. They'll have the
33:52
same message, do shop there. Well, today, my administration is taking
33:58
action to make sure the futter guns are sold without background checks. This is
34:02
going to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons. And
34:06
my administration can continue to do everything we possibly can to save lives. Congress
34:12
needs to finish the job the past universal background check President Session. Now,
34:17
well, that's the next step they like. But first of all, an
34:20
update on the background checks. Joining us on our Newsmaker line is our good
34:23
friend Clark Opposion, the host of Gun Radio Utah that you'll hear tomorrow afternoon
34:28
here on talk radio one oh five nine canterrests. He's also the president of
34:30
the Utah Shooting Sports Council. Clark, thanks for joining us. Any surprise
34:35
here with us now with this announcement from the administration yesterday, Well, no,
34:38
I mean with that bs Act the uh and I say that the bs
34:44
Act, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, Uh huh, that with anything but
34:47
bipartisan unless you count met Romney voting for it and in Corning and tell us
34:53
in that. But you know, they had they basically expanded the definition of
35:00
engaged in the business of selling guns and they've all the ATF has always had
35:07
that ability engaging. If you're engaged in the business selling guns, get an
35:10
FFL. That's what you're supposed to do. That's you know, we've always
35:14
played. Now they're expanding that to say if you make a profit, if
35:19
you buy a gun for three hundred dollars and sell it for three hundred and
35:22
twenty dollars, you're now in the business regardless of if you sold one or
35:29
two. It doesn't have there's no metric to determine exactly what's in there other
35:35
than if you made a profit. So it's you know, they've been trying
35:40
this kind of stuff before, and they figure they've got the ability in the
35:45
law with this BSCA Act that they passed. You want to know the numbers
35:52
over five years there was supposedly they were able to track sixty eight thousand ille
36:00
trafficked guns. And I don't know exactly what illegally trafficked means, but they
36:05
were able to trace those to three hundred and seventy shootings. Do the math
36:09
zero point zero zero five percent? Yeah, you know, I mean,
36:13
yeah, it's pretty it's pretty miniscule, Clerk. I was going to ask you how often are guns sold between individuals you know who aren't it a gun
36:22
show? They just you know, guy says I want to sell a gun, A guy says, hey, I want to buy the gun. How
36:27
often does that happen? And do these new rules now take coverage or take
36:31
over on that something like that transaction? Clerk? It absolutely will if you
36:37
sell it for more than you bought it for, so you're making a profit.
36:40
But my question, Rod is and so what happens all the time?
36:45
And my question is are they literally going to be looking over your shoulder now
36:51
when you sell a gun or when you buy a gun? And I mean
36:54
think of that, How are they going to know if you made a profit
36:58
on it? That means they're going to now have to ask for your records
37:02
of when you bought the gun. This is going to tie into the credit
37:07
card merchant category codes. It's going to tie into all that kind of stuff.
37:10
What about a collector who's just looking to you know, he collects,
37:15
you know, certain times of guns, ad buys one, he makes a
37:17
few dollars on it. So, once again, this is the Biden administration,
37:22
the Blue states, the liberal handwringing bedwetters, that they have a law
37:29
that's only going to affect the law abiding, doing nothing to the criminals in
37:35
which they say they want to. And I say this, no more laws,
37:38
no more gun laws until they start enforcing the existing gun laws, and
37:45
tell these blue state attorney generals to start prosecuting, putting these folks in jail
37:51
where we want them to be. Well, I don't know about you, Clark. Criminals, Yeah, yeah, I don't know about you, clerk,
37:55
but I see criminals all the time. I'll buying guns and gun shows.
37:59
Don't you see that as well? Clark? You know exactly exactly.
38:04
It is ridiculous, It is ridiculous. It is ridiculous. But that's who
38:07
they're looking at. Yeah, yeah, Clark, let's talk about you know,
38:10
this is obviously another step toward their desire to have universal background checks,
38:15
to have red flag laws, to ban assault weapons. I mean, this
38:20
is this is just another step toward their ultimate goal, isn't it Clark? Oh, of course it is. Yeah. Do you really think they're going
38:27
to stop now that they have this this BS Act? And I call the
38:30
bs the Bipartisan Safety Community Act. Of course not because now think about it.
38:37
You you probably are going to have to get the IRS involved to see
38:40
if you're making a profit, and then they can prosecute you. It's and
38:46
you're right, universal background checks that is the next step, because if they're
38:52
going to say, hey, look, the American public has a stomach for
38:54
background checks, now let's make it universal, even though it will never universal,
39:00
but just just folks like you and I will we'll submit to that.
39:04
And then think about this, If they all have to be have to go
39:08
through a background check, then how are you gonna know unless you register those
39:13
guns all the news sales, How will you know you didn't buy it before
39:16
unless you register all your old guns too. It's and that's exactly what they're
39:22
gonna say it's just it's as obvious as can be. Yeah, just more
39:25
intrusion into the lives of everyday law biding American citizens. Clerk. All right,
39:30
we've got Gun Radio Utah coming up on this Saturday tomorrow. You've got
39:34
a great show lined up. Given a snell layas to what you'll be talking
39:37
about and who you'll be talking to. Hey, you know what, it's
39:40
it's campaign season right now, and some of the most important campaigns besides governor
39:45
and Attorney General are the United States Senate replacing Mitt Romney seat. We have
39:51
former Speaker of the House Brad Wilson on Gun Radio Utah. We're gonna hit
39:54
him with some questions. We're going to hit him with you know, what
39:58
are you going to do to stop government overreach, especially with the ATF,
40:01
but with other agencies as well. What are you going to do, Brad
40:06
to stop that? And how would you have voted on the Bipartisan Saber Communities
40:12
Act. All right, Clark oppose Jaw. It's great to have Clark on
40:14
the show. President of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, also co host of
40:17
Gun Radio Utah. You'll hear it tomorrow afternoon at three, Right, here
40:22
on Talk Radio one oh five to nine K and R as all right,
40:25
when we come back, the phones are open to you, beautiful Friday.
40:29
On the outside, We've talked a lot about a lot of things this week.
40:32
We talked about the crumb Leeds, the sentencing of the couple of Michigan
40:36
sentenced to ten years in prison after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter for basically not
40:42
doing anything from stopping their son to go on a mass school shooting in which
40:45
four students were killed and six others were injured. We talked about that,
40:50
got a lot of reaction to that. We got a lot of reaction to
40:53
an interview we did about a new survey that shows there are a lot of
40:59
young women in this country who would consider themselves conservative, but they're afraid to
41:04
speak out. You know, we can talk about that. We can talk
41:07
a course about Ojay and that decision yesterday, or the announcement yesterday that he's
41:13
dead at the age of seventy six, and the impact he's had a lot of other things to go over tonight as well. So it is thank Rod
41:17
it's Friday chance for you to weigh in on the key issues of the day.
41:22
Eight eight eight five seven eight zero one zero, triple eight five seven
41:25
eight zero one zero, or on your cell phone, dial pound two fifty
41:29
and say hey Rod, Thank Rod, it's Friday. It's coming up next, Very Rod, Say Ron, it's Friday, all right, welcome back
41:47
to the rod Our Quicho, and the lines are open to you now eight
41:51
eight eight five seven o eight zero one zero, triple eight five seven oaight
41:53
zero one zero, or on your cell phone, dial pound two fifty and
41:57
say hey Rod. We call it, Thank Rod, it is Friday,
42:00
because we're thanking you, not me, you for listening to the show each
42:04
and every week, each and every day, and we give you an opportunity
42:07
to share your opinion, maybe on something that we've talked about, something that
42:10
you have seen in the news that you'd like to comment on. That's why
42:14
we open up the phones to you eight eight eight five seven eight zero one
42:16
zero or on your cell phone. All you do is have to dial pound
42:20
two fifteen simply say hey, run a couple of things. We've got a
42:22
lot of response on this weekend or this past week was first of all,
42:27
the sentencing of the Crumbleys. Now this these are the parents of Ethan Crumbley,
42:32
remember a couple of years ago, it was in Michigan where he killed
42:37
four students and injured six others. And there, you know, the word
42:43
came out that this boy was a troubled boy. As a matter of fact,
42:46
the day of the shooting, school officials got a hold of some art
42:51
work that he had done, a sketch that he had made, called the
42:54
parents to the school said, you know, you need to be aware of
42:58
this. They did not ask the parents to take home their son. They
43:02
didn't, but they did give the parents a list of mental health services that
43:07
he could certainly use. And they went home, and just a short time
43:12
later, Ethan Crumbley, you know, pulled out a gun shot and killed
43:16
four students and injured six others. And a precedent setting trial was held in
43:22
which the parents were charged with involuntary manslaughter. Basically, they were charged for
43:30
not stopping a crime. That's what it comes down to. And a lot
43:34
of people are very worried about this. We had a lot of reactions,
43:36
some people saying, you know, the school should take part in this. The legal experts were saying this probably more of a civil case than a criminal
43:43
case. But there was a lot of discussion about that. This week, we talked about that. We also talked about young women in America today.
43:52
There was a survey out that basically showed young women in America today have very
43:59
conservative views. Maybe, as Greg pointed out, we did this on Wednesday
44:01
when Greg was here. Greg Hughes, my wingman, talked about the fact
44:06
that a lot of the common sense issues that we have in America today are
44:10
now classified as conservative, even though they're just simply common sense. But there
44:15
are a lot of young conservative women in this country today, common sense women
44:19
who share those same common sense values, but because they do, their labeled
44:22
conservatives and therefore they're afraid to express their opinions. And we took some calls
44:28
from people about, you know, life with as a young woman in this
44:30
state, or maybe they have daughters, even granddaughters who are afraid to express
44:35
their opinion. We also got reaction yesterday to OJ Simpson his death yesterday and
44:39
how this changed to America. So we've got a lot to talk to you
44:43
about tonight. That's why the phone lines are open eight eight eight five seven
44:45
eight zero one zero eight eight eight five seven eight zero one zero or on
44:50
your cell phone all you do is have to dial pound two fifty and say,
44:52
hey, Rod, let's go to the phones. Let's begin with Steve
44:55
in Mapleton tonight here on thank Rod as Friday. Steve, how are you
44:59
thanks for joining us Friday? Well, thank you so much. It's good
45:02
to be on a Friday. It's just about time, right at any rate?
45:08
Yeah? But no, Hey, I was calling in because I'm really
45:13
concerned about uh, you know Trump. I'm concerned in the sense that I
45:19
want him to win. But yet, as we all know, Biden stole
45:25
the election, right, so what's preventing him from doing it now? Because
45:29
there's so many illegals he's allowed to cross over into our country that they he
45:36
and he's also giving them citizenship. That's totally illegal and he should be thrown
45:43
in jail, you know, Yeah, that that'll ever happen, you know.
45:46
Yeah, Well, Steve, where where do you hear he's giving him
45:50
citizenship? They will be counted in the census, but I'm not aware of
45:52
any place where they've been given citizenship as of yet. Are you aware of
45:58
steps like that? I've heard it, yeah, oh yeah, I heard
46:00
it about a month ago. I'm going when somebody brought it up to me.
46:05
They said, well, he's doing it. It was the Venezuelan guys that were coming in and all of those people that are just evil, you
46:12
know, that are not up to any good with us. And we're members
46:17
of our great country and we want it to be great again. That's why
46:22
I believe that Trump is going to be good for our country, providing he
46:29
doesn't get the election stole the election stole out from under him, like it's
46:32
like what happened the last time. Yeah, I see where you're coming from,
46:37
Steve. Let me tell you what. There are a couple of things I want to add to that. Trump and Mike Johnson, Speaker of the
46:42
House, announced an election integrity law today that Mike Johnson is going to introduce
46:45
on the floor. Probably go nowhere, but I hope you know. We
46:50
had a story on yesterday if you were listening yesterday at all, about an
46:53
investigation as to how democrats and progresses in this country today are using charitable organizations
47:01
and even federal government agencies. This under the direction of the Biden administration to
47:07
register people to vote and to get them out to vote, and they're doing
47:12
so. Now. The Republican Party is aware of this, you know,
47:15
and they're working to defend this. But what are we doing in that regard
47:20
the Republican Party and Conservatives to get out the vote. I'm with you,
47:22
Steve, and I think with many of our listeners here, I am very
47:28
concerned about the integrity of this election, the bureaucratic mess that we have in
47:35
this country today. The Democrats, the progressives are so afraid of what Donald
47:42
Trump will do, so afraid of what he'll do if he is re elected.
47:46
Because what Donald Trump wants to do is he wants to change Washington.
47:51
He didn't do it his first time. He didn't have any help his first time. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, you know, they didn't like the
47:58
guy to begin with, as they don't now, did nothing to help him
48:01
get his agenda underway. Plus he had, you know, all these investigations
48:06
going on with Russian collusion and everything else. This time is a little bit
48:09
different. And if you aren't aware of this, there are some major conservative
48:14
groups in this country, including I think being head headed up by the Heritage
48:19
Foundation. It's called Project twenty twenty five. They've got a group of very
48:23
conservative, strongly conservative groups in this country today who are looking at plans to
48:30
how we transform government, to shrink the size of government to make it more
48:35
effective and responsive to the American people. There was an article today, I
48:39
think it was in CNN where they are expressing their concern. Let me see,
48:45
I didn't grab it here and I should have. I apologize that.
48:49
And I'm trying to remember the title of it if I can, real fans,
48:53
Yeah, here it is, and let me just read this to you
48:57
real quick. I'll just give you a headline if I've got the right stack.
49:00
I have so much stacks and stuff that you have here it is.
49:05
This is an analysis by a writer at CNN. Donald Trump is creating his
49:10
web of chaos at home and abroad in a preview of what a second term
49:16
could look like. So are you ready? I mean, I know there
49:21
are a lot of supporters of Donald Trump out there, and I support Donald
49:24
Trump as well. With what he wants to do, it is going to
49:30
create chaos. He's doing the right things. I mean, if they shrink
49:35
the size of government, have the bureaucrats work for the American people and not
49:39
for the Democratic Party and their own self preservation, it will cause chaos.
49:45
But isn't it about time we create a little chaos in Washington for crying out
49:51
loud. We spend, we spend, we spend, and what are the
49:55
results the amount of money we're paying. I told you a start of the
50:00
show today. You know, I always enjoy Friday's, but this one was
50:04
a little tough because I had to pay my taxes. I just hate doing
50:07
that, sending money to the federal government who will abuse it, waste it,
50:12
and not use it effectively. And I think there is a feeling among
50:15
the American people, many of you out there, you may agree or disagree
50:19
with me on this one, that we have got to do something to shake
50:22
up Washington. If we have to shake up Congress and kick them all out,
50:27
fine, we've got to do something about it. And now the media
50:30
is gonna, you know, the sky is falling. This guy is falling.
50:34
Look what Donald Trump is doing. He's gonna you know, he's going
50:37
to create chaos. Why not, why not get in there and shake things
50:42
up? And That's what I'm hoping. You know, all these you know,
50:45
you've got a candidates running for the US Senate to replace Mitt Romney here,
50:49
You've got candidates running for the US House. I hope that they do
50:53
have the courage to shake things up. I hope they have the courage and
51:00
realize, and you talk to every economist out there, inflation is running rampant
51:04
because of too much government spending, that they have the guts to reduce government
51:10
spending and to do what needs to be done to correct the financial house of
51:15
this country, because if we don't, we are going down a very,
51:20
very dangerous path. I think many of you would do agree, But that's
51:22
what we're talking about. We have got to find people who are willing to
51:28
shake things up. And it scares the daylights out of the Democrats and progressive
51:31
in the legacy media because all their buddies could be infected impacted by this.
51:37
But I think that's what needs to happen. Don't you and are you ready
51:42
for it? Because you know you don't have people that you can't get rid
51:45
of this program? Do you know how good this program is doing? Show
51:50
me where it is. There's a tremendous audit released in California earlier this week.
51:55
California spent billions of dollars on the homeless. They have thirty different programs
52:00
to help the homeless and they can't show one area where a dollar has been
52:06
spent that has been effective in treating it. I'd like to see the same
52:08
thing done here in Utah. We've spent millions of dollars. Okay, but
52:14
has anybody done an audit as anybody? Can anybody step up and say,
52:17
we have taken fifteen families off the streets. They have a place to live,
52:22
they have a job. We've taken this many people off the streets who
52:27
are mentally ill. We've taken this many people off the streets who are addicted
52:30
to drugs or something else alcohol, We've helped them. Here are the real
52:35
numbers. Look, the money and the intentions that we have to help the
52:37
homeless are working. I've never seen anything like that. Wouldn't that be interesting
52:42
to know? All right, more of your calls and comments coming up.
52:44
It is think Rod is Friday eight eight eight five seven eight zero one zero
52:47
eight eight eight five seven eight zero one zero, or on your cell phone
52:52
just to help pound two to fifty and say hey Rod, Rod Friday,
53:00
right Friday, All right, a little bit of Joe Walsh for you on
53:15
this. Thank Rod. It's Friday in Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine,
53:20
Kay and r as it is called Thank Rodin's Friday. The phone lines
53:22
are open to you to talk about whatever is on your mind. Tonight eight
53:27
eight eight five seven O eight zero one zero, triple eight five seven o
53:30
eight zero one zero, or on your cell phone dial pound two fifty and
53:32
just say, hey Rod, let's go to the phone. Let's go to
53:35
Jeremy in Brigham City tonight here on thank Rod, It's Friday. Jeremy,
53:38
how are you? Thanks for calling in? Thanks Rod, I appreciate all
53:44
you do. Thank you, and I'm glad you played Joe Walsh because it brought my blood pressure down. Oh good. I just wanted to say we
53:52
need to rally behind people who are not going to spend. Are the representative
54:00
are spending way too much? As we know, Blake Moore is repeat offender.
54:04
He votes for every spending package there is, and he continually violates the
54:12
Stock Act making him money. And we just need to put a real conservative
54:17
in. How do we convince these lawmakers in your opinion, Jeremy, other
54:24
than replacing them, And replacing them is hard to do, I mean,
54:27
but we do have an election coming up, and we have an opportunity to
54:30
do that. But for the politicians who say, you know, they want
54:34
to reduce the government or they want to reduce spending, you know, they're
54:37
concerned about the debt, but they don't seem to do anything about it.
54:40
How do we convince them they need to do something about it other than kicking
54:45
them out of office. That's a difficult question. That's a good question.
54:51
I'm not sure we see through their actions. They can tell us one thing
54:54
and they always do to get into office, but then they turn around and
54:59
spend. It's a double standard. It's two faced, and it happens all
55:02
the time. We need someone like Mike Lee. And that's how I can
55:07
say, as far as getting them, voting them out, looking for other
55:10
candidates that aren't influenced by big money, that's the only way to do it.
55:15
Thank you very much for your call, Jeremy. You're right, folks,
55:19
you know it is it is time, I think for a lot of
55:22
politicians and for voters especially. The rubber needs to meet the road here,
55:27
I think, and we do need to look at, you know, the
55:30
politicians who are willing to have the courage to cut so that going to be
55:35
easy. You know, if you've ever and I have over the years when
55:38
it comes to budgets and you're looking at budgets and you're looking, wait a
55:42
minute, this isn't going to fly. We're going to have to make some
55:44
changes. Sometimes those are very ugly changes that you have to do. But
55:47
why is it that we have lawmakers who are not willing to do that?
55:55
Uh? And Jeremy raised another point. You know some of these politicians are
56:00
going back there and they're making bank I mean on the insider trading. They
56:05
get tips on stock deals. Some of these people have made millions of dollars.
56:08
Glenn Bick, I think, did his show on Wednesday night on all
56:12
of this, and it is frightening to see how members of Congress are enriching
56:16
themselves thanks to the American people and thanks to that insider information. One thing
56:22
I want to bring up we've been talking about the election. There was a
56:25
new poll out by the New York Times in Siena College. This was from
56:30
February, so it's a couple of months old, but it found that nineteen
56:35
percent of voters held a very unfavorable view of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
56:39
Not a surprise. Twenty nine percent believe that neither candidate would be a
56:45
good president. Now that's according to a poll in Gallop back in March.
56:50
But then they were asked, you know, people were asked, and I'm
56:52
going to ask you tonight as well, give me one word, one word
57:00
that would describe your feelings about this upcoming election. One word that would describe
57:07
your feelings about this upcoming election. Now, apparently the survey asked, and
57:14
they got a lot of different responses. But here are some of the responses
57:17
from more than nine hundred registered voters around the country. Anxious, apprehensive,
57:28
concerned, worried. Some labeled it scared, others called it excited and hopeful,
57:37
some happy, some disappointed, annoyed, and frustrated. About a third
57:43
of the voters gave responses including anger, disappointment, or resignation. This may
57:49
go back to that whole white world rage thing. And nearly as many respondents,
57:52
thirty percent of them replied with words indicating that they were scared or apprehensive.
58:01
Boy, I could address a lot of those words, and I bet
58:04
many of you could as well. Scared, yes, because I don't,
58:07
you know, I really worry that the Democrats are so oh, they're just
58:13
consumed by power. In America today, the progressives in the Democratic Party.
58:17
And I don't hate every Democrat. I have some good friends who are Democrats,
58:22
get along with them, well, I don't consider them that regard.
58:24
But there are those the progressives, and I think it's the people who run
58:28
Washington right now, the bureaucrats who are so consumed to keep the power,
58:34
they will do anything to win this election and to keep Joe Biden in office
58:37
because they know Joe Biden is going to become less and less responsive as he
58:43
ages, and they'll be able to pass things by him and he may not
58:46
even know what's going on, and that's what they're hoping to be able to
58:50
do. So that's why I'm scared of it, anxious about it, sure,
58:54
anxious about what this country may go through if Donald Trump is elected,
58:59
because you know, those on the left will not take it sitting down.
59:02
And I hope we can calm down, but I worry about that as well.
59:07
But I'm also excited because are we is our focus here in America starting
59:13
to change that we realized, wait a minute, you guys Washington, you
59:15
aren't doing anything to help us. It's time we're going to make some changes
59:20
here. And get this done and get this country on a right footing yet
59:23
again. And that's what I think we need. But I'd love to hear
59:28
one word you would use to describe your feeling. I know it's early,
59:30
we're still a couple hundred days out as you head into this election, happy,
59:36
excited, anxious, scared eight eight eight five seven eight zero one zero,
59:39
triple eight five seven zero one zero, or on your cell phone up
59:44
pound two fifty and say hey, Rod, more your calls and comments coming up on the Rodarcut Show, Rod Friday, Same right Friday. It is
1:00:07
Thank Rod. It's Friday. Lines are open to you tonight. Triple eight five seven zero eight zero one zero on your cell phone dial pound two fifty
1:00:14
and say hey Rod. We're just mentioning this story today as to how voters
1:00:19
are describing the upcoming twenty twenty four election in one word. Some of the
1:00:24
words they use to describe it, so it's kind of fun, anxious,
1:00:29
apprehensive, concerned, worried. Some labeled they're scared. Some also labeled that
1:00:37
they're excited, and they're hopeful. About a third of the voters gave the
1:00:40
responses indicating anger, disappointment, or resignation. You know, the one thing
1:00:45
that those on the left, the progressives, want us to do is simply
1:00:52
to just give up. That's why that term resignation is so important. They
1:00:55
want us to just give up, not get involved. You know, say
1:01:00
the heck with it. You know, we don't care, We're just going to live our own lives. We can't do that. We have got to
1:01:05
be involved. And I talk about this a lot about engagement and getting involved,
1:01:09
and that's what we really, really, in fact do need to do.
1:01:13
But I love these words. Disappointed, annoyed, frustrated could be also
1:01:19
classified as being angry. But as you go into this election, like I
1:01:22
said, I think the one thing that sits here in front of me is
1:01:28
opportunity. And hopefully you're thinking the same way, because if we have opportunity,
1:01:35
that's what this election is going to give us. We have an opportunity
1:01:39
every two years, every four years to make changes. Now, Unfortunately,
1:01:44
in America today, what it's the number I've seen somewhere eighty six eighty seven.
1:01:50
Ninety percent of the incumbents are re elected year after year. Why is
1:01:54
that? You know, if we want changes in America, kid today,
1:02:00
you know, sending the same people back to Washington time and time again.
1:02:05
You go, what are we trying to achieve here? Nothing's going to change
1:02:09
now. Sending some people back good thing, sending like a Mike Lee back
1:02:14
good thing, Sending someone like Burgess Owens back good thing. But there are
1:02:19
others that you go, Okay, you know, if we want change,
1:02:23
we keep on doing the same thing over and over again. It's not going
1:02:27
to bring about change. And I think that's what America is looking for.
1:02:30
All we want in this country today is to get things done, and most
1:02:38
importantly right now, the things that all the polls are indicating now, the
1:02:44
things that we want to get done if someone do something about this economy.
1:02:51
You know, it is tough for a lot of people out there who are
1:02:54
struggling. I mean, you look at the prices. It's amazing of what
1:03:00
people are paying for certain items anymore. Go to a grocery store, go
1:03:05
to one of those big box stores, I guess Sam's Club or a Costco. Lookqut your pain for things? Now. Go to a gas station right
1:03:12
now. Mentioned the other day, I'm at four to sixteen a gallon now
1:03:15
and it's going to go higher. That's where people want to see if things
1:03:20
can be done to get inflation back under control the way it was under Donald
1:03:24
Trump. And that's why I think people have faith in Donald Trump. When
1:03:29
people are asked who could handle the economy better, Joe Biden or Donald Trump,
1:03:32
about ninety percent of them raise their end in favor of Donald Trump.
1:03:37
So that's what we want fixed. We want to see something being done.
1:03:39
And then we have word today that Joe Biden, who one of the biggest
1:03:45
issues for his campaign other than his age is inflation, has no plans to
1:03:50
do anything about it, no plan that he'll unveil prior to the election.
1:03:54
He hasn't appointed. It's interesting there's a there's not a inflation fighter in the
1:04:01
White House today. Doesn't exist out there today, you know. And the
1:04:06
other issue is immigration. Joe Biden says, well, I'm examining things we
1:04:12
can do. Donald Trump didn't wait to examine anything. He acted. That's
1:04:15
what America is all about. We don't wait, We act eight eight eight
1:04:20
five seven eight zero one zero, triple eight five seven oh eight zero one
1:04:25
zero. Or on your cell phone, all you do is have to dial
1:04:27
pound two fifty and say hey, Rod, back to the phones. We
1:04:30
go on Thank Roud, it's Friday. Let's talk with Aaron in Smithfield tonight,
1:04:33
eron how are you welcome back to the show? Hi Rod, work
1:04:39
working hard, working hard as the county doll. Yet working hard. Good
1:04:43
for you, Good for you, Good for you. Some concerns I have.
1:04:47
I'm going to give you my word. My word's going to be fatal.
1:04:50
Ah, good work. And I know we talked about this before.
1:04:55
I think this is going to be the most violent period of time that we've
1:04:58
had since the Civil War, because regardless of who wins, uh, there's
1:05:02
going to be pushed from both sides. I think that if Biden wins,
1:05:05
there's going to be pushed to Uh. I'll say, as we were just
1:05:10
talking earlier, uh, taking our guns, taking our freedom. Uh.
1:05:15
If Trump wins, they'll burn cities and they'll do what they always do. Do you think, little Aaron, we have got a lot of time.
1:05:21
Quick question. Do you think those of us on the right who support Donald
1:05:25
Trump if he is not elected, will will we get I don't think I
1:05:29
think we'll. We understand the rule of law. We won't get violent the
1:05:31
way I think the left will. Because I agree with you, I think
1:05:33
they'll try and burn down cities. Well, they're going to try to take
1:05:39
things from us though, always that when they take power. Yeah, that's
1:05:43
true. And and and one other point that I wanted to make about our
1:05:46
congressional representatives is earlier it was pointed out of Blake Moore, you have to
1:05:50
understand what else is in these in these uh bills that they vote on.
1:05:55
I mean that bill had abortion money for the government and the military for abortions
1:06:02
and to send troops to other states to have abortions. It opened money to
1:06:08
swallow more illegal then that led to the death of Lake and Raleigh. Yeah,
1:06:13
read the bills. Sorry to cut you off there, Aeron, but I've got to get to a break here. But the one thing he didn't
1:06:17
understand, you know, I hate these bills. Make them simple, you
1:06:20
know, but they load up the bills is Erin so aptly pointed out,
1:06:24
they loaded up these bills for crying out loud and you can't do anything about
1:06:28
it. It's pretty amazing, all right, Our number three, they're right
1:06:31
our kencho coming your way next right here on Utah's Talk radio one oh five
1:06:35
nine a NRS. It is our number three. They're not our Kencho here
1:06:59
on this Thank brod It's and Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine k and
1:07:02
RS live everywhere of course on the iHeartRadio app. And he'll forget about our
1:07:06
podcast that we upload at the end of each show each and every day.
1:07:11
A reminder about our weekend program as well. We've got the Travel Show coming
1:07:15
your way on Saturday, along with gun Radio Utah with Clark Opposion. Always
1:07:18
some great local programming that you can enjoy Saturday right here on Talk Radio one
1:07:24
oh five nine k and RS. Busy Hour coming your way this hour.
1:07:28
Bottom of the hour, of course, we'll have our Listen Back Friday segments. We'll replay a conversation we had with Todd Bensman, who is a senior
1:07:34
National Security Fellow with a Center for Immigration Studies, about his trip to the
1:07:40
border and dealing with cartels. A frightening story, and that's one of the
1:07:44
featured interviews that will include in our Listen Back Friday segment coming up at the
1:07:47
bottom of the hour. Utah taxpayers are Utah taxpayers being cheated and short changed
1:07:55
out of billions of dollars by oil and gas leasing system that some say favors
1:08:00
bad actors. Well there's a new call for some changes in all of that.
1:08:03
And joining us on our Newsmaker line right now is Dave Jenkins. David's
1:08:06
president of the Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship. And David's joining us on our Newsmaker
1:08:13
line right down. And let me ask you this first, Dave, where
1:08:15
are the problems when it comes to the oil and gas leasing system right now?
1:08:19
And why do some changes need to be made to a Dave, Well,
1:08:24
we have this huge problem nationwide, especially in the Mountain West, with
1:08:29
orphan abandoned and orphan or wells. And so what happens is these companies,
1:08:33
as a condition of their permit, they promise to plug and reclaim those that
1:08:40
those well sites once they're finished. But what's been happened. But what's been
1:08:45
happening is that they extract all the oil and the profit associated with it,
1:08:50
and then they declare bankruptcy, or they sell their company, or they find
1:08:55
ways to skip town basically without filling their obligation and cleaning up the mess that
1:09:02
they made. So so what that's resulted in is a backlog of I think
1:09:08
there's like one hundred and thirty thousand orphan wells on public lands and I think
1:09:14
EPA estimates over three million nationwide. And back in a few years ago,
1:09:19
you know the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, it included four point seven billion dollars of
1:09:26
our taxpayer money to clean up these orphan wells. That is an obligation of
1:09:30
the people who promised to clean them up in the first place, and that
1:09:33
you know, extracted the oil. And so the solution of that, in
1:09:38
our view is bonding reform, where you required the companies to post a bond
1:09:43
that's actually sufficient to cover the cleanup cost in case they do skip down.
1:09:47
And you know, to us, that's a no brainer. As a fiscal
1:09:49
conservative, I don't want as a taxpayer to be paying for an obligation that
1:09:56
somebody else, you know, promised to as a condition of the lease permit
1:09:59
of a of their drilling permit. So so that's why we really favor the
1:10:03
current oil and gas rule that for some reason the Biden administration seems that they
1:10:09
can't get finalized. It's been I think they proposed it back in July of
1:10:15
last year and we're still waiting. But to us, this is a long
1:10:19
time coming, and we need to sort of stop the bleeding, stop more
1:10:25
of than porp and wells from popping up that we have to we have to
1:10:28
pay to clean up down the road to get this approved. Is it hung
1:10:31
up in Congress? Where is this right now? David? Is that's what
1:10:33
all is? That is? That? Is that what's holding it up?
1:10:38
No, it's just the Biden administration holding it up. They're just slow.
1:10:43
So right now, that's the problem is getting them to finalize the rule. Another on the other side of the equation, when you are talking about Congress,
1:10:51
Congresswoman Lorraine Bobert recently put a bill in the House that actually passed on
1:10:58
the floor that would block all this reform. So to us, that's kind
1:11:05
of a a head scratcher, because I can't figure out why anyone who claims
1:11:12
to be a fiscal conservative can be happy to throw billions of our hardware taxpayer
1:11:15
dollars of this problem. Yet they're unwilling to stop the scam by simply requiring
1:11:21
the companies to post a bond that's sufficient to ensure, you know that they
1:11:27
people feel their obligation. Yeah, yeah, I mean, in our view,
1:11:31
her and everyone who voted for her bill are simply trying to give you
1:11:35
know, the worst actors in the industry a license to keep scamming taxpayers,
1:11:41
and then you know, it's fiscal malpractice. And if you want to look
1:11:45
at another way, it's it's it's basically like a massive subsidy that makes slendra
1:11:48
you know, tell about gam So that's that's why we're against it. Where
1:11:55
you've got to be consistent, whether it's whether it's you know, taxpayer dollars
1:12:00
going too much on the solar renewable side, or whether it's taxpayer dollars going
1:12:04
too much to the oil and gas side. Whoever's developing it should be responsible.
1:12:10
It's the free enterprise system, Dave. Does the state of Utah have
1:12:14
any recourse in this area? I mean, do they have any legal authority
1:12:17
to force this cleanup and to force these companies to do this or is this
1:12:20
completely a federal issue in the state's hands right now? Are tied the state
1:12:26
has control over it when there's drilling on state lands, Okay, yeah,
1:12:29
and they have the same problem. They are doing a slightly better job at
1:12:34
discouraging that kind of practice than the Feds are, but still it is a
1:12:40
problem statewide too. And then the other thing this rule does is it increases
1:12:45
royalty rates from twelve percent to like sixteen point six percent, which is still
1:12:53
lower than Colorado and Texas charged for drilling on their state lands. What kind
1:12:58
of damage is to the environment or to the area where this really takes place,
1:13:01
Dave? What kind of damage do we typically see? But if they
1:13:04
don't clean up, these wells can leak and that you know, well,
1:13:12
whether it's oil or other types of chemicals used to pump into the well to
1:13:18
extract the oil, they can leak out into the watersheds and plute our water.
1:13:25
Methane can leak out of the whaleheads into the atmosphere. And you know,
1:13:30
people who are concerned about climate they had to really be worried about methane
1:13:34
because it's it's far more potent than in carbon dioxide, and it it's kind
1:13:42
of the lowest hanging fruit. It's it's easy to plug these wells and stop
1:13:46
that methane from going in the atmosphere, where it's harder to do some of
1:13:50
the other things that people would want us to do to address that issue.
1:13:55
So, Dave, is your message today basically to the Biden administration to heye,
1:13:58
get up, get go on, let's get it's done, and let's
1:14:00
protect the taxpayer and the environment at the same time. Is that what the
1:14:03
message is today, Yes, that's the message for the Biden administration, and
1:14:06
it's also the message for Congress, is that don't block this thing. I
1:14:11
mean, taxpayers need relief. We can't keep going on the way we have
1:14:15
for the last fifty years and building up, you know, tons of these
1:14:18
orphan wells that we have to come behind and clean up. It's the company
1:14:23
promises as parlor permit to clean it up. So then we hold them to
1:14:27
that. I mean, I get held to my promises, you know,
1:14:30
whether it's fulfilling a loan at the bank or whatever. So they should as
1:14:34
well. On our newsmaker line, Dave Jenkins, president of the Conservatives for
1:14:38
Responsible Stewardship, talking about fixing broken oil and gas leases. All right,
1:14:44
more coming up on this, Thank Rod. It's Friday in Utah's Talk Radio
1:14:46
one oh five nine, Kate and our ass live everywhere on the iHeartRadio.
1:14:50
Up. Let's get a news update right now. Here's Abbie. It is
1:15:05
the Rod R. Ketshow on Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine k n
1:15:10
RS. Beautiful, gorgeous day on the outside today it looks like they're going
1:15:14
to carry through maybe a little into the weekend, but apparently here comes the
1:15:17
gold weather back next week according to KUTV two News Weather team. So get
1:15:23
out and enjoy the weekend and the nice weather if you can this weekend.
1:15:27
My next guest, we always have Victor on to talk about the issues of
1:15:30
the day. He is a very insightful, very thoughtful in his approach to
1:15:34
the issues of the day and what is going on in the country. But
1:15:36
Victor Davis Hanson now has a brand new book out. Many of you know
1:15:41
Victor. He is an author and a historian, and the name of the
1:15:44
book is called The End of Everything. And Victor is joining us on our
1:15:48
Newspaker line right now. Victor is always great to have you back on the
1:15:51
show. But I have to tell you the title The End of Everything,
1:15:56
it's not a very optimistic approach the things Victor, what's going on, Well,
1:16:00
it's fice to talk about what's very rare in war, and that is
1:16:04
the defeated is not just you know defeated or gives up, or has its
1:16:09
infrastructure damage or its population attack, but it's completely wiped out. And I
1:16:15
mean that in every sense of the word, language, culture, they just
1:16:18
disappear. And that happened a number of times in history, not frequently,
1:16:24
but a number of times. And I concentrated on ancient theeves at Alexander the
1:16:30
Great wiped down to the foundation, ancient Carthage, that Scipio completely wiped out
1:16:35
language, culture, people, half a million Carthaginians, Constantinople, that destroyed
1:16:43
Christian Greek civilization, an Asia Minor, as well as the Aztec city of
1:16:47
Tinochil and that Cortes absolutely destroyed down to the foundations and destroyed the culture,
1:16:54
et cetera. And then I had an epilogue that I just see if there
1:16:58
was a typology or a pattern there that would be applicable to the modern world,
1:17:01
and could it happen again? Are there peoples in the world that are
1:17:04
very vulnerable? They live in dangerous neighborhoods, So are they subject to attack
1:17:09
by aggressive powers? Are they naive about the dangers? And so it's pretty
1:17:15
predictable what happens. The targeted people think this has never happened to us.
1:17:20
They don't do this anymore. Our enemies, even if they were going to
1:17:26
be victorious, wouldn't dare think of this. We have very extensive balls who
1:17:30
are well protected and they don't realize that they're in a state of decline and
1:17:35
they're very vulnerable, and the people that they're fighting are ruthless and have existential
1:17:42
plans to get rid of them, whether it's Skippio or Alexander or Kortev.
1:17:45
Yeah, Victor, what change do you think, because I'm thinking of World
1:17:49
War I, World War two, the other wars we've had since then.
1:17:53
I don't see an effort to wipe out and totally annihilate a civilization. What
1:17:58
change do you think or did it change? Change? I think we're still
1:18:01
in a very you know, I'm telling this has been one hundred years,
1:18:05
but you could easily, I'm afraid to say, envision something in the Middle
1:18:10
East, a nuclear change between Israel and Iran. You've got half of the
1:18:15
world's Jewry in one place, Israel, and it's surrounded by five hundred million
1:18:19
people who want to destroy it, and it's the only source of the spoken
1:18:26
Hebrew language today and it's really a neck if you destroyed Israel, and it
1:18:30
would just really destroyed Jewish culture as we know it. And people are saying
1:18:34
that every day and in the world of bioweapons, but nuclear weapons and what
1:18:40
Iran has been saying about Israel not to mention has the law, it's it's
1:18:44
possible to envision that. And we're looking at three million Armenians and mister Earleion
1:18:49
just ethnically cleansed one hundred thousand of them and kick in the disputed corridor on
1:18:55
its borders. And has you just said, not too long ago, we
1:18:59
haven't a solution for the Armenians. That's just like our nineteenth century grandparents,
1:19:03
which led to the genocide that almost wiped Urmia out. Mister Aridon is threatened
1:19:10
to send missiles into Greece, and Greece only has twelve million people. It's
1:19:15
got a pretty large country of fifty thousand square miles, but that is mostly
1:19:18
except for the Cypriots, and they've been threatened as well. That's the repository
1:19:24
of Hellenic culture of twenty five hundred years. And I finished the book also
1:19:30
with examining all the threats that Russians have made in Ukraine, and I was
1:19:32
really startled. It's not just putin, it's general media people and they've all
1:19:39
talked casually about using tactical and strategic nuclear weapons, and we all just say
1:19:45
they would never do that. How do we know they would never do that if they get desperate or if they feel they're going to be humiliated. So
1:19:51
I think Putin is perfectly capable of wiping out Ukraine in the way that he
1:19:57
wiped out Chech, the city of Grosney. You mentioned the Middle East,
1:20:02
and obviously that is a tinderbox right now. I mean, could you you
1:20:06
know the hatred you see from Hamas toward Israel and Hezbelah toward Israel, and
1:20:12
Iran toward Israel. I mean, would their end goal be to just wipe
1:20:16
out Israel and wipe out as many Jews as they possibly could if a war
1:20:19
came about Victor Well, that's what they say. They say they want to
1:20:24
destroy Israel. The river to the sea means there's no longer the Jewish people
1:20:28
or Israel in existence. And you saw what happened on October seventh. What
1:20:31
stopped them, I mean, got a ceasefire. But after the first five
1:20:36
hundred Jewish women and children they butchered, did they say that, Okay,
1:20:41
that's enough, We'll have a ceasefire. No, they didn't. They killed
1:20:44
another six or seven hundred more. And what stopped them wasn't because they felt
1:20:48
bad or they thought they'd done enough, but they felt the IDF had finally
1:20:53
caught on to them and was mobilizing, and it would be dangerous for them
1:20:57
to stay in Israel. Otherwise they would have as they said that in their
1:21:00
own words, and I think if you look at the charter home Moss,
1:21:04
that's what they want to do. And I think we'll see what Iran does
1:21:09
in the next week or two. But the only thing that stops him is
1:21:13
deterrens that Israel's in nuclear power. But if they get in their minds that
1:21:17
say Iran that they would be famous in the annals of Islamic history. Is
1:21:20
the only Islamic nation the Shia, the supposedly minority Shia, and the Persians
1:21:28
rather than the arab Us. But they would if they feel they would have
1:21:30
everlasting fame for being the nation that destroyed the Jewish state. I'm sure they
1:21:34
would do it. Victor, is the world in a different place now which
1:21:41
would prevent this from happening? Do you think? I mean the United States
1:21:45
the greatest military power out there? China another great military power. Is there
1:21:49
something out there that would stop an annihilation like this taking place. Oh,
1:21:55
I don't think anybody lifted a finger. And the Houtis and Potsison Rwanda,
1:22:00
they just sort of tire. I mean that was done with edged weapons and
1:22:04
muscular la force. They wasn't sophisticated. They almost killed somewhere. We're told
1:22:11
about a million people were right if you look at the number of Ukrainians and
1:22:15
Russians that have been killed, wounded or missing. We're past the battle of
1:22:19
We're done seven hundred thousand. We're getting up to the battle of some territory
1:22:25
nine hundred thousand. And I don't see somebody. I don't see a bunch
1:22:29
of people saying this is horrible, this is a slaughter. A quarter of
1:22:32
the Ukrainian population is in exile. We've got to stop that. We've got
1:22:36
to have a discussion or something that I don't know where. Nobody has any
1:22:43
idea how it's going to end. And Ukraine has limited resources, and I'm
1:22:46
sure that is not mine. Destroying Ukrainian culture and absorbing it back and relabelling
1:22:55
it Russian, and so I think it's very possible, and in fact it's
1:22:59
easier now than antiquity because the methodology is so much quicker, and there's less
1:23:04
margin of error. And we're not even talking about artificial intelligence or what we
1:23:10
saw at WU on. We're talking about nuclear weapons is scary enough, and
1:23:14
we've not to mention space age weapons, satellite technology. So it's human nature.
1:23:19
I guess rod stays constant, and the technology is just a delivery system
1:23:25
and it's delivering much more lethally and rapidly than antiquity. So I think it
1:23:30
can happen if we're not careful. On our Newsmaker line, author historian Victor
1:23:33
Davis Hanson talking this time about his brand new book called The End of Everything,
1:23:39
How Wars Descend into Annihilation? All right, our Listen Back Friday segments
1:23:43
coming you away next right here on the rod Ark Can't show. In Utah's
1:23:46
Talk Radio one oh five nine an rs. They wrought our cat show on
1:24:10
talk Radio one oh five nine knrs. It is time now for our listen
1:24:19
Back Friday segments. We do this every Friday. At the last half hour
1:24:24
of the show. We look back over the issues that we've explored and talked
1:24:28
about and the Newsmakers people we've talked to about those issues, and I think
1:24:32
we have two great interviews coming up on our Listen Back Friday, segments that
1:24:35
you may have missed this past week because we know you're busy. You can't
1:24:40
list every minute of every show. We wish you could, but we understand
1:24:43
you can, and we like to play some of these interviews back. There's no doubt that the two top issues going into the presidential election are going to
1:24:49
be the economy and immigration. Now the Democrats are also going to throw in
1:24:54
a third issue, abortion, But if you talk to people out there,
1:24:57
I don't think abortion is first and foremost on their mind. What they're trying
1:25:00
to do is pay the bills, and they're concerned about safety and what's going
1:25:02
on down at the border. Well, earlier this week, we spoke with
1:25:06
Todd Bensman. Todd is a senior National Security Fellow. He works for the
1:25:11
Center for Immigration Studies. He had a great story about America's covert border war.
1:25:15
He's talking about the cartels and what the cartels do. I had a
1:25:19
chance to talk with Todd earlier this week and I asked him, first of
1:25:23
all, he went to the border actually and dealt with the cartels. I
1:25:27
asked him what area he went to and why he decided to go there.
1:25:30
I went to Warres, to the west side of Warres, Mexico. The
1:25:35
west side of Warres is cartel control La Linea Cartel. I went over there
1:25:43
because there is a current epidemic of runners, people who got away, who
1:25:49
don't turn themselves in, who have to pay for their smuggling to get into
1:25:56
the US, as opposed to how most of them get in the States,
1:26:00
which is to just simply turn themselves into border patrol placidly, compliantly. But
1:26:05
there's an epidemic of a big upswing of runners, and that's by far the
1:26:11
most dangerous part of the border crisis that nobody ever really sees or reports about,
1:26:16
because the majority of those people must be presumed to have criminality in their
1:26:23
histories, in their backgrounds, otherwise they would be on the other side of
1:26:28
Warres turning themselves into border patrol and getting processed in. And that's the problem.
1:26:32
We've had two million runners get away into the American interior that we know
1:26:40
of in the last thirty six months, and Warres, the west side of
1:26:45
Warres, really just is emblematic of this particular part of the crisis. Todd,
1:26:49
you had a couple of encounters, as you point out in your story
1:26:51
with members of the cartel, what is that experience, like, Todd,
1:26:55
it's got to be frightening. It's a little bit scary, I'll admit,
1:27:00
because you never really want to run into those guys there, unpredictable of their
1:27:03
arm. If you run into them, you know, things can your whole
1:27:09
life can change on a dime. Get into my car right now at the
1:27:12
point of a gun and that's that. So my policy is usually to avoid
1:27:17
them at all costs, but sometimes you just can't. And that happened to
1:27:21
me a couple of times on this one. How dangerous of an area is
1:27:26
that west side of war As right down? Todd? Would you say,
1:27:28
how dangerous of an area is it? It's dangerous, you know, I
1:27:31
wouldn't recommend the you know, a normal person to go in there voluntarily.
1:27:38
The entire that whole whole side of the city and beyond into the desert is
1:27:44
completely controlled by La Linea. And and they mean business because the the the
1:27:54
amount of money that they're making off this immigration crisis is astounding huge. Five
1:28:00
thousand dollars ahead and hundreds and hundreds every single day, not five thousand dollars
1:28:05
ahead. You could do the math. They're not going to let that go.
1:28:09
They're not going to let rivals come in and take it from them.
1:28:13
They're going to defend it by force of arms. They're going to make sure
1:28:16
nobody's ripping them off and climbing over without pain, all of that sort of
1:28:20
thing. So all along that section of the old border fence, the old
1:28:27
border wall, you can see what we call halconies, which are in Spanish
1:28:33
from English is falcons and their cartel spies that are just watching that wall to
1:28:41
make sure that whoever's crossing through it or over it has paid and that there's
1:28:47
no interlopers. They are armed. They will enforce their territory if they catch
1:28:54
you or anybody else trying to move people over their territory. Todd one gets
1:29:00
through here, one of these runners, they pay up. They get through there. Now in the United States, do they owe anything more to the
1:29:05
cartel or once they're paid, once they're through, does the cartel just let
1:29:09
them go? Yeah? I mean mostly you know they want their money up.
1:29:15
Yeah, yeah, then you know there's a package deal here. Once
1:29:18
they go through the wall or over it, then you know they have to
1:29:23
they part of the deal is that they arrange the cartel arranges for pickups by
1:29:28
vehicle at you know the highways. There's an Interstate ten is over there and
1:29:33
that's probably the favorite one. And then they drive them to safe houses,
1:29:38
which are also a cartel run, and then from there they may transport them
1:29:43
beyond to a bus station in another city or to the other city. But
1:29:47
sometimes there are deals made for loans where people who can't afford the whole thing
1:29:56
have to agree to pay them off over time in the United States that they're
1:30:01
from the proceeds of whatever jobs they end up with. So it's a little
1:30:06
bit of a mix, but I think they prefer to have their money up
1:30:09
front. Is the US Todd, Did you see any visibility of the US
1:30:15
and the Border Patrol trying to control this at all? Or is this an
1:30:17
area they just can't control and they don't want to go into right now because
1:30:21
it is so dangerous. There are some border patrol. You can find some
1:30:28
Border patrol vehicles driving along that wall. It's about an eight or ten mile
1:30:33
But remember this is in New Mexico, not Texas. Yeah, that is
1:30:38
New Mexico, and New Mexico has a democratic governor who loves as much illegal
1:30:44
immigration as they could get, and they have ordered border patrol off the line,
1:30:54
not border patrol, I'm sorry, state police, Yeah, off the
1:30:57
line. There are no state police there like in in Unlike in Texas,
1:31:03
you have thousands of Texans National Guard and state troopers just a little bit over.
1:31:10
And that's part of the whole appeal of that area is that the new
1:31:15
Mexican government, new Mexican state government, leaves everybody alone. Final question for
1:31:23
you, Todd, I really appreciate your insight on this story. I don't
1:31:26
think many Americans are aware of this as they should be. What happens to
1:31:31
these guys and these women after they get into the United States. You mentioned
1:31:34
safe houses, but sooner or later, if they paid their bill, they're
1:31:38
on their way to do whatever they want in the US. Is that right,
1:31:40
Todd? Yeah, they joined the you know, millions and millions of
1:31:45
people who are already living illegally in the country and working in the black labor
1:31:49
market, you know, mowing lawns or whatever, you know, getting fake
1:31:54
documents and getting jobs. And so that's the whole point is, you know,
1:31:58
everybody just wants to work and earn their paycheck and send the money back
1:32:02
to family. It's typically what that's all about. From the Center for Immigration
1:32:06
Studies, Todd Bensman's joining us. He's a National security fellow there at the
1:32:11
CIS, talking about America's covert border war. More coming up on the Rod
1:32:15
Oar Cat Show on this listen back Friday segment right here on Utah's Talk Radio
1:32:19
one oh five nine KNRS. Done. Now for a news update, final
1:32:36
segment of the Rod Oar Cat Show with you on this Thank Rod It's Friday
1:32:40
in Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine K and R ass Jeffy Kelly coming
1:32:44
your way. Jeffrey will be with you starting at seven right up until ten
1:32:48
o'clock tonight on Talk Radio one oh five nine K and RS. Boy,
1:32:53
been a real, real good week for the state of Utah. I mean
1:32:57
talk about you know, we've had a good week. We had the International
1:33:00
Committee here this week taking a look at our Olympic venues if they're ready,
1:33:03
if we host the games I think in twenty thirty four. There's talk about
1:33:08
possibly an an HL team coming to this state. We'll have to see how
1:33:12
that all breaks out. And then there were two economic reports out this week
1:33:15
one in the Wall Street Journal about how Utah right now or Salt Lake City,
1:33:19
we should say, is the hottest job market in the country right now.
1:33:24
Good news for Utah. Another report, this one released by the American
1:33:27
Legislative Exchange Council, said for the seventeenth year in the row, Utah ranked
1:33:33
number one with the best economic outlook. We haited a chance to talk with
1:33:36
Jonathan Williams, the chief economents there at the American Legislative Exchange Council, about
1:33:42
this, and I asked him. Starting off for our conversation, I said,
1:33:45
Jonathan, it looks like Utah is doing very very well. Well.
1:33:48
Absolutely, we're big fans of the record of just continual success now for seventeen
1:33:54
years running in our rich states, poor states report. Congratulations to my good
1:33:58
friends sent at President Stewart Adams and Speaker Schultz and all the legislators that have
1:34:02
worked hard to get this done over the years. But I will say one
1:34:05
thing, Ronle, taking a point of personal privilege, we agree with the
1:34:09
Wall Street Journal there right on. But we were for Utah before it was
1:34:13
cool to be for Utah, seventeen years ago. And I'm proud to say
1:34:15
our projections came true, and you are leading the nation in terms of economic
1:34:18
opportunity. Boy, you were way ahead of the game for a long long
1:34:21
time. John. And then, as you point out, what, in
1:34:24
your opinion is the formula that's working in this state right now, why are
1:34:29
we doing so well? Well, it's a lot of great things. I
1:34:31
was just doing an interview here in Washington a few minutes ago and went on
1:34:34
for about ten minutes about how the Utah resume has been built over the years
1:34:39
of limited government and low taxes and respect for individual liberty and this idea that
1:34:45
we shouldn't be too beholden on the federal government. I mean financial ready Utah
1:34:48
and my good friend Ken Ivory and just leading the way to make sure that
1:34:51
Utah doesn't hitch its wag into this real disaster that's happening with the total budget.
1:34:57
But I mean this commitment to continuing to taxes, to respect the growth
1:35:01
and not grow government too a large relative to the size of the private economy,
1:35:06
and to at the end of the day, have the right incentives in
1:35:10
place when it comes to lower taxes and lower regulation for businesses of all types
1:35:15
to thrive. I mean it is an incredible success story and one that I
1:35:17
think states all across the country are looking to emulate. Because you know,
1:35:21
it's not just our ranking or other academic papers that are out there, the
1:35:26
proofs in the pudding. I mean, as you know, well, Brod, Utah one of the fastest growing states in America and one of the key
1:35:31
factors now seventeen years in a row that we measure is how much Americans vote
1:35:35
with their feet and move away from high tax states and move to states for
1:35:41
economic opportunity. And that's exactly the formula that Utah offers. Jonathan. How
1:35:45
big of a challenge is it for Utah? Because as you mentioned, we're
1:35:48
a growing state. We have a lot of people wanting to move to the
1:35:51
state. Jobs are being created in the state. Of course, that leads
1:35:55
to more pressure sometimes for more government services, larger goth How I mean,
1:36:00
what kind of pressure do we face? And in your opinion, how have
1:36:04
we been able to hold the line on this? Well, I think you've
1:36:09
had some real forethought and individuals and leaders that have gone before. I think
1:36:14
of my friend Dan william Quist to a decade plus ago thinking about things that
1:36:18
many other states hadn't even thought about. And reforming the state pension system to
1:36:21
make sure that you don't face the billions upon billions of dollars in these massive
1:36:27
unfunded liabilities that are plaguing states like California and Illinois across the country, threatening
1:36:31
bankruptcy in some municipalities. And when businesses and individuals look at where to investor
1:36:38
where to move, they're not just looking at the current trajectory or current policy.
1:36:43
They're looking at expectations of the future. And I think Utah has always
1:36:46
been forward looking. They continue a good policy mix in the current law,
1:36:51
but they're always looking for ways to a avoid over reliance on federal government be
1:36:57
avoid the disaster of unfunded liabilities. And of course, I think a trailblazing
1:37:00
law that Utah has had on the books is truth and Taxation on property taxes
1:37:04
to make sure that assessments that are hitting taxpayers. While it's hard right now
1:37:09
all across the country, are something that can be kept in check. Jonathan,
1:37:13
I don't know if you have the numbers in front of you, but
1:37:15
are other Mountain West states doing as well as Utah? Is the region in
1:37:18
the Mountain West doing very well in this regard, except for maybe Colorado,
1:37:25
that's right. I mean, the Mountain West has become very competitive. In
1:37:28
fact, in this year's Rich States Poor States, Idaho ranked number two and
1:37:32
Arizona ranked number three. So there you have it. They have a trifective
1:37:36
Mountain West states that are looking at ways to become more competitive. I mean,
1:37:42
as you probably know, Arizona's even surpassed Utah and the fact that it
1:37:45
has a flat tax that is now only two point five percent on personal income.
1:37:50
Idaho has also been creating a tax cuts, went to a flat tax
1:37:55
to match Utah. And you know, when you're at the top of these
1:37:58
standings and you look at for professional sports or anything else, all competitors eyes
1:38:02
are trained on you. And that's a good thing because Utah is leaving the
1:38:05
nation. But it's also, to your point, can be a challenge to
1:38:09
stay at number one, especially when you have the huge population. It closes
1:38:13
how do you provide those core government services without allowing government to grow too large.
1:38:17
Is there a sleeper out there, a state out there that we should
1:38:19
keep our eye on right now as they try and move up in the rankings
1:38:23
here, Jonathan, Well, you know, I think that North Carolina has
1:38:27
done a tremendous job over the years, moving from number twenty six about ten
1:38:30
years ago to number four today. So they've been one of the biggest winners
1:38:34
over the years. Indiana has been a state that's moved up tremendously and also
1:38:39
now in the top five. And so you know, I would keep our
1:38:42
eyes on Idaho, on Arizona, and North Carolina, Indiana, and of
1:38:46
course there's always the powerhouse states like Texas and Florida, very large states to
1:38:51
continue to do big things. Texas was one of the big winners in this
1:38:55
report, moving from number thirteen to number six this year due to it eighteen
1:39:00
billion dollars tax cut on property tax. Wow. So there's a lot of
1:39:03
competition out there and that's a good thing inherently On our newsmaker line and part
1:39:08
of our Listen Back Friday segment, Jonathan Williams with the American Legislative Exchange Council
1:39:12
talking about how well Utah is doing when it comes to the economy. All
1:39:16
right, that does it for us tonight and for this week, as we
1:39:19
say each and every evening, head out shoulders back, Thank God, bless
1:39:23
you and your family and this great country of ours. Enjoy the weekend,
1:39:26
everybody, We'll be back on Monday with a brand new edition of The rod
1:39:30
Rik Kentshaw. We'll talk to you Monday at four. Have a good weekend.
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