Jason Lewis filling in on the Brett Winterble Show

What is Toyota affordability? It's buying smart. Your local Toyota dealer has great deals available today on RAV-4, Grand Highlander, Camry, and Corolla, with the features and style you deserve. It means driving for less with hybrid and plug-in hybrid options across the lineup, delivering great MPGs. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles, meaning your car will hold its value for years to come. Shop Toyota.com to find out more. Toyota, let's go places. Well, here we go once again. Everybody's favorite former Congressman Jason Lewis in for Brent Winterball. And I got to be honest with you, people. I am a little disappointed today because I had had the guy set up for the best guest ever. Yeah, yeah, we were going to book an author. of a new book. And the book was called The Best Campaign That Never Was. And at the last minute, the book's author, Graham Platner, had to withdraw. I don't know. I don't know what happened. But, I mean, this was going to be the best campaign that ever was. And now yet another woman has come forward. Accusing Graham Platner, the socialist candidate for up in Maine in the Maine Senate race, of... basically this time assault and or rape, however you want to describe it. It's doubtful this guy can last, well, period. He says he's going to think about the best way forward, and that's going to be maybe to retire an author of that book I'm talking about, the best campaign that never was. Hey, welcome back, everybody. Brent's got a couple of days off. I'll be in today and tomorrow, your favorite former WBT talk show host. I am Jason Lewis, except the last time I was on. I got into it with somebody in the Queen City, somebody that identifies online as squirrely or something. I thought, boy, is that appropriate. But she was just not having any criticism, any criticism of the GOP or anything else. And I'm here to tell you, as I wrote in my July 4th substack piece, a pox on both their houses. We have a crisis in America, not unlike the crisis that Thomas Payne talked about in that winter of 1776 on the banks of the Delaware in this present crisis. He who stands by his country will earn the love and gratitude of men and women everywhere. For these are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will shrink in the course of their duties in this present crisis. And I'm telling you, both parties are shrinking. We have at once a Democrat socialist ascendancy, out and out communists rising in every blue city in America.

But at the other side, we have a mega movement rising or quote unquote America First movement, but America First is being betrayed, being betrayed, I should say, has we speak, betrayed. And it's being betrayed by Republicans. So how is it possible in America 250 that we have on the one hand a rising America First nationalist mega movement and on the other hand socialists? because neither, neither group right now is speaking to the people suffering in this present crisis. And I'm going to get to that, but if you want to know the context of this, go to my Substack page. It's Jason Lewis.substack.com. I think Daily Caller reprinted this this week, but it's basically America the Beautiful with a question mark is the uniparty betraying us both. And it is. On the one hand, you've got communists that want to take your property. On the other hand, you have, well, supposedly a vibrant Mitch McConnell, although nobody knows. Allegedly somebody talked to the guy today. He's sort of like Tom Keene hasn't been seen in months. But Mitch McConnell is saying, as he did, not that long ago, the most important thing right now in the world is Ukraine. Neither of those positions speak to Gen Z. which can't afford to buy a house, can't afford groceries, can't afford an automobile, can't afford health care or the insurance to cover either one. We have an immigration crisis. We have a budget crisis. We are bogged down in another foreign war. And yet we get communists on the left and warmongers like the Republican senators on the right. And in the middle, Is the rest of America going, you know, I just get the feeling there's something wrong here. Call me crazy, but we got more and more 30-year-olds moving back in with mom and dad. I'm going to get to this a little later because I think it is just such a, such a topic that you literally have to go online and stream to get filled in on it. There is something wrong. Let me just give you, I'll tease you with this little statistic because I think it speaks volumes. On the one hand, this country's never been richer if you look at per capita GDP. We're looking at the highest per capita gross domestic product ever. We're looking at stock market highs, 53,000 of the Dow. We're looking at real estate never, ever being worth more. But that's predicated upon one thing. And it's predicated upon you owning the assets already. So if you own stocks, if you're 70 years old like I am and have a portfolio, life's good. If you own real estate, got your home already, life's good. Got gold? Maybe crypto? But if you're just out of college, if you're Gen Z and you're trying to buy that first home. trying to buy your first stock portfolio or fund it. Those prices are pricing you out of the American dream. You can't afford them. Let me describe it in a different way. The stock market has hit record highs, but median wealth in this country has declined. Is declining rapidly? Now, what does that mean?

It means average GDP per capita is good, but median. Remember, remember, go back to high school. Think, think, work with me here, people. Median is not an average. Averages get distorted by extremes on one end or the other. So if one guy like, oh, Mark Zuckerberg is worth a trillion dollars and you're worth zero, right? Why the average wealth per capita between the two people is, what, 500 billion? No, that'd be a trillion, yeah, a 500 billion, you know, a trillion total. But that's not indicative. Now look at median. Median is 50% of the population above a point and 50% below. And that paints an entirely different picture. So the market's getting highs, but the median wealth is declining so that there are now more people, more people below that median than above. Well, not more people, but the number is declining. So let's say the median wealth 10 years ago was 150,000. The average American had 150,000 in the bank. Today it's 125,000. That's the median. That's falling, but the market's hitting highs, which means that we live in a world of crony capitalism. Where if you're big tech? Where if you're big pharma? Where if you're part of the military industrial complex? Where if you have a lobbyist on K Street, you're doing great. But if you are the forgotten man or woman, the average charlatan, the average Carolinian who's just the welder in Columbia, To the carpenter up in the mountains. You can't afford gas. You can't afford to buy a new house. You can't afford insurance. How's this Obamacare working out for us? So where are the Republicans addressing this? They're too busy with Ukraine and Iran. The Mike Turner's of the world, the Ted Cruz's of the world, the Lindsay Grams of the world, the Tom Cotton's of the world. The war caucus doesn't care about anything else except the next war. And so you've got this vast majority of Americans in the middle between the uniparty. And by the way, the Democrats are just as bad. Hillary was the one chiming to go into Syria. They went into Iraq and Libya. And of course, Bosnia started in the Clinton administration. So they want to go in there, and Republicans want to go into Afghanistan and Iran and Iraq and all the rest. So it truly is a uniparty that's not speaking to Americans. And you'll never get that on MSN now or on Fox, for that matter, because both are talking to those other extremes part of the uniparty that's putting on this grand show that they oppose each other when in reality nobody's speaking to the middle. Does any of this make sense?

704-570-1079. That's 704-570-1079. The contact line for the new 107-9 FM WBT Charlotte. You know, it's good to be back because I spent five years in the Queen City, loved it. Some of the best days I ever had in broadcast business were in the Queen City, so it's always nice to talk with all of you. You want to find out what I've been up to since Congress. Check out jasonliss.substack.com. And we've got a new feature film. We're trying to get produced. You can check that out there as well, state of deception. Or you can go to a gipsendgo.com state of deception. It's right there. So lots of things happening here. And I know there's lots of things happening with you. Now that last little harangue to open the program about how the Uniparty is not addressing either. Well, let me put it to you this way. Addressing the issues that are of concerns to real Americans almost sounds like a grand conspiracy theory, does it not? From a former member of Congress, dare we say? Has Lewis gone bonkers? Well, no, but now that we're talking conspiracies, it is the first day of the preliminary hearing of the Charlie Kirk murder. Oh, I know people rolling their eyes, but you know, I've sort of had a change of heart in this. And mine doesn't date back to JFK or UFOs, Area 53, or Pearl Harbor. Mine actually dates back to my time in Congress and Russia Gate, but especially COVID. We have a crisis of faith in America right now where there isn't an American deep down. I mean really deep down who believes their institutions anymore. And COVID was sort of the mother load because everything the health care community told us was either a lie or wrong. Remember, it wasn't supposed to be a lab leak. It was zoonotic, I believe the term is. Monkey to monkey, right? But it's odd. It showed up in Wuhan, but not other places. None of it made sense. They lied about the lab leak. They lied about Eco Alliance and our funding of gain of function. It's all been a lie. And even the protocols were lies. From social distancing, a joke. From the masking, a joke. And now all of the chaos surrounding the MRNA jabs. Of which history has yet to come to a conclusion on. And it is up in the air. So at that point, I was pretty much, okay, I guess everything I've been told has been wrong or a lie. I'm open to anything, including conspiracies. And remember, if you think I'm exaggerating, remember Russiagate. I was in the House of Representatives during Russia Gate when Trump was a Russian asset. And all of the intel was Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Turned out to be a lie. Turned out to be a complete fabrication made up by the Democrats and Clinton and all the rest and Obama and Brennan and Clapper in order to shift to deflect a false flag away from the Hillary Clinton emails. So that was a lie.

The COVID lab leak denial was a lie. The Biden laptop. Remember when Brennan, and I think Clapper as well, but you had all of these national security intel operatives saying, well, yeah, the Joe Biden laptop or Hunter Biden laptop was misinformation right out of Russia. Another lie. How about Joe Biden's debate performance? We were lied to about that. So when you come to things like, Butler, Pennsylvania, and Thomas Crooks, who's now dead. When you come to things like the assassination of Charlie Kirk, you do have to wonder, there was a post earlier in the day, is Mitch McConnell dead? I don't like to make light of somebody who went under cardiac arrest. Apparently somebody spoke to him today, but the guy just got up and vanished. Sort of like that New Jersey congressman on the other side of the house or of the capital. These guys just up and vanishing. Nobody knows what the heck's going on because they can't be fired, apparently. Well, you get my drift. And so now I look at things. I once thought JFK was case closed. The evidence gets Oswald is overwhelming. fingerprints on the Italian rifle. Anybody could make that shot. No grassy and old conspirator, nothing. Now I'm not so sure. In fact, I'm... What is Toyota affordability? It all starts with buying smart. And your Toyota dealer has great deals available to qualified customers on reliable cars and SUVs, including the redesigned RAV4, spacious Grand Highlander, sporty Camrys and Corolla's. It means driving for less, with efficient hybrid and plug-in hybrid options available throughout the lineup, extending your overall driving range and delivering great MPGs, saving you money at the pump. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles. And as the best resale value brand, according to Kelly Blue Book, your Toyota can be worth thousands more than average when it's time to trade in. That's Toyota affordability. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. Shop Toyota.com or your local dealer for deals and details. Vehicles projected resale value is specific to the 2026 model year. For more information, visit Kelly BlueBookskb.com. Toyota brand average resale value is 53% versus the average vehicle at 45%. Toyota, let's go places. Pretty certain there was a lot more to it. And now you look at Charlie Kirk and the evidence today that's being presented in the preliminary hearing. I understand this is a hearing to establish enough probable cause to try. Tyler Robinson. And boy, they've got loads, right? And I mean, they've got DNA evidence. They got so-called ballistic evidence more on that in a second because that's not really true. They got surveillance footage. That was showed today. Autopsy findings, you name it. It's testimony from his former lover.

In the trans community. This was a trans act of violence, which is not quite frankly unusual in the world of identity politics because the people complaining the most in identity politics based on race, gender, sexual preference are the most violent people. They're the ones getting in people's faces, starting with the Rodney King riots. They are a violent group. They should be held accountable to this, but above and beyond that. The gay rights community can't be violent. The hell they can't. You don't get in my way. I'm packing heat. I'm going to live the kind of life I want and you're going to accept it or else. And that's what happened apparently to Tyler Robinson, right? It's not actually good news for the liberal left. Because either you believe Tyler Robinson was motivated by a trans activism that is turning to violence, whether against Charlie Kirk or against a bunch of young little children at Annunciation School in Minneapolis who were gunned down by another trans activist. Maybe Graham Platner can explain that one to us. Or the human rights campaign. That's not a good look. But neither is the notion that, well, actually, the ballistic evidence hasn't matched up on Tyler Robinson. Apparently, if you look at the ballistics, they're non-conforming. Now, that does not mean they weren't, it wasn't the gun. It wasn't the bullet. Bullets get, you know, disfigured when they enter somebody tragically. Sometimes they don't match up, but they don't match up. I believe they matched elsewhere. And you've got fingerprints elsewhere. But the video of Tyler Robinson was also very strange because I saw one video where he allegedly shoots Charlie Kirk and then in like 0.5 seconds he's at the other end of that large roof. The AG, what was it, the AGR roof, the glass company roof. And he had to move in the span of 0.5 seconds to traverse this roof and then get down and then walk away. So a lot of this stuff. is not as conclusive as some might have you believe. And there are people, again, in the streaming world, telling you flat out that we don't have any idea who killed Charlie Kirk. I'm wondering if U.R. has jaded his I am now. Where 10 years ago, 15 years ago, you wouldn't have thought of any of this possible. But now you're going, well,

And we are back on 107-9 FM WBT Charlotte's FM News Talk with me, former congressman and WBT talk show host Jason Lewis back in or back behind the mic for Brent Winterbill. He will be back, I think next week. Is that right? I've gone for a couple of weeks maybe. I don't know, but I'll be in today and tomorrow holding the fort down. So anything on your mind, feel free to reach out at 704-570-1079. In the mean, you know how that 1079 works, don't you? That's 107.9. But I could, you know, that doesn't sound right on a phone number. So you say 570-1079. You see how that works? It's that radio. That's that radio biz for you. I am talking about conspiracy theories only because I've had a metamorphosis in my old age. And after seeing what I saw. in Congress during Russia Gate when I could see it was a hoax. I saw the fake intel, knew it was a hoax. And then you went through COVID where I was running for the Senate. And everything you were told was a lie. It makes you kind of rethink everything. And I'm wondering if I'm the only one doing that or have I been naive all along in believing the story. On Area 53, on JFK, heck, that FDR knew about Pearl Harbor. You can go down the list for conspiracy theories if you like. But I break it up only because the preliminary hearing today continues for the Charlie Kirk assassination. And there is so much going on there. that one hardly knows where to begin. I mean, you've got people talking about exploding mics and another shooter closer to Kirk and that Robinson couldn't have done it. The prosecution today say there's overwhelming evidence and there certainly, they didn't find the gun and there was DNA evidence on the gun that it was Robinson. But when you look at the ballistics, Well, let me play for you a passage from yesterday's hearing where you were talking about the local officers who went to the roof and were looking for ballistic evidence on the roof shortly after Charlie Kirk was assassinated. And here's how the Q&A went in yesterday's courtroom. While you were on the roof, did you encounter any spent casings? As a matter of fact, no, that's why when I saw the prone position where a person would be laying down a sniper, being around guns and snipers all the time, I was looking for a spent shell casing. I couldn't see one. I was looking over the edge, looking all over the place, making sure the gravel wasn't disturbed. And I couldn't find a shell casing at that moment. And that would be, the reason you would be looking for that was because some types of guns, when they shoot, eject a casing automatically, right? Yes. Some do. Some don't. Yes. All right. And then you also didn't find any unshot bullets. No. Okay. Are you aware of there being a bullet found on another roof? I'm not aware. Were you aware of another bullet being found on the scene, not on the roof of the Losey building? No. All right. Your body cam footage that I reviewed appears to end while you're still on the roof.

Do you know why that is? I think the battery went dead. It was just right at that moment. Okay. And do you know, did you ever... Turn it back on that day or go get it. I don't know. What do you have to do? Charge it or stick a new battery in it? I don't even know. Usually dock it, but no, I didn't go back. It was too chaotic running around. So that 27 minute and 35 second body cam that starts when you're at the Hall of Flags and ends while you're still on the roof but haven't put the crime tape up yet, that's the only body cam you have that day? Yes. So, lest you think I've gone over to the dark side, Lewis, it's a conspiracy nut. You listen to that, and obviously it raises more questions than answers, does it not? I mean, you listen to that, and what do we find out from the officer on the scene, or at least that particular officer? There were no spent shell casings fired or a casing which occurs after a gun is fired in most cases. There were none on the roof in the squatting position of the assailant. Okay, how about just bullets? Maybe you've got a cartridge that dropped a few out or something like that. No, no bullets at all. Then she says, are you aware with a presumption in that question that apparently there is evidence or she thinks she's going to get evidence that there were casings and or bullets found elsewhere? Were you aware of any other bullets or casings found on another roof or other locations? And this fellow says, no, I'm not. And finally, the creme de la creme was, okay, but why come we don't have your body cam for this? You come up on the roof. It's a little like the reason that Thomas Crooks is still not alive. We'll get to that one later. But you come up on the roof and your body cam battery goes dead. So now we don't have the body cam footage or it's an entirety. You do not have to be Oliver Stone to say, all right, I'm a little confused here. They say this is a slam dunk case. They got the guy's love notes. They've got his DNA. He's done. He's toast. He killed Charlie Kirk. And yet, they found no spent shell casings. And the bullet they did find in the deceased did not match the ones in the gun. Now, that is not always conclusive. They can be so deformed they don't match. But it can also be a different bullet. A different caliber.

I mean, I don't know. My antenna has gone up a little bit here on this one. Now, again, this is all, this is kind of an interesting juxtaposition between mainstream media and the internet universe, which everybody says is whacked out. But, you know, maybe just a lot of things are conspiracies right up to the point when they're not. It's just a conspiracy theory. Oops. I guess it was a lab leak out of Wuhan. I guess we were funding indirectly gain of function. I mean, at some point you've got to look at this stuff and go, okay, there are a few questions here. And you look at the deep state and the lies. Remember the Nord Stream pipeline in Ukraine? Think about that one for a second. Oh, yeah, Ruskies did it. They blew up their own pipe. Well, no, actually Ukraine did it. Don't underestimate the ability of government and the deep state to lie to you repeatedly.

Forget Jason Lewis.substack.com. Get my newsletter today. The last one we wrote was July 4th. America at 250 is the Uniparty really the problem. And I answered yes. We'll get into that a little later in the program. But right now talking about conspiracy theories. Most, shall we say recently, given the Charlie Kirk trial, is the assassination of the famed activist. who, depending on whom you believe, was in the process of revolting against the uniparty, whether they be Republicans or Democrats or friend or foe. And for that, he was gunned down. I mean, the mainstream version is it was clearly this trans, jilted trans, well, not jilted. He had his lover he was communicating with. That's going to be part of the evidence. But he was so mad at Charlie for being a traditionalist. The idea that men are men and women are women and marriage belongs to a man and a woman, they can procreate. Others can't. And of course, that men's sports are different than women's sports, biological reality. And that may very well be the cause, in which case a lot of Democrats have a lot of answering to do. But could it be there was more to it than that? Could it be that there's a reason the ballistics don't match up? Could it be there's a reason that somebody's body cam goes dead on the roof? There's no spent shell casings on the roof? The one that got me thinking months ago, and if I've got this wrong, please let me know. But I saw the video of this Tyler Robinson, and you saw the corner of the building where ostensibly he shot Charlie Kirk. then literally a half a second later he's on the other corner of this massive roof scaling or going down the roof to get away. And the first thing that popped into my head is how did he get from firing that shot to the other end in a half a second?

You know, at some point, given what we know about COVID, about Russiagate, about Biden in the laptop and the debate, the idea that these people would lie to us is just outrageous. Well, no, it isn't. And it really does get down to original sin. I hate to say it that way, but it does. I don't really hate to say it that way. But that never underestimate. The evil that evil men will do. People gravitate towards power and they'll do anything to get it and keep it. I don't know. I'm fascinated to just know or to hear what you think if I'm the only one. 704-570-1079. That's 704-570-1079. The call line or the text line brought you by Liberty Buick GMC. Let us know because... I'm telling you, if you're watching, if you're watching whether MS Now or CNN or Fox or your local news, you're not getting this. You do have to go online and those people are all besmirched or all, you know, discounted as conspiracy theorists. Do we, dare we name Candace Owens? But you can go Candace or Tucker Carlson or any of these people are conspiracy theorists. But that's what they call the JFK folks. That's what they call the COVID folks. These people were deniers, science deniers over COVID and vaccines. Climate deniers. Election deniers. And pretty soon, the election denier conspiracy theorists will prove to be right. That you had the greatest single anomaly. And I know because I was running for the U.S. Senate in 2020, where historically about 10% of the ballots coming into the state of Minnesota where I was running are mail-in ballots. Absentees. In that particular election, 60%. That's not 6. That's 6.0. We're absentees. With all the chain of custody problems, without deadlines enforced, without witness signatures enforced. But I'm an election denier, you see. Now, I'm not saying I won. I'm just saying there have been cheating in elections since Cook County's been around, since LBJ's been around. And now, if you dare bring up cheating in elections, you're an election denier, a conspiracy theorist. That will proven to be another lie by the establishment. And I'm wondering if we're not on the cusp of a whole host of other lies. I mean, you can go back to Butler. Another troubled kid on social media leaving a manifesto, but he is conveniently shot at the scene, so we'll never hear from Thomas Crooks. By the way, the DHS, the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, issued a 64-page report just a couple of days ago. I don't know if you saw this or not, but this is shocking as well. that the Secret Service ignored calls from local police who had spotted somebody on the glass company rooftop. As early as 5.42 p.m., I think the shots were fired at 6.11. There was no radio communications established between local police and the Secret Service. So 100 transmissions were apparently never captured, never heard.

Only text and telephone conversations? My, oh my. This is just not, does Butler add up? Does Charlie Kirk add up? Does Russia Gate add up? Does COVID add up? You want to talk about existential crises? The existential crises we face as Americans at 250 is faith in our institutions. And I'm not talking about faith in a particular politician or this or that. Oh, yeah, politicians lie. I'm talking about everybody we supposedly trusted over the years. By from Walter Cronkite to your doctor. Do they know what they're talking about? Or do they know and just not telling us? That's America's existential crisis right now. What is Toyota affordability? It's buying smart. Your local Toyota dealer has great deals available today on RAV-4, Grand Highlander, Camry, and Corolla, with the features and style you deserve. It means driving for less, with hybrid and plug-in hybrid options across the lineup, delivering great MPGs. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles, meaning your car will hold its value for years to come. Shop Toyota.com to find out more. Toyota, let's go places.

Hour number two underway on the Brent Winterable show. I am former Congressman and former WBT talk show host Jason Lewis in for Brent today and tomorrow. The fort will be held down by other qualified participants later in the week, as they say. So glad to have you on board and so interested in this topic we've been talking about, and that is the rise of conspiracy theories in America and are you on board? And I have to say, I am more on board than I ever thought I ever would be. After going through what we've gone through really in the last decade, the last 10 years, when you look at, as I mentioned, Russiagate and COVID lies, the Biden laptop lies. Before they were sort of, you know, far and few between. Did Roosevelt know about Pearl Harbor? Who shot JFK? UFOs. But they were sort of relegated to the side. Then along comes a deep state willing to lie and lie and lie. over a host of things, and now everything's in play. And again, I only bring it up because of the Charlie Kirk trial kicking in. But that brings, you know, sort of opens everything up. Because then you look at the rise of these assassinations, at another one at the press dinner in Washington or an assassination attempt. You had the Trump Golf Course situation. We still don't know anything about that guy. You had Butler, Pennsylvania. We don't know anything about that guy who was behind it. I mean, is it, if you're a lover of good movies like I am, and you ever saw the Warren Beatty, now I'm speaking to my generation here, so you young kids will have to look this up, young being pretty much anybody in the audience compared to me. You ever see the movie The Parallax View? It was a wonderful piece of historical fiction by Warren Beatty and I don't think it was Sydney. It was Pecula, Ellen J. Pecula, maybe for you movie buffs out there, directed it. And it was a riff. When I say historical fiction, you take an historical fact, but then you extrapolate it and create fiction with it as to what maybe could have happened in a conspiratorial world. And the parallax view was sort of a takeoff on the JFK assassination and how... It could have been the deep state back then. And understand what the deep state is, and I can tell you this from having gone through it, having lived through it in Washington. This deep state is merely a collection of very entrenched special interests, very wealthy and entrenched special interests, who would rather not be known to you. Because you might oppose what they're trying to do. And if you knew who they were, you might try to stop them. That is the deep state. Eisenhower, you can make the argument, was sort of the first to out a modern day equivalent of the deep state when in his farewell address, you might recall, warned of this alliance between.

higher education, research, and science, and the military industrial complex. Understand, as we just, you know, celebrated July 4th, in America at 250, the founders did not believe in a standing army. The founders did not believe that they don't want soldiers being quartered outside your home or in your home or the military being used as police force. without warrants, without civil liberties being honored. They didn't want that. And Eisenhower's point in the middle of the Cold War was we've reached a point in America where because of real threats, standing armies, really, I digress. You history buffs will understand what I'm talking about. But really, the 20th century in America was the age of war. And the mistakes we made in the Great War, World War I, where Woodrow Wilson deliberately lied to get us into the war, he ran on keeping us out of the war, the manual to keep the peace. Then as soon as he got in in April of 2017, or of 1917, he lied to the American people, switched and said, now I'm going to save the world for democracy. So you had, this is going to get a lot deeper than it probably should, but you know what, sit back, relax, and leave the drive into me here. understand how we got into this situation of perpetual war in America. And it's one of my bailiwicks here as I've gotten into ripe old age. There's nothing worse than war. Imagine a five-year-old with her arms blown off because somebody bombed out a building. And it could be in Dresden. It could be in Tokyo. It could be in Gaza. It could be in Kiev or it could be in Moscow. It doesn't matter. When we start attacking innocent civilians and not combatants. When we start attacking non-combatants in children, I'll never forget that famous picture of a young naked little girl running down a path in South Vietnam in the middle of the Vietnam War. The bomb, the napalm bomb had stripped her of her clothing, stripped her of her parents, anybody she knew, this is war. And it is the most outrageous. thing to take in a cavalier fashion than anything else. I have no time for these armchair warriors on cable television. No time for these armchair warriors in Congress who just can't wait for the next war. You know who they are on the right and the left. Mostly on the right today in the Republican... House of Representatives and the Senate. But you've got Hillary Clinton itching to kill Gaddafi when he turned the other way. So she did at the end of a bayonet up his rear. Yeah, that's how gross it can get. Hillary Clinton wanted to depose the Bashar al-Assad in Syria is so bad. She pledged to go in there and kill everybody, including Christians, to get it done if need be. So you had Bill Clinton bombing. Indiscriminately, people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, when we had no national security interest there. He had Hillary wanting to go into Syria, going into Libya, and you got Republicans going to do in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Iran. How did this all start? Why are we on a perpetual war footing? Why do we have a $1.5 trillion budget that would make Eisenhower blush when he warned about this military industrial complex? Why is it that they and their lobbyists...

pay off every member of Congress, including foreign interests that pay off every member of Congress. Why? Because 20th century started us, as Ike noted, down this road of perpetual war footing all the time, always. World War I, we had no business being in World War I. I hate to break it to you all. But we had none. It was a war between four dying empires. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, the German Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and later on, as the Bolsheviks went out, the old Soviet Empire, not, it wasn't the Soviet Empire, the Russian Empire, but they got deposed of rather quickly by the Bolsheviks. The Brits had lied, along with the French, to get us involved in there. Oh, good, Belgium's being slaughtered. It was all lie. And then you had Habsburg, and then you had... Sarajevo in the killing of Archduke Ferdinand, and all of a sudden we had to get in when no one in America could figure out why. Pretty soon it was just kill the Hun, onward Christian soldiers. And then what happened after that war was even worse. And it led directly to World War II, the Treaty of Versailles, Sykes-Picot. And World War II created the Cold War. And so what I'm trying to tell you is we're in a situation here where those interests are not going to give up power willy-nilly. That's why the National Defense Authorization Act, known as the NDAA, has passed without even a close vote, 65 consecutive years. By the way, there's news on that front that's rather interesting. We'll get to that.

How dare that Vince Coakley saying something bad about our side? You know, I can tell you from having been a commentator for 30 years and having served in Congress. By the way, welcome back, Jason Lewis here in for Brett today. That there is this sort of insatiable drive to play team ball. We ain't get anything done if you're not on the team. And in some cases, that's very important. But in other cases, it leads to conformity. And sometimes the reason that we never ask ourselves why, oh, say our foreign, let's just take Iran, for instance. Why do they hate us anyway? Death to America. What's going on here? We don't want to go there. And we don't want to go there because the answer might be that we did something wrong. And nobody. In this current environment of hyper-partisanship, you're either a mega lover or you're a communist, who wants to go there. And I say this in the context of war because as Randolph born, one of the few prescient war resistors in the Great War, said, war is the health of the state. You want to look, and this is why the founders were opposed to a standing army, if you want to look when most of your civil liberties are at risk, it's wartime. We got to kill the hunt. You can't have free speech. Look up to Creel Committee during World War I. It was an American 20th century version of online sensors today. They just simply were spewing out adjutop. Look at what the Brits did to cut international cables in World War I so that the German side. could not get to America without going through Great Britain, which they revised the cables. I want you to go out and buy a great book called The Illusion of Victory by Thomas Fleming. And it's about the nefarious nature of Woodrow Wilson and how we got in the Great War. We had no stake in that war. It was a war of old empires, hashing things out in old Europe. But once we got in, there became a war machine. There became a zealotry that you were pounding on the war drum, kind of like watching Sean Hannity at night, that you either are with us to kill these people or you're a traitor. And that's where we are today. And I'm wondering how you think that's working out. I mean, it's not like 20 million people show up in Tehran to mourn their leader when we were told those 20 million we're going to overthrow the regime by the Mossad. Gee, what happened there? It can't be the deep state lied to us, or Intel lied, or Israeli intelligence lied. That can't be, can it? Of course it can be. Just the way it was in World War I. You had, again, the Creel Committee. Anybody new history buffs out there? Remember the Lusitania? Oh, yeah. The damn Germans blew up the Lusitania. The Lusitomea was supposed to be unarmed, but it was carrying... weapons. Americans didn't know that. They were told otherwise. Does that warrant blowing it up and killing civilians? Well, no, but we shouldn't have been lied to either. You have all of these lies to get us into war all the time. So then post, by the way, I'm bringing the history of the 20th century perpetual war.

I'm bringing it to a conclusion as to why we're in the mess we're in right now. Then after World War I, we're really mad. The Brits who are losing their empire. They're really mad at the Germans. So they say, hey, guess what? We're going to carve up your territory, whether it's in Czechoslovakia, Poland, throughout Germany, and take it away from you. Then what's left of Germany, we're going to make you pay reparations so you can never have any economic growth. Oh, and you can't build a military. And you can't do anything without checking with us. Now, there was a young man who fought in World War I who was pretty upset about this. His name was Adolf Hitler. And then the rest of the Germans got upset because they were told they couldn't harvest their own food. They couldn't survive. The Treaty of Survide, the London Naval Accord. Meanwhile, the British and the French were divvying up the Middle East under something called Sykes-Picot. So the French said, hey, we'll take Syria, you can create this new country called Iraq, and you can have it. Can't figure out why the Arabs are mad at us. Lawrence of Arabia went to all these Arab countries during World War I and said, hey, gang, if you fight with us against the Turks and the Ottomans, You can have self-determination. You can have your own country. We lied. Or the British and the French lied. And we took their countries. Can't figure out why they're mad at us. It's only been a century of Western domination. So now the Treaty of Versailles, reparations, brings on a demagogue like Hiller. Who said, why should we have to live like this? We're taking back Czechoslovakia. We're taking back Danzig from Poland. You can't hold us down forever. We can't possibly pay back the money anyway. And the only reason that the British and the French were imposing this on Germany, they couldn't pay us back for the loans because we fought their war. They were going to default, which they basically did anyway. because the Germans couldn't pay back reparations. So then Hitler comes, the third right comes. World War II comes about because directly of World War I. And the Brits, well, look, we can't fight this war alone again. So how can we get the West involved? I know we'll guarantee Poland. Just the way Joe Biden wants to guarantee Ukraine. Or every other Republican wants to guarantee Ukraine. We'll guarantee Poland is a tripwire. If we promise to protect the Polish, why if the Germans invade to try to hold off the eastern front from Russia, their real enemy, why then we have to go in and defend them and the Americans will have to come? And sure enough, we did. So then comes World War II. Well, after World War II, what happens? Oh, we give away half of Europe at Yalta to the commies, to the Soviet Union, and now we've got a Cold War because we actually funded.

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All right, 1704-5709. That's 704-570-1079. You can call us at that number. You can even, why, I'm told you can even text us to that number, courtesy of Liberty, Buick, GMC in Charlotte. I bring this up because now we finally get to this insatiable desire. to continue the permanent war footing and the National Defense Authorization Act. I served on that conference committee one year in Congress and had an amendment to audit the Pentagon went nowhere. Went nowhere. It was just a rubber-stamp conference committee. And the whole goal of this is to get things you want related to defense or non-related. Well, it's two, the NDAA is the annual appropriation for the Pentagon. And the whole goal is to get to a larger defense budget, courtesy of the military industrial complex, the War Caucus and in the Congress and all of that. You think of Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham and Sean Hannity and Mike Huckabee. They're looking for the next war always. And the same is true on the liberal left. Hillary Clinton and Bosnia-Herzegovina, her husband, and Syria and Libya.

The purpose of the NDAA is to rubber stamp this, and it's been rubber stamped for literally 65 years in row. Never failed to pass. And it grows and grows and grows. So what happens? Both sides then want to attach an amendment. Think of the omnibus bills. You've got these non-related amendments. They want to attach it. Because they know the NDAA is going to pass. Now, again, I bring this up because you had a situation in Congress this week, which I found fascinating, having been there. And that was, and this lady is actually turning out to be a very, very interesting member of Congress, Representative Anna Poluna or Anna Paulina Luna, Florida. She voted against the rule. And there's one thing that when you get to Congress, you learn real quick. If you are in the majority, you never vote against the rule and you never vote for motion to recommit because that's not being a team player. Well, Anna Paulina Luna said, I don't care. I'm voting against this rule. that would have made the NDAA go to a conference committee without having the Save America Vote Act amendment, her amendment on it. She voted against it. And she voted against it because, well, if we don't have elections that have integrity, if we don't have honest ballots, what more could involve national security than that? And meanwhile, you've got all sorts of non-germane amendments attached to this thing on regulation and deregulation, the Corporate Transparency Act. Tom Cotton has put in Section 622, as I mentioned, sharing our intel with Israel, a foreign country. Even if you're pro-Israel, which most people are in America, we don't shell or share our raw intelligence with any foreign country, period. But Tom Cotton says, oh, no, no, got to do that. So that's going to go on there, but not the Save America Act. Speaker Johnson put in this substitute line or amendment that senators could vote out in conference. And Representative Luna said, no, no, that's not good enough. So now even the NDA is being stalled for the moment. And get this. What Johnson did on this particular bill on the NDA bill. was to Merv it, what is called a Merve move. And basically it's an amendment that the Conference Committee might take up the Save America voter ID, paper ballots, you name anything to make our elections more secure. But they could also easily take it out. And so you had these people. Like Chip Roy and Anna Paulina Luna and Victoria Sparts and Thomas Massie, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, say, nope, if this isn't in it, I'm not even going to support the NDAA. But get this. You also had these crazed warhawks like Mike Turner of Ohio and Eli Crane and Randy Fine of Florida, who's absolutely certifiable.

And they voted against it because they don't want anything to hold up the NDAA. The NDAA is the mother load in Congress. You want anything done. You get it attached to the National Defense Authorization Act. And this is where the president is going to take the Pentagon from $546 billion, where it was when I got to Congress in 2017, to $1.5 trillion because we're fighting a war in Iran. Got to have more money. And so Congress is doing nothing. We're arguing over this. We're not securing our elections. We're not lowering the cost of living. We're not getting to the point where we're making life better for most Americans. But the Uniparty is fighting over the NDAA. Hence, are we really addressing America's concerns at America at 250? Yeah, we do have to give you that question at some point. I know you all don't want to do that because the way talk radio is sort of divided out is basically along tribes. I mean, you've got the MAGA right and the socialist, well, communist left. And I identify more with the MAGA right, to be sure, but I've never prized anything more than objectivity, the ability to, and that's the part of problem with politics right now. We're tribalism. And the first casualty of tribalism is objectivity. Two people can look at the same, same situation. And depending on whom they support, who's in office can come up with things are good or things are bad. And I hate to see talk radio go that way, but it has. Certainly cable TV has gone that way. And you've got to go online in many cases to get sort of a more nuanced view. And that's sort of where things are headed, unfortunately. The downside to that is if you are, say, doing a talk radio show by text because people consider it a podcast anymore. In the old days, when I was on the air for 30 years, it was all calls. And people have a much better way of communicating when they talk to somebody, either best face to face, but even live on the air, on a phone. Texting has a way of bringing out the jerk in most people. Now, granted, there are a lot of people that are just naturally jerks anyway. In fact, I see a couple of them right here. And just like social media. Anonymous social media has been the end of intelligent conversation and courtesy. So that's the life we're in. And the only thing you can do is bring up the fact that either party, neither party is addressing the concerns of most Americans. And I harp against war because it has always been since the beginning of our republic what the founding fathers wanted to avoid at all costs. That's why they had the war clause in the Constitution. That's why they basically ended wars. They didn't begin wars. And it wasn't until, as I mentioned, the 20th century when we became a nation addicted to war on perpetual war footing. And I will tell you the damage, again, not just to non-combatant civilians, which is a war crime.

And, oh, goodness, great. Remember General Curtis LeMay for you history buffs out there? He said it's a good thing we won World War II because if we had not, we would have probably been tried for war crimes. Dresden, Berlin, Tokyo, the firebombing, the nuclear weapons. Now, I don't know if that's true or not, but I do know that war brings out the worst in people. So I'm against it, and I think the hurdle ought to be awfully high before you decide to start hostilities, most of all, against innocent civilians, of which in the Middle East are just getting slaughtered. But the economic... The economic fallout is every bit as grave when it comes to finances, and especially when it comes to monetary policy. Remember, there was a time in America when we were on the gold standard, when your dollar was as good as gold. From 1792 to about 1860, we were on a bi-metallic standard, gold and silver. We tried fiat money during the Civil War. Nobody bought pieces of paper. They knew they were junk. So we went back to the gold standard after the war. Has the sole backing for our nation's currency? You might remember, pegged at about $20 in, what, $67 per ounce? So your dollar had value because you couldn't print gold. And if they started printing money, you could change it for gold. So they couldn't print money. Then after the Great Depression, People started saying, hey, Roosevelt and company in the 1920s, we're printing a lot of money. I'm turning in my dollars for gold. The dollar just dropped on the international exchange markets to nothing. And so what happens? Foreigners started turning in. They would go out and buy dollars really cheap in the international markets, take those dollars, and then turn them into the central bank for gold. So what did Roosevelt do? He ended the right of citizens to trade paper currency for gold. We couldn't trade in our money for gold anymore. That was a de facto saying, you know what, your dollar's worthless. But he kept it for foreign governments, which was odd, kind of tells you something, at a gold rate of $35 per ounce. Then, in 1971, We had spent a decade in Vietnam, and we're spending money like drunken sailors, except that's not fair to drunken sailors. And same thing happened. So Nixon ended gold convertibility internationally as well. The gold was now completely severed from what was behind our paper currency. So the dollar's value came from what? Trust? Well, it's a good old dollar. Well, now the spenders went crazy. We started spending more and more money. The only thing Nixon did to try to shore up the dollar, if you recall, was what? He said, oh, by the way, all oil transactions in the Middle East are done with a dollar.

Hence the petro dollar. So that propped up the dollar for many, many years in the Middle East and across the globe because you got to have dollars to buy oil. What has this? And the point I'm getting at it is after every war, the dollars become less valued. The currency has become devalued because you've got to fund the war. Now what's happening is the petro dollar is gone. Because we went into Iran. Iran is now trading with China to sell and buy oil in the lawn. Other countries are saying, I can't trust the dollar anymore. I can't trust the United States to bail us out at UAE when we're getting a tax. So we're going to start trading in Chinese currency or Russian currency. And if the petro dollar is unhinged, what's going to happen to the value of our dollar? Poof. Gone, folks. Now, perhaps you understand the tirade. Give you fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire. Ooh. Well, we got a little fuel, got a little fire. Although we may be running out of fuel if you take a look at where gold is headed. Hi, everybody. Welcome back. Jason Lewis in for Brent Winterbull. Today on WBT, glad to be on the new 107.9 FMWBT, Charlotte's FM News Talk. We are in the third hour of the program talking about what ails America at 2050, or excuse me, 250. Hopefully we'll get to 2050. That'd be something. And I do lay a lot of the blame on at least the last 100 years on the war machine. And I don't want to sound like some 60s liberal pacifist. I'm not. But who thinks war is good? I mean, there does come a point during a cold war, during an existential crisis to use that overused term, where you do have to fight. But it ought to be a last resort, not the first resort. There ought to be a debate in Congress. You ought to declare war. You ought not try to make assurances, whether in Ukraine, Poland, or any place else, for that matter, of guarantees. We do not engage in foreign entanglements. The founders were terrified of that. Because we are a unique country with unique national security interests. So if we guarantee Poland, if we guarantee Ukraine, or yes, for that matter, if we guarantee Israel, what happens if our interests diverge? Then do we follow their guarantee or our guarantee? What is Toyota affordability? It all starts with buying smart. And your Toyota dealer has great deals available to qualified customers on reliable cars and SUVs, including the redesigned RAV4, spacious Grand Highlander, sporty Camrys, and Corolla's. It means driving for less, with efficient hybrid and plug-in hybrid options available throughout the lineup.

extending your overall driving range and delivering great MPGs, saving you money at the pump. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles. And as the best resale value brand, according to Kelly Blue Book, your Toyota can be worth thousands more than average when it's time to trade in. That's Toyota affordability. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. Shop Toyota.com or your local dealer for deals and details. Vehicles projected resale value is specific to the 2026 model year. For more information, visit Kelly Blue Books, KB.com. Toyota brand average resale value is 53% versus the average vehicle at 45%. Interest or their interest. So what the founding fathers said is avoid foreign entanglements. Do not become aligned with other countries if you're trying to preserve the national security of yours. Henry Kissinger. A lot of people on the new right criticized, but the fact is, neo-conservative Henry Kissinger said, we do not have allies. We have interests. So an ally might have an interest during the Cold War, but once the Cold War is over, that may be gone. And frankly, an ally might... Might come to our aid at a time of war, but when it's over, we might go our separate ways to have changing interests. By the way, the whole thing about currency and war is interesting because now that the petrol dollar is on the way out, and it is, there's nothing propping up the dollar. And if the dollar collapses now, you think inflation is bad now, what's going to happen when the dollar is worth half of what foreign currency is worth? Well, A, your imports are going to skyrocket, but B, nobody's going to buy our debt without a 20% interest rate, which means that other people's interest rates will go up, which means that if you can't afford a house or a car now, you can forget it going in the future. So... What we've done to the dollar is criminal. Criminal. Why do you think that so many people are going to crypto? I mean, I don't want to get professorial on you too much here, but this is important. And that is the key to a solid currency. one that serves as a store of value, one that you can use as a medium of exchange, is keeping its value stable. So what we did to do that is that we said, look, a dollar's worth an ounce of gold at 20 bucks an ounce. So anytime the dollar is devalued and it's only worth, it's the cost of gold in the open market's $30 an ounce, you could swap that gold in and get 20 bucks. Or vice versa. That kept the backing of the dollar strong. If that's gone and the government just starts printing money, which is exactly what we've done to cover our massive spending deficits, $40 trillion national debt, $1 trillion annual deficits, just unsustainable. It'll be the death of the republic. So we just print money.

Well, what does that do to the value of the dollar? Obviously, if you have a bushel full of apples out here and you've got a hundred bucks to bid up the cost of those apples, it's going to be a dollar an apple. But all of a sudden, if the Federal Reserve starts writing credits on people's checkbooks, and there's $200 circulating, it's going to be $2 an apple. And that's what we've done. We have funded the government, especially during COVID, with paper money. And it's priced out Americans. It's been most devastating about Americans or two Americans who can't afford anything anymore. So the answer would be quit spending. Quit spending on welfare, quit spending on corporate subsidies, quit spending on the military industrial complex, quit spending everywhere and quit printing money. There is not one politician on either side of the aisle, and I can tell you this from first-hand experience, that really wants to do that. They all have their special interests that they will destroy the country for. But it's not going to work. The petro dollar is not being propped up anymore because Middle Eastern countries are going, well, the United States is not a good ally. They attack Shia Iran. And when Shia Iran attacks Sunni Islam in UAE or Qatar or Saudi Arabia, the United States doesn't defend them because the United States just ran out of missiles and interceptors. There is a limit to what we can do, even a superpower. That's what Eisenhower used to say all the time. Don't think that military power is limitless. It isn't, I used to say. And we're finding that out in this trade of Hormuz. So now they're saying, to heck with the petro dollar, why don't we start trading in rubles? Why don't we start trading oil in one? Well, if that happens, as I say, now nothing's backing the dollar. Nothing. So what are people doing? What are rogue nations doing? But what are average Americans doing? They're going to crypto. They're going to crypto. And I guess the rationale, there's a lot of people out there smarter about crypto than I am, I guess the rationale is, well, at least you've got a algorithmic formula behind it that controls how much can be made or you've got to figure out the computer algorithm so that some sort of check on easy money. But there's also a check on the government spying on you. Remember, ever since the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, the government knows when you deposit a lot of money in your bank account. If you have a good month or a good year and you've got 10 grand to put in the bank, boom, they report it to the feds. The IRS has got to know. So now with this crypto... You've got rogue nations that we're fighting using crypto to bypass our sanctions. They can sanction dollars at American banks, but they can't sanction crypto, Bitcoin, so they're just going to crypto. And so are Americans who don't believe in the dollar anymore. So you know what the government's going to do?

Well, maybe you might be wondering, gee, this guy's a downer. What can we do to save the country? I'd be wondering that myself. Term limits comes to mind. Some campaign finance reform. It's going to be very difficult. You run up against the First Amendment there. But there was an old line that I, was it dull? Somebody used to use. If you can't vote, you can't contribute. Hmm, what happens to political action committees? At least the hard packs anyway. Look, do not. One thing I learned when I got to Washington, the first thing I learned, it did not take, you know, months and months or years. It took a couple of weeks. Never, ever get between yourself and any politician of any stripe, of any philosophy, of any party, and re-election. Never. I don't care whether you're hard right pounding the war drum. You're doing that because you think you got a bunch of war hawks in your district that will love you for it. I don't care whether you're a dove and pounding, get out of Iran now. You might be doing that because of that. But even if you're doing it for noble reasons, then I would suggest term limits wouldn't be a problem. We've got them for the president. Why on earth shouldn't we have them for members of Congress? I saw people retire when I was in the halls of the House and their voting record changed on a dime. It became much more risk-taking. It became much more principled. It became much more caution to the wind. I don't care because these packs can't hurt me anymore. So term limits would go a long way, but, you know, we can wait until Congress passes those, right? Well, that's going to be forever. So the only thing we can do is preach a little bit. And that's what I'm here to do is preach. And when you look at things the way I have on the outside, on both sides of the mic, I have been a member of Congress and I have been in Congress, or I should say, and observed Congress, I should say. And when you do that, you start to realize, No one's got a monopoly on virtue. And hence, going all the way back to the first hour today, that's why you're seeing simultaneously the rise of the commies in blue cities across America, but the rise of the pro-Trump mega group. Well, that can't be the same country. On the one end, you got these mega-kind, and they're growing in popularity. And the other hand, commies are growing in popularity. The Democrat Socialists of America. What gives? What gives is both are dissatisfied with the direction of the nation. Because the uniparty, the uniparty, the Republicans and Democrats playing between the 40-yard lines. They won't go extreme. They won't get outside that. They just have what some cynics call a false flag of debate. They're deflecting you with these fake debates so they can really, really get done what they want to get done. I don't know if it's that easily described, but I do know this, that when you sit around the kitchen table, when you got together with friends and family over the fourth, what were your concerns? What were your concerns? Was it transgenderism? I don't think so. No? Was it the lack of reparations?

No, I don't think reparations was it either. Was it more abortion? I mean, no, Americans are at an all-time low of having babies. Our birth rate is below replacement. We're dying out. So all we need is more abortions, right? No, wasn't that. Well, okay, so the commies aren't, was it, was it, our property taxes aren't high enough? No, no, that wasn't it. So there goes to Charlotte City Council and their agenda. But the flip side of that argument, to be critical of my own movement, my own party, was it, oh, I wonder how things are going in Tehran. Oh, gosh, we need to, when we're done invading Iran, we need to go into Turkey next. And by the way, if you think that's hyperbole, don't because Benjamin Netanyahu and many pundits in Israel want Turkey next. the constant pounding of the war drum doesn't speak to your concerns. Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe everybody around the picnic table on July 4th, down in Rock Hill, up in Boone, from the triangle to the triad, you name it. Across the Carolinas, we're saying, damn, we've got to, we've got to go back into Iran and finish the job. That's it. I don't think so. Sorry, gang, I'm speaking heresy, but I don't think so. I think what you all were talking about was simply this. My 30-year-old has to move back home because they can't afford rent. My 28-year-old never left home because they can't afford to buy a house. The cost of a used car is almost as high as a new car now. Our vacation got nixed because of high airfares. Oh, insurance, I can't afford insurance. I'm going to self-insure and hope I don't get sick. The stock market is hitting highs for a lot of people, but the median wealth in America is declining, not going up. That means if you had a figure... say of a million dollars, 50% of the people had more than that in the bank and 50% had below that in the bank. That would be the median wealth. It's actually going down to say $800,000, but the stock market's hitting highs. You want to know why that is? You want to know why that is? Because there are a few favored industries and titans on K Street and Washington that are getting all the money. Social media is getting exempt from liability laws so they can put any garbage they want online and not be sued for it. Right? The wealthiest 10% now own 90% of all stocks. The top 1% is gaining more. It's not due to the failures of not enough socialism. We've had socialism, crony capitalism. We have funded more corporations now than ever in history. We need more market capitalism, real free enterprise. But neither party wants to go there. The Democrats want to socialize every piece of private property, and the Republicans want more money for defense contractors.

and farmers and their favored industries. We're in a world of hurt, folks. And I don't think the Uniparty is speaking to either or any Americans, socialists or capitalists or what have you. And that's why I'm pessimistic. Do I think America's going to last? Yes, of course I do. We face graver concerns like crossing the Delaware in 1776. But. It is not. I mean, look at the oil reserves. The only reason oil price is going down is we're not replacing our oil stocks in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Look at our inability to control the Strait of Hormuz. Look at this story about the Kamani's funeral in Tehran. And depending on who you read, by the way, welcome back everybody. Jason Lewis here. Be here tomorrow once again for Brett. Winter Bowl on the new 107.9 FMWBT. Shout at FM News Talk. Whoa, Nelly. Sorry, that was my Keith Jackson impersonation. See, now. This is how out of touch I am. There isn't one listener in 100 out there that knows who the hell Keith Jackson was anymore, which is a real tragedy. The greatest college football announcer in history, Keith Jackson from Washington State Pullman. I digress. I'm looking at this story and it says, analysts say anywhere from 11 to 20 million people. have turned out to honor the latest Ayatollah last killed by America's attack on Tehran in the first wave of Israeli and U.S. airstrikes. Now, the whole theory was this, if you recall, was that if we did that, we were told by intelligence from the Mossad, Israeli's intelligence services, that the people in Iran hated their country, hated their religious leaders, and there was some disgruntled people out there, to be sure. And they would rise up that nationalism, their Persian heritage would take a backseat to overthrowing these people if we just killed off the leadership. So we did. Now, in the process, unfortunately, we also killed off some Iranian schoolgirls in an errant bomb. But we killed off the leadership. Now, instead of getting an overthrow, the IRGC... The military wing of the leadership in Tehran has taken control. They're even harsher. And some people are now saying that there's 40 million people in the streets when the totals finally come in, defiant of the U.S. and Israel, willing to use their power now in the street, doesn't take much to control a small water away. They've got more missiles than we thought. They can hit. UAE and Carter. What is Toyota affordability? It all starts with buying smart. And your Toyota dealer has great deals available to qualified customers on reliable cars and SUVs, including the redesigned RAV4, Spacious Grand Highlander, sporty Camrys, and Corolla's. It means driving for less, with efficient hybrid and plug-in hybrid options available throughout the lineup, extending your overall driving range and delivering great MPGs, saving you money at the pump.

And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles. And as the best resale value brand, according to Kelly Blue Book, your Toyota can be worth thousands more than average when it's time to trade in. That's Toyota affordability. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. Shop Toyota.com or your local dealer for deals and details. Vehicles projected resale value is specific to the 2026 model year. For more information, visit Kelly Blue Books KB.com. Toyota brand average resale value is 53% versus the average vehicle at 45%. Toyota, let's go places. In Saudi Arabia and our military base is there with ease, something we didn't calculate, and they're not going to overthrow the leadership. How could we have gotten this so wrong? Seriously, how is that possible, friends? Now, again, you don't have to be a war dove like me to question this stuff. But seriously, does anybody out there think this is gone according to plan? We can't even refill our strategic petroleum reserve because now the number of tankers running through the Strait of Hormuz is still only a third of what it was pre-war. And where this doesn't comport is the goals have been restated a thousand times. First it was, well, we can't let Iran get a nuke. Well, they didn't have a nuke. We now know that our intel confirmed that. They were enriching to 60%, but they not gone any further because there was a fatwa against a nuclear weapon. So they hadn't got a nuke. So then why did we go in when that was already accomplished? Okay, well then the next one was, we want the Strait of Hormuz to be open. It was open before we went in. Now it's closed, at least partially. You've got to go the Iranian route instead of the Oman route. So why did we go in when it was already open? Okay, okay. Then we're going to get their nuclear dust. No, we're not because that would require a ground invasion. So that doesn't hold. I'm just trying to be objective here, friends. Call me one of those traitorous Republicans that isn't on board with this because I'm not. And now finally, the last goal was, look. We're told Benjamin Netanyahu is coming back to Washington, told us in February you go in and you decapitate the leadership. And by the way, that is an act of war. I mean, we should have had a debate in Congress. Let's be honest. The Constitution requires that. Republicans and Democrats, certainly Democrats have done this timing. Barack Obama had more bombs dropped on foreign targets than Bush did. Yep. So both parties do it. Both imperial presidents do it. Why don't we empower the Congress? Because these chicken...

I was going to add another little adjective to that or noun. Congressman don't want to debate it because they don't want to be held to account. Let the president do it and take the wins or the defeats. But we were told that, yeah, if we just go in there now, we decapitate them, there's revolt ready to happen, and Iran will be a free democracy finally ever since we made them that with the Shah of Iran. Depending on who you listen to, 11, 20, 30 million people in the streets supporting the current leadership, wanting to be more defiant against the U.S. and Israel. Is anybody out there changing your mind on this where you were actually very hawkish on this? Nobody, by the way, was calling for an attack on Iran in January. It only, Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz started pounding the war drum after the attacks because the American people didn't care.

Well, granted, there were some problems on the Republican side of the aisle with the North Carolina gubernatorial race. As many of you know. But Lord, above what you got instead, what a disaster. Who is this? This Josh Stein ambulance chasing left-wing Looney. I mean, what is it? He came out with his, oh my gosh, the Carolina budget is off whack. I want my budget so we can increase. Are you ready for this? So we can increase. Are you sitting down? So we can increase government employment. I want more state government jobs. I want more increases for government employees. I want more dollars for the Charlotte City Council to blow money on light rail and everything else. Man, you are going to rue the day when Mr. Stein took office. I'm sure you already have. But what a, just like, what is he from? Minnesota? Is he Tim Walz's secret brother? What a lunatic. Part of the course, though, these days because we're diverging. This country's diverging. It's getting more divided because nobody is speaking to the masses. So each side goes off in its extremes. You know, it's funny. Watch who gets criticized the most to see who is speaking the truth. I mean, it's really true. If you look, for instance, I mean, that's the Democrat side. And what you're seeing in this revolt on the Democrat side of the aisle, gosh, Nancy Pelosi just wasn't socialist enough, right? That's always the argument for failed socialism, failed communism. We just didn't own enough property, private property. Our property taxes weren't just high enough. And so you see that on the left, but on the right, it's like, well, actually, things have never been better. Oh, my gosh, top markets at all-time highs, but you can't afford groceries, but don't worry about that. And if you look at people who are getting criticized by both sides, like, oh, I don't know, JD Vance. JD Vance is getting it obviously from the left, but he's getting it from the Wall Street Journal. He's getting it from the war caucus in the Republican Party because he's not hawkish enough. And I see something like that and I go, actually maybe JD Vance is really scary to these people because he can articulate that America is more than an idea. It is a people. It is a people. We're Americans. We're not just sitting around going, oh, gosh, we're anything we want to be. Diversity reigns supreme. It's all about an idea. No, actually, it's all about a culture, civilization, a people. When the founding fathers were out there and they were drafting the declaration and everything in its glory, they were talking about a people. How important our heritage is.

It wasn't just an idea to quote Karl Rove. The Declaration went in the course of human events. It becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another. What you were talking about was all these Anglo-Saxons in America wanting a divorce from the Anglo-Saxons in Great Britain. It was a European founded nation based on Christianity, based on 2,000 years of Western civilization, based on all the things that diversity wants to destroy. We're globalists now. We're global international corporations. We've got to defend everybody with military aid. And we got to have free markets and free trade and immigration. That's the right. That's the Karl Rove Republicans. The left just says, oh, no, we're communists. We want to destroy everything. And who's in the middle saying, no, actually, we're a heritage nation. We have an identity, an American identity. Now, you can assimilate from any background, but you've got to assimilate to the identity. So I look at people like JD Vance, and I look at people who challenge the obsessive diversity, the globalism, whether it's war or economic aid or internationalism or immigration. And who are the people that are being excommunicated from both parties? Hmm. They're online streamers. They were former Republicans, been kicked out. JD Vance is right on the cusp. Keep your eye on JD Vance. Because he's got the real America First ideology, but he can espouse it. He can articulate it. And that's a threat. That is a big time threat to the uniparty. Both sides hate this guy. So that means you probably ought to take a look at him. We'll see. I mean, it's 2028 is going to be fascinating because our blue cities will, and sadly, Charlotte probably, will continue to deteriorate under the guise of communism now. But rural America and flyover country will continue to have a hard time because the Republicans aren't speaking to them. They're more concerned about foreign countries. and immigration and free trade and all of that. So you've got this vacuum in 2028, at least at the presidential level, as to who's going to rise to the top? Is it going to be just another uniparty member? Or is it going to be somebody who's speaking something new, entirely different? The real America first. When I said no foreign wars, I meant it. That's sort of America first. Is that going to be someone? I think JD Vance is probably the closest guy to that right now, which is why the Wall Street Journal on the right hates him and the view on the left hates him, which means...

He might be getting very, very close to being over the target, as they say. I'm Jason Lewis in for Brett Winterbull today, back tomorrow. See you then. You know what? We'll try to squeeze in as many calls as we did today right here on 1079 FM, WBT Charlotte FM News Talk right here. See you then. What is Toyota affordability? It all starts with buying smart, and your Toyota dealer has great deals available to qualified customers on reliable cars and SUVs, including the redesigned RAV-4, Spacious Grand Highlander, sporty Camrys, and Corolla's. It means driving for less, with efficient hybrid and plug-in hybrid options available throughout the lineup, extending your overall driving range and delivering great MPGs, saving you money at the pump. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles, and as the best resale value brand, according to Kelly Blue Book, your Toyota can be worth thousands more than average when it's time to trade in. That's Toyota Fordability. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. Shop Toyota.com or your local dealer for deals and details. Vehicles projected resale value is specific to the 2026 model year. For more information, visit Kelly BlueBookskb.com. Toyota brand average resale value is 53% versus the average vehicle at 45%. Toyota, let's go places.