Graham Gone / Fairness in Sports in NE

He was a great adversary, but he was a good friend. He was a loyal friend. And when the bell rang and the round was over, you know, you could count on Lindsey Graham to be a friend. It's a compelling story, too, Scott, because he grew up very poor. His mom and dad owned a pool hall in Central South Carolina, a little town not too far from Clemson. And this was a guy who didn't have much. They lived behind the bar. And he grew up without much in the 1950s and 60s. Then suddenly when he was in high school, his mom and dad passed away, actually within about 15 months of each other. So he took over the raising of his sister. who later credited him with ridiculous amounts of sacrifice so that she would have a more normal life. And that says something. He was a bachelor, and of course that fed rumors of his sexual orientation, which never were founded. But mostly when you are in D.C., you get attacked just because you're in D.C. But the man was a stalwart defender of American national security. He joined the Air Force, rose to the rank of colonel, actually went into a combat zone during the Gulf War. And the country's better because of Lindsey Graham's life on it, I believe, life in it. And this is a loss not just for... the people of South Carolina, but for the whole country. And as far as the cause of death, they're not, I mean... It's an aortic valve tear. He had hardening of the arteries. Some people have said heart attack, but that's not exactly it. As you said there... I can't pronounce some of this stuff here. The District of Columbia Medical Examiner identified the cause as an aortic dissection linked to an artioschlorotic cardiovascular disease and aortic dissection as a tear in the inner wall of the body's main artery that can, as you can see here, rapidly become fatal. In other words, he wasn't sick and then he was dead. Yeah. He had chest pain, and by the time the doctor showed up, it sounded like he was pretty much gone. Yeah. Well, the guy probably, you know, look, he led a lifestyle of sitting, of traveling, of probably not great diet. He had just gotten back from Ukraine for the 10th time. Now, people think, well, what's the big deal? Just get on a military airplane and go over to Ukraine. Well, it's not like driving from here to Grand Island. Yeah. You know, you fly over there, it's 10 hours, and then you get on a train, and you've got to go across the old eastern iron curtain. It's a little scary. It's a little harrowing, and you just don't get there easily from here. And he'd been there 10 times. So that kind of traveled, especially for a 70-year-old man, can worry out. So his lifestyle probably wasn't very conducive to health. But, yeah, he talked to the president, apparently just...

literally maybe half an hour before he died. He said, I'm a little tired. But then again, I just got back from Ukraine. I feel fine, but I'm a little tired. If I'm not feeling well tomorrow, I'll just go to the doctor. That was the last thing he told President Trump. He was, what, 71 years old? He'll be 72 on the 19th. Then we got a statement from Mitch McConnell's office about his lack of being there in Washington, D.C. Was it AI generated? Well. There's questions. And then we just learned this morning that a celebrity from some of our favorite movies has died. We'll get to those stories and more, including Sports Brief next year after traffic weather and a news update right here on Nebraska's Morning News. Wow, that was two years ago today that... President Trump then campaigning for the presidency was in Butler Township, Pennsylvania, rallying the crowd. And next thing you know, a man behind him named Cory Comptor was killed. And President Trump was led off the stage. with Secret Service agents. This was one of the worst failures in Secret Service history. And there's a guy on that roof with a gun. And we'll deal with him later. A gun. One act. I'm sure it's fake. That was two years ago today. They had over a hundred. They have over a hundred tips about a potential shooter at... Butler, Pennsylvania, and they did nothing. Absolutely assinine. Now, we got a statement here from the office of Mitch McConnell's office. You know, he hasn't, the 84-year-old Republican senator from Kentucky. Have they put a red felt rope around him yet? He hasn't been in D.C. for weeks. And now they're saying, well, he fell at his home on June 14th. And it was hospitalized, then had a mild case of pneumonia. and hasn't been there since. But they said, all right, no broken bones, no concussion, no heart attack, no stroke, nothing like that. He wants to, he's not going to resign his spot in the U.S. Senate. He wants to finish what the people put him there to do. He's been there for decades, if you haven't gotten it done by now. But, you know, this certainly has got people saying, look, we're the same, you know, we're the Republican Party. We're the same people that said. Joe Biden is the fake president of the United States because he can't come out and do his job. And then here's Mitch McConnell who can't come out and do his job. So there is some... rectifying that probably needs to be done on that front. Well, we can all agree that there needs to be some understanding of capacity to do the job when you get to a certain age. But when you elect senators for six-year terms, they might be fine three years ago, but three years later, now they've taken a serious dip age-wise. On the other hand, you look at Chuck Grassley.

Here's a guy out farming in Mount Pleasant Iowa this past week. He's literally in the fields farming at, what, is he, 93 now? I don't think he's that old, is he? I think he's 93 now. Okay, here's a guy out. He's ageless. Yeah, here's a guy who truly is still capable at that age of doing more than just monitoring bills in the United States Senate. He's been doing great. Everybody's kind of individual. And age is a funky thing. Some people age very rapidly. They literally fall off the cliff. And when you have a six-year term, that's a long time. Mitch McConnell was hospitalized in February for flu-like symptoms. He's had a series of public freezing episodes. He's had multiple falls, a concussion, and they don't know why he fell a month ago. And we also had a celebrity passing. Lucy, do you know who Sam Neal is? If I say the actor's name Sam Neal. Jurassic Park? That's right. He's 92. They're moving in hard. Sam Neal wasn't 92. Chuck Grassley. Chuck Grassley is 92. It'd be 93th September. And then behind all that commentary is Sam Neal from Lindsey Graham. Seeing the die. Sorry. From Lindsey Graham. Sam Neal. So now you've got me all confused. So Lindsey Graham is his father? Sam Neal from Jurassic Park. seeing the dinosaurs for the first time. Dr. Alan Grant to end those films. He was very good. He was a very good actor. Yeah. 1110 KFAB certified transmission sports brief. Here's Jim Rose. Celebrity deaths coming threes, Vorhees. Who's next? I don't play the Dead Pool. Okay. Major League Baseball draft over the weekend. A couple of Huskers. Actually, well, two current Huskers and one Husker to be got picked. Tie Horn to the Reds, the third round. Very, very shortly thereafter went Carson Yasa to the Cubs. A Horn was really thrilled for his teammate. We were celebrating. I was pretty emotional. And then I look up and the Cubs are drafting Carsoniazza. I'm like, oh, my God, that's so cool. Carsoniazza is like my best friend. And we're going to be spending time a lot of time together, probably in Arizona, just because that's where we're both going to be. So it's just super awesome to have a guy like that. Yeah, big day for Ty Horn. That's worth probably about $800,000 in signing bonus money for him to be a third round pick. Same thing for Yasa. So those two guys should be hit up for a donation right away. And then they can get tickets to the regional and the softball regionals too. In the 30th round, rather the 20th round, Zach Bates goes to the Dodgers with the last overall pick in this year's Major League Baseball draft. Bates had transferred from Illinois where he was really good to Nebraska and then sat out all of last season recovering from Tommy John surgery. So let's see what Zach Bates does. How much will the last pick in the draft get? Well, not $800,000. How about that much? Major League Baseball, American League, the Baltimore Orioles sweep the Royals, 8 to 2 in the finale yesterday. Kansas City heads into the All-Star break with a record of 38 and 59. They are 13 games back in first place.

and owner John Sherman has yet to fire anybody. Seattle, Minnesota, the White Sox and Rangers also get wins. National League, Pittsburgh, the Cubs, Atlanta, San Francisco, and the DeBacks get wins. Interleague play Boston, the Phillies, San Diego, also the Yankees and Guardians, they all get victories. We have our all-star break, and it kicks off with the home run derby. Today, eight sluggers will square off in a new format, which ditches the clock. and allows each player to take 20 swings. Schwarber leads the event because he leads the majors on home runs, and the Royals Jack Gaglione will also be there to hit home runs during the home run derby. So the final round of the World Cup is almost here. We've got France, Spain, which will play tomorrow night in Arlington, Texas. And then you got Lino Missy and Argentina up against the ball club from England. From Atlanta and the other semifinal on Wednesday, the championship match will be in... New Jersey at the Meadowlands, the Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. What about golf? Well, for the first time in a thousand days, Tom Kim wins. Fourth Career PGA Tour victory. He got the victory at the Genesis Scottish Open by two shots at 17 under par. This in advance of the British Open at Burkdale, which is this week. That is a common behavior of a lot of golfers, and that is get over there, get acclimated to the conditions of seaside golf, which gives yourself a... advantage or at least calms you before you play in the British Open. And at Wimbledon, Yonick Sinner gets the victory again in the men's singles championship celebrated his second consecutive win, took down Alexander Zaverav and four sets. Zaverif took a spill in the third set. He said he recovered, but evidence to the contrary. Sports is news on Nebraska's news weather and traffic station. Lindsey Graham dead at the age of 71. And Jim said they go in threes. Well, Mitch McConnell's office has released a statement that says it's... He's not going to be one of them. It's not me. This statement from Lindsey Graham. What? Nothing. Here's your knife puts. I'm not dead. Here. He says he's not dead. Yes, he is. I'm not. He isn't? Well, he will be soon. He's very ill. I'm getting better. No, you're not. You'll be stone dead in a moment. A little Monty Python there. That is so tasteless. I can't believe you did that. Well, look, some of those senators, we saw the fossilization of Diane Feinstein. We saw the same thing out of Joe Biden. These people don't want to leave. And the problem is that every time we talk about how you're too old to do this, they point over at Chuck Grassley.

from Mount Pleasant Iowa, who will be 93 in September. But Chuck Grassley doesn't talk to a gaggle of reporters and then suddenly get a look on his face like he's just being called to the mothership. And Mitch McConnell does on a regular basis. Joe Biden did. Joe Biden, you know, he'd mix up the Pledge of Allegiance. He couldn't even say that anymore. But at least it seemed that way. But every time we say you're too old, they go, well, he's not. You know, he's not too old. You know what we're talking about Chuck Grassley? Well, here's the thing with Mitch McConnell. Should there be term limits? No, but these people just cannot leave power. They can't, they think that their irrelevance will bury them and kill them if they leave Washington, D.C. Did Mitch McConnell's statement, it wasn't a video. It was a statement. And there's a picture of him shown with his wife, and he's holding a copy of yesterday's newspaper. This is the kind of thing you release as, you know, if you've taken him hostage. This is proof that it's today's picture. It's a picture from today. He's got today's newspaper. And that's very, very weird. Who has printed newspapers anymore? Probably Mitch McConnell. He's 84 years old. Yeah, he held up one that said Dewey defeats Truman the other day. I thought this was the news. Yeah, that's an old... We landed on the moon? Yeah, yeah. You mean... You mean Nixon resigned? When did that happen? Elaine, how did I miss Nixon resigning? Dewey defeats Truman. Hey, look, today's new Dewey defeats Truman. Didn't realize Truman was present. So the report there from Chris Turner, Chris jumping in for Craig Evans this week here on Nebraska's morning news. This is probably the last week for all or most of the Kellogg's workers? Oh my gosh. And Pete Ricketts will remind you that that's Dan Osborne's fault. Well, Dan Osborne led the strike. He was the union boss. Against management for Kellogg's. And then Kellogg's later said, yeah, we were thinking about closing a few plants. I wonder which one's going to be. Oh, those people in Omaha have been a pain in our neck. Let's set that one down. Even though it's a fantastic facility that had lots of workers, but those workers were persuaded that they needed to go stand around on the sidewalk. or out in front of the gate to get into the parking lot rather than be in there making corn flakes. Rice Krispies for everyone. Kellogg said, look, I don't know if you guys have noticed, not as many people eat cereal anymore. So I know you want the stars and the moon and the sun and everything. We can't do all this for you. We're doing the best we can. We can give you this. We can give you that. No, we're going to shut everything down until we get all this stuff. All right. Well, if you do this, you're going to all be out in the streets. No, we're not. You greedy management. Okay, we told you. That's how you want it. And that's how it went.

And that's sad for those folks because those big union jobs don't grow on trees anymore. What do you do with that big factory over there off of, what is it, 96th and F Street? I'm sure that we could turn it into a data center. Spirit Halloween. Yeah, maybe a Mangelson's office. Put a couple trampolines in there, let the kids run around. I mean, I don't know what you do with that place. There's plenty of cereal on the floor. They'll keep them fed for a while. That's right. You can drop the kids in there and you can come back years later. Bring a bowl and a spoon and you'll be fed all day. Yeah, the kids will be well fed and they'll be persuaded to want to strike. Just being in that factor. I mean, we're having fun with us. It's not good for these families, but awful. They're used to it. I mean, it closed a long time ago. Well, it started the closure a long time ago, so people were getting laid off. And that's unfortunate. Look, this is. We are in an unusual economic time right now where so many jobs are disappearing thanks to AI and technology every day. It's not like, okay, well, down the road, we'll lose some jobs to automation. No, it's happening like now. Yeah, but that's not what this is all about. No, I can't have AI for breakfast. No, but an AI doesn't cook up the corn flakes. Yeah, that's right. AI doesn't cook up the corn flakes. That's right. But, you know, union jobs are scarce these days. The really high, you know, benefit union jobs that had been fought for for a long, long time for 100 years. Because companies have said, okay, well, we'll just find other people to do it, or we'll just have a machine to it. This message, though, is from the President's Truth Social Account. He yesterday said, in honor of the remarkable life and achievements of Senator Lindsey Graham, a dear friend of mine and a truly great man who achieved so much for our country and his beloved home state of South Carolina, I am ordering all American flags throughout the United States lowered to half-mast until Saturday evening at 6 p.m. God bless you, Lindsay, President Donald J. Trump. Yeah, they were close. They were adversaries first when Lindsay ran against him in the 2016 presidential chase, called him a jackass and a few other things, mostly because of his criticism of John McCain, who was a close personal friend of Grams before his death, which was a year or so later. But boy, they became fast friends. They played a lot of golf together. He shepherded a lot of his national security agenda through the United States Senate. So Trump really lost an ally. Now let's see what happens with his replacement. The governor gets to make the call. He's a Republican and he's close to Trump. And Trump says he has someone in mind. Trump has been probably lobbying the governor for a certain specific person. There will be a primary August 11th. And then if necessary, a runoff on August 25th in South Carolina, if nobody gets 50%. And then they have a... general election in November, the Democrat nominee has already been chosen in South Carolina. So you can expect some names you might have heard of, Nancy Mace being among them. I think Nikki Haley would be an excellent choice as an interim senator, but Trump probably doesn't want that because he probably can't control Nikki Haley. And that's why he's suggesting the lieutenant governor is a candidate apparently for this interim gig. He's suggesting to the governor, I need somebody that's not going to give me any heartburn.

And Nikki Haley is an extraordinarily capable lady, but she's going to give me some heartburn. And I have some important stuff here in the next six months. If the idea is you want someone who can win in November, why wouldn't you put that person in there? You don't want to put a placeholder in there, someone just kind of going, well, oh, shucks, you know, for a few months. I mean, you want someone who already looks senatorial. You're already in the job. That gives you a leg up in November, I would think. Well, except that they're going to have this primary in three weeks. Yeah, but. If you're already there doing the job. Well, that helps, sure. I already know where the office is. Vote for me. You got to run for the problem is. He needs somebody in D.C. and that person also needs to run for office. Now, if there's a clear-cut front runner, and I don't know that there is in South Carolina, because I'm not as familiar with South Carolina Republican politics as others, then you say, all right, this is the one he or she can also run for office. And just mail it in until the primary or the general election in November. And then after the Labor Day break, take off, go, you know, camp out in South Carolina and try to win votes. Nikki Haley might qualify in that place. But again, Trump doesn't want to mess around with this because he's got a 52-49 right now. And with Graham's death. And then you got Mitch McConnell, his condition is probably at best. Ify. And a couple of those are Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski and Bill Cassidy and Thom Tillis and John Cornyn. He has done a very good job of crapping in his own campfire this president has by making enemies out of these Republicans in these primaries. And I never could understand why would you tee off on Bill Cassidy? And I know why because he voted to impeach you and all of that. But you need the guy for your legislation, and all you're doing is making it a lot harder for him to say yes. From the talkback, Mike. Hey, Scott. Hey, Jim. You know, sometimes I can't believe I tune in every morning just to listen to you guys, talk about, and share nilla wafers on the air. and I'm very entertained. Have a great week, guys. I don't know if that means we need to try harder, so we're not doing that, or we're trying too hard, and all we've got to do is just chew nilla wafers on the air. Or the good stuff is just not good enough, so they're tuning in to see what we have for breakfast on the air. That's a little troubling to me, because I spend a considerable amount of time gathering content that nobody else has. All I know is we... I want you to tune into this radio show and not exactly know what might happen. Right. For example. We've got to be a moving target. We've gone into the archives here and pulled out a has-been. This is a former Nebraska State Senator. She's not a has-be. This is someone who's not served in public office now for a couple of years and is looking for, you know, she's like, I will talk on the radio for food status right now. Are you suggesting her best days are behind her? Julie Slama joins us here on. It's Slama Time on 1110 KFAB. Good morning, Senator. Is it a good morning? Yeah, exactly. Med Spa appointment. I'm only 30 guys. Right. She's just getting started. And have entered into a wonderful time in your life. You've got beautiful kids and a wonderful family, but you're also looking out for other kids. Tell me about this fairness for girls' ballot initiative that you're part of.

Absolutely. Fairness for Girls, a ballot initiative for which I'm one of the sponsors, was able to turn in 211,000 signatures about a week and a half ago to the Secretary of State's office. What Fairness for Girls would do is make Nebraska the first state in the country to have constitutional protections in place for girls' sports. Basically, keeping boys out of girls' sports. We've seen across the country this movement. for men who have failed in their own gender categories to shift over to women's sports. And I'm just... So grateful to the thousands upon thousands of Nebraska's who stepped up, signed the petition, and are helping get this initiative on the ballot and hopefully into our state's constitution to once and for all protect girls' sports in the state of Nebraska. All right, a lot of questions. First one is people will say, I thought the unicameral this past session already put this as state law, and then the Supreme Court affirmed it. Why do we need what you're doing? So this goes beyond the statutory language that was passed previously. We're doing different language, and that's for two reasons. One, a constitutional amendment is going to require different language. And two, we've seen in years past when the legislature takes one step forward, the Democrats come back in the next session and hold the session hostage until we take two steps back. So this removes girls' sports and having boys being girls' sports from being a political football for the legislature to screw up. This gives the people a voice in the matter as well. And honestly, it saves floor time in the legislature in the years to come because Democrats have promised that they would repeal the girls' protections the first chance they got. So one more process question for you here before Jim Rose sets in on the issue at hand here. You turn the signatures over. That obviously doesn't just implement this in the Constitution. So what happens next? Yes, the next steps are the Secretary of State will go through and verify signatures. We're very blessed. 211,000 is the most that's ever been turned in for a signature petition in the history of the state of Nebraska. It's a matter that I think a lot of Nebraska voters view is simply common sense. It polls at about 79% approval statewide. So now our goal is to just get the word out once the Secretary of State approves fairness for girls on the ballot. Our job is to go out into the state and make sure voters know that this is going to be on the ballot this year and know that they need to support this, to put a constitutional protection for girls' sports into our state constitution. Jim Rose. Julie, you've been shepherding legislation a lot down through the years. You know how this works. So why won't we include?

No boys and girls bathrooms or no boys and girls locker rooms as part of this. Our good friend Merv Reepie, who will probably be defeated in the November election, was the guy who stopped that from happening saying, I don't want us to be potty police, which I thought was juvenile. But the bottom line is we're trying to protect girls in a lot of ways. Why not include this? Because that's actually a fantastic question, and it's really on point for a very special issue we have in Nebraska, which for constitutional amendments is a strict interpretation of the single subject rule. So if you're going to put something on the ballot for voters, it needs to fulfill the single subject requirement. So if we were talking, it's sports and spaces. We would need two initiatives, petitions, one for each. You also get into questions on definitions if you're doing it in a single cycle. Later on down the road, there might be space for a spaces constitutional amendment. But for right now, the focus was girls' sports. Just to focus on fulfilling that single subject rule and ensure that the Nebraska Supreme Court didn't get any heartburn about the constitutional adequacy of the initiative. Well, in light of the fact that the law has been passed, that probits biological males from competing on girls' sports teams, seems to me that the spaces component would be more important than the sports component, because the spaces performant right now component has not been legislatively passed into law. So how about let's do that one as a constitutional amendment and then come back on the sports one? Well, I... I don't think it's a matter of you have to have one or the other. If you're saying you're going to help us out now and get the sports and spaces initiative up and going for the 28th cycle, I'd welcome that for sure. This was what we went with this time around. Again, I think it was far simpler to do the sports side to fulfill the single subject requirement. The spaces side will require a little bit more massaging of the definitions. We want to make sure. that if we're doing this, we're doing it right. And we have to be sure that we're crossing our T's and dotting our eyes on the constitutional requirements. If you're wanting to bring the Spaces initiative in 28, I'm more than happy to help you out with that, Jim. Well, I'll let you guys work on that behind the scenes. Look, you don't have to convince me. I think it's, the only thing that confuses me about this whole issue, Julie Slama, is how silent women have been in support of girls. Well, that's why we have Julie on it. She's the only one. Are you the only one, Julie? Where's the National Association? No, absolutely not. Kathleen, Calh? Yeah, where's now? You got Kathleen and Julie. That's it. Well, I mean.

I mean, there's a reason why 211,000 Nebraska stepped up and signed the petition. It's because men, women, everybody across the board sees this as something that's just common sense. This is something that, and Senator Kouse can speak to this as well, some of the nastiest feedback I ever got when I was in the legislature was when this issue was up. And I think a lot of women are bullied into silence. We saw in the last time around when Husker athletes were supporting the pro-life initiative, just how much grief and threats and bullying they took online. And that serves not only... that trans movement, that liberal quote unquote women supporting women, but we all know it's not. Movement is they make an example out of the higher profile women who decide to speak up trying to shame other women and bully other women into silence by seeing what those women have to go through. In the United States Supreme Court case on boys and girls' sports that was just decided a couple of weeks ago as well, you saw it. The boy who was trying to play in girls' sports that the ACLU had propped up as this big victim had actually really violently sexually harassed his teammates in the locker room for seasons. And it led to a lot of the girls quitting. A lot of... That movement is about silencing women and making women get on board. And also taking women's sports with about the same series that most people think of braiding your hair at a slumber party. Women's sports aren't just about the camaraderie. It's a wonderful part of it. But you're going through injuries, thousands of dollars of investments, giving up your weekends for years, all in an effort to where most female athletes max out. with the hope of playing varsity high school sports. That's where a lot of athletes end their careers, and when a boy is taking those spots, it's a real insult to all of the investment, all the things that that girl and her family have gone through to get to that point in their career. Julie, we got to run. Thank you very much for the time this morning. If people want to learn more about the fairness for girls' ballot initiative before it ends up in the ballot in November, is there a website or something? Absolutely. We're at www. Fairnessforgirls.com. Julie Slama, always a pleasure. Thank you very much for allowing us to have some slama time this morning. Hey, thanks guys. Anytime. Here on news radio, 1110, KFAB. So, Jim, what's your favorite conspiracy theory as to what killed Senator Lindsey Graham? Was it the COVID shot or did he get poisoned by Russia or Iran while he was in Ukraine? I'm not really subscribing to too many conspiracy theories in this case. Lucy, I'm not even going to look at it. It has been great stuff on social media.

It seems to me that if the Russians were going to poison the guy or the Iranians were going to get to his salad while he was over in Ukraine, he wouldn't be the only one dead. The truth is, Lindsey Graham didn't get to make the decision about what we were doing with Ukraine. He was an influencer and a big influencer, but he wasn't the only one. So it seems to me if some bad guy had gotten into the kitchen in the Ukrainian presidential palace. Mr. Volodymyr Zelensky would probably be flat as a board too. That's probably a good point. But you look at his lifestyle, and this is very consistent with a lot of guys in D.C. And I know it's easy for us to bag on Congress people because they do things and you shake your head and said, what are you doing? But they do put in a lot of strange hours and a lot of hours. They don't get a lot of sleep. They probably, unless they're committed, they don't get a lot of exercise. Their diet is probably not very healthy. He had been traveling constantly. And when you travel to Eastern Europe, it's a very, very long, long journey there and back. And just multiply that by all of the other campaign stops. He was constantly campaigning for other candidates in other states because he wasn't married. Running for reelection himself. Yeah, he wasn't married. He had a huge, huge lead in the polls in South Carolina so he could probably ease up on South Carolina. But this guy had no kids. This guy had no wife. So politics was his first love and became one of the more celebrated bachelors in D.C. for years. So he was constantly on planes, constantly driving around, constantly probably eating fast food. And he had hardening of the arteries. And that's what caused medically, according to the examiner's office and some of the medical experts that I've watched over the last 24 hours to say, this is what... This is what hardening of the arteries will do for you. You know, it puts a lot of strain on the heart valves, and that's apparently what happened here. There is obviously, you know, a lot of conspiracy theories. It was this or that probably it was just being a guy because the story here from Axios quotes, a friend of Lindsey Graham who's been unnamed right now, said that the 71-year-old refused to seek medical attention. on Saturday. As he said, he wasn't feeling well. And this person said, you should probably go see a doctor. And Lindsey Graham is quoted as joking saying, quote, I can't die now. I still need to do the Russia sanctions, get Iran sorted out, and do the Israeli Saudi normalization. And then he was gone. A couple hours later. If he'd gone to the doctor when friends were saying, hey, Lindsay, if you're not feeling well and this feels strange, why don't you go see someone? I can't die now. I'm too busy. If he had gone in when he obviously felt. unwell enough to say something out loud. Well, the body tells you everything you need to know, but if you don't listen to it, then things like this happen. There's one other thing about... That kills a lot of guys, by the way. I'm fine. I'm fine. Again, next thing you know, you're six feet under. But there's one thing about Lindsey Graham that I think should be told and probably hasn't been told enough. You look at these people.

who enter the halls of Congress, whether it's Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or Joe Biden and all of these people that are career politicians. And they're working for a modest salary with modest benefits. But when they leave, they've got $30, $40, $50, $100 million in the bank because of the deals that they've cut with private enterprise or unsavory individuals or captains of a certain industry. Lindsey Graham's net worth is $1.4 million, which means he's been living off his salary as a United States senator, and prior to that, his salary is a congressperson and his pension from the United States military. Yeah, I want to make sure we mention that because that's not a career politician. This guy served decades in the military. He was a colonel in the Air Force. He's been in public elected office since the early 1990s. And in fact, The late 80s, he was first elected to the state legislature in South Carolina in the late 80s, but he was elected to Congress in 1994, and he served until now with a net worth of all of $1.4 million. That says to me that he wasn't in bed with the fat cats from the defense industry, even though South Carolina is one of the leading states in the defense manufacturing industry. So this guy was a straight arrow and he could be candid and he could tell people things because he was beholding to no one. Set this up. It's September of 2018. President Trump has nominated a guy named Brett Kavanaugh to serve on the United States Supreme Court. Just as the hearings are started, Senator Diane Feinstein comes out of the word work and says, I found someone who's a credible witness that says he attacked her at a party in college way back when. High school. Oh, that's right. It was a high school party way back when. And that process went on and on and on until finally South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham had heard enough. If you wanted an FBI investigation, you could have come to us. What you want to do is destroy this guy's life, hold this seat open, and hope you went in 2020. You've said that, not me. You've got nothing to apologize for. When you see Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, tell him that Lindsay said, oh, because I voted for them. I would never do to them what you've done to this guy. This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics. And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn't have done what you've done to this guy. That was... He was looking at Dick Durbin, the senator from Illinois, rabid liberal, not a good person, not a person of sincerity or integrity. And they were grasping at straws. You should also remember the time frame here. 20 minutes after Donald Trump introduced Brett Kavanaugh as his candidate, Chuck Schumer, another gigantic phony. stood on the steps of the United States Capitol and said, I will do everything in my power to block this nomination. You haven't even talked to the guy. He could sit in your lap and you wouldn't know who it is. That was the great exposure of the hypocrisy and the politicalization of the court that the Democrats launched on Donald Trump's nominees. But Ben Zazte told me once,

After that, because Sass was sitting two guys down from Lindsey Graham. Remember, SAS was on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He said that turned the tide because there were some flimsy Republicans. They were thinking, oh, you know, maybe we should leave this guy alone, tell Trump to get somebody else. Maybe somebody that's a little less dogmatically conservative, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that shocked these rhinos back into, you know what, Lindsay's right. This is garbage. What those Democrats are doing to this guy and what they're doing to Ms. Ford, to Dr. Blazy Ford. You know, somebody got to her and said, hey, you know, you got to hatch this story about Brett Calf. She couldn't remember where it happened. She couldn't remember any of the details from the night, even the date. I mean, it was the worst. It was the worst of the worst, the politicization of the Supreme Court judicial nomination process. So thank goodness Lindsay said, all right, I've had enough of this. And he was looking right at Dick Durbin when he pointed his finger. There's a great moment. And you can reach out any time via the Zonkers Customwoods inbox. A couple of ways to do that. You can either email, Scott at kfab.com, or when listening to us anywhere you are on our free iHeart radio app, you can send us a message with your own voice about literally anything. Whether we're talking about it or not, Jim, This is one for you here from the talkback, Mike. Hi, Jim. About property taxes, drove by Millard West the other day. They're tearing the whole baseball field up. I just went to a ballgame there a couple weeks ago. There's nothing wrong with that baseball field. Just more taxes, more, you know, more property taxes. What's going on? I know you... Pay a lot of taxes, too. Is there we going to get any relief? Well, uh... The short answer is I hope so, but we've had a lot of promises made that haven't been kept. And I've done a lot of stuff on this. I've called out state senators who run on cutting property taxes. And then when the time comes to pass bills that would make permanent property tax formulas change, they either present not voting or they literally vote no. And they claim stupid reasons for it. Many of those previous senators are not in the Unicameral anymore. They were term limited out. And you have some new ones. The governor is promising it again. And he says he has a formula to do it in his second term. He's tried very, very hard. He's put his shoulder behind some important legislation. He has called a special session to do it. He has committed state resources for it. To me, it's not a revenue problem. It's a formula problem. And what we have is an unbalanced tax system in our state. It's that simple. We don't charge enough sales tax, which puts too much pressure on property taxes. And there are very few states in the union that do this. Most states don't discriminate against sales. All sales are taxed, both at the state and local level.

But not here because over the last 60 years, we've had lots of smart political people twist arms of thoughtful or thoughtless state senators who say, well, yeah, that's right, doggone. We'll give you that exemption. And then after 60 years, there's a whole bunch of exemptions. Now we have a $6 billion hole because there are $6 billion in sales in this state that are not taxed. Six billion. That is essentially one year's entire budget. A couple of things for you there in the wake of that excellent rant. We're hoping that happens in the next term. That's not even the rosy did you know. No, dude, I can't. Bonus. I was, I had high hopes when Jim got elected because here's a business guy who doesn't care about the next election. And he's tried, but he's failed. They've come up two, three votes short every time. Well, even though he had a filibuster-proof majority. First thing, Governor Pillon. Put a memo out to state agencies last week and says you've got to cut 5% of spending out of your budget. Now here's a response. On top of the 10% they cut this past spring. Here's the response from longtime Nebraska state senator Danielle Conrad, who also is headed up to local ACLU. She said, Jim Pillon is truly choosing to amplify and embrace his failure to manage state finances under his watch. He's given credence to the fact that we're in a fiscal crisis due to policy decisions that he has been a part of and helped to lead. That's not true. Also, all the unions of public employees say, we couldn't possibly cut anything. We're down to the budget. It's basically the same thing. Everyone says, but in the real world, in the private sector. Businesses cut people all the time. But you start talking about doing that to government, like Doge did as Trump and Elon Musk started going through it. Everyone loses their minds. Like, you can't goad this animal. We're not going to have that. Well, Danielle Conrad, with all due respect to her, she represents a district. where property taxes aren't that important, Lincoln. Quite candidly, her specific Lincoln district would be considered with lower property taxes because the homes have lower valuations. So those who live in many of the single family homes of her constituents aren't paying a ton of property tax. They just don't grow. The values of those homes don't grow as fast or as high as others. So she's representing her people. She's also a liberal Democrat. She believes that government should pay for everything, that there's no such thing as an appropriation for social services that shouldn't be not only passed but enhanced every year. That's... Her approach to politics. The state should do it for you. The other thing, I don't know how much time you spent at the Millard West baseball field. I've been there. I've not recently. But his point, the talkback micers there, was that they're tearing up and redoing this baseball diamond there. He's like, there's nothing wrong with it. I was just there. It's perfect. It's great. I don't know what they're doing. They're just wasting the people's money here. Well, some of that may be.

Private donations, I don't know. Westside High School just completed a $45 million expansion that included a swimming pool and some other things. Yeah, they got their own space station at Westside now. It's pretty cool. Much of that was donated money. Now, the Westside Foundation is probably a little more active than some public school foundations around here. But what we don't know about that project, and I don't know about it specifically, is was it strictly CAPEX funding from the district, or was there some... contribution made from the private sector or businesses around Millard West that contributed to it. I don't know. Wow. But, yeah, if this was funded strictly through the general fund, that was money that flowed into the Millard School District because of gigantic valuation increases by homes in the Millard School District. And there are homes that have gone up. 15, 20, 25% in one year in valuations in the Millard School District. Usually your knee-jerk reaction to things is not that measured. Sometimes you actually research and slap together a commentary. What are you talking about? That's coming up next. That happens five days a week, baby. That's the Rosie Did Genozy.