The Rod and Greg Show: Free Speech on College Campuses; Trump is on Hero's Journey; Left Wing Political Violence Must End

I have a secret that's about to seriously upgrade your downtime. Mistplay is always running these massive sweepstakes from major cash prizes to top brand bundles to thousands of dollars in gift cards for Amazon, Visa, Target, and more. You just play your favorite mobile games, earn points, and you cash out those points for entries. Mistplay is 100% free. No deposit, no subscription, no hidden fees. Download Miss Play today and start winning. I'm Rod Arquette. Greg Hughes, my co-host, not here yet. He is on his way. He was up in Logan today for his son's graduation from Utah State University. Congratulations to Holden. Him and his family trying to get down here as quick as they can. I understand. I don't know if anyone's been out on the highways yet today. I just ran out about 40 minutes ago to grab a sandwich somewhere. Traffic was miserable. I don't know if it's a weather thing today. The sun is shining. It's a nice day. The weekend is here. Fans are excited about the big mammoth hockey game tonight. But traffic, folks, if you're headed out, you've got to get somewhere today. Leave a little bit early because everywhere I went, I ran into traffic jams today. Traffic accidents, whatever the case may be. So just be aware of that. Traffic is miserable today. We'll keep you out to date on that. But Greg should be here in a few minutes, and he'll join us on the Rod and Greg show. By the way, you can catch us live everywhere on the IHeart Radio app. All you do is have to download it today. And you can list to us anywhere. You can also leave us a message on our talkback line. All you do is have to leave a... download the app go to knRS.com and up on the right hand corner you'll see a little red microphone you just tap on that and you can leave a message all right a busy show today on a friday afternoon uh congressman burgess owens He is going to be joining us here in just a minute or two coming up. Well, he'll join us at 420 today. He's going to be talking about the debate over free speech on college campuses. And boy, have we seen that change over the years. And we'll get into that with Congressman Owens. A little bit later on. We'll talk about Donald Trump. He's on a hero's journey. That's right. That's what our author will join us and say. Coming up at 435, a little bit later on, we'll talk about left-wing political violence with John Daniel Davidson. And we'll talk about homelessness and services around the country that are being divvied out based on your sex and your race. even when it comes to homelessness. So we'll get into that as well. So we've got a lot to get to today. And as I mentioned, always great to have you on the show and to be part of the broadcast. If you'd like to join in on the conversation, 888-57080-10 on your cell phone, dial pound 250 and say, hey, Rod. Or you can leave us a message on the Talkback Live. All right. Let's talk about liberal insanity.

Matter of fact, we could probably talk about liberal insanity every day on this show, but we've got two more classic examples of liberal insanity for you. I want to take you to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Now, those of you who know about Ann Arbor, Michigan, it is the home of the University of Michigan. Very big university. They're in Michigan. Well, apparently, the town of Ann Arbor, Michigan... has decided to spend $18,000 on taxpayer cash to rip out over 600 what they call racist neighborhood watch signs. The mayor calls them expressions of exclusion. The signs were yanked from front yards and public spaces by city crews this week with a final one removed last week. The mayor, his name is Christopher Taylor, personally help remove the last sign alongside two city council members. Listen to what they had to say about the racist neighborhood watch signs. Basically, neighborhood watch signs are expressions of exclusion and they're inconsistent with their values in our Brazil welcoming community. We don't want to push people away. We want to welcome folks in. You know, there are people that look like me and those from my community that have been questioned, quite frankly, in their own neighborhood. By others, you know, wondering what they're doing there. This is just representative of our values and what we, how we want people to feel in our world. They were not connected to any existing public safety program today. In fact, it's been defunct for decades, and it really harkens back to a time when public safety was about exclusion, was about monitoring and surveilling who belonged in a neighborhood and who did not. You know, I have no idea, and I don't know if there's ever been a study out there on this. Maybe law enforcement could weigh in on this one as well, but pulling down neighborhood watch signs. And like I said, they're spending, what is that, $18,000 of taxpayer money to yank these signs down. But apparently they feel they're not inclusive. So apparently they want to include people who could break into your home or cause property damage to your home. If anybody sees anything going wrong, they want those people to feel welcome into the community of Ann Arbor, Michigan. That's why they're yanking down the signs. They say the city needs to be more inclusive. I'm not kidding you folks, $18,000 to rip down these signs. Again, I'm not sure how affected the Neighborhood Watch program, Crime Watch program has been. It's been around for quite a long time. I don't know if it makes people feel comfortable. If anyone has called in anybody on this, I would imagine we have neighborhoods and communities in this state that do the same thing. But this is liberal insanity. This is what we want to be inclusive. What? Inclusive? For all the crooks who want to break into your home or all the vandals who want to vandalize your property, you aren't supposed to call police anymore because you want to be inclusive? Give me a break. Now, speaking of being inclusive, how about being exclusive? Seattle, city that my wife and I lived in several years ago, beautiful city at that time, not quite as crazy it is right now, but they've got a brand new mayor. Her name is Katie Wilson.

She laughed off millionaires who want to flee the state over the taxation and the taxation policy there have. Well, speaking at a forum in Seattle University earlier this month, the new Democratic mayor, who, by the way, was living off her parents until she ran for the Seattle mayor position that now pays her a living she can live on up there. The new Democratic mayor said this when it comes to millionaires in Seattle who are thinking about leaving the state because of the wealth tax, the state of Washington is about to impose on them. I think the claims that millionaires are going to leave our state are like super overblown. And if, you know, the ones that leave, like, bye. So. Here you have the mayor telling people who put a lot of money into the Seattle economy and the Washington State economy. Millionaires there in Seattle. She's telling them buy. She doesn't care if they're there or not. Well, let me tell you what, having lived there for several years, you may have heard the term, if you're from the Northwest, you may have heard the term Microsoft Millionaires. There are a lot of them up there. And here's why. They saw what Bill Gates and Microsoft was doing at the very beginning. And they invested in Microsoft when it first started. And that stock has now climbed like you wouldn't believe. So there are many what they call Microsoft millionaires in Seattle. And you've got a mayor now. who is saying, hey, if you leave, bye-bye, we don't care. Well, I don't know about you, but I have not been to Seattle since we left several years ago now, but I am told the downtown area of Seattle has become yet a pit again. There was a real effort made years ago to clean it up. It's gone right back to where it was before that cleanup effort began. So here you have a mayor telling people who pump a lot of money into the Seattle economy that if they want to get up and leave, And millionaires, for the most part, could probably afford to do that. They could get up and leave, and they wouldn't care one iota. They could afford it, but she doesn't care either. Telling the millionaires in Seattle, it's overblown, and if you want to leave, bye-bye. Thanks for your support, Mayor. All right, we've got a lot to get to, scheduled to talk with Congressman Burgess Owens. When we come back, great to be with you on this Friday afternoon. It is the Rod and Greg show on Utah's Talk Radio, 1059, KNRS. My co-hoos. It's a zoo out there. I heard you. Hey, I went out to just get a sandwich. The traffic is crazy. It's a parking lot, and I'm in a... and a car full of all family. I've got my father-in-law talking to me, my wife yelling at me, my daughter giving me instructions. Everyone's talking at the same time. And I am in, and my map app is bipolar. My map app is telling me to turn here to save five minutes. Then I'm watching the time arrival, just climb. Go back over here. It gave me 10 different ways to get here, Rod. I'm just on, I'm on tilt. You made it.

I've been on the road for, I swear I've been on the road for three hours. You heard me talk about just going to get a sandwich, which is about 10 minutes away. It took me 35, 40 minutes. Well, I thought I was right here. I thought I'd get here before the break. And that Redwood Road, it's a literal parking lot. Yeah, it is. You need a break? I do. You're okay? Just go, oh, you'll be fine. The chaos in my car, the chaos on the road. I'm Renaissance, Greg, basically, what you're seeing right now. I am like Zen like. I'm like Gandhi. What I've just endured to get here. You chilled. Oh, yeah. Congratulations, by the way. You a big day for the Hughes family. Yep. Gregory Holden Hughes, Jr., but he goes by Holden. graduating. A lot of people, I'll tell you what, you got to rattle off all those names. You're there a while. I told you I'd be here with plenty of time. You get through those names. There's a lot of kids graduating out of Utah State in 2026. Yeah. But you know what? Kids done really well, and he just recently got engaged. So his fiancé Aubrey was there and it was a lot of fun. Graduate, get engaged. No, kids moving. Kids on a right track, man. He really is. By the way, folks, if you've never met Holden. If you put Holden and Greg together, you go, there's no way he can be your son. Yeah, you know what? He's really a good guy. Well, you know what? He doesn't take after his mother either. No, he doesn't. No, Sophie does. She takes after both of us. Holden kind of went the other way. He kind of like went. He kind of chilled out. But Sophie, she's more on edge than Queen B and me put together. Oh, wow. She thinks she's the boss. She is not. She's always trying to tell me what to do. Oh. And she's in the backseat. Tell me what to do constantly. Glad I wasn't in that. Oh, it was something else. Shall we talk to Congress from Burgess Owens? I would love to talk to Congress and Burgess Owens. All right. Congress and joining us on our, any hour news. Congressman. Are you having a good laugh with this, Virgis? I mean, are you having a good laugh with this? I'm having a great laugh. And just, you know, Greg, I have my directions now. I get back to D.C. We'll work on these roads again, okay? Please. We'll get something down. Get you back and forth in a much better fashion. I want to talk Congressman about something more peaceful and tranquil like Congress. than what i just lived through because like we're you know that that arena feels like a cemetery compared to what i just lived through so anyway thank you for joining us all right let's talk about some comments you made representative about college campus and what you see going on and what you feel needs to change Well, you know, this is really where, and I think why I'm so excited about being part of the educational process and where we are the country, we've come through this process of COVID and realize we need to really focus on our kids, get them thinking, respectful. And I, you know, I kind of grew up at a time my dad was very, very open, very excited to help me to articulate and debate in a very respectful way. That is what education should be all about.

When you think about our foundation, Ignority Free was one of the comments I think was Thomas Jefferson. Ignor free will never, can never be to paraphrase. And we have a society right now that our kids are so, they have no knowledge. They're very confident and whatever they're thinking, whether it's right or wrong. And they have no tolerance for other opinions. They get very, they need a safe space. And that's not what our country is all about, is being able to have the confidence in ourselves. to have good debates to be respectful and know that you can be respectful at some point you might be able to get them to come your way that is the way we operate so i'm excited we'll finally have this conversation because we've been going so long with the left this marxist ideology of of not being a patient not being tolerant picking up a stick and hitting you with you if you don't if they can't get you to come your way their way and we're breaking away from that in the big way right now Congressman, everything you said in the committee which you were talking, you're talking about diversity of thought and for young people to be able to debate and really have their beliefs challenged and really have to think through it and defend what they believe or maybe adjust in terms of what they're hearing by way of information. You shared some startling statistics about the percentages of college age kids or campuses that think shouting down. somebody is is acceptable uh blocking their way physically from going to a speech or being able to attend a campus speech is acceptable violence in rare occasions but in rare occasions the violence the percentage of students that thought that was okay was like a third of the students that were that were pulled talk about with those kind of statistics do you think we ever get to an environment where we can have diversity of thought we can have true debate in our institutions of higher learning Well, let me run those numbers for you. 60% of students self censor themselves, at least twice a month. 71% is successful as a shout down the speaker, as we see a lot going on right now, and this on our college campuses. 54% believe the blocking of the students from attending campus speeches is okay. And 34% believe that violence is okay. It's justified. This is, this is. The, it's apathetical of we the people. We the people, the concept is that we can be so different. But because we are educated, because we can think, because we have this common vision, we talk to each other. We work things out. And I'll be honest with you, Utah is one of the places that does it best. I mean, we, we're very different, so many different ways, but how we collaborate and come to a common theme is remarkable. That is the way our country has always worked. I think the key is understand we've been under attack for decades. We're not here where we are by accident. We're here where we are. We have, you think about the assassination attempts of our president. How many of those folks, these young people educated in college forever, 31 years old, and the other one was 26, very, very smart, but they have also been in doctrine and a society and the system that they truly believe, first of all, if there's no God, then they are the answer. And that's the biggest bottom, bottom line, this whole process is. So here's the upside. We've gone through COVID. We have a president who understands that education is everything for our country. He loves our country. He knows that in order to have these debates and moving forward, we have to talk to each other. So we're in a position now that we're talking about education the way we never have before. This hearing has had on freedom of speech is something that we have not had for decades. So we're on the right track, and I think particularly Utah is going to be the state.

the culture that leads out when it's all said and done. On our newsmaker line, we're talking with Utah Congressman Burgess Owens. Congressman, when did it change? When all of a sudden you can't say certain things? You can protest. When did this change? And why do you think it changed? Well, it's been changing slowly for a while. I would say the real turning point was Obama. Obama came in. He did things that people have no idea in terms of how he really attacked the educational system, K through 12, with the types of ideology pushed in there, the idea that you cannot. control your classroom. If you had an issue with somebody in your classroom that's disruptive, you move the entire class and let that young person stay there and keep things crazy. So we have gone through that process very slowly, but now we see it. And I think that's the most important thing. And just make a little context of history because my community, when I was growing up, what we did know was education without gateway. And we felt if we can educate ourselves or articulate ourselves, we could command respect. So all the back in 1930s, we celebrated this all black college who beat UCLA, all white school in debate. Because debating education, articulation was everything. My dad, my grandfather was a third grade dropout. My father was a PhD out of a house date and his brothers were the same. That was the way that that community was growing. They knew that if they wanted to get command respect, they had to win in everything they did, not just sports. but intellectually being disciplined when it came down to civil rights, all those things you see that people just respect without even knowing very much about the person. They expect the tenor of that personality. That is what I grew up in. So I know that we can get back to that. And I also know how far we'll come and how successful the Marxist has been in those infiltrating our classrooms and doing what they're doing to separate it. So we're on the right track guys. That's my point. We're now turning that corner. We have the right leadership and we have these right conversations that we have not had for a long, long time. And I'm very excited about, but change the direction of what we're having up right now. I'm going to segue to a different topic that you made the news in commenting on. And it goes back to some of the learning curve I had in college was around the Clarence Thomas hearings and his confirmation. And some of the events that were going on around that had some robust debates, actually, with other students, with even associate professors. about that pro and con. And again, that's the diversity of thought we're talking about. You noticed in the Deseret News recently when the Supreme Court in the landmark decision, the Louisiana case on the voter rights act, they used a picture. And this picture is shameful. The picture they used as Thurgood is watching you, Clarence. And it's Thurgood, Thomas. You call this out right away. You mentioned that before you can even read their article for them to. to pit a conservative black Supreme Court Justice and Clarence Thomas against the Thurgood Marshall, First African American Supreme Court Justice. You talked about how it is just so typical of the left to attack a conservative black leader or judge. Talk about that with us. Talk about that kind of challenge that you go through or that everyone goes through with the left.

You name it. Just everywhere. Heavy traffic. Well, you know, I think right now a lot of people, Greg, are going to start wondering how history is going to think about Donald Trump. I think he is the most consequential president we've had in this country for a long, long time. Easily, I think easily. Yeah. Yeah. Well, joining us on our any hour newsmaker line to talk about this a little bit more is Matthew Hennessy. He's editor of the free expression with the Wall Street Journal. Matthew, how are you? Welcome to the Rod and Greg Show. Thanks for joining us. Well, thank you very much for having me. I'm doing very well. Matthew, nobody except you at this point, I think, have recognized that the story of Donald Trump is quite the amazing story. Why haven't they recognized that? Well, I called it in my piece, Hero's Journey, and I think that that word will be triggering for a lot of people in the sense that they don't think of him as a very heroic guy. And I actually mean it more in a literary sense. You know, you have this sort of device in all cultures, the literature of all cultures. The idea of a hero is not necessarily... the greatest guy who ever lived. But the guy who finds himself in the middle of a story, in the middle of an action... doing something very consequential that he didn't necessarily plan on doing or wasn't necessarily in the cards from day one. And that description definitely suits Trump. You know, what we know about his life story, his biography, is that, you know, politics wasn't the goal, wasn't where he was aiming from the beginning. And whether he stumbled into it or whether it was a sort of a... A calculated stumble, I guess historians can try and figure that out one day. But when I say he's on a hero's journey... I sort of leaving the details of his accomplishments to the historians of the future to sort through, which is what you would have to do with any leader at any time is leave the sort of, leave the judgment for future generation. I'm just simply suggesting that what brought him to the presidency very much resembles what you would find in, you know, Star Wars or something. It's a hero's journey. You know, you're exactly right. And I can take inventory on what he's doing in real time right now. And I think it is things that are extraordinary, things that people, that he has a bias towards action that I don't think in the political class of people, people are wired necessarily to do it. So the two qualities that I love in this hero's journey when we talk about Trump is that he was born. He wasn't born poor, but he had a little bit there and he made a lot. Then he lost it all and he built it back. And then he went and broadened.

uh his business acumen and he became a television star people liked him on the apprentice he kept you just saw this uh this this this person this character that kept you know moving forward becoming he was on the radar for so many decades prior to being in politics but the two things i think that are common is he always faced adversity of which he never really i don't think from what we saw he blinked and i also think that he He doesn't make decisions out of fear, which many people do instinctively. You make a decision out of fear or something to avoid. Are those two qualities to be able to face adversity and consider it a companion and not make decisions out of fear? Are those qualities of a hero's journey? Well, I think they absolutely are, and I think that every, you know, I agree with everything that you said. I'm simply anticipating that some of the action, you say he has a bias towards action, and I agree with that completely. But, you know, the judgment of history is very much contingent on how those actions feed events that won't be, you know, the fruit won't be evident to people. for years and years and years. And so if you if you step back, and when I say step back, step way back, imagine yourself as a historian of the future two, three, four hundred years from now. Any leader, at any time in history, you would judge them based on whether they increased their nation's power or decreased it, whether they increased their nation's prosperity or they decreased it. Did they expand the size of the territory that they controlled or did they decrease it? You don't hear, you know, it's interesting sometimes to read that, you know, Napoleon or Elizabeth I first or Peter the Great. you know, would fly off the handle towards their subordinates or had, you know, weird habits that they would do, you know, when they were out of public view. All that stuff is very interesting and we enjoy it when we read about it. But that's not what history really cares about. History cares about success and failure. On all of that, on all of those fronts, you know, the jury is going to be out for a very, very long time. But in the here and now, most of what we're talking about, is the stuff that I was just describing that is sort of interesting but inconsequential. Did he say something ridiculous? Did he insult someone? Did he look the wrong way at a reporter? Did he break some sort of presidential norm? All of that stuff is interesting, but ultimately not the kind of thing that history is going to care very much about. Matthew, in the short amount of time we have left, the one thing I've noticed, and I've lived through several presidents now, it kind of indicates my age. But I've always thought that more than other presidents, and maybe I'm wrong on this, he has the ability to almost set the news narrative of the day because of his tweets and what he does. Would you agree or disagree with me on that?

No, it's impossible to disagree. He's an absolute master of, you know, manipulating the conversation. And I say that with respect. Manipulating sounds like I'm criticizing him. I really mean, like, he has got incredible skills as a politician. What is it that you want as a politician? You want people to have the conversations that you want them to have. You don't want to let that narrative get away from you if you can. And every politician. would want that kind of control. And he is, I've never seen anything like his ability to dictate the terms of the discussion. We're always talking about what Donald Trump wants to talk about for good and ill. Yeah, interesting. Matthew, great article. Thanks for a few minutes of your time on a Friday afternoon and enjoy the weekend. Thanks. Thanks a lot, guys. All right. Matthew Hennessy. He is with free expression in the Wall Street Journal. And that's right, Greg. The one thing I've noticed over the years is he sets the news agenda every day. It used to be the New York Times or the Washington Post. Every newsroom would look. What are they reporting today? That's become secondary. They're asking, what did he do today? Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that acting out of fear, I could point to you 400 times a day that the news of the day, most of it is reactions made out of fear. It is the one thing, one variable that does not come into the equation with President Trump, which I highly respect. Yeah. Fascinating. All right. More coming up on the Rod and Greg Show and Utah's Talk Radio, 1059, KNRF. It's May 1st. It's May Day. On the Rodney Greg Show, you're listening to Utah's Talk Radio 105-9 KNRS, and I'm Citizen Hughes. And I'm Rod Arquette. By the way, May Day tomorrow, Kentucky Derby Day tomorrow. I know. You're going to game six tonight. I sure am. I'm so excited. And I'm going to be near that. You know where we sat. I'm sitting. I get to hit the plexiglass when they come up there. I'm just going to smack that glass. I can't wait. Yes. You'll see me. I'm going to be rabid. I'm going to be so excited. Yeah, you'll be smashing. I got words to say too. I hope that I hope they hear me. Would you agree that Kamala Harris is kind of boring? Well, that's one word. I have a few words that run through my mind. Boring could be one. Well, apparently she was making some comments at some event last night. It turned into a real snooze fest. There was a band that was playing, you know, between the breaks and everything. Well, while she was speaking, the saxophonist in this band fell asleep and almost fell out of his chair. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm sure it wasn't an edge of your seat discussion going on for that poor musician. It's there to play, you know, plays music. He's like, what did I walk into? Well, apparently he just.

Dropped his head. There was a video of it where somebody noticed dropped his head and just kind of started leaning before he woke up. That was probably the most exciting part of the speed, watching the guy. Is he going to fall? Is he going to fall? We don't know. All attention on him. All right. We've got another full hour coming your way. Your phone calls. Talk about anything that is on your mind. That's coming up next. Hour number two of the Rod and Greg Show. I might as well been a pioneer trying to get here. I just may well, but... had a push card i i it was it was horrific yeah i'm still not over and you had a lot of suggestions as to what to do where you were coming down a lot of people i got a map app but i got three map apps in the back seat screaming at me i know i got a i got a father-in-law who knows those roads really well he's he's got his theories and everybody's debating on which one to use i mean never it's it is all up for debate and no one's shy about it it was just uh it was a family road trip oh it was It was something. Honestly, if I had a GoPro on, you could probably make a reality show out of that trip because it was actually probably on brand with a huge failing trip. You should have recorded it. We could have played it back. It would have been very interesting. And probably very entertaining. Somehow in the ranting, my son Holden, who's the star of the show today by graduating, somehow he told the women in my life, my daughter and my wife, that you couldn't bring a bag. Like a person. Which is kind of typical. I would think he was right. But in truth, you could have brought anything in there. Really? No one was really, they're bringing all kinds of stuff in there. But that actually had some, you know, some ibuprofen. So then I'm hearing in addition to all the traffic, we got problems because. women don't have their handbags and they're missing all the stuff they need and they're livid, they're angry, and they're turning on me. I didn't do it. I didn't say it. I'm just trying to drive this car. I don't know why I'm the bad guy. I would have loved to have been. Just to fly on the windshield. No, you would not. No, you would not. No. It would have been fun. It was a rough trip. Yeah. And if they're listening, I don't. If they're still on the road right now, man, I am in, they'll probably take it out on me when the show's over. I'm still in trouble. Oh, you're in good shit. You're fun. You're fun. Well, congratulations, by the way, to hold it. Any of the graduates out there. Utah State's 2026. Several thousand, I would imagine kids getting degrees today. Yeah, and I think it's an exciting time. And I do. I really, I know that take any time and, you know, snapshot of time of American history, you can always point to the things that are unsettled, dangerous. unknown, whatever it may be. But I just think that these young people of ours are walking into some exciting times. And I think we still live in a country where, you know, freedom of self-determination, I think these young ones can be anything they want. Anything in the world they want to be. They live in a country and that they can do it. I don't know if you talked about this on the show yesterday, but did you see the trib, surprise, surprise, surprise, basically let Sharon Linda McMahon write her commencement speech.

op-ed piece in the trib yesterday because she couldn't give it down at UVU. Yeah, I can't remember if I brought it up or not, but I didn't read it. Did you read it? A little bit of it. Yeah, I can't read it. All this uplifting, we can do better, blah, blah, blah. Except when you want to talk about Charlie Kirk and then you want to just disparage a man that's been killed. But, yeah, no, I just think that whole thing, of course the Tribune would give her audience or give her the chance to share what would probably be that speech. But I think what I saw today is what. commencements ought to be like there was some great uh a great speech about well we had the um valedictorian okay of the of the class because they what they did is they had their big university wide one on wednesday and that's where bobby wagner uh limacker yeah and he spoke so you had the big one and then you have the different colleges that do and i'm telling you that that spectrum the spectrum that It, there was, there was the one before we got there. There was the one that we had that started at 10.30 a.m. I mean, you got to start up early here to get there at 10.30 a.m. But, and then there was going to be one, there was at least one more after. So you had a ton coming through just for their, and that's where they actually get their. They don't get their degree there. They get the thing that holds it and then they mail you it later. And guess what? They don't take the caps off and throw them up in the air anymore. Why not? I don't know. I thought that was a thing. That's fun. Yes. I agree. I was waiting for that part. I got my camera out and ready to take the picture of all those hats, you know, things up in the air. They didn't do it. They didn't do it. It's not a thing. I bet they're saying it's a danger. One may fall and hit someone in the eye. By the way, did you know that inter, what was the intersection? Intersectional gender studies is a. Is intersectionality. Intersectional. Intersectional gender studies. Somebody got a minor in that. And I just listened to that intersectional. Well, that'll take them far. And I thought, I wonder, honestly, and I'm maybe there's something really good about that minor, major, whatever that is. I just want to know what intersection we're talking about. Is that, I mean, I don't know what the intersection is on gender studies. But it's a thing. It's a, it's a thing. Someone got a minor in that day. Well, that person will probably end up teaching in school. Yeah, I think so. I mean, does the private business sector need someone like that on their staff? I'm going to, I'm going to go out on a limb and say no. Yeah. I'm just going to say no. I don't think that's a, that's a, I'm going to say that's a no. But I think it was a psychology major, minor, and intersectional gender studies. But here's, here's my question, going back to our last guest. Okay. And I think we want to talk about whether this is, is this a hero's journey with? President Trump, all that he had been through, how he's been on the radar screen of, he wrote the art of the deal, this book. He wrote that in the 80s, later 80s, and it was a bestseller. And so you can see clips of him on Oprah Winfrey or other talk shows talking about all kinds of things, world events, business, you name it. He's had a television show, a successful one, apprentice. Anyway, but my question is, our guests said, It will be up to historians in the future to decide with the aftermath of what decisions President Trump makes in his two terms if he was consequential, if he is historic, if he is actually a hero. My question is, I would imagine historians come from institutions of higher learning. And these campuses and these future historians in the making, will history ever really tell the truth about Donald Trump? No.

No. I think, Greg, they will rank him near the bottom. Yes, I think you're right. Sadly. I mean, they will rank him near the bottom because of, quote, the chaos that he has brought to the daily discussion. And you, and even if you saw, well, even if you saw the manufacturing industry reintroduced to this country and jobs and well-paying jobs. that go for generations, kind of like Pittsburgh was when I was growing up. If you saw that happen, and you know that Trump's been working on that, if you saw a border that was secure, if you saw public safety returned, if you saw for supply chains and routes for national security reasons, but also for fuel, you're seeing that that straight of hormones, I think it will never be a critical. pathway or causeway for commerce again, given how much it has clogged things up. You've got some that are pipelining over into other areas to be able to get their fuel out. I don't think that's going to be a supply chain line, that area. That's going to end up being less relevant. But all of that, I think, will have positive impacts going forward. Even the relationships between Israel and the Middle East has improved under Trump's watch, which every president endeavors to do, and you never really see a lot of progress. I think you're going to see the most progress, and you are seeing it in real time right now. History won't tell you that. I don't think it's ever going to be talked about. One or two things. I think history will judge him on his tariffs, and he'll say they were bad for the U.S. economy. History will judge him on the war with Iran right now. Yeah, a war of choice that he didn't need to do. That's what the historians will say. Yeah, I think they'll glaze over the good. They will judge them very harshly. Yeah. Yeah, I think that there's not a, there's not, he made a joke yesterday that his new strategy is everything he wants, he's going to say he opposes. Because anything he opposes, the Democrats will support, anything he supports, they'll oppose. So he's going to oppose all the things that he wants so the Democrats will finally come around. That's going to, that's his new strategy. That may be, and that may work. He's making a joke, but tell me how, why that wouldn't work. If he came out with a straight face and said, you know, I want to raise all the, I want to raise everyone's taxes. You'd see Democrats saying, we can't raise taxes. We can't. Why would we ever raise taxes? Yeah, yeah. We got a cut. Yeah. I mean, really, I do think he could go out and say one thing and they will do the other without pause, even if it was something they loved. They would do the opposite. If it's something, I just think he has that kind of control over him. I wish he'd try. Yeah, me too. Wouldn't it be funny for him to try something like that and to see how the Democrats would react? Yeah. Well, you take these drug traffickers, human traffickers, you arrest them and they're out there calling them the Maryland man and making a victim out of them. So, you know, I actually like illegal immigration. I think that's actually, I've changed my mind. Folks, I actually want to have an open border. Democrats would want to shut that border down in a nanosecond. They would all of a sudden be the strongest pro, anti-illegal immigration voices in Congress would be the Democrats. If Trump came out and said, I want to open borders, they would want to close the board. Yeah, they would want to close them. All right, we want to get your thoughts on Donald Trump, the hero. Our last guy says he is on a hero's journey.

Do you consider him a hero? Yeah, I do. I think he's done some amazing things. We'll talk about that. Plus, we've got a comment from Harry Enton, the data guru. And we'll talk about Barack Obama a little bit as well. All coming up on the Rod and Greg Show and Utah's Talk Radio 1059, KNRS. They threw their caps. They threw them up in the air. Most did. But they're supposed to or not. Rebels. BYU. Go BYU. They didn't. Nobody threw their hats up at USU. I was really looking forward to that. But, BYU, they did it. Good job, Cougars. Did they have graduation outside or inside? That I don't know. And BYU. That I don't know. I don't know if that'd have anything to do with it. I don't know. I shouldn't. I mean, the spectrum is pretty tall. Yeah. There's not one's going to be hitting the rafters there. It's just fine. By the way, you're listening to Utah's Talk Radio 105.9. Oh, that. All that. We do have to say that. Yeah. And that's why we're supposed to start. And I am Citizen Hughes. Yeah. And I'm Rod Arquette. Now, before we get to your thoughts on Donald Trump as a hero, our good friend, data guru, CNN's Harry Enton. On Thursday, shocked everybody when he talked about Donald Trump and his influence on black voters in America. Now, the Democrats depend on that vote. Oh. But Donald Trump is chipping away at that support. Before you play it, can I just frame something? Think about this, what you're about to hear in terms of this polling, with also the fact that the Voter Rights Act. will not let them draw just 100% minority majority districts. So now you blend communities of interest more, you know, with more equality or whatever. I mean, they're just more fair. They're actually communities of interest. So they lose those those mega, that court ordered Democrat districts. And then you hear this about. the black vote and President Trump. So listen to this information with that in mind. You want to know what's so silly about that argument? I think it was Scott Jennings. There are, I think the number is right, 83 congressional districts in this country that are predominantly white, okay, that have elected black congressmen. Yeah, there you go. There you go. Well, Utah would be one of them. Yeah, it would be. All right, let's listen to what old Harry had to say about the president's influence on black voters. Oops, wrong one. Sorry. Here we go. Yeah, I think what we're seeing right now in the numbers is President Trump and the Republican Party are chipping away at the long-term advantage that Democrats have had with black voters with African Americans. You can see it right here. Look, Trump's approval among African Americans at this point in term one. He was at 12%. You know, he's been losing ground with a lot of people. He's gaining. He's gaining ground with African Americans. He's up to 16% at this point. And you say this isn't that big of a shift. But I will tell you, Republicans absolutely love this shift that's going on because Democrats have had such a long-term advantage. The fact that he's actually gaining ground versus where he was in term number one, this has major implications for elections down the line because Democrats, especially in a lot of these tight races, you talk about places like Georgia right down in the south. You see this type of movement for Trump actually gaining ground? This could have major ramifications and help put Republicans over the top in a number of southern places in the midterm.

election. I just love it. He's slowly making improvements, Craig, in the black vote in America. And no Republican has ever been able to do that. It is. He actually has set a record. And with all the talk of him being a racist, and that's what the Democrats, they don't know how to say, you know, Nazi or Hitler or racist, you know, in the same breath. For him to make the greatest inroads with minority populations in this country, it is, it says a lot. Yeah. It really does. Well, think about this, Greg. How many years of the Democrats told black Americans, we're here for you. We're going to get you what you need. And have they? Never. They're just starting to wake up and say, wait a minute here. It's been snake oil from day one. It sure has. All right, let's go to the phones. If you want to weigh in on this, Donald Trump as a hero, 888-57080-80-10 on your cell phone, dial pound 250 and say, hey, Rod, or leave us a message on the talkback line to the phones we go. And last talk with Mark. Mark, how are you? Welcome to the Rod and Greg Show.

Hello, Mark. Oh, we just lost Mark. Okay. Mark, feel free to call back. 888-5708-010 or like I said on your cell phone, dial pound 250 and say, hey, Rod. Can I make this observation? So I just look this up. So you look at the moderates. They'll tell you that, you know, they're the ones that want DEI. When I say moderates, I mean actually leftists. And then you'll have some Republican squishes that want to be, they want to be more moderated because they want to care more and they want to love more and they want to hug everything out. Well. If that was actually a successful strategy with minority votes, okay? I just looked at what was the percentage of black voters that voted for Mitt Romney and John McCain, okay? Mitt Romney receives 6%. Okay. John McCain, 4%. 4% for John McCain. So all these guys that everyone wants to say, he wants to hug it out, and they're more moderated. They're not as extreme like Donald Trump. Harry Anton just gave you a 16% number right there, in least polling. McCain was 4% in 2008, and in 12, it was 6% for Mitt Romney. So I don't think that this leftist narrative about identity politics and what you have to do to win over the minority vote, the reality is what they're saying is flat out wrong. Yeah. The way that Donald Trump has, even with the Hispanic vote, with building a wall, he's received more of the Hispanic vote. You've seen traditionally Democrat Hispanic counties that are a border counties along, you know, in Texas, and they are going Republican because they want the rules kept. They want, they want, they're escaping communism maybe from a different country or a failed government. They don't want any of that brought back here. Yeah. They want rules. They want those things. Anyway, I just think that the Democrats' narrative doesn't work with anybody themselves or Republicans. Yeah. Let's go to the phones. We want to talk with Sasha in Murray tonight on the Rod and Greg Show. Sasha, how are you? Thanks for joining us tonight. I'm absolutely wonderful. Thanks for having me. Good. What are your thoughts on this? Um, um, um, uh, My family comes from Mexico, so I am first-generation Mexican-American, and absolutely Trump is a hero. He is doing wonderful things. People just don't realize it because the media is brainwashing them. So keep it up, Trump. Yes. Sasha, as you talk with your family members, are they concerned about what is taking place to the border, what Donald Trump has done on the border? Does that bother them at all, Sasha? No, they actually want it to happen even more because. The last four years, all of those people coming in and getting a free ride while some of us had to stand and wait in line through the whole process and, you know, come here legally, you know. Yes. Some of us came illegal, but we also came here and got our papers right away and went through that whole process. So everybody is glad as long as I know, like my family and my friends were absolutely glad what he's doing.

Good. What a great take. Sasha, thank you for taking the time to share that perspective. Because that's, again, you know, you have some people to do focus groups where they pull people in and just get, just get their, you know, candid perspective. I think our show and the callers that we get is about the greatest focus group. And so Sasha's perspective there, first generation Mexican, or was it Mexican American or Hispanic American? But to talk about how their family embraces the rule of law, that they actually followed it. It wasn't easy. But to see people that would come in, breaking the law, cutting in line. Have you ever been to a amusement park and a bunch of people waiting in line all this time and they just cut in line? Who likes people that cut? I don't. So I just, it's good to hear. Or you're in traffic and someone cuts in front of you. Yeah, I'll tell you what. You know, it's called scissoring when you kind of, you know, one after the other one after the other. Cisorin is easy if people understand it. Why is it everyone just. You know, pedal to the metal just to the right where the merge ends and then just parks there with their turn signal light on. And then everyone follows them and then you got a bottleneck. No one can move. Yeah. It should be one than the other. One than the other. One than the other. The scissor. It's not hard, but it was a challenge today. Zip right in line. All right. More coming up. It is the fun day Friday edition of the Rodding Greg Show on Utah's Talk Radio 1059, KNRS. All right, we're taking your calls. We open up the lines to you every Friday at this time to talk about whatever is on your mind. One thing we brought up had a great interview earlier in the show with Matthew Hennessy from the Wall Street Journal talking about his article on Donald Trump is on a hero's journey. That's one of the questions we have for you is Donald Trump, in your opinion, a hero. 888-5708010 on your cell phone, dial pound 250 and say, hey, Rod, or download the IHeart Radio app and leave us a message on the talkback. line. So let's go straight to our listeners who want to call in. Let's go to Rex and Sandy. Rex, thanks for holding. Welcome to the Rod and Greg show. Hey, Greg. Thanks for having me. I just wanted to start by saying when you are merging into traffic. That is zippering, not scissoring. Cisering is something else entirely. There you go. You're right. Well, I'll take the G-rated version of scissoring and say, that's when they cut you off. You know, they just want to cut you off, cut you out right in front of you. They don't want to let you in. They just go to the very end and cut you up. Zippering is where you just start to see when the traffic's merging. You get a little closer, and you just start. leaving a little space turn signals come on because you got to get in and people leave a space and you go one after the other that's so you don't wait till the end zippering you start when you start seeing the sign Rex thank you for the clarification sir now's the time to start merging that's right that's right okay all right this is a family ratio right yeah I get these terms right yeah hey Rex thank you for that why is it Greg okay this be one of the beasts that I have about Utah drivers that when you put your signal light on, that you want to change lanes. Oh, this happened to me today. This happened to multiple times today. They do not let you in. They accelerate. What's the, I am. I thought we were considered nice people in this state. You ever been to, remember when we used to have to go to the church, stake center to watch the, you know, the priesthood thing or whatever because it was on the, you know, it was closed caption. So you have to go there. Try to put your reverse light on in the parking lot after that meeting and see if anyone let you out.

let you know good luck because it would after a church meeting after a church about being kind yeah and charitable you try maybe you know we all need a little more church in us because we no one wants to let anybody out in the parking lot but today i'm trying to get over in that hiv lane because i certainly qualify i have a car full of humans okay all adults five of us in this car i don't have to have the pass i qualify to go in that but there's a dotted line and you have a certain amount of time to get in yes And I'm telling you, I got my turn signal in, and I am running out of dotted line, and the car in the HOV lane is, I kid you not, is speeding up so that I do not get in front of them, but doesn't pass me, just stays right there where I can't, there is no way in that dotted line for the HOV lane. I'm going to be able to get over. And I watch that car speed up, just make sure I can't get in front of them, but then not keep going so I can get in. Yeah. I don't know what that is about, but that's actually a thing. You want another beef? What? I called the Utah block. You have two-lane highway. Oh, yeah. Okay? They go the same speed. Both cars are going exactly the same speed. Yes. They know you want to get around them, but they don't move. Yeah, I had that. The Utah block. That's, that was my day today. I love it when I went two trucks, 18-wheelers. There's three lanes. So they want to pass in the slow, the, furthest to the right and in the middle lane. One truck is going maybe one mile an hour faster than the other one, and it wants to pass. Yeah. It's going to take them two miles to pass at that different speed. But by darn, they're going to have to pass that car. That takes two of your three lanes and shuts them completely down because they're not going fast to start with. There's just, one's going ever so slightly faster than the other. So he wants to pass. That doesn't bother. And they're forever. It just takes forever to pass. That doesn't bother me because I know they're trying to get around. You think because you can still pass in the other lane. But I'm telling you, that lane's full, too, because we're all, two lanes are getting completely shut down because they're passing. Everyone's trying to get around them. They're trying to get around. You put your signal light on to get to their lane and they won't let you in. So you're stuck behind these two trucks trying to pass each other. They're in a race. Okay. It's one's going 10 miles an hour. There's going 11. And you're up this hill. And you're waiting. You're stuck. Yeah. I've got one more beef. Hey, this is beef day. I've lived everything you've said so far. So I'm going home the other night on Legacy Highway. And there's a pickup truck. And he's hauling this big old trailer behind him that you can't see around. You've been in that situation, right? He's in that left lane and he will not move, even though there are cars lined up behind him. I know. And he won't get or to the right lane so we can get around. Yep. That's, that was today. That's that people won't. They, they won't get out or how about, yeah, it's. You know what I think it is? I think it's easy to drive in Utah. I think the roads are, it's a grid. There's not a lot of turns. There's not only hairpin. There's certainly there aren't hairpin turns. There's always a median, a wide median on each side. There's always a turning lane that if you want to turn left, you can get the turning lane. You go back east. These are deer paths that they paved over. Okay, these things go everywhere. They zigzag. And it's tight. You have, you have asphalt, then you have a little bit of cinders, and then you've got to someone's yard. Yeah.

a foot from the road. You have cars halfway parked on the street. You are driving. You are paying attention 100% of the time when you drive back. You cannot afford to take your eyes off that road. No, you can't. But here you can drive 50 miles. Your steering will never turns. And I think people get lazy. They get complacent. They stop paying attention. I think that's why drivers are worse here than maybe other places where driving is actually more demanding. Yeah. You got to pay attention closer. Yeah, yeah. When we come back, I've got to share a story. Speaking of traffic, traffic's always fun to talk about and beef about. But I've got to tell you a story about my younger sister. We call her the Deer Slayer. Oh, no. And I'll explain that. When we come back, it is the Rod and Greg show right here on Utah's Talk Radio, 1059, K&RS. Let's go right back to the phones here on Sunday, Friday, and the Rod and Greg show. We go to Mark in West Point. Mark, how are you? Welcome to the show. Hello, gentlemen. How are you? We're doing well. Thank you, Mark. So I asked, I, I, I, I had the same issue on interstates when you got two trucks. I used to think it was them trying to control us. Yes. You know, that's what it feels like. Infecting their roads. But then I talk to them, and now I'm a bus driver, won't say for what county. And those trucks, some of them, some of the companies, put governors, Greg, you should know this when you're a golf cart, when you slam on the accelerator, and he takes off like a winged reptile out of Hades, and then goes, bleh. Yes. Well, they're the exact same thing, just like my bus. but because I'm heavier than the other driver, I always get farther behind. And they get caught on these hills, and they got a 70,000-pound vehicle that can't climb the hill the way it is without. And then when he gets on the other side, the governor kicks in. And so they're stuck. Oh, yeah, that's actually insightful. Mark, I appreciate the insight there because... And I think the golf cart analogies is true because that thing will accelerate or go crazy and then it just slows you down. I didn't know that either. Yeah. Well, now you do. Now I do. Now I do. Back to the phones. Let's go to Carl here in Salt Lake City. Hey, Carl, how are you? Thanks for calling. Very well. Thank you. Hey, I've been here 10 years and I'm trying to figure out something. Is it Utah people or is it possibly somebody from California? I'm a truck driver too, by the way. And literally truck drivers, I don't know, in Louisiana aren't taught to act that way. Matter of fact, on your CDL. It teaches you to be a little bit nicer, especially if you had a defensive driving course. Yes. But I'm wondering a lot of times, is it maybe California people? I don't want to blame my guys here in Utah. Am I wrong? Let me ask you this, Carl, have you driven in California and you're 18-wheeler and are Californians better drivers than Utahans? Really? Yeah. Are they? Are they? What's your experience, Carl?

Well, I would like to think we would be better, but hey, look, I could be wrong. You know, I'm still trying to figure this out, even after 10 years of being here. I'm still trying to figure it out. Yeah, Carl, yeah. I tend to think Californians are better drivers. You know what? I was there recently. I don't know that they are. They drive faster. They drive faster, and I think they move at a pretty good pace. And they'll take those inside lanes and pass you, too. I mean, there are no respect to of the passing lane. But to Carl's point there, you know, we've been getting that Louisiana perspective from Carl on the show lately. I quite like it. But, you know, if CDL licenses and everything, I understand the governor, you know, where the engine won't let you go any faster. But, again, if you have two trucks and one's only going a mile or two an hour faster than the other, can you just, can you just give up and say, okay, I'm just going to stay in this lane behind them because the two mile an hour, it's just not worth taking two miles to pass them, you know? I mean. Yeah. Anyway. Don't be knocking truck drivers. No, I'm not. No, I'm not. I think truck drivers are your best friends on the highway. Yeah, you know what, they see a lot. Truck drivers must listen to me and go, do you know how many dummies and cars I have to endure every day? Do you know how many people cut me off? You know how many times? Anyway, I'm sure that is the case. But all of this stuff I endure today. We had a caller mentioned, and we can't, I don't have time to ask him about John Curtis. We wanted to bring up Curtis today because he voted again, you know, he's speaking out against the War Powers Act. Yeah, there's a ceasefire going on right now. And I will tell you this. How about fund Homeland Security? How about do some of the basic things? Why don't you pass the Save America Act before you worry about whether you can take on the war powers and the mantle of responsibility of declaring war? You can't even get an ID at a... at a voting booth. You can't even find your way to do that, and you're going to tell us that you have the ability, the political will, to declare war when needed. Give me a break. Get that done, John Curtis. All right, hour number three, the Rod and Greg Show coming your way. Stay with us on Utah's Talk Radio, 105-9, NRS.

Jins are a new story or two, so we're letting him go early so he can get over there and make sure everything's all set and he gets his hot dog or something. But Greg will be back with us on Monday, but it should be an exciting game, and we hope the mammoth pulls it off. If so, that will lead to a game seven, I think, which gets underway on... Sunday, I believe. All right, let's continue now with the show. A lot of talk, of course, as a result of what happened last Saturday night at the White House Correspondence Dinner at the Washington Hilton, more political violence taking place. A lot of people are saying what is going on and what is going to change, if anything, is going to change. Well, joining us on our Any Hour Newsmaker line to talk about that is our good friend John Daniel Davidson. He's a senior correspondent with a federalist. He wrote about this. John, thanks for joining us tonight on the Rod and Greg show. any hour services line. Let me ask you this, Jonathan. What is it going to take to stop this? Let's say Barack Obama comes out and tells those on the left to just stop it. Would it make any difference or have we gone too far and nothing apparently is going to stop this political violence, at least in the near future? Could Barack Obama even stop this? I'm not sure because so much of the Democrat Party base has accepted the idea that violence... is an appropriate response to speech that they don't like. And we saw this when Charlie Kirk was assassinated last September. The overwhelming comments online from leftists and Democrats celebrating his death really, I think, point to a kind of rottenness on the American left that they've conflated speech and violence to the point where... They're okay with violence. And I'm not sure that a statement even from someone like Barack Obama would do anything. But of course, you know, it's in part the normalization of violent rhetoric that was brought about by people like Obama and during the Obama administration that created this problem to begin with. And it's a huge problem. And it goes to the political establishment of the Democrats. It also goes to our schools. and universities that have normalized violence as a response to speech. Jonathan, you say, John, that has started during the Obama administration. What exactly happened? I mean, this doesn't happen overnight. It's been building for some time. Where is the beginning of all of this, do you think? I think a lot of it has to do with the takeover of sort of Marxist ideology and Marxist doctrine in our education system. casting you know all of uh... the political life as a struggle between oppressor and oppressed uh... you know with the difference that instead of pitting one class against another, they pit different groups, racial groups, men and women, you know, nationalities against one another, saying one is the oppressor, one is the oppressed, and if you're the oppressed, then you really have carte Todd Blanche to do anything to vindicate your political rights, including resort to physical violence or coercion in the face of...

policies or political speech that you oppose. Why is the media so afraid to point to the left as the reason for this political violence? Are they kind of subtly endorsing it? Why aren't they pointing it out, John? Well, it's, as you say, because they're part of the problem. I mean, you don't have to look back any further than the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020 to see how the media ran cover for what we're... massive acts of violence, the rioting and the looting that took place all over the country. You know, you have the famous CNN reporter who's standing with a burning building behind him saying that the protests were fiery, but mostly peaceful. You know, they supported, they supported those protests and they supported those riots because. It served their own political agenda and confirmed their own political priors. And so, you know, the willingness to go along with that sort of thing in the service of some larger ideological political objective, the media, corporate media at least, has already demonstrated their willingness to do that. And that's, I think, why you don't see them calling it out. What do you make of the whole Kimmel story? And his, you know, his comments about the first lady being an expectant widow. What do you make of all that? It's part of a sort of pattern with this guy. He always dances up right to the line of violent political rhetoric and then claims that he's just joking, that, you know, he's a victim. He's a martyr for free speech. And this is really, you know, an example of the... you know, clown nose on, clown nose off phenomenon that was popularized by John Stewart years and years ago where a comedian can sort of put his clown nose on and pretend that he's just making jokes and then take the clown nose off and be a serious political commentator. And then when he gets pushed back for it, put the clown nose back on and say, what's everybody so upset about? I was just making jokes. Jimmy Kimball has a history of making, you know, sort of violent political statements and endorsing violence and then lying about political violence too. Again, famously he did so when Charlie Kirk was assassinated and ABC suspended his show for a couple days, which he responded to by claiming to be the victim. But keep in mind, you know, this is a guy who's on FCC regulated airwaves. This isn't a YouTube show. This goes out, this is broadcast. And he's out there making... false statements to justify political violence, to minimize political violence, and then as we saw just recently, to endorse seemingly to endorse political violence. What did you make of the fact that I think it was one or two days after the latest attempt on the president's life, that here comes the media rolling out this study, so to speak, I think it was out of Cincinnati, showing that the violence is equal on both the left and right, and that argument to support the Democrats who say, well, there's both side-ism taking place here. What'd you make of that, Jay Jones? It's a totally discredited analysis and totally discredited theory of political violence.

There's no way, especially looking at the last decade or two, that you can say that we have a both sides problem with political violence in this country, not just the instances of political violence, but the attitudes toward political violence themselves. A lot of these studies will cook their numbers by including gang-based violence inside prisons. you know, which often have a racial component, and they'll chalk up all sort of white supremacist prison gang violence to violence on the right, political violence on the right. And that's how they sort of juice the numbers. That's a well-known tactic in the both-sides and sort of discourse. But when you look at polling, you see an overwhelming support for political violence on the left. And, you know, in my piece, I cited a couple of recent polls that showed... huge, in one case a majority, 56% in this Rutgers study of left self-described liberals. And then, you know, other studies have shown the same. Way, way more people on the left are okay with political violence in terms of the polling than people on the right. Do you expect this to stop anytime soon, John? I don't. And the reason I don't is because people who are okay with political violence don't stop unless they are stopped. And until we really crack down on the groups that promote political violence, treat them as the domestic terror organizations that they are, prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law, impose real consequences. They will continue as they have done thinking that they can engage in this sort of incendiary rhetoric. They can promote it, provoke it, plan it, support it, and there'll be no consequences for them. On our any hour newsmaker line, John Daniel Davidson, he's with the federalist talking about political violence in this country. All right, when we come back, we'll talk about homeless services based on your sex or your race. That's coming up next on The Rotting Greg show here on Utah's Talk Radio 1059, K&RS. Let's get a news update now. Here's Abby. The Rotting Greg show on Utah's Talk Radio, 1059, KNRS, live everywhere on the IHeart Radio app. Thanks so much for joining us this evening. As you work your way home into a weekend, I think the weather's going to be a little bit nicer this weekend. We'll have to wait and see. Well, homelessness is a major issue in this country, and nobody has apparently solved it. We still deal with issues. about homelessness in this city and around the country is even worse. Oregon, Los Angeles. I think Los Angeles has the largest homeless population that we have in the country today. But a new report shows that in some cities, homeless services are doled out. based on your race and your sexual identity. Can you believe that? Well, joining us on our Any Hour Newsmaker line, Aaron Siberian. He is an associate editor with a Washington Free Beacon. Greg and I had a chance to talk with him earlier, and we asked him about what's going on and what he has found out in this report on homelessness. Yeah, so there are five states and at least a dozen cities that incorporate racial preferences into their allocation schemes for homeless services.

So there will be points-based systems that effectively rank people sort of for a priority for, say, public housing. And those points-based systems will, in some cases, give extra point people based on their race or sexual orientation. And there's a whole bunch of other preferences, too, at almost every stage of the service delivery process that are designed to prioritize, explicitly prioritize. non-white and non-straight people for passing. You know, I would have told you that the homeless services in general are too myopic. They're too siloed. They measure their success by just very, like if, you know, just small things like if you get a housing voucher, you're done. And they don't know that that person can't live there beyond their housing voucher, that they're not watching how people get back to self-being sustainable, a lot of things. What I would have not guessed was that In addition to the siloed services that are just so myopic already that exists in this industrial complex of homelessness and its funding, that race is now another layer on top of that. Is there any success model out there for any delivery of homelessness services that anyone can point to that would show that they're not siloed A and B, they're certainly not even micro siloed into race and protected classes? Well, on the second one, I mean, there's plenty of states and cities that don't do this. I mean, you know, it's a trend, but it's also not necessarily the majority. So it's not like there's some iron law of history that says all democratic states are going to flagrantly violate the Constitution and the Fair Housing Act and distribute homeless services based on race. They don't have to do it. They just chose to. Yeah. But do any of them work? Yeah, do any of them work, Karen? Do any of them work? Well, you know, Portland has one of the worst homeless crises in the country, and that's also where they have some of the strongest racial preferences that they explicitly lay out in a scoring rubric I obtained. You know, you see these quotas show up in Los Angeles. Oakland, San Francisco, all cities are famous for their homelessness problems. PG County, another one, which is a pretty bad homeless problem in Maryland. They have some amount of racial prioritization going on. So yeah, I mean, the places that do this, you obviously want to be careful about conflating correlation with causation, but it certainly doesn't seem to be the case that this racial prioritization has done a whole lot to abate their homelessness problem. Aaron, you touched on this a moment ago. You mentioned Portland, and you focus. You begin your article in the Washington Free Beacon, taking a look at Multnomah County. What drew you to that? What did you see there as saying, this is a place where I think I need to begin? Are they worse than anybody else around the country? Yeah, they are probably among the worst because they had, you know, a lot of these programs really operate at the level of kind of regional funding or grant distribution, which is... bad, but this is more granular. This is operating at the level of who is prioritized for the city's stock of permanent supportive housing.

Here's my question. Can this, with this past muster in the courts, I mean, this sounds like discrimination, reverse discrimination, whatever you want to call. We just had the Supreme Court decision today that says you can't draw congressional districts based on this kind of measure. Is there a way to go to the courts and end homeless services based on race and sexual identity? Yeah, so it's almost certainly illegal. The challenge is that Finding a homeless plaintiff to challenge these laws would be somewhat challenging for obvious reasons, but that wouldn't stop the Justice Department necessarily from opening an investigation. And yeah, these things are liable under all sorts of different laws. And with this being done in Democratic cities, why do I get the sense that probably nothing is going to be done? Would you agree with me on that, Aaron? Nothing is going to be done on this, unfortunately. Probably not of the city's own volition, but the Trump administration has been attempting to reform the homeless delivery, homeless service delivery process through its funding grants. And that's kind of been stopped up in court right now. But I suspect that the Trump administration, if they see this, will think, huh, here's a lot of flagrant 14th Amendment violations going on. Maybe we should ask them whether they want to keep receiving HUD funding, you know, or maybe we open a civil rights complaint. I mean, I do think that if they actually get investigated by the administration, some of these programs will fall pretty quickly because they're just so brazenly illegal. Aaron Siberian, he is with the Washington Free Beacon, an associate editor there talking about services to homeless people being told out based on your race and your sexuality. being done around the country, including in Portland, Oregon. Surprise, surprise, right? All right, our Listen Back Friday segments coming up next right here on the Rotting Greg Show on this Friday afternoon, here on Utah's Talk Radio 105-9, KNRS, right? Buttons that you can set and just punch them. Hopefully you'll make Talk Radio number one on that list, but it's a great app downloaded and you can listen to us everywhere. All right, every Friday at this time, we do what we call our Listen Back Friday segments. What we do is we review all the newsmakers and... issues we've discussed this past week and select a couple that we thought were very good interviews, first of all, and an opportunity to catch those if you didn't get to listen to them during the show this past week. We start off with an interview that Greg and I did with Derek Brown. He, of course, the Utah Attorney General. There was a recent survey done in Australia. Now, Australia has banned social media and websites to anybody under 16. But a survey of teenagers found that 60% of teenagers have found a workaround and still have access to social media, despite what Australia is trying to do to prevent that. Of course, Derek Brown has been actively involved in this effort to stop this. And we asked them, first of all, how these apps are hurting our children and how these companies are profiting from them. Well, the reality is these, for all the power and the amazing things that these devices can do. There's a level of addiction that we're all, we're seeing this. We know this. We know that this is just the kind of thing that is impacting, you know, kids. And what we want is, I mean, frankly, I'm a parent. I want kids to graduate from high school without an addiction. And the problem is everywhere we turn, these apps.

are specifically engineered to be responded to. And so, I mean, we have literally sued, we've sued Snapchat, which, I mean, we've got all sorts of problems with Snapchat with TikTok, with meta. I mean, one of the other things that we reference briefly is just the online gambling epidemic. I mean, we've worried for the last couple of years about the impact of these social media apps. on kids and and you know for young girls the body image issues that they have and now we're seeing the same kind of thing impact our young boys when it comes to gambling and just the prevalence of gambling ass and how easy it is and how effortless and how easy it is to get addicted. And so, I mean, these are, I mean, it's, it's all this plague on our youth and there's adults and as, you know, the, the attorney general for Utah, my job is to figure out how do we attack this? How do we protect these kids? I mean, it's one thing if you're an adult and you want to do this, I mean, you know, do what you do, but if you're 17 or 16 or 13. You know, we want to do everything we can to stop you from getting addicted or hooked at that level. Derek, is it difficult to attack? You mentioned we've got to attack this, but is it difficult to go after companies like Snapchat and TikTok? What avenues do you look to to go after them with? Well, part of it is the deceptive nature of what they're doing. And one of the things that we are really concerned about is that these apps are designed to be addictive. And what happens is you start seeing, I mean, I've seen these documents, and I referenced that in the op-ed. I've seen the evidence. What happens is they know how to create deliberately addictive content and then to have it just omnipresent. It's always there. And so. It is engineered in a way that, you know, we respond as adults or as humans to dopamine. And these apps just continually just inject dopamine into the system again and again and again. And you have these flashing notifications. And you've got, you know, the, it's like they, kids are not able. to put it down. And the reality is, and what's most problematic is that this addictive nature is something the companies know. And they've known about it, and they have used it to their advantage. And we've seen the same thing, frankly, with these online gambling apps. You know, you may lose a bunch of money, but you keep getting pinged over and over and over, saying, hey, you can recoup your losses if you just now bet on this or you bet on that. And so, I mean, these are all part of a series of devices that are, they're not just addictive, but they're, they're in your pocket. They're in our kids' pockets 24-7.

So that's the real plague about this whole issue. So I don't know if this is a false memory or if I've just heard this in theory and discussion or if this has actually happened. So I don't, I seem to recall an incident, maybe even recent where a bill was passed in our state legislature. A tech company was litigating that bill, arguing it wasn't constitutional. It was ruled in some other state or it was found that the state itself would be hard pressed or would not be able to enforce the law passed. And so they dropped their lawsuit or it was it was in process. They dropped it because of another ruling where it would be hard for the state to enforce. However, the retort to that was it still nevertheless created a private right of action where parents or those that had been harmed by that tech company could sue the tech company or could litigate for the damage done. that pathway had been created. Is that in theory? Did that really happen here in Utah? It makes sense to me that it might be hard for the state itself to enforce all of what these internet companies do, social media companies do, but private right of action will give people a lot, we'll give them some maybe tools in the tool shed to be able to react to what happens to their kids. That is. And for those who don't know what a private right of action is, that's where the bill basically says. It's not just the attorney general or some random person. You know, anybody, if you're impacted by the damage that's caused, can actually file an action. And so we're seeing this all over the, we're seeing this all over the country. And the reality is what we're looking at is that this is. Just, it's a business model, right? I mean, you're looking at it in what you referenced, Greg. It's like you're identifying what makes people vulnerable and then you're automating the exploitation of what makes it vulnerable. And then you're pretty much just scaling it to whatever device happens to be in their pocket. And so, and just so, you know, we do work. I work all the time with other attorneys general and other states because. You know, every state has different types of laws when it comes to things like age verification or deceptive acts or social media or whatever the case may be. And so we do work together. I spend actually a significant amount of time interacting and having our legal teams interact as well with other states to make sure that we're all working together because, I mean, the reality is there's a lot of partisan issues that I deal with. I mean, no surprise there. But when it comes to protecting kids. Man, there's nothing partisan about this. And Republicans, Democrats, all of us, when we get on the phone together, like we're in lockstep on how do we help our kids. Attorney General Derek Brown on our Listback Friday segment right here on Utah's Talk Radio 105-9, KNRS. And that game gets underway here in a short time. All right, let's continue with our Listback Friday segment. You know, we were talking earlier this hour if you didn't catch it with John Daniel Davidson. He's with a federalist about political violence in this country. Today, Liz Peek, a columnist with Fox News, joined us this week as well, talking about what's driving young Americans to violence. And we asked Liz what...

What makes young people in America so angry right now? Well, I actually do think there are a lot of things we can talk about, like gaming. This latest assassination attempt against President Trump was, you know, a 31-year-old guy that apparently was deep into gaming, as was Tyler Robinson who killed. Charlie Kirk and we see a lot of the really dark games kind of get and I think actually that came out of COVID a lot of people were not allowed to go to school so what they do they sat in their basements and played video games I think social media is a problem and so forth. But, you know, I also think that an awful lot of young people in this country have been convinced by the likes of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, that the entire country is corrupt. All our institutions are corrupt. If you listen to the language that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders spew on their tour. for example, they talk about how everything, the billionaires are stealing from you. They're not creating anything. They're taking your hard earned money and stealing it. Insurance companies are stealing from you. I mean, it's pretty appalling. And I think it has led to very widespread distrust in government, distrust in our institutions and in corporate America. So that's not very healthy. And look, I mean, I think we all can agree that there are times when all of our institutions and corporate America should be questioned, should be challenged, but to have this pervasive sense that you have no future because no matter what you do, the game is rigged against you, I think that is a very big problem. But the second thing I would say is that we're talking young men. Young women have a problem too, which is that... I think this all showed up in this really heinous conversation that was posted by the New York Times last week about basically micro looting and how you can get even by stealing from Whole Foods. You know, and part of that conversation appalled me. Because you have these young women saying, oh, I just, you know, it's very hard to lead an ethical life. Every time I go get my iced coffee in a plastic cup, I feel very terrible about myself. If I take an airplane, you know, I feel undeserving or something like that. I mean, wow, you know, they have set themselves up to be miserable people. So if you look at young people overall. I think they've bought into a lot of really radical negativity and they've compounded it by taking to heart.

all of the alarms about social justice and climate change and so forth to such a degree that they cannot live a normal life. It's really sad. So, Liz, this is my theory, and tell me where I'm wrong, because you're super smart, smarter than me. I think these kids have too much time on their hands. One of the things you notice, these are affluent kids. So when I was young, when I was even in high school, I was a bellhop at a sheriff, and I parked cars at Tamblini's restaurant. I worked through college. I was... You know, a bus boy, I was the omelet chef at the brunch on Sundays. I worked. My kids have worked their Generation Z. They've worked through college as well. It seems if you're busy and you're trying to make, you're trying to make money, you've got a job, you're going to school, do you have time to get this wound up about, you know, champagne socialist or maybe luxury beliefs? They just have too much time on their hands? That's what I see. Well, I think there is some of that. If you look at the sort of roster of shooters and would be killers in recent times, an awful lot of them are college graduates. Cole Allen went not just a Caltech. He had a master's degree. And I agree with you. I mean, I think a lot of them are not working very hard. They have all this education behind them. Their parents are supporting them. And, you know, look at our mayor, Zohran Mamdani in New York. Same deal. He's never really had a real job. His parents supported him. And so you kind of, I think you're right. There's too much time on their hands. Anyone who really has to go out and earn a living. and take care of a house and take care of a family, they don't have time for this stuff. I agree with you 100%. And by the way, they also get, when you're working hard and paying your bills and dealing with things like health insurance, you get a big old dose of reality. You figure out how the world works. You want to add an addition to your house and you run into 16 different complications and permits you need and all the stuff that makes people crazy about government and big government. You know, if you're not doing that, you think big government has all the answers. These people, I'm going, I mean, I was connecting the dots between the assassination attempt and this terrible conversation that was in the New York Times, which your listeners have probably heard, talked about. But to think that these highly educated people, influencers, God forbid, are actually... buying Zohran Mamdani as an example of good governance. Like he's got the answers. Guess what? He doesn't have any answers. And he's driving New York into a fiscal crisis because he doesn't have any answers. And he's driving businesses and people out of the city who can afford to leave. I mean, that's the reality. That is where all of this breaks down. But these kids who are supposedly very, very smart, they don't get it. I honestly can't understand that. Liz Peake, a Fox News columnist, a friend of the show, joining us earlier this week to talk about angry young Americans and what is driving them to political violence. All right, that does it for us this week. As we say each and every night, head up, shoulders back. May God bless you and your family in this great country of ours. Have a very safe, great weekend, everybody. We'll be back Monday at 4 with a brand new edition of the Rod and Greg Show.