The Rod and Greg Show: Trump Removes U.S. from WHO; Trump Dominates in Davos

Every dating app swipe is another loss. Jimbros, fake CEOs, straight up losers. So now the only app I open is Moto Casino because at least there I'm surrounded by winners. Real winners, thousands of them. While everyone else is in the single swamp, I'm at home relaxing while stacking bonuses, hit and wins and playing all my favorite Vegas-style games. Modo Casino, the only app worth your time. Moto Casino, the Social Casino, where prohibited, no purchase necessary, visit moto.us for more details. Download the Modo Casino app today. Must be 21 Plus. Things keep going on, but we have a lot to unpack. Yeah, we do. We do. We do. It is the Rod and Greg show right here on Utah's Talk Radio, 1059, KNS, live everywhere on the IHeart Radio app, as you mentioned. We're at the Morris Columbus Travel Expo. I think it's going to be a good year for travel. There are a lot of people here today. And it just started a couple hours ago. They're all coming to see our guest who will be coming up in a few minutes. They want to see him in that ugly Hawaiian shirt. Yeah, Larry Goethe. He's pointing at himself. But also the greatest, you know, rugby high school coach ever. He's in the Hall of Fame. Do you know he's in the Hall of Fame? They made a movie about him. Yeah, I know they did. And it's not even his day job. He's a travel guy, and he's in the Hall of Fame for something. He doesn't even brag about. That's just Larry. Well, he's humble. Yes, he is. Unlike someone I know. Hey, Larry, don't worry. I get it all the time. He gets it all the time. Larry, don't worry. This is verbal rugby we play here. I got thick skin. Well, we're going to be talking a lot about a lot of issues today. Greg, we're going to talk about the U.S. finally made a great decision. No more will our tax dollars be going to the World Health Organization. That's it. No more. No more. It's about time. It is about time. I don't think they, it didn't show well during COVID. I think they all were proven to be, if not crazy. Well, wrong, if not crazy. So I think that that's a, that decision is long overdue. Yeah, we're on talking about that. We'll talk about how the president. Donald Trump, I think it's fair to say, owned Davos. Oh. It was Donald Trump show. They just got to call it Donos. Don't know it Donos. I don't know who this Davos guy is, but it was Donos. You just call it Donos. Rename the town, not Davos, but Donos. Donos. It's Donos. So we'll talk about that. We'll talk about free school choice in America and Utah. Report came out. We do very well when it comes to the issue of school choice. You and I tomorrow will be emceeing a big event about school choice. That's right. We at the Juan Diego High School and Draper, and it's an annual celebration of school choice, and we did it last year to great applause. I mean, it was an embarrassment of riches, the people, the way, how we were received as emcees. And I'm sure it'll be, you know, the encore. I think it'll be the same tomorrow. But no. Anyway, it's a fun event tomorrow that we'll be at. And speaking of fun events, it's fun to be here. Yeah. At the Travel Expo. It is. All right. Story of the day. And this story continues, Greg, is the anti-ice narrative.

about ICE detaining a five-year-old boy in Minneapolis. You know, yeah, I had a conversation with someone today who was confused as to whether that was a, if ICE really did mistreat this five-year-old or not. And I said it's actually not up for debate. He, they. You know, they did not. And they said, well, you can't trust media anymore. And some media says he did. Some media says he doesn't. And I said, well, the vice president of Minnesota yesterday. He looked into it himself and personally reported that the narrative is absolutely false. And if you can't trust your vice president, I don't know what to tell you after that. Well, let me ask you this, Greg. Where was the concern? Where was the concern when it was learned that the Biden administration lost track of, what, 364,000 migrant kids? That's right. Unaccompanied minors. Or they lost them, or what the whistleblower said, who was a lifelong Democrat said. strangers would pick them up and they would allow them to leave with people that were not related to them that they had no touch on or even knew and they allowed that to happen so 164,000 missing on a company miners and ones that had been picked up picked up by strangers and that had been permissible and nobody is raising concern about them but this one little boy and the narrative is that ice detained him Well, that is simply not the case. The Department of Homeland Security, the assistant director there in Minneapolis, spoke to the media today and tried to shed even more light on what happened to this little five-year-old boy. Play that, if you would, Ray. When officers approached Gonejo Arias, he and his child were in a vehicle. Arias fled from law enforcement on foot, abandoning his child in the middle of winter in a vehicle. One of our officers stayed behind with that child while other officers apprehended his father. After conducting the arrest, my officers stayed with the child. They cared for him, took him to get something to eat from a drive-thru restaurant, and spent hours ensuring he was taken care of. Again, my officers did that, not his father. My officers did everything they could to reunite him with his family. Tragically, when we approached the door of his residence, The people inside refused to take him in and open the door. Let me say it again. They saw the young boy and they refused to open the door and take him back. This is the human side of the job that my officers do. They are family, men and women. They have children of their own. They sacrifice everything for their families. I know for a fact that they were heartbroken. to see the child's own family leave him behind. That's a pretty sad story. It is going to arrest, going to get his father. His father takes off. They try and take the little boy back into his home where his family is. They refuse to answer the door. So they're leaving this little five-year-old boy out in the cold.

Different story than what you're getting from the anti-oist protesters. And we're not talking, yeah, and we're not talking like an Axios leftist, you know, fringe news source. We're talking ABC news. We're talking major networks of regime media, but ones that people would watch and assume what they're hearing isn't. The polar opposite of the truth. But that is the case that what they're saying has no reflection on the reality of what happened. They're just totally ignoring it. And we'll continue to follow that storyline throughout the day on the show. They all want to meet you. They don't care about me. They don't care about me. They say, are you Rodo Kett? And I just sit here. It just starts to get awkward. They just want to meet you. That's fine. I'm happy. I'm happy for you. I'm happy for the show. We have so many of our listeners here. It's fun to meet. listeners and get to meet them. It's all the time. It is all the time. Well, it's official, and I think it's a great idea. The United States, Greg, has now cut dyes with the World Health Organization. And my question is, what took us so long? Seriously. I mean, there was no wet market where COVID started, and we've known this really for months after it happened. It all sounded pretty suspect from the start. But now, the World Health Organization, It had such an adversarial role in Americans' lives, even around the world. So I just think it's overdue. Well, joining us on our newsmaker line to talk all about this is our next guest. He is the Executive Director of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. His name is Ross Marchand. Ross, how are you? Welcome to the Rod and Greg Show. Thanks for joining us. Thanks. Great to be on your show. Ross, let me ask you this. As I mentioned at the beginning, it is about time. What took the United States so long to figure this out, Ross? That's a great question. And it's been clear for years, and TPA has been analyzing this issue for years. The WHO is just a bad faith actor, and it steals money. And, you know, to put it very charitably, to put it very mildly, they misappropriate these taxpayer dollars and put it towards all sorts of just terrible end goals. So, for example, they help China cover up COVID cases, early COVID cases. And they try to shame smokers from using reduced risk alternatives to quit cigarettes. So WHO has been a mess for years. So, again, it's been a mess for years. And Trump's been in office for just a year. But why do you think it was, because you've seen a lot of action. I mean, the one thing this president does is he doesn't waste a lot of time. I would have thought that this was 11 months and what, 29 days? too late. Is there a reason why they even, the severing ties didn't happen any earlier than now? Yeah, one word formalities. So President Trump had to give a year notice. Now, he kicked started withdrawal from the WHO in 2020, but of course a lot of stuff got in the way and President Biden reversed that. So it took a few years of going one direction and going another direction, but better late than never.

Let me ask you this, Ross. There's no doubt that the U.S. is really the world leader in protecting public health and saving lives, responding rapidly to health outbreaks. I mean, can the WHO even exist anymore if the United States isn't there? Yes, they can exist, but they're going to have to do some soul searching because for such a long time, they've just been so wasteful and so ineffective. So I think it takes a large country like the United States to say, you know what, we are done with you guys for the WHO to say, look, we really need to change the way that we do business. And of course, that desperately needs to happen at the WHO and the UN as well for that matter. You know, for our listeners, what does it even mean? So I can tell you what it meant to me during the time of COVID and the draconian rules, mandates, quarantines that we all endured. But what would it mean, what does it mean today for our listeners for the United States to disassociate itself with this organization? I mean, the taxpayers don't have to spend $500 million per year anymore on an organization that tells you what to do based on misinformation. They pass all these mandates, all these controls, and the spending goes towards, what, lavish travel by WHO employees, goes towards mandates that are just terrible and ill-informed and unenforceable. All these terrible things, fortunately now are coming to an end, and taxpayers in the U.S. will not be on the line any longer for it. Ross, let me ask you this question. We've talked about the impact this will have on the WHO. What impact does this have on the United States of America, the people who are Americans, now that we're out of it? Is this going to mean, are there benefits for us here in the United States knowing that we no longer have to spend money on the WHO? Sure. Well, I think it frees up money to go back to taxpayers' pockets, go back towards families, and they could spend that money, that $500 million per year as they see fit, instead of, again, footing the bill for these, you know, lavish travel expenses, these high-end hotels, first-class air travel. That money belongs in Americans' pockets, not international bureaucrats. The thing I think, if you asked anyone about the WHO or any of these health organizations, they're just bossy, just telling us what to do, telling us our kids can't. CDC gets in this mix, too. But in terms of directives, things that institutions would adopt, is there anything by way of the World Health Organization that we have had part of our... you know, our normal day life that we no longer get bossed around by this group or if this group's absent and they're not the political cover, maybe some of the other health recommendations that we're told we have to do. Does that change at all? So aside the taxpayer savings, there's got to be something where I'm not being bossed around as much. Is there us? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, so the WHO has this sub-agency called the Cancer Research Agency.

And they look at all these products ranging from coffee to aloeira juice. And they label all these products as cancer causing. And what happens when they make those determinations is states like California place bans and restrictions on these products accordingly. And as goes California, as goes the rest of the nation. So we all pay the price in terms of restrictions, and they all come from the WHO saying, hey, coffee causes cancer, aloeuvra juice causes cancer, and various herbs cause cancer. It's just, it's not grounded in any evidence, and customers have been paying the price for years. Ross, I mean, WHO has been around since what, about 1948 as a result of the United Nations and what happened there. Was it always out of control or did it just get worse the longer it lived? I mean, it got worse as time went on. So what happened was, I think you had these bureaucrats who, you know, at first they lived within their means more or less, but over time, like the coffers opened up and the U.S. began footing more and more of the bill for the WHO. And the bureaucrats, they realized, hey, we have a blank check. We could spend this money any way we want without accountability. And things only got worse from there. Ross, great information, good news for the United States and the taxpayers and everybody else. Thank you for your time. Thank you for having me on. All right, that's Ross. He's executive director of the Taxpayers Protection Coalition. Can you name one thing the WHO has done for you and your family? No, I think who is a good word. I think you ought to call it. Who? Who? Who? I don't even say WHO. You just say who? By the way, is there anything better looking than a listener and a Rod and Greg hat? No, and we've given out a few of them, and they look fantastic. And they said goodbye. They were leaving. They wanted to say goodbye. They were saying goodbye. But the hat, the hat makes, whatever they're wearing, it puts the whole ensemble together. It's beautiful. And we're autographing them for them. We did. We were asked to, so. We did that, too. We are broadcasting live from the, from the, Ray said, no, it's worth it. Good point, E, Ray. We're broadcasting live from the Morris Columbus Travel Expo here at the South Town Expo Center. They're here until 8 o'clock tonight. If you want to travel, this is a place to come and get all the information you need. And they do a great job. And the words out, I'm going to tell you, folks, the words out, this place is quite full. I saw the classrooms as I was walking in for the show. I'm telling you, there's a lot of people here. Come on by. And we know they're smart because they're Rod and Greg listening. They are. A lot of them are. All right, more coming up on the Rod at Greg show and Utah's Talk Radio 105.9, K&RS. Moto Casino is pure American energy.

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No, I think it really was a stark. And remember the hysteria we saw midweek, where European leaders were saying, well, this is going to be the end of NATO, the end of the rules-based order. They were talking about sending a couple dozen trips to Greenland. I think they did send them there, but they weren't there very long. And Trump came in, and Greenland wasn't even a priority. He first talked about his foreign policy successes. He bashed the Europeans pretty hard. for their really abysmal economic and energy policies. Then he got around the Greenland and said, well, I have this deal that the NATO Secretary General helped negotiate, and I'm not going to invade. It really took the wind out of the sales of these Europeans who were losing their mind. Fred, did he get what he wanted, do you think, out of Greenland? It looks like... He will, and it's some kind of an agreement where we will have sovereignty under the bases that we have in Greenland, mineral rights, some broader right to use Greenland, and China and Russia will not be allowed to have a presence. And the president said this is everything we wanted, so I guess he did. So there is a moment, and then maybe, I don't know if it was edited or not, but it just seemed to be just hilarious. He said, you know, China's, they're not dumb. They build these worthless windmills for stupid people. And then he says, you know, Europe's got a lot of windmills. I just thought that was, that was just a smack. Did he really come across like that, or did someone show me in edited speech? Because it sounded, that's the way it read. He just said that Wilmills are for stupid people. And he just talked about how countries like the UK that has vast oil resources in the North Sea, but because of left-wing energy policies, it increasingly can't be drilled. So the Brits are now relying on sources of energy that's extremely unreliable because, you know, we don't know when the wind will blow. And, you know, the... The economies in these countries are really suffering. They are. Fred, after he gave that speech the day of, I started the show off by saying Donald Trump's got a lot of guts. I mean, he stood in front of these leaders, 60 or 80 leaders from Europe and really around the world, and he said, without the United States, you would be speaking German and Japanese today. I mean, that took a lot of guts right in front of them to say, without us, you may not even be here. I mean, that took some guts. And, you know, what sort of sparks this? What sparks this tension?

And I saw this between the Trump terms was this incredible hostility by the European elite, by the European media about Trump. And I mean, they certainly did this during the first term. And Trump remembers this. The fact is that they were openly campaigning against him. They were not taking him seriously. And even as president, you can see frequently these European leaders. They're trying to basically weigh him out. And, you know, Trump resents it. You know, the leftist didn't have a good day or a good week there at Davos. I mean, I think Al Gore went and he didn't really make himself very popular. But what's the story with Canada? I understand the prime minister got up and left at some point during the conference. I mean, they're North America. Does that sour it at all for Donald Trump and what he intended to do at this economic summit? Canada has a far left prime minister. that has talked about trying to replace the United States with China. And I was in Canada at a conference a few months ago, and I really couldn't believe this, but I talked to our ambassador, Pete Hoekshire, he's an old friend of mine, and he just was saying he's having a terrible time with the Canadian government because of these far left wingers. who are so angry at the United States. And, you know, we're seeing in these countries, they're moving in a different direction in terms of culture and civil rights. You know, this censorship of people for saying the wrong thing. It's a real problem in the U.K. It's becoming a big problem, Canada, too. Fred, as always, great having you on the show and your analysis of this. Thank you. And enjoy the weekend. Thank you, Fred. You too. Thank you. All right. Fred Flites talking about Donald Trump and his domination of the Davos Summit this week. Well, one of our assistants here, Dave just came by and told us something. There are protesters. Outside our building. Well, not outside our building. Just a couple of buildings down. You didn't even know this. I didn't. Is the Department of Homeland Security Office here in Utah. Why aren't we broadcasting live from their place? I don't know. Just out of appreciation for all the good they do. Well, we probably should. But apparently today is a big walkout day. They've organized and they're asking people all around the country, don't open their businesses, don't go to school as part of an anti-ice demonstration. Yeah. Did they have an anti-fireman demonstration for the fires that are out that the firemen try to put out? I guess that would, that seems to be wrongheaded. But apparently, Dave was saying as our vehicle drove by, they gave us the one finger salute. They said we're number one. Well, we are. We are number one. Yeah, they gave us the one finger salute. Number one in the market, number one in the time slot, drive time. Thanks for noticing, folks. That's what I say to them. Yeah, we do appreciate it. Appreciate you noticing, and we like that because that thing is going nowhere, to be honest. Not here. Not here. No, no, it's not going here at all. We love public safety, and we're pretty much against lawlessness. I don't even think that's a partisan position. I think we just hate lawlessness. We do. I mean, shouldn't we all hate lawlessness? Wouldn't you think? Hey, did you see that weird trophy that the FBI gave themselves for Operation Arctic Frost going after the president?

That Kash Patel found at the FBI. What was the trophy? So get this. They have a public corruption division, and they awarded themselves weirdly a trophy. congratulating themselves for the the uh the arctic cross investigation that they had turned over to Jack Smith and uh so that he showed what this trophy looked like and and what i think Kash Patel was trying to show is look at the mindset of the people that were in this building look at the look at how they you know we're talking about what was then the past president anyway You want to talk about it lawfare, and you want to talk about going after political opponents, and it's just give themselves a trophy to take what they do so lightly and to be so draconian about it. Anyway, I saw that, it's not even a nice trophy either, by the way. I wouldn't want that trophy. Nice trophy. Well, we've got another hour coming up. Well, we've got two hours coming up. We're just at the start. Hour number two is coming on its way. We open up the phones to our great, great listeners, talk about whatever is on their mind tonight. It's always fun. Yes. Yeah, we do come back, folks. We want to hear from you as well. It's Friday. What's on your mind? What have you seen this week? What do you want to unpack with us to talk about as we head into the weekend? All coming up on the rather great show. Stay with us. We're broadcasting live from the 30th annual Morris Columbus Travel Expo. It's the largest travel show in Utah. Over 100 travel vendors are here today, almost anywhere you want to go in the world. They've got someone here who can help you. It's true. And they don't just show you where you could go. They have these seminars. They're really interesting. It looks like they can walk you through the whole experience, and there's an opportunity to even Taylor May. you know, Taylor, what you want to do, how you want to do it. So it looks, it's amazing. And it's well received. Yeah. And, you know, you must need to be very, very smart with your money and your time. to be here because it happens that they're also listeners of our show. A lot of them are. It means that they're very smart. A lot of them are. And wise with their time that they listen to the show. I'm seeing more rotting Greg hats floating around. Man, I'll tell you what, everybody looks great. But when you put the hat on, man, it's that chef's kiss. They just look unbelievable. A chef's kiss. I've never heard that. Never see that. That's good. That's good. All right. So we'll be here all day. We invite you to come on by. By the way, they're giving away free stuff. Like free trips to Hawaii, Fiji, Europe?

hourly they're giving away prize giveaways i never mention that because i'm not eligible so i don't i just get a little bit annoyed that i can't ever win any of these things that we do yeah all right uh we want to open up the phones to you tonight and our talkback line as well because uh you know spent a crazy week again it seems like every week you've got this crazy story about ice detaining a five-year-old boy make sure you understand what happened here because it's not what the narrative You're hearing from the elite media right now. It is not that. But they're trying to make it that. We had with the president, who I think made an historic speech before Davos, 80 world leaders. And he basically laid it on the line as to how important America is today, how well the economy is doing. What are we doing for worldwide security? I think he really made a wonderful pitch. And then the other one that we want to talk about, Greg. And both you and I saw this today. American Social Casino. Welcome to Modo Casino, where the excitement never ends, with thousands of the hottest free-to-play social casino games, fastest payouts, and the best promotions in the industry. No tricks or gimmicks. Owned and operated in the USA. Motocasinos are free-to-play social casino. No purchase necessary 21 plus to play void were prohibited. Sign up today for a generous welcome bonus.

This may be, I think, Greg, one of the most ridiculous public opinion polls I've ever seen. It really is. It's just nuts. It is so unhinged. It has to be done deceptively. I don't think you could be dumb enough to put this out there and report it the way they're doing it. It's, yeah, I think it's, I think it's done on purpose to be manipulative. Well, the poll was conducted by the Economist, which is a very liberal UK publication. And they think they're so smart. Yeah, they think they're so smart. Well, the poll says America's say the U.S. is out of control and it's not just liberals. Now, they of course are blaming Donald Trump for the country being out of control. Surprise, surprise. This opinion piece, and it's in the USA today, but it is saying that. 71% believe that this country is out of control. 50% of respondents identified as conservative. So the conclusion of this columnist is even the Republicans themselves think Donald Trump is out of control, not the country. Somehow, when you say, I think the country's out of control, you must not be talking about the places of worship that have been invaded by the anti-ice people, the chaos and fear they're fermenting, stopping ice, confronting ice. Everything that the left is doing to do exactly that, create fear and chaos, would lead any reasonable people to believe that things are out of control. This columnist puts none of that on the left and puts it squarely in the lap of the President of the United States. It's crazy. It's absolutely a crazy conclusion. I want to ask you, Greg, how many people who are supportive of Donald Trump, megafokes and others as well, 77 million of us, how many of them have you seen marching in the streets of late? Have you seen any? No. How many of them have you seen invading a church? Here? Yeah. Have you seen any of them? No. No. How many of you have been banging pots and pans outside of hotels to keep officials awake? I would say zero. None, right? So who is out of control? The people who are common sense, fair-minded Americans, who supported the president or those who don't? Who's more out of control in this country today? I'm going to take leftist liberals for 100, Rod. Ding, ding, ding, ding. That's my answer. That's my final answer. But that's what that poll says. It's because of Donald Trump and the things that he's trying to do. That 70% of the country disapprove and think the country's out of control. No, that is not the conclusion. It's not even the question they asked. They just asked, do you think this country's out of, do you think it's out of control? And 71% say yes. Don't exclude yourself, economist, your worldview or the columnist who's writing this. that his worldview, that you're the reason that people feel that it's out of control. You know, the thing about this, too, the subtitle here is The Siege in Minneapolis, a prime example of Trumpian chaos, okay? Yes. What's the problem in Minnesota, Greg? If local police, both city, state, county, would work with ICE, we wouldn't have any of this that's going on with the protest. But they don't want to. They're a sanctuary state. So ICE.

is doing its job, and in doing its job, it has to go in and find these people. And, you know, it's a tough job. And it doesn't have to be this way. That's so frustrating. No, it doesn't. And I'm going to tell you that when you have an open border that no other presidential administration without regard to party has ever had to confront where deportations and removals were always centered around the border, states, and counties where this occurred, where to remove or to deport was actually geographically practical. But you can't do that when Biden's administration, in cooperation with NGOs, what by bus or plane... relocated people by the millions where we were saying very commonly, including in Utah, every state's now become a border state. To undo that chaos that was created over that time, it is going to take an extraordinary effort. The effort you're seeing to enforce immigration law is in response to the disaster that has happened to this country in terms of that border and the... placement of people throughout the country. Yeah. Well, and I want you to keep this in mind, everybody. Much is being made right now of ICE and the little five-year-old boy in Minneapolis. Yes. Okay. The narrative out there is ICE arrested him and detained him. I want to ask those on the left, where was your outrage when we learned that was it 364,000 migrant children who came across this border illegally? We have no idea where they are. Where is that outrage under Joe Biden? Yeah, we didn't see it in real time when it happened. And why I actually take offense to that is because of how we know that. We don't know that from what the left would say is some right-wing, you know, influencer. You had a lifelong registered Democrat who was an employee of the Border Patrol who was watching this and went as a whistleblower. Yeah. To say in... We have this problem, and I can't get anyone to do anything about it, but it's real. It is a danger to these children. That was the testimony in Congress by this whistleblower who is not a Republican. So no one can try to, the left can't dismiss what you just shared by way of tragedy of these children as some right-wing conspiracy or something. This is information that we learned from a whistleblower that worked at Border Patrol. who was not a Republican, but was someone who was sick and felt like there's something that should be done. Okay, this survey says America is out of control. Who's to blame for that? We want to get your phone calls. 888-57080-80-10 on your cell phone, dial pound 250 and say, hey, Rod, or leave us a comment on our talkback line. All you do is have to download the IHeart Radio app and look for K&RS and you can see how to do it there. All right, we want to get to your calls today, 888-5708010. This is the hour where we talk about anything that is on your mind. We've had a listener been waiting for a while, and we want to get to him right away. It is Ben in Spanish Fork. Ben, how are you?

Rod and Greg show. What's on your mind tonight, Ben? Thank you so much, Rod and Greg. I'm an Intermountain employee, and I'm one of the one-third that just had their pension frozen. It's super frustrating to be an employee and be loyal to the company, and I'm not counting on Social Security being there when I retire, but I was counting on this pension being there. And I've got eight people in my department who've been there at least 10 years. Most healthcare employees only stay in their job for four years. So you've got quality people because the company keeps you on and we're loyal and we want to take care of those in our community. But now there's no incentive for us to stay. Can you take – do you know why that is happening? I'm surprised to hear. Did you say IHC? Yep. Yeah, so that's – you guys are the big boys. You're the big – you're the boss in Utah in terms of health care delivery. How is that the case? They said for the financial future of the company, but I don't – I don't know all the ins and outs of everything. I know that the CEO had $4.1 million put in his retirement account this year. And so the people at the top, they're still getting their bonuses. They're still getting their retirement. But everybody else at the end of this year will have their retirement frozen. And, Ben, let me ask you, you mentioned the people in your department. Is it system-wide, are there other departments? They'll be affected by this, do you know? Nick, it's every employee at the department. So back in 2020, they stopped offering pension plans to anybody hired after 2020. I was hired in, I think, 2018. Now, anybody who's been at the company from 2019 previous will have their pension frozen. I think my boss lost. About a million and a half dollars when they decided to freeze that. He'll get the money that he has accrued in his pension, but he will not accrue any more money. Wow. Wow. Those are tough decisions that are made sometimes. I feel sorry for you, but that's tough. The feedback there is important because I have this theory that big business and big government. I just think crony capitalism is not free markets, and I think that crony capitalism is happening more and more. We're seeing the consolidation of companies. We're seeing, you know, IHC in Utah enjoys a very unique... regulatory relationship where they have their select health is their insurance company the number of health care facilities they have you couldn't start a new health care network that looks like i'd see today because it would be it would violate federal antitrust laws it has been grandfathered in

for him to hide from, as Secretary Scott Bessent said, not one single signature achievement in the state of California. Yeah, other than higher taxes and people leaving the state on a daily basis. Yeah, greatest exodus out of a state out of California ever. They've never shrunk census to census until he got on the clock. Yeah. I knew. Hi! Uncle Laser here. America's built on fast cars, fast food, and even faster women. Photo casinos built in America. You know what they're fast out? Fast cash, cries redemption. You see, only Moto is U.S. own and operate. Moto, it's American-made. Is that who we are? And that's who we care about. Play for free at moto.com.com. Some's slogan should be, what did you do for California? I emptied it. I got everybody out. I got everybody out. At least the taxpayers I did. The others I kept. We are broadcasting live from the Morris Columbus Travel Expo down here at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy. We'll be here until 7 o'clock tonight. The event opened tonight until 8. And then, of course, tomorrow check it out. More coming up on the Rod and Greg Show and Utah's Talk Radio 105.9. KNRS. Are you coming back? You were gone for like 20 minutes. I wanted to leave it to you, but that scares me. I know. Well, that would be scary if you did do that. But boy, it has been a blast to be here. There's so much happening, but how many great listeners have we been able to meet since the show started? They have been great today. It's just been so great to see our listeners. People that say they voted for you. Yes. Yes, just such sensible. Someone actually voted for you? Yes. Oh, I didn't know that. They're such good people. But you did lose. Well, that's because, you know, there's few, the good people, there's just not as many as the bad people. Sometimes. Oh, wow. Yeah. Well, we're talking right now as you head on. We'll talk with Larry Gelwick. It's more about the Expo here in just a minute. But we're talking about America out of control. I don't think America is out of control. Do you? Well, a section of it is out of control. Everything I see that's out of control is being, is authored by, fomented by, created by the left, and the leftists and the regime media. They're doing it all. And then someone says, well, people say it's out of control. It must be Trump's fault. I don't know if that, I don't know you can connect those dots. I don't see it out of control. We're living through at the same time. Yeah, and they blame it on Trump. What did Trump done to make it out of control? Well, he exists. That's his problem. He exists. If the man walked on water, they accuse him of not knowing how to swim. I'm telling you, they don't. There's nothing he can do that they can take it. They will take Maduro over him. They wanted him out as much as anyone else. They had a $25 million bounty on Nicholas Maduro's head out of Venezuela. He gets him out in 88 minutes. No fatalities, nothing. Gets them out in 88 minutes. And the Democrats are livid that he did it. They're just burning candles for Maduro. They feel so badly for the man. Wait a minute. Didn't they hold a no king's protest a short time ago? Yeah. And wasn't Maduro like a king or a dictator? He was a despot. You know, he had that kind of king vibe to him. You know, he had that feel. But, you know, they get to the UK where they do have a monarchy. Yeah.

That made it a little awkward, too, because they like that king, too. Yeah. Well, I just think this whole idea, this survey, what were the numbers, Greg? 71% of Americans feel like the country is out of control. And we do, the thing is, yeah, but not for the reasons the column thinks. They're not blaming Trump. They're the authors of the chaos that does make it feel out of control, at least in some areas of the country. Yeah, and I have a theory on this. When I was growing up, I know, and Larry, when we were growing up. Don't bring Larry into your era. The 30s. He was not, he wasn't, 30s. He wasn't born yet. Don't be bringing him into your decade. But it is so different because in today's world, with all the technology that we have, we get news instantly. I mean, you could sign up for an app to find out if there's a minor car accident in Pakistan for crying out loud. I mean, that's how fast it is today. That's why I think there is a perception among some people that we are out of control, when in fact it's really not that much different, in my opinion. You know, look, I do think the news cycle is 24-7-365. It's so much different than it used to be. But to your point, we always criticize the regime media, and we say that the confidence level is very low. But I'm not kidding you, they can take this five-year-old, that ICE didn't do anything, that the person abandoned their son. They took care of them. But they can say ICE has taken this child and is using it as bait. And the world... to some degree believes it. And this narrative flies. And I was asked about it today. And I'm saying, look, the vice president of the United States, if you don't trust or you do trust media sources, the vice president's not going to lie the American people. And he was on the ground in Minnesota yesterday. And he said, I want to know, he has a five-year-old. He wanted to know the answers. And he reported back that the real story. You can trust that. To the extent you want to trust your vice president more than the media. But. Look at, this wasn't some Axios that reported, ABC News, NBC, they tried to say ICE was abducting five-year-olds. Yeah. When it's just fundamentally, verifiably false. It's a lie. Does that feel out of control? That would feel out of control to me. But they're the authors of that kind of chaos. Yeah, and that's really too bad. We want to get to your calls on this. 888-5708010, triple-8-57080-10 on your cell phone, dial pound 250 and say, hey, Rod. Or leave us a comment on our talkback line. Just download the IHeart Radio app and look for KNS, and you can leave a comment there as well. We're taking your phone calls 888-5708010 as we're talking about, is America out of control? Let me give you an example of how America is out of control, Greg, or it was until Donald Trump arrived for a second term in the White House. Ken Griffin, head of a multi-billion dollar hedge fund. It's known as Citadel.

based in Chicago, but they're moving out of Chicago. They said they can't stay there anymore because of the cost of everything. Spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week as well, and he talked about how Joe Biden wrecked the U.S. economy. Listen to this. You cannot imagine how painful it was each and every day under the Biden administration to look at what new crazy proposal was being put into place. to solve a problem that didn't even exist. I mean, our constant friction at Citadel with the government across umpteen different aspects of our business was exhausting. And to have that literally end on one day, election day, just gives you so much energy as an option to go back and build your damn business. That's a pretty amazing comment. It is. How the Biden administration did everything they could do to wreck business, to throw out, you know, solutions to problems that didn't exist, all the regulations that they had to deal with, changing almost every day. And he says, almost wrecked our business. Donald Trump is in. It changed in one day. Wow. I'll say this. I appreciate the candor, and I commend him for being honest about. how ridiculous and how difficult it was. But I hope going forward, if we ever see these leftists ever get undue control over this country or its processes where companies are going through that again, don't tell, why don't you tell us while we're in the event? Why doesn't these companies step up and start telling, you know, saying that these things are happening in real time, not after Biden's been defeated and that administration has been shown the door? I would like to see a pushback from the nonsense and the anti, you know... pro-economy pro-democratic republic principles that we have i mean we're a free market we're free ideas if they felt that strongly about it it would have been good to hear from some of those lead those CEOs and businesses when it was all happening you know the the the attitude that donald trump has brought to the white house really i think to this country donald trump a businessman yes donald trump realizes if people have money in their pocket great that they not only can buy the basic necessities for a family, but maybe and enjoy a trip like they find out here Expo or do something their family has always wanted to do or purchase. That makes them happy. And that's what he's trying to do for the American people. And impeding business like the Biden administration did is not going to help anybody out at all. And here's the thing. You're talking about the American dream. It's why people came to this country from different places to be able to have the freedom of self-determination. to have liberty, to have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, right to bear arms, all these things. This drew people from all over the world to a place to exercise all of that liberty and freedom. And you know what he does when he goes overseas? He goes to the Middle East. He goes somewhere else. He shares those same American principles with them saying,

I want you to be a prosperous. I think America can help you and the people of your country, your country be prosperous. Yeah. Be able to live your dreams. And so he's actually planning those seats of the American dreams around the world. All right. Another hour coming your way on the Rod and Greg show live from the Morris Columbus Travel Expo. Utah, big pat on the back for its efforts when it comes to school choice. We'll talk about that next on the Rod and Greg show. Stay with us. You know, this, this. Mountain America Expo Center and Sandy, it's quite large. The parking should be easier than it was to get in here for the show. But I'm in the back row. I'm back row Joe, just trying to get into the building. How come they don't have reserve spots for the talent? You know, we're kind of, you know, we're kind of... Are we talent? Well, we're the Rodney Greg Show. We have talent. Thanks, Ray. I walked right into that one head first. Jeez. But, you know, how about a little, like, courtesy parking or something? A little bit of love? Man, you know, just walked for a while. I hear walking is good for you. Yeah, that's why I'm opposed to it. Anything that's good for you, you're opposed to. Yeah, I don't like. I don't do anything for health. I just do it out of, like, I don't want to look like a slob, but it's all looks. I don't care about the health part. Yeah, yeah. Well, we've got busy hour. One more. busy hour coming your way before we head out for the weekend tonight coming up a little bit later on we'll talk about america's energy revolution and is continuing man is it ever we'll talk about that tomorrow you and i mr hughes will be emceeing a school choice event for the utah fits all scholarship program i gotta remember that when is that so i don't forget look No, I won't forget. It's right in your neighborhood. It's like five minutes from here. It's at Juan Diego High School, which, by the way, is a very nice high school. You know, it's the largest Catholic. It's actually the whole campus, K through 12. I don't know if it's still, but it was at the time it was built. I think it might still be the largest Catholic private school campus west of the Mississippi. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we'll be there tomorrow. I think it starts at noon or 1 o'clock that program, so we'll be there tomorrow. All right. Speaking of that. A big pat on the back today, Greg, from the American Legislative Exchange Council. Someone you know well, you worked with them when you were in the Utah legislature. But every year, they rate the states, various states, and their freedom of choice options when it comes to schools. This year, Utah came in seventh place. Yes. Very, very nice, right? Well, joining us on our newsmaker line to talk more about that is Andrew Handel, Director of Education and Workforce Development Task Force there at the American Legislative Exchange Council. Andrew, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Talk about Utah. Looks like we did pretty well when it comes to school joys and the report card that you issue every year. What did it say? Yeah, yeah, definitely. Well, first, it's great to be back on the show. Thanks for inviting me. But yeah, this is the third edition of the American Legislative Exchange Council's Index of State Education Freedom. So we were able to get this report launched this week, right ahead of National School Choice Week next week. And as you mentioned, Utah did very, very well, scored an A-minus for its overall.

school choice environment and ranked seventh overall amongst the 50 states. And that's up from eighth overall last year. And so I think that's a, you know, a testament to Utah policymakers, you know, the governor of the legislature who has really made this a priority over the years, not just making sure that funding follows students, but making sure that all learning environments are accessible to families. You know, Andrew, one of the interesting aspects, it used to always be just fighting to give the parents, the students and their families, backpack funding or choice. But administering programs like this, a scholarship program, a tax credit, whatever a state may choose to do by way of school choice. How is the implementation of these programs rolling out state by state? There has to be some kings having that it's kind of a new process. It's outside of the school board system. Give us an idea of how successful or what are the challenges as we're seeing more school choice in America. My fellow American, this July, we're celebrating America's birthday at Moto Casino by giving away 1,776,000 in prizes. And one lucky winner is going to take home 1 million SC. Happy 250th birthday, America. You're welcome. Download Moto Casino today. Download the Moto Casino app today. Moto Casino is the social casino board. We're prohibited. No purchase necessary. Visit motto.como.

Yeah, and that's a phenomenal question. I think implementation of these programs is something that's, you know, more and more policymakers especially are paying attention to. But, you know, I think, you know, what's great is that we have these 50 laboratories of democracy. And so, you know, we have 17 states right now that have created a universal school choice program, Utah being one of them with the Utah Fitzhall Scholarship. And they've all kind of done it, you know, a little bit differently. We've seen some states that have. you know, really tried to open it up. You know, we've seen states try, you know, debit cards for these programs. We've seen some states that have used more restricted marketplaces. You know, I know some states like Iowa, they have approved providers who get access to an online marketplace and then parents can go on there and they can, you know, you know, purchase whatever school supplies or things they need. they have the comfort of knowing that everything in there is already pre-approved by the state. So, you know, we've seen a couple of different approaches. You know, I think it's it's we're going to see those. continue depending on which state it is. Bigger states obviously have more challenges implementing these programs in smaller states. But yeah, we've seen a number of different approaches and, you know, definitely working the kinks out as we go. Andrew, as I look at this list, I see a lot of red states near the top of the list, but not too many blue states. Surprise, surprise. Are any blue states making progress in this regard? Uh, you know, not really. Um, you tried. You tried. You tried to put a good spin on that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the, the thing that jumps into my head is, uh, you know, we've actually got this great new federal tax credit scholarship program. Yes. Um, that was in the one big beautiful bill. And, um, I'll use that as an opportunity to highlight some of the blue states, uh, because I, I know that North Carolina's Democrat governor, uh, Josh Stein has, has. at least said he plans to opt north carolina into that program um and uh you know we'll see we'll see hopefully some other blue states can can hop on that as well i think colorado i think that's really good opportunity i think governor policy colorado is opted in so that's right yeah so that's a yeah that's right that's right that's a good one yeah because he's not conservative yeah remotely but that's nice to see so So, yeah. So I guess, yeah, I guess my question, I didn't ask it. But so with Governor Paulus in Colorado, it's a blue state and he's a blue governor, but you're seeing that he's opting in. And I think that's leadership. You're talking about the North Carolina Democrat governor. So is there a tide there, even on the federal one? I know it's not as robust as how these states are coming up with their school choice programs. But do you see some light at the end of the tunnel with some of these blue states or blue governors? Yeah, yeah, I do. And, you know, it's interesting, you know, there's a lot of really good polling that's out there that shows when it comes to school choice, this is really not a partisan issue. I mean, this is something that Republicans, Democrats, independents, they all support it. And I think, you know, even in these blue states, you're seeing the politicians start to recognize that. And they're starting to realize that, you know, hey, look, this is just about understanding that.

No one school is ever going to be the best fit for every single kid. One kid might learn best in a virtual school and another kid might learn best in a private school. Another kid might learn best in their public school. The point is to make sure that all of these options are available and put parents in the driver's seat. Trust them to make the best decision for their kids. Ultimately, they're the ones that are best positioned to do that. Andrew, final question for you, what factors go into this ranking? I mean, what do you look at at each state and what factors go into the final result? Yeah, yeah. So we look at five categories. So the first is student-centered funding. So that's where the Utah fits all scholarship program is graded. We also look at charter schools, homeschools, virtual schools, and open enrollment, which is your public school choice. And Utah does really well in all those categories. Believe it or not, actually, the student-centered funding program is where Utah scores the worst, getting a C. which might be a little surprising. The reason for that is because while the Utah Fitz-All Scholarship is open to all students, it is capped by a legislative appropriation. And so really only 2% of students in the state can actually use it year over year. So, you know, that's something we'd love to see that cap were moved and that would definitely help the state move even further up the rankings. Andrew, thank you very much for joining us tonight. Andrew is the director of education and workforce development at the American Legislative Exchange Council. They put out a new report card on school choice around the country and Utah came in seventh. And speaking of that, we'll be emceeing event. They're calling it celebrating the Utah Fitzall Scholarship and I know you work very closely with these folks. I do. I do. I love school choice, education reform. And it's time has arrived. For a while there, the teachers union really preventing any of this from getting any kind of traction. And now you're seeing states across the country and you're seeing Utah really embrace school choice, parental choice in education. There's a whole bunch of different deliveries for kids. And it's exciting times. Yeah, there's some big, there's some major dignitary showing up for this tomorrow. Us? Well, yeah. The MCs? Well, that would be true. That would be us. The Attorney General will be there. That's right. He'll be performing as well. He's very talented music. He is. He has, he's a very good pianist. He plays a piano like. Yeah. Liberace. Yeah. That's not what I was thinking. But also, the Senate Majority Leader in the State Senate, Kirk Cullmore, Senator Cullmore, he is a musician as well. They are going to be, they're going to perform a musical number together. So you're going to have the Senate Majority Leader and our...

Utah Attorney General coming together for a musical number. And then he, our Attorney General, Derek Brown, is also going to be the keynote speaker. Yeah. So it should be a nice event tomorrow. If you want to come on by, gets underway at 11 at Juan Diego High School down there in Dreper. Come join us. All right. More coming up on the Rod and Greg show in Utah's Talk Radio, 105.9 K&R. This is the time of year, Greg, where most people do plan their vacations. They're thinking, okay, do we want to go here? Do we want to do this? Can we afford this? They've got the answers here at the Expo, and that's why you need to come by. You know, what I like about it is you think about these places you'd like to travel. It just seems a bit daunting. You know, where do you stay? What do you do? Here you just get the whole thing. I mean, and there's enough people here where you don't have to go to just one source. There's so much you can learn about the travel. And then you can put a travel package together that is better here doing it this way than any other way. Yeah, yeah. Is there one place you'd like to go? You know, I was saying about that, I'm not sure. There's some things I'd like to see. I think I'd love to see Rome. I think there's things I'd like to see, but I don't have like a bucket list destination I want to go. I don't. Yeah. I really don't. But there's some historical things. Like I think I'd like to go to Rome just to see the Coliseum, to see, you know, fascinating. Fascinating. See all of that history. Well, the Coliseum, it's just a pile of rocks. No, it is. What about the leading tower of Pisa? Where's that at? I want to see that. It's in Pisa. Yeah. In Pisa, there you go. Okay, where the Spartans, in Greece, where the Spartans held off the invading Persians, Thermopyla, I think I'd like, it's not, it's just a past, but I'd like to go there. Italy is like to see that. From what, last year we went to Switzerland, a couple years before that, we went to Italy. I love both countries. I've been to Switzerland, and I'm telling you, it is absolutely jaw-dropping. It's absolutely beautiful. It is. I've been to France, and. I went back in the early 90s, and they were totally rude and arrogant then. I can only imagine what it's like now. So I don't want to go back there. I saw Versailles. I saw the Louvre. Well, the Parisians are that. Yes. But if you get outside of Paris and we were in the south of France, people are nice. We didn't have any trouble with their friends. So I'm in my, I'm in my 20s. Well, you're probably just a smart out. Smart out like American. That's why. You know what, though? They told me, I would say hi to people, and someone said, don't say hi. I'd say, say, bonjour. I'm like, well, I don't tell French people to say hello when they're in America. Why have to say bonjour? I don't say hi. By the way, it's bonjour. I said, bonjour. I said, bonjour. It's bonjour. Bonjour. It's bonjour. Bonjour. All right, real quick. Morrow Casino. America's social casino. Welcome to Moto Casino where the excitement never ends. With thousands of the hottest free-to-play social casino games, fastest payouts, and the best promotions in the industry, no tricks or gimmicks. Owned and operated in the USA. Moto Casino is a free-to-play social casino. No purchase necessary. 21 plus to play. Void with prohibited. Sign up today for a generous welcome bonus.

I don't know how long this has been going on, Greg. But survey after survey over the years show next to use car salesmen, journalists, and lawmakers are ranked near the bottom when it comes to trust. Yeah. I'm going to say that probably congressional. lawmakers. The state lawmakers, no one knows them to trust them or not. They don't know, most people don't know who their lawmaker. I'll give you that. Who their state lawmaker is. Well, the Desireate News had a survey out today. The question was, generally speaking, how often do you trust what elected officials say? Yes. Okay. Okay. 10% said they never trust them. Okay. 35% say they rarely trust them. Okay. They get worse. 44% say some of the time. I'll take that. Okay. 6% say most of the time. And who in their right mind is the 1% that said all the time. Yeah, that's it. Those are the family and friends of the lawmaker. That's who said that. Yeah. Now, how about for Governor Spencer Scott? By the way, we need to apologize for our audience. Last night, we carried the state of the state address. Yes. The audio was horrible. And we did everything. We didn't control the audio. That was done by that public broadcasting setup, right? That's right. And we're, so we appreciate that. You stuck with us. But that was our fault. Now, the question is. Wasn't our fault. It was the feet. Yeah, it was the feed. If I was speaker, I'd have fired whoever that was because that's a one-time speech. You get one time a year to get that right. Now, generally speaking, Greg, how often do you trust what the governor has to say? 11% they don't know okay 12% say never 12% say never 18% say rarely 30% say some of the time 25% said most of the time they trust the governor The governor has a unique role in the state of Utah. And they've always enjoyed, I think, very high approval ratings as governors. They have. And so I think that is a position that it does not surprise me that Utahans would be inclined to trust their governor. Yeah. Now, what about Donald Trump? You ready for this? Well, and I think 99% trust them completely. How often do you trust? What the president says, okay? 4% don't know. 31% say they never trust him. with what he says that's all the democrats in the state if there's that there are 31% Democrats in this state wow 16% say rarely yeah okay 20% say some of the time hey that's fair how much 20% okay 22% say most of the time yes and 7% say all the time well I'm kind of interesting what

I trust exactly what he says because it's how he means. Like when he says, I'm going to invade. I trust that he's saying that. Yeah, he's not going to invade. Yeah, I trust that he's not saying he's not lying in that moment. He's saying. Absent any conversation with anybody, this is what I'm going to do, understanding that they know he would do that if no one wants to have a constructive conversation with him, and they do have one with him, and he doesn't invade at all. It's off the table because they're working with him, which is what he wanted all the while. I have trust in that process. So when he says those things, I know there's a process that we are... a part of it when that happens. Greg, I simply do not understand why more people in this state don't embrace what Donald Trump is trying to do. Yeah. I think a lot of people do. Maybe they don't show up in their surveys. I mean, I would think this would be, I mean, look what he is trying to do in this country to write so many wrong things that have existed for a long time. Yet his numbers are good. But I'm surprised they aren't even better. Well, here's a little secret about politicians and about elected officials. Okay. You being a former one. I'm a recovering public service. Yes. It is almost always the case that when the cameras are on and the mics are live, the demeanor and the message from an elected official is very proper. It's very polite. But that does not mean that that is their demeanor or their approach behind closed doors and certain meetings. They will have more of a candid personality when negotiating and things like that. What I can tell you about Donald Trump is that man is the same man. Yes. Whether the door is open, whether the door is closed. Whether he's talking to a head of state privately or whether he's communicating with him through truth social, his social media. page, I'm telling you this is one of the unique human beings where there's no two versions. And look, we live in a polite society. I'm not even saying that when the cameras are on and the mics are live, that you should, I think you should be a little bit more, there should be a little more proper. But, but not him. No. But instead of not liking that. understand that that is about as authentic of a leader you will ever run across. You're not going to see. I don't even care who's president next, whether it's JD Vance or anyone else. They're going to have a different version that's more candid behind closed doors and shuttle diplomacy, whatever you want to call it, versus, you know. in front of the American public. But not Donald Trump. You're getting the real, I mean, this is the same dude. He's the same guy. He's going to give that same speech and has, actually. He's done it for a decade now where he loves to talk to the American people. And what I love about him, you know, you'll have a lot of politicians show up an event. They may be in a flannel shirt or wearing jeans just so they can seem like they're. So Donald Trump shows up in that suit and that red tie all the time. I've never seen him out of anything else other than when he's on the golf course. Yeah, I'll tell you this. When I ran for golf.

governor, you know, the, they said, when you go to rural Utah, Hughes, you know, you dress like a city guy, you know, you dress, you got to get some boots and you got to get some, you got to get a cowboy hat or something. And I said, I'm not playing cowboys in Indians. I'm not like playing dress up. Yeah. I'm going to dress exactly as I normally dress. Be who you are. And I'm going to, I'm going to make my case. We won 10 counties in that race. Yep. And they're rural counties. Yep. And I'm not from rural Utah, but we won 10 counties because they're just straight talking human beings. And you're being yourself. And I'm being myself. And they, they, they accepted me for being. myself. All right. When we come back on the Rod and Greg show, final half hour, we'll talk about America's energy revolution. Wait to hear some of these numbers. That's coming up right here on Utah's talk radio 105-9 Canteris live today from the Morris Columbus Travel Expo. Well, we're broadcasting tonight, of course, from the Morris Columbus Travel Expo down here in the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy. A lot of really nice people have come by today. Have they ever? It has been so fun to meet our listeners. And they're such good people. They stop by and... I don't know, folks, I've got to report, you know, the HOV lane discussion we talked about last night. You can talk another one. Log another one on the Hughes side of the votes. Seems like I'm seeing things right. Yeah, but the gentleman said we should have a debate someday about roundabouts. Yeah, the roundabouts are, you know what? I don't have any trouble for roundabouts. You know what, though? He gave a story where someone just stops in the middle of that thing, and that's insane. If I had to navigate that, I would be very frustrated. Yeah, that's very true. I want to take a trip down memory lane. You're ready to go on this one? Yep. Think about this 20 years ago. America had to import nearly a quarter of its total primary energy supply in one form or another. We're talking about natural gas. or oil. We had to import nearly a quarter of that, Greg. And America was talking around the world, peak oil. There's not, we've reached peak oil. We won't find any more oil. Yeah. Well, we have, we have, we're, we're, we're a net exporter if you have someone that's committed to the energy sector of this country. And, uh, and we were an X, X, we were a net exporter during the first Trump term. Biden comes in. He's, he, we aren't anymore. And he's begging OPEC for oil. He even begged Venezuela for oil in time for the midterms because he didn't want to lose too badly. And so I, you know, it's just. I'm told that of our emergency reserves, he pumped that out so hard, so fast. I mean, Trump left it topped off. He trained it down so much. He damaged the pumps. They had to be repaired because of how much he removed in the time and the speed in which he did it. And they were empty. Our emergency reserves were empty during his administration. Well, joining us on our newsmaker line to talk about this energy revolution that is taking place in America today is Stephen Hayward. Professor Hayward is from Pepperdown.

University, the School of Public Policy. Professor or Steve, thanks for joining us tonight. Let's talk about America's energy revolution. What is taking place right now? What is going on with it? Do you think, Steve? I'd say three things. In no particular order. One is technological progress, a really huge technological progress and our ability to discover and produce oil and gas here in the United States. Here's golf legend John Daly. Hell yeah, these wins are piling up faster than my divorces. I only spent on Moto, America's Social Casino. You know I've won a couple of majors. And on Moto, I've won majors, grands, and epic jackpots on their classic Vegas slots with huge, huge bonus rounds. Moto Casino adds new games and awards players, free coins every single day. Grip it and spend it on Moto Casino. Download the Moto Casino app today. Moto Casino is the social casino board where prohibited and purchase necessary visit moto. When people thought 20 years ago, that was impossible. Second, the neglect of Washington, D.C. policymakers. You know, all this happened quietly out of view, and I only half joke that if Washington, D.C. knew this revolution was taking place. They surely would have tried to stop it. Certainly environmentalists have been trying to stop it for the last 20 years. But third, one reason it succeeded is that a lot of it took place on private land or state land, like in Texas and North Dakota and Pennsylvania for natural gas. And federal land, there's been some expansion of production on federal land, but generally you're able to throttle energy production still on federal land with lawsuits and federal regulation. I agree, and I think that the technology and the ability to get oil, gas, has improved. But it looks like the political winds have shifted. You go to Davos, you go to Davos, the World Economic Summit, where they were once talking about, you know, lessening the dependency on fossil fuels. The need for energy, for data centers, everything else, it seems like they're very bullish on power generation by any means, including nuclear. So it looks like just not only are we technologically more advanced and our ability to get energy out of the ground, but it looks like politically it's in vogue again. Do you see it that way? That's right. Yeah, certainly do. Now, I don't follow the World Economic Forum hour to hour because I have life. Well, they lie in their immigrants, so you're good. Don't. Well, that's right. Well, but I have noticed from the news accounts I have read, and I've read several, the one phrase that is conspicuously missing from most of the major speeches is climate change. But they still believe in all that, but they're talking about it a lot less. You know, Al Gore apparently turned up. And he had some meeting that only 20 people showed up for. I mean, talk about a used-up has-been guy. It's almost pathetic now to see Gore, who, you know, let's remember 20 years ago he got the Nobel Peace Prize for his climate agitation. And now he can hardly scare up a room full of people at Davos, the most sympathetic people in the world. So, right, I mean, I think you're seeing energy realism has triumphed.

And although the European leaders won't quite admit it, and a lot of Democrats here in the U.S. won't quite admit it, they are giving into reality. I mean, I just give you two, for instances, you've seen the new Democratic governor in New Jersey and also Governor Hochland, New York, approving new natural gas pipelines in their states where they have been blocking them for the last 15 years because they finally realized they can't keep the lights on, they can't have affordable electricity unless they get with the program and allow energy that works to be developed and expanded in their states. Professor, before this revolution began, as you pointed out, back in the, I think it was in the 1990, 2006, somewhere in that range. How grim did the picture look at that point for the United States and our energy production? How bad was it? Well, it was really grim. I mean, just a few facts and figures for listeners. First of all, 20 years ago, we imported almost a quarter. of our total primary energy needs. Today we're in surplus. We're a surplus energy producer, and there are not many industrial countries that can say that. Most industrial countries are dependent on imports of oil and gas and coal, and we're not. for the first time in more than 50 years. Second, people thought we were running out of oil. Peak oil was the phrase. That's another phrase that has vanished lately. But, you know, oil in 2008 reached $150 a barrel for a while, and people thought it was going to $200 a barrel. Today, it's at $60 a barrel. And we're oversupplied on the global level right now, and people think it's probably going to drift down. That's why gas prices have come down some. And natural gas, 20 years ago, we thought that by the year 2025, so just, you know, last week practically, we were going to have to import 20% of our natural gas needs. And we started building liquid natural gas import terminals. Today, we are a natural gas exporter, and all those LNG terminals we built have been repurposed to be export terminals. No one expected that 20 years ago, as I say. And my goodness, what a different world has become. And, you know, people laughed at Sarah Palin when she said in 2008 Drill Baby Drill. Well, they're not laughing. They're not laughing in Sarah Palin anymore. You know, so to just expand on what you just described, which I agree is the drill, baby drill, we're seeing we're a net exporter of natural gas of oil. You're seeing all of this happen. But something that we're here in Utah, our general session just started yesterday. And the Senate president in his speech talked about SMRs, the small modular reactors saying that Utah, amongst other states, are in a race to be able to generate energy, electricity,

for AI, for these data centers, for this emerging economy. and that the race is on and that Utah is all in. Talk about the role of these small modular reactors or small nuclear reactors that, you know, this is that, Bill Gates said, well, we don't have climate change anymore. I want to buy Three Mile Island or whatever they're saying. Everybody's kind of shipped and everybody's kind of like converted to energy all of a sudden in its generation. What's the role of these small modular reactors, these SMRs and this whole nuclear push for small reactors to generate a lot of energy? Yeah, well, it could be the next big thing, and it may be very promising. Now, I'm being tentative because there's a lot of private sector money going into it and a lot of government encouragement. The problem with nuclear power for a very long time has been, it's been very, very expensive to build. Some of that is over-regulation, but even when you strip that away, it's still expensive. And we don't have a very well-developed nuclear engineering construction force in this country because we let it go 40 years ago, foolishly. So, you know, your typical nuclear power plant is big. It's like 1,000 megawatts. These small plants would be anywhere from 50 to 100 megawatts, and they'd be great for small towns. You might be able to stitch a bunch of them together for some of these AI data centers that are going to need a ton of electricity. And those big data centers, they can't be run on wind and solar power. It's just not reliable enough. So nuclear looks like the best bet. The environmentalists, some of them have dropped quietly, their opposition to nuclear power. Some are still fundamentalists in the pose it forever like Al Gore. But I do think it's the next big thing, but the industry has to prove itself. And so there's going to be a big shakeout. It may be like the automobile industry 100 years ago when you had, what, 40 different car makers, and we ended up with three. It may go that way, because I can... I can't actually name them, but they're, you know, 10 or 12 different companies trying to develop SMRs right now, and one or two of them are going to make it, I think. Steve, thank you for joining us. Steve Hayward. He is from Pepperdine University talking about America's energy revolution. It continues, Greg, and it's been an amazing success story, and the energy that we have in this country, and gas prices continue to come down and go even lower, I would think, this year. It's true. You're seeing it. I mean, When you see the difference in administration, every time you have a Democrat or most recently Biden in office, they say, well, presidents don't have anything to do with the gas price. But I got to tell you, every time we get Trump, we see that price go south of $3 into $2, even in the high $1 range. So something's, there is a pattern there that you can't ignore. That's for sure. That's for sure. Conference championships are coming up Sunday as we get ready for the Super Bowl in the couple of weeks. Yes. Who you like?

I'd like to see New England win. That will just irritate, Ray, because he's such a Miami fan. No, he's a Broncos fan. You know, this year, I don't really care much as to who wins this thing. I've got skin in the game. I think the Patriots turnaround has been dramatic, and I like that great. I like that quarterback. And I think the Broncos, they've had an incredible season, but if you're... Starting quarterback gets hurt, and the guy starts three games in his life. Stidham, their quarterback. That's going to be a tough game to win, even at home in Denver. And then I hope the Rams win their championship or their game because I'm a big Matt Stafford fan. I think he's a great quarterback. You've always talked about that. He's getting towards the end of his career, so I'd like to see a last hurrah. He's won one. He's one one, that's correct. And, boy, he spent a lot of years in Detroit, so he deserves it. Well, we want to thank all our great listeners for coming by today. We've had a lot of fun and want to thank the folks at Morris Columbus Travel for inviting us here and letting them talk to them. They're here again tomorrow. We invite you to come on by tomorrow. Come on by, Juan Diego High School. We'll be there broadcasting. Yes. Not broadcasting, but emceeing. We'll be doing it. That does it for us tonight. Head up, shoulders back. May God bless you and your family. This great stuff. Great country of ours. We'll talk to you on Monday of 4. Have a good weekend. Babe, did you see that Moto Casino is giving a 1,776,000 worth of prizes? That's why they're called America's Social Casino. Celebrating the birth of America bigger than anyone else. You can win incredible experiences at NASCAR and F1 races and a grand prize of 1 million sweeps coins. So what are you waiting for? Spin now on Moto Casino. Download the Moto Casino app today. Moto Casinos, the social casino board. We're prohibited. No purchase necessary. Visit moto.com. Casino