The Rod and Greg Show: Utah School Board Members Level Accusations of Corruption; Senator Mike Lee on Maduro

Forget whatever plans you have this weekend because you're staying at home and playing on SpinQuest. And there's never been a better time to sign up than right now. New users get $30 coin packs for just $10. All the table games you love with hundreds of slot games and real cash prizes. That's at SpinQuest.com. SpinQuest.com. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit SpenQuest.com for more details. So my medicine's Red Bull. I just drink lots of it. And it usually defeats everything. It killed COVID for me. But I've been guzzling the Red Bull. I still have a little horsey horse. Yeah. Frog in my throat. Yeah. Frog in my throat. Yeah. Frog in my throat. But no, but I'm here. I would never miss. I was away for two weeks. I couldn't, I couldn't miss it. Although there are no windows folks in here. I am like a super spreader. Okay. This is a, this. Rod can't escape. If I cough, he's stuck. I'm going to aerosol the whole room. It's going to be awesome. It's also like 92 in here this afternoon. Yeah, what is the deal with that? This building has got the worst ventilation, air conditioning, heating, you name it, in the world. Maybe it'll help with my weight loss journey. Yeah, it could be. Yeah. We aren't going there again today. No, but it's hot, so I'm sweating. May it may as well be in a song. Peel off the pounds, right? Well, it's great to be with you this afternoon. We've got a lot to get to Utah Senator Mike Lee. We'll be joining us in just about 15 minutes. We'll get his take, the latest information on Venezuela. You and I, Greg, judge where the economy is headed and where prices are headed when we talk to our wives. Correct. You talk to Queen B. I talked to the rodeo queen. I asked her just the other day. Over the weekend, I said, have you seen prices come down? And she goes, yeah, no. On a few items, yes. But still they're higher. And she doesn't expect them ever to come down on some items. So that's exactly the response I'm getting too, which I'm disappointed in because I would think the transportation, when you see fuel prices go down, there should be a transportation cost savings from fuel going down, which should because if prices are high, then that's reflected in the groceries. Why are we with fuel going down? Why are we not at least seeing that margin of the cost of goods and services or goods going down? Yeah. So Queen B has the same reaction as rodeo queen. She's like, eh, eh. Yeah. Not yet. Not yet. Well, the question is again, and we'll talk about this a little bit later on, if people don't feel relief, Greg, they don't believe the economy is in good shape. So what is it going to take to feel that relief? Yeah, no, all the economists say when your income grows faster than inflation, that's when you feel it. Well, the numbers are saying that's occurring now. We see the growth of personal income growing at a higher percentage rate than inflation. But yeah, I, and I go with that until you feel it, it's not real. I actually subscribe to that. That's true. Don't tell me what I'm feeling. I can. That's why I have my senses, okay, of sight and smell and feeling and hearing. I tasting. I know what I'm experiencing. And if it's not saving, you can't tell me I'm wrong. No, that's true. That's true. All right, also coming up a little bit later on, we mentioned this briefly in the show yesterday. This member of the state school board.

who has decided not to seek re-election, wrote a blistering letter. Yes, it was. She is going to join us in the 6 o'clock hour tonight to talk about the reasoning behind her decision to write this letter, and it was critical of just about anything dealing with education in this state. Well, if you're on that state school board, I think there's some shots fired. I mean, metaphorically, folks, I don't, I don't, I don't advocate real violence. I'm saying, I'm saying figuratively. There were some barbs thrown. There were some accusations probably, I mean, of either incompetence, malfeasance, or even corruption. I mean, it was, that letter is not, it's not a soft shoe. It's for sure. So we'll talk about that, plus a lot of other things to get to. We invite you to be a part of the program as we do each and every day, 888. 5708010 on your cell phone dial pound 250 and say hey rod or leave us a message on our talkback line by simply downloading the iHeart radio app now a lot going on to minnesota gregg um Tim Walz finally held a news conference today about his decision not to seek re-election remember gregg years ago this was when uh charleston was the president of the NRA. Remember that a few years ago? That famous line with him holding up the old rifle insane over my dead body. Probably for my cold dead fingers. My cold dead hands. Well, Tim Walz used it again today because someone asked him, are you going to resign, Governor? And guess what he said, over my dead body. Don't say that in Minnesota. They're crazy there. They may take you up on that, you've got to be careful. You've got to be careful. Well, you've got that. So he's out. There is word that Amy Klobuchar. The Democratic senator from Minnesota will possibly run for governor. But guess what? She has a very long history of coddling the Samoian refugees in her state. It may not work well, right? It's just more of the same. More of the same. Because I did hear that they might play this old switcheroo. He doesn't run for re-election and then he can go get her Senate seat and she can run for his. I think the people of Minnesota, I would hope. are looking around going, are you kidding me? There's got to be kids with autism, kids that are disabled, elderly, people that are terminally ill. People that Medicaid, Medicare, federal programs for autism were meant to help that are not being helped because of the fraud, actually the theft that's going on. There has to be people, there have to be people in Minnesota that. feel that outrage well another name came up how about the attorney general there in minnesota Keith Ellison is his name he's been involved in this too listen to what dana perino on fox news revealed the other day about a tape comment from the attorney general i think he's got a real problem because he might have been the first shoot of fall but there's more coming because Keith Ellison who is the attorney general of minnesota former congressman who is a member of democratic leadership he is on audio leaked audio Talking to these people tell him that he will cover up the investigation, telling them that they'll tell the investigators to back off. So this resignation or decision not to run, not a resignation, but the decision not to run is not the end of the story. The fraud story doesn't end there. To me, it's really just beginning. And thankfully, there's a very good prosecutor in the state that is relentless. So hopefully they'll get it cleaned up.

Maduro, for his part, knew that the arrest was coming. It was simply a matter of time. He had a lot of opportunities to respond to U.S. pressure before being arrested, and he could have surrendered in the days immediately before this happened. But, yeah, I raised questions right as the news was breaking, as I always do, any kind of military kinetic activity somewhere. I want to know what the theory was. They hadn't previously announced it, understandably. I very quickly got a call from Secretary Wubio at 3 a.m. informing me of what happened. Here's what he told me in essence. He said, look, Wu, he said, Mike, you know, he and I've been friends for 15, 16 years. We talk all the time about this stuff. And he said, Mike, I know, you know, you're always concerned about making sure that we are doing this by the book as far as the Constitution goes. Let me tell you what this was about. He said the kinetic activity on the ground there. was there for one reason and one reason alone to protect the U.S. personnel executing the arrest warrant. So they had authority to issue this arrest warrant to execute the arrest warrant, and the president has inherent authority under Article 2 to protect the United States and its personnel from an imminent or actual attack. And that's what they did. He followed that up by saying there is They're out now. There's no plan for ongoing military activity there, and so we consider this matter closed. So, look, regardless of what one might think about the policy merits of this, this appears to me to be within the president's inherent authority under Article 2. You know, and I'm glad to hear you say that, Senator. I mean, you're the scholar when it comes to our Constitution, and I know, and I'm glad. I'm grateful that you are watching that because there needs to be consistency, and we can't justify violating it because we think others have. And so that kind of discussion between you and our Secretary of State, as former colleagues, it brings me a lot of comfort. I just want to dive into the one part detail that you shared where they're out now, where there is, the president is signaling that there's going to be some presence in terms of a fair process where citizens aren't feeling at their risk, maybe the proxy war that's been going on with our adversaries around the world using that country so close to the United States in our hemisphere. What is the role of the United States as you see it or have been told or you can tell us in terms of a more prolonged presence in Venezuela? The short answer is I don't know. I hope to find out in the next 24 hours or so, but it's unclear what, if anything, might be entailed in this transition. We don't know that right now. It's not clear whether there's anything happening on the ground or whether he... Oh, I've had no luck lately. Wait, lady luck? Brett Ski, I got you. I've had so much luck on SpinQuest.com. They have all of my favorite games, slot games, live blackjack craps, and bubble craps. You can even get a $30 coin pack for just $10 bucks. $10 for $30. I'm headed over to SpinQuest.com right now. SpenQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit spendquest.com for more details.

He anticipates further action by the United States on the ground. He's talked about a transition, but we don't know what that means. Senator Lee, what about you've heard, of course, a lot of criticism about this coming from the Democrats. And the one thing, the common theme that you hear quite often from them is Congress should have been notified on this. I thought Marco Rubio answered that very well. It was saying, hey, we've got concerns about leaks in Congress about this. Should Congress have been notified in your opinion? Well, look, when, if we analogize this to what we refer to as a Title 50 deployment, the clandestine military operations, there are myriad circumstances in which a discrete military operation has to be kept close. uh so as not to signal to whoever is at the receiving end of the action uh ways that they can prepare in a way that would jeopardize the lives of our u.s personnel on the ground and i think that was the calculation there again here where we're talking about this being uh an action to support The FBI and the FBI's execution of a validly issued warrant for Maduro's arrest, that falls outside of the type of action that would require an authorization for the use of military force or a declaration of war. Now, as far as notifying Congress, I don't see, look, a declaration of war or an AUMF is either required or not required by the Constitution. But this idea about notifying Congress, there's nothing in the Constitution that requires that. There are some statutory authorities indicating there are circumstances when some members of Congress ought to be informed. But Congress as a whole or a subset of Congress, nowhere in the Constitution is that required. You know, Senator, I subscribe to the real politic. One of the other things that I think that is so valuable, your voice nationally, but particularly here in Utah, is that you do point out in the budget bills, the spending, the reckless spending, even when we hear Republicans talking about how we have to, you know, rein this in, and yet you'll read the factual appropriations bills, and disappointingly, we'll see unnecessary spending, reckless spending, spending we can't afford. Is there any argument? at least in my mind there is before you get into the wars act and before we take something where you have a hyperpartisan or even self-interested body in congress that's not doing some of its most basic constitutional powers or exercising them in a responsible way how do we how do we swallow that camel and then strain at the gnats of what congress isn't doing in other places that are as serious or as scary as our defense i mean i i i just want to see some proof of life out there in the Senate and in the House that you guys are doing some of this before everyone starts wanting to get in the way of this administration or our Department of War. Am I being too cynical or is there maybe some basic things that Congress could be doing better right now and not politicizing in terms of our safety in this hemisphere?

Yeah, we should maybe work on removing the beam from our own eye before focusing on the moat in the executive branch's eye. We're straining at Nasswell swallowing camels by the dozen. And, you know, meanwhile, you've got things like this... this wave of fraud that's been uncovered in Minnesota. Now, this is awful. It's reprehensible. I also believe that it is the tip of the tip of a much, much larger iceberg. And I think fraud like this is occurring in many, many states, if not virtually all of them. Look, fraud almost inevitably occurs on a massive scale when the U.S. government spends way too much money, especially if it's on things that don't fit. neatly into its limited enumerated powers and then gives hundreds of billions of dollars to third parties including states and other cases NGOs and then says it in essence spend it well have fun the same people who are funding that then purport to be surprised oh what There was fraud? How can it be? Well, this is what happens in a government that spends too much. It sure does. Utah Senator Mike Lee joining us on The Rod and Greg Show and Talk Radio 159, KNRS. Based on what our wives see at the grocery store, right? And they both say, you've asked Queen B, I asked the rodeo queen. They've seen some prices come down, but they're still up, and they're basically feeling some prices may never come down again. It's like a meh. Yeah. You know, it's like, eh. So, yeah, no, no great moment in the Hughes home on the prices. Yeah. Which with fuel going down, you would think you would at least see that. Not doing it. Yeah. Not doing it. Well, if voters don't feel it, the economy isn't fixed. That's why we wanted to bring our next guest on. Gary Sass. He's state chairman of our Republican legacy joining us on our newsmaker line. Gary, how are you? Welcome to the Rotting Greg Show. Thank you. Thank you. Gary, what is going to take to convince people that prices are, in fact, coming down in some areas, and they feel it? Yeah, in some areas they're coming down, but the concerns about the Americans have about the economic well-being, this is probably the highest level since the Great Depression. It was a poll done recently where 46% almost half the country felt that things were worse than they can remember. And what... the people are feeling is the economy is not meeting the public's needs and i think the uh... twenty six election needs to focus on affordability because there are ways that we can get out of this uh... and the federal government has not been following those ways uh... when we talk about The economy and affordability, it's really three parts of the equation, what things cost, your income, and the perception of financial security in the future, particularly for your children. And what we've been faced with are progressive views of affordability, which emphasize government mandates and regulations, tax subsidies, deficit spending. And that won't put a penny back in the pocket of hardworking American middle class or small business.

So if we're really going to get out of this mess during the 26th campaign, we really have to talk about... an affordability agenda, that's market-driven, that incentivizes investment, incentivizes supply expansion, innovation, and productivity. And our government has not focused on those things. The four years of the Biden administration went in the opposite direction, and that's part of the reason we have a deeper hole to dig out of. So, in my opinion, the affordability agenda is really restoring a market-driven approach to economic benefit. And that involves a couple of things that are pretty obvious. One, I just mentioned, is reversing failed federal policies on taxes and spending. The second is to incentivize a private sector housing instruction. If you're 30-something right now, you probably can't afford to buy a house no matter where you live in this country. And that's just, that's not been the case before. And that's really a good definition of affordability. If a family with one child and two parents working can't afford a house. That really says something. And so we have to incentivize private sector development because more public housing is not the answer. We need a, and this will come. close to you people out west. We need to modernize domestic energy production. President's right. We need to drill, drill, drill. We need a lower cost by having a good supply of energy. And then the third thing we have to do, and this is going to take some political courage, as we need to rollback regulations that increase consumer and business costs. You know, government's not in the business of making things more expensive. Government should be in the business of making things more efficient. the forcing is encouraged competition, particularly in the health care market. You know, the idea of Obamacare, you're providing subsidies on subsidies to insurance companies who's making whatever deal they make with the federal government. It should be pretty obvious. And the fifth thing is we need to devolve social and education programs back to the states. And we need to tell them so we can find friendly taxpayer solutions to local problems.

So if you have an affordability agenda that's based on those five principles, I think we can make more progress in digging our way out of the whole. What concerns me is the lack of political will to do those things. The concern is not knowing what to do. We know what to do, and we know it works. The concern is the political will to get it done and stop the pandering in Washington. So a question I have, we have a regular guest, Stephen Moore, that comes on our program. And he's very bullish on the American economy, and he's pointing to personal income or median family income going up over $1,200 this year. And he says the big thing you have to track is, is income rising faster than inflation? And if you have a median income is going up higher than the rate of inflation, that's when you should start to feel. that things are getting more affordable. As Rod mentioned, we're not in the Hughes home. We're not feeling that per se right now, but the data coming in suggests that we should be feeling that soon. Are you tracking that? Do you see median income rising right now at a pace faster than inflation? You know, Steve and I have debated him from time to time. Yeah. I think affordability is a more complex issue than that. As I mentioned earlier, affordability, it deals with three things. It deals with costs, and some costs are continuing to increase, and some costs are going down, but more increasing. It deals with income, which offsets some of that cost. But if there's still 3% inflation, you need income growing at a multiple of inflation to feel the difference. I'm not sure that's there yet. I think we're heading in that direction. And the other thing, which people don't take into consideration, the economy also deals with perception. If I feel good about my job, if I feel good that I have financial security, if I feel that there's a reasonable chance that my children are going to do better economically than I did. then the psychology is good. So it's a combination. I'm very cautious of looking at any one or two indicators. I think it's a combination of, as I mentioned, of cost and income, and then the perception, the feeling of having security and having a future. Yeah, perception plays a big role in it. Gary, always great to having you out on the show. Thanks for a few minutes of your time today. My pleasure. Thank you. All right, Gary Sass joining us on the newsmaker line talking about, you know, I think, Greg, if you feel good about the economy, the economy's going to be good. I think perception plays a large role in this. I really do. I think perceptions based on the reality of how. how you're making ends meet at the end of the day. It's a kitchen table issue, not a luxury issue. Yeah, that's for sure. I want to take you back, Greg. I think it was the day after the elections in November. Remember you had results coming in in New Jersey and Virginia. The state-run media, not the state-run media, the legacy media, was out there saying, you know, bad news for Donald Trump, blah, blah, blah. Remember that time? As a matter of fact, political had this story. Donald Trump enters his lame duck era.

remember that story that he was a lame duck yeah how's that going well i mean think about this in two weeks the president will wrap up his first second first year in office right yes look what this guy is accomplished and yet they're calling it a lame duck period What's up, everybody? It's Bretzky. And America is turning 250. And I can't think of a better way to celebrate that than playing on an American-owned social casino, SpinQuest.com. With all of your favorite games, live craps, bubble craps, live blackjack, there's no better place to play for free and win real cash prizes. SpinQuest.com. SpenQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Boydware prohibited, visit SpenQuest.com for more details. Well, you know, if you've seen it... Really? We love Harry Anton. He has a new poll out that just boils the brains of the CNN viewers, and that is that MAGA is not divided, as much as the regime media likes to celebrate, and they're more united now than they were before. Yeah, matter of fact, let's listen to what Harry had to say about that today. There is no rift in the Republican Party. Yes, there are some folks like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie are quite skeptical of this. They are very much in the minority. What are we talking about here? Well, why don't we just talk to GOP on the U.S. military, Alston Maduro. Ipsos, 65% support. Six percent opposed. How about the Washington Post? 74% support. Just 10% opposed. If you look among 2024 Trump supporters, we're talking about it. 80% support. The vast, vast majority of Republicans are with Donald Trump on this issue. So does that mean he's not a lame duck? I would say he is not a lame duck. I'd say he is as strong of our president as we've had maybe since Reagan. You know, and it's got to be driving, Greg. The never Trumpers absolutely crazy. I mean, these people go to bed and think every day that Donald Trump wakes up as a bad day. right it's got to be driving them nuts so i i have a friend who is has probably one of the most serious cases of trump derangement syndrome that i that i've ever personally witnessed okay and he just can't let it go and i thought and i saw him today and i thought you know and i'm not going to say anything but i'm just thinking to myself you know he's got to he it'd be a miserable year for him if he's not dropping it like But he leads with it. Oh, you're an intervention. What happened to foreign intervention? I mean, it's the first words. I haven't seen him for a year. First words out of his mouth. What happened to not occupying other countries? What about foreign interventions and wars? I mean, he can't let it go. Well, we had someone in this building walk around yesterday calling Trump a war criminal. Oh, really? Really? This is not a safe space. I need accommodation. Can't come in this room. All right, more coming up. Now, still to come on the show tonight. We talked yesterday. about a member of the state board of education who wrote a scathing letter or an announcement. She was not going to seek re-election. And in doing so, she basically said...

You know, she ripped into the State Board of Education and education in general here in the state of Utah. We'll talk to her a little bit later on. We'll also talk about history and how it will judge gender-affirming walksters out there. So we've got a lot to get to today. I'm Rod Arquette. I'm Citizen Greg Hughes. Hi. Yeah. Hi. You left. Never came back. I got a squirrel. Someone I got talking out there. And they just had, they just put me in a whole different place. I didn't even know there was a show going on in here. I was having a great conversation. I'm sitting here. I do have a co-host somewhere in this building. Hi. Welcome, folks. Hi. Happy to be here. Welcome to Roddy Great Show. How long has this been going on? How long have I been gone? About 10 minutes. No. Look at the clock. No, it's not for 10 minutes. But, you know, I can get, you know, you get distracted. You get engaged in a conversation and you get easily distracted. You know why? Because I respect the person I'm talking to. I give them my full attention. I'm just eyeball to eyeball. You are so full of only. I don't look at my phone while I'm talking. I respect people. You look at your phone all the time when I'm doing the show. That's because I'm scanning for news. That's because I'm looking for breaking news. All right. I saw this a pretty good article the other day, I thought, Greg, in the Washington Examiner. And here's the headline, okay? Some cultures are simply not compatible with American values. Yeah, I agree. I do agree. I think cannibalism would go really bad here. Okay, I lived in Papua New Guinea for a while, and they weren't doing the cannibalism thing, but they had only just stopped. And I just think that would just go over really bad here. I just don't think it's, yeah, I think it'd have a chilling effect. People wouldn't accept that. You know, the examiner, this was an editorial, as a matter of fact, in the examiner. And they basically bring up that look, and they're referencing, of course, Somalia. Okay, and what is going? And they point out a couple of things. First of all, the whole Somalian thing started in about the mid-1990s. Yes, Black Hawk down. You remember that. In 1990s, with a population tripling by 2010, surpassing 75,000 already in the state of Minnesota. And they point out that the population did not scatter around the country. I mean, we have a few, we have a Somali population here. Yes, we do. But, you know, they're somewhere near our studios here because we see them walking the streets all the time. Yes, they are. There's, there's a, there is a, there is a, there is a refugee population here in the state of Utah of the Somalis. Yeah. Yep. But they tend to locate in groups. You know, they are, they don't spread out. And they look for states that have very generous benefits. Yeah, well, I didn't know that, but it doesn't surprise me, given what the news is telling us lately. Minnesota, one of the most generous states, black states when it comes to welfare. So what do they do? Now, I saw a comment the other day from a man who sat down and talked with someone from Somalia. And he said, you have to understand, in Somalia, it's not really a country, it's a country of clans.

Yeah, well, yes. You probably have heard that before, right? Well, that was the problem in Mogadishu with the different, the warring factions that were fighting for power there. That was why it was, that's why there was so much war and unrest there. It's clan warfare. And in some cases, okay, in these clans, if you take advantage of the state, you should. Yes. You should. If you steal, that's okay. And if you lie, that's okay. So does a culture like that, Greg, fit into the United States of American? You know, the hardest part I have with that is that the only reason lying works is because you live amongst truthful people who assume you're telling the truth. Same with stealing. Stealing only works. I mean, you'd see nothing on a shelf to be able to be stolen if everybody stole. The only way lying and stealing works is that you have to work against the morals or the practices of everybody else. So how do people come from a country where taking things that don't belong to you is cultural, you know? But see, I don't know if we understand that. But my guess is that maybe in Somalia it is okay. Well, I'm against that. Well, I think we all are. I'm opposed to that. But my question is, if that's the case, Greg, why do we allow people like that into the country? Well, you know, and you can go, you can just look, if you just look at the legal process to come to this country and how arduous it already is, I think a lot of the people are coming in where these rules are not being followed. They're not being enforced. There's rules where you're supposed to have someone to co-signed for you, where they're in charge of your health care, of any benefit, anything you would need. You're not entitled to public assistance, but yet we have people that are coming in in in droves and immediately, immediately are receiving public assistance, which. As I've understood it with those that have had to go through the process of bringing someone from another country and having them immigrate here, there is a lot of financial obligation or liability that comes to the person sponsoring to prevent that from happening. And we say that, and that's supposedly the law. And then you see the cases happening in Minnesota and probably every other state now that we know about it. Yeah, yeah. Well, the United States, over the years, Greg, for too long, unfortunately, we've admitted very large numbers of migrants. per se, the Somalis, and there are other groups as well that we can think of from failed states. Okay? Yes. Somalia is defined by clan loyalty. And if you aren't loyal to the clan, you probably may not be alive. Yep. True? Yes. All right. So my question is, Greg, don't we as a nation, okay, have a right and really an obligation? to choose migrants whose cultures are compatible with our values. And I don't know how you determine that. Let me share a break. This is why I look at my phone when we're talking because I'm looking at breaking news from Congressman Chip Roy. He's saying breaking, they used the word breaking, that $1 million, Ilhan Omar, and the earmark bill that has yet to pass this budget bill that hasn't even passed yet. She's got a million dollars. tucked into that bill in real time, okay, while all the eyes are watching in Minnesota and the Somali community, she's got a million dollars tucked away in there for justice empowerment initiative. That's what it's called. And it is specifically for the Somali-led Generation Hope and Justice Empowerment Initiative. It is sponsored by Ilhan Omar and then Amy Klobuchar from the Senate. Who wants to be the governor? Yeah. And so.

Both of those, you want to talk about Klan, in the heat of everything that's going on. She's still in for a mill right now. She's not even shy enough or scared enough to hide this. She is put that in the budget for everyone's scrutiny right now. There's something to that. And my guess is, Greg, her mindset, she doesn't see anything wrong with this. Clearly. Clearly, she has no problem with this. She doesn't. How about the Somali candidate that's running in Utah? for that liberal plus 24% Kamala Harris district. He's a Somali. And you know what his campaign is? Universal Daycare. I am not kidding. I'm not kidding. I just saw the ad. It's a commercial. He calls for universal daycare. He's got to read the room. I might go to your culture point. It goes right over their head. They don't even know what the irony here is. They don't see it. I don't know. That's why I'm saying, are there certain cultures, are there certain societies that are not compatible with the values that we have in America today? Well, if you're, if you're looking at pattern recognition, I'd say yes. I'm just, I'm just going to go ahead and say yes, we might have some. I'd agree. The melting pot's not melting. Yeah. And I don't want a stew. I don't. I don't like stew. You don't like stew. I like those little cheese fondues of melt. I like the melting pot. You know, there may be some people out there who have thoughts on this. 888-57080-10 on your cell phone, dial pound 250 and say, hey, Rod, or leave us a comment on our talkback line by downloading the Iheart radio app. The question before you is, are there cultures that are simply not compatible with American values? What's up everybody? It's Bretzky, and America is turning 250. And I can't think of a better way to celebrate that than playing on an American-owned social casino, SpinQuest.com. With all of your favorite games, live craps, bubble craps, live blackjack, there's no better place to play for free and win real cash prizes. SpinQuest.com. SpenQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit SpenQuest.com for more to tells. And should we let them in the country? It is, yeah. It's a good question. And if you come from families of immigrants, you know that grandparents and your grandparents will tell you their stories. There was a strong desire to integrate in, learn English, be part of the community. They didn't want to have the worst jobs of a community. They wanted their kids to go to school and achieve the great jobs and success that you can achieve in America. You don't do that by... by not learning the language of the country you're living in and staying away from the people that live in it. That's not the American dream. That's the difference between yesterday and today, and that's why I think you have to raise those legitimate questions. Yes, I think you're right. Yeah. All right. We'll get to your phone calls. 888-5708010. On your cell phone, dial pound 250 and say, hey, Rod, or check us out. Leave us a message on our talkback line by downloading the iHeard radio app.

You've heard to say it before, but I just, someone didn't, had no idea today. I ran to someone today. They said, I love the show, but I can't always hear it. I said, are you listening to the radio or are you streaming it. Well, they're listening to the radio, worldwide. Anywhere. So that I heart radio app is free, and if you download it, you can listen to the K&RS, and then you can even listen to the Rod and Greg show podcast that ERA does, puts together after the show's over. You know, I wonder if even the guys circling the Earth in the Space Station, whatever they call it now, if they can hear us. If they can, I'm sure they put in the request. We should want to you. We're in high demand. We should tell them that. All right, we've got our lines open to you today. We had an interesting discussion before the break about some cultures are simply not compatible with American values. And we bring up what's going on in Minnesota and Somalia. They gathered together in Somalia, or in Minnesota, because this is the state with fairly, really lacked benefit requirements. And look at what has happened there. Now, things proven yet. But if it's true, I mean, they've ripped off the American taxpayer. And I don't think they feel any wrongdoing in doing so. I saw a map that someone did the correlation between the most generous states on social benefits for undocumented residents or even refugees and showing ID. at the voting booth and there is a correlation the states that don't require a hard ID have the highest most pleasant most you know great generous benefit public benefits all right let's go to the phone let's begin in Saratoga Springs tonight with Jeremy Jeremy how are you welcome to the Rod and Greg show Hi, I just, I have a counterpoint because I disagree with the idea that there are some cultures that don't. We can look back. A lot of people in Utah, obviously, our heritage comes from the Mormon pioneers. Mormons in the 1800s were categorically like not American. There's the extermination order. There are countless. political cartoons that are saying, like, one way to solve the Mormon problem, and it shows Danite hanging, it shows them, it shows Uncle Sam kicking a Brigham Young-like figure into the sleep. But eventually, right, that culture was able to flourish and integrate into the American culture. Why would we now look at this and say, there are cultures that just can't fit when not 150 years ago, members of that church were called not American. You know, Jeremy, that's a really, really good point. But let me ask you this, because I'm thinking, I'm thinking as you're sharing this. First off, I'm glad Brigham Young headed over to Utah, because I don't want to stay in. I wouldn't want to be in Missouri. I call it misery. But all kidding aside. Yeah, but all kidding aside, wasn't part of the Utah became a state when they no longer had polygamy? And isn't that maybe a culture coming closer to the American culture? where they were able to gain statehood when we didn't have polygamy any longer. Was that the LDS or the Mormon culture moving towards what was more the standard of the United States? Yeah, I would absolutely agree that that's moving closer. And that's where I would say, like, when we say there are culture that are not, I think it's, what's the word I'm looking for? I would argue that it is,

short-sighted to say there are certain cultures that can't fit in America. You are right. There are probably elements. I know you had brought up the cannibalism. Objectively, right? Yeah. Yeah. Wrong. That is bad. We don't want that. but it's short-sighted to say, well, because someone has this element of the culture, they can never be American. So you're saying give everyone a fighting chance. I can love it that, Jeremy. I ain't saying give everyone a fighting chance. All right, let's go to Mike in Syracuse. Let him weigh in on this. Hi, Mike. How are you? Welcome to the Rod and Greg Show. Thanks for taking my call. And I think the point that I'd like to drive home goes along with what the last gentleman was speaking on. I think the biggest thing here is a point of assimilation. Over the years, as all immigrants being Americans, we've all had to give up parts of our culture or grow or expand. If we're unable to assimilate to modern day life and what it means to be an American, what are we doing here? Yeah. And I agree. And I do think that I think, Mike, you're right, that there are countries or populations that come here that don't even really have that interest, which is actually, if we're honest, it's self-limiting. It's a glass ceiling, an inch above their heads. If they just want to live here instead of where they lived before, but they have no interest in learning the language or being a part of. Yeah, because I actually, I fundamentally believe and think my life, the station of life I lived in, we don't live in a caste system. uh is different than the way my circumstances they are different than what i was born in and i think that's a country that gives you equal opportunity not equal outcomes and so you're limiting your opportunities if you're not ready to embrace the country that's providing it all right we've got a lot of calls coming in and uh some of your comments coming up on the rod and gregg show in utahs talk radio 1059 knRS if you're a property owner in new york city you own property basically you're a racist Yes, she says homeownership is white supremacy gone amok, you know, just terrible. And I had to clip yesterday's say because I learned that new, the new term up talk. When you talk like this and you say that it's time for them to lose their property. Yeah, there is like when the liberal woman starts the up talk, it is. You know you're in trouble. You're in trouble. Okay. Now, now there's new information on this one. So bottom line with this new advisor for the new mayor. uh she is the housing czar whatever you want to call her is office of tenant protection uh and where she's saying that we are going to change the nature of ownership it's going to be a collective we're not going to have or we do not want ownership turns out uh she and you know she's not old she has a parent who's at least a parent that's a professor at vanderbilt

They have a $1.6 million home outside of, in Tennessee, close to the Vanderbilt University campus, a $1.6 million home. Hey, everybody. Lady Luck here, and we're celebrating America's 250th birthday. Now, all summer long, I'm going to be celebrating by playing on SpinQuest.com, which is an American-owned social casino. It obviously features over a thousand slot games and live blackjack, live craps, live bubble craps. Head on over to SpinQuest. com, get yourself a $30 coin pack for just $10.00. SpendQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Voidware prohibited. Visit spendquest.com for more details. You can say that's a bit. I don't know, either racist or nice. You know, she makes them enough money. They can afford it. But how do you live in that home? And she has to. She's not, I mean, she at least goes home for Christmas, right? Well, who knows? Maybe she doesn't believe in Christmas. Well, maybe New Year's, who knows? Maybe some holiday. I don't know which one. But, but there is, I don't know how the words can come out of her mouth about every moral failing that is attached to home ownership. when she has lived in and her parents own a $1.6 million home in Tennessee. How many people are living in $1.6 million homes? I just not think it's, I don't think it's anyone that she's talking about. And I think it just goes to show it's rules for thee, but not for me. Anything these socialists want, it's not really for them. They're not going to do that. Couple that with the new mayor of Seattle, who's a communist, living off mom and dad until she was elected mayor. I know how to do you. Yeah. Mondi is not far from that. He's never had a real job. No. He was his parents were. One was a movie producer. The other is rich doing something else. And they rip on the rich. Yeah. These rich people rip on the rich. Don't get it. It is just bizarre to me. Yeah. Absolutely bizarre. All right. We're taking your calls tonight on cultures are not simply compatible with American values. And we've had a lot of people say sooner or later they will assimilate, right? Well, why would you want to assimilate, Greg? if you're getting benefits for free. Is there a need to assimilate? I don't think so. The answer to that would be no. We had a call it. We had a listener who called in and said, here's their idea. Cut off. All welfare immediately. And then tell me how it rolls out. See if they really want to be American after that. See if that's, and if they don't, you know, then you know. Well, let's hear from our talkback listeners. Hey, Rod and Greg. So I wanted to chime in about President Maduro and all of that. What I find funny is that all these Democrats who protested at the No Kings protesting, they don't want a dictator, but now they're saying that they want to release. President Maduro, who is a dictator. Huh? That pretty much sums up the Democratic Party right now. Huh? I like that. Here's another comment. Your first two callers have made the point that people who come here, immigrants have to assimilate. I would point out that the Mormon...

Pioneer ancestors were forced to assimilate. And now we have these Somalians who obviously need to be forced to assimilate. And giving them endless money is not forcing them to assimilate. Yeah. How do you force someone to assimilate, Greg? I mean, how do you do it? threatened statehood you can't be a state until you get rid of polygamy no i i think that i think the way it is is the way that our listener suggested you take all these benefits away you take them all away and now what are you going to do to put a roof over your head stomach food in your stomach close on your back you better get to work and if you want to go to work i don't think staying insular and talking to no one is the key to success well coming up on the rod and gregg show we've got new information good old nick shirley has done it again There is a new revelation out about the fraud and abuse taking place in the state of Minnesota, and we'll let you hear what that is all about. Coming up on the Rod and Greg Show and Utah's Talk Radio, 1059, KNRS, as we're talking about, cultures are simply not compatible with American values, and what should we do about them? Here's a comment from one of our talkback listeners. That it's Islam that's the problem. Nowhere on the planet will they assimilate. Everywhere they're at on the planet's a war. They're not compatible with Western society. There is no other explanation. Everybody's trying to figure out these little subcultures when the religion itself refuses to allow a simulation unless it's you to them. You know, I heard a comment or an interview. It was online where this woman was asking this group of Muslim men about, you know, assimilation and everything. And he basically, the men who did most of the talking, said, look, if your law is based on Sharia law, we'll follow it. If it's based on man-made laws, we don't follow. okay that's what that's what he would say you know if your laws are based on sharia law we'll obey them but if they're based on man-made laws forget it we don't think we have any obligation to follow those laws whatsoever Yeah, and I think that our caller on that talkback line, I think that is the biggest barrier right there. You see it a little bit, especially if you can get public benefits that you don't have to work. So the need or the pressure to understand the language can go away. But I think that culture is the hardest to assimilate. All right. Here's the latest from Nick Shirley. Erie just sent us this over. Nick Shirley has exposed that there are you ready for this, Greg? 1,200 medical transport companies. in Minnesota. For a year, photos with time stamps were taken of the vans that were supposed to be used by these companies. None moved in a year. None moved in a year. Of 1,200 vans, none moved. They sat parked, but are getting paid to transport patients. But they are not transporting any patients. They're sitting there.

It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. And so you know, folks, even if you look at an ambulance company, anybody that might transport someone, whether it's from a nursing home somewhere else or an emergency situation, and there's Medicaid involved, it is so highly scrutinized and audited under normal circumstances it is. There's a lot of bureaucracy attached to it. Yes. We saw this and we wanted it. We want there to be accountability. To think that there are trucks that have never moved a day and they're getting paid on a regular basis, it is an offense to all these processes that have actually been created. They're not following the law. There's nothing about that that was missed. That's not a gray area in federal law. That is just stealing from the public treasury. There's nothing about something that they're either allowed to get away with it or they are just going to great lengths to deceive those that are sending in the payments because... There's that that situation cannot stand that way. I just don't understand where the outrage is not right now in this country. Where is the outrage, Greg? Where is it? Yeah. The American taxpayer? I mean, and here's the thing. It actually impacts kids that are disabled. It impacts the elderly. It impacts people that are in need. We have a social safety net for a reason. I don't discount that having that as a civilized society. The abuse that is going on, it is just offensive. And it does have the effect of... keeping that away from or preventing those who are in true need from being or receive it. How do the bleeding heart liberals live with themselves? I don't know. All right. When we come back, get your children out of education, public education. We'll talk about that coming up next. Stay with us.

Oh, I've had no luck lately. Wait, lady luck? Brett Ski, I got you. I've had so much luck on SpinQuest.com. They have all of my favorite games, slot games, live blackjack craps, and bubble craps. You can even get a $30 coin pack for just $10 bucks. $10 for 30. I'm headed over to SpinQuest.com right now. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. This was an open letter. I think it was posted on Facebook by Utah State School Board. Posted on X. Oh, posted on X. On X. From a Utah State School Board member informing her constituents that she doesn't plan to run again. But it doesn't end there. And it's not usually what you hear, you know, time commitments, family priorities. This is a scathing indictment of the school board. It's a scathing indictment of the legislature. And it's a scathing indictment of... K through 12 public schools as a whole. And it is, there are no punches pulled in this letter. It's as tough as it gets. So having read that, I thought it'd be pretty important to maybe ask some questions. You get to know this school board member that's not going to run again and kind of get the deets. Yeah. Get the details. Get the details on it. Well, her name is Christina Bogius. I hope I'm pronouncing that right, Christina. And she's joined by Emily Green. Bajas, joined by Emily Green, who's also apparently decided to run for the school board. Christine and Emily, thanks for joining us tonight here on the Rod and Greg show. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Christina, I want to ask you off the top, why did you feel it necessary to write or post a comment like this? Well, I think, am I speaking to Rod? Yeah, yeah, yes. Yeah, thanks, Rod. I think, first of all, I had no high blood pressure when I wrote this. I just knew I needed to inform people. The filing window was open, and everybody wants to know why. And the reality is... very clear. And I think that, you know, these are not new issues. These are issues that I've spoken about repeatedly. I've been open about them. I have not screamed and yelled and all of the things that others may have done, but I have been speaking about these issues ongoing for the past three years. And so I just, in a very calm moment of time, sat down and wrote this, obviously spent the time to edit it so that it was clear and succinct as much as I could get it to be. And I just put it out to the public to just be very clear about why I'm not choosing to engage in this for another four years. All right, I want to get more into details of what you wrote, but I also want to hear from Emily Green. Emily, I understand you have decided not to run for re-election in the state school board. Is that right? And if so, why?

That's correct. I've been working there for three years, and we've worked very, very hard to bring forward what I have always called the heavy hitters. It is the things that have resonated and have been asked for by our constituents to address. I made a personal post that I sent out yesterday explaining some of my reasons. And it really comes down to the fact that there is what I've described, a machine that runs education. And what I see is that elected officials' platforms are either absorbed into that machine or they are quickly discarded. to play the game of politics, which unfortunately forgets constituents and their desires very quickly. And so you get to a point where you question whether your efforts are best spent in that realm. I'm a small business owner. I think a little bit differently. I always have. And so what I say is the market will prove themselves. The sad thing is that we see a decrease in attendance or enrollments, I should say, statewide. That's not only in public education, but higher ed at large. And I would say that the market speaks for itself, and we are looking for a product that we feel confident in that delivers what it promises. And if we feel that we are not seeking that, we live in a day and age where education can be delivered differently, more efficiently and more honestly. And so if I am not being... impactful in this realm, I can go elsewhere and build those systems that will respond appropriately to those demands. So, Christine, I want to ask you, in terms of the letter or the post that you get shared where you, I mean, I thought it was real compelling. You're saying, I'm not quitting. I'm not running away. I just don't want to be associated with something that is theatrical and it's not substantive and it's not real. It just piqued my interest. Can you give us some, now that you're leaving, can you give us some examples, some names, some places where maybe the public has believed that good things and the things they'd expect from the school board to be accomplished, but they were just really being shuffled, you know, just deceived or there was a shell game going on. Can you give us some examples of that? Well, absolutely. But first, I'm not gone yet. I'm here for another year, folks. So you better be excited about my smile. Well, that's going to get awkward. You know, it might get awkward, but I tell you what, that's part of the ongoing frustration is that at the state board, they don't allow you to disagree without.

spiritual abuse. And if you disagree, there is an arm of spiritual abuse that will come out and they use very religious language to browbeat board members either into submission or into their camp. And it's a very loud game that's played. It's overt. It's not hidden. You hear this language on the public record. And so that's not something that's new. I've spoken about it. I spoke about it when I posted this. But just as an example, let's talk about DEI, for example. This DEI law passes out of the legislature. And everybody, you know, the Salt Lake Tribune is saying their thing. Other arms of media are saying their thing. But there were two things in there that were very important. And they were exception and exemption clauses. And that bill, despite all the hubbub around it, has not made any impactful change in K-12. Ed. And it's because of the exception and the exemption clauses. Now, if you take that and you move that into the state board, we do the same thing. For example, we recently passed, I believe it was R271123. And it had a list of things in there wherein our LEAs had to go through certain processes. And then there was a final one. And I believe it was number 14 in the list. And if I'm wrong, well, it was 13 and we can all, you know, go crazy on Twitter about it. But the final one, basically, I'm synthesizing, said the LEA can tell the state board to pound sand. And obviously that's not quotable language. No. But that is the synthesis of the final one. So we pretend we're doing great work and then we can say, or you can just tell us to Biden. So that's not good policymaking. I hear you. And I, you know, I think that in the legislative process, it is math. You got to get 50% plus one of any board or if you're on a committee or if you're in the legislature. So in a school board or in a legislative committee and on the floor, it's the same. Sometimes there will be some amendments that change. Maybe it still changes for the best of status quo, but it might not be exactly as a sponsor had wanted. What I hear you saying is that. uh the DEI language that the legislature passed the legislative intent was not followed in what was passed by the school board so to so I guess my question is do you think that DEI and it was going to just I'm going to interrupt you may interrupt you yes what I was using was a parallel example

So the legislature passed the law and they exempted it and accepted it. A similar was what we did with this other rule. But DEI is effectively not been eradicated from schools. It's still there. It's still in full force every day. Thanks for clarifying. That's what I actually want to know is what do you think the state of DEI is in the schools, in our K-12 schools today? versus before the legislature acted or the state school board acted. Is anything changed or is the status quo going uninterrupted? I would say it's going uninterrupted. Emily, I want to hear from you as well. We do. Do you have the same feelings that we just heard Christina express? Do you have those same feelings, Emily? I would say that she makes a really good example that when some things are past clauses can be put in, that negates anything, any genuine effort that was made. I feel that there are school districts that have realized what was happening. And I feel like there has been effort in some areas. I know of one school, one county that I would call the most woke. if I may use that term in the state of Utah. And we've had situations that have brought international attention, but it's because their foundations that still exist, that runs their school. And the expectations are there for their teachers, for their administrators, for everybody that's involved in that realm. No, DIA hasn't gone anywhere at all. And it's very disheartening. Emily, let me ask you. You made a comment a few months ago. You said they aren't delivering what it promised. The board is not doing that. Can you cite an example in that regard? Is it in line with the DEA concerns that you have? Or there are other issues, DEI, or there are other issues as well? I describe it this way. When people campaign, you can sound really good and you can make beautiful promises. And you can say, we hear you, we see you, we're going to fix DEI, we're going to bring academics back, we're going to, we're going to protect the innocence of children. And the way that I have personally experienced this is that your campaign speech is different. than making policy and making rules. And whether it's just board members not knowing that, not connecting that, or being too timid or cowardly to follow through on that, that's up for debate. The good part, you know, the different part of heart of mind, I want to say maybe they just don't know. But then you start to see patterns of behavior where if it seems too loud, too aggressive, too specific, you lose votes.

on issues that they campaigned for. And there comes a point where I say the political capital, the exchange of political capital runs their decisions. And in my opinion, it's travesty, it's detrimental. It's a disservice. And it happens all the time. And it's very disheartening. And I would call... Any person that serves in an elected position, don't forget why you ran. And don't be afraid when that policy is in front of you that has translated your campaign promises on paper, vote yes for it. And if it doesn't meet that expectation, vote no. Yeah, and I appreciate that observation. I think you're exactly right. I think that what you campaign on, that's all that voters have. And if it's not what you're doing in the vote that's in front of you, I think that is something that ought to be brought to attention. So let me ask you this, because I'm a recovering public servant. One of the things I think I fought against the most was I didn't want to be misunderstood or misrepresented. Those are the two things that I just wanted. You could disagree with me. If you really, if I felt like we understood each other and you knew what my point was and where I was going, but you hate to be misrepresented. I think in this letter, Christina, where you don't pull any punches, you say that the school board, and you're going to serve with them for another year. You're saying that you are done lending your name and your vote and even your silence to a broken, corrupt, and morally bankrupt system that no longer serves the children or families of the state. When you say the system, are you talking about the board members that you serve with? Are they morally, are they corrupt? Are they, are they, is it that bad? Because it reads pretty severe. I would argue that it is that bad. Yes. I think that, you know, I've had actually meetings with with USB leadership about the different corrupt things that have been happening, you know, and I'll just name a few. Board members leaking private and confidential documents to the press is one. I would argue that that is a corrupt behavior. I would argue that feeding the press overtly false or misleading information. and letting that permeate throughout our state as truth is overtly corrupt. And that has happened. I can't, I can't even count it on all my fingers and toes. And I work in schools. And when I go into schools and my peers and my colleagues, they say, is this happening? And I'm like, no, that was more fake news. This is what's happening. Let me send you the link. You can look at it. And most of them are like, oh, okay, crisis averted. And so when board members do that, that's corruption at its finest because we agitate.

the collective Utah society for... Hey everybody, Lady Luck here, and we're celebrating America's 250th birthday. Now, all summer long, I'm going to be celebrating by playing on SpinQuest.com, which is an American-owned social casino. It obviously features over a thousand slot games and live blackjack, live craps, live bubble craps. Head on over to SpinQuest.com. Get yourself a $30 coin pack for just 10 bucks. SpenQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit SpenQuest.com for more details. Things that are overtly untrue. You know, when we're talking about schmoozing in board meetings and outside board meetings to shape different outcomes, like little thank you cards or treats and pranks during and around policy debates to deflect from the discussion and to project camaraderie that isolates policy-focused members to distract from the conversation at hand. That's inherently corrupt. When you're walking around tickling people, it's unprofessional. And I would argue that there's an element of corruption there because you are purposefully distracting from the conversation at hand when someone else is speaking. so that that person can't hear or consider their thoughts when they're speaking to different issues. You know, it's very interesting. Vote my way and I'll give you presence is actually a tactic that is alive and well on the Utah State Board of Education. And I would argue that it's an astroture style tactic that needs to stop. Christina, yeah, Christina, yeah. You mentioned you're going to be around for a year. I'm not sure what the length of Emily's term is. How do you two propose to get along with the board in this coming year after writing something like this? I mean, what do you expect to happen now? To be honest, I don't know. I think that in the past three years, my strategy, if you will, has been I say hard things, I do hard things, and I go and shake hands anyway. And it's my expectation that the others do the same. And the people that I have found the best camaraderie with on the board are actually, believe it or not, the people who disagree with me the most. And they are the ones that will sit down and have hard conversations and walk away friends. Emily, your thoughts on this? Yeah, Emily, your thoughts?

Well, I would say that, again, coming from my mindset, if you don't improve your product, if you don't improve your business, if you don't improve, you know, those different levels, your business dies. So for me, having hard conversations is actually more productive. I maybe didn't experience that. say in my growing up years or whatever, but when I married into my husband's family, the experience was in a family-owned business, you will have loud voices, you will have arguments, and then you'll go out and have dinner together. And it blew me away. And I was so thankful to see that. So maybe I come out of a place of, you know, I've been very lucky to see that confrontation is actually can be a very healthy thing. And you come to better solutions. You think better. You save the hard parts out loud. And in doing so, you shed light on the dark spaces and you can say, oh, wow, yeah, we could be better. Let's do that. Let's try that. I also... like to give people the chance to keep moving forward and to hold people constantly in a place of saying, I'm the only one doing something or, you know, there's no hope. Well, everyone's doing their part. Could we all do better? Let's always try to be better. Is this hard to hear? Yes. But I'm going to like take a deep breath and I'm going to keep listening and we're going to keep talking and we're going to get this right because the people expect it and they trusted us to do that. They saw us as somebody that could have hard conversations and I've tried to never shy away from that and I won't shy away from that even if it means posting something like this. triggers, hard conversations that are coming, we still have works to do. And we can, and we will. Emily and Christina, yeah, Emily and Christina, we appreciate your time, and let's see what happens from here. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for your candor. Yeah, thank you very much. pulls the curtain back a bit. Thank you. Thank you. Christina Boggis. Thank you. Thank you. Christina Boggis and Emily Green, members of the State Board of Education, will announce they will not seek re-election because of their frustrations in the way the Board of Education and the system of education in this state operates. More coming up on the Rod and Greg Show and Talk Radio 1059, KNRS. Wait until you see this judge that Maduro's in front of it. He's probably going to be... So pro-Moduro, it's going to drive us crazy. Obama-appointed judge from what I understand. And then D.C., you can't, if you're a Republican, you're going to the clink. And if you're a Democrat, you can, you don't, you've never committed a crime. Well, Utah lawmakers, they're in session what? The day after Martin Luther King Day, right? They'll be in session. And lawmakers apparently are planning, according to a story today, are planning to replace a moratorium on gender transition treatments for nations with a permanent ban.

Good. Several other states have done this. Looks like Utah is going along with us. Well, joining us on our newsmaker line to talk about the transgender movement, the gender affirming wokester, so to speak. Joining us is Jeff Davidson. He is a work-life balance expert, wrote an article about this. Jeff, thanks for joining us tonight. Give us your overall assessment right now as to where things stand on the whole debate over the transgender movement. A very hot topic. What are your thoughts? It is contested. And if you look back even recent trends, you'll find that over, oh, I don't know, maybe a decade or so, the number of youth, and I'm here referring to maybe 16 and under that have identified themselves as gay, lesbian, trans, bisexual, what have you, has skyrocketed. It's like double, triple, or even quadruple what it was a generation ago. Now, how is this happening? I think in many instances, the influence of peers makes people think, oh gosh, maybe I am this or that. Whereas in the past, maybe you were just confused for a while and let it go, or you didn't do anything about it and things fell into place. Who can say? You know, here's my question. I think you talk about how history will remember what's happened to these kids. As time goes forward, there's probably going to be a big backlash in people wondering, what in the world were you thinking? Here's my worry, though. What parent will ever admit that they permanently and forever harm their own child? Won't there be a defense mechanism that prevents us from learning from the mistakes of the past because parents don't want to ever admit that they've harmed their children? Well, parents may not admit it, but when the child reaches the legal age, wants to take action, there's not much a parent is going to be able to defend against because the evidence is right there. I agree. What about when you look at this, look at how the decisions made during COVID has just halted academic progress year over year. And consequences we're seeing from this. Do you see any correlation in terms of those that caused it are now the ones rattling the sabres to highlight the fact that there's a problem? Are we going to see a leftist movement over these people who went through the transgender change? And now they're advocating for them in some way where there's still a victim class? I know. I'm getting ahead of it, but you know. This will advocate for whatever they ever come on to, most of which is against President Trump. Yes. If they can find an issue that will divide people, that will rile people, that will gin up their base, then they'll do it.

Jeff, are they opposed to this because Donald, are they supporting this because Donald Trump is against it? I mean, can I come down to that? No, no, no, this was in motion before Trump was reelected. But let's look at the broad perspective. You can't drive in the U.S. in most states till you're 16, and even then it's a restricted license, and then two years later at 18, you can drive, okay? You can't vote at 16, almost everywhere. It's 18. You can't even have tobacco legally until you're 21. It used to be 18, but it got raised because there was so many problems. Now, we know people smoke way earlier than 21. But 21 is the legal age. Let's take one more. Drinking used to be 18. Now it's 21. So if we're talking about 16, 18, 21-year-olds having to wait for these various permissions and legalities, why on earth should an 8 or 10 or 12 years be able to change their sex? You know, you warn in your column that there will still, while we're seeing a decline, and you note also that it started before Trump was elected, but you do warn that there are teachers, there are peers, there are people that are going to continue to attempt to influence young people. The gender dysphoria may not last forever, but if you go through the transition from one gender or the other, that is a lifetime decision. How long, so where would you put, if I had a pie chart and I was staring at it, do you think? There's a 40% of the movement that was going on pre-25 is still amongst us. Is it a small group of people? What are our kids, I guess, facing as they go to school and as this movement doesn't seem to be as strong, but it's still out there? It's hard to put an actual number on it, but I would say if forced, it's at least on its way down, half or less, maybe going down to 40 or 30 percent. But as you pointed out, there are adults in positions of influence, unfortunately, who will continue to ply their views regardless of what society says, what the law says, what medicine says. What common sense says. Jeff, I liken so many other issues. In a way, I think, doesn't this kind of come down to the money? I mean, you have Europe, like the UK, and I think other European countries who have said, no, we aren't doing this anymore. We're putting a stop to it. But it continues here in the U.S., because people are making millions, if not billions of dollars off of this. So doesn't it in part come down to the money issue as well? So much of what goes on in American politics comes down to the money. And let's face it, there are whole institutions that are dedicated to...

offering gender affirming care, gender affirming transition, gender affirming surgeries, and there are doctors who make a big payload from it. Others have figured out that, hey, studies are starting to come in. A lot of people do not get the results they were hoping for. The changes are permanent. I think in the future you're going to see suicides go up. You're going to see all kinds of problems. What about just to tag onto that, the violence? I mean, is that going to be, we're seeing a lot of people, they tried to hide the origins, maybe the journals of those that were committing some of these mass shootings. And because of their transgender situation and where they were, what do you see with the violence? Will that escalate? I didn't look into that for part of the article, but I do know that the violence as a percentage of... the population of transgender is slightly higher than the violence of non-transvenders. I know that. But here's another point I want to bring up that I think might be important to listeners. We have to, for those who are on the right or lean to the right, we have to make sure that we don't make full pause and we don't make false claims. You see all the time people saying that Michelle Obama is a man or Michelle Obama had sexual surgery when she was young. You can dispel this notion in five seconds. Just type in to Google young Michelle Obama, and dozens of pictures will appear that are obviously Michelle Obama at a young age. The same thing with Bridget McCrone in France. She's had three children. I mean, we've got to stop doing this. Every time we make these kinds of accusations, we weaken our arguments about other things. Jeff Davidson, joining us. Jeff, of course, a work-life balance expert, wrote an article about history and how it will judge gender-affirming walksters. I'm glad to see that the Utah legislature may consider not a moratorium, which they initially passed. They wanted more research, but now the research is coming out, and they're done. Ban. Yeah, I think it was to avoid some of the litigation that would have put a hold on that and let the status quo prevail. I think they were successful in their moratorium. It didn't get interrupted by any court. They've learned information from there. I think the next step is what they're doing. Just out right, man. More coming up. Rod and Greg with you here on Utah's Talk Radio, 105.9 can't arrest. All right, would this throw you a little bit? I'm watching this video. Greg, apparently, and where was this? It doesn't say in which state, but apparently a man rode his horse into a target store. and started going up and down the aisles. That's funny. And the horse pooped all over the place. That's not funny. No, that's terrible. Those are called street apples, not Walmart apples. That doesn't work.

That's not how it's supposed to work. What'd you call them? Street apples? Yes, street apples. I've never heard them. Never heard that term. Your dogs leave you lawn sausage and the horses leave you street apples. I didn't know that. Not? I'd learn so much from you every day. Walmart apples. That's disgusting. This was in a Target store. Oh, Target Apple. Target Apple. Target apples. Sorry. Yeah. Wrote his horse. He'd be escorted out with security, holding the horse. I guess so. Yeah. All right, head up, shoulders back. May God bless you and your family and this great country of ours. Thanks for listening tonight. We're back tomorrow at 4. Enjoy the rest of your evening. What's going on, everyone? It's Bluff here, and we're driving through the States in the BluffMobile, and the best thing that we can do is play our favorite casino-style games on SpinQuest. They have over 1,000 games, including Live Dealer Blackjack and Crops, with tons of slots and unlimited. You can get a $30 coin pack for just $10 for new users. Sign up today. Go to SpinQuest.com right now. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visitspinquest.com for more details.