Iran & Oman Work On Deal On Strait Of Hormuz

Your education is more than a path to a degree. At Regent University, it's an important step in God's plan for your career. It's where you'll be equipped to lead and serve with purpose. It's where 40,000 graduates have prepared to fulfill their callings, and so can you. Choose a top-ranked program from over 150 areas of study on campus or online and watch what God will do. Learn more at regent.edu. That's regent.edu. News, politics, entertainment. This is O'Connor and Company. Washington, D.C. says, good morning, everyone. We are, as always, on our flagship station here, WMAL, the Mighty 105.9 FM. waking up presidents, politicians, and parents all across the Mid-Atlantic. And, of course, we're thrilled to be coast-to-coast now on O'Connor and Company and the Salem Radio Network. You know, coming up in the 7 o'clock hour, you know him, you love him. He's one of the... keenest voices right now on the intersection of culture, of faith, of parenting, and of politics. Todd Starns is going to be joining us. He's now based in Memphis, Tennessee, where he owns a radio station there, where we happen to be. showing up every morning, six to nine, the mighty 990, KWAM. And he's going to give us a look see into today's very unique Thursday primary. That's right. There's a primary today in Tennessee. A lot of seats up and a lot of controversy over the redistricting there in Tennessee. Remember when the Democrats started a fire on the House floor? when they were redistricting. All eyes were on the volunteer state, and they certainly will be today as they go to the polls for a primary. We'll get a preview of that and Todd's new book. Coming up in the 7 o'clock hour, in the 8 o'clock hour, we're going to speak with KT. McFarland, as we always do every Thursday morning, get her analysis of what's going on on the international scene. And then Luke Roziak, investigative reporter at the Daily Wire. The Washington, get this. Did you see the story that JD Vance? They started a chicken coop. A lot of people do this. I've been trying to convince Meredith to do this, and she refuses to. And it was just really upsetting because I married a girl from Oklahoma. You know, one of the things that comes along with the package should be her openness to having barnyard animals or some sort of livestock in close proximity. We do have horses nearby. They're not our horses, but we do live near horses. And I wanted chickens. Because, you know. Free eggs and all the fun of just sitting there, you know, smoking a cigar, drinking a glass of bourbon and watching a chicken be an idiot. Chickens are idiots. They're just stupid animals. It's how God made them. There's a reason. But that's also probably the crux of the problem with Meredith. She doesn't want to be surrounded by being responsible for stupid animals. It's bad enough being a parent.

You know, you know how, you know, and I'm saying, no, our kids are great and they're very smart, but you know your kids do some things sometimes that are just so stupid. And it's like, where did they, how did I raise such a stupid child? And by the way, that starts when they're two and continues apparently well into their mid-20s. And so that gets frustrating sometimes. And it's like, no, you know, if we got enough stupidity in our lives, why are we inviting chickens into the world? I'm not going to get my chicken coop that I want. But you remember when eggs were super expensive during the pandemic? And we interviewed them on the show. There were people who you could like rent a coop. They would come over. You wouldn't have to buy any of it. You just pay a monthly fee. And they come and they take care of the chickens, but they live in your house. And you get the eggs and all the entertainment value and stuff that anyway. It did not fly. Did not fly. Meredith vetoed it. She does get a veto on a lot of things in our house. And that's one of them. Meanwhile, JD Vance, our vice president's father of four now, living there at the Naval Observatory, government housing, not bad government housing either. He started a chicken coop. This is a great thing. And the kids get to be a part of it. And it brings some normalcy to their lives. considering they live in a very abnormal environment as children, young children of the vice president of the United States, living on Massachusetts Avenue, right up on Embassy Row. You know, imagine going out and riding your hot wheel in the neighborhood and you're driving past the British embassy and the Brazilian embassy and the Japanese embassy. That's their neighborhood to grow up in. And so he got him a chicken coop. And the Washington Post is doing a story on it. So what does the Washington Post do? I know I'm going off on a tangent. I'm just trying to let you know that Luke Roziak is going to join us on the 8 o'clock hour. But I find this story to be a crystallization of everything that's wrong with journalism in Washington, D.C., dare I say, the United States of America. The Washington Post starts to write a feature on JD Vance having a chicken coop in his backyard for his kids. And what does the Washington Post do? They call the D.C. city government and rat him out. And they start challenging the zoning. whether it's legal to have a chicken coop there. And at no point, I'm sorry, if you write for the Washington Post in Washington, the District of Columbia, you should probably have a working knowledge of the interaction of all of the various jurisdictions in this town, the things that make the city unique. And one of them is there's federal property and federal jurisdiction coinciding with and living right next door. to local controlled to a certain degree, municipal and metro property that the district has some responsibility for, and add to the complication that you're also living next door or butted up right against international property, as I just explained. You've got embassies up and down the neighborhood. The president lives across the street from the Norwegian embassy and the embassy for the Holy See, the Vatican.

And technically those are foreign lands to a certain degree. You know, you get those diplomatic plates. You can park wherever you want in this town. You can drive right through stop signs and red lights. Trust me, I see it all the time. So you already know baked in the cake in Washington that there are conflicting jurisdictions and there are conflicting rules and laws and protocols. And at no point is the reporter. at the Washington Post, the paper of record in your nation's capital, as they're writing what should have been a puff piece on JD Vance, bringing chickens into his family and building a coop in the backyard of the Naval Observatory, at no point. Does the reporter or the editor or anyone with a brain on the newsroom there say, you know, I think that that building and that property is federal? It used to be military because it's the Naval Observatory. In fact, there's still some military there. And I'm pretty sure they're exempt from the basic zoning laws of the District of Columbia. Also, he's the vice president of the United States. And I'm pretty sure before they went ahead and did this, there's a lot of. protocols you have to go through and boxes you have to check before you do it and maybe we should just spend our time and resources pursuing the story from a different angle nope nope they sick the dogs on them and it wasn't just you know here's an interesting angle on the story they actually proactively ratted them out and started challenging the local dc government as to why they were allowing it to happen And whether they should come in and find the vice president. Because, yeah, the district government really wants to pick a fight with the Trump administration, who basically one swearing-in ceremony of their communist mayor-elect, one swearing-in ceremony away from revoking home rule for good. and taking all control away from that kangaroo court, known as the district council and giving it back to Congress where it belongs. Yeah, pick a fight with JD Vance over the kids' chickens. Please do it. Anyway, long story short, Luke Roziak will join us in the 8 o'clock hour to shed a little more light on that story. But that's not what I wanted to start our morning with. I didn't want to start talking about that. I want to talk to you about this. Anthony Fauci has a phone and it's a government phone. And Anthony Fauci's phone is now in the possession of the United States government and the Senate investigators that are weighing whether he should be held in contempt of Congress or obstruction of justice or perjury or you name it. And also we've got the Attorney General Florida. You know, listen, we talked about Anthony Fauci quite a bit last week, and you all seem pretty motivated with some various ideas of how Anthony Fauci should face justice. We now have the Attorney General Florida, who is pursuing major investigations. Right now, a civil investigation is the nature of the investigation, but it could turn into something more. Let's go to clip two here. This is the Attorney General.

of Florida appearing on Fox News last night laying out the case against the people versus Anthony Fauci. Just about an hour or two ago, we issued a formal subpoena to Dr. Anthony Fauci under Florida state law seeking a breadth of documents ranging to what he knew, when he knew it, his doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines that he's out there promoting. And we're really focused in on his self-dealing. Evidence has come to light that he was trying to personally profit off of this. This is outside of his government duties, his official role. He's trying to pursue book deals. awards, get connected with high rollers that might help him come into millions and millions of dollars. This is wrong, and it could go towards a deceptive trade practice, fraud, public nuisance, you name it. I think there's many aspects of Florida law that now are implicated. Now, more from Attorney General Outhmeyer in a moment. That's James Uthmeier, the Attorney General of the state of Florida. But as I said, Senator Ron Johnson has now obtained through subpoena Anthony Fauci's government phone, the phone he used as secretary, not a Secretary of Health and Human Services, but he never had a cabinet-level secretary job. No, he got all the glory, all the money, all the fandom without any of the responsibility or the Senate confirmation. It's amazing how you, boy, when you find an angle, you play that angle, baby, and you get decades worth of wealth and power without any accountability. Ron Johnson has the cell phone, and it all coincides with this morning's hearing where Senator Rand Paul, chair of the committee overseeing Health and Human Services, will be debating and potentially voting on the charges that Congress will bring or recommend to the Justice Department. against Anthony Fauci. We'll talk about the phone in a moment and what might be on it, and you're going to participate in that conversation. 855-7844-4-2-55. What do you think is on Anthony Fauci's phone? What would you be looking for on Anthony Fauci's phone? What's the over-under on the selfies on his phone? 855-8844-2-55. For nearly 3,000 years, Homer's The Odyssey has shaped Western imagination. It tells the story of Odysseus as he faces monsters, shipwrecks, false comforts, and impossible choices on his long journey home. As one of the foundational works of Western literature, Homer's epic is more than mythology. It explores permanent questions about courage, duty, loyalty, family, leadership, temptation, and the search for home. In one of the epic's defining moments, Odysseus rejects the offer of immortality from the goddess Calypso, choosing instead the long and difficult journey home. His decision reveals one of the central themes of the Odyssey that a life of duty, family, and home is greater than a life devoted to comfort or glory. Achilles chose glory. Odysseus chose home. That's why Hillsdale College has released its newest free online course, the Odyssey. Taught by Professor Benedict Wayland, the course reveals why Homer's masterpiece remains one of the greatest works of Western literature. Find this free course at Hillsdale.edu forward slash start now. The Odyssey from Hillsdale College. Go to Hillsdale.edu.

forward slash start now what's on Anthony Fauci's phone if you can get a hold of his phone that was issued by the end by the way stop with oh his privacy is being infringed upon this is a fourth amendment right i love all the federal employees who have a government issued laptop or phone please tell me about all the documents that you sign knowing that the government has access that it's not your phone it's the government's phone they have access to all of it And by the way, when you get a government-issued laptop, I'm pretty sure there's something that you sign and then there's a whole onboarding process where you get the special login and all the security protocols. I sure hope there are. There should be. And you get them in the private sector. My new laptop I got from the Salem Network, I still haven't figured out I crack it open yet. Actually, it's sitting at my desk. And alongside all of those things, you recognize and acknowledge that this is not your property. It's government property. They will track what you're doing. And this is not a violation of anybody's Fourth Amendment rights. If you were working for Senator Rand Paul's committee, if you were working for Senator Ron Johnson's office and you got a hold via subpoena of this cell phone, Anthony Fauci's cell phone, what would you be looking for? What do you think is on that phone? And again, I go back to the over under on selfies. How many times did he take a selfie of him right before he did a hit on CNN or ABC News? Here I am. I'm about to talk to Stephanopoulos. How many selfies are odd, Anthony Fauci's phone? 855-7-884-4255. Seriously, though, what are you hoping to uncover here? Bringing it back to the charges in Florida, here is the Attorney General of the Sunshine State, Mr. Olthmeyer, continuing to explain what they're going to be pursuing at the state level. Well, a lot of it, you know, he revealed himself in this diary. We've got communications, emails with subordinates where he's asking them to help work on applications for these awards. We know one award in particular. He made 900,000 on that. Again, this is separate and independent from his government salary. So here, you know, government officials, they have a lot of immunities. They have protections when they're doing their job. But when somebody like Dr. Anthony Fauci is lying and deceiving the American people, pushing out directives and mandates that he privately questions as unsafe, and he's deriving a profit from it, that raises larger legal question. It sounds like he knows what he's doing, and it sounds like there's actually fire where that smoke is. And it sounds like we now have the answer to the burning question, why did Anthony Fauci plead the fifth if he had a pardon? A little bit more here from the attorney general, specifically talking about that phone. So Anthony Fauci's attorney David Shirtler responded this way. Aaron Rogers doesn't know what he's talking about. Shirtle told the athletic on Anthony Fauci's behalf he should stick to football. Where do you come down to that? Well, I think a lot of athletes have reason to be concerned. You had very healthy people in top.

Peak performance falling down on courts across the country shortly after receiving these vaccines. We now know that Dr. Anthony Fauci doubted whether or not it was a good thing for children and young people, but he nevertheless publicly pushed for it. So I appreciate Aaron Rogers speaking up on it, but whether he's going to stick to just football or not, I'm going to focus on the law. That is my job in Florida. I'm going to fight for our citizens. Sorry, mislabeled file there. That was about Aaron Rogers. Here he is talking about that phone. Click four. We need to gather discovery and evidence in Florida. You know, we want to seek accountability. A lot of people were hurt and suffered. But we respect procedure, rule of law. We will get to the bottom of it. We will leave no stern unturned. And we want to find out at the end of the day, you know, was he pursuing profit? Or was he trying to protect the people of Florida? And his diary, it screams of fame and fortune. You know, he's doubting the risks of myocarditis. He's frustrated that Florida is not following his directives. So much so that he traveled down. He did news hits, radio hits. He went down with Jill Biden. All the while, we now know privately, he has a lot of doubts about safety. That's right. And it's all been revealed. And certainly there will be more information and exchanges that he had on that phone. The cell phone was transferred from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on investigations chaired by Senator Ron Johnson. Now, spokesperson for the senator told Fox News Digital, the subcommittee obtained a copy of Dr. Anthony Fauci's iPhone that was used during his time at HHS. The committee's procurement of the phone, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes just as the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, ready to decide whether to hold Anthony Fauci and contempt of Congress. It also follows the HHS move to dump over 1,000 pages of Anthony Fauci's personal diary to the panel just days before the blockbuster hearing. One other question I have about that whole diary thing. Why didn't they have him testify first and then dump the diary? So I was looking at this whole thing. What if when we were working for Andrew Breitbart, we obtained Anthony Fauci's diary? we would not have released at all. We would have asked him questions and got him to, well, trap himself in a lie and then release the diary and say, oh, you said this, but the diary says that. I wonder why they didn't do that. We'll keep following that story, as promised. Whether you're preparing for exams, juggling family and career, or just looking to stay sharp as you age, think factor is here to help. It's created by the same company that makes Relief Factor. Think Factor supports sharper focus, stronger recall, and clearer thinking. It's a natural way to give your brain the daily nutrients it needs for memory, attention, and even vibrant vision. I got a text from someone who said, I love it when you rattle the think factor. There's your think factor, baby, right there. I keep it right here in arm's reach because I've been taking it for over two months, and I noticed the difference. I am sharper. I have...

amazing results. The longer the day goes on and the busier it gets, I stay on top of it. I want you to maintain your mental energy for whatever's ahead. So I want you to try Think Factor. Right now, we're making your first bottle available for just $19.95. Go to ReliefFactor.com for Think Factor or call 800 for Relief for Think Factor. Think clearer, perform better daily. Your education is more than a path to a degree. At Regent University, it's an important step in God's plan for your career. It's where you'll be equipped to lead and serve with purpose. It's where 40,000 graduates have prepared to fulfill their callings, and so can you. Choose a top ringed program from over 150 areas of study, on campus or online, and watch what God will do. Learn more at regent.edu. That's regent.edu. Time to turn our attention to burrito gate. If you already know what I'm talking about, the burrito controversy, the cost of a Chipotle burrito and how it affects young Americans and whether it's a reflection on economic instability. lack of political leadership and understanding of what the true problems are that are being boiled down to affordability. And this is why people want to be Marxist because a burrito cost $20. Go ahead and chime in. I'd love for you to participate in this conversation at 855-784-4255. Who's right in this equation? I'll lay it out for you. Don't worry. I'll give you all the details. Who's right? Is it true? that basic items in your life cost too much money, and that's why you've got kids in their 20s who feel like they'll never be able to own a home or move out of their parents' basement, and that that's a failure of generations before them, a failure of their parents, a failure of their government, and the government needs to fix it. Because that mindset is having people turn to Abdul El-Sayed and Zohran Mamdani to solve these problems for them. But I think there might be another way. But do they have a point? Do they have a point? Or are you on the side of many of us who have, and I sort of include myself in this camp, but many of us who said, no, a burrito doesn't have to cost $20. Stop going to Chipotle. You know, buy a couple of cheap frozen burritos and microwave them. Or, hey, I've got an idea. Buy the ingredients and make your own burrito. It'll be cheaper and save your money. It's one of those issues where both sides are right and both sides are wrong. And I want to dive into it. And even more importantly, ask you if you've had these conversations with your kids in your life, or if you're one of our younger listeners and viewers, are you having this conversation with your parents? And is there a conflict here? Is this really about young people making really bad personal choices with their finances? and not taking responsibility for their lives? Or is this the fault of an out-of-a-control economy that makes living a normal life where you can make it through the day, save some money so you can buy a house someday and live the American dream, have our leaders made such poor economic decisions that it makes that American dream look like a fantasy? 855-784-4255. It all started.

with, I believe, Andrew Colvin. Now, Andrew Colvin is the longtime producer, Charlie Kirk, on his podcast. He now hosts that podcast, and he's one of the big weights at Turning Point USA. He took two social media, as these things always begin, with some post on social media, don't they? And he said, one of our Turning Point USA college students gave me his take on affordability. A burrito shouldn't cost $20. Yeah, a lot of this is a hangover from COVID and Biden-era inflation, but the lived experience, who I always get nervous when people say lived experience, lived experience is the same. It just feels like basic things cost too much. Now. The $20 burrito was in reference to a loaded burrito at Chipotle. Because you can get to $20. You add some extras. You add guacamole. Maybe double meat. You know, it can be done. I've had a Chipotle burrito. And yes, it can get up to $20. But of course, that's not the only burrito option out there. But when you say a burrito shouldn't cost $20, well, okay, you know, a car shouldn't cost $30,000. But for one reason or another, mostly because enough people are willing to pay $30,000 for a car and $20 for a burrito, that's how much a burrito was going to be. That's part of the problem. But listen, things are too expensive. And in many cases, things are too expensive because the government has made really bad decisions affecting all of our lives. The worst decision was during COVID and during the Biden administration in recent years. Those were pretty recent years. The government spent money they didn't have. Now, during COVID, they thought they were propping up the economy that had been artificially stopped and stagnated by the government through the advice of Anthony Fauci for whatever nefarious reason, or if you think they were really just trying to save lives. Either way, they did what they did. They shut us down. And at the time, the government, because they ruined our economy, felt the least they could do is supply free money to people to keep them floated. Of course, that free money wasn't really free. They were printing money they didn't have. And when you print money you don't have, you reduce the value of that money. And suddenly, that money can't buy as much as it used to, especially when the economy starts rolling back up. And you don't change those basic policies that you put in place just for emergency purposes. We're still there. Because nobody wins re-election by saying, we're going to stop giving you free stuff. And this is a both sides of the political equation problem. The results are $20 burritos. The results are $6 or $7 a pound ground beef. I know I'm being very reductionist here. I know that I'm not.

really giving you all of the macroeconomic nuances of this. But there's basically what's going on here. And yes, these are the recent decisions that were made during COVID and during Biden. But these are decisions and policies that go back for decades. And it needs to be changed. Otherwise, we're going to continue on the same. treadmill. The reason I point out that this has been going on for decades is because nothing here is new. It's just that, well, the decimal point has moved a bit, or maybe the factor involved here is bigger. But there's nothing new about individuals in their 20s, starting out in life, not making the kind of money that people in their 30s, 40s, or 50s are making. There's nothing new there. That's how an economy should work. When you're in your 20s, you're not going to make the kind of money that somebody with more experience, more skills, and more value that they bring to an employer will make in their later years of working. So what do you do when you're in your 20s? Well, you don't live the same life that somebody lives in their 30s, 40s or 50s. When I was in my 20s, I was not making as much money as people who were doing the same job that I was doing, but they had 20 years experience. And by the way, I wasn't driving the same cars that they were driving. I wasn't living in the same big house that they were living in. Yes, it's true. When I bought my first piece of real estate in Jersey City, New Jersey, Back in the 90s, my one-bedroom condo cost me $85,000. I know. That blows everybody's mind to think about. In fact, that same building is selling the exact same condo now for like a quarter million dollars, maybe more. It's just a one-bedroom, 700 square feet. It's tiny. But I was smart enough to get in on real estate because that's a very smart investment to make when you're young. And that $85,000 may seem cheap now, but at the time, I was only making about $37,000 a year. It seemed like a fortune to me. But I didn't think I was entitled to a five-bedroom house in a gated community. And to make ends meet, I wasn't eating $20 burritos or whatever high-end burrito was out there. I was probably eating burritos, but they were really cheap burritos. I was eating pizza by the slice in New York. I wasn't eating as much, by the way, too. Have you noticed that we have a combination of factors here where people are complaining about how expensive burritos are? And at the same time, we have an obesity problem in this country. Maybe the fact that you're loading your burrito up so full of garbage that it's costing you $20 when you check out, maybe that coincides with the fact that you've got a little extra thickness around the midsection. I was really skinny when I was in my 20s. Some would say it was because I was healthy and fit. I know the truth. It's because I didn't have enough money to overeat. That said, things are too expensive. It's because the government has screwed up. Politicians have to recognize that. When President Trump just waves his hand at the affordability issue and says that it's made up, it's a myth, it's fake, it sounds like he doesn't get it. It sounds like he doesn't realize that, no, no, no, really, things are too expensive.

And that's a problem when you're a politician. I'm not saying it's Trump's fault. I'm just saying as a politician, if you want your own future fortunes or your party's fortunes to be bright and sunny, you can't look like you don't get it or even worse, you get it and you don't care. So the burrito gate debate continued. And I'm going to tell you all the various influencers that chimed in and had their opinion about it. I'm one of the few people who actually think both sides are right and both sides are wrong. But people got very passionate about it. And suddenly, if you go to Facebook or you go to Instagram and you go to Twitter or whatever, everyone's talking about burritos. So where do you land on burrito Bill Gates? And are you having this conversation maybe over a different food item or a different consumable product in your family, in your household, over your kitchen table? 855784-44-255. Randy in Knoxville, Tennessee, where we've got our primary today. We're going to give you a preview with Todd Starns later on. Hey, Randy, thanks for calling. You're on O'Connor Company. Hey, thanks, Larry. Yeah, the other day I made a burrito using a leg of lamb, my own tomatoes, lettuce, onions from my 14 raised beds. And it cost me a buck and a half. And it was organic and it was delicious. The CEO of Chipotle, Larry, a few years ago, he was on something. He said, due to climate change, there will be no avocados in a matter of a few years. So, you know, I said that guy is whacked off of his gut. But I want to talk about Anthony Fauci. You know, he's enamored with all these movie stars that were digging him during all this. And I'd like them to pull up some of his comments about meeting these stars. I heard that he said, Julia John Roberts. She gets all hot and bothered when I talk about mitigation methods. So you think that's what's going to be on his phone, all the hot and bothered health-related sex thing he does with Hollywood Starlets? Oh, yeah. Hey, you know, he's a very sexy little hobbit. Yeah, I hear you, Randy. Randy, hey, by the way, your burritos sound great, and I appreciate you sharing this, right? But here's a problem. And Randy, thank you for calling. The problem, of course, is that not everybody has access to Randy's leg and lamb that isn't going to have that level of cuisine in their lives, although he does make a point. If you asked your 20-something kid out of college to make a burrito from scratch, Go to the grocery store by the cheapest version of the ingredients to make a burrito and then come home and do it. Could they? And is that maybe part of the problem? And I talk a lot about how I sponsor midshipmen in this house from the Naval Academy and they're in our home and they become part of our lives over the four years that they're at the academy. In their first year when they're seniors, their last semester where they're...

class load is a little lighter. They're spending a lot more time at the house. And I've been cooking for these midshipmen for years now at this point. And inevitably, they've asked me to help them teach them how to cook because they don't know how to cook. And they're about to be living on their own as O-1s out there at some marine base or Navy base. And so I do. And I teach them how to batch book. And I take them to the grocery store. And we buy a big thing at chicken thighs and a big... couple of heads of broccoli and some rice, really cheap rice. And we go home and we make the big pot of rice and we chop the broccoli and we roast the broccoli in olive oil and we cook those chicken thighs either on a grill or under a broiler. And then we chop it all up and batch cook it and create bowls, chicken broccoli rice bowls that cost us about 80 cents apiece. And those midshipmen are eating for a week on about 20 bucks because we just went to the grocery store and we made it ourselves. And yes, it was an hour and a half commitment. And we could watch the first half of the football game in our kitchen while we did it on our devices that cost too much. You see, there is a way to fix the problem, but we have to do it, not the government. All right, more of your calls, 8557-844-255. Your education is more than a path to a degree. At Regent University, it's an important step in God's plan for your career. It's where you'll be equipped to lead and serve with purpose. It's where 40,000 graduates have prepared to fulfill their callings, and so can you. Choose a top-ranked program from over 150 areas of study on campus or online and watch what God will do. Learn more at regent.edu. That's regent.edu. I'm telling you all, whether you want to call it affordability, you want to call it inflation, whether you want to call it government mismanagement of the economy, where the government shouldn't manage the economy at all, whatever you want to call it. You cannot overlook how it's affecting people in their lives. The bottom line is, things do cost more. Things are way expensive. And if you're in your 20s and you're a young professional and you're trying to do everything right and you're trying to play by the rules and you've got your education and you're trying to join the workforce and you want to get married and you want to start a family, it's not easy. It's not easy at all. Part of it is because you were sold a bill of goods about needing to go to college and getting a four-year degree that probably isn't really aiding in your professional life. But we've created... a jobs market that overemphasizes the need for that four-year degree. There are some jobs that you can't even get in the door for, to get an application, let it load in an interview without that four-year degree. So now you're paying student loan debt, again, because you were sold a bill of goods and because you were not given good advice about how best to obtain that four-year degree without going into debt. And also, by the way, your basic suburban home in a major metropolitan area that's just within an hour of the city center where your job is probably located is going to cost you upwards to three quarters of a million dollars. Where's the money for that down payment going to come from? Of course, you don't necessarily have to live there.

And again, I know it sounds cold-hearted and I'm not running for office so I can say it. But no one has the right to live in a four-bedroom house in a safe, wealthy neighborhood right outside a major metropolitan area and have it be, you know, matching the income needs that you demand. There's been a long history in this country of people moving and finding jobs or starting a life where they can afford to do so. and if things are not working out for you economically because of whatever reasons, either your choices or choices the government has made or what have you, I know it sucks, but you've got to do what's right for yourself and your family, so maybe you've got to move to an area where it'll be easier for you to get on your feet, and then you can start to make money and accumulate wealth, and maybe then you can move somewhere else. There's nothing new here. When I lived in New York, as I mentioned, and I was barely making a lot of money, I recognize that New York is a great place to live right out of college, right out of school, where you're barely making any money, and you're dirt poor, it's exciting, it's fun. You don't want to live that way your whole life. And when you want to live a middle class experience and get married and have kids and buy a house, well, you do what a lot of people do, which is move somewhere else. And right now, the cheapest state... for a single family home in this country based on the median house prices is West Virginia. And there are a lot of people listening on our flagship station, WMAL, who made the choice to sell their home in Alexandria or in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and move about an hour or so out to West Virginia and take the train in or drive in, or thanks to COVID, and this was one sunny side of COVID, it's much more common for people to work remote. And they have made that choice and they're maybe even making less money where they're living, but the cost of living is better. And by the way, West Virginia is a beautiful place. There's a lot of beautiful places in this country. But you make choices. Look at the Dust Bowl during the Depression. The whole idea of grapes of wrath and people moving. They picked up their homes. And again, I know there was a lot of despair, but it was a depression. That's the whole point of a depression that people are living in despair. And everybody got on Route 66 and they moved from Oklahoma and the dustbin and dustbowl and they moved to California and they started a new life. Back then, California was the cheap option and there were opportunities there. There were no opportunities in the middle of a drought in the Midwest and the Great Plains. And so that's what they did. And why is that such a forbidden topic? Why are we not supposed to say, you know what? Yeah, you're right. Where you live right now, way too expensive. You should probably move somewhere else. People are doing it all the time. It's why people are leaving California and moving to Tennessee or to Texas or to Florida. You just do it. Take control of your lives instead of whining about it and then voting for Marxists. Mamie in Ohio. Mamie, go ahead. You're next up on O'Cotter & Company. Hi, Larry. Thank you. You're welcome. Today is the first I've ever heard of this burrito gate.

It may be an internet-only social media story, but big names Matt Walsh. Even Vice President JD Vance has chimed in on it. Mark Thiessen, Joel Bari Weiss. Joel Barry said that his wife made homemade burritos for the family of aid, and it costs less than $20. The real root of the problem is not an affordability crisis. It's a I don't know how to cook crisis. Probably a combination of both, but... I've been saying this for decades, Larry. Whatever happened to the laws of supply and demand? The government completely ignores this. The Democrats and the rhinos, all of these people that want big government, they don't know and understand the laws of supply and demand. So whoever is stupid enough to pay 20 bucks for a burrito is just that. Stupid enough. And like you mentioned, it's still with all kinds of junk. I don't eat junk food, so no wonder everybody's overweight. Listen, I love burritos as much of the next guy. I'm going to Taco Bell for their burrito supreme. It's less than six bucks, and it's more than satisfying. And it's great. And by the way, you know, if I'm in a pinch, I'm on the road, I'll go to a Starbucks because they're everywhere. But I'm not getting their $10 frapi chino espresso thing. I'm just getting coffee. And that's too much money as well. I'd rather just brew my own pot at home. And I'm not getting macha. Mamie, thank you. It's frustrating when both sides are right and both sides are wrong, but we're here for it. When it comes to supplements, two things matter at most, that it works and that you can trust it. And with Relief Factor, that I keep also right here by my desk, there's my package of Relief Factor. Both are true. It works and you can trust it. I love telling you about the success stories like Chris. Chris spent years doing physical work, leaving his feet sore at the end of the day. After starting Relief Factory, he felt so good. that he ran a half marathon. that I had horrible sciatica in May, had trouble walking around. I jacked up my dosage of relief factor. I actually went to three doses a day. I'm now training for the Marine Corps Marathon, the full marathon, 26.2 this fall. Why don't you try Relief Factor? If you've got everyday aches and pains, if they're getting worse as you get older, or maybe if you've got a major problem, your first three weeks, your quick start is just $17.76. Go to Relieffactor.com or call 800. 4 Relief, 804 ReliefFactor.com. Leave it to Eric Erickson, of all people, to really solve the burrito gate problem. His substack. Substack newsletter just came out. It says, well, there's no such thing as a $20 burrito. That's not the point. For God's sake. That's not the point. That's Eric Erickson. He's that kid in the back of the room in class. Actually, it's only $17.30.

Rounding up, Eric. We're making a point here. In mere moments, we'll check in with Todd Stearns. I bet he would never pay $20 for a burrito. I bet his trad wife makes his burritos. Either way, Todd Stearns in a moment, also in the next hour. Katie McFarlane, she'll have this Sunday, the 7th Fleet, down to Mexico to bring back a stash of burritos. Luke Roziak from Daily Wire is getting to the bottom of Chicken Gate. The Washington Post did a jihad against the vice president over his little family chicken coop in the backyard. It's a remarkable story. That's all coming up. Good morning. O'Connor and Company here from our flagship station, WMAO in Washington, D.C., and the Relief Factor Studios. Today, we have a primary in the volunteer state of Tennessee. And remember, all eyes were on Tennessee there when they were redistricting because the Supreme Court decided that, yeah, the misinterpretation of the Voting Rights Act was actually causing a lot of racism to happen in states. And we don't want racism, the constitutions against that sort of deal. So now the Voting Rights Act is being interpreted properly without the influence of racists who tried to draw lines based on the color of people's skins. And now all those districts are up for primary today, as well as a couple of statewide seats. Todd Starns is the host of the Todd Starns show every day, noon to three in Memphis, Tennessee. On our station in Memphis as well, thank you very much, K-WAM. Good morning. Todd Starns. Good to talk with you. Larry, good morning, and we love waking up with Larry O'Connor here in the Bluff City, the home of Elvis Presley and B.B. King. So we love your show here. Dude, so before we get into politics, we got to work out some sort of event down in Memphis for all your great listeners, and we got to include Graceland. Is there some sort of Elvis something we can do? Oh, we can make that happen. Of course, you know, Elvis Week is coming up, which is a huge thing. I mean, thousands of people coming into the Bluff City. You know, we've got the big FedEx St. Jude Championship coming up, you know, with a lot of PGA players, stars here in town as well. So we've got to make that happen. All right, we will. But to the work ahead here, Todd, you've got a primary today in Tennessee. Something tells me, I could be wrong, you tell me, but I don't think Hasan Piker is going to be campaigning with any of the Democrats there. I don't think Abdul El-Sayed would get very far in Tennessee, or have things changed in Tennessee. You would be surprised. We actually have a candidate here that will probably beat the Democrat nominee in the 9th congressional district. You were mentioning that district. Steve Cohen's former district, he's not running. He was always my favorite African-American in the House of Representatives, Steve Cohen.

Yes, his claim to fame, of course, eating from the bucket of fried chicken during a committee hearing on Capitol Hill, the pride and joy of Memphis. What a guy. Yes, so Justin Pearson is basically Jasmine Crockett with the power fro, and he is probably going to be the nominee. But the way the district has been redrawn, looks like this is going to be a pick-up seat. for the Republicans, a guy by the name of Brent Taylor, a state senator, has President Trump's endorsement, and it looks like he will more than likely be the new congressman after the general election, giving Tennessee a full sweep of Republican lawmakers, Cohen, the only Democrat in the congressional delegation. That's great news, actually. And listen, you've had a huge demographic shift there in Tennessee because so many people, I've got a lot of friends who used to live in Southern California who came to Tennessee. And I was like, dude, come as a refugee and embrace the culture and the politics of Tennessee. Don't act like an evangelist and say, hey, we're going to change these people now and remold them in the model of California. Has that been a real cultural tension there in your state? Well, it is, and we've seen the Californication of like Nashville, for example, which has really undergone a big shift culturally and politically. I mean, you look at Memphis and Nashville. Those are the two Democrat powerhouse areas of the state. We're practicing strong border security here, Larry, and so we... We have been inviting people to come down. We just hope they don't realize we're actually sending them to Kentucky instead of Tennessee. All right. Todd Stards is our guest. By the way, Todd has a new book coming out. Next week, I'll have you know, The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America. We're going to get into that book in a bit, Todd. But I do want to focus on some of the other races. First of all, Senator Bill Hagerty, he is up for reelection this year, isn't he? He is, and he's going to win without any opposition at all, hardly. So he'll do well. He'll be back at the Senate. Marsha Blackburn, on the other hand, we've had her on the program quite a bit, and she is running for governor of Tennessee. What's that race looking like? Wow, this is really, really an ugly race. We have three Republicans running, and the issue is, I like all three of these people. They're all very good human beings. Monty Pritz, who is the MAGA candidate, grassroots favorite. He's a state representative. running with hardly any money, but the guy is drawing hundreds of people to his events. Then you have Congressman John Rose, who is running, and also Marsha Blackburn, as you said. The president actually did not jump in and endorse anyone in this race, which is all unusual. And the reason why is he really likes.

But the message resonates. He's at least giving solutions instead of just saying, oh, communism is bad. Yeah, it's a great point you raised. And again, I addressed this in the book The Golden Age, going all the way back to, I would say 2007, 2008, I was writing about this at Fox, where schools were actually teaching children in a very weird way that socialism was actually far better than capitalism. And they were doing that they were doing that through clever cartoons and a lot of propaganda. And I don't think the conservative movement understands that our nation's taxpayer-funded classrooms had been turned into those propaganda centers. And they have actually changed hearts and minds over a generation of American kids. We are dealing, and I think the president was right yesterday, the White House said that our real fight is with communism. And it's true. It is a clear and present danger. And I'm concerned that we're going to see even more young people embracing communism unless we actually take back our public schools, defund, dismantle the Department of Education as the president promised on the campaign trail. That's the only way we're going to be able to save this country. All right. We're going to continue walking in Memphis with Todd Starns here. As you just mentioned, he's got a book coming out, The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America. We'll get into that and more. Todd Starns, straight ahead. That's right, I said walking in Memphis, and I'm not going to apologize for it. Todd Starns, host to the Todd Starns show. On our powerhouse radio station affiliate in Memphis, KWAM, the Mighty 990, and he is a stalwart conservative voice who has always been able to hone in on what the real crux of the problem is, the kitchen table living room, parenting issues that really make this country and our lives for that matter so important in this United States. And he's got a brand new book out. It's called The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America. By the way, the cover of the book is... Look at this. It reminds me of the F. Scott Fitzgerald copy of the Great Gatsby that I read when I was in high school. Is that what you're going for here? We are in the Roaring 20s, I suppose. We are, Larry, but my book is also, not only it's the celebration of how Trump saved America, but it's also a warning that after the roaring 20s, well, we had a pretty difficult time in America. So the book is a reminder to America. The fight is not overchuts yet. You know, we've got to still stand up and fight for our freedom. As Ronald Reagan said, it's not passed along in our bloodstream.

Oh, I sort of thumbnail it here for me in terms of how Trump saved America, because I think there are a lot of people who would immediately say, yeah, if we continue going down that path, if Kamala Harris had, God forbid, won that election, it could very well have been over. Well, absolutely. And really, there's a burrito connection to the book, actually, and it involves the president and meatloaf. And I write about this in the book. I was invited down to Marlago, and I interviewed the president and had a meal there at this palatial, you know, club. And I'm looking at the menu, and they have everything you would expect to have on the menu at Marlago. But as I was scrolling down, I realized they had Mrs. Trump's meatloaf. And so the president actually has his mother's meatloaf recipe there, and it's being served at Maralago. And it's absolutely phenomenal. And as I was sitting there eating the president's mother's meatloaf there at Maralago, I'm thinking to myself, you know, this is why Donald Trump... is who he is, and this is why he resonates. He really is this blue-collar billionaire, a guy who actually gets it. He understands the fundamentals of what it means to be a regular Joe while being more than a regular Joe. And so I use that story really to sort of launch the book and explore the ways that he saved the military. He saves our nation's education system. He's saving America's churches, for example. encouraging them to get into the fight and to stand up for values in the public marketplace. And we do with a lot of fun, a lot of humor, but also just a reminder of what is really at stake here as we watch the rise of socialism within our own borders. Well, that is the response to Trump, it appears, is socialist. I remember during the Reagan era, we're both old enough to have lived through both Reagan and Trump. How lucky are we, Todd, starts. And during the Reagan era, Democrats ended up saying, yeah, he's got a point. You know, famously, you had Democrats switch parties under Ronald Reagan and re-identified themselves as Republicans because the party had lost it. Here under Donald Trump, it looks like it's the opposite reaction. They are going so far and so extreme. to the polar opposite of what Donald Trump represents, that it feels like there's no resolving that. Yeah, I think it's a fair point. And I think the Democrat Party is just gone right now. And when you've got folks like James Carville out there saying that, you know, he's thinking about leaving the party, we thought he had gotten into the Tennessee sipping whiskey. But, you know, again, this is how far crazy left these people have gone. You know, here in Memphis, for example, a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that Justin Pearson, Jasmine Crockett with a power throw.

They had a huge rally. Over 1,000 people showed up at a megachurch, a black mecha church here. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Presley, Summer Reed, members of the squad. The pastor of the church got up and said, Jesus was a socialist. So we should be a socialist. And the crowd roared with approval. So this is how dangerous it is that even in the southern states, they're having these kinds of conversations. So this is a time for Republicans to stand up. And, you know, we've got to, President Trump got us back into a good fighting position. Now we're going to have to take it from here. The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America, it officially releases on Tuesday. We've got a sneak preview from the author himself, Todd Starns. Go ahead and grab that book on pre-order. It will deliver Tuesday, August 11th. Todd Starns, I'm going to take you up on that. We're going to do a whole Elvis Fest down there. I can't wait to get there and see you in Memphis. Larry, we've got blue suede shoes ready for you. Thank you for that. Todd Starns, the man the myth, K.Wam, the Mighty 990. Thank you, Todd. And good luck with the book. It's going to be great. And we'll be watching those results in Tennessee tonight at their primary. I'll tell you about the cost of cellular phones because, you know, you lose track of your bill sometimes. You sign on to the plan and then, you know, a couple of years go by, have you done this? Have you looked at your business? What the heck am I paying for? Yeah. See, big wireless likes to do that to you. I switched. I switched to consumer cellular. And I'm getting the same fast, reliable nationwide big wireless coverage without that big wireless cost. You know, most people 50 and up use less than 8 gigs of data a month. Big wireless wants to shove you into that higher priced unlimited data plan because you're subsidizing the young people who are spending their entire lives watching videos on their phones instead of, you know, talking to real human beings. You're paying for that with those plans. So I want to consumer cellular because if you're over 50, you can get a single line of unlimited talk, text, and data for just $35 a month. And for a limited time, you get another $50 off, but you've got to use my special promo code. It's Larry 50. It was really easy to switch, by the way. I called, spoke to an actual person, not a bot here in this country. And don't forget that additional $50 off. You've got to use the promo code Larry 50. Go to consumercellulota.com slash larry, consumer cellular.com. Coming up, KT. McFarland, on national security, Iran, how it's affecting elections, the rise of the pro-Hamas left. as demonstrated by Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and a whole lot more. All that with K.T. McFarland coming up. Nicholas and Scranton. I'm talking about Burrito Gate. I don't know why we're calling it Burrito Gate, but it just seems like a big scandal and huge names.

in political conversations and cultural conversations have chimed in on it. Chef Andrew Gruhl had a good point here, by the way, from the restaurant owner's perspective on how expensive these burritos are. But it is part of the zeitgeist here. And it's something that Republican politicians can't just wave away. They need to be able to communicate about these things. Otherwise, if they just say, oh, everything's fine, that's how Marxists win. Because Marxists say, They hone in on the problem, and they're not wrong about the problem. except the solution they bring actually makes things worse. Nicholas in Scranton on O'Connor and Company. Good morning, Nicholas. What do you think? What's the answer to the burrito question? Good morning, Larry. Thanks for taking my call. I love waking up to you, by the way. Been with the first show nationally. Appreciate it. I appreciate it. Indeed. You know, you know, in my humble opinion, I think people have, you know, tend to focus on keeping up with the Joneses as the expression goes. You know, there's a lot of money to free up, Larry. People want to drive a lease a car every three years. That's crazy. That's just nuts. You know, they want to buy, you know, main brand clothes, let's say, that are on TV. They want a new phone, a $1,200 phone every couple of years. You know, keep it simple and real. This country was built on thriftiness. It doesn't mean, you know, you're going to be frugal and cheap, but Taiwan. No, it means get your money's worth. focus on your needs, not your wants, and I really believe, you know, a wise man lives... uh, within his means, excuse me, a smart man lives within his needs, but a wise man lives below his means. Don't worry about what other people do. You don't need that, you know, um, an extra thousand square feet in your house. Don't put it on your credit card. People are putting McDonald's and Chipotle on their credit card and they're paying interest on that. There's a lot of things I've, have gotten more expensive, but not under Trump. I got to tell you, I shot it blew up under Biden, but. People throw their money around. They just don't realize that. Things are definitely better under Trump, but it's not where it needs to be. I think we need to make progress. It's definitely better than the Trump days. Nicholas and Scranton, I think there's a lot of wisdom there, and I appreciate it. Thank you for listening there. We do love our listeners in Scranton and our station there. Two stations in the Scranton area. 855784-4255. How do you? talk about this without sounding like, you know, get off my lawn boomers back when I was your age. Because I think objectively speaking, there is seriously a problem here. But the problem goes well beyond just things are too expensive. This really is about choices people are making. And there is a way to make this work. But I think it comes to our education and it comes to our parenting.

That's a huge problem. But Nicholas just honed in on part of this too, and that's the whole social media status thing, where, oh, these people in my life who are my peers and my age, who I only know through what they're presenting on Instagram or what have you, they've got all these things. I should have them too. I need to have them to. No, no, no. I deserve to have them to. And even it makes, it makes no sense economically in my life. Even if I have to go into debt and I can't afford to save money to buy a house, I'm still going to get those things. And that's a values question. That's what that is. And you don't fix that with the government. 855784 4255. My friend Lindsay Fifeld actually contributed a very wise observation to this. I'm telling you, everybody was chiving it on this. And I want to read what Lindsay said. She says, I have a theory about why we're talking past each other in conversations about how difficult and unaffordable things are right now. I have friends struggling financially. And by the way, Lindsay is, she's a millennial. I want to say she's in her early 40s, let's say. Maybe just 40. Mother, two children. I have friends struggling financially, even though they make a lot of money. They're in high-status industries where there isn't just pressure to signal that they are financially well-off. They, honest to God, don't think anyone will give them work if they don't show up in Tucker Carlson-Tuck. Is that an expensive brand clothing? I think it is. And a Porsche with a Machil latte. So they have massive car payments. Use Uber Eats frequently because they're exhausted after a long day of work. Put their kids in insanely expensive pre-K programs. That's the other thing. A lot of people, especially in the D.C. area. You know, they can't afford to pay for things or buy things because they can't trust the public school system that they're taxed out of their mind for, that they're not even using. So then they spend the rest of their money and even money they don't have on private school tuition because they love their children and they want to make sure that they get a good education. And the education they're paying for through their tax dollars is garbage. Yes, that's another problem here. They're not putting anything into retirement, and they are one major setback away from catastrophe. They say things like, I make $200,000, and I'm struggling. How is anyone else surviving? See, that's another thing. A lot of these people who are chiming in, and they're saying, listen, I'm barely making ends meet. And I'm doing, well, I'm in the top, you know, 5% income earners in this country. So... People who make less than me, they've got to have it bad, so I'm going to vote for Marxists. That's why you see all of these relatively upwardly mobile college-educated suburbanites in their 20s and 30s who are voting for the Marxists, claiming that they're helping the working class, when people who are actually in the working class are saying, no, no, no, we don't want to have anything to do with socialism.

because they're actually making money and they're barely surviving because of the choices they're making or because of societal pressure or what have you. And they rationalize in their minds, geez, if it's that hard for me, well, it's got to be devastating for people who are less fortunate. So we better go with Abdul El-Sayed and Bernie Sanders. There's a lot going on here. All right, back to Lindsay. Meanwhile, my friends who bring homemade iced coffee to the playground, pack our husband's lunch boxes, shop consignment, and drive paid off cars. Yes, we complain about the high cost of groceries too, but we're not overwhelmed with anxiety about it. We also have mostly been raised by grandparents with depression-era survival skills that run deep. There's something very calming about growing a ton of tomatoes and zucchini and selling stuff on Facebook marketplace for cash in a world of chaos and uncertainty. Read the Bible, pull your weeds, make choices based on what's right for your family, and not what other people are doing. So says Lindsay Fifeld, and I think she's on to something there. It's true. My dad was born in the 30s. He didn't live directly in the Depression necessarily, but he was also the, you know, eighth of nine children. They didn't have much money. My grandfather, his dad, worked for the phone company in Michigan. That's not the road to wealth. He shared a couple of rooms with all of his siblings. They all wore hand-me-downs. And he raised me. And I'm way well off. I'm way better off than my grandfather, Lord knows, and my dad at this point in my life. And yes, I probably spend more than I should, but I also have a very specific mindset every single month when I look at my budget and I look at the income and the expenses. And that mindset was instilled in me by parents and grandparents who knew how bad things can get. Let's go to Raymond, St. Petersburg, Florida. Good morning, Raymond. You want to chime in on the $20 burrito class? And again, it's not really about the burritos. It's about much, much more. Go ahead, Raymond. Well, yeah, good morning, Larry. I've been a long-time listener to WMAL, even though I'm down here. I'm glad you filled in this spot. But one of the things that... Do you bring up the inflation from the government's putting money? But the government also interferes in our capitalism because they mandate what a business owner has to pay for minimum wage. So there's a lot of money that's on that line paying those workers to make those burritos. And so let's say they have somebody in their minimum wage, and it varies from... all these different places. But let's say the minimum wage is $15 in New York City. I don't know what the minimum wage is. And they've got somebody who's been working at Chipotle for several years, and they're going to make, they have to get a pay raise when the minimum wage goes up because it's a government self-tax because they, when the government says, we're going to help everybody out by increasing the minimum wage.

What they're really doing is forcing up to generating more payroll taxes. So now it's going to cost more money for the business to sell that burrito so the price of the burrito goes up. You are a thousand percent right, Raymond. In all of these places where young people who are just starting out and they've moved to the big city for their first big job and now they're freaking out because things cost so much money. Let's take New York City, for example. They just recently, like this year, increased their minimum wage to $17 an hour. In Seattle, the minimum wage is $21.30 an hour. And these are two of the most liberal, left-wing, progressive, whatever Marxist label you want to give it, I'll call it Marxist, in those cities. And they're all complaining about how expensive basic fast food items are. Yet at the same time, they just celebrated forcing employers to pay astronomical amounts of money on a per hour basis for employees that are probably going to work for them for about six months. And they're not connecting those dots. Raymond, brilliant point. I did. 100% right. That's Raymond in St. Petersburg, Florida. 8557-844-4-2-2-2. How, excuse me, 4255. 855 Stagall. You know, now that he, should we keep it, 855 Stegal, now that he's going to be a congressman? It's kind of an homage to the freshman. representative from Missouri. How about Woody in Louisiana? All right. Woody, solve this for us, will you? What's the story with affordability versus young people making maybe questionable choices? I say, the heck with burritos or tacos. Let's go with cush, cuss and cornbread. It's not but 10 cents a bowl. And forget about all that other baloney. I've lived like that for three years. Did I ever vote for a communist? Hell no. And I lived three years under Democrat rule. So these young people, they need to scratch to make a living and stop their baloney, man. They went four years to be insane. This is America. Shove this constitution of their rear-wins. So says Woody in Louisiana. So let it be written. So let it be done, Woody. I got to tell you, Woody. Thank you for the call. I just want you to know that the reason why I wanted this program to go national was so that Woody and Louisiana could be a part of our morning conversation. Cush-Cush and Cornbread.

Shove that constitution up there. What is kush-kush? Can someone help me with that? I know it's got to be some sort of Cajun dish, I'm guessing. Fried oatmeal. Fried oatmeal is kush-kish. Sorry. We solved it. I knew we would. Oh. If you're looking for supplements to help you with your daily aches and pains, there's only one choice. It's relief factor because it works and you can trust it. You can trust me for telling you that it solved my inflammation problems that was causing sciatica. It was so bad I couldn't even walk across my backyard right now because of relief factor. I'm pain free and I'm training for a full marathon this fall. Doug has a great story about it, too. Doug took Relief Factor for a year, then convinced his beautiful wife, who is a special needs teacher, when an angel, to try it. See, Doug's wife had been using assistance just to move down the long hallway at her school. Now she's back on her feet every day, and she never had to leave that job that she loves. Why don't you try Relief Factor, whether it's chronic pain or something worse? Your first three weeks, your quick start for Relief Factor, just $17.76. Go to ReliefFactor.com or call 8004 ReliefFerleafactor.com. A conservative commentator and columnist, Mark Thieson, and you see him on Fox News. I think he's a Washington Post columnist. Was he like, I want to say Mike Pence's political advisor? Is that right? I think so. I can remember. Oh, Donald Rumsfeld. Thank you. There you go. Mark Thiessen commented on this. His first comment on the burrito thing was Crimea River. The burritos in the college cafeteria are included in your meal plan. There's your get off my lawn comment. Somebody replied back and said, these think tank types like Mark scold young people and pressure the GOP to adopt a market knows better than your response to young people struggling with affordability. Then they're somehow surprised when actual socialists like Zohran Mamdani or Abdul El-Sayed win elections. You know, again, everybody's kind of right on this. I don't think the best way to respond is it's on your meal plan, cry me a river. His response was this, Mark Thiessen. A burrito only cost $20 when you buy it on DoorDash because you're too lazy to walk over to Chipotle or Taco Bell where you can get one for $3.99. When I graduated, I lived on ramen noodles. I had two roommates and worked two jobs. I didn't whine about affordability. I worked hard so I could one day afford a better life. See, that's the instinct of me and my generation. We Gen Xers. First of all, again, I get it. I totally understand why Mark is saying this. Our generation was sort of left to fend for ourselves. Our boomer parents, we were latchkey kids. We were raised by Gilligan's Island reruns, and we were there on the first day MTV opened because there was nothing else to do because we were coming home from school and we were left to fend for ourselves. And so, yes, we ate the afternoon snacks of ritz crackers and cheese whiz. And then when we started to live our life, we...

Yes, we saved and scrimped and we lived four to a house and we barely made it, but it was good and it built our character darted. So I get it. I get it. I understand why he responds that way. At the same time, if you're trying to win hearts and minds and elections, oh, by the way, it might not want to. Might not want to scold people who have some legitimate beefs. Sean Davis at the Federalist, speaking on behalf of the millennials in the room. Life was affordable before you went into government and demanded endless Middle East wars. Fascinating. Tell us more. This is the thing. By the way, JD Vance also chimed in on it and said something. I think his response to Mark Theson was something to the effect of, yeah, Mark, it looks like you haven't missed a burrito when it's put in front of you. I don't think Mark Thiessen is an overweight dude, right? But JD Vance, he's struggled with his weight. We are analyzing this and recognizing that both sides have a point. Both sides are right. Both sides are wrong. But ultimately, if you want to win an election, you've got to figure that out. And you need to be able to actually educate people and say, you're right, things cost too much. Here's why they cost too much. And you're voting for people who will make it worse. And at the same time, while we wait for prices to come down and we try to employ policies that will bring prices down, you could be making smarter choices in your lives. So you're not having to pay all that money for this sort of thing because you don't really need that daily iced matcha for $10. Get yourself some folders, buy yourself a cheap Mr. Coffee, and make your own coffee in the morning. you'll be surprised how much money you have left at the end of the day. Jeff in Kentucky. Okay, Jeff, you're next up on O'Connor in company. Thanks for tuning in. Hey, thanks, Larry. Love the show. Thanks. So I think it's exactly right because we have to be able to draw a line between things that have happened over the last five, six years, and why prices are the way they are. I think there was a government study recently that said 30% of the increase in real estate was due to increased demand from more population in the country. So, you know, we need to... Well, it was illegal immigrants. You bring in 20 million illegal immigrants that had not been planned for. The economy wasn't structured to support them. And certainly, housing was not developed to the level to be able to accommodate them. And the next thing you know, you're going to have a huge demand for places to live, from apartments to condos, to townhouses to, yes, single family homes, single family homes where five families are living in them. And it's going to drive the price of all that real estate and all those homes up. Absolutely, Jeff.

So you do that at the same time, you also are coming off the pandemic where you've severely restricted supply of building materials, things like that. And so it's ridiculous. I have a son that's 23, just bought his first home, super proud of him. He's the last of five, doing really, really well. He paid for a 1,600 square foot home. $320,000 in Louisville, Kentucky. Six years ago, that house was $150,000. Yeah. Yeah. Ridiculous. It is. Jeff, thank you for sharing that. You're right. You're right. I'm going to get as many as I can. How about Roger in Germantown, Wisconsin, where you've got a big primary coming up Tuesday. Roger, you only have 30 seconds, but I do want you to make your point. Roger. Please. maximize what you spend on appreciating assets, minimize what you spend on depreciating assets. That has governed our economic life. The other thing quickly is the concept of family capital. The money you have invested is not yours. It's not your children's, it's not your grandchildren, it's the family legacy, the family heritage, and your duty is to invest it well, increase it, and pass it along to the next generation. Roger, you're 100% right. And what you just said in 30 seconds on this radio program, you will not hear in four years of high school and certainly four years of higher education at a liberal arts college. And that is part of the problem as well. Thank you, Roger, Germantown, Wisconsin. KT. McFarland coming up next for National Security Foreign Policy Conversation. So keep it right where you're listening. Whether you're climbing the corporate ladder, launching a new project, or you're just looking for that extra edge. Your brain is your most valuable asset. And now there's a way to support that brain every day. It's called Think Factor. It's from the makers of Relief Factor. Think Factor is built to help you stay sharp, nurture your memory, boost your attention. It unlocks the mental clarity and precision you need to stay ahead of the game, no matter of the challenge. I take Think Factor every day, and you better believe it helps me execute this program, this job, and all the things I've got to talk about and remember even my children's names. I don't do that thing where it's like, you know, you go through the roll call of all your kids' names until you land on the right one. Nope, I got it. I want you to try Think Factor. Call 800, the number four, Relief, or go to ReliefFactor.com. Your first bottle of these precious little beauties, only 1995. And you'll notice the difference. That's thinkfactor.com. Excuse me. It's relieffactor.com for ThinkFactor. Think clearer, perform better daily. It is O'Connor and Company in six minutes after 8 a.m. on the East Coast. That means a lot of our Los Angeles and San Francisco listeners are waking up and starting their day here in the 5 o'clock hour. Some of you have been listening all through the night, and we appreciate it. Thank you for being there. And everywhere in between, by the way, as we have our daily conversation about news, politics, entertainment, pop culture, faith, and the intersection of all those things.

as it pertains to elections in this country. That's basically the thumbnail of what O'Connor and company is, and we're glad you're part of it and have been for quite some time. We're on our flagship station, WMAL, in your nation's capital in the Relief Factor Studios, and joining us in 30 minutes, investigative reporter Luke Roziak for the Daily Wire, who has an astounding breakdown on the Washington Post and their activism in trying to... Well, trying to get the city of Washington, D.C. to punish fine, maybe even in prison, Vice President JD Vance for putting up a chicken coop in his backyard for his children. I wish I was joking. I wish this were satire, but that's what the Washington does. We've gone from Woodward and Bernstein, Deep Throat and Watergate to Chicken Gate. That's coming up in 30 minutes. Joining us right now, friend of the program, a regular guest here every Thursday morning, always a fan favorite. She's the one and only Katie McFarlane, former Deputy National Security Advisor, President Trump. And of course, her book, Revolution, Trump, Washington, and We the People tells a vivid and harrowing account of those early days of the Trump first term and all of the lawfare that sent everybody running for the hills if necessary. KT., good morning. Thanks for joining us. It's a pleasure. Thank you, Larry. I would love for you to opine on the reaction from our allies and our enemies around the world when they find out that Abdul El-Sayed is now the Democrat nominee for the United States Senate. This is a man who embraces people who are openly celebrating the Hamas terrorists. He wants to completely abandon our relationship with the state of Israel. and worse, frankly. And I'm just wondering, if you're Marco Rubio, the National Security Advisor or the Secretary of State, if you're dealing with people in the Middle East and dealing with our friends and enemies, does this come up? Does this show up on the radar for other countries as they think that maybe the United States is starting to move in a different direction? You know, the whole point of American foreign policy, especially in the Middle East, is credibility right now because for so long, in the Democrat administrations especially, but for so long nobody's dealt with Iran. and even going back to some of the Republican administration, so nobody's dealt with Iran. And so the Gulf countries especially, not Israel, but the Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, they look and say, well, America, do you really mean it? Are you going to really be there when we need you? And so there's a, even though they want us to be, and even though there's far more cooperation with the United States now than there ever has been. And even though there's far more sense of confidence in President Trump's ability and willingness to deal with Iran, there's still that little edge of, you know, well, will they really be there when we need them? Because this is our neighborhood. And if America decides to, you know, really kind of let Iran get off the hook, are we going to have to deal with an Iran on our own? And so, yes, I think it does seep in. Probably it's more confusion.

over has america gone nuts or is this a real thing that it is uh... than it is anything else i think it's a lot of it is america's gone nuts and let's just wait and see what happens in november the funny thing is that now by having very far left-wing candidates in a number of these places it makes the Republican candidates look far more reasonable to the general election voting population. Well, from your lips to God's ears, I sure hope that's the case. There's also some notion that people believe that the changing demographics in areas like southeastern Michigan, the Detroit suburbs, where we've seen an influx of immigrants coming in from the Middle East, practicing Muslims and Arabs of all... all ethnic origins, that this was not by accident, that actually there were countries, and we're seeing it play out in Europe, KT, that countries sort of cynically said, yeah, yeah, go to these, you know, Western nations, go to Europe, go to the United States, we'll start. you know, building up our population there, and that will, by definition, change the foreign policy of the United States, because now you've got foreign nationals who are voting, who actually don't necessarily hold the same policies of the country they just migrated to. Is that – I know it sounds like, you know, some people will say that this is all a plot, but do they think long game like that, some of these countries? Some of them do, but I think that the cautionary tale is what's happened to Europe. They had open borders, and if you get in the company called the Schengen Agreement, which all the European countries agree to, is just wet foot, dry foot. If you have a wet foot, and then you step dry foot onto any piece of land, any country in Western Europe, you can travel throughout Western Europe. And in the case of Spain, they're even giving them citizenship, voting rights, benefits, et cetera, et cetera. And so that's a group that now can migrate. It's like a roaming army. of young men who can go anywhere they want in Europe. When you go to countries, especially the Northern European countries, it's really, you have to wonder if it's finished. Are these countries in such a death spiral of cultural confusion and cultural, as you say, like Newburgh, Michigan, but their whole areas of Great Britain, their whole cities in Europe and Belgium, et cetera, et cetera, where really the predominant name, I mean, the greatest, number of new names of new baby boys in Britain is Muhammad. Yeah. And so it's the birth rate, not just the people who've come in, it's the birth rate and the long-term projections. In talking to British politicians, which to me is an interesting sort of window on it, and I said, look, well, why are you, where do anti-Semitism come from? It really never was in Britain. It was another part of Europe, but why is anti-Semitism all of a sudden all over Britain? And they said, well, you have to understand.

KT? KT. McFarland? Oh, we were getting to the answer about where the anti-Semitism and Great Britain came from. All right. We'll reconnect with K2 McFarman in a moment. Let me give you an update, though, where I think stand with the war right now. According to the Iran News Agency, they're lying propagandists, so I don't know why we repeat what they say, but CBS News has. So I'll tell you. They're claiming that they and Oman, Iran and Oman, are close to an agreement on new arrangements for the Strait of Hormuz. But of course, all of the anticipation from whatever agreement they might make has to do with some sort of toll or fee to safely pass the straight. And we know that the United States and the President and the Secretary of State are not going to agree to anything like that. That's a non-starter. This is an international waterway. So who cares what Iran and Oman agree to? KT. is with you. KT., finish your thought. Then I want to get to Iran. uh you were saying the british politician said uh with regard to the rising tide of anti-semitism in england you've got to understand and then that's where we lost you there's a voting block and that's significant voting block in certain parts of britain they can't ignore and that voting block is is anti-israel it's anti-semitic and so you see like the tail wagging the dog it's that little small-ish group But that is the group that is a determining factor in a lot of elections. And so you see countries like Britain is refusing to join the United States, for example, and cleaning out the Strait of Hormuz, refusing to join the United States and even the bigger picture of the Middle East and the Iran War, where they were just worried about their own personal elections at the next election. So, well, you're seeing that play out here? I mean, you've just described a vital voting block in Michigan that the Democrats are cowtowing to, as well as a Somali voting block in the suburbs of Minneapolis, St. Paul, in the state of Minnesota. And by the way, they also have something else in common with our European counterparts. It's a voting block, yes. But they also like to take to the streets and cause mayhem with protests that sometimes even turn violent if they don't like the foreign policy of that government. This seems like a suicide mission, KT. I've always thought there are two theories that when you see craziness happen, right? Like DEI, for example. One would be, okay, we've got to really temper this. This is so horrible. This is a terrible direction for the country to take. It makes no sense. So let's try to pull back on it. My theory has always been, look, these guys are crazy. Just let them get. The faster they get crazy, the crazier they get, the faster they get, the more the American people wake up. DEI now is dead. Five years ago, DEI ruled. Why is DEI dead? Because the majority of the American people looked up at this. This is crazy. And so there's now an objection to DEI. So I guess I have full confidence in the common sense of the American people as long as you expose the craziness.

The craziness in New York City, New York is going down the tubes. Every rich person in New York is leaving. Any taxpayer in New York is leaving. And I'm not talking about the billionaires. They've gone. It's the middle class that's leaving. It's the hollowing out of the middle class. The mayor of New York has disbanded, for example, the New York Business Council made up of all of the serious businesses in New York City. He's disbanded them. These are the people who want to make New York good for business. He doesn't want to hear from them. He's trying to turn New York into Cuba. He thinks New York City is going to be Havana. And look how well that turned out. I think at the end of the day, Americans do wake up. And the crazier they get, the crazier people, these crazy people get, the crazier people prevail. Common Sense people wake up and say, oh, man, this is nuts. Let's get rid of this. I want to believe you. I do. And I'm always optimistic and hopeful, KT. So you've, at least for another 24 hours, I'm going to stay on that side of the equation. And I'll be hopeful along with you. KT. McFarland, always great to talk to you. Thank you, my friend. Thank you. Coming up on this very O'Connor and Company program, we're going to address the rising threat of rabid beavers. Keep it here. Critters always find their way into our news cycle. We've noticed this trend for years now, and so we created a special segment on O'Connor & Company. It's Critter News. It's just that simple. We flirted with the idea of doing a weekly podcast that just focuses on Critter News. I think it would be extremely popular. There's a lot of stuff going on. about critters in the news. In fact, coming up, we've got Luke Roziak of the Daily Wire, who's getting to the bottom of a chicken coop gate. They're Washington Post moving from Woodward and Bernstein to, I don't know, foghorn leghorn and the chicken hawk because they have a brilliant expose getting to the real scandal behind JD Vance installing a chicken coop at the vice president's residence. In Washington. We'll get to that in a moment. That's Critter News in its own way. But this one is even more to the spirit of Critter News. This story out of Maryland where there has been a rash of attacks by rabid beavers. Just yesterday, the 13-year-old boy was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital after officials say he was bitten by a beaver Sunday morning at Cunningham Falls State Park. Cunningham Falls, that's in Baltimore County or Carroll County. The incident happened around 9-10 in the morning at the north beach of the lake in the William Hock area. Officials say the teen suffered injuries in his hands and chest. The swimming beach was closed immediately. as Maryland Park Service staff and Maryland Natural Resources Police searched for the beaver so it can be tested for rabies. So I am unfamiliar with the behaviors and the behavior attack patterns of beavers. I'll be honest. I know that we've had attacks from rabid raccoons in the area because raccoons being the criminal vagrant animals that they are and trash pandas.

etc. They'll come right at you. Beavers, my understanding of beavers is that they will not provoke an attack unless they are provoked. Maybe when swimming in this park, the young boy got close to the beaver's den there or the dam or whatever it is the beaver was doing and this was a self-defense thing. I don't know. Is this a thing that beavers do? Officials say one beaver has been located, but they are working to determine whether it was the animal involved in whether any additional beavers are in the area. How do you know if this is the beaver? I mean, one beaver looks like another. That's what I've always said. It's kind of hard to hone in. And are they doing a forensic test on the beaver? Is there going to be some sort of definitive marking on the teeth and the bite mark? All right. So that was Sunday. Then yesterday, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, closing more areas of Cunningham Falls State Park, same park around Hunting Creek Lake after a 19-year-old fisherman reported he was bitten by, say it with me, a beaver. Wednesday morning, this was yesterday. It marks the second beaver attack at the state park within the past two weeks. Officials said. So is it the same beaver that's just gone nuts and now it's like a killer beaver? By the way, Killer Beavers, I think, was a Cinemax movie back in the mid-80s. It was like Friday the 13th. You know, the teens go to the summer camp and then one thing leads to another and there's... attacks everywhere. The injured fishermen in today's attack, a 19-year-old male appeared to have sustained a bite to the ankle. So maybe he would, was he like waiting in the water, like doing some fly fishing and he didn't even see the beaver coming? That'll happen. And then your ankles just got gnawed on by a beaver. Following the attack today, officers, park officers caught and euthanized the beaver. Oh, so they got the beaver. which is being delivered to the Frederick County Health Department. Oh, Frederick County. Maryland Department of Health Laboratory will conduct rabies testing and expects to have results available. All right. Well, again, I'm not, we had beavers growing up in Michigan a bit, but I don't remember any close encounters with beavers. Squirrels, yes. Wolverines, absolutely. But not beavers. So I guess beaver. Beavers have become a new threat, I suppose, if you're out there in your hunting. Usually we have stories at this time of year about bears in this area. Beavers used to be pretty benign. But maybe we're infringing on their natural habitat, or maybe the solution here is beaver season. Maybe we should go beaver hunting in Maryland and get some pelts. I would like to mount a beaver and get like a stuffed beaver from a taxidermist and have one of those things. That's a conversation piece. But I would use the teeth. So imagine you'd have like a beaver in like a hunting, you know, ferocious mode there with the mouth open and one claw up, right? And then you could also use the front teeth there as the mouth is open as a bottle opener for your beers. Just, kach.

Just get your beers going with it. That would be a killer move. We'll look into it. Also, more critter news coming up with the vice president's chickens. But I'd like to tell you about health insurance, because if you're getting your health insurance right now through the ACA marketplace, you could be paying hundreds of dollars every month more than you need for coverage that you're never going to use. See, if you're 58 years old, do you really need maternity coverage? I don't think so. Tim Cooper, our buddy Tim Cooper over at Health Plan Network offers private health insurance plans, backed by an A excellent rated company. that you can use at any doctor and only meet a deductible if you're admitted to a hospital. If you're under 65 and reasonably healthy, you could save 30 to 60 percent on your monthly premiums. I know you're paying too much for health insurance. You got to call Tim Cooper. You can get into these plans any time, by the way, throughout the year, not just during open enrollment. You don't have to wait. Stop overpaying for your health insurance. Call Tim Cooper, 800. 399-368, 800, 399, 3068, or go to healthplanetwork.network.netnetwork.net. I don't mean to be critical of beavers. I do like Mr. and Mrs. Beaver from Lion and the Witch and the Wardrobe. They were awesome. Those are some stellar beavers there. They were great characters. They were heroes of that story, C.S. Lewis, with the Chronicles of Narnia. So, see, don't be afraid. If the beaver is talking to you, like they do in Narnia, then I think you're going to be fine. You won't be bitten. Joining us right now, Luke Roziak. Luke Roziak is an award-winning investigative reporter for Daily Wire. And you're coming in on the heels of a story about rabid beavers in Maryland, Luke. So I'm sorry, there's no good transition, except that this story is also about animals. This has to do with the vice president's chicken coop. Thanks for joining us. Good morning. Thank you, Larry. Luke, I want to be honest with you, as you were rolling this story out on social media on X, I thought it was like an April Fool's thing. I thought that this was satire. Please explain to me the story that the Washington Post did. Their crack team of investigative reporters there on the chicken coop that the vanses have put into the vice president's home. Yeah, you know, JD Vance put in a nice chicken coop on the 72 acres on the Naval Observatory, and the descendants of Woodward and Bernstein spent a long time investigating it, and they called the city and tried to get him in trouble for a zoning violation. And then they called chicken expert to find out about chickens. And the chicken expert was a they-them who has an emotional support chicken because of long COVID. And can you guess the emotional sport chicken's name? What? It's Karen. Karen weighed in with a lot of criticism of JD Vance and said, you know, he might be trying to get chickens as some sort of conservative has become a conservative thing to have chickens.

How could he be doing this? And, yeah, this whole long article, trying to get JD Vance in trouble for having chickens. But, you know, I think chickens are great. The headline from the Washington Post, the vanses added a chicken coop to the vice president's residence. We had questions. I have no doubt, Luke, that this is going to be some sort of plexiglass award given to these reporters at the next White House Correspondent Association dinner. Here are some of those questions, by the way, who exactly is raising the hens? Why are the vanses taking on the project? Is it for eggs, for educational purposes, for feathered pets? The spokesman for vans, I do like this, did not respond to multiple emails seeking comment. Yes, I'm sure that they threw it in the trash where it belongs. Luke, if you propose this to your editors at Daily Wire, I'm pretty sure it would get shot down in the newsroom for a couple of reasons. First of all, on the face of it, does the vice president's residence at the Naval Observatory fall under the jurisdiction of zoning issues? for the local municipal government of the district? No, it's on federal property. You can basically murder somebody in D.C. and you won't even get in trouble, and you get a jail for like a couple months, and they think they're going to care about chickens on federal property? This is the paper of record in Washington, D.C. You'd think one of the fundamental things you should understand is the distinction between federal property and jurisdictions and local jurisdictions. Yeah, I mean, it's been a couple of years now that Jeff Bezos has said he's trying to reform the Washington Post and make it more conservative, but it really hasn't happened. They had an opinion editor that was supposed to make the opinion side better, but he mysteriously quit on Friday. So the whole thing is very strange. And you look at like Elon Musk, he's able to kind of bring companies to heal and institute reforms to make them less partisan. You know, Jeff Bezos and other billionaire, it's kind of interesting that he's totally failed, and they've just thumbed their nose at him. And meanwhile, the Washington Post has basically lost all of its subscribers because liberals don't like the meager efforts that it made to be, you know, to reflect both sides. And meanwhile, they are meager. Still as crazy as they always are. And, yeah, conservatives aren't going to read it anyway. So the whole thing is very bizarre. I think it's a reminder of journalists being on the Estella corridor, too, is none of them have any clue what it's like to live outside of a major city and deal with agriculture and things like that. You've got to call up a they, them, to find out what a chicken is. Bowers, this is the they-them chicken expert that the Washington Post reached out to. Bowers, the Utah Chicken Keeper, thinks of their hens, especially a bearded white, silky pantom named Karen, almost as emotional support animals. When Bowers is having a particularly bad day, they suffer chronic pain from several autoimmune disorders. They will cuddle up with Karen.

Are we sure this article isn't satire? Is this not maybe the Washington Post having fun with us? Yeah, it really seems like it's out of the onion. The addition has led to speculation that there may be political motivations behind the flock's appearance. It's a theory that resonates with Bowers, that's the they, them expert, saying that many conservatives have embraced the values espoused by tradwife influencers, many of whom raise chickens. So this is really just a dog whistle. to misogynist trad conservatives out there that JD Vance is just like you, and Usha JD Vance just walks around barefoot and pregnant, wearing an apron and tending to the chicken coop. Is that what the Washington Post is getting at? I think so. They wanted to be stigmatized to live off the land and work with your hands. And, you know, I think it's great to have chickens. I have chickens. I think it's a great way to raise kids. The fresh eggs are delicious. And then on the flip side, the fact that all these kind of freaks that the Washington Post hangs out with are likely to do so, yes, to some extent that does make me want to have chickens more. If the Washington Post is against it, I'm going to get in that long line of people who are for it. Luke, though, to be fair, now you live, if I remember right, I don't want to, you know, docks you, but you live in northern Virginia in a somewhat suburban, if not rural area, right? Yeah, I live on the outskirts, but, you know, there's sort of more inner suburbs. To be fair, JD Vance is in the middle, like almost literally in the middle of Northwest D.C. He's on Embassy Row. I mean, are these chickens waking up the ambassador to Brazil who lives like three doors down? Or, God forbid, the Papal Nuncio who lives across the street? You can't wake up the papal nuncio. He's got 72 acres on federal properties. But, you know, I think that there are people that live on less than one acre that have chickens. And I think that this is the kind of thing we've got to get back to as a country is, you know, working, getting in touch a little bit with that rural side because I think there's a lot of benefits to it. uh, maybe the chief among them is you won't be so weak, but you need an emotional support chicken. Yes, there is that. Maybe, maybe the bad guy in this whole story is the dude who's a they then. It's the long COVID at bay when you, you know, send your kids outside to man up a little bit.

Me, not man up, them up. Come on, Lou, get it right. Don't miss Jenner. Maybe, just maybe the long COVID that the they, them, chicken expert is experience is actually a bout of bird flu. It could be the avian flu, and it's not long COVID at all with all those chickens around. uh have you reached out to the vice president's office for reaction to this again i don't blame them in any way or fault them for not talking to the washington post but i would think for your follow-up uh they might want to talk to you i'm not doing a follow-up and i don't know why the washington post contacted them multiple times i mean They're treating it like it's the next Watergate. It is. It is. Woodward and Bernstein are alive and well there at the hallowed halls of the Washington Post. All right. So there's no takeaway here other than you are in favor of people. Because I need you. Luke, next time we're at an event, you see Meredith. Could you convince her? Because she's against it. I want the chickens. She is opposing it. You got to get chickens in favor of goats, too. And incidentally, there was also a goat running amok in D.C. recently. Was that D.C.? I thought that was New York? No, he took it on the metro, and he got arrested by D.C. police. And then they were saying it actually wasn't for having a goat in the middle of the city. He just happened to be a criminal. I see. No questions, though, about the goat and what the goat is doing here? I guess the goat's name is Bob, and I don't know if the police interrogated the goat or what? The goat's name is Bob. All right, Luke. We're going to leave it there. Luke, by the way, is a goat of his own. The absolute goat over there at Daily Wire. I appreciate you joining us, as always, Luke, and I'm glad we could get a good laugh going this morning. Thanks, Larry. It reminds me of the great Woody Allen joke. I continue to maintain. I know Woody Allen is kind of a scumbag and a nut. That said, he made some very important films for the American zeitgeist, the cultural conversation that I grew up with. And one of them, I refer back to this movie a lot, was Annie Hall. And Annie Hall has some amazing observations about relationships. And you don't get good movies anymore about heterosexual relationships and actually as challenging and as difficult as they are. It is the ideal. We need to strive and get past what is different about men and women so that we can make things work. I always say, you know, I don't want to offend anybody, but I think that being in a gay relationship would be a lot easier. than being in a heterosexual relationship because you're in a relationship with somebody who thinks like you and looks at the world like you do, okay? But it's very different when you're in a heterosexual relationship, but that's as God intended. God wants it to be a bit of a challenge sometimes. It makes the man and the woman in the relationship better.

by understanding and working hard to figure out the person who is very different than you, but you love nonetheless and you're committed to for the rest of your life. And to that end, Annie Hall actually reflects quite a bit of that. And it reminds me of the moment in Annie Hall where Woody Allen says, a guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, Doc, my brother's crazy. He thinks he's a chicken. And the doctor says, well, why don't you turn him in? And the guy says, I would, but I need the eggs. And that's exactly how Woody Allen sort of sums up his relationship with the Annie Hall character. It's totally irrational and crazy and absurd, but when you go through it at the end of the day, you do because, well, you need the eggs. Vice President JD Vance, reach out. We'd love to talk to you about the eggs. and the chickens, and the Washington Post, and your new book, Communion, which is fantastic. So maybe we'll get the vice president to chime in on Chicken Gate. All right, I want to tell you real fast about my friends at Relief Factor, because Relief Factor is a supplement that I swear by now, because it helps bring relief to your pain. And let me just be clear, this isn't something that sort of messes with your mind and makes you think that you're not in pain or sends you off to La La Land. uh where you just pretend like you're not in pain meanwhile your body is still broken no relief factor goes to the root of the problem it it actually goes after your inflammation in many cases that's what's causing your pain it was in my case i had such a bad inflammation i had these um a seizing back spasm that it compressed my sciatic nerve and that gave me excruciating pain relief factor to the rescue And now not only am I free of that pain, but I'm training for the Marine Corps Marathon for this fall. That's what we hear all the time from success stories. Like Doug, now Doug took Relief Factor for nearly a year, then convinced his wife his special needs teacher to try it. She needed assistance to get down her long hallway at school. Now she's back on her feet and she never had to leave that job. Why don't you try Relief Factor, whether it's ongoing chronic pain that you've been suffering from or maybe a bout of something very severe? You can get a three-week quick start for just $17.76. But you've got to call them. It's $804 relief, 800, the number four relief, or, of course, just go to relieffactor.com. Meanwhile, while the Washington Post is getting to the bottom of the chicken coop at the vice president's residence, there are other stories around the greater Washington area they could be following, but somehow they're overlooking, like this one. This one, we get courtesy of Bethesda magazine in Bethesda, Maryland, right across the border from Washington, D.C. You know, last I checked, Washington Post is more than just, you know, within the confines of the district boundaries. They've got a metro section. Metro is supposed to talk about things going on in northern Virginia and Prince George's County, Montgomery County, and Frederick County and other things that are happening in Virginia. That's what we cover here, as well as national stories as well. But somehow the Washington Post missed this story.

Bethesda magazine reporting, a 13-year-old driving a stolen vehicle, a carjacking, by the way, 13-year-old at the wheel of stolen Kia involved in fatal Germantown crash. Montgomery County Police on Wednesday released information about a fatal two vehicle collision in Germantown. Germantown is a suburb of Washington, D.C. It's probably about oh, 20 miles from the border. It's in Montgomery County. It's sort of on that buffer zone between the high end of suburbia in Bethesda area and Rockville, and then moving towards sort of the more rural portions. of Montgomery County, heading into Frederick County. I just want to paint a picture of Germantown for you. And for the longest time, this was, you know, this was an affordable upper middle class suburban area, Germantown was, up until recently, up until the last 10 or 15 years, where we kept seeing stories of MS-13 gang activity in Germantown. and Gaithersburg and other cities like that. And I'm sure I'm painting a picture that is very familiar to people listening in Atlanta and Detroit and Kansas City and Dallas and Houston. You know, you have these nice upper middle class, safe, family-oriented neighborhoods that suddenly get transformed in the last several years. And it doesn't quite look or feel the same. That's Germantown, Maryland. The driver of the stolen Kia involved in the fatal two vehicle collision in Germantown is a 13-year-old boy, and the person killed was William JD Vance Payne II, a 58-year-old Virginia man. The 58-year-old Virginia man was driving his 2007 Toyota Matrix. Here's just a middle-class 58-year-old driving a 20-year-old car. He was pronounced dead at the scene after his vehicle was struck by a white 2015 Kia Optima at the intersection of Clopper Road and Great Seneca Highway Tuesday morning. Payne's wife, Lisa, told the Winchester Star, Winchester, Virginia, rural area, out near the border of West Virginia, that her husband had been on his way to work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology when the crash occurred. He was a mechanical engineer at the Gaithersburg facility, according to his employee profile. There's a go-fund me now for Payne's family. He has a wife and five children, three young children, two adult daughters. The occupants of the stolen Kia, four girls aged 12, 13, and 14, and three boys, age 12, 13, and 15. The 13-year-old driving the Kia was transported to a local hospital in stable condition. The other juvenile suffered injuries of varying severity. It was a carjacking, my friends. Teenagers in Montgomery County, Maryland, completely dominated and run by Democrats.

Right across the border of D.C. Now, these carjackings had been taking place in D.C. on a not just daily basis, hourly basis, until President Trump got serious about enforcing the law and cracking down on crime about a year ago in Washington. We still have carjackings, but not as bad as this. They've moved into the suburbs, folks, because President Trump has not. crackdown on crime in Prince George's County or Montgomery County or in Virginia. Although there is one carjacking story in the District of Columbia that I'll bring your attention to. This happened this week as well yesterday morning. In Northwest D.C., a man was arrested Tuesday after police said he entered the U.S. Department of Public Works Street Sweeper. And caused the driver to flee before taking control of the vehicle in Northwest D.C. So a street sweeper is going through the streets, cleaning the streets. What do these things go, what, eight miles an hour at best? I've been out running and I go faster than the street sweeper. And I'm slow. guy hops into the street sweeper. The driver flees while the street sweeper is, I guess, still rolling down the street. And this guy carjacked the street sweeper. According to police, the operator of the Elgin Street Sweeper, called for assistance around 137 in the morning after a man entered the vehicle while he was still in possession of it near 3rd and Florida Avenue Northwest. The driver told officers he feared for his life, exited the street sweeper, and watched as the suspect drove away in the vehicle.

The street sweeper was recovered on the 400 block of Rhode Island Avenue Northwest. Metropolitan Police Department said the case was closed with the suspect's arrest. So if you're going to carjack a vehicle, you're going to go for something that can do something over 15 perhaps? I mean, you're going to get caught. Can I just say if you if you if you carjack a street sweeper or a garbage truck? or one of those little scooters that the meter maids use to give you a parking ticket you're going to get caught i don't think you should steal a vehicle but if you're gonna you know go for the vet maybe a Ferrari so you can outrun the get who it's like that scene from austin powers right with the with the with the with the steamroller in the Life moves fast. Faster than a street sweeper. It's staying sharp, focused, and clear-headed isn't always easy. And that's why the same company that brings your relief factor has developed something new. It's called Think Factor. Think Factor is made to help you think-clear better daily. It's a powerful blend of nutrients that unlock mental clarity and precision, nurture your memory and boost your attention. With Think Factor, brain power and performance finally meet for lasting daily results. Supercharge your memory and mental sharpness, your brain. is your most valuable asset it powers your creativity focus and daily performance but if you're feeling mentally foggy or not recalling things as quickly as you used to think factor could be just what you need to reclaim your cognitive edge i take think factor every day and i've noticed the difference every day if you've ever thought i wish i felt more clear more focused more in control of my day now you can try think factor your first bottle Just 1995. You've got to go to Relieffactor.com or call 800 for relief. Relieffactor.com for ThinkFactor. Think clearer. Perform better daily. Life can be messy, but you don't have to figure it out alone. Hey, it's the Lusco. Join pastors and best-selling authors Levi and Jenny Lusco. On Hey, it's the Lusco's for honest conversations about faith, marriage, family, grief, ministry, and all the unexpected moments in between. You'll laugh, you'll be encouraged, and you'll be reminded that God is faithful through every season. It will always come back to Jesus in the end. That's right. Tune into Hey, it's the Lusco's with Levi and Jenny Lusco. Available now wherever you get your... podcasts.