Latest / The Mark Belling Podcast / Mark Belling Podcast #168: It's all an act. For the left, everything is performance. Mark dissects using the White House briefing room fiasco as an example of the feigned outrage the media and left show on everything. The media blamed hurricanes on global warming; so guess what they're blaming this year's quiet hurricane season on? And guess which company just announced it is hiring 700 new local employees? (The answer may surprise you)

Transcript

Mark Belling Podcast #168: It's all an act. For the left, everything is performance. Mark dissects using the White House briefing room fiasco as an example of the feigned outrage the media and left show on everything. The media blamed hurricanes on global warming; so guess what they're blaming this year's quiet hurricane season on? And guess which company just announced it is hiring 700 new local employees? (The answer may surprise you) · The Mark Belling Podcast

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  Speaker 1: The Mark Belling Podcast is a production of iHeartRadio Podcasts.
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  Speaker 2: We actually have a theme for today's show. Every now
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  Speaker 2: and then I have a theme. Back when I was
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  Speaker 2: doing the radio show, we'd have like themes. The theme
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: never works its way through every topic. But Quite a
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  Speaker 2: few of the topics actually play into this. So here's
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  Speaker 2: today's theme. It's all an act. The left is nothing
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: but feigned outrage, pretending to be horrified. There are things
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: that they believe in, mostly their own power. But their
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: reaction to things and the way they present themselves is
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  Speaker 2: the opposite of genuine. I've got several examples of this,
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  Speaker 2: and one of them is this whole drama playing out
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  Speaker 2: over the White House press corps and Trump throwing CNN
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  Speaker 2: and MSNOW and Politico out and so on. So that's
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  Speaker 2: where we're going to start. the performative nature of the
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: American media and left. Have you ever been offered an
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  Speaker 2: furniture fast, contact Uline and get the best service. Because
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  Speaker 2: Uline believes service is essential, not an option. Caroline Leavitt,
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  Speaker 2: of course, used to be the White House press secretary.
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  Speaker 2: She recently retired or resigned, spent more time with her kids, etc.
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  Speaker 2: But anyway, she appeared on one of Sean Hannity's programs.
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  Speaker 2: He's got like three. He's got the radio show, he's
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  Speaker 2: got the regular TV show, and then he's got the
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  Speaker 2: other one. And she talked about the general attitude and
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  Speaker 2: behavior of many members of the press corps in the
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  Speaker 2: White House briefing room. And she said that there were
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  Speaker 2: several occasions in which reporters apologized to her after the
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  Speaker 2: briefing for the way they behaved, saying their bosses or
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  Speaker 2: their editors either wanted them to ask a specific question
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  Speaker 2: or ask it in a certain way. Carolina was just,
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  Speaker 2: of course, brilliant. She acknowledged there's some performance on the
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  Speaker 2: other side as well. She was great at her job.
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  Speaker 2: And when she gave it back, as hard as they
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  Speaker 2: were dishing it out, she acknowledged that, yes, I'm playing
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  Speaker 2: a role there too. President Trump doesn't want his people
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  Speaker 2: to just roll over and take this crap. Let me
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  Speaker 2: quote briefly from some reporting on Caroline's interviews. Former White
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  Speaker 2: House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt says reporters have privately apologized
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  Speaker 2: to her for asking unfair questions, calling the press briefings performative.
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  Speaker 2: On a Tuesday episode of Fox News anchor Sean Hannity's podcast,
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  Speaker 2: Hangout with Sean Hannity, Leavitt said Hannity was correct in
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  Speaker 2: guessing that reporters were often totally different people when the
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  Speaker 2: cameras stopped rolling. Quote, there's a performative aspect to the
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  Speaker 2: briefing room. In fairness, I think on both sides, right,
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  Speaker 2: but definitely with the press. And they have to do
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  Speaker 2: that because their bosses are demanding it. They know it's
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  Speaker 2: an unfair question, but they're not in control of their
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  Speaker 2: own livelihood. They are dictated by the editors and the
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  Speaker 2: execs at some of these companies. I want to dive
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  Speaker 2: into this for a minute. The White House press briefings
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  Speaker 2: used to be not like this. They all changed when
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  Speaker 2: the cable television network started showing them live every day.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, even when CNN started, I don't recall the
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  Speaker 2: White House daily press briefing always being on TV. I
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  Speaker 2: don't know when it started, but in the past, you'd
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  Speaker 2: see like clips. You know, when the first Bush was
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  Speaker 2: in there, Ari Fleischer, you might show a clip of
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  Speaker 2: him answering a question, but they never carried the whole thing.
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  Speaker 2: And again, I'm not sure exactly when it started. It
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  Speaker 2: might have started during Obama. It might have started during
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  Speaker 2: the first Trump term. But it's certainly been going on
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  Speaker 2: for about 10 years. Before these things were shown on TV,
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  Speaker 2: the reporters asking the questions just asked the question. But now,
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  Speaker 2: The reporters know that they're part of the show. What's
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  Speaker 2: happened during the Trump briefings is they just become arguments. Now,
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  Speaker 2: in terms of Caroline Leavitt's statement here, CNN, who's got
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  Speaker 2: Caitlin Collins, MSNOW, who has whoever, these people are working
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  Speaker 2: for outlets that are clearly defining themselves as left of center.
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  Speaker 2: They want their person to go give it to Trump's person,
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  Speaker 2: or when Trump himself is holding a news conference, to
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  Speaker 2: give it to Trump and just argue with Trump. Here's
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  Speaker 2: the tip-off. I actually don't know when this started, and
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  Speaker 2: I don't even know when I first noticed it. Maybe
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  Speaker 2: a couple of years ago. I'm sure it's been going
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  Speaker 2: on before that. But one of the things that I've
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  Speaker 2: noticed is the reporters for the television networks, not the
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  Speaker 2: AP or the New York Times necessarily, but the reporters
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  Speaker 2: for the television networks, when they ask their question, they're
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  Speaker 2: holding a microphone. They're not holding a microphone to transmit
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  Speaker 2: into the briefing room. The microphone is for their air.
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  Speaker 2: So when Collins asks a question for CNN, You don't hear,
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  Speaker 2: you know, when we're watching the briefing on TV, when
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  Speaker 2: the questions are being asked, often it's hard to pick
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  Speaker 2: up what the reporter is saying. You know, they move
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  Speaker 2: a boom mic around and try to point it at
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  Speaker 2: the reporter. But, you know, they're speaking. It's only Caroline
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  Speaker 2: that's got the actual microphone in front of her. So
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  Speaker 2: you don't always hear the question really clearly. You hear
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  Speaker 2: three or four people asking it once. But when CNN's
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  Speaker 2: Caitlin Collins asking a question, she's talking into a CNN
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  Speaker 2: mic because CNN wants to show her asking the question.
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  Speaker 2: Why do they want to show that? Why do they
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  Speaker 2: need to show their reporter asking the question? Why is
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  Speaker 2: that news? When Biden's press secretaries were in there, Jen
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  Speaker 2: Psaki was, I admit, not bad doing an impossible job.
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  Speaker 2: She wasn't good, but she wasn't bad. And then her successor, KJP,
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  Speaker 2: was terrible. Peter Doocy would ask tough questions, and I
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  Speaker 2: think he might have held a microphone for Fox as well.
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  Speaker 2: But his questions were always questions. He wasn't arguing. But
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  Speaker 2: now they become these arguments. They're just performance. The reporters
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  Speaker 2: in the briefing room aren't reporters anymore, at least some
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  Speaker 2: of them. They're simply show hosts like you expect to
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  Speaker 2: see on CNN and MSNOW. Their show hosts carry it
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  Speaker 2: on and putting their point of view out there. In
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  Speaker 2: this case, this is their show with Caroline Leavitt or
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  Speaker 2: this is their show with Trump or this is their
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  Speaker 2: show with Marco Rubio or whomever is up there talking
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  Speaker 2: for Trump. It's all an act. When the left is
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  Speaker 2: outraged over something, They will go and claim that every
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  Speaker 2: bad thing that's happening is happening because of that thing
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  Speaker 2: that they're outraged over. There's a million examples of what
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to describe here, but here's the most recent.
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  Speaker 2: Six years ago, in 2020, the Washington Post read a
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  Speaker 2: lengthy piece discussing the seeming increase in strength of Atlantic hurricanes.
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  Speaker 2: And they said that this is because of global warming.
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  Speaker 2: And they weren't the only ones. I'm sure you remember
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  Speaker 2: some of these stories. And as somebody who spends a
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  Speaker 2: few months a year in South Florida, I know the
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  Speaker 2: narrative very well. The oceans are warming. And because the
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  Speaker 2: water is so... warm, this is creating volatility and that
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  Speaker 2: is causing an increase in these tropical storms. Well, as
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  Speaker 2: you may have noticed, we're not out of the woods yet,
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  Speaker 2: but so far this year's hurricane season is a total
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  Speaker 2: dud there's not been a significant Atlantic hurricane yet. So
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  Speaker 2: what do you think the Washington Post is attributing this to?
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  Speaker 2: The Washington Post last week reported, and I'll quote, the
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  Speaker 2: Washington Post reported that the lack of hurricanes in the
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  Speaker 2: Atlantic this year is potentially because of global warming. See
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  Speaker 2: what I mean? It's all an act. It's just performance.
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  Speaker 2: When they said, When we had several years of a
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  Speaker 2: lot of hurricane activity, they went on and said, well,
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  Speaker 2: that's because of global warming. The oceans are warming up,
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  Speaker 2: the planet is warming up, and that's creating this increase
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  Speaker 2: in activity. They didn't know that. They still don't know
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  Speaker 2: what causes hurricane activity from one year to another. So
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  Speaker 2: now this year, it's rather calm. A real dud of
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  Speaker 2: a year, which of course is a good thing. Well,
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  Speaker 2: that's got to be because of global warming. We've had
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  Speaker 2: the lake levels in Lake Michigan go up and down
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  Speaker 2: over the last 30 years. I've made fun of the
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  Speaker 2: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and its coverage of this. When they
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  Speaker 2: go up, it's because of climate change. When the levels
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  Speaker 2: go down, it's because of climate change. Doesn't matter what
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  Speaker 2: it is. We've seen in our winters in Wisconsin, we
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  Speaker 2: get a lot of snowstorms. It's because of climate change.
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  Speaker 2: We have a mild winter. It's because of climate change.
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  Speaker 2: They don't know what's causing any of these things, but
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  Speaker 2: their attribution of it to climate change or global warming is,
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  Speaker 2: as I say, an act. Everything could be because of something.
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  Speaker 2: Let me stick for just half a second on the
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  Speaker 2: calm hurricane season so far. Aside from the whole climate
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  Speaker 2: change thing, the number of, quote, experts, experts, experts, particularly
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  Speaker 2: the experts the media goes to, by and large, the
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  Speaker 2: experts the media goes to are generally, I believe, the
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  Speaker 2: worst people in their fields. They must be. They said
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  Speaker 2: that we were going to be seeing this increased volatility
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  Speaker 2: in the weather, more hurricanes, more tornadoes, more flooding, et cetera,
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  Speaker 2: for the long term. And here we are, 2026, and
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  Speaker 2: for whatever reason, there's been much more activity in the
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  Speaker 2: Pacific than the Atlantic. They didn't predict this. They didn't
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  Speaker 2: see this coming. And I don't think any of them
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  Speaker 2: know particularly why it's been so calm this year. The
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  Speaker 2: other thing, the El Ninos and the La Ninas, which
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  Speaker 2: form in the Pacific. I think this is an El
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  Speaker 2: Nino year. They say that one of the things that
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  Speaker 2: happens in an El Nino year is the southern part
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  Speaker 2: of the United States is much colder than normal, and
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: the northern part of the United States is much warmer
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  Speaker 2: than normal. The jet stream is shoved in a certain direction.
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  Speaker 2: So it may well be that we're not going to
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  Speaker 2: have a lot of snow, or if we do have snow,
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  Speaker 2: it'll be the wet stuff. It'll be a warmer winter
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  Speaker 2: in the northern part of the United States, but it
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  Speaker 2: may be chillier in the southern part of the United States.
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  Speaker 2: But that may be true. El Ninos and their alternative,
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  Speaker 2: La Nina, have been going on as long as we've
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  Speaker 2: had oceans. Those forces, the overriding things that planet Earth
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  Speaker 2: does in cycles, have nothing to do with the activity
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  Speaker 2: of man, and all of it has a lot more
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  Speaker 2: to do with weather than anything that some guy's doing
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: because he's driving an SUV. But blaming it simply on
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  Speaker 2: the natural cycles of planet Earth and our atmosphere There's
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  Speaker 2: no political agenda in that. So when they go and
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: blame everything on climate change again, it's just all an act.
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  Speaker 2: The next act. There's a story here that developed over
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  Speaker 2: the last couple of days. I want to make sure
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  Speaker 2: I'm giving credit to all of the people who deserve
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: credit for it, but I believe it was the Hispanic
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: News Network that reported the story first, and then Dan
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: O'Donnell and an outfit he's affiliated with, the Highland Post,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: jumped on it after that. They reported that a top
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: staffer in a couple of Democrat Party activist organizations, is
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: on the state sex offender registry and is a convicted
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: child sexual offender. Now, the guy's got a very common name,
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Diego Rodriguez. There's a zillion Diego Rodriguez's. This one is
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: the Diego Rodriguez who works for the Democratic Party. He's
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: now 26 years old. But again, don't assume that somebody
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  Speaker 2: that you know with that name is this guy. There's
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  Speaker 2: a lot of them. The Hispanic News Network apparently reported first.
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  Speaker 2: I believe they reported it on Monday. I might be
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: off on the date. And Dan and his outfit, the
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  Speaker 2: Heartland Post, reported on it online. And that's an online publication.
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  Speaker 2: And Dan put it on X shortly after that. The
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  Speaker 2: story involving Rodriguez was widely covered back when it occurred
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  Speaker 2: 10 years ago. By the way, I think I said
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  Speaker 2: he's 26. He's now 30. Rodriguez was convicted of meeting
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: an underage male on an online website for the purposes
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  Speaker 2: of sexual activity. The story was at the time widely covered.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, if you do a Google search right now
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  Speaker 2: on that guy and the city of Milwaukee, the hits
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: all come back from the story back in 2015 and 2016,
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  Speaker 2: when he was charged, when he was convicted, when he
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: was sentenced, and so on. In addition to that, Wisconsin
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  Speaker 2: is one of the states that has our arrest and
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: criminal and court records online. If you simply enter him
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: in the circuit court database, this comes up, including his sentence,
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  Speaker 2: the whole thing, the sex offender registry, it's all out there.
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  Speaker 2: So anyway, once the story was reported, the Democrats have
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  Speaker 2: completely disassociated themselves with Rodriguez. He's the campaign manager for
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  Speaker 2: Priscilla Prado. She's a Democratic member of the State Assembly
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  Speaker 2: from the south side of Milwaukee. He's fired her. In
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: addition to that, he's a top person in the Latino
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: coalition for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, and the Democratic
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  Speaker 2: Party of Wisconsin, he's not involved with us anymore. So
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  Speaker 2: immediately after these reports came out, They got rid of him.
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  Speaker 2: I'm telling you, this is an act by them. There's
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  Speaker 2: no way they didn't know. None. First of all, one
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  Speaker 2: of the things that he's been doing, this guy Rodriguez,
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: he was on this committee for restorative justice in which
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: he worked with other convicts who'd been released from prison on,
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: you know, getting back on their feet and all of
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: that stuff. So they clearly had to know that he
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: was convicted. In addition to that, he's a big shot
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  Speaker 2: on the South Side and being involved in Latino politics
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  Speaker 2: and so on. All they would have had to do
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: is Google the guy's name, which, by the way, everybody
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: does with everybody anymore. They hired him because they wanted
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: to hire him. So what if he's a sex offender?
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  Speaker 2: There are a lot of people who claim to be
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: outraged at sex offenders, but aren't. Like all the people
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: who have Gone to the crappy steakhouse called the 5
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: o'clock steakhouse in Milwaukee the entire time that they knew
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  Speaker 2: damn well it was being run by a child sexual offender.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: And the Democrats knew damn well that Diego Rodriguez was
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: a convicted sex offender. But now, we're in a political season. First,
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: Hispanic News Network, which has some reach, and then Dan O'Donnell,
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: who has a lot of reach, Get out on the
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: story and suddenly everybody's all talking, oh my goodness gracious,
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: this is terrible. We're outraged. Priscilla Pato, member of the
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: state legislature. This is her campaign manager. Going forward, I
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: plan to employ a more thorough vetting process and assure
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: my constituents that my focus continues to be on serving
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: the people of the 9th Assembly District in the city
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: of Milwaukee. A more thorough vetting process. Like what? Googling
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: his name? I did that this morning. The hits go
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: on and on and on, the guy, and not just
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: the most recent stories here. On page, if you Google
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: them correctly, by putting in city of Milwaukee, I didn't
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: even have to add sex offender. In the first two
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: pages of Google responses, there were stories from like every
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: news outlet in the city. In addition to that, the
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: most basic vetting you have in Wisconsin is to, we
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: call it CCAP because that used to be the name
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: for the state online court record. People still call it CCAP.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Put his name in there. Admittedly, you're going to get
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: hits for a lot of people with a lot of
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: that because it's a common name, but it's there. This
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: is a statement issued by Priscilla Prado. She's the state
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: representative yesterday. A recent article highlighted the problematic background of
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: a member of my campaign. The conduct of this individual
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: is completely unacceptable, and once this information came to light,
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: I made the immediate decision to terminate it from my
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: campaign once it came to light. In other words, once
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: somebody reported it, not once you found out about it.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: JS Online picks up on the story now. Criminal Complaint
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: says in 2015, when Rodriguez was 20 years old, he
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: tried to meet up with an undercover police officer whom
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: he believed was 15 years old for sex and had
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: sexual interactions with a 16-year-old. Rodriguez was a youth church
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: leader at the time. In addition to working on Prado's campaign,
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Rodriguez was vice chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin's
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: Latino Caucus. A spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: told the Journal Sentinel that is no longer the case.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Rodriguez also canvassed for Ismael Luna, the Democratic candidate for
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Wisconsin Assembly District 8, located on Milwaukee's south side, just
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: east of District 9. Luna told the Journal Sentinel that
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: Rodriguez is a volunteer that had never been paid or
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: employed by the campaign and will no longer volunteer with
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: Luna's campaign or attend his events. As a survivor of
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: sexual abuse myself, I understand how painful these issues are
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: and I would never minimize the harm experienced by survivors,
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: Luna said in a statement. Sexual abuse and exploitation are
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: serious and survivors deserve dignity, support, and justice. This guy's
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: apparently quite well-known on the South Side and has been
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: involved in a lot of Latino campaigns, Democratic Party politics,
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: and so on. They didn't know he served five years
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: and that he's on the sex offender registry? They knew.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: But their statements, oh, we're firing him, oh, this is
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: so serious. Again, it's feigned. It's fake. They have to
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: get rid of him now because the alternative is that
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: the Democrats are the enablers of child sexual predators. The
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: next example of performance. It's all fake. Covered this story
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: a few weeks ago. In the entertainment world, it's a
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: huge story. In the news media world, it's a very
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: big story. In the world of business, it's a big story.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: Paramount has been trying to buy Warner's. The old Warner Brothers,
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: which has been broken up. These companies have been broken
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: up and busted and bought and sold so many times.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Paramount is currently, Paramount now owns CBS and a lot
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: of other news outlets in addition to the Paramount studio.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: It's controlled by David Ellison, son of Larry Ellison, founder
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: and still chairman of Oracle. Ellison has been, since taking
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: over Paramount, trying to move the company to a more
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: centrist position as opposed to being on the left where
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: every other media company is. Since, for example, Paramount acquired
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: CBS News, they've changed management of the news department, they've
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: shaken up CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes in an
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: attempt to be a more fairer, unbiased news organization. So
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: now Ellison moves to take over Warners. Twelve state Democrat
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: attorneys general file a lawsuit to block this. First of all,
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: there's nothing federal about this. Excuse me, there's nothing state
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: about this. It's federal action. Antitrust is a federal issue.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: It's not a state issue. Every now and then, the
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: Justice Department blocks one company's takeover of another, citing antitrust issues.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: As I argued at the time, just about all of
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: these movie studios and media companies, they're all in trouble.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: And there's a zillion of them. Paramount taking over Warner
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: isn't anti-competitive. There's still a zillion other studios. There's a
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: zillion networks out there. The only reason they were opposing
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: this is they're freaked out that Paramount is not a
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: liberal company. They're also freaked out that one of the
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: companies that Warner owns is CNN. So these 12 state
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: attorneys general file a lawsuit to block the merger. It
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: was all, as I said, an act. They didn't have
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: a legal leg to stand on. So what happened this week?
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: They settled. Paramount gives nothing. They agreed to increase in
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: the number of movies that are going to be produced
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: in the United States and a couple of other things,
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: and the attorneys general go away. So they can save
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: face and claim that they got some sort of a concession.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: So the merger is going to move forward. Paramount's going
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: to buy Warner. And my guess is when Paramount buys Warner,
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: one of the things that they're going to try to
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: do is fix the mess that is CNN in the
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: same way that they're trying to fix the mess that
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: is CBS. As for the Democrat attorney generals that filed
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: their lawsuit, they're posing for holy pictures to their lefty supporters. Oh, well,
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: this is outrageous. We're going to try to stop it.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: And then knowing that if this had actually gone to court,
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: they would have lost. They get one or two tiny
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: little concessions and the thing is going to go through
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: just as it always would have. Next example. There was
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: once a time, believe it or not, that sports teams'
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: uniforms only had the team's name on it. I mean,
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: you can't watch a game on TV or listen to
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: it on the radio or go to the arena. Everything
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: that happens is sponsored by somebody. I don't know when
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: it started, but every time the Bucs make a three-point shot,
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: that's sponsored by Gruber. And they, like, throw Gruber T-shirts
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: or something into the stands. If you watch the game
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: on TV, the fourth quarter is sponsored by this. You
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: watch a Brewer game on TV, like a double play
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: is sponsored. Everything's sponsored. I don't know who started all
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: of this. I think it was two things. Minor league
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: baseball stadiums always used to have advertising on the outfield fences,
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: but major leagues never did. That was one of the
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: things that distinguished minor league baseball and major league baseball.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: You grew up like near the city, in the city
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: of Chicago. You didn't go to minor league baseball when
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: you were a kid, did you? No. See, I did.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: I grew up near Appleton. First it was the Appleton Foxes,
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: now the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. I remember the first time
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: I went to a game was Goodland Field. I'm going
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: to minor league baseball. And there's all this advertising on
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: the fence. This is kind of cheesy. They don't have
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: this at Coney Stadium. Well, that's changed. Major league stadiums,
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: there's advertising all over the place. So I think they
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: and NASCAR invented it. As long as stock car racing
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: has existed, I mean, you go to the smallest little track,
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: somebody's body shop or some wig shop is going to
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: have their name written on the side of the car.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: But now everything is sponsored. And I'm going to say
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: it's not going to be long. This probably has already happened.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: I'm guessing some team has already sold its team name.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: You know if anybody has? Okay, but you know it's
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: going to happen, right? Then they started selling the naming
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: rights for the stadiums. I mean, in the case of Milwaukee,
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: we had such a county stadium. I mean, give me
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: a break. We didn't even name it after anybody, County Stadium.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: The county put it up so it was County Stadium.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: You know what the name of Lambeau Field was before
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: it was Lambeau Field? City Stadium. That's how we are
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: here in Wisconsin. Yes, the Packers Stadium, even when they
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: built the new one in 57, it was City Stadium,
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: and they named it after Curly Lambeau, I believe prior
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: to the 64 season. Well, now teams have it on their,
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: you know, just about every team has something on their uniform.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: Like all the college teams are sponsored by one of
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: the shoe companies. I think Wisconsin is Under Armour. Nike
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: has a lot of them, all of that. I don't
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: know when it started in the NBA, but NBA teams
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: have a patch on their uniforms. And I honestly don't
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: know how much value this stuff is. I know in
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: my case, You just get to be so used to it.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: Some people say they're so distracted by these things, and
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: I find that I get so used to it that
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: I don't even, I don't know how much value there
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: is for me because I don't really see it on there,
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: even though it's right there. The Bucks uniform sponsor was Motorola.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: They've cut a deal, and now they have a new sponsor.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: It's Uline. According to the report in the Business Journal
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: from Rich Kirchhen, It doesn't indicate what the Bucks got
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: from Uline, but it said that they had priced this
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: thing at $ 10 million. Now, pricing it at that doesn't
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: mean that that's what they're going to get. $ 10 million
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: a year. So the Bucks uniforms are going to have
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: this patch above the name Bucks. It's going to say Uline.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: And if you're wondering where it is, it's where the
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Motorola thing was. And if you didn't notice the Motorola
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: emblem before this, you're probably not going to notice the
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: Uline thing. Now, the Uline logo, it just– of you
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: have seen it. It's just that black Uline. So that's
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: what it's going to be. On social media, there are
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: lefties that are, again, what's the theme of the show?
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Feigned over. They're outraged over this. Give me a break.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: This is a polarizing and controversial company. I'll state my
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: obvious conflict of interest. The podcast you are listening to
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: right here has its own uniform patch. It's Uline. Uline
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: is the presenting sponsor of my podcast. So that's my
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: conflict of interest. Uline sponsors the podcast. And if you
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: didn't know that, you're not paying any attention because we
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: say right at the beginning and the end of the
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: podcast that it's sponsored by Uline. Uline's a big company,
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: and of course, they do marketing. At Brewer Games at
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: American Family Field, Uline's one of the sponsors that, I
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: was talking about the signs on the outfield wall. There's
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: a sign, I think it, I don't know if it's
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: on the outfield wall or if it's on the facings
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: of one of the upper decks, but a big Uline
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: sign there. So this is one of the things that
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: companies like Uline do in the communities that they're in.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: They'll sponsor activities and sponsor sports teams, etc., The owners
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: of Uline Corporation, Liz and Dick Uline, are conservative. And
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: they're active donors to Republican candidates and political causes. And this, therefore,
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: is infuriating the lefties that Uline's name will now be
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: on the uniforms of the Bucs. There's nothing with regard
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: to the company itself that's political. They do the kinds
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: of things that you hear me talk about in the
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: spots that we read here. But the owners of the
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: company themselves are very political, as are zillions of other
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: American owners of companies. But for these people now who
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: pretend to be outraged over this, this is the same
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: box team that whose last owner, the owner of the team,
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: was a massive donor to Democrats, and his son, who
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: worked for the team, ran as a Democratic candidate for
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: the U.S. Senate. Alex Lasry was a Democratic candidate for
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: the United States Senate at the same time he was
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: a top executive for the Bucs. And his father, Mark Lasry...
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: It was a big buddy of Bill Clinton and sat
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: next to him at games. It was a huge bankroll
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: of Democrats. So that wasn't a sponsor. That was the
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: actual co-owner of the team. There may have been a
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: few lefties that grumbled about the fact that one of
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: the Bucs owners is a big-time lefty. He's the actual
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: owner of the team. All these other sponsors that the
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: Bucs have and all these other teams have, I'm sure
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: some of them are owned by Republicans. There are any
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: number of billionaires. who own corporations that give money to
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: the Democrats. So again, they're not really outraged over this.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: They wouldn't be able to drive to Kenosha County given
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: the fact that all of I-94 is dotted with Uline
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: buildings right and left. The Uline name is everywhere just
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: as Amazon's name is everywhere and everybody else's name is everywhere.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: But they're going to pretend to be outraged over it.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: and say that the Bucks are making a polarizing decision,
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: even though the former Bucks owner himself was certainly at
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: least as political as this sponsor was. I just mentioned Gruber.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: Gruber sponsors everything under the sun. There's now a bunch
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: of other law firms that are trying to sponsor everything
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: under the sun. By the way, if you've not noticed,
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: I think everybody's noticed, there is a huge war in
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: the trial attorney business going on right now. Gruber had
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: gotten really, really big in terms of its media presence.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: There are other law firms that are big too. Havish
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: runs a zillion, all of them. But when you see
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: a company that has a big market share, competitors come in,
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: I compare it to the grocery business in Milwaukee. About,
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: I don't know, 20 years ago, pick and save had
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: over 50% market share on the grocery business in the
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: Milwaukee market. That's just staggering. I think Publix has that
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: kind of market share in many communities in Florida. By
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: the way, the one thing that Florida has over Wisconsin
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: is the grocery stores in Florida are just way better.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: Like Publix is the mainstream thing. Publix is just an
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: incredible grocery store. No knock on any particular one of them,
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: but I just can't handle going to pick and saves
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: anymore or their other, their gussied up version, Metro Market.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: I just can't. I can't handle going into any of them.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: Are you aggravated by grocery shopping or because you have
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: a wife, do you not have to grocery shop? My
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: last producer, Paul, I don't think ever went into a
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: grocery store. He, what? Well, anyway, I mean, Publix and the,
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: and like their version of Sendix, there's a Milams that
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: I go to down there. They're just so clean and
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: the food is just, everything is, they're just wonderful experiences
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: and they all still have live checkers so that you
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: don't have to scan all your stuff and, so forth
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: and so on. I digress. But in any event, pick
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: and save had a massive share of the market. And
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: when they did, all the other competitors nationally took an
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: eyeball at this and said, this market is ripe for
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: the picking. This company has no competition. Walmart was expanding
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: everywhere they came in aggressively. Then Meijer came in and
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: numerous others. And now Since then, pick and saves have
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: been sold a couple of times. Kroger, for the last
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: number of years, has owned a pick and save, and
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: it's sub-brand Metro Market. I think the same thing is
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: happening in the trial attorney business with Gruber. That Nicolet
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: Law and the guy that's got the beard, and there's
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: just a zillion of them that are going after Gruber. So,
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: of course, Gruber, to defend his turf, is upping his advertising.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: My point is, is that You can't go to a
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: sporting event around here without seeing Gruber. Now, I'm guessing
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: Gruber's a lefty. I don't know this. I'm just guessing
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: he's a lefty because he's a trial lawyer, and every
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: trial lawyer I know is a lefty, not all of them. Now, again,
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: this is a hypothetical, but let's imagine Gruber gave money
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: to some Democrat candidate for something. Would that mean I'd
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: be hacked off? He's sponsoring, I mean, you make a
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: three-point shot at the Bucs game? How childish would you
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: have to be to care about that? Next story. The
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: media keeps telling you that it's very rare for non-citizens
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: to be registered to vote. And they tell you that
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: vote fraud is very, very rare. As you know, the
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: Trump administration and President Trump don't believe this. They have
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: been conducting nationwide investigations into whether or not ineligible people
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: are on the voter rolls in a number of states.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: And in some of the states in which they've gotten
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: access to this, the media is only grudgingly reporting these stories,
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: but many of you have seen these stories. They've gone
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: into some states and there have been hundreds, there are
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: thousands of people registered to vote who are non-citizens around
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: the country. Harmeet Dhillon is the Assistant Attorney General in
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: the Justice Department who's the point person on this. I
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: think that there are a lot of nervous election officials
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: because I think some of them know that they've been
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: looking the other way when this is happening. And we're
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: catching it all over the country. As you may be aware,
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: Wisconsin officials have refused to turn over the databases to
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: federal officials. I know why. Do you think if the
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: feds dove into Wisconsin's records and compared it against the
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: databases that they have of non-citizens that are in the
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: United States? And again, the feds have a database here.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: We don't, unfortunately, have a database of illegal immigrants. You
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: have to catch them first. But we have a database
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: of so-called, they used to call them registered aliens. In
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: other words, legal people in the United States who have
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: not yet become citizens. We have many people have come,
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: for example. and work legally from the islands, from Cuba
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: and other places in Latin America and so on. They're
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: legally in the United States, but they're not yet citizens.
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: That means they can't vote. But they're documented because they've
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: come in with green cards or visas and the Fed
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: has it. And the Feds are taking that database and
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: comparing it against and running it against the voter rolls.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: And they're getting lots of hits across the country, but
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: Wisconsin won't turn them over. Why do you think they
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: won't turn them over? So despite the fact that this
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: is very, very rare, if it was so rare, the
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: Wisconsin Election Commission would cooperate with the Trump administration and
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: they would find nothing, right? One other note. I'm listening.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: to these pundits talk about the election nationwide. Wisconsin is
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: really an anomaly this year, given that the Democratic candidate
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: for governor is just terrible. And we're the rare state
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: in which the Republicans are actually bankrolling a candidate aggressively.
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: This is not the disaster that occurred four years ago
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: when Evers ran against Michaels and poor Tim Michaels was
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: so underfinanced because the Republican Party was divided. It's united
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: right now. But nationally, I'm a pessimist. I was just
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: in Florida this past weekend. Florida is about as red
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: as a state can be. Trump won all but four
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: counties in Florida in the 24 election. Ron DeSantis, the
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: Republican governor, is term limited out. So it's an open seat.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: Many of you who watch the cable news programs, you
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: know the Republican candidate because he's been on Fox News
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: and he's been on Newsmax and a bunch of the,
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: just a lot of times over the years. His name
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: is Byron Donalds. African-American Republican congressman from the Naples area.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: He's the Republican candidate for governor. Right now in the polls,
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: he's losing. The Democratic candidate is a guy named Jolly.
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: He's a Democratic official. Is he a member of Congress,
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: I think? Anyway, he's leading the polls there. In fact,
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: he is refusing to debate Donald's. The Democrats are so
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: confident they're going to take back the governorship in Florida
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: that the Democratic candidate won't debate the Republican. Usually the
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: one that doesn't want to debate is the one that
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: thinks they're behind. So the Democrats, they think they're going
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: to win that. If the Democrats win the governorship in
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: a state that has gone as red as Florida, that
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: is a sign that it's going to be bad for
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: Republicans all over the country. Now, again, I'm not saying
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: he will. They will win that race in Florida. And
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: I also think that the polling is even worse than
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: ever right now in undercounting Republican voters. But I do
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: see ominous signs out there. You're listening to the Mark
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: Belling podcast. This is the Mark Belling podcast. I wasn't
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: going to bring this up, but now I've decided that
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: I am going to bring it up. I don't know
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: when this thing started when you can just bring your
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: dog onto a plane. But I think like 20 years ago,
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: you never saw dogs on planes unless the person was,
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: you know, blind. Every now and then I'd see a
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: little tiny little dog, maybe in one of those carrier cages.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: But you go through the airport right now, there's just
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: dogs walking around right and left. It seems to me
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: that they've cracked down on it. And the dogs that
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: are brought on, they have to be certified as service dogs.
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: You have to do something like that. I don't even
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: know this about Jason. Do you fly much or not
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: at all or never? You're used to it in your
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: past careers and all of that stuff. Yeah. All right.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: So I was flying back from Florida. I did the
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: podcast Monday from Florida. So I was flying back yesterday.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: So I'm in the airport in Fort Lauderdale. I can't
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: get a nonstop between Fort Lauderdale and Milwaukee. So I
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: was connecting. I think this is the first flight, but
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: it might've been the second. I think it was the
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: first flight, which was Fort Lauderdale to Detroit. You know,
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: and you're in the waiting area, the area where you're
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: getting ready to light up to get on the plane
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: and all of this. And here's a guy. And he's
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: got a standard poodle. Do people know about the different three?
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: There's three different versions of poodles. Do you think people
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: know this or not? Do you know what a standard
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: poodle is or do you not know what it is?
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: What is a standard poodle? Well, but what else about it?
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: But I'm size. Standard poodles are actually pretty big dogs.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: There are three kinds. And for example, toy poodles are
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: the little tiny ones. And a standard poodle is a
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: pretty good size dog. This is a standard poodle. So
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: it's not a little dog. And it's got this thing,
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: this like red thing strapped around it that says service dog.
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: I've seen service dogs in my life. I don't think
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: I've ever seen a poodle that was trained as a
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: service dog. I'm not saying it hasn't happened. I was
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: just suspicious. I mean, usually when you see service dogs,
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: I don't know, they're usually German shepherds or lambs because
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: those dogs are real smart and real obedient. And good
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: service dogs are unflappable. They never bark when they're in public.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: They follow the owner's commands. They're sensitive to the needs
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: of the owner, whether it be someone who is hearing
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: impaired or somebody who's blind and can't see, or even
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: the emotional support dogs. Those that are properly trained, they
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: just behave in a certain way. Okay, well, here's this
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: standard poodle next to this guy. The guy was in
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: a wheelchair. Now, again, I don't know what he needs
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: the dog for. He's in a wheelchair. And I don't
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: know if he clearly could see and he clearly could hear.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: So maybe it's an emotional support. I don't know. Maybe
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: that's what it is. I don't know. I just know
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: that he's got the thing. But anyway, we're in the
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: waiting and the dog is barking. Actual train service dogs
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: rarely bark. Right? In your experience, they don't normally bark.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: So he's barking. Something a BS on this. Now, before
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: we get on, now, I'm traveling solo. Now, the next
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: thing that occurs to me, oh, I hope this guy's
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: not sitting next to me. Again, this dog is huge.
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: Standard poodles, as I say, they're big. I don't want
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: this dog sitting next to me barking the whole flight. Plus,
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: it's the guy. And, you know, plus he's in a wheelchair.
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: It's just going to, let him be anywhere but me. Okay,
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: I get on the plane. He's not next to me.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: He boarded first because, you know, the people who need
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: assistance get to, by the way, that's the other big
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: scam in airline. If you need additional time to board,
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: you should see the number of people that are in
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: much better shape than I am waltzing on their claim
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: and they need more time. You know why they get
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: out early? They get out early because they're in the
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: back of the plane and they want to get out.
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: They're supposed to be in zone 96 and they want
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: to get out early so that they have space in
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: the overhead to put all the crap they're carrying on.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: So anyway, I didn't know about this until we got
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: off the plane. But when we took off, I could,
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: before we, during the flight, there was just something going
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: on during the flight. It's a pretty long flight, but
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: I admit, I don't know what it was. Would you
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: believe that this dog crapped on the plane? It was
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: apparently they were way in the back, thankfully, and I
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: was sitting toward the front. Well, I was actually in
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: the front row. I love sitting in the front row
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: of planes. People like sit in the front row because
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: they can't have any of their stuff with them. They
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: have to put it in the overhead. What do you
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: need your stuff for? Secondly, you could take it out
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: when you're in flight. Having nothing in front of me
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: other than like the wall, that's what I want. So
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: this is way back that when I got off the plane,
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: there were people that were talking to me. And I
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: remember one guy saying to another guy, well, that's a
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: first for me. That's one that I've never seen before.
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: Apparently this dog crap. Well, I can guarantee you service
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: dogs don't crap while on duty. I don't know how
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: any of that works. Now, again, I've sat next to
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: a couple of times people with a tiny little dog,
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: sometimes in carriers, and they'll put them at their feet.
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: And then I've seen another case where the really tiny
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: foo-foo dog, they're actually holding them. And I know what people,
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: often they'll give the dog, if not a service dog,
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: but it's just a companion dog, they'll give them a
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: tiny dog dose of Valium or something to put the
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: dog to sleep. that that's commonly what a vet will
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: do before you travel with an animal. And the dogs
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: usually don't do much of anything. But I've never been
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: on a plane, actually, where there was a service dog
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: with you. I have seen blind people on planes, though,
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: and I honestly don't recall if they get a second
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: seat for the service dog. The dog had a vest,
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: but again, I didn't see anything else. And I only
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: saw him in the waiting room and I only noticed
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: it because the dog was barking. And the guy was
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: standing right at the front to be the first to
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: board because he... And he did need additional time because... Well,
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: maybe the wheelchair was fake too, but he was sitting
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: in the wheelchair. But I mean, since he had the
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: fake dog, maybe the wheelchair thing was a fake thing too.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: But anyway, I didn't know it and I didn't smell anything.
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: It happened way in the back and nobody around me
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: was talking about it. And I only picked up on
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: it because... I actually had to make, I was doing something,
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: I had a gap between that and my next flight,
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: and I was this lucky on the gates, and I
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: just heard a few people talking about the fact that
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: this had happened, but it also explained why the flight
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: attendants at one point put the service card up to
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: stop you to go from the front bathroom, and they
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: hauled some stuff up, that must have been, they were
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: cleaning it up, and they probably were dumping it in
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: the restroom in the front of the plane, and that's
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: where they had it barred off, so it didn't affect me,
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: and I didn't notice anything, but Yeah, I know you
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: can get the best, but I thought that the airlines
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: were clamping down and they were demanding paperwork in some
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: official kind of, but I'm sure you can forge all
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: of that stuff. I do know it's not as common
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: as it was three or four years ago. I mean,
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: shortly after COVID, there was many dogs on these planes.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: And I mean, we did a segment back on my
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: radio show. There was a woman from Milwaukee. I think
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: she took a duck on the plane. She had an
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: emotional support duck. Let me move on with the program.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: We don't use my website, Belling.com, for a lot, but
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: one of the things that's up there is very valuable,
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: and there's a story about it right now. Wisconsin Institute
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: of Law and Liberty, has compiled a database of every
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: school district in the state of Wisconsin as to how
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: well they do on various standards, including test scores, graduation rate,
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: discipline rate, and so on. They update that every year.
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: So all you have to do is go to that site,
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: and you can type in your district or any district
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: you want to compare it to, and you'll see how
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: your district evaluates. If you open it up, the first
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: district in Wisconsin alphabetically is Abbotsford. So that's the one
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: that shows up initially. All you have to do is
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: type in the name of whatever district that you want
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: to type in or whatever the school is, and it
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: will come up. The version for the current school year
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: has just been updated. So if you go on my website, Belling.com,
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: there's an icon that we have there, and it just
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: says something like find rating for every school district in
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: Wisconsin or whatever. And underneath that tab is the database
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: that Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty has compiled in.
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: This is a wonderful service. The school districts hate this.
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: They all want to tell everybody that we have the
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: greatest district in the world and this, that, and the
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: other thing. Well, this is a ranking so you can
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: see how they rank in the context of everybody else
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: from the state of Wisconsin. Trump at the UN. The
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: point that Trump made about the war with Iran I
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: think is undeniable. whether you agree with the decision to
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: start this war, you agree with the way it's been handled,
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: and you agree with how Trump's handling it right now,
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: you can't deny that this situation with Iran has been
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: ignored by decades of world leaders. I was going to
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: say the first one to ignore it was Carter. I
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: think you can go back farther and say maybe Nixon
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: and Ford ignored the rise of Islamism in the Middle East.
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: But I'll grant you, I don't know what you would
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: do anything about it. We didn't really see much indication
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: of Islamism until the 1972 Olympics in Munich when Yasser
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: Arafat and the PLO killed the Jewish athletes at the Olympics.
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: But then it started to increase, and the first country
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: to actually fall was Iran. The Shah of Iran was overthrown.
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: by the Ayatollah Khomeini and his fundamentalist radicals. This was
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: during Carter. And after they overthrew the country, they immediately
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: took anti-American action. They invaded our embassy and took American
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: hostages who were held for a year. And Carter didn't
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: do a damn thing about it. He tried to do
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: a rescue operation. The helicopters crashed into each other in
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: the desert 800 miles from Tehran. And after that, every
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: succeeding American president ignored the Iranian problem. Reagan ignored it.
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: The first Bush ignored it. Clinton ignored it. W. Bush
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: ignored it. He was more focused on Iraq and was wink, wink, nod,
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: nodding at Iran because Iraq and Iran have always hated
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: each other. The one guy who has said for decades
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: that he would deal with Iran is Trump. Trump said
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: he would not let Iran get nuclear weapons. And he
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: said this as far back as 30 years ago. So
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: he goes to the UN. And he got in the
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: face of the UN saying, in fact, I'll read the quote.
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: For 51 years, the fanatical Iranian regime has ruled by
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: bloodshed and mass murder, spreading death and carnage and chaos
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: across the entire Middle East and beyond. They were the
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: bully of the Middle East, but they are the bully
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: no more. This statement released by the Trump administration. President
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: Trump at the United Nations. While others have talked, I
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: have acted. And he goes beyond simply the situation in
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: Iran and discusses the fact that on any number of
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: issues where you've had presidents of both political parties saying, well,
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: this is a bad thing, I'll deal with this. Trump
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: is saying, I've acted. He specified in particular Cuba. Do
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: you know how many presidents have said Cuba is, the
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: Cuban situation is unacceptable? You can go back to Kennedy.
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: And his attempt to do something about it, in fact,
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: his attempt to do something about it has become the
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: term for fiasco. If you want to describe something as fiasco,
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: just say it's another Bay of Pigs. There are people
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: who don't even know what the Bay of Pigs is.
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: They just know that the Bay of Pigs is something
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: that's all screwed up. And because the Bay of Pigs
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: sounds like a bad bay, I mean Bay of Pigs.
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: Why do they call the Bay of Pigs the Bay
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: of Pigs? Do you know that? I don't even know that. Well,
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: the Bay of Pigs, that was Trump's, that was Kennedy's
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: attempt to overthrow the Cuban government. They were going to
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: kill Castro, and they were going to try to restore
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: freedom to Cuba, and so on. It was failed, and
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: after Kennedy was killed, Johnson just gave up on the thing.
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: Following that, there's been an American embargo against Cuba as
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: long as Cuba's been controlled by the communists, but beyond
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: the embargo, nobody's done anything about.
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: It.
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: The Venezuelan situation. Venezuela went communist. They nationalized the oil industry.
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: They killed off their economy. So their entire economy was
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: run on the oil that they sold and the drugs
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: that they exported. Venezuela is a significant reason why the
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: United States of America is awash in drugs. And Venezuela
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: then took the criminals that they have in their prisons
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: and released them so that they could sneak themselves into
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: the United States. And again, presidents of both parties have
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: yapped about this forever. Trump has said, I've acted. Now,
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: here's the thing about a president, or for that matter,
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: a governor or a mayor who acts. If you want
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: to be politically popular, if you're a chief executive officer,
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: you want to be a popular president. You want to
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: be a popular governor. You want to be a popular mayor.
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: Some of these cities have mayors that get reelected and
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: on and on and forever. Don't do anything. Milwaukee's a
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: very good example of this. Henry Meyer was the mayor
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: for 28 years. What did Henry Meyer do? He never
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: did anything. He bitched about the freeways in the suburbs.
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: He bitched about the Milwaukee Journal, so have I. And
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: he kind of had the idea for Summerfest, but he never,
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: it was like nowhere near what Summerfest came to be.
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: Beyond that, what did Henry Meyer do? Nothing. And he
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: got reelected all of those years because He didn't do anything.
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: Norquist yapped a little bit, but basically did nothing. Barrett
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: did nothing at all. It's the formula to serve forever.
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: We've had Wisconsin governors who sat on their butts and
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: didn't do much of anything. Serve forever. You want to
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: be a rather popular president Don't do anything. When you
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: do something, there are going to be people who don't
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: like what you do. But when you don't do anything,
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: every problem we have, the can gets kicked farther down
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: the road and the problem gets worse. At some point,
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: there was an American president who was going to have
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: to go to war with Iran. If it wasn't Trump,
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: it would have been the president perhaps after Trump. It
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: would have been the president that would have had to
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: go to war with Iran and it would have been
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: nuclear because Iran would be using nuclear weapons. Admittedly, all
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: of the presidents prior to Trump and even Trump in
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: term number one, Iran was not yet at a crisis
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: point so you could shove it down and shove it
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: down and shove it down. I'll acknowledge that even Trump
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: is one of those that's shoving down the problem of,
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: everybody knows that Social Security is going broke. People are
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: living forever. And with some of the advances that are
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: going on right now in longevity, life expectancy is going
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: to increase significantly. We also have a generation, the Zs,
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: that are underemployed. You're going to have massive, we're already
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: in the wave in which about half the baby boomers
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: are retired. My generation is going to live forever. And remember,
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: Social Security has a survivor benefit, so if you're married
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: and you're croaked, your wife keeps getting it. And it
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: always seems to be the guy that's dying. Anyway, Social
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: Security needs to be reformed to avoid running out of money.
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: To me, extending the retirement age solves the problem. Push
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: back by two years, the years, you know, you get,
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: if you can start qualifying, I think it's 62. If
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: you wait until you're 66, you get more. You wait
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: until you're 70, you get more. You wait until you're,
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: and so on. They could shove all of those years
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: back and it would solve the problem. I'm not saying
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: that's the one to do it. But there are numerous
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: things that could be done, but they'd all be politically unpopular.
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: But at some point, we're going to have Social Security
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: taxes so high, and the people that are going to
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: be paying them are the people in their 20s, 30s,
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: and 40s. So that's the one Trump's not dealing with.
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: But on many of these other issues, whether you agree
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: with the position of Trump or not, he's acted. There
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: are a lot of people on my side, Republicans, who
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: nodded and applauded when Trump said, we're going to address
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: the illegal immigration and we're going to get people who
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: don't belong in the United States out of the country.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: And then they get the heebie-jeebies when ICE comes in
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: and actually starts grabbing people and throwing them out of
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: the country. Again, some people don't like that. But Trump
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: is acting. On Iran, as many of you know, my
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: position is clear. I think Iran is becoming a quagmire.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: Trump needs an exit strategy. There's only so much we
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: need to accomplish in Iran. We've devastated their military, devastated
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: their economy, and set back their nuclear program for years.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: In my opinion, that's enough. I think the deal with
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: the Strait of Hormuz can be worked out. But the
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: majority of the problems that Iran was creating have been solved.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: There's been a price to that. The price of oil
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: has exploded. The price of diesel, I think it's partly
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: connected to that, but I think it's more connected with
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: the whole Russia-Ukraine thing, given where so much diesel production
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: comes from and so on. But the point that Trump made, look,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: you sit here and you talk a good game on
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: all of these things. Here's the most rogue nation on
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: the planet, Iran, developing nuclear weapons. And what did any
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: of you people do about it? Nothing.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: Nothing.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: Instead, what do you do? You whine and complain about Israel.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: Now this story. This is one of these, I bet
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: you didn't know this. Now whenever I say that, there's
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: going to be somebody who said, but I knew this.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: You know who just announced that they're adding 700 jobs
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: at the facility in Racine County? Fox Cod. Everybody's described
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: the Foxconn. Well, that turned out to be a dud.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 2: And indeed, Foxconn never got to be as big as
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: it was expected to be. There was a nationwide competition
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: for Foxconn to build a major manufacturing facility in the
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: United States. I think Ohio was the finalist along with Wisconsin.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: Wisconsin and Scott Walker got it. And they acquired the
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: land where the Microsoft data center now is in Southern
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: Racine County. And the notion was that Foxconn would have
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: a manufacturing facility and employ over a thousand people. And
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: this is a big, big thing because, as you know,
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: almost no tech is made in the United States. All
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: the tech is conceived in the United States and all
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: the tech companies are here. But the manufacture of all
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: of this stuff is primarily in China and a few
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: other countries. This was during Trump's term number one. As
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: you know, Trump has wanted to bring manufacturing and tech
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: back to the United States. And right now, Trump wants
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: data centers, which is the ultimate in tech manufacturing in
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: the United States. Well, Walker got Foxconn. And Foxconn, you know,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: the chairman of Foxconn at the time was forced out
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: not long after that. And management of Foxconn had different
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: plans for Wisconsin and less ambitious plans. But people act
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: as though Foxconn went away. Foxconn's still here. They have
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: a building that says Foxconn in downtown Milwaukee. What they
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: did in the Racine County site is they moved. But
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: they've got a manufacturing plant in Racine County and they
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: just announced they're adding 700 more jobs there. The community
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: is actually unpleasant. Mount Pleasant is also, I'm trying to
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: remember if the data center Microsoft owns is also in
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: Mount Pleasant or if that got annexed by the city
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: of Racine. It's slipping my mind right now, but it's
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 2: that same area, which is to the west, it's in
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: the southwest, it's to the west of the city of Racine,
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: just north of the Racine-Kenosha County line. And the Foxconn
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: site is a little bit off from where the original
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 2: plan was because Microsoft data center is where the original
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 2: Foxconn site is, but they're adjacent to that and One
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: of the reasons that Foxconn's expanding there is because the
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: Microsoft data center is so huge. This is one of
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: the arguments for data centers. That if you have a
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 2: large data center, you're going to have lots of other
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 2: economic development right next to it. Because of the synergies created.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: As an example, if there's an automobile manufacturing plant somewhere,
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: a pretty good chance that very nearby within a couple
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: of miles is going to be an auto parts facility
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: there because that manufacturing plant may be using the parts
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: that some other company is making. I will admit that
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: even I, as aware as I am of so many things,
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: was not aware that Foxconn's ambitions for a massive hub
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 2: in Racine County were still alive and viable. But evidently,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: they are. This is the Mark Belling Podcast. This is
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: the Mark Belling Podcast. All right, this is a great story.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: First of all, the thing with the NFL is everybody
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: has these predictions before the season starts, and about half
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 2: of them turn out to be right. Like every year,
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: they'll discuss the teams that are likely to go to
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 2: the Super Bowl. They'll take four or five or six teams.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: And it just, it never fails. Of those four or
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: five or six teams that people cite as the favorites
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 2: to go to the Super Bowl, two or three of
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: them turn out to be terrible and don't make the
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: playoffs at all. And every year, at least one and
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: sometimes two teams that were not thought to be any
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 2: good at all become contenders. The other thing that happens
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: is everybody overreacts to the beginning of the season. And admittedly,
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: if you start the season 0-2, I think.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 2: What is it? 75% of the teams that start 0-2
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: don't make the playoffs. It might be even higher. But
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: when you think about it, still less than half of
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 2: the teams make the playoffs. What is it? No, 12
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 2: teams that make the playoffs are 14.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: 14.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: And so 14 do and 18 don't, right? So less
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: than half make the playoffs anyway. I think you could
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: say any two teams that went 0-2 in weeks 9
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: and 10 probably didn't because teams that have too many
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 2: losses don't make the playoffs. But it's not like 92%
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: don't make it. And the majority of the teams that
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 2: start 0-2 that don't make the playoffs, they're teams that
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 2: just aren't any good. If you actually have talent, you
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 2: might recover from this. So we don't know which category
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 2: the Chargers are going to fall into. But the two
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 2: Los Angeles teams, the Rams and the Chargers, they were
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: everybody's darling in the offseason. And, you know, the Rams, oh,
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 2: clearly they're the Super Bowl favorite. But people were saying
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: the Chargers had a big chance in the AFC as well. Well,
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 2: the Chargers have started the season 0-2. And this is
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: like one of these quirky little statistics, but the two
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: teams that beat them in weeks one and two were
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: both terrible last year. It's very hard mathematically. It's easier
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: now that they have more games in the schedule. It's
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: very hard to win fewer than 20% of your games
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 2: in a season, just given what the math of a
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 2: season is. I think, let's see, we're a 17-game season
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: right now. To be... Yeah, you would have to have
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: three or fewer wins to have less than a 200 percentage, right? Yeah,
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 2: if you, well, yeah, if you go, if you go,
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 2: if you go four and 13, that's over 200. Both
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: of the teams that the Rams lost to in weeks
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 2: one and two had three or fewer wins last year.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: So very few teams have that poor of a record anyway.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: And it was a quirk of scheduling that the, I
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 2: said Rams, that the Chargers opened the season with two
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: of those teams that had terrible records last year. And
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: they lost to both of them. So they came up
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: with this stat. And, you know, this used to be
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 2: hard when you had to do everything manually, but now
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 2: that everything's computerized, you can come up with a stat
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 2: the last time such and such happened. And some of
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: these things admittedly are kind of contrived, but the last
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 2: time An NFL team opened the season losing back-to-back to
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 2: teams that had a winning percentage of less than 200
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 2: the prior year. That's a mouthful. Do you know who
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 2: the last team that was that lost the first two
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: games to a team that was... They were seen tornadoes. Now,
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 2: the reason this is shocking to everyone is nobody knew
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 2: Racine was in the NFL, but Racine was indeed in
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 2: the NFL. There was a Racine franchise in the National
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 2: Football League in the 1920s. The Tornadoes lasted until 1927. So,
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: and the Tornadoes opened one of their seasons. What year
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: was it? I think it was 2022. Whatever year it was,
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 2: they lost to two teams that had an under 200
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 2: record the year before. The Racine Tornadoes are the last
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 2: team prior to, it was the 1926. 1926 Racine Tornadoes
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 2: lost the first two games of the season to teams
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 2: that had an atrocious record the year before, and it
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: wasn't until 100 years later that the Chargers had the
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 2: same distinction. In fact, if you know your NFL history,
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 2: the Packers being one of the founding teams in the
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 2: NFL wasn't that rare because it was primarily the a
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: Midwestern league, and it was in small cities. In fact,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 2: I know Jason knows this because he's a Bear fan.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 2: Where were the Bears originally from? Decatur. The Bears were
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 2: an original franchise, but not in Chicago. Was it the Staley's? Decatur, Staley's,
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 2: and I think it was Hallis, I think, that moved them,
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 2: wasn't it? Yeah, Hallis moved them to Chicago. Now, Green
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 2: Bay always was in Green Bay, but that's what the
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: league was. It was, you know, factory towns, you know,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: in the upper Midwest, and we're seeing it at Teeth.
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 2: So the Racine Tornadoes are the last team to start
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 2: the NFL season, losing to two teams that the year
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 2: before were sub-200. There's other facts in here. The New
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 2: York Times and their sub-sports site, The Athletic, have a
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 2: lengthy story about this. They go through some of the
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 2: history of the Racine Tornadoes, but the Racine Tornadoes distinction
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 2: of The first team to open an NFL season losing
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 2: games to two teams that were atrocious the year before
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 2: has now been matched by the Los Angeles Chargers. I
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 2: find that there is confusion among Brewer fans about the
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 2: playoff ticket situation. Some things people just don't understand, and
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: in my attempts to explain them, I think I explain
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: things very well, but often it doesn't work. Yes, the
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 2: Brewers did put wildcard series tickets for sale yesterday to
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 2: the general public. There will not be a wildcard series.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 2: They had to put them for sale because if there
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 2: was a wildcard series, it would have started on Tuesday.
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 2: The Brewers last night clinched a buy. They do not
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 2: have to play on the wildcard series. They will instead
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 2: start in series number two, which is the National League
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 2: Divisional Series. So anybody that ordered wildcard series tickets, I
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: don't even know if they charge your card yet, but
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 2: it's simply defunct. It doesn't happen. So the first series
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 2: that will be available for purchase is the National League
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 2: Divisional Series, which would open on Saturday, October, I believe
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 2: Saturday the 3rd, would be the first day of that series,
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 2: and the Brewers will play, depending on whether they're seeded
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 2: number one or two, one of the other teams. The
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 2: Brewers or the Dodgers are going to be the number
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 2: one and two seeds. We don't know who will be
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 2: one and who will be number two, but they'll be
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 2: the top two seeds. So those are the two buys.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 2: So the Brewers last night clinched a buy because Atlanta,
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 2: which has the third best of the divisional leaders record,
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 2: they lost their game, and Atlanta can't catch the Brewers.
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 2: So if you bought wildcard tickets, you're simply not going
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 2: to be charged for them. So the first series the
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 2: Brewers will be involved in will be the NLDS, and
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 2: that's a best of five series. The wildcard series is
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 2: best of three. The divisional series is best of five,
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 2: and then the remaining two, championship series and world series,
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 2: are best of seven. So the Brewers are guaranteed to
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 2: host games one and two of the divisional series, and
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 2: their opponent will be one of the winners of the
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: wildcard series that are played starting on Tuesday of next week.
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 2: And there's a problem, this whole thing with the Cubs
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 2: in Boston. The Cubs finish the season in Boston this weekend.
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 2: It's supposed to rain on the East Coast all weekend. Now,
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: for teams that aren't involved in the playoffs, they might
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 2: just not make the games up. But Boston's in the playoffs.
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 2: They look like they're locked in. So what they do
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 2: over the weekend isn't going to matter for where they're
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 2: going to go. But for the Cubs, the three wildcard
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 2: teams in the National League I think they're all sitting
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: right around 87 wins right now. And you've got to
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 2: determine the seeding. One of them is going to be
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 2: the fourth seed, one the fifth seed, and one the
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 2: sixth seed to determine who's going to play who. If
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: the Cubs are rained out multiple games, they're talking about
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 2: having to play a doubleheader on Monday with the Cubs
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 2: then playing... their wildcard game on the road the following Tuesday.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 2: And there's even talk that they might have to delay
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: the wildcard series by a day to get those games
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: in because they can't tell the Cubs you just can't
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: play these remaining two games and write them off because
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 2: they're so close to a couple of other teams as
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 2: to who would have what seeding that's in there. But
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 2: the Brewers don't have to worry about that. They will
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 2: get a bye. Now, the second thing. It seems apparent
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 2: to me that the Brewers don't much care if they
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 2: get the number one seed or not. They're a game
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 2: ahead of the Dodgers. They control the tiebreaker with the Dodgers,
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: so they're probably two ahead. The Brewers, the last couple
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: of games, have played as though these are spring training games.
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 2: The starter last night, Dustin May, pitched only two innings.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: Colton Gordon, who hasn't pitched with the Brewers all year,
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 2: pitched five innings last night. Pitched pretty well until he
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 2: gave up the three losing runs. Mizorowski on Sunday pitched
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 2: only three innings. Apparently, he's going to pitch this weekend,
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 2: and they're saying that he might pitch one or two innings.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 2: The Brewers' starting pitcher's arms are drained, and they're doing
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 2: everything in their power to rest their starters. The other
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 2: mission that they're on is to pitch Kyle Harrison every
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 2: game possible to try to turn him around and fix him.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 2: But if you just watch the way that they've managed
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 2: the last couple of games, they're more focused on getting
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 2: their pitching staff right for the postseason than than they
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 2: are about getting the number one seed with regard to
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: the Dodgers. The key is by having the one or
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 2: the two, they get the bye. And the bye means
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 2: you have one less opportunity to get knocked out of
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 2: the playoffs. Secondly, I don't think there's any team that
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 2: needs this bye more than the Brewers, whose arms are
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 2: mostly young. And I just think some of these guys
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 2: are showing arms that are close to burnout status. So
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 2: the Rodgers or Brewers will be the one and two seeds,
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 2: and the Brewers will therefore open their postseason play on
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 2: next weekend, the weekend after this one, the wildcard series,
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 2: the four of them, two in the national, two in
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 2: the American, they all run Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday of next week,
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 2: and they are all best out of three. I explained
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 2: that well enough that everybody should understand or not. Yes. Well,
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 2: I mean, why would you explain it any better than
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 2: I did? than I just did. So in other words,
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 2: if you've gotten these ticket things from the Brewers and
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 2: so on on wildcard stuff and so on, whether you
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 2: bought them or not, you're not going to be paying
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 2: for them. But you do want to buy the divisional
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 2: series because they're guaranteed to be in that. So if
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 2: you're thinking, I'm not going to try to jump into
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 2: the divisional series until after the wildcard, that's through. But
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 2: the reason that they, and it's because the tickets went
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 2: on sale yesterday. And then just a few hours later,
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 2: the wildcard series got kaput because they clinched. But there
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 2: wasn't a cinch that they would clinch, so they had
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 2: to start putting them on sale anyway. So that's what happened.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 2: Beyond that, I'm not going to answer any other questions
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 2: on that. When we used to do a live program,
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 2: this is when people would call up confused and talk
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 2: to Paul off the air. Now that we're doing a podcast,
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 2: you can call up and bother Dan O'Donnell's producer or
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 2: whoever you're listening to the podcast during. A reminder that
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 2: we've got our football preview and football picks on the
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 2: Thursday podcast. That's tomorrow. I finally got to win. Who
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 2: did you take last week? Are you 3-0?
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, he's 3-0. I finally got a win. I
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 2: knew that San Francisco would kill Miami. Miami's the worst
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 2: team in the NFL. There are others fighting for that,
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 2: but Miami is absolutely terrible. The quarterback that they got
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 2: from the Packers is terrible. The coach Halfley is in
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 2: over his head, but mostly they got rid of everybody.
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, this thing that the NBA is trying to
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 2: get rid of called tanking, the Dolphins are tanking. They
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 2: want to be terrible. They're trying to get one of
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: the first picks in the draft for the following year.
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 2: They're saving a lot of money. They cut veterans right
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 2: and left. They're just terrible football teams. Maybe I'll just
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 2: pick against the Dolphins every week, knowing that they're likely
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 2: to play terribly every week. Anyway, we'll do our football
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 2: preview and our football picks at the tail end of
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 2: the Thursday podcast. Talk to you all then.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: Bye. The Mark Belling Podcast is presented by Uline. For
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: quality shipping and industrial supplies, Uline has everything in stock.
• 1:17:56
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• 1:18:01
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