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01 - Save NIC · NO ID

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  No ID is meant for a sane audience. No ID may
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  contain Liberty -oriented content. PINCO discretion
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  is advised. Now, here's No ID with Paul Banducci
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  and Scott Moskowitz. The man is right. This is
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  No ID. Inaugural episode. First one. We're gonna
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  cover North Idaho on this show hyper local. It
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  seems to be the the way for now There's enough
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  nationally syndicated programming. There's enough
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  stuff covering, you know Trump I figure there's
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  plenty of room for local shows because those
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  seem to have gone the way of I don't you know,
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  I don't know everything just seems to be running
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  national programming or a syndicated morning
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  show a lot of the stuff that used to cover your
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  hometown seems to have gone away or at least
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  If it does cover your hometown, it seems to be
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  pulled by the same strain. It's like, well, it's
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  an NBC affiliate. Yeah. Okay. So was it really
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  covering your local, you know what I'm saying?
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  And there's plenty of rage bait at the national
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  level. And unfortunately, even the local papers
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  tend to follow the mainstream media. So we're
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  hoping to present an alternative. That's the
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  idea. So who are we? Well, I'm Scott and that's
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  Paul. Hello. And since Paul is the North Idaho,
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  the true local. And has the real credibility.
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  Let's be honest about it. I figure let's let's
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  start by telling telling people who you are.
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  I guess I'm close enough to true local. Technically,
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  I was born a Fairchild Air Force base, but my
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  dad was Air Force. What are you going to do?
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  But raised in the Post Falls Coeur d 'Alene area,
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  grew up here and have been here long enough to
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  see Coeur d 'Alene go from a quiet little town
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  that I remember to a major tourist attraction
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  growth. It was hard to imagine even 10 years
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  ago. So a lot of change, some good, some bad.
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  As far as the politics side of it goes, the same
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  fight's been brewing for probably 15 years. And
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  it's, yeah, there's nothing nastier than small
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  town politics. We're going to cover some of that.
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  Well, as we've discussed plenty, it's a microcosm
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  of national politics. I mean, the tactics are
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  familiar. The storylines are familiar. They just
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  maybe involve different names and a couple of
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  less zeros. But otherwise, I recognize everything
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  I'm seeing. I think the one small difference
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  maybe that when people come here especially if
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  they're not from here they expect they expect
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  it to look a little different they come here
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  and they think it's going to be you know deep
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  red conservative through and through true and
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  true but there's a pretty hard battle being fought
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  here for the heart and soul of the area just
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  like a lot of other places so it's not quite
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  as quote -unquote safe as people think it is
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  and that surprises folks well who's winning It's
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  hard for me to tell who's winning. When I talk
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  to the boots on the ground, you know, at Post
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  Falls Brewing Company, it seems like the people
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  are winning because there's just so many more
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  of them. At least it seems like that. Maybe it's
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  a self -selecting crowd that I find myself talking
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  to. I don't know. Maybe I'm not sipping, you
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  know, at the right bougie coffee shop. Maybe
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  I might meet a different clientele. But then
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  but then if you tune into the, you know, the
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  if you read the local wiper, you know, it does
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  seem like the cartel might be winning. I can't.
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  Who's winning? It is definitely a matter of perspective,
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  who you talk to, who you know, and what you know.
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  I'd say it's a pretty heavy seesaw battle overall.
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  In the last 10, 15 years, I'd say the conservative
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  libertarian side of the equation has gained a
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  little bit of ground and held some of it, but
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  it is a very hard -fought battle. The other side,
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  I'm just going to say the left side is kind of
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  a catch -all. They have a lot of power. They
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  have a lot of money. They're concentrated, of
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  course, in the urban areas, particularly, you
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  know, downtown Coeur d 'Alene, downtown Post
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  Falls, a lot of them in Hayden. They have the
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  influence. Give me a breakdown of your professional
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  background. So for the last 12 years, I was the
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  owner and operator of a cigar lounge, cigar shop
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  and lounge first called Bulldog Pipe and Cigar.
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  It was in the Silver Lake Mall in Coeur d 'Alene.
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  That was the first iteration. That wrapped up
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  the end of 2020. In the middle of 2021, we got
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  the second iteration up and rolling. That was
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  the Racketeer Cigar Lounge. And we moved that
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  to Post Falls. And it was a full cocktail bar
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  and cigar lounge and a really cool place. Very
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  unique place to get away and have a cigar and
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  have a drink and do community things. In fact,
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  that was the joke. If you're not talking about
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  religion and politics in there, we were like,
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  we don't care about the weather and sports. We
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  care about. of the other stuff. So we were the
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  only bar in town where we actually encouraged
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  those things. Well, for all that for all the
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  times in life, you get told like, this is not
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  the place for it, man. Well, where is the place
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  for it? The racketeer cigar lounge. Yeah. And
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  I just recently sold it in April to a friend
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  and colleague and kind of like a little brother,
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  Nathan Eric Kelly. And he's running it now. And
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  I'm in between things. There's a reason that
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  you called it the racketeer. And perhaps we can
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  get into that on a future show. That's definitely
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  a podcast all on its own. Sure. Okay, fair enough,
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  because we have some other stuff that we're going
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  to cover on this show, which we'll get to in
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  this inaugural show, which we'll get to in a
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  moment. And who am I and why am I here? Well,
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  I come from the People's Republic of California.
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  A refugee. We call you a refugee. I am the quintessential
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  political refugee that y 'all have been, you
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  know, reading. You see how I said y 'all? Blending
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  in I'm archetypal of of who came here in 2020
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  I guess between like 2020 and 2022 that that
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  most recent massive influx It isn't the first
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  one It's just the most recent one and maybe the
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  most like virulent as far as why we were coming
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  here But I'm that guy, you know where I just
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  was things were sort of going downhill in California.
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  They have been for a long time I also was in
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  retail hospitality. I had founded a craft beer
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  bar that I was running down there. I come from
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  a background of broadcast as well. We did media
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  surrounding craft beer at home brewing. So basically
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  everything that I was doing was the rug was pulled
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  out and the life became untenable in California
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  in the most literal sense, not philosophical.
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  You know, I was being prevented from living.
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  Every part of my life that I enjoyed was gone.
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  2020 California, not a pretty place to be. No,
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  it wasn't. And so I would my wife and I thought,
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  well, where where is a pretty place to be? And
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  the decision sort of made itself. We initially,
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  you know, sort of spun a globe and then we're
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  like, well, maybe we'll tour this area, we'll
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  tour that area. But my wife has family in Spokane.
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  They were not happy that they were on that side
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  of the border at that time, and they still aren't.
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  But. Eventually, we were like, well, I guess
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  why are we looking at, you know, random places
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  in Arizona and Utah when North Idaho just sort
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  of seems to be an obvious fit? And I'm I can't
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  imagine having picked anywhere else now that
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  we're five years on. So I'm here to try and create
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  whatever environment is needed to keep it the
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  way that to keep it the place that we came to.
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  Well, why did we come here? Well, that reason
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  is what I wish to preserve, I guess. I don't
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  know if that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. Well,
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  the most recent wave of refugees have been the
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  most politically active. Migration to North Idaho
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  has been since the 70s. In fact, even then, when
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  my father and my mother's families moved both
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  from California in the 70s, so brought my mom
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  and my dad up when they were kids. Our guest
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  today is drawing with his index finger on the
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  desk. Were you writing 60s with your index finger?
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  In the studio with us today is Paul's father
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  Todd Banducci and we're gonna get into the fracas.
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  I was trying to figure out what terms to search.
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  The kerfuffle, the North Idaho College fracas.
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  I couldn't quite figure out exactly what to call
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  it, but we're going to break down the last, I
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  mean, you've been in the chair since 2012. So
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  really the last few years is going to be the
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  focus, but I get the sense that it's actually
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  a much longer timeline than just the 2020 through
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  2022. Yeah. So basically my dad, Todd Banducci,
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  he was an NIC trustee. What Scott and I are attempting
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  to do here is set the backdrop. uh... which we
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  haven't fully done yet will set the backdrop
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  of north idaho politics and then the n i c swar
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  a or ordeal or catastrophe or whatever we're
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  already sounds too good i want to go to the right
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  perspective again and as a new perspective uh...
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  is a perfect illustration of how north idaho
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  politics have played out over the last four uh...
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  ten to twelve years can make one comment absolutely
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  the migration here go right ahead our family
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  started looking in the sixties paul's mother's
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  family started looking at the sixties but here
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  in the late 60s. So this has been going on for
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  a long time but what's interesting is the recent
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  migration is a little bit different. You know,
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  back when we've had a couple of our former mayors,
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  Mayor Bloom for one, a lot of these rich and
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  fancy people came up and wanted to be part of
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  the great metropolitan area of Coeur d 'Alene
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  and they were embraced and everybody wanted to
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  be part of the country club crowd and be part
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  of that at Coeur d 'Alene like Lake Tahoe or
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  California or whatever and they embraced all
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  that and it was all the beautiful people and
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  they all kumbaya and get along and everybody
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  politically was kind of benign in some ways and
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  they all got along and the power structure and
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  the people in power money and control able to
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  withhold exactly their positions in downtown
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  Coeur d 'Alene and the people that have been
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  the families that control this town forever what's
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  interesting though is this latest migration of
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  people that are coming up and digging in doing
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  their research and they don't want this place
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  to become like what they came from. And so those
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  are the people that these other folks are criticizing
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  and calling out in the Coraline Press and these
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  other places saying how bad they are, these Californians.
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  The irony of it is many of these people are the
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  good Californians. They're the ones that they
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  are conservative. They have the value system
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  and they want this place to not turn into what
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  they came from. So they are fighting. It's ironic
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  how they're being criticized and misrepresented
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  as being the problem when it's some of these
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  other entrenched people that are holding on real
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  tight. And these new people are going, whoa,
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  it's not as red as we were told. It's not as
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  conservative. This isn't what we expected, but
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  we've got to fight to keep this to what we thought
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  we came to and want. This is why we came here.
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  This is why we uprooted our families and moved
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  and changed careers or whatever was involved
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  with that. from a California to an Idaho, a thousand
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  miles or more, depending on what part of California
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  you came from. That is not a simple thing. So
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  it's interesting to watch how now some of these
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  people are really mad at some of the new people
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  because the new people are fighting and they're
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  not just up here to, you know, take pictures
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  and go along with this. And it's interesting
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  how that has evolved. You know, I had a conversation
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  over the bar at the former Selkirk Abbey brewery.
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  and back in I think it was when we had first
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  moved here maybe 2021 or so and the fellow who
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  I was talking to was saying you know because
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  I was describing I'd come from you know the the
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  land down under and he was like oh well this
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  is you know there's been many waves he was like
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  he was an old local he was like you know man
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  I remember I remember some time in the early
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  90s there was some travel magazine something
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  or other article like you know the top 10 undiscovered
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  gems or something thereabouts and that Coeur
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  d 'Alene was featured prominently and there was
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  this huge wave of people from California so of
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  course I busted out my you know my smartphone
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  there and like looked I wonder what he was talking
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  about and June 1991 the Los Angeles Times archive
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  there all the newspapers are all every single
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  up you know issue is archived and there it is
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  from the travel section it's even it's like a
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  screenshot it like looks like the actual newspaper
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  from that top, just like he's describing top
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  10 undiscovered gems. And I think Coeur d 'Alene
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  was like number one or two. And as I was reading
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  it, I was like, this is paid placement. I bet
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  you Hagedone placed this because I've been to
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  your point. I think he was, he's soliciting the
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  type of person you were describing. The country
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  club said, Hey, come here. We'll form a new country
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  club up here in North Idaho. It's exactly what
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  they were doing. They were marketing this place
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  nationally. And in certain places, California,
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  Texas, wherever. And that's exactly what they're
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  doing. Those downtown folks, the chamber down
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  there, it was to their benefit. And Hagedown
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  just happens to be kind of the umbrella under
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  which most people think everything falls. But
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  you look at the folks who prospered and were
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  most advantaged by all this. And it's a small
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  group of people that really, and it's funny how
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  the... look at the builders and the realtors
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  and some of the people are on board with all
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  this because they've helped sell out North Idaho,
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  helped build it out, get rid of the prairie,
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  get rid of the green space, and who's made the
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  money from this influx, who's most benefited
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  from it. It's really interesting to watch. The
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  average person here has not benefited from it.
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  In fact, the average young person has been priced
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  out from being able to buy a home. The job at
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  the service industry jobs aren't great. I'm sort
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  of guilty of being that, you know, I took my
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  California money here and business sale and home
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  sale and this sort of thing and I Don't like
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  having contributed to what you're describing,
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  but I also don't I don't really know what my
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  choice was I know you're not condemning me or
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  anything But I I think about that and but I just
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  don't know what the answer is and there's something
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  in there's something sort of insidious about
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  the that Solicitation we were describing from
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  that at LA Times placement because it wasn't
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  like where you see the little fine print, this
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  is an advertisement. That was not what it was.
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  If you're reading, which I might have been. I
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  read the LA Times when I was a kid. I would read
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  the sports and the comics. For all I know, I
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  thumbed through that travel section when I was
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  freaking 11 years old. But I was obviously like,
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  people were less sophisticated, then they weren't
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  thinking about that sort of thing. It just seemed
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  like an article in the travel section. But it
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  wasn't. It speaks to the fact that it's not a
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  recent phenomenon. the migration up here it's
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  been going on for decades and it comes in waves
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  and each wave has been slightly unique in one
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  way or another and what's interesting is when
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  i was in middle school and high school i know
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  there was there's always been animus towards
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  people who moved in from the people who are who
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  are now here and oftentimes the animus is from
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  people who had just moved here you know, four
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  or five years ago. I already feel that way. It's
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  funny how that works. Like someone's like our
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  our our logo and our name of our show. No ID.
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  You know, I've been bouncing it off of people
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  like, hey, what do you mean? Does this branding
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  work? Well, what is it? What does it evoke? You
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  know, and I've had a couple of people be like,
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  oh, I see it as no Idaho. Like, don't no, I don't
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  like. Yeah, good. I don't come here. Yeah, don't
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  come here. Yeah, no, I suppose. Yeah, I suppose
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  there's an there's definitely an undercurrent
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  of that around here from locals and and newcomers
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  alike There used to be a joke about that. It's
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  I think it still holds where people get here.
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  They take a deep breath They turn around and
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  they go don't come here After they get here We
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  see that even in housing policy and planning
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  and zoning policy and I mean you want to talk
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  about the housing crisis That's a manufactured
• 15:04
  crisis where we just don't build enough housing.
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  It's just simple supply We haven't built enough.
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  We haven't built it fast enough. And right now
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  in Rathrum, in fact, I sent this article to you.
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  Well, this will be another podcast later. But
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  it's this simple. People who just moved here
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  live in new developments. Then a new development
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  is about to go in next to them. And what do they
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  do? They throw a fit about it. NIMBY. They go
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  to NIMBY, not in my backyard. Yeah, they go to
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  City Hall. They protest the new development.
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  And I look at most of them and I go, most of
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  you weren't here five years ago. Well, exactly.
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  And they complain about, oh, services will be
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  overloaded and the prairie's going away. You
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  know, it's not the small town it used to be.
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  And I go, no, it's not. And it can't be anymore.
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  You can't limit the growth. If you do, you price
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  your kids out of this place. It's like when you're
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  on the road. You are going the exact correct
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  speed. Anybody going slower than you is an idiot
• 15:46
  and anybody going faster than you is a maniac.
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  I have the correct speed. The development that
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  was happening when I moved here was just the
• 15:52
  right spot. And anything further is just what
• 15:55
  are we going to? We're just going to live in
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  a like a North Korean style, 26 story high rises.
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  We're all going to have apartments. Is that it?
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  Well, it's easy to be anti growth when you've
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  got yours. But it's a very short sighted policy
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  because again, your kids, our kids are going
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  to have a real affordability issue to live here.
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  So anyways, but that's another topic. As far
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  as setting the backdrop goes, this all plays
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  into it. Each wave of migrant has brought, well,
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  immigration, so to speak, I use that term lightly
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  here, has brought different challenges and different
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  people. And the latest one has brought more conservative
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  Californians. COVID definitely did that. It was
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  a political shift. People realized places that
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  were far less free, places that were relatively
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  speaking more free, and people moved to their
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  preferred, places and Idaho North Idaho happened
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  to be one of those spots that if you were more
• 16:44
  freedom minded a lot of people wanted to be here
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  so you know that makes everything more expensive
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  housing obviously it's harder to get and everybody
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  coming in tends to have a little more money that's
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  a contributing factor but it's not the only factor
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  but it is interesting well back to the press
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  when I was a kid the press used to run articles
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  in support of the influx of Californians, because
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  there was animus against Californians even then.
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  And the press was very much about them. But that's
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  because the wave in the late 90s, early 2000s
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  was a much more leftist leaning wave of Californians.
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  The most recent wave is not. And so now you don't
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  see those kinds of articles from the press. Instead,
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  you see the opposite, which is like, oh, well,
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  you're not from here. You shouldn't be allowed
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  to have a voice. That's because the voice directly
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  opposes what the press and the downtown Coeur
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  d 'Alene cartel Supports. Well, I was the athletes
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  the actors actresses that's how we get you know
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  places like Black Rock and some of the other
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  Gated communities that are on both sides of the
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  lake rock and Gaza Ron ranch are basically just
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  doing what Hagadon did early on They're just
• 17:43
  extensions of the same strategies, but even a
• 17:46
  place like arrow point that used to be very Casual
• 17:49
  and cavity and the locals could go over there
• 17:52
  I mean if you look at the transformation from
• 17:53
  when I was young to where it is now it's just
• 17:56
  amazing the amount of money and the influx and
• 17:58
  on it's on it at face value and here's where
• 18:00
  it's hard to remember because it's again as local
• 18:03
  as it could be really hard to remember but at
• 18:04
  face value that change isn't an unethical or
• 18:07
  an immoral thing it feels like it is it's just
• 18:10
  a by -product of living in a place that everybody
• 18:12
  else wants to live right it's a highly sought
• 18:14
  -after place to live do i love seeing places
• 18:16
  where i used to hunt grouse and play paintball
• 18:18
  turn into houses for rich people from out of
• 18:20
  town i don't love it when you put it like that
• 18:22
  But there's also a lot of opportunity that comes
• 18:25
  with that. More population means more business
• 18:27
  growth. The velocity of money gets higher. The
• 18:29
  more people there are, there's a lot more opportunity.
• 18:31
  There's pros and cons. And ultimately, as much
• 18:34
  as I'd like to see things not change, if you
• 18:37
  adopt anti -growth policies, all you do is price
• 18:40
  out the next generation. So anyways, that wasn't
• 18:42
  actually what we were here to talk about. Well,
• 18:44
  we're here to talk about everything as it relates
• 18:47
  to North Idaho. And that's the thing, too, is
• 18:50
  there is no such thing as things staying the
• 18:53
  same. Places are either in decline or they're
• 18:55
  growing. There's no such thing as status. There
• 18:58
  is no Mayberry. I mean, we like to we there's
• 19:00
  places that are close, but there is no, you know,
• 19:03
  Mayberry town where it's this way. It always
• 19:04
  will be this way. And it's amazing. And it will
• 19:06
  stay amazing. It's just not how life works. Before
• 19:09
  we. transition into the next part of this show.
• 19:13
  I just want to make one quick clarification because
• 19:16
  I'm a big language guy. Precision in language
• 19:19
  is like huge for me. And I know it is for you,
• 19:22
  too. Yes. And so I want to quickly clarify that
• 19:25
  Covid did not make me leave California. The state
• 19:28
  made me leave California. And this is I'm I'm
• 19:32
  you're the last person that needs to be have
• 19:34
  that clarification made. But I I've I've I've
• 19:38
  made this point in my life to people because
• 19:41
  I don't ever want to describe COVID as having
• 19:44
  done anything because I look at it like saying,
• 19:47
  it would be like if you were like, yeah, well,
• 19:50
  you know, unfortunately the destruction of Berlin
• 19:52
  in 1944 was on account of the Jewish problem.
• 19:55
  Like, no, that's just what the government blamed
• 19:56
  for its totalitarianism. So you see what I'm
• 19:59
  saying? So when you're like, well, COVID did
• 20:01
  this and COVID did that. In my head, I hear it
• 20:04
  as like the Jewish problem did this and the Jewish
• 20:06
  problem did that. I don't want to let the government
• 20:08
  off the hook for acting totalitarian. Whatever
• 20:10
  it is they blamed, the blame du jour is just
• 20:14
  state totalitarianism. And that's what caused
• 20:16
  me to go. And I know you know that, but I'm just
• 20:18
  clarifying that that's not something that you'll
• 20:20
  ever hear come out of my mouth on this show or
• 20:22
  anywhere else. COVID didn't do anything to your
• 20:25
  life or anyone else's life or your business or
• 20:27
  your this or your that. COVID is an inanimate.
• 20:29
  It's just a thing. The government did all that.
• 20:33
  There you go. We can't forget. Never forget that
• 20:35
  most of us were called non -essential. I'll probably
• 20:38
  never ever forget that. My business was shut
• 20:40
  down for five months, which compared to a lot
• 20:44
  of places, wasn't very long. But for Idaho, even
• 20:46
  people think that Idaho didn't have shutdowns.
• 20:49
  They think that Idaho just sailed along. That's
• 20:51
  not true. No, it's not. Idaho handled COVID similar
• 20:53
  to a lot of other places. They just didn't do
• 20:55
  it quite as harshly or quite as long, but it
• 20:58
  still was a thing and it affected a lot of people.
• 21:00
  Yes, because the nature of the state is basically
• 21:02
  the same everywhere and it will get away with
• 21:04
  whatever level of totalitarianism the the boots
• 21:06
  on the ground allow it to and that was the real
• 21:08
  difference was here in Idaho there were just
• 21:10
  way more people that weren't down with being
• 21:13
  treated that way so like the Selkirk Abbey that
• 21:15
  I just mentioned earlier the the you know God
• 21:17
  rest its soul it's it is no more but when it
• 21:20
  when it was operating it continued operating
• 21:23
  in defiance of being told to shut down and basically
• 21:26
  the owner who I has become a friend you know
• 21:29
  and You know, I consider him a hero for having
• 21:32
  done this like. Just said this is a private business,
• 21:35
  like you don't have the right to tell me to close
• 21:37
  my doors, go away. And my understanding is that
• 21:40
  the mayor of Post Falls, who would had been in
• 21:43
  several times, you know, just to drink beer like
• 21:44
  a normal person in the pre 2020 times, came in
• 21:47
  and was like, hey, you know, panhandle health
• 21:48
  is breathing down my neck. Jeff Whitman, the
• 21:51
  owner, you got to close. And Jeff said leave.
• 21:54
  And if you come back, bring an army. And he just
• 21:57
  didn't close his doors. And guess what happened?
• 22:00
  Nothing because the entire thing was phony baloney.
• 22:03
  There were no enforcement mechanisms except for
• 22:06
  some, you know Well, they padlocked this door.
• 22:08
  They made your life extremely difficult or this
• 22:10
  or that like some highly publicized enforcement
• 22:13
  mechanisms But in the truth is it was really
• 22:15
  all just phony baloney. They did do some things
• 22:18
  It also helps and it also helps to know people
• 22:20
  I mean knowing the mayor helps even if you're
• 22:22
  not the best of friends It still helps insulate
• 22:23
  you a little bit and there are some stories.
• 22:25
  I mean I don't want to speak out of turn, you
• 22:28
  know, you might have experienced stuff that I
• 22:29
  don't know about. This will be for another podcast,
• 22:31
  but there's a story of like, this is a high profile
• 22:33
  one for around here, the Rathrum couple that
• 22:36
  got arrested for having a garage sale. They had
• 22:39
  to have a fire sale and a state sale because
• 22:41
  the husband's father had died, had a bunch of
• 22:43
  stuff, they had to move it. So they had a three
• 22:46
  day garage sale and Rathrum PD shows up. that
• 22:49
  warns them, I guess five or six times, but each
• 22:51
  time the couple goes, Hey, we don't have a choice.
• 22:53
  We're trying to give, you know, we got to do
• 22:55
  something about all of this. This is the best
• 22:56
  thing we've got. And they were arrested for that.
• 23:00
  So now there was a lot of outcry in the community
• 23:02
  and ultimately they were not charged. But without
• 23:04
  that outcry, the machinations of the legal system
• 23:07
  would have turned forward and that couple would
• 23:09
  have been indicted and charged with COVID violations.
• 23:14
  It was just so arbitrary though. They will close
• 23:17
  your church. They will close your business. They
• 23:23
  will arrest you at your garage sale. But yet,
• 23:27
  like me, I was in the insurance and financial
• 23:30
  industries, I was deemed essential. So I stayed
• 23:34
  open and just plugged right along, met with clients
• 23:38
  and just kept doing everything I needed to do.
• 23:41
  you know so when the state so obviously i must
• 23:43
  have been that much safer than the rest of you
• 23:45
  well your your air wasn't dangerous yes so well
• 23:48
  there's well let's not even get to that about
• 23:49
  the masks and the oh well oh we're gonna get
• 23:52
  into it i mean the whole follow the science while
• 23:55
  we're at it well they you know like the state
• 23:56
  closed my uh my uh my place of business which
• 23:59
  is labeled the tavern because we had a beer and
• 24:01
  wine license at the time they closed us down
• 24:02
  in fact bars were the first wave to close and
• 24:04
  the last wave to open of course thanks mormons
• 24:07
  and south idaho that was a big but you know what
• 24:09
  they didn't close the liquor stores Yeah, we're
• 24:11
  the pot dispensaries. Well, that was Washington.
• 24:13
  I'm Washington, yeah. But like, but the, so the
• 24:15
  state of Idaho made sure to, and they did very,
• 24:17
  very well during the COVID years. Yes, they did.
• 24:19
  Because everybody didn't know what else to do.
• 24:21
  And they had their money, their stimulus checks
• 24:22
  and they're stuck inside. So it's time to drink.
• 24:25
  So the state of Idaho made out like bandits.
• 24:26
  Meanwhile, they, they try to close us down and
• 24:28
  call us non -essential. So yeah, anyways. And
• 24:31
  then if you want to talk about how arbitrary
• 24:32
  boundaries are, if you went 90 feet to the West,
• 24:35
  Pot stores were open, abortion clinics were open,
• 24:38
  but churches were closed. You crossed into Idaho
• 24:40
  and bars are closed, but liquor stores are open.
• 24:43
  Churches are allowed to open for the most part,
• 24:45
  but they'll throw your ass in jail if you caught
• 24:47
  smoking a joint. So like... Sure. Invisible arbitrary
• 24:50
  borders. Explain that one to me. Anyways, that's
• 24:52
  another podcast. It sounds like a libertarian
• 24:53
  argument. Government makes no sense. It all makes
• 24:59
  sense. And that's, again, with the linguistic
• 25:01
  precision thing, it drives me crazy because I
• 25:03
  still hear it's constant because that's the same
• 25:06
  thing with COVID did this, COVID did that. It's
• 25:07
  sort of not really your fault because the propaganda
• 25:10
  has been so frequent and ubiquitous. That that's
• 25:14
  how everybody talks. And we're going to get into
• 25:16
  that in a second here with regard to some of
• 25:19
  these sources that have covered the North Idaho
• 25:21
  scandal and like, oh, COVID did this and the
• 25:23
  pandemic did that. And they everybody does it.
• 25:25
  And this isn't for a week or two over just the
• 25:27
  stories as I was still serving in the military
• 25:30
  over at Fairchild Air Force Base. And I, I didn't
• 25:32
  finish out there until 30th of November of 22.
• 25:36
  So that was a couple, three years there of COVID
• 25:39
  and Biden and stuff I was serving. Well, I could
• 25:42
  share a lot of stories about how that all went.
• 25:45
  It was rather interesting. Some of the things
• 25:48
  that it was interesting, you know. So should
• 25:51
  we just get a third mic straight away? When he
• 25:54
  when he re -upped to get back in, I even asked
• 25:56
  him, I was like, what are you doing, dad? You're
• 25:58
  doing great in the private sector. And you're
• 25:59
  not going to love the military the way it is
• 26:01
  now. It's not your military. But this is a conversation
• 26:04
  for another time. So we're setting the backdrop
• 26:06
  basically up here locally. It's a surprise to
• 26:08
  people who are new here. They think it tends
• 26:09
  to be more blood red, more deep conservative.
• 26:12
  We really there is a battle for the heart and
• 26:13
  soul of the area. You kind of have your typical
• 26:15
  urban versus rural versus suburban type situation
• 26:18
  where urban quarter lane leans pretty left and
• 26:22
  pretty blue. Suburban quarter lane can sway one
• 26:25
  way or the other depending on who's doing the
• 26:26
  talking and who's doing the listening. And rural
• 26:29
  Kootenai County tends to be pretty deep blood
• 26:31
  red. But quarter lane tends to be the power source.
• 26:35
  You're better off the further you get away from
• 26:37
  downtown. Well, as a local, I agree. We avoid
• 26:39
  downtown like the plague because it just isn't
• 26:41
  for locals anymore. Unless you're one of the
• 26:43
  powerful, moneyed, part of the cartel locals.
• 26:46
  There was a plague there. I don't know if you
• 26:48
  remember, but a few years ago there was a plague.
• 26:50
  Unless you were Walmart or CVS or Costco or Target
• 26:52
  or Walgreens or Amazon or your insurance agency.
• 26:55
  But otherwise there was a there was a plague.
• 26:57
  So yeah, it would make sense that you would avoid
• 26:58
  it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I still avoid it like that.
• 27:01
  Crazy place. So that surprises people. And that's
• 27:04
  kind of the backdrop. You have more of a fight
• 27:07
  on your hands than most people think. And there's
• 27:09
  one side that has a lot of power and control
• 27:10
  and resources and money. And a lot of it is from
• 27:12
  out of state as well. They're well entrenched.
• 27:14
  They're well established. They do an excellent
• 27:16
  job of controlling the narrative. They have the
• 27:18
  press, of course, in their back pocket. That's
• 27:20
  a given. They always do. That's the mainstream
• 27:22
  sources. And then on the other side, you have,
• 27:25
  I would call it a coalition. a scraggy, shaggy,
• 27:30
  scrappy coalition of anywhere from Protestants
• 27:35
  and Catholics and Libertarians and Conservatives
• 27:37
  to MAGA types to everything in between and the
• 27:40
  coalition at times is very strong and at other
• 27:42
  times they're kind of at each other's throats,
• 27:43
  which also is a disadvantage because the folks
• 27:46
  on the left, they tend to move in lockstep. They
• 27:49
  always have, they always do. The folks opposing
• 27:51
  are fighting each other as much or more as they're
• 27:54
  fighting the quote unquote enemy. So that's another
• 27:56
  challenge within a challenge. But in general,
• 27:58
  that would be the backdrop of North Idaho. And
• 28:00
  there's a lot going on. It's nuanced. It's more
• 28:03
  complex than you might think. It's not as straightforward
• 28:06
  as you might think. And things can change on
• 28:08
  a dime. And like I said, I let out with this,
• 28:11
  but there's nothing nastier than small town politics.
• 28:14
  And Coeur d 'Alene is an awesome place to see
• 28:16
  that on display. So that's where we brought in
• 28:19
  my dad here, who was an NIC trustee for 12 years.
• 28:23
  And the NIC ordeal. Which is North Idaho College
• 28:27
  in case you don't know. Thank you. We're going
• 28:29
  to deconstruct that saga or at least the most
• 28:32
  recent few years of it. But before we do, I kind
• 28:34
  of want to describe the structure of this show
• 28:37
  with regard to the participation of you, the
• 28:40
  producers, the people who listen to this show.
• 28:44
  We do not intend to think of you as listeners.
• 28:47
  You're producers. You help produce this show
• 28:50
  just like we do. So that means contributing back
• 28:54
  to the show. with your time, your talent or your
• 28:56
  treasure. That's our model. We will not have
• 28:59
  sponsors on this show. I come from the traditional
• 29:02
  background of broadcast, which is have an audience
• 29:05
  and then Clorox pays to talk to that audience
• 29:08
  during commercial breaks. Not on this show. I
• 29:11
  can't wait to be sponsored by Ivermectin. Horstewormer.
• 29:16
  This is this is inspired by Adam Curry and John
• 29:20
  Dvorak from the podcast No Agenda that has been
• 29:22
  run for almost 20 years. and those guys sort
• 29:25
  of pioneered this particular model when it comes
• 29:28
  to to broadcast the whole time they've been broadcasting
• 29:31
  they have never had a sponsor they just directly
• 29:35
  have their producers participate in the show
• 29:36
  so that means submitting show artwork like you
• 29:40
  know the thumbnail for each episode that means
• 29:43
  sending in audio clips of something you heard
• 29:46
  some whatever you know like i said we're going
• 29:49
  to deconstruct Media presentations topics you
• 29:51
  want us to cover exactly topics you want us to
• 29:53
  cover headlines news or you know things you've
• 29:56
  heard things you've seen That'll be immensely
• 29:59
  helpful as well Absolutely, and then the time
• 30:01
  so that would be the time and the talent portion
• 30:03
  and then the treasure portion Send in a donation.
• 30:07
  We're just gonna ask you directly to donate financially
• 30:10
  so that we can keep the lights on and It feels
• 30:12
  a little weird for me to be soliciting like that
• 30:15
  because like I said I come from a different model
• 30:19
  But honestly, I never really thought about how
• 30:22
  sort of undignified that was. You know, I mean,
• 30:25
  we we were plugging products. You know, I was
• 30:27
  getting on the mic and especially, you know,
• 30:29
  in the in the craft beer broadcasting days was
• 30:31
  like, you know, try this yeast or try try this
• 30:34
  brewery or this homebrew shop. And, you know,
• 30:36
  we weren't using a bunch of the products that
• 30:38
  we were plugging. They were just sponsors. They
• 30:39
  were paying for us to plug their stuff. I mean,
• 30:42
  this is not news to anybody who wasn't born yesterday.
• 30:45
  I never thought of it as like. feeling weird,
• 30:48
  but looking back on it, it did. This doesn't
• 30:50
  feel any more or less weird. It's just the reality
• 30:52
  of it. You know, you want to be compensated for
• 30:55
  value that we're putting out there, which is
• 30:57
  that's what the show is. We're going to try to
• 30:58
  bring value to North Idaho and then hope that
• 31:01
  value is returned to us in the form of time,
• 31:03
  talent or treasure. Basically, if you like, if
• 31:05
  you like what we do, throw something at it. Exactly
• 31:08
  or support the stuff you like and if not, that's
• 31:09
  okay, too For me, it's a passion project if it
• 31:12
  happens to turn into more than that and hey aces
• 31:14
  that's pretty sweet Scott I think agrees with
• 31:16
  me here My goal is to add value to primarily
• 31:19
  the political and philosophical scene in North
• 31:21
  Idaho maybe through a lens that isn't the press
• 31:24
  or isn't Your traditional avenues no ID show
• 31:29
  calm is where you can go to do all of that We
• 31:31
  will and the last thing I'll say is we will if
• 31:34
  you want to send in a note along with anything
• 31:36
  that you send in, send value back to us. We will
• 31:38
  be happy to read that note on the show. It's
• 31:41
  no ID pod at Gmail dot com and no ID show dot
• 31:46
  com. With that said, North Idaho College. So
• 31:51
  let's start, I guess, at the beginning when you
• 31:54
  were first elected. I don't want to go too crazy
• 31:58
  with with with, you know, sort of far in the
• 32:01
  past background. But I feel like we should set
• 32:03
  up. where it started, and my understanding was
• 32:05
  that was 2012. Yeah, that's correct. And I would
• 32:09
  suggest to you that the philosophical war that
• 32:12
  already started at that time, what you saw was
• 32:15
  people that had been on the board forever, some
• 32:18
  of the long -time, almost career trustees, like
• 32:22
  a Judy Meyer or a Christy Wood, didn't stay on
• 32:25
  for many, many more years. When I came on, there
• 32:28
  was a Ken Howard, who's very well -known in the
• 32:31
  community. There had briefly been some folks
• 32:33
  more what I call conservative slash Christian
• 32:36
  that had been on the board and they kind of came
• 32:37
  and went fairly quickly. And so the stage was
• 32:41
  set to try to still try to influence NIC in a
• 32:44
  way that would be more towards the philosophy,
• 32:48
  I guess, the ideology of the majority of the
• 32:51
  residents here instead of being controlled by
• 32:53
  a small group of people. And I see this by virtue
• 32:57
  of its affiliation and location is really tied
• 32:59
  into the downtown Coeur d 'Alene area and to
• 33:01
  that group. And it's very homogeneous down there
• 33:05
  and the same people that control the foundation
• 33:08
  at the college, controlled the college, controlled
• 33:10
  the city of Coeur d 'Alene, the downtown, the
• 33:12
  chamber. It's interesting the power structure
• 33:15
  to watch the movers and shakers. You know, one
• 33:17
  of the complaints it's been for decades is the
• 33:20
  emphasis on downtown. by the city of Coeur d
• 33:23
  'Alene and the inequitable amount of money and
• 33:25
  resources poured into downtown versus the rest
• 33:27
  of it. East Sherman said, hey, what about us?
• 33:31
  And Midtown has said, hey, what about us? And
• 33:33
  a little bit north of that, they said, how about
• 33:35
  us? But the focus has been downtown because that's
• 33:38
  the power center and the people that own that.
• 33:42
  Go look at the county tax records sometime and
• 33:45
  see who owns what properties down there. It gives
• 33:49
  you a quick look and who lives in the Fort Grounds
• 33:50
  and who lives down in in that area, Fernand Village,
• 33:54
  whatever. It's an interesting thing, as alluded
• 33:57
  to earlier, that's a real good blue swath. If
• 33:59
  you look at how Coeur d 'Alene votes compared
• 34:01
  to the other cities, the other precincts in this
• 34:05
  county, there are now 73 of them. There used
• 34:06
  to be 70. And you can really see where it becomes
• 34:10
  purple and then really more blue. And so that's
• 34:13
  the emphasis. And the college was along that
• 34:15
  line, and I think people were already tired at
• 34:16
  that point of what they viewed as indoctrination
• 34:20
  there. Later, we've come up with these terms,
• 34:23
  CRT, DEI, and some of the stuff's become a little
• 34:26
  more prevalent in your face. But a lot of that
• 34:29
  stuff's been going on for decades in colleges,
• 34:31
  and NIC was no different than any other college
• 34:33
  that you would hear about. Academia seems to
• 34:36
  be sort of the same everywhere. So what inspired
• 34:40
  you to run in 2012, and what made you think you
• 34:42
  could win? I actually had a couple folks. One
• 34:46
  was my father -in -law and another gentleman
• 34:48
  or friend of his that encouraged me aggressively
• 34:51
  to run. It was not my idea initially. It was
• 34:56
  not something I had considered or thought about.
• 34:59
  So I guess I would call myself the reluctant
• 35:00
  candidate. It's always charming, by the way.
• 35:03
  Like, here's the guitar, man. You got to play
• 35:05
  for us. No, no, I'm good, dude. No, you got to
• 35:07
  play for us. It's actually true, though. He didn't
• 35:10
  want to do it, because he knew what he was getting
• 35:11
  into. It's like, ah, I don't know about this.
• 35:13
  That's what you want. I basically had to acquiesce
• 35:15
  to do it. And a small sidebar, not that it matters,
• 35:19
  but at the very same time, my mother was passing
• 35:22
  away from cancer. And in fact, on the final day
• 35:25
  of the filing that Friday when I was filing everything,
• 35:28
  my mom actually passed away the following Wednesday
• 35:30
  at the hospice house. So I had never run for
• 35:33
  office before. I had no... understanding really
• 35:37
  of it or experience. I had no funds. So I hit
• 35:42
  the ground pretty flat -footed. So, you know,
• 35:45
  the initial campaign expenses were on my credit
• 35:47
  card, the loans to myself, which was a bit of
• 35:52
  a shock to my wife, I think, to a degree. And
• 35:54
  so off we went, you know, the great adventure,
• 35:57
  really having no idea what we had just undertaken.
• 35:59
  It was quite a learning experience on the fly.
• 36:02
  So how'd you win? By surprise. Yeah, actually,
• 36:07
  it was a bit of a shock to some folks. We outworked
• 36:09
  them. We caught them flat -footed. We got out
• 36:12
  ahead of it. I had a couple people that were
• 36:14
  helping me and they understood the system and
• 36:17
  they were able to get some things out. Some of
• 36:19
  the mailers and the absentee ballot chasers and
• 36:22
  the guy that had been in the position I was running
• 36:23
  against had been there for 12 years. He was chairman
• 36:25
  of the board. He's one of the beautiful people
• 36:27
  in the city. Don't think he'd ever actually run
• 36:29
  a campaign. You know, most of those people just
• 36:31
  would get appointed. and then they'd be reelected
• 36:34
  unopposed. And so, you know, nobody ever, nobody
• 36:38
  ever rocked the apple cart down there. It was
• 36:42
  interesting. One of the other guys that ran beside
• 36:45
  me was Paul Matthews and he barely lost to Judy
• 36:48
  Meyer. But the only thing that saved her was
• 36:50
  they had so much money and resources that they
• 36:52
  were able to pivot and come at him so hard with
• 36:56
  the full brunt of all the things they could bring
• 36:57
  to bear. that she was able to just barely beat
• 37:00
  him. And she was just popular and just enough
• 37:02
  name recognition that she squeaked out a victory.
• 37:05
  But the guy I won, I think it was like about
• 37:07
  54 to 46, something like that. So I beat him
• 37:10
  with a solid majority, but I think he was shocked.
• 37:14
  In fact, it was rumored he might've left even
• 37:16
  town for a few days after that. He crawled inside
• 37:19
  a bottle in a motel somewhere? I don't know.
• 37:22
  Had to rethink all of his life decisions. I can't
• 37:25
  verify that independently, but that was the rumor
• 37:28
  that he was upset and surprised, but he was one
• 37:30
  of the paragons of the downtown association.
• 37:34
  Had one of the large brokerage firms and had
• 37:37
  a title and been an important person. Ironically,
• 37:40
  after he lost, it wasn't that much longer thereafter
• 37:42
  that the governor actually appointed him to the
• 37:45
  Dormitory Housing Authority. It was a group of
• 37:47
  beautiful people that got appointed there, which
• 37:50
  was something that they could do and the governor,
• 37:53
  but as trustees, we didn't have oversight over
• 37:55
  them. So it was this interesting thing to suddenly
• 37:57
  stick that same guy right there, kind of counter
• 37:59
  to me. Speaking of side notes, that kind of thing
• 38:01
  happens a lot in this area. In fact, most recently
• 38:04
  with the library network and the trustees there.
• 38:08
  So that's a topic for another time. The gal who
• 38:10
  lost and has been appointed recently as a district
• 38:13
  judge. That's a nice consolation prize. Isn't
• 38:16
  that a lifetime appointment too? The NIC judge,
• 38:19
  for one of our big things with the governors
• 38:21
  involved and everything, suddenly she was put
• 38:23
  on the Supreme Court at the state of Idaho. This
• 38:25
  happens all the time. The appearance of that
• 38:27
  is really interesting. I'm not accusing anybody
• 38:30
  of anything, but just the timing and the optics
• 38:32
  are just quite interesting. If you lean to the
• 38:34
  left and you're a part of the establishment around
• 38:36
  here, losing an election is almost the best thing
• 38:38
  that could happen to you because you're just
• 38:40
  going to get an appointment to something even
• 38:42
  better. Failing up. Failing up. Do what you're
• 38:45
  supposed to do, I guess. You can be rewarded,
• 38:48
  I guess, maybe. It's great to be connected. Boy,
• 38:50
  no kidding. How do I become one of these beautiful
• 38:52
  people? Build a time machine and go back to 1991
• 38:55
  and move to Coeur d 'Alene then. Hey, I'm from
• 38:56
  California. Oh man. And I've got money. Yeah.
• 39:01
  I was going to say, well, first off, you have
• 39:02
  to sell your soul or you have no soul. It's interesting.
• 39:05
  Anyway, it was, it was about NIC and kind of
• 39:09
  again there, the cronyism and corruption that
• 39:11
  expands downtown core lane into the NIC works.
• 39:15
  And, you know, something we talked about earlier,
• 39:17
  it's like, you know, who controls all the professional
• 39:19
  contracts that are let out of there, you know,
• 39:21
  who's doing the work for them for all the different
• 39:23
  things that they need. It's interesting to see
• 39:25
  some of the people that were yelling and shouting
• 39:27
  and involved with some of the stuff in the recent
• 39:29
  years and what their connections are to the college,
• 39:31
  if they have any connections business -wise.
• 39:35
  I think that was the whole thing is these guys
• 39:37
  saw that college and they thought that I could
• 39:40
  try to help be there for the students. That was
• 39:42
  a thing because I had no agenda. It was just
• 39:46
  go down there and try to write this ship as best
• 39:49
  you can for some of the things that we see that
• 39:51
  really aren't great. And then there was also
• 39:53
  some issue about some taxation and some of the
• 39:55
  foregone taxes and some of the things that happened
• 39:57
  that way that did not sit well with a lot of
• 39:59
  folks and the URDs and some of that. And so a
• 40:02
  lot of people don't know this, but NIC North
• 40:04
  Idaho College is a taxing entity in Kootenai
• 40:07
  County. It's part of your property taxes and
• 40:09
  they can take up to 3 % plus foregone taxes as
• 40:12
  well. So it is, you know, monetary and fiscal
• 40:14
  policy is involved here. Yeah, almost everybody
• 40:16
  in the county is going to be when you're talking,
• 40:18
  you know, It's one of your four things. It's
• 40:20
  one of your biggest line items on your property
• 40:22
  taxes. So anyway, that's what got me into it.
• 40:24
  These guys encouraged me, these older gentlemen.
• 40:26
  And I was working with some of the, what I'll
• 40:30
  call the Republican groups. You know, we had
• 40:32
  a couple of different pen handle, Pachyderms,
• 40:36
  North Idaho Pachyderms, the Reagan Republicans,
• 40:39
  those different groups are all very encouraging
• 40:41
  and supportive of me. And a couple of those guys
• 40:44
  were running a... a business called Strategery
• 40:46
  that had worked some campaigns. So those guys
• 40:48
  helped me out. That's kind of what helped me
• 40:50
  get going. And they had enough savvy and understanding
• 40:53
  to help put a campaign together. And I can say,
• 40:56
  I think we caught him a little bit flat -footed.
• 40:58
  And he did not have the ability to recover from
• 41:00
  that. And I kind of got out ahead of him. And
• 41:03
  I beat him in the votes in both the absentee
• 41:06
  and in the live balloting. So you win. And then
• 41:10
  what are your first four years look like? Because
• 41:12
  it's four year terms. It was interesting because
• 41:16
  Ron Nielsen got elected the same way I did. Unfortunately,
• 41:19
  Paul Matthews lost. It's five trustees on the
• 41:22
  board. So basically, there was Ron and I against
• 41:26
  what I'll call the three liberals. Some of them,
• 41:30
  it's funny, who claims to be an independent,
• 41:32
  who claims to be a Republican, who claims to
• 41:33
  be a Democrat, who's not. Well, technically,
• 41:35
  and I see positions are nonpartisan, but yeah,
• 41:39
  that's a term that gets used very loosely these
• 41:41
  days. These positions are filled by human beings,
• 41:43
  right? Yes. To be OK. Yeah. Right. Who's voting
• 41:46
  records and ideology and what they say and do
• 41:48
  and who they affiliate with? Generally will tell
• 41:50
  you kind of who they are just a little bit. I
• 41:52
  mean, some of them seem to be reptiles, but they
• 41:54
  they are wearing human suits. So, you know, of
• 41:56
  course, they're going to have a leaning. It's
• 41:59
  true. So. Basically, for my first four years,
• 42:05
  you know, they just want me to sit down and shut
• 42:06
  up. I was just bulldozed. And a lot of times,
• 42:11
  sometimes Ron would vote with me, sometimes not.
• 42:13
  So there were a lot of three, two votes, a lot
• 42:15
  of four, one votes. Can you give me an example
• 42:18
  of one, four, one vote? Oh, geez, off the top
• 42:21
  of my head, I'd have to think about that for
• 42:23
  a second. OK, whenever it comes to you. OK, it's
• 42:25
  been so long ago. Yeah, it's been I mean, we're
• 42:27
  talking over 10 years ago. You know, I can give
• 42:29
  you a like. One that was interesting is when
• 42:31
  we changed athletic leagues. Unfortunately, that
• 42:34
  ended up being a 3 -2. That was kind of an interesting
• 42:36
  one. But one of the big votes was to get the
• 42:41
  Parker Center built out there next to K -Tech,
• 42:43
  the program for the high schools. Now what is
• 42:45
  the Parker Center? Parker Center is our career
• 42:47
  and technical education facility that we built
• 42:50
  on Lancaster out there in Rathrum. And it's adjacent
• 42:53
  to the high school facility that is for the juniors
• 42:55
  and seniors from the local school districts.
• 42:58
  Coraline, Post Falls, and Lakeland do a co -op
• 43:00
  with that. And their juniors and seniors can
• 43:03
  do a half a day out there, either a morning or
• 43:06
  afternoon shift. And it's a bit of what I'll
• 43:09
  call an alternative for traditional versus traditional
• 43:13
  students. It's for those that are more inclined
• 43:15
  to want to go into trades, what we call blue
• 43:17
  collar, I guess. People that are better with
• 43:19
  their hands. If you want to be a diesel mechanic,
• 43:22
  work in HVAC. plumbing, construction, you get
• 43:27
  the idea, the different jobs. And that's for
• 43:29
  the high school level students to get them going
• 43:32
  there. It's very effective to help them to get
• 43:33
  out and get a job and a career if they want,
• 43:35
  or they can go on and further their education,
• 43:38
  get additional certifications and stuff through
• 43:40
  the program at the college. And so we built that
• 43:42
  literally just across the parking lot and we
• 43:44
  could co -op with them, collision repair. We
• 43:46
  shared an instructor. There's a lot of programs
• 43:49
  out there that we work together and the kids
• 43:52
  can. start out at K -Tech and advance to the,
• 43:55
  to the Parker center. That ended up being a three,
• 43:58
  two vote and boy, that was a, it was quite a
• 44:00
  fight. Ron and I supported that. Ron was, it
• 44:02
  was really Ron's, Ron's deal. And I was happy
• 44:05
  to support him kind of, you know, play wing man.
• 44:07
  And he ended up working really hard and, and
• 44:11
  was able to get, uh, actually, uh, Christie Wood
• 44:14
  to see the merit of the program, uh, where Ken
• 44:17
  Howard and Judy Meyer voted against it, which
• 44:20
  is ironic. The president was really not with
• 44:24
  us either. It's funny to watch those things when
• 44:26
  things come out and they work out good and the
• 44:28
  retrospect to how everybody claims it and they're
• 44:29
  all first guys in line for the picture and to
• 44:31
  cut the ribbon and claim it all and everybody's
• 44:34
  a hero and people were adamantly opposed and
• 44:36
  voted against and we were one vote away from
• 44:38
  it never happening. We spent over $20 million
• 44:41
  dollars out there on that facility and it's world
• 44:43
  class. We've become the example that everybody
• 44:46
  wants to see it and tour it. We self -funded
• 44:48
  that. That was both good and bad. Some people
• 44:51
  didn't like that we did that because, you know,
• 44:53
  that's not the story you want is that we got
• 44:55
  to have money. You know, we can't do anything
• 44:57
  until the state gives us more money or the feds
• 44:59
  give us more money. The fact that we took that
• 45:02
  out of our pocket, out of our hide, you know,
• 45:04
  we had a bunch of money and then the foundation
• 45:06
  raised money and we self -funded that. It is
• 45:09
  an interesting example of controlling the narrative
• 45:11
  because if you were to ask people now who was
• 45:15
  responsible for the Parker Center being in existence,
• 45:18
  uh... very unlikely will you hear taught and
• 45:21
  duty in the conversation instead you will here
• 45:24
  other names some of whom voted against it or
• 45:27
  were not in support of it uh... until years later
• 45:30
  they you know were in support of it popular narrative
• 45:35
  is not true just a very good example of how that
• 45:38
  works we're just gonna do a little quick prompt
• 45:40
  here to the internet who is responsible for the
• 45:42
  building of the parker center in north idaho
• 45:44
  uh... North Idaho College owns it. The school
• 45:47
  initiated the project, provided capital funds,
• 45:49
  managed fundraising. Major donor, the Parker
• 45:51
  family. Parker family auto group, Doug Parker,
• 45:54
  they donated a million dollars. North Idaho College
• 45:56
  ran a campaign called Building the Future to
• 45:58
  raise additional funds via donations. Architects,
• 46:01
  they talk about Architects West out of Coeur
• 46:03
  d 'Alene. The one person not responsible for
• 46:05
  it is Todd Bitt. No, it doesn't say that. I mean,
• 46:08
  it doesn't. I mean, so it doesn't. It says the
• 46:10
  school did it. But that's not really true because
• 46:13
  some of, quote, the school Was opposed to it
• 46:15
  is what you're telling me. That's correct. That
• 46:17
  was interesting. It was quite the arm wrestle
• 46:19
  to get there. Uh, like I say, and it was a three,
• 46:21
  two vote, you know, now you think everybody was
• 46:24
  singing kumbaya and it was this amazing thing
• 46:26
  and everybody was supporting it and you know,
• 46:29
  no brainer, but it was a breath away from not
• 46:32
  happening in the same vein. That's like, we changed
• 46:34
  the athletic conferences. I mean, I got to give
• 46:37
  Christie would, I don't often say very many positive
• 46:40
  things about her, but two votes early when I
• 46:42
  was on the board, she got it right. She voted
• 46:45
  for Parker Center. These may be her only two
• 46:48
  great votes. I don't know. And then she did vote
• 46:51
  with me. Research spent a lot of time. I mean,
• 46:53
  people would be surprised to know how closely
• 46:55
  we worked on the issue of the athletic conferences.
• 46:59
  And we were aligned and she was very passionate
• 47:02
  along with me and to not have us change athletic
• 47:07
  conferences and go from the national level to
• 47:09
  a regional conference, the NWAC, from the NJCAA.
• 47:13
  And we got out voted three to two. And that was
• 47:15
  really interesting because Ron voted to make
• 47:20
  the move as did Ken and Kristi and I voted, they
• 47:23
  voted to make the move, sorry, and Kristi and
• 47:25
  I to not make the move. And it happened to be
• 47:27
  Judy Meyer was in Boise and on the speakerphone,
• 47:31
  she had to make the tie breaking vote. And there's
• 47:33
  some interesting thing to hear her on that speakerphone.
• 47:36
  It sounded like her husband was there with her
• 47:37
  and maybe there was some discussions going on.
• 47:39
  And so I think that was a very calculated vote.
• 47:42
  And then she voted to make the change. And that
• 47:44
  was really interesting because Judy's one of
• 47:46
  those types of people. Judy and Steve always
• 47:47
  are a layer or two removed. You watch their influence
• 47:50
  and their money and who they control and the
• 47:52
  people. But she wasn't the one on the board that
• 47:54
  ever really stepped out and made the motions
• 47:57
  or made the controversy. She's usually behind
• 47:58
  somebody else. She usually like would let Christie
• 48:01
  take the lead and she was happy to fall in behind.
• 48:03
  It was interesting how they didn't want to do
• 48:05
  anything. Rarely would they want to actually
• 48:08
  be in the spotlight there where there was a hard
• 48:10
  decision to make or something. So, you know,
• 48:11
  she could almost never be blamed for anything.
• 48:13
  She was always kind of there and voting, but
• 48:15
  she wasn't the lead. You know, so that was really
• 48:18
  an interesting moment for her where her vote
• 48:20
  was the deciding vote and all eyes were upon
• 48:22
  her and had to make that vote. And so she was
• 48:25
  the deciding vote. So she kind of had to own
• 48:27
  that one. What's the few sentence biography of
• 48:30
  this lady? You said her name was Judy Meyer?
• 48:32
  Yeah. Her husband owned Parkwood. I was just
• 48:35
  going to say, yeah, they owned Parkwood. property
• 48:37
  management. They own a lot of stuff. That's a
• 48:39
  podcast unto itself, but they have tremendous
• 48:42
  influence. Intermax, people that work for them,
• 48:45
  family members. It's interesting to watch how
• 48:46
  some of these families are, I don't want to say
• 48:48
  inbred, that doesn't sound quite right, but have
• 48:50
  interbreeded and have married and some of the
• 48:53
  names, you've got to check who the maiden names
• 48:55
  were for some of the gals. Like we were saying
• 48:57
  at the top of the show, this is a microcosm of
• 48:59
  how it works. Would you look at their employee
• 49:01
  who was on the city council, who now is on this
• 49:03
  committee down at the state level. you know,
• 49:05
  or he's on the judicial council, you know, and,
• 49:07
  oh, they're the people that are making recommendations
• 49:09
  for who's going to be the judges. Yeah, their
• 49:10
  son -in -law's been appointed to this board.
• 49:13
  Gavin Newsom is Nancy Pelosi's nephew, but she's
• 49:16
  actually not Nancy Pelosi. She's Nancy D 'Alessandro,
• 49:18
  and D 'Alessandro was business partners with
• 49:20
  Newsom the third, you know, William Newsom the
• 49:22
  second. This is all just the same stuff. Yes,
• 49:24
  it is. It's identical. So I'm just busting in
• 49:30
  here in post quickly to play the clip that breaks
• 49:32
  down what I just said. Sort of inaccurately.
• 49:35
  Even if you have no interest in California whatsoever,
• 49:37
  it's still a really interesting breakdown. Pat
• 49:39
  Brown's father, Edmund Joseph Brown, was known
• 49:43
  for running scams and gambling operations in
• 49:47
  San Francisco. With the help of businessman William
• 49:51
  Newsom II, Pat Brown became governor of California
• 49:55
  for two terms. During his governorship, he awarded
• 49:59
  the Squaw Valley concession contract to William
• 50:02
  Newsom III and his partner, John Pelosi. The
• 50:07
  deal was criticized for the state of California
• 50:10
  paying for everything and getting nothing. William
• 50:15
  Newsom III grew up with the governor's son, Jerry,
• 50:18
  who was training to be a Jesuit priest. John
• 50:22
  Pelosi's son, Paul, married Nancy de Alessandro.
• 50:26
  Daughter of Thomas de Alessandro Jr., who was
• 50:30
  known for smuggling heroin into the U .S. with
• 50:33
  Lucky Luciano and the Baltimore Mafia. John Pelosi's
• 50:37
  son Ron married William Newsom's daughter, Barbara.
• 50:43
  Over ongoing disputes about the Squaw Valley
• 50:46
  concession. William Newsom Sr. threatened to
• 50:50
  hurt the governor politically, just as Governor
• 50:53
  Brown was running for a third term against Ronald
• 50:56
  Reagan. He lost. But eight years later, the former
• 51:02
  governor's Jesuit son Jerry reclaimed the governorship
• 51:06
  in 1974. He appointed William Newsom III to a
• 51:12
  Placer County judgeship in 1975. and three years
• 51:17
  later to the State Court of Appeal. William Newsom
• 51:21
  was an attorney for oil magnate J. Paul Getty,
• 51:25
  named in the 1966 Guinness Book of World Records
• 51:28
  as the world's richest private citizen. And while
• 51:32
  serving on the appellate bench in the 1980s,
• 51:36
  he helped Getty's son, Gordon, secure a change
• 51:39
  in state trust law that allowed him to claim
• 51:42
  his share of a multi -air trust. After Newsom
• 51:45
  retired from the bench, he became administrator
• 51:48
  of the Getty Trust and provided seed money for
• 51:52
  his son Gavin Newsom, Nancy Pelosi's nephew,
• 51:56
  to start the Plunk Jack business that led to
• 51:58
  a career in San Francisco politics as mayor of
• 52:02
  San Francisco and lieutenant governor of the
• 52:06
  state of California. Gavin Newsom was informally
• 52:10
  adopted by the Getty's after his parents divorced.
• 52:14
  and recently succeeded family friend Jerry Brown
• 52:18
  to be the current governor of California. For
• 52:22
  80 years, these four families have ruled over
• 52:25
  the state of California politically. It's a big
• 52:44
  club, but you're not in it. They fiercely protect
• 52:48
  their position. That's why NIC was such a fight.
• 52:54
  For years and years and years, NIC, just like
• 52:56
  a number of these other institutions locally,
• 52:58
  was kind of their plaything. They could use it
• 53:00
  how they saw fit, with whom they saw fit. It
• 53:03
  was a piggy bank. How many people have come out
• 53:05
  of NIC or worked for NIC? Look at the Democrats,
• 53:08
  liberals, the people running for office, the
• 53:10
  activists. current and former employees have
• 53:14
  been grown out of there and supported. That's
• 53:16
  their job. So they make their living while spewing
• 53:19
  crap in the classroom and in the community. And
• 53:21
  then they don't leave. It's interesting to see
• 53:22
  who's where in the system working for government
• 53:25
  in some capacity. They are incubated there and
• 53:27
  then they never leave. Yeah. It's interesting.
• 53:29
  We're all out in the private industry and the
• 53:31
  private sector. It's great scratching along,
• 53:33
  making livings. And most of these people are
• 53:35
  in part of the system. Yeah. man it's interesting
• 53:37
  you know instead of deconstructing the system
• 53:39
  how do we form our own cabal oh dude i've talked
• 53:41
  about this all the time it's the best the cartel
• 53:43
  ever is we form the club and then we disband
• 53:46
  it and we all do our own thing i want to take
• 53:49
  over the world and leave it the hell alone exactly
• 53:51
  well that's the thing that's the disadvantage
• 53:52
  though is we're working against a group that
• 53:54
  are they work in lockstep collectivists tend
• 53:57
  to operate that way of course by their very nature
• 53:59
  whereas you said it right people who are less
• 54:00
  collectivist that's that's the inherent, it's
• 54:03
  not a bug, it's a feature of working with people
• 54:05
  who are not collectivists, is we don't mobilize.
• 54:09
  No, we're not activists. No, but they're a trench
• 54:10
  and they coalesce. Yeah, on top of that. And
• 54:12
  they're good. And they are a trench. And they
• 54:13
  are good. They're very savvy with social media
• 54:16
  and the narrative. And of course, with the Corleone
• 54:18
  Press providing cover, Corleone Press is as corrupt
• 54:21
  as it comes. And I think we've reached a point,
• 54:23
  though, as far as the press goes, those, it's
• 54:25
  kind of like everybody knows, you either, if
• 54:28
  you read the press or you subscribe to the press,
• 54:30
  with a few exceptions, you agree with the press.
• 54:33
  And then there's everybody else, who either doesn't
• 54:35
  care or understands the press as a very good
• 54:37
  example of local yellow journalism. Well, the
• 54:40
  young gal that covered the college, she's just
• 54:42
  beyond words. And she queried me towards the
• 54:46
  end of my final, end of my third tour there in
• 54:49
  my last four years. She said, when are you going
• 54:51
  to talk to me? And I said, well, as soon as you
• 54:53
  stop lying. When you stop lying, I'll talk to
• 54:56
  you. Well, I don't lie. Well, actually. I'll
• 54:59
  give you a couple examples here, but hey, believe
• 55:02
  what you want if you're that self -deluded, but
• 55:03
  no, I won't talk to you. I probably will never
• 55:06
  talk to you, because I don't think you can stop
• 55:08
  how you do this. Well, there are many forms of
• 55:10
  lies, too. There's lies of omission, there's
• 55:12
  lies of commission, there's, you know, there's...
• 55:15
  Oh, twist of words. Oh, my gosh. Right, yeah,
• 55:18
  like the way you frame something. Oh, bury the
• 55:21
  lead, yeah. Here's the nice headline, when that's
• 55:24
  not even... You're right, there's a lot of techniques
• 55:26
  in journalism and... Some of these people have
• 55:28
  learned them well, and they exploit them well.
• 55:31
  Well, and there's both. There's the ones that
• 55:34
  have the true reptiles. And then I'll even give
• 55:37
  this girl the benefit of the doubt and say she's
• 55:39
  stupid or liar. Maybe she's just stupid. No,
• 55:41
  she's complicit. Oh, OK. I don't know this lady.
• 55:44
  You do. I do. No, it's intentional. But it's
• 55:48
  interesting to watch who's together. So what
• 55:53
  was interesting to watch, from my perspective,
• 55:55
  as Todd's son, is each term got a little more,
• 56:01
  to use the phrase the kids like to use these
• 56:03
  days, a little more spicy. So his first four
• 56:05
  year term was the least spicy because he was
• 56:08
  always in the minority. And in fact, I believe
• 56:12
  you got the endorsement from the press the first
• 56:14
  go around for your reelection because you weren't
• 56:17
  viewed as a threat because they had the majority
• 56:20
  still. So you were the plucky dissenter. And
• 56:24
  from the press, the press's editorial, to look
• 56:27
  a little more balanced. Like they didn't have
• 56:29
  the bias. We're like, and so we support this
• 56:31
  because we endorse you. You're a plucky upstart.
• 56:33
  Christine, Ken, don't let you put anything on
• 56:34
  the agenda. They suppress you. You really don't
• 56:37
  get to talk. They use their rules that aren't
• 56:38
  even the rules, but they tell you they're the
• 56:40
  rules. I made a mistake. I should have gone through
• 56:42
  every single everything to see what my actual
• 56:44
  rights were as a trustee. They made stuff up
• 56:47
  like, well, if at least two people or three people
• 56:48
  don't agree, we won't put it on the agenda. I
• 56:51
  mean, they created these arbitrary things to
• 56:53
  just shut me out and shut me down. They are very
• 56:55
  good at lawfare, and they're very good at using
• 56:57
  the language and the code against you and for
• 57:00
  them. Yeah, they don't like the rules unless
• 57:01
  they're enforcing them. Unless they're enforcing
• 57:03
  them. So the first term kind of went, as you
• 57:06
  described, then you had the two landmark things,
• 57:08
  which was the Parker Center. and the conference
• 57:11
  change which you lost the conference change vote
• 57:14
  which those are kind of the two big movers movers
• 57:17
  of that term so then uh move us into the second
• 57:20
  term that got a little spicier a little bit but
• 57:24
  i was still outnumbered i really was um i just
• 57:27
  became a little more active took a little more
• 57:29
  of a proactive role. Found your stride. Found
• 57:32
  my stride, fought back a little more. And this
• 57:34
  is 2016 to 2020. Correct. Which is also, that's
• 57:36
  the first Trump term. So, was it fair to say
• 57:39
  that, like, had vibes changed as a result of
• 57:42
  the national vibe? Very little. Very little.
• 57:45
  There was the whole resistance thing going on,
• 57:47
  just like they tried to do again. Oh yeah, oh
• 57:47
  yeah. Le resistance, yeah. To the Nazis, got
• 57:50
  it. This was this battle, then we started to
• 57:52
  get into... So, didn't make a lot of strides,
• 57:56
  and quite frankly, again, not many people are
• 57:58
  challenging people for seats. You know, I'm still
• 58:01
  on there with Christy Wood. I'm still on there
• 58:02
  with Ken Howard. Ron had resigned before even
• 58:06
  finishing the first term. And then we had a guy
• 58:08
  that was put in his place, former superintendent
• 58:10
  from Lakeland. And that was a disappointment
• 58:13
  because about every time I thought he was going
• 58:14
  to do or say something good, all of a sudden
• 58:16
  that superintendent hat came back on. And it
• 58:18
  was, it was definitely a disappointment because
• 58:20
  there's times I thought I was making headway
• 58:23
  and sense with him with some logic and stuff.
• 58:25
  But I think he was too busy wanting to play golf
• 58:26
  and enjoy retirement. So he finished out the
• 58:29
  term and And then we had to get the new people
• 58:32
  running in 2016. And the way it staggered is
• 58:35
  you have three trustees, say in 20, and then
• 58:39
  you get two in 22, and then three in 24, and
• 58:42
  then two in 26. So they stagger them that way,
• 58:45
  how they do the elections. So my cycle was on
• 58:47
  the presidential cycle, 12, 16, 20, 24. So there's
• 58:50
  three of us up on that time. In the off time,
• 58:54
  there'd be two people. So 14. 1822 that type
• 59:00
  of thing unless there was somebody appointed
• 59:02
  and depending on what they were appointed to
• 59:04
  then they had to still face election at the next
• 59:06
  term so But it was interesting to watch who was
• 59:10
  Appointed who wasn't who wanted to run they were
• 59:12
  controlling that pretty hard You know for example
• 59:15
  when when Judy Meyer decided to step down They
• 59:18
  picked up the former president of the college
• 59:21
  and put him in her spot They thought that was
• 59:23
  a pretty good deal, and then he had to run and
• 59:26
  then he lost which, Greg McKenzie beat him in,
• 59:29
  in, in 20. So that was, that was great. In fact
• 59:32
  - Did he also disappear for a few days? Why,
• 59:35
  why, why, why? When, when Greg McKenzie beat
• 59:37
  Joe Dunlap, that was a, that was a beautiful
• 59:39
  thing. And in fact, he and his wife now since
• 59:42
  moved out of here and they've blamed us for that
• 59:43
  too, because they lost, they've left the area
• 59:45
  eventually took a while, but you know, and they
• 59:47
  lamented their departure and how they lost these
• 59:49
  great people, the press did. They're living in
• 59:51
  exile. Blaming us because he lost the election,
• 59:54
  you know, and then eventually they left the community.
• 59:56
  Tremendous loss. But Greg beat him, and the numbers
• 1:00:00
  for percentages were almost identical to when
• 1:00:05
  I beat Mick in 2012. The absolute numbers were
• 1:00:10
  higher because more registered voters and more
• 1:00:11
  people, but if you look at the actual percentages,
• 1:00:15
  it was 54 -ish to 46 -ish, and really close.
• 1:00:21
  So that was kind of interesting. And this was
• 1:00:23
  the 2020. This was the 2020 when Greg McKenzie,
• 1:00:27
  Michael Barnes and I were elected. And for the
• 1:00:29
  first time in a long time, we had a supposed
• 1:00:32
  conservative majority on the board. Okay, so
• 1:00:35
  we're jumping into the third term. We'll skip
• 1:00:37
  over the second. Yeah, the second term was kind
• 1:00:38
  of a goofy deal. It just was a placeholder for
• 1:00:41
  four more years. We were coming into COVID at
• 1:00:43
  that point. And just to give context, the total
• 1:00:45
  amount of votes in 2012 -16, as compared to 2020,
• 1:00:49
  did the voter pool Did it go from like, you know,
• 1:00:52
  10 ,000 votes to 20 or I go, what were the numbers?
• 1:00:55
  You were, you were probably in the, I'm ballparking
• 1:00:58
  here, you know, 60, 70 plus thousand moving up
• 1:01:02
  that to now we're over a hundred thousand, I
• 1:01:04
  think in the registered voters. Okay. So yeah.
• 1:01:06
  Like, so not, not a smallest. So 54, 46, that's
• 1:01:08
  like a pretty, you mentioned earlier, that's
• 1:01:09
  a pretty, that's a dropping. No, there was enough
• 1:01:11
  votes. Yeah. It wasn't like three households
• 1:01:13
  made the difference. I mean, you actually won.
• 1:01:15
  There was enough absolute votes. Sometimes about
• 1:01:17
  that context, you know, with the small town it's,
• 1:01:19
  you don't really know. no no there was enough
• 1:01:20
  because remember here's the other unusual thing
• 1:01:22
  when you run for trustee at the college it's
• 1:01:25
  one of the most expensive and expansive campaigns
• 1:01:27
  there is because it's countywide it's the entire
• 1:01:30
  county when you run for say legislation legislature
• 1:01:33
  or you're an ld2 legislative district two legislative
• 1:01:37
  district three legislative district four legislative
• 1:01:40
  district five like legislative district four
• 1:01:42
  is really court lane so if you're running for
• 1:01:44
  ld4 you're really only campaigning in court lane
• 1:01:46
  now If you're an LD5, you get a little bit of
• 1:01:49
  Coeur d 'Alene, Post Falls, a little bit south,
• 1:01:51
  a little bit north. If you're two, you're up
• 1:01:54
  higher. If you're three, you're kind of Hayden
• 1:01:56
  and up in there. So the legislators, they're
• 1:01:59
  campaigning in a fraction of the space that a
• 1:02:01
  trustee for the college is. We have to be from
• 1:02:04
  our zone to run, but everybody in the county
• 1:02:07
  can vote on us. So we're like a county -wide
• 1:02:09
  officer having to run county -wide for a campaign.
• 1:02:13
  It's a big deal, so there's a lot more votes.
• 1:02:15
  Yeah, a lot smaller if you're in a city election
• 1:02:18
  or a district election, highway district, water
• 1:02:20
  district, or even again, for the legislature,
• 1:02:23
  in the legislative district, there's a lot less
• 1:02:24
  votes. But yeah, by comparison, we're as big
• 1:02:29
  as it gets for voting here for the number of
• 1:02:32
  people that are eligible. Okay, so now we're
• 1:02:34
  in November, for the November 2020, the third
• 1:02:38
  term election. This March 2020 was when the totalitarianism
• 1:02:43
  hit the fan. You know, I had already moved here
• 1:02:45
  by then, you know, I've literally from March
• 1:02:47
  to I was here by August, like, no, thanks, California,
• 1:02:50
  I'm going to St. Ville that I was here in August
• 1:02:54
  and that election is in November. So this is
• 1:02:55
  all a pretty short period of time. Chaos has
• 1:02:58
  ensued. This might be St. Ville, but like we
• 1:03:01
  were talking about at the top of the show, like
• 1:03:02
  chaos ensued everywhere because there's people
• 1:03:05
  bought into it to varying degrees, depending
• 1:03:07
  on the region you were in. And just because More
• 1:03:09
  people were saying here than in other regions
• 1:03:11
  doesn't doesn't mean plenty of people didn't
• 1:03:13
  buy it. So when I'm looking at some of these,
• 1:03:15
  you know, board meetings and, you know, looking
• 1:03:18
  at huge crowds for meetings that you were probably
• 1:03:20
  used to having next to nobody at and now I'm
• 1:03:22
  looking at, you know, 100 people in this room
• 1:03:24
  and half of them are got their faces covered.
• 1:03:26
  And I mean, you really get taken back to just
• 1:03:29
  how weird and dystopian and chaotic it was. And
• 1:03:33
  I can't even imagine being in the room. It was
• 1:03:37
  interesting because you're right. NIC was kind
• 1:03:40
  of ignored to a large degree from the public.
• 1:03:43
  You know, nothing to see here. It was very opaque.
• 1:03:46
  So most people had no idea what was going on.
• 1:03:48
  And everybody was just, you know, the platitudes.
• 1:03:50
  Oh, NIC is doing great. NIC is doing great. The
• 1:03:52
  paper would say, NIC is doing great. Everybody
• 1:03:54
  loves NIC. NIC is great. Donate your money. Donate
• 1:03:56
  your money. We have the big house raffle every
• 1:03:58
  year. You know, just go along. Nothing to see
• 1:04:01
  here. We got it covered. And they had that control.
• 1:04:04
  And when we got to conservative majority in 2020,
• 1:04:07
  that sent a lot of people into what I would call
• 1:04:12
  a tizzy. Let me see if I can sum this up quickly
• 1:04:15
  in dumb ass layman's terms. In November 2020
• 1:04:18
  election, a bunch of people who weren't supposed
• 1:04:20
  to win won. And so all of a sudden you had some
• 1:04:23
  allies. Is that a fair summary? And some enemies.
• 1:04:25
  Oh, it is. And here's the funny part of that
• 1:04:27
  is I had the two, you know, hangers on from the,
• 1:04:30
  you know, they had been on the board for a while.
• 1:04:33
  Greg won by an upset. And then Greg McKenzie
• 1:04:36
  and then Michael Barnes won in an upset. And
• 1:04:39
  it was just so funny. They were so confident.
• 1:04:42
  I don't think they thought they could beat me
• 1:04:43
  at that point. I still had a pretty strong coalition
• 1:04:45
  of support. I ran unopposed. So they didn't even
• 1:04:48
  oppose me in 2020. So I think they figured to
• 1:04:50
  go win one or both the others. Todd will still
• 1:04:52
  be a minority and we'll press on and continue
• 1:04:55
  to muzzle him. And surprise, surprise. They swept.
• 1:04:59
  We swept and their heads exploded. Now my understanding
• 1:05:04
  of why that happened, and maybe it's just what
• 1:05:06
  I wish is the reason, but is that the public
• 1:05:10
  here was witnessing the freaking dystopia that
• 1:05:13
  was going on on a day -to -day basis in this
• 1:05:15
  country and went no like we want we need some
• 1:05:19
  uh non -establishment people because we really
• 1:05:22
  don't like what we're seeing as far as how the
• 1:05:24
  public is behaving i mean they were running the
• 1:05:26
  the pandemic propaganda hard i think it was a
• 1:05:29
  combination of of many factors and again i'll
• 1:05:32
  even say this what i would call the conservative
• 1:05:36
  Consortium, if you will, a conservative caucus,
• 1:05:38
  conservative, you know, group was a little bit
• 1:05:41
  better coalesced. We've seen some of that peel
• 1:05:44
  off. We've had a few that have decided to be
• 1:05:47
  more rhino and it's interesting how they've aligned
• 1:05:48
  more with the establishment than what I'll call
• 1:05:50
  the beautiful people again. It's been interesting
• 1:05:52
  to watch the machinations of some of the folks
• 1:05:55
  and the priorities and how they've, I think they've
• 1:05:58
  sold themselves out personally. I don't see an
• 1:06:01
  honor and integrity in how some of them are acting,
• 1:06:03
  but they sure sound self -righteous and boy,
• 1:06:05
  they sure scream loud at their idealistic and
• 1:06:09
  pure and they're doing this all for the greater
• 1:06:10
  good. So it's been interesting to watch some
• 1:06:13
  of the folks that have been peeled off what was
• 1:06:15
  part of the coalition that I had, people that
• 1:06:17
  contributed money to me, supported me, supported
• 1:06:19
  my son, his business, and suddenly became our
• 1:06:23
  enemies and attacked us and tried to boycott
• 1:06:25
  our businesses. Say false things against us make
• 1:06:29
  false accusations against us and and all sorts
• 1:06:32
  of things what's so interesting is it didn't
• 1:06:33
  become about ideas or topics or even agendas
• 1:06:39
  or programs it became very personal they tried
• 1:06:42
  to To kill my name, you know It's amazing what
• 1:06:45
  a difference four or five years can make when
• 1:06:47
  it comes to relationships or you know political
• 1:06:49
  wins and political allies and political enemies
• 1:06:51
  Amazing how quickly things can change Now that
• 1:06:54
  you weren't just the plucky upstart and that
• 1:06:56
  you were actually the majority, now they revert
• 1:06:59
  to their tactics that they always use. And I
• 1:07:02
  don't know, the they, the reptiles, whatever
• 1:07:03
  you want to call them, like personal attacks,
• 1:07:06
  that's how you regain control. Well, you hit
• 1:07:08
  the nail on the head, Scott. It's the moment
• 1:07:11
  that the conservative side was actually a threat
• 1:07:15
  to the system, was actually a threat to make
• 1:07:17
  some changes. And dad used to say this all the
• 1:07:20
  time, because you know you're over the target
• 1:07:21
  when you're taking the heaviest flak. So for
• 1:07:24
  the first time, the board has a conservative
• 1:07:26
  majority, and the flak came in very aggressively.
• 1:07:30
  And a lot of people who were allies saw the political
• 1:07:32
  winds shift, saw the pressure being applied,
• 1:07:35
  and shifted for one reason or another. And it
• 1:07:37
  turns out there were a lot of people who claimed
• 1:07:38
  to be conservatives or claimed to follow the
• 1:07:41
  Republican Party platform, but don't actually
• 1:07:43
  believe those things. he dad use the term rhino
• 1:07:47
  earlier as republican in name only so there's
• 1:07:49
  a lot of that in this in this area well some
• 1:07:52
  people were just very self -serving too many
• 1:07:55
  quid pro quos if you will you know it's like
• 1:07:57
  what would you get out of this was the benefit
• 1:07:59
  was the cost what's when you sacrificing and
• 1:08:02
  people don't like to sacrifice and they don't
• 1:08:04
  want them don't want to be hard Sometimes being
• 1:08:08
  unpopular for some of these folks, it's just
• 1:08:10
  unbearable. It's just too hard for them, you
• 1:08:12
  know, for whatever reason, because of their business
• 1:08:14
  or because of just their personal, you know,
• 1:08:17
  comfort or because they like to be liked and
• 1:08:20
  they want to be invited. And, you know, so it's
• 1:08:22
  real interesting how people will just fall into
• 1:08:25
  that again, the kind of the go along to get along
• 1:08:27
  and I want to be liked and, and this is popular.
• 1:08:30
  And again, they, they demonized me and others
• 1:08:33
  so hard that some people it scared people off.
• 1:08:37
  People didn't want to be associated or affiliated
• 1:08:39
  with that. I think one of the things they did
• 1:08:42
  intentionally. They did try to make it toxic
• 1:08:44
  to be associated with certain individuals. They
• 1:08:47
  tried to make it so that no one would ever want
• 1:08:49
  to run that wasn't from their camp, because we're
• 1:08:51
  going to ruin your life. We're going to hurt
• 1:08:53
  your family. We're going to hurt your business.
• 1:08:55
  We're going to hurt your associates, your friends.
• 1:08:57
  Anybody that gets near you, we're going to taint.
• 1:09:00
  We're going to get out in these narratives. You
• 1:09:02
  had these people quarterback in this effort,
• 1:09:04
  and it was brutal. Death threats, attacks. I
• 1:09:07
  mean, there's different things that went on.
• 1:09:08
  But we're speaking in generalizations right now,
• 1:09:10
  and we're kind of jumping ahead in terms of where
• 1:09:12
  it went. So at the beginning of the third sweep,
• 1:09:16
  so now the, quote unquote, conservatives have
• 1:09:18
  a majority on the board. And things look kind
• 1:09:22
  of exciting to make some what we would consider
• 1:09:23
  positive changes, right? Yeah, it must have initially
• 1:09:25
  been thrilling news. It was almost euphoric,
• 1:09:27
  I think, in some camps. Of course, they're fighting
• 1:09:31
  against the system that is well entrenched and
• 1:09:33
  designed to not change and they ran up against
• 1:09:35
  that immediately. However, you guys did make
• 1:09:37
  pretty big headlines right off the bat by opposing
• 1:09:40
  the college president's policy for the mask mandate.
• 1:09:45
  So that was a fight that came up early and made
• 1:09:49
  it was a big deal. And what's so funny is people
• 1:09:51
  accused us of firing him over that. Had nothing
• 1:09:53
  to do with it. And we were also authorized by
• 1:09:56
  the legislature. That was in our purview. to
• 1:09:58
  make that decision on the mass mandate. As per
• 1:10:00
  the format that I promised that will be the structure
• 1:10:04
  of the show, I want to deconstruct how the mainstream
• 1:10:06
  covers it. So let's take a listen to this. Thanks
• 1:10:08
  for staying up with Nightside. I'm Aaron Luna.
• 1:10:11
  Former president Rick McLennan was fired last
• 1:10:13
  month in a three to two vote by the board. Since
• 1:10:16
  then, the college has been without a president.
• 1:10:18
  Caitlin Knapp has what's next for North Idaho
• 1:10:20
  College. Finding a temporary president took about
• 1:10:23
  a month. Leading up to this point was pretty
• 1:10:25
  rocky. On August 23rd, the former president,
• 1:10:28
  Rick McClennon, issued a mask mandate. Four days
• 1:10:31
  later, the board rescinded it and fired McClennon
• 1:10:34
  a month later. Graduate Sean Keenan and other
• 1:10:37
  people protested before the meeting tonight.
• 1:10:39
  saying the termination was a political move.
• 1:10:42
  I think what we're seeing here, this is just
• 1:10:43
  some random student as far as I can tell. Do
• 1:10:46
  you know who that is? I think that I think the
• 1:10:47
  local news thing here just interviewed a random
• 1:10:49
  student. The student probably knows what he's
• 1:10:51
  talking about. Oh, I'm sure he does. It's a political
• 1:10:53
  move. I think what we're seeing here at the college
• 1:10:55
  is the continuation and the spiral into chaos.
• 1:11:01
  Reporting in Coeur d 'Alene, Caitlin Knapp, 4
• 1:11:02
  News Nightside. Chaos. Let me just make sure
• 1:11:05
  I have this timeline correctly. You're telling
• 1:11:06
  me, Rick, issued a mass mandate in August of
• 1:11:11
  2021. So that's a year and a half after two weeks
• 1:11:15
  to slow the spread. Is that, do I have that right?
• 1:11:18
  You know, I don't remember those dates off top
• 1:11:20
  of my head, but - That's when this is from. So
• 1:11:22
  I would, it sounds right. It wasn't in the beginning.
• 1:11:26
  It wasn't August 20th. No, no, no. No, no, no.
• 1:11:30
  No, remember the election wasn't actually until
• 1:11:32
  November of 20th. Right. So that's what I'm saying.
• 1:11:34
  So we're in the next year. Yeah. This is almost
• 1:11:36
  a year later. Okay, so this is okay, and then
• 1:11:39
  I especially that's why I kind of love that They
• 1:11:42
  they found like the the one student who was gonna
• 1:11:44
  just this her birds chaos, whatever the hell
• 1:11:47
  So in other words you establishment make some
• 1:11:51
  dystopian Proclamation that everyone must cover
• 1:11:54
  their face Which is just about as chaotic and
• 1:11:57
  weird as I can possibly imagine anybody decreeing
• 1:11:59
  anything and then when your decree is struck
• 1:12:03
  down That's chaos Well, it's worse than that.
• 1:12:06
  We even had to have one of our meetings in the
• 1:12:08
  auditorium in Shuler Hall. They distanced us.
• 1:12:10
  We had the plastic shields up, but then we weren't
• 1:12:13
  properly doing the accommodations. I'm getting
• 1:12:15
  parents to call me. We're not giving accommodations
• 1:12:16
  to students. The whole thing was a joke. They
• 1:12:20
  were not handling this well, but of course, they
• 1:12:21
  were drinking the Kool -Aid. It's so funny how
• 1:12:26
  all we did was try to apply some common sense,
• 1:12:28
  but the same vein that something that Paul said
• 1:12:31
  earlier, It's like if you get a new mayor or
• 1:12:33
  a new president, and Trump suffered through this
• 1:12:35
  his first term, if the people underneath you
• 1:12:37
  are undermining you the whole time, now looking
• 1:12:40
  back on it, I should have fired the attorney,
• 1:12:42
  Mark Lyons. I should have tried to get him fired
• 1:12:43
  immediately and get a new attorney, because I
• 1:12:45
  think he worked against me the whole time in
• 1:12:47
  some ways while I was the board chair. You're
• 1:12:50
  telling me an attorney was acting duplicitous?
• 1:12:52
  I know. Shocking. It just appears that way looking
• 1:12:55
  back on it now in hindsight and some of the things
• 1:12:57
  that occurred and his future involvement with
• 1:12:59
  the college and everything. But you don't know
• 1:13:02
  all that. You don't know what are the weeds and
• 1:13:04
  you don't know where to pull them out by the
• 1:13:05
  roots and get the people that are supporting
• 1:13:07
  you. Trump 2 .0 figured that out and they came
• 1:13:09
  in and bam bam did it. We didn't know that in
• 1:13:13
  20, like they didn't know that in 16 at the presidential
• 1:13:15
  level. And so I was being undercut, we were being
• 1:13:17
  undercut, undermined by the staff and faculty,
• 1:13:21
  the senior leadership, very badly, and by Rick.
• 1:13:25
  And the leader sets the tone and everybody plays
• 1:13:28
  off that tone whether you can be... Nice or be
• 1:13:31
  a jerk. Rick being President McLennan. Yeah,
• 1:13:34
  McLennan. So if you got the guy up top and you
• 1:13:36
  got the bureaucrats down below working against
• 1:13:39
  you and you're stuck in the middle with a slim
• 1:13:41
  majority trying to make stuff happen, that's
• 1:13:43
  a tough scenario. It is. And we finally got tired
• 1:13:45
  of that scenario. Yeah, no kidding. And some
• 1:13:47
  things that were done were just, we'll just say
• 1:13:49
  not appropriate. And so we felt that at that
• 1:13:52
  time that was the best thing for the college.
• 1:13:55
  Again, here's the deal too. It's supposed to
• 1:13:58
  be about the kids and about the college. It's
• 1:14:01
  not about the people that are running it or the
• 1:14:05
  people in the town or people who's got these
• 1:14:08
  vested interests. You know, there's all these
• 1:14:10
  different people that have an agenda here or
• 1:14:13
  these different groups or factions or whatever.
• 1:14:15
  And, you know, the teachers, yeah, the professors
• 1:14:17
  are important, the teachers, instructors, whatever,
• 1:14:20
  but they're not their focus. It's the students.
• 1:14:23
  And that gets lost. It's supposed to be. It's
• 1:14:26
  supposed to be. But you could sure tell when
• 1:14:27
  the establishment folks and all the people with
• 1:14:30
  these other vested interests, the minute they
• 1:14:32
  started out, it's all about the students you
• 1:14:33
  knew it absolutely wasn't. How much interaction
• 1:14:36
  do most of those, like let's say the board, how
• 1:14:39
  much interaction with students do they have?
• 1:14:41
  Well, I think a lot of them had not very much.
• 1:14:44
  In fact, there was a real stink on that. And
• 1:14:46
  a couple of the presidents, even this last one,
• 1:14:48
  Nick, basically put a moratorium on contact with
• 1:14:51
  the board. you know, he didn't want anybody to
• 1:14:53
  talk to us. And I think that was kind of the
• 1:14:55
  same with Joe Dunlap. It was going to leave these
• 1:14:57
  plastic shields up actually just forever, but
• 1:14:59
  they didn't like the fact that people could talk
• 1:15:01
  to us and Nick's the current president. Now he's,
• 1:15:05
  he's an interesting cat. I don't think too highly
• 1:15:07
  have to be honest, but they don't want the trustees
• 1:15:10
  to interact with faculty staff and with the students.
• 1:15:14
  And we have to keep reminding them or I kept
• 1:15:15
  reminding them, well, they're, they're my constituents,
• 1:15:18
  they're voters, they're taxpayers. They're the
• 1:15:20
  people that represent the college. I want to
• 1:15:22
  hear from the students. I'd like to hear from
• 1:15:24
  the faculty. Maybe something positive once in
• 1:15:26
  a while would be helpful. And there were some.
• 1:15:28
  And from the staff. But those people had to be
• 1:15:31
  so very careful because it's like whack -a -mole.
• 1:15:33
  If they stuck their head up and they were against
• 1:15:35
  the orthodoxy, they got crushed. There's a real
• 1:15:38
  culture of suppression. at NIC. It still exists.
• 1:15:41
  Retribution. And it was harsh and swift. And
• 1:15:43
  that's, again, not a bug. It's a feature of academia.
• 1:15:45
  You tow the line or you pay the price. But there's
• 1:15:48
  more support for the conservative board than
• 1:15:50
  you would think. There was a lot. And even from
• 1:15:53
  inside the campus. But it was all a layer deep
• 1:15:56
  and anonymous, or at least off, you know, like
• 1:16:00
  I had a guy even at my church and a teacher.
• 1:16:03
  And he was careful. He didn't want to be seen
• 1:16:05
  in public with me. But he supported me like crazy.
• 1:16:08
  You know, this is such a clash all the time too.
• 1:16:11
  Behind closed doors, they're all support, but
• 1:16:13
  then they won't, they don't do it in public because
• 1:16:14
  they fear for their own, you know, But you have
• 1:16:17
  to, for your job, for your career, for everything.
• 1:16:19
  Cause these people, it's amazing to see who comes
• 1:16:22
  and goes. There was a senior officer that was
• 1:16:24
  running the Italian program. That's just called
• 1:16:27
  the mafia. You can just say it. Well, he's Italian.
• 1:16:29
  He's a good friend. I have high respect for him.
• 1:16:32
  And he actually, sense of communication to the
• 1:16:36
  current president, who's a retired army officer,
• 1:16:38
  lieutenant colonel, basically expressing some
• 1:16:42
  disappointment in him and some of what he'd done
• 1:16:44
  and calling him out. And the irony of it is,
• 1:16:47
  is how quickly that Italian program just disappeared.
• 1:16:51
  He put on some cement shoes. Yeah. See you later.
• 1:16:54
  That's a nice program you've got there. Professor,
• 1:16:56
  it'd be a shame if something were to happen to
• 1:16:58
  you. And that's an impressive man who's since
• 1:17:00
  become a trustee on another board for a bit.
• 1:17:03
  Guy of higher reputation respect in my opinion,
• 1:17:06
  you know senior officer served his country Well,
• 1:17:08
  but he was so bold to call out a fellow senior
• 1:17:12
  officer as I had done That's how that works,
• 1:17:16
  too You know, I do go back and look at Nick's
• 1:17:18
  history back when he was on the school board
• 1:17:20
  back in Virginia And I mean, he's a politician
• 1:17:22
  He's way more politician than I ever was as a
• 1:17:24
  trustee and look at what he was I guess you'd
• 1:17:26
  have to call him a Democrat probably, you know,
• 1:17:28
  but hey But again, we hide it in the nonpartisan
• 1:17:31
  theoretically. Well, it's evidenced by the way
• 1:17:33
  that current and former presidents have just
• 1:17:36
  the way they carry themselves, the way they behave.
• 1:17:38
  The position is very well paid, by the way. It's
• 1:17:40
  way overpaid. Well, hundreds of thousands of
• 1:17:42
  dollars. There are a ridiculous amount of perks
• 1:17:44
  and things. And you would think that the guy
• 1:17:45
  was damn near king, but really he's just the
• 1:17:48
  president of a small community college. Yes,
• 1:17:50
  it's just a small community college. Specifically
• 1:17:51
  to the McLennan thing. One of the issues behind
• 1:17:56
  how that all went down is McGlennan would operate
• 1:17:59
  outside of his purview. So the board of trustees
• 1:18:02
  is actually a more powerful, up to be a trustee
• 1:18:05
  is a more powerful position than most people
• 1:18:07
  think. You have power of the purse, but you also
• 1:18:08
  have power over policy. And you vote on all that
• 1:18:11
  stuff. And a guy like McGlennan would go around,
• 1:18:15
  he would unilaterally, he would act unilaterally
• 1:18:18
  and go around the board when the board didn't
• 1:18:20
  vote to his liking. And he would do that rather
• 1:18:21
  often, do things without telling the board, do
• 1:18:23
  things in spite of the board's decisions. And
• 1:18:25
  that's not an unusual feature, again, of current
• 1:18:29
  and former presidents of NIC. But that, well,
• 1:18:32
  it's highly inappropriate. It's highly unprofessional.
• 1:18:34
  But it's the attitude that current and former
• 1:18:37
  presidents have had. Can you give an example
• 1:18:39
  of other times they did that? Well, then, Nick
• 1:18:40
  Swain would do that. McLennan would do that.
• 1:18:41
  And what was interesting is when we had Dr. Sibale
• 1:18:44
  or Dr. South, they actually treated the board
• 1:18:46
  with respect. You know, Michael Sibale, Greg
• 1:18:48
  South, treated the board with respect and proper
• 1:18:51
  courtesy. and everything in that proper relationship
• 1:18:54
  where the other two, we were a nuisance and to
• 1:18:57
  be avoided or ignored or circumvented as much
• 1:19:00
  as possible. And then you ended up with the deal
• 1:19:02
  with McLennan and his personal relationship with
• 1:19:05
  Mr. Ramswami who ran the NWCCU, the accreditation
• 1:19:08
  group, which helped launch that warfare against
• 1:19:10
  the college that they leveraged to try to pressure
• 1:19:13
  us by saying, well, we'll take your accreditation
• 1:19:15
  away if you don't tow the line and do exactly
• 1:19:17
  what we tell you to do and what we want you to
• 1:19:18
  do. They basically wanted to... to make it so
• 1:19:22
  we were incapable of doing anything in order
• 1:19:26
  to tie your hands. To neuter us, I guess. Let's
• 1:19:28
  just use that word. To pressure and blackmail
• 1:19:31
  us. So I'm actually glad you brought this up,
• 1:19:33
  Pops, because this is... This is the big issue
• 1:19:36
  with NIC that is fresh in everybody's mind, is
• 1:19:38
  the issue of accreditation. So if you followed
• 1:19:40
  the mainstream narrative, you would think that
• 1:19:42
  because of a small group of people, particularly
• 1:19:45
  Todd Banducci and Greg McKenzie and other board
• 1:19:47
  members, that they would be personally responsible
• 1:19:50
  for the downfall of NIC and its disaccreditation
• 1:19:54
  for reasons. Let me let's play this is so academic.
• 1:19:58
  Oh, this is a production. This is an Idaho public
• 1:20:01
  television production It's a podcast that they
• 1:20:04
  put out. So let's hear let's hear a clip from
• 1:20:06
  them Hello and welcome to the Idaho reports podcast.
• 1:20:09
  I'm Logan Finney Joining me this week is Kevin
• 1:20:11
  Richard of Idaho education news to update us
• 1:20:13
  on the status of North Idaho College now I know
• 1:20:18
  when his name was just mentioned right now I
• 1:20:20
  watched I watched Todd's eyes roll actually to
• 1:20:23
  the back of his head and then all the way back
• 1:20:24
  around the other side That's how hard he rolled
• 1:20:26
  his eyes. But yeah, so now you do a little quick
• 1:20:29
  digging because I don't you know, I don't know
• 1:20:30
  these people from Adam necessarily. You know,
• 1:20:32
  you pull up like, OK, let's Idaho reports public
• 1:20:35
  television. Well, that becomes immediately clear
• 1:20:38
  where that's Idaho. That's NPR for Idaho. That's
• 1:20:41
  Idaho PBS. Anybody that knows anything about
• 1:20:44
  media, NPR and PBS. I mean, those are elitist
• 1:20:48
  voices of America. Well, look, those are beautiful
• 1:20:50
  people. When you see the. the the fundraisers
• 1:20:53
  for the PBS channels or anything and also you
• 1:20:55
  see well you see Judy Meyer on there I mean she's
• 1:20:58
  little people that's in the costume you like
• 1:21:00
  doing the Downton Abbey thing and others that
• 1:21:01
  they're down there raising money and donating
• 1:21:03
  and I mean the connections here they're all over
• 1:21:06
  the place and with the old regime of Butch Otter
• 1:21:08
  and now with the current governor there's this
• 1:21:11
  regime had Brad Little lost a couple times ago
• 1:21:15
  this whole dynamic would have changed and some
• 1:21:17
  of the power structure in this north would have
• 1:21:18
  changed too because there's this this vest this
• 1:21:21
  residual group of people that are hanging on
• 1:21:23
  with his train and the power and there's a vestige
• 1:21:26
  of that that's still going we've got so close
• 1:21:28
  to changing all that but when when brad little
• 1:21:31
  has retained we lost that when labrador lost
• 1:21:36
  to him yeah You know, okay, so I'm gonna play
• 1:21:39
  more from this this this podcast and how it covered
• 1:21:41
  this the accreditation at least in the beginning
• 1:21:43
  because this this broadcast is from October 22,
• 1:21:46
  I believe but just just quickly I mean, can you
• 1:21:48
  guys see this monitor? You know, I pulled up
• 1:21:50
  Idaho news org, which is the this is where this
• 1:21:53
  show emanates from and I just kind of sort of
• 1:21:55
  clicking around and I clicked on the people's
• 1:21:58
  perspective tag tab So what comes up at the very
• 1:22:01
  top is a bunch of masked up little kids So they
• 1:22:06
  look like they're sort of running through a playground
• 1:22:08
  of a school, I guess, but they're all masked
• 1:22:10
  up. So this is this is not a way back machine.
• 1:22:13
  This is not an archive. This is if you go to
• 1:22:14
  their site now and you click on it, boom, masked
• 1:22:16
  up kids. That's the world they love. But anyway,
• 1:22:18
  it says twenty twenty two survey the people's
• 1:22:20
  perspective. OK, and it's I don't know why they
• 1:22:23
  have that picture at the top. They freaking love
• 1:22:25
  dystopian imagery. But there it is. OK, one,
• 1:22:27
  the economy takes over education is the top priority.
• 1:22:30
  Oh, by the way, October twenty twenty two, which
• 1:22:32
  is where this thumbnails from that's. two and
• 1:22:34
  a half years after two weeks to slow the spread
• 1:22:36
  they've masked up kids on their website so just
• 1:22:38
  to give you an idea of where these folks are
• 1:22:39
  coming from i think we're only on like our fourth
• 1:22:41
  or fifth booster at that point i i i chronologically
• 1:22:45
  i don't do by years i do by booster yeah so like
• 1:22:48
  we were on the sixth booster i think at that
• 1:22:49
  point yeah that was that was six b yeah okay
• 1:22:52
  so a public education is still extremely important
• 1:22:54
  but a surge uh okay oh whatever according to
• 1:22:57
  but a surge of economic worries caused in part
• 1:23:00
  by the covet 19 pandemic so they're they this
• 1:23:02
  is This is the ubiquitous framing of cause and
• 1:23:06
  effect. This is exactly what I'm talking about.
• 1:23:08
  The COVID -19 pandemic doesn't do anything. Policies
• 1:23:11
  do stuff. Okay. Leads more Idahoans to cite the
• 1:23:15
  economy as the most important issue facing the
• 1:23:17
  state for the first time in five years. And now
• 1:23:18
  it's got some polling data. Now this is a very,
• 1:23:20
  this is a professionally produced website. This
• 1:23:22
  is like I said, this is Idaho Public Television.
• 1:23:24
  This is very well financed. group of people.
• 1:23:27
  It's the Marjorie Taylor girl, whatever the hell
• 1:23:30
  you'll hear it at the end, because it'll you
• 1:23:32
  know, it's the disclaimer. Oh, it's brought to
• 1:23:33
  you by the in fact, you know, do I have it here?
• 1:23:35
  Let's see. He behaved. Maybe I don't have it.
• 1:23:38
  But it goes through because you know, this is
• 1:23:40
  a broadcast brought to you by generous funding
• 1:23:43
  from the Irving Farquhar found it, you know,
• 1:23:45
  I mean, they all do this. But then if you run
• 1:23:47
  if you like, well, who are the those people and
• 1:23:49
  you run you look at the form 990s and you dive
• 1:23:51
  a little bit like Oh, it has it has $175 million
• 1:23:54
  in assets. I mean, these are very well funded
• 1:23:57
  organizations, even at the local level, or maybe
• 1:23:59
  even especially at the local level. And this
• 1:24:01
  is the sort of stuff they put together. Okay,
• 1:24:02
  so the reason I bring this up, and their website
• 1:24:06
  and these messed up kids, I just kind of want
• 1:24:08
  to give an idea of where this where media like
• 1:24:12
  this, where is it emanating from? Who are the
• 1:24:14
  people that are funding it and putting it on?
• 1:24:16
  Why do they like masked up little kids so much?
• 1:24:19
  It's very confusing. They've also done absolutely
• 1:24:21
  no self -reflection on why it is that all of
• 1:24:25
  a sudden Idahoans are, you know, they're, they're
• 1:24:27
  sort of giving statistics on like, Oh, all of
• 1:24:29
  a sudden way more people are interested in homeschooling
• 1:24:32
  and people are pulling their kids out of public
• 1:24:34
  school, private school. It looks like at no point
• 1:24:37
  did they make any connection between their masked
• 1:24:39
  up kids and the fact that people are going to
• 1:24:41
  their places less. They don't acknowledge it
• 1:24:43
  anywhere. Public schools. Um, so anyway, I'm,
• 1:24:47
  I just, I, I, I kind of wanted to give you a
• 1:24:50
  sense of where this was emanating from. That's
• 1:24:52
  a very well -polished propaganda machine. It
• 1:24:54
  absolutely is. So in January, Michael Barnes,
• 1:24:57
  who had been elected in 2020, he stepped down
• 1:25:02
  amid questions about whether he was actually
• 1:25:04
  a legal resident of Kootenai County. Now, Barnes
• 1:25:07
  had been an ally of Chairman Todd Banducci. He
• 1:25:12
  and Banducci and Greg McKenzie formed this sort
• 1:25:16
  of conservative wing, if you will. on the NIC
• 1:25:19
  Board of Trustees. They were the three trustees
• 1:25:21
  who voted to fire President Rick MacLennan back
• 1:25:25
  in September. I have a quick question. Do they
• 1:25:27
  ever refer to the Christie Wood set as the leftist
• 1:25:31
  side, or do they only call you conservative?
• 1:25:36
  Yes. No, you're right. They don't. It's interesting
• 1:25:39
  how they have to use pejorative terms describing
• 1:25:41
  us, but the others are all, oh, they're so reasonable
• 1:25:45
  and common sense and normal. They're just mainstream
• 1:25:49
  and mainline. And then there's the far right.
• 1:25:50
  The regular people, you know, they do everything
• 1:25:53
  right, and they're right along with all of us.
• 1:25:55
  You know, that's normal. And everybody else like
• 1:25:58
  me, well, clearly we're not. We're far something
• 1:26:00
  or extreme something or we're something. We have
• 1:26:02
  to be, there's got to be a tagline, some sort
• 1:26:04
  of. Pejorative, like you said. You know, it's
• 1:26:07
  funny because how President Trump has kind of
• 1:26:10
  used that to his advantage because everybody
• 1:26:11
  nicknames. You know, it's interesting how Trump's
• 1:26:13
  labels and how he has flipped that script. He
• 1:26:17
  comes out aggressive, says the narrative, puts
• 1:26:19
  the names on him. Crooked Hillary. And his stuff
• 1:26:21
  sticks. So he watched this, and actually one
• 1:26:25
  of the greatest things that probably happened
• 1:26:27
  was him losing in 20, so he could come back and
• 1:26:30
  win in 24, because he's been far more effective
• 1:26:33
  this term, because he was far better prepared
• 1:26:35
  for it than he would have been even for a second
• 1:26:38
  term. Yeah, that sort of labeling is terrific.
• 1:26:42
  He's mastered the art of trolling. He's a troll.
• 1:26:45
  You know, I mean, I'm not saying that as a bad
• 1:26:47
  thing. I'm just saying it as a descriptive, like,
• 1:26:49
  yeah, you have to be good at trolling if you
• 1:26:51
  want to be effective. I'm actually shocked that
• 1:26:52
  this Jemoke didn't say far right. He actually
• 1:26:55
  just said conservative. Usually they go far right.
• 1:26:57
  Well, conservative wing. Wing, yeah. Oh, yes,
• 1:26:59
  wing. OK, so let's continue on with this. On
• 1:27:03
  the NIC Board of Trustees, there were the three
• 1:27:05
  trustees who voted to fire President Rick MacLennan
• 1:27:09
  back in September. Oh, I love that. Hold on.
• 1:27:11
  Fire. Fire, they fired him. He's like breathless.
• 1:27:15
  Without explanation and without cause. Okay,
• 1:27:18
  so now without cause, my understanding is that's
• 1:27:21
  a legal term, without explanation, is that true?
• 1:27:24
  It's a personnel matter. See, they make this
• 1:27:26
  thing when they know better. I love how they
• 1:27:27
  ask the questions and make the accusations when
• 1:27:29
  they know we can't talk. It's funny is how some
• 1:27:32
  people love to violate the privacy of executive
• 1:27:35
  session and the way it's supposed to, you're
• 1:27:38
  not supposed to talk about executive session
• 1:27:39
  outside of executive session. It's like Fight
• 1:27:41
  Club, the way it talks about Fight Club. So they
• 1:27:43
  do that routinely and they've done it all, they
• 1:27:45
  did it the whole time I was on the board where
• 1:27:47
  we're trying to adhere to the fact that there's
• 1:27:49
  confidentiality, there's privacy, there's things
• 1:27:52
  that aren't, you're not supposed to disclose
• 1:27:53
  things out of executive session. But the other
• 1:27:56
  - Things would get disclosed or we would call
• 1:27:58
  that leaked. Leaked. All the time. All the time.
• 1:28:01
  It was an interesting tool that they would use.
• 1:28:03
  And so they would say, well, they didn't say
• 1:28:04
  anything. Well, hello, we're not supposed to.
• 1:28:07
  Legally, we can be sued if we say something.
• 1:28:09
  So we can't say anything. That's where my attorney
• 1:28:13
  should have helped us more, too. You know, it
• 1:28:16
  was times he was somewhat helpful in times where,
• 1:28:18
  you know, and I got accused of something once,
• 1:28:21
  and he did finally have to say, no, that's all,
• 1:28:23
  that's baloney. You know, and people still ignore
• 1:28:25
  the fact that he, they put out a thing and said
• 1:28:27
  that was baloney. But, you know, it's a narrative
• 1:28:30
  that Christie When others keep carrying, you
• 1:28:32
  know, that's when there is an accusation is the
• 1:28:35
  headline and the retraction is on page 111. Well,
• 1:28:37
  like when Dan Gouken accused me, you know, supposedly,
• 1:28:40
  possibly, you know, assaulting him. And it turned
• 1:28:42
  out it was all him on the video. And he's the
• 1:28:43
  one that was going crazy and swearing and dropping
• 1:28:45
  bombs in front of a young female employee at
• 1:28:48
  the church we were in. He went crazy. And then
• 1:28:50
  you find the backstories. Why did I even approach
• 1:28:52
  Dan during the break there outside was just to
• 1:28:55
  ask him? Actually, I wasn't asking. I just suggested
• 1:28:57
  that he might owe a couple of ladies an apology
• 1:29:00
  from to drop an f -bombs and throw in a napkin
• 1:29:02
  at him at the Lincoln Day dinner, a woman in
• 1:29:04
  her sixties and a woman in her eighties. And
• 1:29:06
  I was like, you know, Dan, I think maybe you
• 1:29:08
  might owe these, these ladies apology. You know,
• 1:29:10
  he just launched an f -bombs at me and crazy
• 1:29:12
  waiting. Like he was just like waiting to explode
• 1:29:14
  at you. And then she, you know, stormed out of
• 1:29:16
  there and went to his car and the whole way out.
• 1:29:17
  And you got him on four different videos. Cause
• 1:29:19
  it was at the altar church. They have cameras
• 1:29:20
  everywhere after pastor Tim got shot. Did he
• 1:29:23
  get shot in church? I don't know anything about
• 1:29:25
  it. They have cameras everywhere, including the
• 1:29:28
  parking. You can see Dan all the way out to his
• 1:29:30
  rig, still flailing and making noise and screaming
• 1:29:33
  and yelling. I just want everyone to know that
• 1:29:34
  Todd is making movements like he's the inflatable
• 1:29:37
  thing outside of a used car dealership. Dan's
• 1:29:40
  not fit for leadership at all. It's so funny
• 1:29:42
  running for mayor, but Dan does not have the,
• 1:29:45
  what's the word I'm looking for, the statesmanship.
• 1:29:49
  That's a good word. But they never label him
• 1:29:50
  left wing. when they talk about him in the press.
• 1:29:53
  Yes, he's left -wing contingent. His rants are
• 1:29:55
  all he does is f -bomb and scream and yell and
• 1:29:57
  make fun of Christians and do porn stuff. I mean,
• 1:29:59
  this one of those guys is just not fit. That
• 1:30:01
  event is actually a good example of M .O., modus
• 1:30:04
  operandi, because afterwards, Dan Gukin actually
• 1:30:07
  filed the police report. After he called Christian
• 1:30:09
  with that night on the way home, maybe a front
• 1:30:12
  page above the fold, Ty Banducci. Yeah, what
• 1:30:14
  was ever the... Allegedly assaults. Do you know
• 1:30:16
  the police never even interviewed me? And then
• 1:30:19
  when I went back to them and said, hey, do we
• 1:30:20
  file charges for the false accusation? Yeah,
• 1:30:23
  really? Because you just did a report. You involved
• 1:30:25
  the city, the county, the employees. You've interviewed.
• 1:30:27
  You've done a whole investigation. Abuse of resources.
• 1:30:29
  And they tried to say, well, actually, he never
• 1:30:31
  really filed a report. Oh. What do you mean?
• 1:30:33
  How do you do all this if nothing was filed?
• 1:30:35
  And it was so easy, too, because you just pointed,
• 1:30:37
  like, here are the receipts. All you had to do
• 1:30:39
  was go to the video footage. And it's clear as
• 1:30:42
  day that nothing about the event as reported
• 1:30:44
  is true. But the damage is already done. But
• 1:30:47
  of course they weren't going to hold Dan accountable.
• 1:30:48
  Of course not. Because that's the city of Coeur
• 1:30:49
  d 'Alene. And this is like you said a second
• 1:30:51
  ago, Paul. This is modus operandi. This is what
• 1:30:52
  I was saying. These tactics, I recognize them
• 1:30:55
  because they're the same everywhere. They're
• 1:30:57
  used and utilized the exact same way. These are
• 1:31:00
  rules for radicals tactics. These are Alinskyite
• 1:31:03
  tactics. You accuse your opponent of that which
• 1:31:05
  you are guilty. It's projection. That's like
• 1:31:07
  with the death threats. I mean, there's stuff
• 1:31:08
  left on the voicemail. Sometimes they hit the
• 1:31:10
  numbers, sometimes not. But it'd be something
• 1:31:11
  like, your wife should be raped and killed and
• 1:31:13
  you need to die. Click. Are you kidding me? Is
• 1:31:16
  that true? Have you saved these? That was left
• 1:31:18
  on my office phone. So there was a time where
• 1:31:21
  Sheriff Norris, I did not request this, but he
• 1:31:24
  was aware of what was going on. And some things
• 1:31:25
  were reported where they had an emphasis patrol
• 1:31:28
  watching our house. Wow. You know, people saw
• 1:31:31
  patrol car sitting in the cul -de -sac by our
• 1:31:33
  house or driving by and our neighbors noticed
• 1:31:35
  the heavier presence from the sheriff. You know,
• 1:31:38
  Sheriff Norris took that serious and I thank
• 1:31:40
  him for that and did his job. If I was in the
• 1:31:43
  city of Coeur d 'Alene, I doubt I'd have gotten
• 1:31:44
  the common courtesy from Chief White. Well, there
• 1:31:47
  was no courtesy from Chief White. Coeur d 'Alene
• 1:31:48
  PD is just an extension. No, they can have a
• 1:31:50
  riot in my meeting. Yeah. But if anybody even
• 1:31:53
  did anything close to that in a city council
• 1:31:54
  meeting, they'd have been perp walked out of
• 1:31:56
  there in handcuffs. But they can shut my meeting
• 1:31:58
  down. They can pull a fire alarm. They can do
• 1:32:01
  all the things in the meeting that I'm running,
• 1:32:03
  and it's OK. Well, that's what happens when meetings
• 1:32:05
  get run by the far right. I have elected officials
• 1:32:07
  like Gukin and Wood. who's the other city councilman,
• 1:32:14
  the older gentleman, English, they're at that
• 1:32:16
  meeting and they're part of the disruption of
• 1:32:18
  my meeting, other elected officials having no
• 1:32:21
  respect for other elected officials meetings.
• 1:32:24
  That's just egregious. Let's finish out the last
• 1:32:27
  of the NPR Idaho podcast here. What we've seen
• 1:32:32
  these past two years has been just so much discord
• 1:32:34
  and so much disarray. And again, this is like
• 1:32:38
  October 2022. So this is about two years after
• 1:32:40
  the election. And again, these the tactic. I
• 1:32:43
  don't know if this guy knows he's doing it. You
• 1:32:46
  cause chaos and craziness by doing insane dystopian
• 1:32:51
  things like telling everyone to cover their face.
• 1:32:54
  And then when people oppose you, you accuse them
• 1:32:57
  of causing chaos. Disarray coming out of North
• 1:33:00
  Idaho College. You know, it's a classic example
• 1:33:04
  of how local elections have consequences. Todd
• 1:33:07
  Banducci is the guy at the center of all of this.
• 1:33:11
  He is the, you know, the eye of the hurricane,
• 1:33:14
  if you will. Good one. He was elected unopposed
• 1:33:18
  in 2020. Even though he'd been on the board for
• 1:33:22
  several years, even though earlier in 2020, his
• 1:33:24
  fellow trustee is privately censured. Oh, my
• 1:33:27
  gosh. Conduct. Sure. how he behaved. Yeah. Well,
• 1:33:31
  that's what, what is he referring to? A false
• 1:33:34
  accusation that again was, was, was later, um,
• 1:33:38
  disavowed. In fact, the attorney through our
• 1:33:41
  communications person, Laura Rumpler, when the
• 1:33:43
  national media approached and others said that
• 1:33:44
  did not happen. And that is not a true statement.
• 1:33:46
  And what you're saying is not, it's not accurate,
• 1:33:48
  correct. And then people have tried to say there
• 1:33:50
  was some settlement or something done, blah,
• 1:33:52
  blah, blah. Uh, there was no such thing. The
• 1:33:54
  only thing that was, uh, if you want to call
• 1:33:56
  it a settlement, the agreement was that, Hey,
• 1:33:58
  we'll just avoid each other. I don't need to
• 1:34:00
  work with that person. They don't need to work
• 1:34:01
  with me. That's fine. We'll just keep our distance.
• 1:34:04
  It's not someone I need to work with on a regular
• 1:34:05
  basis. That's fine. Clearly, we don't seem to
• 1:34:08
  be on the same page. Fine. And then those guys
• 1:34:12
  tried to make a big deal of it, did an investigation
• 1:34:14
  on me, and at the end of the day, it was a big
• 1:34:15
  nothing burger. So then they censored me and
• 1:34:18
  said, be nicer, be kind. That has been accused
• 1:34:21
  on more than one occasion of hurting people's
• 1:34:23
  feelings. And occasionally, I'm a little bit
• 1:34:27
  guilty of sounding like I'm from the South. I
• 1:34:29
  might use the terms dear or sweetie or honey.
• 1:34:32
  You monster. I know it, I know it. I'm traumatized.
• 1:34:35
  And what's another one I call girls the chicks?
• 1:34:37
  And I'd be really even guilty too if I accidentally
• 1:34:39
  like hugged somebody or something happened like
• 1:34:42
  that, you know, especially if it was someone
• 1:34:43
  that was actually hugging me or, you know, or
• 1:34:45
  a friend or there was once - See, this is where
• 1:34:47
  being Italian works against us, we're huggers.
• 1:34:50
  Yeah. If we were scotch Irish would be okay.
• 1:34:52
  Was in a senior, senior position and - And we
• 1:34:55
  were saying goodbye or something. We've been
• 1:34:56
  visiting and she's a former senior military officer,
• 1:34:59
  retiree herself. Very sharp, impressive lady.
• 1:35:03
  But we were saying goodbye or something and we
• 1:35:04
  gave each other a quick hug and we disappeared.
• 1:35:06
  Someone saw that and made a big thing about that,
• 1:35:08
  you know? You hugged a friend? We hugged each
• 1:35:10
  other, yeah. But this is stuff they had to try
• 1:35:12
  to come up with. Yeah, man, you're really sucking
• 1:35:15
  air. To try to tear me down. Because again, it's
• 1:35:18
  hard when you go against someone that's an officer.
• 1:35:20
  I end up from the start to finish. of my career
• 1:35:22
  with a couple break, but it was 41 and a half
• 1:35:24
  years in the military. Graduated from the Air
• 1:35:26
  Force Academy, lived under an honor code. You
• 1:35:28
  know, I'm a guy who duty honor country is what
• 1:35:30
  I bleed red, white and blue. You know, honor
• 1:35:32
  and integrity is what I understand. My late wife
• 1:35:35
  would joke that I can't lie or even exaggerate.
• 1:35:38
  My face just gives away. She would poke at me.
• 1:35:40
  Can we play the national anthem while he's talking?
• 1:35:43
  But what they chose to come after me was of my
• 1:35:45
  integrity and try to say I was a bad man. That's
• 1:35:47
  the irony of this whole thing is people laugh
• 1:35:48
  at that. That was the... Because against everybody
• 1:35:50
  else, I guess that's what you do. You try to
• 1:35:52
  say they're a horrible person. And I was the
• 1:35:54
  embodiment of Paul even mentioned earlier. I
• 1:35:56
  went back in the military after I was already
• 1:35:58
  out, well after my 30 years, to volunteer to
• 1:36:01
  go back and help at Fairchild for a few years
• 1:36:03
  because they were under manned and understaffed
• 1:36:05
  and couldn't fill their senior leadership on
• 1:36:07
  their command staff, you know, fill in the slot.
• 1:36:10
  I'm a patriot. I know it's bad. I love my country.
• 1:36:12
  I do. I saw the world, you know, doing, serving
• 1:36:15
  my country, you know, it's what you do. Yeah,
• 1:36:20
  I bleed red white and blue and I'm a guy takes
• 1:36:22
  face value and tell you what I think I think
• 1:36:24
  what I tell you I'm not that artful in my speech
• 1:36:27
  or clever and it drove people crazy too because
• 1:36:32
  People knew who and what I was and they didn't
• 1:36:34
  like it like we got to the 2020 They didn't want
• 1:36:37
  me to be at the debates Because they afraid I'd
• 1:36:40
  helped the two others I was unopposed because
• 1:36:42
  in 16 16 or 18 Judy Meyer was unopposed And they
• 1:36:46
  let her come to the debate, and she was helping
• 1:36:47
  the people that weren't as knowledgeable, and
• 1:36:49
  she kind of carried them. Ooh, handy. And so
• 1:36:51
  they were afraid I'd do that in 20. So they literally
• 1:36:55
  disinvited me from the debates and told me not
• 1:36:57
  to come. They did not want me. Think about that,
• 1:36:59
  though, for a second. Really stew on that. They
• 1:37:01
  disinvited a current trustee. Who's up for election.
• 1:37:05
  From going to. The debate. The debates amongst
• 1:37:08
  trustees. They did not want me. Well, let me.
• 1:37:10
  And then people on social media started to complain.
• 1:37:11
  And it was funny, because one guy. comes out
• 1:37:14
  and a bunch of people are like, Banducci's not
• 1:37:15
  going to be there, Banducci's not going to be
• 1:37:16
  there. And he comes out with, well, first off,
• 1:37:18
  they don't want him there. He wasn't invited.
• 1:37:20
  And secondly, Todd's been on the board for eight
• 1:37:22
  years. And if you don't know Todd, if you knew
• 1:37:24
  no Todd, he says, and I don't support Todd. I
• 1:37:26
  don't even like him. But if you don't know where
• 1:37:28
  Todd stands by now, then you haven't been paying
• 1:37:30
  attention. You've had your head in the sand.
• 1:37:31
  So it was a funny thing to watch the guy that
• 1:37:33
  didn't like me came out and defend the fact that
• 1:37:35
  I wasn't going to be there, even though I wasn't
• 1:37:36
  supposed to be there. Who was that? So many questions.
• 1:37:41
  I have so many questions. All these people, but
• 1:37:43
  with no names. We could go back on Facebook.
• 1:37:44
  It's on Facebook. Probably more lives forever.
• 1:37:46
  But he was defending he might not be in there.
• 1:37:48
  Let me frame it. Tell them they were stupid if
• 1:37:49
  they didn't know me. How the Coeur d 'Alene press
• 1:37:51
  would, so it doesn't sound so crazy, how did
• 1:37:54
  you just say it? A sitting chair, disinvited
• 1:37:57
  from debate? How about far right chair prevented
• 1:38:00
  from... uh, sowing chaos as chaos. Yeah. So then
• 1:38:03
  that now you're, you're, they're heroes for disinviting
• 1:38:05
  you. They don't want the far right. So chaos.
• 1:38:07
  This was 2020. So I wasn't board chair yet. I
• 1:38:09
  was still muted at that point. I was sad. I had
• 1:38:13
  eight years of having the thumb on me. And in
• 1:38:16
  seven of the eight years that I was on that board,
• 1:38:18
  either Christie wood or Ken Howard were chairman.
• 1:38:20
  And the only time it wasn't them was the last
• 1:38:22
  year was Joe Dunlap when he was coming up for
• 1:38:24
  election in 2020, cause he'd been appointed to
• 1:38:26
  replace Judy Meyer. So they purposely had him
• 1:38:28
  as president of the board and he'd been the president
• 1:38:29
  of the college. so a president gets put in there
• 1:38:32
  he's part of their little group you know this
• 1:38:34
  is a sweet deal he's now he's got to run to be
• 1:38:36
  elected we've made him board chair he comes in
• 1:38:39
  the election and greg mckenzie beats him ah so
• 1:38:42
  you'll notice though those first eight years
• 1:38:45
  not much power then 2020 comes along the quote
• 1:38:48
  unquote right wing contingency all right far
• 1:38:50
  right excuse me far right extremists uh sweep
• 1:38:54
  the election and then you have the kerfuffle
• 1:38:57
  with the mask mandate and the board uh votes
• 1:39:00
  at the extremist right -wing board, votes it
• 1:39:03
  down, and then fires Michael Lennon because of
• 1:39:06
  just that, obviously, no other reason. No cause,
• 1:39:09
  no actual nation. But then here's where it gets
• 1:39:11
  particularly interesting, and this is why I want
• 1:39:13
  the play -by -play, is with the Michael Barnes
• 1:39:15
  issue and the residency thing, which incidentally
• 1:39:18
  - Which Ken Howard already had a home in New
• 1:39:19
  Mexico for a couple years. Interestingly applied
• 1:39:21
  to the conservative. And we were having to organize
• 1:39:23
  our meetings for when he could fly back from
• 1:39:24
  New Mexico on his schedule. So hold on, I'm setting
• 1:39:26
  it up. I'm setting it up. I know, but I want
• 1:39:28
  to say one last thing. The whole cause thing,
• 1:39:31
  the reason there was a provision in his contract
• 1:39:34
  that he could be fired without cause, which is
• 1:39:36
  normal, which has been removed from the contracts.
• 1:39:39
  Mark Lyons, when he did a new contract with Nick
• 1:39:41
  Swain, removed that, so he couldn't even do that.
• 1:39:42
  But because of the lawsuits and the litigation
• 1:39:44
  and the expanse, we were advised, working with
• 1:39:48
  our legal counsel and working with what we thought
• 1:39:50
  was best with the college and working with how
• 1:39:53
  we were advised and how everything went down,
• 1:39:55
  everything, it was chosen that that was the best
• 1:39:57
  course of action. to remove the current president
• 1:40:02
  at that time and to replace him with someone
• 1:40:04
  else. So we took the course of action based on
• 1:40:07
  how we were advised and legal counsel and in
• 1:40:10
  consideration of the students, the school, cost,
• 1:40:12
  expense, and everything else of what would be
• 1:40:15
  best at that time for the school. And that's
• 1:40:18
  the course of action we took. And here's the
• 1:40:19
  kicker. It was within. The contract. The parameters
• 1:40:23
  of the contract. It was legal. And whether we
• 1:40:27
  could have done it for cause or not, I'm not
• 1:40:28
  going to speak to, but let me just say I think
• 1:40:30
  we had options. And so that's fine. But we chose
• 1:40:33
  the option that I would call would be the path
• 1:40:37
  of least resistance in some ways and of less
• 1:40:39
  cost. and and less bad press for the college
• 1:40:42
  and all that shows was there's a lot of factors
• 1:40:44
  and reasons that went into course as you know
• 1:40:46
  that way at all instead it blew up even harder
• 1:40:48
  and everybody wanted answers and the board couldn't
• 1:40:51
  talk about it right and uh... then everybody
• 1:40:53
  was left to make their own conclusions and of
• 1:40:56
  course the mainstream narrative was something
• 1:40:58
  completely different the president's a slice
• 1:41:00
  cheese and i wanted to build up for the play
• 1:41:03
  -by -play of kind of how those last couple years
• 1:41:05
  went because those that's really where the meat
• 1:41:08
  taters are and that's where the death threat
• 1:41:09
  started coming from that's where that's where
• 1:41:11
  all of the nastiness really came out as we finished
• 1:41:14
  with him there was a reason for a gentleman criticizing
• 1:41:17
  uh... you might listen how he behaved and how
• 1:41:20
  he made other people uncomfortable with his,
• 1:41:23
  you know, aggressive behavior. OK, that was it
• 1:41:26
  was we were right at the end there. That was
• 1:41:28
  the last part of it. But again, I just I'm scary.
• 1:41:31
  Don't you know when I'm intense? I'm sitting
• 1:41:32
  next to you and I'm scared. I guess I'm just
• 1:41:35
  used to being around the far right. Doesn't faze
• 1:41:36
  me. But this is again, I just can't. I have to
• 1:41:41
  ask that same question about this guy. Stupid
• 1:41:43
  or liar? Is he is he a reptile or like is he
• 1:41:46
  just. Does he not hear the absurdity of what
• 1:41:49
  he's saying? How he behaved and how he made other
• 1:41:53
  people uncomfortable with his aggressive behavior.
• 1:41:57
  So in other words, you can force students to
• 1:42:00
  cover their faces indefinitely. You can force
• 1:42:03
  jab them with whatever the hell product, doesn't
• 1:42:05
  matter even what it is. Or tell them their career
• 1:42:07
  is over in academics because they won't take
• 1:42:09
  the shot. Right, you can ruin their lives. You
• 1:42:12
  can create a dystopia. You can create an authoritarian
• 1:42:15
  dystopia in the most literal sense. Well, you
• 1:42:17
  don't understand, Scott. The air was dangerous.
• 1:42:19
  Well, it doesn't matter. Whatever reason you
• 1:42:20
  think is justifying your behavior, you can be
• 1:42:22
  like, well, we needed to be authoritarian. The
• 1:42:24
  air was dangerous. OK, but you're still creating
• 1:42:26
  an authoritarian dystopia. You're walking around
• 1:42:29
  with a literal faceless population. And then
• 1:42:32
  opposing that makes other people uncomfortable.
• 1:42:35
  You are making people Uncomfortable is such a
• 1:42:39
  wild understatement for what they were doing
• 1:42:41
  to the population at that time and then to turn
• 1:42:43
  around and accuse the person opposed to it It's
• 1:42:46
  it's beyond belief. Well, that's because they
• 1:42:47
  were doing it politely Scott. They were polite
• 1:42:50
  tyranny You know, it does cover your face or
• 1:42:53
  else cover your face or else civilized. Oh, it's
• 1:42:55
  polite Yeah, the beautiful people you wouldn't
• 1:42:56
  know they're beautiful on account of their faces
• 1:42:58
  covered. Yeah, but you know, it's those who resist
• 1:43:00
  are impolite Yes, that's right. You're a menace
• 1:43:03
  to society. If you don't get down with totalitarian
• 1:43:06
  dystopia You will engage in our totalitarianism
• 1:43:09
  until we tell you not to because the air is dangerous
• 1:43:11
  Aggressive if we disagree with their narrative
• 1:43:15
  or their agenda, which is wildly aggressive.
• 1:43:17
  I can't imagine a by the way nobody Nobody would
• 1:43:21
  have been able to imagine anything more aggressive
• 1:43:23
  and ridiculous if I would have showed some of
• 1:43:25
  my Mike sort of pinko adjacent friends from the
• 1:43:29
  Bay Area that picture that I'd showed you guys
• 1:43:31
  of those masked up little kids in elementary
• 1:43:32
  school if I would have traveled back in time
• 1:43:34
  to let's say August of 2019 and I would have
• 1:43:38
  showed them that picture they would have been
• 1:43:40
  horrified and confused. What is this? Like some
• 1:43:43
  sort of Epstein training ground. Is this Komsomol?
• 1:43:46
  Is this a picture from 1920? What is this? Which,
• 1:43:49
  by the way, even Komsomol didn't mask up their
• 1:43:51
  freaking adherence. I just can't I can't get
• 1:43:54
  over the stark visual, physical and mental abusive
• 1:43:59
  nature of the masks specifically, even putting
• 1:44:02
  aside all the other the non -essential this that
• 1:44:04
  and all the other chaos that they that they sowed
• 1:44:07
  it for life and during those years chaos that
• 1:44:10
  they sowed deliberately. The masks particularly
• 1:44:14
  are as dystopian as it gets right out of, you
• 1:44:17
  couldn't even find science fiction that had something
• 1:44:19
  like that because it's too on the nose, it's
• 1:44:21
  too ridiculous, it's not even creative. Like
• 1:44:24
  if you wanna illustrate what a dystopia looks
• 1:44:26
  like, you wouldn't use that imagery because it's
• 1:44:28
  unoriginal, it's not even, you see what I'm saying?
• 1:44:31
  But then they did it in real life and then they
• 1:44:34
  have the gall to talk about making people uncomfortable.
• 1:44:37
  You loved making people uncomfortable, you thrived
• 1:44:40
  on it, I watched you. Well, so Thomas Sowell,
• 1:44:43
  one of my favorite economists, has a quote where
• 1:44:45
  he says, it's amazing to me that it is considered
• 1:44:47
  greed to keep what's yours, but it is not greedy
• 1:44:52
  to take that which does not belong to you in
• 1:44:54
  the form of taxes and whatnot. You can apply
• 1:44:57
  the same concept to aggression versus non -aggression.
• 1:45:01
  And in polite society, you do what you're told
• 1:45:03
  or else, and that's considered to be non -aggressive.
• 1:45:06
  Those of us who resist are considered to be the
• 1:45:08
  aggressors when it's completely backwards. You
• 1:45:11
  know, I'm not out there. I'm not the one out
• 1:45:13
  there telling people do what I say or else They
• 1:45:16
  are the ones saying do what we say or else and
• 1:45:18
  resisting all of a sudden makes you the aggressor
• 1:45:20
  It's a very interesting It's a paradigm choice.
• 1:45:23
  I only have one question to those who would push
• 1:45:27
  that framing Do you know you're doing that? Are
• 1:45:29
  you stupid or are you a liar? I hope you're a
• 1:45:32
  liar Because at least then you have a freaking
• 1:45:34
  brain in your head and you're just manipulative,
• 1:45:36
  you know? And I think with the brain, bringing
• 1:45:38
  it back in towards the NIC topic, I think it's
• 1:45:41
  a lot of column A and a little bit of column
• 1:45:44
  B, because the column A being clever, cunning,
• 1:45:49
  they know what they're doing. That would be the
• 1:45:50
  liar category. That would be, so I guess that
• 1:45:51
  probably was column B actually, but you get the
• 1:45:53
  idea. Not a lot of stupid people in so much as
• 1:45:58
  intelligence, very intelligent people. They lack
• 1:46:01
  a lot of common sense. They lack wisdom. They
• 1:46:03
  last they lack ethics and morals, but they are
• 1:46:05
  not unintelligent Yeah, okay, and I'm sort of
• 1:46:07
  using this is probably their biggest I'm sort
• 1:46:10
  of using it for the lack of it. I don't mean
• 1:46:12
  like there actually are not very many like stupid
• 1:46:15
  people most people are not dumb I'm using it
• 1:46:19
  Flippantly, but I really just mean like do you
• 1:46:21
  know what you're doing? Are you conscious of
• 1:46:22
  what it is that you're you're pushing? Do you
• 1:46:24
  know the framing you're engaging it? Do you believe
• 1:46:27
  your own bullcrap back to the arrogance? Yeah
• 1:46:29
  Right. And I would say then it's equal column
• 1:46:31
  A and column B. A lot of opportunism, especially
• 1:46:34
  around here, but everywhere. It extrapolates
• 1:46:36
  out. I pulled. There was a lot of audio from
• 1:46:39
  some of these board meetings because, of course,
• 1:46:41
  they're all recorded. I want to play this gentleman.
• 1:46:44
  You know, the public can, of course, get up to
• 1:46:46
  the podium there and make statements. This is
• 1:46:48
  from March 2022. So we're still firmly in the
• 1:46:53
  psychotic delusion times. And some of these people
• 1:46:55
  got what I would call aggressive. Yeah, well,
• 1:46:58
  now this guy was not aggressive at all. He was
• 1:47:01
  actually very calm. Oh, good. Maybe you'll remember
• 1:47:03
  this, but I think it's worth playing what he
• 1:47:05
  had to say. Mr. William Lee. So the school is
• 1:47:09
  kind of like in this upheaval. There's all this
• 1:47:13
  drama that's happening. Let me just describe
• 1:47:15
  William Lee. He's an Asian gentleman. Looked
• 1:47:17
  like he was, I don't know what his early 40s,
• 1:47:20
  late 30s, something like that. Just a random
• 1:47:22
  member of the public? Probably. OK. There's all
• 1:47:24
  this drama that's happening. The biggest feature
• 1:47:26
  of this is the accreditation agency threatening
• 1:47:29
  to take away the accreditation for the school.
• 1:47:33
  But the accreditation agency can only put their
• 1:47:36
  spotlight on a school when there is someone that
• 1:47:40
  reports or files a complaint. Who was the person
• 1:47:44
  that filed that complaint? Now, also, because
• 1:47:47
  he's speaking so calmly, it's hard that you can
• 1:47:50
  get lost. And he's standing in a room full of
• 1:47:52
  people in 2022. Half of them are masked up. half
• 1:47:55
  of the board members are masked up. Uh, the it's
• 1:47:58
  been, it's been two years of freaking chaos.
• 1:48:01
  I mean, this is, it's, it's easy to sort of now
• 1:48:03
  that we're years past, a lot of pressure on the
• 1:48:06
  right side to stand up and speak publicly. Exactly.
• 1:48:08
  So what he's doing, I mean, this guy standing
• 1:48:09
  at a podium with one of those, uh, you know,
• 1:48:11
  little mics on an arm and it's, it's, it's not,
• 1:48:13
  it's very difficult to keep your voice from shaking.
• 1:48:15
  I mean, there's that famous, uh, you know, like,
• 1:48:18
  uh, the people fear public speaking where they
• 1:48:20
  took the number one fear. Number two is death.
• 1:48:22
  So in other words, most people would rather die
• 1:48:23
  than speak publicly. There was just one organization
• 1:48:26
  that did it. There were two complaints. When
• 1:48:28
  the first one didn't really garner the response
• 1:48:31
  that they wanted, they filed a second one. Would
• 1:48:33
  you be surprised if I told you that one of the
• 1:48:36
  trustees on this board is the president of that
• 1:48:39
  organization? That trustee is Misty Wood. So
• 1:48:43
  just to clarify, let me make sure I understand
• 1:48:45
  what this guy's saying. He's saying that the
• 1:48:47
  only reason that the accreditation board even
• 1:48:50
  looked toward North Idaho College was because
• 1:48:53
  a complaint was filed. That's correct. And that
• 1:48:55
  complaint was filed by one of the other board
• 1:48:57
  members, this same lady. The organization that
• 1:48:59
  she was in charge of, yeah. Her and her cronies,
• 1:49:02
  although she used one of the cronies inside the
• 1:49:04
  organization to actually file it, Tony Stewart.
• 1:49:06
  And normally it's all about academics. Either
• 1:49:08
  they're there because academics are bad or finances
• 1:49:11
  are bad. And usually accreditation gets involved.
• 1:49:14
  when a school is going to shut down because they
• 1:49:16
  can't afford to keep going, they got to figure
• 1:49:17
  out our academics, which were neither of our
• 1:49:20
  two issues. In fact, we're at times, we're accused
• 1:49:22
  of having too many financial reserves. And they
• 1:49:25
  made a point to try to keep lauding our academics
• 1:49:27
  to keep the liberal teachers happy and blame
• 1:49:29
  it all on the trustees. So academics are great,
• 1:49:32
  finances are great. And then they kind of tried
• 1:49:33
  to question that a little bit to point it on
• 1:49:35
  us with our bond rating and stuff, which was
• 1:49:37
  very disingenuous. So they're completely out
• 1:49:40
  of their lane on this thing. And now it's about
• 1:49:42
  governance. no college in the history of the
• 1:49:47
  country that we're aware of has ever lost their
• 1:49:49
  accreditation on a governance issue. And trust
• 1:49:52
  me, we've seen evidence, videos, stories of fights
• 1:49:58
  breaking out with trustees involved in fights
• 1:50:00
  in the middle of board meetings and other crazy
• 1:50:02
  stuff. I mean, some of these boards have gone
• 1:50:04
  nuts over the years and no accreditation organization
• 1:50:09
  has ever taken away their accreditation, ever.
• 1:50:12
  for anything other than academics or financial.
• 1:50:14
  So this is groundbreaking. This is how far they
• 1:50:17
  had to reach to try to get something. But here's
• 1:50:21
  where it gets really interesting. And William
• 1:50:23
  Lee brings it up in real time there. It was a
• 1:50:27
  magnificent moment. Yeah, we're going to go in
• 1:50:29
  here. Full disclosure, he's a buddy of mine.
• 1:50:31
  I like him. He's a highly intelligent guy. I
• 1:50:32
  want to be friends with him. But she threatened,
• 1:50:35
  Christy Wood and her ilk threatened issues of
• 1:50:37
  this exact kind before before the election before
• 1:50:41
  before the election in november 2020 they said
• 1:50:43
  if you don't vote right we could lose accreditation
• 1:50:45
  this was something they brought up before the
• 1:50:47
  election it was a campaign this was a this was
• 1:50:49
  this was a prophecy of theirs there's a self
• 1:50:51
  -fulfilling prophecy where they threatened it
• 1:50:54
  and then that was the tool they already had the
• 1:50:56
  toolbox and already had made that public now
• 1:50:58
  without knowing a thing without people being
• 1:51:00
  elected prior to the election this was already
• 1:51:02
  one of the matters that they were so that's really
• 1:51:03
  important to know is that they were threatening
• 1:51:06
  the college having accreditation issues on the
• 1:51:09
  campaign trail. They knew what they were going
• 1:51:10
  to do. They started this whole thing to use it
• 1:51:12
  as a weapon. It's obvious. It's sort of like
• 1:51:13
  people living in the house and the house is kind
• 1:51:15
  of dirty and somebody wants to come in buys the
• 1:51:17
  house comes in wants to clean it up. And then
• 1:51:19
  they take a torch to the house and go you did
• 1:51:21
  this you did this to us like we're going to burn
• 1:51:24
  this house down if you don't stop cleaning the
• 1:51:26
  house and you go well no i'm going to keep cleaning
• 1:51:27
  the house and they light the house on fire i
• 1:51:29
  go this is your fault that's precisely what christy
• 1:51:31
  wood and this is what i was describing earlier
• 1:51:33
  covid did it so you torch your own laws and your
• 1:51:36
  own socioeconomic order and then you say covid
• 1:51:39
  did it burn the house down when you file the
• 1:51:42
  complaint against your own school that you're
• 1:51:43
  supposed to be supporting to try to yeah use
• 1:51:46
  that to leverage it as a blackmail uh it's an
• 1:51:49
  asian male that's speaking not a black male but
• 1:51:50
  let's continue there was just one organization
• 1:51:52
  that did it there were two complaints when the
• 1:51:55
  first one didn't really oh we heard that trustee
• 1:51:57
  christy wood we've seen through several meetings
• 1:52:00
  for the past two years has tried to take the
• 1:52:03
  high road and behave as though she's altruistically
• 1:52:06
  seeking the best interest of the school saying
• 1:52:09
  that the school is in crisis crisis of leadership
• 1:52:13
  whatever And even going to the CDA press and
• 1:52:18
  sounding the alarm that the school's gonna get
• 1:52:19
  in trouble, yet her organization is the one sending
• 1:52:23
  the complaints to the accreditation agency. You
• 1:52:26
  know what I should have done? I should have just
• 1:52:27
  spliced in after every sentence. Whatever. I
• 1:52:31
  wish I would have just kept going with that.
• 1:52:33
  Whatever. If that sounds bonkers to you, it's
• 1:52:36
  because it is. There's like two things that this
• 1:52:41
  complaint accumulates to. It's that the board
• 1:52:44
  removed the mask mandates. The thing is, there
• 1:52:47
  was no state law that was mandating masks. It
• 1:52:51
  was true. There wasn't anywhere. Correct. That's
• 1:52:54
  what I'm saying. This whole thing was fakery.
• 1:52:56
  No, and in fact, the legislature had empowered
• 1:52:58
  the boards at the community colleges to have
• 1:53:00
  to say whether we were going to have them or
• 1:53:02
  not. And we exercised that authority properly
• 1:53:04
  and legally. The thing is, there was no state
• 1:53:08
  law that was mandating masks, according to Idaho
• 1:53:11
  statute. the board of trustees has full authority
• 1:53:14
  to do so. Lastly, it's kind of vague. It's that
• 1:53:17
  he's a big meaning and that he's a bully. That's
• 1:53:19
  kind of what the complaint amounts to. Far right
• 1:53:21
  bully. But we have someone here who works part
• 1:53:24
  time at the school who assaulted someone in public
• 1:53:27
  during one of these board of trustee meetings.
• 1:53:29
  She pushed her and then knocked down her sign.
• 1:53:32
  She literally assaulted her and that person's
• 1:53:34
  name is Teresa Lohr. She's a part -time biology
• 1:53:37
  professor here. Okay, now hold on. This is maybe
• 1:53:40
  my favorite part of this is because you're about
• 1:53:41
  to hear a little kerfuffle in Sue. You kind of
• 1:53:44
  started to hear the voices. Professor here. Now
• 1:53:47
  that's when someone was like, you can't bring
• 1:53:50
  that up. And then who's the Jemoke who gets on
• 1:53:52
  the video screen and has a little conniption?
• 1:53:54
  Okay. I'm jumping in now. Do not attack personal
• 1:53:59
  people in public. Personal. Okay. He means. don't
• 1:54:02
  make personal attacks on people. So, you know,
• 1:54:04
  I mean, you could try like, you know, learning
• 1:54:06
  English if you want to jump in with your freaking
• 1:54:08
  pearls clutch. Who is this guy? OK, it's all
• 1:54:12
  just audio. No, but do you remember who he was?
• 1:54:15
  He was on a video screen. He wasn't even there.
• 1:54:16
  He was scared of the air, presumably trying to
• 1:54:19
  remember, trying to hear the voice. OK, is the
• 1:54:21
  boy. I'm jumping in now. We do not attack personal
• 1:54:25
  people in public comment. I'm not attacking that.
• 1:54:28
  It's a statement of facts. I think you need to
• 1:54:31
  be done. Yeah, thank you. That was you, right?
• 1:54:35
  You need to be done. You've made your point.
• 1:54:37
  But I love that. Why is he not allowed to bring
• 1:54:40
  up? I don't understand that. Because when their
• 1:54:42
  employees attack somebody in the room, literally.
• 1:54:45
  And then, of course, they got interviewed. And
• 1:54:47
  when they got interviewed, they had a breakdown
• 1:54:50
  and da -da -da. And of course, they got let off
• 1:54:51
  with nothing from the city of Coeur d 'Alene
• 1:54:53
  again. But that was an assault. That was a battery.
• 1:54:56
  It was physical contact, the whole nine yards.
• 1:54:59
  And of course, her justification was that, you
• 1:55:01
  know, it was deserved and justified. And, you
• 1:55:04
  know, it was one of those things. It was funny.
• 1:55:05
  I saw the, I saw the interview. I think I saw
• 1:55:08
  the Born Polar interview too. I've got to remember
• 1:55:10
  now. There's so much stuff now. It's so hard
• 1:55:12
  that the memory banks get kind of full with all
• 1:55:16
  the nonsense. So was this the, now I thought
• 1:55:18
  he said Teresa something else. Is this that same
• 1:55:20
  lady, the Teresa who's the professor there who
• 1:55:22
  got, who got, that was Teresa Born Polar. That's
• 1:55:24
  what I thought you just said. And then this was
• 1:55:25
  Teresa Lohr. Okay, different lady. Another special
• 1:55:28
  person. There's a lot of special people at NIC,
• 1:55:31
  like Sarah Martin was the one that walked out
• 1:55:32
  crying after she was all tough and saying all
• 1:55:34
  this stuff. And then I just made a generic comment
• 1:55:36
  and she ended up crying and walking out. Well,
• 1:55:38
  she's now the head of the local Democratic Party.
• 1:55:41
  Sure. I mean, you know, that makes sense. She
• 1:55:44
  works as part of NIC. I think she's at the workforce
• 1:55:47
  training center, if I remember correctly, which
• 1:55:48
  is. I mean, this guy sounds like he's all this
• 1:55:52
  guy sounds like he's crying. OK, is the border
• 1:55:54
  trust. I'm jumping in now. We do not attack personal
• 1:55:58
  people. In public comment. For one. I'm trying
• 1:56:01
  to remember who that was. The attack was the
• 1:56:03
  assault that William is describing. Yes. OK.
• 1:56:06
  So if you're really worried about attacks. Which
• 1:56:09
  is on film. Well, hey, we do not attack people
• 1:56:11
  unless you, you know, want to physically assault
• 1:56:13
  them. But we can't mention the assault. That's
• 1:56:15
  an attack. That was during the meeting. We should
• 1:56:17
  give credit, though, to William Lee. His response
• 1:56:19
  is on point. He goes, well, it's not an attack.
• 1:56:22
  It's just a statement of facts. Yeah, I'm not
• 1:56:24
  attacking. I'm just telling you what happened.
• 1:56:26
  You're attacking me. Amazing. So for some help
• 1:56:31
  with the chronology of this and where we're at,
• 1:56:35
  that was a meeting that got a little spicy. At
• 1:56:38
  this point, where is the board at in so much
• 1:56:43
  as Michael Barnes is part of it? chronological
• 1:56:48
  sequence of events where in 2020 they they sweep
• 1:56:50
  they get elected not that long after there's
• 1:56:52
  the mask mandate vote the board votes it down
• 1:56:54
  and that makes waves you know it doesn't feel
• 1:56:56
  like it was a long time but it was almost a year
• 1:56:58
  right it was yeah well they make a thing of michael's
• 1:57:01
  residency at the same time ken howard basically
• 1:57:05
  Ken Howard is another one of the trustees. But
• 1:57:07
  he'd been living in New Expo. In fact, they had
• 1:57:09
  people looking into that, I think. And then apparently
• 1:57:11
  he had a mortgage and a house. And I don't know
• 1:57:13
  all the details. But he basically said, yeah,
• 1:57:16
  sue me. Come at me. Because he's a lawyer. And
• 1:57:19
  his son is in a firm. And they're a big firm.
• 1:57:20
  So he could play this out forever about the residency.
• 1:57:23
  So he felt he was bulletproof, I think. You're
• 1:57:24
  talking about Ken Howard. Ken Howard. Because
• 1:57:26
  they're accusing Michael Barnes of the same thing
• 1:57:29
  that we would probably say is probably true of
• 1:57:31
  Ken Howard. And Michael Barnes actually was renting
• 1:57:33
  a place. And then Ken Howard has this property
• 1:57:35
  that's like half in CUNY County and half in Bonner
• 1:57:38
  County. And he has like this little structure
• 1:57:39
  built on it now. I don't know when he built it,
• 1:57:41
  but you know, so there's all these different
• 1:57:43
  things about residency, you know, the kind of
• 1:57:44
  the pot -cone, the kettle black thing. But this
• 1:57:46
  was the next leg in the whole episode, right?
• 1:57:49
  So they threatened Michael with a law system.
• 1:57:51
  They love to use the law system. The judicial
• 1:57:53
  system is their friend. The legal system, lawfare.
• 1:57:56
  So they threatened to sue Michael Barnes, this
• 1:57:59
  group, and some of the special people. Well,
• 1:58:01
  Michael's afraid fiscally that he'll get crushed,
• 1:58:04
  because they keep naming us personally in all
• 1:58:05
  these lawsuits. So it's, you know, in your professional,
• 1:58:08
  in your official capacity and personally, they're
• 1:58:10
  trying to tag us personally to hurt us. Well,
• 1:58:12
  they threatened to go after Michael about this
• 1:58:14
  residency thing. And of course, the college is
• 1:58:17
  hedging on whether he gets airs of emissions
• 1:58:18
  insurance, whether he's covered for a lawsuit
• 1:58:20
  as a trustee, they're putting the pressure on
• 1:58:22
  him. So he's feeling on the pinch, you know,
• 1:58:24
  they've They have some money. They sold their
• 1:58:26
  place and, and, uh, cause they were renting in
• 1:58:29
  a different place. Now they'd sold one of their
• 1:58:30
  residents. So I think Michael's feeling, uh,
• 1:58:34
  where he doesn't want to face this financially.
• 1:58:37
  So he just resigns. It was a very, it was a clever
• 1:58:40
  cunning, calculated move. And they also, again,
• 1:58:43
  speaks to that what they knew what they were
• 1:58:45
  doing. They zeroed in on Michael Barnes. They
• 1:58:46
  knew they couldn't pull the stunt with dad. They
• 1:58:49
  couldn't pull the stunt with McKinsey, stronger
• 1:58:51
  personalities, that kind of thing. Michael Barnes
• 1:58:53
  is Bit of a gentler fellow. So they found their
• 1:58:57
  their stuffed animal and they squeezed the weak
• 1:58:59
  link Yeah, well, I didn't want to call it that
• 1:59:01
  but yeah, you know and they squeezed and they
• 1:59:03
  didn't have to squeeze that hard and that is
• 1:59:06
  the other way bushy stuff Okay, that is where
• 1:59:08
  things Really started to go off the rails and
• 1:59:11
  that's how the accreditation stuff started to
• 1:59:13
  pop off because with Michael Barnes So I'm again,
• 1:59:16
  I'm trying to build into this to help people
• 1:59:18
  understand the sequence of events with michael
• 1:59:20
  barnes gone now the board is locked in a two
• 1:59:23
  two two two and we couldn't appoint anybody because
• 1:59:25
  no one could agree on someone could agree on
• 1:59:27
  anybody so then the accreditation everybody got
• 1:59:29
  more excited and then they cooked up this interesting
• 1:59:32
  interpretation of the statute that was not written
• 1:59:34
  well and christy wood and ken howard resigned
• 1:59:38
  and then instead of appointing just one more
• 1:59:41
  new trustee to get us to back to a quorum of
• 1:59:44
  three there was an interesting interpretation
• 1:59:46
  by the bureaucrats in boise that the governor
• 1:59:50
  bought off on and there's a whole story about
• 1:59:51
  the governor and was he here and when did he
• 1:59:54
  visit and who was he involved with and what meetings
• 1:59:56
  were held and who knew what when and what was
• 1:59:59
  done in advance. You can even talk about the
• 2:00:01
  hiring of Nick Swain about that too. There's
• 2:00:04
  some interesting oddities there. So they didn't
• 2:00:07
  appoint one, they appoint three. And then they
• 2:00:11
  took over the majority of the board. Three unelected
• 2:00:14
  appointees to take over the majority of the board.
• 2:00:16
  never had happened in the state of Idaho ever.
• 2:00:19
  Brilliant maneuver, though. In any circumstance.
• 2:00:23
  So they didn't just get one. Went to E4, right?
• 2:00:25
  No, it was a brilliant maneuver. Because if they
• 2:00:27
  had point one, that's three, then we'd point
• 2:00:28
  the next two, no problem. But they knew we'd
• 2:00:30
  appoint people that hopefully were not wild cards
• 2:00:33
  on this thing and out there. So yeah, that was
• 2:00:36
  an interesting way that they just overwhelmed
• 2:00:38
  the voters, well, the voters, took control of
• 2:00:41
  the board, seized that, got their president,
• 2:00:46
  picked that they wanted and there's this whole
• 2:00:48
  backstory to that deal how that came to fruition
• 2:00:50
  and then we had to hit the public vote again
• 2:00:53
  in 22 they thought they had that you know squared
• 2:00:56
  away and going to move forward and unfortunately
• 2:00:57
  for them Mike Wagner got elected and that gave
• 2:01:01
  us back the majority at 3 -2 well they were on
• 2:01:03
  here we go again they were already starting we
• 2:01:05
  got a president we didn't want This, this already
• 2:01:07
  gets twice. The save NIC slash accreditation
• 2:01:11
  propaganda started sometime in like what? Mid
• 2:01:14
  2022. So they started before that election, but
• 2:01:17
  they just, they didn't have enough time, I guess.
• 2:01:19
  Now, by the time it got to 2024, it seems like
• 2:01:21
  they, they'd been hammering it now for instead
• 2:01:23
  of a half a year, two and a half years as a well
• 2:01:26
  oiled, well funded chain. And it worked. But
• 2:01:28
  this is, again, this is, this is the point of
• 2:01:29
  this show. This is, this is what I want to do
• 2:01:31
  for North Idaho is deconstruct the freaking billboards
• 2:01:34
  that you drive by and the social media post that
• 2:01:37
  you scroll by, and all of the sloganistic propaganda
• 2:01:39
  that requires deconstruction. Save NIC. Well,
• 2:01:44
  now you're hearing what's behind all of it. So
• 2:01:46
  here we are. It's 2020. We got a majority board,
• 2:01:49
  a majority conservative, excuse me, right -wing
• 2:01:51
  contingency. Far right. Far right. Excuse me,
• 2:01:53
  far right. Then they have the mass vote, makes
• 2:01:56
  waves. Then they focus in on Michael Barnes,
• 2:01:59
  push him out. Now it's a 2 -2. left -wing the
• 2:02:03
  far left wing contingencies we can do that too
• 2:02:05
  oh yeah they drop out they resign and work the
• 2:02:08
  system to get three trustees appointed not voted
• 2:02:12
  for appointed by the uh so yeah they hate it
• 2:02:16
  when we vote wrong man bugs them so and sometime
• 2:02:20
  around early or late 2021 is when the accreditation
• 2:02:23
  stuff starts starts to foam it but now that uh
• 2:02:27
  the board is three to five towards the left it
• 2:02:30
  quiets down a little bit Then 2022 comes along.
• 2:02:33
  Save NIC becomes a thing, but it hasn't found
• 2:02:35
  its feet. Waggoner gets in. Conservatives have
• 2:02:38
  a three to three to two majority again. The public
• 2:02:40
  voted wrong again. Public voted wrong again.
• 2:02:42
  And that's when Save NIC really grew. And that
• 2:02:46
  is when the movement really found its legs. And
• 2:02:48
  that's when the accreditation fight came front
• 2:02:51
  and center, because that was the place that the
• 2:02:53
  press and the cartel and everybody knew they
• 2:02:56
  could push. And it was a very easy point to push
• 2:02:59
  on the public who you know, let's be honest,
• 2:03:01
  they don't do their research. Save NIC. Save
• 2:03:03
  NIC. That's all they know. And if you don't,
• 2:03:06
  we will lose accreditation. If we don't get rid
• 2:03:08
  of these guys, we will lose accreditation. Ironically
• 2:03:10
  enough, the complaints came from the left. They're
• 2:03:15
  burning down their own house in order to kick
• 2:03:17
  out the people they don't like. Yeah, because
• 2:03:18
  they'll preside over ashes before they relinquish
• 2:03:20
  the reins. So that's where we are by 2022. And
• 2:03:23
  then the next two years are just all out brawl,
• 2:03:27
  metaphorically, of course. Well, I don't know,
• 2:03:30
  is that true? New details on the former North
• 2:03:32
  Idaho College professor facing battery charges.
• 2:03:35
  Court documents reveal that this man, Zachary
• 2:03:38
  Schallbetter, threw a bucket full of water and
• 2:03:41
  cleaning chemicals at NIC trustee Todd Banducci.
• 2:03:44
  Police say the bucket hit Banducci, drenching
• 2:03:46
  him, his office desk and items on his desk, including
• 2:03:49
  a computer. When police questioned Shaw better
• 2:03:52
  about the incident, they said he told them he
• 2:03:54
  believes Banducci is to blame for all the problems
• 2:03:57
  at NIC, saying he feels as though Banducci caused
• 2:04:00
  people to lose their jobs and is hurting the
• 2:04:02
  community. Officer said Shaw better found out
• 2:04:05
  he lost his job at NIC earlier that morning.
• 2:04:08
  He told officers he was being let go as a result
• 2:04:10
  of policies put in place by Banducci. So that
• 2:04:13
  sounds like elements of an actual brawl. The
• 2:04:15
  irony is even the president came out and said
• 2:04:17
  that his termination had absolutely nothing to
• 2:04:19
  do with me. He was on a one -year contract and
• 2:04:21
  the one -year contract ended. He said it had
• 2:04:23
  nothing to do with Trustee Banducci or the board.
• 2:04:26
  So not only is he... So they disavowed him because
• 2:04:28
  you break orthodoxy with them like this recent
• 2:04:30
  guy with Charlie Kirk. They will sacrifice some
• 2:04:32
  of their own if they absolutely have to if they
• 2:04:34
  break orthodoxy or become a public embarrassment
• 2:04:36
  to keep the narrative. That's the one thing about
• 2:04:39
  the local special people is unlike the state
• 2:04:43
  and national level, they know just enough to
• 2:04:45
  not be too stupid because the people will turn
• 2:04:47
  on them. So they know there's some boundaries
• 2:04:49
  that they can't exceed. So they have to keep
• 2:04:51
  themselves reined in and checked just enough
• 2:04:53
  to appear what they need to look like to be acceptable.
• 2:04:57
  It's funny. But the narrative has been pushed
• 2:04:59
  at this point. A lot of people believe that Todd
• 2:05:02
  Banducci, Greg McKenzie, a couple others, are
• 2:05:03
  the root of all evil. Anything that's bad or
• 2:05:05
  wrong with NIC is thanks to them, to the point
• 2:05:08
  where this particular fellow, Shalbetter, just
• 2:05:10
  waltzes into Todd's office and just douses him.
• 2:05:14
  Which, remembering, the board makes no decisions
• 2:05:16
  on personnel other than the president. That's
• 2:05:18
  the only one we have any input on is the president.
• 2:05:20
  I'm pretty sure you fired him directly. I have
• 2:05:22
  it on good authority. I'm by myself. It was all
• 2:05:24
  you. It was all me. Not only is he an aggressive
• 2:05:28
  Abusive asshole. He's wrong. His premise was
• 2:05:31
  wrong. Seriously, if you're going to be an aggressive,
• 2:05:33
  at least have the decency to be correct. Yeah,
• 2:05:35
  it's crazy. What's what's was this one? Tonight,
• 2:05:39
  North Idaho College holding a special meeting
• 2:05:41
  the day after a trustee Todd Banducci was allegedly
• 2:05:44
  attacked inside his office. Now we are learning.
• 2:05:46
  But just to be clear, allegedly, were you attacked?
• 2:05:49
  He was arrested. He was put in jail. He's actually
• 2:05:52
  been arrested again. He was on a warrant. Here's
• 2:05:56
  another warrant out for him, actually, right
• 2:05:57
  now. He was found guilty. He was charged with
• 2:06:01
  fines. He was given time to clean up garbage
• 2:06:03
  on the side. He was put in the jail. I asked
• 2:06:05
  for a couple extra days there. The judge gave
• 2:06:07
  him three extra days, actually, in jail. He got
• 2:06:10
  quite the lecture from the judge, which is recorded,
• 2:06:12
  I understand, and was told to give some reimbursement
• 2:06:16
  to me. So yeah, he's got through. The only thing
• 2:06:19
  that they did was interesting. Apparently, it
• 2:06:20
  depends on how the fines are done and how the...
• 2:06:22
  charges are is they did let him plead the one
• 2:06:24
  down so it's not actually a crime of violence
• 2:06:26
  so they let him do like disturbing the peace
• 2:06:28
  and malicious destruction of property because
• 2:06:30
  originally you know it was battery it's just
• 2:06:32
  a crime of passion now you know so they actually
• 2:06:34
  let him plea it down which made a difference
• 2:06:37
  on the type of charge So it's not technically
• 2:06:39
  a crime of violence anymore. So that changes
• 2:06:41
  things. OK. But the short answer is yes. He did
• 2:06:45
  do it. Well, I just want to be clear because
• 2:06:47
  everyone, everyone, this talking head dumbass,
• 2:06:49
  he's an attorney. Trustee Todd Banducci was allegedly
• 2:06:52
  attacked inside his office. No, no, that was
• 2:06:54
  very real. Yeah, right. I just want to be clear
• 2:06:56
  that it happened. Now we are learning what exactly
• 2:06:58
  was inside the bucket that a former college employee
• 2:07:01
  is accused of dumping on him. Hopes and dreams.
• 2:07:04
  Good vibes. Has more reaction tonight from Coeur
• 2:07:06
  d 'Alene. North Idaho College says the liquid
• 2:07:10
  in that bucket was a mixture of water and cleaning
• 2:07:13
  chemicals. Trustee Todd Banducci did not address
• 2:07:16
  the incident at tonight's meeting, but the college
• 2:07:18
  president did and called the behavior unacceptable.
• 2:07:22
  Zachary Schallbetter is the former North Idaho
• 2:07:24
  College assistant professor arrested this week.
• 2:07:28
  The college says he went to trustee Todd Banducci's
• 2:07:30
  private business, threatened him, then dumped
• 2:07:33
  a bucket of water and cleaning chemicals over
• 2:07:35
  his desk, soaking Banducci, his computer, and
• 2:07:39
  other office equipment. I also want to point
• 2:07:41
  out that an incident like that, if you sort of
• 2:07:44
  don't think about it deeply, it's just like,
• 2:07:46
  well, an annoying incident that lasted six minutes.
• 2:07:49
  Uh, your adrenaline can go for days from something
• 2:07:52
  like that. I mean, and like, not, not to mention
• 2:07:54
  like you got gals working in the office, like
• 2:07:56
  that's extremely unsettling event. You know,
• 2:07:59
  it's interesting because he damaged my stuff.
• 2:08:01
  Uh, there was equipment damage. My phone was
• 2:08:03
  ruined, had to get a new, had replaced the phone.
• 2:08:05
  And you're right. Some of the younger and particularly
• 2:08:07
  female employees were very upset by that. And
• 2:08:10
  in fact, two of them wrote impact letters to
• 2:08:11
  the, to the court, to the young ladies. You know,
• 2:08:14
  they were allowed them to do it in a way that
• 2:08:15
  could be anonymous, but they did write impact
• 2:08:17
  letters about how you know, workplace violence
• 2:08:20
  is not a trivial thing and that really impacted
• 2:08:23
  people to have him come charging in there and
• 2:08:24
  do that and to see us on the ground, you know.
• 2:08:27
  This is actually my favorite part is the dude
• 2:08:29
  tries to flee the old man in, you know, calls
• 2:08:33
  up whatever left of his youth that he has. Oh,
• 2:08:36
  tell me you clothesline the guy. Chases the guy
• 2:08:38
  down, closes the gap. He was in the doorway and
• 2:08:40
  I didn't know if he had another weapon or anything
• 2:08:42
  else. That's the other thing, you don't know
• 2:08:43
  he's going to fall asleep. He's doing this and
• 2:08:44
  he's got me and my glasses flew off, I had my
• 2:08:46
  reading glass on and I'm soaking wet. I stand
• 2:08:48
  up behind his desk. He's in my office, right
• 2:08:51
  at the corner. But the Charlie Kirk thing now,
• 2:08:54
  people have asked, what if he'd had a gun? What
• 2:08:56
  if he'd have come in there? Would you be dead?
• 2:08:58
  Would he be dead? Would you have had to, you
• 2:08:59
  know, what would have happened if he'd done more
• 2:09:00
  than just a bucket of - No kidding. But he was
• 2:09:02
  a leftist, so he didn't believe in guns. So,
• 2:09:04
  but at that point he's in my doorway and I don't
• 2:09:06
  know, but I see his hands and I'm a trained military
• 2:09:09
  man. So I go leaping over the desk and hit him
• 2:09:12
  as he's in the doorway and drive him down onto
• 2:09:14
  the carpet onto the ground. And I'm on top of
• 2:09:16
  him. I had him pinned to the ground. WWE Raw
• 2:09:18
  style. So, you know, I'm holding him until some
• 2:09:19
  other men came from the office and they, and
• 2:09:21
  one of the guys taps me on the shoulder and says,
• 2:09:23
  okay, Todd, we got this. And so - the three of
• 2:09:25
  them have him down and I get off and then you
• 2:09:27
  know law enforcement people are calling everything
• 2:09:29
  they end up showing up and arresting him and
• 2:09:30
  this is all allegedly of course allegedly and
• 2:09:33
  then the guy says well we can witness it so are
• 2:09:35
  you going to do a citizen's arrest you know i
• 2:09:37
  said yeah okay fine i do a citizen's arrest so
• 2:09:40
  then they would actually handcuff him and take
• 2:09:41
  him out because i had to make the citizens arrest
• 2:09:43
  it was like a technicality technicality because
• 2:09:45
  that probably blows my mind because how often
• 2:09:47
  do the cops not witness things and arrest you
• 2:09:49
  anyways of course there's a whole everybody there
• 2:09:52
  but yeah because they didn't actually witness
• 2:09:53
  the assault like you know they weren't going
• 2:09:55
  to arrest him even though everybody there and
• 2:09:57
  i'm soaking wet and there's the bucket, no, my
• 2:10:00
  office is destroyed. Well, you brought up Fight
• 2:10:01
  Club earlier. I mean, there's that scene where
• 2:10:03
  he kicks his own ass. Maybe you threw water on
• 2:10:04
  yourself. What do they know? You know, it's that
• 2:10:07
  bucket challenge thing. Yeah, that's what I was
• 2:10:09
  doing. I won the game. I doused myself. Let's
• 2:10:12
  just finish this nonsense. Earlier today, Schalbeder
• 2:10:15
  agreed to speak with Krem II, then changed his
• 2:10:17
  mind and said he would send a statement instead.
• 2:10:20
  As of late tonight, we haven't received one.
• 2:10:22
  Let me be clear, violence and physical intimidation
• 2:10:26
  are simply not okay. Now this is the president
• 2:10:28
  speaking at the board, right? This is the code
• 2:10:30
  for, it's okay unless it's Todd, but hey, it's
• 2:10:33
  okay. Yeah totally, like we condemn, I mean we
• 2:10:36
  condemn the, wait what are we saying? Are simply
• 2:10:38
  not okay, not on this campus, or in any setting.
• 2:10:43
  Unless it's against Todd Banducci. The North
• 2:10:45
  Idaho College has zero tolerance for violence,
• 2:10:48
  period. 2 % tolerance if it's against thought.
• 2:10:50
  During tonight's special meeting, President Nick
• 2:10:52
  Swain reiterated the fact that Schallbetter was
• 2:10:54
  on a one year contract teaching web and graphic
• 2:10:57
  design. That contract ended last week. Schallbetter
• 2:11:01
  was arrested Wednesday and posted bond. He only
• 2:11:04
  spent a few hours in jail. He's facing charges
• 2:11:06
  of battery and malicious injury to property.
• 2:11:09
  He made his first court appearance this morning.
• 2:11:12
  And we were able to chat with Trustee Banducci
• 2:11:14
  after the meeting outside and off camera. He
• 2:11:17
  told us that he's okay, just a little shaken
• 2:11:19
  up by everything. And so are a lot of the women
• 2:11:21
  in his office. He's just glad that nothing more
• 2:11:24
  violent occurred. Reporting from North Idaho
• 2:11:27
  College tonight, Kyle Simcha, Crim2 News. And
• 2:11:29
  you don't know in the moment that nothing more
• 2:11:31
  violent is going to occur. I mean, what if the
• 2:11:33
  guy pulls a machete? Well, you don't. And as
• 2:11:35
  it ended up with our little wrestling match,
• 2:11:38
  as it turned out, I'm bleeding from my... I was
• 2:11:41
  in some shorts that day. So my knees are bleeding,
• 2:11:44
  my elbows are bleeding, my arms are bleeding.
• 2:11:46
  And so they took pictures and everything and
• 2:11:47
  they actually sent me, insisted that I go get
• 2:11:50
  medically evaluated. So I went to the VA clinic
• 2:11:52
  and then they sent me over to Northwest Specialty
• 2:11:54
  Hospital, you know, make sure everything was
• 2:11:57
  recorded and everything. And yeah, and it was
• 2:11:58
  kind of hard too, even driving over to the hospital
• 2:12:00
  and I'm on the phone with my wife and she kind
• 2:12:02
  of asked me how I was doing. And then she asked
• 2:12:04
  me a question that created a little bit of a
• 2:12:07
  reaction for me while I was driving. It rekindled
• 2:12:10
  a couple of things in a moment. So yeah, it doesn't
• 2:12:14
  just last for the six minutes, as you said. It
• 2:12:16
  was something that, and then through the court
• 2:12:17
  system and the trials and all the different things.
• 2:12:21
  Okay, so let's move along on the timeline here.
• 2:12:23
  So now you still have, we're like, you know,
• 2:12:25
  November 2022. Now we're into 2023. We still
• 2:12:28
  have like a full, almost two years left here.
• 2:12:31
  So describe 2023 and 2024 as they've really ramped
• 2:12:34
  up. I mean, it's hard to describe, like you...
• 2:12:36
  as dwellers in this county like you couldn't
• 2:12:39
  not see not not see their propaganda excuse me
• 2:12:43
  did not see that coming like everywhere you went
• 2:12:46
  it said that was every every uh magazine you
• 2:12:49
  flipped open every billboard like it was they
• 2:12:51
  blanketed that that save nic propaganda and you
• 2:12:54
  lived through it as the quote center of this
• 2:12:56
  eye of the hurricane well i stepped down we let
• 2:12:59
  uh greg was the chairman for a year and then
• 2:13:01
  mike was the chairman for a year which was fine
• 2:13:03
  i just tried to help them and assist them try
• 2:13:05
  to be a good wingman. We got stuck with Nick
• 2:13:08
  Swain who I don't think was qualified. Nick Swain
• 2:13:11
  as president. Yeah and I don't think he was hired
• 2:13:13
  in the proper manner. I think there were some
• 2:13:15
  irregularities now he was hired and maybe even
• 2:13:17
  been some things that were done that were inappropriate
• 2:13:19
  or you know otherwise even more. Well, the interview
• 2:13:22
  process, even though the interview process, the
• 2:13:24
  interview process did not include all of the
• 2:13:26
  trustees and we didn't do the normal process.
• 2:13:28
  Everything about his deal was was was wrong and
• 2:13:31
  nor as compared to the normal way we've done
• 2:13:33
  it. Sort of like the midnight judges. And I had
• 2:13:35
  been there through a prior hiring. So, you know,
• 2:13:37
  I'd seen it. It was quite the Jerry Rigg deal,
• 2:13:40
  I think. Like they did interviews when certain
• 2:13:42
  certain. right -wing extremist trustees couldn't
• 2:13:45
  be there. Like I was going to be gone for a couple
• 2:13:45
  of, doing military duty, and they were trying
• 2:13:47
  to schedule, they didn't coordinate. Then they
• 2:13:49
  held them at the Hayden Lake Country Club where
• 2:13:50
  it was private. They were supposed to be public,
• 2:13:52
  we were supposed to notice those. We normally
• 2:13:54
  would meet in just a public restaurant, that's
• 2:13:55
  how we did it at the time before when we interviewed
• 2:13:57
  everybody. So, you know, Chairman Wold's trying
• 2:13:59
  to like sequester somebody and do his own, it
• 2:14:02
  was just totally bizarre. Everything about it
• 2:14:04
  was wrong. He was wrong, and he should never
• 2:14:07
  have been our president. And so we tried to replace
• 2:14:09
  him with Greg South, who was way more qualified.
• 2:14:12
  He brought in a great team, which these guys
• 2:14:15
  never had, and they'll never have it again. So
• 2:14:19
  it was really interesting as we were working
• 2:14:20
  through that process. And then that was just
• 2:14:21
  a total fight. And then we ended up in the court
• 2:14:23
  system. And at the end of the day... So now there's
• 2:14:25
  a legal battle, too, at this time. Well, Mick
• 2:14:27
  Swain sued the trustees at least twice. Because
• 2:14:29
  if you love an institution, the best thing to
• 2:14:31
  do is to set on fire. To sue lawsuits. Yeah.
• 2:14:34
  So anyway, so that was, that was a lot of that
• 2:14:36
  fight and the accreditation fight and that consumed
• 2:14:38
  the last two years. Eventually the next Wayne
• 2:14:41
  ended up being the president. Greg South moved
• 2:14:44
  on. And in fact, he's doing tremendously well
• 2:14:46
  landed on his feet. And for anybody that's listening
• 2:14:48
  that wants to know Mike Sabali has landed on
• 2:14:51
  his feet and is doing great too. Mike Sabali
• 2:14:53
  was another interim president briefly. He got
• 2:14:56
  a really bad shake. He got a really bad shake.
• 2:14:58
  He was the president when we got rid of McLennan.
• 2:15:00
  We brought in and he got subverted by his own
• 2:15:03
  staff and people which was unfortunate Senior
• 2:15:06
  leadership cut his legs out underneath him too.
• 2:15:08
  He was a great guy and then people tried to hurt
• 2:15:11
  him and then they end up trying to Create some
• 2:15:14
  baloney on him and any any way end up where he
• 2:15:16
  ended up having to leave left the college You're
• 2:15:18
  noticing a trend move to the center. They're
• 2:15:21
  trying to ruin him and his wife and all their
• 2:15:23
  children So he went out there and now he's taking
• 2:15:26
  another position and moved into doing it fantastic
• 2:15:29
  But yeah, they try to ruin your life too. It's
• 2:15:31
  not like we don't want you to hear We want to
• 2:15:32
  hurt your family want to ruin your life want
• 2:15:34
  to fire You want to create stuff to make you
• 2:15:36
  look like you're bad come after your kids come
• 2:15:38
  after your kids business All that stuff act as
• 2:15:40
  it's a it's an effective deterrent If any one
• 2:15:43
  of you far right us wants to try to make chaos
• 2:15:45
  again, you know, you see what happens They do
• 2:15:46
  they want to grind you under their boot. I'll
• 2:15:48
  tell you so basically to recap for the old man
• 2:15:51
  here 22 23 and 24 were mired in just Small issue
• 2:15:56
  after big issue after small issue a lot of lawfare
• 2:15:58
  lawsuits this more threats about losing a credit
• 2:16:02
  so they hung the accreditation issue over Everything.
• 2:16:06
  So we just kind of just move laterally for two
• 2:16:08
  years. It just hung over everything, the whole
• 2:16:10
  way. And Save NIC did that intentionally, and
• 2:16:14
  all the people did that intentionally. Pushing
• 2:16:16
  to the next election. So then with the 2024 election,
• 2:16:20
  the establishment got what they wanted. They
• 2:16:22
  swept. They had all their chips in the middle.
• 2:16:24
  If they had lost in 24, the college. would have
• 2:16:27
  had a much brighter future. What's really interesting
• 2:16:29
  though is that for the state reps and state senators,
• 2:16:34
  the more conservative side of the spectrum actually
• 2:16:37
  did very, very well in North Idaho. I know. I
• 2:16:39
  was so surprised to see that result. I was very
• 2:16:41
  disappointed. I thought North Idaho had figured
• 2:16:44
  it out. Apparently not. One of the theories is
• 2:16:47
  that they, speaking of pushing all their chips
• 2:16:48
  into the middle, they went so hard on NIC that
• 2:16:51
  they actually at the exclusion of some of the
• 2:16:55
  other elections. And they've done that before.
• 2:16:56
  They've excluded and not even supported some
• 2:16:58
  of their own people, but they're really focused.
• 2:16:59
  NIC was their power center too. Downtown education.
• 2:17:03
  If you're a liberal Democrat, Rhino establishment
• 2:17:06
  person, that is where, that's where your money
• 2:17:08
  comes and goes right there. Even the library
• 2:17:11
  was very secondary to that. All the fight over
• 2:17:12
  the library was very secondary compared to the
• 2:17:15
  college stuff. There's a lot of legal money laundering
• 2:17:17
  that goes on down there. I mean, it's, but it's
• 2:17:20
  just allegedly. It's what resonates with them.
• 2:17:23
  Education. That's their bastion. Education in
• 2:17:26
  quotes. Yeah. I mean, that's their world. And
• 2:17:28
  indoctrination. We were in their territory. Yeah.
• 2:17:30
  No, they couldn't have it. And it was especially
• 2:17:32
  frustrating to see. And the resources they threw
• 2:17:34
  at it. Oh my gosh. Because like you're saying,
• 2:17:36
  they really went all in. Clearly, they focused
• 2:17:38
  almost all their propaganda efforts on that.
• 2:17:41
  The sleight of candidates, how they did it. And
• 2:17:44
  unfortunately, they scared so many people off
• 2:17:46
  that Greg McKenzie, I think, Probably would not
• 2:17:50
  have run had we been able to another candidate
• 2:17:52
  and step forward But there was a dearth of candidates
• 2:17:55
  particularly from his zone. So Greg ran again
• 2:17:58
  where we had two new candidates I think we might
• 2:18:00
  have seen a different outcome. They use Greg
• 2:18:02
  as the anchor against that he was up against
• 2:18:05
  probably the strongest of their candidates the
• 2:18:07
  you know, the car dealer and and and they linked
• 2:18:11
  Greg to the prior problems and to me and and
• 2:18:14
  that was the thing because if you look at like
• 2:18:15
  Michael Angeletta was pretty close You know,
• 2:18:18
  the other gentlemen post -files was a little
• 2:18:19
  further, but the biggest gap was that race. And
• 2:18:23
  I think had it been a clean slate against a clean
• 2:18:26
  slate, we might have had a different result.
• 2:18:28
  So that was unfortunate, but that's their effectiveness
• 2:18:30
  in scaring away candidates. If we had all day,
• 2:18:33
  which we don't, because we're at least for you
• 2:18:35
  to come into a close, but there's dozens more.
• 2:18:37
  examples and stories of, I think this, the, the
• 2:18:40
  Widmeyer property is a very good example of how
• 2:18:42
  things operate down there where the board, when
• 2:18:46
  the left side, when they have the majority, they
• 2:18:48
  take care of one of their own Steve Widmeyer,
• 2:18:50
  you know, who used to be mayor of Coeur d 'Alene
• 2:18:52
  and had a business down there on school grounds,
• 2:18:55
  the Fort ground grill. And you know, push came
• 2:18:58
  to shove the school wanted to buy it from him
• 2:19:00
  for interesting reasons. And he made out like
• 2:19:04
  a bandit on it. It was a million plus they, that
• 2:19:06
  the school paid him for this property that was
• 2:19:09
  worth maybe half that. They didn't need it, but
• 2:19:13
  Steve needed an exit. Several month old appraisal.
• 2:19:14
  We were going into the winter. And they're all
• 2:19:17
  buddies. You want to kind of run it part time
• 2:19:19
  and try to squeeze out. And then we gave him
• 2:19:21
  a rent that was like, you know, five bucks. You
• 2:19:22
  know, I mean, I'm exaggerating, but rent was
• 2:19:24
  so low that people called that it wasn't even
• 2:19:25
  a market rent. So eventually that contract got
• 2:19:28
  ended and finally they got done. And then he,
• 2:19:30
  this stuff that was a value in the building,
• 2:19:31
  he took anyway. So yeah, it was kind of an interesting
• 2:19:34
  way that all went down. That's the norm down
• 2:19:36
  there. Let's hear an example of some of that
• 2:19:39
  propaganda that was running up to the 2024 election.
• 2:19:41
  November 5th, Kootenai County will go to the
• 2:19:43
  polls to vote on the future of North Idaho College.
• 2:19:45
  It is time to elect NIC trustees who will protect
• 2:19:48
  and defend our community college and ensure that
• 2:19:51
  NIC remains accredited as low cost, high value
• 2:19:54
  education. Durbin, Knudsen, and Havercroft are
• 2:19:58
  candidates that you can be proud to vote for.
• 2:20:00
  They love this community and want to see the
• 2:20:02
  college and students thrive on November 5th.
• 2:20:05
  Please support Durbin, Knudsen. and Havercroft
• 2:20:07
  for trustees paid for by Save NIC Now. So even
• 2:20:11
  the name of the, and it's now, this video is
• 2:20:13
  branded on both sides with this logo, Save NIC
• 2:20:16
  Now, and that was the whole framing. We're from
• 2:20:19
  Save NIC to Save NIC Now. Emergency. They love
• 2:20:25
  emergency declarations, don't they? They do.
• 2:20:27
  I was looking for like a news, I should have
• 2:20:30
  pulled one, like a news report from after the
• 2:20:33
  election. I wanted to kind of hear how they covered.
• 2:20:35
  Oh, suddenly they're praising the voters. The
• 2:20:37
  voters were smart. They saved the NIC and gosh,
• 2:20:39
  they made a great choice. Wow, you know, they're
• 2:20:42
  all about it. Where before, and you still watch
• 2:20:45
  this even nationally, statewide, every time it
• 2:20:47
  doesn't go the right, the voters are stupid.
• 2:20:48
  They don't get it. They don't understand. If
• 2:20:51
  only you understood, if only we could educate
• 2:20:54
  you because you're, you know, It's funny how
• 2:20:57
  that works. You vote the way they want, wow,
• 2:20:59
  you're great. If you don't, then obviously you're
• 2:21:01
  the problem. It's the voters that are the problem,
• 2:21:03
  not their message or what they do, or it's the
• 2:21:06
  voters' fault. Unless we vote correctly. Unless
• 2:21:08
  we vote correctly. And then we're geniuses who
• 2:21:10
  saved North Idaho College. Oh, yeah. I mean,
• 2:21:12
  the community just stepped up and really figured
• 2:21:14
  it out. But yet, you still have 45 % to 50 %
• 2:21:18
  in each of those races or somewhere in that range
• 2:21:20
  of people that still saw the light. So, you won,
• 2:21:24
  but Not exactly what you call a landslide. And
• 2:21:26
  that was those who cut through the rhetoric.
• 2:21:28
  Yeah. I mean, in the rhetoric was the rhetoric
• 2:21:29
  was deep. In fact, I had, I had personal acquaintances
• 2:21:34
  who reached out to me for clarification on my
• 2:21:37
  dad and the other trustees and that particular
• 2:21:39
  race. And these are people who know me personally,
• 2:21:42
  know me well and know my politics and know a
• 2:21:45
  lot of confusion. And I've got, when I've got
• 2:21:47
  them reaching out to me for clarification, that's
• 2:21:49
  when I knew Heavy propaganda campaign. Well sample
• 2:21:52
  ballots out everywhere recommended candidates
• 2:21:54
  and multiple groups using the terms North Idaho
• 2:21:56
  or Republican or all the above and everything.
• 2:21:59
  I mean there was they mimic the match other organizations
• 2:22:04
  you know you got the official KCRCC Kootenai
• 2:22:07
  County Republican Central Committee saying stuff
• 2:22:09
  and you got groups that are copying what they're
• 2:22:11
  doing. Like North Idaho Republican. They mimic
• 2:22:14
  the branding. Of course, they got in trouble.
• 2:22:18
  They got fined and then they got told not to
• 2:22:21
  cease and desist. Don't use this and that logo.
• 2:22:23
  I mean, they're all over the line all the time.
• 2:22:25
  There's no tactics that are off limits. This
• 2:22:27
  is a Linsky -ism. There's no rules. There's no
• 2:22:31
  rules. The caption for that video for the I displayed
• 2:22:36
  that Save North Idaho College now. Kootenay County
• 2:22:38
  voters have three strong, no -nonsense, conservative
• 2:22:41
  -minded candidates for North Idaho College Board.
• 2:22:44
  Boy, is the word conservative overused and misused
• 2:22:46
  anymore. Well, and everybody seems to be a Christian
• 2:22:49
  too. Our central committee, I just want to know
• 2:22:51
  the theology in their church. That's all. I just
• 2:22:53
  wonder. It's amazing the Christians and what
• 2:22:56
  they do. Commandment number one, thou shalt win
• 2:22:58
  at all costs. Yeah, he's right. Well, that's
• 2:22:59
  true, though. They do believe that any means.
• 2:23:01
  are okay if it justifies the ends. And they've
• 2:23:04
  said it. I've even had friends, I mean Mary Susan
• 2:23:06
  once said, someone called her on, she said some
• 2:23:08
  stuff and she tried to deny it and finally she
• 2:23:10
  made, well yeah, and then her comment was, well
• 2:23:12
  that's just politics. Well no it's not, no it's
• 2:23:15
  not. I don't care, what you say here, I'm gonna
• 2:23:17
  hold you accountable here. You don't get a free
• 2:23:20
  pass to say stuff. No, if you say stuff that's
• 2:23:23
  wrong or incorrect or untrue or whatever, you
• 2:23:27
  can't just say crap and then, After we're done,
• 2:23:30
  we'll hug and shake hands and everything's okay.
• 2:23:32
  No, you got to conduct yourself pre -election
• 2:23:34
  and post -election the same way. Well, holding
• 2:23:37
  people accountable is not cool, dad. I know.
• 2:23:39
  Not cool. So where is the, what is the status
• 2:23:42
  of the accreditation now? Oh, it's being returned
• 2:23:45
  slowly and they're making the proper, you know,
• 2:23:49
  oh, but yeah, it was looking good, you know,
• 2:23:51
  and they're, so they're slowly, incrementally
• 2:23:53
  doing this because now they've got control. So
• 2:23:54
  they're just going to take their time. Play it
• 2:23:56
  out and do it right. And make it look like it
• 2:23:59
  was hard to get back. Oh yeah, yeah. Right, they
• 2:24:02
  can't just go like, okay well that's over here
• 2:24:04
  so it's all good. They know they can, but they
• 2:24:07
  could. They literally could if they wanted to.
• 2:24:09
  Nobody goes to the meeting. A couple people went
• 2:24:11
  a couple times. Get it back now. Nobody talks.
• 2:24:13
  Hardly anybody shows up. It's just totally opaque.
• 2:24:16
  Nick Swain runs the college and he's got five
• 2:24:19
  yes votes for everything he wants. They have
• 2:24:21
  the full majority. They're just rubber stampers.
• 2:24:24
  And they're all happy. So there's no protest,
• 2:24:26
  nobody pulling fire alarms, nobody assaulting
• 2:24:28
  my dad. They're just having a great time. I kind
• 2:24:30
  of miss the excitement a little bit. Well, a
• 2:24:33
  couple of my friends still kept going a couple
• 2:24:35
  of minutes ago and then they said, what's the
• 2:24:37
  point? Yeah, what's the point? It's just boring.
• 2:24:39
  It's like a joke. Nick's in charge. Okay. Everybody's
• 2:24:43
  good. Well, I think it is at a certain point.
• 2:24:45
  And then for you, it's been 12 years worth you
• 2:24:48
  where you're back to the way it was 12 years
• 2:24:51
  ago. After 12 years, 12 years, it looks the same
• 2:24:54
  except more people now hate more people. In fact,
• 2:24:58
  I like we're in the same, same athletic league,
• 2:25:00
  although they killed, that was a retaliation,
• 2:25:02
  I think when they killed the golf program. Oh,
• 2:25:04
  that was like day one. The golf program was the
• 2:25:07
  best program we had. They won all the championships.
• 2:25:09
  The golf coach, Russell, was amazing. Of course,
• 2:25:12
  Eastern Washington just hired him, so better
• 2:25:13
  for him. He's now at the four -year institution,
• 2:25:15
  making more money, better deal, higher college.
• 2:25:17
  But he brought the system a little bit, and his
• 2:25:20
  dad did as the assistant coach. And I advocated
• 2:25:22
  for them because they needed an assistant coach.
• 2:25:24
  They only had one paid coach. That's it for a
• 2:25:27
  man's and a woman's team. And they were one of
• 2:25:29
  the ones. And so they're one of the first ones
• 2:25:30
  that got chopped. So I like the Italian program.
• 2:25:33
  Tony said something. You know, they had the gall
• 2:25:35
  to actually say something. And I'm going to tell
• 2:25:38
  you, I'm surprised, you know, I shouldn't probably
• 2:25:41
  say this in public, but they'd probably whack
• 2:25:42
  Corey Simmons if it wasn't for all the connections
• 2:25:44
  with his family hadn't been there for so long
• 2:25:46
  in the community. Cause you know, Corey's one
• 2:25:48
  of the few that at times is kind of chafed too.
• 2:25:50
  But there's something on the recording of when
• 2:25:52
  the other head coaches, you know, when this,
• 2:25:54
  some of this went down and when they fired the
• 2:25:55
  golf team, there's stuff out there, but nobody
• 2:25:58
  can say anything because they have jobs and careers.
• 2:26:00
  So golf was one, and that's the thing that's
• 2:26:03
  so funny is the golf community screamed and yelled,
• 2:26:05
  and they gave no attempt to them, left them even
• 2:26:07
  fundraise. They'd raise so much money, and just
• 2:26:10
  like this, they'd raise money, because the golf
• 2:26:11
  courses support them, and they loved Russell
• 2:26:14
  Grove, and all the connections. It's too expensive,
• 2:26:17
  we can't do it. Okay, would you let them fundraise
• 2:26:19
  or come to the booster club? No. No, they're
• 2:26:22
  just, they're gone. Also, everybody got a 3 %
• 2:26:25
  pay raise. Right. Exactly. And we're spending
• 2:26:27
  money on other things, too. I can keep going
• 2:26:29
  on that one. And the president makes like 350
• 2:26:31
  grand, not including perks. It's punitive. And
• 2:26:34
  it happens again at every level where they're
• 2:26:37
  like, oh, you didn't give us what we wanted financially
• 2:26:41
  for like administrator salaries. We're cutting
• 2:26:43
  the kids' art program. What do you think about
• 2:26:45
  that? It was the make -believe budgets. That
• 2:26:47
  is the modus operandi. In fact, you see it with
• 2:26:48
  the government shutdowns now. You know what they
• 2:26:50
  closed? They closed the forward -facing stuff
• 2:26:52
  that you I need to get shit done, but they still
• 2:26:55
  take our tax money, so they're not closed. Well,
• 2:26:58
  that's like the athletic thing. We went back
• 2:27:00
  to the new athletics and we had this budget,
• 2:27:01
  we had this understanding with the coaches. We
• 2:27:03
  never made it through the first year so we could
• 2:27:05
  get a baseline to see what we were actually spending.
• 2:27:07
  They got all these numbers out, which were the
• 2:27:09
  budget or the projected, which even Sarah, when
• 2:27:12
  I put it on the spot, said, well, these are the
• 2:27:14
  worst case scenarios. These are the highest possible
• 2:27:16
  things. We've created everybody like they're
• 2:27:17
  from a foreign country and all this stuff. They
• 2:27:20
  weren't real numbers, but they're the ones they're
• 2:27:22
  clinging to and the ones they keep using. And
• 2:27:24
  it's just staggering to me. And so we'll have
• 2:27:26
  never seen real numbers or know what it actually
• 2:27:28
  costs for one year back in the original athletic
• 2:27:32
  program. For one year of what? Back in the original
• 2:27:35
  conferences, back in the NJCA. We never actually
• 2:27:38
  got a full year of that to see it. We wanted
• 2:27:40
  to see one year and then we figured out, you
• 2:27:42
  know, the coaches were known not to abuse it
• 2:27:44
  because that would create all sorts of problems.
• 2:27:47
  But hey, we couldn't even get there. But staff
• 2:27:49
  and faculty got another race. Yes the cost of
• 2:27:52
  living I don't think I don't think there's been
• 2:27:54
  what a year or two year period where they haven't
• 2:27:56
  gotten at least a two or three percent race Well,
• 2:27:58
  how many times those student -athletes? Uh -huh.
• 2:28:01
  Yeah, they could be sacrificed. Well, they're
• 2:28:03
  just the students. They're just the kids This
• 2:28:05
  college is not about the students and the kids.
• 2:28:07
  It's not. Yeah, it's a jobs program But for the
• 2:28:10
  people who already have jobs creation career
• 2:28:12
  job program That's the part that gets lost in
• 2:28:14
  all of this like they're just pawns like they're
• 2:28:16
  not even real None of it's real. You mean it
• 2:28:18
  was about the students? You know, I spent 12
• 2:28:21
  years just going, oh, really? You gotta be kidding
• 2:28:25
  me. You know, I had said once in the military,
• 2:28:27
  I've had enough salutes. I don't need any more.
• 2:28:29
  It wasn't about power or ego. I went back because
• 2:28:31
  I was asked. By the 96th grad that took over
• 2:28:34
  as the commander of the wing over there, and
• 2:28:36
  he needed help. So I went and helped for as long
• 2:28:38
  as I could stand it, especially under the Biden
• 2:28:40
  administration and COVID and everything else.
• 2:28:42
  It was miserable. But I enjoyed it. I loved my
• 2:28:44
  brothers and sisters in the military and, you
• 2:28:46
  know, actually I loved serving and I was proud
• 2:28:49
  to do it. But it was tough at times, like I said.
• 2:28:53
  But again, I don't need anything. This hurt my
• 2:28:56
  life. This hurt my business. This hurt everything.
• 2:28:58
  please someone tell me what what i got out of
• 2:29:01
  this somehow financially or anything else there
• 2:29:03
  was a lot of that actually there were a lot of
• 2:29:05
  accusations as a private investor developer or
• 2:29:09
  that we were developers and we we wanted to take
• 2:29:11
  n .i .c use your opponents of that which you
• 2:29:14
  are guilty wow my gosh like Yeah, that we wanted
• 2:29:17
  to tank ICNIC as a family so then we could somehow
• 2:29:21
  get our hands on the property and demo it and
• 2:29:23
  then develop it. Which was set up by the one
• 2:29:24
  that was originally deeded. They can only be
• 2:29:26
  used for three purposes. It can never happen
• 2:29:27
  anyway. Meanwhile, him and I, we don't have anybody
• 2:29:30
  who we're related to or who are like that are
• 2:29:32
  in the real estate industry. But some of the
• 2:29:33
  people like us are. Developers and builders and
• 2:29:37
  all the rest of that. Counterpoint. Imagine how
• 2:29:40
  cool. a cigar lounge on the Spokane Riverfront
• 2:29:43
  would be. It would be pretty sweet, but I wouldn't
• 2:29:44
  be able to afford the property taxes. I still
• 2:29:49
  forget all the benefits I got out of this. Well,
• 2:29:51
  yeah, it's an unpaid position. Unpaid. Yeah,
• 2:29:54
  it was. Well, I did it too for all the power
• 2:29:55
  and authority, because I'd never had any power
• 2:29:57
  or authority or been in charge. Oh, yeah. Wielding
• 2:29:59
  that must have been a rush. Well, I'll tell you,
• 2:30:01
  I just was beside myself excited and giddy. So
• 2:30:04
  here's a question. If you could go back to 2012,
• 2:30:07
  knowing what you know now, would you even wade
• 2:30:10
  into the pool? It's a hard question to answer.
• 2:30:19
  Here's what I will say. And I will say this at
• 2:30:23
  least about Dunlap and McClendon to a degree,
• 2:30:28
  especially Dunlap, but McClendon even to a point.
• 2:30:32
  It wasn't an ability for me to work with some
• 2:30:34
  of the senior staff there, some of the leaders.
• 2:30:37
  And I did have some friendships and some relationships
• 2:30:39
  there. Some better than others, some not so much.
• 2:30:42
  But I could work with people. I could work with
• 2:30:44
  Lita Burns or Graydon Stanley. I certainly worked
• 2:30:47
  with Chris Martin enough. Budget stuff. If you
• 2:30:50
  do share it by trade and practice, that's what
• 2:30:53
  I do. And there were times where I could go to
• 2:30:58
  those folks, hand stuff off to them, and they
• 2:31:01
  could help students. Parent concerns, student
• 2:31:04
  concerns, issues. And a lot of times, I didn't
• 2:31:06
  even know, and so... Lots of people came back
• 2:31:08
  to me and it was in limits of what they could
• 2:31:09
  tell me but they could always at least tell me
• 2:31:11
  we got to the right person or we handled or we
• 2:31:13
  took care of it or we were able to help those
• 2:31:14
  people you know even if there weren't a lot of
• 2:31:16
  specifics sometimes just because of privacy or
• 2:31:18
  whatever but I knew those and I knew a lot of
• 2:31:20
  times they were engaged because again those people
• 2:31:21
  would come back to me and they would thank me.
• 2:31:23
  So we had a lot of small victories and we made
• 2:31:26
  a difference in the trajectory and the careers
• 2:31:28
  of some people and in their lives. I know sometimes
• 2:31:30
  we were able to have actually dramatic impacts
• 2:31:33
  by making some change, affecting how things were
• 2:31:37
  handled, you know, and decisions and stuff that
• 2:31:40
  were the right things to do. You know, but again,
• 2:31:42
  I was already removed out of that process, but
• 2:31:44
  the senior leadership took that upon themselves
• 2:31:46
  in their chain of command and did what they needed
• 2:31:49
  to do to help those students and did right by
• 2:31:51
  those students. And that was what it was all
• 2:31:53
  about. So for me, those victories, I feel that
• 2:31:56
  they were worth it for those people, because
• 2:31:58
  I know we made a difference in people's lives.
• 2:32:00
  And so I took a lot of solace and What kept me
• 2:32:04
  going were those little victories like that where
• 2:32:06
  I know we helped people in the one -on -one situations.
• 2:32:09
  You know, the college as a whole, there were
• 2:32:10
  some instructors, you know, one of the college
• 2:32:12
  professors that was always under fire was Ed
• 2:32:14
  Cates. Dr. Cates, brilliant man. I highly respect
• 2:32:18
  him. But they were after him. But we were able
• 2:32:22
  to make it so that when he decided to leave the
• 2:32:24
  college, he left under his own terms and now
• 2:32:26
  he's become the headmaster out the Kootenay Classical
• 2:32:29
  Academy and he's doing an amazing job and that
• 2:32:31
  school's doing an amazing job. They have a huge
• 2:32:32
  waiting list. I know, I've heard good things
• 2:32:34
  and I got a one and a half year old or almost
• 2:32:36
  two and I've heard the waiting list is a long
• 2:32:38
  one. But you know, he's a guy that maybe if I
• 2:32:42
  wasn't trustee maybe his tenure wouldn't have
• 2:32:44
  lasted as long there because they were certainly
• 2:32:46
  targeting him but I think they also knew that
• 2:32:48
  I was watching that. So maybe I helped Dr. Cates,
• 2:32:52
  I don't know. I don't want to oversell it or
• 2:32:54
  make too big a deal of it, but you know, just
• 2:32:55
  some examples of kids and that one I'll throw
• 2:32:57
  out the kids. I won't mention any names, but
• 2:33:00
  my son actually knows at least one young man
• 2:33:01
  that he knows his dad very well and that we were
• 2:33:05
  able to help with on the CTE side of it. Yeah,
• 2:33:07
  dad definitely moved the needle on an individual
• 2:33:09
  level for sure. So for sure I'm going to try
• 2:33:11
  to go with that answer that we made some differences.
• 2:33:15
  So hopefully that was all worth it. But would
• 2:33:17
  you do it again? Would you jump in? Honestly,
• 2:33:20
  I don't know if I would or not. The toll it took
• 2:33:22
  on my family, my friends and family and my business
• 2:33:25
  and just everything, and on me, quite frankly.
• 2:33:27
  So that's cool. So that's just the reaction you
• 2:33:29
  want from people who are trying to volunteer
• 2:33:31
  in their community. So that's well done. Well
• 2:33:32
  done toiling cartel. You've done a yeoman's job.
• 2:33:35
  Zero stars. Would not recommend volunteering.
• 2:33:38
  So I think we can, even though I'm sure there's
• 2:33:40
  tons of stones we left uncovered, I think that's
• 2:33:43
  a pretty good dive. a different perspective than
• 2:33:47
  the one you saw on the billboard. Save NIC. It's
• 2:33:51
  saved. Yeah, it's been saved. As evidenced by
• 2:33:53
  the recent instructor and his thing and all the
• 2:33:55
  other good stuff that's coming. I think the golf
• 2:33:57
  program feels pretty saved. Yeah, it went the
• 2:33:59
  way of the baseball and other things. OK, so
• 2:34:02
  I think that will wrap that up. Thank you very
• 2:34:05
  much for joining us, Todd. I appreciate it a
• 2:34:07
  lot. And I think you make me a little levity
• 2:34:10
  as we wrap up our inaugural show here on No ID.
• 2:34:13
  We have this from just this week that Fish and
• 2:34:16
  Game has been pulling on us. Hunters in North
• 2:34:18
  Idaho, take a second look before you pull that
• 2:34:21
  trigger. That trophy bowl standing oh so still
• 2:34:24
  might not be what you might think. Fish and Game
• 2:34:26
  officers are deploying lifelike decoys called
• 2:34:29
  artificial simulated animals to catch hunters
• 2:34:32
  breaking the law. These realistic models of moose,
• 2:34:35
  elk, and deer are used to stop illegal road hunting,
• 2:34:38
  spotlighting, and trespassing. Anyone caught
• 2:34:40
  shooting one of these - And by the way, you can
• 2:34:42
  tell this guy went to broadcast school. Is this
• 2:34:44
  guy's accent legit? You're breaking the law.
• 2:34:46
  His accent is, I went to the Columbia School
• 2:34:48
  of Broadcasting. Anyone caught shooting one of
• 2:34:51
  these decoys could lose their license, face up
• 2:34:53
  to a $1 ,000 fine, and even spend six months
• 2:34:56
  behind bars. Behind bars? Oh, come on. Six months
• 2:34:59
  behind bars. Before you take a shot, make sure
• 2:35:01
  your bowls, the real - deal and not a setup.
• 2:35:23
  Just in case you were just in case you were planning
• 2:35:25
  on doing some poaching here in North Idaho, fish
• 2:35:27
  and game. They might be setting you up just so
• 2:35:30
  you know. We're gonna put all the new thousands
• 2:35:31
  of acres that the tribe just bought back and
• 2:35:33
  just closed all the hunters. We set one right
• 2:35:35
  on there. The words of the great Adam. It's a
• 2:35:37
  trap. It's a trap. Okay, well, let's let's wrap
• 2:35:40
  up our inaugural show. Did we get you most eclipse
• 2:35:42
  that you wanted? Yeah, all of them. Yeah. Yeah,
• 2:35:45
  I went way long. That's just fine. We have 15
• 2:35:48
  minutes for a beer if we can get there. Let's
• 2:35:49
  do it. Thank you very much for checking out our
• 2:35:52
  first episode of No ID. I'm Scott. That's Paul.
• 2:35:56
  Todd joined us. If you found value in this show,
• 2:35:59
  please send it back to us, time, talent, or treasure,
• 2:36:01
  noidpod at gmail .com, noidshow .com, and hopefully
• 2:36:06
  we'll see you for the next one. Cheers. behind
• 2:36:30
  ball arts.