Latest / Profits & Politics / Jerry talks about his dad and the World Trade Center

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Jerry talks about his dad and the World Trade Center · Profits & Politics

• 0:15
  SPEAKER_04: Hey folks, welcome to the morning call show.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_04: I'm Bob Sellers here with Jerry Burke.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_04: A couple of news vets trying to find the right and wrong in between the right and left.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_04: Jerry, what do you have today?
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I uh the the the top story, Bob, is is really you and data centers.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: I've been watching your feed over the weekend, and you've been going out and doing your own little reporting on data centers.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: And you happen to live in Loudoun County, Virginia.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_04: Well, right next to it.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_04: I literally am about a mile from Loudoun County.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_04: I'm in Fairfax County, but right next to it.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so let's roll let's roll the video and take a look at what you were up to this weekend.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_04: Here's one thing that I uh shot over the weekend.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_04: Uh it's uh a minute, a little over a minute.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_04: You know, President Trump says that anybody opposed to data centers must be backwards and poor.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_04: That's not the case here in Loud County, just the opposite.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yet there's a growing opposition to them.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_04: This is one under development, one of 40 plus.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_04: There's one over there already finished.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_04: There are over 200 of those.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_04: So data centers have been a part of Loud County.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_04: In fact, they get over a billion dollars a year in tax revenue by taxing what's inside those buildings.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_04: So, why the opposition?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_04: Well, a number of things.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_04: First, they use a lot of electricity, which goes this way, and the electricity rates are going up in this area for residents as well.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_04: And then you've got another issue, and that is the value of land.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_04: These data centers will spend millions of dollars on property, and if you're a land developer, if you want to put in a subdivision, you have to compete with that.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_04: So those prices are going up, and then these are becoming so much a part of East Loud County that they're afraid that the west part of the county might look like this, also.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_04: And as you can see, these don't necessarily have a whole lot of charm.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_04: So there is growing opposition, they are not backward, and they are not poor.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: And uh going back to what I was saying about Loudoun County, it's such a liberal hotbed that I would think.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have that map of Loudoun County showing how many data centers there are?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and this uh probably has changed a little bit because I think this is roughly a year old, but it comes from the government.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they put I mean that's a that's a lot of data centers.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_04: The yellows are already there.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_04: Uh the purple are in development being built, may be done by now.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: They're sitting right on top of each other.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_04: They're like another 50 in the process, also.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_04: So if anybody thinks that um here's what's gonna happen, in my opinion.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_04: Each side is going to simplify the opposing viewpoint.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that's the wrong thing to do.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_04: And Trump started last week, I think it was saying, as I mentioned, that anybody that uh opposes data centers uh wants to be backwards and poor.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, I understand he's saying uh we need to look to the future, we need to develop this kind of technology.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_04: Totally get that.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_04: But I got news for you, Loudoun County has done that uh since 2007.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_04: I think that was their first data center, somewhere around there.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_04: And since 2015, I think they've been bringing in over a billion dollars in tax revenue.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_04: They tax what's inside, like they tax the servers as as a property.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_04: Uh they tax excuse me, they tax uh the cooling uh uh equipment, they tax the networking equipment, all the things inside the building they can tax.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_04: That's where they're getting a lot of their revenue.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_04: But we're so they're not backward at all.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_04: And I show a little graphic there.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_04: Loudoun County is the richest county in the country.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_04: People don't think that.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_04: So when you say they're backward, they're outside Washington, D.C.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_04: AOL put its headquarters there.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um, they have made a lot of money from the federal government, by the way, because you get a lot of contractors uh that get money and they have set up in Loudoun County, Fairfax County and Loudoun County.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_04: Loudoun County is beautiful, it has some beautiful territory, and one of the concerns of the people that live there is that these data centers are making it look, I use the term post-apocalyptic, which is maybe a little unfair, but I can tell you there's a difference.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_04: You go driving around Lounge County on the eastern part of it, and data alley data center alley is what it's called, and there's one after another, and you don't see restaurants, you don't see gas stations, you don't see workout facilities.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you it's all packed in a certain area, and it's bringing in the money.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_04: But the people are saying enough is enough.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's not just uh Loudoun County, too.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: The um headline out of New York State Um data, how AI and data centers are dominating New York's key midterm races.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um New York New York's GOP candidates are blazing forward with a pro-tech, pro-business message in the state's marquee November races, while Democrats are trying to weaponize a surge in public outrage against data centers and AI.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not a good thing.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I think it's unfortunate.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think you're right, Gary.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_04: Let me uh give an example of that.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_04: We saw this uh upset about data centers, big tech and Trump think you're a socialist dupe.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_04: And that's what's going to happen.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_04: Those who support data centers, that's a I don't like that uh as a sentence, frankly, but data center supporters are going to try to cast others as out of touch with technological evolution, out of touch with what a threat China is, uh, and and backwards and poor.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_04: Okay?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_04: Let's have a big boy discussion about this.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna give you a list.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_04: I'll make it quick, Jerry, because I know you you you as a producer.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um the here very quickly are some of the problems with uh I'll I'll point out the positive.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_04: Like I mentioned, they're they're getting money, tax money, and they're construction jobs all over the place.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_04: Once the thing is done, there aren't as many jobs.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_04: There's no jobs now concerns because they don't have as many people inside the building.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_04: So you've got a huge electricity demand.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_04: Remember, this is 24-7 that they're going.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_04: They're going constantly, and they use as much, we've talked about this, as 100,000 homes.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_04: And in the whole county, there are only 150,000 homes, and there are already over 200 centers.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, so the electricity demand is huge and rates are going up, including mine.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_04: I get my electricity from the same people.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_04: It's controlled to some extent, but they're going up.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um, relatively few permanent jobs after they are operating.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_04: Noise and environmental concerns.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_04: This is where they're gonna say, oh, the left, you know, they're worried about global warming.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_04: And I've got okay, there is some noise with some of them if you get close enough.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, intrusive power infrastructure.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_04: You see substations all over the place.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_04: They're not attractive, it's hard to make those things look good.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um, development drawing, uh uh driving up land prices and crowding out affordable real estate.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_04: Now, think about that.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_04: You want to uh have a subdivision that's affordable for people.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_04: Now you're competing with data centers that say we got deep pockets, we can pay a whole lot more than you can.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_04: And now you're pushing out, you know, if somebody wants to commute to Fairfax County or to DC, they've got a problem.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, industrial development creeping into residential areas.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_04: They're having to decide now where are we going to allow these things?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_04: They actually are considering a moratorium.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_04: The city attorney says you can't have, or county attorney says you can't have, you don't have the power to impose a moratorium.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_04: The governor, Abigail Spamberger, has said, I don't want anything to do with this, it's up to you.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_04: And then um uh it's changing a residential county into an industrial one, for lack of a better term.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_04: Those are some of the uh this is from the headquarters, you could say, of data centers in the country.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_04: They are not backward, they are not poor, they're the richest by median household income.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_04: They are the richest in the country.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: And and it's spreading.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, Kathy Holkel, the governor of New York, um, is in a real battle uh for re-election against uh Republican Bruce Blakeman.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: She recently fired a major salvo in the anti-data center war by implementing a one-year statewide moratorium on new sites in the Empire State.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um look, uh Jerry, let's uh how about the two of us have uh again a big boy conversation about this?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_04: You can't have no data centers, right?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, no, you've got to build them somewhere.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_04: And you have to, and there are advantages, you get some construction jobs.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_04: What's what if I go to a poor county that's struggling?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_04: All of a sudden I show up, I've got hundreds of construction jobs, right, and people put to work, and and that's a good thing, right?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_04: So go ahead.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: My my my feeling is when I'm really struck by all the data centers in Loudoun County as some of the most expensive real estate in the country.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: Why aren't they setting up shop in like the middle of Nevada?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: Look at that.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's amazing.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: Why isn't that in out of outside of Reno, 100 miles outside of Reno, where there's nothing?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um I'm going to answer that uh just from my own first glance without talking to an expert on it.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_04: And I may be completely wrong about this.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, but part of the reason it went into Loudoun County is because they are so forward-thinking.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_04: Remember, this isn't just starting.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_04: They've done this for over a dozen years.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_04: I think, like I said, since 2007, which goes back almost 20 years.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_04: They've been doing this a long time because they are forward-thinking.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_04: Data centers back then, nobody thought about.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_04: And remember, the data centers are creating the capability of processing all the data that AI brings with it.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_04: And we're all using AI more and more every day.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_04: And so we can't put our head in the sand and say, no more data centers, we're not going to do that.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_04: No, the technology is going to go with or without us.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_04: And so you want to be with it.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_04: So I think your question is a good one, Jerry.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you know, if you go into a poor county in Nevada, um, and I and I can come in and say, but now the reason, uh, like I mentioned, Loudoun County, they're forward-thinking, and um the technology can get to them, and they're very technologically minded.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_04: They're they're they're, you know, it's a good fit.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_04: Now, do you take this?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_04: I've always I've said uh for anybody that's read William Gibson novels in the past, I'd I think these should be off planet.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you could put something up so it doesn't bother anybody.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: You're right.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's what Elon Musk of all people, he's saying that if you built it in space, yeah, then you you wouldn't have to worry about the cooling costs or the electrical costs, you know, because it's it's a vacuum.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's you know below zero temperatures up there.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: Or build them build them in the ocean.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I think there are there's talk about that, but if you ever deal with the ocean, uh the pressure and the effect of water over time on uh different materials is very challenging.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_04: And the there are people, by the way, that kind of live underwater that work on underwater rigs uh for months at a time or at least weeks at a time.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_04: Um, how do you find them?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and the risk is so high you can die if something goes wrong.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_04: So um I I just think that um I what I lament, Jerry, is these are gonna become simplistic attacks on each side instead of getting together and say, okay, we need them, right?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, where are we gonna put them?
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_04: How do we deal with the negatives?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's not gonna happen.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_04: And they're not gonna do that.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: They're not gonna do it.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's crazy.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's like two dogs running over a bone.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we've got the opportunity, but they're not gonna do that.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: No, they're not.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I have another headline for you.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: A beloved American burger chain.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: Let's see if you can guess.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: A beloved American burger chain goes all in on MAGA, and now sales are soaring.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_04: Was that Chester's or something?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_04: I can't remember what it was.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_04: It's steak and shake.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_04: Are they still in business?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_04: They've lost a lot of properties in recent years.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_04: They have.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_04: What they've done.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_04: But wait a minute, steak and shake.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_04: Steak and shake's doing okay, right?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: It is.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's a very popular brand.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_04: I was thinking it's steak and ale.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: But they taken uh they've taken recently a markedly MAGA turn by embracing by embracing Maha, Make America Healthy Again.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's the they they stopped using seed oils and they don't even use microwaves.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: And uh steak and shake has gone all in now on Donald Trump's Make America Healthy Again movement, embracing Trump and Health Secretary Robert F.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: Kennedy Jr.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: with open arms.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: Sales have skyrocketed.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: They listen to this.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: They feature 100% beef tallow fries, cane sugar Coca-Cola, you know the the Mexican Mexican, the Mexican goat.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and grade A Wisconsin butter and A2 whole milk.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not quite sure what that is.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, they're going for a healthier overall look.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_04: And they've got a cane sugar is is not a healthier look.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_04: Only in in that world would that be gonna and and I'm somebody I try to eat healthy, right?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_04: And I definitely eat sugar.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_04: I definitely have cane sugar here and there.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_04: But the idea, I um I think that uh steak and shake is a fun place to eat.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_04: The the uh it's delicious, the steaks are delicious.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_04: And and so I've eaten there many times and it's always crowded.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I I would just issue a warning to them be careful about identifying as MAGA.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_04: Maha's one thing, which which I think is misguided anyway, but um, I'd I would tell them don't get political, just do your job like Chick fil A.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know if you I don't see how parents survive without Chick-fil-A.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_04: You gotta you gotta go and they are run so well, and supposedly run by somebody conservative, right?
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_04: They don't operate on a Sunday.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, but it's because they're I I've always felt, Jerry, you know, uh sell me a good product, and and I don't care what your politics are.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: No, that's true.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: But the boss at Steak and Shake, he's he said they're doing this to restore the original spirit of American fast food.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: What does that even mean?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_04: You mean the one that made us fat?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like they're trying to pass this off as health food.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and and don't get me Chick-fil-A is like deep fried chicken, you know?
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's not it's not like lightly breaded health food.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's you know they have a chicken wrap.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um and I'll tell you what, you get those um their little biscuits with the chicken in the morning before 10 30.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_04: I try to stay away from they are good.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I know.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: Chicken minis.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but uh we've uh also, you know, the um Trump has apparently been making some headway in the peace talks over the weekend.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: He sent Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff over to meet with Putin.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: And Putin gave his regards to Donald Trump and called for a three-day ceasefire um because uh Jared and Witkoff were gonna get on a plane and go to Kyiv.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so Putin promised not to bomb Kyiv for three days so they could get their work done.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: And now they're in Kyiv today talking to uh um Zelensky.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: Zelensky, yeah.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_04: What are your thoughts?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, I I also read an article over the weekend that they've basically the Trump administration has given up hope of actually getting a deal up uh with Iran.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: Certainly, they're not gonna get a deal on the nukes, you know, Iran's nuclear development.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I think I think they're happy just to stand off a couple hundred miles and just lob keep lobbing missiles in.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_04: Well, they are because they shot down um uh I think it was uh an Iranian tanker yesterday.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um the Strait of Hormuz was open before we went in there and and started a war.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah and look, I'm not I'm not rooting for Iran.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_04: I'm I'm rooting like anybody else for an open uh Strait of Hormuz.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_04: Jerry, at what point do we stop?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um at what point do we just start saying, okay, where's the alternative to the Strait of Hormuz?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_04: And how long will it take to get that up and running?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_04: Because if it's got to go through there, you're gonna have problems.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: Well, they've been making some headway, building new canals and whatnot.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: And and actually they dredged apparently a new waterway that's far enough away from Iran that they can't reach it with missiles.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, I wouldn't I wouldn't count on it.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: And Iran, um, they're capable of all kinds of skullduggery, and they could, you know, they've they planted uh they planted mines in the in the straits that we say we've we've plucked, but there's nothing stopping Iran from going in and replanting mines there.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: And as you know, um it doesn't take an actual mine, it's just a fear of hitting a mine that will have a chilling effect on captains of ships that don't want to lose their whole cargo.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and the insurance companies are doing pretty well insuring them.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_04: S depending on whether they'll insure them, but uh the the uh the rates go up.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_04: And where does that show up?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_04: It shows up in the cost of the oil and the cost at the pump.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, all of this is a reason that gas is up over four dollars.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, also I have a 9-11 story.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um the 25th anniversary, anniversary, uh memorial.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: Commemoration is Friday.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: And over the weekend, uh former New York governor Pataki, remember him?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he was the governor at the time of 9-11.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: He's revealed that he has developed a 9-11 related illness just days before the 25th memorial.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_04: What is it?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um I'm sorry?
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_04: What what is he suffering from?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, he's got a can't a type of cancer from his exposure.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it's basically COPD.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh from his exposure to toxins at uh ground zero, as they called it.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_04: Well, Jerry, um I went down to ground zero a few days after it happened.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um I I forget if it was the Monday or Tuesday following it, but I went down there and on the mound of debris.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_04: I probably went at what day of the week was 9-11?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_04: Was it a Tuesday?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_03: Tuesday.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_04: I think I went down the following Monday or somewhere around there.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_04: And of course it was heartbreaking um because you knew how many people were dead, but uh as I was able to get there because I was in the media, I was at CNBC, and I didn't go with a photographer, I just went on my own because I wanted to see it.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_04: And when you were down there, there would be these wafts of breezes of wind that were like granular.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_04: And whatever it was coming from, you knew it was associated with the buildings that had collapsed.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_04: And I thought at that time, oh my god, you know, um, I can't imagine being in this on a daily basis.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_04: You remember all those um Firefighters and others who were on the mound for months after it.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_04: It happened to be a warm winter, so they were able to accomplish a lot clearing up ground zero.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_04: But I can tell you firsthand, I just went down there that one day, and I could tell by what was in the air that it was not healthy.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_04: So when Pataki says that, I don't doubt it.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_04: I don't doubt anybody who says they got sick working down there.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I it took me a long time to be able to go down there.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like it took years for me to be able to go back down there.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: I had a a special connection because my father came over as an immigrant from Ireland and he was lucky enough, eventually, started to work as a janitor of all things, and uh he eventually was able to get a job as a union carpenter, local 608 in Manhattan.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: And he he loved New York City so much.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: He would drive us in there on Sunday like it was the circus, you know, and be like, look at that, look at that.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_02: I worked here, I worked there.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, he took me, this was in the um the early, early 70s, he took me into New York.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: I remember him, he picked me up and he lifted me up over this plywood wall, and I looked down and there was a giant hole.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oh and he said, Son, that's called the World Trade Center, and it's gonna be the world's tallest building, and your dad is gonna build it.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I was pretty impressed.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: And then just a couple years later, he brought me back in to see it finished, and I remember looking up and I couldn't see the top of it because the it went up into the clouds and just disappeared.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: It was an amazing moment that really made an impact on me as a kid.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know, my dad built the world's tallest building.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then when I finally did get to go back down there after 9-11, what was I I went with Eric Bowling, my anchor at the time, and we were allowed, because we were media, we were allowed to go into the pit, which had now been entirely cleaned out, and we were in the what they call the bathtub.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_02: It was a giant thick wall of a foundation to keep the Hudson River from coming in.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember we were six or seven stories below ground.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember thinking, God damn, Jerry, you're you're standing in the hole that your daddy showed you so many years before, you know?
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's just amazing how life goes in circles.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the hole was back again, you know.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_04: So that must have been that must have been really hard.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_02: It was.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: It was very moving, you know, because my dad passed when I was just 17.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: And so I always kind of connected the World Trade Center with my my dad.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: You know.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but anyway, uh I was lucky that I didn't lose anybody in 9-11.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh uh that, you know, I myself wasn't anywhere near the place, you know.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I always sought the refuge of the control room.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_02: Because in the control room, you're in control.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I could call the different shots and I could get people up and all that.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I I the, you know, life was normal again.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_04: I knew some people who went down in the towers.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, one worked, I think, on the 92nd floor, 91st or 92nd, right where one of the planes went.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_04: And he never came out.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_04: And one of the hard things is, uh, and I'm sure anybody that's lost a friend or a loved one has experienced this, but uh you have their number on your phone, and you look at it and you go, What do I do with that?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_04: Do I delete it?
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_04: Do I keep it there?
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's a hard thing to experience.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_04: And I remember 9-11, they read the names every year, and this one particular person, I knew more than one, but this one particular person is in the A's, let's just say.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_04: And so I would often uh wait and hear his name.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, they have family members sometimes.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_04: Certain families are allowed to get, you know, and it's been 25 years, Jerry.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, there are kids who now have kids, and um right, it's gonna be hard crying for a lot of people.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um well, you know, the funny thing is, you know, it's again going back to the circle of life or whatever.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I I don't know why I'm in a hook hakuna matatum uh mood, but uh when I was a child, you know, Pearl Harbor was only literally 25 years earlier.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I didn't think about that uh because to to you and me, uh 9-11 was yesterday.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_04: And and I couldn't agree more.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_04: I came up at a time the Pearl Harbor really wasn't that far in the past.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_04: It wasn't 25 years.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_04: And for me, and yet when you're born at that, it imagine what your parents were going through, knowing that happened.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_02: But the world you know, to me though, Pearl Harbor might as well have been a hundred years earlier.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: With the black and the black and white film and you know, the the ships burning and stuff.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_02: It meant nothing to me.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_04: I have 22-year-old daughters, and I'm sure they will never understand what 9-11 meant.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_04: No, and I hope they don't have to experience anything similar.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, uh, it's unfortunate you you were talking about this circle of life.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I'm hoping there's not another one right around the corner.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_04: You just don't know.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, you don't, you really don't know.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: The uh hopefully we've disrupted the network, you know, enough that we've got a generation or more, you know, before there's anything of that scale.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they were able to hijack four jumbo jets, you know.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and weren't most of them Saudi, and the Saudis have never paid a price for this.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: And we're 19, nine, there were 19 Saudi hijackers, you know.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's not a coincidence.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_04: No, it's not, and yet they were left off uh scot-free, uh, which I I don't get.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we went into Afghanistan, we blew the shit out of them.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I went to Iraq, and nothing, you know?
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing for Saudi.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I yeah, I don't get it.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_04: Now, there's something that I said on um on social media that there's something that I said that upset some folks.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um I but you'll appreciate this.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_04: As a journalist, you have access to people that others don't.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_04: And I asked a general at one point back in the early 2000s or maybe mid-2000s, how come they never attacked us again?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_04: And this I'll just say this well-informed person said, because we told them and their the leadership that we would have to deal with if something happens again, we're going to blame you.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_04: And they say, no, we're we're not gonna do that.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yes, we know that.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_04: But if it happens, we're going to blame you and come after you.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_04: And so that's why you really haven't had a whole lot of organized or even lone wolf kind of activity uh of the scale of 9-11 or attempts thereof.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_04: Uh because, according to this person that I was talking to, uh, who was from the defense uh, let's just say, in the defense world.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um that's uh I I'm I'm being oblique because this administration comes after people for saying things that are true, for revealing something.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_04: I don't want to get anybody in trouble, including myself.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_04: But I I actually think that's brilliant because it wouldn't even have to be.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_04: It's not like you'd have to go to Afghanistan and say if it happens again.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_04: You could go to anybody, any leadership you want, and say, if something happens, we're gonna blame you.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_04: Blame you, right?
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_04: No, just make clear.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_04: We're going to blame you and we're going to come after you.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: Just put them all on notice, whether they're guilty or not.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: But the um Yeah.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh they the so I'm thinking that this would not have happened, 9-11 would would not have been able to happen if Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda didn't have the protection and sponsorship of a major nation.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like, look at what they were able to do.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm talking about the fact that there was a lot of Saudi influence.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: They were Osama was able to hide in Pakistan for years, yeah, a decade.
• 31:19
  unknown: Yeah.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and Pakistan and it was it was in the town that they call it's like Pakistan's West Point.
• 31:27
  unknown: Right.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: Their national military academy is just a mile down the road, you know.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: So he was hiding in plain sight, you know.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we we kind of knew where he was at one point.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I know we looked in Afghanistan and Torabora, but I actually say Torabora, we probably had him, right?
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_04: And we let him go.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: Well, why didn't Pakistan well maybe they did, but why didn't Pakistan pick up the phone and go, we know where he is, he's just down the road, we'll go in tomorrow and we'll arrest him for you.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it's a different world.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_04: The different political uh dynamics and you know, people are not always on our side.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_02: No, they're not.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_02: No, they're not.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I think that's all that's all I have.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, I know.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: But I like the 9-11 stuff.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: That was good.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: We should try to clip that.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but yeah, that's all my stories for today on Happy Labor Day.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_04: We'll we'll leave it there.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_04: Let's see if I have anything else.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I I had this which it'll get too old if I I don't mention it today.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_04: Uh-huh.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_04: And that is um, there was a football game, there are lots of football games, but on Saturday, um, one of my daughters goes to Virginia Tech, and they have um a pr a new coach, and everybody was excited, and they had a good day.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I want to show you though, um that at one point there was a a penalty um because a player went over and high-fived with the military, military cadets.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_04: They have something at Virginia Tech called core cadets.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_04: They are military 24-7.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_04: And I know this because my daughter was in the corps.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_04: And I know this because uh we have friends in the corps that are going to Korea and going to, I mean, we have that, we know all about the Corps.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_04: They are, it's mandatory they go to the games.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_04: The the freshmen get to stand on the field when the team runs out.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_04: That's it.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_04: They have to stay there during the game.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_04: If it snows, if it rains, if there's an eight-hour delay because of lightning, they have to stay.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_04: And that so they are committed.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_04: So a player scored a touchdown, went over and gave them high fives and got penalized for it.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_04: Let me show you what the coach is.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: Socialism leads to you know public.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: James Franklin was heated.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: The reps flagged them for high-fiving members of the military in the third quarter after Virginia Tech scored a touchdown.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: Marcellus Hawkins ran to celebrate high-fiving VT Corps of Cadets members when the Reps flagged them for an unsportsman-like penalty.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: Franklin was not happy being penalized for that, calling it un-American.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: We got a penalty for high-fiving uh one of our you know, uh, members of the Corps.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know why we can't high-five somebody in the military.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: It seems somewhat un-American to me.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's had a lot of people.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_04: Let me make it clear, Jerry.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_04: Just like your son went to West Point and is putting his life on the line for this country.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_04: Virginia Tech is one of six senior military um institutions.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_04: And these cadets, if they get through the four-year program, go into the military as um second lieutenants and have careers, many of them spectacular.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_04: And the idea that you can go high-five them and be penalized for it, to me, that's outrageous.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: I agree.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's terri.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's unbelievable.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's it really is.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, given, as you know, my son, I was just texting with him last night.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_02: He's now in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, uh leading an artillery squad.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, I was hoping I was telling him he better get ear protection.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_02: But um, you know, I I can't tell you how my faith in America has been not only restored but but strengthened by that experience going up to West Point and seeing all those young people that really love America and are willing to lay their lives down for the country.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I think if you watch CNN or you know, a lot of media, you see these blue-haired, crazy people ranting and chanting about Antifa and you know, uh, they hate America.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_02: But that's not what I saw up at West Point, you know.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and just to make clear, most people on the left are not like that.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_04: Those are the extremes.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_04: Just like those on the right, there are extremes on both sides.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_03: No, I agree.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_04: No question, no question, Jerry.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know if you need to get that from Amazon, but um I what that must have been my was that my doorbell, not yours?
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's your doorbell, yeah.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, my doorbell.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but yeah, I'll tell you what.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_04: Um I have uh had some of my faith restored also.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_04: And here's the key, and I hope you agree with this.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_04: Get the politics the hell out of the issue, out of the the military.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_04: They don't care, they literally will follow their um instructions, uh, their orders, they put their lives on the line, yeah, and they will give their lives for the constitution and for this country.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_04: And so what a lot of people need to do is get away from uh making this politics.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's like what yeah, it's like what you say, Bob.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know, every day we take a look at the right and the wrong between the the right and the left.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I don't see a lot of gray areas anymore.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: Every everything is wrong or absolutely right, you know, there's no middle ground.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_04: But anyway, I wanted to point that out that uh that will age a little bit.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_04: So uh I I I thought that that was an interesting story, unfortunate, but there it is.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, true.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_02: All right, Jack.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: All right, happy Labor Day, Bob.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_04: Happy Labor Day.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_02: All right, yeah, and we should remember that breaking news changes everything.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_04: By the way, Labor Day, people like your dad who built the World Trade Center.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Bob.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_02: It means a lot.