Latest / The Jon Justice Show: Presented by Center of the American Experiment / September 17, 2026 | The Jon Justice Show

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September 17, 2026 | The Jon Justice Show · The Jon Justice Show: Presented by Center of the American Experiment

• 0:22
  SPEAKER_11: And it is the John Justice show presented by American Experiment.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_11: I, of course, am your host, John Justice.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_11: Joining me this morning is producer Devin.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_11: Good morning, Devin.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_11: Good to see you today.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_11: You can leave a voice or text blast message.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_11: 651-964-0294.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_11: Again, 651-964-0294.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_11: At any point throughout the show, you can go and leave us a blast on any topics that we'll be covering on the show this morning, a busy one today.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_11: So a little bit later on this hour, new polling mirrors yesterday's polling that we shared here on the show showing uh incredibly tight Minnesota races, including some Republicans who have actually gone so far as to have taken the lead in the polling.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_11: That's right.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_11: Also, uh, where does Minnesota land in terms of our election integrity?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_11: There's a brand new uh study that's been done ranking Minnesota when it comes to election integrity.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_11: So I'll give you details on that a little bit uh later on uh this hour.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_11: We'll talk Sydney Sweeney and her latest controversy.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_11: There is power.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_11: And this is one of the things that we'll get into.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_11: Uh there is uh power uh that Sydney Sweeney wields.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_11: And because she is not specifically aligned with the left, they need to go and figure out a way to exploit that power, to take advantage of it.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_11: They can't take advantage of it in a positive way because she's not technically one of those on the left.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_11: So instead, they have to do what they can to go and exploit it, which provides the opportunity for those that are criticizing Sidney Sweeney to be as hypocritical as they want to be when it comes to the other issues like men playing in women's sports.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_11: Like that is progressive.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_11: That is something that is to be admired.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_11: This is a great thing for America, right?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_11: This is a great thing for women, they say.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_11: Great thing for women's sports.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_11: And yet Sydney Sweeney goes out, shows her body in an ad, and suddenly now this is to the detriment of sports.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_11: So we'll dive into this a little bit uh later on in the hour.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_11: Also, we got a ton of uh Minneapolis news to share.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_11: Uh schools potentially closing down, the BCA crime report that was released, the latest moves by the Minneapolis City Council regarding the budget, the lack of the police uh department showing up for budget meetings.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_11: We'll be talking with former elected official and someone who is fighting for the future of Minneapolis, Becca Thompson.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_11: She's gonna be in studio with us coming up uh just uh after 7 o'clock uh this morning, and uh we have a lot of ground to cover between uh now and then, and of course, after uh Becca uh departs just after uh eight o'clock uh today.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_11: So I got a number of different issues, not quite sure where we're gonna go in the eight o'clock hour yet.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_11: I got a couple of options.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_11: The lead story in the Minnesota Star Tribune today was a story about Quick Trip.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_11: Full page.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_11: Front page story multiple pages long, talking about the Quick Trip and how it's changing the habits of individuals.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_11: I can't help but think that there's some advertising element to this, wherein Quick Trip, maybe bought some advertising with the Star Tribune, and therefore, as a part of that deal, they decided they would do a cover of all the things that we have to talk about and everything going on in the state of Minnesota, including the polling data that I mentioned a moment ago.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_11: And the Minnesota Star Tribune has their front page story, Quick Trip, and how it's apparently changing your eating habits.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_11: Yeah, make that one make sense.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_11: So we might get into that coming up in the eight o'clock hour.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_11: I also might save it for Freedom Uh Friday.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_11: So Freedom Friday tomorrow, we have uh Max Reimer, we have Online Opinionator, aka Kamara, Katherine Johnson, and I am uh sad to announce that Grace Keating will be joining us, but it will be Grace Keating's last Freedom Friday with us.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_11: I know.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_11: It's sad.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_11: Uh she is uh moving on to another job.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_11: So we uh we're certainly incredibly happy for the opportunity that she's been uh that she's been given.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_11: But uh after this uh weekend's uh fall briefing with Byron York taking place on uh Saturday, and we'll have some details on that coming up in just a moment.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_11: I think there's still some tickets left for that.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_11: I'll be out there uh I'm doing a bit of uh a bit of oh, what are they uh what's the word I'm looking for?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_11: Uh I'll be hanging out beforehand talking with people.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_11: Mingling, thank you.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_11: To nobody, as mingling popped into my brain.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_11: I'll be doing some mingling with the guests on uh on Saturday.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_11: But uh the fall briefing will be Grace Keating's uh final uh event with us here at Center of the American Experiment.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_11: And uh also, uh, like I mentioned, uh Final Freedom Friday uh tomorrow.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_11: Uh so with Grace Keating.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_11: So be sure you tune in to uh to that.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_11: So let's start here though.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_11: Uh this news dropped yesterday, starting to gain a little bit of momentum as I think people try to figure out what this means.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_11: But uh Paramount Studios is apparently leaving California due to a failed settlement with kind of with the California Attorney General over an antitrust lawsuit.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_11: The departure, along with the move of the American uh Idol to Atlanta, could significantly impact Hollywood.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_11: So it was first reported by TMZ, but you now have uh variety uh deadline.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_11: They're all reporting this as well.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_11: Um the mayor and attorney general's office were told the announcement uh would come yesterday, but it still hasn't happened yet.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_11: I'm working off of the TMZ version of the story.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_11: Um not uh it's not known whether or not the circumstances have changed or if there was just simply a delay in uh in the announcement.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_11: David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount, has threatened to move the studio to Texas, Tennessee, or Georgia if the California Attorney General didn't back off and settle.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_11: There were settlement negotiations a few months ago, but apparently those did not yield the results that they were uh looking for.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_11: Attorney General Rob uh Bonta said Paramount was being unreasonable.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_11: Ellison threatened to leave California if the settlement uh wasn't reached.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_11: This is the attorney general.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_11: Uh by October 1st, based on the conversations, both the mayor and the attorney general's offices, it sounds like no deal is possible.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_11: If Paramount pulls the trigger, it would be a devastating one-two punch for Hollywood, American Idol, which people still watch, I don't, but other people do, is leaving uh Hollywood for Atlanta.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_11: Many other productions have led to Hollywood over the last few years.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_11: The fact is, Hollywood is uh isn't dead, it is dying.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_11: No comment so far from Paramount.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_11: Uh if uh if California doesn't course correct politically, the economic devastation will only serve to exacerbate the current societal decay caused by the leftist leadership specifically unwilling to be pro-business.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_11: This is the point that I wanted to get to.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_11: It's not like areas like California, you know, they've gone back and forth in terms of political party and leadership uh there.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_11: I was born and raised out in Southern California.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_11: Um that being said, it's not like there hasn't been Democrat leadership that while certain societal policies we might push back against, they still have been pro-business, pro-Hollywood.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_11: Well, that's all been changing.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_11: The way that the politics have been going across the country is mirrored in places like entertainment mechas, such as Los Angeles, Southern California, and you know, and Hollywood.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_11: And so because of that, this is what ends up happening.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_11: Eventually it's gonna hit the studios.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_11: You can only be anti-business friendly for so long until you end up dealing with this kind of economic uh impact.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_11: Did the voters vote for this again?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_11: You know, it wasn't like they voted specifically to have these major studios leave the state.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_11: They did vote for the politicians that end up implementing the policies that have these incredibly drastic and devastatingly negative uh impacts.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_11: But again, it mirrors what's happening on the national level when it comes to politics.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_11: And it really goes to show just the state of the Democrat Party right now and their unwillingness to adopt anything associated with that which might be conservative, Republican, or certainly aligned with Trump.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_11: So a story we'll be keeping an eye on because if Paramount leaves and they find greener pastures in other states, like was mentioned here, uh make no mistake, other studios are gonna follow suit.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_11: And, you know, Southern California's their economy is driven largely by this, by Hollywood, by entertainment, and it is drastically changing in the way that we consume our entertainment already.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_11: That's already having a somewhat negative impact as Hollywood navigates you know the diminishing box office returns, uh streaming prices, the proliferation of streaming sites.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_11: Bad news for California, man.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_11: Gavin Newsom's doing a bang up job.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_11: You know, he came out recently and said that if Kamala Harris decides to run, that he would step aside and let her run.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_11: I wonder if he's gonna be rethinking that.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_11: Or he's aware that his campaign is completely dead in the water before it even gets started because of news like this.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_11: 651-964-0294 is a blaster line.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_11: If you want to leave a voice or a text message, you can also email me, John.justice at americanexperiment.org.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_11: I want to remind you if you want to listen to the show audio only, uh, that feed is available on the Mix L R app, M-I-X-L-R, if you're watching right now, but you have to peel away and you want to continue keeping up with the show, do that by downloading the free Mix LR app.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_11: You can also listen to the show at AmericanExperimented.org.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_11: And of course, for those that are listening to the live stream, if you want to watch the show, you can do so on my ex-feed at John Justice.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_11: That's J-O-N.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_11: As you see on my mug here.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_11: Uh also at the Center of the American Experiment Facebook and YouTube feeds, and we go and repost those um after the show is done.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_11: And of course, they're on uh Rumble, uh Rumble as well.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_11: So let's go here.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_11: Speaking of celebrities, an illegal immigrant carried out a Ponzi scheme that defrauded Taylor Swift's husband, also known as Kansas City Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelsey, among other wealthy figures, to the tune of$35 million.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_11: So a U.S.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_11: District Court judge, Zachary M.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_11: Bluestone, sentenced uh Sidharth Jawarhar or Jawahar.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_11: As Jawa in the beginning.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_11: I guess that's how you would say it.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_11: Jawahar.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_11: 38.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_11: He was sentenced to 11 years behind bars, ordered to pay 31.35 million in restitution to the victim, so you can have somebody that commits acts of fraud and get that money back, apparently.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_11: Kelsey was named as the victim in the case during a recent court hearing.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_11: Jawahar ran Swift Arc Capital LLC.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_11: It's a Texas-based investment firm, which he used to funnel clients' funds into a single investment, Philip Morris Pakistan.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_11: In 2015, according to the Justice Department, he eventually placed 99% of his clients' funds into the Philip Morris Pakistan investment.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_11: Jawahar did not notify the invest the investors when PMP's value plunged and falsely claimed that they were making a profit according to the Justice Department.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_11: Following his indictment, uh Jawahar tried coaching one of his victims into giving a favorable statement to federal investigators.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_11: Not no uh word if that was Travis Kelsey or not.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_11: He uh also lied about his status as an illegal immigrant and his finances and tried to have his sister wipe his phone uh evidence.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_11: Well, he got away with a lot.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_11: Clearly he wasn't very uh he wasn't very good at it.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_11: Yesterday we played that clip.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_11: This is what I wanted to why I brought it up.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_11: Uh yesterday we played that clip of uh sports analyst and commentator Stephen A.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_11: Smith uh speaking truth about the Obama and Biden years, their administrations relating to illegal immigration, and just how hypocritical it is based off of those immigration stances of those previous administrations for anybody on the left to go and criticize what's taking place regarding ICE and Trump's deportation plans.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_11: Uh this just kind of reminded me of that.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_11: Right?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_11: The famous are getting a wake-up call.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_11: And this goes back to the previous story as well.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_11: These policies end up extending beyond politics.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_11: And when it gets to a certain point, it ends up stretching beyond those average individuals and into Hollywood and into sports and celebrities.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_11: I mean, when you reach a level where Travis Kel Kelsey is getting caught up in illegal immigration issues and scam, also relating to fraud, you know, deploy the lonely highway theory.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_11: How much more fraud is out there that we simply have not discovered yet.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_11: So President Donald Trump was doing a we have several clips from Trump this morning.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_11: Uh he was uh at a rally uh speaking uh yesterday.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_11: Uh here's the first clip uh from uh from Trump specifically talking about the issue of uh illegal immigration and a desire to pass the No Invasion of Our Country Act.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_39: And we'll pass the No Invasion of Our Country Act.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_39: We have an act that we're putting up prohibiting any future president from ever opening our borders to illegal immigrants again.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_11: So this is the first that I've heard about this particular act, the No Invasion of Our Country Act.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_11: So I'll have to be doing some digging because I have no idea what it entails.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_11: Just like I continue to not know what the$5,000 dividend entails, and he brought that up yesterday as well.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_11: We'll get into that uh in uh in just a moment.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_11: One more clip regarding illegal immigration, though.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_11: Uh Border Czar Tom Homan was on Laura Ingram again last night and uh talking about the record number of arrests that ICE has been making that we've been keeping tabs on here on the John Justice Show presented by American Experiment.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_37: President Trump's looking at every loophole, whether it's ending TPS, whether it's uh looking at the proles that were given during the Biden administration, illegal proles, illegal entry in the United States, whether it's revetting all the refugees.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_37: We're looking at every loophole to number one, protect this nation, protect our national security, and keep a secure border.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_37: ICE is making a record number of arrests, historic number of arrests, June, record arrests, July beat June, August blew both those months out of the water, and September's looking pretty damn good too.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_37: Record arrests, record removal, safest border in the history of this country.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_37: President's doing what he promised the American people.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_37: Promises made, promises kept.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_37: And with all of this, looking at the fraud, looking at, you know, the the the TPS, looking at the refugees, all of this is gonna make this country safer.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_37: All this is gonna give us stronger national security.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_37: And it sends the message to the whole world there is no open border here anymore.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_37: There's no free riot here anymore.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_37: America first.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_11: We're gonna be talking about the latest polling, election integrity, a little bit later on uh in the hour.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_11: And uh Republican, a few Republican candidates have actually taken the uh the lead in this uh latest poll.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_11: So we'll dive into that, mirroring somewhat, as I was expecting yesterday, um, the polling numbers that I shared on Wednesday's show.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_11: Uh 651-964-0294.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_11: That's the blaster line to leave a voice or text message.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_11: Uh Shells writes in and says, This, good morning, John.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_11: The worst political ad.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_11: Have you heard about this guy, Ron Schutz?
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_11: I don't think I can vote for someone like that.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_11: The ad uh then goes on to show that he is connected to the doing that thing with my fingers hate group.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_11: Center of the American Experiment.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_11: Yes, that's right.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_11: They go on.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_11: She she goes on to write, wow, it's the worst commercial ever.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_11: Have a great Thursday.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_11: Oh no, we're aware.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_11: Very, very aware here at Center of the American, Center of the American Experiment of that ridiculous ad.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_11: Uh I'll say this much.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_11: Uh, regardless of who you're going to uh to vote for, uh, that ad against Ron Schutz apparently isn't working because when I'm talking about individuals that have actually closed uh the gap during this election cycle, that's one of them.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_11: So we'll dive into that further coming up uh a little bit uh later on this hour.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_11: John.justice at americanexperiment uh.org is the uh email address.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_11: And again, the blaster line is 651-964-0294.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_11: Coming up uh Sydney Sweeney Outrage has a pretty obvious blind spot.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_11: So no to boobs, but yes to jock straps in women's sports, apparently.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_11: So we'll dive into this editorial from the Daily Wire.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_11: I want to share my thoughts because this is a fascinating the Sydney Sweeney, the latest Sydney Sweeney controversy is really uh provides a fascinating insight into the psyche of those on the left.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_11: And as I mentioned before, why they simply have no problem being massive uh hypocrites.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_11: So we'll dive into this story.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_11: Also, leftists are deploying literal clowns now to combat right wingers.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_11: That's coming up here on uh the John Justice show.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_11: Now, regarding Sydney Sweeney, of course, this is not a new controversy.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_11: She is not uh um inexperienced when it comes to controversy because we all remember uh Sydney Sweeney and her genes.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_05: Sydney hit the screen in den blonde and smiling and clean and dry, American eagle lip fire, and the old crowd cry on life.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_11: It's John Justice Show, six five one, nine six four zero two nine four.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_11: We'll dive headlong into this story.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_11: Huddle up, ladies and gentlemen.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_11: You've probably heard a lot of buzz about who qualifies as a real female athlete in women's sports.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_11: Does it count if you happen to be frolicking in the nude with strategically placed footballs for a betting platform?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_11: The internet will be the judge of that.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_11: By this point, you may probably have already seen Sydney Sweeney's scantily clad Novig ad as she beats the Sports Sports Sports drum, saying, You can't trade this.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_11: I just look good here, she says, while draped over a billiard table with nothing but Novig branded tidy whiteies.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_11: This has been enough to bring out the anti-feminist uh brigade to talk about how this is not representative of women in women's sports.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_11: No, but men playing in women's sports is, right?
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_11: We'll dive into this editorial.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_11: I want to share with you some of uh my thoughts as well coming up in just a moment here on the John Justice Show.
• 23:36
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• 23:41
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• 23:45
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• 24:02
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• 24:06
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• 24:07
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• 24:15
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• 24:18
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• 24:25
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• 24:26
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• 24:35
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• 24:39
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• 24:41
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• 24:44
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• 24:47
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• 24:51
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• 24:54
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• 24:57
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• 25:00
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• 25:03
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• 25:05
  SPEAKER_41: Hi, I'm Joe Scott, and I'm the only conservative on the Eastern Carver County Schools board.
• 25:11
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• 25:24
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• 25:28
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• 25:34
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• 25:41
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• 25:44
  SPEAKER_41: And I'd appreciate your support.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_41: To learn more about me and how I stand on other school board issues, visit reelectjoeescott.com.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_41: If you'd like to see our school district's Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment Proficiency Scores, go to ECCS MCA scores.com.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_09: Join Center of the American Experiment on Saturday, September 19th for our 2026 fall briefing featuring Byron York.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_09: Byron York is the chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner, but you probably know him from his frequent appearances on Fox News.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_09: York will give us an update on the race to control the U.S.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_09: House and Senate, and will show how Minnesota fits into the 2026 electoral map.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_09: Will President Trump beat the odds and grow his power in Congress?
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_09: Or will Democrats take over and throw Washington into gridlock?
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_09: Join us at the beautiful winery at Sovereign Estate to hear York's timely message.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_09: Plus, enjoy great views, conversation, and food and drink.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_09: Tickets are going fast, and we do expect this event to sell out.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_09: Get your tickets now at americanexperiment.org slash events.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_09: That's AmericaneExperiment.org slash events.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_19: Hey John, here.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_19: Hey.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_19: Uh on the uh American Experiment being a hate group.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_19: Yeah.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_19: I would apply the clear and present danger strategy.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_19: I would say on it.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_19: I would say yes, we're a hate group.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_19: We hate crime.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_19: We hate fraud.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_19: We hate law.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_19: We hate all the things that are bad for America.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_19: So yeah, if you want to label us a hate group, we hate those things.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_19: Vote for us.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_19: And you'll get hate against fraud, crime, and all the bad stuff.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_19: Have a great day.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_19: I know.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_11: Uh thank you for that, uh Hans.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_11: Of course, American Experiment isn't running for anything, so you can't go and vote for them.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_11: But I do appreciate the the sentiment.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_11: There's a an interesting thought that formed regarding this election cycle here in Minnesota in the wake of this poll of these polling numbers that I'll share with you in a little bit.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_11: It speaks to how I don't think that specifically Amy Klobishar and Keith Ellison.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_11: And I guess you could probably go with the auditor's race uh as uh as well.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_11: Uh I don't think they're very good at campaigning because they haven't had any competition in the past.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_11: So we'll get into this.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_11: Because I follow because I'm I'm seeing the campaign ads online, and I again it's one of those things where, yeah, you would expect me to not, you know, potentially speak positively about ads being put forward by the left.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_11: That being said, uh, they seem to be flailing around a bit.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_11: So we'll get into this coming up uh a little bit uh later on uh in the show.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_11: And you know, American Experiment has embraced this.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_11: It's hysterical.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_11: They want to bring attention to uh, you know, what we do here at Center of the American Experiment by tossing us in a campaign ad, then please, by all means, feel free uh to do so.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_11: All right, let's go here.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_13: I think a lot of those people who hate the new Sydney Sweeney ad have a Janet Reno swimsuit calendar hanging on their wall.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_11: No, I don't I don't I don't think that's the case.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_11: I don't think that's the case at all.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_11: I I don't I don't think that's did they ever make a Janet Reno swimsuit calendar?
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_11: Here's a better question.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_11: Producer Devin, do you have any idea who Janet Reno is?
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_11: Negative.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_11: Okay, that's what I thought.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_11: So there you go.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_11: All right, before we get into Sydney Sweeney, let me go here.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_11: I'm gonna switch these stories around.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_11: Because this kind of sets the stage a little bit uh a little bit a little bit better.
• 29:25
  unknown: All right.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_11: This comes from The Guardian.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_11: Uh the left has apparently I'm sorry, this is an article from The Guardian, but an art, but this is written by the Daily Wire.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_11: The left has apparently found a new weapon in its fight against the right.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_11: Actual clowns.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_11: The Guardian uh published a glowing profile yesterday of a growing movement of leftist activists who dress up as clowns to protest everything from Republicans and fascism to capitalism, ICE, the patriarchy, and New York's horse-drawn carriage industry, which apparently is an issue as well.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_11: The profile is headlined.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_11: Send in the clowns, the new guard of activists combating the right centers on Taylor Horn.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_11: This is a Brooklyn-based drag performer who goes by Tilly the Clown and has turned clowning into a full-time political activism career.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_11: Horn recently spent two hours applying clown makeup and putting on a costume before waiting another 10 hours to address the New York City Council for three minutes over legislation that would phase out the city's horse carriage industry.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_11: Horn appeared before the council wearing a black top hat and gloves with white uh face uh paint, a white and red face paint.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_11: Horn told The Guardian that when the carriage horse supporters mocked at the appearance on social media, they had fallen right into my trap, he says.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_11: The clown explained that the point was to make opponents focus on the performer rather than the argument.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_11: Hey, at least he's being honest.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_11: He's right, because they don't have an argument.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_11: When you have no firm foundation in your arguments or pushback on the opposition, you have to resort to attention-seeking antics.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_11: And it may work well in advertising, as we'll talk about with Sydney Sweeney, but when it comes to politics, you're kind of only speaking, you know, you're you're preaching to the choir here.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_11: You're not going to be changing hearts and minds by doing this.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_11: You may be able to get your message out to further individuals, but if they see where the mess the messenger that's carrying the message, do you really expect that the message is going to be taken seriously?
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_11: But these are the links that the left has to go through now in order to gain attention.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_11: Horn produces social media content attacking what he describes as white supremacy and xenophobia within immigrations and customs enforcement, fascism and beauty trends, and queerness as a rebellion.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_11: Horn's clown persona account has nearly 35,000 Instagram followers.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_11: Which really it's not that I mean, the grand scheme of things, it's not that much.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_11: Also, I mean, I think I have 25,000 ex followers, I think, at this point in time.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_11: They uh he also runs workshops on how to clown and fight fascism and has appeared in political videos and educational presentations.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_11: You know, this is also a good example, too.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_11: This is a grift.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_11: So you have a couple of different things going on.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_11: What I mentioned a moment ago, in terms of if you don't have any arguments, you have to resort to the extreme in order to get the attention that you're looking for to try to go and push your argument forward or at least invite more people to your cause.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_11: But at the same time, there's also a racket going on here.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_11: When it comes to these videos that they're making, they're getting a lot of views, and they're probably making a lot of money off of those views.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_11: But they are more extremist uh tactics, plain and simple.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_11: Speaking of which, let me go ahead and share this with you, and then we'll uh share a clip from Trump yesterday where a heckler in the crowd at this uh rally um attempted to get the best of Trump, and he didn't uh he wasn't taking it.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_11: Um, more newly unearthed or revisited commentary from Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_11: Uh this goes back to when she said that she would not shed a tear and would not feign sadness over the vandalism that had taken place regarding the statue of Christopher Columbus on the Minnesota Capitol Grounds.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_08: First of all, um, I'm not gonna perform for folks.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_08: I'm not gonna feign sadness, I will not shed a tear over the loss of a statue that honored someone who, by of his own admission, sold nine and ten-year-old girls into sex slavery.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_08: So let me start there.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_11: In the terms of the Can I let so let me pause this really quick.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_11: That's a fascinating comment in light of not just Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, but the left in general and their stance towards pushing back on ICE, pushing back on U.S.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_11: customs and border protection, being sympathetic when it comes to illegal immigration.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_11: Because what she described right there also has taken place on our southern border.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_11: I don't think most people realize.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_11: And I think a lot of people just think that individuals come across the border, they make somewhat of a short journey across the desert and they arrive here in the United States.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_11: No, it's not that, it's not that simple.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_11: You you a lot of individuals need guides to come across the border.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_11: Now, this is outside of the Biden years when there were so many people pouring across the border that you just basically had lines of people, or they would gather in one central location and rush in.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_11: Typically, when it comes to illegal immigration, you would need to hire a coyote.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_11: This is an individual who you pay thousands of dollars to, who brings you across the border in a safe manner, ends up pointing you to all of the water stations that are made available by open border activist groups on our southern border.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_11: And trust me, I know what I'm talking about.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_11: I did this for almost 10 years.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_11: I covered this stuff.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_11: And you know what happens is that young women get raped constantly by those individuals to the point where there are actually trees filled.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_11: Um this is 100% true.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_11: There are trees filled with women's underwear that serve as trophies for the heinous acts committed by those who are attempting to smuggle individuals and traffic young children into the country.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_11: If you get injured on the trail, they leave you behind to die.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_11: It's that simple.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_11: And yet here she is complaining about uh Christopher Columbus.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_08: The statue of Christopher Columbus, I wish we had a better process that had been followed.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_08: I wish the removal had been different, but I am not sad that it's gone.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_08: Columbus' legacy was setting in motion generations of violence, rape, and genocide against indigenous people who are already here when he arrived.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_11: And who was here before those individuals and who was occupying the land before the indigenous?
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_11: Because there because there were individuals occupying that land beforehand.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_11: But you don't see anybody out there talking about, you know, hey, my family members were here on uh on occupied land by indigenous individuals that has now been taken over by uh the horrible, essentially right wingers who want to go and celebrate Christopher Columbus.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_08: We have this myth of a man that Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_08: And now my daughter knows Columbus as the man who got lost and hurt people.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_08: Placing a statue of a historical figure on the Minnesota State Capitol confers an honor to their legacy.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_08: There is no honor in the legacy of Christopher Columbus.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_08: To remove a statue or choose not to place one there in the first place is not an erasure of history, but a reckoning with it.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_08: And I will just say we've had these conversations for a long time.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_08: To answer your question, Tom, I was one of the co-authors on the need to remove that statue and to rename Columbus Day Indigenous People's Day, which I am still in support of.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_11: You know, and part of here's part of the problem.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_11: Part of the problem is is that mentalities like that, actions like that, that ended up proving successful were enabled by those on the right that were too fearful to step up and do the right thing.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_11: Now, there were those pushing back on it, calling out how ridiculous it was.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_11: But unfortunately, too many squishy Republicans and conservatives going back, you know, years ended up aligning with mentalities like that.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_11: And where at the time you may go, well, I understand it.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_11: It's just a statue.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_11: You know, Columbus had some, you know, had had some questionable things attached to him at the time.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_11: So maybe it's a good thing.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_11: And, you know, let's go ahead and just give that one to him.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_11: No, you can't give any quarter.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_11: Because it's part of the reason why we're we are where we are.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_11: It's part of the reason why, a big part of the reason why Democrat socialists have invaded and essentially taken over the Democrat Party.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_11: It's why you have to continue to speak out and against the nonsense when you see it.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_11: Even for as trivial as you think it might be.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_11: Before we dive into what I want to, you know, sort of extend this conversation on regarding uh Sidney Sweeney.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_11: Let's go hear Trump from that uh campaign rally.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_11: Again, I wanted to share this moment where he was uh going and uh conversing with the heckler in the audience.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_39: But Michael Watley is the one that carried it forward.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_39: What do you have, a bad guy or a good guy over there?
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_39: What is it?
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_39: She's gonna hung her mother is watching right now when television furious that they're doing she's gonna walk and she's gonna get the hell spoken out of you.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_11: What do individuals that go and do that, what are they hoping to accomplish?
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_11: I know that is an open-ended question when it comes to all of this.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_11: When it comes to so many of the actions on the left.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_11: It's like, what are you truly hoping to accomplish?
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_11: Like, I'll understand the clown who is attempting to get the message out.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_11: Like, I understand that, especially from like an influencer standpoint.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_11: If people are stupid enough to go and watch the videos of an of a ridiculous man traipsing around in gaudy outfits like a women, a woman pushing back on horse-drawn carriages in New York City.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_11: Listen, that's capitalism.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_11: It is what it is.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_11: Probably making a lot of money off of it.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_11: But when you have an individual in the crowd at a Trump rally who ends up going and disrupting what Trump is saying, like I just, you're only serving your own selfish motivations at that point in time.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_11: Do you really think you're gonna get the crowd to go along with you?
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_11: I just I don't under I don't understand it.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_11: I do understand what's been going on with Sydney Sweeney, though.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_11: Let's dive into it.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_11: So Sydney Sweeney has a brand new ad.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_11: If you haven't seen it, she's basically nude.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_11: And this is for a sports betting platform.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_11: It's a Novig ad.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_11: She has different, she has, you know, different footballs and uh other uh sports-related items that are covering up the more sensitive uh bits and bops relating to of which are significant, Sydney Sweeney.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_11: And as expected, because Sydney Sweeney is not directly aligned with the left, this has sparked a massive amount of outrage.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_11: Let me share with you some of the points from this editorial on The Daily Wire.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_11: Four-time Olympic, excuse me, four-time Olympic gold medalist from Australia.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_11: Um, Irani uh Titmus posted on Instagram.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_11: I can't describe how infuriated I feel.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_11: How do we live in a world where monetizing a woman's body and sexualizing women's sports is still a thing?
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_11: Well, she wasn't sexualizing women's sports.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_11: This was a sports betting app that more than likely is appealing to men.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_11: Sydney Sweeney is appeals to men, and therefore she's used in the ad.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_11: I don't need to tell you this, you know this already.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_11: So uh just uh after that race, a British sprinter, Amy Hunt breathlessly told BBC, Sidney Sweeney, this is what women in sports look like.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_11: Muscles, hard work, sweat, blood, and tears.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_11: Uh Sydney Sweeney, to your credit, by the way, uh, is a former athlete, and she told the complex in light of this recent controversy.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_11: I grew up loving sports.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_11: I was on the soccer team, I was on a softball team, I was on the snow uh ski team.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_11: I learned how to slalom ski when I was little.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_11: I did MMA, so sports have been a really big part of my life, and I love watching hockey and boxing.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_11: I have a really huge appreciation for every single fighter.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_11: U.S.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_11: gymnast Gracie Kramer noted that we shouldn't all have to worry about the way we look every single day in order to do the things that we want to do.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_11: She told the BBC that she just wanted to uplift women and remind them that you may see these types of ads, but remember, this is not the only thing that matters.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_11: Nobody is saying that it is.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_11: Oh, and trust me, if Sydney Sweeney was at all aligned with the left, they would be applauding this.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_11: They'd be welcoming her with open with open arms.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_11: Kramer essentially launched the trend of female athletes posting their own me twos with a battle cry.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_11: This is what women in sports looks like.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_11: Along with a carousel of herself and friends in thong, bikinis, crop tops, and sports bras, she wrote Recognize that your value extends assofar.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_11: Beyond your appearance.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_11: But just in case it doesn't, here's a cute butt shot from the stands of the WMBA game.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_11: What a total cell phone, by the way.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_11: Anyone that knows that knows dudes, dudes don't really discriminate.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_11: Regardless of what a woman, for the most part, regardless of what a woman looks like, especially female athletes.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_11: Let me rephrase this.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_11: Regardless of how they compare to an individual like Sidney Sweeney, I saw the photos that were being referred to in this Daily Wire story.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_11: These aren't unattractive women.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_11: I mean, the photos themselves honestly even made um Rapineau look somewhat attractive.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_11: I'll be honest.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_11: But guys really don't discriminate that hard.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_11: So instead of taking a hard stance against, oh, this is over sexualizing of women in sports, and we're gonna prove it by sharing with you sexually suggested photos, suggestive photos of ourselves.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_11: Yeah, make that make sense.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_11: So getting back to the piece, it says, So is the problem that we can't accept that the curvaceous denim darling from the American Eagle Great Jeans commercial could also exist as the sexed up a bombshell of a Novig ad?
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_11: Or that our acceptable vision of women, despite our ongoing yo-yo diet of obese sports illustrated swimsuit models and red carpet wagovy waifs, remain unwaveringly narrow despite the current positivity thing.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_11: Is our misguided cultural effort to forward the movement our athletic ancestors so graciously handed to us on a silver platter?
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_11: Title IX, we women destroy ourselves by obsessing over who counts as women in sports.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_11: The current scorecard, she slash her equals yes, but not too much of her actual body, her politics, and her voice.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_11: He slash him equals yes.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_11: If he identifies as she, full stop.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_11: The world is his or her oyster, if that's the case.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_20: Anyone remember Farrell Fawcett in my day?
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_20: Um that was the most awesome person, too.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_20: And there's nothing wrong with that, John.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_20: There's just nothing wrong with it.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_20: Nope, not at all advertising.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_20: And that's great.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_20: It's the American way, capitalism.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_20: Have a great day.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_20: Dennis, stop my first one.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_11: Thank you, Dennis.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_11: The article goes on to say listen, before anybody gets their knickers in a twist, it's perfectly fine to support women's sports without condoning commercialized debauchery or even gambling in the first place.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_11: Yes, Sweeney's ad is meant to be tantalizing.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_11: But it's not, as I mentioned before, it's not about women's sports.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_11: The article writer says, I'd argue it's not really about women either.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_11: There's a larger conversation to be had about who gets to step into the arena and represent women.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_11: And it ain't uh about Sidney Sweeney.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_11: As most of the internet swims around the memory hole of the mid-2000s.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_11: Oh, I remember this.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_11: Carl's Jr.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_11: campaigns and comes to terms with the Sadie Sink Calvin Klein ad that, while bursting with euphemism, didn't quite achieve the same brand awareness that Sid's did.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_11: I'm holding out hope that women can find a way to support each other, the article writer says.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_11: Aimed at the right target, this kind of outrage machine could actually make a difference in protecting women's sports for girls and women.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_11: Yes, even those who look like Sydney Sweeney.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_32: Good morning, John, Victor here.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_32: I just don't understand these people that are going nuts about the Sydney Sweeney.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_32: Have you ever watched TV?
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_32: Like, have you never looked at a magazine?
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_32: Oh my god, the people are sexualizing a woman's T.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_32: It's been happening for a hundred and years.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_11: I'm gonna explain to you what's really going on here in just a moment on the show.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_11: I want to get to a few more of your blasts uh though first.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_17: Remember, this is the party that wants to free the nipple.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_17: This is the party that has legalized bathhouses.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_17: This is the party that wants to legalize prostitution.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_17: What Sydney Sweeney's ad is offensive?
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_17: These people are crazy.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_11: Listen, let me um let me add to that too.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_11: You know, this is uh, you know, this is the same left that promotes, advocates for, and perpetuates sexually explicit books, material being made available to to underage children.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_11: This is the same left that supports all ages drag shows.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_11: This is the same left that supports men in women's sports.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_11: If a man calls himself a woman, says it's good for women's sports, but suddenly Sydney Sweeney is the one who they're going to go and and target, this is the reason why they do it.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_11: It's power.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_11: Sydney Sweeney yields a ton of power.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_11: She does.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_11: And because she yields a ton of power, advertising power, attention, because of the way she looks, and her attitude and her approach to that.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_11: This is the other facet of this.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_11: It would be one thing if she apologized.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_11: If she caved to the pressure that those on the left who are jealous of the power that she wields, she could avoid a lot of this, but she doesn't.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_11: She owns it.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_11: She knows she has it going on.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_11: She's gonna use it while she has it to her own advantage.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_11: And so far has been unapologetic in doing so.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_11: And because of that, and the fact that she doesn't align with the left, that confidence in the power that Sidney Sweeney wields, it has to be exploited somehow by those on the left.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_11: So how do they do that?
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_11: Well, they call it out.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_11: So instead of supporting it because she doesn't align with them, how do they get that power?
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_11: Well, we we must go and vilify it.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_11: We must demonize it.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_11: We must we must push back against it.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_11: How this is a horrible, it doesn't make any sense.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_11: It's not rational, but it doesn't need to be rational.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_11: It's completely hypocritical with all their other stances, but it doesn't need to actually make any sort of sense whatsoever.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_11: It feeds that base on the left, the outrage machine, and those women who would fall right along with this.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_11: They have to go and grab onto whatever they can in order to grow their ranks and retain that power.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_11: They support on the left men playing in girls sports because it brings about the power of an argument.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_11: Because conservatives and Republicans are against it, they must go and push for it so they can go and create an argument.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_11: It is the equivalent of an individual or group of individuals dressing like a bunch of clowns in order to get attention to get their points across.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_11: Let me share with you this clip, too.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_11: I'm gonna preview some of the comments here on the blaster line.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_11: So this is uh an unearthed clip.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_11: This is a Democrat out of New York City.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_11: I don't know the context of this.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_11: A Michigan Democrat, William Lawrence, calling to abolish marriage.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_11: It falls right in line with the commentary that I was just sharing with you.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_12: My position on gay marriage is I'm for gay marriage, against all marriage, because um because the institution of marriage um as a uh, you know, it's sanctioned by the state, it's a tax benefit.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_12: That's actually privileging a certain form of family life, which is religious and has comes from a particular religious and cultural background.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_12: Um so if we're talking about the separation of church and state, we should be abolishing the institution of marriage altogether.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_12: Um that's all I'll say about that for now.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_11: And why do you think an individual like this and others would want to go and abolish the institution of marriage?
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_11: For the same reason that they're trying to go and tear down Sidney Sweeney because there is power in the nuclear family.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_11: A tremendous amount of power.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_11: A solid family unit, a mother and a father raising children, the right way.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_11: Why do you think homeschooling gets pushed back against?
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_11: Why do you think charter schools get pushed back against?
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_11: Why do you think Christianity gets pushed back against, wherein all the other religions are accepted, as long as they are politically expedient for the left?
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_11: Sydney Sweeney yields power in the confidence that she has to go and use her God-given assets to promote a sports betting app.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_11: But the Democrats are desperate to go and tap into that.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_11: They can't do it directly, so they do it indirectly by vilifying her and demonizing her.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_11: And in this case, when it comes to marriage, there's a lot of different angles to this, but it's essentially the same thing.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_11: Because those children raised in strong, firm foundations at home, which often includes strong biblical Christian foundations, they end up raising children who go on to adhere to the principles that their parents taught them.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_11: And if those children are not going to be aligned with voting for the left, then they need to go and start at the source.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_11: Why do you think the left has also targeted schools the way that they have for the very same reason to undo any potential for strong family units, the nuclear family, to go and push a young and impressionable uh impressionable mind to go and vote for somebody other than their chosen anointed candidates.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_11: From the blaster line this morning at 651-964-0294.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_16: Good morning, John.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_16: I'm going to try this again.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_16: I get really, really annoyed at the uh insufferable liberals who get their underneath a twist over uh ads like the Sweeney ad.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_16: And they say, you know, women are always sexualized.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_16: Oh my gosh, do they not know other women?
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_16: I know other women who sexualize the goodness out of men, and they're not all Democrat or they're not all Republicans or conservatives.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_16: There's a lot of liberal women out there that sexualize online, verbally or otherwise, about good-looking men, muscular men, all of that.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_16: Oh, the hypocrisy knows so well.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_11: No, you're absolutely right on that front.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_11: The hypocrisy does know absolutely no bounds.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_35: And then the um female sports broadcaster on channel 11 went off on a couple minute tangent about this yes or a couple days ago on how far it's gonna set women's sports back after all the progress they made.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_35: And you had good old Janice Shortle, who doesn't know what she is, in the background hearing her on.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_35: Just ridiculous.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_11: Why does that not surprise me?
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_11: Uh in the uh in the least bit.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_11: Uh 651-964-0294.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_11: That is the blaster line if you want to uh leave us a comment at any point throughout the show this morning.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_21: John, I'm gonna choose my women in sports Jimmy Page Speronic, Rhonda Rousey, uh, and Jimmy Gina Carano.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_21: I'm plenty happy with them.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_21: Those are women in sports too.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_21: The left can go suck it.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_11: All right, let's go out on uh let's go out, let's go out on that one.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_11: Uh, I want to share with you uh in just a moment here uh the latest polling from KSTP.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_11: We have our guest joining us in studio shortly, Becca Thompson.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_11: We'll be sitting on the comfy sofas next to Showgrew as we talk about all things uh Minneapolis.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_11: First off, though, I want to remind you that if you're looking to get a good night's sleep and you're having difficulty uh doing so, you need to reach out to Minileaf, M-I-N-N-E-L-E-A-F.com.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_11: That is minile.com.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_11: Check out their nightgummies.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_11: They are absolutely spectacular.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_11: They get me a good night's uh sleep every single night.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_11: Took one last night.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_11: As a matter of fact, I split it up.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_11: I took like half of them when I went to bed, and then I woke up in the middle of the night, and I was like, you know, I just want to make sure that I continue to sleep right on through the alarm because I went to bed early.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_11: Took the other half and I did.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_11: I woke up feeling refreshed, ready to talk to you, ready to talk with Becca, as I am every single Monday through Friday, 6 until 9 a.m.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_11: here on the John Justice Show presented by American Experiment.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_11: But it's not just the night gummies, the fun gummies, the spooky mini leaf uh tonics brewed right here in Eden Prairie.
• 57:36
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• 57:37
  SPEAKER_11: Mini Leaf is run locally by Eric and his wife, fantastic people, and their mission is for you to live a better life through their uh products.
• 57:44
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• 57:47
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• 57:55
  SPEAKER_11: That's M-I-N-N-E, L-E-A-F.com, minileaf.com.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_07: And now here is commentary from the guests, hosts, and policy fellows of American Experiment.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_09: I don't think any other state has this besides Minnesota.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_09: We're okay, number one, you can vouch for up to eight people.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_09: But then we also have same-day election uh registration, and we don't have provisional ballots.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_09: So those elements all combine together.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_09: You don't other states that have same-day voter registration have a provisional ballot.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_09: And so when you register to vote, typically if you're doing it in advance, you know, your your registration is checked so that when you actually go to you know vote on election day, you've been vetted by the state in some way.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_09: Um but when you have same-day registration, obviously there's not time for that to happen.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_09: And so your vote gets counted immediately.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_09: It gets put into the pool and it's never coming back out.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_09: Other states, they will have same-day registrants use a what's called a provisional ballot.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_09: And so, you know, they they cast their vote, but it's set off aside, and it's not actually added into the mix until their registration has been verified, which makes sense.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_09: You know, Minnesota doesn't have that.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_38: Let your voice be heard on the John Justice show by leaving a text or voice message blast and call the blaster line at 651-964-0294.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_38: That's 651-964-0294.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_04: Think about it.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_04: Black and Hispanic students in Mississippi perform better in reading and math than black and Hispanic students in Minnesota.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_04: And Mississippi spends thousands of dollars less per student than Minnesota.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_04: Mississippi spends less money, gets better results, and their achievement gaps are closing.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_04: While ours are getting worse, think about it.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_04: It's time for real education reform so Minnesota can catch up to Mississippi.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_04: Think about it is brought to you by Center of the American Experiment, Minnesota's think tank.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_10: So Scott Pressler, he's a conservative activist, he posted on X that he also did some of these data requests.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_10: And he was told that in St.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_10: Louis County, which is the home of Duluth, 737 people registered to vote through vouching.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_10: 737.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_10: So let's go back to the 2022 election really quick just to see if we can get a clear example of okay, will that number of people vouching ever really matter?
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_10: It seems like a small number.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_10: Well, in 2022, in the Cottage Grove Hastings area, Democrat Judy Seeburger won her state Senate election by 321 votes.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_10: As our listeners may remember, the Democrats held the Senate that year by one seat.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_07: Support the John Justice show by becoming an advertiser.
• 1:00:21
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• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_11: Of course, you can email John.justice at AmericanExperiment.org.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_11: Remember, you can listen to the show on the live stream on the Mix LR app.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_11: Podcasts are posted on that app as well when the show is over and available across all the major podcasting platforms.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_11: If you're watching the show, the replay of the show is available.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_11: It's live right now on Facebook and YouTube at Center of the American Experiment.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_11: Also my uh ex-feed as well.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_11: We post the show to Rumble when uh when we wrap up every morning at uh 9 a.m.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_11: We're gonna talk with our guest here in just a moment uh out of Minneapolis, Becca Thompson.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_11: First, I want to get to just a few more thoughts on the Sydney Sweeney uh ad uh controversy.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_11: Let's go here to the blaster line.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_29: Good morning, John.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_29: We should all know that everybody on the left that's in an uproar about Sydney Sweeney, they're just a bunch of contrarians, a bunch of emoters, and anything that we say, they're gonna say if the if we say the sun is right, they're gonna say the sun is dim.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_29: They're just gonna contradict us at every turn because they don't know anything other than how to be complainers, whiners, emoters, and like I said, contrarians.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_29: And we all just need to say whatever and move on with our lives and enjoy the fact that we are commonsensical people that understand how life should be run.
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_29: Have a great day, everyone.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_11: Thank you, friend of the show, Scott.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_11: I just want to push back on one comment that you made.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_11: And I know you didn't mean this, but I just want to I just want to push back on one comment.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_11: Um, we can't just say whatever and move on anymore.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_11: You have to call this stuff out now when you see it.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_11: You can't just ignore it.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_11: Uh as I've mentioned many times on the show, I used to be very anti-slippery slope argument.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_11: I thought it was trite, I thought it was lazy.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_11: Let's deal with the, you know, Jedi rules, you know.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_11: Be here now, in the moment, right?
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_11: Not anymore, man.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_11: You've got to address the slippery slope and call this stuff out uh every single time that you uh that you see it.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_11: And speaking of calling things out, I'll go ahead and officially welcome in former elected official in Minneapolis, fighting for the future of Minneapolis.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_11: Becca Thompson joins us once again.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_11: Good morning, Becca.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_03: Good morning.
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for having me.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_03: It's super fun, and I totally agree.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_03: We can no longer just like shrug and move on with our lives.
• 1:03:19
  SPEAKER_03: We have to address it.
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_11: Well, and there's and and as I mentioned before, like in the situation, if you've been following the Sidney Sweeney situation, a little bit, yes, which I think is hilarious.
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_11: But well, there there's there's there's power in how she uses what God gave her.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_11: Oh, absolutely.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_11: And confidence attached to that.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_11: And for those on the on the on the left, you know, and this is par for the course for for any sort of political party for the most part, but for those on the left that can't see, can't go and take advantage of it straight up because she's not aligned with them, then they see the power that she's wielding and they'd be like, well, we need to go and tap into that.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_11: So they do that by stirring up controversy, even if it is hypocritical.
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_11: They have to exploit it in order to glean whatever they can from the popularity, the confidence, and the power that she has in doing ads like this.
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, the root of the root of it all, actually, in in my opinion, is is the the uh the nature of just excellence and empirical attraction.
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_03: Some people have to work for it, you know, you and I, I believe are both Gen X.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_03: We were raised with like you just gotta, you gotta work hard, right?
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_03: And and, you know, some people, whether it's it's fitness or you know, you dress well or whatever, there's also this level, you know, and when Harry met Sally, you're talking about just empirical attraction.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_03: And and I think that there's there's a it's rooted in like, well, I can never be this, so thus I have to hate you, um, versus striving to be the best that whatever you can be.
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I think Sydney Sweeney just like throws it in people's face, that old school, I mean, the stuff that we grew up on.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I can't even be get that's a whole show talking about all this stuff.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_03: But like, but just like, yeah, I know I'm attractive, I don't care, I don't apologize, um, and I'm not taking Ozempic to get there.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_03: So like that just I think really just flies in the face of a lot of people.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm I can already imagine the heat I'm gonna take for saying what I just said.
• 1:05:13
  SPEAKER_11: Well, and and so many of the issues that we're that we're faced with today are so while they while they are championed as being, you know, this is the new way, uh, we've changed as a country, we've changed as a society.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_11: Well, yeah, we have, but not in not in the positive.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_11: Like to what you were talking about, when you had in the past um, you know, advertisements where it was exclusively just beautiful people.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_11: Right.
• 1:05:41
  SPEAKER_11: There was an understanding that, okay, yeah, I understand why they're using beautiful people because we want to we want to see beautiful people.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_11: And even if it's not reflected in us, there was also this mentality of for the case of if you're not attractive, there was a thought of, well, there's somebody for everybody.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_11: Yeah.
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_11: And we would we would champion there's somebody.
• 1:05:59
  SPEAKER_11: And it's true.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_11: I mean, there are plenty of ugly people that get married and have wonderful lives all the time.
• 1:06:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and beauty's in the eye of the beholder, right?
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_03: But there's something that is like health, I I think health and wellness is just it is or it isn't, right?
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, I mean, I will say as a teacher, like it's very important to me to I when I see young people strive, strive for excellence.
• 1:06:19
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you oftentimes see this in sports or you see it in academics.
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_03: When kids are striving for something, it doesn't matter if they succeed or fail.
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_03: It's the, it's the, it's what happens to them in the process of working hard.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_03: And and so I think, I mean, not to get too down that rabbit hole, but I just think that Sydney Sweeney kind of speaks towards like, yes, there is there is a thing, and I'm using it, and I don't apologize because maybe in 10 years I'll be old and gray like if other like what happens to everybody, right?
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_03: So, like, like do you know, as is as the old phrase was it smoke if you got them.
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_03: Like she's just doing it while she can.
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, I don't care.
• 1:06:50
  SPEAKER_03: Like you do you, but yeah, yeah.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_11: Speaking of going gray, yeah, some of us are already well on our way.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_11: I've got I got my hair cut yesterday, and it was at one point, like it was just it was like I might as well have been Gandalf.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_11: Because the amount of white that I had on my on my on my sheet, you know, it just looked like I had this massive.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_11: I was like, oh.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_03: At least we can still have heroes, John, as we get older.
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_03: We've got Obi-Wan, we've got Gandalf.
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_03: I, you know, I always say Professor McGonagall, like, there's still somebody out there to try to strive to be.
• 1:07:18
  SPEAKER_11: 651-964-0294 is the blaster line.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_11: Becca Thompson joins us in studio.
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_11: I had this comment came that came in.
• 1:07:25
  SPEAKER_11: I'm a female, I'm not offended at all with the Sydney photo.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_11: I'd rather see that versus some tranny.
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_11: I think that women that are offended are just dang jealous.
• 1:07:36
  SPEAKER_11: Go Sydney.
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_11: And there's an aspect to this, and then we can move on to some other to some other things.
• 1:07:41
  SPEAKER_11: But there's an aspect to this too when you, you know, talking about the detriment that is being thrust upon younger generations.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 1:07:51
  SPEAKER_11: This this promotion of turning yourself into a circus clown, like making yourself look ridiculous.
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_03: Now, granted.
• 1:07:59
  SPEAKER_03: And medicate yourself.
• 1:07:59
  SPEAKER_03: It's ridiculous.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_11: Yeah, I cut, listen, I colored my hair when I was younger.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_11: I dyed it at one point in time, bleach blonde, and turned it into soup and damaged it.
• 1:08:06
  SPEAKER_03: It's a rite of passage.
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_03: It's ridiculous.
• 1:08:09
  SPEAKER_11: But there always was a level of, okay, I've taken it too far.
• 1:08:11
  SPEAKER_11: I'm certainly drawing away from my, you know, my boyish charm and handsome good looks.
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_11: But when it comes to these younger generations, it it's this reflection of their inner part that comes on the outside that turns them into a bunch of just bizarre creatures when you see them out in public.
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_11: You know, it's this idea that these are a lot of these individuals are, you know, for lack of a better way to describe them, unattractive people, but they've been told, hey, you know what?
• 1:08:37
  SPEAKER_11: If you want to be accepted, go to the extreme.
• 1:08:40
  SPEAKER_11: Make yourself look as wild as you want to, and you will have to be accepted by society.
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_11: Yeah.
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, this will definitely get me in trouble.
• 1:08:47
  SPEAKER_03: But it's like what we're pushing on children, I think, is complete uh like if you strive for excellence, somehow you're wrong.
• 1:08:54
  SPEAKER_03: If you strive to accentuate the best parts of you, somehow that's bad.
• 1:08:58
  SPEAKER_03: Because, you know, every young person, we all have our awkward phase.
• 1:09:01
  SPEAKER_03: Gosh, I mean, as an as an as an older uh person, I feel like I'm in a second awkward phase in life where you're just like, my body's just doing things I have no control over, right?
• 1:09:09
  SPEAKER_03: So you're like, but we all we all go through that when we're young, right?
• 1:09:13
  SPEAKER_03: And but you still can strive for amazing things.
• 1:09:16
  SPEAKER_03: And a lot of kids, the a lot of things that are making that are unique about our young people, are you unique about all of us, right?
• 1:09:23
  SPEAKER_03: Are being suppressed for this conformity of like, you know, you have to put out your pronouns, you have to tell everybody what, you know, what things.
• 1:09:31
  SPEAKER_03: I saw a tweet yesterday.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_03: Somebody said, Isn't this so sad that a that a first grader was putting out what's unique about the you and they said, I have anxiety.
• 1:09:39
  SPEAKER_03: Like that, that we're promoting like all the negative things instead of being like, you know, I can, I can, I can run 50 yards in 10 seconds.
• 1:09:48
  SPEAKER_03: And whether that's good or not, it doesn't, it's not that it's not about that.
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's about a little kid championing themselves of what makes themselves unique in a beautiful way instead of like all the downtrodden stuff.
• 1:09:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I this conformity is it's it's hurting our children.
• 1:10:02
  SPEAKER_03: So I actually like to me the Sydney SUNY thing is much deeper than just like empirical attraction.
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_03: I do think it's the kind of ridiculous that she's in what like football pads, sitting on a basketball hoop, otherwise totally naked.
• 1:10:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I'm like, that's just a provocative picture.
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_03: It's meant to have this conversation.
• 1:10:18
  SPEAKER_03: It makes no rap.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_03: It's not selling and no, none.
• 1:10:20
  SPEAKER_03: But it's just in your face.
• 1:10:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I to that I just say, okay, we're talking about it.
• 1:10:25
  SPEAKER_03: Here we go.
• 1:10:25
  SPEAKER_11: It must be it's got it's gotta be part of the I don't want to how do I want to how do I want to word this?
• 1:10:31
  SPEAKER_11: Like if you were gonna push, if you were gonna push back against it, like that's the part of it that makes me laugh.
• 1:10:35
  SPEAKER_11: It's just how like what were the circumstances that put Sydney Sweeney in a place where she was completely naked, holding multiple balls next to her?
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_11: What were the circumstances where she stripped down completely naked and climbed up on top of the basketball hoop and is sitting there?
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_11: That's the part of it.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_11: Like, if you want to mock something, go and mock ridiculous.
• 1:10:57
  SPEAKER_03: And there's some like to get the photo, you're like, if people had any idea what you do to get to this photo, it's pretty ridiculous.
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_03: But hey, yeah, she's go for it.
• 1:11:09
  SPEAKER_03: You know, in 20 years, I don't, you know, it's just go for it.
• 1:11:12
  SPEAKER_11: Yeah, she's not good, yeah, she won't have that for for forever.
• 1:11:15
  SPEAKER_03: I really think people should just use what they've got while they have it and always try to strive for something new.
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_11: Especially somebody like Sydney Sweeney, because the assets that she carries, those are gravity is not going to be kind at some point in the near future.
• 1:11:27
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we women talk about it all the time.
• 1:11:30
  SPEAKER_11: By the way, speaking of your uh your your connection back to Hollywood, did you see this news about Paramount Studios?
• 1:11:37
  SPEAKER_11: Yes.
• 1:11:37
  SPEAKER_11: Oh my gosh.
• 1:11:37
  SPEAKER_11: It's insane.
• 1:11:38
  SPEAKER_11: It's it's I mean, the those within Hollywood right now, I was following a little bit of a bit of this yesterday because I follow pop culture.
• 1:11:44
  SPEAKER_11: There are those that are saying like this is a death mill.
• 1:11:48
  SPEAKER_11: The first real big domino to drop that shows the end of Hollywood as we know it.
• 1:11:52
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, I I ran on this because it I, you know, I have a background in as an actress and in film and theater, and it's that's all dying.
• 1:11:59
  SPEAKER_03: When I was a kid, we called Minneapolis the Minneapolis, right?
• 1:12:02
  SPEAKER_03: It was like uh second in theater per capita to anywhere in the United States except for New York City.
• 1:12:07
  SPEAKER_03: And last year in the city council race, and I know people like it kind of got buried inside of all the other things.
• 1:12:11
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, if we make the right decision and we become more pro-business, I can see the collapse in New York and LA.
• 1:12:16
  SPEAKER_03: And Atlanta actually already did this.
• 1:12:19
  SPEAKER_03: Like they already built out a studio 15 years ago, and you know who makes every movie there now?
• 1:12:23
  SPEAKER_03: Marvel.
• 1:12:24
  SPEAKER_03: And now it's it's so Atlanta outside of Atlanta is already booming for that.
• 1:12:29
  SPEAKER_03: And so California is just like it's they they they hinged on that for too long.
• 1:12:34
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's definitely a signal.
• 1:12:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I mean, the the buildings itself of Paramount are over 120 years old.
• 1:12:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's an historic oh yeah.
• 1:12:41
  SPEAKER_03: I I can't when I saw that I was like, people have no idea what a massive like earthquake this is inside of the film industry.
• 1:12:50
  SPEAKER_11: You have any, you have if you have Paramount Leave and you have any other uh large movie studios follow suit.
• 1:12:55
  SPEAKER_11: Yeah, that aspect alone of the of the property and the amount of space that will go empty.
• 1:13:02
  SPEAKER_11: Like nobody will come in and fill there's there'll be no entity that will be able to fill that void being being left there.
• 1:13:08
  SPEAKER_11: I think we all know what'll end up happening to it.
• 1:13:10
  SPEAKER_11: It'll end up being being like the star tr the Star Tribune building that they wanted to turn to a data center that they turned down.
• 1:13:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:13:16
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, it's just it's it's ridiculous on repeat.
• 1:13:19
  SPEAKER_03: And I will just say, like, I still stand by that.
• 1:13:21
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, Minnesota could try to court the film industry again.
• 1:13:25
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, the reason why Southern California boomed is because you would shoot outside and you had natural light, but like now everything's done in studio with AI anyway.
• 1:13:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's just a big warehouse.
• 1:13:33
  SPEAKER_03: The thing is, is do you have the support staff around to do it?
• 1:13:36
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have enough lighting designers?
• 1:13:38
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we, you know, lighting people, sound guys, uh, gaffers, all that kind of stuff that kind of reside in your area.
• 1:13:43
  SPEAKER_03: And if if the Twin Cities tried to do that again, there's I think there's a market, but you know, we are led by people who'd have no vision, no vision whatsoever.
• 1:13:52
  SPEAKER_11: Well, and you touched upon something a moment ago, and I made this comment earlier in the show when I started off talking about the Paramount uh situation, and that is you used to have Democrats in California.
• 1:14:05
  SPEAKER_11: Because listen, Southern California and California's been there's been a you know a back and forth in terms of you know political partying who's had power there.
• 1:14:11
  SPEAKER_11: But when it comes to areas like Southern California, you have pockets of conservatism and Republicans, but really when it comes to Hollywood, it's been dominated by Democrats for decades.
• 1:14:18
  SPEAKER_11: For sure.
• 1:14:18
  SPEAKER_11: But you used to have you know Democrats that actually had good sound business policy that were pro- that were pro-business, and that's just all been abandoned.
• 1:14:28
  SPEAKER_11: And the same thing rings true when it comes to Minneapolis.
• 1:14:30
  SPEAKER_11: I mean, you know better than most.
• 1:14:32
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 1:14:32
  SPEAKER_03: I I it it's it's I I I hate to be this way.
• 1:14:35
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I kind of don't because I love being right.
• 1:14:37
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody loves being right.
• 1:14:38
  SPEAKER_03: It's like Sydney Sweeney, like everybody loves it.
• 1:14:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:14:41
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I mean, I'm like, I I'm willing to be wrong.
• 1:14:44
  SPEAKER_03: I just never am.
• 1:14:45
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I I I projected all of this.
• 1:14:48
  SPEAKER_03: I predicted all of it, and it's and it's happening, and it's sad to watch.
• 1:14:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and yeah, I mean, it's it's it's embarrassing.
• 1:14:57
  SPEAKER_03: We talk about all the different ways that the city's falling apart.
• 1:15:00
  SPEAKER_03: We're making, and the thing is, is it's like it we are still, we're still Thelma and Louise driving toward the cliff.
• 1:15:06
  SPEAKER_03: Like that's the that's the craziest part about it is like the cliff is there, it exists, we're heading toward it, and we're not even attempting to slow down the car yet.
• 1:15:15
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:15:15
  SPEAKER_03: Like, in what world do we not even try to tap the brakes to be like, well, maybe this isn't the right direction.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_03: But no, we still haven't, and the more we do that, the faster our demise and the more catastrophic it will be.
• 1:15:27
  SPEAKER_11: So yeah, and this and the same decisions are being made that, well, rather than like stop and face the consequences, we'll just go ahead and hold hands and drive right off this cliff.
• 1:15:37
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:15:37
  SPEAKER_03: And we're well, we're and we're seeing it in schools.
• 1:15:39
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I know like like that just hit the other day.
• 1:15:41
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's it's everywhere, but that to me is the people who don't understand mathematics, people who don't understand the levels of government that happened can be caught unawares.
• 1:15:50
  SPEAKER_03: And for me personally, that happened in May of 2020 when the city was on fire.
• 1:15:54
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, how did we get here?
• 1:15:56
  SPEAKER_03: Right now that I have dived in for six plus years to figure out why that happened, who was responsible, what failures there were, right?
• 1:16:04
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm not talking about some official state after action report.
• 1:16:07
  SPEAKER_03: I'm talking about my own research because I only trust myself at this point because the city burned around me.
• 1:16:12
  SPEAKER_03: But it's like, okay, this is what happened.
• 1:16:15
  SPEAKER_03: There were so many signs that this could have been avoided, right?
• 1:16:19
  SPEAKER_03: And people didn't heed it.
• 1:16:20
  SPEAKER_03: So, but if you don't know, if you're just living your life and think everything's fine, then you get caught in awares with literally like your, you know, your neighborhood burning around you.
• 1:16:29
  SPEAKER_03: So, so the schools thing I saw coming, but a lot of parents and families and even teachers bluntly just are like it's gonna, they're gonna work it out.
• 1:16:38
  SPEAKER_03: They're gonna they have trust in a system that is not trustworthy.
• 1:16:41
  SPEAKER_03: Like there's just, I don't know how to say it.
• 1:16:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's like you're trusting an institution that has proven time and time and time again to not be trustworthy.
• 1:16:49
  SPEAKER_03: And this decision, again, was six years in the making.
• 1:16:51
  SPEAKER_03: They said they took it three years to do it.
• 1:16:53
  SPEAKER_03: It's like you just kicked the can while we got deeper in debt year over year.
• 1:16:57
  SPEAKER_03: And now here it's like it's catastrophic, and there's no end in sight because you still don't have a plan.
• 1:17:04
  SPEAKER_03: So, yeah, I see.
• 1:17:05
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it was like the the fallout was swift, like it was immediate.
• 1:17:08
  SPEAKER_03: People were like, we're gonna fight to save this school, we're gonna fight to save that school.
• 1:17:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm just like, good luck.
• 1:17:13
  SPEAKER_11: Well, we're gonna dive into this further.
• 1:17:15
  SPEAKER_11: I have audio I'm gonna share with you in just a moment from channel five.
• 1:17:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, please.
• 1:17:18
  SPEAKER_11: Um, and what Becca's referring to is Minneapolis Public Schools unveiling three proposals for a district transformation, doing that thing with my fingers.
• 1:17:27
  SPEAKER_11: Couldn't could close at least 14 schools.
• 1:17:29
  SPEAKER_11: School board officials are saying the restructuring is necessary and the at and uh and a step that needs to be taken uh as the district faces declining enrollment and a budget gap of nearly$40 million.
• 1:17:41
  SPEAKER_11: So, what we'll do coming up, um, I'm gonna take care of a couple of business items.
• 1:17:44
  SPEAKER_11: I want to play for you a quick piece from Channel 5, and then we'll dive into this.
• 1:17:48
  SPEAKER_11: I got a couple of different stories um regarding this, including a weird one where uh Garrett Levin has an article of how much money can closing schools save the district, and then they never answer the question.
• 1:17:58
  SPEAKER_11: So we'll get we'll get into that coming up here on the John Justice show.
• 1:18:02
  SPEAKER_11: Again, former elected official in Minneapolis and uh striving to save uh Minneapolis.
• 1:18:08
  SPEAKER_11: Becca Thompson joins us in the studio.
• 1:18:09
  SPEAKER_11: You can leave your comments, voice or text messages to the blaster line at 651-964-0294.
• 1:18:17
  SPEAKER_11: And I want to remind you, though, that most home service companies, they try to go and sell you more when you just want somebody to come in and take a look at the issue that you're faced with or give your home a full home analysis.
• 1:18:29
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• 1:18:43
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• 1:18:45
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• 1:18:49
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• 1:18:51
  SPEAKER_11: I had these individuals, these licensed experts in my home.
• 1:18:54
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• 1:19:01
  SPEAKER_11: But not doing anything about it would have been costly in the future.
• 1:19:05
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• 1:19:08
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• 1:19:11
  SPEAKER_11: That's iHeartexon.com, or call Ericsson Plumbing Heating and Electric today at 763-783-4545.
• 1:19:18
  SPEAKER_11: That's 763-7834545.
• 1:19:21
  SPEAKER_41: Hi, I'm Joe Scott, and I'm the only conservative on the Eastern Carver County Schools Board.
• 1:19:27
  SPEAKER_41: I'm also the only incumbent who supports balanced budgets, key performance indicators in our superintendent's contract, and counting everybody's vote every time in school board elections.
• 1:19:40
  SPEAKER_41: You can vote as early as Friday, September 18th, and I'd appreciate your support.
• 1:19:45
  SPEAKER_41: To learn more about me and how I stand on other school board issues, visit reelectjoeescott.com.
• 1:19:54
  SPEAKER_23: How much does closing a school building save a school district?
• 1:19:57
  SPEAKER_23: That's what a lot of people want to know after the Minneapolis Public Schools announced that it would like to close uh thirty uh actually minimum of fourteen, up to sixteen schools in the next few years if the school board approves of it.
• 1:20:11
  SPEAKER_23: I'm Keila Pedrazzo with Five Eyewitness News, and I use my seven years classroom teaching experience to help you understand what's going on inside your child's schools these days.
• 1:20:21
  SPEAKER_23: And today we're talking about Minneapolis public schools and their transformation plan that includes closures and did not, at least last night, include much in the way of financials.
• 1:20:32
  SPEAKER_23: What was all of this change going to save the district?
• 1:20:35
  SPEAKER_23: They did talk about how when you put more kids into one school building, that building actually gets more money because in Minnesota the money follows the student.
• 1:20:45
  SPEAKER_23: So there's that.
• 1:20:46
  SPEAKER_23: Um but they didn't talk about how much closing individual buildings might save them.
• 1:20:52
  SPEAKER_23: I whether they repurpose the buildings or they end up selling them.
• 1:20:56
  SPEAKER_23: And that's because, as I talked to experts today, it's really complicated and honestly too early to figure that out.
• 1:21:02
  SPEAKER_23: They need to know what enrollment is going to do after any changes are made.
• 1:21:06
  SPEAKER_23: That's going to impact how much money they can actually save.
• 1:21:08
  SPEAKER_23: What they do with the building, do they leave it mothballed so they have to keep minimum utilities on, but uh, they're not really using the building?
• 1:21:15
  SPEAKER_23: Well, that'll save some money, but maybe not as much as completely shutting it down, demolishing it, or selling it would save the district.
• 1:21:23
  SPEAKER_23: There's also uh other changes that would come with moving these students around.
• 1:21:27
  SPEAKER_23: Uh, it's definitely gonna change busing routes.
• 1:21:30
  SPEAKER_23: Right now, the the changes uh as they're proposed, the district says probably won't save them any money, but they've got an idea for something that will save them money, they believe, and that is changing start times.
• 1:21:42
  SPEAKER_23: Right now they have about 15 different start times around the district, and they want to that want to lower that down to three start times.
• 1:21:48
  SPEAKER_23: So that's another way that the district is trying to save money with these changes, but that is a plan they haven't actually started on yet, so they don't know exactly how much they're gonna save.
• 1:21:57
  SPEAKER_23: So, like I said, how much will all of these changes, especially the closures, save the district?
• 1:22:03
  SPEAKER_23: Complicated question.
• 1:22:04
  SPEAKER_23: What do you think?
• 1:22:05
  SPEAKER_23: Is all of this worth it?
• 1:22:06
  SPEAKER_23: Leave me a comment, let me know what you think, and if you want to know what's going on inside your schools, give me a follow up.
• 1:22:13
  SPEAKER_11: Again, that was courtesy of Channel 5 Minneapolis Public Schools, puts 14 schools on the chopping block in transformation plans.
• 1:22:21
  SPEAKER_11: This part made this part made me laugh out loud when I was doing my prep.
• 1:22:25
  SPEAKER_11: The district didn't refer to this as closures, but rather mergers leaving 15 to 16 buildings again with my fingers unprogrammed.
• 1:22:38
  SPEAKER_11: So now we have unprogrammed schools.
• 1:22:41
  SPEAKER_11: I have comments that are already rolling in, but I invited Becca Thompson into the studio this morning to talk about all things Minneapolis, a former elected official there fighting for the future of Minneapolis.
• 1:22:52
  SPEAKER_11: My first, my instinctive reaction to this, Becca, was things must be bad if they're willing to basically toss aside the funding that they get from the state in closing these in these schools.
• 1:23:05
  SPEAKER_11: Because there's a lot of funding, right, that's coming from the state when it comes to these schools.
• 1:23:08
  SPEAKER_11: And aren't they going to be losing out on they'll be losing out on this funding?
• 1:23:11
  SPEAKER_03: No, uh not not not not really.
• 1:23:14
  SPEAKER_03: So um the the without question, the most expensive thing for a school are wages in fringe, period.
• 1:23:21
  SPEAKER_03: It's always the staff.
• 1:23:22
  SPEAKER_03: Always, always, always, always, always.
• 1:23:25
  SPEAKER_03: So uh there is when you think about the teacher contract um that now apparently includes paraprofessionals, but um paraprofessionals are not licensed and teachers are licensed.
• 1:23:39
  SPEAKER_03: So when it comes to state, I mean everything is about money, let's be plain.
• 1:23:42
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely 100% everything has to do with money.
• 1:23:44
  SPEAKER_03: As I said, the money follows the the student, but it doesn't fully follow the student because it doesn't follow them anywhere, right?
• 1:23:51
  SPEAKER_03: It only follows them to districts.
• 1:23:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so if the student is enrolled in the district, then the district get that gets that money.
• 1:23:58
  SPEAKER_03: But the moment the student says, Oh, we're gonna go to Robinsdale, which is also uh massive struggles financially, or we're gonna go to Eden Prairie, then that money goes there.
• 1:24:07
  SPEAKER_03: But it doesn't necessarily flow to like it wouldn't flow to enunciation if kids wanted to go to enunciation, right?
• 1:24:13
  SPEAKER_03: So so it doesn't necessarily always follow the kid.
• 1:24:16
  SPEAKER_03: There's actually a ton of education money left on the table for kids that have chosen a private or parochial school option.
• 1:24:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um it just sits there because it doesn't uh follow them.
• 1:24:25
  SPEAKER_03: That being said, like what they're doing is they're hoping to keep the kids while also reducing the wages infringed because the the the the teachers, it doesn't matter what this the union tells you, MFT, now MFE, it was Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, meaning licensed teacher professionals, and they changed it to MFE to try to be this blanket thing to fight for more staff.
• 1:24:49
  SPEAKER_03: Well, at the time, uh again, the board folded.
• 1:24:52
  SPEAKER_03: I actually wasn't for the strike when it happened in 2022, 2020 was it 2020, 23?
• 1:24:57
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, because I I get uh I knew that teachers weren't getting paid enough.
• 1:25:01
  SPEAKER_03: I knew that teachers were having horrific conditions.
• 1:25:03
  SPEAKER_03: I was one of them, right?
• 1:25:05
  SPEAKER_03: But I also knew that there was no money.
• 1:25:08
  SPEAKER_03: So, so that bloated contract has put an extra pressure onto the district.
• 1:25:13
  SPEAKER_03: So, what's gonna happen is the state requires licensed teachers.
• 1:25:17
  SPEAKER_03: The state does not require paraprofessionals.
• 1:25:19
  SPEAKER_03: So the licensed teachers are gonna shift.
• 1:25:22
  SPEAKER_03: They're hoping that 100% of the kids stay, which of course is a ridiculous calculation.
• 1:25:26
  SPEAKER_03: It's probably gonna be 95 or 90.
• 1:25:28
  SPEAKER_03: Then you're gonna immensely cut down on staff by closing this building and and athletic staff and uh uh associated administrative staff, and in the sense that you're gonna just kind of keep teachers.
• 1:25:41
  SPEAKER_03: So that's the savings.
• 1:25:42
  SPEAKER_03: The savings is not lights, the savings is not mothballs, the savings is not buildings, the savings is as the wages infringe.
• 1:25:49
  SPEAKER_11: I had a comment that rolled in uh to the blaster line at 651-964-0294.
• 1:25:54
  SPEAKER_11: I'm a public school administrator.
• 1:25:56
  SPEAKER_11: Staff pay and benefits is the absolute number one cost in school districts.
• 1:26:00
  SPEAKER_11: If they're closing 14 buildings, they're potentially laying off 14 buildings worth of staff, which would save them a ton of money.
• 1:26:06
  SPEAKER_11: So it's kind of echoing what you're doing.
• 1:26:07
  SPEAKER_11: 100%.
• 1:26:08
  SPEAKER_03: And that is the when you when you talk about they wouldn't talk about what it was, because they hid this, they hid this.
• 1:26:15
  SPEAKER_03: I don't mean hid like I mean I that it was nefarious.
• 1:26:18
  SPEAKER_03: They hid it in the sense of like the atomic bomb.
• 1:26:20
  SPEAKER_03: They knew it was gonna scare people, they knew it was gonna upset people.
• 1:26:23
  SPEAKER_03: So they didn't present any of this.
• 1:26:25
  SPEAKER_03: None of this was public in advance of the meeting, and then they presented it at the meeting.
• 1:26:28
  SPEAKER_03: And bluntly, the school board, they all uh here's here's the irony.
• 1:26:33
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade.
• 1:26:35
  SPEAKER_03: Every single one of those school board members was endorsed by the union, and yet they're gonna preside over this closure that has to happen.
• 1:26:43
  SPEAKER_03: It has there's no way to write size.
• 1:26:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I warned people about this too.
• 1:26:47
  SPEAKER_03: Again, I I was called all sorts of names where I was like, if slash win Donald Trump wins, we're screwed in on so many levels.
• 1:26:53
  SPEAKER_03: And then he did, and everyone's like, Becca, you're such a naysayer.
• 1:26:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, it's he's he's gonna cut our funding because of blah, A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
• 1:27:01
  SPEAKER_03: And he did.
• 1:27:02
  SPEAKER_03: So, like, and then this is the fallout.
• 1:27:04
  SPEAKER_03: So, yeah, they don't want to mention it.
• 1:27:06
  SPEAKER_03: There's gonna, exactly as the caller said, 14 buildings worth of jobs, which you do the math.
• 1:27:11
  SPEAKER_03: And and I had people telling me last summer, they were connecting with me, of they were already the sweep was already going through with athletic staff because athletic staff are, you know, for the teams per the like per buildings.
• 1:27:24
  SPEAKER_03: And and I think it's in incredible that they're not closing any high schools.
• 1:27:29
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I think there's one alternative high school.
• 1:27:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I don't know if you paid attention, it was before COVID.
• 1:27:36
  SPEAKER_03: Ed Graf, the former superintendent, tried to close North, which is one of the oldest schools left in the district, but it's been horrifically mismanaged in a million different ways.
• 1:27:45
  SPEAKER_03: And he lost his job over it.
• 1:27:47
  SPEAKER_03: Like he ended up like he there was so much social pressure about North High, and everyone went crazy, even though, like, by all metrics, it was a fair failing school.
• 1:27:56
  SPEAKER_03: Now, Mari Fle Free Slavon is there, she's doing a lot of work.
• 1:27:59
  SPEAKER_03: They put Poured$15 million into rebuilding North High and it's still struggling.
• 1:28:06
  SPEAKER_03: So it's like, yeah, I mean, this has been going on for years.
• 1:28:10
  SPEAKER_11: What's the so what what's the driving factor here?
• 1:28:12
  SPEAKER_11: Is it the is it declining enrollment?
• 1:28:15
  SPEAKER_11: Is the kids not showing up at the at the schools in order to get the uh the funding?
• 1:28:20
  SPEAKER_11: I know you talked about the cuts at the national level, but I'm uh again kind of going all the way back to the start of our conversation.
• 1:28:26
  SPEAKER_11: You got 14 schools being closed, some consolidation, the you know, the not programmed buildings.
• 1:28:32
  SPEAKER_11: But what's the driving force as to why these schools have to close in the in the first place?
• 1:28:37
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, I mean there's How long is the list, I guess, basically?
• 1:28:41
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:28:41
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I mean, it starts with enrollment, and the thing is is that MPS is not the the the teachers are like, well, we need to make it a destination district and get the best of the best.
• 1:28:51
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, how okay, the devil's in the details, and I got in massive trouble for this, but what what experience for kids when there's bullying that is rapidly unchecked?
• 1:29:02
  SPEAKER_03: That as to then this I am quoting a former student of mine at South High.
• 1:29:06
  SPEAKER_03: The most, the most, uh, I want to make sure that I get the quote right.
• 1:29:10
  SPEAKER_03: The most um segregated place you will find in the city is South High Commons at lunch.
• 1:29:16
  SPEAKER_03: So, like, and that's I observed that to be a true statement.
• 1:29:19
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody just kind of sticks to themselves, or there's fights.
• 1:29:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I I have teachers are not allowed to discipline kids.
• 1:29:26
  SPEAKER_03: Admind, if teachers try to discipline, admin aren't allowed to discipline.
• 1:29:30
  SPEAKER_03: It all comes from the top because we want to massage the numbers that so for people like Tim Walls and others can go floating out there of like, you know, we've solved this and we have our scores this and we have that.
• 1:29:41
  SPEAKER_03: It's because nothing's being reported.
• 1:29:43
  SPEAKER_03: Nothing's being reported, but the kids are still making decisions.
• 1:29:46
  SPEAKER_03: The kids are still going home with horrible stories that their parents then are like, you know what?
• 1:29:50
  SPEAKER_03: I wish I could send my child to Blah X school, but I really I'm gonna send them instead to the local Catholic school.
• 1:29:57
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna send them instead to the charter school.
• 1:30:00
  SPEAKER_03: I've taught so many of these kids and I've talked so to so many of the parents who've explained to me exactly why they left the public schools.
• 1:30:08
  SPEAKER_03: And like that's really what it comes down to.
• 1:30:10
  SPEAKER_03: So it it's a it's a it's circularship.
• 1:30:13
  SPEAKER_03: The the the ownership goes with the people of like make it a place where kids can excel.
• 1:30:18
  SPEAKER_03: And you're not, you're not.
• 1:30:20
  SPEAKER_03: Certain schools are, but the most of the high schools are not.
• 1:30:24
  SPEAKER_03: I know that there are exceptions to the rule, but it it I could go on and on and on.
• 1:30:29
  SPEAKER_11: So what happens now?
• 1:30:30
  SPEAKER_11: So these schools, let's just say these 14 schools shutter, those those students are gonna have to be sent to other schools and other districts, right?
• 1:30:39
  SPEAKER_11: Yep.
• 1:30:40
  SPEAKER_11: Are those schools equipped to go and deal with the influx of what they're gonna receive in terms of those students, or are they struggling with enrollment now uh themselves and then there's space available for them?
• 1:30:53
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it you know, okay, so in theory, throwing a lot at you.
• 1:30:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I know.
• 1:30:59
  SPEAKER_03: I I man, schools are my I want to talk about schools.
• 1:31:03
  SPEAKER_03: I do.
• 1:31:04
  SPEAKER_03: I I I am a teacher, I'm a mathematician, I I love kids.
• 1:31:08
  SPEAKER_03: I think I think the root of what ails us is our in our children.
• 1:31:12
  SPEAKER_03: If we give them a safer place to grow up, they will build the community that we all want to see.
• 1:31:18
  SPEAKER_03: But we have we have to protect them, and we're not protecting them on repeat.
• 1:31:22
  SPEAKER_03: And that's if there's one through line for all the different things that I play whack-a-mole with, it's protecting kids.
• 1:31:28
  SPEAKER_03: So, so what happens is in in theory, a teacher, say a math teacher like myself, you're gonna get a roster of 30 kids.
• 1:31:36
  SPEAKER_03: And if you have 30 kids who can all, you know, get along and listen, you can teach 30 kids.
• 1:31:41
  SPEAKER_03: And yes, you know, it's there's a lot of work, but you get paid really well because of the union contract.
• 1:31:45
  SPEAKER_03: This is in theory what goes on.
• 1:31:46
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, you have, you know, uh every once in a while Johnny and Billy like act out, and you've got to call in the dean or the or the principal, and then they get suspended or they just get a detention or whatever.
• 1:31:58
  SPEAKER_03: That is normal behavior.
• 1:31:59
  SPEAKER_03: What's happening is we have rival, uh, what what does the news call them now?
• 1:32:05
  SPEAKER_03: Community groups instead of gangs, right?
• 1:32:07
  SPEAKER_03: We have rival community groups, groups of groups of people, random groups of young people who are rivals, and they will show up in the same class together and be like, I'm not gonna be in this class with child A, right?
• 1:32:20
  SPEAKER_03: They don't usually they're not calm about it.
• 1:32:22
  SPEAKER_03: And then that then leads to the next thing, and then a kid will show up and they had a beef with somebody in middle school on the street who like they mess with my brother, and like the next thing you know, those 30 kids, you've got seven of them who are causing a problem.
• 1:32:35
  SPEAKER_03: And oh, you're not allowed to kick seven of them out because of the fact that they're all they all hit certain demographics, whatever, and it and it could be whatever chosen demographic you don't want to talk about.
• 1:32:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so then that was my next question.
• 1:32:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they so they stay, they stay in the classroom.
• 1:32:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then they they just they make it where if you're lucky as a teacher, you can get 15 minutes worth of education.
• 1:33:02
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's you know, 20, 23 to 25 students of the 30 students are being sacrificed their education and it and and they work extra hard.
• 1:33:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I I mean, it kept me in schools for so long, and I know a ton of friends who feel this way.
• 1:33:18
  SPEAKER_03: And there are so many good kids who want to learn.
• 1:33:21
  SPEAKER_03: All it takes is like really like two to five percent.
• 1:33:24
  SPEAKER_03: Five percent can ruin it due to a lack of discipline, a lack of structure.
• 1:33:29
  SPEAKER_03: And this comes from the top down because they want the data to remain.
• 1:33:34
  SPEAKER_03: They want to show when we kicked MPS out or MPD out with our school resource officer officers, when we kicked all that out in 2020, when we got rid of any support staff that could connect with the city, we did it right.
• 1:33:47
  SPEAKER_03: They they have this uh this diseased need to make the data fit what they want it to be instead of calling a spade a spade, we were wrong, we need help, these kids need help.
• 1:34:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like the kids who are causing the problems, the 5%, uh they they are when you sit down with them one-on-one, you'll hear their stories.
• 1:34:08
  SPEAKER_03: I've done this a billion times if I've done it once.
• 1:34:11
  SPEAKER_03: They're not bad kids.
• 1:34:12
  SPEAKER_03: They're kids that are hurting, and we're just like letting them act out.
• 1:34:16
  SPEAKER_03: And like sometimes they have a legitimate fear of some other kid who's coming in from another group.
• 1:34:21
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's uh it's an abject and systemic failure of the adults in the room.
• 1:34:27
  SPEAKER_11: And it's spreading outside of the schools.
• 1:34:29
  SPEAKER_11: I mean, we see 100%.
• 1:34:30
  SPEAKER_03: It blows my mind what's going on.
• 1:34:32
  SPEAKER_03: What we see in places that I've seen in schools.
• 1:34:33
  SPEAKER_11: Yeah, you see these crime reports, you see these, you know, the stories of the violence taking place on the streets, and then I see the ages of these kids, and I'm just going, just my God in heaven, what is going on?
• 1:34:45
  SPEAKER_11: That you have 12 and 13-year-olds that are out there committing these these horrendous, these horrendous crimes.
• 1:34:51
  SPEAKER_11: And it sounds like it's an extension of what you're mentioning of what's happening inside of our schools.
• 1:34:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and you know what breaks my heart?
• 1:34:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I again I have a hundred stories for one.
• 1:35:00
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, uh two summers, summer of 25, there was a young boy who was shot and subsequently killed in Falwell Park on the north side.
• 1:35:10
  SPEAKER_03: Again, kids from the suburbs found out that kids in the city were in, or it was like a vice versa, were like on their territory.
• 1:35:18
  SPEAKER_03: We're talking about middle schoolers, okay, in stolen kias.
• 1:35:22
  SPEAKER_03: Fallwell Park, if you know the area, there are big, I mean, I was the commissioner.
• 1:35:25
  SPEAKER_03: We have big logs, still logs all over the park so that you can't drive through it.
• 1:35:30
  SPEAKER_03: That's how we're gonna have make it safe to play softball.
• 1:35:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and the other kids playing soccer on the field at night.
• 1:35:36
  SPEAKER_03: So, so uh kids drove in, we're gonna someone know something because again, they they and they have phones, they this and that.
• 1:35:43
  SPEAKER_03: Well, this one young man, this is what breaks my heart.
• 1:35:46
  SPEAKER_03: The mom recognized her son was in a in a hard situation, which she went and uprooted her life to move him to the suburbs, get him in a different school, get him away from kids that were not good for his, you know, life.
• 1:36:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and what happened?
• 1:36:03
  SPEAKER_03: Mom's at work, it's summer, the boy is at home alone, and uh friends just stop by the house and pick him up and are like, We're gonna, we're gonna go come with us, come with us, we're gonna, you know, and when you're 11, 12 years old, you don't know how to say no to your friends.
• 1:36:18
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:36:18
  SPEAKER_03: You've stolen a Kia and you're gonna go like defend your old territory on the north side.
• 1:36:22
  SPEAKER_03: So he ends up in the car.
• 1:36:25
  SPEAKER_03: Uh little did oh look, we not only have stolen cars, we have semi-automatic weapons.
• 1:36:30
  SPEAKER_03: Nobody, the news didn't cover this, they did not cover this, but I know because I talked to the actual officers.
• 1:36:35
  SPEAKER_03: So 13, 14 years old automatic weapons shooting in daylight in the park, and this boy takes several hits.
• 1:36:46
  SPEAKER_03: And the kids then call mom as she's as she's at work and are like, so and so we we're in trouble.
• 1:36:56
  SPEAKER_03: And the mom's like, what is going on?
• 1:36:59
  SPEAKER_03: The kids then the the little boy is bleeding out in the stolen car.
• 1:37:04
  SPEAKER_03: And what do the kids do?
• 1:37:06
  SPEAKER_03: They dump him on the sidewalk because they're trying to get away because now they're hearing sirens because they heard, oh, the cops found out, right?
• 1:37:14
  SPEAKER_03: We're in trouble.
• 1:37:15
  SPEAKER_03: So they dump their friend on the sidewalk where this boy bleeds out at a bus station in the arms of a stranger, right on the corner of Dowling and Penn.
• 1:37:27
  SPEAKER_03: I drive past it every day.
• 1:37:28
  SPEAKER_03: There's still flowers in balloon memorial.
• 1:37:31
  SPEAKER_03: And and the mom then, the mom then calls 911 and was like, I got a call about my son.
• 1:37:39
  SPEAKER_03: What is tell me what's happening?
• 1:37:41
  SPEAKER_03: And by then it was even in advance of the the the uh residents of Minneapolis who you know see this kid.
• 1:37:49
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so this is that is the end result of, and I'm not blaming, I'm not like, I'm sure I'm hearing teachers right now like, are you laying this at the foot of schools?
• 1:37:58
  SPEAKER_03: No, I'm not.
• 1:37:58
  SPEAKER_03: What I'm laying this at the foot of layers of society that don't want to realize kids are hurting and they need accountability.
• 1:38:07
  SPEAKER_03: It is a all of us need all of us need accountability, all of us.
• 1:38:11
  SPEAKER_03: If I went and did something that was out of bounds, I got in trouble.
• 1:38:15
  SPEAKER_03: And it was just like, Becca, you were not supposed to be running down Xerxes Avenue, you know, when I was a little kid.
• 1:38:20
  SPEAKER_03: And it was like, because it's dangerous, right?
• 1:38:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I didn't get that I was a kid, but I still got in trouble for it because I needed to listen to the adults who understood that's a dangerous spot for you, right?
• 1:38:29
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's just an example.
• 1:38:31
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry to go on and on.
• 1:38:32
  SPEAKER_03: No, that story sits with me because I was one of the first people there.
• 1:38:35
  SPEAKER_03: I still saw the blood everywhere, and and I was told what happened, and it's horrifying.
• 1:38:39
  SPEAKER_03: And that never makes the news, never.
• 1:38:40
  SPEAKER_11: So there's a lot of a lot of blasts have have rolled in some questions for you.
• 1:38:44
  SPEAKER_11: I want to make sure we get to get to these.
• 1:38:47
  SPEAKER_11: Um, no, no, it's it no, this is great.
• 1:38:49
  SPEAKER_11: I do have a I do have one question on the story that you told.
• 1:38:52
  SPEAKER_11: I'm curious to get your thoughts.
• 1:38:54
  SPEAKER_11: So as you're as you're speaking about this, you know, I talk often about the the revolving door of criminality that takes place within Hennepin County specifically.
• 1:39:01
  SPEAKER_11: Yeah.
• 1:39:02
  SPEAKER_11: Um, and there seems to be a focus on this restorative justice, especially relating to our our young people or a lack of accountability.
• 1:39:09
  SPEAKER_11: Um, there doesn't, my perception is there doesn't seem to be much of a nuanced approach.
• 1:39:14
  SPEAKER_11: It seems to be there's too much of a lack of accountability versus accountability, where at the same time, the what you're describing is there is a level of outreach that should be done when it comes to our youth who are getting swept up in this that may not be the most evil of evil that we're dealing with of their friends that they're running that that that they're running with and getting into trouble with.
• 1:39:34
  SPEAKER_11: Where's the balance in your opinion?
• 1:39:36
  SPEAKER_11: I mean, are we are we doing a good job in in terms of outreach of young people from uh a uh a criminal accountability standpoint, or are we leaning too much on that restorative justice?
• 1:39:47
  SPEAKER_03: I I I honestly I think we're leaning too much on restorative justice.
• 1:39:51
  SPEAKER_03: I was just talking with somebody about this yesterday.
• 1:39:54
  SPEAKER_03: I have dealt with a lot of young people who uh, you know, I don't know if I don't know if listeners know this.
• 1:40:00
  SPEAKER_03: You can you can go to high school paid for by the state till you're 21, right?
• 1:40:04
  SPEAKER_03: Most kids graduate at 18 or 19, but you can go till you're 21.
• 1:40:08
  SPEAKER_03: So um I used to teach a lot of the kids that were, you know, they were behind in credits, they were older.
• 1:40:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um the thing is you can get in a violent assault at school, at school, and you will nothing will happen.
• 1:40:24
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, nothing, you'll be in a conversation.
• 1:40:27
  SPEAKER_03: Well, do you know that what you did was wrong, Billy?
• 1:40:30
  SPEAKER_03: Share how this makes you feel.
• 1:40:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:40:32
  SPEAKER_03: Like here, here's a squishy, here's a fidget spinner.
• 1:40:35
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I'm sorry, you wanna like um it and and and that there's there's a lot of kumbaya, and nothing happens for as long as you're 17 years and 363, you know, 364 days old, you hit 18 and you do the exact same thing um outside of the school, and suddenly you are in jail.
• 1:40:57
  SPEAKER_03: And and so by by dropping metrics of accountability, I'm not saying you start there, I'm not saying the first offense of you know, Jenny, you you throw the book at her and you make her go into detention for you know every day after school for a week.
• 1:41:14
  SPEAKER_03: But if you're gonna have a restorative piece, there's has to be like this is your third time, you're now suspended.
• 1:41:20
  SPEAKER_03: This is your blah time, you're now whatever it is.
• 1:41:24
  SPEAKER_03: And and the thing is, truancy is also an issue.
• 1:41:27
  SPEAKER_03: And again, with truancy, what happens when you kick kids out of school?
• 1:41:31
  SPEAKER_03: It goes our whole conversation goes right back.
• 1:41:34
  SPEAKER_03: If you hold a student accountable, hold their family accountable, and you say, I'm sorry, you can last chance high school.
• 1:41:40
  SPEAKER_03: I used to teach at last chance high school, you you still are doing this, you cannot go to this school, you got kicked out of the other school, which is how you ended up here.
• 1:41:48
  SPEAKER_03: You have to leave the district.
• 1:41:50
  SPEAKER_03: Well, what happens?
• 1:41:51
  SPEAKER_03: Bye-bye to the money.
• 1:41:53
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 1:41:53
  SPEAKER_03: And then it's uh, and then you find a different district who's like willing, like it, and it's so it all uh, in my opinion, that's why I've said many times that we have structural failure.
• 1:42:04
  SPEAKER_03: I think one of the structural failures is the way that our state is setting up.
• 1:42:08
  SPEAKER_03: It worked for a while, you know, like a lot of things, it worked for a while.
• 1:42:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I think we have to we have to reconsider how we pay for schools and it'll change all of that stuff.
• 1:42:19
  SPEAKER_11: Let's go to the uh blaster line as we continue our conversation with Becca Thompson this morning, 651-964-0294.
• 1:42:25
  SPEAKER_30: Hey, good morning, John and Becca.
• 1:42:27
  SPEAKER_30: Becca, I follow you on uh X.
• 1:42:29
  SPEAKER_30: You're a great follow.
• 1:42:30
  SPEAKER_30: So schools are struggling, right?
• 1:42:34
  SPEAKER_30: I got it figured out.
• 1:42:35
  SPEAKER_30: Don't worry.
• 1:42:36
  SPEAKER_30: We got the free breakfast, free lunch, free dinners.
• 1:42:40
  SPEAKER_30: Free dinners is gonna fix everything right now.
• 1:42:42
  SPEAKER_30: Let me tell you about it.
• 1:42:43
  SPEAKER_30: And crime rates are way down.
• 1:42:44
  SPEAKER_11: Have a great day, buddy.
• 1:42:46
  SPEAKER_11: It's more of a general statement than a question there, but hey, you know what?
• 1:42:49
  SPEAKER_11: At least the kids are being fed.
• 1:42:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I will, and I can speak toward that too.
• 1:42:53
  SPEAKER_03: Like, again, I worked at all the schools, I did all the stuff, and kids used to throw it at each other and be like, I don't need this government food.
• 1:43:00
  SPEAKER_03: And they would literally talk, go in line, get their free lunch, and immediately dump it in the trash.
• 1:43:06
  SPEAKER_03: They would take a milk, and then you're like, and then I would look and I'd be like, okay, I just think of all the man hours to like create the little yogurt cup and you know, the the the tacos or whatever, I don't know, the sloppy joe and just the food processing and the this and this.
• 1:43:22
  SPEAKER_03: And then now it's just all gonna go, and we've got plastic everywhere.
• 1:43:26
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, plastic everywhere, and and that's the logic.
• 1:43:28
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I at a school I tried to say, can we have a food program?
• 1:43:31
  SPEAKER_03: Let's set it up.
• 1:43:33
  SPEAKER_03: We can teach kids about growing their own food, we can teach kids about making their own food.
• 1:43:36
  SPEAKER_03: I go, this is really like pertinent to their life.
• 1:43:38
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I teach math.
• 1:43:39
  SPEAKER_03: I'm always gonna be like math, rah-rah, math.
• 1:43:41
  SPEAKER_03: But I like I get it when kids are like, when am I ever gonna learn this, use this?
• 1:43:44
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, that's a good point.
• 1:43:45
  SPEAKER_03: Let's learn how to cook, right?
• 1:43:46
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I can teach you math through that.
• 1:43:48
  SPEAKER_03: I even I worked with the with the staff in the at the like the lunch staff.
• 1:43:53
  SPEAKER_03: I talked with one of the social workers.
• 1:43:54
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, can we start this program?
• 1:43:56
  SPEAKER_03: And then sure enough, it gets to the top levels after a bunch of yeses.
• 1:43:59
  SPEAKER_03: It was like, no, we can't do that.
• 1:44:01
  SPEAKER_03: We've got health codes, we can't do that.
• 1:44:02
  SPEAKER_03: We'd have to require kids to sign off on that.
• 1:44:05
  SPEAKER_03: And we already have problems enough getting in touch with parents on this one student.
• 1:44:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, okay.
• 1:44:12
  SPEAKER_11: And then we get the we get the story this week of uh, you know, 430 meals served and is touted as this great thing, even though I keep hearing from your students.
• 1:44:19
  SPEAKER_11: It's in the trash.
• 1:44:20
  SPEAKER_03: And others at least half of it's in the trash.
• 1:44:22
  SPEAKER_11: Just stop messing around and at least examine what's going on to find out whether or not because we are, we know you and I know they are, they're blowing millions of dollars.
• 1:44:30
  SPEAKER_11: But the least you could do in the wake of all of the other issues, including the fraud, is go and examine what's happening with the free school meals program to find out if we're not throwing money away.
• 1:44:40
  SPEAKER_11: And we're clearly throwing money away.
• 1:44:41
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, wait, with without question.
• 1:44:43
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, and and you know, I'll tell you this too, John, and this is a thing a lot of people don't know.
• 1:44:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I have I've taught in all lay layers of schools.
• 1:44:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and there's a designation that gets you more money.
• 1:44:54
  SPEAKER_03: So the money follows the student, yes, but the money also follows the school in terms of um free and reduced lunch.
• 1:45:01
  SPEAKER_03: So, so schools that I taught in before this lunch for everybody, right?
• 1:45:07
  SPEAKER_03: They actually got extra money um because they were a school that served a population that was impoverished.
• 1:45:15
  SPEAKER_03: So they got extra money, they were already given the food.
• 1:45:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then they that that extra money just helped in little ways for the kids.
• 1:45:25
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then the moment that we gave it to everybody, that extra earmark disappeared.
• 1:45:32
  SPEAKER_03: So it costs more, and the schools and the schools that need it the most are getting less.
• 1:45:38
  SPEAKER_03: And that's an that that's a great irony of that.
• 1:45:41
  SPEAKER_03: You would only know if you're actually in the trenches that again, the headlines are just gonna be like, look at how we're saving the world, kumbaya, when that's not what's really going on.
• 1:45:51
  SPEAKER_03: It's why I have such a problem with, I mean, well, with our media, but then also like with the elected officials who just want like a big, I mean, it's all just a big game.
• 1:46:00
  SPEAKER_03: They just are yeah, they're just selling you tripe.
• 1:46:02
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that the Simpsons did it the best, I think, of that like all the time, Troy McClure, which Phil Hartman may he rest in peace.
• 1:46:09
  SPEAKER_03: But it's like, I'm Troy McClure and I've been sent here by the beef council.
• 1:46:14
  SPEAKER_03: And Lisa's like, what?
• 1:46:16
  SPEAKER_03: That's our that is our uh, those are our elected officials right now.
• 1:46:20
  SPEAKER_11: Let's go here.
• 1:46:21
  SPEAKER_24: Hey, I have a question about that notion of uh a few kids wrecking it for everyone and uh lack of discipline.
• 1:46:28
  SPEAKER_24: Um, you know, the implication is that it came from the top down, but as an outsider that's not in education, it seems like teachers are all hyper-progressive and will just believe in restorative justice and are completely on board with this.
• 1:46:43
  SPEAKER_24: If the teachers aren't, can't they press for a change in their own work environment?
• 1:46:49
  SPEAKER_03: What are your what are your what are your thoughts on it?
• 1:46:51
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I I love hearing that that's hearing that that's the outsiders' approach.
• 1:46:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, you would you would think the same way that you think that Minneapolis is all gung-ho about being a communist dystopia, which we're not, um, you would think that all teachers' unions are crazy, you know, purple haired yelling at you uh social justice warriors.
• 1:47:13
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody gets involved in teaching because they like kids.
• 1:47:16
  SPEAKER_03: You do not, you do not teach for as many years bluntly that I have, unless you like working with kids, and especially in you if you work in the inner city, you like helping kids who have less.
• 1:47:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I I love being able to help people who normally wouldn't have a chance to be helped.
• 1:47:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um at the same time, most teachers, most teachers, I cannot stress this enough.
• 1:47:42
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, they care about their students, they they think they they believe in the mission of educating everybody, um, and they want their classroom to function that, and then most of them at the end of the day, they go home to their families exhausted, the same way that you do, and they watch a stupid Netflix show, and you know, they have dinner with their own kids and they ask about their kids, and then they, you know, they have to deal with, you know, oh, their parent is is aging or that this, that, and the other thing.
• 1:48:13
  SPEAKER_03: They're just forgive the phrase, they're just normal people who go home like everybody else.
• 1:48:18
  SPEAKER_03: The the teachers union people that you see on the news or that get quoted in the Star Tribune are always the activists every single time.
• 1:48:29
  SPEAKER_03: The ones that have, I mean, a little bit, that's why I started a TikTok account, but like the ones who have the TikTok account who want to show you how based they are, you know, of like they're always the activists.
• 1:48:41
  SPEAKER_03: They're always the fringe.
• 1:48:42
  SPEAKER_03: We're being run.
• 1:48:43
  SPEAKER_03: I say this because I teach stats, we're being run by three deviations from the mean.
• 1:48:48
  SPEAKER_03: We're being run by the uh 0.015% of the population right now on the far left, and everybody thinks that that's normal, or the far right, but the the far right I think is hidden more.
• 1:49:00
  SPEAKER_03: But like, that's who's making the news and in every capacity.
• 1:49:03
  SPEAKER_03: So, no, most teachers actually are not that way.
• 1:49:06
  SPEAKER_11: Well, I'm glad you brought that up too, because I think it's a um people listen to the show and just to sort of uh dovetail off of what Becca Thompson was saying, you know, people listen to the show and a lot of times you think they're as engaged in everything as the person listening or as I am.
• 1:49:25
  SPEAKER_11: And you're right.
• 1:49:26
  SPEAKER_11: The majority of individuals out there aren't that actively involved.
• 1:49:30
  SPEAKER_11: They're just in in the political aspect of it or the activism aspect of it.
• 1:49:34
  SPEAKER_11: What you said makes all the sense in the world to me.
• 1:49:36
  SPEAKER_11: There are probably plenty of teachers that don't align with the most extremist views that we see online, but you know what?
• 1:49:42
  SPEAKER_11: They're just living their lives.
• 1:49:44
  SPEAKER_11: They're not they're they're not in this to become activists.
• 1:49:48
  SPEAKER_11: They're not in this to push back.
• 1:49:49
  SPEAKER_11: They want to make sure that they can do the best job they possibly can, I would imagine.
• 1:49:52
  SPEAKER_11: As you said, for the students in their classroom.
• 1:49:55
  SPEAKER_11: But beyond that, there's no time to go and get involved and to put Publish videos pushing back on the teacher down the hall, you know, three doors down to the to the left.
• 1:50:05
  SPEAKER_11: No, they just want to be able to do the best job they possibly can, make a living for themselves and probably to help their family, and then, you know, do that every single day.
• 1:50:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:50:12
  SPEAKER_03: And you know what?
• 1:50:13
  SPEAKER_03: It goes all the way back to that very first caller, still talking about Sidney Sweeney, that of like just like brush it off and live your life.
• 1:50:19
  SPEAKER_03: There are a ton of teachers who see it and who live it and are exhausted by it, but they they don't want to engage.
• 1:50:27
  SPEAKER_03: They do not want to deal with it because bluntly, I did deal with it eventually, and I was basically kind of hazed for it.
• 1:50:35
  SPEAKER_03: And when there were problems with me at MPS and I was ultimately asked to come back after there was a severing with my former administration, I was like, Do you really?
• 1:50:45
  SPEAKER_03: That's insane.
• 1:50:46
  SPEAKER_03: I don't want to go back to a place where I was treated so horribly because I started, because I kind of had a platform and I started telling what I knew, right?
• 1:50:55
  SPEAKER_03: Most teachers, if they have free time, they're not gonna go make a TikTok video.
• 1:51:00
  SPEAKER_03: They're not gonna go to a protest and scream.
• 1:51:02
  SPEAKER_03: They're gonna go to one of their students' basketball games.
• 1:51:04
  SPEAKER_03: They're gonna be like, I'm gonna go support this kid who I know, you know, you know, there's their dad's not in the picture and mom's working, and they finally made the varsity and it's a big deal for them.
• 1:51:15
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna go support that kid.
• 1:51:17
  SPEAKER_03: So at so in the little free time that teachers have, they don't use it for that 99 times out of a hundred.
• 1:51:24
  SPEAKER_03: You instead you see them on the side of a softball field cheering on a kid that they know.
• 1:51:30
  SPEAKER_03: Instead, you see them like out in cross-country practice trying to help that one kid who's never done sports before, just feel welcome.
• 1:51:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know, like that is where you will find teachers.
• 1:51:41
  SPEAKER_03: And so I another reason why I talk a lot is because I'm like, I hate that, I hate that the city gets a bad rap because most people in the city are amazing just trying to fix it, but they don't know how.
• 1:51:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and they're also just trying to live their life and they're being burdened with this insanity.
• 1:51:56
  SPEAKER_03: And then the other thing is teachers, like they are starting to get a bad rap.
• 1:51:58
  SPEAKER_03: And most teachers, 99% are just they just love the kids and want to make sure to help them.
• 1:52:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, we're not perfect, but I see people working their tail off every day for very little.
• 1:52:13
  SPEAKER_03: And yes, I think they should get paid a good wage.
• 1:52:15
  SPEAKER_03: I am very, very pro-union.
• 1:52:17
  SPEAKER_03: I also am a mathematician and and and I understand economics, and I can see the handwriting on the wall.
• 1:52:23
  SPEAKER_03: So which would you rather have uh not including MFE, the educators, or having 16 schools closed?
• 1:52:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because that's that was the question that was really posed to you three years ago.
• 1:52:34
  SPEAKER_03: Nobody wanted to deal with it, so here we are.
• 1:52:36
  SPEAKER_03: Anyway, there's my philosophy.
• 1:52:37
  SPEAKER_28: Thank you, Becca, for speaking out, and I'm glad that you've seen the light.
• 1:52:40
  SPEAKER_28: But teachers' unions are a money laundering scheme for the DFL.
• 1:52:46
  SPEAKER_28: And in general, public sector unions are of conflict of interest.
• 1:52:50
  SPEAKER_28: They're smaller, large F.
• 1:52:53
  SPEAKER_28: They should be abolished.
• 1:52:55
  SPEAKER_28: Period.
• 1:52:55
  SPEAKER_28: End of story.
• 1:52:56
  SPEAKER_28: Thank you.
• 1:52:57
  SPEAKER_11: Anything any any any any thoughts?
• 1:52:59
  SPEAKER_11: I know you don't have a lot of time.
• 1:53:01
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it was it is it FDR that said that public sector should never be allowed to unionize.
• 1:53:06
  SPEAKER_03: I don't disagree.
• 1:53:07
  SPEAKER_03: I think you should pay teachers.
• 1:53:09
  SPEAKER_03: Like I've talked about this with other um with when people want to socialize healthcare, you know, doctors and nurses and like just make it clear and make it obvious and then pay people.
• 1:53:19
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think I don't I don't have a problem with that.
• 1:53:21
  SPEAKER_03: But I would I would actually totally agree when it comes to um uh MFM MFT, MFE right now.
• 1:53:28
  SPEAKER_03: They completely are just uh they wouldn't even allow me to be endorsed because I am a teacher and I was in that union in last year's city council race.
• 1:53:36
  SPEAKER_03: They had their executive team, which is like five people, endorse my opponent, they wouldn't even let the question go to teachers because they knew I would have gotten it.
• 1:53:43
  SPEAKER_11: You know, it's interesting.
• 1:53:44
  SPEAKER_11: I was reminded of I have a lot of uh, and I push back on this because I don't agree.
• 1:53:49
  SPEAKER_11: I'm curious to get your thoughts.
• 1:53:50
  SPEAKER_11: Uh, talking with Becca Thompson here on the John Justice show, presented by American Experiment.
• 1:53:55
  SPEAKER_11: But when we see these negative stories coming out of Minneapolis, whether it's schools, whether it's crime, um, a lot of people leave comments going, well, this is what the people of Minneapolis voted for.
• 1:54:05
  SPEAKER_11: When when the reality is, no, I mean, you do have some individuals who vote for these people to put them in positions of power.
• 1:54:12
  SPEAKER_11: They do perpetuate policies that bring about a lot of the negativity what we're talking about.
• 1:54:17
  SPEAKER_11: But it's applicable when we talk about those teachers.
• 1:54:19
  SPEAKER_11: The same thing rings true for a lot of citizens within Minneapolis as well, who aren't engaged and don't know what's going on.
• 1:54:25
  SPEAKER_11: And it's that, it's that idea that we've shared where a lot of a lot of DFLers are voting for Democrats, but they often want those Democrats to go and push policy like Republicans do.
• 1:54:38
  SPEAKER_11: And they're not paying attention to what is going on, so they don't realize it.
• 1:54:41
  SPEAKER_11: Now, there's ignorance involved there, so I guess there is some accountability, but I just I don't buy into this mentality of, well, let them all suffer because this is what the people of Minneapolis voted for.
• 1:54:51
  SPEAKER_11: It's like, no, Minneapolis is too important to the state of Minnesota to allow it to just fall to ruin.
• 1:54:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:54:58
  SPEAKER_03: I see those comments too, and I'm like, first of all, you don't know, again, that's that's like that's why I'm here.
• 1:55:04
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I I do teach stats.
• 1:55:05
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know how much people know the normal curve, the bell curve, right?
• 1:55:08
  SPEAKER_03: Which is like every statistical thing, if you get enough volume, it's gonna matriculate to that, right?
• 1:55:14
  SPEAKER_03: I if if you take the mean right down the right down the middle, right, people go left and right.
• 1:55:20
  SPEAKER_03: But if you just look at the middle, that's where most people are.
• 1:55:25
  SPEAKER_03: So we're being ruled through a series.
• 1:55:27
  SPEAKER_03: The pro the the main problem with I would say the city, if you want to give a major critique, it's that people have a vested interest in being seen as specifically a DFL er, right?
• 1:55:39
  SPEAKER_03: I just have a vested interest in being seen as somebody who fights for Minneapolis and its kids.
• 1:55:45
  SPEAKER_03: Like, and that's I think I'm not trying to in any way that I think that's what makes me different.
• 1:55:49
  SPEAKER_03: But I do think there are a ton of people who are willing to let that go because it has gotten so bad.
• 1:55:55
  SPEAKER_03: And the thing is, is that there's again uh trust in the institution that does not deserve our trust.
• 1:56:01
  SPEAKER_03: But uh most people in Minneapolis, they love the city, they want to see clean parks, clean water, they want functioning schools, they want clean city streets, they don't want to see, you know, people literally dying in the streets.
• 1:56:17
  SPEAKER_03: They don't understand why their their favorite coffee shop closed.
• 1:56:20
  SPEAKER_03: That's the thing I go back to all the time.
• 1:56:21
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, because you're so busy living your life, and everybody at the coffee shop is very nice and kind, and and we've made so much about these social issues, going back to the Sydney Sweeney stuff.
• 1:56:32
  SPEAKER_03: It everything has to do with economics.
• 1:56:35
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely everything.
• 1:56:36
  SPEAKER_03: And so getting people to understand that like you were sold a lie.
• 1:56:41
  SPEAKER_03: That's again, you know, Troy McClure.
• 1:56:44
  SPEAKER_03: Here's some tripe.
• 1:56:45
  SPEAKER_03: Like you were sold a lie, and now you're now these are the consequences of that.
• 1:56:50
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm trying to sell people the truth.
• 1:56:52
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not even trying to sell them, I'm just trying to tell them and hopefully and we cannot let Minneapolis die.
• 1:56:58
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely not.
• 1:56:59
  SPEAKER_11: Well, but hey, the driverless Waymo cars will at least have a person riding around in them if the city council gets their way, gets their way.
• 1:57:06
  SPEAKER_11: I'm gonna talk about this after you leave this morning, but this is this is their this is the this is the city council's appeal to the rideshare companies in the taxis to have Waymo driverless cars be required to hire somebody to sit in the vehicle as it moves about town.
• 1:57:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and that also is how they launder money.
• 1:57:25
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, listen, I'll just say this, and I I do have a time constraint, but um anything involving children and anything involving undocumented people is exactly that.
• 1:57:37
  SPEAKER_03: It cannot be documented for children.
• 1:57:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's because they're under 18, right?
• 1:57:42
  SPEAKER_03: Those the rest of us have a social security number that follows us around, right?
• 1:57:46
  SPEAKER_03: Plainly, right boom, right?
• 1:57:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we have an ID.
• 1:57:50
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, heck, there's like a chip in our ID now.
• 1:57:52
  SPEAKER_03: Who knows what's gonna happen?
• 1:57:53
  SPEAKER_03: You know, talk about that slippery slope.
• 1:57:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I you cannot follow it around.
• 1:57:58
  SPEAKER_03: That's where money laundering used to always hide in anything involving children because and and construction contracts, don't even get me started on construction contracts right now.
• 1:58:09
  SPEAKER_03: But but undocumented people currently are where massive, I mean, massive amounts of fraud are happening because you're literally just making up the person because no one can check it, because they're not there's not a document documented paper trail.
• 1:58:25
  SPEAKER_03: Um, my child just turned 18.
• 1:58:28
  SPEAKER_03: He had a birth certificate practically before he had a name and a social security number before he had a name.
• 1:58:33
  SPEAKER_03: I hadn't even done been done naming him, and they're like, Well, we've got him a number.
• 1:58:37
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's that fast.
• 1:58:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we were the rest of us were like that too when you're born.
• 1:58:41
  SPEAKER_03: Like, and I'm not, I don't want to wade into that crazy argument, except for to say that's how you hide money.
• 1:58:48
  SPEAKER_03: And the city council knows this, and they've gotten all the drivers that they fought for with Uber and Lyft.
• 1:58:54
  SPEAKER_03: They weren't fighting for the people moonlighting as a driver to make an extra 150 bucks uh a week.
• 1:59:01
  SPEAKER_03: No, they were fighting for people to try to have a full-time wage that don't have documentation here in the city in this in the country, and that's why they're fighting for it now.
• 1:59:10
  SPEAKER_03: They're not fighting for moon, they're not fighting for what Uber used to be.
• 1:59:14
  SPEAKER_11: Let's uh let's wrap on this.
• 1:59:15
  SPEAKER_11: Uh, I know you I know I gotta let you go.
• 1:59:17
  SPEAKER_11: There's one comment that rolled in, and I can I can um add to this as well, but I wanted to get your thoughts since they're talking specifically about Minneapolis, and you can speak obviously better to that, Becca Thompson, than I can.
• 1:59:28
  SPEAKER_28: Again, Becca, I think your voice is very important and thank you.
• 1:59:31
  SPEAKER_28: But you keep saying that the majority of Minneapolis is not crazy, and I disagree.
• 1:59:36
  SPEAKER_28: I drive around the neighborhoods all the time, and almost every house has some sort of left-wing sign on it.
• 1:59:43
  SPEAKER_28: And most of them say F-Ice.
• 1:59:46
  SPEAKER_28: I mean, give me a break.
• 1:59:47
  SPEAKER_28: It's the majority of Minneapolis residents, so I think they do get what they vote for.
• 1:59:55
  SPEAKER_28: Sorry.
• 1:59:56
  SPEAKER_11: So before I let you go this morning, I have my own thoughts on this, but I wanted to get uh wanted to get your thoughts back to that.
• 2:00:01
  SPEAKER_03: That is great.
• 2:00:01
  SPEAKER_03: I will say this.
• 2:00:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um I don't talk about that at that particular time in our city.
• 2:00:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um my father had just died, and um I still got texts.
• 2:00:12
  SPEAKER_03: I lost friends for not saying anything.
• 2:00:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like friends who I can't believe you're not using your platform to say something, what's going on in our city right now?
• 2:00:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, I'm literally burying my father.
• 2:00:22
  SPEAKER_03: I don't have the energy for this, right?
• 2:00:24
  SPEAKER_03: But it I will just say it was such um, I'm sorry, but the it uh uh adults are just more mature bodies.
• 2:00:35
  SPEAKER_03: There's no metric to decide if we don't also fall into the social contagion of uh a fad.
• 2:00:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm sure that that will come back to haunt me saying that, or maybe it'll be a champion for me, but like there was so much social pressure to be that person, to put the sign in your lawn.
• 2:00:55
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes I will say this, I'm not gonna speak for the people inside.
• 2:00:59
  SPEAKER_03: I will just say this that I know some people put the sign in their lawn to avoid harassment, and just it is it, and you know what?
• 2:01:08
  SPEAKER_03: For me personally, I do go back to like Nazi Germany of how many people just wanted to go along to get along, and they were like, well, it's not that bad right now, right?
• 2:01:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I just I agree with the caller that there is definitely some some stuff, but when you go in and talk to people and really talk to them and realize their concerns, you realize they they know something's wrong.
• 2:01:31
  SPEAKER_03: They just don't know why and how.
• 2:01:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and again, I will say you don't know what it's like to live in the smog and how much it affects your lungs unless you live in the smog.
• 2:01:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 2:01:42
  SPEAKER_11: Becca Thompson, thank you so much for coming in this morning.
• 2:01:45
  SPEAKER_11: Uh, where can people find you on uh X if they're not following you already?
• 2:01:48
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.
• 2:01:48
  SPEAKER_03: I I think I don't even know my own handle.
• 2:01:50
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's Becca underscore Thompson.
• 2:01:52
  SPEAKER_03: I think so.
• 2:01:53
  SPEAKER_11: I feel like I've been I've been so behind this morning.
• 2:01:55
  SPEAKER_11: Usually I have I have X up over here and I don't write now.
• 2:01:58
  SPEAKER_11: So I've been so behind today.
• 2:01:59
  SPEAKER_03: So I'll name with a K, B-E-C-K-A, because my parents were different.
• 2:02:02
  SPEAKER_11: All right.
• 2:02:02
  SPEAKER_11: Well, let's let's uh let's get you back in studio uh real soon.
• 2:02:05
  SPEAKER_11: I know you got to head off to uh thanks for having me.
• 2:02:07
  SPEAKER_03: I always love love chatting.
• 2:02:08
  SPEAKER_03: And I think I've got Shogro.
• 2:02:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you got Shogrew there keeping you comfortable uh comfortable as well.
• 2:02:15
  SPEAKER_11: Uh Becca Thompson, uh thank you so much, and we'll uh we'll have you back on again real soon.
• 2:02:19
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks, John.
• 2:02:20
  SPEAKER_11: 651-964-0294.
• 2:02:23
  SPEAKER_11: That's the blaster line.
• 2:02:25
  SPEAKER_11: If you'd like to leave a comment, you can also email uh john.justice at american experiment.org.
• 2:02:30
  SPEAKER_11: I want to dovetail off of this as we head into the uh third hour of the show of what the listener was saying in that in in that comment.
• 2:02:38
  SPEAKER_11: Um, it kind of goes back to what Becca and I were talking about uh earlier, and that is, you know, perception doesn't always equal reality.
• 2:02:47
  SPEAKER_11: The number of signs that you see in a certain community or a certain area is not going to be representative of everybody as a whole.
• 2:02:54
  SPEAKER_11: Are the majority of individuals inside of Minneapolis on the left?
• 2:02:57
  SPEAKER_11: Probably.
• 2:02:58
  SPEAKER_11: But not everybody is fully engaged in these politics every single day.
• 2:03:03
  SPEAKER_11: And the the example I'll give is is this.
• 2:03:06
  SPEAKER_11: If you were watching outside of Minnesota when the George Floyd riots were taking place, you would have been under the impression that the entire city of Minneapolis was on fire, like every single city block, just by looking at what you saw on TV.
• 2:03:20
  SPEAKER_11: The same thing rings true when it comes to the Operation Metro Surge.
• 2:03:23
  SPEAKER_11: But if you're here on the ground and you know that while it's bad, it's also isolated to particular sp places, particular spots, particular areas.
• 2:03:31
  SPEAKER_11: It's not the city as a whole.
• 2:03:34
  SPEAKER_11: It's a lot easier to go and identify the lunacy and that which you disagree with than it is to go and recognize that it may not be the majority of everything that you see around you.
• 2:03:44
  SPEAKER_11: It is a balance there.
• 2:03:45
  SPEAKER_11: And and Becca's right.
• 2:03:47
  SPEAKER_11: There are plenty of people inside of Minneapolis that may have signs on their yard because they want to make sure they fall in line, just like on Seinfeld when Kramer didn't want to wear the ribbon.
• 2:03:56
  SPEAKER_11: Why aren't you wearing the ribbon?
• 2:03:58
  SPEAKER_11: Right?
• 2:03:58
  SPEAKER_11: Well, they don't want to be called out for not having, why don't you have the lawn sign?
• 2:04:01
  SPEAKER_11: And so they put the lawn sign on there.
• 2:04:03
  SPEAKER_11: So I refuse to believe that it's the complete majority of individuals in Minneapolis who are all wholly informed of what is happening before them and are endorsing every single ridiculous level of nonsense coming out of the Minneapolis uh city uh city council.
• 2:04:43
  SPEAKER_11: I'll be it a little bit uh late.
• 2:04:44
  SPEAKER_11: 651-964-0294.
• 2:04:48
  SPEAKER_11: I want to take just a moment and remind you that if you're looking to get a good night's sleep, if you're looking to relax and escape the news that we talk about on a daily basis, maybe you're looking for an alternative to your alcoholic beverages that you typically uh enjoy.
• 2:05:01
  SPEAKER_11: If you're dealing with any kind of chronic or acute pain, M-I-N-N-E-L-E-A-F.com is your go-to source for triple diamond pain creams, fun gummies, spooky mini leaf tonics brewed right here, delicious flavors right here in Eden Prairie.
• 2:05:17
  SPEAKER_11: Everything's packaged locally at uh Mini Leaf.
• 2:05:20
  SPEAKER_11: The fun gummies, the dark chocolates, and of course for me, it's the night gummies that give me a good night's sleep every single night and have me waking up feeling refreshed.
• 2:05:30
  SPEAKER_11: All the products are made with natural ingredients, all natural ingredients.
• 2:05:34
  SPEAKER_11: They stand by what they sell with the money back guarantee.
• 2:05:37
  SPEAKER_11: So head on over to M-I-N-N-E-L-E-A-F.com.
• 2:05:41
  SPEAKER_11: That's minileaf.com and taste happy at minileaf.com.
• 2:05:49
  unknown: This is what makes good radio.
• 2:05:51
  unknown: This is something wrong.
• 2:05:54
  SPEAKER_27: This is like listening to Christians share their testimonies.
• 2:05:57
  SPEAKER_27: This is straight from the horse's mouth.
• 2:06:00
  SPEAKER_27: It's really compelling awesome.
• 2:06:05
  SPEAKER_27: Listen to all the stories.
• 2:06:08
  SPEAKER_27: Good radio.
• 2:06:10
  SPEAKER_27: Thank you.
• 2:06:12
  SPEAKER_11: Thank you for the kind words.
• 2:06:13
  SPEAKER_11: And listen, what's so encouraging is that there are more and more average, and I say I use average not as, you know, not as a pejorative.
• 2:06:22
  SPEAKER_11: I'm not trying to use this in a negative way, but I'm just saying your average everyday people that are just going about living their lives that are getting fed up and they're using their voice to call out what's happening.
• 2:06:33
  SPEAKER_11: You know, I'm I I feel incredibly blessed to have a platform here, despite the best efforts of other um, you know, uh other companies and not allowing me that platform anymore.
• 2:06:44
  SPEAKER_11: I'm thankful here at American Experiment that they have allowed me to continue this platform, to continue to talk about the things that I care about and hopefully you care about as well.
• 2:06:54
  SPEAKER_11: But you have voices like Becca Thompson, Callie Proctor, friend of the show, another individual, just a person who is living their daily life that sees what's going on around them and says, hey, you know what?
• 2:07:04
  SPEAKER_11: Uh I've had enough and they're speaking out.
• 2:07:06
  SPEAKER_11: And she certainly falls into that category.
• 2:07:08
  SPEAKER_33: Hey, John, great show.
• 2:07:10
  SPEAKER_33: I just have to say I love Becca Thompson.
• 2:07:14
  SPEAKER_33: She's fabulous.
• 2:07:15
  SPEAKER_33: Thank you.
• 2:07:16
  SPEAKER_11: Keeping with just a few more uh items relating to the city of Minneapolis, uh Summit Brewing, Summit Brewing Company facing an$8.2 million debt headed for foreclosure after defaulting on loans.
• 2:07:32
  SPEAKER_11: Despite the efforts to resolve the situation, Summit has been unable to meet their repayment deadlines.
• 2:07:37
  SPEAKER_11: I know they're looking for third-party investors to come in and help them, uh help them out.
• 2:07:43
  SPEAKER_11: Um the brewery, a pioneer in Minnesota's craft brew industry, is now navigating the challenging market with declining craft beer production and a changing consumer preferences.
• 2:07:54
  SPEAKER_11: Becca posted this online, which is one of the, we were going to talk about it, but she uh we were out of time just because the conversation got away with us in the best possible way, by the way.
• 2:08:03
  SPEAKER_11: She says this isn't a craft, this isn't a craft brewery doing that thing with my fingers, as the early commentators like to suggest.
• 2:08:11
  SPEAKER_11: This is an established business which has which has had a hold on the market long before the fads.
• 2:08:17
  SPEAKER_11: This is directly because of the awful business climates in Minneapolis and St.
• 2:08:23
  SPEAKER_11: Paul.
• 2:08:23
  SPEAKER_11: And as we've been uh highlighting on the show uh this morning, um, it's not immune to the city of Minneapolis.
• 2:08:30
  SPEAKER_11: You look at other uh areas of the country where they've been dominated by leftist policies and they're dealing with the same economic frustrations and concerns and devastation.
• 2:08:40
  SPEAKER_11: Paramount Studios potentially leaving Los Angeles is devastating.
• 2:08:47
  SPEAKER_11: And it's a nationwide issue that hopefully goes and wakes people up.
• 2:08:53
  SPEAKER_11: Similar to what's happening here.
• 2:08:55
  SPEAKER_11: It's reaching beyond these locales, it's going into and feeding into, you know, popular culture, sports, as we talked about this morning, Travis Kelsey being swept up in an illegal immigrant scam for crying out loud.
• 2:09:09
  SPEAKER_11: That relates to this as well.
• 2:09:11
  SPEAKER_11: And on top of that, it also fuels the anti-Sidney Sweeney mentality, as we kicked off the show this morning talking about, with her provocative ad for a sports betting site.
• 2:09:24
  SPEAKER_11: Well, why do you think, and this is not nothing new when it comes to advertising, but why do you think this sports betting site tapped Sydney Sweeney for their ads?
• 2:09:32
  SPEAKER_11: Because they know she's provocative.
• 2:09:34
  SPEAKER_11: They know that she'll bring attention, that she will own her own sexuality and confidence.
• 2:09:41
  SPEAKER_11: You know, that is power.
• 2:09:43
  SPEAKER_11: She's wielding that power.
• 2:09:44
  SPEAKER_11: And if those on the left don't see the opportunity to use what Sydney Sweeney is doing because she's not aligned with them, then they will seek to go and exploit that power for their own gain.
• 2:09:55
  SPEAKER_11: In this case, by going and calling it out, criticizing it, saying that this is detrimental to women's sports while at the same time being champions of allowing men to go and destroy and put women in harm's way in women's sports.
• 2:10:10
  SPEAKER_11: But there's also an aspect of capitalism here that they're pushing back against.
• 2:10:15
  SPEAKER_11: These are the same individuals that want to see more government intrusion, that want to see more uh government social welfare programs to support your mediocre lifestyle while they grow, grow power because they're the ones that ultimately go and wield it.
• 2:10:35
  SPEAKER_11: It all it all ties together.
• 2:10:37
  SPEAKER_11: And all of it points to just what's at stake when it comes to these midterm, uh, these midterm elections uh coming up here in about five weeks.
• 2:10:49
  SPEAKER_11: 651-964-0294.
• 2:10:53
  SPEAKER_11: All right, let's go here again.
• 2:10:54
  SPEAKER_11: Like I said, I had a few more uh Minneapolis uh items to uh to share with you, including we got to get into the Waymo driverless cars situation because it is utterly ridiculous.
• 2:11:03
  SPEAKER_11: Also, this hour, I'm gonna share with you the details of the latest polling that mirrors the polling that came out earlier this week.
• 2:11:11
  SPEAKER_11: Buckle up because the next five weeks here in Minnesota, based off of these polling, these polling numbers and the fact that some Republicans are now leading in these polls.
• 2:11:21
  SPEAKER_11: If you thought things were crazy now, there's going to be a level of desperation setting in very, very soon.
• 2:11:26
  SPEAKER_11: Or we're going to get an answer as to just how much does gubernatorial candidate for the DFL, Amy Clobishar, how much does she actually want to win this race?
• 2:11:37
  SPEAKER_11: Keith Ellison, I think, is a better example.
• 2:11:41
  SPEAKER_11: Because if you've seen any of his campaigning, it's been relentless.
• 2:11:45
  SPEAKER_11: It's been as goofy as it's been relentless.
• 2:11:47
  SPEAKER_11: And I'll share with you details on that coming up here in uh a little bit later on, probably at the bottom uh the bottom half of the hour.
• 2:11:53
  SPEAKER_11: So at Alpha News, we talked a lot about schooling last hour with Becca Thompson, fired for accurately.
• 2:12:00
  SPEAKER_11: Reporting student misconduct.
• 2:12:02
  SPEAKER_11: A Minneapolis teacher is now speaking out on how wildly excessive political correctness has gone too far.
• 2:12:09
  SPEAKER_11: Mary Smith, a teacher at the Minneapolis School District, and her attorney Andrew Parker, who helped her get her job back, joined the Liz Collin podcast this week.
• 2:12:18
  SPEAKER_11: Smith described how she was caught up in the perfect storm of cancel culture, woke ideology in the Minneapolis School District back in September of 2025.
• 2:12:28
  SPEAKER_11: Until that time, she had been a veteran teacher with an unblemished record for more than 30 years.
• 2:12:35
  SPEAKER_11: She has a master's degree in urban education, a teaching certificate in English as a second language, and helped to open a school on an Indian reservation.
• 2:12:46
  SPEAKER_11: Now, the bigger picture in all of this is that the Minneapolis School District, as we've been talking about, is facing a$40 million budget shortfall along with declining enrollment and could close more than a dozen schools.
• 2:12:57
  SPEAKER_11: Research indicates that students in the district are nearly two grade levels below the national average in math and reading.
• 2:13:05
  SPEAKER_11: And as a teacher with three decades of experience, Smith said, I just feel like our priority is not really educating the kids.
• 2:13:12
  SPEAKER_11: I think there are so many things that are just steering us away from that.
• 2:13:16
  SPEAKER_11: And this is exactly what Becca Thompson, our guest last hour, was speaking to.
• 2:13:20
  SPEAKER_11: Here is just a portion of this lengthy interview with Mary Smith and also her attorney with Liz Collin from Alpha News on her podcast this week.
• 2:13:30
  SPEAKER_02: You know, Mary, it sounds like you were really caught up in the perfect storm of cancel culture, woke ideology, hypocrisy, anti-white racism, kind of all wrapped up into one within the Minneapolis public school system.
• 2:13:41
  SPEAKER_02: So we're going to start with you, Andrew.
• 2:13:42
  SPEAKER_02: How does your client with such a stellar track record end up in such a strange situation back in September of 2025?
• 2:13:51
  SPEAKER_34: Well, uh, Liz, you know, it's uh it's really unfortunate that this happened at all.
• 2:13:57
  SPEAKER_34: Uh as you say, uh Mary has had a long and stellar career both at the Minneapolis public schools and in teaching before that.
• 2:14:09
  SPEAKER_34: Uh and she witnessed uh and was attempting to uh uh fight back against racist conduct in the Minneapolis public schools.
• 2:14:24
  SPEAKER_34: She witnessed students uh aggressively attacking uh verbally one another with the use of the full N-word, uh, and she reported it as she thought and understood she was to do as a mandatory reporter.
• 2:14:46
  SPEAKER_34: She reported it just as it uh occurred soon thereafter.
• 2:14:50
  SPEAKER_34: She was investigated.
• 2:14:52
  SPEAKER_34: The students in the incident uh were never handled or dealt with by the district, but she was investigated.
• 2:14:59
  SPEAKER_34: Uh, and it was determined, and the recommendation was made that she be terminated for uh, admittedly, uh no dispute about it, uh simply describing what it was that she witnessed.
• 2:15:14
  SPEAKER_02: So, Mary, as you know, that the term racist is often used to describe people or situations that aren't actually racist.
• 2:15:20
  SPEAKER_02: In your case, racist doesn't even match up at all with the facts.
• 2:15:24
  SPEAKER_02: You have a master's degree in urban education, a teaching certificate in English as a second language, ESL.
• 2:15:30
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't match up with the fact that you helped open a school on an Indian reservation.
• 2:15:36
  SPEAKER_02: What has this past year been like for you, Mary, knowing that that you've been mislabeled and wrongly accused despite the actual facts and circumstances?
• 2:15:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I should mention that you lose your job uh over this after being put on administrative leave uh for a few months.
• 2:15:52
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you're back now.
• 2:15:53
  SPEAKER_02: We'll get to to that in the the story, but but what has this been like for you?
• 2:15:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a crazy whirlwind.
• 2:16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I never thought that by reporting what students' behavior was, like I had done many, many, many times over my career in Minneapolis schools, um, would result in this.
• 2:16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I I would have thought that if they didn't like how I did it or what I had written, um, that they would have talked to me or something, but nobody did that.
• 2:16:28
  SPEAKER_01: It was just I was in shock actually when they sent me home.
• 2:16:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I I really didn't even understand what I had done, probably until really I don't know, four months later.
• 2:16:42
  SPEAKER_01: I I didn't really know what I was being sent home for.
• 2:16:47
  SPEAKER_11: And I would encourage uh everyone, if you have the opportunity, to go and listen to the entirety of that interview, especially if you enjoyed the time that we spent talking with Becca Thompson, because to get this ground level view, uh really it's crucial as we address these issues, as we try to figure out what solutions there are, if there are any to these issues, uh hearing from the individuals uh speaking out who know exactly what they're talking about because this was their job.
• 2:17:18
  SPEAKER_11: It's wholly important.
• 2:17:19
  SPEAKER_11: At alphanews.org, you can see the entirety of that interview.
• 2:17:22
  SPEAKER_11: Speaking of being racist, though, one more uh school item of note Minneapolis school board member Adriana uh Cirillo has never been shy about making immigration part of her public identity.
• 2:17:34
  SPEAKER_11: She has spoken openly about crossing the border from Mexico into Texas and described herself as undocumented.
• 2:17:40
  SPEAKER_11: Illegal.
• 2:17:41
  SPEAKER_11: Uh Corrillo uh has also said that she doesn't believe in borders and is not comfortable in neighborhoods that are predominantly white.
• 2:17:50
  SPEAKER_11: Oh, this woman is just a gem.
• 2:17:52
  SPEAKER_11: Last year she publicly accused the Trump administration of being white supremac.
• 2:17:58
  SPEAKER_11: In other words, Cerillo has plenty on her public record.
• 2:18:01
  SPEAKER_11: In October of 2025, Alpha News uh reported on Cerillo's controversial remarks about immigration and race, raised questions about her eligibility to hold an elected office after she reportedly posted on social media that she was at risk of being deported.
• 2:18:16
  SPEAKER_11: Minnesota requires a candidate for the school board to be U.S.
• 2:18:19
  SPEAKER_11: citizens.
• 2:18:20
  SPEAKER_11: So Alpha News asked Cyrilla to clarify her citizenship status and explain why she reportedly believed that she could be deported, and she did not respond.
• 2:18:31
  SPEAKER_11: Cerilla stopped showing up at school board meetings then.
• 2:18:34
  SPEAKER_11: Following the Alpha News article in October of 2025, she was absent.
• 2:18:40
  SPEAKER_11: Stretched on for eight months according to the minutes from the meetings.
• 2:18:44
  SPEAKER_11: From November 25 until June of 26, the elected uh elected District 4 representative who receives a$20,000 annual salary was missing from the board table while her colleagues conducting business and casting votes without her.
• 2:19:01
  SPEAKER_11: When Cirillo finally resurfaced at the July 28th board meeting, she offered an explanation for what had kept her away.
• 2:19:07
  SPEAKER_11: One that included, oh, alleged threats, family troubles, and media scrutiny that followed her own public statements.
• 2:19:15
  SPEAKER_11: They never ever want to take accountability for their own actions.
• 2:19:20
  SPEAKER_11: I publicly criticized federal government white supremacist practices on social media, she told fellow board members.
• 2:19:27
  SPEAKER_11: She said she began receiving threats through phone calls, emails, and messages on her personal social media accounts, even some articles that were written about my citizenship and whether I was fit to serve on this board because I was an illegal, undocumented immigrant.
• 2:19:40
  SPEAKER_11: Cerrillo did not identify Alpha News by name.
• 2:19:42
  SPEAKER_11: However, Alpha News could not identify another Minnesota news organization that had scrutinized Cirillo's record in the matter that she described.
• 2:19:50
  SPEAKER_11: She offered another explanation for her absence as well.
• 2:19:53
  SPEAKER_11: Oh, my sister and brother-in-law that lived in Texas were deported, and this caused a lot of instability in my family.
• 2:19:59
  SPEAKER_11: This experience has been very traumatic and exhausting for all of us as a family.
• 2:20:03
  SPEAKER_11: Well, then you shouldn't, if you were, then you shouldn't have come here illegally.
• 2:20:06
  SPEAKER_11: It's pretty, it's pretty simple.
• 2:20:09
  SPEAKER_11: And if you did come here illegally, you shouldn't be out there bragging about it.
• 2:20:12
  SPEAKER_11: And if you're gonna be out there bragging about it, then own it.
• 2:20:15
  SPEAKER_11: That's the part of this whole thing.
• 2:20:17
  SPEAKER_11: We have such a lazy crop of activists.
• 2:20:20
  SPEAKER_11: They're gonna dress up as clowns, they're gonna act like a bunch of hypocrites when it comes to an attractive woman in a sports ad because she's not aligned with the left and they can't go and take advantage of it because they would be applauding it.
• 2:20:35
  SPEAKER_11: They have to go and tear her down.
• 2:20:37
  SPEAKER_11: And in this case, if you really stood by all of this, it's a part of it that it just it it's it is, it's just lazy, in my opinion.
• 2:20:46
  SPEAKER_11: But for an individual like this, she could have sought fame and attention and drawn way more, way more people to her cause if she had just come clean about her whole immigration status.
• 2:21:03
  SPEAKER_11: You're right, I am an illegal, and I did uh get elected, and then face the consequences of that.
• 2:21:07
  SPEAKER_11: She'll have plenty of people that would be defending her actions, but oh no, no, no, no.
• 2:21:12
  SPEAKER_11: They want to be able to throw out all the nonsense, to make all the claims, to not follow the rules, but then not have to take and deal with any of the consequences that come along with that.
• 2:21:22
  SPEAKER_11: Minneapolis Public Schools owns um owns school board handbook, spells out the duties of the elected board member.
• 2:21:28
  SPEAKER_11: The first one's hard to miss.
• 2:21:30
  SPEAKER_11: Attend school board meetings.
• 2:21:32
  SPEAKER_11: The handbook also says that members should make decisions by voting in school board meetings and strive to uphold my responsibilities and accountability to taxpayers in my school district.
• 2:21:42
  SPEAKER_11: Alpha News asked the Minneapolis Public Schools for Cirillo's attendance record, the number of votes she missed, whether her absences were excused, and how much compensation she received during that period.
• 2:21:53
  SPEAKER_11: The district directed Alpha News to its public records for meeting attendance and votes.
• 2:21:58
  SPEAKER_11: However, the district declined to address questions surrounding Cirrillo's extended absence.
• 2:22:04
  SPEAKER_11: Due to data privacy laws and district practice, MPS does not comment on the personal circumstances of its staff or elected officials.
• 2:22:12
  SPEAKER_11: Well, maybe they should.
• 2:22:14
  SPEAKER_11: Reaching out directly to Cirrillo, asking whether she continued performing her duties and receiving her full$20,000 annual compensation while absent, and whether she formally notified the board leadership that she would be stepping away.
• 2:22:28
  SPEAKER_11: She was also asked whether she reported the threats to law enforcement and whether she sought remote participation accommodations that would have allowed her to continue to attend meetings and voting.
• 2:22:36
  SPEAKER_11: Finally, Alpha News gave Cerillo another opportunity to clarify her current citizenship status and explain why she reportedly believed she was at risk for deportation.
• 2:22:46
  SPEAKER_11: She didn't respond.
• 2:22:48
  SPEAKER_11: Of course not.
• 2:22:50
  SPEAKER_11: Alpha News knows this.
• 2:22:51
  SPEAKER_11: The real tragedy in this whole thing is that it shouldn't have to be Alpha News doing this.
• 2:22:56
  SPEAKER_11: We should have elected officials in the state of Minnesota that the moment that they saw a person claim that they were an illegal alien and it's not adhering to the laws of this state that many of them supported for, supported, they should have been the ones investigating this.
• 2:23:13
  SPEAKER_11: They should still be the ones investigating this and nothing.
• 2:23:17
  SPEAKER_11: Because it's not politically expedient for those that are in charge on the left.
• 2:23:25
  SPEAKER_11: Laws can be broken.
• 2:23:27
  SPEAKER_11: Common sense, rational commentary.
• 2:23:30
  SPEAKER_11: Nope.
• 2:23:31
  SPEAKER_11: You can be as irrational and hypocritical as you want to be as long as it continues to push forward the chosen narratives to benefit the chosen party.
• 2:23:44
  SPEAKER_11: 651-964-0294.
• 2:23:47
  SPEAKER_11: 651-964-0294.
• 2:23:50
  SPEAKER_11: That is the uh blaster line.
• 2:23:51
  SPEAKER_11: Waymo's driverless car plan faces hurdle with Minneapolis ordinance proposal.
• 2:23:57
  SPEAKER_11: I want to give you some details on this, and then we will dive into a couple of the big stories of today that we have not had the chance to cover.
• 2:24:04
  SPEAKER_11: Federal Reserve hikes, interest rates.
• 2:24:06
  SPEAKER_11: What does it mean for your wallet?
• 2:24:07
  SPEAKER_11: I'll give you details.
• 2:24:09
  SPEAKER_11: Also, brand new polling's been released.
• 2:24:12
  SPEAKER_11: KSTBTP, Survey USA poll, Secretary of State race gets tighter.
• 2:24:18
  SPEAKER_11: AG and state auditor margins widen.
• 2:24:22
  SPEAKER_11: The reality is, though, you actually uh have uh Republican leading in the uh polls.
• 2:24:28
  SPEAKER_11: Of course, it's not in the uh headline here.
• 2:24:30
  SPEAKER_11: AG and state auditor margins widen.
• 2:24:33
  SPEAKER_11: They couldn't go so far as to actually say that at the moment.
• 2:24:37
  SPEAKER_11: Keith Ellison is trailing Ron Schutz.
• 2:24:40
  SPEAKER_11: So we'll get into this and more of your thoughts from the blaster line coming up here on the John Justice Show.
• 2:24:46
  SPEAKER_11: Again, 651-964-0294.
• 2:24:51
  SPEAKER_04: Think about it.
• 2:24:52
  SPEAKER_04: A famous politician once said, you're entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.
• 2:24:58
  SPEAKER_04: But in a world full of AI and fake news, where can Minnesotans find the facts?
• 2:25:03
  SPEAKER_04: Center of the American Experiment is Minnesota's go-to source for fact-based analysis and common sense solutions for taxes, energy, public safety, and our kids' education.
• 2:25:14
  SPEAKER_04: Visit AmericaneExperiment.org for more information.
• 2:25:17
  SPEAKER_04: Think about it is brought to you by Center of the American Experiment, Minnesota's think tank.
• 2:25:22
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• 2:25:50
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• 2:25:53
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• 2:25:59
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• 2:26:03
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• 2:26:08
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• 2:26:10
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• 2:26:19
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• 2:26:21
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• 2:26:24
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• 2:26:29
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• 2:26:31
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• 2:26:36
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• 2:26:41
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• 2:26:44
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• 2:26:45
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• 2:26:53
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• 2:27:00
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• 2:27:31
  SPEAKER_04: All the special interests are represented in St.
• 2:27:33
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• 2:27:33
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• 2:27:35
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• 2:27:38
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• 2:27:46
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• 2:27:51
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• 2:27:56
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• 2:27:58
  SPEAKER_04: Go to AmericanExperiment.org to learn more.
• 2:28:01
  SPEAKER_41: Hi, I'm Joe Scott, and I'm the only conservative on the Eastern Carver County School's board.
• 2:28:08
  SPEAKER_41: I'm also the only incumbent who supports balanced budgets, key performance indicators in our superintendent's contract, and counting everyone's vote every time in school board elections.
• 2:28:21
  SPEAKER_41: Our enrollment has been declining since 2018, and we lose 1,300 of our resident students each year to neighboring districts.
• 2:28:31
  SPEAKER_41: I have solutions, but the majority of the school board and administration are stuck in the status quo.
• 2:28:37
  SPEAKER_41: You can vote as early as Friday, September 18th, and I'd appreciate your support.
• 2:28:43
  SPEAKER_41: To learn more about me and how I stand on other school board issues, visit reelectjoescott.com.
• 2:28:51
  SPEAKER_41: If you'd like to see our school district's Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment Proficiency Scores, go to ECCS MCA scores.com.
• 2:29:12
  SPEAKER_29: And then I got tired of having my house vandalized and the signs destroyed.
• 2:29:16
  SPEAKER_29: So what I've learned is that these people on the left in Minneapolis, that you see all the signs in their yards, they're the typical emoters.
• 2:29:23
  SPEAKER_29: There are so many more people that aren't going to put out who they believe in as far as their political candidates, just to not have issues such as I had when I used to put out my signs.
• 2:29:35
  SPEAKER_29: Instead, I put an American flag on my car, maybe a Smith and Wesson sticker, just a couple of those things to say, you know what?
• 2:29:42
  SPEAKER_29: I believe in a country that used to be one hell of a place to live, and I hope someday we'll have another great place to live in down the road.
• 2:29:50
  SPEAKER_29: Have a great day.
• 2:29:51
  SPEAKER_11: Yeah, we still have a hell of a place to live.
• 2:29:53
  SPEAKER_11: We're always going to be fighting to make it better.
• 2:29:56
  SPEAKER_11: It's never going to change.
• 2:29:57
  SPEAKER_11: Sometimes it'll get worse than other times.
• 2:30:01
  SPEAKER_11: But it's true that, you know, there's really nothing new.
• 2:30:05
  SPEAKER_11: The way in which information is gathered, the way that it is disseminated, that may change.
• 2:30:12
  SPEAKER_11: Groups and bubbles of groups may change.
• 2:30:14
  SPEAKER_11: Controversies may bubble up and fade.
• 2:30:17
  SPEAKER_11: But this has been going on uh forever.
• 2:30:20
  SPEAKER_11: Hey, you know what?
• 2:30:21
  SPEAKER_11: It's job security.
• 2:30:24
  SPEAKER_11: Minneapolis City Council members proposed an ordinance requiring a human with a valid license in driverless vehicles.
• 2:30:33
  SPEAKER_11: We talked about this a little bit with uh Becca Thompson, potentially impacting Waymo's plans.
• 2:30:38
  SPEAKER_11: The ordinance aims to protect rideshare jobs and address safety concerns, though Waymo argues their vehicles are safer.
• 2:30:44
  SPEAKER_11: The council will vote on the ordinance on October 1st, with public hearings taking place on the 22nd and uh 29th.
• 2:30:52
  SPEAKER_11: I want to get into an editorial uh that was written regarding uh this story that's in the Minneapolis, uh Minneapolis Times.
• 2:31:01
  SPEAKER_11: This is, you know, as there's there's a uh uh a monetary value in this into what the city council is doing.
• 2:31:10
  SPEAKER_11: We talked about that last hour with Becca.
• 2:31:12
  SPEAKER_11: But there's also a PR campaign being done here.
• 2:31:15
  SPEAKER_11: They're pushing back on Waymo just so they have the talking point that they are protecting the rights of the workers, the impact that this would have on the rideshare services and the taxi services in Minneapolis that would be impacted potentially negatively.
• 2:31:34
  SPEAKER_11: This happens all the time, though, throughout society and all kinds of different sectors of society, and you don't typically get a bailout like this.
• 2:31:42
  SPEAKER_11: But when you have a group of self-proclaimed Democrat socialists, this is what you're going to get.
• 2:31:48
  SPEAKER_11: Forcing a private company to go and waste money, also they have a talking point.
• 2:31:56
  SPEAKER_11: For nearly a year, Waymo has been mapping out the city of Minneapolis, plans to eventually offer rides to consumers with no driver in the vehicle.
• 2:32:03
  SPEAKER_11: Those plans may be impacted by the new ordinance that was proposed on Wednesday morning.
• 2:32:07
  SPEAKER_11: In order to qualify for a license, the company must ensure that all vehicles have a human monitor in the driver's seat.
• 2:32:13
  SPEAKER_11: Who has a Minnesota driver's license?
• 2:32:17
  SPEAKER_11: Robin Wandsley, one of the Democrat socialists in question who voted for this and a few other members who support this idea, um, argue that the ordinance isn't a flat-out ban on driverless vehicles.
• 2:32:27
  SPEAKER_11: She says, no, no, no.
• 2:32:28
  SPEAKER_11: The proposed framework is a de facto ban on autonomous vehicles.
• 2:32:33
  SPEAKER_11: Technically, under the uh proposal, ordinance, uh, the human being must be in the driver's seat of the vehicle, isn't driving.
• 2:32:42
  SPEAKER_11: So the vehicle is technically still driverless, but autonomous vehicle companies are mostly built around the concept of having no humans in the vehicle other than a passenger or back seat.
• 2:32:53
  SPEAKER_11: And by the way, of course they want a human in a human in the vehicle because they need somebody to go and point to when it comes to these issues.
• 2:33:00
  SPEAKER_11: There's any problems, can't just go and blame the car.
• 2:33:03
  SPEAKER_11: I suppose you can blame the company, but you're gonna have to deal with the legal ramifications of that.
• 2:33:07
  SPEAKER_11: Let me share with you some points, though, uh, from uh Dwayne Thielen.
• 2:33:10
  SPEAKER_11: I've mentioned this article, this um author before.
• 2:33:13
  SPEAKER_11: He writes in um the Minneapolis Times, uh, there's no credibility statement attached to them, so I don't know what their background is.
• 2:33:19
  SPEAKER_11: However, they write this Minneapolis proposes a bold compromise.
• 2:33:23
  SPEAKER_11: Autonomous vehicles may operate as long as they're no longer autonomous.
• 2:33:27
  SPEAKER_11: Four council members, I added council, proposed the ordinance requiring autonomous vehicle operating in Minneapolis to carry a safety monitor.
• 2:33:36
  SPEAKER_11: That monitor must possess a driver's license, as I mentioned, and have immediate access to controls for steering, braking, and acceleration.
• 2:33:46
  SPEAKER_11: These are already operating in places all around the country.
• 2:33:50
  SPEAKER_11: We have laws in place already protecting individuals if something were to happen behind the vehicle of an, you know, behind the wheel of an autonomous vehicle.
• 2:33:58
  SPEAKER_11: The uh Article writer goes on to say, uh, there used to be a shorter name for someone who sits behind the wheel, watches the road, and can steer, brake, and accelerate.
• 2:34:07
  SPEAKER_11: It's called a driver.
• 2:34:10
  SPEAKER_11: That's right.
• 2:34:11
  SPEAKER_11: But calling this person a driver would give away the game.
• 2:34:15
  SPEAKER_11: The proposal is not really about regulating autonomous vehicles, he writes.
• 2:34:18
  SPEAKER_11: It's about making autonomous vehicles operate like conventional ones and preserving the job that makes them conventional.
• 2:34:25
  SPEAKER_11: The ordinance authors say the requirement would re uh protect public safety and immigrant workers.
• 2:34:31
  SPEAKER_11: Autonomous vehicles, they warned could cause crashes, disrupt traffic, undermine city transportation goals, and eliminate thousands of driving jobs.
• 2:34:40
  SPEAKER_11: The hypocrisy here is shining on my face with the heat of a thousand suns.
• 2:34:48
  SPEAKER_11: As if the Minneapolis City Council is worried at all about car crashes, disrupting traffic, eliminating jobs.
• 2:34:58
  SPEAKER_11: I mean, this is all that they've been about in terms of their policies.
• 2:35:05
  SPEAKER_11: None of those uh so he says those are fair subjects for public debate.
• 2:35:10
  SPEAKER_11: Okay.
• 2:35:12
  SPEAKER_11: He says autonomous vehicles should not receive a free pass simply because the technology is new.
• 2:35:16
  SPEAKER_11: Minneapolis has every reason to ask how they perform in the snow.
• 2:35:20
  SPEAKER_11: That's a great question.
• 2:35:21
  SPEAKER_11: I'll give you that.
• 2:35:23
  SPEAKER_11: Respond to emergency vehicles, handle construction zones, and interact with pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers.
• 2:35:29
  SPEAKER_11: It's funny because there is a real tangible argument pushing back against the autonomous vehicles like Waymo.
• 2:35:37
  SPEAKER_11: But you'll never see the city council do it because it's everything that was just mentioned here.
• 2:35:43
  SPEAKER_11: You know, but I because I'm with them.
• 2:35:45
  SPEAKER_11: How will they operate in the snow?
• 2:35:47
  SPEAKER_11: Given the level of con of construction that continues all around the Twin Cities, the pedestrians, the cyclists, not to mention the fact that you already have the streets turning into the worst version of the fast and furious possible based off of the fact that we have so few law enforcement officers to go and deal with the situation.
• 2:36:12
  SPEAKER_11: He goes on to say the city can reasonably consider licensing, insurance, crash reporting, data disclosure, emergency response treatments, but none of those questions explains why an autonomous vehicle must carry a human driver at all times.
• 2:36:27
  SPEAKER_11: If the technology cannot operate safely, establish a safety standard that must be met.
• 2:36:32
  SPEAKER_11: If the companies cannot meet that standard, do not license them.
• 2:36:36
  SPEAKER_11: If additional testing is needed before the passengers are allowed, specify the tests and the results required.
• 2:36:42
  SPEAKER_11: That is regulation.
• 2:36:44
  SPEAKER_11: Requiring a driver in a driverless car is something else.
• 2:36:49
  SPEAKER_14: John, this is a very, very good idea.
• 2:36:53
  SPEAKER_14: It's gonna save a lot of taxpayer money because now the ice agents can just drive around in the Waymo vehicles.
• 2:37:01
  SPEAKER_14: We don't have to buy them those evil black SUVs.
• 2:37:05
  SPEAKER_39: Oh, they're so cool.
• 2:37:07
  SPEAKER_14: Ice agents just driving all over the city.
• 2:37:10
  SPEAKER_11: Those black SUVs are so cool.
• 2:37:13
  SPEAKER_11: It's my favorite moments in shows that feature black SUVs.
• 2:37:17
  SPEAKER_11: It's the black SUV.
• 2:37:19
  SPEAKER_11: There's few things cooler than a bunch of black SUVs in a line with all blacked-out windows heading towards a destination to go and recover a lost agent.
• 2:37:29
  SPEAKER_11: It's just it's it's badass.
• 2:37:33
  SPEAKER_11: 651-964-0294.
• 2:37:36
  SPEAKER_18: Uber and Lyft.
• 2:37:38
  SPEAKER_18: Their lunch is already being eaten in places like us and Texas by driverless catching.
• 2:37:47
  SPEAKER_18: Your lunch is gonna be eaten by Tesla.
• 2:37:56
  SPEAKER_18: All over the United States, everywhere.
• 2:37:59
  SPEAKER_18: I live in east central Minnesota, and Tesla drivers up here using FST.
• 2:38:11
  SPEAKER_18: Update everything instantly as the smartest driving AI in the world.
• 2:38:20
  SPEAKER_11: Dwayne Thielen in the Minneapolis Times uh goes on to say Waymo calls the proposal a de facto ban.
• 2:38:28
  SPEAKER_11: That description is difficult to dispute.
• 2:38:30
  SPEAKER_11: Removing the driver is not a minor feature of an autonomous taxi.
• 2:38:35
  SPEAKER_11: It's the central purpose of the product.
• 2:38:40
  SPEAKER_11: A rule requiring every vehicle to employ a human driver does not make autonomous transportation safer at the margins.
• 2:38:48
  SPEAKER_11: It eliminates the operating model.
• 2:38:50
  SPEAKER_11: Minneapolis could apply the same reasoning elsewhere.
• 2:38:53
  SPEAKER_11: Self-checkout stations could be permitted as long as the cashier scans every item.
• 2:38:58
  SPEAKER_11: Automatic doors could be approved if the attendant opens them by hand.
• 2:39:03
  SPEAKER_11: Online banking could continue, provided every transaction is performed by a teller.
• 2:39:09
  SPEAKER_11: The council members might even describe those requirements as groundbreaking nationally.
• 2:39:15
  SPEAKER_11: Now they go on to talk about the wage uh provision here.
• 2:39:18
  SPEAKER_11: I want to get to this in just a moment, but I do want to get back to some more of your thoughts.
• 2:39:21
  SPEAKER_11: Uh somebody texted in to the blaster line.
• 2:39:24
  SPEAKER_11: Why would anyone on the left complain about driverless vehicles?
• 2:39:27
  SPEAKER_11: We already have a government with no one at the helm.
• 2:39:29
  SPEAKER_11: A bunch of negligent leaders who allow fraud to run uh rampant.
• 2:39:35
  SPEAKER_11: I guess Minneapolis will never have any cyber cabs.
• 2:39:38
  SPEAKER_11: They don't have steering wheels, pedals, or gauges.
• 2:39:42
  SPEAKER_11: That's what I was thinking.
• 2:39:43
  SPEAKER_11: I was kind of assuming that I bet a lot of these vehicles, I don't know, I don't know the different, you know, companies and how their cars operate, but I would imagine a lot of these vehicles don't even have the ability to go and self-drive them.
• 2:39:58
  SPEAKER_26: The uh Wamo controversy reminds me of uh elevator operators when I was a kid, and all the elevators used to have somebody with a little lever telling you, you know, telling the machine to go up or down, and then it would jog a little bit and open the door at your bar.
• 2:40:17
  SPEAKER_26: The very last elevator operator that I remember was in City Hall, because government was protecting his job.
• 2:40:26
  SPEAKER_26: Totally worthless job at that time because he had a button to push, just like the button we pushed now.
• 2:40:32
  SPEAKER_26: Um secondly, a cyber cab has two feet, no steering wheel, and no uh pedals.
• 2:40:42
  SPEAKER_26: So this uh Minneapolis ordinance was completely outlawed capital's cybercab, which um is too bad, really.
• 2:40:55
  SPEAKER_31: Yeah, requiring a driver you don't know to be in the car that's not even driving it.
• 2:41:02
  SPEAKER_31: I want to ride with the stream.
• 2:41:04
  SPEAKER_31: Maybe I want to go somewhere alone and I didn't want somebody who I don't even know in the car with me.
• 2:41:13
  SPEAKER_31: Yeah.
• 2:41:14
  SPEAKER_31: Putting an immigrant driver behind the wheel is that's just stream safety because you're well known for your impeccable driving already.
• 2:41:22
  SPEAKER_31: Wow.
• 2:41:26
  SPEAKER_11: I can't even that's right.
• 2:41:27
  SPEAKER_11: Make it make sense.
• 2:41:28
  SPEAKER_11: Uh the wage provision makes the ordinance's purpose m uh much clearer.
• 2:41:34
  SPEAKER_11: The required monitor must be paid at least a minimum wage.
• 2:41:38
  SPEAKER_11: Safe equipment standards matter, driver qualifications matter, insurance matters.
• 2:41:43
  SPEAKER_11: A worker's hourly wage has no effect on whether a vehicle recognizes a red light or stops for a pedestrian.
• 2:41:49
  SPEAKER_11: It does affect whether operating the vehicle remains economically feasible.
• 2:41:54
  SPEAKER_11: The concern for rideshare drivers is understandable, writes Dwayne uh Thielen.
• 2:41:59
  SPEAKER_11: Making sure I got that right.
• 2:42:00
  SPEAKER_11: Yeah.
• 2:42:04
  SPEAKER_11: More than 10,000 people drive for rideshare companies in Minnesota, according to a 2024 study.
• 2:42:10
  SPEAKER_11: Many are low-income immigrants, and the autonomous vehicles may threaten their livelihoods.
• 2:42:14
  SPEAKER_11: And this is a part of the reason why they're doing this, to appeal to that demographic that votes for these individuals over and over and over again.
• 2:42:24
  SPEAKER_11: But the technological change has been eliminating some jobs and creating others for centuries.
• 2:42:29
  SPEAKER_11: Government cannot protect every occupation by requiring a new technology to retain the labor it was designed to replace.
• 2:42:36
  SPEAKER_11: That lesson should be especially familiar here.
• 2:42:39
  SPEAKER_11: Uber and Lyft disrupted the tax industry and threatened the livelihoods of established taxi drivers.
• 2:42:45
  SPEAKER_11: Rideshare drivers are now the established workforce, and another technology threatens them.
• 2:42:50
  SPEAKER_11: Yesterday, disruptions have become today's incumbents.
• 2:42:53
  SPEAKER_11: It happens in all kinds of sectors of society.
• 2:42:56
  SPEAKER_11: Look at what's going on with radio right now and the race to the bottom.
• 2:43:00
  SPEAKER_11: There's no bailout taking place when it comes to the individuals that are losing their jobs by the thousands every single year because particularly radio companies are trying to meet their bottom line for the shareholders.
• 2:43:12
  SPEAKER_11: They cut the local talent, advertising revenue drops, and so they cut more local talent, more avenue, you know, more advertising revenue drops, and that's your race to the bottom.
• 2:43:23
  SPEAKER_11: Well, I don't see a bailout or any of the politicians coming and trying to rescue terrestrial radio.
• 2:43:29
  SPEAKER_11: Why?
• 2:43:30
  SPEAKER_11: Because it's not politically advantageous for them to do so.
• 2:43:34
  SPEAKER_11: So the writer goes on to say none of that means displaced workers should be forgotten.
• 2:43:37
  SPEAKER_11: Government can help people retrain, acquire new skills, and move occupants uh to the future.
• 2:43:42
  SPEAKER_11: It can phase in major uh changes and ensure that workers have time to adapt.
• 2:43:46
  SPEAKER_11: It can enforce labor laws and prevent companies from shifting legitimate costs to the public.
• 2:43:50
  SPEAKER_11: What government cannot do is indefinitely preserve the present by pretending the future has not arrived.
• 2:43:57
  SPEAKER_11: That rings true when it comes to our data center conversations as well and AI.
• 2:44:02
  SPEAKER_11: There's no escaping the rise in AI.
• 2:44:04
  SPEAKER_11: There's no escaping that we're going to need data centers.
• 2:44:06
  SPEAKER_11: We have to be competitive as the United States of America against our adversaries that are racing to win the war when it comes to artificial intelligence.
• 2:44:14
  SPEAKER_11: And while we should be concerned and question where data centers go, we have to accept that we do need data centers here in America.
• 2:44:20
  SPEAKER_11: So some communities better get on board with this where it is most advantageous to go and have them.
• 2:44:26
  SPEAKER_11: And the same thing rings true here, just dovetailing off this comment.
• 2:44:30
  SPEAKER_11: Instead, the council has produced something easier to market, a ban that can be called regulation, a labor protection measure that can be called public safety, and a driver who can be called the safety monitor.
• 2:44:41
  SPEAKER_11: Minneapolis may not be able to stop the arrival of driverless cars, but apparently it can require them to bring a driver.
• 2:44:51
  SPEAKER_11: All right, let's get back to a few more of your thoughts from the uh blaster line uh this morning.
• 2:44:55
  SPEAKER_11: 651-964-0294.
• 2:44:59
  SPEAKER_28: Hey John, is this coming from the same city council where the lady, the woman couldn't read the number in the article or the thing she was trying to read, she couldn't read the thousands and whatever it was.
• 2:45:10
  SPEAKER_28: What a what a moronic society we live in.
• 2:45:14
  SPEAKER_28: This is just it's funny, actually.
• 2:45:18
  SPEAKER_11: I'll agree with you in that.
• 2:45:19
  SPEAKER_11: There is a level of entertainment to it.
• 2:45:21
  SPEAKER_15: Hey John, about the driverless vehicles and uh Waymo.
• 2:45:26
  SPEAKER_15: My neighbor has a Tesla and she just swears by its driving ability, where in fact she'll go to the bar and let the car drive her home.
• 2:45:36
  SPEAKER_15: So with these Waymo and the monitors sitting in those cars, does it matter if they're asleep or drunk or otherwise reading a book?
• 2:45:46
  SPEAKER_15: I mean Minneapolis just needs to say yes or no.
• 2:45:51
  SPEAKER_15: That's the bottom line.
• 2:45:53
  SPEAKER_11: Well, no, I guess the the role of the drivers would be for the safety of everybody else in the car.
• 2:45:58
  SPEAKER_11: To make sure that if there were it were to necessitate somebody getting behind the wheel, they could do it at a moment's notice.
• 2:46:05
  SPEAKER_11: But again, back to the article writer, if that's the case, then why bother having autonomous vehicles?
• 2:46:10
  SPEAKER_11: And oh, that's why Waymo is saying it's a de facto ban, because it absolutely is.
• 2:46:27
  SPEAKER_22: Holy Hannah, John.
• 2:46:29
  SPEAKER_22: Isn't this the same city council that waged war against uh was it Lyft and Uber?
• 2:46:36
  SPEAKER_22: Because they were not, or I guess, not as competitive or taking funds away from the drivers, so they were trying to protect the traditional taxi drivers.
• 2:46:45
  SPEAKER_22: Now they're going to bat for Uber and Lyft.
• 2:46:47
  SPEAKER_22: I mean, come on.
• 2:46:48
  SPEAKER_22: These people will dig their feet into anything that is actually good for the city.
• 2:46:54
  SPEAKER_22: Orons.
• 2:46:56
  SPEAKER_11: Thank you so much for the comments this morning here on the John Justice show presented by American Experiment.
• 2:47:01
  SPEAKER_11: We're not done yet.
• 2:47:02
  SPEAKER_11: I have major polling news to share with you in just a moment.
• 2:47:05
  SPEAKER_11: The blaster line.
• 2:47:06
  SPEAKER_11: Continue to get your comments in.
• 2:47:08
  SPEAKER_11: In this final segment here on the show, 651-964-0294.
• 2:47:13
  SPEAKER_11: I also want to remind you that when your home needs help, you want to make sure that you can call experts that you can trust.
• 2:47:20
  SPEAKER_11: Those experts that your neighbors trust, that I trust, it's Ericsson, uh Ericsson, plumbing, heating, air, and electrical.
• 2:47:27
  SPEAKER_11: Family-owned experience, licensed and dependable from quick affixes to major repairs.
• 2:47:33
  SPEAKER_11: Erickson and their team of trained professionals, non-commissioned, but licensed experts across all the major trades, they are dedicated to keeping your home running right.
• 2:47:44
  SPEAKER_11: It is trusted service, and they have an amazing whole home care program called the iHeart My Home Club that gives you a full mechanical analysis.
• 2:47:52
  SPEAKER_11: So whether you're looking for seasonal tune-ups, water quality testing, we're talking real whole home care from people who actually care, or you just have some specific needs and you want to go with a home service company that you can trust, Ericsson Plumbing Heating Air and Electrical is that company.
• 2:48:09
  SPEAKER_11: Reach out to them today.
• 2:48:10
  SPEAKER_11: You can go to their website, iHeartErickson.com.
• 2:48:13
  SPEAKER_11: That's iHeartErickson.com, or give them a call at 763-783-4545.
• 2:48:19
  SPEAKER_11: That's 763-783-4545 for Ericsson, Plumbing, Heating Air and Electrical.
• 2:48:27
  SPEAKER_39: I just want you to go out and pretend I'm on the ticket because essentially I am.
• 2:48:31
  SPEAKER_39: We got to win this election.
• 2:48:32
  SPEAKER_39: If we don't, all of those things that we got you from no tax on tips and no tax on Social Security for our great seniors and no tax on overtime, the overtime, no tax.
• 2:48:44
  SPEAKER_39: I don't know which is the most important to you.
• 2:48:45
  SPEAKER_39: A lot of people like no tax on Social Security for our seniors.
• 2:48:51
  SPEAKER_39: But they're all gonna go away.
• 2:48:54
  SPEAKER_39: All of the things that we've done, the strongest voter in the history of our country, it's all gonna go away.
• 2:48:59
  SPEAKER_39: If we lose you, you're going to lose your voter.
• 2:49:01
  SPEAKER_39: You're going to lose your tax cuts.
• 2:49:03
  SPEAKER_39: You're going to lose your wealth, and our country is going to go through hell.
• 2:49:08
  SPEAKER_39: And we're going to be a laughing stock all over the world just as we were.
• 2:49:12
  SPEAKER_39: Two years ago, we were a laughing stock all over the world.
• 2:49:15
  SPEAKER_39: So on election day, November 3rd.
• 2:49:18
  SPEAKER_39: Vote to defeat the Democrats.
• 2:49:20
  SPEAKER_39: You know, I made the name change.
• 2:49:21
  SPEAKER_39: I don't know what happened.
• 2:49:25
  SPEAKER_39: I call them Democrats because their policies are so dumb.
• 2:49:30
  SPEAKER_11: President Donald Trump speaking at a rally yesterday.
• 2:49:33
  SPEAKER_11: I have more audio from uh the president who was not happy yesterday.
• 2:49:39
  SPEAKER_11: When the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point, making and marking the first increase since 2023.
• 2:49:48
  SPEAKER_11: The move aims to, they say, combat inflation by making borrowing more expensive, impacting loans for homes, vehicles, and other major purchases.
• 2:49:59
  SPEAKER_11: While borrowers may face higher costs, savers could benefit from slightly higher returns on savings accounts and investments.
• 2:50:06
  SPEAKER_11: Kevin Walsh, Fed chair since May, assured Congress that the central bank policymakers have no tolerance for persistently elevated inflation.
• 2:50:15
  SPEAKER_11: Speaking to reporters yesterday after the meeting with the feds, Walsh argued that the rate hike will benefit lower income Americans because they're hurt most by higher prices, the least well-off or the ones that have the most to gain from the stable prices, he said.
• 2:50:32
  SPEAKER_11: The decision was made today, and it was the right decision, he says, to deliver on the remit that Congress gave us to ensure stable prices.
• 2:50:42
  SPEAKER_11: So how does this impact you?
• 2:50:45
  SPEAKER_11: Uh savings accounts, CDs, and money market accounts don't always move in lockstep with the Fed's decisions.
• 2:50:52
  SPEAKER_11: Online banks and other institutions offering high yield accounts can be exceptions because they compete aggressively for deposits.
• 2:51:00
  SPEAKER_11: The trade-off is that some may require relatively large deposits.
• 2:51:04
  SPEAKER_11: Generally, banks in higher rate environments to increase profits by charging borrowers more without necessarily passing along the equally attractive rates to savers.
• 2:51:14
  SPEAKER_11: Now, when it comes to mortgage rates, they also do not always move in tandem with the Fed's benchmark rate.
• 2:51:18
  SPEAKER_11: Instead, they tend to track the yield on a 10-year treasury note.
• 2:51:23
  SPEAKER_11: But if you want to buy a car, shortages of computer chips and other parts ease.
• 2:51:27
  SPEAKER_11: Automakers are producing more vehicles.
• 2:51:30
  SPEAKER_11: Some are also cutting prices and offering limited discounts, but higher auto loan rates and lower trade-in values have erased much of that potential saving for buyers.
• 2:51:38
  SPEAKER_11: Fed rate increases are typically passed along to auto borrowers through, though manufacturer subsidized financing can soften that impact somewhat.
• 2:51:49
  SPEAKER_11: Borrowers taking out new private student loans should expect to pay more as the interest rates rise.
• 2:51:55
  SPEAKER_11: Now, President Donald Trump yesterday uh reiterated his uh promise of$5,000 dividend checks for everybody if uh Republicans maintain control of Congress.
• 2:52:06
  SPEAKER_39: And remember, if the Republicans win the House and Senate, I will issue what we will all call, from now on, the Trump dividend.
• 2:52:15
  SPEAKER_39: To every adult in America, we'll get$5,000.
• 2:52:21
  SPEAKER_39: And you'll get it.
• 2:52:23
  SPEAKER_39: Because we're taking in so much money, and we can do it, and the Democrats can't say that because they don't do the tariffs.
• 2:52:29
  SPEAKER_39: We tariffs have made us rich.
• 2:52:33
  SPEAKER_11: So there's still no information on where that money is supposed to come from beyond Trump talking about the tariffs.
• 2:52:43
  SPEAKER_11: No one's done the math yet.
• 2:52:44
  SPEAKER_11: Trust me, I've been looking, right?
• 2:52:46
  SPEAKER_11: Much to the to the uh consternation of some friends of the show, I haven't really taken a hard stance on this$5,000 dividend check because I don't know the details.
• 2:52:56
  SPEAKER_11: I'll say this much though.
• 2:52:57
  SPEAKER_11: I haven't seen anybody that's been in support of it.
• 2:53:01
  SPEAKER_11: Democrats aren't saying anything about it, and anybody that I've talked to on the right's going, This is a horrible, this is a horrible idea.
• 2:53:08
  SPEAKER_11: I bring it up though, one, because Trump brought it up again, so clearly it's not going away despite the pushback on it.
• 2:53:16
  SPEAKER_11: At the same time, I can't help but wonder or potentially anticipate that when it comes to this Fed rate hike, that Trump may go and use this Trump, this uh Trump dividend check as a means to go and say, hey, look, with the feds doing what I told them not to do, what I didn't want them to do, and raising the rates, hey, we can make that up with my$5,000 dividend checks.
• 2:53:40
  SPEAKER_11: Now he hasn't done that yet.
• 2:53:41
  SPEAKER_11: I'm just laying out a scenario in case I end up being correct in my uh in my assessment.
• 2:53:47
  SPEAKER_11: So we'll see how that plays out.
• 2:53:49
  SPEAKER_11: I've been talking recently, too, about these midterm elections as we get into the polling numbers that were released yesterday from a KSTP survey USA poll.
• 2:53:59
  SPEAKER_11: The fact that you've only had the party in power retain that control or grow it twice within modern history.
• 2:54:07
  SPEAKER_11: The first time was going back to uh George W.
• 2:54:10
  SPEAKER_11: Bush post-9-11.
• 2:54:11
  SPEAKER_11: That was the externality that drove Republicans from being able to maintain control.
• 2:54:15
  SPEAKER_11: The country didn't wasn't in a place, uh, the climate wasn't such where they wanted to change over leadership in the midst of this uh this the biggest terrorist attack that we've ever faced here in the United States.
• 2:54:27
  SPEAKER_11: And you got to go way, way back before any of uh of us or our parents were born to be the only other time.
• 2:54:32
  SPEAKER_11: And there were externalities back then that took place.
• 2:54:35
  SPEAKER_11: To that point, there's a really interesting piece in Fox News that talks about this very issue.
• 2:54:40
  SPEAKER_11: The upcoming midterm elections are difficult to predict due to the unprecedented political climate.
• 2:54:47
  SPEAKER_11: While factors like Trump's low approval ratings, and they're not great right now, high grocery prices typically favor Democrats.
• 2:54:54
  SPEAKER_11: Redistricting and fewer competitive seats complicate the outcome.
• 2:54:58
  SPEAKER_11: The outcome will likely depend on individual races rather than a sweeping wave, making it challenging to determine if the old or new political playbook will apply.
• 2:55:08
  SPEAKER_11: I mean, this is echoing my commentary about how when you want to talk about externalities having an impact on an election, I believe we're living through one right now.
• 2:55:18
  SPEAKER_11: The political turmoil, the divide in the country, those that have gone and co-opted and taken over, the communists within the Democrat Party, the Iran War, all of this factors into not your typical lead-in to a midterm election.
• 2:55:36
  SPEAKER_11: And look at what's happening on the ground here in Minnesota as a case in point.
• 2:55:44
  SPEAKER_11: KSTP, a survey USA poll shows Republicans leading in two statewide races with the attorney general and secretary of state races narrowing.
• 2:55:56
  SPEAKER_11: So, first off, on the attorney general front, six weeks ago.
• 2:56:00
  SPEAKER_11: Keith Ellison was considered vulnerable, but polling showed him with an eight-point lead over Ron Schutz.
• 2:56:07
  SPEAKER_11: Now, for the first time, Schutz has actually taken the lead.
• 2:56:11
  SPEAKER_11: Ron Schutz is sitting at 45%.
• 2:56:13
  SPEAKER_11: Ellison is sitting at 43%.
• 2:56:15
  SPEAKER_11: You have 12% undecided.
• 2:56:18
  SPEAKER_11: And if you've seen any of the campaign ads on social media for Keith Ellison, the dude is flailing.
• 2:56:26
  SPEAKER_11: And you add to this what appears to be a lack of effort coming from the A.B.
• 2:56:32
  SPEAKER_11: Klobuchar campaign.
• 2:56:33
  SPEAKER_11: And even when she does put forward the effort, it doesn't seem like her heart is in it, because I don't think she wants this gig.
• 2:56:39
  SPEAKER_11: But there's another part to this as well.
• 2:56:42
  SPEAKER_11: And that is Ellison and Klobuchar really haven't faced any stiff competition.
• 2:56:48
  SPEAKER_11: So they may be, you know, and not to say the DFL hasn't in the past, they have.
• 2:56:55
  SPEAKER_11: But when it comes to these two major campaigns, I mean, they may be the underdog in terms of having to push back when faced with stiff opposition.
• 2:57:07
  SPEAKER_11: Now, when it comes to the Secretary of State race, Steve Simon had held a seven-point lead over the GOP nominee Tad Jude in the first post-primary poll.
• 2:57:15
  SPEAKER_11: A month later, his lead is down to four points.
• 2:57:18
  SPEAKER_11: Simon is sitting at 40%, Tude is sitting at 36% with 20% undecided.
• 2:57:25
  SPEAKER_11: And at the same time, Scott Jensen's pivot to the auditor race immediately put a focus on the power of name recognition.
• 2:57:34
  SPEAKER_11: That carried him to an easy win in the primary, and now he's leading in the state auditor race in the general election.
• 2:57:40
  SPEAKER_11: Scott Jensen sitting at 43%, Filipovich at 36%, with some 17% undecided.
• 2:57:47
  SPEAKER_11: Now in the governor's race, it's a little bit distant to what we saw on the polling earlier this week.
• 2:57:53
  SPEAKER_11: It has Amy Klobishar at 47%, but Lisa Damath is at 40%, respectively.
• 2:57:59
  SPEAKER_11: 3% is Steve Young.
• 2:58:01
  SPEAKER_11: I don't even know who this person is.
• 2:58:03
  SPEAKER_11: Might as well be producer Devin.
• 2:58:05
  SPEAKER_11: And then you have another 9% that are currently undecided when it comes to that race.
• 2:58:14
  SPEAKER_11: Things are going to get goofy here in Minnesota over the course of the next four and a half weeks.
• 2:58:23
  SPEAKER_11: And what I'm going to be most interested in seeing is whether or not Ellison and Clobichar, well, how they all respond to this.
• 2:58:35
  SPEAKER_11: Because I don't think this was anticipated by Democrats that these races would be this close and you would have Republicans leading.
• 2:58:43
  SPEAKER_11: And as I've mentioned, especially with polls like this, the poll that we mentioned earlier this week was coming from a conservative group, so you had to take it with a bit of grain of salt.
• 2:58:50
  SPEAKER_11: This these polls here, generally speaking, when you look at the polling data as it relates to the outcome of a particular election, what you typically end up seeing is that Republicans were actually doing better than what the polling was suggesting.
• 2:59:04
  SPEAKER_11: So if that's the case, then these leads may be wider than what's even being reported in these polling in these polls for those Republican candidates currently leading, and Lisa Damith might be closer in the governor's race than what is even being reported uh here.
• 2:59:23
  SPEAKER_11: It is a can incredibly competitive race, and again, it's going to be fascinating to watch how this plays out and how both Republican and Democrat parties end up attempting to go and negotiate or navigate, I should say.
• 2:59:37
  SPEAKER_11: Navigate the fact that it's gonna come down to the wire on election day, and we're really not gonna know who is gonna emerge victorious uh come that fateful day in uh November.
• 2:59:48
  SPEAKER_11: Tomorrow on the show, we'll talk about how Minnesota is ranked 45th in the Heritage Foundation's election integrity scorecard.
• 2:59:57
  SPEAKER_11: Scoring poorly in voter ID implementation, voter registration list accuracy, and citizenship verification.
• 3:00:05
  SPEAKER_11: And I'll give you a bit of a preview of my commentary here.
• 3:00:08
  SPEAKER_11: The only way that any sort of change is going to happen regarding election integrity, meaning bolstering our, you know, our elections.
• 3:00:18
  SPEAKER_11: You know, yes, making it harder to go and vote, not making it as easy as just putting something in the mail.
• 3:00:24
  SPEAKER_11: It's only gonna happen and only be implemented if Republicans end up winning elections.
• 3:00:29
  SPEAKER_11: Because the Democrat Party, as they have demonstrated in their extremist views, that go so far as to advocate for murder when you considered sort of that top of extremist views of Democrats currently, when you get down to voter integrity and our votes being open to fraud that typically benefits Democrats, do you really think that a party that thinks it's okay for post-birth abortions or for women to go and murder their children, do you think really think they're gonna care about fraud if it benefits them?
• 3:01:01
  SPEAKER_11: No, of course not.
• 3:01:02
  SPEAKER_11: I'll bring you details though.
• 3:01:03
  SPEAKER_11: Also, on tomorrow's show, it's a Freedom Friday, of course.
• 3:01:06
  SPEAKER_11: Our in-studio guests online, opinionator A.K.
• 3:01:10
  SPEAKER_11: Kamara, will be joining us on the Comfy sofa, along with Max uh Reimer, Representative Max Reimer.
• 3:01:15
  SPEAKER_11: And from American Experiment, Catherine Johnson will be joining us in the Comfy chair and Grace Keating, her final Freedom Friday with us here at Center of the American Experiment.
• 3:01:25
  SPEAKER_11: She has uh we congratulate her, she's taken on a new job and a new adventure.
• 3:01:29
  SPEAKER_11: But tomorrow we'll mark her uh final Freedom Friday with us here on the John Justice show presented by American Experiment.
• 3:01:35
  SPEAKER_11: All the fun gets underway just after six o'clock, and I do have some fun items planned for tomorrow's Freedom Friday.
• 3:01:42
  SPEAKER_11: As always, if you want to get your Freedom Friday comments on and off topic, you want to get those in early, I'll save them for tomorrow.
• 3:01:48
  SPEAKER_11: You can leave us a text or voice message between now and tomorrow morning at 651-964-0294.
• 3:01:56
  SPEAKER_11: Again, 651-964-0294.
• 3:02:00
  SPEAKER_11: And you can also email me john.justice at Americanexperiment.org.
• 3:02:06
  SPEAKER_11: Now, typically I close out the show with uh Zima Fizz, but I thought, you know, in honor of all the controversy surrounding Sydney Sweeney, let's share a little bit of the uh Sydney Sweeney's uh jeans tune.
• 3:02:21
  SPEAKER_11: God bless to you.
• 3:02:22
  SPEAKER_11: I hope you have a fantastic Thursday.
• 3:02:23
  SPEAKER_11: I'll talk to you guys tomorrow morning starting at 6 a.m.
• 3:02:26
  SPEAKER_11: Central Time.
• 3:02:27
  SPEAKER_11: If you missed any portion of the show, check out the podcast available across all the podcast platforms that you currently use.
• 3:02:33
  SPEAKER_11: Also, right there on the MixLR app where you can listen to the show live Monday through Friday, 6 until 9 a.m.
• 3:02:39
  SPEAKER_11: And if you want to watch a replay of the show, head on over to Center of the American Experiments Facebook, YouTube, and Rumble pages.
• 3:02:47
  SPEAKER_11: I'll talk to you guys tomorrow morning.
• 3:02:48
  SPEAKER_11: Have a great one.
• 3:02:49
  SPEAKER_11: Bye.
• 3:02:53
  SPEAKER_05: Sydney hit the screen in den.
• 3:02:57
  SPEAKER_05: Blonde and smiling, clean and bright, American Eagle lithium, and the old crowd cried all night.
• 3:03:08
  SPEAKER_05: So this looks too perfect, dangerous.