Analyzing Post-Iowa 2024 Republican Strategies, Green Energy Realities, and Texas's State vs. Federal Power Struggle

Discover the dynamics that are reshaping the Republican field post-Iowa 2024 caucus, Clay flies solo tonight to bring you an unflinching analysis of the political maneuverings and the strategic importance of courting the center vote. Witness the fallout as Trump towers over DeSantis, while unexpected dropouts like Vivek Ramaswamy and a conservative minister by the name of Binkley leave the stage. What does this mean for the remaining contenders, and how does Ambassador Haley fend off the RINO branding? We're peeling back the layers of these campaigns to reveal the undercurrents that could define the next election.

Transitioning to the nation's energy quandary, get ready for a no-holds-barred look at the current administration's green energy challenges and the stark reality of our infrastructure's readiness for electric vehicles. With John Kerry's exit and a Ford executive's EV road trip woes as a backdrop, we're scrutinizing the practicality of a swift shift to EVs against a backdrop of Tesla's winter woes. These are stories that don't just question the logistical hurdles but also challenge the very narrative of a climate crisis, bringing you the unvarnished truth about America's position in the global emissions debate.

Finally, we're zeroing in on Texas, where Governor Abbott's stand against illegal immigration frames a broader discussion on the tussle between state and federal powers. Follow along as we explore the implications of deploying the National Guard and the state's fierce assertion of its rights amid federal pressures. This isn't just a border issue; it's a fundamental question of governance, ideology, and the American ethos that reverberates well beyond the Lone Star State, drawing parallels to the post-Roe v. Wade landscape. Strap in for a compelling journey through the intricate web of today's most pressing challenges.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey folks, clayno back here tonight flying solo on the Elsa Kurt Show. Elsa is out doing other things, so you're stuck with me tonight. I hope everybody is surviving this cold weather that I think is hitting the entire nation. I know right here outside of Philadelphia it has been brutal last couple of days. Got a handful of good topics to go over tonight and let's get this thing fired up.

Speaker 1: 0:49

Okay, first thing we're gonna hit tonight is probably the, probably the biggest headline that's happened in the last week since the last show with Elsa, and that's Iowa 2024, the caucus. So you know, probably not a unanticipated outcome. You know, president, for President Trump won. Maybe people didn't anticipate the, that, the sheer breath of the of separation between him and and Governor DeSantis, but he won handily. I think he won 98 out of 99 counties in the state of Iowa, missing that 99th County by, I think, one vote. So would have won would have been a clean sweep for the entire state and and over 50% of the vote. I think behind him in finishing order was Governor DeSantis, not too far in front of less than two percentage points, I think, in front of Governor Haley, ambassador Haley and then Vivek and then, truthfully, somebody I didn't even know was running, a guy named Binkley who is a can very conservative minister out of the state, the great state of Texas Didn't even know that guy was running totally news to me.

Speaker 1: 2:03

And then a Sahajis, in which Truth and lending you know, ella, elsa and I have been saying for last, you know a couple of shows we've been right about who's dropping out and who's dropping out and who's dropping out of what order and who's gonna be next, and Chris Christie and all this other stuff. I Think we both thought that a Sahajis and had dropped out weeks, potentially months ago, but in fact he had not. So I think we were a little bit out of order in who we thought was gone, but in reality I think we are thought he was already gone. I don't even know how many of you knew he was still in the race. But so in the, in the aftermath, as many of you know, vivek and a Sahajis in both ended their campaign Hutchison. As much as I was surprised that he was still in, it was even less surprised that he ended it as soon as Iowa was over with. I was truthfully a little surprised that Vivek Rama Swami I think I pronounced that right dropped out this early. His, his, his finish wasn't that great in Iowa and, as a smart business man, which we've discussed before, you know you kind of Read the tea leaves and made that projection and you know any further campaigning, I think, in his eyes, was wasted money, so he dropped out.

Speaker 1: 3:21

Also, though, he we've been saying this, he, he has been playing the long game. He has been bucking for a, you know, a job in the administration, whether it's the vice presidential candidacy from President Trump or a cabinet position or or something like that. You know you could call it that. It's the, the peak boot, a gig strategy, right? Secretary transportation now, after getting blown out of the water four years ago in the previous election. But that's what Vivek's been doing and I don't think it's it's news to anybody. I think we all saw it coming. But to hear President Trump Very shortly after I was over with to say he's gonna be with us for a long time, we've got room for him or we've got a job for him or a place for him in this administration. So Vivek got what he wanted. He does have a job waiting for him, pending the election of former president Trump back into the White House. So he played it. Well, you know, got a hand it to him. I none of us, I think, including him probably anticipated it, anticipated him winning the Republican nomination, let alone the presidency. So you know, coming in that distant fourth, he got. He got what he wanted. He got an admission and a commitment from President Trump that he's gonna have a job in the administration, provided President Trump wins back the White House. So you know, good on him. He played the game. It is a political game. He's a smart business guy and he kind of knew, you know, what was coming next.

Speaker 1: 4:56

What I what I don't, I Didn't anticipate is the massive push right now for both Governor DeSantis and Ambassador governor Haley To drop out, and that's coming from Vivek himself, among others. There are a lot of people who are telling them to drop out of the race this early, which I think is insane. Um, but there there is a big push to tell both of them to drop out of the race. Um, governor Haley has been taken a lot of flak lately.

Speaker 1: 5:28

The new attack on hers and I've said this from the beginning she may or may not be my favorite, but she is, I think, the most electable Um of all of the republican candidates not named trump. We all know the president trump is is the number one candidate by far, um, but the one's not named trump. I thought she had the best credentials. I thought she had the best resume, uh, best presentation, all that, and I still do, and actually I think she's she's probably a better viable candidate than president trump, in all honesty. But what, uh, what she's? She's being called a rhino. That's the new one. So, republican in name only.

Speaker 1: 6:08

Um, you know there's been a lot of uh, you know, because she's playing. She's playing what all of our presidential candidates used to do even earlier in my lifetime. They all were fighting for the middle, which I think is what she's doing smartly. Um, she knows that she's not gonna pull a ton of, especially in the early stages, a ton of the, you know, very, very right wing. She's not gonna pull a lot out of president trump's fan base, his support base. She knows that. So she's really got to play to the middle, which is the Majority of the country. Truthfully, you know you've got the extremes on the left and the extremes on the right, and it was always the middle that presidential candidates were trying to win, because they knew they were going to get their, their party loyalists of all kind and uh, she's she's kind of an old school in that she's trying to win the middle Um that then maybe non-party aligned or the maybe not so happy with the current state of their own parties those votes that you can sway Is who she is campaigning toward.

Speaker 1: 7:15

Now I've seen, really, even in the last 24 hours, a lot of um. You know, people pulling old news clips, uh, where governor haley has said I have never said this, um, and then they pull a news clip and she says exactly what she said. She never said I've never said this. And then they do the same thing. It's another topic, same story. Um, so she's getting attacked a lot, truthfully, a lot more In in national news, national campaign level stuff, but I think that's because she's been identified as the biggest threat to president trump. Um, now they say that governor disantis, uh was the most Attacked in all of the ads in iowa, specifically leading up to the caucus, which may or may not be true.

Speaker 1: 8:02

I I don't live in iowa, so I don't know Um. I know that he hit every, every single county In the state. Good for him, right, he went stumping like politicians used to do all the time. Um, and I think the push for him to drop out of the race is the fact that he stumps so hard in iowa and only came away with 21 point something percent of the vote. Um, I think folks are anticipating that it's not worth it. Well, let me tell you something. Let me tell you something about worth it, not worth it.

Speaker 1: 8:33

You know, president trump walked away with 50 point something percent of the vote, or 52 percent of the vote, whatever it was I and almost a clean sweep of Erie County. That does not mean in any way, shape or form that he is guaranteed to win the presidency. Yes, it was a blowout, no question about it. This Iowa caucus was a blowout for him. He crushed everybody that was behind him. You know, I think you know again less than 2%, 2% points separated, second and third. But you know, 30% points separated first and second, and then you'd had fourth and beyond. You know, I think the, you know, binkley was less than a percent. I think Civic was at like 7%, something minuscule, and then the last two were less than a percentage point. Regardless, winning Iowa does not mean that you're gonna win the presidency, and here's how I know.

Speaker 1: 9:32

Let's go back in time a little bit, see if any of these names ring a bell. 2008, huckabee won Iowa caucus. This is just on the Republican side. 2012, santorum won the Iowa caucus. 2016, ted Cruz won the Iowa caucus and in 2020, president Trump won the Iowa caucus. Now, what do those four people have in common? None of them won the presidency. None of them, and in fact, up to President Trump in 2020, none of them won the Republican nomination for the presidency.

Speaker 1: 10:14

So just winning Iowa doesn't guarantee Jack, doesn't? It gives you absolutely nothing other than the fact that you won the first trial. It does clear some of the chaff away. You do have things like, you know, vivek dropping out, you know, and clearing away Hutchison, and you know those kinds of things. So narrow's the field very early, which is good, probably better for all of us. This field is narrowed very, very quickly, with only one primary, in this case, caucus out of the way, but it guarantees you nothing.

Speaker 1: 10:55

So for everyone who's and I don't care where you sit if you're worried about Trump winning the election or winning the nomination, like if you're not a Trumper as a Republican, or if you're, you know, a Democrat on the liberal side, or even if you're undeclared and you're not a Trump fan, whoever you are. If you're worried about this, if you're worried because of the result of Iowa, don't lose any sleep. Is it a step forward? Sure, it is. Is it an indicator? Maybe, maybe not. History says it's not. And if you're a Trump fan, don't get over excited because, again, you know, history says something different. And listen, I get it.

Speaker 1: 11:36

Some people are gonna say, oh, the 2020 election was stolen and all of those things. Listen, I'm not even going down that road. Take 2020, throw it out the window. Look at the three folks behind them. I mean really, huckabee, santorum and Ted Cruz. Come on like they won Iowa. They didn't go any further than that. In fact, I don't even know if Huckabee or Santorum made it to the convention. I think Ted Cruz lasted a lot longer than that, but I'd have to go back and look.

Speaker 1: 12:05

So, regardless of all that, you know this is it's very, very early still for everyone. And is it an indicator? Sure, probably it's an indicator. Is it anything glorious or magnanimous about winning Iowa? No, there really isn't. So I wouldn't get too worked up about it. And you know, the nice part is is that we've got, you know, 49 more of these things coming and one coming, you know, fairly soon New Hampshire's coming up and it's another indicator, smaller field, right. So now we're down. I don't know how long this Binkley guy is gonna hang in, but we're down to three, well, four with him. I don't even count him as a challenger really, but you've got three candidates that are really trying and we'll see how long it goes.

Speaker 1: 12:58

I think the other nice part about narrow in the field and I've talked about this a bunch is I don't like the fact that President Trump is not in any of the debates. I don't. I know it's good strategy. Why risk it? He gains nothing out of it. Blah, blah, blah, blah. I think that the nation deserves more. The voting public deserves more. They deserve to hear him go toe to toe with his you know, with his challengers. So hopefully, now that we're down to maybe three viable candidates and maybe he'll dip his toe into the debate arena. I don't anticipate that happening, I really don't, but you know I'm hopeful.

Speaker 1: 13:37

Somebody did ask me now that we are down to three, because I have been predicting a lot on who's dropping next is who is the next drop? And again, I said this last week I don't know it's a tough call. I would say honestly I think it will be Governor DeSantis, but I think that's months down the road. I think that him and Governor Haley and President Trump the three of them are gonna fight this out for a while. I think you're gonna see a lot more the thing. You're gonna see the three of them go through at least a handful more of these primaries. New Hampshire will be a good indicator, but we're gonna see more of these before anybody makes a decision about dropping out. I don't anticipate anything coming for the next couple of months, so we'll see what happens.

Speaker 1: 14:28

Just keep watching, pay attention. It matters. It matters to our nation. It matters to our country. Right now it's a national election, so that's kind of where I sit as far as that goes.

Speaker 1: 14:42

Now, current administration we can talk about all the problems that they are having. A lot of it self-inflicted, pardon me. So you know Els and I talked last week. I'm still fighting this crazy chest cold, so I hosted it alone. Tonight I'm drinking a little bit of green tea with some honey in it. I'm talking by myself for an hour. My throat's gonna get dry, so pardon me as I take drinks every now and then.

Speaker 1: 15:12

But, again, the current administration. A lot of the problems are self-inflicted, I think, or maybe even just exacerbated by their own incompetency, lack of effort, lack of focus, whatever you want to call it, whatever it is, depending on the situation, but I think the one that popped up this week there's a couple of them that I'm gonna talk about, but this one that popped up this week, I think, is a long-running thing that's really been exacerbated by the weather, at least brought to a head by the weather, and then the departure of a key advisor to the president. That's the discussion about green energy and climate change. So, whether you saw it or not, john Kerry, the infamous John Kerry he's been the climate czar for President Biden since he took office and has been the whip, the hammer whatever you want to call it for pushing green energy initiatives in the United States and to the international audience. He attends all these climate conferences in his private jet, which blows more carbon footprint than any average American does in their lifetime. Just one trip over to Europe, ridiculous. But he has been the climate czar for a while and I haven't been able to get a good read whether he is being fired or if he's being told to step down or if he is voluntarily stepping down because of the current state of affairs, but he is leaving as the climate czar inside of one year of reelection for the president. That's not a good look, but here's kind of what's going on.

Speaker 1: 17:00

So a couple of months ago, whether you all saw it or not, one of the vice president I think it was a vice president or a C-suite executive from Ford Motor Company took one of their EV F-150s and took a family trip across the northern states of the US. When I say northern states, I'm talking like the Dakotas, minnesota, wyoming out in that area, montana and he came back and stated blatantly that the infrastructure is not there. The United States is not ready to go EV in the right in pace that the administration and climate activists and all these other people are trying to push. It's not there. And a great prime example that came from him when I read the story was that I want to say it was somewhere in Minnesota. He stopped to recharge the F-150 that his family was in and they were in very, very rural Minnesota and he had to sit there for two plus hours recharging his truck and he has small children and he had to entertain them at a gas station with a charge port for two hours with nothing to do, as opposed to what the rest of us have experienced in our life, which is a 10-minute gas stop where everybody goes to the bathroom, maybe we refill on snacks and drinks, or we take shoes off or put shoes on or whatever we do as a family at these stops while dad or mom's fill in the tank and then we're back on the road and we keep driving. This was two hours and it's reading between the lines as a dad who's taking many road trips across country with family. It sounds like that guy was pulling his hair out or trying not to pull his hair out for a couple of hours, trying to find stuff for his kids to do while he was waiting for the truck to charge. So that's one right, but that was a Ford Motor Company executive that said we're not ready for this. That's not a good indicator.

Speaker 1: 19:08

The last couple of days I mentioned this weather that we're all kind of suffering through Chicago, my hometown. There's a lot of stories about there, about Tesla charge stations, super charge stations, where it's just banks of these things the charger robot looking things sitting out there that it's so cold. They're not working. They're broken or it's so cold they're not working. There was a guy that they interviewed who had spent three hours on Saturday and then three more hours on Sunday trying to charge his Tesla dead. Nothing wouldn't take a charge. The car batteries are too cold, the charging stations are too cold, not enduring extreme weather, not doing it.

Speaker 1: 19:49

So for half of the United States, basically, who do go through this, even in small spurts during the wintertime every year, this doesn't work. It doesn't work. And we all know about rolling blackouts in California over the last couple of years, where they will tell you to not charge. This is the state that's pushing EVs more than anybody. The state that is telling you to not charge your vehicle so that you don't overstretch the grid, so everybody can keep their air conditioning on and businesses can keep running, but you can't go to work because you can't charge your car. So you've got that. So you've got extreme heat, you've got extreme cold, we've got problems at either end of the temperature spectrum. So that doesn't work.

Speaker 1: 20:36

And then, as a business indicator, I don't know if you've seen this, but Hertz, who truthfully made the move to a large fleet of EVs before, I think, any of the rest of the major car rental companies is selling, dumping 20,000 EVs out of their inventory and going back to gas cars. 20,000 cars. It's not working, people aren't renting them, they're not efficient, they're too expensive to maintain. Whatever the reason is, hertz as a business decision is dumping 20,000 cars. So if they can't withstand the cost associated, what is going to happen when we convert and oh, by the way, california is pushing this too what's going to happen when we convert tractor trailers, tractor trailers, businesses right, you got all of these long haul trucking companies, the big ones, the ones that we all see on the highway. Right, when their fleet is that big and they can't manage it and it doesn't work for them either. How's that going to work? That's not, that's all there is to it. So that's just EVs, okay.

Speaker 1: 21:51

Now talking green energy, and this administration has pushed and pushed too hard, in my opinion, and pushed too fast in my opinion. Things like taking away gas powered stoves and gas powered ovens and now hot water heaters and these kinds of things. If you want to piss off Americans more than anything else, if you want to piss off Americans, you take away their choice. If they no longer have the opportunity to choose. That's where you start pissing people off. Okay, there, and you can take this to whatever argument that you want. Okay, you can take this.

Speaker 1: 22:40

Take it to the argument on abortion. Freedom of choice, right. You may or may not agree with it, you may or may not like it, you may or may. Whatever your personal preference is. For many, many people in the abortion argument, the freedom of choice is the crux of it. They probably would never do it themselves. Maybe they would. They just support someone's right to choose, to make the choice, to have the option available, right. Well, that's what this administration is doing is they're taking away those options for the American public arbitrarily. They're just doing it. Right, they don't. They're not taking into account the financial investment involved, not just for individuals, but for businesses and those kinds of things. They're just doing it. They think they know what's best and big brother stepping in, and then they're making decisions what, in reality, americans haven't even decided. If this is a hoax yet or not.

Speaker 1: 23:42

There's a lot of people, myself included, who I don't believe that there is a big climate crisis. I really don't. Some people call me crazy, call me uneducated, call me whatever you want. I don't care. My personal opinion is there is not a climate crisis. That's me.

Speaker 1: 24:00

People are tired of getting talked down to, me included Greta Von what's her name? I'm certainly not going to be talked down to by a 15-year-old or 12-year-old or whatever she was when all this stuff started. I don't want to hear, I really don't, especially in her such privileged life and childhood. That young lady, in my opinion, needs to be put in a corner and told her shut the hell up. I'm not listening to her, I don't care. I honestly don't. We're all getting tired of being talked down to on behalf of other people. That's not helping the argument. We're tired of being guilted. That's part of being talked down to. That was part of the Greta thing. You stole my childhood. Shut up, shut up. I've been to third-world countries where kids have a hell of a lot worse childhood than you do. Shut up. I don't want to hear it.

Speaker 1: 24:53

There is too much evidence to the contrary on whether or not the climate change is a real or not. People are going to read what they read. They're going to believe what they believe. Do I believe that there is climate change going on? I actually do, but I think it's minuscule. I honestly don't think the effects are what's being presented to us. I also think that the effects that we can control here in the United States are much, much less, with the emissions being put out by China and Russia and all these other places that we can't control and will never be able to control. They're 10 times worse than what we're doing. We can do all this stuff. We can put as many EVs on the road as we want and it's not going to matter. I think we're putting ourselves under hardship for absolutely no reason, or no reason that's going to make a difference, except it'll help people.

Speaker 1: 25:47

Some people will sleep better at night. Again, I don't care. There's always the argument too, and this is actually where I really come to. The crux of this is the damage that's being done, the guilt associated with pulling fossil fuels out of the ground and pollution and all this other stuff. If you've seen what it takes for mining lithium and everything else that goes into the batteries for all of these cars and all this green energy and all this other stuff, it's not any better. It's not, in fact, if you look at who's doing the mining on the continent of Africa. It's child labor, it's slave child labor in a lot of cases and it's horrific. You may be able to sleep better at night because your car doesn't put out any gas emissions, but there's probably a couple of teenage or younger kids in Africa that died pulling the lithium out of the ground so you could drive your whatever EV car you're driving. I don't buy any of that crap. I'm not on board with the climate controversy and I'm not on board with all the green energy initiatives. Here's where we stand.

Speaker 1: 27:03

Is John Kerry Again the climate czar, the representative for this administration, to talk on behalf of America, to push America in the direction that this administration wants to go in the fight against climate change, is either quitting or being fired. That's it. He's leaving the job and he's the epitome. Truthfully, most people don't like him anyway. I don't know anybody. I can't think of anybody who, off the top of my head, would readily admit that they voted for John Kerry when he ran for public office. Not a single person. He is overbearing and abhorrent and he's a no at all and people don't generally like him. But on top of it, now he's talking down to everybody about the climate but he's leaving. That is not a good representation, not a good looking, really, really bad timing for the administration in an election year when they, above everybody else, are trying to push climate change or trying to fight against climate change with green energy policy. So it's not working, pardon me. So that's kind of where we sit.

Speaker 1: 28:27

I encourage everyone, just like I do with every other topic, investigative for yourself, come to your own conclusions. I know where I sit. I don't sit with the administration and I think that their biggest mistake along the way is truthfully taking the choice away from Americans and making decisions, policy decisions that are essentially removing choice from Americans, removing the opportunity for choice, which again will piss off Americans more than anything else. So I think it's a bad look. And that's kind of where we're at, speaking of the current administration and a massive problem that they're having right now the border. It's a, it's rough. I don't. You know, governor Abbott, down in Texas, is taking the brunt of this. He is doing more actively, doing more because he has more of this on his plate than anybody else. Anybody else, and I include, you know, department of Homeland Security. Governor Abbott is doing more actively, doing more in and around the border than DHS is, because it's a problem for him. So what did he do this past week we're past couple of weeks, maybe it's been 10 days he activated the National Guard in Texas.

Speaker 1: 29:53

Now, for those of you that don't know or don't understand because not everybody does, when it comes to reserve component military forces in the United States, the reserves are not the same thing as the National Guard. You have active duty military, you have the reserves, which are federal, federally funded, federally run. Right, they may be local to you, they're part-timers, they follow kind of the same rules as the National Guard. One week a month, two weeks in the summertime can be activated to go on active duty Same rules, but they're federal organizations, they're not state organizations. The National Guard, until or unless activated federally, activated by the president, belong to the governor of the state. Okay, be very clear about that the Texas National Guard. That's why there's always a state name in the National Guard. You don't hear the Texas reserves or the Pennsylvania reserves or the Missouri reserves, because they're not. The reserves are federal. National Guard is state Texas National Guard. I was a member of the Illinois National Guard. Right, every state has a National Guard, different types of units, different capabilities, different capacities.

Speaker 1: 31:15

So the governor of Texas activated the National Guard in Texas, his National Guard, to take over border security, his choice, his funding, owned by the state. So he activated the National Guard. So they are securing I think his position is, from what I've been able to tell, and it's actually a very interesting decision and a great discussion he is securing the border of Texas, his state Just so happens to be. He's securing federal, national border, federal border, the national border between the United States and Mexico, which also happens to be the border between Texas and Mexico. So he sees it well within his rights and his powers to secure his state Just happens to be also with an international border with another country. So he is protecting, as the governor, his constituency and they're the ones who really are being overrun. They're being the crimes that are being committed and it is happening.

Speaker 1: 32:33

You can say what you want. You can say all of these people coming across are not bad people. They're not all bad people. I'm not saying they are, but with the sheer volume of people that are coming across the border on an hourly basis and, truthfully, so many of them now are not Mexican, central, south American, you know seeking asylum and refuge from a shitty environment that they're living in in their home country, there are tons, hundreds, potentially thousands of Africans, asians, middle Easterners now seeing Chinese and others moving across the southern border into the United States. That's not spy novel stuff. That's not, you know, movie stuff. You know that is real life you are seeing. We are seeing national threat level stuff and I've talked about this before coming across the southern border.

Speaker 1: 33:36

So Governor Abbott has decided that he is going to protect his constituency and his state. He doesn't have the capability or the ability to send all of these people back to their host home nation right, to kick them out and send them back to Mexico or Nicaragua or Venezuela or wherever they came from. So what he has been doing is been taking all the sanctuary cities up on their offer, so their offer of being a sanctuary city and offering refuge to, you know, anybody who needs it. He's taking them up on it and he has been, as we have all seen, busing and in some cases flying, I think immigrants, illegal immigrants, illegal aliens, two places like Chicago and Boston and Minnesota and other places. I know that the newest mayor of Chicago, just within the last few weeks, begged the governor of Texas to stop doing this because he is at or past capacity, can't do it, can't help anymore. Okay, yeah, well, welcome to the problem in Texas. Bud, you offer sanctuary city status, and I know oh, by the way, boston did this a long time ago said we can't take anymore. New York's getting overrun. They're having problems too. It's nice to say sanctuary city when it's in the hundreds of people who are looking for help.

Speaker 1: 35:00

The state of Texas is dealing with probably and I'm guessing here 70% to 80% of all illegal immigrants coming across the southern border. Maybe I'm a little high, maybe I'm not, but they've got all of them. The rest of these that the Chicago is feeling, or that you know Boston's feeling, or New York is feeling, or any of the rest of these cities or states are feeling it. So it's a small portion of what the state of Texas is dealing with, or Arizona, or New Mexico or even Southern California. So welcome to the club.

Speaker 1: 35:37

It's not a Texas problem, it's not a Southern state problem, it's a national problem and you're gonna bear some of the burden because Governor Abbott is tired of it. He's tired of having that happen within his state lines, within the boundaries of the great state of Texas, and he's taking action. So before it was just bussing was hey look, I can't deport them, so I'm gonna pick them up and I'm gonna send them to places who claim that they will house and take care of these people. And he's maxed them out. They're begging for relief. Stop doing it, we can't take anymore. Yeah well, he's still got people coming in every day and it's at the fault of the current administration. You can say whatever you want, I don't care, you're wrong.

Speaker 1: 36:17

This is a President Biden problem Him, not DHS, not national policy. Not, we're a nation of immigrant. We are. We're all of those that. I got it right. Stop with the sympathy crap. This is President Biden's start at this. He did this. This is his responsibility and he's done not a damn thing to fix it. So Governor Abbott's taking it on his own.

Speaker 1: 36:39

Now, what he has done, what he's been forced to do and I give him a lot of credit for the action that he's taking, because it's pretty bold is his National Guard that he has activated is now pushing Border Patrol and others out of the way. Get out of the way. You're not helping, you're overwhelmed, you're being restricted by the federal policy. We don't have to abide by federal policy. We're abide by Texas policy. Get out of the way and they're taken over. So again. Bold move by the Governor of Texas, but he's tired of it and I know his constituency is tired of it. I know they are the people who live on the border, probably not the people in Austin and probably not the people in Houston or Dallas, fort Worth. Maybe they are some, but it's not the same. I bet El Paso's feeling it. I bet El Paso and surrounding communities are feeling it, but the state of Texas is a wholeness feeling it and the Governor's tired of it. So he's gonna take action. He's not gonna be dictated to anymore and I don't blame him.

Speaker 1: 37:44

So that brings up the conversation which is states' rights, states' rights. There is the argument has been for a number of years about what was the true genesis of the Civil War. Was it slavery, was it about states' rights? I would tell you it was probably mostly about slavery and a little bit about states' rights. But this is vastly becoming a states' rights issue. What rights does the Governor of Texas have to protect his constituency when the federal government is impeding his ability to do so? Because that's what's happening and it's gonna come to a head. I know it's already kind of did. Once there was the federal lawsuit. I think they had put some floats and some other things in the river to keep folks from coming across the river, and they put up some other barriers and some other things. There was a lawsuit and courts got involved and they were told to take all the stuff down.

Speaker 1: 38:50

By the way, if you saw the White House Press Secretary talk about all the things that Razor Wire and Concertino Wire don't do, choose 100% wrong. I don't often say this about people and I don't envy her her job, but that woman has no idea what she's talking about, because those are the exact tools that the military uses to do exactly what the state of Texas is trying to do, which is keep people out. She said oh, it doesn't keep people out, it doesn't keep people from coming across. Yes, it does. That's what it's designed to do. I know she was probably trying to come across metaphorically, but she came across stupid, ignorant and uneducated in what she was trying to say Horrible, horrible. Look for her.

Speaker 1: 39:35

Regardless, back to the state's rights thing. What rights does the governor of Texas have to protect his constituency when being impeded by the federal government? Well, he's pushing the limits and God love him for doing it. Somebody needs to, and this is people didn't like the move for states' rights when it came to Roe v Wade being overturned I'm not trying to just keep bringing up abortion, but that's probably the last one is Roe v Wade was overturned and it was turned over to the states, contrary to what was being told through the press and a bunch of other places was it was not an abortion ban nationwide. It was hey, states are states, states rights. States do what states are gonna do. You guys make the decision on what you're gonna do, and Elsa and I talked about this. Some of the states did not a good job. Texas is actually one of them when it came to abortion. They didn't think through things. They didn't do a great job of figuring out what, where the exceptions were gonna lie and anticipating that, and it unfortunately turned out bad for some folks, which is still atrocious. But here's where we're at. This is states' rights.

Speaker 1: 40:50

This is an argument about states' rights, but this is also an ideological difference when people talk big gov versus small gov. Big gov, which tends to not always tends to reside on the Democratic side of the aisle, in the blue. Big gov a lot of federal control, a lot of federal program, a lot of federal, federal, federal, federal, okay, this is a case where states are taking the rights back and in small gov, which you know back to Ronald Reagan era Republicans you know, ronald, president Reagan was, he was a big fan of small gov this is pushed down to the states. States, you handle it, yes. Is it an international border? Sure it is. Is it impeding? You know Texas more than it is anybody else, or is Texas dealing with more than anybody else? Maybe they are and maybe they're. That needs to be handled differently in Texas than it does in Arizona, new Mexico or California. And this is where governors step in and they do what they think they need to do to protect their constituency. It's not a national level decision handled by the government, backed by, you know, the federal government, in the sense where they're not stepping in and making a decision. They're solely supporting, as you know, requests from whatever states need.

Speaker 1: 42:21

And this is the fundamental ideological difference big gov versus small gov. At the federal level. I think well, I know that my personal opinion is I'm much bigger fan of small gov. I think there's way too much federal interference. I think the federal government has overstepped its bounds. Covid was a prime example federal mandates on all kinds of things, and you know OSHA and all these other non law law making bodies setting policy and trying to enforce things. The federal government overstepped its bounds and I think there needs to be a pendulum swing to get things back to where they need to be. In the small government arena, we're way too big. I think there needs to be a massive cut in federal funding. In a lot of areas. It needs to be got under control, and this is it. I mean, this is where it's going to come to a head is an argument like this, where a governor pushes the limits as hard as he can, and that's what Governor Abbott's doing, and I think these are the kinds of things that are good for our nation overall. It might be painful in the short term, it might be painful for the state of Texas, but as a nation, this is how we're designed it. I think that this is a good thing.

Speaker 1: 43:41

So another topic for you to dig into as a listening audience see what you think. Think of it from that perspective. It's not even an immigration argument at this point. It's a matter of what are states responsible for doing? What rights do governors have? What rights do states have to protect themselves? To act with or without federal government endorsement and for their own good and well-being. So maybe it's a different look at a problem that's been going on for a while with the border. I just encourage you to kind of look at it maybe in that vein versus your personal opinion on immigration how much should we accept and all those other things. So those are kind of the three things that I really want to hit tonight. I mean, we talked about Iowa, we talked about the bad look that the current administration is going through with climate change, with Carrie stepping down or being fired or whatever's bad look is happening for the administration when it comes to green energy policies, and then hit on this big deal that's going on in Texas with the border and really kind of taking a different look at the angle of it's not necessarily an immigration issue as much as it is a state's rights issue, state position issue.

Speaker 1: 45:07

I did have one more topic that I was going to cover. I kind of ran out of time. I will probably put it in a blog or maybe even talk about it with Elsa in next week's show, but it's a good topic and we don't have enough time, I don't think, to cover it to keep this thing under an hour. So little. Switch gears Mom's away. I'm just kidding, I would never call Elsa mom. Her and I are too close in age, but this is the Elsa Kurtz show.

Speaker 1: 45:40

I co-host with her, but I'm running solo and sometimes when I'm running by myself, I do things that I want to do. Ask my parents what would happen when I was left alone as a teenager. The decisions that I would make were always the best, but they were always entertaining. So you guys hear me every week and I always say keep moving, keep shooting. At the end of when we sign off and you can see behind me I always do this backwards the book that's my novel Behind me. Keep moving, keep shooting. It's my first novel. It is available on Amazon. It's also available on my website, claynovaccom, where I sell signed author signed copies claynovaccom in the Rucksack, which is the store on the website. But it's also available on Amazon. It's also on Apple Books, I think. Whatever the Apple reading site is, you can get it in all formats on Amazon Softcover, hardcover and Kindle. But with Elsa here, I'm going to take a few minutes and talk about the book itself, so you can see it here.

Speaker 1: 46:48

Keep moving, keep shooting is a book that I wrote as a bit of a transition from retire as I retired out of the military. It was a hobby, never intended to publish, and just ended up writing a book. And so I know two things. One, I'm biased because it's my book, but I also know that I don't do self-promotion very well. So one of those habits that most of us had coming out of the military is that we don't chew our own horn very often. So what I would encourage you to do is to go to Amazon.

Speaker 1: 47:22

There's over 100 reviews of the book Keep moving, keep shooting. You can search it by name or by my name, claynovac, but there's over 100 reviews and virtually every one of them is a five-star review. There's a number 70 something, I think written reviews of the book, and I think I've sold probably 700 copies and there's over 100 reviews. So do the math. Whatever that is, it doesn't get bad reviews. And just to give you a little taste of the book.

Speaker 1: 47:53

So the main character is Terry Davis. He's a retired Army officer who's tried to retire very, very quietly, and it didn't work out that way. He is involved with a woman who's a PhD in a Middle East expert and she has gotten wind of what is potentially a terroristic threat for the continental United States. And Terry is kind of not even enlisted. He knows what his duty is and what his obligations are, to not only his friend Dr Barron, but also to his country. He's a retired Army officer and he doesn't take that obligation lightly. So he does what he can to protect the nation that he loves. And the story unfolds in a lot of different directions and a lot of different ways.

Speaker 1: 48:43

If you enjoy military fiction, action fiction, thriller type books, I compare it to Jack Ryan, jack Reacher, jason Bourne type books. If that's in your wheelhouse and those are what you enjoy, I encourage you to check out, keep moving, keep shooting. The one thing that surprised me as the author is the number of women readers who love the book. It shocks me because it definitely has a masculine shoot them up kind of feel to it. But women readers absolutely love it, got tons and tons of feedback. So it is for everybody. It's not just a guy book, it's not a dude book, it is really a story for everybody and everybody's enjoying it. So a little bit of self promotion on my part, while I've got the show to myself, but I would ask you take a look at it If you enjoy that type of reading or that type of subject matter keep moving, keep shooting is the book? It's on Amazon. Or if you're interested in buying an autographed by me and I hand sign every one of them that I send out claynovaccom and go to the Rucksack store and you can order a hardback like this one here or soft cover. I've got those two and I'll sign either one.

Speaker 1: 50:06

So that's my little plug while Elsa's away. She should be back next week. She just asked me to stand in tonight. She had something that came up last minute and always happy to do it, I like. I enjoy the banter with her. It's great to have another set of ears and somebody else to go back and forth with. But I like being on the show and when Elsa asked me to host on my own, I jump at it. So thanks everybody for tuning in. We're a little bit less than an hour. You didn't get the funny banter, you didn't get her wit. You got stuck with me. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope I hit on some things and made you think and I hope that you come back and listen again, not just this week but every week. And finally, for me, as always keep moving, keep shooting.