Wildfires, Immigration Debates, and Controversial Proposals: A Deep Dive into America's Challenges

This episode explores the intersection of politics, tragedy, and social responsibility by examining California's wildfires, President Carter's legacy, and pressing legislative actions like the Lakin-Riley Act. Engaging with themes such as domestic terrorism, media portrayal, and the ongoing struggle for women’s rights in sports, the hosts emphasize the importance of dialogue and proactive measures in addressing societal challenges. 

• Reflections on the California wildfires and community impact 
• Tribute to the legacy of President Jimmy Carter 
• Explorations of recent tragic incidents and mental health 
• Overview of the Lakin-Riley Act and its political implications 
• Discussion of Trudeau's resignation and its significance 
• Media’s portrayal of Biden and its impact on public perception 
• Advocacy for women's sports rights amid cultural conflict

Chapters

• 0:00 California Wildfires and President Carter Tribute
• 7:08 FBI Leadership Issues and Terror Incidents
• 12:34 Illegal Immigration and the Lake Act
• 22:22 Trump's Controversial Proposals and Reactions
• 30:33 Media Bias and Political Opinions
• 42:28 Protecting Women's Sports and Transgender Athletes

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

It's the Elsa Kurtz Show with Clay Novak Conservative views on world news Brought to you by the Wellness Company. Prepare for the unexpected and Refuge Medical. And now it's time for the show.

Speaker 2: 0:18

Hey folks, clay Novak here for the Elsa Kurtz Show with Clay Novak. Elsa lucky enough for her in our first show of the season got a bonus trip to Florida to see those beautiful grandbabies of hers. So she is down there and escaping this bitter cold that we both enjoy in the North. But we got a lot of stuff to talk about for show of the season and we will start right after this. Okay, folks, like I said, you've got me flying solo this week. Elsa will be back next week. She's down in Florida enjoying the sun and her grandbabies Just a few things off the top.

Speaker 2: 1:07

Normally we dive right into what is, on average, our biggest topic of the show, but I want to say a few things up front. One Happy New Year to everybody. I hope you enjoyed Christmas and the New Year's holiday and I hope everything is going well for all of you. But there's a couple things that happened that I just want to hit up front and ongoing. One of them is the California wildfires. I'm not a thoughts and prayers guy normally, but in this case, if you haven't seen the footage of the California wildfires, thoughts and prayers are where we all need to be for those folks. It is pretty horrific. Right now it's being exacerbated by a few things some struggles with FEMA, some struggles within the state of California and then locally in and around Los Angeles, los Angeles County, with firefighters and water availability and some other things. But for everyone in that area, please be safe. Again, I saw some footage of two guys and a dog in a house beautiful California style house in the hills glass all the way around and literally surrounded by flames that you can't walk through, you can't see through, you can't see over. I mean, they were huge, so pretty scary stuff out there. I just hope everybody stays safe.

Speaker 2: 2:15

Don't wait, get out if you haven't yet. If it's coming your direction, even if you think it's coming your direction, get out, because the fire moves very, very quickly. Even if you think it's coming your direction, get out, because the fire moves very, very quickly. And, unfortunately for the people of California, if you've never been there or you've never spent any time there, this is only really the first step. These wildfires are going to continue until they either burn out or get themselves under control and, unfortunately, what those folks in Southern California are going to have to hope for is a relatively dry spring. Uh, because with the wildfires and the underbrush all being burned away and a lot of the new growth being burned away. Um, if they get a lot of uh precipitation, uh, the rest of this spring, that will trigger mudslides. Um, so this has the potential, as bad as these fires are, to just get perpetually worse for the those folks in the state of California for the rest of the spring and into the summer. Unfortunately, if they get a light, you know, a spring with a light precipitation, then that just facilitates droughts and other things. It's a very nasty circle that they endure in Southern California, but these fires are some of the worst that I've ever seen and again, thoughts and prayers go out to those folks.

Speaker 2: 3:22

Second is President Carter. You know, it's not often that we lose a president, especially one that crested the century mark. You know, president Carter, there's a lot of mixed opinions about President Carter. I think, in light of President Biden, president Carter and his four year stint as president looks pretty amazing. President Carter and his four-year stint as president looks pretty amazing when, in fact, for decades he's been considered as one of the least effective and least popular presidents of all time. But I will say, president Carter, the man, no matter those four years before becoming a politician. Obviously he's got the reputation as a peanut farmer, but he was a naval officer, did some pretty heroic stuff. If you haven't looked into his past and his service, that's something to look into. President Carter was a pretty admirable guy. And then post White House, post administration, he has, in my opinion and I'm old enough to remember President Carter's administration very little, but I do remember President Reagan very, very well and everything beyond.

Speaker 2: 4:21

But President Carter post-administration is probably, in my opinion, the most effective and the most admirable former president that we have. He's been completely active and has stayed not necessarily, although when caused, when asked, has stepped in to do some diplomacy stuff. I know that he stepped in a couple of times in and around the Caribbean, I think, katie and some other locales. He asked, he was asked to step in. But also, you know, habitat for Humanity is a huge thing. He has been a massive proponent of that. And oh, by the way, if you've never participated in Habitat for Humanity, it's. I think it's a worthwhile thing. I've done it. Go hang some drywall, go put up some studs, you know, roof a house, all those kinds of things. It's a great program and President Carter has been an advocate and a builder of Habitat for Humanity for decades.

Speaker 2: 5:14

So we lost a president and he's going to lie, you know, in state or is currently lying in state and capital. Oh, by the way, I'm recording this Wednesday afternoon, 4.30 Eastern time, on the 8th. So yesterday they loaded him up out of Georgia and were taking him to Washington DC. I don't know if he has been put into lying in state in the rotunda yet. I know that is the plan and I know that the.

Speaker 2: 5:42

You know, unfortunately, there's a little bit of controversy about or it was some controversy about the flag flying at half mast. You know, during President Trump's inauguration, listen, respect and honor that we pay to a former president. President Carter deserves it and I don't think that that's one of those things that anybody and I think president Trump actually, for a very brief period of time, politicized that a little bit, um, but I think that that's an honor that we give to president Carter, uh, for the duly appropriate amount of time, uh, no matter what else is going on. So, um, you know it's a loss to the nation Anytime we lose. It's a very small club, you know. Right now there's, you know, a handful I think we're down to you know what three or four living and you know President Carter was one of them lived to be 100 and lived a long life. So while his presidency wasn't the greatest, he was a good man and did a lot for the nation both before and after his administration. So you know some people, you know they want to criticize him. I'm not going to do that at this point. So again, you know, just something I think, that need to be addressed, or at least spoken about at the beginning of the beginning of the show. So kudos to President Carter for his service to the nation and may he rest in peace. But that doesn't stop the politics of the day, which is obviously what we always talk about and what everybody tunes in for.

Speaker 2: 7:08

You know I could, I could start this show and go backwards. You know, elsa and I have been off for a couple of weeks since before Christmas and a lot of things have happened. You know I could go and I could talk about new Orleans, I could talk about Las Vegas, I could talk about those things, but I'm not gonna. They've been drug out, they've been evaluated. We had a domestic terror that's what it was domestic terror incident in New Orleans. And then we had I don't think it's been classified as a domestic terror incident, but we had an incident in Las Vegas, both of those with former service members. You know New Orleans was obviously tragic. You know we lost over a dozen people I think the final count was 15, or at least as it stands right now and then, obviously, the only casualty in Las Vegas was Master Sergeant I'm going to say his name wrong Livensberger, but it's a shame.

Speaker 2: 8:11

I understand that there's some skepticism about why he did it and potentially self-driving and when he killed himself, and all kinds of things that you know. If you want to dig into that and you want to follow it, you know, go ahead. I think that with both of these gentlemen, there are some significant mental health issues that need to be examined, probably one so more than the other. I think. Obviously, if you do either act like this, you have some mental health issues, but I think their motivations were very, very different. What I will say about New Orleans, though, was that and I've heard some feelings with this I've had some, you know, some FBI agents, former FBI agents, who basically told me to shut up. I don't know what I'm talking about. Ok, fine, I mean they can say that, but that's part of the problem.

Speaker 2: 8:54

The performance by the special agent in charge, sac, was atrocious in the in the hours after New Orleans. You know it's not a terrorist event Now. It is a terrorist event. Oh, by the way, the FBI wouldn't have been there in the first place. If it wasn't a terrorist event, it would have been handled by local law enforcement like it was in Las Vegas. But you know, her performance is indicative, in my opinion, of the performance of the FBI over the last probably half a dozen years, at least four years for sure, but you take little indicators.

Speaker 2: 9:29

I spent my entire military career in leadership positions and she stood up in front of the camera and a lot of people think that this isn't a big deal. But I'll tell you, she stood up there out of uniform. She had a nose piercing. It was a stud. I refer to it as a nose ring. Somebody got in my case about that. Whatever, she had a nose piercing, it was a stud. I refer to it as a nose ring. Somebody got in my case about that. Whatever, she had a nose piercing on camera. That is out of uniform for the FBI. Why does that matter? Because she's the special agent in charge. And why does that matter? Because she's supposed to follow regulations. That's how these things are done.

Speaker 2: 10:02

Now, what does that indicate about her and her leadership and her leadership climate? So you have to assume that her team saw her with that nose piercing in before she stepped in front of the camera. So that tells me that they one let her walk on camera because they were. Either she had formed a culture or an environment where they were either afraid to say something to her, which is not great leadership, or they disliked her enough that they looked at it and they said I'm not saying anything, she can burn, she can look bad on camera, she can be out of uniform, I don't care. Or the other option is that she, either through ignorance, arrogance or lack of preparation, had the nose piercing in and didn't care, which is possible. Or she had it in and didn't realize she had it in and wasn't aware enough to even prep herself before she went on camera, which is also a little shocking. So you know. But again, I know some people think that that's not a big deal, but it is indicative of leadership.

Speaker 2: 11:11

That person was in charge of a terrorist crime scene. Okay, if she can't get the details right in her own appearance and follow the FBI regulations about her own appearance. Why should anybody any of us, the taxpayers, or any of her team have any faith that she's going to execute these things? You know, execute the processing of that crime scene and determine, you know, what's true and not true, what is evidence and not evidence. You know there's a lot of back and forth.

Speaker 2: 11:36

It was a terrorist event, it wasn't a terrorist event. Then it was a terrorist event. Then there were collaborators. They were, you know, other IEDs. They were set by other people, et cetera, et cetera, and it all ended up, you know, basically being a solo operation by one guy. You know they still. You know the processing of the ISIS flag in his truck.

Speaker 2: 11:55

It was all handled pretty poorly by the FBI publicly. Now there's some agents, I'm sure, that were on the scene busting their behind, processing evidence and going through all that stuff and doing the dirty work to get all that stuff together. It's the leadership that I have a problem with. There's great agents out there in every town, every city and they're working. The leadership of the FBI I think that special agent in charge was an indicator of everything that's going wrong in the upper echelons of the FBI right now. So that's my little soapbox about New Orleans and Las Vegas.

Speaker 2: 12:34

I'm not going to go into anything else about the two former service members other than mental health issues. And again, if you need help, if you need to talk to someone, there's plenty of hotlines out there. All of us veterans, I don't care who you are veteran or not. If you need to talk to somebody, talk to somebody. Please, don't be afraid. Pick up the hotline, call a suicide hotline and talk to someone. But especially if you have mental health issues, please, please don't be, don't hesitate to reach out. Okay, moving on with politics. The House of Representatives passed the Lakin-Riley Act through the House. It still has to go to the Senate, which the anticipation right now is that it is going to pass the Senate, where last time that this went through it did not. But the Lakin-Riley Act, we believe, is going to make it through Congress and make it to the president's desk.

Speaker 2: 13:34

So Lakin Riley, just for a quick reminder, lakin was the young university nursing student down in Augusta, georgia, who went out for a job one morning and was attacked and murdered by an illegal immigrant. Now that illegal immigrant was in the United States illegally was a catch and release, right. So he got caught coming across the border, got released into the United States down around El Paso, texas. He ended up in New York City with his brother, where they committed a couple of crimes there and then got on a plane to Atlanta. Think about that for a minute. We've all been through security in an airport, right? So he's an illegal alien, which means he probably doesn't have appropriate ID, or maybe he does. In the state of New York, he is a criminal and he was completely allowed to get on an airplane, um, probably with minimal documentation or none, um, and fly to Georgia. And then he was hired by, uh, I believe, uga, um, yes, hired by university, uh, uh, public university, taxpayer funded university, uh, and then, um, in February, uh, I think it was February 24th, um, you know he got up early in the morning, uh, this young lady was murdered, um, you know, 9am, I think it was, uh, between nine and nine, 30, um, by an illegal immigrant who, oh, by the way, committed more crimes in Georgia, um, receiving stolen goods, selling stolen goods, uh, et cetera receiving stolen goods, selling stolen goods, et cetera. Never should have been loose, never should have been in the public. Should have been deported, should have been in jail, should have been a lot of places, but shouldn't have been out on the trail that morning to attack and murder Lake and Riley.

Speaker 2: 15:16

So what does the Lake and Riley Act do? It mandates that ICE detains and potentially deports not mandated Deportation is not mandated, but detention is mandated. So if a local law enforcement agency chooses not to, or takes into custody a criminal, an illegal alien who commits a crime, down to nonviolent crimes of theft OK, these are not just violent criminals, but this is shoplifting, this is petty theft kind of stuff. This is even low level, nonviolent crimes. If they get arrested, ice is mandated to detain them and then determine their status for deportation. So it is getting criminals off the street, and I say criminals in the sense of they're already criminals because they're here illegally, they have no legal documentation, they are not on a green card, they're not applying for their citizenship or have no documentation of that and are, you know, commit a crime. So ICE has to detain them and then determine if they're going to be deported or not.

Speaker 2: 16:22

This seems very, seems very common sense, I think, to most of us. Um, but the reality is, is that, as it went to vote in the house of representatives. Um, it passed. Um it passed. But the Democratic division. There were 159 no votes to the Lake and Riley Act, 159 House of Representatives. Every single one of those 159 nays was a Democrat. 159, 159 nays to this bill and every single one of them was Democrat. Now there were 48 Democrats who voted yay, in favor, helped it pass. God bless them all. Um, including John Fetterman, interestingly enough. Um, but 159 of America's elected Democrat leaders voted against passing the Lake and Riley Act.

Speaker 2: 17:21

Now, I'm sure they will give you plenty of analysis and anticipation and excuses of all kinds of crap of why they voted against this. I can't justify any of it. I can't, you know. They're going to tell you that, well, if somebody's you know petty theft or somebody's low level larceny, if so they shouldn't be deported. Well, that's not what it says. What it says is they have to be detained by ICE and then determined whether or not they're deported. Okay, Deportate. Deportation is not mandated in the Lake and Riley Act.

Speaker 2: 17:58

There's also some stipulations in there about responsibilities for state attorneys general I think that's how you say that State attorneys general or state's attorney general, whatever they are, on their responsibility for mandating detention, prosecution, et cetera. So this is one of those contentious things, whether it's Governor Newsom or Pritzker or Hochul or any of the rest of these Whitmer walls who say, well, I'm not going to abide by anything that you know, any of these. You know immigrant laws, sanctuary cities and sanctuary states and all this other crap. Their state's attorneys can be held for lack of a better term liable culpable. For lack of a better term liable culpable. It's illegal for them to not do these things and from what I read and I am far from a lawyer, but my understanding is that they can be held accountable for not prosecuting these individuals and not at least detaining them and handing them over to ICE. They don't even have to keep them in their state system. Ice will take control of them and that's ICE's responsibility.

Speaker 2: 19:04

So the 159 Democrats may tell you it's that. They may tell you oh well, our state doesn't abide by that, or our state doesn't want to do that, or our state's attorney this and that. Blah, blah, blah. I don't care, I don't care. This is protecting Americans. This is not a mandated deportation. That that's not in there that I saw or anything that I read. Detention is mandatory, deportation is not mandatory, so there's no excuse. There's no excuse for this. I don't buy it.

Speaker 2: 19:30

Look up who those 159 Democrat elected officials are representatives and let's make sure that we keep track of them in a couple of years when it comes time for them. You know the next round of elections, but it's pretty shameful that even I mean Lake and Riley's name is on the bill for crying out loud Like they know why this is there. They know why this has been put on their desk. They know what the intent behind this is. They know what it's trying to prevent. It's trying to prevent repeating of what happened in February of 2024. And they voted against it 159. 159 elected officials, all with a D behind their name, all voted against this. Every Republican voted for and 48 Democrats voted for. I think that says something. I think it, you know it's continues to be indicative of why the Democrats lost every facet of the last election. I think that you can't deny that their ideology is skewed uh against, uh.

Speaker 2: 20:35

Protecting the average citizen, um, and I would say the average person, because there's a lot of crime that's going on, even immigrant to immigrant, illegal immigrant to illegal immigrant or illegal immigrant to legal immigrant. There's no controlling these folks because they're not being detained, they're not being processed and they're not being potentially deported, if that's what's required. So, 159 Democrats, look them up. If they're in your district, make sure they hear from you and let them know that you're not happy, because I don't think any of us should be happy with that 159 of them. They can make whatever excuses they want. I don't buy it.

Speaker 2: 21:13

But we got some presidential-ish politics going on, as always, right? So, incoming President Trump, you know he loves, loves to stir the pot November 30th, justin Trudeau made a visit down to Mar-a-Lago. You guys remember that was a big deal, right, because there was this else and I talked about it. Right, it was. We were calling it the Trump effect. Everybody was coming to kiss the ring. We kept using that term. They were coming to kiss the ring. They were coming to kiss his ass is what they were doing. There's a lot of sucking up and there's a lot of that still going on. But Justin Trudeau, on the 30th of November, met with President Trump and then just Monday, just two days ago, he resigned as the prime minister of Canada.

Speaker 2: 21:59

So the question is now if you remember, after November 30th, there was some pretty harsh joking going on from President Trump. Joking or not doesn't matter, it's President Trump. He's stirring the pot. I would tell you that most of the time he is joking but he loves to see the reaction and when he gets the reaction he likes, he just keeps stirring the pot, and I think this is definitely one of those cases. Keeps stirring the pot and I think this is definitely one of those cases.

Speaker 2: 22:22

Um, you know, he he joked about annexing Canada and making it the 51st state. Um, because things have gone so horribly wrong under under uh Trudeau in Canada over the last few years. Um and uh and it's taken, it's taken on a life of its own. Um, there are some Canadians who are very much in favor of this Um, even before uh Trudeau uh resigned, there's a lot of Canadians that were in favor of them becoming I don't think it'd be the 51st state. I know that's kind of what everybody joked about. I'm sure that if there was an annexation of sorts or a, you know, a joining of uh, of the United States and Canada, all the provinces would become states or something like that. But regardless, if brought on, there's a lot of Canadians who are in favor of this. They know that their rights have been stripped away slowly but surely, through the socialist mindset and government under Trudeau. They've lost essentially, at this point, all what we would refer to as second amendment rights.

Speaker 2: 23:24

Um, you're talking about a country with a culture of, you know, survivalism, especially out west, um, hunting and those kinds of things. Uh, that's really in the fabric of western canada. There's, there's definitely a cowboy feel to that part of their country. Um, and, and you know, a very free kind of mentality, right Libertarian almost, um, and and it's all being taken away from them, uh, slowly but surely, and they're not happy about it. So, um, with president Trump getting reelected, put him back in office, and then the visit on the 30th of November, and then the joking about the 51st state. You know this is brought on a life of its own, and then, and then Trudeau resigns on Monday and, and you know it just brings back the joke and it's and it's gaining some momentum again.

Speaker 2: 24:15

I don't think, honestly, that President Trump has any intention of bringing on Canada, annexing Canada, bringing him on as part of the United States. I think he's just sitting by laughing as the media are spinning over this and at the same time, he's stirring the pot on a couple of other things. There's this thing about Greenland. So he talked about buying Greenland, which, if you go back, I think all the way back to 2016,. He was joking about Greenland, about bringing in Greenland because of their natural resources, like it's a, that's a huge economic bolster to the United States because of what they have. Well, you know that it came back up again and it's gaining some momentum and to the point where there's some Greenlanders I think that's what you call them. Greenland, by the way, is a. I think it's a territory of Denmark and there's some, there's some Greenlanders that are running around in MAGA hats who again, are voicing their opinion to be, you know, for the United States to buy annex, take on, take over whatever Greenland and make it part of the United States.

Speaker 2: 25:16

Denmark has come out and said not just no, but hell no. But the pushback from the Greenlanders is that they want to get out from underneath the Danish rule. For those of you that haven't spent any time in that part of Europe, scandinavia is a very, very interesting place. I've spent not much time there a couple of weeks. I will say a couple of things about Scandinavia in general. One extremely clean, extremely clean. It is inside, outside, every place that I've been extremely clean. Taxes are ridiculously high and they justify it through socialized medicine, which is crap, and they'll tell you that their care is garbage it is not great care, but they pay massive taxes for it, et cetera, et cetera. So there's a lot of Greenlanders that want to get out from under Denmark. They want to. They would love to become part of the United States or at least be free. Denmark has said no.

Speaker 2: 26:09

You know, donald Trump Jr just got on a plane and flew there and he's not meeting with anybody. He's just going up there to walk around and he's stirring a pot, and that's what he likes to do. His dad likes to do it. That's what he likes to do. His dad likes to do it. And why are they doing it? Just because they can and to watch the media and the public reaction. There's no intent to do this. If you believe that the United States is going to try and annex Greenland, I think you're crazy, but that's how people are reacting. And then we've got the newest one, and this is just in the last, I think, 36 hours.

Speaker 2: 26:46

President Trump claimed that he's going to rename the gulf of mexico. Really like you? Really believe that he's going to do that. He's not going to do that. He has no intent intention of doing that. He's doing that solely to get a rise out of people. Um, and and and it's working. It is working. You know people used to when there was.

Speaker 2: 27:05

You know, in the aftermath of the failed you know Biden campaign turned into the Harris campaign that both failed. You know there's some introspection from some sources the Democratic Party, but from some sources in the media about what did they do wrong? How did this go wrong? What should they have done better? What should we have done better? You know the Democrats were saying and it's all over the place. There's some introspection going on and there seemed to be less of what is commonly known as TDS Trump derangement syndrome.

Speaker 2: 27:45

And honestly, I think president Trump might've got a little bored and he decided to spin up the TDS bus a little bit and started throwing out this stuff about Canada and Greenland and now the Gulf of Mexico, and he's getting exactly the reaction that he wants. Uh, there's people melting down on social media. There's people in the media that are freaking out. There's people like, oh, I can't believe he's focused. There's so many other things that need to be fixed? How can he be focused on changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico? Well, first things. First, he's not in office right now. There's still a couple of weeks left of feeble President Biden, so he can focus on whatever he wants, because he has no power to do anything.

Speaker 2: 28:23

But that's what he's doing. He's throwing that out there just to get a rise out of people. That's what he does and people fall for it all the time. Right, the whole. You know, um, you could go back and you could say when, when he said, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make mexico pay for the wall, right, people took that literally. Like Mexico was going to write us a check, or they were going to buy all the building materials, or they were going to pay for the labor. That's not what he meant, that's what he said. But people took it literally because they don't know context, they don't know how to interpret him, they don't know how he communicates, and Trump derangement syndrome kicks in. And then this is what you get he's not changing the name of the Gulf of frigging Mexico, he's not going to do it, but he got the rise that he wanted out of people.

Speaker 2: 29:09

There are people melting down over this right now, as we speak, go to social media. They're all over the place Blue haired, crazy ladies with 52 piercings, you know, like there there's people, I'm sure the views melting down. Like there there's people, I'm sure, the views melting down. I don't even think anybody watches that crap now. But that's what's happening. He we're going to do a better job of reporting on President Trump. We're going to be more honest. We're going to do this, we're going to do that. No, they're not. This is proof positive. He's proven it to the United States. Everybody that watches it because that's the reaction from the media Keep watching it. That's what he's doing for the next two weeks. He's just and watching what people do and with that, right.

Speaker 2: 30:04

So you've got president Biden, who stood up in front of America just yesterday and when asked uh about does he think if he had gotten reelected, does he think he would have made it through four years as the president? And he said hell, I don't know. The man said it himself. Hell, I don't know, cause he's going to be 86 by the time it's over, right, and he knew, and, and the media knew, we all knew, right. But now there's some admitting that's going on.

Speaker 2: 30:33

Uh, in fact, um, you know James Carville, who I've talked about on this program a number of times, has talked about you know that the Democratic Party needs to be more honest. They need to be able to connect with the people. They need to stop with their. You know vernacular. And again, president Biden made a speech I think it was on Monday where he used all of those fancy terms that most of average America doesn't understand, don't care to listen to. But it's the Democrat vocabulary. It's the stuff they've got to get away from Um. But yet the media is still lapping it up. They love it, Um.

Speaker 2: 31:08

And then you've got people like James Carville and Bill Maher. Um, we're calling them out because this is the failure, this is their failure. This is why the the election failed um is because of that, because they're not connected with the American people. And you know Maher's calling him out. He had you know he had one of the two stars, not Charlie Sheen, but the other guy. It tells you how famous he is from Two and a Half Men was on the Bill Maher show just the other day last week and they were talking, started dipped into politics a little bit and you know they're talking about the failed election. And you know, the other guy said, that celebrity guy said well, people, you know Trump supporters are, they hate, you know, black people and they hate women and they hate trans people, trans people and that's why, you know, the Democrats failed the election. And Maher looked at him and basically called him out and said you're an idiot. Like, that's not what it is. And and oh, by the way, you're the prime example of of being disconnected from the American public. Um, so that that all that is coming around, right, you know, there's, it's not the mainstream media, because we keep again, as president Trump keeps throwing these pebbles in the water and watching the ripples. You know he's watching the press react in such a crazy negative way that it just proves that they're not over this, that they are going to continue to do what they do and what they have done for the last eight years. You know, through his administration, through the Biden administration, they're going to continue to treat him the same. You can count it, he's proven it. Right now. He hasn't even taken office yet.

Speaker 2: 32:43

Um, and, and really, you know, you can tell things are bad because Brian Williams y'all remember Brian Williams, right? Uh, nighttime newscaster who had a series of. I've been there. I was there, I got shot at, I was in Afghanistan and this, my helicopter crash, all kinds of stuff. The guy was just, he lies as much as President Biden lies. He, of all people, has come out and said it was really really tough to watch the media struggle to accurately reflect the mental decline of President Biden. Brian Williams said that about his peers. Right, that's an indicator that things have gone upside down. Right, that guy is so unreliable, or has been so unreliable for so long for him, because he is a. He's a blatant liar. You know he's a stolen valor kind of guy, but he, he called it out. He called him out and he said listen, this isn't it. You guys. It was terrible to watch my peers struggle to be honest about President Biden. Brian Williams said that.

Speaker 2: 33:47

So, again, as President Trump continues to watch for something new though I bet there's probably one more before the election, before inauguration day I bet there's one more crazy thing that comes out. It might not be. I know he's kind of going after President Biden about the California wildfires right now. I don't think that's it. I know that he's talking about banning wind power, building any more wind power. I don't think that's it either. But I think there's going to be one more thing. I think it'll be one more outlandish declaration from president Trump, uh, in the next two weeks before the inauguration, and all he's doing is trying to get a reaction. And he'll get the reaction, um, that he's looking for, uh, and again it's just proving the fact that the media is has been biased, is biased, will be biased, probably for his four years, uh, next four years, as the president, and nothing's changed.

Speaker 2: 34:39

Um, you know, know and listen, our media outlets as a whole, you know, are suspect. We know that, and listen, I'm not, I'm not blind. Fox is suspect too. They're biased, a hundred percent biased. They do a better job of admitting that they're biased, okay, but all of the networks have lost the editorial tag because that is the biased, okay, uh, but all of the networks have lost the um editorial tag because that is the norm. And again, we've talked about this multiple times. But, you know, old Don Lemon, Don Lamond, uh, you know was and Rachel Maddow are two prime examples of people who were given the keys. They were given the keys. They are paid an exorbitant amount of money to talk, uh, and and to provide the news, and what they provided was their opinion and, uh, that is what failed those outlets CNN, msnbc. That's what's killing it.

Speaker 2: 35:37

And Fox needs to be careful because, listen, jesse Waters, I'm not a huge Jesse Waters fan. Listen, everybody watches Gutfeld. That knows. Gutfeld is entertainment, that's not news. Okay, they cover news topics, but you watch Gutfeld for like 10 minutes and you'll know that there's nothing serious about that show other than providing complete comedy commentary on politics of the day. They're not hiding anything.

Speaker 2: 36:03

Jesse Waters is a magazine show, again, providing opinion based on a few facts. That is an editorial show and they need to be careful how that is couched. And because he could easily fall into the same trap, although their fan base is bigger. But he could fall into the same trap of Rachel Maddow and old Don Lamond as being mistaken for broadcasting news, which is not what he's doing. He is broadcasting his opinion and I'm not a Jesse Waters fan, particularly he does come up with some good stuff on occasion, but I'm not, I'm not a fan of what he normally produces, because he does kind of put himself out there, as you know.

Speaker 2: 36:45

Hey, what I'm stating is is fact, elsa and I have said this a number of times we're we're pundits. We are not newscasters. We are doing exactly what I'm talking about, which is we are talking about topics of the day and providing our opinion. That's what we do. Okay, whether you agree with us or not, I encourage you to form your own opinion, but unfortunately, we have a lot of people on both sides of the aisle both parties and both extremes who are spoon fed. Uh, they don't do any analysis of their own and, uh, and that's how we end up where we are, um, so you know, um, president Trump's going to continue to chum the waters a little bit. See what kind of a reaction he can get out of, out of all the folks out there. And, uh, and I can promise you that before inauguration day in a couple of weeks, he will come up with something else completely outlandish, um.

Speaker 2: 37:38

And so, speaking of the inauguration, um, there's a number of folks out there, uh, who have given a ridiculous amount of money, uh, for the inauguration, and it's coming from weird places. Um, zuckerberg, does anybody understand? Does anybody? Do we know what this guy's up to? I don't trust him. He's a skinny little dude and I don't trust him as far as I can throw, but he has all of a sudden flipped. I'm sure all of you are watching this. He's flipped. He gave a million dollars to the Trump inauguration. He has flipped. He gave a million dollars to the Trump inauguration.

Speaker 2: 38:17

He is flipping over everything in meta, specifically Facebook, getting rid of the fact checkers. Who's been suspended? I never have, actually, which is even surprising to me. Who's been suspended from Facebook? Right for violation of community standards? For you know, and that it was the big umbrella, they could basically suspend you for anything. But you know, there were a lot of people got suspended from Facebook for being fact-checked and and oh, by the way, erroneously, because the fact-checkers were opinionated and they weren't checking facts, they were checking beliefs and they were suspending people. So they've gotten rid of supposedly, meta's, gotten rid of fact checkers and, if you haven't been on any of the Meta platforms Facebook, instagram, et cetera lately people are testing the system.

Speaker 2: 39:05

I've seen straight up attacks on Zuckerberg. I've seen some straight up postings about the validity of COVID, which would have gotten you suspended. Drop of a hat. Not all that long ago. Covid, which would have gotten you suspended? Drop of a hat. Um, not all that long ago, but um, you know, covid shots the vaccine, the vaccines, calling out that crap um, violations of what was community standards not all that long ago, um, and what would have been fact-checked, and people are testing the system.

Speaker 2: 39:31

Uh, because of what Zuckerberg said, I am highly skeptical. Listen, I understand, you know. Zuckerberg is not a type A male. There's nothing type A about that guy. He's smart, you know.

Speaker 2: 39:44

I know there's some speculation whether or not he's on the autism spectrum. I don't know. Never met the guy, never seen a medical diagnosis. Maybe he is, I don't know. But what he's not is a strong personality in the sense of, you know, being able to stand up and defend what he's doing or what he's done. I know when he testified in front of Congress and he was sitting on a pillow, it didn't go well for him, but he's turned around and he is kissing President Trump's ass. Like Facebook is going straight up MAGA, which is really really crazy, and straight up MAGA, which is really really crazy. But the million dollars to the Trump inauguration, the banning or getting rid of the fact checkers, and then they're using whatever it is that X uses I don't remember the name of it community monitors or something like that. I don't know which Elon says works. I don't know. But yeah, zuckerberg is changing his tune.

Speaker 2: 40:35

My speculation is that he is or will either bail himself out, dump out of meta, sell it completely, get out of it within the next 18 months, or he's stuck and he's stuck in meta forever and he's just going to bend with the breeze and he's going to go. You know, whatever direction. Whoever's in office, maybe he's just going to bend with the breeze and he's going to go. You know, whatever direction. Whoever's in office, maybe he's just going to tolerate this for two years and then hope that Congress flips over, uh, and then he can just go back to being the weak, spineless little you know, um spy for the feds that he is, um. So we'll, we'll see what happens with him. But again, I, I don't, I don, I don't trust him, but it's sideways, he's doing it. There's some other folks Bezos, I think, gave a million dollars. They're all kissing the ring. They're all kissing President Trump's ass. We're going to see some changes on some stuff immediately, but that one I'm very weary for all of you out there, for all of us out there that use the meta platforms. I don't know how this is going to go. I wouldn't make any drastic changes to what you're doing on meta, because we just can't see all the things that Zuckerberg is doing. So take that for what it's worth.

Speaker 2: 41:46

Hey, just one more topic I wrote a blog today about. I read an article about Jennifer Sayennifer say. Uh, if you don't know, jennifer say is uh, she used to be, uh, the ceo of levi's. Uh, she was a former elite level gymnast, and when I say elite level, she didn't compete in the olympics. She had an injury. She missed, uh, olympic trials and didn't compete and never made the olymp. But she did compete for the United States at national level. She competed on the national team at the Goodwill Games, I think you know she competed at some other elite levels. She's an elite level athlete.

Speaker 2: 42:28

Okay, happy with or wasn't happy even when she worked at Levi's which she no longer works at Levi's about the direction of the discussion or the direction of the transgender women or transgender athletes competing against women, and she spoke out about it and she got canceled and really lost her job as a result. She got attacked. I don't think Levi's would ever say out loud that that's why she lost her job. But that's why she lost her job, I mean, let's be honest. So she lost her job and then she stepped away.

Speaker 2: 43:04

She's been vocal about protecting women's sports. She's not anti-trans. I'm going to say that again. She's not anti-trans, she is for protecting women's sports. Anti-trans, she is for protecting women's sports. Okay, she sees the writing on the wall.

Speaker 2: 43:21

She sees what the San Diego State University volleyball team, what happened in and around that team this past season, and for those of you that aren't tracking that San Diego State had a transgender player. A number of teams forfeited, refused to compete because that transgender player smashed a ball and injured another player. On another team, that transgender player threatened to attack and injure one of the teammates on the San Diego I'm not going to say her because it's not her, sorry. On the San Diego State volleyball team, the team captain, one of the coaches, got fired over this and at the end of the season for those young ladies that did endure all of this. Now that transgender athlete has since graduated or not graduated, but used up all eligibility to continue to compete in collegiate sports so can't come back to the team the following year. But I am confident in the numbers that I have seen so far. The entire San Diego State University women's volleyball team is either out of eligibility slash, graduating or transferring to another school, another school, the whole team over this, because that coach, that university brought on, protected and allowed this transgender athlete to play, which essentially brought so much negativity to their season. Again, there were teams that forfeited, refused to play against them. Their run into the national championship tournament was paved, it was carpeted, because teams just refused to play them. They had victories that they didn't earn, they were overmatched and eventually lost in the national championship playoffs. And those young ladies don't want to be a part of it. They want to go get their scholarship or their opportunity to play somewhere else. They don't want to be wrapped up in all the drama. They don't want to be associated with a program like that that put that transgender athlete ahead of everyone else on that team.

Speaker 2: 45:23

And that's exactly what Jennifer Say is talking about in protecting women's sports, protecting women playing women's sports. Right, we're talking, we've all heard this but it's talking about the loss of, you know, accolades, the loss of wins, the loss of records, the loss of financial gain, potentially the loss of scholarships. Now her position is to protect women's sports. She's not anti-trans, she's not. She's protecting women's sports. She's been branded as anti-trans, she's been attacked, she's been called a bigot she's been because she disagrees with the beliefs of someone else. She doesn't hate them, but because of that she's been slandered, she's been attacked online, she's gotten physical threats all kinds of things that she's endured because her beliefs are different.

Speaker 2: 46:06

And this is where we have lost our way as the United States and, truthfully, as the globe is going this direction. We can't hardline every single discussion. Remember, before Christmas, mainstream media was talking about it's okay to cut off your family members that voted for Trump and not invite them to Christmas. That was the advice that was being given to the American public by our own mainstream media. You should hate your family members enough over political views to cut them out of your life for the holidays. Are you freaking, kidding me? And people listen to that? People believe that.

Speaker 2: 46:45

Oh well, if you don't support trans athletes, you clearly hate all trans people. No, I don't. I want to protect young ladies. I want to protect them physically. I want to protect their opportunities. I want to protect their sport, trans athletes. Tell the NCAA to generate an entirely new league of classification. We have men's sports, we have women's sports. Make trans sports Simple, very, very easy, right, or have them all compete on the men's side. Has anybody seen? I can't. I haven't seen a single one. I haven't seen a single transgender athlete say I want to play on the men's team. I don't think there's a transgender athlete playing collegiate football, female transitioning to a male Not one that I can think of or that I've heard of, or any other sport for that matter. Okay, this is all formally male at birth, transitioning to female, wanting to play female sports. All of them. Okay, again, I'm not hating on them, but they're taking away from women's sports. This is the entire reason we had title nine in the first place was to protect women's opportunities.

Speaker 2: 47:53

Right, reach down, talk, you know. Listen to Martina Navratilova. Read some of the things that she said. She's horribly opposed to this. Oh, by the way, a member of the LGBTQ community horribly opposed to this.

Speaker 2: 48:06

But Jennifer Say is an example of where we have lost our way. She's not anti-trans, she's pro-w sports, right. She started a, a um clothing company, xxyy or XXXY, right, and basically what she's saying is chromosomes matter. Xx chromosome is not the same as an XY chromosome. They're not the same, right, and that's the purpose of it. It's not anti-trans. Oh, by the way, it's being called the new MAGA hat that clothing brand, but we've lost our way because she's been villainized for protecting women's sports and not buying into and abiding by a belief system that she doesn't agree with. She doesn't hate them, she just doesn't agree with it. But again, physically, it's physically threatened, right Attacked, lost her job as a CEO over a difference in beliefs.

Speaker 2: 49:05

And and we as a nation are perpetuating this, our media is doing it, we're doing it, we're all you know there's, there's a lot of. If you don't agree with me, then clearly you hate me. No, or if you don't agree with me, I have to hate you. No, my mom says it all the time Agree to disagree. End of discussion. Right, that's it. Move on to something else.

Speaker 2: 49:26

I remember there's a couple of things when I was a kid. One children should be seen and not heard. I'm a big fan of Okay, right, get out of the adult discussion. You're not a grownup. Children should be seen and not heard Should hold true today. Also, you don't discuss religion and politics with family. It's like not working with family and not loaned family money. But religion and politics you don't talk about it in public. Why? Because it's just going to turn into an argument. Okay, and even back then, right and I'm talking like this is when I was a kid, but it was even before that People couldn't have. A lot of times they couldn't have a rational discussion. So, until we can have a rational discussion, don't talk about it.

Speaker 2: 50:06

I would love, I would love for us to be grownups. I wish we could. I would love for us to be grownups, have rational discussions about issues of the day that matter, this being one of them. Discussions about issues of the day that matter, this being one of them. Have two level-headed people, or groups of people, level-headed sit in a room, hash it out, have a discussion. At the end of the day, if they can't come to some sort of agreement, agree to disagree and go in different directions.

Speaker 2: 50:29

There doesn't have to be hate over every single thing that we talk about. It's not required, but that's what we do. That's our default now and it's being perpetuated by those in the public eye. It's crazy, right? If you don't agree with me, you're racist, you're a bigot, you are anti-religion, you're pro-religion, you're pro-abortion, you're anti-abortion, you're pro-gun, you're anti-gun, whatever it is right, and a lot of those organizations out there are like that. We have to do better. Collectively, we have to do better. That's where progress comes in and this nation is stalling out because we have very little progress going on and it's because we can't have adult, rational discussions about topics of the day. That's where we're stuck, folks.

Speaker 2: 51:11

I'm probably not telling you anything. You don't know, but I'm saying it out loud. We need to do better. Just because you don't know, but I'm saying it out loud we need to do better. Okay, just because you don't agree with something doesn't mean you hate somebody who does, who believes something different than you do. Okay, you don't even have to agree with them. You certainly don't have to hate them, right? And you don't have to believe that somebody hates you because they don't agree with you. You can have discussion and disagreement, civil disagreement, and move on. It's okay.

Speaker 2: 51:43

So listen, folks, elsa is going to be back next week. You don't have to sit and listen to me run my head for an hour and we welcome her back. I can't wait to have her. I always have a lot more fun when she's here, but you know she's down doing what she loves and it's a great opportunity. I don't falter, and neither should you, about going and seeing those grandbabies one more time. Uh, you know, in this early in this new year. Happy 2025 to everyone. And, uh, you know, thank you for tuning into the Elsa show. Uh, elsa Kurt show with Clay Novak. And, as always from me, keep moving, keep shooting.

Speaker 1: 52:13

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