¶ Left or Right
You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right . Well , I'd like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right . There's only an up or down . This is the no Data About it podcast . No Data About it . Now your hosts , Christie and Mark Runcetti .
Mark's friend , okay .
It's Monday .
Yeah , new for us , new for us . It is new . Yeah , normally , even on Tuesday , we're going to start off the week's a little different now . Taking this off on Mondays , yes , because we have our girls who'd like to be a part of the show and they're in school . On Monday . Yeah , I like .
We ran up against their education versus our podcast . It's weird . It's very close , very weird . I guess we better let them go to school .
It's the nicest thing to do so they're not doing a podcast .
When they get older , they're like I think they're going to aim a lot higher guys .
Yeah , I think they're going to aim a lot higher . Certainly , I hope so .
Well , I mean , especially when your 16 year old comes down on Friday night and says hey , mom , I'm watching this fascinating documentary on North Korea . Yeah , this is what she tells me , and I'm like thinking what was I doing on Friday nights when I was 16 ? And I was making videos to Bobby Brown . Really , if I'm being honest , I was , oh really .
Yeah , I love Bobby Brown oh my gosh . I did back in the .
Oh , come on .
In the late 80s . Yeah . Bobby Brown was . You know , this is before scandal , this is before all his mess . Yeah . Yeah , every little step you take . Yeah , I could do a whole dance routine to that with my friends . Okay , that's what I was doing on Friday night , not our 16 year old Eva .
She's listening to , she's educating herself , which I'm super proud of her . She's Bobby Brown .
Oh , lord Bobby , in the later years . Okay Now , Bobby on the right was the Bobby I was you know , right , that's back in the day , and that's Whitney Houston's husband , correct ?
It was . Yeah , yeah it was , and I think he was the reason that she went so downhill .
So we won't , you know , we won't promote Bobby Brown by any means Right .
I'm just saying back in the late 80s .
Okay .
That's what I did , but no , our daughter's listening to documentaries on North Korea for fun .
Yep .
So I think she's going to aim a little higher than just kind of you know .
Yeah , Well , I think she's got a good . She's got a good . You know , feel for the difference between Kim Jong-un and Kim Jong-il . They're different management styles , oh my God . And what a total totalitarian government means for people , which is devastating . Right , and so it was . It was interesting .
I just like that . She wants to listen to something that's a little bit more educational than . No , no , she's , yeah , she always like pushes the envelope on what she's going to educate herself on . So anyway , but we did get some fun comments on last week's episodes , so I wanted to read a couple of those .
Yeah , that's okay , yeah .
So and thank you guys for writing in We've gotten some really fun emails , some fun responses back on some of the responses we said last week , and then you guys have written it again , which is great . I love it . There's a lot of people really concerned about what kind of food you eat . What do you mean ? Like some .
I now I feel bad because I didn't write this one down , but some guy was laughing at me and I was like does he really eat every kind of meat and random meat ? And they were concerned about like .
Like Trichinosis or something .
Well no , they weren't about your health . They were worried like you're gonna eat gross meat or something . I don't know , but I was like if , mark , if you ever wanted to be like on fear factor back in the day yeah you could have won that show just because Mark will .
Basically , if there is , if it's a competition and there's something for him to win , even just bragging rights , yeah , he's your guy , yeah .
I can go somewhere else in my mind and eat whatever . Weird . Yeah , well , it gets back to like even in college , when we would have to clean up , like my fraternity house , and you had to go somewhere else because it was so disgusting .
Another reason .
Like you . Just it was like it was just horrible . So if you get to a point where you can just block out everything and do what needs to be done , then you can eat basically anything .
Okay , the eating contest I ever did was the Palisade Peach Festival when I worked in Grand Junction and they had the news anchors come out . There were 96 peach cobblers that I had .
Oh goodness , yeah , to try .
To try , and so it was me and another co-anchor , and I remember how do you know the difference ?
by the time you get 30 in , you don't .
You do not , and so , but Palisade Peaches , by the way , lights out fantastic , I love those peaches . But they told us and people watched you , like you know , because they made them . They're watching your expressions and everything . So the tips they gave us were like take a teeny tiny bite and don't make any facial expressions after anything .
You're right , I was trying to mark it down . I don't know . There's , there should be a , there should be like a category ?
Yeah , you gotta categories .
But back to the fear factor thing and the meeting you win . You're the guy that I would take on any sort of competition . That because I would need you to eat whatever we talked about that , so I'm happy to do it .
Okay , yeah , right , so some of these fun comments are these ones were all on YouTube , actually , which is kind of fun because we're trying to respond to to email and to YouTube and to our podcast comments . But this one said I'm addicted to your uploads , keep them flowing . And then Andrea S and she had some letters after that .
She said Christy , you and Mark need to run for different office seats Great episode . Well , I think we should . We should do phone a friend and phone , like Alexis , jeff , any of the guys that worked in our campaign , any of the people , and say , do you think Christy should run for office ? And they would immediately say no , yeah .
No like you need Christy to be fiery behind Mark , but you do not need me running for office .
Well , there would be . I think within a half hour there'd be an international incident of some sort . It just ends up being a grease fire .
¶ New Mexico Congresswoman's Controversial Tweet
Oh , I would give Daniel Chacon all kinds of fodder though yeah , I mean it would be , he would love it .
He would love it he would love a permanent rolling you know story idea .
Oh no , they no , they would have . Like no , they'd have a counter in the corner and , like Christy , got to day three without saying something ridiculous . But we've reset the counter , so yeah .
You just want me to be fiery for Mark and for the people of the state that I can do , that's what I'm good at , but I appreciate that it marks the guy that needs to run , not me . So anyway , um , stop it . Stop it . I'd love your podcast . God bless you and your family . And then from Nancy Muscarina Muscarina .
Yeah , muscarina , yeah , thank you very much . And then , um , these guys are , you know , there's lots of people that are in the state and out of the state and just talking about how they just like to listen to us . It goes on and on , and we really appreciate this .
Yeah , it's really great .
So if you'd like to um subscribe to our podcast we're still on that mission to get as many subscribers as we can on that . So make sure , if you're on YouTube , to hit that subscribe button . And then , if you're on one of our podcasts , please like and rate us there too , so we could use it .
No , doubt , and then we'll have a special edition of the show coming up on Thursday . We are going to have a political round table which is going to watch the Republican presidential debate coming up , uh , wednesday night , and then we're going to shoot a show immediately after that and I should have it up , um by Thursday morning at midnight .
And so we'll kind of go through exactly what happens in the presidential debate and we'll have some really good people that will . They'll be ready to kind of tell you exactly what happened and then one of the we'll be behind the scenes we know enough people in some of those campaigns will get a good feel for how things went .
Okay , and that should be a lot of fun .
Yeah , and so we want to start this show off , though , with some legendary comments from some of our esteemed leaders here in the state of New Mexico .
Now , for those of you who don't live in New Mexico , uh , some of this , some of these people probably are not particularly well known , but our Congresswoman from here in the Albuquerque area is named Melanie Stansberry , and she was elected a couple of years ago for the first time so special election .
Then she got reelected , uh , in 2022 , and she clearly has never lived here and doesn't understand any of the challenges that this state or her district faces . Check out this tweet , which was unbelievable . This came out Sunday . Let's be real , first of all , I think that's . I don't know who's writing her tweets , but enough of the let's be real .
Well , it's gotta be her right . I'm sorry . Okay , so you think this is somebody else ? Yeah , it's got a staff .
If she's writing this , I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt that this wasn't her .
Okay .
Okay , let's just leave . Let's go with that . Let's be real .
¶ Mass Incarceration and Inflation's Impact
Mass incarceration continues cycles of injustice disproportionately impacting low income families and communities of color . It's time to reform our criminal justice system , heal families and build a fairer justice system for all . This is unreal .
It's out of touch .
That is being as charitable as possible because she is a representative for one of the most violent districts in the country . Our problem is not that we throw too many people in jail . Our problem is we don't throw anybody in jail .
Well , if we do , we don't keep them there .
Yeah , if we do , it's a quick stopover on their way to the next crime . I mean so as she looks and says this . It is absolutely infuriating , because this is what happens when you have someone who runs for public office , who treats it as a career and not a calling . She doesn't understand what her district faces .
She doesn't understand that we're the second most violent state in the country . Albuquerque is overrun by violent crime . The problem is not some talking point from one of her liberal friends in DC . The problem is we don't put anybody in jail here and we don't keep them in jail . The problem is low income and minority families are overrun by crime .
If you ask anyone in this city , they'll tell you we have a real crime problem here . We don't have a problem of putting innocent people in jail . This is a ridiculous statement .
So speaking of tone deafness . I feel like we should have a whole section called tone deaf Twitter .
Okay , yeah .
The tweets of tone deafness .
Who are we going to wash down the Melanie Stansbury ?
tweet . Oh , I've got one for you .
Okay .
I'm going to wash this guy . This week it's Martin Heinrich .
Oh , you were hard on Marty this week .
Oh , it's easy , it's low hanging fruit .
You were killing Marty , oh goodness . Well , how about this ?
How about don't say dumb things ? Oh , I'm sorry , but it's like how about you know your state and you know your people ? He does a little graph , which I'm sure he didn't do . This . I'm sure this is put out by the Democratic Party as part of the PR spin on the Inflation Reduction Act which is what we're all .
Inflation Reduction Act . How'd that work out ? All right , go ahead .
Inflation Reduction Act is lowering costs for families in New Mexico and they list like three stupid things in here I mean just the dumbest things that actually are not lowering any cost for us .
Yeah , and in each family now we talked about this on the last show each family in the state of New Mexico paying roughly $709 more per month . So this is just blatantly ridiculous . But this is what's going to be fascinating on this , and that is what they're going to run up against and what Heinrich is going to run up against .
What Biden's going to run up against is them telling you how great things are versus what your lived experience is . And eventually and I think we're seeing it right now people look at what they say and they just go what , like ? What are you talking about ?
Well , I hope people are actually doing that , because we do . You know , when I fire back on things on this , because I actually retweeted this one with the $709 actual stat that came out right , that we talked about last week and some people are like well , how do you know that this is ?
why are you blaming this on the president , or why are you blaming this on our leaderships , or why are you blaming ? And I'm like , do you know how inflation works ?
You know , I'm trying to explain a little bit and then that goes into this big battle of people really thinking it has zero to do with the people that are in leadership positions , like the president .
Right , and there's very few examples in the economic kind of history of the country where you can draw such a direct through line to people in both parties telling a president don't do this , you're going to blow up inflation . If you want to just look it up and you're somebody who genuinely is curious , like we're both sides really saying this is a concern .
Look up Larry Summers , inflation , joe Biden , larry Summers is a democratic economist . He worked with Bill Clinton . He's not out there trying to lay the wood to Joe Biden by any stretch .
But what Larry Summers said was , if you go in and you juice up spending again , you are going to send this economy into hyper overdrive and you're going to cost American families big time . What did Biden do ? He bumbled his way into another massive spending bill which and what's so ?
I think just so I'm trying to think of the right word it's so cynical when they call it the inflation reduction act . They just think we're stupid . And I think the thing they won't be able to escape is the fact that you know your bank account .
You know that when you go to the store and you go buy a dozen eggs or you go buy milk or you go buy $4 a gallon gas and it costs you $100 to fill your SUV up that you take your family around with .
You can't explain your way out of that with a fancy title , and so I think they're going to run headlong into it , and I think they're in real trouble .
And I , you know , Mark , I actually disagree with you . I think that I do . I think that I would love to say that that's the case . This was our point during your campaign , right ? This was one of our big speaking points is that the economy is getting . It's getting tighter . You're , you have more money than Wall , or what would you think ?
Months and money .
Months and money . Yeah , that was a good one , thanks , and it still did not . I mean , yes , I think some people voted and paid attention to it . I think more people are probably feeling that hit now .
I mean , we've had people write in on Twitter saying hey , I'm actually a Democrat and I actually now hear what Mark was saying about our government never being richer , and us never , you know , and it's not coming back our way .
Right .
So people are starting to generate interest in listening to this . I still see there's people out here that are fighting and saying they don't set , the government doesn't set these prices . This is a food shortage situation . This is you know . This is product . This is people . This is a free economy .
No , I get there will be excuse makers . But and I agree , I understand your point , but I think part of this is , when there's enough pressure on your own personal budget , you start to look around and go we got a problem right . Then you start assessing what's going on here .
But if you don't feel that to a certain point , then you can still kind of let it ride a little bit . I just think we're further along now .
We have more pressure on the economy , we have more pressure on working families and we still have governments , especially in the state of New Mexico , that are incredibly rich and their solution continues to be let's make the government rich and let's hold on to as much money as we can .
Well , I just hope that the people that are actually starting to feel the impact that go tell their friends hey , make sure you register to vote and then show up to vote , Like those are the . This is how we do it , this is how we start to make change , and so that's what I really hope in this next year .
People are really starting to pay attention and use those personal impacts of what's digging into their personal income and they actually go out there and vote to make a difference on those kind of things .
Yeah , and I think if they do and if they hold people to account , then they're going to be in a better situation . I just think we're in a window right now where there's zero accountability . We just have leaders right now that don't feel like they're ever going to lose , like they don't care , like they don't answer press questions .
When the press asks them , they don't answer them and when you know people push back on them , they don't care . They don't care .
I mean , how else can Melanie Sandsbury and Martin Heinrich write up tweets that are just ridiculously stupid , like they're just dumb and they don't make any sense , but in their tone deaf , but they never feel like they have to answer .
They haven't been scared for years , and every politician should be scared in the respect that they should always want to have their finger on the pulse of what their people need , want and think , and they should pay that price if they don't , and right now they don't right now .
So they don't , and I think they a lot of them leave the state and they live in other places and they kind of lose the ability to even know what it's like to be here anymore .
And I think that that's hard .
Yeah , and then they show up on election year to certain events and ribbon cuttings and shake hands and kissing babies .
Well , and I will say that I'll give you a little inside thing . So when we ran for the Senate , you and I had an interesting discussion . We talked about it a lot . We talked about the fact that if we won , where would we live and one of the things I told you in you .
You know we kind of bothered it back and forth and a bunch of different thought processes on it . But I said , you know you got to live here , you've got to live in the state you represent . I get that there's a lot of flying back and forth and it would be difficult .
But to go and take your family and for me to take you guys and to have you go to DC , I think would have been a terrible mistake , because no one knows what you feel in this . Use Albuquerque as an example . If you live in Santa Fe or Cruces or wherever you live on the ground , you know what's going on . You live in DC .
Your family and your kids are educated in some private school . You don't have any clue . So then when people say you know what I want school choice you're like no , you back to teachers union . Why ? Because you don't care , your kids go to private school .
You don't answer to this your kids aren't going to schools that are getting failing grades , and that's what makes this so phony is that these people set rules for us that they don't live by , and so that's why you should live with the people you represent .
Well , and I think also , just on top of that is just in our community , like our small groups , or you know your churches or your schools , or you know your pickleball league , whatever it is you actually are hearing from people on issues that they're facing .
And I think that if you're so removed as a state rep that you don't hear this voice , you don't hear these voices , you don't understand , you're not meeting with people and I think even like when you're in a governor's position , did you really not turn your phone off ? Really , oh , we should have left it play .
Then you have the guessing game of what's Mark's ringer ? What is Mark's ringer ? Should we play that game now ? No , we should not Are you sure , because I can call you really fast .
No , I'm good .
No , I think it'd be actually really funny . Okay , if you want to write in , write in and take a guess at what you think Mark's ringer is , and I will find some sort of treat for whoever can guess what it is . And you can't have known him or heard his phone ring to answer the question , but it's priceless , I promise you .
He's the only one in the state of New Mexico that has this ringtone , I promise . So that's a little treat on that . Anyway , back to that point , though . I just think you get out of touch if you're not around a lot of the people that you're supposed to be representing .
Right . So you know , I think you're dead on . You're dead on , All right , so let's talk .
I usually am , I'm usually dead on .
So we are really crystal clear on that . I mean , I think we a lot of times we just I don't say anything and I'll say anything .
I'm dead on .
Well , believe me , you say a lot too . I mean , there's no question about that .
¶ Republican Debate and Trump's Absence
Okay , let's talk a little bit about the Republican debate . It's coming up on Wednesday and we've had quite a bit of kind of jostling back and forth , and what you've seen recently here is first of all , I want to start with , how many people are going to be on the debate stage . I remember thinking One zillion . Well , yeah .
So I remember thinking a couple of weeks ago I was thinking this is going to be a huge debate for DeSantis , because he needs to kind of show , you know , how nimble he is . You know , can he get where he wants to go ? Because Trump likely is not going to be there . He's going to skip the debate .
So DeSantis is going to have an opportunity to kind of insert himself , maybe have three , four other people on the stage and then , you know , get that opportunity . Well , as we've gone here , more and more people are making the debate stage . Right now , I think there are eight on there at this point .
Desantis is there , Pence is there , Tim Scott is there , Nikki Haley , Chris Christie , Vivek Rameshwamy , Governor Burgum and Aisa Hutchinson . All have qualified . Okay , there's still two others , potentially Perry Johnson and Francis Suarez , the mayor of Miami . They say they're going to qualify by today .
Okay , so if that's the case , you're going to have between eight and 10 people on that stage . I don't know what comes of that . I don't know how anybody does anything that really short of like a Rick Perry meltdown . Remember the Rick Perry ?
meltdown .
Oh goodness gracious .
I do remember that , so I'll get in . I've actually shown that in my debate class oh my gosh , you know . And because I think it's one of those classic examples of oh he just vicious .
Yeah , so it was one of those things . In a debate . When you're getting ready for a debate prep , don't ever say I got three things . Just say I've got a few things . Yeah , that way , if you go to hey you're out , nobody knows , nobody knows .
And if you blank it , like you just can't remember , like that you know , you just can't , because a lot of people don't have notes , or sometimes they do have notes or they have to write the notes right there .
Right , you can't come in with notes .
Right . Okay , the person I'm actually interested in seeing and I've not brought him up before right is the governor of North Dakota Bergam .
Doug Bergam .
Doug Bergam . I think we might want to start paying attention to this guy .
I think it's a very interesting thing . So he we talked about the debate and everybody getting on the debate stage right Doug Bergam did something interesting because nobody knew who he was . First of all , he's a pretty wealthy guy .
He is kind of a tech guy that developed a pretty good tech business in North Dakota , which is , you know , kind of unusual , and so he's got some money , was elected governor , did a lot of good things , and then what he basically did was he said if you go to my website and give me a dollar , I'll send you a Biden inflation reduction package help card ,
basically , and I'll give you 20 bucks to Amazon or wherever . So you got $20 to give him a dollar . Now the advantage there is he gets on the debate stage right , and so people get introduced to Doug Bergam .
And so , if you listen to Doug Bergam a good , definitely a conservative , definitely a lot of experience in business and North Dakota , obviously a pretty conservative state and a really interesting guy .
So I think it's a good observation . Yeah , he's been compared to John Wayne .
All right , I don't know , I'm looking at him right now . I'm not sure I compared to John Wayne .
No , no , no , I don't think it's his looks , I think it's his style , like he's kind of an old Western , kind of like no business , I mean no nonsense kind of guy .
And so , like people like I don't know , my dad's a big John Wayne guy , I don't know Like I just think he'd be interested in because I've never heard of this guy , quite frankly , and so he's just starting to kind of bubble up a little bit . I'm hearing him . He talked about a little bit .
The ruthless guys talked about him a little bit and said that they kind of think we should be looking out for him , and so I looked him up and I started listening to some of his stuff . Anyway , I'm going to kind of keep my hand him Like . I think , he's going to be really interesting .
And governors tend to be more well-positioned to really be effective presidential candidates .
And talk about the issues .
And they have more applicable experience in a lot of cases too .
Right , ok , I got to say . I know that this is going to maybe make some people mad or whatever , but the fact that Trump is deciding not to do the debate is one thing .
Right .
And we talked about that . You feel like he . That's fine , that's his , he doesn't need to be there . He's already got such a high gain on this and he doesn't really need to be there for this early one . What makes me upset is that he's doing a Tucker Carlson interview fine , on Twitter , fine but he's doing it the same time as the debate .
To me , that's just not cool . It's just like saying listen , that's the JVs over there , I'm varsity and I'm going to play at the same time as the JVs . Like I just think it just feels and I know that right now they're all looking out for themselves . That's what they have to do .
I get it , and I'm not saying y'all need to be patting each other on the back . I'm not saying that , but it bothers me that he's trying to say listen , I need all of the limelight and so I'm going to go over here and create my own .
You're shocked that Trump's saying I need all the limelight .
No , I'm not shocked by that . I'm disappointed that if you don't want to debate , fine , don't do the debate . Instead , maybe the day before the debate or before the debate airs , then you do your interview with Tucker Carlson . It's on Twitter . You can do it at any time . You could release it that morning if you wanted to .
I just think I disagree with this , because now the American voters are going to be shifting between watching him on that and maybe watching the TV coverage of it , or maybe they don't care , I don't know . It's hard to know where people are .
I think a lot of people , a lot of Republicans , have made up their minds about Trump Trump or no Trump , but I do think that there's still a you know the middle road who doesn't really know .
Or maybe they are on Trump's team right now , but they need plan B in case this indictment stuff and all this other stuff just keeps going sideways , that they need somebody else to look at . Who else are they going to be maybe interested in ? I don't know . I just thought this just seems like . It just seems like bad sportsmanship .
Whoa .
That's my opinion of it . I just think , fine , let him have his own discussion .
Yes , because that's shocking from Trump that there'll be bad sportsmanship . I don't think , I don't know . I don't blame him .
I think that if you're Trump and in this situation you're doing anything you can to pull that focus away from these guys and I fully support or understand anyway why he doesn't , you know , feel the need to go and debate this first time , especially when you have nine other people on stage , like what you know why does he need to stand in the middle of that
craziness ? So if you're Trump right now , I think I'm not sure how much any of this matters , because if you're truly thinking about supporting somebody else in this , you're going to watch that debate and cause in a lot of cases . And remember , this debate really is aimed at about three states . It's aimed at Iowa , new Hampshire and South Carolina , maybe Nevada .
I mean really . I mean because , remember , we're still in August .
I know a lot of people don't even pay attention and I get it Like it's kind of the die-hards . It's definitely us , we're definitely the political family that you know , we'll be doing a viewing party for it because it's something that's of interest to us .
But I do think like and I don't know if I'm right about this or not , but I read that he did not show up for the debate in Iowa in 2016 .
Right Ted Cruz won .
And yeah , and Ted Cruz won that and again , obviously , he became president . Well so there is a cycle for him that shows that maybe he doesn't need to show up and he'll still win .
I don't know . Well , and this gets to another point , desantis had kind of another hiccup this week , which was part of the interesting thing about what's going to happen . Wednesday night is with Trump not there . How do you handle Trump , right , how do you deal with it ?
Well , desantis's PAC went out and they put out a memo , basically kind of an internal memo , saying here's how he should handle the Trump issue , here's how he should handle the debate , and they said basically that he should effectively go out and not hit Trump you know kind of kid gloves for Trump and then hit the Vekram Swami , hammer him because he's starting
to move his way up .
¶ Biden's Missteps and Trump's Team
And so this is interesting because these PACs you have to understand with PACs that a lot of times what they do is they try to get the candidate information because they can't talk directly to the candidate . It's against the law . Ok , so they are able to raise a ton of money because there are no limits .
You can give all you want to a PAC , but that PAC cannot coordinate directly with the campaign . Ok , so magically , sometimes they stick up documents on websites so the candidate can go look at them . And that's maybe what happened here . I don't know , but it's ridiculous . And I just don't agree with the philosophy either that you have to beat the man .
In this case You're going to have to beat him . I mean , you're going to have to beat him , so to beat him . I just think they're going to have to go after him . So we'll see . But that's another disiantist thing where it's like , oh jeez , another misstep there and it got a lot of press play . You could see it here .
Politico had a big thing on it , fox had a big thing on it , so there are a lot of people talking about it .
Well , and I just wonder again we're still so early in Like how much of this is going to really you know whether these missteps are you know they're not massive missteps on his part , so it's not going well for a while I understand it's not going well , I'm not saying that .
I'm saying that it's a little rough and I know that Trump's engine now is humming right along and they're pretty smooth on everything and they've been here and they've done that before and you know . I mean he's got a good team .
Well , that's the thing that's different this time around that people don't give Trump enough credit . This time around , his team is better than it's ever been . Trump used to have a terrible team and he'd just walk out and be like then it would work out .
This time he's got a good team and a tremendous amount of pressure on him personally because of everything that's going on with all the legal stuff . So Trump's team is by far the best he's ever had , and that is helping him execute right now .
And when we talk about debates and how important they are , you know , occasionally the media finally admits something that we all knew . So did you see this , jake Tapper ? Sound bite . Yes , it was from Sunday morning , and Jake Tapper finally admitted what I think everybody already knew from the 2020 debate between Biden and Trump . Listen to this .
Hi that he was in fact paid substantial sums from Chinese companies . Kessler wrote . Hunter Biden reported nearly 2.4 million in income in 2017 and 2.2 million in income in 2018 , most of which came from Chinese or Ukrainian interests . But this and this directly goes against what Joe Biden said in the debate in 2020 with Donald Trump . Take a listen .
My son has not made money in terms of this thing . About what are you talking ? About China ?
What you mean by that is true .
He made a fortune in Ukraine , in China , in Moscow and various other places .
So this is from two different debates . But I mean Trump was right , I mean he did make a fortune from Well , trump was right .
It's shocking to hear him say that .
I mean he was tapping on someone like Trump was he had to probably choke in his throat to say that . Well , it just shows you , I mean Biden , is just such a .
Liar .
Just a straight up A he's compromised , b he's a dirt ball , and then C he can't do the job . Yeah , and this is just so bad . So I ended up in a conversation with some people who were with some high ranking Democrats over the past couple of weeks and they continue to say Biden's going to be the guy . I just don't believe it .
I still don't believe it . I mean I know they just start to like , I mean , I don't know , put a trinket dart in that guy and maybe just slowly Trinket dart .
How would you If you put a trinket dart in ? How would you know ? Oh , that's great .
You're like Good point Well , it's kind of funny . We were having this fun conversation with some friends of ours that were saying he needs a handler . He needs to have a handler on stage because of going into this next clip we're going to show he really is kind of really obviously oblivious to what he needs to be doing when he's on stage .
But we were talking about how you put a handler on the stage and he wouldn't know what that handler's doing and what that person is . He'd forget every single time .
I know it is sad . It's just not okay , like and this isn't even something where you take any , nobody takes joy in this we as a country . You look at it and you say this guy can't do this Right .
I mean and part of me is definitely resentful of Biden because of his personal ethics Like that , I think , is something he does have control over , which is really disappointing . But this part of it you're just like what is happening .
So he gets on a stage this past week and he's doing a presser with two other world leaders and he finishes up he has an earpiece in because he's got to translate what the other world leaders get the translation in his ear and then he just walks off the stage with the earpiece in , gets pulled back eventually , puts the earpiece out and walks off without excuse
me , walks off without shaking their hand . So just watch this . This is what this is him at a presser last week . Thank you . This concludes our press conference , please stay seated .
As the leaders depart , please .
His earpiece got ripped out .
Yeah , he doesn't know .
And then he kind of laughs we win at all the competitions . We win at all the competitions . No clue what that means . And then he walks off the stage and watch the two other world leaders . Oh , how you doing . Okay , good to see you . We'll shake our hands . I guess we'll just follow you . This concludes our press .
You know I say this and then it's kind of like I answer my own question . But I mean , don't presidents have to undergo like physical testing and like mental testing by a doctor ?
Nope , no , not really .
I thought they did , though .
But what test was it going to be ?
I remember like Trump had to do something . If I recall , reagan did some stuff because they were accusing him of being the oldest president . Don't you remember all this ?
Yeah , but it wasn't like there was this threshold , like I'm sorry , you got a 16 . You're out .
Well , I mean you're showing like early stage , whatever it is in , joe , Late stage , early stage , whatever . Don't you have a doctor that comes up to his people and say this guy has some neurological ?
Oh , that's a good word , it doesn't matter , because even if they had to do that , they'd probably have a doctor in there that said , oh no , he's great , he's doing great , his mental capabilities are solid .
The fact now that the people still make excuses either for the grift that the Biden family has been involved in or his mental faculties , which are clearly compromised , I mean some of this just shows you that we're at a point now where it's like reality doesn't matter . It doesn't matter , it doesn't matter what reality is .
Just keep put your jersey on and let's go .
I wonder if this will impact voter turnout .
Yeah , it's an interesting point , but I think voter turnout will be quite high because there'll be a lot of interest on both sides and making sure that the other guy , whoever that is , is not elected .
That's too bad .
I mean it's just too bad , it's a weird dynamic now of the jerseys and fighting your jersey color , and that's all you really care about . Okay , well , speaking of one more thing , we got one more for Joe , because he's we got angry Joe . That shows up as well , does . Angry Joe is actually my favorite Joe because he gets a little bit fiery .
In this particular case , joe would like to challenge the citizens of the United States of America to a little bit of a competition here . Take a look at this .
Name me a single objective we've ever set out to accomplish that we've failed on . Name me one in all of our history , not one .
Let's try this , joe . Let's try this . Not one , okay . Afghanistan , the economy , inflation , interest rates , crime , the border , energy , independence . Keeping Coke out of the White House , riding your own bike , going up the stairs to Air Force One I mean , what is this , this guy , crazy ? Well , yes , he is clearly .
But it's like what is this Well , it's gaslighting at its best . This is he is like the pep talk guy that comes in and wants to give the big pep talk and be the cheerleader and tell you how great everything is and how great he's doing and what a great country we are . I mean , literally , there's so much nothingness to what he actually says .
It's just words . I feel like it's just words . He doesn't even think about some of the things that he says .
Yeah , it is .
But I like the challenge . Somebody should have turned that into a meme . I can't believe that's not been done on TikTok . It starts to list out all of his things that haven't gone . Well , yeah , that's true , that's probably true .
Yeah , now it just .
I mean , it is look , we are a great country and that's the thing , and there are a lot of these issues that I just I feel like we're going to be at a crossroads here on leadership , where we need leadership to to really step up , and I just hope that we can end the days of bringing people in here that it's their turn , or they've been in government for
30 years or whatever it is , and get people who are truly there to do the job , because that's you see , what you get when you get the Biden situation .
Yeah , it's time to move a new chapter , in my opinion . I'd like to see some fresh blood .
Well , yes , yeah , yes , that sounds awful mean though I want to see some fresh blood .
Well , I just mean like new energy , and I'm not talking about Gavin Newsom , I'm just talking about like you have nobody on your bench . You got Robert F Kennedy Jr , which I'm still waiting to see that guy debate .
I can't , I get it . I get it .
I know I'm like let's get him to get up there on that stage and tell us what he would do differently . I just would like to hear it . I'd like to hear it .
Okay , so anyway ,
¶ Climate Change and Distrust in Institutions
moving on . Yes , so climate change . Let's talk a little climate change .
Can I fall asleep during this part ?
Well , no , because it's getting bigger and you don't understand . I don't understand .
Everything's getting blamed on climate change Everything .
Exactly exactly , and we had it again on the Sunday morning shows , by the way . Okay , so the fire in we talked about this on the last show the fire in Hawaii had nothing to do with climate change . Okay , it just didn't .
It had nothing to do with climate change , but yet that's what they're starting to blame it on , so that they can go and make excuses for poor leadership of people on the ground who did a terrible job .
So this morning or is it yesterday morning the governor of the state of Hawaii was on the CBS morning show and had this to say about climate change and the role it may have played in the Maui fire Just to be clear when you're talking about global warming , are you saying that ? Climate change amplified the cost of human error .
Yes , it did . There's always going to be incredible things that people do to save lives from the firefighters , from citizens , and there's always going to be decisions that are made that , I'm sure , aren't perfect in the moment . What ?
Yeah , that had nothing to do with climate change . I mean no , nothing actually .
It didn't , but this is where we are now it's . Every weather event is climate change .
I know .
And this is what I feared for the longest time , which is it's so ridiculous that now it becomes almost comical . So we have a hurricane which came into California yesterday . Okay , and look , hurricanes don't often come into California , but they do occasionally . It does happen . No , it turns out that's climate change too . I who knew George D'Acai jumps in .
He starts saying I aren't climate change . So take a look here . This is every hurricane in the Eastern Pacific basin since 1949 . We have a graphic of that . Okay , you can see them . There's a lot of them , right ?
But notice , on occasion they'll curl up into Southern California , they'll curl up into the Baja and even on occasion we'll see remnants curl up into New Mexico . Doesn't happen all the time , but a lot of you guys down in Ruedo , so remember Hurricane Dolly . The remnants of her came up there .
So this is just something that occasionally happens , right , and it's nothing to do with climate change . But yet here we are again . It's just . Every single time we have to talk about it over and over again . And it really is . It's just . It's gonna become more and more ridiculous as we go . And again , this is to dictate how you act .
This is to get you to say you cannot , in good conscience , not do what we tell you , because the next weather disaster is right around the corner and it's your fault .
Well , in the like all the wildfires , there's a big one up in Canada right now happening . They're obviously they're blaming that on climate change . My fear here with all of this is people are starting to lose , I think , the ability to know where to tune in to get real news right . So they're starting to distrust lots of things .
They're distressed in the government . There's distrust with the DOJ there's name it . There's distrust in a lot of areas and in the media .
Institutions are breaking down .
Right , and so it's like people are . Now I see the land of crazy town on Twitter with all these theories and all these conspiracy things , and I'm thinking how is this starting ? Why are we all going this route ?
And I think they're going this route because of the breakdown in institutions that we used to be able to trust in that we all kind of lined up on and said these are the experts on this particular thing , and I think we've seen a massive decline in that , even just since COVID .
Like the breakdown in that is really , I think , what's starting to see where we're seeing all this kind of crazy talk now . So I mean , I don't know , but stay off of Twitter is all I can say .
If you're like doing a research report , I would not go to Twitter to find your sources , because there is the land of serious crazy town out there that I'm reading about .
I agree , I agree . And no , you make a really , really good point and I think it's absolutely true . And we don't agree even on the same set of facts anymore of the lot of us , and so that part of it is really hard .
And that's the sort of thing where things like the Department of Justice and the FBI in our government institutions cannot be politicized , they cannot be weaponized , because if they're weaponized for one side , they'll be weaponized for the other .
If they're not believed by one side , eventually they won't be believed by the other , and so that has to stop , and it's in all our best interests . And that's why you and I continue to make the case that the media is a huge part of holding government accountable , and the media stopped doing that . They're just not interested in it .
Now the conservative media does . They hold the Democrats responsible and accountable , and then the rest of the media , the whole rest of the media , holds conservatives accountable . But when you have that split , your point's taken , exactly when do you go ? What do you do ? And then all of a sudden you're like well , where'd you get that from ?
Oh well , I don't believe them , right , you know ? And so you're like okay .
Yeah , well , I mean it's true and I can admit that fully too . Because then somebody says , oh , I heard it on CNN . I automatically discount it . I'm like I'll watch it just because I'm curious to see how they covered something .
But I'm like nope , I'm not going with it , I'm not going with it . I gave it its due consideration and the answer is no .
That's right .
¶ Local News and Fake News
Somebody did write into us through a mutual friend and said when do we think the fake news started and was it part ? I didn't tell you about this in advance , but were we part of that ?
When we were in news Like I was obviously in news a long time ago and I stepped out for quite a while they asked if you felt like you were embarrassed back in the day when you still worked for those TV stations and I you know , obviously you don't have any input on news in your last 20 years when you've been focusing on weather .
Your news days were prior to that and obviously you know .
Well , I have said before , even on this show , that I was very proud of the product on local news that we put out up until pretty recently , and I just think there's a difference between your local news and your national news . The national news has been slanted for a long , long time . It's been slanted for a long , long time .
I don't think there's any question about that . Locally , what's happened is , I think , you've seen a slow erosion in expertise . You just don't have the people there that can do the job as well anymore .
Now there are some people still doing good work and we're about to talk about one of them , but I still think broadly here you're seeing more and more people either have a political agenda or they just don't have the wherewithal to be able to look into what they have to look into , make IPRA requests and get information .
They need to do real investigative reporting and you still got your Larry Barker's of the world and people like that locally who do those things , and they do a good job . But broadly here I think we don't pay our reporters and you don't have the kind of people that can do the job anymore , and more often than not our political leaders know this .
And so now , what do they tell local media ? Our political leaders tell local media I don't feel like answering your question and there is nothing you can do about it .
And so , instead of our local news saying , oh yes , there is here's day four when we're gonna ask you these questions you still haven't answered , we'll tell you what they say on day five and just make them answer . They don't .
They don't stick in there , and the problem is , I think , slowly , local media has given away their agency to power and they've basically given away all that influence that they could have to hold people accountable , because they're afraid to stand up to them and they don't do it anymore , and so now people don't expect them to .
Which just bums me out . Because of our younger generation that's coming up , I want them to be able to find new sources and information that they can find and hear from both sides , or just hear the content and then make their own judgment call on how they feel about something , and I just feel like we're just seeing less and less and less of that .
Well , we are and I think sometimes too , we see some good work being done .
Like Gabrielle Burkhart did a story for KRQE , she did a story on what's happening with one of the Albuquerque businesses who basically is saying you know what we're gonna have to , we're gonna have to close our doors , and so this is a story that aired well , it was last week and it's interesting because this is a business that's on central and what they basically
said during the story and if we can run the video once it gets up and we'll show a little bit of it here in a second . But Gabrielle sat down with this business .
Basically they sell gemstones , you know all different sorts of things , and they've been there for a long , long time and what they basically have said is there's drug uses everywhere around them , homelessness is everywhere around them and they can't even they basically lock their door to start the day right , and so you gotta knock on the door , they gotta look and
say okay , and then let you in and you just see this problem is completely and totally out of control . So she does a really good job of showing the problem .
Right and he actually reported . When she asked him the question , he talked about the fact that there's been 40 police reports and 40 times that the local officers have come out this year alone to his area , and I liked the sound bite that she got of the cop . A cop said . She said what's the problem ? What is happening ?
Because they have I can't remember the name of the other group that comes out and gives people food .
Right , they do . Yeah , they'll do like yeah , just kind of a wellness check on people . They're not police officers , they'll hand out stuff and yeah .
Yeah , they're not unarmed folks . I don't remember exactly what they're actually called .
My apologies for that , but the guy said the owner , the business owner said they're not gonna leave if you continue to come over here and feed them the food and be an Uber driver for them and bring them DoorDash food and let them do their drugs and hang out in my alley and just be this nuisance to everybody , and human waste is everybody , all the things .
So when she talked to the actual officer and said what do you need to make things different here ? And he said very simply , I need more police officers , I thought that's exactly what we've been saying since day one and they cannot get them . And there's a whole laundry list of reasons why you can't get them .
And if you think that has nothing to do with leadership , well , wake up , because it does .
Right , and so that's that extra step , right . So this story does a really good job of pointing out the problem , right ? But then the question is where do we go from there ?
Well , in this same very story where we talk about this business getting ready to basically shut its doors because they're being overwhelmed by the criminal element , you have Pat Davis on there who stands up and says this is a real issue . Well , thank you , pat , thank you very much . It's a very good point .
Well , we have to stand up and realize that there is a real issue here and that is that homelessness and drug use , especially the drug use that comes with homelessness , is a progressive disease . Right , it's a disease , and it ends one way With someone laying on the sidewalk dead .
Okay , so if you give them safe spaces to use their drugs , they're gonna end up laying on the sidewalk dead . If you give them and you make it very easy for them to live on your streets , then they're gonna end up eventually dead .
And if you go around and talk to people , and you go around and talk to the homeless in Albuquerque , what you find is two things One , most of them aren't from here , they've come here . And number two , most of them feel like the reason they're here is because they get to do what they want , and that's not compassionate , that is cruel .
You have to give people a choice . We have to give them a choice of treatment or we have to give them a choice of going somewhere else , because you can't keep doing this and you can't say , well , they don't want treatment , so we've got to move on , got to let them do it .
No , Well , and now , like you got you know , I always recommend people should follow Doug Peterson if this is an issue that concerns you . He's great on Twitter , he's a local businessman and he is a fire on this , and in a very respectful way , but he keeps pointing out saying listen , here's the obvious .
We've got this rising homelessness that's leading to some crime issues happening . Not just some crime , a lot of crime . And he's now posting pictures .
¶ Public Indecency, Drugs, and Chupacabra Sightings
These guys are walking around without their clothes on , just on the street , because they're so out of their mind , yeah , and they have no clothing on . So can they not be arrested or given a citation for indecency ? I mean , we can't even do that anymore .
And just think about this . We know what this is going to turn into . Go look at San Francisco . You go look at these same policies which Albuquerque has adopted . It's all these far left policies where it's like mama , can't do much , can't do much , can't do it . Let's give them a safe place to get high and then just let them do it .
You're not helping them , You're killing them . You're absolutely hastening their death . So what can we do ? We can absolutely give them a choice . Compassionately . We can say we will help you through treatment , we will help you get back on your feet .
But if you choose not to get back on your feet , if you choose to sleep on the streets , you're going to be arrested . And then , once you're arrested and you get back out again , we'll give you one more chance . Would you like treatment ? No , you don't want treatment ?
Ok , then you either go live somewhere else or you're going back to jail , Because you cannot continually do this and in this thought process is sending this country into a crisis point .
Now , in all fairness , we have to also address the mental health portion of what's happening with this , Because in this country , we haven't done that like we should have over the past 30 years . So we have to own that and we have to dedicate a lot of money to helping fix it .
But one of the ways you fix it isn't to provide safe spaces for people to get high and it is not to provide a soft landing spot for people to sleep on your streets and use drugs outside your businesses . You're destroying the city , You're destroying the state and we can step up and stop it .
But we have to use real , genuine compassion and not this phony compassion that hastens someone's death .
I don't understand that . I don't understand how now we're deciding with our city councilmen , to expand these open safe spaces to every district in the city . That's just going to spread the issue even farther and wider , and I know that there's people in that city council that are fighting against that .
But man , if that's what's happening , I think you're going to I mean , I would like to think you're going to see an uproar in that from local businesses .
I think you will , and we saw it in LA when we were out there . You see it in San Francisco , you see it in Austin , you see it in all these places where it's happened . Not one place is this working . Not one place . So all right , we've got to finish with a couple of solid videos . Ok . OK your upbeat . Well , sort of .
We have a chupacabra , which , well , I don't know if it's chupacabra , but in San Antonio Lady goes out into her backyard and she sees something that she cannot identify . So if you look here and if you look at the video , I thought at first it was a dog , but I'm not . I don't know .
And you can even freeze it right there . That , yeah , that looks like a mountain lion on that angle .
Yeah , but the ears I don't know . I think it's a dog maybe . I mean one time we were walking in the park right near our house , near the arroyo , we saw a coyote with manes come out of there .
That was scary . It was really scary looking . It looked like not a normal animal , but I think that thing was close to death , so I think that it was in a really weird situation .
No one knows what . That is OK , my thought is .
I think that's a mountain lion of some sort and maybe it's a weird breed of a mountain lion versus a dog .
I'm going to go dog . I think that's a dog .
Just a mangy dog .
Yeah , I think it's a dog with mange , but it looks fairly healthy Well it's got some meat on its bones .
It is weird that people Ava thinks it has hooves . Oh geez . Well , I'll never forget . This is kind of a rando story to add to this one , but I was working in Shreveport one night and I was coming home . I was a news anchor and it was pouring rain .
I was driving back home in the dark and I don't have great eyesight , as you know , but I saw what I thought was a kitty cat on the side of that road and I felt sorry for the cat . So I was like I'm going to go save this cat , I'm going to take this cat home and I pull over .
It's pouring rain , I'm in my suit and my high heels and I'm running across and this thing takes off , it goes down into this ditch thing and I go hauling after this thing Because I'm like I'm just here to get you and save you , I'm going to protect you .
And I got up on my I'm like crawling my hands and knees in like my panty hose Because that was back in the day when you had to wear hose and high heels and I am up against this thing and it turns around and it makes the weirdest noise I've ever heard and it got this close to me and it was not a cat , but to this day I have no idea what that
thing was .
So nutria .
No , nutria looks like a rat . This thing didn't look like a rat .
OK .
And I went back and told everybody at work they were dying .
I mean .
I didn't live this one down Because they were like you pulled over to try to save a cat . Like , how dumb are you in the middle of this ? You know it was like midnight too .
I know there's a lot of crazy stuff out there .
But I never . To this day , I don't know what it was , so anyway , Well , do you know what this is ?
Final video . This is video OK . So OK , all right so this is what we believe could be Bigfoot . Now it's actually from 2015 . And it's reemerged . It's one of the best videos of Bigfoot that I've actually ever seen . So you can see what you're looking at here and if you're watching , you can see it kind of .
You can see a dark object there pulling bark off of a tree , ok , and what happens is Abe , you can bring up the sound slightly if you want to so the guy who's filming this is looking at it and he's a little distance away and he's looking at the back of the thing .
So it's got its back to him and it's peeling off some bark , and then what eventually happens is this thing stands up , but instead of continuing to video it , which is one of your big complaints with all the , with all the .
Everything Bigfoot , bigfoot is the .
He turns the camera away and runs OK , but this does not . Once you see this thing stand up , it does not look like a bear . Like at first , you could think this is a bear . It's just a dark object .
I disagree . I think it looks like a bear . Now , this is just as more information , because of course , I had to look at this because I'm so cynical I'm like , really Bigfoot , ok it is , it looks like a bear . They're in Mississippi , in a swamp area .
This guy that was filming this , it starts to stand up a little bit .
And then this guy . I mean this guy's a hunter . He's out there to hunt hogs and he takes off running . So that's my first thing is I'm like , really , Like , really , You're there to shoot something and you're so scared of this thing just standing up that you take off running . I don't know . I've looked at this video a couple of times .
Now listen , if this is legit , I think it's a bear . I'm going with it . It's a bear or it's a guy in a suit .
OK , the guy in a suit . Well , and that's why Ava and I continue to pursue a Bigfoot expert for the show and we are closing in on getting that there it was See it ? Just stand up , abe , go back and we'll get him just standing up there and you'll see it right at the very end . It just stands up and he runs immediately as it stands up .
We should , and I look to see Right there , that's just . I mean , yeah , it's standing up , bears stand up , yeah bears do stand up . I mean have you watched the videos now of the bears that will wave at you when you drive by them , like they stand up and they wave like humans .
I'm like OK , so I think it's a bear and I think also the second thing is he had a gun . He's a hunter . And he's taken off like a little girl .
So you think he should have shot that sucker ? No .
I think he should have . I think that the guy I mean , I understand , if you have something like even a bear coming after you , you're running , I get that . But from what I saw , that thing wasn't chasing after him , it just stood up with his back to him and he took off .
I'm giving this on the barometer of I'm not sure it's like a 40% , maybe it's something that it's not a bear .
OK , OK . Well , I'm going 100% . That's absolutely sass .
And how come nobody's made that a slow , a slow mo ? I've looked to find a slow mo video of that and I can't find one . Well , ok , so and again zoom in All right . If you're going to film something alien , ufo , big foot , whatever why are people zooming out ? I know it's crazy they zoom out and then they post the video . Yeah .
Zoom in and get me some evidence . People , yeah , get me some actual evidence .
OK , all right . Goodness , who are your expectations are extremely high .
Yeah , they really are . They're built on evidence is what I'd like to see . So , wow crazy , I'm totally crazy . All right , you've taken a lot of their time , ok so thanks very much for joining
¶ Analyzing the Debate and Taking Questions
us .
We again next , next or , I'm sorry , on Thursday . We will go through the debate , kind of give you an idea what happened . There have some other political talk with some of the best in the business in New Mexico , and I love that .
Yeah , I'd like to throw this out too , that if you are listening tonight or today and you have some questions regarding maybe the debate folks or the people on it , and we're going to have some experts on- yeah . And you want us to ask a question or two about that .
Those folks in particular Send us those questions to info at nododaboutitcom and we'll try to see if we can get some of those questions asked to some of the other folks besides just Mark and I . Yeah , and go from there . Yeah .
All right , sounds good . We'll see you on Thursday . No doubt about it . There is no doubt about it .