The opinions expressed on this show are those of the host and not of iHeartMedia or its employees. Thank you for listening to NewsRadio 650 KENI. Amy Demboski. The show starts now. Our lines are open at 907-522-0650. This is The Morning Drive on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Good morning. It is finally Friday. Today is January 10th, 2025. Daryl, you know what I'm about to ask you. You know, and I probably have the answer for you.
I will tell you, January 10th today, 2025, I cannot wait till January 20th because we have how long? Nine days, 13 hours, 53 minutes, and 20 seconds. until the new president is sworn into office. Bring on 47. I'm very excited about this prospect. You know, it is Free Forum Friday, so I'm going to mix it up a little bit because Randy is already on the phone. So we are going to go to him first. It is Free Forum Friday. If you'd like to call in and be part of the show, the number is 522-0650.
Let's go ahead and go to Randy. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Ms. Sunshine and Daryl. I've been talking to friends down in California. sometimes yesterday, and it's very disheartening. So all the thing I want to say is I'd give two jokes and kind of give a little liberty today. Go for it. Okay. First joke, because the Supreme Court's going to meet, where do judges go play basketball? Ooh, I can guess that one. I was going to say on the court.
Am I right? The People's Court. The People's Court. Oh, that's a better one. That's a good one. Okay, next one is... What kind of shoes does ninjas wear? Ooh, I know this one. Daryl, do you know this one? I know what I think it is, but I'm going to let him have a sunder. All right, Randy. What's the punchline? What kind of shoes do ninjas wear? Sneakers.
I was going to say if they fell in the rain, it was going to be slippers. So I've got one for you, Randy. Are you ready? Yes, indeed. How many judges does it take to mess up a presidential election? Juan? No, no, just Juan. Juan? Juan Rashad? That's right, that's right. Just Juan. That's funny, Daryl. Thank you for letting me give a little levity.
Oh, you're welcome. We can. All right. You have a great weekend, Randy. Thank you so much for the call this morning. I got to tell you, just one, one Mershon. That's hilarious. Well, any sec. Trump is supposed to be sentenced today. It started already. The trial has already started up. I was going to say, I have to go to Hulu here. Juan Mershon is, I mean. This guy, watching this, like he literally isn't fit for the bench.
Well, in my opinion, he got his 15 minutes of fame when they first started it, and now he's trying to stretch it out into like a CBS weekend special or something. You know, he's trying to make a name for himself, but nobody's really watching. Yeah. You're finding it. I can see it right now. She's searching on the channel. I'm looking. No, I'm looking. I'm looking. No, you're right. I'm looking at the live feed right now on Fox News. I always leave my TV.
Silence, but I have, you know, the words running across the screen. So I will focus on what I'm doing right now, and we will continue to watch this. It says right now, Voice of Trey Gowdy, Trump's sentenced to unconditional discharge. So essentially... There's no punishment. But Mershon wants to make sure he is sworn into office as president as a felon. A fully convicted felon. Yeah, and that's what it is because right now, without the sentencing, it's not like...
Exactly. So what does an unconditional discharge mean? It means no prison, no probation, no conditions. We just want to label you as a felon. No, I'm telling you, on appeal, this whole thing's getting thrown out. It's going to all get thrown out. Look, frankly, I will be honest with you. From the issue of his daughter making money off this case, he clearly has bias. He clearly should have been recused from the case. He has made so many reversible errors in this case, and I'm not even a lawyer.
I'm just a layperson who watched a big portion of it and listened to like Alan Dershowitz and other actual lawyers talk about the legal framework and typical process. And Dershowitz, when Dershowitz says, I have never seen anything like this in my career. I mean, we're talking about one of the most forementioned constitutional lawyers in the country, taught at Harvard. I mean, he's been probably practicing 50 years. I mean, he's up there a little bit.
I just, it's unbelievable. But that is the headline that is coming out of breaking news right now, Fox News. Trump sentenced to unconditional discharge. New York versus Trump. So there you have it. Now they're going to be going all wild, all over the headline. Trump is a felon. Trump is a felon. But here's what you guys don't realize. Like, lunatic liberal media. Here's the reality. This is a big part why Trump won.
It's a big part of why Trump won, because the American people saw him as an underdog, saw him as a political target, and then you stack on the failed policies of the left. the economy, the border, failed criminal justice reform, Failed law enforcement efforts to keep prisoners in jail. I mean, the reality is this is why Trump won.
it's because people are sick of it they're sick of paying too much they're sick of not being safe they're sick of the weaponized legal system against americans they are sick of their government lying to them they're sick of the media lying to them All this is going to do, frankly, this is literally just going to make Trump a martyr.
That's what this is doing. And I think at the end of the day, none of us are all that surprised with this. And nobody will be surprised when this is actually thrown out. I'm just... Throwing it out there, Daryl. There's definitely no surprise going to be happening on that. And in fact...
I don't know. I think Judge Judy would have thrown it out. And this is just Judge Judy we're talking about almost initially when it first went in there. And Raymond Burr and Memorand Ironsides, his head would have just been like going, no.
No. Judge Whopper? Do you remember Judge Whopper? Oh, my gosh. Now, that is a blast of the past. You said that, and I got the great American hero playing in my head at the same time. Oh, my goodness. Any of these people would have literally, and these are all TV judges. Judge Brown, they all. would have thrown this out being like this is ridiculous so yeah i don't know exactly so so there we go we'll we'll get into it we'll see all right well let's go to our friend eric good morning eric
Good morning, Amy. First off, I want to wish both of you a Happy New Year. It's been a while since I've called in. We've had some absolutely wonderful things happen since our last conversation. Oh, so great. Yeah, it is so great. You know, obviously, I'm referring to the election. I never really had a doubt. But I tell you what, you know, with 2025 starting.
I was a little worried that this might not be the best year simply because the year started off on WTF. Oh, I noticed that myself, dude, and I thought that was awesome. Yeah, wasn't it cool? But I've been searching high and low, being a little discriminative, looking for a couple good, quote, jokes. Love it. Love it. Let's get into it. So, you know, God promised men that good, obedient wives would be found in all corners of the world.
And then he went and made the world round. Oh, man. I can't wait to tell my husband that joke. Love it. Love it. And, you know, I found out that, you know, some people are like slinkies. They have no real purpose, but it makes you smile when you push them down a flight of stairs. Solid. Solid. I love it. You're on a roll, my friend. You are on a roll. Eric, where were you searching for this, by the way? You said you started this all. You were searching where?
Didn't you say you were searching like a little high and a little low? Yes, no, maybe? I thought you came in with you were searching high and low. Well, that reminded me of... A little high, a little low! A little hey, a little ho! Just a touch of the past for you there. All right. And I had to compliment Daryl Amy on his wand joke. I thought that was hilarious. That's my good one for the day, man. And then he, one of the strangest looking...
Oh, my gosh. I know. I know. You know, I watch him, and he looks like a New York liberal to me. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, if you looked it up in the dictionary. Yeah. Well, I'm excited. Daryl keeps my countdown in check for me because I'm excited for January 20th. I cannot wait. Yeah, yeah, me either. I think that'll, yeah, that'll.
Yeah, things are going to be good. Things are going to be good. It's going to be a great year. I love the Panama idea. I love the Gulf of America idea. I love the Greenland idea. I'm 50, I'll be 58 this year. But, you know, until I listened to Trump's speech the other day, you know, I honestly... Because I would have been about 10 or 12 at the time. I honestly had no idea that Carter sold the canal for a buck.
Yeah, that's how they transferred it over. That was their game of you had to pay us something. So I've got a question for you. So you like the idea of the Gulf of America? I really was surprised that Trump didn't put forward, let's just call it the big Gulf. Right? It's big. We're talking, this is America's gulf. It is the big gulf. Big gulf, I'm telling you. Oh, okay. I thought you were referring, I thought you were making a play on the big gulf.
I am. I am a big golf. That's it. It's a big golf. Yeah. Yeah, it depends on the time of the year because, like I said, I lived there in South Texas right along the Gulf Coast. So depending on the time of year, it changes colors just like your regular Slurpee type does. There we go. And Trump loves Big Macs and everything else. So I thought, you know. Big golf would be a good name for it out there. Big golf would be really great. Yep. I don't want it with cheese.
With my humor, you already have it. Nice. Very nice. Happy New Year, guys. Thank you, Eric. Happy New Year to you, too. We're starting off the Friday right, I'm telling you, with a bunch of dad jokes. jokes and levity. I'm loving it. We also have stories we'll get into, but this is Reform Friday, so whatever you want to talk about, that's what we're going to talk about today. If you'd like to call in and be part of the show, the number is 522-0650. We'll be right back.
Amy Demboski, 6 to 8 mornings on News Radio 650 KENI. Call now, 907-522-0650. Welcome back. Current time is 622 on this glorious Friday morning. The countdown has begun. It is happening. You ready for it? I am ready. I'm waiting. Nine days, 13 hours, 37 minutes, 40 seconds. Until... President Trump is sworn into office again. And the giant sigh issues through the nation. You know, after I watched this whole Marchand thing this morning and I'm watching, you know, Trump.
you know, a sentence to an unconditional discharge, which means no penalty at all. We just want to brand you as a felon. I think this just re-solidifies in my mind. The fact that this was all a show, this was all a sham, this was all political from the get-go. Why would you go to the effort, spend millions and millions of taxpayers' dollars to go after a political person? We have to remember.
for paying a bill. This was a legal feat for a non-disclosure agreement that they somehow made into 34 felonies. I don't really understand that. throughout this throughout this uh... Throughout this, I wouldn't say election, because that's really what this was, was election interference. Throughout this trial, this sham of a trial, when you have the former chair of the FEC, who was going to testify, yes, the FEC looked into this
And we decided not to bring charges because this was not an election issue for us. This was not an election issue. This was not an election. When you actually have somebody that was of that caliber that was going to testify to that fact and the judge didn't let him testify, that is denying the defense the ability to present a defense. Another reason it's going to get thrown out. Here's what I want everybody to remember from all of this right here. We've heard nothing for the last...
Eight years, except for Trump is going to go after his enemies. Trump is going to use the court system to take down his enemies, and it's going to become a dictatorship. I'm sorry, Democrats, left-hand side of it, progressives. Look at what you guys did right here. Full trial, convicted felon.
They love it, though. They do. They love it. But yet, these are the people who are swearing Trump is going to do this. And how horrible it would be. And this would be the end of democracy if this happened. And they let it happen. Look, you know, Daryl. You have to just think about this. And I've said this many times. If it wasn't for double standards, the left would have no standards at all.
I honestly think they're getting to the point where they have no standards at all. Literally, I mean, because even some of them are going, what did we just do? Do as I say, not as I do. It is trust the science unless it comes to COVID. COVID or, you know, life at conception or whatever. It's my body, my choice. Unless it comes to COVID, then I want to mandate that you get a COVID shot. Otherwise, you can't leave your home or maybe you should be arrested or put someplace.
What is it called? Climate change. Except men can be women and give births. Exactly. We could go on and on about the double standards. The left. you know, touts constantly. So, you know, that's why I say it just gets to the point where it's ridiculous. And again, you look at these things and you say, okay, If the sentence for Trump is unconditional discharge, what was the whole point of this? The whole point of this was just to brand him a felon.
And, you know, this will get overturned on appeal, but the reality is if it didn't, what does it mean? It means he's a felon for the rest of his life. For the rest of his life, he can't vote. He can't have a gun. There are certain countries he can't travel to. I mean, the whole point of these lunatics on the left is just to, they hate Trump. they want to get trump this is just to make things aggravating for trump so again you know the witch hunt has has finally concluded
And now it will be out of the hands of the ridiculous Judge Mershon. And then we will be able to move on to something a little bit more. substantive which is actually trump will be president and we're going to get some stuff done the appeal will go through the process at some point i will be surprised if it actually makes it to the supreme court i don't think this goes through i mean You know, I haven't followed the New York Supreme Court substantially.
But I would be surprised if this even made it through the New York Supreme Court. I think there's a very good chance at the state level this gets reversed. And I agree with you because, I mean, like you said, you have pointed out.
15 different glaring things that should get this taken out of there but you know what's going to also happen with this of course with the progressives so it'll get thrown out it'll get all wiped away right and it didn't like it didn't happen except that is all they will continue to pull up is what she was convicted
He was, but it was a false trial. It doesn't matter. He was convicted. No, it does matter. You know, it's amazing to me when you see, when you see this, you know, so the whole Stormy Daniels thing, what was it, 2016-ish when this happened? So 2016-ish when this happened, and you look at, okay, so she accused Trump, or she was going to come out and say that Trump had sex with her. And so he, you know, he...
effectively was being blackmailed. So he signs an NDA agreement, pays her off, and whatever, but he's always denied it, said that's never happened. This is not true. Okay. I don't honestly care, whatever. But then you turn around and you think about it. This is what he is being really tried and convicted of is a non-disclosure agreement, right? Now think about Hillary Clinton.
And they're trying to say somehow that was election interference. Think about Hillary Clinton contracting with Fusion GPS, steel for the whole Russian collusion, disinformation. fiasco that happened and you think about that that was clearly designed run through run through her campaign and
in part the DNC, and you have all their fingerprints all over it. It was clearly proven not to be true, but it was clearly intended to harm a political rival, and then the dossier was used in part as basis to... the FBI to spy on the Trump campaign. Think about all of that and then you think, okay, Trump signed an NDA with somebody who was trying to blackmail him. But he's convicted, but they all get a free pass.
Well, they all get a free pass. And if it's if the fact that he paid this NDA, right. And so that somehow made it because he supposedly hit it in this stuff. And it's kind of like he was paid or he paid it out, but he didn't tell anybody about it.
Let's go to some of our- Kind of the point of an NDA. Right. So let's go to our legislators, or when I say legislators, I mean Congress. Congress has had problems for years where they used to pay off all of these people who would bring- They still do. Well, so-
They still pay. I mean, look, Congress has, for years, what Daryl's talking about, for years, they have a fund where they're paying for sexual harassment. They're paying for all these things, things that their members have been, like, accused. of, right? So to that point, Daryl, that's taxpayer money. This wasn't taxpayer money. This was Donald Trump's private money.
Paying somebody off who is trying to blackmail them. So now you're getting to my exact point, though. So this is taxpayer money. Somebody paid for those agreements, right? Wouldn't that then be considered income if somebody else paid a bill for you? That's income to you. You received that. Did any of these people put those on their taxes as income? Because if they didn't, we've got a lot of tax fraud charges to be pulled up out there.
I like the cut of your jib. I like how you're thinking. It just kind of came to mind. Gee, if they can get it for that. I mean, it sure seems like there's a lot more illegal. You know, they paid $400,000 out. Did you claim that $400,000 as income? Well, no, but it was paid out for you. Exactly. You know, you just look at this kind of stuff and you look at the crimes that have been committed.
on the left, and whether it's lying to a FISA court, whether it's paying a foreign person to come up with a fake dossier, funneling the money through law firms and all these other things, and then... You look at it and you say, okay, that was clearly designed. None of that would have happened if Trump wasn't Hillary Clinton's political rival in running for the same office. That's clearly election interference, right?
And then you look at somebody who is threatening to go public that they slept with you unless, you know, I mean, effectively... The jump I'm making is, you know, it looks like she was blackmailing because if not for the NDA, would she have come out publicly saying she was going to sleep with him? Clearly, right? She broke her NDA, by the way. Right, I know.
She should have to give him the money back. So, I don't know. I just look at this, and I think the vast majority of the country looked at this and thought for the nonsense that it is. That's why they elected him president. They're like, okay, we don't care about this. You know what we care about? We care about being able to feed our kids. We care about being able to put gas in our car. We care about being able to put a roof over our heads. We care about the economy.
We care about national security. We don't want to go to the grocery store at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and have to worry about being shot down, being abducted, being victimized. You know what we care about? We care about a secure border. We care about stability on a global scale so we don't enter into World War III. That's what the vast majority of Americans, I think, cared about. And the vast majority of Americans saw this for what it was. It's nonsense.
That's what it is. It was distraction. The mainstream media and the Democrats use this as a distraction so you wouldn't pay attention, as you said, to Hillary Clinton, to Joe Biden, to Hunter Biden. I mean, come on. This is a guy who got $5 million. over multiple millions of dollars to do a job that he had no qualifications for, couldn't speak the language, and yet, eh.
It's all good. There's no foreign influence. This was literally to distract the people, wave the red thing to make them look up here. Look over here so you don't see what I'm doing over here. All right, well, the sentencing of Trump has happened. It means absolutely nothing at the end of the day because Trump's going to go on. He's going to win this battle, and Marchand's going to be shown for...
the terrible judge that he is. I mean, in Amy's opinion, he's not even fit to sit on the bench. He's clearly biased. And I think an appeals court is going to be embarrassed by his behavior, frankly. All right, we're going to go ahead and take a break if you'd like to call in. Be part of the show. 522-0650. Reach out to Amy now. 907-522-0650. That's 907-522-0650. It's Amy Demboski on NewsRadio 650. Welcome back. Current time, 638. Girl, this isn't a great day for me to be on the air because...
Like, I got to be honest with you. Like, I'm watching this whole thing that's going down right now. Trump just got sentenced in New York. Like, there are so many words that I want to say right now. Like, this. Like, just looking at the picture of Judge Mershon, I can't do it. See, now that Eric's brought up looking at him, I'm like, he looks like a D-bag. I can't even, like, that's the best I'm doing.
Like, it's triggering me. Like, I think this guy is just like, and I guess I have such a heart for the judiciary because, you know, I got to serve on the Judicial Conduct Commission here in Alaska. And the judiciary does get a lot of deserved critique. But there are a number of really good judges and people that serve that, I mean, the...
The nonsense they have to deal with and, frankly, the politics, right? There's one good judge that I know that... is no longer a judge, and he was literally following the sentencing guidelines after SB 91, and everybody gave him a really hard time. because he let an offender out, but he was following the sentencing guidelines that he was required to follow. And I think his biggest mistake was he didn't articulate that during the sentencing.
So people thought he was being sought, not the law around him. Yep, yep. And I've met him and his wife and, you know, had great conversations with them. And he's actually a very conservative guy. And, you know, but he made one mistake, which was he didn't express during sentencing how much he hated the sentencing guidelines and the law that the legislature passed. He didn't say it, right? And most judges...
Don't. They tend to be very succinct and direct, and they tend to go, okay, this is what it is, this is what it is. A lot of the sentencing and things become very rout. They become stoic. That's it. And so it's like, okay, we're just going through making the cookies, you know, boom, just, you know, but I, I've, so I've seen, I've seen good judge, a good judge get railroaded and I've seen bad judges.
just get a free pass over and over again. So, you know, but like I said, so I look at the judiciary and having the perspective that I've had where I've got to sit on the Judicial Conduct Commission for a few years here in Alaska. I got to watch and listen to lots and lots of different cases.
Every time there was a complaint against a judge, you know, it was a very serious thing, and there was lots of them. I'll be honest with you. People don't like an outcome in a case. They're going to make a complaint against a judge. But there are a lot of complaints that are valid. And, you know, so when I watch this whole New York trial of Donald Trump, I'm not watching it as just somebody who's never, ever been.
you know, an observer or involved with the legal system. I'm not a lawyer. I'm a public member, which I think gave us a really good perspective. There was three of us public members on the Judicial Commission here in Alaska. And it's set up like that by statute. You have three judges, three lawyers, and three public members. And the whole point of having that mix is to have different perspectives, right? The judiciary, basically the only real check on them is effectively going to be the public.
right or the legislature it's going to be something other than the judiciary so it so that's why they have public members on there so when i watch this whole trial with mershon i just like i If he was a judge here in Alaska, I am confident the Judicial Conduct Commission would have taken action. I mean, from the recusal issue, from the issue of his daughter making money on it, from his conduct sometimes sitting on the bench. I mean...
Judges could get in trouble. I mean, they have these whole canons of judicial conduct that they have to follow. So they're basically special rules for judges, and they really do have to act, you know. Above the rest. His instructions to the jury. Come on, man. Oh, I know. I know. I know. I know. So I got a question. You said a few minutes ago that looking at his picture was triggering you. And I have this thought. Maybe we should make posters of him.
and coffee mugs with them on it and all kinds of stuff, right? And it can be our Merchand dice that we sell to people. Right? Merchand dice? Yeah. I was thinking, I mean, toilet paper maybe. Oh, that would sell. I'm telling you, that would sell. Except you'd always wonder beforehand, did I ever use that piece? Yeah, there you go. I got a really bad joke for you just because we want to keep some levity in this with all the fun going on around here. So there was this Mexican magician out there.
And he says he will disappear on a count of three, okay? So he starts out, uno, dos, poof. He disappeared without a trace. Yes, parents, you can tell that one to your kids, especially if they're an immersion program. Solid, solid dad joke. I love it. I love it. Well, you know, Daryl, before we get too far into it, you know. Look, we have a lot of great stories we're going to cover today. But I don't know if you saw this one. And I'm thinking.
Maybe this is the reason mechanics aren't pilots, actually. Did you see the ADN article with the Alaska Airlines jet that went in the ditch? Oh, yes, I did. Okay. I'm just saying, whoever was at the controls of this jet, so over at the Ted Stevens International Airport, ADN is reporting in Alaska Airlines, 737 accidentally ended up in the... Ditch.
On Wednesday, according to Alaska Airlines, the company's spokesman said the aircraft inadvertently exited a taxiway on its way to a parking location. No passengers were aboard the aircraft, and there were no injuries. My initial thought was... Because I know a number of Alaska Airlines pilots, so I'm like, oh, please don't let it be one of my friends. According to this incident, it was not a pilot. It was a mechanic who was...
you know, moving the plane. But it says, as of Thursday, Alaska Airlines was still figuring out how to get the plane out of the ditch in the taxiway. There was some apparent damage to the wheel and the aircraft's front landing gear once the planes moved. and wrote in an email, inspectors will have a better idea of any additional breakage. It says, this is a minor incident. This is a one-off. It made no operational difference for us. I've got to say, whoever was driving this plane at that time.
probably is going to have some remedial training commentary with with management I don't know but it's I can see two things happening. One, we're going to see a plane at one of the back end of one of the runways out there, you know, the giant runways, just doing circling and turning because they're going to make him get out there and learn how to actually do it, you know, kind of like he did in the parking lot as a kid learning to drive.
And the other thing that I think is going to happen out there with it is that... People are going to realize this is just like when you take your car to the auto mechanic, and when you get it back, there's a ding, and you're like, where'd that come from? Oh, they took it out for a test drive to make sure that your brakes were working, you know? And it's like...
All mechanics do that. They take your stuff out for a test drive. They bump into a curb. You know, come on. Bad, bad idea. Bad idea. But I love the fact they're not fingering the mechanic. You know, now it's a team effort. It says, according to Thompson, who's the spokesman. for Alaska Airlines, a maintenance team was moving the plane when the incident happened.
Somebody likes whoever was driving. Sounds like it might have been a senior member driving that plane. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Be like, oh, dang it, George. I can't get another one. I'm going to get fired. You know, I just had one. Again? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was the maintenance team at Alaska Airlines that put it in the ditch, not their pilots. So let not your heart be troubled. If you're flying on Alaska Airlines, we still have a great...
great confidence in our pilots. Absolutely. Maybe not so much the maintenance team driving the plane, but the pilots were good. All right, we're going to go ahead and take a quick break. We'll be right back. Now back to the boss, Amy Demboski. Call 907-522-0650 and be a part of the show on NewsRadio 650, KENI. Daryl, I'm dying here. Bruce just sent me a meme. It says, Breaking. President Trump to be indicted for returning VHS movies to Blockbuster without rewinding them in 1992.
Oh, that man needs some serious fines. That is some serious fines going to go on there. I got to tell you, I love doing this show. I have the greatest friends. I'm just telling you, it cracks me up. I mean, some of the stuff they send me during the show. Honestly, I can't say because it's not really appropriate for radio. But if it was just a podcast, Joe, just a podcast, we'd be golden. Oh, could we have some fun?
All right, it is that time. It is Friday. And I love doing Daryl's story of the week because, you know what, we get so busy with regular news and everything, and there's always a story or two that we want to share. to cover and we just don't have the time to cover and we miss it so i am dying to know daryl what has gotten into your goal this week what are you thinking about as always i started out the week thinking i'm going in one direction and as the
week progresses, things always jump into my face and say, I don't believe that. Yesterday was one of those days again. I was pretty sure I knew where I was going to go. I was going to go talk about our anchors assembly and stuff. And then this DEI story hit on the news out there, and it's going to pick up. You're going to start hearing it all. All the major news agencies are going to start carrying this. But basically, down in the L.A. area, the LAPD's fire department, they like to do PSAs.
about how you can do this or that, join the fire department, and they've been on this huge DEI kick. Now, I want to play a little audio here for you. This is actually a video of the assistant fire chief for L.A. County. Telling you what they feel you should know about firefighters You want to see somebody that responds to your house your emergency whether it's a medical call or a fire call
That looks like you. It gives that person a little bit more ease, knowing that somebody might understand their situation better. Is she strong enough to do this? Or you couldn't carry my husband out of a fire, which my response is, he got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire. So yes, you heard that correctly you heard her say if he got if he's in a fire he got himself into the wrong place
That's crazy. That's crazy there. But to start it all out with her statement as just like a generalized This is what you want. You want to see a person who looks like you actually I don't I'm fat and physically fit person Trying to save me. I don't want to see a big old fat guy come in the door going, come on this way. You got yourself in there. I can't get you. Come on. Can you help me? So, I mean, it's literally, it's this.
No, that is not the first thing. When that paramedic shows up, I don't care what you look like other than that you're capable of doing your job. That's what I want. But this was their big ad they put out there and this giant push. And it's absolutely amazing that they were.
Totally proud of this. And as of yesterday, literally there was two news sources that were carrying it in one place you could find. I actually had to hug the internet to find the clip on it. Now DC Drano, I played that off of DC Drano, Amy's friend.
They're wonderful guys. We love DC Dream. Absolutely. Rogan O'Hanley. So he has picked up on the story, which I guarantee that's why I'm saying you're going to start hearing this on all the major news agencies. But it's just to me, I find it ridiculous that with what has happened down there, I mean.
They've cut the budget, $20 million. They've got this huge DEI program where literally they're telling you, you know what? Don't worry about the abilities of the person. It's you want to look like them that comes to rescue you. And if you're in trouble, you probably got yourself in there in the first place. That is unbelievable. Okay, so my husband's a retired Anchorage fire captain, right? So he's a retired Anchorage firefighter. And I laugh because, okay, first of all,
I could never do my husband's job. You know, I used to want to be a police officer. That's why I have so many criminal justice degrees and stuff is because that's what I thought I was going to do. And then when I married a fireman, I'm like, yeah, it probably doesn't make sense to have. both parents in public safety. Like, how is it going to work with our family? Like, I just couldn't see the schedule. So I just decided, no, he's a firefighter.
But I've been around a lot of firefighters, and I will tell you, firefighters will go above and beyond to try to save somebody's life. So when I heard this, like, I was shocked when I heard this video. Because I've never in 25 years of being married, well, we've been married longer, but he was a firefighter for 25 years with AFD. In 25 years, I've never heard him say he wasn't going to rescue somebody because they put themselves in a bad situation. Like, they just do the job.
Like, that's unbelievable. And I've got to be honest with you. As a girl, I don't want to just see people that look like me. I want to see some hot firemen. I'm just going to be honest with you. things I see with this with her statement on there? Is that not complete and utter victim blaming? You know what I hear? When you get beyond that, you know what I hear? I hear a chick that's talking and she's already like planting a reason why she can't do the job.
to be honest. Look, I've known female firefighters and I know some right now that are bad butts. I mean, they're awesome. They're tough. They can do the job. If you can't do the job, you shouldn't do the job. or female i don't care but to me what i hear is i hear excuses coming out of that that's what i hear oh yeah i don't excuses and like i said so that's my one that became this week's story because it is crazy
LA Fire Department DEI gone bad. All right, we're going to go ahead and take a quick break. We'll be right back. The opinions expressed on this show are those of the host and not of iHeart Media or its employees. Thank you for listening to NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back to Hour 2 of the Amy Naboski Show, broadcasting live and local every weekday morning from 6 to 8 a.m.
If you want to listen to us live on the radio, it's 6.50 a.m. If you'd like to stream us, there's a couple different ways you could do that. You can go to our website, 650keni.iheart.com, or you could download the iHeart Media app, and you can listen to us that way, too. You can also catch our podcasts.
On the website, on the iHeartMedia app, on Spotify, the Amazon app, there's all kinds of places you can find us. Daryl, I was watching right now that you can hear the sentencing audio in the New York versus Charlie. case. And Trump just spoke. And it's the first time we've actually been able to hear him actually talk and say his opinion. Because remember, Judge Mershon put a gag order on him. Oh, yeah. So he couldn't talk about the case.
And Trump addressed that to the judge. He addressed how unfairly he's been treated. He says in here, this is unbelievable. I'm the only person in history who has been, you know, charged. with a crime for recording a legal expense as a legal expense. He's like, I didn't even write it down. It was the accountants who booked it and who wrote it down as a legal expense. And he's like, it was proper. It was a legal expense.
are the ones who even recorded it properly, and then I'm the one being charged for somehow accurately reflecting a legal expense as a legal expense. It really is. Trump did a really good job. Good job in here. Mershon is in the middle of talking right now. And he's going on and on and on. It's really something. So what you will hear, I guarantee, throughout the rest of the day is audio clips from this sentencing hearing that is happening right now.
But there we go. There we go. I can't wait. I can't wait to hear the appeals court decisions on this review of this case. I'm ready for the appeals court to come into the room and say, yeah, no. And just put the hammer down. Literally at that point, just saying there's no even reason to discuss this. This was wrong. Boom, we're done with it. Because as you said, he's charged with 34 counts of something that somebody else did. It's not like he signed the check and then.
went in and wrote it into his letters. And yeah. He made the point. He's like, this isn't like I recorded this expense as like foreign concrete or construction expense. He's like, it was a legal expense recorded as a legal expense. To his point. I mean, he's like, if only everybody could be this accurate. I mean, this is just, like I said, I think...
Oh, I'm not going to say what I think. I'm going to let it go because if I don't, I'm going to get on a tangent. Everybody loves it when Amy gets on a tangent, but here we go. You know, let's switch back to California for a minute because, you know, yesterday when we were talking. about this California fire, I was really clear about what we're seeing here is a reflection of priorities and policy. I mean, that's truly what we're seeing with California. They chose not to mitigate wildfire.
wildfire concerns and this isn't anything new for California right everybody thinks about emergency operations and planning when the emergency is here but the good ones are the ones that plan for it and have and and and try to anticipate to avoid an emergency or if an emergency comes to have a plan to deal with it right and what you're seeing is a massive failure in in california i mean some of these fires they have
multiple fires that have sparked off now, and many of them are, there's one of them that's 13,000 acres, 0% contained as of this morning. We're in day three now. Now, depending on which fire you're talking about, some of them have some slight containment, but it is very, very sparse as far as containment goes. It's like, I mean, almost non-existent. So, you know, it's interesting because Real Clear Politics has an article, and I try to find the articles from the right, left, and center, right?
Okay, because obviously, in Amy's point of view, this is a massive failure of Democrat politicians that have been in office for a long time. They have known the issues. They have failed to address the issues. And then some on the left are going to say, well, it's Trump's fault. That's what they're going to say.
But Real Cool Politics has an article up. Wildfires put spotlight on California water policies, inept preparation. And this is what I was saying yesterday. That's the reality. For Democrats, They're going to say climate change was the go-to talking point. Here's a quote from Bernie Sanders. He tweeted it. Eight months since the area has seen rain.
The scale of damage and loss is unimaginable. Climate change is real, not a hoax. Donald Trump must treat this like the existential crisis it is. All right, so that's Bernie Sanders, right? And then you start looking at it, and it says in here, Republicans, starting with President-elect, instantly identified another culprit. The Democrat Party leaders, heavily in a blue state, especially Governor... Gavin Newsom right so again
That's kind of the place I go because they're clearly not prepared. If you don't have the water sources, if you have issues with your hydrants, if you don't have the manning, if you don't have the equipment, to me that's a failure to prepare. goes in here and says in 2018, It was the town of Paradise in Northern California. When a poorly maintained PG&E utility transmission line failed during strong winds, the entire town was wiped out, 85 people died, and the blaze destroyed 153,000.
acres and 18,000 structures but this is to my point. Again, you have to be prepared for it, and this is why we do forest fire maintenance, right? And Donald Trump in 2018 was talking about policy and failures of... California. Go ahead, Daryl. Do you have that audio? You've seen what happened. You've talked about the forest fires. Now we're permitting and cleaning up these forests so it will reduce the threat of forest fire as well as creating jobs in these communities.
We're all to do that in California. Yes, sir. California is a mess. We're giving billions and billions of dollars for forest fires in California. There's no reason for those fires to be like they are. They're leaving them dirty. It's a disgraceful thing. Old trees are sitting there rotting and dry. And instead of cleaning it up, they don't touch them. They leave them. And we end up with these massive fires that we're paying hundreds of billions of dollars for to.
Fix and the destruction is incredible. So I think California ought to get their act together and clean up their forests and manage their forests because it's disgraceful. What's happening should never happen. I go all over the country. And I meet with governors. The first thing they say is there's no reason for forest fires like that in California. So I say to the governor.
or whoever's going to be the governor of california better get your act together because california we're just not going to continue to pay the kind of money that we're paying because of fire fires that should never be to the extent They were telling me in a couple of states, I won't even mention their name. It's like a flash. Some grass will burn. It'll be over in minutes. They'll lose two acres, three acres at the most. They won't even lose that.
And here we are with thousands of acres and billions and billions of dollars every year. It's the same thing every year. And they don't want to clean up their forests because they have environmental problems in cleaning it up. It should be the opposite because you're going to lose your forest. You'll lose it.
But it's costing our country hundreds of billions of dollars because of incompetence in California. So the people I'm speaking now for the people of California, they don't want to see this happen. They're getting destroyed. And it's hurting our budgets. It's hurting our country. And they just better get their act together. I'm sorry. Go ahead. All right. So that was in 2018. We're in 2025. Seven years.
That was Trump seven years ago. Seven years ago. Telling California to get their act together. What have they done? What have they done? So you start having this conversation and saying, okay, wait a second. What have they done? Well, the Daily Caller has an article up. Gay choirs, trans cafes, and social justice are what L.A. spent money on while cutting its fire budget.
Oh, yes. Oh, yes. The city of Los Angeles cut funding for its fire department and allocated thousands of dollars to various progressive programs, including Midnight Stroll, Transgender Cafe, and a gay men's court. Fires swept through Southern California on Wednesday, destroying hundreds of homes in the L.A. County area. But the Democratic mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, was slammed for slashing the L.A. Fire Department's budget. by $17.6 million for fiscal year 2425. According to this article,
Bass claimed in a press conference that none of the reductions made would have impacted the situation that we were dealing with over the last couple days. But again, What about the capital improvement projects? When firefighters are reporting that they're running out of water, what about the water issue? What about the staffing issue? What about the fire mitigation issues?
These are state and local issues both. And why aren't they being dealt with? This isn't anything new to California. California. Year after year after year has wildfire, wildfire, wildfire. Malibu gets hit with wildfire after wildfire after wildfire. Unbelievable. And yet we have a state, we have a bunch of elected officials that are... that are elected to make policy decisions, that means prioritize where the allocation of funds go.
Right? You would think life and safety would be first. And, yes, part of life and safety is forest fire mitigation. And I will tell you, this should have very, very close to home. Because as I'm having this conversation, a friend of mine who... is an elected office, has made the comment that there are some of these policy type people in Alaska that want to deal with our forests very similar to California, which is don't touch it.
I will tell you, not only bringing jobs and needed materials, but this is a big part of the reason why timber should be a much bigger industry than it is. I don't care if we're talking California or we're talking Alaska. The reality is, is you can responsibly have a timber industry, but the timber industry also helps with fire mitigation. Because as you thin out...
some of these forests, not only are you able to get some of the old growth out, but you're able to get a lot of the dried down stuff out as well. And so, again, fire mitigation. is really important but when we're looking at it we can also look at opportunities like actually having a robust timber industry but again the enviros they're like oh no don't cut down a tree But at the same time, they leave the trees that are dead and down. And what does it become? It becomes fuel. Absolutely.
So, again, this entire thing with California, I'm not saying that wildfires don't happen and it's not. Just because a wildfire happens doesn't make it a politician's fault. But when you look at decade after decade and policy after policy that refuses to acknowledge the reality without forest fire mitigation without actually harvesting some of these things and removing the fuel, you are going to have hotter and bigger fires. Hotter, bigger fires and they're going to pop up more frequently.
Exactly. That's just common sense, right? And that is a choice. Not having enough water and not building the infrastructure to ensure that is a choice. Appropriating money to trans cafes and other type of social programs, whatever it is, is a choice to prioritize that over public safety. It is a political... Choice. It is a choice. And that's why I keep going back to your vote matters because these idiots making these decisions are the ones that are saying, yeah.
No, I want to put it to here, not here. They're prioritizing social issues and feel-good type projects over actual fundamental public safety. And it's evident. I mean, it's on display right now. You see it. All right. We're going to take a quick break if you'd like to call in 522-0615. You're listening to live, local, and always insightful Morning Drive Radio with Amy Demboski on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Get on the show now by calling 907.
522-0650. Welcome back. Current time is 724. You know, as we talk about... The California fires. You know, here's the thing. There is going to be post-op on this for probably months and months and months to come. Like, what are the issues? What are we seeing? And why did this happen? And I always start with, okay, well, were we prepared for it? Were we ready for it? You know, did we have the appropriate resources, starting with water? Did we have the appropriate staffing?
Did we do the proper wildland fire mitigation? Have we neglected our forests or have we actually robustly taken the time and effort to ensure that we have properly maintained or scrubbed out, you know, all those dead and dying trees or all the, you know, the forest. I mean, there's all kinds of wildland fire mitigation strategies out there. I am not a forester, but I've sat through a number of these discussions with them. And you have to ask yourself all those questions, right?
And then you turn around and say, okay, if we've done all these things, was our response adequate? These are all the questions that we're going to ask. Now, there have been multiple reports of fire hydrants being stolen. There's been multiple reports about reservoirs going empty.
Right. Those those reports were all out there yesterday. Joe Biden has popped up today. The Hill has the story. Daryl's going to play you audio for it. Now, Biden is saying there's another factor that nobody's really considered that. It's not really, you know, a resource thing or an infrastructure thing. It's really the energy company's fault why we ran out of water. Go ahead, Daryl. Be clear.
What I know from talking to the governor, that there are concerns out there that there's also been a water shortage. The fact is, the utilities understandably shut off power. because they were worried the lines that carried energy were going to be blown down and spark additional fires. But the Cal Fire, when it did that... it cut off the ability to generate pumping in the water. That's what caused the lack of water in these hydrants. And so CAL FIRE is bringing in generators.
to get these pumps up and working again so that there's no longer a shortage of water coming out of these hydrants. I'm also surging all federal resources possible to Southern California, including 400 additional federal firefighters, over 30 firefighting helicopters and planes, federally supplied firefighting planes and helicopters. and eight Department of Defense C-130s that are equipped to suppress wildfires. All right, so they're moving. So, you know, the reality is...
It is going to be an all-hands-on deck in order to get these fires under control. But here's the standard. Look, I have listened to enough fire calls to know when AFD rolls into a structure fire, which is one of the first things they do. One of the first things they do is they shut off power and gas to the area, to the, you know, the house, right?
You can imagine. So this is not surprising to me, again, Daryl. So I hear him say that if CAL FIRE turned off the power to certain grids, that would actually make sense to me. It wouldn't surprise me. And I would say part of your emergency planning is... Because power is probably going to get shut off to that area. But it doesn't change the fact that we know that reservoirs are empty. It has been widely reported. Because Sean Hannity, if you listened to his show yesterday.
It was back in 2009 he did a show talking about the Delta smelt, this little minnow, this little fish. And how Enviros, it wasn't even on the endangered species list, but Enviros wanted this little fish was getting killed with a lot of the irrigation and stuff that was going to a lot of farmland in California. So they were able to get...
get it turned off effectively, the grid turned off effectively, dried up thousands and thousands of acres of California farmland. So, again, you know, We have to talk about the whole picture, not just one piece of it. Well, and when we're talking about the you were saying, though, it was a known thing. You're going to shut the power off. As you said, it's a standard firefighter. So that's the case. Part of what he said is, well, Cal Fire is bringing in generators now to take care of it.
Why weren't there generators on site in those places if this is a standard tactic and you know power is going to be cut, you need to self-generate power for your pumps. This is not surprising. I mean, none of this is surprising to me. Like, I hear it. I'm like, yeah, it's reasonable. I mean, in a lot of these areas where you have a massive wildfire or, like I said, in a standard home fire.
I can't tell you how many times, and I'm not a firefighter, so I'm not going to say I'm an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I can't tell you how many times I have listened to AFD of active fire calls, and I have heard the battalion chief calling.
for N-Star and MEA to cut the power or the gas to the building. Yeah, you want to stop the fuel. And like I said, and it makes perfect sense with those high winds, you want to cut them down. But why was the generator, I mean, like I said, this is literally.
Common sense. We're cutting the power to the area. Oh, our pumps run on that power. All right, everybody. Like you, Amy, do you have a generator at your house just in case power? So if the common person can do it and the intelligent, why is our government, our state government? federal governments, local governments not having these. And to the point, Daryl, every one of these governments has an Office of Emergency Management. It is their job to think about these things.
It is their job to play out every scenario. I've been part of these, you know, tabletop exercises. That's what they call them, right? Where, you know. The police chief is there. The fire chief is there. The emergency manager is there. The health department is there. I mean, you have every department that is potentially going to be impacted, and you say, okay, this is the scenario.
fire hits hits all of a sudden and this is this is what we're going to do and every department runs through their needs and so as we have these conversations again I go back to a big responsibility is planning and preparation and it comes back to these elected officials and says did you prioritize did you prioritize basic public safety, which includes emergency management. In this case, what you're seeing is, in my view, a massive failure. I played the audio clip from Trump from 2018.
I mean, this was seven years ago. And Trump was outlining seven years ago California's failures in preparing for this. Again. Lots of lessons that are going to be learned. And I don't think there's one person you can blame. But there's lots of lessons that can be learned. And at what point is California going to do better?
That's a question. All right, we're going to go ahead and go to break. So if you'd like to stay with us, I invite you to do so, because guess who's joining us next? Congressman Nick Begich. He's going to talk about his first week in office. Stay with us. Amy Demboski, 6 to 8, mornings on News Radio 650, KENI. Call now, 907-522-0650. Well, 2025 is going to be a historic year. Great things are in store, I believe. And this has been a great week. Why? Because we have a new congressman.
And he is joining us now. It is Congressman Nick Begich III. Welcome, sir, to the show. We are so thrilled to have you. I would love to hear how your first week in Congress has been going. Thanks, Amy. Yeah, it's been a great first week. You know, there's so many really good freshman members that are coming in from across the country in the Republican Conference.
We've had a good opportunity to build relationships with those members and with their staff as we find areas of common interest. You know, committee assignments are being handed out, and we're excited about that as well. I'm on the natural resources. committee, a very important committee for Alaska, of course, and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which is a powerful committee. It deals with roads and ports and airports, trains.
So also very important for Alaska. And I have not yet made this public, but I was just added to the Science, Space, and Technology Committee as well. So I'll be doing three committees, full workload. But a lot of opportunities for Alaska in terms of advancing good policy.
Well, that's right up your bailiwick. So I think these are all great committees for Alaska, and I think it will play very well to your strengths. You know, I'm watching you are not letting the grass grow under your feet on the first day. I see you had multiple bills relating to native lands and different types of native issues, and then you co-sponsored another bill. I don't know where you want to start, but have at it. You've been very busy already.
Yeah, we've been very busy. We had some bills, and actually these first three bills that I introduced were actually bills that Don Young had worked on for many years and other members of the delegation our senators have worked on for some time. You know, we've got a lot of sort of, we'll call them hanging chads, little details that need to be worked out and ironed out. And there are a lot of those things from past legislation, in this case, ANCSA.
that need to be resolved. And so we've got some landless... tribes in southeast Alaska. That's sort of been a lingering issue for 50 years, and we've got a bill. We introduced that bill, and hopefully we'll be able to get it through on what's called a suspension vote. which requires two-thirds majority in the House. We get that done. It moves over to the Senate. Hopefully we can get it over to President Trump's desk in short order. There's a couple of other bills.
that are also sort of cleanup issues, ones related to, you know, lands that have been sitting in trust for decades that need to be moved back out. of a state-held trust so that people can actually utilize the land that's there. And there's a lot of these things that we can do that are quick hitters.
uh non-controversial so that's what we introduced there but you know this week um there was a really important bill i'm sure many have heard of it it's called the lake and riley act and it allows us to address
deportations for illegal immigrants who commit certain crimes. And it gives the authority to do that to federal authorities. It also allows states to have standing when the federal government has refused to enforce its own laws so that states can then say, hey, look, we've been impacted by the federal government failing to enforce the laws that we can now sue the federal government as a result.
And that act overwhelmingly passed the House. It appears as though it's going to pass through the Senate. And so we'll be able to get to work here day one when President Trump... is inaugurated, and he'll be able to start taking action on that very important issue right out of the gate. So there's been a lot of things we've been working on. I was very pleased to co-sponsor.
a bill that allows for concealed carry reciprocity. And this is a very important issue for people who are traveling around the United States to make sure that they have their Second Amendment rights protected. when they cross a state boundary. And so I'm an original co-sponsor on that bill. There's a lot of things that are happening. We're working until sometimes 10 or 11 o'clock at night down here.
in order to do all the work that needs to get done. But I'm very excited about the unity that we've seen in the conference. You know, we had our vote last week for speaker. I call it an extended vote, but we got it done.
on the first round which is fantastic and i think it illustrates that yes there are some differences within the republican conference that's good that's fine we need those debates but at the end of the day we've got to work together with a tight majority in order to move the America First agenda forward in the House, over to the Senate, and then on to President Trump's desk so that we can make these ideas laws.
You know, I think you're exactly in the right place, and you have the energy to do it. So I have no worries about you working long hours. You're kind of used to it. Let's just say. But, you know, I'm watching it. There's a new headline that also popped up on Must Read Alaska last night, and it says that you're supporting sanctions on the International Criminal Court. Can you explain to us?
us what this is about yeah so the international criminal court is a court that uh that has been set up it's been there for many many years but the united states is not a party to the International Criminal Court. And part of the reason we're not a party is because President Bush actually said, look, we're not going to cede
authority to an international criminal court that's going to use that authority to prosecute on the basis of political outcomes that they'd like to see. And even then, the president was seeing that. that the court was drifting toward politicized outcomes. And that has only continued since that time. And so the International Criminal Court... Again, the United States and a number of our allies, including Israel, are not a seated party to that jurisdiction.
And yet they are attempting the individuals on that court are attempting to pass judgments against U.S. citizens, against Israeli citizens and others who are not party to that court. And so this bill. that I voted for in this last week allows us to levy sanctions against the International Criminal Court for attempting to take actions against U.S. citizens and our allies.
You know, I think that makes a lot of sense. We've seen them really, especially on an international level, whether we're talking about the UN or the ICC, we've seen them be very, frankly, in my view, anti-Semitic, very anti-Israeli. And I think having a strong voice from the U.S. Congress come out and say, hang on a second, we're going to put a check on you people.
You know, we're not going to cede any ground in this. We have the fortitude to stand up and push back and say we're not going to play along with this game. I appreciate the fact that you're making that strong stance. Absolutely. And at the end of the day, we have sovereignty as U.S. citizens and as our own nation. And anything that is going to diminish that sovereignty is something we've got to push.
back against. I mean, when you start giving authority to international organizations like the ICC, like the UN, the World Health Organization, and others, you see that our rights and privileges as U.S. citizens are eroded, we can't allow that. We have our own sovereign government, and it needs to stay that way. Agreed. You know, I'm going to switch topics on you one more time here.
As we're watching the wildfires in California, we're seeing potential infrastructure failures. We're seeing potential prioritization failures. Lack of forest mitigation efforts clearly are going to be... is something that I think is playing a role. What lessons are you learning as you see this in California? And I'm thinking about Alaska's timber industry and potential forest mitigation. Are you looking at California and saying, hmm,
How can we make sure this doesn't happen in Alaska? Absolutely. I mean, I think there's a few things to unpack. One is what we've seen from the state of California's government is a focus on DEI. a focus on preservation rather than conservation, and a focus on directing limited funds, limited state government funds for addressing illegal immigration, giving people prioritization for housing, health care, education, etc. And when you redirect those limited funds, you're depriving.
other departments within a state with the resources that they need in order to properly manage their scope of authority. And so that's what we've seen, whether it's the lack of power generators available down in those affected areas, whether it's the lack of water in those areas in order to fight fires. You know, these are the downstream consequences of failing to prioritize your own citizens. And that is happening in California. I don't know that we have that challenge to that degree in Alaska.
You know, when you look at the inability for maybe not in this area, but in other areas of California where they haven't had active forest management. That has actually jeopardized people's lives and property. And we've seen that over the last few years in California and other parts of the United States. And we've got to have active forestry management.
not just because of the opportunities it provides economically, but also for, you know, for property and for safety of lives, right, of people's lives. by actively and properly and responsibly managing our forests. You know, I think that is exactly right. And I think there will be a lot of states that have timber industries or large forested areas that are going to look at California and their legislators, their congresspeople, their senators.
are going to say, okay, what can we do in our states to make sure this doesn't happen? So I'm glad that, you know, you have an eye on it. Okay, now we have to get into the good stuff. Are you ready for this? I'm ready. Okay. We're going to send you some really good hip boots because you're in the D.C. Swamp, and we want to make sure that you stay clean and good. But now that you've been in the belly of the beast in the D.C. Swamp as an Alaskan, looking at all the D.C. drama.
Like, what is your real takeaway from having to navigate this minefield? Well, I will tell you, there are some really good people. And I've been impressed, to be honest, coming down here initially. Just sort of feeling it out, building relationships. There are people, a lot of people, especially on the Republican side of the aisle, that are really serious about finding detailed ways that we can cut waste.
fraud and abuse out of government, that we can put it back in its appropriate constitutional lane. Because I think nearly everyone recognizes that the
spending practices that have been happening in D.C. are going to ultimately, if they continue unchecked, ultimately result in a significant decline in the quality of life that we have as Americans. When you continue to abuse... the reserve currency status of the dollar over and over and over by overspending and printing in order to finance that spending.
you're ultimately creating inflation that really hurts everyday Americans. And so people are serious about that. I think we've got multiple opportunities to address that in the upcoming Congress. You know, I don't know where the Democrats are going to be at. The real challenge is where is that part of the conference going to go? I will tell you, you know, I call it the influence layer.
Those are the lobbyists and others who want to walk into the office and give you a piece of their view. That group is starting to activate, and we're seeing it. I've certainly been seeing it from folks who say, well, You can cut everything else, but don't cut my program. Well, the challenge is that everyone has that perspective for their one thing. And so I think there's going to be an upcoming battle in this town.
when the details of budget reconciliation come out. We are excited. We are excited to watch it. And, you know, look, I have every bit of confidence you're going to navigate it very, very well. We appreciate you actually taking this beast on and being willing to do it. And we just wish you the very, very best, and we will keep in touch. And let's just say the hip boots are on their way.
I'm looking forward to it. And, yeah, it's going to be a fight. And I'll tell you, there's going to be things that we like that we don't like. But at the end of the day, we've got to stay together as a conference.
We have to stay together. We only have a one-vote majority right now. It's going to be three votes when we finally finish these other special elections. But we've got to stay together. Otherwise, we're not going to be able to do the things that we need to do in order to save this country.
Agreed. Congressman Nick Begich, thank you so much for calling in and giving us a recap of your first week. It's been a busy one. We can't wait to see what this session holds. I think you're going to do great things, my friend. Thanks, Amy. Keep up the fire. All right, we will. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. There are thousands of kids who've been waiting over a year in their weight. Sponsor a child with compassion today. Just text the word radio to 83393.
All right. Well, I want to thank Congressman Nick Begich for calling in, giving us an update on his first week in Congress. And I want to do a special shout out to our friends that are listening to us in Willow Cramp up at Kaparek. Good morning, Harold, and thank you for listening. We appreciate each and every one of us, whether you're listening to us from Sitka, my friend Robert down there, or whether you're listening to us from Fairbanks, John, my friend up there.
Or Harold in Kaparuk. We so appreciate even each and every one of you. All right, that does it for Daryl and I today. We will be back with you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on Monday morning at 6 a.m. Until then, stay safe. God bless.