It's somewhat amazing to behold, but so much of the election is actually hinging not on how you know, how the ten thousand stupidest people in Pennsylvania are going to vote. I was actually looking at this the other day. It's all gonna come down to Pennsylvania. I'm now more and more convinced whoever wins Pennsylvania is winning this thing.
That's it. That's like the long and short of it.
Because it looks like Trump's gonna win a couple of states that he's winning, and the one state that's still standing on a knife is Pennsylvania. So this is the American way. The fate of the entire world, the fate of the free world, rests in the hands of the ten thousand stupidest people in Pennsylvania who still have not made up their minds about whether they like Donald Trump
or not. Now regardless, there's another place that is basically the battleground for the country, and that is right here in California. I don't know how many of you, within the sound of my voice have turned on a television in the last month and a half, but you have been bombarded by non stop ads for or against two different people, John Duarte and David Valadeo. So, John Duarte is running for congress. He is up north, David Valadeo's
down south. Duarte. His congressional seat involves a lot of pretty much all of them are Said County, a lot of Madera County, Santosous County, San Joaquin County up north. David Valadeo has King's County, parts of Toularry County. I think he goes into current county, et cetera. So David Valadeo South, John Darte North. Duarte is running against Adam Gray, a former member of the California State Legislature, as is David Valdeo running against Rudy Sallas, a longtime member of
the California State Assembly. And you are seeing NonStop constant ads for or against these two people.
Why well, the whole fate of much of.
What could happen over the next four years is going to be determined by who wins those two races. Let me explain the ways. Right now, Republicans control the House Representatives by an incredibly narrow margin. It is with well within the realm of possibility that Democrats could take the House. And there are so many different outcomes that one side or the other controlling the House could alter. Allow me to relate all the ways. Let's suppose Donald Trump wins,
but Democrats take the House. Trump will be impeached at least one more time, at least one more time, possibly two times.
God knows.
God knows how many times are they going to impeach him. I don't know, but that's on the table. They could have non stop impeachment inquiries because when you control one, when you control the House, you can start impeachment hearings. And when you control one house or the other, you have subpoena power. You can investigate things for the sake of legislation, you can interview witnesses, et cetera. So they could have January sixth Committee style hearings for all kinds
of things. Plus with the January sixth Committee, they've now established this precedent that you know, if Democrats have a majority, they are going to they will, for some politically charged cause, they will set up committees where they will not allow Republicans to pick the people that they necessarily want to pick to be the minority on the committee. So you can have incredibly biased presentations of facts et cetera. Now, if Democrats take control of the House and Trump wins,
that could happen. But here's the other big thing. Let's suppose Democrats get the trifecta. I think it's the most unlikely scenario is the idea of Democrats taking the Senate or retaining the Senate. I think pretty much universally people think Republicans are going to take and whole are going to take back the Senate. Democrats are certainly going to lose the race in West Virginia where Joe Manchin is going to be replaced by a Republican. That will be
one guaranteed Republican pickup. It looks like Democrats are certainly going to lose in Montana where John Tester is going to lose. So right there, that's a switch that gives the Republicans the majority from forty. Republicans right now have forty nine Senate seats, and that would flip them to fifty one. It's a pretty favorable year for Republicans in the Senate. Democrats are defending more, far more seats than Republicans are. Maybe there's some scenario where also who is
president plays into this. If Trump wins Republicans only need to get fifty votes to technically get the majority in the Senate, fifty votes plus Jade Vance as the tiebreaker. On the flip side, if Kamala Harris wins, Democrats only need fifty votes plus Tim Walls as the tiebreaker. But let's suppose Democrats get the majority in the Senate. They get at least they hold on to at least fifty seats,
Kamala Harris wins, and Democrats win the House. What happens then, Well, if that happens, all hell is going to break loose because the Democrats will get rid of the filibuster rule in the Senate.
So what does that mean.
The filibuster rule in the Senate is the rule that says, in the Senate you actually need sixty votes, not just fifty plus a tiebreaker to advance most pieces of legislation. So this is a long standing Senate rule. It kind of requires more consensus. It makes it harder pass legislation in the Senate. You need actually sixty votes rather than
just a simple fifty vote majority. The Democrats in the Senate have all pledged they will get rid of well at the very least forty nine of the fifty one Democrat senators right now have all said we will get rid of the filibuster rule for certain things. The only two Democrat senators who don't want to do that are Joe Manchin who's leaving, and Kirsten Cinema who's leaving. So the Democrats are like all in on this idea of getting rid of the philibuster rule in the Senate so
that they can pass, for example, universal nationwide abortion. You know under what circumstance They won't do that though in the Senate. If Republicans have the House. That's the situation right now, Democrats have fifty one votes in the Senate. They could get rid of the philibuster rule in the
Senate to pass things they want. Why aren't they doing it, Well, they're not doing it because it makes no sense right now to do that kind of enormous precedent breaking move when the House is not going to pass legislation they want. It doesn't make any sense. So basically, Republicans retaining control of the House, at least retaining control of the House, provides this break against Democrats doing the absolute worst things
they can do. That's the only reason why Biden hasn't been able over the last two years to accomplish the worst things he wants to do. I think the first two years of the Biden administration he sort of was softly. He was okay with breaking the filibus but thank god Democrats didn't quite have the fifty didn't quite have the votes necessary to get rid of the philibuster. Kirston Cinema and Joe Manson basically saved the Republic and said, no, we're not going to abolish the filibuster rule just for
the sake of accomplishing something in the short term. Now, they were going to do that with They were going to do that with their voting rights bill, so called voting rights bill that they wanted past, which would basically just export all of California's voting rules to the rest of the country. They were rattling their sabers to do
that after roev Wade was overturned. After Rovy Wade was overturned, they wanted basically just to pass a new nationwide law to make abortion legal in all fifty states, override all the laws of all the fifty states regulating abortion. But again Kirston Cinema and Joe Manchin didn't want to break the filibuster in order.
To do it.
But Harris is so oh behold into abortion, so committed to it that she wants to do that. There won't be any of the ambivalents that Biden showed on the question. She desperately wants to do that.
I think she.
I mean, she's now open about wanting to do her scheme to pack the Supreme Court, like she wants to do all these insane things. To do these insane things, she needs to control both the House and the Senate. She needs to break the philibuster rule in the Senate. They're not gonna bother breaking the filibuster rule in the Senate. If, for example, John Duarte and David Valadei hold onto their seats.
If John Duarte and David Valadeill hold onto their seats, it probably means Republicans are going to hold on to con I'll hold on to the House of Representatives. These are, honestly two of the top ten most hotly contested, most expensive races in the country are John Duarte and David
Valdeo's races. Now, when we return, we'll be able to talk with We will be speaking with John Duarte We're going to talk with him about an sort of an interesting topic, a little bit of a side the importance the ongoing importance of AM radio Duarte's efforts to retain it, and will get an update from him on his race against Adam Gray. This is the John Girardi Show right
here on Power Talk. A topic of kind of selfish interest for me, but non selfish interest for a lot of farmers out there, a lot of people dealing with emergency response is the ongoing existence of AM radio. For those of you listening to this, I know a lot of you are listening to this on Power Talk ninety six seven in Fresno. They're probably also though, a lot of you listening to this on AM thirteen sixty in
Modesto and AM fourteen hundred in the South Valley. Here to talk with me about the effort to preserve AM radio in cars is still at least a third or more of the radio stations in the country or AM radio. Here to talk with me about it is Congressman John Duarte from the thirteenth District of California. Congressman, thanks so much for being on the John Girardi Show. I really appreciate it.
The John Girardi Show and Congressman John Duarte. We got to keep that extra straight today, don't There we go?
John? And John, there we go.
So Congressman, Uh, tell me a little bit about this effort that I know you're signed on as a co sponsor to this legislation. Your district obviously comprises the very ag heavy I was pretty much everything between the ninety nine and the five from Fresno, almost almost reaching up to Stockton, so Olmer said, County Madera, County at Stanislaus County, et cetera. Tell me a little bit about why you're you're signed on to this effort to kind of keep AM radio preserved.
Well, you touched on the most important part of it, John, This is a bypart is an effort to recognize that AM radio is the most reliable, flexible, already established system for people to get communications during emergencies and when you're up in Tahoe in the whole mountain snowed in and everyone's stuck in traffic, it's the AM radio stations that the caltrams direct you to listen to to find out
what road conditions are and get emergency updates. This is true during fires, floods, everyone's got an AM radio and the emergency response folks can rely on radio AM radio. One AM radio tower can broadcast over and around mountains, that can broadcast hundreds of miles, that can cover many cities with a single radio station. So a generator in a radio broadcast station with AM radio can provide emergency information to hundreds and hundreds of thousd and if not
millions of people. And that's why when you're when you're in your car and you're in an emergency or there's an evacuation, AM radio is what we.
Go to, right, and the other, the big the other sort of big push for this. It seems to be coming from a lot of congressmen in rural areas, agricultu ag heavy areas. And maybe you could explain a little bit about how this is. I mean, certainly, any farmer is listening to this on an AM radio station probably already understands this. But maybe for our city slicker listeners, the ways in which AM radio is useful for especially for the ag community and farmers and such.
Well, Yeah, AM radio is a very popular rural communications channel. So one of the side benefits to keep an aim radio around is that this is kind of the low rate zone. This is the local news, This is the ag report. These are the specialty radio station. Sometimes you find a local college campus has a socialist radio station or some some crazy thing like that. But this is where you can find a very democratized communication medium that can really serve local and niche needs. And I don't
want to lose it. And I don't want big tech to take over any more of our communications. I don't want everyone to have to have a radio subscription to get media. I don't want everyone to have to go online or go into one of the podcast sources that can be edited or jocked around with. We've seen too much of that lately. AM radio has a long history of democratized niche and local content, and that's where're protected.
Yeah, I totally agree.
And you know, I think this is a legitimate role of Congress. You know, I think a lot of conservatives complain about, you know, congressional congress overreaching. That's not what the framers want. Well, No, this is is interstate commerce. This is the airwaves that you know don't necessarily radio airwaves don't necessarily recognize state boundaries.
This is interstate commerce.
This is huge multi state you know businesses, car manufacturers, et cetera that are looking to you know that they have a profit mode of interest, and you're as a congressman, you're having to deal with questions of you know, nationwide public safety and things like that. Any thought sort of on that, you think this is an appropriate role for Congress to be stepping in here.
As we talked about, John, I think that the public safety and public information system that FM radio uniquely plays is the most compelling argument in this bill. Right, we all want to be careful when we start to use government to structure the media markets, right, and you want to let that kind of flows. That flows. A lot of us listen to more podcasts now than we used to. Am Rady's still got a very strong role to play for a lot of listeners. But I certainly wouldn't make
a move in Congress. There's full communication channels away from listeners who want to access the information of the entertainment that groups like yours provides. The biggest, most compelling part of this bill, though, truly, is the emergency communication system.
Yeah yeah, well, Congressman, I appreciate all the insight on this Bill in particular. I think I'd be remiss though, to ask you about your campaign right now. I mean, this is one of the big most hotly contested races for the House of Representatives in the whole country, your race against Adam Gray. I just thought i'd ask how it's going, how are you feeling, and sort of what's sort of the choice for voters in.
Within the thirteenth district.
Well, the choice is clear. We can stay on the path of high taxes, high inflation, high gas prices, high grocery prices, and fleeing companies from California as well as the United States. Or we can go back to the policies of affordability, opportunity, bring the gas price of gas and groceries down, drill American oil, repatriot of manufacturing, because when you have low cost energy, you have manufacturers look at look at our nation differently when it comes to
where they manufacture. Right now, in the thirteenth district, we've got families paying forty seven cents a kilowatt hour to pgene for electricity. Nobody is going to put great jobs and the energy intensive factory in a location that's got forty seven cent kilowatt today.
Yeah, well it's our Gavin Newsom fiber ten years them. Yeah, you know, Gavin Newsom is going to have that handled. He'll make sure that there's enough oil in all those refineries so that there will never be price fluctuations. It'll just always be high priced.
So that's great. Do some ANPTI the checking account so he bought more checks?
Right, yeah exactly.
I don't know how that works. You screw up the fossil fuel industry, so you build more tanks for fossil fuel. It makes no sense. But we don't expect much out of these guys.
I love how the you know, the gas companies are telling him, do not do this.
We will not keep investing here. That will increase all your prices.
Oh I'm going to do this. Okay, good sounds great. Thanks thanks a lot for engaging honestly with us. All right, Well, at any rate, Congressman Duarte, we appreciate having you on.
Good luck.
We'll probably I assume Trevor and I will be checking in with you guys on election night.
Again.
It's one of the how these California races you and David Valadeo goo that could determine the whole you know, whether Keem Jefferies or Mike Johnson is Speaker of the House. So we're we're going to be watching with great interest.
I'm available over the weekend. Keep in touch, glad to connect with you.
All Right, it sounds good, and we will be back with more right here on the John Girardi Show. All right, let's talk about some more local elections stuff. The thing I want to talk about. I want to talk about some of the bond measures, specifically the Clovis Unified and.
The President Unified bond measures.
Now, my wife got in the mail because we live in kind of the Clovis Unified area. Yes, on measure A five proofs of a great bond. Now, I thought this was funny phrasing because five proofs is commonly used phrased in the.
History of philosophy.
That relates to the five proofs of the existence of God that Aristotle and Saint Thomas wrote about extensively in their works.
So I'm like, oh, five proofs.
Hey, you've heard of Aristotle and Saint Thomas giving five proofs. But here's five proofs on what a great bond measure A. Now, for those who are not aware If you live in Close Unified, you're voting on Measure A. If you live within the District of Fresno Unified, you're voting on Measure H. Measure A is a four hundred million dollar bond measure for construction projects. Measure H is a five hundred million bond for construction projects. Both of these bond measures are
emanating from Proposition two. Proposition two is a statewide ten billion dollar bond measure for schools and community colleges. And that is maybe the chief reason why I don't want to vote yes on any of these local, individual school district bond measures. They're not Actually what they're doing is basically they know that Proposition two is on the table statewide. If Proposition two passes, they can get more money from the state, like matching money from the state, if they
also raise money through a local bond measure. That's why every single school district in the region is issuing a bond measure right now. It's to capture the proposition to money. So I guess this just makes me skeptical and not really believe all these school districts when they say, oh, well, we need the oh, all of a sudden we need the sort even though we just passed, you know, several hundred million dollar bond measures just four years ago and got.
State funding for it.
Even though we already got a bond measure and a ton of money just four years ago.
No, no, no, no, no, we need it right now.
It doesn't have anything to do with the Oh just klinky dink that the state bond measure is here. Yes, I'm sure people would like all the money all the time, all the time. And there's always things that school districts could spend money on. It. I mean, I've heard people from Clothes unifieds are, well, if we need this bond measure finish Clovis South. Why do you need it to finish Close South? Why did you start Clovis South without a clear roadmap of how you were going.
To finish it.
Well, prices increased for everything during COVID, so you know we couldn't have anticipated that, so we we really need this money. Well, you know what, maybe make Clovi South a little less grandiose. I don't know, one less Olympic sized swimming pool. I don't know, having to go to Close East for the swimming. I don't know, like tighten your belt. Why is it that school districts are the only ones who don't ever have to tighten their belts? You know, I'm spending a lot more money on everything.
Why should I have to continue spending a lot on my property taxes just so that your grandiose designed for Clovis South.
Like there's no fat you can cut out of Clovis South. How much of a shortfall are we at here? Anyway?
Here's what the Measure A supporters say about Measure A, the five proofs of the existence of God. Note the five proofs of why it's a great bond measure. It starts out with a flat out deception. Maybe not a flat out lie, but it's certainly deceptive. Number one doesn't cost you an extra penny?
Yes it does.
I'm so sick of this messaging from the Clovis Unified crowd about how Measure A isn't going to cost you an extra penny. How the last bond measure they passed doesn't cost you an extra penny. It won't increase your taxes at all. Let me just explain what bond measures are, just to get rid of any illusions you guys might have about what bond measures are and how that work.
A bond is a loan.
It is a loan to a municipal entity, like in this case a school district could go to a state.
Could go to a city, could go to a county.
But a bond is a loan. That's what a bond is. I think a lot of I actually spoke for a group that was the local Republican Women's group, which I love all all my Republican ladies love the Republican women group, the Fresno County and City Republican Women Federated. I spoke to them and they had me and my buddy Jonathan Keller speak about all the different ballot initiatives and I was talking about proposition too, And I asked them and
these are politically, you know, pretty politically engaged gals. And I said, you know, no shame in this, but let me just go around the room and ask you. Let me ask you, guys if I stuck this microphone in your face and put you on the spot and said, could you define for me succinctly what a bond is? And most of those get There were a few who did raise their hands, but most of those, most of the people in that audience and these are these are
the Republican women federated. I don't think they're that's probably going to be the most politically engaged crowd of people.
You're gonna find.
They didn't really know what a bond is. They couldn't really succinctly define it for you. I think that's true of most people. I think most people see the word bond, they don't exactly understand what it means. They know it has something to do with taxes. They know it means somehow money goes to the school district, but they don't really understand it. A bond is just a loan. It's a loan to a school district.
Like most loans. What do you have to pay back? You got to pay back.
The principle, which for measure A is four hundred million dollars, and you've got to pay back the interest, which for Measure A could be as much as another four hundred million dollars. Who's paying that back and win? Well, it's I not the school district paying it back, it's you. It's the taxpayers. You pay it back in taxes. You
pay it back in property taxes. So for the measure A folks to say, Measure A, this four hundred million dollars bond that's gonna cost the taxpayers approximately eight hundred million dollars. It doesn't cost you an extra penny. How are they able to say that, Well, it's because on your property tax statement.
For those of you who live within the close unified area.
You've got old bonds, old close unified bond measures that you're still paying for from the year two thousand. I think it's two thousand, two thousand and eight, twenty twelve, twenty twenty, and now we're gonna get twenty twenty four. I believe that's the case. I might be off in some of those dates, but you've got multiple old bond measures that you're still paying over the you know, the life of these bonds. I think it could vary, but
I think it's usually it's a thirty year long repayment. Basically, the way that the measure A folks tried to structure this is such that, well, this won't make your property taxes increase, They're just not gonna naturally decrease once we've paid off old bond measures. So that's how they're able to get away with saying Oh, it doesn't increase your taxes. It won't cost you an extra penny. Of course, it costs you an a quote extra penny. If you pay
property taxes, you will be paying for this. Of course it's gonna cost you. You would if they just paid let existing bonds get paid off, you would begin to see a drop in your property tax right once, finally these flipping bonds are paid off. But no, no, they're not gonna get paid off. Next, build on past successes, a history of excellence in the classroom and on the field, leading the next generation even greater heights. All right, sure
sounds good. Independent Oversight has a forty members Citizens Oversight Committee that monitors accountability and stewardship over your money. You know someone made that this arguments, Well, you know it's the money is monitored very carefully to make sure it's used the right way. Okay, bully for you. I just don't really trust. I mean, I'm not accusing Clovis Unified of laundering money or financial shenanigans. I'm just saying I
don't want to pay for this stuff. I don't want to pay for a huge eight hundred million bond measure with four hundred million, spending eight hundred million dollars to get four hundred million dollars worth of benefit.
I don't want to do that every four years.
I just think it's silly. Number four Clear Benefits Measure A has a solid plan line out of my line on them of how to improve facilities, increase campus safety, and monetize our schools. We give this plan an A plus. Of course, you're the sponsors of the bill. Community trust you trusted us, and we built fabulous facilities, phenomenal pools, spectacular stadiums, and transformational technology. That's the other thing is, I don't think any of this stuff necessarily correlates with
students actually learning more necessarily. I mean, I remember this. My wife and I were thinking about this one private.
School a couple of years.
Ago, and they're selling point.
They were trying to sell, Oh, every student has an iPad. No.
I that's the absolute opposite of what I want. I don't want kids all having iPads.
I don't.
Frankly, I don't know that you need much more other than an overhead projector jesuis like the idea that all of that an iPad for every kid, as if that's a selling point as if that's something that's gonna help kids learn better. Like, No, the iPad's literally the most intuitive piece of technology known to man. No, I just don't necessarily trust that all this money we're pouring in is necessarily correlated with student success. It certainly isn't in the context of Presdent Unified.
And I get it.
Look, if I get that the Clovis Unified areas population is growing, they're trying to build a new high school, all right, But.
Again every four years, we have to do this.
Every four years, we have to put in a new bond measure to get more money. And again the timing of it, it's it's you're only doing this because of the state wide bond measure. If the state wide bond measure weren't on the table, I don't think this bond measure would be on the table for us locally.
Now, shifting gears away from clothes Unified.
And also, by the way, just I hate the entire California public school system. I think the whole focus, the whole thrust of it is premised wrong. I think the whole thrust of American public high schools towards preparing kids for college. We ignore the fact that huge percentages of people will not actually graduate from college, and we don't pour the necessary investment into skilled labor, non college graduate
kinds of work that could actually make eighteen year olds employable. Instead, what we're doing is we're preparing some kids that some of these kids can go to college, of which a percentage of them will get some flimflam useless degree and a bunch of student loan debt.
Some kids will go to college but not graduate.
A lot of kids will graduate high school and have this sort of flim flam existence of bopping around between kind of community college and maybe some classes at state and then wind up not graduating but having a bunch of student loan debt, and we're not serving those people. Well, I think there's an epidemic in this country of eighteen
to twenty three year olds living. As I say, I keep using this adjective, this flim flam existence of not really having much direction because high school prepared them for nothing. High school prepared them for college graduation, because that's the baby boomer model of just this is what success in America is. You go to high school, you get a college degree, you advance and that was very true for many, many,
many families throughout the United States of America. Certainly was true for the Girardes that my great grandfather came here on a boat to Ellis Island as a shoemaker and a grocer, and his son went to college and became a CPA, and his son went to college and med school and became a doctor, and his son went to college in law school and now yaps on the radio.
College higher education was the pathway to success in this current time, with it with college education being so watered down as far as its value, the degree inflation, great inflation and degree inflation of you know, the kinds of jobs that needed just a bachelor's degree thirty years ago now need a master's degree, that needed a high school diploma thirty years ago now.
Need a bachelor's degree.
The extravagant cost and debt load that college weighs on people. We need different priorities for public education, and I think the American model is just not a great model. I don't want to keep pouring money into public schools who
are mandated. Also, just this other thing, I don't want to keep pouring money into public schools that are mandated by the state to teach things that are fundamentally contrary to Christianity, which is what the public schools do when it comes to anything relating to sexuality, sexual ethics, et cetera. They are mandated to teach things that are fundamentally contradictory to what I believe. Now, let's talk about Measure H real quick.
You know what. Actually, we'll save it for the last segment.
The no on Measure H and even more decisive no than the no on Close Unified Measure A that is next on the John Girardi Show. There's an editorial in gv wire written by Bill McEwen, who sort of directs news for GV wire. McEwan had been long time editor for the Fresno b NO on Measure H, and he
lays out some of the big highlights for it. Measure H is the Fresno Unified Area five hundred million dollar bond measure that you know, with interest, is probably going to cost taxpayers in Fresne Unified about a billion a billion dollars principal plus interest. By the way, if you're a renter in president Unified rather than a homeowner, and you think, oh, property tax increase, So that's not going to impact me. Now, who do you think pays for
property taxes. It's not your landlord. He's passing the cost on to you in rent. He increases he or she increases your rent for his property tax burden. Okay, so you're not escaping the burden of higher property taxes just because you rent versus own a house. That is reflective in your rent.
Anyway.
McEwan rights voters have backed more than one billion dollars in President Unified construction bonds since nineteen ninety five in the belief that new and updated facilities would enhance student learning. However, the record shows this investment has not significantly improved student achievement or fulfilled the district's goals of graduating high percentages of young men and women ready to succeed in.
College or the workplace.
The fact is President Unified remains one of the lowest performing school districts in the nation. The reasons for this startling lack of success are complex and many. The extreme poverty in some President neighborhoods creates big barriers to learning. A union contract that rewards veteran teachers with the perk of picking their assignments, robs students from impoverished homes of
the chance to be taught by many of the best instructors. Finally, there's the overarching reason for Fresny Unified's long struggles, a complete failure by the school board to put students first by holding superintendents, other top administrators and teachers accountable.
For educational achievement.
The community has sent loud messages to district leaders of the past twenty five years the status quo is unacceptable. They go on on and on that Fresney Unified has had as basically its number one goal of preserving the bureaucracy at all costs. This op ed by McEwan, who I think has been a very close observer of Fresney Unified for the last thirty years. It's pretty devastating and he absolutely tears them apart and says, there's no way we should be spending this much money with such poor
leadership in Fresdent Unified. No guarantee that it will actually help student success. So no unmeasured rates, no unmeasured rate, no one prop to that'll do it. John Girardy show see you next time on Power Talk