Monday 3/10/25 | Funday Headlines and Discussions

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The Michael Dukes Show, streaming live across the world. Live around the world on the internet at MichaelDukesShow.com and across the state of Alaska on this, your favorite radio station and or FM translator. FM, FM, FM. Hello and good morning to you, my friends, in this wonderful Monday morning. Boy, the weekend went too quick this time, didn't it? It was like go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

All weekend, all weekend long. And here we are back to Monday again. How did we get to March? You know, I was talking with a friend earlier this week, or I guess late last week. about that accelerated timeline. It just seems like, wow, it just happened like right now, right now. All right. Well, we've got lots of stuff to cover today. Lots of conversations to be had and stories to cover.

Around the state of Alaska. There's no guests today. It was funny because, you know, I started reaching out late last week looking for guests for Monday specifically to talk about. state legislative issues. And, you know, I've got, I've got my usual cadre of people that are, you know, I can get on pretty easily, but I was reaching out to

some of the legislators and movers and shakers who I don't normally have on the program, uh, because I was like, I want to, you know, I want to, uh, want to get a different perspective to, you know, the same folks on all the time. And, um, It was interesting because a lot of the some just didn't respond. Others were talking about. strategic strategic thinking you know that they've got things that are happening on the floor this week that they've got things that they don't want to

they don't want to necessarily telegraph what they do, et cetera, et cetera. And I'm like, well, you know, that's fine. I mean, we don't have to necessarily talk about that per se, I guess, but. I mean, there seems to be a lot of strategic planning going on in the legislature right now, which is, I mean, great. That's fine. I just hope that we get some. I just hope that we get some.

results out of what's happening. But we're going to talk about some of the frustration level and some of the things that are happening here in the legislature. And what's interesting to me is... When the Republicans were in control of the majority the last go around, the Democratic minority had a sympathetic ear. To the had a sympathetic ear in the news media. Right. Anytime the Republicans did something that they felt like was, you know.

I don't know, unfair or disadvantaged to the minority. There was there was a little mention of it or a little story or, you know, and yet now any time that that happens on the other side and this had happened before. There was very little coverage of kind of the snubbing of the minority in that regard. And so here we are. We're back. We're back to business as usual in the legislature where. The democratically led majority is kind of running roughshod over the minority, the Republican minority.

And the only people really reporting on it are the talking heads and the folks over at Must Read, which is kind of the Republican side of the publishing aisle. But, you know, I guess this is what we should expect this day and age in Alaska. It's kind of frustrating to watch, but here it is. We've got some other stories from around the state, including Fairbanks and the Mat-Su and some things in Anchorage that have been going on.

Again, some House things. And, oh, Kevin McCabe, Representative Kevin McCabe, my former representative, has got a great article. talking about school consolidation. And that article is up at Must Read Alaska as well. So if you're not adding Must Read to your weekly... must-read watchlist, then I think you're missing out. What else did I have here? I think that's it for right now.

I think we'll continue to add some things here as we go through. Of course, it's interesting to see that the headlines that what we're seeing right now. There's a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of discussion going on around what's happening with the federal government. In fact, if you look at the... If you look at the headline page of the ADN, which is the paper of record, okay, let's face it, ADN is the largest newspaper in the state.

It has been. It probably will be for the foreseeable future. But when you look at the number of headlines there, about half the headlines have to do with Doge or immigration or something at the national level. There's not a lot of things about what's going on in the legislature or anything else, which I found, you know, kind of interesting. But it was a lot of this angst about, you know, weather service, it loses 10 percent of Alaskan staff.

The U.S. health, the health agencies make a buyout offer to their employees. Doge spending credit card limit. Companies warn investors that Doge's federal cuts might hurt businesses. Trump downplays uncertainty about his tariffs and prospects of higher prices. Immigration agents arrest Palestinian activists who led Columbia University protests.

Canada's, I mean, they're just, it's all about the, that, and there's a couple stories about the Iditarod, and one story about a rural Alaska funding for a native school down in the... down on the k the uk delta so this is the you know it's interesting it's interesting to watch how this is all playing out and how there's a lot of hand wringing going on

over what's going on in the federal government. Now, I don't know if you saw the videos that came out late last week, but there was a pair of videos that I saw. that where Governor Dunleavy basically came out and said, we know it's tough, but the state of Alaska. is look you know is willing to we got we got we got slots here here's what the governor had to say about uh this uh right now let me uh let me get this right here let me watch uh president trump's speech to congress last night

I thought it was an incredible speech. Obviously, I'm a big fan of the president's. I've supported the president. He has supported me. He loves Alaska. He literally said he loves Alaska in this speech. He shouted out Alaska. He shouted out the pipeline concept that we're all working on that he supports. And he doesn't just talk about it. He has directed his secretaries to make sure that this pipeline gets done.

He's talked about critical minerals, rare earths, which are something that Alaska is going to benefit from. He talked about opportunities across the globe. He talked about investment coming to this country. I'm optimistic. I think a lot of Americans are optimistic. And, you know, quote, there's a new sheriff in town, as folks would say. And what I mean by that is it's a change of direction from the previous administration. Obviously, that's what the people voted for.

Like a lot of people across the globe, not just here in Alaska, I watched President Trump's speech to Congress last night. I thought it was an incredible speech. Obviously, I'm a big fan of the president's. I've supported the president. He has supported me.

That wasn't that was sorry. That wasn't the that wasn't the right one that I that wasn't the one that I thought it was. There's two different two different. He put out two different videos. I apologize. This is what happens sometimes when you when you got the. when you're doing it all by yourself don't have the producer. Here it is. This is the governor talking about the loss of federal jobs in the state of Alaska.

And what does it mean and how do we help? Difficult time. There's no doubt about it. I think once this thing works itself out here over the next couple of weeks, I think you'll see a number of those folks back at work. I think there will probably be other opportunities for some folks that may not get back into the federal system.

There's certainly opportunities at the state system. We've got openings that I think a lot of those folks could fill. And so I would just say don't lose heart. But again, I do think some of that stuff is going to work out soon. in which some of those people will be back to work. And again, some folks that may not, we welcome them to come and work with us in the state. So, I mean, the state of Alaska is ready.

I mean, they keep talking about how they don't have enough workers. And this is the opportunity. State of Alaska is looking for people right now. That's what that's what he's trying to say. The state of Alaska is work is looking for people right now. But state but a lot of these federal workers, there's a lot of angst. In fact, they actually have an article up about this right now.

Lynn Curry over at the ADN writes about it, saying fired federal employees, flood the job market. They have worries. And so do employers. We're going to go over this because. I found it really interesting, especially from the perspective of some of the federal workers. and the responses that Lynn writes about in this article about what their expectations were and some other things. So we're going to get into that as well. We will talk about...

the consolidation bill that Kevin McCabe has got. We'll talk about the Anchorage assembly. This is the other thing. The assembly race in Anchorage is... The headline reads, fundraising in Anchorage assembly campaigns has dropped off a cliff. And I have to start asking the question, is Anchorage just lost and people have kind of just given up hope?

Or is there so many other things going on that they just can't pay attention to it? Because they're talking about how the fundraising for this year's race is an absolute fraction of what it was. And what does that mean for people who live in the Anchorage area? Because they still have an outflow. They still have a migratory outflow. in alaska so there's a lot of things to cover today and i'm going to kind of be all over the place so feel free to

Come on in and join us. Oh, by the way, I opened up the phone lines this morning as well at 319-527-3864. 319-527. 3864. So if you want to sound off, we'd love to hear what you have to say as well. And we will continue. Kicking things off here in just a moment. with this discussion about federal employees? The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense, Liberty-based, Free Thinking Radio. We return to more right after this.

If you missed the show, you can listen to it on your time with Duke's On Demand. Oh, and it's free. Like America used to be. Streaming live every weekly morning on Facebook Live and MichaelDukesShow.com. Okay. All right. Sorry about that. No sound for you guys. Everybody else. Everybody else heard it. So I apologize.

I don't know why it does that sometimes, but sometimes you just can't, you can't hear the audio that's being streamed from the internet. I don't know why. People on the radio are hearing it just fine. Why it's not going to the, I don't know. I apologize for that. I suppose what I'll do is I will, can I just link this? Can I, can I click the, what's the link? Here it is right here. Is this it?

Here, I'm going to drop this link in the chat room and somebody can go follow it and tell me if it works or not. But that was the link to what the governor was saying. Basically. You know, the governor was like, hey, come on down. We've got openings. We've got openings. Feel free to jump on board and come on down. Um, so, uh, anyway, it's, uh, I I've getting, here's what gets me.

A lot of these folks who are squawking about this, a lot of the folks who are upset about this stuff, act like there's no uncertainty in anyone else's life. Oh, I mean, we could lose our jobs. You know, we could lose our jobs. And I'm like, OK, yes, so could. So could all of us. So could all of us. And I think that's part of the problem is that they have been. They have been. basically consoled with the fact that most of them can never lose their position. And it's crazy.

Kevin McCabe is in the chat room, says all the defined benefit proponents complain about our 18 percent vacancy rate and say the reason for that is because of our lack of retirement. I agree, though too many in some departments. You agree that it's the vacancy rate is because of retirements or is that a misstatement there? All right.

Kevin also said there was a protest in Juneau last Friday in front of the Capitol that was made up of NOAA workers who'd been fired. I suggested that maybe the state commissioners should be circulating in the crowd handing out job applications and everyone laughed, but I was serious. Yeah. I mean, seriously serious. I mean, I'm serious about that as well. If there's an opening, then there you go. Okay.

I'm scrolling down here just to see what there's a lot of you saying you didn't hear it. I apologize. I'm sorry. It happens. I'm scrolling through here. Okay. Jeannie says there were more federal workers than any state ever needed. Well, this is part of our whole dependency state thing is that we had a disproportionate number of.

not just federal but governmental employees overall i mean it's a huge number when you look at the federal the state the municipal employees from the cities and the boroughs There is a it is a disproportionately large portion of the workforce. Compared to most other states. All right. Too many state employees. Oh, okay. I see. I see. He was agreeing about the fact that Jeannie said there was too many state employees. Okay.

If there are so many openings in state government, said David, how many funded vacancies do we have? Oh, that's a sensitive subject. You know, you know why that's a sensitive subject. Don't ask, don't tell on that one. All right, we're going to jump into this here in just a second. The Michael Duke Show continues. Common Sense, Liberty-based, free thinking radio. Like, share, subscribe, ring the bell, do all that stuff.

Let's get to it here, shall we? We're about eight seconds out here. So let's, oh, like and share. 50 people here, eight people have shared or liked. The Michael Dukes Show. Not your daddy. Wait, sorry. Not your daddy? Ooh, not your daddy's talk radio. Whew. I was scared for a second. Thought we were going down. Here's Michael Dukes and the show. Okay. Welcome back to the program. The Michael Duke Show. It is Monday. Doesn't it feel like Monday?

I felt like I had three Mondays in a row last week. It was just like, go, go, go, go, go. It was just like, oh, never-ending cycle of pain. But that's where we're at. It's, you know, it's great. Come on down, man. We love it. Phone lines are open at 319-527-3864. If you want to sound off and be part of it, we'd love to hear what you have to say. All right, so I wanted to talk about this article from Lynn Curry over at the ADN.

She writes mostly about workplace issues. And she usually has some interesting takes and interesting comments. But this piece really kind of caught my attention. Again, because... You know, all the headlines all is like, you know, all federal workers are losing their jobs and this is that. And it's going to be the sky is going to be falling. National Weather Service loses 10 percent of Alaska staff hampering forecasting around the world. I mean, the I'm OK. I mean.

It is what it is. The question is, are they adding to it? Are they creating? Are they producing? Or are they not? Kevin McCabe, Representative Kevin McCabe, said that there was a protest outside of the Capitol down in Juneau last Friday that was made up of... NOAA workers, NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is where the weather service is nestled under. There was a bunch of NOAA employees who had been fired.

He said he suggested that the state commissioner should be circulating in the crowd handing out job applications, and everyone laughed, but I was serious. That's what the governor's saying. We've got job openings. You want to shift sideways? Come on. Come on over. You know, let's do it. But there were some interesting things in this article from Lynn Curry that I wanted. And so we're just going to kind of go through this because.

I just every time I I see some of the commentary or I see some of the. the hand-wringing or the, you know, all the federal employees and this and that. And, you know, they're worried about, oh, being laid off and their job security. And all I could think of is... Welcome to the party, pal. I mean, that's just what the... of us have been facing our entire lives why should you be a separate class that has this guaranteed gold-plated iron-clad you know situation i mean good for you that you had it

But you can't expect it to last forever. So Lynn said that there's thousands of former employees who flooded the job market after the layoffs. They face a lot of struggles, including unexpected hostility from the private sector. A fired federal employee wrote this week, I'm lost trying to figure out how to land a new job before my savings runs out. although i worked for the federal government for 22 years i moved to a new position four months ago and qualified as probationary and got axed

Every job listed asked for fast paced results driven leadership. This phrase intimidates the heck out of me. None of my federal jobs rewarded speed. They rewarded accuracy. I'm sorry. I know how to document decisions and follow procedures, but hiring managers aren't looking for that. An employer wrote, so that was an employee, a fired federal employee. An employer wrote,

When we posted a position for a senior analyst last week, I received a resume from a terminated federal employee. His resume checks all our boxes, decades of experience, high-level clearances, specialized knowledge. But I worry that he'll have unrealistic expectations about compensation or hours. If we hire him, will he stay when he learns we often work 10-hour days? Or expect a six-figure salary with a pension baked in? It's a gamble.

And then this was the best one. This is the one that really caught my attention. This is the third kind of slice of life. A federal worker who landed a private job sector said. I expected sympathy from my new co-workers over my losing my federal job. Instead, they tell me it's time federal workers, quote, join the real world.

They remind me that they got laid off during the pandemic while I collected a regular paycheck with no loss of pension or health benefits. It's like they live in two totally different worlds. So she goes on to talk about how there's challenges for workers who are federal workers who are trying to jump into the private workforce, the private sector workforce. And she goes through a few of them. And it's.

It's kind of eye-opening when you think about it, and she breaks it down in a very good way. She breaks it down into five, six different categories. Job security. Most federal workers have never faced employment at will or performance based terminations. So they didn't have it was not performance based. It was just fill in fill a spot.

for them they never had to perform it was not performance based and of course since it was not at will you could almost never get fired you had a job for life that's what's going on so the job security in the real world, is definitely different. Different performance expectations, she says. Few former government employees have had to hit a quarterly revenue goal. a customer retention target or efficiency metrics standard these are standard uh

performance expectations in private sector businesses, right? I mean, we have to hit a budget. We have to hit a sales goal. We have to hit a, you know, whatever it is. We are expected to hit those goals. And if not, we got some splaining to do. Government employees have never had to do that. Salary expectations, she says for number three. Many former federal workers expect higher pay because of their GS pay scale history.

They may also assume their compensation includes structured raises and pensions, which almost no private employers offer. There is no structured raises. I mean, I don't. I can't recall if I ever worked for a place that had a, unless it was negotiated at the hiring. where they would say there'd be a review and an increase. I can't ever remember working for a place that just had structured raises baked in.

Like the step increases that you get in a state or a municipal job where they have automatic step increases that increase your salary every X number of years. Work culture shift. The federal system rewards process and documentation, while private employers prioritize profitability, speed, and efficiency. Private sector employers expect initiative and self-direction.

while federal jobs emphasize procedural correctness. Public sector jobs often involve fewer work hours and more predictable schedules compared to the private sector's longer work and less predictable schedules. I mean, okay. This is the other one. Friction with new colleagues. While many fired federal workers expect empathy from their new colleagues, they may not find it. Federal employees.

Kept their salaries, pensions and health insurance during the pandemic while private sector workers lost their jobs and had their salary cuts. And so, again, the. You want us to be empathetic to you when this is, first of all, this is something that is needed to be done for a long, long time. We needed to look at the efficiency of government.

We needed to look at where the waste was, where the waste, fraud, and abuse was. We needed to ask ourselves a question. Do we need X number of people in each department doing what? And how efficient is it? But see, that's never been a question that's been asked of the federal government.

When you start asking, I've seen this because I've sat in rooms talking to people about this. And when you start talking about efficiency and things like that in government, their eyes glaze over like it's just they can't understand it. Why would, you know, you know, that's not like it's the work culture. I mean, she's 100 percent right. The federal system rewards process and documentation.

while the private sector prioritizes speed, efficiency, and profitability. But it's the slog, right? The federal system, the governmental system. rewards people who plot along, who can document the thing. If there's progress, great. And if not, as long as they've documented the process, that's all that matters.

And then the final one is the lengthy job hunt. Fired federal workers are entering a tough job market and will need to compete with private sector workers over a limited number of openings for white-collar work. Again. Welcome to the party, pal. This is it. And it's great. Now, she does offer some things that... If you're a fired federal employee, there's some things that you can do to prepare.

Rework your resumes by deleting government jargon or acronyms, or really lean into it and look for positions with employers who have federal contracts or in a heavily regulated industry. That would welcome their expertise in navigating the bureaucratic structures. But I mean, you know, this is the hand wringing.

over this by so many in the, especially in like the mainstream news media where they're all just wringing their hands over what are these people going to do? I didn't see a lot of these people. being that worried during the pandemic. I mean, I just didn't see them, you know, they weren't.

That worried about all these people who were out of jobs and small businesses that had to close and saw all of their hard work evaporate over that period of time. I didn't see a lot of that. But this is the reaction. Well, how could we? I mean, you're firing. And then, again, what kind of cracks me up is this expectation that they expected sympathy or empathy from. their new coworkers over losing your job. Hey, that's how it works in the real world. Now,

More power to these people that they went out and they got a government job. And it was, you know, remember, this is something that I often have to remind people over the course of years is that initially. Remember, initially, when government jobs were really first stood up, they had a lower pay scale than the commensurate job or similar type job in the private sector. And they made up for that by having.

a gold-plated retirement system and some other things. That was what made they wanted the stability, and they had a retirement. That was the golden goose for working for the government. And that was the argument. Well, we have to give them this gold-plated pension plan or retirement or health care or whatever. We have to give them all this because they are receiving a lower compensation. But it's steady.

It's it's you know, it's stable. And we'll give him this. And but over the course of years, of course, they got the gold plated retirement and health care system and everything else. And their salaries just continued to ratchet up. Because again, those jobs didn't have to live in the real world of delivering a product or hitting a sales goal or anything like that. So they just had those step increases built up to where we are today.

where the average government employee is in the top end of the marketplace for similar jobs out in the private sector. Plus, they have the stability. Plus, they have the gold-plated health care and retirement and everything else. So, more power to anybody who jumped into that and got, you know, good for you. Good for you. But don't be surprised when the bill comes due. And that's kind of where we're at right now. We're spending trillions of dollars in deficit spending.

And it's unsustainable. It literally cannot be sustained. So you've got two choices. You can slow it down now and try and pull back, or... We will plummet off the fiscal cliff and and then it's going to be I mean, the whole country could crumble at that point. I mean, this is not hyperbole. This is not. This is the fact you cannot continue to spend more than you take in as a government and expect that it's going to work out in the end.

I mean, that's the Weimar Republic, Rome, Zimbabwe, you name it. When they started to devalue their currency and print more money, quantitative easing, whatever you want to call it. That's when. things went off the rails and they all eventually failed. So there you go. We have to do something about it and we have to do something about it.

now. And this is, is this the best way to do it? I don't know. It's really the only really hard, I mean, what are we, what was the previous attempt at this? The Grace Commission? Remember that? The Grace Commission, where they found $600 hammers and $800 toilet seats that were being purchased and nothing ever happened with it? Something's got to happen. And yes.

I said it last week. When you're doing these kind of things, somebody is going to feel the pain. In fact, a lot of people are going to feel the pain, including employees, constituencies that are being served. Citizens, we're all going to feel it. And, you know, overall, the economy is going to take a hit. Yes, absolutely. But if it's the only way to stop it. Then. That's what we got to do. That's how it works. That's, you know, it's either that or the alternative. Crashing and burning.

I know which one I would choose. All right, we got to go. The Michael Duke Show, Covet Sense, Liberty-based, free-thinking radio. We'll return to more right after this. Running on 100% pure beard power. Oh, also some coffee. We dip our beard in coffee. Ha, nice beard. The Michael Duke Show. Okay, we are in the break right now. I'm just going through here. Greg says, wow, no pension, no health care. Welcome to my world.

Want to raise, expand your skills, and stay off your phone? Oh, man. Good morning, good morning, good morning. When when no Chris says when nobles are stripped of title and forced to work the fields like the other serfs, the serfs are not going to feel sympathy for their co-workers. Right. Exactly. Right. When some landed noble gets his title stripped because he did something or, you know, and gets put down into the fields.

You know, complaining to the peasants that were there before him is not going to endear him to that whole crowd. That is that is a question. Okay. I'm impressed. Finally, some common sense, Chris said. I'm impressed. What, you haven't been hearing Common Sense lately? This is the first time, Chris, that you've heard, or Kim, that you've heard Common Sense? Is it really?

David, that's a good analogy. When the boat has a hole in it and the bilge pump can only pump out half of the water that's gushing in, the boat will eventually sink. Yes, you have to plug the hole. That's exactly why you have to plug the hole. Richie says, it seems like far too many of the people being let go.

developed a mentality that they are untouchable and exempt from real-world consequences. I worked in the private job sector for 30 years, went in each day wondering if we were going to be let go. We were asked after every job we did to detail what we did multiple times per day. It's normal. It's accountability. These people getting let go may want to focus on showing why they are a value rather than whining. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly it right there. Why?

Yeah, I was just shocked that they felt like they were going to get some empathy from the private sector. I mean, that would be the last thing that I would do would be to walk in and whine about how I lost my juicy federal job and then expect them to be empathetic to me. especially in any industry that was adversely affected by COVID. Kim's. Oh. Kim says, I'm usually hearing some skepticism over Trump policies, but I think you're coming around. OK, well, I.

No, I mean, I said it earlier, he's doing some things that are definitely good. And I've been surprised so far at the success of what he's got going on and the rapidity of it. So, I mean, again, I was cautiously optimistic. It doesn't mean that I still won't remain cautiously optimistic. It's just that I'm very happy to see some of that stuff is coming around. And finally, we're talking about this efficiency.

And we're making enough waves. And the thing is, this is what kills me. The Democrats and others are not endearing themselves to the rest of the public. You know, when they poo poo. the finding of this government waste and fraud and inefficiency you know when they say well sure there's billions of waste in there but this isn't the way to cut it well wait what is the way to cut it again the grace commission Is that what, I mean, that worked out so well for us? Is that the answer? Oh.

Brian says, always be skeptical of the political class. Yes. Yes. Yes. i agree i agree Okay, we're about a minute out right now. Phone lines are open. I see Tom is on the phone. We'll be here to Tom in just a minute, and we'll take his call on the other side. Plus, I want to talk about Kevin McCabe's article in Must Read. I didn't invite Kevin on the program this morning to discuss it because I thought maybe I'd get, you know, I mean, I love talking to Kevin, but I don't want it to.

You know, I don't want to go back to the well too many times, but if Kevin is willing and wants to come on an hour or two and talk a little bit about just for 10, 15 minutes about this bill, Kevin, if you're still around, you're welcome to do so. I was trying to get some other people on on a Monday just to chat about it. We just had Kevin on, what, 10 days ago. So, you know, but.

If maybe if we will see, we'll see. All right, let's get back to it. Here we go. Common sense, liberty based, free thinking radio, like and share. Like and follow 60 people, 70 people in all the chat rooms, only 18 likes. What do I got to do? Do I got to beg? I ain't too proud to beg. The Michael Duke Show, proudly splitting the left versus right dichotomy. Yeah, I had to look that word up too. I don't think it means what he thinks it means. There he is though, that guy, Michael Dukes.

The one with the show. Okay. Welcome back to the program, The Michael Duke Show. Hour one continues. Some interesting commentary in the chat room, including Richie, who said, Michael, it seems like far too many of the people being let go developed a mentality that they are untouchable. or exempt from real-world consequences. I worked a private sector job for 30 years and went in each day wondering if we were going to be let go.

We were asked after every job we did to detail what we did multiple times per day. It's normal. It's accountability. These people getting let go may want to focus on showing why they are of value rather than whining. And it reminds me of this gal that was she was interviewed on MSNBC or or CNN or someplace. And she was a federal employee who was just outraged and incensed.

That she'd been sent a request to outline what she'd done the following or the previous week. Just incensed. When normal people who work normal jobs go. Yeah, that's kind of a thing that happens all the time. That just kind of, it just happens. Tom is on the phone lines right now. Let's go over and see what Tom has to say. He's calling in 319-527-3864 if you want to call in this morning.

Tom, what is on your mind, my friend? Good morning. About 30 years ago, I was a heat and air conditioning contractor down in California. And they, I'm guessing it was 30 years ago, they closed Mare Isle and Shipyard in Vallejo. I had a young man that worked there about 12 years, come in looking for a job. He sat down and...

could barely explain to me what he did. I would put him at almost zero experience after 12 years working there. And I decided to explain to him the reality of the private sector. He, honest to God, expected he was going to walk out in the private sector making $75 an hour 30 years ago. We were hiring people with his quality at $10 to $15 an hour. I had him in my office for about probably an hour.

I thought he was going to commit suicide. Really? I mean, it was such a wake-up call for him, and he just had no clue how the real world worked? He was borderline tears. It was unbelievable. And it so happens my boss at that time, his brother worked at Maryland also. And he would tell me stories about his brother going out there, literally going to the bathroom.

reading the newspaper all day long, falling asleep on the toilet, missing the bus out of there. So apparently they closed it for the right reasons. Right, right, right. Exactly. One more quick story. Pardon me? Right, exactly. They closed it for the right reasons. I was just agreeing with you. Yeah, go ahead. So back when I owned my own company, and this happened probably 15 or so years ago or more.

We did a lot of work for our local California Division of Forestry, and literally we'd come in to bid a job to replace the furnace, and the captain of the firehouse would look at me and say point blank, when you write the contract you need to just write supply furnace only and then you come out and install it because we can't have it on the contract that you're installing it

Because then it has to go out to bid and the union gets involved and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So we were absolutely told to lie to get the job, to get them heat. Wow. And there's your $600 hammer when your furnace costs $8,000, not $3,000.

Because there's installation involved, but that's what the contract says. Right, because that's how they told you to write the contract. They wanted you to wrap all the labor up in the cost of it. And here I am in the private sector, non-union, just going. excuse me, you are asking me to lie, to perjure myself, to go to jail so you can have heat because that's the only way they can do it. Yeah.

And at the same time, let's go way back to 78 when I worked for the California Division of Forestry, and we worked on these gigantic fires, and I watched them at the end of the fire take... brand new, hundreds of thousands of dollars with tools, unopened, unused, dig a hole at the D9 and bury them because they were bought for that fire. And they had no further use? They just bury them. I'm 18 years old going, I don't understand. Why don't we take it with us?

so there's your government for you yeah no this is not surprising but the fact that people do not understand How the real world works. Like you said, they've been working in government their whole lives. And yet when they're faced with the reality, I mean, what got me was that these people were expecting empathy. How disconnected do you have to be? from reality and from the last four years, really. I mean, this high visibility problem over the last four years, Tom.

How disconnected do you have to be to walk into a new job in the private sector and start complaining about how you lost your cushy government job and how these people should feel sorry for you? after what we just went through in the private sector over the last four years. How crazy is that? I'm pretty sure that it's about 100% really don't care from the private sector about you.

I had a good friend, a neighbor, and his wife worked for state disability. She had a full-time job, paid full wages, full retirement, full benefits, full everything. and shared the job she worked two and a half days a week i never understood that wow i i mean how do i get that job i work two days a week get a full-time pay i mean

Just sign me up. Yeah, exactly. That's what I want. I want in on that deal. Thanks, Tom. You want empathy? You want empathy, people? I'm going in for a colonoscopy this morning. well that's a real pain in the all right thanks tom i appreciate it appreciate you coming in thanks very much hey at least you'll be able to have a cheeseburger afterwards that's the you know that's the thing the colonoscopies those are never

Those are never fun. I've only had one in my life, but I had to prep for it three times. It definitely, that's a whole story in and of itself. But, yeah, that's definitely not a thing you want to look forward to. So we do have some empathy for Tom on that. 319-527-3864. What about, I mean.

That's an interesting story from Tom about these people who are completely disconnected. Has anybody else out there ever faced that where a former government employee comes into the private sector and their expectations are blown away? Feel free to share those stories because, again, I don't want to feel like I'm gloating. I'm just like, this is a dose of reality. This is what the rest of us, the regular people.

have been facing every day of our lives that we've been in the workforce. You just never know. I could be fired tomorrow. We all knew that. You know, that's always sitting back there. Being asked to justify our existence, being asked to say, please fill out this call report, the sales report or this this project report or, you know, to detail what what you did.

In one way or another, you know, when these federal workers are freaking out about this email, the rest of us are scratching our heads going. This is what this is normal. This is how the rest of the world operates. Shouldn't you be... Really? Shouldn't you be ready to go in that? It's... I mean, it's crazy. It's really nutty that that's where we're at.

All right. We've got to we're coming up on the top of the hour break. We're going to talk about Kevin McCabe's new bill that he's putting forward that's going to be consolidating school districts. We'll also talk about some stuff in Fairbanks and the Mat-Su, the political race in Anchorage, and what's happening in the legislature. Kind of this double standard.

this double standard that we can expect out there as well. All right. Uh, we, uh, are going to go. It's, uh, it's top of the hour already. See time flies when you're having fun. Back with more of The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense, Liberty-based, free-thinking radio. We return with more right after these messages. Don't go anywhere. Oh. Chris says about Tom, so did you lie to get the job? I don't know. He didn't say. He didn't say. Oh, man. I'm scrolling backwards here to see what's going on.

Kevin is always a good choice to ask. Terry, I'm not I'm not arguing with that. You know, I just don't want to go back to the well too many times. You know what I mean? That's why I was just trying to find people who were just trying to find some new voices. you know we are going to have will staff on the program on wednesday that should be fun uh we'll talk with him um let me go over here cape

The PBSD Balancing Act Analytics was her last balancing act. Okay, so this is that program that they were talking about? Donna said the KPBSD Balancing Act Analytics was released last week. Balancing Act is that gaming thing where they had the normal folks. you know, go out there and try and balance the budget for the school district. 55% of respondents do not want an increase to the BSA.

That, I wish I could follow that link. Donna, do you want to download that and send it to me in my email? She's got a link posted right beneath that for those of you who want. If you want to send that to me on my email. That would be great. That would be great. Richie says the fact that the former federal employees are reacting the way they are exemplifies just how far out of touch and disconnected they have become. Yeah.

That I mean, that's the fact that you would drop yourself into a situation in the private sector and then be like, yeah, I. I lost my job. Why don't you feel bad for me? And they're like, what? Okay. oh and here's harold's harold is harold is like oh oh no what where was it that wasn't the one where was it there we go i'm here now Trump crashed your retirement, so you lost 20%. Well, again, it was going to... All right. That was weird.

He said, again, it was going to happen eventually. We could either lose everything or we could feel a little pain now. Oh, I see Kevin McCabe is up on the thing here. Oh, that's because my phone was on silent. I was like, why didn't it? Let me go over here and see if I can... Nope. I'm doing three things here, folks. Just give a...

Give the guy a break here for just a second here as we get to Kevin. Let me go get, let me grab Kevin real quick off the phone lines because it'd be easier. Kevin, can you hear me now? Good morning Michael, how are you? Good sir, good. I'm going to call you on my phone.

and instead of this one just because it's got less of a delay and it's easier so feel free to hang up there and i will ring you in a hot second so there we go uh kevin mccabe is going to be joining us here um in just uh in just a moment let's try it see if we can get this there we go look at that We'll do that. Good morning, sir. Appreciate you calling in. Like I said, I hate to abuse the privilege of having you on the program, but...

Everybody else is talking about strategery. Nobody wants to talk to me about anything because they're trying to strategize and be sneaky on the floor or whatever is going on. So it's good that you're willing to come out and talk with us about this. Sure. so yeah well there is a bit of that going on there's some strategy for sure sure

But at some point, you still, I mean, you can't always hide behind the strategy thing, right? I've got one person that I've been asking for two months to come on the program to talk about the overall picture. And every time I ask them, the same answer is essential.

Well, I'm trying to do this and strategy and I don't want to overplay my hand and I don't want them to know what I'm doing. And I'm like, OK, maybe the first couple of weeks I can understand or on a specific bill, but it's two months into a session. Maybe we should have a conversation about stuff. You know what I mean? At some point, at some point, it feels a little bit like a dodge. You know what I mean? No, I agree.

So anyway, I'm going to put you back on hold here and you're going to hang out for me and I'll get back to you here in just a hot second. Let me get through the rest of the comments in the chat room. Here we go. Here we go. Do what you're told. Do what you're told. Collect your money and then complain about it on conservative radio. What?

What? These employees are acting much like young people do after they get kicked out of the comforts of their parents' basements and pushed out into the rural world. It's a good character-building opportunity that hopefully... one day they will be thankful for i hope so i hope so um

Sign me up, said Brian, when I said sign me up for that kind of job, right? He said, I would still have to look myself in the mirror. Did my parents grow up in instilling the work ethic they did? I mean, yeah, you know.

I remember my dad at one point was talking to me when I was younger about the golden parachute and everything. And he's like, you know, if you can go work at the federal government or at the government and get a good job and a good retirement. And I always thought, but that just sounds so. I'm wrong. It just sounds so, I mean, it was just not attractive to me. All right, here we go. The Michael Duke Show, Common Sense, Liberty Bay's Freethinking Radio.

Put that thing back in its holster. We haven't gone anywhere. I don't understand. Check out themichaeldukesshow.com for information on how to get access to the podcast. Welcome to the party, pal. The Michael Duke Show. The greed and the entitlement is astounding to me. What more could you want from a low-budget radio program? This is a dumpster fire. That was just BS.

It is time to get a new perspective. We know just what you need and we've got just the cure. Open wide and prepare for steaming hot cup of freedom. I just don't. The Michael Dukes Show, streaming live across the world. Live around the world on the Internet at MichaelLukeShow.com and across the state of Alaska on this, your favorite radio station and or FM translator. Good morning, my friend. It is Monday.

And we are ready to continue on here. We've been going over this morning a lot of discussions about what's happening out there in the real world. And how it seems like with all the commentary and all the frustration and all the news media coverage about people losing their jobs in the federal government, losing their jobs. What seems to have been lost in all of this is the fact that that's how the rest of us have had to operate pretty much our entire lives.

That this is not something that's new or, you know, that this is, again, welcome to the party, pal. This is the real world. And this is what it looks like. And a little bit surprising some of the reactions that are on this. But, you know, hey, this is what happens. In fact. Layla in the chat room just said, layoffs are just another February for private sector workers. Welcome to the real world. Yes, I know. And it won't be the end of the world if this kind of stuff happens.

Anyway, we're going to continue some discussions on that here in just a few minutes. But first, we want to get started here on this story that we've been talking about. Throughout, we mentioned throughout this morning. And that is the discussion on the consolidation of schools. Joining us this morning on the telephone to talk about it here for a few minutes is Representative Kevin McCabe, who is a state legislator representative.

from Big Lake, and he joins us right now to talk about it. He's got that article in Must Read that asks the question, is school consolidation possible? Kevin McCabe joins us right now. Good morning, Kevin. How are you? Good morning, Michael, and good morning, everybody. How's things? You know, it's Monday. It's good. So far, so good. I mean, we're still here. I guess that's the important part. Kevin, we've been talking about consolidation.

a lot over the last couple, three, four years. We've been looking for ways to make the schools more efficient, to make them, you know, to make them the outcomes be better. And everything else. And of course, under this discussion, of course, it all always comes back to, you know, it always comes back to the money decision. But the question is. Is consolidation possible and in what way do you see consolidation being the way to make things, you know, the way to make it happen?

Sure. Well, to be clear, this is an amendment to HB 69, which I plan on offering the amendment today. And, you know, you mentioned earlier there's some strategy. Well, frankly, there's some strategy for me putting out that the Newsread article last night or this morning, as well as even calling in this morning. It would be fabulous if people would read the article.

We have been talking about this since before I was elected in a great number of school districts, but read the article and call your legislator this morning.

just call and let their office know just have to say hey look i support the representative mccabe's amendment on school consolidation 80 plus percent of alaskans have already answered that via survey they have said that we need to consolidate um 54 school districts with administrators making just the administrators oftentimes making more than 150 000 a year i think the asd administrator makes 220 a year plus bennies so

you know consolidating losing 20 school districts and it's not enough i get that people want to go down even less to 15 or 16 school districts but losing 20 school districts that alone would save us 3.1 million dollars school administrator costs. And I get that the administrators are going to lose a government job. I mean, we've been talking about jobs this morning as well. But you know what? The state...

needs to find a path forward to save money and to start spending money on our kids and not on the education industrial complex, right? So this is an amendment that will direct the Department of Education to... establish a path forward and it has some specific controls like community meetings and that sort of thing and geographic boundaries for the bush and and all of that but It directs them to establish a means to lose 20 school districts by 2027, consolidate 20 school districts. And I think.

With Teams and Zoom and all of the other platforms that we can use electronically for parents to have input to school districts, it won't have the huge input or impact. that people seem to think it will. Hawaii is one school district for the entire state of Hawaii and all those outlying islands. So they use Zoom, they use call-in, they use Teams, they find a path.

that parents can use to get to the school district and to talk to the school district. So it seems to be a common sense way to save money, in my opinion. Yeah, I mean, we're talking about duplication of effort. Right. I mean, we're talking about duplication of services, of oversight, of support. We have 53 districts in the state. You mentioned Hawaii, where Hawaii has one district for the whole state. I mean, California.

has got school districts there they've got multiple school districts but just in los angeles county they've got one school district that's larger than all of our school districts in the state combined, right? So it can be done at a larger scale if it needs to be.

But this whole thing where you've got 53 districts, 53 superintendents, you know, probably 106 junior superintendents or vice superintendents, because there's probably two for every one. Right. I mean, you could just go down the list and say. Do we need all these things? Now, I can see the argument already, and I'm sure you've probably experienced the argument already. Oh, but each area is different, and each one needs to have a local understanding of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Again, we've got whole areas that are covered by one school district. Is it really that different, Kevin? No, it isn't. But I think that this will provide a little bit of a push to drive. the conversations and to drive the management, if you will, of the schools themselves closer to the people. So if you have an overarching district that's handling some of the bigger district needs.

but they're not right in your village or right in your your city or whatever now all of a sudden you have to take control of your school you because because a school district's just a means for you to relate with the Department of Education or with the federal government, their way to administrate, you know, an administrative arm for money coming in and that sort of thing.

but the curriculum the discipline the student outcomes all of that suddenly becomes closer to the school and the local parent teacher association and the parents and the principals.

um you don't have to depend on the school district much anymore you can do it yourself and i and i just see that as a huge benefit local control we talk about local control all the time well let's get local control back to our schools Let's get local control back to the individual schools with the individual parents that are worried about their children's education.

What's the reaction been? I mean, I know you've talked about this. I know Sarah Vance obviously has, she's had a bill that has talked about this. What's the overall feel in the legislature right now, Kevin, if you could take the temperature in the room, what? What, you know, what do you think that the feel is on this idea? And I know hers was even more aggressive than what you're proposing, but what's the feel on the idea so far?

My guess is that the Democrats are going to oppose this amendment probably right along the party lines. I'm certain that my caucus, for the most part, supports this idea. I have been told, folks told me, hey, look, Jim Culver tried to do this and it didn't work out so good for him. But you know what? I'm tired of trying to play both sides and, you know. when i first started running this was something that i was uh adamant about and and i've heard about for four and a half years now

We have to consolidate. We have to find ways to save money. And I'm sorry, school administrators, but we have to consolidate and we have to find ways to save money. The fiscal hole that we are in right now, I don't even think the general Alaska public understands how. desperate it is because they look at the PFD and say, well, we have $80 billion. Well, really, we don't. We're anywhere between 648 million to 1.6 billion in the hole right now, depending on who you talk to.

And we are going to struggle getting ourselves out of that hole. Even if we don't pay a PFD, we are still going to be in the hole. And if they add in this money for the huge BSA increase, the defined benefits, oh boy, we're leaving our state to our children and our grandchildren that is not in great financial health. Right. No, I mean, that's exactly where we're at right now is that we are so far in the hole we don't even know. And people are divorced from what's going on in the state. People.

The average person just doesn't understand. And the news media is culpable in this because they haven't covered. We've been talking about this crisis, this coming crisis for the last, especially hard for the last two years, saying, look, this is where we're going.

And all of a sudden it was just like now that people have discovered it, that some of the legislators are now talking about it, that the news media has even mentioned it in passing that there's a deficit. There's been no deep dive on this to explain to the public that there is.

no money that the pfd is gone and that there is no money and that this is the solution yeah even even the democrats you notice when uh him should offered her bill the very first committee um you know my caucuses is getting to be very good very good at saying show me the money they're getting to be great at it and some of the questions that came from

Sarah Vance and Will Stapp, where's the money going to come from, Representative Hemshoot? How are we going to pay for this? And the answer is, well, we'll work it out. So, you know, there's some... There's some issues down here. And if you want a little peek under the tent, there is some negotiation going down here with a previous senator and the governor, not us, not the minority. We haven't been included.

um that say that the way to pay for this is with the young tax with oil tax per barrel credit reduction and taking um a swipe at the cbr so but you know that's how they plan on paying for this uh huge bsa increase even the thousand dollars that's in hb 69 right now is huge it's i can't do it i could do

300 something like that i get that the school districts need money and they need assurances but i need assurances that our kids are going to be taught correctly that we are going to pull out of this death spiral, if you will, for our children. We have got to increase the outcomes for our kids and nobody cares about it. Even today, even after four years of me saying this, everybody that comes into my office talks about inflation. and teacher pay and school district problems.

Nobody, virtually nobody talks about the kids, and it is starting to really get to me, and all of us, frankly. That's the thing. I know that there's been several of the minority members who have said, oh, we think that there needs to be an increase.

but we've just got to find the right amount. But will there be any, would they support any increase? Would you support any increase if there weren't metrics involved in the policy? I mean, don't there have to be policy changes to be able to justify that?

Because we can't just give them another $300 million and still expect to be 51 out of 53. Right. 100 there has to be policy changes you know and i said it on the floor many times even leading up to this that the house minority a has been left out of the discussion and b our education committee Jubilee and Bill Elam and Rebecca Schwanke. Rebecca offered an amendment in the education committee.

story and him should basically pat it around the head and told her to go stand in the corner that this was a finance bill not a policy bill and no no any finance bill has to have policy associated with it or the or the house minority I can't speak for all of them. We're not a binding caucus, but I've talked to all of them. If we don't have policy, it's a non-starter. I don't care if it's just a quarter. We have to have policy to fix this education system for our kids.

Yeah, no, I agree totally. I mean, you have to look at it and you have to look at areas that have done something similar. I mean, we've talked about Mississippi multiple times. Mississippi has some of the lowest per student spending. And yet what they did was they changed their. And the policy changes is what is driving their incredible increase in student outcomes. It's not necessarily about the money.

It's about how you're teaching and what the processes are. And if we keep doing exactly what we've been doing now and just throw more money at it, we're going to have more of the same. I mean, that's just that's the Einstein definition of insanity. Right.

And you don't even have to go to Mississippi. You can just go to the Mat-Su. Look at what Dr. Traney and our fabulous Mat-Su School Board is doing for our children right now in the Mat-Su. It's amazing. It is absolutely amazing. And you know what? Money is not at the top of their list. They gave me a list and it didn't include, I mean, the money was in there. Yeah, BSA increase would be great. But, you know, here's some of the things we need to focus on for children's outcomes.

You talk to anybody else, any other school district, any other association of school board administrators, or any of those folks, and you mention the Matsu, and they just turn their hearing aids off because... but they don't want to hear about the Mat-Su. They don't want to visit Dr. Traney or the Mat-Su School Board and ask how they're doing with the outcomes. It's like it's...

Just don't talk to me about the Mat-Su. They're doing great, but we don't want to hear it. Right. Well, it's the same thing with the charter schools, right? We don't want to hear about charter schools. Or maybe it's false information, or maybe it's a misinterpretation. We don't want to talk about any other way to...

do things in what we're already doing. Here's what they're saying. Give us the money and shut up. That's exactly what they're saying right now. And at the end of the day, just the money makes it a jobs bill. It makes it a teacher and administrator jobs bill, maybe with a little bit thrown in for the school district administration. It is not an education bill.

With just money in it, it's simply a jobs bill. Pay me more money, pay the school district more money, and leave us alone. We can't have that. And maybe the people are waking up. The KPBSD. down here had a balancing act, which is a program that basically it's a program that allows you to game out the budget. Last time they did it, the majority of people said, let the state give us some more money to fix the problem.

This time around, I just got the notice this morning, Donna just posted it up in the chat room, saying 55% of the respondents don't want a BSA increase. The buying act thing is a public thing where the public participates. 55% don't want an increase. That's going to cause some problems because that's not the narrative that you're hearing from the school districts and everything else.

Right. You want to see a really interesting video. There's a five minute video. I posted the link in the chat room already of Mayor Rodney Dial from Ketchikan talking about how the Ketchikan school board has failed. in their fiduciary responsibility to students and to the school district itself. He is not happy. I don't blame him. He's worried about the kids. Thank God we have a mayor that's worried about the kids and their outcome.

Not worried about pay me more. Kevin, you're going to be on the floor today. proposing this. This article's up in must-read, so people should read it and then call their legislators and let them know whether they support it or not. But this is going on today, right? Yes, sir. That would be fabulous. Call your legislator and tell them you support a shrinking school district.

That's my strategy. Consolidation. And we didn't even talk about the consolidation of health care. You're just talking about consolidating the districts down, let alone the potential for consolidating the health care, which is, you know, there's an opportunity there for tens of. millions of dollars in savings as well. So, all right, well, Kevin, thank you so much for calling in this morning. I appreciate you being part of it. Good luck today.

Thanks, Michael. Appreciate you being on the program. All right, folks, we're running late here. We got to go. We'll be back here in just a moment. The Michael Duke Show, Common Sense, Liberty-based, free-thinking radio. We return with more right after this. Streaming live every weekly morning on Facebook Live and MichaelDukesShow.com.

Okay. Oof, man. Ran a little bit long on that segment, but that's okay. That's okay. We're going to make it happen. We're going to do what we need to do. We're going to get her going on. All right. And Donna, thanks. She said she sent me that link through. Let me see if I can pull it up here. My mail is so slow this morning. What is that it? No. That's spam. That's a phishing attack. All right, here we go. Donna. Okay, so Donna posted it over to me here. Let's see if we can pull this up.

balancing act analytics 354 respondents what the heck the whole thing just pumped up there let me can i save the link You know, some days it just don't pay to get out of bed. I don't want to enter a password. What are you talking about? Oh, man, sometimes. Give me the link. Give me the link. Oh, okay. I'm trying to download this thing and it just keeps popping up and asking me to, to get a password for Google or for Adobe or something.

I don't know what's going on here. I just want to read this thing. Will you just let me read it? All right, here we go. All right, so the Balancing Act Analytics. KPB appropriation, revenue, local revenue. It's 100 and... Can I... I'm sorry. I'm just trying to make sure that I can... that this thing sticks around when I'm done here. I just want to be able to save this. Can I? Monday. How do I hate the Monday? All right. All right, here we go. State of Alaska revenue. No change to the BSA.

55% of respondents said no change to the BSA. 25% said increasing the BSA by $1,000. 12% say increasing the BSA by $680. And then 6% by 750. No change in the BSA is basically 55%. The comments, these are great. These are great comments. Where did the... I mean, this is some good stuff right here. Okay. Can I... There we go. I'm just trying to... I just... want to save this so that i can uh download this file holy cow it's all i wanted to do was download the file okay um

That way we know what's going on. I'm going to bring this up. We're going to talk about this here in just a second here. We'll bring up the file. And I'll share it with you so you guys can all see it at the same time. How about that? How about that? All right. So we'll get through that here in just a hot second.

Thank you, Donna, for the link. I appreciate that. Appreciate you sharing that with me. Let me close all these windows here because they are not needed. All right, back to the comments over here. Would it be a bad idea for teachers to sign up for state insurance instead of private insurance? I'm asking because I don't know. Well, they talked about why not just consolidating the districts altogether and having one big health pool.

That would give them a ton of savings and give them more leverage, right? Because they have a larger pool of employees. That would be a better deal all the way around. But it's just not, you know. It's not where we need to be. Okay, here we go. The Michael Duke Show. Public enema number one. Oh, wait, sorry.

uh enemy public enemy number one which makes more sense on the other hand he's a little bit of a pain in the uh michael duke show yeah i mean uh he's i'm always a little bit of a pain in the something or other Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the program. Thanks for coming on and joining us this morning. Okay, so we need to talk a little bit here about... This about this piece from not this piece, I apologize. The discussion on the KPBSD and this balancing act.

analytics. Balancing Act is basically a piece of software that allows you to game out your to game to game out a budget basically it gives you levers to pull it says okay look if you were going to run this budget what would the budget be how much would the budget be Where would you cut? Where would you make things happen? Where would you, you know, all these different things. OK, that's that's great. I love it. What where where would you cut?

Now, unfortunately, in the past, the public has chosen instead of living within your means and doing what needs to be done. The public has instead looked to the state to do a lot of this stuff. They said, well, we'll just give us more state money, essentially, is what they came out with. Just give us more state money. That'll work. This go around, it's a little different. So the new balancing act analytics were released apparently, I guess, yesterday or Friday.

And Donna has been kind enough to put them up here and give them to me to take a look at and discuss. So here's the first big note on this. The first big note is that... The state. Wow, that just wants to jump all around, doesn't it? That the foundation formula of the state of Alaska revenue. Fifty five percent of the people that responded have said. that they want no change to the BSA, no change whatsoever, that they're totally happy with it, no change to the BSA, 55% say no.

25% said they want a $1,000 increase. 12% say they want a $680 increase. And then 6% want a $750 increase to the BSA. But what's getting me is the comments, because each different section of this piece... has comments from the people who participated so that was state of alaska revenue local revenue which would be local property taxes paying it one of the comments was well we wouldn't want taxes to go up so there shouldn't be an increase here

That's what they said. Well, we don't want taxes to go up, so there shouldn't be an increase. The second one was eliminate the senior property tax exemption to increase revenue or at least make it required that a senior lives in the state for 25 years before they qualify. This will ensure that folks are not retiring to the area and then putting a strain on the reason.

How would they be putting a strain on the resources if they're retired and have no kids in school? I'm just I mean, I'm asking for a friend. Maybe you could explain that to me in small words, because. That makes no sense. Right. All right. So let me let me. Let me spread this out here just a little bit and we'll continue on. So state of Alaska, the funding there, you just heard what the percentage was. The comment was, decrease the waste before we increase the BSA.

Look at how many reading programs we bought recently. Can we not reuse those? Why do kids need Lexia, teachers to teach? Sohigh pays an app to help keep track of kids going to the bathroom. Is that really needed? Look at the handicap busing. So few kids on those buses. Do we really need speech therapy or occupational therapy in schools when kids get that through Medicaid and private insurance?

Evaluate what we have now. If we cannot cut, then ask for a BSA to be raised. So that was the first choice. Anyway, the state has no money, by the way. Time to stop relying on them for funding. That was the other good comment from the state revenue part of it. All right. Talking about all the comments. about whether or not they should increase the BSA to $1,000. Only 25% said that. And you could see in their comments, raise the BSA and peg it to inflation.

We need to increase the PSA. There's absolutely, it's absolutely, adjust the PSA is long overdue. I would happily pay taxes to adequately fund education. Well, why don't you just do it now? This should not be negotiable, right? When it gets down to the, I'm sorry, I want to get down to the big doggy here, the big questions of 55%. This is a 57-page document, so give me a second here while I scroll through some of these comments here. Reinstitute the winter grocery sales tax?

Wow, there's a lot of comments in here. I'm selecting the BSA increase of $680 because I believe we need to catch up with inflation. Okay. But again, 55% of the people who did this, 55% of the people who participated in this said, no, we're done. We don't need to... We don't need to do any of these kind of things. We don't need to increase the BSA.

So I really appreciate the fact that Donna passed this over to me and take a look at it because it tells me one thing. People are starting to get fed up. They're starting to get fed up with, you know, why. Why do you keep coming back to us hat in hand over and over and over again for more money, yet you're continuing to provide a substandard, subpar result? In the in the end. So this whole thing, I'm going to I just got this before we started this hour.

So I haven't had a chance to read through the whole thing in depth, but there is a lot of there's a lot of good questions in here from the public about what's what's going on. I would love to see what you guys say about this, though. You can go check it out, and I'll provide a link. There's a link up in the chat room right now. But I will also post it to my Facebook page this morning after the show so that you could take a look at it and see what's going on. There's a big redacted chunk in here.

Redacted due to personally identifiable and confidential language. Okay. All right. My thought is if the charter schools and homeschooling were eliminated, that would help with balancing the budget. Okay. Okay. All right. Anyway, so I just wanted to take a take a peek at that here for just one second, because I think that's going to be important. HB 69 is going to is going to be the that's all they're going to talk about this morning.

in the legislature. And I'm hoping that there might be some good amendments to this. We'll have to see what happens, but we'll come back to that. All right. When we return, we're coming up on the next break and I'm going to take this one on time. When we return, we're going to talk about some of the things that happen happening up in Fairbanks, including. The assembly voting to not renew the Dominion voting machine contract. That's an interesting thing.

That's interesting. We're also going to take some calls, and we will continue here in just a moment. So don't go anywhere. The Michael Duke Show continues on your hope for common sense, liberty-based, free-thinking radio. Back with more in just a moment. If you missed the show, you can listen to it on your time with Duke's On Demand. Oh, and it's free. Like America used to be. Streaming live every weekly morning on Facebook Live and MichaelDukesShow.com.

Okay. All right. Sorry about that. I got a little, there we go. I got a little bit of going on there. Let me go over here to the chat room. We've got one caller on hold. We're going to be right back to that caller here in just a second. And we'll see what they have to say here. Don't go anywhere. And let me go back to the chat room now where we can talk about what you want to talk about. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Okay.

Democrats control the House and the Senate. They will decide what amendments will pass, says Harmony. Yes. She's 100% right. That's what happens. The Democrats will decide exactly what... what they will allow to pass and what they won't. Kevin also said, shifting gears, HB 89 is up for committee on Thursday. That's the red flag bill. God, I hope that thing gets to the floor.

I want to put every one of those jokers on record as to voting their votes on that bill. Every one of them. I want them all to be on record. Because we would just use that to destroy them. Donna said, you're welcome. for sending me that KPBSD. It was a good Sunday read. It's not easy to find on the KPBSD website. And then she gives her email for anybody that wants her to send it to them. I'll post it up on the Facebook page when we're done here.

Let's see. Melody said seniors should be exempt from property taxes, especially on limited income. Melissa says, cut the Department of Corrections and maybe we can afford some things. I mean, maybe we should just be shipping everybody out. Maybe we should just farm them out to another state, farm them out to another facility. I know there's been some talk about doing that again. We used to do that, but we don't do that anymore.

The board has asked for up to a million dollars in cuts from the fat, said Melissa, talking about cutting the fat in the school district. I want to talk more about what's going on at the Fairbank School District as well. They voted, wait, Kim just said what? They voted not to renew Dominion and then got threatened?

Okay. We'll see what's going on there. Okay. I don't know what's going on with my... thing this morning here okay the problem okay so kevin makes a comment back to melissa about the department of corrections he said yeah the problem is by law and constitution once the inmate enters the system The state is totally responsible for their health care. We did that to ourselves. The inmate population is the most unhealthy segment of the Alaska population.

Many of them have never seen a dentist and have rarely seen a doctor and all of a sudden were responsible for the health care just because they broke the law. So frustrating. Yeah. Okay. get me on dukes she says i want to come talk about the fairbank school board okay well we can do that we can have you on um No one was threatened on the voting machines. I was there, says Miguel. They did not renew the voting machines, and twice that vote died.

Okay, well, we're going to talk about it here in just a second. I've got the must-read story up in front of me, and we'll see where that goes. It will definitely be the cost of the contract was $220,000 over five years. We'll see what happens here. Dominion has fought back on our website. It says it's focused on supporting our customers who administer U.S. election.

We're closely monitoring claims about the 2024 elections. We strongly encourage people to rely upon verified credible sources of election information. sources that could explain the many layers of physical, operational, and technical safeguards. We remain fully prepared to defend our company and our customers against lies and to seek accountability for those who spread them.

That's a threat. That's a that's a we're going to sue you threat. You know, we'll we'll we'll see. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens there. All right. We got to go. We're jumping back into it. We've got one call on hold. Call or hold the line. We'll be right back to you here in just a minute. Yeah, some days Dukes begs for guests and some days the guests beg him. I know.

This is one of those things, right? Like, I couldn't get a guest to save my life, and then the next thing you know, I'm full up. It's feast or famine, my friend, feast or famine. All right, here we go. The Michael Duke Show, Common Sense Radio. Nope. The Michael Duke Show. Seriously humorous with a pinch of intellect. Pinch of intellect. Sorry. That is humorous. Here's Michael Dukes. All right. Welcome back. The Michael Duke Show.

About to talk about what was going on up at Fairbanks. But before we jump into that, let's go over to the phones because I had the phone lines open this morning for those of you who weren't paying attention. 319-527-3864. Let's go over to the phones right now to find out who's on the line. Who's this? Where are you calling from? I'm Candy, and I'm from Alaska. Hello, Candy from Alaska. Hi. I have a thought about how our country can save some money.

And I think that, well, if you're working at a gas station and you work there for 10 years and they lay you off, do you get medical, dental, and wages the rest of your life? That would be a big no. I don't think anybody that works in the government ought to either. That would save a lot of money. So you're saying if somebody gets laid off, they should lose access to their retirement, their health care, everything?

Well, if they've got retirement, we get, I'm on Social Security. I've worked a lot. I've been working at something since I was eight years old. But I don't get anything from any of that. I mean, they didn't put me on something that would pay me my medical and dental and blah, blah, blah for the rest of my life. I don't think anybody else should either.

I don't care if it's a governor or somebody that works at a gas station. Right. Well, I would say, I would argue this. I agree with you in principle. But I would argue this. If this was a negotiated thing at hiring, then they're contractually obligated to provide it. But you're right. This should not be an expectation anymore. That's what I think we need to do is curb the expectations. It's like these people who are.

working in the government sector, now having to work in the private sector and expecting everyone to feel sorry for them. This is the real world. The real world, we understand that there's not enough money to go around and give everything to everybody. They need to understand that. That's true. That's what I'm saying. That's my thought on how you can save some money. And I think we ought to put it into the kids. And if the teachers can't get those kids...

so that they can pass one of the tests at the end of the year to pass them on to the next one. Not only does the kid fail, but maybe you need to dock the teacher's wages some so that they put their time and effort into teaching the kids. Instead of, well, I have to have parents. I have to have parents. Yeah, I think the parents should be involved in the kids' schooling. But the teacher is there to teach.

Don't give them a calculator so that they can learn to do their math, but then don't let them have it when they're taking a test. Right, right. No, I mean, I agree that there has to be some accountability on the teaching side of it as well. But there is a parental component of that as well. I don't know if you could dock the teachers, but it should be noted that if they are continually failing with a variety of students, then maybe.

something definitely needs to be done then. But you're right. There should be some accountability on both sides of the aisle, both for parental accountability and for teacher accountability. Yep, I most definitely think that the parents need to be involved in the kids' learning. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you so much for your call, Candy. I appreciate you calling in and joining us this morning.

Appreciate you listening. Dave is down in Homer. Dave, what's on your mind this morning? Well, I think just to kind of reiterate what she was saying. I think these administrators and these teachers should be held accountable. You know, if I didn't do my job, I'd get fired.

And, you know, granted, yes, parents have to have a large portion of this, but the kids are in school, what, eight hours a day? And then they're sent home with homework for... you know, an hour or two hours, if they're not being taught in school, then the teacher obviously should, I think, should be docked or lose their job.

How much a parental responsibility do you think is if you were going to run a percentage on this, Dave? Because, I mean, I agree that if you've got teachers who are continuously not doing a good job, let's say they got, you know, 30 kids in the class or whatever.

You know, half of them are failing or something or a third of them are failing or just not doing well, you know, scoring so poorly. Some of this could be parental involvement. What percentage do you think it is in that? And my second question, second part of that question would be. How do we motivate the parents to be more involved? Because some are just teaching it or just treating it like it's a daycare, right? Drop the kids off. They're out of my hair for six hours, eight hours, whatever.

and not really paying attention at home, not engaged with their kids. How do we encourage that engagement to make it work? Well, I think what's got to happen is, I mean... This is a sign of the times. You see where these parents don't get engaged with their kids. They're just dropping them off, like you said. It's a big daycare center. You know, for the most part, a lot of parents that I see, they're into their kids' schooling, say, 40%, 50% of the time. But, again, you know.

The kids are at the school for eight hours. They're in the classes for, I think, 45 minutes or so. And the kids can't balance this book. I've had prior employees that...

can't address an envelope. And they're high school graduates. It's amazing to me. When I was going to school, there was all kinds of... parental um and so it's just it's very discouraging you know i keep saying you know these teachers on the corner they want to raise a bsa well you can't keep throwing good money for bad right well you can't again it's expecting

the different results by doing the same thing what i've been saying for years is that there's something fundamentally broken in the way that we are educating kids Because the outcomes. I think it's shattered. Yeah. The outcomes we're seeing. It's not necessarily broken. It's shattered. Yeah. The outcomes we're seeing is not good. And so we can't keep just doing the same thing in, you know, into infinity.

And we can throw more money at it. But if you're still doing the same mechanisms, that's not working. And again, we talk about places like Mississippi where they have a super low, one of the lowest per student spends. And yet their stuff has. gone up, and their Scholastic scores have gone up, and that's simply because of policy changes and the way that they're doing things. Why aren't we following that kind of example?

Well, just because they want more money. Yeah. Gimme, gimme, gimme. Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. All right, Dave. Well, I appreciate you sounding off this morning. Thank you for coming on board and being part of it. Appreciate you coming in. Thank you, sir. All right. Excuse me, 319-527-3864. 319-527-3864 if you want to sound off. Good news in Fairbanks. On Thursday, the Fairbanks North Star Borough did not renew their contract with Dominion, the voting machine, the voting systems.

These machines have been widely criticized. Now, whether wrongfully or rightfully criticized, the people had a right to be heard on that. The contract was an extension. And it was to be for five years. But the assembly took a lot of comments. There was a lot of commentary. Apparently, they tried to vote for it twice during the thing, and it was shot down both times.

And the one of the assembly members, Scott Krass, said if the assembly did not renew the contract, the assembly members who voted against it could be subject to recall because it's in our code. But. In the final situation, it was a tie vote, four to four. It needed five votes to pass. It was a four to four vote. Now, what was interesting more than that was that Dominion... fought back on its website and made comments in there that sound a lot like litigation.

We remain fully prepared to defend our company and our customers against lies and to seek accountability for those who spread them. That threat of litigation is putting a little bit of a damper on some public discourse around the country. But again, a reminder that the Matsu, they are now, the local voting now is all hand counts.

After they chose to ditch the machines back in 2022. And they're still using it for state elections. But for the local elections, they are now doing a hand count on that. which I think is some good stuff. It's crazy stuff. all right uh what else we got here uh oh the the the uh the the the just the pain the whole thing uh where the house republicans were getting on Bryce Edgeman's nerves last week.

Remember, who did we have on? I've forgotten already who it was we were talking about when they were talking about that the legislature, the majority wanted to get out of town because they had something going on. And so they were trying to get everything done. in basically a three and a half day work week. And so not, they weren't expecting us to go over HB 69 until today because of that. Well, apparently the Republicans.

We're dragging their feet a little bit. And the House Republicans went long on introducing guests and basically they were filibustering. To make the Democrats squirm a little bit because they were trying to get out and try and catch a flight on, you know, noon on Thursday or whatever, midday on Thursday. They wanted to catch a flight and the. Republicans were kind of stonewalling that finally Bryce Edgeman was like, how many more staff do we have to introduce?

And then finally he was like, nope, we're going to get done. This is stand down. I'm not going to be presiding over a chamber that plays games. I just, I love it when they get so chippy. with each other this whole thing has been such an interesting uh deal to watch this whole this is this is typical of what's going on in the legislature, especially when the Democrats have control. They get really mad when they can't just walk over everybody.

All right, we got to go. Thank you for coming in, my friends. Tomorrow's Tuesday. Brad Keithley, Chris Story. Wednesday, it'll be Will Stapp on the program and probably Melissa Burnett. Thank you, my friends. We'll see you. Be kind. Love one another. Live well. All right. Thanks, my friends, for being part of it today. We are wrapping things up. I'm going to be in Fairbanks on...

Friday for the dog races for the Open North American Championships. And I will be off next Monday because I'll be traveling back from Fairbanks on Monday because. flight times and everything else and all that kind of stuff. So anyway, just to mention, make sure you remind me to mention it tomorrow that I'm going to be off next Monday because I'll be traveling back here.

I'm on a plane during the show. So. All right, my friends. Well, be kind. Love one another. Live well. We will see you tomorrow. Have a good one. Radio Skin. And now we are slimy lizard internet people. It's the Michael Duke Show.