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 a steaming hot cup of freedom. I just don't fathom it.
The Michael Dukes Show, streaming live across the world. Oh, yeah. 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 good morning my friends how are you on this lovely monday morning oh man Such an incredible weekend of beautiful weather and lots of stuff going on. Oh, man.
My weekend was full. It was full. It was a full weekend for sure. But currently 39 degrees down here on top of the world in beautiful Homer, Alaska. We hope that you are experiencing.
Something so nice as what we're getting down here. Today is Monday, and boy, did a lot of stuff happen over the weekend. And you can see this continual meltdown that is... going on across the state and across the country right now in regards to the funding, the federal funding and the trickle-down effect of that in so many different ways. In part, you're showing, you know, your dependency slip is showing that we have become so dependent.
on the federal largesse that we just don't know what to do now that it's starting to go away and it is um It's pretty astonishing to to watch right now and to see exactly what everybody is getting all bent out of shape about. So. We're going to be talking about that this morning. We're going to talk about the effect across the country and across the state of Alaska.
on some of the potential cuts that we're talking about. We're going to talk a little bit about the president's mandate on DEI and what the reaction has been. Especially here in the state of Alaska at the university, where there's a bunch of people who just don't seem to understand the reality of what's happening. The university and the Board of Regents has attempted to try and take a lot of things into account and effect.
when they're making some of these decisions. And that's got some of the rank and file a little riled up. We'll talk about that as well. More discussion on the schools and the schooling and the... It just keeps going. I mean, literally, it's the same thing over and over and over again, where now all we're hearing is we need more funding.
and even uh soldatna got involved as well and even they said they didn't say anything about the the didn't say anything about the student achievements which kind of blows my mind that they're going on and on and on about the funding, but they're not talking at all about the achievements or the policies or whatever. It's kind of fascinating. We're going to talk about the legislative pay raise.
And then the hand-wringing as well from the legislature on the potentially deep federal cuts. That'll be part of it. And today is the day for the Iditarod. The restart is happening this morning in Fairbanks. And so if you can play hooky from work and you want to go down and see something historic, you can go down there and... And check it out. The last time, let's see, I actually broadcast the start of the Iditarod. The last time it was in Fairbanks back in 2017. That was quite an event.
quite an event so uh feel free to uh feel free to go out there and check it out the buses start running from um pioneer park from alaskaland or no carlson center sorry carlson center uh that starts at 8 a.m the shuttle buses because they've got there's not much parking down there at pike's waterfront and so the teams are going to take off starting at 11 but if you want to get in the queue you can um
take a bus from the Carlson Center starting at 8 a.m. this morning they'll be running shuttle buses from the Carlson Center over to uh over to uh Pikes Landing and you can get a chance to see all that so should be uh Should be a real interesting time this morning up in the Fairbanks area. And of course, super warm. Somebody from Fairbanks will have to give me the current temperature. Last time I looked, it was like 20 degrees, something like that. 40 degrees in...
40 degrees up in the Mat-Su, 39 down here. It's crazy. It's crazy. Yeah, I remember Brobs just asking in the chat room, remember when it was a big deal when they moved the restarts from Wasilla to Willow? Yeah, I remember they were they made a big fervor over that kind of stuff. It is it's kind of crazy. So it's it's. It's a lot of fun. All right. Let's 18 above in Fairbanks right now. So not too bad, not too bad a weather for a good start for the Iditarod out of out of Fairbanks this morning.
All right, so what are some of the stories that we want to jump into and talk about? Well... The Iditarod obviously was one of the first ones. I wanted to touch base on that and let everybody know that it's going on. The big news, and this was... This was national news and has been national news all weekend. Everybody has been going on and on and on about the meeting between President Trump. And Zelensky, Vladimir Zelensky.
that took place in the white house in the oval office now i don't know how many of you have actually watched this exchange um It was kind of painful to watch. I'll be honest with you. I kept hearing about it. People were talking about it midday, whatever it was, Friday. And so I went out and I tracked down the video and I watched the whole thing. And it is. it is painful to watch but at the same time um i don't think it was an undeserved um kind of well here's the thing
This is something that should have taken place behind closed doors. If Zelensky was going to come in and try and tell us that we just didn't understand because we're separated by an ocean and we're isolated from this event and yada, yada, yada. I think that he should have done that behind closed doors, not in front of all the cameras and everything else. I think he kind of set himself up for this in some ways. And then if you.
There's been a couple outtakes where you can see where the camera stays on Zelensky. And you can see it when J.D. Vance jumps in here to talk about this. You know, to where J.D. Vance, Vice President Vance jumps in to kind of defend the president or the or the nation, I guess. And you could just see some of the behavior that's going on here from Zelensky. And look, I've been a huge supporter of the Ukrainian fight since the very beginning. I don't agree with the president's take that this was.
that this was ukraine's and i know it's more nuanced than this but i'm i'm generalizing broadly okay um i don't think this was ukraine's fault To begin with, I think that there's a lot of blame to go around, whether it was the U.S. trying to push the NATO thing and floating the idea that they were going to include Ukraine and NATO and everything else. But I think now.
there is an opportunity to do a couple different things. Pursue a peaceful resolution to this, I think, is important. Now, does it reward Russia for... their aggressive attack and maybe you could see it that way but the question is do we sacrifice hundreds of thousands of more lives and you know endless gobs of money so far we've We've put forward $183 billion has been appropriated or sent over or made available by Congress. $183 billion to prosecute this war.
And it's a little frustrating to see how this is going to continue to go on. Now, I know everybody's got their... Everybody's got their opinion on this and everything else. Again, this was very difficult for me to watch. I just don't like that kind of... I guess what I hate is that I hate people talking over each other and not actually being able to get a point out or do some of these other things. But if you watch the body language of.
vladimir's link and what really caught me about zelinski's at one point he actually was even cursing under his breath at jd fans and it got caught on camera Anyway, it just the whole thing is is very difficult. But this is a guy that's supposed to be coming over here kind of hat in hand to ask for more of our help. And I don't think being confrontational was the right answer on this.
But I mean, again, they've been covering this ad nauseum across the entire weekend. So if you've missed this, I don't know what rock you were living under. But there was a whole, whole lot of stuff going on here. President Trump did leave the door open. to continue to work with them, something that Dan Sullivan...
acknowledged as well. He said the meeting with President Zelensky was a missed opportunity for the people of Ukraine. After the meeting, President Trump left the door open to continue to work with Zelensky on a peace agreement. I'm hopeful that will happen. Murkowski, she waited until Saturday, slept on it apparently, and then she said she was sick to her stomach.
As the administration appears to be walking away from our allies and embracing Putin. I think it's interesting how this is a common refrain in this whole deal. Not that. You know, if we don't support our allies in the way that some people want us to, then we must immediately be embracing the other side. And this is that absolutist.
thing that we've talked about in the past, where if you're not forced, you must absolutely be against us. And that, of course, is not how the world works. There are shades of gray here. I can be... I can be against you and I can be against them. I can be for you and I can be for them. There are nuances in the middle here, and I think the biggest thing is that the president is looking at this, one, as a financial issue, and two, he's not a fan of war.
He very much has pointed that out in his first administration and in this administration. So... This is just, again, this idea that somehow by being against Zelensky or having a disagreement with Zelensky immediately puts him in the team, you know, on team Putin, I think is. Well, it's this kind of a juvenile reaction, but that's that's the way a lot of people are looking at it.
Quote on Saturday that she wrote out on X is this week started with the administration officials refusing to acknowledge that Russia started the war in Ukraine. It ends with a tense, shocking conversation in the Oval Office and whispers from the White House that they might try to end all U.S. support for Ukraine. I know foreign policy is not for the faint of heart, but right now I am sick to my stomach.
As the administration appears to be walking away from our allies and embracing Putin, a threat to democracy and the US world values. Look, she's she's writing a book. Everybody knows that. Right. So expect her to say things that are. More and more salient and also more and more kind of controversial to raise her visibility.
before she drops her new book, which is supposed to be, what, in June, I guess? She's going to do that. I can't wait to see who reads that on audio. Probably be her. That would be. interesting to uh to watch but anyway if you missed it you know it uh was probably one of the most painful and interesting exchanges i've seen in my lifetime as far as at the presidential level because you know you know normally everything's so cordial and sterile and and everything else but this was a
This was a bit of a free-for-all. And quite honestly, I think it took Zelensky by surprise. I think he was expecting to be able to come in there and kind of lay some shame. and uh and guilt try and guilt the president into some things um or at least make some make some points and um not looking good for him on the way out Not looking good for him right now. But we'll see. We'll see what happens in the future. But like I said, if you missed it, you are obviously living.
under a rock because man it's all they talked about all weekend everywhere crazy stuff All right. Well, that's my minor foray into national stuff. We're going to come back. We will touch base on some of these things nationally because the federal cuts and doge. has still got everybody, absolutely everybody, up in a lather. And we're going to talk about that when we return to The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense, Liberty-based, Freethinkin' Radio.
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 weekday morning on Facebook Live and MichaelDukesShow.com. All right, we are in the break right now. Let me go back up here to see what you guys have been doing. Let's see. 10 degrees right now on College Road.
Oh, man, what a show, said Rick. He just read Zelensky's history a while ago. Z is a pawn in a show. I mean, yeah, it's just it was just one of those things where. I don't know. He's trying to play a part and he's not doing well playing a part. Michael says, yep, enough is enough. It has to stop Ukraine needs to get to the table. Yeah. Yeah. Bradley says he agrees it was pretty very hard to watch. And that's the thing was it was. Yeah.
The it was it's crazy. The hat that he said, the Trump Zelensky argument was a physical manifestation of what looked like a Reddit fight. The politician speak was so cringe. Yeah. And Fat Ray asked the question that I saw a lot of punditry talk about, which is, I wonder how that would have went if he'd showed up in a suit and a tie and humility. Well, I mean, I don't know. The whole shirt and tie and the dressing thing.
Because on the counterpoint of that, we've got Elon Musk showing up in a T-shirt with a sport coat. Right. So, you know. I don't know if that dog will hunt, but I mean, if you are coming to a country that's already given you almost a couple hundred billion dollars, you'd think maybe you would have a little bit of humility when you came in and had in hand said, hey, we'd like some more.
Yeah. Yeah. And I'm how is Ukraine an ally? I'm not convinced that Ukraine is necessarily our ally. This is from Murkowski's comment. And they're not. I mean, that was the thing. I think that was one of the reasons why initially this whole thing kicked off is because they were talking about making.
um uh them our ally through nato and that's what really kind of forced russia's hands i'm not excusing what russia did but that was one of the that was one of the things there um yeah going through here you couldn't pay me to read her books at chris yeah no yeah um And yeah, campaigning for the Bidens was definitely not going to leave them in a good position when when when Trump got in office. In fact, that was J.D. Vance's point was say you came here and.
basically campaign for our opponent um yeah um i'm still scrolling through here This is Rick responding to Brian. He keeps telling that he needs to be added into NATO. No way. Trying to pull us into a war because they hate Russia, that would be a disaster. Yeah. All right. I'm going through here. I'm just saying it. Elon isn't a state official, said Fat Ray. No, no, I understand that there's some nuances there. Again, Fat Ray, don't get me wrong. But again...
There is point and counterpoint. You're right. I mean, if I was the president of a nation that was coming hat in hand to ask for billions of dollars from the U.S., I probably would have dressed up. Even though I don't even own a suit anymore, I probably still would have dressed up. That's, that's, that's the thing is right there. Um, the big rocket blast, uh, oh, the big rocket, uh, the starship may blast off at two 30 today.
Been watching the Starship launches and stuff. Man, doing some amazing stuff there. Some amazing stuff. All right. We're about 20 seconds out. Getting ready to rejoin. let's see let me click here i need to jump that up there no that was right here all right trying to get all my some reason my volume controls are all over the place this morning all right here we go the michael duke show common sense radio let's do it 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 well maybe maybe i'm a little bit of a pain in the uh whatever it is good morning welcome back to the program it is the michael duke show uh we're getting ready to uh uh continue on here uh we are been talking about
This crazy weekend. And yeah, most people are like, yeah, that, uh, that, uh, that Zielinski thing, man, I don't know what he was thinking. I just, uh, you know, oof. Oh, it was it was crazy. But again, leave it to Lisa Murkowski to take the side away from where most of Americans are feeling. I mean, this is kind of just the way she is and the way she's always been.
And the way she will probably be until the day she decides to retire. Because I think, you know, you're going to have a very hard time getting Murkowski out of office. Even though... Many of us disagree with her. We don't like her politics. We don't like her policies. She has got the backing of a huge part of the electorate who were in the middle and on the left.
And even though many of them are not Republicans, they will vote for her simply because she is the option that they have available to them. And this takes me back to Rob Myers's article, which if you have not if you have not read the article from Rob. Myers over in the Alaska Watchman. I'm looking for the link here.
It is an amazing piece that I think really outlines why we're having the problems in this state that we're having. It's a wide ranging article that talks about where we are as a state. what we are politically, why we, you know, why people scratch your head and go, well, but we voted for Trump and we're, you know, aren't we a red state? No, we're not a red state. And Rob points out and explains why we're not a red state. We're a dependency state. And it is...
Just a fascinating piece. And if you haven't gone out and taken a look at it yet, let me just, I'm posting the links up in the chat room right now so folks can go out and take a look at it and read it on your own time. Don't stop listening to the show, but you can go back later and read this piece because it really looks at it. And the main, the core of this prop, there's a couple of different problems that he points out. But one was we're dealing with a model.
In this state, as far as state spending, we're dealing with a model that was created back in the 70s, back when we were largely controlled by the Democrats. And the problem is, is that when the Republicans took over in the mid 90s, nothing really changes. Just the players changed. But the model itself, it didn't really it really didn't change much. Until, of course, we started getting all that money rolling in during the oil booms and we saw our spending just increase dramatically.
And so now we kind of have this bastardized version of the 1970s funding model with some big spending stuff on top of it, and it's creating a real problem. And he goes on to talk about how, you know.
how we used to think of ourselves as, oh, but we are a conservative state. No, we are not a conservative state. Basically, he talks about the fact that we are... socially conservative but we are not fiscally conservative that we are um you know that that there's a difference between the fiscal and the social
Conservation. Most socially conservative people are caucusing with socially liberal people because they largely agree on fiscal policy is what he says, which means it comes down to spending is good. And that's kind of the universal. I mean, we're seeing that now. Spending is good. There's very few voices in the legislature that are talking about spending being the root of what we're dealing with here.
And in fact, they are the minor minority. The minority of the minority is talking about how spending is the root of what we're dealing with. We've got... Social, you know, what we consider to be fiscal hawks or fiscal conservatives who have said we just we need to get more revenue sources. That's you know, so even in their way, some of them are saying. essentially, spending is good. That it's not a problem with spending, that it's a problem with revenues. If only we had more money.
If only we had the money to fulfill our financial dreams, to have programs for everybody and everything. And this is echoed across every... You know, every swath of the state, whether it's education or, you know, benefits or whatever the, you know, whatever the program is or whatever is going on. This is where we're sitting, is that everybody wants to spend, that spending is good, and that anything that is anti-spending is bad.
And that all, if only we had the revenues to make up for our appetite for spending, that all would be okay. And that's what we're dealing with right now. We are reaping the seeds that we sowed so many years ago and over so many decades in this state of creating the dependency state.
Brian says, wait, I thought we were rugged individuals. Well, there are some of us in here that are rugged individuals, and we've been fighting against this for years. We've been talking about this for years. But there's a huge. portion of the population out there that are okay with, well, we just need that spending for whatever the program is. Right now, the soup du jour is, of course, education funding.
And everybody is all about the education funding, Soldotna, out of the Peninsula Clarion. The Soldotna City Council on Wednesday called on the state government to make a meaningful increase to the per-student funding for schools. This is just a day after the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly made a similar request. It was passed on the consent agenda with little discussion. They just passed it without even really talking about it.
It says that the state funding has slowly degraded due to an upward inflationary trend, creating a 17 million dollar deficit in the local schools. Now, again, no discussion on who is the financial genius at the school districts that. you know, has not been, has not seen this coming because again, they all see this coming, but again, they all expect the manna from heaven to fall into their lap.
Oh, I know we got a $5 million. I know we got a $12 million. I know we got a $15 million. I know we got a $60 million deficit, but we're going to get some of that money from the state. So we'll just plan on that. Nobody is. writing or planning budgets based on the worst case scenario and then, you know, hoping, you know, planning for the worst and hoping for the best and being surprised when the best happens.
By the way, the resolution in Soldotna, unlike the one from the Kenai Borough Assembly, doesn't call for education reforms like those that have been requested by the governor or some members of the legislature. So it's all about give us the money with no analysis of why. I mean, we're again, we're spending more than most states in the country. And yet we're at the bottom of the achievement list. I mean, 51 out of 53. There's no discussion on, I mean, why aren't we outraged that we're down there?
And this is not simply a money issue. Again, we keep pointing back to the 2015 when, you know, when we were right there at the top, right, on per student funding. And yet we still had. We were still in the crapper as far as our NEAP scores and our school report card, education report card. We were still in the bottom.
So this is not simply a monetary issue. There's something fundamentally broken here. But nobody in these assemblies, these city councils in the legislature has been out of shape about that. There's no big protest with everybody in red shirts standing outside saying we need better achievement scores for our kids. It's always about more money. comes back to the question is, is this just about money or is it really about educational outcomes? You know, that's really...
the big part of the problem here. So again, going back to what Rob was saying, we have got this spending is good mentality that has been embraced by so many people. in this state, at the state level. And the problem is, is when you tie in the federal funding into the state funding, it gets even worse. We have created this dependency state. Where everybody is looking for somebody else to bail them out. The school districts are looking for the state to bail them out.
Big chunks of the state are looking for the federal government to bail them out. Who bails out the federal government when the federal government is? I mean, that's part of the reason why this whole doge thing is taken off is because we are trillions of dollars in debt and we're talking about being. trillions more borrowing money and doing it. I mean, what happens when we can't borrow any more money?
What happens when it becomes too much to quantitative ease and add zeros to the to the ledger? And, you know, when when the when the inflation takes off because you're inflating the money supply, what happens when you can't do any more? So, yes, it's going to be painful as we make a lot of these choices, as we make a lot of these decisions, as we work on things like the what the doge, you know, the inefficiencies and some of these things. Yes, people are going to be hurt.
People will lose their job. Some programs will shut down. You know, there will be constituencies that are being served by programs now that won't be served in the future. Overall, you're right. It's going to suck. some or all of the country at one point or another. But as I've often said, it's better to get sick from the cure than to die from the disease.
And the disease we have in this country right now is spending. You know, when the Soldotna, when the Soldotna City Council gets up and says, well, we need all. OK, great. How do we pay for it? Nobody's asking that question. When the parents get up and say, I want my child to be able to be in the same school that their brothers and sisters were, or that I was in, or the ones that we love, or why we moved here. Okay, great. I understand.
It's a very emotional. I understand. How do we pay for it? Well, I don't know, but we should. Well, but that's not an answer. How do we pay for it? And that's the question that should be asked of everything that we're doing in this state, because now that they're talking about cutting out some of the federal spending and some of the federal match. Oof, Katie, bar the door. Things are about to get nasty. All right, we're going to continue here in just a moment. The Michael Duke Show.
We're going to talk a little bit about the federal cuts and some of the caterwauling that that's creating. We'll be back. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense, Liberty Base, Free Thicket Radio. you Listened to by more staffers in Juneau than any other show. Because their bosses told them to. And after what they just heard, oh man, they're going to be best. You're a bad, bad man. The Michael Duke Show. Okay, what do we got here?
So I just was just reading Anthony's Zelensky needs to learn. There's a time and a place for president Jim bro. And when you're showing up to ask for more billions of dollars for a war with another country is footing the bill for, a little bit of decorum is called for, like at least put on a collared shirt. Jeez.
Ken kind of nails it here. He says, Lisa Murkowski is not liked by the vocal extremes, both right and left, but she clearly appeals to those in the middle. She at least has been liked more than the extreme left and right opponents that she has. And that's true. That's what she's drawing from. Although I would say she's drawing more from the left in that regard than I think she is from the right. She's got all the middle tied up, I think, and a big chunk of the left.
because they feel that she's her only voice she's the only voice of reason left i think is what they're thinking in that regard um Michael Dwayne Beck says pretty much nailed it. Alaska is a borrow and spend state. When I was talking about, you know, we've become this dependency state. Ken says he thinks Murkowski is setting herself up to replace Governor Dunleavy. Interesting. Interesting.
The NEA and the new media politicians are not outraged about it, the educational outcomes. Only us funding it are outraged, and as we know, we don't matter. I mean, I think we do matter. But this is the question that we should be asking all the time. This is the question we should be asking all the time. You want to spend what, where, how do we, how do we do it? How do we do it?
And Brian is quoting Bastiat here. Government is the great fiction through which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else. And that's where we're at right now. Absolutely. Let's see here. Did I see the video of Fletcher? You're talking about Savannah Fletcher? No, I did not. I did not see the video of Fletcher. Good morning, good morning, good morning. I'm sorry. Harold's just...
His slip is showing here. Ben says she's the biggest loser with the Republicans taking over the Senate. She no longer she's no longer the tie vote and is now searching for relevance. Well, and she's searching for that visibility because she's got that brand new book coming out. Right. So she's looking for anything to kind of raise her visibility with a new book coming out. She wants to, you know, she wants to, as I see it, she wants to see, get that thing out there.
Barbara, Savannah was whining about how mean you are? Okay. Well, you know, okay. Everybody's a little butthurt about everything right there. Harold says we should get some original opinions and commentary instead of all these simplistic slogans. Although I don't know if I've actually said anything slogan-like here in the last hour, but you know, maybe, possibly.
Be ungovernable. It's about as slogany as I get here this morning. Okay. What do we got? We're 30 seconds out. That's the ding. We're ready to go. Uh, what else do you guys want to talk about this morning? I'm going to get into this thing about the, um, the federal, uh, the federal funds and oops, where is it right here? There we go.
And then I'm going to talk about the DEI thing at the university. But what else do you guys want to talk about? Because it's Monday. Why not? Let's get to it. Let's get to it. Oh, did I? I think I missed it by one minute. Yeah, I did. That was my bad. I missed it by... I lied. It wasn't 60. I lost track of the time. It was supposed to be. I have one minute remaining here. All right. Or 46 seconds, 45 seconds, whatever. What else do you guys want to talk about?
That's the, that's, that's, you guys helped me drive the bus this morning on this. Maybe it's because I'm just a dirty peasant and blue-collar worker and lack the ability to see the sacred's math, but I'm still unclear how you increase spending while having no clear means of increasing income. Yeah, maybe you should just stick to fixing things, Anthony, instead of...
doing all this mythical math about how we spend more and it's all going to work out, how we can continue to spend more than we take in and it's magically going to make things better. Maybe you can do that. Maybe you can help us with that. All right, here we go. Jumping back in the Michael Duke show common sense radio. The Michael Duke 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. We're ready to continue on here. And we are going to talk a little bit here about the, I think this is, I think that Anthony is winning the internet with his comment. Where'd it go?
Here it goes. He says, Anthony in the chat room says, maybe it's because I'm just a dirty peasant blue collar worker and lack the ability to see the sacred's math. But I'm still unclear how you increase spending while having no clear means of increasing income. I'll stick to fixing things, I guess. And that's the thing. They see nothing wrong. With the idea, and this is people across, this is people across the spectrum, right? The people.
see nothing wrong with spending it on whatever their project is or whatever their pet peeve is or whatever their their big thing they see nothing wrong with spending it and yet they give no thought as to where it comes from And the fact that we can continue to deficit spend, not just to go into debt, deeper debt, and expect that it's all going to turn out okay. is, well, it's ludicrous speed, right? I mean, that's where we're at right now. And then we get this letter.
from the legislative leaders on Thursday. They wrote a letter to Alaska's congressional delegation. Sean McGuire over at the ADN writes up about this, but you can find the letter. It's a two-page letter that was written by Senate President Gary Stevens and House Speaker Bryce Edgeman. And they've got the letter posted up there. You can read it.
And they say, quote, it's our duty to inform you that the legislature cannot fix the financial havoc that is being wreaked on Alaska by the federal government. Well, no, you can't fix it. You can't fix it in the short term. It's going to be pain.
You know, we could have fixed it if we had reduced our dependency on federal spend all those years ago. Of course, that didn't happen. And so now, as the federal spend is going to start to dry up or slow down, we're going to have to figure out how to deal with this. They said these federal cuts, these deep cuts to the programs would endanger the economic prosperity and social well-being of Alaskans. Well, again.
If we hadn't created a dependency state, this would not be as big a problem as it is right now. They go on to talk about potential cuts to food stamps, to early learning programs, to the bypass mail programs, and that if hundreds of federal workers lose their jobs, that that could.
you know have a trickle-down effect on have a repercussions on the economy yes it could yes um They talk about how that there's hundreds of millions of dollars in grants for energy projects in Alaska that could stay frozen. Well, again, if a lot of these are these renewable energy projects that don't produce nearly the amount of energy that's required, then maybe those millions of dollars should remain frozen until we find a better way. I'm just saying.
They said the time to sound the alarm is over. It's time to act. But you're sounding the alarm. The irony of this is that they're sounding the alarm. Please reach across the aisle and restore the checks and balances that our founding fathers envisioned. They're using the checks and balances. This is an administrative function, what they're doing. This efficiency is.
is part of the admitted that's what makes it so hard for the pill for many on the other side to swallow is that they took a long hard look at how to set up doge how to set it up It's outside the chain. It's outside the, and it's already in a department that's been funded. It was the department of, I can't remember what the name of the department was, but it was also DOGE. And they basically nested Doge inside of this other department.
That was a presidentially mandated department. Obama put it in during the Obamacare days when they were trying to get the websites up and running and do all that kind of stuff. So, I mean, they're going to. This is part of that checks and balance. And who's ignoring the checks and balances? Everybody's suing everybody. And there's been stays. And then the stays have been released.
and then there's been wins and there's been losses so where the checks and balances are there it's just when things are not going your way you immediately start talking about how the checks and balances are being thrown aside The letter was sent to all three members of the Alaskan caucus, including, obviously, Dan Sullivan, Nick Begich, and Lisa Murkowski.
The House on Tuesday, the U.S. House, approved a budget resolution that called up for $2 trillion in cuts. Now, we'll see what actually happens with that. I mean... I mean, it would be amazing if we could get two trillion in cuts, but it's not going to happen overnight. And if it again.
We're all going to feel there's going to be some pain. You don't build. Here's the thing. When you're detoxing, if you're a junkie right now, I've never been a junkie. I've never. But but, you know, we've all seen this. I'm Jones and man, I'm Jones. And and we know. that they are going to go through just an amazing amount of pain. To go cold turkey, right? To even wean them off, it's tough. But to go cold turkey, it's an amazing amount of pain. And that's where we're at right now.
I mean, this is this is where we're at and we cannot continue to live in the dependency state that we have and expect that it's going to be OK. That's what blows my mind. All these people are going, well, we should just spend it. We should just fund the program. Okay. Again, I don't want to seem like a broken record, but how? Talks in Congress about deep programmatic cuts are occurring as the Alaska legislature grapples with a $500 million deficit over two fiscal years.
State senators have recently introduced revenue measures, including oil tax hikes, as a way to potentially address the fiscal gap. But they go on in the letter to say. We already face significant budget challenges, and these reckless federal actions put our state's economy at risk. We can only do so much from the state's perspective. But it's not like we didn't have fair warning on this, folks.
It's like it's not like we didn't know. I mean, again, I'm sorry. I'm repeating myself again and again. But I have been talking about this for two decades. It's not like you didn't know it was coming. It was not like you didn't know that there was a potential for this to be the problem.
Some of us could see the trajectory and it'd be like, you know, if you keep going, here's what's going to happen. And they're like, oh, no, that will never happen. Then all of a sudden it's like, well, wait, this is what's going to be wrong. Costs of groceries and fuel are exponentially higher in Alaska than in the lower 48, and both Stevens and Edgeman said federal resources play a critical role in Alaska's lives.
Yeah, a critical role in many of Alaskans lives. It is the lifeline that gets them going. I mean, we have become so dependent on this. It's not an option for the state to absorb billions of dollars in cuts to federal programs. Well, maybe we need to reassess where we're at. If the federal government doesn't have the money and the state government doesn't have the money, then maybe we should be asking the question, do we need this program?
I'm just asking. Right. I mean, if you're running a budget. And you're looking at this and you're like, well, you don't have the money. and I don't have the money, maybe the question should be, can we afford the program or do we really need the program? Either one of those two questions is viable. And what do you think is going to happen by asking our three delegates to do something? I mean, Nick Begich ran on a platform.
of arithmetic of getting the federal government and the federal budget in line. We talked about that almost every time we had Nick on the program. Dan Sullivan's a little more wishy-washy on it. I don't think he really, you know, I think he would vote for a larger budget just because that's kind of who he is. And we know Murkowski is already in favor of not cutting any of the federal stuff. She wants to see it all continue.
This is more virtue signaling and then squawking about what's going on. How about you come up with some solutions here, guys? And the solution starts with admitting... that there is a problem. I mean, going back to the whole drug addict thing, you can't, you know, you got to admit that there's a problem before you can start to address the issue itself. You've got to hit that rock bottom. Well, we're pretty much there at the rock bottom right now.
All right, we got more coming up in hour two. I'm going to open up the phone lines in hour two for Monday. Let's see what you guys want to say. How about that? We'll do that here in just a moment. The Michael Duke Show, Common Sense, Liberty-based, free-thinking radio. Back with more. in just a moment. Don't go anywhere. I just... If you're asking for topics, that is what... I'm sorry.
Fat Ray, if you're asking for topics, I don't know which topic you suggested there, Fat Ray. I'll have to go back and scroll back and take a look at it. We should vote harder. Greg says, if I voted any harder, I'd break the marker. I mean, that's the problem. Keep going back there to vote harder for all these people. Could we talk about things to throw in the harbor to protest those new fees at the Anchorage port, says Fat Ray? I mean, yeah, that's exactly.
Sorry. Let's see. Let's go back and pick up the money tree. It's all about resources. Ben points out, newborns owe more than $200,000 to the Fed to pay for Lisa Murkowski, Gary Stevens, and Bryce Edgeman's world. Yeah. That's exactly it. Check your messenger for the show, says Barbara. All right. Okay. I'll go over here and see what I got.
oh i can't do that from there i gotta go back over here it's a problem man all right let me look at my phone instead while you guys are uh well i'll check this message uh let me uh let me go ahead and start the phones real quick that'll take just a hot second and we'll get uh phone lines up here hold up hold the line for just a second be right back Okay. Let me launch this real quick. It's going to bump my volume for a second.
bump this around here i don't know what's going on my this the volume control on everything today is just for clamped it's for clamped uh there we go cable a okay i think we're good Look at that. Okay. Volume's back down where it needs to be. Okay. So we've got, we're all good here. Phone lines are open and we are ready to go. Let me go back to the thing. Barbara, I'll have to watch that video when I'm not on the air. That will be the thing here. I'm seeing here.
What else? NEA is the third largest political organization in the country, said Ron. When they get their puppets installed in any political position as they have in the peninsula and Anchorage, their only goal is more funding, more power. And control. It's impossible for a private individual to compete against a candidate who's controlled and funded by the large unions, especially NEA. I mean, they do have an outsized voice in what's going on. There's no doubt about it.
Let me go back down here. I'm going to fix Joyce's comment there because it has nothing to do with us. Running out of rooms on the Anchorage streets. Doge has found $65 billion in savings to date. That's 3.35% of the $2 trillion that we add to the budget every year. Yeah, exactly. Just wanted to say thanks to the representatives and senators that came into Fairbanks this past weekend, says Miguel. Great. All right. I think I'm all caught up. You should check out.
Mike, you should check out last Thursday's assembly meeting in Fairbanks. Assemblyman Rotterman introduced an amendment that was amazing and that they've been asking for for the past two to get some deferred maintenance help of the schools. And that there and there was this that voted no on which and there I don't know exactly what you're trying to say there. And there were those that voted no on it, which shocked many of us in our community. I mean, again.
deferred maintenance is the bane of what's going on in the, I mean, I was shocked at the time as to how much was being, how much was being deferred when I was there. And that was 12 years ago now. All right, we got to go. Let's get to it. The Michael Duke Show. 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 a steaming hot cup of freedom. I just don't. Fathom this. The Michael Dukes Show, streaming live across the world.
Live around the world on the internet at michaeldukeshow.com and across the state of Alaska on this, your favorite radio station and or FM translator. Good morning, my friends, and welcome back to the program. Hour two of the big radio show for this Monday. We've been talking about all different kinds of stuff. And we're ready to go. In fact, I'm now opening up the phone lines if you would like to sound off on any of the issues.
that we've talked about this morning. Or if you want to help drive the bus this morning, maybe you disagree. Maybe you think that being a dependency state is the best thing for us, the best way to go about it. If so... Feel free to give us a call. 319-527-3864. 319-527-3864. If you want to sound off and give us your thoughts on... what's been going on with Doge or with anything else. I've seen that...
I've seen that. Where is it right here? I saw that, you know, there's some folks in the chat room are like, oh, this is all this is just going to be so bad for us. This is going to be, you know, any kind of cuts is bad for us. Well, again. I mean, let me let me be very clear on this. Any cuts is going to have an effect, any kind of cuts at the state level, the federal level, the borough level. There are going to be effects.
And most of the time, they're probably not going to be pleasant. Someone is going to feel the pain. Now, whether that's somebody who loses their job. Or maybe somebody who's a constituent for a specific program or dependent on a specific program and that program gets cut back or eliminated. They're going to feel it. But here's the thing. If there is no money to fund the program, it has to be cut.
That's the thing. You cannot continue to spend more than you take in and expect for it to continue indefinitely. That's the problem. There is a slice of folks out there who just want the program to continue. They have no idea how it's going to be funded. They have no idea what it's going to be paid for, but they need that program. They want that program. Their kids need it. The thing, you know, whatever it is, they need that program.
And when confronted by the idea of, OK, how do we pay for it? They don't know. Or in some cases, like people, some of the legislators, well, we'll just. We'll just, you know, take it from the PFD. Which, again, is a very short term solution, because once you've drained. When you're taking all the draw, right? When you look at this and you take all the draw.
The POMV draw is what I'm talking about. And there is no PFD left. Government is still going to continue to increase because you have not fixed the underlying cause of this, which is spending. inexhaustible appetite for spending. And that's the problem. This goes back to that age old conundrum of do we have a spending problem or do we have a revenue problem? You see dozens and dozens of people talking about how we need more revenue.
Now, I'm not for leaving revenue on the table, especially for things like oil taxes or things like that, because those are finite resources that once they're gone, they're not coming back. So as owners, we should be getting the maximum allowed return on our non-renewable resources. Of course we should. But at the same time, we need to husband our money very carefully.
You know, we put money away for years. We had a pretty healthy CBR, and it was the Republicans that were in control of things for the most part, that they were the ones that continued this runaway spending. And balanced, quote unquote, the budget on the backs of the CBR for so many years, spending, what, 16, 18 billion dollars out of our savings accounts with no reduction in spending. That right there is part of the problem. It's astonishing.
But that's where we are right now. And even more astonishing, we were just talking about how Bryce Edgemond and Gary Stevens wrote a letter to the, they wrote a letter. to the federal delegation saying you know please don't don't don't allow us don't don't stop don't stop the doge they need us to stop the doge don't cut the federal government Here's the thing. We have to do something. Two trillion dollars. I mean, we've been talking about how just the debt service.
Just the debt service for this next year to pay for the interest on our debt is going to be more than our spending on national defense. And it just goes up every year. That's not the principle. That's just the service on the debt. Do you think that that is going to end up well? if we keep going that way? I mean, maybe you don't run a business. Maybe you don't run a government, a governmental entity. Maybe you're only familiar with your own household budget.
Maybe that's where maybe you were only familiar with your own household budget. But let me just ask you, if you were having to borrow more and more money and the servicing of that debt was taken, if you had a credit card and your annual budget was... $40,000 a year or $50,000 a year, but you had a credit card that had $100,000 in debt on it. And you were just, you know, the interest payment, the minimum monthly payment alone was killing you. Would you be adding more debt to your debt load?
I mean, you don't have to be a rocket scientist. You don't have to be a titan of industry running a multi-billion dollar corporation or working in government and understand the intricacies and the ins and outs of how government budgets function. It simply would be when. you are in debt, a tremendous amount of debt, and the debt payments, the minimum monthly payments alone are one of your largest expenditures, would you keep adding to the debt?
I mean, that's the question. 319-527-3864 if you want to sound off on this at a question. And so one of the other things that the president, of course, laid out in his first few days in office was that he was telling federal agencies to eliminate all references. to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Not the actual idea that everybody should be treated equally and fairly, but this pernicious kind of woke mentality of...
what was it, ESG, I guess, and DEI, that diversity, equity, and inclusion actually meant elevating certain people over other people. I mean, we're a meritocracy, and we're supposed to be. And yet we saw a lot of pushback. A lot of the federal government didn't want to do this. We've seen the Anchorage School District has said they're not they're going to protect their DEI and everything else. Well, the University of Alaska, the Board of Regents.
decided to, in a recent decision, decided to strike diversity, equity and inclusion language at the university. And to change programs, if necessary, to comply with state and federal non-discrimination laws and guidance. There's still a ton of laws, by the way, that are out there in regards to non-discrimination laws. You know. equal access, equal opportunity, no racism, all that kind of stuff. The Board of Regents came to this decision after the Trump administration called for
educational institutions specifically to remove these policies or face federal funding cuts. Now, the resolution. The decision by the board has sponsored an amazing backlash from different varying groups inside the university. Student groups. Faculty, you know, faculty groups and more are all pushing back.
And their arguments range from the fact that we didn't get any notification or chance to discuss this. There wasn't enough public notice that, you know, scrubbing DEI stuff off the website is it infringes on these. staffers or faculty or students' freedom of speech or anything else. And they're all riled up about it. They're all riled up about it. But I thought that the response from Senator Ralph Seekins or former Senator Ralph Seekins was pretty apropos when he sat down and said, look.
The short timeline and the complicated issues are the factors. It was that was the reason why there wasn't advanced notice on the agenda. But they keep going on and on about, well, but there's an injunction. There's one thing, there's one court, circuit court that has filed an injunction and then everything will be fine. He points out that the injunction is temporary and is not the final word, and that the Board of Regents needed to take action to protect the university.
He said, what do people want us to do? Jeopardize funding for the university system for all the jobs and families they rely on? If we don't think that it's a bad step to say, you know what we're going to do? We're going to mandate that nobody is discriminated against and that there is equal opportunity for everyone. And that we already know we have an open admissions program. Everyone is welcome here. Everybody. What's wrong with that? That looks like inclusion to me.
But because it's not their kind of inclusion, the woke kind of inclusion, these groups are absolutely just flabbergasted. The coalition of student leaders at the University of Alaska passed a resolution demanding that student services related to DEI not be shut down. The chair of the Faculty Alliance also published an op-ed that called for the board's decision, said it was short-sighted and fearful. I thought it was, I thought it was preemptory and, you know, kind of strategic.
They wanted to get ahead of the power curve here instead of, you know, instead of endangering their, what I think it was a 200 million in federal funds. That's a big chunk. They wanted to get away from, they wanted to do that. The University of Alaska's Anchorage faculty Senate president said in an interview on Friday that the board, quote, should have engaged stakeholders more fully before their vote. Well, but you.
If you've got to comply, you've got to comply, right? If you don't want to endanger $200 million in funding. She said she understands that the regents were, quote, under pressure to comply. But the way they went about it felt like they were willing partners and not merely. acting under duress. They didn't squawk about it enough? That was the thing? You understand that they had to comply, but they should have kicked and screamed more? That's your complaint here?
The Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program at UAF passed a resolution in support of free speech, adversity, equity and inclusion. Again. There's nothing stopping the university from still having non-discrimination, anti-racism, anti-sexism, genderism, whatever it is. They have all these things. But because they're not the programs that many of these people who are in academia want, which in some ways pick winners and losers in this whole game, it's all bad all the time.
But again, $200 million in federal funding is on the line. I mean, I don't think that their caterwauling is going to change much at this point. I really don't. All right, we've got to go. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll have more. The phone lines are open, 319-527-3864. If you'd like to sound off, we'd love to hear what you have to say. Feel free to give us a ring.
We'll be back with more in just a moment. The Michael Duke show common sense, Liberty based free thinking radio. 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. Let's go over here. Let me see what's going on. What are you guys talking about?
Deferred maintenance. Yeah, deferred maintenance is the devil. Ben actually has two comments here that are really great. Deferred maintenance, the budgeter's tool to pay for new things by proponing responsible management on the things already paid for.
and deferred maintenance is the evidence of short-sighted undisciplined management yeah exactly um nobody funded me all the times i lost a job or business due to the economy says michael i always had to start over at the bottom on a new job and work my way up there's no reason for our economy have to run on energy to ever
that has run on energy to ever have a downturn none only the uneducated drones that vote for politicians and their agendas that hamstring us all including themselves but that means that's the thing it's the again It is the, they just want what they want. They want what they want. And they give no thought to how it's being paid for. Okay. Feed your chickens waste food.
Mike, this last weekend I was in shock to see how many people were in support of giving and assisting Ukraine. Of course, they were from the other side of the aisle. When those that over there are all not willing to give the ultimate sacrifice for their country, how quickly certain individuals have forgotten their own country was formed, that we're all willing to give the ultimate sacrifice. I mean, you know, again, it, to me, a lot of that.
was stemming from the fact that it was obvious which side of the table that Trump was on. And a lot of these people just want to be on the opposite side of that table. Regardless of what's going on. Didn't matter if they were for it before, they're against it now. Didn't matter if they were against it before, they're for it now. That's just, you know, there you go. Good morning, good morning, good morning. I've learned that schools don't factor.
I've learned that schools don't factor line items for what's a classroom expense or administrative expense with the exception of salaries. I mean, we've talked about that, how they've broken that up into a million different things. how they add a million different things to what is technically classroom spending. That's how they, that's how they Buffalo that. that there's no money attached to the simple version of DEI.
Our simple version. So DEI apparatchiks don't get paid. That's the other thing. That's part of that woke agenda. They've got whole businesses and economies and industries built up around DEI. So if it's not the right kind of DEI. then they don't get paid. Yeah. All right. And now Harold's giving chicken advice.
Chicken does taste better with Crisco, but olive oil is much more heart-healthy and allows the rosemary to spice it up much better. I like me a little. I like me a little fried chicken. It's been a long time since I've fried any chicken. Fried chicken is good. I love it. All right. I'm all caught up. I think we're all caught up. And somebody mentioned, Ben, you're now hosting. Ben Carpenter is now hosting the Must Read Alaska podcast, in case you haven't.
Caught on with that. He's now hosting the Must Read Alaska podcast, so you should go give a listen to that as well. We'll have him on to discuss that here in the near future. We might be partnering up with him to do some things, so go check that out. That'll be fun. All right. Use coconut oil is tasty on fried chicken, too.
i mean i can't keep track of what oils i know seed oils are supposedly bad now vegetable oils but the thing and the olive oil and coconut oil avocado oil those are all okay i do i can't keep track of it my wife keeps track of it for me because i can't keep track of it all the time um i you know beef tallow beef tallow
Now all these restaurants now are using beef tallow, I guess. That was the thing she told me last night. Everybody's moving back to the, it's all lard. They're going back to lard. Delicious. All right, Barbara's on the phone. We're going to jump to the phones here in just a second. The Michael Duke Show. Covent Sense, Liberty Base, Freethinkin' Radio. Here we go. Public enema number one.
Oh, wait, sorry. Enemy. Public enemy number one, which makes more sense. On the other hand, he's a little bit of a pain in the Michael Duke show. All right. We're continuing on, getting ready to jump into this. Phone lines are open, 319-527-3864. Barbara is on the line in Fairbanks. Let's go over here and see what Barbara has to say. Good morning, Barbara. What's on your mind?
Good morning. Well, of course, you know, speaking as a private citizen, right? Right, right. Only as a private citizen. Yeah, because that's, you know, I guess whatever. Anyway, so there were two interesting things from last week. FNSB hearing, assembly meeting. The first is the meeting began with Savannah Fletcher coming in and discussing a bar complaint that I had filed.
And actually, you know, after the censure hearing, there was about a month later I got some new information. I wrote back to the, I wrote. the bar and asked them if this was legit. And they came back and they said, well, you may have some issues, but this is not the venue. This is where you need to go. Oh, okay. Thank you. So she came in and testified as what a mean person I was and how I ruined her vacation. Of course, she was taking this vacation.
Unlike the $70,000 she got from the Mat-Su Borough lawsuit, right? But either way, I ruined her vacation, and I'm just a horrible person. It just seems to me that, you know, we have to fight back against corruption. The ad hominem attacks is the weakest. That is the weakest showing of any kind of argument. If it's an ad hominem attack, not because you're she's not attacking the merits of your complaint.
and said, you're mean because you caught me out, I guess. Right. And I thought to myself, gosh, if I hired an attorney, I wouldn't hire a crybaby like that. I'd want to hire somebody who's going to kick butt and take some names. That's not what I want to. Anyway. Well, that's what. The basic message of Ms. Fletcher is I'm me.
Yeah, you're mean. Well, that's what happens when you fool around and find out. Right. I mean, you know, that's that's that's the problem when you do something and you've got, you know, you're supposed to be held to some kind of ethical standard in your job. Maybe you should think about that before you start unleashing on other people. Maybe that's maybe that's the lesson here. Right. Well, anyway, but at the assembly.
We had a substitute for this. We have something called the Capital Improvement Program and Maintenance Reserve. Right. And Brett Roterman had introduced a substitute which would have moved back certain... expenditures which you know they'd be nice but we really can't afford them you know there's nice things and then there's things you can afford
And we really couldn't afford a lot of these other things. And he wanted to bring in a couple of school projects. Of course, it was voted down. So all these very pro-education people at the dais voted down like a lot of money for school improvements, a lot of school projects. Right. But that failed. So, you know, some of us just kind of dug in to see what we could delay.
And, of course, you don't always have all the votes you need to do anything like cut a program, but you may have the votes to delay it. I just went about delaying as much as I could because the school district is going to be turning over some schools and we're not sure how much that's going to entail. We are apparently on the hook for doing an environmental study of that site and demoing the building, and we're on the hook for 50 cents kilowatt hours. So these are...
This is huge, you know, for an empty building. It's not like we can repurpose it or sell it to somebody. Right, right. It's on base, right. And just to clarify what you're talking about, with the closure of the high school on Eielson Air Force Base, part of the...
police mandated that you basically give it back to them in the condition you found it, which was an empty lot. So you have to demo the building. And in the meanwhile, you're paying 50 cents a kilowatt hour to keep the building lit and heated while you're. doing the study and the demolition and everything else, right? Right. But, you know, I think that needs to be, we need to give that a closer examination because that school was in existence in 1959.
We're in the Valdez basketball championships. 1963 is when they had the grand opening of the school. And we weren't in a thing, in a borough, until 1964. So how did we find it? Right, right. No, that's a good question. That's going to be the key question. Yeah, yeah. How exactly did we find it? Well, a good question, Barbara. Anyway, go ahead.
We still have some unknown expenses coming down the pike that could be pretty big. I know that there are a lot of people who like playgrounds and all this kind of stuff. I do too. I have grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but at the same time, we don't know what expenses we're taking in with the closed schools. It just seemed prudent to me to delay some of these projects.
Yeah, I would agree. Doing my best here. All right. Well, thank you, Barbara. Lessons coming up in October, and I need more buddies. All right. Well, I appreciate it. We'll see if we can find you some cohorts there on the assembly. Thank you, Barbara, for calling in as a private citizen, talking about it only as a private citizen. We want to make that perfectly clear.
Got another call on hold here. Let's see who it is. Good morning. Who's this? Where are you calling from? Good morning, Michael. This is Matthew calling from Fairbanks, Alaska. Good morning, Matthew. What's on your mind, my friend? Well, just as Barbara mentioned, she was mentioning the schools, and I took note when she said pro-education. I just wanted to... clarify you know i think everybody on both sides of the aisle is pro-education it just comes down to uh
I think everybody on both sides of the aisle supports teachers in general. It's just a matter of whether or not they support these teachers here. Right. Well, is it is it because, you know, I know this. I say, is it about teachers, Matthew, or is it about. The differences in the, you know, is it how it's administered? I think everybody is pro-education. I think everybody wants a good education for the children. But there's, I think the disagreement comes.
in the manner and in the ways that we're doing it i think that's the main problem well it starts at the top administratively speaking but you know uh if I take issue with a large percentage of these teachers here in our district. You know, it's up to the teachers if they want to push the DEI. The admin can shove that kind of garbage down everybody's throats, and at the end of the day, the teacher can implement it into their program or not. And they eat that stuff up.
and teachers, the majority of them, think it's great for Johnny to be in Susie's bathroom. So currently, we still have a policy that allows boys in the girls' bathroom And currently, we still have the administration at downtown Fairbanks pushing DEI from the top down, guaranteed. And that's the problem. And I'd like to know what the government...
What's going to happen? Who's going to do something about this? You know, the president's once removed. He's sitting down in D.C. I don't expect him to call Fairbanks. But I'd like to see a little more help out of the governor for Mike and his legal team in the Department of Education.
No, I mean, I agree. I think that this is a this is a big question. If if like we saw with the Anchorage School District, they said that they're standing firm and they're going to prevent DEI and they're going to hide illegals and they're, you know, there will be a consequence of that. I mean, that's why. the university board of regents said we're going to eliminate all this as a precautionary measure because we don't want to lose our 200 million dollars in funding
If they are so hot to trot to keep all this stuff, then they should just expect that there will be no federal funds to go down there. Well, and hopefully that's the case. Yeah. But time will tell, anyhow. All right, Matthew, well, I appreciate you calling in. That's what I wanted to call about, boys in the bathroom and the DEI. I appreciate it. Thank you for coming on board and joining us this morning. We appreciate you sounding off.
with your thoughts this morning. That leaves all the lines open right now at 319-527-3864. 319-527-3864. Now I will say that... I disagree in part with what Matthew said, because I think a lot of times these teachers, especially those that are down in the classroom, I don't think that they necessarily have a say in what is... you know being taught or forced on them so i mean i think this is more in my opinion this is more an administrative problem
than it is a teacher problem. This is the way, you know, I've said it for a long time that there's something fundamentally flawed in the way that we are doing education here in the state. There's something just busted about it. And we could see that, of course, through our achievement scores, the national report card. We could see that even in months when we were, even in years when we were spending more than any other state in the nation, we still had abysmal scores.
And that's part of the problem. And because we're not doing any self analysis, we're not looking, you know, any self reflection on this. It's causing a lot of these issues. And it's definitely something that we should be looking at. Why aren't we analyzing this and looking at it deeper to say, what is causing these issues?
Because, again, I just think that there's something fundamentally broken in our education system as it sits right now. And I wish there was I wish there was a I wish I had the magic bullet, the magic bullet answer, but it's not there. It's not there. Rob had asked, said, I missed the comment during when Barbara was on. He said, should ask Barbara about what the assembly members said about not wanting to fund school maintenance.
Well, can somebody tell me what the assembly members said about not wanting to fund school maintenance? I'm curious now. Melissa said they not just voted them down those changes, but then chastised the district as well. Hmm. Hmm. I'd like to know exactly what was said and why. Let's figure that out.
All right, we're coming up on the break. We got more ahead here. Again, the phone lines are open at 319-527-3864. If you'd like to sound off, we'd love to hear what you have to say. We're going to continue here. in just a moment. Don't go anywhere. We will be back with more right after this, The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense, Liberty-based, free thinking radio. 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. We got one caller on hold. Caller will be to you here in just a moment. Don't go anywhere. Let me get back here and see what you guys have been talking about. Melissa said not just voted them down, but chastised the district. That was one of the things. I mean, interesting. I'm going to have to go back and probably listen to this here.
Harold said something I agree with. The house floor battle for HB 69 is going to be must-see TV. I agree with that. It's going to be very, very interesting to watch. genie tells matthew from fairbanks that she he should send trump a letter okay i mean again i don't know how much that is uh
I don't know how that's going to fix it. Harold says Alaska's legislators approach to improving education beating around the bush comes to mind. Anything and everything except a mandate to focus spending on inside inside the classroom, which, again, Harold and I agree with. This needs to get directly into the classroom and we need to eliminate a lot of that overhead that's going on. Melissa said the teachers in the classroom absolutely have a say in what they teach. That's good. That's good.
They should, and they should, again, be held responsible if they're not teaching, again, back to the basics and what they're doing here. Most won masters achievement award for our state. Okay. What are we now? We're talking about wild salmon and farm salmon. We're talking about wild salmon and farm salmon now. You guys are all over the place this morning. All over the place in discussion. The kids in the education program accused of being passed over at UAF
Most won Masters in Achievements awards from out-of-state Ivy League universities. He said one kid didn't even pay that 1990s UAF slight any mind. She put on her backpack, headed out into the snowstorm to class, and said it's just another hurdle to hop over. Yeah. I mean, again, overcoming. Melissa said, I'm agreeing with you, Michael. I was meaning going back to the caller. No, I wasn't saying that you were, you know, no, I agree.
Um, with that, I, I think that if they have, if they have the ability and the say to being said, what's teach, then they need to exercise that. And if they're in favor of some of the. woke nonsense and everything else then there are ramifications for that uh be it at the parental level or whatever i mean we should be focusing on just some basics here getting these kids to where they can you know do some analytical thinking
They can read. They can write. They can do arithmetic. They know how to learn. That's the biggest thing, teaching kids how to learn. That's, generally speaking, the biggest thing that they need to be focused on. I'm going through here. I wonder if DEC will have the tick brown water issue on their budget if only someone at DEC was on the school board. I smell some sarcasm in that comment. All right. And then Frank and Ben are chatting it out about farmed fish.
um for sure i mean i love fish in general i'd prefer wild caught but if it's farmed i guess i'll eat it it's delicious just hit me with it i want to see that delicious delicious fish okay all right well i'm all caught up on the comments for right now anyway What else are we talking about? I am curious about going back to Rob's comment. I'm going to have to go back and watch this assembly meeting, I guess. Not that I have the time to do it, but.
What the assembly members said about not wanting to fund school maintenance. I want to know, what did they say? Was it chastisement? What? Is it? Uh... Yeah. I mean, if, if that's crazy, um, wild caught King got to let it in the cooler for a day, never eat it the same day. Really? I didn't know that. Never eat it the same day. I have eaten fish the same day, but by leaving it in the cooler overnight, that makes it better? I had no idea. I had no idea.
They're a genie. And I guess this makes it even a third. This is even a third thing. She says there's no difference genetically between hatchery fish and wild fish. Farmed fish are GMO. But can't you farm hatchery fish as well? Or is that... Am I... I don't... I'm not familiar enough with this. This is something that I made a commitment in. In 2025, I want to get more familiar with the whole fish thing because it's such a huge component of what goes on down here.
i i gotta get more i gotta get more info on it we'll keep it going all right we got one call on hold here we go the michael duke show common sense radio 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 we're continuing now kind of went off went off topic but that's fine i'm enjoying it we now we're talking about farmed fish in the chat room which is something i've committed to getting a little bit more educated on the fishing issues um
I commercial fished when I was much younger before, I mean, 30 years ago, 30-plus years ago now. But I need to get more edumacated on some of that stuff. So we're going to be working on that as well for this year. But let's go over to the phones. We've got one more line on hold at 319-522-5222.
2 7 3 8 6 4. It's Monday. We're taking your calls. We've been talking about state spending, federal government cuts. Everybody's up in arms. Somebody's got to do something. Let's see what the caller has to say. as we get to it good morning who's this where are you calling from hi i'm candy from anchor point hello candy what's on your mind well yes sir As soon as you get it out of the water. As soon as I get... But anyway, what I basically called for was to say that...
You know, instead of saying, oh, these poor kids, they can't be punished and they can't be held back and they can't do. It's because I don't know who started that stupid crap, but anyway, I think kids ought to be made to sit in school and not with their phones and not with their toys. and do the work, and if the teachers can't get them to, then the parents need to go sit in the schoolroom with the kids. The parents are actually responsible for the kids getting their homework done.
instead of saying, well, we can't do that because it might hurt their little feelings, and let them pass. And if they can't pass, then they get held back a year, like they did when we were kids. Right, right. No, I mean, look, there's got to be some accountability there. I mean, there's got to be some accountability for kids getting it done, you know, but again.
I think we're trying to teach too much and too broad. Why aren't we just teaching some of the basics, reading, writing, and arithmetic, some history, and then the ability to learn? Isn't that the important part? That is exactly the important part. I know kids right now that can't read and write, and they're in fourth, fifth, sixth grade. They don't know how to bump their own name if they do their print so illegibly that you can't read it anyway.
Right. That's something I was always super proud of with my kids is that every one of my kids was reading. When they hit junior high school, they were reading at a college level, which I was like, they are. I mean, I think that's just to me, it's amazing that a lot of these, you know, their comprehension was off the chart. And it was because we focused on reading and we did some math and things like that. But I mean, when kids can't read and write.
and and we got kids that are graduating that can barely read or write we've failed somewhere desperately wrong yep yep and the teachers aren't held accountable for what they're doing I had one teacher in high school who would put the assignment on the board and then he'd kick back with his feet up on the desk and put a newspaper over his face while he slept through the class.
And God forbid that you would go up to ask him for help. Okay, wait a second. How long ago was this? Now I got questions, Candy. How long ago was this? Sixty-five. Okay. All right. Well, hopefully things have changed a bit. I mean, I, my teachers were usually pretty, even if my teachers were boring or they were mean, I've had a few that didn't like me simply because of my beliefs. But even then they.
least we're engaging i mean they at least would give me the homework and work with us on it i mean that sounds like that's an egregious example right right well he was the only one that i had that that did that in class. But anyway, I think that if the teachers can't teach them, the parents need to come and sit in the room and make sure the kids are paying attention. And that might cost somebody their wages for the day. You know, they might get the point across.
to the parents and the kids and the teachers that we're all going to work together and we're going to do this right well and i think you're hitting on an important point here because this is not all the school district's fault it's not all the nea's fault it's not all the teachers fault There is a component here of parental involvement, and my question has always been, how do you get these parents more engaged?
I mean, I don't want the government coming in and mandating, you know, you're going to we're going to lose your job. We're going to put you in jail or. But I mean, how do you you know, that's the parental engagement thing, because obviously more parental engagement equals.
Better student outcomes. I mean, the ultimate of that is homeschooling, right? One on one with a student and the parent. I mean, that's the that's the ultimate engagement. And then charter schools, they've got a tremendous amount of parental engagement and they're doing super well. And the kids that have.
lot of parental involvement are always doing better. So how do we encourage in your mind that parental engagement? That's a big component here, but it's not something that I think that could be mandated by the state. So how do we encourage it? don't know how we encourage it, but you know, not a brag, just a fact. My kids, when they started in school, The teachers, when they do the evaluation before they go into school, they try to find out if the kids know their colors and blah, blah, blah.
Mine, I was told that my kids should have started by rights in third grade. And I says, well, yeah, what are you going to do with the kids between now and then? And they says, well, we'll just be a glorified babysitter because you've already taught them everything they're supposed to. know up until third grade. Right, right. Well, I mean... Well, my kids did know that kind of stuff, but...
I took time with my kids and when they got in their older years and they went up in their grades, I also helped do their homework. I didn't do their homework. I helped them to get it done. I was involved in it. I've got eight kids, so I had to make sure that they were all doing their homework. If there was something new that they were learning in school...
we either went back and talked to the teacher or we had somebody in a higher grade. Well, with eight kids, you would have somebody in a higher grade that could help the ones that were younger that knew how to do it. Right, right. Well, you have to help. You have to be there and help them. Yeah, no, exactly. And I think that's the thing. I think a lot of parents are teaching are treating schools, not all of them, obviously, but there's a chunk of parents out there that think. Well...
I pay my taxes. This is all up to the school. I don't have to do anything. I'm busy doing whatever, working two jobs, or we're busy with life or whatever. And so the responsibility is all the school districts. And if they're not engaged, their kids are not. getting the most out of it and if uh and if they're not showing their kids that kind of support
then that's why we end up with a 75% or 76% graduation rate. One in four students not even graduating. And those that do graduate, a big chunk of them, can't even read to proficiency. That's a problem. It is a problem. You're right. So I think we need to go back in some years and have those parent-teacher conferences. Those parents have to come and they have to know what their kids are doing. Or not. And they need to take the phones away from them and the toys.
Right. Math does not need to be so hard that they have to have calculators to do it. One of them in school told me that I had to buy calculators for my kids before they could go into math. And I said, well, why is that? Well, they have to know how to do this. And I said, well, isn't the calculator doing the work instead of the... the kids and they said well yes and I said well okay if that is the fact then.
Do the kids take those calculators or do they have them accessible when they're having their test? Oh, no, that wouldn't be fair. And I said, you know what? Teach my kids. Or send them home with a book that teaches them how to do the math problems and let them use their mind instead of a calculator. Right, exactly. Teach them how to do it.
So they can do it without the calculator. Don't give them the shortcut. Exactly. No, I agree. I think removing the phones from the classroom is a good idea. I have no problem with that. Heck, I remember when... I remember when my teacher took away my book, I would often...
I was bored in some of the classes. And so I would read a book during the class. And my teacher got so mad at me because I mean, I got it. I already did it. I passed. I got a B plus or an A in the class. And but they didn't like it that I was reading while everybody else was working through it. And I'm like.
I just love to read. It was something that, you know, but yeah, anything that's distracting, I agree with you, Candy. All right. Well, thank you for your call. I appreciate it. We got time for one more caller here. Let's see who they are, where they're calling from. So who are you and where are you calling from? Hi, my name is Sue. I'm calling from Homer. Hello, Sue. What's on your mind today? Well, you know, I've been listening to a lot of the Sarah Vance commercials and your discussions.
questions I have is if Alaska is truly performing at a very low level, then what are the states that are performing at the highest level? And I'm hoping that our legislators and our governor is maybe looking into these states. And my one question, one of my questions mainly is, are they still giving? standardized or standard-based tests. Now, recently they've gone back to giving the...
college entrance exams, I think, with the SAT, which would be a standardized test. And we went to standard-based tests in the state years ago. And I was curious as to whether they've gone back to a standardized test. Right. Well, and that's a good question. And you're right. The Read by Nine program, which was finally put through in the legislature last year, that came from Florida where they had instituted the program and they saw their reading comprehension skyrocket. Mississippi, which.
spends some of the lowest per student in the nation also changed the way that they did education, and they've seen a tremendous jump. They jumped up like eight or nine places in overall achievement on the national report card. So some people are talking.
about the policies you know find somebody who's done it and emulate them kind of thing which is what you're talking about and there have been some discussion on that for sure and we need to look at that more it's not always just about the money it's about how we're doing things and i think that's been my point for many years. And when you and I grow up, we probably took a standardized test to evaluate our efficiency, which would have been something like the Cat 5, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.
These are standardized. All the bad questions have been thrown out. They may not speak directly to all of Alaskans, whether or not we're going to talk about whatever, but they're standardized. So if you move to another state... you can actually um no exactly and that's and that's why we're doing this
That's what I'd say. That's why we're standardizing it. So we know that it's an apples to apples comparison. Quickly, Su. I don't know that we still do that. We do do that right now. It is a standardized. The NEEP tests are a standardized test. So we are doing that right now.
in that regard hold the hold the line for a second suit all right folks we got to go tomorrow brad keithley chris story the michael duke show common sense liberty base free thicket radio we'll see you tomorrow be kind love one another live well All right, Sue, I'm sorry. I wanted to give you one final bite at the apple here. I'm sorry. We were running up against the top of the hour break there. So final thoughts for you, Sue. Well, I have been a teacher.
when they change to standard. Do you know what I mean when I say standards-based? Yeah, I'm familiar with the concept. I can't give you an example. I know kind of what you're talking about, but we are using standardized testing right now. They've changed back? For the NEAP scores, yes. That's the annual test that they give. That is a standardized test. Oh, okay. Because I didn't know that.
they had changed back to a standardized test. I thought maybe they were just testing fourth graders and still doing that weird thing. But no, I'm talking about the yearly test. And so I think that would be a great thing to look into because... When standards-based tests are based on a state developing their own standards and then having a, it seems like a company, like a book company, develop the test. Right. You know what I mean? Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah.
Go ahead. You and I are just talking right now, right? Right. It's just you and me and 50, 60 of our closest friends on the internet. Oh, okay. Well, the reason I ask is because... I felt that if it's not standardized, for one thing, you can't compare them. The other thing is that you're not getting scores that you can really do anything with. Whereas when I was going to school, maybe you were going to school.
Okay, you knew what grade level your children were reading at because of the testing they took, right? Right, right, exactly. No, I mean, we knew exactly where we were at. Well, I'm not so sure that's still happening. And when they went to these tests, there were several questions. If you don't standardize the test, then you can have a couple of bad questions.
You can have a couple of questions where oftentimes really, really bright kids don't know whether to choose between this or that answer. And I'm just curious as to whether we're still giving. And I know it's not something everybody understands. But there's a huge difference between a standards-based test and a standardized test. And the colleges for a while, a few years recently, had gone back to not
to not giving standardized tests, you know, like the SAT. Right, right, right. Some of them have gone back to the SAT, which is a standardized test. Right, because it gives you an equal playing field for every student that takes it. You can compare somebody in Rhode Island to somebody in Alaska or wherever because they're basically taking the same standardized test.
And they're usually just a paper pencil. I mean, I had little fourth graders having to go on a computer to take their standards-based testing. To me, it's a good question because these things have to be extraordinarily expensive, especially when they're having these kids write all these different essays and somebody has to grade them. Right, right.
I'm just curious because I know everybody's worried about how much everything costs. And when, you know, I would like someone to... for that that's all yeah no i agree sue i agree this is a great call thank you for uh calling in and thanks for listening we really appreciate it Well, I enjoy your show. And thank you, by the way, for your new lineup in Homer. Your radio lineup is phenomenal. I appreciate that. Thank you. We're really enjoying it here and hoping for more big things to come.
sue so stay tuned okay okay thanks so much all right uh folks that brings us to the uh end of the show for today i think we've done all the damage that we can do I think we brought a lot of good stuff up there. We got to continue. Yeah, Joel is right. Candy was sweet. Sue seems inquisitive. Barbara is his gal. So it's good calls today. Good calls. Matthew was good too. Great to hear some new voices out there. It's always great to discuss it with you guys.
Well, I mean, I wish we had all the answers. We don't. Never purported to. But maybe if we keep talking about it, we can come to something together. You know? All right. We got more. Yeah, I could do more damage. You're right, Rick. If only I had more time. All right. We will see you guys tomorrow. Be kind. Love one another. Live well. The Michael Duke Show. Common sense. Radio. Radio Skin. And now we are slimy lizard internet people. It's the Michael Duke Show.