Transcription

• Speaker #0

  Welcome to Fargo Talks. Fargo Talks. Fargo Talks.

• Speaker #1

  This is Fargo Talks. Victor, thanks for coming on. Hey, it's great to be here.

• Speaker #2

  I really appreciate it. You're like a comfortable pair of shoes being here on Fargo Talks now, Danielle Galant.

• Speaker #3

  Like Louis Vuitton.

• Speaker #2

  Are those nice? Those are nice shoes, right?

• Speaker #3

  Yeah, the red bottoms.

• Speaker #2

  Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yes. I'm lucky that my wife is very, is a northern Georgia girl. She's a meat and potatoes girl. Thankfully. Thank you, Brandy. Thank you. But then she gets around you.

• Speaker #3

  Don't worry.

• Speaker #2

  Let me get my claws into her. Yeah, I know. Well, we were talking before we started, and Victor, you're somebody that, I love your content.

• Speaker #1

  Appreciate it.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah. You're welcome. I'm a fan of your brain. you're a journalist, but you're a journalist that isn't afraid to say, well, this is what I think.

• Speaker #1

  Well, it's really, I have the best job in politics. I'm a columnist for the Las Vegas Review Journal. And it is really a blessing to be able to write what you actually think, because most politicians, you know, present company excluded, of course, aren't able to just be honest about, you know, here's what I actually think about what's going on. And, you know, you understand that they've got to get elected. They've got you know, people that they're trying to please. And so I always try and be honest with readers or listeners in this case and just say, Hey, here's, here's my perspective. Here's the reasons that I think this. And, you know, obviously I try and convince people. There's many people I don't convince and you know, that's okay. If everyone agreed with me, I wouldn't have a job. And so I enjoy the back and forth.

• Speaker #2

  Well, that's what it comes down to. How old are you?

• Speaker #1

  41.

• Speaker #2

  Oh my God. It's like, I think when you hit your forties, it's like a clarity where I know I'm not gonna have everyone love me. I'm not going to receive like ultimate validation from everyone and that's okay. Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. That's, I mean, that's a very important perspective to have because I mean, my job is literally to say things people, you know, strongly agree with or strongly disagree with. I'm not looking for, you know, where can we all come together and find consensus? It's, you know, what's the right path? Here it is. And, and I'll make the best case for it. I can. And, you know, I'm really blessed to have. Incredible readers. Obviously, some really like what I have to say and agree with me. And there's others who don't agree, but they keep reading and they keep engaging. And I appreciate that too.

• Speaker #2

  Given and Trump's been in office now. We're filming this now. He's been in office, what, five days?

• Speaker #1

  Four days.

• Speaker #2

  Four days in, right? Do you think things are going to become even more polarizing? Because, again, Republican, independent, but voted for Trump. I just see this sense of like everyone's saying we're back and things are getting better. And what do you think?

• Speaker #1

  Well, it's the contrast between what's happening now versus what happened in January of 2017 is really stunning. I mean, in 2017, you had the Women's March. You had kind of this organic outrage among the left. And, you know, how can we sabotage Trump among the deep state? And what we have now is almost acceptance of, OK, Trump's in office. We know what this is going to be like. We know the economy is going to be good. We know that we're going to be respected around the world. Yeah, he's going to say some things on social media that kind of make you scratch your head. But in a way, that's actually normal and it's good and it's much better than the alternative of having Joe Biden, who may or may not have been alive for the last four years in office. And I think the American people are excited. They've seen the results of the policies that Trump ran against, especially with unchecked. illegal immigration, you know, five years ago, well, we're, you know, okay, we have compassion for people. We want to, you know, be a, you know, be big hearted and open arms. And, you know, now it's like, oh my word, look at the prices, look at the crime, look at the strain on our social services. We can't do this. We've got to put Americans first, put America first. And yes, even if I don't like Trump personally as much as the next guy, I'm excited that he's back in office. And I think the majority of Americans feel that way. And obviously there are some who don't, some who still are very upset or very worried about a Trump presidency. But I think for the average American who's really not paying that much attention to politics, they're excited for Trump to be back in office.

• Speaker #2

  Go ahead, Anit.

• Speaker #3

  Sorry. Well, I think one of the we're still seeing some efforts on the left to disparage Trump, right? I mean in terms of like the Elon Musk, right? Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  OK.

• Speaker #3

  calling him a Nazi when, what, two months ago he was a Zionist. So, like, which one is it? Okay. And now there's another, like, social media going out that Trump's going to take away the tax credit for dependents. If like you're getting alimony, right? Like so whoever's paying the alimony will get to, you know, take that credit. And there's nothing nothing has been developed yet, right? And so I think to a certain degree what I'm watching is they're still trying those old tactics, but they're falling flat.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, I think they really are. I mean they aren't as effective as they once were. Obviously they're going to try with the immigration stuff. And I think the interesting thing with Musk is You know, obviously it was a crazy smear and, you know, maybe eight years ago, everyone would have been outraged. And now it's like, look at those goofballs. Like, they have nothing better. Like, that's what they're coming up with. And the public's almost laughing at them.

• Speaker #3

  You know, Elon Musk, he's awkward. He's a weird dude. When you're that smart, you're just weird.

• Speaker #2

  Well, he's on the spectrum.

• Speaker #3

  I know. I mean,

• Speaker #2

  rightfully, and that's okay. Like, that's part, that's a majority of his success is because he's on the spectrum. Yeah. That's okay. Yeah. And. I love that now you see all these ex-posts of all these other people that are going like this, the AOC, like everyone else. Taylor Swift. The best one was Superman flying like this was hilarious. I'm like, oh my gosh, Superman's a racist. Superman hates Jews. So I think getting back for a second with immigration, and it was something that I saw on X-Post, and you might have... have reposted it yesterday, a couple of days ago, that UNLV right here in Nevada getting federal funding is now circulating information out to people to educate them about what to do should the government come, ICE or whomever, if they come on campus or whatever, or to people, to students' homes or their mom and dad about what to do to handle that. What?

• Speaker #3

  Aaron Ford's at the tip of that spear.

• Speaker #2

  Is he?

• Speaker #1

  Oh, yeah. I mean, that's That's becoming his brand is right after Trump was elected, he put out this thing, know your rights for illegal immigrants. It's like if you want to be an illegal immigration lawyer, more power to you. But you're the attorney general of Nevada. You're the chief law enforcement officer of Nevada. You are elected to enforce the laws, not help people figure out how to evade them. In 2017, he sponsored a sanctuary city bill. I mean it's just it's incredible. And he just kind of thinks. that the old playbook is going to work. And I don't think it's going to.

• Speaker #3

  Well, he's out of step with even our congressional leadership, right? They all voted for that Lincoln-Riley Act, which has allowed, you know, this to move forward. And yet you're right. He's doing the old playbook. And I think he's going to be very surprised come election cycle, right?

• Speaker #1

  I think he's going to be very surprised. I mean, you know, if he has a Democrat competitor, maybe he feels like this is what I have to do to get through a primary. But, you know, I mean, the general election is coming. And, you know, supporting sanctuary cities, protecting criminals, illegal aliens who also commit additional crimes, that's not a popular opinion.

• Speaker #3

  And the North is not going to like that. Oh, no. Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  It's to me, there's no growth mindset in what's going on. I mean, Look at the sweeping win that the, you know, that the Rs had. I mean, all the swing states, everything. And they're just, it's like the Democrats seem to be doubling down. And for, you know, Ford to be doing, I'm like, what are you doing? Dude, dude. And like, who's going to write you checks?

• Speaker #3

  Well, you saw from his last C&E, no one. He's barely has a half a million dollars. And Gov has five million.

• Speaker #2

  But to me,

• Speaker #3

  I'm like It was really sad.

• Speaker #1

  It was shocking actually.

• Speaker #2

  And like long play this thing. You've got I think is Trump stopping here?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, he's coming Saturday.

• Speaker #2

  He's because North Carolina so this is going to drop on Monday. So he will have come here I think just to say thanks. Is he going to Circa? Is that where he's going?

• Speaker #1

  He's going to Circa, yeah.

• Speaker #2

  And is it like a tip of the hat to Vegas, to Southern to Nevada?

• Speaker #1

  That's what it said. He wants to come and say thank you to Nevada for supporting him. Obviously, he went to California for the wildfires. Yeah, I think he's going to you know, he announced his no tax on tips proposal here in Las Vegas, if I'm remembering that correctly.

• Speaker #3

  At Sunset Park.

• Speaker #1

  And he's going to push that again. You know, obviously, as he's looking to push his big tax proposal. And, you know, I think what happened with that no tax on tips is really instructive for Republicans in Nevada. Because, you know, when Trump first proposed that, Democrats came out, the Culinary Union came out. Oh, this is reckless. Oh, no. You know, we don't want this. And then, you know, eight weeks later, it's like, oh, we've seen the polls. This is a really good idea. And now Horsford is like, oh, I'm a co-sponsor of the no tax on tips legislation. And, you know, so that's what I think should give Republicans encouragement is, you know, if we have a good popular policy, we can put it out there. And either the public will rally to us and support us in the next election or if it's really overwhelming, the Democrats might come and say, oh, yeah, we support that too. So don't be afraid just because Democrats are saying, oh, no, we would never go for that. Put it out there. Let the public see. Let the public weigh in. Make them feel the political heat.

• Speaker #2

  I'm a big fan of letting things cook. And it's something as I'm 55 and as I've gotten older, it's like, you know, like we're posting stuff online. It maybe it gets a couple hundred or a couple thousand views in the beginning, but let it cook for a little bit. And next thing you know, it starts to take off. And I think that that's what politicians need to start doing is sit back and let things cook for a little bit. I mean, there's content you've put out that's gotten hundreds of thousands, millions of views that did dick for, you know, a week or so all of a sudden. People need time to think. And I think we put too much emphasis now on this instant gratification, Amazon Prime, Adderall Society that we're in, that you just want to get right now, man. These are big things we're talking about. Look at our economy. Look at what Trump has done in four and a half days. I think he's done more in four and a half days than what Biden did in four years. He's got to have carpal tunnel for all the signings he's been doing. It's hilarious and I mean wacky stuff like Greenland. Strategically, I'm like it makes sense. Maybe that will happen or the Panama Canal.

• Speaker #3

  The Gulf of America.

• Speaker #2

  Oh. Which I went on Google, by the way, so this is Gulf of Mexico. I'm like, you assholes.

• Speaker #3

  Well, did you see the meme where Trump says it's going to be named the Gulf of America and the Democrats say when hell freezes over and then in Florida it's all snowing and they're like, hey, from Florida?

• Speaker #2

  I saw a great one where it said, you know, you're blaming Trump for global warming, but look at Florida. He's already taken care of it.

• Speaker #3

  Solved the problem.

• Speaker #2

  He's already solved the problem. Yeah. I think that he is he knows he's on borrowed time and he's not running for reelection. So it's let's get stuff done now as fast as we can.

• Speaker #3

  So I heard there I can't remember which congress or maybe it was senator but a republican about introduced a bill. Did you see this? I saw it. That would allow Trump to run for a third term. And I was like, oh, this is dead in the water. Please. Like it looks so opportunistic.

• Speaker #2

  Like Bloomberg did.

• Speaker #3

  Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  In New York City as mayor. He got a third term.

• Speaker #3

  Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  I don't know if I'm for that. I'd rather see Barron run than Donald, which we can talk about Barron in a little bit. But I just think that the energy that this man has, and he's fueled by Diet Coke. And McDonald's. And McDonald's, right? Like, this guy sleeps, admittedly, sleeps like four, five hours a night, tops, and is Like they're showing stuff online where like the light is on at 9, 10 o'clock at night in the Oval Office.

• Speaker #3

  And then again at 4.30 in the morning.

• Speaker #2

  At 4.30 in the morning. He's still working. So there is this sense of urgency that we're not used to as the public and that he is openly like I love. Again, I'm ADHD multitasker. As he's signing these proclamations and has a full the Oval Office is full of reporters. He's answering questions on it. Well, like signing this stuff.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  I mean, as someone in the press, like how do you feel about that compared to the former administration?

• Speaker #1

  Well, it's just I mean the contrast is night and day. I mean they were hiding Biden. Now that he's off the pasture, the stories are coming out about how much they did to shield him and protect him. And I think that the really incredible thing about what Trump has been doing is the level of focus. He's not He's responding to every little flashy object that comes up. He's saying, here's my agenda. I know what to do. I've been here before. I know the people to appoint. If you remember eight years ago, he was taking a lot of people from the, quote unquote, Republican establishment. He was looking to Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. And this time he's coming and saying, these are my people. They know what I believe. And they're going to go forward and implement my agenda. I mean you look at these executive orders. I mean you look at the executive order on. uh, the transgender issue. I mean, it's a philosophical case, uh, a logical biological case of why, you know, men are men and women are women. And it wasn't something that, you know, they just thought, Oh, you know, inaugurations tomorrow, we better come up with something. I mean, there's been a lot of thought in this, uh, in what, what he's done. And it's really encouraging to see,

• Speaker #3

  you know, one of the things that surprised me when the article started to come out about Biden's cognitive decline. I mean, I was noticing it. four or five years ago when he was running, right? But I worked in a nursing home. I pretty much had more grandparents than I can count, like step-grandparents that we had to take care of. And so I spent a lot of time growing up in nursing homes on the weekends, right? And what surprises me is that there hasn't been more of a backlash within the states for the electeds that also covered it. Because how many times did Biden and Kamala come here and meet with various members and electeds here in the state? I mean, it's not rocket science. You can tell when somebody is losing it. And yet somehow they all decided, maybe silently, right, to just fall in line and pretend that he was perfectly competent.

• Speaker #1

  I mean, they all knew. I mean, that's what we know is that if you talk to him, You knew if you interacted with the White House staff and you could tell the donors, they knew. They just they were committed to their cause and they didn't want to tell the truth and it was a sad thing.

• Speaker #3

  But it makes me wonder how anybody can ever trust the Democrat Party and those that are in leadership moving forward after this.

• Speaker #2

  Not only the Democratic Party but look at the press, mainstream media, not you but mainstream media. Look at CNN having major layoffs now.

• Speaker #3

  Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  They're tanking. They're tanking. I think I get more ratings here. I'm at 5 to 10 million people a month are gobbling up my content, absorbing my content. I think that's more than CNN sometimes.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  I mean that's bananas. But they keep doubling down on this same old playbook that they've had forever and it's just this law of diminishing returns.

• Speaker #3

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Well, to go back to what you said about the beginning about what's the difference this term. versus Trump's first term is the first term came and the subscriptions to the New York Times and the Washington Post and the ratings for MSNBC and CNN shot up. And Trump was incredible for them financially. And this time, the Democrats, the left are basically just resigned. And I'm turning it off because I know it's going to be bad. I don't want to hear it. And you're seeing the ratings just go down into the toilet. It's been incredible.

• Speaker #2

  What do you think about, and again, And I'm... I'm a Fox guy, but also it was like, I'm a Bloomberg guy just for financial stuff. It's become polarizing, so polarizing. And I will still go, I stream everything, but sometimes it's like, I'll go on like ABC. It's awful. It's just the narrative. It's just awful. And is, is Fox in terms of video the way to go? Or is there other avenues out there? Is it podcasts that you go to more where it's more of a neutral, you know? Because people, I think, have had it with extreme left, extreme right. I think there's so many people tired of that. And they just want honest like look at how Trump going on Rogan. You know, Trump going on Bustin' with the Boys, like going on and that was all Barron, by the way. Bless his heart. But I mean Trump gets these 20-something voters and it's, I think, podcast. But what do you think about that?

• Speaker #1

  Well, I think I mean obviously the media is fragmenting. You know, everyone's got a different niche. It's not there's not going to be the three big networks anymore. But I think the other thing is that, you know, if you are honest about here's what I believe or here's the perspective that we have, you know, people can kind of understand that and they can kind of, you know, put whatever filter they want on what you're saying. I think what's so destructive is that the propaganda press nationally will come and say, you know, we are the arbiters of truth. We are just telling you the facts. You know, we're going to do the fact checks. And then they come out and say, no, there's no censorship on social media. And it's like, oh, wait. Yeah, there was. There was right from the White House. Oh, Joe Biden is fine. What are you going to believe, the video? No, you can't believe the video. Believe us. Oh, yeah. Joe Biden has got to get out. He can't be the nominee. He's terrible. And so I think that's what's really destructive is outlets presenting themselves as the arbiters of fact, the neutral parties when they're not neutral, when they're very far to the left. And if they would just say, you know. We're a leftist outlet. I think that would actually get them a lot more respect and credibility because then people could say, OK, you know, maybe they're doing some good reporting. I know they're from the left. I kind of know how to how to, you know, unskew that in my mind. But at least they're being honest with me about about where they're coming from.

• Speaker #3

  I also think that people are starting to understand and want more of less black and white and more of the nuanced and shades of gray. And I think that's like why the podcast like yours and Joe Rogan, people are able to. dig into the details and the complexities of all of these issues. I mean, perfect example, you and I were talking about Mark Zuckerberg. What? Like last week? And I said, I think he just, it was a slippery slope for him and it was too big for him to fight. And then he went on Joe Rogan and he pretty much said, it was too big for me to fight. It was too scary.

• Speaker #2

  I love Zuckerberg now because he has his Jufro. and he's got the gold chain it's like now he's like more hip it's hilarious what he's done and i listen to rogan all the time and he's done he's pivoted He has to. He has to.

• Speaker #3

  But I also think social media has created these keyboard warriors, right, where they attack people and they don't understand context, right? And so when you're just posting like a quick quip on X or on Facebook, it doesn't allow for that context. And I think with those podcasts, we're allowing for more content, And I think it's creating a more softer response from... people out there that are taking in that information, or at least I hope.

• Speaker #1

  Well, it's interesting, right? Because social media is, you know, get the click, get the quick dopamine hit. And then these podcasts are, you know, exploding in popularity and their conversations. They're not just, oh, you know, here's, I'm gonna take 15 seconds and just rip on someone. It's, you know, I'm going to talk about this issue for 15 minutes or an hour, or Joe Rogan for three hours, you know, just talk to someone. And it's really interesting to see the public interest in that, where it's not just... what grabs my attention and I'm moving on, it's, okay, I really do want to dig in and understand more. And I think that's a really encouraging sign, even if it's not coming in the quote unquote traditional media.

• Speaker #2

  Do you listen to podcasts?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  Who do you like?

• Speaker #1

  Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, and then a bunch of basketball. So my wife listens to Ali. Ali Stuck, no, man, how can I remember her name? Anyway, she's on The Blaze and she's really good too.

• Speaker #2

  I want to ask you guys this. I will gobble up some serious stuff sometimes. So I'll do an all-in podcast. I love those guys. I like Rogan. But then also I'll do Tony Hinchcliffe. We'll do, oh my gosh, it's every Monday and he's in Austin at the mothership. But it's a bunch of podcasts. It's based off of the Quentin Tarantino movie, Kill Tony. And so it's just a bunch of stand-up comics get up. I can take serious stuff for a while, but then I just like my soul starts to disintegrate. And so then I listen to these like these stand-up comics get up and then I'm dying laughing. I love that. Do you guys do any of that, like a balance, either of you?

• Speaker #3

  So I like Tom Seguera.

• Speaker #2

  Oh my gosh. He's hilarious.

• Speaker #3

  He is hilarious. And so I like to catch his stuff sometimes. And then I think for my balance because I listen to a lot of Ben Shapiro, but he is super intense, right? And so I started to branch out and listen to Joe Rogan because it's a little bit more laid back. And not all the stuff he does is, you know, very intense. Like he interviewed a woman that like pretty much studies and lives with wolves for months upon months, which I never thought I would be interested in. It was fascinating. Yeah. Right. And so I think. That's where I've started to branch out a little bit. And then I've also started to watch Sean Ryan for a little while. And I started that six months ago before he kind of blew up just because I like to keep abreast of Islamic extremism and all of that going on. No, no.

• Speaker #2

  He's fascinating. Ex-Navy SEAL, ex-CIA, and has gone through battles with alcoholism and just is married, a good father, and a good dad, and has like a compound. I think he's in Tennessee. I think he's in Tennessee. Maybe. And just a good guy. Yeah. And has these wonderful conversations with people about just it's like a Rogan but much more tactical.

• Speaker #1

  Okay.

• Speaker #2

  Because he's ex-military. Right. And he's but he's very empathetic because he's gone through stuff and has stuff that he's carrying through from seeing stuff that a lot of us will never see. Yeah. And but he's wonderful. There's one more thing I wanted to say just with funny stuff. Did you see the Lex Freeman with Rogan?

• Speaker #3

  No.

• Speaker #2

  I won't tell you. The first 20 seconds, Jamie, the producer, had a question. I'll say it. Had a question for Lex. And so the question was if you're in space, if you have ejaculate, will that propel you? And how much will it propel you?

• Speaker #3

  And here you thought you were going to come for some stimulating conversation.

• Speaker #2

  I'm crying. I'm driving my car. I'm under 15. Tears are coming down my face. I'm crying. It's so funny. And then Rogan's like, well, it depends how long you go for. What about propulsion? And, you know, pounds per square inch.

• Speaker #3

  Did they have an answer?

• Speaker #2

  No, of course not. It's guys. It's locker room humor. Sophomore locker room humor. But it's freaking hilarious. And it's just and I mean and Lex is somebody that like he just he's brilliant. The guy is brilliant. I mean he has like six-hour long episodes, which I no way. There's no way.

• Speaker #3

  He's like Trump at a rally.

• Speaker #2

  It just goes and goes. I know. Well, I want to get back a little bit more with Trump. It just seems like he's playing whack-a-mole, but he knows where the moles are popping up and he's hitting them, right? Because he does all this stuff and he's in the oval signing, Okay, that's good. Now, let's hop on the plane. Did you see Melania today? She looks awesome. She's like Ray-Bans on. I'm like, who is this woman with him? It's Melania. It's just you didn't know it was her. But her support of him and it reminds me of like Jackie O because she is stunningly attractive. She's an incredibly intelligent woman when you hear her talk. But she if you go back to because they just had their 20-year anniversary. If you go back 20 years ago and she's being interviewed and she says and they said to her then, what would you if you ever became because back then he talked about being president. If you ever got in and became first lady, what kind of first lady would you be? And she said, I support my man. I would be there in a traditional relationship supporting him, guiding him, you know, but from the background. I was like, oh.

• Speaker #3

  There's a difference between his first, don't you think, with her and her role. Like I think she was still focused on raising Baron. And I think she was a little unsure. what this role and what was happening and whether it was going to be good for their family and the country. Like, I think there was some uncertainty and I feel like she's coming in with her armor and she is ready to fight. And she is just very solid in her stance. Like there seems to be a different level of confidence and focus this time around. Would you agree?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. I mean, it comes off very different. Yeah. The way that she is and she's interacting. But I think there's also another difference is obviously you have a literal supermodel as first lady and she's not on any magazine covers. No one wants to associate her with her because the blowback for Trump was so toxic. And now people are bragging about, oh, I designed her dress. And I just think it's going to be a much more welcoming environment for her too in terms of being accepted as the first lady. And so maybe that plays a role too.

• Speaker #2

  I'm loving is it 47 now? He's 47? Yes. I'm loving Trump 47.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  There's less of these tweets at 2 in the morning of him just putting people on blast. Like he still does it. He's still him. But it's not to the just visceral hatred and all caps of stuff going out at like literally Eastern Standard Time, 2 in the morning. It's like he got up. There was a thought and he's going. It's like stop.

• Speaker #3

  He got bitter at the end. He went from pithy. To bitter. And the American public didn't like that.

• Speaker #1

  I would agree with that. What do you think? I mean, in a way, getting kicked off of Twitter was a great thing for him. Yes. Because it's just Trump's ability to kind of see the big picture and figure out kind of where we needed to go. Like that was very apparent in 2016 and throughout his first term. And he didn't always get the details right, didn't always get the personnel decisions right. And then he would get distracted by, you know, what is. What was the media smear today? And it would just be, I am attacking that. I'm really frustrated by that. Here it's coming out on Twitter for 90 million people to see. And, you know, it's obviously only been a few days, but it's much more focused. It's much more, here's the policy, here's my people. And even during the confirmation hearings, Trump has kind of made the announcement by press release, and then he stepped back. It hasn't been about him. He's been letting the nominees kind of stand on their own, which I think has been really good, and showing, kind of having the confidence to know. That if they do well, it reflects well on him even if he's not the immediate center of attention. And then when he does have those kind of 2 a.m. rants, they're on true social, which just I mean it just for whatever reason, the press just doesn't pick up on it the same way. They don't. It's hilarious. It's been really good for him actually.

• Speaker #3

  He seems more controlled.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, yeah. I think there is less than there was certainly four or five, six years ago.

• Speaker #1

  Somebody either changed his meds or he's had to come to Jesus or something.

• Speaker #2

  Well, I think he's just he's not learning anymore. Like it's hard when you learn a job. There's a certain amount of chaos when you're learning. And he said it I think a day or so ago where he's like, all I was was a real estate developer. I'd never been in politics and now all of a sudden I'm the president of the United States. So he's had four years. to ruminate and learn and figure out, okay, this is what I did wrong and this is what I'm going to do differently. And he's had four years to plan this and he's a planner.

• Speaker #1

  I think also him coming millimeters away from death in Butler was something that I think gave him pause. And as we get older, and I mean, my mom has passed away, my dad's 82, and you start to look at your own mortality as you get older and you spend more time. If you have kids, you spend more time with your kids. Put your fucking phone down and you're making more eye contact with your kids or like having movie nights with your kids.

• Speaker #2

  Oh, yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Danielle just was but just share for a second with Victor the wonderful movies that you're sharing.

• Speaker #2

  So my oldest has lost all screen time because he's like not performing in school. So it's almost like I have this audience on the weekends because now he's not trying to play video games with his friends. And so it's like, hey, mom, do you want to snuggle and watch a movie? And I'm like, yes, but we're going to watch some classics. And so we've watched Sixth Sense, A Few Good Men, Rush Hour. We had to throw some comedy in there. And so we were starting to explore some really fun movies. We did Step Brothers, which I kind of regret because of the um the drum scene yeah i don't think i ever saw it oh okay yeah yeah well just google that okay because i have two boys so now whatever max please clip the drum scene for what danielle just said so um so it's been kind of fun like you know experiencing these older movies with him and letting him sort of get you know a piece of that culture Yeah. Right? In that pop culture of my time. Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  It's super cool to be an older parent and to have younger kids and Who the fuck are you calling old?

• Speaker #0

  Me. Definitely me.

• Speaker #1

  I'm 40s. Okay. Please. You look great.

• Speaker #2

  I know. I'm just giving you a hard time. But thank you.

• Speaker #1

  You look great. Fuck you. But it's something that we have such a cool thing again, I'm much older than her. Yes. But Cool perspective in terms of pop culture that most kids these days don't have. And so to be able to do that, like I'm sitting with my daughter. She's 15, and we're watching The Office together. She loves it. She loves Jim. And so there's like six or seven seasons of it. But when we're together, we're watching The Office, and it's wonderful because she's not picking up her phone. She puts her phone down, and I'm not looking at my phone, and we're just watching this stuff together. And hitting each other back and forth. We're in on these jokes now because it's multi-episode stuff. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  Well, you know, Xander the other day was like, mom, I want to watch like a modern comedy. So we started to search and it's like romantic comedies and things. They don't have the good comedy because it hasn't been PC for I don't know how long that is. you know, stepbrothers or Will Ferrell, right. Or you've got, um, liar, liar. Who's that? Um, Ace Ventura, right. Like this kind of slapstick stuff or, and maybe more some of the like Cheech and Chong or, you know, chasing Amy. Do you guys remember?

• Speaker #1

  Right. Like mall rats. Chinese finger cuffs. I remember chasing Amy. It was wonderful. Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  And mall rats, like there was a whole, and it's like, you don't have anything out there because nobody will produce it right now.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  Because they don't want somebody's feelings to get hurt.

• Speaker #1

  Well, there are so many movies that were made that just right now, today, you could not make.

• Speaker #2

  Oh, like Steve Martin's Parenthood is one of the funniest movies on the face of the earth. To this day. That's a good movie. And then Ben Stiller's Heartbreak Kid. If you haven't watched that, that is so inappropriate.

• Speaker #1

  All right. Let Victor's like what the fuck are you guys talking about?

• Speaker #2

  What are you talking about?

• Speaker #1

  Poor Victor. I'm sorry, but I'm not. That's just what we do. We just read. Right? That's fine. Just to put a button on Trump for a second, let's talk about Barron. First of all, the stuff on social media when they show Melania and Donald walking into the White House. And then here's Barron. I was crying. I'm showing my wife. We're like dying. And one now shows Barron like he's like he's like nesting at the White House. And you show like his upper torso was like shooting up through the roof of the White House. And I'm because he's like six, seven.

• Speaker #2

  He's so tall.

• Speaker #1

  This kid and a lot of people, it's kind of joking, but not are saying in, you know, 2040 or whatever, that this guy. has a serious shot. If you look at what he did for the campaign in terms of his influence over his father to say to go on these different podcasts and how he looked on inauguration day with this and the doing this, the whole thing was like, which is straight out of the old man. You know, and his mother has done such a wonderful job of this, you know, Slovenian, this is what you're going to do. And it's just, he's... Very structured, but I would love to know what he said to Biden.

• Speaker #2

  Oh, what do you think?

• Speaker #0

  I'm sure it was very gracious and kind. I mean, I agree. I don't think he's going to go like curse him out or something. No,

• Speaker #2

  but I think he said something that was definitely very like, I don't know, just the way you saw the interaction. Nice, but cutting. But cutting because the. I mean, what life is left in Biden drained out of him for about two minutes after he walked away. Right. And then Barron, if you look, when he turned around, he looked back at him, his nostrils were flaring, which is definitely like a very like boss move. Right. His adrenaline was going a little bit.

• Speaker #1

  It was it was cool that he recognized the Bidens. No one else did. Right. So for him to shake their hands and just whatever he said. But what do you think about Barron?

• Speaker #0

  Well, I, you know... When you were talking, I actually had the thought of, you know, he's over 18 now. Is he going back to live with his parents at the White House? If you're going to live with your parents, it's a pretty good place to have a room. But, you know, I hope he's able to kind of make his own path. I mean, I think one of the challenges when you're the child of someone very famous is, you know, people are interested in you because you're famous and because of your parents. And, you know, I don't think there's any easy solution for that. especially in the age of social media. And so I hope he's able to do something that he enjoys and not because, you know, other people push him into something or, you know, Oh, I can get into this because my dad's famous about, you know, politics or business. And, you know, if he likes business, if he wants to go into real estate development, because that's what he enjoys, I hope he's able to do it. Um, I, I'm not like the biggest fan of political dynasties. You know, I don't think that's necessarily healthy for the country because There's lots of really talented people, and I don't like this idea that it's only in these few families that we can find political leaders. Great point. So I obviously wish him the best. And it's even the same thing with J.D. Vance's kids. It's hard to grow up in that kind of spotlight. And you just think about their parents. I'm a parent, obviously. And so how do I raise my kids? And I'm sure it's like obviously this country to help steer and manage and run. And then you've got. Oh, I've got these kids that I have to worry about and they have some extra burdens or weights on them.

• Speaker #2

  He has a soccer team. He doesn't have kids. He has a soccer team.

• Speaker #0

  Who?

• Speaker #2

  Victor.

• Speaker #0

  How many kids do you have? Seven.

• Speaker #1

  Wow. You have a soccer team. I know.

• Speaker #0

  Ultimate Frisbee team. But, you know, he's got one.

• Speaker #1

  That's phenomenal. I thought it was again, it was just it was cool to see little kids. Yeah. It's really cool. For the dog creation to see like Vance's kids, one of the kids like slumped over. It was just it humanized the brand.

• Speaker #2

  But I also liked that they didn't try to make their kids sit there like little statues. Like they were bouncing up and down. I think at one point the little boy was picking his nose. The little girl was like walking by Trump. And everybody was just like really cool to let the kids just be the kids. Yeah, you got the wiggles. It's a long day.

• Speaker #0

  And it's boring for them.

• Speaker #2

  It's boring for us.

• Speaker #1

  I was looking again, being a dad and having a couple of kids. But you're looking. Most of those kids are just like they're sitting there and they're good. But the Vance kids are like, it was awesome.

• Speaker #2

  It was awesome.

• Speaker #1

  It was awesome. I remember back when Giuliani was mayor and his kid was just spastic. His Max, find that clip of Giuliani's kid was like at Yankee games. And you see Giuliani's there and the kid's like, this is like, you know, before Ritalin, I think it was, it was just, it was hilarious. But it's like, there are people too. You don't have to put on this like fake, you know. yeah persona of here of here i am and this is the person i am yeah and i think that's kind of what they brought to you know to washington dc now yeah and did you notice the little girl had three band-aids on her fingers and i was like oh i'm just waiting for some leftist to be like you're beating your kids and i'm like the

• Speaker #2

  minute somebody does that post it i'm like okay tell me you don't have kids without telling me you don't have kids right because like band-aids are the best thing In the world for a toddler.

• Speaker #0

  Yes.

• Speaker #1

  I want to bring it back to Trump for a second with his travels like going to California. It's unfortunate that with the timing, I want to know what Trump is going to say when he lands in California to Newsom. Like what's that conversation going to be like?

• Speaker #0

  I told you so. Leave it right there. If you'd listen to me, your state wouldn't be on fire. you You could resign now, Mr. Governor. I hope he lets him have it.

• Speaker #2

  It would be like a conversation between a lion and a weasel.

• Speaker #1

  With great hair. The weasel has perfectly coiffed hair. But even like the mayor of LA, I think it was Sky News, English guy has she's like in like a like the feeder thing that goes onto the that you walk on before you get on the plane. And he's saying, well, do you have a message to say? It was even He was throwing her as a journalist softballs. He really wasn't like,

• Speaker #0

  it's just like, give me a comment. Like here, I have a microphone speaking to the microphone.

• Speaker #1

  Give me something. And she was just stoic. She's horrific. To me, she's worse than Newsom.

• Speaker #2

  Well, California politicians have never had to be accountable for their bad actions. They just keep getting reelected for being shit leaders. And now all of a sudden on this national stage. where they have the worst disaster, I mean, dollar-wise, I think we've ever seen in this country. I mean, I was living in the South when Katrina hit, so I got to see that up close. And what's happening in California is far worse than Katrina. And I don't think they know how to actually respond and have to be accountable. So instead, they're like opossums. They just freeze and roll over.

• Speaker #1

  With more fires breaking out.

• Speaker #2

  I know. There's still more going on. There's like San Diego, Riverside. Like it just keeps coming.

• Speaker #1

  It's just to say nothing. I was like, lady, lady. I'm not a politician, but I know marketing. That's the worst thing you could do is to say nothing at all to a journalist that just wanted to comment. Say something like, I'm on my way. I'm sorry I was at a … Party in Ghana, wherever she was at a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party in Ghana, which, okay, whatever. That's just bad timing. And, yes, you knew this was coming and the Santa Ana winds and all that. Whatever. But to say nothing. How dare you? How dare you?

• Speaker #2

  It's kind of like DeSantis deciding to go to wherever outside the country during hurricane season. When you know it's windy, when you know you have issues, when you know you've got mental health issues and homeless and they like to start fires. Like. You don't plan a trip during that time.

• Speaker #0

  Well, my favorite thing I saw, I wish I had come up with this, but basically DeSantis was more prepared for a once in every 50-year snowstorm in Florida than Newsom has been for the fires that happen every single year. It's like, yeah, that's exactly right. What a difference competent leadership makes.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Do you think that there's going to be changes in California in the gubernatorial, mayoral levels from what's happened with the wildfires?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, I do. I think there are going to be changes. I think especially at the local level where it's easier to for the people there to realize, hey, if we don't vote someone else in, my house could burn down. That's bad. Newsom has obviously turned out. I can't remember RFK's vice presidential candidate, that woman, but I think she now has a good chance to kind of run as like the outside, the democrat establishment, still like very liberal. I mean by no means a conservative, but I think if she wanted to throw her hat in the ring. people would give her a new look in a way they wouldn't have before because it's, you know, she can just run. I'm going to go fix the problems. I'm the common sense candidate. You know, we can still be crazy liberal, but we're not going to burn your house down, you know, and I think there's, you know, lower the crime. I mean, California had a tough on crime initiative. You know, it wasn't that tough on crime, but get tougher on criminal initiative. It passed by almost 70 percent, 70 percent in California. I mean, that the people are sick of the governance and You wish they would connect the dots between, well, maybe I shouldn't elect the same people. But I think there is people there upset and willing to make some sort of change.

• Speaker #2

  You're more optimistic than I am.

• Speaker #1

  She's like, there's no way.

• Speaker #0

  Well, they have the challenge of all the conservatives are leaving California. And so we always joke about don't let the Californians come here. But it really is like the conservatives are leaving California. They know it's ungovernable or at least has been so far and are getting out.

• Speaker #2

  Every time I think, okay, this is going to be the time that California changes, right? And maybe it will be the state and the community that I grew up in. And then... they keep voting in Newsom or they, you know, didn't do the referendum. And right. Who was it that was trying to run against the recall? Right. And it's like, guys, like things are bad. And yet you keep making the same decisions and expecting different results.

• Speaker #1

  It's like you're in someone that's in an abusive relationship and they keep going back to that person. Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Is what I equate the state of California,

• Speaker #2

  the cycle of violence.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. Like there was a movie, I'm dating myself, Farrah Fawcett. It was this movie called The Burning Bed. It was the first one that ever came out about like abuse in a relationship but kept going back and kept going back. And so finally at the end, she took care of things. I just don't know if that's ever going to happen in California. Yet people are leaving in droves. And meanwhile, you have up until a few days ago, open borders. I think there is great credence to the idea. It's a conspiracy theory of... You've got Al-Qaeda or somebody is bringing people into the southern borders and they're letting the wildfires. It's brilliant. To do that I think is brilliant for them.

• Speaker #2

  So you should listen to Sean Ryan.

• Speaker #1

  You'd like him.

• Speaker #2

  You'd like him because there is that Sarah Adams, right, where she works for the CIA. She's an analyst and she's pretty much stated like there's at least over a thousand Islamic extremists. And so she goes into the details. And they did find, and I can't remember who Sean Ryan was interviewing, but I did catch a portion of it where they did find plans back in the day to start wildfires, right, to create some form of Tim Sheehy. Was it Tim Sheehy that did it? That was Sheehy, yeah. It was. You're right. Yeah, I just listened to it. It was. And so, I mean, we don't know, but there could be some possibilities that

• Speaker #1

  Reverse engineer it. It makes sense.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  For, you know, how much training is involved? Not that much. The timing is right. And you just go ahead and, you know, let off a couple of bottle rockets on the side of the road and that's it.

• Speaker #0

  Well, I mean, my conspiracy theory would be China or Iran. You know, I think Al Qaeda likes the publicity, likes the fear where China would know, you know, if we're going to defeat the United States, it can't be direct. It has to be. We have to undercut. We have to pump the fentanyl in.

• Speaker #2

  Not the new Al Qaeda. Listen to the Syrians. OK. OK. Because they don't care about taking responsibility anymore. They're happy to hand it off to the Taliban or Hamas. They're outsourcing the terrorism. They're outsourcing it at this point. So their mentality has changed.

• Speaker #1

  It's Bin Laden's son is now supposedly running everything globally for them.

• Speaker #2

  Hamza.

• Speaker #1

  Hamza. Hamza. Hamza Bin Laden. He does not want any credit for anything anymore. He just wants things to get done and get done. Fast.

• Speaker #2

  It's wild.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, the Sarah Adams interview with Sean Ryan. There's three actually. It's wild.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, it's wild. Anyway, I'll send you the links. All right.

• Speaker #0

  That would be a good lesson.

• Speaker #1

  What about with Trump releasing was it yesterday, the JFK files? He signed that one.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, 45 days for them to release it. Okay. Apparently like 97 percent of the file has already been released. So we're talking about maybe 3 percent. So I don't know if it is going to be this, you know.

• Speaker #1

  Someone's saying it was a guy on the front seat had a gun. I went to Deli Plaza a year and a half ago. I was in Dallas for a convention and I was like, I want to go check this thing out. Yeah. It was wild. Like if you've never gone and I'm like, I'd shoot. There's no way Oswald did it on his own. It is to me, there's 100% chance somebody or somebody else were involved. There's no way because it's right there. It's like you go up. And there's the angle. There's an X on the road of where he was shot. And you're like, there's no way to get that many rounds off with that type of accuracy. No.

• Speaker #2

  So it was both the Kennedy assassinations and then MLK. So we'll see. Now, I know some of the reports have been redacted that have been released so that maybe some of that will be unredacted. I don't know. But we'll I don't know. We'll see.

• Speaker #0

  Well, I mean more transparency is better than not. I mean, turn the lights on man it's like if you have nothing to hide why are you even hiding it I don't know what's been hidden I don't know why it's been hidden but I think it's good that we'll find out

• Speaker #1

  I love the transparency that's going on even like Epstein I know I hope that list drops to me it's like Epstein diddy let's go I'm not a TMZ guy, but that stuff, I'm like, oh, yeah. Come on. I think all that and now like Obama and Jennifer Aniston, which what?

• Speaker #2

  No. No,

• Speaker #1

  but no, Obama is gay. I'm like, oh, come on. Come on. Maybe he is. Nothing wrong with that if he is, by the way, but oh my god. Oh my god.

• Speaker #2

  That's like my sister-in-law like eight, nine years ago at Thanksgiving dinner. This is one of those that says that Michelle Obama has a

• Speaker #0

  penis and i was like at dinner just head in hands mortified you know i have to say this is the difference with the new trump right it for eight years ago trump would have been like on twitter speculating driving the speculation and we don't have that you know it's it's just people you know who are interested in the pop culture or the the gossip of it all and his administration is just focused and steady and i think that's really good you

• Speaker #1

  I love his new press secretary, and she's a kid. She's like 26 years old. And I loved how and she's this stunningly attractive blonde girl.

• Speaker #2

  Always.

• Speaker #1

  Right? Well, of course. It's Trump. But it's her and these two other blondes in like triangular formation coming out to address like everybody. And again, I'm a social media guy, and I'm watching the optics of it. This girl is and she's doing great, like going toe-to-toe and just saying everything on point. But then the two girls behind her. Both get out their phones and start filming content. And that starts going up and Getty Images picks up one of the photos and posts it. I'm like, oh, it's just this new era of transparency is now out. And you can hate the Republicans all you want, hate Trump all you want to, but he keeps talking. And his press secretary, it's no longer adversarial. You know, it's now it's just this is what's going on.

• Speaker #0

  Well, I mean the Trump presidency is great for the press and the respect that now they're going to get back to investigative reporting and actually trying to figure out what's happening, what's the truth, what's the spin and not just being the lapdogs that they've been for the last four years. And that's good. I mean we need an adversarial press. We just we need it with both parties, not just the one party.

• Speaker #1

  Agreed. I love like your stuff is great. I want to finish on the Gov, on the governor. Here of Nevada where Be nice. You can see what everybody wants. You can see what everybody wants. It's something that do you think Lombardo is liked? It's I mean I talk to Danielle often about it because she's in the assembly. The Democrats have this just I don't want to say stranglehold but my god of stuff that's going on and we look at it again. It's like the California wildfires. We look at it on the outside and go, what the What the fuck is going on here? Yet is it insurmountable, the stuff he's trying to accomplish?

• Speaker #0

  Well, he's not trying to accomplish very much in my opinion. I mean the he has a tough political situation because democrats obviously have large majorities in the legislature. And so if you have a conservative agenda and he did run on a pretty strong conservative agenda including school choice, including increasing criminal penalties. Democrats aren't interested in those things. And so … Then you have the decision to make. Well, what do I do if I put forward these proposals that are going to reject it? And so two years ago, for whatever reason, he decided I'm going to go in. I'm going to be the compromise guy. I will give them $2 billion for education and they'll be nice to me. And they weren't nice to him. They said, OK, great. Thank you. And why aren't you increasing education spending more? And so what I would have hoped is that he would have learned, okay, we're not in a good faith negotiating session where, you know, I give a little and they give a little, and we just kind of, you know, both meet in the middle and are unhappy. And, you know, what I wish Republicans would learn, I wish what Lombardo would learn, I wish what his consultants would learn, is there's a difference between compromise and capitulation. And if you know you have an adversarial opponent, you can't go in with what you want to end up at. You have to go in with an aggressive offer. And then make them compromise to end up where you want to end up at. And I feel like what he's done both sessions is he's gone and said, you know, in my ideal world, here's what would happen. And he's put it out there. And the Democrats have said, OK, and now we're going to drag you to the left because you're going to have to compromise from that starting position.

• Speaker #2

  I will say, I mean, because I was there, I think the governor and his team were very disappointed. that the Democrats were not willing to negotiate in good faith. I think it was It was probably the prudent move to expect or at least create an environment in which they had a choice to do that. And that's part of the reason why they brought on Ben Kieffer because he's a good negotiator, right? No,

• Speaker #0

  he's not. Ben Kieffer, Republican senator from Reno who became the governor's chief of staff, spent his time in the Senate giving Democrats everything they wanted and then wondering why they didn't give him anything in return. That is what he did year after year after year. And he never learned. And he's a very bright guy. I'm not insulting his intelligence at all. But that happened again and again and again. And that's exactly what happened two years ago. And it was totally predictable. I predicted it. Not some super genius over here, but just someone who's watched Nevada politics for a little while. And it played out exactly as I predicted it would. And I'm very worried that this session is going to go the exact same way. You know, the Democrat majority leader, Nicole Cannizzaro. comes out and says, I want to make these teacher pay raises permanent. Obviously, that's going to be their big issue. You know, what should Lombardo do?

• Speaker #2

  She had an opportunity to do that last session, and she insisted on it being one-time funding so that they could make it another issue this time around. Gov wanted to make it permanent, and she refused. She insisted that it would be one-time funding. It was insane.

• Speaker #0

  Okay, well, what's insane is they did a $2 billion funding increase, and then the governor's like, okay, here's more. You know, here's more. We're just going to throw more out. Anyway, so the governor comes out and says, I'm proposing making this this money permanent. And it's like, OK, Democrats aren't going to be happy. They aren't going to say, OK, we got what we wanted. You know, let's go have a good session. We'll all agree. It's like, OK, you gave us that. Now we're going to go ask for something else. And when you don't support it, we're going to attack you for not supporting education funding. I mean, it's the same playbook.

• Speaker #1

  What does Carson City need to do to fix education in the state of Nevada? Well, let's look at what we've tried.

• Speaker #0

  Most people won't think about this or won't realize it because it's the narrative is we just don't spend enough. We are spending over $13,000 a pupil this school year, $13,000 a student. So if you think about a classroom with 20 students, you've got $260,000 in that classroom. That's a lot of money. And what they'll say is, well, compared to the national average, we're still low on the national average. The problem is that the national average keeps moving. So if we increase spending by 20%, 25%, which is what we've done over the last two years, we should see a noticeable increase in student achievement. And we simply haven't done that.

• Speaker #2

  It's gone down.

• Speaker #0

  It went down during the pandemic and we're kind of getting a little bounce back after that.

• Speaker #2

  But our kids aren't even close to 40% to 50% proficiency at any level in math or English. It's insane.

• Speaker #0

  It is.

• Speaker #2

  And I'm sorry, like 12,000, 13,000 per pupil on average is plenty of money to be able to educate kids. That's twice the amount of what my private school costs for my kids.

• Speaker #0

  Anyway, so the solution is you've got to go in and you've got to give parents a majority of that money and say, you know, here's an education savings account that you can use to pay for your own child's education with eight or nine thousand dollars in it and go find the situation that's best for you. And, you know, the two things that happen there that are good is one, the parents can leave if they don't like how the school is going. They can go somewhere else. Now, it is going to take a few years to build up the capacity in the schools to meet all of the needs. So it's not going to happen overnight where it's just in two years, everything's fixed. But the other thing it does is it changes the incentives for the school district and the union. And now instead of thinking about how do we get more money out of Carson City, it's to get more money, we have to improve our product or the students are going to leave.

• Speaker #2

  And customer service.

• Speaker #0

  And customer service.

• Speaker #2

  Because at this point, the parents and the kids, they're prisoners in the system. And so when a parent comes and says, hey, my kid's getting bullied, and we've seen this over and over and over again, right, where the principal and the counselors and the teachers, they just blow it off until there's, I mean, that kid's broken. And there's no accountability. There's no effort. There's no incentive for them to say, you know, we need to fix this because they know.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. That's exactly right. I mean, the incentive structure is wrong. And actually, it's a perverse incentive because the Democrats, the unions are going to go back to Carson City and say, look at our achievement. We're not doing well. We need more money.

• Speaker #2

  It's just incredible. Let's talk about this because I keep hearing teachers are not paid enough. OK, so I did a little research today, right? Starting salaries around fifty five thousand. But then over 10 years with just a bachelor's, you're looking at one hundred and fifteen thousand with 10 years of experience.

• Speaker #0

  I think they would have to do a little bit more to move up the pay scale. But the top end of the pay scale has been very substantial.

• Speaker #2

  But if you take a look at I'm going to pull this up. Thanks, Max, for helping me out on this one. So if you take a look at like the top paying jobs here in Nevada, which was put on by Indeed.com.

• Speaker #1

  Blackjack dealer.

• Speaker #2

  No, no. So. You know, nurse practitioner is making about $127,000, okay? But a PhD teacher...

• Speaker #0

  with 10 years of experience is making $129,000, right? And then if you've got like computer information or power distributor dispatchers, they're making like the power distributor are making $107,000, okay? And a 10-year teacher with just a BA is making $109,000. Like they are making a decent living. They are not in the poverty level. And then my next question is, is because teachers think that they're not getting paid enough, that they're not actually providing the service that they need to in order to educate our kids, like they're holding them hostage and doing a half-assed job? Is that the answer?

• Speaker #1

  No, I don't think it's that. And, you know, actually something interesting about teacher pay is a decade ago starting teacher pay was $35,000. And now it's $55,000. And what we've seen is we've actually seen an increase in the number of vacancies in the school district. And so what we can tell because we've tried to increase the number of teachers by increasing teacher pay is it's not a pay issue. And I think a lot of it is classroom environment issue and that comes from the school district, comes from the state level where we had this restorative justice idea. Basically, a kid is violent. A kid is swearing at you. You got to have a healing circle and you got to hold hands and be nice to each other.

• Speaker #2

  It also comes down to parents failing at their job. But their number one job as a parent is to raise your kids with common sense, with a growth mindset. With a figure-it-out mentality instead of, oh, well, the school is going to raise you. The government is going to take care of you. I'm going to go off and do my own thing and play on my phone all day long.

• Speaker #0

  Well, there should be some requirement for parents to do some volunteer, like maybe 20 hours throughout the school year. Like the new school that our kids go to, they require 21 hours, right, for the parents to volunteer. And at first I was like, oh, God, do I have time for that? But it's actually been really good for us. But they didn't also make us jump through a thousand hoops. Like we're parents. We pay tuition there. Those are our kids. I didn't have to go do all the background check and the fingerprinting and stuff like that. So there wasn't that barrier to be able to volunteer at the school. So that might be an option, right? You have to do like 20 hours a week, whatever, or, you know, school year, whatever it might be, and be engaged in the process.

• Speaker #2

  Both my kids go to public school here. And I would I'd volunteer in a second if I didn't have to go and do all the to go to the school district offices. Come on.

• Speaker #0

  It's insane.

• Speaker #2

  Come on. I already have my CCW. Come on. Give me a break.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  I'm good. I'm no threat to you whatsoever. It's scary. What else haven't we talked about that you'd like to touch on? This has been great, by the way.

• Speaker #1

  Well, I mean I think you could talk about what would a strong Republican agenda look like here in Nevada. And you don't have to make it up. You can look at what Trump did to win the state, which is actually kind of a remarkable feat. I think if you had said four years ago, eight years ago, Trump's going to win Nevada by 3 percent, he's going to have a majority of voters. You'd say that's not possible. Well, he must have gone to the middle. He must have moderated all of his positions. It's like, no, he ran on. You're going to be safe. We're going to crack down on illegal immigration. We're going to have low taxes. going to, you know, put the enshrine the Trump tax cuts. We're going to have school choice. I mean, these are all issues that are winning issues. We're going to we're going to protect women's sports. I mean, this is this should be the Republican agenda. This should be the Joe Lombardo agenda is we're going to crack down on illegal immigration. We're going to make you safe. He does talk about that, which is good. We're pushing for school choice. Sure, Democrats aren't going to vote for it. But then we're going to go out next year and we're going to have an issue to campaign on and say, look, we want this. They don't vote for us. You know, that's what it should be. We're going to go out and push a tax cut. You know, it is amazing to see how much money the government has, how much money the government how much government spending has increased. I don't know when the last non-gimmicky tax cut was in Nevada. At the very least, it hasn't been within the last 25 years. You know, we've had no sales tax on diapers and feminine hygiene products. And in 2005 or 2007, I want to say, there was like this gimmicky rebate in 2005. But there hasn't been like hey, the sales tax is too high. Maybe we should lower it. And I think that's what he should do. And at the very least, if he doesn't want to do that, he should propose an initiative that would cap the total amount of sales tax and say, look, we're not ever going to be California. We're not going above eight and a half percent. You know, those are the aggressive, conservative, popular issues that I think he and other Republicans should push.

• Speaker #0

  He did. He did propose in his state of the state to open up zip codes. So instead of you being, And, you know. subject it to whatever area you're living to and and you have to go to that school within that zip code that he was going to open up the zip code but the problem is is i mean it's a good idea right it's a good idea because now you're allowing a little bit more competition between the public schools as well i mean the ccsd already has that for schools that have openings the problem is is that all those good schools are full yeah

• Speaker #1

  and so there's not It's like, yeah, you have the freedom to choose among all the schools that no one wants to be at. So yes, it's a good policy. Yes, it's a positive thing. But to think that it's a practical solution, it just logistically isn't working.

• Speaker #0

  But it's very hard to get approval from the district to go to a school outside of your zip code, right? And so it's one less hoop that the parents have to jump through. And I believe he also said he was going to provide transportation as well. So that was going to be another focus and another, you know, like barrier to overcome. So, you know, it might not be as robust as you, but I think he's thinking creatively.

• Speaker #1

  I'm not opposed to it. I mean, I think those are good things. I just wish, you know, if he knows the Democrats aren't going to compromise, then go cast a bold, popular vision that not only you can run on, but then all these legislative candidates can run on. because Democrats have just done a brutal gerrymander to Nevada where we should be very much a 50-50 state in this legislature. And so it's almost two to one. But the upside of that for Republicans is that if it breaks, if the dam breaks, it could break in a huge number of districts. It may not just be, oh, we gained one or two seats. It's, oh, it all broke and now we have the majority. And I think that's much more likely to happen if the governor is out there on the bully pulpit pushing popular. conservative proposals.

• Speaker #0

  And I think this last election, we're starting to see how close those races are. I mean, some of our candidates only lost by several hundred votes. I mean, it was very tight. And I think this is the first time the Republican, particularly in the assembly, have had such a robust support. Right. I mean, we just we've lacked in coming together as a party and supporting those lower candidates. Everybody loves to rally around the federal candidates. Right. congressional candidate, Senate president, and they forget about little old assembly and Senate. But gosh, we're the ones that are making the laws that really affect every day of your lives. I know it's not as sexy and it's not on national news, but man, we have more of an impact on your lives than anybody else. And so I think it's, that gives me optimism. California does not give me optimism, but what I saw this last election cycle gives me optimism for Nevada.

• Speaker #1

  Well, and if you look at I mean we're really going deep. Everyone is like, oh, we're in a state assembly races. But if you look at the state assembly races, the target races were very close. And Lombardo's team recruited really, really excellent candidates. But there were also these districts that didn't have the financial support, didn't have the recruited candidate that were extremely close. And what you're seeing is you're seeing Hispanic voters come to the Republican Party saying we're tired of the Democrats. And... That made those races much closer, including the race for Speaker Steve Yeager, much, much closer than anyone, myself included, the Democrats expected. And again, that's where the breakthrough could happen is it's not just, oh, we're going to win those competitive seats. It's, oh, we're going to win those seats that no one thought was competitive because Hispanic voters have changed and are now attracted to Donald Trump's Republican Party. And I hope Joe Lombardo will give them reasons to be attracted to Joe Lombardo's Nevada Republican Party.

• Speaker #0

  Well, I also think there's a disconnect. I almost talked about it in the beginning where we mentioned culinary union, where the union, right, like the union leadership is still diehard Democrat. OK, but the membership is saying, no, those aren't our values. Like, yes, we care about our jobs, but we also care about our kids. And we care about our families and we care about our values and care about our education. And so I think we saw a lot of union members breaking in their individual votes, even though that's not what you're hearing from leadership.

• Speaker #1

  Absolutely. You're absolutely seeing it in the data. You're seeing, you know, the New York Times had this incredible map of how much each precinct shifted from 2024 to 2020. And you look at the Hispanic heavy areas of Las Vegas and they shifted the most. I mean, you look at Henderson, you look at Summerlin, pretty static. I mean the change is coming from Hispanic and other minority voters.

• Speaker #2

  I'd love to have you back on in like three or four months and revisit a lot of this stuff. I think it's a lot of it nationally, locally is moving at a pace it's never moved at before. It would be fun to come back and have almost the same conversation.

• Speaker #0

  Maybe after session.

• Speaker #2

  Well, we will reconvene in June. Sounds great. Give Danielle a chance to breathe.

• Speaker #0

  Go on vacation after a session and then I'll come back.

• Speaker #2

  Victor, thank you so much for coming in. Well, thanks for having me. Yeah, this has been awesome. Danielle, as always.

• Speaker #0

  Always fun.

• Speaker #2

  It's a good time. So thanks, both you guys. Oh, and Bendy. Bendy, sorry. What's wrong, baby girl? Thank you very much. Thanks, everybody.