Iran’s Ayatollah’s Go Boom!

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Live from the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's favorite gun totem, Bible-clanging, deplorable America. That's it! That's right. I love this American ride. Todd Starns.

Well, Happy Friday, America. Hello, everybody. This is the Todd Starns Radio Show. I don't know what the weather was like in your neighborhood yesterday, but about 3 o'clock. About three o'clock this morning.

I was sound asleep. I was, and we'll talk about the huge party last night in just a little while. But I was sound asleep. I was sawing logs. And all of a sudden, the loudest explosion I'd ever heard.

And I literally just jumped out of bed and I thought the Iranians were attacking Memphis, which made no sense at all. But it's three o'clock in the morning and it a little discombobulated. But it turns out we had some pretty nasty storms roll through. But geez loose.

So the good news is the Iranians have not, ladies and gentlemen, attacked Germantown, Tennessee, or my home. And I'm grateful for that. Wow, what a night last night as we were getting ready to sell. I mean, we were right in the throes of our big book launch party, and word came down that the Israelis had finally decided to put an end to this Iranian nonsense. And I will say this: what it's A fascinating story, and this will one day be made into a major movie.

And I have no doubt about that. But the masterful way that the Mossad went in and infiltrated Iran, they built a about a year ago, this has been about a year in the planning, and it goes back to the cell phone, the exploding cell phone plot. You know, the Israelis are a very patient people. They were planning this attack for well over a year. They actually created a secret base.

They were using one of their assets, one of the leaders of the Revolutionary Guard, and they built this secret base and went to town last night. Attacks are still underway today. And Israel says this is all about making sure that there is peace in the Middle East. And a lot of folks are very upset about this. A lot of conservatives are very upset.

They say that Israel is going to bring about World War III. They say that the United States has no business protecting or defending Israel. And I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this. Tucker Carlson is really upset with President Trump. And by the way, God bless President Trump here.

Look what he did. President Trump was playing a role. It was really. Truly political theater, the president made it appear that he had had a falling out with the Israelis and that he had had a falling out specifically with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when, in fact, Congress. Covertly behind the scenes, they were plotting all of this out.

And President Trump. really nailed the point when he said, Hey, look. We gave Israel sixty days. To work all of this out. Yeah.

Yesterday was day 61. And the president again says there's still time for all of you people who are still alive over there because Israel is going out and they are obliterating all of the top military leadership.

So the top commands force in Iran, they have been dispatched to the hereafter. And we're talking with sometimes precision strikes. There was one, I was watching the videos last night, and one of them was an apartment building. And instead of just, you know, blowing up the entire building, they found out where this one general was, and they launched a missile directly into the window of that particular apartment. This is brilliant.

Just really masterful.

Now here's the thing. There are a lot of people out there who say that we have no business being with being a defender of Israel, and many of those are in the conservative movement, by the way. And there is a growing segment of the conservative movement who say that Israel should be on its own, that we should not be sacrificing any of our resources for the nation of Israel.

Well, we did not. As a matter of fact, Israel is responsible for taking out Iran. And Tucker Carlson is really upset. He says he posted a newsletter today, said this could be the final newsletter before all out war. And Tucker Says that any allegation, he said Trump knew the attack was coming.

He's really upset at Donald Trump. And he said that the U.S. says it was not involved, but that's not true. The U.S. was involved.

And a lot of people are just now wondering: okay, what's up with Tucker? You know, is he. You know, is he trying to appease the people that are paying his bills, many of whom are in, say, Qatar, for example? I do not know. I just don't know.

But Tucker and I sincerely disagree on this particular issue. And I believe that we must, ladies and gentlemen, and I believe the Bible commands us to stand alongside Israel.

So for me, it is more of a religious edict than it is a political edict. And I think Tucker is coming this strictly from a political point of view. But I'm curious, ladies and gentlemen, to get your reaction to the news coming out. There are concerns that we may be facing some sort of attacks on American soil, and that may be the case, only because so many people have been allowed to infiltrate our nation From our southern border.

So it very well could be there are Iranian sleeper cells somewhere operating here in America. But again, the question goes back to Israel. You have a nation, Iran. Is the world going to be a safer place if Iran has nuclear weapons? Iran has promised over and over and over again, death to Israel, death to America.

They literally, literally, the Ayatollahs literally want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. And I think, you know, if I'm Israel and I'm in literally in my backyard, I've got Iran, yeah, I'm going to be a little worried about that. And there are many in this country and in the conservative movement who say, you know, Israel is the aggressor. Israel caused Gaza. It's Israel's fault.

Everything is Israel's fault. That's what they're saying. And I would sincerely disagree. I would say you have this tiny sliver of a nation in the middle, a tiny sliver of a nation in the Middle East called Israel. And they have hundreds of millions of Muslims that want to destroy them.

So Israel, I believe, is well within their rights to defend themselves, and if that means launching a preemptive strike to specifically take out and target Iran's nuclear arsenals, or at least the infrastructure for what could be nuclear arsenals, then I say that's their decision to make, and it is not ours. If they need our help, we're an ally, we're there to help. But you know what? Israel says we don't need your help right now, we're good. And we would people say, well, they have no right.

Really? Really? What do you mean they have no right? Who are we to tell Israel what to do? I'll give you an example.

Back in the 1960s, when the Soviet Union wanted to put up nuclear missiles. In Cuba, guess what happened? That's right, President John F. Kennedy intervened. We all remember the Cuban crisis.

Well, I was not alive back then, but we all have read in the history books about the Cuban Missile Crisis. And the general belief among Republicans and Democrats, there was no way that we could allow the Soviets to introduce nuclear missiles. In the southern hemisphere and anywhere near the United States of America. There was no way they're going to let those missiles. be placed 90 miles from Miami.

That just could not happen.

Well, the same thing applies here. And by the way, we were going to launch preemptive strikes. They went with the boycott and it did not get to that point, but that's where all of that was going here with Iran. We've given them choice after choice. We've given them opportunity after opportunity.

And time after time, the Iranians said, no, we're not going to comply.

So Trump said, okay, you got sixty, you got sixty days. And what happened?

Well, sixty days came. Day sixty one, the missile started firing.

So, if Iran wants to look at somebody to blame, they have nobody to blame but themselves for this because they are being bombed back to the Stone Age.

Now the question is. What happens next? Because Iran says this is an act of war. I just truly believe that Israel has decimated them. I'm not sure.

that even the Iranians understand the significance of the devastation right now. Because this was a brilliantly planned strike by the Israelis. Simply. Brilliant. As a matter of fact, President Trump earlier today Urge Tehran to strike a deal quickly or risk even more attacks.

And again, Israel is not going out there. They're not turning Iran into a glass parking lot. They're just trying to eliminate the danger for them. One nuclear weapon, and you've got millions of dead people across Israel. That's really all it takes.

And so that's why this and so it really, I'm always puzzled by the folks like Tucker. And okay, well, Tucker, what is the option here? We just give Iran we allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon? We just allow Iran to obliterate Israel? And then we just shrug our shoulders at the end of the day.

Is that what we're supposed to do here? I don't know, ladies and gentlemen. I don't think so. I don't think so. Anyway, just moments ago new attacks, large explosions being reported in the eastern and western parts of Tehran.

Benjamin Etyahu says that he has issued a directive. And this all happened back in 2024.

So that's when the planning of this started. He instructed them to destroy Iran's nuclear program. The original attack was planned for late April, but did not take place, so it's taking place now. And I say good for the Israelis. All right, we're going to take a quick break here.

We're going to open up the phone lines. By the way, today is also Open Line Friday. Whatever you want to talk about, we're going to talk about. I've got some things to say about Senator Padilla out of California. Also, the big no-kings protests that are apparently happening all over America tomorrow.

We have a big military parade in Washington, D.C. It's going to be, we've got a lot of stuff to cover, a lot of ground to cover. Also, our good buddy Bediter back from Washington, D.C., he's going to be joining us. Joe Messina and Newsmax host Caleb Park is going to bring us a live report from Nashville, where the Maryland man is in court today. Again, our number 901-260-5926.

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U Yeah, Ayatollah go boom boom. The Ayatollah got a big boo-boo. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Tom Sterns Radio Show. Such an honor to have you with us.

Again, our number today is Open Line Friday. Whatever you would like to talk about, you can. Our telephone number, 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. It was so fun.

Earlier this morning, We got a call from a couple of our WDUN listeners who were in town from Gainesville, Georgia. They were over visiting in Branson, making their way back through Memphis, and said, Can we drop by and say hello? And we said, sure. And they're big supporters of St. Joe Children's Research Hospital.

And they host a big fundraising gospel singing over in the Gainesville area, Lanier Tech, I believe, isn't it? Lanier Tech, I believe is where they do it. Stanley and Peggy, and they gave us these really nice Yeti mugs. And I gave them a copy of our brand new book, Star Spangled Blessings. And it was just a great time to fellowship.

And we had a good laugh over the delicious iced tea at Long Street Cafe there in Gainesville, Georgia. Always fun to have listeners drop by and say hello. And we just love that here at the Todd Stern Show. Before we, and again, it is going to be a jam-packed show, but I just have to say thank you so much to some wonderful people. That put together the big book launch celebration.

We had over 200 people turn out last night at Germantown Baptist Church. The chef, Aaron Winters, just did a phenomenal job. The people were going nuts over the food, and it was unbelievable. We sold out of the books, and folks just had a great time. And we signed, Michelle Cox and I signed books for at least two hours straight.

And so I just want to say thank you for making it a hugely successful night here in the Memphis area. I especially want to thank the Shelby County Republican Party and the conservative women of Collierville, all of the great Republican ladies out there, Luke Symbol, Patty Postle, all of those who came out and were really helping to get out the vote. Actually, they were getting out the books, I guess, is a better way to say that. But such a blessing. And our great team here at KWAM, our flagship station here in Memphis.

Tennessee. All that to say, the book officially hits bookstores on Tuesday. And we would love for you, if you're at the party, I want you to go and post some photos on our Facebook page, our social media pages. We'll be posting a lot of photos as well. And a very special thank you to two great ladies.

We call them the Kristens. We actually nicknamed them the Real Housewives of Germantown. Kristen Hicks and Kristen New. Two great ladies. They started the Moms for Liberty and here in the Memphis area.

And those ladies are always working the book tables for us and just going above and beyond. And they're just great American patriots. And I could spend the entire show thanking people, but we've only got three hours.

So, and we've got a lot of stuff to talk about today.

So, all that to say, Thank you. It just meant the world to all of us. And we just want to say thank you again for supporting our brand new book, Star Spangled Blessings, Devotions for Patriots. Ben Dieter is going to be here in a little while. He's now listed as Big Deal Ben Dieter.

We're going to have to have a conversation about this a little bit later. Right now, I'm going to go to the phone lines. Say hello to our good buddy, Joe, from Ella J, Georgia. Hey, Joe, what's going on? Yeah.

John, you're great, great show. And I know I'm excited about your great book. And I just want to say I think what Israel did last night was wonderful. And I think that this should have been done. We've got to stop Iran.

They any time somebody says they want to kill you, which they said to the people of Israel and the United States, Something's got to be done.

So I applaud Nessa and Yahoo and Israel for doing exactly what they've done. And I also think that opens the door. with a big, beautiful bill to pass, which I think will pass. By July 4th. Happy days to hear again.

You've got a great book. You've got a great show.

So I'm happy and fired up and proud of you and Just have a great weekend and keep up whatever you're doing, Todd. You're doing great.

Well, Joe, thank you for that. Very kind words. And yeah, it's going to be a busy weekend heading down to Tupelo, Mississippi. And I'll be the keynote speaker at the Trump birthday dinner. They're celebrating Donald Trump, the Republican Party, down in Lee County, Mississippi.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

So if any of our Mississippi friends are around, drop on by and say hello. Joe, thank you for calling in. Always good to hear from you, my friend. By the way, a lot of folks are still shaking their heads over the president's decision to revisit illegal immigration in this country. And that sort of broke during our show yesterday, and phones lit up.

And a lot of people pretty fired up about this. On both sides, there are some who are hardline. You know, deporters like myself, we've got to deport every illegal, send them back to where they came from, then they can come back illegally. And then there are others who say, well, wait a second, who's going to mow our grass? Who's going to clean our houses?

In the Democrat Party, who's going to wipe our buttocks? Who's going to do all of this if we get rid of all the illegals?

So there are some now that are saying, you know what, Trump is right. We need to revisit this. We need to let the illegals working the farms and working in the hotel industry and cleaning our bathrooms. We need to let those illegals stay. But everybody else has to go.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that. 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. This is Open Line Friday on the Todd Starring Show. Yeah.

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Learn more at guardyourcard.com. All right, welcome back to the Todd Stern Show. Those of you watching us on our Facebook Live, I've just been told by Cancey, apparently my head is big or something. They're working on it. It could have been because of all of the accolades from last night.

I mean, wow, what a great turnout. And again, thank you all for coming. Let's hit the phone lines here at 901-260-5926. We will start our day. In Lakeland, Tennessee, Jim listening to us on KWAM.

Hi, Jim. How's it going? I'm doing fine. I enjoyed your event last night. But I got something I want to put out there.

I've got a friend of mine that's wife is from and this people's opinion His wife is a citizen of Australia. And she's not a US citizen. But she spent twenty three years in the United States Navy. And And I think in my opinion That a person that defends our country With our military. After 23 years, A retired ought to be an automatic U.S.

citizen. What do y'all push?

Well, look, I mean, I hear you. And first of all, yes, because we will get these questions. Yes, if you are a noncitizen, you can serve in the U. S. military.

You have to meet certain requirements and whatever. Yeah. Look, Jim, I'm with you on that. My question would be though, I mean, after twenty years, why not go ahead and start that process of becoming a U. S.

citizen after, say, year one or two? And why wait after twenty years?

Well, it would probably take, what, another four, five, seven years to be able to do it. I would think that the time that you served in the military, defending our country, ought to be automatically a U. S. citizen. You know, I wouldn't have a problem with that.

And Jim, I'm curious to hear your thought on this. I do think our immigration system needs to be reformed. I mean, it takes way too long for people to become legal citizens of the country. That's got to be streamlined. But yeah, for something like this, if you're willing to put your, you know, wear the uniform of the country and you're willing to put your life on the line, I'd say as soon as you're discharged, boom, you become an American citizen.

Well, I agree with you, and that particular person is my brother's wife. Is that right? Yes, it's my brother's wife, and she She is a model person. She's retired out of the U.S. Navy.

And she's still working. And uh but I just at when I found out that that, you know, That she can't vote and stuff like that. I said, my gosh, I said, she defended our country. With our, with our, in our military, and that any person that does that and wants to become a US citizen. should be an automatic citizen after 23 years in the Navy or any branch of service.

That's it. You know what? We'll put that question out to the listeners, Jim. I'm curious, were you able to get over to the food last night? Yes, it was delicious.

In fact, I started to sample it twice, but I thought, no, it might run out and then, uh, you know, but it was delicious. It was great and it was a great event, and I really appreciate being there, man. Thank you.

Well, and uh, it was great to to see Mrs. Jim there, too. Yeah, she's there. She was all done hole about it. She got she's walking around.

I was shooting pictures for her, for everybody that she recognized, you know.

Well, you'll have to send me some. I know you're a great photographer, Jim.

So you'll have to send me a couple of the photos.

Okay, I'll do it. I'll make sure she does. She'll put them up there for you. All right.

Well, Jim, thank you for coming out. And thank your wife too. A great lady, one of our great commissioners in the Memphis area. And we really appreciate you guys a lot, Jim. Thank you very much, Don.

Appreciate your show. All right.

Thank you.

That's Jim from Lakeland, Tennessee. And he and his wife are there, the lovely Miss Connie. She's one of our commissioners in one of the burbs, Lakeland, and just great American patriots. Let's go to Dwight in Gainesville, Georgia. Hey, Dwight, what's on your mind today?

Oh man, just some of the issues at hand, I guess, thinking about immigration and all.

So I think if we're saying there's ten million illegal immigrants in the country, there's probably twenty, right? Yeah. the economy stalls 'cause there's no one to do these jobs.

So, shouldn't there be a process for we? take the ones that have been here for 20 years. Give them 90 days to get a work permit. Anybody after that just caught without a permit or anything, then report them. But we gotta have some common sense and not, you know Shut ourselves down.

Dwight, I like where you're going with this. And again, if you've been here for that long, my question, it always goes back to this one simple question. In all those 20 years, why haven't you just taken the plunge, go and apply to become a legal citizen of America? I just don't understand that. We never made 'em.

If you could come here and get a free ride. What's the punishment? Nothing. And so it's all good. Out.

So let me see if I get this. I think I see where you're going with this because if you give them 90 days, you've got 90 days to make yourself righteous. And if you don't, then that's on you. And boom, you and your family are back across the border. And you're out.

That's right. And we'll say within a year you have to become a legal citizen. And if you don't, you have to leave and come back. to get a work permit every year. And you still don't get to vote until you have become a legal citizen.

Dwight, it's an idea. I'm still a hardliner. I think everybody has to go and then come back. And we focus on the folks, the people that want to come here legally and the people that want to live by, and they want to live as free people and not take from the American people, which I think is really what's happening with these illegals, especially when you look at the massive amounts of taxpayer money. But, Dwight, I like your idea.

It's a fine idea, and we'll throw that out there, folks. Dwight, suggest you've been here 20 years, you get a chance to become a citizen 90 days, and if you don't do that, well, boom, you're gone. 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. Let's go to New Bern, North Carolina.

Ron is on the line, and Ron wants to weigh in on something Jim was just talking about. Hey, Ron, what you got for us? Yes, sir. The U.S. military has had a program for a very long time for foreign nationals to enlist in the service, at which time they're granted their green card and after a short period of time they're allowed to apply for U.S.

citizenship. I'd have to guess on the lady from Australia that served 20 years and retired that she chooses not to renounce her Australian citizenship. Other ill, because there's no impediment for her becoming a U.S. citizen. But Australia does not recognize dual citizenship.

So if she would have to renounce her Australian citizenship, she'd probably choose not to do so. That's interesting. Yeah, and again, I know many people have dual citizenship, and I'm not sure what the rules or regulations are about that. But Ron, do you know if in fact there is some sort of a program set up today where foreigners serving in our military can become citizens? As of about five years ago, there still was a program, and I would expect it's still there.

And it's been in place since after World War two.

Now that's interesting. According to the latest government information we have, you have to have a U.S. permanent resident card, a green card, and you got to be able to speak, read and write English fluently. I guess you can do that if you're from Australia. I've been to Outback.

Everybody kind of talks English there. Yeah, so, you know, again, I think if anybody is a non-resident or is, and I don't even know if Jim's in-law is any legal, but again, if you're fighting in the military, I say there's got to be some sort of a special there's got to be a special way for you to become a citizen. Ron, thank you for that call. Let's go to Lee in Memphis listening to us on KWAM. And Lee, I understand you wanted to respond to what Jim was telling us.

Yeah, I know for a fact that she had in the Navy in 1991 and So when I was in there, there's a lot of Filipinos that happen to be in the Navy and um A particular reason for that is because we have lots of bases in the Philippines and they've always been a big ally.

So I know that when a Philippine I knew one guy in particular, if he's listening, L I L O Lila was his last name. Anyway, he had this sign up for eight years. He had no choice of no four, no six like American citizens. The other sign for eight. And if he um if he did the whole age and got honorable discharge, he was become a citizen.

So it was, at least back then, Yeah. or Filipinos at least, I would assume others, I don't know. But so, yeah, I don't know what ever happened to that, but Lee, what about all the others that are here illegally? And we mentioned 10 million. The number they're giving us is 20 million.

I suspect that number is probably around 40 million. Where do you stand on the immigration? Do all the illegals need to go, or do we need to figure out plans for certain groups of illegals?

Well, let's try like this here. I'm a hard liner. They all need to go. I've done my part by reporting some around the Memphis area.

So No, I don't have no sympathy. And that excuse about, oh, somebody's not going to do your job when I'm 53 years old. And what about the people back in? Before they came along, the jobs were filled. And think about this: all the teenagers, the young adults who were trying to get on their feet stalling at them.

Jobs is So-called we don't want to do, you know. What about them?

Now they're out, you know, and the other more skilled well, I wanna say skilled, but factory type jobs when you're older, people need those jobs. I don't feel anybody feels it. And I'm going to say something. Uh this is uh uh of that particular I was uh I went off the DoorDash and Yeah. I've noticed an influx of people coming to your door it are who it's supposed to be and they're Hispanic and And I always have to be the door.

I don't like leaving my food on the ground.

So they can barely even speak. Like sometimes they even show the phone to you so they can say your name.

Well, I started reporting them. Yeah, because that's the only way an app will do anything about it.

So, because I even seen that, here's an example, I've seen in New York City of Some uh T V news, whatever, this one uh illegal was saying, It's the only job we can get because, you know, all they have to do is have somebody illegal. Download the app. Sign up for them and pass the phone to them. That's all they have to do.

Well, that's whatever gets. Yeah, that explains a lot, Lee, because I've noticed that. I I used DoorDash a couple of weeks ago, and uh th the guy that delivered wanted his tip in pesos. And I'm like, What's up with that? That sounds weird.

I'm not well. Buenos dias. He no speaking English. And then he said, pesos, pesos. And I'm like, I got no pesos for you.

I got a dollar because it's America. Speak English, please. All right, Lee, thank you for that call. I'm just telling you. It's a little frustrating, right?

I'm just telling you. All right, 901-260-5926. Huge news, by the way, and we've got a great Newsmax show coming up for you, 5 o'clock Eastern Time. Newsmax just went public on the New York Stock Exchange. Millions are joining our news revolution.

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Well, let's go to the phone lines. Our good friend Kristen New, who I was, Kristen, your ears must have been burning because I was just talking about you on the. On the air. I called and I didn't hear you talk about me, but I called that you were talking a little bit about the event last night, so I just needed to call in and just. Talk about how wonderful it was, how many people showed up.

I mean, my goodness. Top, you have a lot of fans.

Well, it was a lot of I actually it was the it was the food. It was just off the charts insane.

Well, I didn't even taste the food because we were too busy selling out your books. I mean my gosh we I think you were sweating. You were sounding so fast and furious last night. Kristen, I can't feel my thumbs this morning. Otherwise, you know, it's I will say this.

We've had people buy a pinbook at a time to people, and they've given them away a gift, which I think is a wonderful idea. And if people hang tight one second, Kristen, we've got a super bad signal. Let's do this. Let's try to reconnect with Kristen. We're going to take a quick break here.

Again, it is Open Line Friday, 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. We'll reconnect with Kristen right after the break. Support American-made tariff-free clothing with American Giant with American Giant. They aren't affected by tariffs because their clothing products never left the US.

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By the way, Governor Greg Abbott has deployed 5,000 National Guard troops, 2,000 state troopers across the state to maintain order tomorrow in these no-king protests. We'll keep you updated on that. All right, let's get back to the phone lines. We've reestablished contact with Kristen New. Kristen, sorry about that, but good.

Thank you so much for the incredible work you guys did last night. It was. It was so much fun. I was, before my line got messed up, I was just amazed about how many people. People were buying these books by the truckloads, it seems.

They were buying 10 copies at a time and sharing them with their neighbors and their friends and their family members. And I thought that was incredible because really that's what this book is about. It's blessings for patriots, and these kind of messages that you and Michelle Cox wrote, those are the messages that you want to share with your neighbors and your friends and your family members.

So I thought that was a really wonderful idea. And everybody got the message because everybody was decked out in red, white, and blue last night. Oh, it was a wonderful patriotic event. You know, and that's what I love about these events that you do, Todd, is that you put together people who have a common, just a love for this country. And that is something that we all have in common in that room and that we all can talk about freely, which it doesn't seem like it's the case anymore.

And sometimes that we go into places and we feel like we have to maybe kind of tone that down. But hey, not at a Todd Starnes event. You do not have to tone down your patriotism. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, we're free speech proponents there.

Absolutely. And that is why we have such a good time. Everyone is relaxed. And let's do another one. I like that.

All right.

I need to get the feeling back in my thumbs, but I'm, yeah, count me in. Count me in. Me in too, Todd. I'm happy to help. Kristen, and by the way, thank you.

You guys have done such great work in the Republican Party and just completely, it's an exciting time in Memphis and this part of Tennessee as you guys are just fired up and there's so much energy, fresh energy in the party. And you know what, Todd? I would just say it's coming. 2026 is coming, and so we're getting ready now. I love it.

All right, Kristen, thank you again. Have a great weekend. All right, you too, Todd. Thank you.

All right.

Well, let's go to Kevin in Germantown, Tennessee, listening to us on KWAM, our flagship station. Hi, Kevin. What's on your mind? Hi, Todd. I just wanted to reaffirm the idea of immigration being a good thing.

when done according to the rules. I happen to be an immigrant. um came here as a kid, but I remember Eight and ten hour car drives as my dad drove down to New York City. to go through the paperwork and did it properly. and uh got green cards for us both.

I carried a green card for I don't know, 15 years, maybe more, 20 years. Reported in every January. I was very uh concerned about following the rules. You know, it was somebody else's country, that's the rules, that's what you do. finally a naturalized citizen.

Um And I but I think uh you know, the system seemed to work back then. took, I don't know, maybe a year to actually get the green cards, but after that, everything was okay. We need the immigrants, we need the farm workers, we need the other workers but got to be a system. And it's a failure of both sides, both repubs and uh DIMS, I think, to make that happen. It's Just uses a political football to try and embarrass each other's side and.

And yeah. Let's hope that there's an opportunity here to actually reestablish and maybe streamline. And get it right. Absolutely. Kevin, God bless you, and we're proud to count you as one of our great listeners and fellow countrymen.

And thank you for hanging out with us today, Kevin. We've got to skedaddle that music means we have to take a hard break here. Don't go anywhere if you're on hold. We're going to get to your calls. Ben Dieter, the great Ben Dieter, coming up next.

This is the Todd Stearns Show. Hi everyone, Tom Mustin here for the Legal Help Center. If you or someone you know were diagnosed with lung cancer or mesothelioma, listen up. This could be the result of asbestos exposure and you could be entitled to significant compensation. Call us at 800-260-8700.

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Live from the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's common sense conservative commentary from Todd Starr. Satzer! That's right. I love this American ride. Well, Hello, everyone.

Welcome to the Todd Sterns Radio Extravaganza broadcasting border to border, coast to coast, across the fruited plain. Wow. What a night last night. And so many wonderful, great patriots. You know, there was a lot of concern about security.

And I told folks: no, no, no, I've got Ben Dieter. Ben Dieter is going to be with us. And if any Antifa thugs show up, Dieter will have it under control. I'm a gun show. What can I say?

How's it going, Dieter? It's good to be back in the hood, Todd. And great, great event last night. Cooked house, standing room only. It was unbelievable.

You were a celebrity. I can now say that because now you're no longer my boss. I just came back as a former coll now now we're, you know. In the same field of sorts, but Todd, let me tell you. This city turned out for you.

This state turned out for not just the book, this project, which you've been working on for a while now, but for what you do in Tennessee and Memphis.

So it was great to be out there, meet so many patriots. The line was massive out the door just to get the autograph. And so I think we sold all your books. We sold out. All of them.

Signed for two hours, and I realized at the end, I didn't get any of the great food people were talking about. They had the pork bellies. They had the hush puppies? Prime rib sliders. Amazing.

They had shrimp crab cakes. Crab cakes. And then they had something called popcorn gelato. And people were raving about this, but the chef, Chef Aaron, is his name, Aaron Winters, really just hit a home run last night. The whole night was just a great night.

Your personal. Oh, that's the church chef. The church chef. Yeah, he works in the church as a chef?

Well, yeah, they do Wednesday night meals, a lot of fellowships and events at the church. And we open up our fellowship halls to community events. Confidential care, one of the big pro-life groups. Kaylee McKinney is going to be the keynote speaker this year from Fox. They ought to bring you down.

So let me ask this about the book because I got my own copy for the first time yesterday.

So I've been sorting through it a little bit. What is different about this book? This project because it reminds me of the Daily Biscuit a lot. But it's different. It is different.

I think The Daily Biscuit was a lot more funnier, just humorous country stories. And we're working on. I don't want to give away too much of the farm just yet, but we're working on a special project that I think is really going to refocus what we do here on this program and on TV and also in our digital space. And one of the things we really wanted to do was start developing products for the family and for kids. And we're working on, you know, a couple, I've got a couple of projects in the hopper that will, you know, do that just specifically for young people.

And this is one of those books where we wanted people to kind of get a flavor of what America is really all about and to tell some incredible stories. As a matter of fact, one of the ladies came up to me and she said, oh my God, you've got a chapter in here about the UNC Chapel Hill boys who saved the American flag. And she said that she was related or has a friend whose son was one of those young men. That stood up and defended our glory. Incredible.

Those are the kinds of stories I wanted to write about. And Michelle Cox was just so well received last night and just really just does a wonderful job writing the devotions, coming up with verses and questions and things like that. Mm-hmm. Also, there are recipes in there. I didn't know that you were actually putting recipes in this devotional.

We have to give a shout out to Elizabeth from Calatrin. And so, this is kind of, again, I don't want to make a big deal of this, but I've lost about 11 pounds and I've been taking Calatron and hitting the, I've been watching the steps. I've been doing about 10,000 steps a day, and I joined the gym. And I don't want to be one of these people, you know, you know how it is, you know, where they're like, oh, you know, you need to stop eating cheeseburgers too. No, don't stop eating cheeseburgers because of me, you know, but you know, I'm trying to cut back here and there and, you know, try to, you know, try to get in shape.

I'm doing a maha, a little, a mini maha. Can I say, because I've been in DC for a month now, I haven't seen you for a hot minute. And it was the first thing that I noticed. And I don't know that you compliment someone on it. I said, Todd, what's going on?

Your face looks a little bit thinner. That's when you said, Calatrin's been working. I'm like, Todd, do you have a new tie? It looks young.

So your neck looks smaller. You look great, and it's so good to be here.

Well, Elizabeth from Calatron, you hear her voice. She is just an incredibly wonderful person, beautiful, too. Are we allowed to say that on the radio? I think we can. We're Republicans.

Yeah, we worship and love women on the Time Stearns radio program. And so, anyway, Elizabeth was there, and we gave her a big shout-out. And I felt bad because, Elizabeth, I'm fairly certain there's nothing healthy on this buffet tonight. Maybe the pork butt. No, that's not it.

No, that's not it. The shrimp. There was no salad inside here. There was no salad. We didn't even put the like the nice decorative lettuce down, you know.

We didn't even do that. By the way, 901-260-5926, our telephone number. And in studio with us is the great pen deater who was working with us for over four years. You were the EP of the show, and now you're working in Washington, D.C. Can we say where in Washington, D.C., what building?

Yeah, of course. On Capitol Hill. On Capitol Hill, work in House of Representatives, Rayburn. Who in God's name gave you keys to the Capitol building? That's what I want to know.

It's quite a responsibility knowing that at any Given day. Seven days a week. 24 hours, I have access to every building on that compound because it's not just one building, the iconic one that you get on the postcard. It's all of those buildings. And they gave the keys to the kingdom.

So I'm king.

Well, I'm glad somebody did. Are you able to knock some sense into some of these people up there? All I say is doge. Does cuts. Doche cuts, which, by the way, we got yesterday.

It's not a lot. We've got a lot more pork we can cut. That city loves to spend a lot of money, but yesterday was a start. But it's the tip of the iceberg. $9.1 billion in Dogecuts, NPR, et cetera, all those others.

Let me just say this: we got to start cutting back on the pork bellies. That's what we got to do. Let's go. You want to take a few calls? Let's do it.

All right, let's go to the phone lines: 901-260-5926. We've got a lot of K-WAM listeners today, and one of our favorites, he is the sponsor of the morning show on our flagship station, KWAM, Todd Lochner from Principal Toyota, Memphis. Todd, welcome to the show. What's going on guys?

Well we're just hanging out on the radio today, Todd.

Well, man, I was running an errand and going through the Waterburger drive, and I started listening to you guys, and I thought, man. First of all, I wanted to call and say. I was invited last night, and I'm so sorry I did not make it. I'm so proud of you. And congratulations on the new book.

I'm excited about that, and I'm sorry couldn't be there. And Ben, Welcome back for the short time. We missed you and proud of what you're doing up there. And yeah, as as Todd just said, That's good. keep cutting that pork belly, man.

We need to reduce the expenses dramatically.

Well, it's interesting being inside, right? Because now I'm a swamp creature. I want to say I'm one of the good ones, Todd, a hillrat. There's all sorts of different names for these people. And you start to see.

The frustrations, why Congress's approval ratings are so low. And I think for me, just getting that inside scoop, that inside perspective, it is frustrating. That building, it works and moves so slow. Think about the big beautiful bill, for example. That was, I mean, climbing Mount Everest to get all of those members to take that vote, vote in the affirmative.

We now send that over to the Senate. This is going to make those 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent. It's going to protect, preserve Medicare, all these different, it's got to get to the Senate, and then they're going to tear up that bill, frustrating, and send it all the way back over to the House. And I think that's why a lot of people just, they don't have a lot of trust. They don't have a lot of patience for how Congress works.

And it's interesting now being one of the quote unquote insiders and seeing it from that perspective, Todd. That's you, Todd, not me, Todd. Yeah, it's um Right. I think to sum it up pretty simple, I think there's been a large, large. injection to the American public of Common sense.

And When people with common sense are looking there, They're going, it doesn't make sense. And And it's very frustrating, you know, when you see things and like, why won't. It just doesn't even make sense if you put it and it that's the frustrating part about it, is that You know, the American people, we look at it and go, well, this I don't even understand why they're doing this. And it doesn't it doesn't flow well with a lot of people. And That that common sense, it prevails and it seems like there's not a lot of it up there.

Yes, which is why we're kind of looking at Ben's relocation there almost as being a missionary for Capitol Hill.

So hopefully he'll convert many to the right way of thinking, Todd. Todd, is Rand. Yeah, go ahead. I was just going to ask, well, what's your thought? Do you think Rand Paul's going to get on board this time on this thing or not?

You know, it's hard to say, Todd, but Rand Paul's Rand Paul, and he's sticking to his guns. He's a principled person, and I get that. But, you know, politics, you've got to have some compromise here. And I still go back. I never wavered from this, Todd Lochner.

What President Trump wants, he should get. He won with a mandate. If it doesn't work, well, you know what? President Trump will suffer the consequences, and Rand Paul can say, I told you so. But I think we've got to give the president the benefit of the doubt here.

And I think he's got a plan. He knows what he's doing. Yeah. All right, well, man, hey, congratulations once again. Dan, it's great to hear your voice.

God bless you guys, and take care. You're a great guy. And if you want a car, I'd encourage you to go to Principal Toyota Memphis. It is a great people. And shout out to all their incredible team.

Todd, thanks a lot again, and great folks over there. I'm actually looking at a new vehicle, by the way. I'm going to have to give Lochner a call. Mm. The Cadillac, it's just, man, it's a gas guzzler.

It's a gas gust. Oh, it's hot. It's massive. It is. You need like a punch bug or a PT cruiser, one of those little cars.

I don't want one of those little boxcars. I look like I'm in a Shriners parade. Remember those smart cars? Remember the smart cars? They were tired.

Tiny. Little guy. Oh, yeah, the little box cars. Yeah. Yeah.

I had to drive one of those because Anderson Cooper got the last SUV. We were heading down to cover the Gulf oil spill. He didn't take the smart car. He left you in the smart car? Yeah, he got the big black SUV.

I got a cherry red box car, and I looked like I was a one-man Shriners parade. People were, and by the way, Fox was staying, our base camp was in the French quarter, and I was driving through the French quarter, and people were mocking me. Hey, throw me some beads, mister. Yeah. I'm like, yeah, that's my life.

That's unfortunate. All right.

You're going to stick around, right? I'm here. Yes, you are.

Okay, let's take a break. We've got Tom in Oregon, John in North Carolina. Lines are opening up. 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926.

Ben Dieter back with us. This is the Todd Stern Show. All right, welcome back to the Totstars Radio Show. By the way, you can pre-order your copy of Star Spangled Blessings on Amazon, wherever you buy your books: Target, Walmart, Barnes Noble, it's literally everywhere, folks. And you'll be able to purchase a copy in person starting on Tuesday.

Well, joining us here in studio, an alumni of the show, Ben Dieter, now working up on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. And we want to go to the phones here and talk to Patty in North Carolina, WSIC. And Patty, you're on the air with me and Ben. I know. I didn't know he was going to be here today, 'cause I call Wednesday.

I know you're not allowed to call. twice but I I'm so I am I I love him and I love you and It's so cool. I just love to hear his voice. He uplifts me. He's very, I love that guy.

Wow. Wow. That's a high compliment, I would say. I wish everybody would be as kind as Patty. Patty, it is so good to hear your voice, and you sound like you're doing good.

And I know you're still so fiery. We were talking briefly during the break about her position on Israel. And I think, Patty, what you told me, what you need to tell Todd, you're spot on there. Yeah, I'm glad Israel, Israel, I'll tell you right now, I love the Jewish people because they're tough. That their Air Force is tough, they're tough.

And so is Donald Trump. And guess what? They took out all those. Oh, what did they take out? How many scientists?

And they took out all those other idiots that, let me tell you something. That's where we're hurting them. We're hurting them right where their their pocket money is. And guess who paid for that? Was it Obama?

Was it Obama gave them the money for the nuclear Right?

So work. You're kicking some rear end here, okay? We are, Patty. And look, look, Trump gave them all the options. Trump tried to tell them: hey, look, you guys need to deal with this.

And if you don't, well, Israel may end up unleashing the kraken on you. And that's exactly what happened last night. They released the kraken. Yeah, it was the greatest thing I see. I'm telling you right now, I was so happy.

I hate what's going on in this country, but you know what? I believe that's all going to pass, too. I think, you know, let me tell you something. When it's hard, you know what makes me more mad than anything? When I see people burning our flag and spitting on that flag, I want to get them.

I like to punch them right in the face. I want to get them. I wo if I was you, I'm glad I'm not in LA because I would be. Probably I I don't know what I would eat. I would be going crazy.

I hate that. Do not burn that while they're carrying Hamas flags and Mexican flags. Todd, what is up with that?

Well, I say corral them all, and the folks that are flying the foreign flags, boom, you're out of here. You're gone. Bye-bye. Todd, I'm sorry, but you made me sick when they're spitting on it. Todd, I would.

I would die for that flag. You know that? Me. I would die for that flag. I know you would, Patty, and I know a lot of other Americans would as well.

And it's just absolutely enraging to see what's happening out on the streets. And by the way, that is going to be happening across the country tomorrow, including in Statesville. And I want to encourage you folks, don't get suckered into all of this. You know what? I'm not doing nothing.

You know what? And you know who's starting all this? And I'm going to tell you right now: Bondi is going to get on. Wal Walmart, Walden. She starting this king thing.

She is, I think she's those things are being sold in Walmart, Mass. I'm telling you, she is. helping these people that uh that that heiress from Wal Walden. Oh, Sam Walton, yeah, the founder of Walmart. And now, Walmart is coming out, and they're trying to put some distance by saying, well, she's not affiliated with the day-to-day.

You know, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. She's using Walmart profits to stage these communist marches across America over the weekend. And that's really what they are. Anti-Trump rallies.

And by the way, we're hearing. That they may be trying to some of these leftists will be dressed as MAGA people to try and cause chaos and fake news and the whatnot.

So that's why I'm encouraging people to stay away from this nonsense, Tamara. I'm not even on Statesville. You know, a couple of people have called me and they're like, you want to go? And no, you know what? I'm not.

You're right. I'm not going to go and be a porn. They're all. Listen, this is all gonna pass. Oh, yeah.

And Patty. Patty, hang tight. We got to run, Patty, dear, but God bless you. We love hearing from you. Love you, Patty.

All right, Patty, thank you for calling in. All right, hang tight, everybody. We got to take a quick break here. 901-260-5926. This is the Todd Stern Show.

All right, welcome back, everybody. This is the Todd Starns Radio Show. It is Open Line Friday. We're sort of decompressing after the big launch party last night. Ben Dieter is joining us here in the studio.

We're also going to be talking to our great Republican strategist, Josh Jones. He came down for the big shindig, and we'll be talking to him in just a few minutes. I want to go right away to the Patriot Mobile newsmaker line and say hello to our good friend, Joe Messina, out in Santa Clarita, California. Joe, how's it going out there today? Oh, it's going to be hot and it's going to be crazy over this weekend because they're going to stir it up again.

You know that, Dodd. Yeah, I mean, this has been insane. You know, because when you listen to Little Jimmy Kimmel or all the Democrats, they're saying that there have been no riots, there have been no protests, there haven't been any cars blown up, that it's just a peaceful gathering and demonstration.

So you're there. What are you seeing? Yeah, well it's it's all AI Tom. It's just all AI anyway, but uh no, I'm seeing it actually. I'm I drove around the fringes the other day.

And you can see the the remnants of the damage that's been done still on the streets. Pieces of parts of bricks. I had a friend of mine that was actually down there and and took pictures of what was happening and it's not They're trying to make it sound like it was contained in one small area that was just one small group. But it wasn't. People aren't even you know, they're not reading, they're not talking to people.

I have a friend of mine, a retired FBI agent, that says, you know, they are overwhelmed down there. And if the National Guard are pulled away, it's going to get even worse. I talked to a fella yesterday that owns a twenty subway Outlets here in Southern California. And he said he had two of his stores down in that area. That the windows were smashed, the windows were graffitied.

Todd, I'm not a really educated guy. I've barely made it out of high school, and I'm still trying to understand. house, smashing windows, painting buildings, burning police cars, Uh hitting cops. Get your point across that you want to stay in this country. I'm totally lost.

It makes no sense to me. Also, what doesn't make sense to me is your senator out there, a padilla. This guy yesterday disrupting the press conference that Christine Ohma's having, this is just absolutely bonkers crazy. They don't have statesmen anymore, okay? What they have is these re these reactionary revolutionists.

Why he could first of all, he's a senator. He couldn't wait till she was done. He couldn't ask questions like everybody else. He couldn't reach out to her office. Earlier to set up an appointment while she was in town.

I mean, all these things that they're they're pushing away and they think he was manhandled, he was pulled out of it, he wasn't given his constitutional rights. Most of these people can't even spell Constitution. I I'm sure they didn't even they haven't even personally read The Constitution, and you don't lunge.

Well, you got the Secret Service there, I don't care who you are, you don't lunge at somebody that's giving a speech, answering questions. Wait your turn. And and you'll get to do it. This is all kabuki theater with these people.

Well, we actually are going to play the audio here so people can actually hear what happened as Secretary Noam was giving a press conference in California. And by the way, Padilla was at the congressional baseball game the night before. How is it that he wound up the next morning at this presser unless he was flown there in a private jet? The whole thing was just staged. But here's what it sounded like, cut number nine.

We have a constitution. We follow that constitution and the laws that have been passed by our Congress, and we're going to make sure they are equally applied to every single person as it applies under the Constitution here in Los Angeles, but also across the country. As our law enforcement officers have been assaulted, they've been pelted with rocks and bricks. Their cars have been set on fire. Molotov cocktails have been used.

We have seen people throw bottles and hammers at them. We've also seen that they have been attacked and verbally spit on or punched or assaulted, and it's just not acceptable. The Department of Homeland Security and the officers and the agencies and the departments and the military people that are working on this operation will continue to sustain and increase our operations in this city. We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate.

The city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into this city.

So I want to say thank you to every single person that has been able to do this. Also, I want to talk specifically to the rioters and to the politicians in Los Angeles. I also want to talk about specifically. All right.

So I wanted to play the whole context, Messina, because the media is not doing that. Because now Padilla is out there, and the guy was like almost in tears. I was attacked. They just beat me and they took me to the crown and they made me get my hands up. I'm like, dude, are you kidding me?

This guy was literally lunging. By the way, he didn't have his Senate security pin on. Nobody knew who this guy was. He's lunging. At the secretary, and the feds took this guy down and out, and he's lucky he wasn't tasered.

and her notepad. He's an elected official. He knows what's going on. He knows what decorum is all about. If he didn't like what she had to say, he could have raised his head at the very end.

He could have done a little pressure afterwards that I was there. Again, They do believe, remember something, there is nobody above the law unless there's a D after your name, right? I mean, think of all the things that they have done. Pushing our ICE agents around, you know, Maxine Waters, God bless her. I know she dries, but you're trying to get into these places and she's screaming, I'm a congresswoman, I have every right to go.

Well, actually, you don't. I don't I don't know what makes you think you do.

So they are above the law. They don't want any rules for them. They don't want any boundaries for them. And I think I'm believing that it's going to come to backfire. For them in the upcoming elections.

I really do. I think even Rank and file Democrat. A lot of my black friends, a lot of my Hispanic friends are saying the same thing that. I don't know what these people are doing and they don't stand for me. Joe Messina joining us on our Patriot Mobile newsmaker line today.

And again, going back to Secretary Noam and the Senator, MSNBC, Nicole Wallace, was just beside herself. She says this is one of the worst tragedies in American history.

So now it's no longer Jay Sigs, it's Alex Padilla getting hogtied and dragged out of Secretary Noam's press conference. You know, Todd, I would like to see these J7ers, we can call them, arrested, rounded up like the J-6ers were put into jail, but they start screaming at, hey, I. How come these people haven't had time in court? They go, well, no, no, we're just following the same rules that you laid out. Go to J6 search.

I mean, think about what you're doing here. Look, I don't believe in in I don't believe that those people that were smashing Windows Burning police are doing all that stuff. I don't believe that those are the actual immigrants that want to stay in this country. I don't believe it for a second. You know, th these are paid agitators, there are people out there.

You know, what says more I want to say in this country than when you break into a a a jewelry store and wipe out all the guys' jewels? In there. I mean, nothing says I want to save this country more than doing something like that. And the Dems are truly. doubling and tripling down on all the things that helped them lose the election.

Lawlessness. They don't care about any of that stuff. They think they got total controls. They're total dictators, as far as I'm concerned. They're acting like total dictators.

And you'll Newsome. I don't know if you've been watching him. But You know, here's a guy that still wants to be president, although I don't think he has a shot at this point. And he's going nose to nose with Trump, not talking about the issues we're having here, has done nothing to help those people whose homes are burnt down, did nothing or was going to do nothing to help. Uh, them over the week last weekend during the riots, and I don't know if you caught it, you probably did.

He flat-out lied about his conversation with Trump, said Trump never tried to get a hold of him or called him. They were able to they were on the phone for 16 minutes.

Now I don't know, I don't want to believe this, but maybe it's the drugs that are keeping Newsome from remembering that he had a conversation with with Trump. Could be. Could be. It could be. Joe, we're going to have to leave it there, my friend.

Always good hearing from you. All right.

Thanks for having me on, Todd. God bless. Have a safe weekend. All right.

The great Joe Messina out in Santa Clarita, California. By the way, our telephone number on this Open Line Friday, 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. I have to tell you about our friends over at Patriot Mobile. They have a plan to fit any budget, and what an incredible cell phone company they are.

Patriot Mobile, America's only Christian, conservative wireless provider. And they send a portion of their profits to support ministries and programs that are protecting our rights, protecting the unborn. We love our friends at Patriot Mobile, mobilizing for freedom. I want you to give them a call, 972-Patriot. That's 972-PATRIOT, or go to their website, patriotmobile.com slash Todd.

They have a plan to fit any budget. Use my promo code, TOD, and they're going to give you free activation starting from their $25 a month plan all the way up to their ultimate plan of $75 a month. They also have special discounts for all veterans and first responders.

So you're going to love this, folks. The very best 4G and 5G networks, nationwide coverage, and you are supporting a Christian conservative company, patriotmobile.com/slash Todd. That's patriotmobile.com/slash Todd. You know, I want to go back to what happened last night with Israel and say this. What an example of courage to step out.

And we all know that freedom, there comes a price with freedom. It is not free. And sometimes we have to fight for our freedom. That's what our founding fathers did. They put everything on the line, young and old.

And we are a free nation because of that. Every generation has to fight for freedom. I think the greatest generation, the World War II generation, they understood that. Every generation has to stand and answer the call. And when you look at Israel and the nation of Israel and the attempts by great evil to literally wipe the Jewish people from the face of the earth.

Here they are in their own nation, their own lands, And they are standing up and doing what needed to be done. And we st I on this program, we stand with Israel. And I know there are that's becoming an unpopular opinion among many in the conservative world. But as for me and my house, we support the nation of Israel. And we say God bless them.

And we certainly pray for the safety of all of those soldiers, those young men and young women that are fighting to secure their safety for their families. One nuclear bomb Israel's wiped off the face of the earth. That's what we're talking about here. And Iran, they had an opportunity. President Trump gave them that opportunity and they chose to ignore it.

And now they're, well, they're paying the price. Hashtag FAFO. Let's go to the phone lines here. Tom in Salem, Oregon, listening to us on KYKN. Hey, Tom, what's on your mind today?

Very good. Yeah, I got my mocha run in and my coffee, second or third. And uh we're doing it. But basically, the one thing I haven't heard mentioned about those Uh is uh section eight. I've I've I'm a landlord, I have a couple or I've got about three on it and uh One of them paid us nothing.

We're paying the whole bill. That's probably over $1,200 a month. And the other one, I think she's paying about one hundred 110. And her length probably around thirteen hundred. I don't know.

And and I've never seen one where they uh require them to get off. I think some of these, like the one where she's paying 110, she's like a retired nurse, but still plenty active. She could be doing some work or that. I don't see any. motivation being applied to uh to get them off of it.

And actually, one time I talked a gal into going to work at. Dollar Tree and finally got her out of the house and and and making money and she That is So you're telling me you've got all these people living in Section 8 housing, and they're capable of working, but they're not. Yeah, I think they're something, yeah, capable for doing something, even. Calling that, you know. A telephone soliciting or something like that using the phone or internet, you know?

My God. Um So that's and I'm a a small guy really relative in the landlord business and uh I I'd hate to see how much money is just been Going out. It's a biggie. It's a biggie. you know, besides whatever else, food stamps and all that, you know.

Well, that's the thing, Tom. It's that unfortunately, we've got generations of families that have been raised up in public and government-funded or the taxpayer-funded government housing, government programs. They are entirely reliant upon the federal government for every single aspect of their life. That is a dangerous thing, and it is going to be painful to wean people off of that, that government help.

Now, Tom, I don't know how you feel about this. I think there are times when the American people, you're going to have a hard time, and you may need some help to feed your family. You may need some help to pay your bills. And I get that, but it's not meant to be permanent. It's just to kind of help you get through a rough patch.

I would, quite frankly. I believe that the churches in America just stopped doing what was their responsibility and they offloaded that to the federal government, and I think it's created all sorts of problems. Yeah, yeah. All right, well the motivation behind bringing them across the border and giving them credit cards. And that's exactly what they're doing.

We got to stomp that, Tom. Tom, thank you for that call. Let's go to John in Moorhead City, North Carolina. John, what's on your mind today? Todd, you asked a question the other day about amnesty.

And I know an amnesty program that will definitely work real good. I have a travel package. They're giving a little sniphon. They're problems with the federal government Being going through the judicial system and the charges they'd be look facing if they stay here will be gone. All they have to do is stuff to port.

It's pretty simple, isn't it, John? I mean, that makes a lot of sense, right? Self-deport. And they can have a chance to apply to be a citizen of this great country. You know, how simple is that?

I think anybody that didn't have schooling can understand this one.

So, why can't our Congress go ahead and tell them? You're not here legally. self-deport and come back illegally, and we'll be happy to have you. I still want to know, and again, we hear the caveat, right, John? Is that, well, what about all these people?

They've been here 20 years, they've been working hard, they've got jobs, they're productive members of society.

Okay, well, have they been paying taxes? And if so, how have they paid their taxes? Do they have a phony Social Security number? I mean, there are. There are so many questions about that because it's not as simple as that.

You are cheating and stealing. even if you have a job here in the United States, if you're here illegally.

So how much is my hospital bill? be reduced if that twenty to thirty or forty million. that's been in this country are no longer here, and I don't have to worry about them going to the ER. You know? Or The the SNAP program.

For the Medicaid or any other government system program. If they were all gone, How much money will we save? I'm tired of them wanting to play these little games. Let's do it. Plain and simple.

There's Mike LCUs that we retired out of the Navy, tie them together, put them on down there in Miami or Al Charleston or Norfolk or New York City and send them back to their countries on the East Coast. And on the West Coast, LA and Of course, San Francisco's got plenty of areas to ship people out and send them back home. Yeah, John, I like the way you think, my friend, and it makes a lot of sense to me. Thank you for calling in. Thanks for holding on, too, John.

I really appreciate that over in Moorhead City, the talk station. Great station out there in eastern North Carolina. All right, hang tight, everybody. Hour three coming up, and again, getting some new intel on these, what could be a very dangerous Saturday and violent Saturday across the nation tomorrow, these no-king. radical protests.

We'll be talking about that. Our number open line Friday, by the way, 901-260-5926. This is the Todd Stern Show. Live from the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's conservative blowtorch. That's right.

I love this American ride. Todd Stards.

Well, hello, everybody. Welcome to the Todd Stars Radio Show. What an honor to have you with us today. I want you to write down our number. It is Open Line Friday.

Now look, here's the deal. This is an homage to the late, great Rush Limbaugh. And put a pen in that for just a moment. We were honored to have Paul Shanklin joining us last night at the book launch party. He and his beautiful wife, his beautiful bride, of many years now.

They've just got back from a massive tour of Scotland, and it was great to have Shanklin there. And he brought along Barney Fife and President Ronald Reagan. I don't know how he was able to do that, but that was a wild time there at the book launch party. But as an homage to Rush, and of course, Paul was Russia's chief parody writer for many years, we decided to launch Open Line Friday, where we try to keep everybody focused on the topics at hand. You know, basically what I want to talk about Monday through Thursday.

But on Friday, we open up the phone lines and you can talk about what you want to talk about.

So write down our number: 901-260-5926. Here with us in studio today is our good friend, our former executive producer, now working on Capitol Hill, Ben Dieter. Dieter, I'm curious. Is it weird now that you have to kind of you're not in the spotlight anymore? No.

No, I'm nervous even being back on the radio. You have to watch what you say now. I mean, every time you used to come on the show, we had to have the finger on the button. The dump button. Just in case.

And yeah, you and I together, we caused a lot of controversy, specifically in the city that we broadcast the show in.

So it's definitely interesting being back on the radio, but they say this about this industry and radio specifically. It's a great medium. It's been around forever and it will always be. It gets in your blood. And I I do miss radio.

So you gotta you gotta spill some dirt here. What can you tell us that things that we sh we should know but we don't know about what's happening up on Capitol Hill? Do you know that Capitol Hill is basically run by kids. Like, it should frighten you. I think that medium age of.

Congressional staffers is 22 years old. Yeah. Um, I'm old on the hill. I'm 26 years old. I'm one of the oldest people in the building, except for all the members.

Yeah, Maxines, you know, then they go from like so you go from like mid-20s to upper 80s. Yeah, that's a big gap.

So if you go to the hill, you've got 14,000 kids essentially running the government. Of course, we're working for our members, but that was new to me. The other thing I will say is it feels a lot like high school/slash maybe college. Because it's so young, it is fast. But in the basement, you probably have all been on a Capitol Hill tour.

You go to your district in your respective state, and an intern walks you through the basement. You see the members, they're getting on the subway cars to zip over to go vote.

So they have different cafeterias in each of the buildings. in the basement. And so, Meatloaf Day is a Tuesday, and you've got to go to a specific building in the basement to get that meatloaf. Is that right? Barbecue Day, it's not Memphis Barbecue Day.

No, it's not barbecue, but it's a Monday. Meat with sauce. And so, you go to the Library of Congress, which we can access through the basement, through the tunnels. It's all underground. And the Library of Congress has a cafeteria.

For Hillstaffers. Is that right? Yeah. Do you have to pay? Is it free?

Unfortunately, you do have to pay, but we get a discount. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. Okay. Very nice.

Well, again, we'll try to probe for more intel. When are you coming to Washington? Because you're always there, and I want to give you a tour. Yeah, I am going to be there in a couple of weeks, actually. I'm going to give you the deeter tour.

Hey, I'm all over that. Hey, let's go to the phones. Jim in Memphis, Tennessee, listening to us on KWAM. And, Jim, I understand you were at the book party last night. Oh, good afternoon.

Yes, we had a wonderful time. We're sitting here at the cozy corner and we're all listening to you. while we're eating barbecue. Yeah, I think it's a little bit more. for you.

It's one of those classic Memphis locations. But we had a wonderful time. We were part of a wonderful crowd that We all thank you for two hundred different plus reasons. Or doing what you do and what you've been to uh Our market, and as you've expanded, we've all watched you grow. It's really been terrific.

My wife and I, Jam, thank you ourselves because you were so kind to us. in so many ways when we got started. There's only two other things I wanted to quickly mention. You guys are the heart of the right wing communications network in this country and You know how and you kid you guys kid about how the the w the word of the day among the Democrats You know, it might be sassafras. And every Democratic uh Uh member of Congress and all the media used sassafras that day.

And it sounds very impressive. We could be doing that ourselves On the right side it Todd, you could be coordinating that. You are the heart of the network. And the only other thing I wanted to say was Evil is a living being. He's the dev it's the devil.

He's he's alive and he's working against us. It's not a psychological feeling. And uh people forget about that. But That's my list and I'm sticking to it. God bless you both.

Well, God bless you, Jim. And please tell Jan, it was so great to see both of you guys. And please tell everyone at the cozy corner. They have been making, they have been doing Authentic Memphis barbecue since 1977.

So they've been around for a while, and you guys picked a great place to get some barbecue. Mm-hmm. Hey, by the way, I don't think you mentioned this about the party last night. There was a theme. Did you tell everybody what the theme was?

Red, white, and blue. But like Uncle Sam showed up. All the women had Trump earrings. I don't know. Everybody had Donald Trump earrings.

It was crazy. It was a lot of fun. And by the way, that was Jim. Jim is a good friend of this radio station. He and his wife, literally, it is a when I say mom and pop, mom and pop are the owners and the employees of one of the best popcorn companies in America.

I will, it is unbelievable. It's Wolf River Popcorn. Wolfriverpopcorn.com is the website. And I am telling you, they have some of the finest popcorn. If you love spicy, you gotta get the Memphis mix, the Memphis mix, which is incredibly spicy.

The Bill Street blend is incredible. And the classic caramel is my personal favorite. And it is a family recipe. And what I love about there, you know, sometimes you get the, you buy the store-bought. popcorn and it's not crunchy.

You know, it's a little chew, it's got a little chew to it. I hate that. This is super crunchy, and I don't know how they do it, but it is amazing. And so, I would encourage you to order some of this. And what I love about Jim and his wife, they're good Christian folks, and they actually have a Christian message on all of their packaging.

Yeah, kind of like the In-N-Out Burger folks. Yeah, it's right at the bottom of their packaging. Every bag of popcorn, the best popcorn in America. And so Jim yeah, Jim does not pay us to do that, but he should bring over some popcorn. He does, that's the thing.

They'll actually listen and bring his back. There'll be a case of popcorn downstairs. Wolf Riverpopcorn.com. What I love about it, it's a mom and pop business, and we love those kinds of businesses and promoting those folks. By the way, all natural, non-GMO.

It is a gourmet flavor, and they just do it up the right way. And we love them. We love our friends over at Denstel's Chocolates, for example. Just good, good people. And we love supporting small businesses all over America.

And, you know, it's funny. We were, I was voicing some ads for a business or two in Gainesville, Georgia. And I love doing that kind of stuff. And we just love supporting local businesses, whether in Memphis or Gainesville or Salem or Bartlesville or Houston or wherever, because that really is the backbone of this country. This is a small business.

We are a small business.

Well, we're kind of large, though. I mean, we have a big imprint. We have a big stick.

Well, yeah, Elizabeth or Calatran is trying to fix that. In a big microphone. All right, 901-260-5926. Ben Dieter here with us. Ben, I was saving a couple of these stories for you because you're kind of into the whole.

You know, culture stuff. And there's someone named Glow Rilla who is a rapper. And she and Glorilla is female. And she is from the Memphis area. And she does a lot of good.

I mean, she gives back to the schools and does all that stuff. Her real name is Gloria Hallelujah. Is that her real name? That is actually her real name. Really?

And Glorilla is short. Yes, you can Google it. Gloria Hallelujah.

So, how do we get Glorilla from that? Why don't you call yourself Gloria Hallelujah? That's a great rapper name. I don't know that the rap culture time is going to embrace Gloria Hallelujah. But that could just be me.

So here's the thing, and I don't want to get too weird on this, but I haven't been following. You know, we all grew up in the Christian music world on DC Talk. That was like Christian rap music, which really wasn't. But anyway. And then Michael Tate goes on, you know, to the newsboys, and apparently, massive scandal there.

So the Christian music world. The Christian music world has been rocked. Oh, you can't forget about Skillet. Those are the real rock bands. They're incredible.

Oh, we love Skillet. I love Skillet. But the whole point is, they're having some issues in the Christian music world. And now they've got another problem because apparently they're giving Glorilla a Christian Music Award. Yes, it's the BET.

Gospel Award, and she is a secular rapper.

So anyway, there are people that are now upset. doctor Bobby Jones, who is the one of the top gospel singers in America, said that gospel music is not her space. Anyway, Glorylla says, first of all, I want to thank God because this is a gospel award. Huh. Yeah, I think we're all saying that.

This is my first BET award, even though I've been here three years to get nominated six times. Oh, I think she's a little. Butt hurt about that. It's a blessing to get the gospel award first because I owe it all to God. I'm just going to ask this question.

Do you guys listen to? Dylan, you told me you were going to a Glorylla concert? Oh, no. His mom's listening to the radio. He's so going.

Oh, no. He's going to pass out gospel tracks. In the 56th row, yeah. Is her music kind of like. Like regular rap music?

Is it really profane? It's pretty profane. Yeah. Every other word I'd say.

So, how is it? I just don't understand how that purports to be now gospel music. She did one song with a Christian artist. And I guess that makes you a Christian. Oh, is that it now?

Yeah. And I mean, that's a low bar. If that's what it takes to get a B.E.T. award, maybe she thought. Maybe the gospel genre was the only way to get it.

It's vile.

Some of the lyrics, I will say, are really, really. Shall we say, let's just say they're inappropriate?

So, I guess the question: if you're listening to our latest album, of which this Christian song is on, if you're listening to song three, four, five, you don't want your kids in the car.

Song Six is the Christian one. And so Is that a disconnect? Rain down on me. I'm afraid of the lyrics. Oh, you're right, Glory Hallelujah Woods.

Yeah. That is a fine rap rap do you call him rappist, rapette? She's a rapper. You better be careful here. Gender neutral.

Okay. Let's stay away from the Anyway, I'm not a fan, so I just don't know. Here's an interesting story. Do you, Ben Dater, when you want to buy something? Do you buy it?

On your laptop, or do you buy it in person, or do you buy it on your phone? My phone. Real life.

Well, if it's like a big purchase, like and this is the article here from Newsweek, is that millennials are really frowning on Gen Z because they're making purchases on their phones that they ought to be making on their laptops, which boomers would be making on the telephone. Like the real landline phones.

So, what you're saying is you're using cash, and I'm using a cash app. That's an actual yeah, like for example, according to Newsweek, a guy bought a plane ticket on his phone using his phone. And someone said, No, you shouldn't be doing that. You should be buying those plane tickets on your laptop. You shouldn't be buying stuff like that on your phone.

Well, I think Everything you put on your phone is out there. And so when you're making these bigger purchases, I mean, think about it. You have to put your credit card number in there, you have to put that CBC code in there.

Some people are going to ask for a social security number not as often. If you're just making a regular purchase, say Best Buy.

So I think the issue here is just the security concerns. Like my parents, my grandparents, they still love using cash. I don't even remember the last time I had a dollar and a cent. And I think it's generational.

Well, you work for the government now, so that makes sense. Yeah. I'm just saying, they don't pay well, do they? Mm-hmm. It's not this industry.

Older millennials are typically more comfortable on traditional web platforms, laptops, long-form blogs, while Gen Z thrives on the streamlined mobile-first experience of apps like TikTok and others to get their purchases. I would agree, though, as far as like a security thing, I think that would be an issue. Mm-hmm. That's crazy.

So, you want to buy a car, just get out your smartphone.

Well, you hear this term cashless society. And that's where I think a lot of people are moving towards. I think that's dangerous when everything is cashless. Because what happens if someone hits the light switch and the servers go down and we lose all of our technology? It's all going to be on our phone, and then you're going to hope you actually have something physical.

Cash or gold. Or silver, precious metals. Yep. That's why our friends at U.S. Vault gold are coming handy.

All right, we got to take a break here. I am curious, folks. Do you make major purchases on your smartphone or do you do that? on your laptop or the old fashioned way, going in person and writing a check. Do you have checks?

I just can't. I should have even asked that question. How many people have when was the last time you actually wrote a check? Ladies and gentlemen. My Gen Z staff here, they're shaking their heads.

They have no idea what I'm talking about. 901-260-5926, this is the Todd Stern Show. All right, welcome back, everybody. This is the Todd Starns Radio Show. So, during the break, the entire staff came in and they're like, They're trying to understand how you fill out a, how you write a check, and how you balance your checkbook.

And ag i are they not teaching this in school anymore? That's that's what I don't understand.

So we're going to have to get to the bottom of this. But I was literally going explaining, okay, because Dieter was like, Do you have to use cursive? When you're writing a check, do you have to write cursive? Also, trying to figure out how do you write out if your check is $500.28, you have to write it all out. And it was like foreign con I may as well have been speaking Mandarin Chinese.

I I think our schools are failing our young people, ladies and gentlemen. That's what I think is going on here. But a lot of people just don't use checks like they used to. I will say this, one of the things I do love about the bank I use is that I'm able to take a picture of the check and immediately deposit it on my phone. And I love that.

You don't have to worry about going to the bank, getting mugged, getting carjacked. You could do it from the comfort of your office. And I love that. All right.

Well, coming up, we'll be taking your calls on that. Do you teach your kids how to balance a checkbook? Do you teach them how to use one? Do you even use a checkbook anymore? 901-260-5926.

Our number. That's 901-260-5926. Coming up, we're going to be hanging out again with Ben Dieter and Josh Jones joins us from Washington, D.C. Our top Republican strategist. He knows everything.

We'll be talking to him coming up next. Hang tight, everybody. This is the Todd Stern Show. Uh All right, sirens going off. As a barrage of missiles have been fired over Tel Aviv, it looks like the Iranians are trying to strike the Central downtown district of Tel Aviv.

Iran is pushing back after Israel took out their nuclear sites yesterday. Welcome back to the Todd Starns Radio Show. By the way, If you want to, I would encourage you to go right away to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books of Million, wherever you get your books, and pre-order a copy of Star Spangled Blessings Devotions for Patriots. It'll be in bookstores officially on Tuesday. Last night we had our huge book launch party, and always exciting to have Ben Dieter back in Memphis, Tennessee, and Josh Jones, one of our great Republican strategists, and has worked to elect a lot of great Republicans.

Josh, good to welcome to Memphis, Tennessee. Yeah, it's great to be here, Tom.

So, are you adjusting well to the southern states?

Well, I mean, listen, I count myself as a southern boy at heart growing up in southwest Virginia. But yeah, no, it's been great, particularly to get out of the D.C. beltway a little bit.

So it's been fun.

So you're from the country in Virginia, is that right? Yeah. If you're familiar with Virginia, I'm from the Bristol area. All right.

So that's the Tri-Cities area. Yeah, that's great. All right.

God. You don't have an accent. What's up with that?

Well, see, if you ask some people in D.C., apparently I do.

So whenever I go home, everybody. It's like, where'd your accent go? And I come back and then I go to DC. And then it's like, wow, you have such a strong accent.

So I don't know. I can't please either side when it comes to that. Dieter, what about you? I mean, you're from Pennsylvania.

So I've learned that DC, they have an accent, and it's. Give me, give me, give me. It's the lobbying. That is their accent. That's very interesting.

Is that true? Yeah, it's a real accent in DC.

So, yeah, I mean, it's interesting because. I am in Tennessee's delegation. And so, a lot of those Capitol Hill staffers are from Tennessee in this area, and they are all. From different places in the southern states, big SEC schools.

So those girls come in there, they're answering those phone calls when you call your senator. You're getting accents. Specifically, if your member is in one of these southern states, yeah, it's diversity, as they say. Wow, my dad. A lot of diversity.

So you're a Liberty University grad, as well. When you move to Washington, is it what you expected it would be as far as working in politics? I mean, I. I don't know if there's a right answer to that. It's a little bit of both.

Because coming out of Liberty, I moved to Richmond, the state capitol, because of Governor Glenn Young winning his election and working with his administration, then going to DC after the fact. I will say going to DC versus working in Richmond, things move so much slower. In Richmond, you can actually get a bill done pretty quickly. Whereas you go to DC, it takes months and months and months and you pass maybe one bill.

So, what's up with that? Why are you guys slacking off, Dieter? What's going on up on Capitol Hill? Have you seen the congressional calendar? I know you have because you've tweeted about it, Todd.

It looks like it's really bad. It's really bad. Look, and I get it. I know these guys and gals like to get out there and march in the parades and eat the food on the stick at the county fairs. But at some point, you got to stick around and do what we elected you to do.

Well It's a balance yak for a lot of these members, like when you are in recess. Versus when you are in session, they do jump on airplanes and they go back to their home districts.

So right now we're in the congressional district number eight. And so it is imperative that those members do touch the grass. In their districts and take back those concerns, those voices, those conversations back to the Beltway. The problem is, if you're spending too much time in the district, then there is stuff not getting done in Washington. And ultimately, if we've got the midterms right around the corner.

We've got to secure some wins and we've got to do that fast. Yeah, midterms coming up. And traditionally, it's not good for the party in control, the majority party. What are things shaping up to look like right now? What are your observations?

I mean, the big thing that we should be looking at right now is we have the Virginia governor's election this year as well as New Jersey.

So that would be a good bellwether for Republicans and Democrats, frankly. Democrats are favored heading into that right now. But if Republicans overperform the estimates, that's a good sign heading into the midterms. And then speaking to Congress and actually getting some bills done, if Congress can come back with some receipts starting next year and say, look at all the things we've accomplished, then that improves Republican standing, obviously. You know, it's interesting.

Trump's getting a lot of, he's getting blowback, but it's from the weirdest place.

So Tucker Carlson, there's a huge delegation, a huge swath of the Republican Party, the conservative movement, I probably should say. And they don't like Israel. And they don't think we ought to be lifting a finger to help Israel. But what I found interesting is nobody's complaining on the Democrat side of the aisle. I don't think.

I mean, what Trump's Trump's involvement here was pretty brilliant strategy, and not even the Democrats can find anything to complain about right now. I will say this. You look at as we approach the midterms, and everybody's freaking out, everybody's sweating. Oh my gosh, we're not getting these EOs codified, doge cuts. While there is frustration, and Congress does have to roll up their sleeves, they've got to get to work.

Democrats, congressional Democrats specifically, their approvals are way lower than ours. In the toilet. They're way lower than President Trump. President Trump's approval ratings, there was a I think it was Rasmussen just a couple of days ago. His approval ratings Specifically on topics like immigration are higher than Joe Biden, President Obama, George W.

Bush, where he sits currently in the timeline of this administration, number two.

So we've got work to do, but Democrats, what have they done other than storm detention centers, protests? And Christine Ohm. And Christine Ohm. Well, they didn't storm Christine Ohm, but you know what I mean. That's kind of inappropriate.

But yes, to that point, the Democrats, they've got nothing. I mean, and they don't even have a leader. Right. And if you look at them, I mean, since the Trump administration came to town, they've tried to cling on to these specific issues. First, it was the Maryland man, and now it's a protest riots in L.A., and nothing's sticking.

And they keep changing their message or their core messaging point because nothing's working. And Ben's right. Their approvals are in the floor. They're so bad. And there's no clear leadership on the Democratic side.

So I think you're going to keep them, you know, you're going to see them flailing for the foreseeable future unless they get their. Together. Their big word is oligarch. What is an oligarch? I mean, I work on the hill.

I still don't even know what that means.

Someone needs to give me the Webster definition of what is an oligarch. They're so out of touch because the people back in their district, when they're screaming, we're standing against kings and oligarchs, we're like, But what are you doing to put money back in my pocket? Fair question. I mean, it is.

So you think we could possibly, what are the Republicans going to need to do between now and the midterms to make sure they keep the majority? I mean, beyond the obvious of like getting the Trump agenda implemented through Congress, you know, the big beautiful bill is a first step in that. And also, too, Republicans have to be cognitive of the fact that historically Republicans get out fundraised by Democrats.

So Republicans need to be focused on fundraising both from You know, being involved in the district and then also working on behalf for those conservative principles and getting rewarded for that.

So I think that's the big thing right now. We're kind of in the prep phase. And then once we get past this fall selections, that's when you'll see it kick into high gear. All right.

Josh Jones, Ben Dieter. Dieter, I want to switch gears. I'm fascinated by this story. You don't even know what I'm about to talk about, but I'm fascinated by this story.

Now you grew up among the Amish people, is that right? Churn butter all my life. I'm I'm sorry, is that an actual thing or a euphemism or something? I grew up Right around the corner.

So you literally churned butter.

Okay, not literally, but Todd, it's to the story. I thought you said trimming butter, and I'm like, what are you churning butter? All right, it's that Pennsylvania accent. It's the Pennsylvania Dutch. Oh, wow.

All right.

So you churn butter. How do you churn butter? Is that like a.

Well, you go out to the barn.

Okay. You're going to go to the stalls. You'll find your favorite cow. You get your wooden stole. You sit down beside the cow.

You go for utter whatever. There's, I think, four of them. I don't know. Clearly, I'm like exposing myself as I'm actually not trimmed. Butter, but I grew up in Amish Country and it starts in a barn.

And then somehow it ends up in your Kroger. You can spread it on your bread. All right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Farmer Dieter. We lost this show. Thank you, Farmer Deeter. No. All right, so fascinate.

So, anyway, I'm just wondering if you ever took part in what I'm about to share with you in the Amish world. Because what is it? Breaking Bad. Is that the Amish? No, that's not it.

That's the Amish. No, Breaking Amish. Breaking Amish. I'm sorry. I tried out for that show.

Amish People. Did you really? Amish People Going Bad. What is it, Rumspringer?

Something I don't Rumsfeld? No, he was the defense secretary and did a good job.

So let me ask you: so, so that's did you ever grow the beard? I can't even grow a mustache. Is that why they kicked you out of the Amish movement?

Okay, well, that makes sense.

Okay, did you wear the overalls and the hat? I'm asking a lot of probing questions here. I'm intrigued by this. Yeah, it was a great time. It was a great time.

But no, I did not have the facial hair of the Amish.

Okay. But I do know my way around a horse and buggy, that I will say. Oh, really? Yeah. Wow.

And even had a little bit of electricity. Not a lot, but that's why I got kicked out and ostracized.

So I'm not believing half the things you're telling me right now, but I do have a question, though, about this, and I do want to know if you've taken part of this.

So they build things, you know, they're building barns. And so these barns weigh about 35,000 pounds. All right.

They build the barns and then they move them over to where they need to be built. You know, on the farm. They move them by hand.

So it's like hundreds of Amish men. They gather around the barn and they pick it up and they literally move the barn. Why don't they just build the barn where the barn should go in the first place?

Well, that's why you're here. You're Amish. Those are your people. I was curious. Why don't you just go ahead and just build it where you want to build it?

They're bad Amish. The right ones will build it in the proper place.

Well, maybe Mrs. Yoder didn't want it there, so they had to call all the guys together and like, well, we got to move it over a couple of yards. misses Joder, mm-hmm, in Pennsylvania Dutch country. Have you been to an Amish auction before, Todd? No.

I've been to the Coldwater, Mississippi auction, bought a velvet Elvis. Of course. And cold water you would. It smelled like all this. It was really it it had an odor.

It wasn't scratch and sniff. It just smelled.

Some sometimes, Todd, when when you're making your your tours and you're going to all your different affiliates, I will meet you in Pennsylvania. We'll go to Strasbourg, Lancaster County, all of those places, those Amish neighborhoods, and I will take you personally. To an Amish auction. But what's fascinating about this is that the Amish. Keep in mind, they are fairly isolated from society.

I guess they do some have electricity, or is it all electric? No, pretty much they have zero electricity.

Okay, gotcha.

So what my point is, they live long lives, they do not struggle with things like chronic obesity, and they don't have high crime rates. And you wonder what is it the Amish are doing that maybe the rest of us ought to consider doing?

So much. Churning butter.

Well, that's a healthy thing. The thing about the Amish is upper body strength. Their political engagement, they're pacifist. And we've seen in different states, they're not the first to run. To a political rally, they're not the first to get involved civically.

That has changed a lot in Amish communities because they're seeing their issues come under attack under specifically the last administration.

So, They have a lot going on. And I think to our earlier conversation about sustainability and what happens if. You know, World War III were to ever happen. The only people that will survive, I truly believe this, are the people that. Churn Butter and the people like the Amish that have lived this way for years and they're not changing.

Um and I think I don't know. I think there's a lot to learn from these people, but Yeah, you have to spend some time in Strasbourg, Pennsylvania to do that. I'm just wondering, it takes the estimates are 800 people. You know, or 300 men or whatever. I don't know.

They're hundreds of men. And they're literally hoist. They call it walking the barn. That's what they call it. Or the Amish Shed move.

So there you go. Yeah. Incredible. Thank you.

That was a fascinating story. Did not disappoint. Do you play the banjo or anything? Yeah. I play the piano.

Oh, you do? Yeah. Okay. You play musical. All right.

Jones, any Amish folks down in Virginia? Not really, at least not that I know. All right, gotcha. Been to Pennsylvania? Yeah, a lot in Pennsylvania.

All right.

Well, I just find this to be a fascinating story, and I think we should be. I think if we're going to try to figure out what's wrong with America, we ought to, especially the Maha folks, they ought to go down to Amish Country and find out: okay, what is it these guys are doing that is different than everybody else? Because they're living longer, they seem to have much more stable family lives, and everybody seems to be very productive members of society. Mm-hmm. Except for the ones that get ostracized.

On reality T V. And they end up on. Breaking out. Wow. That's tough.

Have you watched, by the way? I'm not a huge, huge fan of the reality stuff, but have you seen the Mormon Housewives Gone Wild or whatever that thing is called? You know, I had the unfortunate misstep of clicking on that the other night, Todd, and I don't think I will ever unsee what I saw. Sweet Lord. Do you think that's actually real?

I mean, it is reality TV.

Well, it's, yeah, but it's Utah. They're wild. Is it Utah? I'm just assuming. I don't mean to be stereotypical.

It's mm it's Mormon country.

So are all the Mormon women married to the same guy or are they like different spouses? In that show, different spouses.

Okay, gotcha.

Gotcha. Because there are those sex, the SECTS, where a guy has like, you know, multiple wives. Polygamy. It's part of their culture.

Well, not all of them.

Some fundamentalist Mormonism, I suppose. I don't want to get a Mormon theology class here. All I know about Mormonism is Dania Marie. And I think handsome. The umbop guys, I think, were they Mormon?

You're getting in trouble. They may have been Methodists. You should stop by your head. I'm going to take a break. We'll be right back.

All right, folks. Coming up this weekend, I'll be speaking in Lee County, Mississippi at the Trump dinner for the Republican Party there. Then next week, we're off to Wichita. We're doing a big event with Wichita Republican Party, and we'd love to invite everybody out for that. We'll be giving you more details coming up next week.

Then, wow, we head over to Kansas City for the Kansas Republican Party convention. And I'll be keynoting at the National Right to Life Conference, two big events coming up in Kansas City. And then Monday, I'll be broadcasting from New York City. Eric and Don Trump were doing a sit-down interview, so looking forward to having that conversation as well. All that to say, we're going to be a little busy around here, and we certainly appreciate your great support as we launch the new book, Star Spangled Blessings, Devotions for Patriots.

Just a couple of housekeeping items here, folks. We have launched a substack. I know a lot of you folks complain about the ads over on ToddSterns.com.

Well, we have an ad-free substack. We just ask that you purchase a subscription, $5 a month. Very reasonable. And that allows us to produce content for you free of charge over at Substack. And just search for Todd Stearns and you'll see our Substack page.

And also, be sure to download our free newsletter and podcast.

So we want to try to give you as many free resources and reliable resources as humanly possible.

So there you go, ToddSterns.com. Tonight, 5 o'clock Eastern on Newsmax, we're going to have the very latest on what's happening in the Middle East. Also, These weekend protests, folks, be very careful. There's going to be a lot of chaos in a lot of the larger cities and probably the medium-sized cities.

So be careful if you're going out. Watch your six. Might be best to avoid some of those downtown areas if at all possible.

Well, look, it's been a great, great week, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you again for all of you who came out and made our book launch party such a great celebration and success. Really appreciate that. Want to thank our great team here in Memphis as well. Folks, get out there, have a great Friday, and whatever you do, be sure to go to church this weekend.

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