GOP Demands Answers from Major League Baseball Over Anti-Christian Scandal

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Start your free trial at aura.com slash safe. Live from the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's favorite gun-totin, Bible-clanging, deplorable American. That's us! That's us! Right.

I'm sorry. Love is American. Todd. Stars. Oh, yeah!

Well, hello, everybody. Welcome to the Todd Stearns Radio Show. Great to have you with us today, and thank you for joining us. We have a A wild show in store for you today, ladies and gentlemen. A lot going on.

Also, we are awaiting the President of the United States, who is expected to release all of the details about the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran. We are going to get to that as well. You know, it's interesting. A lot of conservatives are up in arms over all of this. I know the New York Post, Fox News channel, among those that are leading the charge, saying this is absolutely a bad deal.

Many people on the warhawk side of the Republican Party are saying it's imperative that Iran be destroyed and that regime change take place.

So, still a lot of debate and a lot of discussion over what exactly to do with Iran and how do we end this war.

Now, our telephone number, 901-260-5926, we're going to be taking your calls on this story. 901-260-5926. Coming up in just a little while, our good friend Liz Peake is going to drop by from Fox News. Also, Congressman Andy Ogles from Tennessee, running for Congress in one of those newly created districts. Big election night.

We're going to go over some of the findings. In Georgia and Oklahoma, among other places as well. Again, our telephone number, 901-260-5926. That telephone number, again, 901-260-5926.

Now we're beginning to get some new details over this terror plot. That unfolded over the past, well, 24 hours now, when we got word that the FBI and the Secret Service had thwarted what would have been probably a 9-11 style attack. on our nation's capital. On the night of the UFC fight. And uh it was a pretty A pretty devastating and shocking series of events.

Now, we understand at least five people from the latest reporting, at least five people, have been arrested, as many as 23 people. May have been involved in the operational planning.

Now here's where it gets a little squirrely because we got word late yesterday. That a number of lawmakers. were among those being targeted. For attack during this, what would have been just a heinous attack on our nation's capital and the UFC Freedom 250 event. One of those individuals named one of the people they wanted to target.

is in fact our next guest on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. We're honored to have Senator Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee. Senator, good to have you with us today, and certainly a disturbing report about what could have been. Yes, indeed, it is disturbing. And you know, Todd, this is something that we think about every day.

Every time I get a personal harm threat, It's one thing to me, but we are just really so concerned for people that show up at events. where where we are attending events. You know, Senator, I noticed then you had shared photographs.

So you were there that night with your grandson. Looked like everybody, a lot of lawmakers had their family members with them. And to know that not just yourself, but even your grandchild could have been in harm's way, this is just unacceptable. It's unacceptable. It is completely unacceptable and So Pope, from what we've been able to know, to hear and to learn so far from the FBI is the target against me was because I support Israel.

And Todd, you know, I stand with Israel. We as Christians are commanded to stand with Israel. And I find it so interesting that this group, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, This group of individuals, and supposedly that is what drove the targeting of me. But yes, you know, I just am so grateful and thankful and feel blessed beyond measure that the FBI did their job and made certain the drone attack did not happen. They protected the president, they protected all of us, and they have apprehended several of the individuals involved in this attack.

There are 23 that were. Involved. Our understanding is they are searching for some and they have apprehended some and some are being questions. Senator, I'm wondering. Again, you have been in public service for a very long time.

And to get these sorts of threats and to know that people are out there wanting to harm you, and yet you get up every single day and you're still fighting the good fight. You're still fighting for the causes you believe in. And I'm just wondering why do you do that? Why not just call it a day?

Okay. And when God places a call on your life, and you feel called to something, as I am so called to public service, and every day I say the big five, faith, family, freedom, hope, and opportunity, how do we preserve those? What can I do today that is going to make the lives of Tennesseans and indeed all Americans better? And that is that is such a driver for me. And I am just blessed.

to be able to every day Work in service of my fellow man to make certain that we preserve freedom. You know, you don't have the China dream, the Russia dream, the Mexican dream, Canadian dream. You have the American dream. That is what people want. And I want all of our children to dream those big dreams.

So to me, it's worth that risk. And get up and just, I've got a lot of good prayer warriors out there, and they pray that protection, and we keep working. No doubt about that. You mentioned faith, and of course, another big story, I know you've been weighing in on this. Senator Josh Hawley now demanding answers from the Major League Baseball Commissioner over these really ugly attacks on Christian ball players.

The San Francisco Giants, some of their players wrote Bible verses on the pride hats they were told to wear for a Pride Night celebration. It's interesting that State Senator Scott Wiener, who is going to replace Nancy Pelosi in Congress, accused the Christians of defacing those ball caps with the Bible verses and called them homophobes. What do you say to that?

Well, what we need to realize, and let me say this also: some of the fighters at the UFC fight on Sunday night were giving their testimony as they were winning their fights and quoting scripture. And it was really quite amazing. But to turn around for MLB to condemn these players for expressing their faith. When they were commanded by their team to wear these hats that do not align with their belief system. It was not an option that they were given.

It was something they were told to do, so their pushback, which should be allowed, is that they wrote a Bible verse on the hat and covered themselves with that.

Now, my husband, who is such a jokester and a huge baseball fan, and you know, he's always got a bad dad joke for you, Todd. But he says that Genesis 1.1 is where baseball got its start. because it was in the beginning.

So, oh, geez, that's a really bad dad joke, Senator. Yeah.

So that's what he says when he wants to say it. It has a biblical foundation. In the beginning. In the beginning. Oh, boy.

Oh, boy. Senator, before we let you go, I'm just wondering: was that your very first UFC fight that you went to? And what was that like for you? You have a good time? Yeah, it was my first one.

I've never been to a boxing match or a fight. of any kind. And so it was fascinating to watch. It was a little tougher and I really worried about People getting hit, but as my grandson said, it's a fight. It is indeed.

Well, you could just mark that off the bucket list, Senator, and there you go. That's right. I said I should be America's number one G-Mom to my grandsons. Absolutely. No doubt about that.

No doubt about that. Senator, we're going to have to leave it there. We really appreciate you. We're glad you're okay. And we sure do appreciate you being in the fight.

I appreciate the prayers. Thank you. All right. There you go, folks. Senator Marsha Blackburn on our Patriot Mobile newsmaker line today.

You know, I was talking to Congressman Randy Fine last night, the congressman out of Florida, and he had brought his son, and his son brought some of his friends. I think they're all high school or college age. And again, the idea that those lawmakers and their families. Could have been in harm's way of With these terrorists, these domestic terrorists, it's just unthinkable. All right, we've got to take a break here, folks.

Our telephone number, 901-260-5926. Again, that number, 901-260-5926. Want to encourage you to go over to ToddSterns.com. We actually have an update on the Major League Baseball story. Also, you will be able to read all of what State Senator Scott Weiner had to say.

We're going to get into more of that as well. We'll be right back. Hey guys, quick heads up. This is actually a big one. We're saying goodbye to something that's helped thousands of families over the years.

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And the The deal with Iran. This is I don't know if it's going to make anybody happy, but we're going to go through some of the finer points here. The President holding a press conference. At the G7, and we'll be bringing you some audio from that. The president is now warning Iran that any change to the peace agreement.

Or failure to comply could bring an immediate military response.

So the President saying, if you don't behave, we're going to go back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head.

Now, I'm going to share this information coming from Newsmax. And Newsmax has obtained Uh copies of the the the talking points here. Uh Regarding what could possibly be in this deal. Here's the challenge: nobody knows. Nobody knows what's in the deal.

Because they haven't released anything.

So again, I think it's premature to say one way or the other until the president actually puts out. the deal it itself in plain English.

So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. And let me just say this: with the conservative media. And there is Newsmax, Fox News, The New York Post, they are all opposed to this.

So, and but again, nobody's actually seen it.

So, how can you be opposed to something? that you have not seen. And it seems to me we ought to be erring on the side of caution here. The President has not let us down yet. President's getting some bad intel, I do believe, but the president hasn't let us down just yet.

So I say let's just let's wait. Let's see how all of this plays out. But my question for you, ladies and gentlemen, is what do you think we ought to do here? Do you think we ought to just declare victory and get the heck out? Or should we go ahead, go in, do regime change, and be done with it?

901-260-5926. That's 901-260-59. Two six. Want to play some audio here. This is the Attorney General of Florida.

Who is now launching an investigation into Major League Baseball? Cut number 30, please. Group J.T. Brubaker and Ryan Walker was seen with a biblical verse, Genesis 9:12, 16, written on their rainbow pride caps, which says the rainbow is a symbol of a covenant between God and all living creatures. He defaced the pride rainbow.

with a Bible verse telling the LGBT community that they do not Own the rainbow. That God owns the rainbow. Sid Ziegler, co-founder of Outsports, calls the Pride Night display disgraceful. If I were a Giants fan, I would never attend a game again. In a statement, the Giants organization telling ABC7 Eyewitness News: The San Francisco Giants are proud to support Pride Night and the LGBTQ community.

We also respect that individuals may make personal choices about participating in team activations. We understand that the choices by individual players have caused pain and anger to many in the LGBTQ community, and we're sorry for that. Those choices do not change our organization's commitment to inclusion, belonging, and creating a welcoming environment for all. For Ziegler, the statement falls short. For the Giants to To take no responsibility and essentially stand by their players is gross.

It was disheartening. SF Pride executive director Suzanne Ford had this to say. I work for San Francisco Pride, and I think if I espoused beliefs that weren't inclusive, My board of directors would have a problem with that. And I think the same thing goes with these Giants players. They work for the San Francisco Giants.

Landon Roop told the Mercury News he meant no hate at all. It's what he stands for as a believer in God. Major League Baseball is now involved, issuing a warning to the players. In a statement to Outsports, a spokesperson says, The writing in the cap violates our rules, and consistent with normal practice, we have warned the players about future violations. Pitcher Sam Henches opted not to wear a pride cap at all, wearing a regular cap instead.

The LGBTQ community says, More to come on this incident. All right. And again, ladies and gentlemen, what does Being a pansexual, what does being genderqueer or two-spirit have to do with a baseball game? That's what nobody seems to want to talk about that. But in all seriousness, why do we have to talk about people's sex?

and what they do in the privacy of their bedrooms at the ballpark. When did that become a thing? And Dylan, I know you're a big baseball guy. I mean, it's back when you were in high school, were you guys sitting around the dugout talking about whether or not you liked guys or gals or you identified as a shrub? I can't say that I have had that conversation in the dugout.

No, it just seems to me, Dylan, that if you're a baseball fan. You could care less about which way a guy swings his bat. Whether he's idle though, a Pitcher or a catcher, or can go all nine innings. I don't think any of that really matters. I literally, I think that could go for all the sports, like any sport that you watch, like not just baseball.

But especially baseball. Baseball is America's sport. Like, can we please leave it alone? Exactly. It makes no sense at all.

And this is America's pastime for crying out loud. I mean, I get it if it's like water polo, but I mean, we're talking about baseball here for crying out loud. Not that there's anything wrong with water polo. I don't want to get any more hate mail. You're going to get the water polo community really robbed up.

I got enough. Or the Pilates crowd. Oh, yeah. It is what it is. Jaser size anybody.

So, again, folks, I hate it for these ball players. Problem is, the Major League Baseball, here's the thing: they're just scared. The folks in the front office are terrified of these gay activists. And the reason why is because they know they're being watched. And Major League Baseball, just like every other major sport, including the WNBA.

Every single one of them have to bow down and pledge their allegiance to this rainbow flag. All right, we've got to take a break here. 901-260-5926. Our telephone number. That's 901-2622.

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Bush. The Texas Rangers are the only team in Major League Baseball that does not host a Pride night. This week, they are hosting a Faith and Family Night instead. And that's the way it should be, ladies and gentlemen. Real quick, let's go to the phones.

Beth in North Carolina. Hi, Beth. You are on the air. What's on your mind today? Hi, Todd.

What's on my mind is I had a conversation with my sister last night about the rainbow. The rainbow is God's promise to us that He's not going to flood the earth again, you know? That's God's promise. When it appears in the sky, we're all like, oh my god, it's amazing. But now it's been changed, and I'm on the baseball player's side that they put the Bible verses on their Their baseball caps and chose to maybe not wear that.

I mean, I'm not going to do that. We don't force things on the pride people. They forced things on us, but the rainbow is God's promise. Yeah.

Well, it is, but I want to read to you what Scott Weiner said, the state senator, who's going to be replacing Nancy Pelosi in Congress. And this is a guy who runs around. I mean, look, we've got a photograph of the guy up on ToddSterns.com. You can see it for yourself. He wears a lot of leather.

I'll just leave it at that. Um I'm always concerned about chafee when people, because it's hot, it's in the summer, anyway. But anyway, he goes on to say, he says that. In his estimation, the Christian players are the ones who have hijacked the Bible passage. It's been hijacked by homophobes to take back the rainbow from the LGBTQ people.

The problem is, the rainbow was never meant for the LGBTQ people. This was God's covenant to us that he was not going to destroy the earth again with a flood. Absolutely. That's right. But we need to take the rainbow back as Christian.

In this beautiful state of United States of America. And may I just say also, may we please take back the word gay too, because I love singing the song, What is it to give Don? We now are gay apparel. You can't even sing that Christmas song. The Christmas song.

You know, people chuckle, yes, Steve. We have to. Gay means happy. Gay means happy. We can say the word.

He cannot be bullied anymore by the alphabet people. L B G T B We need to take back Watch 'em. what's traditional, what this country is based on. And the rainbow is God's promise, and so is the word gay. Is you know, Christmas song.

All right. Yeah, Beth, thank you. If we're going to go ahead and reclaim stuff, may as well throw in the Christmas Carol, too. All right, Beth, thank you. 901-260-5926 is our telephone number.

I'm getting in trouble again, Dylan. I'm getting in trouble again today. I can just feel it. All right. I want to go right away to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line.

There is a fascinating case. It's sort of a sports-themed show, I guess, to welcome back Parker May from basketball camp. But we are honored to have with us. The third most tenured NBA referee until he got canned and his attorney. We're excited to have Kenny Maurer with us as well as First Liberty Senior Counsel Cliff Martin.

Guys, good to have you with us today. Hope you're doing well. Hello, hello, Todd. It's good to be here. Thank you.

Thanks for having me. All right, Kenny, I just want to start with you and give us your story. I mean, here you are, the third most tenured NBA referee. Then along comes 2022. You got the China virus.

And tell our listeners what happened to you.

Well, first of all, it starts way back in twenty twenty one. It's been some time, and so a lot of people have forgotten, but I think everybody's familiar at least with the NBA and the bubble.

So this all started way back in the fall of twenty. when the bubble took place in Orlando, Florida. And the NBA, Disney, ESPN, the military, all were involved in that bubble. And during that 2021 season, all of the referees We were all asked to wear masks during the season. We were tested.

During the playoffs, Todd, in twenty twenty one, the summer of twenty twenty one, I test it as much as four times a day.

So we understood that there was there was this COVID outbreak, whatever, and that we had to do our part.

So there was never a problem. Then, in the summer of twenty-one comes along, And the NBA. Decides to change the last year of our contract and mandates that if we do not. Take the vaccine. that we will lose our jobs.

So I had a decision to make, and that was either I continue to work for an employer that Was questioning my God-given faith. And so It was easy for my wife and I at that time. We chose our faith over you know, over my my job. And so they They they did not they offered us a religious exemption. and gave us a year to change our mind.

We were without pay, we were without a job. And after that year, I would never change my mind. And even after the commissioner In the summer of 2022, came out with a press release saying that there was no more mandates for. or anyone, you know, any of the players or referees. And the contract in October said no more mandates.

The commissioner still fired us. in um October of twenty two.

So it started way back in twenty. Again, we followed all protocols, we're willing to do that. The contract was changed in 21. We were suspended and we were finally terminated in October of 22. And again, you are a man of devout faith.

I mean, you've been a what, a Catholic for, what, more than, what, 60 years? Is that right? I was born a Catholic. I was baptized. I've received my confirmation, my communion.

I've been part of the Catholic Church for. you know, my entire life. I'm a Christian who believes in our Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm not afraid to admit it, and I'm not afraid to talk about it. Um that's what I think. You know, there's a lot of people who are denouncing faith, but it seems to be Catholic and Christian faith, and I really don't know why.

And so Um again the Todd, the NBA players were never mandated to take the vaccine.

So when they opened up the arenas and the people came back into the arenas. They were never mandated to take it. The players were never mandated to take it. It's just the three referees out on the floor who blew a whistle for a living. If they didn't take the vaccine, they were they all they lost their jobs.

And a few of us did. We walked away because we it was very important for me. It was very My faith is very important to me. Again, I didn't really have to feel the need all these years. I've been with them almost 40 years to be able to.

Preface my faith. I didn't think I. They didn't even know what religion I was. I went to church every week on the road. I didn't have to.

Now, all of a sudden, it was a. It was a big concern with them and I I've never really understood that. But again, it was an easy decision for me at that time. I'm proud of what I did. I stand behind it.

No one's going to change. Um My right to have my faith in our Lord. I want to bring in your attorney here, Kenny, Cliff Martin from First Liberty Institute. Cliff, I understand you guys are now joining the team representing him in this religious accommodation case. Tell us, does he have a case here, and what concerns you about what the NBA did?

That's right. Thank you, Todd. The NDA clearly failed to accommodate Kenny's religious practice. He notified them of his religious belief. And Instead of respecting that and accommodating his religious belief, instead they terminated him and they're No reason other than his religious belief that was a bedrock of their decision.

And that's what made us want to get involved in support Kenny. I'm wondering if there's if you've been looking at any settled court cases, any rulings from the Supreme Court that would cover something like this?

Well, certainly the chief case for Title VII, religious discrimination claims and failure to accommodate claims. is our very own Groff versus DeJoy decision that First Liberty was privileged to represent Harold Groff when he sought an accommodation not to work on Sundays for the Postal Service. And he was discriminated against and not accommodated. And the Supreme Court said, no, no, employers. you must be able to prove an undue hardship.

To deny a religious accommodation. And undue hardship means a substantial increased cost to the business.

So an employer that You know, does not want to grant a religious accommodation to employees, must be able to show.

some sort of substantial increased cost. Here. The fact that the court is full of players that are not necessarily vaccinated, you know, really does kill any argument that. The NBA would have that there was some sort of substantial increased cost in having unvaccinated referees. on the floor.

Like that argument just isn't gonna hold water in light of the reality on the court of a number of undoctrinated lawyers. That's a it's a great point. Kenny, I'm just it's got to be heartbreaking. I mean, you spend so many years in the league, then to be fired. Do you what have you been doing since then?

Well, Todd, for the first couple of years, if you remember back then, I mean, I went out and looked for jobs.

Well several several employers. I mean, but Either I was underqualified, I was overqualified, I A lot of them said, Well, Kenny, you're going to be asked back to referee. There's no question you're going to go back.

So they wouldn't hire me because they thought I was. I was going to go back. No one ever thought this has been going on, Todd.

Well, we're going to be in our sixth year in another month. This has been five years that I I've been without a job, without a livelihood. I've always. You know, I still think I could referee today. I know I could.

I still work very hard to stay in shape. I love my job. I worked very hard at it. watching the NBA playoffs was, I think, they're the greatest athletes in the world. I think it was fun to watch, but it was also frustrating to watch because I would have liked to have been there, been out working, and just the way it ended.

Todd, it didn't have to end that way. I mean, Why the Union pushed for, why the NBA Change the contract, why they never made. players do it, why they never made fans do it, why they just came at referees and Major League Baseball umpires never had to be backed. They were never mandated. National League football referees were never mandated.

NBA referees were. People don't understand. They've never really taken the time. I think people care. I've had thousands of people that have reached out to me.

And in support of me. And I think, Todd, as it goes on, I think it's becoming even greater and greater. I applaud what the players did. With uh You know, with Major League Baseball the other day. I think it's, I mean, people with religious faith, you have a constitutional right to be able to express whatever faith you want.

It doesn't matter whether you're You could be a Mormon, you could be a Muslim, you could be a Protestant, you could be Jewish, you could be that doesn't matter. This isn't about the vaccine, Todd. This is about allowing us to have our God-given right to be able to, you know, to be able to take part in whatever faith we want. And that's what I'm fighting for. With the help of First Liberty and Scott Street, we're a We're going to continue to move forward.

I love this, Cliff. You got a good, well-spoken client here.

Well done, Kenny. Yeah, this is unacceptable. And I'm glad you're about Major League Baseball. And Cliff, I don't want to get too far off the reservation here, but I mean, the irony is that this is going on right now in the culture where we're having this argument. Should players be forced to wear pride flags and should they be forced to support something that they may not necessarily agree with?

And my question is: what does any of this have to do with sports? No, that's right. I mean, the the Sports leagues across the nation, we have seen, you know, dabble in this. these various modes of expression. And what they have to remember is that their employees are employees with right to religious accommodation.

They cannot be forced to engage in messaging that offends their faith. unless, as we referred to before, it has some sort of substantial increased cost. And, you know, and it doesn't. Yeah.

The employees need to be very careful not to disadvantage employees of faith, whatever faith that is. And they're definitely walking a fine line and maybe crossing it. Yeah.

All right, guys, we're going to have to leave it there. We're going to be following this case. FirstLiberty.org, ladies and gentlemen, if you want to read more about Kenny's case and what he has been through, First Liberty Institute, great, great folks. Guys, best of luck to you, and thank you for coming on the show today. All right, thank you, thank you, Todd.

Thank you, Todd. Big fan of the people you work for. Thank you very much.

Well, thank you. Thank you. All right. There you have it, everybody. What a crazy story.

Out of the NBA. But again, you heard Kenny, he's 60 years, he's been a devout practicing Catholic. And he said at the time, I've got to read this quote to you. He said, Neither the NBA nor any human being nor any person in the world is going to change how I feel about our Lord Jesus Christ and how I feel about my faith and religion. A lot of Catholics said it would be a violation of their religious beliefs to get that clot shot, as they called it.

So there you go. 901-260-5926, our telephone number. That's 901-260-5926. This is the Todd Stern Show. All right, welcome back, everybody.

It is the Todd Cearns Radio Show. Dylan Parker's back from basketball team. You know, he's been what, coaching and you know, smacking around kids on the bulk on the court and all that kind of good stuff. You know, yeah, I've heard. He's a tough guy.

He came back, he was bullying us around in here. I know it. We were having to do stadiums. I'm like, what is he talking about? We're up and down the stairs.

Yeah.

Holy cow. It's glad he's back though. Indeed. Welcome back. We've got a lot going on on the show today here, folks.

Coming up, we've got Congressman Andy Ogles. Also, Liz Peak is going to drop by. We'll weigh in on the big elections in Oklahoma and also this Iran deal. You know, this thing really, I think it just bothers you. One of the things I'm bothered by, and I just want to speak frankly about the America First Movement, the MAGA movement.

If you even so much as question something, all of a sudden they label you as a far left extremist. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. And that's got to stop. You can still be an America First Conservative and disagree with the White House about uh an issue. or a topic or whatever.

But the whole point of this Iran war, and I went back and I looked, I listened to the president, I read his true social post. back many, many months ago when this thing was only supposed to last five weeks, And the President was very clear that this was about stopping Iran's nuclear program. That was it. There was nothing else. Not about getting the oil, not about regime change.

It was about stopping and destroying Iran's capability to make nuclear weapons. That's all it is.

So the question is. Is that still all it is? Or has this morphed into something else? And then you've got on the other side of that. You've got the never Trumpers who are always going to attack President Trump no matter what.

But there are a lot of folks that are caught in the middle, and I would consider myself to be one of those individuals. I do believe that Iran's nuclear capabilities have to be completely eliminated, but we were told that had already happened.

So has it happened or Or were they mistaken? I mean, you can't have it both ways. And the reason a lot of people are concerned is because. Most of the folks making these kinds of decisions do not live paycheck to paycheck. They don't go grocery shopping on a budget to try to figure out: okay, do I need a coupon for this?

You know, what? They don't have to worry about those kinds of decisions, whether or not they can either fill up a quarter, get a quarter of a tank of gas this week or a half a tank of gas. They don't have to deal with those real issues. A lot of people do out there. I think an overwhelming majority of the American people do.

And so they get a little nervous when they see these gas prices and they are going up. And when they see the grocery prices, and they are going up, and by the way, layoffs are happening all over the country.

So again, ladies and gentlemen, this is just. There are questions and they are fair questions that need to be addressed. All right, got to take a break here. Hang tight, everybody. We'll be right back.

Live from the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's common sense conservative commentary from Todd Starr. Yeah.

I'm sorry. There's a marriage.

Okay. All right. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Todd Cerns Radio Show, hour two underway. Good to have you with us.

Our telephone number 901-260-5926. We are going to be taking your calls this hour. A lot of folks. Very concerned about what's going to happen with this Iran deal that President Trump is going to be releasing, hopefully sooner rather than later. They're apparently supposed to be signing something on Friday.

By the way, our telephone number, write this number down, 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. A reminder, ToddSterns.com. Yesterday we told you about the baker in Minnesota, Granite Falls, and Carl's Bakery. And we had the owner of the bakery on.

The family coming under attack. They're threatening to burn down his business because he's celebrating Nuclear Family Month. And we want to help out this baker.

So, if you go to our website, you'll see the story, and there's a link. We want you to go to their website.

So, many of you have already done this. You've gone to their Facebook page, you said, Hey, heard you on the Todd Stern show, and we stand with you. They need some encouragement. And I know you guys are very encouraging.

So, if you would do me a favor, head over to our website, ToddSterns.com, click on the link, and leave those fine folks some very nice messages and order baked goods because they do ship, which is great. All right, I want to go right away to the Patriot Mobile newsmaker line. We're honored to have with us Congressman Andy Ogles, who is from Middle Tennessee, but happens to be I guess you were spending some time in Memphis. Congressman, are you still in the Mid South? I am.

I'm actually in Memphis as we speak.

So I'm with the Memphis Task Force with the Guard and the men and women who are helping keep Memphis safe.

So again, you're in Memphis, but you are not in studio, Congressman. You have to explain yourself. Why are you not in person, Congressman? Yeah.

Well, you know, you know, so I was here previously with the President, with the task force, and really celebrating the results of, you know, when you focus on, quite frankly, putting away criminals and keeping the community safe. You know, during that event with the President, you know, I went out into the community and talked to some of the families that were most greatly affected by a safer community. And one of the ladies, I'll never forget it. She said, look, I've never voted for President Trump. I can't ever say I actually liked him.

But I love President Trump because my nine-year-old son can go outside and play. I mean, this has had a drastic effect on this community in a positive way. You can now be out on Bill Street and do it safely. And though you saw about a 15% crime from 23 to 24 or 24, that 25 area, what the guard got here and you had the Memphis Safe Task Force take hold, you've seen over a 50% violent crime, petty theft, et cetera, across this city. Mm-hmm.

I've been meeting with community leaders, business leaders, and really this whole Mississippi corridor about this. President Trump talked about this golden age of America. And what I would say is that there's a golden age for Memphis ahead. The the future is bright, and I'm committed to making sure that Memphis is safe. stay safe and that prosperity is in the future.

Yeah, I'm glad to hear that. And by the way, the lady that said that, she was on our program, and then she went on to become a very prominent voice in just the White Haven community, speaking out and letting people know that the black community in Memphis, by and large, is very happy with the National Guard. They're very happy with the Memphis Safe Task Force. And people do enjoy being able to go to the grocery store and not have to worry about getting carjacked.

Well, what's interesting is I talked to this, I'm literally out in the community with the soldiers, the guardsmen who were on the ground in the community. And I said, you know, when they're going out to conduct an operation or maybe a surge in a particular community, that kids are actually coming out and up to them and wanting to take selfies. Like they're proud of the fact that these soldiers, these men and women, and keep in mind that these folks have careers back home, that they're guardsmen, guardswomen, and they're here in this community. They love the mission. And, but literally, you know, they were showing me slides of all these different selfies where kids are coming up to them and wanting to get their picture taken because it's a new day.

And I'm excited, of course, with the new fifth congressional district. You know, selfishly, my current district is very small right there in Middle Tennessee. And now I have this giant horseshoe that comes all the way over here to Shelby County. And so I'll be serving here. And, you know, I just look forward to getting to the community and, of course, supporting these men and women that are keeping or helping keep Memphis safe.

So, Congressman, I want to ask you about this race. I know you've got some, you'll have somebody that's going to be challenging you in the Republican primary, but the fact is, you're the incumbent. There's a guy on the Democrat side. And a few weeks ago, I was just reading, we went to the guy's website and we're reading through all of his bona fides. And I didn't tell anybody, you know, was he a Republican, Democrat?

I said, guess who this guy is? He sounds like a Republican. But this guy's no Republican. Yeah.

Well, you know, it's a crowded primary on the Democratic side.

So, you know, we had a forum. In the upper part of the district, and they were five Democrats. It was a nonpartisan forum. We received alphabetically, and so two Republicans, five Democrats. But there's a clear difference.

Now, this district is drawn, On a bad day plus 16, on a good cycle 2021. And so it's really. Nearly impossible for a Democrat to win. With that being said, so my challenge is in my primary. We're leading, but you never take anything for granted.

I mean, you know, I've always won my races by double digits. You know, our kids play sports, one of which is cross country.

So we always talk about running through the tape, running through the finish line. And as you get near the finish line, you turn on your jets. And so part of my job is obviously to serve in DC and serve my current district, but also it's to get to know my new constituents once we win this race. Were you, were you, I'm just again, was it has that been a lot of work getting to know? I mean, you've got a I mean, that's a long way between Middle Tennessee and over here in West Tennessee.

Well, you know, um As fate would have it, when I was county mayor in Murray County, we started so economic development is huge, obviously, for any county, especially for those who have a lot of residential growth.

So from not to get too nerdy, but for every dollar of residential tax revenue, it normally costs you about $1.32, $1.35 because you're having to front load the water. You're having to front load the buses and the schools and all that infrastructure. Whereas where you really are able to pay your bills is on that business growth. And so we built this coalition. I built this coalition of different of the counties in Middle Tennessee because I knew I wasn't going to get every business.

I knew I wasn't going to get every manufacturing company that was coming into Middle Tennessee.

So if I could support my fellow mayor and help them be prosperous, it was good for Murray County, too. And what happened was, is that grew across the state, especially into West Tennessee.

So when you were looking at Blue Oval, Haywood County, they lacked any health care infrastructure.

So I worked with the county mayor out there, and we were able to get kind of an emergency services operation in Haywood County.

So I actually have familiar in West Tennessee.

Now when I was doing that, I was doing it to help my fellow mayor and to help his constituents or her constituents. I never dreamed I would be serving Far west, Tennessee, and have Bill Street. Again, if you had told me when I first ran that someday in the near future Bill Street would be in your district, I would have laughed.

Well, look, since it is, you got to go down to Rumboogie Cafe, Jim Lesapio, who's a great supporter of our work. I own the radio station in Memphis, the news talk station, and they're big supporters. He owns Rumboogie and a lot of other places there on Beale Street. Good conservative guy, and he'll take good care of you.

Well, I do believe we'll be there at some point on this trip. And so if I do it, I'll take it selfie and I'll send it to you. Oh, please do. And by the way, I am just curious. You know, barbecue is like a huge thing here at Memphis.

Have you been able to sample and do you have a favorite?

Well, not yet. And that being said, so we're literally at one of our stops and we're feeding the guardsmen and men and women that are here. And so I'm watching them eat barbecue at the moment while I talk to you. Is that right? Well, that is so nice.

So you're literally, you are feeding the National Guard troops. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We've been doing it at various stops. Just to stop mentioning.

So I got a full briefing. Part of it was not necessarily classified but sensitive. And now we're out in the community going to those various locations.

So to again to see the operation and to see the impact. I mean, at the end of the day, people's lives are different today than just a year ago because of the presence of these men and women and the commitment of our President.

So the President gave the directive, but they were thousands, one thousand five hundred or so troops here, men and women here, guardsmen here that are working with all the various law enforcement agencies, the local PD, the Sheriff's Department to take this city back. And again, I had a dinner last night with a lot of business leaders here in this community, and they're excited. I mean, you can feel the excitement in the room because. It's now safe. One of the gentlemen has some properties in the communities.

He said, you know, we don't have to have the level of security that we did before because it's safe again. And going back to that comment I made about the young woman and her nine-year-old son, you know, when it's affecting your family and the fact that your kids can now go outside and play, I can't imagine a day that my son couldn't go outside and play. But in this community and parts of this city, it wouldn't safe for you to go outside. And no one should live in that type of fear.

Well said. All right. Well, Congressman, enjoy. Enjoy Memphis. I'm going to give you, I'm just going to, I'm going to give, this is a gimme, so no charge here.

BBQ, don't claim a favorite. Just say there's so, you know, if you, if you want a good chopped pork sandwich, you go to Topps. If you want ribs, go to Central. They've got good sides too, because you're going to get in trouble.

So you can't have a favorite. Roger that. Tell me. All right. Congressman Andy Ogles, boots on the ground with the National Guard in Memphis, Tennessee, feeding our troops.

Also, meeting a lot of folks in his brand new redistricted congressional district. And we'll be getting the Congressman back on very soon. All right. Our telephone number: 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926 coming up.

We've got Charles in North Carolina wanting to weigh in on Iran. We'll be taking your calls as well. This is the Todd Stern Show. All right, welcome back. This is the Todd Sterns radio show.

By the way, this segment of the program brought to you by our friends at Newsmax. Newsmax promoting a huge social security update. They say 70% of you guys are not getting the full benefits you deserve, but they have five key strategies. That could increase your benefits by as much as $188,000 over a lifetime. Michael Allen is their social security expert, and he's got all the intel in this free special report we want to send to you.

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Text and data rates may apply. All right, let's go back to the phones. North Carolina, Charles listening to us on WSIC. Hi, Charles. What's on your mind?

Oh, John. Dodd, I've just been listening to your show today, and I wanted to weigh in on this thing in Iran. Like you, I think we need to wait and see what this deal includes. Oh, but You were saying, so what should we do? Uh and Todd's I'm of the thinking that we just need to declare a victory and get the hell out of there.

A thousand percent accurate. I'm with you because I see this going south. I don't see us heading down a good path right here. And I'm with you, Charles. Let's just declare victory.

Declare a victory and come on. Nothing by continuing to stay over there and fight is going to end up in a disaster. And it's going to ruin Trump's presidency just like it did LBJ's in Vietnam. and George W. Bush's in Iraq.

But Todd, it's kind of where I can't even watch Fox News anymore. I mean, every time I turn it on, I see Brian Kilmead, Sean Hannity, even Jesse. They're just beating the drums to stay in this war. You know, they're interviewing the Lindsey Grahams, the Tom Cottons, the Jack Keynes, all these people. And none of them have a son or daughter that's in the military that's going to go fight.

But as far as regime change goes, Todd, I'll just say this. as a historian, somebody that knows military history, Never before has there been regime change accomplished By strategic bombing or going in there and dropping a bunch of bombs on people. That is only going to happen if there's a million ground troops that are Sent in there, or a nuclear bomb, several going off in Iran. And I don't think we're going to do that. And I don't think the American people want to see a massive ground invasion to try to remove the leadership of Iran.

That's just not going to happen. I don't think the American people have an appetite for it. And I say that because even not only the Democrats are always going to be upset and they're always going to oppose Trump. The problem Trump has now is that you've got a large swath of the base and they're just done. They do not want their sons and daughters going to war.

They don't understand why they're over there. And quite frankly, the administration is not on board with this. Everybody there is not on board, which is why, quite frankly, people are leaking information. Yeah, correct, yeah. No, the the American people that voted for Trump, like myself and you Wanted him to focus on domestic issues.

Secure the border. deport millions of illegal aliens. and uh help clean up this culture rot in our country. And that's not even being discussed hardly anymore. Yeah, Todd, it is funny.

Today on Fox, I did hear one statistic. Uh it in two hundred and forty cities across America, The average price of a starter home is a million dollars.

Now in nineteen eighty nine, when I bought my first starter home, it was sixty two thousand dollars.

So The American people can't afford housing. They see groceries going up. They see everything going up, and unless you're invested in the stock market, which most people are not. You're feeling this economic pain, and a lot of it is being caused by this continued war. Uh and Iran.

Uh, I don't want to see the Iranians with a nuclear bomb, but I certainly. Do not want to see us go over there and fight for regime change. I think that was the ultimate goal. A lot of these neocons, like Lindsey Graham. Uh I mean, they're for every war on every continent, uh, anytime, anywhere, but That's not why we should be over there.

Well, my question is, and Charles, thank you for the call. As always, look, the question I have is this: did we destroy their nuclear program? Yes or no? If we did, great, let's get out of there. We're done.

If not, drop more bombs, destroy it, and get out of there. It's really not that hard or difficult. To do. Again, this is what the administration was telling us. I mean, we've, how many times has the administration come out and said that we have defeated Iran?

So we've either defeated Iran or we've not.

So you can't have it both ways. And the ceasefire after ceasefire, people are just tired of it. And I will say this about Fox, and this is not a slam on Fox or Newsmax or anybody else. But a lot of these people they don't live the same life that the average American lives. Many of them are making hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Many of them are incredibly wealthy. Many of them are millionaires. They don't live and breathe America like you and I do. And I say that because I've come from a blue collar family. And people at that level don't know what it's like.

to go out there and have to figure out, all right, can I, do I buy milk or do I buy eggs? I can't afford both. What do you do? 901-260-5926. Nobody's speaking for those people.

Well, we're doing it on this program. Hang tight, everybody. I got to take a break. All right, I've got to tell you about our good friends at Chapter. If you are turning 65 or already on Medicare, you could be overpaying right now and you may not even know it.

And that's why I've partnered with Chapter. Their advisors are honest. They're not paid to push any one plan. And they're the only Medicare advisor that compares every plan nationwide to tell you where you stand. In one call, you're going to know exactly what you're entitled to.

And by the way, if you are already on the right plan, they're going to tell you that too. If you're not, they're going to help you switch. And a simple call with Chapter is free. It takes less than 20 minutes.

So if you are turning 65, If you are already on Medicare, go to askchapter.org. That's askchapter.org slash real help. And if you need more information or maybe you're driving and you forgot the website address, give us a call, 901-260-5926, and we'll share that information with you. All right, I want to go to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. Always great to have our friend, Fox News contributor Liz Peak joining us.

LizPeak.com. You better bookmark that website, folks, and read it every day. Liz, hope you're doing well. I'm just doing fine. Thank you.

I'm trying to make sense of what President Trump has told the country about the memorandum of understanding. But I've got to tell you, I'm not sure I've ever seen such an absolute tsunami. Of negativity as we are seeing about this deal. I mean, I guess. Taught at some point, if everybody hates it, maybe it's a good deal.

I yeah, I I guess I it's it's very strange. And again, it's across the board and especially conservative media world, Newsmax, Fox News, New York Post, everybody is up in arms over this. Yeah.

So I mean, I've obviously been thinking about this a lot, everybody has. Uh And I think you've got several different camps, right? The pro-Israel camp is not happy because Uh you know, basically uh Trump is trying to restrain Israel's engagement in Lebanon And yet, I think it's pretty clear that if Hezbollah attacks Israel, they're going to respond. I mean, I just don't think that's really much of a deal breaker. I don't think it's even really a consideration.

Uh and so I I kind of discard that notion. Um I I think the the pro The sort of anti-Israel hawks. I mean, sorry, anti-Iran hawks. Are happy that we are allowing Iran to. Get back in the game to begin to ship oil again, et cetera.

I think you have to take a step back and say, Mike Pence is just on Fox News actually right now as we're talking. Saying there's no verification or requirement that Iran dismantle their nuclear infrastructure. Has he forgotten that we have dismantled Iran's nuclear infrastructure? That's what happened a year ago when we bombed the smithereens. Their processing facilities, enrichment facilities, they've been destroyed.

So, can they rebuild them? Yes, but there is going to be. oversight on that, presumably. And look, I think that President Trump has set back this nuclear. promise of Iran in his quest for a bomb I I'm guessing five to ten years.

And You know, that's not nothing. I mean, I think we can be comfortable. And by the way, remember. That the Iranians themselves told Witkoff and Kushner that they had. The material for 11 bombs.

And even going back to twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, the expectation was it would take no more than a week or two to actually from sixty percent enriched uranium go to actually having a nuclear weapon.

So it was imminent.

Now it is not. I think that is a considerable accomplishment. And I also, I mean, maybe you don't want to keep talking about this. I think it is kind of the news of the day.

So, one more comment I'd make. You know, people are blasting him for talking about how the Iranians are reasonable and they're pragmatic.

Well If you've had all of your senior administration wiped out, Assassinated by Israel and the United States, not one layer, but two. My guess is you've got a little bit of religion about how. You might want to get along with President Trump and Israel even. To stay alive, I mean, I think these guys in Iran, if there is a more pragmatic tone. in the negotiations and forget what they're telling their own people because that Is propaganda.

We know that they're gonna lie, and there's probably some of that on both sides. But the reality is the Iranians Leadership has got to be scared to death because we know where they are, we know how to get to them. And I think if if Trump Uh In terms of opening the door to these people, I think he's sort of replaying what he did in Venezuela. Remember, We took out Nicola Maduro in Venezuela, but who did he end up doing a deal with? His number two in command, Delcie Rodriguez.

And she was rumored, or it was reported that she was even tougher and nastier and more horrible than Maduro. But the reality is, and maybe you've talked to people involved there, we have oil people going down there now and diplomats. And actually, we are functioning pretty well with the Venezuelan government under Delsi Rodriguez. Is it possible that he sees a path forward in our relationship with Iran, the rebuilding of Iran, the rebuilding of our relationships within? The Middle East with Iran through that kind of arrangement.

I don't know, but I don't think Trump is an idiot. And I'm optimistic that this is better than people are saying because, of course, there's also the Obama crowd that wants you to think that his deal was just as good. It wasn't. I've spent two days researching everything about Uh, what went wrong with Obama's deal, and there was a lot, and basically, it just didn't work at all. The Iranians were cheating even before the deal was signed.

Liz, let me jump in here because, yeah, because again, for me, I just feel like the administration is not on the same page here. That's just the impression I'm getting, and especially since Rubio and Hegseth, it seems, have suddenly been sidelined. I haven't really seen them involved much, and yet the vice president has really been out and he's been the guy talking about this. And we know, at least from previous reporting, that the VP and Kushner were among those who wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

Well, understandably. I mean, look, I think. everyone has been banging on Trump and on the Republicans. The Republicans legislators running for office for a November election have been saying, hey, we can't really we're going to lose control of Congress. unless the price of oil comes down.

That's a pretty simple equation, and I think it's probably true. It's amazing, isn't it, how impactful the price of gasoline is? But it is. Bye.

So I think um Vance and Rubio, I think all of them wanted it to happen. The question is, under what circumstances? And Look, uh Van Rubio and is a hawk on Iran. Ratcliffe is a hawk on Iran. And I think it's fair to say that Vance may have been more someone who is pushing this deal to close Faster because I think he was more engaged with the pol the politics of it.

It's a crazy story, and I hope everything works out for the president here because it's right now a big mess. And even there's an interesting piece in the New York Times, even far they're calling it far-right Israeli TV has now turned against President Trump. But I know the president was angry, and I get it. He's trying to work out a deal here, but Israel's philosophy is: you shoot missiles, we're shooting back. Yeah, that and I think that'll continue.

The far right in Israel is unhappy because they don't want any restraints. On their activities. And they've been, look, you and I support Israel, at least I support Israel. They've been pretty aggressive. They've taken advantage of effectively a green light in the region and even a green light from the Gulf Arab countries, which they've never really had before.

To go after all these proxies and bully for them because these are bad guys, they're thugs and they're killers.

So as I said earlier, I don't have any qualms at all. about the fact that Israel is going to be free to respond to any kind of attacks that they come under from HeSLA. What's Trump going to do to Israel? I mean, I really just don't see that as a big issue right now. Yes.

All right, Lynn. Look, this is all very much in flux. Uh and I mean we'll see. As I say, I don't think that the President is an idiot. I think he has accomplished something here.

Iran is a far, far weaker country than it was. uh six months ago And we have to be able to take advantage of that. And my guess is, in some ways, we will. Yeah.

We shall see. I think the President the last reporting we got is the President's going to stick around in Europe and may want to be there when for this thing to be signed.

So that could be you can read into that what you want to, but it looks like the President's going to be getting a deal. Yeah.

Yeah, and putting his own stamp on it, which, you know. I don't know. It's a pretty fascinating thing that's happened. And again, I think everyone has to kind of just remember: Iran is not in good shape. Their economy is in tatters.

Yeah.

Two-thirds of their administration and a lot of the leaders of the IRGC and their military and their government have been assassinated. That doesn't really put you on a very strong footing.

So, all this talk about how some people have come out and said, oh, Iran's stronger than they were. Oh, please, give me a break. No, they're not.

Well Liz, we got to leave it there. Good stuff. And breaking news, folks.

So be sure to check out LizPeak.com and all of her great work and columns. Liz, always good hearing from you. Hey, thanks so much for having me on, Todd. Take care. All right.

You've got it. There you go. By the way, here's the President just a few moments ago talking about what he told Benjamin Yahoo, Cut33, Place. Amazing Prime Minister. We have a little dispute over Lebanon.

I say you can do a little softer touch, PhB. You don't have to knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that's from Hezbollah. But it's been an amazing partnership. But he will say we're the big partner, and he's the very small partner, and that's true.

So he came to the country. And he begged Barack Hussein Obama, the president, not to do the JC, POA. He said it could be the end of Israel, and it would have been if I didn't come along. And Obama didn't listen to him. Beebe actually went to Congress and pleaded with them.

And he got nowhere. And they had this horrible deal that was horrible for Israel horrible for Israel and That's where it stood. And then I came along and I terminated that deal. It had very little time left. You know, it was a short-term deal.

You know, with countries, you need hundreds of years, you don't need. Eight years and nine years. This isn't like you're signing a lease on a candy store at the corner. You need hundreds of years. This was a short-term lease.

It expired long ago. Had I let it run, I'd expect you wouldn't have been around, and a lot of people wouldn't have been around. But Israel would have been terminated. I think the whole Middle East would have been terminated. You saw that.

So there you go. That's the president taking he's frustrated with Israel right now. But again, if you're Israel, and here's the thing: let's just take the United States for a moment. Let's just say you live in Brownsville, Texas. And we got our great affiliate down there, K-U-R-V.

And every day, You've got Mexicans, and they're firing rockets across the border, and they're knocking out buildings in. And Brown's will. You think the United States is just going to sit back and take that? No, of course not. They're going to fire back.

So again, this is Israel's fight here.

So, if Israel wants to keep doing that, that's on them. But the United States part of the equation, our only job was to go in there and destroy Iran's nuclear program. Did we do that? Yes or no? That's all we need to know.

And if the answer is yes, We need to pack up and head back home. 901-260-59260, telephone number. This is the Todd Starnes Show. All right, welcome back, everybody. This is the Tom Stearns Radio Show.

Let's go to the phone lines. Mark in the villages, America's friendliest hometown. Mark, what's on your mind? Hey Josh, I'm cutting the lawn and I had to come in and respond here. a gay community and how they're taking the rainbow symbol.

you know, like your callers had said, that's God's covenant, Josh, you know? He gave us those colors. And I think this was a A chance for the gay community to say, let's steal this, because they know that this. These colors are in kids' toys and everything you can. can think of.

You know, they've got the rainbow in everything now.

So this is their way to kind of gained traction on getting control of it.

Well, it's a great point you're bringing. I mean, it's like, you know, remember fruity pebbles, right?

Now people are, oh, that's a gay cereal, or fruit loops. Or, what's the one with the leprechaun and the rainbows coming out of the wazoo? What is that? Is it the rabbit? Lucky charms.

Lucky charms. Is it tricks? Is that the one with the rabbit? I'm getting a little tricky. Geez, as I'm talking here, apparently the entire serial community has gone gay.

Okay. Well I said if they want to steal a symbol. You know, instead of going after, you know, God covenant. Two out. Why don't you get him a box of fruit meats?

You know, it's got all the colors of the rainbow. Or maybe some lucky charms. They got all the colors of the rainbow. They're magically delicious in more ways than one. Yeah.

Instead of hijacking, you know, the rainbow. And I like I said, I think it was a way for them to infiltrate The kids and everything else. Yeah.

You know, you may be onto something. Not only that, it bothers me that our beloved Christmas carols. We're no longer allowed to don our gay apparel without people Snickering. Yeah, they're just they they're just trying to do They're doing it. Mm-hmm.

Unjacked. That God is, you know, and what he stands for. And it's sad. You know, it's unfortunate that this is all. Going down.

They really are. Dylan, do you um do you still don your gay apparel for Christmas? I'll still say it if I'm caroling.

Okay, if you will. I'm not going to avoid it just because they're changing. I don't even sing the dawn we now are apparel. We're not Christmas Carol. You're letting them win, Todd.

You're letting them win. I picked the word back. Oh my god. Paul Shanklin said, How did the Skittles people feel about them stealing their rainbow? Give him Skittles.

Give him something else. I'll steal all the stuff. Hey, what do you think of um? Our Vice President last night was on Gutfeld. Yeah.

Yeah, I you know, I I don't watch Gutfeld, uh, but I I did see some clips and I I thought he did a terrific job and uh sharing the gospel message there, promoting the new book.

So yeah, I thought he did a good job. even even he even made a statement that, you know, On on on the magging squawking pies or whatever you call them there. They even took him off when he's on a you know, when he was on commercials. They looked at him at Joe at Bayheimer, I think it is, said, Hey, you know, you're not a bad guy. Yeah, it's boy, that was a mess.

You know, it was so bad at one point. Who is it? Anna Navarro. Oh my. Even Whoopi was getting ticked off.

She was like, stop interrupting the guys. Uh-huh.

Well, that's how they that's how they game that's when they bring somebody on like that, like a JD Vance or somebody else, that's how they get you. They gang up on you, and you can't you just slow down and let one go at a time. No, they just They don't want to have a conversation. Yeah.

Yep. All right. Mark, all right, get back to mowing the grass there, man. Get some lemonade in you or something.

Well, I was trucking the IM and Popsicles. Oh, well, that too. Can't go wrong there. All right, Mark, good to hear from you, my friend.

So. What is that? Well, hold on. You can't even. Oh, it's Wizard of Oz.

They stole Wizard of Oz from us. I didn't know about this. The rainbow thing. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Anything with the rainbow, it's basically. Is it frozen?

Well, pretty much all up Broadway, but that may have been that may be that that may have been theirs. More trouble for you, Tosh. What about Parker's not wearing gay apparel today? I don't think so. All right, good stuff.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm just saying. All right, hour three of the big show. Coming up 901-260-5926. This is the Todd Stern Show.

Live. From the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. It's America's conservative blowtorch. Right. I love this American ride.

Star. All right, this is somewhat breaking news, I guess, in the fast food industry world. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Tom Stearns Radio Show, hour three of the big show. By the way, Can we just have a heart to heart for just a moment?

One of the reasons I love Wednesdays and this hour of the show. Is that we have our friend Adam Martin from Strategic Financial Partners joining us? And we want to make sure that you are always taken care of, especially with your money. And some of you looking to you're starting out in life and you're wanting to figure out what do I invest in. Others of you are getting ready to retire.

And so you're going down that path.

Okay. And uh guys, hold on a sec.

So what are we doing here? We've got our guests now. All right. So well, we're going to put a pin in that for just a moment. You know what?

We'll get to our guests here in just a little while. But I just want to say that at 235 Eastern, we're going to have Adam with us and I want you to call in. If you have questions, if maybe you don't want to go on there, that's fine. You can ask your question. We'll ask it on your behalf.

But we love our friends at Strategic Financial Partners that do such great work making sure that your finances are cared for. Our telephone number, 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. All right, let's go to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line and welcome our guest. Todd Sheets is the author of the newsletter on wealth and progress.

And of course, there's been a lot of conversation lately about SpaceX and the IPO. And Todd has written a very interesting piece. Todd, good to have you with us today.

Okay, I think we've got some tech issues here.

So, guys, tell me what we need to do. You know what? We'll just we're going to take a break. 901-260-5926, and we'll get all this sorted out. We'll be right back.

Um All right, I think we got everything worked out here. Welcome back to the Todd Sterns Radio Show. All right, let's bring in our next guest. He is the author of the newsletter on wealth and progress, Todd Sheets, joining us. Todd, certainly a lot of conversation about the initial public offering, the IPO for SpaceX.

What do you make of that? Yeah, so there's an interesting dynamic that's kind of happened here, Todd. We have on one side, The New York Times take, which they expressed, I think, pretty well in a recent. uh daily podcast Where they kind of tried to turn this into a dystopian morality tale, and it was kind of along the lines. For this thing to work, he's going to have to control the whole economy, almost the whole economy of the whole universe.

He's going to be almost like a Darth Vader monopolist taking over everything. And it's going to get stuffed into index funds whether you want it or not.

So if he succeeds, you're damned because he controls the universe. And if he fails, you're damned because your 401k is going to fall apart. Wow. You can't poor Elon. He just can't win, can he?

Yeah, you know, man, you can revive the whole space program. You can create Starlink. You can jumpstart the electronic car business for the world. And this is the thanks that you get from the far left these days.

Well, it's a great point. I'm curious about the offering itself. I know one of our staffers was very interested in throwing some money into all of this. How do you think this plays out? Yeah, so I think I put this in kind of the category of a venture capital investment.

And the key to venture capital investing is to diversify. And many investors don't realize that, but experienced venture capitalists. They'll have 10 or 20 different investments within a particular fund. It's mostly a bet on the founder. His vision for the future and his track record, or hers.

In this case, all of those things are very powerful, but all venture capitalists know even no matter how exciting that is, there's still a risk that it just doesn't work out for some unforeseen thing when you're dealing with new products and services, in many cases, that are still yet to be developed and yet to brought to the marketplace.

So it clearly goes into that category as opposed to something that maybe you'd bet the farm on or something. You know, when you are, you know, wanting to invest, and again, there's, you know, certainly you're experienced investors, but then there are a lot of folks who may not invest. They see something, you know, they're big fans of Elon. They love space. Maybe they watch Star Trek or whatever.

And they want to jump into this. What sort of cautions would you share with folks? Yeah, a couple of different ones. First of all, no matter how excited you are, realize this venture is completely dependent on Elon Musk. And hopefully, nothing will happen to Elon.

Nothing will go bad there. But if something does happen, there's literally no one else in the world who could pull off something like this in the manner that he can.

So there's a degree of exposure there. Second, We're talking about, or he's talking about, developing markets. That don't even exist now. And there's a great story and reason for those markets to develop, but that's still in the future. It's still dependent on what will the market be, how big will it be, how much will any one company control, how much competition will there be.

So there's all these question marks.

So it's just one of the reasons why. From my perspective, it's not a bet the farm, it's a venture capital type thing. If you'd say, I want to have. 10% of my portfolio in venture capital, or 5%, then this might be one of, let's say, 10 different investments or 5 different investments that you would put in that portion of your portfolio to protect yourself from all these unforeseeable risks. Still, you know, it's really fascinating because there was a time in America and not so recent history, I'm thinking back to the 80s, you know, where things like this, you were celebrating folks like Elon Musk.

They were on the covers of all the magazines. People wanted to be like Elon. And now it's almost as if, you know, you're becoming a success that makes you, as you point out, some sort of like a Darth Vader type character. Yeah, this plays into what's happened with the Democratic Party in the far left. You know, I like to tell people.

I grew up in a Democratic family. My parents were teachers. Dad was a football coach. All their friends were Democrats. But the difference at that point in time.

Is they believed and admired successful, hard-working people, including in business. They thought America was the best country in the world, and capitalism was by far the best form of economy in the world.

Now, what's happened is this faction of the far left within the Democratic Party that's pretty much taken it over, they want to turn us into a socialist country. And part of the way that you do that, and this goes all the way back to Karl Marx in the 1850s, 1860s, is you demonize business people. And you say things like AOC has said recently: like, nobody can earn a billion dollars. You can only get there by exploiting workers or taking advantage of customers. And so they create these false definitions to justify their desire.

To take over the system, overturn the whole thing that this country was based on in the first place, and try and turn us into a socialist regime. All right, Todd Sheets joining us on our Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. He has a great newsletter on wealth and progress. By the way, the website, if you'd like to get information on the newsletter, Todd Sheetswriter.com. Todd, tell me, what do you cover in your newsletter?

How often does it come out? Yeah, the newsletter comes out once a week. It's usually about a four to five minute read, and I'm basically covering. Current events of all types and then flowing them through. How does it affect the economy?

How does it affect America? And how sometimes, not always, but often, how does it affect investments and those kinds of things? All right. Well, congratulations on that. And folks, I would encourage you to go and check it out: ToddSheetsWriter.com.

That's ToddSheetsWriter.com. Todd, thank you so much for hopping on the show today.

Sorry about the tech issues. Great to be with you, Todd. All right. There you go. So go check that out on Wealth and Progress, Todd SheetsWriter.com.

Dylan, you sent me a bit of. Breaking news a little while ago. About the About the number one Fast food. Restaurant chain in America. It's very concerning.

Which has been for the longest time. Chick-fil-A. Yeah.

And it is no longer. Chick-fil-A has been Plucked from the top spot. They have been dethroned or de-feathered, if you will. It's good wordplay. It's depressing, but it's good wordplay.

I am what got me. I'm like, you see, I guess because when you read these articles, I hate when people do this. They don't put the important stuff right at the top. They make you scroll through 700 ads. Oh, yeah.

And then there are so many videos playing, your laptop locks up, and you can't actually get to the meat of the story. Yeah.

In and out. Yeah, that would be a good one. I thought Raisin Canes. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah, immediately.

Yeah, that's a good one. Tell Parker to come into the studio and put him on a microphone here because I know he's a big fast food guy. This is a really important conversation to have. This is probably our most important conversation of the day, I think. Yeah.

But again, I thought if it was then, maybe Whataburger? May I just tell you, I like Whataburger. But the problem was one day I went through the drive-through and I'm a Mayo guy. I'm not a mustard guy. I don't like mustard on anything but a hot dog.

Okay. And they put mustard on my hamburger. Yeah.

And I can't eat a Whataburger anymore. No, you can't. I'm traumatized. Understandably. All right.

Parker, what about your do you have a favorite like go-to fast food joint? I think the easy answer is Chick-fil-A. But recently, I've got a really big Chipotle cake. Oh, Chipotle? It's great.

Okay. Chipotle is really good. We've got, they just opened one up right around the corner from my place. Um, I'm not a b I like the b and the bowl. They do the salad bowl and everything.

Those are great. They like to charge you more if you want to get an actual, you know, portion of food, though. That is the problem I run into. The prices are high, but I always say, like, I'm going to get full every time I eat there.

So again, I thought all of these are great. And I was thinking, okay, maybe wild card Popeyes. Yeah.

But that's not really. Would have been a stretch, but you know. It would have been well, look, if you're doing top restaurant fast food restaurants, well, you will end up in a fight. I would think, you know, Waffle House, Popeyes definitely, you know, I think you can throw McDonald's in the conversation as well. McDonald's.

Oh, yeah, exactly. Can't leave them out. McDonald's. Waffle House and Popeyes are battling it out for the gold there. Big time.

Big time. So here's Here's the number one. This is who dethroned them. And I am shocked. Were you shocked when you read this?

I was shocked. I was shocked by this. Jersey Mites. If you could have given me a list of all the fast food restaurants that could have dethroned Chick-fil-A, I don't think Jersey Mike's is in the top 20. No, that right?

I wouldn't even put Jersey Mike's in the top sandwich spot. I would put Lenny's above that all day. I'd put Jimmy Johns above it all day. Yeah, I'd put Jimmy Johns there too. Yeah.

Oh, forget. No, no, no. Lenny's. Lenny's and Jimmy Johns over Jersey Mike's. 100%.

I've never been to a, what do you call it? Jimmy Johns. Jimmy Johns. I've never been to a Jimmy Johns. Oh, you got to go.

But I have been to Lenny's, and I'm just going to say this: outside of being physically in Philadelphia, they have the best Philly cheesesteak in all of America. Agreed. Wow. Yeah.

I'm just telling you. I agree. I tried to get extra meat. This is back when I was doing that kind of stuff.

Now I'm like on a heart diet, but I used to get extra meat. You don't eat it, right? You just order it the way it comes. Yeah.

And it's delicious. They actually have scores for these restaurants. And I don't know how Drizzy Mike's beats Chick-fil-A in terms of. whatever this like organizational score is. in terms of food, it seems like it's just like locations and I guess sales, but how do you outsell Chick-fil-A?

I mean, and maybe on Sundays. Maybe that's it. Maybe that's it. I think Chick-fil-A does enough on the other six days to make up for it. That's what I think.

So I was reading something, guys, where Chick-fil-A, first of all, the prices are insane. Yes. Just insane. And I know that they still smile and say, my pleasure, but man, I don't feel like it. You know, I don't feel like returning the hospitality.

Because I'm paying, you know, 30 bucks for a chicken sandwich and waffle fries. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I just, ladies and gentlemen, how do you feel about this? The number one fast food joint in America is now Jersey Mike's.

Which actually had a great story. It was started back in 1956 by a guy named. Mike. Who was from Jersey? That adds up.

It checks out. No, in all seriousness. Actually, his name was Peter. Wait a second. Oh, whoa.

Well, Jimmy Johns, Jimmy Johns is a story about a guy named Jimmy John that started Jimmy Johns. Is it a guy named Jimmy John or a Jimmy and a John? I think it's. Definitely Jimmy.

Okay. I don't know where John comes in.

So, so Peter Cancrow, who was the founder of Jersey Mike's, actually started a part, he started it all when he got a part-time job at Mike's Submarines.

So I think that's how it all, you know, that's how it all started.

Okay. So it was originally called Mike's Giant Submarine Shop. That's a little wordy. But Jersey mics. You can make it an acronym if you want.

But anyway, no, I'm curious. Do we have Jersey mics in Memphis? Yeah, we do. Gentlemen, I have more breaking news. Guess what is they're building something right around the corner from our palatial studio?

What is there?

Sonic Oh, wow. They're putting in a sonic across from the bank. You know, the big field, the baking field? They're putting in a sonic. It's a good spot, actually.

It is a great spot. But I have other breaking news.

So if you're driving down Poplar, like you're going towards downtown, And you notice that they're tearing stuff down across from the taco belt, that's where the new in-and-out's going. Yes, yes, I did see that. Possibly the most exciting news for Memphis. This is like revolutionary. I'm just concerned, though.

Are they going to be able to? You know, they've been planting the palm trees, and I'm wondering if palm trees are actually going to survive here in Memphis. That's a good question. They might not last through the summer. You know what they should have done?

And I'm just saying this. You folks in South Carolina know this. The palmetto. You know, the palmetto is on the South Carolina tree, and it's on the flag. Do you know why it is on the flag?

I do not. Do you know, Dylan, do you know why? No, I'm not going to get my palmetto trivia.

Well, for one thing, Caleb Park, who is coming back to us, by the way, after a stint at Fox or at Newsmax, he's coming back to us. And uh I told Caleb that the palmetto tree was actually It was actually a grits tree. That's how grits grew. They grew in clusters. And he believed you.

Oh, he did for many, many, many years. And I forgot to tell him what it was really all about.

So I just, I go around. He was telling somebody, he goes, Oh, yeah, that's the palmetto tree. That's how grits grow. What a way to find out. But anyway, the palmetto, it's really a worthless kind of a tree, except it's very fibrous.

But they realized it was good for something back in the Revolutionary War days because the fibers were so fibrous that when the cannons were fired, the cannonballs didn't like blast through the palmettoes. They just kind of got caught up in all the fibers.

So, you know, they built a lot of the forts and things of that nature with these palmetto trees. And that's how they're able to stop the British. Wow. And so that's how they put up. No, I'm getting the gist of that's the gist of the story, but.

But anyway, it's very fibrous armor, and that's the story of the trend.

So I don't need a Kevlar, I just need a palmetto tree. To the point in Memphis, maybe they ought to put the palmetto trees around it and out. Smart, seriously. You can just make it look like a. you know, palm tree if you really tried.

Stop the drive-bys, right?

So there you go. People think I'm crazier, but it's true. The Grits tree. I really I should probably take s take Caleb Park out for supper on that one. Take him to therapy.

So you need. It's a good point. But anyway, yeah, so there you go. 1939 is when they made the palmetto tree. also called the cabbage palmetto, the official state flying there.

But the palmetto tree symbolized the defeat of the British fleet at Fort Moultrie at the Battle of Sullivan's Island, and the fort prevailed because it was built from palmetto logs. that would not shatter When the uh cannonballs were fire. I know way too much. You can also add some cheese, and they make a delicious breakfast meal. We'll be right back, everybody.

All right, welcome back, everybody. This is the Todd Stearns Radio Show. By the way, our telephone number: 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. Always good to have Adam Martin, our financial advisor from Strategic Financial Partners.

This is sort of becoming, I don't know, an investment hour here on the show with Todd Sheets from On Wealth and Progress. Adam, hope you're doing well. I'm doing great. Todd did a great job explaining the IPO for SpaceX. That was spot on.

Trillionaire. I know, right? Can you believe that? A trillionaire. I mean, we knew it would happen at some point, and I think we all had our money on Elon Musk.

That guy, everything he touches turns to gold. Just unbelievable. And yet, we live in a society where now that is frowned upon. You know, that's what it shouldn't be. It should be encouraging.

It should say, hey, look, this guy was able to go and do that, and you have all of the capabilities to go out and make your trillion.

Now go do it. Exactly. I mean, that's by the way, we were talking about the big news is that Chick-fil-A has been dethroned. As the number one Fast food restaurant in America. This is news to me.

Who dethroned him?

Well, this is what's got all of us going here. Dylan, you want to break the news to Adam? Jersey Mike's, believe it or not, overtook them in the ranking score. I do like Jersey Mics. I'm a Mike Mike.

I like them more than Chick-fil-A. I I would say yes. Wow. I'm more of a fresh guy. I like fresh vegetables, lettuce, either deli meats that yeah, I think I would prefer Jersey Mike Sever Chick-fil-A.

You see, I'm a I'm a Lenny's guy. You know, Lenny's is a Memphis based chain, by the way. That's news to me as well. I didn't know that either.

So you like that hot pepper relish, don't you? Oh my gosh, that stuff, it is, you could put it on a flip-flop and it would taste good. I mean, it's great. But I'm their Philly cheesecake. Outside of Philadelphia, they have the best Philly cheesesteak in America.

Noted. Hands down.

So, if you're going to, however, I will say this: if you're at Memphis International and you're going on a flight, do not order Lenny's before you board.

So, this is a Coming back from a flight and you want supper, stop by the Lennys. I have to know why not bring it on board with you. It'll it'll well you want to do it out of courtesy to your fellow passengers. Gotcha. And the lavatory.

Got you. I'm just saying. All right. If you've got an investment question, you shouldn't have asked. You shouldn't have asked.

901-260-5926. If you got a question for Adam, that's 901-260-5926. It is summertime. And a lot of people spend a lot of money. That's right.

Summer vacations. You get to Disney and you just buy everything you see.

So, first of all, let's talk about the summer and the tendencies. Why does summer become this expensive time of year for families?

Well, it's typically the time of year that families have the opportunity to go on vacation. And what we see, you know, obviously we've got more sunshine. We're getting outside more, more of that vitamin D exposure, and the euphoria is kicking in where a lot of people deviate away from their financial plan. And what we start talking about is fixed costs versus variable costs and having a plan why it's important because if we we have a fixed budget and a fixed cost and you stick to it. You're not going back out of the summer months saying, oh man, I've got to recoup for all the money I just spent.

But if we go to Disney World and we're like, you know what? You get this, you get that, and we're going to go on this ride, and we're going to go eat at this restaurant. Those ticket charges start to add up, and you find yourself with a big bill.

So again, it's a budget killer, right? It really is. Have you guys been able to determine the biggest budget killers maybe people don't even realize are overspending? Yeah, I would say it's the, can we have just as much fun on a $2,000 vacation as we could with a $5,000 vacation? A lot of people tend to overdo it on their vacations.

You know, the wives get really happy and the husbands get happy and they ultimately have different things that they want to do on these vacations. You know, the dad may go out and play three rounds of golf that cost him $100 a pop, and the wife may want to go buy new outfits for the kids and go out to eat every single night.

So they don't really have a collective plan of where they sit down and say, This is what we have to spend, and this is where we're going to stay. I mean, it's no fun to have the budget. It's funner to go out there and just live blissfully and spend the money on the things. And you always hear the statement, Yo, Lo, you only live once, right? Oh, yeah.

But then they're going back on vacation next year, too. I do hear, though, that like going to Disney, it's insane. Oh, yeah. Just the amount of money. Oh, yeah.

I mean, everything's inflated. I mean, everything there, you're paying $12 for a Coke. You know, it's crazy.

So, all right.

So, how can people, how do they go out there and enjoy summertime without feeling so stressed out about, oh my gosh, bank account, credit cards?

Well, I mean, it's there's a certain level of planning that went into planning a vacation. Make financial planning a part of that plan as well. You know where you're going to go. You know what the condo is going to cost or the hotel room is going to cost, what the airfare is going to cost. You know, have that layer of discipline like you do when you're shopping for the best airfare or the best hotel.

Like, also shop with, like, hey, we're going to go out and eat, but we don't have to go to that five-star restaurant. We can still have an enjoyable dinner with our family at something that's more affordable. One of the things that bothers me about vacations is a pet peeve that has nothing to do with finances. But when people would come to New York City, and you know where they would go? They would eat at the Olive Garden in Times Square.

And I'm like, what is wrong with you people? We've got like an entire area called Little Italy where you actually have real Italian food and you're coming to New York City on vacation and you're going to Olive Garden. What's wrong with you people? Maybe it fits the budget. I don't know.

Well, I get what, but even still, they would be surprised to find out that it was cheaper to get some Italian food outside of Times Square.

So maybe when they're going on a vacation, they sort of scout out and say, okay, where can I get a good, affordable meal?

Well, you bring up a valid point, too, in the way of talking about Disney World. Everything is inflated because they know they have you. You're on a resort and they know that you're not going to be able to go and find anything cheaper. You're going to pay whatever's being demanded. But going on a trip like to New York, what my wife and I like to do.

Is that we like to get out from all the destination touristy spots and go explore. And a lot of times we find a local dive where you get good conversation, you get good authentic food, and it's very affordable. You know, so I would say venture out. Try to explore more. That's it.

Anybody going to New York, call me and I will tell you exactly where you need to go and eat all your meals. I will take care of you. By the way, Pastrami Queen. On the east side, Lexington Avenue, you got to go there for the pastrami on ri. You got to do that.

Dylan, I've speaking, speaking of just like wasting and squandering money on vacation, went up to New York. This is back when Hamilton, the musical thing, came out. It's a great show. And. I uh the tickets were very expensive.

Oh, yeah. Like very expensive, like $1,000 a ticket. And so we had family coming up, and so I wanted to take care of everybody. And so we went to go see Hamilton. I left at intermission.

You know why, guys? I couldn't understand anything. Really? I didn't know what they were rapping. No kidding.

No, and I'm pretty certain the Founding Fathers did not look like that. It was about a duel, you know. Oh, is that it? I couldn't figure it out. Can we get subtitles?

Can we just get I just and I was trying to and I was also distracted because there are a lot of older people there trying to like move to the beat, and that was just really off-putting. Oh, I've met so anyway. But again, back to the fact that you've got to be careful about how you spend your money. And I think there is a difference between intentional spending as opposed to daddy, you know, I want, you know. That's emotional spending.

That's exactly right. And it's one of those scenarios where if you catch yourself about to swipe the card and you go, should I? It's probably, you shouldn't. You know, it's saying, if you know a subliminal thought in the back of your mind that this is going to hurt me later. You probably shouldn't do it.

And I always lean into the gut feeling of: is this going to get me off track? And I'd say another thing is. I'm all about paying yourself first. Kind of revisit your goals before you go on that vacation and say, if I spend an extra $500, is that going to prevent me from reaching one of the goals that I strived as part of my New Year's resolution or something that I said this year I'm going to do? Just remind yourself of the things that you said you were going to do with your money in that year and then try to have that discipline when you're on vacation or you're stuck between an intentional spending or emotional spending.

So the intentionals, we know we're going to spend the money on the airfare, we're going to spend the money on the hotel room, and we've set a budget for $500 for the food.

Now, when you go and see that there's a Louis Vuitton purse on sale, it's not $500, it's only $350. You're still spending $350. It's not like you're getting, you know, it's not money you intended to spend. It's an impulse buy. You know, speaking of that, I was staying at the Beverly Wilshire, and one of the things I do like to say, I like to say it nice places when I'm out on vacation.

I don't do a lot of splurging and stuff, but I do like to say it in nice places. And it's right at the base of Rodeo Drive.

So I thought, well, I'll go do a little shopping. You know, they have the stores there. You know, the markup on Rodeo Drive. I bet it's Astronaut. Man, it's just insane.

So I thought, you know, I needed a little cologne.

So somebody asked, one of the family members needed something from what was the Dolce Gabbana place.

So I go in there and I look out of, I'm just, you know, I'm out of place. Oh, yeah. You know, I look like a Republican. It's like, go in there and they got all the fashion models and everybody's, it's highfalute.

So I said, I need to get a key. They wanted a keychain.

So I got a little keychain. And then I need to say, well, you know, I need some cologne here. And they were just They were just snobby. You know, it's you can tell when people, you know, are looking down on you. And uh so anyway, they uh they said, well, here's the cologne.

That cologne was like 40 bucks at like Macy's or whatever. It's like 250 bucks. It's got you get like 10 sprays out of it. Exactly. I'm like, what's going on?

So, again, when you're going on vacation, just protect your money, I guess, is really the bottom line here. I mean, in me as an advisor, if you were one of my clients, what I always tell people, Give us a call. You know, that's what we're here for. We're not here to just pick the stocks for you or tell you you need some insurance and all that. We're here as life coaches more than anything.

So it's as simple as pick up the phone call and say, hey, how much did you factor in as surplus cash flow for me this year? And you may be surprised and say, well, we've already funded the Roth IRA. We've got some contributions going to the 401k. The insurance is in goods place. By my records and your cash flow, you can spend ten grand this year on things you want to do.

If you want to do it all in one if you want to do it all in one fell swoop, then you don't have any more. If you want to stretch that out, but that's what we do planning for. It seems to me and I'm wondering why People always, because everybody does this, they just overspend on vacations. And they know they shouldn't do it, but they do. I think it's the euphoria.

It's not a part of our daily grind and daily routine. We're in a new place. We're on vacation, and we just live in the moment. It's one of those things that's like, I'll ask for forgiveness instead of permission. Yeah.

Make a budget. Yeah.

Make a budget for vacation. Stick to it. That's it. You know, it's one of those things that the only time the plan goes wrong is when you deviate from it. I love it.

All right. Adam Martin, 901-260-2438 is Adam's number. If you've got a question, maybe you are needing a life coach. You're needing some strategic financial advice. Give Adam a call, 901-260-2438, his direct number.

You can also go to the website, strategicfinancialpartners.com. That's strategicfinancialpartners.com. You know, I was just thinking about this, Dylan. Your great-grandmother, my grandmother. She was a thrifty lady.

And they did, I mean, she, I don't know how she did it, but they lived a great life and they were very well off. But she was cheap. And we would go to the movies. She would take all the grandkids to the movies. And I don't know how she did it.

She had a big old purse, but she put a six-pack of Coca-Cola because she knew, again, going back to vacations, they're going to get you on that stuff, like the popcorn and the drinks and everything else. Not only that, they add up. And whatever you do, don't eat the Snickers bar in the hotel room in the little, you know, that little refrigerator. Talking about hotel rooms, this blew my mind. We actually just went on a vacation and we stayed at this hotel in Seattle.

I didn't know this, but the refrigerator was fully stocked. If you pull a bottle of water out of there, it automatically, if you put it back, even if you put it back.

So I just pulled it out to look at it and set it back. When we went to check out, they were saying, oh, we see that you took a bottle of water out of the fridge.

So apparently there's some sensors in there that. Really? Oh, it was mind-blowing. Man, that's insane. They don't do that down at the best western.

Then again, you don't want to drink the water at the best western. That's probably true, too. All right, Adam, it's good to see you, my friend. You too. Folks, again, Strategic FinancialPartners.com, Adam Martin, Financial Advisor.

His number 901-260-2438. We'll be right back. Uh All right, welcome back, everybody. This is. The Todd Sterns Radio Show.

Happy to have you with us today. 901-260-5926. By the way, if you missed any of our interviews, you can go to our website and you can download our free podcast. You'll be able to listen to the show when, and it'll come to you immediately automatically, so you don't have to worry about hunting it down every day. You'll be able to get a copy of the podcast free of charge.

You can do that by going to our website, ToddSterns.com. You know, one of the other things that we've noticed over the past six months, we have. Once again, notice that that Facebook especially To some smaller extent, X is now throttling conservative content. Facebook is just, it's bonkers crazy.

So, look, here's what we want you to do. And if you follow us on Facebook, there's a very good chance you're not seeing our content on a daily basis.

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So, I want to encourage you to go to our website, ToddSterns.com, click on our newsletter. You will get every morning, 7 o'clock Eastern, you will get the top three stories on our website, and you'll have direct links to it. You'll be able to share that information with your friends, family members, if there's something of interest to you in the newsletter. And again, that doesn't cost you any money. It's something that we want to do really as a public service for you.

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Okay. Oh, this story. Justin Pearson. This is the Tennessee guy. He's got the big power throw.

He really hates white people. And he's running for Congress. He says that all of you Tennessee Republican lawmakers out there, people like Marsha Blackburn. And John Rose, and Andy Ogles, and Tim Burchett. All of those guys are clan members.

Take a listen to Cut 34. What I'm gathering about this legislature is whoever runs it is like, we don't like these people, we're expelling them. We don't want these people, so we don't let them speak. We don't like these people, we kick them off committees. Is this how the legislature generally rolls out there?

Absolutely. Absolutely. Like it should terrify the living heck out of anybody who has a reasonable mind. Like, this is not a democracy. This is not a constitutional democratic republic.

This is a mobocracy. These people are the mob. These are our Klan members without white hoods. They wear suits now. They are operating with a level of evil intention.

that is designed to destroy dissent, which in a democracy where people love to talk about free speech and all those things, you should be fighting on our side. because this is not the way that it's supposed to be. But the Tennessee House of Representatives, the Tennessee General Assembly, Tennessee state government, this is how it operates. It is about control. It is about abusing your power.

It is about silencing dissent. And it is about having the veneer right of democracy. with the titles. But at the end of the day, Ku Klux Cameron Sexton, he is deciding what can and cannot happen and is operating and ruling these white Republicans in particular with an iron fist to the point that even they don't get a say. I mean, they push through legislation.

Oh, okay. You know who he reminds me of, Dylan? I just figured this out.

So he's like the wannabe, right?

So he wants to be like a thog, he wants to be a gangster. That's who this guy wants to be. He grew the big power fro. But he grew up upper middle class, and he went to one of the wealthiest colleges in America, Bowdoin College. He's like, I don't know.

He's one of these guys who will go out there and wear like a sleeve, a tattoo sleeve, because he's afraid the needle might hurt. That's pretty good. I'm afraid it might prick me. Yeah.

That's who he is. Wannabe Justin. All right, we got to scoot out of here. Hey, tomorrow, noon o'clock, right here on your radio station. Don't forget also, pre-order a copy of The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America, my new book.

It'll be in stores August 11th, but I want you to pre-order one right now. Get out there and be good, everybody.