Getting Away With It

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Start your free trial today at aura.com/slash safe. That's aura.com/slash safe. Live from the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's favorite gun totem, Bible-clanging, deplorable American. Spray. I love.

There's the marriage here. Todd starts. Hello, fellow Patriots. Jeff Stein in the air chair again today, filling in for Todd Starns, who's just a little bit under the weather, summer cold, and all that sort of thing. Let's give him the weekend to get back to full strength and hopefully be back to you from the Liberty University studio on Monday.

I'm coming to you from my home base in the free state of Iowa on this Open Line Friday, and I look forward to continuing the coast-to-coast conversation with you folks as always at 901-260-5926. Same number as always: 901-260-5926. There is so much to talk about, we'll let you control the conversation through those phone calls. But we are going to talk with a couple of guests during the program today. One from the National Taxpayers Union about something called the Jones Act.

You may not know about it. The president recently waived it to allow our energy. Costs to stay low. I think they have the idea of why not get rid of that Jones Act for good. Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union is his name.

He'll join us in our number two. And we'll also talk with Dr. Carl Maselli of a group called Do No Harm. We spent a fair amount of time yesterday on the program talking about this report from the Department of Human Services, Health and Human Services that indicated that there were a lot of clinicians and supposed health care facilities that were pushing transgender treatment because they made more money off of it. We'll talk to a doctor on the front lines of this issue coming up in our number two as well.

We'll also check in with the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the PGA tour stop in the home base of Memphis. That, and of course, your calls at 901-260-5926. I am really struck by something. And it's getting worse and it needed to stop yesterday.

But it's the lawlessness Of those particularly on the left to make a political point.

Now my background, in addition to spending many, many years behind a microphone, I am a licensed attorney. I'm licensed in the federal and state courts. I could sue any one of you at any time.

So my background is based on the fundamental premise of a fair judicial system. And because some aspects of the system have broken down in recent years. In favor of a political agenda, we don't have the kind of fair judicial system that our system demands. that our government, that our republic demands. You know, in a past life when I was practicing law full time, I would represent people accused of crimes.

And I would have people at times say, well, how can you represent guilty people?

Well, the first thing is, it was not my job to determine if they were guilty or innocent. My job was to represent them. and advocate on their behalf before a judge or a jury. Not my job to decide guilt or innocence. That was either a judge or a jury's job.

And so you have to assume if the system is actually going to work. you have Prosecutors in law enforcement doing their jobs to the best of their ability. You'd have defense attorneys. doing their jobs to the best of their ability. You'd have fair judges.

you'd have fair juries. And only when every aspect of the system is working. to the best of their ability, do you have a judicial system that's fair and honest and works.

Now it's pretty simple.

Now is that idealistic?

Well probably. Did it get much uh Further from reality in present days? Yes, obviously it has. I have a few examples. Here on the screen.

And there are examples of this sort of thing. In Todd's new book, The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America. If you don't have your copy, order it right now on Amazon. If you pick it up along with a copy of Todd's book from last year, Star Spangled Blessings, if you buy both The Golden Age and Star Spangled Blessings, you get free shipping on Amazon. If you're a member of Prime, order Todd's book, The Golden Age, and you'll have it in your hands tomorrow.

So he has examples of this in the book as well. But here are just a few from today's headlines alone. U. S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Janine Pirro today announced her office is filing felony charges against a woman for vandalizing the World War two Memorial in Washington, D.C.

This is a reprobate named Melissa Ferris, now in custody, facing charges. Of desecration of property of the United States and destruction of veterans' memorials. Those crimes carry penalties of up to ten years in prison. Brightly colored graffiti spray painted on it, reading Clean Hands, Dirty Money. And somehow soap Bubbles came out of the fountain.

In other words, this woman is accused of not only spray painting, I think it's pink and green neon color graffiti. But then dumped A bunch of soap into the fountain to not only gum up the works but create a bunch of bubbles like you're going to do your dishes. The Interior Department properly called the vandalism an utter disgrace. More than four hundred thousand Americans died in World War II.

Well, now. We have charges against this person.

Now if you want to make a political point. And I'm not sure why desecrating that memorial with clean hands, dirty money, I don't even know what you're protesting with that. But in any event What possesses someone to think that they can do that?

Well, because they get away with it. And they get before woke courts, or they get before juries who. Have similar political views, and the juries then ignore the law. They engage in something called juror nullification, meaning that they. Uh the jury ignores the law.

And um Whatever small little slap on the wrist the person might get. would be worth it. in their world.

Now I hope that this prosecution sticks because desecrating a war memorial To make some sort of political point that I'm not sure. Seems unrelated? This is not just playtime. And hopefully the District U.S. Attorney.

Judge Jenane will take care of that.

Well, meanwhile You have Other situations where it looks like people are negotiating deals to get away with murder. Yes, literally. Lawyers for the man charged with killing Charlie Kirk.

now say he should not be eligible for the death penalty in Utah because he quote hit the intended target.

Now understand. Prosecutors are saying that Tyler Robinson Murdered Charlie Kirk and endangered other people around. Because you're firing a gun at a distance, you might hit other people.

Now, that is what's known as an aggravating factor under state law that would make Tyler Robinson. eligible for the death penalty. His attorneys yesterday, in order to remove the death penalty, said. He hit the intended target, so therefore there's no aggravating factor. That's admitted.

That he killed him. But what will wind up happening is, let's say that the court agrees. That no one was harmed. nearby and so therefore the death penalty is off the table. That pleading in court Cannot be used against the defendant.

In trial.

So the jury will never know. That the defense essentially is saying he didn't do it. But If he did, He hit the target. I mean the phraseology hit the intended target. It is so callous Then you've got what you've heard on the news today.

Luigi Mangion went to federal court and entered a plea of guilty In advance of his New York State murder trial.

Now, this is the Individual Who murdered the health care executive on the streets of New York? Brian Thompson was his name. United Healthcare was the organization he ran. Mr. Thompson actually in Iowa Native.

It's the state we're I have been born, raised, and where I work. Luigi Mangione Said in open court that he shot Brian Thompson. and he said I knew what I was doing. He talked about using a 3D printer to make a gun. This is all in federal court.

Now here's the problem with the system. The federal charge is stalking. He's just admitted guilt. And sentencing will be set for later this year. I think I heard December.

Now, why did he admit to stalking, and as part of that? admit to shooting Brian Thompson. Because he's now going to try to weasel out of a murder charge in New York state court by claiming double jeopardy. Double jeopardy is the legal principle where you cannot be tried for the same thing twice. And so they're going to say, well, yes, he's going to get life in prison.

In the federal uh case, that's the maximum sentence. Life in Prison. But he's going to now claim in New York State court: oh, I already admitted to that in federal court, you cannot. Try me in State Court for murder where the death penalty might be an issue. Because New York has such broad double jeopardy rules, Instead of a situation where you've got A federal and a state charge, and therefore you're really going to make sure that you get him.

Oh, he pleaded to the federal charge before we tried him in state court. Guess we can't try him in state court. There goes the murder. There goes the death penalty. And there goes justice.

Now we don't know for sure that that's going to work. But based on how things have gone in court in New York? Pretty good chance it might.

So there's your example. We've got woke courts and rules. Therefore Encouraging people to violate the law because, well, what's going to possibly happen to them? Not what the law says. We're on the wrong path, friends.

We need to turn this around. Interested in your thoughts on this at 901-260-5926. Jeff Stein filling in for Todd from the Liberty University Studio. Let's take a break now. Your call's on the other side on the Friday edition, open line Friday edition of the Todd Starn Show.

It is finally time for a straightforward assess of the state of our nation. What happens when the institutions built to protect liberty are accused of working against it? This weekend, Salem News Channel's America 250 Film Series presents government gangsters. Watch a hard-hitting look at power, corruption, and accountability in modern America. Saturday and Sunday at 7 p.m.

Eastern, only on Salem News Channel. Welcome back to the Liberty University studio in the Todd Starn show. Jeff Stein filling in for Todd today. 901-260-5926. That's the number you use to continue this coast-to-coast conversation on an Open Line Friday.

And that is the number that Joe used to call in from Ella J, Georgia. He listens on the great affiliate WDUN. Joe, good to talk to you. Thanks for calling in. How are you?

Jeff, I'm doing great. You're doing a great job setting students for Todd. I just got through reading the great Todd Starns book, The Golden Age, and it's the best book I've ever read. And I think if every American could read this book, I think the Democrats would never win another national election. It is a super book, and I want to recommend everybody listening to this great show that they go to their nearest bookstore today and buy the great Todd Starns book, The Golden Age.

It's really fired me up. I'm energized, and I think that it will lead. I predict we're going to win. The Republicans will win the midterms by landslides, and I think Todd Starn's book will have a lot to do with that great victory. What I really liked about it myself, Joan, I'm interested in your thoughts.

The subtitle is How Trump Saved America, but there are chapters with various things: How Trump Saved This, How Trump Saved Christmas, Memphis, Education, etc. These things are full of examples, and you can't dispute facts. That's what I like about it. What did you enjoy the most about the Golden Age?

Well, it was just everything he had to say about freedom and liberty and what a great job Trump has done. You know, the stock market is continuing to hit new highs. I think he's got about. 30 records since he's been president.

So, I mean, if you read this book, it'll make you feel great about the future. And I just want to commend Todd on the best book I've ever read. And I recommend everybody go to the nearest bookstore and buy the great Todd Starnes book called The Golden Age. And keep up the good work.

Well, Joe, I appreciate it, but I got to ask, you're two months away from Apple Festival down in that part of the world. How's the crop going to be this year? It's going to be good. Come down to LA Jay and come to Food's Famous Barbecue. You'll get a good barbecue, and you can buy some great apples from all of our great retailers down here that sell the great product.

And I drop your name and I get the best meal in the house if I go there, right? Exactly, exactly. You will come see us. We'd love to see you, and I'll buy you a barbecue at Boo's BBQ if you come. Joe, thanks so much for calling in today.

Have yourself a blessed weekend, sir. Thank you, Jeff. Bye-bye. All right, take good care. Joe calling in from Ella J, Georgia.

Again, listening to the North Georgia affiliate of the program WDUN. And the book is called The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America. And I just checked again at Amazon.com. And it is still. In the top ten, in three different categories, including political commentary and opinion.

Let's add to that, please. Nothing helps an author's recovery from a summer cold like seeing uh book sales go up.

So go to Amazon.com and purchase a copy of The Golden Age. How Trump Saved America, as noted. In the top 10, in no fewer than three Amazon categories. If you have Amazon Prime order now, you get it tomorrow. If you would like to get free shipping, well, you got to get to a certain dollar amount, so why not pair up The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America, that's the current book, with last year's Star-Spangled Blessings.

Buy them both. And you get the free shipping. And again, Amazon.com or wherever you get your good books these days. 901-260-5926 is how you can reach us in the Liberty University studio. We'll go out to the golf course again shortly.

FedEx St. Jude Championship. The PGA Tour event is at the TPC Southwinds in Memphis and will Talk to the folks out there again. Parker May will join us as he did yesterday. And coming up in the next hour, and I mentioned this a moment ago, but I do so because we have two excellent guests, and we really want to make sure you stay with us to learn much more.

About actions by the Trump administration, first to make sure our energy costs stay low. And that includes waiving certain rules. And when you see how well it goes with the waiver, you may say to yourself, why do we even have these rules at all? And that's what the National Taxpayers' Union is suggesting. And also, we're going to pick up a bit where we left off yesterday, but we're going to get much more in detail about this Wolves in Doctors' Clothing report That was released yesterday just before this program came on the air.

Wolves in White Coats is what it's called. Wolves in White Coats, How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of Gender Medicine. Dr. Kurt Maselli is Chief Medical Officer with a group called Do No Harm. We're going to talk with him next hour as well.

We have a few other folks that we are trying to fit in. You know, it's a great thing to have a lot of people want to be on this program and speak to you, the Todd Starnes audience. Of course, my luck, they all want to be on at the same time, and that just doesn't work.

So, we're going to figure it out and bring you the absolute best of the bunch. Short break now, we'll be back on the other side from the Liberty University studio. Jeff Stein in for Todd. Thanks for bringing along on the Todd Starring Show. For nearly three thousand years Homer's The Odyssey has shaped Western imagination.

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Welcome back to the Liberty University studio and the Todd Starn show. Jeff Stein filling in for Todd today. We'll give him the rest of this week and the weekend to heal up from that summer cold and whatever it is that attacks your throat, especially when you're a radio person. I hate it when that happens. We'll let Todd rest up.

We'll let you pick up your copy of The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America at your local bookstore or online, Barnes Noble, Amazon, wherever you get your good books. But now let's go to the Patriot Mobile newsmaker line. Parker May is standing by at the TPC Southwind because this is round two of the FedEx St. Jude Championship at the home base of Memphis. Parker, how are things going at the course today?

I was just telling Helen, Jeff, that the heat might be a little bit worse today. But overall, it's been a good morning of play. The scores are low this morning. And I really think it's an advantage to players who are doing their early tea times this morning. Getting to beat the heat a little bit, if you may.

Well, I'm the guy who's sitting here staring at the numbers. I don't think I'm. I'm not trying to rub it in, you know, because as I told you yesterday, the air conditioning is broken in my studio, so I got my own little first world problem. It says that at 11:30 in the morning, as you and I are talking in Memphis, Tennessee, it's 90 degrees, barely any clouds in the sky, and it feels like 99.

So there you go, you got that going for you today. That sounds exactly right. I mean, I'm looking up in the sky right now. I don't see a single cloud. This is just the sun beaming down as I'm.

Just past the 18th of green here.

So, is anybody off to the races? I'm seeing some changes at the leaderboard.

Some people are getting hot this morning, not just because of the temperature. Yeah, the leaderboard has been chaotic this morning with the early wave of players really taking advantage of kind of beating the heedle as as the afternoon players are probably gonna get the worst of it. Dung JM, who just walked off the 18th screen in the end of the scoring area right now. has the lead at eight under par played a fantastic round today, four under. Birding his first three holes is really key.

It's a stretch where you've got to take advantage of those early three holes. And I'm noticing some familiar names at the leaderboard in terms of getting off to a decent start. And again, explain, if you would, for the folks who may have missed the conversation yesterday, how does this work in terms of when they teed off and how many are in a grouping, etc. Actually, so the field this week consists of the top seventy players In the world from the entire regular season of the PGA Tour, 32 events leading up to this. Going off in Things starting at 7 a.m.

all the way down to 1:05, the last tea time. And these are players just trying to continue to fight To extend their season. While most of the players have already secured their spot in next week's BMW Championship in St. Louis, A lot of the guys, especially from the forty five to seventy range are battling just to make it to next week. And that's where you get the big money events and you're guaranteed to play in the majors for twenty twenty seven.

Yeah.

So obviously, a lot on the line for folks because this is this tiered approach of three separate rounds. Were there any surprises in day one of folks who Either did themselves proud moving on up, or folks who just couldn't find the hole if it was the size of a peach basket. Yeah, Jeff Matt. You had guys who Historically. played great here, step up in Round one, especially When their backs are against the wall, I think it's something about that when.

Golfers know they have to play well.

Some of them rise for the occasion. guys like Jordan Speed and Michael Kim, who came to the week outside the top fifty, Stepping up and getting into the tie for the lead after round one.

Now, they sit three shots back right now as they started their round, but that's because Sun JM played so well this morning. But when those kind of guys know the spot they're in, knowing they have to play really well just to advance the next week and continue their season. They kind of have that extra push and that extra gear that they find. to get a few extra birdies to start their week. And I'm wondering if the Course plays differently.

Early morning as opposed to the real heat of the day. And I've made the mention. It's 11.30 Central Time roughly in Memphis as we're talking. It's already 90 degrees, but folks started teeing off at just after seven in the morning. And I'm just wondering if either the flight of the ball or just the overall playing conditions better in the early morning as opposed to later in the day.

It's kind of a mix of both when it comes to the advantages and You kind of mentioned the The heat has been a factor, and it will continue to be even more a factor as the day goes on. It's an advantage to the early guys because you're not playing in the one hundred or new weather, so it'll probably get through this afternoon with the heat index. But then the greens are a lot softer when you get into the afternoon.

So you can be a little bit more aggressive with your iron shots in the fairway. And that's why keeping the ball in the fairway is so important on this course. 'Cause it's yeah, especially once the end of the afternoon wave. of great opportunity to really be aggressive with that second shot and really attack these tough pin locations. And again, that's the thing where, depending if there's dew on the ground and that changes things in the wind and how heavy it is with humidity, et cetera.

You lost one player after the opening round, and we don't really know the reasons for the withdrawal other than the fact that it was not a really good opening round, perhaps injury. What do you know about that? Yeah, Robert McIntyre withdrawing from the tournament early this morning, just a couple of hours before his Round two tea time. Obviously if you're looking at the leaderboard, you didn't have His stuff yesterday, an 82, 12 over par in round one was dead last after. Thursdays around, and it was one of those situations where McIntyre didn't really need to play well this week.

He'd already locked up his. spot in next week's BMW Championship.

So he's like I you kind of get the mindset of Why would I play three rounds when maybe the best I can get is 68, maybe 65 if I play great? He was already eight shots behind the guy in front of him on the leaderboard, so Take the extra days of rest, go ahead and get to St. Louis. Take a few days off in practice. and get ready for a big charge next week.

Yes, there are times and again, I gave up golf long ago because I had zero aptitude for it. But if you just blow up and I guess this was this the worst route he's had in a professional tournament, when you just have that kind of a day, Uh yeah, it's best if you can just kind of uh Fold your ten to move on to the next one if you don't need it in order to move forward. That does not necessarily open up a slot then, right, in terms of anybody else moving up. His departure because his spot next week was secure, that doesn't change anything in terms of. the breakoff point for who advances to St.

Louis. Correct. You're exactly right, Jeff. Even though McIntyre's withdrawing, not going to be collecting any FedEx cut points. For the week in Memphis, he had enough Through his regular seasoning success, to already guarantee a top fifty spot.

So that takes the weight off his shoulders, knowing that wasn't really as much pressure, and that's the case for a lot of these top guys here. And it's kind of the reason you see something, maybe not get off to the best start, because they know there's not as much pressure this week. Guys like Roy McRoyd, Ben Griffin. didn't have their best days yesterday going three and four of apart respectively. But they know they're both safely in St.

Louis and probably safe in Atlanta as well.

So it's for those kind of guys, it's just about being in the right form as you get to that tour championship in a couple of weeks. And you gotta you know stay sharp, right? And and and so if uh if you're playing all right uh and there's nothing to lose, I guess you can try a few things, you can work a little bit on aspects of your game without the pressure of Needing to make certain clutch shots in order to move forward. Exactly. Think about it, especially for McIntyre's position, Why would you play three more rounds in this season?

Knowing it's going to get even hotter as the weekend goes on. It's not. it's probably not going to be the most respected move in golf. And you're taking opportunity away from the fans here and he's Pretty popular players won some big tournaments, but Still An opportunity to watch for these fans to watch him play the round rounds, but it's also it's in the best case of the player, honestly. He gets to rest, he gets to really prepare, but now he needs a big week next week.

That's what makes it tougher for him. He's not he's in a position to where As I mentioned earlier, he's locked up his spot in St. Louis. But he is far from locked up his spot in Atlanta for the Sword Championship.

So And in a way it makes it makes this week easier for him because he's not playing three more rounds of golf in the heat. but it puts more pressure on him next week in St. Louis. And I have no idea. Maybe he was battling a little something and.

can use the rest time could be things other than just I don't want to spend three more days in this heat.

Well, Parker, you're spending these days in the heat, and we'll check in with you again from the course next hour with appreciation for this conversation.

Sounds great, Jeff. Looking forward to it. Parker Mayig, sports commentator for the Mighty 99AKWAM, the flagship station of CERN's Media Group, and he joined us live from TPC Southwind in Memphis, the home of the FedEx St. Jude Championship PGA Tour event. Huge deal there in Memphis to support St.

Jude and other local charities. 901-260-5926. That's how you can join us from the Liberty University studio. Parker joined us on the news line, the Patriot Mobile newsmaker line, in fact. And we'll have other guests next hour, including Parker, on the great Patriot Mobile newsmaker line.

Your calls at 901-260-5926 after this short break. Jeff Stein in for Todd. This is the Todd Starn Show. Granger knows when you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building, you're managing all of them. And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners.

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Uh Welcome back to the Liberty University studio in this Open Line Friday edition of the Todd Starn Show. Jeff Stein filling in for Todd today as he gets over the little summer cold or bug or whatever. Hopefully, he's back at it and behind the microphone with Full Voice come Monday. In the meantime, get your fill of Todd by going to your local bookstore, go to Amazon, wherever you get your books these days. The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America.

Pick up a couple of copies, share one with a friend, keep one for yourself. The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America. Yesterday on the program, we talked about the fact that White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt would be leaving to focus on raising her family, now two young children in that family unit. And so everybody's trying to figure out who should be the new White House Press Secretary. My station, KXEL in Iowa, Iowa's home to the Todd Stern Show.

Well, we do a poll question of the day every weekday. And we're going to invite you folks in the national office, national audience.

Well, if you're in an office, you can do it too. We're going to invite you folks in the national audience to weigh in on this poll question. You can just vote online. It's kxcl.com slash poll, P-O-L-L.

So, the poll question of the day that I put up today: who do you think should be the new White House press secretary? I put five different names on there, and then a spot for other if you didn't like any that I put on there. Alina Haba, who did such a wonderful job speaking on behalf of the President and as one of his lawyers. Scott Jennings. Out of Kentucky, the token punching bag on CNN, and whips them every night that he's on.

Carrie Lake, the Iowa native and Arizona TV personality who carried an awful lot of water for the Trump effort. In those elections in the recent past.

Now she's an ambassador. We put Carrie Lake on the list. Rachel Campos Duffy, her husband, of course, Secretary of Transportation and Fox News host in her own right. Stephen Chung is communications director at the White House. Should he move to press secretary, take it on as a second duty?

So I have Alina Hava, Scott Jennings, Carrie Lake, Rachel Campostuffy, Stephen Chung, and other. If I didn't list your favorite, there's a place where you can check that box. Again, it's free. Just interested to see if folks have a preference. Who do you think should be the new White House press secretary?

You can vote on that and let us know what you think. That poll is actually up since it's a Friday. That poll is up until Monday morning. And again, you find it at my station's website, which is kxel.com/slash poll. KXEL.com/slash poll.

You can follow me on the social media. Everything from TwitterX to Instagram and Threads and Truth Social and Getter and all that. Not Facebook, though. No, no, that's the devil's playground. But all the others, you can follow me on the socials at Iowa Politics.

That's I-O-W-A-Politics. Guests on this very fine radio program appear on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. We make choices every day that shape our personal fortune and our country's future. And that includes these days which cell phone provider you may support. And I have heard recently from folks, there was a big merger with a couple of companies, I'm not going to mention them, but some of the big companies, and I've had friends who've complained because they don't have the same service that they used to get, it's not what they wanted to have, promises aren't being kept.

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Well, take a stand today and go to patriotmobile.com slash Todd. You could call if you like, 972 Patriot, but whichever method you use, be sure to use promo code TOD. because you get a free month of service that way. I love free. Patreon mobile dot com slash Todd.

nine seven two patriots. Promo code Todd make that switch today. And we have actually a quartet of guests, four of them. On the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line in our next hour from the Liberty University studio. Can I tell you a quick two-minute story before we go to the top of the hour?

I don't know how far we have fallen in this country, but here is an example. I had to go to the doctor's office for a routine thing, and so I go in to the exam room, and I'm sitting there. Just waiting for the doctor to come in. And I look around the room and they've got little signs, you know, about wash your hands at cold and flu season, or be sure to get your excuse for work or school before you leave, dumb things like that that they have on the wall.

Well, I look over and there's a a cabinet. And I assume there's supplies behind it, you know, rubber gloves, gauze, whatever is in a doctor's office. And they have a printed sign. With artwork, okay, little little clip art. Here's what the sign said.

Keep in mind, I'm in a doctor's office. The sign says, please do not use your cellphone during your exam. Thank you. I'm thinking Please do not use your cellphone during your exam. Who's taking calls during an exam?

So naturally, I took out my phone and I took a picture of the sign, and that's what I'm reading from right now. Where have we gotten where? Excuse me, Bob. I've got to take this call. This is just crazy.

Put the phone away. Unless you're going to call us at 901-260-5926.

Next hour is kind of tight, but hour three is wide open for you. I'm Jeff Stein filling in for Todd.

So glad you're along with us on this edition of the Todd Starn Show. Live from the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's common sense conservative commentary from Todd Starr. Set users! That's right! I love Love is American.

Yeah, right. Hello, fellow Patriots. Jeff Stein filling in for Todd today from my home base in the free state of Iowa. Todd getting over that little summer cold thing that adversely affected his voice. Let him rest through the week and hopefully he'll be back behind the mic.

Come Monday. In the meantime, get your Todd Starns fixed by ordering a copy of The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America. If you have Amazon Prime, they'll deliver it tomorrow. Or go to your favorite bookstore, The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America, from the good folks at Humanix Books. It's an open line Friday.

We've got a lot of guests this hour, but make sure you make note of the number to call when we have time to hear from you, America, 901-260-5926. 901-260-5926, same number you're used to using. But we begin the second hour on a Friday by going to the Patriot Mobile newsmaker line and a return guest on the program. He is Pete Sepp. Mr.

Sepp is the president of the National Taxpayers Union. They're online, NTU.org. Mr. Sepp, Jeff Stein, in for Todd. Good to talk to you again, sir.

Yeah, great to be here again. Remind people who may not be aware: National Taxpayers Union. Who are you folks, and what do you do? We're a nonprofit, nonpartisan citizen group founded all the way back in nineteen sixty nine to work for lower, fairer, simpler taxes, less wasteful spending in government and economic freedom at all levels.

Well, that's no small agenda, to be sure. No. I wanted to talk to you today because of something called the Jones Act. I will concede I had no idea what this was and And apparently President Trump got involved for a waiver of this. Explain, first of all, what the Jones Act is and what did the President do recently.

Well, the official title of the act is the Merchant Marine Act of 1920.

So this is a more than 100-year-old law. It's called the Jones Act because of the senator way back when who sponsored the bill. And what it says is that. For any shifts. traveling between U.

S ports, whether the East Coast or the West Coast, inland between Hawaii and Alaska, if cargo is traveling in a shift between two U. S ports, That ship must be US built. U. S. owned, U.

S. crude and U. S. flag.

Now that sounds like a great idea, but the effect of this law and several other laws actually that create a whole network of merchant marine subsidies is to burden consumers and burden taxpayers. They need to be changed to reflect modern reality. Yeah.

So again, it sounds on the face of it like And I'm not using this in the term a lot of people use it. It sounds America first, right? Where we want to make sure that things are produced here and that we have Americans involved in construction, et cetera. Let's assume that there was a good reason for it to begin with, and I don't know that there was, but. How is it that it is outdated these days?

What is it that needs to be done? Because it seems like this waiver has been pretty successful. Yes. In fact, there have been, by my count, at least twenty waivers of these restrictions over the past twenty years. And the latest one being just the one that the President announced, a ninety day waiver on oil gas, gasoline and fertilizer products.

So now if an oil terminal in Louisiana needs to ship something up to Spain and Georgia or further up the East Coast, The Jones Act will not apply, and a foreign-flagged vessel or a U.S. vessel with a foreign crew or whatever can do that. No no. If it's So many waivers keep getting granted in the name of helping consumers afford things and helping goods get shipped quickly. Why in the world do we have this law in the first place?

That's a big question.

Well, the law was intended to maintain a strong merchant marine fleet that was US based. It hasn't worked. There are fewer than 100 vessels in the so-called Jones Act fleet that meet all those requirements I mentioned.

Meanwhile, thousands of vessels visit the United States every year and could provide faster shipment of goods, not only on the coasts, But on inland waterways. And this is a big deal. When you take a look at the United States right now, about 2% of all traffic, all goods, Travel on either barges or ships that are Jones Act compliant. And in Europe, where you don't have these kinds of laws, forty percent of freight travels that way. And the result is we have a lot of freight spilling onto highways and wear and tear on bridges and roads that end up costing taxpayers.

So these spillover effects Are very pernicious. And of course, we haven't even gotten into the consumer costs yet. Pete Sapp of the National Taxpayers' Union is our guest live on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line on the Todd Starr and Show. Jeff Stein filling in for Todd today from the Liberty University studio.

So basically, in order to avoid unnecessary restrictions on the waterways, The supply chain moves to ground based and And that's where we then have unanticipated or unnecessary wear and tear on infrastructure. And we all know how much construction is done on roadways in the summer because we all grouse about it. That's not only an inconvenience and a problem for the transportation, but very costly to the taxpayers. Yeah, exactly. When we think about it, It is so expensive to build a ship here because of some of these Jones Act requirements.

I mean, if you have to find a U. S. shipyard to build the Jones Act compliant vessel, and you've got to pay a U. S. based crew to do it, and you have to have U.

S. investors to put money into the shifts. The costs start going up because you have very expensive union labor. You have materials that are actually costlier, in part because of tariff policies. The steel gets costlier.

And so the bottom line is it costs about five times as much to build a ship here for a variety of reasons. than it does in other industrialized countries. I'm not even talking about China, that's a slave labor economy. I'm talking about our peers in the capitalist world. They can build ships much more cheaply.

And Mentioning consumers here because of these requirements, because there are few shifts available, it takes longer, it's costlier. the cost to consumers of energy shipments on the East Coast alone due to these Jones Act type laws is almost eight hundred million dollars extra annually.

So you can understand why the President Suspended the Jones Act on shipments of fuel, there are genuine costs. as a result of these regulations, kudos to him for avoiding them. But why don't we just do that year round without waiting for a waiver? Current waiver expires, as you and I are speaking, in just a couple of days, correct?

Well the last waiver was going to expire in a couple of days. The President has just announced That he will extend it another ninety days.

So that takes us to a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving.

Well, is this the sort of thing that in an executive order would be helpful? Or is this yet another thing that Congress should be taking care of? But We can't expect that they will.

Well, executive orders can certainly continue suspensions.

Now there do have to be reasons for the suspensions. National security is the one that's operating here because of the Iran conflict. In the past, natural disasters, economic emergencies have been the justification. Ultimately, though, Congress really does need to get involved. There are bills to either repeal the Jones Act entirely or To provide some relief, at least to what are called non-contiguous areas.

In other words, rate that travels between California and Hawaii, that's subject to Jones Act restrictions and it costs the average Hawaiian family about $1,800 extra a year. There's a bill from Ed Case, a delegate, Democrat from Hawaii and a Republican from Guam of all places, because they're affected by it, that would suspend the Jones Act permanently for traffic that is going back and forth between the territories and our coasts. As part of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, this section is called the Jones Act. And again, now we've got the next suspension. One more reason to suggest perhaps it's not needed at all.

National Taxpayers Union online, NTU.org. Pete Sepp is president of NTU, and he's been with us now on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. Mr. Sepp, thanks so much for taking the time. I appreciate the information as always, and have a great weekend.

You do the same. My pleasure. And Mr. Sepp joined us on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line as we continue on this Open Line Friday from the Liberty University Studio. 901-260-5926 is the number.

We'll get back out to the FedEx Championship after this short break. I'm Jeff Stein filling in for Todd.

Thanks for being along on the Todd Starn Show. Uh Welcome back to the Liberty University studio and this Open Line Friday edition of the Todd Starn Show. Jeff Stein filling in for Todd today. A lot of good stuff going on in Memphis, Tennessee, and that includes the annual FedEx St. Jude Championship.

It is round two. Of this tournament, which is the first of three in the FedEx Cup playoff. And we're joined now on the Patriot Mobile newsmaker line by The Mighty 990, KWAM sports commentator Parker May. And Parker, I'm the one who keeps bothering you about the heat. I mean, come on, it's August, it's going to be hot.

Here's how hot it is. It's so hot the weather service did not even update its data in the past hour. It's given up keeping count. How's that make you feel? You know, I don't blame them.

I think at this point, the weather can just stay hot, and that'll be good enough. You don't need numbers. The only numbers you need are on the leaderboard. And I see that Scotty Scheffler's making quite a run today early in his round. And that's what I was just talking about with some of the other media members saying that has been the story of the morning story.

Scotty Scheffler being aggressive through his first four holes. birding all four of them and now Put himself in a great spot now. Tied for second. early in the second round.

So that's pretty good. Has he traditionally played well at the course? I don't have the history of it. You do, of course. Yeah.

It's kind of a weird trajectory for Scotty looking at it back over the last four years over here at TPC Southland, missed the cut back in twenty twenty two. And then since then, it's been a steady trajectory up Where you'd think the next step up from is a win here at QC Southwind, back to back top five finishes, a tie for fourth in 2024, and then a tie for third last year.

So he has really the more he comes to this course, and you're really seeing it now in the second round. You have Slow and Steady wins the race, and you have the leader in the clubhouse with a pair of four under par rounds to start, and he's already there cooling off before tomorrow. That's a huge advantage for Sung J M knowing he can get in this morning. Teeing off just before eight o'clock. and really being aggressive, he set the stage early And birdies And now he's gonna sit and watch the rest of these guys In this hot afternoon heat, and knowing he probably won't have to tee off again until at least 12:30 tomorrow.

Now it'll be plenty hot then, but plenty of time to recover. Parker May joining us from TPC Southwind in Memphis, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, joining us on the Todd Stern Show on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. How have the crowds been? Obviously, you buy your tickets for this well in advance, get your chance to see some of the greatest names in golf today, but how have the crowds been holding up here on day two?

The crowds have been great, a little bit better than yesterday. And I think it's one of those things where it's hard to know what you're going to get with crowds the first two rounds, especially Now you mentioned the tournament is in August now and so Schools are back in session. A lot of people are at work, but the crowds have been great. A few kids out here, which is nice.

Some of the kids skip school to come watch some very high-level golf, but I'm really excited to see how the crowds develop. going into the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, but a lot of the feature groups have had unbelievable followings, especially the Scotty Scheffler Roy McElroy group and the Jordan Speed Tommy Fleetwood group have had the two biggest followings so far that I've seen.

Well, it looks like of that latter pairing, Fleetwood's got the better on Speed today, outlasting him not only in today's round, but therefore on the leaderboard as a whole. Yes, that's a pairing that's been really interesting to watch. I talked about that. Yes, sir. That was my featured group to watch today as I both Played a combined nine under yesterday, and are both also kind of different starts.

But getting a better start than. Speed. into this second round but Speech to those players, you never really know when he's just going to turn it on and fire off a stretch like Scotty Scheffler just did. He can easily go three straight and get it right back into this top of the leaderboard.

So that's going to be a really intriguing group to watch as they come on this back nine here in a few holes. And Scheffler playing with McElroy the last two days. That's got to be a fan favorite, but also interesting the dynamic between the two of them because as you told us yesterday, and correct me if I'm wrong, you've got Scheffler, as you say today, the trajectory is toward the championship, and McElroy is looking at this as twelve rounds to get the FedEx Cup as the overall champ. Yeah, you're exactly right. You kinda mentioned those two trajectories and it's answering the trajectories that they have been at In their history of playing CPC Southwind, macro historically, especially in past years.

has not played this course very well. He skipped the tournament last year. came in third to last back in twenty twenty four.

So He hasn't really had that much success here, and that's continued into this tournament. And the opposite for Scheffler, who, as I mentioned, has continued to rise. year in and year out, the more he comes to this course.

So where is lunch for you today? You know, as I'm walking around the back nine, I'm probably going to have to take advantage of the new Grounds Plus tickets. That's what I would encourage fans to get. If they're coming in the weekend, Free food, free drinks. four fans scattered all along the golf course.

$100 gets you the ticket and all you can eat food and drink along the golf course.

So that's where I'll be eating a great burger, double cheeseburger. That's what I went with yesterday. Probably going to stick with it today. You know, some people say, well, you got to be adventurous, you got to try different things. I'm a big fan of, I like this, I like the sure thing.

How are you going to go wrong with the cheeseburger, right? Exactly. I don't know what they do with this cheeseburger. They got some special sauce on it. the double paddies really makes it work.

And I'm a big fan of the saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And so that's my might be my motto for lunch today. There you go. All right.

Well, you've made me hungry because I've got nothing but a protein bar here, but that's okay. Parker May, thanks so much for taking the time. We'll check in with you again next hour and talk about what to expect on the weekend at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Talk to you soon.

Thanks, Jeff. Talk to you later. And Parker May? Sports commentator for the Mighty Nine ninety, KWAM, joined us on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line from TPC Southwind in Memphis. You know the purse for this event?

twenty million dollars.

Now, granted, that's walking around money for Todd Starns, but that's a lot of money for a pro golf tournament. Wow. All right, we are going to take our bottom-of-the-hour break now, and when we come back. We're going to talk about medical professionals who are doing bad things to kids all for the money. Stay tuned.

Jeff Stein filling in for Todd. This is the Todd Starn Show. Welcome back to the Liberty University studio and the Todd Starn show. Jeff Stein filling in for Todd today. It's an open line Friday, 901-260-5926.

Plenty of time for your calls in the next hour. But now we go to the Patriot Mobile newsmaker line, and I'm pleased to welcome Dr. Kurt Micelli. Dr. Maselli is Chief Medical Officer at Do No Harm.

Dr. Maselli, thanks so much for taking the time. How are you, sir? I'm well. Thanks for having me, Jeff.

Tell us first of all, do no harm. Who are you folks and what do you do? Absolutely. We're an organization of over fifty thousand people that's physicians, other health care providers, concerned citizens and that are really focused on getting identity politics out of medicine and keeping kids safe from this harmful gender ideology. Do noharmmedicine.org is the website with all the good information you need.

Do noharmmedicine.org.

Now, yesterday on this program, We were on the air just as this report was released from Health and Human Services titled Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of gender medicine unquote. When this report was released, what in it, if anything, surprised you, Dr. Maselli?

Okay.

Well, I'd say this report is another wake-up call. It's another wake-up call for the medical establishment, and it really goes a long way to aiming to protect kids from this harmful ideology. And I think what we see is we try to get to answer the question of how did we allow this madness to occur? How did we allow a system where we have kids who are vulnerable and confused about their gender? How did we push them into puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery, sort of this irreparable significant harm?

And it leads to three main things, and that's profit driven without any ethical considerations, the pressure from medical societies and medical organizations pushing this ideology, and the politics, particularly from the Biden administration, that was pushing, again, the WPATH quote-unquote standards of care, which just pushed kids into this medicalized pathway. And I think one of the biggest takeaways for me was, again, hearing the stories of the D-transitioners, and there are eight stories that are told within that report. And again, just hearing what they've gone through and the horrors of the medical system, what medicine has done to them, we need to do better than that. We need to restore our ethics, restore our principles, make sure we do what's right in order to help these kids and to do that as soon as we can. And I think that this report calls for us to come together and to do right by those individuals that have been harmed and to make sure that this harm doesn't continue to occur to kids.

Now, for me as a layperson, I don't have a medical background. It's one thing. For these medical folks to have Some sort of political agenda. In other words, they're just horribly misguided, and they're encouraging this sort of thing. But when you then lay on top of it this huge profit motive, That your organization, Do No Harm, revealed earlier this year as well.

Just because of the uh the insurance coding, I mean, a lot of people are making an awful lot of money at the expense of young people and their health and safety. It's tragic. We've created a database that looked at claims from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty three. And what you see there is nearly one hundred twenty million dollars of claims related to these interventions on kids. And we believe that that's an undercounting because there's some hospitals and claims that we don't even have in our database that we weren't able to obtain.

It is a huge amount of money. And when you look at it, and I think the report here from HHS does highlight it, you look at the lifetime cost of medications, anywhere from $25,000 to $75,000.

So you look at the cost of surgeries, anywhere from $100,000 to $170,000. And that doesn't include other interventions, voice therapies, hair removals, fertility preservation. And it says nothing in terms of the psychological consequences that we brought upon an individual. It is a tremendously lucrative industry, unfortunately. And for some, it's created these in this disincentive to continue to treat in such a way that, again, our professional ethics should say, no, these are children.

We need to look at the evidence. We need to recognize that the benefit is just not there and the harms are significant for these interventions. And that's what we as again as professionals need to do. And you're right as well about the coding concerns, that there's certainly evidence and reason to believe that some providers may have diagnosed kids with physical conditions that they don't even have in order to push this scheme. And that is obviously misleading and potentially fraudulent in nature.

And it's the reason why this report, particularly the appendix in it, is being forwarded to the Office of the Inspector General because it lists a series of hospitals where there are just these concerns of what happened and possible fraudulent coding practices. The Vice President sent a letter to the Attorney General urging possible prosecution. As you mentioned, Secretary Kennedy forwarding it to the Inspector General. I'm just really struck by people who would code things a certain way. just to meet the outcome they're trying to get.

And the fact that there's enough of a paper trail or a digital trail here that you can really track it. That is going to open a lot of people's eyes. My sense is that the report that do no harm released earlier this year set the table. This new HS report adds to it. My fear is that there's a lot more, a lot worse to be revealed.

You're on the front line. What do you think? I think unfortunately that's true. And we even look at a simple code like precocious puberty, which is early puberty, so puberty that's happening in a kid who's six, seven, eight years old, And here what we're seeing is that diagnosis is being applied to thirteen, fourteen, fifteen year old kids, again, in order to give them puberty blockers to get them paid for and to get them to force them through those claims through the insurance. And that is just wrong.

It is completely wrong. And when you read the report, you see that there are millions upon millions of dollars that are associated with such claims. And again, that's just one diagnosis of precocious puberty. We know that endocrine disorder, not otherwise specified, is one that organizations such as Planned Parenthood of Southeast Pennsylvania and other organizations have said that they've used in order to meet the needs of insurance companies, that they've used a diagnostic code for an endocrine disorder when these conditions are psychological in nature in terms of the struggle that one is going through with their gender dysphoria. And again, these are just a couple of the codes.

There's many concerns related to other codes that have been used. And I think you're right, this is an onion in many respects. And we're just starting to peel it and find just the corruption that is under it. I note from your biography, Dr. Maselli, that you're board-certified in both psychiatry and internal medicine.

So, because of that expertise in what you just mentioned, treating as a medical issue, something that is actually psychiatric in nature, as you read through these, as you examine this, it must just be absolutely galling to you that others in the profession, quote unquote, the way they're handling it, it's in quotes, are Damaging people for life physically and mentally. I mean, how widespread is this? Are we beginning to believe? It certainly is troubling. And no doubt, the vast majority of physicians and healthcare practitioners are good, honest people, feeling the right thing each and every day.

But unfortunately, we have to also recognize the realities that are out there. And again, in that database that we created, the Stop the Harm database that Do No Harm put together, we saw that there were almost 14,000 children who were impacted by puberty blockers, CrossFex hormones or surgeries. And within that pool of kids, more than 5,700 kids had such surgeries, again, as minors. And I think what really speaks to me is what the Assistant Secretary of Health said yesterday, and that's that psychiatry Psychology, we need to provide competent and compassionate mental health care. We should not be putting kids on this treadmill to medicalization of puberty blockers and Cross X hormones and such.

What we need to do is to fully assess the individual to understand what's going on, the difficulties they're having, understand the trauma, the other psychiatric ailments that they might be struggling with, help them through those things. Because what we're finding is that many of these children are coming with lots of comorbid conditions, and instead, what they're being pushed in is this pathway that just leads to irreparable harm. And we need to do much better in psychiatry, in psychology, and all of medicine. And unfortunately, many of our medical societies are captured in such a way that they continue to push this affirmation model. You know, it's only the American Society of Plastic Surgeons that has really stood out in terms of saying, no, the evidence just isn't there for these interventions, and we shouldn't be doing surgery by any means on children.

Again, this is the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. And so they speak with a strong voice. And they also acknowledge, just again, the endocrine interventions that the evidence is just not there for them.

So we need to go back to restoring our professional ethics, recognizing that our first responsibility is to do no harm and recognize that we can do more for these kids in terms of helping them through their troubles with appropriate psychological help and interventions and not, again, medicalizing them and making them lifelong patients. It is tragic, and in some cases, we're learning criminal. doctor Kurt Micelli of Do No Harm online, do noharmmedicine. org, thank you for continuing this effort, this information effort, and I hope we talk again. Appreciate it.

Thanks so much for having me, Jeff. Dr. Maselli joined us on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. Jeff Stein in for Todd, back in the Liberty University studio after this break on the Todd Starn Show. Welcome back to the Liberty University Studio today in the free state of Iowa.

I'm Jeff Stein, filling in for Todd on the Todd Star and Show. We'll give him the weekend to get over that summertime cold and.

Sore throat or loss of voice, or when you know this kind of stuff you don't want to have anytime, but especially not in summer, and especially not when your new book comes out. Get a copy of The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America, wherever you get your books these days. Let's close this hour by going live to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line and talking to us from the Great Iowa State Fair, 3rd District Congressman Zach Nunn. He is a Republican. He is also a colonel in the U.S.

Air Force Reserve, and we rely upon him for insight on a variety of topics. Congressman, thanks for taking the time. How's the day going at the fair? Jeff, we are at the great Iowa State Fair and thrilled we got to kick off the 250th birthday of America with a great state fair showing in D.C., but nothing compares to being back in Iowa. We have the steer show about ready to kick off.

We've got a number of folk from Washington who have set up shop here. And amongst the millions of Iowans, we've got SBA Small Administrator Kelly Leffler with me today. We've got our Secretary of Veterans Affairs coming out. And we've got the Attorney General who's going to be with us.

So it's just not only a great showing of livestock. It's a great showing of DC politicians coming to the Iowa State Fair and hearing directly from hometown folks on what's important.

Now, you're not taking people like the SBA administrator and the veteran secretary through a show ring. They're just in conversation, right? They're not on display that way. Oh, we have not put them in a pin yet, Jeff.

So I will say Beston's show has been pretty impressive here. Kylie Levler went and is meeting with a small family farm that grows watermelons here in Iowa. We're talking about what it means for their one of eighty seven thousand family small farms here in Iowa. And I will say we had the group out here and milking cows.

So they're learning how to operate the farm if we ever need backup. That's our second straight year at the fair. I talked to her in town last year at the time.

Well, you've also been talking with cattlemen because the beef industry, not only in the Midwest but the rest of the country, they're in some need of help and expanded markets. That's exactly right. This is one of the areas where we have really pushed. And I think it's important to level set here. We came out of the Biden administration with a $50 billion.

Trade deficit for U.S. agriculture. And that didn't happen by mistake. Under the first Trump administration, we were $5 billion surplus. We went to 10 times that, 50 billion down.

in just four years. As a result, we have not only been digging out of it, we've been taking down trade barriers. Look, here's the reality for our cattle guys. If you're a dairy farmer and you are producing milk, you can't sell it to Canada without a two hundred percent tariff. That shuts down not only what we're able to produce domestically, it creates an artificial environment where effectively American taxpayers are subsidizing dairy in Canada.

We don't want to see that anymore. I think this is one of the proud things that both the administration have highlighted, bringing down tariffs. Fair trade for U.S. domestic products, particularly our commodities. We just talked about getting double the amount of soybeans into China, holding China accountable for trade manipulation, but then also opening up new markets.

I personally led a trade delegation to Taiwan. Taiwan's going to be selling us lots of semiconductors, which we absolutely need. But in addition, we took their commodity tariffs from ninety five percent down to basically zero, which means we're selling things like corn, soybean, wheat, sorghum, pork and cattle all to a new market. For my home state of Iowa, that's a four hundred million dollar win just off of that. These are the types of things that an aggressive trade plan helps not only folks here in Iowa, but is being showcased at the Iowa State Fair as America is back in the driver's seat when it comes to everything from manufacturing to growing.

If we can do it here, we're better off and less dependent on foreign powers. U.S. trade rep Jamison Greer along with you, and talking to a lot of these folks about how to again. Stick with a strong America First platform, but also have good trade relations with a variety of markets. And I think this is one of the things we can really showcase here with both Ambassador, but also what we are able to grow here in the United States makes us a net exporter of both food, also energy in the biofuel sector.

So, what we built here, and I also had the labor secretary out the week prior. And one of the things we did is we went and we talked to an Iowa business like AutoJet that makes mufflers here in the United States. They were about to be buried by China, who is competing in this space, dumping on the United States for the last four years. And both the vice president, J.D. Vance, who came out to my district here and spoke to it, as well as the labor secretary, said, We've got to be able to manufacture things in the U.S.

again. And we're moving that way. But we also have to have the workforce to be able to build this. And that's one of the reasons I'm so proud we've really invested in the trade schools, making sure that we have both the apprenticeship programs down to the high school level in training, but also that there's a pipeline for skilled workcraft. That's everything from Plumbers and pipe fitters to welders and HVAC specialists.

If we want to be able to build here in the U.S. again, we've got to have young people know that this is a pathway that can be really successful both for themselves in having a good paying job, but also a skill set they can do with their hands. Stuff that's not going to be replaced by AI, but it's going to help America continue to be competitive in what we grow, what we build, buy Americans. for Americans and exported around the world. Zach Nunn is our guest, Republican, 3rd District of Iowa, in a good reelection battle.

So if you'd like to learn more, ZachNunn.com, nice subtle donate button in the upper right-hand corner if you'd like to help Congressman Nunn out.

Now, I've got about 60 seconds. You're not just politicking, you're a dad, and your kids are showing at the fair. Could there be anything more nerve-wracking than that? I would say, you know, we have one of the most competitive races in the country right now. We'll decide whether we have a majority or not based on this race.

But what has my heart rate up right now is I've got a daughter showing a ram, another daughter showing a you, one showing a goat, and my youngest, five years old, she's showing a Persian cat. Only at the Iowa State Fair can you have a pro-American Persian cat and run her up to see what's going to happen for the blue ribbons. Are we collecting some? I was going to say hardware, but they're blue ribbons. How are the kids doing?

So we've done very well at County Fair. I will say we got Reserve Grand Champion on the cat, and both the ewe and the ram and the goat have all been able to compete now at State Fair. We'll be showing it from now throughout the weekend. And as soon as they're done showing livestock, they'll be on the dance stage doing What every father both loves and dreads, watching and paying for their kids in a dance routine.

So we'll see how this goes down. Oh, you are made of strong stuff.

Okay, last question. The Iowa State Fair is known for food on a stick. It started with the great pork chops, but now everything comes on a stick. What is your favorite on-a-stick food at the fair? God bless you guys.

So here's what we're looking at for the State Fair this year. Not only do we have pork chop on a stick, bacon wrap pork chop, which is my personal favorite, but new this year to the state fair, we have the egg and bacon It's fried wonton, very light flavoring on it, on a stick. It's worth trying out. It's the best fusion food of an omelette and Chinese food together. I'm not doing it.

I'm not doing it, Congressman Zach Nunn from Iowa. Thanks for calling in from the state fair in Des Moines. Ah, the reviews of the food continue, and hour three of the Todd Starring Show, stay with us. Jeff Stein in for Todd Today. Live from the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's conservative blowtorch.

That's right. I love. Love is American. Touch. Star.

Hello, fellow Patriots. Jeff Stein coming to you from the free state of Iowa and the Liberty University studio today on this Friday. Filling in for Todd will let him get fully over this little bug that he picked up along the way so that he can be back behind the microphone as soon as possible, hopefully as soon as Monday. 901-260-5926. That's how you can join our coast-to-coast conversation on an open line Friday, and we have plenty of time for your calls this hour.

901-260-5926. Now, this has been an unfortunate week in a number of respects in the world of Mr. Starnes. This is the week you've had on your calendar for I don't know how long, the week that the book comes out, The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America, thanks to the good folks at Humanics Books. And it's a fantastic book.

The content is super, the design is great. And I even noticed paper quality, the weight of it. This is a nice book. The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America. So I was here, as you folks may know, on Monday as Todd was making his way back from this great session he had in California and spoke to some 6,000 people and signed books for four hours.

Made his way back on Monday. And picked up the Beginnings of a little bug along the way, which happens when you travel. And so he did the program, did a book signing at the Barnes and Noble. And then lost his voice. And again, if you're the kind of person who needs your voice for your living, like those of us in radio, that's a pretty big deal.

So he's been gulping herbal tea and doing everything else he can do. But he's not here. And more importantly, you've missed out. You have not had the kind of The diet of Todd Starnes that you need to have, your daily helping of Starnes' wisdom.

Well, we're going to try to fix that as best we can. As I mentioned, the book came out on Tuesday, The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America. And Todd was kind enough to join me on my Iowa program. On Tuesday morning, the day the book was released, And I got the chance to interview him about the book and the things that are in it.

So, if you've been missing our boy this week, we're going to try to make it up to you. Here is the conversation I had on my program in Iowa with the great Todd Starnes about the book. Listen to this. Jeff, good morning. Just always a pleasure to hang out with you and the great listeners there on KXEL.

This is a fantastic book. Not only the content, which is, as per custom, tremendous, but my goodness, this cover is going to jump right off the shelf. Tell us why you titled the book The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America, and tell us about this cover art.

Well, the cover, if you've read The Great Gatsby, you'll understand the connection there, which was pretty intentional. And we wanted to have that roaring 20s sort of celebratory art deco look to the book. It's a celebration, no doubt about it, but it's also a warning. Because after the roaring 20s came the Great Depression. And the reason I wrote the book was again, to remind people of what Ronald Reagan said, that freedom isn't passed along in our bloodstream.

Every generation has to fight for freedom. And one of the things I really appreciate about President Trump and when you back away from all of the noise, you realize that this country was on a very dangerous path. And it was President Trump who slammed on the brakes and really save the country from what I believe would have been an ultimate socialist takeover.

So that sort of, you know, that really was the mission behind the book. celebrate all the great things that have happened, but then an eye to the future. And again, the subtitle is How Trump Saved America, and you have documented this in a variety of the chapters: How Trump Saved Common Sense, How Trump Saved Your Hometown of Memphis, How Trump Saved Our Schools, How Trump Saved Christmas. And again, the examples are. easy to come by because they are so plentiful, but it's the kind of fact-based information needed to rebut the claims of the critics about Trump and what his real motivation is.

You know, it's a great observation, and I had a lot of fun writing this. I had to write it on a pretty short deadline, but I I really feel like we were able to really get to the essence. Of who Donald Trump is. And when you read the book, I hope people come across. understanding that here's a billionaire who literally understands how a blue collar worker thinks.

And you see that in his own life, and I think it's because he was in the construction industry. You know, he was working around these people. Growing up around these people. And I think that really did flavor who he is. And honestly, Okay.

It's not a fair comparison, but it's sort of like if you remember the Beverly Hillbellies, and I've got a chapter in the book on the Beverly Hillbellies. Um when when Jed and Granny and Ellie Mae and Jethro all moved to Beverly Hills. They were super wealthy. But they were out they were outsiders. they you know, high society looked down on them.

And I think in some way I think high society looks down on on Donald Trump. because he's able to pall around with with the blue collar folks. I have analogized previously that it's sort of like, and yes, I remember the Hillbillies very well, it's sort of like Caddyshack. Where Donald Trump is the Rodney Dangerfield character, he comes in and just upsets their world, and they don't know what to make of it. But the public loves it.

So, I mean, it's the sort of thing that you would think, you would think. That members of the House and Senate would say, This guy's popular. He's got ideas that are pretty good that the American people like. We should put his agenda into place. Yet I'm whining and moaning, Todd, and I know you're disappointed too.

What's going on with Congress? How are they not helping us reach the potential of the golden age?

So I'm not surprised by this at all, and I address this in the book. you know, going back to the the lead up to the the the election of Donald J. Trump, the first go-around. Trump was really the enemy of the Republican Party. They considered him to be the enemy.

But the reality is that the reason why he got elected in the first place is because the Republicans would always campaign on their promises And then they would eventually they would go back on the promises. And the American people just got sick and tired of it, which really, I think, paved the way for Donald J. Trump.

So look, the Republicans are going along to get along. They've been doing that for a long time now. And I think they see that President Trump is going to be a lame duck president. You know, he's gone in two years.

So that's why I think we're seeing so much Strong, strong pushback. from especially the U. S. Senate. They know they've got the power.

They know they have the votes to stop whatever they want to. And that's one of the reasons why I believe the Save America Act never came to fruition. The people who are in power now got elected under the old system. The current system, Republicans and Democrats alike, and they don't want to screw up what got them elected. And that is about the antithesis of working for America.

I get an awful lot here, and I know you get it a lot when you talk with the good listeners.

Well, this is all interesting conversation, but what can we do? And you've dedicated a chapter in the book to how Americans can save Trump's agenda, and that's vital.

Well, it really is. And we've got to make sure that we don't sit, as we say in the Baptist faith tradition, we sit on our blessed assurance. We've got to get up and we've got to. Engage the culture. And that's one of the things we talk about in the book.

It's a fun read, there's a lot of laughter in the book. and a lot of humor. And there are some challenges for all of us.

So I really do hope that people have fun reading this, and I hope they come away inspired and also satisfied with their vote with Donald J. Trump, because he really did deliver on those campaign promises. And again, as per custom folks, with a Starnes book, you get lots of stories of real-life situations, and you also get a nice twist of Todd's pen. Jimmy Lee Ledbetter makes another appearance. The Metropolis of Woolley Booger is in here as well.

And this is another great opportunity for you as an author. to stretch the writing muscles a little bit. Last year, Star Spangled Blessings, the year before that, Twilight's Last Gleaming, and now with the Golden Age. These are all very different styles of writing, and that's got to be pretty interesting. As you publish your ninth book, thank you very much.

Yeah, yeah, it's been a lot of fun. I just got back from. From California. I was speaking. We we launched our book A tour there in Southern California and signed over 450 books.

It was pretty insane. But it was so fun to meet so many of our readers, you know, that they've read many of the other books. And it's really fun to meet people from other cultures, other backgrounds, other states. you know, that enjoy the southern humor, the down home kind of, you know, approach that I that I take on things. And we just had a wonderful time out there on the West Coast.

One of the things that I ask authors pretty regularly, and so I'll ask you the same question. It's one thing to collect notes. As you go along, and I trust you keep a file folder of clippings and printouts and whatever it is handy for just such an occasion. It's only when you put it all together, stitch it all together in book form, and then sit down and read it cover to cover that some things really come together for you. And I'm just wondering.

You knew all the stories, you put them in the book, but when you sat down to proofread or read the manuscript as a whole, what jumped out at you? Were there some connections that you wound up making that really came across to you? that you maybe didn't intend on putting in there, but they just became apparent. Yeah, that's a great question. I actually rewrote the ending as we were in final edits.

Marco Rubio had given a terrific speech and really talking about saving Western civilization. And I think that's sort of a common theme through the book. You know, and now here we are watching the rise of socialism. The rise of the Islamic movement.

So, a lot happening in the culture.

So, it's one of these for such a time as just. books, I have to imagine. But again, just had a lot of fun writing this one. And it's you never know where things are going to go, but this was a lot of fun to to put pen to paper on. The book is entitled The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America.

It is released nationally today. Get it at your local bookstore, order at Amazon.com. You can go to ToddStardens.com, get it wherever you get your good books these days. And as I often say, get two because when you loan one to someone and they never give it back to you, you'll still have the original copy. The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America.

Final question for Todd Stearns, because you got a show to do, friend. As you look at where we are right now, We're to the midway point. Is this a tipping point on how the second Trump term will be remembered? In other words, You it's been gangbusters for the first couple of years. Because of the selection, is this the tipping point to where history may say it truly became the golden age?

Or if If people don't show up and politicians don't stand up, this could be what history would say was the biggest missed opportunity of the century. Yeah, I think it could be. I really do. I'm curious about the electorate. We have certainly seen a depressed a Republican turnout in a lot of the primaries.

You know, will that change for the midterms? I think a lot of that will really determine on the economy and those pocketbook issues. That's normally how people vote in the country. You know, the other thing is, you know, a lot a lot of these races, especially at the congressional level, are local and they're decided on local issues.

So that could be interesting to watch, especially in some of the states Where Democrats are really fired up over the redrawing of the district.

So that could play an impact as well. I still think the Republicans are going to be able to maintain control of Congress. Um I really do. And the only reason is the Democrats are Um honestly just nominating slap crazy people for some of these these races. But Jeff, before we go, I just wanted to extend my condolences.

To the Grassley family on the passing of Sweet Beth. Yes. I mean, 49 years old. Um Wow, what a life. And to go out in a blaze of glory with what could have been an electrical fire with the scorched plug.

Do you know the back half of that story? And again, for the audience, Senator Grassley has tweeted about Beth, his upright Hoover vacuum cleaner, that I believe Was his mother-in-law's for 14 years, and he has been responsible. Barbara's made sure he runs it for the last 34.

So he tweeted out, you know, RIP Beth. a Saucidian good Iowan had a similar model, somewhat new, newer, and offered it to the Senator as a replacement, And the senator took him up on it.

So Beth 2.0 will soon be at the Grassley House in New Hartford, sir. You know, I have to imagine, Jeff, I can't wait to see the official OBIP because the headline will have to be Beth sucked and it was a good thing. I mean Oh, look at this.

Now, this is not his first day. He waited until the end of the interview. To drop that, by the way, we got a text, and it's from a listener that you have met during one of your visits to Iowa. And the quote is: You're the best, Todd. Have a great day.

I don't think I could summarize it any better. Mr. Starnes, congratulations on the release of The Golden Age and get back to work.

Well, thank you very much. Apologies for the voice. I'm a little under the weather. That California weather did not agree with me. But we look forward to hanging out with you guys later this evening on KXEL.

Todd, take good care and congratulations once again. All right, thank you, Jeff. That's my conversation with the great Todd Starns on Tuesday on my Iowa radio program. And because Todd's been under the weather, because of the voice, etc., you haven't heard him that much this week. We wanted to give you a little a little heapin' helpin' o' starns before the week end.

Jeff Stein filling in for Todd. Short break now. More with you on the other side on the Todd Starn Show. Uh Welcome back to the Liberty University studio and the Todd Starn show. Jeff Stein filling in for Todd today.

Apologies to the affiliates along the line for going long in that first segment, but I wanted you all to hear the full conversation that Todd and I had on Tuesday about the new book. As obviously, you could tell the voice was going there. Hopefully, he'll be back first of the week. The great humanics books publishing company started by Christopher Ruddy of Newsmax. They're the ones who have published Todd Starnes' ninth book, The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America.

And I'm looking at the entry at Amazon. And it is not only in the top 10 in three different categories, there's been a tick upward since this program began. I'm just saying. Number eight in the country in political commentary? Man, this thing is going.

And you can get your copy by going to your local bookstore or go to a place like Amazon.com, and again. If you have Amazon Prime Uh they'll send it to you. You'll have it tomorrow. That's nice. And if you'd like to go with the standard shipping, well, there's free delivery.

If you get above a certain amount, so here's how you do that: you buy a copy of The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America, Todd's book from this year. And pair it with a copy of Star-Spangled Blessings: Devotions for Patriots, released last year. You put that together. You get the two books, free shipping, and you'll get it by the middle of next week. Not bad.

Not bad at all. The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America by the great Todd Starnes. All right, the temperature in Memphis is heating up. We'll see what's left of Parker May at the golf course. I mean, this is uh, he was there for the pro-am on Wednesday.

Now, this is round two of the PGA tour stop. And uh Don't look now, but the heat index is 105 in Memphis. We'll check in with Parker one last time from the PGA tour stop in Memphis. That's after this break at the bottom of the hour. Jeff Stein in for Todd.

Thanks for being here on the Todd Starn Show. Welcome back to the Liberty University studio and the Todd Starn show. Jeff Stein filling in for Todd on this open line Friday. And it's a big week in Memphis because, again, it is the annual. FedEx St.

Jude Championship taking place at TPC Southwind. And let's go one more time to the course. Where Parker May of the Mighty 990 KWAM has been covering the event, and it seems to me that the only thing hotter than the weather is Scotty Scheffler's game, Parker. Jeff, he took the words right out of my mouth. I just watched him.

Finished up as front nine on the ninth degree. An impressive par to finish 500 through nine holes.

Now, just one shot back. Of the leader's thung JM, and I totally expect. at this point, Scheffler to be the leader when he reached the clubhouse after nine more holes.

Well, I think if I remember right from the last hour, Mr. Scheffler birdied each of the first four holes. That's a pretty good way to start. And nobody is having a better round today. There is one golfer who completed his second round at five under.

Scheffler's already at five under halfway through.

Okay.

Yeah, Shefford has the potential, has the pace.

So not only have the best run of the day, but have the best run of the tournament so far. A lot of guys shot five under yesterday. No one could really get to six under. Shuffler is a great opportunity to do that, especially if we can get past these first few holes, especially that 10, 11, 12 stretch is pretty tough. He can get through that.

He's got a lot of birdie opportunities. Late in that back nine of fifteen and sixteen.

Now normally when we look at a PGA tour event, we go through the first couple of rounds and there's a cut line and some folks don't make it to the weekend. This tournament obviously is very different. Remind the audience why this is different and I trust there's no cut line.

So this is the part this is a Part one of a three-part FedEx Cup playoff event.

So, top 70 players are here. They're all four. Round.

So you have to watch all the big names, Roy McElroy, Scotty Scheffler. everybody for four rounds and then After the four rounds, the top 70 player, or the top 50 after this week, in the FedEx Cup standings, not just the top 50 on this week's leaderboard. But the 50 throughout the whole season, all 32 weeks, and then the emphasis on this one. We'll be heading next week's BMW Championships. at Belle Reef Country Club in St.

Louis. So you had seventy, top seventy, and they paired off and they've been playing in duos same playing partner each of the first two days. How do we determine the pairings for round three and for round four?

So round three and four, it'll be determined by where they are on the leaderboard.

So The guy's not doing so great. They'll have the early morning tea times. tomorrow morning. And then the guys like Guy Scheffler, Stung JM at the top of our leaderboard. will be teeing off closer to one o'clock Central Time.

tomorrow afternoon as they look to make the push on moving day tomorrow. All right, so again, they're not in the same duos. It depends on where they are on the leaderboard. Who else has been attracting some attention?

Some of these names that we've been discussing the past two days folks have heard of, no doubt. But who else is attracting some attention? I know that as I'm looking right now at the top six places, you've got an awful lot of international players in that top five, top six. You're exactly right. Sung Jae-in from Korea.

At the top, a couple of Canadians in the top. as well.

So it's been a great mix of international and American players and You think about recent history at CPC Stoplin back-to-back winners. that are international. You had Justin Rose from England last year in twenty twenty five, and then In 2024, Hideki Masiyama. From Japan.

So this of course we're For some reason or another, international players. I found their way around the golf course really well at a high level in ice. Could see that continuing this weekend. You mentioned in our past conversations the grass is different at TPC Southwind in Memphis than at some of the other tour stops. What's distinctive about this course?

And how does that potentially play into some people's games and not so much for others? This is a course just that really Highlights Iron Play. The fairways are narrow, they're tough, so No one's really hitting a lot of fairways. Think about the guys who are at the top of our leaderboard after L1. Most of them were only hitting.

50 to 60% of their fairways, and you think about saying, Well, if you're a PGO tour player, you think you'd make a little more best because the fairways are so narrow.

So it really highlights these iron players. That does a great job of ball striking and getting their second shots close to the pin on the green. That's why you've seen guys like Jake Knapp and Scotty Scheffler. Yeah.

And that's because of the conditions here, and that's they're used to that. Playing the Bermuda grasses that are. More located in this area. the first time they've seen this surface. since in May and that course is in Charlotte, so similar southeast area where this kind of surfaces are found.

I noticed a story on the website at mighty990.com.

So the tournament's being held this year and it's being held next year, but then the PGA Tour is scrambling the schedule and looking for other types of players who may make it to a Memphis tour stop. Did I read that correctly? You were correct, Jeff, but it's kind of sad. Yeah.

Broke on my birthday, so not the best news to wake up till your birthday, but uh, CPC Southwind potentially losing. their tournament in twenty twenty eight are definitely losing its premier status. Since twenty twenty, it was a World Golf Championship event and then twenty twenty two became a FedEx Cup playoff event And you've really seen it kind of rise in target the players I've always really appreciated this event because of its impact of things you, but that's really grown in recent years. And there's breaks we've taken away.

Some of the players have even mentioned that they're sad to see it go and they They want it to still be at home on the PGA tour. in some capacity, they can't be one of the top stops.

So I do expect it to be a PJ Horn, but it might be on the Challenger series as the PGA is moving into a two tiered system or the Championship series and the Challenger series. starting in twenty twenty eight. That's just the reordering of Pro Sports, but you've also got the we used to call it the Senior Tour, but now I think it's called the Champions Tour, and there's a lot of good golf being played there. And again, let's close with the role that this tournament has played in the history of the Memphis philanthropic community, in particular the great Saint Jude Children's Hospital. And we've touched on it a little bit yesterday, but this.

Karen does a really great job. highlighting these Steinjeep patients and really kind of giving them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that they might not get other places they're really close with the PJA Tour players, the players spending a lot of time with them throughout the week, starting on Monday leading up to the event. And then Wednesday on the program, they do a really special thing is Touched on yesterday's eleventh poll with players walk the home with the patients, especially that's a Really special part three with the island green.

So a lot of the patients love that hole, the players love that hole. It's really challenging for them. spend that quality time with the St. G patients and then Sunday is really special. Honoring several St.

View patients by name and having their name announced on the speakers throughout the 18th in green and having them. kind of work with the caddies and be a caddy for a whole Work with the players and even be the pin holders on the eighteenth green on Championship Sunday. The Mighty nine hundred ninety, KWAM, the flagship station of the Starnes Media Group and this radio program, always a key presence at the FedEx Saint Jude Championship, TPC Southwind in Memphis. Parker May, thanks so much for these fun conversations and go find some shade. That's a plan, Jeff.

Thank you for your time. Really enjoyed these talks. Likewise, sir. Take good care. And Parker May joined us on the Patriot Mobile newsmaker line.

And I say take good care because. Weather Service says it's 96 out there. but feels like a hundred and five. Woof. Hydration.

That's the key. I don't know why I'm in a food mode or food and drink mode. Maybe it's because I've missed lunch. But when we come back in our final segment of the week, I want to involve the team down in Memphis, Dylan and Helen, who have done such a fantastic job helping me out, filling in for Todd this week. We're going to talk about some of the most decadent food you've ever heard of, and most of it is served on a stick.

We'll do that when we come back from the Liberty University studio. Jeff Stein filling in for Todd. Thanks for being along, guys, on the Todd Starn Show. Welcome back. Liberty University Studio is the location for the Todd Starn Show on this Friday.

Jeff Stein filling in for Todd. Yeah, he caught a little bug and he lost his voice, his speaking voice, but he's not lost his words. He's on the TwitterX machine as we speak. Let me read to you, if you'll allow, Mr. Starnes' latest post on TwitterX.

It reads as follows. History will record that Texas fell to the Islamists under the rule of Republicans. Let it be known that the Republicans stood down and allowed the Islamists to overrun the Lone Star State. They literally control every office in state government and And they've, meeting Republicans, done nothing.

So even when Mr. Starnes is not on the radio, you can just hear him read those words. Follow him on the TwitterX machine. I've also reposted and retweeted that on my account, which is at Iowa Politics. You can follow me if you care to on TwitterX and Instagram and Getter and Truth Social.

Not Facebook again, that's for demons, but uh the other stuff uh you can find me at Iowa Politics, and I reposted the video of a group of smelly agitators who tried to take over Todd's book signing in Memphis. On Tuesday night, the book?

Well, sure, it's called The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America. Get yourself a couple of copies wherever good books are sold.

Now, We're at the end of a week on a Friday, and here where I am in the state of Iowa, it is Iowa State Fairtime, and at the end of the last hour. You might have heard, I was in conversation with Iowa Congressman Zach Nunn about fair food, and he started listing ingredients on something, and I just cut him off and said, I'm not going to try that. But I'll invite Dylan and Helen to join the conversation if they like, because this is the description. It's a big deal getting new food at the State Fair. Maybe it is where you live as well.

Well, we have three finalists for best new fair food. Here's the one that the congressman was advocating. It's called the All-American Scrambled Egg Roll. Wrapped in our signature crispy golden egg roll, So it's an egg roll. is the ultimate American classic feast.

Thick cut smoky bacon, Savory sausage, hearty hash browns. Farm fresh fluffy scrambled eggs and melted cheddar cheese. All blended with a drizzle of cheesy ranch dressing. Who's up for a serving of that? That sounds like the best breakfast you've ever had, Jeff.

I'm not going to lie. I would eat that in a heartbeat. I'll probably have two. If I could.

Well, and it looks like they're giving you two little egg rolls in this carton from the picture that I'm seeing. But I mean, you tell me you've got multiple forms of pig. I mean, here's bacon, here's sausage, I'm in. You don't have to tell me twice. That's like the big three of breakfast.

I mean, you can't go wrong with any of those items. And then drizzling it with cheesy ranch.

Okay, so now that that I can see.

Now they're also patriotic at the fair this year, and so they had to celebrate America's 250th birthday. Here's ice cream.

Okay, it's called Sweet Americana. You've got strawberry shortcake ice cream. lemon bar ice cream and blueberry crisp ice cream. each with a garnish. And some bit of a sauce.

So you've got the strawberry, the lemon, and the blueberry, so it looks like red, white, and blue. Wow. That's for a family. That's pretty patriotic. I mean, the garnish kinda makes it fancy, no?

I mean, that's gourmet mealing.

Well, you know, it's like they tried, as opposed to how I usually eat. This stuff, I'd look at that and I'd say, well, that's too pretty to eat. Right. I mean, you're used. I mean, most state fairs have, you know, the fried butter, which who cares about what that looks like?

It's more about the taste. And then I'm looking at a list here that says spaghetti and meatballs on a stick, which I don't even know how that would work. Practically. It's wrapped tightly. Yeah.

That's all I can think of. And that goes south really fast. If you get just one pasta string, you know, it's a snowball. This this all started. with um pork chops.

Now Iowa is the top producing Pork state in the nation. North Carolina, right behind, but we came up with these inch-thick Iowa chops, and instead of sitting down like civilized folks, You don't want to sit down with your knife and fork and have a big old pork shop. You want to be able to wander the fairgrounds. And so they figured out: well, what if we put it on a stick and you can just walk and carry it and gnaw on it, you know, like it's a turkey leg at a Renaissance festival, which, by the way, they have the turkey legs too. Here's a good one on a stick.

It's called Star-Spangled Swine. Prime grade pork belly. with apple chipotle rub, signature big red soda glaze rolled in blue and white honey crystals. The big red soda glaze is throwing me off there. I can't get past that part.

Well, you know, you just take your pork belly and you put on this, and I suppose they make it with Dr. Pepper or something.

So that's how we get the red, white, and blue. Again, I don't, you just give me the pork belly and I'm home. Here's something I you could not. You could not pay me enough. Garlic dill pickle cheese curds.

Oh, no. Are you part of the this craze of everything has to be dill pickle flavored? I'm not. My wife is very much so.

So much that, like, if we go on a road trip, she'll get those like pickle those pickle slices that you can get in the bags. It's it makes the whole car smell like dill. And just awful, terrible. And I feel like that is also a state fair staple: the pickled things. Like pickled Oreos.

Why is that a thing? Did you not have all the conversations you needed to have before getting married? Apparently not. This one was not on the list. Garlic dill pickle cheese curds.

Combining our two most popular flavors, garlic and dill pickle. To flavor cheese curds.

Now, in my world, that's ruining a perfectly good cheese curd. Yeah, this sounds like a Wisconsin thing too. The cheese curds.

Well, I believe in strong borders, but if somebody from Wisconsin comes into Iowa with a good batch of cheese curds, I'll let them in. Yeah, no problem there. They offer up that, that's a good trade-off. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Now, I'm drawing the line at Minnesota. I don't need them coming down, but Wisconsin with the cheese curds, okay. Here's one.

Now, this restaurant, I wonder if Starnes has a piece of this. The restaurant is called Tater Todd. and hot dugs.

Sounds like they have tater tots and hot dogs, so it's tater todd. and hot dugs.

Try calling it. Try calling him Tater Todd when he comes in next week. See how that goes over. I might not be at this board when that happens. Yeah.

Phil and now celebrates his last day. Yes. Celebrated, no, stuffed tater kegs.

So what they've done is they've they've created like a tater tot. But they filled it with the ingredients of a good breakfast skillet.

So you got eggs, sausage, cheddar, or cheese. In this deep-fried tater-tot shell. And they serve it with creamy cheddar cheese and sour cream. It's crispy on the outside, flavorful on the inside. Yeah.

I have no problem with that at all. These sound pretty good, Jeff. I'm not gonna lie. Most things that I thought you would name sound gross, but like these, except for the pickled stuff. Yep.

I agree with him.

Okay, well, I'm going to turn that on you because they also have a vegetarian version of the tater keg.

Now, who needs that? No, yeah, I would pass on that one. Course.

Okay, let's see. Find a gross food for you here. Oh, here we go. of banana cream fries. No, I'm still with you, unfortunately.

I do love bananas. That's like the one fruit that I'll eat, actually. Banana cream funnel cake fries. Funnel cake sticks coated in powdered sugar and topped with banana pudding. Yeah.

Yeah, that sounds good. Uh-huh. I'm down. Uh-huh. Butter-dipped ice cream cone.

Ah! Vanilla soft serve ice cream. Coated in a warm, buttery, hard shell, sprinkled with flaky salt that cracks with every I don't want my food cracking with every bite, do I? No. Unless it's a creme brulee, I wouldn't want it cracking.

Uh-uh. Six bucks for that, by the way. Too much. Yeah, not not happening.

Well, I hope that your appetites have all been appropriately stoked and that you order a copy of The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America. Thank you, Dylan. Thank you, Helen. Thanks to Parker at the golf course. Mr.

Starnes, keep guzzling that hot tea and honey, and I hope you're back on Monday. Thanks to all of you folks for being along. Jeff Stein, great time filling in on the Todd Starnes Show.