Trump Economy, Midterm Updates , and Big Pharma

My dough never sees a freezer. Fay Hollis makes the biscuits at Hardee's. I'm up at 5 a.m. every day making biscuits from scratch. Easy there, biscuit lady.

Aught to create the Hardee's two for five dollar breakfast menu. Try the new Oscar Mayer Bologna Biscuit, sausage and egg biscuit, smoked sausage biscuit, biscuit and gravy, or a cinnamon roll. The two for five dollar breakfast for a limited time only at participating Hardee's. I got up early. The least you.

Can do is show up hungry. From Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's favorite gun-toting, Bible-clinging, deplorable American. That's us. That's right. I love this American.

Tod Starnes. Oh yes, it is. What is up, my friends? Welcome into it. It is the Todd Starnes Radio Show.

It is not Tod Starnes, however, he is still out this week as he is out in California for his spiritual conference. But don't worry, we got you covered. We are sitting in that saddle and doing the thing like we do every single day here. And today is that pre-Friday celebration. It is the greatest day of the entire week, and we are so excited to be here with you as Andy Hoosier.

That's my name. Sitting in here for Todd. Todd Starnes moving that Liberty University studios out from Memphis, Tennessee, out here to Wichita, Kansas, in my big flagship station, KQAM, Wichita's big talker, and a great affiliate of the Todd Starnes radio show. Welcome into it, and I want to hear from you because there is so much going on today that your head's going to be spinning by the end of this program with how much we're going to try to cram in here nine zero one two six zero five nine two six again nine zero one two six zero fifty nine twenty six. A lot of great guests and.

Some more economic news now. Apparently, affordability in the economy is the number one priority for voters going into midterm season. But some new information is coming out, and I have to ask a really simple, basic question. I know that we're frustrated with gas prices, but is it really stopping you from spending money and actually investing into the economy by buying the goods and services that you normally do? According to the economy, they say no.

That is not stopping you.

So we'll get to that here in just a moment. Alejandro Martinez will be on the program at the bottom of the hour. He's with the National Food and Commerce Union. We are going to chat with him about the relationship between the United States and Mexico, with the price of goods coming across the border, the battle against cartels, and some of the other issues with our relationship with Mexico. Are we getting better in that relationship?

I know that the president of Mexico not necessarily happy with us in the ongoing deportation efforts. At the same time, we're not dealing with cartels any longer. We're not going to tolerate crime any longer, and we're helping them actually stop it as well with their shadow government, so to speak, down in the nation of Mexico.

So we'll get to that here in just a little bit. First and foremost, though, the economy: big news wrapping up last night with the Associated Press coming out with their economic numbers for the second quarter of the United States. Of 2026, showing the U.S. economy grew by a solid—that's word of the Associated Press, not by me. By the by, the AP, the U.S.

economy grew at a solid 2.2 percent pace for the second quarter. April through June, as consumer spending and business investment came in strong. According to the report, they say the growth in gross domestic product and the nation's output of goods and services decelerated from two and a half percent pace from January to March. Through the Commerce Department reporting yesterday, as the second quarter growth was an improvement. In the previous estimates, where they came in guesstimating one and a half percent, but came in at a solid two point two, so roughly the same as what we had seen in the first quarter.

Now this comes at a time, obviously, when economy and affordability and price of gas and price of food and price of everything else is priority numero uno for voters across the nation.

So I ask you, I want to ask you the simple question: Are you upset with the economy? And do you know, as we kind of mentioned on this program yesterday, that it's a conditional issue based on the conflict in Iran with the energy prices. Outside of that, inflation's really less than a percent right now under the Trump economy. Way better than the cumulative thirty-plus percent inflation we saw over the four years of Joe Biden. Inflation outside of energy costs is at an all-time low right now.

We're doing really well, but yet polls nationwide. Taken with a grain of salt for election season, show that only 26 of Americans actually approve of the current economic state in the nation. I have questions. How can we all say that we disapprove of the economy and have 26 approval rating when we're still growing at a near two and a half percent quarter by quarter? How is that possible?

Because if you're still spending money, that means that you're still spending money. You're okay with letting go of your money.

So either one of two things is happening. Either we refuse to let go of any spending habits that we have in our lifestyle and our in our style of living, to therefore we're getting further in debt to spend the same and be okay with. By the way, spending more money for the same goods and services and continue on with that, as opposed to changing your habits, or we're totally okay with the things that are going on. Because it's not even just I'm just spending the same amount and buying the same amount of things just at a higher cost, and therefore I'm just going to deal with it. Because that wouldn't be economic growth.

That means you're buying more than what you did in the past. Overall, as a general consumer idea, based on economic growth, so if you're spending more and buying more products, that means that you're okay with letting go of that money. And at a time when people say that they're concerned about the affordability issue, then you would usually rein it in and not buy as many things, or go out to restaurants nearly as much, or do the things you normally would do because you're kind of tightening that belt, right? I mean, that would be the logical step in understanding of this process. But that's not what's happening.

And look, I mean, I get it. Gas prices are are high right now. I went through. I mean, we have our budget. My wife and I, we have our simple budget.

I get my paycheck, and then we separate it into different bank accounts. This is the gas account. This is the grocery account. This is the bill account. This is the debt account.

And we kind of separate it all out. And I get it. My gas account went depleted a lot faster than what I normally had to. And we have some. We had to move some things around.

Like that's just what we had to do. At the same time, we also reined in on having to buy other goods because that's what we just do. That's that's normal. But if everybody's doing that, then that means we wouldn't see an economic growth, the GDP. For gross domestic product at a near two and a half percent for the second quarter.

So I ask you the question: Are you okay with the economy? Is that what's going to drive people to not vote in the midterm season of twenty twenty six? And is that going to be a deciding factor for the midterm season when we have such a low approval rating, but yet everybody continues to spend a whole lot of money at the same time? If you haven't heard. This past week, the consumer sentiment, meaning the people that actually approve of the economy, kind of like a poll that way, but just their rating on the economy overall, is at the second lowest that it's ever been since we started recording the consumer sentiment back in the nineteen fifties.

Which means again, the lowest number of people actually approve of how the economy is going in general, while they continue to spend money. It just doesn't make any sense.

So, which one's right and which one's wrong? Which one's manipulative and which one is accurate? Because according to the consumer, the Commerce Department, these are just factual numbers. The opinion is what you're being told by people on radio or on TV or on the business channels or whatever else you listen to, and then you hear the gas pump and you're like, "Gee, things are really expensive." Yeah, I don't like where things are either. But at the same time, if you're still spending money, then you got to have a conflicting opinion in some fashion.

So I want to hear from you on that front. Donald Trump did address that yesterday. After we got off the air yesterday afternoon, they Donald Trump was in the White House talking about an energy announcement. But talked about gas prices and how they're supposedly coming. Down relatively soon.

Gasoline prices in Alaska are going to tumble.

Well, as soon as the war ends, which is going to be soon, the Iran War prices are going to come way down, regardless. But gasoline prices, because of this project and a couple of others in Alaska, are going to tumble.

Now, if the Democrats come along, I can't speak to that. They will. You're going to have double. Prices will double. If they come along, you end up in a depression, recession, something very bad.

They have the worst policy. That's why they haven't gotten elected. People have to understand what's happening. If they, if anything, were done to hurt Alaska. The prices would go up so high, and remember, our gasoline prices, having stopped Iran from having a nuclear weapon, our gasoline prices are lower.

All right, so he's still making the pitch about Iran, the importance of keeping the nuclear weapon away from the nation of Iran, and with the announcement yesterday that we'll get a bit further into in just a moment, the announcement from the Trump administration that we are seeing a lot more energy being sunk into the United States, opening up more fracking, opening up more drilling, producing more nuclear. Sites in Texas and in Alaska and all over the place.

So we're essentially taking the affordability crises that we have right now with gas and diesel prices in particular, and we're turning it around and saying we're going to be less dependent on the global market based on Iran and what's going on with the Strait of Hormuz and OPEC and all the other prices around. And we're just going to do things ourselves. And I would say that's kind of a win, right? I mean, that's the whole goal of the America First agenda. And is it done politically for an election season?

Sure, it is. At the same time, this is going to be beneficial for the long haul, isn't it? Donald Trump making that announcement with the Commerce Department and a heck of a lot of other people in the Oval Office yesterday afternoon. Today, we're thrilled to announce one of the largest energy infrastructure investments in American history, thanks to the agreements my administration has secured with the Republic of Korea. They will invest up to two hundred billion dollars.

That's the Korean government. Two hundred billion dollars to build a six gigawatt power generation facility in Texas. That's a major plant. That's about as big as you'll see. Eight new large-scale nuclear power plants, and at long last, Alaska liquefied natural gas pipeline.

That's a big one, and that's why we have a lot of people from. Alaska, including a very great governor and your great senator Dan Sullivan. That's a little all right.

So that's a little weird that we have Korea actually investing in this two hundred billion dollars into it. But at the same time, it's kind of hilarious, right? And it's actually kind of brilliant to have other nations investing in the United States for our energy supply. I find that kind of intriguing. I mean, that's Donald Trump doing his business dealings and the art of the deal that he's so good at, which is why he deserves to be president right now.

But Two hundred billion dollars. We have a natural gas pipeline going into Alaska. The Keystone Pipeline that we're still continuing on that doesn't really do a whole lot for us. At the same time, it does help us on the back end a little bit. But we have a new natural gas pipeline in Alaska that's going to bring energy prices down for that region.

We have eight nuclear plants being built in the state of Texas, along with some other power lines and power supply sources. I mean, this is big, and we're going to lower some of these prices. It's going to help, by the way, with the data centers. It's going to help with the reliability. Down in Texas, I know you guys.

As soon as it gets really hot, you're kind of used to the hot. But as soon as it gets cold, then all of a sudden you get brown and blackouts. I live right smack dab in the middle of the country in Texas, in Kansas. And when it gets really hot here, we get a strain on our grid. When it gets really cold here, we get a strain on our grid.

Other individuals around other parts of the country, you deal with the same issues. If we have more reliability, what's the problem here? Promises made, promises kept. And I think that's all right. Your thoughts on this nine zero one two six zero five nine two six?

As we try to focus on the America First agenda, and we're looking at the long term needs of the United States, having other nations invest into the United States, which I think is really awesome, and being able to create some reliability for energy. Dealing with the OPEC and the issue in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, and trying to make us more not isolated, but more self dependent. And actually, being a little bit more independent compared to what other factors may be affecting us from the global markets, which I think is a good news all across the board. Look, America first, and that agenda is thriving right now. Republicans, hint, hint, wink, wink.

You have to do better on the campaign trail to promote these ideas, to show what we're actually doing, to showcase the economic growth and the economic successes that we have had in the past year, to remind people what the media tells you isn't always accurate. Why? Concept. I know that's crazy, right? We'll take your phone calls on this when we come back around the corner here.

Andy Hoosier sitting in for a Thursday on the Todd Stern's radio program. Stay here. Who answers America's call for more energy? Our people do. They've helped boost Chevron's U.S.

energy production by nearly sixty percent in the past three years, helping fuel national energy security. And drives down the open roads that make America. Learn more about what our people do at Chevron.com/america. All right, welcome back to a Todd Starnes radio program on a free Friday celebration. Andy Hoosier sitting in behind the microphone today for Todd.

He'll be back at it before you know it. You can find all his information at toddstarnes dot com and find his new book with the Golden Age, and you can see everything else that he's working on his Newsmax Television program, this radio program, all the great partners, and a heck of a lot more on the website at toddstarnes dot com. If you want to find my information. Would love you to check me out as well. My website is HoosierReason dot com h o o s e r Reason dot com, and you can see all my great information as well.

And we love sitting in here for. Todd on the program.

So the economy. Where do you stand on the economy? I know that they say that there's only a 26 percent approval rating right now. I know that we are the second lowest on consumer sentiment ever. At the same time, we have low inflation when you take energy itself off of the record and look at just everything else, and we still have a two and a half percent growth of the GDP.

Which means people are still spending money.

So where do you actually stand on this? And are we still moving in the right direction to become a little bit more independent, a little bit more self-dependent, and less reliable on some of the foreign markets and the global market in general? Especially when it comes to ideas like energy in general. And by building the Alaska LNG pipeline, we will deliver nearly four billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas per day, and that makes us. Puts us at a level that's not comparable with anyone else.

The United States is already the largest natural gas producer and exporter in the world, and this pipeline will help us expand those exports even further. For five decades, politicians have talked about the Alaska pipeline. I've been hearing about it from the time I'm a little boy. The Alaska pipeline is going to be built someday. I was always fascinated.

I love how Donald Trump talks at some of these press statements. Here's the thing: I'm a I'm a nerd. I enjoy economic numbers, and I know that that inflation rates and percentage rates and GDP growth are really not the sexiest issues to talk about on radio. But it's important, and with that being the focus, I think for most voters that are heading out to the polls over the next few weeks and month to get ready for the midterms, it is an important issue. And there are so many ways that Republican candidates Its conservative candidates around the country can focus on these issues.

Right, we can talk about the economic wins in the past year. We're outside of the conditional temporary problem with the Iranian conflict that we saw inflation rates drop dramatically within months of Donald Trump taking office in 2025. We can talk about the passage of the one big beautiful bill with no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on social security. We can talk about those major wins. We can chat about how we're becoming more independent by refilling our reserves of oil, how we're building nuclear.

Plants. We're looking at energy for the future. We're finding more reliable and more sustainable energy. We can talk about all of that, and if you want to talk about inflation, why don't we talk about government spending? Why don't we talk about government fraud?

Why don't we talk about the task force, the fraud task force run by Dr. Oz and by Vice President JD Vance, that's been able to find billions upon billions upon billions of dollars of fraud and mispayments going on inside the federal government? That if we're not spending that money on fraudulent stuff, that means we're not spending it in general, which means the value of a dollar might actually—I don't know—almost kind of sort of get a little bit more stable. This this thing, Bobby, really really bothers me because when people say That they care about Medicare, they're trying to protect Social Security, they're trying to protect Medicaid. Give me a break!

If you are encouraging illegal aliens to sign up from Social Security and steal Social Security benefits, you're not protecting Social Security, you're destroying it.

So cut that out and be honest about your intentions. It's about giving benefits to illegal aliens. It's not about saving the program. By the way, Ian and Dylan, we we got that one. We got we got that one covered.

Jd. Vance, man, dropping some harsh words. He gets a little emotionally excited. Donald Trump's been doing that too at some of the rallies. We got to be careful if we stream some of the press conferences live from Donald Trump and JD Vance, man.

They're just—they're not taking no crap no more. They don't care. They're just going after him.

So he's right. Look, I mean, we have a we have a housing affordability problem, and like JD Vance said, is that if we actually get rid of the massive flood of migrants coming into the country that we're intentionally bringing in in the sums of millions and dumping them into a state, and then being like, gee, I don't know why there's no housing going on, or with the fraud on Medicare and Medicaid and SNAP programs and at Social Security and everything else, that if we're not paying into these fraudulent programs and giving money out to where they're not supposed to go, we don't. Where it's going, just poof, disappearing, which I call a backdoor systematic fraudulent system with the backdoors built into the system itself, allowing for the fraud to happen, allowing for organizations or NGOs or politicians themselves to be able to open up that backdoor and take and funnel some of this money into these fraudulent systems. That if we got rid of that, could you imagine how much money we'd be saving? We wouldn't have to pay that many taxes into the system to fund these programs that are failing, by the way, and bankrupt already.

That they would be more sustainable, which in turn would make the dollar more sustainable, which in turn would make the value of your dollar go up, which in turn would make inflation go down. It's all tied together.

So we can attack this on so many different fronts, Republicans. You have a plethora of talking points on the campaign trail. Pick one. Pull one out of the magic hat and start talking about on the campaign trail, saying all the good things that we've done, all the good things that we're working on, and all the good things that we want to do moving forward. And that we have to have because we need the majorities in Congress to make that happen.

Will we see that? I don't know. Latest polls show that there's a 60 percent chance of Democrats taking over the Senate and even potentially taking over parts of the House as well. I'm still optimistic. I don't know if that's going to happen, but guys, plenty of opportunity.

Figure it out, man. And we'll help you with the media, as were the pundits, I guess, or the talking heads, being able to assist you in fueling that fire with the messaging we're trying to get out there. We got lots more to get to. It's the Tom Sterns Radio Program on a Thursday. Stay here.

Who answers America's call for more energy? Our people do. They've helped boost Chevron's U.S. energy production by nearly 60% in the past three years, helping fuel national energy security and drives down the open roads that make America. Learn more about what our people do at Chevron.com/america.

All right, welcome back to it nine zero one two six zero five nine two six here on the Todd Stern's Radio Show. Economic issues going on in the nation, the global economy, where Donald Trump walked up to the UN just a week or so ago and gave a State of the Union address about how awesome we've been here in the United States and how we're hyping up and holding up essentially the world economy. Is that really true? And what the heck's going on along with the relationship? We have the ongoing conversations with the USMCA, with the trade deals with the nation of Canada, trade deals with the nation of Mexico.

I know that Canada is kind of balking on some issues and deals, and we're seeing some higher tariffs between those two nations. Maybe political, I would say a lot political, because it is affecting some of those border states up on the north end. With Wisconsin and Maine, Michigan, some of those places that are having some hotly contested races, so there is that issue. But then we also have the trade deals with the nation of Mexico. We're battling some of the cartels and assisting the nation of Mexico with battling those cartels within their own country.

That's where I want to go to as we move to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Hotline here on the Todd Sterns Radio Show. Happy to have on here as our next guest is he's with the National Food and Commerce Union in Mexico. Really happy to have on Alejandro Martínez. Alejandro, how are you, my friend? Hi, Andy.

How are you? Thank you for having me. Yeah, doing great. It's good to chat with you again. I really enjoyed the chats that I've had with you in the past.

Are we getting better? Are we coming to a deal? Do you think a closer deal with a a trade deal between the United States and Mexico right now? Yes, I think we're coming closer. I think we have had more talks in the last two months than the last six months, especially after Canada's tantrum.

The talks between Mexico and the U.S. increased, and a lot of bilateral commitments and rules between the two countries in very important sectors like steel, aluminum, chips, tomatoes, aerospace, and other industries are are getting drafted. And I think we will see some agreements in the next months. That is really good news.

Some of the prices of imports that are coming in, the price of jalapenos, which are very near and dear to my heart because that's what I eat on a regular basis, and avocados as well. Just to be honest, I put jalapenos on like my ice cream. I mean, that's how much I enjoy this. Are those prices coming back down? Because I know we did see a bit of a spike in those for a while.

Yes, yeah, that's a very, very good difference between tariffs on a vegetable like a tomato, for example. You did saw a rise on the price of tomatoes when when the dumping tariff was imposed, but in the case of avocados and jalapenos, but especially on avocados, just to give your audience an overview, Mexico sends the U.S. more than 3.6 billion dollars on avocados a year. That's like 83 percent of everything you import.

So all your guacamole, even with jalapenos, comes from one state that's named Michoacan. And the problem over there is that the people who pick this mostly have no contract, no social security, no labor rights, no human rights.

So, avocados not a program right now because we are in a five year low, actually. And compared to the Biden administration, where an avocado box was costing seventy five dollars, you have now twenty five during Trump two point oh.

So you won't see substantial change. In the avocado price, upwards you should see downwards a price because the harvesting was very good and the crops were record last year.

Well, now I feel bad eating jalapenos and avocados, but I know it's something that you guys have been working on down there, trying to actually help a lot of these workers. At the same time, is talk about the cartels and some of these shadow government entities that are down there, because the vast majority of even a lot of the produce that comes into the United States is at least somewhat controlled or regulated by some of the cartels, isn't it? Yes, cartels control territory, not the whole supply chain.

So they charge rent in some municipalities, which runs through 33,000 certified rowers and more than 100 potters. But we think, and the official data says that they are making between 400 and 600 million dollars in extortion from this 3.6 billion dollar market.

So it is an issue. Of course, most of them have workers under the worst conditions possible. Even child labor is present in the avocado supply chain. Drug lords are owners of many companies and farms and ranches, so that's something that we labor enforcement would could fight, and that would be also for good for the American public. Yeah, let's talk about the cartel battle that's going on right now.

I know that there's been some tension, at least a little bit, between the president of Mexico and President Trump's administration because of our threat to have U.S.

soldiers in the nation to try and battle some of the cartels. But then I haven't heard much on that for a while, and it seems like maybe things have calmed down a little bit because we've been assisting Mexico in finding where some of these cartel leaders are and where they're hidden out in some of the mountain ranges, and trying to battle them to get rid of some of their influence. Within the government, how's that process going so far?

Well, you know, politicians they have to have their show, to preach to their choir, both sides.

So you can see in the front, our president talking about sovereignty and and no intrusion and no military collaboration. But the fact is that in the back door, you can read every day in Mexico, drug lords being snapped or killed, narco labs being destroyed. Every day, you see collaboration between the U.S. and Mexico to to combat the cartels. Maybe not as as as as much as we would like, because of course it's the number one employer in Mexico.

Biden administration made the cartels the richest, most powerful men ever existed on earth. Just with forced migration, they got trillions. And if you add up fentanyl and this kind of businesses with agriculture, child trafficking, women trafficking, diesel trafficking, the last four years of the Biden administration almost destroyed Mexico and cost America hundreds of thousands of lives.

So we are trying to go back to a healthy country. I think America and Mexico are collaborating a lot. We need much more. And from the Union side, we would love to see labor enforcement because that's the root cause of all our evils. If we pay Mexicans fair and strong wages in organized labor, with labor enforcement through USMCA, the incentives for mass migration, forced migration, organized crime, transshipment with China—all these problems that are being now on the table with the USMCA can could be combated, fight with good wages and a regional wage baseline, which is one of our proposals.

That is so wild. Let's go back to the Biden administration for just a moment. With something you just said, that the Joe Biden administration that made the cartels some of the richest organizations on the face of the earth was that done just based on your opinion? Was that done based on intention, or was that just complete ignorance of the issue, allowing these major caravans to go through the entire nation from the southern tip all the way up to the U.S. border, allowing this flood of migrants and the drugs and human trafficking and everything else coming into the United States, and willingly?

Looking the other way was that done intentional or was that just a byproduct of really bad policy decision? No, no, no. That was a plan. That was intentional. We we saw that in the union, the the companies that were created and the the chains that were formed for this migrant caravans, of course, our affiliates were suffering the consequences of the the unsafety in their own towns because the cartels were taking over all the states.

Because everyone wanted a piece of the business, you know. Biden opened the borders. It's just one data. They said officially there were 10,000 migrant encounters a day, right? During Biden administration.

Yeah. We know in Mexico that migrants pay between 20,000 to 50,000 dollars to the coyotes, which are part of the cartels, to get them from the southern border to the northern border. Let's go conservative and think it's 20,000. And not ten thousand a day, but five thousand a day. You're speaking about hundred million dollars a day, just migrant trafficking.

Arab, and that's not, yeah, and that's, and that's not including, yeah, that's not including fentanyl. That's not including the drugs. That's not including the guns. That's nothing else. Nothing, just migrant trafficking.

There, there's no way that wasn't planned. That there was a structure, politicians involved, companies, of course, all the border patrol were involved and corrupted in some manner, exit and the U.S. And now you're seeing the consequences of that.

So that that was intentional. I think personally, I think Biden was importing voters as they are losing the black and the Hispanic vote. Wow, it's insane. We're talking with Alejandro Martinez. He's with the National Food and Commerce Union.

Now that they were one of the most rich organizations on the face of the earth, and now we're trying to rein that in. I can only imagine, as well, as we talk about a shadow government in Mexico, the politicians, the military leaders that have ties to certain cartels, and the ongoing civil war on that front. How do you weed something like that out? Obviously, that's got to take some time. That's going to take time, but you saw what happened in El Salvador.

El Salvador was one of the deadliest countries on earth. Bukele got the political will together to go after the cartels, the mafias, right, which were also embedded in the whole system and part of every family in El Salvador. And in two years, he turned El Salvador into one of the most peaceful and the most safest countries on earth.

So of course, El Salvador is tiny. But that's a way to go. You need political will. You need the people to be on your side, and you need the big deals and the money and the and the courage to ignore all these NGOs that were profiting from this mob force scam, and just go after them. And if you kill the tracks, you kill the finances.

You snap the people, you clean up the social fabric because you are having formal labor and good wages and build unions. I think we could do a lot, really a lot, compared to what's happening right now.

Well, like you said, I mean, some of the other leaders that are trying to tackle this. I mean, Nayib Bukele down in El Salvador, he's done an amazing job as well. Progressives absolutely hate him; they've called him that he's violating human rights by just locking people up because they're part of a gang or something. But that's even judges are arresting judges because they've had ties to these different gangs that were down in El Salvador. I mean, that's eventually that's what it's going to have to take if you're going to get rid of this corruption, right?

Of course, of course, the progressives are against this because we have profited from this for decades. They need slave labor. They need illegal migrants. They need terrorists. They need corrupt judges.

They need corrupt NGOs.

So their system work and their laundering system work, and they will fight very hardly for that not to be lost because that's worth hundreds of billions of dollars for them. Yeah, Alejandra, we got a few minutes left here. Let's talk about the Hispanic vote as we go into the midterm season for a moment. Because you work both in the United States and in Mexico together, I know that Donald Trump overwhelmingly saw a major increase in Hispanic support in the 2024 presidential election with the immigration raids that are going on right now across the country. He has been focusing on most of the cartels and crime and so on and so forth, which has been good.

Some of the other ICE raids, obviously, very controversial. But do you think that he's still in Republicans with this? Mindset of keeping America safe and working with Mexico to get rid of cartels is that still a popular talking point? And do you think that Hispanic voters are still open to those ideas and supporting Republicans in the Trump administration? I think you have two teams in the Hispanic voters right now.

You have the MAGA team, the Hispanics that have been working very hard in America. The now Americans they have small businesses. They know what illegal migration has done to their businesses, cheapening labor and and making work undignified. In many cases, like on the fields, landscaping, or construction, where even Americans don't want to do those jobs anymore. Hospitality, those those Hispanics are.

I'm sure they're still voting for Donald Trump because they don't want these tales that came with Biden and Obama back. Then you have the other Hispanics that are more sensitive, maybe in the middle, moderate, or that were seeing what happens if Trump wins this time, which are and they are angry because of some of the ice raids or the way they have been enacted, and I think they're wrong because I don't think any of those people would harbor these people in their own homes. I'm pretty sure they won't open the door to these people.

So that's do as I say, not as I do. Yeah. But I think President Trump and they're they're missing this part to speaking to the Hispanic vote about wages, about dignified labor back home. Millions of Mexicans are in America, and they have millions of Mexican families back home. They are sending billions in remittances every year.

And he's not addressing that. If he addresses the safety and the labor enforcement in Mexico for their families as a program, he would win a lot of support from this team of the Hispanic vote, and they are missing this part completely right now.

Well, it's a work in progress, and hopefully, you're right. We can move in the right direction on multiple of these fronts, with both the crime issue, the cartel issue, the trade issue. Get this U M C A deal done, and we can have a better relationship with nations all across the board: Canada, U S., and Mexico. It is Alejandro Martinez. Go and find him.

All the great information with the National Food and Commerce Union. It's always great to chat with my friend. I love the chats. We got to do it again soon. Of course.

Yeah, you bet. You appreciate it very much. Again, Alejandro Martinez on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Hotline. We'll cover some of this and break that down when we come back. Plus, your phone calls to wrap up this hour of the Tatstarns Radio Program.

Stay here. Who answers America's call for more energy? Our people do. They've helped boost Chevron's U.S. energy production by nearly sixty percent in the past three years, helping fuel national energy security.

And drives down the open roads that make America. Learn more about what our people do at Chevron.com/america. All right, welcome back to it, Todd Sarns Radio Program. Thanks again to Alejandro Martinez coming on the program. Great conversation.

I love hearing about our relationship with Mexico, and we need a very strong, healthy relationship with both Canada and with Mexico. If Canada would just get on board and be our fifty-first state, man, I tell you, things would just work a heck of a lot better. But we are getting better with Mexico and battling with those cartels. Can you imagine again the Biden administration, either intentionally wanting this garbage to happen or just not caring because he was trying to import the voters or whatever he was doing, but allowing the cartels to be the most wealthy organizations on the face of the earth? That's not a they essentially could with their value, with how much money they were making, they could essentially have the GDP of an entire country themselves.

That's insane. And we a lot of were like, meh, that's our Mexico, that's your problem. But what we did here allowed that to happen because the infrastructure was built there to allow them to profit from what was going on here and allow them to cross that border. And Biden was just like, meh.

Well, I can't say Joe Biden. He was there with his sharpie on his, you know, to drawing his pictures in the Oval Office while everybody else was running things for him in the auto pen.

So it wasn't really him, but. He didn't do any favors as well. By the way, I am a bit surprised that I did not get any phone calls about the jalapenos on ice cream. Ian, jump on here for a for a moment. The Gen Z version of this one is spicy food still a popular thing for the younger gen because I I got to admit I literally put jalap maybe not on ice cream but literally on just about everything else.

I have to have spice in my life. Yeah, it's definitely still a big thing. I know like two or three people who will carry a bottle of. Hot sauce with them wherever they go, and I haven't.

Okay, I haven't heard about jalapeno ice cream though. Yeah, I mean that is a line. I guess I have yet to try, so I guess I can't knock it one way or the other. But now here's the thing: there is a difference between hot sauce and jalapenos and like actual peppers. I'm a pepper guy.

For whatever reason, hot sauces themselves they they hurt my stomach. They give me heartburn or whatever. And I think it may be the vinegar in it or something.

So there is a difference. Between actual hot sauce and salsa or peppers themselves, I will put you know on hamburgers or obviously in my tacos, even Italian food. I'll drop some jalapenos or something in there.

So I love those. If you get like I don't know wings, like really hot wings and Frank's Red Hot sauce, I enjoy that. But that one burns me. I don't know what the difference is. Yeah, I don't know either.

It's just something about it that has. A change. I don't understand it. Yeah, yeah. I don't know.

All right.

Well, I did actually. By the way, this past week or so was the Kansas State Fair, and I was up there for the majority of the time. I found a vendor that was selling hot sauces, and some of their hot sauces actually have been on that show, Hot Ones. If if anybody's watched Hot Ones, where you interview the the celebrity and they're eating hot wings and they get progressively hotter as it goes along, he had two or three hot sauces that he's had that's actually been on Hot Ones.

So of course, I had to buy those and. One of them is a cantaloupe hot sauce with cantaloupe habaneros and Reaper sauce, and it's amazing. It's incredible. Wow.

Okay, so it actually has like flavor. It's not just fire. It has. Oh, yeah. It has a lot of flavor.

It has a lot of flavor. And I'm going to give everybody a tip here. I make my own salsa, and I'm going to give you a recipe. It's super easy. But apparently, some people think it's hot or something.

It's very simple. Here's what it is. And I got this from actually a Mexican coworker when I was in the banking industry. Nine jalapenos, nine serrano peppers, nine habaneros, with two tomatoes and a half an onion. You boil them, you blend them, you put some lime juice and salt on it, and you're good.

That's it. That's it. It's incredible. Yeah, my coworkers apparently don't like it. They think it's way too hot.

They sweat or something. But whatever. We'll continue some of this when we come back here on the corner. Our number one, all wrapped up. It is the Todd Sarns Radio Program.

My name is Andy Hoosier. We got lots more to get to today on a pre-Friday celebration. Stay here. Who answers America's call for more energy? Our people do.

They've helped boost Chevron's U.S. energy production by nearly sixty percent in the past three years, helping fuel national energy security and drives down the open roads that make America. Learn more about what our people do at Chevron. dot com slash America. Broadcasting coast to coast and border to border from Memphis, Tennessee.

That's us. That's right. I love this America. Yes, it is, my friends. What is up?

Welcome into it. It is the Todd Sterns radio program. It is not Todd Sterns, however, he is still out west in California doing his thing. But don't worry, we got you covered today for the hour number two of the Todd Sterns radio program. My name is Andy Hoosier, sitting behind the microphone today, moving those Liberty University studios all the way out here.

To Wichita, Kansas, my flagship station here on KQAM, Wichita's big talker and a great affiliate of the Todd Sarns radio program. I want to hear from you today at nine zero one two six zero five nine two six nine zero one two six zero fifty nine twenty six. There is plenty happening as we are now counting down those days, and I think I said the day wrong on how the countdown for election day. I believe it's thirty four days now. Because it was was it thirty five thirty six I don't know we're right around there let's just say a month into it so let's get ready strap in buckle up and let's get ready who's ready to go and vote as those numbers come out we'll cover some of those election numbers in just a moment also bottom of the hour James Maroney will be on the show with our friends over at Americans for Prosperity he's an energy policy analyst and we'll talk about our relationship with China.

Our relationship with Canada and Mexico, the announcement of the energy statements from the Trump administration yesterday regarding eight new nuclear plants in Texas, the natural gas pipeline in Alaska, and what we're doing to try and make energy more affordable and more secure and more reliable across the nation—we'll break all that down and a heck of a lot more coming up at the bottom of the hour. That being said, let's bounce around the country in certain areas here, shall we? And one of our favorite people here on the Todd Starnes. Radio shows, of course, in New York City. The man himself, Zohran Mamdani, he made an announcement early this morning.

And this is where we're at. I mean, just put this into perspective. You have economic issues. You have the grocery stores. You have a budget in New York City that's now bigger than the entire budget for the state of Florida.

You have the billions of dollars being bailed out by the state of New York, bailing out New York City. You got the federal government bailing out with social programs and certain programs for New York City because the socialism you have to take from other people in order to funnel it to where you want it to go, and it doesn't do a darn thing, and it doesn't help. Anybody at all whatsoever, but while all of that is going on, the campaign tactic right now to help Democrats and talk about how great Zoran Momdani is doing as mayor of New York City is to focus on the hard pressing issues, and I'm talking about the most important thing you could possibly talk about for New York City with his press statement that he had earlier this morning.

So a year ago, a Google Maps user named Henry Walker. Left to review for Box Street Park. In his list of pros, he wrote that it provided "quote desperately needed park space in North Greenpoint." His list of cons contained only one item: does not exist. And still, he gave it three out of five stars. New Yorkers are nothing if not optimistic.

As you can see from the crack patches of pavement around us, Henry is correct. Box Street Park does not exist. More than twenty years ago, City Hall promised to transform this lot into a park. That was two thousand five, when that promise was made. Movies came out on VHS.

Tobey Maguire was Peter Parker, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't even born. Even then, the people of Greenpoint knew they deserved better, and they intended. To hold government to it. All right, Ian, come on here for just a moment. The park in New York.

Now, first off, look, this guy Zoran Mladic. He knows he's a celebrity, right? He knows how to do the social media thing. He's a social media influencer. That's how he got his notoriety.

To try and run for mayor of New York City, he knows how to work a crowd, cracking these jokes about being 2005, and I'm not even born yet. All right, cool. At the same time, this is the hard-hitting news. The the people are. Holding the government accountable because they want a park, so he holds this massive press conference and makes the announcement that promises made, promises fulfilled.

In fact, on the podium, it says, "Turning a promise into a park." That's how big he's making this statement of a park in New York City. And look, I know that the young gen they like the opportunity to walk around outside and enjoy the fresh air, but is this the hard hitting issue that's going to win over voters in New York City? You know, ultimately, people are eventually going to see through when none of his programs work out. Like the government-run grocery stores, they've been pushed back what two or three times. Are already over budget, right?

That's what's going to affect people. And he didn't fix like the fifty percent tax that people are having to deal with. If you add up. All the taxes on the cost of living that people are dealing with, but do you think they care? Do you think they?

I mean, look, I mean, the younger gen. I mean, he was campaigning in nightclubs. He was going out to the EDM kind of clubs, and he was out there and he'd get on the microphone for thirty seconds and be like, "I'm going to give you free buses," and everybody would cheer, and that's how he got voted in. In fact, the million people that turned out to vote in New York City, eighty percent of them were first time voters or immigrants that had come into New York City. That's who won Zoran Momdani.

So the fact that he's not. Fulfilling all these promises for the younger gen, do the do you think they actually care?

Well, I think a lot of his campaigning extremely effective because he has fun, right? He looks like the young, promising candidate, and he promises people free stuff, right? That's always effective. And I think for a lot of people, they honestly don't care, right? Along a lot of the younger generation, which villainizes anything that like.

The nuclear family, or democracy, or have been trained to hate anyone wealthy. Like we have such a strong sense of socialism among the younger generation, especially with our current school system.

So I think for a decent amount of people, they don't care that much about the actual implementation of the policies as much as what he's selling them, which is the idea. Of free stuff in the whole stick it to the man. We're going to get the billionaires' ideas. Yeah, as long as it sounds good, we don't really care what the policies are behind the scenes or how it gets implemented. We just want to hear the rhetoric that makes us feel good.

On that, that's a wild way to live your life. But I guess you know, for socialists, that's the way they do it. By the way, I had to look up Zoran Mandic just to make sure because I would have been really upset. He he was born before two thousand five. Is that he was born in nineteen ninety one?

So he's thirty four years old, and I guess he's only what three years younger. I am so, and I hate to say it. He's a fellow Libra. His birthday is coming up on October eighteenth. Mine's on the thirteenth, so we're close on that front.

That makes me a little sad, but at least I am more optimistic of the fact that he wasn't born after two thousand five, because that would have made me really sad and feel really, really old for sure. All right, let's move from New York City all the way out to California. I know that's where Todd is right now with his leadership conference and his spiritual conference that he's at. But I want to focus on if you did not get to watch. Last night on CNN, I know that even the idea of flipping on CNN is kind of a foreign concept.

But last night there was a governor's debate. The governor's debate for the great state of California, and I got to tell you, man, Steve Hilton rocked it. He killed that debate. It was a great one against the Democrat challenger Xavier Becerra.

Now, that being said, the mayor of L.A., Karen Bass, who's also running for her reelection, came out on a podcast interview recently and said that the race is over. We shouldn't even have an election. Becerra is going to obviously win, and the polls show that Becerra right now is up at least sixty forty. There's a wide gap. I don't know that we're ever going to see California.

Turn red again, like the governor of California, and it's once and they go, yeah, like that, or all the way back during the Ronald Reagan time to the nineteen eighties, or I guess before the eighties when he was governor before he came became president. But is there an opportunity for voters in California to finally wake up? And realize what the heck's going on in their state, and the business that's leaving, and the people that are leaving, and what they're importing in, and what their priorities have been. Look, there's got to be a line in the sand. There's got to be a breaking point at some point for people to say, "Wow, this place is really messed up.

We should probably do something different, and not keep voting in the same party and the same people over and over and over again, and be like, 'This time it'll work.'" I don't know how that's going to happen. I don't know when that line in the sand is actually going to be, and when we're going to cross that threshold. But right now, we're still seeing Democrats overwhelmingly just blindly go along with Xavier Becerra. But the debate last night was actually pretty telling. And it was it was really entertaining to watch because Steve Hilton is a rock star.

He, I've been a fan of his. I like what he does for the most part. And he called out Xavier. Yeah, he held nothing back last night. It was kind of entertaining.

I want to start with what voters say is the most important issue here in California, and that is the cost of living, which is among the highest in the nation. Secretary Becerra. Your opponent says he's going to eliminate state taxes on the first one hundred fifty thousand dollars in income and get rid of the sixty three cent per gallon gas tax. He says those tax cuts are the quickest and most direct way to bring relief to Californians. Is he right?

Absolutely, he's wrong. What he would do is he would damage our state even further, make it harder for working families. He'd make it tough for folks like my parents.

Okay, hold on. Before we get into his full definition here and what he's going to say, the Steve Hilton plan is giving tax breaks across the board. Obviously, taxes are way too high. The inflation is way too high. Government spending in California way too high.

If you live in California, you know it, baby. You know what's up, and you know the taxes that you have to deal with. If you're a business owner in California, you know what's up, and that's. To California, the plan is that no one pays state income tax under one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which that's a wild threshold there. And then tax breaks for the super wealthy, which of course Democrats get mad at.

The argument that Becerra is making. Is that families that are struggling, the families that are living the American dream or trying to live the American dream, or maybe they're recently moved to the state of California as an immigrant coming in in the legal process and trying to make their life in the state of California? That cutting their taxes, try to walk with me on this logic here, cutting their taxes would make it more difficult for them to survive. Let that one sink in. What he would do is he would damage our state even further, make it harder for working families.

He'd make it tough for folks like my parents who came to this country with with twelve dollars and they settled in California. They were able to build the California dream, but they had to work hard. They needed to make sure that the government was was there with them. If you start cutting taxes, and Steve Hilton's plan actually goes beyond just the one hundred fifty thousand. Claims he'll try to cut.

He wants to give the richest Californians, millionaires and billionaires, a forty percent tax cut, which means, of course, he'll take it out of our schools. He'll take it out of healthcare. He'll take it out of housing and make the conditions even worse. We have to have sound policy, whether it's tax policy or spending policy, to make sure that we can bring our California a dream back to life. Right now, all right.

So his argument is no, by cutting taxes for one hundred for the people making less than one hundred and. Fifty thousand dollars in California is not going to be beneficial to them. That's going to make it harder for them somehow to survive. Like his parents, who came here at twelve dollars in their pockets, and under the current plans, you still would have had to pay taxes on that. But it would have been more difficult if they actually kept that twelve dollars to build their life and build their business in California.

And then, of course, he sidestepped and started talking about the evil rich people and how we need to have stable taxes and stable government, and government needs to be there. The typical left wing talk. Point government is here to help, and the social programs are the most important thing on the face of the earth. And although, as California, Spending more money on education, more money on social programs, more money on government red tape and regulation, regulatory burden on the private sector and individuals and businesses—that that is a good thing, and it has to be stable and it has to be thriving.

So, even though businesses leaving, we have to keep the high tax rates because the heck with you, you evil super duper evil rich person. We need to tax the heck out of you to make sure that we have a stable California government that's. By the way, really in debt because of how much they actually spend. That's his plan, and Democrats like, man, yeah, sounds good. Everybody, round of applause for him.

We have a situation where if you start making tax breaks for the wealthiest, you damage our working families, like my parents, Mr. Hilton. I love the way that Javier says the wealthiest, people who are earning less than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, struggling. But first of all, I just want to say thank you to CNN for bringing Javier out of hiding. He's barely been seen in public since the primary four months ago.

It's very important we have this debate. And the simple point is that the quickest way to get more money in people's pockets is for the government to take less out. That's what I'm going to be doing, and it's not coming from the. Budgets that he describes. You know what it's coming from: canceling high-speed rail, which he's promised to continue with.

Interesting. I love it. He goes on score, sir. We have many more of these. We'll play when we come back here.

I got to get your thoughts. Nine zero one two six zero five nine two six. Where do you stand? Do you think that California has any sense of common sense left in them to say, "Wait a second, maybe just maybe we should do something different from the direction we've been on for decades now, and things aren't working out." So let's just do the same thing and elect. Same people and hope for a different response.

Do you think they've woken up to that? And could we see a change in California? Nine one two six zero five nine two six Andy Hooser sitting in for the Great Todd Starns on the Todd Starns Radio Program. Who answers America's call for more energy? Our people do.

They've helped boost Chevron's U.S. energy production by nearly sixty percent in the past three years. Helping fuel national energy security and drives down the open roads that make America. Learn more about what our people do at Chevron.com/america. Welcome back to a Todd Stern's radio program.

Speaking of the state of California, by the way, Gavin Newsom, Mister Hollywood wannabe, the governor of California, he has just released a statement on his social media regarding an executive order that he has signed to combat President Donald Trump.

Now, if you remember, during the tech meeting that he, that Trump had in Washington D.C. a couple days ago, a And his executive order to say that we are now addressing artificial intelligence as super intelligence—kind of petty, kind of ridiculous—but nonetheless, that's what he did. Governor Gavin Newsom has countered that by signing his own statewide executive order. Through the Executive Department of the State of California, Executive Order N-10-26. Whereas California dominates artificial intelligence innovation, even as a state has taken more aggressive action to strengthen the safety, security, and consumer privacy of AI.

And whereas while language and choice of terminology can have significant purporting to change to something, something's name cannot distract a person of normal intelligence from recognizing the importance of. Craven failure to take action to address well-documented emerging security and safety risks by posing that, and therefore, Governor Gavin Newsom, State of California, in accordance with the authority vested in me by the state constitution and the statutes of the State of California, further informed by common sense, do hereby issue the following executive order, effective immediately, that it will be referred to as not super intelligence. But by artificial intelligence.

So there you go. You got the battle of the words, the terminology that's going on between Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom.

Well done. I'm glad you're wasting your time on that one, Gavin Newsom. Kind of ridiculous. Speaking of, by the way, AI and data centers. That was brought up in the debate last night between Steve Hilton and Xavier Becerra for governor of California, where that one got a little testing.

I just want to ask you a very simple question: How can we possibly trust you on this when you are funded? By big tech and AI, how much money have you taken from OpenAI and Anthropic? The reason you could trust me, Steve, is how much money have you taken from OpenAI and Anthropic? You want to answer? The answer is the reason you could trust me is because I have sued.

Meta. I have sued Amazon. I have sued Google. I have sued these very companies. I have enforced the law against these companies, and I will continue to do so as governor.

The difference between us, Steve, is I have a record of having done that. You just say the talk, but you've never done it. What I've never done is what you've done in your thirty-six years as a career politician, where you've never created a job. You've never actually had to make any money of your own. All you've ever done is spent other people's money.

In every government job you've had, according to your Democrat colleagues. The ones who worked with you, like Susan Rice, who worked with you side by side when you were in the Biden cabinet, she described you as an idiot. She called you. Why did Susan Rice, a respected political leader, call you an idiot? I think we, I think we got that one too.

We got that one too, Dylan and Ian. We got and Helen. We got that one too. I, Steve Hilton, not holding anything back. And that governor's debate last night against Xavier Becerra.

Look, I mean, he's a life. Lifelong politician, he worked in the Obama administration. He's been the attorney general for California. He's been a lifelong politician for thirty plus years. And Steve's right.

I mean, the guy hasn't really created a job. He sues. He regulates. He enforces. He goes after the private industry.

That's the entire purpose of government. And Steve says, "Wait a second. Even your own Democrat colleagues don't like you. What are we doing here? And why would you allow this individual to control AI, to control the data centers, to control the tech industry?

You got to remember, we got Silicon Valley in California. That's where the vast majority of these tech leaders around the world and even in the country here are based out of with Silicon Valley in the state of California, and that's going to." Be a major economic driver for you, while the Sarahs going to be like, hey, we want your tax money. We're going to go ahead and tax you, evil richie riches, while regulate the heck out of you because government wants to control this industry. I don't know how well that's going to fly. See how all that works out for you.

Back after this on the Todd Stern's radio program. Who answers America's call for more energy? Our people do. They've helped boost Chevron's U.S. energy production by nearly 60% in the past three years, helping fuel national energy security and drives down the open roads that make America.

Learn more about what our people do at Chevron. dot com slash America. All right, welcome back to the Todd Sarns Radio Show. Andy Hoosier sitting in for the Todd Sarns Show today nine zero one two six zero five nine two six We have a bunch more audio from that debate in California last night from the governor's debate. Steve Hilton just rocking at me and not holding back on Xavier Becerra.

So we'll get to that and some really interesting accusations that Hilton made regarding the immigration issue. Human. Trafficking and allowing more than a hundred thousand kids in California to go missing—that we still don't know—under his leadership as Attorney General in California and their lack of enforcement for immigration.

So we will cover some of that a little bit later. We are covering, however.

Some breaking news going on. Hat tip to Fox News on this one. Apparently, Iranian negotiators that were here in the United States working with the Trump administration, talking to Marco Rubio, have been kicked out of the United States. As according to the statement, they say that talks have stalled, and Trump lays out a possible timeline for more potential strikes.

So, as we go into the midterms, and we said that we're about ready to wrap up, we're looking for that off ramp. The energy prices that are relatively high may. Maybe just maybe, maybe lingering a little bit longer. We'll cover some more of that, and that leads into our next guest on the program. As we go right to our Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Hotline here on the Todd Starnes Radio Show, as we have the Energy Policy Analyst for our friends over at Americans for Prosperity, Mr.

James Maroney. James, are you my friend? We're real good after yesterday, so it's a good start. It's a it's a great start. There's some wild news going on.

We have the Iran issue. We have the meeting with China that just happened this past weekend. Of course, now the announcement with the data centers and AI and the tech industry coming out of Washington D.C. I mean, there's a lot of impact on the the prices of energy in general across the nation right now. Then, of course, like you said, we had this announcement with Donald Trump where we have eight new nuclear facilities, a pipeline of natural gas in Alaska.

Check this out. Today, we're thrilled to announce one of The largest energy infrastructure investments in American history, thanks to the agreements my administration has secured with the Republic of Korea, they will invest up to two hundred billion dollars. That's the Korean government. Two hundred billion dollars to build a six gigawatt power generation facility in Texas. That's a major.

Plant that's about as big as you'll see. All right, so I mean, what does that mean for us, Chance? We get to look forward to some more stable and reliable energy here. It's definitely seeming like that. And one thing you might have missed because it's super nerdy and wonky—it's where I spend most of my time over the past year—is that the Senate I announced finally a truly bipartisan permitting reform package, and when I tell you it's.

A damn good bill. I am not overselling it. This is arguably one of the best bills I've seen coming out of Congress, specifically the Senate, in some time on energy. And if we want to see all of these announcements, all these new energy developments actually come to fruition, permitting needs to be number one. And right now, Leader Thune has promised to bring it up in the lame duck.

And this is a like I said, it's a damn good bill. I went through it yesterday. Read all 417 pages. That hurt, but we have a one-shot golden opportunity to actually deliver and make sure energy can become affordable.

So all of these cool energy projects, and even housing or any kind of transmission, all of the above. Can only happen if we can actually make it easier to build.

So, for example, like the stuff in Alaska, a lot of that is federal land. It takes a long time to get approval and cleared, and all the permits you need to actually build it. With this package, we can cut that time nearly in half. As as long as the developers do what they're supposed to follow the rules, they have a predictable timeline under this bill, and it means it can be done somewhat cheaper, much more efficient. And less hassles with absurd litigation that you see so constantly around any energy project, renewable or fossil fuel.

Yeah, that is really good news. It is surprising that Congress is able to actually get something like that passed and done. And you guys have been talking about permitting reform for a very long time, so it's finally coming to fruition. This sounds like it's going to open up the floodgates to allow a heck of a lot more energy to be sunk in and invested in across the nation. Yeah, I really think this is this is.

Terminating at the federal level is a massive choke point, and a lot of it, a lot of this bill clears a lot of those hurdles and creates very specific timelines that all projects need to follow and all federal agencies need to follow. And with those in play, it changes the game. And the great part about this is it's not like it's much different from what the original or past attempts, like Mansion Barasso, permitting reforms, because this was done by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Martin Heinrich, Mike Lee, and Senator Capito. It's not really the most moderates of either side of their caucus, right? They're both relatively conservative and or progressive climate hawks with regards to Sheldon Whitehouse.

And if they can find middle ground as good as they have, to damn good bill, like I keep saying, and of course you're going to get some honestly idiots who are saying, "Oh, we need to renegotiate this bill." Looking at you, representative Jared Huffman, when Democrats potentially take retake the House to better their leverage and all that nonsense, and that's stupid. And you'll, I'm sure you'll see more of that, but. This is the bill that everyone's got to jump on the bandwagon and push through. Yeah, that is really good. Talk about some of the obstacles that's led up to the point to actually get this thing onto the desk of Congress and actually get voted on.

The environmental regulations, the regulatory permitting issues. I mean, what's been the conversation behind this thing for as long as we've been working on trying to get this done? Man, there's so many issues. It can take four to five years just to get your average run-of-the-mill energy project permit from the federal level, which is way too long. Permits can be open-ended as it stands right now, so what should take maybe one to two years can take up to ten.

Then you have absurdly low floors of litigation, so people who are not suffering any kind of direct harm or even indirect harm, and just frankly. May not like a project because it interferes with their recreational activity.

So, if you have a fishing spot, or, like, you like to just go to see the mountains, and this project may interrupt that, you have grounds to file suit, and that's that's dumb. Like, Come on! If you want to get things done, that's fair. I want to protect the environment. I'm an outdoorsman.

I go out hunting, fishing. I don't want to see those pristine environments ruined when they don't have to be. But there's a balance between protecting the environment, actually letting us build and lower the prices for everybody around us as well.

So that's what this bill, I think, really accomplishes. And on top of that, you can finally. Get through these crazy processes where, like I said, predictability is huge, which means less costs, and less costs always flow down. At least when it comes to energy, because we pay for the infrastructure we use, and if we're paying more than we have to, because developers have to go through extra hoops, we're the ones on the hook. Yeah, what a wild time!

Let's tie that into just this. I love how the timing of this always happens, and Donald Trump's a master at this, being able to lay out a timing on announcements of big projects that he's been working on. With this permitting reform bill going through Congress, with the announcement of the data and AI centers from the tech industry just a few days ago, and let's go to China for just a moment with their meeting last week with President Xi Jinping, and I know that energy has been a conversation with them as well. And as we do this, artificial, I'm sorry, super intelligence race. Between the two nations, on who's got superior technology, how does China fall into this play, and what does that mean for energy here in the U.S.?

Well, fortunately, right now we're seeing a détente and there's going to be some reductions in tariffs for some goods. But it's a good deal because as of right now, we are unfortunately quite reliant on the Chinese extraction and refining of rare earth minerals. We need them for everything, whether it's civilian products like your phone, solar panels, EVs, anything with a lithium battery, essentially, or military tech. We're pretty reliant on them, and that means they could put on export controls. But as we're getting a little closer with that, and obviously, it's pretty clear that our AI tech.

Developed in the U.S. is definitely advanced out of of the majority of the world. I think we have the most compute compared. I've seen a couple charts highlighting that, and China's obviously trying to catch up. Yeah, but it's really good to see kind of this coming together.

But that means it could be lower energy prices in the future as we rebuild our own domestic supply chain. For example, the I think it was Operation Vault, the effort to build our own national supply chains. And our own strategic reserves of rare earth minerals are doing pretty well. We're already building a pretty solid stockpile as well, in case trade wars do flare up, especially, or if the CCP feels somehow threatened by our protection of Taiwan or something of that nature.

So we have a backstop, and that's been doing pretty well.

Well, it's not as much highlighted as well, but it's really becoming a nice little insulation.

So there is a lot of good policies around doing that, but like I said. Making it easier to get through Permian or for means we can get better mines, better refinery, and be less reliant.

So it all flows in together. No, it does, and at the same time, we heard the announcement this week of the Trump admin as well with the largest steel mill going into Iowa too, because we're taking in some of that iron ore, we're turning it into the steel mill there and producing it. We're we're importing less of those raw materials that you just mentioned from Canada and from China, and we're going to start producing more of it here on the home front. All of this ties in together, and it's all happening at the same. Same time, which is really exciting.

Yeah, it's it's always funny how things seem to happen right before an election. But that's funny how that works. Yeah, yeah. Who'd have thought? But it's good to see some of these more domestic investments are always good.

It's good to see more companies building in the U.S. You want to see that? That means there's good jobs coming, and it's more it's more much as possible. The administration is clearing the road for better development investments and making us more competitive.

Well, not. Sacrificing our securities as well, and that's that's always an important goal. But more importantly, we want to make sure energy is affordable, and we're not doing anything any more self-inflicted wounds than we have to. And that's always hard, but that's the goal at the end of the day. Exactly, we're talking about James Maroney.

He is a policy analyst over at Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Prosperity dot org. During the announcement yesterday from Trump, with his push on the pipeline up in Alaska for natural gas, but also the announcement was more than eight different nuclear sites being built. I believe in the state of Texas and around that state. Is that the future of energy? Do you think?

And as we look at the oil and natural gas that we're doing the permitting reforms on to try and make it easier to drill and to frack. At the same time, this new investment in nuclear. That has not been talked about for decades, and everybody's been too scared to look at nuclear for so long. Is that the future? Do you think?

I, as a nuclear nerd and a lover of nuclear energy, God, I hope it is. I want to see more reactors everywhere. Give me more SMRs, even if you do old heavy water or light water reactors, like you'd see something out of like The Simpsons. I love more of those that can help bolster town and create jobs, permanent and short term as well. But I think if I remember right, TVA is now building their first SMR within the region, and that's huge to put some of these concepts into pure commercial testing and making sure they're well useful.

And that means more nuclear reactors. We get we can actually solve our fuel issues because without relying on foreign sources such as Russia, who provides a lot of the raw materials needed for the plutonium and the fuel rods we need. We can create our own infrastructure by sending the right market demand signals as well.

So more reactors come online means more fuel, and more fuel means more people are going to jump into that business. And we're starting to see that, but we need more of these reactors to come online to kind of kickstart the market domestically. Yeah, well, that's cool. That's a long-term investment for sure on that one. Which last question for you?

Let's go to Iran and Russia and China for just a moment again with the Strait of Hormuz, the oil prices that we're seeing in in energy overall. That's been affected by that global market, right?

Now we just heard the announcement that Donald Trump kicked out the negotiators for the nation of Iran, and we could potentially see the see some type of strikes begin again. What's the future of that look like, and how much is that actually affecting our markets here on the home front when we are working, obviously, in the long term to be more sustainable on our own?

Well, we're just starting to see, at least as far as I can tell from the accounts I follow and the people who can track that stuff with tankers and all that, we're starting to see. I think roughly between eighty-five to ninety percent of what was coming out pre-war, for at least in crude oil, which is a great thing to see. But it's not going to dramatically impact anything off the top. The big issue with diesel is not so much the supply, even though that is adding another pain point. It's much more so the ability to refine it.

So a big refiner of diesel prior. To all of this was Russia, and their facilities have been hit plus sanctions, so that already propped up diesel price in the U.S. earlier.

So that was a big chunk. Add in to now that both refineries in the Middle East have been under siege because of the conflict, and as well as many refineries in the U.S. either had some issues that are just kind of getting back online, as well as many were closed because some states. In their green mandates, has forced us into closing them, which has now led us to no really cushion that we're seeing right now.

So hopefully, and we're going to see hopefully the crude oil supplies helps come back, and we can kind of restock, and hopefully, just typical gas prices will come down in the next. God, I don't know. It's hard to tell. Hopefully by twenty twenty seven, it's very hard to predict stuff. Yeah, yeah, it's up in the air.

There is a lot of impact on that. Yeah, okay. If they can keep at eighty five percent of what was pre war, they'll be able to get the supplies and costs will eventually come down. But because supplies are done, so raise your sin. It's gonna, it's gonna take time.

We're we're past that point, past the midterms, which probably doesn't help Iran's leverage because. Whatever happens in the midterms is well well baked in by this point.

So I don't know what they're going to try to threaten at this point. There's still two years of Trump, regardless of who's in Congress. Sure.

Well, that's a great point.

Well, it seems like the past administration, this was the intention, is to drain our reserves, to drain what we had, to be more reliable on the global market, and then, gee, I wonder why we're out of reserves. We can't be a little bit more self-sustaining, and we have to pay more, and our gas prices go up across the board, which is absolutely insane. James Maroney, our friends over at Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Prosperity dot org is the website. We always appreciate it, my friend. Thank you for the update.

Keep up the fight. We'll do it again soon.

So Macho, love to talk energy. Hey, you betcha! We'll appreciate it. We'll do it again. Until then, let's take your phone calls when we come back around the corner here on the Todd Starnes Radio Program.

Stay here. Who answers America's call for more energy? Our people do. They've helped boost Chevron's U.S. energy production by nearly sixty percent in the past three years, helping fuel national energy security and drives down the open roads that make America.

Learn more about what our people do at Chevron dot com slash America. All right, nine zero one two six zero five nine two six. Here on the Todd Starnes radio program, Andy, who's your sitting in today? ToddStarnes dot com is the website where you can find his information. Go and check it out.

Everything that Todd's got going on with his Newsmax TV show, the radio program, his books, all the books that he has, including his latest, "The Golden Age," and you can find all that on his website at ToddStarnes dot com. Thanks again to James Maroney on the program with Americans for Prosperity. The energy policy, which I find interesting. You know what I find really interesting is, of course, it's political rhetoric. It's for the midterm season, of course, but.

At the same time, when Donald Trump announces a new investment for a manufacturing plant or the steel mill that's going to be in Iowa, the largest one in the country, by refining that iron ore that we're mining in the nation right here on our home front domestically, and then refining it at the steel mill, that's all good news. Or when we have the announcement of data centers and the AI stuff that's going on in the future of technology, Donald Trump makes all these big announcements, and then Democrats. Democrats get mad, probably because they didn't think of it first, but. Where they didn't have the opportunity for it first, but instead they blame Donald Trump that he's actually blending the line between the private sector and the public sector, and that he's the most corrupt president in modern American history. In fact, that was the argument by the Democrat senator on the campaign trail right now, Elisa.

What's her name? Slotkins. I believe as she was out there and just railing on President Donald Trump. At this point, Donald Trump is on track to be the most successful corrupt leader in the world's history. Wow, best estimates are that he and his family have increased their net worth by more than 3.5 billion dollars.

Add to that the sheer number of federal contracts thrown to Trump friends and family, and the true scale will take years to unearth. We're at the very tip of the iceberg. Quick aside: at the CIA, I was an Iraq specialist. I spent a lot of time in Baghdad. Let me just say.

Saddam Hussein would have spit out his tea at the level of corruption Trump and his family are currently engaged in. Wow.

Palaces and golden ballrooms and arches dedicated to himself, Saddam would have been green with envy.

Okay, there's a lot to break down on that one, but that's the insanity of the. Hey, you might want to cover up your TDSs, Sheldon and Slotkins. Apparently, just going on scorched earth against President Trump, thinking that's going to be the proper campaign tactic for the midterms. But a lot to break down there. Look, there are some policies that I probably disagree with on the Trump administration, and I am one that does not like to blend the private sector and the public.

Sector together because that's never a good flavor when government gets to regulate and oversee particular industries. That being said, very few of the announcements that the Trump administration has done has been like that. They announce the new project because t here is been tax incentives, because there has been a deregulation like the permitting reform that we just talked about. T here is been opportunity for businesses to see an opportunity to hire more American workers, generate a product, and create some wealth from that. And because of that, we get to announce it as a win for the America First agenda.

How that turns into corruption? I don't know. That's kind of wild. We got lots more to get to here, right around the corner for hour number three of the Todd Sterns radio program. Stay here.

Who answers America's call for more energy? Our people do. They've helped boost Chevron's U.S. energy production by nearly sixty percent in the past three years. Helping fuel national energy security and drives down the open roads that make America.

Learn more about what our people do at Chevron.com/america. From Memphis, Tennessee, it's Common Sense Conservative Commentary from Todd Star. That's us. That's right. I love.

What is up, my friends? Welcome into it. It is the Todd Sarns Radio Program. It is not Todd Sarns, however, he is out for just a few more days. He'll be back at it before you know it.

You can find all his great information on his website at toddsarns.com. But we got you covered today. It is a pre-Friday celebration. My name is Andy Hoosier. I am sitting behind the microphone for you today, moving those Liberty University studios out from Memphis, Tennessee, all the way out here to Wichita, Kansas, my flagship station.

Of Wichita's big talker KQAM in Wichita, Kansas, and a great affiliate of the Todd Starnes radio program. Man, there's a lot that's been going on today. I've been covering some of the breaking news happening today, and of course, some other big stories that have been happening throughout this week that we will break down for you this hour and an interesting one at that. We're gonna have a bit of a roundtable all throughout this hour because there's some stories that I need some. Deeper insight on.

So we'll do that in just a moment. Plus, of course, your phone calls at nine zero one two six zero five nine two six nine zero one two six zero fifty nine twenty six. Bottom of the hour. I know you're going to enjoy this one. Mark Davidson will be on the show with his book Daniel Revisited.

We're going to talk about the ongoing issues with the Middle East and is it another sign of the end of times prophecies, the return of Jesus, and the rise of the Antichrist in society. Say what? Yeah, so we'll do that. Coming up in just a little bit. Also, I know that we have not talked about it the last couple of days, but I cannot go without sitting in in honor of sitting behind the microphone here for Todd Starnes and not talk about UFOs and UAPs.

Apparently, we're the experts on that program now, so we're going to break that down because there has been a new interview and some new information of potential releases of the document dumps that will be coming from the Trump administration within the next year or two. Regarding the juicy stuff—the really good UFO, UAP, and extraterrestrial information—so we'll get some of that here in just a moment as well. But first, your phone calls at nine zero one two six zero five nine two six. We have been following the midterm season with Chuck Schumer, that with Congress back in action and the Democrats that are looking to try and at least pretend to have a unified caucus. Chuck Schumer was speaking earlier today at their Democrat press conference in D.C.

on where they're at with some of these bills and ended up saying. Have you become too toxic to lead your party? Look, hola. If you didn't hear that, the question was: Have you become, as Chuck Schumer, have you become too toxic to lead the Democrat Party? Look, our our our caucus is totally unified.

We're in great shape. Yeah, everyone is really very very pleased with where we are today compared to where we were. Uh huh. Twenty months ago, yep, under our leadership, and we're fighting hard, and we're on the edge of taking back the Senate. Yeah, good luck with that, buddy.

Can you smell it? Can you sense the fakeness in there?

Now, this is almost borderline. Chuck Schumer on Fourth of July taking a selfie with him at the grill with a piece of cheese on a raw burger patty—fake. We're like, I'm relatable, just like you. Like that's what Chuck Schumer is really good at. But could you sense it?

He's not a very Energetic, exciting, optimistic kind of guy, but the emphasis in his voice—he's like, "We are united. We're excited. Things are going to be great." Look, our our our caucus is totally unified. We're in great shape. Great shape.

Everyone is really very very pleased with where we are today compared to where we were. All right, we're very pleased. It's really great. Everything's going great, guys. Please believe me.

Yeah, that's Chuck Schumer. That's what's happening on the campaign trail. Do you actually believe him? I don't know that I do, but he's interesting nonetheless. I really want him to take another photo of the raw burger patty because that was that was great.

Well done. All right, I got to bring in the roundtable here.

So, Ian, Helen, Dylan, I want all you guys to jump on if you get a chance because I have to pick your brain on this one. I don't. I got to bring up the story. I don't believe that you guys there in Tennessee have been part of this. Oh yes, you have actually.

Um. How familiar are you guys with the product of kratom? Do you know a whole lot about kratom? No, I personally don't know anything about kratom.

Okay, Helen, anything on with you? I have no idea. I'm googling. No idea, Ian. You nothing?

I've never heard. Really, you've never heard of kratom? Oh my gosh! Wait, I've heard of kratom recently because of the Oxford situation. Yes, that's where I want to go with this for a moment.

Okay, so the kratom, but this is a great learning lesson here because this is why I'm very frustrated and I hate hate hearing these stories. And listener, I know that you're probably going to get mad at me. Maybe some of you agree or disagree with me here, but look, I am one where I like as many natural things as possible. I do not like taking pharmaceuticals. I'm not into the big pharmaceutical thing.

I'm not anti-vax, although I am limited vaccines. I think we take way too many of them. But I like natural remedies more so than and holistic remedies. My wife, full disclaimer: my wife is a master herbalist. She makes medicines by herbal tinctures and and plants, not CBD stuff or marijuana stuff.

Very clear. She does not do any of that stuff, but. Natural herbs and plants, magnesium, and what eucalyptus can do, and what lavenders can do, and what dandelions can do—those sorts of things. She's way better at it than I even understand. Nonetheless, kratom.

This is a great lesson for you guys because Tennessee—you guys have banned any kratom products in Tennessee. Did you know that? I know that now because I just googled it. All right, Kansas. We just did it in our last legislative session as well.

So there are 11 states that have fully banned kratom. That is Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, and Wisconsin. Those are the 11 states now. Other states have talked about it as well. Rhode Island previously banned it, but then reversed that ban in their latest regulatory framework.

The reason. Is for those that don't know.

Okay, let's start off at the beginning here. Cratum is nothing more than a leaf off of a tree that grows in Asia. That's all it is. That is the natural cratum.

Now, in there, and and what what is done is it's dried out. And it's made into either a pill form, where you can take it as a supplement pill, or you can dry it out, make it into a powder, and you can put it in drinks and like mix it in your water or something. And there's different types of kratom. There's some to give you energy. There's some to make you go to sleep.

There's some that help with pain management. And it's not like an opiate where you get any type of effects or any type of you know. Cluttering your mind, or psychedelic experience, or anything like that. There's different types of kratom, and I will admit I have a buttload of it sitting at home. Because before they banned it, when that effect turned out in July one this year in Kansas, I went and I stocked up on as much of it as I possibly could.

Because my wife, who has lupus, by the way, so she gets flare ups with her lupus. People that understand that know she hates taking opioids. She hates taking a Percocet or a Vicodin or these pain meds when she gets a flare and she hurts and her body aches from her lupus. She takes kratom.

Now, for the natural, original, holistic version of this, you cannot overdose on kratom. I'm here to tell you right now, you just can't do it. You have to take it if you take it in the pill form of the natural plant. You have to take six to seven tablets of it. That's equivalent to like two Tylenol.

So tell me if you're going to try to overdose on this. There are way easier ways to do that. If you're trying to get some type of effect, there are way easiers to do that than taking 40 pills, you know, and doubting those and trying to get some type of effect. It just doesn't work. The reason states are banning this, and this is why I want you guys' input as the you know the younger gen in the vaping thing right now, is because of course when there's an opportunity, just like when marijuana came to be a popular thing, they went from the natural bud of a marijuana plant.

To the CBD or to the THC portion of it, I guess that's the psychedelic part. The THC, and they made it a synthetic version, and they made it more concentrated. There is a compound in kratom known as seven OH, which is the compound that has these effects that you have in the natural plant. People don't know this in the natural plant. There is less than two percent of this seven OH compound in the herb or in the plant.

What they've done though is they've taken it, they've concentrated the 70H compound, and they've put it in a vape for young kids to vape, and they get it at gas stations. The story, as you mentioned, is the story that we've that we're following here out of Oxford, where two students at, or I'm sorry, at Ole Miss, where two students just ended up dying from taking what they say is kratom. They didn't die from kratom; they probably died with something else in their system. And now the headline we just saw today from. Fox News is the gas station attendant that sold it, or the clerks that were selling these vapes with these concentrated forms, has now been arrested on drug charges.

So we're not talking about the natural plant; we're talking about a synthetic version of a 7OH compound. While demonizing. With these stories, probably because of big pharma demonizing kratom as a whole to where people don't know what's going on and just ban the whole thing outright.

So I ask you guys on the vape side: is that vapes? I don't get it. I don't understand. I'm still a you know cigar and you know tobacco pipe kind of guy. You know that's what I enjoy.

I have my humidor at home. I enjoy a few cigars and stogies on occasion. But what's the deal with vapes? And do you guys know actually what's in vapes? If the young gens actually out there buying them?

I'm the wrong person to ask. I've actually never vaped. In my life, you've never.

Well, I guess that's probably a good thing, right? Better than all of us. I'm calling a segment. Andy Hoosier teaches K. Williams staff about drugs.

Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Todd's going to hear that one and be like, "Hold on, wait a second." I love that. But look, does that make sense? I mean, look, there's a basic difference between the natural stuff and the synthetic version.

I'm all for banning the synthetic versions on why we have these in the first place, but don't demonize. The natural alternatives here, right? Yeah, and I think that comes from just a misunderstanding of a headline, maybe, and you know, seeing something like two students dying, people are obviously going to go to the extreme of like, all right, well, we should just ban the whole thing without even understanding what it is.

So, no, vaping is still definitely a big thing in Gen Z. I don't do it. I have friends that do it. I don't get it. I mean, obviously, it's not good for you, but I I understand why people do it.

I mean, you get that you get that hit, and you your brain stimulated all the all the fun stuff. But you know, people will be selling that stuff in the gas stations, like we see there. I wonder if the kid even knew what he was being sold, or if if this was just like a Hey, try this. This is well. It's very addictive.

The actual 70H compound is very addictive, and I get it. But you're right; people don't understand. Even legislators who are banning these issues do not know the difference here. I've talked to, and being the vice chair for the Kansas Republican Party out here, I've talked to probably half of our state delegation, and I've I've tried to advocate against them banning this kratom product. Even after all the hearings they had.

No one knew the difference between the synthetic versions and the natural kratom. No one knew that there was essentially zero of that 70H compound in there. No one knew that. All they heard was testimony from law enforcement saying that people are getting addicted, that people are having health issues, that people are going crazy because of this psychedelic or this really potent drug of 70H compound. No one knew that that was the synthetic crap and not the natural versions of these things.

That we don't need to go after the natural versions. That for many people. Is the alternative? My wife still takes kratom because when she has her flare up for lupus, that helps her than taking a Percocet and numbing her entire body and being a lush for the entire night because of some type of pharmaceutical pain med. We would much rather do that.

Why we go after these natural pills? It just it drives me nuts. But you guys are the prime example. I mean, this is the fact that no one even knows kratom. This is kind of the underlying issue in this battle with big pharma, where they just dominate the industry.

Is this just the classic situation of government officials making laws about a subject matter which they're very unaware of the actual function and the actual topics? Yeah. Oh, absolutely. 100. I'm curious, listener.

What do you think? Nine zero one two six zero five nine two six. Have you tried kratom? Is it something that you would be willing to try? And if you're trying to get off of pharmaceuticals, is that way to go?

And are we really understanding what's going on with kratom? The reason, by the way, that they try to ban these natural products too is because obviously, obviously, if it's a leaf. If it's an herb, if it's a plant, then every one of them has a different consistency to it, right?

So one could be two and a half percent, another one could be point five percent of the seven O H compound because it's natural.

So it's nothing that's actually made in a consistent form synthetically, which is why most doctors don't like natural medicine, which is why most pharmaceuticals don't like natural medicine, and why they say that you can't rely on that stuff because you don't know how effective or ineffective it may be. At that same time. I'm telling you, it's essentially near impossible for you to actually have negative effects from kratom itself in its original form. I want your thoughts. Nine zero one two six zero five nine two six.

The battle against big pharma continues on, and we'll talk more about this when we come back. Right here on the Todd Starnes Radio Program. Who answers America's call for more energy? Our people do. They've helped boost Chevron's U.S.

energy production by nearly 60% in the past three years, helping fuel national energy security and drives down the open roads that make America. Learn more about what our people do at Chevron.com/america. Welcome back into it. It is the Todd Sterns Radio Program. I'm Andy Hooser, sitting in today nine zero one two six zero five nine two six.

Drug talk on the Todd Sterns Radio Program. As we had the roundtable, Ian and Dylan and Helen all sitting back there at the KUAM Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. And look, I mean, I'm glad we had this conversation because we've really come down to realizing the natural form. Really have no harm, you know. We talk about the marijuana issue for a moment.

Which, by the way, Tennessee? Do you guys legalize marijuana back there? Is that is that a thing now in Tennessee? No, I don't think so. I don't think we legalize it.

Oh, really? Interesting. Okay, I know there's only a might be another Google search. Yeah, I have to do another Google search on that one. I know Kansas.

There's only like two or three states that haven't done it either medically or recreationally in some fashion. Kansas, here we have not done either. We're one of those very rare few ones that haven't.

So it would make sense that I guess our people would want to ban kratom too because evil natural things. And of course, we didn't even legalize. The sale of alcohol on Sundays until like ten years ago, so we're we're kind of behind the eight ball on some of these issues. But nonetheless, a marijuana is another great example. Whether you like a marijuana, disagree with marijuana, it doesn't really matter.

But you know, people talk about how much how much more potent it is and how different it is compared to you know the older generation that did it back in the seventies at a Led Zeppelin concert kind of thing. That yeah, you know the synthetic versions again. They've been able to make the THC stronger. There are now THC vapes and the concentrated liquids that people are doing that are like ninety nine percent potent of THC. That's going to give you brain damage.

What the hell's wrong with you? Why would you do something like that? But on the other hand, the natural stuff is still the natural thing, and there's got to be a conversation about the war on drugs. There's got to be, at least in my opinion, maybe I'm popular with this crowd, I don't know, but there's got to be a conversation about. The idea that if we're going to fight the cartels, like we had with our guest a couple hours ago on the show, and we talk about ways to do things domestically here, if if the the issue is never going to go away, the product's never going to go away.

So if it is going to be here, I would rather know exactly where it's grown, with a farmer that's raising cattle over here and marijuana plants over here, where we know where it's grown, we know how it's processed, we know the store that it's sold in, and therefore we know there's nothing crazy in it, like they're trying to lace with fentanyl or a cartel. Across the border, making it more addictive, or even the synthetic version. Personally, if it's gonna be here, that's the process I would rather have. That maybe unpopular, and people like we don't want it at all. I wouldn't like to see it at all either.

But at the same time, that's an unrealistic expectation for us to have. We have to have that rational conversation, and I know that the generational difference. On issues like drugs, is is you know pretty dramatic. The older generations they want nothing to do with it. My generation as a millennial, you know, we're open to the ideas and we're the first ones that started saying, "Hey, maybe we should start legalizing this because it's kind of ridiculous that we're throwing people in jail for marijuana use." And then we got the young generation that's all about the vapes and like the synthetic concentrated weird forms of it on that front.

Which, by the way, guys, did you know that now there's a story that actually because of the fear of the addictiveness and how harmful Is for your lungs with the vaping. Cigarettes are now becoming more popular again. Why am I not surprised? Vaping—they took vaping too far.

Now we have to go back to cigarettes. We're just gonna go back to cigarettes now. I look—I've never been addicted to cigarettes either. I hate the smell of cigarettes. I hate the taste of cigarettes.

So I'm a cigar guy. I'll do cigars all day long because it's just literally a dried natural plant rolled up and smoked that way. But yeah, apparently we went so far of evil tobacco company, evil cigarettes that we're gonna go vaping because now you can have the fruity. You know, cotton candy flavored vapes on there, but that's harming people so badly, and we're now campaigning against that. That they're looking for something else, and now we're going back to cigarettes.

So I don't know how big that's going to be, but look, if if you're going to do something, do it natural. Why not? I mean, I'll I will sit back and I haven't done it a long time. I just don't have time to sit for an hour and and smoke a really long cigar and a stogie on there. But between that or a pipe tobacco, I gotta tell you, man, pipe tobacco is delicious.

It smells so good. My wife even likes the smell of that stuff. It's also classier. I feel like it is very classy. I have a Gandalf pipe that's about two feet long, and it's amazing.

So when I do smoke my pipe tobacco, and yes, it is tobacco. It is nothing else. It's not the wacky tobacco. It's literally just pipe tobacco. What is it?

Captain Black is the brand.

So there, you know, I'm telling the truth. I even know the brand of what I get. That I put that in my long, two foot long Gandalf pipe, and it's it's amazing. I really enjoy that. I feel like you need like a robe and maybe like a staff to go with that.

Too like why? Why not? Well, I I do carry it with me when I go to my Renaissance festival, and I I have my kilt that I wear, and I have my horn, my drinking horn where I put my mead in there, and then I have my pipe, and that is my costume for the Renaissance festival, among other places too. When I get funky looks, may or may not show up to political events that way too. Very interesting.

All right, when when we come, we're going to go down a fun road as well. We're going to speculate on end of time prophecies. Mark Davidson, he'll be joining us here on the Todd Stern's Radio Program. Lots more coming up. Stay here.

Who answers America's call for more energy? Our people do. They've helped boost Chevron's U.S. energy production by nearly 60% in the past three years, helping fuel national energy security and drives down the open roads that make America. Learn more about what our people do at Chevron.com/america.

Hi, welcome back to the Todd Sterns Radio Show. Andy Hoosier sitting in today. ToddSterns dot com is the website you can find my information. If you'd like to find me at HoosierReason dot com, H O O S E R Reason dot com, based out of Wichita, Kansas. Here, Wichita's Big Talker KQAM, a great affiliate of the Todd Sterns Radio Program and the flagship for my national program as well.

This show has gone off the rails, man, and Todd's gonna. Look back on this and be like, "What the heck is happening?" While we're in California, but it's been a great conversation. I think hopefully it's been somewhat educational for people that are listening to this one, but. Speaking of, let's go down the road of speculation here, shall we? I'm really excited to have our next guest on here as we go to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Hotline.

He is the author of the latest book, Daniel Revisited: Discovering the Four Middle East Signs Leading to the Antichrist. Are we seeing the end of times prophecies happen before our eyes? We are following, by the way, some of the stories regarding Iran and the lingering conflict going there. Does that have anything to do with it? And what the hell heck else is going on around the world?

Really happy to have on here, Mr. Mark Davidson. Mark, how are you, my friend? Oh, I'm doing fine. Thanks for having me, Andy.

Yeah, great to have you on the program here for the Todd Stern Show. Let's talk about what's going on in the Middle East, and as we look at the current events, we look at world events, and then we even hear about like the Doomsday Clock, where we tick closer—you know, one second closer every year to the end of times and everything else. Are we, in your opinion, are we actually getting closer to the end of times, the rising of the Antichrist, and the revealing of Jesus again? Yes, we are. But the message that I wrote in the book is non-traditional.

It's very different, and it so happens that this whole Iran War is sort of a precursor to the second of four events. Interesting. So, before we talk about the events coming, let's talk about, in your opinion, leading up to some of that speculation. How we got to the point that we're at right now. As far as events go, or as far as how the message is put together, both.

How? Yeah, both of them, and how they tie in together. All right.

Well, that'll that'll be good.

So the the way the message worked is, nine eleven happened. You know that we're talking about the nine eleven twenty five years ago, and it just it just hit me. I felt like I was missing something. It's like you know, I asked asking the Lord for wisdom, saying you know, hey. Prophecy teachers—they don't teach.

They're supposed to fly planes into our buildings. What's going on?

So I asked him, "You know, Lord, His plans. What's going on, Lord?" And and He put me on a path of research, and this path of research led to some very strange places.

So I just decided to start reading the Bible just without any assumptions. I mean, I know that's hard to do, but as humans, but I tried to do it without any assumptions, and the first thing that Led to was well. Let me skip to the end here. 16 months after 9/11, I arrived at this framework, and it involved an Atlantic antichrist. Believe it or not, you have to understand true history to understand what light is being shown on Daniel to tell us which direction to go down.

And Daniel chapter 12 tells us that. The prophetic message is sealed, is tapped up like a like water in a spring until the end time.

So, most of our teachings today might be a bit off.

So, with the Islamic Antichrist in mind, I I went reread Scripture again, and Daniel seven, Daniel eight, you know, Daniel seven the four beasts, Daniel eight the ram and goat, Revelation six the four horsemen, all come together to form the same four events.

So. 16 months after 9/11, around January of 2003, I arrive at this framework, this theory, if you will, and the first event said that the end-time government of Mesopotamia, which was Iraq, which is Iraq, its government is going to change from something brutal to something civilized. And I thought, well, in that 2,500-year history since Nebuchadnezzar, that's never happened. It's always been brutal.

Some king, some dictator, some caliph—you know—didn't matter.

So I thought I was wrong. I thought, well, this is an interesting little you know side task. Let's let's see what let's see what maybe where I went wrong. And so I put it on the shelf. Two weeks later, President George W.

Bush got on the TV and said, in February 2003, we're going to go into Iraq, remove Saddam Hussein, and put in a democracy. I don't know how much of your audience remembers that. Oh yeah. And the purple fingers and the voting at the constitution and everything else. Yep.

Yep. Yep. They went from Saddam Hussein killing at will to, yeah, voting and and a parliament. Wow.

You know, and it turned out those two years, two thousand three to two thousand five, fulfilled to the letter, not just sorta, not just kind of arching over, but. To the letter, the scriptural passages pertaining to that first event.

So I thought, wow, I'm onto something.

So, well, at the same time, just just to stop you right there for just a moment. Then we heard the announcement yesterday: the Trump administration fully removing our forces from the nation of Iraq because we feel confident that most of the extremism is out of that nation.

So that seems to be completed as of yesterday. That's right. Actually, Andy, it was actually completed in 2011. We pulled out, but then Obama brought them back in in 2014 to to fight ISIS, and so now we're pulling out a second time. But yeah, I hear you.

No, that that is pretty wild.

So yeah, U.S. troops are now out. The force, the force that made the lion stand and the force that made the the lion's mind change is done.

So. Good point, bringing that up.

So I realized I had to research all this, get it all, all the points connected, all the dots connected. By the way, I make my living as a rocket scientist. I'm retired now, but yeah, I love a good puzzle and a lot of analysis and dot connecting.

So, ancient medieval history connected with scripture, connected with geopolitics, and it practically wrote itself on the geopolitical part, but. The second event is this, and I am again. I discovered this, you know, 23 years ago, and the book came out 12 years ago, and that is this. The second event is Iran is going to take away the peace of mind of the entire earth, and that peace of mind is the kind of peace of mind you get from being able to put food on the table.

So people, millions of people in the world over, may find themselves without a means of putting food on the table, panicking. In other words. And the second thing Iran is going to do is they're going to carry out their mission, carry out what they want to do as as their twelve Shia community, and that is to conquer the Muslim nations of the Middle East, occupy them, and and form one big community, waiting for their Mahdi, who is our Antichrist.

So, yeah, so war. Yeah. So the Cold War—that's where that point is.

So where, when we start seeing this unified message coming out, and now we have Iran, which is obviously disrupting a lot of stuff, but they are one of the last extremist groups in in countries in the Middle East right now. From what you've speculated, is there a a unified message behind a particular individual that could see that rise, or is that yet to be determined?

Well, we are still waiting to see the rise. We're seeing the setup. In other words, Iran has essentially—you know—I hate to use the word—as an American—but essentially defeated us at least up to this point. The regime is still there. The Strait of Hormuz is still closed.

Our bases around the Persian Gulf have been destroyed. We can't use them. The Fifth Navy pulled out of the Persian Gulf. If they wanted to conquer the Middle East, if they wanted to run their troops through countries. You know they would be very much afraid of the United States.

In fact, I've had critics over the years say, "Oh, that would never happen. The U.S. would never allow." I believe Iran drew us in in order to to goad us to attack them, so that we'd kind of spend ourselves on their on their targets and mountains. But yeah, if they so they would have to get rid of the U.S. military.

How do you do that?

Well. The Iran War, I think, did it kind of effectively. We still have aircraft carrier out on the Arabian Sea. We still have the use of our Jordanian bases.

So we'll see. But you know, Iran has threatened: if you if you attack us again, we're going to destroy the rest of the Arab oil infrastructure. You know, that you cut off one fourth of the world's oil right there, and. You're talking, you know, hundreds of dollars per barrel of oil, gasoline, diesel. You know, we've got prices we see are high.

I mean, wait till you hit fifteen, twenty bucks a gallon if you can get it. I mean, we're talking loss of the peace of mind of the earth. You know, and there's different countries that are that are already seeing this: India, Philippines, Vietnam. They saw it right off the bat.

Now Europe is getting it. It's an interesting concept for sure, and hopefully we never get to that point. We'll see whether that actually does or not. And based on the prophecy that you that you are predicting here, it very well could. With the state that we're in right now, and with Donald Trump now essentially firing up some of the strikes against them again, do you see a potential peacefulness of it and eradication of that government, either by us or by the original Persian people in the nation of Iran?

No, the this framework calls for actually Turkey to end the regime. Interesting. Yeah. Okay. That Iran would do what it does in the second signpost, and then the third signpost involves Turkey leading Sunni nations, a confederacy of four nations, to to go against Iran and to finish off the regime, and that's that's the third signpost.

And of course, the second and third signposts. Basically boils down to a giant Sunni Shia war and redrawing the boundaries of the Middle East, and this is all within Islam. Yeah, like the Four Horsemen tell us: white, red, black, green. Those are the colors of Islam. They're given authority over a quarter of the earth.

That's Islam. Quarter of the people, a quarter of the nation, etc.

So again, it's all Islam. It's a very interesting theory, for sure. We're talking with Mark Davidson on through the book Daniel Revisited, discovering the four midi signs leading to the Antichrist. With the study that you've done and the speculation that you have on the timeline here, when do you potentially see this Antichrist rising in society?

Well, since the I see it in two or three years, and the fourth signpost, which is when we will see the man who will be antichrist do some particular thing in the Middle East. We we might see that in two, three, four years from now, very you know, a few years. The third signpost begins with that great famine that Jesus called out. You know, the the weighing of you know the black horsemen and the and the day's wage for a quart of wheat. That's already being put into stone here, being set because the fertilizer that cut off a third of the world's fertilizer was cut off this March.

You know, with the with the Hormuz Strait closure, and so people are talking about how two billion people could potentially go without food. We need that fertilizer from the Persian Gulf to feed all eight billion people.

So that we may be seeing the seeds planted next year, which means the fourth signpost would be a year or two after that.

So. Yeah, it should go pretty quick now. I mean, it's been 23 years since the first, but maybe the second, third, and fourth will be quicker. We don't know the times, as Jesus said. All we can know are the signs and the seasons.

That's all.

Well, it's. I mean, look. I mean, it's definitely a great speculation on what kind of signs that we're seeing right now, and trying to put this into perspective because we are in uncharted territory right now with the way things are playing out and the dominance that the U.S. has had, but yet trying to play nice with Iran and how well or not so well that that's actually worked out across the board.

So, I mean, we're in uncharted territory. The the idea of America right now wanting to not be involved in foreign conflict, not have this military industrial conflict, not have this ongoing war. In the Middle East, has been a goal, and we've gotten somewhat better at that with the pulling out of Afghanistan, even though that was disastrous. The pulling out of Iraq, and now with what we're doing in Iran, it seems like we're we're almost teetering where it could go very very well, and we could be done with this stuff, or it could go very very bad and lead down this road. That's right, that's right, and the signposts predict very very bad, unfortunately, and.

And so the sign to people that the the signpost framework might have something to it is again, Iran destroying more of the Arab oil infrastructure to where prices go crazy, and Iran occupying many Muslim nations like in the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, and Syria. Those would be the signs that this framework actually has something to it. Yeah. Again, what told me about it was the first one with Iraq. Like, oh my gosh.

Yeah, yeah. Well, that was that was a shock at all. I think for a lot of people, it is an interesting conversation. It is Mark Davis. You can find his book on Amazon.

Daniel Revisited. We are out of time, my friend, but hopefully we can see some positive things happening. If not, then we see the signs and we can be prepared because we know what's in store when those signs end up fulfilling themselves across the board. But Mark, we appreciate it very much, my friend. Keep up the fight.

We'll get you back on and do it again soon. All right.

Thanks for having me, and have a good day. You as well appreciate it very much. Interesting conversation right there with Mark Davidson. Do you agree? Disagree?

I want to hear from you at nine zero one two six zero five nine two six. One of the issues I didn't get a chance to ask him about on how this ties in is the other disclosure that's going on within the government and some of the things we're still trying to understand and put it into perspective as well with the ETS and UFOs. Let's go there when we come back around the corner here for the Todd Starns radio program. Stay here. Who answers America's call for more energy?

Our people do. They've helped boost Chevron's U.S. energy production by nearly 60% in the past three years, helping fuel national energy security and drives down the open roads that make America. Learn more about what our people do at Chevron.com/america. All right, welcome back to it, Todd Sarns Radio Program.

We're on the home stretch here. Last few minutes of the program. If you want to chime in at nine zero one two six zero five nine two six, interesting conversation with Mark Davidson. Daniel revisited is his book as we talk about the rise of the Antichrist and the end of times prophecies that are happening. At the same time, there's always those prophecies of back in the days of Noah, which everybody likes to talk about as well.

We got to bring the roundtable back here. Helen, Ian, Dylan, all you guys, this is one of my favorite topics to talk about. I am so glad that when Todd talks about it, he calls me up to come on with him to chat about it too. Because extraterrestrials and UFOs, man, that is one of the best conversations I think we need to have. And we're getting more information.

Five rounds of UFO document dumps out there for the government so far. This is like Christmas Day for you, Andy. It is, and you are the pro because we don't really talk about it that much. And I feel like with how much stuff has been actually coming out recently, we should definitely be talking about it more. We need to talk a lot more about it.

So here's the thing: the round five of document dumps came out. I don't know a couple weeks ago. More information, more video, more pictures, more testimonial, handwritten letters, that sort of thing. But none of the juicy things yet. Until look, I'm encouraging you.

When you get a chance, because it's really long, and I don't usually, you know, promote other people's programs, but the Joe Rogan podcast, David Grush was on there just a couple days ago, and I've listened to about eighty percent of that one. For those that don't know who David Grush is, he's the guy that testified in front of Congress and was the one that confirmed with Anna Palina Luna and Nancy Mace that we have non-biologics from crash sites, from UFO retrieval sites. And non-biologics, meaning non-human intelligence, aka ETs and aliens, whatever they try to use for these technical words. He predicts, based on this interview that he just did a couple days ago, that all of this information, the videos, the factual hard evidence, the everything we know, all of it will come out in the next two years by the end of the Trump administration, and I am so excited! I can't wait.

I have been waiting for this for so long. Yeah, I'm terrified. I'm on the other spectrum there. I'm the one that's scared. I know you're excited.

You want to see probably everything, and I do too. But in this, in a safe area, I don't want them to. I don't. It's like AI. I don't want it to be mad at me.

That's why I say thank you every time I'm done speaking with my chatbot.

So like you're you're friendly with that. That's right. It's one to be. You're friendly. I'm friendly with the aliens.

I talk highly of them.

Well, what's what's scary? I mean, just like the unknown—is that what's scary about it? It's definitely the unknown, and even some of the videos. Just how fast. These objects are moving.

That's what terrifies me. That could, if that accidentally just went through me, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm cooked. Dylan's scared of being one of those cows that they just bring up into the UFOs. Yeah, that's for sure. That's we we don't want the cow experiment done on on Dylan there.

Yeah. Well, here's the crazy part. This interview he goes a lot deeper because you know there's been speculation of the types of ETs and the Greys and everything else. David Grush in this talks about the Greys. The Nordic whites that he saw personally in a video from a crash retrieval site—the Nordics that are like taller, six, seven, eight foot tall beings that look really close to humans, but with like a bluish tint to their skin with gray hair.

But he he describes them as very beautiful, in almost in the description of what he said was Greek godlike, which is really interesting. Yeah. Then the reptilians. Which he openly said that he's had firsthand testimony from people at retrieval sites that have interacted with reptilians.

Now again, people can be like, people can laugh this off, and this is not me. This is just the testimony that he gave on the podcast with what he said. But I'm telling you, if all this information starts coming out, our world is going to expand a heck of a lot more than we've been aware of, and that's what excites me. I want to know what the heck's out there when I look up at the sky. I get anxiety not because it's so big, but because I'm trapped here in a place that's so small compared to everywhere else.

I get anxiety from that, and I want to know what the heck's out there. True, the universe is very vast. I don't know. I love the videos. I also want to see like the physical.

I want to know where they're keeping the stuff. They probably have one of those things like locked up somewhere, just interrogating it. I don't know what they're doing with them.

Well, according to Matt Gates, he talks about the hybrid program, the forced hybridization between ETs that we have in humans with the DNA.

So I don't know, man. There's a lot that the government and private contractors have been hiding from us, and I cannot wait to get that information out. I am so excited about it. Thanks, guys. As always, we appreciate it.

Thank you, Todd, for letting me sit in. Always a pleasure. Todd will be back at it before you know it. Until then, it is the Todd Sarns radio program. We will see you back on the radio soon.

Bye. My dough never sees a freezer. Fay Hollis makes the biscuits at Hardee's. I'm up at 5 a.m. every day making biscuits from scratch.

Easy there, biscuit lady. Aught to create the Hardee's two for five dollar breakfast menu. Try the new Oscar Mayer Bologna Biscuit, Sausage and Egg Biscuit, Smoked Sausage Biscuit, Biscuit and Gravy, or a cinnamon roll. The two for five dollar breakfast for a limited time only at. I got up early.

The least you can do is show up hungry.