Church Attendance Dropping Across Nation

Live from the Liberty University studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's favorite gun-toting, Bible-clinging, deplorable American. That's us, that's right. I love this American ride. Todd Starr. Nice, oh yeah.

Well, happy New Year's Eve, America. Welcome to the final show of the year for the Todd Stardes Radio Program.

So very happy to have you guys with us today. Wow, a lot of things happening. A lot of celebrations happening around the world and around the nation. And a lot going on. As a matter of fact, I think we have like a huge celebration in Memphis down on Beale Street.

I know in Nashville, that thing is just insane. They drop a giant guitar at the stroke of midnight. And my favorite celebration of all time, though, is, of course, it's called the Moon Pie over Mobile, where they drop a giant moon pie at the stroke of midnight. It's very lovely. And they also feed people.

They have like 50,000 people, and they're feeding them a giant, I believe it's the world's largest moon pie. It's very delicious.

so we're going to be talking about that we've got some great guests coming up as well we're going to be taking your calls write down our telephone number you will need it if you plan on calling in 901-260-5926 is our telephone number that's 901-260-5926 ben deter i'm in a bad mood this is what i get for for for taking calls right before the show died why are you in a bad mood we You just had Christmas. I'm in a very bad mood, and I'm angry at the church. The church? Yes. Specific church?

God? Get it all out, Todd. Churches in general.

Okay.

So look, there was a story we were going to talk about later on in the program, and maybe I'm just reading too much into this, but I know the churches in the Memphis area, they don't like to get political at all. They're terrified of it. Terrified. and so anyway i get it so in a lot of these cases a lot of these churches i'm um you know i've i speak and i've been invited to speak at churches all over america big small doesn't matter if somebody invites me i'll go and speak and and and by the way we don't even charge right i mean you know if there's an honorarium that's great but if you know if not that's fine and uh because you And it's really interesting because my messages in the church are not really political in nature at all.

So all that to say, I was invited to speak at a local Baptist church. And I'm not going to name the church. But anyway, they have a senior citizens program. And we got a call. And somebody recommended.

They said, oh, you've got to talk to Starnes. He'd be a great speaker. And so anyway, we started the conversation, and they said, well, how much do you charge? And I said, well, you know. It's a pretty penny, I'll say.

Well, look, I'll say this. I mean, it's public, but Premier Speakers handles all my engagements, and it's $7,500. But we don't charge churches at all. I just feel very weird about that, and I never charge a church. I just don't do that.

If they want to offer an honorarium, that's great. But otherwise, I don't want to take money that might be used for missions or for anything else. That's just me personally. You don't want to rob the offering plate. No, I don't.

By the way, I was at a church years ago, and they were passing around the offering plate, and I watched as a guy put a 20 in, and he took a 10 out. I'm like, wow, you can make change? I didn't realize that. Anyway, I digress.

So I said, look, I'll do it for free. you know and if you have an honorary and that's great because i'm going to take you know i would have to take off from the show it was a luncheon and they said would you it's our senior adults would you mind speaking to our senior adults i was happy to do so and um you know so when we have to take off when i'm not here the show goes on and we have to hire people to do it and you know it's a cost incurred but i'm willing to you know to take that so anyway um we were ordering books We're getting ready to do the whole nine yards. And I got a call this morning, Dieter. Yes. And they canceled.

They said, what? They said the pastor. What did you do? No, the pastor.

Well, apparently they said, well, the pastor doesn't like politics. And I'm like, what? I kid you not. This is a Baptist church? It's a Baptist church.

Of all the churches. And I wish I could tell you I was surprised.

So they said, we're going to have to disinvite you. I'm like, so you're canceling? I feel like sending them a bill for $7,500. But that would be un-Christlike. But isn't that sad?

First of all, again, that is... Your speeches aren't even political. No, you're not political. And half the time, and I've been to a lot of your addresses, even when they're at different Republican clubs here in Tennessee, Even those ones aren't even that political. They're just more about the culture.

And you do radio, you've had a very long career. It is stunning. But I'm trying to figure out, was it Newsmax? Was it? No, but I think it's my politics.

I think that was the issue. And so anyway, and it's not a big deal. It was like, and again, we're talking, and I asked, I said, well, how many people? They said, well, we normally have about 30 or so senior citizens, depending on who's sick and you know in case somebody dies and i'm like oh wow okay so i said sure happy to do it wow anyway it's all that to say it was going to be a chore anyway it was going no you were doing it pro bono i saw the email you were very very courteous i wouldn't have been that nice because if i have to handle something like that and they're like we're not paying time i'm like well then he's not missing a show because that means i have to go then book a fill-in host and we love our fill-in host but the audience loves you you're the host of the show it was going to be a whole day you would be out of the office it was going to be a lot and they pulled the rug on you because the preacher didn't like my politics i'm offended what is he a democrat that's you know i could smell so anyway i'm talking to the lady on the phone and i'm like oh no and she goes i hope you understand oh no i get it i said i'm used to i'm used to intolerance in the pulpit well he's not intolerant i said well he did disinvite me so that's pretty intolerant ma'am boy it you know what bothers me about this it reminded me once again and i i should not have taken the call before this show this is on me i ladies and gentlemen when i'm coming in to do the program i'm i'm in the zone it's like i'm walking through the tunnel onto the stadium field the cheering throngs across America. And I'll get to you people in Portland.

I have to compliment you on something Portland made. But you're in the zone. You know exactly where you're going, where you're going to take the show, what you're going to say, and then the phone rings. But what bothers me about this, Ben, is that it reminds me of how many Baptist churches and evangelical churches across America are completely disengaged from the culture fight. And every time a church does something like that, it hurts the country at large, because I believe that churches and pastors should have influence in what's happening in the culture.

And when we don't, we get the chaos that we've all been dealing with for, Wow, for years now. There's a story from ABC News, and the headline is kind of shocking. Churches fight to stay open as attendance dwindles. And the whole point of this is how churches are now being converted into bars and nightclubs and luxury condos across the country. And the reason why is people have stopped going to church.

According to the story here, this is in Buffalo, New York, where the Catholics have had to close about 100 parishes. And they expect another 70 churches will be shutting down in the very near future. Again, this is predominantly dealing with Catholics. What's troubling is that there's a resurgence in the Catholic faith. That's not the troubling part.

The troubling part is that there is not a resurgence on the evangelical side of the equation. And I suspect when you see, and especially like the Southern Baptist Convention, every year the numbers just continue to dwindle down. But I'm wondering why it is that people are no longer going to church in America. What's up with that?

Well, it's interesting. Can I jump in real quick? you said, you know, churches around this part, which is crazy and a bit ironic because it's called the Bible Belt, that they don't engage in politics. I thought about that, but actually half of the churches, I know in this part too, if it's a black church, oh, they engage in the culture and they engage in political activism. And I understand maybe we don't want to do souls to the pools like we saw in November and bus your parishioners into voting precincts, but they don't shy away from culture topics from their pulpits.

In the late 1940s, Ben, nearly 80% of Americans said they belong to a church, a synagogue, or a temple. That's according to a Gallup survey. Today, just 45% say they belong to a local church or synagogue. and only 32% say they worship God in a house of prayer once a week.

So most of America, you're looking at an overwhelming majority of America, they don't even go to church on Sundays anymore. 70-some-odd percent of the country, 78% of the country says they don't go to church anymore. I mean, what does that say, ladies and gentlemen? 68%, my apologies. Liberal arts major.

In 2019, 37% of U.S. Catholics, and that's up from 22% in 2002, they say that the sex abuse cases in the Catholic Church caused them not to go to church. 2019, before the pandemic, America was losing as many as 1,000 churches a year. That was before the pandemic. And some of those churches are now being converted into residential homes.

One old Methodist church in Atlanta dropped to 60 members when it closed, and they sold it to a luxury real estate developer.

Now it's becoming a series of 3,000-square-foot condos.

So in place of the baptistry, you got a jacuzzi. Wow. There you go.

So I guess, you know, the church property is big business these days. You know, another thing, and I don't want to dwell on this. this just sort of dropped in my lap here. But again, are churches really relevant anymore? You know, they don't want to talk about the big issues of the day.

And again, it's not about saying, okay, you need to vote for this person or that person. But again, if you are a Christian, you need to be an informed voter. And it's important to understand, well, hey, here are the big issues of the day. And here's what the Bible says about those issues. And you should vote according to your biblical values.

I don't consider that to be a very controversial thing at all. I really don't. But there are a shocking number, a frightening number of churches. And what really troubles me, Ben, is it's my own denomination, right? It's the Southern Baptist.

We've disengaged. By and large, our churches have disengaged from the fight. And I think the country is worse off because of it. 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926.

That's our telephone number. We do have a great show coming up, a lot of great guests, and a lot to talk about. Again, 901-260-5926. Why do you think churches are shutting down across America? And does it really matter?

This is the Todd Sturge Show. We talk about what's happening with the economy, and I want to encourage you as you go into 2025 to take a long, hard look at where your money is invested. And if it's all in the stock market, you need to think about that really hard. My recommendation is to diversify your retirement plan, your savings, whatever you're trying to do, you need to diversify into physical gold, silver, and platinum. And that's why my friends at Priority Gold are really, really anxious to talk to you.

So Priority Gold, they make it very easy to diversify. You've got to act now, though, and this is not some sort of a pressure thing. They just want to send you a free gold investor guide. They've got two decades of experience, thousands of five-star reviews, and they want to send you a free gold investor guide.

Now, folks, if you're following the numbers, gold already up 21% this year and still climbing, and so this is a great opportunity to take a long, hard look at your retirement plans. By the way, if you're a young person, maybe you just got some Christmas money, might be a good idea for you to take a look at investing in gold as well.

So here's what I want you to do. Write this number down. Text the word GOLDEN to 24999. That's GOLDEN to 24999. You're going to get a free gold investor guide, and it's not going to be a pressure sale here, folks.

That's not how Priority Gold operates. They want to educate you first and then you can make a smart decision.

So again, text the word GOLDEN to 24999. All right, welcome back to the show, everybody. Happy to have you with us today. By the way, President Trump last night coming out and saying that he believes that Mike Johnson is the guy for Speaker of the House.

So on Friday, the House members are going to get together, and they're going to vote on who the Speaker should be. I know Thomas Massey is out there saying he's going to be a no vote, and there may be others. But Donald Trump is coming out, and he's saying, no, no, no, no, he's the guy.

Now, a lot of people are really upset because Speaker Johnson has been sticking it to the American people. And again, it's frustrating because they're using the whole – wow, it does tie back into our opening, doesn't it, Ben? Because they're saying, Todd, you can't talk about Speaker Mike Johnson because he's a Christian. He's a good church-going Christian man. How dare you?

So as if somehow because he is a fellow Baptist that he should be, I don't know, exonerated? I mean, can I just say something? I want to talk to the American people. The Southern Baptist, we gave you, my denomination, we gave you Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and Mike Johnson.

So maybe, just maybe, we need to keep our noses out of politics because we're not doing a very good job. Our track record is not all that great. And here's how crazy it is. This is the argument. This is the low bar we're talking about with Speaker Mike Johnson.

Here's our buddy Congressman Tim Burchett from out in East Tennessee. Cut one. Mike's been a good friend of me, and there's nobody more honest that I've ever dealt with in Washington. I mean, he is a fine Christian man. He's not a religious man.

He's a Christian man, and he doesn't cheat on his wife. And I find that very appealing in Washington, D.C. Yeah, you know what? Jimmy Carter was faithful to his wife, too. How did that turn out?

I mean, I appreciate that. I'm glad that Mike Johnson doesn't cheat on his wife. But if that's really the measure of what we're basing our leadership on, and that alone, I don't know. But anyway, it doesn't really matter because Donald Trump said, Johnson's the guy. You say, Tom, what is it?

I was getting messages last night. What does that mean? Has Trump turned? No, Trump hasn't turned. Trump is still Trump.

Trump is the same Trump who he was last week, last month, last year, the last 70-some-odd years. But Donald Trump, he has done some thinking on this. And the reality is they're not going to be able to get anybody more MAGA than Mike Johnson as the speaker. That's just the reality of it. Mike Johnson is as MAGA as you're going to get.

And he may not be all that MAGA. But he's not a rhino. At least I don't think he is. But it doesn't matter. Donald Trump is trusting that Johnson is going to be a man of his word.

And if he doesn't, then Donald Trump will deal with it at that time.

So here's my take on this. And again, I'm wary of Mike Johnson, but I've always said from day one, if Donald Trump wants somebody, that's who Donald Trump should get. What he wants, that's what he gets. A lot of people disagree with that, and they're really concerned. There's a lot of concern over Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Trump doesn't seem to be all that concerned, at least in public. I do know that the campaign has been telling and the transition team telling all of their nominees, if you're going to write something on Twitter, you've got to run it by White House counsel first. You can't be out there just going rogue.

So we'll see how all that plays out. But I'm just curious, are you confident, ladies and gentlemen, are you confident that Mike Johnson is going to be able to deliver on Donald Trump's agenda? We're going to go right to the phones after this break here, 901-260-5926. Again, the telephone number is 901-260-5926. And by the way, you folks on WLOB in Portland, Maine, God bless you.

I understand that just dozens and dozens and dozens of you have been phoning the radio station and asking them to keep our show noon to 3 Eastern, Monday through Friday. Keep up the good work, ladies and gentlemen. It is working, and we are happy warriors here, and we want to stay on WLOB, so get out there and work those phones. All right, hang tight, everybody. We've got to take a break.

We'll be right back. The story of MyPillow is a testament to faith and transformation. Mike Lindell, once battling addiction, found a new path when he embraced faith and began following Jesus. In gratitude, Mike is excited to share an exclusive offer with our listeners. Right now, the standard MyPillow is available for just $14.88, a savings that's too good to pass up.

There's a limit of 10 per customer, so don't wait to take advantage of this amazing deal now with promo code STARNS. Mike believes God gave him the idea for MyPillow in a dream, and it's designed with your comfort in mind. The pillow holds its shape and adapts perfectly to your unique sleep position, helping keep your neck aligned for the best night's sleep. And there's more. Take home a four-piece kitchen set for only $25.

Enjoy the new mattress topper at $99.99 or pick up the luxurious MyPillow bedsheet starting at $49.98. Visit MyPillow.com or call 800-839-8506 and use promo code STARGE to unlock huge discounts. Don't miss out. Order today. All right, this item just coming in.

Congressman Chip Roy out of Texas now says Mike Johnson does not have the votes needed to become House Speaker. Look, the reality is that Johnson could have worked out a deal already with Democrats to ensure that he does have the votes. It's far-fetched, but that could be a possibility here. But again, Chip Roy from Texas announcing that Johnson does not have the votes he needs. Let's go to the phone lines here, 901-260-5926.

Let's start the day in Georgia. David joining us wants to weigh in on Mike Johnson and the Baptist. Hi, David. What's going on? Hey, Todd.

Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Yes, sir. I think that I don't know that President Trump is a huge fan of Johnson, but i think he realizes that if the republicans get into another stupid fight like they did about a year ago that it's going to delay the the confirmation of the election and it'll delay the beginning of what he wants to do so quickly so i think it's more like let's go ahead and get this guy and then you know later on if we want to do something to us but you know we need to get things going right away. That's what I think.

I may be wrong. No, David, I think you're a thousand percent right. And that's what that's what Trump is trying to do here. He's trying to avoid some sort of a prolonged fight. Remember what happened with with Kevin McCarthy and how many votes it took before he was finally confirmed as Speaker of the House.

Trump is wanting to avoid that if because the most important thing, honestly, is not the Speaker of the House. It's Donald Trump's agenda, and he has got to hit the ground running, and he cannot have a distraction like a prolonged fight over the speakership. He's 100% right. In relationship to what we were talking about earlier, you know, about the churches, I certainly agree with you that the attendance is down. I have sort of been watching here lately, and it looks to me like, and I may be wrong with this too, but I've seen what looks like a little bit of resurgence in attendance and some of the activity from some of the younger people.

It may just be in the area that I'm in, which is northeast Georgia, but especially with the election and a lot of people coming out and voting for the college kids voting for Trump, it looks to me like maybe the pendulum is swinging a little bit. At least that's what I'm hoping. It's interesting you mention the young people, David, because when you look at the presidential election, had it not been for the uptick in young people going to vote Trump, Trump may not have won the election.

So there's something happening in Generation Z where these kids are waking up, they're getting involved in politics. and I have seen a resurgence, especially in the Catholic faith tradition, where you've got a lot of young people that are returning to the Catholic Church and a lot of Protestants, by the way, that are converting to Catholicism. And maybe that's a conversation for another day, but I would contend the reason why is that American young people, and especially young Christians, David, they're looking for depth. They're looking for theology. They're tired of the self-help sermons.

They're tired of the super cool preachers wearing the skinny jeans if they still wear those, and with the haircuts and hanging out with the celebs. They're tired of the cover bands that are singing pop music as opposed to the hymns of the faith. I think people are looking for heft in their theology. And as far as the young folks voting for Trump, I think a lot of them will shower enough to be able to afford them. long.

David, you broke up there a little bit, but I think we got the gist of it. Thank you for the call. Let's go to Steve in Little Rock, Arkansas. Hi, Steve. What's going on?

Hey, Todd. You're saying about the church, and when I say church, I'm talking about all Christian churches and all denominations. I think their biggest problem right now in today's society is they're too worried about their tax-exempt status. They're too worried about losing their privilege of separation of church and state. All they want you to do is send your ties in, and then they don't want anybody looking at their books.

They're going to have to come around, or they're going to become extinct. They need to start acting more like an activist organization, and they do the old traditional churches of 100 years ago. You can't get by with the Internet, social media, with everything that's out there that's putting out messages. You can't get by anymore on just tradition. They're going to have to get in with society and start playing the game like some of these other people are doing, or they're going to become extinct.

Yeah, I think a lot of churches, you know, they have embraced technology, and they've done it in such a way that it's been really good and effective. But the reality is, overall, the numbers are just not there. People are not involved in church. They're not following the teachings of Christ. And I think we see that.

That is so evident, especially in our big city culture, where you've basically, you know, in Memphis, Tennessee, I mean, as much as I love our city, we're a war zone. And the reason why is that most churches have disengaged, or they just never were engaged, and they don't want to talk about the big culture issues of the day. A quick example of what I'm talking about. You take what's going on in education right now. With the church's infrastructure they already have built, and all the professed Christians, if they wanted to back during COVID when they shut down our public schools and everything, If they would have kicked it in gear, the churches could own the public education system in this country right now.

Well, they could. And I'll give credit in the Memphis area. We have a lot of Christian schools that are bursting at the seams. And parents are really, really struggling to get their kids into some sort of an alternative than public school because the public schools here are so god-awful bad. And I hope Ben Dieter can probably testify to that.

But, I mean, it's that bad where you've got just thousands of kids that are either on waiting lists or they're trying to get into a private or Christian school. All right, Steve, thank you for the call. 901-260-5926 is our number. Let's go to Murph in Germantown, Tennessee, listening to us on KWAM. Hi, Murph, what's going on?

Dr. Starnes, Happy New Year, good buddy. Hope you had a great Christmas. I had a great Christmas. Thank you.

Good for you. A couple of things. Yours truly agrees with that gentleman from Georgia almost 100%. You know, as Colin Powell used to say, if you're in charge, you're going to make somebody mad. What is so disturbing sometimes is that the loyal opposition, a.k.a.

Democrats, always seem to vote in lockstep. no matter what the issue is, regardless of who's bringing it up, they're always in lockstep. And people of the Republican self ideas always seem we always have these little groups that disagree over crossing T and dotting I We all need to reduce the deficit. We all need to get in gear. But sometimes you've got to give a little to get a little, and some of these small Republican groups just don't seem to do that.

Second commentary, heard a gentleman speaking this morning about the illegal immigration problem and how much money all these quote-unquote sanctuary cities want out of your pocket and Grace Baker's pocket and my pocket and your associates' pocket.

So this gentleman suggested, and this is rather funny, that all of us should declare ourselves as sanctuary persons.

so we, you and I, can start getting some of this tax money from somebody else. But just food for thought there, good buddy. Take care. Yeah, Murph, I appreciate the call, and happy New Year to you, and we'll always appreciate your great insight. And folks, you may not be aware, but Murph is retired now, but was a longtime high school history teacher and just has a wealth of knowledge about this.

Look, the sanctuary cities, and Trump has already said day one, Tom Homan is going to work. And it's going to be one of the most important things that Donald Trump does, which is removing millions of these criminal illegals. We're talking about the dangerous criminal illegals that have crossed into the country. And you need to be prepared for what's going to happen, because the mainstream media, They're already plotting this, and I can promise you many of these producers are working with Hollywood types. And there will be a narrative that Donald Trump is going in and they're knocking down the doors of people's homes.

They're dragging out the women and the children. They're separating families. Of course, Tom Homan said, no, no, no, we're not going to do that. We're going to deport everybody together in one fell swoop. But it doesn't really matter because they're going to portray it in such a way that Donald Trump is worse than Hitler.

And you need to be prepared for that because you will see those images on your television screen every single night, nonstop. But the reality is it has to be done. Otherwise, we're going to have more American women getting raped and killed while going out jogging. We're going to have more American women being set on fire in subways. We're going to have more kids killed by illegal aliens driving cars under the influence.

It's just going to go on.

So, folks, we're going to have to really stiffen our spines here over the next year because it is going to be ugly. But Donald Trump is – and Donald Trump, I believe, is going to stand his ground. I'm concerned about some of the people within the administration. I don't know if they've got the fortitude to do that, but we're going to have to do it for them. All right, we've got to take a quick break.

Going right back to the phones, we've got our good buddy Joe from LLJ coming up. Also, Dana from Tennessee, 901-260-5926 is our number. This is the Ton Starr Show. I don't really like working. I'm going to need a priority parking space.

I only work remotely. How are your safe spaces? Can I bring my dog to work? Will your company protect me against microaggressions? You're triggering me.

Is this interview almost over? You don't run a daycare. You run a business.

So why use high-priced recruitment agencies who charge you up to 40% of an employee's first-year salary so they're focused on getting you the costly talent, not the best fit, which means you get more of this. What's your policy on paying employees to attend protests? I demand eight weeks of vacation. I need at least 12 weeks of paid vacation. I'm going to need a lot of mental health days.

Do you have a game room? My pronouns are Z's and Z's. Isn't it time you hired grown-ups? Call redballoon.org and skip those high-priced recruitment agencies. Call 833-880-0600 for a free consultation.

That's 833-880-0600 for a free consultation. Redballoon.org All right. Welcome back. Happy New Year's Eve, everybody. Coming over the next hour, I'll have to share some stories, some horror stories of when I had to cover Times Square when I was at Fox News Channel.

You know, Ben Dieter, I know that you have aspirations of being, you know, a network guy. And if you do decide to do that, they'll send you down there. You'll be the reporter covering New Year's Eve, the ball drop. and I want to encourage you just to understand this all of the people there all the adults are wearing diapers so you want to be you don't want to be downwind of those guys you know I wanted you to send me to the moon pie drop in mobile and you didn't I don't want to go to Manhattan I don't want to go to any of the other drops across America's everybody every town has a drop I I wanted to go to the Moon Pie drop. Moon Pie over Mobile, Mobile, Alabama.

Great town, by the way. Our good buddy Noah from our great affiliate in Pascagoula brought me down there to do a speaking engagement. The church down there actually invited me to speak.

So anyway, had me at a nice hotel downtown and took me out for dinner. Great meal. Just good people down in Mobile. And I guess Moon Pies are a big enough thing. Man, throw in an RC Cola.

you got a that's good eating ben deeter i know we'll have you talking with a drawl all right let's go to the phone lines uh dana in jackson tennessee that's the rockabilly capital of the world hi dana what's going on hey talk you hear me sir dana you're coming in loud and somewhat clear yes okay all right so todd i love i love the show i'm a black guy conservative but at the same time, man, you're kind of racist sometimes, man. I love you, though. Wait, what do you mean I'm sometimes kind of racist? What does that mean, Dana? All right, so we do the voices of black people.

I kind of get a little irritated with that.

Well, I want you 100%.

Well, I appreciate that. Everything else you talk about. I'm curious, what sort of voices are you talking about, though? Oh, what do you say? oh all right so i guess ma'am like that yeah like that's late talk oh kind of like when i do the uh fat you see like fat albert for example hey hey hey uh yeah a little bit a little bit yes well i'm a big but i'm a big i was a big fat albert guy of course then bill cosby did what he did and i don't know if you can be a big fat albert fan anymore but no i i hear what you're saying but you know again we all do these voices and i i make fun of white people too you know i i talk like a white guy sometimes you know and it's funny too it's really really fun uh-huh dana so you're have you always been a conservative dana uh when i actually when i got in high school i became conservative believe it or not um Yeah, because you know what?

I grew up in Maryland. Maryland is a really democratic state, and I saw how wrong they were all the time without issues.

So I came conservative. Colin Powell is my role model. He's the best black person I ever lived, in my opinion. I love Colin Powell. I love Colin Powell.

And you had Condoleezza Rice. They were like the dynamic duo back during the Bush years. He's okay, but Colin Powell's the man. All right, so you got Colin Powell. And what about Clarence Thomas?

You know, Clarence Thomas does not get the respect that he is due. One of the most brilliant legal minds. And when you actually hear him speak, just really a powerful speaker, Clarence Thomas is. Correct. I'm with the College of Savannah.

So I'm with the Spanish State of Black School.

Okay.

Yeah, so Colin Powell actually talked at my graduating. He was our speaker, my graduate at Savannah State. Yeah. I like hometown. He's dope.

I like him. Dana, one of the things that we've tried to do in Memphis, which is my hometown, is just the education process. You know, we have a strong, growing black Republican community in Memphis. And I think people are just tired, and they're looking for something else. and a lot of folks don't realize that the Republican Party in Memphis was actually founded by blacks in the 1920s to register other black people to vote.

And there is a rich, rich history of black Republicans here in the Memphis area, and nobody knows. The kids don't learn about that in school. That is so cool. You know what I'm saying? Listen, be black conservative because we not put in this and that.

But I'm so tough, man. Yes, sir. I'm with you, man. I'm with you 100%. I'm a young black man that loves, I love God and this and that.

But at the same time, I love to make money and I hate taxes. That's why I'm Republican. Oh, you are a Republican. All right. Dana, God bless you, my friend.

And don't be a stranger. Give us a holler back one of these days. I sure will. Thank you so much, man. Yes, sir.

Thank you. That's Dana from Jackson listening to us on WTJS.

So he didn't have a problem with me making fun of the white people talking, Dieter. I mean, you do get some of those callers. They take issues with the accents. I understand. We got to have a little bit of fun on there.

I don't think it's somewhat racist. I think you either are racist or you're not. And you either just make fun of one people group. Because if you just made fun of one accent, then I might have to be Todd that's a little bit rich. But in fairness to you, you do go after everybody, regardless of skin color.

Oh, as a matter of fact, I think on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line, someone in our defense, Bruce the hairdresser. Todd, you're fabulous. I just love you, Todd. Fabulous. I love the voices.

Thank you, Bruce. Appreciate that. There you go.

All right, we've got to take a break. Jeez-a-loo. Coming up, we're going to be talking to a good fella, Jeremiah Poff, a writer for the Washington Examiner. He's got a great story on work ethic in America. You're going to want to stick around for that.

Hang tight. We'll be right back, America. Hi, everyone. Tom Muston here for the Legal Help Center. If you or someone you know were diagnosed with lung cancer or mesothelioma, listen up.

This could be the result of asbestos exposure, and you could be entitled to significant compensation. Call us at 800-304-4700. That's 800-304-4700. To find out if you qualify for a cash settlement, we have legal professionals standing by right now to take your call, and they'll tell you if you qualify. The call is free, the consultation is free, and you'll speak with a live agent right now.

So, if you or someone you know were diagnosed with lung cancer or mesothelioma, call right now to find out if you qualify for a cash settlement. Call us at 800-304-4700. That's 800-304-4700 to see how much money you could potentially get. Advertisement sponsored by Legal Help Center. May not be available in all states.

Live from the Liberty University studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's common sense conservative commentary from Todd Starr. That's us, that's right. I love this American ride. Yeah, well, hello everybody. Welcome to the Todd Stearns Radio Show.

So very happy to have you with us today. I want you to write down our telephone number. You will need this if you want to call into the program, 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. Coming up in just a little while, we're going to be talking with Jeremiah Poff, who has written an incredible commentary about American work ethic.

He's a writer for the Washington Examiner. It is going to be a great, great conversation. Before we go further, I want to go back to the phone lines. Our good buddy Joe from LLJ, Georgia, has been holding on, and it would not be New Year's Eve without hanging out with our good buddy Joe from LLJ. Hey, Joe.

Todd, happy New Year to you. You're great. Love your show. And I'm really fired up because with Trump in office as president and must-cutting waste, I think this is investor heaven for anybody that wants to buy stocks. I am so fired up and energized.

And your great radio show contributed to a huge landslide Trump win. And so the Todd Starnes show is fantastic. And I look forward to listening to you in the new year and being on your great show again, because you do a super job.

Well, Joe, we love having you on because you always say very nice things about us. And not a lot of our callers do that, Joe.

So we appreciate you. But, but yeah, we appreciate you, Todd. Yeah, I think it's going to be a great year. And Joe, you've been with me from day one. I really do appreciate it.

I know you call in the Hannity show a time or two, and we love it when you call in and always give us those little nuggets of greatness.

Well, Todd, thank you. Keep up your great work. You're a, you're a great American champion of capitalism and free enterprise and a super friend of the American taxpayers. is keep up your super work, my friend. All right, Joe, God bless, and save me a spot over at Sea Island when you get down there.

I need to get over there.

Okay, we'll do that, my friend. All right, Joe from LJ, ladies and gentlemen. And we do have some breaking news. Breaking news now on the Todd Starn Show. This is the headline.

President Trump has named Bucky's Beaver as his official secretary of transportation. This story coming from the Babylon Bee. President Trump naming the Buc-ee's Beaver as Secretary of Transportation. Ben Dieter, have you been to a Buc-ee's yet?

Well, I don't think we've got Ben Dieter connected just yet. We'll touch base with him in just a second. This is a pretty brilliant story. The president, according to the Babylon Bee, Buc-ee's has an excellent track record of experience within transportation. And the Texan beaver should play a pivotal role in cleaning up America's rest stops, gas stations, and roadside restaurants.

Quote, Buc-ee's is simply tremendous, Trump told reporters. His work is, quite frankly, some of the best work we're seeing coming out of Texas. all the big, beautiful gas stations with the clean bathrooms and the fudge. The brisket, too, Mr. President.

They say that it's the Trump Tower of gas stations. And that's really saying something because Trump Towers are the best towers. Bucky is going to do an outstanding job of making America's gas stations great again. Wow, good for you. By the way, if you've been to a Bucky's, you know.

I mean, they really are. They do have the cleanest bathrooms around. And not a big fan of the beaver nuggets, but the brisket's pretty darn good.

So there you go. I'm wondering because, you know, there was a lot of controversy over Pete Booty Juice, the current transportation secretary, the transect, as we call him. And transect Booty Juice really played up the whole LGBT thing here.

So do we know, is Bucky a straight guy? Is Bucky a heterosexual beaver? I think that's the question. We'll get our crack investigative team on that. All right, 901-260-5926 is our telephone number.

That's 901-260-5926. Now, last night on our Newsmax show, we were really honored to have Scott Coulter, the chairman of the Danbury Institute, and Beau French, who is the chairman of the Fort Worth, Texas Republican Party. And they are fired up over this museum story that we first brought to you on the show yesterday. Looks like now that law enforcement may be involved and may be investigating the museum. Let's take a listen to that conversation from last night.

In Fort Worth, Texas, the Modern Art Museum is facing accusations of promoting child pornography in a controversial exhibit titled Diaries of Home. Several photographs in the art collection depict children sexualized in different poses. A letter signed by dozens of pastors, religious liberty groups, and concerned citizens reads this way. These images are presented under the guise of art, but in reality, they sexualize children and exploit their innocence. It goes on to say this exhibit should be called what it is, child pornography.

The Danbury Institute, a public policy collective of churches and other organizations, is spearheading the campaign to remove those photos of the children from the museum's collection. They noted that a museum plaque, quote, shockingly describes the collection as showcasing children naked, moody, and in suggestive situations to evoke an edgy, dark side of childhood. This is unbelievable.

Well, joining me now, Scott Coulter, chairman of the Danbury Institute, and Beau French, chairman of the Fort Worth GOP. Scott, these images, I've seen them online and incredibly disturbing, but you actually went to the museum. What did you find when you got there? Thank you, Todd.

So glad to be with you today. Thanks for having us on. We first learned of this on Christmas Day, not the Christmas present that anyone's looking for, but we heard about it and didn't believe it could be the case. I felt like I needed to go see with my own eyes, unfortunately, what was taking place there. I went over on Friday to view this display myself.

And what we found was it was actually worse in person than it had been described as by local media here and by some different church groups in the DFW Metroplex. and just appalling imagery of children, weak, vulnerable in their most defenseless state, being exploited for a profit and for the guise of art. This is not art. This is the opposite of art. It's evil.

It's demonic. It's reprehensible in every way, honestly. Bo, I'm curious about Fort Worth, Texas. I thought it was a pretty conservative area. Do local residents know what's happening inside the walls of that museum?

Well, everyone I have talked to has been completely shocked that this is happening. But look, this is just further evidence of the left's movement to try to normalize pedophilia, normalize what they now call minor attracted persons. This is why they're putting pornography in local school libraries. And the whole movement is trying to break down the God ordained traditional family. And by doing it, by sexualizing children in this way, I think this goes way beyond what just the average person on the left thinks that their party stands for.

I mean, it really is, as Scott said a second ago, it is demonic. We have to reject this in all of its forms. There is no time that child pornography should ever be allowed anywhere, but especially in a museum where, you know, people take their kids there. People take their families there. And so school trips go there.

So they are trying to normalize and sexualize kids in a way that is going to seriously damage our city's reputation. Fort Worth is a conservative city. We're in the largest red county in the country. and we have to take a stand for these things and reject them outright. Scott, I'm curious about law enforcement.

It seems to me that some laws have been broken here and I'm especially concerned about the children that were in those photographs. I mean, they were incredibly sexually explicit. Have you guys been in touch with law enforcement? these were photographs todd taken of of young boys and girls pre-adolescent pre-pubescent one photograph in particular depicts a a young girl younger than my own four-year-old daughter clearly they're laying in a bed asleep this is is really just terrible even to discuss asleep naked from head to toe fully exposed unable to defend herself not an inch of modesty anywhere in sight, laying in a pool of urine. This is dark stuff.

This is reprehensible stuff. It is absolutely child abuse. It is pornographic in nature. It is pedophilic in nature. This is open to the public.

Children are viewing this display here. These types of things cannot be tolerated. The Tarrant County Judge, Tim O'Hare, has reached out to the Fort Worth Police Department. I've heard that there's a detective already assigned to investigate this. We're grateful and support every one of those efforts.

But this is not art in any way. This is child pornography for someone who's a pedophile, this would be a playground to walk through this museum and look at these images that we would frankly and rightfully so be jailed and face criminal offenses for having such things on our cell phones or our computer devices. But they're on full display here in public in Fort Worth. Bo, I want to go back to something you touched on here, and that's this normalization of pedophilia. Is there anything that state or local lawmakers can do to put a stop to this.

Well, absolutely. And the legislature here in Texas is going to meet here in about two weeks for their session. And I promise you that these issues are already, you know, bills have already been filed to further reduce the exploitation of children, the trafficking of children, child porn, pornography, just in general in school libraries. But you're right. This is an effort by the left to continue to lower the bar for what is acceptable.

And because I think ultimately pedophilia is something that they want to normalize as part of the alphabet soup of behaviors that are outside of traditional God-ordained family values. And so, look, we just believe that we've got to fight this. We've got to take a stand for these types of things. It's never okay. And thank God, you know, the great leadership of Judge Tim O'Hare here in Tarrant County, he's already addressed this, already brought it to law enforcement, as Scott said.

So look, we're going to handle this and get it taken care of. All right, real quick here, Scott, I know that you guys have a letter, thousands of people signing this. Where can people go if they want to add their names to that letter? Thank you, Todd.

The danburyinstitute.org, danburyinstitute.org has this on our homepage, on all of our social media, on X, Facebook, Instagram as well. Would love for individuals in the Fort Worth, Dallas Metroplex, as well as across the country to sign on. We have Christian leaders, pastors from coast to coast speaking out, saying this is not allowable. We must stand against this in Fort Worth and all across the country. Thank you so much.

Yeah, no doubt about that. All right, Beau French, Scott Coulter, guys, thank you very much. Appreciate that. All right, there we go, folks. That was a bit of the interview yesterday, last night on Newsmax on the Todd Stern Show.

You can watch tonight, 5 o'clock Eastern. We are going to be taking you all across America. We have live reports coming from a lot of New Year's Eve celebrations. It's going to be a lot of fun. I want to talk to you folks real quick about something that has just been presented to me, And I think this is just really something that we are going to embrace.

So we talk a lot about being pro-life, but we need to be talking about what we can do as pro-lifers, reaching women with immediate pro-life care before the abortionists do. And it is absolutely critical, which is why I am now partnering with Compass Care to save these precious unborn babies.

Now, Compass Care has a proven strategy to help women in abortion hub states like New York. You can offer any donation to save a woman and her baby in our nation's abortion headquarters of New York City. Brooklyn, get this, folks, Brooklyn has more abortions performed daily than any other place in the United States. The Bronx is not far behind.

So your gift of any amount will provide a Compass Care trained nurse who will listen to, who will counsel and provide women with support and options, including get this a free ultrasound to see her precious unborn child.

So I want you to join me with a $47 donation. That's all it's going to take, $47. And you're going to be able to help these precious women get these ultrasounds. $47. Saveababy.us That's saveababy.us Be sure to click on Todd Stearns when you get to the website You're going to be saving one baby at a time At saveababy.us Again, that's saveababy.us Be sure to use the code name Todd Stearns I don't really like working I'm going to need a priority parking space I only work remotely How are your safe spaces?

Can I bring my dog to work? Will your company protect me against microaggressions? You're triggering me. Is this interview almost over? You don't run a daycare.

You run a business.

So why use high-priced recruitment agencies who charge you up to 40% of an employee's first-year salary so they're focused on getting you the costly talent, not the best fit, which means you get more of this. What's your policy on paying employees to attend protests? I demand eight weeks of vacation. I need at least 12 weeks of paid vacation. I'm going to need a lot of mental health days.

Do you have a game room? My pronouns are Z's and Z's. Isn't it time you hired grown-ups? Call redballoon.org and skip those high-priced recruitment agencies. Call 833-880-0600 for a free consultation.

That's 833-880-0600 for a free consultation. Redballoon.org. All right, folks, a little instruction for you. When you go to saveababy.us, that's saveababy.us, and you'll see the information there. You can fill out whatever your contribution, whether it's $25, $47, or whatever.

You've got plenty of options here. You're going to scroll down, and it'll tell you to enter a code word, and all you have to do is click on my name, and boom, there you go. You're going to be helping us. as we just want to provide ultrasounds for every at-risk mom in America. And it's a big deal.

And so we're just really honored that Compass Care reached out to us. As soon as they said, would you guys be interested? We're like, absolutely, absolutely got to do this. All right, Ben Dieter, I am curious. Let's talk about Buc-ee's.

You know what I was thinking about over break? the president just announced it was a bill that went through congress that he was going to make the national bird the bald eagle which i thought Todd he had already done I thought that was already It actually wasn the official bird of America So what I was thinking with the new administration, yes, we love the bald eagle. We love eagles. It screams freedom and patriotism. What about the Bucky's beaver being our national anthem, our national animal?

We could still have the bird, but we could also have the beaver. the beaver and the beaver nuggets i i don't know i think that that may be a pretty good idea yeah i like that just it's a it's a good thought by the way do you guys have buckies in the northeast where you're from no we have sheets i'm sorry what did we hit the delete button there no you we don't have we don't have a buckies we don't have a wawa i know some folks in your audience probably down Florida have wah-wahs. We have Sheetz and it's better than it might actually be better than a Buc-ee's. We just don't have as clean as bathrooms.

So you're saying when you go to Sheetz you don't have a clean bathroom. That's right. That's spelled for those concerned and my mom who's worried to have a potty mouth S-H-E-E-T-Z Alright? Just want to be clear on that pronunciation. I wonder, is that the guy who founded it?

No. It's just a chain up north in the Pittsburgh, Ohio area. Trump went there when he was campaigning. Oh, I remember that. Oh, it was a huge deal.

Yeah, he did. And back.

So there you go. All right. Well, that's interesting. Again, you got to love the Babylon Bee. You know, they get nailed so many times, but they're a lot funnier than the onion.

What's the onion? The onion is the other santire. Oh, okay. Yeah. Nobody goes there anymore.

It's just, you know, the problem is a lot of the leftists, they're just not funny anymore. You know, there was a time when you had people like David Letterman and they were just funny guys. But then they started taking themselves too seriously. And then it all just sort of falls apart. Yeah, they're not funny anymore.

I tried watching late night before I went on break. It's just, it's dead. It's not funny. Are Americans lazy? Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to be talking about that with our next guest coming up.

901-260-5926. Again, 901-260-5926. Hang tight, everybody. This is the Tom Stern Show.

So I was reading a very interesting column in the Washington Examiner. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Todd Stearns Radio Program. There has been a raging controversy over American work ethic since Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk pretty much took American culture to task. And they basically suggested that foreigners are harder workers than Americans.

And I'm very anxious to hear your thoughts on that. But our next guest wrote an op-ed that has now gone viral on social media. It's called In Defense of a Normal Work Ethic. From the Washington Examiner, we have the great writer Jeremiah Poff. Jeremiah, good to have you back on the show.

Hey, Todd. Great to be back on here. It's been a while. All right. So I'm curious because you're a younger guy.

So what really inspired you to jump into this cauldron of controversy?

Well, you know, I've never shied away from sharing my opinion, that's for sure. But when Vivek posted his long thread about American work ethic last week, I was really rather struck by how obtuse it was and how it kind of pigeonholed American workers. American culture into an expectation that everybody exists to serve the gross domestic product, essentially. And, you know, okay, that means that you got to work 80 hours a week, you have to, you know, you know, focus everything in your life on your job. And I just reject the notion that that is what makes America great.

I reject the notion that that makes a fulfilling life. And that's what my piece was about. When you heard what Ramaswamy and Musk were saying, Were you bothered by that? Did you have a problem with their assessment that we're basically just lazy, stupid people? I think Elon even liked a post that included the word retarded.

Yeah, I think it was especially, you know, we're two months after this great victory from President Trump with this, you know, wide coalition. And now we're, you know, we're throwing shots at each other over something that, you know, it does matter. I really do believe it does matter because part of why Trump won and part of why Trump engendered the support that he did was because he spoke to people who want to work with dignity and live a life that's fulfilling to them. And here you have two technocrats who, you know, God bless them for their support. I welcome it in certain doses.

But come on, like these, we're not all cut out to work 80 hour weeks in a blindingly white, you know, office space in San Francisco, you know, slaving away at our computer, bombarding ourselves with blue light. you know, we're just not built to that. We're built to have families, to, you know, to build strong communities. Those are what things that make America great and what, you know, Trump has promised to return. I think there is a, I mean, there is an argument here that, yeah, we do need to do a better job in our nation's education system, that we have been so focused on, you know, churning out social justice warriors who are confused about their pronouns.

Meanwhile, you've got kids who can't even make proper change at Walmart. And I think that's a fair argument to have. But I just, I think it got lost in the whole presentation. And I don't understand why now that they want to bring this up and create this firestorm, especially over the H-1B visa controversy, which is really enraging a lot of America first conservatives, Jeremiah. Right.

Well, and the H-1B visas are essentially used to undercut American wages and elect corporations employ foreigners for basically starvation wages. It entirely exists to replace American workers. This whole notion that we're bringing in the best and the brightest, well, most of the people who are on H-1B visas could easily be, those jobs could easily be filled by Americans, but they're just going to do it for twice the salary that a foreigner is going to command. And you know what? I think that that's a really disturbing part of this whole conversation because if we're going to say, oh, well, you won't work for less money and more hours, well, then you're lazy.

Excuse me. The purpose of a job is to support your family and support your life. It is not to be your life. And that is a key problem of what I saw and what Vivek said and what Musk kind of has hinted at as well. Joining us on the program today is Jeremiah Poff from the Washington Examiner on an amazing, an amazing op-ed called In Defense of a Normal Work Ethic.

So what is, I noticed you had that in quotes here, what is a normal work ethic? You know, I didn't specifically, you know, define it because I think for, you know, every person that can be a little different. But for the most of us, you know, myself included, you know, we view our jobs as a means to support our life and our family, right? They're not to be our life and our family. And so if I'm working 80 hours a week, that's, you know, a whole bunch of time that I can't spend with my family, I can't spend in my home, you know, enjoying the things of life that make America a beautiful place.

I mentioned in there that the guy who works hard during the week comes home to his wife and kids every night and then on the weekend can go to the baseball game or to the movies with his wife. Those are things that you wouldn't be able to do if you're focusing your entire life around your job and centering it around your job. And it's just, I think, a really unhealthy way of going about life and extremely unfulfilling. You pointed out in your column, and you referenced one of these big tech startup bosses, Gupta is the last name. And he actually declared that he offers no work-life balance.

So, I mean, basically, it sounds like he's running a sweatshop.

Well, yeah. I mean, and I think a lot of people who've worked in Silicon Valley would say that that's a similar experience to what they've, or similar to their own personal experiences. You know, there's an idea that productivity is in itself kind of a god and that we have to, you know, do all we can to support productivity at any expense. And I think it's a really, really dangerous way of looking through life. And I think that, you know, I don't often root for people's businesses to fail, but I think that, you know, if you're creating a business that's pushing people to do things that are contrary to our nature, I think that that's not a business that should be supported.

I want to go back to your point, though, which is it really is about supporting your family. And there's something happening, and I don't know if you can sense this, but within your generation especially, you've got so many young people that are reevaluating their lives. And you look at Harrison Butker and that great speech he gave at the college last spring talking about the priorities and men assuming their roles in the family, women assuming their roles in the family. Like, that's something, those are conversations that haven't been had in a long time in this country. Yeah.

And I think it's an important one because, you know, at the end of the day, your corporate boss, your, your, your coworkers, they're, you know, they, they can be nice people, but they're not going to be there at your funeral. They're not going to be there to take care of your kids. Your, your parents are, your siblings are, your, your kids are going to be at your funeral. Those are the people that matter in your life and your, your entire life should be oriented about a healthy way of living your life is going to be, you know, oriented around that and maximizing those connections and ensuring that your life is built around the love of the people close to you and not, you know, how much money are you contributing to the economy. It's a great point, and it really is a terrific column.

Jeremiah, we're going to leave it there, folks. You can go to washingtonexaminer.com, and you can read more about this story in defense of a normal work ethic Jeremiah, good to have you back on the show. Great to be on. Thanks. All right, Jeremiah Poff, folks.

I mean, it's a great point he raises is that, you know, we're not built to work 80, 90, 100 hours a week, right? There does need to be some balance in your life. And Jeremiah is coming at this from a very different perspective. We're going to take a quick break. And I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this because there's been a lot of debate over whether or not Elon and Vivek have a point here that foreigners are actually harder workers than Americans.

Do you believe that? Do you believe that Americans are basically lazy? 901-260-5926 is our number. That's 901-260-5926. This is The Todd Stern Show.

all right welcome back everybody let's go right to the phone lines 901-260-5926 ronnie in north carolina hi ronnie happy new year to you happy new year mr starns ronnie what's going on call yes glad to do it what's on your mind sir well i was just going to say anyone in america has ever went to a state park or any place where there's wildlife animal control officers ask you not to feed the wildlife because They don't want the wildlife to become dependent on humans for their food. And the government has done that with American citizens by passing out all these free rides. And I just feel like Americans really aren't as much lazy as they are dependent.

Well, they've been conditioned to be that way, Ronnie. And when you go back, and I will say this, I think in the 60s and 70s, is when you started seeing people becoming fully dependent upon the government for everything. And you saw the rise of the projects. And it's not a race thing. It's not white or black.

It's everybody because there are a lot of people that were not on welfare just to get them over a bad time, but they just got on welfare and they never got off of welfare. And so then you compound that problem by having generations of families that are living in public housing, that are living off the taxpayers' dime. And then, Ronnie, to make it even worse, is when the China virus happened, what did they do? They made everybody stay home and everybody got a check for sitting in their Lazy Boy. Right.

But if I may say one other thing, like American television has just ruined American citizens as well. How so? It's beat down the father. It's beat down the father of the family. And the morals of this country, without morals, our country's not going to operate.

It's not going to operate as our Constitution depicts. because you're going to have to depend on yourself and not the government. And if you don't have that mindset, we're never going to make it. Ronnie, I appreciate the call. And Ronnie has a really good point because how many people out there, and I'm not picking on anybody, But how many young men in America can change the oil in their car?

Or if there is something wrong with their car, they can open the hood and they can fix it.

Well, it's kind of hard to do that now with all the computer stuff. But there was a time when if you were a young man, you knew how to change tires. You knew how to change your oil. You knew how to do basic things around the house. If something was broken, your dad taught you how to fix it.

and if you were out in the woods and you needed to start a fire, you knew how to do that even if you didn't have mansions. But now, I think you would be hard-pressed to find people that were that self-sufficient. Let's go to Maureen in Georgia. Hi, Maureen. What's on your mind?

Hey, Todd. I was just calling because I worked for one of the big box stores, not the orange, but the other. and I noticed we had a lot of good young people and older people mixed in there, but the things that came up were, you know, with our store, there was a lot of stuff about, you know, the political difference, the, you know, people being on their phones a lot, you know, texting and doing that kind of thing. But also I noticed, like, when I lost a job and it was, like, our internal system, they were showing everybody, oh, we're going to support Black Lives Matter, We're going to support the alphabet people. We're going to do all this kind of thing.

And so I felt like it caused a problem because a lot of people felt like that didn't belong in the workplace. And so then when I didn't have a job anymore, I went to something at the Department of Labor, and a lot of older people were there saying, hey, we want to work, but we can't get jobs. And I've been looking for a job, and I probably have about 200 resumes in right now and just can't find a job, and it's just crazy, you know, and I want to work. And I'm having to negotiate the pay down some because, you know, they're saying, well, you know, we can pay you any wages that you can't hardly live on, you know. And so I was listening to what everybody was saying about the wages, and we did have some workers that were coming in that were doing construction and that kind of thing that a lot of them lived together in houses just to be able to afford to be here.

but they were working for lower wages. Let me ask you something here, Maureen.

So you're having a hard time getting a job. Have you thought about self-identifying as an Indian? You know, it's funny. I said something. I said, maybe I need to change.

Maureen Ramaswamy. You're hired. But anyway, that's just my opinion on it. But I just, I mean, you see a lot of it. No, you're a thousand percent, Maureen.

And I think one of the things that's angered a lot of folks is now people are starting to look into the H-1B visas, and they're realizing, holy cow, these are not the upper echelon high-tech jobs. They're bringing in folks to answer phone calls, be secretaries, drive school buses. And you're wondering, okay, aren't there qualified Americans who can do those jobs? And I will say this, and I don't believe the argument, well, Americans just don't want to do those jobs. But if that's true, then that's a problem in and of itself, Maureen, and we've got to address that together as a country.

I agree. All right, Maureen, hang in there. All right, Happy New Year to you, Maureen. Wow, 901-260-5926, our telephone number, that's 901-260-5926. I want to go back to this story we talked about yesterday, this black-centric coffee house in Memphis.

And the owner is really upset about all you white folks moving in to the community, to the neighborhood, all you folks who have poodles, all you people who shop at Whole Foods. I love Whole Foods. I don't have a poodle, though. anyway he he wants to keep his coffee shop as a place for black and brown people in other words no cream this coffee shop no cream at this coffee shop so anyway he got robbed and so now the um and not just once but twice and he says that he's he's gonna keep on keeping on cut number 10 renata henderson says keeping their business put is also a teaching moment for their kids resilience is an inward work um but i think it's also a community work so for anybody who is coming into your own company your own business find a tribe uh that's for you that's behind you that you can trust uh and then push it out you got to stick it out you know resilience starts within there you go um but anyway they um they and the name of the coffee shop and and dita this is all very confusing it's an x instead of an o so it's not coffee it's cx i think and that really is a throwback to the malcolm x thing so they're they're kind of in your face they want to educate you they're gonna educate you when you're drinking your your black coffee i just want a cup of coffee And I take my coffee black, so I'm not a racist. Yeah, me either.

I get zero cream in my coffee. I don't know what that says about. You don't put a little white milk in your. All right. Good for you.

Yeah. Good for you. I know. No, it's really unfortunate because, again, I don't think you want to stir up any kind of a debate until people have had their first cup of coffee. You're just asking for trouble at that point.

Yeah, it's like you go to their website, Todd, and you have to take a course on critical race theory just to get coffee beans. No one wants that. We just want to drink our Joe. Leave us alone. Yeah.

I heard their coffee tastes pretty bitter, if you know what I mean. All right. Got to take a break here, folks. 901-260-5926 is our number. That's 901-260-5926.

This is the Todd Stern Show. Live from the Liberty University studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's conservative blowtorch. This American ride. Todd Starnes. Oh, yeah.

Oh, well, happy New Year's Eve, everybody. Todd Starnes here. Your voice of truth and hope across America for the entire year and also into 2025. We've got a lot going on this hour of the program. I'm curious to know, you know, a lot of people think that New York City is sort of like the that's the only New Year's Eve celebration in America.

And it's a big one. I mean, they'll have about a million people out there and watching the Waterford Crystal Ball drop. And they think, well, that's it. And then everybody goes home. But no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That is not it. As a matter of fact, there are celebrations. Things are dropping. Let me say this. Balls are dropping across America tonight, ladies and gentlemen.

across the fruited plain. And I'm not talking about just the Waterford Crystal. We've got all sorts of things that are falling out of the sky, and maybe you in your community have an unusual New Year's Eve celebration. Give us a call, 901-260-5926. You know, Dieter, I probably should have phrased that differently a few moments ago.

My apologies. It's the last show of the year. What are you going to do? But I know here in Memphis, everybody gathers on Beale Street. Do we know what they drop in Memphis?

We drop. We drop it like it's hot. We drop either because we're ducking for cover or you weren't lucky and you just dropped because of a bullet.

So Nashville, they have a huge celebration. And I know Newsmax has a reporter out there in Nash Vegas. And they drop a giant guitar at the stroke of midnight. I know. I know.

Yeah. Every city is going to look a little bit different. I read a report, though, I thought was really interesting. A new study came out showing that 95% of Americans say they are ghosting New Year's Eve parties. They're not going out.

They're staying indoors. Is that right? Yeah. You see, after covering, I've had to cover Times Square for like 10 years when I was at Fox. And I enjoyed it.

It was a lot of fun. But man, after all of that, being surrounded by a million people wearing adult diapers, most of them not even Americans. I'm like, I'm done. I'm done with the crowds. Yeah, it's not pleasant.

Did you ever work with the drunk duo, Anderson Cooper? Oh, Anderson Cooper. Did you ever have to do any? And his gal pal. What's Andy Cohen?

No, no, no.

So the Fox Base Camp, we're all in this little, we're wedged in. There's not a lot of wiggle room, but Fox, we would be at the base of the Olive Garden.

So if you've been in Times Square and they have this red staircase, and then right behind that, you've got the street and then the Olive Garden.

So all of it's blocked off. And so the Fox satellite truck is there, and that's where we operated. The only nice thing is that with our credentials, we could go back into the Fox building. We were just right around the corner during the commercial breaks. Isn't there a photo of you in this building somewhere of you right up close with the iconic ball?

Is that you? Yeah. So that was part of the gig. I would have to go in early in the morning, go home and go to sleep, and then come back for New Year's Eve coverage. And yeah, so for Fox and Friends, they would send me to the very top of where the ball was going to drop.

And before it was raised, and we would do live hits there. I actually got to touch the Waterford Crystal. Wow. They say it weighs over 11,000 pounds. It's huge.

Covered in 2,688 crystals. It's insane. It's true. But it's really a lot of fun. I think people are surprised to know there are not that many Americans in the crowd.

It's mostly an international crowd. And it's hard to actually find people who speak English. And I realized that the first year when I would wade into the crowds trying to find somebody. Anybody here from Fort Wayne, Indiana? Nobody was there from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

I once went to Times Square for New Year's Eve. Let me just say, I did not make it to the actual ball drop. I ended up in an Uber, and that's all I'll say. It was crazy. They block off traffic.

You can't even walk. You have to be dedicated to actually see that thing. They drop a potato in Boise, Idaho. I'm not surprised by that. You know, that's the whole potato capital of the world.

Oh, here we go.

Now, this is an interesting one. In Mount Olive, North Carolina, they actually drop a pickle at the stroke of midnight, a giant pickle. Our friends in Maine, by the way, this is interesting. Eastport, Maine, do you guys still drop the sardine? They drop us allegedly.

And Kenny Bunk, Kenny Bunk porn, a wild blueberry ball and also a giant lobster. I would expect for somebody to drop a giant lobster in Maine. Yeah. We need to reach out to Jeff Stein and see if they drop a big corn cob in Iowa. I don't want to stereotype, but come on.

Somebody drops a walleye fish they used to drop. And where was that at? I know in New Jersey, they drop a giant M&M. and oh here we go point pleasant new jersey they drop a moss bunker which is a fish i've never heard of such a thing here's my favorite though and they don't do this anymore but it's in um they used to do this in north carolina where they would capture a possum a live possum and put it in a box and then they would raise the box and then they would lower the box at the stroke of midnight and then they would release the possum. And PETA got involved, and they said they were mistreating the possum.

And the owner of the place, it was a grocery store, kind of a convenient store, I suppose, where all of this was where the festivities. Thousands of people came out to watch the possum drop. And the owner was trying to explain to PETA they were actually prolonging the life of the possum because as soon as it crossed the road, boom, splat, it's gone.

so but they the controversy was so great so now talapusa georgia has picked up the tradition and in talapusa they do the possum drop and the good news here we don't want to alert pita but the possum is dead and stuffed so it's a it's a taxidermied possum named spencer and they put Spencer, they, I guess, string up Spencer, and they drop the possum at the stroke of midnight. That sounds terrible.

So I'm curious to hear what you guys are doing across the country for New Year's Eve. And, of course, New Year's Day in the southern states, it's all about eating the black-eyed peas and cornbread.

So that's like a southern tradition.

So I curious to hear from you 901 Let go to Ray in Tucson Arizona Ray what do you guys drop over there How you doing, Todd? We drop a taco. Like a hard... It's a colorful taco. Wow, is it a hard shell or soft shell taco?

I would say it's a hard shell. Wow, okay. And so people actually... It's like at a big event. People show up and they're very festive?

Yeah, they come down to the plaza out here in downtown Tucson, and they drop a taco at midnight.

Well, I'll be darned. I've never heard of such a thing.

Now, I will say this, Ray. I was in Tucson, gosh, 10 years ago with some Border Patrol agents, and they took me to a place, an outdoor hot dog joint, and I got my very first Sonora dog. That was a life-changing moment, Ray. those are they are the wiener from god i get i clogged an artery but it was worth the wiener from god you know how you got the lord's chicken that's it yes lord wiener the lord's wiener okay we got to work on that but i see where you're going ray and it's your heart's in the right place All right, Ray, God bless you and Happy New Year, sir. Happy New Year.

You take care. Oh, is this true, Ben Deter? They drop a taco. It's not just a taco. It's the Taco Bell taco.

Wait, what? Yeah. Oh, come on, Ray. You left out the lead story. I know.

I know. Okay, so, Todd, I just sent you this story. It's preceded by the downtown Arizona Bull Bash, where they have all the live music, etc., all that stuff. They've got a silent disco. And then at 12 o'clock, sure enough, you can watch it actually live on their website.

It's, yes, the hard show taco, but on it is branded the Taco Bell logo. It's not just an ordinary taco. This is fascinating. That looks like a delicious event. And they had the food trucks and the whatnot.

Port Clinton, Ohio. That's where they drop the walleye. It's a fish. I'm disappointed in Memphis that they don't drop a pork butt. Oh, drop that pork butt like it's hot.

Drop it like it's hot. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. All of Memphis we get down with something like that. That would be fun.

We could drop a pork butt. Drop a butt. We'll do it from the station, second floor. Hey, you know what? That could be a tradition here on the Todd Stern.

You know, your home state of Pennsylvania, you guys are dropping everything. and you got M&Ms in in foul mouth Pennsylvania is that did I get that right that's my hometown a stuffed goat do you guys drop a stuffed goat wow um Hanover Pennsylvania Pac-Man they drop a Pac-Man and Hershey PA they drop a Hershey kiss that makes sense yeah that's it's not that original but you know it's you know it's Hershey but man it's like every town in Pennsylvania you guys are dropping something. Tennessee, yeah, ours are kind of boring, except for Oak Ridge, which is known as the Atomic City, so they drop a bomb on. It's an atom-shaped ball. There's a nuclear cloud over eastern Tennessee.

Don't worry, folks. Unbelievable. But you know what my favorite is, Ben Dieter. You know what my favorite is. It's the moon pie.

Okay.

The moon pie. You got it. If you haven't been to their, it's so much fun. I've never even had a moon pie. I don't even know what a moon pie looks like.

What's wrong with you? I don't know, but I'm curious now. How do you not have a moon pie? You've been in the South for, what, three and a half years? I thought they were whoopie pies, and I had to Google it.

It's a different thing. No, no, whoopie pie is a little different. That's got the whipped cream. Oh, Wisconsin, they drop a carp. Not cheese?

No, not. No. Well, no, that's it. Hold on now. That would be in Plymouth, Wisconsin.

They drop an 80 pound decorated cheese wedge from a 100 foot ladder truck.

So there you go. All right. 901-260-5926 or telephone number. That's 901-260-5926. This is the Todd Stern Show.

All right, welcome back, everybody. Happy to have you with us.

So, Cal Thomas was on Fox just the other day. And I think one of the biggest stories that needs to be talked about has been this cover-up of Joe Biden's mental acuity. And this is a big deal, folks. This truly is an even greater scandal than the Hunter Biden laptop story. And here's the reason why.

It's very clear now that Joe Biden has not been running the country for the past four years.

So the question is, who's been doing that? Who's been making the decisions? Who's been telling Joe Biden what to sign and what documents not to sign? Who was it that signed off on all those horrible people getting pardoned and being granted clemency? Who's making those decisions?

That's what needs to be investigated here. Anyway, Cal Thomas is blasting the media here. And he says, hey, look, they're the ones that need to bear some responsibility for all of this.

Well, I think the biggest loser to playoff stuff is Democratic Party is the media. Same thing.

Sorry to repeat myself. They covered up for Biden's mental acuity decline. They covered up on the Hunter Biden laptop, Facebook and other social media. covered up in the New York Post story about the Hunter Biden laptop, the 51 intelligence agencies who the Russia, Russia, Russia thing signed off saying it was true. The media followed all of this.

And I think it's a disgrace to the profession that I've been a part of for a half a century. And I wish we could get some new blood in the media to actually practice journalism instead of practicing politics. Yeah, I'm with you, Cal Thomas. I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. But it does make you wonder if you step back and you have to ask yourself, OK, what's really going on here?

I was shocked on CBS, Face the Nation, because Jan Crawford actually went after her own network on this. Take a listen. One of the things we also do in the year-end correspondence roundtable is dig into what was undercovered or underreported. Jan? Undercovered, underreported.

And that would be, to me, Joe Biden's obvious cognitive decline that became undeniable in the televised debate. At the presidential debate with Trump. Unquestioned. And, you know, it's starting to emerge now that his advisers kind of managed his limitations, which has been reported in the Wall Street Journal, for four years. And yet he insisted that he could still run for president.

We should have much more forcefully questioned whether he was fit for office for another four years, which could have led to a primary for the Democrats. It could have changed the scope of the entire election. Yet still, incredibly, we read the Washington Post that his advisers are saying that he regrets that he dropped out of the race, you know, that he thinks he could have beaten Trump. And I think that is either delusional or they're gaslighting. President Biden has said repeatedly he was sick during the debate June 27th in Atlanta, and he's always been fine, and he leaves fine.

That is his position, the position of many of his top aides as well, even though there is that reporting. Robert Costa. I'm curious to know something from our audience here. Where are you getting your news right now? Are you still watching CNN or MSDNC or Fox?

Are you still watching News Nation? Are you watching cable news? Or are you getting your news and information from someplace else, like social media? I know a lot of folks are switching over to X, and they're getting a lot of their basic news and information, especially breaking news from X. I'm curious to hear from you on that.

901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. where exactly are you getting all of your news and information these days? A lot of folks are cutting the cord. They're not spending the money for cable anymore.

They're getting the apps. Maybe you're on Netflix or whatever. But a lot of folks are saying, you know what, I'm just done with cable. By the way, I hope you're not done with investing because I've got some exciting news to share with you. Our friends at Priority Gold have some great offers for you, And one of them is absolutely free, a free gold investor guide.

My friends at Priority Gold want to help you understand why you need to fortify your savings by diversifying. And by diversifying, you need to be investing in precious metals like gold and silver. Gold up 21% this year and still climbing. I want you to text the word golden right now to 24999. That's 24999.

You're not going to have to buy anything. As a matter of fact, they want to make sure you are an educated consumer before you buy gold or silver. And you can do that by getting their free gold investor guide. They've got more than two decades of experience and thousands of five-star reviews. Priority Gold makes it so easy to diversify into physical gold, silver, and platinum, but you've got to act fast.

And that's why I want you to text the word GOLDEN right now to 24999 for your free guide. Folks, again, they're not hard-sell people, right?

So you're not going to have to sit through any kind of a conversation. They just want to send you a free gold investor guide so you can educate yourself now on why you need to be investing in gold, silver, and platinum. Again, text GOLDEN, G-O-L-D-E-N, to 24999. All right, hang tight, everybody. Got to take a quick break on this New Year's Eve edition of the Todd Stern Show.

All right. Welcome back, everybody. Good to have you with us. This is the Todd Stern's radio show. I have to go back to this story from 2015.

You know, the H-1B controversy is not something that's new. This has been going on for a while. And the headline out of the New York Times of all places, pink slips at Disney, but first training foreign replacements. Where you had employees who kept the data systems humming over at Disney. They were all called in one day, 250 employees.

And they were told they were going to lose their jobs. they were being laid off. But it turns out that most of those jobs were actually being transferred to immigrants in the United States on temporary visas for highly skilled technical workers. They were brought in by an outsourcing firm based in India. And to really bring this home and the kick in the pants here is that over the next three months, those Disney employees, some of them were actually required to train their replacements to do the jobs they had just lost under the threat of losing whatever severance package they were offered.

Many of the workers in their 40s say it was absolutely humiliating. This is a big deal, ladies and gentlemen, and it's not going away. I want to go to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line right now and welcome Kevin Lynn to the show, the executive director of the Institute for Sound Public Policy and the founder of U.S. Tech Workers. Kevin, good to have you with us today.

Todd, I'm elated to be on your show and sharing a thought or two with your audience. Just great to be here. And you're absolutely spot on with how this H-1B visa is working here in the United States. And it's not working for American citizens. And, Kevin, I think the thing here that really struck me, I didn't, again, I just thought it was, you know, they were looking for the best scientists and engineers.

but man when you look at the jobs that are available through the visa program i'm sitting here going you're telling me that there are no americans who can do those jobs absolutely and when you i love the disney example because i actually have spoken with several former disney employees who were part of that where they had to train their replacement let's call the train the replacement program and these workers that are being brought in because this is how it was Maybe it's best to just take a quick step back, Todd.

So in the 1980s, the National Science Foundation put out a paper. Block, who was the director at the time, you know, they said, oh, my gosh, you know, it's one of those chicken little things. The sky is falling. We're going to be short 675,000 STEM workers, science, technology, engineering and math. And to make up that shortfall, we're going to have to import all these skilled workers from abroad.

Well, first, that's not true. And as people like Eric Weinstein have pointed out, there's no such thing as a long-term labor shortage in a market economy. You know, it's not to say they don't exist, but when they happen, It's when employers and government agencies camper with the natural functioning of the wage mechanism. Because what happened in the 1980s and 90s is Americans learned to code. They either went to university to learn, they learned on their own, and we filled the jobs.

We filled the gap through the natural market mechanism. But what happened was the Immigration Act of 1990 that was signed into law by George H. Bush was predicated on this mythical shortage of STEM labor. And the thing is this, Todd, and as you alluded to, this program was never designed to bring in the best and the brightest. We have things like the O visa to bring in the best and the brightest, and there are no caps.

This visa was designed to displace Americans, and I say that for two reasons. Number one, when they choose the roughly 120,000 that come on the visa each year, it's not a meritocracy.

So they're not like selecting based on who has the best credentials or work experiences. It's a lottery, Todd. Oh, yeah. You could have a degree. You could get a Ph.D.

from the India Institute of Technology or a B-Tech degree from a community college in Bangalore and have equal opportunity to get an H-1B visa. It's absurd. And then you've got Ramaswamy. And the problem I have here is, yeah, there is some truth to their concerns, but one has nothing to do with the other. And we're not talking about, I mean, and we can have a conversation about whether or not our education system is doing an adequate job.

And I don't think they are in a lot of cases. But that's not what this is all about. And I love that you just really drilled right down to the issue here is that these tech companies, they're hiring these people because they don't want to pay higher wages. Right.

They don't. And this is something, for instance, I have a great old friend, Michael Axelrod. He was a scientist at Lawrence Livermore for 40 years. And when we first started really looking into this in 2018, over coffee, he said, Kevin, my gosh, since the 60s, they were saying we scientists are being paid too much money. And they've been after us ever since.

And he said when he saw the H-1B visa created in 1990, he said he knew exactly what it was going to do.

So, again, you used a great example of Disney, and there's so many others, because what they do is they have these consulting firms. Many of them are Indian consulting firms like HCL, Cognizant, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and what we refer to as H-1B visa dependent.

So they can contract with a company like a Disney, a SoCal Edison, Northeast Utilities, Abbott Labs, and say, look, guys, we will contract with you, outsource your IT.

Now, it's wild because they can get away with this. And the H-1B visa workers who are here are eager to do this kind of work.

Now, interestingly enough, if you were like putting out, if you had created a visa to attract the really talented people from all over the world, why is it, Todd, that 74% of the people who come in on this visa come from one country, India? Because they know that, you know, the people that come from India, for the most part, are desperate to get here. And another aspect, the second thing about this visa that demonstrates how it's just about replacement is that it is what they call dual intent. Unlike all of our other employment visas, like the H-2A, which is for ag workers, H-2B, seasonal workers, this dual intent allows them to get a pathway to citizenship. but the company that's sponsoring them has filled out a labor condition application to bring them here is the one who can sponsor them for the green card.

So what they're able to do is dangle this big carrot in front of them and saying, be good, accept the wages you're given, accept the working conditions, and maybe we'll sponsor you for a green card.

So that tells you what this program is really all about. And, you know, again, when I don't know what kind of meltdown, what triggered the meltdown of Vivek Ramaswamy on December 26th. I just did a quick post on it this morning. But I got to tell you, what kicked all of this off, Todd, we're in the eighth day of what I call the great H-1B visa kerfuffle. And it all started with the appointment, a appointment of a fellow by the name of Sri Ram Krishnan.

And he was going to go work at Doge. And the thing is, what's important about this is appointments in a presidential administration are policy. That person who gets appointed, they have, you know, inclination and a history of behavior. And that pretty much can become policy.

Now, in the case of Sri Ram, he has always been an advocate for more H-1B workers. He came to this country on what they call an L1 visa, which is an intercompany transfer. He's working at Microsoft. And right now, it is so tribal within so many tech companies and so many IT departments in other companies, whether it's financial services, you name it, where it's all about nepotism. to get ahead, to get to the country, to move up in the ranks.

There was just a big lawsuit settled a couple months ago against Cognizant, one of these H-1B visa-dependent consulting firms, where they absolutely, as judges, you could not miss the kind of discrimination that was going on against the rest of the world and the promotion of Indians only. this company.

So, Kevin, that's kind of, go ahead. Yeah, let me jump in here because, again, I know President Trump, you know, they made some headlines a few days ago, you know, by saying, oh, well, Trump, you know, is supporting, he was supporting Musk. I don't think he did. I, you know, I read the statement, and I think the president's position has not changed on the H-1B visas. You know, my concern here is that Elon and Vivek, they have a job, and that job is to identify and eliminate government waste.

They need to leave the immigration stuff to somebody else. That's not their assignment. Todd, and I really appreciate that. And I think you're probably correct there in that assumption.

Now, but the danger is this, and I'll give you an example from the Obama administration. There was a fellow, there's a fellow named Doug Grant, and he was appointed to the Office of Science, Technology, and Policy. And you would think, okay, what does that have to do with immigration?

Well, the fact is, he worked with the Obama administration from that office to increase the STEM program, the STEM Optional Practical Training Program and other programs to bring in more white-collar foreign workers.

So proximity is important here, and that's why you're seeing, I believe, this huge groundswell against this appointment.

So I do believe, when you look, for instance, I mean, why I think like you do, it's so diametrically opposed to not only putting Americans first, but to Trump's core beliefs. For instance, on August 1, 2020, I was in the cabinet room with President Trump, and I had brought 12 workers from the Tennessee Valley Authority that were about to have their jobs outsourced. In fact, much like Disney, they had already begun training their replacements. and we brought them to Trump in the cabinet room. President Trump first starts off with firing the chairman of the board and one of the board of directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

And, of course, the board hires the CEO who was doing these outsourcing. And halfway through this meeting, the CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority communicated with the White House and said he was not going to do the outsourcing. It was a huge victory. I mean, Trump had quite literally, in this one fell swoop, saved 200 IT union jobs, which is amazing.

So I have to believe, no one knows more about this visa as a president, as a chief executive of the country, than Donald Trump. That's it. And another thing. Kevin, I'm going to have to jump in here because I am so late for a break, and we're going to have to leave it there. But I want to get you back on.

This story is not going away. And this is imperative that we have this conversation and that our listeners call their elected leaders and tell them they've got to address this H-1B visa issue. Kevin, where can people go if they want more information about what you're up to? Big thanks for that. You can find us on X, that's probably where we're best known, at U.S.

Tech Workers. And then our website, theinstitutforsoundpublicpolicy.org. And I'd also recommend going to Amazon. An amazing guy, John Dale, tech worker activist, just wrote a book called In the Room, which has the stories of several tech workers who have been heroically pushing back against this country of origin discrimination that is destroying our professional class of work. Kevin, I'm super, I got to leave it there, but we appreciate your time and thank you for coming on the show.

All right, folks, we'll be right back. All right. Welcome back, everybody. Good to have you with us today. This is the Todd Stearns radio program, and this is it, Dieter.

This is the final segment of the final hour of the final show of 2024. Impart something wise, Todd, a fortune cookie moment. This is a big deal. Go. I got nothing.

What? I got nothing. This is literally the height of your shows of 2024, and boy, has it been a crazy year. It has been absolutely insane. but I'm wondering if people are ready for what's about to happen.

And it's not Inauguration Day. I mean, we kicked things off on January the 3rd with the election of the Speaker of the House. And, I mean, it's just nonstop from there. In the meantime, you've got to go work on those resolutions. I should have gone down to Mobile, Alabama.

We should have done the show. Maybe next year we do the show from the giant moon pie drop. I like tacos more, so maybe we could just hybrid the show. You go to Mobile. I'll go to Tucson.

We got to get somebody over at the walleye. Yeah. Oh, by the way, why do they drop people?

Somebody asked me, why did they drop a pickle in Mount Olive, North Carolina? Do you know the reason why? No. Take a wild guess. Mount Olive pickle.

They're expecting thousands. It's a three-foot pickle. That's a big pickle. That's because Mount Olive is home to the Mount Olive Pickle Company.

So they drop a giant pickle. Mount Olive Pickles. They have great pickles. Not as good as Aunt Sarah's pickles.

Well, this is true. But they even have a – you're going to love this. The event is held at the intersection of Cucumber and Vine. Isn't that great? Cucumber Street and Vine Street.

You've got to love it. anyway uh tonight five o'clock eastern we're gonna have a lot of fun uh we're gonna be taking you live to nashville and las vegas and also ben deter we have breaking news can we get the banner we pay for it so we may as well use breaking news now on the todd starn show ben dinner we can now confirm that the team from the moon pie over mobile will be joining us on newsmax tonight that's crazy i'm very excited someone said do you want um mayor moon pie they said do you want speaker johnson on the show no no no i want the people that are in charge of the moon pie that's who i want on the show wow so what five o'clock tonight five o'clock eastern of the todd stern show you can certainly watch that on newsmax too going to be a lot of fun and then newsmax is doing a live new year's eve show i don't know if they're going to be drinking like Anderson Cooper and what's-his-face, but man, they got sloshed. You never know what's going to happen over at CNN. And you know what's funny is that Fox could never really compete in the ratings because everybody was watching to see what the two drunk gay guys were going to do. It's just the reality of it.

What are you going to do? All right, folks, it has been a lot of fun. Man, what a great year. We have added new affiliates. We have had some crazy conversations, lots of controversy, lots of fun, and lots of laughter.

And I can promise you this. We're going to be doing it all over again. We're taking the day off tomorrow to celebrate. But we're going to be right back at it on Thursday, Friday for the big vote. I just want to say thank you so very much for being a part of the Todd Stearns Radio Show.

Here's to a pretty awesome 2025. Happy New Year, everybody. It's in the house.