Barn Talk - Balancing Life's Demands: Elon Musk's Government Reforms & Social Media Realities

Episode Date: April 6, 2025

Welcome back to another episode of Barn Talk! Today, we're lighting a fire under our discussion with a Hot Topics episode. Sawyer and Tork are here to break down the latest in farming developments, market updates, and the interplay of government and big news stories. We’re kicking things off with our market insights, diving into the latest from the USDA, and touching on the deeper complexities of domestic and global agriculture. Plus, you’ll hear our reflections on a recent retreat full of high-profile professionals, where we gleaned lessons on leadership, family, faith, and the power of discipline in driving success. We also venture into the hot button topics shaping politics today, like transparency in government and the shifts we've observed in societal and political landscapes. Whether you're a farmer, a business enthusiast, or just someone trying to navigate the flux of modern life, there’s something in this episode for you. So let's dive right in and turn up the heat! Use code BARNTALK for 10% OFF your next order https://farmergrade.com/  SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR   SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c  LISTEN ON: SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY  APPLE ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049 Follow Behind The Scenes👇🏻 ● This’ll Do Farm Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/30KPBNk   ● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS   ● Sawyer’s Instagram  ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4   ● Tork’s Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS    00:00 "Support & Share Barn Talk" 07:24 "Shared Struggles of Success" 15:26 Family Vision and Values 17:07 "Discipline Over Motivation" 26:28 Understanding Dogecoin's Transparency Benefits 31:18 Questioning Criticism of Doge Inquiry 34:29 Unauthorized SSN Use for Benefits 43:42 "New Ag Secretary's Budget Slash Plan" 49:17 "Conservative Democrats' Shift Concerns" 53:25 "Varying Reactions to Trump Presidency" 57:13 Military Fitness Standards Equalized 01:03:09 Uncertain Spring Outlook ------------------------------- ⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠  The Information discussed and shared on Barn Talk is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or success for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this podcast is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice. The Information on this podcast and provided from or through our content is general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this podcast without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional, professional broker or financial advisory. Understand that you are using any and all Information available on or through this website at your own risk. RISK STATEMENT– The trading of Bitcoins, alternative cryptocurrencies, NFTs, individual stocks, etc. has potential rewards, and it also has potential risks involved. Trading may not be suitable for all people. Anyone wishing to invest should seek his or her own independent financial or professional advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every Olympic dream starts somewhere. At first, it's just potential. But over time with the right support and a few breakthroughs, it becomes something more. Make RBC Training Ground your breakthrough moment. Start your journey to Team Canada today at rBC trainingground.ca. The ride that steals the spotlight every time it hits the road, that's the Volkswagen Tiguan.

Its sleek exterior makes a first impression you can't ignore. Step inside to find available full leather seats and wood accents. Under the hood, the available 201 turbocharged horse power engine gives it a fun to drive edge. The refined Tiguan, you deserve more style. Visit vw.ca to learn more. SuvW, German engineered for all. All of the food we eat and much of the clothing we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms. Farms are different in type, in size, and even in name.

Welcome to Barn Talk. What happens at the barn stays in the barn, but not today. we're going to let it all out for you guys today is going to be a hot topics episode got plenty of talk about before we get into it you guys know the drill if you get any value from the show shared out with the people that you know the more that you guys do that the more of the show grows and it's the best way we found to grow a podcast it's kind of the ticket to admission to watch or listen to the show another thing you can do to help out barn talk is leave a review on spotify or apple the more you guys do that the more it gives our show credibility and the more

guests we can have on the show, the more episodes we can make. Last thing you can do to help support Barn Talk and our family farm here is support the direct-to-consumer-meat business, Farmergrade. Our direct-to-consumer-meat business, Farmergrade.com, you can always use code Barn Talk to save 10% off your next order. Beef sticks, pork, bagu, chicken, pork, all on there. Any cut you want, you can get it. And we're just slowly growing the product line there.

So we appreciate every single one of you guys for supporting us, giving us a listen, giving us a watch, watching the clips. It really does mean the world to us. And we're getting more and more guests coming on the show, which has been awesome. So we're just going to keep trying to get more and more interesting people on and keep the conversations going. So how are you today? I am bright and shiny. I feel pretty good.

Good. I had a good weekend. It's kind of a long week last week, but I feel rested, chored this morning, no disasters. So the weather could be a little better. We're on our, we're on our, what, coming out of our second spring. Now it's cold and crappy and a chance of rain every day this week, I think, and low temperatures. So, you know, this might be the second or third time. and then we'll probably go straight to 85 and hot. But I'm trying to enjoy all the seasons. Yep.

Springs is one of those that you want to love her, but sometimes she just pisses you off. Yep. She's a hard... She's hard to get. She is. And sometimes you don't want her. Sometimes you just don't want her.

Yeah. Anyway. How about a hot off the press midday market report? So today, These are as close as I could get them off the cat's grain line. Corn, May, 452. It was up, sorry, it was down 4 cents when I checked it. 452.

Locally, best bid 438 or 450 in Cedar Rapids. 438 at one of the local feeders, 450 in Cedar Rapids. And these are May prices. This is going off the May board. beans for May 1026, 1014 in Cedar Rapids, and 1027 in Quincy. Bean meal, $295 a ton. The May contract for wheat, $528. April hogs, $87.

So the hog business just doesn't, it just does not, it can't run with the cattle business. I would like to think we're going to get to $90 hogs, but man, I don't know, we can't seem to get there, but it's a lot better than where we were. Cattle for April 2008, feeder cattle for April 285. Crude oil 6971, it's interesting to me. Gold is up, gold silver up over, you know, tariffs and speculation on tariffs and all of all the stuff going on in the world. You know, the U.S. is sending another carrier group to the Gulf and to the Persian Gulf.

And so you would think that you'd think there'd be a lot of volatility in the oil market, but the oil doesn't change much. It just stays, you know, 70 bucks, pretty much no matter what happens. Bitcoin, $83. It's struggled. Got up to 87. Might have gotten up to 88, but couldn't hold that and drop back down, and we're just kind of floating around in the mid-8.

80s. I threw John Deere in there because with all these tariffs and all the pressure on the grain markets, you would think deer wouldn't be holding up very well, but deer, deer's right in there, $461. It's off, it's high, but it's still, if you look at it over a year's time or even six months, it's holding in there pretty good. Tesla, $247, it's not holding in there quite as good. I can't remember. I think the low might have been about $220. Somebody torched 19 Tesla's at a dealership in Rome last night. So we'll have to talk about that a little bit, I think. Gold, 2136. Wait a minute. That's not right. I think it's 31.36. I think I forgot to change the, I think I forgot to change the whole number on there. It's high. It's kind of at like all-time highs. Silver, $30.40.

that's that's pretty high for silver two uh beyond meat three dollars and eight cents uh i don't know a lot of uncertainty these tariffs go back and forth um planning intentions going to have a lot more corn a lot less beans i mean pretty much just flipping them uh less beans this year more corn um i don't know a lot of stuff to get figured out. And today would be a good day. I wish we had the, I wish we had one of the experts from Contera on to give us their thoughts because there's plenty to talk about. But we don't have them today, but I will say that we appreciate those guys in today's market update. Brought you by the fine people at Contera. So contaraagag.com if you want to learn more about what they're doing. Look at that. Beautiful tie-in.

was a good tie. What hot topic do you want to start with today? Well, I guess we'll reflect back on the week. So this past week, last week, we went to a retreat, kind of an event that we got invited to. Farmer grade actually was a sponsor of it. And it was a room of really high caliber guys, pro athletes, former athletes, you know, CEOs of some big brands, you know, big time speakers, you know, whatever, right? And we were just fortunate enough and grateful to even be in that room, talk about just connections. It's who you know, not what you know.

And that's one of those examples. And so did a lot of listening this past week, but man, the amount of what was the biggest takeaway from me from that retreat is all those guys are, you know, on paper successful, right? Pinnacle, they've reached the Pinnacle, you know, Super Bowl champions, were there, you know, $500 million CEOs, like everything on paper should say, oh man, these guys, they just got it all, right? And the questions that, most of the questions that were asked, you know, and we would do a roundtable or whatever, you know, we were just talking,

most people struggle with balance, family, their relationship with their wife, their kids, most of time we're all going through the same shit and it has nothing to do with money. It has nothing to do with your job. And it really puts it in perspective what really matters. You know, if I could take anything away from that, it was like, man, those guys have made it. They're well off. But their problems, the problems that matter the most are when it comes to the people that are around you, you know, the family, the friends, the friends.

your kids, your wife, your marriage, all that stuff, your faith with God. That was a, that was a big thing. You know, I didn't think, I didn't know what to expect because I didn't go. I've never been there. And this was their second year doing it. But man, the amount of guys that are walking with Jesus and are proud about it and vocal about it and talked about, you know, their past without it and how, what disaster it led him to versus now walking with him changed their life for the better, you know, changed their life for the better. So that was,

that was a really big, you know, just take away overall. And it was, it was awesome. It was a great, it was a great two days. Yeah. One of the things that, playing right into what you talked about, a lot of those guys, a lot of the people that were there,

they are leaders within the company that they that they're involved in and you know a lot of the questions were about how can I help the people that are working for me how can I be a better leader um which was in fresh like it's it's everything you know I mean it uh leadership is um you have to be you're kind of a servant because you're a servant to everybody that's working for you because if they don't succeed you don't succeed and a lot of questions about that. I think one of the most powerful parts of that retreat was a guy spoke about, we all have gifts.

And in that group, you know, there was a lot of people there that are really good with people, really quick with a conversation, can multitask, you know, guys that make me look shy. They got gifts. They got gifts. But this guy spoke and he said, your gifts should never get in the way of your plan or your purpose. He used another word for it.

He said, don't prostitute your gifts. Don't prostitute your calling for your gifts or whatever. So there's two different things. He said your gifts are not your calling. So in other words, you know, the good Lord is giving you the gifts you have, what you're good at, your talent. And most people raise a family, grow a business, pay the bills with their gifts.

But your gifts are not necessarily your calling. and you may use your calling or you may use your gifts to fulfill your calling. But as Sawyer said, he said, don't prostitute your calling for the sake of your gifts. In other words, don't just focus on, you weren't given those gifts just to make a pile of money and run over as many people as you can in the way of getting there. Like, you were given those for a better purpose and you need to, work on you need to work on that and that was pretty good i never heard it quite explained like that um the other thing i took away from that was and i think soror and i've talked about this before

and i felt a little guilty by the time it was done because you know you go into a deal like this and you always have preconceived notions and um the guys that put this on are our our coach they they run a coaching company. And, you know, they, they work with people every day at the professional level to trying to get them to stay motivated, to perform at a high level, all that stuff. And we've said before that we go to some of these events and we feel like there's people that are just addicted to motivation. They go and they listen and they get all fired up. And they're up and then tomorrow comes around and they're right back at Casey's for a roller dog and a giant fountain mountain and nothing changes and this wasn't anything like that it was it was different and

I thoroughly glad I went but it was real it was very real and a thing I would also say is every dude in that room, like, there was no ego. Like, it was like, you didn't know what these, you didn't know what these guys did and you'd go up and you'd talk to them and they were just, they had no like, oh, my shit don't stink, you know, or my shit, you know, it was none of that. It was like, you didn't know who did what and you could go up and talk to him and they talked to you about it and not, and not make you feel like. You were less than. Yeah, right. Like, it was, everyone in that room was humble. Everyone in that room was willing to talk to somebody. and give them advice on what they know and just and and it was I got just the amount of connections

that I made just because there was guys willing to let me come up and talk to them and and they were engaged in the conversation was was awesome one thing that I wanted to bring up was there's a guy named Steve Witherford he was a Super Bowl champion played for the Giants NFL for the 49ers no Giants NFL's fittest man of the year twice but he went down a dark road because he was trying to fill this void and wasn't walking the walk with God. But he had a really great parenting and just kind of family unit advice that I thought was really great. And it was just having a weekly meeting with your family each week. And this is, you know, if you got kids and all that, and it'd be hard for me to come over to your house for a family meeting every week.

But, you know, everyone's in the house still, whatever. you know you check your your family's vitals which is like their their joy meter where are they at on like their happiness where's their heart at you know are they pissed off or they depressed are they not whatever go around the you know go around the room and talk about that then you talk about the vision and he you know sets a vision for his family you know i'm sure i don't know if his wife's working or not but he you know was saying well i got to come to i i'm going to iowa and this is why i'm going to iowa and he was explaining that to his kids, you know, set in the vision. This is why I do what I do, you know, just so that everybody knows what's going on, why we're doing what we're doing. The last thing was

values. What's it mean to be a Weatherford? You know, he would ask us, everyone in the family go around, you know, what's it mean? But I think also, I missed this part. I didn't quite write it down, but I think he also said he asked every single person what they did that week that represented or the family the family's name right and then the next guy got up so he talked and said that and then the next guy got got up and he like did the biggest trust study in the world like trust inside an organization or in relationships or whatever not the actual entity right he got up the first thing he said is he caveat he caveated off of steve's or went off of steve's point and he said the number one self-esteem builder and kids

is knowing what your family name means, knowing the value where you came from. You know, knowing where you came from and know what your last name means. Because when you know that, you conduct your life a whole hell of a lot different than if you don't. And I thought, man, that was really good.

So take or leave it, but I thought that was really cool. So, yeah. Yeah, overall, it was a great time. And those, those, those moments in life are precious because you don't get very many of them

like that and I think I came away with a lot of things and the other thing that I'll say is it's amazing how when you come off of something like that how great you feel and how energized you feel and then usually what happens is life throws you

a curve that like just gut punches you and you're like oh yeah and we i mean we didn't have any disasters when we came back but you know it's just amazing all your problems are still there when you come back and everything that you know you let slide to go to that then it's all sitting there too and so i guess one thing that we wanted to talk about a little bit this morning is you know motivation is great and feeling empowered is great. But man, discipline. Discipline is what moves the needle. And just being able to, because we all know what we need to do, right? We all know. We live in a society day that information is never easier to get, never has been as easy as it is get now,

whether it be on finance, whether it be on diet, whether it be on relationships, whether it be on your faith, all those things. You know what you need to do. Like, it's great that we went to that thing, and we definitely got some new perspectives. But I found myself so many times sitting there and be like, yep, yep, I know that. Yep, I know that. But discipline. Doing it's the hardest part.

Doing it is the hardest part. I mean, we all. We all want to worry about what our competitors are doing, or we want to worry about the prices of this, the prices of that, employees, you fill in the blank, whatever. But the biggest variable in the outcome of your life is you. and how whether or not you can fight that fight with your mind. It's the mind.

That's the hard thing. It is. I'm going to be honest, like, I just talked to Kat yesterday, and I just said I'm sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. Like, when you're doing so much stuff, and this is what everybody feels like, everybody's got shit. Everybody's got a lot of stuff going on. And I think another problem with social media is,

yeah, it's never been easier to learn things. But the other problem that we get shoved down our throats is it looks like everybody's got the perfect marriage and the perfect relationship and the perfect this and the perfect that. And you also look at these people and social media tells you, well, you should, you should be like a master of so many things. Like you should know how to do everything. As a man, you should, you should know how to be a carpenter, you should be a plumber, you should be electrician, you should be able to golf, you should be able to work on cars, you should have a business, you should make more than $200,000 a year, you should do all this shit. And it's like, you can't do it all. You can't do it all. You just, you got to say to yourself,

I can't do it all, but these are the things that I know I need to do. And that's the hard part for me, because like, I'm going to be real. Like our house, like, our house is not as clean as we want it to be. We spent too much damn money last month because we had a birthday. And, you know, we just don't have, we don't have, I just feel like I told her, like, we don't have discipline in our finances. We don't have discipline what this house looks like. I don't have discipline. I didn't go to the gym as much as I wanted to this month.

You know, we just, it's just one of those months, man. It's just one of those months where you just feel like, gosh, I need to get on the wagon. I need to get my shit together. Yep. um you know and so just know like you're not alone if you feel that way because shit i i struggle with that all the time and you you might be disciplined in one way of your life but trying to be disciplined across everything is really really hard um but i think that it's worth it because like dad said the day in and day out you're only going to get to your goals if you do

the shit every single day that's going to get you there. That's the truth of it. So, but you got to also come to the realization and I'm almost like giving advice to myself that you can't, you can't do it all. You can't be disciplined like in every aspect of your life and it be to the perfect level that you want it to be at. Yeah, I mean, that's where, like so many of those guys talked about balance and how elusive balance is in your life and i think it was i think it was john that said i think he he said

something is going to suffer something will always suffer because whatever you prioritize that you work on the hardest everything else is going to suffer like you just can't be perfect and everything. And really what balance is is, you know, just trying to spread yourself around and not try to be everything to all all the time, but be conscious enough of what you're neglecting that you don't neglect it all the time. Because it's just, we all have too much stuff going on and we all like to think that we can simplify and you that's one thing i think we can do as uh our generation i think could do a better job in the fact that there is a certain amount of stuff that we're being inundated with that we're being told is important that probably isn't

important that you can eliminate but then at the same time there's a certain amount of stuff that whether be hobbies or projects or whatever that, you know, that's part of what gives you fulfillment. So you can't shut it all off. So anyway. Yeah. John put it though that John, he put it, have seasons of life. Seasons throughout the year. Yeah. You know, if you're, feel like you're out of balance with your family. Have a season inside the year where you're more focused on family than anything else. Yep. You know.

So I don't know. I don't know what's the best way. I'm just being real. I go through that shit too and it's hard. And it weighs on me a lot sometimes. I'm trying to make it all go. But yeah, well, speaking to balance, I just think about,

we just talked about, you know, trying to be, trying to be, so discipline, you know, be the driver. And stay, use discipline. and don't lose focus or maybe that's not the right answer, but you know, you're going to fail, but get back to it. Like if you're just like me, my walking has failed through the winter. We have a treadmill. We have a walking pad. I don't use it as much as I should.

Weather's getting better. I like to get outside. It's a lot easier for me when I can get outside. I'm getting back on the horse. I'm not going to, I'm not going to backslide. And that's where that's where discipline comes in. And my fancy tie-in is that's what that's what our good friend Elon's trying to do with the United States government is trying to put a little discipline. And I, we haven't done a hot topics in quite a while, but it's like, man, I don't think that there has been, I mean, if you go down, a list of legacy media on their

website or on their mobile apps, every story, every story, is either Trump or Elon. Trump, Elon, Trump, Elon, Trump, Elon. What did we expect? Well, I know that is what we expected. But what has surprised me the most is

is there a precedent out there for a person connected to a company that has been, that is not a direct, I guess, politician, that has been targeted the way Elon and Tesla has. I mean, it is, it is, it's kind of crazy. And party of peace, baby. Yeah, party peace and inclusion. what I just find really hard to get my head wrapped around is, and I'll admit, I'm a little bit different than probably a lot of people just because I've consumed so much,

so much information about Tesla over the years when I was deciding whether to invest in it or not. and I mean I've listened to a lot of annual reports from Tesla or from Elon and a lot of interviews and all that. So when Doge started, I mean, I knew what you were going to get as far as his, the way he looks at things. But I just, I can't quite get my head wrapped around as to what people, like what's bad about this? because the examples so like the transparency you could go on the Doge website

and you can see on a daily basis they're just updating it as to the waste and the fraud that they found and don't you want your government to be accountable to the money that you pay I feel like most people do

but the thing is I don't think any of us had any idea of how many people were getting, basically getting greased off the books, so to speak. And like, the number of credit cards that were floating around that weren't to anyone, they were just a credit card assigned to this department of the government. and no credit limit and no oversight as far as what you could use that for. Amazon presents Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa,

whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one. For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing Russian roulette with a flamethrower. Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids ginger tea and milk. Habaniero? More like habanier, yes. Save the everyday with Amazon.

She knows. How? Did you blam? No. The Devil Wears Prada, too. He's the movie event 20 years in the making. Honestly, can't with the secrets anymore, so I think we just, we should tell her. Will you two please spit it out already?

This Friday, be the first to experience it only in theaters. In light of the recent scandal, I'm here to restore your credibility. Oh, because we're a team now. That's a nice story. The Devil Wears Prada 2 in Theat's Friday. Yeah, I saw, I saw on Rogan, Elon was talking about it. And I don't know if it was a department or if the whole government.

When you put in a investment or transaction on whatever network that they're using, you didn't have to classify what it was being used for. You didn't have to say what it was for. It was just paid. Yeah, it'd just go to whoever, and it would just be like, yep, it just happened. He said, if we did that inside a publicly traded company, if you, if you spent money and, like, didn't say why you were spending money on this thing,

you'd get fucked. He said, I could never do that. No, you'd be, you'd be, it's a criminal offense, basically. Yeah. Because you're a publicly traded company, so those funds technically aren't yours. They belong to the shareholders. So exactly the same thing. Only a complete disconnect.

The U.S. government is the biggest business in the world, one of the biggest businesses in the world. It's like, we're pissed because we're figuring out and trying to make things more efficient and more transparent with the people that pay into this government that's supposed to be helping us and benefiting us and making our country better and finding out that they're really not. I mean, there are some great stuff going on. There's probably some good in there. But there's a lot of bad stuff in there too, and there's a lot of waste. And I think the arguments that I've seen, I mean, you're either brainwashed or you're not. So you're either reading the New York Times, you are MSNBC, CNN fanatic, where you are just like, did I say NNN? Yeah, NN.

Two Ns. It's so big. deserves another end. Yeah. You are, like, you are just, you believe everything that they say. Like, I've seen that. That's, and if you do that,

then you automatically are going to think everything's bad. And I also see the argument of Elon being a billionaire. You know, they don't like that. They think that that's dangerous. They think that that he doesn't give a shit. And he, he is just taking us along for the ride. And he doesn't care about any implications of us,

us being along for the ride of what he's doing. But I don't really see how... I mean, I'm all about track record, and I mean, yeah, he's probably not the best family man in the world. He's had a hell of a lot of wives and a lot of kids. But, I mean, what he's done for the human race, got a pretty good track record of doing positive things, I think. Now, you know, we don't know...

I don't know Elon personally, can't tell you, but what I've seen, I don't think this is a bad thing and the fact that people are saying that it is, those people to me are fucking crazy because it's like, why wouldn't you want to know, like you said, why wouldn't you want to know where your tax dollars are going? Why wouldn't you? And don't, since you can go to Doge, the platform, the website, and you can see what's going on, what waste they're finding and what fraud they're finding. Don't just take, if you're listening to CNN or Fox News or whatever, and they tell you that this thing's getting cut and it's bad that they're cutting this because of Doge,

go look, go see, is that actually the case? Or is that just propaganda that they're telling you so that you hate Elon and hate Doge and what they're doing? Because the transaction's on there. You can see it. because like people got pissed oh they're going to shut down a dam you know or something the water's not going to get to some region of some state and that's a bad thing well is that real or is that propaganda because they i mean propaganda is real here in america i don't care what anybody says it's 1,000% real and it's been going on for a long long time so well the i think i and this the

crazy part about this is, I feel like we're just getting started. Like, it runs so, the amount of money that's being wasted within the government is, it's, it's insane. So like, they're at the, they're at the treasury and they're trying to update the computer systems. Oh, so get this, within the IRS, within the IRS, there was a department. that they were in charge of making sure that every new employee to the IRS got a phone and a laptop. The problem was that department had 1,200 employees. And for the number of employees at the IRS, it was like one person in that department was in charge of given out four phones and four laptops or some crate just some crazy ass number like that and it's it's

it's just the nature of the beast the bureaucracy it just grows and it grows and it grows and it grows and that's what happened there and that's what's happened so many places um so this morning i mean i love getting up and getting on x and just go to news and see what's what's news what's trending we're going to jump around a little bit, but today there's a story that came out and it said, in 2021, 270,000 non-citizens,000 non-citizens were issued social security numbers. And that's a case like if somebody's here, I assume that's somebody that's here on a student visa or is a refugee or something like that, they can get a Social Security number so they can access Medicaid for medical insurance or whatever. But in 2024, so last year, 2.1 million Social Security numbers were given out.

And now then they think that they don't know what the number is, but there's a number of those people that used that social security number to get an ID and used it to vote. So you had people that were non-citizens the United States voting, and that's being investigated. But more importantly, you had people that were non-citizens that were not refugees or were not here on work visas or student visas that were basically illegals that were getting social security numbers and then, using that to access Medicaid for free health care when they were in the country legally. And that's just one example of, I mean, we could go on, the list is crazy.

Any of you seen the retirement program for the United States government, all of the documents of people's employment employment within the United States government, are stored in a mountain. And when they go to retire, all of their retirement forms are processed there, and it takes up to three months because there is no automation to it. It's not computerized.

Somebody has to go down the mine shaft, literally, to this underground bunker where they store all these paper files and find all the documents and then bring them back up. it's it's called Iron Mountain and uh they're trying to close it down but they've been trying to close it down since like the 70s and trying to automate the retirement system and they've given up on it like and they've spent billions of dollars to automate this system and they've given up many times doing it

and so that's one of the projects doge is doing it's like well how can you be how can you be pissed off about that like what are you upset about on that and I think what it really comes down to is... It's point and say, Trump bad, Elon bad. So you got to think bad. Yeah, that's what it is. I mean... But this party, this Democratic Party has become the party of...

They're the 10% party. Because when it comes to, like, waste and fraud, when it comes to transgenderes and sports, when it comes to the border... I mean, all this stuff, they're the 10%. Like, most Americans agree that this is a good idea, and they're standing up with the opposite viewpoint, which is crazy.

But, I mean, I guess it just has to run its course. They're either going to burn this thing to the ground, or they're going to give up, but I don't think they're going to give up because there's too much money involved. I think the rage that's out there is mostly from people that are getting money from the government for not doing anything. People that have set up these non-GOs, NGOs, non-government organizations that are getting paid, getting money, and they're siphoning that money back to politicians or politicians for political favors are helping these people set up NGOs to get paid. and that's how they're

that's how they're rubbing each other's back and I think a lot of this is getting is coming out and it's going to continue to come out I just want to say we've been saying this shit for fucking three years I know that these politicians are getting greased yeah we have we've been fucking saying that for a long time and I think it's everybody pretty much knows it

but it's a fact now I mean it's a fact them fuckers are right or left there are some rhinos in the in the Republican Party that are just as bad, and they might not even be rhinos. They're getting greased. And that shit has got to stop because that's the shit. You're not making decisions for us.

You're making decisions for you and what you can gain. And that's, when you have that, when you have, it's not, you're not having servant leaders leading the country. You're having selfish leaders. Yeah. They're not going to make decisions for the best, for the better men of the American people.

They're making decisions that's best for them. And that's, doesn't work. That doesn't work very good. And that's not how it was intended to be. So, yeah, so here's another example. What do you think of this? So, uh, the, the food stamps program, which is part of the United States Department of Agriculture, they want to do away with people being able to use their, uh, their debit card, their food stamp debit card to buy pop, to buy soda. and the soda companies are, they're losing their mind and they're spending a pile of money lobbying Congress. I don't know. I feel like it's a free country a little bit.

So they should be able to buy it if they want? Yeah. I mean, it's not good for their health. That's for sure. It's a detriment to them. And that's, that is what it is. But I mean, it's free country though. Well, it's a free country. But if you're getting a service, from the United States government shouldn't doesn't the US government have an incentive to because here's what you're doing if you're allowing that aren't you adding to the cost of medical care within the United States because you're letting people you're your incentivizing bad habits that in turn cause health problems which in turn the US government has to pay for those if you're if you're on welfare or whatever I get your point well I would just say are we not thinking of another situation where like that another example where

like does the government allow something else bad oh they they allow all kinds you know what I mean so it's like I'm like you kind of got to start somewhere yeah for somebody that's that's all about people getting healthier. I think that's, you know, for people's health, that's a good idea. But, uh, I mean, you can make the same argument that they should start with Fritos. Yeah. I mean, it's one thing to say, okay, we can't buy or sugar cereal or something like that. So I mean, I don't know. What about alcohol? We can't buy alcohol. Okay. I mean, and you can't buy cigarettes. Okay. Oh, so they have those regulations in place. Right. Yeah. They do. Okay. Yeah, I don't know enough about that to know, but I, that's a hard one. You know, that's a hard one to wrap your head around

because it's like, yeah, it's probably best for the people that they don't drink pop, but they end up, they might end up making a couple dollars on the side, just go buy themselves to pop anyway, not have to use food sticks. Well, no, you're right. That's, and that's totally fine because that's their prerogative to do that. What do you think? Well, I think here's the thing. I think what tell, what the tell on it is that your soda companies, that's an audience that they're they make, that's a shitload of their business. Oh yeah. It's like, I mean, it's like cigarettes. Yeah. Sugar's an addiction. And they don't want their cash cow cut off. So that's why they're lobbying the money. I don't know. I don't know. You have a valid, I mean, you got a valid point.

It's people should be allowed to have their choice. But then you run into, like I said, if the government is going to incentivize something, or not incentivize, but if they're going to let you make a choice, am I going to buy, if I'm going to buy a case of Coke, Coca-Cola, or I'm going to buy, you know, milk and eggs, does the government have a responsibility to incentivize or limit to where you can't buy that unhealthy option, you have to buy that healthy option? Now then, you're, Animal rights people would say you shouldn't be able to allow milk or eggs. They'd be okay with the pop versus the eggs. But I mean, I don't know. That's interesting. But there's a lot. There's so much Yeah, honestly, that issue is like, I don't even care, one way or the other, whatever.

Well, it affects you because that's all in the Department of Agriculture. So Brooke Rawlins is the new secretary of ag. And I think she's got a number in mind of how much money she can count. she's going to try to cut from USDA. And so I'm sure that as for us as farmers, if any of our pet projects get cut, you're going to hear people screaming about it. But I think it's, I think that we're at the point where we either get,

this is our only chance, I feel like this is our only chance. We either get this government under control and get our debt under control or, There's no going back. Like, if we don't get it done now. It's something else here now.

Something new. From exclusively on Paramount Plus, it's the series Stephen King calls Scarious Hell. Everything here is impossible, but it's also real. Sci-fi vision calls it the best show streaming right now. We're running out of time and we still don't know the rules. Don't miss what the movie blog calls something you need to watch. Saving those children is how we all go home.

from binge all episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus. Yeah, or if we don't, you know, maybe we get another four years with Vance or something, and he just runs the same playbook. I don't think, I'll tell you what, I saw something the other day, and this is, because I don't know if you can get it done in four years, but maybe you can with AI automation and Elon's brain. I mean, the dude is fucking smart. He builds rockets, so don't you feel, so let me ask you this.

do you think that um do you think of do you think Gavin Newsom is uh transitioning to the middle do you think that's why he's doing what he's doing and he's setting himself up he talked to charlie kirk he talked to charlie kirk on a podcast the other week and he was yeah he's totally trying to play the middle because he's seeing the shift obviously their playbook didn't work being leftist fucking whack job don't work yep that doesn't work so a lot of people think that what he's doing is moving to the middle and he's setting himself up to be but think about kamala too though i mean she was she was trying to say all the right things yeah she took the tax on the tax on tips from trump and used that and her own fucking spiel i mean that's what they do though yeah that's what they do they try

to tell you all the right things and they get in power and it's look at biden yeah i'm the i'm gonna be the i'm gonna be the i'm gonna be the facilitative peace and it's there's there's This is going to be a calm administration, and we're not going to have a bunch of... Transparent. Yeah, we're going to be transparent. And everybody that voted for him was kind of like, well, you know, I don't think Biden can fuck up too much shit. I mean, he's been in there long enough. You know, whatever.

It knows how the game's playing. Yeah. Nope. Not the case. Not the case. So, yeah, Gavin Newsom's changing his tune. And I'm sure all the Democrats are going to have to change their tune because the wacko shit, we're done with that. we're done with that shit.

Americans are sick of it. Yeah. We are tired of it. Most Americans are sick of that shit. Okay. So on that, on that. And AOC, hope she, I've heard some people say AOC,

they're going to put AOC up and they're going to make her the- Oh, I hope they do. Fuck that. I hope they do. She's going to have to really do some changing her tone. She's going to have to sit in a fucking room and go over question by question to change her tone because you want to talk about wacko. Yeah.

She's a wacko. Well, she's the, I mean, that's the side of the, that's the side of the Democrats that are, they're trying to take, they're trying to take that party further left. I mean, that's their goal. That's why you see the people screaming about Chuck Schumer, because Chuck Schumer is an old school Democrat, and for a lot of them, he is not nearly far enough left. And it's really interesting. You talk about, you talk to people that knew Chuck Schumer back in the 80s. He sounds like a Republican, I mean, you watch speeches of him and his, how he voted. So many of those guys, they look pretty,

like you look at their positions at that time compared to today. They'd be on the right today. Oh, they were conservative. They'd be on the right. Well, that's the difference. I mean, back then, it was just, it was just a different way of getting stuff done. Now it's literally different ways of life. You want to live a completely different way and believe things that. are completely different. That's the difference. And also you want to get shit done a completely different way. It's all those things now.

Okay. So you know that Bill Maher is going to interview Trump at the White House. I didn't know that. He is. Okay. That'll be good. Okay. Democrat, there's a bunch of people pissed at him.

Bill? Pissed at Bill. Democrats. He don't give a fuck, though. Why do you think they're pissed at him? Because they're giving him a platform. Yep. But again, transparent.

It's like they don't want any fucking transparency. They don't want, they didn't like the Joe Rogan podcast because Rogan talked to Trump for a extended period of time that was raw and real. They don't want this Bill Maurer thing because to them, they don't think Bill should be giving him a platform, but he's the fucking president of the United States. If you're Bill Maurer,

why the fuck what you sit down with the president of the United States? And I've watched Bill Maurer. He's pretty, I mean, he leans left. Yes. But I don't mind. listen to his commentary sometimes of him talking to people. I think he's very, he is not bought and paid for her. I don't feel like he's real. He's realized he's woken up a little bit to the, he's issue oriented. In other words, he's not afraid to call out his party. Either side.

Yeah. He'll tell it how it is however he thinks. Now, do I agree with him all the time? No, but I can respect somebody that I feel like isn't a fucking puppet. It's thinking for themselves. Yes. And that's, I have respect for Bill Maurer in that way. So, Well, I think the reason that they're so pissed that he's doing this is you're right because he's given a platform to Trump. But his viewership, in my mind, represents the conservative to middle side of the Democratic Party, and that's the part that they're losing faster and faster as they move to the left. and so they, I think they're scared to death because now then you're going to give all those people that already are waking up and they're like, I don't know about these guys.

And you're giving them a window to have a conversation with somebody that they trust with Donald Trump. And it can only end badly. Like it can only end badly for their constituents because these, Trump is never going to appeal to the card carrying members of the far left. However, those people that are just like Bill Maher that have woke up, and because of some issue that they've looked at of like, this is just stupid, those people can view that interview and be like, you know. And I don't think Bill's going into it with any.

All he's saying is I get to interview the president of the United States. This is going to be a win for me. Yep. Yeah, and I'm sure he's not going to give it. He's going to try to, he has things, he's hated Trump since 2015. Yeah. So I'm sure it's not going to be a walk in the park, but Trump, Trump loves, he loves a good fight. And he loves arguing. So I don't, I'm not, it's, there's not a, there's not a, I don't think there's, there's any downside to Trump. But I think it's pretty interesting. I think that a lot of people on the left, uh, uh, really don't like it. And the reason they're going after Bill is because they don't want that base exposed. That's the bullshit, though. That's the stuff that that makes me, you should want that. The whole let's come together thing, the left don't want that.

They get pissed at Bill Maher for interviewing the president of the United States for that reason. It's like, you should welcome that. We should all as a country welcome that. because now if it was a bought and paid for media establishment like Fox News or MSNBC I would give less of a fuck because then it's like okay great we're hosting on this network the the moderator's going to be a bitch yep she's you know he or she's going to say you know it's always going to be some bullshit yeah that stuff that's done to me I hate watching that and I think everybody does but a real authentic person with

their own belief system that is in a puppet, goes and interviews somebody that matters, and it doesn't have a whole media production side that's also a puppet. Yeah, I'm game to watch that. That is a hell of a lot more appealing to me than the past of how we've done things. So, that would be exciting. That'll be good. Yeah, I'll just say, I haven't felt this. I haven't felt this. Like, I feel like we haven't done hot topics in a while, and the reason is just because I feel like, you know, shit's not getting,

the shit's not done. And there's a lot still to be done. But, man, I feel like the ship, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, just a little calmer. Yeah.

We got a lot of progress. We got a lot of stuff to do because we, yeah, I think you're right. This is a great opportunity to get, get our country back on track of cutting the waste and, you know, trying to find a way to service this debt and put America first. But the opposition will come back again. Oh, yeah. So we can enjoy the peaceful time. But yeah, I'm just going to be honest. Like, I haven't really, I haven't checked in on politics as much since Trump got in because I'm not as concerned. I'm not as concerned. I'm not, it's like, holy shit, we got a, we got a dementia ridden elderly person as the sitting president of the United States.

Like, it's just a little bit different. So, I don't know. And some people are on the opposite side of that where they think Donald Trump is the devil. He's the antichrist. And they're not going to leave their house because they're so damn depressed and scared and thinking that we're going to round them up. And I don't know. So, yeah, I, that's a phenomenon that I just didn't see coming. that, and I think any of you out there,

I doubt many of those people are probably listening, but we all know somebody. Like, I know several people that they are honestly, they are 100% bought in, dialed in, that the internment camps are coming, and that women won't be allowed to have jobs. And I mean, just, I mean, it is, it is, who.

And the comparisons, the comparisons to Nazi Germany. Oh my gosh. They'll ride that till it's dead. Oh, they will for sure. Because they're, it's like we said in the beginning, they're going to throw shit at a wall and see what sticks. Yeah. That's what they got to do because it's what they'd done in the past when Trump was there before.

They got nothing. Yeah, they got nothing to lose. And they, everything to gain. Yeah. Just throw shit at a wall. Doesn't matter. Just propaganda machine roar. And that's where that's where that if you get your news from X and you get your news from people that are, you get your news from X versus you get your news from mainstream media. The perspectives of how those people see things is completely different.

If you're a truth seeker and you're going to go find the answers for yourself, and you are going to check both sides, and you're going to look into the things that are actually been said. If you're one of those people, you think a completely different way than somebody that just watches the news, soaks in what they have to say, and doesn't question anything. Just says, oh, MSNBC told me Trump bad.

Okay, Trump bad. Yeah, I don't like Trump. And not check it. Not check it. They just rock with that. Yeah. Hey, I'm going to give you an off the press, hot off the press market update. Okay.

So the U.S. corn acres estimate for next year, they announced that today, and they're guessing that it's 95.3 million acres versus what the average thought it was going to be 94.4. So more corn acres than what they thought there was going to be. and then soybean acres, 83.5 versus 83.8 million was the guess. So even a little less soybean acres, which really doesn't surprise me because when you look at the numbers, we've talked about this before. We're planting all corn this year because the numbers just make sense, so I can't imagine that other people aren't looking at it and doing the same thing. So the corn market probably is going to get kicked in the nuts a little harder before.

for the clothes and for the next few days because, yep, more corn acres than what we thought and a little less beans, but the bean market, it isn't really rallying from that. But anyway, sorry to cut in on that. The other thing I wanted to say to what you were talking about was the thing that I kind of take gives me that feeling that things are smoothed out is even though you hear about all of these actions happening and then a judge puts an injunction against it and then this happens and then a judge puts an injunction about it all of these all of these department heads um all of all of of Trump's cabinet probably one of the most dynamic uh groups of people that any

president has ever put together. And one thing that I'll say that's interesting, I would argue it's one of the youngest cabinets that any president's ever put up there. But yesterday, the Department of Defense came out, Pete Hegsef, came out and said that they are leveling the playing field for the physical fitness requirements for any troops in combat situations. So in other words, the physical fitness standards are the same, whether you're a woman or a man if you're in the military in a combat role. And I'm sure that heads are exploding.

But that's the kind of stuff that... Common sense. Common sense. You want somebody on the fucking front lines, they need to know their shit and they've got to be fit. Yeah, exactly right. Whether you're a fucking man or a woman. Well, and so that's just an example there where...

that's going to happen, like that's going to happen and no judge is going to mess with it. And that's the way these departments are. I mean, the amount of change that can come, you think about the EPA, you think about the IRS, Department of Health and Human Services, the stuff that can be done at the agency level that is not like anything that is a, executive order. That gives me a lot of hope because there isn't anybody that's going to change that. Now, at some point,

we got to get these lawmakers to actually do their fucking job. Sorry, we got to get these lawmakers to do their job because... I already put $10 in the jar. Because we need to, we need to reform the laws in this country

so that the next person in line, regardless of who it is, can't just executive order all this shit back. Like, these, a lot of these regulations, they need to be enshrined in law, and they need to be tested in the courts so that they can stay. And that's what we need more than anything.

And if there's one thing I'm probably the least confident in, and that is the Cali, of our elected leaders in the Congress and the Senate because so many of them are there for their own personal gain and they're not they're not bought in judges too and judges too that's a big problem big problem so yeah what uh did you ever look into the JFK assassination files I saw it came out and but I kept seeing what people were saying and I saw a lot of people say there's just not enough. They didn't give us enough to really... No, there really isn't

anything that people didn't already think that's the way it was. I think the biggest, I think the biggest, like, I don't know, what I say, bomb and the whole thing is there's a picture that somebody found of what they claim to be, and it certainly

looks like him, but it's really hard to tell off that old photo. What they claim is Lee Harvey Oswald standing in the doorway of a building along the parade route, which would leave you to believe that there's no freaking way that he could have made it to the book depository to take that shot. Whether it's him or not, though, I don't know if you, I don't know if it's good enough that you can determine whether that's right or not, but it certainly looks that way.

So I think that that's the only thing I've heard that's come out of it that people are like, well, I don't know. So, and we're still waiting for the Epstein. Epstein files. What the fuck's the deal? I don't think anything's going to happen there. Which is bullshit. It is bullshit.

That's bullshit. Because them fuckers need to be held accountable. That just tells you how high up the chain that went. Yeah, that, we deserve to know. Because there are some people that I think people idolize in that, involved in that shit that we shouldn't idolize. And that should be held accountable. Yep.

When you talk about kids, that's, I mean, that's fucked, Rick. And he didn't kill himself in that prison. sell. No chance. No chance. And so, you know, it's just, that's, that's the transparency shit that we should know because it's like, it's like the number of people working for the Clintons that had car accidents. Yeah. Or a weight, or a weight was, they fell and hit their head on a fucking 45 pound plate in the weight room. Yeah. Yeah. That's just not right. There's some, there's a story there, but you ain't ever going to get it. So, yeah. I love you, Bill. Sorry. Oh, you don't. I don't. I don't. They're listening, Sawyer. They're listening. Oh, yeah. Is there a laser coming in on my head? Do I have a laser yet?

Or close that window back up. Oh, shit. Well, yeah, I mean, feeling optimistic. Yeah. You're optimistic. Springs here, I bet you we're, I don't know, two or three weeks away from trying to plant. I don't know what we're going to get for spring this year. A lot of people are thinking we're going to have a wet spring and then it's going to be a drought. I don't know. There's a few people out there that have already planted some beans, I think. I'm sure south they're running further south. Nobody's turned to tap around here, but it's definitely fit. I mean, you could go, you could go planting. We're pretty dry, so we need some moisture. But, yeah, I bet.

Week before Easter, probably, people be running regardless. So we'll keep you updated. We will keep you updated. Well, I got all my words out. I did too. Kind of nice to do just you and I haven't done that in a while. We did three guests in a row, and that was like, I was kind of ready to just chill out a little bit. Yep.

We might do a Q&A next time, or we might have a guest. I don't know. We'll just have to see. But we got to roll out a couple of these. And then we got some good guests coming up. Met some people at that retreat. We met one guy for sure that I could not believe he lived as close to us as he does. Does some cool shit.

Yeah. Absolutely. And did some cool shit. Yep. 100%. So look forward to that. Yeah. All right, guys.

Well, we appreciate it. Thank you so much for tuning in, sharing the show, leaving reviews. We love all the support that you give. We can't do this show without you. So thank you so much. We'll see you next week for another episode.