Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 05-08-25_THURSDAY_7AM

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

05-08-25_THURSDAY_7AM

The Bill Meyer Show podcast is sponsored by Clauser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at clauserdrilling.com. Here's Bill Meyer. Hey, maybe hold the calls here for a little bit because I want to make sure and talk with Christian Briggs. He's an economist and the CEO of Hard Asset Management. Christian, it is a pleasure having you on.

Welcome. Good morning, sir. Well, thank you so much for having me. I was really looking forward to this phone call today and being on your show. Yeah, I appreciate this too. A little bit about you, hard asset management. Tell us about the, first off, how can people find out more about what you do? And just tell us how it came to be, maybe. Sure. We sell precious metals and select rare coins. Started about 40 years ago. You can reach us at BMC,

that's Bravo Mary Charlie Ham, bmcham.com. Certainly find me on X at BMC underscore ham, BMC underscore ham. And we just started about 40 years ago as a small little precious metals dealer and grew to be one of the largest in North America. Okay, interesting. All right, I wanted to dig into this

because I saw something happen the other day that a lot of people have not talked about. And I think maybe took the wrong thing. And I don't know if maybe you saw it too. And it had to do with the price of gold shooting up 100, 150 bucks. I think it soared to about thirty five hundred dollars this is just a couple of days ago and people were thinking oh it's just a usual market fluctuations and this and that the other and then somebody I forget I think of

Sean ring over at the daily or rude awakening ended up putting out a note that no what happened is that the federal government Federal Reserve monetized the debt they were doing a treasury auction and apparently not enough people were buying the government debt at that time and so the Federal Reserve basically printed the currency and then bought the bond with the currency they printed out of thin air and the market noticed is the market noticing more of this activity these days? This is what's been driving a lot of precious metal appreciation lately. What are you thinking?

Well, it's a couple different things. You're not wrong in some of your analytics there and analysis. The biggest thing was when 2012, when China united a number of countries called the BRICS nations, the coalition of those countries at the time was five, and now they've ballooned it to 21 countries with another 44 pending. And the goal of the BRICS nations, which will tie right into your question, in fact, in what you just said earlier, is to undermine the US dollar strength and the reserve currency status. Yep.

Okay. The only way to do that is to buy something that has greater value that doesn't depreciate, but rather appreciates against the valuation of currencies. So the coalition knew that if they continue to strengthen their unity and they utilize non-dollar currencies, in other words, local transactions will be done, and international transactions could be both, in local currencies like the Chinese Yuan, the Russian ruble, the India rupee. And you go down the line of 21 countries, they knew eventually, especially when OPEC had ditched the dollar, now we don't all ever have a petrodollar. We have a localized currency being utilized in buying and selling oil and gas, which is trillions of dollars a day around the world, a cumulative. So fast forward, here we are. China now has the largest known amount of gold.

They've under reported their buying over the last 12, 13 years. They're one of the largest producers in the world anyway, so they can produce at an unbelievable level as well as Russia. The dollar, and this is actually very easy to follow, inflation is not caused by anything other than one thing, government overspending. Okay, you have to print it to spend it. So now you have gold going up considerably. It's what, tripled in the last four years?

It tripled. When you go by and took office, it was just a hair under $1,100. Now we're at about $3,400. And all that means is going back to the same thing. Nobody wants the US's debt. That's why interest rates are staying high and gold is going to go up because it's becoming a challenge to sell our debt to both private enterprise, localized or international banks or governments. In fact, they're dumping Treasuries bonds because they look at it as a dollar-based asset and of course what's happening to the dollar? Well, in the last 25-30 years it's lost about 60 to 70 percent of its buying power where gold has actually increased since 2000 pretty much tenfold.

So that's what the BRICS did. Buy gold, don't use the dollar, here we are today, and we have this massive debt. Did President Trump kind of force the issue too though when you end up doing the tariffing, the big tariff, which is essentially an embargo on a lot of Chinese trade at this point? Because what would happen is that we would export our inflation to China and their factories would make stuff and then send it back here and we would get relatively cheap goods as the case might be and that has had a big monkey wrench thrown into it, wouldn't you say? Pretty much, sure, absolutely. It's not only a monkey wrench. The tariffs are very effective

when utilized as a negotiating tool. No country out there wants to be held hostage, especially when they're giving unilateral cooperation back and forth on trade. You know, like the European Union, which does measure some value to us. Obviously, they're a great customer of ours. They buy stuff, we buy stuff from them. China on the other hand is a whole different animal, especially now that it's unified with

this BRICS Nation coalition. China itself actually has learned to lessen its dependency on the United States. So as that happens, and they were one of the largest debt holders, Japan and China held some of the largest amounts of our debt within the trillions at one point. I believe China at one point had $4 trillion in Treasuries back in the day. Well, they off loaded those and sold them in order to buy gold. That again goes back to the same understanding as why is President Trump doing the tariffs? To increase revenues, number one, to lessen the trade deficit, which is right now this year analyzed about $1.4 to $1.5 trillion, which what that means is that's money that's actually leaving the United States

to go to countries around the world as an inefficient way to do trade. We can't buy $1,000 from one country and then have them buy $500 from us. Ultimately, we're going to lose that proposition. So Trump is doing the right thing to negotiate new reciprocal trade agreements. So it's a level playing field. But the 800 pound gorilla in the room is China. Will they come to the table? And number two, how do we refinance this debt? Because it's not going to be just a revenue thing. We also have to

cut spending pretty dramatically. Now, Christian Briggs is with me once again, and he is a CEO, CEO of Hard Asset Management. Now, the thing is that it appears that, just helping understand a little bit, I'm just a baby economist. I just read economists, what they do, okay? And by nature of the fact that we have the world reserve currency for right now, which more and more people seem to be not liking quite so much, by nature of having that, you have to have inflation. You have to have more dollars in order to fund world trade in the settlement of trade would you am I right

about that in that assumption when you have the reserve currency it's a burden it's a it's a privilege and a burden at the same time isn't it correct correct okay it is a burden but they are definitely getting deeper okay does not President Trump who on one hand on one hand or one side of his mouth, I guess, he says, okay, everyone's going to use the United States dollar, and if you don't use the dollar, we're going to beat you over the head, economically with it. And at the same time, all right, now we're going to tariff you, so we are beating your head on.

Don't they work at cross purposes to one another? What do you think as an economist, both statements? Yeah, it's a really, really good question. The harmony in all of this is two things. China offers something that nobody else had been offering, which was high-skill, multiple facets of types of labor for manufacturing for people all over the world. US was obviously the largest manufacturer, certainly the largest consumer for consumption of products in the world.

Stand down, no question. But we now go back to a different model. One thing to make a note that in 17 Trump takes office, which obviously was not well received by the Democrats, and of course he did everything he could to derail his presidency in Term 1. While he was there, he put the tariffs in 18 pretty aggressively against China. Now, China at the time hadn't been ready for a Trump administration.

They thought it was going to be Hillary, and it was going to be business as usual. Hillary pretty much gave them, as Obama did, any latitude of anything they wanted. That's why the BRICS even started during the Obama period, his two terms. And so they had an expansion opportunity, they thought, with Hillary. Then here comes Trump. You know, then the, I always call it the warrior now is in the room, verse what Hillary was considered not to be that aggressive. Obviously Trump is, I mean, he's a born leader.

Then trying to get hits with these tariffs, this is what happens., he's a born leader. Then China gets hit with these tariffs. That's what happens. They bow down. They give in. Fast forward two years before COVID, Trump brings back and restores, not just brings new but restores, almost 500,000 manufacturing jobs. It was a win-win. That's why the economy was doing so well, low inflation.

But the one thing that people need to realize is that China, now with the coalition of even additional countries in the BRICS nation, as a whole, as a unified front, they represent about a 41% greater GDP than the G7 does. So it is a different type of country, a different type of ecosystem that China now, fast forward what, seven, eight years, since the first tariffs hit, when Trump first hit the tariffs in 18, the question really comes right down to, if the dollar continues its lack of use around the world with upwards of 30, 40, 50% of the world's nations, the underlying effect are going to be just two simple things. Gold will continue to go up because it works opposite of the dollar.

Two, we're going to have higher inflation, higher interest rates, because the world's going to demand higher rates to refinance our debt. And many of your listeners may not be aware of this, but this year, starting around June, we have well over $7 trillion coming due of old debt that's been out there for years and years and the principle is coming due. So we're going to have to roll that over because we don't have seven trillion dollars. And when we do roll that over, it's going to go from an average of about two percent to somewhere about four to four and a quarter percent or higher, could even be higher. We don't know what the rates are gonna be that's so that's that's much more expensive interest

rates so that the United States government has to pay on that debt okay that's right all right so irresistible force meets an immovable object is what you're kind of describing here I guess huh you know I'm trying I'm putting forth what Trump's up against so in order for him to make that debt not a problematic situation in the fall he's got to increase the tariffs and then Trump's up against. So in order for him to make that debt not a problematic situation in the fall, he's got to increase the tariffs and then tackle the debt. And Jerome Powell, as everybody knows, has not been working in tandem with the administration to lower the rates.

But then again, Powell looks at right now what's happening is rates are probably going to start moving back up with the inflation. Well, yeah, if Jerome Powell were to move that down, given the fact that Jerome Powell also bought that debt with money created out of thin air the other day, the market noticed, and then gold soared because of that, he knows he can't lower interest rates because the markets is looking at the United States as not the best place to put your money at the

moment, right? That's the bottom line, isn't it? That's a pretty fair statement. Again, it's one of those moments where you don't want to say the words that are true, but those are true. Right now, the United States is not looked upon as being the most favored place to put large-scale amount of investment capital. It doesn't mean that it's not happening because Trump has negotiated some great deals in recent months and certainly in recent weeks. However, the way a lot of those countries now are hedging the dollar decline, every country on this planet in some form is buying gold.

Every single country, every central bank, whether it's 10 ounces or it's 10 tons or it's 100 tons, every country has succumbed to the idea in order to make sure that their vested interests, whether it's in treasuries or if it's direct investment in the US and for currency devaluation or fluctuations of the dollar, they are buying gold. When you look at the amount of gold that has been bought since, let's say, 12, maybe 2013 through today and how much is going to accumulation, Cumulatively, we need to be bought more. They're buying more because they know the dollar's decline is inevitable. Even Deutsche Bank about a week ago came out and said the dollar has another 20 to maybe

25% decline or depreciable value between now and early next year against the euro. That's significant loss of buying power, and that means gold would probably move up another, say, $1,000 to $2,000 as a mathematical equivalent. Is there something else that maybe we haven't thought enough about, though, at this point? And besides just the usual capital flows like what you're talking about, isn't it about war, too? Sure, there's an awful lot of talk. It seems like everybody wants to go to war with one another right now. I could be wrong about that, but it's sure there's an odd feeling out there. You get that Spidey sense too?

I do. I am. And I have been, especially Pakistan, India. We got Iran. You got Israel. I mean, you've got a bunch of small wars. You've got some large scale ones. But here's an interesting fact. We have spent just George Bush alone, talk about wars. This is a little bit of our Achilles heel. Even though we're looked upon as the tiebreaker or the referee to monitor and to try to de-escalate situations, and Trump is really good at that, he's a really good mediator, We have spent probably 20 to $25 trillion of our debt on wars. China didn't spend a penny. They put that money back in infrastructure.

They put that money back in research as well as manufacturing. So it's interesting you bring up war. War has been our Achilles heel because when we do go to war and we do deescalate situations, we never repatriate the money. We should get paid back for making everything better in a culture, society, or a country

because we brought stability to them. The Middle East brought stability. We should have been paid back for all that. Trump negotiated that. You know, Christian, when the Roman Empire would go out there and go in some place, they got paid back for what they did. We would go there you know play act as the modern day version of the Roman Empire and and then we make ourselves poorer. It's amazing when you when you when you look at the differences about this and yeah I guess we're not going to do

this much longer. Now you have a little note here that you question will President Trump reprice gold to ten10,000 an ounce to save the US economy or is it already too late? It's one of the questions brought up by your people there. They're kind of wondering that how could he reprice it to $10,000 even if he wanted to and what benefit would that be? Are we talking about taking the Fort Knox deal and putting it on the books, part of a sovereign wealth fund?

What's your story? Well, part of a sovereign wealth fund. What's your story? Well, that's a great question. So there's a lot of talk right now, a lot of chatter talking about President Trump buying gold, having the United States government now currently buying gold in order to try to somehow backstop a stablecoin that is being proposed in Congress to be able to move the stablecoin against the dollar and gold would back the stablecoin, which is basically a cryptocurrency, if you will.

And if you look at what this is, and this is again, my theory, if you look at the business side of Trump, because that's what he is, he's a genius business person. If you have $37 trillion in debt, but you have gold and an amount that equals a certain level of whatever that tons of gold, it could be 10 tons, 15 tons, probably in the neighborhood of 12 to 15 tons of gold would be adequate. But that's a lot of gold. I mean, that's a lot of gold, more than people realize given the fact of how much gold in value is out there.

And then you increase that gold by whether you do it based on a new fixed set price that you can get the rest of the world to adhere to and negotiate, which is a great negotiator. He's the best at deals. And then measure that new higher price, let's say it's $10,000. $10,000 seems to be a number that's floating around a lot of people. And there seems to be some value to that number when associated with the amount of gold that Trump knows as exist in Fort Knox, the gold that currently is being acquired by various people. I've heard rumors that government

has been buying gold. Whatever the numbers are, he wants to be able to show a balance sheet that could equal somewhere in that percentage of against the debt. That would help the Treasuries because think about it, if a person has 10,000 in debt but 10,000 in gold, that's not a bad balance sheet.

Yeah, your interest rate ends up being less on your debt, on your federal debt. Okay, yeah, I can see how that could be very helpful instead of just looking like you're broke, totally broke. Correct. Right, that kind of thing. And that's why Scott Bassett, of course, talking about we need this sovereign wealth fund, we're going to put the wealth of the country to work, we're not going to let this dead wood sit around here any longer. No pun intended. This is in the Northwest where we have lots of forests that we like to burn them in the summertime here, Christian. That's what we do productively with them.

We burn them and bill the taxpayers. It's an amazing system that we've set up here. I don't know if you're familiar with that or not. But all right, a final question I have for you. Is there any chance, and I know you're a gold guy and you're going to talk your book. But all right, a final question I have for you. Is there any chance, now you're a gold guy and you're gonna talk your book, I get that, all right? But is there any possibility when we see the world's central banks buying gold

and you see the United States buying gold and there's all this talk about gold and then I remember what happened with gold back in the Great Depression in which FDR said, give it back to me or else. Any chance of something like that happening again? Well, I've talked about that before. And if we go into goal center, because I get asked a lot, is a goal center defined as something that what Roosevelt did? You know,

the confiscation of gold, that's a bad word. By some measures people call it the confiscation of gold that Roosevelt did in 1932. It really was just he wanted the gold to be able to utilize to support what at the time was the rebuilding of America in the Great Depression. So when the gold standard by definition is where we back the dollar, it doesn't mean there's going to be confiscation. In fact, there's a lot of people that are saying that. And I've echoed some of the things I said, well, it's not confiscation by the value or

measure of what that sounds like when you take something, not giving consideration for it. But the question you have to ask yourself is if we go on a gold standard, would the US government pay people voluntarily, I'm sure, for their gold at some set price, a great price. And the question is, we don't know yet, but we do know this, that backing, using gold to back some type of a Pax or a stablecoin against the dollar would shore up those Treasuries very quickly, lower those interest rates because the fear of default or certainly the fear of devaluation could be eliminated somewhat, certainly mitigated to some point. And then that would then give

us pause and try to make the revenues bring manufacturing back, increase the GDP, which is tax revenue. And then the second thing, which is very important, is lower the growth of deficit spending, lower the growth of the debt through interest rate or accumulation of debt through the spending. And thus, you have a plan that you go from this quasi-company that's not bankrupt, but kind of is bankrupt on a balance sheet, to, okay, it's sustainable, and now it's reversible. And I think that's what Trump has in mind. So gold is going to play somewhere in this equation.

A stablecoin will play somewhere in this equation. Whether they ask us to go back on the standard we were back on in 32, which then Ford eliminated that 76, you could actually buy gold that wasn't considered a rare coin. You know, it had to be a coin that's minted before 1933 to be able to participate in gold at the time up till 76. So there's something going on in the administration, whatever it is, however it plays out, it's going to be extremely beneficial for this country, for the country then for the people. Glad to hear that because boy, that's a lot of Hail Marys up there, isn't it Christian? A lot of Hail Marys being thrown.

It's a few, it's a few, but remember, we've got one of the best, if you had ever had to have a one quarterback, a coach, an alignment, you've got those guys in that administration. You've got the coach, which obviously is President Trump. You've got great people like Scott Pesend,

and you've got even our Secretary of State, Rubio, great guy. These are good people that understand what it's going to take to make America better than it's ever been. See, it's not just bringing it back, it's making it better. So if we just give the president a tremendous amount of support in the time he needs, remember, he built billion dollar skyscrapers, but they weren't built in a month. Last I checked, it takes about three years, four years at a minimum from planning to execution to the doors opening. So you've got to give the guy some time. But

remember, he's already done it. I don't know if he has enough... I don't know if he has three years, though, given the midterms. But of course, the Democrats are looking stupid enough that in spite of any issues we may be facing over the next year, he might be able to hold off on the midterms. I don't know yet. That's an open question right now, Christian. It is. It is, but remember, give a Democrat 15 minutes to speak, they kill themselves left and right in their elections. So all we can do is let them talk. They talk themselves right out of boats.

Quite well taken. Christian Briggs once again, he's economist and also CEO of Hard Asset Management. What was your website here once again? I'll put that up and I really appreciate the talk, really do. Yeah, you bet. BMCHAM.com, BMC Ham and BMC underscore Ham on Twitter. All right, very good. Thanks so much, Christian. Good talk. Appreciate it. You too. Thank you so much. 735 KMED. Hey there, it's Lisa from Kelly's Automotive Service in Grants Pass in Medford. 735 KMED. and your AC gives up early, you'll wish you would come in sooner. So be a hero and get your AC checked before the heat hits. Kelly's Automotive Service, where we service your vehicle,

but take care of you. Make it yours. Join us at Easterseals.com. Hi, I'm Corey with Patriot Electric, and I'm on KMED. Josephine County Commissioner Chris Barnett joins me. Commissioner, welcome back to the show. Good morning. Interesting time. How are you? I'm doing fine. Yes, of course. Never a dull moment. Yeah, it's never been a dull moment here recently and the news cycle has been a rough one for you here personally having to do with the

Oregon Supreme Court case reinstating a verdict against you elder abuse. Now did they reinstate the elder abuse verdict or was it only the improperly profiting sort of thing? In other words, my eyes glaze over sometimes when I look at these kind of cases here, Commissioner, so help me understand what the heck happened here. Okay? Well, this whole thing was made up. So it's a fantasy court case called lawfare. This was not anything legit. 100%. That's why we're fighting so hard to defend title to real estate.

We're realtors by trade. And I have to tell you this, that's a bad precedent for any business owner in the state of Oregon to do business with anybody 65 and older. So that's why we're fighting it so hard because this sets precedent, which means you don't have to have proof. They made up this elder abuse. There is nothing that can stick. And this is against an LLC.

I want to let you know that, Bill, I don't know these plaintiffs, never did business with these plaintiffs. We never took money from these plaintiffs. This was all fantasy. There's no proof of anything. And that's where this isn't a done deal yet. So this is still at the Supreme Court. This has not been executed as final. I want to let everybody know that because somebody thinks, oh, this already kicked down. No, it's not done yet. So I'm limited on what I can say, Bill. But I have to tell

you this, I just want to read a little statement. This is an eight year old case regarding the defense of real property of Barnett Resorts has nothing to do with myself, my wife or members of the LLC business. This was a there was no so called elder abuse as people interpret. This is a word an attorney used to extract drama and money. This isn't about us anyway. This is 100% the previous owner of the real estate we bought that provided a free and clear title, no encumbrances, contracts, or the like. We started a brand new business with an LLC and bought real property. These plaintiffs use lawfare for their gain through nothing but pure greed.

Now these plaintiffs were never customers of our new business we started. No contracts between us, no money was ever taken, and no criminal activity ever occurred. We never knew these plaintiffs nor did business with them. This is all fantasy made up lawsuit and it's not done yet. I'm limited again what I can say that's far from over. We are 100% not convicted of any crime. There is nothing to prove anything that our corporation did. We followed the law of advice from attorneys and the state of Oregon real estate agency. We did exactly what they told us. None of the plaintiffs resided at our daily, weekly,

or month-to-month resort. This is and was not a long-term RV park whatsoever. It is not. There are no landlord tenant leases, none. I have to ask people, have you ever been wronged and knew you were right? Just about everybody can say yes. They were wronged when they knew they were right. No matter what you did to prove you're right, someone still said it was wrong.

That's exactly what we're dealing with. Okay? This has nothing to do with me or members of the LLC or a business. It's all falls on the previous owner for whatever he did and will be held accountable. Prove me wrong with anything with our name on it. Prove me wrong that we did business on the so-called membership camping contracts that are state contracts

and need to be recorded against the land, which they were not. Oh, okay. All right, I was gonna ask you about that because I've only bought and sold a few houses myself. The question I always had about this is that was there some deal cut? Were there contracts that were put and if anybody had lifetime ability or a lifetime camping contract or the ability to live there, that would have to be on the deed. And that's the way I understand the

way real estate law works. Now, is there anything on the deed that talks about lifetime camping contracts? Anything? Nothing. 100% nothing, Bill. We're realtors. We hired a real estate broker to represent us. He also had no idea what a membership camping contract was. We had no idea what this was until after we bought the resort, our piece of property started a new business and a customer came in from the previous owner and said, hey, I have this contract. I'm like, well, what is this? He goes, oh, I had to deal with the previous owner to blah, blah. I go, well, we didn't do this contract. Our name isn't on here and it wasn't transferred to us. Let me turn to some of my attorneys. So I did. My attorney says, Oh, these are state statutes,

contracts that the Oregon real estate agency manages. So I went to them. They told me, Hey, Chris, you cannot do anything with those because you are not a campground operator. You have to fill out an application to even do that type of business. So I said, I can't do this, right? He goes, absolutely no. He goes, and I have emails of everything that the real estate agency told me. And I said, well, I didn't even know about these. He goes, well, you wouldn't because they have to be recorded in county against them and if it wasn't recorded they don't exist. So if there were lifetime camping agreements that had been made that had been done properly and that it was a proper campground, I'm just kind of re-

asking the question what I heard here. If something like that had happened it would have been on the deed, it would have been recorded, it would have been part of the process. Now the court though said that while it they appeared to they didn't appear to be aware of the membership contracts The court is claiming that you and your wife were aware and allowed the owners to believe they would honor that contract That was some of the coverage No, that was not That was at least some of the coverage. No. No. That was not. That was all

drama, lawfare. That was not legit at all. I ask anybody to show me some proof. Well, my question though is once again, where's the paperwork? Because everything involving real property is pretty much, you know, if it's not on the paper it doesn't exist. Is that a fair assessment, a way of looking at something yes my a friend of mine posted something on my Facebook page it's the bill of sale it states that the previous owner had no encumbrances no anything attached to the property will defend the title 100% in our purchase contract it says whatever you did with anybody shall be canceled that was at the very beginning stages so when you buy a piece of property, and let's say somebody,

we didn't buy his business, I want to be 100% clear, people get this all mixed up. And this is where I think the court doesn't understand this. I understand it because I do real estate, and I'm trying to protect property owners here. If you bought a piece of property and I sold it to you, Bill, and people started swimming in your pool after I sold you the property, what would you do? You'd call me and say, Chris, their neighbor keeps jumping in my pool. And I go, well, if you bought it free and clear, was there anything on your title that said the neighbor can jump in your pool? You go, no, Chris, we went over that.

I didn't say anything. And I go, well, Chris, we went over that. I didn't say anything. And I go, well, then he's not allowed to be over there. So you tell him, hey, sorry, you can't use my pool. He consists, he continues to say, oh, no, I'm going to sue you because I'm supposed to use this pool. I had a handshake written agreement with the previous owner and it was never recorded against the property, how would Bill Meyer know that that property had an encumbrance on the property? And you wouldn't. So you would come back to me, Chris, this is getting annoying. I'm like, okay, he takes you to small claims court or whatever he does court. And I sit there and I vouch for you that there is nothing. So this person is trying to use your pool.

What if you lost? Sorry, but we think that something happened and Bill, this neighbor gets to use your pool for life. What would you do and how would you feel? You would be furious. And so that's all we're fighting is something ridiculous as that that has nothing to do with us.

Yeah. Now, looking back though, there was reporting on this that even after the closing, even though the closing documents, all that paperwork didn't say anything about the membership agreements here that people had with the prior owner, but yet your company was honoring that for a while afterwards and then pulled back. What happened there? Can you discuss it? So I had no idea what the previous owner had done and to make good relationships with people, people were telling me, oh yeah, I said well I don't know anything about it. I don't want to ruin your vacation. So we took no money from people. We allowed them to finish their stay and then they left.

They didn't stay there. And then I submitted whatever somebody produced to me, a customer, and I said, well, this wasn't part of our contract. Nothing was transferred. We didn't get any compensation for this. We weren't told we could even do this. You have to be a registered campground operator. Just like to sell real estate in Oregon, you have to be a

realtor to work between people like that. So this whole thing is bizarre and it doesn't make any sense, Bill. There was no landlord-tenant agreements, there's no long-term people there, there is no lifetime that you can stay on there. That's a made-up thing. And these contracts were... I don't even have them. How about that, Bill? I've requested these contracts from their attorney and they will not produce the contracts. So I have none. I can't even tell you what they are. What happens next? Oh, it's a big battle. And so I have a consultation with with other attorneys. And this is going to be a much bigger issue down the road. So because this is property right issues for everybody

in the state of Oregon, we are pushing this. I encourage people to to reach out to your Supreme Court because this determines case law. It affects Oregonians all across the state. Not only that, but the Oregon Real Estate Agency is at fault. I encourage everybody to reach out to the Oregon Real Estate Agency and they will tell you that Barnett Resorts LLC never was a campground park never applied to be an operator therefore

cannot sell or even manage this program. So how was there ever a a campground membership before? It was all he applied with the Oregon Real Estate Agency to to sell these quote camping contracts which the only analogy I can use is a timeshare type of thing because that's really what I interpreted that and you have to sign up you have to register with the state the state did not manage their program whatsoever they didn't hold the operator responsible they didn't make sure that these contracts were recorded in Coos County against that resort, that piece of land, not resort, that

piece of land. So any buyer, if you bought it, Bill, you would be in the same position. You'd be like, I have nothing on my title report to show it. This is how ridiculous this is. My title company who represented us said, Chris, I can't represent you because there's nothing to represent. These contracts never existed. These contracts were never recorded. These contracts were never known. Well, is the real damage, I'm starting to wonder then, is the real argument then with

the prior owner? Oh, absolutely. 100%. But he's dead, right? What's that? But he's dead, right? No, no, no, no. Two brothers, one of them lives in Roseburg

and has a business there. So he is deaf, it's on the sale contract. His name is Jim Smalley, Smalley Trucking in Roseburg, Oregon in Sutherland. And he was the brother and he also, the bill of sale, I have it billed, and he signed it loud and clear. His brother did pass away,

but both of them signed this showing that the title was free and clear to me and our company. Again, this isn't personal against me or anybody else. They're making it like that, but this is an LLC issue. There's no crime or anything like that. This is strictly lawfare. All right. And let's say that you lose, that if this moves forward and it gets reviewed by the Oregon Supreme Court and it stands as it is, okay, does that attack you personally or does it only essentially kill Osprey RV Resort, you know, that kind of thing. Well no there's

many options that we're exploring right now so it's not done at all. So even if it comes down and the state stands whatever they want to do there's a remedy for that. But it's an LLC you're not personally on the hook for that is that true? Absolutely. This whole thing is LLC related that's why you create create LLCs. Has nothing to do, I mean, my name gets drawn up because I'm known, I guess. I don't know, but they think that's a drama. Has nothing to do with Josephine County. Has nothing to do with me being a commissioner here. I'm working for the people, very hard fighting for them. And I hope they understand that a lot of people have been reaching out to thank you for fighting

the fight. And I go, well, if I don't, this is going to become just and people are going to be damaged in the state of Oregon. Like I said, anybody can say elder abuse and you could be liable, Bill. That's how easy, that's how vulnerable this case law will be. Now a jury though, a jury in the area though found against you. What happened in that? What what made it such a bad verdict? Oh I'll tell you what happened. The people there in that jury, I have to tell you, didn't understand the real estate. The judge that was presiding didn't understand the real estate. We had people there explaining it and not only that but we had an attorney at

the time there that I feel a hundred percent didn't do everything properly in that stage because it should have never even happened because this whole thing was if you really want to know and you really want to know what happened it's like call me because this is if I could do a retrial, which I did demand a retrial, they never did it. And I said, this is all bizarre. This doesn't even focus on what we're dealing with here. So if anybody that's listening right now that's ever been wronged in a court of law, ever, ever been wronged, and you knew you were right, this is where you have to fight back, and this is where you defend things, to the right

way for justice for all. And that's one thing why people voted me in, too. They wanted somebody to be strong, to fight for their rights, and stand up for them. And I'm doing that, Bill. I love my job doing what I'm doing right now. It's hard mind you i'm working overtime all issues at hand in justin county i'm not one of those commissioners that's

going to sit on the sideline and just wait four years and and just rising to the sunset i'm actually doing stuff bill and uh... our first hundred days if you will i know that's very popular subject We have a whole timeline of everything that we've been doing and accomplishing and I'm very proud of the results. All right Josephine County Commissioner Chris Barnett. Chris appreciate you coming on. You're welcome back anytime. All right. All right take care. Shay before 8 this is KMED and KMED HD1 Eagle Point Medford KBXG grants pass. in our homes. Hughes Lumber has been treating their customers for over 40 years with heart and soul and

lumber products that reflect the importance that lumber is to you. Hughes Lumber, with heart and soul. Crater Chainsaw is fully stocked with Carhartt and it's all on sale through Saturday. Shop spring Carhartt specials including 50% off all remaining women's Carhartt clothing in stock. There's a great selection of Carhartt specials including 50% off all remaining women's Carhartt clothing in stock. There's a great selection of Carhartt for men too. Long and short sleeved t-shirts, jackets, coats, pants, bibs, gloves, beanies, rain defender gear and lots of hoodies with Carhartt down to sleeve.

Sale ends Saturday May 10th at noon so hurry into Crater Chainsaw for 60 years at 1321 North Riverside in Medford. Parking and entrance behind the building. One of each, Seltos VIN 7-8-4-0-0-2, MSRP 29-0-30, Telluride VIN 6-2-7-5-7-2, MSRP 41-5-25-58-99-2, 10K miles per year, zero security deposit, all incentives and discounts to dealer plus tax, title, license, 150 registration, processing fee, trading in a vehicle will not eliminate your debt,

negative equity applied to new loan balance, and 6-1-25. You could be paying less for your car with new KIAs from $1.89 a month. Let's trade keys at Kia Medford. Rush in today. A huge offer for your trade. Then trade keys and pay less on a huge selection of new Kias. Like a new 2025 Kia Seltos S. Only $1.89 a month lease. Or a new 2025 Kia Telluride S. Now $2.09 a month lease, both for 24 months. Need credits? Go to kiamedford.com to get pre-approved

in less than 30 seconds. With no effect on your credit score. Don't miss Seltos, $1.89 a month, or Telluride's $2.09. Let's trade keys at Kia Medford. Click kiamedford.com. I know we're at at will state but uh for making a comment like hey your hair looks good and then I got a call from HR saying hey you know what you're under investigation do I have any recourse?

Were you fired? No not yet. The problem Eddie is they can fire you for any reason they want. They literally can wake up in the morning and say you know what I'm a little bored this morning I'll tell you what I'm gonna do I'm gonna fire Eddie for no reason. Yep. He can do that. That's California. Yep. Welcome. Check the latest from Town Hall News, also the Kim Commando Digital Update and a bunch more. And then, interesting time, it's Open Phones on Conspiracy Theory Thursday. The joy of giving back. If there's one statement that I have heard more than anything else, way too often in our culture, anything else way too often in our culture. It's the joy well we need to give back. It is one of the most irritating, irritating communist light statements that I've ever heard. It just it gets

in my craw every time and I wanted to share. I saved a sub stack from someone who who dug into this a while back and I just wanted to share a few of their thoughts and combine it here. Giving back as if you actually stole. Well, we need to give back to the community because we took from the community in order to be successful. You ever wonder where that sort of stuff comes from? We'll talk more. This is the Bill Meyers Show.