Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 05-18-26_MONDAY_7AM

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

Craig DeLuz joins me from Project 21 - important push to restrict corporate buying out of housing, Ron Kohl and I talk about the Memorial Day VIETNAM MEMORIAL WALL dedication...I will emcee, and LOTS of luminaries are part of it and you are invited!

This hour of the Bill Meyer Show podcast is proudly sponsored by Klauser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for more than 50 years. Find out more about them at Klausurrilling.com. Now more with Bill Meyer. There's a real battle going on and that's for single family housing and especially some people who would prefer that the vast majority of people in homes rent them rather than owning them. I want to talk with Craig DeLose right now. He is a ambassador with Project 21.

He wrote a really good op-ed piece about this commentary on this situation where we find this battle waging right now. Craig, good to have you on the show. Good morning, sir. Pleasure to be with you this morning. Yeah, like I was telling you before we came on, Craig, is that, you know, there's this kind of globalist way of looking at housing right now that we're supposed to own nothing and be happy. And we're supposed to live in our little downtown Metford or downtown Sacramento or downtown Sacramento or downtown. downtown Seattle, little habit trail in our 15-minute climate-friendly, equitable community, or the 15-minute city, or whatever it is.

And this is pretty serious stuff. I know President Trump has been focusing on single-family home ownership here recently, and you wrote about this. What's been going on? Where is this battle raging? Well, the issue we're talking about here, and part of this has to do with the issue of, quote-unquote, affordability, right? What we've been dealing with, and what my particular piece talks about is how companies like Black Rock and Vanguard are actually going into communities where they're going into communities and they're buying up single family homes and then turning around and turning around and renting them out.

Now, it's not so much the idea that I'm against, you know, the free market. I'm a big believer in the free market. But what these companies, what these corporate landlords are doing is they're taking advantage. advantage of what are actually closed markets. These are usually it happens in places where there's a lot of nimbism, where there's a high degree of regulation. There's a high degree of taxation, which has limited the housing stock in these particular areas. So by going in and basically outbidding the average person, the family person who's looking to buy their first family home, what they're doing is that they're outbidding them and then they're turning around and then renting them. And in many cases,

is driving up the rents by, once again, removing available stock. And we have a lot of people who are conservatives who talk about how well you – but the free market should allow for, well, in an area where you don't have a free market where it's not currently available, and you have corporations taking advantage of it. What they're doing is they're pushing people who would normally be purchasing these homes, people who are looking to have a place where they can, number one, stabilize their housing costs because they don't have to worry about, then they don't have to worry about rents going up if they're paying a mortgage over a period of time, but also people who are looking to pass wealth from themselves down to future generations. That's being taken away from a lot of Americans by these corporate homebuyers. Now, I know that President Trump has issued an executive order regarding that. Is that enough?

And what do you think about this? He's noticed the problem. Well, I think the problem is not so much that the corporations are buying the homes. It's the laws underlying it that are creating these closed markets. We've got to try and find a way to remove these barriers that are keeping people from, keeping investors from actually building more or creating more housing stock in these communities. Well, when you look at what's going on here in the state of Oregon, now you're in California, from what I understand.

right? Yes. Okay, so you're in California. You understand that. I would argue that California actually has a freer market in the ability to build a home than Oregon. Could you speak to that? I mean, because California, I don't think, has state land use planning. Here, the state makes those kind of decisions just about everywhere you go. Well, you have in many communities. First of all, I'll just point to the palisades as an example of the problem. where you have basically hundreds, if not thousands of homes burned down, and I think less than a dozen have actually even begun rebuilding. Even now?

It's difficult it is to rebuild or build here in California. Even now? Even now? Okay. Well, you know, we had some worry about that here in the state of Oregon. This may be one thing that Oregon actually did better than California in this respect here, just so you know, Craig. and that we passed a law in the legislature or a law was passed, I should say, that requires you to be able to rebuild if you, if I'm just kind of paraphrasing this, if you rebuild within a year, you don't, and you just want to rebuild what you had, no problem.

And they're not going to make a big deal, you know, about that. If you want to make something bigger or a lot different, then I guess you would have to go through the permitting process again. But they made that pretty pretty clear because we had all meat of fires here. familiar with what happened in southern Oregon. We lost like 2,300 homes and businesses a number of years ago. Yeah, well, that sounds like a common sense law. We don't do common sense here in California. Oh, okay. Well, I'll stand corrected then. But we do tend to have, once again, centralized state land use control, is if somehow the clowns in Salem understand what should be going on in our communities better than our own elected representatives here around town.

You know, that's kind of how we're working. How is that work in California when it comes to housing availability other than what happened with Palisades? Well, there's various different statewide laws and regulations that exist. But most of the land use takes place locally. So if you want to live in a more rural, conservative community, there's a better chance of you being able to build at an affordable rate than if you want to say, for example, build in a Sacramento or a Los Angeles or a San Diego. But the places where we're seeing the

housing shortages are the Sacramentoes, the Los Angeles, the San Francisco's, the places where it costs you about $150,000 before you even put a shovel in the ground to build a single family home here in California. And that's why housing costs are in fact so high. They've also made it so that people just don't want to build because it's hard to make it profitable to build here in California. Okay, yeah, so that's the regulatory load on top of that. Somebody has to pay for it all, right? Exactly, exactly. And the corporations, because they can do it en masse, they can buy up that housing stock, right?

They see the housing stock that's available. They can go in, they can buy it up, and they can turn around and rent it. And they're all of a sudden, the money that they borrowed to purchase it is now being paid for by the people who are renting it. So you have people who literally are now paying rents that could be paying mortgages. Yep. There's an economy of scale that BlackRock walks in. And by the way, there's also, I don't know if this is anything you've ever considered, too, Craig, is the fact that the problem we have with our Federal Reserve, our funny money system. Of course, we call an elastic currency, is that there are people who get first crack at the money that ends up being created.

The credit which ends up being created. And, of course, it ends up going into the market makers. the black rocks of the world. Wall Street gets it first. Big bankers end up getting it first, et cetera, et cetera. And they tend to get it at a pretty low price. And I think that, you know, enables them at scale to buy up entire communities or entire neighborhoods. And it's not like you or me could go to the Federal Reserve and say,

hey, we'd like first crack at that money being created too, right? Do you ever consider that aspect of the so-called free market? What you were talking about is something that a lot of people don't. realize is that, and here's the worst part, as that dollar circulates, because the dollar does circulate through the market, right? Yep. The problem is that dollar becomes worth less and less, and that's how inflation is created. The more that dollar circulates through, the less it's worth.

So by the time it gets to us, it's worth a lot less than it was when the institutional investors got a hold of it. Yep, the black rocks of the black stones, the dollars were cheaper for them, the carrying cost is less than we schmows are then competing against them with depreciated dollars or inflation depreciated dollars here and competing against them, which means it's really not a free market. Isn't that the reality we find ourselves? And that's what we're trying to correct here? Well, exactly. We sadly, as much as I am once again a big believer in free markets, I come to recognize especially here in the United States, we don't truly have a free market economy.

there is so much government control, so much government manipulation. And the more government manipulation there is, the less affordability there is. That's what's interesting about it. Places like California, places like New York, you find that they are so expensive, not just because they're attractive places to live, that's part of it, but it's also because of the government regulation and the manipulation of markets that have turned around and it messes with that basic supply demand ratio and generally winds up driving up costs. Craig DeLuse, once again, he's an ambassador to Project 21, and he's written this op-ed piece,

and I'm going to share on KMED.com, and of course, where he has it too, when Wall Street moves it next door. And is this something that's going to have to be addressed with some serious legislation here? Because there are times that, yeah, regular mom and pop, someone trying to buy a home for their family, if you're competing against the Wall Street investment bankers, well, you know who's going to win and who's going to lose in that battle, Craig. How do you see it? Sadly, I think that the legislation that is going to be introduced is going to be to limit the ability of corporations to purchase single-family homes for rent, when really they're just dealing with the symptom of the problem. And the real problem is the, once again, is the government's

over-involvement in building, and the regulations that have created closed markets in many desirable places to live. Okay, but this is a start then. The laws they're talking about is just a beginning on this. Craig Galuz is with me here once again. 7705-633. I don't know if this person wants to talk with you or not. I'm going to try to find out here, Craig.

If not, we'll put him back on hold. But hi, did you want to talk with Craig? Good morning. Yes, I do. This is John. John, good morning. So my assistant who used to be a title officer went to work for one of the hedge funds, and they create their own title people. They don't even use title companies.

They don't buy title insurance. They have their own people to do it. She was doing 20 to 30 houses a day for a hedge fund. And they bought millions of single family houses. They find places in Arizona or Los Angeles that they think that the prices are going to go up. So they go in and buy them and then rent them out, and then they appreciate it. So if you own an apartment house for 10 years, it's going to appreciate based on the income. But if you own a single-family house, it isn't based on the income.

It's based on somebody's willing to pay two or three times as much for the same square footage because it's where they want to live. So these hedge funds own literally millions of houses across the country now, and they've really ruined the single-family housing market. John, let me ask you, I know you're within that business. Do you think there should be a, and I know this is, you know, since it's not a free market, we understand it's not really a free market right now because of what Craig and I have been talking about, should there be a forced divestification of such properties?

As much as I'm for the free market, if you ever want to have people to be able to afford houses, it takes away the supply of houses so much. There isn't a way for new people to even own houses. Of course, with our Senate Bill 100, I testified at the legislature saying if they passed that, that nobody's going to be able to afford a house that has a middle income in Oregon, and you're going to have homelessness. That was 46 years ago or so. All right.

John, I appreciate your opinion. Craig, just so you know, Senate Bill 100 is the bill that created centralized state land use planning in the state of Oregon. Just so you know, that's what did that number of years ago, okay? What did you think about John's take that there needs to be some forced divestification or divesting of these properties? Would you agree with him on that? In areas where it's being overly abused, most definitely I would say that needs to be the case. Especially there's tons of evidence that shows that not only are they driving up the cost of homes, but they're driving up the cost of renting those homes.

Wow. The thing that concerns me most, when you see the... attack on home ownership, actual home ownership, is that home ownership ends up usually giving you pretty stable communities. Would you agree with me on that? You have a more stable community. People feel like they have skin in the game when they're actually homeowners. I started my career in residential lending and one of the things, one of the kind of rules of thumb when we were looking at communities, once a community dropped below 50% home ownership, that was a neighborhood that was considered on the decline. Oh.

people are much more likely to take care of, they're much more likely to take care of property that they own as opposed to property that they are renting. They're much more likely to stay there a longer period of time. All indicators show if you have a community that has high home ownership, everything around, all the indications are good, that schools tend to be better. Crime tends to be lower. you know, you tend to have a lot less, a lot less problems with trash in the neighborhood or overgrown lawns and things like that. It's every indication is that it makes for a better community when people own as opposed to rent. Craig, let me take this then to a different angle on something like this.

Is there a possibility that, you know, especially the Greens and those that are taking a more globalist view of housing and resources and all the rest of it. You know, like I was joking, Helny Half joking in the beginning, you will own nothing and be happy. Do you think there's a possibility that those people are actually pushing this agenda to have more corporate ownership of homes and fewer people actually controlling them? Because it would seem to me it would be very beneficial if you're a politician looking to have people dependent on you for services. And of course, your vote, too, in return. Well, it's a little difficult only because they also tend to be very much against corporations,

although the same like-minded people now are running those corporations. It's really kind of weird. They're anti-corporation. They don't like big business, but the same people are attending the same, you know, left-wing DEI classes and coursework, and they're going to the same cocktail meetings. They went to the same colleges, but they're the same people now that are running these corporations. So it's really kind of weird. It's the same ideology that is pushing it. I don't know that it's necessarily the same people, if that makes sense. Okay. All right. That does make sense. Craig DeLose once again, Project 21 ambassador. Let me grab another call. Caller. Did you want to talk with Craig about this this morning, this morning, this morning? Good morning. Good morning. It's deplorable Patrick. Yes. And the word you're looking for is divestiture.

Devastiture. Thank you. All right. And when I was a young guy, my dad alerted me that this had happened before or something much like it. Standard oil got so big. It was just a big monster in the market, and the courts broke up standard oil. That's where you got Texaco. Texaco is standard oil of Texas. You have Ciccone, which is standard oil of New York. There were others.

I can't think of them all now, but you broke them up into several different corporations. so they had to compete. That might be a starting place, but it does have a precedent. All right. Thank you very much. Craig, what do you think about Patrick's take on that? I don't know that we're necessarily there yet. The problem is that there's several of these big corporate investors that are doing this. So it's no one company. So they're already competing. And the challenge here is, is that once again, you've got the individual homebuyer, the family homebuyer, competing with the corporations. And it's, there really is no real competition. Yeah, there is no competition on that. Yeah, yeah, the resources. There are no competitions.

Okay, I've got my 10% or 15% down. Hi. And then Blackstone comes in and says, hey, we'll just pay cash. No questions, no inspections asked. In fact, that's another aspect. There tend to be very few contingencies on these big, massive neighborhood buyouts, as I understand it. Is that true? that does tend to be the case because if there is anything that needs to be done they've got the resources to be able to fix it and take care of it yep very interesting point well i'll definitely link to this one could you tell us more about project 21 before you take off craig and i appreciate your time this morning sure so project 21 uh is designed to help take uh issue area experts and conservative think black conservative thinkers and really help to communicate that you know a lot

people think the black, the black community, since it boasts 95% one direction, that we all think the same thing, that we're all politically on the left. And there are some very, very substantive thinkers and experts in areas, you know, whether it's law enforcement, whether it's the Second Amendment, education, economics, the environment, there are plenty of black conservative thinkers who are looking to try and get the word out about what we think of where we're at and how we see issues in particular, not just as it impacts the black community, but as it impacts the country. And so Project 21 was created in order to help give those conservatives a voice. And I am one of several hundred ambassadors with Project 21.

Very good indeed. Final question I have for you, since you are in California, what do you think about that L.A. mayor's race? Anything jumping out at you? Well, the thing is that everyone is very, very angry and frustrated and upset with the establishment, and they're just now starting to recognize that it's the Democratic establishment that has failed them. I don't know that they're necessarily interested in supporting the Republican establishment, but they're at least open to listening. And I think that's making a huge difference in this election right now, whether it's the L.A. mayor's race or it's the governor's race.

I think that people are frustrated with the direction that it's gone. I don't know that they've gotten so frustrated that they're willing to give Republicans a chance yet, but I have a feeling that if they wind up reelecting Karen Bass or if they elected Democrat governor, that things are going to continue to go the way they've been going, and eventually they'll hit a breaking point where they're open, they'll be open to the idea of looking another direction. We're facing a similar situation in the state of Oregon. I was reading an article in the Oregon Live newspapers.

newspaper from the northern part of the state. And they were talking to people in Portland. Portland, as you well know, has similar problems to L.A., maybe to a lesser extent, but still pretty bad, many places. And they're talking to supporters of Governor Tina Kotech. And yeah, we're not really happy with her. No, we really dislike what she's doing on and on and on and on. Well, would you vote for something else? Oh, no, no, no. We're going to vote for Governor Kotech. It's like, yeah, yeah, it's like the inability to connect with the problems that you're noting with your vote. It fascinates me, Craig. It really does. It is beyond frustrating because it's amazing here in California. They continue to blame Donald Trump for everything. But I'm like

there has literally a Republican has not been in charge of anything here in decades. And yet, for some reason, it's the Republicans fault that all these problems are taking place. I just don't get it. Yeah. And I can't exactly say that even Arnold Schwarzenegger governed as a rock-ripped conservative. Would you agree on that? Oh, no. He didn't. The interesting thing is, I would say that Jerry Brown, the second iteration, was more conservative than Arnold Schwarzenegger. I would agree with you. I would agree with you wholeheartedly on that. Craig, great talk. I appreciate this. And thanks so much for sharing this because this is an important conversation when Wall Street moves in next door. Craig DeLose of Project 21. Thank you so much. Be well. This is the Bill Myers show. 733 at KMED.

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KMED News, here's what's going on. An arrest has been made in the Gold Hill area hit and run crash that killed a 47-year-old man early Saturday morning. Jackson County Sheriff say deputies responded to the call for a man down on the access Road shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday. This was near the Gold Hill Fire District 3 station in Blackwell Road where they found the victim had already died. The suspect in victims' names haven't been released at this time. More information will be forthcoming. Pretty clear that our summer is going to be historically dry. What happens next? The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is talking

about that forecast for our reservoirs and taking your questions today in two meetings. The first is online at 12 noon. The second is in person and online tonight at 6 o'clock, going on at the Jackson County Auditorium, 7250 Table Rock Road in Central Point. Meeting information and online links are on KMED.com. You'll be digging a little deeper to pay for Memorial Day weekend travel. Oil prices up another percent this morning. AAA Oregon reports the average cost for a gallon of regular is 533 a gallon in the state. Jackson and Josephine counties are a penny or two higher, while diesel averages $6.13 a gallon. And ahead of last Friday's Governor Kotech Prosperity Council meeting in Eugene, it's been reported that one of the loudest voices was calling for aggressive tax cuts.

The Oregon Journalism Project reports that Jordan Schnitzer, the CEO of Schnitzer Properties in Portland, told the group in an email that we can all try to be polite, but the biggest issue arresting Oregon's economy is high taxes. Bill Meyer, KMED News. This is a Fox News alert. I'm C.J. Papa. Judge in New York City makes a key ruling regarding some evidence in the case against a Q CEO killer, Luigi Mangione. So it's the bullet magazine, his cell phone, his passport, his wallet, and a computer chip will not be allowed into evidence. The gun, the weapon that police say was used to kill Brian Thompson, the United Healthcare CEO will be allowed into evidence.

Fox is Eric Sean outside the courthouse red notebook, not in the backpack, will also be allowed into evidence. Diplomatic efforts continue to prevent the war in Iran from resuming. Diplomatic efforts are playing out. Reports indicate Iran has submitted a revised proposal to pilots. Pakistani mediators aimed at addressing some of the gaps in their previous response that President Trump called a piece of garbage. Fox is training in Tel Aviv. The prize of oil is up today, but it's off its session highs. America's listening to Fox News. This hour of the Bill Myers show is sponsored by Glacier Heating and Air, making sense of the heating and air business.

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20 before 8 joining me in studio is Ron Cole. He's the president of the SOVB Vietnam Memorial Wall Project. Southern Oregon Veterans Benefit, isn't that right, Ron? That's correct. Hey, great to have you in studio. This is going to be such an honor. You asked me and I am proud to be part of this a week from today on Memorial Day. We're going to be unveiling and officially dedicating the Vietnam Memorial Wall.

And I was kind of wondering, I was asking you, and I feel kind of stupid after I, you know, brought it up with you. I said, okay, well, you know, we have the one by Don Jones Park. There's the other one that's out in South Medford. Gosh, why do we need this, this, we get non-memorial wall by Rogue X is what makes this different? And then what I didn't realize is what you were telling me, the difference between what this is going to be dedicated. This is the one by Rogue X is where this is going to be, right? Correct. All right. What's the difference between that and the other two? Not to knock them, but I was just wondering why we needed another one. Please explain it and what happened here. You've been doing this 12 years now.

There's a number of walls that are all over. And what these walls are, a lot of them is only a local. It could be from the state. Some of them have them from the town. But we have all 58,000, 479 names. You know, my theory behind that is that if you go ahead and you've got five guys and they jump into a foxhole and all of a sudden this will go and be, and I'm talking about the wall up in Salem too. Yeah. Okay? They jump in a foxhole, only two come out. Well, they can't pay homage to them if they go to the one in Salem because why? The guy, one was from Chicago.

The other was from Illinois. This one was from Ohio. so I can't pay homage to them. We have all 58,479 on this wall. Every single name like it is in Washington, D.C. Correct. But a lot of people don't realize, too,

is that there are eight women on this wall. And they're not, many don't know this. Okay, eight women, what do you got? You got eight army, a seven army, and you have one Air Force. They were attending to the injured. And when they were overrun by the vehicle, so they died too.

They died also. And they never left, and they knew it was a one-way street. Oh, boy. So what a great story. So we have an actual, now it's what about 80% of the size of the one in Washington, D.C., but it has all the names, right? All the names. And it's going to be in the same order that it is in D.C.

If you go to panel 5W and looking for a name that's number 56, well, they've got systems that are on those walls that people don't realize sometimes. All right, the wall that we have here, if all of the names are in one column, you're going to see a dot on the right side or the left side, depending upon what column is. And when it does, it's going to show you that dot is 10 rows apart. If you're looking for number 57, come down your row, seven in seven, and then that name will be on that line. Because the whole idea is to try to make it easier to use that system to find the names.

Now, behind the name with this wall, you'll have a dot or a plus. And the reason is, if it was a dot, first of all, the way that they have the names established on the wall is by the date of casual. Oh, it's not in alphabetical order. None of that. It is by the date because at the very bottom of the wall, you're going to have the dates that this wall, this panel is referring to. And it goes all the way. That's why we have eight feet of the pinnacle and two feet down at the other end. It tapers down.

Okay, very good. And you have been working this for what, more than a decade. Yes. How did you do it? we well I I went ahead in in 2014 I went ahead and I heard about the wall and I heard what was going on that type of thing so I went over and I was talking to a guy Russ McBride he was the one for the SOVB and he went ahead and he was explaining a little bit about what got because we had Sal Ascovel he was our state center in fact I think

Sal's coming back for this dedication yes he is he's going to be a speech speaker too. We got him online for it. I've seen Sal in years. I'm looking forward to it. It is. Very good. But you have all of these. You don't, the, um, okay, so, so Sal is going to be there. I know that Senator Whiten, I think, is also going to be there in Cliff Bens. And then we're going to have the mayor and all that. And fortunately, there's, there's, we're going to be there in Cliff Bens. And then we're going to have the mayor and all that. And fortunately, there's six speakers. and I'm going to be number six. Okay. So I get to close it off. Well, you should give it all the work you've done on this one. Well, I started out in 2014, and when I did, I got very interested in everything in the wall.

And I started really getting into it. Well, at the time, Russ went ahead and had some other obligations, and he was asking he needed to step down. So he came up and he says, well, will you take over? Tag here in, huh? So I went ahead and became president in 2015. And then I started and all of a sudden I take a look and it's like, wait a minute, we don't know where we're at, what we're doing, what's going on here. So I over the years have not only gained a lot of information about the wall, but during the time, I also became a president for Honor Flight. Okay.

So I was traveling to. You've been one busy veterans guy, haven't you? Very much so. Okay. So, Ron, tell us then what is. what makes this special other than the fact that is just a complete unlike the you know the other ones that we have here and maybe something that we don't know other than the the women that were on this role there was 2.5 million that went overseas to Vietnam to go ahead and fight and the 58,479

obviously didn't make it back they didn't come back but then again when they were there I'm going to hit, and I personally, when I became president and was learning about this wall, I went up and I promised every name on that wall that I would continue as long as I can to make this come to fruition for them. They gave everything. And by giving everything, I can't stop because I had many times, oh my gosh look at this problem oh we got this going on address the problem and why because when we went ahead and we looked at what was going on i stopped and thought everybody on that wall

never stopped they kept going nope ron i can hear it in your voice this this means everything and so we're all invited to this dedication yes and from what i understand now it's going to be at Rogue X, do you just go into the regular Rogue X parking lot or do you go over by Logos? Or do you do? Go over by Logos to go ahead and some of that. Now, when we go ahead, overflowed and everything else, then we're going to go over to Rogue X to have all the parking. I have the young Marines that are going to be there. And me and the board have gone ahead and put together a lot of things on this. And one of them is going to be that the young Marines are going to assist us with signs to go ahead and help

show. Okay, we have disabled over here. You can park over there for that. Okay, here's They're going to help out and make it smooth. They're going to be immensely. And not only of that, they've got radios we're going to be given to them to go ahead and work with as well. All right. This is just wonderful. So it's going to be

1230, 1245, I think, is when the door is open, right? Well, that's about, yeah, get in there on that because we actually start at 130. 1.30 is when it all kicks off. I am just honored to be the MC for this one. Happy to and have you there, and I'll be introducing you when you clean up after everybody else is hitting the home runs before you, you know, and then you're going to bat clean up. How much did this cost

and where did the money come from overall? That was one of the biggest issues we started out with because why we didn't have any money. We didn't have anything coming in. But then we started getting the word out and everything else. And I got to say Sal Esquivel, and he went ahead and came about. Why? Being the state's representative, He went in, Sal got us $250,000 from the state. That probably helped quite a bit. And we purchased the wall with that. Oh, okay.

So is the total cost to $200 or was it a little bit more for? Oh, no, it's more because why? Now you've got to get the land. You've got to get the contractors. You've got to clear all of this and other things. We turned down five locations, actually six. And the last one was over at the baseball field. Okay?

it was U.S. Sliator Park, it was. But then we had some other people that stepped forward, and it was the West Howard Foundation. And when they did, they went ahead and said, yes, we're going to get this done. So John had a lot to say about this, right? Oh, yes. Yeah.

John, we appreciate you over there on the West Howard. Oh, yes, very much so, very much so. And it's just, when we went ahead and we got there and we started seeing this, you know, I've had a lot of people that came up and says, well, wait a minute, you've been on this thing for how many years now? Why isn't it even built? And I says, we got to have 900 promises, but we only had 15 step forward. Yeah.

So you can't do that. But we never stopped. We might have slowed down, but we never stopped going. Well, it is the dedication coming up a week from today. And if you show up 1230, 1245, about 1.30, it's going to start. I'll kick it off and we'll have the invocations, the pledge. We get everybody there. Sal is going to be there. Congressman Cliff Bent, Senator Ron Wyden, everybody who's anybody is going to be out there for this dedication? And is there like an official name for it,

like the SOVB wall or what do you, what do you call it? It's not our wall. It is a wall of honor. Okay. And that wall of honor will be treated as such. That's why we turned down many others. Why? They wanted to change it. And no, you're not changing this wall. It is a wall of honor. And we will watch out for it. And it is complete. This is of all the names, everybody who passed in the, who was a combat casualty then in the Vietnam War. Well, this is going to be really something. And is it, what are it going to be the hours when it's open, when people can see it during a normal time. Do you know? We've got to where we have electricity. We have things that they're still working on some of the

other triggers that we want to do, such as somebody comes in, the lights come on, that type of the thing. Right. Because why many of the troops that were there, it's hard. It's hard to go back and see that name. Very emotional. I know people will go to the wall. But you have to understand one thing at the time of their casualty, their memory starts. And the way to keep that memory going is by visiting that wall. That sharp blade gets dull after a while because you're actually seen and you put your hand. Every name.

Every name up there has a face. If you don't believe me, put your hand on one and see what you see. So will it be open in the daytime? Is it like a standard opening? It's going to be available. At that time, it's going to have available because it's the parking area and everything else. And we actually, we're going to have, we're working on the electricity to make sure that we can have after hours. Okay.

Because sometimes bless you brothers and sisters that you want to go ahead and come in and pay homage to them. All right. That is good there. Ron, great talk. And looking forward to the event. this coming, well, it's going to be Memorial Day, Memorial Day afternoon. Yes, indeed. Starts at 1.30, show up 1230, 1245, and they're all gathered together.

Everyone's going to be there, and it's going to be the kickoff of the Southern Oregon Veterans Benefit. Of course, Vietnam Memorial Wall. Ron Cole is the president of the SOVB, and I thank you so much. Thank you very much. Anything else we need to know before we take off? Just want to make sure we got it all down. Hey, oh, believe me, you'll find out the rest of it when I go ahead and I get my spiel and everything else. All right, Ron. Good seeing, your Ron. Great job. Wonderful job on that one.

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Investing in precious metals involves risk. Consult with your tax or financial professional before making any investment decisions. The Bill Myers Show is on. News Talk 1063, KMED. 757. This is KMED and KMED HD-1 Eagle Point. Medford, KBXG Grants. Pass. Translator K290AF Road River, K-294-A-S. Ashland. There you go.

Lauren's an Eagle Point. How you doing, Lauren? Welcome. I'm doing fine. I appreciate the talk about the Vietnam Wall. Yeah. It's going to be huge. I didn't realize that it had every single name and that it wasn't just the Oregon names. That's great. It's pretty wonderful. In Washington, D.C., I got to see it in 24 as part of an honor flight, a recognition of veterans going back there. And so it just blew me away. Yeah, I'll bet it did. And now it's the same thing. But the main reason I called follow up, Before we're talking about voting and battles tomorrow and everything. Yeah, I was just asking for people.

I ended up voting for Ed Deal, you know, for governor. And let me tell you, I vacillated and went back and forth and talked and talked and read and read. And that's where I ended up settling. How did you go? I went with Dudley because of money. You did. We've got to have the money to buy it. I mean, you've got to buy this ballot, you know what I mean?

And let me tell you, that is a reasonable position. I wrestled with that. I really did. I did. Yeah. So. Well, I would have mentioned one other thing. We, we, I'm a PCP out here in Eagle Point, and we were sending text messages out to folks yesterday. If they hadn't voted, well, we didn't know if they voted or not, reminding them to vote and to take the ballot to the library and not mail it anymore.

I get out and vote, vote no. Turn that ballot over and vote no. Yeah. And so, well, that's the way I tended to look at that, too, on the tax measures, no doubt. Yeah. We didn't endorse. Well, number of the people endorse certain persons. since I did not. I went ahead and just told the people, vote, no, we don't want more taxes.

And I got several replies back, two different. One said, well, I don't live there anymore. I live in Texas now. And then another text came back and said, I live in Arizona now. And another guy said, I didn't get my ballot, just like we heard this morning. Oh, boy. But it was good just to get the word out. And I felt good about it. So I just wanted to report that. All right. Thank you very much. And Lauren, always appreciate it. Greatly. Be well. Have a great day. All right. Once again, Lauren from Eagle Point. Shade before 8 o'clock here. Some emails of the day.

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It's on Mazadlan, rather Freeman Road next to Mazadlan Mexican Restaurant. Okay. Central Point Family Dentistry.com. A lot of people writing you this morning about their vote because I was just sharing mine. Way it went. And Bonnie says, Bill, I would be okay voting for Dudley in November, but I think Ed is the best primary candidate. I'm with Kevin Sterrett on Drazen. She's a political animal, not a real conservative.

Either she's weak or a sellout or both. Okay. I appreciate the opinion, Bonnie. Granny's saying, hey, Bill, how do you stop cheating with mail-in ballots? Republicans and conservatives keep talking about getting out the vote when the democoms are stuffing the ballot boxes and counting the votes with the machines that have rigged algorithms. Keith weighs in on the vote. Oh, M.G. No wonder we have poor turnout in Jackson County. Oh, talking about the people from the Applegate, not having their ballots. Keith, you'll be happy to know that that ended up being a false alarm that Vicki's family,

I guess there was a family member that had the ballots stuffed in the center console or center between the seats or something, and they found them. So, all right, false alarms. So that one's okay. I was wondering about that, too. Butch writes me this morning about Friday's show. Bill, there's a really interesting show. I'm really hoping that Ed Deal wins the primary. I don't trust Drazen nor Dudley. I will vote for whoever wins, though. I think we're going to make a big turn in Oregon E soon, and then I can drop the E. All right? Appreciate that. And John says, Bill, it has become obvious to me the past several years

that the biggest pushers of the whole climate change hysteria, elite organizations like the Club of Rome and WEF billionaires such as Bill Gates, who changed his tune on it recently, and Tom Steyer, who was running for California governor, and politicians, mostly Democrat politicians, pushing authoritarianism in the name of stopping climate change, of course. However, as I'm sure you know, millions of Americans have bought into the narratives and smear those who speak out against the narratives as climate or science deniers. But they don't seem to grasp the whole climate change thing has been little more than an enormous grift for the billionaire elite disguised as science, usually at the expense of the masses.

These sociopaths constantly tell the masses that we need to eat bugs, we need to drive electric vehicles, we need to give up using a gas stove to stop climate change while they buy their million-dollar McMansions, fly in private jets, sail and fancy yachts, John Kerry all but admitted the grift a few years ago at an elite meeting when he said that, paraphrasing, implementing the demented net zero agenda would cost trillions of dollars. Translation, endless fleecing of taxpayers. So John gets the email of the day here on KMED and KBXG. Thanks so much for writing, John.

Really appreciate that. And we'll check Fox News here in just a moment. And diner, no, not diner 60. Do we have a diner 62 quiz? We may have a diner 62 quiz. I'll get back to you on that. You know, some days I forget, you know, it just gets tucked into the notes on Friday. I'll get back to you one way or the other. Dr. Powers will join me where

Pass meets present. That's always a lot of fun to get going on Monday morning too.