Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 06-23-25_TUESDAY_7AM

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

More from Kevin Starrett at Oregon Firearms Federation - some GOP in the house boycotted over bad treatment of a rep, what about bad things done to constituents?? Former State Sen. Baertschiger talks to sell or not to sell public lands?

The Bill Myer Show podcast is sponsored by Clouser Drilling. They've been leading the way in southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at Clouser Drilling.com. Don Thumbler calling a few minutes ago on Pebble in Your Shoe Tuesday, and he was displaying being upset about what he perceived as some manhandling going on by Fire District 3 when they came to his home not too long ago. He talked about that a few weeks back. Now, Loren, you were actually there when Dawn dropped by. So you ended up talking to the chief. So give me your experience here.

Yes. I want to start off by saying I'm a chaplain with the fire department, been with them for 17 years. I do not have the privilege of speaking for them, so I'm talking for myself right now in my experience with firefighters. Yeah, Don came to the back door of our exercise room. He knocked on the door. A young man was working out there in a gym that I was talking, not the gym, but the workout. And then he kept saying, what do you want me to get to the chief? And he said yes. And then he kept saying, you want me to get you to the chief? And he said yes. And so I went out and got the battalion chief, whose office is right around the corner. But my main point is, Bill, that now I have a pebble in my shoe in that

if I trusted Don would not have a cardiac situation and need our guys because our guys are committed to serve the people. The thing about the SWAT team, I couldn't believe that. I actually have a grandson who's with the SWAT team down in Arizona as part of the fire department. He is the medic with the SWAT team down there and he risks his life in that regard as a SWAT team EMT. So anyway, so I have a lot of a lot of burden for this thing but and I don't know the specifics of that how is it I heard a little bit but I

forgot it before I remembered it but I just want to say our fire our fire department District 3 and most if not all fire departments risk their lives every time they drive out of the station because you never know what's going to happen and so I think a little more respect for our guys specifically in D3 but otherwise too and I'm happy to talk about it further. Yeah okay I get that well he's not feeling particularly respectful because he didn't believe that the officers or that firefighters were showing respect to him and within his home, within his own home. I can understand being a little sideways on something if you if you felt, you know,

disrespected in your own home on something like this and you know wanting to look around and I'll tell you what one of the things they look around for is to see if you have smoke detectors because their goal is to prevent people from dying in fires that's one of the things they are commissioned to do to look around for smoke detectors I know that personally you know from my experience there too but I'm not a firefighter never have been all I know is I work with them and and those guys are committed all right I just wanted to get that on the record. All right. We appreciate your experience there.

Let me grab another. Hi, good morning. Who's this? Paul Harvey. Oh no. We're not going to go back. He said, she said. All right.

The rest of the story, Bill. This is Don. And the question was, what are these four brown shirts doing in my house? That's where it started. And then what happened is we know this administration at District 3 fire to be retributive and vindictive. After I left, the following days, they were supposed to call me, right? I got a call on my cell phone. After I answered, it clicked off. Local number,

I called back. And it's their Uber secret dispatch center for district three, deep in the bowels of the communication center. And I start being interrogated. Who are you? How did you get this number? Then days go by, same thing happened. So when he told me there would be a call back, they did it twice. They set me up to call that number back, which becomes a crime in Oregon to have malicious intent to a dispatch

or emergency number. It's a secret number. He kept reiter. It's a secret number. He kept reiterating this is a secret number. You cannot have this. You cannot call it. So setting me up with this wrong number, calling me from the dispatch center, which they should have used an open line or a private line.

So this is retributive. So if I can call it that. Okay, so you're claiming then retribution All right. All right. Well, I can't sit here and litigate this on air right now, but don't litigate it on there I'm telling you the facts of what happened. This is the chronology. All right. Thank you for the call Whoo, man Get to get hot on this. All right, it is a quarter after seven Is your water well not producing like it used to?

Or perhaps it never produced? Do you and your family find yourself rationing or hauling water because there's just not enough? Clouser Drilling has been drilling water wells in Southern Oregon for over 50 years, and each year constructs the majority of the new wells in Josephine and Jackson counties. Clouser Drilling has the expertise

to help you make an informed decision on options for improving your water situation. Give the experts a call. Visit www.clouserdrilling.com. Some people are just obsessed with their lawns. They'd cut their grass with a pair of scissors if they could. Thanks to Gravely, they don't have to. You see, Gravely makes not only the best built and most comfortable lawn mowers, but they

also leave your house looking like a doggone country club. So whether you're a commercial landscaper wanting the best or just a perfectionist homeowner, you can't do better than a Gravely. See the full line of Gravely mowers at Zoll's Lawn and Garden Equipment on West Main Street in Medford. Picking up on the right side. This is the Sean Hannity Morning Minute. All of the talk and what the Israelis have been able to pull off is miraculous also. All of this is going to be studied.

What Donald Trump did with these three facilities, both Bordeaux, the Tans, and Esfahan. All three of these facilities, what he has been able to do is now made the world a safer place, a much safer place. And what our military has been able to pull off here, you should be extraordinarily proud of. If you were ever going to do this, this was the time to do it at the level of safety that you would want for any American soldier that was flying a B-2 with these bunker buster bombs. From coast to coast, from sea to shining sea,

it's The Sean Hannity Show. Hey, Sean Hannity Show. especially during uncertain times. Remember the 2008 financial crisis. Who do I choose to make my gold and silver purchases with? What company do I now use? Who do I trust? Well, I've been partnering with a great company for three years. I am a customer. The company's called Gold Co. Gold Co. will send you right now a free 2025

gold and silver kit to learn more about diversifying with precious metals. Now this kit from Gold Co. has been a huge help to me. I think you'll learn a valuable lesson. You'll also learn about their unlimited bonus silver offer. You're not going to want to miss out. All you have to do is call, no obligation, 855-815-GOLD or just go to HannityGold.com. That's 855-815-GOLD. Or go to the website HannityGold.com. You're hearing the Bill Meyers show on Southern Oregon's home for conservative talk.

Mornings on KMED at 99.3 KBXG. Call Bill at 770-5633. That's 770-KMED. Here's Bill Meyers. Alright, the next conversation we're having has nothing to do with fire district three in one form or another or anybody manhandling or, or disrespecting or whatever, whatever side of that argument you are on, you'll have to find out more about it. Kevin Starr is here, but we are talking about disrespect to the disrespect going on in the state legislature and the frankly, the humiliation of the Republican caucus. I mean,

isn't that really what we're witnessing this week here, Kevin? Welcome back, as always, from Oregon Firearms Federation. Well, thank you. I guess so. I mean, after watching, you know, Chris Gomberg screaming at Shelley Beaux-Arts Davis, which, you know, as I pointed out, if you just heard the audio, you would think she was getting slapped around by Richard Simmons. But this isn't the first time. I mean, in the Senate, Floyd Prusansky has repeatedly insulted Senator Mike McClain and basically told him to sit down and shut up. Shut up. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I guess, you know, on this, I did hear, I did hear the Senate Republican leader complaining

on the floor about the treatment of Shelley Beaux-Arts Davis. I don't know if he's ever complained about the treatment of his own member, Mike McLean, that has happened multiple times. But I guess when you're in the minority and the minority accepts whatever you do, then you're going to continue to slap people around. Yeah. And the point being, though, is that the Republicans continue to provide quorum. And I know we keep banging this gong, but because the reason it's so important is that this is the only tool left to fight when essentially you're being humiliated and manhandled and girl-handled or however you

want to put it, you know, out there. Mansplained. Mansplained, yeah. Mansplained or fema...or womansplained, you know, depending on who ends up being. You know, what's interesting is that a number of Republicans, quote, boycotted the session yesterday. And I got really excited about that. I'm saying, oh, okay, so they walked out and denied Quorum. No, they didn't deny Quorum. Well, it's not only that. I mean, they claim they boycotted because of the treatment of Bozart Davis. And what was particularly interesting, if you watch that particular blow-up, and Gomberg was totally out of line. I mean, he was acting like a lunatic. Oh, he's a total ass. And he will continue to be. Now he continued, now he quit yesterday.

He resigned from that. Well, he did. But here's the thing well you know I appreciate them standing up for their own people be nice if they stood up for us that's not pure apparently gonna happen but you know there there are Republican men on that committee none of whom said a single word at the time nobody said hey dude take it outside yeah knock it off you know I mean it went it went to Christine to, you know, put together this boycott, but the boycott was approved by the Democrats. So why would the boycott be approved by the Democrats?

Probably because the Republicans had enough people staying behind in order to allow business to keep moving forward. So they don't care, right? Isn't that essentially what we're watching? I don't know anymore what we're watching. I know we don't know, but this is an interesting, this is a reasonable conjecture that we could make upon viewing what happened yesterday, right? Well a number of Republicans didn't show up. Every one of them except for Darren Harvick

were excused. Harvick was absent, which is good for him, but the rest of them, and I think others had planned to not be there anyway, like I don't think Duane Yonker was planning to be there under any circumstances. No, Duane was out of here, he said, I am out of here as of Saturday. He says, I'm gone. There's no point in being here in this body. I think that was the exact quote he let me know. It's like, good for you, Duane. I get it. I really do. The rest of them who boycotted asked for permission and apparently got it. Okay, well, if you're boycotting to make a point, why would you ask permission?

You just leave. I don't know. I don't know. They asked permission. They got permission. Now, the interesting thing will be to see today on the house floor They will be debating and voting on Senate bill 243 Which will eliminate your right to protect yourself in a vast collection of government buildings

will make felons out of thousands of Oregonians who own devices that they bought legally and I want to see who boycotts today's session to protect us after boycotting yesterday's session to protect one of their own. Okay, okay. Could you repeat that? Because I'm starting to... I'm not following all the boycotts and circular stuff going on here. Please help me understand OB Kevin, okay? stuff going on here. Please help me understand OB Kevin, okay? Yesterday, the Republicans who boycotted claimed they did it and numerous press releases claim that, and some contradictory news stories about this too, claim they did it out as a protest for the way their own rep, Bozhard Davis, was

treated. Absolutely. Okay, now I understand. You're right because I got them from, I think I want to say Alex Carlatos and a whole bunch of other, uh, court boys also sent me one of those releases too. Yep, we're boycotting to protect the honor. In other words, it was kind of like an honor boycott of Shelley Beaux-Arts Davis. Okay. All right. Okay. Thanks for standing up for one of your own. Now, there's a bill that will be on the floor that will catastrophically destroy Oregonians' rights. Will you boycott to protect the people who put you there, or do you only boycott to protect one of your own crowd? Okay, see, that's a very reasonable question to be posing right now.

Now, I don't know if you were listening about 45 minutes ago, but I had Kevin Gill from Clouser Drilling On. He's a sponsor, and he drills wells around here in southern Oregon. And yesterday, they ended up passing a huge increase in the costs of well fees, drilling fees, how to get the start card, and the transfer fees to transfer water rights. And they declared an emergency, which means it goes into effect in six days. In six days it goes into effect. You know this is this is representative democracy in the state of Oregon. Six days and we're going to you may have a

quote for a well drilling but hey they're gonna have to revise it because boy it's important the work that that the that the Democrats are doing in Oregon. The point being and and Kevin agreed, he said, he said, yeah, they were there. And I said, the Republicans were there. They were boycotting symbolically to protect Shelley Bozart Davis, but they didn't all walk out to stop the raping of well,

of people who have wells in the state of Oregon, you know? People who drill wells do not live in the city. The only people who matter are people who live in the city, because the people who live in the city make the rules for the hillbillies and the rooves who live in rural areas. And we don't want people living in rural areas, we want them all living in cities clustered around mass transit, because as the former police chief of Portland Charlie Moose once said in an Oregon editor Oregonian editorial they are easier to control. Uh-huh. So we gap-toothed hillbillies out in the rural lands...

Yeah. Now the point being though is that most of the Republicans that are there are actually from Gap Tooth Hillbilly land, according to the Democrats. Would you agree with me? Well, I mean, Kevin Mannix is not from Gap Tooth Hillbilly land. Well, yeah, I know he voted for the Dancing Prancing Drag Queens last week. Okay. Bruce star is not from hillbilly land, you know, but you know, it's just, it's just constant, this constant attack on rural Oregonians because, well, they shouldn't be allowed to live out in the country because, well, they're harder to control. We want access to all

our natural resources and we want to cost everybody as close as we can to mass transit. Which nobody takes and have them all live in high rises where there is no parking so they can't have cars and if you can't see this obvious progression of what's going on, you're not paying attention. You're, I mean, for at least the last 15 years, I have heard Republicans get up on the Senate or House floor.

McLean's done it, others have done it. I remember McLean getting up and saying, hey, you're crushing rural Oregonians. Could you please, begging, please stop hurting us. And my point is to stop begging, walk out and stop it. Stop it, all right? Stop it right now. I know you can't get everything killed. I understand this. But I have to tell you, if all of these

Republicans, whether it's the House, whether it's the Senate, both sides, would walk out and you don't come back until Sunday to pass the budgets, I would say a message would be sent. Would you not agree? I saw a message from a Republican House rep that was a response to a voter, and I don't get forwarded as a screenshot where she was saying, look, the walkouts don't work. Everything that we stopped with the last walkout has become law. And as you know from talking to Herman the other day, that's not true. They killed a lot of bills that didn't get the attention that Cap and Tray did. But everybody's saying, well, and she also said, and we didn't elect more Republicans. No, you didn't elect more Republicans, but

the ones you had got reelected. And the whole attitude of the Republicans now is, well, bad stuff might happen in the future, so we're not going to do anything to stop it now. And that's so patently and on base absurd that I don't even know how to respond to it. In fact, I can swear that the Republicans are playing the part of the Washington generals, you know, the team that always plays intentionally to lose to the Harlem Globetrotters? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they're playing to lose, but the official policy of the

party, now remember the caucus and the party, the caucus of the elected people and the party are two different entities, but the official policy of the party now, well it's always been that we're going to protect the squishes and the left-leaning Republicans because they're Republicans. And we want to elect more of them because if we elect more of them, eventually we'll be able to elect conservatives. And how they reach that position is a complete mystery to me. Yeah, to me too, Kevin. And let me ask you though, if, if let's say, leader Drazen, Christine Drazen, or Daniel Bonham, Senator Daniel Bonham, the

Senate leader, if he or she were to say, we are walking out and we are walking out and we're not coming back in until we just kill a lot of this stuff and we'll vote on budgets, even if it's the final day, like we did before, would they walk out? Is there enough control of the caucus that you think that they could actually walk out to the point where they would deny quorum rather than this useless protest, symbolic protest of yesterday? I don't believe so. You don't think so? No. When you see who stayed on the floor yesterday, Helfridge, Elmer, Greg Smith, Greg Smith, he's a Democrat, you know, Mannix, all of these people are much more concerned with their future political viability. And, you know, I mean, why would Kevin Mannix, a very, very Catholic anti-abortion guy

praise a drag show on the floor. Well, obviously he's looking for higher office, right? Oh, okay, well, I always thought the reason he voted for the tranny thing last week or the drag queen deal was because he was gonna run for governor again. That's what I thought was going on. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. I mean, he's gonna run for something.

He's gonna run for governor. He's going to run for governor. He's going to run for Kim Thatcher's Senate seat because she can't run again. But I have no doubts that there are a handful of people in that body who really want to do the right thing. But very, very few of them. I mean, Younger is about the only one I know of who not only wants to do the right thing

but proclaims it loudly and is not afraid to get up and say stuff. But the vast majority of them clearly, and this is, it's such a cliche, but it's true, these people are concerned about themselves. That you would boycott because Shelley's feelings were heard, but you won't boycott to protect the rights of thousands of Oregonians who now face felony charges for doing something that's legal. That is something that you would think would be sharpening the minds of our Republican caucuses, both in the Senate and in the House right now, and we're not seeing this. And so this is not because I want to bash Republicans. In fact, this is the worst part of my job, is to have to call

these people out who are behaving effectlessly. When it is, when stuff is going on here Kevin, that is as serious as a heart attack, if you get my drift. Well, absolutely. And you know, this whole attitude that we've got to behave a certain way and we need to decorum, and if we walk out we'll lose seats, and we have to have... Who cares if you have seats? You've got, you know, you won got you know you won elections you Republicans have won a lot I mean I I spoke to a candidate during

the last election who promised me under no circumstances would he ever walk out because by God he had to go there and do his job I was like you're a moron that is your job your job is to protect your constituents and you use the tools that are available and if you don't use the tools that are available to you I don't care if you get elected or a Democrat gets elected because quite frankly There's not a whole lot of difference between them especially when you look at some of the voting records when you look at the voting records of people like health rich or Greg Smith or many of these people who are constantly on certainly Drazen is hilariously

Drazen is a liberal Democrat. Who else after, I mean, who else after the George Floyd trial, where a police officer was convicted of killing someone while he did everything his department told him to do, tweets, justice has been done. Yeah, it's been served. Yeah, I remember that. Justice has been done. Yeah, it's been served. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, it's, yeah, we have, we can't just elect Republicans. That's our issue here. We cannot just elect someone who claims to be a Republican. There needs to be the right kind of Republican. And obviously, when I'm looking at the current session here, we don't have enough of the right kind of Republicans, unfortunately. That's just an observation I don't like making, but all you have to do is observe the actions in here.

No. When you have Javadis, when you have Newt Fuelers, when you have Charlie Conrad, when you have Sherry Hulse, when you have people who are far-left Democrats wearing the Republican jersey and instead of the party saying we will not have this crap, they encourage it and protect these people. Yeah and that's the wrong side. What about the Senate? Okay, what about the Senate? Final question. Senate is fewer people. I can understand you're not going to probably keep the House out. Do you think there's enough that if Bonham would

have really jumped down their throat and say no we need to be united, we all need to walk and we need to walk right now? I don't know it would walk out, no problem. I hate to make predictions because it's so dangerous. I do not ever see Brock Smith and Anderson walking out. I just do not see that happening. I mean Anderson votes with the left all the time. Anderson's totally under the thumb of his staffer, Brian Iverson. You know, Brock Smith only wants to keep his Senate seat. So I want these people to prove me wrong. I really true. I would love to have

them prove you wrong and so I could say Kevin, they walked out. Yep. All right. I'd be happy to take the hit on that one Bill. All right Kevin. Hey I appreciate the update. I know you were just watching this floor session yesterday and the protest and all the rest of it, and we were trying to figure out what was going on. Thanks for the report, okay? Really interesting. My pleasure.

All right. Take care. Kevin Starr at Oregon Firearms Federation. He watches it all day. He's all day. Yeah, poor guy. This is the Bill Meyer Show. The Montana Ruby Marketing Department is always looking for new ideas, but they're

not always good. What's up? Well, I keep hearing other businesses with jingles, so I'm thinking we should have one. What do you have in mind? Here we go. Metal, composite, tile, and shake. There's no roof we cannot make. Fontana!

Your daughter's a cheerleader, right? Yeah. Why? No reason. Hey, how about, when there's a hole in your roof, we make it go poof? Nah, new roofs are the focus. Let's see. Whether it's metal or shingles, give Fontana a jingle. Get it? A jingle with jingle in it. Oof. Maybe we should just hire some musicians and have a jam session. I'll sing lead and you can back up.

Back up? I was lead tenor in my high school choir. Oh yeah? Well, I'm the king at karaoke. Everyone says my voice is stellar and my range is impressive. If you call Fontana Rubin right now for a quote, we promise to shove the homemade jingle idea. Visit FontanaRubinService.com

Hi it's John at Wellburn's Weapons. The only thing better than shooting is shooting with a suppressor. Wellburn's is Southern Oregon's suppressor headquarters, stocking models from Silencer Code, Dead Air, Griffin Armament, Rugged, Q, Thunderbeast, and many more. And we can order practically any suppressor on the market. Check in with us for monthly incentives to save on suppressors too. Come see the suppressor experts, Wellburn's Weapons on Crater Lake Highway,

just south of White City. Hi, this is Bill Meyer and I'm with Cherise from No Wires Now, your Dish Premier local retailer. It's time to switch to Dish. If you have DirecTV or Cable TV, call me today to see how I can save you money. Plus, I'll lower your internet and cell phone bills. And those offers in the mail from Dish, you can go through NoWiresNow for those.

Call me at 541-680-5875. Call Cherise like I did or visit their showroom off Biddle Road in Metford. NoWiresNow.com Restrictions apply. Call for details. Internet and cell phone service not provided by Dish. We've heard it all. Apparently those larger tires don't provide more clearance. It was a really big bird. Might have been a pterodactyl.

I should have screwed that tool shelf in the garage to the wall. But the reason you need auto body repair doesn't matter to us as much as making your car look new again and the process easy for you. At Lithia Body and Paint. We've been getting Southern Oregon drivers back on the road since 1946. Speed, service, accuracy. That's Lithia Body and Paint on Bullock Road in Medford. News brought to you by Millett Construction, specializing in foundation repair and replacement.

Get on solid ground. Visit MillettConstruction.com. From the KMED News Center, here's what's going on. State Senator Chris Gorsuch resigned from the Oregon Joint Transportation Committee Monday following calls from House Republicans for the Democrats' censure. GOP leaders complained about Gorsuch's

openly misogynistic actions during a Friday committee meeting about the transportation spending bill where he aggressively shouted down Representative Shelley Boschart Davis on multiple occasions. It adds uncertainty to an already controversial bill. After the committee sent the bill to the House floor Friday, lawmakers sent the two billion dollar a year package back to committee Monday. Utilities could have a tougher time raising rates under a bill passed by the Oregon House. The Fair Energy Act would prohibit increases during cold winter

months. The Oregon Public Utility Commission would also have to consider the impact on consumers before approving a rate increase that now heads to the Senate. Southern Oregon University has a $5 million budget hole. They've eliminated over 13% of full-time faculty and staff positions in the last three years and may be forced to cut another 7%. The London KMED. If you're remodeling your house, start with the foundation. Millette Construction offers a no pressure, thorough inspection of your home's foundation

and a no obligation estimate if your house needs work. The foundation is most important because all the repairs and upgrades you're planning from the floors, windows, doors, cabinets, even the roof can be affected if your foundation is unstable. Be sure you're on solid ground. Millet Construction will level your house and correct the shifting soil problem. Visit MilletConstruction.com. Oregon Truck and Auto Authority is the Rogue Valley's spray on bed liner leader for 20 years running. We are excited to upgrade our spray on bed liner product to legacy protective

coatings and join the fast-growing nationwide network of dealers. Our new legacy bed liners are the latest innovations and improvements in spray-on bed liner technology. Stop by Oregon Truck and Auto Authority and let our seasoned team of professionals give your truck the protection it needs with a legacy spray-on bed liner. One in four Americans have a disability. I'm one of them. I'm also a working mom who cares deeply about making sure every child with a disability

thrives by getting their access needs met. We've got a trusted ally by our side. Easter Seals provides children and families the foundation for lifelong success through early learning programs, skills training and prep for college and career. That's my Easter Seals. Make it yours. Join us at Easterseals.com.

Hi, I'm Stephen with Stephen Westwell-Riffinney and I'm on KMED. 20 before 8. Former state senator Herman Baerchiger, Josephine County joins me this morning. Herman, welcome back. I got to tell you, what a bunch of drama the last few days here, huh? Last couple of days in the news cycle, that is for sure. And what is your overall thinking as you're hearing me talking to, like, Kevin and Kevin Gill from Clouser and all the rest of it?

They're moving all these bills and there's no fighting the Republicans, huh? You used to be there. Well, the Senate is easier to stop things in the Senate than it is in the House because you have more, there's less people. Yeah. So that's the first thing. So the fight is really in the Senate. You have a Senate president that probably isn't a triple-A player, let's put it that way, okay? And you know, we're getting to the end of the Senate. What the Republican leader, Senator Bonham, needs to do is pull that caucus together and unify them. They got less than 10 days left in the session so if they deny quorum and Bill we should never use the word walkout we should always use denial of quorum.

Denial of quorum yeah which is a constitutional requirement there in the state of Oregon legislature. That's right so if I if I could unify my caucus at 90% of them, then I would go to the, I'd get the governor and the Senate president and I say, look, we're going to deny quorum. We're going to shut it down. Or we can just drop this bill to tax the Oregonians 15.5 million, do a referral to the voter, and then close the session, vote on all the rest of the stuff and close the session.

That's the option, Mr. President, Mrs. or Mr. Governor, whatever it is, and then see what they do. Now, the Senate president really has a way out that is really good, and that is Meek doesn't want to vote for it. So the Senate president could go along and say, oh, we don't have enough votes in the Senate, so we're just going to scrap the idea. So there is a way out for the Senate president to save face and then the bill would die. What about the the various gun bills that Kevin of course, Kevin Sterritt has been jumping up and down.

Of course that's a dog, he's been a dog in that fight you know for a long time. There's a lot of bad bills, a lot of bad bills. Well you're gonna, listen you're not gonna get everything you want but you're gonna get... I would put the top five out there, and that's what I did with Courtney. I had a whiteboard in my room. I wrote everything down, and then I had Peter come in the room, and he sat down and he looked at it, and then he put his hands over his eyes. In other words, you have to have, shall we say, testicular fortitude. Would that be a way of putting it?

What the Republicans are really is they're not changing the behavior of the Democrats because they're not making them react to nothing. You got to start making them react to something. If they don't, you know, they're in the driver's seat because they have the majority, but you can throw things at them that they have to constantly dodge and constantly react to and it keeps them off balance. And the Republicans simply aren't doing that. How would you deal if you were a Senate president, which you were before, if you had a situation like a David Brock Smith who, who stare at, I think rightly evaluates him and say, well,

you know, I've, I've worked forever to become a senator, you know, and you have people like that that look at, you know, being the senator as their career, rather than actually as a calling or, you know, to actually help their people, I I guess how would you deal with people like that as a Senate president as a Senate president or a caucus leader well caucus leader pardon me that's what you were yeah caucus leader you know it's hard to deal with it because it's constituent electing so you can't blame you know you may disagree with Senator Brock Smith, but the blame is on their constituents.

So there are people in Curry County, that's stupid, that's feckless? Yeah, if they're going to elect him, that's what they're going to get. Okay, alright, I had to say it. Now I'm going to get a nasty email from from court boys. All right, I'm just kidding. Just having fun. All right, we'll set that aside right now because I know that you're not the caucus leader at this point, but you once were and you had to whip it all and you managed to be quite effective at that time. Okay. All right, so, but that was then, this is now. That's right. Now then, something that I'm hearing the Democrats bleat about quite loudly right now is, the

selling off of public lands! The public lands, they're going to be selling off the national parks! And this, of course, being directed to President Trump. That's nonsense, is it not? Yeah, you know, it's not. First of all, I have a funny feeling the public lands are somehow tied to the collateral of the $40 trillion in debt. We've always been kind of suspicious of that, thinking that for a long time. And $40 trillion would probably only be about 10 percent, but I don't agree with it.

I had a good conversation with Congressman Benson over the weekend, a very long conversation, and we discussed that. Him and I are both very well studied on the public lands issue, and we both come to the – we're both on the same page. Don't sell these lands. You know, yes, I can agree all day long they're mismanaged, so let's go after the mismanagement, but not dispose of them. Now, there are some what I've called fragmented public lands,

and I worked on that issue with the Trump administration the last time he was president to dispose of those and then Zinke got all upside down and kind of the Department of Interior got neutered. But anyways, in what a fragmented lands, what are they? Well the government has these little pieces these 40 acres and 160 and 320 that are just sprinkled around and they can't make, you know, sometimes they don't have access. It's just, and those should be disposed of and put back on the tax roll of the county.

I agree with that, but the large chunks I do not agree with. They're, they're great for recreation. They are public lands. The public get to use them. I know some of the policies I disagree with, so let's go change the policies. But the overall is they are fantastic and not every country... You don't have this in Europe. You don't have this in most countries of the world. These huge blocks of land that the public can, you know, do whatever...

Well, close to whatever they want. Well, I don't know if the Trump administration is going to agree with you on this. And when we talk about the selling off of public land, does this also mean that we're going to end this garbage of withdrawing minerals, or prohibiting the withdrawing of minerals and various other things because...

No, no it's not. It's not because endangered species acts and all those crazy acts that we passed, they affect the private land too. But what I was getting at though is that there have been many Democrats have been pushing a lot of mineral withdrawal. In other words, stopping any kind of mineral withdrawal on these public lands. The challenge I see here, and where I disagree with you, and maybe even Congress and Pence on this thing, is that the public lands right now are a burden on the people instead of a benefit. And I think when Scott Bessent, when I see Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary, talking

about sovereign wealth funds and various other things. I have a feeling they're looking at monetizing the minerals in these lands, and rightly so. I mean, this whole idea that we think it's okay to go over to the Congo and mess up their country so little kids can dig in the mines for rare earths, and we're not going to do anything like that here in the United States. Is that really good policy? You know, while we sit here and have to depend on foreign nations, including China, to both mine and process rare earths? Shouldn't we be looking at that on our lands? Well, it's been a policy of the United States that goes back, oh my gosh, to World War II, is to use everybody else's resources first.

But that's not going to change, Bill. Whether it's mining on public lands or mining on private lands, you still have all this other regulation and garbage that you have to go through. So I don't think that's a good argument for selling off public land. Isn't one of the reasons that Josephine County is so poor though, being the massive amount of United States controlled and managed land there? You're a county commissioner. You ought to know. That's because that's because we depended on it, you know. If we if we didn't depend on it, we wouldn't have quite the...if we would figure out something else, which is pretty difficult because we're so isolated. Well, what I'm getting at though is that

it's off the tax rolls. That money pays...I mean, there's nothing coming from those public lands. Well, there is some money coming from it, okay? There are some, there are small payments now. They used to be quite large, but they are small. Yeah. But there are- Was that the payment in lieu of taxes? That where you were talking about the pils?

Right, right. Now, you've got to remember all that forest land, even if you tax it at the rate of valuation of forest land, it really doesn't add up as much money as you think it does. It adds up to more than we are getting, but it's not going to be the golden goose to save the day, okay? I guess I look at this differently. I look at the West and how much of the West is just locked away. Nobody seems to mind that 98% or 99% of New York is in private hands,

but the West is supposed to be kept poor and subservient to recreational interests, I guess. I don't know, Herman Herman it feels wrong to me the reality is the reality is You will never Congress is the only one that has the authority to sell off the land and there is no way in Hell are you're gonna get the vote to do it? So, okay You know, I kind of skip over those conversations when I know it'll never happen because it'll never happen. Okay, well in essence then we are saving the public lands then for China, once the economic collapse of the United States occurs in order to, you know, say, oh thank you Yankee Boy for preserving lands, now we mine on it.

You know, that kind of thing. Well, you know, the way our system is built, you know, we've got 435 folks in the House, so you've got to get a simple majority there. And then you've got to get 60 in the Senate. And so, you know, and then you've got to have a president that will sign it. So disposing of public lands, you know, we did some of that in the last Trump administration, but it was like pulling hands, feet, and they were these little bitty pieces. So you're the reality of it ever happening is no, you might get some of these fragmented

land that the government really shouldn't own. It's not benefiting the public or anything. Those should go. But the big blocks of land, it ain't going to happen. So move on to the next discussion. Okay. I will move on to the next discussion. I always wanted to bend your ear about that one because naturally the Democrats will always raise, they're selling off the national parks. No one's ever talked about national parks. We're not hearing anything about that. Although the Trump administration was talking about some small tracts of land budding up against national parks, if I recall

correctly. And that seems reasonable. Yeah, and those are those fragmented lands. They can't manage them. It's impossible. So let's just, you know, sell them and then they go back on the tax rolls for the counties. And you're not talking about a bunch of land. They're just little bitty pieces, you know? And a lot of those pieces, the government hasn't stepped foot on them in 50 years. So those could be gotten rid of. Is there a fragmented piece of land in Josephine County that perhaps the City of Grants Pass could have deeded over from the federal government government and then it could transfer all of its homelessness

encampments to them? I would never support giving local or state federal land. I only support putting them on the auction block and let whoever has the most money pay for it. Okay well I was just looking at the fact that the Grants Pass seems to have you know multiple homelessness camps given that you know they're waiting for this lawsuit to churn through I guess right? People have to open their eyes and realize that the Democrats use the homeless as a wedge of the issue. The Democrats are trying to take over

Southern Oregon. They're working really hard. This is an issue that they know that the Democrats support the homeless. And the homeless, of course, are essentially the Democrats cat paw, right? Yeah. And they know that the Republicans hate it. It's a wedge issue. It is working well. That issue is working well. People don't realize how much is going on behind the scenes by the Democrat Party at a very high level too. A very high level. And they are making ground. They are making, look, our Treasurer just resigned. The reason he resigned, he couldn't get the people in his office, would not do what he said or cooperate. They went out of their way to make his life miserable. He couldn't get nothing done.

You know, that's really interesting you bring this up because in the report that I saw on KDRV, or was it Kobe? Forget it, let me find that story. There was no mention of that. So when, what was his name again? Gosh darn it, DeYoung, right? Yeah, Mark DeYoung. Mark DeYoung. When Mark DeYoung ended up getting in there, because he was only in there since he was only elected in November, right? Because all they talked about, it's due to unforeseen personal reasons. So I was thinking he had some personal issue. So we're looking at deep state clowns within the Josephine County government right now that are blocking him his ability to be effective? Really? I know he was extremely frustrated of what was going on internally. So you know there's a lot of people working behind the scenes to flip Josephine County and Jackson County. And Jackson County will actually be an easier flip

because the numbers are more in the Democrat favors than in Josephine. Yeah, it's more purpley, more purpley here. It's something I've been concerned about for a long time. Hey, Harmon, I appreciate that. All right, I really do. I did not realize that the problem there was frustration of not being able to... I guess my question would be, if you're the treasurer, don't you have a hiring and firing authority for people that don't do their jobs or? Yeah, try to fire somebody in government. Good luck with that.

Okay. Yeah. Thanks for the update. I appreciate that. It's pretty tough, man. You got the unions, you got all, you got state laws. Oh my gosh. It's a nightmare. Thank you, Herman. Former state Senator Herman Bershiger. All right. Well, we'll talk next time. Okay. You be well.

All right. You take care, Bill. Yeah. You know, tomorrow is supposed to be a update time with Josephine County Commission. Hmm. Have to ask about that. 757 at KMED.