Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 07-17-25_THURSDAY_7AM

Episode Date: July 17, 2025

Medford City councilman Nick Card discusses the vote to allow council to raise hotel taxes for the big ballfield, hotel development, and we discuss details. Open phones for Conspiracy Theory Thursday

The Bill Myers 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 Clauser Drilling dot com. You're hearing the Bill Myers Southern Oregon's home for conservative talk. Mornings on KMED at ninety nine three KBXG. Call Bill at seven seven oh five six three three. That's seven seven oh KMED. Here's Bill Myers. Delighted to have Nick Cardon, Medford City

Councilor, back on the program. Nick, welcome. Good to have you on. Hey, Bill. Good to be here. All right. Thanks for checking in here. And the vote came out yesterday. Medford residents will end up getting a chance. You are going to refer a tax increase to the voters. I was wondering if you could explain what's going on here. And it's all connected with potentially maybe Eugene Emeralds, but that half billion dollar redevelopment in the Hawthorne Park area. Could you break that down for us, please? Yeah. So I do want to first clarify what kind of tax increase we're talking about here. The tax that's going to be on the ballot in November is for an increase in what's called our transient lodging tax, which is a heads in bed.

So if you come to Medford and you stay in one of our hotels, that's who's paying this tax. It's not a tax on normal, everyday Medford residents. And it goes back to a conversation you and I had had a few months ago or so, I think, where we were looking at this you know we were looking at this development we're looking at this stadium looking at these kind of opportunities and usually there's going to be need for some kind of a public participation in terms of public dollars well how do we make sure that the people

who benefit from this kind of stuff are the ones that paid it and that's what this is about it's about not taxing Medford residents it's not about putting extra fees on your utility bill. It's about taxing people who are going to come into our area who are going to use these facilities. They're the ones that are going to be paying that. And that's what the tax increase is going to be showing up on November. Okay. Now, if I understand this correctly, it does not actually increase the tax, but it gives the City Council the ability to do that. Am I correct about that? Exactly, yes. So in our charter in Medford, we have a specific

limit on the maximum transient lodging tax, the maximum TLT that we can charge as a City Council. Separately, once we increase that maximum, then as a City Council we go out and then actually begin collecting a new tax. And so one of the things that all of us as councils, we've talked about, as we've talked with hoteliers and other groups that are involved in this tax, you know, we're not going to immediately start collecting this tax. We also passed a resolution yesterday, basically instructing staff to begin to

craft that second piece that language to actually increase the taxes and we want to make sure we put some sideboards on it in the sense of how are we going to use that money what is it going to be used for are we going to sunset that collection after we don't need it that kind of stuff which is I think you know it speaks to the point where we want to use this money for this one specific project that we think is a really good project for the community. And what actually is this project? Many people may not even of what's going on right now is still tentative. So like there's going to be changes, things aren't going to happen exactly the same way. But here's where we're at right now, which is we have a developer that has come in and

they're engaged with us. We have yet to sign what's called a pre-development agreement. So again, still very tentative. But what they're proposing to us right now is about a half a billion dollars of investment where they're going to build a conference center, a hotel, an office tower, residential buildings, and a stadium in the area that is the Olden at the Commons and Hawthorne Park. Okay, so the Ball Stadium just kind of materialized out of this or because I don't think that when the Eugene Emeralds came down here there

was any talk about, you know, it's talking about being a separate, a totally separate audit zone project. How did it get folded into this half billion dollar deal? Where did that come from? So I mean thankfully we have a really good development community. There's been interest in this that's spread far beyond just Medford and local stuff. We've been talking about a number of needs over the years. We did a feasibility study for a conference center which was something that we looked at as council. We've talked a lot about the stadium that came down.

Eugene Emerald came and said, Hey, we want to see something like this happen. Lithia has been expressing an interest for more office space over the years. We want opportunity to improve the green way. And when you start to look at any of those individual pieces, they don't make a lot of sense. It's very hard to justify just the stadium. It's very hard to justify just the conference.

But when you start bringing them all together into a collective development, you start to realize the benefits of, hey, if I have some commercial space that's adjacent to a stadium, as people come to see a game, that might benefit the value of my commercial space that's adjacent to a stadium. As people come to see a game, that might benefit the value of my commercial space. Or, you know, nobody wants to live next to Hawthorne Park as it exists today with all the issues with transients and homeless. I have heard nobody say something like that, Nick. No one's ever said... I'm just kidding you, of course. Yeah, and so it's like, well, but if we can develop that into a stadium, that makes that a much more desirable place to be. And so you start to put these components together into a single project, and suddenly that project

starts to make sense. And it means also from a public perspective, a number of these assets that we would want to see, you know, improvements to Hawthorne Park or a stadium or whatever might be there, improvements to the Greenway, building some more pedestrian access there, or a Greek one, building a conference center, which has been a goal of the business community for many years. Now, when you say conference center or convention center, because the Medford City Council ended up doing a study a number of years ago because I was criticizing this push to hang a conference center on taxpayers at that time because all the research that I was able to say said that unless you're Las Vegas or Disneyland that

conference centers are a bad business model. They've been dying for years and your own study ended up saying that. So how is that being revived at this point? Maybe it's something different than what was envisioned originally. So yeah, so let's, I want to be clear. We're not talking about a convention center. This is not going to compete with Las Vegas. This is a smaller conference center where you have some breakout space. Okay. This is very similar to, you know, probably at a slightly larger scale, but this is similar to what you had like the old and at the commons, those ballrooms that were there. This is going to be similar to what you see at the country club with their ballroom, where

you have down in Ashland at the, the Lithia, the Hills Hotel there, right? You know, and so, you know, with maybe some breakout rooms and some ability to bring some groups. I'm a member of, I work in the trucking industry, I'm a member of the Oregon Trucking Association. I think about our conference that we attend every year, our annual conference. This is the kind of space that would be very attractive to our group to come to. So we're not talking about giant conventions, we're talking about these smaller sort of conference type spaces. Okay. So it would scale to what actually would work here. Okay. All right. Yeah. And you're right. When you look at just the conference center, that is not something that people are going to come rushing in unless you have significant

public involvement in owning it and operating it. And it's going to be it'll be a noose around the city But that's if you just have a conference center Well when you have someone who wants to come in and attach a hotel to that conference center Suddenly operating the conference center isn't that bad of a deal because it can draw people into your hotel When you have restaurants that tie into that conference center Makes that conference center, it makes that conference center an even better deal because now you can get people to come and be a part of your restaurant. And so as you piece together these things into

a larger development, it becomes much bigger than the sum of its parts. And that's why I think you're seeing is once we were able to start, you know, I mean thanks to the Emeralds for bringing that stadium idea to us. Because once that entered the picture, that's really what reached the point where suddenly we started having a number of different development groups from around the country coming in to us to say, hey, we hear you're looking at a stadium and we see some of these other things that are going on in Medford. What about this kind of a development? And so, you

know, that's just talk and talk is cheap. But today we're at a point where we have an actual proposal from a developer. We're working through a pre-development agreement with them. Things are going to change before we finally get to actual breaking ground in development, I'm sure of it. But we are no longer on just a hypothetical path. We have a real path forward for this project and that's what's exciting. Very interesting. Sure, Medford City Councilor Nick Card with me this morning, we're talking about this half billion dollar, 500 million dollar redevelopment project near the Hawthorne Park area. Help us understand where

this potential ball, this ball field would go this ball stadium where would that be if I'm trying to envision it when I drive by and I and I look at the homeless that are there right now okay yeah so if you want to see some pretty pictures we do have some pictures on our website for the city of Medford and I'm sure like we've been talking about this in the media so I'm sure that other places have it but on the north side of Hawthorne Park, you would have a baseball stadium. And so that north side of Hawthorne Park, you would have, you know, so if you're driving down the freeway, you'd look over

there and you would see there's, you know, the Medford Roads playing, or I mean, sorry, the Medford Emeralds playing baseball in their fancy stadium. And so south of that, the current proposal is that on the southern end of Hawthorne Park, you would have, you continue to have some kind of an open or park space there along with some residential buildings. And so that would kind of complete the east side of the creek development.

And then on the west side, again on the north end, you'd have the conference center and hotel, and then you'd have an office building and some and another parking deck on six. That would add more downtown parking, which would be a really good value for the community as well. And from I would imagine then you would probably have what the the stadium facing towards the the freeway so the seating would be to the east, I guess? Is that how that would work? So according to baseball, the ideal alignment is like east, northeast for home plate. So the stands kind of would have their back to the freeway more than they'd be looking

at the freeway. OK, got it. All right, just trying to envision it. Sorry, I wanted to go there. Now then, the big question is, how do the financial rabbits get pulled out of hats? Because even if you do extend or you increase the transient lodging motel tax, you do this, and it's a million bucks a year. That doesn't pay for a 90 million dollar ball stadium. I mean, we know that. So where does this all come together then? So for a project of this scale,

typical dollars are about 10% public investment. And when you look at the value of public assets in terms of the conference center, a stadium, the creek improvements, the parking. That's actually pretty good money because you're talking about $100-$120 million of those kinds of improvements. And so we'd see significant private investment into those as well as a reduction in liability for the city because we wouldn't now necessarily have to own or operate these facilities because we'd now have an operator and so we don't have that ongoing maintenance expense. So this means that the city would not be responsible then for taking care of the ball field. Is that what I'm hearing then?

That's a goal. I mean, we will see what actually shakes out. You know, there's a lot of negotiation that's going on. There are pros and cons to again, you know, if we operate it, we have a lot more control over it, but we we have a lot more control over it, but we also have a lot more responsibility. And what I don't really want to see is the city being stuck with the expensive albatross of maintaining buildings that don't pay for themselves.

That's a big concern for me. And so that's... So the ball field, if baseball is not as successful as they're claiming it would be, it becomes their problem rather than taxpayers' problem. Exactly. All right. So we're looking for about 10%.

It would be about a $50 million ask then is what you'd be talking for. It could be higher than that. It could be lower than that. That's part of the negotiation that we're going to be working through with our developer as we piece out. And again, there's also some scaling elements in this because you know does the stadium get bigger or smaller how many seats these are all open questions that are we're working on right now and that's going to answer somebody's other question all right

we're doing on this November on the ballot that's only going to pay for a portion of it so we still have to work on coming up with other sources of revenue, again focusing on making sure that those who benefit from this project are the ones that pay for it. And so there's still challenges for us ahead, no doubt. But if we were to have to come up with 50 million or 60 million or 70 million or whatever tens of millions there, you don't have many other options other than increasing parks fees or something like that. Wouldn't that be realistically where you would default to like what happened with Rogue X? And this is why I'm always a little... I'm not concerned, but I'm just paying attention that I remember when the last time

we were asked to raise hotels or car fees, you know, back in the day, the council back at that time was sort of alluding, hey, this is going to pay for Rogue X and then we end up getting an increase on the parks fees later on, on our utility fees. You know, that's how that ended up playing out in the real world. Sure. And our goal, I'll tell you right now, is not to do that. We have a financing plan where we're looking at fees on ticket sales and concessions. We're looking at through what's called tax increment financing. So basically this stadium gets built and its property tax revenue for some period of time

is what helps pay back into the public facilities. And so basically it's, you know, we're able to use that tax increments the same way that NERA operates using that tax increment financing in order to bring this project to completion. So there are definitely financing mechanisms that we've looked at and our current tentative financing staff doesn't require a single dollar from your Bedford citizen. That's an interesting deal if you can pull that off. That's a lot of rabbits pulled out of a hat. It's a lot of rabbits. And that's why it's like, as I was explaining yesterday to somebody, there are a lot of off ramps to this.

There's this by no means a sure thing. And there are lots of ways that this could get upside down. And then the city would have to pull the plug because this is really an amazing development opportunity. This is really exciting for our community, but I am not willing to put a noose around Medford's neck to make something like this happen. But I can also see how this kind of a development, when you have this kind of scale, when it ends up being a conference, when it ends up also being retail and everything else, and as a whole, it ends up being an attractant where I don't think a ball stadium by itself necessarily pencils by itself. Just sticking a ball stadium someplace.

Exactly. All right. Very interesting. So we're in the early part of this right now. And so things are kind of of it's beyond just being theoretical But at this point it's about we approve then on November the first thing would have to happen is that in November Voters would get a chance to approve the authority

How high would there be oh by the way on this sending this to the voters would there be? Still a limitation on it or would it be up to the City Council then in the future to decide however high or however low that hotel motel taxes? What we're asking is for our charter limits to be raised from an 11% TLT which is currently where it's at to 13% TLT. To 13. So it's not like an open-ended sort of deal. It's just the permission to do up to that. All right. Nick Card, Medford City Councilor. I appreciate you sharing some details about that and we'll have you back. Thank you very much. Awesome. Thanks, Bill. Thank you, Nick. 728. This is KMED 993KBXG. As the chairman's saying, now the end is near and so we face the final discount or something like that. I'm not really good with lyrics. Anywho, it's the final hours of Garrison's semi-annual sale.

Through Sunday, we're doing furniture sales our way with five years industry financing OAC and up to 60% off at all Garrison's locations. Regrets? You'll have a few. If you miss the semi-annual sale through the close of business on Sunday at Garrison's home, Sleep Express and shingles rated for high winds and impact plus concrete and clay tile roofing known for thermal efficiency and longevity. Serving Jackson, Josephine and Curry counties with over 18 years of experience licensed, bonded and insured. More at stevenwestfallroofinginc.com. License number CCB 250730. If you're turning 65 soon and need to learn about Medicare and your options for supplemental coverage, Lynn at Sky Park Insurance can help. Just ask Karen.

Hi, I spent 45 plus years in the health industry, so I wanted someone with expert knowledge. Lynn either knew the answer or got right back to me with details. She went the extra mile. Thanks Lynn. Sky Park makes Medicare enrollment easy. Enroll or review your plan with Lynn Barton at Skypark Insurance. Call 541-499-0958. Saving big on just the things I need. Check out these fantastic savings on Oregon E-Deals. Grab a $50 gift card to Artisan Bakery Cafe for only $30,

and enjoy their incredible beignets. Need car repair? Get a $500 auto body collision repair Certificate from lithium body and paint for just $300 head to Oregon edeals.com and click the metron link to grab these deals down Good morning, this is news talk 1063 KMED and you're waking up with the Bill Meyers show. We're going to have more open phones on Conspiracy Theory Thursday, probably about 20 minutes or so.

We'll have a lot going on here, including, yep, we'll be giving away Kansas tickets too, on Knowing Your Kansas, because of course Kansas tonight, yeah, tonight at the Jackson County Fair. Let me talk with, now that's not right now, a little bit later, okay? Let me talk with David. Hello David, what's on your mind today? Hey Bill, I think that's so great about the development and I also I wanted to tell the counselor, so I've seen homeless people standing behind natural grocers and also on 99 by the charity center there. I would like to spend a couple million buildings, some stuff, some kind of buildings or development so they can't stand there either. Just a few million on like some buildings

behind natural grocers and a few million by St. Vincent de Paul so that they don't have anywhere to stand. It's a great deal for the money, I think. So they don't have any place to stand? Homeless people, yeah, yeah. Are you being a little sarcastic? I'm sorry, I don't... No! Okay. You know, we don't want any... We don't want any place for someone to stand. Okay. I just wanted to make sure you were serious about that or what that really meant. Well, yeah. If we put 90 million... Well, remember, Greg Roberts said it was 300 million for the stadium because it has to be domed. But if we can spend 90 million

and just put something on top of Hawthorne Park, then the homeless people won't be able to go there. I mean, it's great reasoning. So I just think if we could just build some more stuff, then the homeless... Okay. Yeah, I'm losing you a little bit on the cell phone. We'll have to talk more about this here in just a little bit. But you know, this is not a horrible idea, what I heard, you know, coming out of the

city. Okay, I guess I lost David on that. Sorry, David. This is not the most horrible idea that I heard because the one thing that's always concerned me is that the one-off kind of a project, I don't know if there... Well, it's kind of like so much of what happens with Southern Oregon is that, you know, it's like it's too large to be cute and not large enough to have the gravitas to be able to be a magnet for, you know, a lot of things. And I think about if you're looking at a multiple development thing, hotel, you have a ball

stadium that the city is not responsible for, you know, that. I think that's more helpful. Yeah, they don't have as much control over it, but they're also not as responsible for that. And if there's a way to finance this without essentially picking the pocket of people on their utility bill again, which is usually the default position, because remember, we were told before, all right, we're going to increase the rental taxes, the rental fees, and we're going to do this, and a past counsel kind of... they didn't

lie directly, but it's sort of like the sin of omission. You know, we're going to refinance the death that we have right now on the ball field, you know, up in, you know, in South Medford, you know, that sort of deal. And so we're going to refinance this and we're going to raise the car rental fees. If I recall, I've kind of spitballing a bit with what happened a few years ago. And so people voted for this and they were thinking, oh yeah, this is going to pay for ROGEx for the aquatic center, the aquatic warehouse. And of course, they're then all of a sudden, oh, every household that has a water meter or whatever it is utility fee. Here it is. A thousand dollars over the next 10 years or so.

An increases in your utility fee. I didn't want to see another one of those bait and switches again. And I think Councilor Card, Nick Card feels the same way about that. We don't want to go down that route again. We'll see. Right now it's in the early parts about it, but it's not vaporware at this point. We'll see. All right. Coming up though, there is another issue that has to be looked at. How do you keep the small community pharmacies, the independent pharmacies open? The legislature did not help, and we'll talk

with the owner of Cascadia Pharmacy Group about that coming up. 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... ...News.com. This is the Bill Meyer Show on 1063 KMED. Call Bill e d called bill now five four one seven seven oh five six three three that's seven seven all k m e d okay will probably reschedule on jeff over at cascading pharmacy group and uh...

some reason just can't uh... can dig him up maybe he'll check in sometimes that happens with the schedule interviews life happens and you can get a hold of the guest but i but I do want to certainly focus on that at some point hopefully this morning because small pharmacies small independent pharmacies have been coming under a lot of pressure here in southern Oregon but what that does mean though is

that I can turn it over to you a little bit earlier than I thought on conspiracy theory Thursday 7705633 7KMED, the email bill at BillMeyersShow.com. You heard me talk with Councillor Nick Card, and this is a big deal, this plan development, half billion dollars, and it would take a portion of the current Hawthorne Park, which essentially is a nice semi-bum facility with some kids also enjoying the park from time to time, but it's been a problem for a long time. Between this, there's a developer online that is in discussion with the city to have a talk about, let's do a half billion dollar deal and is there anything about this that that well just give me your overall feel because

my initial impression just when I'm looking at some of the drawings the way it looks if you're going to have the Eugene Emeralds come here you end up having a hotel motel or a hotel yeah, hotel, I guess, really, and conference centers that could also be something that the business community has been looking for for quite some time. Not a full-bledged conference center per se, but as long as, you know, you're not screwing people over on the, on the utility fees like they did with Rogue X. I could be guardedly okay with that if they wanted to do with tax incremental financing in which property taxes, it would be, have been paid to the city, end up instead going

to pay off the development costs of that. And that's the way they work it with urban renewal. I don't think there's anybody that says that it couldn't be an improvement in the downtown area. I could see this happening. Now, I'm not a fan of just hanging a ball field on taxpayers' necks, and that was always my problem with this, this whole idea that the taxpayers had to subsidize

other people's entertainment. But this seems to be guardedly better, wouldn't you say? If you have an opinion one way or the other, 770-563-3770-KMED. Another topic this morning had to do with what President Trump said in the press conference yesterday. What did it do with what President Trump said in the press conference yesterday? He's dead, he's gone. And all it is is the Republicans, certain Republicans got duped by the Democrats and they're following a Democrat playbook. And no different than Russia, Russia, Russia and all the other hoaxes.

They're started by the Democrats and some Republicans, in this case, I was surprised, but they got duped. Yeah, that was an interesting statement yesterday. And a lot of people in his administration apparently got duped and a lot of his supporters apparently had been duped. And do you feel duped? Wanting to have all the obscene stuff released? Do you feel duped? Wanting to have all the upstain stuff released? Do you feel duped? Or do you say, hey, just ignore this, move along, and do what President Trump says? He says that everyone's been duped there.

I mean, he wasn't talking as if people were being duped before he became president again, but what do I know? I'm just a talk show host. He wasn't talking as if people were being duped before he became president again, but what do I know? I'm just a talk show host. It is Conspiracy Theory Thursday. Let me hit the phones. 7705633. There's a lot to talk about this morning. Hi, good morning. Who's this? Am I on? Yes, you are. Who's this? This is Ray. Hello, Ray. Where are you from? Medford. Good. This is Ray. Hello Ray, where are you from? Medford. Good. Is this fall, are they looking at the downtown area for this fall park? Well, not quite the downtown, not the pure downtown area. You know where Hawthorne Park is? By where the old Sears, Medford Center, it's actually closer to Medford Center where the old Sears used to be and now there's other stuff, you know, Tapp and Vine various other places there now. So what's going to happen with the Medford Center if they plan to build a ballpark?

Well, nothing happens to the Medford Center. It's still there. Okay. I don't know. What kind of capacity, how big is this ballpark going to be? I don't know yet. That's one of those things that are in the process of negotiating, Jim. All right. Appreciate the call. 770-5633. We'll continue on here on Conspiracy Theory Thursday. Good morning. Hi, who's this? Hey, Bill. It's Deplorable Patrick. Good morning. Good morning, Deplorable Patrick. I'm wondering what Nick Card would have said if you'd brought up this thing about the swide walk down on Highway 62, which is a stranglehold wide walk down on Highway 62, which is a stranglehold on the traffic every day, including at one in the afternoon. And I seriously, seriously think this thing has to be looked at as an attack on us.

Yeah. Well, that's an Oregon Department of Transportation attack. That's actually an ODOT project because Highway 62 is controlled by and administered by the state of Oregon. State Highway. My mistake. Well no, I mean I'm sure the city though had some okay on this. This would have been once again a past City Council that would look at this and it's all part of the the multimodal agenda. Well that's a bad two-word. Well you know, multimodal then, translation as yes we know that gas taxes built these

roads and taxpayers that built these roads are using it with their vehicles, but we have to have people who didn't pay taxes, well there has to be transportation for them. So a bum on a bicycle needs a nice wide sidewalk. I'm being a little sarcastic with this because there needs to be transportation equity. And someone who is living there near this wide walk and has the electric bike or the bird scooter that was stolen from downtown Medford, I'm being sarcastic once again, you have to have transportation equity to be able to travel on the wide sidewalk and not feel fear of being near the cars. Because remember, the study that Oregon Department of Transportation did, they surveyed the area, probably one of those consensus process pieces of crap again, and they

found out that people that would walk on that sidewalk were very scared and uncomfortable because there were cars nearby. What about counseling instead of tearing the sidewalks out and spending millions of dollars? Just give them counseling. Well, you know, I have to understand that that mental health treatment in Oregon is almost non-existent. So I guess it's easier to build the sidewalk and take care of the delusional mentally ill people on bicycles and pushing baby carriages. I guess.

I don't know what the thought process was. I can't explain it. You have to talk with the ODOT people, the project managers, apparently. Yeah, maybe they're out there listening. These psycho people are doing the same thing down in Phoenix right now. I heard through the Debbie's Diner they're losing $1,000 a day with this project going on right out in front. I think it's the same thing.

I think it's a swide walk down there. My question is, where is this going to end? What do they have planned for us next? When will they be satisfied that they've strangled us enough? They will be satisfied. They being the, you know, frankly, the hard-left people that are in charge of planning the sustainable development, you know, that is afflicting so much of the city, state centralized land use planning and such. When we no longer wish to drive a car someplace, then their job will be complete. I honestly think that's where they go, ultimately.

When we're all on the bus, or we're all riding our stolen bicycle on the on the sidewalk, and when we just live our life around what RVTD we wish to you know take us someplace that's all then they'll be happy I think a good legal attack would work because they are not operating in the interests of the people they're operating the interests of some political agenda and then squandering the time of hundreds of people sitting in their cars. Well, come on, when your job has been replaced by artificial intelligence, you don't have a job.

You have a universal basic income, so you have lots of time then to push your stolen electric bicycle on the sidewalk. Now, I'm sorry, there's just so much sarcasm that rolls out of my mouth on something like this. I'm sorry, I apologize deeply to you right now. Okay. I don't think we need to sit. I don't think we can take sit back and take this.

All right. Uh, I will agree. Thank you for that, uh, deplorable Patrick 7 49. Let me grab another call here. It is conspiracy theory Thursday. Good morning. Hi, who's this? Hello.

Greg. Gary. Gregory. Oh, Gregory. Go ahead, Gregory. What's on your mind? Okay, I got two points. The one, have you ever driven down that lumpy bumpy road over there on 234 that seems to be just caving in? It's at Sam's Valley, out by Sam's Valley?

Yep. It's been a while since I've driven over it, but I have heard some reports. Tell me about it, please. Well, they just said that they were going to drive over there. They said that they were going to drive over there. They said that they were going to drive over there. They said that they were going to drive over there. They said that they were going to drive over there.

They said that they were going to drive over there. They said that they were going to drive over there. They said that they were going to drive over there. They said that they were going to drive over there. They said that they were going to drive over there. They said that they were going to drive over there. They said that they were going to drive over there. They said that they were going to drive over there. They said that they were going to drive over there. They said that they were going to drive over there. out by Sam's Valley. It's been a while since I've driven over it, but I have heard some reports. Tell me about it please. Well, they just haven't seen it really put it together there yet. You think they could fix it? And then I wanted to ask about this Capitol thing

when they have the dancers there. Does anybody remember that movie Mr. Harlem's Opus when the marching band played through there? Boy, that's been a long time since I've seen that movie. Richard Dreyfuss there. And then the lady, she was a governor. And it's funny that we have a lady governor now. Well, we have a lady governor who wants to look like a man, obviously, I think. We'll get the marching band back up there and bring America back. Thank you very much, Bill. Yeah. Bye-bye. Yeah. I don't think anybody would be upset about a marching band performing, but there's something about, like I said, why not just have a stripper pole there and perform the same thing? Because we would be

celebrating free speech rights if we were to listen to the Republicans and Democrats here. Let me go to line four. Hi, good morning. This is Bill. Who's this? Good morning, Bill. Oh, it's Tom in Tallinn. Hello, Tom. What are you thinking? Well, to quickly answer Patrick's question, the Democrats are not going to be satisfied until we have a full-on police state where all human activity is either forbidden or it must be permitted. Now moving on to Trump and his idea that we're all being duped, I think Trump is trying to

dupe us. And the bigger picture here, even if the whole Epstein thinks about the massage taken over our government. The bigger issue right now for me, part of it, is that if Trump is so captivated or stupefied or high on all that diet cola drinks that he drinks or wifi or whatever is frying his brain and all the technos around him. My concern is that he's going to try to sell us the digital dollar and the digital tyranny and the real identity card and so forth and so on and just really turn us into that total police state that we seem to be heading for. So that's your concern then and you think that the, for. So that's your concern then and you think that the, will be the criticized lack of transparency on the Epstein situation, you think that's a symptom of

the larger agenda? Is that kind of where you're going? It's a symptom of the whole mindset of Trump and perhaps the Washington establishment that may or may not be completely captivated by this, well call it the deep state, I call it the deep financial scangle hole that is on America now with the $37 trillion debt and so forth. We're being herded into this police state and people just don't seem to be able to see it and do anything about it. They go along with it. I mean like what's it 80% went along with the Coban scam and it just really shows the mindset. Maybe Americans,

maybe we don't deserve freedom. We've come to this point where we're just like little cultured organism in a Petri dish and no longer have any good brains left or common sense or common morality to not be ruled as in a police state. Maybe we just, we've lost any right to a plea to freedom. Well, maybe it's more important that we're told what we want to hear rather than really having... Well, that seems to be it. Yeah.

All right. Tom, thanks for the call. 770-5633. All sorts of good conversation here on Conspiracy Theory Thursday. I'll grab one more call before I'll be right back and take some more. We got a whole hour of this that we can do. 7705633, good morning. You've been holding for a little while. Who's this? Hey Matt, how you doing? I'm good. Yeah, I need you to back away, way, way off your phone and people have

wanted me to take up a collection to buy you a new phone. I'm getting that all the time. So I want to hear you. I'm still looking. I'm still looking. Hey, so this whole up thing thing. Yeah. Is it, if we just get down like the breath pack of the case, is the case about, well, obviously, Actually, Glay Maxwell got 20 something years for trafficking girls to these islands, or this island and these other places. And so she's been locked up and Epstein's dead. So what's left over are the victims and the victimizers, right? Right. So if I just break this down to any other law enforcement action, why are there not all these victims like there was for Bill Cosby and Weinstein?

Where are the victims who are pressing charges against these men? And this is why this whole thing deflects me. I don't know how... Well, there were people... Remember, JPMorgan Chase settled more than $200 million or $300 million worth of damages for facilitating the transfers and the sex trafficking. Okay. So there was something there, but that's all been sealed. That's all under court order sealed. So there was something there, but that's all been sealed. That's all under court order sealed. Right. So what happened is you had what?

Victims? They gave me the money. I'll take the money. Is that what that is? I guess. I wasn't involved in that lawsuit. Okay. So how is that any different than all these women coming back at Weinstein and saying that he

did this to me or he did that to me? And they traded fame and fortune. They traded their bodies for fame and fortune. If these women, now women, have decided to take a check from JP Morgan or somebody else, then I don't know how this even gets to a president. I don't know why it's the president's business to be dealing with this nonsense, why it isn't on law enforcement issues. Well, I think he made it his business, Matt.

Well, I mean, that was a mistake. I never would have. I wouldn't have. Okay. Well, you can say that, but he did. And there's a good portion of the MAGA crowd that is looking for justice. And one of the major reasons... That's what I'm saying. Who are they looking for justice for? Who are they looking for justice for?

Yeah. For us? You said the MAGA... looking for justice for? For us? One of the biggest, most corrupt aspects of our society, Matt, has been that there's two different styles of justice. The guy that works for JP Morgan Chase that does the little sexcapades with Jeffrey Epstein, just Gates, or maybe political people and various others, nothing happens to them. Nothing has ever happened to these people. Listen, I get that Bill, but I'm trying to stay on task here.

No, I am staying. Well, that is, that's one of the reasons why people voted for him. It was about the lawfare and the two, and you know, FBI knows everything about every clown that walked through an open door at the US Capitol, January 6th. I get that. But here's the thing. You're going too far afield for me.

I'm looking at a potential crime. Let's admit that there was a crime, so we'll just call it a crime. A crime was committed. Young women were trafficked to men, to adult men in various locations for sex. Okay? That's a violation of law. Now I'm guessing because it was international that it's federal law that was being violated here. Some of the crimes are probably federal crime.

My confusion from the beginning on that is seeking justice. This isn't about a bunch of people who have not been harmed by this. This is what bothers me. You have to take the case, who were the victims, who were the victimizers. Yeah. Okay. You know something, Matt? I'm going to differ with you slightly on this. Here's why. We just had a Medford man that got sentenced to 10 years in prison, federal prison, because he did sex chats with an underage kid. All right? And got the kid to send pictures.

Was justice served? I would say so. Okay, so what I'm saying is, look, I'm for the death penalty frame. What I'm getting at though is that there is a class of people in this country. They don't worry about this kind of stuff. Bill, I understand what you're saying, but here's what I'm saying. You have a victim and a victimizer. The victims come forward and they say,

Batman did those things to me. And they come forward, they get a great attorney, right? They come forward, maybe in a class action or some other way, but if we're criminals, we definitely want a criminal case here. Yeah. Right? If these people, if these girls, now women, or probably boys too, I'm guessing. Oh yeah. Yeah. I'd say it'd be both. Yeah. Where are they?

Where are they demanding justice? That's what I'm saying. Like the whole people who weren't involved in this at any level are saying, we demand justice. Well, the people who should be getting the justice aren't getting busted because the victims either took the money, they're not coming forward. Yeah, but you see, them taking the money just because...

Okay, listen. Just because they took the money doesn't mean the crime goes away. It doesn't. If they took the money as opposed to coming forward, what they said is, I care more about the money than I do about my victims. Okay. Well, I don't care about that aspect of it. That's what's bothering me. Yeah. So I guess if we pay enough people off, then elite crimes can be covered up.

As long as we pay the victims off, that's all that matters. No. Look, you weren't victimized by this and neither was I. No. I'm not claiming I was. But once again, we're trying to restore a sense of rule of law in this country, which is severely under attack and has been really hurt for a long time. And I agree with you on one hand that I wish that you could just concentrate on other things here and not, but this is a big gaping wound for a significant number of Trump supporters, people who supported him. And so it does matter. And to go from, we've got it on our desk, we're editing and we're adapting and all this, to then say nothing to say, move along, and now to say

you're stupid and duped, I don't think that's going to fly. So this is what's bothering me. I don't want to get into the details, but I was taking advantage of of at a hospital with poor service. I never went back in suits. I looked back on it and said, you know, I probably should have, it would have sent a message that you can't just, you know, provide, you know, poor care for people who are paying you because this was money coming out of my pocket.

Right. And it hurt me financially tremendously. And I never went back in suits. That's my fault. That's my fault that's my fault for not doing that this is what's bothering me I don't like the idea that people who are not harmed by any of this are saying that we need to stand up for people who took the money I feel less sorry for victims who care more about the wallet than they did about justice, and we walk away from their justice. Okay.

And that's just third. That bothers me. Yeah, you and I are going to disagree on this one, all right? I appreciate the call, Matt. I think that there is... We go after people all the time that don't necessarily have someone charging them with it, but we know that they committed the crime. Just because the victim got paid off, and hushed up by the way, because you have to be quiet, that's all part of it, all of the NDA aspect of this one, I'm mixed on this. I would like to be able to move on with this too. But to be told that we're dupes? I don't know. I can't go there. I can't go there either.