Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 09-03-25_WEDNESDAY_7AM

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

09-03-25_WEDNESDAY_7AM

The Bill Myers Show podcast is sponsored by Klausur drilling. They've been leading the way in southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at Klausor drilling.com. This is the Bill Myers Show. Back with automotive journalist Eric Peters every Wednesday. Wheels up Wednesday on KMED and KMED.com. Eric, I love looking at the new vehicles you have in some respects. I know we're talking about the dash cams and the automating of everything, which is a problem.

But yet, in some ways, we've never had it. better out there on the new car lot in some ways what is available for people. The cost, that could be another thing, but the key at tell you rides, I see a lot of those on the road around here in Southern Oregon. What was your thought? There's a reason for that. There's a reason for that. In the first place, they're a great deal.

You know, you're getting a vehicle that's very well equipped for not that much money, three-row crossover. But the main thing that makes it different from all the other units that are out there is that it still comes standard with the V6 rather than one of these turbo-hybridized four-cylinder engines. The bad news is that it looks like for 2026, it's going to no longer have B6, just like everything else, because of the compliance pressures, you know, so they're going to go with that and get rid of that V6. But man, if you want to have a vehicle like that, you know, a family hauler that has a probably a 250,000-mile engine because it's not a turbocharged engine,

I'd recommend taking a look at it. No problem. So what was your favorite part about? Is it just the room or, you know, overall your impressions of it on the road? I mean, I'll kind of turn that around a little bit. You know, when I do my reviews, I have a little subsection about what's good and what's not so good. And I really had difficulty finding anything about it that wasn't so good. I mean, the chief thing is that it comes standard with a 5,000 pound tow rating, but you can get it with a 5,500 pound tow rating. The only catch is you have to get a particular trim to get it, which is more expensive. And that was pretty much the worst I could come up with as far as a criticism of the thing. Okay, good. So you'll give it a thumbs up, so to speak, on the

auto's world, right? Yeah, absolutely. Oh, and one other thing I should mention, too, and I found this remarkable. It's become difficult to talk much about ride and handling. You know, this used to be a big criteria back in the 70s and 80s, and certainly before that, because some cars really had terrible ride, and some cars really handled awfully, particularly if you contrasted an American land yacht, let's say, with a European car, the handling was just night and day different. This thing has a remarkably compliant suspension, meaning that, you know, there's a particular stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway that I drive practically every day, where a bridge and a road meet, and there's a dip there. And the dip there will knock the fillings out of your

teeth in just about anything, and some reverb through the whole vehicle. If you don't slow down appreciably before you hit it, well, I didn't in the thing. And the Kia just took it in stride, hardly felt it at all. And that was impressive to me. And, you know, I recommend taking one for a test drive if you're looking for a vehicle in that class. Glad to hear it. And it's great to hear about someone that or a vehicle that you have trouble finding something wrong. It's a pleasure, okay? I mean, I wish you didn't have a touchscreen. You know, that's probably my big complaint.

They all have them now. I think it's become not just a cliche, but a potential liability down the road because, you know, just like your smartphone, just like your computer, these sorts of things tend not to last that long. I'm sure it'll go eight, nine, ten years, but then it'll die. You know, eight, nine, ten years from now, what are you going to do when the thing dies, given that so many of the vehicle's controls are integrated with that. that touchscreen. And if they don't make it anymore, you know, a lot of your subsystems just aren't

going to work anymore. What would be really novel would be to see a manufacturer come out and actually tout the fact, listen, we have real cables, real knobs, real controls. And I wonder if there is almost like a touchscreen fatigue that would be going on out there in the real world in which they said, yeah, you know, I kind of like just having a lever to turn the heat on, that sort of thing, you know, like we used to have? Well, I think that there is, actually. I think that this is a market that will explode if it's given the opportunity for an analog kind of a car, something that's just hands-on and basic and affordable, and that's repairable by the person who buys it, something that costs maybe, you know, $13,000,000, $14,000.

I think that people would snap that out, snap that up. You know, I think right now, again, we talked about lag time earlier. The vehicle market right now is predicated on this assumption that the average person can afford to spend $40,000 and $50,000 on a vehicle. And that's just not true any longer. People can't do it, most people. And so if we get back to a point where there are $15,000 vehicles or even sub-10,000 vehicles on the road, the manufacturer that does that is going to sell them in volume. And while they may not make a lot of money per car, they will make it up on volume.

And, you know, submitted in that regard, I point out Henry Ford. The Model T was not an expensive car. He did make a lot of money per car, but he sold so many of them that he became the dominant automaker in the world. And Volkswagen did the same with the Beatles. and there are other examples as well. Yeah, but the model now seems to be fewer cars sold, but pretty higher price in profit margin, right?

Well, sure, they like, but again, you know, you're getting a winnowing of the market. There are only so many rich people. You know, this is one of the issues, you know, Rivian, the easy manufacturer is having problems, and it's not just because it's an EV, but that's contributing to it, but the real problem is this is a vehicle that starts at $70,000. I know. There's just so many people out there who can afford to spend $7,000.

$70,000 on a vehicle. That's it. Speaking of the Rivian, which is an EV, my brother retired recently from his job, lives over in North Carolina, and he sent me a picture over this weekend, and I guess he's going to be doing some consulting for his old company and doing this. And so he was looking for a new truck, and, of course, he says, you know, Bill, you're going to think I'm crazy, and he sent me a picture of it. He got one of those Tesla super trucks, you know what the cyber truck? Yeah, the cyber truck. That's what it. was and it was like 72 grand and he was telling me all of the all of the justifications you know it's his money god bless him i'm just kind of i'm just kind of you know wondering you know why does anybody really want to get a 72 thousand dollar truck i mean just to do some consulting work but like i said that's mike's business right that's mike's but but still he kind of knows my opinion

about this have they been cutting the price recently to move them because i thought i remembered the cyber drug being over a hundred grand what happened you know yeah yeah they're have they're heavily discounting them for a variety of reasons. You know, one of them being political reasons, you know, Musk has lost a lot of his backing on the left, and a lot of the rich leftists who are buying his vehicles aren't doing it any longer. And then there's just the general torpidity of the EV market, which is kind of cashed out. All of the people initially who are interested in that technology and in a position to afford it, for the most part, they got one. You know, so they're not rushing to get another one. And the rest of us remain, as they used to say during

the pandemic, hesitant about EVs. All right, so my gut was that 72 was not the normal manufacturer's price for that. That is something different then. I thought it was closer to $100,000,000 last time I heard. Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely. And I'm sure they'd haggle it down for less. They're very eager to move product. Another problem with the cyber truck in particular is quality control.

Apparently, they've had a lot of issues with that. And also just poor design features like edges and surfaces that can actually hurt you if, you know, you grab or touch them in the wrong way. So it's just not. Well, hey, you know, that's a perfect car for today. You know how we always talk about the cars these days, having these aggressive, nasty, masculine faces like the car is going to eat you. That's perfect. The cyber truck that will hurt you if you touch it.

Okay. Pretty much, right. All right. I'm talking with Eric Peters here on KMED, KMED, HD-1 Eagle Point Medford, KBXG, Grants Pass. You have a question for Eric. Let me go to the phones here. Hi, good morning. Who's this?

Welcome. Hey, it's Peter. I'm calling you about it. It's not quite a cyber truck, but my 87 Toyota camper that I've called in about before that I'm debating whether or not I'm going to unload or not. Yeah, definitely not a cyber truck, but what's your question there? Go ahead. My question is what you would do to try to enhance the power. My issue is whether or not I could even get to Colorado. or not overpasses. Oh.

Now, is this the one with a camper on it? Trying to remember, Peter. It's a full, it's a camper. Oh, yeah, the dolphin type things. Yeah, they were severely underpowered. Yeah. I don't mind going slow. I just need to know.

Hold on just a second, Eric. What was that, Peter? And then we'll let Eric respond. I was just going to say, I don't mind going slow. I just need to know I'm actually going to get over the path. What do you think, Eric? Well, I think that he could. probably do with a lot of people with those kinds of vehicles, too, assuming the parts are available

to go to a more aggressive ring and pinion in the axle, you know, to give it a bit more leverage at lower speeds. Now, that's going to mean it's not going to be able to go at higher speeds, but, you know, you'll be able to get it up over the past. Bill and I are familiar with the process of taking a beetle up an elevation. Yep. You know, you might have been going up that elevation at 27 miles an hour, but you made it. You know, so it depends on what you want to use the vehicle for, ultimately. Yeah, so anybody you know that might be able to do some ring and pinion gear work, maybe Dusty's transmission or someone else around here? You could take it to, find out. Okay, so that's, yeah, that's what I'm wondering about if they'd know what, they'd know what to do.

Somebody did mention that about the transmission that I might be able to get what I'm looking for just with that. So, I guess, Dusty. Another thing occurs to me, I don't know offhand whether that vehicle came from the factory with an overdrive transmission. Did it? It did, I believe. Okay, that's good news, then, because you could go to a pretty aggressive ring and pinion, something like a 4-11 to get you moving. And since you have overdrive, once you get into overdrive, the engine RPMs will, you know, dial back to a reasonable level and you'll be able to cruise along, you know, at 60-ish miles an hour probably. And it'll make the vehicle services. Yeah, you're never going to be doing 90 miles an hour across Texas, though, okay? Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. All right, but, yeah, give that a try. And I think Dusty's are one of the other speed shops around here. Talk to, you know, talk to Dusty and Matt and the crew over there. And then if they can't do it, they can probably point you in the right direction for that job, okay? Okay. All right. Thanks much.

Have a good day. Hey, you too. I appreciate that. Yeah, it's always interesting, Eric. I talk to a lot of people now ever since we've been talking on the show about people that are working on keeping some of these vintage vehicles on the road. and I think there's a rising tide of people that are seeing the appeal of a vehicle. They like the new vehicles too, but it's kind of nice to have one that you actually have to drive and move around and do something with it.

Well, you know, an interesting thing, and I wrote about this the other day, is you don't even have to. The vintage vehicles, you know, now we're talking about cars that were made in the late 90s and early 2000s. Technically, they're vintage. Technically, some of them are eligible for antique plates, but they drive as well or better than modern cars, as you know. you know, I've got an O2 Nissan that's very close to being eligible for antique vehicle plates. But it's a fuel-injected engine and it starts right up. It doesn't stall. It's as modern driving as any of the new vehicles.

And in fact, in some way it's better because it doesn't have things like automated stop, start technology and driver assistance tech. So, you know, the point is that, you know, you get one of these older but still modern vehicles and you get 95% of the benefits of the modern vehicle without all of the other stuff that now comes with the modern vehicles. Absolutely. And as time goes on, they'll get grandfathered in smog checks and all sorts of other things. You know, they'll let up on them usually over time. Well, I'll give me an example. We have one of the vehicles we have in my stable, the 2010 Chrysler, that is the last year of the PT Cruiser. And what was kind of nice about it is that, you know, for all the problems Chrysler may have had earlier, they got all the bugs out of them by the time it was the final year.

And it has been a pretty darn reliable car. I had a problem the other day after coming back because we've had a real bunch of hot weather here recently, real bunch. It's been hot, 105, 106, those kind of things. And then I was having electrical systems failing that would put it into limp mode, you know, when something like that goes on. And ended up being that it's the – I diagnosed it for a while, watched some YouTube videos, and it's a PCM, the, you know, the powertrain control module, that sort of thing. and so I ordered one up and it's matched to the VIN and I'm going to tell you it was like $109 is all it cost and it's coming and I'll get that in and it's an easy thing to replace I think it's stupid that they put it in the engine compartment where it gets baked all the time I don't know you ever talk to the engineers to do that kind of stuff right yeah that's just genius isn't it yeah bake the electronics next to the exhaust pipe or manifold brilliant right brilliant thing but anyway and then it'll be back on the the road and just fine you know it runs fine it does what i need to do and it's paid for and there is a lot to be said for that and i'm thinking about while these parts are available and

relatively you know ubiquitous it's not it's not hard to get some pt cruiser parts it really isn't i'm thinking about getting all the electronic parts that tend to go bad eventually on these things like the pcm there's also the tipum which is the um the power control module where all the electricity goes to the different parts and all those kind of things. What do you think about that? Is that a not a bad idea, maybe do it? I think it's a fine idea to stock up on the parts that you might need to keep that vehicle running for the next 20 years, by which time will hopefully be through all of this.

But I want to speak to what you, the point that you kind of raised, which is not that electronics are bad. It's not that, you know, these types of components are bad. It's over electronization. It's over complexity. That's the problem. And that's where we are now. There's nothing at all wrong with electronic fuel injection.

It's a great thing. Runs reliably. Almost needs no maintenance. You know, it's inexpensive to fix it and it's just a good thing. But, you know, now we've gotten to the point where we have got gas direct injection and automated stop start and this and that. And all these things interflexed and interwoven together such that it's just guaranteed just be glitchy, problem-prone, and expensive to deal with. And the manufacturers are dealing with this all right now. I mean, even Toyota you had mentioned. The recent Toyotas have been having some real. crises in their engines, especially, haven't they? My point was that what was the chief reason people bought new cars in the past?

Reliability and good stuff. Good performance. Exactly. You know, you got rid of the old clunker. That's what the term people used. You know, people got tired. Oh, the car didn't start today. Oh, it died on the side of the road.

It's time to get a new car. The assumption was you're paying a lot of money to get a vehicle that's going to work. Well, unfortunately, we're going in the wrong direction. You know, reliability and durability are going in the wrong direction. And I cited the fact that Toyota, of all companies, Toyota, which used to be the blue chip standard for reliable vehicles. They had to recall en masse their new turbo 3-4B6 engine that they've been putting in the Tundra and other models

because it was just, it was a poor design or poor manufacturing or something. The point is they had to have the engines replaced in all these vehicles. And then there's the, you know, the thing with Cadillac and GM and the 6-2V8 that would blow up within hours or weeks of delivery. You know, these are high-end vehicles. They're not Ugo's. And these were all high, these were all, rather, compliance engines meeting the new compliance standards. And it appears that they were really rushed to market because, well, they just had to, that kind of thing. Absolutely. And, you know, no good reason at all.

Good reason. I emphasize that. The Toyota had to replace the wonderful, the endlessly durable V8 that they used to put in the Tundra, and the Land Cruiser, and some of their other models. Absolutely no reason at all other than compliance pressure. They replaced it with this little turbo v6 that gets three or four miles per gallon better. Yeah, smile. That's the only reason that it's in there. All right.

Eric, why are you going to be reviewing next week? Do you know yet? Yeah, I do. It looks like it's going to be a mini Cooper. Oh, really? There's something different for a change. At least that car has some personality in terms of aesthetics. Now, come on there.

The thing is, though, you are a tall man. How do you fit in that? Yeah. I was curious. Well, actually, you know, that's one of the things, even though the mini Cooper, you know, people think it's British, and it was in the past. But now it's owned by BMW, so it's really a German car or a German brand car. But originally, you know, the one that was much smaller than the current one that was made by the Brits,

a guy my size could fit in it, which was kind of one of the selling points. It was interesting how they packaged it. It was just a very tiny car that even a big man could be in pretty comfortably. And I like a lot. It's got pizzazzed, it's got personality. However, it no longer has a manual transmission, and that just breaks my heart because that kind of car is exactly the kind of car that needs to have a manual transmission, at least on the option list. Yeah, what is that Matt Damon movie, the one in which the Italian job?

No, not the Italian job. Oh, my gosh, I can't believe. I just watch that movie all the time that, but you know, when he was taking the Mini Cooper and the first one and just driving the daylights out of that, I'll always remember it. Always remember it. Someone will remind me here in just a moment. But it's a different kind of Mini Cooper now, right? Yeah, it's substantially larger, and it's obviously a lot more powerful, and it has more features, of course.

But one thing they've done to it, again, that I'm not a big fan of the rebooted model that came out, I guess, about 15, 20 years ago. They did a wonderful job of emulating the interior styling as well. It had these really cool chrome retro toggles, you know, aircraft style toggle switches, and it had a big round display that was central mounted. Not an LCD display, but an actual gauge. Well, they've done away with all of that. Now there's nothing but a gigantic pie plate LCD screen that pretty much controls everything in the car. And I know they did that because not only is it popular, apparently with people, but it's cheap for them to manufacture. All right.

You know, it's a way for them to enhance their profit margin. By the way, it was the born identity. That's what I was thinking of. Yeah, the movie. Yeah. All right. Eric, looking forward to it. We'll talk next Wednesday.

Thanks so much. You be well. Sounds good, Bill. Thank you for having me on. You bet. Autos.com. KMED, KMED, H.T.1, Eagle Point, Medford, KBXG, Grants Pass, Town Hall News. Now, breaking news. Cooling, though, 80s this weekend. We're going to have the hand of the update here in just a moment, but I'm happy to go to your calls here.

Some open phone time here before we talk with State Senator Noel Robinson. Anything that's on your mind here, we can noodle around about license plate readers, cars, and civil liberties if you want. But, Minor, Dave, you have a pretty reliable vehicle. I'm glad to hear this. sometimes you had some problems. What did you got? What are you thinking? I've got a 91 Ford pickup truck. Used to be owned by the city of Marysville. I just don't know if it's Oregon or California. And it's running great. I had some problems with it, but I got it all fixed up. It's, you know, it's old.

Well, tell me, tell me that you have the straight 6300. I do. Okay. Okay. Don't worry, man. That thing will probably live longer than any of us, okay, with good care. Well, you know, now that I know it's an antique, maybe someday I should take antique plates for it. Could be. Save yourself a buck or two over in California. Hey, I wonder they ask. Well, actually, it's licensed in Oregon. How do you pull that off? I'm just curious. How do you pull that off? I'm just curious.

well uh i use my brother's address and it's that's a good address for me and uh you know uh i just tell when they ask me where i live i tell them well i own property here in california uh and then they asked me if my address is any good on my driver's license and i say yes that's good and uh they say well have a nice day okay well i I won't tell anyone. Of course, you're doing it on the radio, but we'll let that be. Well, I'm going back to Oregon probably in October, so I told them that. I said, well, I got a job to go do in Oregon.

I'm just going to be here until October. All right, good for you. Well, keep us in the loop on the mining. I'm just so glad that things are working out. You're going to go back to work in the mining industry. I have to tell you. I'm going to work for a friend. I can't say.

I know. I know. You had mentioned that you couldn't say something. But it is clear, though, that the Trump administration, and I was talking about this last hour, though, is very, very big on green lighting, mineral extraction and mining, and actually things that will help us. And like, as an example, uranium in South Dakota, they just are, they're fast-tracking one over there. You know, there's uranium in Mount Ashland. Really? No kidding.

Hey, a nuke over at Ski-Ashland. What do you say, huh? Well, yeah, that's why you should be careful. with all those radio waves because it could activate the uranium and it could be confused. Okay, see, something else for Lucretia to call me about here, Dave. Thanks for the call, all right. We'll see you later. It's 18 after 7-7-705-633.

Good Guys Guns is having a store closing sale and everything must go. Delighted to have you here, 7705-633. Some open phone time. We can talk about anything you want. Boy, you've got some new stats just released here from the realtors here. The Rogue Valley Association of Realtors looking like house sales increasing. I think it's been maybe some dams are breaking. No pun intended.

We don't want to tie that over to what's what happened over the Klamath, but we'll see. Hey, Brother Brad's here. Brad, you were talking about how reliable vehicles may be connected to President Trump in some way. I would love to hear you connect that. What are you thinking? Not just reliable but affordable. So, Bill, you follow this stuff. We've all seen that the Trump administration has been unfriendly to these government unions, but what has Trump done for the automobile unions? He has done all kinds of good things, including welcoming them back to the United States. And Lee Zeldon over at EPA, what's he been doing? He has been taking a wrecking ball to all of these ridiculous arcane rules that made the automobile companies, it made it almost impossible them to build affordable cars here in the United States.

And this is kind of going back to what Eric and I were talking about, though, where even great manufacturers such as Toyota have just found themselves in a world of hurt as they were building new engines that had to be rushed into production, apparently, because of new EPA compliance, and that was under the old regime. Now, the thing is, though, it takes two, three years to cycle this stuff. here? Do you think Donald Trump's going to be able to take care and get the boot off of their neck in time to save it? What are your thoughts there? Yeah, the answer to that is absolutely yes, and here's why. Okay. Is that he's gone to the root of this deal. He's got, not only does he

have Lee Zeldon doing what he's doing, but he has all of these other components. I mean, he's got the Department of Justice doing helpful things. He's got all kinds. I mean, the Oh, gosh, what's the union? It's the United Auto Workers Union, I think. Yes. His ratings with the United Auto Workers Union, there is an awakening on the labor side of the left going, you know what, we kind of like this Donald Trump guy. He's bringing jobs back to the United States. He's making things more affordable for me.

He's making it easier. You know, one of the things a lot of people don't know is, is most of your Toyotas are built. built right here in the United States. Yeah, I know that. I am familiar with that. Now, are the Prius is built here, too, or are those built elsewhere, do you know? I thought the Priuses were still built in Japan. I could be wrong.

Yeah. Well, of course, the Japanese built vehicles, in my opinion, are a little bit. But I don't know about the Prius. I do know that many, many, many of the car, you know, like the Hondas and the Toyotas are built at plants here in the United States just because it's, financially advantageous for them to do that indeed all right hey brother brad i appreciate the take on it thanks for the call all right thank you bill red 724 770 5633 770 k m ed breaking news from the new york times i'll share with you here in just a minute and this has to do with

um organ taking on r fk junior i would love to get your opinion on this story coming up this story just broke and i'll tell you about that in about 90s seconds. Good stuff. In business, change is inevitable. But in our business, there are some things we refuse to. Visit Grangecoop.com for details. Grange Co-op, achieving more together. Welcome to the Bill Meyer Show on 1063 KMED. Give Bill a call at 541-770-5633. That's 770 KMED. All right, I promise to share the breaking news from the New York Times this morning. I don't normally. try to pay attention to the New York Times, but I have to in this particular case. Snubbing RFK Jr., snubbing Kennedy, the headline says,

states announced plans to coordinate on vaccines. Let me repeat this. Snubbing Kennedy, states announced plans to coordinate on vaccines. Here's the story. California, Oregon, and Washington, just announcing plans today to form a health alliance that coordinates vaccine recommendations for the three states. The alliance is intended, this is according to the New York Times once again, this alliance intended to provide residents with scientific data about vaccine safety and

efficacy and to issue guidance on vaccines for respiratory illnesses like COVID and the flu as well as an array of childhood immunization. So California, Oregon, and Washington are reacting to what RFK Jr. has been doing in the Trump administration. And no, we're going to tell you what is safe effective. Now let me ask you, do you trust what California, Oregon, and Washington would have to say when it comes to which vaccines you should be taking or not be taking? Do you think California, Oregon, and Washington is a bastion of science-based research? Now, I'm just thinking back to what happened during.

COVID because the state of Oregon, along with California, and the state of Washington, the west coast, the left coast states, they were all in on safe and effective, weren't they? They were all in on safe and effective, and you better take this safe and effective, no liability medication, or no liability medication here, or else, or just else, especially if you were a health care worker, right? What do you think about California, Oregon and Washington, teaming up to counterman, RFK Jr.? New York Times story continues.

The move comes, rather, the move comes at a time of parallel turmoil at the centers for the disease control and prevention. And because the CDC essentially was a show for Pfizer and various other vaccine manufacturers, in my opinion, at least the way it was looking. We didn't have true trials. We didn't have true placebos when they were comparing vaccines. And RFK Jr. is demanding that. So who would you trust folks?

Politically, I don't trust RFK Jr. As far as I throw him on many other things, but when he says he wants to find the real cause of autism, when he says that he wants real vaccine trials with real placebos, real trials, not faked up. trials, which they've been doing up to this time. And now you have California, Oregon, and Washington wanting to keep the bad old status quo going. Now, I know maybe this is just rhetorical, but who are you trusted with your health here? In a joint statement, governors of these three states said that the CDC had become a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science, ideology that would lead to severe

health consequences. The agency has lost thousands of employees since January, most recently it's director. And the governors say that the new alliance would protect against what they call the politicization of science. This is laughable. Okay. So we have the California, Oregon, and Washington governor saying that this new health alliance will protect against what they call the political science.

of science by helping families, medical providers, and vaccine manufacturers plan for the future using consistent science-based recommendations they can rely on regardless of shifting federal actions. In other words, whatever Pfizer and Moderna say, whatever anybody else says, well, we're just going to take that. This is the same state, by the way, I would remind you, Oregon, the same state in which people who were actually trying to save themselves from the ravages of COVID and were using ivermectin and i used ivermectin didn't have it linda used ivermectin we had in fact we used

animal injectable ivermectin that's what we were doing because this was the underground treatment because organ did not allow you to get a prescription of ivormectin because they were following the science. Do you remember that? Do you remember that just a few years ago? They didn't want something which was cheap that actually worked. The system didn't want that. The system didn't want something that was cheap. In fact, the rule was under the emergency use authorization that if there was another alternative to the vaccine, well, then you couldn't do the emergency use authorization for the COVID vaccine. Well, there were all. where there were alternatives, but they didn't want to see that because there's no money in the alternatives.

So you have California, Oregon, and Washington going all in on their incredible failure of 2021 that they were all in on, which, nope, take the jab or else. Nurses, you're going to lose your job. We'll tell you what the science is. Where do you get your science? Well, we're getting it from the vaccine manufacturers, but don't worry because we're here. This is the true science-based stuff. They don't have real trials and real, you know, real placebo vaccine trials and things like that.

But you can trust us. We're the state of Oregon, California, and Washington. The announcement did not address an array of brewing questions among them. I'm going back to the story here. Whether health insurance plans would cover the cost of the vaccines that were recommended by states, but not by the federal government, whether primary care doctors and, pharmacies could face repercussions for providing them and whether states may continue to require certain vaccinations if they are no longer recommended by the CDC.

That is what is going on right now. So the state of Oregon, Washington and California, all three governors have partnered here, and they are doubling down on the crap they were selling us 2021 and beyond. That also means that they'll be doubling down here. on our public health, in our public health departments around here, too. I just want to let you know about this. This is breaking news from the New York Times.

Snubbing Kennedy states announced plans to coordinate on vaccines. So this is the shot across RFK Jr.'s bow. I want to make sure you knew about that. Aye, aye, aye. What do you think about that? Hi, good morning. This is Bill. Who's this?

This is, Jane. Hey, Jane. What's going on? Well, not much of nothing, but. As for the cameras, it's a spy job. Oh, okay, so you're calling about the last hour's topic there, the automated license plate readers, huh? Okay.

Yeah, it's just a spy job against the people that don't brown nose them. Do you think that our law enforcement should just be deciding for us on such things? What do you think? No, I don't. You don't? As for the law enforcement having to not wear masks, Why don't you say Atifa, BLM,

and the protesters cannot wear masks and leave the cops alone to wear masks. After all, it kind of protects them from all the junk that is thrown in their face. Yeah, it could be. Well, I would say that I understand the difference, though, is that the BLM or Antifa doesn't have the authority to take people in. And I get concerned that a masked-up police world is kind of conditioning us for a future Robocop world.

What do you think? Well, I don't think that, but as for wearing masks, when they're going in protest, they need to wear masks because of all junk that's sprayed in their face. Yeah, good point. I know they've had that. Yeah, they've had that problem in the past. All right, Jane, appreciate the call.

Thanks for that. Anyway, keep this in mind. That whole story with Oregon, Washington, and California partnering up to double down on the, you know, against RFK Jr.'s, a vaccine program trying to lighten up on this. This is all safe and effective, nothing to see here. Don't worry about it, even though evidence says the other way. Everybody knows that good health means that you have to have 125 injections by the time you're 25.

I know I'm exaggerating a little bit. Somehow I survived with only a handful. But who knows? I might die tomorrow from not having got my RS fee. Who knows? Anyway, this is the Bill Meyer Show, 737 KMED, 993KBXG. What is going on with the state special session? Is the plunder bus going to pass sooner rather than later?

It looks like later. We'll talk with State Senator Noel Robinson about that. Just a few. If you really want to enjoy your open air spaces, talk to American Industrial Door. They're an authorized dealer for tier-screen systems. From porches, patios, and gazebos to restaurant seating areas, to warehouses. These custom-made motorized screens and vinyl panels are a permanent solution to keep best, wind, and rain out so you can enjoy outdoor environments in peace. Go see all the possibilities duress screen systems have to offer at American Industrial Door with showrooms on Union Avenue and Grand Firearms.

Come see us and let's talk. At Wellburn's, if we don't have exactly what you're looking for, we can usually order it out for you. Come stop by and check out unique firearms you won't find anywhere else. We have ammo and accessories too. Come see the experts at Wellburn's Weapons on Crater Lake Highway just south of White City. Hi, I'm Corey with Patriot Electric, and I'm on KMED. Delighted to have you here. It is 19 before 8. State Senator Noah Robertson joins the program.

Noah, welcome back. Good to hear from you. Morning. It's great to be on your show again. Thank you. All right. Now, are you out of Salem at the moment or still there? I am still in Salem. There's one more session today. all right but nothing's really going to happen except you know some formalities to postpone it okay give us some lay of the land on what has led us to where we are right now and this is lc2 this is the big i think i'm going to nickname it the plunder bus you know instead of the on the bus like they have in congress it's going to be the plunder bus right and uh you know starts on labor

day weekend and we raise taxes on all people who work and even those who don't you know to a lesser extent that kind of thing right that that's exactly right. Where we, where we started from is basically an agency that is spending way too much money in bureaucracy, everything is costing too much money at Odette. They're obviously very inefficient. And what you should do in that case is try to figure out where all the waste is and try to trim back and save money. Unfortunately, the solution always seems to be, let's just get more tax money and give it to them and then things will be fine. And where we are now, arises from the idea that you should not hold a special session on a very partisan issue

where you barely have the votes because it's just it's just wrong if there's if there's an emergency something everyone agrees needs to be done that's what special sessions are for and they barely have the votes i guess that's really what you're talking about or referencing here that's right they barely have the vote they um the house passed it was zero margin there was unfortunately one republican who voted for it and one democrat who then took the opportunity to vote against it because I assure you this is not popular with either party. I have to ask you, was it Jabadi who ended up voting for it? Javity did that.

Okay. There's a lot of annoyance over this. He gave some really odd excuses. Basically, it is odd. The politics is really strange to me because this is all an issue of funding. Where's the money coming from? How is it being spent? And instead, you watch Democrat floor speeches about how important roads are, how important

safe roads are. Well, it's not something anybody disagrees on. No, not at all. The issue is how the money will be spent. And so we pretend that we're doing this to save Oregonians from you. Your rows won't be plowed. You're not going to have your potholes fixed. And the truth is, at first, we allow ODOT to waste all the money on D.I programs and stuff we don't need and paying more for union labor and all sorts of inefficiency. So they do that. And then they come to you and say, hey, we're going to lay off the people that actually do the road maintenance unless you give us more. And what I understand here is that there always seems to be money to do the climate, the so-called, I mean, their false claims, you know, the so-called climate-friendly kind of things. Like, I don't know if you're familiar down by Highway 62 in Medford, right across from the Rogue Valley Mall on 62, they ended up taking away a lane of traffic and made the sidewalk wider.

ODOT conducts a survey, and they found that people that were walking on the sidewalk were disturbed because of, you know, being next to the traffic, so they had to put a wide sidewalk in and take away, you know, road dieting the place. There's always money for that, Noah, Lee seems to be, always money for that kind of a project. That's exactly right. So we spend the money on all sorts of projects that people would not, it's bad enough for them now. The testimony is, I think, 94% against voting for these Americans.

Yeah, 94% against them, but it seems like, you know, the testimony against ODOT and this funding bill didn't seem to make any difference, and I'm kind of curious why. The reason why is simply that you realize that the unions have a lot of power up here, and the unions, the stories, the unions want this, because the money goes to union labor of various kinds, union employees, some of which are doing a good job and working hard, and others of which are just bureaucrats. and they want to be paid more than you'd pay ordinary people. It really calls me that we're telling – because we've had an argument there's project labor agreements where you require – and there's a lawsuit about this and so forth, but it gets stuck into all sorts of projects. We require these projects to be done with union labor, which the estimates are cost 30 percent more. It could be a lot more than that.

There's all sorts of reasons that affects the cost of the project. It definitely costs a lot more. And doesn't that inadvertently hurt us more in Southern Oregon when you have it? that because I don't think southern Oregon is heavily unionized or is as heavily unionized as let's see around the Portland area. Would that be fair? Is that true? I thought that was the case. That may be, well, that's definitely true. And it may hurt us more because one of the things that does happen when you put requirements, even, there's all sorts of requirements to put on road projects. But when you put project later agreements on the projects, it reduces

the number of people that can bid on the project. That's what I was getting at, which would mean And it's fewer local companies can bid on it, and, you know, everything seems to go to one or two companies all the time. That's right. And I suspect that they're not undercutting each other as much as they normally would because, hey, we have a sort of a, I get one project, you get another. Whether or not there's direct collusion, we don't know. But you notice it all goes to a few companies in the prices remain ridiculous. So where do we find ourselves right now, though, that we're going to have to wait? What happened? Where is the, you know, what's the political landscape right now then, starting today when we had this session?

Okay. So what happens to this basically stems from the idea that we're holding a special session with barely the vote. And one of the senators, Senator Gorsuch, is Democrat, is unfortunately got sick. And of course, we all wish him well. We don't want him to be in the hospital. We hope he's out. But the out soon. But apparently he can't be with us for a couple of weeks. And the Democrats don't have the vote without. out of him. And so the issue here is simply that when you try to push through a partisan issue, when you have no votes to spare, things happen. Anything could have happened to anybody that could have prevented them from being here, and it's unfortunate that he's sick, and everybody's praying for him and hope he's well. Yeah, but with Gorsick out, though, they wouldn't have the votes, and most likely this would then go down in flames. That's right. So they have to have Gorsuch for the

votes. And the Republicans, in the Senate, najavity was a weird exception in the House. In the Senate, there's no support for this at all. Not even a courtesy. We know Gorsick is out. We don't do that. We don't support this bill. We don't support what you're doing. The Republicans have put forth all sorts of alternatives, which are far better than this, some of which are very good, some of which are excellent. Yeah, but your Democratic colleagues don't care.

But they don't care. They don't care. They're standing there saying, look, we had alternatives. We even have, now, I don't think we should give them another. dime until we know how they're spending the money they're spending now. I think we need to clean house. But there's even money in projects that is not being spent. We could just transfer. And the Republicans have advocated for that even. And they won't do that because they want to raise taxes. And again, you get back to one of the most insidious taxes, besides the fact that we're doubling the fees at the DMV, tripling them in some cases, and raising the gas tax, we're putting

in a whole new program to charge electric vehicle owners per mile, which means that they're going to have to have a special account with the government. They're going to be, they promise that they won't be tracked. They're not going to keep track of where you're driving. Yeah, yes, the same people that probably put up the automated license plate readers, too. Okay. Exactly, yes. Okay. So whether they are or not, I've been told the technology currently doesn't keep track that, may be true. This is, of course, going to shift down the road. Once you have a program like this with a bureaucracy and overhead, they're going to want to extend it to all the other cars. And it's

just terrible. So is the electric car, now the thing is, I have no problem with electric car owners paying road use fees because really they aren't right now. They're kind of politically favored and they're sort of relieved from a lot of this. Do they pay a little bit more right now for their registration? I think that might be the only thing. they're paying at the moment? I think they are. And it's not something that worries me too much because 2% of the cars on the road are electric right now. We are subsidizing the purchase of those cars. We're trying to subsidize charging stations around the state. Let's get rid of that before we start worrying about can we charge them because I think the whole thing's unfair.

The thing is unfair because we're subsidizing them. The state and taxpayers are subsidizing. Yeah, and we also have a grid that doesn't have the capacity for all of us to be on that. We need to be able to make the electricity if we're going to run electric cars off. But this is a whole other issue. Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to mix up the issues there with you, Senator. Okay?

No, no. No, you're right. You're exactly right. But I just don't, I would not favor putting on a special tax on 2% of the cars that involves keeping track of where they are, a whole new program. I just don't think it's worth it. At some point, you can get too worried about are you paying your fair share for the road? everyone has the benefits from the road in terms of trucking. We have to pay for the trucking when we buy things at the store.

It's never going to be, did I pay the exact amount of my ratio for the road? So the fact that 2% if we got rid of the subsidies, got rid of the subsidies for the charging station, let them compete on an even playing field, and you can come around and say, well, it's not quite fair. The electric vehicle owners aren't paying a gas tax. You could balance it in the registration fees, though it bugs me that we taxed so much. many different ways. But I would not really worry about that until, or if electric cars ever become practical to the point that they become, have a significant presence on the road. Okay, fair enough. State Senator Noble Robinson with me this morning. No, I wanted to kind of

look at this from this 50,000-foot deal here. So you're not worried about, you actually then would be against the electric vehicle tax, not that you don't think that they should be paying a fair share, but that this is a stalking horse ultimately for chipping all the vehicles with the GPS transponder. And I know, and you know, and I think a lot of folks listening know, that this is all about getting time of use, time of use for charging people more to go into a city at a certain time of day. This is like, isn't this the wet dream of the Oregon Department of Transportation to be

able to mulk us more at different times? I would suspect that that's true. I don't know directly from people saying that's what we want to do, but they like to charge us every which direction. They're supporting a voter bureaucracy, and it's a new program. Yes, once you have this, you can expand that to the other cars. You can expand it to time of use, like you said. You can expand it to, you can turn it into a toll system. We're going to toll over the bridge.

But the thing can go every which direction. If you've been back east and driven on the toll roads, I noticed that they cost as much. the fuel practically to drive on, and the quality is terrible. It's just the more money we give agencies to do things that are unnecessary. I think the less they are concerned about actually maintaining roads and things. Now, Jeff from Selma just wrote me, and he brings up a very good point here, Senator, and he says, Bill, if electricity is the fuel for the electric car, then add a tax on the charging station, like an extra fee.

That would be anonymous for the most part, wouldn't it? or wouldn't have to necessarily change it? That would be fine, yes. That would be fine. Again, I wonder whether it's worth starting an agency at 2%. But, yes, there's all sorts of ways. And it's possible. Okay, I'm sorry.

Could you say that again? Your phone cut out of me a little bit here, okay? Yes, no, he's right. And I go back to, we're only at 2% right now. Let's not start another agency and another program yet. But electric drive technology is very nice. Even Thomas Edison was advocating for electric cars. The problem has always been the battery.

If technology advances to the point where the batteries are practical, we're at a level now where people that have more money and want to do it, could do it, but there's also a problem with the battery. If the technology ever advances to the point where we get a lot of cars on the road, then there's all sorts of ways of doing that. You can do tax-flects charging stations. There's ways of changing the system. I just don't see why we should start a whole new bureaucracy and agency at this point.

And isn't it true that there are going to be another 20 or 25 people being added with purrs and all the other deals just to collect the tax increases? I heard something about that. Is that true? I think it will. I bet it's more than that because the bill says in it that they can't charge more than 10% for overhead, which means they will charge 10% for overhead. It's going to become an enormous bloated agency. It shouldn't be. It's just a computer system, but, you know, it will happen. Everyone's got to maintain accounts for everybody.

You've got to keep track of all these things. It will turn into, you know, it will be paying an enormous amount of money just to administer the program. Do Republicans really opposed all of this right now here, a senator? Because I know in the public legislatures. Yes. Okay, because. Republican legislatures? Yeah, because in the past.

The reason I bring this up is that there seems to have been a strategy in the state Republican Party that, you know, gosh, if it just gets bad enough, all of a sudden the people that have elected the Cyrus Javadis and then the other Republicans are going to be just fine, and they will rise up and change their choices at the ballot box. But I've not seen evidence of that in my lifetime so far. How bad is it up to get? Well, that's right, and that argument has always bugged me that, hey, we'll just, we'll just let things get terrible and then we'll fix it. I've heard that argument before. It doesn't make any sense. Right now, the Republican, except for Chavati, Republicans are very strongly opposed to this. Okay, for real.

They do, of course, realize that if it is passed, it's a campaign issue that should be used against the Democrats, and people have pointed that out. Everyone knows this is true, but they are truly strongly opposed to it. I don't, aside from Djavati, I don't know of anybody. to like this. All right. Before we take off. Members of the caucus that aren't as conservative, but they're all strongly opposed. Good to know that.

Good to know that. The one thing, though, to keep in mind is that it's going to be a couple of weeks until we get the final vote, and there's not going to be a final vote unless they know they have the votes. Would that be fair? Well, yeah, they could cancel it. Technically, usually there would be a vote, but they will make sure they have the vote. They have to, of course, and what my hope is that some other Democrat will change his mind.

There's a lot of concern because they know this is not popular. They know it's not good for their constituents. Is there a possibility that applying some political pressure to one of the Senate Democrats might be more helpful? Yes. Talk to Senator Meek. He was opposed to a version of this in the long session, and now he's going along with this. but that and yes there's there's been a lot there's a lot of concern and i would i would hope that we put pressure on all of them put pressure on all the senate democrats republicans are standing with us but uh all we need is one to say hey this isn't a good idea just takes one

and all right yeah all right so senator meek would be the uh the weak one here not shouldn't say week but is the weak supporter at this point we don't know it could be he would be one of them simply because we know he opposed this version before. All right. He didn't like tolling, and the tolling issue was partially resolved, but not completely. And he was worried about it. Okay. Hey, I appreciate the tip there, so we know where we can direct some calls and emails.

You never know. I mean, miracles could happen. The other question I wanted to ask you before we take off here, Senator Robinson, and it does involve Javadhi. Javadhi, Javadi, how are you? pronounce his name because he has partnered up with Democrat Senator Tom Anderson from Salem and they want to introduce legislation next year to block immigration officers and other law enforcement from covering their faces and what is your overall take on something like that and I know they're

doing this about the ICE situation because ICE officers from the feds have come under a lot of attack and doxing and things like that have any impressions about that have you heard about it it doesn't know i have not heard about it until now it does sound like a bad idea to me you does okay yeah that that i that does not why would you do that i these people are are at risk and they're trying to be a little cautious i i think it's good

yeah they were kind of coming at it from we don't want secret police and secret police implying that uh you know you're covering up your identity making it uh and i and there's a civil libertarian side of me that uh that finds some sympathy With that, too. I understand the point. I don't know if this is the right way of going about it, but I just thought it'd throw it out to you. I think you should address problems when they become an issue. And if there's a, if we have a problem, I have not seen a police officer walking around. You couldn't identify them, confusion of whether they were a police officer.

I, right now there's a generalized enforcement of immigration laws, and ICE, of course, is under attack all the time. It's made it very dangerous for the agent, and I don't think, I wouldn't change that. unless someone showed me that there was a problem with the deliver jason. And I understand exactly what you're worrying about. And it's something to be cautious about, but I would have to know more before I thought to do something like that. Okay. Speaking of immigration law, though, do you think that there is enough financial pressure being brought in that they might reconsider

the 1987 sanctuary state laws that were brought into effect then, which have turned us into a sanctuary state because they've been really sideways with the Trump administration, and it actually has cost grant stream funding. Well, I understand. This is a big deal, given the fact that Democrats seem to love everything about free money coming from the feds. Right now, my sort of impression is that it isn't enough yet, that they figure they'll just taxes more like notice what's happening now because they don't want to. I don't know why they're so fond of Oregon being a sanctuary state, but that's what they want. I just don't get it.

They constantly make claims that confuse immigration with illegal immigration. Well, they call everybody that's here illegally a migrant. That's one way they go about this and, you know, fuzzling around with the language, as it were, to kind of couch this. No, you're not supposed to be here. And I noticed that we had U.S. representatives, you know, federal representatives all signing on because they were concerned that firefighters were being hauled off. for having been violating immigration law. It was from a Southern Oregon company. I don't know if you saw that story or not.

No, I just to see that story. And it all becomes politically. When you have this, when you have tens of millions of people that are in the country illegally and you're trying to support them because we can't just let that many people say. I mean, it just doesn't, your immigration system doesn't work that way. Everyone knows it. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to accidentally arrest someone that didn't do it.

You're going to, you're going to be deporting people that are just working hard. I mean, it's just the way it is, but I don't see any other way that's what Trump's doing. I don't see any other way to correct the problem. We can't just let people flood across the border and say, okay, stay. Okay. The country is, as everyone points out, we're all made up of immigrants. Practically, everyone here is an immigrant. But we've always had a system where you have to do it legally.

And this system should be, we should make it easy to come here if you're a good productive person, but we can't have it done this way. It just doesn't work. Yeah, the laissez-faire approach to it. Hi, good morning. You're on with Senator Robinson. You have a question for Senator Robinson? Who's this?

Nope, I guess they probably thought they were going to comment on something else here, Senator. I was going to give them a chance, if nothing else. So anyway, keep us in the room with anything changes, but I guess we'll just have to kind of keep a finger. And then the vote happens when the vote happens, and they're probably going to get their way. Would you be a betting man on this one? They probably will. I wouldn't put it at 100%. I mean, it's probably 90%.

Because this is very unpopular, it's very unpopular of voters, and it just takes one Senate Democrat to reconsider. All right. And I'm not super optimistic because when they came in, they had the promise for everybody, obviously, or they wouldn't have done this. But it's worth it. It's worth putting some pressure on it. All right, Senator, I appreciate the take. We'll have you back. Be well. Thanks. You too. Thank you. State Senator Noah Robinson. This is KMED and KMED HD-1 Eagle Point Medford, KBXG grants pass.

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