Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 10-22-25_WEDNESDAY_6AM

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

Some morning news, Fox News Bret Baier joins me for a few minutes and his new book on TR, Wheels Up with Eric Peters from EP Autos, Honda kills the motorcycle clutch?? Reviews, news and views, too.

The Bill Meyer Show podcast is sponsored by Klauser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at Klausordrilling.com. Here's Bill Meyer. It is great to have you here on Wheels Up Wednesday. Wheels up Wednesday when we kick things off usually with Eric Peters. And we're going to try them on Zoom today. See if we can get him off the cell phone.

Get a little bit better audio quality out of him over in rural Virginia. He's always out there testing cars. and I guess he was a test driving the big huge Lexus, which, what, $80,000 to $100,000, the starting cost. He gets to drive a lot of great cars, let me tell you. We'll have him coming on here in the next few minutes, but actually we have an earlier guest. I don't usually have guests in this first half hour, but in this particular case, Brett Bear, a Fox News was available. Of course, he's pushing his book about Teddy Roosevelt, which I think is quite interesting. and he says that he is, well, he draws a lot of parallels between the tough times that Teddy Roosevelt was growing up and working as president in.

And today, so he draws some parallels. We'll talk a little bit with him about that. And one of the things I just love about Brett Bear is that, and by the way, we added him to our schedule. Sunday mornings, we have the Brett Bear show. It's a brand new weekend show that they brought on Fox News Radio. and we're now sharing that with you Sunday morning's 8 o'clock. Great show, get the rundown, everything else that is going on. It's a great way to get informed early on Sunday morning here on KMED.

But what I love about Brett is that he's such a solid reporter, and I could not tell you what his political orientation is. And you know how rare that is today in today's America. And given that he's in the journalism world, you would figure, okay, probably swings left, you know, it may be hard left. I don't know, maybe it's different when you're over at Fox News. Maybe they have a little bit more of an ideological screening process there. I don't know how that works, really.

Fox is certainly, the television network is certainly not as conservative as it once was, let's say, 30 years ago. Now that, you know, the Murdoch kids are running it now. You know, it's a little bit different, but it's still one of the more conservative networks, which is out there right now. But still, with Brett Bear, solid reporting, fair questions, and he never seems to get flapped or he doesn't seem to get overly excited about anything, just cool and collected. And I can't tell you what that guy's politics.

No, I've got to ask him about that. I'll see if I could ask him about that. I don't know what kind of a sense of humor, Brett Humor has. I'm sorry, not Brett Bear has. I was going to say Britt Hume. Brett Hume is another one that I love. love Britt Hume and I just think they're both just great solid people

but Brett will be joining me here in the next few minutes and then we'll have Wheels Up Wednesday with Eric Peters we've got a lot of things going on here in the state of Oregon Jeff Merkley has been doing a filibuster over the last 12, 19 hours

I don't know how many hours he's been going he's been speaking continuously on the Senate floor and it's all the parapherstance about fighting. He says he's standing up in fighting for Trump's authoritarianism. Trump's authoritarianism. In other words, he disagrees with President Trump politically. That's really what it means these days. I would direct you to a really great article that was on Lou Rockwell.com. It was on yesterday's edition, and it was from former Congressman Ron Paul.

former congressman ron paul i think uh did a great job of putting this all in perspective is president trump behaving in a in a authoritarian fashion i would think so yeah because he is the authority you know he is behaving in an authoritarian fashion like all presidents do and this is what uh what ron paul i think did a great job i'm detailing that Just being in office, there is a bent to authoritarianism when you are a president. And I'll share just a couple of thoughts with you on this. And the name of the article is it didn't start with Trump. What do you expect when you sue the president?

And Ron Paul writes, hearing that comment, some people may guess the comment was made by someone addressing one of President Trump's political opponents who has been targeted for federal prosecution. That quote, though, is much older. It's from an IRS agent addressing officials of a conservative organization that was being audited during Bill Clinton's presidency. It illustrates the use of federal agencies to punish president's enemies.

It didn't start with President Trump. This has been going on a long time. FDR used tax investigations against political opponents. Targeted individuals include publishers of newspapers, is highly critical of FDR's domestic and foreign policies. Yeah, the New Deal, critics of the New Deal. JFK used the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Communications Commission,

to drive his conservative critics off the radio. So in other words, I would have been fired under JFK. President Lyndon Johnson also used the IRS and the FCC to silence conservative critics. Now, what they used to use back then was the fairness doctrine, back when the Fairness Doctrine was in, was in play. And they would go after radio stations and TV stations that had conservatives, but

say they were violating the fairness doctrine by favoring conservative commentators. Then Richard Nixon using the IRS to target his enemies, the Nixon administration threatened TV and radio stations with revoking their license unless they provided favorable coverage of his administration. So this is nothing new. This is nothing new. Sometimes you'll see things that President Trump does and President Biden did it. He continues. During the Clinton administration, IRS targeting conservative and libertarian organizations audited Paula Jones after she sued President Clinton for sexual harassment. Yep, remember that. Maybe you don't remember that thing. It's good to be reminded. During the George W era, IRS targeted organizations that were critical of the Iraq war when Barack Obama became president. The IRS turned its attention back to conservative and libertarian groups, a focus on organizations.

associations associated with the Tea Party. Remember that? I know. Department of Homeland Security also issuing warnings that those with pro-liberty bumper stickers, including supporting the Libertarian Party or the Ron Paul campaign. Yes, is Ron Paul writing this. He says, might be violent extremists. So again, nothing new, right? During the Biden administration, many Americans got harsh sentences for just being present

at the Capitol on January 6th. even if they didn't commit any violence whatsoever. Federal agencies can also target president's political enemies without a presidential order. In fact, that's just it. People were saying, well, the president didn't issue the order. No, but what you do is that you have lackeys that are within these various agencies. And they kind of want to please the boss, no matter who the boss is, whether it's President Trump, President Biden, President Obama. You're going to be out there, hey, you know, hey, the boss would like it if we went after this guy, right?

Well, this coil, we're going to do it. That's the way it is. And Ron Paul concludes that history suggests that abusive power is an inevitable feature of the modern welfare, warfare, regulatory state. I've been talking about this off and on for years. Listener, Tom, I'm sure, could call me up and agree. You know, he's talking about, you know, any government which is able to pretty much print its way to prosperity and doesn't have to really worry about you liking it in order to pay for its never-ending welfare state and never-ending warfare overseas.

It's going to get this way. It's going to get this way. And this is the challenge where we find ourselves in. It used to be, what Ron Paul is calling for, he says what you really need to do is just shrink the size of the government so that you don't care anymore. And he's right about that. And that's been the huge challenge for us, really.

And that's why there is such this deep, dark, nastiness, and just fear that we have to die for, you know, the stick controlling the presidency, right? Because everybody knows you can say, oh, yep, it's the, you know, limited government. And we have these agencies and they've got to follow the law. Everybody knows how the game's really played, though. Everybody. That's why everyone's always diving for the stick of the presidency because of these control of the agencies and what have you,

even if the agencies turn on them, like in President's Trump case, especially in the first term. this is what it is all about and if it was actually at its constitutionally authorized size nobody would care used to be that somebody became president and you hardly cared about it you never had any contact with the federal government and so murkley is out there you know doing his filibuster protesting trump's authoritarianism well if he wants to to see less authoritarianism maybe murkley could fire himself shrink the Senate, shrink the size of the agencies, and you would go a long way to reducing the administration. And I'm talking about every administration, not just the Trump administration, if we're going to

be fair about things, shrink it down to the point where it's doing what it's supposed to constitutionally be authorized to do, and then there's a heck of a lot less authoritarianism to go around. Just saying. Anyway, great article from Ron Paul worth reading. So when you hear merkley bleeding about authoritarianism. Just keep that in mind. He's fine with authoritarianism as long as it's his party. This is the Bill Maher's show.

Hi, this is Bill Meyer. Always appreciate it. This is Randall with Advanced Air, and I'm on KMED. So proud to have Brett Bear on. He is the chief political anchor for Fox News channel, anchor and executive editor of special report where Brett Bear does so many other things. And

including the Brett Bear show, we have Sunday mornings at 8 here. And it's just Great. Brett, wonderful to have you on. Morning, sir. Thanks so much. Good morning. Before we get going, I promise people I was going to ask this question. One of the things I love about you is that I have no idea what your politics, what your politics is, what political bend you have in your reporting. It's just straight ahead, and I can always count on you for that. I just want to know, what's your price? How many millions to find out how you vote?

Do you have a price? I just have to ask you. No, no price. There's not going to be, that's not something that we're going to talk about. In fact, here's the crazy part, it was registered in Washington, D.C., and for the longest time, I didn't vote because I just felt, you know, it was better for me not to do it. And then I moved the family down to Florida, and I said, I need to get in the game. And that's a lot what Teddy Roosevelt says. You've got to be a man in the arena. So I am registered to vote as an independent, but I don't talk about my political leanings. And ideally, at the end of my show, if, as you say, you know, you don't know where I am and I'm playing both sides and asking questions to both sides, tough but fair, that's where I want to be.

That's exactly what I like about you so much, and it's a rarity these days. Hey, you're into Teddy Roosevelt, really. I'm kind of wondering what got you attracted to this presidency to rescue the American spirit, this book which just dropped this week. Teddy Roosevelt in the birth of a superpower. What is it about him that intrigues you? Well, first of all, he's really interesting as a character. He kind of jumps off the page, the anecdotes, the stories. He's larger than life.

He's, you know, passionate and energetic, and he's got this tremendous energy and booming voice. And he becomes president at the turn of the 20th century, and the ushers in this kind of big, bold era. You know, this is my sixth presidential biography. So I started with Dwight D. Eisenhower, then I did Reagan, FDR, Grant, Washington, and now Teddy Roosevelt. And really, the focus of this is a sort of strong look at his effort and his effort to affect his legacy by making America a great global power, a leader in the world. And that's really what he wants to do. And he eventually does it in solving a war that's developing between Russia and Japan. And he's the facilitator of a peace deal that comes together when he brings the leaders of those countries to Portsmouth, New Hampshire,

and he sets up the logistics and the peace negotiations and he shuttles between each one until they get to a peace deal. And the world looks at that and says America is in the game. Yeah. You know, it's interesting, would you say fairly that that is the beginning of what we would consider the American Empire of sorts with Teddy Roosevelt, really? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's the American, it's the turn of the century. It is where America kind of puts its foot forward. It's not only that peace deal, and he gets the Nobel Prize for that. It is, right after that, the tensions with Japan increase. And as a show of force, he takes the U.S. nation. which is significant, it's all these ships painted in kind of gray, and he repaints them in this gleaming white, and he sends this armada of ships

around the world as a show of strength. Congress says, you know, we're not going to fund that. What are you doing? And he says, we'll figure it out. He sends them, and eventually Congress comes around, and it has the desired effect. It shows America is a real strong power in the world,

something that Teddy Roosevelt wanted to see happen. How do you see, I've noticed that you had mentioned that you feel that there are some, there's some rhyming that goes on between Roosevelt's time and even the time we're living in right now. How do you think it's a connection? Yeah. Well, first of all, I mean, the characters are interesting, the larger than life, the energy, you know, they were called, Teddy Roosevelt's called the Human Cyclone. I've been through a lot of news days where we're on our fifth, you know, Q&A with President Trump. It's like, there's this. coming from. And, you know, so he's got that energy. I think the forward-leaning on trying to solve

and create peace deals, the president's been obviously active on that, on India, Pakistan, and Azerbaijan, Armenia, the Congo, Rwanda, obviously Israel and Hamas. We'll see how that goes, and he's working on Ukraine and Russia. And the vigorous forward-leaning on America's strained. There are differences, though, big differences in ideology. And I think it's good to look at history, to look where we've been, because oftentimes it's cyclical, and we're going to be, at least in some of these issues, again, and I've seen that in all six of the books, each one hitting at a different time that seems to match, or at least talk about the same kind of tune that we're dealing with now. I don't know if you touch on this, Brett, in the Americans, or to rescue the American spirit, Brett Bear, his latest book here.

But Teddy Roosevelt, you know, today I think would be diagnosed as manic depressive because he would tend to, and I've written or talked with psychiatrists who have said this, given that he would have battles with depression and then he would go off and go explore some area of Africa alone, just like, you know, all of a sudden, boom, just go off on a trip for a couple of years and would go away. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And what I'm kind of curious about is that today, Would they have medicated out the good side of Teddy Roosevelt,

that manic side, which seemed to get so much done in his day? I wonder, you know, you'd put him on Thorazine or some sort of brain drug today. Just curious, you know? That's really a great question. That's a great question. But you're right. He often found himself by escaping. You know, his wife, Alice, dies at the birth of their daughter, who's named Alice as well.

on the same day, his mother dies, Valentine's Day. And dealing with that despair and grief, he goes out west to North Dakota and the badlands and lives out there for two years to find himself. And you're right, he does that numerous times, but comes away from those moments with this renewed vigor to fight to fight. I think it's a great question. I don't know how it would be handled today. But fortunately, it wasn't handled that way then because we got to be.

got some amazing years out of Teddy Roosevelt. Think about this. He becomes president at 42 years old, the youngest president we've ever had. And he dies at 60, dies at 60 years old after his son, Quentin was killed in World War I as a fighter pilot. That despair and grief kind of leads him to his deathbed. But at 60, he is the leading candidate for the following election for president. And so you're right. He had some big ups and downs in this life. Yeah, and was sickly as a child and really surmounted that. And a great story.

And I want to take a look at this one. It's to rescue the American spirit, Teddy Roosevelt, and the birth of a superpower by the great Brett Bear of Fox News. Brett, a pleasure talking with you, and thank you so much. I know you have other people to discuss. Glad you had a few minutes. Take care. Thank you so much for having me on.

630. This is KMED in 993, KBX. Are you using extension cords outside? Oh, no, it's wheels up Wednesday. And we're talking about the Honda. Has the Honda, Eric Peters, gotten rid of the clutch? Is that the latest? It is apparently the latest, and it really started my week on an unhappy note,

because in my way of thinking, a motorcycle is about being actively involved in the experience of riding the thing. And it's very distinct from, say, riding a moped or a scooter. And I'm not disparaging mopeds or scooters. But, you know, if you take away operating the clutch, I think you've taken away something important from riding a motorcycle that diminishes what it is. Honda, I understand what they're doing. They've decided that they're going to put this e-clutch. That's what they call it on their entry-level bike, which is the rubble.

And, you know, for people who are familiar with bikes, they'll know the rebel is this small, light, single-cylinder bike, very popular with new riders. it's used in new riding schools because it's light, has a low seat height, very easy to maneuver and manage. But without the clutch, you know, you're not acquiring a really important skill. So what does this mean going forward? Well, I think potentially it means that you're going to have fewer people who know how to operate a motorcycle properly speaking. And that in turn is going to create this feedback loop where fewer motorcycles with clutches are being made. Now, to get back to what I was about to say, you know, I understand that Honda is dealing with trying to figure out how to

attract new buyers, in particular young people. But as we've talked about before many times on the show, people who are under 30, probably 90% of them don't know how to drive a car with a manual transmission. Yeah, because they never had to. They never had to learn to do that in back of the 70s. And I guess what did you learn to drive? 1980s? You're a little bit younger than me. Yeah. Actually, I mean, I kind of secretly learned how to, yeah, early 80s on it, both way before I was, you know, able to, I furtively did with, we experimented with the cars that were owned by parents of my friends. My parents' cars were all automatics, but I had a buddy whose mom had a VW Beetle, and that was the car that I learned how to drive on. And for me, it was a 1971

Ford Pinto, you know, the one with the built-in exploding gas tank and everything else. And, hey, it was a car, did what it needed to do. But yeah, we learned how to drive on sticks because those tended to be the ones that were cast off from mom and dad. You know, it was the less expensive car at that point, but then now manuals have gone away even in conventional cars now. So no wonder. or Honda can't find people who know how to shift a motorcycle, right? Yeah, well, and there's another aspect of this. You know, before I drove, I rode. I don't know how, you know, what it was when you were a kid,

but when I was a kid, a lot of my friends, we had dirt bikes, a little, little like 75 and 100cc dirt bikes. And that's where I really learned what a clutch was all about. You know, and once you learn that on a bike, you know, translating that skill to a car, it's not nearly as difficult because in your mind you understand what's going on. You know, you understand that when you pull that, lever in and let it out. You're releasing the clutch. You get a feel for it. It's actually easier to

to learn how to operate a manual on a small motorcycle than it is in a car because it's just a smaller thing. It doesn't weigh as much. You have more physical control over it. And, you know, that's less common these days. How many kids, particularly in the suburbs, are riding dirt bikes. You know, it's not like it used to be. Out here in the country where I live, you know, a lot of the kids are still riding dirt bikes, but they're probably in the minority. I can't help but think that part of this trend here of Honda going with the e-clutch, the electric clutch for their

entry-level bike, is that look at what's cruising the city streets right now, electric bikes or electric scooters and electric electric, not skateboards, but you know that kind of thing. Everything has a lithium ion battery in it now, and even

bicycles, it's like, boy, if you see someone pedaling their bicycle, what's wrong with you? Sure, and you know, I think that there's an aspect of it in that Those things look silly, and you kind of look, you know, people maybe make fun of you, your friends. I don't know. I'm not in that age group anymore, but they might look at you while. You're riding one of those e-bikes and point their fingers at you. But if you're on a motorcycle, or at least something that looks like a motorcycle, you know, that gives you some more status and prestige.

And maybe that's what Honda is hoping to tap into. Yeah, I noticed, though, that coming out of China for a while, there were those scooters, which really looked like motorcycles. They just look like smaller motorcycles. And I'm wondering if this is Honda as an example. just kind of throwing in the towel as to how people have been, you know, conditioned that to shift the clutch, you don't need to know that anymore. They kind of have to. You know, those little Chinese bikes are available. You can buy them in the United States and you can buy them for next to nothing. I'm talking about like $700 or $1,000 for one of those things. Yeah.

And so, you know, I mean, Honda's looking at that, and I'm sure the other motorcycle manufacturers are as well, and recognize it. You know, I mean, particularly with people who are in their late teens and early 20s, I mean, what are they going to do? Are they going to choose to buy, you know, the $800 electric thing that looks like a motorcycle? We better get in on that action. You know, they're just stuck in a rock and a hard place type of situation. Does Honda have an entry-level motorcycle that still has the club? Or is this the only way that they sell the Rebel? I think they still sell, you know, the style of bike.

It's kind of a cruiser-type bike, which, again, is a lower seat height and it's less threatening. I think they still sell the 250 Ninja, which is a small sport bike. But, you know, it's a sport bike, and it's a little more intimidating, a little more difficult to ride if you've never ridden before because of the posture and the handlebars and everything else that goes with riding a sport bike. Talking with Eric Peters, automotive journalist, and, of course, has lots of motorcycle. too. How many bikes, do you still have the, that widow maker bicycle you were talking about the one? Well, I have its little, little brother. I have a 75 S1 250, which is basically the same thing as the infamous 750-c-version of that bike that Honda made, or not Honda, Kawasaki made in the early 70s that was known for extreme reactions to throttle above about 3,000 RPM when the engine would kick in and you'd be looking up. up at the sky instead of looking ahead. But my little 250 will do that too. You know, the power bank is nothing below 6,000. But right around 6,000, that little two-stroke triple comes online. And it actually

will wheelie, which is remarkable for a bike with an engine that small. Man, sounds like a lot of fun. I was never permitted to ride a motorcycle when I was a child, Eric. I was, I was an abused child. I just wanted to let you know. Mom said, no, I know you. You're not doing it. But what I would do is go to friends' houses who had motorcycles and I would sneak rides. It was fun. Really was. Yeah, we all did that. Absolutely. It was an end run. I know. Fun is increasingly not allowed, though, especially for kids. Yeah, I suppose so. Hey, on the political side of things, you had an article that I have not heard anything about. I haven't heard this being reported elsewhere. President Trump's talking about forgiving student loans? And this was after we were

screaming at Biden and all of this because he was willing to do that. And then the courts ended up shutting it down. What happened? I have not heard this story. Well, you have this up there. It's as if Trump has done a parking break 180 on so many things. You know, he told us that the day after he was inaugurated, he was going to end the war in Ukraine. Now he's talking about sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine and ever more money. And this thing is another example of it. You know, he was criticizing Biden for basically offering people free lunches, you know, people who would agree. Now, this is important. And by the way, rightly and rightly so, it was a proper criticism at the time. Absolutely. It's a proper criticism. You people choose to decide that I'm, okay, I want to go to college. I'm going to take out a loan to go to college. It's really no different than me deciding, you know, my kitchen's kind of dated. I think I'm going to take out a loan so that I can get a new kitchen. Okay, that's fine. But if you choose to do that, then, you know, you owe the money, right?

I mean, I don't think that's an unreasonable proposition, but somehow a lot of these kids who've gone to school and now have this big debt hanging around their neck for, you know, often a liberal arts degree and they're finding themselves living at home and working at Starbucks and they're kind of annoyed because they're never going to pay it off or they feel that way. And they don't want to have to pay it. And now Trump is pandering to them in the same way that Biden did and said, well, you know, we understand you're feeling oppressed by the debt. So we're just going to write that off. Isn't that great? Doesn't it make you want to go out and rack up your credit cars and buy a bunch of stuff? and then just say, oh, I can't pay. Now, listen, it makes me feel even better, though, about sending taxes to Mordor on the Potomac. It really does. Every time, Eric, man, I got to tell. You know, the thing is, I'm wondering if what we're seeing here, and this is just, I'm talking about political reality.

I'm not talking about what is right or not, but the political reality is that the economy is on, especially middle class economy, is on a bubble on an edge. I mean, people have been, I've been talking with people about how car credit, it has been cratering, low quality, and a lot of repossessions are coming back in to the system right now. And I'm wondering if President Trump has made the political calculation that if you end up having these burdensome college loans on these younger people, they're not going to

buy cars, they're not going to be buying homes, they're not going to be forming families. I wonder if that is the calculation which has been made for the 180 on this issue. Well, I think that's spot on and absolutely right. But then how does, how does, how is Trump any different fundamentally from say Biden or Harris for that matter? I mean, we're ending up with the same thing at the end of the day. It's pandering. It's it's saying that people aren't going to be held responsible for what they choose to do. Other people are going to end up having to hold the bag for it. And I don't think it's, I don't think it's a good thing for for Trump to basically turn around and be Kamala Harris. So that's what he's doing. And I think it's a sign of the GOP's worry about the, the coming midterms. And I'll tell you what else, the governor's races in states like Virginia where I live that are coming up in a week or two from now, where it's very likely we're going to end up with a repudiation of MAGA. You know, I think that probably in my state, the woman's name is Abigail Spanberger. And she's just terrible. Oh, yeah. Pathological in my opinion. That's scary. Yeah, that's scary. Horrible person. How would you compare her with our avowed Democratic socialist

was Mamdani, who is likely going to be elected mayor in New York City, unless some big things change over there. Well, Mamdami is smoother, I guess. He hasn't fully revealed his true face yet. Spanberger did, though. There was one gubernatorial debate between Spanberger and Winsom Sears, who's the Republican candidate. And there's a big controversy in my state over statements that were made by the candidate who's running for the Attorney General alongside Spanberger. text messages surfaced in which he talked about how he wishes that certain Republicans were shot in the head, including in front of their kids and things of that nature. And Spanberger was confronted by that by Sears at the debate, and she just stood there

with an insolent look on her face and refused to disavow the statements that were made by the I think the guy's name is Jay Johns or something like that. I haven't been following it too closely. Yeah, lovely. I love a Democratic Party assassination culture, don't you? Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, we'll see.

because if she wins, and particularly if she wins by a blowout, it is going to be strong indication that a lot of people have had it with Trump and his talk and his counterproductive policies, which are making things tough on people. There is a, there's kind of an obtuseness. He keeps saying how great it is, how wonderful it is. I can tell you, people are squealing. You know, people are paying a fortune for two bags of groceries at the store. Everything is more expensive. What's the upside here? And they're really getting irritated with things like these 180s and sending more money to you, for crying out loud? The interstates of my state are falling apart, but we're sending money to Ukraine. And the challenge that we're running into, though, is that rolling the Democrats back in is not going to be an improvement, Eric. We know that, too. No, it's going to be far worse. But, you know, what Trump seems to be doing is blackening the name of the nationalist patriot movement, if you will. You know, it's making it a mockery. It's making it ridiculous. And it's making it such that any putative successor is just not going to be believed. It's the same old clown show, isn't it?

Well, I think Tom Woods said something like, you know, no matter who you vote for, you end up with John McCain. And there's a lot of truth in that. Okay, my friend, I appreciate you being here, Eric, all right? Yeah. Tell you what, we're going to take a break, though. Happen to answer calls, get back on the road. And we also want to talk about your latest reviews and also what is coming up. Automotive journalist and, of course, libertarian politics guy, Eric Peters, the libertarian car guy, E.P.O.O.5633.

We'll be right back with it. Good stuff. This is the Grover Electric and Plumbing. Your Worries are Over Limerick contest. You're waking up with the Bill Myers Show. Eric Peters, Head Motorhead at the E.P.O.O.S.com. Great behavior back, Eric, and Steve in Sunny Valley for Wheels Up Wednesday. What's going on with you, Steve?

You're on with Eric. Good morning. Good morning. Well, I want to say that my first motorcycle when I was in high school was a Honda Trail 90 with a hydrostatic clutch. and it got me used to using the controls and my next motorcycle was in Europe a little bit with a clutch and that was just easy

after I already knew how to you know handle a motorcycle, the brakes and the throttle. Yeah, what do you think about Eric talking about the new Honda though which is only an electric clutch right now or an electronic clutch? Well, they had them way back. The hydrostatic was essentially the same thing

and then now my KLR650, I'm always looking for six years. Okay. And it's just not there. That's a big bike, by the way, but it's, you know, it's ancient. And I love it for being ancient. You know, the caller means it still has a five-speed, which in the motorcycle world is becoming kind of an anachronism, like a three-speed automatic in a car.

Oh, it is, huh? My next point was on the student loans. Yeah. Our youth are really, really weighed down with student loans. Forgiveness is not the idea. What we need to do is. service, you know, Clinton did it with the AmeriCorps. And the reward for a year of service was $5,425 removed from your student loans. Well, I worked my way through college. I didn't have

any student loans. So I used that money in the only place I could, which was flying lessons in Oklahoma. Really? And that didn't go very far at all. Oh, okay. Now, I have curiosity, Eric, do you think that working out student loan forgiveness in some form of government work, something that would be needed? Is that something that would be better? Or how would you see this? Well, yeah, I mean, obviously, it's not the optimal libertarian solution, but at the same time, I understand practical realities. You know, I don't want to make the good, the enemy of the perfect, the enemy of the good. So sure, why not, you know, take these kids and say, look, you're going to learn something useful. and put them in some type of a program that teaches them a valuable skill that they can then actually use to make money somewhere and then pay them, as the caller says, to reduce their debt obligations. Sure, I think that's a reasonable middle ground solution. All right. Hey, Steve, I appreciate the call. Thanks for checking in. Eric Peters, EP Autos with me.

We're trying something different now today on Zoom. I have to say the audio sounds really good, Eric. It's better than the cell phone over in rural Virginia. Well, I don't doubt it. My cell phone is like a five-year-old Walmart special track phone. So, yeah, I'm glad we were able to get this working. Okay. Hi, good morning. You're on with Eric Peters. Wheels up. Who's this? This is Vicki from the Applegatee. Vicki. Great to have you back. What's on your mind this Wednesday? Well, I'm just wondering for all the people that have the Hondas with clutches, how hard is it going to be to get parts to fix your motorcycle? Oh, very good question. And because that is one of the concerns that people have had that the fewer manual

transmissions you have, Eric, the less stalking of parks? What do you think? Yeah, you know, the thing about motorcycles, most motorcycles have what's called a wet clutch, meaning that the clutch is actually immersed in oil, if you can imagine that. It shares a common sump with the rest of the engine. I've never in my life had a motorcycle that needed a new clutch. And, you know, I ride the snap out of my bikes. And I doubt, particularly with mainstream brands like Honda, you know, they make, they make so many bikes of a given type that the, you know, the finding of parts for these things. I've not had any difficulty. I've got an ancient Honda. I've got an 83 GL-650, and I have zero problems finding any service replacement parts for that thing. So clutch cables, stuff like that.

Yeah. Clutch cables and the clutch, you know, the clutch components themselves, pretty straightforward. Okay. Good to know. All right. Thanks for the call, Vicki. 770563. Eric, what have you been driving lately and getting reviews? I know we were talking a little bit. You said you had the LX-700-H Lexus that was going to be tested. Did you end up finishing that up? I did. The review's up on the site. And the thing about it that strikes me as interesting, you know, it's a hybrid. And, you know, people hear that and they think, oh, good gas mileage. Of course, I think that's silly when you're talking about a vehicle that has a base price of $120,000, right? I mean, if you're spending that kind of money, I don't think you'd care if gas was $10 a gallon. So why are they doing this?

Well, obviously they're doing it for reasons of compliance, but there's another reason. And I think that this is interesting. It's kind of the replacement for the displacement. What do I mean? Well, in the past, a manufacturer would typically offer a standard and an optional drive frame. And the optional drive frame would usually be a bigger engine with more power. But that is problematic now because of all the regulatory compliance issues. So what they figured out is, well, why don't we just put this really powerful electric motor or motors and a powerful battery in tandem with the engine and we can bump up the power and the performance. And that's what you got here. With the hybrid augmentation, Lexus has 103 more foot pounds of torque, so nearly 600 foot pounds of torque, I think the

horsepower bump is something like 40 or 50 additional horsepower. I mean, that is a massive amount of torque in that vehicle, isn't it? Massive. And that makes sense to me. I mean, if I'm the guy who's looking to buy a vehicle that's, you know, in the $120,000 range, yeah, sure, sign me up. I'd love to have some more power and performance. That makes sense to me. That's kind of a, well, it's the type of torque and power, which is not running all the time. So it doesn't. doesn't really penalize the gas mileage, right? It's probably when you need it is when you're you know, you know, hitting you. Absolutely. Yeah. In fact, there's a slight two mile per gallon

increase in gas mileage. Again, not that that really matters from the standpoint of the person who's buying it, but it's, you know, it's a nice little perk. And from the point of view of the manufacturer, it means that they can offer that additional performance and power without incurring problems with the regulatory compliance state, you know, in the past, if they had put, say, a big V8 or turbo or turbocharged V8, you know, the mileage would have plummeted. And then they'd have issues with compliance and then it would be harder for them to sell it and yada, yada, yada. So I think this is kind of a win-win for everybody. You have a couple of articles up on EPATOs going down to the civil liberties issues here that I wanted to mention briefly before you take

off, Eric. And you just put this up. I haven't had a chance to read it. It just hit this morning. Failure to self-incriminate. What's the basics of that, huh? Yeah, a new law. gone into effect in Florida, which ironically is considered by many to be one of the more free states in the union. And this law makes it a separate criminal offense if you are pulled over by a cop or if you're in one of those sobriety checkpoints and they demand that you take a breath test because they suspect that you might have been drinking if you refuse to do that. It has now become a criminal offense that can land you 60 days in jail and all sorts of other nasty repercussions. And the thing of it is, even if it is found later on that you haven't been drinking and you

simply objected to being subjected to essentially self-incrimination, they've made it a crime. You know, and it's all part of this sort of zealous Inspector Javert-like quest to get the guilty, no matter how many innocent people are trodden on in the process. I know that the state of Oregon, there is implied consent to blood draws and various other things with just having a driver's license. Is this kind of an extension of that legal theory? Yeah. Well, and the key thing is that the penalty is much greater. You know, it's now not just a misdemeanor or civil infraction. It's something that can actually land you jail time just for simply refusing to participate in your own self-incrimination. You know, those breathalyzer tests, by the way, are notoriously inaccurate. And, you know, you're of course trusting that the cop who pulled you over is a decent person and he's not just a guy who wants to railroad you and increase his quota of quote unquote drunk driving arrests. And the whole thing is just, it's really outrageous that you're no longer free to be left alone unless there's substantial evidence that you are guilty of something. In other words, the presumption of innocence has just been tossed out the window in this country.

And this is an example of that. This has been a trend in the United States, which I've been concerned about, actually worldwide, really, for a long time. And that, that which is not permitted is required. You know, that kind of society, there's either a permit or if it's not, if there's no permit, then you're not allowed to do it and do it either. I feel fortunate to I just wish my kids could be this way but I feel like I was fortunate in the America that I grew up

which was you know still I mean yeah we always had laws and things like that but there was a there was a freer feel to the culture and that is far gone I mean we have a lot more corruption and far as crappy sex and perversion and stuff like that now I think that we ever had when we were growing up Eric but overall I think that we had

that there was a lighter touch on us wouldn't you say I think that's a That's objectively true. And I think that that's why, you know, people like you and I and anybody who was old enough to remember that different America pines for that America. You know, the kids who have grown up in the new America have no recollection of it. A good example of it is flying before 9-11. You know, I can remember just going to the airport at the last minute, literally jumping out of the cab, running into the airport and getting on the plane at the last minute. You know, that's impossible today. You can't do that. Of course, the kids today have no idea because they never experienced that. Yeah, they don't know the freedom, the running into their, the being able to say goodbye. And, of course, you end up having the security state grow up around the airline industry here, which the airlines could have taken care of security if they wanted to, and they could have made it in a way that the passengers were able to work with. But once you get the federal government into it,

and you just get a bunch of functionaries, you know, paid government tax dollars, and by the way, they still have yet to catch a terrorist over at TSA. They do know that, right? They catch everybody. And, you know, I believe I maintain that, you know, we had, we got the TSA in the homeland because we already had things like, you know, warrantless and probable cause free sobriety checkpoints. You know, Americans got used to this idea of, well, you just happen to be on this road. And so you have to stop and endure an interrogation and an inspection by a government worker. They got habituated to that, used to that. So, you know, when it came along at the airport, well, what the heck. We, you know, this is just part of, life in America now. Here's to it becoming less normal as time goes on, and we get to roll that back. But it would take the people, you know, it really would take the people rebelling a bit on this kind of stuff, all right? Let me grab one more call before Eric gets back to his day job. Hi, good morning, and who is this? Welcome. Welcome to you. It's Deplorable Patrick. I really appreciate both you guys as a great segment. Thank you. And Eric is so flexible and tests out not only

cars but motorcycles yeah and uh i was kind of a little distracted a bit ago but there's a guy on there talking about a hydrostatic clutch in a motorcycle i don't think he knows what he's talking about he means a centrifugal clutch doesn't he yeah i think so and what he's talking about you know these you've seen these they're from kids for little kids that they make you know they they even have them at places like uh the tractor supply store it's just designed for a young kid. We're talking about like six, seven-year-old kids. Yeah, now I remember, Eric, the centrifugal clutches that would be on the go-carts and our mini bikes and things like that, but inside the motorcycle, it's not exactly the same thing

or is it? I'm not exactly sure, to be honest with you. I never got into those things. I only know about real motorcycles. Well, I'll give you this. What we really need to do, you guys, this is the best segment, I think, on the Bill Meyer show. I think we need to take up a collection and have Eric visit out here, and he can test drive the vehicle that I have, which is very rare, and it does have a hydrostatic transmission. It's an eight-wheel drive mini dump truck

with a three-cylinder diesel. Holy moly. And it's made by Cabota, but they don't have the Cabota name on it. Anyway, it's got, well, they say it was been, A gray trade, gray market, when before the trade agreement was in place, and Cabota couldn't send stuff in here, but they sent it in under a different name. Anyway, it has a hydrostatic transmission, and behind that, a three-speed, so it's really flexible, and it steers with steering levers like an old cat. Very cool.

That's wild. I would love to see that. I've driven and written a lot of things over the years. I've never even heard of one of those. Yeah. You know something deplorable, Patrick, hang on. I'm going to see, stand by. I'm going to see, do you actually go out and do appearances?

Do you ever make public appearances out there and do seminars or anything like that, Eric? Just curious. Oh, once in a blue moon. I mean, generally, I can find myself to doing shows like this and podcasts and so on. But yeah, I mean, every once in a while I go out and do something. If I get, you know, get asked to do it and it's feasible. Well, maybe there's a way we could get you out to the West Coast sometimes. So you could experience our open war.

road culture and all the rest of it is. And maybe you could drive Deplorable Patrick's a cabota. That would be wild. All right. Hey, what do you have in the driveway for next week's review? What say you, huh? It looks like it's going to be the Audi Q3, which is interesting in the sense that I don't know why anybody, frankly, would buy one. It's not that it's a bad vehicle, but, you know, it's a compact luxury crossover in the entry level segment, as they call it. Yeah. And it comes to a two-liter four-cylinder engine. Well, why would you pay $40,000 to get a small crossover with a two-liter four when you could buy one that's essentially the same thing? For example, a Mazda CX-30 that also comes with a turbocharged four-cylinder engine that makes

250 horsepower. And my point is, I think the luxury brands are really have backed themselves into a corner by downsizing the engines in their vehicles because there's no prestige to it any longer. Well, yeah. What is the difference? What is the difference? And you're not finding a lot of that. Okay. Hey, Eric, I look forward to reading it one way or the other and keeping up with what's going on. And thanks for the news. Thanks for the reviews. And thanks for being on Zoom this morning. Okay. Thank you. Eric Peters, E.P.Otos.com.