Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 12-18-25_THURSDAY_8AM

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

Why is Oregon so screwed up? Ask a guy from New york - Dennis Kneale, best-selling author and acclaimed journalist, is the author of the forthcoming book ORE-GONERS. Open phones follow on Conspiracy Theory Thursday.

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. Well, I appreciate you bellying up to the talk bar here on Conspiracy Theory Thursday. And that conversation last hour with Commissioner Chris Barnett, you think the one with Ron Smith before, the talk about the taxes, the talk about the governor, the talk about everything else. Yeah, there's a lot of tumult in the state of Oregon.

There's absolutely no doubt about that. We have the tax revolt, which is going on right now. Looks like it's going to go pretty well. But I wanted to talk with Dennis Neal, who is a best-selling author. He's also an acclaimed journalist, and he has written a book which is coming out that I think is going to do really well here. It's titled ORA Goner's. Dennis, how are you doing this morning? Welcome to the show.

Great. Thanks so much for your time, Bill. You know, I'm no expert. I'm here in Brooklyn, New York for 40-plus years, and now I've been to visit Portland, you know, twice for a week each time in the past month or two, and suddenly that makes me an expert. And yet, I think the people inside the state, you know, you've been so beautiful, so desirable, for so long, you've been a magnet attracting Californian liberals come in thronging that want a better style of life,

that a lot of the people so far inside this cult of wonderful state personality. And don't forget that we're friendly, Dennis. Oh, we're so friendly here in Oregon, too. So friendly and welcoming. Yes. And so you guys, you don't realize just how much trouble you are in. Your deaths are exceeding birth, your economic growth, which was gangbusters for a decade or two. and more on high tech is now struggling like crazy, and it's your own policies that are doing it.

Plus, the state is at war with itself, you know, places like Medford, Oregon and rural, you know, east and the timber south, they feel utterly neglected. The Portland metro area is sucking all the air out of the room. Their progressive policies hurt the state, hurt growth, hurt business. And I, you know, you guys know this, Bill, but I was stunned it to learn that something like 13 counties in. And this isn't like a third of the counties in the entire state? I've actually had a voter vote to say, yeah, I want to succeed, move to Idaho, if I could. I mean, it's just shocking. Well, it's kind of a bad merit.

And by the way, I wanted to speak to your point there, if you don't mind, Dennis. That is the Greater Idaho Project, which is we talked a bit about. It's a really high lift. You'd have to have everybody approve it, including the federal government. So it's sort of a pipe dream. unfortunately at the moment, unless things really go to hell. But it is kind of a bad marriage because the state of Oregon, rather than talking to the counties that are saying,

hey, we don't feel represented anymore, it's kind of like, you can't leave us. You must stay here so we can abuse you. You know, and it's like there's Governor Kotech in a wife-beater t-shirt, you know, and then, you know, going after these counties. But, yeah, that is kind of where we find ourselves. And sometimes it takes an outsider to notice this. Dennis? Maybe that's why you're very useful

right now to him. And I'm happy to do it. You know, there's this I've said this a couple of times, but it works really well. There's this moment in the great movie Ghost, when Patrick Swayzey, the ghost trying to get a warning to his love to me more. And Whippy Goldberg

the medium says to Demi, suddenly turns to say, Molly, you would date you, girl. That's what I want this book to do for Oregon and Portland, but also for the rest of the country, because Oregon is a canary and a coal mine for purple states or blue-leaning states and blue cities of just how bad it could get if you guys continue to legislate and rule by moral code of what's a good thing to endorse and support a good goal without any accountability, without ever looking at the result. I mean, the biggest problem in Oregon is it is a one-party state overwhelmingly 60% majority in the state in the house, and that party is ruled by. by four public employee unions.

And all they want to do is expand coverage of union employees and raise pay so that they can get more money for dues so that they can then fund the candidates in Oregon that the unions decide are going to be the ones who get elected. I was stunned to learn how much this goes on. I was told that a few weeks ago, the SEIU union handed the state's next fiscal year budget to the governor's office. which is filled with union loyalist, former union officials. I understand that when a Democrat, you know, the minority leader of the Senate,

Bruce Starr, told me, the Republican, that when a Democrat legislator is elected and joins the legislature and newcomer, the first day in office, the union shows up on his doorstep and says, hey, here's your new chief of staff. And it's a union person. It is insidious and pernicious and stunning how much control the unions have. have over the Democrats and government. And it's all just round-tripping and it's all just this symbiotic circle of negativity that's hurting the state and hurting the economy and hurting businesses. And yet, where is the business community? They have sat silent. I've been told

that they sacrifice acquiescence for access. They're so happy to have a seat at the table businesses, even though they are on the menu. Are you speaking about, you know, the Chamber of Commerce type groups, you know, those sort of things? Exactly. The business community that hasn't stood up and screamed, you're killing us. You're killing us. Stop this. Nonsense. I mean, they continue to pile on tax increase. After tax increase, they have a corporate activity tax that taxes is not your profits at the end of the year. No, just the money going through it, Dennis. It's any of the money you receive, which is why companies have left Valero or some company left just to avoid $6 million a year in additional tax. And what does it get used for? That's the thing people kept saying to me. their bill is we pay the second highest taxes in the country after new york city where i live but yet you guys in new york get locks of service man if someone messes around in time square those

cops go after that person right away here we wait over 20 minutes for a response to a violent 911 call if our car gets broken into no cop comes we have to fill out a form on a website it's out of control and yet very few people are holding him accountable saying what the hell are you doing to us yeah The thing is here, by the way, Dennis Neal with me once again, author, acclaimed journalist, and his forthcoming book, his upcoming book is Oregoners. So you've talked with a lot of Oregonians, and it's interesting to hear the outsider, like I said, the outsider take on this. I think the challenge that we're looking into is that once, and a lot of people don't understand this, Dennis,

and I think that, frankly, New York is also within this same kind of doom loop, maybe in a different part of it. But once collapse starts, collapse is not an event. It's not like you can say that, oh, like Mondani being elected is going to cause New York City to collapse. It's a symptom of the collapse which is already going on. And what you're talking about with the city of Portland and with the election of a socialist council and all the rest of us, it's not causing the collapse. It's in reaction to what has already been set in motion for several decades there. there with the acquiescence, rather, of these other institutions.

It's the breakdown of the instance. Rather than a cause, that's such a good point, Bill. I've got to tell you, I would have that. That's entirely true. Well, you know, once this doom loop starts, I had lunch with the guy who became controversial there for saying, hey, we are in danger of entering a doom loop that you can't get out of it if spirals downward. Yeah.

Businesses leave. Oh, yeah. Well, we had, now, are you familiar? Are you familiar, Dennis, with Dutch Bros. Coffee? Uh-huh. Oh, yes, I know. And now they've moved their base out of there, even though they're still in the state servant coffee, which is a good thing. Yeah, yeah, but they're just up the street. Grants Pass. We're in Medford. Grants Pass 25 miles away, you know, just that.

Great people. Travis just pulled up roots, and I never really had a chance to talk with him because he kind of kept it close to the vest. But, you know, it was obvious why I have a feeling he just looked. looked at that between corporate activity tax and the various other regulatory state, hey, I've got to get going. So off to Arizona. And so there you go. Billions go with him. Plus, if you're wealthy at all, you better not die in Oregon.

Tim Boyle, Columbia Sportswear, CEO founder. I talked to him just the other night in an event. And that guy's worth almost $2 billion. If he dies today, Oregon state tax, the state portion of it, which only, I mean, over 30 or 40 states don't even have one. Oregon will tax everything that man has over one million dollars. And the federal government estate tax, which is the main one in the country, it's exemption. It doesn't apply to your wealth until after $14 million, almost. And yet in Oregon, is after only $1 million. Oh, yeah. Who would ever want to die there? Yeah, all you have to do is have

one small business in your house, and there you're at a million bucks, probably, according to the estate tax people. So, With all the luminaries you were talking to as part of this Oregoners book, were there any suggestions about pulling out of the doom loop or a way to do this? Because I don't know here in Southern Oregon if, now I'm a Republican. I have a lot of Republican listeners, that sort of thing. I don't know if we can vote ourselves out of this doom loop at this point. You know, what are they telling you? The Republican Party is a culprit in the decline of Oregon because it hasn't put up strong opposition.

It hasn't put up strong enough candidates, and it doesn't call it out with enough urgency and say, because it's too busy being nice. And, you know, there's this feeling that the Republican Party is like the Washington senators who are paid to lose against the Harlem Globe. I have used that analogy so many times, Dennis. You know, we must be like psychic and joined, okay? I've been saying that for years, you know? Yeah, so they don't push back hard enough, although I've got on my podcast, what's bugging me coming out later today, an interview with Christine Drazen, the Republican governor-candidate.

Oh, no. Lost in 20-22, but got 43% of the vote, and she's speaking in a blunter, stronger style than previous speeches that I've seen online. Oh, really? Yes. I think she's being blunter and realizes seeing the DOT, almost 200,000 signatures and volunteers. Only Bruce Starr told me who's helping lead the effort. They didn't spend any money yet to get that. They only needed 72,000 signatures, and they got almost 200K, and that's showing that people are getting sick of this.

But you know what? It takes a long time to fix it. I heard the mayor give a speech at this leadership conference a couple Mondays ago, and his goal to get back to pre-COVID foot traffic downtown. And understand that other places right nearby are back to pre-COVID levels already in jobs, foot traffic, everything. But in Portland, the goal is 2030. 2030 to get back to 2030. That is the deal. That is the goal. 2030 to get back to pre-COVID traffic. So then I'm criticizing that.

I went up to mayor afterward to be a little quickly. So you don't want to set impossible goals. Then I'm having breakfast with John Topanya, a really well-known economist guy with Eco Northwest and other groups. And he ends up telling me, don't criticize that goal. I'm the one who gave him that goal. He said, it's impossible to get back. We've had those huge office buildings like Big Pink that suddenly are only now 30% occupancy. Yeah, the thing is, though, Eco Northwest is part of the problem, though.

Right. Not enough urgency, not scared enough. Yeah, but they're the same sort of people that have put a, they're the same sort of people that put up those sunny forecasts, you know, the, okay, never mind. I'm sorry, I shouldn't be so cynical about this one. But, you know what, it's too complacent. It's not urgent enough. And, you know, here's one thing everyone's leaving out, because I am kind of come up with a whole chapter of fixes.

You can't just curse the darkness for an entire book. You've got to light a candle, baby. Okay, give me a couple of them there, Dennis, fire away. Cut taxes, for God's sake. Cut taxes. That's the biggest thing. Second, ban union contributions or limits. They're one of the few states that doesn't do that, and the unions own it and they're contributing millions without any limits. So do that. Then also have open primary. So that middle contingent of the voters, it's the biggest single cohort, unregistered in either party, mainly because they got registered by driver license. They're too lazy to make a decision, open primary so that those people can vote and balance out instead of it being gerrymandered and all Democrats.

Boy, you know, I don't know. I don't know about that. I don't like the idea of Democrats choosing my candidate, but maybe I'm wrong about that. I don't know. Yeah. Well, I mean, right now, they just keep reelecting the same old table. Well, I have one guy tell me that government is the only entity that doesn't get judged on outcomes and results. It gets judged on, do I keep getting reelected? Exactly.

Now, you said you talked to Christine Drazen. I spoke with her a few weeks ago, and I probably have to invite her back on. But generally speaking, I'm just going to tell you, generally speaking, most people will say when she talks, what people will say is, wah-wah, wah, wah, wah, they don't really hear that kind of, that kind of fight. Is that changing in your experience? Did you hear a difference? I'm hoping so. Look, she's limited in part by, I mean, she's this tiny little red-headed thing,

and she's got sometimes almost a little girl voice, and I don't know that she's got a coach, you know, kind of telling her to modulate and go lower. Yeah. I try to go lower for more gravitas. but the messaging itself is important in acknowledging that there are a problem. I mean, it just seems like there's a reluctance there for people to kind of wake up and say, yeah, this is really bad. This is ridiculous.

We are being ridiculous. And that's what I'm here to kind of point out. All right. So, Oregoners, where can we get that, by the way, even though I want to read the chapter about fixes. I'd like to get that. We heard about a few of those. But what do you say, Dennis? I'm still writing and researching, and then I've got to get it out.

so it's going to be a few months. In the meantime, though, please, buy my book, The Leadership Genius of Elon must. 11 lessons of Elon that we can borrow from him for a better career and a better life. It makes a great Christmas gift, especially to someone young who's lost, and they've lost hope, and they've lost faith in their own selves, and yet this book can teach him how to truly pick themselves up and push forward. Elon is an amazing inspiration.

The guy dreams huge. He spends decades pursuing it. We can do things like that for ourselves. too. And where do you think, where did Elon go out of the Trump administration? Do you know? It's just kind of like all of a sudden. He's coming back, baby. You think so? He's donating already for 26 midterms in key districts on behalf of Trump. He's been invited to a couple Trump events. Yes, he's back in the fold. So that has been fixed? These two need each other. That relationship has been fixed. Okay, the relationship has been repaired to your, to your view. It's on the way. It's, you know,

what counts is the direction. It's moving. If it isn't fully fixed, it's moving. It's moving toward that. And the direction counts more than the actual, at what stage are we at it. But yeah, it's getting much better. All right. Got a website, X. Tell us everything else, Dennis. Thanks for the call. I appreciate that. Tell us more. Thank you. Have a glorious day. Yeah, where do you go, though? I just want to make sure you have an X account. At Dennis Neal, at Dennis Neal, at Dennis Neal, that is the premier media platform in the world.

Foreign policy, government policy gets set right there and announced. We used to read the New York Times to learn government policy. Now the New York Times quotes the things that we can read on X. Well, I'm really happy, though, that you have been able to plumb Oregon's performance, so to speak. I put that in loose terms, you know, for your next book, okay? Looking forward to reading this. I'm glad we can help you. All right?

In fact, maybe you should be sending us a check, all right? Can you do that? We could use the money, I'm sure. Yes, exactly. Well, that's why I'm trying to get people to buy my book. I could use the $3. that i earn out of the face price that book you got it dennis okay have a great day man you too dennis neal once again the forthcoming book oregoners say 31 at kmede news talk 1063

km ed this is the bill mire's show i love it that we have new yorkers now writing books about oregon like dennis who was on just a moment ago and saying yeah yeah we suck in new york but at least we provide our services. People don't get in the way of that. We're just all controlled by the unions, I guess. Let me talk to Tracy. Tracy's in Washington. Is that right, Tracy?

Welcome back. That's right. I'm right up by five here. Beautiful Mount Vernon, Washington. And yes, it's best sometimes to look at a situation from the outside looking in, as opposed to the inside, inside the jail cell, as some people would like to say. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think there's any way left to really vote ourselves out of the jail cell, though? I'm not convinced that there is enough. I don't know if, you know, because Republicans here in the state of Oregon have tended to think that, well, all they have to do is let it go bad enough, and then people will finally realize how bad it is, and then they will change their behavior. But my observation has been that people who could leave have been leaving.

more so than it yeah i'm thinking exactly i've considering moving back to oregon but uh it is that would be a a tough call and i and i love this state i washington is that way why yeah washington is not exactly a whole lot better is it no it's it's not uh especially when it comes to fuel prices despite being closer to the refineries we play the highest fuel prices in the nation now Yeah. That's because of the green taxes. So, uh, and we always pray that the pipeline still helps out. And I was just at a bar the other day talking to some folks, and they were talking about the

dredging equipment that, uh, down there at the Homish that was used for the, uh, pipe, uh, refitting there, you know, when they lost the gas pipe and, uh, that dredging equipment is still stuck in the water down there. No kidding. Yeah, this is, yeah, this is the Olympic pipeline. We were talking about that. Hey, kind of dodged a bullet because they had that shut for a few days, and they were getting ready. They were declaring states of emergency over this infrastructure there.

But, hey, that's all right. It's the West Coast. We're beautiful. That's all that matters. Isn't that right, Tracy? As long as it's beautiful, it's fine. You know, ignore everything else. And we are very green right now.

A little on the brown side when it comes to the local rivers here. We dodged a bullet on the south side here at Mount Vernon, but the north side. have an adjacent town, Burlington, which is more like, I call it the Beaverton of the Portland equivalent of Beaverton, you know, a lot of strip mall and stuff like that. And unfortunately, Burlington, the blue levee broke and the northeast portion of the 10th flooded bad. Durali, you know, was cut off and the North Cascades highway, all the way up. the problem was nine inches of rain at the base of the Scadgett River below the so you couldn't. Yeah, that's heavy-duty rain for sure.

You know, the thing that they're talking about right now here in Tracy, in here in Southern Oregon, they're talking, oh, no, it's been such a warm fall, and, you know, we have all this rain that's falling in places, but it's not falling as snow. And I said, well, that's, once again, a policy decision. They're anti-dam. We don't want to have any reservoirs out there. We should be catching the water in whatever condition that it's coming in, not worrying about Mother Nature storing every bit of it.

But you see, that would take people that actually want to make something work rather than, well, this is our ideology. The water needs to flow freely. It's the fish. The magic fish will be here for us all. And where are my Native American political supporters? and everybody claps like the... Correct. Correct.

Actually, the Army Corps of Engineers took over the Seattle Power and Light and BSE dams up the river, the Pueblo Dam, for example. And this saved the city. They believe they saved at a equivalent level of five feet of water from rushing down to Mount Vernon and to Burlington. And that would have been easily enough to breach the left. They've always had a long-standing agreement between the Army Corps of Engineers and the power providers to take over the dams, you know, and they're not going up there with the tanks and trucks. They're just, you know, managing the water levels. Yeah, yeah, very good. Tracy, thanks for sharing their thoughts from also outside of Oregon, but looking inside Oregon, too.

Be well. Let me go to Tom's herebin patient. Hello, Tom. How you doing? Doing fine. That was an absolutely great interview, Oregonians. And I think you just nailed so many issues there just right to the tea. And it is true that sometimes from the outside you can see what's going on better than the people who are trapped inside into the doom loop, what well said. But there was that part of me that wonders. And I know I love the idea of joining Idaho. I really do. And people were trying to do that. in Jackson County. My concern was that I didn't think that it was ripe enough to really move that forward.

Do you think that might be moving or getting more ripe this time? Just asking your opinion about, you know, Jackson, Josephine County, weighing in and saying, hey, we'd like to be part of that, too. Well, you know, yeah, I think it's part of a growing awareness of how out of control the Salem government is. You know, I think Jeff Golden hit in the wall with his fire map to a bankruptcy and his... Yeah, that's a symptom. That was actually an indicator, wasn't it? Wasn't that an indicator?

And also Pam Marsh with thinking that gender bending is providing health care to minors and so forth. You know, that's a ruse. Do you think that the Republicans are up to it, though, because it's the only other opposition party there is, though? Do you think they're really up to it to get us out of the doom loop at some point? What do you think? Well, I think this whole thing that's going on with the tax business that Dennis talked about, you know, 200,000 people for a $70,000 petitions, you know, signatures. So it really, to me, that's signifying a pretty significant shift.

in people's awareness of what in the world's going on. You know, and I was just talking to someone she was talking about. Every time she goes into Medford, she sees another shop. It's closed business here in Ashland. I mean, the restaurants, there's just one after another, closing down and so forth. There is such economic chaos going on, and it's all coming so much from Salem. So things are getting bad enough like you were talking about that maybe we've come to that point where people really are starting to say, hey, you know, we're inside the jail cell here, and we need to change because things are not working out. Yeah.

Tom, I appreciate your call. Thank you for that. If you have an opinion on this, we're talking about the Oregon Doom Loop that was being discussed with Dennis. Once again, the gentleman I was talking to, Dennis Neal, best-selling author, journalist from Brooklyn. and it's so funny, kind of like, yeah, we're listening to a guy from Brooklyn with all the suckage there. But he said, yeah, yeah, we may be crazy, but you guys are insane. I think that was kind of the way it goes.

770563. Let's talk about that some more. And anything else on your mind for Conspiracy Theory Thursday. If you're on hold, I'll get right to you. From the KMED News Center, here's what's... Medford, click Kia Medford.com. Welcome to the Bill Myers Show on 1063, KMED. Give Bill a call at 540. 1770 563. That's 770 KMED.

Wow. Silver going a bit parabolic today, now up to just under 66 bucks an ounce. Gold, 4366, all Newtime highs are, you know, touching in there. These are the futures. So you're going to keep going, I don't know. But it is performing its duty, preserving wealth for some people, the ones who are stacking it. and maybe those who are selling out to talk to j austin company gold and silver buyers in ashland 1632 ashland street and sixth and g in downtown grants pass call 482 3715 because with these kind of prices for either the selling or the buying people are going nuts on this kind of stuff and i don't know where it is going but uh in spite of the fact that the year is uh less inflation the bond market i don't know maybe the bond market will say something differently

i don't know i don't think things have been fixed yet just saying so maybe just in case talk to Jay Austenbrokers.com. Best website, by the way, fortunereserve.com. Fortunereserve.com. We talk to Matt. Hey, Matt, how you doing? Boy, that's silver price, though, has been good for those silver miners that you and I have talked about before, huh? Morning. Yeah. You know, I wonder if some of it, because when I first moved here, there were a lot of dudes who used to go up into the hills and have claims on creeks and other places where they would go in mind. I wonder if those, like, I have, I have, I have, haven't bothered looking to see if dredging equipment and some of the other stuff that these

fellows used, it would be interesting if they were publicly traded. I don't know. It seems to me that this would be the time people would want to get out there and do some mining themselves. Now, I know that's not why you call. I don't think it was anyway, but go ahead and fire away. What do you think? You know, it's funny.

I think about calling you at 6 and then, you know, the day goes. And then you get all these people coming out and talking about different topics. and I have to pick one, and I'm going to pick the one that is probably the lamest and it has to do with Erica Kirk. Yeah. The reason this issue is personal to me is not because I know her or I know Charlie or their organization or any of that. I've watched probably all of Charlie's videos over the last several years, and I guess the comment I want to make, I had someone passed away when I was in my 20s. He was actually my boss. He owned the company I worked for at the time. he had a huge impact on my life, a huge impact, especially in regards to business and management and all these other things because I did not go to college.

And so having a mentor like that who was, you know, was an executive vice president at Scuba Pro and was a high-level executive and then running this business, I really appreciate it. I mean, he passed away. I did not go to his funeral. And everybody loved this guy. that next Monday I caught so much heat from everybody we're talking like 40 people people I knew personally people I barbecued with surf with all this

and they were letting me have it with both barrels and I had to sit there and I finally told one of the guys I was closest with who was my boss and I explained to him I said listen I said I love this guy more than you guys will ever know he's had a huge impact on my life I did not want my life

last memory of him to be of him in a box. I get that. And so we all react to death differently. And because I got blasted from people I consider my friends. And we were still friends after this. They just had to get past that idea. They could never understand it, but they finally started, you know, stop, let me have it. I can't imagine when you take, and Charlie was an iconic figure, I would venture to say,

I think most people listening would say, if not for him, 20, Trump loses, and so do a lot of Republicans in other places to lose their races. He did something that Republicans had not been able to do since Reagan. He was able to get young people motivated, not just to vote, but to vote to save their nation. Yeah, and to pay attention, and to pay attention, and he was excellent at that. My issue that I had with Erica Kirk was just observation. I was just, the more I saw, the more I was creeped. And maybe that's very unfair.

I'll be the first to fall on my sword over something like that. But, you know, I talk about what I talk about, you know, sometimes. It just hit me weird. Everybody's fair. You know? Everybody has their opinion on this. Here's what I'm saying. Right.

I don't think this woman had any idea. I mean, how do you prepare yourself to be a widow with two children, first of all? And do it in the public sphere. to literally have your, this isn't like, you know, a soldier who gets killed in a battlefield and nobody ever sees the firefight. Everybody saw the firefight. And I think she comes across like she's acting. And I believe that's a thousand percent deep in my soul. I think this woman has no idea how to act. And so she is acting how she thinks she should. And she's not doing a great job of it. And I'm not going to blame her because God forbid something like that ever happened. to me or to my wife or you and your wife, I can't imagine being that public and watching your husband get executed and how I would even act. I don't even know what I would do. And that's why I think people should show a lot of grace in this. I mean, I'll do my best. I'll do my best on that. Maybe I shouldn't have said something. Okay. But, you know, it's just, I can't help it every time.

And so I, oh, well, discretion. Discretion might be the better part of valor on something like that. All right. But on the other hand, she's in charge, though, of a massive organization now. Which she's ill-prepared for. I believe one's about, you know, he never involved her in the business until, like, just towards when he was being killed. And as a sudden, she's supposed to be the face and the manager. Yeah. Good point. Matt, thanks for making it. And I always appreciate that. I want to make sure to give everybody else a bite. We only have a few minutes left, okay? Appreciate the call. Let me go to Dawn. Don, you wanted to talk about. the transgender thing. By the way, I think it was 216 to 211, that Congress critters voted yesterday to ban transgender surgeries and the hormone treatment for minors. What are you thinking?

Right. Well, how are they even having these surgeries performed? Minors, without their parents' permission, they don't have the ability to contract. They're not even 18 years old yet. Well, look at what happens in the state of Oregon. State of Oregon. You want an abortion? You're 14? Fine. You don't have to tell mom and dad. Boom, off you go. Just talk to your school nurse, I guess. Yeah. But that wasn't really while I was calling. Okay. Yeah, it has more to do with all these companies. You know, when the porcelain mausoleum, as hats off to Tom,

yeah, when they pass all these ridiculous detrimental laws on the people and companies that have to pay all these taxes on what just economic activity that walk through their door, that's ridiculous. So people either need to get their power back, drop these licenses with the state because they're detrimental. And we have the right to private economic activity. All of us do, even companies, get private member contracts, something, because it's just not right. I actually agree with you on that. I think private member contracts would be, you know, something interesting to explore because, you know, you seem to adhere to.

a whole bunch of crap the moment that you are a public accommodation, right? That sort of thing? That's how the feds were able to lock everybody down during convid. Convid. At some point, they will

try it again. That was just a dry run. All right. Hey, I appreciate your call. Thank you very much for that, Dawn. 770 KMED. It's conspiracy theory Thursday. Hi, good morning. Who's this? Hello? Brad, good morning to you. Hi, Brad. Go ahead. Bill, we have so much to be looking forward to, you know, we've just seen the biggest change in the last 12 months in the political atmosphere of this nation, and we've seen hundreds

of billions of dollars go away from the left for these. By the way, Merry Christmas to the award-winning Bill Meyer. What a heck of a year you've had? Yeah, well, thank you. Yeah, that's great. I'm just running out of time, though. I want to make sure you get to your point, though. Okay.

Yeah, so exactly that. Oregon is the political petri dish of the left. And what we have seen in the last year is, is political policies are failing everywhere they've been tried that have a leftist change. Portland is absolutely crashing. Oregon only has four million people in it. You can have a big effect for the money. The left is losing their money. The left is losing their influence. And everybody is noticing. Our school system is, is, is, gone. People are leaving the state. So what this means is all of the normal people in the middle are paying attention and they're going, you know what, we don't like this anymore and we're going to change it. I think next year is going to be a great year for Oregon. I hope you're right about that. My concern, though, is that anybody I know who has the ability to leave is leaving, and that will make it more difficult to get the reform moving. And if you can get in touch with the Christine Drazen campaign voice lessons, okay? Did you ask her? Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Brad. Let me go to the next call. Hi, good morning. This is Bill. Who's this? Welcome.

Hey, Bill. It's Lucretia. Yeah, Lucretia. What's on your mind? Go ahead. Oh, God, 100 things. Kind of like the last call. I wish to talk about it. But I guess what I wanted to say is so much of everything we've been taught is just a total lie. I was listening to Dr. Gerald Pollock of MIT. Of course. You know, it's like nobody will even go against somebody like Andrew Huckfley that was knighted, who's the head of the round table, all these things, you know, as far as water. You know, it's like most people don't know why clouds float in the sky. How can water be so heavy and yet it's floating in the sky?

It's just, you know, it's like if you look at the philosophy of the people that said there's a big bang, There's no proof for. Okay, you need to get to the point, though. You need to get to a point. Don't take us off into too many. Our science is based on BS because there's no Adam. There's no proof. It doesn't even make sense.

There's no big bang. There's no, oh, what else besides Adam? Yeah. I get concerned that you're so cynical about it that I don't think that, you know, you don't think anything is the way. Well, my frustration is they just tried to poison us with this bio weapon. and people, you know, we know what the best diet is. I mean, even Sam and Steve, he's got diabetes in 1910, 1920.

They knew exactly how to treat it. You cut the carbs all the way out. Well, we knew that even with, you know, the Atkins diet, too. Point well, take it on that, Lucretia. Thank you for it. I want to make sure and get everybody in, at least for a quick one. Hi, good morning. This is Bill.

Who's this? Hi, Bill. Chris, I don't think you need to reply or apologize to Matt. But I'm with you on the Charlie Kirk thing. Really? If you watch the video outside the Overton, if you watch him on YouTube, watch it looks like all his people were involved. Well, I'm not one of those people, but all right, you can go there.

It is Conspiracy Theory Thursday, but thanks for the call, Chris. I got it one minute. Can we get a couple more calls in? Hi, good morning. Who's this? Bill, it's to Porval Patrick, and I've whittled down my list. the subject to 11. Okay.

We'll try one. My daughter sold her business in two houses and moved to Tennessee. But what I really need to talk about is this display of people's lack of guardrails and coming up with lab-grown meat. Do we have that around here? I was thinking that at least if people had to label it on the menu of a restaurant, We do or we don't serve lab-grown meat. Are there any talk about that? I have not heard any particular talk about that.

I'm not aware I know that, you know, the push is on. I'm not a big fan of any concept of lab-grown meat because essentially they use a cancer cell process because that's the only way you're going to get the cells to replicate it the way it has been explained to me. So I would kind of like to keep that out of my gut biome. What about you? I'm avoiding going to these restaurants because of that.

I'd like to know if they have to put it on the menu or not, that it's there or not. I don't know. I really don't. I'll try to find out. I'm not aware of lab meat actually being on the market in the restaurants, but gosh, I hope not. All right. One more call, and hi, good morning. Who's this?

Welcome. Hi there. This is Kim. Cam. Go ahead. What's on your mind? Well, I'm getting a little tired of seeing how terribly Ron is being treated, and I saw, I just watched your show yesterday, and I was shocked.

Why? Because you spoke over him the whole time. You didn't let him get his point out, and I felt like he was just, you were trying to make him look bad the entire time. I don't have to work to make him look bad right now. So basically what everybody is getting their families in a lot about is the fact that he doesn't want to make a decision. So now it's going to go to the sheriff, the assessor, the treasurer, the clerk, the surveyor, and the county council.

I don't think it is wise for him to then take a dive on making a decision, though, because people paid him and elected him to make decisions, even uncomfortable ones. And he made his decision, and people need to learn to deal with that. And now it's going to go to the rest of the people that we all voted in to make decisions. Why is that such a problem for people? Because they want Ron to make that. They want Ron as the elected representative or the executive of the county to make it, not the other people. Make a choice.

And if they can't decide, then it goes. But Ron doesn't want to appoint Herman like Chris wants, like West wants. Well, then fine. Say it. Say it. He has. No, he hasn't said that to me. He doesn't want to make a decision.

He recuses. News Talk 1063, KMED and KMED HD-1. Eagle Point, Medford, a marquee broadcasting West Station.