Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 12-23-25_TUESDAY_6AM

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

News and headlines, the latest from the Talent situation Eric Peters, automotive journalist is here for a Wheels Up Tuesday, big talk on DC wanting to protect your data from the spyware in cars...but does it go far enough?

The Bill Meyer 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. Here's Bill Meyer. Great to have you here wherever you're listening. Final show for me, at least in 2025. Krista Gall, filling in for me tomorrow morning, and then it's going to be Mannheim Steamroller for a little over 24 hours, 9 a.m. until noon, until noon on Christmas Day.

And then back to a normal talk programming and Christa Gall show. And more likely who is filling in for the Christa Gall show will be filling in for me, you know, for the next few days. And then I'll be back a week from this coming Friday on the second. So that's what we're going to be doing. You know, just taking a little bit of time off, got to take the time off. And, you know, it's one of those things where if you don't take the time off, you lose it. And as much as I love you, I also kind of like hanging out with my loved ones too a little bit. And Linda, I still tried to figure out, okay, who's going to get the pumpkin?

bread who's going to get the banana bread we're kind of still going through a bit of that around my household but all the gifts and things have already been been taking care of in my household i don't know about you oh i also have to say we don't uh focus as much on the gifts these days although this year though the gift that i got linda is being put to good use i got her the big granny the big granny you know the big granny is it that's what we've nicknamed the uh the kitchenade Stan mixer, you know, those mixers that weigh about, I don't know, about 40 pounds, I swear. I have to move it anytime Linda once it moved, she doesn't feel really comfortable lifting it from place to place.

So, Bill, I need the, could you put the granny away? Okay, bring the granny back, you know, and so making bread and doing all those other things, she said, I cannot believe, because she's not a real gadget person. You know, there are some people that are great cooks, and Linda is just a fabulous cook, Just fabulous cook. I've been very well blessed in this marriage, that is for sure, and in this life in general because of her influence and treatment of me too. But it's just been wonderful.

But she's not a gadget person. She's not one of those persons that is always saying, hey, you know, I saw this really cool thermometer on the food channel. Could you get me that? That's not the way she tends to work. And then finally she said, well, maybe I should try. I'm starting to make more breads and various things and maybe be, helpful to have a stand mixer.

And so I find a good deal in a stand mixer, and I ended up getting that and immediately gave it to her because we're all two-year-olds with each other when it comes to our gift giving. And she says, man, I've got to tell you, it has saved me so much time because it'll be beating and mixing something, and I'm doing other things and getting it ready. And I didn't realize how much of my time was wasted in the kitchen holding the handheld mixer. So anyway, that's how it's working out for her.

and I get a chance to enjoy the yeast rolls on Christmas Day and all the other things that she's making right now as I guess visions of yeast of homemade yeast rolls are dancing in Linda's head this morning and also getting some of that special grass-fed butter that everybody's been raving about. Yeah, it is. It is that good, that's for sure.

Okay, 770563 if you wanted to join in. Some of our top stories this morning, I guess we're going to be having a Trump class. I know they're calling it battleships. Some are saying it's looking more like big destroyers with laser weapons and things like that on it. President Trump says we're going to start moving ahead on building those boats. I think that's really interesting. I'll be kind of curious to see where the budgeting comes from and how that's going to end up looking.

Meantime, also another national news story. President Trump administration is now tripling. the payment for illegal immigrants to self-deport. They're tripling the incentive. Department of Homeland and Security continuing to deliver on its promise illegal aliens who sign up to self-deport through the Border Patrol Home app by the end of this year. We'll get a $3,000 stipend in addition to a free flight home. Using the CPB home app also qualifies recipients for forgiving any civil fines or penalties for failing to depart the country. And since January, 1.9 million illegal aliens, 1.9 million, rather, illegal aliens have

voluntarily self-deported. Huge. Absolutely huge. I think what is indicative of the difference with this administration is that the Federation for American Immigration Reform Fair U.S., I still talk with them, you know, from time to time about immigration issues, they used to hold every year a hold their feet to the fire broadcast in which they would invite we all we radio people you know the big radio folks around the country to Washington DC and we would be talking to and lobbying various Congress critters and your senators and you know just trying to make something happen and they're say we haven't had to do this we're not having to do this hold their feet to the fire, the feet are being held to the fire, so to speak. And so quite a big difference, quite a big

difference with this administration for, for sure. I guess there's still this issue over at Heritage Foundation, part of conservatism incorporated. That's kind of our nickname for it here. And see, National Review, staffers in the Heritage Foundation's economic, legal, and data centers resigned over the weekend to join a conservative advocacy group funded or founded by former Vice President Mike Pence. Oh, really? Mike Pence? So this is the split. National Review has learned about this, adding to the list of employees who have departed in recent weeks over disagreements with the conservative think tanks leadership, the organization. The organization's president, Kevin Roberts, sent an email to staff Sunday, informing them of the departures.

We wish them well, though the manner of their departures speak volumes, he wrote. Roberts also telling staff in the email that the organization's chief economist E.J. and Tony will also now serve as acting director of the Heritage Center's Organization Center for Data Analysis and Thomas A. Row Institute for Economic Policy Studies. Yeah, and this has to do with Roberts not throwing Tucker Carlson under the bus. And I know that people are saying that there is not a split in the conservative movement over Israel. I don't think that's true. I think that there is a growing divide about that foreign policy, especially given that critics say that

our government is run quite a bit by what Israel wants rather than, this is the claims, what Israel wants rather than what the United States and what, well, more importantly, what MAGA wants I think is what is going on, okay? So, there we go.

All right. Okay. Oh my gosh. Diversity is our strength, right? How many times have we heard about that? Diversity is our strength. Well, you've got to love this one. This is in Not the B.

Massachusetts mayor needs a translator because he can't speak English. How does this happen in a city with nearly 90,000? It's Lawrence, Massachusetts. City in northern Massachusetts has gone from 60% Hispanic in 2000 to 82% Hispanic in 2020. Just down the road from where the pilgrims landed, no longer need to speak English to talk to most of your. neighbors. Mayor de Pena, born in Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic, came to the United States. 40 years later, he still struggles with English, showing no interest in assimilating to the

American culture or language. What could go wrong with such a plan? All right. That's some of the national headlines this morning. Now then, happening here locally, lead story in the Rogue Valley times they ended up releasing an addition to what had happened over the weekend this having to do with the alleged pervert i know they're going to say patron or whatever it is but i'm sorry if you're looking at naked kids and zooming in on genitalia and admitting to people that you were sexually excited by this and this is why you were doing it at the talent library i think we can say alleged pervert i think we can you know pretty much say that that's what's going on here but criticism mounting over how library patrons suspension was handled.

Jackson County Library officials issuing a statement of regret this past weekend over the handling of the 32-year-old man's suspension of library privileges after witnessed three times watching videos and photos of naked kids or at least three separate days in one week at the talent branch. Now, the big issue is what didn't happen. and a talent library specialist Glenn Caphammer called me. Got a hold of my number last night. He called me last night. And he was saying that the story was pretty good, but there were some things that we didn't. Well, he wants to talk about it this morning.

So I'm going to talk with Glenn Caphammer. He's one of the people that have been blowing the whistle and really, really pushing hard for tougher treatment on this library. patron. So I'm going to talk with him around 830 for a few minutes. We'll have him coming up, okay? But in a district email on Thursday, Director Kerry May acknowledging concerns that have been impressed by Glenn Kappa Hammer, the man I was just mentioning, during a district board meeting, and that district officials deemed that on December 11th and 13th, what Nick was

viewing did not violate the library's Internet acceptable use policy. I guess the question is, all right, the library's acceptable internet use policy is that weaker than the law that says you're not supposed to be watching pervy naked kids? You know, being a perv and watching naked kids, I don't know. These are one of those things, and maybe I'll ask Glenn about that. Now, Charlene Princeton, a former librarian and an area manager who I spoke to yesterday morning, was talking about how, yes, indeed, librarians, library employees, are, they're not called first responders, but yeah, mandatory reporters. They are mandatory reporters. And when they see pervy, sketchy stuff going on, they are supposed to say something about that. Now, whether or not there are going to be any criminal charges, anything legal, it's hard to say.

But I know that Glenn Caphammer was telling me last night that he was most upset that there seemed to be an old. an over-emphasis on protecting the library patrons' privacy. And I will remind you that once again, Charlene Princeton, who had worked for the district, said that you have absolutely no assumption of privacy when you're at the library. You know, you're in a public forum. You're using public equipment. So, no, you don't really have privacy. So anyway, that story continues to go on it.

and we'll talk with Glenn Camphammer for a few minutes, 8.30 this morning. 623. Hi, good morning. This is Bill. Who's this? Good morning, Bill. This is Francine. Hey, Francine.

What's going on with you, huh? Well, I went to the library yesterday. Yeah, and now you live in talent. How do they go? What's going on? Anything changed? Well, I went and I said, I'd like to talk to somebody about what, you know, the issue that's gone down here. And I was immediately directed to Thaddeus Crawford, who's the community resource manager.

Community resource manager. It's an interesting title. Don't knock it. Okay. Okay. Well, no, you know what I get? What is a community resource manager? I mean, that sounds like a cattle farmer, a rancher, you know?

Why? Yeah, well, I know. Okay. But as far as I, from our conversation, he was really on. it. He totally admitted absolute fault of the library that they had completely blown it with his take on it, and that they were trying to do everything they can to get this straightened out. He's hoping that there will be charges made, that sort of thing. I mean, he was very forthcoming. Then one thing that I would say is that I think that what seems to be clear

from all the reportage that I have seen so far is that the regular employees thought there was a big problem. Almost like all the regular employees, it was higher management that seemed to have more of an issue. He said that there were about 20 kids in the library and the guy was at a computer that was like within sight of the kids' room, the kid section of the talent library. He said it was absolutely inexcusable. He said a couple of kids saw what he was doing, what he was looking at. And I asked him, he listens to the show sometimes, by the way. That's nice. Anyways, yeah. So anyways, I asked me if he would be willing to talk to you and he said that he mentioned somebody else, but not by name, but by position, which I can't recall for the

life of me. It was somebody who, you know, talks to public relations or something. I don't know. I don't know. I'm sorry. I got it wrong. I don't remember who it was he said, but would be a better person. But he said somebody would be willing to come on. I don't know if he was referring to the gentleman that you're going to be speaking with. Well, I don't know. I don't know if Glenn is speaking off the reservation, so to speak or not. He's not technically an official spokesperson. But on the other hand, he was the focus of this story. So he was one of the people that really got the ball rolling, you know, for putting some attention on this. So we'll see what he has. has to say. I know that the fault of, you know, what happened is considered at least by most people, you know, a lot of people there at working at the library. It was inexcusable. And people want to see legal action taken and so forth against this man. And the fact that he just got a little slap on the wrist and suspended privileges, they agreed it was absolutely. Now, at first, you know, I was kind of wondering about this. I always want to be careful about these kind of

things because we've gotten into this weird culture now in which you know let's face it there there are baby pictures of me out there naked there are baby pictures of linda and all the rest of us you know you just kind of what you know you took pictures of your baby if the baby was in the bathtub it was no big deal right and then and then that ended up uh becoming tantamont to uh to being a child porn and purve if you try to get them developed which i didn't think was well that that's why i tell i used to tell people and you know my my son everybody don't put pictures of like my granddaughter on the internet, you know, because she, your little kids, sometimes they just love to be naked, little girls in particular.

Oh, I know. They, I know what you mean. I'm here. Sarah, my daughter, Sarah, well, my daughter, Sarah, loved to take her clothes off and just run around. She's like, okay, Sarah, put your clothes back on, you know. I know. And so, but you have to be careful.

You can't say, oh, this is so cute and put it on Facebook. New. Somebody's going to see it. The wrong people are going to see it, and they're going to grab it. Yeah. So you don't want to. to go off half-cocked on these kind of things. But on the other hand, according to the interviews reported in the Road Valley Times is that

this man admitted that he did it because it made him feel sexually stimulated. So it's kind of like, yeah. And a lot of people will, that will occur. And if you put your children's pictures on the Internet because they're so cute and you want to share them with everybody, you're asking for trouble. Yeah, you're feeding the beast. Yeah, absolutely. It would be, and I've been telling, you know, I've not, all this time, I have never joined Facebook, ever. Never.

I refused. I just had a bad feeling about it when it first came out. I said, no, I don't think so. Okay. Oh, Francine, thanks for sharing your experience. So I knew that what, well, I used to say, figured, I felt like the employees at the library were much more concerned than the upper management employees seem to be, which is of concern. Because they're the ones that are supposedly setting policy or, you know, enforcing policy. And that's not a good thing. Well, we spoke about the woke wave that was hitting the library. we talked about what happened in Medford and everything.

I mean, and this gentleman was just appalled by it as much as I and you and I have been, you know, and most of us that listen to your show. Well, that's good to hear. And thank you for the report. I appreciate that. Yeah, there's a lot of, in fact, he tried to convince me that I should try to get on the board. Well, no, you should try to get on the board. You know, better people on the board.

I don't think they'd let me on. Well, it'd be nice. never hurts to try. Thanks for the call, Francine. 770K-MED. I'll grab another one here. Hi, good morning. Hello.

This is minor, Dave. Hello, Dave. You know, this is kind of like two days in a row. It's like it's first it's Francine and then it's you. It's almost like you're the what the early starter offers. She's my radar. Oh. When I hear her, I know to call.

Oh, okay. It's good to know. What's on your mind, huh? Well, back in 1995, I was working in Malina, Oregon, in a sub-station, we were replacing the, we call it the capacitor banks, these really huge structures and stuff. Sure.

And, well, after work, we go into the bar. I was the only one not really drinking because I was kind of driving everybody around. And a bartender used to buy me Pepsi's, and I didn't have to pay for him, which was kind of cool. And then our inspector from Bonneville came up, and he was showing this, magazine. And he showed

this magazine to me, and it's a picture of what's supposed to be a woman. Except I said, that's a dude. And he goes, how do you know? And I said, well, he's wearing his scars to hide his Adam's apple. And he starts laughing.

And it turns out it was a dude. And he started going, of course, he was going around the bar, showing that picture, asking him what they thought of this picture. And I was the only one that ever guessed that it was a dude, and then he started doing Adams' Apple conversing between men and women, and everybody was just roaring laughing.

Of course, most of them were drunk, but... Well, that's a great. Is that a holiday story or just a story that kind of burped out of your consciousness? Well, it happened around Christmas time earlier in the year of Christmas, 1995. So there we go. It is the Minor Dave Christmas Adam Apple story, okay? Great. Here we go, Dave.

Merry Christmas if I don't talk to you before, okay? All right. Merry Christmas. All right. Eric Peters joins me in a moment. We're going to get that thing rolling, get him on the Zoom, and it's Wheels Up Wednesday talk. Next on Tuesday, I know.

Not sure what to buy your loved one for Christmas? Can't find sold. You're here in the Bill Myers Show on 1063, KMED. 636 wheels up Wednesday with Eric I got bills I got to pay so I'm going to work work work every day

I got mouths That's going to be the theme For 2026 Eric A friend of mine sent that to me the other day I forgot about lunchbox Lewis You remember that song 10 years ago I got bills I got bills

I have never heard of that I guess probably because I tuned out to popular culture I guess about 10 years ago Well he sent that to me. And he says, I just want to get ahead of this affordability deal, which is going on. Matt, Matt from Grant's Pass sent that to me. I just crack it up. I got bills. I got to pay. It's like, yep, okay. There we go. That's the theme for 2026 politically and otherwise.

Hey, wanted to talk with you about what's going on at EP Autos. And you just put up a brand new article this morning. And it's entitled Data Rape. And this has to do with all the connected cars. And what happens with that information and you know it goes way beyond taking pictures of your license plate right way more than that this is this is internally and i use the term rape deliberately because i consider it to be a fair term in this context people may not be aware of the extent to which they are being monitored by their own vehicles and even to the extent of having their conversations potentially listen to and what what's being what's going on in the car being visually monitored because most new cars now have both microphones and cameras pointed at you in the car. Now that is now most of the time

that is for what the trying to see if you're drowsy, those kind of systems that they're building into the cars, right? Well, that's what they tell us. But couldn't those cameras also be used to transmit your image to a third party? We know for a fact that the vehicles are already transmitting data about location, speed, driver behavior, also preference. conferences, for example, the radio stations that you like to listen to, if you use your GPS to find a gas station, that kind of information is being mined by your vehicle without your consent. That's why I use the word rape. It's taken from you. And it is then sold to third party sources that are using it to monetize this. And again, you know, you haven't been asked. They simply just take it. And it's rather outrageous as I see it because at least nominally, This is supposed to be your property. The fact that it moves somehow doesn't seem to negate the fact that, you know, it's supposed to be yours, which means if it's yours, other people shouldn't be able to have any control over it at all.

And yet they do. Well, there's a bill that has been put forward in Congress. It's called the Driver Act, and that's one of these acronyms. I think it stands for data rights for information and vehicle electronics, which is supposed to be a reform sort of kind of, in the sense. that it will permit you to opt out of some, but not all of this stuff. They still grant exceptions, including for peddling you with ads. A lot of people who own certain brand products are expressing their annoyance over the fact that they'll be driving along.

And on their touchscreen, all of a sudden, an ad will pop up, trying to sell them something. So you're not even safe in your car anymore from this stuff. All right. So you wouldn't even be able to opt out of the ads. Now, I guess the question being, though, does just... owning the car tether you. Now, and this is what I'm wondering about, maybe when you're first buying the car, when you first purchase the vehicle, they probably put this in front of you at the dealership. I don't know how this works, Eric. Maybe you can explain this to me, but is it

one of those things where you are signing off an agreement or that you know? Yes, exactly. You know, it's like when you download an app and, you know, there's this gobbledygook thing that you get, you know, the terms and conditions, a Yula, you know, and nobody reads these things. just click, I accept, because nobody's got the time to go through that, let alone a crew of lawyers to parse it for you and say, and tell you whether you should or shouldn't do it. So yeah, people will buy a vehicle and a part of the process, all this paperwork is put before you, you sign it, and thereby grant them authorization to, you know, to mulk to you basically. And, you know, there's a lag built into this because it's a relatively new phenomenon. It goes back about 10 years

or so. Most people don't know about it. When they find out about it, they get really irritated by it. The New York Times did an expose, which I think you and I talked about a couple of months ago, about how insurance companies were getting this data about people, contrary to their consent. And they found out about it when they got a premium adjustment in the mail that increased their premiums based on this data that their vehicle had been transmitting that was sold to the insurance mafia. And it was an information that came from the fact that they got tickets or anything like that. It's just what, the data or telemetry from the car saying, all right, well, you're going a little fast here, or you hit the brakes too hard too often. Is it that kind of thing? Yes, exactly.

The telemetry, you know, according to their parameters, which are just set up to give the pretext for framing you as a quote unquote unsafe or risky driver, meaning, oh, my gosh, you accelerated more rapidly than they considered to be safe. Or you swirked, well, which maybe you had to because a kid ran on the road, or you braked fast for the same, break hard for the same reason, because you needed to. stop. These things are are framed as being evidence of your unsafe driving and being used to make you pay more for the insurance that you have to buy because the government says you have to buy it. Is this telemetry required by law? That's what I'm wondering. If this entire whole push for the connected car, is this something that the feds have been pushing or the state in general or is this something which is just looked at as a revenue stream given that they're not making as much money on cars these days. What do you say? Yeah, this isn't something that comes from the government.

This is something that comes from the corporations. They have figured out that this is, or they want this to be their new revenue stream. In other words, they're not looking at primarily making money selling you a car or even repairing it. They see you as a source of data. This data is highly valuable. That's why all these AI data centers are propping up all over the country. They're, you know, using this data to monetize us. So it's built into the vehicle. And part of it, you know, they'll say, they'll say, well, this gives us the ability to send over-the-air updates to your software-controlled vehicle, to improve the driving experience, to make it better for you so that you don't have to go into the dealer to get hands-on fixing. We can do it at a distance. And yeah, there's an element

of truth to that. But again, it's all about your vehicle is being invaded. Your privacy is being invaded by this external source. That's the issue here. Now, the other part that I'm wondering is are you required in that Eula, in these Eulas then, does that transfer then to the next owner? So let's say, okay, someone buys a Toyota or a Lexus or, you know, whatever, a Ford F-150, et cetera. You sign the E-U-L-A. Does that E-U-L-A then go to the next owner? And do they have to sign off on this? This is what I'm kind of wondering when you end up buying these vehicles used if there's a way around this.

Just curious. So it was a way around it, but, you know, if you sell a used car person to person, obviously the only paperwork that's involved is the title transfer. So it's not like you're going to give the guy a contract and say, here, you've got to sign this. Now, maybe if it's a, you know, a leased car or you're buying it from a dealer, that may be different. I don't know the minutia. But it's just, it's very embedded in the vehicles. It's very difficult to get away from this because the cars are now designed around the software. There are as much electronic things as they are mechanical things. Now, if, since they are designed around the software, can you do kind of

what you used to be able to do with Microsoft Windows 10, I think it's been disabled in Windows 11 in which you could have just a local account. You have to have an account to have the computer car, right? You know, that sort of thing. But it does not, and is not given permission then to contact the cloud. We don't want the cloud services. We don't want the updates. The car is running just fine. Can we back out of that? I am sure that there is a hack. You know, I'm not 22 years old, So I don't know the hack, but no doubt there are young people out there who are able to do this sort of thing. The aggravating thing, though, is that we shouldn't have to do this stuff. And if I understand correctly, you'd have to have a data plan and you would have to be paying for a data plan.

Or is this so profitable for the car companies that they'll pay for the data plan even if you don't want to? How does this work? Like I said, I don't have one of these connected cars. Yeah, well, again, it all depends. They want you to buy into subscriptions. That's another facet of this. They will typically give you when you buy a new car a free year of these services. But at the end of the year, then they want you to pay a monthly fee on going to continue to use them. For example, the GPS systems, Apple CarPlay, stuff like that. And you really have to go through each individual feature to determine whether it's that sort of thing or it's another thing. But the bottom line is they figured out that data. is highly profitable and they just sort of snuck this under the radar, so to speak. And most people have no idea. They're becoming aware of it and they're becoming quite annoyed by it. What I'm trying to find out, though, is honestly, after the free year of this connected car service or whatever it is, and you choose not to pay, what happens? Yeah. Ah, gosh, I truly don't know. I don't know. You know, I think that

on the one hand, they may disable that particular feature, but they still have access to your vehicle. the real core problem. But you see, that's what I was asking, because if you're not paying for a data plan, and then who is paying then to connect your car? I'm looking at this as a potential flaw, like the simple thing, if you're not going to pay and you don't care about the connected car services or the updates, could you just go in there and cut the antenna off of the system? Well, you probably would be able to do that, or at least you might be able to, but I think what they're counting on is that just most people tend to not do anything about it. I guess a good example of this.

You know how when you go on a streaming service and there's a video or a movie that you want to watch and they'll say, well, if you upgrade to whatever the other services, you know, you can watch the movie and you can cancel with no fee at the end of 30 days. People go, I want to watch that movie. So I'm going to go ahead and do that. But then they forget to cancel the additional subscription and they wind up paying for it for the next couple of years. so what would the data rape at well what's the name of that bill it's the drive act what would that

actually do realistically in your view and is it is it just a fig leaf for the car companies no it's realistically they're going to give you well it might just be a fig leaf they're going to make it possible for you to have access to the data stream and to opt out of some of the transmission some but not all and of course we have to take their word for it ultimately is what it comes down to and in any case they're still going to be exceptions which is just outrageous when you think about it, they're going to tell you, you know, which data you're allowed, you know, they're allowed to take, basically. You know what this is going to end up doing?

If someone is truly privacy focused, they're not going to want a connected car at all, really? I agree. And I think that's part of the reason, you know, affordability is a big factor, but I think another factor, and I say this because I've had a lot of people telling me this, that is causing people to opt out of the new car market is they don't like this stuff. They don't want it. It's not that it's presented as an object. option, hey, here's a new car. And if you would like to have these connected services, if you would

like us to give you offers and so on, you can buy that. Here it is. It's not like that. It's being crammed down people's throats, just like the advanced safety technology. All of this stuff is not what people have asked for and can just choose to buy or not. It's being crammed down their throats and people are being charged top dollar for it. And a lot of people are saying, that's it. I just don't want any part of that. I would imagine part of this, though, is about trying to usher in more thoroughly the connected car, self-driving car agenda, which is kind of ironic. Remember, there was that big power failure in San Francisco the other day and all the Waymoes. They were just all just dead, dead in the water with the power out, weren't they?

Yeah, you know, there's a practicality aspect to this, certainly. You know, the technology might glitch. It might fail and cause people problems. And that's certainly a good reason to object to it. But I think more profoundly the main objection is, this is none of their business, you know, and they've just irrigated to themselves the power to impose this, but we at least still have the power to say, you know what, I'm not buying it. I don't want it. I want a car that is separate and discreet that's not connected to anything except my right hand.

I wonder about those tiny cars that President Trump was talking about permitting. I don't know how he's going to do it, but if he were able to be able to find some way, are those all connected up like the other one, like the other people? Some of them are. No, because again, the reason that they're so inexpensive is because there's are basically very simple vehicles. They're more elemental. They're a lot like the way cars were in the 90s or even into the early 2000s. Cars have gotten exponentially more complicated over roughly the last 10, 15 years or so. So, you know, if we could go back to how they were during that period, you know, the 90s up to the early 2000s, and they were great cars. It's not as though we're talking about going back to Model Ts and hand cranking engines and, you know, all of that.

They had all of the amenities and the reliability. In fact, they were more reliable. than the latest stuff, because the latest stuff has gotten to be so over tech that it isn't very reliable anymore. That is a rough statement to deal with, but I'm hearing a lot of that. Data Rape is the name of the article on E.P.O.O.com. We're talking about Eric Peters. It's Wheels Up Tuesday, special end of the year broadcast here that we're doing, at least for me here. If you wanted to talk with Eric, we got a few minutes left with him, 7705-633. 770K.M.E.D. We'll talk about some of the other issues, including news and reviews, too. Next. Do you hesitate to heat the whole house?

siscu pump.com. News Talk 1063, KMED. This is the Bill Myers Show. Eric Peters, Automotive Journalists from E.P.O.O.S.com. Hey, Eric, I'm feeling so much safer because, once again, the AG in Oregon announced that, gosh, we got like two and a half million dollars or whatever it is from the Mercedes diesel fraud story. I was sweating bullets over this one, weren't you? You know, it's just, it makes me sad and angry at the same time. to witness the persecution of diesel engines.

Where to even start with this nonsense? You know, there's the obvious thing, which is that they're talking about angels dancing on the head of a pin, pedantic fractional differences that have no meaningful impact whatsoever. Oh, yes, but what they were doing, but Eric, they were cheating. They were treating, training the software. The software was designed to comply with the test, and it wasn't.

Yeah, well, that's it. The real crime is the defiance of authority, isn't it? It's not that there was some environmental impact here that resulted in anybody being in any way harmed. It was simply that the government was affronted, and that is the only real capital offense in this country. I was irritated by that story highly. That's why I sent it to you. But all right. The other story I wanted to talk about before I go to the calls is gas could be getting even more expensive in California because they have a new rule going into effect.

What the first of the years at the end of this month is when they have to have double-wall gasoline tanks at the storage facility. It's December the 31st. All stations are required to replace their existing tanks in the ground if they are not of the specified double wall type that are wonderful governor, Governor Newsom over there and his administration and his regulatory bureaucracy have decreed. Now, mind, this is irrespective of whether they are actually leaking. So they don't have to be leaking. It's just the fact that if it's a single wall tank, right? That's all. And it's not just the tank. It's the plumbing. It's everything else. So you can imagine the cost that this is going to impose on gas stations and therefore on the cost of gas. And this is in tandem with the reduction in capacity and the fact that in California, depending on which county, you probably know about this, in which county you live, they have their own specific fuel requirements. And they have to actually import these very special cocktail fuel blends from other parts of the world because it's the only thing that's permissible to sell.

So right now, you know, even though gas prices have been trending downward nationally, they are trending upward in California. Right now it's about $5 a gallon for gas. and all of this stuff could wind up resulting in gas costing as much as $6, $7, $8. What I'm kind of curious about is how is if this double-wall tank law that Newsom has in California for these gas stations could actually just end up putting a bunch of gas tanks or gas stations out of business, just put them out entirely. Oh, absolutely. And I think that's the ultimate purpose of this, particularly in rural areas. You know, they want to make it more difficult for people who live away from the hives to operate.

And, you know, I guess this is their way of encouraging people to get an EV too, so even though the power supply out there is also completely erratic. But, you know, it's, it's, there's something about it that's just so nauseating because it comes from these people like Newsom, you know, who are rich socialists, meaning, you know, they profit from socialism. But the socialism that they impose on the average person over there is absolutely in surfing and crippling them economically. You can imagine what it must be like for some guy who drives an Uber to contemplate the process. of having to pay six or seven or even $10 a gallon for chess. It's going to just put these people completely in the poorhouse. Yeah, I think all you have to know about Newsom is just remember the French Laundry incident during the COVID time when everybody else is supposed to, you're supposed to have your mask or all the rest of it. He's there with his rich buddies and family there at the French Laundry Restaurant. And they're all just laughing and carrying on, you know, one set of rules for you and another

one for them. You know, that's just the whole thing. That's our socialism, that's for sure. Yeah, and it could trigger a broader crisis out. there as well. It could trigger a collapse in the California housing market, which is already not doing very well. And that, of course, will end up having effects nationally. And we're only about three years away from the next election. And Newsom is one of the likely candidates, it seems, for the Democrats to offer up as the president. So don't think that just because you don't live

in California, that this sort of thing might not be coming to a state near you. All right. Appreciate the take on it. It is gas is about to get expensive on EP autos. Francie, and you had another question for Eric and a comment. I think it had to do with fuel, wasn't it? Go ahead. Yes, it does have to do with fuel. I also wanted to mention there's an incredible article on global, what are they called it again? Global research is what I think of it is, right?

Yeah, called artificial intelligence as the operating system of digital totalitarianism. And I highly suggest taking a look at that. All right, we'll do. So what's your question on the fuel, though, huh? Okay, so I'm seeing a lot of, you know, some fuel prices are dropping, and I was in Medford yesterday, and the Arco station was down to $2.99, which is like, oh, my God. I can't remember seeing anything without a three in front of it. Yeah, I saw it for $2.94 at Am Astro in Grands Pass yesterday when I was up there.

Right, right. So what I'm curious about, because I've seen videos on YouTube telling you, oh, this is good gas, that is bad gas. You know, what's the story on the less expensive fuels? You know, are they bad for our cars? It's a good question. Do I believe these videos that are rating gasoline, you know, brands for us, that kind of thing? Well, I think perhaps what we're talking about here is the difference between E10, i.e. gas, that's 90% gas and 10% ethanol, which is the bulk of the unleaded fuel that is available at most gas stations.

And then what they call pure gas. I think that's what they were referring to. Yeah. Pure gas is 100% gas. And pure gas typically costs about 30 or 40 cents more per gallon than the E10 ethanol. Now, most modern vehicles, vehicles made for the past 25, 30 years are designed to run on the E10. So you're not going to hurt your car by running the E10 unless, you know, you park it for six months. The E10 tends to deteriorate faster than pure gas, which is why people do pay extra for the true gas, pure gas, I should say, as far as for outdoor power equipment, storing it in a jug. And if you have an older vehicle, you know, something really old made before the, you know, late 1980s that doesn't have a computer that has a carbure. and wasn't designed for E-10, then it's smart.

In fact, I'd say it's necessary to pay the extra for the non-ethanol fuel because the ethanol content in E-10 can actually cause you pretty serious problems in those older vehicles. Yeah, I think what you were speaking to, though, Francie, not to put words in your mouth, though, you're looking about the different quality between brands, and yet we have these... Well, yeah. Yeah. I used to know a fellow from Texas, and one of his buddies worked for, maybe it was standard

or something like that. And he actually discussed with me one time about how they mixed the fuels with the different additives and so forth. And what these two videos I watched not too long ago discussed was the types of additives that are put in the gasoline, like they rated standard as super high. You know, that's really with their TECron or whatever. And then they talked about some of the ones that, you know, that you have to be careful because they put garbage in there, you know.

Are you aware of anything like that? You know, this is kind of interesting given that to all. the gasoline we have down here comes down the same pipeline, Francine, you know, the Olympic pipeline and then put on trucks. But maybe the additives are put in by the end seller. I don't know. I just wondering, is that some... Okay. Yeah, let's hear what Eric has say about her. Okay. Go ahead. Yeah, of course. Some brands have different additive packages than others. And you have to, you know, dig into that to find out whether brand A's additive packages superior or inferior to the others. Now, there has also been some talk that I'm aware of some brands using ethanol and other

additives to bump up the octane of their fuels in a cheap way, you know, to charge you more for the higher octane using cheaper products that aren't necessarily the thing that you want to buy. Is there any way that you can get that information on those packages online? Yeah, you'd have to look it up. You know, most of these companies, if you look up whatever the brand is, you know, you can find out they'll publicize because they want to brag about it. They'll talk about, well, you know, our additive packages.

this, and here's the benefits of it. You may not be able to find that for some of the no-name brand stuff, and in that case, your mileage may vary. I don't, you know, that's the best I can give you. Okay, so maybe that's what we're talking about then. All right. Hey, Francine, I appreciate that. By the way, Matt just popped me a message.

I think you would enjoy this. He says, he said that, you know, if you have a problem with your connected car, just wrap it in tinfoil. Like if you could wrap your cell phone in tinfoil, just go ahead and wrap your car in tinfoil. It'll be fine. I had to laugh about that one, Eric. So anyway, let us talk about what was the latest vehicle you reviewed, and what are you got coming up, huh?

What are you saying? Yeah, well, it's sort of a bittersweet one. It's the last Jaguar, at least it looks like it might be. Jaguar doesn't have anything any longer to offer anybody that's new other than the F-Pace, which is an SUV that they sell. And the ones they're selling as 2026 models are really left over 2025 because production has ceased. But they haven't got anything else in the pipeline. All of their other models were pulled after 2024 because they anticipated going full electric by 2026. But they realized that

that's catastrophic. But what are they going to do? They don't have any other product in the pipeline. So if you go to a Jaguar store right now, the only new model you're going to find is this F-Pace. And it's kind of analogous to going to a Chrysler dealer. And the only thing Chrysler's got to sell you right now is a minivan. That's it. These one model brands. And if they don't fix that, pretty soon. I think both of these brands are probably not going to be around much longer than 2026. Well, I hope they figure it out. Of course, it all started with the wokeness, right, a few years ago? Completely. Yeah, completely. They really thought that they were going to be able to push this EV thing onto people. You know, Stalantis, which is the parent company of Chrysler,

had plans afoot to introduce a bunch of new Chrysler batch products that were basically Chrysler iterations of the electric vehicles. They thought they were going to sell through the Dodge brand. But that's been a catastrophe, the Dodge EVs. And so the last thing they want to do is try to duplicate that effort through Chrysler. So they've had to pull them back, but they just didn't have a backup plan. They don't have anything. So I don't know what they're going to do. Maybe they're going to figure out a way to take the existing charger.

You know, Dodge is hurriedly pushing engines in that thing. And maybe they'll figure out a way to turn the current charger into some kind of a new generation Chrysler 300 with an engine. And, you know, if they can do that, great. but the damage might have already been done to the point that it's not recoverable. Well, I hope they can figure this out because the engines that Chrysler is making, they're great engines, very powerful, good stuff. I mean, I'm talking about the internal combustion. The electric engine, who cares, because they're all the same as far as I'm concerned.

They're in line six. The hurricane in line six, actually, now that you bring the topic up, would be an ideal engine in a next generation Chrysler 300 because an inline six is kind of an elegant engine. It's the ideal engine for a premium vehicle. You know, a lot of high-end brands over the years have used the inline six configuration because those engines are very smooth. They're very free revving. They're perfectly suited for that.

Now, I think that it's a terrible idea to put those in chargers, frankly, because a charger is supposed to be a big, brutish muscle car. It's like a four-wheeled Harley-Davidson, people buy Harleys because they like the shake and the rattle. Yeah, they want it to be quiet. But yeah, you can see for a Chrysler 300. how the in-line-6 would be very smooth, very civilized. Is the hood long enough for it?

That's kind of what I'm wondering, because I know they use the in-line-6 in the truck, in the RAM, right? Yeah, absolutely, because they are putting that engine right now into the charger that was previously last year exclusively an EV. They're getting it in there because they know otherwise they're going to just have to write off everything because people aren't buying the electric chargers. They're going to try to sell people the charger with the in-line-6

as the replacement for the hemi. problem there though is i think that the majority of people who are interested in a car like the charger we're irrespective of how much power the six puts out it's not a muscle car engine they want a v8 so i think i think you know they've got to figure out a way to put the v8 in the charger and then maybe use the six in a next generation Chrysler 300 what's in the driveway that we can read about over the holiday well i still have this f pace uh you know it's early in the week the swap comes later uh i i'm not exactly sure i should i should take a note let you know it's got I apologize with the holidays coming up and I've been trying to get ahead, and I haven't kept track of what my schedule is.

Well, Merry Christmas, one way or the other, and get on your motorcycle if the weather's okay there in rural Virginia and get out in and get a little bit of road therapy. Okay? Let's do that. I'm going to try my best, Bill. Thank you. All right. E.P.O.O.S.com. E.P.O.O.S. Great story.

And another one you need to look up in. We don't have time to talk about it right now, Eric, but I'll probably get in trouble for this. That story is very thought-provoking. about a guy that was, you know, essentially it killed for not having the proper tags on his vehicle. What happened to the motorcyclist and the insane, now that was a West Virginia chase, wasn't it, if I recall? It was in West Virginia. Yep. It happened last summer. Yeah. Maybe we'll talk about that after the new year because that article and that thing about, now, what duty do we have to put an ear tag like a sheep on us everywhere we go for the government?

I think that is something worth picking up in the new year. Okay, all right. Yep, I'd love to. Thank you, Bill. Be well, and we will talk soon.