Nick Reed 09.03.26 - Missouri News

0:00Springfield talk, 1041. Hello, welcome to this show everyone. It's Thursday already. Indeed it is. But don't set your calendar by the weather because it's just more of the saying coming up. I anticipate and we will tomorrow Friday kick off the weekend. We'll be at scrammlers. So just get you in the loop. They're updated on some of the things. Pretty standard stuff, nonetheless, perhaps if you're new and you're tuning in. Not necessarily for the first time today, but recently on Fridays we do the show out on location and that's at Scrammlers Republican National 6-9, doors open at 6. And we'd love for you to just come out as we broadcast live. If you're kind of looking to get involved, maybe chat with people about the goings-ons and you just don't really know how to get looped in and connected with people that are active when it comes to some of the political things in the area. There's always a group that meets over there.

1:02And when you come in the doors, it's right to the left. There's kind of a cubby area, if you will, with a number of tables. And that's where you'll find those individuals. But if you get there and you don't know where people are, you can come up and when we're in a commercial break just ask us questions. Try to be very helpful. We try to be the help desk there whenever possible. Now, speaking of needing help, there's this store, it's not funny. But sometimes human beings, I just shake my head and think to myself, are you an idiot? Federal court documents alleges that the Republican candidate for the Missouri House of Representatives asked a now former campaign staffer to plant drugs on his primary opponent. Thomas Ross is the GOP candidate for Missouri State House District 161, the seat represents

2:08parts of Jasper County. Now, let me back up here because there have been a couple of different stories. And perhaps I might understand is that this he won that primary election by just a few dozen votes, I think 30 some or 20 some is very small amount. I believe these allegations are regarding that opponent, not the general election opponent. Like I said, there's a few different stories and some of them are pretty vague on that. This is from KOAM, the, they got the CBS affiliate over there in Joplin or and or Pittsburgh. I think they may have two separate locations. You know what KOAM stands for? By the way, not that necessarily people would in this market. Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri. Well, that makes sense. Yes, indeed it does. Thomas Ross is the GOP candidate for Missouri State House District 161, which represents parts of Jasper County, that is the county of Joplin. Authorities booked Ross into the Joplin City

3:13Dale, September 2 on unspecified charges. Now the federal court documents show he's charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute a mixture or a substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine. So this, this, okay, the timeline here indicates this was primary situation. According to the documents, a former campaign manager for Ross reached out to the FBI on July 30th of this year. It says they told investigators. So I don't know if that's to keep, whatever, they told investigators at Ross ask them to plant drugs on his August 4th primary opponent, Luis Secker. The former staffer gave law enforcement a black nylon glove that he claims was given to him by Ross in June of 2026. Tested by agents would go under a view that a substance within a bag in the glove contained cocaine, a capsule identified as Adderall scheduled to control substance

4:20was also found in the glove at the time the FBI gave the informant an audio recorder to use during a meeting at Ross's home in July 31st. The document stayed that approximately one hour and 18 minutes into the conversation CS told Ross that he still had the bag of addies. And if Ross wanted him to quote, try the affidavit showed that Ross agreed and spoke of a small purse that Secker carried Ross is slated to be on the November 3rd general election ballot facing Democrat Aaron Metzger. The Republican party is called on Ross to withdraw from the race. The Jasper County Republic. This is such a stark difference between the way Republicans and Democrats deal with things. Democrats would like whatever, you know, there's no proof of that now primary situation. Sometimes a little bit different. We know that they oftentimes utilize tactics to get

5:23the candidate of their choice over the finish line. They interfered, of course, with the California gubernatorial race and Maine. And so when you do have a primary situation, it's different, but particularly in general elections. And we're talking about general election situation here at this point because the primary is over. And I don't know in Missouri. I don't know what this means. I don't know as a Republican party saying you need to step down if there is some allowance to replace him that that I do not know. Or if that just simply means that the Democrats going, you know, would walk away without any sort of opponent. Of course, you'd have right in campaigns. Those can be very difficult, but isn't this such a stark difference in the way that Republicans deal with these situations as opposed to Democrats, particularly given that this is an area that is,

6:24you know, the Republican is in all likelihood going to win. And Democrats only throw somebody overboard if they think it's going to harm them. Look how long they with Graham Platner, how long they stuck with that guy, Nazi, used a regulatory homophobic terms talked about fantasizing, about raping someone if they are broken to his apartment, made all sorts of racist comments going online, claiming that the, you know, the stereotype of blacks is true and comes to tipping and they don't do it. And questioning why what's wrong with black people, you know, rape all of these things. And I mean, Elizabeth Warren out there saying he's my kind of guy. Love that stuff. Bernie Sanders campaign in form. And the moment, however, it looked as if he might lose the election, they throw him overboard. Here you've got a guy who is accused, although the evidence, you know, innocent till proven guilty, but the evidence that's presented seems seems not to be working in this guy's

7:28favor. And Republicans are like, get out of the race. This, yeah, get out from the Jasper County Republicans all the way to the state Republicans are immediate like just get out of the race. There's no place for you here. And I think that that is, you know, for some Republicans, that's badge of honor, in terms of voters, shows that the Republican party has morals, the Republican party has ethics, whereas the Democrat party has zero when it comes to this sort of thing. Other Republicans find this to be greatly frustrating. And one of the reasons that Democrats constantly have the upper hand have the advantage because of this self-imposed, you know, although maybe arguably at times loose, but some moral and ethical standards that the Republicans put on themselves, whereas the Democrats put in zero, that their only standard is, is this going to prevent us from

8:30gaining power. And that's frustrating for a lot of Republicans. Like this is why we can't win because every time one of our own get caught doing something, we have to police ourselves and be the bigger person and, you know, throw a wrench into everything, giving Democrats an advantage. And, you know, I understand both perspectives. I kind of go back and forth probably depending on this situation, the upside here, politically speaking, if you want to call it that, or the lack of downside, it's not as if the Republican party's power hangs in the balance. We're not talking about Washington here, where just a couple of seats can make the difference. Republicans have a super majority. So, you know, even if this was a, or is a scenario in which you end up not able to put a replacement on the ballot and the Democrat does win outside of the people of that district, not

9:34necessarily ending with the representation that they would have preferred, it's not going to make any difference on the grand scale of things in terms of the direction of the state of Missouri. But I don't like, I almost wish that law enforcement had let this play out. What were they going? So, it sounds as if the plan was for the, the Republican, Thomas Ross, again, this is during the primary. So his opponent, Louise Secker, that was to plant drugs and her purse. I just think how that would, to me, be a very difficult thing to do and not get caught. When you're doing it to somebody who's running for office, it's not like, it's a person that is some loner and doesn't have all eyes on her. This is somebody, I doubt that she finds herself

10:37in public where her purse would be accessible to someone who's trying to plant something in it, and that she's leaving her purse laying around and nobody's really paying attention to it. I just don't believe that that's probably a scenario. I can imagine the guy getting caught. That would have made this thing even better or worse, depending on your perspective. You're looking at this through the lens of absurdity better. If they were successful, what, what then was going to happen? Call in a tip. Hey, I think that that Republican gal Louise Secker, she's running around with cocaine and her purse and I mean, it just would, it seemed to be dirty politics. The whole scenario would be suspicious itself. Now, I don't know, maybe this guy's not exactly a brainiac Thomas Ross. He did win the primary, albeit not by a tremendous amount, but this is a sort of absurd situation

11:42that, depending on the news cycle, could make some national headlines, even late night talk show joke punchlines, but I don't know. Sometimes it's one of those things you think, if you work this hard at doing the job, honestly, that is running for office as, as, or the amount of effort that you put into trying to cheat. It's almost as if this guy's in the wrong political party. If you know what I mean, traffic in a moment also, weather now the latest news. And the first alert forecast from Ozarks first meteorologist Tom Schmidt sponsored by St. Clair of the Ozarks home improvements. A heated advisory remains an effect for the entire listening area until Saturday. Today, we'll see sunny skies with a high near 97. He did index values as high as 102 tonight, mostly clear with a low around 74, four year Friday and your

12:46Saturday. Once again, sunny with a high near 97. 2026, cattlebearans ball back at the Wilson's logistic arena Saturday, October 10th, light music, mechanical bull riding, food, all sorts of fun stuff. If you've not been, it is a, a really good time. And it goes to benefit American Cancer Society. They have given us a four pack of Wrangler tickets to give away. And if you would like a chance to win them, you can register at ksgf.com. It's a thousand dollar value. So this is, if you've not like I said been to it, it's a really good time. How long do people have to register for that? Is it this week or? I think this one is going for a couple of weeks. I believe the last day for it is the 20th. All right. So good luck, everyone. The, the passing of Dolly Parton, a lot of attention at the same time that was going on. Missouri having to figure out, like a lot of states, where, to make

13:53adjustments due to decreased money coming in. And that's largely because of COVID. This is one of the downsides, if you will, of getting an influx of revenue that is temporary. Be it by way of grants. You see this a lot, cities with ground. We're going to do this big project. We got a grant for it. But what they don't talk about is, okay, but once the grant money's gone, then who pays for it? When the COVID money's gone, then it's gone. There's, you know, it is gone. And this is the no good deed goes unpunished situation. You'll have a state and you have all these COVID dollars. Missouri is a great example. And it's an influx of it. And, and a lot of times it's just, we got to figure out, we got to spend it, got to spend it. Oh, I know, let's give it

14:53to the schools. And then the schools use it. And the schools will use it. We've seen this happen. They use it for things that are not one-time purchases. But instead, they, they are purchases that require continuing funding. Oftentimes that's personnel. And the no good deed goes unpunished situation is you have an influx of money for COVID. Give it to, let's say schools again. And the schools are like, man, we can use this to hire all these people. But then when the money's gone, they characterize it as having their funding slashed. We've got to cut all these people. We have to get rid of these programs because the funding was slashed. The funding wasn't slashed. It's just your one-time gift card ran out. You depleted it. And then of course, the media gets in on it and runs around, you know, convincing people falsely that this is a situation in which

15:58there was a constant stream of revenue that this program or these staffers were all paid for. And then the evil Republicans came in and like, you know what? No, because we hate kids. We're going to stop all of this funding. And that is a complete dishonest presentation of the reality of what is actually going on. I really wish lawmakers, specifically Republicans would learn from these situations that this stuff always bites you. That I'm going to go out on a limb here and even argue that oftentimes the recipients of the money purposefully use it. Towards programs and people that they know will require long-term funding. Because they know that once their gift card, if you will, runs out, they will have the media on their side to go around and portraying those who gave the gift card as people who are slashing

17:05this funding and oh my gosh, and that they can use that misinformation, as leverage, in order to extract more money on a permanent basis. Now, I bring this up because this has connections as I'm understanding it to the whole slashing of budget for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. And that COVID dollars, again, got to figure out how to use these, got to spend these. Hey, let's throw it over here. Well, when the money runs out, it's gone. You know, I don't even consider it. I know it's a mindset and as a human being with a budget, me and my family, that we have, I view these things different than government officials do. I don't see it as cutting anything. To me, that's

18:10like if somebody gives me a hundred dollar gift card and I spend it all, then accusing them once the money is gone of slashing my income. No, that's not slashing my income. That is, I was given a one-time gift and I used it. And this approach, forgive me if I'm cynical, but it is my money, it is your money, and the manipulative fashion in which people who are given a one, I'm using the term one-time gift, because you know, whether it's a grant or again, COVID infusion, these dollars that are one time, or it, you know, it may extend over a few budgetary periods, but ultimately it is a certain amount of money that is finite once it's gone. It's gone. And then the things we get as taxpayers is this sort of propaganda.

19:15Now, I got a little bit curious and I looked up some of this information. I wanted to share it with you. I'm thinking to myself, all right, on one hand, even in the news reports, we're hearing about what a wonderful program this is, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, and it's, by the way, none of this is in any way shape or form criticism of Dolly Parton. Let's just get that out of the way. With this little foundation or thing that was set up, and I don't know how much she even had to do with it, day-to-day operations, and so forth. But we're on one hand being told, you know, part of the reason this is just such a wonderful program is that Dolly Parton using her money in order to make sure all these kids get books, and you know, it's just this wonderful thing. And then I'm like, in the same story, or you know, they talk about how it's going to go away because taxpayers in Missouri are no longer going to be forced to pay for it. And so my, my very first thought is, wait a minute, if this is a Dolly Parton thing,

20:21and Dolly Parton's foundation or whatever is paying for all these books, why is it going to go away if taxpayers aren't paying for it? It seems like two different things here. It seems like the taxpayer imagination library, the way that they're talking about it going away, if the taxpayers don't continue to pay for it. It seems as if maybe the wrong people are getting credit. So this gets a little bit confusing because you've got a little bit of funding from the foundation itself, and then a lot of funding from the taxpayers in Missouri. And it's different state-to-state. This is a global effort, by the way. And this isn't anything new. This was founded in 1995. Okay. This has been around for a very, very long time. So I'm going to share with you how it works exactly because as you can imagine, the way that the media presents this is, it leaves people with a

21:23complete misunderstanding as to exactly how this Dolly Parton Imagination Library works. All right, everyone. Welcome to the show. The Peerment Roofing Company Textline 447KSGF, we're going to get a traffic update. And then the Missouri slashes the budget for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library and all these news stories about how it's going to go away because it's not being funded by Missouri taxpayers any longer. And I thought this was the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. I thought the whole thing about this library being an example of how wonderful and generous she was is because her foundations paying for it or her. So this is all very confusing just on the surface, sifting through that and figuring it out, coming up. Springfield's talk, 1-1, the first alert forecast from Ozark's first meteorologist Tom Schmidt sponsored by JNS Automotive. A heated advisory remains in effect for the entire listening area until Saturday.

22:28Today, we'll see sunny skies with a high-neared 97 heat index values as high as 102. Tonight clear with a low around 74 and for your Friday and Saturday sunny with a high near 97. News Tribune, story The Queen of Country's Children's Book Program at Risk Under the Missouri Budget for 2027. State funding for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library will be cut by more than 50% from 6 million to 2 million. Some may think I'm a nitpicker over think things, but I'm like, if this is Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, why are we paying for it? Does that not make it the Tax Pairs Library Foundation? What is going on here? It's very difficult to find articles to explain this stuff. I would not make a very good journalist because I clearly have no instinct for what is actually supposed to be important in a story versus what isn't. I have these thoughts that just immediately pop into my head, like that one.

23:32If this is our deal, why are we paying for it? Now, we'll get the entire story posted and a lot of it is people from, you know, talking to people from the foundation, particularly the local folks and how much of a danger this is and how many kids are impacted and so forth. Part of the article notes the funding model for the Imagination Library requires investment from both local partners and the Dollywood Foundation. The primary responsibility for local partners to promote the program, okay, responsible for enrolling the children in it. All right. Buying all the books, which kind of seems like the important part.

24:41Dollywood covers the overhead expenses, whatever that is. I don't know. Obviously, I'm sure there are some overhead expenses, maybe delivering the books, the actual delivery. You know, I'm not suggesting there aren't. There's always some overhead. And in terms of payment, that's it. According to this article in the news Tribune. They are also the entity that actually picks the books and they coordinate, rather, I should say, the selection and the monthly distribution of the book. So what exactly that means coordinating the selection, if that's, I don't know what that means, but this is a program that the way it started is probably much different than what it is today.

25:45I haven't had the time to go through the complete history. I know it started back in 1995. And that in order for it appears, according to the site, if you're a state that doesn't have a partnership with the imagination library, there's sort of an agreement. And that is you have to pay for all the stuff except the overhead expenses. That relationship to me looks as if it has turned more into a program that has the label of Dolly Parton on it as opposed to something that really is a Dollywood foundation entity itself. It doesn't seem like they kind of, it's their program with her name on it. But outside of overhead expenses, they aren't really responsible for much, particularly when it comes to payment. Well, that's a much, much different situation than

26:54I would argue most people have been led to believe. And it's interesting that these two conflicting stories or narratives, I should say, are happening at the same time because it does lead to a little bit of enlightenment. None of this again is Dolly Parton thing. This is the foundation. And it's not even to say I'm not trying to argue that this foundation is trying to pull one over on people or anything like that. Some could argue, yeah, even though they aren't really the ones that are financially responsible ultimately for this in terms of what clearly is the necessary funding. But you could argue, if it weren't for their efforts and their coordinating things, none of this would happen. And by the way, I should have noted, the whole program is giving kids books. Which while some people will say, well, that's not even relevant today anyhow because of electronics,

27:54I would argue that it's more needed now than ever to actually get books to kids hands. So, the ultimate goal here is a fantastic thing. But I just think the timing of this is so interesting. And it is, you know, coincidental, her death. So, there's attention and to a lot of the wonderful things that she has done, the wonderful things that she's responsible for universally. This is somebody's non-controversial and loved and would often have to put her name on things that would be beneficial to the community and developed different things that would end up becoming very positive for communities. This is actually an international effort at this point. I think it's in Canada, the UK as well. I don't know if it extends beyond that. So, this isn't some small time deal. And again, it's been around since 1995. So, you're talking 30 years plus. But the narrative behind the imagination library is that it's another,

29:08it's just characterized as if it is something that is fully funded or was fully funded by Dolly Parton or her estate or whatever. And that's why it is used as an indication of her absolute generosity. But then we're told it's going to go away if you the taxpayers aren't paying for, or if there aren't some private foundations. And some states do that. There are a number of states that involve some states don't do any funding whatsoever. They instead help facilitate private funding to buy the books and to buy, you know, do all of the financial heavy lifting. There are some states that fully cover it. And then there is the state of Missouri that appears to be having taxpayers pay the lion's share, which began around the COVID era when all of that money was floating around. And they're trying to figure out where to put it all. And now that it's run out, it's gone. It's run

30:10out. And so that means less tax dollars to go to the foundation, which means the foundation or and or Missouri is either going to sever ties with this particular program, which incidentally they're saying that that's not even going to happen. That there is going to be some funding and that all of the kids that are currently enrolled in it will continue to be enrolled in it. They'll continue to get free books, however often monthly or whatever it is. It's just at this time, unless there is some outside revenue source, like a lot of states do with private entities, then they're just not going to expand enrollment. I just feel that this story is a perfect portrait of delivering information that gives people a completely jumbled

31:11misunderstanding as to what is actually going on with this story that they're being told. Like the reality versus the deliberate perception that's delivered. Springfields talk 104-1. I'm Nick Rhee. I want a great home loan.com. He got home loan needs. He got refinancing needs. He got reverse mortgage needs. Is that still a thing? Is that a thing that seeped us if on television. There was a lot of that for a period of time. Boom. Reverse mortgages. And it was targeted generally towards people that were of retirement age. Tom Seleck telling you all about it. And then I don't know, maybe it's still really broadcast out there to the degree it was. I don't see it popping up so much in any longer. But it is a legit thing that maybe of great use to you. And some of the concerns people have with a reverse mortgage where like the concept is, well, let's see. Somebody or some entity, they're, quote, buying your house, but you get to live in it. And then

32:14they essentially let you stay in it for the amount of time that it would take for you to spend on rent, what they gave you, and it can seem confusing like, well, then that runs out of get kicked out. That's not really how it works. And by the way, you don't even have to have your home fully paid off in order to qualify. It is a fantastic option for certain people. If you're curious about it, reach out the characters and someone on their team will explain all of that to you. And then any reverse more, sorry, any refinancing needs as well as just straight up home loans. I want a great on loan.com. Permanent roofing company text line. Good morning, Nick Listing from Carthage this morning. Hey, I ran into you this weekend at Cheapskate. Yes, you did. I remember this. This was, I was over there. I needed a new shirt uptown Cheapskate. Oh, yeah. This is what was it? I was, oh, it was

33:15before the VTA foundation. Yeah, yeah. It was before the VTA foundation event. And I thought, well, I didn't have any dry clean or anything dry clean. So I thought, well, I'm just I'll just go over there and see if there's anything. And while I'm standing there and I'm just like get right up against this gentle man and he turns and looks at me and he's like, Nick, I said, yeah, and he goes, oh, I watch you on YouTube. I'm living Carthage. And he looked very familiar. I thought I had met him somewhere because he looked familiar. He's like, no, we've never met. Anyhow, this is the guy. Yeah, I know. And he said, let's see, I met you this weekend, Cheapskate, skate and not being from Springfield. I'm wondering if you know of any similar stores in town. I tried Goodwill too, but did not find much. Thanks, Mike. Not if you're listening, Mike, do you mean in town in the Carthage Joplin area? Or do you mean in town in Springfield? I would assume you probably mean Springfield.

34:15That's kind of what I'm thinking as well. What's is I don't know the answer to that for men's clothing. I don't know. I don't either. Yeah. I know there's one over there by like the chicken salad chick. I don't know what it's called though. And I don't know if that's just for women or if there's men clothes in there as well. Oh, I did not know there was one. It might just be for women. And I don't know what it's called. I'm very helpful clearly. Oh, Plato's closet. Is that what you're talking about? No, that's over in that area though. Isn't it also? Yeah, I think it's further down on battle. Okay. I want to say. So we're clearly a lot of help, Mike. In Carthage. Sorry, Mike. Yeah, now that being said, anybody listening, if you know of a place that does have men's clothing that is uptown sheep's get if you're not familiar with it and the concept of it, they take in pre-owned clothing and then you can go buy it really cheap there. And it's all I can only speak for uptown sheep's escape because I do go there and I do purchase the pants I was wearing that night. I also got from there the same time. They're sometimes they're sometimes never even worn.

35:22They are they have to be they only take stuff that is as if it's new. You would not ever be able to tell that it's not new. And of course, it's 90% of it is women's clothing, but they do have men's clothing. So if you are aware of any other places like that for men in springfield area, if you could text it in the pyramid roofing company text line 4447 KSGF, then we can help Mike over there in Carthage. Speaking of I for the first time 8 at the chicken salad. Yeah, yeah, whatever it's called. Is that what chicken salad chick? Is that what it's called? Chicken salad chick. I ate there for the first time. It's really good, isn't it? It is really good. I walked in the reason I stopped there. I love chicken salad. And in my mind, I had been saying I need to try it sometime. I had a meeting with a perspective partner of the station. And I was really hungry. I had not eaten and I thought I don't really have enough. Gosh,

36:26I don't really have a lot of time, but I didn't want to eat something in the car. I have a tendency to spill things on myself. And it was on the way. I thought, well, let me go. I wonder if I can just go in and out real quickly. I knew nothing of its operation. I go in and there's kind of a line. And I thought, all right, I'm going to play it by ear. Moves very, very quickly. They were very friendly. It was very good. And the croissants were perfect for me. Sometimes croissants are a little dense. I don't like them to be dense. These were the perfect consistency for me. So, yeah, I really enjoyed it. Yeah, it's good. I got the, it had basil in it. I love basil. And so whichever that one was is the croissant I got. So yeah, I can imagine I'd go back. Anyhow, let's see. Pyramid roofing company text line Red Racks. There's one on North Glend Stone on the west side between Division and Commercial. Yeah, Red Racks is also an option. It

37:30trying to think the best way. It's, it is a bit different than Uptown Cheap Skate. I don't know if this is fair to say or not. Are you familiar with Red Racks? Is it fair to say sometimes you, it, I don't want to say that you can tell there, well, I don't know. There's just a difference somehow to me. But it's worth trying. It's definitely worth trekking out. Is Red Racks that not, that goes to DAV? Is that correct? I think that are purchased there. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, Red Racks on Sunshine Hills Shopping Center. Close, let's see, a closed mentor. I don't know for men. Good place to check is get on half of half mailing list. So you know what weekly sales are. It's on Campbell and Sunshine. I think closed mentor is what I was thinking about. Oh, okay. But yeah, once again, I don't know if it's just for women or if there's men's items.

38:30Discount Grocers and Ozark have some ins flow. Yeah, yeah, I did not know this. So, um, like I said, I don't really, I don't even know if he's listening at this point or if he just texted that in as a way to get a listing. But those are places that potentially do have some men's clothing. Can't say for sure if it's exactly what you're looking for. But perhaps next time you're in Springfield, we'll run into one another. Mike, thanks for the text from Carthage Springfields talk. 1041, I'm Nick Reed. People are still getting the COVID vaccine. I wonder what the most amount of boosters a person has gotten. Maybe in a couple years, we'll see it in like the Guinness Book of World Direction. Right. Or it'll have 270 COVID shots. And it's had COVID 28 times. That they know of. I swear, I know people who get boosters as often as they can and I and they have COVID every other day. It seems like it's this weird thing where it's almost as if

39:35it has nullified natural immunity for people. And it's just a weird thing. I don't know. It's crazy to me that there's still spending money pushing that though. I found I was cleaning through in our one of our bathrooms just you know you get cluttered things in there, especially if it's sort of a deep cabinet and like, oh, what's back here? Three COVID test boxes unopened. And I'm like, do people even test for COVID any longer? No. I bet some I'm you still see people even around this area. You see people with masks on still. That is true. And I'm thinking of myself. And you know, the thing that's crazy, this is just my observation. 90% rough estimate of the people that I see wearing masks still today are probably 25 and under in terms of age.

40:40It's not elderly. Now I do see that. But the other day I saw a woman with either a child or grandchild look like late teens early 20s. He was wearing a mask. And I don't know. I mean, some of these young I think some of it is almost not even a virtue signaling, but it gives a sense of purpose or victim or I don't know. It's a psychological thing. It's line us with the blanket. But the fact that there are still people, my instinct is to say, well, if you got really compromised immunity and you know, all of this stuff. But I think we know that those type of masks that I see people wearing don't help help you anyway. And so I don't know. But yeah, in the cars and it's a bizarre thing. I saw an employee at a store wearing one. And I was thinking to myself, if I were the employer, of course, you probably get sued over it.

41:43I like, don't wear that thing. I like, why not? Because we don't want our guests, our customers to think that we hire stupid people. That is why it is as simple as that. We want them to think that we have hiring practices that require just the most basic level of cognitive ability, that common sense here. Because I'm telling you, if I see somebody with a mask, I'm much less likely to ask them any sort of question that involves critical thinking. If I need some help or advice on something that involves an item that I'm purchasing that requires judgment or an opinion, and I see someone who thinks that it is a good idea. It is wise to still be wearing a mask that has been shown to not even work anyhow. I'm not going to ask that person. I'm not going to waste my time on it. We do have Chrissy Fulnicki coming up in the upcoming hour and then in the eight o'clock

42:50hour author of the week, offensive Christianity is the book. I think that you're going to enjoy that sponsored by ABC Books on North Clinton Stone. Yesterday, quickly, there was a vote to try and get a constitutional amendment locking in the number of Supreme Court justices at nine. Because as you know, the Democrat Socialist have been out there saying, we're going to blow up the Supreme Court. We're just going to keep adding people once we get in charge until we get a rubber stamp Supreme Court. And so my Johnson was like, hey, all right, well, let's do a constitutional amendment that says they can't do that. It because it's constitutional amendment needed two thirds vote. Of course, it did not get secured because Democrats voting lockstep against it. So any Democrat that's running around saying, don't listen to, you know, the DSA, there's just a few crazies here. They put their money where their mouth is on this one.

43:53The Democrats voted not to prevent the blue.