What Really Led to Today's Fed Rate Hike

0:00Dave Roberts here. There you are surrounded by fans, sharing wings, sharing drinks, high-fiving random strangers. Everybody remembers the game. Nobody remembers the guy coughing behind you until a few days later. At 2 a.m., you wake up with a fever and your throats on fire. Now what? Urgent care, clothes, ER, slam, telehealth, maybe, but the pharmacy's clothes. You needed a medical emergency kit. These aren't first aid kits. They contain essential prescriptions used for over 30 common conditions, sinus and ear infection, UTIs, stomach bug, travelers diarrhea, and more. On hand before you need them. Use your doctor-developed guidebook to select the right prescription or call their telemedicine doctor standing by. It's like an urgent care and drugstore at home. When you're sick, traveling, or stranded, you'll wish you ordered a medical emergency kit. Order online in minutes and it's shipped to your door and say $45 with my promo code blue at urgentcarekit.com slash blue. That's promo code blue at urgentcarekit.com slash blue.

1:01It is warm and full of sunshine in here. Welcome to another three hour foray into broadcast competence here on the Dan O'Donnell show. Big news today just about an hour and a half ago. The Federal Reserve announcing that it is going to hike interest rates. Federal Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh making that announcement. We will cover that from all angles today. Plus the Wisconsin Supreme Court takes care of a fellow liberal judge, at least for now anyway, opting not to immediately suspend the law license of former Milwaukee County judge, Hannah Dugan, even though she was convicted of a federal felony for grossly abusing her position by helping a violent illegal immigrant criminal escape her courtroom through the jury room door so that he would not be taken into federal custody by ICE agents. Plus the left and the right both agree on

2:03Ludditeism. Yesterday here on the program, we had a long long discussion extensive discussion. I got so much incredible feedback. Folks, it is okay to admit you don't understand a lot of this stuff. I don't either. And this is the point in order to intelligently debate this issue. We can't give interfere in hysteria. And I am just so heartened and and fulfilled by so many of the intelligence comments that I have been getting via email via text. People who I think are really thinking through this issue. What the real threat of AI is and that is career displacement that is a fundamental seismic shift in the role humans play in building our world. That doesn't mean humans aren't going to have a role in building our world. It's just going to be different. It is going to be a big leap forward. But the Luddites who were concerned that the textile factories that were

3:04then using machine equipment in the industrial revolution went in and smashed that equipment fearing that it would replace them. 150 years later, are people still working in the textile industry? Did the tools that the Luddites were smashing end the world? Did they put everybody out of business? No humanity adapted. We will get into that. Plus what may be the single most egregious hit piece coming out of a local and state media outlet this year. It comes from CBS 58. The reporter's name is Catherine Merck. And she tried to Merck the pilot who saved Tom Tiffany's life. If you don't understand what Merck means, ask your kid. It is slang to mean take out kill. That sort of thing. Not kill. Catherine Merck isn't sitting out there. Like she's not rolling up.

4:05Of course, this comes out of hip hop culture. She's not like rolling with shug night and doing a drive by shooting at Leonard Bolts his house. But there's a reason that rush limbaugh called them the drive by media. We will get into all of that. If you'd like to join us, carpetland USA flooring center talk and text like always open 414 799 1130. You can always shoot me an email D O D at iheartmedia.com at Dan O'Donnell show X Facebook Instagram you miss a single second. Please do subscribe like download and listen every day to the Dan O'Donnell show podcast on iheart radio or wherever you listen to podcasts. Here is Kevin Warsh Federal Reserve chairman saying that because economic conditions are paradoxically very very good here in the United States, he is being forced to raise the feds key fund rate. The FOMC decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate

5:05by a quarter of a percentage point to three and three quarters to four percent in support of the federal reserve's dual mandate. The committee is continuing its policy of maintaining ample reserves in the banking system. As noted in the policy statement released just a short while ago, economic activity is expanding at a solid pace. While uncertainty remains elevated, owing in part to geopolitical developments, domestic spending has been resilient. Productivity growth is strong and capital investment is robust. Job gains have kept pace with the workforce and the unemployment rate has changed little. But inflation remains elevated. Today's policy action will support a timely return to the committee's 2 percent goal. As you could imagine, the White House is not particularly happy. Kevin Warsh was appointed by President Trump because he was supposed to be a rate cut hawk. Now, less than two months before,

6:12less than 50 days before the midterm elections, the federal reserve is signaling that inflation is a huge problem. That this is still an underlying condition of the American economy because of government overspending, because of all of the excesses of the Biden administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress in 2021 that led to the single worst price shock, probably in any of our lifetimes. And anyone who says no, Dan, the hyperinflation of the early 1980s, the inflation of the 1970s was worse in terms of total dollars that you're spending for big ticket items as measured against the average annual income of the average American consumer. This is way worse. All of a sudden, within the span of just four years, the average price of a home went from about $400,000 to $600,000. Starter homes no longer exist. Small little bungalows that you could

7:17get for under $100,000, build equity, raise a young family, eventually move to the suburbs where you would get the picket fence and the three bedroom for maybe $300,000. That doesn't exist because now that home is $700,000 with a six to seven percent mortgage right now. That's all but unaffordable. The White House's special assistant to the president, Kush, decide on Fox News this afternoon. Today's rather unfortunate decision by the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates was not from the administration's point of view back by a particularly compelling economic case. Inflation since the last time the Federal Reserve Open Markets Committee by almost any metric has actually cooled. And more importantly to the extent that we still do have inflation as a president and others have noted, it's entirely driven by an energy supply shock by what's going on with oil prices in the Middle East. And these are things that have nothing to do with with interest rates and

8:18are not affected really by by higher interest rates. And so again, this isn't the Biden era, the president, and Republicans aren't spending trillions of dollars on COVID stimulus like Democrats in Joe Biden did. There is no runaway aggregate demand that we need to rate in with with higher interest rates. All high interest rates are going to do right now is to meet these significant economic progress that the United States has made under this president, under this administration. It's going to raise more interest rates for every day Americans. It's going to punish businesses who are trying to expand and grow. And again, none of that gets at the core of the issue here which are energy prices. The size is of course absolutely correct. August CPI, the consumer price index, was 3.4% year over year. As you heard, worse say the target is always 2%. We haven't been down at that level since Biden became president. But the number is only being pulled up by energy prices have been very, very high, pushed of course by the war with the run. There are up 16% year over

9:19year energy commodities, gas, fuel oil, up 28%. These jumped after the conflict is ruptured shipping through the state of Hormuz. It badly damaged regional infrastructure. The big thing that has impacted global oil supplies has been of course. As you might imagine, the Iranians holding fast to the one last card that they have to play as they hold out and refuse to negotiate in good faith with the United States. And that is the threat of terror attacks in the state of Hormuz. This is not and the way that this has been reported really for months has played into this narrative that somehow the United States is losing or has lost this war. It has not. Iran does not have an army. It does not have a navy. It does not have an air force. We don't even know if they have a functional leadership structure. In fact, we have no idea because one of the big challenges with

10:21negotiating with the Iranians is we aren't negotiating with the Iranians. We have to go through third party allied nations because we don't know who is actually in charge. We have good ideas. We have intelligence that would suggest because remember the entire leadership structure was taken out in that one first attack on February 28th that remember this word, marked the Iatola and his top deputies and then over the course of the first couple of weeks in which the United States truly decimate Iran after we were told for years you can't possibly you cannot possibly take out the Iatola and go to war with Iran. The American troops will be met with just unwavering force and resistance from Iran's revolutionary guard corps. Well, we were told that exact same thing by the exact same American and Western media ahead of the Iraq war and what happened then after the

11:22invasion in 2003 the wanted Iraqi defenses folded almost immediately. Remember we were told oh my goodness, we were actually told this in 1991 in the Gulf War. What is it about America's media that constantly overestimates the strength and capability of America's enemies and underestimates the strength and capability of Americans military. Iran's war, the war with Iran was one almost instantly. The Iranians were defeated almost instantly. What is left is not even active terror attacks that are going on against commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz right now, but rather the ongoing threat of terror attacks against commercial ships. It is not that the powerful Iranian navy which now sits literally at the bottom of the sea is keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed.

12:24It's the fact that no company can possibly risk the possibility that any one of its ships could be targeted by a rogue suicide drone, a rogue missile that is launched from anywhere on shore. Even though those sorts of attacks are not happening with any regularity, the fear is still there. Folks, this is how terrorism works. The fact that this is not being reported as terrorism that is keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed is indicative again of how the American and Western media operate. But the reality is that this was essentially a war of choice. This was a war that President Trump did choose to engage in. Now, I believe the overarching strategy here was to take out Nicholas Maduro, the drug kingpin who happened to be in charge of Venezuela. Remember, he was never actually recognized as the legitimate duly elected president of Venezuela. He was a drug criminal

13:30and he was taken out in January, January 3rd to be precise. He was taken out and brought before the American justice system. The Trump administration smartly installed the vice president of Venezuela and said you are allowed to exist as someone in control of this country because we decide that we allowed you to exist. Now, the greatest asset you have is a whole lot of oil. You are going to make a significant deal with us on that oil or you are no longer in power. She folded, she made a deal. That deal is one of the most significant on energy in American history. I believe Venezuela was meant to offset what the Trump administration knew was coming. That the war with Iran would have an energy supply shock that there would be repercussions. I believe firmly that yet again, the United

14:36States military was not allowed to do what the United States military does so incredibly well. Win wars and win wars quickly. Once again, President Trump possibly through his own heubristic belief that he can be the one guy who is able to successfully negotiate with the Iranians. Remember, it was Trump himself who said the Iranians have never won a war but they have never lost a negotiation. Why is it that Trump thought even with the remnants of the Iranian regime that there would be any meaningful negotiation? What should have happened was total war, total destruction, the seizure of Carg Island, the immediate decimation of any possibility of any sort of terror attacks coming through the strait of hormones and a quicker deal with Venezuela to get Venezuelan oil exports that are now under the control of the United States,

15:41hitting the American marketplace. That said, we are in a far better place than we were in 2021, primarily because the United States is now the world's single biggest oil exporter. We have a ton of crude oil. We have the ability to process that we have the ability to generate energy at a level we just couldn't really at any point in American history before that. However, this is how markets work. When there is any sort of shock, prices have a tendency to go up. If there is any drop in supply and what's happening now is because the American economy and because the global economy are humming along so well, jobs are being created, businesses are being created, those businesses are doing more business, meaning more trucks are going out, more ships are going out, more planes are going out, there is more demand. As we have more demand for energy and even

16:43slightly less supply, the scarcity principle kicks in. This is basic economics. The law of supply and demand is undefeated. But to raise the key fed funds rate a, this close to an election and b, to take what amounts to a sledgehammer, to try to pound in a tiny little nail, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. This is sort of like a machine gun when a sniper rifle would be appropriate. Sorry for the violent imagery there is the first thing that popped into my head. I swear I am not in a murderous mood though, over raising the federal reserve's interest rate. I think it was the wrong decision and I think this is sort of the limitation of the federal reserve itself because the only real tool it has is to raise or lower rates. We're going to step aside for a quick second, get right back into this and why yes, absolutely the underlying conditions

17:47that necessitated this fed rate hike are not the Iran war. That is merely a temporary shock. Why are we paying more for everything? Why is it that you can't get a starter home for under a hundred thousand bucks in Milwaukee County anymore? It's because economic mismanagement that borders on malpractice and frankly goes well into federal economic malpractice by Biden and the Democrats and God help us if any of them get back in power this November. That's coming up in temporary style. You get both most of the time here on the Dan O'Donnell show. Welcome back to it big news today and it is huge news. Federal reserve raises interest rates which were already very very high. President Trump has been a huge rate hike. He wants those rate hikes done. He didn't even want the

18:47fed to take no action. He wants cuts, cuts, cuts, cuts, cuts. What's the problem with that? If all of a sudden we get fed interest rates all the way down to near zero, which they were. Remember pretty much through the duration of the Obama era coming out of the great recession. Also by the way clearly caused by failed liberal policy. We can argue that if you wish, but it's very well settled even though you will never ever ever hear about that in the media was absolutely failed Clinton era policy that led to the housing bubble bursting because so many people were getting approved for loans that they never had any hope of paying back at the bad loans were basically shocked around traded like Pokemon cards. It was in fact a house of cards that was inevitably going to collapse and it did and it did with just incredible timing as Barack Obama was swept into office. Do you

19:51remember back in 2008 just as a quick aside, there was exactly one week where John McCain was leading that race. Do you know what week it was? Right after Labor Day, one of the later Republican national conventions where Sarah Palin was added to the ticket. You might remember the media then all flew. They took little biplanes. They all made water landings, not like Tom Tiffany's unfortunate one in wasilla Alaska to try to dig up dirt on Tom. If it would you believe we have a CBS 58 reporter digging up dirt on the hero pilot in the Tom Tiffany emergency landing. We're getting to that in the five o'clock hour right now though. The United States economy was addicted to near zero or zero percent interest rates for so long and we saw what happened when the fed was forced to raise rates very, very quickly to respond to President Biden's sudden supply shock of ingesting

20:56a whole lot of money, injecting a whole lot of money into the American economy, but not where it was needed. It was injected to dramatically increase government spending. So Kevin Warsh, Federal Reserve Chairman today asked about what he thought President Trump's response was going to be to today's rate hike. Big picture. I wonder if you could tell us just what will this move today actually do for American consumers and have to ask what is your message here to President Trump who has repeatedly called to cut interest rates, not raise that. I've got nothing for you on on a discussion with the President, so but I won't make that count as your question. I'm the American people, as I said in my prepared remarks, the least well-off are the ones who have the most to gain from stable prices. Decision we made today was the right decision to deliver on the remit that Congress gave us to ensure stable prices. Moreover, I would say because of the underlying

21:57strength of the economy, because we are, as I mentioned, largely acting consistent with full employment, we can be focused on stable prices. Some months ago, I said we will deliver stable prices. Today's action is consistent with that. What did we not have starting exactly in March of 2021, stable prices? Four letters are all you need to know about why. A-R-P-A-R-P, the American Rescue Plan Act. This was what supercharged inflation. There is literally no argument against it. It is impossible to argue against it unless you are simply going to lie. President Biden and Democrats who controlled both chambers of Congress, the House and the Senate, rammed through nearly 1.9 trillion dollars in new spending and stimulus checks to the American people that essentially kept

22:57them out of the workforce for a little bit longer at the exact moment when they should have been going back to work, reopening the American and global supply chain at a time when if you might remember, it was very, very difficult to get pretty much anything. We had a supply crunch, which was also driving up prices. The classic example of that? Heaven help you if you were trying to get your kids a PlayStation 5 for Christmas 2020. It was impossible. They released the PS5, by the way, I happened to because I am the world's greatest father. No, I'm kidding. I got lucky on some lottery for Best Buy or something like that where they had a PS5 drop and I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. People were spending a thousand dollars plus for the PlayStation 5 because you couldn't get them in stores. People were buying multiple PS5s and they

23:58were getting one for themselves and then one to sell. In fact, I was talking to a guy online. I wasn't going to spend a thousand bucks. I said, hey, is this PS5? He was saying because he recognized who I was. He was saying, hey, Dan, I kind of want to do some Christmas shopping with this $200 extra and it's yours. Actually, weirdly enough, I think he was the one who turned me on to hey, Best Buy is doing this. But this is the lengths you had to go just to get to anything. Biden had enhanced unemployment benefits past by the Democrats, keeping people on the couch, keeping the supply chain shut down or the supply chain not operating at full capacity. At the same time, $1.9 trillion flows into not the private sector, but primarily government. The massive amounts of government spending flooded the nation's economy with dollars. What happens when you have more dollars chasing fewer goods because of that supply crunch? That is the classic recipe for inflation.

25:06Liberal economists, including Larry Summers, came out almost instantly and said, this is a really, really bad idea. You're going to have high inflation sure enough within a month, a month of arpeggio effect. We had the single highest year over year CPI increase in 30 years. By July of 2021, we had the single highest year over year increase in 40 years by July of 2022. For the first time in American history, the average price of gas in all 50 states was above $5. What did Biden and the Democrats do? They doubled down on what got them into that mess in the first place with the ironically titled inflation reduction act. What did the inflation reduction act do? Increased government spending again. So there were even more dollars chasing roughly the same

26:10amount of goods and services prices kept increasing. And here's the thing about prices. Well, inflation can go from 9% year over year. Inflation is simply the rate of price increases. The prices don't drop. When the price of a house rises to $600,000 from say 300 or 350. This is why just looking at CPI does not give a full site of what was going on in America's economy because big ticket items, houses, cars, that sort of thing, use cars, new cars, basic items like food, utilities, they were all going up by much, much higher amounts than the more stable items that were sort of keeping the total inflation picture seeming to be more reasonable. If all of a sudden you have a house that costs $600,000 and you have a whole ton of people entering the housing market

27:13where they don't have equity in an existing property. They don't have a home that they could sell off. There in a whole lot of trouble and not only that rents went up. Why? Because you had a demand shock at the same time Biden and the Democrats were spending all of this government money. They deliberately opened up the borders to let anywhere between 10 and 15 million people into the country illegally. They dramatically increased legal immigration. They allowed for waivers of deportation. They allowed people to stay on a temporary status that was never actually going to be temporary. What happens when you have millions of people suddenly into a place? They are competing with the people already there for the goods and services that will necessarily go up because you have more demand. There was never going to be a massive increase in the supply of housing. The Biden

28:18administration you might recall was basically having these new arrivals or new Americans or new neighbors. They were calling them euphemistically, sleeping under bridges in El Paso because there was no place to put them. They were going into hotels. They were going into apartment buildings. What happens when there is more competition? The prices go up. The price for everything went up because not only did you flood the market with dollars, you increased the demand as well without ever increasing the supply, both in the number of dollars that people had in the number of people who were in the country. The only thing the Federal Reserve could do was to hike interest rates again and again and again and again. The problem is if you're taking out loan to buy house,

29:18sort of by a car as most people do, you're paying way more in both principle and in interest. The reason that prices are so high has absolutely nothing to do with President Trump or Republicans. Not a single Republican voted for either the American Rescue Plan Act or the inflation reduction. Act not one, not a single one. Trump was not in office. Trump was being charged in four separate criminal cases. That's what Democrats said. They knew they failed. By the way, they knew there was pretty much no chance. They were ever going to hold on to the White House in 2024 because of how badly they screwed up. You know what the strategy was? You know, I Biden didn't drop out of the race in January of 2024 when it was obvious to everybody that he was going senile or already senile because and I won't. He thought Trump would be in jail and he wouldn't even need to campaign. That was a direct quote from Biden in a book by Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper.

30:23They destroyed the economy. They flooded this nation intentionally with illegal immigrants. I can prove that too. Do you know how I can prove that? Because the border was completely sealed within three weeks of Trump taking office again in January of 2025. We have now just marked 16 straight months that there hasn't been a single illegal immigrant released into the interior of this country by border patrol. We had tens of thousands released every month for four straight years under Biden. It was intentional. They flooded the nation with the illegals. They dramatically increased government spending and they tried to lock up the one guy who could have threatened them being able to do this for another four years. Ladies and gentlemen, my god, if ever there was a party that did not deserve to have power ever again, it is the people responsible for what is wrong with this country. Now, how bad are they? We've now got a Hollywood studio that is getting

31:30ready to leave Hollywood. Dave Roberts here. There you are surrounded by fans, sharing wings, sharing drinks, high-fiving random strangers. Everybody remembers the game. Nobody remembers the guy coughing behind you until a few days later at 2 a.m. you wake up with the fever and your throat's on fire. Now what? Urgent care, clothes, ER, slam, telehealth, maybe, but the pharmacy's clothes. You needed a medical emergency kit. These aren't first aid kits. They contain essential prescriptions used for over 30 common conditions, sinus and ear infection, UTIs, stomach bug, travelers diarrhea and more. On hand before you need them. Use your doctor-developed guidebook to select the right prescription or call their telemedicine doctor standing by. It's like an urgent care and drugstore at home. When you're sick, traveling or stranded, you wish you ordered a medical emergency kit. Order online in minutes and it's shipped to your door and say $45 with my promo code blue at urgentcarekit.com slash blue. That's promo code blue at urgentcarekit.com slash blue.

32:35Story next. And it's going to raise interest rates, gives ammunition to Democrats that they are at handling the nation's economy, even though they were the ones who caused this mess to begin with. If the issue is affordability, are you really going to, for example, here in Wisconsin, elect the guy who literally made everything you buy in Milwaukee County less affordable by nearly doubling the county's sales tax? You would if you don't really understand what Democrats do. They raise taxes. They spend so excessively and punish businesses with confiscatory taxes and burdensome regulation that drives them elsewhere. Case in point, a blockbuster report by TMZ dot com this afternoon. Paramount is preparing to leave California. TMZ has spoken with

33:41LA Mayor Karen Bass's office as well as the office of California's attorney general Rob Bonta. According to TMZ sources, those offices were both told that Paramount was going to announce an exit from California as early as yesterday. That announcement did not happen. TMZ says at this point, it's unclear whether those plans changed or the news was simply delayed. Why does Paramount want out? Because Bonta is helping, he's helping to spearhead a lawsuit as well as 11 other state attorneys general looking to block Paramount's massive $110 billion merger with Warner Brothers discovery, the CEO of Paramount. David Ellison already said that if this goes through if California would not settle and would not allow this merger to go through because frankly, folks, this is going

34:41to be really the only way that these film studios survive. Again, they are looking at massive displacement because of artificial intelligence. They are also subject to intense competition from, well, you, me, all of us. Ask your kid whether he's going to movies all that often or what is the last TV show he watched. If your kids are anything like mine, they're watching streamers who film themselves playing video games on Twitch. They're not watching the only way. Why did spirit airlines die? Because they were not allowed to merge. This is not about creating monopolies. This is about survival. So Ellison said, look, we're going to move to Texas, Tennessee, or Georgia. Do any of those states sound like they're deep, deep blue? They are apparently making good on

35:44that promise. Over the past couple of months, settlement talks failed. Bonta says Paramount is being unreasonable. Ellison said there is a deadline of October 1st and TMZ talking with both the AG's and the mayor's office said no deal is likely. This is unprecedented. A Hollywood studio leaving Hollywood. This is hardly the first massive company to leave California just in the last couple of years. Since it's founding in the 1870s, Chevron was in California. 2024, they moved to Houston. Tesla 2021, Oracle moved to Austin in 2020, Hewlett Packard SpaceX X, Palantir, Charles Schwab, Realtor.com, Yamaha Motors, Nutra Gina, the Playboy group, P L B Y group,

36:54Heft died. They sold the Playboy mansion and they were out. If even pornography can't make it in Hollywood anymore, you know there is something seriously wrong with liberal leadership of California. And it's not just businesses. People are fleeing and have been fleeing California and other liberal states in droves so much so that in the 2030 census and the 2031 redistricting, it is almost certain that red states are going to see a huge increase in representation in Congress and the Electoral College. California is going to lose as many as three or four more seats. They're going to go to Texas and Florida. New York is going to lose seats. Illinois is going to lose seats. Democrat states are places people leave, Republican states are places people go to. Why? Because

37:56there is a much more favorable tax and governmental structure. Wisconsin, I implore you, we don't have a climate that people are going to move to regardless of government structure and how much they're paying in taxes. We get this gubernatorial election wrong. We get this state legislative election wrong. The Supreme Court is also lost. If you want to be Illinois, if you want to be Minnesota, which is also projected to lose a seat by the way in the upcoming census and redistricting, be my guest. But California is living proof that government plays a huge role in where businesses and people go and people in businesses are far more mobile than they ever had. Join us 414-799-1130. That is the Carpetland USA Floring Center talk and text line email address, dodadihartmedia.com. Remember, you can follow us and really should be following us on social media.

39:55For the daily Trump date, by the way, we are going to get to in about 8 to 10 minutes. Dave Spano, he's the CEO of annex wealth management, helping you know the difference. Normally, we do that on Monday, decided to hold off until today because of the big federal reserve announcement. So stay tuned for that. Earlier today, federal reserve chairman Kevin Warsh said, look, we're raising interest rates a quarter of a percent because inflation is just still too high. The plane fact is that inflation is too high and has been for too long. This summer's inflation readings do not tell me that underlying trends have meaningfully improved. Based on the most recent CPI and PPI data, the 12-month change in total PC prices likely was around 3.6 percent in August. Core PCE and CPI prices running at about 3.2 and 2.4 percent respectively. Too many categories are still posting increases above 3 percent on both a 6 and 12-month

41:03basis. I noted in Jackson Hole that overall commodity prices also bear watching. And over the intermeeting period, the prices of many of these key inputs have risen. Of course, this is going to have a huge impact not just on the economy, but also the upcoming election. We will get into all of that very, very shortly. Big, big news for the Trump administration today, something that it does not by design from Armenia, get enough credit for. And that is the complete crackdown on the southern border. The southern border was sealed almost instantly. And the Trump administration has now marked 16 straight months without a single illegal immigrant being released into the interior of this country. DHS Secretary Mark Wayne Mullin in a statement to Fox News Digital today. Catching releases over consequences are back and illegal crossings have now fallen to historic lows. President Trump made a promise to the

42:07American people that he would make America safe again, and he is done just that by giving us the most secure border in American history. The Trump administration has now also celebrated the single biggest year-over-year decrease in both homicides and overall violent crime. Pretty much since record keeping began. We saw the single biggest drop in the murder rate in this country from 2024 to 2025. Since records first started being kept in 1900, violent crime rate according to the UCR, the FBI's annual crime report. That data shows that all violent crimes, homicide, rape, aggravated assault and the like nationwide dropped by the single biggest amount since the FBI first started doing annual crime reports in 1936. Huge, huge successes. They have also cracked

43:07down on fraud, trying to get waste fraud and abuse of government of taxpayer money out of the system that had become so endemic that we were losing untold billions of dollars per year. Not only did find all of this and find all of the redundancies in employment in the federal government, such that the Trump administration, this is something that is really never talked about, has gotten federal employment to its lowest level in at least four to five decades. It's believed that possibly since the 1960s, the civilian workforce has not been this low. 200,000 people have been let go from the federal government because their positions were determined to be not needed. And while the media would frame that as well, these are people who need these jobs.

44:07The fact is the American government didn't need those jobs. Whole lot of DEI officials are no longer employed by the federal government. Not only that, the fraud task force headed by JD Vance, the vice president, has been remarkably successful and another big series of arrests today. Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald in Los Angeles announcing a major bust in a multi-million dollar homeless fraud scheme. We are announcing charges and two arrests so far this morning against three separate individuals allegedly involved in fraud schemes that stole millions of dollars from programs meant to house and support the homeless. Now, it is very, very significant about this even though there were only two arrests. The fraudster is involved were associated with LaHassa, the LA housing authority. This is a government program that LA's mayor, Karen Bass,

45:14just resigned from a couple of weeks ago. You think she got a tip as to what was coming? HUD Secretary Scott Turner at this morning's press conference. Make no mistake, HUD and the Trump administration will not tolerate the theft and the abuse of taxpayer dollars in our country. These fraudsters received over $130 million. More than $75 million dollars of those will funnel through the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority also known as LAHassa. That is nearly the same amount LAHassa received from HUD every year until the Trump administration put an end to the California corruption. LAHassa has continually funded a homeless industrial complex on the backs of American taxpayers while fraud has continually run rampant. One of the biggest fraudulent organizations in America, I believe, and so too, do House Republicans is act blue. Coming up in about 15 minutes, we're going to talk with Wisconsin Congressman Brian

46:22style. He is also the chair of the House Administration Committee and they have just released an interim staff report accusing act blue of some very, very serious things. We are going to get into that with the congressman coming up. Today, Energy Secretary Chris Wright amid the energy price shocks that have led to the Fed having to raise interest rates today, teased a major announcement with respect to supply of oil and supply of gas and energy from Venezuela. Very exciting announcements from Venezuela today. You will see a very well-known oil company, American company that will talk about their investment in Venezuela and several more of those to come. There's also refining capacity in Venezuela that's not at full capacity right now, but it needs some work. We'd love to see some work down there and grow refining out of Venezuela as well. But as for right now, we still do have an issue with energy prices. And if this election is run

47:28on the price of gasoline, Republicans are in deep, deep trouble. In fact, the generic congressional ballot would suggest that new national poll from market university law school out today shows Democrats up 13, 54% to 41% on the generic ballot, at least for now. That seems like an outlier, but the generic ballot probably somewhere in the neighborhood of five to eight points on the issue of the economy. Joining us now to talk about the economy, the Fed raising interest rates, and so much more our dear friend, the CEO of Annex Wealth Management, he is. Dave Spano, he helps you know the difference. And today, Dave, I think some people were surprised that the Fed, especially President Trump's pick for Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Worsh raised interest rates, but ultimately, this really shouldn't have been a huge surprise. Should it have?

48:30No, and that's right. Thanks for having me, Danny. You look at what's happening, and you see that a lot of times that these are indicated through things like betting markets of what the Federal Reserve is going to do. And it was, it was near 95% that they were going to raise rates today. And they did three quarters to four percent. That's up about a quarter percent. Kevin Worsh, who is the chairman of the Federal Reserve, talked about the things that went into it. And as you were just pointed out, oil prices have moved up from the beginning of last year, it's $65 a barrel, $83 a barrel, but it's probably no longer a supply shock. In other words, I think the market is trying to settle in right here to say that oil is going to be higher for longer despite what's happening with Venezuela, despite the fact that Trump has asked Ukraine to stop bombing the oil of the Russian oil fields. All of this means that there's probably not a shock side to it that higher oil prices begin to work their way through the economy. So you see

49:36higher oil prices, then you see higher diesel prices. Diesel, obviously, means that it costs to get the food to the grocery stores. That means the consumers are paying higher inflation. That is really what's happening is higher inflation right now has forced the Federal Reserve into raising rates. And this is the worst part of it is they suggested that this might not be a one and done that there's probably going to be a second rate hike coming soon. Now this is the exact opposite of what President Trump wanted. He put out a post on truth social about an hour ago or so. Interest rates in the United States should be 1% or less because we are the best credit in the world by far. Our country is booming with new investment. If we stopped trading with every country that we have a deficit with, which is most of them, we would make at least $1.5 trillion a year. The word deficit is nothing more than a fancy word for loss. We are carrying almost every country

50:37in the world and that cannot go on any longer. Lower the interest rates for the United States of America and fast President Donald J. Trump. Is he wrong in that assessment or does the situation on the ground just not allow for it? Well, you have to talk about the trading deficit. Sometimes when you buy more things from another country, then you sell them. That's obviously the reason why you have a deficit and we're a consumer economy. If you look at really what's happening with the Federal Reserve, they have two jobs. They have a dual mandate and it is price stability and it is full employment. At 4% unemployment, you can argue that that's not the issue. They have to look to the other side of the ledger and talk about their other mandate. Their other mandate is price stability. When oil prices are higher, that is what Kevin Worsh has to look at. You look at the numbers he's looking at and we got a really good retail sales report this morning.

51:40You've got inflation higher. You've got consumer spending despite everything that's happening continues to be pretty good and you've got job gains. All of that means that the economy is doing well. A lot of people talk about a K-shape or a two-speed economy. Despite all of the consternation and as you mentioned, the political divide, the economy is doing well despite higher inflation. Kevin Worsh and his cohorts, all of them, unanimous decision today, that is our concern, is price stability to try to get to their 2% mandate. They're self-imposed, 2% mandate. They haven't got there for five years. It's been trading above 2%. That is the job that they have in front of them. You have a GDP growing at between 2% and 3%. Despite we're going to have a really good GDP this quarter, according to Atlanta Fed, that's going to be a good GDP report. I heard five percent. I thought you got it. The target, though, for the year,

52:44is about between 2% and 3%. This is the concern. The reason why the market went down 600, at least the Dow Jones was down 600 points today, is because higher interest rates work its their way through to cost more money for companies to borrow. It costs you and I more for mortgage payments and interest rates. It is great for the economy. You're probably going to see a bounce back here, though. That's generally a knee-jerk reaction. I think so. One thing that we've been talking about all year, Dave, really since the start of the second Trump term and even before, it's just the resilience of the American market, buoyed by profit levels of these publicly traded corporations, especially those involved in the AI game. I really wanted to pick your brain about the anti-AI movement. I don't think we're going to have time for that because we've got to get to Brian's style. Maybe this coming Monday, we can talk a little bit about that, the debate over AI, but it's really been AI, quantum computing, space, the robotics, the economies of tomorrow that are powering companies today. When we say

53:52corporate profits, it's like seen as a dirty word on the political left and some elements of the woke right as they're being called, or the horseshoe right, which is much more closely associated with the government interventionism of the left. Corporate profits means everybody who is invested, whether it's in a 401k, whether it's in a government pension, whatever is benefiting, because of the resilience, two things like the Iran war, two things like Fed rate hikes, because of just how strong the fundamentals are. I mean, I see an economy that's humming along. That doesn't expect to slow down. In fact, profits for 2027 are expected to double digit again. These companies that you're talking about, these data center companies and the resilience of those companies, that is going to continue every dollar that they get either through cash flow or for the debt market. They're investing back in. That means capital spending is going to continue to drive this economy, not as much consumer spending. There's nothing wrong with

54:56it, but it's going to continue to be a capital driven economy that means that there's going to be opportunities. This could be that some of the companies that you were looking at today, folks, might be on sale. He is Dave Spano, the CEO of Annex Wealth Management, helping you know the difference between rate hikes, rate cuts, a good economy, a bad economy, and what all of this means to you, because ultimately that's what it's all about. Check out annexwealth.com to work with someone who's working within four years as a fee-only fiduciary. These are the people who aren't trying to sell you some investment product or fund. They're actually taking a look at your portfolio. They're looking at your assets. They're trying to plan for your family's future. annexwealth.com. When we come back, major, major development in the investigation into act blue. This is the big funding mechanism for Democrats, each and every election cycle. And it has been

55:58accused of serious violations, including smurfing. This is a fraudulent practice by which big money donations are essentially broken up into tiny little donations that are funneled through unsuspecting people who have given to act blue before. These are known as smurfs. We will talk with one of the driving forces behind this investigation. Wisconsin Congressman Brian Style coming up next. Hey, it's Kelly Rowland. You may not know this, but I have Exema. So I get how it can still your time. But why let Exema take over when you can talk to your doctor about Epglyce? Epglyce, lubricism app LBKZ, a 250-mg per-tumil-liter injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older, who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms, with moderate to severe Exema. Also called a topic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin, or topicals, or who cannot use topical therapies. Epglyce can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you are allergic to

57:01Epglyce. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. I-problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have newer, worsening eye problems, you should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Epglyce. Before starting Epglyce, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Pay partnership with Lili. Respect your time. Ask your doctor about Epglyce and visit Epglyce.com or call 1-800-LiliRx or 1-800-545-5979. This is Dave Roberts. If you're heading into summer without a medical emergency kit, you're taking a risk most people don't think about until it's too late. Summer colds linger and can turn into sinus infections at last for weeks. Getting sick right before vacation can derail everything, and we are traveling, finding a doctor and pharmacy is stressful. That's why I ordered medical emergency kit. It's like having an emergency care and a pharmacy right at home. It includes essential prescriptions like a moxasillin and generic Z-pack to treat a wide range of common and serious illnesses. So if you wake up sick, at home or on the road, you already have what you need. No waiting for your doctor, no hours at urgent care, no pharmacy lines, no co-pays,

58:02just match your symptoms to the right prescription in your guidebook or call their telemedicine doctor standing by. Start on your med sooner and feel better faster. Every home needs at least one medical emergency kit. Four to years online in minutes, and it's shipped to your door, and say $45 with promo code blue at urgent care kit.com slash blue. That's promo code blue at urgent care kit.com slash blue. Here on the day blue, the main online fundraising pipeline for Democrat campaigns of weakening fraud controls, even after the detection of large scale fraud, including some schemes with foreign sources joining us now. One of the leading figures behind the investigation into act blue, Wisconsin representative Brian style. He is chairman of the committee on house administration. He is the co-author of this report with the House Judiciary Chairman, Jim Jordan Congressman style. Thank you so much for joining us. And this is this is a pretty

59:07serious thing that act blue is accused of doing. Well Dan, thanks for having me on. This is all about a principle that US elections should be for US persons only, period full stop. Of course, that applies to voting. But in this case, we're focused in on making sure that foreign donations are not entering the US political system. And we have significant evidence. How many again that act blue had weak fraud prevention standards and looked the other way. And what we released today, I think, is really concerning evidence that although act blue originally told us as this investigation began, that they were reviewing passports to confirm citizenship from donations are made outside the United States. What we learned is that they're actually were just confirming that you typed in seven digits into the system. That's not actually confirming the identity of a US citizen. That's checking a box to claim that you are preventing foreign funds from entering the system. It should it raises yet another red flag about whether or not act blue was doing what's required

1:00:12to prevent foreign funds from entering US political political real election campaigns. The language from act blue's own staff indicates that the platform, quote, decided to take a more lenient approach to fraud prevention in 2024. That's not Brian style saying this. That's not Jim Jordan. That's not Dan O'Donnell. That is act blue's own staff. I mean, do I even need to ask why they would be doing this? It seems as though they were welcoming or at the very least going to turn a blind eye to fraudulent donations that they knew were going to come in to defeat Donald Trump. But you're exactly right that those are their own words. So my investigation began in 2023. They're well aware that we're looking into act blue and did they have the correct fraud prevention programs yet at the same time they're having internal dialogues

1:01:13about weakening their fraud prevention standards. Some of the internal documents that we've been able to get our hands on are incredibly concerning individuals that are clearly looking at the other way. One instance where the all indications were the donor was from outside the United States. Yet the internal documentation verified that they had a Twitter account located in identifying the donor in the United States. This is the type of lack fraud standards that I've been concerned about why we need legislation to upgrade this and why we need the full testimony of individuals at act blue who know the answer. We know that they have spoken to the New York Times. They continue to come before Congress, plead the fifth and refuse to answer our questions. I'm of the belief the American people deserve to know exactly what is going on at act blue. Are they taking this fraud seriously and are there foreign funds entering the system via the act blue donor platform? So where does your investigation go from here? But we continue our work. We have a number of

1:02:18additional employees who are coming in to provide interviews to our investigation. What we have seen before those individuals who come before us have ultimately pled the fifth and refuse to answer questions on the record. Of course, they have a constitutional right to do that. And in some ways when you read these internal documents, you understand why someone with their attorney may reach a conclusion that they should plead the fifth. We also need to make sure that we are updating our laws to prevent this from happening in the first place. That's a broader effect. And then finally, if there is criminal wrongdoing, the United States Department of Justice, ultimately will need to take action. Do you think that and I know you don't want to get ahead of yourself or to and I'm not asking you to give away any information or anything that do you believe that this rises to the level of criminal misconduct because I have been following your investigation for a long time. I have a very, very difficult time concluding otherwise. And

1:03:22do you plan to refer findings to federal investigators? Well, I don't want to reach on this interview with conclusions whether or not we're all sure. No, no, no, I get that. I totally get that. Deutian. Yeah. And only you as an attorney can fully appreciate why you can't do that. But at the same time, I think it's very clear that there's just incredibly concerning information and an approach to fraud in a lack of seriousness at Act Blue. And you can, and again, this isn't my words or Jim Jordan's words or your words. These are from the internal documents at Act Blue that we've obtained through subpoenas. Often they say, as they're reviewing something, they say, quote, give the donor the benefit of the doubt in making the contribution. And that's despite red flags. So they're seeing IP addresses from outside the United States. Yet they'll look for other reasons to make a decision that that is an American citizen. They told us that they were

1:04:24reviewing passport numbers of individuals for making donations from outside the United States where they knew this individual is outside the United States. But in fact, what they were simply doing was collecting seven digit codes, which is not really checking a passport number. It's why this investigation that began in in 2023 is really broken open, both the New York Times reporting, the CNN reporting on this, where clearly individuals at Act Blue are speaking. They're not speaking to us and they're claiming their Fifth Amendment privileges to self-incrimination. But it sure looks like there is a real and substantive concern that needs further investigation at Act Blue. Congressman Brian style joining me here on the Dan O'Donnell show. Sir, thank you so very much for the update on this. And please keep up the good work into digging into Act Blue because there is a lot there. And the quote from its own staff saying, well, we're going to take a more lenient

1:05:26approach. That suggests knowledge. That suggests that knowledge that there is fraud taking place on the platform and that we're going to allow it. I know you can't make a conclusion. I did not want to get you, you know, to make any sort of conclusion or anything like that put you in an uncomfortable spot. I am not bound by such rules. That to me is an admission that there was knowledge of criminal activity and there was a concerted effort to allow criminal activity to take place on the Act Blue platform. This is Dan O'Donnell saying this not Brian style, but sir, keep up the good work. Thank you so much for joining us and we will of course talk to you very soon. Thanks, Dan. You are listening to the Dan O'Donnell show, a tour de force of truth. And it's coming is fraud in America. Just how big of a problem is illegal immigration in America. One of the most famous men in America was apparently the victim of both Travis Kelsey,

1:06:30Kansas City Chiefs Titan, AKA Mr Taylor Swift was apparently the victim of a Ponzi scheme perpetrated by an illegal immigrant investor Fox News reporter Max Jordan with the story. 38-year-old Joe Ahara is an immigrant in the country illegally and was recently sentenced to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of wire fraud. Prosecutors say he swindled his victims out of more than $35 million running a Texas-based investment company called Swift Art Capital LLC. In 2015, he began investing client funds in a single investment filled more as Pakistan. And eventually 99% of all client funds were consolidated into it. When the value of the investment dropped, Joe Ahara didn't tell his clients and falsely told investors that they were actually making profits. Joe Ahara also only invested a fraction of the money he was given using new money from investors to repay older investors and to fund an extravagant life of private jets,

1:07:32luxury hotels and lavish spending sprees. After Joe Ahara was indicted, prosecutors say he then tried to obstruct justice by trying to coach a victim into giving a favorable statement to the FBI. He also lied about his immigration status and finances and tried to get his sister to wipe his iPhone to hide evidence. Huh, I don't know about you. I am certainly feeling very culturally enriched by his presence in America. I know Travis Kelsey has been, that is like the classic Ponzi scheme, by the way. And I'm really, really, really hoping that Travis Kelsey invested all of this money before he started dating one of the wealthiest women on planet earth. What is his wife's net worth? Roughly two billion dollars, but it just goes to show you that it doesn't matter who you are, you can fall victim to fraud. And isn't it something that when you go looking for fraud, how much of it

1:08:34you find? And isn't it interesting that for four straight years before President Trump, one reelection that we just sort of allowed fraud? We allowed the defrauding first of our system of entry into the United States through the fraudulent claim and application of asylum or refugee status. That's the biggest thing. That's the thing that is just so galling to me about illegal immigration under Biden. It wasn't that you had so many people just sneaking in under the dead of night. They're running across the shallow areas of the Rio Grande. They're hopping over the fences that the Biden administration literally was cutting open. Do you remember that? That Texas actually tried to repair a border fence. The Biden administration went back and opened it up again. If there was ever, if there was ever a more representative image of just how damaging the Biden administration was on illegal immigration, it was that, but it was the active defrauding, the

1:09:40act of saying, yes, if I go back to my country, I am going to be persecuted. Me personally, I'm going to be persecuted. If I go back to the Dominican Republic, well, you're you're a day laborer who has no ties to the Dominican Republic of leadership whatsoever, the opposition party or anything like that. Oh, yes, yes, yes. And the fact that the Biden administration and Democrats going back to the Obama administration, they would just be like, yeah, yeah, sure, you're a refugee. Just come on it. It was fraud. That was tolerated by Democrats because they clearly wanted people in this country. Well, now Democrats have turned their attention to weakening the country, not from just flooding it with illegal immigrants who are committing crimes and competing with American citizens and those here in this country legally for jobs and also resources, goods and services. They are hellbent on ending the single biggest technological,

1:10:48military, economic, digital, every cultural civilization. And let's call it a civilizational advantage. The United States has a massive advantage in artificial intelligence. So naturally, the country's most prominent socialist needs to end that. And how is Senator Bernie Sanders doing that well in an interview with CBS's 60 minutes? He's going to the tried and true strategy that Democrats, socialists in particular always employ. If you don't do what we say, you will all die. If you want to develop legally and nucleo weapon that could threaten humanity, you should be punished. If you are threat, you are moving forward on a AI development that could threaten humanity, you should be equally punished. So you equate these two, you equate the state. No, I think AI, the potential danger of AI is probably greater than nuclear weapons. Greater than nuclear weapons. Greater than nuclear weapons. Greater. Even the Libre reporter at 60 minutes is like, you

1:11:55sure about that home side? I don't quite see it. That's no surprise coming from Bernie Sanders. What is relatively surprising is that there are so many on what are called the woke right or the horse shoe right politics. As you know, is not a straight line. It's a circle or a horse shoe. The two extreme ends of it. The socialists left and the far, far right. I don't even know if they're far right because there's really nothing about them that adheres to traditional conservative principles. They sort of meet at the same point case in point. How about an AI symposium, an anti AI symposium featuring Steve Bannon. That's right. Steve Bannon, once a close aide to President Trump, once a leading figure on the right had a significant break with Trump. He is very anti-Trump now, but he is still very prominent in alt-right or woke right circles.

1:13:01He says, you know what? I totally agree with Bernie. I don't think you could find any too harder partisans than Bernie Sanders on the left and Steve Bannon on the right. And I think that speaks to not just Max. To the threat is we have to rise above it. This is a engine history. We have to hand this right correctly. To handle it correctly, number one, we can never trust where Oleg Arks says because all they do, they're disingenuous and they lie. This has to be the American people. You cannot be a supplicant. We're not going to be supplicants anymore. The American people are going to drive this. The American people or the American or world government. We can't trust the Oleg Arks. Okay. Yeah. I agree. The Oleg Arks are calling for strict regulation and possibly even a stop to AI development. Why do you suppose that is? Steve Oleg Arks,

1:14:09when he says Oleg Arks, what he is talking about is business. Is the private sector? Is capitalists if you prefer or if you would like to use a term that would be more familiar to his new BFF Bernie Sanders, the owners of the means of production, the bourgeoisie and Bannon using very Marxist language saying the people need to rise up and just like the luddites of the industrial revolution smashing textile manufacturing equipment, he wants to smash what may be the single best tool for the advancement of humanity. Not more dangerous than nuclear. Can a nuclear weapon potentially map the human genome in milliseconds and provide a cure for untold diseases? Can a nuclear weapon solve mathematical equations that human beings have been unable to? Can

1:15:15nukes do that? Is that why the Iranians were so hell bent on getting them? Is that what Kim Jong Un is doing in secret with the nukes that he's hoarding? He's solving mathematical equations. It is it is tough to undersell just how stupid some of the anti-AI voices really are in the four o'clock hour. It's 457. Just turn 457 p.m. If I listed all of the things that left wing Democrats told us just in the last what decade or so would kill us all I don't think I would run out by the time we hit five o'clock. If I just did nothing but list all of the things do you realize that they said the end of net neutrality rules would kill us all net do you remember that debate net neutrality anybody anybody Democrats seriously told they told us with a straight face

1:16:22that people would die if net neutrality rules were revoked or changed in any way net neutrality is the idea that ISPs those are internet service providers should treat all legal internet traffic the same that that you don't block sites you don't slow services on purpose you don't sell fast lanes for example if you're an internet provider say charter communications or whatever let's say I'm you know what I'm just going to use a fake one we call it we call it Dan's internet if Dan's internet service you sign up through it we promise you some five G internet five G by the way was going to kill us all lib's told us that five G towers were going to give everybody cancer remember that one so five G was going to kill if Dan's internet

1:17:23service said you know what I really don't like that left wing site the drug report so I am going to purposely slow down the drug report it doesn't load as fast if you click links on drug report they don't open as quickly and I say to drug report all right drudge or whatever lefty is actually running drudge report right I'm not entirely convinced that match right that he is a phenomenally weird guy it would not shock me in the least if he sold out years ago and he's chilling on a beach somewhere or knowing what I do about match drudge chilling in some secret bomb shelter deep underneath a mountain somewhere uh and I say all right you want to restore your traffic you have to pay a greater rate for it that's violating net neutrality if I did that Dems literally said people would die my goodness behaves just like the liberal hacks that we always

1:18:27knew them to be allowing former Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge Hannah duke to keep her law license at least for now even though she's been convicted of a felony for grossly abusing her position to help a violent illegal immigrant evade ice capture she was unsuccessful and she was criminally convicted earlier this year of course got even less than a slap on the wrist from a fellow lib judge Lynn Adelman the trial court judge who sentenced her to just a pittance of a fine no jail time no any no consequences whatsoever and the liberal justices on the court also seemed very very open to completely blowing up the Wisconsin Constitution in order to give Democrats an edge in the 2028 congressional elections we will get into that coming up very shortly here on the Dan O'Donnell show welcome back to it 414 799 1130s our carpetland USA flooring center

1:19:31talk and text line my email address dode at iheartmedia.com follow me on social media at Dan O'Donnell show x facebook instagram dan O'Donnell show podcast on iheart radio or wherever you listen to podcasts first though we focus on the 2026 midterm elections and of course there is a big gubernatorial race hitting tom tiffany the republican against david kraulee the democrat well a bad bad bad thing happened for democrats over the weekend tom tiffany was allowed to be viewed as a human being and the media simply could not stand that people having empathy for a republican or on trump supporting nazi for an election denier we can't allow that yeah yeah yeah he he did cheat death by escaping a plane crash an emergency landing that i think was actually closer to a

1:20:35controlled crash for those who missed the story uh tiffany was coming from a Lincoln day dinner he was flying to the wasa airport when his small planes pilot man by the name of Leonard bolts said we've lost power put on your seatbelt we are going down 10 seconds later tiffany said the plane went into lake wasa the two had to abandon ship as the plane began to sink and they swam to safety both escaped with very minor injuries they were incredibly lucky i said this is a miracle not only that they survived but also that the worst injury appears to have been tiffany suffered a pretty deep laceration above his right eye that required 12 stitches to close almost immediately and i mean almost immediately the politics reporter for the milwaki journal sentinel

1:21:36which styles itself as the newspaper of record in this state woman by the name of hope carnapp posts on her ex account that lake wasa is only 30 feet deep and it has an average depth of just seven feet when our good friend joe handraku is a republican data guru asked her in her comments hey hope why did you include the word only in that she said because it didn't seem that significant the implication was very obviously given those two tweets that hope carnapp was trying to minimize just how dangerous just how death defying this really was well it's only a small nevermind the fact that the Hudson river is 30 feet deep that didn't make the miracle on the Hudson any less impressive or captain solely chezley so in burgers heroics any less heroic

1:22:45but to hope carnapp who can't possibly stand and the journal sentinel can't allow people to say hey you know what i really like this tom tiffany got they heard about him in a way that was independent of Milwaukee journal sentinel left wing media spin people heard tom tiffany speaking in his own words they saw him get choked up they saw him tear up and admit in a press conference on sunday afternoon look this is the first time this happens Saturday night sunday afternoon he says look this is the first time i think i've really allowed myself to feel you know you're adrenaline is pumped up he said we were joking about this last night i think now i'm for the first time really letting the emotions in it he was he was fighting back tears for about three minutes during that press conference while talking about the injuries he and Leonard bolts his pilot received

1:23:46this was a rare moment of of candor it was a rare moment of humanity that you saw in these highly scripted campaigns and it was a rare moment where the republican in a race was actually able to reach people independent of that media spin independent of the media's narrative that is already established for him what you saw hope carnapp doing and then she completely lied about what her intention what she said hey look she deleted the tweet because people immediately started saying this is pretty awful what you're obviously trying to do is minimizing this near tragedy she said no no no no no what i was saying was the water was so shallow that it you know was was way more likely that they would have died on impact because they wouldn't have been able to do a safe water landing okay no that explanation was proven to be alive by her second we'd say it

1:24:48didn't seem that impressive was her i believe direct quote it just doesn't seem that impressive to me my goodness it's not how deep the water is as any sane thinking non liberally biased person understands it it is not it's the fact that the plane lost power and went down that they survived a plane crash what did it about well if they would have had to make that emergency landing on the highway well you know the highway wasn't really that bumpy it was just repaved it wasn't it's not that impressive if you asked me just when you thought hope carnapp could not possibly be topped in just how awful how biased how propagandistic a take she could

1:25:52have possibly had about the tom Tiffany plane crash castor in murk a reporter for CBS 58 says hold my beer she did a hit piece on the hero pilot bolts isn't just a pilot he's not as he's a retired airline pilot and he he flies small planes as a hobby as a passion and he has been flying Tiffany around he also is the chairman of the Republican Party or Langley County Republican and there was some issues that they ran into a couple of years ago dealing with the Fox recall does that have any relevance whatsoever was bolts in his role as the land glade county GOP chairman or was he in his role as a freaking pilot who made a heroic land didn't matter to Catherine murk here's part of her report I spent the day digging through records of the man

1:26:58some people are calling a hero stop Saturday night something right now stop right now right did you catch it the man some people are calling a hero what is the implication there some people call me I for one don't but some people those right wingers are and here is the reason he's not a hero army you can start that over again here's Catherine murk here here is the reason Catherine murk would very much like you to know Leonard bolts is most definitely not a hero despite what some people read those people think I spent the day digging through records of the man some people are calling a hero after Saturday night's emergency landing according to video where he endorsed a former secretary of state candidate Leonard bolts introduces himself I'm Leonard bolts and I'm proud to support great Meyer for secretary of state I'm retired airline pilot I'm a

1:28:01retired major in the United States Air Force and I know quality people when I see them 73-year-old Leonard bolts identified in this video from July as the Langley County GOP chair has a deep rooted history with the Republican Party in 2024 bolts was one of a handful of Republicans the ethics commission accused of illegally steering money through county parties to avoid campaign finance laws they recommended felony charges for those involved ultimately bolts was not charged with a crime online record show he's made consistent contributions to the party going back to the Scott Walker era campaign finance reports show bolts has flown Tiffany at least 12 times as a form of in-kind contributions to the campaign what possible relevance does a two-year-old scandal have to this story unless the aim once again is to shift the narrative from hero Republican pilot

1:29:08saves Republican gubernatorial candidate to the Republican is donating to Republicans he he flew Tiffany as a form of in-kind contribution yeah that that is what you can do as long as that doesn't exceed any sort of legal limit it's perfectly fine admittedly I thought what bolts did in 2024 was egregious and I said as much for months and months and months boss recall to moronic boogaloo as I called it was one of the dumbest things that the horseshoe right has done in this state in many years surpassed only perhaps

1:30:09by the ill-fated effort to recall Tony Evers that allowed him to raise unlimited money for months while the buffoons in charge of that recall effort did absolutely nothing to try to make it happen you might notice that neither I nor any other news outlet has really been reporting on the boss recall to moronic boogaloo aspect of the story because it's not relevant to this story unless you are pushing an agenda this would be like if I did this story and I said Catherine Merck who once bullied a girl in high school I don't know I have no idea who Catherine Merck is she was probably delightful in high school pause for a fact I have no idea who this person is but let's say I started this I spent the day digging into the background of

1:31:13Catherine Merck and you know what I actually probably could have very easy to do background checks you want it you want to see republic republicans you want to see reporters start squealing hold up the microscope to them like they do to republicans be about as fair to them air the dirty laundry that they have just like they do to people they don't like by the way my favorite part of this report which aired last night on the CBS 58 evening news was when Merck tried to call Leonard Bolts am I speaking to Leonard Bolts my name is Catherine Merck I'm reporter with CBS 58 over in Milwaukee sorry but I'm not making any comments I've been told not to speak my apologies is there anything just you want to say just about the flight in general Bolts hung up on me after that question

1:32:20thank you Leonard thank you Bolts hung up on me and I was forced to air video of myself talking into my cell phone on speaker like the hack buffoon that I am I folks this when we say these are the lengths that members of the media will go to in order to be biased well trying to maintain the guys of new trap this is what we mean hope carnaupe and Catherine Merck are just two of the most egregious offenders what this very clearly was with an effort to again shift the narrative from republican pilot makes heroic landing republican candidate barely escapes death by swimming to safety oh oh it was swimming it's like four to six feet four to six feet down wasn't that deep wasn't

1:33:22that impressive I okay I don't know what to tell you if you like we can put you in a small plane and have the power go out and we'll try to get you down in like a pond or something how about this how about this Len Bolts seems like a really really talented pilot Len I'm going to put out a kitty pool in my backyard it's going to be about three inches deep go for a flight with hope carnaupe and see if you can make an emergency landing right in that kitty pool and we are going to video and then we're going to have Catherine Merck we're going to ask Catherine Merck to report on this afterwards do you still think that it's not that impressive because the water is super shallow this by the way after the extended background report on Catherine Merck Catherine Merck who had 15 parking tickets while attending the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee I have no idea

1:34:26and by the way if you did not get a parking ticket well on UW Milwaukee's campus I don't think you lived I don't believe that you actually attended that university but the point is that how would they would not like it if we dug into there but well what's the what's the what's the purpose of that damn are they they're not public figures oh they absolutely are they want to impact public discourse why not open season anybody wants to do some background checks on reporters by all means go ahead you've got Facebook pages you've got Twitter accounts report on them the way they report on Republicans the Wisconsin Supreme Court of course declines to punish a fellow Lib we'll get to that next hey it's Kelly Rowland you may not know this but I have Exama so I get how it can steal your time but why let Exama take over when you can talk to your doctor about Epglyss

1:35:29Epglyss Libricism app LBKZ a 250 milligram per 2 milliliter injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe Exama also called a topic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies Epglyss can be used with or without topical corticosteroids don't use if you are allergic to Epglyss allergic reactions can occur that can be severe eye problems can occur tell your doctor if you have newer worsening eye problems you should not receive a live vaccine when treated with before starting Epglyss tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection paid partnership with Lily respect your time ask your doctor about Epglyss and visit Epglyss.com or call 1-800-LilyRX or 1-800-545-5979 Dave Roberts here there you are surrounded by fans sharing wings sharing drinks high-fiving random strangers everybody remembers the game nobody remembers the guy coughing behind you until a few days later at 2am you wake up with the fever and your

1:36:32throats on fire now what urgent care close ER slam telehealth maybe but the pharmacies close you needed a medical emergency kit these aren't first aid kits they contain essential prescriptions used for over 30 common conditions sinus and ear infection UTIs stomach bug travelers diarrhea and more on hand before you need them user doctor developed guidebook to select the right prescription or call their telemedicine doctor standing by it's like an urgent care and drug store at home when you're sick traveling or stranded you wish you ordered a medical emergency kit order online in minutes and it's shipped to your door and say 45 dollars with my promo code blue at urgentcare kit.com slash blue that's promo code blue at urgentcare kit.com slash blue at the speed it's more face-to-the-quarter pounder the battle is closed and for only 599 even regular

1:37:32students can afford it like that guy you need that big old burger yeah the whole youngest much of us only 599 is cold senior available for a limited time of participating restaurants tax not included not valid for use within a combo or in combination with any other offer or discount on the Dan O'Don. Welcome back to it the state Supreme Court now has a 5-2 liberal majority after new justice Chrissy Taylor was sworn in last month and they wasted no time with their new expanded majority doing even more hackish things legally that hope carnaupe or Catherine Merck could do in the media here's the first the court denied this morning a request to immediately suspend the law license of Hannah Dugan she is the former Milwaukee Circuit Court judge who is a convicted felon after helping to smuggle or trying to smuggle an illegal immigrant criminal a violent

1:38:39offender who beat both his roommate and his roommates girlfriend and was appearing before Dugan she tried to smuggle him out her jury room exit and down a non public elevator to avoid federal agents who had arrived at the courtroom to take him into custody in a two-page order filed this morning the court said it considered a request a motion for summary suspension to immediately suspend Dugan's law license the Supreme Court is allowed under its rules to exercise its own discretion the court specifically its five liberal justices concluded that an immediate suspension is not warranted under the facts of this matter the facts are that a judge an attorney

1:39:41in the state of Wisconsin licensed to practice law used that law license and used the special privileges and special powers given to her by the people of Milwaukee County the people of the state of Wisconsin to judge other human beings and she used those powers and privileges to instead of judging an accused criminal appearing before her attempt to set that criminal free knowing full well he is never going to come back to her court to answer the violent battery charges that he faced because she didn't like Trump and didn't like ice that apparently according to the lives on the Wisconsin Supreme Court that does not warrant a suspension of your law license meanwhile poor Republican district attorney Xavier Solis down in Kenosha has his license suspended for a day was an automatic suspension because he didn't cooperate fully enough with the

1:40:45OLR Office of Lawyer Regulations investigation into him using AI to help write some briefs so you can smuggle an illegal out of your court and keep your law license but by God if you don't cooperate when the OLR or the Wisconsin Supreme Court decides to investigate you then you are done fantastic opinion from a net zeagler one of the two remaining conservatives it's her and alleged conservative Brian Haggadorn and unfortunately zeagler announced she's retiring her seat is up next spring and there are already two lives running for it conservatives have not yet been able to recruit a candidate I have got a real bad feeling about this court going six to one or at the very least with Haggadorn six to one half of one zeagler wrote a fantastic descent the court in 2022

1:41:49in OLR V Blamy remember him Brett Blamy he was another judge who was apparently one of the biggest child porn pedophiles in Wisconsin he was convicted of federal crimes he is currently in federal prison he's like believe he's still in federal prison he was convicted and sentenced to prison he was a very very well-connected Democrat this guy was about so when Democrats especially those from Milwaukee say well the Republicans there are the party a pedophile protectors and Epstein and so forth say oh hey remember Brett Blamy who everybody in the Milwaukee Democratic party has posed for pictures with and apparently knew very well you guys you guys still down with him so OLR the Blamy justice is on the Supreme Court summarily suspended his license after a federal conviction

1:42:53zeagler's descent the federal crime that attorney Dugan was convicted of is corruptly endeavoring to influence obstruct and impede the due and proper administration of the law under which a pending proceeding was being had before a department and agency of the United States more specifically these charges concerned then judge Dugan wearing a judicial robe at the court house obstructing federal agents i am confounded by our courts in action but that in action does not dictate that the OLR must wait to proceed Dugan still could have her license suspended or revoked she could be I think technically it's suspension and you can always apply for reinstatement but i'm going to suggest to you ladies and gentlemen that there is likely not going to be a suspension of the law license why because Dugan is a liberal in good standing and despite the fact

1:44:00that she is a federal felon she is a convict she has committed a felony crime and not just a felony like for example let's say Dugan was convicted of battery right she is how shall I put this politely she is an ample gal let's say she beat the holy hell out of a much smaller man that would be a crime to be sure it would be worthy of prison time it would be worthy of conviction would that speak to her ability to serve as an attorney in the state of Wisconsin not necessarily right okay she is a violent crazy person did it involve her abusing her license to practice law it did not this did and this was about for example the blammy about that

1:45:00obviously you can't have a pedophile like an actual honest to god pedophile you can't have him sitting and judge others i mean that is just so heinous so egregious you can't but this was a crime this was a conviction for abusing the license to practice law the only possible reason you could have to not immediately suspend that license the the facts were proven the facts were proven in a court of law a jury returned a guilty verdict on corruptly endeavoring to obstruct the due and proper administration of the law that is from the federal statute it's not she allegedly did this she did this a jury of her peers found she is guilty she committed this crime she abused the power vested in her not just as a judge but as an attorney because you need to be an attorney you need to be a licensed attorney to be a judge

1:46:01in the state of Wisconsin Supreme Court said yeah no we we still think she could be trusted to practice law she's not going to abuse her power again no no no no sorry folks when i say that these five women are hacks in black robes these these are the Catherine Merck's of the law this is what i mean the only reason you don't immediately suspend her license is because you agree with what she did you you said hey this this this is someone on our team we can't possibly punish her that is a disgust i'm not just confounded like a net zeal or is i am flat out disgusted and oh the state supreme courts libs weren't done not by a long shot they held oral arguments today on cases that wouldn't just gerrymandor congressional maps for democrats which they're totally

1:47:08going to allow by the way they would allow the state constitution itself to be blown up but it has nothing to do with the decision on the maps itself i will explain to spare Hannah Dugan from having to give up her law license for grossly abusing her law license to help free or at least try to free a violent illegal immigrant criminal do you see by the way just as a as a very brief aside the way you frame a story the narrative that you it impacts the way like you listeners are undoubtedly as ticked off as i am about this by the way i framed this what if i would have framed it the Wisconsin supreme court declined to immediately punish Hannah Dugan without a full investigation by the office of lawyer regulation into allegations that she committed

1:48:12a crime or is the more accurate way of putting that Hannah Dugan did commit a crime she was convicted for it and she did as an element of that crime corruptly influenced or obstructed the application of the law whether you like it or not deporting taking in an illegal immigrant criminal especially a violent illegal immigrant criminal that is a valid application of the law that is a valid administration of justice she used her law license she used her position as a judge to interfere with that that to me is the single worst defense that a judge or a licensed attorney in this state can can make that that that is about as bad as it gets well the supreme court wasn't done being live hacks nothing by a launcher they heard oral arguments on two cases that set her around

1:49:17liberal efforts to gerrymandor the congressional map ahead of the 2028 election they took up the appeals directly after and this is where the boy i hope i have enough time to explain this there were two different cases in which my producer arm and is looking very nervously like how long is Dan gonna ramble on about the law late last year the state supreme court decided that it couldn't directly hear a challenge to the congressional maps so it appointed two separate three judge panels comprised of liberal circuit court judges to hear both cases long about march april of this year both three judge panels came back and dismissed the cases they said look it has nothing to do with whether or not this case can be brought can you challenge the congressional maps sure is the

1:50:22theory of the case stupid yes probably not the libra the libs didn't say that the issue is the Wisconsin constitution itself the Wisconsin constitution like the u.s constitution and every other state constitution in this country establishes the supreme court as the court of last resort in other words there can be no lower court that reverses a supreme court decision you cannot have therefore district judge lin edelman the guy who gave even less than a slap on the wrist a little love tap on the wrist to Hannah do get he could not reverse a decision of the united state supreme court the two judges the two panels of circuit court judges both came back to the supreme court and said look we are circuit court judges the congressional map question was already decided by a prior state supreme court the state supreme court when it was controlled

1:51:27by conservatives in order to get the democrats to have a massive advantage and to literally gerry mandor the maps for democrats and that's what this is this is liberal groups attempting to redraw district maps specifically to quote make them more fair well when you are drawing maps with the express aim of electing more members of a given party what do we call that especially when those maps are irregular or kind of look like a salamander well elbridge gerry found that out back in the early eighteen hundreds and because he tried to draw maps that looked like salamanders they became known as gerry manders in case you're wondering where that phrase came from this is why we say we do talk radio differently when we talk about gerry that you might get a little history lesson

1:52:28about where that name came from definition of a gerry mandor is specifically to exceed proper map drawing procedures to give a partisan advantage to one party that's exactly what the liberal supreme court wants to do the the express purpose is to gerry mandor Derek van ordin and Brian style who joined us earlier on the dano donnell show right out of their seats in the aim to make them apps more fair in the interests of fairness we need to gerry mandor you see we're undoing a gerry mandor by doing an even worse gerry mandor or something this has nothing to do with the gerry mandor itself what the justice is we're hearing oral arguments on today was whether those two cases were properly thrown out by the circuit court judges in other words

1:53:31what the Wisconsin Supreme Court's lib justices the Catherine Merck's of the legal world as I now call them whether they're going to be totally fine with allowing circuit court judges to overturn supreme court justices when they think those supreme court justices who happen to be conservative were wrong that is a constitutional impossibility you cannot have a circuit court judge in fact be the court of last resort when that role is specifically delegated to the state supreme court under the constitution we have a quote the heartland post has the quote from chief justice Jill koroski this is during today's arguments the legislature that drew these maps came from districts and created maps that are some of the most gerry mandor in the country that map should not

1:54:35bind us forward and forward in perpetuity I don't see how that's constitutional so we're going to blatantly violate the constitution this is not by the way a constitutional precept that is up for debate otherwise we've had no lucky county circuit court judge Dave Borowski on a couple of times I'm going to ask him directly all right so the state supreme court is going to overturn the congressional mass day of your Milwaukee County circuit court judge since they now say you can overturn the supreme court I am going to bring a lawsuit against the state supreme court and you are going to overturn their ruling would that be possible no it is not it would never be and nobody would disagree with that fact except the hacks in black robes on the Wisconsin Supreme

1:55:36Court these are not jurists these are not judges what you are seeing and what you saw today are five activists who are attempting to get a political outcome for their preferred political party and they are perfectly willing to shred the state constitution to do so you are listening to the Dan O'Donnell show it is conservative thought and apparently way better legal thought than even the state supreme court and not just talk will be right Dave Roberts here there you are surrounded by fans sharing wings sharing drinks high-fiving random strangers everybody remembers the game nobody remembers the guy coughing behind you until a few days later at 2 a.m. you wake up with the fever and your throats on fire now what urgent care close ER slam telehealth maybe but the pharmacies close you needed a medical emergency kit these aren't first aid kits they contain essential prescriptions used for over 30 common conditions sinus and ear infection UTIs stomach bug travelers

1:56:42diarrhea and more on hand before you need them user doctor developed guidebook to select the right prescription or call their telemedicine doctor standing by it's like an urgent care and drugstore at home when you're sick traveling or stranded you wish you ordered a medical emergency kit order online in minutes and it's shipped to your door and say 45 dollars with my promo code blue at urgent care kit dot com slash blue that's promo code blue at urgent care kit dot com slash blue yes is angus marksamus this partner has one part of a pound of hot juicy cooked to water angus feet it's more face-to-the-quarter pounder the burger of clothes and for only 599 even regular dudes can afford it like that guy you need that big old burger yeah the whole angus marks on us only 599 is cold senior available for a limited time of participating restaurants tax on included not valid for use within a combo or in combination with any other author or discount