Radio Show Hour 2 – 01/06/2025

[00:00:13] Broadcasting live from atop the Rocky Mountains, the crossroads of the West.

[00:00:18] You are listening to the Liberty Roundtable Radio Talk Show.

[00:00:25] All right.

[00:00:26] Happy to have you along, my fellow Americans.

[00:00:28] Sam Bushman, Lowell Nelson, CampaignForLiberty.org.

[00:00:31] Finally, back on your radio once again.

[00:00:34] This is the broadcast for January the 6th in the year of our Lord, 2025.

[00:00:39] Hour 2 of 2, promoting God, family, country, protecting life, liberty, and property.

[00:00:43] Mike Johnson is a shame, in my opinion, ladies and gentlemen.

[00:00:47] I don't even know how to respond to this.

[00:00:49] But Mike Johnson outlined an aggressive plan to supposedly deal with the budget.

[00:00:53] He's going to basically take 100 days to get the budget bill to the Senate.

[00:00:59] Then the Senate's going to take some time.

[00:01:01] And anyway, long story short, between it all, it's going to be, what, May 26th, Memorial Day,

[00:01:06] by the time Trump gets the bill, they claim.

[00:01:09] And then Trump has to look at it, and there's the 4th of July and everything else.

[00:01:12] You know, maybe before July the 4th they can get it all signed.

[00:01:16] He says, what's interesting is this, don't worry, they're going to raise the debt ceiling.

[00:01:20] Donald wants the debt ceiling raised.

[00:01:21] Mike's already agreed.

[00:01:24] And we're going to raise the ceiling, but don't worry.

[00:01:26] We're going to be cutting all along the way.

[00:01:29] Uh-huh.

[00:01:30] It's just, they started it, they say they're in a big hurry.

[00:01:34] I mean, they've got to really work hard before Donald takes office in a couple of weeks here.

[00:01:38] So they start at, what, noon on Friday?

[00:01:41] They start at 1 today?

[00:01:43] I mean, it's an absolute clown show.

[00:01:45] Lowell Nelson, welcome to the clown show, sir.

[00:01:49] Well, thanks.

[00:01:50] Sam, it's good to be back, ladies and gentlemen.

[00:01:53] Always good to be on Libby Roundtable live with Sam Bushman because he is an awesome host.

[00:01:58] And I just am along for the ride, basically.

[00:02:00] But, yeah, Mike Johnson, you know, he demonstrated his, I don't know, the word perfidy maybe last couple of years.

[00:02:09] And, you know, I applaud Mike.

[00:02:12] I applaud, oh, let's see, what's his name, Thomas Massey for not voting for him,

[00:02:18] even though Thomas Massey took a lot of flack for not voting for him.

[00:02:22] But Thomas Massey had some concrete reasons, you know, not to vote for him.

[00:02:28] I won't go into that right now.

[00:02:30] But, you know, one of them is his failure in leadership, failure to be a leader in a time when the U.S. House needs leadership, solid leadership.

[00:02:41] And he failed in that regard, wasn't a leader.

[00:02:45] And do we expect him to be any more of a leader now?

[00:02:48] I mean, in the 119th Congress, I just don't think so.

[00:02:51] So, anyway, Thomas Massey had some great reasons for not supporting Mike Johnson for speaker,

[00:02:56] even though everybody knew that he was going to get it.

[00:03:01] So one thing about this, Sam, I will say that I believe the government budget year is a fiscal year, right?

[00:03:10] I mean, don't they start July 1 and go to June 30 like Utah does?

[00:03:16] And if that's the case.

[00:03:17] Well, kind of.

[00:03:18] That's how it generally works.

[00:03:19] But they pushed off the, you know, refreshing of it until September because they never had their act together.

[00:03:24] And so it's kind of a vague, weird, we don't really know as they continue to play games with it.

[00:03:29] So the answer to your question is the budget relates that way.

[00:03:32] But the voting of it and the funding of it relates to months later.

[00:03:34] And then they keep pushing these, you know, kick the can down the road.

[00:03:38] And so we don't really even know, to be honest with you, because portions of government run even when the budget runs out and everything else.

[00:03:43] And so it's so vague and so twisted and so manipulated now.

[00:03:47] You're right, but I don't know what that means, right?

[00:03:50] Well, I was just going to say that perhaps in their defense they could be, you know, mounting an effort to provide this budget before the June 30 deadline.

[00:04:01] Because the budget they're working on doesn't relate to monies they'll spend the first half of this calendar year.

[00:04:07] But in the second half of this calendar year, I mean, that's typically how budgets work.

[00:04:11] Now, I don't know if that's the case for them.

[00:04:13] But, you know, it could be.

[00:04:15] And so if they're sincere about getting a budget put together, I mean, this would be the first budget they put together for, what, decades?

[00:04:24] I mean, I don't know.

[00:04:25] Here's all you've got to do in Congress.

[00:04:28] You've just got to say this.

[00:04:29] The debt ceiling expires on the 17th or whatever it is or the 20th of this month or whatever.

[00:04:34] I think it's the 19th or something.

[00:04:36] Anyway, and so we're not going to increase the debt ceiling.

[00:04:39] And so, therefore, you know what, your budget that you clowns passed last year and handed us a pig and a poke, we're not doing that.

[00:04:45] We're going to revisit the budget right now.

[00:04:47] And we're simply saying we're not going to increase the debt ceiling.

[00:04:49] It'll be against the law to spend more money.

[00:04:51] And so, therefore, I'm sorry that you guys passed us such an irresponsible budget last time.

[00:04:56] We're going to start right now.

[00:04:57] And the way we're going to start right now is, first off, we're not going to increase the debt ceiling.

[00:05:01] Now, Mike Johnson says they've got to increase the debt ceiling so the markets don't panic.

[00:05:05] I say that the markets will panic.

[00:05:07] They'll just think we're less and less and less fiscally responsible if we do that.

[00:05:11] The markets will do better if we simply say we're not going to raise the debt ceiling.

[00:05:14] Doge, you know what?

[00:05:15] You need to be there on Friday.

[00:05:17] Well, it's too late.

[00:05:18] But you should have been there on Friday.

[00:05:20] You could have basically literally certified the elections and, you know, maybe you're forced to do that on the 6th.

[00:05:27] But you could have already, you know, you don't even need a speaker for that matter.

[00:05:32] Okay?

[00:05:33] But even if you, whatever, you could have made short work of all this and you could already start on cutting right now.

[00:05:38] Or on Tuesday, if you have to wait until Tuesday.

[00:05:40] Fine.

[00:05:40] Tomorrow, you could bust out and cut so much right away from spending that you could be under the debt ceiling tomorrow.

[00:05:46] I mean, Rand Paul came out with a report showing a trillion dollars in wasted spending already.

[00:05:51] Okay?

[00:05:52] So there's ways to do this, but they're just not willing to is the problem.

[00:05:56] Yeah.

[00:05:57] Yeah, I agree with you, Sam.

[00:05:58] And Rand Paul is right.

[00:06:00] They're going to waste a trillion dollars this year.

[00:06:02] In fact, that's something Andrew Napolitano said in his column last week that it was going to happen.

[00:06:09] So, yeah, they have lots of money they could save if they would, and hopefully they will.

[00:06:14] But this topic, it really relates perfectly well to what Ron Paul said in his column a couple of weeks ago.

[00:06:22] He talked about this debt ceiling, you know, and raising or suspending the debt ceiling.

[00:06:27] He says that debt ceiling was created during World War I, so that's like 1914, 15, 16, roughly in there, to allow the Treasury to sell bonds without first obtaining congressional authorization.

[00:06:42] Which, by the way, is unconstitutional and criminal on its face, but I digress.

[00:06:46] Yeah, because you can't raise money.

[00:06:52] I was going in a different direction with that, but tell me why that's unconstitutional.

[00:06:57] Well, where do you get authority to spend fiat money in the first place?

[00:07:01] Yeah, yeah.

[00:07:02] Okay, yeah.

[00:07:03] Totally with you.

[00:07:04] Secondly, though, where do you get this idea that we can pass a law that circumvents congressional control of the purse strings?

[00:07:10] Where does that come from?

[00:07:11] Yeah, yeah.

[00:07:13] And I can keep going on the unconstitutionality.

[00:07:15] Next, where do you get the idea to say we're going to give you a blanket law that covers any time we want to spend money for whatever reasons we want to,

[00:07:21] and we don't really have to even go to the purse string holders for that.

[00:07:24] It's kind of a blanket expenditure of money.

[00:07:28] There's no such thing.

[00:07:30] Congress doesn't have authority to give a blanket expenditure of anything.

[00:07:32] So I'm giving you three examples where it's flat-out unconstitutional.

[00:07:36] Yeah, excellent.

[00:07:37] Yeah.

[00:07:37] So Ron Paul continues here.

[00:07:39] He says, contrary to the claims of the big spenders,

[00:07:41] failure to raise or suspend the debt ceiling would not force the government to default

[00:07:46] or cause the government to not pay its bills.

[00:07:48] Instead, it would force the government to do what ordinary people who find themselves over their heads in debt have to do,

[00:07:55] reduce other expenses in order to pay their bills.

[00:07:58] Saying a failure to raise or suspend the debt ceiling is irresponsible is like saying that a credit card company

[00:08:06] is irresponsible for refusing to extend credit to a debt beat.

[00:08:11] He goes on here, Sam, raising or suspending the debt ceiling enables the continued growth of the welfare-warfare state,

[00:08:20] but the real enabler of Congress's spending is the Federal Reserve's monetization of government debt.

[00:08:27] The Federal Reserve monetizes the federal debt via the purchase of treasuries,

[00:08:32] which Sam, you've already explained, is unconstitutional.

[00:08:36] Congress should pass legislation forbidding the Fed from purchasing treasuries.

[00:08:42] Well, and they've already done that, right?

[00:08:44] The Constitution forbids that so that the Fed can no longer enable Congress's reckless spending, right?

[00:08:50] So like the Constitution says you can't do that because it didn't give them the authority to do so.

[00:08:55] And so Ron Paul is suggesting, well, Congress should pass a law saying they can't do that

[00:08:59] when they already have the supreme law of the land, the Constitution, saying they can't do that.

[00:09:04] But I digress.

[00:09:05] Speaker of the House and your president have already agreed they're going to increase the debt ceiling.

[00:09:10] And they're going to basically, you know, deliver something in May, you know,

[00:09:14] and by the time Trump gets it done or whatever, it might be into June.

[00:09:17] And you can say, Sam, well, they're only dealing with the next year's budget.

[00:09:20] This year's budget's already spent.

[00:09:21] And my response is no, I don't think so.

[00:09:23] When the new Congress comes in, they don't have to agree to spending money that was in the budget last year.

[00:09:27] It's a new Congress.

[00:09:28] And they make their own rules.

[00:09:30] So they can just put a rule in place that says, listen, we're not going to carry this charade out.

[00:09:33] If Rand Paul found a trillion dollars, let's see what Doge finds, too.

[00:09:38] But we can if it's half the year, we can save half of a trillion dollars just on Ron Paul's or I'm sorry, Rand Paul.

[00:09:44] Rand Paul's recommendation alone.

[00:09:45] We could save a half a trillion if we just take that to seriousness right now.

[00:09:49] And there's nothing that says we can't change our rules to circumvent the belligerent spending of a half a trillion of unnecessary dollars.

[00:09:55] See, we're not even taking it down the right road, Lowell.

[00:09:59] Yeah.

[00:09:59] Well, I like Rand Paul's plan of actually cutting the budgets, right?

[00:10:04] I mean, his plan was like five pennies on the dollar, I believe, in real cuts, not cuts and increases, but actual cuts and actual spending.

[00:10:13] So spending this upcoming year less than we spent this year, right?

[00:10:19] That would be an actual cut in the budget.

[00:10:22] And, of course, the Congress refused to do that, what, two or three, four years ago when he first proposed it, the five pennies on the dollar plan.

[00:10:31] And now it would take six pennies on the dollar to accomplish the same thing.

[00:10:36] So it's getting it.

[00:10:37] He started out with a penny back in the day when he was working on this.

[00:10:40] All right, let's go ahead and skip the break.

[00:10:42] Lowell Nelson's with me, ladies and gentlemen.

[00:10:44] All I'm telling you is the clown show of disgrace.

[00:10:46] Our prayers are that we can audit and end the Fed immediately.

[00:10:49] Do not raise the debt ceiling.

[00:10:51] Become fiscally responsible and get it done now.

[00:10:53] Otherwise, it's going to be an epic failure.

[00:10:55] I'm telling you, and write it down.

[00:10:57] Remember who warned you coming out of the gate, shall we?

[00:11:01] All right, Lowell, you just came back from a trip, didn't you?

[00:11:04] Yeah, we went to Marzalon, Mexico to celebrate Christmas down there.

[00:11:10] And enjoying the sand, the surf, and the sunshine.

[00:11:13] I like to say.

[00:11:15] Climate bearer, Sam, as you know, is delightful.

[00:11:18] People are warm and friendly.

[00:11:20] The culture is laid back.

[00:11:22] And so it's really easy to relax, take a vacation.

[00:11:27] And I must admit, I took a pretty serious vacation.

[00:11:31] Didn't read a whole lot in politics the whole three weeks we were there.

[00:11:37] And so it was interesting, fascinating, really, to get back into things this weekend as we rolled back into town on Saturday.

[00:11:48] But, you know, one of our favorite things to do when we go on vacation is we like to read audio books on tape.

[00:11:56] Something we can listen to while we go or my wife will read to me or my daughter will read to me, whatever.

[00:12:01] Family will read to me while I'm driving.

[00:12:04] Because, you know, we like to drive to Mexico and back.

[00:12:06] You know, some people say that's weird.

[00:12:08] But it really is the adventure.

[00:12:11] It's part of the reason we go.

[00:12:13] It's this time together where we're not bothered by the phone or by the Internet or whatever.

[00:12:20] But one of the books on tape that we listened to while driving back this year was The Building of the Panama Canal.

[00:12:27] It's a book by David McCullough.

[00:12:30] And he's a pretty famous historian writer, I guess.

[00:12:33] And by the way, with me and Dr. Bradley a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about this, right,

[00:12:37] when Donald said he wanted to basically take back the Panama Canal, we highlighted this book.

[00:12:40] So hopefully a few folks have read it, too.

[00:12:43] Yeah, well, cool.

[00:12:44] It was a fascinating book.

[00:12:48] He talks about how the French, you know, first tried to build the canal in the 1880s.

[00:12:56] Basically, they tried but failed primarily because they didn't know how to beat yellow fever, right?

[00:13:03] The yellow fever is transmitted by the mosquito.

[00:13:06] But at that time, nobody knew that the mosquito was the one causing the problems.

[00:13:11] And so they failed basically because too many people were dying.

[00:13:17] They failed to do that in their attempt to.

[00:13:19] Plus the fact that they were attempting to build a sea level canal like the Suez Canal.

[00:13:24] Now, the Suez Canal is like the same level on both ends and all the way through the canal.

[00:13:29] There are no locks on the canal.

[00:13:32] Well, a couple of decades later when the U.S. tried to build the canal,

[00:13:37] the chief medical officer did in Panama what others had done in Havana, Cuba,

[00:13:41] which was to remove the breeding grounds, basically sitting water.

[00:13:47] They removed, eliminated the breeding grounds of the mosquito, right?

[00:13:52] And so the incidence of yellow fever dropped precipitously to nearly nothing there in Panama.

[00:13:58] And the U.S. changed the design of the canal.

[00:14:02] Instead of trying to do a sea level canal all the way through the Isthmus of Panama, they used locks.

[00:14:09] And so they had three, I believe it was three locks on both ends to raise the ships up high enough

[00:14:15] that they could sail across a man-made lake in the middle

[00:14:18] and then go down the three locks on the other end of the canal.

[00:14:22] And, you know, people who know the geography know that the Panama Canal,

[00:14:28] even though it joins the Pacific Ocean, well, basically it's a waterway between the Pacific Ocean

[00:14:34] and the Atlantic Ocean, it really is a north-south running canal.

[00:14:39] Because on the Atlantic side, in fact, it goes from the, like, the northwest,

[00:14:46] the Atlantic end is northwest of the Pacific end, which is southeast, sort of basically up

[00:14:56] and down north-south canal.

[00:15:00] But because of the locks, they were able to actually accomplish this

[00:15:04] because they didn't have to remove so much earth material.

[00:15:08] Well, so they won the battle against the mosquito,

[00:15:13] plus they changed it to a lock system instead of a sea level canal.

[00:15:17] And they were able to do it in about ten years.

[00:15:21] From 1902 or 1903, they finished the canal in 1914,

[00:15:26] which was exactly when the World War I began.

[00:15:30] And so there was really no front-page news stories about the opening of the Panama Canal.

[00:15:36] But it was a modern world wonder, basically.

[00:15:40] I mean, to move that much earth in such a short time and to provide a working canal was a huge accomplishment.

[00:15:49] It really was a huge accomplishment.

[00:15:53] And the engineering on the Panama Canal is really quite interesting, Sam.

[00:15:56] I got so interested.

[00:15:57] I spent way too much time last night reading about it.

[00:16:00] And, of course, this is on top of what I learned from David McCullough.

[00:16:04] But there's no water pumps needed at the Panama Canal.

[00:16:08] And you might ask yourself, well, how do they pump the water in the lock?

[00:16:10] Well, the water comes from a freshwater lake, which is above the canal.

[00:16:15] And so basically gravity pulls the water into the lock to raise and lower the ships.

[00:16:21] It takes about eight minutes to fill a lock with water,

[00:16:24] raise the water in the lock enough so that the boat can then be pulled out into the next lock

[00:16:33] or out onto the lake if it's going up and across.

[00:16:40] In fact, the diversion dam generates all the electricity needed to operate the canal.

[00:16:47] So you've got electricity running the engines, which pull the boats through the locks.

[00:16:53] And then you've got electricity that open and closing the valves,

[00:16:58] which govern the water that goes into and out of the lock.

[00:17:02] So just a fascinating – and the statistics on it is pretty fun too.

[00:17:08] Wikipedia says there are about 40 ships transit the canal each day,

[00:17:12] and it takes about eight to ten hours to go from one ocean to the other.

[00:17:16] However, each ship pays from $30,000 to $300,000, depending on its weight or tonnage,

[00:17:24] you know, how big it is, and sometimes the number of berths it has on it.

[00:17:28] Like if it's a cruise ship, for example, that's not a particularly heavy ship,

[00:17:32] but it has so many people on it, they charge more for people who are getting passage.

[00:17:37] And this amounts to about $2 billion in revenue to Panama every year.

[00:17:43] So it's a moneymaker for them.

[00:17:45] Yeah, so we build it, then we stupidly give all the money to Panama.

[00:17:48] It's insanity.

[00:17:50] Right.

[00:17:51] Transit through the Panama Canal saves about 8,000 nautical miles,

[00:17:57] where you'd have to go around Cape Horn or through the Strait of Magellan

[00:18:00] on the southern tip of South America.

[00:18:03] And so it's a huge money saver.

[00:18:05] And I think they believe that 5% or 6% of the world trade goes through the Panama Canal,

[00:18:13] which is a huge amount, really.

[00:18:16] Over 14,000 ships pass through the canal each year.

[00:18:20] And finally, there's two more important developments right now going on.

[00:18:26] The Panama Transit Authority is expanding the Panama Canal, even as we speak,

[00:18:32] so it can accommodate larger ships.

[00:18:34] It would use holding tanks to the side of each lock so that less water would be required.

[00:18:40] And they would have to use pumps in this case to, you know, use water from the holding tanks.

[00:18:46] They would still be fed from the lake, but the holding tanks would use less water,

[00:18:53] which is kind of a problem right now because when they have a drought in Panama,

[00:18:58] then they can handle fewer ships, like 25 ships a day instead of 40 ships a day.

[00:19:04] And so that's one development, the expansion of the Panama Canal.

[00:19:09] And by the way, they're not going to dig out the concrete of the old canal.

[00:19:13] They're actually building new locks along a new pathway, running somewhat parallel to the existing lock.

[00:19:20] So that's how they're going to expand the existing Panama Canal.

[00:19:24] But also, Mexico is hoping to relieve some of the pressure on the Panama Canal by reinvigorating the rail line

[00:19:32] that crosses Mexico along its narrowest tip, southern tip.

[00:19:39] And so that would be a boon to Mexico because then they would basically,

[00:19:46] the ship would unload onto rail cars, which would then run across the isthmus

[00:19:51] and load up a ship on the other side.

[00:19:54] So those are the two new developments going on right now to relieve some of the pressure on the Panama Canal.

[00:20:00] And so I just thought that was fascinating.

[00:20:03] I'm one lull that doesn't think we should have ever built it, number one.

[00:20:06] And number two, we should have never given it away.

[00:20:11] You know, that's because government shouldn't be involved in building these infrastructure things like that, probably.

[00:20:18] Is that your reason why we should never have built it?

[00:20:20] That's part of it.

[00:20:21] The other problem is that in peacetimes it's great because it helps with the economy.

[00:20:24] But what it really did was allow us to transfer all of our manufacturing to the communists.

[00:20:31] And what that really did is brought communists to the West Hemisphere in a great degree.

[00:20:36] And I know, you know, you say, well, this is great economically speaking.

[00:20:38] And, you know, I understand it's one of the seven wonders of the world.

[00:20:41] It's incredible and it's whatever.

[00:20:43] And it's okay.

[00:20:43] But here's the problem.

[00:20:45] Number one, government shouldn't be building it.

[00:20:46] They have no authority to steal my wallet and pay for it in the first place.

[00:20:50] Secondly, we meddled in governments in the beginning to be able to get that done also.

[00:20:54] Like, yeah, we messed with other governments and everything else.

[00:20:56] And then last but not least, if you're not very careful, we expand this whole thing.

[00:21:00] And then we get into a war with China who controls it.

[00:21:02] And pretty soon they have the ability to bring all their troops over and all their military hardware over to our hemisphere in an instant.

[00:21:08] And we won't be able to stop them.

[00:21:10] Yeah.

[00:21:10] And I think that's why Trump is threatening to take it back.

[00:21:13] Right.

[00:21:13] I mean, he worries.

[00:21:14] Yeah, but it's too late.

[00:21:15] He can't take it back.

[00:21:16] It'll create a world war.

[00:21:17] China won't let go of it.

[00:21:19] Yeah.

[00:21:20] Yeah.

[00:21:20] Yeah.

[00:21:20] That may be the case.

[00:21:22] Even though he does carry a big stick.

[00:21:24] I'm sorry.

[00:21:25] No, he has a big – he bellows loudly, but I don't know how big the stick is that he carries.

[00:21:31] So – but I don't know.

[00:21:33] You know, and you spoke – the second point you made was that we used – basically intervened in national – what you're talking about there is Columbia.

[00:21:42] And David McCullough goes into great detail on this, too.

[00:21:45] Columbia owned that – basically had possession of that property.

[00:21:49] And we – the U.S. guaranteed the success of a revolt, basically, or a coup where we would install our own puppet leaders there in Panama.

[00:22:02] And we did so stealthily and helped basically Panama declare their independence from Columbia.

[00:22:11] And so that's – that was speaking to the issue you raised there.

[00:22:16] You pointed out there, Sam, where we, you know, intervened in – you know, politically there in order to get to Panama.

[00:22:26] And so where would Trump get the authority to take it back, by the way?

[00:22:30] Well, I agree.

[00:22:31] There's no constitutional authority for the United States to do that.

[00:22:37] But they don't – they don't, you know, adhere to their constitution anyway, so –

[00:22:41] I get it.

[00:22:42] But if you take it back, Trump will be nicknamed the Indian giver president.

[00:22:45] And if you try to take it back, even though I support taking it back, because I think we should have never given it away in the first place.

[00:22:50] But I don't think we should have built it in the first place.

[00:22:52] And every one of these intrigues just creates a hegemonist nation out of the United States, creating hatred around the world.

[00:22:57] And this act alone would – or ten quibble, I don't know what word to use, but a hundred times, a thousand times, escalate that idea that America just thinks it's God.

[00:23:08] America is this hegemonist nation, and all nations need to go against the United States and stop them from their belligerence and stuff.

[00:23:15] I'm just telling you, it's disaster.

[00:23:17] The whole thing is disaster.

[00:23:18] Well, if you're sitting in an Oval Office right now, Sam, and you have the threat of China taking over – I mean, I think they own like 5% of Panama right now, but they don't have a controlling interest in it.

[00:23:31] And so, you know –

[00:23:32] But they run the canal, though, right?

[00:23:34] They run it.

[00:23:36] I don't know that that's the case, but I think that's what Trump thinks, which is why he's threatening to take it back.

[00:23:41] But, yeah, I don't know how – I haven't looked into that part of it.

[00:23:46] That was my goal when I started listening to the book, was hoping to get more intel on the real situation as it stands today.

[00:23:54] But that I don't have.

[00:23:56] We'll just have to listen and learn.

[00:23:56] What's your recommendation?

[00:23:57] Do we take it back?

[00:24:01] Well, I think we need to defend – you know, the Monroe Doctrine said that we're not going to allow other countries to come in and govern in the Western Hemisphere.

[00:24:10] And that's James Monroe there.

[00:24:12] I think there was some wisdom in that.

[00:24:14] Well, then maybe we need to get rid of the canal altogether.

[00:24:17] Yeah, blow it up like we did the trans – I mean, the big pipeline there in north of Russia.

[00:24:24] Yeah, I don't know.

[00:24:25] All I'm telling you is it's a very interesting idea because, hey, if you don't want communism to come to the Western Hemisphere,

[00:24:29] the last thing you need to do is increase all ability to cross that barrier with ease, right?

[00:24:35] Anyway, hang tight.

[00:24:36] Lowell Nelson with me.

[00:24:37] Liberty Roundtable Live.

[00:24:39] It's a complicated topic.

[00:24:41] Lowell's right about that reality check.

[00:24:42] Campaign for Liberty.org, ladies and gentlemen.

[00:24:45] Hang tight.

[00:24:54] You're listening to Liberty News Radio.

[00:25:00] News this hour from townhall.com.

[00:25:03] I'm Jason Walker.

[00:25:04] If you had any doubts about it being winter, well, think again.

[00:25:08] Temperatures this morning, international falls, 14 degrees below zero.

[00:25:12] Chicago is a little warmer.

[00:25:13] Temperatures are only in the lower teens.

[00:25:15] Minneapolis, temperatures are right around zero.

[00:25:17] So very cold air across parts of the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa.

[00:25:21] Pretty typical temperatures for a very cold air mass at the moment.

[00:25:26] Not a lot of records there.

[00:25:27] Bob Orovac, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service.

[00:25:30] A lot of cold air in place across the country.

[00:25:32] It's really setting up the potential for a pretty, very impactful storm.

[00:25:36] Anywhere from the plains into the lower Missouri Valley, Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley,

[00:25:41] and eventually into the east United States over the next several days.

[00:25:44] And late today, parts of eastern Kansas and Missouri up to 8 to 12 inches of snow in bitterly cold conditions.

[00:25:53] Also at townhall.com, Congress notified by the Biden administration of a planned $8 billion weapon sale to Israel.

[00:26:03] The sale includes medium-range air-to-air missiles to help Israel defend against airborne threats.

[00:26:18] It would add to a record of around $18 billion in military aid that the U.S. has provided Israel since the war began more than a year ago.

[00:26:30] I'm Julie Walker.

[00:26:31] Police in Denmark are investigating a report of some 20 drones over the port of Kij, just southwest of Copenhagen.

[00:26:40] Police had been called to the site by a witness who claimed to have seen the drones that later disappeared at a very high rate of speed.

[00:26:48] Police are trying to determine who owns the drones as no permission had been issued for the drone flights in that area.

[00:26:55] More on these stories at townhall.com.

[00:26:58] Right now with an important...

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[00:28:00] Why don't we say to the government writ large that they have to spend a little bit less?

[00:28:05] Anybody ever had less money this year than you had last?

[00:28:09] Anybody ever having a 1% pay cut?

[00:28:12] You deal with it.

[00:28:13] That's what government needs, a 1% pay cut.

[00:28:15] If you take a 1% pay cut across the board, you have more than enough money to actually pay for the disaster relief.

[00:28:22] But nobody's going to do that because they're fiscally irresponsible.

[00:28:26] Who are they? Republicans.

[00:28:28] Who are they? Democrats.

[00:28:29] Who are they?

[00:28:30] Virtually the whole body is careless and reckless with your money.

[00:28:35] So the money will not be offset by cuts anywhere.

[00:28:38] The money will be added to the debt, and there will be a day of reckoning.

[00:28:42] What's the day of reckoning?

[00:28:44] The day of reckoning may well be the collapse of the stock market.

[00:28:47] The day of reckoning may be the collapse of the dollar.

[00:28:49] When it comes, I can't tell you exactly, but I can tell you it has happened repeatedly in history when countries ruin their currency.

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[00:29:57] CallForCivility.com

[00:30:12] Broadcasting live from atop the Rocky Mountains, the crossroads of the West.

[00:30:18] You are listening to the Liberty Roundtable Radio Talk Show.

[00:30:24] Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen.

[00:30:26] This is Lowell Nelson here riding shotgun with Sam Bushman, your host on Liberty Roundtable Live.

[00:30:32] We've been talking about the Panama Canal just before the break.

[00:30:35] And, you know, Sam, this has been a great discussion about this.

[00:30:38] I think it's one of the important things that I enjoy doing is getting your thoughts about this.

[00:30:43] Because here it was steeped in the writing of David McCullough.

[00:30:47] And as you read that, you sort of take for granted that, you know, the U.S. had this manifest destiny to do what it's always done,

[00:30:56] you know, to expand and to build a canal hither and yon.

[00:30:59] And you're always so good to bring us back to the reality of the Constitution.

[00:31:03] What did the Constitution authorize?

[00:31:05] What did the states say the general government could do and not do?

[00:31:10] And so I think that's so very helpful.

[00:31:12] And this is sort of like a word of warning to the rest of us.

[00:31:16] When we read this stuff, it is fascinating.

[00:31:19] It is interesting.

[00:31:20] But we must not lose sight of the Constitution, the blueprint for liberty, which would have avoided the current situation altogether.

[00:31:31] You know, had the U.S. not been involved in the building of the Panama Canal, then maybe some private interests would have done so.

[00:31:39] They would have gotten permission, you know, from Columbia to build a canal across there.

[00:31:46] And we've got to have it at all.

[00:31:47] Hunky-dory.

[00:31:48] Yeah.

[00:31:49] Why do we need it?

[00:31:50] So we can send all of our manufacturing and all of our sovereignty to foreign nations?

[00:31:55] Yeah.

[00:31:56] Right now, if we went to war, we couldn't even manufacture ourselves out of a paper bag right now, Walt.

[00:32:01] Yeah, that's for sure.

[00:32:03] And it's primarily because of these kind of agreements.

[00:32:06] Which brings me to my current question, Sam, because, you know, there's that sentiment that says where goods cost borders, armies do not.

[00:32:13] Right.

[00:32:14] Right.

[00:32:14] So if you're trading with a nation and it's mutually beneficial for both sides, then you're not going to go to war with each other.

[00:32:24] Right.

[00:32:24] So there's some truth to that.

[00:32:26] Right.

[00:32:27] I mean, you know, we trade with Vietnam.

[00:32:31] Well, Vietnam was in shambles and was basically overrun by communists for a long time.

[00:32:37] Right.

[00:32:37] And yet we're trading with them and they seem to be doing better.

[00:32:41] And my question is, why would we want to trade with them?

[00:32:46] Well, why wouldn't we want to trade with them?

[00:32:48] Because it's just too far across the sea and it just takes too long to get products and it's too expensive and it ruins the environment and it takes away our jobs and I'm going to keep going, right?

[00:32:58] I guess so.

[00:32:59] What we want to do in America is do everything ourselves that we possibly can and only outsource that which we have to.

[00:33:05] Mm hmm.

[00:33:07] Well, in order to do that, you're going to have to have tariffs, which I'm OK with, a small tariffs, a low tariffs.

[00:33:16] Agreed.

[00:33:17] But, yeah, I mean, when we, you know, a lot of the steel companies that moved their operations overseas, they did so because they found cheap labor and cheaper labor there than they do here in the U.S.

[00:33:29] Yeah, which means our government's creating an inequitable playing field and betraying their citizens on the altar.

[00:33:37] Mm hmm.

[00:33:38] I don't know that the government is one that made the decisions to move their people, their operations overseas, though.

[00:33:43] That was done by private companies, no?

[00:33:46] Yeah, private companies did it, but based on so much regulation in the United States, all they got to do, move to a place with low labor and less regulation and boom.

[00:33:52] So we set the stage for it with our policies.

[00:33:55] If we would put tariffs on there and decrease our regulations, then there would be no incentive.

[00:33:59] We created the incentive.

[00:34:00] They did the moving.

[00:34:01] That's correct.

[00:34:02] Mm hmm.

[00:34:03] Yeah, OK.

[00:34:04] So and which brings us to just one final topic on this, Sam, or one final point I want to make is that the leaders of our country do not have our country's interest at heart.

[00:34:16] I don't I don't think they do anyway because they they either they're they're stupid or they are diabolical in their planning because they're the ones that create the situation.

[00:34:29] And then we are weaker for right.

[00:34:33] The failing dollar, for example, the dollar, because of our printing of fiat money, we are now weaker and the dollar is worth less than it was last year and for previous decades.

[00:34:44] Right.

[00:34:44] I mean, it's almost worth nothing today, which weakens the United States, which means that we are not going to be able to do as we've always done over the past 100 years.

[00:34:55] The dollar will cease to be the world reserve currency at some point in the near future.

[00:35:00] And when it happens, you know, what what strength do we have?

[00:35:04] We don't have much strength at that point.

[00:35:06] And and that, I believe, is by design.

[00:35:09] I believe our leaders in our country don't have America's, you know, citizenry best interest at heart.

[00:35:17] They want us to be weak.

[00:35:19] They want to allow communist countries to to to have more control, have more sway in what happens here.

[00:35:26] They are giving us up.

[00:35:28] They're selling us out, in my opinion, Sam.

[00:35:30] And and that's why even though we hope for the very best, we are getting the worst, in my opinion, Sam.

[00:35:40] Reality check.

[00:35:41] There's no doubt about it.

[00:35:42] Well, Trump will not take back the Panama Canal.

[00:35:44] He has no authority and it would create a world war.

[00:35:46] If he did, it would be just disaster.

[00:35:48] However, his blustering about this might decrease what American ships are charged to go through the canal.

[00:35:55] And that might have some short term minimal economic benefit that he can take to the bank and crow about.

[00:36:01] So that's the reality.

[00:36:02] He will not take the Panama Canal, in my opinion.

[00:36:04] He'll talk about it and he'll get some good done out of it, but he will not take it back.

[00:36:08] He also won't take over Greenland either, by the way.

[00:36:10] But again, he's making a ploy and a pitch.

[00:36:13] And hopefully, you know, hey, Greenland can declare independence and all that kind of stuff.

[00:36:17] But look, domestically, we've got just as many issues.

[00:36:20] Let's talk about HB 47 in Utah.

[00:36:22] It's a disaster.

[00:36:24] It is a disaster, Sam.

[00:36:26] You know, even though the legislature doesn't begin meeting formally for a couple more weeks,

[00:36:31] they have a 45-day session here in Utah.

[00:36:34] For those of you who are in other states, it's a volunteer legislature.

[00:36:38] The session lasts 45 days.

[00:36:40] It begins like the third week in January and ends the first week of March, roughly speaking.

[00:36:44] There is trouble on the horizon right here in Utah.

[00:36:47] Because Representative Dunnigan in the Utah State House has introduced a bill, HB 27.

[00:36:56] Holy cow, did I say 47 in my notes?

[00:36:59] It's HB 27 that would increase the number of active voters in a precinct from 1250 to 3,000,

[00:37:08] you know, among other things, this bill.

[00:37:10] But that's the significant part of the bill.

[00:37:12] That's the horrible part of this bill.

[00:37:14] You know, this limit was raised from 1,000 to 1250 just a couple of maybe a decade, maybe two decades ago,

[00:37:22] which made our precincts too big here in Utah.

[00:37:25] As more and more people got interested in politics and became more active, it's now almost impossible, Sam,

[00:37:32] to find a place for a precinct to meet to have a caucus, even at 1250, right?

[00:37:38] And we used to meet in large, you know, school rooms, classrooms that would accommodate the 35 to 45 people who came to caucus on caucus night,

[00:37:50] which always happens in even-numbered years.

[00:37:53] In March of even-numbered years, that's when caucuses are held here in Utah.

[00:37:56] Well, with the increase of the size of precincts from 1,000 to 1250, just that small increase,

[00:38:04] it's now very difficult to find a place to meet.

[00:38:08] In other words, now we have to meet in school media centers, school lunchrooms, gymnasiums, theaters, and auditoriums,

[00:38:15] just to fit all the people who want to attend caucus.

[00:38:20] And if they increase the size of a precinct, basically triple it in size to 3,000, holy mackerel,

[00:38:29] that's going to create a situation where a precinct can't even meet.

[00:38:34] I mean, you just wouldn't – well, you could meet in a large gymnasium.

[00:38:38] That's exactly where they want it, Lowell.

[00:38:40] But, yeah, the whole point of this bill is to kill, in my opinion, is to kill the caucus convention system here in Utah

[00:38:48] because they don't want the grassroots voters choosing their public servants.

[00:38:53] The powers that be want to – they want to be the ones to choose the winners and losers of elections.

[00:39:00] They want to move from voting by mail to voting on your phone, basically voting on the Internet.

[00:39:07] That's their plan.

[00:39:08] In fact, they published their plan in 2015.

[00:39:10] They wanted to migrate to Internet voting.

[00:39:14] In fact, voting by mail was a stepping stone to get to Internet voting on your phone.

[00:39:19] They published this plan in 2015.

[00:39:21] They're well on their way to get there.

[00:39:24] And, Sam, we've got to remember that it's not who votes, but it's who counts the vote that really matters.

[00:39:32] And so if we turn this over to computers and let computers count the votes, which is what's happening right now, by the way,

[00:39:40] through this voting by mail scheme, then we will never be confident in the results of another election.

[00:39:47] We don't – there's no way we can guarantee that there will be a truthful, accurate result of the election.

[00:39:54] Well, Klaus Schwab, the well-known, you know, World Economic Forum leader thug, says,

[00:39:59] don't worry about it, AI will take care of the votes.

[00:40:01] So you're all good?

[00:40:04] Yeah, crazy stuff.

[00:40:06] It's just disaster, people.

[00:40:07] It's crazy.

[00:40:08] But that's happening in Utah, and this bill has not passed yet.

[00:40:11] We're afraid it'll be entertained in the upcoming legislative session in Utah, right?

[00:40:15] That's right, because the October interim committee, the political subdivisions committee,

[00:40:22] they passed this by a vote of 12 to 0 to 4.

[00:40:26] So there's 16 members on the committee, the interim committee.

[00:40:30] They met October, and 12 of them voted yes, zero voted no, and there were four absent who did not vote.

[00:40:38] And so, folks, if you live in Utah, then please call or text your state representative and ask him or her to oppose HB 27,

[00:40:48] that's House Bill 27.

[00:40:50] You know, if anything, we should amend the size of the precinct back down to 1,000 or even 750,

[00:40:59] because that's a much more manageable size.

[00:41:01] We'd be able to easily find meeting locations for precincts again,

[00:41:06] and we'd be closer to one another in precincts.

[00:41:09] And that's really where voting ought to take place anyway is in the precincts,

[00:41:13] not some county polling location where all counting is done by computer.

[00:41:18] Sam?

[00:41:18] We kind of hinted at this, ladies and gentlemen,

[00:41:21] but I want to kind of circle back and highlight this incredible column written by Ron Paul.

[00:41:25] We need to end Congress's Christmas traditions, right?

[00:41:31] That's exactly right.

[00:41:32] And we've covered this pretty well, but there's one more paragraph that Ron,

[00:41:38] his closing paragraph on this brings us full circle to the discussion we began with at the outset of this hour.

[00:41:45] He writes this,

[00:41:46] The Constitution gives Congress two primary responsibilities, appropriating federal funds and declaring war.

[00:41:54] Congress long ago abdicated its authority to declare war, right?

[00:41:58] And I'll just parenthetically insert here with these authorizations for the use of military force,

[00:42:05] AUMF is basically how they gave up their authority,

[00:42:10] abdicated their authority to declare war.

[00:42:14] Ron Paul continues.

[00:42:15] He writes,

[00:42:16] The practice of funding the government through continuing resolutions and omnibus spending bills

[00:42:21] drafted by a few members and rushed through Congress before most members have a chance to read them.

[00:42:28] Deprives most members of the ability to fulfill their constitutional responsibility to help determine how to best allocate taxpayer dollars.

[00:42:37] It also denies members an opportunity to offer amendments cutting spending.

[00:42:42] This is why everyone who supports constitutional government and who understands the danger of increasing government debt

[00:42:49] should support ending Congress's Christmas tradition.

[00:42:53] End of quote.

[00:42:55] Great column by Ron Paul available at what?

[00:42:58] Campaign for Liberty, Ron Paul Institute?

[00:43:01] Yeah, both places have his column, campaignforliberty.org and ronpaulinstitute.org.

[00:43:08] They both have this column.

[00:43:09] It's a great column.

[00:43:10] You'll be interested to know, Sam, that our newly elected U.S. House Representative Mike Kennedy,

[00:43:14] representing the 3rd Congressional District, said he will not support continuing resolutions.

[00:43:22] He will not support extending the arrangement of debt ceiling.

[00:43:27] And we expect him, I expect him to be a part of the liberty team in Congress that will push back on spending.

[00:43:34] I hope, I don't know this for sure, but I hope he'll lock arms with Thomas Matthew, who seems to be one of the few stars in the U.S. House.

[00:43:43] He's the Ron Paul of today on this topic, that's for sure.

[00:43:46] Yeah, he really is.

[00:43:48] So anyway, I view that Mike Kennedy's entrance to the U.S. House is favorably and hope that he will, you know, do us proud.

[00:43:58] That's my hope.

[00:43:59] And he has an open dialogue with us and we commend him, et cetera.

[00:44:02] Now, the Rolling Stones sing a song that says this, what a drag it is getting old.

[00:44:09] However, ladies and gentlemen, LewRockwell.com has a piece that looks at the opposite side of that reality check.

[00:44:16] Well, this is a great article.

[00:44:19] Just really caught my eye.

[00:44:21] It's intended for those who believe in God or maybe also for those who don't really.

[00:44:25] A believer's lifetime is just the beginning of an eternity spent in service to the King of Kings.

[00:44:33] It's our opportunity to develop deep relationship with the God whom we will serve forever.

[00:44:40] Through our rocky pilgrimages, here he's talking about, you know, the aches and pains of getting old, you know.

[00:44:47] Through our rocky pilgrimages, we will discover treasure and increasingly resemble his own kingly character.

[00:44:56] While worldlings may battle wrinkles to the death, believers have a very different assignment.

[00:45:02] We are not deployed here to gather admirers but disciples.

[00:45:07] We do not seek our own praise but his.

[00:45:10] We work in earthly callings but ultimately in his fields with our various talents yielded to increase his spiritual harvest.

[00:45:19] In this way, we serve as ambassadors and servants from youth through old age, marching through history into eternity, leaving his ageless fragrance in our wake.

[00:45:32] Knowing how big and sweeping his kingdom is, we could feel daunted by such an assignment.

[00:45:39] Mercifully, we are not tasked with laboring with our own strength.

[00:45:43] The book of Job teaches about God's sovereignty over both creation and our own towering circumstances.

[00:45:51] There we learn the good news that his purposes are never thwarted.

[00:45:55] Those foolish years and bad decisions, deeply regretted and long repented, cannot stymie his good plans or strip you of his fatherly affection.

[00:46:07] The same God, and this is the last paragraph, by the way, that I'll quote,

[00:46:11] The same God who sets limits to the sea, directs lightning and put wisdom in the inward parts, also chose us, redeems us, and accomplishes his beautiful work in us.

[00:46:26] Best of all, he provides the strength for us to do everything he wills, even to your old age.

[00:46:32] As Isaiah said, May we all number our days wisely, and may God enable us to redeem our time, accomplishing all those good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

[00:46:47] End of quote.

[00:46:49] What do you think about that, Sam?

[00:46:51] I couldn't agree more.

[00:46:52] 100% agree.

[00:46:53] I reject the Rolling Stones.

[00:46:55] What a dragon is getting old.

[00:46:56] Remember that God has a plan for each of his children, and we're all God's children.

[00:47:00] Every one of us on the planet are God's children.

[00:47:04] Race, ethnicity, none of that stuff matters.

[00:47:05] God loves us all, and so getting old is part of his plan, and it's to learn to be patient, to learn to love, to focus on the different things in life,

[00:47:17] to have frailties in your body, and to rely upon God, and turn to him in your times of difficulty.

[00:47:23] So even though getting old has it, you know, some say that, hey, it's not the golden years, it's laced with lead.

[00:47:27] I agree with that general comment that Gordon B. Hinckley made a long time ago.

[00:47:31] So it's tough.

[00:47:32] It's hard sometimes, but it's designed to turn us into the children of God that we ought to be, and he promises us great glory if we turn to him, keep his commandments, and follow the Savior Jesus Christ.

[00:47:45] Come follow me.

[00:47:47] We're promised great rewards for doing so.

[00:47:49] And I don't mean, you know, physically on the earth necessarily, but I mean in his kingdom, in his heaven, after this life, we live again with God.

[00:47:58] And it's an opportunity.

[00:48:00] Getting old prepares us for that.

[00:48:03] So I know it seems difficult, but I champion and shout out the praises of the blessing of the stages of getting old.

[00:48:10] Regardless of their difficulties, they are designed and uniquely positioned to prepare us to meet God, Lowell.

[00:48:18] I absolutely agree, Sam.

[00:48:20] And, you know, I don't think of myself as old, right?

[00:48:22] We have young 26-year-old brain telling a 65 or 67-year-old body, you know, to do things.

[00:48:31] But, you know, but, yeah, there are, you know, I can't jump as high now as I did 20 years ago, and I move a little more slowly now than I did 20 years ago.

[00:48:44] But like you say, this is all part of God's plan, and it's just not...

[00:48:48] And you're not meant to do those things like you did before.

[00:48:50] You're meant to focus on different things that when you could jump that high and do all those things, you were distracted from, Lowell.

[00:48:57] There you go.

[00:48:58] So it was just fun and heartwarming to see this article.

[00:49:03] It's incredible.

[00:49:05] Yeah, great, great column.

[00:49:06] It's found at lewrockwell.com, and, you know, they're not bashful about, you know, publishing a column like this because, you know, you won't find this kind of column in lamestream media,

[00:49:19] but you will find it at places like lewrockwell.com, which is a site that I love to read.

[00:49:27] Amen.

[00:49:27] And as you start getting old, just start reading the Almanac, Lowell.

[00:49:31] That's right.

[00:49:33] Benjamin Franklin is the publisher of Poor Richard's Almanac.

[00:49:37] He began that in 1732, right?

[00:49:40] So this is before the Revolutionary War and before the founders met in Philadelphia, right?

[00:49:45] I mean, before a lot of things.

[00:49:47] He published the Poor Richard's Almanac for at least 25 years.

[00:49:52] So right from 32 to 55 or so, 57.

[00:49:56] The Almanac was published under the pseudonym Richard Saunders.

[00:50:01] I found that very interesting.

[00:50:02] I didn't realize that Ben Franklin didn't attach his own name to the Almanac that he published.

[00:50:07] It was called – and so I just throw – this is a fascinating little read.

[00:50:13] This came from 10thamendmentcenter.com.

[00:50:15] Mike Meharry wrote about Poor Richard's Almanac.

[00:50:20] He went – and so he published under the pseudonym Richard Saunders,

[00:50:25] and really was a source of pithy insights on timeless subjects related to human nature,

[00:50:32] which, of course, the founders valued highly, right?

[00:50:35] Human nature.

[00:50:36] They rely on human nature in the way they constructed our government.

[00:50:40] It also – speaking of the Almanac, he says it also served as a sort of guide for daily living,

[00:50:48] combining a calendar and weather predictions along with entertaining content.

[00:50:52] So this is what Ben Franklin packed into his Almanac.

[00:50:57] And basically, he's saying that this was a great marketing strategy to this whole thing

[00:51:06] because he says the name Saunders – oh, no, this other thing, brilliant marketing strategy.

[00:51:13] The name Poor Richard Almanac was a nod to Poor Robin's Almanac,

[00:51:19] a popular British publication, had been in print since 1633.

[00:51:25] I didn't know that, Sam.

[00:51:27] This is fascinating.

[00:51:28] So he said –

[00:51:29] Yeah, say we don't want to import that sucker.

[00:51:31] We'll build our own, buddy.

[00:51:33] That's right.

[00:51:36] The title also had an everyman's appeal, right?

[00:51:39] This is enhanced by Franklin's pen name, Richard Saunders.

[00:51:42] The name Saunders was also borrowed from a well-known astrologer and almanac maker in the 17th century England.

[00:51:49] The original Saunders published Riders' British Merlin,

[00:51:54] a popular London almanac that continued to be published throughout the 18th century.

[00:51:58] Well, Franklin developed a humble, down-to-earth persona for the almanac's author,

[00:52:04] which appealed to common people.

[00:52:06] Franklin's wisdom covered a wide range of topics, from practical advice for living to observation about human nature.

[00:52:13] I guess I already mentioned that.

[00:52:15] Very few of the sayings in poor Richard's almanac were original to Franklin.

[00:52:22] Instead, he was a master of compiling and revising things he found in other English anthologies.

[00:52:30] So basically, Sam, he was rich enough to purchase these other anthologies and put them into the almanac.

[00:52:36] And by the way, he sold $10,000 a year in his heyday, which got him a lot of money.

[00:52:43] You know, he didn't get rich over it, but he just wasn't poor.

[00:52:49] And the common person was able to purchase poor Richard's almanac and benefit from the sayings,

[00:52:58] many of the sayings that was in the wisdom and the wit that was in the almanac.

[00:53:03] And so here's just a sample.

[00:53:06] I picked out a dozen things that you might have found in poor Richard's almanac,

[00:53:11] you know, insights into human nature and power and so forth.

[00:53:15] The first one here, sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.

[00:53:23] Distrust and caution are the parents of security.

[00:53:27] I think that's true.

[00:53:29] The wolf sheds his coat once a year.

[00:53:32] His disposition never.

[00:53:34] That was an interesting thing.

[00:53:36] I didn't know the wolf shed their coat, but apparently they do.

[00:53:39] There's none deceived but he that trusts.

[00:53:43] Very interesting.

[00:53:44] To him, I'm sorry, to whom thy secret thou dost tell, to him thy freedom thou dost sell.

[00:53:53] Anyway, that gives you a little sample of some of the things that you're finding.

[00:53:56] Incredible great wisdom.

[00:53:57] Can you get this almanac anywhere?

[00:53:58] Is anybody printing it?

[00:54:00] I do not know, Sam.

[00:54:02] Probably so.

[00:54:03] We ought to check that out and discover that.

[00:54:04] By the way, behind every good man is a great woman.

[00:54:08] I guess his wife was the one that kind of got him on this thing, right?

[00:54:12] That's exactly right.

[00:54:14] He talked about that earlier in the first edition of his almanac,

[00:54:18] saying that my wife is the one that put me up to this.

[00:54:21] And so that's why I'm doing it.

[00:54:24] Pretty good wife there.

[00:54:27] CampaignforLiberty.org, RonPaulInstitute.org,

[00:54:31] Lowell Nelson, campaign coordinator, doing a great job everywhere he goes.

[00:54:35] We're so glad he's back for 2025.

[00:54:38] We'll keep an eye on the ball.

[00:54:40] God save the republic.

[00:54:42] Thank you.