Transcript
KXEL Presents: The Jacobsen Group Podcast – June 28, 2025
The Jacobsen Group with Jon Jacobsen · Tue Jul 1, 2025
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They form the crest of the Iowa tornado before which another Democratic Party effort was swept over the precipice at the Iowa polling booths.
At the Iowa ballot boxes this past November and three and a half million Iowans peered down.
before and upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the great plains below.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to KXEL Radio.
Stand by for news.
First we take you to our colleague Curtis Bauer recorded Friday evening between 8 and 9 p.m.
with this weather update live spot action news from North Dakota is KXEL signal carams to 14 states to Canadian provinces on our 50,000 watt clear channel mega torch Curtis Bauer live report please on tournatic activity in the Midwest
Well, right now I am
South West of Bismarck, North Dakota, and I've been running into some of the greatest storm chasers around Reed Timmer in the Dominator 3, Brandon Coppick, Connor Cross, some of the most fierce.
and we have had nothing but we've already run into one tornado that dropped down or following the same cell.
It's producing rotation after rotation after rotation.
And right now there's a sun cloud probably half a mile from my location.
We're waiting to see if it's actually going to drop because pretty impressive today.
These cod structures are piercing 50,000 feet and it is impressive with the amount of power that they
have.
use the Morse code WX warning signal that was used by Conrad Johnson and Grant Price, the Eastern Iowa legends from WMT radio and television now KGAN and KWWL.
The history began in Iowa after the Palm Sunday tornadoes in 1965.
It was Eastern Iowans who convened a national meeting of National Weather Service and governmental officials along with media and comprised the watch warning system.
Still, you'd like
into today and now.
Live and unrehearsed, interviewed with commentary on the issues of the day.
Welcome to the Jacobson group with our panelists, Craig Bergman, that grassroots czar of mischief, Curtis Bauer, the hour of tronadic power.
and Barrister and Mayor up near our Ames, Iowa area.
Pastor Sam Jones not able to join us tonight in alphabetical order.
He is doing a Christian youth camp, but speaking of dads, Joel Curtinitis, father yet again.
of a brand new baby, rejoins us along with our special guest.
I can't say Eleanor, gee, I think you are Swellanor, but I could say Sheila, you're Adela and Ahila.
She is the Irish Maven, the Empress, the czar of political excellence and consultative prowess in Western Iowa, guys.
Get ready.
We are going to rock and roll here as we are sponsored by Midwest Renewable Energy LLC and Life Runners.
or life runners building your culture of life for expectant mothers and babies along the way.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for issue number one.
Carbon capture pipeline in Iowa versus private property rights.
Recently a Titanic battle emerged within the Iowa GOP.
Well-funded, well-moneyed, well-property GOP scions with elected officials wanted a carbon capture pipeline which would have certain economic benefits for industry in the state as well as for some of the
benefactors erstwhile of the Iowa GOP as private business partners in this project with the revenue streams coming in from the government on the carbon capture pipeline running underneath ag land in Iowa decried by Bobby Kennedy and Dennis Kucinich when they came out the Iowa State Fair in August of 23 has been a titanic battle over property rights.
Will the GOP lose valuable midterm seats?
perhaps even in constitutional offices because Governor Kim Reynolds vetoed the bill ensconcing these property rights over eminent domain in favor.
The House and Senate went in favor of private property, individual landowners.
The governor vetoed the bill.
The House is asking for a special session.
The Senate seems log jammed.
I turn first.
to you, Craig Bergman.
What up?
Look, this is not a debate.
This is not a contest.
This is a suicide hitter.
It always has been.
Summit Pipeline is going to make $10 billion for company because this deal happened.
That is $1 billion more.
than the entire state budget passed by the legislature and fueled by federal incentive spending.
There was no way it was ever going to be stopped.
It's an illusion.
Everything Pat Grassley is doing is smoking mirrors.
This thing is a done deal.
It's always been a done deal.
And the only question remains is how many ignorant
independent for republicans will cut off their nose despite their
fate.
That's a take from Bergman.
We've got a lot of people in Bergman from the Des Moines area.
We know Bowers out chasing tornadoes.
Let's now go to his honor.
Mr. Bower, talk to us pipeline baby.
I think here it goes.
The
governor made a critical failure.
It is going to cost the GOP's the governorship.
If someone anti pipeline doesn't get in to run at Taras Hill because I can tell you this.
If you put up a pipeline candidate against Rob Sand, it is the parents' hill is going to Rob Sand.
Hands down, bar none.
The governor has doomed the GOP.
Wow, we've got some big takes coming right out of the chute.
Let's go to Joel, new papa again.
How many kids you and Kelsey now have?
And you've got one in heaven, that other beautiful child that you guys lost early.
What a resurrection for your family with a birth.
the healthy birth of this new baby.
Congratulations Joel.
Yes, thanks so much.
We are up to three boys and then our first little girl here.
So it's hard to come by.
But other than that, we are we are good and blessed.
So far as pipeline goes, I tend to land on the cynical side of this alongside Craig.
You'll recall last time we had one of these, I said I did not think it had a high chance of passage.
Now I understand the dynamics of it as as being very performative where the reason it did go through is because the plan was to veto it all along and then to kill it along the way.
And I think I think it's very
I think the money interests are going to keep going.
Eminent domain has been a.
a passionate issue in Iowa, but still relatively fringe issue.
And so I don't see it having a huge impact.
It tends to be the kind of thing that people forget in the face of more hot button issues come election time.
There you have from Joel Curtinitis.
Joel, I will tell you just as an aside that after Overs is Wade, the opinion I hate the most in our Supreme Court recent history is the kilo decision.
Sheila Murphy, you are joining us from the Western flank of Iowa.
The natives are restless.
out west less.
I believe that the pipeline is going to be the key issue in the in the governor's rights from what I'm talking.
When I talk to people out there, they are furious about what it's happening.
And I don't think that the governor's action is actually going to cost Republicans votes unless they go along with her.
What it's cost her is her complete legality of her.
It's gone.
people have no respect for her.
Her influence is over.
She's not going to influence this race at all.
And I think that people are looking as I think Craig mentioned earlier that we need an anti pipeline candidate.
That's really, now I know Brad Sherman is in the race and he is extremely anti.
And I believe that Eddie Andrews is against the pipeline.
I don't, does anybody know, does Randy Feinstra have a stand on it?
I really don't know, but I think that this is going to be something that the people do care about, because it's the eminent domain issue.
It's something that even the people in the city understand.
The pipeline has been kind of a, well, if it doesn't go into my land, I don't care kind of a thing, but we need to open that up and get people to see that it's
It's everybody's battle.
And I hope you're wrong that there's nothing that can be done.
But I know we're up against an incredible amount of money, but that's also the voters out there are starting to see it.
By the way,
Sheila, you
and
I are breaking news tonight, which will be replayed first thing here Saturday morning.
Congressman Don Bacon will not run for reelection.
The GOP seat in Omaha.
Sheila is an aside bonus round for you.
Are you surprised?
I am not.
I think this was writing on the wall.
Yeah, I think that I was surprised he ran the last time.
I think he's been on fumes for a while and there is in Omaha.
There is no mistaking the fact that.
He is extremely unpopular.
And I think that has been in many ways from the beginning.
This is something that's been needed, needed for a long time.
And the question now is, you know, the Democrats have two pretty good, solid candidates that they've already fielded.
And going
deep and going deep blue by voting for Obama in Biden with that blue dot electoral vote and electing a minority liberal mayor.
in the last election
upsetting
Gene Stothert, issue two.
Appendix, governor's race.
Who is the front runner for the GOP for governor?
Who is the front runner for the Dems?
I go to you, Craig Bergman.
It doesn't really matter until Brenna Bird decides whether she's in or out and Trump decides whether or not he's going to endorse her.
and how strongly or convincingly she comes.
But I'll tell you this, all the people who are in right now, none of them have more than a 10% base right now.
And Eddie Anderson, German, the town is not big enough for the both of them.
I know the people divided on that issue and who supported different candidates in the past.
like Jim Carlin and we know Brad Sherman inability to be humble and why those of us on this phone call or Pastor Sam who was not but should be have reached out to him in vain to even try to work with him.
So I predict that by January we'll have a much clearer picture of what's happening and that this is all
summer campaigning right now and jockeying for position, and we don't even have a poll leader yet.
I'm going to plant a seed as we go into the next three, Craig.
Could this go to convention?
35% threshold, unlike Nebraska, where a mere plurality will win as it did for Pete Ricketts with under 35%.
And I, we got to get to 35.
We had Congressman David Young supplanting Brad Zahn and others as a compromise candidate in that long convention.
for the congressional district some years ago at convention.
Curtis Bauer, governor's race.
Well, it's pretty clear that the Democratic leader is Rob Zan.
When it comes to the Republican leadership, as far as the Republican outliers, Brad Sherman can out-debate Randy Feinstra hands down.
I see Randy Feinstra get out debated by former congressman, D.K.
The question really is, is who's going to be able to get their message out there, clear, concise into things.
And, you know, I've heard rumors that Attorney General Brenna Bird is going to throw her name in the ring.
You know, we've seen some funds be transferred.
We've seen some stuff go into her account and to her campaign accounts.
It does look like she's going to run and it does look like she's going to throw her hat in.
I can tell you this, if they split the vote,
and it does go to convention.
Brad Sherman and Eddie Andrews dead to stand the best chance of prevailing because the part of the convention that is greatest is anti pipeline.
The pipeline is going to be the key period hands down.
Curtis Bauer doing double due tonight chasing tornadoes with all of the United States best.
Tornado chasers there.
Curtis is also very acclimated to the desert climbs of his Iraqi war service.
Now he's out there in North Dakota live as we record this program tonight.
Joel, Kurt Knightus, do you have an altering view or are you consonant with these first two?
Well, I see some daylight between the first two.
But I mean, Brenna Bird's still a question mark.
But I don't think that I don't, you know, clearly she's not a charismatic individual who's going to draw votes on her own anyway.
And so I don't think she represents herself in that capacity.
I think she represents the not Brad Sherman, not Eddie Andrews, not a hard line conservative vote.
And I'm glad you brought up the David Young situation because that's kind of what happened there.
Yeah, there was there was a consolidation.
Yep.
Again, not.
for someone, but against someone.
And that's where the deal became made.
If we need to stop, we need to stop the guy we don't want.
And there's a lot of other folks here in the middle that'll get that done.
And so there were deal cut there that I am still unhappy about to this day.
And I think that's probably what's gonna happen.
And so at a certain point in this race, you know, a lot of the money's holding on right now, holding out to see who all enters, if bird gets in,
she's
tailor made.
But if that's not the case, they'd be just as happy to get behind themestrap.
They'd be just as happy to get behind anybody who's not going to be offensive.
And so there's there's a couple names in the race that would fit that bill.
I think they'll swing with whoever's the most convenient and who has the highest poll numbers at the right time.
Joel Kirtnitas, who is running very tight in his house right now, three men, two women.
He's got a three to two vote shift there at this juncture.
Sheila Murphy, what say you?
Well, I'm going to look at this strictly from a campaign point of view.
I think that, of course, Rob Sand is the leader, and he sees a very able retail politician.
On the Republican side, you know, Finstra has not been in his position with David.
uh congressional representatives his campaigns have not been strong he he becomes elected because there's not really a good opposition i don't know if he can get his act together and have a good grassroots campaign for governor um Sherman seems to be
unable to raise money, that's always a death knell.
I don't know much about Andrews at this point, but it will come down to if this does go to convention, and I was part of that campaign back then, and I can tell you that
Convention campaigning is a completely different kind of worms than what we see when you're going tending people to the ballot box.
You know who's going to be voting?
You can campaign one to one if you do it well.
The David Young mostly, I watched, he masterfully campaigned to each delegate.
Some of the candidates did not do their job in reaching out to the candidate.
So this goes to convention, all bets are off.
It could belong to whoever can do the grassroots campaigning most effectively.
It's
like the first time I met Donald Trump in May of 2015, prior to even coming down the escalator and his exploratory business panel discussion at the Omaha Press Club.
Prior to going across the river to Potawatomi County for their fundraiser, Trump was delayed.
Why?
Because every dishwasher, bartender, waitress, chef.
and owner of the Elmar Press Club asked for a picture of the great apprentice maestro coming off a great season at NBC.
Trump did not take a group picture.
He took an isolation one-on-one photo with every one of the 40 minimum wage employees there, conversing with each one in one-on-one fashion.
And that's when it dawned on me.
This guy knows how to do retail politicking.
Issue three.
And ladies and gentlemen,
You're listening to the Jacobson group on KXEL and we are sponsored by Midwest Renewable Energy LLC and liferunners.org.
Issue three.
a whirlwind 12-day war with Donald John Trump in the center of it.
And after 12 days, hostilities seem to be abated.
There's not talk of terror cells, nuclear conflagration.
There are not atrocities.
There are not civilian attacks underway currently.
There is a ceasefire underway.
Was this Donald Trump's
finest hour lauded by the Israeli government de facto lauded by the Iranian government telegraphing their puny strikes so as not to offend or harm our military wanting to continue to have Trump as part of the art of some
sort of deal.
Meanwhile back home public opinion seems have consolidated around the president not just because of the tremendous effectiveness of the military prowess of those strikes those great men from Whiteman Air Base an hour away from the sound of my voice tonight but also until now seems to show that incredible damage was done to set back that program and yet much the surprise of those who were
We're very worried, such as Tucker Carlson and others in the camp, including Steve Bannon and Alex Jones and the rest of the gang, who are worried that Trump would follow yet into another neocon war in the Middle East.
Trump pulls back, even dropped perhaps the most.
Effective of all bombs, the F-bomb, in order to chase in BB and the Israeli Air Force just a tad bit, is this Trump's finest hour?
And can he keep it rolling from here to pass a big, beautiful budget bill?
How do you grade out President Trump's performance as Commander-in-Chief?
I go to you, Craig Bergman.
Now, John,
there's like six issues you opened up there and we're on time.
So I'm just going to pull out the fire hose and hit it.
Staccato, baby.
Staccato.
Staccato, Dillinger.
Staccato.
There you go.
So the number one most important one is there's no such thing as spiritual Israel.
Israel is Israel.
And the United States is the chosen people's greatest champion.
Put that marker on the table.
Every president since Israel was created
has said, Iran can't do this.
Iran can't do that.
And especially since 1979, when the crazies took over, none of them did anything.
Reagan didn't go after him.
Bush didn't go after him.
Clinton didn't go after him.
They talked rhetoric.
And Iran was used to rhetoric.
Trump talked his biggest bomb, the F bomb on Israel to say, stop it.
This is over.
And Israel listened, of course, because Trump did what no one else did.
He dropped actual physical bombs on Iran and decimated, destroyed, contrary to CNN's lying report, all their capability.
And Islam is about to kia when they're weak, they lie and surrender.
This is a timeout.
It might last the whole three terms of Trump term of office.
and it may last longer if we get one of the Trump heirs to really act like he did, elected.
Is it his finest hour?
No, I believe that is yet to come.
I believe actually the big beautiful bill with it defunding the Planned Parenthood and the ability to roll back all the bribes he had to give Congress in order to get it passed will be his finest hour.
So I'll tie it up on there and let some others
go.
Strong take from Bergman.
Curtis Bauer, what say you?
I've
been dropping the mobs on Iran, destroying Fordo, and sending a very clear message to Iran, to China, and to Russia.
It was imperative, it was essential, and it was just downright required.
He did the right thing by doing so.
Israel, you know what?
We have to defend her.
We have to help her.
But we're really the threat and Israel is running interference for us.
That's why we have to help her.
From our great American veteran who served in combat over in the Middle East, Curtis Bauer, Joel Kirtnitis, Iran, Israel, the aftermath and
prologue.
So I'm in a weird position with this one, because from a purist perspective, with some libertarian leanings, yeah, I don't want to see any president just arbitrarily drop bombs on anybody.
And I have issues with should we have voted with it?
Is there a different way it could be done?
Yeah, maybe.
At the same time, I'm glad it was done.
And when you look at this, it's kind of like entitlements.
I wish there were no, I wish our entitlement state was gone too, but it's been there for a really long time.
Both sides have endorsed it.
Both sides have supported it and enabled it.
And so there's really no going back on that.
Now the question is how best to use it until such a day as that becomes possible again.
And in this case, the War Powers Act, yeah, I don't like it.
But every president has done what Trump just did in some form or another since, you know, for the last close to 100 years now.
And so if we're going to have that system set up, this was the appropriate way to use it.
And so I think there's there have to be a pragmatism there, too.
I also really want to give props to Israel in this because, yes, we dropped to the final exclamation point on this.
But if you've been following what Israel did, I mean, Iran had nothing left.
The skies were clear.
They were running sorties day and night whenever they wanted, wherever they wanted all over Iran.
And if we hadn't done it to make that statement, they could have showed up with pickaxes and gotten it done.
I mean, they cleared, they plowed the road so hard in Iran that they have reshaped
the entire Middle East at this point.
And honestly, I feel like we could be in a situation where there's a potential and opportunity for peace and for prosperity that hasn't been there in my lifetime.
A very salient, macro-real-politique take from Joel Kirtnitis.
Sheila Murphy, you're an Irish lassie.
You're very familiar with the troubles for so many decades.
They're the troubles in Ireland with the Brits.
Put some perspective, put some gloss on this for us.
Well, I believe that Trump had this plan clearly delineated, even before the election.
And I think he and Netanyahu, they planned it out.
If you can do this, I can do this, and we will get to our goal.
And I think what this did was showcase to the world Trump's style of diplomacy.
It is one in which his statements will be followed through.
and he is not afraid to take a stand of action, which is making him different than every president we've ever had.
And the world is now having to get used to an entirely new paradigm of somebody who says, yeah, behave or we will take action against you and they mean it.
And this will actually lead to peace like we've never seen before.
I think we're just starting to see it now.
The rumors are coming out of Israel right now that the Saudis,
and the United Arab Emirates and so forth will be taking over Gaza that all.
all the war will be over in two weeks.
And I don't think any of these things could have happened if we did not have a strong will and clearly decisive president.
So it's his finest hour to date.
But I believe there'll be other fine hours to come.
Well, remember, he's the first United States president to win three consecutive terms of office other than Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Issue four.
It's just the start of the fight now we turn back to domestic policy my goodness I want you guys will pine in the follow-up to Iran Israel What is the most key factor right now?
Is it the success of the NATO visit?
We're now the European countries with even a little goading of Spain are going to increase probably to the light of Matt Whitaker their percentage contributions now to 5% of GDP
or is it the astounding and...
truly mesmerizing to me, string of Supreme Court victories today, where Roberts and Coney Barrett did not go wobbly on us on any of those verdicts today, a string of important 6-3 victories, especially to hand the president his rightful authority as the executive branch head as per what is delineated in the U.S.
Constitution, or is it the plethora of good economic news, the manufacturing base coming back to the United States, the lowering of
inflation and how will this portend to the passage of finally a big beautiful budget bill I go to you
Craig Bergman Well, I'm gonna hit those issues real quick.
But before I do there's one key point I want to make because it's my pet peeve and that is the War Powers Act is Unconstitutional and that's why we've never had a ruling on it because the legislature won't pursue it because they know it and Every president and I posted this on my Facebook page
100% citation.
Every president except Harrison, who died a few days into his term, used the military without asking Congress from Washington to Adams to Jefferson, right up to Donald Trump.
This is a president of our founding fathers.
There is no article to subordination to Article 1.
They are co-equal branches.
Onto the domestic side, it's real simple.
Look at the stock market.
All those people that were shorting Trump and his tariff, four years ago, eight years ago, lost their billion.
All the people now lost their billions.
Look at the $30 billion in oil futures liquidated on Monday of this week from people who bet that oil was going up.
So if you bet against Donald Trump, you are either a partisan or a fool or bull.
That's a great take from Craig Bergman now,
Curtis
Bauer.
I'll tell you what, the biggest thing that I look at is how impactful you are as a leader.
You're only as good as the people you have behind you.
So what I've seen Trump consistently do is empower the people that he's appointed to his cabinet.
Did you see that
phalanx?
Did you see that phalanx of J.D.
Vance, Marco Rubion, Peter
Hexa standing behind him, Steely Jod and Steely I. Very, very beautiful.
So for me, when I see things like that, it empowers the American people, and it sends a very clear message to the rest of the world, hey, we're going to have our people's back regardless of where we are with regards to politics, really.
Now, the biggest problem I'm having is a big, beautiful bill.
I don't like the $5 trillion.
I don't like what it does, how it sets us back.
And I don't like how our children are going to be saddled with having to pay off that debt.
That's really where I struggle with that $5 trillion.
I do too, Curtis.
The problem is he's got such razor thin majorities.
It's like herding cats with some of these idiosyncratic nuances of personalities.
Absolutely.
Joel, Curtis, I bet you're somewhat with Curtis on this.
We hate this spending price tag.
Well, yeah, absolutely.
But you know, the first thing I got to ask you about is if we ever get to the tariff debate, do we get to do one on the War Powers Act afterwards?
Yes.
Yes.
Get ready, Bergman.
Maybe 100%.
I need you guys come down to Ottawa University and do that live on campus outside of Kansas City.
It will be on the...
The conference sports network, my engineer is nodding his head, the KCAC Sports Network, literally televised that live the night we did that.
But I digress, continual cutonitis.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I think the biggest thing is actually it's the Supreme Court ruling today.
Really, really excited about those.
And I think the reason that that's the biggest factor right now, and I hesitate to say that any of these things up to Iran and Israel or Trump's finance moment, because as a
a meme board millennial, the his finest moment in my mind will always be when he looked at Hillary said, said, because you'll be in jail.
So nothing's ever going to be that.
And Joel, remember he led the nation in the Iowa fight song after being shot.
He stood
up and said,
fight, fight, fight.
What they didn't hear was for Iowa, let every loyal Iowans sing.
Trump's a true Hawkeye fan, but I digress back to Joel.
Right, hon.
Now the Supreme Court decisions, here's, here's the reason that I think those are going to be so formative and out of the things that you mentioned today are the most important because the Democrat party, my entire lifetime has put all of their stock, all of their chip into the court.
That's been their power.
The, the injunction coming from the lower courts that were smacked down so hard today by the Supreme Court, that was their last straw.
It was beautiful.
They had put all of their chips into that basket and they thought that they were going to take it to the finish line.
And so that is causing a major, major strategic restructuring on the far left.
And that's, I think, what's driving a lot of the really radical talk that you hear, the violence threats and the revolutionary talk, things like that, I think is because of the failure of the court, because that talk didn't happen as much when they thought they had the court.
And so I see the string of court successes as being very formative.
think they have a strategy to oppose it and I think it's really going to reshape the political stage here in the United States for many years to come.
I think I can speak for Bauer and that you'd have made a pretty fine Iowa Hawkeye Law alum there, Curtinitis.
Great take.
Sheila Murphy, we're coming to the end.
You get the last word.
Sheila.
Oh
wow, well.
You know, I see America like an old Western town in an old Western movie that was taken over by outlaws and everybody was terrified.
All the soft keepers were hiding and everyone was taking cover and the outlaws could do whatever they wanted.
But what has happened now is that Donald Trump has stepped forward and shown courage.
And then a few more people have shown courage and stood with him.
And today with the Supreme Court, we see Supreme Court justices who may have wanted to show
courage in the past and couldn't, but now they can.
And even the media is starting to be beaten down by an epidemic of courage.
And that's why all of these things are happening.
And I think that the big, beautiful bill, it's far from perfect.
But I also secretly, Trump is saying to people that are concerned, I know it isn't, and I know it doesn't cut enough, but we have to get our foot in the door.
And I think if we get our foot in the door, we have enough people now in our
government that see the need to cut the spending and shrink the government that things really will start to happen.
But I know that we can't always get perfection.
Sometimes we have to work within the realm of what it's possible.
So I think that's that's where we are now.
And it's not perfect, but we have to accept it.
And and I know a lot of Democrats are very upset that Trump took the action he did to drop those bombs.
But I also tell you that if he had thought
for permission from the Congress.
Many of those people in the Congress right now would have gotten on the phone and told Iran what was coming, and nothing would have worked.
We would be nowhere now.
So that was imperfect too, perhaps, that it's working.
You know, I think you've tapped into something, Sheila.
Trump has bestowed the world like a colossus and he has performed a vibe shift with the zeitgeist.
Donald John Trump is precisely the John Wayne character that painted the mythology
of the American West that John Ford so imbued in his motion picture masterpieces, The Searchers, and the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and several other such movies.
Trump cast an Ethan Edwards, a Tom Donovan role in society as being the unpolished, rough-hewn, perhaps even vulgar, heroic figure called in to do the dirty work, or as Marina O'Hara would say in Big Jake, an unpleasant man needing to do some very
pleasant business.
Maybe not the man later invited for tea and crumpets and to go into the finer halls of society, but nonetheless, the man that is turned to in the hour of need to pull out occasionally some brass knuckles.
Just as befell church, she'll be for him and others like it guys.
This has been so great We are gonna have pastor sam jones on to graft him in He's a good man.
He chose the lord over us his priorities are correct And I want to thank all of you guys for being on the panel tonight and jim and cindy janet midwest renewable energy LLC energy for a strong america's leanest cleanest green out of the east central plains of Nebraska ethanol renewable fuels and
People at LifeRunners, go to LifeRunners.org.
Get your t-shirt, run and walk for life.
Help those expectant mothers and their babies on the way.
This is John Jacobson here at KXEL in the Jacobson Group thanking our Bergman, Kurt Knightus and Murphy.
Come join us again next week.
In the meantime, get on kxel.com slash Jacobson in the interim.
Be safe, be smart, be good, be strong.
Love Jesus Christ.
And God blesses everyone.
Have a happy Saturday.
If
you're enjoying this KXEL podcast, then we invite you to listen to KXEL's great programming in real time too!
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It's where Iowa comes to talk, News Talk 1540, KXEL.
Hames the Holmes people welcome to KXEL the blowtorch on the Midwest America's original 50,000 watt clear channel blowtorch Waterloo at 1540 C wraps at 100.5 FM and streaming live across the universe as well as on podcast you're listening to the Jacobson group here
on this beautiful hot Saturday morning and this is our time we spend to talk about that great American vanguard of entrepreneurial capitalism and community service par excellence just as their late founders Kurt and Norma Haymes would have it.
We're on with
Clint Haymes today.
Clint, you are one of the next generation of Haymes' bringing safe, affordable, and beautiful manufactured homes to Northeast Iowa.
Welcome back, Clint.
Thank you.
Appreciate you having me.
Clint, tell us your picking order in the family.
A lot of folks knew your grandparents and your folks, your aunts and uncles, talk about it.
Yeah, yeah.
So obviously, you know, we're here thanks to the work that Kurt Norma did, getting us set up for success.
And now we've got Troy and Barb and Cynthia at the leadership roles.
And then Curtis and I are working in the sales to keep things moving.
We've got Grandview and some of you on the Southwest.
of Cedar Rapids and Curtis and I are working on filling the communities and ownership groups, working on keeping them safe and clean.
And you guys do that better than anybody.
Talk about prior safety vetting to make sure that people come in there.
Our good citizens.
You've got beautiful new streets, landscaping, lighting.
police uh that that come by and check on the place you've got tornado shelters you've got dog parks frisbee parks you've got a food pantry you guys do all things well and clint hams i was drawn to your great website as i always am always fresh all of the listings for these beautiful manufactured homes from both communities grand view and summit are listed on that web page hams
homes.com.
H-a-m-e-s-h-o-m-e-s, easy to remember, dot com.
Clint, you belong in a Hames home.
Part two, young families and first time home buyers.
Talk about this process for young people looking for residential housing today.
Certainly.
So we've seen a rapid rise in the cost of real estate homes and condos, kind of everything around us.
And it's really kind of become out of reach for a lot of folks.
And what we offer and what we have here is a more affordable way of living.
And that works for families.
getting their family started, young people getting their careers started, then also works for people on the other end of it where maybe they're downsizing, they've got a two-story home, they want everything on one floor, they want a safe community where there's a background check on all adults living here.
So we really offer something for really all phases of life.
Yeah, I think you guys build strong foundations with Aims Homes, you know, and it doesn't have to come with the overwhelming costs or
compromise you guys make that first step easier for folks you make it more affordable and more rewarding and talk about the affordability you know I think manufactured homes are very cost-effective in this day and age
yes yeah we've yeah we continue to meet that need for affordable housing so it's you know we've got homes that we've completely reconditioned we sell them with a warranty and they start at
4550 thousand.
Those are lower
purchase prices and that means smaller down payments and affordable monthly payments.
You're exactly right.
And it's a way you can build up equity because the value keeps going up with real estate and these are also built for family life.
client aren't they
right yes yeah i mean most homes are going to be a three bedroom two bath and then we've we have amenities out here that are going to meet the needs if you got young kids or you know kids that want to go to the park the playground and like you mentioned earlier we have a dog park so if you got uh pets you've got a place for to take them to to run around as well
bike rides playgrounds other green spaces
very child-friendly and I think it's a place where your children can grow and play and thrive, Clint.
You're exactly right.
Well, Clint, what's the order of business if they want to come down and look at the place?
Where are you located?
I always marvel when I visit.
Both communities are idyllic, Rockwell, and Norman Rockwellian types of communities with beautiful landscaping and lighting and just pristine and everything great about America with a great divert...
of people, a very diverse population.
So where do they drive to check it out, first of all, physically to come visit?
Of course.
So our main office is at 5410 Wabash Street.
We're on the southwest side of Cedar Rapids.
We're just off Wilson Avenue and Stony Point Road.
And then some of you office is just down the street at 100 Troy Street.
It's about a quarter mile from our main office.
So both communities are right near each other and makes it easy to look around and shop.
And you're by the airport and all the retail and the hospitals are not far away.
And indeed, I think it's you're like on the edge of country life.
They're just on the peripheries of the city.
So you have a rural setting, but you're close to all of the perquisites of urban life in Cedar Rapids.
If you so choose, I think it's the best of both worlds, Clint.
I
agree.
You know, Clint, if they want to go online, I've told them hamshomes.com.
But you've got one of those wonderful Marion Legacy phone numbers that's real easy to remember.
How could they call you or Curtis or Barb or any of the gang?
319-377-4863.
That's a great legacy number there.
And I think that the other amazing thing is just the affordability.
You know, there's
It's pretty definitive now.
Jerome Powell did not move on rates last week.
He's promised two 25 basis points rates decreases coming up this calendar year.
What that means in layman's terms for everybody out there is he's going to cut interest rates a half a point between now and the end of the year.
That bodes well.
At least we know rates aren't going up and they're not even going to be stasis.
They will start to trend down, but you've got great financing there.
Tell folks how they can do financing with you guys to be able to set up payments and get this house bought.
Right.
So we'll work directly with the buyer and the credit union or bank, whichever we choose to use.
Financing is simple.
You can either make an appointment with Curtis or I to meet in person.
We can fill it out together.
Otherwise, hemshome.com has a financing tab.
You click on that, and there's an online application to walk you right through it.
It's just a wonderful website, guys.
I urge you to go there, go to it.
A tip of the fedora to you also as we are coming up very soon to our Independence Day holiday.
And Clint, your grandfather and grandmother were great veterans of our nation and helped win that cold war.
And frankly, they brought that great patriotism with them when they embarked upon this wonderful free market.
enterprise, exercise, and providing people with beautiful, safe, affordable homes can't think of a greater vocation than that.
And they bring their Christian and civic worldview with them wherever they go.
And I always know I'm at Hames because I see old glory flying with the Iowa.
Our liberties reprise and our rights will maintain and that great MIA POW flag always honoring those who have served, Clint.
Yes, yeah, we fly them out, out in front of both offices, and we fly them proudly.
And they're tall and mighty, and so it's very easy to get out there.
Follow me, get out there.
You know what, Clint?
I want to do a live Saturday morning remote out there.
It'll be fun some morning, I think, to do that out there at Summit or Grand.
That'd be great.
We'd love to have you out.
All right, guys.
Well, that is the great Clint Hames.
We salute Hames as our business of the month again this year for continued excellence and excellence.
I saw
germinate circa 1970 as a little boy watching then WMTV channel 2 television now KGAN with Kurt Enormous commercials to the music of Cracklin' Rosie by Neil Diamond.
You hear the instrumental strains of that in your background today.
Thanks Clint.
Say hi to the gang for us.
We'll talk to you in a week or two.
Thank you John.
And now back to you guys in studio KXEL the Jacobson group.
Economics is the study of human choice in the world we live.
Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
By investigating faith in economics, we can learn how they lead to human flourishing.
This is the Faith in Economics podcast, a presentation of the Gortney Institute at Ottawa University.
This is Dr. Russ McCullough, Professor and Wayne Angel Chair of Economics here at Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas, right here in the heart of the Midwest.
I founded the Gortney Institute, a think and teach tank back in 2018.
We've been building and building on student programs.
We have a capital campaign right now.
for our goal of one million dollars.
It's going to take small donations and big donations to make that happen, but it's all part of an overall capital campaign for Ottawa University.
The Institute includes two other professors, Dr. Peter Jacobson in Economics and Dr. Justin Clark in Philosophy.
Where else can you find a place that has student programs of debates, movie nights, speaker nights,
book clubs, colloquiums, and game nights.
These event topics include stuff like immigration, federalism, the Constitution, individual freedom, Bitcoin, voluntary exchange, free enterprise, rule of law, faith, family, community, and local self-governance.
Where else could you find a university that's providing that kind of education to students?
If you want to learn more about what we believe and teach, check out our Faith in Economics podcast.
It's available on all the major channels.
You'll see that the titles we have really show what we discuss with students on a daily basis.
This capital campaign is important.
Donations big and small are welcome.
Contact me directly at Russ McCulloch at Ottawa.
edu.
That's R-U-S-S dot M-C-C-U-L-L-O-U-G-H at Ottawa O-T-T-A-W-A dot edu.
Or just call me directly 785-242-2558.
That's 785-242-2558.
Love to chat with you more about our programs and what we do for students here at Ottawa.
Thanks.
Welcome to our show today.
My name is Peter Jacobson.
I'm the Gortney Professor of Economic Education Research.
Joining us today, we have Dr. Justin Clark, the Menard Family Professor of Philosophy and Ethics.
We also have Dr. Russ McCullough, the Wayne Angel Chair of Economics and the founder of the Gortney Institute, and we are going to have him introduce our guest today.
All right, so we got Dr. Levi Russell in the office once again, been here before.
He's actually the co-founder of our Faith in Economics podcast along with me many years ago.
So he's an associate teaching professor in the school of business at the University of Kansas, teaches managerial economics and foundations of business.
Levi's research is in Catholic social teaching, political economy, and the economics of risk.
And Levi, it's great to have you on.
Thanks.
Appreciate it.
Glad to be here.
And now that we got all those fancy credentials out of the way, the topic of the day is arm wrestling.
I love it.
What's going on in the arm wrestling world?
Well, so I got interested in it because I was initially watching the newest phenomenon, slap fighting.
Oh,
yeah.
The MMA
guy started a slap.
I think it's called Power Slap.
Yeah, Power Slap.
It's on Rumble, which is like a YouTube alternative, you know?
And it's just, you can watch it for a while, but then you kind of get a little squeamish after a while.
It's like the worst part about boxing, but it's just that part.
Right.
It's just the most dangerous
Yeah.
And you have to like, you hold your hands behind your back.
And if you flinch, if they call you flinching,
They hit you again.
You get to be hit again.
I'm not joking.
It's totally wild.
So eventually the algorithm put me on to arm wrestling.
If
you like this, you like this.
Yeah.
So the thing about arm wrestling is it's like it's a it's a combat sport, but it's like the most like pansy type of combat sport because absolutely no one is going to get hit in the face.
Like there's just none of that going to happen.
know, you might get injured, but you know, like we're going to we're going to figure out who's the more masculine guy.
But we're going to do so, you know, without anyone actually getting their moneymaker, you know, messed up.
So I started watching like Devon Larratt is probably the most famous arm wrestler in the world now.
He's a Canadian special forces guy.
And he's just an absolute machine on the table.
And so I discovered that there's a couple of arm wrestling groups in the area.
And so I kind of was that up in Kansas City or Lawrence or both.
So there's there's one in Udora and it's
My perception of it is it's more like a team.
Like they're really serious about the fact that this is a team and you know, they've
name and all that stuff.
And then there's another group of guys over in Lee's summit.
And that's more of just kind of, I guess what you would call like a gym where it's just a bunch of guys who show up on a given day practice.
And both of them have like a pro level guy who's kind of, you know, shepherding the whole process.
But I bought a table, which they aren't cheap to buy a professionally made table.
So just pick there.
an arm wrestling
table.
Arm wrestling table.
Can we talk
about that?
Yeah, sure.
So the standard table I think is 41 inches tall and then it has a special pad on it on each side for your elbow called the elbow pad and that's just to make it so you know like obviously your elbow on a hard surface for a long time that would not be good right but it also defines where your elbow can be like you can't move your elbow off the pad and then there are two pin pads and those are two inches taller than the elbow
And so that's where you pin your opponent or if you get their hand below that level, right?
Kind of like breaking the plane in football.
And then there's a there's a peg for you to hold on to on the extreme end of the table.
And so you have to at all times have your hand touching that peg.
Oh,
that's your free and you're never touching hands with the other guy.
Oh, yeah.
You are.
So so the two guys are like, I can't remember if there was a I've seen other versions where you're just grabbing on to a. Yeah.
Handlebar like a handlebar.
Yeah,
I've seen that too.
I'm not sure why that went away.
OK.
But yeah, so you actually do get into a grip with the other person and there's so the pads are kind of in the middle and then your hands meet in the very center and then the pegs are on the side for you to put your off hand on to.
And I think it's really fascinating just because it's it's kind of like this.
this hybrid of strength and combat.
So, you know, there's there's certainly a strength aspect to it.
Like, obviously, if one guy is just way stronger than the other guy, then, you know, the stronger guy is going to win.
But if you're at all close, and I would even say, you don't really have to be that close, especially the skill is just a big deal.
And so the combat aspect to it, there's a lot of skill and understanding how to get in the setup.
Like,
that's what I was going to ask on the
grip.
Yeah, moving your hand a couple of millimeters will be enough to change dramatically the dynamic of how much power you're able to apply to the other person.
And so a lot of it is about making it so that the other person can't apply their strength to you.
So if you get your hand in a certain position, you can't push it sideways.
Or your body tells you not to do that because something's going to tear.
And just the, I remember with my brothers doing like the wrist flick to kind of screw them up a little bit.
Can you do that at all or not?
Was
that a good way to break your wrist?
So yeah, I mean, so like, I guess that's another really cool dynamic about it is it's a very social kind of thing.
Cause we all, you know, as guys, you grow up and it's like the lunch room, you know, you do a little arm wrestling.
And you know, this whole thing of like just pushing your arms straight sideways, like relative to your body, like that's a very weak, you know, the small muscles are doing that
right?
And so I've actually, I really want to get a club started at KU.
Like I want, you know, there's like all these guys.
It's like, I don't have to drive all the way at least some it, right?
There's like 10,000 guys like right north of me that are all,
you know, a lot of people.
Yeah.
So I want to get these guys, you know, interested in maybe a club or something like that.
Of course, gals too, but, you know, get the wreck to buy a table.
And so I was teaching a guy kind of how to do it.
And my kids are into it as well.
My oldest and my second child are both interested in.
So.
trying to teach people just the very basics of, first of all, don't how to not break your arm.
Really, it's a lot about just holding your hand in a specific position and just not letting it move relative to your body.
You want to move your whole body.
Use your whole body to move that person's hand to the table.
But the social aspect is a lot of fun, I think.
It's one of these last places where there's just a bunch of guys, mainly guys, hanging out.
doing masculine stuff, you know?
Just beating up on each other, you know?
So we don't have a lot of like men only spaces anymore, right?
And this is kind of one of them.
So I want to get a sense for the kind of the size of like this sort of, because this is one of these niche sports, right?
It's like, as far as I know, there's not Olympic arm wrestling.
I'm sure there is a professional organization, but I don't know what it's called.
So give me some idea of like, you know, is this national, international?
Like what's been your experience in terms of like the size of it?
And maybe whether it's growing, shrinking, what the future looks like.
Yeah.
So I mean, if you tell someone that you competed in arm wrestling, they'll probably laugh.
They'll be their first.
Yeah.
Because they're like, what?
You know, they always just think it's like, well, it's just something you do in the lunch room or something like that, right?
So your dad goofing around, right?
So I would say that it has grown a lot.
I mean, there's, of course, there's the movie over the top.
which is an 80s movie with Sylvester Stallone.
And
it's really a
movie about fatherhood and stuff like that.
But there
an arm wrestling tournament in the movie, and that tournament actually did happen.
They actually had a real tournament, so the extras are actual arm wrestlers, some of them professionals.
And so I would say, I'm not really sure why, but it seems like the sport is growing.
So like, for instance, that kind of gym or club that I go to and lease summit on a fairly regular basis, usually weekly.
You know, for them, a big practice a couple of years ago would have been like 12 or 13 guys.
And now, let's see, before the tournament in April that we had, there were 30 guys at this guy's house.
And when we had six tables, so four in his garage and then two in the driveway.
Well, like many things, it might ebb and flow.
I remember it being a big deal in the 80.
I graduated in 89.
So, and I remember even recently at the Iowa State Fair, I watched.
arm wrestling.
I went in, just kind of happened to be walking by.
I'm like, what's going on in there?
There was arm wrestling.
So I went in and watched it.
It was kind of fun.
So yeah, I
think YouTube has been really good for it.
Yeah.
And you have some of the more famous kind of like YouTube influencers kind of just carrying a table around and, you know, and saying, hey, you know, what they would do is they would have like a more kind of
center built arm wrestler and they'd say like, oh, you know, beat the dirt and they dress him up and give him long sleeves so he can't see their forearms and he'd wear glasses and stuff and, you know, beat the beat the nerd and win a hundred bucks, you know, and of course he's just flashing everybody.
Yeah, so I think I think that has really helped the social media thing for whatever reason, but it's like post COVID has really and now I mean, there's so for like worldwide organizations.
So there's WAF.
which is kind of like the standard organization that pretty much sets the standard for rules.
Like we had a local promotion for our tournaments that we've had this year, but they pretty much follow those rules.
WAF is World Armwrestling Federation.
So they have, you know, local events that are qualifiers for like a regional that are qualifiers for a national event, and then they have qualifier for a world event.
So the guy that built my table, he has been at Worlds.
He's won at Worlds in his weight class.
All right, well this has been a production of the Wharton Institute here at Ottawa University.
Levi is great to have you on again, and we look forward to having you on a few more upcoming episodes as well.
This has been a production of the Wharton Institute, and I'd like to thank you all for listening.
The five-star rating helps other people find us.
Otherwise, be fruitful and multiply.
Thanks.
Hi, this is Dr. Russ McCullough, Professor and Wayne Angel Chair of Economics here at Ottawa University.
That's Ottawa, Kansas, right here in the Midwest.
I founded the Gortney Institute, a think-and-teach tank here, and we have a capital campaign going on right now where we're trying to raise one million dollars total.
We need donations both big and small and we hope that you'll think it's a great place to invest your money where college education looks a little bit different than where it does in other places.
We have student programs like debates, movie nights, speaker nights,
Book clubs, colloquiums, and game nights.
Topics including immigration, federalism, the Constitution, individual freedom, Bitcoin, voluntary exchange, free enterprise, rule of law, faith, family, community, and local self-governance.
Where else are people sharing these types of ideas with high school and college age students?
If you want to learn more about what we teach and believe, check out our Faith in Economics podcast that comes out weekly.
There you'll see the types of things that we talk to students about every day here at Ottawa.
This capital campaign is important, so please contact me directly if you'd like to give.
That's Russ.McCullough at Ottawa.edu, R-U-S-S dot M-C-C-U-L-L-O-U-G-H at OttawaOTTAWA.edu.
Or you can just give me a call.
785-242-2558.
That's my direct line here at the university.
785-242-2558.