Todd Starnes, Author of "The Golden Age"

Well, we always begin this 10 o'clock hour with the Todd Starnes commentary and now we're going to do you one better.

We have the actual article joining us now live on the news line from the mighty 990 in Memphis, Tennessee.

He is Todd Starnes, the author of the brand new book released today entitled The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America.

Mr. Starnes, good morning and congratulations, sir.

Jeff, good morning.

It's just always a pleasure to hang out with you.

and the great listeners there on KXEL.

This is a fantastic book, not only the content, which is, as per custom, tremendous, but my goodness, this cover is gonna jump right off the shelf.

Tell us why you titled the book The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America, and tell us about this cover art.

Well, the cover, if you've read The Great Gatsby, you'll understand the connection there, which was pretty intentional, and we wanted to have that roaring twenties

sort of celebratory uh... art deco look to the book and it's it's it's a celebration no doubt about it but it's also a war because after the roaring twenties came to great depression and uh... the three-pronged wrote the book was again to remind people of what rattle ragan said that freedom of the platform in our bloodstream every generation has to fight for freedom and and one of the things i really appreciate about president tropin and when you back away from

all of the noise.

You realize that this country was on a very dangerous path, and it was President Trump who slammed on the brakes and really saved the country from what I believe would have been an ultimate socialist takeover.

So that really was the mission behind the book, celebrate all the great things that have happened, but then an eye to the future.

And again, the subtitle is How Trump Saved America, and you have documented this in a variety of the chapters.

How Trump Saved Common Sense, how Trump Saved Your Hometown of Memphis, how Trump Saved Our Schools, how Trump Saved Christmas, and again, the examples are easy to come by because they are so plentiful, but it's the kind of fact-based information needed to rebut

the claims of the critics about trump and uh... what his real motivation is

you know it's it's a great observation and you know i have a lot of fun writing this uh... had to write it on a on a pretty short deadline uh... but i i really feel like we were able to run on you really get to the essence of who donald trump is and when you read the book you are i hope people come across understanding that there's a billionaire who literally understands

how a blue collar worker thinks.

And you see that in his own life.

I think it's because he was in the construction industry.

He was working around these people, growing up around these people.

And I think that really did flavor who he is.

And honestly, it's not a fair comparison, but it's sort of like, if you remember the Beverly Hill Bellies, and I've got a chapter in the book on the Beverly Hill Bellies.

Jed and Granny and Ellie May and Jethro all moved to Beverly Hills.

They were super wealthy, but they were outsiders.

High society looked down on them, and I think in some way, I think high society looks down on Donald Trump because he's able to power around with the blue collar folks.

I have analogized previously that it's sort of like, and yes I remember the hillbillies very well, it's sort of like Caddyshack, where Donald Trump is the Rodney Dangerfield character.

He comes in and just upsets their world and they don't know what to make of it, but the public loves it.

So, I mean, it's the sort of thing that you would think, you would think,

that members of the House and Senate would say, this guy's popular, he's got ideas that are pretty good that the American people like, we should put his agenda into place.

Yet I'm whining and moaning, Todd, and I know you're disappointed too.

What's going on with Congress?

How are they not helping us reach the potential of the Golden Age?

So I'm not surprised by this at all.

And I addressed this in the book.

You know, going back to the lead up,

to the the election of donald j trump the first go around uh... trump was was really the enemy of the republican party they considered him to be the enemy but the reality is that the reason why he got elected in the first place is because the republicans would always campaign on their promises and then they would eventually they would go back on the promises and and and the american people just got sick and tired of it which really i think

paved the way for Donald J. Trump.

So look, the Republicans are going along to get along.

They've been doing that for a long time now.

And I think they see that President Trump is going to be a lame duck president.

You know, he's gone in two years.

So that's why I think we're seeing so much strong, strong pushback from especially the U.S.

Senate.

They know they've got the power.

They know they have the votes to stop whatever they want to.

And that's one of the reasons why I believe

the Save America Act never came to fruition.

Well, and the people, and I mentioned this yesterday on your program, I mentioned it earlier today here on this program, the people who are in power now got elected under the old system, the current system, Republicans and Democrats alike, and they don't want to screw up what got them elected.

And that is about the antithesis of working for

America, the golden age how Trump saved America, the brand new book released today.

The author is Todd Starnes.

He joins us on the news line from Memphis, Tennessee, and what I get an awful lot here, and I know you get it a lot when you talk with the good listeners.

Well, this is all interesting conversation, but what can we do?

And you've dedicated a chapter in the book to how Americans can save Trump's agenda, and that's vital.

Well, it really is.

And we've got to make sure that we don't sit, as we say in the Baptist faith tradition, we sit on our blessed assurance.

We've got to get up and we've got to engage the culture.

And that's one of the things we talk about in the book.

It's a fun read.

There's a lot of laughter in the book and a lot of humor.

And there are some challenges for all of us.

So I really do hope that people have fun reading this.

And I hope they come away inspired

and also satisfied with her vote with Donald J. Trump because he really did deliver on those campaign promises.

And again, as per custom folks with a star in his book, you get lots of stories of real life situations.

And you also get a nice twist of Todd's pan.

Jimmy Lee led better makes another appearance.

The metropolis of woolly booger is in here as well.

And and this is another great opportunity for you as an author.

to stretch the writing muscles a little bit last year, Star Spangled Blessings, the year before that, Twilight's Last Gleaming, and now with The Golden Age, these are all very different styles of writing, and that's gotta be pretty interesting as you publish your ninth book, thank you very much.

Yeah, yeah, it's been a lot of fun.

I just got back from California, I was speaking, we launched our book

tour there and in southern california and signed over four hundred and fifty books it was a pretty insane but it was so fun to meet so many of our readers you know that you know they've they've read many of the other books and it's really fun to meet people from other cultures other backgrounds other states you know that enjoyed the southern humor the down-to-home kind of you know approach that i that i take on things and and we just had a wonderful time out there on the west coast

one of the things that

I ask authors pretty regularly and so I'll ask you the same question.

It's one thing to collect notes as you go along and I trust you keep a file folder of clippings and printouts and whatever it is handy for just such an occasion but it's only when you put it all together, stitch it all together in book form and then sit down and read it cover to cover that some things really come together for you and I'm just wondering

You knew all the stories, you put them in the book, but when you sat down to proofread or read the manuscript as a whole, what jumped out at you were there's some connections that you wound up making that really came across to you that you maybe didn't intend on putting in there, but they just became apparent?

Yeah, that's a great question.

I actually rewrote the ending as we were at final edits.

Marco Rubio had given a terrific speech and really talking about saving Western civilization.

And I think that's sort of a common theme through the book.

And now here we are watching the rise of socialism, the rise of the Islamic movement.

So a lot happening in the culture.

So it's one of these for such a time as just books I have to imagine.

But again, just had a lot of fun writing this one.

And you never know where things are going to go.

But this was a lot of fun.

to put pen to paper on.

The book is entitled The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America.

It is released nationally today.

Get it at your local bookstore, order it at Amazon.com.

You can go to ToddStarns.com, get it wherever you get your good books these days.

And as I often say, get to because when you loan one to someone and they never give it back to you, you'll still have the original copy.

The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America.

Final question for Todd Starnes, because you got a show to do friend, but as you look at where we are right now, we're to the midway point.

Is this a tipping point on how the second Trump term will be remembered?

In other words, it's been gangbusters for the first couple of years because of the selection.

Is this the tipping point to where history may say it truly became the golden age or if

If people don't show up and politicians don't stand up, this could be what history would say was the biggest missed opportunity of the century.

Yeah, I think it could be.

I really do.

I'm curious about the electorate.

We have certainly seen a depressed Republican turnout in a lot of the primaries.

You know, will that change for the midterms?

I think a lot of that will will really determine on the economy and those pocketbook issues.

uh... that's normally how people vote in the country you know the other thing is you know a lot a lot of these races uh... especially at the congressional level are local and they're decided on local issues uh... so that could be interesting to watch especially in some of the states where democrats are really fired up over the the redrawing of the district so you know that could play an impact as well i still think the republicans are going to be able to maintain control of congress

I really do.

And the only reason is the Democrats are honestly just nominating slap crazy people for some of these races.

But Jeff, before we go, you know, I just wanted to extend my condolences to the Grassley family on the passing of sweet death.

I mean, 49 years old.

Wow.

What a life.

and to go out in a blaze of glory with what could have been an electrical fire with the scorched plug.

Do you know the back half of that story?

And again, for the audience, Senator Grassley has tweeted about Beth, his upright Hoover vacuum cleaner that I believe was his mother-in-law's for 14 years, and he has been responsible.

Barber's made sure he runs it for the last 34.

So he tweeted out, you know, our IP, Beth, a Susanian.

Good Iowan had a similar model, somewhat new, newer, and offered it to the senator as a replacement.

And the senator took him up on it.

So Beth 2.0 will soon be at the Grassley House in New Hartford, sir.

You know, I have to imagine, Jeff, I can't wait to see the official O-bit because the headline will have to be Beth Sucked.

And it was a good thing.

I

mean.

Oh.

Oh, look at this.

Now, this is not his first day.

He waited until the end of the interview to drop that.

By the way, we got a text and it's from a listener that you have met during one of your visits to Iowa.

The quote is this, you're the best, Todd, have a great day.

I don't think I could summarize it any better.

Mr. Starnes, congratulations on the release of the Golden Age and get back to work.

Well, thank you very much.

Apologies for the voice.

I'm a little under the weather that California weather did not agree with.

But we look forward to hanging out with you guys later this evening on KXEL.

Todd, take good care and congratulations once again.

All right, thanks, Jeff.

Todd Starnes.

And again, you hear the Todd Starnes radio program.

Eight until 11 weeknights.

We run best of Starnes all Saturday evening.

But here's the headline for the day.

The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America by Todd Starnes.

Now available, get it wherever you get your good books.

And I got to tell you, now this is on the Humanix books label.

This is the company that Chris Ruddy started.

Chris Ruddy of Newsmax.

Todd, of course, has a program on Newsmax.

This thing is heavy.

Now it's not, you know, like a thousand pages.

It's the normal 300 pages.

But the quality, I mean, good.

sound cover and good paper.

I mean, this is a quality product.

So when you spend your hard-earned money on a book, this is a good one.

This is substantial.

You'll be able to hold it in the easy chair and read it.

And as I have mentioned, I got a copy a few weeks ago and I lost sleep because of it, because it's just too good to put down.

The golden age, how Trump saved America, Todd Starnes, get it wherever you get your good books these days, now available as of this very day.

It's always a privilege to be joined on the news line by Michael O'Neill.

Mr. O'Neill is the Vice President of Legal Affairs and Assistant General Counsel with the Landmark Legal Foundation.

You find them online, landmarklegal.org.

Mr. O'Neill, good morning.

Good to talk to you again.

Thanks for the time.

It's always a pleasure to be with you, Jeff.

How are you today?

I am quite well.

I would have been better if the Save America Act had some signs of life in the Senate, but before we get hip-deep into that, remind people, please, landmark legal foundation.

Who are you, folks, and what do you do?

We are a public interest law firm.

We fight for liberty.

We promote constitutional conservatism.

We believe that the best way to preserve liberty is through the separation of powers, doctrine, and ensure that

Each branch of government stays in its requisite constitutional lanes.

You can find us again at landmarklegal.org, our website where all of our activities and all of our goings on are documented and up there for everybody to take a look at.

And of course, Chairman Emeritus of your board, the great one, Mark Levin, who folks here live weeknights on KXEL between 5 and 8 p.m.

All right, so the Senate is home on break.

They'll come back after Labor Day.

I used to say, well, if the House and Senate are out of session, phew, they can't do anything to screw things up anymore.

But whatever happened to the promise of following the voters and the agenda of the leadership of the party, I guess that went out the door.

It absolutely, I think back to 2024 and why did we vote for Republicans to take control?

Obviously, the president too voted for Donald Trump, obviously.

But why was there a vote?

What was the platform of Republicans nationally?

They ran on fixing the economy, lowering inflation, fixing immigration, reforming our electoral system.

Going back to 2020, there's all kinds of questions revolving around the electoral system in our country.

large percentages of Americans have lost faith in it.

It's a very serious matter that I think we all agree on, that it's imperative that our electoral system is on the up and up and up.

In other words, everybody believes that their vote counts.

It's not being deluded through illegal votes being cast, ineligible individuals being cast.

And there was a piece of legislation that's been sitting for the better part of this year.

I mean, I think we're in August right now.

We're talking from the beginning of this year, back in January, eight months.

The Save America Act.

And the Save America Act just had some basic common sense measures that would have been federalized, codified into federal law, obligating states to identify and remove non-citizens from their voter rolls, mandating that you show voter identification when you vote in person, something that

85% of Americans agree on.

Can you believe that, Jeff?

It's not 85% of Democrats or 85% of Republicans.

It's 85% of Americans.

85% of Americans don't agree that the color of the sky is blue or that corn in Iowa is yellow.

You know, they don't believe that, but we have 85% of Americans believe that you should show identification when you go to vote.

And the third aspect is, of course, establishing your citizenship when you're showing documents of political citizenship when you register to vote.

Very easy, common sense measures.

None of that has been codified yet.

The Senate or the Senate that a House has gone through, the State Act has gone through the House of Representatives numerous times, can't get through the Senate.

I have long submitted that John Thune, the leader of the Senate, the Republican leader says, well, we don't have enough votes to overcome a filibuster.

I say, okay, the response to that is easy.

Make the Democrats filibuster this.

Make them engage in a talking filibuster.

Nope.

No, no traditional filibuster for this important piece of legislation.

Now, on top of all this, we all know that an election is coming, right?

Elections coming in a couple weeks.

I mean, in a couple months, excuse me, it's imperative that some of these, some of these fixes get through and yet you have the Senate languishing and now going on a recess for three weeks.

Well, and actually the Senate, not to be that guy, but it's even worse.

They're not coming back till after Labor Day.

I

mean,

yeah, the house, I only know this because I went over this yesterday for the audience because I was struck by it.

The house is out until the 31st.

Then they're back for four days before taking a week off for Labor Day.

The Senate, at least, started later.

But again, you're not going to have both chambers in Washington at the same time until the 14th, two weeks before a government shutdown deadline.

This may be my cynical nature, Mr. O'Neill.

You'll straighten me out, please, if I've gone too far with this.

But it sure seems like the people who are currently elected like the system that got them elected, and they don't want to do anything to change that.

That bothers me.

Maybe I'm wrong.

Tell

me.

No, I think you have a fantastic point.

I think, and look, I mean, credit where credit is due on the Save America Act.

The house is not sad on it.

I mean, they've put all of their energy into getting this legislation through.

and technically speaking it it got to the house in february so that the senate problem is that well sixty votes sixty votes and there is the traditional filibuster that you can engage in it is done for the civil rights act for example if if the senate leadership had gotten their act together in march and obligated the democrats in the senate to actually hold the well of the senate and engage in a speaking filibuster

for days, weeks on end, in opposition to the Save America Act.

At some point, the Democrats would have lost the energy, and you would have had this important piece of legislation through.

Look, I'm not saying it's not important to get reconciliation through.

I'm not saying that it's not important to get confirmation through, i.e., Todd Blanche or judges.

That's all important.

But when it comes to hierarchy of legislation, Americans have spoken.

We believe

In any poll you look at, Americans believe that voter integrity is an important issue that Congress needs to address.

And again, as I said it before, 85% of Americans agree that you should show identification to vote.

Look, there's a piece right before the Senate recess.

There's a piece of the Save America Act that was tried to get through, and that's the voter ID.

Again, identification when you show up to vote.

A federal law mandating that you show identification when you vote in person.

Every single Democrat, by the way, voted against that.

i think you believe that every single democrat despite the fact again i keep saying this number forty six of uh... eighty five percent american you should say that you should show i do every single democrat uh... i think i think it would be uh... i think every single democrat voted against it or most of the democrats voted against it and it can't overcome the sixty votes nonetheless there are tools that the senate has at its disposal i.e.

mandating the talking killer buster to push this legislation through and they have not used it

There was no effort to continue to stay in Washington DC to work on this piece of legislation.

Jeff, that's what you're getting at, too.

Who can take three weeks when we have all these problems that American, everyday Americans are facing?

I guess the Senate just decides that they want to take the vacation in the middle of August for it.

Well, I understand Washington may not be pleasant this time of year.

That's where the history of this recess came from was weather-wise, but y'all got air conditioning out there, don't you?

Yeah, I mean, there's no excuse.

I'm right outside of DC.

It's not an excuse.

You need to work.

And again, talk to the root of the problem here, and this is what I really like to talk about, which is important here, is the fact that after the 2020 election, a very large segment of our electorate lost faith in the system.

And that's really imperative, but that's very problematic.

believe that your vote is not being fairly counted.

In other words, your vote might be deleted because somebody is ineligible who is voting or casting a vote.

Then you begin to lose faith in your ability to effectuate change via the ballot box.

And if you begin to lose faith in your ability to effectuate change via the ballot box, then you're apt to not vote and just kind of throw up your hands and then become frustrated.

And then you go down a very dangerous path.

One of the beauties and miracles of our country that served us well for over two and a half years is if you're frustrated politically, you could do something about that, right?

If you're frustrated that your town or your country or your state or your county is going in a direction you don't like, you can go out there and you can organize politically.

You can go door to door.

You could do the entire process.

But if you feel like the game is rigged before you even get into that, then you begin to go down a very dangerous path.

And that's why it's important

that our federal institutions, particularly the Congress, begin to take steps to restore that integrity.

And again, these are common sense solutions.

We're not saying, you know, the Save America Act isn't anything dramatic.

It's basic common sense solutions that overwhelming Americans agree with.

And that's why it's such a tragedy that it's not getting through the setting.

Michael O'Neill of Landmark Legal Foundation joining us on KXEL LandmarkLegal.org is the website.

So much great information on the website and a very subtle button.

in the upper right hand corner if you'd like to help them financially with their efforts.

Mr. O'Neill joins us live on KXEL.

Now, I'm a big fan of the fact that this is a republic and states have rights.

And typically we allow states to set the rules for elections.

In other words, how many hours the polling place is open on election day.

I mean, all of these very specific things.

And so there's the state

purview on this, but there is a way for the federal government to mandate certain things when federal offices are on the ballot, correct?

That's the hook because for so many years I heard, well, we can't regulate what the states do.

Not directly and wholeheartedly, but this is constitutional, is it not?

I think so.

I certainly do.

And I think there's a role to play here for Congress.

Again, I am 100% with you on time, places and manner.

And the deference should be initially to states that they ensure a base level of security in our electoral system.

And then states are free to move accordingly, as you're saying, whether they want to have the extent to which they want to have mail votes.

There's actually a case that's actually pending in front of this report, this term, the upcoming term, Mi Familia Vota.

It's called, this is the state of Arizona that has instituted some of these protections that we're talking about.

They actually have documented proof of citizenship necessary to register in state elections.

And there's some discussion about whether existing federal statutes are conflict with the state's efforts.

So I am wholeheartedly agree with you that states have the primary role under our constitutional republic to play and regulate the time, place, and manner of how elections are conducted.

That being said, again, I think that you can justify what Congress is attempting to do here as sitting on floor, certainly not a ceiling.

This is necessary to, again, restore the integrity of the system.

And this isn't overstepping.

What we're talking about, I repeat myself, but it's important to know that.

We're not talking about Congress coming in and saying, OK, we're going to pass a law that says you can't keep the polls out.

You have to close the polls by this day.

Or not even a law saying that we're going to outlaw mail voting in your state, which I might, I think, agree with politically.

But constitutionally, I think that might be dubious.

That might be an overstep from Congress.

but again what is congress doing here is they are mandating voter identification when you vote in person in federal elections, i.e.

congressional elections they are mandating that states take effective measures to identify and remove non-citizens from the voting rolls remember non-citizens are ineligible to vote every single state in our country says that you must be a u.s.

citizen in order to vote in election and all they're simply saying is that states need to take the effective measures to identify and remove non-citizens from the voting rolls

Keep in mind states have to identify and remove people who died from the voting rolls.

They have to identify and remove people who moved out of the state from the voting rolls.

Is it really a stretch?

There's a federal law that says both of that.

Is it a stretch to say we have to identify and remove non-citizens on our own rolls?

I certainly don't think federal legislation saying that oversteps the constitutional role of Congress in this endeavor.

And then third, requiring individuals to establish

provide documented proof of citizenship when they register to vote.

Again, in using the federal form, I don't think that's an overstep.

So again, Jeff, I think that this is all consistent with the constitutional separation of powers, doctor.

I think it's necessary.

Again, because of this overwhelming problem we're facing and the fact that large percentages have lost faith, you need to ensure faith in the system.

That is so important.

I keep repeating myself, but it is important to our constitutional republic that people believe their vote counts.

But from a nuts and bolts perspective,

We're talking about the Save America Act or some form of voter integrity law.

And

as you note, they've been talking about this for months and months and months.

The fact of the matter is, even if the Senate and the House return at the same time on September 14th and they pass it that day and the president signs it that day, first of all, it's not going to happen, but just play along.

Let's say that happens.

A, it's going to be challenged.

So that's going to probably put it on ice for this election cycle.

But B, if what I'm reading is correct, early in-person voting starts in four states, including Virginia, on September 18th.

So it's going to not have any impact on this election.

So it's sort of like, thanks guys for a missed opportunity.

Yeah, absolutely.

And this is what I was saying before.

This is a piece of legislation that's been languishing for the better part of this year.

It cleared the house in January, or I think early, early February.

So if there'd been a dedicated effort, again, this is alternative history, this is all Monday morning quarterbacking, but it's something I've been talking about for six months, I haven't said.

If the Senate had just simply said, okay, this is an important piece of legislation,

traditional filibuster talking filibuster we're going to make democrats hold the well of the senate and speak for days weeks i i mean what look at i i look at the civil rights act that was actually traditionally filibuster talking filibuster and that was weak and i don't think the energy would have existed for the democrats uh... to to last longer than a couple weeks and so make you might have had to pause the business of the united states senate from you know mid-february through

mid-march, the end of March, and we would have had this piece of legislation through, and then you could have gotten nominations.

And again, I understand it's important to get judges.

I understand it's important to get budget reconciliation, etc.

But there was time to do all of this, and it's a missed opportunity, and there should be some accountability for it.

Well, walk and chew gum at the same time people the rest of us

can go home for recess

right?

Oh, there's that and I I chuckle and I laugh and it's only because of the fact that this is so ludicrous there there's no good explanation for it and Except for ones like the people who are elected now

Like the old system because it worked for them and there could be other reasons I'll let the audience Make the judgment Michael O'Neill of the landmark legal foundation.

It's always an informative and great conversation Thank you so much for taking the time.

We will remind folks landmark legal org is where you go for information come back again soon, sir

Take care Jeff.

Have a great

day you as well and Michael O'Neill joined us on the news line on news talk 1540 KXEL where Iowa comes to talk

News Talk 1540 KXEL, where Iowa comes to talk.

It has just about reached harvest time for backyard gardeners.

Depends on what you're growing, of course.

We're going to talk about that this morning with Steven Eilers, Horticulture and Natural Resources Coordinator for Iowa State University Extension's Blackhawk County Office.

Steven, thanks for being back with us.

Well, thanks for

having me and good morning.

This is payoff time.

All that work now is coming to fruition, and maybe depending on what you're growing, maybe literally coming to fruition.

Yeah, and vegetable-ish, too.

All depends what you planted, I guess, right?

It's that season.

It's, you know, get those canners warmed up, all that work you've done.

It was so much fun to plant in May, and then, of course, we suffered through, you know, the July and the August of the crabgrass and the quackgrass and the bugs and the whatnot.

just to get those tomatoes and, you know, hope that the potatoes are growing and everything is growing great underground.

We can pick the stuff that's above ground.

I can say I grew a few jalapenos and they're lovely this year.

So what do you get the most questions about when it comes to this time of year?

Is there a particular garden crop that people want to know more about or have more trouble with?

Well, I will say the biggest question.

And again, I don't do food preservation specifically.

I'm the before that, so I'm the growing, so salsa.

Salsa is king.

Tomatoes and peppers are in onions.

They're some of the biggest grown things.

People can't get enough.

Either you're a beginner or you're a really expert, but everybody loves the salsa.

So growing the tomatoes, growing the peppers, growing the onions, growing the jalapenos, growing the stuff with the salsa is huge.

And then how do you can it?

How do you preserve it?

How do you do it the right way?

becomes a big question.

And how do you do that safely, I think is probably the point of that story is how do you do it safely?

We're talking with Steven Eilers of Iowa State University Extension, Horticulture and Natural Resources Coordinator about harvest time for backyard produce.

And what's top of mind then when you make sure that that is stored canned, whatever it is that you're going to do with it in the best way possible?

I will say that during

that awful 2020 year, people really, you know, we saw supply chain issues and people realized, hey, maybe I should kind of grow and preserve my own food.

And they did.

And people learned.

And the, the want and the desire to learn went way up, way up for I would say, which is fantastic.

You know, it's not a new thing.

People have been canning before there was, you know, Uber Eats, before there was delivery, before there was Isles online, there was canning.

Before there was freezer space, there was canning.

Grandma, great-grandma, great-great-grandma, grew it all summer, and you put up your preserves.

My mother was a huge canner.

Everything from applesauce, we had a whole fruit room.

The house I moved into a number of years ago, the lady was a big canner, and there's a whole room that was her fruit room that she had all of her canned goods in, which I love.

Now, it's storage where I live now, but this is a very old practice.

It's nothing new, however, some things have changed.

just because great-grandma did it in such a way doesn't mean you should do it in that same way.

So, take grandma's recipe, but do some research.

Things have changed.

Science has changed, you know, because they might have been doing it with an old piece of equipment on an old stove that was lit by wood.

So, appreciate grandma's recipes.

Trust but research.

And Iowa State has the answer line, you know, ISU Extension answer line.

is something you can go to every day, almost every day, and find the right answers.

It deals with acidity.

So your tomatoes are going to can differently than your carrots, than your green beans.

So we want people to grow it.

We want people to pick it.

We want people to share what they have left over.

But back in the day, there was no leftovers.

I mean, everything you got, you can't.

And if you had a little bit of this, a little bit of that, then it became a soup stock.

So again, we love that it's come back.

We love that people are doing it.

We just want to make sure that people are doing it correctly.

Whether that's canning, whether that's dehydrating, whether that's freezing, whether that's whatever, to make sure people do all that wonderful produce that is coming.

You know, sweet corn is here, tomatoes, peppers, there's so many things that we're ready.

We've had a lot of rain this summer.

Amazing amount of rain for, you know, where's that drought?

I was promised.

I wouldn't have to mow my lawn so much.

And the heat.

So things have really been a bumper crop.

Apple's not so much.

Last year was an Apple year.

We had people that literally had trees breaking from apples and even peaches.

But they're kind of an every year, other year.

And so this year we'll have less apples than we would have.

So you might get a pie or two, but you're probably not going to get, you know, all the quarts of applesauce you would have got maybe last year.

But you probably have enough from last year to last you at least a year.

Are there some

things that you prefer to freeze compared to canning?

Yeah.

And, you know, there there's no

Write a wrong answer.

You can freeze a lot of things Like I said, my mom can but she also froze sweet corn Carrots you can do green beans almost anything now.

Obviously, you're not gonna freeze your lettuce.

You're not gonna can your lettuce There are things that I'm sure people have tried But freezing is a great way.

I'm a freezer if I do preserve stuff I Grew some tomatoes because you know, that's kind of what I do a couple years ago I tell you what I had more tomatoes and I knew what to do with and I froze them and then

froze them solid, which isn't tremendous, and froze them all and then you pull the skin off and you need them.

I had more tomatoes.

I must have assumed I was a family of six who is going to have goulash and chili every week because I had more tomatoes in my freezer than I knew what to do with.

So it's easy to overdo and I planted like three plants.

I know people that, oh yeah, I put my tomatoes in.

How many to do?

About 25 hills.

Wow.

Wow, what are you going to do with them, honey tomatoes?

So you're going to be canning, you're going to be freezing.

You know, I hope your deep freeze is empty.

There's a reason, you know, grandma had, you know, two big freezers in the basement because they were full of food.

They were full of food that was going to carry you from summer all the way through next summer or beyond.

We're talking with Steven Eilers, Horticulture and Natural Resources Coordinator at Iowa State University Extension's Blackwok County office.

Let me just take up a couple of individual garden or backyard items one at a time.

You mentioned apples maybe being a down year.

I know that on my apple tree, a lot of them have been really chewed into by something.

Is it too late?

Is the ship sailed?

Is there anything I can do about that at this point?

I've always said, just because it doesn't look good doesn't mean it doesn't taste good.

So even if your apples aren't perfect, you know, when they become applesauce, they don't need to look perfect.

You're not selling them at a farmer's market.

So go ahead and harvest them.

You know, most of us came from the school of, if you had a bruise, you cut it off.

If it had something you took, that's what a paring knife is for.

So harvest it.

It doesn't need to be perfect.

If you use half an apple, that's half an apple you didn't have before.

Same with pears, same with peaches.

So unless they're truly gross.

Back when food was more scarce, you used everything you had.

That's still a good philosophy.

Make sure it's safe.

Make sure your procedures are safe.

Make sure whatever you're doing is tested.

Don't just trust, like, again, an old recipe, handwritten.

That's precious.

That's great.

Put it in a frame.

It's nostalgia.

But if you're making applesauce from your half-eaten apple, make sure you do it right.

Make sure you're doing it in a good, solid way.

We've had a lot of stuff in the news lately.

the diarrhea lettuce and all the now the jalapenos and there's always something that's coming up that's causing people to get sick you know you don't want to blame yourself when your whole family gets a really bad case of food poisoning because you uh you did something wrong with food for that you so proudly grew in your own garden

Half-eaten is a good way to describe the apples on this tree, because it looks like something ate about half of it and left it right there on the stem.

But let me ask you about zucchini, too, because there's a lot of jokes about zucchini this time of year.

So give us a thought.

What can you do with all those zucchinis that you're leaving on people's doorstep, bringing the doorbell and running away from?

Exactly.

Don't leave your car door unlocked, because you'll come back and there'll be three zucchini in it.

you know, when we give out seeds in the spring, we always say, you know, nobody, we should, they should give a very, very small packets of zucchini seeds.

Because when people take two packets, you're like

First of all, you're not going to have any lawn left because it's going to take over your entire lawn.

And how many zucchini do you need?

There are some fantastic recipes.

I mean, I've seen it where people do like, almost like pickles where they cut it up because, you know, the zucchini is very light flavor, so it absorbs flavor well.

You can do the refrigerator pickles with zucchinis.

There's zucchini brownies, zucchini muffins.

People use it in soup.

You can take it.

You can freeze it.

You can blanch it.

Granted, we tend to overdo it.

We tend to overdo our zucchini in...

overestimate how much we need and plant it before you know you don't want a baseball bat you do not want a zucchini as big as your child it's probably going to get a little woody and it's just crazy but zucchini can grow overnight you can literally go away for a weekend come home and it looks like a science fiction movie how fast they've grown so pick them often check them often same with your your cucumbers

Don't just assume they'll be okay for a week.

They won't.

They're gonna grow fast.

They're gonna get too much.

They're gonna get too woody.

So check your produce.

You know, when you get up in the morning before you go to work or just get up or when you get home, go out and check your garden.

Pick your tomatoes.

Check your stuff.

Carrots, I will say.

Leave carrots and potatoes longer than you think.

People often pick carrots by the tops.

They're so big and green and leafy and they pull it up this little tiny baby carrot at the end.

You know, who wants supper?

Leave carrots until after the first frost because that will actually make the carrots sweeter and carrots take time to grow.

Be patient with your carrots.

That is a fall vegetable.

You can also, there's stuff you can plant now, by the way.

It's not too late.

You can do another season of spinach's and lettuce's and radish, several other things.

So if you save some of your seeds or you can still get some seeds, there are great things to plant now that you can, we still have a lot of nice weather left.

And these are cool other crops.

So you can get a whole other crop out of your garden while your tomatoes are finishing.

Yes, it's too late for tomatoes, too late to plant new peppers, too late.

for a lot of things, but there are things, and look them up, late season vegetables that you can do now that you can still enjoy well into the fall.

Always great to get some insights from Iowa State University Extension.

Stephen, thanks for being with us.

Well, I'm going to go make sure that my car door is locked so I don't have any zucchini in my car.

Stephen Eilers, Horticulture and Natural Resources Coordinator at Iowa State University Extension in Blackhawk County with us on the station where Iowa comes to talk, News Talk 1540 KXCL.

And I'm pleased to welcome the congressman representing the second district of Indiana, the Honorable Rudy Yonkham, Congressman Jeff Steininfurtad.

How are you today?

I'm fantastic, Jeff.

Thanks for having me on.

Thank you for taking the time.

So this is the district work period.

And so you're out meeting with constituents and what you're calling the Who's Your Heartland tour?

What is that?

And what do you hear from folks?

The Hoosier Heartland tour is something that I take the opportunity to do every single August.

We go around Indiana second district.

I go into all 11 counties multiple times and hear from Hoosiers.

I don't think that you can fight for people that you don't know.

You've got to take the time to get to know your constituents, hear what's on their minds.

And so I'm walking the factory floors.

I'm getting out to the farmers fields and I'm just listening to Hoosiers.

And I got to tell you, Jeff, they're talking about things like the working family's tax cuts.

They're talking about

how grateful they are for things like no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, tax relief for seniors, the elevated child tax credit, the enhanced standard deduction.

And that's just for our working families.

And a lot of our businesses are talking about the great things that we've done for small business and manufacturing.

I mean, everything from

the permanent extension of the $199 deduction to the permanent or the R&D full-expensing, the full-expensing for capital expenditures when you're expanding a factory.

All these things are great things for working families and middle-class families, and we're hearing it everywhere we go around the district.

Is it hard for people to appreciate everything that the reconciliation bill signed on Independence Day last year did?

And I say that congressman for this reason because the biggest thing for me was

preserving those tax cuts, but that's not something that people saw directly.

And I wonder if you folks just aren't getting the kind of credit you deserve for that alone, much less all these other things that you've mentioned that have made it much easier to be a business owner in this country.

Well, of course, we preserved the Trump tax credit or tax cuts from the first round back in 2017 that the president did working with Congress.

But also, you know, we want to encourage people to go back to work.

We want to allow the Hoosiers that I serve to keep more money in their pockets.

And that's why we did many of the things the president asked us to do.

You know, the president's idea to do

No tax on tips.

That's why we did it.

You know, the president said that our seniors who are out there sometimes struggling to make ends meet, why they should have more money in our pockets.

I mean, that's why we did that.

That's why we provided for things like no tax on auto loan interest to make it easier and more affordable to buy a car.

That's why we did a number of things, including allowing small businesses who are building new factories to fully expense the entirety of the factory, including the shell.

And I gotta tell you, Jeff, I don't know if you know this, but right now there are 83,000 people in this country who are building new factories because of President Trump's economic policies.

So these are things to be celebrated and we need more of it.

And again, in my background, the small business I run does not need a lot of equipment, but in my past life as a lawyer, I would do business planning and taxes for people.

And the average business owner would say,

Well, how come I had to pay the full freight for this piece of equipment or whatever it is?

But I can't deduct it unless I amortize it over decades.

That doesn't seem to make sense.

You should be able to deduct an expense in the year.

You pay the expense.

That common sense approach was the hallmark of what we've been discussing here makes a huge difference for planning and business expansion.

That's exactly right.

It makes no sense, because you've got to basically pay for a piece of equipment twice, right?

You've got to pay the tax on the money that you earn, but then you can't write it off in the first year.

You've got to take that right off over the course of many, many years.

It just makes no sense.

And so that's why we thought that it was a great thing to do, and we're seeing capital investment at an all-time high.

This money is also translating, Jeff, to your everyday worker.

Your typical middle-class family has seen their real wages, and real wages means adjusted for inflation.

Those real wages have gone up about $1,000 in the last 18 months.

Now, if you're in manufacturing or construction, that means $4,000 for you.

So $1,000 for typical middle-class families.

$4,000 for the average manufacturing and construction worker that's real money back in the pockets of Americans that they can use to meet their everyday expenses.

We're speaking with Congressman Rudy Yacum from the second district of Indiana.

He joins us on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line on the Todd Starn Show, Jeff Stein, filling in for Todd today.

A lot of folks across the country may know what USMCA is.

Those of us in the heartland, those of us who have a lot of folks involved in agriculture know an awful lot about what that means, remind us what USMCA is and what's the status of it because we got a signal from the White House that negotiations might become a little bumpy.

You know President Trump has proven time and time again that he's the master negotiator and during his first term he negotiated this deal called USMCA it stands for United States Mexico Canada Agreement and and what this does it allows for the free flow of goods and services between those three nations That agreement was also smartly negotiated to allow a review process which really got underway in earnest on July 1st of this year

As a part of that review process, you always want to look at your agreements and figure out if there are ways to enhance or improve those agreements.

And I believe that there are ways that this agreement, as good as it was, can be improved upon.

And so I led a letter on behalf of House Republicans.

I've got 167 of my colleagues to sign on to that letter that we sent to USTR Ambassador Jamison Greer, encouraging them to not only continue the negotiations, but also calling for some of the enhancements that we believe can be made.

And at the same time, we need Canada and Mexico to bring their best offers forward as a part of these negotiations.

So we're encouraging our allies and friends and partners across the borders to bring their best efforts forward because

At the end of the day, Mexico and Canada, they're also big customers of ours.

I represent the manufacturing capital of North America.

We make 85% of the nation's RVs.

We make a lot of the nation's pontoon boats.

The medical device capital of North America with 60% of the nation's knees, hips, and joints.

We also have a lot of farmers and ranchers, and they want to be able to export their products to Canada and Mexico without any encumbrances from either country.

And what I found interesting from some on the left, because again, NAFTA, North American Free Trade Agreement, that had all sorts of problems.

USMCA was good at the time it came in, but we've had complaints.

We've had problems with Mexico.

We've had problems with Canada.

The dairy industry's not real thrilled with our neighbors.

And so there have been

I don't want to say dust-ups, but there have been conversations, there have been items submitted to the appeals process and the resolution process set forth in the original agreement.

So this hasn't been perfect because there are always issues.

And so there are some on the left who, when the president said, well, maybe we'll just go in alone and we'll just do bilateral negotiations, they acted like the sky was falling, but

That's just part of the process is it not congressmen to try to get the best deal you can for your constituents in this country

We have to get the best deal that we can and that's why again President Trump has proven so many times that he's the master negotiator Yeah, we've seen a lot of these issues I mean even Mexico banning GMO corn a few years ago And so one of the things that that we're asking for is we just think it makes better So a lot more sense to have faster dispute resolution processes so that when there is a dispute with one of our neighbors

we can get to a resolution faster, because if you're a Hoosier farmer and one of your products gets banned by either Canada or Mexico, it creates a real problem for you, because these products don't last forever, right?

It's crossed, and it's dairy, and the products don't last forever, so you've got to be able to export those immediately, and when there's a problem, we've got to be able to get to a quick resolution.

So, as we talk about some of these issues, I find it interesting that when we're in an election year, or when the heat gets a little hot on people, they all of a sudden change their positions.

You know, never mind what their past statements were, never mind what some of their past tweets were, people tend to sanitize the record.

That's starting to get a little old, far as I'm concerned.

What do Hoosiers think about these people who say one thing and do six others?

You know, you look at what, of course, even over the weekend here, what AOC was trying to say.

She's trying to whitewash some of her old positions.

uh... we can never forget what the ds a d they call himself the democrat socialist of america the reality is they are communist and they are crazy i mean look at just today with the people are calling for a jet they're calling for the abolishment of the senate they're calling for us to get rid of our jail and do what with the criminal just let him go wander the street

They want to get rid of law enforcement.

They want to abolish the Supreme Court.

These people are catering to their far left base.

It's exactly what Chuck Schumer's been doing in Washington DC with these government shutdowns.

And now you've got these crazy people winning the U.S.

Senate Democrat nominee in Michigan.

You've got them winning house races in places like Colorado and New York.

It's even worse than New York, Jeff.

They are taking out existing Democrat incumbents

for the high crime of working with republicans on issues.

And they're getting taken out by these crazy communists.

And we've got to be able to draw a contrast as we go into this election cycle of those of us republicans who are sane and rational and want to lead the American people forward, want to put more money in the pockets of Americans and increase freedom and opportunity for hardworking Americans versus these crazy communists who want the government to control everything.

We just have a couple of more minutes with Indiana Congressman Rudy Yacum And so I want to ask how frustrating is it and I talked to members of the Iowa delegation frequently on the radio How frustrating is it to do what you do and then have things just sort of sit there at the Senate?

And I'm thinking in particular of a farm bill But you know you folks had a spending package teed up as well in the house and I just get a sense and I mentioned this earlier in the show

This is feeling way too much like 2018, where the Senate wasn't helping the House out to get the President's agenda across the finish line.

Whether it's a spending package or the Save America Act, we can't forget about that, or the Farm Bill.

The Senate, and particularly Senate Democrats, these people are pure obstructionists.

All they want to do is grind things to a halt.

And sometimes when you ask them what they want, either they won't tell you or you'll get a list of crazy demands.

It's so many of the things that we're asking for.

It's just pure common sense.

Look at the Save America Act.

We're simply saying that you've got to have an ID when you show up to the polls.

And when you register to vote in a federal election, you have to prove that you're a U.S.

citizen.

It shouldn't be that hard.

I mean, you've got to have an ID for everything these days, including apparently now walking into one of Mamdani's grocery stores.

You should have to have an ID to show up to vote.

We've been doing it that way here in the Hoosier State for, I don't know, probably 15 years or so.

And the Hoosiers and I serve just simply think that our federal elections should be secured no matter where you're at.

It's just common sense and Senate Democrats continue to stand in the way at every turn.

That's where we'll leave it, Congressman.

Thank you so much for the time.

It was a privilege speaking with you and keep up the excellent work for the folks of the Second District of Indiana.

Jeff, thanks for having me on.

It was a privilege.

Congressman Rudy Yacum and he joined us live on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line.

And as KXL Live and Local continues on this Tuesday morning, time for today's RFD 1540 Conversation.

For that, we draw upon the insight of Dustin Hoffman, Supervising Editor, Lead Farm Broadcaster, Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.

You will hear reports from the networks nine times each weekday here on KXL.

And Dustin joins us here Tuesdays and Thursdays and busy times at the network because they'll be at the Iowa State Fair starting on Thursday.

So as you go to the fair,

do say hello to the folks at the network shed.

We used to say tent.

I think it's a shed now.

But before we get to the fair dust, and yesterday was the sixth anniversary of the major derecho.

It went along Highway 30 and left devastation in its wake.

Lots of folks in Cedar Rapids can vouch to how the destruction impacted neighborhoods, trees, buildings, et cetera.

But this was a huge, huge impact on farming.

Yeah that it was you know you're talking about damage into the billions and we talk about that because there's been so much talking it was probably a good time to remember because we've been hearing so much about the crop conditions that are looking good or getting rain right now or timely fashion corn got through its pollination and into now it's doing its grain filling soybeans are getting ready to set pods and grain fill as well if they haven't already started and so you talk about how good things are looking how uniform the fields look how green they look while we have

some areas that were dry.

Yes, we're still getting the rain we needed and getting some rain and hopefully helps them get themselves to the finish line because we've seen that in dry years where you get that blast of rain in August and usually it's enough to get you across.

And, you know, we're talking about how good things look and it's a painful reminder that six years ago with everything else that was going on in 2020, you know, we had good looking crops and then it only took a few minutes and all of that disappeared with this literally almost a snap of a finger.

And so it's been something we've

kind of caution about and we've been talking about here in the network too where we say, you know, oh gosh, things are looking really good.

Don't jinx us because we were in that boat six years ago and a lot of farms, a lot of fields did not get harvested and were total losses.

And like I said, it only took a few minutes.

And I know in some of the coverage afterwards, hearing from some farmers in Tama County, for example, where they had had some struggles over the preceding several years and they were looking at

a good crop in the field and things were going well and then just all of a sudden everything changed.

That's just devastating and some of these folks just haven't recovered fully from it, I trust.

Yeah, exactly.

And, you know, it was a big hit to a lot of places.

And so to have that damage, and, you know, we looked, we didn't lose just crops.

We lost grain bins.

We lost damage to barns.

We saw, you know, not so much injury to livestock, but there was a little bit.

But, you know, facilities were damaged.

Grain bins in cities were damaged.

You know, businesses were put under pressure for what they had to deal with.

We had, it was a hit to the ag economy as a whole.

And, you know, as we look back on that,

with a farm bill that's not being done and all these things that we talk about the fact that we have

An ag economy is in trouble and is in a tight spot.

How much of that was exacerbated, you know, and that downfall was exacerbated by the the derailleur when we didn't.

I mean crop insurance only makes you so whole.

I mean it basically keeps you from hopefully losing everything and it keeps you at a break-even point.

But of course there was a lot of adjustment that had to be done.

It took a lot of time.

The government, you know, mobilized for one of those few moments where you could say the government stepped in and did its job.

And they got in there and they mobilized and they got people

there.

We talked about insurance companies that were coming in and getting adjusters out there as quick as they could because you know farmers had to make those payments on their operating loans and they had to make sure that they were going to have what they needed so they could work with their lenders in a situation that's you know again a once in a blue moon kind of an occursion because it was almost a perfect storm there are so many things in the years I've done weather studying in my years on radio talking with different broadcasters and meteorologists there's a perfect it's a perfect recipe that has to come together like

A million things, and I exaggerate that, but a million things have to happen in a certain way to get a derecho storm to happen because of that rare and to see it happen just like that.

It's something you can't plan for.

I mean, you plan for some thunderstorm damage, some hail damage, wind damage, but you don't plan for a widespread swath.

When you think about the fact that it started in central, you know, West Central Iowa and spread all the way to Ohio, we cut that swath across the United States.

You know, that right across corn.

country in the soybean country that was a big level of devastation it affected the marketplace like nothing else we've seen in quite a while.

And again the timing coming in.

August of 2020 I know a few years ago there was a storm that qualified as a derecho and it affected folks in Southwest Iowa, but as I recall that was in it may even have been December It was certainly not at the height of the growing season and so to your point the timing just all came together in a terrible way for folks in Iowa in August of

2020, it's not a picnic anytime, but you can absorb it if there's nothing in the field.

But when your whole revenue for the year is wiped out in the course of 15 minutes in a storm, you just can't salvage.

And that was the case in 2020.

Folks just couldn't salvage because of the timing.

Right, you can't replant in the end of August even with the short term yielding short yielding plants You can't get it done I mean the best you can hope for and beans is a you know 45 or 60 day and you didn't have that we didn't even have close to that left in the growing season and so You know we've said that a lot of times Jeff that the crop can look as good as it wants But nothing really counts until it gets in the bin and I think that lesson was hard learned in 2020 You know when we saw that derecho come through and you know that was just like we said to I mean there was so much damage

to the city infrastructures.

I mean, Des Moines were areas of our city that were out of power for days.

Where I was in Ankeny, thankfully it was only hours, but you saw damage to homes, you saw damage to...

private property and into farms.

You saw bins blown over in the middle of a field somewhere.

You saw the elevators, I remember going up into the Slater area and seeing bins that were collapsed at the farmer's elevator up there.

So there was a lot of damage, not just to the crops.

And that's something that takes a long time to come back from.

And you can't just rebuild a bin overnight, especially when everybody needs to rebuild them.

How do you prioritize?

You get the grain elevators done.

These companies have to prioritize your grain elevators to get them up and running, but the farmers need to get up and running while they're going to have a crop to even put in that bin.

Can they be put off?

You know, there are so many logistical nightmares even for the companies that come in and help rebuild that stuff because they've only got X amount of people or they're pulling people from other parts of the country to help fix that problem.

And, you know, you have power companies coming from all over the United States coming to help along that whole swath in Iowa all the way to Ohio and help each other out.

And so it was great.

see that kind of response where people came together to help, which we've done many times for hurricane victims and other things too.

People from Iowa have gone and done what they can to help as well.

And so it's great to see that kind of thing, but it is a very stark reminder that a lot can change in a very, very short amount of time.

Six years ago yesterday, seems like yesterday.

Iowa State fair starts on Thursday.

We'll talk much more about that.

with you from the fair but give us again a reminder as folks go to the Iowa State Fair where can they find the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.

Well, we are in that building.

It's not a tent anymore.

We've learned that lesson the hard way, especially when we're talking a little bit of rain on the first day.

That's a great reminder.

We were talking about the fact that, at least in the shed, we don't have to put our plug-ins and our electrical cords inside a bucket to keep them from getting wet like we did in the tent.

But we're right next to the Super Bowl at West entrance to the cattle barn right across from the street from the horse barn that's been newly renovated.

So you can find us there, swing by and say hello, and we'll talk about what's going on in your operation.

kind of things you're seeing across the state.

And of course, you know, look at the markets and see what the latest updates are looking at.

Dustin, have a great set up and start to the fair.

We'll talk to you at this time Thursday.

Sounds good, Jeff.

Dustin Hoffman, Supervising Editor, Lead Farm Broadcaster, Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network, and he joined us on News Talk 1540, KXEL, where Iowa comes to talk.