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April 4, 2014 - Rush Limbaugh Program
34:41
April 4, 2014, Friday, Hour #3
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Views expressed by the host of this program documented to be almost always right, 99.7% of the time, and nobody, even close folks.
It's the Limbaugh Institute.
I, El Rushbo, your host, the all-knowing all-caring all-feeling, all sensing, all everything.
Maha Rushy on Friday, live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's open line Friday.
Yes sir REVA, Open Line Friday.
Callers get to choose.
Whatever it is that we talk about.
Doesn't have to be something I care about.
It can be something that totally confuses me, can be something that makes no sense to anybody but you.
Whatever it is, this is the day for it.
800 2822882.
The email address, Lrushbow at Eibnet.com.
So mere moments ago at La Casablanca, Josh Earnest did the daily press briefing, I guess Carney's uh the RED SOX game.
I don't know where he is gone.
And the during the q a, Ed Henry of FOX NEWS said to the White House press secretary Josh Earnest, the chief executive at Mozilla, resigned yesterday because there was this controversy in the last couple of days that several years ago he gave a thousand dollars to an effort to uh ban same-sex marriage.
California Prop Eight president himself in 2008, when this person donated 1 000 to that cause, was also against same-sex marriage.
Does the White House think that, even though the president has evolved on this issue and now supports same-sex marriage, that there should be tolerance on the issue and that there should be other views heard.
Well, I certainly understand why an issue like this has been in the news and why a lot of people are talking about it, but i'm not going to be in a position to weigh in on the decisions made by a private company like this.
No, of course, not absolutely.
We're not going to weigh in on the decisions of a private company.
You can bet that if Brendan Icke had been removed for supporting same-sex marriage, the White House would have something to say.
Hobby Lobby is a private company and I think the White House has said a lot about it.
The Catholic Church is a self-contained church.
They've had a lot to say about the Catholic Church.
FOX NEWS, a private company, and Obama has had a lot to say about FOX NEWS.
I am a private citizen.
They've had a lot to say about me.
Obama can't even pretend to be on the side of tolerance not just, not even once.
They have to run away from this.
They didn't decline comment on Sandra Fluck.
They didn't deny decline comment on Trayvon Martin.
They didn't decline comment on Jason Collins.
But well, certainly understand why an issue like this has been in the news and why a lot of people are talking about it, but i'm not going to be in a position to weigh in on decisions made by private company.
The decision wasn't made by a private company.
That's the whole point.
That is the entire, whole point.
Frank, what's his name?
Frank.
Darn this thing.
Just a second here, folks.
Hang on just a second.
I don't understand.
Frank Newport.
Gallup poll.
Why in the world that line doesn't print, I do not know.
Frank Newport runs a Gallup poll, and they've just out today.
Americans show low levels of concern on global warming.
The current level of worry on global warming, current level of concern, is 34%.
34% in the Gallup poll are concerned about global warming.
That 34% is the same number that it was in 1989.
That's what Gallup has revealed today.
1989, 34% were very concerned about global warming.
2014, 34%.
This is why they are in a state of panic because they have failed to gin up anywhere near majority worry or concern on this.
People so far are rejecting the idea that they are to blame for destroying the planet and therefore must pay higher taxes and must agree to bigger, more oppressive, controlling governments.
People are just not signing on to that.
Therefore, the global warming people today have come out and said, well, this just means that we are entitled to exaggerate and make things up in order to get people's attention.
Go check climatepot.com.
I'm not making that up.
Two renowned, there are such things, climate scientists have said that they are totally justified in exaggerating and making things up to get your attention and your money.
Americans' concerns, this is from the actual Gallup poll.
Americans' concerns about global warming and climate change have held steady over the past year, while concerns about other environmental threats tested by Gallup have increased.
The percentage expressing a great deal of worry about pollution of drinking water as well as contamination of soil and water by toxic waste increased by seven points.
Worry.
How can people in this country not be worried about everything given what the news is every day?
Hell, people are worried about coffee.
People are worried about virtually everything.
Worry and concern is what is the news.
Now, I want to get back because I asked the caller who said, Rush, it's finished.
It's over.
I mean, well, you know, Mayan's collapsed.
We're in the process.
We're going to collapse here.
And I wanted this guy to tell me what he meant.
What does it look like?
What does collapse look like?
And I want to run through this again.
I want to tell you where we're headed.
If there aren't changes, what we will look like.
The road that we are on takes us back to the Great Depression.
That's what things will look like.
People lined up for food, shelter.
It's going to be ugly.
People losing their savings and their pensions and their investments in any number of ways.
A, they just become worthless.
The value of money evaporates.
Government prints too much, too much in circulation, or the government takes it, confiscates it.
Come on, Rush, they can't take the folks.
The Reverend Zach himself has personally suggested that government actually confiscate everybody's pensions.
He says there's trillions of dollars there.
We need it.
We need it for benefits.
Don't think that can't happen.
Your pension, your investments.
How about this?
Those of you that are invested in tax-free municipal bonds, what happens if one day the IRS, not Congress, not Ways and Means Committee, not piece of legislation, what happens if one day a new regulation is written that removes the tax exemption for municipal bonds?
Your municipal bonds are then worthless if they, all of a sudden, if somebody decides to try that.
There's all kinds of muni bonds, tax-free.
Ross Perot, at one time, the vast majority of his portfolio, billionaire, was in tax-free munis.
I don't know if that's the case now, meaning that when you sold the bond, you paid no income, no tax on the income that the bond had generated over the life of it.
What if somebody just takes that away?
There's any number of little things that government can do to get its hands on money when it doesn't have any more of its own.
How about government deciding to nationalize businesses?
Ah, Rush, come on, that can't happen.
Well, who owns General Motors?
One of the reasons I keep telling you what the latest in Venezuela is is because of my fear that we could someday look like that.
I don't care anything about Venezuela other than how it relates to the United States.
You know, Venezuela is an object lesson.
Venezuela is run by people who are running our country today.
Same people, same philosophies, same theories.
What is going to keep us from becoming Venezuela if these people keep up?
Nothing, folks.
That's the point.
We're not immune just because we're the United States of America.
We're not immune if a bunch of leftists can destroy Detroit, can destroy Venezuela, can destroy Cuba, can destroy Germany.
Leftists can destroy this country.
Some would argue they're in the process of doing it.
You want to know what it looks like?
I'm telling you.
Athens, Rome, Egypt, as I said, they're all still there, but they're nothing compared to what they were.
In fact, Rome, outside of St. Peter's, one of the greatest attractions is what it was: the ruins of the Roman Empire.
Egypt, ditto.
Great pyramids, the Sphinx, which looked like my bassethound.
Egypt today?
It's there, yeah, but not in any sense.
It's old glory, Athens.
They're all still there, but they collapsed.
Germany, look at Germany, in 100 years has gone from all-powerful to defeat in World War I to depression to the rise of the Third Reich, the Nazis, and Hitler.
Look at all the hell it unleashed.
And then it's defeat and collapse and depression all over again.
And then after that, the country's divided, East Germany, West Germany.
And then it gets united again into its current state, thanks largely to the Western powers of United States, Great Britain and Canada.
My point is the world and history are full of examples.
And when we talk about this society collapsing, what are we really talking about?
We're talking about the destruction of our society, which includes our culture.
And don't for a minute think that it isn't under assault.
It is.
It's under assault by people who do not like what the old definition of normalcy was, who don't like what the old definitions of virtue and right and wrong were.
I don't like any of that.
Because for some reason, they thought it didn't include them.
And they don't want to be oddballs.
So now it's all got to be redefined so that it includes them and excludes you.
Let me get right down to it.
We're talking about the destruction of our governing system.
That's underway.
I never thought that I would actually live to see the United States Congress willingly give up its power to the executive branch the way it has happened here.
When I grew up, people that ran the House of Representatives, it was all Democrats back then, but even when they were Democrat presidents, there's no way they fought tooth and nail.
They were trying to steal executive power.
They were trying to thwart presidents often as designed.
That's what the separation of power is all about.
Throwing the Supreme Court as well.
Now, the executive is just amassing power, and members of his own party are suggesting that their purpose in the House of Representatives is to write executive orders for him to sign.
Thank you, Sheila Jackson Lee/slash idiot.
But that's a dramatic change in our governing system.
Checks and balances You were taught growing up Civics 101, there aren't any, or they're not being used.
The economic system collapsing.
The Federal Reserve has decided to pick winners, and they are on Wall Street, not Main Street.
Part of the problem is that when you are living on the bubble as a nation, and we are, and by that I mean we're living on borrowed money, we're living on future earnings that haven't even been created, we are spending future tax revenue that hasn't been collected because the money that would generate that tax has not been earned yet.
You don't see it when you're in the bubble.
You don't see it.
When you're in the housing bubble, the dot-com bubble, you don't see it until the bubble bursts.
But we can't keep this up.
We cannot keep spending money that we don't have.
We can't spend tax revenue that has not been collected because it's got to be collected from somebody at some point.
We are spending tax revenue that your grandchild, who's still crawling around on the kitchen floor, is going to someday earn.
That's whose money we're spending.
Maybe your grandchild's kids earnings are being spent right now.
So everything seems fine.
On the surface, you can still live your life.
You get in your car, you drive to where you want to go.
You want to turn on E Entertainment TV or TMZ?
You can.
You want to keep up with the Kardashians?
You can.
You want to worry about whether the British chef Nigella Lawson can get into the country or not?
You can worry about that.
Well, that was the big story at Page 6 today, Snerdly.
Some British female chef, Nigella Lawson, was denied entry into the country.
Well, I don't know what she did.
I don't know why she's in the news.
I'm sorry, I'm not up to speed on it, but apparently she's married to some guy, divorced some guy, doesn't like her, and is making her life hell.
And for some reason, I assume that this woman has got a TV show somewhere, which is why she's news.
But yeah, you can still get in your car.
You can still pick up your phone, make a phone call, you can still watch your big screen, you can still fill out your brackets for the NC2As, the March Madness.
Is that over with yet?
It's not, was this the final weekend coming up?
Well, why do they call it March Madness then?
Why is it finished in March?
That's never mind.
I don't care.
I have nothing against it.
Can you get jobs in this?
No, you can't get the job that you want, but you can still eat, and you can still get your phone, and you can still watch your big screen.
You can still go to the NC2As.
You can still do it.
You can follow the NFL draft.
But the main thing is, even if you don't have a job, you get your food stamps.
You can still eat.
You can stay in a heated domicile.
That's the point.
You don't realize it.
You don't have a job?
Fine.
You're into what, your fourth year of unemployment benefits.
Yes, sir, Bob, fourth year.
And they'll probably be extended the next time some Democrat gets in trouble around election time.
I got to take a break.
I just saw.
Folks, I went way long in the opening monologue, much longer than I should have.
And I've only got a minute here In this segment, that was very, very bad form.
That was poor execution of the programming format.
Normally, I have guidance.
Normally, sometimes I have shouting in my ear saying, but that did not occur.
So I was just lucky I caught it myself here.
My point is that, folks, there have always been voices.
Throughout history, every generation thinks it's in its last days.
Every generation has people that think it's worse now than ever before.
Always voices throughout history warning about coming doom in societies and republics that start sliding into tyranny.
And those voices have been ignored largely by their contemporaries.
If you want to find out how democracy ends and what happens, read de Tocqueville.
Read Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America.
Be right back.
Let me mention this before I forget to, because I promised that I would.
It's this polling data that's out from Stan Greenberg and his company, Democracy Corps.
What happened here?
Today we are releasing our first survey of the 2014 landscape, a cooperative endeavor conducted with Democracy Corps for NPR.
Greenberg Quinlan Rosner conducted a calls on March 19 through 23 and compiled data.
Survey polled 840 likely 2014 voters nationally.
Sample contains six percentage points more Democrats than Republicans, 37% Democrat, 31% Republican, consistent with other national polling of likely voters.
They discussed this on NPR.
That's another story.
The poll predicts a Republican wave in November.
I was one of the first public personas to go public with that prediction.
And then I was concommittingly ridiculed and castigated and told to shut up and stick to what I know about and so forth, really made fun of, laughed at, and all that.
And then others, after I concommittedly broke the ice, others began to pop up with their prediction of the same thing, all the while telling me I didn't know what I was talking about.
And now this poll predicts much the same.
With seven months to go before the election, a political environment looks remarkably promising for Republicans.
Six factors create that environment.
They are, number one, the midterm election in the sixth year of a president's term has always been bad news for the party controlling the White House for 100 years.
And this year looks like no exception.
The one time the pattern did not hold was 1998, when Clinton had an approval rating in the mid-60s, because people liked sex in the Oval Office.
The second factor is the demographics of midterm elections favor Republicans over Democrats, and that's a turnout factor replicating 2010.
Number three, Obamacare remains unpopular, especially among independents, who it says here hold the balance of power in midterm elections.
Independents really don't like Obamacare.
Oh, speak a little side note.
I had this in the sound bites yesterday, but I didn't get to it.
Doesn't matter.
Ron Fournier, for the first time I'm aware of in recorded modern history, said that if the Democrats continue their lamb-basting of the Tea Party, it's going to send independents running straight to the Republican Party.
You never hear that.
What you hear is: if you Republicans don't shut up about Obama, the independents are going to get really ticked and they're going to run back to the Democrats.
They never say the opposite, but Ron Fournier did, said that the Democrats are running the risk of sending the independents right into the arms of the Republicans.
Number four, President Obama's job approval remains stuck in the low 40s.
Factor number five: the generic ballot is essentially even, which has historically been good news for Republicans.
Now what that's not the right way.
The generic ballot, we say, okay, voting Republican or Democrat.
If the Republicans are showing up even, that means they're way ahead because normally the Democrats win that.
Theoretically, it's because there are more Democrats than Republicans.
And factor number six, the Senate seats up in 2014 strongly favor Republicans.
Anyway, this bunch is projecting a wave election for the Republicans.
Yet, the pollsters showed up on morning edition yesterday and didn't talk about any of this.
They talked about how much better Obamacare is doing in the polls.
And they talked of all kinds of spun it all up for the Democrats when they got on the NPR talking about it.
None of what I just read you from their own press release did they discuss.
I've got the sound bites here, but I got to get some calls in because it's Open Line Friday.
People have been patiently waiting back to it.
Richmond, Virginia, this is Matthew.
Hello, sir.
Great to have you here.
Hello.
How are you?
Good.
Thank you.
It's a beautiful day today.
I wouldn't know.
I'm inside.
Oh, dear.
I'm not in.
I'm not outside either.
But I love the wonderful weather because I have a business that deals with photography.
Oh, cool.
And in my photography business, I use a quote drone.
I say quote drone because drones think they have a bad rap.
They've done it.
Did you happen to see?
Did you happen to see yesterday, maybe the day before, a North Korean drone crashed in South Korea?
And they said it was a North Korean drone, and I believed it.
It was just the cheapest.
It looked like a model airplane.
It was light blue, about 24 inches long.
I mean, it just, it looked tip.
I mean, just so pathetic.
If that was the best they have, it was the funniest thing.
How big is your drone?
Mine fits in about a suitcase kind of size.
It's about 24 inches by 24 inches.
It's actually what's called a quadcopter.
It's got four propellers on it.
Okay.
So is it actually, I mean, you call it a drone because of what it does, but it doesn't look like what most people think a drone looks like.
It's a fixed-wing aircraft.
No.
It's basically like a helicopter.
Right.
You control it on the ground with sticks and so forth.
Yeah, it's got a monitor on it so I can monitor it through my cell phone or iPhone or something like that.
And so it's got a first-person view on it so I can see where I'm going and take pictures and high-definition video with it.
How high does your drone go?
It has the potential of going up to 600 feet.
And what kind of fuel does it use?
How long can you keep it in the air?
He uses batteries, and those batteries last about 20 to 25 minutes.
Really?
These drones are actually being used all the time.
I know.
There's just a story here on the news that a drone crashed on the highway and a guy ran over it.
But it was a military-looking drone.
It had a 15-foot wingspan and all that.
It just ran out of fuel, I guess, or did something.
Some guy ran over it.
Didn't know what had happened for a while.
Well, the FAA has been trying to crack down on the use of these things, even, quote, commercially.
And they just tried to find someone who shot a video, I guess it was last year, at UVA, University of Virginia, right here in Virginia, where I am.
Let me tell you something, Matthew.
I have watched some videos taken with contraptions like yours, and they're some of the coolest things I've ever seen.
Well, if you watch any commercial on TV, you've probably seen them being used because anytime you see a car driving down the road and they have a shot of it circling around that car, they use a drone.
Right.
So what kind of photography do you still video or both?
Both, still video.
I'm using it primarily right now for real estate.
It's a high-demand kind of market that has never seen this before, and you get totally new shots to be able to see everything differently.
What do you mean?
Properties you want to sell?
Not I'm selling, but real estate agents and brokers.
Right, okay.
They want to sell their properties.
They want people to be able to look at their properties and not have some standard picture that looks like somebody shot it with their cell phone looking out their car window.
They want to be able to see a property in one picture and see what it looks like.
See what the house looks like, see what the front yard looks like in the backyard.
Right.
Some of it, all in one picture.
What the bird sees before it drops on your window.
Yeah, and not what you see on one of those websites that has maps on it, which I won't name, but something that's clear, something that gives them a good idea of, do I even want to spend the time to look at this property?
So you've got the FAA.
You're afraid they're going to clamp down and not let you essentially stay in business.
Well, what happened is this person at UVA shot a movie for UVA to endorse their school and help publicize their school.
And he was slapped with a $10,000 fine from the FAA.
And a judge, Judge Patrick Garrity, basically ruled in favor of the defendant and said that FAA couldn't do it.
They didn't have the right to – there's no, quote, law on the books right now that stops them from shooting this video and using it.
Yeah, well, all it takes is one regulation, and we don't even need laws anymore, as you well know, Matthew.
Yes, exactly.
Well, this is fascinating.
Is this the primary use, a primary way you now stay in business with drone photography, or do you do other kinds of photography without using the drone?
In other words, if you were ever outlawed, the drone was outlawed, would it wipe your business out?
Well, it would definitely change the nature of it because right now I'm using it to, like I said, to see everything differently.
What kind of camera or lens do you put on this?
Well, some of the models have cameras actually built into them.
And some of the higher-end models that professional and cinematographers use.
How many drones do you have?
$15,000 for the drone.
Well, that's not bad in terms of corporate investment.
How many drones do you have?
Right now I have one.
Yeah, one that I use primarily.
Well, the only thing that I can think is going to happen is that while you're flying your drone around, some busybody who doesn't like electronic cigarettes is going to see the thing thinking you're spying on her while she's in her bathing suit in the backyard and try to get you on invasion of privacy.
Well, I have kind of a background in some stuff that helps me out.
So whenever I shoot a property, my big thing is always get a release from whoever owns it, whoever has a right to it.
So I only fly over the properties that I know that I can or public space.
So I don't even go there, literally.
Well, it doesn't matter.
You might not even have to go there.
Some busybody finds out what you're doing and is not even in your drone's line of sight is just going to go after you because they're busy bodies.
Yeah, that's always a possibility.
Well, I think that's where you ought to prepare yourself for opposition to your business to come from is from people that think that you're invading their privacy.
I mean, as far as they know, they see your drone.
It could be the NSA.
Remember now, don't laugh, Matthew.
Everybody thinks the NSA is spying on them.
Most people don't know that their lives are so boring the NSA wouldn't care.
Most people think the NSA wants to find out what they're doing.
They see your drone up there.
Oh, no, no, I'm just taking pictures for a real estate broker.
Yeah, that's what you say.
But we know what you're really doing.
And if they get sympathetic, that's what I would steal yourself for.
I think it would be fun.
In fact, I have a drone.
I was given one of these helicopters he's talking about.
Yes.
Neighbors have seen it, but they don't know whose it is.
Matthew, I'll tell you something else you're going to have to keep a sharp eye out for out there is people that want to shoot your drone down.
Just sportsmen.
They're going to see something up there.
Oh, wow.
I've got a thing.
I've got a brochure here from the National Association of Drones Sportsmen.
And its ICON's logo is four drones in the crosshairs of a shotgun site.
And it's all about the case these guys want to make for shooting down drones if they get too close to something you're interested in.
The National Association of Drone Sportsmen.
This is not going to end well.
It's just too many people are going to see a drone want to shoot it down.
Others are going to think it's an invasion of privacy.
Anyway, I hope, Matthew, he probably gets $400 for every shoot.
It probably earns his living.
He's probably got a $5,000 device.
UAV, they're called unarmed aerial or unmanned aerial vehicle.
Next thing they have is these drone guys are going to arm them, put BBs on them or something.
If the NADS guys show up and try to shoot them down, the drone's going to fire back.
You know, in your backyard.
And it isn't going to be the FAA that calls you.
It's going to be ATF.
Have you a great weekend, folks?
Have a wonderful, restful, relaxful, or irritating, whatever you do.
I hope it's great.
And we'll be back here on Monday, revved up and ready to hit it from the get-go.
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