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Dec. 18, 2015 - Rush Limbaugh Program
31:03
December 18, 2015, Friday, Hour #3
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I forgot to tell you, Mike, Repto Audio Soundbite number 14.
Do we still have that Barbara Walter soundbite from yesterday?
Or was it even a soundbite?
She was talking about, oh, come on.
Who was it?
Bradley Cooper, somebody in her top 10 most famous.
She said they were screwable enough to come out of retirement or some such thing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was either in a stack of stuff story yesterday or I had it as an audio soundbite, and I don't remember which, but if it's a soundbite, I'm telling you, I either read that or I either read it in a news story or I saw a transcript of a soundbite where she said somebody is so screwable.
I mean, that's the way she talks.
She's 86.
I mean, it's kind of understandable.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's Open Line Friday.
Anyway, this is it, the final hour, excuse me, Open Line Friday for the year.
800-282-2882.
If you want to be on the program, the email address, lrushbow at EIBnet.com.
Get us some other things out there and let's get into them.
Just a year after one of its biggest PR disasters ever, the NFL has reason to believe that its players have gotten the message.
It is a USA Today story, the headline, why are fewer NFL players being arrested?
You know, when I saw this, I said, is this snark?
Is somebody making a joke about this?
Are they really being serious?
Because even when it was at its worst, you know, the number of crimes in a per capita basis, even when the NFL seemed like it was out of control, there was less criminal activity in that group of people than in a similar number of people in the general population, even when it was at its worst.
But the point of this story is that they've instituted some really, really harsh penalties and punishment in the personal conduct policy.
And the theory is that it's really worked.
It has got these guys' attention, and it has really dialed back the amount of criminal behavior they're engaging in.
The reduction marks the first year of results since the league revised the personal conduct policy in response to a rash of high-profile domestic violence incidents last year, including the granddaddy of all of them, Ray Rice, who still, by the way, can't find a team.
Still can't find a gig.
He's kept himself in shape.
The last year he played, it was not a great year.
A lot of people say that has more to do with why he can't find it.
But I'll tell you what, at this stage of the season, teams still in contention.
Bodies are dropping like flies because of injuries and so forth.
Just the other day, the Patriots lost LeGarrett Blount or Blunt for the rest of the year with the hip injury.
You know, if it's like the Bo Jackson hip injury, he's done.
You people, Bo Jackson fans, played for the Raiders and the Kansas City Royals same time.
And you could see, I saw that when I saw that hip injury happen, he was at full gallop and the hip joint came out of socket.
You could just see.
And it was never right after that.
Surgery, whatever.
And if that kind of injury, it may be over for Garrett Blunt.
We don't know.
But anyway, there's a need.
So the Patriots went out and they got hold of Stephen Jackson, who hasn't played all year.
Last team he played for was the Falcons, and he's injury-prone.
Ray Rice still can't find any suitors.
I guess it'd be a PR disaster.
I mean, if Gilbert Arenas gets in trouble for what he did with the WNBA, it might be bad for any NFL team trying to sign up Ray Rice.
Anyway, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told USA Today Sports, we're encouraged by this progress.
We understand that we have more work to do.
It's a positive reflection on the players and our educational, preventative, and deterrence programs.
The overwhelming majority of people associated with the NFL have always met our high standards, but our unwavering commitment to improving and being a leader in this area continues.
History still shows that crime and punishment in the NFL tend to happen in cycles.
But look, strip all this away, and the fact remains that there has been a massive reduction in criminal behavior off field by NFL players from last year to this.
And everybody's saying, how did it happen?
Because there might be things to learn here that could be implemented society-wise, or wide, societal-wide.
And therefore, it should be studied.
And it's being attributed to a much harsher set of penalties and punishments for violating the personal conduct policy.
It costs you money and playing time.
Game suspensions, game checks, not to mention the stigma.
And this is going to fly in the face of the way, you know, the liberals, crime and punishment, there is no punishment because instead we must endeavor to understand the rage.
But then every time I see a story like this, my mind goes to the most recent criminal, potential criminal, borderline, criminal behavior that I remember in the NFL.
Now, last week, the Steelers played the Cincinnati Bengals.
And earlier in the season, one of the linebackers for the Steelers, a guy named Vince Williams, posted something that others interpreted as a death threat aimed at a linebacker for the Bengals, number 55, Vontes Berfict.
And nobody did anything about it because I think nobody really took it seriously.
But the league didn't do anything about it.
There was no sanctions, no blood loss between the Bengals and the Steelers anyway.
They're division rivals.
So there was nearly a big brawl during warm-ups prior to last Sunday's game between Vince Williams and some other players and Antonio Brown.
It stopped in the nick of time.
And then during the game, Vantes Berfict ended up being fined for three different illegal hits after the game.
No penalties were thrown.
One thing he was fined for was a borderline hit toward the ankles of the quarterback of the Steelers, Ben Roplisburg.
Anyway, after the game, Pac-Man Jones, Adam Jones, who I met on the sidelines once when he was with the Cowboys on injured reserve, Jerry Jones introduced me to him.
Just the nicest guy.
But he's also the guy that ended up getting the whole strip club shot up in Las Vegas by throwing $100 bills at the strippers.
Anyway, Pac-Man posted a video on Instagram talking about the death threat that Vince Williams had apparently posted on Vantes Berfict.
And there's Pac-Man.
This video is, I saved it to my pocket app.
And it's Pac-Man looking at the camera and says, I just saw the thing on CNN.
Just looking at the thing on CNN because CNN was reporting this.
He said, apparently Pittsburgh got all gangsters.
Mike Tomplin better tell his team to shut the hell up and play football.
Ain't nobody going to take out 5-5.
That's Vantes Berfik's number.
On the field or off.
Report that, bitches.
So, I mean, it was.
They don't play anymore unless they happen to meet in the playoffs.
So when I see that crime is down in the NFL or whatever, I go back to last Sunday, and they're still chippy.
They're still chippy on the edges out there.
From the Weekly Standard, I don't know how this got past Bill Crystal, but it did, because he's the editor there.
It's a story by a guy named Jonathan V. Last.
No matter who wins the GOP nomination, Hillary is going to have a fight on her hands.
A couple of pull quotes from this piece.
Trump, he's down to Clinton by a full six points in early polling.
He's undisciplined.
He's a bully.
He has no experience running campaign organizations or understanding the mechanics of electioneering at any level, let alone the national level.
He seems, on the face of things, to have a seriously limited ceiling on his support.
If I were Clinton, I'd probably want to run against Trump, except for one thing.
If Donald Trump is the nominee, then it means the deck of American politics has been completely reshuffled.
That the political landscape is nothing like what it was four years ago.
It will mean that the old laws of politics have been suspended or warped or maybe even truly changed.
And it'll mean that Clinton, who is entirely a creature of the established political order, will be operating in this new world without either a flashlight or a map.
If I were Clinton, I would not find this prospect at all appealing.
And his point, he goes through various Republicans running for the nomination.
And I love this piece because to me, it's a common sense piece.
No matter who wins the GOP nomination, Hillary's going to have a fight in her hands.
And that's exactly true, and it's exactly the kind of stuff our side ought to be writing.
It's exactly the kind of stuff our side ought to be pointing out.
It's not going to be a cakewalk for Hillary unless the Republican leadership in Congress is running her campaign.
I'm joking.
But his point about Trump becoming the nominee and how Trump is not governed by the standard, ordinary, everyday procedures of politics, the rules, say, of decorum and manners and all that, that all bets are off, that Trump breaks the mold, and Hillary is the mold.
Hillary is old.
She is fit into one mold.
It's the standard, ordinary, everyday political manual.
She won't know what hit her, is his point.
If Trump is the nominee, and others might play the same role or fill the same bill.
If Rubio, here's what he says about Rubio, if Rubio wins a nomination, I suspect he will beat Hillary like a drum.
A seven-point realigning victory would not be out of the question, and Clinton's best-case scenario would be a narrow win eked out by the smallest margins with Ted Cruz.
Current polls in conventional wisdom suggest that Clinton would have a much easier time, that Cruz is too conservative for mainstream voters, that his personality is too abrasive.
I tend to agree with this, says this guy, to a point.
But watching Cruz in these debates, it's clear that Cruz is not Barry Goldwater.
He's not looking to run a Capital C conservative campaign in order to prove a point.
He wants to win.
And his ambition and strategic cleverness make him perfectly willing to be ambiguous when he believes it's necessary.
Meaning, this guy is smart and he's adaptable and he will do what it takes.
And he's not just running to make a point about conservatism, even if he loses.
He wants to win.
That's an important distinction.
There are a lot of people, forget what their beliefs are, some conservatives, some people will do what they do just to make the point, whether they win or lose.
And Mr. Last here, writing the Weekly Standard, says, don't think that accrues.
He's not one of these Capital C conservatives.
He will do what it takes to win.
And he believes that any of these candidates that we're talking about here would be enough of a break from standard operating political procedure that Mrs. Clinton and her camp might not know how to deal with it because they're locked into the manual that's run American politics for decades.
And then he says, this brings us to Trump.
My guess is if you ask the pajama boys in Brooklyn, that's a reference to the bloggers who they want to face next year, the unanimous verdict would be Trump.
He's down to Clinton by a full six points.
He's undisciplined.
He's a bully, no experience running a campaign.
He seems, on the face of things, to have a seriously limited ceiling, meaning it's either 31 or 40, but that's a reference to his numbers basically flat at the top.
Although they're not.
They are continuing to expand.
But he makes the point here that if Trump's the nominee, then everything Hillary thinks she knows about campaigns is out the window.
And everything her team thinks they know about campaigning and running ads and turning out the vote and dealing with your opponent.
It's all out the window.
And I happen to think, by the way, that that happens to be true because I think Trump, he's running as a Republican, and he's running in the Republican primary.
But I think Trump's base of support is coming from every corner of this country.
I think Trump has people in his camp that people will be shocked to learn are in his camp.
It's broad-based, and it's made up of people that may only have one or two things in common, but they are uniting things, such as saving the country, such as stopping with this defensive posture that we must always lose because we're number one and we have to be polite and we can't lord ourselves over anybody to hell with that.
We're going to dominate.
We're going to cream people.
We're going to dominate and win.
We're going to get the oil.
We're going to build a wall.
We're going to kick them out.
We're going to take it over and we're going to go back to the way we used to be.
We're going to win.
We're going to be great.
And there's a whole lot of people who want to do that.
From Indian reservations to inner city ghettos to upscale suburbs to people that ride bicycles to people that look for discounts on the subway, from people that shop at Costco and Walmart and Neiman Marcus, you name it, Trump has them all.
And that is what is going to be hard for his opponents to pull down.
I've got in this stack, here's another list of all the things that Democrats won the budget deal.
I think I've covered the budget today.
No reason to depress you even further, but it's well, there's one thing you may not know about.
There's one provision that did not make the final omnibus bill.
It would have eliminated what critics refer to as a Democratic or Department of Justice slush fund.
It allows money to be funneled to third-party liberal activist groups.
That did not make it.
The Justice Department slush fund rider ending payments of liberal groups didn't make it.
One minor little loss for the Democrats.
Take a brief time out here.
We'll come back and continue.
We've got Putin and Trump talking about each other.
And it's got a lot of people thinking Trump has really stepped in it now.
That's the end of Trump.
This is finally it.
Accepting the endorsement of the Russian leader, that's got to be it, they're hoping.
Back.
Okay, folks, look at me.
There is something the Republicans got in the budget.
I have been remiss.
I've known it.
I have failed to mention it.
It's a pretty big thing.
In fact, I failed to mention it because my focus was on what they gave away and why in my analysis today.
But the thing that they got, and it costs them everything else for the most part, this budget permits American oil companies to export oil.
The environmentalist wackos and a number of other Democrats were trying to shut that down to save the planet, to penalize big oil, to encourage and move on to so-called clean energy renewables and that sort of thing.
The fact that the United States will now continue to be able to export oil is obviously a good thing.
Oil is the fuel of the engine of freedom, free flow of oil at market prices.
So this will be good for our economy.
It will be good for anti-terrorism.
It will provide customers around the world with a place to go for oil other than just Putin or the Saudis or the Iranians.
But there's a potential downside to this, and you won't know anything about it until next November or mid-October, late October.
You can make book on the fact that before next year's presidential election, gasoline prices and oil prices will rise because that's what they do, particularly from what are inordinately low prices now.
And as those prices rise, and as the cost of gasoline increases, as we approach the election next November, what will happen is that Chuck Schumer and all the Democrats out celebrating this budget today and claiming total victory will go to the nearest camera and microphone and claim it's all because the Republicans demanded it in the last budget deal because they're in the pockets of big oil.
So even this Republican insistence or assertion that ends up being good for the country will end up being used against them, where they will be labeled as traditional big oil supporters in the pocket of big oil and responsible for higher gas prices next November.
Yes, Obama's doing his year-end Q ⁇ A with his buddies in the media before flitting off to Hawaii.
And he just said that the United States did not cause the Arab Spring.
I mean, that's a huge turnabout.
He used to be proud of the Arab Spring.
He used to claim credit for it.
Remember old Nick Robertson from CNN?
Let me ask you, Mustafa, are you happy with President Obama and his plan for new jobs in the Arab Spring here in Egypt?
Obama, he had nothing to do with it.
We don't trust Obama.
Okay, thank you, Mustafa.
And now we move on to Abdulaziz, Mr. Abdulaziz.
And it went on and on.
Obama was out there lavishing praise on the Arab Spring.
And he just said the U.S. didn't cause it.
Now, this oil export ban.
It is true every there are going to be people that tell you that everything the Republicans gave away to the Democrats was in exchange for dropping the oil export ban, lifting it.
And they're going to say this is going to be very difficult for Democrats to turn around and reimpose it.
No, it wouldn't.
If Obama wants to do it with executive order, he can.
But he won't.
They're banking on the fact that oil prices and gas prices are going to rise during the year next year, and that they're going to continue rising and they're going to be a campaign issue.
And I guarantee the Democrats' plan here is to blame the Republicans being in the pockets of big oil, you know, profits being sucked out of the back pockets of American people for big oil to profit, all because the Republicans demanded it in the budget deal last December is what they're going to say.
Something along those lines.
Here's the Barbara Walters quote.
We found it.
It was in a New York Daily News.
Even in retirement, only Barbara Walters could get away with seriously noting in a prime time special that Amy Schumer has a nice tush, while Hollywood hunk Bradley Cooper is, quote, very screwable, unquote.
This is how the 86-year-old newswoman described two of her top 10 most fascinating people of the year, which was, I think it was last night.
I've been in this list two or three times.
I'm getting to the point I can't be in it anymore times and I'll begin to question whether or not it's rigged.
But I mean, I could be in it every year.
Actually, she alluded that she actually, if you want to know the truth, they cleaned this up.
She used the F-bomb.
She said effable.
And they, in an interview on Good Morning America, to promote the promote the show.
Lizzie and Reno, I'm glad you waited.
You're next on Open Line Friday.
Hi.
Hi.
Hey.
So I was just wondering, because I talk to my friends a lot about political stuff and I'm a fan of Trump.
So they brought up, oh, Trump is out of the running.
He can't be president anymore.
I was like, wait a second, you know that's not true, right?
And they're like, oh, no, it's true.
I saw it on this website.
And so they bring up all this website that they see.
And they're like, oh, no, this is what's true.
And I'm like, actually.
And so I like show them the actual information.
So I was just wondering if you could help me.
I don't know.
It's just hard to talk to them about it because they're so like.
You know, there's a Lizzie, there's a very, very applicable philosophy here.
I myself have had to learn this.
And you can do with it what you want, any number of ways here.
But essentially it is never get into an argument with a fool because people will not be able to tell the difference.
What that means is when you get into an argument with a fool or a blithering idiot, you by definition have to lower yourself to their level to even hope to communicate with them.
And you are trying to, in this case, it sounds like your friends, are they your friends?
I mean, are they really?
Well, I'm sorry.
Yeah, they're my friends.
Like, I was talking to them at lunch because I'm 17, so I'm still in high school.
They sound like blithering.
They're telling you that Donald Trump can't run for president.
Did I hear you right?
Well, yeah, yeah.
It was after his speech about like the Muslim, like not letting he like he scripted it and said like I Donald Trump.
And he started talking about like the Muslims and stuff.
And like a few of my friends are Muslims.
So they're like, oh, so you want so-and-so to be deported?
I'm like, they were born here.
You can't, they're not going to be deported just because they're Muslim.
He's talking about immigrants that are Muslim.
And so they're just like, I don't know.
That's what they were talking about, the speech where he was talking about Muslims, and then they saw their.
Wait, I misunderstood that.
They're telling you that they think they will be deported?
No, no.
The first part was right.
They were talking about how Trump isn't in the running because of his speech about.
Oh, because he said that we need to have a moratorium on Muslims coming in the country that he's disqualified from running.
Yeah.
Well, what I mean, what are you doing?
I mean, Lizzie, that's idiocy.
I know, and I tried to tell them.
I was like, this is his speech.
And like, this is exactly what he said.
And they're like, well, that's not what this site said.
And so it's just hard because the media is like influencing people.
Lizzie, let me tell you something.
I encountered this.
I can't tell you the number of times every day.
People can read anything.
It doesn't matter what it is.
And simply because they read it, they think it's true.
Yeah.
If it's on the internet, all you can do, Lizzie, is be more informed than they are and be able to calmly explain to them how they are wrong.
And if they refuse to believe you at that point, you're going to go crazy trying to persuade them.
Yeah, and like, and like I'll start talking to them about it and like tell them like what I've read and like the actual speeches.
They'll be like, oh, why can't you just be Democratic for once?
Or like, why can't you just listen to me and be on my side of the I'm not going to be politically correct because this is what I believe and this is what I've read and this is what I know is right.
Yeah.
I don't know.
There are as many different theories dealing with people like this as there are people like this.
And what I've always done, if I can't avoid them, is just try to have fun with them.
Say if they think ridiculous things like that, then I just will come back, oh yeah, did you hear about this?
Just make something up.
Just make something up and see if they agree with it.
And just put them on.
Just satirize them or put them on.
If you really care about them and you want to try to inform them how they're wrong, it's a notable thing.
It would require a lot of time and effort.
But if you really value their friendship and you want them to not be idiots and recognize that they're wrong about it, it'd be a very valorous thing to do if you do it in a way that you can enjoy it and have fun.
But you know what's really more upsetting about it than anything, I bet, is that they just, you can't believe that they're that short-sighted or easily manipulated or whatever.
I know, and I told them, I was like, you guys are not educating yourself about what's really happening.
You're just reading some stupid article that says, oh, Trump is out of the running because he said this one thing in his speech.
Or they're taking one thing out of context of his speech and they're saying, this is what he said, but he actually didn't say that.
I know.
But I mean, I've never even heard anybody say he's now out of the running.
I'm not even sure what they mean by that.
Does it mean, do they think he now has no chance, or do they mean somebody's officially pulled him off the campaign and he can't?
They thought that he officially pulled him out and so he's got a lot of people.
Oh my God, you're kidding me.
No, yes, I'm serious.
And so they were like, it was like all over Facebook.
And like my friend even posted it on Facebook.
I'm like, you know, this means he's not out of the running.
They're like, well, I hope he is.
I'm like, come on.
Lizzie, Lizzie, how old are these?
I assume they're your female friends, right?
Yeah, they're like 17, 18.
I'm 17.
Oh, you're 17 at all.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Well, then, do they like the Kardashians?
I'm not sure.
Well, then they wouldn't know.
One thing you could do is whatever they like, pop culture people they like, movie star celebrities they like or whatever.
Tell them, are you sure?
Because I heard so-and-so say that that's not true.
You know, counter with somebody who they think has authority, somebody that they would believe.
Because it's crazy.
It amuses me how much they believe that, and they don't know the correct information about it.
They're just a year away from being able to vote.
Well, I'll be old enough to vote for the next election.
Yeah.
Well, that's good, but you're outnumbered in your friends.
Yeah.
I'm trying to think back when I was your age.
I had political arguments with friends, but none of my friends were that goofy That I recall.
But it's indicative of the kind of things you can find on the internet.
I don't know.
Lizzie, just hang in with them and try to help them as much as you can.
As you do, you'll find ways that are effective and ways that aren't.
But I can imagine how frustrating it is when you're so, so far light years ahead of them.
Anyway, I appreciate the telling him to listen to me.
Try that, Lizzy.
See what they say to that.
Quick timeout, folks.
Back after this.
There's something really strange going on.
The Daily Caller just filed another story, posted another story.
Limbaugh continues to rip GOP over budget deal.
This time they quote me as saying, they're telling me I'm wrong when Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are gloating.
And it's all correct.
It's all right.
I just, it's done.
It's over with.
And yet, go figure.
We will be here Monday.
People in the email, so is this it for you?
No, no, this was just the last Friday show of the year, but we'll be here next week.
Bank on it, folks.
See you then.
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