Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
Hiya, folks, how you doing?
What are we in here?
This is the third week of the Trump administration.
Now, that's important because some people are getting impatient.
Three weeks in.
Not seeing some action out there.
The drive-bys in the left.
You know, it's amazing.
These are people that love government.
They love government.
They love government process.
And they are the ones bringing it to a screeching halt.
Isn't it amazing?
I mean, their gridlock is back.
And the left, you know, Betsy DeVos is up for Secretary of Education.
And the teachers' unions are just dead set against this woman because she wants to bring about school choice.
She wants to improve public schools, particularly in inner city and blighted areas.
She wants to improve educational opportunity.
Teachers' unions don't want to surrender any control.
They don't care about the quality of education.
They maintain the control.
It's about money and economics.
And the Democrats in the Senate can call Betsy DeVos any call her a devil woman.
They can call her a B.I. itch.
And nobody ever accuses them of sexism.
Nobody ever accuses them of being anti-female or anti-woman.
It's fascinating to catalog this.
I know it's hypocrisy, and hypocrisy never attaches itself to the left and to the Democrat Party.
Folks, it's great to have you here, as always.
The telephone number, if you want to be on the program, 800-282-2882.
And if you want to send an email, lrushbo at eibnet.us.
So I'm doing my show prep today, and I see this picture of Obama.
Have you seen this?
He's out there windsurfing down in the British Virgin Islands on a private island owned by Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines.
And honestly, when I saw the picture, I thought, before I knew anything about it, I thought it was a picture of a woman getting ready to do water ski or do something out there in the ocean.
And then I saw the caption and it says, Obama, and I look, what?
And when you look at this picture, the way the helmet looks like it's a female with long black hair, I mean, everything about, I was stunned.
And then I remembered the mom jeans throwing out the first pitch at the Washington National.
I know we're not supposed to observe such things, and I know we're not supposed to comment on such things, but I couldn't help it.
I was literally shocked when they told me that it was Barack Hussein Obama in this photo.
You can see it.
It's up there at drudgreport.com.
Drive-bys are livid.
Mike Pence, by the way, I'm the Betsy DeVos thing.
Pence is on his way up to Capitol Hill to cast a tiebreaking vote when they get to the confirmation vote for Betsy DeVos.
You know, it remains a teachable moment, educational opportunity to explain all of this obstruction and protesting that the left is engaging in.
And it's gotten to the point now where Ram Emmanuel, mayor of Chicago, has told him, you know, you people need to back off.
You need to calm down.
We are not going to have national power anytime soon.
This isn't the way to do this.
Even David Frum, who desperately wants the protesters to succeed in stopping Trump, is telling them, don't do it.
It won't work.
This didn't stop the Vietnam, didn't stop the Iraq war.
It didn't stop Bush doing anything, and it's not going to stop Trump.
Give it up.
But they're not trying to stop.
Well, I take it back.
That's a fine line when I say they're not trying to stop Trump.
They certainly are trying to stop Trump, but they're not doing it for not trying to assert themselves with power.
This is pure obstructionism, gridlock.
It's all kinds of things rolled into one, which we've touched on in great detail here.
But it's only going to intensify for a while.
It's not going to relax and go away.
I mean, the Babes are planning another two marches.
There's going to be a Babe strike going on out there.
They haven't set a date for it yet.
And then the women's march was so successful, they're going to do that again.
I don't know what they're going to strike.
It's just a national women's strike.
I mean, and that's it.
That's basically all we have.
And Mrs. Clinton is back.
There was a Hillary sighting in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, the 2017 Makers Conference.
Makers, by the way, is a storytelling platform created in 2012 by AOL for women to make and post videos.
So AOL sets up a place for women to make and post videos, and they had their storytelling platform.
Hillary went out there.
Well, she didn't go out there.
She released a video address to the conference, and here is a portion of what she said.
Despite all the challenges we face, I remain convinced that, yes, the future is female.
Just look at the amazing energy we saw last month as women organized a march that galvanized millions of people all over our country and across the world.
Now more than ever, we need to stay focused on the theme of this year's conference, be bold.
You know why the future is not female, as long as the left has anything to do with it?
I'm going to tell you right now why the future is not female.
It's because the primary objective of the left and the Democrat Party is to make everybody feel like they are a victim of something.
If you are a liberal, doesn't matter, you are a victim.
Women are victims of a misogynistic America with a rape culture running rampant on college campus.
The problem with this is, is that once you acknowledge or accept or believe that you are a victim, you have a lifetime excuse for never being happy.
And you have a lifetime excuse for never succeeding.
If you join up with the left and acknowledge that you are a victim, you are condemned.
You are basically attaching yourself to a status in life of loser, miserable, and never successful, because none of those things go with victimhood.
Victims are not prosperous.
Victims are not happy.
Victims are not content.
And victims are not successful.
And this is a subtle form of genuine discrimination by the left against its own people by constantly telling them how they don't have a chance.
The deck is so stacked against them that they're all victims.
They never will become independent.
They will always be wards of the state, and they'll be happy wards of the state, and they'll be voting for bigger government, more government, because that's the only place they will believe that any form of happiness and economic security, health care, security, whatever comes from.
And in this way, the Democrat Party and the American left are literally destroying lives.
They are destroying the lives of their own voters, of their own supporters, by automatically classifying and qualifying these people as victims.
And that's what they've done to women.
That's what really the foundation of feminism was back when I was, you know, back 69 or 70 when the current modern era of it actually began.
It was all based on how women are victims of this or that.
They're disadvantaged, discriminated against.
And that hasn't changed.
They're still victims.
No matter what kind of success, real or imagined, they've had, they're still victims.
They still have the victim mentality.
Something else you are when you're a victim.
You're constantly enraged.
You were always angry.
It goes hand in hand with never being content or never being happy.
And this is exactly what they're doing.
And they are attempting to cement this way of life, victimhood, into the pop culture and to every group of people that they come into contact with.
And it succeeds because one of the things that victimhood also inspires is fear, never-ending, constant fear.
If you're a victim, you're not self-reliant.
If you're a victim, you can't help yourself.
If you're a victim, you are consistently, always dependent.
Well, when the Democrats don't win, as they didn't do in 2016, and as they have been losing at the state and local level in demonstrable numbers, they're losing power.
They're losing control of the federal government, and they consider the White House control the federal government.
I know they're still populated in the bureaucracy, and they can stop Trump or try to stop Trump, but they're not implementing anything.
I mean, they've been brought to a screeching halt here.
But the psychological effect is that when their sponsors, when their protectors, when their caregivers lose power, they have nothing because the victimhood status they've adopted and accepted.
That's why they're so frightened.
That's because they have no ability nor desire to rely on themselves, plus no ability to.
They're not taught self-reliance.
That, of course, is impugned.
Self-reliance is a no-no.
Self-reliance is attacked and criticized as selfishness and bigotry and racism and homophobic homophobia and all these other things.
So these people literally become scared out of their gourds when their state sponsors, i.e., the Democrats, lose.
And that fear, you see it manifested in these protest marches.
The rank and file protesters.
I mean, there are some of these protesters that are organic.
The leadership of all this, it's bought and paid for by Soros.
We even learned, I don't know if you saw this, Mr. Snurdley, official program observer.
Do you see all the Republicans took money from George Soros in the 2016 election?
So you didn't see this.
You want some names?
John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Paul Ryan.
It wasn't a lot of money, but they all accepted financial contributions from George Soros and his various and sundry organizations.
Yeah, I think so.
I've got it here in the I've got four stacks here today.
It's kind of depressing.
I look at these four, and it's gold, folks.
Everything in this, if it's not in the stack, then it's not gold.
If it's in the stack, it's gold.
Meaning, I want to talk about it.
And I start every day knowing I'm not going to get to half of it.
I try.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
I try to do so.
I want to go back to the Super Bowl for a second because there's a story here that the ratings are down.
Super Bowl on Fox attracted an average of 111.3 million TV viewers, according to Nielsen.
This makes it the fifth most watched Super Bowl in Hiswai, number five.
Historic Super Bowl didn't have historic ratings, and there are stories out there today that say there aren't any indications that it's going to get better.
TV ratings for the NFL.
Now, I have a question.
How many people, and maybe you even thought so yourself, how many people did you hear, official sports experts and official media experts?
That was the greatest football game I have ever seen.
That was the greatest Super Bowl I have ever seen.
How many of you have heard people say that?
How many of you have thought it yourself?
Wendy, did you watch the game?
Did you break it?
You did.
You did.
Wendy does not usually watch the Super Bowl.
Are you?
Did you think it was a good game?
Great game?
Okay.
See, I don't.
And I know I'm way off over here on the fringe on this.
There was another playoff game.
I think it was a playoff game that featured an even bigger comeback than this.
The old Houston Oilers in Buffalo against the Buffalo Bulls.
See, they're frowning at me.
They don't even know anything about it.
It was the greatest comeback in NFL history.
The Houston Oilers went out to like a 35-7 lead in the first half and ended up losing the game in the second half.
The Bills came back with their backup quarterback, Frank Rice.
Now, tell me, that's a bigger comeback than this was.
I think it was a postseason game, but even if it wasn't, why isn't that an even greater game than this?
Now, you might be saying, well, how did Buffalo come back?
Because Houston laid down in the second half.
I mean, for crying out loud, you know, part of a comeback, I was telling people at halftime of the Patriots game with the Falcons.
Not only do the do the Patriots have to just start on an unstoppable run on offense, they've got to stop Atlanta.
They can't allow Atlanta to score any more points.
It just for every touchdown the Patriots score, if the Patriots get a feel, if the Falcons get a feel gold or touchdown and negates it, so they've got to stop.
And they did.
But I think there was a greater game than this.
And I know many of you are going to say, well, yeah, but you're a Steelers fan.
Well, the Steelers Cardinals Super Bowl that played over in Tampa that featured a 100-yard interception returned by James Harrison, a last-minute touchdown toss from Rothlessberger to San Antonio Holmes.
And the game was exciting to the very end because the Cardinals were on the verge of coming back.
It was a competitive, that second half was not even competitive.
And I don't know how in the world you call that the greatest game ever when the Falcons essentially weren't there and couldn't do anything right.
They couldn't stop New England.
Well, that's because of the proficiency.
I'm not taking anything away from the Patriots.
I don't mean to be doing that at all.
But the other team may as well have not been there.
It was a totally different team, second half from first half.
I don't doubt it's a great game to watch.
If you're an Atlanta Falcons fan, there's no way that's the greatest game in NFL history.
No way.
So, yeah, I'm arguing with the character of characterization of this game by sports media.
So I'm not saying it was a bad game.
I'm not upset at who won and who lost.
I didn't have a dog in this hunt.
It didn't matter other than my prediction, which, of course, I nailed.
But greatest game ever.
I don't know how you can say that when one of the two teams for the entire second half basically didn't play and did stupid stuff.
How do you take a sack when they took it?
How do you not throw the ball away?
You're out of the pocket.
Just throw it to the press box.
Find Lady Gaga.
Throw it to her.
Get rid of it.
Took a sack.
What was that?
I got to go.
I got to.
Senate is now voting on Betsy DeVos.
Education Secretary.
If the Republicans hold together, it's going to end up 50-50 with Mike Pence, the vice president, casting the tie vote and giving her her confirmation, keeping a sharp eye on that.
I want to go through some of the headlines I have here, things that I hope to get to today.
Voters await economic revival in a part of pro-Trump America.
Now, it's an AP story, but the thrust of it is that there's some nervous people out there not seeing enough action on tax cuts, not seeing enough action on Obamacare, and seeing that they're talking about delaying Obamacare till 2018.
This is not what they thought was going to happen, starting to get nervous.
Now, admittedly, it's an AP story, but I don't doubt that some of that is going on.
Republican lawmakers face rising anger at town halls.
Again, this is a Hill.com story.
This is designed to make it look like Republicans going home to town halls are being met with massive, massive liberal opposition in their districts, i.e., from people who didn't vote for them.
This one desperately calling for me to clarify, give you the right perspective.
Trump says replacing Obamacare could take until 2018.
On the humorist side, well, I guess it's not humorous to people involved.
This is a Reuters story.
Couple calls it quits over Trump.
This is about a 73, 75-year-old couple where the wife learned that the husband voted for Trump.
She's a socialist Democrat.
She admits she's a Democrat, trending socialist.
When she found out her husband voted for Trump, she wants a divorce.
Not kidding.
I mean, not making that up.
Katie Tour, Tur, whatever, NBC News has suggested that Trump, since he admires Putin, will be responsible for the suspicious deaths of journalists.
I'm not making this one up.
It's actually an NBC Infobabe named Katie Tour.
And Trump has called her out before during the primaries, during press conferences, and he's called her out.
She actually thinks that Trump is going to be responsible for mysterious deaths of journalists because Trump likes Putin and Putin kills journalists he doesn't like.
I still crack up when I read Drive-By Media talk about Trump asking Russia to dig up dirt on his opponent.
Maybe when he was joking around, maybe Russians can find Hillary's emails when nobody else could.
They really think Trump was asking for Russian help in digging up dirt on Hillary.
Anyway, and then there's the whole legal process of this executive order on immigration, the ban, back with more, all of that and more.
Hi, how are you?
Great to have you here, folks.
I got an idea.
Mr. Sterdley, what do you could Trump maybe get rid of some of this tension that he's facing from the left over his relationship with Putin if he simply scheduled a meeting with Putin?
You know, Trump can call Putin over there in the criminalist.
Let's get together.
And he takes with him a little plastic red thing that he says is a reset button.
And he goes over there and he has a meeting with Putin.
He says, let's reset the relationship.
Let's jointly press the reset button.
And then Trump says to Putin, if you just be patient while I work my way through my honeymoon period here, work my way, find my feet with the Democrat opposition, I'll have a lot more flexibility after I have succeeded in tamping down some of my Democrat opposition.
Do you think the media and the Democrats would say, okay, now we're talking.
Now we got a productive relationship with the Russians going.
Do you think they would?
Well, why not?
I mean, that's exactly what Hillary Clinton did when she became Secretary of State.
She scheduled a meeting with the Kremlin.
She had a plastic little red button on some, I mean, it literally looked like it was made with duct tape, maybe one of those science projects by Ahmed Eichenwald, whatever his name was, the clock boy.
It was a cheap-looking little red reset button.
And the media hailed Hillary Clinton, oh, wow, we're getting off a brand new start with the Russians and with Putin.
And then later in his administration, Obama asked Dmitry Medvedev, one of the chief advisors to Putin, he said, you tell Vlad that after I'm re-elected, this is 2012, I'll have a lot more flexibility in getting rid of nuclear weapons.
What if Trump were simply to replicate what the Democrats did with Putin?
You think he could erase all this bad stuff and get a fresh new start?
I kind of doubt it.
That's sort of why I asked the question.
Betsy DeVos has just been confirmed.
It's historic.
The vice president cast a tiebreaking vote getting her confirmed.
This is big for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that the Democrat leader in the Senate, Chuck Yo Schumer, called Betsy DeVos the worst cabinet nominee ever.
This is the nominee.
Betsy DeVos was the nominee that the Democrats decided they were going to destroy.
They were going to prevent her being confirmed as a statement to their base and as a panacea to their donors because the teachers' unions are huge, huge power brokers and donors in the Democrat Party.
And yet she's just been confirmed.
I don't care if it took pence voting.
She has been confirmed.
And Betsy DeVos wants to turn public education upside down and fix it with such things as school choice.
Do you know, the hypocrisy on this, folks, this is really, really, I think, serious stuff.
The Democrat Party has always proclaimed itself to be the party of the little guy, the disenfranchised, the downtrodden, the hungry, the thirsty, the victims.
All of the poor and all of the powerless.
The Democrat Party was their champion.
And yet look what the Democrat Party has done to the schools that educate these people.
Many of them are in war zone-like neighborhoods.
Broken windows proliferate these actual school buildings.
The things that these kids are being taught and learning are just worthless.
It's a liberal indoctrination, if anything.
They're not being taught a thing about the greatness of their country, quite the opposite.
But it's more, it's worse than that.
School choice.
Do you realize that the minorities in this country love the concept of school choice?
They get a voucher and they are permitted to send their kids to any public or private school, if the program exists where they live, that their voucher will pay for.
And every one of these minority families that gets a voucher loves it, and they send their kids to the best schools they can find, and they never end up going to the schools they would otherwise go to if they didn't have the voucher.
Now, these are direct threats to the teachers' union.
School vouchers, school choice, parents being able to choose where to send their kids to be educated is the biggest blow to the teachers' unions and the left that you can imagine.
Destroys their monopoly.
It destroys their monopoly over thought control and propaganda, indoctrination, and everything.
And yet the Democrats claim they're for the little guy.
And they claim they're for minorities.
And they claim that they want people to be able to escape whatever bonds of poverty they find themselves.
You know what the first thing Obama did when he became president in 2008?
There was a school choice program in Washington.
And it was being used and it was adored.
It was loved.
And it was being used by many minority families.
And they were able to send their kids to schools like Sidwell Friends, where the Obamas and the Clintons and the Gores and all the other inside establishment people send their kids.
Finest private school in Washington, in the area.
And there was a school choice program where minorities could participate.
Obama shut it down.
I mean, within weeks of being inaugurated, just shut it down because he had to.
He had to please the teachers' unions who had donated greatly.
And he shut down a program that his own voters cherish.
He shut down a program that his own voters aspire to.
Because I don't care where you are, every parent wants the same thing.
They want a better life for their kids.
They believe that education is the answer, is the best way to provide opportunities to compete and triumph and prosper.
And here's the Democrat Party basically shutting down program after program after program that brought that ability, brought great educational opportunities to the poor, the people the Democrats supposedly champion.
And they're never called on it.
They are never criticized for it.
They are never, ever questioned about it.
And it really is, you talk about compassion.
There is zero compassion in the way the Democrats have dealt with this.
Well, Betsy DeVos represents many things, but primarily she represents a big, big blow to the monopolistic control over public education that the teachers' unions in this country have.
And that's why she was two things.
She was literally a devil-like person to them who should not be confirmed on substance.
And then secondly, she became the target.
She was going to be the nominee that the Democrats prevented from being confirmed just to show that they could do that.
Because the others, now since she was the worst of the worst, she's the worst nominee ever.
Chuck Yu is kind of in a bind now because all the remaining nominees are clearly better than she is because she's the worst ever.
But then this takes us into the discussion area of the nature of these public protests and who's doing it, what the objective is, and whether or not they're going to be successful in slowing, stopping, delaying any aspect of the Trump or Republican agenda.
And I'll tell you, regarding the headline here, voters await economic revival in part of pro-Trump America.
Now, I know it's an AP story and they're out trying to cause trouble.
But let me just ask you, how many of you, I know I'm not going to be able to hear the answer, but I'm going to guess some of you are going to answer yes to this.
How many of you are starting to get alarmed when you see the president say, well, we're not going to be able to do anything with Obamacare until next year?
And you haven't seen much happening on tax cuts yet.
And you see the judiciary shutting down the Trump attempt to vet would-be terrorists getting into the country.
How many of you started to get concerned here that the things you elected Trump to do don't seem to be happening?
I mean, there didn't even seem to be any preliminary action on some of these.
Are any of you out there?
And if you want to talk about it, feel free.
800-282-2882.
I think one thing people have to remember as we go forward here.
And I mentioned that the Reagan tax cuts, for example, were not signed into law until August of 1981, basically seven months.
Now, they were debated.
The legislation was presented to Congress months prior to that.
And the debate was fierce.
We've got the Supreme Court nominee Gorsuch.
You know they're going to try to delay that.
They're going to delay that as long as they can.
Even though he's going to be confirmed, it's clear what the left stratagem here is.
Just delay, delay, obstruct, obstruct, and try to stop Trump from accomplishing anything.
But the only way that can really happen, folks, is what?
A protest march cannot stop Donald Trump.
Massive public demonstrations, fires, blowing up buildings can't stop Donald Trump.
But what can?
Think about that when we come back.
On education, just a couple of interesting numbers here.
From the International Education Survey from 2015, the United States ranks in the world in science, math, and reading.
Are you ready for the number?
We are number 25.
We are 25th in the world in young people learning science, math, and reading.
And here we had today 50 Democrats.
By the way, not one Democrat crossed the aisle.
Not one Democrat was interested in cooperating.
Not one Democrat was interested in demonstrating how Washington can work.
Not one Democrat was willing to cross the aisle and demonstrate compromise in an area important to all of our children.
Not one Democrat, not a single Democrat.
That's why it required the vote of Mike Pence.
So we had 50 Democrat senators trying to deny Betsy DeVos' nomination to lead the Education Department, which is a disaster.
It has to be reformed.
Better yet, busted up.
Betsy DeVos, a champion of school choice, of competition.
She's a champion for all screws and screw children.
America's public education system is no longer great.
It's mediocre.
And that's being kind, given the resources.
I mean, you look at how much money we spend on education, and you look at where we rank, and then you encounter people and see them on TV or whatever.
You read what they write, and you find out that ranking is probably accurate.
Because we have a lot of ignorant people in this country who have not been educated about some of the basics, much less the truth of the founding of this country.
Okay, to the phones.
We're going to start with Joe in Far Rockaway, New York.
It's great to have you, Joe.
How's it doing?
Very good, sir.
Thank you very much, Mr. Lumbaugh, for taking my call.
I'm a first-time caller, and you were discussing the Super Bowl and how the ratings were down.
Well, maybe we can account for it because I'm one of those that boycotted it.
What I saw over the course of the year was that quarterback not standing up for the flag.
I saw last year's halftime performance.
I mean, yada yada.
We can go on and on.
What was last year's halftime performance?
Oh, it had some so-called singer in a, I think was some sort of militant outfit dancing.
It was the famous Beyoncé, a tribute to the Black Panthers.
Yes, yes.
Okay.
You refreshed my recollection.
Right, that's why I'm here.
Yeah, yes.
Well, I think that might have accounted for the lower ratings because I think that is the message which we, if you want to call us on the right or real Americans.
Well, okay, but let me ask you this.
Obviously, you didn't have an interest in which team won, so because you're obviously not a Patriots or Falcons fan, right?
If you had been, if your team had been in the game, would you have watched it?
No, I would not have.
You kidding me?
No, I'm very serious, and I wanted the Patriots to win despite them being from Boston because that's old rivalry with New York.
But, you know, he did support Donald Trump and I believe the owner also, the quarterback there.
But that would have been motivation for me to watch, and I'm glad that they won.
But I have a real problem.
Who do you think stole Tom Brady's jersey?
It might wind up on eBay.
If it does, it's worthless now because nobody can authenticate it.
You know how many the way this jersey stuff works, folks, a guy like Brady was this way.
Michael Jordan wore a different pair of Air Jordans every game.
And every pair of shoes was donated to charity, fundraising was used.
With the NFL, every team, let's take it back.
Teams are different.
But most teams, the players get two jerseys, home and road, two home jerseys, two road jerseys, a year.
And this is to prevent these things flying out of the locker room and being sold on eBay after every game.
I mean, if they get ripped, they get sewn up.
If there are holes in them, they get sewn up.
Some teams are not as strict on this.
But I know in the old, I don't know if it's still true of the Steelers, but this is the way it was.
In the case of Brady, I think he wears a different jersey every game.
And he gets first dibs on whether he wants to keep it or not.
And if not, then some of them go to the Hall of Fame in Canton.
Some of them go, they're donated, they're used for fundraising, charitable things.
This jersey he wanted.
I mean, this jersey encapsulates all of the records.
And he thought he put it in a bag in his locker when he took it off.
And when out he did the post-game interview, came back, and it was gone.
When I heard that, I said, how does that happen?
Why don't you give it to a clubhouse guy?
Give it one of the guys that deflated the footballs.
Sorry.
Just kidding.
I'm just kidding.
That's my style of humor, just to wreck.
Just give it to a clubhouse guy.
This is what is normally done for safekeeping.
When a rookie catches his first touchdown pass or scores his first touchdown in the NFL, he gets that ball, takes it to the sideline, gives it to an equipment guy, and they lock it in a trunk.
They mark it and they lock it in a trunk so that it doesn't get lost during the game and it's available after the game for the rookie to keep and put on his trophy counter or wall or whatever.
This jersey, the fact that this is missing, and here's the thing, now since it's missing, there are legitimate Brady jerseys out there.
And by the way, the New York Giants were involved in a memorabilia scandal once where they were accused of faking game jerseys and making brand new game jerseys look like they had been muddied up and dirtied up in games and they were being distributed as actual game worn on field souvenirs when they weren't.
This is a big business.
It's a big deal.
Brief timeout, because we're a big deal as well when you get these obscene profit timeouts.
I don't mean to mislead.
There's not just one thing that could derail or delay the Trump agenda, but there are a couple that are atop the list.