2/9/26: Trump Posts Obama Ape Video, Superbowl AI Ads, Bad Bunny Reactions, Dan Osborn & MORE

23:40Will Balvin perform? Will Ricky Martin be at the Super Bowl? Will Cardi B be at the Super Bowl? Will Post Malone perform? He just happened to bet in exactly the right way to net a profit of some 16, 17, yes, about$17 ,000. Now, you know, that information, it's not just Bad Bunny who happens to have that. Stage hands, you know, there's probably, what, hundreds of people behind the scenes. All the guys carrying the trees or who were dressed up as a tree. Right. So they probably do because during rehearsal. My point is just like, Is there any regulation around this? Yeah, I get it. I know. It's only 17 ,000, sure.

24:16But when you combine this with Venezuela, with what you just talked, I mean, the amount of prop bets are insane. I was watching the broadcast before the Super Bowl. You had live DraftKings prop bet odds beneath the broadcast. Like, this is baked into the product. How can you possibly ensure that there is no, you know, manipulation or any real integrity of the game? And especially now, I guess it's basketball season now that the NFL is officially done. Well, let's put D3 up here on the screen. Giannis, one of the most famous, you know, basketball players, is now going to be an investor in Calci.

24:54He says, we all on Calci now. Everyone is online. The internet is full of opinions. I decided it was time to make some of my own. Today, I'm joining Calci as a shareholder. We all on Calci now. Okay, so you have one of the flagship players in basketball joining Calci. Now, let's then remember that bets literally on him, his team, games that he will be involved in, he will be a direct participant in terms of the potential profits off of said game. There have been multiple markets which have been very swingy. Let's put D3 up here on the screen, for example, involving his own trade rumors, which, again, he could now be a potential profiter of, off of.

25:37And you can, I mean, when we are betting, look, the heads and tails, that's been a bet for forever. We're not talking about that. We're talking about, I sent you this. People on Polymarket were sitting there betting the over-under on the national anthem. People are out there, the streaker, that's a big one. Will there be a streaker? You know, somebody pointed this out. If I, because the odds weren't very good for there be a streaker, Why would you not put as much money as you could on Streaker? And then streak. And then you just take 80 % profits. What, half of that, let's say, goes to fines and legal fees.

26:11Or hire someone to do it. Or hire somebody to do it. You know, pay some idiot out there. Pay for a Super Bowl ticket, only$6 ,000. Let's say you put$100 ,000 on it. You get$800 ,000, eight to one. I mean, yeah, somebody will do it. Remember, we talked about the dildo thing back in the WNBA. This is every, like, we cannot live like this. There has to be regulation. And this is just the worst part. Like, Calci and Polymarket are at the bleeding edge. But I want to make clear, even legal sports gambling with all of these prop bets, it's just as bad. Like, yes, it's not as, you know, streaker or any of that other stuff.

26:48Micro prop bets have literally no usefulness other than basically insider trading. Yeah. And robbing you of your money, thinking that you're so smart that you're going to be like, oh, JSN for two touchdowns. Yeah, let me know how that one hit. I literally know somebody who took that bet. And so that's what I'm talking about. It's one of those where these guys, everybody's pretending that it's fun. It is enabling and creating millions of gambling addicts, massively profiting all of these people. You know, the Cal State woman, she's like, I'm one of the youngest billionaires in the world. I'm like, I'm not fucking celebrating that.

27:21That's disgusting, actually. That is disgusting. Sorry. You know, it's one of those where when we create, normalize, and popularize this, we will create a situation where this can get totally out of control. Mass bankruptcies. We already know that states which legalize gambling not only see increasing – they actually see an aggregate increase or decrease in the amount of credit for everybody just simply as a result of that. And then, I mean, intimate partner violence, people who lose bets, unfortunately, very likely to take it out on their wife. Like, it's sickening. It massively creates a vice spiral.

27:54And I think that's actually the worst part. Overwhelmingly men who are, you know, who are betting. And in fact, one of the things that we were reading about is how women placing bets is actually a bit of a red flag because usually they're sort of like straw bets. It's a smurf account. Yeah, to cover for, you know, someone else who's a, you know, potential shark who's trying to place bets that might actually hit. Yeah. And God forbid we have that. You know, the Giannis one I actually followed closely because Kyle's a big Knicks fan. So I'm now a Knicks fan by proxy. And so he's been telling me like, oh, we might get Giannis and, you know, they might we might trade Carl Anthony Towns.

28:27And like this has been an ongoing conversation. And then lo and behold, like no trade happens. He's staying with Milwaukee. And all of these rumors, people were profiting off of, oh, is he going to stay? Is he going to go? You build up all this hype on the other side of like, oh, he's probably going to get traded to the Knicks or probably get traded to. There were some other teams that were also floated as possible locations. And then, you know, since you build up that expectation on the other side, then the, you know, the fact that he stays becomes very profitable. So it's just disgusting. It's insane to me that an active player can sit on the board of Kalshi.

29:05That is so crazy to me. But, you know, I think there's actually a connection to the conversation we were having about the Epstein files. Bear with me. Because we're discussing how, you know, there's all with Lord Mandelson. there's this very clear argument to be made. This was insider trading, and that insider trading was some significant chunk of how he was able to get his wealth. And I think what the elites are offering now at a time when they're trying to, when they've already destroyed the blue collar jobs, when they've already destroyed the unions, when they've gobbled up all of the gains from productivity over decades, when they're promising to destroy now all the white collar jobs and everything's too expensive, et cetera, rather than offering, OK, we're going to make it so that you participate in the promised economic growth from AI.

29:52We're going to make sure your wages go up, that you have ownership in these things, that you can participate in the extraordinary wealth that we plan to create. Instead of that, they're doing this sort of like low-grade democratizing of insider trading where it's like, you know, now it's not just for the Epstein class that can participate in insider trading. You, too, might get lucky enough to be one of the trees in Bad Bunny's performance and have some inside knowledge you can trade on, you know, put your whole life savings up in order to get together a measly$15 ,000. That's effectively the deal that is being offered.

30:28It ties back, in a sense, to the Trump accounts, the Trump baby accounts, too, where it's the same thing. It's like, well, we'll give you a little stake in this casino that we call the stock market. No, you're not going to have power in any sort of Democratic decision making. you're not going to have any say in this new social contract since we're just like ripping up the old one and writing a new one. You're not going to have any say in that. But we'll give you a little more taste of the casino. We'll make it a little bit more feasible or a little bit more believable that you're going to be able to hit it big with this expanded lottery, which is essentially what it is.

31:01And I mean, we all know the state lottos, like these are basically attacks on the poor. It's for people who are desperate, who see no other way and like to live in the fantasy of like, maybe this time it's going to hit, maybe this is time it's going to hit. We're going to expand that so that more millions of people get trapped in the cycle where ultimately, you know, the wealth is all continuing to be funneled to the top. But we're going to offer you a glimpse of a promise that maybe you can be the one that's in the bad bunny Super Bowl halftime show and happens to get this insider info that you can trade on.

31:33Yeah, and hand up. This is my own class bias. I didn't notice it much until it hit my cohort for sports betting, but you're right. And it's only after I started delving more into it and I would look at lottery and I go, oh my God. I'm like, I can't even believe that I wasn't aware of this whole thing. Like if you go to the Union Station, DC Lotto stand, it is homeless people out the door, not there for warmth, they're there to buy tickets. And I was like, oh my God. I was not really, I'm not that in touch, I guess, with people who buy scratch-offs like every single day. Now I look for it and I can actually see it everywhere.

32:07Every time you're under 7-Eleven. Like every time you're at a gas station, if you stop or something and you go in, there's somebody there, you know, buying the tickets. And these are not even like big ones, but there's something about the thrill and it just drains their finances. Unfortunately, wasn't as awake to it. There wasn't enough of a mass populist movement to be like, hey, is anyone going to take care of these people and save them from themselves? My mind has changed on this because I have more of a like libertarian social view. So I was like, oh, you know, adults, like, should be able to, you know, if they're informed and they want to, that's how they want to, like, spend their money.

32:39They're not informed. That's the whole point. That's the piece is that this is not, first of all, it's not free and fair. It's completely rigged. And you are up against, like, your brain is up against the psychological warfare of these trillion-dollar companies that are attempting to get you hooked, that are gamifying everything to get you in and keep you there. It's not a fair fight. You know, it's not like, I think we have this view in the U.S. and in the West in general that like, you know, a system, as long as there isn't like a gun pointed to your head, that that's not coercion, right? That you're not being manipulated.

33:19And that is just not the case. Clearly, you are being exploited, you're being manipulated, and, you know, you're free in sort of like a technical sense. but the reality is the deck is being stacked against you at every single turn. And that has become, again, thanks to, you know, you're really highlighting this issue was the first one I really had to stop and think about. Like, okay, well, what does this mean and what is it doing to our society? And it has just become abundantly clear to me that this whole thing is corrosive in every way and deeply damaging. Welcome. This is the gateway drug to discovering what true freedom is.

33:52What does freedom actually mean? And are you truly free or are you a slave if you're out there who is betting every day to trying to make your wealth? Actually, the communists have always understood this about structural advantage and freedom. So anyway, the point just remains, stay away. Like I wish we had more power. I hope one day government regulators and all of them will wake up. But under this administration, this is not going to happen. These people, they love this shit, right? Because they're becoming massively profitable. And these people will pay anything to remain legal. I'm going to do a segment soon about OnlyFans, just flagging that.

34:28That'll be a fun one for everybody to pay attention to. But next, I'm going to have to start looking at this Calci advertising and some of the other stuff that's being flagged to me. These people make the cigarette companies in the 60s look like Boy Scouts. It's crazy. They make the casinos of Las Vegas look like church nuns in terms of what they're promising. At least the casinos are relatively honest. As you come here, you're going to lose money, but you get to go watch, oh, with the Bellagio or something like that. And we'll comp you some tickets. I mean, the amount of lies that are being told about your ability to win, protection of insider trading, and so much more, buying off literal players, this is very, very dangerous.

35:08Yeah. To sports, to society, but that unfortunate part, it's just the revealing nature of where we are right now. We have got to get away from this.

35:21What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins, and if you can hear me, it's where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks, and we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff, identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore, loss that changes you, purpose when success isn't enough, peace when your mind won't slow down, faith when it's complicated.

35:59Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

36:18This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather. It was many and many a year ago in a kingdom by the sea. In 1995, my neighbor, Anna Trainor, disappeared from a commune. It was hard to wrap your head around. It was nature and trees and praying and drugs. No, I am not your guru. And back then, I lied to my parents. I lied to police. I lied to everybody. There were years, Ryder, where I could not say your name. I've decided to go back to my hometown in Northern California, interview my friends, family, talk to police, journalists, whomever I can, to try to find out what actually happened.

36:57Isn't it a little bit weird that they obsess over hippies in the woods and not the obvious boyfriend? They have had this case for 30 years. I'll teach you sons of a** to come around here and my wife. Boom, boom. This is The Red Weather. Listen to The Red Weather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know Roald Dahl, the writer who thought up Willy Wonka, Matilda, and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy? Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Our new podcast series, The Secret World of Roald Dahl, is a wild journey through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life.

37:36His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans. What? And he was really good at it. You probably won't believe it either. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Did you know Dahl got cozy with the Roosevelt's, played poker with Harry Truman, and had a long affair with a congresswoman? And then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, before writing a hit James Bond film. How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever? And what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids?

38:10The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote. Listen to The Secret World of Roald Dahl on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're going to have to push Olympics to tomorrow because Dan Osborne is standing by. But I do want to know, what did you think of the Bad Bunny halftime show? Bad Bunny. Were you furious? Were you triggered? Okay. So people, maybe I'm being lib. I thought it was good. It was great. I thought it was good. So it was very, I bet you if I had to watch it in the stadium, I wouldn't have liked it much. It was clearly very produced for television.

38:47They're all meant really for TV. No, I know. But it was one of those where you could see with the set, the set design was amazing. I mean, I don't speak Spanish. I only speak a little bit, like maybe 20 % or so. So I didn't really know what he was saying. Purely off of production, I was like, hey, man, I mean, it's pretty good. And I'm not a big reggaeton fan, but he convinced me. It wasn't bad. Yeah, I mean, to be honest, I actually thought it was pretty good. There is a meta conversation around the NFL where, look, everyone, and I tweeted this at the time, everyone's like, oh, they're choosing Bad Bunny because he's woke.

39:18I was like, guys, you don't know anything about the NFL then. The NFL wants to become an international sport. So I don't know if you saw this. The NFL already announced that they're gonna be playing, I think it's 11 international games next year. 11 games. One of them is a division rivalry where they are flying the 49ers and the Rams from LA and San Francisco to Melbourne, Australia. So a major flagship football game is going to be played in Melbourne. They're doing this all over the world. Latin America is one of their dream markets. Already, both the LA teams have big fan bases in Mexico and across Latin America.

39:55We had the Brazil game that happened earlier this season. I think the Brazil game is back on. I know that the NFL is targeting that. Also, they're all in the same time zone. so they can watch. This was pure business. So it's one of those where, look, I don't think it really had anything to do with wokeness, but it does relate to our conversation about gambling and all that. I think it's bad because they just want to globalize the sport. And with globalization, basically comes what happened to the NBA. Remember that whole Hong Kong situation where the coach, I forget exactly, I forget who it was, Daryl Morey, something like this.

40:28He said something about how he supported the protesters in Hong Kong and they freaked out because the Chinese government was like, oh my God. And he almost got fired and the owners spoke out. With globalization comes the same thing that happened, you know, for all the rest of our economy. But I mean, you're almost swimming against the tide at this point. So that's my overall take. I think it should remain an American sport, but like, it's not. It's just, that's not what they want. These people are multi-billionaires. Roger Goodell's very good at his job. All he wants to do is expand, expand, expand.

41:00They have all NFL fans by the balls. They know they will watch no matter what. They literally put games on at 9 a.m. and people wake up to watch them. People will watch anything. I support that. You see it. I like a 9 a.m. game. You and I support that. Other people do not support that. Well, I mean, but also, I mean, I don't doubt that, you know, the expansion is part of the calculus. I mean, Bad Bunny is literally. No, it's like 100%. I genuinely didn't realize what a massive, it was like him and Taylor Swift. Yeah, they're the two biggest artists. The biggest artists of our generation. Yes. And I like I didn't realize how massive he is.

41:35So and not only the you know, the international expansion, but there's 50 million Spanish speakers here in the U.S. And I'm sure that's a market that they'd like further penetration into. So but, you know, I mean, obviously his performance was political. I think it'd be a lie to say it wasn't you know, didn't have political tone to it. The big thing that people were noting was he had up that message that said the only thing more powerful than hate is love. He's been very outspoken about, you know, ICE abuses. And I think he's canceled concerts even in the U.S. because of fear of ICE and immigration enforcement at his concerts, etc.

42:08So there's no doubt there was political. The other thing that I didn't see as much conversation about, there was that part where they were like dancing on the like electrical poles. And then there was there was like an explosion. Remember that? And I'm sure that that relates to Puerto Rico's ongoing electricity crisis. There were those messages as well. there was a wedding in it which was really cool it was apparently a real wedding where the couple had written him and uh and invited him to their wedding he was like how about instead of that how about you come and get married during my super bowl halftime performance so i thought the whole thing was very um i thought it was very well done i thought it was beautiful i thought it was decidedly political like everything's political without being i didn't see that i was just like oh it's a good show well what i was gonna say is i think it's political without being like in your face.

42:56And that's, I think, what people object to is when the messaging is too aggressive and it takes the place of the artistry. But clearly, I mean, to me, one of the most political parts of it is just when he read off, when he said the names of all the countries in the Americas, including countries like Cuba that we're trying to utterly immiserate and destroy right now, or Venezuela, another place that, you know, military intervention and have long spent time trying to destroy them, et cetera. I actually found that to be a really beautiful and a certain way courageous act. I guess. I mean, I thought, I mean, he's the biggest artist in Latin America.

43:33That's his entire fan base. That's the whole point of having the halftime show all in Spanish, period. Look, like I said, we should decide, should we be our own sovereign nation? Should we become globalized to the entire U.S. to the global culture? That's what the NFL wants. Most NFL fans are going to put up with it. I don't think it's necessarily a good thing. It is what it is. That's why, I mean, I just do think that people who are like, oh, the NFL, they've gone woke. They don't care. They just want to make money. That's all that they are in for. They are salivating over, I mean, you know those international games?

44:03They all sell out. They all, people all over those countries, they show up and they'll show up in like 32 different team jerseys. Like I'll never understand a German guy who's an Arizona Cardinal fan, but they exist, apparently. So I don't know. I didn't really look at it that way. I was just like, okay, clearly they want to penetrate the Latin American market. That's what this entire thing is about. They succeeded. The ratings are in. and they got like 135 million people watch it. Largest Super Bowl half-a-time show. It's also been the most watched NFL season of all time. Like the NFL is only growing.

44:32And that's where they see the dollar signs. That's where they want things to go. Like Bad Bunny kind of made it like a celebration of I guess Latin American identity, really. Like with the reading off of all that. Like it's fine. Again, you know, I think people know my feelings about immigration and all of that, but I really didn't find it that bad. Like objectionable. I thought it was a decent show. And that's the other thing. But it was all in Spanish. And I mean, it is kind of weird. They're like, okay, I mean, I literally... You had Lady Gaga there. I speak Spanish and, like I said, I speak 20 % Spanish.

44:59And even I was like, dude, I don't know what the fuck is going on in the show. So, I don't know. I mean, are we okay with that? But a lot of people enjoy his music. Like, I enjoy some of his... I like some of his songs, even though I don't speak Spanish. I don't know what he's saying or what they're about. Yeah, there's been plenty of Spanish songs. Yeah, that are super popular in America. That have been very popular. Shakira, you know, so it's like, it's not completely... Who has also performed at the Super Bowl before, previously. Is she Colombian? I forget. She is Colombian. Yeah. Yes, that's exactly right.

45:22We do have a reaction from Trump D10 that we can put up on the screen here. So one thing that is kind of funny is that, you know, TPUSA did their alternative Great American Halftime Show or whatever they called it with Kid Rock. It was abysmal. I mean, he was lip. Yes, he was lip syncing, but he wasn't even bothering to like really lip sync. The audio was unsaying. It sucked. I mean, I'm sorry. Of course, like and not even just my bias. there were many right-wingers who also were like, this was really bad. In any case, here is what, well, where I was going with that is apparently a Trump Super Bowl party.

45:57They did not watch the TV. They watched bad money. Anyway, here's what Trump had to say. The Super Bowl halftime show is absolutely terrible. One of the worst ever. Makes no sense. Is an affront to the greatness of America. Doesn't represent our standards of success, creativity, or excellence. Nobody understands a word this guy is saying. The dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the usa and all over the world this show is just a slap in the face to our country which is setting new standards and records every single day including the best stock market 401ks in history there's nothing inspirational about this mess of a halftime show and watch it will get great reviews from the fake news media like saga and jetty because they haven't gotten a clue of what is going on in the real world and by the way the nfl should immediately replace its ridiculous new kickoff he's obsessed with the kickoff anyway that was trump's reaction one thing that was um that someone noted some intelligent person noted is that this, uh, true social went out exactly 9.00 PM.

46:52And so they think it was pre written and auto to auto post because it went out exactly at 9.00 PM, which I mean, it does sound, it is sort of vague, like the sort of thing you could write in advance, in advance. Like you're going to assume there's going to be some, you know, some ass shaking in it. So you can say, oh, the dancing was disgusting, et cetera. I don't know. I mean, I, I thought that the whole The freak out was a bit much. Like I said, I view it purely business. I don't love it. Like, I don't love the fact that it's going to become a purely international sport. That's what they want.

47:22The more that those people get, you know, the more money and dollar signs, the less kind of American it becomes. At the same time, NFL fans have nobody but themselves to blame because not only do they put up with this shit, the ratings keep going up. So it's not exactly like they can speak out. And yeah, I mean, a lot of the freak out was just like, oh, well, like I'm telling you, like I'm I'm pretty sensitive, I guess, to seeing that. I really didn't see it. I was like, oh, it was a good show. Yeah, he's very talented. I thought it was well produced, you know, et cetera. I guess, you know, with the political undertones.

47:54But you really would have to be looking for it, in my opinion, like to say a celebration of all Latin America, which, again, maybe it's if you don't know anything about him because I knew who he was. I knew how big he was as a musician. And this guy sells out shows all over the world. Like, it's crazy. He has right now, I was looking right now on Spotify. He's the top, all top five songs are all his. No, I know. I've seen it before. I've seen the sellout numbers, like, well, where some of his shows are, what he'll do in Latin America. So I've been aware of Bad Bunny, like, for quite a while. So I was, yeah, I mean, it pretty much was exactly what I expected.

48:29So there you go. Yeah, I thought he, I actually did pretty well. I mean, apparently that makes me a huge lip. but I was like, hey, it's a good show. We enjoyed it. It was only like 12 minutes and then we move on to a very, very boring game. So congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks, by the way, and Sam Darnold especially. He deserves it after the run that he had.

48:51What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins, and if you can hear me is where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks, and we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff. Identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore. Loss that changes you. Purpose when success isn't enough. Peace when your mind won't slow down. Faith when it's complicated.

49:29Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

49:48This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather. It was many and many a year ago in a kingdom by the sea. In 1995, my neighbor, Anna Trainor, disappeared from a commune It was hard to wrap your head around It was nature and trees and praying and drugs No, I am not your guru And back then, I lied to my parents I lied to police I lied to everybody There were years, right, where I could not say your name I've decided to go back to my hometown in Northern California Interview my friends, family, talk to police, journalists Whomever I can to try to find out what actually happened Isn't it a little bit weird that they obsess over hippies in the woods and not the obvious boyfriend?

50:31They have had this case for 30 years. I'll teach you sons of bitches. Come around here and my wife. Boom. Boom. This is The Red Weather. Listen to The Red Weather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know Roald Dahl, the writer who thought up Willy Wonka, Matilda, and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy? Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Our new podcast series, The Secret World of Roald Dahl, is a wild journey through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans.

51:10What? And he was really good at it. You probably won't believe it either. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Did you know Dahl got cozy with the Roosevelt's, played poker with Harry Truman, and had a long affair with a congresswoman? And then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, before writing a hit James Bond film. How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever? And what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids? The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote.

51:43Listen to The Secret World of Roald Dahl on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, guys, we are very fortunate to be joined this morning in studio by Dan Osborne. He is the independent candidate for United States Senate in the state of Nebraska. Welcome, sir. Thank you. Good to be here. Great to have you in person. Yeah, absolutely. All right, so how's the campaign going this time? You got a different opponent than last time. You're up against Pete Ricketts. Yep. How do things look so far? Things are looking really good. So the fourth poll just came out in the race, and we're still statistically tied.

52:16even after he spent$2 million in the state against me, radio ads, TV ads. He went up really early that, frankly, Nebraska's not even used to seeing. And so, yeah, we haven't spent much. And so I'm feeling really good about this one. And so if you can remind the audience, you came closer than many have to being able to defeat a Republican in the state of Nebraska, a long time thought of a locked state. You were able to do it as an independent. You really have been trying to embrace economic populist issues. Why did you decide to run again? I know we talked immediately after your race, but what did you think that you learned from that race that you could try to do again?

52:53Yeah, well, I suppose ultimately why I decided to do it again. There was a lot of people asking me to. But ultimately, I sat my family down to dinner, and we talked about what it would look like. Do we want to do this again? And their resounding answer, especially for my kids and my wife, were, no, we don't want to do this again, right? Because it's extremely difficult on your family life, you know, being in the public eye, the mudslinging that occurs. But once we started talking about the issues, like specifically my 22-year-old daughter said, Dad, I don't ever think I'm going to be a homeowner.

53:30You know, the first time age buyer for the age for homebuyers, 40 years old now in this country. And collectively, this generation isn't going to do as good as their parents for the first time. And so issues like that, by the time we were doing the dishes, it was like, we have to do this. You felt an obligation. Yeah. We wanted to talk to you about some of the sort of Nebraska-specific economic issues that are going on because you've got a unique view. We're very coastal here. Unfortunately, we don't get to talk to that many people from Nebraska. Let's put F2 up on the screen here. I know this has been a major and significant issue.

54:03There's a major Tyson's Foods plant that is going to close, that has closed now in Lexington, Nebraska. Closure, it says here, will result in more than 3 ,200 people in a town of just over 10 ,000 losing their jobs. Can you talk some about what happened here and also the failure of government that this represents? Because there were tools that your opponent and that this administration could have deployed to avoid this devastating economic blow. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is the gutting of middle America in action, right? Like at a time when beef prices and beef in itself is at very high demand.

54:43They choose to close down a plant that does 5 % of the beef production in the country. Wow. And, you know, so they are in violation of the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, which was created to prevent this exact thing that they're doing, right, this consolidation of industries where they can manipulate prices for both the ranchers and the consumers. We're seeing it play out. You know, I've tried to get our federal delegation to follow through with this. Pete Ricketts said, after I did my press conference out there, Pete Ricketts said, we'll look into it. And then the day after he said that, he got a donation from Tyson to his campaign.

55:24And then two months later, you know, they had a reporter catch him in the hallway and he said, oh, they're not doing anything wrong. Everything's fine. Yeah, we actually have some of that. Why don't we take a listen and we'll get your reaction. Let's roll it. Senator Ricketts, a couple months ago, you said that you were going to look into whether Tyson was violating the Packers and Stockyards Act. But now thirty three hundred people have lost their jobs. So I'm wondering what exactly you did to try to save that plant. So they are not violating the stockyard pack yard. But I've been to Lexington to work with the mayor about being able to use the facility and continue to create jobs.

56:03So we're going to be working with Tyson. They're talking about they're doing an evaluation of what they're going to continue for. But there's valuable resources there with regard to the land, the groundwork spur, and the wastewater plant that can be used for future jobs. What did you do to try to save it before it closed down? So, again, this is one of the things where we have a private sector. We have a private sector, sir. And we have railroads, and they'll be fine. Can I tell you what that reminds me of? Sure. You ever see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the number one, where he keeps telling, stop telling that kid to mumble?

56:37I guess, what is he even saying there? He's just, like, saying words without any meaning behind them. And it's because he doesn't have a defensible position, because he's taking their money and doing their bidding. And we're seeing it over and over and over again with a lot of our elected officials. And, man, people are getting tired of it, and they're seeing through it. Yeah, I do want to ask you specifically about the beef prices. Can we put F3 up here on the screen? I'm curious for your reaction. There's been a lot of pressure on the administration right now to lower the price of beef. Their response, instead of fighting for something like this, is actually import a significant amount of beef from South America, which, you know, America first, we can talk, I guess, kind of separately about this.

57:15But, you know, it seems this obviously this is important to many people on the coast and the rest of the country for just the price for our ability to afford at the grocery store. But for your state, it's a lot of jobs. It is like central to the identity. Can you just talk a little bit about that? Well, ranchers are finally starting to make some good money. You know, 30 years ago, they were making 70 cents on the dollar for their product. Now, you know, they're lucky to make 30 cents on the dollar. But this year, you know, the demand is high. And so in conjunction with the consolidating of the Packers and then now this, ranchers are going to suffer.

57:53Absolutely. I've been talking to them. You know, a lot of MAGA ranchers repost a lot of our stuff online because they understand what's happening. And they're pissed off. Zooming out from this specific issue, how is the economy in Nebraska overall? Well, I would say that overall, it's been steady, especially in Omaha and Lincoln with job growth. But I feel there's definitely a sense of decline with brain drain with our governor using, I don't even know if I can say it on air. Go ahead. You say whatever you want. He uses the word libtard frequently. And, you know, just a common disrespect for human decency is what we're seeing with a lot of our state and federal delegation.

58:50And so that's prompting people to not want to stay, our young people specifically, not want to stay in our state. And, you know, we need to be continually growing. And we need to be protecting our rural way of life, too. You know, we're at an all-time shortage for row crop farmers, and that's going to continue to happen. And 2 % of the population feed the rest of us. We have to have sustainable farming practices, and that doesn't include consolidation of ag, right? That includes keeping them profitable with things like stringent right-to-repair laws. If you own something, you should have the right to repair it.

59:28I mean, these tractors cost upwards of a million dollars. So if you're a young person wanting to live that rural way of life, it's almost impossible to break into that right now. Go ahead and put F4 up on the screen to that point. So you've got this$12 billion farmer bailout that the administration has pushed through. This says rural farmers in the Midwest and Great Plains have a better idea of how much money they can expect from one-time federal aid payments announced last month. You've got, you know, a lot of people in line to receive these funds. I know a lot of analyses that say that this won't be sufficient.

1:00:04This, of course, relates to the tariff regime that this administration has pushed forward. You know, what are you hearing from farmers about the state of the ag economy and their ability to make it and whether or not this bailout will be sufficient for them? It's a joke. It's a joke. And they see it. I talk to them every day. I was just talking to a bean farmer the other day, and I asked him about that bailout. first of all, they don't want handouts. They want a market to sell their product, right? So he is sitting on beans that he can't sell. And so I asked him, how is that$12 billion going to help you to stay afloat?

1:00:42And he said, well, first of all, it's not the$20 billion we gave Argentina, right? So that's in question, right? I mean, and then you can add maybe another$20 billion, arguably to make it$40 billion. Argentina gets. Now we're buying their beef. But the bailout, he said what it's going to do is it's going to help him buy his seed and his chemicals for next year, but it does absolutely nothing for him this year. So I think what this is going to cause, and I believe we're already seeing it, more consolidation of ag, right? The people that can afford to come in and buy them up, the Bill Gates of the world, buying up land in Nebraska.

1:01:23and again it goes back to sustainable farming and it's just it's not good for Nebraska it's not good for the country frankly. So how do you think about tariffs I'm curious because you know I know a lot of soybean farmers many others were dramatically affected however we do have to balance our national strategic priority with China how do you think about tariffs as a tool when it respects with respect to agriculture many lobbying you know even farmers are against tariffs specifically for this reason, which I understand, but we have a lot of things to think about. You might be a United States senator.

1:01:52How would you think about the question? Well, you hit the nail on the head. It's a tool, right? And as a mechanic myself, I don't just have one tool. I don't have a big old hammer that I use for everything, right? You have precision machine tools, and you have a whole array of tools. And this is one of the tools that you use to protect American jobs. I mean, we've seen it be successful in the automotive sector. you know you predominantly the f-150s and the silverados and the ram trucks are still predominant here in the country and that is you know you could argue that is due from our tariff policy so it has their place but i i do think the power of the tariff should be with congress it shouldn't be with the executive branch it was never designed that way we should go back to doing it where congress has that control let's zoom out a little bit and talk about the political landscape You're obviously you're an independent.

1:02:44You're running as an independent. I think most people would look at the state of Nebraska and say a Democrat, no matter how good, you know, would not stand a chance of winning statewide in a state like Nebraska. You know, it shifted very much to the right. It's deeply red, deeply Republican at this point. What do you think it is about the Democratic Party that is so appalling to so many people in a rural state like Nebraska? Well, I think, I don't know that I'd use the word appalling, but I'll give you an example. I went door knocking in Weeping Water, Nebraska. And when we're driving around going door knocking, I look for the Trump sign because I want to talk to that person.

1:03:26I want to understand and let them know who I am and why I'm running. And what I found is the last guy that answered his door had a Trump sign out front. he answered the door with his daughter he was obviously a wrestler he had the cauliflower ear and his daughter was a wrestler he was getting ready to take her to a match and he loves his family like most people do right they they fiercely love their kids and they want to do everything that they see fit to protect their kids and so it's all about the message that people receive He lived in Omaha and he got out of Omaha because he didn't want his daughter going to school where teachers, male teachers were dressing as women, you know, and and trying to tell their kids that they could be anything that they want.

1:04:19Now, this didn't happen, but the idea is constantly put into their head, right? So I think, and this is who's creating the division in the country. They will keep us divided on anything, whether it's Second Amendment or whether it's transgenders or LGBTQ. Whatever the issue is that they can divide us with, they'll use it, and then they'll keep hounding it. So people believe that, and that's perception is reality, right? Instead, but those are the very same people that want us to stay blind to the fact that we're getting robbed, right, with the consolidation of our industries, the monopolies, the billionaires that are carving up the country for themselves.

1:05:00Those are the ones that want to keep us divided. So I think some of that is true, but we do have irreconcilable differences in the country. A lot of people still vote based on them. One of them is immigration. I know you've had some differing views on the subject. You are from a heavily rural state. You're talking about farm shortages. is how do you think about illegal labor? I know you have, I think you were against the shutdown. I know Senator Ricketts has criticized you for talking out of both sides of your mouth. So like, what's your definitive immigration policy for the state of Nebraska?

1:05:26Well, Congress needs to do something, including Pete Ricketts. We need meaningful, humane immigration reform that we haven't seen in this country since I've been alive. Well, what do you mean by that? Well, I mean, yeah, we know we need more judges. We need more lawyers. We need to figure out how the people that are here, that are working, that are upstanding members of our community, they're our friends, they're our neighbors, we have to figure out a way for them to have a path, right? I don't believe in general amnesty, but I do think there should be a path to citizenship. And, you know, we were promised that they were going to come in and take the criminal elements out.

1:06:05And that's not what we're seeing play out, right? I don't think too many people would disagree that if you're a violent criminal, that you shouldn't be here. Okay. But, you know, the folks that are hard workers that contribute to our society by paying taxes, I mean, I think$2 billion undocumented workers paying to Social Security that they'll never get out. Those are the kinds of issues that we do need immigration reform. So we need more judges, we need more lawyers, and we need better laws to help promote a path. What about in the meatpacking industry? Let's see, we were just talking about that, for example.

1:06:42Heavily reliant to make cases on illegal labor. Sure, many may not be criminals, like in terms of violent criminals, but they are violating the law. Being present here illegally. Do you think that the company should bear some responsibility for that? Well, yeah, they're the ones benefiting monetarily, right? I agree with you 100%. Paying them next to nothing. Right. And enriching themselves. And those are the ones that can afford to buy a senator or a House member. And I certainly can't. And so I think really the most important issue of all of our times, it all kind of goes back to campaign finance reform to take the ability away from these lobbyists and special interests to control our elections and quite frankly, control our elected officials.

1:07:22Because if you want to work in Nebraska or Texas, Montana, Florida, Ohio, it costs$100 million to run for U.S. Senate. That's insane. A billion dollars to run for the U.S. president. Those are the things that we have to clean up. So we have to figure out a way. I mean, I'd love to just end Citizens United, right? I know it's harder said than done. But maybe there's state laws or something we could do to curtail that. Or maybe we can make it especially, that's how I view my campaign, is if we elect somebody who doesn't take corporate PAC money or APAC money or anything like that, special interest money, if I can't relate it back to working people, I don't want your money.

1:08:01So if we could win in a state like Nebraska, we could set the tone for future elections that if you take this money, this dirty money, and you're going to do their bidding, we're not going to vote for you. Because ultimately, there's a heck of a lot more voters out there than there are billionaires, right? And we still have the power. We just have to take it back and we have to cut through the noise and talk about the things that are affecting our everyday lives. That's why I call it paycheck populism, right? I get a paycheck every week. I know how much comes in. I know how much goes out. And I know how much harder it's getting to provide for my family these days.

1:08:31One thing we focused a lot on this show is overall the AI industry and then the specific flashpoint of these massive data centers that are being located in a lot of rural areas. My own town has seen a number of them being put in. There's huge issues with regard to land usage, water usage, and with electricity bills going up. And I wonder if you've seen any of that in Nebraska, if that's become a flashpoint in any sort of way. There's a ton of them. So there's data centers, Google, Facebook, Amazon, the AI data centers. They go up. Yeah, it provides jobs in the short term to build these structures, especially it's good for the buildings and trades folks.

1:09:14But once these things are up, I think it takes like five people to run a data center. And they are taking up valuable resources. Nebraska sits on the Ogallala Aquifer, the biggest body of fresh water. Or maybe in the world, I don't know, we'd have to fact check that one. But they are using this resource up because they need water to cool their equipment. And then what really makes me mad is my power bill is going to go up 5%. That's a pretty big chunk of change. And we've had, I suppose, the pleasure of having public power in Nebraska. So our power is considerably lower than the rest of the country.

1:09:56but it's going to start rising because of these data centers. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos buys a yacht and he can't sail it under a bridge, so he pays to dredge out the river or the bay or wherever that was at, and I'm paying for it? These are extremely profitable businesses that should be figuring out a way to pay for their own power. Well, sir, we always appreciate your time. We enjoy having you on the show. Thank you for coming. Thank you. So yeah, and tell people where they can find you if they're interested in learning more about your campaign. Yeah, you can go to Osborne for Senate dot com. That's Osborne without an E, not related to the ex-football coach.

1:10:35That didn't even occur to me, but I'm sure it did to many people. It will to people in Nebraska. OK, I like it. Dan, thank you so much. Great to see you. Thank you. Thanks so much for watching, guys. We appreciate it. We have a great show for everyone tomorrow. We'll see you then.

1:10:53Thank you.

1:11:23If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Over the last couple years, didn't we learn that the folding chair was invented by black people because of what happened in Alabama? This Black History Month, the podcast Selective Ignorance with Mandy B unpacks black history and culture with comedy, clarity, and conversations that shake the status quo. The Crown Act in New York was signed in July of 2019, and that is a bill that was passed to prohibit discrimination based on hairstyles associated with race.

1:11:57To hear this and more, listen to Selective Ignorance with Mandy B from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather. In 1995, my neighbor, Anna Traynor, disappeared from a commune. It was nature and trees and praying and drugs. No, I am not your guru Back then, I lied to everybody They have had this case for 30 years I'm going back to my hometown to uncover the truth Listen to The Red Weather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts This is an iHeart Podcast Guaranteed human