Spackled Puffery

Welcome back to Sunnyside! Troy returns from Easter with updates on the last couple weeks at the ranch, the beef, the kids and the news. 

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Hello, friends and neighbors, and welcome to Sunnyside. It's been a week or two the uh since the last time I had a podcast, and I've been very busy, so I want to get you all caught up to date on what's going on around here because lots of great things have been happening at the old Sunnyside Ranch, whatever you want to call it. And so uh let me bring you right up to speed. First of all, we had a great weekend this past weekend, uh, most near to us. We've had the 38th annual um Four City Basketball Alumni or Alumni Basketball Tournament. So for the last 38 years, since 1988, uh our little town has had uh a tournament where the where the basketball teams uh from however they're composed, from classes uh in the years past, can come back and play against each other in a bracketed system and we find out who the champion is. And uh this time, of course, um uh we had uh Tate and Tanner came back and uh with I'll tell you what, they they played each other because they had both lost their first game, so then they had to play each other uh to continue on, and Tanner's team lost a second time. Tate's team went on and then continued to go back on, and they did play in the uh the championship, but they lost. So, so there you go. I guess the runners up there. But the good news about the alumni tournament when everybody comes back home to force, you get to see a bunch of people uh from classes of the uh years past. Now, I'm over 30 years outside of high school, so um I guess my class did have a team again, but they've they've melded for the last several years with other classes from the early 90s, and so for that reason, uh they don't need me uh uh to play basketball, and that's probably a good thing because there's really only one truly good basketball player um in the Thompson family, and that's our youngest son, Colin. Not to take away from the other three boys. Jack's team uh also lost a couple of times, and then they were done uh fairly quick. Uh so three graduates from Forest City High School all participating uh in the alumni basketball tournament. And then we also had a uh uh a game this weekend in in Forest City as well, where Colin and his uh kind of AAU uh high school group went and played another team and they just smoked them like by they beat them by like 30-some points. Colin had 35 points uh in that game, and uh the team just really played well. So after seeing a lot of, I would say, not great basketball at the alumni tournament, I saw some really great basketball uh at the AAU tournament, and uh that was fun. So uh a lot of basketball this weekend from a uh not-so basketball family, but uh boy, it sure was uh fun to see everybody. And the best part of it is, uh to be honest with you, is that they all come home. And so that means that uh uh Tate and Miranda brought our grandson Austin, his first visit to Sunnyside, and he's two months old now, uh, and uh just a sweet, darling little boy. He's eating a lot, uh he's getting bigger, and man, it just goes so fast. It may not feel like it when you're a young parent, but it does go very quickly. And so he's busting out of his little footsies and trying to trying to get trying to grow right in front of our very eyes. And so uh we got to spend a lot of time with him this weekend, and that was awesome. Can't ask for a better. I can't wait until you know he starts crawling around and then he gets into stuff and he starts walking, and you know the whole deal. Then they start talking, having conversations, opinions. Can't wait to uh take them fishing and uh ride around on the gator and and uh just uh look at the cows and all that all that good stuff. Speaking of cows, of course, we've had our uh our cattle that I've been talking about now. We've we've uh we went through and uh got the first group uh delivered. Uh so they were uh um our our customers. Thank you everybody for for uh buying Sunnyside beef on this first order. And also we're coming out this week with the remaining group. They're gonna be delivered uh this week as well. So thank you to those customers uh in this second group. It's just fantastic. Uh it's been a it's been a uh nine months of learning uh the business of uh taking care of the cattle and uh you know learning what to do, what not to do, how to make some improvements, you know, what we can do a little bit better each time. Um I'm looking forward to making some more fences and making some more pasture. And of course, that is something that uh has to happen as we get another group of steers to raise for our customers in the fall this time. I did learn that um we we call so my parents did this for a long time, and uh they had their customer lists, and of course they got out of it, and then I uh started doing it. Uh and I got into it a little bit late. I uh picked them up in June of last year when they were 500 pounds, and uh then we took them in and they were like 1,500 pounds, so they're averaging quarters were averaging um around 200 pounds or just over 200 pounds per quarter, which was great. That's a lot of meat. That ends up being like 80 plus pounds of hamburger and steaks and uh roasts and short ribs and all kinds of good stuff, and so um it has been a learning experience uh as we've uh done it our way and uh working with the uh the Conger Meat Market as they help us put things together and um and take care of the processing for us, and they've just been great to work with. So we really look forward to doing it again. But I did have a lot of those customers from my parents when I would call them up and say, Hey, this is Troy Thompson. I'm um uh, you know, to explain who I am and that uh we're still raising beef. And everybody was excited about that because they love getting that Thompson beef. But the problem was is that a lot of them had got it in the fall and they weren't quite done. Uh uh they weren't quite done with what they've got in their freezer. So I've learned that, and from various other reading that I've done uh from guys like Joel Salatin, who is the lunatic farmer. If you know anything about Joel, I'm a big fan. And um really uh you want to probably finish them and uh get them delivered in the fall, late fall, uh early winter. And so um that is what we're gonna do this time. Uh, and that actually helps me figure out how many steers to buy and uh get ready uh over the course of the summer and feed them out in the fall as we take it on. And I've had customers also ask me, is like, are you going to do chickens uh and pigs and things like that? And I'm like, well, yes, but uh you got to give me some time. So uh yes, we'll try some chickens uh this of some fryers or whatever that we'll try them uh this summer and see how that goes. I'm gonna pull them around the the hayfield uh in the alfalfa and let them kind of work through um that, move them a couple of times a day and uh see how that goes as we do. And then um eventually, I don't know if it'll be this year, but we are looking forward to adding Berkshire hogs to the Sunnyside mix of meats, which is an incredibly high-quality pork, doesn't look anything like um the other white meat that um that you're probably used to seeing, uh, and that's because they are, you know, raised in the woods and they root around. And um you still obviously feed them and take care of, but they they just love being the omnivores that pigs are and they like being outside. And so um we will get into that. It's just a matter of time. Uh, there's some fencing that has to be done first and some preparation. But uh on to the next uh group of cattle as we prepare for them this fall, which reminds me, I have had some uh we've we've added a link now to it'll be in the show notes uh for a newsletter. So you can stay on top of uh if you're a subscriber to our newsletter, uh it won't be so much about uh what the podcasts are because if you're a listener to the podcast, you just know what's going on. But with the newsletter, it will uh give you some additional insight as to what we're doing here on the farm uh with uh links to videos. So I think I'm gonna have some private videos just so that uh uh folks can see what we're doing uh if you're a member of that newsletter. And it also gives you an idea of what we've got coming up next, when the next uh beef orders will be taken, and what we're doing to develop Sunnyside Hollow, which is the land that we purchased to our southwest that's got a couple of ponds on it, and that's what we're trying to develop into a nice pasture area for uh more cattle and uh livestock of all sorts. So uh that is a process that we are in the midst of. Um, not really like a homesteading process. Uh, we've we've been here for a long time, going on 20 years here at Sunnyside, but this since I retired from the Army has been the plan, and we've been uh slowly getting things put together. That's just how I like to do things. I like to try to get things in some people, put it all do it all at once, uh, and they just jump into it both both feet first, and um I like to think things through a little bit more and try to get things organized. Plus, I like things to look a certain way, including that chicken house, that hen house that I built, hen halla is uh looking beautiful. We're gonna get that stained uh and ready to go. In the meantime, our hens are ready to move out of the barn and they are ready to go out now that it's spring, and so we'll pull them around um in the chicken tractor for a little while while I finish the inside of the hen hala and get them uh moved into that space. But uh I'm gonna move them out today, actually. I'm gonna have them out and they'll be excited to go out and pick around in the dirt and scratch around, and that'll give me some relief in my um in the part of the barn that I've got then because you know, they can be kind of stinky. And they're in even even as I manage the manure and all that other stuff, it's still there very dusty. I don't understand how birds get to be so incredibly dusty, but man, do they kick up a lot of dust? And so they are going out. They're going out in uh today, and they're gonna go out and enjoy the pasture, and I'll keep moving them around as well. And uh, let's see, bring you up to date. I finished sheetrocking. In fact, that's the picture that I decided to use for this podcast episode's uh placard, uh, because I wanted you to see what it looks like when I spray sheetrocks. So I got all the sheetrock done in my son's basement and then uh sprayed, which was um its own exercise in humility, really, uh, because I came home and I was uh I had to you know put a towel on the seat of the truck because I was just covered with spackle. Uh you wouldn't believe it. It was so messy, and uh got it done, but uh I ended up just basically throwing away those clothes because uh there was no bringing them back. And so those went right into the right into the dumpster, those clothes did, and walked into the house in my underwear. And that is how it is at Sunnyside Farms. Sometimes you get a little crazy messy like that. And if you can't, if you can't repair it, you just throw it away and um and move on to the next thing. Fortunately, those jeans I'd bought like for 10 bucks, so it wasn't like they were high quality. It wasn't like if you're like me, you probably have a you know, you have a step-down program on your clothes. Uh, so you buy them new and you wear them, and then you wear them and you wear them, and then you're just like, well, these are getting kind of I'll probably stain it somehow or something will happen. And then it goes down to the work clothes, and then you work through them for years or whatever, and then you're like, all right, finally they they have to go. And sometimes you can turn them into regs, which are useful in the shop. And sometimes, like the other day, after all of that spraying sheetrock, which I don't do very often, and for good reason, um, they go right into the dumpster. And that was the end of that. Now, um, so that's uh that's I guess that brings you. Oh, there is one more thing that happened this weekend, which is pretty exciting. Maybe it's not exciting for you, but it's been very windy. It's Iowa, and so uh we've got lots of trees out here in uh you know Sunnyside ranch, and so uh they uh dropped some branches and and the Waldorf University football team as a fundraiser uh once a year in the spring, they'll go out and they will uh for free will donation, they will pick up sticks and rake yards and do all kinds of stuff like that. And so I was ready. We had 10 guys come out and uh they picked up the whole acreage. Uh, we took down our snow fence. Uh, there were some trees that came down. I got them come cut up and and then uh we got them all picked up as well. And so in just a matter of, I'd say two, two and a half hours, uh, the entire acreage uh had been picked up, and now I'm ready to do what Mark Helgeson, one of my first guests in the first season, has uh told me to do and take care of the lawn, get things uh get things fertilized, get things aerated, um, maybe do some overseeding, different things like that, roll it out because it's nice and wet, it's gonna rain all week. Uh, and so get things uh making that lawn look beautiful so that for the rest of the summer we can enjoy our view here at Sunnyside. And so uh, thanks to the Waldorf Warrior, the university football team coming out, and at least 10 of them, and helping pick up on Sunday afternoon. They just did a great job. And it's weird that uh, you know, I haven't mowed yet, it's too early for that. Um, but uh just picking up sticks, what an incredible difference that makes. It seems like the yard is like a yard now. I mean, we didn't have you know millions of sticks on the ground, but you know how it is if you've got to do that spring cleaning. And I tell you what, if you get 10 football players uh to come out, you can pick up a lot of stuff in a short period of time, and they sure did. So that was that was great. That was uh I really, really do um enjoy having them out here and supporting the program. Uh one of our other podcasts, of course, is the Waldorf Gridiron Club podcast, where uh Andy Buffington and I are co-hosts and we interview players and coaches and talk about Waldorf football. And so that was very helpful. We talked about it last week, the cleanup and some of the other things that we're doing. So if you uh are interested in tuning into that, you sure can. I will tell you that for all of our podcasts that we do, um, you can now uh Buzz Sprout, which is the platform that I use to distribute all of our podcasts from Sunnyside Farm Studios out to the world, uh, into all of the different platforms for podcasts. And Buzz Sprout now has the uh a cool option, which is on this on this very podcast as well, where you can actually uh call in and leave a voicemail. Uh and uh that is pretty cool too. So um looking forward to those. I know folks have texted the show before, and I always appreciate that. Uh now uh you can leave it, actually leave a voicemail um for uh good, bad, or indifferent. Um hopefully good, but uh indifferent. And uh if it's if it's witty and fun, that is yeah, look, if it's a good message, it's gonna get on the show. I guarantee it. So so that is a that's a fun little feature that you can do. There's a link that is on every episode of our shows, and it says uh text the show, but now you can leave a voicemail as well. And so I appreciate that service, and I encourage you to do so. And like I said, also in the notes, we've got the link for our Sunnyside Farms newsletter, which I encourage everyone to sign up for. Uh, it's not like something that's gonna harass your email. I'm thinking maybe once a month, we'll just give you an update uh on a more uh personal one-to-one level of what's going on here at Sunnyside Farms. Share some photos and things like that, um, that the rest of the listeners don't necessarily get if they're not subscribed to our newsletter link. So go ahead and do that as well. And then you can stay up to date, like I said, on when the next beef sales come up in the fall and when we'll be taking orders and what's going on with some of the other projects that we've got going on here at Sunnyside Farms. Well, since it's been a couple of weeks since I've been on uh the air, just because of, I mean, I was learning I was so running around my head cut off, finishing sheet rock and and doing placing orders and do and and and and communicating with customers and all of these other good things. Uh, so uh took a little bit of a break there, and I apologize for it. I hope you had a very uh wonderful uh Easter uh season, the resurrection season, uh Passover, and all of this uh just that that's just a great time. Um of course it's the highest holy day uh of the Christian calendar for good reason. That is uh uh you know, our salvation is right there, uh celebrated by the resurrection of Christ. And so um that was uh fun to spend time with family as well, and just have a nice meal together, and of course the church services and all of the music and the good things that go along with the Easter season, which is now have has passed, but look, he is risen every day, every day. Easter isn't just once a day, once a year, it's uh it's Easter. Uh Resurrection Sunday is every day uh in the Christian book. Well, uh, but it's also been some interesting things, I guess, that uh I'll touch upon here uh today and uh just give you if you are interested, give you my opinion uh on what's going on in different parts of the world. It's crazy to me what's happening in the news. Now, I don't watch a lot of news. Um I I kind of quit watching uh as quit watching like cable news as a regular viewer. Oh, I would say three, four years ago. What we did is we just unsubscribe from our cable services. Um and so now everything is streaming, which I don't think is actually cheaper because there's so many streaming services that kind of get you coming and going. But um it's better for me because I'm not watching uh the news uh 24-7. And if I had some mental health advice, I would say uh it's probably good for people to do the same, separate uh unplug from some of the 20 well from the 24-hour news cycle. If you're just watching the news all the time, um it is intended to make you upset and intended to push an agenda of one form or another. And so that is something that I'm just not super you know excited about. Um uh following uh you know, following uh the news cycle every single day uh would drive me nuts. And I have been just mentally a happier, uh healthier person since I uh stepped away from that. Now, I still collect news. Uh there are, you know, there's there's news feeds that I get through my email, there's news feeds that I get through social media, and then of course I do listen to other podcasts as well, and those type of people do spend a lot of time talking about the news. Um however, um as part of that, I have uh I that I stopped, you know, I was a I was a uh Ben Shapiro listener for quite a few years, and we didn't agree on a lot of things, but um I you know for a long time and agreed on his economics and and and and certain things in politics. Uh, but I probably quit listening to Shapiro about a month ago just because uh, well, of all this Iran stuff, and uh I kind of feel like he showed his cards, um, and I don't you know need to reiterate too much, but if you've been listening to the show, you know, not a huge fan of um the Iran war. I think it's a stupid, stupid idea that we're doing, and it's and it's proven to be uh a greater challenge than um what we were led to believe, or at least what we were told. I didn't believe that it was going to be a couple of weeks or a few weeks or anything like that. It reminds me a little bit of back when COVID, they were like, we just need two weeks to stop the spread. Remember that? I mean, think of that. You know, this is two weeks to stop the spread. We got a couple of weeks, just a few weeks, and we're gonna do all this. And now um, you know, we're going into our this almost well, we're seven, six, seven, eight weeks now into this Iran situation. Supposedly, we had um just you know, obliterated their nuclear program a year ago. Uh that's what we were told then. And remember, um, the administration, regardless of you know, who's at the top of the administration or what party is running it, uh, politics is mostly puffery. Uh it's just overstating um their accomplishments in just about every capacity. And and uh I think the Trump administration is probably the most puffery um in in uh in in in as they would say, maybe of all time, maybe on all history. Uh and it every time that we say it's never been done before, this is the greatest thing perhaps of all time in history, and all the is it clear to me that nobody's cracked a history book in that administration, uh certainly at the very top, uh, because when you say things like they've never been done, this is the ever the greatest ever, um uh clearly they they've never cracked a history book or maybe a Bible, to be honest with you, based on what the uh president's tweet was on Easter Sunday. Um so that was pretty horrible. I'm not gonna reiterate that uh too much, but just a lot of uh a lot of trash coming out of um the uh the White House and the Iran war continues to be uh debacle. Uh it is a war. It's illegal in my opinion, because we didn't do it. I mean, they they keep they then they now refer to it as a war, but we never declared war, which is what Americans, we just don't we just we accept that, I guess. We just accept that you know administrations can just go off and do whatever they want. Now they want uh, you know, what is it, $200 billion? It's like a billion dollars a day that it costs to have this stuff going on. But Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz, uh, which probably most people never knew even existed, uh, or that a quarter of the world's petroleum goes through that strait. And uh and they don't care. Uh, I think it's funny. It's not funny, but it is a little humorous to me because I have uh maybe a wicked mind uh when it comes to humor. And it's like um our entire administration is irritated beyond belief that this this sovereign nation has the audacity to defend itself. The audacity of the Iranians to keep fighting back and demanding things. And um it's it's it's like you're just allowed to go in uh and smash up as many houses and and and buildings and and countries as you want to, starting with you know, Venezuela and then hips hips globe trotting around the world and then just smashing up, you know, like bull in a china shop, except worse, and then and then just walking out and being like, you guys to the rest of the world, you guys don't want to help clean this up? Why aren't you why aren't you guys helping clean this up? What's wrong with you? Well, it's your problem now. I mean, what a dick move. Pardon the French there, but like like we just go in and bust everything up, uh, pretend like we've decapitated um the Shiite Empire in in Iran, just like we obliterated their nuclear program, and then we claim to have accomplished all of our military objectives. I'm gonna call no, we did not do that. I don't know. We first of all, it was never clear what our military objectives actually were, in my opinion. Uh, and we just went swinging in there and uh took credit for destroying their Navy, um, which by the way, as I said before, if I haven't, uh understand that that uh navies are are, if you wanna, the easiest way to scale a navy or to compare navies is by displacement rate. And the, you know, the United States Navy displacement is like something like 300 million tons or more. And the um I'm I'm just doing this off the top of my head, you know, but it's an incredible amount of displacement. I mean, you have carrier groups and all this other stuff, and then and the entire Iranian Navy was like, I don't know, uh two million tons of displacement. I mean, that's like that's like Reagan, you know, crying, you know, chanting victory over Grenada. This is essentially what this is. The problem is, is it's not Grenada. Their navy is was insignificant, but they can and do control the Strait of Hormuz. They um they do not go ahead. Like you think that they uh do you think that the the Iranians really care if the United States sends ground troops in? I would I would wager that they they don't really care. It's clear that they don't care about their people, right? They are a terrible regime. Um and ever but that's again, that's not our job. There's nothing in the Constitution that says we need to be rolling around the world and um just taking out people that are baddies. And they are baddies. Uh they've been baddies as they as as everybody on Fox News says, and Republicans keep saying over and over again, for the last 47 years. And as I have pointed out uh for the last couple of months, um, this is a 70-year-old or a hundred-year-old problem. It's not 47 years old. But if that's as deep as your history allows you to go, or at least for your puffery, um, then you know, that's probably what people believe. So every time I hear somebody say, Well, 47 years, you know, you can't we've been at war, you know, blah, blah, blah. Well, yeah, sure. We created that um with our own idiots. We could have been doing business, like I said before, with Iran since the 1950s. We could be we could have been doing that, but we couldn't because the same people today um that are, you know, frothing at the mouth that to continue to wage war in any capacity in the Middle East for whatever reason were the same type of people in the 1950s that were frothing at the mouth to wage war uh against you know whoever was behind the iron curtain. And I've already explained that in another episode, so if you want, you can go back to the episode that says Troy doesn't like it and hear all about that. But it's not going well. The rest of the world does not want to participate. Iran does not care if you land troops, and they probably kind of look forward to it because it will not be a great situation. We have the best military in the world. We absolutely do. Uh, I'm very proud of my military service and proud of my brothers and sisters in arms, and we're good at what we do. Uh, but that doesn't mean that the people in charge are asking for the right mission set. I mean, that's a pretty normal thing. Politicians typically uh don't drag their feet into the front lines, and they never have, and probably never will, and so it's really easy to to uh to be be tough. I heard and I saw well, I someone sent me a meme um uh recently, and it was uh it went it was um the they were comparing uh the difference between the current Iran situation and Vietnam. And they say that um, you know, the difference is is that uh President Trump uh absolutely had a plan to get out of Vietnam. Which is I mean, it's kind of funny. It's a it's a pretty good dig at the uh uh president who uh did not go to Vietnam, uh found a found a way out of that. But uh he had a plan to get out of Vietnam, that for sure. But uh to get out of Iran, not so much. So our military objectives might have been to destroy their navy, maybe now it's to go get uranium, wherever that's hidden. I thought we obliterated it. Um maybe it was uh you know, to open up the Strait of Hormuz. Now the president is saying that um so then Iran is like, well, we're gonna go ahead and you know, we're gonna charge a fee uh for people that want to pass through. So you gotta pay us. And Trump doesn't like that, particularly, I suppose, if he, you know, we're not getting a piece of it. So now he's saying we're gonna we're gonna just now we're gonna destroy the ships that pay the fee. Uh and private, you know, like I don't know what where what he's thinking. Uh he's losing his mind on that. I mean in the same way that previously he had said um this was supposedly before we had a ceasefire, which is not gonna happen. Israel doesn't allow ceasefires to happen um ever. And so we had some sort of agreement that um uh there was a 10-point thing that that Iran wanted, and that's a great place to start negotiating, considering what we've uh done to Iran. And uh it seemed like that was maybe a good thing, but uh, but like I said, Israel, they can't have a they can't have a ceasefire. They they are a perpetual state of war over there and they they love it. So uh that didn't happen. They kept bombing Lebanon and uh they said that wasn't part of the deal. Um Iran said it definitely was gonna be part of the deal, and uh, you know, it's just that's how you that's how you shish kebab the whole thing, and they did. And so then we sent the JD Vance, the vice president, who I don't believe is uh particularly keen on this war. He's he's like um a lot of Republicans like myself that say, well, this is stupid. Um but he's over there doing the due diligence, and uh behind him is the uh president's son-in-law and whoever else uh is owned uh entirely um by whatever is going on uh with Israel. And so they come out and say they've got a deal or some sort of a new deal, and and uh I don't believe that this there's there's not a deal. Uh there's not a deal because uh Iran has something to say about it. I mean, it's their country that we are attacking. Um it's a uh it's a it's a bull-shaped country surrounded by mountains um that have been kind of the focus of empires for, I don't know, millennia. So they're not too worried. Uh that's not to say that they don't feel the effects, but like I said, they're a bad empire. Uh they're the bad regime. And so if their people, you know, are killed at the hands of Americans, they don't really see a problem with that, which is why the rest of the world is kind of reluctant to get involved uh with all of this, because like a bull in a china shop, we went in and, like I said, destroyed a whole bunch of crystal. And um, now we want everybody else in the world to uh pick it up, pick up the pieces because we pretend like we did the hard work, which nobody asked us to do in the first place. So since nobody wants to sweep up the China shop, um, that makes President Trump annoyed, uh, and uh increasingly so. And so it's become problematic because I don't know if you're aware of this, but a huge part of our economy is that um we are uh not only the the we're we're the world's uh monetary um, you know, it's our currency, the dollar, is uh, you know, we got away from the gold standard, thanks, Nixon, and various other people, uh, and we went fiat currency, and and then it was tied, it's all tied to the dollar. What's also tied to the dollar is oil or petroleum. It's called petrol dollars. And what I think is happening right now is you're seeing a uh, and this is scary, and to some degree, it's a fundamental shift in petrol dollar uh valuation. So that uh it could very likely what may happen, trying to be the sunny side of everybody's life here, but this is not a very sunny side conversation. And what happens when this incredible mess that we've gotten ourselves into because we've had incredibly poor advice and incredibly um uh terrible hubris from the top down, um, that uh what happens if we lose the petrol dollar? What if the what if the money that is behind oil, the way the world trades in uh petroleum uh moves to a different form of currency? I can assure you that if that happens, and I feel like it is occurring, uh the value of your dollar and my dollar is going to be significantly less. So the money that you saved up for retirement, the things that you've uh plan on purchasing, uh the investments that you've had in your home and property will uh not be what you think it is. And uh you can thank the Trump administration for that if that occurs. That's a big problem, particularly since nowadays everybody uh seems to be mostly concerned with affordability. And so for the communists or the socialists in the United States, and like in the Democratic Party, they're very interested in affordability. Uh, and of course, they believe that the government is the solution and that somehow if you tax billionaires and millionaires, basically anybody that's richer than you currently should pay more taxes than you than than you do. If you're that type of person, uh you need to check probably your soul a little bit because it appears to me that you're probably uh wrapped up in the venal sin of envy uh a little too much. But you know, there's there's affordability, and so you've got Mam Dami in New York and uh promising everything to everybody, and it all costs nothing, um, but it does cost a lot. You see states like New York and California uh and uh various other states, Washington, uh Oregon, losing all of their businesses and well, not losing all of their businesses, but losing their businesses and losing their millionaires and billionaires, and they're moving out of state so much now that those communists are considering taxing people their full valuation of everything that they own, and before they can leave and depart their state, they have to pay to leave. Can you imagine? I don't think that's constitutional. Uh, but who knows? Maybe it is. I I don't know. That's not certainly what the founders imagined. Can you imagine having stuff, living in a place, um, paying taxes for whatever reason, because I guess we have to that whole time, and then in order for you to move somewhere because of the measurement of your wealth, then they're going to take some of that and keep it. As if, just like everything else, tax is theft, uh taxation is theft. Uh, and uh they're just uh they're just saying, hey, listen, if you want to leave, it's gonna cost you, you're gonna have to pay us a little bit. That's what California is considering. Um, New York is not yet, but I'm sure that they will, as people just flee from these uh terrible states that want the uh they just want social programs to take for k take care of everything. And so uh in the world of affordability, even the Republicans are concerned about affordability, and uh uh uh depending on uh from what I understand of particular polling, um, most people in the United States, doesn't matter what their parties are, uh, are not real excited about the Iran war. They're certainly not happy about uh the uh cost of fuel, uh but that of course bleeds over into the cost of everything else, the food and um transportation, everything. It all it all kind of comes back to uh how much it costs to move things around. And unfortunately, uh the affordability uh situation is it it crosses all party lines and people are not happy about it. But we're focused on a war in a part of the world that um uh we should not be bothering with. And the result is um, unfortunately, I think there's gonna be a problem uh very shortly with the what they call the midterm elections. Uh, and so um it's possible that the Republicans who have a slim majority in the House and a very slim majority in the Senate, um, it seems like it's a foregone conclusion that the Republicans are potentially going to lose the they're gonna lose the Senate and they could potentially lose the House. If that happens, what'll occur, of course, is that well, in the House, they'll initiate impeachment. That's what the Democrats do. Like they have no actual value um other than, you know, uh they're gonna just run run the run the run the table on things like impeachment. And if they have the Senate, it's possible that they could actually um uh accomplish it. So regardless, uh after 2026 here, starting in 2027, it seems like um the president is going to be a lame duck, which is really unfortunate because had he just stuck to the things that got him elected, um, both in 2016 and again in 2024, um, he would have been uh he would have been fine. Uh because the idea to me of make America great again or or America first as a as as a policy is to take care of the United States uh domestically. And that's what people really want. We're just not interested after 20 years of war on terror, which again, I don't know how you make war on on you know on a noun. Um, but um that's what we that we you know we that was a bad idea. People were against it. Trump was in tune with that, and then he's and then and then he did the complete opposite on bad advice. And uh he owns it now. Unfortunately, um it could be that he's going to leave the presidency as a lame duck. He doesn't look well. It seems like it's all getting to him. The big betting of his, you know, his his whole life, his career of big bets uh not paying off, and and in many cases, you know, uh leaving with in you know out of bankruptcy court, it's possible that the same thing is going to oh, I hope it doesn't, uh, but it could occur with the United States. It's a version of Atlantic City casinos, um, and that big bet is uh a bad deal. So if uh if he leaves the administration in a couple of years or three years, I guess, having been a lame duck, having uh lost the ability of the Republican Party uh to uh be able to uh have a majority in the House or the Senate uh and potentially the White House, uh if that occurs, um if they uh I I don't want anybody to eliminate the filibuster. It's such a stupid idea. So the Republicans are pushing, it's like if we don't do it, they'll do it. Well, I've just heard this. Like that was the argument of getting into Iran. Well, Iran's gonna uh Israel's gonna bomb them anyway, so might as well do it before somebody else does. There's no longer a regard for historical, you know, uh context, and uh it's just uh living for the moment right now, in every capacity. And so if the Republicans don't eliminate the filibuster, which they're fairly loath to do, I mean there are enough people in Congress that are like, we don't want to do that in the Senate. And if they eliminate the filibuster in the Senate, because they think that the Democrats will, they're not wrong. I don't think they should eliminate the filibuster, though. Uh I don't think the Democrats should eliminate the filibuster. Um, but uh some say that they will do that. And then uh others people others say that if the Democrats become powerful, then they will stack the Supreme Court. And so now there's discussions about, you know, is uh is Alito going to resign or retire, you know, is is Thomas going to retire uh so that they can you know have younger uh allegedly uh constitutional conservatives uh in those spots. Um I don't know the answer to that. Uh and it's hard to get uh justices necessarily approved uh by the Senate if you don't control the Senate. So there's a lot of things in play, and I don't like being um in a position to be forced to vote for a douchebag who happens to have the same uh party nomenclature as I do because of the threats of what they think that the other side will do um if they don't have control of the House or the Senate. So the parties need to have always, they should have always been doing a much better job of um vetting their uh people who are running for office. Um and I need the people who are elected to office to stop taking money from um people who expect to, you know, to own them. Uh and I just I just it's very frustrating, isn't it? It's a very frustrating um situation because I don't particularly think that that is going to change. Just weird things, strange things happening in the news, which is probably why it's I mean, imagine how uh I I I speak of these things and I still have a smile on my face. God loves us and and uh we are blessed with the salvation through Christ and uh this is all in his hands. Um I don't think that I do not believe that Trump is a Christian. I don't know that. Uh and of course I can't pre tell who is you know ultimately saved. That is up to um God can save whoever he wants to, but um you always hope for the best in that situation, but I would say probably not for for Mr. Trump, and um I'm not sure how much of his administration is truly in that situation. I cannot uh believe that you're a uh faithful Christian and a follower of Paula White, um and he is, and so I don't I don't know what that's all about. Um, just a lot of weird and not so great things happening, but we can also remember that God puts bad leaders in place as well uh to serve his own purposes. It's like I said, it's all God's plan. So it doesn't matter if you're a Republican or a Democrat or an independent or whatever. Um, you might think that the people that we elect are amazing, uh, and they might get elected and they might do God's work um whether they want to or not. That's just how God operates. Uh, but there's lots of other things going on that are also kind of weird. Melania Trump made a weird statement for no reason, in my opinion. Uh it's by probably the most I've heard her talk, um, maybe ever, uh, talking about her relationship or non-relationship with uh Epstein and Ghlaine Maxwell and that whole thing. Uh, it's almost like, why? Why, what was Yeah, I was like, I had nothing to do with this, she says. Okay, well, like, you know, it's like if she had come out and said, I had nothing to do with JFK assassination. To me, it's the same thing. It's like, okay, nobody was asking you about that. Nobody, you know, like, what's the deal? Uh, maybe there were a few people that were tweeting about it or bots or whatever, but who cares? Like, when do they start paying attention to that? So it's just weird. Uh, that was a weird thing. Um, some people think that uh Donald Trump didn't know about it, um, that she was gonna do that, but then he says that he did, and uh first he said he didn't, and then he said he did. And I don't know, I don't know. It's just that's a weird, that's a weird situation that's going on. Um, the news in general is just acting weird with everything um that is happening. I can't help but um giggle just a little bit uh at the uh you know, feel bad for uh Christy Gnome situation. Uh I've uh gotten after her a little bit when she was in charge of the Department of Ham Homeland Security because she was kind of it was kind of Christy Gnome-centric. Um she got in I don't know, she got in trouble, but took a lot of criticism for kind of making herself the center of the attention on that, spending a lot of money on an ad campaign, which involves her riding a horse and various other things and you know, looking cute in uh in a in a ball cap that says DHS and all this other stuff. She's no longer the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and uh she's going into some, I don't know, America's Shield, whatever that is. Nobody really knows. Uh it's like a made-up thing, but probably probably she's probably not going to be able to continue to do that because her husband is a wacko. And everybody was wondering what the deal was there. Like, what's his deal? Like, why? Like, she's a pretty lady. They've been married for a long time, they've got kids and grandkids and stuff, and so why, why, why would you know what's all these rumors uh uh about you know her having affair and everything? Then we find out that he is like a cross-dressing Dimbo fanatic, or oh my gosh. I mean, I mean, come on, what what in the world, South Dakota? What are we doing here? So I'm gonna guess that his insurance is his insurance company is probably um uh for sale, at least, and um or his book, I guess would be. For sale and not like the book you read, but like insurance, they call it a book when you have your customer list. I would imagine that's probably going on the market fairly cheap. I don't know what the situation is going to be between those two. I don't know if she can continue being like the Marvel comic version of whatever America Shield thing is, supposed to be against like the drug cartels and all of that. Which again, that was several months ago that I was like, we're just bombing boats in in the Pacific and the Caribbean now because it's fun. And we're pretty sure they were all cocaine dealers. Yeah, we're pretty sure. Of course, there's nothing left to to to to to say for sure. We just blow them out of the water. Um, so just been doing a lot of, I don't know, extra constitutional things, and it's uh very aggressive, and it doesn't have much to do with uh uh uh America first. I'm all for getting rid of drug cartels, and don't get me wrong. And uh immigration, like Trump's been pretty good on immigration, you know. I mean, that's really in fact, he's been so good on immigration that now it's not a concern, so you can't even like claim that as like a victory lap when it comes to the elections the next time because he just did, you know, he enforced the law. Tom Homan did a great has continues to do a great job. And um, so but now people are worried about affordability, and then when you set the world markets aflame, um because you're getting sweet nothings whispered in your ear by Israel, uh it's it's just not helpful. So I don't know. I mean, these are the things that uh I get to listen to while I'm attempting to make sheetrock look good in a basement, uh, and uh uh picking up uh beef deliveries and dropping them off and taking care of the packaging and all this other stuff that we've been doing the last couple of weeks. And it does bring things home. At the end of the day, politics, the most important kind of politics, is very local. What you can do at the local level matters. The leadership that happens in your city government, your county government, um, the school boards, um, the state governments, those things all matter. But it's each level up, uh, and each level up is usually indicated by how much money the elected officials make um at every level. So school board, they don't get paid. We don't get paid. Uh city council, they get paid a little bit. Uh county supervisors and the elected folks in the county, they get paid um uh a lot more. And then you get down to the uh state house and uh into the state uh elected offices, um, they get paid more as well. So on and on and on. And um it seems like you can be most effective, you and I can be most effective at our local level. But you it's so easy to not be involved or not be active or not to dedicate time to uh the things that affect your life right in front of you, wherever you happen to be, uh, that that's that we don't do it. And when we don't do things like that, when we don't get involved, when we don't pay attention to our local politics, we don't pay attention to the budgets uh at the school board or at the city or at the county or the state level, when we don't pay attention to those things, when we expect the government to solve all our problems for us, like it's just a you know, nobody likes taxes, but uh they expect the government to still pay for everything and take care of take care of um it's really our responsibility. Like uh it's it's becoming less and less uh common for people to believe that it's our individual responsibility uh to be uh fiscally responsible with our own checkbooks, and then to expect and hold our elected officials at every level to the same uh level of accountability that we have to do ourselves. Um it's it's just so much easier to distract us with blame games about people that have more wealth. It's their problem, or we've got this problem, or it's this group of people, or it's you know, they're the problem. There's always some there's always a there or somebody else. Uh and you know, I would suggest that critical thinking demands that anytime that somebody uses an argument, somebody besides you that is causing the problem in your life, or you can be led to believe that someone else, the other, is creating the problems in your personal life, and that that motivates you then to vote a certain way, to pret to keep a particular person or group in power, uh, you shouldn't run for the hills and do the exact opposite. Because uh more than likely that is a big fat lie, or at the very least, it's a good amount of puffery. And uh, we don't need that. You can uh you can cut through the puffery, and you've got plenty of opportunities to practice because we have a very puffery-based world at this moment. So it's everywhere, and I think that you'll find uh that our life is a little bit better for having done so. So it's been a weird news cycle the last couple of weeks. I apologize for not being with you. We're gonna have some guests on uh that are interesting, have nothing to do with politics, uh, that I'm looking forward to starting next week, getting back to some good things, talking about what we're doing out here. And to stay on top of it, like I said, do not forget to use that uh link that is in the show notes for our newsletter, which uh we will start sending out, I would say, beginning uh or the end of the month, uh, and we'll just keep doing that. There'll be special opportunities in there uh and um and so on. Uh notes and updates, things going on at Sunnyside. We sure do appreciate having you. I consider every one of the guests, like I said, a friend, a neighbor, uh, and I'm very grateful for everybody that does listen to the sunny side of life as we continue to grow in all of the different capacities um that we have going on out here. So thank you very much, and I really do uh having I do have missed the last couple of weeks of of of uh communicating, talking to you. Hope you had a great Easter. Um, and uh just remember let everything, like I said, it is I didn't come up with this, you know. Uh this too is in God's hand, this too shall pass. Um we've got some uh not so great things going on. Um but um cut through the puffery, uh enjoy your family. If you got a grandson or a granddaughter, you know, children, you hug them, love them, um, and stay focused on the things that that actually matter, um, which is um your relationship with uh with Christ, um, your role in your family, uh, your role in the community in which you live. Uh, and if we all do that, I think things will be um just a lot, a lot better. So there you go. That's my message. Uh, hope that you have a great week, and I look forward to talking to you again next week with a guest as we uh get things lined up for that. Until then, keep on being the stunny side of someone else's life.

SPEAKER_02 50:49

When the shadows fall and doubts begin to creep. Remember together we're strong every week. Lift your neighbor up with kindness every day. Let your actions speak the words you want to say.

SPEAKER_00 51:06

The Stunny Side of Life is a weekly production about our life on the family farmstead here in Iowa, the liberties we prize and the pursuits which make us happy. None of this is possible, of course, without Christ in our lives. For the Lord God is our stun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory.