Tim Wildman loves to catch someone text while the show is going on

Ed Vitagliano Today's Issues continues on AFR with your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.

Tim Wildmon Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues. It's the name of this here show on American Family Radio, Today's Issues. We're here for another 24 and a half minutes. I'm Tim with Ed and Wesley. That last name's really not important. It's the content of what we say that matters.

Ed Vitagliano Right?

Tim Wildmon Steve Paisley. Jordal. Hey, good morning. Or Steve texting Jordal. Tell me when you're through and I'll, introduce you.

Steve Jordahl No, no, go ahead and introduce me. I'm getting ready for a,

Tim Wildmon you mean you can text and co host the show at the same time?

Steve Jordahl I can. I am multifaceted.

Tim Wildmon I can't do that and walk. I have to stop when I text.

Ed Vitagliano Now I do the same thing. I stopped.

Tim Wildmon Stop. Don't keep walking while you're texting. You stop too. Yeah, yeah. Otherwise you're going to fall off, some stairs or hit a wall.

Ed Vitagliano Well, I have enough problem avoiding that.

Steve Jordahl I'm not, I'm not.

Ed Vitagliano When I'm not looking at my phone,

Steve Jordahl I'm not walking. To be honest, that would be a little bit too far.

Tim Wildmon Okay, are you done?

Steve Jordahl yeah. Go ahead, introduce me.

Tim Wildmon And I already did. See there.

Steve Jordahl Okay. Hey, everybody.

Ed Vitagliano I will say this, Steve. Tim loves to catch someone text while the show is going on.

Wesley Wildmon Right.

Steve Jordahl I was there.

Ed Vitagliano But he does it fairly often when his dear wife texts him on the show. Oh, he goes right for the phone.

Steve Jordahl I answer. I have no problem with my wife every time she texts me as well.

Tim Wildmon So.

Steve Jordahl All right.

Tim Wildmon It's like I tell people, I may be the boss now, but at 5:00, I go home to my boss.

Wesley Wildmon That puts a whole new spin on Abe Hamilton's, full time job. Right? What'd you say? Leave your part time job to go to your full time job.

Ed Vitagliano raising.

Wesley Wildmon That's a whole new spin on that.

Jordan: After Norway got knocked out, I stopped caring about soccer

Tim Wildmon all right, so where were we? Hey, by the way, do you guys know that the, the soccer World cup is the final game set? Did you know this?

Steve Jordahl Didn't know this.

Ed Vitagliano I knew it was down to two teams, but after Norway got knocked out. Yeah, with, Erlich Harland.

Steve Jordahl Yall Yord is a Norwegian name. So I was rooting for Norway.

Ed Vitagliano I was rooting for Norway. And after they got knocked off by England, I. I stopped paying attention. But I do know it's down to two teams. Who are they?

Tim Wildmon I'll tell you in just a moment, Wesley wanted to comment.

Wesley Wildmon I just think it's hilarious. I now have been flashback over the years. I. I'm big into sports. I enjoy coaching. And just to. To hear how some people decide who they're cheering for when it's not their team and how selective they. That was very specific on your part. Why is it that you were cheering for who?

Steve Jordahl Norway? Because Jordal is a Norwegian name.

Wesley Wildmon There you go. See, that's. That's

Steve Jordahl how much I was cheering for them. I never. I have yet to watch a second of World cup football.

Ed Vitagliano Well, now I've just watched clips. And I just want to make. Make this clear. I am now back to not caring at all about soccer.

Steve Jordahl There you go.

Tim Wildmon Okay, well, let me just tell you guys that the rest of the world does care.

Wesley Wildmon They do.

Ed Vitagliano And a pretty good chunk of our country.

Wesley Wildmon So. So m. My. My wife's cousin's husband is a. As a college soccer coach.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Ed Vitagliano Wow.

Wesley Wildmon And, I get to spend some time with him over 4th of July, 4th of July weekend. And he got to explain a little bit of it, and we watched a little bit of it, and, I began to. At least, at minimum, even though it's not my thing, it's not my sport, you know, I've got three or four others I can put with. I begin to have a much better appreciation for the sport itself, of the athleticism and the speed and the endurance that these players have.

Tim Wildmon Endurance is, off charts. Yeah, off the charts. The cardio takes the agility.

Wesley Wildmon And he explained a couple things to me, so I picked up on it. So I. I've watched two or three games.

Tim Wildmon The problem I have a. Soccer is they don't score enough. so that's. That's, But the. That's just, personal bias, you know?

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Tim Wildmon A lot of people don't care. They love one to zero. You know, it's a great defensive matchup. But what I wanted to say was, by the way, your name, Jordan, is Norwegian.

Steve Jordahl It is.

Tim Wildmon Wesley. Our heritage is British Isles, namely England. Did you know this?

Wesley Wildmon I did.

Tim Wildmon And some. Some Scottish and Irish.

Wesley Wildmon But I, can't tell if you're.

Tim Wildmon So. I'm not kidding.

Wesley Wildmon Okay.

Tim Wildmon I looked it up, and. And it's been handed down to me, 23, and me. Well, you know, it's your aunt.

Wesley Wildmon She did do that.

Tim Wildmon So.

Wesley Wildmon Yeah.

Tim Wildmon So anyway, but that's the. A majority of, Americans, families trace back to Great Britain. That's where we were, British colonies.

Steve Jordahl Right, right.

Tim Wildmon That makes sense. Right. So, But,

It's England versus Argentina for the World Cup on Sunday

So the, it's England versus Argentina.

Steve Jordahl Oh,

Ed Vitagliano England versus Argentina.

Tim Wildmon They have a history.

Ed Vitagliano They. Oh, yeah. The Falkland Island. Okay.

Tim Wildmon So, now, in Argentina is the, their top players the world's top soccer player.

Wesley Wildmon Right.

Tim Wildmon Or one of them.

Steve Jordahl Is he still playing for Mesa.

Tim Wildmon Mesa.

Ed Vitagliano Mesa.

Tim Wildmon Messi.

Steve Jordahl Messi.

Ed Vitagliano Messi.

Wesley Wildmon Messi.

Tim Wildmon Messi. He's not even. He's like the LeBron James of. Or whatever, whoever you consider the best player in the. Micah Jordan, please.

Steve Jordahl I care about the NBA about as much these days.

Tim Wildmon Right. So it's England versus Argentina. But you know what I found interesting is that, And this will be held in. In NewSong York City, right?

Steve Jordahl I think so, yeah. MetLife Stadium, I think.

Tim Wildmon I think MetLife Stadium. So, this is the. They've been playing this for a month now, and it's down to two teams out of the whole. From the whole planet.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Tim Wildmon It's pretty amazing.

Ed Vitagliano A lot of teams participated.

Tim Wildmon And, you know, it's. It's not divided up into, as I mentioned before, into, population categories. You know, how high schools are divided by how many students go there.

Wesley Wildmon Yeah.

Tim Wildmon Division 6A, 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A.

Wesley Wildmon Whatever.

Tim Wildmon To make it fair.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Tim Wildmon You know, the fairness of the World cup is in terms of population doesn't exist.

Ed Vitagliano Right.

Tim Wildmon You know, it's your country. We don't have. You have five people or five million.

Ed Vitagliano Yep.

Tim Wildmon You know, five people. You wouldn't be able to field a team. But. But, anyway, so it's England versus Argentina for the World Cup. And England, they knocked out Norway. they knocked out Norway, but England, they don't. England and Wales have two different soccer teams.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah. And Scotland.

Tim Wildmon And Scotland, they have their own soccer team.

Ed Vitagliano Made a big impact over here.

Tim Wildmon And Ireland has their own team. So imagine if they just had Great Britain as a.

Ed Vitagliano so anyway, you know what I

Tim Wildmon find fascinating about soccer?

Ed Vitagliano Nothing.

Steve Jordahl Yeah,

Ed Vitagliano that was brutal.

Tim Wildmon I think you've said that, already.

Ed Vitagliano Have I really?

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Wesley Wildmon Not that. Not that direct. That was very direct.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Wesley Wildmon watch England play.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Wesley Wildmon With my. With my. Yeah, my friend. And they are extremely balanced now. They have. They obviously have a. Or two or three good players, but they are really. They're. They're hard. They're not like a team that has a Messi right there. Really.

Tim Wildmon They have a lot of really, really, really good players. Well, England versus Argentine. What is that. Is that Sunday?

Steve Jordahl I don't know.

Tim Wildmon I think it's Sunday.

Ed Vitagliano So, you know, I'm fascinating, though.

President Trump deserves credit for pushing to bring the soccer World Cup to America

About soccer.

Tim Wildmon Here we go.

Steve Jordahl All right.

Tim Wildmon Don't alienate all of our soccer parents.

Ed Vitagliano Listen, it is, it's kind of what we've said. It is a legitimate sport. I have a lot of appreciation for the talent that goes into it. It's just I, I, I.

Tim Wildmon Everybody has their thing.

Ed Vitagliano Well, I grew up in an age when America didn't care about it, and so I never really developed an appreciation for it. And I'm too old to do anything new, so I get the things I

Tim Wildmon like and get off my lawn. You suck.

Ed Vitagliano That's right.

Tim Wildmon Fans.

Wesley Wildmon Hey. on the other hand, we have spent about 12 minutes on soccer.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Wesley Wildmon Today's.

Tim Wildmon Have we really?

Ed Vitagliano and I will say this, we have mentioned on the air here several times that it was kind of extraordinary what happened with all these fans coming especially from Europe, but also from other places in Asia, that people who came to this country for the soccer, their fans coming for their teams, having been raised to think that America was a terrible nation, unfriendly people, dangerous, all that, and they fell in love with the country.

Tim Wildmon It's been good PR for our country.

Ed Vitagliano Absolutely.

Tim Wildmon Good pr. By the way, the Summer, Summer Olympics are going to be here in, is it two years?

Steve Jordahl Yeah.

Tim Wildmon 2028, back in Los Angeles. So another high profile international sporting event coming our way.

Ed Vitagliano And President Trump did should get the credit for pushing to have this World cup here.

Wesley Wildmon But you're serious.

Ed Vitagliano No, I'm serious. This way. Back in 2015, maybe 2016, when he was in office the first time, pushing to try to get this eventually, he

Steve Jordahl said without me, the Olympics wouldn't exist.

Ed Vitagliano I thought that's what you're about to. No, no, I, I was treating it seriously.

Steve: Some people say Haley Stevens sounds like Chris Farley

Tim Wildmon But hey, let me ask you, switching topics all together, I saw a story. Steve, you're from the West.

Steve Jordahl I am, but I wanted to add one thing. I want to get to. I know where you're going, but I want to add one thing to the, Michigan discussion you guys were having.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Steve Jordahl because the candidates, as you guys talked about were, are, a Republican. I had his name right here. Mike Rogers versus Haley Stevens, the Democrat, versus Abdullah Syed, the DSA candidate. But, some people say that it's not actually Haley Stevens. It actually might be Matt Foley who is running, for the Democrats.

Ed Vitagliano Matt Foley?

Steve Jordahl Yeah.

Ed Vitagliano Who's Matt Foley?

Steve Jordahl Well, you'll recognize Matt Foley.

Wesley Wildmon Cut.

Steve Jordahl nine.

Wesley Wildmon You mean Krish.

Ed Vitagliano I am going to be working on our behalf. I am going to be telling the

Steve Jordahl stories on our behalf. I'm Going to be doing it with a little bit of joy, a little bit of enthusiasm, a little bit of

Ed Vitagliano energy, and a little bit of stick it to them, because that's the Michigan way.

Steve Jordahl Yeah, that was. Matt Foley was a character on SNL played by Krish.

Ed Vitagliano Oh, okay. The man live in a van down by the river.

Steve Jordahl Down by the river.

Ed Vitagliano That was Matt.

Steve Jordahl Matt Foley was the character name. That's what I was texting, by the way, when we first came on the air.

Tim Wildmon So her speech right there is being panned because she sounds like.

Steve Jordahl Like Krish Farley.

Ed Vitagliano Krish Farley.

Tim Wildmon Krish Farley's motivational. That was hilarious. He played the part of a motivational speaker on Saturday Night Live.

Steve Jordahl I just didn't want to be able to pass that up.

Tim Wildmon And. And. And so they're saying she sounds a lot like him.

Steve Jordahl She does.

Ed Vitagliano And she does. That's pretty, uncanny.

Wesley Wildmon But she was serious.

Ed Vitagliano This is actually hurting her chances. Well, yeah, I mean, well, except for

Tim Wildmon the people who live in vans down by the river.

Steve Jordahl She's got their vote, that's for sure.

All over America there are rivers and lakes that power our country

Ed Vitagliano All right, so then, Tim, you were gonna. Yeah, you ask him.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. So, listen, all over America, there are rivers and lakes that power our country.

Steve Jordahl Yes.

Tim Wildmon And, for example, the. Where, we get power from here in Tupelo, Mississippi, and people throughout the Tennessee Valley do is from the Tennessee river and, the Tombigbee River. Anyway, rivers. The Tennessee Valley Authority, many people have heard of that. So, in order to have rivers and lakes and dams, you got to have rain and water.

Wesley Wildmon Right?

Tim Wildmon Right. Are y' all following me here?

Ed Vitagliano Yeah, true.

Tim Wildmon This is science.

Ed Vitagliano It's right, right there. Right there next to gravity, law of gravity and mask.

The Colorado River supplies water to about 40 million people across seven states

Tim Wildmon So seriously, out West, Steve, where you, you're from, you lived, in California and Colorado. And Ed, you lived in Arizona and NewSong Mexico. NewSong Mexico, there is, people depend on Lake Powell. Am I right?

Steve Jordahl Lake Powell is a lake at the, eastern end of, the, What's the valley? The big, Canyon.

Tim Wildmon Big Valley.

Wesley Wildmon Grand Canyon.

Steve Jordahl Grand Canyon.

Tim Wildmon Oh, Grand Canyon.

Steve Jordahl So I have been to this dam. I have been to this lake. and, Lake Powell, the Colorado river provides seven different states with water. Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, NewSong Mexico, California, Arizona and Nevada all get water from the Colorado River. In 1922, engineers put up a treaty where they divided out who gets how much water, and they vastly overestimated the amount of water that flowed even then down the Colorado. And it has decreased. So right now, Lake Powell is so low it is that they are thinking that they Might not be able to pump water out of the dam at the end of Lake Powell, which is a huge hydroelectric dam. so this is an interesting, the lake, the river, the Colorado river on the other side of this lake. It meanders very slowly and gently. And we took, I remember taking a raft tour. It's one where you sit out with your you know, sunscreen, and you just look at the beautiful it's gentle flowing. You get down about as the river flows about three hours later and then you see people loading up provisions in these rafts that are going to go down the rapids of the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon. So but they are the river. The Colorado river, supplies water to about 40 million people.

Tim Wildmon Including Phoenix, right?

Steve Jordahl Yeah, in Phoenix. California's Imperial Valley, where a lot of the country's agriculture comes from is fed by the Colorado River. And they are thinking that right now if they lose a whole lot more water they're not going to be able to pump water through the dam at the.

Tim Wildmon They're getting enough rain or snow to feed the Colorado river.

Wesley Wildmon Right.

Steve Jordahl They have had, not west, they've had. The problem has been that they've had a lot less snow than they thought they were going to have than they normally expect last winter it's been hotter than they normally have now so a lot more evaporation and yeah that's true.

Tim Wildmon I remember reading this winter about the ski resorts in, in Utah and Colorado. They didn't have any snow.

Steve Jordahl Right?

Tim Wildmon They had like They were like kept waiting and waiting, waiting. They just didn't have enough snow. They can make snow.

Steve Jordahl so there was a reuse snowpack in the Rocky Mountains and earlier snow melt, hotter temperatures and a multi year drought that they've been seeing across.

Tim Wildmon So bottom line is if this continues they will have to have blackouts or something out west periodically to save in order to keep the energy going.

Ed Vitagliano Now I think I read this right Tim, you sent this article last night around to us that if it becomes what's called a dead power pool, they can't produce any electricity.

Steve Jordahl No they can't because you've got to run it through the dam and if it gets below the intake of the dam so it.

Ed Vitagliano So in that case brownouts don't help because there is.

Steve Jordahl There's no power.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah, there's just no power. There's no power. It's interesting that no matter what our technological advancements are we are still very often subject to nature and this has been a multi year drought that they're experiencing.

Tim Wildmon Can you imagine the Phoenix area without air conditioning?

Steve Jordahl Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Tim Wildmon How many people would die?

Ed Vitagliano Right.

Tim Wildmon I'd sound morbid, but that's the truth.

Steve Jordahl Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver.

Tim Wildmon Where does the Colorado, river originate in Colorado?

Steve Jordahl It's, it's up in the Rockies.

Tim Wildmon I thought it went down to Arizona. You mean m. You telling me it goes all the way over to California?

Steve Jordahl Oh, yeah, yeah, it goes. It exits at the bottom, at the, near the, into the Baja peninsula.

Tim Wildmon Okay, I could see how states would get into arguments. Yeah, because I mean, who decides how much water Colorado can sift off? Who decides how much water Nevada or California? Well, I don't know if it goes to Nevada. Well, it does, huh?

Wesley Wildmon probably go by population.

Steve Baja: Where is this drought on the panic scale of things

Hey, I got a question. I did not get to read this story. So my question would be, where is this? This goes to show you my personality here. No panic. I'm, I'm a non panicker.

Tim Wildmon You don't live out west. What do you care?

Ed Vitagliano So we get 60 inches of rain.

Tim Wildmon Care about that?

Ed Vitagliano Poor people a year in Mississippi.

Wesley Wildmon I'm a knob panicker. So, and where is this on the panic scale of things though? Is this just at the very beginning?

Steve Jordahl Well, we're about halfway down the down. We're about halfway there.

Ed Vitagliano They've been talking about several years over a couple of years. And if it continues, they're afraid of the dead power pool.

Wesley Wildmon And then my last question would be, what's the, what's needed? Basically what you need.

Tim Wildmon Rain and snow.

Steve Jordahl Rain and snow. We have to wait till next year, by the way. If you can't, if they don't have water, that means that the crops don't get watered, means a shortage of food in this country, means your grocery bill is going to climb.

Wesley Wildmon I know what I was going to ask. Do we have any information? Has this happened historically at this level? Historically, has this been this low before?

Steve Jordahl There is a discussion among climate, people of whether this is a drought or whether the land is becoming more arid because there is climate change now. Man does not cause it.

Ed Vitagliano Right.

Steve Jordahl But you know, the climate changes and they've always had droughts out west, but this drought, they seem to be getting longer and longer. And since they divided up the Colorado river unequally and they had way more water, they thought they did than they actually did. this has been a problem for a long time, but this is about as bad as it's gotten.

Ed Vitagliano Well, I Was going to say historically, to your point, Steve, about climate changing. The, part of Africa above the Sahara, you know where. North Africa. We call it North Africa. Egypt and Libya and all that. During Roman times, that was a very fertile.

Steve Jordahl The Sahara Desert used to be fertile,

Ed Vitagliano and it used to provide all the wheat for the Roman Empire, most of the wheat for the Roman Empire. And now it has become arid. And so the climate does change. China's having some, severe water issues. So this kind of thing does. Does happen on a natural cycle.

Tim Wildmon Lake Mead and Lake Powell both in.

Steve Jordahl On either end of the Colorado River.

Tim Wildmon They are the two largest artificial lakes in the country.

Steve Jordahl Lake Mead has. Hoover Dam holds Lake Mead back from Las Vegas.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. Anyway, we'll see. you know, they. They need rain.

Ed Vitagliano It's a very. It's a very interesting story.

Steve Jordahl Yeah.

Wesley Wildmon Okay, so no more jokes on my end, then.

Tim Wildmon No, listen, if you want rain, move where we live. We're getting it because we. Well, I say m. Move where we live. The whole southeast, southeastern part of the United States is Occasionally you'll get flooding, but we are blessed to have Gulf moisture, which leads to roughly 60 inches of rain a year for most of the, southeastern, states in the Southeast.

Ed Vitagliano And the problem with the part of the country we're talking about is it's on the opposite side of the Rockies from the Pacific Ocean.

Steve Jordahl Other side of the Continental Divide, right?

Tim Wildmon Yeah. So where the, Gulf. I'm guess it's the Gulf of Mexico. Excuse me. What's painted by the White House now? Excuse me. The Gulf of America is the proper name. that, provides, moisture for rain from East Texas over the Mississippi river feeds Virginia.

Steve Jordahl The Mississippi river feeds is the one that gets the. Is the major river on the east side of the Rockies. The Mississippi, the Arkansas River. By the way, where did that. Colorado, that's what flows into the Gulf of America. The Colorado river falls in into Baja. The, Baja Peninsula.

Tim Wildmon You've been texting while I've been talking?

Steve Jordahl No, listening.

Tim Wildmon What I was talking about rain in the Southeast, and we switched over to Mississippi River.

Steve Jordahl Sorry.

Tim Wildmon No, no, you don't have to apologize. I just didn't know where that. I don't know. Please explain to me the connection.

Steve Jordahl Where the east side of the Rockies gets its water is from the Mississippi river. And we have had a lot of rain. There's not a drought on this side of the Rockies, but they haven't had as much over on the other side. The Colorado river is the main supplier of water west of the Rockies.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

God bless America. Well, we all can agree on that, right?

God bless America. All right, next story. Steve. Well, we all can agree on that, right? God bless America.

Ed Vitagliano Am.

Steve Jordahl Amen.

Tim Wildmon Ghost David.

Steve Martin: Inflation cooling sharply as gas prices plunge

Steve Jordahl Well, declining cost, this is about. This might reverse itself, but as of right now, the inflation is going down and, because gas prices are going down, because things seem to be at least coming to an end with Iraq. So the headline is inflation is cooling sharply as gas prices plunge. inflation is down to 3.5%, down from 4.2, by the way. It was 9.1 under Joe Biden. So. But, if there is a food shortage or an electrical shortage, kiss all of the gains goodbye because the inflation is going to be going up and

Tim Wildmon appreciate your positive outlook.

Steve Jordahl I know, I'm sorry. I wish I had better blessing to be around you, brother, but right now.

Ed Vitagliano Well, this is a story you sent around.

Tim Wildmon It is, I sent it around because the good news is.

Ed Vitagliano Good news. Yeah.

Tim Wildmon Gas prices are going down and inflation's going down. Now, it's only for a month so far, but maybe m. This is a good sign, right?

Steve Jordahl If the things work out, I mean, as President Trump is trying to wind down the war with Iran and the bombing that he's doing now, he hopes will finish them off and we can just put this to bed. They're not gonna have any more ways of controlling the Strait of Hormuz. And the markets, I think, see an end to this coming. And so the price of oil is going down, inflation is going down, affordability is going up in this country and

Wesley Wildmon we don't have to worry about having to eat plant based meat, which I'm always happy for.

Tim Wildmon I, think, I think we have consensus on that one.

Ed Vitagliano Absolute consensus.

Wesley Wildmon There's no fear there.

Ed Vitagliano I don't want a veggie burger.

Wesley Wildmon That's not.

Tim Wildmon Who thought of this?

Wesley Wildmon Well, that, you know.

Ed Vitagliano You mean the whole idea, you know,

Tim Wildmon the veggie burger has failed?

Wesley Wildmon Oh, big time.

Ed Vitagliano with Americans, you know, it's failed with me. I tried it about six months ago. I thought, I'm just going to give this a shot. It was awful.

Wesley Wildmon I, know.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, it was awful.

Ed Vitagliano Ah, I still have nightmares.

Tim Wildmon All right, Steve, thank you.

Steve Jordahl My pleasure.

Tim Wildmon Thanks to Fred Jackson west of Wilma, Brent Crilling co Greene and Asher. And Asher May. May. See you tomorrow, everybody.