Pocho Hour Of Power

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1. Of the Northern
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3. Hi, this is the Corin Tucker Band, and you're listening to KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles, 98.7 FM Santa Barbara, and all over the world at kpfk.org.
4. Cue the conga playing penguins.
5. The program is about to begin.
6. Who gave these clowns a show?
7. Alan Ipsky.
8. Put your mics on.
9. These guys owe me money.
10. Oh, yeah, it's the Poach Our Power, KPFK 90.7 FM on a Friday at 3 o'clock.
11. I'm Jeff Keller with...
12. Just step on Zoom in the casa
13. Well not in the casa
14. I'm on Zoom today man
15. How you doing Jeff?
16. Man
17. I've hitched the top of the mountain
18. And the bottom of the mountain
19. In 24 hours
20. Alright well
21. Glad you made it
22. It's been crazy Lalo
23. That's a hell of a hike brother
24. And Lalo Alcaraz
25. Over here not hiking
26. but in spirit with all of you here.
27. It's a beautiful day in L.A.
28. and World Cup fever has struck
29. and hydration pauses.
30. Everything is just Mexico fever.
31. Everything is wonderful.
32. And we're going to talk all about it here
33. on a very busy Potro Hour of Power.
34. We've got a great show.
35. we got a touching tribute from Jeff Keller
36. and we've got Patricia Guadalupe
37. we've got Frank Contreras
38. we've got Russell Contreras, his cousin
39. and then we have Meredith Contreras
40. oh no, that's Meredith Brown
41. and everything in between
42. so I say we just strike up the band
43. alright band
44. it's patriotic
45. Pocho Auerbach
46. Hail to Patricia, Patricia Guadalupe,
47. Bolger corresponding from Washington D Hail to Patricia she closes bread and cheese She comes with all the gossip she here to spill the tea see hello folks hello hello and a uh happy fourth uh sort of the day before if you celebrate that
48. and remember if you don't feel like celebrating it is your right to do whatever you want how is
49. to hang out at the White House
50. or like I like to call it Green Acres.
51. Well,
52. I think you need to sense some of that
53. beautiful weather that you have out there because
54. it is right now
55. at 6 o'clock Eastern,
56. 105 degrees.
57. Humidity and all.
58. And
59. earlier the temperature was
60. 108, but it felt like
61. 115.
62. so it was pretty hot down there over in uh in uh green acres where the uh where the national
63. the the state fair has been going on they actually closed it down for a few hours today because it
64. was too hot and you know and of course social media is having a field day with this saying
65. And they closed it down because it was too packed.
66. Yeah.
67. The people in the back row were also in the front row.
68. They had to kick out all six.
69. Yeah.
70. Yeah.
71. And there were, you know, or the Freedom 250 is actually the number of people that were there, 250.
72. and and there was there was even one uh musical uh group earlier in the week that uh they posted
73. on instagram oh there's a lot of people here there's a lot of people here and actually in one
74. of the uh guitar i think it was either the guitarist or the singer he was wearing sunglasses
75. that reflected onto the field and it showed maybe two or three people and social media had a field
76. day with that and that particular band took it down so right now the uh the it's it's incredibly
77. hot out down there this is the same place that years ago except for this year for many many years
78. there was basically what they would call the smithsonian folk like festival so every year
79. they would have a day-long celebration of different looking at different parts of the
80. world and different parts of the country with music and stuff.
81. And this year, none of that.
82. They put a gigantic fence right around the entirety of the mall.
83. They said for security purposes, and nobody can figure out what that is.
84. And as opposed to other years, if you want to see the fireworks tomorrow,
85. you cannot bring a chair.
86. You cannot bring coolers.
87. People are only allowed one bottled water per person.
88. Wow.
89. And the fireworks are supposedly not even going to start until 11 o'clock at night, which is two hours later than they usually start.
90. And listen to the reason.
91. Our lovely president wants to give, in his words, a really, really long, long speech.
92. Oh, yeah.
93. either from there or some kind of video thing.
94. So as you can imagine,
95. there not a lot of enthusiasm for it even with the weather being so oppressively hot I mean they canceled a parade in Philadelphia One of the parades here was canceled
96. The one for tomorrow supposedly is still on,
97. but tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter than today,
98. so they may have to cancel that.
99. And he's also trying to break,
100. and I'm talking about our lovely president,
101. and he's trying to break a record of how many fireworks.
102. Right now, the current recipient of the largest number of fireworks
103. is the Philippines during New Year's a few years ago.
104. He wants to break that particular record
105. and go into the Guinness Book of World Records,
106. and they're expecting, if it goes through, 865,000 fireworks.
107. Man, emergency services are going to be working 24-7 that day.
108. Yeah, so they're telling people if you have any kind of respiratory condition, asthma, etc.,
109. probably not a good idea to go down there because it's going to be hazy and smoky anyway.
110. And with 865,000 fireworks, you can just imagine what kind of a disaster that's going to be.
111. A lot of people are not happy because the 4th of July in D.C. has always been kind of like a fun thing where people just, you know, hang out.
112. The Beach Boys would come here and play for free.
113. And now that they put up all this security perimeter, you have to go through a metal detector.
114. And there's only one entrance.
115. so that so that yeah so if you want to go from one part of the of the national mall which is that
116. gigantic grass in between the the u.s capital and the washington monument you have to walk
117. around you can't even go across because there's no place to to get out of and this is while that
118. that state fair is going on which not only has been sparsely attended there's a couple of really
119. interesting things there. There was a confederate flag that was flying nice and high and proud at the
120. North Carolina booth because several states have their own little booths there.
121. And there was a above ground pool that was being used by the Museum of the Bible
122. for baptisms. I don't think anybody dunked themselves in there. But, you know,
123. I'm sorry, that was an exhibitor?
124. Yeah, yeah.
125. So it was almost like something out of a 10th revival from the South.
126. But I didn't go around there, but I sort of looked around there.
127. I didn't go inside any of that.
128. And I didn't see anybody being dunked or anything.
129. So I don't think anybody really wanted to go there.
130. Although with these temperatures, maybe a lot of people are going to say that they want to find Jesus just to get into that pool.
131. It is the strangest.
132. This has to be the strangest Fourth of July in a long time because, like I said, the Smithsonian had been planning.
133. There was a bipartisan commission and Congress allocated million for a 250th anniversary celebration that the Smithsonian was planning for like they usually have down there And that was pushed aside And people are wondering okay so what happened with that money And so you can bet your bottom dog that that money was you in particular
134. I wonder.
135. I thought they spent some of that money on getting Eric a Thunder shirt for the
136. firework display.
137. Yeah, maybe getting some noise-canceling headphones for Barron Trump, you know.
138. So he doesn't come out with that sourpuss face that he's been, you know, in every single picture that he's in.
139. He just looks like a pissed off kid lately.
140. He's 20 years old now.
141. So, you know, we can usually kids, minor kids are off limits.
142. But Barron Trump is involved as an investor with a gun company where they're trying to get legislation through where not only do you have to, you don't have to register your guns, but you can actually mail them across state lines, which is right now against the law.
143. So if you, for instance, buy a rifle in one state, you can't mail it to another state right now, according to the federal law.
144. And so his company and his group is lobbying to stop that.
145. So, you know, there's all kinds of, you know.
146. They really want us all to die, don't they?
147. Yeah, yeah, you know, even though, you know, it's the 4th of July and it's supposed to be, you know, the Independence Day and everything, there's still all of that grifting is still going on.
148. All of that shady stuff is still going on.
149. There was a report a couple of days ago that the Trump folks, including the president himself, has made close to $2 billion just in cryptocurrency since he came back into office.
150. even though he says, I don't know anything about that.
151. I'm not involved in any of that.
152. My sons are the ones that run it.
153. But yeah, you're still getting money out of it.
154. So it's still going on.
155. Although, you know, good news,
156. the Supreme Court left for the summer
157. and turned back the Trump effort
158. to get rid of birthright citizenship.
159. And, you know, you have a lot of these Trumpy people,
160. you know, USA, USA for the men's soccer team,
161. but the two or three biggest scorers on the U.S. team, the men's team, are birthright citizens.
162. So, you know, there's a tremendous amount of hypocrisy there.
163. But the Supreme Court said, know that, you know, the Constitution is pretty clear that when you're born here,
164. you're automatically a citizen regardless of who your parents are,
165. which is interesting that a president who has two ex-wives who were immigrants and four of his five children are children of immigrants would want to do that.
166. But of course, we all know that a lot of this is Stephen Miller behind all of this.
167. And he after it came out in the Supreme Court, he said Congress has to do something about it.
168. You know, people are taking advantage of us, which is just complete nonsense.
169. There's no indication at all that Congress is going to do any of that kind of thing.
170. But you have to keep in mind that even though the Supreme Court turned it back, three justices disagreed.
171. And so there are three justices that think it's okay for the president to do whatever the hell he wants.
172. Well, we got a 14th Amendment for a reason.
173. Yeah, yeah.
174. And, you know, the Trump people said, oh, well, that was just because of, you know, slaves.
175. And interestingly, it was the 14th Amendment was because, you know, it granted citizenship to the former slaves.
176. And, you know, who gave who made that argument again in the Supreme Court?
177. Clarence Thomas. He said that the 14th Amendment was not just for everybody.
178. It was to give citizenship to to formerly enslaved people.
179. That's what he said. And why did they have to do the 14th? Because of the Dred Scott decision.
180. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, when people say, oh, the Supreme Court is terrible,
181. the Supreme Court has has had its ups and downs throughout its history. And they've had some
182. incredibly nefarious decisions, including the Dred Scott decision and the, you know,
183. separate but equal that actually a black lawyer, Thurgood Marshall, argued against and ended up on
184. the Supreme Court himself when he was a lawyer for the NAACP. So which was actually based,
185. he used that case based on a case in Texas involving a Mexican-American student at one
186. of the border towns in Texas that was not given the same access to the classrooms as her white
187. counterparts. So, you know, the fact that there is a Black Supreme Court justice saying that not
188. everybody is equal is, you know, is pretty outrageous when you consider that. He considers
189. himself what they call an originalist, which means that you interpret the Constitution literally
190. word for word. But if he were a true originalist, he wouldn't be on the Supreme Court in the first
191. place because as a black man he wouldn't be there right he's not that much of a reenactor
192. and all the reason he got into college right all the loopholes he used to get into college
193. he ended up closing once he became a supreme court justice he took he took the ladder away
194. once he got to the top he sure did and he and he said you know when he because he went to yale law
195. school, he said, I just felt out of place there because I think people felt that I wasn't,
196. that I didn't deserve to be there. You know, obviously this is somebody who has an inferiority
197. complex. Well, including himself, apparently. Yeah. And to this day continues to do that.
198. And to say things like, you know, not everybody is created equal. You're a black man. You know,
199. what the hell are you saying?
200. What you talking about?
201. I gots a white woman.
202. I's doing good.
203. Yeah, exactly.
204. During the Civil War,
205. he would have been living inside the house.
206. Maybe.
207. He would have been
208. scuffing from Django.
209. Who'd have owned that nag?
210. He would have been
211. telling Scarlett, don't worry,
212. we got you, we okay.
213. Oh my God.
214. Yeah, so
215. So it's been an adventure here that, you know, with the extreme heat that's supposed to stay like this all through the eastern part of the U.S. and parts of the Midwest until at least Tuesday, where it's going to go down into the upper 80s, which is still warm, but it's nothing like 115 degrees, which is just insane.
216. you know so
217. so even though there weren a lot of people down at the National Mall that was the excuse that they used that we not we have to close it down because it just too hot here
218. And here's the thing about that particular state fair.
219. there you know what if you've ever been to a state fair they have fried oreos they have animals
220. they have you know rides they have contests they have you know water metal eating contests hot dog
221. eating contests you know horseshoes all that kind of fun stuff cotton candy none of that is at the
222. state fair there is one animal there is a goat that the uh that the owner named melania um
223. which was kind of funny um and and there's a uh a couple of dr oz and and and um the former
224. superman the actor uh uh dane uh what the hell's his name dean kane yeah dean kane he you know
225. he came out as ultra conservative and he was on the podium there with dr oz talking to a crowd of
226. nobody because people were just walking by. But they didn't have any of that. And the food that
227. they had there was very expensive, you know, a hamburger for $25, $30. You know, people were not
228. impressed with with any of this at all. And if you look at the entrance to it, it looks like a
229. it looks like an altar out of Nazi Germany, you know, and I'm not exaggerating if you take a look
230. at it. And it was basically paper mache that's been melting and crumbling down. And actually,
231. part of the stage fell yesterday while there was a group rehearsing. Fortunately, it didn't hit
232. anybody. But the shoddy construction and not really a lot to see down there. And I think a
233. lot of people were saying, you know, if it's going to be this hot and there's no reason for me to go
234. down there, if there's nothing to see and I'm not going to pay, you know, $25 for a hamburger
235. and listen to, you know, Dr. Oz talk about vaccines not being necessary, which is, you know,
236. what does that have to do with a state fair? You know, it's a strange, we're almost in this,
237. we've definitely gone down the rabbit hole, you know, we're inside the looking glass already.
238. so that is amazing and i heard the um
239. um the uh the the yeah i don't know if you just mentioned it but the arch the fake arch
240. is melting and falling apart it's just like we're beyond metaphors here yeah and and you know uh
241. somebody went in there where the porta potties were and wrote on a couple of them trump uh the
242. Trump library through here and then they and they started confiscating uh writing utensils so if you
243. came with a sharpie or a paneroth that you had to leave it at the front in the with the with the
244. security people to go through because people were starting to write nasty things on and sarcastic
245. stuff and yeah and that arch you know it's it's basically a cardboard that's been painted over
246. and it's just not withstanding the intense heat.
247. And they probably put it together with scotch tape
248. because it basically is falling apart.
249. And the Ferris wheel a lot of people were saying I don trust the Ferris wheel because what if it the same guy who supposed to be fixing the reflecting pool And that the other thing that reflecting pool is now totally green It been taken over by algae And the DC
250. the US attorney for DC, Jeanine Piero, who's been satirized on SNL for being a wino,
251. is indicted a former Olympian who went by the reflecting pool and pulled a piece of that paint
252. that's been floating to the top. And they're accusing him of destruction of federal property,
253. which would be a federal crime. And so his lawyers, he actually got a pro bono lawyer who
254. was just so outraged about it that they're probably going to throw it out in court. But
255. this is the kind of nonsense that's happening here. So, you know, going into the 250th birthday
256. of the U.S., it's strange times here. But I know that you want to wrap it up really quick. There's
257. a couple of places around the country where some of the Democratic Socialists and progressive
258. members have kicked out some of the incumbents in Congress. And it looks like that's going to
259. happen more and more as we get closer to the midterms where people are getting fed up with
260. things so we'll see what happens as we go along it should be an interesting uh fall so yeah most
261. definitely and and not as hot damn it is really hot out there um my my best to the algae blooms so
262. yeah if this hot weather continues that algae is going to take over the grass right it's
263. It's going to be, you know, the creature from the Black Lagoon is going to come up anytime soon.
264. The question is, how bad is Trump going to sweat during his speech?
265. Oh, yeah. Well, he's he's he's at Mount Rushmore right now giving a speech and he's supposed to be giving a speech here tomorrow.
266. also and remember that the the that plane that qatar gifted to him that costs taxpayers hundreds
267. of millions of dollars to refinish and refurbish um that's the one that he's using now and that
268. he's gonna he says he's gonna be able to keep it and put it in his library wherever that is gonna
269. be but that yeah that's gonna be interesting to see you know i don't know if we're gonna see the
270. orange makeup dripping like on Rudy Giuliani's black makeup when he was sweating that one time.
271. But I guess we'll find out tomorrow. Good Lord. Well, good luck to everyone out there. Please
272. keep cool. And we will, if we all survive this 250 year anniversary, we'll see you next week on
273. the pocho our power patricia most definitely and be careful with your pets out there with the
274. fireworks they don't like that yeah that's right and don't let mitch mcconnell wander in your front
275. oh yeah he's still in the hospital so we'll see he's been there for three weeks and if you haven't
276. really been following what's going on uh three weeks ago the uh paramedics found were called to
277. his home where they found him unconscious and they had to do CPR on him.
278. And he's still in the hospital right now.
279. And his staff is saying absolutely nothing about it.
280. Although he's supposed to retire, he's still there until January.
281. So, yeah.
282. All right Well he made of wax So stay out of the sun Mitch Yeah You know like Dick Cheney and his heart He had how many heart attacks and he survived for a really long time before finally dropping dead
283. So, you know.
284. Cheney, they gave Cheney a metal heart, and he ran on AA batteries.
285. That's right.
286. Yeah, I wouldn't doubt it that, you know.
287. They just forgot to change the batteries.
288. Hey, Patricia, thank you so much,
289. and we'll see you next week
290. on the Pocho Hour of Power.
291. All right, guys, we'll talk next week.
292. Have a good one, folks.
293. Thank you. You too.
294. Hey, everybody, before let's not take a break,
295. let's go right into our very special
296. regular guest on immigration,
297. Meredith Brown,
298. immigration attorney of great renown.
299. Thank you, Meredith,
300. for joining us on the Pocho Hour of Power.
301. Thank you for your rhyming.
302. It's always good.
303. You're such a quick wit, always.
304. I'm quick if it's the same line every time.
305. Yeah.
306. Yeah.
307. How are you doing?
308. What's happening in the crazy immigration law world right now?
309. Well, I mean, it's the same old, same old.
310. I just was on an interview with a Salvadoran TV station.
311. They were interested in hearing about how Florida is blocking undocumented students from attending the university.
312. That's their new plan, thanks to Governor DeSantis. And, you know, it's the same old kind of blaming people and not really coming up with creative ideas about how to integrate a workforce that is saving us in so many ways, saving Social Security, innovators, people that are creating businesses and jobs.
313. So it's just really sad. That's going to take place allegedly in 2027, where they're going to say, if you are not, I think it's a legal permanent resident or a citizen, you can't attend the state school. So that's going to go up on appeal as everything else is.
314. But with the Supreme Court the way it is, it's just a little scary because they're very unpredictable right now. And they tend to, you know, blame immigrants for everything, as Justice Alito did in his dissent on the Barbara case, which was the birthright citizenship case, which hopes, I mean, that was good news that we won.
315. But the shocker is that there was a total of about four dissenters when you count the kind of concurring opinions.
316. But they said, well, you know, we would have approved it if it was an amendment or if the Congress passed it, but not as a presidential decree the way the Trump administration did that.
317. So there's just there's a lot of upheaval.
318. And I think people are just tired.
319. You know, if you look at the mall right now, the people that are celebrating basically, which is the President Trump's celebration of the 250th signing of the Declaration of Independence, there's virtually nobody there.
320. NPR just did a report where a guy was there seven hours a day for like two days or three days, and there was virtually nobody there.
321. It's kind of sad, but it's just because, you know, he's one of the most unpopular presidents in the recent history of the United States.
322. so you know we just have to bear down and wait until when people get sworn in the new congress
323. in january where hopefully we'll have some accountability right and uh less legislation
324. that's just so retaliatory and just so anti-immigrant i know that um we also need to
325. they're getting more active um at least here in southern california so people need to be very
326. careful. But yeah, no, we're still fighting like hell.
327. and just trying to protect people's rights.
328. And the thing that really breaks my heart personally
329. are the people that are here for like 20 years, 30 years,
330. and they're being kind of recalendared
331. and put into removal proceedings.
332. And often just because, for example,
333. the La Comunidad Mexicana,
334. you know, there's not a lot of like amnesty.
335. There's nothing for the past like 20, 30 years.
336. The Central Americans get TPS for now,
337. although that's going by the wayside.
338. so um now people that have been here forever that are grandparents with u.s citizen kids and u.s
339. citizen grandchildren now they're being targeted and it's just the numbers game for this
340. administration i just wish that they had more humanity and more creativity again to integrate
341. and to use this incredible force which is the immigrant community to the you know uplifting
342. of the united states especially now with the 250th anniversary of our founding but you know
343. here we are almost at, you know, at loggerheads with a minority, an extreme minority that's just full of racism and hatred.
344. And it's just it doesn't make sense.
345. Yeah. And we're not like you said, we're not out of the woods with the birthright citizenship.
346. And I just can't believe that these people are even questioning that.
347. Like, it's like we're back in the 1850s. It's just not right.
348. or the 1910s.
349. It's just ridiculous.
350. Yeah, I agree.
351. I mean, we just need to, again,
352. it's hard because I know there's a lot of people
353. that want to do things.
354. For example, Congressman Lou Correa,
355. God bless him, from Orange County,
356. I think it's Santa Ana,
357. he held some hearings about the DACA students
358. who are not getting the work permits for some reason.
359. They usually apply about three to four months
360. before it expires.
361. and there's just this blockade.
362. They're not processing the DACA work permits.
363. So what we're doing is we're doing kind of a triage
364. and expediting them and looping in the member of Congress to push.
365. And Luke Correa had a hearing with the ICE director,
366. with a USCIS director, the service branch, so-called service.
367. And he just said, we don't have enough resources.
368. We're sorry, but it's just strange that all of a sudden
369. they can't process these work permits and there's another proposal where work permits will only be
370. good for you know a year or so they just want to cut everything and make it more bureaucratic
371. again this mean-spirited like you know give immigrants less and less opportunities where
372. with this economy if we continue this lalo we're going to be in deep you know what i mean we we
373. really depend on immigrant labor for so many for you know construction for agriculture for the
374. service industry for hospitality and things are just going to keep on cratering if we keep on
375. getting rid of workers and yeah yeah u.s citizen workers and legal permanent residents should get
376. those jobs but you know with inflation at over four percent now it's not looking good you know
377. And for the president to say and ask a reporter, well, how's your 401k doing?
378. You know, not a lot of people have 401ks.
379. Not a lot of people are not invested in the stock market.
380. So it's just we just have to it's more like a marathon.
381. And we have to really try to hold this administration accountable, especially when it comes to immigrant laws, the immigrant community.
382. And that what we doing I mean I even working on this so holiday right now the third I don know if it a holiday or not but there a lot of work to be done So here we are All right Well we never take the day off here at the Pocho Hour of Power
383. That's a lie.
384. But let's just say it since Fourth of July is kind of ends in a lie.
385. So see what I did there.
386. Anyway, Meredith Brown, thank you so much for joining us on the Pocho Hour of Power.
387. and you have a great holiday weekend.
388. Yeah, you too.
389. And if people have questions,
390. we're at infolegal.net
391. because legal information is power.
392. So we really need,
393. in line with the Pontre Aurel power,
394. that we're with legal power.
395. So infolegal.net
396. and we're here to serve you.
397. All right.
398. Well, thank you for joining us
399. on this patriotic Pontre Aurel power,
400. legal power
401. we got such a long name now
402. thank you Meredith Brown
403. and let's
404. we'll see you next time and let's go to
405. a short break and the Speedy Gonzalez Sports
406. Report and then
407. Keith Shipman
408. yeah
409. now that I escaped sleep walk away
410. those who cover late know the world
411. they kick jail bars ain't golden
412. gates those who fake they break
413. when they meet their 400 pound
414. made it back in the world
415. For KPFK, this is Charlie Gonzalez.
416. Last night, the Dodgers won game one of a four-game home series against the Padres,
417. 12-7 after trailing 6-0.
418. Shohei Otani is on the bump for the Dodgers tonight,
419. while Michael King will for the Padres will look to bounce back from the loss on Sunday.
420. First pitch is at 7-10.
421. The LeBron James era for the Lakers has come to an end,
422. as the greatest player of all time has selected free agency at the age of 41.
423. Today, the Lakers finalize a trade with the Wizards for Jaden Hardy
424. and two future second-round picks in exchange for DeAndre Ayton.
425. The Sparks have the holiday weekend off ahead of their Monday night home game
426. against the Seattle Storm.
427. This has been Charlie Gonzalez with your KPFK High Speed Sports Update.
428. Hey, this is Leela Downs.
429. You're on KPFK.
430. You're listening to The Pocho Hour Power.
431. Oh, yeah.
432. It's KPFK 90.7 FM.
433. I'm Jeff Keller on a sunny California afternoon.
434. Yes, coming on now, we have one of my favorite people of all time.
435. I mean, he has so many accolades, man.
436. I mean, he's president and CEO of Horizon Broadcasting Group.
437. I mean, he was the White State Association of Broadcasters president and CEO.
438. he was responsible, I believe, for getting the team I played on in the Walsh State Hall of Fame.
439. He was an intern, sports information back there,
440. and a good friend of our head coach, Jim Walden, who had just passed away,
441. and I wanted to have him on and talk to him about what Walden meant to the program
442. and what kind of man he was.
443. Give it up.
444. Poacher Hour Power, welcome to Keith Shipman.
445. How you doing, 88?
446. I'm doing great, man.
447. A lot of blood there right now.
448. I know he did.
449. You also knew him when he had all that hair.
450. I'm surprised they could get a hat on him back then.
451. Much less a helmet.
452. But, man, I tell you, 88 could fly.
453. He made things happen.
454. When he got in the open fields there weren too many people that could bring him down or catch him for that matter The only problem we had back then is we were running the veer so we didn throw the ball as much as we should have
455. And, you know, that's something we can't really challenge a coach on now because he's unfortunately passed away.
456. But the 1981 team that you were on, Jeff, was a sensational club.
457. And I believe that you were involved in one of the most important plays in Washington State football history.
458. That was a block punt against Colorado.
459. And that turned the fortunes of the program around.
460. Could have been another six and five season.
461. It turned out to be an eight, three and one season and a trip to San Diego to face Jim McMahon and the vaunted Brigham Young Cougars in the Holiday Bowl.
462. and that set the foundation in place for all the success that Dennis Erickson had that Mike Price
463. had that Mike Leach had that Jake Dickard had if it weren't for the program that coach Walden put
464. in place and the players that he brought in like you and all your all your colleagues and peers
465. from Southern California you know we you got to remember Washington State had seven winning
466. seasons in 35 years before you stepped on campus. Seven. So that's why this holiday bowl team that's
467. being honored this fall is so important to the university and to the success of the football
468. program. And moreover, the sadness I feel today with Coach's passing is that he won't be able to
469. be there this fall when we're celebrating a group of guys that turned the program around and really
470. instilled a lot of pride in the institution in Washington State University.
471. But, you know, it taught the students how to be fans
472. and taught the alumni how to behave as, you know, football fans as well.
473. You know, it used to just be a party in Pullman,
474. and you guys turned it around.
475. Remember when you walked off the field against UCLA?
476. Oh, man, it was crazy.
477. They were booing us because we played to a tie.
478. We should have won.
479. I know.
480. I know.
481. But as Coach Walden said after the game, I guess I need to educate these fans a little bit
482. because if you play for a tie, you're still alive in the Rose Bowl race.
483. I remember, man, he had some great sayings.
484. He was yelling at Junior one time, and I was listening through the door,
485. and he told Junior, he said, you can't pee in my face and tell me it's rain when I know it's pee?
486. I was like, what?
487. you know he didn't have to let me come back and i had left washington state for a minute
488. and he didn't have to let me come back and he did and you know i always i always have a special
489. place in my heart for him because that changed my whole life he didn't have to do that well
490. your name came up i'm not sure if you're aware but i moved from seattle back to spokane or over
491. to Spokane about four years ago. And when I got into town, Jim heard through the grapevine that
492. I was around and he invited me to join the monthly lunch group that he put together, which includes
493. a guy named Bud Namik, who was a longtime sportscaster in Spokane and was the voice of
494. the Cougs for a while on radio for basketball for Kelvin Sampson's teams. And then for the Cougs
495. when Bob Robertson retired.
496. A guy named Oliver Pierce,
497. who was a sports information director
498. at Gonzaga for 25 years.
499. But when you and I were in school,
500. he was an assistant at Washington State.
501. So we got to know him there.
502. A guy named Steve Witter,
503. who co-founded CougFan.com,
504. the omni-popular website
505. that follows Washington State athletics
506. and was one of the first and remains one of the biggest school fan websites in America to this day at 24 And then you know guys like Keith Gilbertson the former head coach at Idaho and Cal
507. Yeah, Gibby, yeah.
508. He'd joined.
509. And Dennis Erickson and Glenn Johnson, the professor and the mayor of Pullman and the voice of, you know,
510. that's another Cougar First Down.
511. And we had all kinds of guests coming through over the last three years.
512. and at that lunch just three weeks ago we were talking about the 81 team and how much he was
513. looking forward to seeing hopefully seeing guys like don labon right and um and you know joe taylor
514. and um you know and yourself when i told him that you'd plan to come up he said oh my god i can't
515. wait to see keller said you know um he he tried to leave army one time and i had to bring him back
516. You know, he he acknowledged the fact that, you know, you you were a vital part of the success there, but also how proud he was of you, because after you left Washington State, you obviously went on to play in the NFL for several years.
517. But but moreover, he's proud of you because you chased your dream and you've been doing stand up comedy and you've been, you know, you know, helping the world understand through your eyes, through observational humor, what's going on in the world today.
518. And he really respects that. You know, Jim was on a very conservative end of the spectrum.
519. But he really, you know, he watched your videos, told us that.
520. He loved it because I remember that kid.
521. And I'm proud of the fact that he has the ability to stand up and speak as he does.
522. And, you know, I was, I know for a lot of the players that went through Washington State at that time, he became like a second dad.
523. In some cases, he was a dad for them.
524. He was a father figure.
525. And when I learned the news early this morning, about four o'clock, that Jim had passed, and I was as sad as I was when my dad died five years ago.
526. Because over the last, you know, 30 years, I'd enjoyed the privilege of becoming a pretty good friend.
527. And I just loved the guy, you know, didn't always agree with him.
528. But boy, he had the ability to make you laugh.
529. And I think if I learned anything after what, you know, occurred in the last 24 hours of his passing,
530. If I've learned anything, it's don't miss that lunch if you've got it scheduled.
531. It might be the last chance you get to see someone that you care about and you treasure in life.
532. And we were all glad that we were there for the group.
533. And we were to meet next Tuesday.
534. I talked to Jim last week.
535. He's going, where are we going to go for lunch next week, Chip?
536. And I said, I know it's picked out here somewhere.
537. Well, let me find it for you.
538. I'll text it over.
539. And had a nice visit with him, asked him how he was doing.
540. He said, I feel great.
541. Everything's good.
542. what a lot of people don't know is he he had battled cancer last year he had a bout with
543. lymphoma yeah and went through two pretty severe rounds of chemotherapy but he was in remission
544. came out of that and looked great um you know was fit um he didn't look 88 no he did you know he
545. didn't look 88 at all didn't act like it either he was he was sharp as a tack he followed you
546. professional and college sports. He said a few months ago, gosh, I was just born too damn early.
547. If I'd been born 15 years later, I would have had an opportunity to never have to work again.
548. And he said that the time he would have really enjoyed working most was from about 1995 to 2005.
549. That's when he would love to have been a head coach because they were making great money back
550. them. You know, he said the most he made at Washington State, I think was, I think he came
551. in and was making $30,000 a first year. Yeah. And he made...
552. He made something like 65 when he left.
553. And then, of course, he went to Iowa State and they paid him $300,000.
554. So he had every reason to go back there.
555. Right.
556. But, you know, as you know, he is much beloved not just because of his coaching.
557. You know, he had a sub 500 record, but he beat the Huskies three out of four years there for a run.
558. And, you know, from 82 to 85.
559. And you could have gotten him elected governor of the state for that.
560. but but what he did is he came back after he finished at Iowa State and became an ambassador
561. for the university yeah and everybody just loved him you know he you're talking about the things he
562. said I remember uh going to a pre-season game or an exhibit it wasn't an exhibition it was a
563. non-conference game at uh then Seattle Stadium right after they opened it up and the Cougs were
564. playing one game in Seattle every year. They played
565. Nevada. This kid named Will
566. Durding, a linebacker from Okanagan,
567. picked up a ball,
568. picked off a ball at the two and ran it back 98
569. yards for a touchdown.
570. In the post game,
571. we're driving out of the garage,
572. trying to get on the freeway in Seattle.
573. I had a couple of my buddies from college with me.
574. He said, that Durding kid, he's
575. from Okanagan, he lives so far
576. out in the country, he has to go toward
577. town to hunt.
578. The things that came out
579. of his mouth you know but i think the all-time best line is when they got beat by joe cap and
580. cal you probably remember this one he said he said i'll get i don't mind getting run over by a tank
581. but we just got run over by a damn moped so you know he had an incredible sense of humor he had
582. no filter yeah and that's that's what made him so engaging and so genuine uh you know in a world
583. today where everybody has got their their best public relations face on jim just blew that up
584. Not a blast.
585. Well, Keith, I just want to thank you, man, for helping me just deal with this and have some closure to it.
586. You know, it's just a tough one.
587. I mean, I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for Jim Walden making me come back and, you know, making me the guy I am today.
588. So, you know, Jeff, I've heard from a lot of your peers today. I've heard from Paul Sorensen, heard from Mike Walker, Big Mike, a handful of others who said the same thing you just said. We're fortunate in life to have profound mentors. Jim was one of those. And, you know, you were one of my mentors as a college kid. You're, you know, you're in the class ahead of me.
589. but I always looked up to you and all those guys around that football field,
590. you know, grandpa, Gary Patrick, you know,
591. on the offensive line and, you know,
592. Maddie Lasara and the rest of that group that's going to be coming back to
593. celebrate the holiday bowl team and, and entering the hall of fame.
594. And I sure hope that we're able to raise a glass in coach Walden's honor.
595. You know, he's, he was one hell of a guy.
596. Yes, he was. And he's going to be missed, man. Keith,
597. I want to thank you, man, for being on the Pocho Hour of Power.
598. Love you, brother.
599. You be well, okay?
600. Love you too, man.
601. We'll be back with more Pocho Hour of Power.
602. I a little trim to begin Now you think you really gonna pretend like you wasn down and you called him again Plus when you give it up so easy you ain even fooling him
603. If you did it then, then you probably can.
604. Talking out your next and you're a Christian.
605. I must slam sleeping with the gin.
606. Now that was the sin that did Jezebel in.
607. Who you gonna tell when the repercussions spin?
608. Showing off your ass cause you thinking it's a trend, girlfriend.
609. Let me break it down for you again.
610. You know I only say it cause I'm truly genuine
611. Don't be a hard rock when you really are the gem, baby girl
612. Respect is just the minimum
613. When you still defending on now
614. Lauren is only human
615. Don't think I haven't been through the same
616. But they can man that it's citizens out your head
617. Like a million women in Philly
618. And also
619. Oh yeah
620. Wait a minute
621. Is that the right catchphrase?
622. It's a bunch of our power.
623. The sun's too hot, man.
624. I'm like, I don't know what to say.
625. But, hey, that was beautiful, Jeff, man.
626. Sorry for your loss.
627. I know coaches can be so much, man, and that's great.
628. He just sounded like a good person.
629. Yeah, he really was, man.
630. You know, he helped.
631. He was hard on you when you had to be hard
632. and hugged you when you needed a hug, man.
633. People don't understand the value that a great coach,
634. an impact that they have on an individual.
635. Yeah.
636. Especially for myself.
637. I really didn't grow up with a father in a stable environment.
638. So I was doing some wild stuff,
639. and he could have just gave up on me and got rid of me,
640. but he chose to stick it out and work with me and develop me.
641. And, you know, I would be successful if it wasn't for him.
642. That's right.
643. And it's kind of satisfying, too, that he knew you were doing stand-up
644. and chasing the dream.
645. Well, that's crazy.
646. And, you know, I have to think, you know, about stand-up.
647. I have to thank Bob Wheeler and the Comedy Store people.
648. oh yeah you know this wednesday at the comedy store they're gonna put my name on the wall
649. which is which is major for comedians and uh i have to thank uh again the comedy store
650. and bob wheeler and i'll be performing wednesday night at the comedy store so hey
651. all right so congratulations man your name's gonna be up in paint
652. I don't know if that's a good thing
653. That's how I have to put my name on comedy clubs
654. So
655. You know
656. Hey I didn't even have to tag it right
657. Up in Sharpie yeah
658. It's actually legit
659. Alright well congratulations man
660. And we're all proud of you here
661. On the Pocho Hour of Power
662. And someone that's proud of you
663. All the way from New Mexico
664. Is our man from Axios
665. Russell Contreras
666. and let's hear his theme song.
667. Whistling
668. It's Russell Contreras
669. Reporting from Ancios
670. It's Russell Contreras
671. Directly from Ancios
672. We see you next time All right
673. Welcome, Russell Contreras.
674. It doesn't get any better than that.
675. What you said.
676. Thanks, everyone.
677. And sorry for your loss, Jeff.
678. I got a real quick coach story for you.
679. On my high school baseball team, we were Gen X, which we'll get to in a moment.
680. Most diverse time at any moment.
681. But literally on my baseball team, there was myself and there was a black Russell and a white Russell.
682. So whenever coach called, hey, Russell, come here, we said, which one you want, the black, white or Mexican one?
683. And he would get really angry about that.
684. But it was true.
685. We had three Russells.
686. And one of the Russells, Russell Johnson, a black Russell, he ended up going to play at Iowa State with your coach.
687. Oh, wow.
688. And he played with him.
689. Yeah, right after.
690. You know, he was an athlete.
691. Russell Johnson could have played baseball.
692. In fact, I think some major teams were looking at him, but he wanted to pursue football.
693. And he played at Iowa State maybe a year or two before he transferred later to Stephen F.
694. Austin, where he won the national championship or national title for that division of football.
695. but he was really influential to my friend Russell Johnson
696. and really influential to a lot of different people.
697. So sorry for your loss, and you can see his impact going back many years.
698. Wow.
699. You never know, right?
700. Coaches are awesome, right, Jeff?
701. I mean, I'm going to tell you, man,
702. they have such an impact in those teenage years, right?
703. It's just, man, they can either make you successful
704. or they could destroy you.
705. A bad coach could destroy you.
706. Exactly, exactly.
707. And fun fact, Jeffrey, another sad fact.
708. I did cover the New Mexico Bowl once when Washington State made it
709. under Coach Leach.
710. They were winning with three minutes left and lost to Colorado State
711. in, I think, two touchdowns in the field goal.
712. And Mike Leach did not want to answer questions after the game.
713. No, he didn't.
714. He's like, what happened?
715. And he's like, you saw what happened.
716. Don't you have eyes, kind of man.
717. Mike was different.
718. Yeah.
719. And people ask, well, you were giving dating advice before the game.
720. Should you have prepared better?
721. And he lost it.
722. I didn't ask that question.
723. So Washington State, they were really upset at that game.
724. You know, I talked to some of the fans afterwards.
725. And they brought up the coach.
726. I didn't know the history.
727. They brought him up.
728. He's like, we had our heydays.
729. We thought we were returning to our heyday.
730. And then we're talking about your team back in the day.
731. I never, I didn't know that history at the time.
732. But that was important because I didn't cover sports much.
733. But that's what they were talking about.
734. Yeah, we were the first team in 51 years to go to a bowl game.
735. We started that.
736. That's right.
737. Yeah, that's right.
738. Yeah.
739. And then Harry, I'm going to the well-famous New Mexico Bowl years later.
740. What other non-sports?
741. Well, speaking of Gen X, since it's just released the new records about population, we talked a little bit about the number of kids shrinking across the country.
742. But you know that Gen X is the one generation that the population is shrinking across the United States.
743. Millennials are growing. Those Gen Alpha Gen is growing and also baby boomers.
744. the number of people who are 40 45 to 65 or 40 to 65 is actually decreasing Why is that important Because Gen X right now are the top are supposed to be the top earners
745. This is where you're gonna make the most money in your life
746. as in your position, in your job,
747. whatever career you choose.
748. But if that population shrinking,
749. the tax base will be shrinking.
750. The reason why this happened is because baby boomers
751. were so much bigger than Gen X
752. and now baby boomers are aging out into 65 and up.
753. The Gen X, the 45 to 65, that generation is shrinking and it was smaller.
754. We're dying faster and we're shrinking in every region, including the West Coast, Midwest, and the Northeast, except the South.
755. Gen X is moving to the South, but only slightly in the Southern areas, just like children, because people are growing.
756. People are moving to the South because of the affordability there.
757. I know from experience, I know a lot of people are moving to the Atlanta area, the Charlotte area.
758. the Raleigh area, people my age, because they're trying to get away from the high cost of housing
759. and also taxes in some of those areas.
760. And many religious don't know this, but Lalo just moved to the south outside of Atlanta.
761. Jeffrey, I have to tell you, he bought a former plantation.
762. He tried to trick me.
763. He said, no, brother, it's a hacienda.
764. No, we don't have haciendas, brother.
765. And then he invited me, and the home had all these columns, right?
766. And he was gonna have weddings there
767. I'm sorry. It's a hot
768. Well, I'm not really Gen X I'm actually baby boomers, you know, you know, I started in Vietnam no man
769. Gen X is moving so much the Lalo even
770. You even got a little Hacienda slash plantation out there,
771. which I didn't want to tell everybody.
772. So we had some great conversations there.
773. But this should be an alarm for the country because the genetics is shrinking.
774. That has a lot of effect on public services from schools to hospitals,
775. to first responders, to funding, and it's not being discussed right now.
776. Well, at least we have 80s music on the radio.
777. Exactly. And lastly, this is July 4th. We did do a story. We did talk about how there are alternative celebrations July 4th. A lot of Latino, Black celebrations, Jewish celebrations, because they don't feel like they're discussed on July 4th.
778. And I got to tell you, I wrote an essay about six years ago at the Associated Press where I talked about how July 4th is difficult for many of us, even myself.
779. And I thought I reminded myself of my World War II uncle who was injured in the South Pacific during the war and then was part of the invasion of Iwo Jima.
780. He was injured there, left for dead, and they pulled him out.
781. And at the last second or somewhere in the intercom, they said, we need people who are injured.
782. if you're able to move
783. can you volunteer to go back in
784. and I tried to put myself in his shoes
785. his mother was facing segregation
786. you can go anywhere
787. and that SOB decided to jump back in
788. this was a contrarian
789. not in 2025 but 1945
790. and I always wondered why he went back in
791. and I wish I had the chance
792. to have that conversation
793. but when I think of July 4th
794. I think of him
795. I think he saw something in the United States
796. that we can't see now, but he saw back then.
797. And I just wonder for those who are having this difficulty,
798. think of the previous generation and what they did
799. and what they were, because they saw us in them
800. and they would have loved to be in our position today
801. than they were then.
802. And I think if we look into the future,
803. we're going to love to be in the positions today
804. of the next two generations than we are now.